As someone who is hearing-impaired and uses subtitles almost all the time...
Why do we need 3D subtitles? What good could possibly come of this?
In my book, subtitles have several requirements. They need to: be easy-to-read, have proper spelling/grammar, and have good timing. The third dimension doesn't fit in there anywhere. Now, if they were talking about improving the subtitle specifications to allow a wider range of fonts and outlines (as some are hard to read in certain situations), I would be all for it. But 3D? No thanks.
Someone pirated the game and stole your serial; you're not angry at the pirates who created the situation to begin with, but you're angry at the company that doesn't really have a way of verifying that you are indeed the owner of said game? I'm assuming you didn't register or otherwise tie your serial to you personally here. I realize EA isn't the best of companies, but still, it seems like you're getting mad at the wrong person.
I can't help but feel that you'd have to continuously use new groups of monkeys from the same community, otherwise you'd risk teaching them what you THINK certain calls mean, and they'd begin responding in that fashion...
From the article: "Nearly one-third of the 35 million netbooks on track to ship this year will come with some variant of the free, open-source operating system"
That's pretty vague. Are they including those pre-boot/fast-boot linux distros that seem to be all the rage? I'd hardly count that as a "linux netbook" since the primary OS is still Windows.
I like light emitting displays. I do most of my recreational reading in the dark on a small laptop. It's nice to not have to depend on external light sources.
I'm a little confused about how this thing learns. A necessary component of learning is feedback, and I don't understand how this software will get any feedback correcting it when it makes some kind of translation mistake. Sure, the user could sit there correcting the output, but not only is that time-consuming, but also doesn't account for errors in translating TO the target language.
I also suspect it must be some kind of cloud-based tool; one user's copy of n.Fluent improving itself wouldn't help anyone else all that much... And if it it isn't, it should be! Though that opens another can of worms -- what do you do about conflicting feedback?
I know it's fashionable to hate Microsoft and all that, but my laptop running Windows 7 boots to the login screen in 7-9 seconds. Are those four seconds really so crucial?
I may be wrong, but my inexpert impression was that earthquake-resistant buildings are made to sway/bend and that flexibility, not rigidity is desired in the construction...
Make three passwords of differing strengths for various uses.
Weak: abc123 (New York Times online, random one-use sites)
Medium: m1dd13name (forums)
Strong: tw45br1ll1ggreat! (mail, bank)
Then just write them on a piece of paper and put that in your wallet. Try to remember them every time, but if you forget, consult the paper in your wallet. Eventually you won't so much remember them as your hands/fingers will remember how to type them in a given situation. Just keep trying and they'll stick.
I'm not too sure about the various degrees of visual impairment that would reduce visual acuity to the point where reading is no longer feasible, but...
On the face of the matter, it seems someone ludicrous, or at the least ironic, that the device relies on a visually impaired individuals using a visual interface to interpret documents they cannot read. If they're impaired such that they cannot read, then will they easily be able to tell that the document is in focus? That the document is even entirely in the frame?
The screen looks awfully small, too...
It seems more like this device would help people who can see, but perhaps are unable to read for various reasons. If the cost were cut down, it may help in countries where there are many illiterate people. It may also be a solution for people with severe dyslexia.
A lot (lot) of people died on those first voyages to the New World. Entire ships were lost as well. I don't think anyone wants to send boatloads of astronauts in an expensive investment without guaranteeing that they'll arrive in one piece.
While I can understand where you're coming from, I think it's a bit arrogant to look down on them like that. Judges are just people doing their jobs to the best of their ability with the information given to them. You also see judges ruling in areas as diverse as medical issues, building codes, traffic codes, food safety, and so on, yet I doubt all of those judges are doctors, architects, civil engineers, or chefs. There's a reason judges have expert witness testimonies and amici curiae. If you want to improve how these things turn out, why not try to be a lawyer that specializes in technology issues? How about looking into submitting an amicus curiae brief for cases that you feel you have knowledgable input in? Or maybe there isn't really much you can do but hope that people with the relevant expertise can help.
Couldn't the test actually end up being MORE stressful than the real thing because they all know that they're on Earth? It's like dieting for real versus "testing a diet" when your pantry is full of junk food that's locked away from you, much like the classical story of Tantalus.
Aren't these, in the end, pretty much the same as a trolley? The bus is really a mini-bus that holds 11 people. It uses 40% as much electricity as a trolley. If you expanded the bus to hold as many people as a trolley can, wouldn't the increase in size and weight (both bus weight and passenger weight) make it use more energy?
