It's difficult to do fully double-blind tests, because many people who are interested in this kind of structured testing can identify a particular format by the type of artifacts it produces. Having said that here is a pretty rigorous test of a number of formats. Mp3pro comes out top, ogg a very close second, with aac and wma trailing. This only covered 64kpbs samples.
Note that mp3 wasn't even included - pretty much everyone interested in the topic already knows that mp3 doesn't match up to the best formats such as ogg or mpc (probably not even wma), so there's not a lot of point testing it. It's only use is its wide-ranging hardware compatibility (a good use, mind you:) )
Two points. First, they don't ask what football team I support. I know as many people who are influenced by football as are influenced by religion, and football is a demonstrably extant phenomenon - I know team X exists, I don't know that deity Y does. So why not tackle sports, TV affiliation (a far greater influence), advertising/product choices, or millions of other things that are based in what governments are presumed to be interested in, demonstrable reality?
Second, I see no problem with respecting people while thinking some of their beliefs ludicrous. I had a physics teacher who's mother was always careful to switch plug sockets off when not in use, because otherwise the electricity would run out onto the floor. Ludicrous! But he respected her (as well as loving her of course). I have many religions and agnostic/atheistic friends. I've discussed religion with them, studied all manner of religions it at length throughout my time at school (including 3 years at a church-supported school). I respect my friends, and respect their opinions/beliefs. I can see why they would 'choose' to believe in them. I can see the supporting logic for such beliefs. I just think their views are totally wrong-headed.
Let me clarify - I don't mind the question, it's limiting the answers that I object to. They could ask me which colour was the tallest, but if I choose to answer 'aardvark' I shouldn't be punished for it.
I don't believe in a deity. I respect people who do because I'm a respectful person, but I think their views are ludicrous. Asking my religion (optionally or not) is like asking me what type of dragons I believe in - it's not that I happen not to believe, I don't believe because there's nothing to believe in. (pauses for response from the Draco-Human Anti-Defamation League)
So if asked a bizarre question about religion, dragons or anything else, I'd feel perfectly entitled to put a bizarre answer. Cargo cults believed that planes were linked to God, why shouldn't I think a film is?
Among all the haiku/senryu here, a couple of points from the article were missed.
1. You need to verify that "the e-mail is sent to only one recipient" to use the system. So I can't send a mail to my father and brother with this system's protection? (Ignoring the fact that the next 'promise' is "verified permission from each recipient" - each? It's only going to one person!)
2. "businesses and bulk e-mail companies will pay to use it" So it doesn't stop spam, it just helps someone else make money from it by making it more likely to get through to me. Perfect.
Re:WTF. It's 5/7/5, people.
on
Haiku vs Spam
·
· Score: 1
We aim but we miss Slashdot readers try haiku But make senryu
"He rightly decries the ability of America to impose censorship on the net, then calls for the ability to enforce local laws restricting access to objectionable information on the net in the next sentence"
I suspect many people think that censorship isn't a bad thing, so long as they have some control over the censors. I'm happy for my duly elected government to block access to certain types of material, I just don't want your duly elected government to do it.
Over the 25+ years I've been goiung to dentists I've watched with interest as new treatment methods have been introduced. My interest has been based on the fact that, despite all the interesting developments shown on TV's Tomorrow's World (UK) or the US equivalent, NOTHING HAS CHANGED! I get a painful injection, some distressing drilling, and a heavy metal patch applied to my tooth.
I moved from the UK to the US 3 years ago, and it's the same here (only it costs more).
What you may have missed in this is that DVDs aren't the only source of revenue from that 'intellectual property' (euch!)
When a DVD is released the makers have already made some or all of their investment back in theatrical release, and hopefully some profit. So aside from the HBO 'Making Of' advertorial, and sundry other (relatively) cheap but worth while bonus features, anything money that comes in from the DVD is profit.
Compare this to a CD, which is essentially the only version of that product, and therefore the only revenue source. There was no 'theatrical release' to make some profits from, so they have to price accordingly.
Obviously they're still an astonishing rip-off, just qualifying part of that...
Don't worry about the 15 or 60 days - there's no official limit. Once your visa expires you are 'out of status' which means you can't then work again. But it's not a deportable offense, so as long as you can live on no money you can stay as long as you want. Not that I'm suggesting the system is full of stupid loopholes and inconsistencies.
