Although the mentioned release is for the PC, I'd say this has a major impact on another realm: mobile devices. I'd even go so far to speculate that this is one of the main reasons for implementing H.264 (the blog just says "our customers want it").
In most mobile standards (e.g. 3GPP, DVB), and also for IPTV, H.264 is the required video codec. So unless an environment can support it, one way or the other, it is not relevant for implementing services with it. This was a drawback of Flash in the past, I reckon it's now back in the race. With H.264 and AAC capabilities, it is possible to implement mobile (video/TV) clients. And: as Flash is supported on many different devices, you can use it to offer a service that is available on PCs, mobile devices (phone, PDA), set top boxes,... (a.k.a. converged services)
Took Adobe a while to realize that without H.264 the road will be rocky, no matter how good their supported video codec is, just because it's not in the standards.
If you don't want to be seen going somewhere then take out your battery.
That is what the jihadis do in Palestine and Occupied Iraq.
I can only wish this was in the manual on how to build remotely triggered bombs:
Remove battery from mobile phone, then attach phone to trigger mechanism. Detonate bomb by calling the attached phone. Remember: do not insert the battery again, as the phone can then be located!
"Oooh I want gonna laugh you know, but can't, it's sci-fi fer christ's sakes!..."
Ah, yes, but Firefly, Farscape and Futurama (ok, and sometimes Lexx) should have tought us otherwise by now. Star Trek also had its moments, although not constantly. Sci-Fi CAN be funny:)
Farscape wasn't silly, it just had a quirky humor. One episode featured Rygel in black latex as a dominatrix. I almost choked from laughing, but I'm sure not everyone found it THAT funny:) And if you're not into pop culture references, then you miss/don't like 50% of Crichton's dialogue...
A quick description of the system we use at the University: slides (as a PDF) and audio lectures (as a MP3 for DL and streaming) are distributed in advance of a lecture every week. Exceptions are only when the workload is so high that slides & audio lectures are delayed.
Yes, this could enable students to skip classes. However, quite an amount of additional information & interaction is give in the class. The electronic media are an addition to the class, not a replacement.
We also have newgroups for asynchronous discussion, which is used heavily. Especially a week before the final exams our groups are flooded with questions. Answering them can be tedious, but you can let the students help each other and only jump in when a student answer is incorrect or nobody knows for sure. Believe me: students cherish such a service:)
So how do students learn? 90% still visit the classes, but are better prepared because they can focus on the prof and can annotate their slides when required. Students no longer waste time on copying the slides. Some students use the audio lectures for preparation and wrap-up. [1] The audio lectures of course are different to the classes - they should last 15 minutes max. In the weeks before exams, students learn with the slide sets and listen to specific audio lectures again to fill the gaps.
So to sum it up:
publish slides & audio lectures
publish them, if possible, before the class
create the audio lectures are short summaries (approx. 15 min)
do not create the audio lectures as class replacements
free the students in the class of tedious writing tasks (copying slides), let them focus on the topic & discussion
engage in online discussion boards
Of course, this requires a certain degree of self-organization on the side of the students... life is no pony farm.
HTH
[1] downloads are a good thing: they can be transferred to a MP3 player or burned on a CD. Students listen to the audio lectures when jogging, on public transit, and as "audio books" in the car. Honestly.
Ah, thanks for the info. I guess since the PSP will be available here in a week I failed to keep up with related articles;)
I currently thinking of actually buying a PSP... although I don't require it to be a mobile playstation; I'd be very interested in other applications, like web, movies & e-mail. So the lack of games doesn't bother me really.
However, I wouldn't mind a huge choice of games. Maybe I'll wait till after christmas, hoping a number of games will be released, and prices will drop.
Maybe in the long run they think about adding another feature: streamed movies. From what I read, watching movies on the PSP has become quite popular. Why not add the capability to display streamed videos?
I am aware there are several limitations, as you won't watch a complete movie in an Internet Cafe (where you have WLAN coverage) or at home (where the DVD player is just a few feet away). But you COULD watch short news clips, music videos, travel information or movie trailers where WLAN is available (usually Internet Cafes, airports etc.) These types of short clips would also pose the least DRM issues.
I think it might be a nice feature. Let's see if they give it a shot... I admit: I doubt it:)
I looked at AvantGo, but it doesn't support Linux.
Probably depends on your PDA. I'm using a (rather old) m515 with Linux & J-Pilot. Get the client for the PDA from AvantGo (the last files contain the.PRCs), then J-Pilot, and finally the MAL plugin (which might be already included in your distribution). Don't forget to enable the conduit in J-Pilot:)
I'm happy with AvantGo; it may not be perfect for content creators (since they have to pay for a channel), but as a user I get quite a nice bunch of information. Replaces a daily newspaper.
As for RSS feeds... it would be interesting to see the most recent/most searched queries on Google. And maybe the results (including pictures *g*).
