I think a homebrew would do well in this situation. My personal favorites are stouts and Belgian dubbel ales, though you may find another style that -- oh, we're talking about projectors!
If you are looking for the true granddaddy of electronica, check out Karlheinz Stockhausen. His 1959 album Kontakte is a not much more than a strange mixture of electronic noises, but the roots are definitely there and are strong. It is not for the faint of heart though, as most people would not call it music.:^)
Ha! I remember when my sister had "Cricket", another one of those Teddy Ruxpin-like dolls that had a cassette player built into it. I threw a Metallica tape into Cricket, and she started lip syncing to Enter Sandman! Ah, those were the good ol' days...
No, he's referring to Fahrenheit 451 -- you know, where the firemen are the ones starting the fires, not putting them out... Mix this with a little cut-throat capitalism, and you have a conspiracy theory (a damn good one at that)!:^)
According to this website, Jules Verne also considered Florida to be an ideal spot for launching into space. This was from his 1865 novel, From Earth to the Moon.
Call me pragmatic if you'd like, but there are some things that would be really neat with RFID:
GPS-based package tracking using RFID... Be able to track your UPS/FedEx packages down to the 100 ft. range... I think this is a ways off, but it's bound to happen.
Tracking of items in your fridge. I wouldn't mind a fridge that told me I was running low on an item I usually forget at the supermarket.
Finding your remote control. Just RFID tag it, and make sure you don't lose your RFID scanner.:^)
It will be interesting to see whether security concerns win out or not... With places like Walmart mandating RFID tags by 2005 (or something like that), it may very well be inevitable... We may as well make the best of the situation.
It is official; International Monetary Fund confirms: the US dollar is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered US dollar community when IMF confirmed that US dollar market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all people. Coming on the heels of a recent IMF survey which plainly states that US dollar has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. The US dollar is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Money Magazine comprehensive currency test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict US dollar's future. The hand writing is on the wall: the US dollar faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for the US dollar because the US dollar is dying. Things are looking very bad for the US dollar. As many of us are already aware, the US dollar continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
All major surveys show that the US dollar has steadily declined in market share. The US dollar is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If the US dollar is to survive at all it will be among dilettante numismatists. The US dollar continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, the US dollar is dead.
I have looked at these sorts of test results before, and used to take them as the truth. That was before I started taking a Design of Experiments grad class, and have some evidence to the contrary. For what it's worth, I'm the top performer in the class right now.
The issue I have is with the error bars. These are the vertical lines above and below the mean of each encoder. Like the beginning of the report says, "One codec can be said to rated better than another codec with 95% confidence if the bottom of its line segment is at or above the top of the competing codec's line segment." This is very much true for these sorts of statistical tests -- if the error bars overlap, that indicates that the means of the two groups are statistically identical. One could always adjust their confidence interval to a lower percentage, but 95% is quite often the standard.
Note how many of the plots in this test have overlapping error bars. In the first plot, for example, all of the encoders tested have overlapping error bars. The results drawn from this plot should be that no encoder was measurably different than any other encoder -- not that iTunes won, like the results say. (Note: I own a Powerbook G4, and am typing this post on it right now, and I love Apple. I just don't like bad statistics, that's all)
The results given in many of the plots are based strictly on the means of the samples, and not the error bars, which are actually more important in this case. Do not trust them. Interpreting the plots with the logic stated at the beginning of the article is the only statistically sound method (that I know of). I hope this sheds some more light on these tests...
The "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble" story was paraphrased in the movie, "Pirates of Silicon Valley" -- a great movie about the history of Gates vs. Jobs. Unfortunately the movie was made right around when Microsoft made their $150M (+ an undisclosed sum) payment to Apple, so that is where it ended. There are so many other good snippets in the film though, it's hard to pass up.
Slashdot Mirror
I think a homebrew would do well in this situation. My personal favorites are stouts and Belgian dubbel ales, though you may find another style that -- oh, we're talking about projectors!
Yes, I remember that as well -- practically everyone here on Slashdot cried "hoax!"... It appears that the joke is now on them. :^)
...It'll never be caught there! :^)
Ba-doom-boom-crash!
Wow, the anonymous cowards are out in force tonight, aren't they (referring to the first replies to both your post and to mine)? How peevish they are.
