While it is true that "reality tv" shows are mostly contests, there is something to be said in preference of primetime drama over reality tv.
Primetime dramas offer us something most of us don't get/want a chance to experience - certain ascepts of life. Law & Order, West Wing, ER - these shows give us a piece of our society that we don't understand well. Yes, it's completely scripted. This (usually) ensures a good show. I have seen far better television in an episode of West Wing than in Survivor.
Reality TV (Real World style) is a sequence of forced interactions between people. It makes great psychology case studies, but there's no result, no benefit, no moral, and very little resolution. Reality TV (Survivor style) is like a game show, that didn't end. We absorb ourselves in the people on the show and their interactions, even though they are more forced and artificial than the Real World. The problem with Survivor is it goes on too long. Even the best contestant on Jeopardy is gone in 5 shows, and you can learn things on Jeopardy. Survivor teaches you how to survive in a carefully selected, well-stocked wilderness.
Ultimately, an entire season of Surivor has only taught you that you do or don't want to know these people. You can get more out of Wheel of Fortune.
I think you have a harsh attitude toward community college. Quoth the parent:
The fact that this is a community college should make it no less alarming.
...go on to a normal college or university...
...difficulties people already have with short attention spans...
The boring paper book doesn't flash enough pretty lights...
...this cool short movie which was put together by a mainstream media source...
I should have quoted your entire second paragraph. Perhaps not everyone in your seemingly dreaded community college is the brilliant, 185 IQ scholars you apparently are, but you should not discount them all as beer-driven, ADHD-addled, awe-struck and stupefied invalids.
This actually brings up a substantial point. There are a large number of people who do not feel comfortable reading on a computer screen. They retain less information off the screen, and the experience is less desirable. Many people print out web pages - they feel more comfortable reading over physical pages. I think this has two sources: the hardware and the sensation.
CRT computer screens are not the easiest thing to read from. They are stressful on the eyes and, especially when combined with fluorescent lights, produce a flickering image, no matter how subtle. Also, CRTs aren't very convenient for very casual or very involved reading, as they tend to be completely fixed in location. LCDs are easier on the eyes, though this may depend upon whom you ask. Desktop LCDs are still adhered to one spot, but laptops break this boundary. You can sit on the couch, lie in bed, take them virtually anywhere a book can go, and read. It isn't a book, but it's a far sight closer than a desktop computer. Of course, that's where the sensation comes in.
When you read, there are certain parts of the experience that play on your senses. Not only can you see the words, but you can instantly guage how far you have come and how far you have to go by looking at the thickness of the book to either side. You may equate this with the scrollbar, or a percentage indicator, but it isn't the same. You can feel the remaining quantity as you read. You can bookmark passages as you read and look back instantly at how many bookmarks you have made. The nature of the book allows you to see how far apart the marks are, the overall density, and the volume of the marks. All this is simple visual acuity that comes pre-programmed (or socially programmed, depending on your views) into our brains. There are not only visual clues, but tactile ones as well to the progress of the book. You may also assign qualitative values to the book based upon the binding and the paper's texture and scent. These things are not found on the screen, nor can they be. Moby Dick has the same value as Green Eggs and Ham when are staring at representative icons.
Perhaps that is a major addition that eBooks need - descriptive icons. Moby Dick may have a thick, dark, leather-bound, strapped volume for the icon where Green Eggs and Ham would be slim, sharp-edged, and bright orange, as it should. If a sufficiently comfortable inerface could be acheived, more people might take to reading eBooks. I do not suggest, however, that we should model the interface after real books. The computer offers us many freedoms that printed voumes do not, and we should take every advantage of them.
There is something to be said for a physical book. There is an involement in a book that is hard to transition to a computer. I have read everything from Science Fiction to Shakespeare in physical text and on the screen of my laptop. There is a positive quality difference to reading with a book. But there are advantages to electronic texts. I can reach a specific point without flipping through chapters. I can search for a quote or a passage. I can carry hundreds of books with me instead of four or five for the same weight. I can read in bed without a separate light source.
And I can learn to appreciate the value of the information over it's presentation.
Many PDAs now charge while in the cradle (not the Visor Deluxe in the article, though). While this doesn't prevent you from using your PDA, it means that many will need to leave theirs in the cradle, which (for me) is an uncomfortable place to use a handheld. I don't use it often, but the Palm Desktop software allows me access to all my sync'd data.
Re:Partly impractical
on
HighWLAN
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
You could use the SuperPeer concept from p2p software. Certain cars could auto-negotiate (sorry for the pun) to be the preferred paths for vehicles around them.
Moving on, I couldn't guess at how you'd make it work, but you could have seamless hops, so you could produce wireless "conduits" out of a sequence of cars. When a car moved out of range or another was preferred, the "conduit" could change a node without interfering with the communications.
