one could argue (and i'm sure the USPS would!) that while the information itself is free, you are paying for their having "compiled" it for you, when you buy the whole lot.
well, that and they know a lot of businesses *need* that information, and as they have an effective monopoly on it, that they can get away with it...
to draw a parallel, when you pay your $29.95 for a linux distribution on cd, you're obviously not only paying for the cost of producing the package, but in addition the effort the company has put in to throw the whole lot together.
the implication of this actually endorses the USPS' actions - you can get the information free of charge as you need it (one would equate to downloading linux online... fine for one or two packages, inconvenient for a whole distro), but you pay for the convenience - and that's the key, here, of getting the whole lot done for you.
Well, the first thing that strikes would be the "personability" of the thing... and of course as a geek what's the first thing you want to know? how it works, of course.
the site is rather devoid of real technical data (onboard processor and storage? how does it interface with the "offboard" pc? what sort of stuff does that pc do?)
really, this looks unfortunately little more than a very expensive teddy ruxpin shaped in a pokemon style. the few technical specifications there are imply it can only recognize 100 phrases (most, if not all of which, i bet, are preprogrammed, such as turn the tv channel, fetch the remote, read me my email etc) in other words, its functionality is predetermined, with little to no capability for expansion (its 300 output phrases must be similarly preprogrammed)
ah well, so it's going to be eye candy. so at least, is it going to look good? check out:
the shimizu one looks based on the imac, and the ultraman and uri-chan ones are cool. you could always buy a "feature expansion pack" (aka a box of crayons) i suppose:)
what intrigues me is its reported "data transfer" capability... one would assume the pc does most of the work and simply transmits it to the bot (as in the emails, for instance), however, what really grabbed my attention was it's supposed ability to display video for you - is it going to have some high-speed wireless connection, and a box attached to the scart input on the tv that receives its input? that would rock. but would also explain why its battery life is pitiful.
in the end, i think, this is pandering towards the "AI" perceptions of the masses, who can still be amazed by a 'echo "who are you?"; read $idiot; echo "hi, " + $idiot;', turning its head to "listen" to people, and so forth. the idea of offloading the computation onto a remote box is brilliant, and should be the way forward, imho, but i think these manufacturers have to get their priorities right.
to that end, someone has to come up with a cool robot with some proper semantic responses, learning capabilities and usefulness, then show the public it can be done. any takers?
We here in the UK have very strict gun control and a mulit-party democracy that is more varied and effective than that of the USA.
Guess what? Hardly anyone gets shot here, and those who do are usually just bigh-time drug dealers and gangsters.
One nutter went ape in a church recently with a samurai sword though.
i dont like this implication much - it sounds to me like it's condoning a ban on samurai swords, for instance. (which was the immediate reaction of the media upon the release of this story, of course *sigh*)
if he hadn't been able to get a samurai sword, he'd have probably used a cleaver, kitchen knife, giant toothpick, whatever. the sword isn't the problem, it didn't imbue him with a demonic possession that caused him to go out ans alughter people. the basic of the situation is, that he was nutso.
i think all this media/government action scapegoating anything vaguelly "unusual" about the crime (role playing games, weaponry, being a 'goth', playing video games, etc) is essentially a refusal to acknowledge the underlying problem of violence and hatred.
in an ideal world, there could be guns and swords and violent video games everywhere, but no-one would want to kill each other.
at the other extreme, where anything even vaguelly sharp is hidden away... so what, people will club each other to death with dead puppies if they want to.
i'm ambivalent about the effects of exposing impressionable young children to violence, whether it be video games, tv programs, or what have you. i'd say desensitisation is an issue. but any rational adult who knows right from wrong can differentiate between the two. anyone who's had kids can probably testify you have to teach them that hitting people is wrong, as they'll likely try it at some point.
but getting back on topic for a moment (ha), while violent video games should be kept away from very young, impressionable minds, anyone who is able to differentiate reality from fantasy should be allowed to do so.
ObTechnology: as Doom was released to shareware, would downloading it in brazil be considered an offence, or does the ban only cover its *sale*?
fross
Re:Of Keyboards and Repeat
on
Interface Zen
·
· Score: 1
>CAPSLOCK. Why? Well, some people don't touch type. Other people have physical deformities that makes hitting SHIFT plus another key difficult, and "accessibility" wasn't something that was thought about in previous generations of systems.
surely, on something as personal as a computer keyboard (personal referring to "thing that you use for yourself"), manufacturers should give various products as solutions... people who need big keys, caps lock etc, should get them. people who need a more "hacktastic" keyboard should get one of those.
so what can you do about it? put your support in companies who cater for our "special needs"... for instance, follow that link in tom's article to the company that makes the "Happy hacker" keyboard, other companies like it. get yourself a gadget that helps you be productive. dont settle for your microsoft keyboard if you dont need one.
if enough people do this, who knows, we could have good ergonomic dvorak keyboards available en masse soon:)
Slashdot Mirror
one could argue (and i'm sure the USPS would!) that while the information itself is free, you are paying for their having "compiled" it for you, when you buy the whole lot.
well, that and they know a lot of businesses *need* that information, and as they have an effective monopoly on it, that they can get away with it...
to draw a parallel, when you pay your $29.95 for a linux distribution on cd, you're obviously not only paying for the cost of producing the package, but in addition the effort the company has put in to throw the whole lot together.
the implication of this actually endorses the USPS' actions - you can get the information free of charge as you need it (one would equate to downloading linux online... fine for one or two packages, inconvenient for a whole distro), but you pay for the convenience - and that's the key, here, of getting the whole lot done for you.
