I used to use Whitelight (over at Sourceforge), but I've since switched to Popfile (which uses Baysian filters rather than challenge-response, also at Sourceforge).
I ran whitelight on my mail server, but Popfile resides as a POP proxy on my LAN.
In interests of full disclosure, I own a DirecTV PVR (formerly called DirecTiVo).
The anti-suggestions bit is pure FUD. It's a zero-impact feature when on (ie, it _NEVER_ uses tuner or space that would otherwise be used by a program you specifically requested), and it can be turned off. I leave it on expressly because it's zero-impact, even tho I rarely watch suggested programs. Every once in a while I don't want to watch anything in the recorded list, and I'll find a gem in the suggestions (a movie I hadn't seen, or a syndicated rerun of Simpsons).
That said, I _love_ my TiVo. I considered a Replay, but the TiVo was a better choice for me, since I was also getting DirecTV at the same time. I like the Replay procuct, especially all the networking capabilities. It's a shame the company is struggling.
Not really, I think, as the average Linux user is more worried about functionality than UI most of the time
Functionality, and more directly productivity, are influenced by the UI. Human factors is a big field, and often overlooked in many areas, including software interfaces. For example, I write software to assist Human Factors Engineers design and conduct experiments for evaluating effective hardware and software interfaces. Right now we are working on finding upgrades to a fielded system that is so bad you could write a textbook on bad interface design using it as the only example.
In fact, our customer could have saved a _lot_ of money in the long run had they invested some time and money upfront in UI design. Instead, we have to spend all this time and effort on the back side to design improvements, and then we have to roll the improvements out to existing products. Ugh.
There is a lot more that goes into making "good" software than it's functionality. If it's not easy and intuitive to use, then people won't - regardless of how awesome the functionality is - if they have an easier to use choice. Microsoft has understood this from the start, and it's why they've got the market-share they do, despite buggy and bloated products.
I have a 10" long "depression" in my skull from when I cracked it playing football in the house at age 6 (dove for a "pass", hit the little metal striker plate on the door jamb).
I think we've found the reason for your apparent lack of pain receptors!
Actually, you bring up some good points. I currently TiVo Enterprise on the weekend, so my 2 DirecTiVo tuners can get Ed and Bernie Mac. (Ed, BTW, got tired a long time ago for me. The whole Ed-Carol thing is fucking old.)
Besides, am I supposed to watch Farscape? SciFi seems to be mucking that one up for me without my wife's help! Enterprise is still much better than DS9 or Voyager, IMHO.
Let's be honest here - I mostly use my TiVo for time-shifting English Premiership matches.:)
my wife, who isn't that computer saavy has already learned how to bump her Season Passes over mine.
I hope mine never figures that out, or I'll never get to watch Enterprise - I'll be punished with a TiVo full of Ed, Friends, and Anna Nicole. The horror!
I just started watching "Fallen Angels" on my TiVo this morning before I came in to work. Only got a few minutes in - I can't wait to see the rest now!
This is easily the best Anime series I've ever seen. Real drama, suspense, and a good sci-fi setting. Awesome characters too, especially the more I see of it.
I dig Sealab 2021 on Sunday's Adult Swim. Funny shit, and Erik Estrada providing some voice talent to boot!
Let me start by saying... yes, I was too aggressive. I apologize.
Actually democracy is majority rule.
Not good democracy. I think definitions 1 and 5 are more appropriate, and what we should be aiming for.
Then perhaps you will enlighten me to what the Constitution really means.
It says it right there - "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". I fail to see how it can be argued that our Congressionally approval-stamped Pledge (to pick a hot topic) meets those requirements, not to mention Jefferson's guidelines on "wall of separation". I'm no constitutionalist, but that stuff is in there for a reason, and just because we've "gotten away" with ignoring it for so many years doesn't make it right - there are a lot of (good) Americans who don't believe in (a) God. Having God in so many offical "capacities" infringes on a number of people's religious freedom rights. Ditch the "under God", or change the 1st Amendment. Those are the options.
Unfortunately (and probably not surprisingly) the majority acts nearly exclusively in their best interests (which is why good democracy isn't mob rule). To truly respect the rights of others is to not want to clobber them over their heads with your religion, as you would like them to do the same to you (ie, the Pledge not saying "under Shiva"). The Golden Rule, and all that.
I just feel that our system is flawed. Too often decisions are made based on offending the least amount of people, regardless of merit.
We can agree on that. Which is why every Senator stood up in support of the Pledge as it is now - not as it was originally and still should be. In order to avoid offending the majority.
