Or epidemiologists, or hell, even your friendly neighborhood doctor:
"Oh sure, I'd love to help you -- and others -- out with that nasty bout of flu you're suffering from this year, but because Herbert Spencer's saying is now an immutable Law of Nature for...um, some reason...hopefully humanity will evolve its way out of this faster than the virus does."
[[Doctor pats patient on the back]]
"Good luck next life...if that exists!"
[[Doctor laughs evilly]]
That may be happening because the headline's misleading (as usual); it should be
Undecided Voters Swayed by Candidates Who Share Their Looks
But then,/. wouldn't get as many "Um, wha??" clicks, and the more cynical of us would tag the story "noshitsherlock";-)
Hey -- There's your idea for a social experiment!
Yeah, that's a lot of porn. In fact it's about 2 lifetimes worth. What friggin' "lifetime" are you talking about?!
2 TB is 2 lifetimes, if by "lifetime" you mean "month"
Let's do some calculation:
Assuming (for simplicity) that each porn DVD takes up an average of 4 GB of data (out of the 4.7 GB available), and assuming all porn DVD titles are single-disc (no double-disc special editions), we have:
2 TB on card / 4 GB per porn title = 500 titles per card.
The only source I have for amount of adult DVD releases per year is here on Wikipedia, so Wikiality applies; but it states 11300 releases/year in the USA in 2002, so let's run with that number.
11300 rel per yr / 12 months ~= 941 2/3 releases per month, so we'll round that down to 941. 500 titles possible on a card / 941 releases in a month ~= 53.135 % of a month's worth of porn vids on a card.
In other words, your "lifetime" is roughly two weeks...one week on standard resolution.
And that's not even counting NNTP or P2P.
Now that I've done the adult film industry a service, can I get laid now?;-)
Er, I think this is only done if you work for the company/have shares in them, not if you are one of the hundreds of millions that uses a popular free service provided by the company.
No problem. I don't have any shares or work for the company, but let it never be said I don't stay above-board in every circumstance.
Besides, if my Slashdot karma was to go down, I didn't want my actual Karma to go down as well.;-)
And before I get modded down: how exactly is Google supposed to get the power to run not just the servers, but the cooling, network switches, and other hardware that will keep it from the equivalent of being Slashdotted?
Considering that Google is one of the top sites on the Internet, I frankly have no problem with this, considering there aren't any viable solutions to produce power of that magnitude (though it'll be interesting if Google eventually just builds its own power plant -- GoogleVolts FTW!); and after all, they've got shareholders to look after...gotta keep the company profitable. Google (and the other companies on that will be on that river) will probably donate some of its funds to carbon offsets to shut everybody up and get good PR at the same time.
and how taxpayers are footing the bill for a lot of it.
This taxpayer says "better the funds go to Google (or other companies) rather than to a pointless war."
But I don't live in the town in question, so what I say is moot. But don't complain to Google...complain to the city for pimping themselves out to get the corps to build there. We've been down this road hundreds of times across the country with Wal-Mart.
And as an aside, I'm a little loath to quote that Harper's article as gospel considering that the server count in the article went from "1,000s" to "a thousand times more?! With no source?! I have to call shenanigans on that hand-waving, sorry.
(Full disclosure: I have a GMail account. But I would say the above if this was say, Wikipedia that's using that power.)
Make them show a huge "surprise" to Wall Street and have to explain it in the context of their "net neutrality" position?
Sure -- Comcast will just say
"We've 'rooted out' all the 'dead-enders' (to use a Rumsfeldian term) who were clogging up our network with piracy-related traffic. Not only can our valued customers browse the Internet at even faster (wink-wink) speeds; we have the solution to mass piracy! We'll be sharing our results with our trusted representatives at the RIAA and the MPAA."
Never underestimate the power (positive or negative) of PR, my friend.
You must be new he...er, you must be new to FARK.
Articles (or more clearly, headlines) like this often are tagged as "obvious" all the time at FARK. Bonus points if there's a "well duh!" groupthink factor.
