And the problems at NASA continued in January 2003 with the Columbia explosion. Presentation-of-data guru, Edward Tufte, makes a good claim that clumsy PowerPoint inhibited decent analysis that could've prevented a disaster. (Tufte cites Feynman's work among others.)
Here's what the non-PDF version of the claims form looks like. (Note the "perjury" part, folks)
CLAIM FORM
THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT THIS CLAIM FORM IS FEBRUARY 22, 2006.*
This is the official claim form you must use to make a claim in Taylor v. Palm,
Inc. Please read
this form carefully before filling it out. For complete information about the settlement, please
contact Class Counsel Hector Gancedo, Esq., 144 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, California 91105.
NOTE: THE PALM PDA UNIT THAT YOU CLAIM IS DEFECTIVE MUST BE
RETURNED TO PALMONE, INC. TO QUALIFY FOR RELIEF UNDER THIS
SETTLEMENT. ONCE YOUR CLAIM HAS BEEN RECEIVED AND
PRELIMINARILY REVIEWED, PALMONE, INC. WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH A
SHIPPING LABEL TO RETURN YOUR PALM PDA UNIT.
If you did not own a Palm m100, m105, or m125 at some time between June 1, 1999
and May 4,
2005, you are not eligible to make a claim and should not submit a claim form.
For each claim, you must submit a separate claim form.
PLEASE REFER TO THE CLASS NOTICE AND SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT FOR
RULES CONCERNING ELIGIBILITY AND SUBMISSION OF CLAIMS AND TIME
LIMITS ON THIS CLAIM PROCESS, THE NUMBER OF CLAIMS THAT CAN BE
SUBMITTED, PROCEDURES FOR DISPUTED CLAIMS AND OTHER MATTERS.
NOTE: YOUR CLAIM IS SUBJECT TO VALIDATION BY PALMONE, INC. YOUR
CLAIM WILL NOT BE PROCESSED UNTIL AFTER FINAL APPROVAL OF THE
SETTLEMENT WHICH WILL NOT OCCUR UNTIL AUGUST 22, 2005, AT THE
EARLIEST.
PALM HANDHELD OWNED
For purposes of this claim, what model of Palm PDA did you own?
m100 m105 or m125
Please provide the serial number for the Palm PDA for which you are making this
claim. The
serial number is located on the back of the unit:
Serial Number:_
Was your Palm PDA a "New" unit at the time you purchased or received it? "New" means that
when the PDA unit was purchased by the first buyer, other than a reseller of
Palm products, the unit was in its original, unopened packaging.
Yes_ No_
On what date did you purchase the Palm PDA for which you are making this claim?
Date:_
Where did you purchase the Palm PDA for which you are making this claim?
If you did not purchase the Palm PDA for which you are making this claim, please
describe how you received the Palm PDA:
Please provide the approximate date on which your Palm PDA first lost data during
the battery
exchange process.
Date:_
CLAIM RELIEF
1. Are you dissatisfied with the operation of your Palm PDA unit, identified
above, because
it lost data while you were replacing batteries in the Palm PDA unit?
Yes_ No_
2. Did you comply with all of Palm's recommended instructions for the replacement
of
batteries in your Palm PDA unit?
Yes_ No_
PALMONE, INC. RESERVES THE RIGHT TO INSPECT ANY PALM PDA
SUBMITTED AS PART OF THIS SETTLEMENT. IF PALM'S RECORDS OR
ITS INSPECTION OF THE PALM PDA SHOW THAT THE CAUSE OF DATA
LOSS DURING THE BATTERY EXCHANGE PROCESS IS DUE TO ABUSE,
MISHANDLING, OR MISUSE OF THE PALM PDA, THE CLAIM MAY BE
DENIED.
IF YOU ANSWERED NO TO ANY OF THE QUESTIONS IN THE "CLAIM RELIEF"
SECTION, DO NOT COMPLETE THIS CLAIM FORM. YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE
FOR RELIEF UNDER THIS AGREEMENT.
DECLARATION
In order to qualify for relief under this settlement, you MUST execute the following
declaration:
MY PALM PDA UNIT (m100, m105, or m125) LOST DATA DURING THE BATTERY REPLACEMENT PROCESS EVEN THOUGH I FOLLOWED ALL OF PALM'S
RECOMMENDED PROCEDURES. I HEREBY DECLARE, UNDER PENALTY OF
PERJURY, THAT THE FOREGOING IS TRUE AND CORRECT.