If the cause is just, then the vocal minority should be the cause of change! Stasis is a bad thing. If everyone accepted the status quo as "the right way", then we'd still have slavery, women would be disenfranchised, heck - we'd probably still be a British colony. Rocking the boat is necessary to attract attention to the wrongs of the world, and it almost always starts with a minority of people.
I mean, I think I understand what you are trying to say, but might may make "right", even if it's wrong. (Witness the "Drug War".)
The point I was trying to make was the fact that we are suffocated by political correctness and minority rule.
Hehehehehehe! That's rich! (BTW, democracy is not "majority rule". Which seems to be what you endorse.)
Because Xenu knows we can't have any references to church.
Your failure to understand our own Constitution is... depressing. But understandable, since virtually every Congressman similarly misunderstands the Constitution (either that, or believes in mob rule and religiously follows the polls).
QUIZ
who bombed the world trade center in the parking garage? militant male muslims
QUIZ Who bombed Oklahoma City, which before 9/11 was the worst case of terrorism on American soil in US history? militant male (white) christian
So, should we also stop all white males between the ages of 18 and 35? Why not? You seem to think it's OK to do that to young muslim men.
Turn me in because I am a threat to society.
Well, you are, but not for the reasons you think.
While you should be (and are) free to be a Christian, and think gays are, well, gay, don't you think the same should be true of these "PC" groups you despise so? Shouldn't atheists be free to go about their lives without having Christianity shoved down their throats? Shouldn't gay people be allowed to live their lives? I say yes.
Further more, nature is entirely dictatorial, kills millions of people a year, and to quote my Physics teacher 'nothing kills like the laws of physics'. Does that make Nature or Physics evil or immoral ? I would suggest that dictatorship is actually amoral, neither good or evil, it simply is.
Boy, the current U.S. administration really wouldn't like you!
Interestingly, I work in this field. I won't supply too many specifics (I probably shouldn't), but we are investigating ways of improving HCI in high-load menu-driven systems where errors - which can be common - can literally cost in the millions of dollars per.
Voice looks promising. And it's more robust - especially in a bounded environment like a menu-driven system - than you might think.
Of course, there are other issues with HCI outside of providing input to the system. Such as monitoring critical systems, and monitoring the environment a teleoperated machine works in. With potenially long input delays (seconds). We are studying the effects of tactile warnings, three-dimensional audio, and computer-augmented reality to provide more efficient operator-machine interaction. Very cool stuff.
The Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton OH. Those of you who are pretty quick will note that Dayton is where the Wright Brothers made their airplane, and the museum is located at the old location of Wright Field, named after the brothers. (The base itself is a combination of Wright and Patterson Fields - thus the name "Wright-Patterson". Wow!)
I did want to add something - you can quite easily make the TV the limiting factor in your original setup (which your DVD player has already done).
Download DScaler (Open Source) and PowerStrip (shareware), and you can tweak your video settings to the native requirements of your display. So, if I have a XGA front projector, I can set my computer to deliver video in the projector's native format for best presentation. Or, in your case, you can set the VGA settings to the NTSC standard and use a VGA->Component transcoder to get best performance.
Playing a DVD with a software player and watching on a 17" monitor is light-years better than with my Sony DVD player and my 19" television. I will certainly be using my PC to scale and deinterlace the output of my DVD player when I get a quality display device (like a projector or HDTV).
I often wonder why such a diverse group of people immediately think of the potential "horrors" dictated by popular media instead of the potential benefits.
Because it is a scientific fact (that I know simply because of my graduate work in Human Factors Engineering) that people tend to assign more weight to a potential detriment than an equally large benefit when assessing risk. It's "Human Nature", whatever that is.
Of course, I think the negatives of (theraputic, for Christ's sake!) cloning are overblown to begin with.
The next morning, I was surprised to see Tom in his dorm room (the doors in Taylor Tower are routinely kept open--it's tradition or something), eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep, still on hold waiting for tech service to answer.
I see you went to Ohio State. Yeah, open dorm room doors are a tradition in that dorm (I lived there from Fall 94 til Spring 96). My freshman year, we never closed our door except when we had contraband.:D
I knew a kid in Taylor Tower (lived across the hall the 95-96 school year) who - and I am completely NOT making this up - would drive back to Wheeling to work at a Blockbuster and stay at his 16yo gf's place... at all times of the day/week/year. We would NEVER know where he was - his parents once called and asked me where he was... "I think he's at class". He would routinely wake up 5 minutes before a midterm, take a leasurely shower, watch the news, and then - 25-30 minutes into the test - head out to take the test.