If you are looking for the true granddaddy of electronica, check out Karlheinz Stockhausen. His 1959 album Kontakte is a not much more than a strange mixture of electronic noises, but the roots are definitely there and are strong. It is not for the faint of heart though, as most people would not call it music. :^)
Indeed. To illustrate the power of the kool aid, here are a couple posts I saw one day on Slashdot:
Person 1: Why is vendor lock in for Apple ok when it's considered bad for anyone else?
Person 2: It's like being taken hostage initially against your will, then realizing your captors are the Swedish Bikini Team.
No, he's referring to Fahrenheit 451 -- you know, where the firemen are the ones starting the fires, not putting them out... Mix this with a little cut-throat capitalism, and you have a conspiracy theory (a damn good one at that)! :^)
According to this website, Jules Verne also considered Florida to be an ideal spot for launching into space. This was from his 1865 novel, From Earth to the Moon.
- GPS-based package tracking using RFID... Be able to track your UPS/FedEx packages down to the 100 ft. range... I think this is a ways off, but it's bound to happen.
- Tracking of items in your fridge. I wouldn't mind a fridge that told me I was running low on an item I usually forget at the supermarket.
- Finding your remote control. Just RFID tag it, and make sure you don't lose your RFID scanner.
:^)
It will be interesting to see whether security concerns win out or not... With places like Walmart mandating RFID tags by 2005 (or something like that), it may very well be inevitable... We may as well make the best of the situation.It is official; International Monetary Fund confirms: the US dollar is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered US dollar community when IMF confirmed that US dollar market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all people. Coming on the heels of a recent IMF survey which plainly states that US dollar has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. The US dollar is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Money Magazine comprehensive currency test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict US dollar's future. The hand writing is on the wall: the US dollar faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for the US dollar because the US dollar is dying. Things are looking very bad for the US dollar. As many of us are already aware, the US dollar continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
All major surveys show that the US dollar has steadily declined in market share. The US dollar is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If the US dollar is to survive at all it will be among dilettante numismatists. The US dollar continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, the US dollar is dead.
Fact: The US dollar is dying
For additional reference on this topic, please consult The Smuggler sketch from episode 5 of Monty Python's Flying Circus. :^)
What happens when you compile a kernel, or better yet, run xaos in ascii-art mode? Does it go on speaking for five years? :^)
It has been bundled for quite some time actually... The difference here is that you can remove iTunes from your system easily if you want.
This must be why the Atkins diet is so popular nowadays... :^)
From what I've heard, Weird Al first recorded "Another One Rides the Bus" in a radio station bathroom...
I have looked at these sorts of test results before, and used to take them as the truth. That was before I started taking a Design of Experiments grad class, and have some evidence to the contrary. For what it's worth, I'm the top performer in the class right now.
The issue I have is with the error bars. These are the vertical lines above and below the mean of each encoder. Like the beginning of the report says, "One codec can be said to rated better than another codec with 95% confidence if the bottom of its line segment is at or above the top of the competing codec's line segment." This is very much true for these sorts of statistical tests -- if the error bars overlap, that indicates that the means of the two groups are statistically identical. One could always adjust their confidence interval to a lower percentage, but 95% is quite often the standard.
Note how many of the plots in this test have overlapping error bars. In the first plot, for example, all of the encoders tested have overlapping error bars. The results drawn from this plot should be that no encoder was measurably different than any other encoder -- not that iTunes won, like the results say. (Note: I own a Powerbook G4, and am typing this post on it right now, and I love Apple. I just don't like bad statistics, that's all)
The results given in many of the plots are based strictly on the means of the samples, and not the error bars, which are actually more important in this case. Do not trust them. Interpreting the plots with the logic stated at the beginning of the article is the only statistically sound method (that I know of). I hope this sheds some more light on these tests...
I'm not dead yet! I feel happy! I feel happy! [thwack!]
"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin
...as a user of Slashdot, I've never seen a story that used so many CAPITALIZED WORDS. Note to editors: Wake up!
Steppenwolf wrote a song about that... It's called "Pusher Man" -- lyrics are here.
Whoa, whoa, whoa... I thought Ballmer could only say one word: "Developers!"
So where is the link to the iTunes promo code generator? I'm surprised you guys didn't crack it and post a solution before it came out. :^)
The "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble" story was paraphrased in the movie, "Pirates of Silicon Valley" -- a great movie about the history of Gates vs. Jobs. Unfortunately the movie was made right around when Microsoft made their $150M (+ an undisclosed sum) payment to Apple, so that is where it ended. There are so many other good snippets in the film though, it's hard to pass up.