The article points out some of the absurdities in are system, some of which might be easy to fix:
The documents revealed an economic system in which the sellers don't set the prices and the buyers don't know what they are
Imagine you walk into a grocery store and buy some beans. At the checkout counter, they take down your information and let you leave, but don't tell you how much the beans cost. Actually, they don't know. The food share you are in doesn't tell them what they pay for the beans. And the price varies based on the food share you use.
Would this grocery store stay in business? Only if all the grocery stores do it!
This is our medical system. The medical providers don't reveal the actual costs of their products and services, and the insurers hide their fee schedules. There's no way to actually know what something will cost ahead of time. If we want health-care reform, THIS is what we must fix. This isn't capitalism. It isn't socialism. It's bureaucracy.
This is so weird to me. At a gut level, I want people to end their suffering. What bizarre torturous form of "love" demands that you keep dying (sometimes zombified) people in struggling in pain until their last breath?
I've heard of a law forbidding discounts when compared to cash. But I don't think that applies to medical costs. I've paid cash for dental visits and gotten significant discounts. It makes sense for two reasons: 1) They don't have to do any complex billing and wait months to get paid 2) They insurance companies discount the bill anyway - so the doctors never get paid in full anyway.
I find flashblock eliminates 90% of the animating ads, without blocking normal ads. I think Firefox has an option to disable GIF animation. Hopefully, one day it will have the ability to block HTML5 animations too.
We heard so many complaints from customers it was rather eye-opening.
Then your layout sucked. Nothing is more annoying than a static 1280x1024 layout on an iPhone, that requires me to zoom in and out constantly. For a good flow layout, take a look at Wikipedia or Amazon's mobile sites. Just because you couldn't do it right doesn't mean all flow layouts are wrong.
As a result, the cost of us building an Android app is now double that of an iPhone app.
You are supporting more hardware devices, so you have to test on more hardware devices, which costs more. Would you rather that each of those pieces of hardware have a different operating system? You should be thanking Google for Android, because the only reason you are even capable of supporting all these devices is because it is so much cheaper because of Android. Before Android, you had to write for even more operating systems.
There are a lot of benefits to containers. I'm sure I can't name them all.
These container formats contain multiple types of data streams. Ex: audio, video, multi-language subtitles, etc. If you don't have a container format, then the software must guess at what streams are in the file. Would a file with H264 video + MP3 audio have a different extension from H264 + AAC? What if I add subtitles, does that need another extension? The container file solves this.
Because there are multiple streams, the software could simply pass-through unknown data streams. Maybe this particular app doesn't understand subtitles. So it doesn't recognize a stream ID of 12345 - it can display a warning, but preserve the data in the container.
It makes it possible for software to support new codecs because there is a globally unique way to identify the codec. So your software opens an AVI file with an MJPG stream. What can it do? Well, it could go to it's update site, query for MJPG codecs, and download it. Without the container format, the software has to guess based on the extension. And that isn't necessarily enough to know exactly what the file contains - this relates to my first paragraph, about the multitude of extensions.
Having a container format also means a lot of code is shared. Code for buffering, I/O, handling time stamps, live data streaming, synchronizing different streams -- those things are going to vary based on how the container is put together. Some things work on time stamps, others work on integer time indexes. Some interleave data, and use different methods for doing so. There are different ways of handling variable-bitrate data. It makes it easier for the developers, and faster to add additional codecs.
Metadata such as copyright information won't get lost when transcoding the file if the container format is the same.
Having lots of containers is a pain. It would be best if we could standardize on one. You are right that it does make it harder for the user to determine if the file is supported by that particular app. Not sure what to do about that though.
Lastly -- what app doesn't work with MJPEG.AVI files???? That's like the absolute baseline most commonly, easily-supported format.
I think this is the most obvious example of a slippery slope that I've ever heard. The government is going to install devices that can intercept communications, and promise not to use it. Pardon me while I go beat myself over the head repeatedly. I need to lose at least another 30 IQ points before I can continue to live in this country.