Change your operating system's language to the language you are interested in learning.
Also works with mobile phones. My phone offers german, english, french, turkish, isizulu (?) and sesotho (???). You should remember how to reach this menu, however, or you should know the code how to reset this setting:)
LensLock, anyone?:) It was a small lens which you had to place against your TV screen. Only with this lens a combination of characters displayed by the program became legible... Boy, that was an odd way to protect software *g*
And the very first "Leaderboard" used an dongle for the joystick port - at least on my old Atari 800XL.
If Will was as far advanced as John Carmack is in 3D, the inner and interpersonal depth and authenticity would rival a real experience.
This is IMHO not quite an appropriate comparison. In no way I want to belittle the achievements by John Carmack, but to my mind improving a graphics engine is also supported by next generation graphic cards which allow for more complex eye candy.
Improving on the "inner and interpersonal depth", on the other hand, is not supported by advances in hardware (yet) but requires a better understanding and 'reproduction' (for lack of a better word) of mental processes. In short: real-life Sims need real-life artifical intelligence. And research in the AI department has been rather slow over the last decades. I guess it will happen, and then we will see smarter and more realistic sims.
But then again, maybe not:
Wright's learned even more from fans' interactions with The Sims -- lessons he's now applying to his robotic creations: like not making the machines too life-like.
"One of the reasons The Sims seem so realistic is because everything in the game is somewhat abstract. You see icons of what a Sims is talking about, not the exact words," Wright said. "It invites the player to come in and imagine the details. To pour personality into these empty vessels. If we gave The Sims too much detail, the illusion would break."
What would be really nice is to have the full texts of articles available P2P.
S2S is such a network for academic users as the target group. It is currently in a test phase. Sponsored by the German government. Also includes an expert client, where you can sign yourself up as an expert for a specific area and get to answer questions. According to the current statistic, the network provides over 1 million documents.
Slashdot Mirror
Although the mentioned release is for the PC, I'd say this has a major impact on another realm: mobile devices. I'd even go so far to speculate that this is one of the main reasons for implementing H.264 (the blog just says "our customers want it").
... (a.k.a. converged services)
In most mobile standards (e.g. 3GPP, DVB), and also for IPTV, H.264 is the required video codec. So unless an environment can support it, one way or the other, it is not relevant for implementing services with it. This was a drawback of Flash in the past, I reckon it's now back in the race. With H.264 and AAC capabilities, it is possible to implement mobile (video/TV) clients. And: as Flash is supported on many different devices, you can use it to offer a service that is available on PCs, mobile devices (phone, PDA), set top boxes,
Took Adobe a while to realize that without H.264 the road will be rocky, no matter how good their supported video codec is, just because it's not in the standards.
If you don't want to be seen going somewhere then take out your battery.
That is what the jihadis do in Palestine and Occupied Iraq.
I can only wish this was in the manual on how to build remotely triggered bombs:
Remove battery from mobile phone, then attach phone to trigger mechanism. Detonate bomb by calling the attached phone. Remember: do not insert the battery again, as the phone can then be located!
"Oooh I want gonna laugh you know, but can't, it's sci-fi fer christ's sakes!..."
:)
Ah, yes, but Firefly, Farscape and Futurama (ok, and sometimes Lexx) should have tought us otherwise by now. Star Trek also had its moments, although not constantly. Sci-Fi CAN be funny
Farscape wasn't silly, it just had a quirky humor. One episode featured Rygel in black latex as a dominatrix. I almost choked from laughing, but I'm sure not everyone found it THAT funny :) And if you're not into pop culture references, then you miss/don't like 50% of Crichton's dialogue...
Chiana. 'Nuff said.
Both Miller's Bar and Redcoat Tavern do have non-smoking sections
Smoke doesn't know how to stay in the smoking section...
"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."
because every idea is conceived-of exactly once in the entire lifetime of the universe
Aaah, no, it's because the Simpsons already did it...
Good Bye, Good Luck, Good Riddance.
Yes, this could enable students to skip classes. However, quite an amount of additional information & interaction is give in the class. The electronic media are an addition to the class, not a replacement.
We also have newgroups for asynchronous discussion, which is used heavily. Especially a week before the final exams our groups are flooded with questions. Answering them can be tedious, but you can let the students help each other and only jump in when a student answer is incorrect or nobody knows for sure. Believe me: students cherish such a service
So how do students learn? 90% still visit the classes, but are better prepared because they can focus on the prof and can annotate their slides when required. Students no longer waste time on copying the slides. Some students use the audio lectures for preparation and wrap-up. [1] The audio lectures of course are different to the classes - they should last 15 minutes max. In the weeks before exams, students learn with the slide sets and listen to specific audio lectures again to fill the gaps.
So to sum it up:
Of course, this requires a certain degree of self-organization on the side of the students... life is no pony farm.