Dated:_ Signature:_
YOUR NAME:_
YOUR ADDRESS:_
City/State/Zip_
YOUR EMAIL:_
YOUR DAYTIME PHONE:_
(Information provided is subject to verification by palmOne, Inc.'s counsel
and Plaintiff's Counsel. palmOne, Inc. will only use this form for purposes of administering
this settlement.)
Return completed claim form and Claim Documentation to:
Taylor Settlement
P.O. Box 1120
Grand Rapids, MN 55745-1120
By VAUHINI VARA
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
May 24, 2005; Page B1
Cartoon fan David Mackenzie has been on the Internet griping about a cartoon called "Gorilla My Dreams," recently released as part of a DVD collection of 60 restored Looney Tunes classics from Warner Bros.
Mr. Mackenzie, an 18-year-old film student in Glasgow, Scotland, says there's something missing from the seven-minute cartoon, about a motherly primate who takes Bugs Bunny on a romp through the jungle: Pause the DVD, and as the two get ready to swing through the air, a piece of vine seems to dissolve.
The glitch is easy to miss. But hardcore animation fans say the case of the vanishing vine is only the latest example of technology gone awry.
"Casual fans will think it's just people nitpicking, but it's really not," Mr. Mackenzie says. "If Gene Kelly's arm disappeared while he was dancing in 'Singin' in the Rain,' everybody would notice."
DISAPPEARING ACT
As studios release more classic movies and television shows on DVD, they are increasingly using digital restoration to smooth over scratches and dirt specks on old film. But the process can also remove some of the lines that make up the animation -- for example, blurring Tom's face in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, or erasing lines in Woody Woodpecker's fast-moving beak.
The technology at issue -- called "digital noise reduction," or DNR -- works by removing lines that appear in one frame of a film but not the next, reasoning that the line doesn't belong. In live-action films, that usually works well. But in cartoons, the process gets sketchier. A fast-moving cartoon is made up of a series of drawings with sharp ink lines. To the casual viewer, the drawings appear to move fluidly from one moment to the next. But in fact, they often change radically from frame to frame. And when DNR is applied, a deliberately drawn line can be mistaken for a stray and removed.
"It's really irritating to watch," says Mr. Mackenzie, who grew up on the Ren & Stimpy cartoons of the 1990s. He keeps a log of what he sees as the most egregious errors on his Web site: One shot from the Looney Tunes cartoon "Have You Got Any Castles?" shows an image of a dancing old man disappearing into a grayish haze.
Until recently, film studios kept old animation tucked away in storage. But as DVDs become more popular, studios have done the math and found that classic cartoons are relatively cheap to restore and sell well. "DVD is the medium for collectors. They gobble this stuff up," says Robert Mayo, senior vice president of video at Classic Media Inc., of New York, which has released two DVD sets of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends. "It has given all the studios, us included, a reason to go back and remaster all these things."
Craig Hoffman, a spokesman for Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., which released the Looney Tunes DVDs last fall, declines to comment on the complaints about the restored cartoons. "There's a wide audience: children, collectors, people who grew up loving them," he adds.
One commonly used DNR product is made by Sweden's Digital Vision AB, which sells equipment ranging in price from $35,000 to $150,000. Hugh Heinsohn, president of the company's U.S. unit, compares his product with a hammer: It's a powerful tool that must be used with care. It can muddy the image depending on the skill of the technician using it.
Digital noise reduction isn't unique to DVD: Earlier, it was used in transferring old cartoons to VHS and laserdisc. The problem was harder to spot in VHS. But studios now are releasing more classics on DVD, and fans are becoming more aware of the issue. Many say it points to a broader problem in Hollywood: Years after the golden age of animation in the 1950s, studios don't pay much atte
And they add a humorous throwaway line at the bottom of the page:
The selection and placement of reviews on this page were determined automatically by a computer program. No movie critics were harmed or even used in the making of this page.
My household's TVs are strictly over-the-air receivers because I don't want to pay a cable/satellite company to receive broadcasts over the public airwaves...and my kids aren't old enough to know better. I understand that other cool services would be available with that space, but it's already been set aside for public use. Don't make me pay for a converter that creates no immediate benefit for me other than to turn faint reception into a blue screen. If the government is going to turn over that valuable spectrum then at least make the beneficiaries--the broadcasters--give away the converters to those of us who weren't going to switch.
According to Reuters, "But some companies, such as TaxAct, offer complete tax prep and filing for free. There are a couple of caveats to add here: To make sure your service is free, you must access it via the IRS Web site; if you go directly to a particular company's site, you may be charged for the same service. Understand that companies aren't just doing this out of generosity: Some may try to pile on extra offers that you don't want or need, or you may wind up paying next year for importing data from this year's free return. And, you'll pay to file your state returns. "
The IRS planned on offering their own free software, but the tax-preparer software industry balked. The compromise was to offer free federal versions to a large section of tax payers, with the option to sell state versions and other add-ons.
