An example: I was a front-end developer for the Wall Street Journal five years ago. The home page was a shifting multi-column stack of dozens of internal content modules (developed by different programmers) that had no awareness of each other (also often the case with the programmers), along with dynamic ads and an astounding amount of additional crud that included externally-sourced content like spammy Taboola and Outbrain links. To conserve bandwidth, the module containers triggered just-in-time content loading when the user scrolled down to within a certain number of pixels. There was effectively no way for any part of the page to know the position of any other part. Sure, I declared the sizes for images within my module, but it had no effect on the rest of the page.
Power issue or not, the lack of FireWire now officially makes the portable consumer-level Mac incompatible with the standard DV camera interface. I guess Steve really is pushing those memory-card HD cameras.
If you want to cancel your Vonage account without getting a runaround, call their customer service number and (once you get through to a human) say that you're moving right now and you don't have broadband in your new location. They can't escalate that issue -- they can't offer free months of service to coax you to stay; they can't put you through multiple tiers of tech support to try to resolve a service problem. Their customer-service issue tracking system considers "Moving - No Broadband" a dead end. Just...trust me on this one.
Don't tell them where you're "moving" to; that's your own private information. If you give a location, they'll try to find you a new broadband provider. Just say there's no broadband where you're going. End of story. Account canceled.
Regarding the final price, sniping only works if there are non-rational bidders.
Well stated, Mr./Ms. Coward. Incremental bidders (those who don't understand eBay's proxy bidding) are the reason sniping works best. If people were to actually read and follow eBay's instructions -- which are not exactly hidden -- they'd enter their maximum as soon as they made the decision to bid. Many eBay users apparently just don't understand that when you enter your "Maximum Bid," it's not the same as yelling out a price at a real-world auction. It doesn't necessarily raise the current bid to that level; it just tells the system how high to bid if someone else tries to raise near that amount. The system automatically executes incremental bids on your behalf. Doing it yourself is a waste of effort!
It's amusing to look at eBay item bidding histories and see how, for instance, one person entered eleven bids in a row, trying to notch up the price juuuuust a little more, only to discover on the first ten tries that someone else's proxy bid automatically topped them. I wonder what's going through their mind: Curses! Every time I raise the bid, this sonofabitch is right on top of me, out-bidding me a nanosecond later!
I always snipe, because there are always incremental bidders around. Sniping doesn't pull an end-run around anyone who entered a larger proxy bid; it just avoids the...hmm...yes, I think I can justifiably say clueless others who try to chip away instead of following directions. (And with that cluelessness sometimes comes a truckload of indignation. My wife, another veteran sniper, has gotten such nasty emails from other bidders -- "That was totally unfair...I'm reporting you to eBay...You'd better not do that again, because I'm watching you...")
Which site was it that implemented an automatic 10-minute extension after each last-minute bid? Yahoo? Amazon? That's a seller's dream -- sniping is impossible, so everybody gets to duke it out until they're tired. Buyer's nightmare, though, so I stayed away from those.
Many love it, but the complaints are real
on
Vonage IPO
·
· Score: 1
1. Vonage does not require contracts
See their Terms of Service. See Section 2.1 for their termination fee. There's an implicit 12-month contract.
2. Myth: Vonage has lost of dropped calls or calls that do not connect. This is false. If you do experience these problems, then it is likly cause by a problem with A: Your network set up. B: Your cable line.
No, not false. Many subscribers have no problems at all, but many do -- so commonly that one has to question the maturity of the technology. Vonage service is marketed as a replacement for a POTS line, and it's nowhere near as reliable. More on that in a moment...
3. Myth: The call quality is horrible. Again, I have had Vonage for over a year. People cannot tell I use VOIP.
I worked for Vonage for longer than that. I could tell I used VoIP. I got a Vonage box at home (but didn't transfer my POTS line: wanted to be sure of emergency calling capability if the power grid went down). I returned it after months of face-to-face discussions with the top tier of tech support, service reconfigurations, equipment replacements -- and multiple service visits from my cable company -- failed to clear up my line quality issues.