One of the central themes was that Big Brother controlled the truth. The government could change history, so whatever they said happened actually happened. An example of this would be changing the title of a book to make it seem like a past threat was actually a future threat.
I'd go so far as to say that if you didn't get this from the book, you didn't really read the book.
But that is perfectly possible - Just put a bigger generator in there than you need, and connect it up to your house. Not necessarily a good idea, but possible.
Warning: IANAABMDI (I am not an American, but my daughter is)
Once my daughter is old enough to go to school I figure I'll train her to recite one of two alternate versions:
"I've been forced to pledge allegiance to the flag..."
or
"One Nation, under Satan,..."
Don't get me wrong, I'll make sure she loves her country (and her parent's country). But she doesn't _need_ to worship someone else's God, and she doesn't _need_ to recite prose to be a patriot. As the always wise:) Jessie Ventura said when discussing a bill in Minnesota that would have made the pledge required (with an opt-out)
{paraphrase} "What problem are we solving here? After Sept 11th is there a shortage of patriotism?" {/paraphrase}
The problem here is that, putting modest aside, I think my 17 month old daughter could pick one successful release in 10. Now take out of that the sure-fire hits from the big artists, and we're probably down to 1 in 20 or worse. I think the paperclip on my desk could approach that success rate if I dropped it on a printout of potential releases. And my paperclip hasn't had 50 years to work out the best way of doing this.
So, millions of dollars going to the RIAA companies, or my paperclip. Hmm...
What the researchers seem to have missed is that the "long-term hospital patients confined to their beds" are, erm, already doing this. This is like paying people to live in a warm climate to see how they cope with it - just go to Texas!
Incidentally, I was confined to bed for a year, and what it got me was fat (I weighed the same at 7 years old as I did at 18!) better read (nothing else to do) and unable to walk properly for several weeks afterwards. Can I have my $20,000 please?
True, except that the average dollar bill only last for 12-18 months, and even 20s don't go for much longer. That's why the govt is pushing for a dollar coin to be introduced, as it would save printing and distribution costs in the long run
I checked out Minnesota Public Radio's policy - they let you link, but you can't pass it off as your own (fair enough) and you can't use their logos or any such identifiers (i.e. text only). So I can rip off their content, so long as I discreetly credit them but don't advertise them?
The same law applies to IT departments. First IT is centralised to get all the experts synergizing. Then they go out to the business units to be closer to the customer. Then back to a core expert group, out to the customer...
I think of it as a huge pulsating blob that exists only to let successive IT managers justify their existence.
In reading the discussion there seems a lot of confusion about how companies will limit access. They have two options open to them (assuming they're going to do _something_):
1. Charge a set of flat rates, depending on either bandwidth or total traffic (like some US local phone service) 2. Include some element of pay-per-byte, perhaps after an initial included element is used up (like cell-phones)
What seems to be suggested in the article is option 1 - I pay $X to get 256kbps connection, and $2X to get 512kbps. Or depending on the model, I get 5GB per month for $X, 10GB for $2X.
This method shouldnt't significantly discourage the average user from using cable. The marginal cost of doing something is zero, as I've already paid my $X for the month. If the limits imposed inconvenience me I can always pay $2X, and once again the marginal cost of a byte becomes zero.
It's only option 2 that causes issues - do I really want to see the Matrix trailer now that my free bytes are used up?
Either option works in limiting usage, but option 1 is easier to implement, easier for the customer to understand, and ultimately probably squeezes more money out of us. Personally I'd love it if I could get 128kbps for $25 per month. Plenty fast enough for my use, and not much more than dial-up!
Cheers, Paul ---- .sig created manually - automation scares me
I used to work for a credit referencing agency, and one of their desktop programs was installed from 7 floppies, and cost around $400k, so about $40 per byte.
Made me nervous when I accidentaly took an installation set home one day, though I'm not sure a mugger could have made full use of it...
Slashdot Mirror
It's difficult to do fully double-blind tests, because many people who are interested in this kind of structured testing can identify a particular format by the type of artifacts it produces. Having said that here is a pretty rigorous test of a number of formats. Mp3pro comes out top, ogg a very close second, with aac and wma trailing. This only covered 64kpbs samples.
