If you learned DFT in digital imaging, you already know how to do DCT. DCT uses integral multiples of the cosine function as the basis function; DFT uses a general e function that, if you do some basic math to, becomes a cosine function.
If you don't know how to do a DCT, I can't imagine how you managed to do a DFT or pass your graphics class.
Image processing is a superset of lossy encoding and DCT is a subset of DFT.
It's a good thing you can't spell ridiculous, or we would have to take you siriusly.
Re:You're new here? Ain't ya?
on
The Zune Cometh
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· Score: 1
Okay, so you don't own an iPod, maybe it doesn't make sense to you: 1) Easy to use: Easy to pick up an learn 2) Simple to use: Uncluttered five button design means there is not a lot of potential for confusion. A device with 10 buttons or 20 buttons means it is more likely that a user cannot figure out what they need to do. On an iPod there is only five buttons they can press. 3) Fast: at the time the iPod was fast because the entire HDD was indexed into an 11mb file and that 11mb file was stored in RAM. There was no need to spin up the hard drive and no need to do any hard drive seeks to open a playlist or album or genre. Additionally, because it was the only MP3 player with a fast serial bus, it uploaded an entire CD in 10 seconds, where it would take competitive systems over a minute. 4) Small: again at the time the iPod was the densest MP3 player out there, with higher storage capacity than a Rio and much smaller than a Nomad. Today we are talking about a Zune, and the iPod still has twice the storage density, fitting an 80gb player well within the case of a 30gb Zune
I'm sorry if it sounds like we are arguing. Mostly I'm making the point that the iPod was not some kind of "copycat" off your Archos because it had done all the things I just listed. I'm not saying the Archos was a bad design or you made a bad choice, but that the iPod was unique and the market appreciated it.
Re:You're new here? Ain't ya?
on
The Zune Cometh
·
· Score: 1
Yet you said, "To me the iPod is an Archos wanna-be that has been leeched onto by a bunch of n00bs."
The iPod is only an Archos wanna-be in the sense that Apple saw how much the existing MP3 players, in 2001, sucked and tried to design a better one.
The Windows compatible iPod was released in August of 2002, two months before the Archos you bought. And yes I am saying 10 buttons is too many and too much for people to handle.
You say there are very few devices today with a control panel that aren't at least 10 buttons. I'm saying there are over 67 million iPods with 5 buttons and less than 20 million alternative MP3 players with more than 5 buttons. I'm saying that simpler is better for the reason that simpler is easier. Are you arguing against "simpler is easier"? As an aside, my cell phone only has 9 control buttons and 12 text/number entry buttons. Of the 9 only five are used for the phone: Call, Hang up, scroll up, scroll down, act.
Anyway, my point again is still that the iPod pioneered a market that did not exist before it was released: Consumer MP3 player, defined as follows: Easy to use Simple to use Fast Small
Re:Zune Specs and what I don't understand
on
The Zune Cometh
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· Score: 1
That's disappointing. Have you called support then?
I get the advertised hours out of my iPod, something like 16 hours, but I have been predominantly playing music with it.
Re:You're new here? Ain't ya?
on
The Zune Cometh
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· Score: 1
I bought the first gen 5gb iPod so I can answer your questions: The iPod has 12+ hour battery life. They've gotten better with each model, in general. So right now the iPod 80gb has 24 hour battery life AND is loads smaller.
Apple also had Firewire, in 2001, a year before Archos had USB2. So insofar that the early adopters could load music as 15mb/s, the iPod was faster.
At the original release of the iPod, it was competing against NON rockbox units. 22 buttons on the Creative Nomad. 10 buttons on the Archos. For the non geeky, the iPod opened up doors previously openable only by geeks and nerds.
The Rockbox firmware/UI was born because the Archos UI sucked. At least according to wiki,
The Rockbox project began in late 2001 and was first implemented on the Archos Studio DAP because of owner frustration with severe limitations in the manufacturer-supplied user interface and device operations.