Plus, late at night, he would start clucking like a chicken and walking around like one. True story. I hear he's a cop in Wheeling now - how he ever got past a psych eval I'll never know.
I have a BS in Electrical/Computer Engineering, and am one full-time year (3 quarters) away from having a BS in Mechanical Engineering, and just three classes in my entire curriculum had computers in the classroom.
You don't need computers to discuss theory.
You don't need internet access to write a tokenizer either.
Slashdot Mirror
My company here in the US had one of those over two years ago. Pretty cool, but a real battery hog.
I used to use Whitelight (over at Sourceforge), but I've since switched to Popfile (which uses Baysian filters rather than challenge-response, also at Sourceforge).
I ran whitelight on my mail server, but Popfile resides as a POP proxy on my LAN.
In interests of full disclosure, I own a DirecTV PVR (formerly called DirecTiVo).
The anti-suggestions bit is pure FUD. It's a zero-impact feature when on (ie, it _NEVER_ uses tuner or space that would otherwise be used by a program you specifically requested), and it can be turned off. I leave it on expressly because it's zero-impact, even tho I rarely watch suggested programs. Every once in a while I don't want to watch anything in the recorded list, and I'll find a gem in the suggestions (a movie I hadn't seen, or a syndicated rerun of Simpsons).
That said, I _love_ my TiVo. I considered a Replay, but the TiVo was a better choice for me, since I was also getting DirecTV at the same time. I like the Replay procuct, especially all the networking capabilities. It's a shame the company is struggling.
Functionality, and more directly productivity, are influenced by the UI. Human factors is a big field, and often overlooked in many areas, including software interfaces. For example, I write software to assist Human Factors Engineers design and conduct experiments for evaluating effective hardware and software interfaces. Right now we are working on finding upgrades to a fielded system that is so bad you could write a textbook on bad interface design using it as the only example.
In fact, our customer could have saved a _lot_ of money in the long run had they invested some time and money upfront in UI design. Instead, we have to spend all this time and effort on the back side to design improvements, and then we have to roll the improvements out to existing products. Ugh.
There is a lot more that goes into making "good" software than it's functionality. If it's not easy and intuitive to use, then people won't - regardless of how awesome the functionality is - if they have an easier to use choice. Microsoft has understood this from the start, and it's why they've got the market-share they do, despite buggy and bloated products.
Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
Physics of Sailing
You can't tack in a solar wind because there is nothing to provide sideslip resistance like water does for a sailboat.
Unless you use chemical engines, but then I'm pretty sure you'd be better off dropping the sails if you wanted to to head towards a star.
Oops.
Agreed. That was beyond bizarre. I sat there thinking to myself "what the fuck is going on here?". I kept waiting for the payoff that never came.
I think we've found the reason for your apparent lack of pain receptors!
Actually, you bring up some good points. I currently TiVo Enterprise on the weekend, so my 2 DirecTiVo tuners can get Ed and Bernie Mac. (Ed, BTW, got tired a long time ago for me. The whole Ed-Carol thing is fucking old.)
:)
Besides, am I supposed to watch Farscape? SciFi seems to be mucking that one up for me without my wife's help! Enterprise is still much better than DS9 or Voyager, IMHO.
Let's be honest here - I mostly use my TiVo for time-shifting English Premiership matches.
I hope mine never figures that out, or I'll never get to watch Enterprise - I'll be punished with a TiVo full of Ed, Friends, and Anna Nicole. The horror!
I just started watching "Fallen Angels" on my TiVo this morning before I came in to work. Only got a few minutes in - I can't wait to see the rest now!
This is easily the best Anime series I've ever seen. Real drama, suspense, and a good sci-fi setting. Awesome characters too, especially the more I see of it.
I dig Sealab 2021 on Sunday's Adult Swim. Funny shit, and Erik Estrada providing some voice talent to boot!
Unfortunately (and probably not surprisingly) the majority acts nearly exclusively in their best interests (which is why good democracy isn't mob rule). To truly respect the rights of others is to not want to clobber them over their heads with your religion, as you would like them to do the same to you (ie, the Pledge not saying "under Shiva"). The Golden Rule, and all that. We can agree on that. Which is why every Senator stood up in support of the Pledge as it is now - not as it was originally and still should be. In order to avoid offending the majority.
If the cause is just, then the vocal minority should be the cause of change! Stasis is a bad thing. If everyone accepted the status quo as "the right way", then we'd still have slavery, women would be disenfranchised, heck - we'd probably still be a British colony. Rocking the boat is necessary to attract attention to the wrongs of the world, and it almost always starts with a minority of people.