It's just Internet cross-pollination at work. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Ric Romero yet.
It's nice to see the right people being held accountable for a change.
Nice bit of flamebait there.
Yeah, I know it's/. , so the majority of folks will be going "HAHA ST00P1D MICRO$OFT LUSERS PWNED LOLZ!1!!eleventyone!"
Once everybody gets that out of their system, IMHO Lundis Energi is really being a bunch of assholes, and I have no sympathy for them, as it makes them seem like a company run by a bunch of 15-year-olds who've just discovered Ubuntu.
They find a bug (or rather, the users did) in newly-released software that doesn't play nice with their Linux-based server. Rather than you know, cooporate with Microsoft to help diagnose the problem, they're essentially saying to their users "We think you're a bunch of losers (LUSERS HAHA!!1!), so ya'll use the OS we want and tell you to use! If you don't like it, kiss our asses! And Micro$oft can kiss our ass too until they fix the bug!"
Because, after all, bugs never, ever happen on any software ever, and developers psychically know what exactly a bug does without any reporting by end-users whatsoever.
Now if they have a policy of "NOT Windows Vista compatible right now" clearly stated to their users, then that's understandable. But eventually, most folks will move to Vista (like it or not), so this bug needs to be squashed on whomever's end.
I'll end my rant with this:
how in the hell is Lundis Energi so sure it's not a bug on their software?
(sarcasm) Oh right, it's Microsoft, so it MUST be them. (/sarcasm)
...if you pass a cracked RFID chip through a passport reader and then it crashes,
#1: the guard will humanly read your inside cover photo with extra vigilance...the chip is not the only method of ID
#2: you'll probably be detained for a bit while they re-test your passport; if it fails again, they'll tell you to get a new passport
(#2a: or be placed on a no-fly list, because you're a terrorist)
Plus, how exactly would a code-injection exploit work unless it's something like the GDI+ vulnerability that occurred with WMF files? (If a rogue guard is injecting evil code into the machine, the government had waaay more scary problems ahead than with some 'sploiting a passport reader).
All that being said, there are some things (i.e. voting machines) that just should not be electronic-ized, and I feel this is one of them.
Other than "it'll get you through faster!!", what is the point of using chips when, more than likely, the passport clerk has to humanly-read it to verify the info anyway? Especially considering that the particular RFID chip technology used in the passport is going to be obsolete or cracked in 3 years, and most passports don't expire for five or ten years?
I know that you were trying to make a joke, but if you (and others) would've RTFA, it would be seen that this article has nothing, NOTHING to do with Nigeria!
Don't believe me? Try searching for the string "Nigeria" in the print version of the article.
This is why I'm a little PO'd that when almost anything about Internet access in Africa comes up (ref: today's OLPC article), it's always "Fuck that, I don't want more 419 scams!" (never occurring to oneself to educate oneself aboutthem and just delete the damn things).
Thinking along those lines is a dis-service to others in Africa who need the speedy access, such as educational institutions, medical workers, relief/aid workers, scientists, engineers...and can make a big opening for globalized businesses (that are not mining or petrochem), such as car/truck companies and electronic research companies, to come into the country and start building stuff up. For all we know (and I might get modded down for this), Kigali, Rwanda in 10-20 years could be the next Bangalore, India if they have the resources to do it.
Thinking in the mentality box of "SCAMMERZ!" or "All they want is teh pr0n!" is what may be a small part, but still helping to mismanage stop investment in Africa, which is the point of TFA in the first place.
OK, now that we have the silly "OH NOES!!! More Nigerian 419 romance spyware scamz!!1!1eleven!" posts out of the way, this article in summary seems to be like this:
1) Some millionaire who made a fortune during the tech bubble and who has never set foot on African soil, promises the telecom equivalent of the sun to Rwanda. Him and his company, Terracom, fails to deliver. Blames government and network infrastructure (that of course said millionaire never could've imagined!).
2) Governments get pissed off at the bait-and-switch. One fines Terracom "for failing to comply with its licensing obligations, failing to provide information about its operations and failing to pay several fees." Governments, however, can't do anything about schools and locations not having electricity...or can they?