My point is that the iPod earned it's success and was not some leech off the Archos. It had a better design (more usable, faster upload, easier to pocket) despite lower capacity and higher price. These came, naturally, as technology progressed such that the iPod is now 80gb, 24 hours, $299 and still smaller than the original iPod.
Re:Zune Specs and what I don't understand
on
The Zune Cometh
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· Score: 1
How long did you need? The current 80gb iPod can muster 6.5 hours of video at 640x480.
Re:You're new here? Ain't ya?
on
The Zune Cometh
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Are you sure you're right? The iPod, 5gb, was released in October of 2001. I do believe your Archos FM Recorder was released in October of 2002, nearly a year later. Apple wasn't the first, but it was a pioneer in several things that the Archos did not pick up on until later: Size (smaller is better) Hi speed serial interface(USB2 or Firewire) Simple user interface (5 buttons instead of Archos' 10)
Your Archos is actually a year younger than the oldest iPod, at my estimation.
The iPod did something that Archos has copied with it's Gmini line... there is no way of avoiding that comparison.
If you are a casual gamer and an ad actually works to get you to buy a system, there better be a system in a store for you to buy. This is not like a movie where you get trailers and build up hype... you actually want to move systems.
Do you see advertisements for the 2007 Ford Mustang Mach 1? Or advertisements for Apple's iPod Video coming in January 2007?
Grammars can be used in programmatic and automatic test script generation. You probably aren't using automated testing if you aren't using grammars. Grammars are also used in compilers and parsers... so you probably haven't worked with compilers or parsers if you aren't using grammars. Complexity notation is important when you are optimizing algorithms... when correlated with timing information it tells you where the code hotspots are. Predicate calculus is a little more abstract but is useful to learn because it forces you to think in terms of preconditions, postconditions, guards, and invariants, all used when you write loops, iterators, and conditional logic. Proofs are even more abstract, but are useful when you are tracing a bug because it gives you the ability to make assertions (This should be true or false) and then test them (Why isn't this true/false?). Without the ability to do proofs you wouldn't be able to debug or test code because all you can ever say is "I think this code should do this, but I don't know why"
You confuse computer science with computer programming.
That is like confusing music theory with music composition, something I would hope you would be aware of.
Computer science deals with algorithms, complexity notation, predicate calculus, proofs, and grammars, most of which you will not pick up by just being a programmer.
Google can answer your first one quite easily. I don't see why a spammer wouldn't be able to either.
Essentially if you create an exercise a human can perform, there is nothing, given enough resources, stopping a computer from duplicating that feat as well.
There is no such thing as an uninformed vote. You cannot be TOTALLY ignorant. You will know something.
In aggregate then hopefully that information will come out.
If you don't vote at all then you are literally giving other people control over your life. Voting is not ONLY about candidates. You can vote on issues/questions/propositions that increase or decrease taxes or affect your life entirely.
So to recap: If you were totally, completely, entirely ignorant than your vote will be canceled out by all the other voters who are totally ignorant. On the other hand if you have even a smattering of knowledge, that vote will not be cancelled out because it will "align" with other voters who also have a smattering of knowledge.
At the very worst your vote will cancel out someone else who makes a "bad" vote.
Where one Vista DVD will contain the install for starter, basic home, home premium, ultimate, business, and professional but you will only get access to the version you paid for unless you pay an additional upgrade fee.
In the jump from 10.4 to 10.5 you get: You get built in backup and restore software You get automatic backup functionality You get virtual desktops You get built in remote presentation and remote control software You get new Widgets plus the ability to turn any webpage into a widget You get a new mail program with increased planning functionality New group management functionality in Mail and in iCal
Under the hood you get: New animation libraries New 64 bit CPU optimizations New resolution independent ui
You pay for this stuff because you find it useful.
Try an iPod with some decent headphones. The sonic quality far outstrips that of Apple's headphones. These other players just aren't USABLE. Truly. It took them several iterations after the release of the iPod to approach the ease of use of the iPod.