If so, then what's the difference between this and, say, a mini-trolley? I mean, hell, why not ultracapacitor golf carts or something?
My university was even more expensive; it's apparently (or was, when I went several years ago) the fifth most-expensive university in the America. Doesn't help that I was basically unemployed for a year after graduating and now I have a job that doesn't pay very much.
Why should we care about being a spy in a game where everyone is a spy? Part of the fun in the idea of being a spy is that you do neat stuff while masquerading as a normal person... among normal people. If everyone's a spy, it's kind of boring, sort of like playing a Hitman game where everyone is the Hitman...
I agree with the posters who have said that you should steer clear of perennial favorites -- most people will get around to reading those on their own. It's a good time to introduce good science fiction that they may never have heard of for whatever reason, or will not read. Even better is a chance to trace out the history of the development of science fiction and things that we take for granted.
For example, there is E. E. Smith's Lensman series. I am not aware of a book or series that incorporates the idea of a space opera prior to this series -- when you read it, it seems old and hackneyed, but if you keep in mind the era that it was written in, you'll become aware that it's years and years ahead of science fiction for its time. Ask the students to read it and keep in mind parallels to science fiction they know and think about how science fiction was influenced by it.
You can pick some other older books along these lines and do the same thing; for a project, have them select their own (old) book and then write a paper about what it did that has become common place in modern literature.
Japanese education doesn't target anything; there's no class segregation in terms of Math A, Math B, Algebra, and Algebra II -- everyone goes to Math B together, regardless of the number of students who don't understand it at all or the number of students who are really ready for Algebra. This directly affects the quality of the class; the brightest aren't getting what they need, and neither are the ones who hadn't learned the previous stuff all that well. Class participation is a huge component of learning, and the Japanese approach tends to kill that. Rather than segmenting classes by ability, they have developed an approach where they just throw things and hope that some things stick.
Admittedly, I got out of the American public school system just before No Child Left Behind kicked in, so I don't know how bad it is there.
Slashdot Mirror
As someone who is hearing-impaired and uses subtitles almost all the time...
Why do we need 3D subtitles? What good could possibly come of this?
In my book, subtitles have several requirements. They need to: be easy-to-read, have proper spelling/grammar, and have good timing. The third dimension doesn't fit in there anywhere. Now, if they were talking about improving the subtitle specifications to allow a wider range of fonts and outlines (as some are hard to read in certain situations), I would be all for it. But 3D? No thanks.
Someone pirated the game and stole your serial; you're not angry at the pirates who created the situation to begin with, but you're angry at the company that doesn't really have a way of verifying that you are indeed the owner of said game? I'm assuming you didn't register or otherwise tie your serial to you personally here. I realize EA isn't the best of companies, but still, it seems like you're getting mad at the wrong person.
I can't help but feel that you'd have to continuously use new groups of monkeys from the same community, otherwise you'd risk teaching them what you THINK certain calls mean, and they'd begin responding in that fashion...
Why swap out the eyeballs? Couldn't you get contacts that would change your irises?
From the article: "Nearly one-third of the 35 million netbooks on track to ship this year will come with some variant of the free, open-source operating system"
That's pretty vague. Are they including those pre-boot/fast-boot linux distros that seem to be all the rage? I'd hardly count that as a "linux netbook" since the primary OS is still Windows.
Without sensation? Seems dangerous. What if you squeeze too hard? Pull too hard?
Certainly not the normal case here, but I have a laptop with an i7; I hit the login screen around 7-9 seconds after pressing the power button.
I like light emitting displays. I do most of my recreational reading in the dark on a small laptop. It's nice to not have to depend on external light sources.
Inkscape is to GIMP what Illustrator is to Photoshop.
Adobe Flash is not only rudimentary vector graphics, but lots of scripting.
I'm a little confused about how this thing learns. A necessary component of learning is feedback, and I don't understand how this software will get any feedback correcting it when it makes some kind of translation mistake. Sure, the user could sit there correcting the output, but not only is that time-consuming, but also doesn't account for errors in translating TO the target language.
I also suspect it must be some kind of cloud-based tool; one user's copy of n.Fluent improving itself wouldn't help anyone else all that much... And if it it isn't, it should be! Though that opens another can of worms -- what do you do about conflicting feedback?
Well, if you saw Superman Returns, he seems to just rip off his clothes in the middle of the sidewalk. That's the modern world for you.
I know it's fashionable to hate Microsoft and all that, but my laptop running Windows 7 boots to the login screen in 7-9 seconds. Are those four seconds really so crucial?