HTH
[1] downloads are a good thing: they can be transferred to a MP3 player or burned on a CD. Students listen to the audio lectures when jogging, on public transit, and as "audio books" in the car. Honestly.
Ah, thanks for the info. I guess since the PSP will be available here in a week I failed to keep up with related articles ;)
I currently thinking of actually buying a PSP... although I don't require it to be a mobile playstation; I'd be very interested in other applications, like web, movies & e-mail. So the lack of games doesn't bother me really.
However, I wouldn't mind a huge choice of games. Maybe I'll wait till after christmas, hoping a number of games will be released, and prices will drop.
Maybe in the long run they think about adding another feature: streamed movies. From what I read, watching movies on the PSP has become quite popular. Why not add the capability to display streamed videos?
:)
I am aware there are several limitations, as you won't watch a complete movie in an Internet Cafe (where you have WLAN coverage) or at home (where the DVD player is just a few feet away). But you COULD watch short news clips, music videos, travel information or movie trailers where WLAN is available (usually Internet Cafes, airports etc.) These types of short clips would also pose the least DRM issues.
I think it might be a nice feature. Let's see if they give it a shot... I admit: I doubt it
I looked at AvantGo, but it doesn't support Linux.
.PRCs), then J-Pilot, and finally the MAL plugin (which might be already included in your distribution). Don't forget to enable the conduit in J-Pilot :)
Probably depends on your PDA. I'm using a (rather old) m515 with Linux & J-Pilot. Get the client for the PDA from AvantGo (the last files contain the
I installed an RSS reader on my PDA
I'm happy with AvantGo; it may not be perfect for content creators (since they have to pay for a channel), but as a user I get quite a nice bunch of information. Replaces a daily newspaper.
As for RSS feeds... it would be interesting to see the most recent/most searched queries on Google. And maybe the results (including pictures *g*).
*hehehmmheheeheee* Yeah, Fire! Fire! FIRE! *hehehmmhehehemhmee* Shut up, Beavis! Exploding toads are cool! *hhmmhehehehe*
Don't forget that kid who wrote his homework on a shovel, with a piece of coal. A shovel is handheld, too. Doesn't run Linux, though. Yet ;)
Gotta love the fact that you can choose what interface your desktop has.
;)
Don't forget to love the fact that you can choose what desktop your OS has
Now... you CAN choose your desktop, right?
try reading that when you're over 65 and your eyes get 30% less contrast!
Don't read. "Become one with the web." (SCNR)
There are some nastolgic Windows 1.0 screenshots available, too.
:)
"Empty desktop"... well, well, ain't that a favourite
Change your operating system's language to the language you are interested in learning.
:)
Also works with mobile phones. My phone offers german, english, french, turkish, isizulu (?) and sesotho (???). You should remember how to reach this menu, however, or you should know the code how to reset this setting
There's been worse copy protection schemes.
:) It was a small lens which you had to place against your TV screen. Only with this lens a combination of characters displayed by the program became legible... Boy, that was an odd way to protect software *g*
LensLock, anyone?
And the very first "Leaderboard" used an dongle for the joystick port - at least on my old Atari 800XL.
If Will was as far advanced as John Carmack is in 3D, the inner and interpersonal depth and authenticity would rival a real experience.
This is IMHO not quite an appropriate comparison. In no way I want to belittle the achievements by John Carmack, but to my mind improving a graphics engine is also supported by next generation graphic cards which allow for more complex eye candy.
Improving on the "inner and interpersonal depth", on the other hand, is not supported by advances in hardware (yet) but requires a better understanding and 'reproduction' (for lack of a better word) of mental processes. In short: real-life Sims need real-life artifical intelligence. And research in the AI department has been rather slow over the last decades. I guess it will happen, and then we will see smarter and more realistic sims.
But then again, maybe not:
Wright's learned even more from fans' interactions with The Sims -- lessons he's now applying to his robotic creations: like not making the machines too life-like.
"One of the reasons The Sims seem so realistic is because everything in the game is somewhat abstract. You see icons of what a Sims is talking about, not the exact words," Wright said. "It invites the player to come in and imagine the details. To pour personality into these empty vessels. If we gave The Sims too much detail, the illusion would break."
From Wired News
Here they are... boink-a-dink-a-ish enough? ;)
Start from a page, e.g. slashdot, and try to reach a certain other page, say somethingawful.com, by just selecting text and middle-clicking.
;)
Try to reach your target with no more than, say... 6 clicks?
What would be really nice is to have the full texts of articles available P2P.
S2S is such a network for academic users as the target group. It is currently in a test phase. Sponsored by the German government. Also includes an expert client, where you can sign yourself up as an expert for a specific area and get to answer questions. According to the current statistic, the network provides over 1 million documents.
Homepage is here, but in German: http://s2s.neofonie.de/