3) Enter new CEO of Terrecom. Promises the sun again. They're a totally different company, they promise!
4) Government is fed up, starts hooking up telecom infrastructure themselves. Terrecom "welcomes the competetion" and whines (somewhat rightly) about infrastructure yet again.
Winners: dudes who took the government/Venture Cap money and ran.
Losers: anyone waiting and trying to get affordable and accessible Internet access.
The sad thing is, strike out Terrecom and replace AT&T and you have roughly the same situation (if only a tenth as bleak) in the USA (and I live in the USA).
Just wondering: why is it so hard to get Internet access to (central) Africa, but the water-locked continent of Australia is, or seems to be, humming along just fine?
It's not "BP", it's "bp". I know your evil plan, you want us to remember the days of British Petroleum.
Hah!
It ain't British Petroleum; they're now beyond petroleum.
Eventually, the humanitarian corporation will transcend the material plane and become beings of pure energy, effectively destroying our oil dependence! At that time, they shall only be known as the color green (specifically Pantone Color 348C). for they will have no use for words!
"No crashes, no crashes, no crashes...STOP!!"
Crap! {{Foghorn noise}} (Animation of Steve Ballmer throwing chair and breaking monitor, Ballmer head pops up with a {{boing}} noise)
Well, when you consider the money students (and by extension, their parents) bring in to the univ through alumni funds, sports tickets, targeted advertising, the college loan bribery scandal, and loan companies profiting off of said bribery scandal...
why yes, yes they are.
Might as well have the asset tags...er, student ID's have tracking capabilities so those carbon-based ATMs don't get away.
...which once again supports my theory that ~95% of posts discussing a person's spelling or grammar on/. must have at least one grammatical or spelling error, usually in a hilariously ironic location or position relative to the content of the post.
(Yes, I know this would include more than likely my own post as well, even though I checked for spelling. I can make a spelling error if you want. Really, I can. Please?)
From PlusNet's letter:
In the meantime, if you use Webmail to check your PlusNet email from your own PC, you might find it more convenient to use an email program which runs on your PC instead.
So let me get this straight: PlusNet's closing down the WebMail service, but leaves the main e-mail server running, so
(1) the spam still comes in to the e-mail addresses
(2) users now cannot access via their Internet Browser and must use an e-mail client which may not filter spam as well (or sometimes at all)
Brilliant!
Who's running this company -- Moe, Larry, or Curly?
The Prius gets 55 MPG, the Geo metro and Honda civic in the late 80's and early 90 got mid 50's.
Problem is, those cars oftentimes didn't have (or were only available as really expensive options):
anti-lock brakes
airbags of any kind
air conditioning
power steering
automatic transmission
reinforced construction (side-impact door beams, etc.)
All of that stuff above is expected as standard these days by consumers, and in the USA, some of those safety features are now legally required (e.g. the airbags). All of that extra stuff costs in terms of weight, and a double-digit horsepower engine simply won't cut these days with the amount of relative heft a car has to pull. Try dropping that 3 cylinder, 49 horsepower engine (from the [Chevrolet] Geo Metro XFi from your example) into its nearest new generation model, the Chevy Aveo, and see if you can get up to modern expressway speeds without worrying about meeting the business end of a Kenworth.
Personally, I wouldn't mind using that Geo Metro XFi to commute to and from work, but I wouldn't want to drive it on a roadtrip through, let's say, Texas in August (75 mph speed limits with no A/C and marauding Chevy Silverados and Ford F-150s going 85 or 90 -- forget it, I'll rent). It all depends on what the consumer wants these days for modern automobiles, and it becomes another "Pick Two" scenario.
Tom and Ray ("Click and Clack") of CarTalk fame has a lot more on this.
FTFA:
"It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented."
Well, here's a hint: stop reading from your PowerPoint presentations as if it were a speech. The PPT is to supplement what you're talking about (visual aids, anyone?), not to show to the audience the equivalent of Microsoft Sam "reading" a Word document.
