Speaking as an extrovert, I can honestly tell you that I am not looking at ANYONE when I am working out at the gym. I am there to work out, and get out. That's it. Although, maybe that has something to do with the time of day I go (early AM).
I used to work out after work, and that was a whole different scene (it, in fact, WAS a "scene"). The "pick-up" crowd tends to show up after work, and makes it annoying when you're actually trying to exercise and not socialize.
If you find you can't accommodate what you'd like to do (cardio, weights, whatever) at home, then I'd suggest hitting the gym in the morning. If you feel you need to add another level of distance from everyone else, then put on some headphones, even if you don't listen to them. Most people won't even give you a second glance, if they give you a first glance to begin with.
The fact that many users use it to microblog about their bowel movements doesn't make it entirely useless for everyone... I run a spinning class at my workplace, and it's a nice way to get out cancellation notices, changes of instructor, etc. in a nice, concise, broadcast-only method, for anyone in the class who subscribes.
We have a blog as well, but that's typically used for info requiring more than one sentence at a time.
And it was perfect for Beer of the Day, but they don't seem to have posted lately. How sad...
This is exactly what saved my musical bacon when both my laptop's HD and my external HD crapped out within a week of each other. I was able to restore from my 60GB iPod (had about 45GB of music on there at the time) without much of a problem.
Now I'm set up with a NAS downstairs mirrored to a second USB drive... I still keep my iPod in synch with my iTunes library, just in case.
(Mmmmmm... musical bacon...)
Re:Why is this hard to believe?
on
Why Myths Persist
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Obviously there are those who believe that God exists, there are those who believe he doesn't exist. (IMHO *both* are right BTW).
So... I've been worshipping a cat this whole time?...
And, as a parent, this is where I take my child *out* of the restaurant, even at my own inconvenience. I find it more uncomfortable to foist my child's tantrum (or general misbehavior) on other patrons.
Of course, others disagree (including my husband). I still, however, remember what it was like, pre-children, to be forced to deal with other people's misbehaving kids (and still don't like it today).
I ignore the tantrums at home. For the most part. Public venues, for me, require a different tactic.
Getting back to the point, I don't see where this is censorship, unless the *use* of the chip becomes mandatory. We don't use our V-chip now. I don't see us using it in the future, although you never know. What bothers us the most (as a previous poster said) are the commercials that contain what we consider inappropriate content... those aren't rated and wouldn't be affected by this anyway.
(Hates trying to catch horror movie previews and change the channel before the kids notice... and the stupid things seem to always be at twice the volume of everything else too...)
Silly? Of course.
Unnecessary? Definitely.
Madness? Possibly, but unlikely...
Impractical? No kidding.
Why does it matter?
Here's a group of guys who decided to geek out and make a ridiculous little interface to a ubiquitous gadget for the hell of it. Does the fact that it's for the iPod make it any worse than, say, any of the toys we see on ThinkGeek?
If it takes being silly to come up with an idea (which, if you think about it, isn't really a bad I/F -- just a silly implementation of it), then I say go for it... Come on, slashdotters... don't you remember being young and stupid and the goofy things you coded/built back in the day?
I remember sitting in a room full of VT100s (ostensibly) doing homework, and phoning my friends in the lab with me. Of course, that was back in college, when I didn't mind getting distracted, since I was usually trying to avoid homework or some such thing...
Now, I can't be bothered. I'm too much of an old fart to want to spend my time online chatting about nothing... Different times, different apps. Same old stuff...
This is different in that posting the next Harry Potter book or Star Wars release would be distributing copyrighted material (and let's not get into THAT argument here, please).
Posting an article with the specs for a new product is not (unless said article is accompanied by copyrighted text and/or pictures), even though Apple tried to slap Think Secret with a C&D anyway. Not having seen the offending site, I can't say for sure if he had posted such materials or not.
Seems to me that, if you already know what you want, these kiosks could be nice. No need to hunt around to find the one dusty copy of Mavis Beacon you want to buy (and you KNOW someone out there wants one).
The problem is that it's damn annoying to browse on these things, and that's where they'll lose the casual shopper. It's the Amazon model - if I know what I want, I'll go online. If I want to browse, I'll head to a brick-and-mortar bookstore and thumb through some books. Borders will also kick me out if I try to shop past closing time, thereby giving me my life back.
When working out, I always thought it'd be an interesting idea to have a common switchbox where people plugged in their personal stereos and folks working out could either listen to their own or to others' music.
Of course, the legality would get murky, since it would most likely be considered a public performance or rebroadcast at that point. I've always been curious to hear others' musical preferences, though. The local top 40 station piped in through the gym gets old quickly (heck, most radio gets old quickly... that's why I *have* an iPod in the first place).
