Imagine a world where it takes up to a minute just to pry a book open, and what's more, you need the right pair of glasses to read the book depending on who published it. Maybe you have a favorite pair of reading glasses you'd rather use, but no, you have to use that publisher's glasses or nothing. Oh, and you may have to use a smart card just to crack the cover on the book, because heaven forbid you should ever loan it to a friend.
Vonage customers who are developers can make use of a feature called Third Party Call Control to roll their own click-to-call service to let anyone ring their Vonage line.
An e-mail tip led me to a Web page that identifies the mystery recording device as an IBM 6:5 dictation machine. According to an anecdote on this page, they have probably been around as early as 1974 (maybe earlier?).
Excellent suggestion. I found their informational charts, but alas, this disc is not described in there. But I'll try to get in touch with them anyway.
I like this: "If we don't have the equipment necessary we will either obtain it or our trained engineers will construct a machine that will be able to do the job." Dang, think that'll bump up the cost a bit?;-)
Long overdue, I know: a photo of the mystery disc. As I said, it looks very much like the inner portion of an ordinary floppy disk. But we're told it's about 20 years old.
Yes. Indeed it is dictation of some kind. I think we've already consulted Dictaphone to no avail (but I will have to double-check that). You also suggest "a museum or broker of 'antique' electronic gear", and I can think of a local electronics recycler who might fit the bill. Thanks for your suggestions.
You have come closer than anyone (on or off Slashdot) to hitting the nail on the head. Indeed this is voice dictation we're looking at. But not even the people who sent us the disc know anything about this medium or how to play it; I guess it came from pretty deep in their archives. Can you remember anything else about the machine you had? (brand, model, etc.?)
I definitely remember that. I thought I was the only one.
I always wanted to see someone re-implement that game but make it possible to program the robots in real-world languages. Then the next time someone says, "Well, I think Perl/Python/Ruby/Scheme/Tcl is better than..." they can have their virtual robots square off against each other. Might cut down on the mailing-list bickering.:-)
Anyway... While NER0 sounds to me like a huge (and welcome) evolution from Robot Wars, it does seem a bit presumptuous to call it a brand new genre.
I was intrigued by your remark about Project Pluto: "Okay, the actual design of this one was a little scary." So I had to look it up. Talk about understatements. If any of these technologies deserved to be "buried and forgotten," surely this one did.
I enjoy this little nugget:
Once powered up, the unshielded half-gigawatt nuclear reactor would emit highly lethal radiation in a large radius; such a vehicle could not possibly be human-piloted or reused. Indeed, some questioned whether a cruise missile derived from Project Pluto would need a warhead at all; the radiation from its engine, coupled with the shock wave that would be produced by flying at Mach 3 at treetop level, would have left a wide path of destruction wherever it went.
I know these options exist now (and thank god for that). The point I wanted to make was that this sort of control was built into the earliest graphical browsers before there were such things as style sheets and plugins. I seem to remember you could bring up NCSA Mosaic's preferences and specify exactly how you wanted H1, H2, etc., to look. But then browsers stopped giving users this kind of power. Then it came back as if it was some sort of new enlightened thing. At least this is my recollection.
"...it shifts the balance of power from content creators to content consumers."
Shouldn't that be back to content consumers? Am I mis-remembering, or wasn't there once a time when Web browsers had built-in functionality to actually let users customize how certain tags got rendered in the browser window (fonts, colors, etc.)?
Man, I loved that thing. Okay, so it was a glorified 8-track tape player. But it was very weird and silly and, well, sort of educational, I guess. And, as an extra-spiffy hack, it could even be rigged to play a simple strategy game.
IANAL. I don't know about laws for virtual real estate, but there are laws about gambling. In general, any kind of entertainment where you win or lose real money based on the outcome of a game is considered gambling, yes? Perhaps they had the good sense to locate the servers on a real island, though.;-)
I like the idea of an active address book like this. But PlanetAll, the first Web site I know of that tried it, folded years ago, and now OneName just filed for bankruptcy. What makes these guys think they can make the idea stick this time around?
If you're the pioneer of something, and then your market share slips, how does that revoke your "pioneership"? Either you were the first to do something, or you weren't.
Slashdot Mirror
Imagine a world where it takes up to a minute just to pry a book open, and what's more, you need the right pair of glasses to read the book depending on who published it. Maybe you have a favorite pair of reading glasses you'd rather use, but no, you have to use that publisher's glasses or nothing. Oh, and you may have to use a smart card just to crack the cover on the book, because heaven forbid you should ever loan it to a friend.