This was drilled into me by my CS teachers. For our three seminar classes on the road to my CS degree, you were expected to give lots of presentations, and they needed to last for at least 10 mins. Far too frequently, my colleagues just got up there and read verbatim from what was typed on the PowerPoint slides. One of my CS teacher's solutions was this (after roughly 20 seconds of verbatim reading):
"Wait, wait, wait...stop. Just stop.
Look, all of us in here know how to read. If you're going to just 'read to us' your presentation, just give us a printout of your PowerPoint slides, and sit down, as you have nothing else to offer and you're wasting our time. Next!"
Of course, they got a failing grade for the presentation part of the essay/small thesis and got their feelings hurt.
And my opinion? Better in the university than in the boardroom.
Kalinske, FTFA: "I have some ideas on that.. One of them is: you've got to advertise against Nintendo, you know, make fun of them. Ridicule Nintendo and make kids think that the NES is absolutely the uncoolest machine to own."
Two words on why this could be an incredibly bad idea in practice: Johnny Turbo (also Wikified for your pleasure).
It can work somewhat well (witness the Game Gear vs. Game Boy battles and the infamous "Fly Plaything, Fly" commercial for NiGHTS) when done correctly, but as both commercials show, the "ridicule 'em" method will get you a first down, but not a touchdown; or in the case of NEC's (TG-16) Johnny Turbo, an ejection.
As an aside, again Kalinske, FTFA: "If you remember, Sega sold the 8-bit machine - the Master System - prior to that against Nintendo, and it managed to get a 2% share of the market."
Well, it certainly didn't help that the distribution network was provided by Tonka Corporation (yes, the "toy construction truck" Tonka). Heck, my After Burner SMS cart storage box says on the back:
Not since "Cool Spot" or "Yo, Noid!" for NES has a catchy license ever been enough to sell a game. In fact, it tends to raise a red flag for most gamers nowadays.
Hi. I have John Madden on the phone; he would like to speak with you for a few moments after he gets done with an Ambesol ad.
Slashdot Mirror
Or epidemiologists, or hell, even your friendly neighborhood doctor:
"Oh sure, I'd love to help you -- and others -- out with that nasty bout of flu you're suffering from this year, but because Herbert Spencer's saying is now an immutable Law of Nature for...um, some reason...hopefully humanity will evolve its way out of this faster than the virus does."
[[Doctor pats patient on the back]]
"Good luck next life...if that exists!" [[Doctor laughs evilly]]
That may be happening because the headline's misleading (as usual); it should be
/. wouldn't get as many "Um, wha??" clicks, and the more cynical of us would tag the story "noshitsherlock" ;-)
Undecided Voters Swayed by Candidates Who Share Their Looks
But then,
Hey -- There's your idea for a social experiment!
2 TB is 2 lifetimes, if by "lifetime" you mean "month" Let's do some calculation:
Assuming (for simplicity) that each porn DVD takes up an average of 4 GB of data (out of the 4.7 GB available), and assuming all porn DVD titles are single-disc (no double-disc special editions), we have:
2 TB on card / 4 GB per porn title = 500 titles per card.
The only source I have for amount of adult DVD releases per year is here on Wikipedia, so Wikiality applies; but it states 11300 releases/year in the USA in 2002, so let's run with that number.
11300 rel per yr / 12 months ~= 941 2/3 releases per month, so we'll round that down to 941.
500 titles possible on a card / 941 releases in a month ~= 53.135 % of a month's worth of porn vids on a card.
In other words, your "lifetime" is roughly two weeks...one week on standard resolution.
And that's not even counting NNTP or P2P.
Now that I've done the adult film industry a service, can I get laid now?
When will this zombie...er, urban legend die (at least in the US?)
... and that was a ruling by the US Supreme Court.
... so DSLs don't escape either.
Cable Internet Service Not Common Carrier
Corollary:
FCC Reclassifies DSL, Drops Common Carrier Rules
I'm not rooting for this, but we need to try harder for an actual solution rather than seek the unicorn of a "solution" that didn't/no longer exists.
