Re:Another PDA Whoopee!!!
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PDAs, PDAs
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· Score: 2
Remember I had one for, erm, 8 months or so, and used it heavily. I'm not sure what you think you can do which I didn't try, in all honesty. I had QED on mine and used it to write some pretty big documents, for example. It was used for (OK, pretty basic) database work at one point, too. What, exactly, do people assume we all do with Palms that I hadn't discovered or seen in others? I've seen people synching with various high-end PIM apps, but I never had the need for that sort of thing so it wasn't really relevant. Anyway, who actually needs much more than Outlook or similar?
I'll admit I never tried one of those bitmap note takers, never saw the point. Still slow enough, but not as fast as a voice recorder or similar.
I'm happy that you find it works well for you - I found, for example, the complete lack of proper filesystem access irritating. Call me a geek if you wish, but I like being able to see and play with the guts. I can with my Psion (and have on occasions), I couldn't with a Palm.
I've seen those keyboards (again, never tried one - by the time a keyboard was clearly needed, so was a larger screen) but I honestly can't see me ever being able to use them on anything other than a very solid footing. Mechanically, I can't see how it can be balanced by itself if the screen is at a usable angle. But with my Psion I can (and have) typed comfortably on my knees, or (generally not when I can avoid it) with one hand while holding the machine with the other. Basic physics would seem to preclude either option with a Palm and keyboard rig.
There _are_ cheap m105s and so on, but the Vx and similar cost pretty much the same as a Revo (2x the memory, 3x the screen resolution) and 75% of the cost of a 5mx (2x the memory, 6x the screen resolution). You get more built-in software on the Psions, you get the voice recorder - and trust me, it's useful. They're a little larger and heavier - but I can tell you from experience that it makes little or no difference. They're all small enough. Which reminds me - most serious Palm users seem to have keyboards. So your weight and size have bumped up, while you've added most of the cost difference between a Vx and a 5mx!
If most users had IIIs and m100 / m105s I might be able to believe that they were going for the lower cost. Thinking of Palm owners I know, though, three out of four are Vs!
The more I look at it, the more sensible a choice the Psion becomes. Yet people continue to buy PalmOS machines. Why remains a mystery to me.
Re:Another PDA Whoopee!!!
on
PDAs, PDAs
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· Score: 2
The toy factor is certainly there, but IME a voice note taker is very useful and not a toy.
Honestly, I can't see the point of a laptop for letters and spreadsheets. Most of the time neither are massive, and I can verify that a Psion does both rather well. I use laptops regularly for work and they're irritating. Take a couple of minutes to boot, take significant time to shut down. They're bulky, they're heavy and they only run for a few hours away from the mains.
The laptops do a nice job of being a simple database and web server, or of showing PowerPoint presentations. Beyond that, I can't think of regularly used applications which (IMO&E) can be performed just as well on my Psion. Which runs for a couple of weeks per set of batteries (or 15 continuous hours), powers up and down instantly and still has a keyboard I can touchtype on. A little slower but not much. It's quite fast enough for normal applications, the software can automatically convert between its formats and the PC formats. It honestly clears the majority of the need for a laptop for me.
The only problem I see is the limited market share and so relatively small software and peripheral support. It's adequate now, I just worry about the future. Hence a fairly strong desire to explain to others just how fantastic they are - the more people who use these wonderful things, the more chance they have of growth. No, I don't have shares in Psion, Symbian or any similar companies. Oh, and a fairly strong feeling that PalmOS devices are far oversold in their abilities and that people can do better. I don't like seeing people (IMO) waste their money.
Re:Another PDA Whoopee!!!
on
PDAs, PDAs
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· Score: 2
Honestly, I tried Graffiti for 6 months and found it usable but slow and inaccurate. I used to play with Giraffe to try and analyse its topology algorithms - they're surprisingly shaky.
The OS often feels like a throwback to very old days, but I could live with that if they were cheaper and the handwriting recognition better. For what they do, they're too dear - and that recognition system is just too poor.
Re:Another PDA Whoopee!!!
on
PDAs, PDAs
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· Score: 3
I have a Psion 5 with a built-in voice recorder, and it's VERY useful. Means I can make a REALLY quick note. Press one button until it beeps, then hold it while you talk. Boom! You have a note recorded. I can do that while I'm walking along, while I'm driving, pretty much any time I want. Far easier than opening it up and making a note.