Vonage customers who are developers can make use of a feature called Third Party Call Control to roll their own click-to-call service to let anyone ring their Vonage line.
...I want to know what makes Peerflix better than MediaChest.
"I'm seriously considering a change in profession."
Cool. Do you live in San Diego? I'd be more than happy to take your job off your hands.
If it worries you that much, run it on a laptop charged with photovoltaics or something.
"...many people, like me, will find the home viewing experience wins."
Unless of course they don't have the disposable income required for a quality home theater system.
An e-mail tip led me to a Web page that identifies the mystery recording device as an IBM 6:5 dictation machine. According to an anecdote on this page, they have probably been around as early as 1974 (maybe earlier?).
Thanks to all who provided input.
Excellent suggestion. I found their informational charts, but alas, this disc is not described in there. But I'll try to get in touch with them anyway.
;-)
I like this: "If we don't have the equipment necessary we will either obtain it or our trained engineers will construct a machine that will be able to do the job." Dang, think that'll bump up the cost a bit?
Long overdue, I know: a photo of the mystery disc. As I said, it looks very much like the inner portion of an ordinary floppy disk. But we're told it's about 20 years old.
Yes. Indeed it is dictation of some kind. I think we've already consulted Dictaphone to no avail (but I will have to double-check that). You also suggest "a museum or broker of 'antique' electronic gear", and I can think of a local electronics recycler who might fit the bill. Thanks for your suggestions.
You have come closer than anyone (on or off Slashdot) to hitting the nail on the head. Indeed this is voice dictation we're looking at. But not even the people who sent us the disc know anything about this medium or how to play it; I guess it came from pretty deep in their archives. Can you remember anything else about the machine you had? (brand, model, etc.?)
I definitely remember that. I thought I was the only one.
:-)
I always wanted to see someone re-implement that game but make it possible to program the robots in real-world languages. Then the next time someone says, "Well, I think Perl/Python/Ruby/Scheme/Tcl is better than..." they can have their virtual robots square off against each other. Might cut down on the mailing-list bickering.
Anyway... While NER0 sounds to me like a huge (and welcome) evolution from Robot Wars, it does seem a bit presumptuous to call it a brand new genre.
I was intrigued by your remark about Project Pluto: "Okay, the actual design of this one was a little scary." So I had to look it up. Talk about understatements. If any of these technologies deserved to be "buried and forgotten," surely this one did.
I enjoy this little nugget:
I know these options exist now (and thank god for that). The point I wanted to make was that this sort of control was built into the earliest graphical browsers before there were such things as style sheets and plugins. I seem to remember you could bring up NCSA Mosaic's preferences and specify exactly how you wanted H1, H2, etc., to look. But then browsers stopped giving users this kind of power. Then it came back as if it was some sort of new enlightened thing. At least this is my recollection.
"...it shifts the balance of power from content creators to content consumers."
Shouldn't that be back to content consumers? Am I mis-remembering, or wasn't there once a time when Web browsers had built-in functionality to actually let users customize how certain tags got rendered in the browser window (fonts, colors, etc.)?
An impact would probably throw enough material up into the atmosphere that we wouldn't have to worry about global warming for a good long while.
Man, I loved that thing. Okay, so it was a glorified 8-track tape player. But it was very weird and silly and, well, sort of educational, I guess. And, as an extra-spiffy hack, it could even be rigged to play a simple strategy game.
Well, at least Merlin made the list...
So the issue is whether people can link to a fixed revision of a Wikipedia article? Seems already possible to me.
IANAL. I don't know about laws for virtual real estate, but there are laws about gambling. In general, any kind of entertainment where you win or lose real money based on the outcome of a game is considered gambling, yes? Perhaps they had the good sense to locate the servers on a real island, though. ;-)
So people will be able to get loopy on this beer, but the caffeine will make it feel like they're not getting loopy...?
I see more drunk-driving incidents ahead. What say you all?
And I'm an NPR fan. Just what I need, more ads for Viagra and Sleep Number beds.
I like the idea of an active address book like this. But PlanetAll, the first Web site I know of that tried it, folded years ago, and now OneName just filed for bankruptcy. What makes these guys think they can make the idea stick this time around?
Wow, after all these years, people are reading Time again?
Perhaps, in RSS, we are finally finding realization of all of that "push" hype put forth long ago?
If you're the pioneer of something, and then your market share slips, how does that revoke your "pioneership"? Either you were the first to do something, or you weren't.