Jeez, that sounded *really* cheesy, didn't it?! I guess I should have given an example instead.
One of my favorite gifts was a hand-painted didgeridoo that was just sitting in the front seat of my car one random day when I left work in the evening. The occasion? My girlfriend saw it at a consignment store, thought the orange snake painted on it looked exactly like my current pet, and recalled that I mentioned a year earlier that I thought didgeridoos were cool. Nothing like realizing someone pays enough attention to you to know what you like better than you know yourself.
I'd prefer that to "what do you want for your birthday this year?" every time. That's why we now celebrate "random gift when you don't expect it day" instead of Valentine's Day.
Have you tried it? If you spontaneously surprised her with something similar on any day other than Valentine's Day, I bet she would enjoy it even *more*.
Just like (to me at least) the best gift is not the one knew you were getting months in advance, it's the one that is perfect, but you didn't even know you wanted.
First.. I can't argue too much with the modding because you do keep confusing codecs with containers. Ogg is NOT a set of codecs, it's just a file format. Theora is a set of video codecs, and Vorbis is the audio codec. MKV is a different container, and H.264 is a common video codec used in that container. Divx is a bit more confusing because it can sometimes refer to both a container format and an *implementation* of MPEG4 pt2 or H.264 (aka MPEG4 pt 10). Anyway - the main point is there are video and audio codecs (essentially "elementary bitstreams") and file formats to contain those codecs along with information to sync the audio and video - understand the distinction and you have taken a big step;)
But after all that, I think you make a very good point in there. H.264 will be THE standard video codec for the near future, because it is now almost universally supported by set-top and mobile chipsets. And beyond "Internet video", all of the major cable and satellite systems have spent the last several years converting their systems to use H.264 in their transport streams (another *container*!), so more than likely if you are watching anything other than a terrestrial ATSC channel (already soooo obsoleted!) it's H.264!
You mean so it's not all trolling ACs who consider it a "game" rather than "commenting"? Besides, why the hell should actually paying for a service NOT give a CUSTOMER some benefit?
Dumb example. Unplug your laptop and play any 3D game for half an hour, same result.
I never said Flash is efficient, just that it's an excuse, not a reason. What the hell does battery usage have to do with refusing to allow certain software on the phone? Any developer could trivially write an app for the iPhone that drained the battery as fast as possible. And apps can and have been written in Flash for the iPhone already - they just have to include the whole engine. The only difference there is Apple still gets a 30% cut.
I can't imagine call phones or networked computers are allowed for a sequestered jury anyway - but I think "sequestering" a jury is pretty rare - the state has to provide hotel accommodations and food to everyone in the jury, which is really expensive!
This seems to be about recommending that ALL jurors refrain from accessing these social networks, etc. But I can't see how it's practical outside of the courtroom or deliberation. They can "instruct" the jurors all they want not to go online for the length of the trial, but that's not going to stop too many people...
Yes, but that same 1% of the population with 10% risk also has a 75.8% risk of dying from measles, mumps, or a severely ingrown hangnail, and can in fact contract all of those from sunlight as well, so it's very dangerous and herd immunity does not apply.
And underdeveloped countries have significantly more dirt and fewer shoes, and as everyone knows lots of dirt and lack of shoes can cause autism.
Wow, this debate gets a LOT more fun when you stop bothering with provable facts. I can see people still keep it up! Thanks!
If everyone actually considered things *objectively*, by definition there wouldn't be loonies and this whole issue would not even be debated.
To be clear, the "0.1% chance of autism" was not based on anything more than the parent post, in which it was a made up figure as well. Personally I don't believe there is any link at all. I was just pointing out even if there was, vaccination is STILL worth it.
Oh and the reason there was only one reported death in the US in that time period is *because* MMR vaccination is so prevalent, of course - there were very few infections. You have to look at the percentages, not the absolute number. I think it's further proof of the effectiveness of the vaccine, and makes it even more clear cut, not less.
As a parent I can understand those that prefer to error on the side of caution, because even with 1000 to 1 odds against it happening that is still your kid that you are risking.
But anyone looking at the statistics would see that erring on the side of caution would be to get the vaccine. Those diseases can cause serious complications or death, and while there is no actual proof of the whole autism claim, there is overwhelming proof of the effectiveness of the vaccine in providing immunity.
