Rather than broadcasting rows and columns of dots, we should get our images to the ailens by putting them as a 4 x 6 glossy in an envelope left in the center of a crop circle.
Maybe mark the envelope "For The Aliens" on the outside -- so humans wouldn't accidentally take it.
Reminds me of a radio that runs wihout batteries or a plug. There was a how-to-build-it in Popular Science many years ago.
You take a crystal radio, tune it to a strong AM station, run the output not to a loudspeaker but to a rectifier, then use that to power a transistor radio which you can tune to any station.
Huh? Shopping can happen at any speed. Pop ups happen at any speed. You could argue that advertising should subsitize all Internet service regardless of speed, but just because your spending patterns changed when you went to broadband doesn't mean the fat pipe is resonsible.
Broadband also enables delivery of video (a la http://www.akimbo.com/ ). You should pay for that.
How poetic it would have been if the re-filling of the Mediterranean basin had swamped the city of Atlantis. And while we're at it, let's have this geologic event be the genesis of the story of Noah's Ark.
But, Wikipedia says "About 5.4 million years ago at the start of the Pliocene period the barrier at the Strait of Gibraltar broke, premanently reflooding the basin." That's too long ago.
If it had been 20,000 years, there'd be a chance this flood submerged Atlantis. Darn. Would have been a good story.
Agree. A five. Childish. Talks down to his readers.
In the sample chapter, we never learn what Wrongheaded Wesley was doing with those T1 lines. The chapter would have had a satisfying conclusion if Branigan had described the perps businesses, at least in outline.
The Washington Post? I dare not question anything published there. But,...
Akimbo Systems, which two weeks ago launched
I think that should be "two days ago". Any Akimbo subscribers out there who were downloading video before this Monday (10/25)?
It's not exactly on-demand, either; you have to download each show from the Internet to the Akimbo box before you can watch it.
Huh? You "demand" a show, and it downloads across the Internt to you set-top Akimbo box. Sounds like on-demand to me.
Shows are copy-protected, so you can't...
While the author is factually correct, it really ought to be said that a subscriber can play from the Akimbo Player to a VCR which is recording the signal. Lack of ability to move files from the Akimbo hard drive to somewhere else is germane, but small potatoes.
Yes, you do want VoD. Not as a replacement delivery mechanism for scheduled shows. No, as a way to get other video content.
Let's say ski and at times want to watch downhill races. Let's say you follow foreign policy and want to watch some of the World Affairs Forum lectures. You ain't gonna get that on broadcast. But from a VoD service like Akimbo,... there it is.
For me, the joy... of tv has always been that it's a somewhat passive experience. Sometimes you just want to sit back and not "search" for content.
The TV is a device for displaying video. You can be passive in front of it. At times, that's what you want. Sure.
At other times, you want to use it to learn plate tectonics, real estate, Swahili, or watch last week's World Affairs Forum speaker. At those times, VOD is what makes your choice availble to you.
Passive TV will always be served best by broadcast & cable channels. They choose what you might want to watch. Just like my daily newspaper chooses what I might want to read. Active TV, i.e. VOD, is better served by a library of downloadable shows. Active reading is better better served by a public library than by a newspaper.
One hopes that quality programming can be made availble, and findable, by Akimbo-like services aggragating the audience for intellectual and other niche schitt to an economically worthwile size. All the stuff out on the Long Tail could be there for us.
That's funny, but trashes the intellectual commons with a Jack-in-the-Box bag, complete with drink cup and plastic straw.
Akimbo et al provide downloads to a set top box. Playing is from that box to your TV. Quality is not 320x240, but more like what cable or dish provide.
You are confoosed. Downloads are not streams. Sure, stream smuck. Downloads, on the other hand, maintain the quality of MPEG-whatever, since the download must be complete before viewing starts.
Downloads play on your living room TV and the main quality restraint is your set.
Until lots and lots of homes had DSL or cable Internet, VOD was unlikely to be profitable. Video was stuck to physical because the infrastructure for electronic delivery wasn't widely installed.
Now that poeple are paying for broadband for home Internet access, VOD services can be offered over this medium.
A secondary factor is that while recently released Hollywood full length shows are protected up the wazoo, lesser damand video, stuff out on "The Long Tail" http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/05/185236 &tid=188, is more willingly sent out to subscribers.
Akimbo http://akimbo.com/ VOD, originally announced as starting in June but now expected later this month, will offer World Affairs Forum lectures, cartoon networks, CNNfn, old movies, documentaries, and tons of other low demand video material. The future you've been hearing about for five years could arrive next week.
No, the general public will not go for science TV. But the specific public will. And how to reach this specific public?