Vonage couldn't even keep their internal IP phone system up all the time, and it randomly (or not-so-randomly) featured echo, noise, failure to connect calls, dead connections...that's got to tell you something.
Then again, a friend of mine has had a Vonage line in his house for at least a year now and is delighted with it. Absolutely, 100% satisfied. Sounds just like POTS when I talk with him.
My point being that Joe Consumer (or even Joe Slashdot) can't rely on plugging it in and having it work right. It really seems to be hit-or-miss. But it's marketed as a replacement phone line. In my opinion, the technology is still too immature to merit that claim. It can't adequately (much less automatically) handle sub-optimal conditions.
When the technology is smart enough, if Vonage stays as big as they are, they might have the upper hand (with exclusive deals with the phone adapter manufacturers) and really-and-for-true "lead the Internet phone revolution" in getting better technology -- and better service -- to market first. That might be worth investing in.
> I can't wait for them to discover that humans started their migration 5,000 years ago when they were chased out of eden by the dinosaurs.
You're on to them! They were going to use the DNA to backtrace the migration and find the flaming sword, which they will sell on ebay for a pretty penny.
Dinosaurs with a flaming sword? Oh man, how did I miss it...those Saturday morning shows were documentaries...
2/3 the size of existing formats? Do we need this? We're already in danger of accidentally inhaling these things or losing them between the ridges of our fingerprints. Jeez, I must have a terabyte lodged in various spots, slowly sloughing off with the dust.
The traveling matte compositing in the original films didn't look like other space films of the time [...] the only difference is that digital compositing allows more elements to be blended together.
And it isolates the elements more cleanly than the handmade mattes did, especially in space scenes. Some of the old matte-composited footage that was beautiful in the theater looks dreadful on a good TV -- from the difference in black levels, you can see the outer edges of the mattes.
...watching how spfx were done before computers would really be exciting to see again.
Before computers? Before realistic computer graphics, you mean. The motion-controlled miniature-effects cameras were mind-blowing new technology, and they certainly were operated by computer programs -- they could run the camera through precisely the same motion sequence, take after take, to photograph different elements in a shot to be composited later.
I certainly remember the "Making of" specials, and I'm dying to see them again. Hell, they may be the only reason I'll buy the IV-VI trilogy set when it comes out...I'd be more enthusiastic if I knew Greedo wasn't going to fire first.
I already have one, its a set of speakers on my desktop. Everytime a cellphone gets a call/text i get a:
dicky-dick-dicky-dick-dicky-diiiiiick
Yeah, me too, but it's not only during a call or text. Apparently, my phone (a Nokia 6340i on Cingular) periodically contacts the network -- either it's auto-setting its clock or just checking in with Big Brother. For a while, at first, I had no idea why I was hearing these weird little chirps from my speakers, until I noticed they also happened right before I received a call.
Writing as someone who uses his iPod in the dock 99% of the time, I like the 3g touch buttons much more than the 1g hard buttons. I don't have to put my hand behind the iPod to push a button and having the click sound on gives me all the feedback I need.
Writing as someone who uses his iPod in his car or his pocket 80% of the time (and on a desk the other 20%), I can't tell you how frustrated I am that the 3G design isn't conducive to eyes-free use. The touch buttons are great if the iPod is sitting in front of you and you can hand-eye your finger to the target, sure -- but if you can't reasonably divert your attention and stare at the thing long enough to find the right button and touch it with the correct pressure, it's a mess. If you can't look at it, you have to divert even more attention to feeling around on the 3G iPod, because if you lay your finger in the wrong spot, you're going to unintentionally hit a button. Tactile buttons are necessary when you can't focus on the gadget.
I got my iPod the same day a friend got her iPod mini (on mini launch day, in fact), and the moment I held the mini, I knew the click wheel was going to be on the next iPod revision. This is what the iPod should have been from the beginning.