A tree structure would probably work best here. Have the "trunk" nodes near physical access points, the "branches" move away from the trunks out into traffic, and the "leaf" nodes are the end communicators.
Of course, It would probably be best to have a number of these wireless "trees" covering the same area to reduce lag and signal loss. Each access point could define it's own channel, and be spread out so each channel is far enough from the others.
Think about the poor wardrivers. If they were on the highway with you, they would have a hell of a time trying to pinpoint the location of your access point.
Re:With all that extra storage...
on
High Definition DVD
·
· Score: 5, Funny
That's all we need. Star Wars: Episode III HD-DVD, now with 12 hours of behind-the-scenes footage, 2 hours of additional footage, and Episode II, just for kicks. All for the low price of 179.99$.
As a navigation system, I think the slashdot-style topics would make a great addition. This way you can progressively follow the entire log, or you can pick a topic that the author has made, and follow a sequence of topical notes and opinions.
I don't see where the CD Audio is listed - they were all ripped directly from CD, but that is to be expected.
And the 95% confidence ratings:
Each vertical line segment represents the 95% confidence interval (using Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference) for each codec.
One codec can be said to rated better than another codec with 95% confidence if the bottom of its line segment is at or above the top of the competing codec's line segment.
It has nothing to do with sample size - it's a statement that if the lowest average a codec received was higher that the highest average another received, we can be reasonably assured that it's an issue of quality vs. sample group.
The mean sampling group was 29 (29.25) users. While that doesn't invalidate the findings, it does give you a consideration for the basis.
-- Statistics are only as accurate as their intentions.
It would be best to have an "appliance server" that is capable of handling the communications to the devices and generating interfaces from standard libraries created for appliance control. Then we could have an extremely lightweight communications protocol for the appliances, as they would only have to go so far as to detail their features to the server, and it would construct an interface for them.
This makes much more sense to me in the long run, as a central house server would be able to coordinate activities of numerous devices simultaneously with simple If/Then/Else statements. If you wanted coffee & toast in the morning, you could write something like this:
Beyond that, as appliances become more functional (refrigerators that know what's in them), a central system like this could also accept device notifications, telling you there is no milk or that the oven's timer went off.
But you have to be close for that - you could start the oven for kids/friends when you are still at the office. Otherwise, get a cellular modem connection, that you can dial into.
If the flywheels are built into the subway stations, they can be more than shielded. They will probably be sealed into massive metal chambers surrounded with concrete. Sure, if one breaks it'll be a huge undertaking to replace, but you won't have lost any efficiency compared to now, and you won't kill people as 100-pound chunks of flywheel go flying at 80MPH.
And you don't really design a system like this with the intent to have it break down.
Flywheels won't make it into vehicles for some time, especially cars - there's too many unpredictable problems. You wold have to install self-destructive safety mechanisms in your flywheel to avoid killing people.
Imagine yourself stopping at a light, and when someone rear-ends you, your flywheel immediately blows itself into dust to save your life. Only your life didn't need saving, and now you need a new car.
The third rail is already highly charged. Trying to push power from a battery would be like trying to save on power bills by hooking a 9V battery w/ an AC Adaptor to the wall outlet - there's too much power there to push more back in.
Then they should have had 128kbps MP3 in the mix as well. Until a new study shows (with lots of people - it's hard to negotiate the personal preference differences in a small sample sizes) a comparison of these formats to 128kbps MP3, we don't really have a platform of comparison. They should compare CD-Audio and 128kps MP3 as test standards against which to measure the quality of the formats.
Until there's a comparison to something we can measure difference against, we have no quantitative data. Sure, it's nice to know that you are the 2nd best student in the class, but if the best student is still failing, where does that leave you?
-- Statistics are only as accurate as their intentions.
Most people are playing 128kbps MP3s through computer speakers. For the average person who, based on my personal experience, listens to music far louder than they should, the quality differences aren't noticable.
I encode at 160 usually, and a just accept that d/ls are 128 most of the time. I don't mind unless it's a really good song, and then (*note to RIAA*)I get the CD.
I think this survey was badly flawed. How many people listen to 64kbps MP3s? Streamed, maybe. They should use fair comparisons of the different formats. I suppose at higher bit-rates, the differences become more negligable to the average listener, though.
Of course, I also know people who say RealAudio sounds better than MP3.
Slashdot Mirror
While it is true that "reality tv" shows are mostly contests, there is something to be said in preference of primetime drama over reality tv.
Primetime dramas offer us something most of us don't get/want a chance to experience - certain ascepts of life. Law & Order, West Wing, ER - these shows give us a piece of our society that we don't understand well. Yes, it's completely scripted. This (usually) ensures a good show. I have seen far better television in an episode of West Wing than in Survivor.
