Web ad videos are more "engaging," because video player controls are usually disabled for the ad before the actual content you want to see is delivered. Naturally, with TV, the advertiser doesn't can't disable your remote.
As a consequence, there's almost no video I'll click anymore unless I know for certain it's ad-free. Still, I'm sure most folks just gut it out and let the ad play so they can see the content that follows (maybe open a new browser tab, etc.). So in a way, it's "engaging," but I'd be curious to see what percentage of folks abort and move on without seeing the content.
If I had video content online that I'd want people to see, I'd be leary of prepending a ad video that folks couldn't skip.
I have to confess that my favored browser, Konqueror, needs a swift kick in the ass when it comes to Javascript support. Too often I have to fire up Firefox in order to browse pages that have some measure of interaction, e.g. uploading images of things I'd like to sell on eBay. It's a shame, because otherwise, Konqueror is a wonderful, snappy browser. Here's hoping its devs whip it into shape sooner rather than later.
This is my #1 gripe about going digital. I want the same convenience I have of screwing the coaxial cable into my TV and the TV can tune the channels (usually 70 or so). I don't want a set-top box. I want to be able to go to Best Buy or some A/V store and buy a TV that will tune digital channels. Hassle free. Until then, cable operators can pound sand.
Anybody else confused by Java's branding and versioning? Stop calling version 1.7 of the language Java7. When Java2 was released, I thought it'd be Java 2.0; no, it was Java 1.2.
Now we have OpenJDK, Blackdown, Sun, and so on... Somebody should take Java, call it "Java," and give it logical versioning like Java 1.6.0 and Java 2.0.0. Worked for Linux and Apache. It could work for Java too.
This is the second article recently where bandwidth shortage has been cited as a threat. Methinks someone scooped up shares of Level 3 Communications well below $5 during Thursday's selloff. It's the ultimate "hope" stock.
I didn't mention my favorite aspect of these trackball mice:
On multiple monitor setups especially with higher resolutions, one little flick of the index finger and I can move from one end of my screen real estate to the other. Total efficiency of movement. A real wristsaver. After a while, you can become proficient enough to flick across monitors and stop on a pixel (well, almost).
Me three. I've been using this model of trackball for several years now, and I doubt I'd ever be able to go back to a traditional mouse. I liked the trackball design from my days working desktop support where we had Dell laptops with the little trackballs. Then an upgrade cycle brought new laptops with touchpads, and I felt lost. When I discovered the Logitech Marble mouse a while later, it was like I went home again.
Perhaps related to this is a discussion of separating your data from your OS, likely on different drives. I am seeing a lot of comments regarding "secret" and "private" files or data. Well, if that's the case, I posit that folks should keep their data on a separate hard drive from wherever they have Windows installed. I don't have much on my data drive that I would mind others seeing, but I still don't like the idea of handing over my computer to someone else anyways. (Disclaimer: I've never had to go to the Geek Squad or a similar service.)
Blu-ray and HD-DVD are dead on arrival, and standard DVD is going the way of the dodo too. The future is digital on-demand over IP. An iTunes model of sorts. Go to the store? Not for long.
Since 95% of what I watch is pre-recorded by my MythTV PVR, I naturally skip ads. But what I've found to be the killer app in my PVR viewing is the time compression functionality (MythTV has it, not sure about others). I can speed up the playback to 1.2-1.5X normal speed. It takes some getting used to, but once acclimated, live TV seems slurred and supine. I can watch a one-hour show sans commercials in about thirty minutes. Many shows lend themselves to accelerated playback: talking heads, sports, news, etc. Others are harder to speed up.
Benefits?
I'm actually watching more TV! Went to dinner with my girlfriend and another couple a few months ago. We discussed how much TV each of us watch. Initially, everyone was rattling off all the series and sitcoms they watch, and since I watch few series, I felt like everyone was watching more than me. However, after I thought about all the talking heads and news shows I record and watch, it wasn't even close: I watch a couple "hours" more than everyone body a night. But because I speed up the playback and skip commercials, I get it all in in almost half the time it takes everybody else to watch their shows.