Easier than making a note on a Palm, too. Used to have one, no way could I make a note while walking via graffiti, even after I've opened the cover, fished out the pen, tapped on the button, asked for a new document and started writing in slow, inaccurate Graffiti. While driving? Forget it.
These things are really, really useful. Might not fit in with the way _you_ use yours, but it fits in really nicely with mine.
Oh, BTW, you really bought that $2-300 device just to track appointments? Wow. Mine regularly gets used for meeting notes. I've written proper, formatted and spellchecked documents on it in comfort, too. On trains, in restaurants, in parks, absolutely anywhere. I've played games while waiting for things, I've knocked up spreadsheets. I've just got a new phone and so, when I've set up a few bits, it'll be surfing the web periodically and checking e-mail. Yes, I could do both on a Palm, but this is the _proper_ web (not clipped or synced) and I've got a keyboard I'm prepared to write normal length e-mails on. Which isn't a clip-on extra.
I honestly can't see why people are prepared to pay that much for that little functionality. I saw how limited it was and bought something I could do real work on, not just use as a fancy diary and calculator.
Yes, the Palm is cheaper, smaller and runs for longer on the batteries. Personally, I felt it was designed to a cost - and it showed. I found the screen too small for realistic use while I'm happy carrying round my Psion 5. Yes it's larger, yes it doesn't fit in my shirt pocket - but I nver felt comfortable carrying the Palm that way, and tend to have a larger bag with me anyway. It lives there very happily.
Yes, the batteries run forever, but I'm not convinced that it's a significant boost. You can probably still pull a week or two of average use with these things, so what does it matter by that point? If it gave you two days rather than one it'd be worth it, but the law of diminishing returns kicks in. That's plenty.
I honestly found Palms very limiting. I've never done more than played with a WinCE machine so can't comment heavily on them, but it can't be that limited - and doesn't look it from what I've seen. Why Palms have survived still baffles me, they're cheap and nasty.
I got a used 5 from Loot - http://www.loot.com/ for those in the UK. For those who aren't, they're sort of a national classified ads paper who post all ads more than 2 days old on their website! Yay!
They've normally got plenty, and at good prices too.
Let's imagine they find a collector with several thousand pornographic images of children. There'll be hundreds of kids in here, with the collection ammased over a long period and from many areas in all probability. The chance of them being able to track the perpetrators isn't good. So, if you're going to prosecute this guy (who's been a part of a demand chain and we all know about supply and demand) then you have to prosecute for posession of the images. Which can't practically be distinguished beyond reasonable doubt from fakes. Hence this viewpoint.
No, the UK hasn't given up on all but child porn. The simple point here is that it can't be touched if the fake is legal...
The opinion of law enforement over here (which, as a computer guy, seems sensible) is that it may not always be possible to gather that form of evidence as the one can't be distinguished from the other.
Scale: Robot Wars get round this by actually showing competitors and robots together, regularly. Or watching those things have to be carted into the arena.
Wedges: Give them time. That was the case in series 1 of Robot Wars. Series 2, out pops Cassius. The reaction when Cassius proved able to right themselves was amazing. Almost no-one had seen that one coming. Series 3, most of the successful robots could self-right or run upside down, series 4 no-one got any distance if flipping them was actually a problem. It will wake up.
I must admit, from all I've seen of the US robots so far they're dreadful compared to the state of the art over here. We've had longer to develop them, but still...
Right, someone else diving in here - partly as I've had this discussion elsewhere.
UK Law (which strikes me as sensible) says that anything which is or appears to be child porn is illegal. Why?
Simple. If the fake is legal, it's almost impossible to prosecute the real thing as the instant defence becomes 'it's faked'. How do you prove beyond reasonable doubt that it isn't? You can't, in all honesty.
If you want to keep the real thing illegal and prosecutable, the fake has to be illegal too. A free speech advocate is almost certainly going to jump up and down on this, but this is the sort of thing which makes me GLAD Britain doesn't have absolute freedom of speech. It creates far too many problems and undesirable situations.
For reference, I'm a Liberal Democrat. Slightly left of centre, basically.
Look at most of the robots and they win by incapacitating their opponents somehow or (occasionally) throwing them out of the arena. Hello, Chaos 2.
