"Mueller’s authority under Rosenstein’s appointment is broad. Mueller is empowered to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” He may also prosecute federal crimes uncovered in this investigation."
These 21st century "armchair warriors" exist because they're striving to prevent further decline toward *becoming* one the countries that steal people away at night. It's not about sticking it to the Man so much as it is about maintaining accountability. If we held people who start wars of aggression accountable, maybe we wouldn't have quite so many problems with terrorists. Ignoring and or minimizing the domestic side of the issue isn't helpful.
I've been following the field for awhile, so I'm aware of the barriers to success; it is, as the engineers like to say, a non-trivial problem. But I can't possibly be aware of every development, so it's really helpful to get your perspective.
I agree with the general consensus that we're a ways off from accurate machine transcription of group discussions, for the reasons discussed; that several conversations can be active at once, interference from other background noises, comprehending context, etc.
The point about late-deafened people being able to work with lower accuracy is a good one. I'm like that, I can recognize phonetic mistakes and mentally substitute the correct word because I know what it intended, but I have lot of born-deaf friends who would be lost.
One reader took upbrage at rusotto's joke about being able to hear doesn't help here. Me, I laughed. I know what it means to be bored silly even when everything is clear, and even ASL conversations can have the same problem. Another point about referring to deaf folks as "vulnerable" - yes, most people would resent that sort of label, even among those who understand it's not done with malice.
About communications with my mother - yes, we can converse by text, or through an ASL interpreter, and via video relay, and we've done all those things. But each of them is mediated to some degree, and working through Siri is too, but with an important difference; the other mediated techniques are more intrusive and divert focus from the person you're conversing with.
In video relay, I don't see my mother at all - I see an interpreter. Text - typing or writing - is also face to face, but it's slow. An ASL interpreter divides focus between the person I'm conversing with and the 'terp. All of these options work. The difference with Siri is, I can see her as she's speaking, focus on HER, read the text generated by Siri and match that with the facial expressions and body language.
One point made was the capacity for reading fast enough to keep up with transcription of a full table of rapid-fire conversation; I agree that would be tough.
Probably the most practical solution now is an ASL 'terp for those (like me) who know ASL. This is one area where the human capacity for a complex task trumps current tech.
Madness. I recall launch costs aboard the shuttle amount to about 10 grand per pound. Now we're going to quadruple that? Granted, it's an amortized figure, but still.
Private sector contracting for launches is looking more attractive by the day. We have the traditional contenders, Lockheed, et. al., and a hungry new generation - SpaceX, Armadillo, Scaled Composites. With some genuine competition in the market, we could be on the brink of amazing times.
I attended Burt Rutan and Mike Melville's electrifying presentation at the 2004 AirVenture gathering in Wisconsin soon after their success with SpaceShipOne. After they finished, there was a stunned silence, then a woman's voice called out: "WHEN CAN I BUY STOCK???". The audience roared.
Maybe we have a shot at seeing G. Harry Stine's Third Industrial Revolution begin in our lifetimes.
Where do you get the $1-2 billion per launch figure? That seems insanely expensive.
NASA's number for average shuttle launch cost is $450 million. The cost to build Endeavor was $1.7 billion.
You're saying a simple launch of Ares I could amount to more than the expense of constructing a Shuttle?
I did web development from '96 to early 2001. Started as a freelancer in Florida, then temp and perm work in Washington, D.C. Money was good, respect was widespread, temping gave me plenty of time to travel. Good times.
Then the dot.com crash hit. I spent the following year applying to 500 different jobs. Got a few nibbles, a few interviews, but no bites. I threw in the towel and went to work as, basically, an orderly at a psychiatric care center.
We were chronically short-staffed at the outset, so there was all the overtime we could handle and then some. The pay wasn't anywhere near what I made in webdev, but I was too busy to fret about it.
By and by, I move up a notch in position, then become a weekend manager, then help run a new program. It's been nearly eight years now.
I work two full-time jobs, the second one somewhat related to the psychiatric work. 90 hours a week, and earning less than I did doing webdev. I'm not bitter - if anything, I'm thankful that I've got all the work I can handle while some folks are really suffering. My job security is pretty good, because working with psychiatric patients is a specialized skill that requires a certain temperament to do well.