Well...actually, the mini is the perfect size. Until higher-capacity storage shrinks that far, the 4G iPod is as perfect as it gets.
Seriously, Jackson has set a huge standard for himself here. He has the three movies that progressively got better, ending in a movie that won 11 awards.
Industry observers have said that the Academy waited for RotK so they could effectively give the Oscars to the entire trilogy. All three movies won those awards.
The progressive quality of the series demonstrates Jackson's sense of pacing. Jackson already has it over Lucas in this department: The original Star Wars trilogy started off strong and improved in the second installment (under another director's hand, it's well worth noting), but the third movie fell back a notch on the quality scale. Lucas lost his vision; Jackson kept it tight.
(Of course, Jackson had the benefit of high-integrity source material, whereas Lucas made it up as he went along. Oh, despite any exo-cinematic stuff out there, I simply don't believe Lucas had a master plan for the trilogy -- or, if he did, he lacked the discipline to stick to that plan. Details of Ep. IV-VI just do not cohere, and in Ep. I & II Lucas shamelessly, slavishly overcompensated by tying up loose ends that are best left open. I mean, sure, I saw I and II and I'll go see III, but George Lucas has lost his cred as a storyteller in my book.)
Er, uh, so my point is: Jackson hasn't shown the warning signs that Lucas did in Ep. IV-VI. I have no worries about The Hobbit. I'm psyched.
Yep, got to hold it to understand
on
iPod Mini Sells Out
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I've used an iPod mini a fair bit, and from the first moment I picked it up, I knew it was a superior design.
Now, my purpose in owning an iPod is not to carry around a handy collection of music; it's to carry around all the music I might want to hear at any time, so I got a regular iPod (10GB, US$209 at Target) and I've loaded it (so far) to nearly twice the capacity of a mini.
I deeply wish my iPod had the mini's click wheel instead of the touch buttons, because the tactile feedback on the mini is worlds better -- try pausing or skipping just by feel when you're driving, and you'll really appreciate the click wheel. I don't like having to hover my finger over a button in order to touch it at the right moment -- I prefer to be able to lightly rest on the button and click it when needed. (Yes, I'm a touch typist.) I hope Apple incorporates a larger click wheel into the 4G standard-size iPods. I'll be first in line for one of those.
Wouldn't mind if they used the brushed-aluminum finish on all the iPods, since it has better grip and isn't hyper-fingerprinty like the plastic/polished-steel case. But hey, the click wheel's the most important improvement, and the 3G iPod does look undeniably cool if you keep it reasonably clean in some sort of case or bag (mine's in a dice bag, works great), so...whatever. Just give me a click wheel and a good-sized hard drive, and I'll be happy.
I took at class at Rutgers (ca. 1988) called "Philosophy of Science Fiction." Quite an experience, especially since it was taught by science philosopher Robert Weingard, a fellow whose appearance and manner was somewhere between Miller from Repo Man and Doc Brown from Back to the Future. Freaking genius -- when he stopped in mid-sentence and rolled his eyes skyward to think, you could feel the disturbance in the Force.
Then there was "Science Prophecy and Science Fiction: The History of the Future." Different professor (Philip Pauly, History), but a great course, focusing on how science fiction throughout history reflected the public view of the future.
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan tried to come up with a balanced answer, based on science, to the question of at what point abortion is unethical. As I recall, the resulting article is included in Sagan's last published book, Billions and Billions.
Brain activity isn't a sufficiently precise criterion for human personhood, because -- as others here have pointed out -- plenty of other creatures have brain activity.
But you're onto something when you say "if an embryo thinks, it has to be a living human." (You mean "fetus" rather than "embryo," I take it.) Their conclusion in the article is that what makes a human a human is the capacity for thought. That involves a certain level of brain development, detectable via particular kinds of brain activity (I don't remember the details, but they're in the book) which, statistically, begin right around the start of the third trimester of gestation -- which happens to be the established standard cutoff for abortion procedures. Sagan and Druyan advocate maintaining the status quo with regard to abortion policies.