:) )
Note that mp3 wasn't even included - pretty much everyone interested in the topic already knows that mp3 doesn't match up to the best formats such as ogg or mpc (probably not even wma), so there's not a lot of point testing it. It's only use is its wide-ranging hardware compatibility (a good use, mind you
Oh, and mp3 isn't free, the cost is just hidden.
Cheers, Paul
Two points. First, they don't ask what football team I support. I know as many people who are influenced by football as are influenced by religion, and football is a demonstrably extant phenomenon - I know team X exists, I don't know that deity Y does. So why not tackle sports, TV affiliation (a far greater influence), advertising/product choices, or millions of other things that are based in what governments are presumed to be interested in, demonstrable reality?
Second, I see no problem with respecting people while thinking some of their beliefs ludicrous. I had a physics teacher who's mother was always careful to switch plug sockets off when not in use, because otherwise the electricity would run out onto the floor. Ludicrous! But he respected her (as well as loving her of course). I have many religions and agnostic/atheistic friends. I've discussed religion with them, studied all manner of religions it at length throughout my time at school (including 3 years at a church-supported school). I respect my friends, and respect their opinions/beliefs. I can see why they would 'choose' to believe in them. I can see the supporting logic for such beliefs. I just think their views are totally wrong-headed.
Let me clarify - I don't mind the question, it's limiting the answers that I object to. They could ask me which colour was the tallest, but if I choose to answer 'aardvark' I shouldn't be punished for it.
I don't believe in a deity. I respect people who do because I'm a respectful person, but I think their views are ludicrous. Asking my religion (optionally or not) is like asking me what type of dragons I believe in - it's not that I happen not to believe, I don't believe because there's nothing to believe in. (pauses for response from the Draco-Human Anti-Defamation League)
So if asked a bizarre question about religion, dragons or anything else, I'd feel perfectly entitled to put a bizarre answer. Cargo cults believed that planes were linked to God, why shouldn't I think a film is?
Among all the haiku/senryu here, a couple of points from the article were missed.
1. You need to verify that "the e-mail is sent to only one recipient" to use the system. So I can't send a mail to my father and brother with this system's protection? (Ignoring the fact that the next 'promise' is "verified permission from each recipient" - each? It's only going to one person!)
2. "businesses and bulk e-mail companies will pay to use it" So it doesn't stop spam, it just helps someone else make money from it by making it more likely to get through to me. Perfect.
We aim but we miss
Slashdot readers try haiku
But make senryu
Cool - now I can be hundreds of miles away and still be able to tell when my expensive free-range lawnmower is being stolen.
"He rightly decries the ability of America to impose censorship on the net, then calls for the ability to enforce local laws restricting access to objectionable information on the net in the next sentence"
I suspect many people think that censorship isn't a bad thing, so long as they have some control over the censors. I'm happy for my duly elected government to block access to certain types of material, I just don't want your duly elected government to do it.
Over the 25+ years I've been goiung to dentists I've watched with interest as new treatment methods have been introduced. My interest has been based on the fact that, despite all the interesting developments shown on TV's Tomorrow's World (UK) or the US equivalent, NOTHING HAS CHANGED! I get a painful injection, some distressing drilling, and a heavy metal patch applied to my tooth.
I moved from the UK to the US 3 years ago, and it's the same here (only it costs more).
What you may have missed in this is that DVDs aren't the only source of revenue from that 'intellectual property' (euch!)
When a DVD is released the makers have already made some or all of their investment back in theatrical release, and hopefully some profit. So aside from the HBO 'Making Of' advertorial, and sundry other (relatively) cheap but worth while bonus features, anything money that comes in from the DVD is profit.
Compare this to a CD, which is essentially the only version of that product, and therefore the only revenue source. There was no 'theatrical release' to make some profits from, so they have to price accordingly.
Obviously they're still an astonishing rip-off, just qualifying part of that...
Don't worry about the 15 or 60 days - there's no official limit. Once your visa expires you are 'out of status' which means you can't then work again. But it's not a deportable offense, so as long as you can live on no money you can stay as long as you want. Not that I'm suggesting the system is full of stupid loopholes and inconsistencies.
Cheers, Paul
From the linked page:
"Of course you will find the latest & greatest versions of the main packages, including:
kernel 2.4.19 RC1
*
XFree86 4.2, which supports many video cards previously only supported in 3.3.6
glibc 2.2.5..."