Besides, if my Slashdot karma was to go down, I didn't want my actual Karma to go down as well.
And before I get modded down: how exactly is Google supposed to get the power to run not just the servers, but the cooling, network switches, and other hardware that will keep it from the equivalent of being Slashdotted?
Considering that Google is one of the top sites on the Internet, I frankly have no problem with this, considering there aren't any viable solutions to produce power of that magnitude (though it'll be interesting if Google eventually just builds its own power plant -- GoogleVolts FTW!); and after all, they've got shareholders to look after...gotta keep the company profitable. Google (and the other companies on that will be on that river) will probably donate some of its funds to carbon offsets to shut everybody up and get good PR at the same time.
This taxpayer says "better the funds go to Google (or other companies) rather than to a pointless war."
But I don't live in the town in question, so what I say is moot. But don't complain to Google...complain to the city for pimping themselves out to get the corps to build there. We've been down this road hundreds of times across the country with Wal-Mart.
And as an aside, I'm a little loath to quote that Harper's article as gospel considering that the server count in the article went from "1,000s" to "a thousand times more?! With no source?! I have to call shenanigans on that hand-waving, sorry.
(Full disclosure: I have a GMail account. But I would say the above if this was say, Wikipedia that's using that power.)
"We've 'rooted out' all the 'dead-enders' (to use a Rumsfeldian term) who were clogging up our network with piracy-related traffic. Not only can our valued customers browse the Internet at even faster (wink-wink) speeds; we have the solution to mass piracy! We'll be sharing our results with our trusted representatives at the RIAA and the MPAA."
Never underestimate the power (positive or negative) of PR, my friend.
You must be new he...er, you must be new to FARK.
Articles (or more clearly, headlines) like this often are tagged as "obvious" all the time at FARK. Bonus points if there's a "well duh!" groupthink factor.
It's just Internet cross-pollination at work. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Ric Romero yet.
It's nice to see the right people being held accountable for a change.
/. , so the majority of folks will be going "HAHA ST00P1D MICRO$OFT LUSERS PWNED LOLZ!1!!eleventyone!"
Nice bit of flamebait there.
Yeah, I know it's
Once everybody gets that out of their system, IMHO Lundis Energi is really being a bunch of assholes, and I have no sympathy for them, as it makes them seem like a company run by a bunch of 15-year-olds who've just discovered Ubuntu.
They find a bug (or rather, the users did) in newly-released software that doesn't play nice with their Linux-based server. Rather than you know, cooporate with Microsoft to help diagnose the problem, they're essentially saying to their users "We think you're a bunch of losers (LUSERS HAHA!!1!), so ya'll use the OS we want and tell you to use! If you don't like it, kiss our asses! And Micro$oft can kiss our ass too until they fix the bug!"
Because, after all, bugs never, ever happen on any software ever, and developers psychically know what exactly a bug does without any reporting by end-users whatsoever.
Now if they have a policy of "NOT Windows Vista compatible right now" clearly stated to their users, then that's understandable. But eventually, most folks will move to Vista (like it or not), so this bug needs to be squashed on whomever's end.
I'll end my rant with this:
how in the hell is Lundis Energi so sure it's not a bug on their software?
(sarcasm) Oh right, it's Microsoft, so it MUST be them. (/sarcasm)
...if you pass a cracked RFID chip through a passport reader and then it crashes,
#1: the guard will humanly read your inside cover photo with extra vigilance...the chip is not the only method of ID
#2: you'll probably be detained for a bit while they re-test your passport; if it fails again, they'll tell you to get a new passport
(#2a: or be placed on a no-fly list, because you're a terrorist)
Plus, how exactly would a code-injection exploit work unless it's something like the GDI+ vulnerability that occurred with WMF files? (If a rogue guard is injecting evil code into the machine, the government had waaay more scary problems ahead than with some 'sploiting a passport reader).
All that being said, there are some things (i.e. voting machines) that just should not be electronic-ized, and I feel this is one of them.