Even starting with the premise that the vaccine does have a 0.1% chance of causing autism, measles has a mortality rate much higher than that, especially in undeveloped countries. And it is HIGHLY contagious.
It's not absurd, it's just an exaggeration. If I replaced the word "easy" with "capable" and "any" with "many" would that make you feel better? As in, it's as capable of tinkering as many computers, since it IS a computer, just of a very different form factor from what people are using - the point was it's a hell of a lot closer to a computer than a coffee maker.
Though I REALLY don't understand your tone here, I wasn't trying to trivialize the effort of people who hack around on the iPhone. The post that I replied to was NOT talking about writing silly apps OR tinkering, he was claiming that the iPhone should be thought of as an appliance and people should leave it alone, and you defended him!
Your overreaction to a few misplaced words (when I'm sure I would agree with you in general, and not with the OP) makes it look like you agree with the poster's assertion - that people should stop trying to use the iPhone as anything other than a basic appliance. Based on all of the projects you have worked on, I would think the opposite is true!
the iPad is an appliance. It's not a computer. Sure, it may have computer insides, but it's more like a router, or a digital guitar amplifier - something that's turned on and expected to do its job with little to no configuration necessary.
Seriously, how can you say that with a straight face? I think 150,000 currently available apps speak to the contrary. Not to mention Apple has just announced a spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation creator for the iPad - productivity tools, primarily for business use. Appliance? I'm sure Jobs would scream at anyone making that comparison...
You say "most of them are not fascinated by the inner workings" - as a percentage of people using computers daily, possibly not. As a percentage of total users, it's orders of magnitude higher. 15 years ago, building a custom PC from parts was almost unheard of in the mainstream; now there are literally thousands of websites, magazines, and entire companies catering to that market of millions of customers worldwide.
And as far as multitasking and battery usage goes - there is nothing inherently battery saving about running one "application" vs two. You are just regusgitating more Apple koolaid. It's up to the app(s) to work efficiently, and Apple doesn't prevent one app from using too many battery-draining resources. Why should two matter? You could run 10 IM clients (using one of the primary examples of useful multitasking on a smartphone) in the background with the minimal CPU they would consume, vs one video player.
Don't kid yourself that the iPhone is not multitasking anyway - it is. But only for Apple's apps. They didn't "improve" anything, they started with an artificial limitation, and never overcame it.
What's even more impressive is how often he uses Flash, to be complaining so much. Is Flash perfect, or even very good on a Mac? Maybe not. But that doesn't mean it's not still useful, and that Apple should be giving people a choice whether they want to enable it or not.
When I typed that I thought about it, and I realized - they do have the right to sell it (and at least it's pretty clear to whoever buys an iPhone that it's the case). However, it's also your right to hack it; if Apple ever starts trying to use the DMCA against jailbreakers then there will be a real problem...
Duration might be irrelevant in cooking a steak if your goal is to get it to a specific temperature, rather than actually make it taste good.
For many people (who enjoy steaks at least), the perfect steak is a slight char on the outside (which helps seal in the interior juices and serves to kill any bacteria) and fairly rare and juicy on the inside, just enough to melt the fats but not let them all drain out. This is best done by high heat for a short period, ie it's pretty hard to do when you cook the entire thing to the same tepid degree over a long time.
The iPad is an appliance. It is a coffee maker, microwave, or stove. It isn't designed or meant to be tinkered. Stop trying to make it a computer.
That's an absurd analogy. The iPhone or iPad is just as easy to tinker with as any computer. Apple themselves make that point all the time. It's just the distribution that Apple is limiting, and it has nothing to do with technical issues or applicances, it has to do with money and control.
And despite whatever bullshit excuse Jobs comes up with, that's the same reason Flash is not on the iPad/iPod. A free platform for rich application development would decimate their game sales. Reduces battery life? If that was a concern to them, they should have improved the 3G battery usage in their own software before whining about Flash. Crashing the OS? Flash has caused a lot fewer OS crashes on my computer than the basic email app on my iPhone.
Do they have the right to sell a closed platform? Sure. Does it show they are a long way from their roots as a hobbyist's platform and company? Absolutely.
I got basic CPR training (not certified, though) in high school health class, and that was 20 years ago. Do they not do that any more? I mean, this is a captive audience that was (in IL at least) required to take an idiotic class consisting mostly of information everyone already knows (and usually ignores), so might as well try to teach them something that's actually useful!