I also write on the side, hence the user name.
Would I go back to webdev? It would require a lot of schooling - much has changed since I left the field - and if I did, I'd do it freelance. A previous poster was right - the problem is not IT, it's the boss.
But working with people definitely has its rewards, or I wouldn't have continued to do it so long. And this field has provided some fascinating insights into human nature, in ways that most folks are never exposed to. It's been an interesting journey all around.
Actually, we can - if the theater supports it. Most of those that do go with what are called rear-window captioned systems. There's an large LED panel in the back of the theatre that displays the captions - but reversed. The deaf viewer is given a reflective acrylic panel on a gooseneck stand that plugs into a holder on the seat.
You have jigger the panel around to get it in a position where it can a) see and reflect the captions on the LED panel, b) not block other people's view, and c) be positioned such that you can watch the movie and glance back at the captions on the panel with a minimum of eye movement.
Frankly, it's a PITA. On-screen subtitles are much better, but hearing audiences won't stand for them (except for imported movies in another language) so we make do with the rear-window system.
Most theatres that have rear-window caption systems only run them with B-movies, and then only on weekday showings at odd times. It's very, very rare that we can enjoy a new, first-rate film with subtitles on a weekend.
Yah, tell me about it. I haven't really watched TV for nearly 15 years, because most content isn't captioned, and most of what is captioned isn't much worth watching. There are exceptions, but I can almost always find more interesting things to do.
Attempts to mandate captioning have only been partially successful. There was originally a deadline for ALL programming in the captioning regulations, but that became a joke - the FCC included the possibility of applying for hardship waivers in the original rules and as the deadline approached, they handed out waivers like candy at Halloween to anyone who asked.
As others have accurately commented, doing a proper job of captioning video is a labor-intensive, finicky and expensive job. PC-based software tools, some of it even freeware, are available, but they aren't used much. Speech recognition isn't quite there yet. Give it a few more years, then maybe, but there's still a need to sync the text to the screen action or narration.
Project Readon.com and dotSub.com are bright spots - not perfect, but definitely a step in the right direction - simple to use, easy to access. One possible market-based solution I can see is having people in my position invite an Indian worker to caption something I really want to see, if we can work out a payment level that is affordable for me and worthwhile for them.
If the UK goes forward with this scheme, they're getting scammed. I know, from research and real-world experience with people with intensive speech-reading training, that lipreading will yield, at most, about 25% of speech. There are simply too many words that look alike or resist analysis to grasp more than that. You can fill in some of the blanks by the situational context, body language and residual hearing, if there is any. But frankly I see this as an effort to take advantage of gullible government agencies by touting a gee-whiz technological solution that won't work.
I'm wondering how this will affect Elon Musk and the SpaceX effort. They've intended to target the low-end of the launch market, and now they're up against a major nation. I would guess SpaceX can rely on some domestic military and academic research contracts, but that could rapidly become a competitive market as well.
I wish both the Indians and Elon well, and hope to see vigorous competition that drives down the price per pound/kilo and delivers safe, reliable access to orbit.
If the TPM chip in the article is as widely implemented as the writer implies, then it's only a matter of time before activation of such a chip will be required for Net access. Your ISP will be legally required to support it. If you're using an older system that doesn't have TPM, too bad - no Net access for you.
Although such schemes are always presented with the highlights of benefits for you, they're not being made to benefit you. They're made to limit what you are permitted to do. If you want a fighting chance of blocking this at the political level, vote Dem or Green, because the crowd in charge now will support ever-increasing restrictions every time.
Just check on deaf folks. I don't know many who use cell phones. All this talk about third world countries being a haven for control groups is absurd; their adoption rate for cellular telephony is incredible.
What you will find in the deaf community is a lot of users with Blackberries and, more recently, Danger Hiptops. If you start seeing tumors sprouting among deaf folks at the waistband, you with the cell phones better get your heads checked.
Slashdot Mirror
Freischutz, thank you for being a lighthouse of reason and sanity in a sea of ignorance. This is the kind of response needed to navigate these times.
Misinformed or minimizing the reality, yes.