The Kernel, XFree etc. are cool, but it also includes * Not even limited to *.rpm! That's a *seriously big* installation!
One of the central themes was that Big Brother controlled the truth. The government could change history, so whatever they said happened actually happened. An example of this would be changing the title of a book to make it seem like a past threat was actually a future threat.
I'd go so far as to say that if you didn't get this from the book, you didn't really read the book.
Dude, did he just say turd?
{smirk}
Actually the article is suggesting just this:
"It will generate more electricity than it uses"
But that is perfectly possible - Just put a bigger generator in there than you need, and connect it up to your house. Not necessarily a good idea, but possible.
It's simple really - football is a game played with feet, whereas American football is a game played with Americans.
Warning: IANAABMDI (I am not an American, but my daughter is)
..."
:) Jessie Ventura said when discussing a bill in Minnesota that would have made the pledge required (with an opt-out)
Once my daughter is old enough to go to school I figure I'll train her to recite one of two alternate versions:
"I've been forced to pledge allegiance to the flag..."
or
"One Nation, under Satan,
Don't get me wrong, I'll make sure she loves her country (and her parent's country). But she doesn't _need_ to worship someone else's God, and she doesn't _need_ to recite prose to be a patriot. As the always wise
{paraphrase}
"What problem are we solving here? After Sept 11th is there a shortage of patriotism?"
{/paraphrase}
The problem here is that, putting modest aside, I think my 17 month old daughter could pick one successful release in 10. Now take out of that the sure-fire hits from the big artists, and we're probably down to 1 in 20 or worse. I think the paperclip on my desk could approach that success rate if I dropped it on a printout of potential releases. And my paperclip hasn't had 50 years to work out the best way of doing this.
So, millions of dollars going to the RIAA companies, or my paperclip. Hmm...
What the researchers seem to have missed is that the "long-term hospital patients confined to their beds" are, erm, already doing this. This is like paying people to live in a warm climate to see how they cope with it - just go to Texas!
Incidentally, I was confined to bed for a year, and what it got me was fat (I weighed the same at 7 years old as I did at 18!) better read (nothing else to do) and unable to walk properly for several weeks afterwards. Can I have my $20,000 please?
"I can still type faster than I can talk -- in an intelligible manner."
No, you can type faster than your PC can understand you talking. For now.
True, except that the average dollar bill only last for 12-18 months, and even 20s don't go for much longer. That's why the govt is pushing for a dollar coin to be introduced, as it would save printing and distribution costs in the long run
I checked out Minnesota Public Radio's policy - they let you link, but you can't pass it off as your own (fair enough) and you can't use their logos or any such identifiers (i.e. text only). So I can rip off their content, so long as I discreetly credit them but don't advertise them?
The same law applies to IT departments. First IT is centralised to get all the experts synergizing. Then they go out to the business units to be closer to the customer. Then back to a core expert group, out to the customer...
I think of it as a huge pulsating blob that exists only to let successive IT managers justify their existence.
In reading the discussion there seems a lot of confusion about how companies will limit access. They have two options open to them (assuming they're going to do _something_):
1. Charge a set of flat rates, depending on either bandwidth or total traffic (like some US local phone service)
2. Include some element of pay-per-byte, perhaps after an initial included element is used up (like cell-phones)
What seems to be suggested in the article is option 1 - I pay $X to get 256kbps connection, and $2X to get 512kbps. Or depending on the model, I get 5GB per month for $X, 10GB for $2X.
This method shouldnt't significantly discourage the average user from using cable. The marginal cost of doing something is zero, as I've already paid my $X for the month. If the limits imposed inconvenience me I can always pay $2X, and once again the marginal cost of a byte becomes zero.
It's only option 2 that causes issues - do I really want to see the Matrix trailer now that my free bytes are used up?
Either option works in limiting usage, but option 1 is easier to implement, easier for the customer to understand, and ultimately probably squeezes more money out of us. Personally I'd love it if I could get 128kbps for $25 per month. Plenty fast enough for my use, and not much more than dial-up!
Cheers, Paul
----
.sig created manually - automation scares me
I used to work for a credit referencing agency, and one of their desktop programs was installed from 7 floppies, and cost around $400k, so about $40 per byte.
Made me nervous when I accidentaly took an installation set home one day, though I'm not sure a mugger could have made full use of it...