It also said that the Department of Homeland Security, which would run the program, would share malicious code data with the NSA but not the content of communications, such as e-mails
Part of the reason these laws exist is to deal with run-off. When it rains, road grease, soap, lawn fertilizers, dog crap, etc. all run-off into the street and then into the storm drains. Live plants absorb some of that run-off and slow-down the rate of flow. The storm drains can only handle the water at a limited rate - it can't funnel every raindrop over the entire city. It also prevents the tributaries from filling with all that run-off, changing the chemical balance.
When you build a new structure, the local ordinances say how much of the ground you can cover with parking lots, roads, buildings, etc. - and how much needs to be covered in something living. Sometimes you can offset some of this by having a green roof, planting trees, etc. Also, the more green you have the fewer storm drains and underground pipes that need to be built and maintained. Sometimes the city may assess you based on this, or vary your taxes according to it. More developed land means more maintenance.
NOTE: I am not justifying the behavior of Orange county. I'm just pointing out that, in general, these laws do have merit.
It covers half the screen and the only way it could make more of a point that it's there is if it was flashing in many colours.
This may sound strange, but I completely understand the user's behavior.
How many monitors have you seen that bounce a message box around saying "No video signal" instead of just going to sleep? I can understand displaying that for 10 seconds, but I've come back hours later to find this message still on the screen. Users ignore these types of messages. They probably saw a bouncing grey box, and their brain completely filtered it out. This is the same brain circuitry that helps people to ignore ads, or the sound of the person sitting behind them sniffling, or the fuzziness in their TV signal. The human brain is a freakin' awesome pattern recognition and filtering tool.
The human brain is excellent at filtering information. I think advertising has trained us to turn our brains off to certain things, and we are oblivious to it.
I've seen this phenomenon in myself. Some times when surfing the web with someone else looking over my shoulder, and that person mentions something that they see on the page, and I have to ask them where it is. Often times it is an advertisement, and I read so much online that I just blocked it out. Once I was reading an article that referred to an illustration, and I was frustrated because I couldn't find the illustration. I figured something was wrong on the page. So I decided to scan the page bottom-to-top, right-to-left (the opposite of natural reading order) and the illustration was there! Right where it was supposed to be! Right under an advertisement that I was ignoring.
Someone earlier posted an example with an error message bouncing around the screen. I totally understand why the user missed it -- because many monitors display pointless messages like "No signal" instead of going to sleep.
People are inundated with useless, inappropriate information. As a result, our brains filter out information we don't understand.
I think what you describe is fairly common. I've seen high-end remote controls that were programmable LCD touch-screens. I saw these 10 years ago with B&W LCDs.
now votes against every incumbent that comes up for reelection
I'm glad to know that there are other people doing this. Also, if there's no good senate/house candidates (as is usually the case) just vote the minority party in. The government that governs least governs best.
Solar panels do not work as well on overcast days. And yes, people do use more light bulbs on overcast days. Some panels perform well in direct sunlight, but their efficiency drops significantly in indirect or scattered light. When buying solar panels, you have to take into account the angle of the sun, and the kind of sunlight you tend to get in your area, and how long. Some panels have to we connected via diodes because they actually _consume_ energy if there isn't direct sunlight.
So yes, having panels that operate in nominal conditions, rather than ideal conditions, would help a lot. It would also widen the potential install base to more moderate climates.
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That didn't address the issue: poor peasants who can't afford toilets still live in urban areas.
You missed his point. It wasn't about code generation, it was about testing: You still need to test and debug on both platforms.
Open standards always win out over closed standards. Like OpenGL -vs- DirectX.... oh... wait... :-P
Okay, that makes sense. When I paid cash it was at the time of service.
I have that option too. I left the ads on. I didn't want to drain the site, and the ads are so unintrusive I don't even see them any longer.