The Wall Street Journal covered this on 1/19/05 "IRS Web Site Offers Free Tax Filing," but you have to pay Factiva to see the story online.
Even without the Google toolbar, others can still detect the URL of something temporarily in a directory. If I check out the link you sent me and then move onto my favorite site, I'll be recorded in the referrer log of the second site. Since some of those logs are public, all the URLs listed there can eventually be spidered.
A friend of mine (honest) who was once a manager at Kinko's explained their prices are set so that each copy-job could be performed twice and remain profitable. The assumption was that the Kinko's employees (sorry, "team members") would probably screw up the request the first time.
Pick any book by Edward Tufte at EdwardTufte.com and you'll make your geek happy with something that's interesting to read and beautiful to look at. Who knew the visual display of data could be so gripping?
It's similar to having to search separately on Froogle or Images. Sure it's an extra click and in some cases one could argue that the content belongs elsewhere, but for the most part users figure it out. The blogsearch will work the same way.
Speaking of sorting and prioritizing, Mark Hurst explains his system for this in "Managing Incoming E-mail: What Every User Needs to Know"
goodexperience.com
(free registration required)
Don't use your inbox for storage--immediately delete, respond or move it into another folder
If it takes less than 5 minutes to respond to an email, then do it on the spot
These same people tend to reply-all with "Thanks!" or "Me, too!"
A solution I've seen work well in some communities is to reply by adding "Got it" or "Thanks" to the start of the subject line, and [EOF] or [NIM] at then end of the subject line. That way the recipient knows that they don't have to open the message because it's the End Of File or there's No Internal Message.
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft is rebranding the service "Notmail." http://www.flickr.com/photos/alvesfamily/5316203300/
Costar Group is already working on photographing 4 million commercial properties. Smile,Slashdot/OSTG, you're on CoStar Camera.
And the problems at NASA continued in January 2003 with the Columbia explosion. Presentation-of-data guru, Edward Tufte, makes a good claim that clumsy PowerPoint inhibited decent analysis that could've prevented a disaster. (Tufte cites Feynman's work among others.)
Here's what the non-PDF version of the claims form looks like. (Note the "perjury" part, folks)
CLAIM FORM
THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT THIS CLAIM FORM IS FEBRUARY 22, 2006.*
This is the official claim form you must use to make a claim in Taylor v. Palm, Inc. Please read this form carefully before filling it out. For complete information about the settlement, please contact Class Counsel Hector Gancedo, Esq., 144 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, California 91105.
NOTE: THE PALM PDA UNIT THAT YOU CLAIM IS DEFECTIVE MUST BE RETURNED TO PALMONE, INC. TO QUALIFY FOR RELIEF UNDER THIS SETTLEMENT. ONCE YOUR CLAIM HAS BEEN RECEIVED AND PRELIMINARILY REVIEWED, PALMONE, INC. WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH A SHIPPING LABEL TO RETURN YOUR PALM PDA UNIT.
If you did not own a Palm m100, m105, or m125 at some time between June 1, 1999 and May 4, 2005, you are not eligible to make a claim and should not submit a claim form.
For each claim, you must submit a separate claim form.
PLEASE REFER TO THE CLASS NOTICE AND SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT FOR RULES CONCERNING ELIGIBILITY AND SUBMISSION OF CLAIMS AND TIME LIMITS ON THIS CLAIM PROCESS, THE NUMBER OF CLAIMS THAT CAN BE SUBMITTED, PROCEDURES FOR DISPUTED CLAIMS AND OTHER MATTERS. NOTE: YOUR CLAIM IS SUBJECT TO VALIDATION BY PALMONE, INC. YOUR CLAIM WILL NOT BE PROCESSED UNTIL AFTER FINAL APPROVAL OF THE SETTLEMENT WHICH WILL NOT OCCUR UNTIL AUGUST 22, 2005, AT THE EARLIEST.
PALM HANDHELD OWNED
For purposes of this claim, what model of Palm PDA did you own?
m100 m105 or m125
Please provide the serial number for the Palm PDA for which you are making this claim. The serial number is located on the back of the unit:
Serial Number:_
Was your Palm PDA a "New" unit at the time you purchased or received it? "New" means that when the PDA unit was purchased by the first buyer, other than a reseller of Palm products, the unit was in its original, unopened packaging.