The only puzzling thing about the iChat setup is that the camera is shutting itself down after four minutes or so, even with the AC adapter plugged in. So far, I've power-cycled the Sony and it's come back fine. I haven't looked deeply into it, so there may just be a camera setting I need to change. Otherwise, it's great -- iChat AV automatically recognizes it; zero configuration.
Slashdot Mirror
An example: I was a front-end developer for the Wall Street Journal five years ago. The home page was a shifting multi-column stack of dozens of internal content modules (developed by different programmers) that had no awareness of each other (also often the case with the programmers), along with dynamic ads and an astounding amount of additional crud that included externally-sourced content like spammy Taboola and Outbrain links. To conserve bandwidth, the module containers triggered just-in-time content loading when the user scrolled down to within a certain number of pixels. There was effectively no way for any part of the page to know the position of any other part. Sure, I declared the sizes for images within my module, but it had no effect on the rest of the page.
Here in 2009, we have apps!
Power issue or not, the lack of FireWire now officially makes the portable consumer-level Mac incompatible with the standard DV camera interface. I guess Steve really is pushing those memory-card HD cameras.
If you want to cancel your Vonage account without getting a runaround, call their customer service number and (once you get through to a human) say that you're moving right now and you don't have broadband in your new location. They can't escalate that issue -- they can't offer free months of service to coax you to stay; they can't put you through multiple tiers of tech support to try to resolve a service problem. Their customer-service issue tracking system considers "Moving - No Broadband" a dead end. Just...trust me on this one.
Don't tell them where you're "moving" to; that's your own private information. If you give a location, they'll try to find you a new broadband provider. Just say there's no broadband where you're going. End of story. Account canceled.
I've gone by that assumption for many years. This is hyperspatial travel, after all.
Well stated! If I could mod you over 5, I would.
Well stated, Mr./Ms. Coward. Incremental bidders (those who don't understand eBay's proxy bidding) are the reason sniping works best. If people were to actually read and follow eBay's instructions -- which are not exactly hidden -- they'd enter their maximum as soon as they made the decision to bid. Many eBay users apparently just don't understand that when you enter your "Maximum Bid," it's not the same as yelling out a price at a real-world auction. It doesn't necessarily raise the current bid to that level; it just tells the system how high to bid if someone else tries to raise near that amount. The system automatically executes incremental bids on your behalf. Doing it yourself is a waste of effort!
It's amusing to look at eBay item bidding histories and see how, for instance, one person entered eleven bids in a row, trying to notch up the price juuuuust a little more, only to discover on the first ten tries that someone else's proxy bid automatically topped them. I wonder what's going through their mind: Curses! Every time I raise the bid, this sonofabitch is right on top of me, out-bidding me a nanosecond later!
I always snipe, because there are always incremental bidders around. Sniping doesn't pull an end-run around anyone who entered a larger proxy bid; it just avoids the...hmm...yes, I think I can justifiably say clueless others who try to chip away instead of following directions. (And with that cluelessness sometimes comes a truckload of indignation. My wife, another veteran sniper, has gotten such nasty emails from other bidders -- "That was totally unfair...I'm reporting you to eBay...You'd better not do that again, because I'm watching you...")
Which site was it that implemented an automatic 10-minute extension after each last-minute bid? Yahoo? Amazon? That's a seller's dream -- sniping is impossible, so everybody gets to duke it out until they're tired. Buyer's nightmare, though, so I stayed away from those.
See their Terms of Service. See Section 2.1 for their termination fee. There's an implicit 12-month contract.
No, not false. Many subscribers have no problems at all, but many do -- so commonly that one has to question the maturity of the technology. Vonage service is marketed as a replacement for a POTS line, and it's nowhere near as reliable. More on that in a moment...