Fross
Well, the first thing that strikes would be the "personability" of the thing... and of course as a geek what's the first thing you want to know? how it works, of course.
i dea02a.htm
:)
:)
the site is rather devoid of real technical data (onboard processor and storage? how does it interface with the "offboard" pc? what sort of stuff does that pc do?)
really, this looks unfortunately little more than a very expensive teddy ruxpin shaped in a pokemon style. the few technical specifications there are imply it can only recognize 100 phrases (most, if not all of which, i bet, are preprogrammed, such as turn the tv channel, fetch the remote, read me my email etc) in other words, its functionality is predetermined, with little to no capability for expansion (its 300 output phrases must be similarly preprogrammed)
ah well, so it's going to be eye candy. so at least, is it going to look good? check out:
http://www.incx.nec.co.jp/robot/english/idea-e/
the shimizu one looks based on the imac, and the ultraman and uri-chan ones are cool. you could always buy a "feature expansion pack" (aka a box of crayons) i suppose
what intrigues me is its reported "data transfer" capability... one would assume the pc does most of the work and simply transmits it to the bot (as in the emails, for instance), however, what really grabbed my attention was it's supposed ability to display video for you - is it going to have some high-speed wireless connection, and a box attached to the scart input on the tv that receives its input? that would rock. but would also explain why its battery life is pitiful.
in the end, i think, this is pandering towards the "AI" perceptions of the masses, who can still be amazed by a 'echo "who are you?"; read $idiot; echo "hi, " + $idiot;', turning its head to "listen" to people, and so forth. the idea of offloading the computation onto a remote box is brilliant, and should be the way forward, imho, but i think these manufacturers have to get their priorities right.
to that end, someone has to come up with a cool robot with some proper semantic responses, learning capabilities and usefulness, then show the public it can be done. any takers?
Fross
We here in the UK have very strict gun control and a mulit-party democracy that is more varied and effective than that of the USA.
Guess what? Hardly anyone gets shot here, and those who do are usually just bigh-time drug dealers and gangsters.
One nutter went ape in a church recently with a samurai sword though.
i dont like this implication much - it sounds to me like it's condoning a ban on samurai swords, for instance.
(which was the immediate reaction of the media upon the release of this story, of course *sigh*)
if he hadn't been able to get a samurai sword, he'd have probably used a cleaver, kitchen knife, giant toothpick, whatever. the sword isn't the problem, it didn't imbue him with a demonic possession that caused him to go out ans alughter people. the basic of the situation is, that he was nutso.
i think all this media/government action scapegoating anything vaguelly "unusual" about the crime (role playing games, weaponry, being a 'goth', playing video games, etc) is essentially a refusal to acknowledge the underlying problem of violence and hatred.
in an ideal world, there could be guns and swords and violent video games everywhere, but no-one would want to kill each other.
at the other extreme, where anything even vaguelly sharp is hidden away... so what, people will club each other to death with dead puppies if they want to.
i'm ambivalent about the effects of exposing impressionable young children to violence, whether it be video games, tv programs, or what have you. i'd say desensitisation is an issue. but any rational adult who knows right from wrong can differentiate between the two. anyone who's had kids can probably testify you have to teach them that hitting people is wrong, as they'll likely try it at some point.
but getting back on topic for a moment (ha), while violent video games should be kept away from very young, impressionable minds, anyone who is able to differentiate reality from fantasy should be allowed to do so.
ObTechnology: as Doom was released to shareware, would downloading it in brazil be considered an offence, or does the ban only cover its *sale*?
fross
>CAPSLOCK. Why? Well, some people don't touch type. Other people have physical deformities that makes hitting SHIFT plus another key difficult, and "accessibility" wasn't something that was thought about in previous generations of systems.
:)
surely, on something as personal as a computer keyboard (personal referring to "thing that you use for yourself"), manufacturers should give various products as solutions... people who need big keys, caps lock etc, should get them. people who need a more "hacktastic" keyboard should get one of those.
so what can you do about it? put your support in companies who cater for our "special needs"... for instance, follow that link in tom's article to the company that makes the "Happy hacker" keyboard, other companies like it. get yourself a gadget that helps you be productive. dont settle for your microsoft keyboard if you dont need one.
if enough people do this, who knows, we could have good ergonomic dvorak keyboards available en masse soon
fross