I may be wrong, but my inexpert impression was that earthquake-resistant buildings are made to sway/bend and that flexibility, not rigidity is desired in the construction...
Make three passwords of differing strengths for various uses. Weak: abc123 (New York Times online, random one-use sites) Medium: m1dd13name (forums) Strong: tw45br1ll1ggreat! (mail, bank) Then just write them on a piece of paper and put that in your wallet. Try to remember them every time, but if you forget, consult the paper in your wallet. Eventually you won't so much remember them as your hands/fingers will remember how to type them in a given situation. Just keep trying and they'll stick.
I'm not too sure about the various degrees of visual impairment that would reduce visual acuity to the point where reading is no longer feasible, but...
On the face of the matter, it seems someone ludicrous, or at the least ironic, that the device relies on a visually impaired individuals using a visual interface to interpret documents they cannot read. If they're impaired such that they cannot read, then will they easily be able to tell that the document is in focus? That the document is even entirely in the frame?
The screen looks awfully small, too...
It seems more like this device would help people who can see, but perhaps are unable to read for various reasons. If the cost were cut down, it may help in countries where there are many illiterate people. It may also be a solution for people with severe dyslexia.
Add "afraid of the fear detector screwing up an important flight" there too, or "afraid of DHS because they make life miserable".
A lot (lot) of people died on those first voyages to the New World. Entire ships were lost as well. I don't think anyone wants to send boatloads of astronauts in an expensive investment without guaranteeing that they'll arrive in one piece.
While I can understand where you're coming from, I think it's a bit arrogant to look down on them like that. Judges are just people doing their jobs to the best of their ability with the information given to them. You also see judges ruling in areas as diverse as medical issues, building codes, traffic codes, food safety, and so on, yet I doubt all of those judges are doctors, architects, civil engineers, or chefs. There's a reason judges have expert witness testimonies and amici curiae. If you want to improve how these things turn out, why not try to be a lawyer that specializes in technology issues? How about looking into submitting an amicus curiae brief for cases that you feel you have knowledgable input in? Or maybe there isn't really much you can do but hope that people with the relevant expertise can help.
Couldn't the test actually end up being MORE stressful than the real thing because they all know that they're on Earth? It's like dieting for real versus "testing a diet" when your pantry is full of junk food that's locked away from you, much like the classical story of Tantalus.
I don't see how a tin foil hat will do anything about lobbyists.
Aren't these, in the end, pretty much the same as a trolley? The bus is really a mini-bus that holds 11 people. It uses 40% as much electricity as a trolley. If you expanded the bus to hold as many people as a trolley can, wouldn't the increase in size and weight (both bus weight and passenger weight) make it use more energy?
If so, then what's the difference between this and, say, a mini-trolley? I mean, hell, why not ultracapacitor golf carts or something?
My university was even more expensive; it's apparently (or was, when I went several years ago) the fifth most-expensive university in the America. Doesn't help that I was basically unemployed for a year after graduating and now I have a job that doesn't pay very much.
Why should we care about being a spy in a game where everyone is a spy? Part of the fun in the idea of being a spy is that you do neat stuff while masquerading as a normal person... among normal people. If everyone's a spy, it's kind of boring, sort of like playing a Hitman game where everyone is the Hitman...
I agree with the posters who have said that you should steer clear of perennial favorites -- most people will get around to reading those on their own. It's a good time to introduce good science fiction that they may never have heard of for whatever reason, or will not read. Even better is a chance to trace out the history of the development of science fiction and things that we take for granted.
For example, there is E. E. Smith's Lensman series. I am not aware of a book or series that incorporates the idea of a space opera prior to this series -- when you read it, it seems old and hackneyed, but if you keep in mind the era that it was written in, you'll become aware that it's years and years ahead of science fiction for its time. Ask the students to read it and keep in mind parallels to science fiction they know and think about how science fiction was influenced by it.
You can pick some other older books along these lines and do the same thing; for a project, have them select their own (old) book and then write a paper about what it did that has become common place in modern literature.
Japanese education doesn't target anything; there's no class segregation in terms of Math A, Math B, Algebra, and Algebra II -- everyone goes to Math B together, regardless of the number of students who don't understand it at all or the number of students who are really ready for Algebra. This directly affects the quality of the class; the brightest aren't getting what they need, and neither are the ones who hadn't learned the previous stuff all that well. Class participation is a huge component of learning, and the Japanese approach tends to kill that. Rather than segmenting classes by ability, they have developed an approach where they just throw things and hope that some things stick.
Admittedly, I got out of the American public school system just before No Child Left Behind kicked in, so I don't know how bad it is there.