Reality TV (Real World style) is a sequence of forced interactions between people. It makes great psychology case studies, but there's no result, no benefit, no moral, and very little resolution. Reality TV (Survivor style) is like a game show, that didn't end. We absorb ourselves in the people on the show and their interactions, even though they are more forced and artificial than the Real World. The problem with Survivor is it goes on too long. Even the best contestant on Jeopardy is gone in 5 shows, and you can learn things on Jeopardy. Survivor teaches you how to survive in a carefully selected, well-stocked wilderness.
Ultimately, an entire season of Surivor has only taught you that you do or don't want to know these people. You can get more out of Wheel of Fortune.
Is the brilliant, are the brilliant... It's amazing what an extra Preview will do for you.
I never believed in second-drafts, anyway. : )
--
Let he who is without illegally-obtained MP3s cast the first stone.
I think you have a harsh attitude toward community college. Quoth the parent:
I should have quoted your entire second paragraph. Perhaps not everyone in your seemingly dreaded community college is the brilliant, 185 IQ scholars you apparently are, but you should not discount them all as beer-driven, ADHD-addled, awe-struck and stupefied invalids.
This actually brings up a substantial point. There are a large number of people who do not feel comfortable reading on a computer screen. They retain less information off the screen, and the experience is less desirable. Many people print out web pages - they feel more comfortable reading over physical pages. I think this has two sources: the hardware and the sensation.
CRT computer screens are not the easiest thing to read from. They are stressful on the eyes and, especially when combined with fluorescent lights, produce a flickering image, no matter how subtle. Also, CRTs aren't very convenient for very casual or very involved reading, as they tend to be completely fixed in location. LCDs are easier on the eyes, though this may depend upon whom you ask. Desktop LCDs are still adhered to one spot, but laptops break this boundary. You can sit on the couch, lie in bed, take them virtually anywhere a book can go, and read. It isn't a book, but it's a far sight closer than a desktop computer. Of course, that's where the sensation comes in.
When you read, there are certain parts of the experience that play on your senses. Not only can you see the words, but you can instantly guage how far you have come and how far you have to go by looking at the thickness of the book to either side. You may equate this with the scrollbar, or a percentage indicator, but it isn't the same. You can feel the remaining quantity as you read. You can bookmark passages as you read and look back instantly at how many bookmarks you have made. The nature of the book allows you to see how far apart the marks are, the overall density, and the volume of the marks. All this is simple visual acuity that comes pre-programmed (or socially programmed, depending on your views) into our brains. There are not only visual clues, but tactile ones as well to the progress of the book. You may also assign qualitative values to the book based upon the binding and the paper's texture and scent. These things are not found on the screen, nor can they be. Moby Dick has the same value as Green Eggs and Ham when are staring at representative icons.
Perhaps that is a major addition that eBooks need - descriptive icons. Moby Dick may have a thick, dark, leather-bound, strapped volume for the icon where Green Eggs and Ham would be slim, sharp-edged, and bright orange, as it should. If a sufficiently comfortable inerface could be acheived, more people might take to reading eBooks. I do not suggest, however, that we should model the interface after real books. The computer offers us many freedoms that printed voumes do not, and we should take every advantage of them.
There is something to be said for a physical book. There is an involement in a book that is hard to transition to a computer. I have read everything from Science Fiction to Shakespeare in physical text and on the screen of my laptop. There is a positive quality difference to reading with a book. But there are advantages to electronic texts. I can reach a specific point without flipping through chapters. I can search for a quote or a passage. I can carry hundreds of books with me instead of four or five for the same weight. I can read in bed without a separate light source.
And I can learn to appreciate the value of the information over it's presentation.
What are the limitations you use in relation to overly vague or broad patents?
Many PDAs now charge while in the cradle (not the Visor Deluxe in the article, though). While this doesn't prevent you from using your PDA, it means that many will need to leave theirs in the cradle, which (for me) is an uncomfortable place to use a handheld. I don't use it often, but the Palm Desktop software allows me access to all my sync'd data.
You could use the SuperPeer concept from p2p software. Certain cars could auto-negotiate (sorry for the pun) to be the preferred paths for vehicles around them.
Moving on, I couldn't guess at how you'd make it work, but you could have seamless hops, so you could produce wireless "conduits" out of a sequence of cars. When a car moved out of range or another was preferred, the "conduit" could change a node without interfering with the communications.
A tree structure would probably work best here. Have the "trunk" nodes near physical access points, the "branches" move away from the trunks out into traffic, and the "leaf" nodes are the end communicators.
Of course, It would probably be best to have a number of these wireless "trees" covering the same area to reduce lag and signal loss. Each access point could define it's own channel, and be spread out so each channel is far enough from the others.
Of course, maybe I'm insane.