That's why it was so surprising and grand that Apple gave you the ability to burn mix CDs of DRMed content directly in the iTunes interface. Apple at least didn't try to take away that right. Now if only they would add the ability to burn purchased videos into playable DVDs...
So here's the real question then. 1) Why should the user need to manage and organize their own files when a program, such as iTunes, does it for them? It is analogous to asking why a user should need to manage tracks and sectors when a program, such as Windows, does it for them? 2) Why should a user need to drag and drop files and keep track of new files when a program, such as iTunes, does it for them? It is analogous to why a user should need to keep track of open and available sectors on a HDD when a program, such as Windows, does it for them? 3) Why should the iPod need to manage the database when a program, such as iTunes, already does it for it?
What are you suggesting, anyway, if the iPod doesn't go through the file system? The FS exists because it is a known, stable, tested system. If Apple were to throw that away and roll their own, what benefits would they accrue?
All the music on the iPod is hidden off in an invisible directory, with all the song file names replaced with a database ID. The only reason for this is to prevent you from reading your music back from your iPod, to prevent you from using your iPod with anything but iTunes, and to basically lock you in.
That would be correct if it were true.
Except you CAN access the hidden directory without any tools, you CAN copy the songs off the iPod, you CAN drag them back into iTunes or ANY other player that reads ID3 tags, and you CAN use them again on any system.
There is too much conspiracy theory to think Apple did this for lock in.
Apple designed the system to run on a 70MHz CPU on a 1200mAH battery, and designed it to run for 12 hours. Every fraction of an Amp means something.
*If the iPod created it's own database, it means it would have to trawl through it's entire HDD to rebuild the database every time a file gets added. At 70MHz. *The filenames DO matter if the files are Japanese, have spaces, or any other number of weirdness in them that a FAT32 FS cannot handle. Instead of weirdness, the iPod maps the files to generic characters (hashing) while the actual SONG name is stored in ID3 format. *The folder names do matter. The iPod guarantees that every song is no more than 3 folders deep and that no more than 100 songs exist in each folder. This actually does speed up file access due to the way file systems are designed. *The folder is hidden to prevent a user from accidentally messing up the control structure needed to ensure performance and battery life.
If you haven't guessed these features are STILL important. 1st gen iPod, 5gb, 1200mAh battery, 12 hours 5th gen iPod, 30gb, 550mAh battery, 14 hours
Apple has been shrinking the iPod every generation, and the only way to do that is to make it every MORE efficient.
#1: That is where you are wrong. The magic directory and the magic database is EVERYTHING with it being a usable music player. The magic database is a file you load into RAM, meaning that browsing 11gb of music is as fast as browsing 1gb of music because nothing is ever loaded from the HDD while browsing. This was a BIG deal for v1 of the iPod because it made the iPod both faster to use, faster to boot, and give it increased battery life.
The magic folder is called, in the programming world, a hash table. All your music is evenly divided amongst 100 directories such that the iPod can guarantee that access to each song is within a couple seconds of each other. This again made the iPod faster and gave it a longer runtime because you didn't have to perform variable length reads to access data. All data was available within a fixed number of directories and a fixed number of files.
#2: I carried a tape player for years in my pocket:D Regardless, the hold switch is annoying.
#3: I guess it depends on what you mean by "feel". If you mean blindfolded, all I can do is pause and play because the center button is unique. Apple could improve the UI by embossing some sort of cardinal overlay on the scroll wheel.
How highly subjective, your #2 and #3. I've owned an iPod since 2001 and I think it qualifies for #1 and #3. I grant that I do use hold to prevent accidental activation of my iPod, but that never phased me because I had already accounted for that through years of tape and CD players who also had hold switches.
I've NEVER found a better MP3 player in the intervening five years, and I have purchased three iPods since then, a 10gb to replace my 5gb (the then top of the line Creative was bigger, slower, and harder to use), a Shuffle for rollerblading (the then top of the line iRivers and Creatives cost more, were bigger, and harder to use) and then an iPod video (the then top of the line Creative Vision:M was bigger, though not harder to use, and the similar Archos were bigger and harder to use).