Hypnodisc, quite openly, set out to _destroy_ their competitors. Not just incapacitate so that it can't work without a few hours work but destroy. As a modelmaker (Meccano - Erector for the Americans here) and general creative person, I don't like the idea of deliberate, needless destruction of creative works.
Hypnodisc have, regularly, reduced their competitors to small parts. In the last series they even destroyed a few batteries. This after the other robot had been clearly defeated and stood no chance of recovery. Yes, I know the whole point is to defeat your opponents in battle, but this is little more than mutilating the corpse.
They are bullies, plain and simple, and I _wish_ they'd change the rules to allow the referees to stop a fight or penalise this form of action.
People are used to laptops which run for 2-3 hours, with a processor performing heroic measures to keep it going.
If this screen can stretch it to 10 (for example) on a normal CPU, who will care if a Crusoe can push that to 15? 10's still comfortably more than a working day.
Tricky one to call, but I wouldn't want to be a Transmeta investor unless I knew they had more tricks up their sleeves than Crusoe.
Most people would have a job limiting their own list to 10. Just off the top of my head, the second two (don't know the first, sorry), the Darling Brothers (Codemasters), Bitmap Brothers, Andrew Braybrooke, Geoff Crammond, Shigeru Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux, Dave Jones, That Tetris Guy, whoever came up with Bomberman. LucasArts and / or Sierra graphic adventure people. iD's Doom team - probably single out John Romero. Sorry, names sometimes escape me at midnight UK time:)
This is a massive list and trying to slim it down is essentially a silly task. There are a _LOT_ of people on this hypothetical list, no clear way of sensibly ranking them and little beyond subjective preference to rank them. Unless we're trying to start a fight, it's probably not a sensible list to try and create. Say we're grateful to some people, but don't suggest its in any way definitive or complete.
My point on the granularity was simply that, when coarse-grained data is collected on pretty much anything, it underrepresents the margins. In these terms, the current system underrates a large chunk of what Slashdot's users seems to like. You may well want some of the near zero audience shows (as do I) but this can't really harm them, as it allows them to be represented at all. When you're sampling 1000 to extrapolate the results onto 200 million, they _WILL_ get missed. Also, the more you can find out about their audiences, the better you can target the marketing and trailing they run. Better targetted marketing will produce higher ad revenues (good) while better trailing increases the chance of people actually coming across these shows, as thet can stick the trailers in the right places. Both help the long-term survival of the shows.
My point about usage patterns wasn't meant to be referring to its 1337ness or similar, actually. Simply that it's of far more use to people who tend to watch marginal interest shows. Not just SF and fantasty - if you really, really like old westerns, for example, this'll search them out on the schedules so not only increase their viewing figures but actually make them measurable. Or if I'm a fan of original short films - shown periodically in the small hours, I'd have to really watch out without a TiVo or similar. It can benefit pretty much any TV viewer, but its benefit seems greatest to viewers of marginal interest shows - such as SF, Fantasy, Horror and Anime.
This can be of huge benefit to the marginal interest shows, and help their viability no end. Which, even if only a little, takes money away from another Temptation Island or generic soap. Part of why they're so successful is that they're an easy brand - they're clear, solid and large so no problems to sell to the ad people. It's a no-brainer to advertise on them, so the networks like them, so they push them and create more - which gets circular and only really leads to dumbing down. Now - and I admit this is optimistic - if you can demonstrate that a package of 15 cult shows has just as strong demographics when taken as a package, but has half the ad cost, where does the money go? That isn't viable without this sort of fine-grained data, but can be with it.
Sadly, as has been pointed out before, TiVo etc largely cripple the conventional advertising funded TV concept... Bit irritating that the one thing which could save it from its excesses and return it to quality should be the thing which kills it. Oh well, good old UK and BBC:)
I admit I haven't heard of the Mosaic project though I'd be interested to see. If that's the result, though, I'd have to say it was spectacularly poorly executed. That's dreadful surveying, misuse of statistics and some pretty poor retailing, too.
Speaking from firsthand experience it's not sensible. I live near a relatively large council-style estate (no idea on management) and sometimes use its convenience stores. They have a massive product range and seem to have a pretty good stockturn. Judging from their numbers and condition I'd have to say they're doing excellent business.
I'd do that, BUT below 11-12 (for example) I'd do positive filtering (you can't look at unless I've said so) as well. There's far too much rubbish out there and I don't want to scare kids who make an innocent mistake.