From the article:
"Mueller’s authority under Rosenstein’s appointment is broad. Mueller is empowered to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” He may also prosecute federal crimes uncovered in this investigation."
https://thinkprogress.org/two-...
These 21st century "armchair warriors" exist because they're striving to prevent further decline toward *becoming* one the countries that steal people away at night. It's not about sticking it to the Man so much as it is about maintaining accountability. If we held people who start wars of aggression accountable, maybe we wouldn't have quite so many problems with terrorists. Ignoring and or minimizing the domestic side of the issue isn't helpful.
I've been following the field for awhile, so I'm aware of the barriers to success; it is, as the engineers like to say, a non-trivial problem. But I can't possibly be aware of every development, so it's really helpful to get your perspective.
I agree with the general consensus that we're a ways off from accurate machine transcription of group discussions, for the reasons discussed; that several conversations can be active at once, interference from other background noises, comprehending context, etc.
The point about late-deafened people being able to work with lower accuracy is a good one. I'm like that, I can recognize phonetic mistakes and mentally substitute the correct word because I know what it intended, but I have lot of born-deaf friends who would be lost.
One reader took upbrage at rusotto's joke about being able to hear doesn't help here. Me, I laughed. I know what it means to be bored silly even when everything is clear, and even ASL conversations can have the same problem. Another point about referring to deaf folks as "vulnerable" - yes, most people would resent that sort of label, even among those who understand it's not done with malice.
About communications with my mother - yes, we can converse by text, or through an ASL interpreter, and via video relay, and we've done all those things. But each of them is mediated to some degree, and working through Siri is too, but with an important difference; the other mediated techniques are more intrusive and divert focus from the person you're conversing with.
In video relay, I don't see my mother at all - I see an interpreter. Text - typing or writing - is also face to face, but it's slow. An ASL interpreter divides focus between the person I'm conversing with and the 'terp. All of these options work. The difference with Siri is, I can see her as she's speaking, focus on HER, read the text generated by Siri and match that with the facial expressions and body language.
One point made was the capacity for reading fast enough to keep up with transcription of a full table of rapid-fire conversation; I agree that would be tough.
Probably the most practical solution now is an ASL 'terp for those (like me) who know ASL. This is one area where the human capacity for a complex task trumps current tech.
Done. Spread this around.
Timing of deployment seems remarkable.
Madness. I recall launch costs aboard the shuttle amount to about 10 grand per pound. Now we're going to quadruple that? Granted, it's an amortized figure, but still.
Private sector contracting for launches is looking more attractive by the day. We have the traditional contenders, Lockheed, et. al., and a hungry new generation - SpaceX, Armadillo, Scaled Composites. With some genuine competition in the market, we could be on the brink of amazing times.
I attended Burt Rutan and Mike Melville's electrifying presentation at the 2004 AirVenture gathering in Wisconsin soon after their success with SpaceShipOne. After they finished, there was a stunned silence, then a woman's voice called out: "WHEN CAN I BUY STOCK???". The audience roared.
Maybe we have a shot at seeing G. Harry Stine's Third Industrial Revolution begin in our lifetimes.
Where do you get the $1-2 billion per launch figure? That seems insanely expensive. NASA's number for average shuttle launch cost is $450 million. The cost to build Endeavor was $1.7 billion. You're saying a simple launch of Ares I could amount to more than the expense of constructing a Shuttle?
I did web development from '96 to early 2001. Started as a freelancer in Florida, then temp and perm work in Washington, D.C. Money was good, respect was widespread, temping gave me plenty of time to travel. Good times.
Then the dot.com crash hit. I spent the following year applying to 500 different jobs. Got a few nibbles, a few interviews, but no bites. I threw in the towel and went to work as, basically, an orderly at a psychiatric care center.
We were chronically short-staffed at the outset, so there was all the overtime we could handle and then some. The pay wasn't anywhere near what I made in webdev, but I was too busy to fret about it.
By and by, I move up a notch in position, then become a weekend manager, then help run a new program. It's been nearly eight years now.