The article points out some of the absurdities in are system, some of which might be easy to fix:
The documents revealed an economic system in which the sellers don't set the prices and the buyers don't know what they are
Imagine you walk into a grocery store and buy some beans. At the checkout counter, they take down your information and let you leave, but don't tell you how much the beans cost. Actually, they don't know. The food share you are in doesn't tell them what they pay for the beans. And the price varies based on the food share you use.
Would this grocery store stay in business? Only if all the grocery stores do it!
This is our medical system. The medical providers don't reveal the actual costs of their products and services, and the insurers hide their fee schedules. There's no way to actually know what something will cost ahead of time. If we want health-care reform, THIS is what we must fix. This isn't capitalism. It isn't socialism. It's bureaucracy.
This is so weird to me. At a gut level, I want people to end their suffering. What bizarre torturous form of "love" demands that you keep dying (sometimes zombified) people in struggling in pain until their last breath?
I've heard of a law forbidding discounts when compared to cash. But I don't think that applies to medical costs. I've paid cash for dental visits and gotten significant discounts. It makes sense for two reasons: 1) They don't have to do any complex billing and wait months to get paid 2) They insurance companies discount the bill anyway - so the doctors never get paid in full anyway.
I thought they moved on to "impressions" not "clicks" - I don't think I've ever (intentionally) clicked on an ad in my life.
You know advertisements on Slashdot just financed your ability to post that message.
I find flashblock eliminates 90% of the animating ads, without blocking normal ads. I think Firefox has an option to disable GIF animation. Hopefully, one day it will have the ability to block HTML5 animations too.
We heard so many complaints from customers it was rather eye-opening.
Then your layout sucked. Nothing is more annoying than a static 1280x1024 layout on an iPhone, that requires me to zoom in and out constantly. For a good flow layout, take a look at Wikipedia or Amazon's mobile sites. Just because you couldn't do it right doesn't mean all flow layouts are wrong.
As a result, the cost of us building an Android app is now double that of an iPhone app.
You are supporting more hardware devices, so you have to test on more hardware devices, which costs more. Would you rather that each of those pieces of hardware have a different operating system? You should be thanking Google for Android, because the only reason you are even capable of supporting all these devices is because it is so much cheaper because of Android. Before Android, you had to write for even more operating systems.
There are a lot of benefits to containers. I'm sure I can't name them all.
These container formats contain multiple types of data streams. Ex: audio, video, multi-language subtitles, etc. If you don't have a container format, then the software must guess at what streams are in the file. Would a file with H264 video + MP3 audio have a different extension from H264 + AAC? What if I add subtitles, does that need another extension? The container file solves this.
Because there are multiple streams, the software could simply pass-through unknown data streams. Maybe this particular app doesn't understand subtitles. So it doesn't recognize a stream ID of 12345 - it can display a warning, but preserve the data in the container.
It makes it possible for software to support new codecs because there is a globally unique way to identify the codec. So your software opens an AVI file with an MJPG stream. What can it do? Well, it could go to it's update site, query for MJPG codecs, and download it. Without the container format, the software has to guess based on the extension. And that isn't necessarily enough to know exactly what the file contains - this relates to my first paragraph, about the multitude of extensions.
Having a container format also means a lot of code is shared. Code for buffering, I/O, handling time stamps, live data streaming, synchronizing different streams -- those things are going to vary based on how the container is put together. Some things work on time stamps, others work on integer time indexes. Some interleave data, and use different methods for doing so. There are different ways of handling variable-bitrate data. It makes it easier for the developers, and faster to add additional codecs.
Metadata such as copyright information won't get lost when transcoding the file if the container format is the same.
Having lots of containers is a pain. It would be best if we could standardize on one. You are right that it does make it harder for the user to determine if the file is supported by that particular app. Not sure what to do about that though.
Lastly -- what app doesn't work with MJPEG .AVI files???? That's like the absolute baseline most commonly, easily-supported format.
I think this is the most obvious example of a slippery slope that I've ever heard. The government is going to install devices that can intercept communications, and promise not to use it. Pardon me while I go beat myself over the head repeatedly. I need to lose at least another 30 IQ points before I can continue to live in this country.