I worked for Vonage for longer than that. I could tell I used VoIP. I got a Vonage box at home (but didn't transfer my POTS line: wanted to be sure of emergency calling capability if the power grid went down). I returned it after months of face-to-face discussions with the top tier of tech support, service reconfigurations, equipment replacements -- and multiple service visits from my cable company -- failed to clear up my line quality issues.
Vonage couldn't even keep their internal IP phone system up all the time, and it randomly (or not-so-randomly) featured echo, noise, failure to connect calls, dead connections...that's got to tell you something.
Then again, a friend of mine has had a Vonage line in his house for at least a year now and is delighted with it. Absolutely, 100% satisfied. Sounds just like POTS when I talk with him.
My point being that Joe Consumer (or even Joe Slashdot) can't rely on plugging it in and having it work right. It really seems to be hit-or-miss. But it's marketed as a replacement phone line. In my opinion, the technology is still too immature to merit that claim. It can't adequately (much less automatically) handle sub-optimal conditions.
When the technology is smart enough, if Vonage stays as big as they are, they might have the upper hand (with exclusive deals with the phone adapter manufacturers) and really-and-for-true "lead the Internet phone revolution" in getting better technology -- and better service -- to market first. That might be worth investing in.
Oh jeez, I read that as "Fingerprint Pavement System."
There are people out there who won't touch anything but Adobe Photoshop even to the extent of buying it!
Yeah, but all the cool applications and features they keep releasing are impressive as hell.
(blinks a few times, closes browser window)
Dinosaurs with a flaming sword? Oh man, how did I miss it...those Saturday morning shows were documentaries...
I wonder how far down, theoretically, a post can be modded.
2/3 the size of existing formats? Do we need this? We're already in danger of accidentally inhaling these things or losing them between the ridges of our fingerprints. Jeez, I must have a terabyte lodged in various spots, slowly sloughing off with the dust.
And it isolates the elements more cleanly than the handmade mattes did, especially in space scenes. Some of the old matte-composited footage that was beautiful in the theater looks dreadful on a good TV -- from the difference in black levels, you can see the outer edges of the mattes.
Before computers? Before realistic computer graphics, you mean. The motion-controlled miniature-effects cameras were mind-blowing new technology, and they certainly were operated by computer programs -- they could run the camera through precisely the same motion sequence, take after take, to photograph different elements in a shot to be composited later.
I certainly remember the "Making of" specials, and I'm dying to see them again. Hell, they may be the only reason I'll buy the IV-VI trilogy set when it comes out...I'd be more enthusiastic if I knew Greedo wasn't going to fire first.
Yeah, me too, but it's not only during a call or text. Apparently, my phone (a Nokia 6340i on Cingular) periodically contacts the network -- either it's auto-setting its clock or just checking in with Big Brother. For a while, at first, I had no idea why I was hearing these weird little chirps from my speakers, until I noticed they also happened right before I received a call.
Writing as someone who uses his iPod in his car or his pocket 80% of the time (and on a desk the other 20%), I can't tell you how frustrated I am that the 3G design isn't conducive to eyes-free use. The touch buttons are great if the iPod is sitting in front of you and you can hand-eye your finger to the target, sure -- but if you can't reasonably divert your attention and stare at the thing long enough to find the right button and touch it with the correct pressure, it's a mess. If you can't look at it, you have to divert even more attention to feeling around on the 3G iPod, because if you lay your finger in the wrong spot, you're going to unintentionally hit a button. Tactile buttons are necessary when you can't focus on the gadget.
I got my iPod the same day a friend got her iPod mini (on mini launch day, in fact), and the moment I held the mini, I knew the click wheel was going to be on the next iPod revision. This is what the iPod should have been from the beginning.
Well...actually, the mini is the perfect size. Until higher-capacity storage shrinks that far, the 4G iPod is as perfect as it gets.
That would be Japanglish, in the tradition of Spanglish and Franglais.
Industry observers have said that the Academy waited for RotK so they could effectively give the Oscars to the entire trilogy. All three movies won those awards.