Believe me, there's far worse stuff than porn on the net.
If they can push fine-grained data on who views what (and this has to be the best way to get it) from a group who care enough about TV, probably fringe, to buy a TiVo, then they would seem likely to INCREASE support for marginal TV.
Firstly, you can see that people are watching these programs. Secondly, you can see that they're watching linked groups. Thirdly, you may well be able to see _how_ they're viewing it - say timeshifting from the night before, for example.
Whereas with traditional ratings info you can't really see much more than the rough popularity of the top programs. More than that is a problem, simply as you can't get the _precision_. You might be able to identify with some certainty that a program had tens of thousands of viewers, but that's still pretty lucky. Hundreds of thousands and you're getting safer. Think about sample sets here.
OK, so identifying that a program was only watched by 40,000 people might not be fantastic - BUT it's an improvement on knowing that less than 250,000 watched it, especially in combination with the other information. Also, remember that people are commisioning this show in the knowledge that almost no-one will watch it. If you can confirm that slightly more than no-one watches it with some likelihood, you boost the chances for that sort of program.
What makes me think TiVos are probably bought by people on the fringes of normal TV viewing? Think about it. If you only watch soaps and gameshows, what's the benefit? Soaps are on very regularly, often with weekly omnibus editions. And missing one isn't the end of the world. And gameshows, well, really don't matter much from week to wek plus there's a lot which are really pretty similar.
Using me as an example, though, a device to make sure I never miss American Gothic, B5 or The Outer Limits - all shown late or in intermittent slots at various points, all on the margins of the viewer figures - would be a big attraction as it's not anywhere near as easy to keep up with them and it would be useful to be able to guarantee I could keep up, no matter what they did with the schedules. It makes far more sense for me than the stereotypical soap viewer.
Troll with that low a UID? Oh well... I'm biting, just in case.
It was _used_ as a toy by many, but it was extremely powerful. That OS was way in advance of MS-DOS/Windows and MacOS in most ways when it was a possible player, the standard hardware was entirely sufficent for domestic and small-office users. For more than that, there were always the big box systems.
But, it got a toy perception because it was games that drove it at first. Which was a real problem and almost totally unjustified. Oh well.
Anyway. The _tech_ press might know Linux is a proper OS - but we're talking about the general public here. Who don't and don't read the tech press. This is a very real risk which Linux fans _must_ watch out for and counter. Carefully, again speaking as an Amigan:)
This is rather likely to be extremely limited in what you can do with it. If you can do more than surf the web and send e-mail I'd be surprised. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to find that limited to AOL and the bank's site, either.
Now. Imagine a whispering campaign here. Nothing official, just MS and others - sadly, schoolkids will be a pretty potent force here - putting the word around. This thing isn't good for much. You want a proper computer. This runs Linux. My proper computer runs Windows. Hopeless logic, no thoughts on causality, but the link is in people's minds.
Rather rapidly, without any real effort, Linux is into people's minds and as a toy. Far worse for it than people simply not knowing about it at all, as the toy perception can be really difficult to shift. Trust the British Amigan here.
Could go either way for MS. Could help AOL quite a bit. Can't do much positive for Linux from what I can see...
Can't for the life of me remember whether it was Mir or another Russian space vehicle, but I saw the suggestion a while ago that, erm, the 'romantic' possibilities of zero gravity were first tested by Russian cosmonauts with too much time on their hands.
Apparently it helps to be strapped to a wall, or you tend to float towards one rather quickly:)
Given the choice between petrol and hydrogen on grounds of safety, Hydrogen has one very significant advantage.
It's really, really light. If it leaks out of its controlled environment it goes straight up, extremely quickly. As opposed to the petrol, sitting in pools underneath the leak.
Really, it's nowhere near as bad as its reputation. Quite good, in fact.
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Remember I had one for, erm, 8 months or so, and used it heavily. I'm not sure what you think you can do which I didn't try, in all honesty. I had QED on mine and used it to write some pretty big documents, for example. It was used for (OK, pretty basic) database work at one point, too. What, exactly, do people assume we all do with Palms that I hadn't discovered or seen in others? I've seen people synching with various high-end PIM apps, but I never had the need for that sort of thing so it wasn't really relevant. Anyway, who actually needs much more than Outlook or similar?