I mean, I think I understand what you are trying to say, but might may make "right", even if it's wrong. (Witness the "Drug War".)
Who bombed Oklahoma City, which before 9/11 was the worst case of terrorism on American soil in US history?
militant male (white) christian
So, should we also stop all white males between the ages of 18 and 35? Why not? You seem to think it's OK to do that to young muslim men. Well, you are, but not for the reasons you think.
While you should be (and are) free to be a Christian, and think gays are, well, gay, don't you think the same should be true of these "PC" groups you despise so? Shouldn't atheists be free to go about their lives without having Christianity shoved down their throats? Shouldn't gay people be allowed to live their lives? I say yes.
Cheers,
Your local libertarian
Boy, the current U.S. administration really wouldn't like you!
Interestingly, I work in this field. I won't supply too many specifics (I probably shouldn't), but we are investigating ways of improving HCI in high-load menu-driven systems where errors - which can be common - can literally cost in the millions of dollars per.
Voice looks promising. And it's more robust - especially in a bounded environment like a menu-driven system - than you might think.
Of course, there are other issues with HCI outside of providing input to the system. Such as monitoring critical systems, and monitoring the environment a teleoperated machine works in. With potenially long input delays (seconds). We are studying the effects of tactile warnings, three-dimensional audio, and computer-augmented reality to provide more efficient operator-machine interaction. Very cool stuff.
Cheers,
Brian
... with an admitted US-centric bent.
The Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton OH. Those of you who are pretty quick will note that Dayton is where the Wright Brothers made their airplane, and the museum is located at the old location of Wright Field, named after the brothers. (The base itself is a combination of Wright and Patterson Fields - thus the name "Wright-Patterson". Wow!)
There is a full-scale replica of the Wright 1909 Military Flyer.
Cheers,
Brian
The Christ allegory was so obvious it practially hit you over the head with a gigantic hand-copied Bible.
I'd spell it out for you, but I'd feel silly explaining something so obvious.
Cheers,
Brian
I did want to add something - you can quite easily make the TV the limiting factor in your original setup (which your DVD player has already done).
Download DScaler (Open Source) and PowerStrip (shareware), and you can tweak your video settings to the native requirements of your display. So, if I have a XGA front projector, I can set my computer to deliver video in the projector's native format for best presentation. Or, in your case, you can set the VGA settings to the NTSC standard and use a VGA->Component transcoder to get best performance.
Playing a DVD with a software player and watching on a 17" monitor is light-years better than with my Sony DVD player and my 19" television. I will certainly be using my PC to scale and deinterlace the output of my DVD player when I get a quality display device (like a projector or HDTV).
Cheers,
Brian
No, I think you ate some bad cheese.
Cheers,
Brian
Because it is a scientific fact (that I know simply because of my graduate work in Human Factors Engineering) that people tend to assign more weight to a potential detriment than an equally large benefit when assessing risk. It's "Human Nature", whatever that is.
Of course, I think the negatives of (theraputic, for Christ's sake!) cloning are overblown to begin with.
Cheers,
Brian
Yeah, til one punches a hole in the balloon! What a ride that'd be - I bet they could set some speed records too, Wile E. Coyote style! Zing!
Cheers,
Brian
Yes, well - unfortunately for you, that neither "floats my boat", nor am I still a student at OSU. C'est la vie.
Cheers,
Brian
Oh yeah, Dayton is loads of fun. (rolleyes)
:)
That looked like a great roadtrip, James. Should have invited me.
Cheers,
Brian
I see you went to Ohio State. Yeah, open dorm room doors are a tradition in that dorm (I lived there from Fall 94 til Spring 96). My freshman year, we never closed our door except when we had contraband. :D
I knew a kid in Taylor Tower (lived across the hall the 95-96 school year) who - and I am completely NOT making this up - would drive back to Wheeling to work at a Blockbuster and stay at his 16yo gf's place... at all times of the day/week/year. We would NEVER know where he was - his parents once called and asked me where he was... "I think he's at class". He would routinely wake up 5 minutes before a midterm, take a leasurely shower, watch the news, and then - 25-30 minutes into the test - head out to take the test.
Plus, late at night, he would start clucking like a chicken and walking around like one. True story. I hear he's a cop in Wheeling now - how he ever got past a psych eval I'll never know.
Cheers,
Brian
You don't need computers to discuss theory.
You don't need internet access to write a tokenizer either.
Cheers,
Brian