The progressive quality of the series demonstrates Jackson's sense of pacing. Jackson already has it over Lucas in this department: The original Star Wars trilogy started off strong and improved in the second installment (under another director's hand, it's well worth noting), but the third movie fell back a notch on the quality scale. Lucas lost his vision; Jackson kept it tight.
(Of course, Jackson had the benefit of high-integrity source material, whereas Lucas made it up as he went along. Oh, despite any exo-cinematic stuff out there, I simply don't believe Lucas had a master plan for the trilogy -- or, if he did, he lacked the discipline to stick to that plan. Details of Ep. IV-VI just do not cohere, and in Ep. I & II Lucas shamelessly, slavishly overcompensated by tying up loose ends that are best left open. I mean, sure, I saw I and II and I'll go see III, but George Lucas has lost his cred as a storyteller in my book.)
Er, uh, so my point is: Jackson hasn't shown the warning signs that Lucas did in Ep. IV-VI. I have no worries about The Hobbit. I'm psyched.
I've used an iPod mini a fair bit, and from the first moment I picked it up, I knew it was a superior design.
Now, my purpose in owning an iPod is not to carry around a handy collection of music; it's to carry around all the music I might want to hear at any time, so I got a regular iPod (10GB, US$209 at Target) and I've loaded it (so far) to nearly twice the capacity of a mini.
I deeply wish my iPod had the mini's click wheel instead of the touch buttons, because the tactile feedback on the mini is worlds better -- try pausing or skipping just by feel when you're driving, and you'll really appreciate the click wheel. I don't like having to hover my finger over a button in order to touch it at the right moment -- I prefer to be able to lightly rest on the button and click it when needed. (Yes, I'm a touch typist.) I hope Apple incorporates a larger click wheel into the 4G standard-size iPods. I'll be first in line for one of those.
Wouldn't mind if they used the brushed-aluminum finish on all the iPods, since it has better grip and isn't hyper-fingerprinty like the plastic/polished-steel case. But hey, the click wheel's the most important improvement, and the 3G iPod does look undeniably cool if you keep it reasonably clean in some sort of case or bag (mine's in a dice bag, works great), so...whatever. Just give me a click wheel and a good-sized hard drive, and I'll be happy.
I took at class at Rutgers (ca. 1988) called "Philosophy of Science Fiction." Quite an experience, especially since it was taught by science philosopher Robert Weingard, a fellow whose appearance and manner was somewhere between Miller from Repo Man and Doc Brown from Back to the Future. Freaking genius -- when he stopped in mid-sentence and rolled his eyes skyward to think, you could feel the disturbance in the Force.
Then there was "Science Prophecy and Science Fiction: The History of the Future." Different professor (Philip Pauly, History), but a great course, focusing on how science fiction throughout history reflected the public view of the future.
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan tried to come up with a balanced answer, based on science, to the question of at what point abortion is unethical. As I recall, the resulting article is included in Sagan's last published book, Billions and Billions.
Brain activity isn't a sufficiently precise criterion for human personhood, because -- as others here have pointed out -- plenty of other creatures have brain activity.
But you're onto something when you say "if an embryo thinks, it has to be a living human." (You mean "fetus" rather than "embryo," I take it.) Their conclusion in the article is that what makes a human a human is the capacity for thought. That involves a certain level of brain development, detectable via particular kinds of brain activity (I don't remember the details, but they're in the book) which, statistically, begin right around the start of the third trimester of gestation -- which happens to be the established standard cutoff for abortion procedures. Sagan and Druyan advocate maintaining the status quo with regard to abortion policies.
The only puzzling thing about the iChat setup is that the camera is shutting itself down after four minutes or so, even with the AC adapter plugged in. So far, I've power-cycled the Sony and it's come back fine. I haven't looked deeply into it, so there may just be a camera setting I need to change. Otherwise, it's great -- iChat AV automatically recognizes it; zero configuration.