It is a lot of technology with little purpose. In that entire video, what are they doing? Just spinning a bunch of pictures around.
Without a compelling application that requires that interface, it's a just a big, expensive toy.
I agree with the general point here in that for real computer use it is likely to lose its novelty rather quickly.
Having said this I can see it being lapped up by folks who own media center PCs and the kind of people who like to show off at a party. "Oh I don't like this song, hold on while I change it "... *swish swoosh*
Maybe it would be useful in other areas such as military war rooms, and with World of Warcraft gamers etc. I mean the Wii has been pretty popular and if they could scale it down a bit (most gamers won't want to build an extension on their house to make room for this kit) it could be seen as a natural extension to that.
Basically it's mostly the entertainment market that I would be aiming this thing at if I was the one in charge.
Very true, but its most enduring feature for me is its strong entertainment vibe. Just watching the guys in the video was like watching the master at work. I approve.
I want to *99 the call and have them automatically stabbed in the testicles with a red hot ice pick.
In our home I'm the one who pays for and has the only connected landline telephone in my room (it is only for the internet and everyone has cellphones for regular use). I've been getting calls for other family members from less-than-honest companies.
Now I always let the phone go to voicemail and delete the messages afterwards. Batch processing, baby!
One of these companies especially is a persistent harasser, asking after anther family member. Their messages are approximately 50% pre-recorded ("We have a very some very important information on your account for you...") and 50% live.
I have answered one of their calls once, some months after they first began calling. I confronted them about it being a marketing call and they tried to assure* me that it wasn't. "I assure you that this isn't a sales call, Sir". * I know that because he used the word 'assure'.
The insidious thing is that no one in the family has ever had an account with this company; they're just trolling for business, trying to foist a credit card with rates only fit for the mathematically naive, on somebody.
This is even more insidious because I've personally just sorted out a mountain of debts that the person they are targeting had amassed. She definitely does not need another credit card!
Anyway, if I have any trouble identifying the callers (who rotate numbers quite often), I've found services like whocalled.us to be very useful.
Fortunately for me they don't call often enough (just three times per week on average) that it has become a huge deal, but I will be changing my telephone number soon anyway.
In my opinion too many people treat the telephone as an open and freely accessible door into your home. If you don't know me and I haven't given you my number personally you have no business calling me, period. That's my opinion.
When do I really notice it? When there is background noise. It all blends into a bass hum. Then I really can't make out half of what kids or girls are saying to me and I have to see their lips to compensate.
I have the same problem but I find volume is largely unaffected. Watching movies with my family (young and old) can be tricky as their 'comfortable' volume is higher than mine. High enough that I find it physically uncomfortable for it to be so high for any length of time. Another example is when I listen to music my family often can't hear it very well as they are accustomed to a higher volume, but I find it very clear.
So I can't hear high-frequency sounds (at all) and too much background noise makes things like speech difficult to distinguish, yet I can hear things better volume-wise than others.
Actually if you look at the image on TFA, it strikes me as really odd. Kinda just stare at it a little almost as you would a magic eye picture, but with less intensity; just relax your eyes a little.
Now it might just be me and the long day I've had but he really begins to look normal* at that point - exceedingly so. Until that is, you then refocus and the hair and beard come back into proper focus with the rest of the face. * whatever that may mean.
So there you have it. RMS is a walking talking magic eye picture. It's brilliant!
FWIW I'll take the Hippy Stallman over the Norm Stallman any day. You hear that Mattel - you got the Heroes of the F/OSS Revolution action figures in production yet? I want to collect the set - Corey Doctorow, Linus (with Tux, tux and Nunchucks), RMS (Hippy with Katana), ESR (mailman outfit version). And then there are the enemies, Ballmer (with chair (of course)), Gates (with Seinfeld mini-me), etc.
That's an interesting idea but I fear we would be better investing in electric cars. Much to my chagrin, I yield to common sense in feeling that Jayce's world is better left as a fiction.
OK you've convinced me. I've just been out to the children's playarea and picked one up. How do I prepare it, just drop it into a pot of boiling water or what? Grill? Barbacue?
There is one advantage I have noticed to this: I'll cook it last as it is currently chopping vegetables. A HUGE timesaver!