I never realized how long commercial breaks had become until I built a MythTV PVR. Eight 30-second forward skips equals four minutes. FOUR MINUTES. Multiply that by the number of commercial breaks, and you have a lot of wasted life. You know, if they shortened up the breaks to ~2 minutes, I might be more inclined to sit tight and weather the ads. But, like several posters above, I've reached the point where I can no longer watch live TV.
Invest in a good burr grinder and espresso machine. A good pair to start with are Rancilio's Rocky grinder and Silvia espresso machine. For espresso beans, I like a lighter roast. A full city roast. A favorite of mine is Coffee Emergency's Code Brown. Plenty of crema and highly versatile espresso. Light enough to swig standalone or dilute in an Americano yet sharp enough to cut through milk in a latte or au lait. For a regular cup of joe, try any of their African origins namely the Yemen Mohkas or Ethiopians. *goes to pull a shot*
I'll counter your argument from a seller's perspective (I've bought and sold on eBay). I have sold items before where I have left positive feedback immediately after payment was received. Shipped said items well-packed day after payment was received. Still, I was left negative feedback for perceived false advertisement of an item. One other occasion, I refunded a ~$150 payment after a used video card I shipped (was working when it shipped out) was returned defective. Did I get positive feedback? No, I was given a blistering feedback that really shook my belief in the eBay experience. Patience, open communication, and reason are important when buying and selling on eBay, but some folks bring a lot of angst. By and large my experience on eBay has been very positive, especially with reputable sellers who have good feedback (99%+). But I pucker anytime I sell something, because you never know who you're going to have to deal with. My feedback stands at 98.9%, and I have to work harder because of that sub-99% blemish (ship same day payment was received, overpack for protection, answer questions within an hour of receiving them, etc.).
Here's hoping the new feedback system helps everybody.
The article may not say MSFT is offering $50 billion, but the Associated Press article notes that the offer could be worth $50 billion. So an exact offer has not been announced, but Yahoo's market cap is about $45 billion, so a $50 billion offer would sound about right.
The Olympics lost their way when NBC (owned by General Electric) and Dick Ebersol "monetized" them. Now, they're all about lining up sponsors and corporate sponsorships. The television audience gets more athletes' backstories that they can have a cry over than compelling competitions. That's how it is. Money and mediocrity are always seeking an equilibrium with each other.
A 30% pay hike? If you're running this program via cron, you might want to scale it back to only run every five years. Otherwise, you might crash your system.
I wonder if anyone has tried to develop a system that limits hard disk activity to boot up and shutdown. Like hibernation in a way. Then everything else takes place in memory, lots of memory. Yes, you're subject to losing data in the event of a power failure or application crash. However, with a decent UPS, there's time to retreat that data to disk before powering off. And some applications are mature enough that they don't crash sporadically if much at all.
This is all very speculative, I know, but this is Slashdot. I believe I read something not long ago about DBMS that ran solely in memory and realized very nice performance.
I wonder if developers for the major news sites (cnn.com, yahoo.com, etc.) have some sort of plan in place to serve their content during crises in a bandwidth-light manner. Serious reductions in the usage of images, no video, and so on. I think I remember finally getting a page from cnn.com during 9/11 and it was stripped down pretty good.
Slashdot Mirror
Add VCLK to AdQuantive, and if they can't compete in online search, they might as well mail it in.
Web ad videos are more "engaging," because video player controls are usually disabled for the ad before the actual content you want to see is delivered. Naturally, with TV, the advertiser doesn't can't disable your remote.
As a consequence, there's almost no video I'll click anymore unless I know for certain it's ad-free. Still, I'm sure most folks just gut it out and let the ad play so they can see the content that follows (maybe open a new browser tab, etc.). So in a way, it's "engaging," but I'd be curious to see what percentage of folks abort and move on without seeing the content.