For those who skipped it, Wired's writer wrote "Exploring new technology like video on demand, or VOD, might give the Science Network a better chance of success, said Shirley Brady, who covers startup TV networks for CableWorld. With VOD, viewers could use their remote controls to select the show segments they want to see."
VOD services, like Akimbo which is rumored to start operating next week, will, if they are any good at all, have recommenders. You know, software that produces "People who ordered this also ordered" recommendations. Decent recommenders will help science viewers FIND their stuff, and help the science channels find their viewers.
Imagine getting interested in, oh, plate tectonics, being able to watch a show on it, and then being able to choose from a list of others.
Broadcast is something, but VOD is way, way more appropriate.
"living your life is like riding a bicycle. its easier to keep your balance if you're going somewhere". I forget who said that. Voltaire? Erving Goffman? Fritz Perls? Anyway, it's true for countries too. I applaud Senor Putin. Set a goal. Get everyone to push for it.
Is'nt that what Senor Kennedy did for us with the moon? I mean, why did we go there except to have a goal?
Me, I want a keyboard. I'm at the computer sometimes anyway, so it's not like it would often be a special trip.
Also, we're not likely to get instant gratification. More likely, it'll be an hour or six after we put in the request that the download is done and we can start watching. So the ordering will tend to be done when one is in active mode, not as part of one's couch time.
Besides the keyboard, I'd want access to the "People who ordered this also ordered..." info, browser for checking plot summaries, opinion sites, etc.
Sure, at times I'll be on the couch, the neurons will flash, and I'll know the title of the next video to order. More often, I'll be at my PC.
People Who Bought This, Also Bought
on
The Long Tail
·
· Score: 1
I'm looking forward to the Long Tail hitting video. "500 channels...and nothing's on" seems awfully close to the truth.
A big part of the problem is connecting with what I like. Descriptions of shows are mostly inadequate. Word of mouth works intermittently. Shows I might like go by without me hearing of them.
I agree 100% with Wired's Anderson that the recommendation feature is an essential part of the Long Tail phenomenon. I see it coming to my TV watching real soon. Now that half our homes have cable Internet or DSL, delivery of 2 minute to 2 hour videos over that medium to a set top box for viewing once delivery's done is now possible. Netflix, but with DSL/cable replacing the mail. The selection cam be broadened way way way out.
Once downloads augment the broadcast & cable shows, and there's a decent recommendation feature to help me find shows matching my tastes, I'll tune out PBS documentaries paced for fifth graders and tune in to better fare. That's my hope.
Building a good recommender has got to be an interesting job. How do you keep the different tastes of the different family members from muddying your data? What happens when a mother in law visits for two months and uses the system heavily? Do you isolate porn? Do you ask customers to say if they *like* what they downloaded?
Slashdot Mirror
For a mind-expanding book with many wonderful insights about the mind, Lily's essay, though old, is still excellent.
I've always wondered how allegedly celibate priests could know enough about the rest of us to give us moral advice.
Please be original. Moderator: take note.
Maybe mark the envelope "For The Aliens" on the outside -- so humans wouldn't accidentally take it.
This was not a typo, but an attempt, perhaps too subtle, to be cute.
The radio I described was remembered, not fantasized.
You take a crystal radio, tune it to a strong AM station, run the output not to a loudspeaker but to a rectifier, then use that to power a transistor radio which you can tune to any station.
Viola! Free energy!
Broadband also enables delivery of video (a la http://www.akimbo.com/ ). You should pay for that.
The Mediterranean went dry, then flooded. Twice.
How poetic it would have been if the re-filling of the Mediterranean basin had swamped the city of Atlantis. And while we're at it, let's have this geologic event be the genesis of the story of Noah's Ark.
But, Wikipedia says "About 5.4 million years ago at the start of the Pliocene period the barrier at the Strait of Gibraltar broke, premanently reflooding the basin." That's too long ago.
If it had been 20,000 years, there'd be a chance this flood submerged Atlantis. Darn. Would have been a good story.
How this topic made it past the editors is beyond me. It's a first: a lame /. article.
OK. If we're gonna play, here is our phot-o-blog. But please, if you recognize us, don't rat on us to the authorities. Our cell is comfortably dug in.
In the sample chapter, we never learn what Wrongheaded Wesley was doing with those T1 lines. The chapter would have had a satisfying conclusion if Branigan had described the perps businesses, at least in outline.
Akimbo Systems, which two weeks ago launched
I think that should be "two days ago". Any Akimbo subscribers out there who were downloading video before this Monday (10/25)?
It's not exactly on-demand, either; you have to download each show from the Internet to the Akimbo box before you can watch it.
Huh? You "demand" a show, and it downloads across the Internt to you set-top Akimbo box. Sounds like on-demand to me.
Shows are copy-protected, so you can't ...