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking as an extrovert, I can honestly tell you that I am not looking at ANYONE when I am working out at the gym. I am there to work out, and get out. That's it. Although, maybe that has something to do with the time of day I go (early AM).
I used to work out after work, and that was a whole different scene (it, in fact, WAS a "scene"). The "pick-up" crowd tends to show up after work, and makes it annoying when you're actually trying to exercise and not socialize.
If you find you can't accommodate what you'd like to do (cardio, weights, whatever) at home, then I'd suggest hitting the gym in the morning. If you feel you need to add another level of distance from everyone else, then put on some headphones, even if you don't listen to them. Most people won't even give you a second glance, if they give you a first glance to begin with.
The fact that many users use it to microblog about their bowel movements doesn't make it entirely useless for everyone... I run a spinning class at my workplace, and it's a nice way to get out cancellation notices, changes of instructor, etc. in a nice, concise, broadcast-only method, for anyone in the class who subscribes.
We have a blog as well, but that's typically used for info requiring more than one sentence at a time.
And it was perfect for Beer of the Day, but they don't seem to have posted lately. How sad...
This is exactly what saved my musical bacon when both my laptop's HD and my external HD crapped out within a week of each other. I was able to restore from my 60GB iPod (had about 45GB of music on there at the time) without much of a problem.
Now I'm set up with a NAS downstairs mirrored to a second USB drive... I still keep my iPod in synch with my iTunes library, just in case.
(Mmmmmm... musical bacon...)
So... I've been worshipping a cat this whole time?...
And, as a parent, this is where I take my child *out* of the restaurant, even at my own inconvenience. I find it more uncomfortable to foist my child's tantrum (or general misbehavior) on other patrons.
Of course, others disagree (including my husband). I still, however, remember what it was like, pre-children, to be forced to deal with other people's misbehaving kids (and still don't like it today).
I ignore the tantrums at home. For the most part. Public venues, for me, require a different tactic.
Getting back to the point, I don't see where this is censorship, unless the *use* of the chip becomes mandatory. We don't use our V-chip now. I don't see us using it in the future, although you never know. What bothers us the most (as a previous poster said) are the commercials that contain what we consider inappropriate content... those aren't rated and wouldn't be affected by this anyway.
(Hates trying to catch horror movie previews and change the channel before the kids notice... and the stupid things seem to always be at twice the volume of everything else too...)
Silly? Of course.
Unnecessary? Definitely.
Madness? Possibly, but unlikely...
Impractical? No kidding.
Why does it matter?
Here's a group of guys who decided to geek out and make a ridiculous little interface to a ubiquitous gadget for the hell of it. Does the fact that it's for the iPod make it any worse than, say, any of the toys we see on ThinkGeek?
If it takes being silly to come up with an idea (which, if you think about it, isn't really a bad I/F -- just a silly implementation of it), then I say go for it... Come on, slashdotters... don't you remember being young and stupid and the goofy things you coded/built back in the day?
(I know you do...)
Remember the VMS phone utility, or UNIX chat?
I remember sitting in a room full of VT100s (ostensibly) doing homework, and phoning my friends in the lab with me. Of course, that was back in college, when I didn't mind getting distracted, since I was usually trying to avoid homework or some such thing...
Now, I can't be bothered. I'm too much of an old fart to want to spend my time online chatting about nothing... Different times, different apps. Same old stuff...
Posting an article with the specs for a new product is not (unless said article is accompanied by copyrighted text and/or pictures), even though Apple tried to slap Think Secret with a C&D anyway. Not having seen the offending site, I can't say for sure if he had posted such materials or not.
Seems to me that, if you already know what you want, these kiosks could be nice. No need to hunt around to find the one dusty copy of Mavis Beacon you want to buy (and you KNOW someone out there wants one).
The problem is that it's damn annoying to browse on these things, and that's where they'll lose the casual shopper. It's the Amazon model - if I know what I want, I'll go online. If I want to browse, I'll head to a brick-and-mortar bookstore and thumb through some books. Borders will also kick me out if I try to shop past closing time, thereby giving me my life back.
When working out, I always thought it'd be an interesting idea to have a common switchbox where people plugged in their personal stereos and folks working out could either listen to their own or to others' music. Of course, the legality would get murky, since it would most likely be considered a public performance or rebroadcast at that point. I've always been curious to hear others' musical preferences, though. The local top 40 station piped in through the gym gets old quickly (heck, most radio gets old quickly... that's why I *have* an iPod in the first place).
And, as Dave Barry would point out, this would be a great name for a rock band.