Other than "it'll get you through faster!!", what is the point of using chips when, more than likely, the passport clerk has to humanly-read it to verify the info anyway? Especially considering that the particular RFID chip technology used in the passport is going to be obsolete or cracked in 3 years, and most passports don't expire for five or ten years?
I know that you were trying to make a joke, but if you (and others) would've RTFA, it would be seen that this article has nothing, NOTHING to do with Nigeria!
Don't believe me? Try searching for the string "Nigeria" in the print version of the article.
This is why I'm a little PO'd that when almost anything about Internet access in Africa comes up (ref: today's OLPC article), it's always "Fuck that, I don't want more 419 scams!" (never occurring to oneself to educate oneself aboutthem and just delete the damn things).
Thinking along those lines is a dis-service to others in Africa who need the speedy access, such as educational institutions, medical workers, relief/aid workers, scientists, engineers...and can make a big opening for globalized businesses (that are not mining or petrochem), such as car/truck companies and electronic research companies, to come into the country and start building stuff up. For all we know (and I might get modded down for this), Kigali, Rwanda in 10-20 years could be the next Bangalore, India if they have the resources to do it.
Thinking in the mentality box of "SCAMMERZ!" or "All they want is teh pr0n!" is what may be a small part, but still helping to mismanage stop investment in Africa, which is the point of TFA in the first place.
1) Some millionaire who made a fortune during the tech bubble and who has never set foot on African soil, promises the telecom equivalent of the sun to Rwanda. Him and his company, Terracom, fails to deliver. Blames government and network infrastructure (that of course said millionaire never could've imagined!).
2) Governments get pissed off at the bait-and-switch. One fines Terracom "for failing to comply with its licensing obligations, failing to provide information about its operations and failing to pay several fees." Governments, however, can't do anything about schools and locations not having electricity...or can they?
3) Enter new CEO of Terrecom. Promises the sun again. They're a totally different company, they promise!
4) Government is fed up, starts hooking up telecom infrastructure themselves. Terrecom "welcomes the competetion" and whines (somewhat rightly) about infrastructure yet again.
Winners: dudes who took the government/Venture Cap money and ran.
Losers: anyone waiting and trying to get affordable and accessible Internet access.
The sad thing is, strike out Terrecom and replace AT&T and you have roughly the same situation (if only a tenth as bleak) in the USA (and I live in the USA).
Just wondering: why is it so hard to get Internet access to (central) Africa, but the water-locked continent of Australia is, or seems to be, humming along just fine?
It's not "BP", it's "bp". I know your evil plan, you want us to remember the days of British Petroleum.
Hah!
It ain't British Petroleum; they're now beyond petroleum.
Eventually, the humanitarian corporation will transcend the material plane and become beings of pure energy, effectively destroying our oil dependence! At that time, they shall only be known as the color green (specifically Pantone Color 348C). for they will have no use for words!
I for one, hail our green-color trademarking overlords.
...that's a Press Your Luck buzzer.
"No crashes, no crashes, no crashes...STOP!!"
Crap! {{Foghorn noise}}
(Animation of Steve Ballmer throwing chair and breaking monitor, Ballmer head pops up with a {{boing}} noise)
Well, when you consider the money students (and by extension, their parents) bring in to the univ through alumni funds, sports tickets, targeted advertising, the college loan bribery scandal, and loan companies profiting off of said bribery scandal...
why yes, yes they are.
Might as well have the asset tags...er, student ID's have tracking capabilities so those carbon-based ATMs don't get away.
(Yes, I know this would include more than likely my own post as well, even though I checked for spelling. I can make a spelling error if you want. Really, I can. Please?)
In the meantime, if you use Webmail to check your PlusNet email from your own PC, you might find it more convenient to use an email program which runs on your PC instead.
So let me get this straight: PlusNet's closing down the WebMail service, but leaves the main e-mail server running, so
(1) the spam still comes in to the e-mail addresses
(2) users now cannot access via their Internet Browser and must use an e-mail client which may not filter spam as well (or sometimes at all)
Brilliant!
Who's running this company -- Moe, Larry, or Curly?