Wow, that has me thinking. Instead of taking an entire semester to try to explain sex to a class where half of the kids have already had it, and drugs to a class where half the kids have already tried them, what if they actually took the semester to teach basic EMT skills? We'd end up with the majority of the population actually able to deal with a lot of basic emergency situations. But no. The school would probably lose a lot of funding if they didn't make kids sit for an hour a day showing 8mm movies of Chachi getting high.
1) get it from the closest, best-peered server 2) not have to go through multiple DNS lookups and/or HTTP redirects to do that, as it would defeat the purpose
If a small, backwards compatible infrastructure change can provide significant aggregate performance improvements without requiring every TCP/IP application on the planet to be updated, I think it's at least worth considering.
Your comment doesn't address his CDN comment... and he's right, it could definitely help CDNs when trying to find the closest servers.
Example: your video streaming client requests the IP of a CDN's HTTP server to stream from. For whatever reason your primary DNS is not geographically close to you. The CDN's DNS server ends up sending back the IP of the closest server to your not-very-close primary DNS, which defeats the purpose of geographically distributed CDN servers.
Yes, the CDN could (and probably should) do things to prevent this, but not with a simple load balancer. It would need to do a geolocation check on your HTTP request, and redirect it to a closer server. But that whole process is of course less efficient than getting the right IP in the first place, and requires extra infrastructure, etc.
He's doing it perfectly if he wants to continue in obscurity.
I'm not in marketing, but even I have learned in my career that the overused adage "there's no such thing as bad publicity" is almost always true.
To be topical, look at the Apple announcement today. The product they announced was basically a larger version of something they have been selling for 3 years, and yet through absurd "shilling" they have already managed to convince a large segment of the population it's a heretofore unknown tablet created by a supernatural power and discovered by Moses in the desert.
Slashdot Mirror
Jeez, that sounded *really* cheesy, didn't it?! I guess I should have given an example instead.
One of my favorite gifts was a hand-painted didgeridoo that was just sitting in the front seat of my car one random day when I left work in the evening. The occasion? My girlfriend saw it at a consignment store, thought the orange snake painted on it looked exactly like my current pet, and recalled that I mentioned a year earlier that I thought didgeridoos were cool. Nothing like realizing someone pays enough attention to you to know what you like better than you know yourself.
I'd prefer that to "what do you want for your birthday this year?" every time. That's why we now celebrate "random gift when you don't expect it day" instead of Valentine's Day.
Have you tried it? If you spontaneously surprised her with something similar on any day other than Valentine's Day, I bet she would enjoy it even *more*.
Just like (to me at least) the best gift is not the one knew you were getting months in advance, it's the one that is perfect, but you didn't even know you wanted.
First.. I can't argue too much with the modding because you do keep confusing codecs with containers. Ogg is NOT a set of codecs, it's just a file format. Theora is a set of video codecs, and Vorbis is the audio codec. MKV is a different container, and H.264 is a common video codec used in that container. Divx is a bit more confusing because it can sometimes refer to both a container format and an *implementation* of MPEG4 pt2 or H.264 (aka MPEG4 pt 10). Anyway - the main point is there are video and audio codecs (essentially "elementary bitstreams") and file formats to contain those codecs along with information to sync the audio and video - understand the distinction and you have taken a big step ;)
But after all that, I think you make a very good point in there. H.264 will be THE standard video codec for the near future, because it is now almost universally supported by set-top and mobile chipsets. And beyond "Internet video", all of the major cable and satellite systems have spent the last several years converting their systems to use H.264 in their transport streams (another *container*!), so more than likely if you are watching anything other than a terrestrial ATSC channel (already soooo obsoleted!) it's H.264!
You mean so it's not all trolling ACs who consider it a "game" rather than "commenting"? Besides, why the hell should actually paying for a service NOT give a CUSTOMER some benefit?
Dumb example. Unplug your laptop and play any 3D game for half an hour, same result.
I never said Flash is efficient, just that it's an excuse, not a reason. What the hell does battery usage have to do with refusing to allow certain software on the phone? Any developer could trivially write an app for the iPhone that drained the battery as fast as possible. And apps can and have been written in Flash for the iPhone already - they just have to include the whole engine. The only difference there is Apple still gets a 30% cut.
I can't imagine call phones or networked computers are allowed for a sequestered jury anyway - but I think "sequestering" a jury is pretty rare - the state has to provide hotel accommodations and food to everyone in the jury, which is really expensive!