It also said that the Department of Homeland Security, which would run the program, would share malicious code data with the NSA but not the content of communications, such as e-mails
Part of the reason these laws exist is to deal with run-off. When it rains, road grease, soap, lawn fertilizers, dog crap, etc. all run-off into the street and then into the storm drains. Live plants absorb some of that run-off and slow-down the rate of flow. The storm drains can only handle the water at a limited rate - it can't funnel every raindrop over the entire city. It also prevents the tributaries from filling with all that run-off, changing the chemical balance.
When you build a new structure, the local ordinances say how much of the ground you can cover with parking lots, roads, buildings, etc. - and how much needs to be covered in something living. Sometimes you can offset some of this by having a green roof, planting trees, etc. Also, the more green you have the fewer storm drains and underground pipes that need to be built and maintained. Sometimes the city may assess you based on this, or vary your taxes according to it. More developed land means more maintenance.
NOTE: I am not justifying the behavior of Orange county. I'm just pointing out that, in general, these laws do have merit.
Or maybe people should just use soap.
is the same as using it to cut off your head.
Which was most likely done by accidental stupidity, rather than on purpose. :-)
Any data collected can ultimately be used by subpoena. If they really were going to use it for "research purposes" then they would have anonymized it.
I knew I should have bought a Bloom Box! I'd be happily playing Assasin's Creed 2 while everyone else panics in terror!
> DRM Error... unable to connect to server.
NOOOoooooooo!!!!!!!!
It covers half the screen and the only way it could make more of a point that it's there is if it was flashing in many colours.
This may sound strange, but I completely understand the user's behavior.
How many monitors have you seen that bounce a message box around saying "No video signal" instead of just going to sleep? I can understand displaying that for 10 seconds, but I've come back hours later to find this message still on the screen. Users ignore these types of messages. They probably saw a bouncing grey box, and their brain completely filtered it out. This is the same brain circuitry that helps people to ignore ads, or the sound of the person sitting behind them sniffling, or the fuzziness in their TV signal. The human brain is a freakin' awesome pattern recognition and filtering tool.
The human brain is excellent at filtering information. I think advertising has trained us to turn our brains off to certain things, and we are oblivious to it.
I've seen this phenomenon in myself. Some times when surfing the web with someone else looking over my shoulder, and that person mentions something that they see on the page, and I have to ask them where it is. Often times it is an advertisement, and I read so much online that I just blocked it out. Once I was reading an article that referred to an illustration, and I was frustrated because I couldn't find the illustration. I figured something was wrong on the page. So I decided to scan the page bottom-to-top, right-to-left (the opposite of natural reading order) and the illustration was there! Right where it was supposed to be! Right under an advertisement that I was ignoring.
Someone earlier posted an example with an error message bouncing around the screen. I totally understand why the user missed it -- because many monitors display pointless messages like "No signal" instead of going to sleep.
People are inundated with useless, inappropriate information. As a result, our brains filter out information we don't understand.
I think what you describe is fairly common. I've seen high-end remote controls that were programmable LCD touch-screens. I saw these 10 years ago with B&W LCDs.
now votes against every incumbent that comes up for reelection
I'm glad to know that there are other people doing this. Also, if there's no good senate/house candidates (as is usually the case) just vote the minority party in. The government that governs least governs best.
Not sure why this is funny.
Solar panels do not work as well on overcast days. And yes, people do use more light bulbs on overcast days. Some panels perform well in direct sunlight, but their efficiency drops significantly in indirect or scattered light. When buying solar panels, you have to take into account the angle of the sun, and the kind of sunlight you tend to get in your area, and how long. Some panels have to we connected via diodes because they actually _consume_ energy if there isn't direct sunlight.
So yes, having panels that operate in nominal conditions, rather than ideal conditions, would help a lot. It would also widen the potential install base to more moderate climates.
Solar panels degrade. If they don't pay-off quickly then they may not pay-off at all.