...get in touch (preferably in writing) with your local Congresscritter if you're in the US:
Contacting the Congress
Write your House Rep
Senators of the 110th Congress
How to Contact US Senators
The Prius gets 55 MPG, the Geo metro and Honda civic in the late 80's and early 90 got mid 50's.
Problem is, those cars oftentimes didn't have (or were only available as really expensive options):
anti-lock brakes
airbags of any kind
air conditioning
power steering
automatic transmission
reinforced construction (side-impact door beams, etc.)
All of that stuff above is expected as standard these days by consumers, and in the USA, some of those safety features are now legally required (e.g. the airbags). All of that extra stuff costs in terms of weight, and a double-digit horsepower engine simply won't cut these days with the amount of relative heft a car has to pull. Try dropping that 3 cylinder, 49 horsepower engine (from the [Chevrolet] Geo Metro XFi from your example) into its nearest new generation model, the Chevy Aveo, and see if you can get up to modern expressway speeds without worrying about meeting the business end of a Kenworth.
Personally, I wouldn't mind using that Geo Metro XFi to commute to and from work, but I wouldn't want to drive it on a roadtrip through, let's say, Texas in August (75 mph speed limits with no A/C and marauding Chevy Silverados and Ford F-150s going 85 or 90 -- forget it, I'll rent). It all depends on what the consumer wants these days for modern automobiles, and it becomes another "Pick Two" scenario.
Tom and Ray ("Click and Clack") of CarTalk fame has a lot more on this.
FTFA: "It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented." Well, here's a hint: stop reading from your PowerPoint presentations as if it were a speech. The PPT is to supplement what you're talking about (visual aids, anyone?), not to show to the audience the equivalent of Microsoft Sam "reading" a Word document. This was drilled into me by my CS teachers. For our three seminar classes on the road to my CS degree, you were expected to give lots of presentations, and they needed to last for at least 10 mins. Far too frequently, my colleagues just got up there and read verbatim from what was typed on the PowerPoint slides. One of my CS teacher's solutions was this (after roughly 20 seconds of verbatim reading): "Wait, wait, wait...stop. Just stop. Look, all of us in here know how to read. If you're going to just 'read to us' your presentation, just give us a printout of your PowerPoint slides, and sit down, as you have nothing else to offer and you're wasting our time. Next!" Of course, they got a failing grade for the presentation part of the essay/small thesis and got their feelings hurt. And my opinion? Better in the university than in the boardroom.
Two words on why this could be an incredibly bad idea in practice: Johnny Turbo (also Wikified for your pleasure).
It can work somewhat well (witness the Game Gear vs. Game Boy battles and the infamous "Fly Plaything, Fly" commercial for NiGHTS) when done correctly, but as both commercials show, the "ridicule 'em" method will get you a first down, but not a touchdown; or in the case of NEC's (TG-16) Johnny Turbo, an ejection.
As an aside, again Kalinske, FTFA: "If you remember, Sega sold the 8-bit machine - the Master System - prior to that against Nintendo, and it managed to get a 2% share of the market."
Well, it certainly didn't help that the distribution network was provided by Tonka Corporation (yes, the "toy construction truck" Tonka). Heck, my After Burner SMS cart storage box says on the back:
Disributed by Tonka(TM) Corporation 6000 Clearwater Drive Minnetonka, MN 55543 Sega: From Tonka AFTER BURNER, A FOUR MEGA CARTRIDGE and SEGA are trademarks of Sega Enterprises, Ltd., a CSK Group Company. ©1988 Tonka Corp. All Rights Reserved.
I'm glad Sega learned their lesson eventually WRT the Genesis/MegaDrive, but it's too bad the cart didn't come with a free Caterpillar Dump truck...
Not since "Cool Spot" or "Yo, Noid!" for NES has a catchy license ever been enough to sell a game. In fact, it tends to raise a red flag for most gamers nowadays.
Hi. I have John Madden on the phone; he would like to speak with you for a few moments after he gets done with an Ambesol ad.
"The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic."
-- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Schenck v. United States, March 3rd, 1919