This seems to be about recommending that ALL jurors refrain from accessing these social networks, etc. But I can't see how it's practical outside of the courtroom or deliberation. They can "instruct" the jurors all they want not to go online for the length of the trial, but that's not going to stop too many people...
It's funny... I realized a while ago that in college I spent as much time as possible finding something to do other than learning as much as I could.
And now, my primary decision on taking a job is one that lets me learn new things, as is the focus of most of my hobbies and time outside of work.
Yes, but that same 1% of the population with 10% risk also has a 75.8% risk of dying from measles, mumps, or a severely ingrown hangnail, and can in fact contract all of those from sunlight as well, so it's very dangerous and herd immunity does not apply.
And underdeveloped countries have significantly more dirt and fewer shoes, and as everyone knows lots of dirt and lack of shoes can cause autism.
Wow, this debate gets a LOT more fun when you stop bothering with provable facts. I can see people still keep it up! Thanks!
If everyone actually considered things *objectively*, by definition there wouldn't be loonies and this whole issue would not even be debated.
To be clear, the "0.1% chance of autism" was not based on anything more than the parent post, in which it was a made up figure as well. Personally I don't believe there is any link at all. I was just pointing out even if there was, vaccination is STILL worth it.
Oh and the reason there was only one reported death in the US in that time period is *because* MMR vaccination is so prevalent, of course - there were very few infections. You have to look at the percentages, not the absolute number. I think it's further proof of the effectiveness of the vaccine, and makes it even more clear cut, not less.
As a parent I can understand those that prefer to error on the side of caution, because even with 1000 to 1 odds against it happening that is still your kid that you are risking.
But anyone looking at the statistics would see that erring on the side of caution would be to get the vaccine. Those diseases can cause serious complications or death, and while there is no actual proof of the whole autism claim, there is overwhelming proof of the effectiveness of the vaccine in providing immunity.
Even starting with the premise that the vaccine does have a 0.1% chance of causing autism, measles has a mortality rate much higher than that, especially in undeveloped countries. And it is HIGHLY contagious.
It's not absurd, it's just an exaggeration. If I replaced the word "easy" with "capable" and "any" with "many" would that make you feel better? As in, it's as capable of tinkering as many computers, since it IS a computer, just of a very different form factor from what people are using - the point was it's a hell of a lot closer to a computer than a coffee maker.
Though I REALLY don't understand your tone here, I wasn't trying to trivialize the effort of people who hack around on the iPhone. The post that I replied to was NOT talking about writing silly apps OR tinkering, he was claiming that the iPhone should be thought of as an appliance and people should leave it alone, and you defended him!
Your overreaction to a few misplaced words (when I'm sure I would agree with you in general, and not with the OP) makes it look like you agree with the poster's assertion - that people should stop trying to use the iPhone as anything other than a basic appliance. Based on all of the projects you have worked on, I would think the opposite is true!
Are you kidding? Garfield is more brilliantly insightful than ever. You just have to know how to read it.
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/
the iPad is an appliance. It's not a computer. Sure, it may have computer insides, but it's more like a router, or a digital guitar amplifier - something that's turned on and expected to do its job with little to no configuration necessary.
Seriously, how can you say that with a straight face? I think 150,000 currently available apps speak to the contrary. Not to mention Apple has just announced a spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation creator for the iPad - productivity tools, primarily for business use. Appliance? I'm sure Jobs would scream at anyone making that comparison...
You say "most of them are not fascinated by the inner workings" - as a percentage of people using computers daily, possibly not. As a percentage of total users, it's orders of magnitude higher. 15 years ago, building a custom PC from parts was almost unheard of in the mainstream; now there are literally thousands of websites, magazines, and entire companies catering to that market of millions of customers worldwide.
And as far as multitasking and battery usage goes - there is nothing inherently battery saving about running one "application" vs two. You are just regusgitating more Apple koolaid. It's up to the app(s) to work efficiently, and Apple doesn't prevent one app from using too many battery-draining resources. Why should two matter? You could run 10 IM clients (using one of the primary examples of useful multitasking on a smartphone) in the background with the minimal CPU they would consume, vs one video player.
Don't kid yourself that the iPhone is not multitasking anyway - it is. But only for Apple's apps. They didn't "improve" anything, they started with an artificial limitation, and never overcame it.