If I had video content online that I'd want people to see, I'd be leary of prepending a ad video that folks couldn't skip.
I have to confess that my favored browser, Konqueror, needs a swift kick in the ass when it comes to Javascript support. Too often I have to fire up Firefox in order to browse pages that have some measure of interaction, e.g. uploading images of things I'd like to sell on eBay. It's a shame, because otherwise, Konqueror is a wonderful, snappy browser. Here's hoping its devs whip it into shape sooner rather than later.
Transparent aluminum.
This is my #1 gripe about going digital. I want the same convenience I have of screwing the coaxial cable into my TV and the TV can tune the channels (usually 70 or so). I don't want a set-top box. I want to be able to go to Best Buy or some A/V store and buy a TV that will tune digital channels. Hassle free. Until then, cable operators can pound sand.
Anybody else confused by Java's branding and versioning? Stop calling version 1.7 of the language Java7. When Java2 was released, I thought it'd be Java 2.0; no, it was Java 1.2.
Now we have OpenJDK, Blackdown, Sun, and so on... Somebody should take Java, call it "Java," and give it logical versioning like Java 1.6.0 and Java 2.0.0. Worked for Linux and Apache. It could work for Java too.
This is the second article recently where bandwidth shortage has been cited as a threat. Methinks someone scooped up shares of Level 3 Communications well below $5 during Thursday's selloff. It's the ultimate "hope" stock.
I didn't mention my favorite aspect of these trackball mice:
On multiple monitor setups especially with higher resolutions, one little flick of the index finger and I can move from one end of my screen real estate to the other. Total efficiency of movement. A real wristsaver. After a while, you can become proficient enough to flick across monitors and stop on a pixel (well, almost).
Damn, I love my trackball mouse.
Me three. I've been using this model of trackball for several years now, and I doubt I'd ever be able to go back to a traditional mouse. I liked the trackball design from my days working desktop support where we had Dell laptops with the little trackballs. Then an upgrade cycle brought new laptops with touchpads, and I felt lost. When I discovered the Logitech Marble mouse a while later, it was like I went home again.
Perhaps related to this is a discussion of separating your data from your OS, likely on different drives. I am seeing a lot of comments regarding "secret" and "private" files or data. Well, if that's the case, I posit that folks should keep their data on a separate hard drive from wherever they have Windows installed. I don't have much on my data drive that I would mind others seeing, but I still don't like the idea of handing over my computer to someone else anyways. (Disclaimer: I've never had to go to the Geek Squad or a similar service.)
Blu-ray and HD-DVD are dead on arrival, and standard DVD is going the way of the dodo too. The future is digital on-demand over IP. An iTunes model of sorts. Go to the store? Not for long.
Since 95% of what I watch is pre-recorded by my MythTV PVR, I naturally skip ads. But what I've found to be the killer app in my PVR viewing is the time compression functionality (MythTV has it, not sure about others). I can speed up the playback to 1.2-1.5X normal speed. It takes some getting used to, but once acclimated, live TV seems slurred and supine. I can watch a one-hour show sans commercials in about thirty minutes. Many shows lend themselves to accelerated playback: talking heads, sports, news, etc. Others are harder to speed up.
Benefits?
I'm actually watching more TV! Went to dinner with my girlfriend and another couple a few months ago. We discussed how much TV each of us watch. Initially, everyone was rattling off all the series and sitcoms they watch, and since I watch few series, I felt like everyone was watching more than me. However, after I thought about all the talking heads and news shows I record and watch, it wasn't even close: I watch a couple "hours" more than everyone body a night. But because I speed up the playback and skip commercials, I get it all in in almost half the time it takes everybody else to watch their shows.
Vive la time compression!
