it's so obviously a joke. "unclothed girlflesh"? and a funny one at that.
altho it's quite possible that it'll become a real controversy in a few months after a gazillion teenagers get video ipods for the holidays.
i work for a telcom, and years of that were spent doing tech support. currently i'm in a position where people call me directly.
the system you describe would be terrible for all parties involved. phone tag is an unbelievable waste of time. at least 50% of the time when i call someone they do not answer the phone, even if they left the message less than a minute ago. and when they try to call me back - surprise surprise, i've taken another call. so they're back in my voicemail... ad infinitum.
it's also not at all uncommon for people to leave the wrong number, a number which is not functional (a VOIP line and their internet connection is down, a line that rings through but goes to voicemail and their voicemail is full, a number which is busy and they have no call waiting, etc. etc.) sometimes people just don't answer any call which doesn't have caller ID... but if you're calling out of a pbx phone system, you frequently won't have any.
the result? you can't reach them, and they attribute that to not caring about them as a customer.
i work for a telcom. there's no significant price difference between inbound LD to a tollfree number and outbound LD.
unless you're talking about companies which don't provide a tollfree number for customer service, which i've always found wack.
sometimes the account number determines who answers your call. for example, if you're a business customer, you'll get routed to one department... a home user would go to another... and the first few digits in the account number would indicate which you were.
although programs which can send the person answering the phone whatever you typed in do exist, they can be expensive... so really it comes down to what's cheapest. routing you automatically is cheap, passing the dtmf you typed in to an agent is not always so cheap.
Some ipod owners I know use software to automatically record NPR and other audio streams to mp3, then load it onto the ipod and listen during the day.
Although that's not nearly as timely, I think it's still an interesting alternative.. particularly if the radio shows you're interested in are broadcast at odd hours of the day/evening.
I agree, the lack of ogg support is weak. However, I'm not sure what you're referencing as far as uploading your music to other machines. I regularly move music between my ipod and laptop/desktop/work computer/other people's computers.
Maybe you're referring to how files purchased at the iTunes store limit the number of times you can burn them/number of machines you can play them on? If so, I agree that situation sucks.. but there's no reason you'd have to put iTunes-store-purchased-files on the player. I don't.
To transfer files back to your PC, you just set the ipod into hard drive mode, find the file you want, and drag and drop.
If you prefer a prettier GUI, there are plenty of software programs out there (freeware, shareware, and paid versions) to copy files back to the hard drive from an ipod.
I've also used the iriver players, and some of the additional features they have are great (particularly the ability to record audio.) However, the interface drives me nuts. It'd be fine if you were navigating through 5-10gb of music, but pack 40+ in there and trying to find anything is a lengthy process.
I can't agree that the ipod gives less freedom if your primary goal is music; I get much more satisfaction out of being able to easily navigate by artist, album, genre, bpm, year of the album, composer, playlists, date i last played a particular track, etc. vs scrolling through a huge list without much ability to sort.
My wonderful webhost (like many others) lets me have as many email aliases as I want. So every time I sign up for something online, I just use a form of whatever I'm signing up for (kim4abcwebsite@mydomain.com).
That way, as soon as I get my first spam, I can: 1) Kill the alias 2) Reliably report the offender, since I know that there's only 1 website I ever gave that particular alias to.
It's beautiful AND educational.. for example, I never would've guessed that the NY Times would be sellin' me.
(I know that a lot of you are already well aware of this tactic, but judging from previous responses, there are still a few who are not.)
but how do you grow out of being a freak or weirdo
if you actually are freaky and weird?
i wouldn't argue with your premise that many people just pretend to be freaky and weird for peer recognition.
but i also feel that there are people who are genuinely strange/eccentric/not identical to whatever society's idea of "normal" is.
so it seems like it would be really lonely to be continuously surrounded by people who had decided you were a freak and a loser if that's what you really were..
the only people i've known who have gone have been
minimum wage workers. but anyway, is that really why people go? to "celebrate anti-commercialism and equality"?
it seems like if that was your main reason you'd do something else that didn't cost money.
but i wasn't ever under the impression that that was somebody's main reason for going
argh. i tried to post a long message and it
said i hadn't waited two minutes... then when i hit back, it all disappeared.
anyhow.
why is it a fucked up priority to want to travel? i've never seen a desert, so i'd be curious about this event regardless of whether it's art or not.
that's what i was wondering, too.
i have a lot of opinions on burning man, but i've never been. so i wouldn't even think of saying "this is what it is"...
i've never been to burning man, so i object to what you're writing only on a philosophical basis.
have you been?
i feel that any artist who is striving to be significant is wasting their time and everyone else's. if you strive to be significant, you are not contributing to humanity.. you're trying to contribute to your own ego.
if you create for the sake of creating, because it is like living, because there is no alternative, because it is from the heart... that to me is a contribution.
the world doesn't need more people trying to be recognized
you said that you feel it's arrogant to create something which isn't going to last.
i think it's far more arrogant to create something for the purpose of gaining recognition, whether in life or in death, rather than for the sake of creating it.