I'll admit I never tried one of those bitmap note takers, never saw the point. Still slow enough, but not as fast as a voice recorder or similar.
I'm happy that you find it works well for you - I found, for example, the complete lack of proper filesystem access irritating. Call me a geek if you wish, but I like being able to see and play with the guts. I can with my Psion (and have on occasions), I couldn't with a Palm.
I've seen those keyboards (again, never tried one - by the time a keyboard was clearly needed, so was a larger screen) but I honestly can't see me ever being able to use them on anything other than a very solid footing. Mechanically, I can't see how it can be balanced by itself if the screen is at a usable angle. But with my Psion I can (and have) typed comfortably on my knees, or (generally not when I can avoid it) with one hand while holding the machine with the other. Basic physics would seem to preclude either option with a Palm and keyboard rig.
There _are_ cheap m105s and so on, but the Vx and similar cost pretty much the same as a Revo (2x the memory, 3x the screen resolution) and 75% of the cost of a 5mx (2x the memory, 6x the screen resolution). You get more built-in software on the Psions, you get the voice recorder - and trust me, it's useful. They're a little larger and heavier - but I can tell you from experience that it makes little or no difference. They're all small enough. Which reminds me - most serious Palm users seem to have keyboards. So your weight and size have bumped up, while you've added most of the cost difference between a Vx and a 5mx!
If most users had IIIs and m100 / m105s I might be able to believe that they were going for the lower cost. Thinking of Palm owners I know, though, three out of four are Vs!
The more I look at it, the more sensible a choice the Psion becomes. Yet people continue to buy PalmOS machines. Why remains a mystery to me.
The toy factor is certainly there, but IME a voice note taker is very useful and not a toy.
Honestly, I can't see the point of a laptop for letters and spreadsheets. Most of the time neither are massive, and I can verify that a Psion does both rather well. I use laptops regularly for work and they're irritating. Take a couple of minutes to boot, take significant time to shut down. They're bulky, they're heavy and they only run for a few hours away from the mains.
The laptops do a nice job of being a simple database and web server, or of showing PowerPoint presentations. Beyond that, I can't think of regularly used applications which (IMO&E) can be performed just as well on my Psion. Which runs for a couple of weeks per set of batteries (or 15 continuous hours), powers up and down instantly and still has a keyboard I can touchtype on. A little slower but not much. It's quite fast enough for normal applications, the software can automatically convert between its formats and the PC formats. It honestly clears the majority of the need for a laptop for me.
The only problem I see is the limited market share and so relatively small software and peripheral support. It's adequate now, I just worry about the future. Hence a fairly strong desire to explain to others just how fantastic they are - the more people who use these wonderful things, the more chance they have of growth. No, I don't have shares in Psion, Symbian or any similar companies. Oh, and a fairly strong feeling that PalmOS devices are far oversold in their abilities and that people can do better. I don't like seeing people (IMO) waste their money.
Honestly, I tried Graffiti for 6 months and found it usable but slow and inaccurate. I used to play with Giraffe to try and analyse its topology algorithms - they're surprisingly shaky.
The OS often feels like a throwback to very old days, but I could live with that if they were cheaper and the handwriting recognition better. For what they do, they're too dear - and that recognition system is just too poor.
I have a Psion 5 with a built-in voice recorder, and it's VERY useful. Means I can make a REALLY quick note. Press one button until it beeps, then hold it while you talk. Boom! You have a note recorded. I can do that while I'm walking along, while I'm driving, pretty much any time I want. Far easier than opening it up and making a note.
Easier than making a note on a Palm, too. Used to have one, no way could I make a note while walking via graffiti, even after I've opened the cover, fished out the pen, tapped on the button, asked for a new document and started writing in slow, inaccurate Graffiti. While driving? Forget it.
These things are really, really useful. Might not fit in with the way _you_ use yours, but it fits in really nicely with mine.
Oh, BTW, you really bought that $2-300 device just to track appointments? Wow. Mine regularly gets used for meeting notes. I've written proper, formatted and spellchecked documents on it in comfort, too. On trains, in restaurants, in parks, absolutely anywhere. I've played games while waiting for things, I've knocked up spreadsheets. I've just got a new phone and so, when I've set up a few bits, it'll be surfing the web periodically and checking e-mail. Yes, I could do both on a Palm, but this is the _proper_ web (not clipped or synced) and I've got a keyboard I'm prepared to write normal length e-mails on. Which isn't a clip-on extra.