I never realized how long commercial breaks had become until I built a MythTV PVR. Eight 30-second forward skips equals four minutes. FOUR MINUTES. Multiply that by the number of commercial breaks, and you have a lot of wasted life. You know, if they shortened up the breaks to ~2 minutes, I might be more inclined to sit tight and weather the ads. But, like several posters above, I've reached the point where I can no longer watch live TV.
Invest in a good burr grinder and espresso machine. A good pair to start with are Rancilio's Rocky grinder and Silvia espresso machine. For espresso beans, I like a lighter roast. A full city roast. A favorite of mine is Coffee Emergency's Code Brown. Plenty of crema and highly versatile espresso. Light enough to swig standalone or dilute in an Americano yet sharp enough to cut through milk in a latte or au lait. For a regular cup of joe, try any of their African origins namely the Yemen Mohkas or Ethiopians. *goes to pull a shot*
I'll counter your argument from a seller's perspective (I've bought and sold on eBay). I have sold items before where I have left positive feedback immediately after payment was received. Shipped said items well-packed day after payment was received. Still, I was left negative feedback for perceived false advertisement of an item. One other occasion, I refunded a ~$150 payment after a used video card I shipped (was working when it shipped out) was returned defective. Did I get positive feedback? No, I was given a blistering feedback that really shook my belief in the eBay experience. Patience, open communication, and reason are important when buying and selling on eBay, but some folks bring a lot of angst. By and large my experience on eBay has been very positive, especially with reputable sellers who have good feedback (99%+). But I pucker anytime I sell something, because you never know who you're going to have to deal with. My feedback stands at 98.9%, and I have to work harder because of that sub-99% blemish (ship same day payment was received, overpack for protection, answer questions within an hour of receiving them, etc.).
Here's hoping the new feedback system helps everybody.
I would like to see some definitive studies that show just how dangerous the use of cell phone are.
Okay, I'll start you off with the death of Jim Price. Jim, or "sydney" as we called him over on bikeforums.net was a real nugget. I think death is the ultimate form of having your liberty taken away.
The article may not say MSFT is offering $50 billion, but the Associated Press article notes that the offer could be worth $50 billion. So an exact offer has not been announced, but Yahoo's market cap is about $45 billion, so a $50 billion offer would sound about right.
The Olympics lost their way when NBC (owned by General Electric) and Dick Ebersol "monetized" them. Now, they're all about lining up sponsors and corporate sponsorships. The television audience gets more athletes' backstories that they can have a cry over than compelling competitions. That's how it is. Money and mediocrity are always seeking an equilibrium with each other.
1-5 HOMERUN
:)
PS - My all-time favorite Strat-O-Matic cards belonged to Bobby Witt. Especially his 1987 card. 143 IP, 160 K, 140 BB. Every inning an exciting one. :D
Anyone else reminded of the video game Out of this World when they read this?
*pines for the days of playing video games*
Netcraft...oh, nevermind.
Did anyone else read that headline as "Orgasm Survives 100 Million Years Without Sex?" That'd be a pretty impressive feat!
A 30% pay hike? If you're running this program via cron, you might want to scale it back to only run every five years. Otherwise, you might crash your system.
I wonder if anyone has tried to develop a system that limits hard disk activity to boot up and shutdown. Like hibernation in a way. Then everything else takes place in memory, lots of memory. Yes, you're subject to losing data in the event of a power failure or application crash. However, with a decent UPS, there's time to retreat that data to disk before powering off. And some applications are mature enough that they don't crash sporadically if much at all.
This is all very speculative, I know, but this is Slashdot. I believe I read something not long ago about DBMS that ran solely in memory and realized very nice performance.
I wonder if developers for the major news sites (cnn.com, yahoo.com, etc.) have some sort of plan in place to serve their content during crises in a bandwidth-light manner. Serious reductions in the usage of images, no video, and so on. I think I remember finally getting a page from cnn.com during 9/11 and it was stripped down pretty good.