I work two full-time jobs, the second one somewhat related to the psychiatric work. 90 hours a week, and earning less than I did doing webdev. I'm not bitter - if anything, I'm thankful that I've got all the work I can handle while some folks are really suffering. My job security is pretty good, because working with psychiatric patients is a specialized skill that requires a certain temperament to do well.
I also write on the side, hence the user name.
Would I go back to webdev? It would require a lot of schooling - much has changed since I left the field - and if I did, I'd do it freelance. A previous poster was right - the problem is not IT, it's the boss.
But working with people definitely has its rewards, or I wouldn't have continued to do it so long. And this field has provided some fascinating insights into human nature, in ways that most folks are never exposed to. It's been an interesting journey all around.
Beautiful. Instead of solving one person's problem, solve it for the entire community. That's smart scaling.
Actually, we can - if the theater supports it. Most of those that do go with what are called rear-window captioned systems. There's an large LED panel in the back of the theatre that displays the captions - but reversed. The deaf viewer is given a reflective acrylic panel on a gooseneck stand that plugs into a holder on the seat. You have jigger the panel around to get it in a position where it can a) see and reflect the captions on the LED panel, b) not block other people's view, and c) be positioned such that you can watch the movie and glance back at the captions on the panel with a minimum of eye movement. Frankly, it's a PITA. On-screen subtitles are much better, but hearing audiences won't stand for them (except for imported movies in another language) so we make do with the rear-window system. Most theatres that have rear-window caption systems only run them with B-movies, and then only on weekday showings at odd times. It's very, very rare that we can enjoy a new, first-rate film with subtitles on a weekend.
Yah, tell me about it. I haven't really watched TV for nearly 15 years, because most content isn't captioned, and most of what is captioned isn't much worth watching. There are exceptions, but I can almost always find more interesting things to do.
Attempts to mandate captioning have only been partially successful. There was originally a deadline for ALL programming in the captioning regulations, but that became a joke - the FCC included the possibility of applying for hardship waivers in the original rules and as the deadline approached, they handed out waivers like candy at Halloween to anyone who asked.
As others have accurately commented, doing a proper job of captioning video is a labor-intensive, finicky and expensive job. PC-based software tools, some of it even freeware, are available, but they aren't used much. Speech recognition isn't quite there yet. Give it a few more years, then maybe, but there's still a need to sync the text to the screen action or narration.
Project Readon.com and dotSub.com are bright spots - not perfect, but definitely a step in the right direction - simple to use, easy to access. One possible market-based solution I can see is having people in my position invite an Indian worker to caption something I really want to see, if we can work out a payment level that is affordable for me and worthwhile for them.
If the UK goes forward with this scheme, they're getting scammed. I know, from research and real-world experience with people with intensive speech-reading training, that lipreading will yield, at most, about 25% of speech. There are simply too many words that look alike or resist analysis to grasp more than that. You can fill in some of the blanks by the situational context, body language and residual hearing, if there is any. But frankly I see this as an effort to take advantage of gullible government agencies by touting a gee-whiz technological solution that won't work.
I'm wondering how this will affect Elon Musk and the SpaceX effort. They've intended to target the low-end of the launch market, and now they're up against a major nation. I would guess SpaceX can rely on some domestic military and academic research contracts, but that could rapidly become a competitive market as well. I wish both the Indians and Elon well, and hope to see vigorous competition that drives down the price per pound/kilo and delivers safe, reliable access to orbit.
If the TPM chip in the article is as widely implemented as the writer implies, then it's only a matter of time before activation of such a chip will be required for Net access. Your ISP will be legally required to support it. If you're using an older system that doesn't have TPM, too bad - no Net access for you.
Although such schemes are always presented with the highlights of benefits for you, they're not being made to benefit you. They're made to limit what you are permitted to do. If you want a fighting chance of blocking this at the political level, vote Dem or Green, because the crowd in charge now will support ever-increasing restrictions every time.
Just check on deaf folks. I don't know many who use cell phones. All this talk about third world countries being a haven for control groups is absurd; their adoption rate for cellular telephony is incredible. What you will find in the deaf community is a lot of users with Blackberries and, more recently, Danger Hiptops. If you start seeing tumors sprouting among deaf folks at the waistband, you with the cell phones better get your heads checked.