Re:Is it ok to keep kids off the internet these da
on
Good Email For Kids?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Well, maybe not so sucessfully since they haven't made me a grandpa yet
Either - as a sibling mentioned - set gmail to delete spam automatically, or use POP3/IMAP access so they only see the inbox.*
This doesn't guarantee that some spam won't make it to the inbox but then, nothing really can unless the OP is willing to pre-moderate his children's emails. FWIW my anecdotal evidence is that I've had only ever had two slip through with Google.
* If he wanted to really go to town with it he could setup Thunderbird with a master password: store the gmail password in it and only give the kid the master password; that way they can't make http logins. I would say that is going a little too far though - it depends how much he wants to 'protect' them and what their ages are.
I'm curious if Microsoft is actually trying to begin shifting things off the desktop... begin adding paid services into the mix.
I should RTWFA (whole friendly article) before posting:-
But Monday we learned that Windows 7 won't even include Windows Photo Gallery -- nor will it have Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Contacts, or Windows Movie Maker. These will be "replaced" by optional and comparable online tools that already exist on the Windows Live site.
I've never had a problem with this and I've reinstalled my family's computers several times this year alone. On a fresh install I go to the options to prevent it from running from start up. If that fails you could try something like Startup Control Panel or Startup Manager; always handy tools to have on the bench anyway.
I don't usually bother to uninstall Messenger but there is plenty of information out in the tubes.
It would be nice if it wasn't included in the beginning but I never experienced the problem of a resurrecting exe.
Slashdot Mirror
Tort is some sort of legal term, but I have no idea what it actually means.
A wrong which can be redressed by awarding damages.
Ergo tortious means 'of or pertaining to the nature of a tort'.
(Sibling is also correct in that torte is a pastry (an Austrian cake with cream and nuts) but that's not what you meant obviously).
It is a lot of technology with little purpose. In that entire video, what are they doing? Just spinning a bunch of pictures around.
Without a compelling application that requires that interface, it's a just a big, expensive toy.
I agree with the general point here in that for real computer use it is likely to lose its novelty rather quickly.
Having said this I can see it being lapped up by folks who own media center PCs and the kind of people who like to show off at a party. "Oh I don't like this song, hold on while I change it "... *swish swoosh*
Maybe it would be useful in other areas such as military war rooms, and with World of Warcraft gamers etc. I mean the Wii has been pretty popular and if they could scale it down a bit (most gamers won't want to build an extension on their house to make room for this kit) it could be seen as a natural extension to that.
Basically it's mostly the entertainment market that I would be aiming this thing at if I was the one in charge.
Very true, but its most enduring feature for me is its strong entertainment vibe. Just watching the guys in the video was like watching the master at work. I approve.
For anyone who's interested in Mr. Byrne slating the song here you go.
Comedians the world over must have kicked themselves when they first saw Ed' routine. A collective "D'oh! Why didn't I think of that!"
As Ed says, the only thing ironic about that song is that it was a song about irony written by someone who doesn't know what irony is.
Call me old fashion....
Shuddup, a-line flares! You ain't nothin' but a lime green tank-top!
Has that been released yet?
I just love the educational games.
http://media.merriam-webster.com/soundc11/v/vexati02.wav
OK Ray... that's your cue ...
Hello Mr Coward.
There are things we need to discuss for the meeting. Please get back to me as soon as you get this message.
Thankyou
I want to *99 the call and have them automatically stabbed in the testicles with a red hot ice pick.
In our home I'm the one who pays for and has the only connected landline telephone in my room (it is only for the internet and everyone has cellphones for regular use). I've been getting calls for other family members from less-than-honest companies.
Now I always let the phone go to voicemail and delete the messages afterwards. Batch processing, baby!
One of these companies especially is a persistent harasser, asking after anther family member. Their messages are approximately 50% pre-recorded ("We have a very some very important information on your account for you...") and 50% live.
I have answered one of their calls once, some months after they first began calling. I confronted them about it being a marketing call and they tried to assure* me that it wasn't. "I assure you that this isn't a sales call, Sir". * I know that because he used the word 'assure'.
The insidious thing is that no one in the family has ever had an account with this company; they're just trolling for business, trying to foist a credit card with rates only fit for the mathematically naive, on somebody.
This is even more insidious because I've personally just sorted out a mountain of debts that the person they are targeting had amassed. She definitely does not need another credit card!
Anyway, if I have any trouble identifying the callers (who rotate numbers quite often), I've found services like whocalled.us to be very useful.