Yes_ No_
On what date did you purchase the Palm PDA for which you are making this claim?
Date:_
Where did you purchase the Palm PDA for which you are making this claim?
If you did not purchase the Palm PDA for which you are making this claim, please describe how you received the Palm PDA:
Please provide the approximate date on which your Palm PDA first lost data during the battery exchange process.
Date:_
CLAIM RELIEF
1. Are you dissatisfied with the operation of your Palm PDA unit, identified above, because it lost data while you were replacing batteries in the Palm PDA unit?
Yes_ No_
2. Did you comply with all of Palm's recommended instructions for the replacement of batteries in your Palm PDA unit?
Yes_ No_
PALMONE, INC. RESERVES THE RIGHT TO INSPECT ANY PALM PDA SUBMITTED AS PART OF THIS SETTLEMENT. IF PALM'S RECORDS OR ITS INSPECTION OF THE PALM PDA SHOW THAT THE CAUSE OF DATA LOSS DURING THE BATTERY EXCHANGE PROCESS IS DUE TO ABUSE, MISHANDLING, OR MISUSE OF THE PALM PDA, THE CLAIM MAY BE DENIED.
IF YOU ANSWERED NO TO ANY OF THE QUESTIONS IN THE "CLAIM RELIEF" SECTION, DO NOT COMPLETE THIS CLAIM FORM. YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR RELIEF UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. DECLARATION
In order to qualify for relief under this settlement, you MUST execute the following declaration:
MY PALM PDA UNIT (m100, m105, or m125) LOST DATA DURING THE BATTERY REPLACEMENT PROCESS EVEN THOUGH I FOLLOWED ALL OF PALM'S RECOMMENDED PROCEDURES. I HEREBY DECLARE, UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY, THAT THE FOREGOING IS TRUE AND CORRECT.
Dated:_ Signature:_
YOUR NAME:_
YOUR ADDRESS:_
City/State/Zip_
YOUR EMAIL:_
YOUR DAYTIME PHONE:_
(Information provided is subject to verification by palmOne, Inc.'s counsel and Plaintiff's Counsel. palmOne, Inc. will only use this form for purposes of administering this settlement.)
Return completed claim form and Claim Documentation to:
Taylor Settlement
P.O. Box 1120
Grand Rapids, MN 55745-1120
Registration-free example of the "cleaned up" animation.
As Cartoons Go Digital, Something Gets Lost
By VAUHINI VARA
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
May 24, 2005; Page B1
Cartoon fan David Mackenzie has been on the Internet griping about a cartoon called "Gorilla My Dreams," recently released as part of a DVD collection of 60 restored Looney Tunes classics from Warner Bros.
Mr. Mackenzie, an 18-year-old film student in Glasgow, Scotland, says there's something missing from the seven-minute cartoon, about a motherly primate who takes Bugs Bunny on a romp through the jungle: Pause the DVD, and as the two get ready to swing through the air, a piece of vine seems to dissolve.
The glitch is easy to miss. But hardcore animation fans say the case of the vanishing vine is only the latest example of technology gone awry.
"Casual fans will think it's just people nitpicking, but it's really not," Mr. Mackenzie says. "If Gene Kelly's arm disappeared while he was dancing in 'Singin' in the Rain,' everybody would notice."
DISAPPEARING ACT
As studios release more classic movies and television shows on DVD, they are increasingly using digital restoration to smooth over scratches and dirt specks on old film. But the process can also remove some of the lines that make up the animation -- for example, blurring Tom's face in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, or erasing lines in Woody Woodpecker's fast-moving beak.
The technology at issue -- called "digital noise reduction," or DNR -- works by removing lines that appear in one frame of a film but not the next, reasoning that the line doesn't belong. In live-action films, that usually works well. But in cartoons, the process gets sketchier. A fast-moving cartoon is made up of a series of drawings with sharp ink lines. To the casual viewer, the drawings appear to move fluidly from one moment to the next. But in fact, they often change radically from frame to frame. And when DNR is applied, a deliberately drawn line can be mistaken for a stray and removed.
"It's really irritating to watch," says Mr. Mackenzie, who grew up on the Ren & Stimpy cartoons of the 1990s. He keeps a log of what he sees as the most egregious errors on his Web site: One shot from the Looney Tunes cartoon "Have You Got Any Castles?" shows an image of a dancing old man disappearing into a grayish haze.