Slashdot Mirror
If you learned DFT in digital imaging, you already know how to do DCT. DCT uses integral multiples of the cosine function as the basis function; DFT uses a general e function that, if you do some basic math to, becomes a cosine function.
If you don't know how to do a DCT, I can't imagine how you managed to do a DFT or pass your graphics class.
Image processing is a superset of lossy encoding and DCT is a subset of DFT.
The problem, I have been told, is that the Zune does not appear as a mass storage device.
This solution addresses 90% of the population and is simpler than a "file browser" type solution.
It's a good thing you can't spell ridiculous, or we would have to take you siriusly.
Okay, so you don't own an iPod, maybe it doesn't make sense to you:
1) Easy to use: Easy to pick up an learn
2) Simple to use: Uncluttered five button design means there is not a lot of potential for confusion. A device with 10 buttons or 20 buttons means it is more likely that a user cannot figure out what they need to do. On an iPod there is only five buttons they can press.
3) Fast: at the time the iPod was fast because the entire HDD was indexed into an 11mb file and that 11mb file was stored in RAM. There was no need to spin up the hard drive and no need to do any hard drive seeks to open a playlist or album or genre. Additionally, because it was the only MP3 player with a fast serial bus, it uploaded an entire CD in 10 seconds, where it would take competitive systems over a minute.
4) Small: again at the time the iPod was the densest MP3 player out there, with higher storage capacity than a Rio and much smaller than a Nomad. Today we are talking about a Zune, and the iPod still has twice the storage density, fitting an 80gb player well within the case of a 30gb Zune
I'm sorry if it sounds like we are arguing. Mostly I'm making the point that the iPod was not some kind of "copycat" off your Archos because it had done all the things I just listed. I'm not saying the Archos was a bad design or you made a bad choice, but that the iPod was unique and the market appreciated it.
Yet you said, "To me the iPod is an Archos wanna-be that has been leeched onto by a bunch of n00bs."
The iPod is only an Archos wanna-be in the sense that Apple saw how much the existing MP3 players, in 2001, sucked and tried to design a better one.
The Windows compatible iPod was released in August of 2002, two months before the Archos you bought. And yes I am saying 10 buttons is too many and too much for people to handle.
You say there are very few devices today with a control panel that aren't at least 10 buttons. I'm saying there are over 67 million iPods with 5 buttons and less than 20 million alternative MP3 players with more than 5 buttons. I'm saying that simpler is better for the reason that simpler is easier. Are you arguing against "simpler is easier"? As an aside, my cell phone only has 9 control buttons and 12 text/number entry buttons. Of the 9 only five are used for the phone: Call, Hang up, scroll up, scroll down, act.
Anyway, my point again is still that the iPod pioneered a market that did not exist before it was released:
Consumer MP3 player, defined as follows:
Easy to use
Simple to use
Fast
Small
That's disappointing. Have you called support then?
I get the advertised hours out of my iPod, something like 16 hours, but I have been predominantly playing music with it.
The iPod has 12+ hour battery life. They've gotten better with each model, in general. So right now the iPod 80gb has 24 hour battery life AND is loads smaller.
Apple also had Firewire, in 2001, a year before Archos had USB2. So insofar that the early adopters could load music as 15mb/s, the iPod was faster.
At the original release of the iPod, it was competing against NON rockbox units. 22 buttons on the Creative Nomad. 10 buttons on the Archos. For the non geeky, the iPod opened up doors previously openable only by geeks and nerds.
The Rockbox firmware/UI was born because the Archos UI sucked. At least according to wiki,
My point is that the iPod earned it's success and was not some leech off the Archos. It had a better design (more usable, faster upload, easier to pocket) despite lower capacity and higher price. These came, naturally, as technology progressed such that the iPod is now 80gb, 24 hours, $299 and still smaller than the original iPod.
How long did you need? The current 80gb iPod can muster 6.5 hours of video at 640x480.