I honestly can't see why people are prepared to pay that much for that little functionality. I saw how limited it was and bought something I could do real work on, not just use as a fancy diary and calculator.
I'm not sure. Ex-Palm user, now a Psion user.
Yes, the Palm is cheaper, smaller and runs for longer on the batteries. Personally, I felt it was designed to a cost - and it showed. I found the screen too small for realistic use while I'm happy carrying round my Psion 5. Yes it's larger, yes it doesn't fit in my shirt pocket - but I nver felt comfortable carrying the Palm that way, and tend to have a larger bag with me anyway. It lives there very happily.
Yes, the batteries run forever, but I'm not convinced that it's a significant boost. You can probably still pull a week or two of average use with these things, so what does it matter by that point? If it gave you two days rather than one it'd be worth it, but the law of diminishing returns kicks in. That's plenty.
I honestly found Palms very limiting. I've never done more than played with a WinCE machine so can't comment heavily on them, but it can't be that limited - and doesn't look it from what I've seen. Why Palms have survived still baffles me, they're cheap and nasty.
Classified ads, so all private sellers and based in the UK. Depends on the individual.
You could probably find someone who would, the question is whether it'd be worth it once you'd sorted the currency changes and shipping.
Just noticed they've got Loot USA which might be worth a try.
http://www.lootusa.com/
Good luck, they're worth it in the end. Proper little computers and lovely to work with.
I got a used 5 from Loot - http://www.loot.com/ for those in the UK. For those who aren't, they're sort of a national classified ads paper who post all ads more than 2 days old on their website! Yay!
They've normally got plenty, and at good prices too.
Diesel engines have really, really high compression anyway. Well clear 20:1, which is how the compression can cause the ignition.
But I can't see how the modification can be remotely easy if it involves substantially raising an engine's compression ratio. That's not simple.
I think you perhaps miss the point.
Let's imagine they find a collector with several thousand pornographic images of children. There'll be hundreds of kids in here, with the collection ammased over a long period and from many areas in all probability. The chance of them being able to track the perpetrators isn't good. So, if you're going to prosecute this guy (who's been a part of a demand chain and we all know about supply and demand) then you have to prosecute for posession of the images. Which can't practically be distinguished beyond reasonable doubt from fakes. Hence this viewpoint.
No, the UK hasn't given up on all but child porn. The simple point here is that it can't be touched if the fake is legal...
If that's your opinion then fine.
The opinion of law enforement over here (which, as a computer guy, seems sensible) is that it may not always be possible to gather that form of evidence as the one can't be distinguished from the other.
I'm happy with this situation.
Scale: Robot Wars get round this by actually showing competitors and robots together, regularly. Or watching those things have to be carted into the arena.
Wedges: Give them time. That was the case in series 1 of Robot Wars. Series 2, out pops Cassius. The reaction when Cassius proved able to right themselves was amazing. Almost no-one had seen that one coming. Series 3, most of the successful robots could self-right or run upside down, series 4 no-one got any distance if flipping them was actually a problem. It will wake up.
I must admit, from all I've seen of the US robots so far they're dreadful compared to the state of the art over here. We've had longer to develop them, but still...
UK Law (which strikes me as sensible) says that anything which is or appears to be child porn is illegal. Why?
Simple. If the fake is legal, it's almost impossible to prosecute the real thing as the instant defence becomes 'it's faked'. How do you prove beyond reasonable doubt that it isn't? You can't, in all honesty.
If you want to keep the real thing illegal and prosecutable, the fake has to be illegal too. A free speech advocate is almost certainly going to jump up and down on this, but this is the sort of thing which makes me GLAD Britain doesn't have absolute freedom of speech. It creates far too many problems and undesirable situations. For reference, I'm a Liberal Democrat. Slightly left of centre, basically.
OK, Brit and long-term Robot Wars fan here.
I _don't_ _like_ Hypnodisc.
Look at most of the robots and they win by incapacitating their opponents somehow or (occasionally) throwing them out of the arena. Hello, Chaos 2.
Hypnodisc, quite openly, set out to _destroy_ their competitors. Not just incapacitate so that it can't work without a few hours work but destroy. As a modelmaker (Meccano - Erector for the Americans here) and general creative person, I don't like the idea of deliberate, needless destruction of creative works.