Think about the poor wardrivers. If they were on the highway with you, they would have a hell of a time trying to pinpoint the location of your access point.
That's all we need. Star Wars: Episode III HD-DVD, now with 12 hours of behind-the-scenes footage, 2 hours of additional footage, and Episode II, just for kicks. All for the low price of 179.99$.
I want to see one scurry, and I do mean scurry, around the woods carrying a tree. Then the lumber companies might be interested.
Just because a flash site can be bad, doesn't mean it will be.
Same goes for web logs. Especially since it's intended as a project more than an online diary.
As a navigation system, I think the slashdot-style topics would make a great addition. This way you can progressively follow the entire log, or you can pick a topic that the author has made, and follow a sequence of topical notes and opinions.
I don't see where the CD Audio is listed - they were all ripped directly from CD, but that is to be expected.
And the 95% confidence ratings:
It has nothing to do with sample size - it's a statement that if the lowest average a codec received was higher that the highest average another received, we can be reasonably assured that it's an issue of quality vs. sample group.The mean sampling group was 29 (29.25) users. While that doesn't invalidate the findings, it does give you a consideration for the basis.
--
Statistics are only as accurate as their intentions.
It would be best to have an "appliance server" that is capable of handling the communications to the devices and generating interfaces from standard libraries created for appliance control. Then we could have an extremely lightweight communications protocol for the appliances, as they would only have to go so far as to detail their features to the server, and it would construct an interface for them.
This makes much more sense to me in the long run, as a central house server would be able to coordinate activities of numerous devices simultaneously with simple If/Then/Else statements. If you wanted coffee & toast in the morning, you could write something like this:
Beyond that, as appliances become more functional (refrigerators that know what's in them), a central system like this could also accept device notifications, telling you there is no milk or that the oven's timer went off.
Hmmm... Maybe they should do user authentication so the rm_cvr() and strt_fr() commands require privs. ; )
Made of LEGO Mindstorms, of course!
But you have to be close for that - you could start the oven for kids/friends when you are still at the office. Otherwise, get a cellular modem connection, that you can dial into.
If the flywheels are built into the subway stations, they can be more than shielded. They will probably be sealed into massive metal chambers surrounded with concrete. Sure, if one breaks it'll be a huge undertaking to replace, but you won't have lost any efficiency compared to now, and you won't kill people as 100-pound chunks of flywheel go flying at 80MPH.
And you don't really design a system like this with the intent to have it break down.
Flywheels won't make it into vehicles for some time, especially cars - there's too many unpredictable problems. You wold have to install self-destructive safety mechanisms in your flywheel to avoid killing people.
Imagine yourself stopping at a light, and when someone rear-ends you, your flywheel immediately blows itself into dust to save your life. Only your life didn't need saving, and now you need a new car.
The third rail is already highly charged. Trying to push power from a battery would be like trying to save on power bills by hooking a 9V battery w/ an AC Adaptor to the wall outlet - there's too much power there to push more back in.
Yes, and what do you do when you get to the end of the moving sidewalk; get thrown off the platform at 20 MPH?
Then they should have had 128kbps MP3 in the mix as well. Until a new study shows (with lots of people - it's hard to negotiate the personal preference differences in a small sample sizes) a comparison of these formats to 128kbps MP3, we don't really have a platform of comparison. They should compare CD-Audio and 128kps MP3 as test standards against which to measure the quality of the formats.
Until there's a comparison to something we can measure difference against, we have no quantitative data. Sure, it's nice to know that you are the 2nd best student in the class, but if the best student is still failing, where does that leave you?
--
Statistics are only as accurate as their intentions.
Most people are playing 128kbps MP3s through computer speakers. For the average person who, based on my personal experience, listens to music far louder than they should, the quality differences aren't noticable.
I encode at 160 usually, and a just accept that d/ls are 128 most of the time. I don't mind unless it's a really good song, and then (*note to RIAA*)I get the CD.
I think this survey was badly flawed. How many people listen to 64kbps MP3s? Streamed, maybe. They should use fair comparisons of the different formats. I suppose at higher bit-rates, the differences become more negligable to the average listener, though.
Of course, I also know people who say RealAudio sounds better than MP3.
Sigh.
We have the problem of equating the Internet with a truly distributed, open system controlled by no one and belonging to no one.
Too often we forget that DNS is completely dependant upon 13 central systems, and much of the networking is commercially owned.
That last part has come to mind recently, due to the troubles of KPNQwest and WorldCom.
Gall! Poppycock! They are above reproach! They are the Internet! To HELL with everyone else!
The problem with the populace is they don't know what is good for them. They will me made to know, and fairly we will rule them, with an iron fist!
--
Zig!
Like all good non-profit organizations based in the US, ICANN has become corrupt, money-grubbing, and responsible to no-one for their actions.
Do they offer a course in this or something?