What's even more impressive is how often he uses Flash, to be complaining so much. Is Flash perfect, or even very good on a Mac? Maybe not. But that doesn't mean it's not still useful, and that Apple should be giving people a choice whether they want to enable it or not.
When I typed that I thought about it, and I realized - they do have the right to sell it (and at least it's pretty clear to whoever buys an iPhone that it's the case). However, it's also your right to hack it; if Apple ever starts trying to use the DMCA against jailbreakers then there will be a real problem...
Duration might be irrelevant in cooking a steak if your goal is to get it to a specific temperature, rather than actually make it taste good.
For many people (who enjoy steaks at least), the perfect steak is a slight char on the outside (which helps seal in the interior juices and serves to kill any bacteria) and fairly rare and juicy on the inside, just enough to melt the fats but not let them all drain out. This is best done by high heat for a short period, ie it's pretty hard to do when you cook the entire thing to the same tepid degree over a long time.
The iPad is an appliance. It is a coffee maker, microwave, or stove. It isn't designed or meant to be tinkered. Stop trying to make it a computer.
That's an absurd analogy. The iPhone or iPad is just as easy to tinker with as any computer. Apple themselves make that point all the time. It's just the distribution that Apple is limiting, and it has nothing to do with technical issues or applicances, it has to do with money and control.
And despite whatever bullshit excuse Jobs comes up with, that's the same reason Flash is not on the iPad/iPod. A free platform for rich application development would decimate their game sales. Reduces battery life? If that was a concern to them, they should have improved the 3G battery usage in their own software before whining about Flash. Crashing the OS? Flash has caused a lot fewer OS crashes on my computer than the basic email app on my iPhone.
Do they have the right to sell a closed platform? Sure. Does it show they are a long way from their roots as a hobbyist's platform and company? Absolutely.
And I thought the summary was sarcastically alluding to the fact that the actual monetary damages were more on the order of a couple bucks.
Forget that, I want to buy a P90!
And you make it sound so FUN!
Now I can't wait for iPad family game night, what a magical tradition that will be for the kids.
I got basic CPR training (not certified, though) in high school health class, and that was 20 years ago. Do they not do that any more? I mean, this is a captive audience that was (in IL at least) required to take an idiotic class consisting mostly of information everyone already knows (and usually ignores), so might as well try to teach them something that's actually useful!
Wow, that has me thinking. Instead of taking an entire semester to try to explain sex to a class where half of the kids have already had it, and drugs to a class where half the kids have already tried them, what if they actually took the semester to teach basic EMT skills? We'd end up with the majority of the population actually able to deal with a lot of basic emergency situations. But no. The school would probably lose a lot of funding if they didn't make kids sit for an hour a day showing 8mm movies of Chachi getting high.
Unfortunately, that is not how web browsers or nearly any other network applications work or will work any time soon.
If I request http://image.randomcdn.com/bigassimage.jpg I'd prefer to:
1) get it from the closest, best-peered server
2) not have to go through multiple DNS lookups and/or HTTP redirects to do that, as it would defeat the purpose
If a small, backwards compatible infrastructure change can provide significant aggregate performance improvements without requiring every TCP/IP application on the planet to be updated, I think it's at least worth considering.
Your comment doesn't address his CDN comment... and he's right, it could definitely help CDNs when trying to find the closest servers.
Example: your video streaming client requests the IP of a CDN's HTTP server to stream from. For whatever reason your primary DNS is not geographically close to you. The CDN's DNS server ends up sending back the IP of the closest server to your not-very-close primary DNS, which defeats the purpose of geographically distributed CDN servers.
Yes, the CDN could (and probably should) do things to prevent this, but not with a simple load balancer. It would need to do a geolocation check on your HTTP request, and redirect it to a closer server. But that whole process is of course less efficient than getting the right IP in the first place, and requires extra infrastructure, etc.
He's doing it perfectly if he wants to continue in obscurity.
I'm not in marketing, but even I have learned in my career that the overused adage "there's no such thing as bad publicity" is almost always true.
To be topical, look at the Apple announcement today. The product they announced was basically a larger version of something they have been selling for 3 years, and yet through absurd "shilling" they have already managed to convince a large segment of the population it's a heretofore unknown tablet created by a supernatural power and discovered by Moses in the desert.
It's not a joke, it's just more proof of who the lawyers are really working with...