Hypnodisc have, regularly, reduced their competitors to small parts. In the last series they even destroyed a few batteries. This after the other robot had been clearly defeated and stood no chance of recovery. Yes, I know the whole point is to defeat your opponents in battle, but this is little more than mutilating the corpse.
They are bullies, plain and simple, and I _wish_ they'd change the rules to allow the referees to stop a fight or penalise this form of action.
No, 24.
You're only allowed to fool until midday. Some of these weren't posted by midday in ANY timezone.
Really. Even if they're going to crack bad jokes they could at least try to get the rules right...
Or the other side.
People are used to laptops which run for 2-3 hours, with a processor performing heroic measures to keep it going.
If this screen can stretch it to 10 (for example) on a normal CPU, who will care if a Crusoe can push that to 15? 10's still comfortably more than a working day.
Tricky one to call, but I wouldn't want to be a Transmeta investor unless I knew they had more tricks up their sleeves than Crusoe.
OK, let's be honest here.
:)
Most people would have a job limiting their own list to 10. Just off the top of my head, the second two (don't know the first, sorry), the Darling Brothers (Codemasters), Bitmap Brothers, Andrew Braybrooke, Geoff Crammond, Shigeru Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux, Dave Jones, That Tetris Guy, whoever came up with Bomberman. LucasArts and / or Sierra graphic adventure people. iD's Doom team - probably single out John Romero. Sorry, names sometimes escape me at midnight UK time
This is a massive list and trying to slim it down is essentially a silly task. There are a _LOT_ of people on this hypothetical list, no clear way of sensibly ranking them and little beyond subjective preference to rank them. Unless we're trying to start a fight, it's probably not a sensible list to try and create. Say we're grateful to some people, but don't suggest its in any way definitive or complete.
My point on the granularity was simply that, when coarse-grained data is collected on pretty much anything, it underrepresents the margins. In these terms, the current system underrates a large chunk of what Slashdot's users seems to like. You may well want some of the near zero audience shows (as do I) but this can't really harm them, as it allows them to be represented at all. When you're sampling 1000 to extrapolate the results onto 200 million, they _WILL_ get missed. Also, the more you can find out about their audiences, the better you can target the marketing and trailing they run. Better targetted marketing will produce higher ad revenues (good) while better trailing increases the chance of people actually coming across these shows, as thet can stick the trailers in the right places. Both help the long-term survival of the shows.
:)
My point about usage patterns wasn't meant to be referring to its 1337ness or similar, actually. Simply that it's of far more use to people who tend to watch marginal interest shows. Not just SF and fantasty - if you really, really like old westerns, for example, this'll search them out on the schedules so not only increase their viewing figures but actually make them measurable. Or if I'm a fan of original short films - shown periodically in the small hours, I'd have to really watch out without a TiVo or similar. It can benefit pretty much any TV viewer, but its benefit seems greatest to viewers of marginal interest shows - such as SF, Fantasy, Horror and Anime.
This can be of huge benefit to the marginal interest shows, and help their viability no end. Which, even if only a little, takes money away from another Temptation Island or generic soap. Part of why they're so successful is that they're an easy brand - they're clear, solid and large so no problems to sell to the ad people. It's a no-brainer to advertise on them, so the networks like them, so they push them and create more - which gets circular and only really leads to dumbing down. Now - and I admit this is optimistic - if you can demonstrate that a package of 15 cult shows has just as strong demographics when taken as a package, but has half the ad cost, where does the money go? That isn't viable without this sort of fine-grained data, but can be with it.
Sadly, as has been pointed out before, TiVo etc largely cripple the conventional advertising funded TV concept... Bit irritating that the one thing which could save it from its excesses and return it to quality should be the thing which kills it. Oh well, good old UK and BBC
I admit I haven't heard of the Mosaic project though I'd be interested to see. If that's the result, though, I'd have to say it was spectacularly poorly executed. That's dreadful surveying, misuse of statistics and some pretty poor retailing, too.
Speaking from firsthand experience it's not sensible. I live near a relatively large council-style estate (no idea on management) and sometimes use its convenience stores. They have a massive product range and seem to have a pretty good stockturn. Judging from their numbers and condition I'd have to say they're doing excellent business.
(Not a parent, so this is an abstract question)
I'd do that, BUT below 11-12 (for example) I'd do positive filtering (you can't look at unless I've said so) as well. There's far too much rubbish out there and I don't want to scare kids who make an innocent mistake.