While the author is factually correct, it really ought to be said that a subscriber can play from the Akimbo Player to a VCR which is recording the signal. Lack of ability to move files from the Akimbo hard drive to somewhere else is germane, but small potatoes.
Let's say ski and at times want to watch downhill races. Let's say you follow foreign policy and want to watch some of the World Affairs Forum lectures. You ain't gonna get that on broadcast. But from a VoD service like Akimbo,
The TV is a device for displaying video. You can be passive in front of it. At times, that's what you want. Sure.
At other times, you want to use it to learn plate tectonics, real estate, Swahili, or watch last week's World Affairs Forum speaker. At those times, VOD is what makes your choice availble to you.
Passive TV will always be served best by broadcast & cable channels. They choose what you might want to watch. Just like my daily newspaper chooses what I might want to read. Active TV, i.e. VOD, is better served by a library of downloadable shows. Active reading is better better served by a public library than by a newspaper.
One hopes that quality programming can be made availble, and findable, by Akimbo-like services aggragating the audience for intellectual and other niche schitt to an economically worthwile size. All the stuff out on the Long Tail could be there for us.
That's funny, but trashes the intellectual commons with a Jack-in-the-Box bag, complete with drink cup and plastic straw.
Akimbo et al provide downloads to a set top box. Playing is from that box to your TV. Quality is not 320x240, but more like what cable or dish provide.
You are confoosed. Downloads are not streams. Sure, stream smuck. Downloads, on the other hand, maintain the quality of MPEG-whatever, since the download must be complete before viewing starts.
Downloads play on your living room TV and the main quality restraint is your set.
A secondary factor is that while recently released Hollywood full length shows are protected up the wazoo, lesser damand video, stuff out on "The Long Tail" http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/05/185236 &tid=188, is more willingly sent out to subscribers.
Akimbo http://akimbo.com/ VOD, originally announced as starting in June but now expected later this month, will offer World Affairs Forum lectures, cartoon networks, CNNfn, old movies, documentaries, and tons of other low demand video material. The future you've been hearing about for five years could arrive next week.
Not because the world is changing. Because you're learning about it.
No, the general public will not go for science TV. But the specific public will. And how to reach this specific public?
For those who skipped it, Wired's writer wrote "Exploring new technology like video on demand, or VOD, might give the Science Network a better chance of success, said Shirley Brady, who covers startup TV networks for CableWorld. With VOD, viewers could use their remote controls to select the show segments they want to see."
VOD services, like Akimbo which is rumored to start operating next week, will, if they are any good at all, have recommenders. You know, software that produces "People who ordered this also ordered" recommendations. Decent recommenders will help science viewers FIND their stuff, and help the science channels find their viewers.
Imagine getting interested in, oh, plate tectonics, being able to watch a show on it, and then being able to choose from a list of others.
Broadcast is something, but VOD is way, way more appropriate.
"living your life is like riding a bicycle. its easier to keep your balance if you're going somewhere". I forget who said that. Voltaire? Erving Goffman? Fritz Perls? Anyway, it's true for countries too. I applaud Senor Putin. Set a goal. Get everyone to push for it.
Is'nt that what Senor Kennedy did for us with the moon? I mean, why did we go there except to have a goal?
Food lines went away about 5 yrs ago. >
Also, we're not likely to get instant gratification. More likely, it'll be an hour or six after we put in the request that the download is done and we can start watching. So the ordering will tend to be done when one is in active mode, not as part of one's couch time.
Besides the keyboard, I'd want access to the "People who ordered this also ordered ..." info, browser for checking plot summaries, opinion sites, etc.
Sure, at times I'll be on the couch, the neurons will flash, and I'll know the title of the next video to order. More often, I'll be at my PC.
I'm looking forward to the Long Tail hitting video. "500 channels...and nothing's on" seems awfully close to the truth.
A big part of the problem is connecting with what I like. Descriptions of shows are mostly inadequate. Word of mouth works intermittently. Shows I might like go by without me hearing of them.
I agree 100% with Wired's Anderson that the recommendation feature is an essential part of the Long Tail phenomenon. I see it coming to my TV watching real soon. Now that half our homes have cable Internet or DSL, delivery of 2 minute to 2 hour videos over that medium to a set top box for viewing once delivery's done is now possible. Netflix, but with DSL/cable replacing the mail. The selection cam be broadened way way way out.
Once downloads augment the broadcast & cable shows, and there's a decent recommendation feature to help me find shows matching my tastes, I'll tune out PBS documentaries paced for fifth graders and tune in to better fare. That's my hope.
Building a good recommender has got to be an interesting job. How do you keep the different tastes of the different family members from muddying your data? What happens when a mother in law visits for two months and uses the system heavily? Do you isolate porn? Do you ask customers to say if they *like* what they downloaded?