Until recently, film studios kept old animation tucked away in storage. But as DVDs become more popular, studios have done the math and found that classic cartoons are relatively cheap to restore and sell well. "DVD is the medium for collectors. They gobble this stuff up," says Robert Mayo, senior vice president of video at Classic Media Inc., of New York, which has released two DVD sets of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends. "It has given all the studios, us included, a reason to go back and remaster all these things."
Craig Hoffman, a spokesman for Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., which released the Looney Tunes DVDs last fall, declines to comment on the complaints about the restored cartoons. "There's a wide audience: children, collectors, people who grew up loving them," he adds.
One commonly used DNR product is made by Sweden's Digital Vision AB, which sells equipment ranging in price from $35,000 to $150,000. Hugh Heinsohn, president of the company's U.S. unit, compares his product with a hammer: It's a powerful tool that must be used with care. It can muddy the image depending on the skill of the technician using it.
Digital noise reduction isn't unique to DVD: Earlier, it was used in transferring old cartoons to VHS and laserdisc. The problem was harder to spot in VHS. But studios now are releasing more classics on DVD, and fans are becoming more aware of the issue. Many say it points to a broader problem in Hollywood: Years after the golden age of animation in the 1950s, studios don't pay much atte
My household's TVs are strictly over-the-air receivers because I don't want to pay a cable/satellite company to receive broadcasts over the public airwaves...and my kids aren't old enough to know better. I understand that other cool services would be available with that space, but it's already been set aside for public use. Don't make me pay for a converter that creates no immediate benefit for me other than to turn faint reception into a blue screen. If the government is going to turn over that valuable spectrum then at least make the beneficiaries--the broadcasters--give away the converters to those of us who weren't going to switch.
They're testing more than just reception on this roadtrip--looks like proselytizing to me.
According to Reuters, "But some companies, such as TaxAct, offer complete tax prep and filing for free. There are a couple of caveats to add here: To make sure your service is free, you must access it via the IRS Web site; if you go directly to a particular company's site, you may be charged for the same service. Understand that companies aren't just doing this out of generosity: Some may try to pile on extra offers that you don't want or need, or you may wind up paying next year for importing data from this year's free return. And, you'll pay to file your state returns. "
The IRS planned on offering their own free software, but the tax-preparer software industry balked. The compromise was to offer free federal versions to a large section of tax payers, with the option to sell state versions and other add-ons. The Wall Street Journal covered this on 1/19/05 "IRS Web Site Offers Free Tax Filing," but you have to pay Factiva to see the story online.
United States District Judge
United States District Court
Eastern Division of Missouri, Eastern Division
Courtroom 12 North
111 South 10th Street
Suite 12.148
St. Louis, MO 63102
Phone: (314)244-7480
He's a Clinton appointee.
Even without the Google toolbar, others can still detect the URL of something temporarily in a directory. If I check out the link you sent me and then move onto my favorite site, I'll be recorded in the referrer log of the second site. Since some of those logs are public, all the URLs listed there can eventually be spidered.
For those who missed the DivX fiasco the first time.
I just got carpal tunnel trying to type a three-line Lotus Notes database URL by hand.
A friend of mine (honest) who was once a manager at Kinko's explained their prices are set so that each copy-job could be performed twice and remain profitable. The assumption was that the Kinko's employees (sorry, "team members") would probably screw up the request the first time.
Whew, you're talking about directing another movie. I got a bad visualization when I first read that subject line.
Pick any book by Edward Tufte at EdwardTufte.com and you'll make your geek happy with something that's interesting to read and beautiful to look at. Who knew the visual display of data could be so gripping?
Generate an associated alt tag...er, nevermind.
Mailwasher for previewing, deleting and even bouncing mail from your server before downloading it to your new computer.
It was removed to prevent a security risk (M$ catches some of them). To disable cntrl-alt-delte in Windows, try this site.
It's never too early to go Christmas shopping:
falalala.la
If you look closely at the reverse side, you'll see duct tape and plastic sheeting on the windows of the White House.
Is Ronald Reagan really replacing Andrew Jackson on the next version?
It's similar to having to search separately on Froogle or Images. Sure it's an extra click and in some cases one could argue that the content belongs elsewhere, but for the most part users figure it out. The blogsearch will work the same way.
But will they call it bloogle?
Carpe Scrotum?
As a slacker, I prefer to live by
Scrotum Diem: Bag the Day.
These same people tend to reply-all with "Thanks!" or "Me, too!"
A solution I've seen work well in some communities is to reply by adding "Got it" or "Thanks" to the start of the subject line, and [EOF] or [NIM] at then end of the subject line. That way the recipient knows that they don't have to open the message because it's the End Of File or there's No Internal Message.