Are you sure you're right? The iPod, 5gb, was released in October of 2001. I do believe your Archos FM Recorder was released in October of 2002, nearly a year later. Apple wasn't the first, but it was a pioneer in several things that the Archos did not pick up on until later:
Size (smaller is better)
Hi speed serial interface(USB2 or Firewire)
Simple user interface (5 buttons instead of Archos' 10)
Your Archos is actually a year younger than the oldest iPod, at my estimation.
The iPod did something that Archos has copied with it's Gmini line... there is no way of avoiding that comparison.
That makes perfect sense to me.
If you are a casual gamer and an ad actually works to get you to buy a system, there better be a system in a store for you to buy.
This is not like a movie where you get trailers and build up hype... you actually want to move systems.
Do you see advertisements for the 2007 Ford Mustang Mach 1?
Or advertisements for Apple's iPod Video coming in January 2007?
Grammars can be used in programmatic and automatic test script generation. You probably aren't using automated testing if you aren't using grammars.
Grammars are also used in compilers and parsers... so you probably haven't worked with compilers or parsers if you aren't using grammars.
Complexity notation is important when you are optimizing algorithms... when correlated with timing information it tells you where the code hotspots are.
Predicate calculus is a little more abstract but is useful to learn because it forces you to think in terms of preconditions, postconditions, guards, and invariants, all used when you write loops, iterators, and conditional logic.
Proofs are even more abstract, but are useful when you are tracing a bug because it gives you the ability to make assertions (This should be true or false) and then test them (Why isn't this true/false?). Without the ability to do proofs you wouldn't be able to debug or test code because all you can ever say is "I think this code should do this, but I don't know why"
You confuse computer science with computer programming.
That is like confusing music theory with music composition, something I would hope you would be aware of.
Computer science deals with algorithms, complexity notation, predicate calculus, proofs, and grammars, most of which you will not pick up by just being a programmer.
Google can answer your first one quite easily. I don't see why a spammer wouldn't be able to either.
Essentially if you create an exercise a human can perform, there is nothing, given enough resources, stopping a computer from duplicating that feat as well.
Well, hopefully the voter will know how to read.
Then hopefully the voter understands what the vote is for.
Finally the voter should understand the impact of the vote passing vs the vote not passing and choose accordingly.
In that case the answer is, "Yes."
There is no such thing as an uninformed vote. You cannot be TOTALLY ignorant. You will know something.
In aggregate then hopefully that information will come out.
If you don't vote at all then you are literally giving other people control over your life. Voting is not ONLY about candidates. You can vote on issues/questions/propositions that increase or decrease taxes or affect your life entirely.
So to recap: If you were totally, completely, entirely ignorant than your vote will be canceled out by all the other voters who are totally ignorant. On the other hand if you have even a smattering of knowledge, that vote will not be cancelled out because it will "align" with other voters who also have a smattering of knowledge.
At the very worst your vote will cancel out someone else who makes a "bad" vote.
Like the way Microsoft uses product keys, right?
Where one Vista DVD will contain the install for starter, basic home, home premium, ultimate, business, and professional but you will only get access to the version you paid for unless you pay an additional upgrade fee.
Yes. The story is about the fact that these simulations are actually approaching being correct.
Sort of like physics; every discovery in physics is always about how our understanding of the universe is approaching correctness.
A lot of models don't work. A lot of simulations are broken either because they are wrong, too simple, or irrelevant.
Yeah, you don't click the "Open in Dashboard" button and then OS X will NOT do this.
It's a tool, and if you don't want to use it, then don't use it.
In the jump from 10.4 to 10.5 you get:
You get built in backup and restore software
You get automatic backup functionality
You get virtual desktops
You get built in remote presentation and remote control software
You get new Widgets plus the ability to turn any webpage into a widget
You get a new mail program with increased planning functionality
New group management functionality in Mail and in iCal
Under the hood you get:
New animation libraries
New 64 bit CPU optimizations
New resolution independent ui
You pay for this stuff because you find it useful.