Believe me, there's far worse stuff than porn on the net.
Huh?
That looks backwards to me, Bob.
If they can push fine-grained data on who views what (and this has to be the best way to get it) from a group who care enough about TV, probably fringe, to buy a TiVo, then they would seem likely to INCREASE support for marginal TV.
Firstly, you can see that people are watching these programs. Secondly, you can see that they're watching linked groups. Thirdly, you may well be able to see _how_ they're viewing it - say timeshifting from the night before, for example.
Whereas with traditional ratings info you can't really see much more than the rough popularity of the top programs. More than that is a problem, simply as you can't get the _precision_. You might be able to identify with some certainty that a program had tens of thousands of viewers, but that's still pretty lucky. Hundreds of thousands and you're getting safer. Think about sample sets here.
OK, so identifying that a program was only watched by 40,000 people might not be fantastic - BUT it's an improvement on knowing that less than 250,000 watched it, especially in combination with the other information. Also, remember that people are commisioning this show in the knowledge that almost no-one will watch it. If you can confirm that slightly more than no-one watches it with some likelihood, you boost the chances for that sort of program.
What makes me think TiVos are probably bought by people on the fringes of normal TV viewing? Think about it. If you only watch soaps and gameshows, what's the benefit? Soaps are on very regularly, often with weekly omnibus editions. And missing one isn't the end of the world. And gameshows, well, really don't matter much from week to wek plus there's a lot which are really pretty similar.
Using me as an example, though, a device to make sure I never miss American Gothic, B5 or The Outer Limits - all shown late or in intermittent slots at various points, all on the margins of the viewer figures - would be a big attraction as it's not anywhere near as easy to keep up with them and it would be useful to be able to guarantee I could keep up, no matter what they did with the schedules. It makes far more sense for me than the stereotypical soap viewer.
Troll with that low a UID? Oh well... I'm biting, just in case.
:)
It was _used_ as a toy by many, but it was extremely powerful. That OS was way in advance of MS-DOS/Windows and MacOS in most ways when it was a possible player, the standard hardware was entirely sufficent for domestic and small-office users. For more than that, there were always the big box systems.
But, it got a toy perception because it was games that drove it at first. Which was a real problem and almost totally unjustified. Oh well.
Anyway. The _tech_ press might know Linux is a proper OS - but we're talking about the general public here. Who don't and don't read the tech press. This is a very real risk which Linux fans _must_ watch out for and counter. Carefully, again speaking as an Amigan
The other possibility is less attractive.
This is rather likely to be extremely limited in what you can do with it. If you can do more than surf the web and send e-mail I'd be surprised. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to find that limited to AOL and the bank's site, either.
Now. Imagine a whispering campaign here. Nothing official, just MS and others - sadly, schoolkids will be a pretty potent force here - putting the word around. This thing isn't good for much. You want a proper computer. This runs Linux. My proper computer runs Windows. Hopeless logic, no thoughts on causality, but the link is in people's minds.
Rather rapidly, without any real effort, Linux is into people's minds and as a toy. Far worse for it than people simply not knowing about it at all, as the toy perception can be really difficult to shift. Trust the British Amigan here.
Could go either way for MS. Could help AOL quite a bit. Can't do much positive for Linux from what I can see...
Can't for the life of me remember whether it was Mir or another Russian space vehicle, but I saw the suggestion a while ago that, erm, the 'romantic' possibilities of zero gravity were first tested by Russian cosmonauts with too much time on their hands.
:)
Apparently it helps to be strapped to a wall, or you tend to float towards one rather quickly
Monkey King, as I recall, which definitely makes sense. Donkey Kong was just really, really bad translation...
Takes too much land to produce enough fuel to run enough vehicles.
It's a lovely idea but is only workable on a large scale when there's a really, really big surplus of agricultural land.
There was one interesting idea which I heard about a while back, though - mutant algae producing hydeogen. Wonder what's happening on that one?
Given the choice between petrol and hydrogen on grounds of safety, Hydrogen has one very significant advantage.
It's really, really light. If it leaks out of its controlled environment it goes straight up, extremely quickly. As opposed to the petrol, sitting in pools underneath the leak.
Really, it's nowhere near as bad as its reputation. Quite good, in fact.