the most beautiful moments in my life haven't lasted. they couldn't; by very nature they were transitory. i don't see how that makes them worthless or shallow
Slashdot Mirror
it's so obviously a joke. "unclothed girlflesh"? and a funny one at that. altho it's quite possible that it'll become a real controversy in a few months after a gazillion teenagers get video ipods for the holidays.
i work for a telcom, and years of that were spent doing tech support. currently i'm in a position where people call me directly. the system you describe would be terrible for all parties involved. phone tag is an unbelievable waste of time. at least 50% of the time when i call someone they do not answer the phone, even if they left the message less than a minute ago. and when they try to call me back - surprise surprise, i've taken another call. so they're back in my voicemail... ad infinitum. it's also not at all uncommon for people to leave the wrong number, a number which is not functional (a VOIP line and their internet connection is down, a line that rings through but goes to voicemail and their voicemail is full, a number which is busy and they have no call waiting, etc. etc.) sometimes people just don't answer any call which doesn't have caller ID... but if you're calling out of a pbx phone system, you frequently won't have any. the result? you can't reach them, and they attribute that to not caring about them as a customer.
i work for a telcom. there's no significant price difference between inbound LD to a tollfree number and outbound LD. unless you're talking about companies which don't provide a tollfree number for customer service, which i've always found wack.
sometimes the account number determines who answers your call. for example, if you're a business customer, you'll get routed to one department... a home user would go to another... and the first few digits in the account number would indicate which you were. although programs which can send the person answering the phone whatever you typed in do exist, they can be expensive... so really it comes down to what's cheapest. routing you automatically is cheap, passing the dtmf you typed in to an agent is not always so cheap.
Some ipod owners I know use software to automatically record NPR and other audio streams to mp3, then load it onto the ipod and listen during the day. Although that's not nearly as timely, I think it's still an interesting alternative.. particularly if the radio shows you're interested in are broadcast at odd hours of the day/evening.
I agree, the lack of ogg support is weak. However, I'm not sure what you're referencing as far as uploading your music to other machines. I regularly move music between my ipod and laptop/desktop/work computer/other people's computers. Maybe you're referring to how files purchased at the iTunes store limit the number of times you can burn them/number of machines you can play them on? If so, I agree that situation sucks.. but there's no reason you'd have to put iTunes-store-purchased-files on the player. I don't.
To transfer files back to your PC, you just set the ipod into hard drive mode, find the file you want, and drag and drop. If you prefer a prettier GUI, there are plenty of software programs out there (freeware, shareware, and paid versions) to copy files back to the hard drive from an ipod. I've also used the iriver players, and some of the additional features they have are great (particularly the ability to record audio.) However, the interface drives me nuts. It'd be fine if you were navigating through 5-10gb of music, but pack 40+ in there and trying to find anything is a lengthy process. I can't agree that the ipod gives less freedom if your primary goal is music; I get much more satisfaction out of being able to easily navigate by artist, album, genre, bpm, year of the album, composer, playlists, date i last played a particular track, etc. vs scrolling through a huge list without much ability to sort.
My wonderful webhost (like many others) lets me have as many email aliases as I want. So every time I sign up for something online, I just use a form of whatever I'm signing up for (kim4abcwebsite@mydomain.com).
That way, as soon as I get my first spam, I can:
1) Kill the alias
2) Reliably report the offender, since I know that there's only 1 website I ever gave that particular alias to.
It's beautiful AND educational.. for example, I never would've guessed that the NY Times would be sellin' me.
(I know that a lot of you are already well aware of this tactic, but judging from previous responses, there are still a few who are not.)
but how do you grow out of being a freak or weirdo if you actually are freaky and weird? i wouldn't argue with your premise that many people just pretend to be freaky and weird for peer recognition. but i also feel that there are people who are genuinely strange/eccentric/not identical to whatever society's idea of "normal" is. so it seems like it would be really lonely to be continuously surrounded by people who had decided you were a freak and a loser if that's what you really were..
the only people i've known who have gone have been minimum wage workers. but anyway, is that really why people go? to "celebrate anti-commercialism and equality"? it seems like if that was your main reason you'd do something else that didn't cost money. but i wasn't ever under the impression that that was somebody's main reason for going
argh. i tried to post a long message and it said i hadn't waited two minutes... then when i hit back, it all disappeared. anyhow. why is it a fucked up priority to want to travel? i've never seen a desert, so i'd be curious about this event regardless of whether it's art or not.
that's what i was wondering, too. i have a lot of opinions on burning man, but i've never been. so i wouldn't even think of saying "this is what it is"...
i've never been to burning man, so i object to what you're writing only on a philosophical basis. have you been? i feel that any artist who is striving to be significant is wasting their time and everyone else's. if you strive to be significant, you are not contributing to humanity.. you're trying to contribute to your own ego. if you create for the sake of creating, because it is like living, because there is no alternative, because it is from the heart... that to me is a contribution. the world doesn't need more people trying to be recognized
you said that you feel it's arrogant to create something which isn't going to last. i think it's far more arrogant to create something for the purpose of gaining recognition, whether in life or in death, rather than for the sake of creating it. the most beautiful moments in my life haven't lasted. they couldn't; by very nature they were transitory. i don't see how that makes them worthless or shallow