Fortunately for me they don't call often enough (just three times per week on average) that it has become a huge deal, but I will be changing my telephone number soon anyway.
In my opinion too many people treat the telephone as an open and freely accessible door into your home. If you don't know me and I haven't given you my number personally you have no business calling me, period. That's my opinion.
My cheap insignia is only really listenable between 30-40 on the dial. 40 is the max.
It's a widely believed fact that volume never needs to go above 11.
When do I really notice it? When there is background noise. It all blends into a bass hum. Then I really can't make out half of what kids or girls are saying to me and I have to see their lips to compensate.
I have the same problem but I find volume is largely unaffected. Watching movies with my family (young and old) can be tricky as their 'comfortable' volume is higher than mine. High enough that I find it physically uncomfortable for it to be so high for any length of time. Another example is when I listen to music my family often can't hear it very well as they are accustomed to a higher volume, but I find it very clear.
So I can't hear high-frequency sounds (at all) and too much background noise makes things like speech difficult to distinguish, yet I can hear things better volume-wise than others.
I don't think I'm quite audiophile material.
That's going to sting tomorrow...
Overruled.
Maybe you should ;)
Actually if you look at the image on TFA, it strikes me as really odd. Kinda just stare at it a little almost as you would a magic eye picture, but with less intensity; just relax your eyes a little.
Now it might just be me and the long day I've had but he really begins to look normal* at that point - exceedingly so. Until that is, you then refocus and the hair and beard come back into proper focus with the rest of the face. * whatever that may mean.
So there you have it. RMS is a walking talking magic eye picture. It's brilliant!
FWIW I'll take the Hippy Stallman over the Norm Stallman any day. You hear that Mattel - you got the Heroes of the F/OSS Revolution action figures in production yet? I want to collect the set - Corey Doctorow, Linus (with Tux, tux and Nunchucks), RMS (Hippy with Katana), ESR (mailman outfit version). And then there are the enemies, Ballmer (with chair (of course)), Gates (with Seinfeld mini-me), etc.
Oh man, that's gonna be sweet.
Could this be used to drive electric plants?
That's an interesting idea but I fear we would be better investing in electric cars. Much to my chagrin, I yield to common sense in feeling that Jayce's world is better left as a fiction.
Nonsense. Flash photography, when correctly mastered, can make any photograph infinitely better than without. Observe.
Do you blog about this stuff, your processes and revelations? It sounds like it would be a very interesting read.
My hat is off to you Sir.
Yes they are. goto hell.
(Hint: I'm just kidding!)
Insightful!?
OK you've convinced me. I've just been out to the children's playarea and picked one up. How do I prepare it, just drop it into a pot of boiling water or what? Grill? Barbacue?
There is one advantage I have noticed to this: I'll cook it last as it is currently chopping vegetables. A HUGE timesaver!
Well, maybe not so sucessfully since they haven't made me a grandpa yet
Quick, somebody reply to me and make him a GP.
Either - as a sibling mentioned - set gmail to delete spam automatically, or use POP3/IMAP access so they only see the inbox.*
This doesn't guarantee that some spam won't make it to the inbox but then, nothing really can unless the OP is willing to pre-moderate his children's emails. FWIW my anecdotal evidence is that I've had only ever had two slip through with Google.
* If he wanted to really go to town with it he could setup Thunderbird with a master password: store the gmail password in it and only give the kid the master password; that way they can't make http logins. I would say that is going a little too far though - it depends how much he wants to 'protect' them and what their ages are.
I'm curious if Microsoft is actually trying to begin shifting things off the desktop... begin adding paid services into the mix.
I should RTWFA (whole friendly article) before posting :-
But Monday we learned that Windows 7 won't even include Windows Photo Gallery -- nor will it have Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Contacts, or Windows Movie Maker. These will be "replaced" by optional and comparable online tools that already exist on the Windows Live site.
I've never had a problem with this and I've reinstalled my family's computers several times this year alone. On a fresh install I go to the options to prevent it from running from start up. If that fails you could try something like Startup Control Panel or Startup Manager; always handy tools to have on the bench anyway.
I don't usually bother to uninstall Messenger but there is plenty of information out in the tubes.
It would be nice if it wasn't included in the beginning but I never experienced the problem of a resurrecting exe.
(I don't know about Vista)