Try an iPod with some decent headphones. The sonic quality far outstrips that of Apple's headphones. These other players just aren't USABLE. Truly. It took them several iterations after the release of the iPod to approach the ease of use of the iPod.
That's why it was so surprising and grand that Apple gave you the ability to burn mix CDs of DRMed content directly in the iTunes interface. Apple at least didn't try to take away that right. Now if only they would add the ability to burn purchased videos into playable DVDs...
So here's the real question then.
1) Why should the user need to manage and organize their own files when a program, such as iTunes, does it for them? It is analogous to asking why a user should need to manage tracks and sectors when a program, such as Windows, does it for them?
2) Why should a user need to drag and drop files and keep track of new files when a program, such as iTunes, does it for them? It is analogous to why a user should need to keep track of open and available sectors on a HDD when a program, such as Windows, does it for them?
3) Why should the iPod need to manage the database when a program, such as iTunes, already does it for it?
What are you suggesting, anyway, if the iPod doesn't go through the file system? The FS exists because it is a known, stable, tested system. If Apple were to throw that away and roll their own, what benefits would they accrue?
That would be correct if it were true.
Except you CAN access the hidden directory without any tools, you CAN copy the songs off the iPod, you CAN drag them back into iTunes or ANY other player that reads ID3 tags, and you CAN use them again on any system.
There is too much conspiracy theory to think Apple did this for lock in.
Apple designed the system to run on a 70MHz CPU on a 1200mAH battery, and designed it to run for 12 hours. Every fraction of an Amp means something.
*If the iPod created it's own database, it means it would have to trawl through it's entire HDD to rebuild the database every time a file gets added. At 70MHz.
*The filenames DO matter if the files are Japanese, have spaces, or any other number of weirdness in them that a FAT32 FS cannot handle. Instead of weirdness, the iPod maps the files to generic characters (hashing) while the actual SONG name is stored in ID3 format.
*The folder names do matter. The iPod guarantees that every song is no more than 3 folders deep and that no more than 100 songs exist in each folder. This actually does speed up file access due to the way file systems are designed.
*The folder is hidden to prevent a user from accidentally messing up the control structure needed to ensure performance and battery life.
If you haven't guessed these features are STILL important.
1st gen iPod, 5gb, 1200mAh battery, 12 hours
5th gen iPod, 30gb, 550mAh battery, 14 hours
Apple has been shrinking the iPod every generation, and the only way to do that is to make it every MORE efficient.
#1: That is where you are wrong. The magic directory and the magic database is EVERYTHING with it being a usable music player.
:D
The magic database is a file you load into RAM, meaning that browsing 11gb of music is as fast as browsing 1gb of music because nothing is ever loaded from the HDD while browsing. This was a BIG deal for v1 of the iPod because it made the iPod both faster to use, faster to boot, and give it increased battery life.
The magic folder is called, in the programming world, a hash table. All your music is evenly divided amongst 100 directories such that the iPod can guarantee that access to each song is within a couple seconds of each other. This again made the iPod faster and gave it a longer runtime because you didn't have to perform variable length reads to access data. All data was available within a fixed number of directories and a fixed number of files.
#2: I carried a tape player for years in my pocket
Regardless, the hold switch is annoying.
#3: I guess it depends on what you mean by "feel". If you mean blindfolded, all I can do is pause and play because the center button is unique. Apple could improve the UI by embossing some sort of cardinal overlay on the scroll wheel.
How highly subjective, your #2 and #3. I've owned an iPod since 2001 and I think it qualifies for #1 and #3. I grant that I do use hold to prevent accidental activation of my iPod, but that never phased me because I had already accounted for that through years of tape and CD players who also had hold switches.
I've NEVER found a better MP3 player in the intervening five years, and I have purchased three iPods since then, a 10gb to replace my 5gb (the then top of the line Creative was bigger, slower, and harder to use), a Shuffle for rollerblading (the then top of the line iRivers and Creatives cost more, were bigger, and harder to use) and then an iPod video (the then top of the line Creative Vision:M was bigger, though not harder to use, and the similar Archos were bigger and harder to use).