Just because the scale is renormalized doesn't mean what it's measuring isn't changing.
You're confusing the measurement and the thing being measured.
Using your temperature example, let's way we used a dynamic scale such that the average temperature was defined as 100 deg. As the cycles of solar output, ocean currents, green house gases ebbed and flowed, the average temperature WOULD NOT CHANGE. The average temperature would remain 100 deg as long as the definition was unchanged.
In case you haven't picked up on it yet, temperature, like I.Q., is a human construct. It is what we define it as. We define average I.Q. as 100. There may be some delay between changes in the populace and adjustments in the definition, but if some strange radiation turned us into a world of Einsteins, the average I.Q. would still be 100.
Now the intelligence or mental ability represented by that 100 would change, but don't mistake the measurement for that thing being measured.
If we made a temperature system which was relative to the planetary norm, even though the measurement would have to be shifted downwards year to year to account for Intelligent Warming (sorry, I live in the Republican Religious States of America,) the temperature would indeed still be rising
You mean the energy in the atmosphere would be rising. The temperature would stay the same.
I'm not knocking anyone's choice to have a DIY DVR. There are certainly restrictions with TiVo, just like there are drawbacks to DIY. I'm just saying, perhaps it worth considering there are times when it may be to your advantage to let someone in on your viewing habits.
Do they offer customers an option to opt-out of this logging?
Yes.
Do they offer discounts to those who do participate?
No.
Do they inform EVERY customer that their viewing habbits will be logged and used? Or is it burried in the fine print?
If memory serves, it is explicitely stated during the set up process. This is not some questionsable spyware screen saver. If any TiVo customer doesn't know about the data gathering at this point, I'd lean toward it being the customer's fault.
Besides with my HomeBuilt PVR I can use any computer connected to my network to watch a TV show. And so can anyone else in the house. We can all be watching different shows at the same time, and still be recording 2 other shows at once. If I want to keep a show, I can burn it onto a CD or DVD. TiVo can't do that!
Actually, except for recording two shows at once, Tivo does all that! (I have the stand alone TiVos with single tuner. DirectTV TiVos actually have 2 tuners and can record two shows at once.)
Any computer on my network can view any program from any of my TiVos. We can all be watching different shows. I can burn shows to CD or DVD on my computer, but there are also TiVo/burner combo units that do this as well.
TiVo-to-computer transfers aren't streaming--can't play until the download completes. However Computer-to-TiVo and TiVo-to-TiVo transfer can start playing before the transfer is complete. And this is all stock TiVo functionality. It's very hackable. Pretty much the only things your DVR can do my TiVo can't is record two shows at once and operate without the pay service.
Oh, and my TiVos get automatic software updates. Your DVR doesn't do that!
Best of all, NO viewing or tracking data is sent to ANYONE!
step 1: Prevent anyone, especially the networks, from tracking your viewing data.
step 2: Family Guy, Futurama, etc. all canceled. As far as the network could tell, no one was watching.
step 3: Start petitions, grass roots campaigns, etc. to bring back your favorite shows. Now everyone knows what you've been watching.
Is having the networks know what you've been watching really so bad?
If so, then please shut your gob when all the geeky shows that attract an audience that might build a DVR get canceled, and all the shows that attract an audience that might have 12:00 blinking on the vcr get re-upped and spun-off.
Eyeballs are the product networks provide to advertisers. You may not want your eyeballs counted as product, but then don't expect the networks to have any motivation to provide programming your eyeballs like.
And what have you against 'DVD'? Does it not stand officially for 'Digital Versatile Disc'? (And originally for 'Digital Video Disc'?)
DVD is neither an abbreviation nor an acronym. Your source bears that out.
Digital Versatile discs provide...
If DVD was an abbreviation, wouldn't they write it out 'Digital Versatile Disc'? (all initial caps) From Wikipedia:
"DVD" was originally an initialism for "Digital Video Disc." Some members of the DVD Forum believe that it should stand for "Digital Versatile Disc" to reflect its widespread use for non-video applications. Toshiba, which maintains the official DVD Forum site [1], adheres to the latter interpretation, and indeed this appeared within the copyright warnings on some of the earliest examples. However, the DVD Forum never reached a consensus on the matter, and so today the official name of the format is simply "DVD"; the letters do not officially stand for anything.
Kinda like the 'S' in Harry S. Truman. (And yes, President Truman did write it with the period although it is not an initial for a middle name. That usage has become standard to be consistent with names such as George W. Bush.)
In any case, If you say it like a word, it's an acronym; f you spell it out, it's an abbreviation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
These people will kill you if they are given the chance and yet you stand by them.
On what basis do you make that statement? If anyone in Guantanamo is really such a threat, I say string 'em up.
Problem is, just saying so doesn't make it true. Some evidence might be nice. Perhaps a process that had some passing resemblance to due process.
The president said Iraq had WMDs--we even had pictures. Only now, no WMDs. The president said he saw into Putin's heart, that he was a good guy. Only now Putin has spent the last 4 years dismantling democratic institutions and using the justice system to nationalize industries. The president said he stood by Rafael Palmeiro as someone who wouldn't cheat and lie. And we know how that turned out.
So...if any of the prisoners in Guantanamo really tried to attack the US, I'll flip the switch, pull the trigger, whatever, myself. But not just because I've been told there's a threat. Especially considering the source.
is it now OK to decapitate bodies and hang them off a bridge if they are civilian contractors
No, I do not think it is OK. I also do not think torture is OK. Nor using sexual harassment as an interrogation technique.
It's Bush and Cheney saying these things are acceptable. They're the ones splitting hairs over who gets Geneva Convection protection and who doesn't.
It takes two to tango. You can't support an Attorney General who says the Geneva Convention protections for prisoners are "quaint" and then complain when our enemies take the same position.
A recent study conducted on the Neanderthal hyoid found that due to the physical characteristics of Neanderthals and the fact that their larynx would have been stouter than that of the modern human, the average note emitted by Neanderthals would have been high pitched and sharper than that of modern man, contrary to the media stereotype of Neanderthals having ape-like grunts.
So, basically they would have sounded (or will sound) like this.
How our our captured soldiers treated? We've had very few, but the enemy has gone out of their way to violate the Geneva Convention, has tortured and left beheaded bodies in the street, burned and left bodies hanging from a bridge. Do I need to go on?
No, please don't go on. Your ignorance is painful. About those bodies hanging from a bridge...
As the date to transfer governing power from the U.S.-led coalition to the Iraqis gets closer, U.S. officials said they expect more attacks like the one that killed four American civilian contractors Wednesday in Fallujah.
U.S. officials said the civilians were killed in a grenade attack by suspected insurgents.
Oh, so those weren't soldiers, not part of the a regular uniformed force. Well, according to our president they couldn't be prisoners of war and not covered by the Geneva Convention. And besides, there are a few morons in every bunch, right?
We're not perfect but we sure as hell are doing our best to protect ourselves from an enemy who won't be happy until we're living under sharia law.
If that were true we'd be invading Washington D.C. instead of Iraq. Education policy decided on personal religious beliefs, science and research policy decided on personal religious beliefs, health and medical policy, who you can consider part of your family, all policies on the federal level being directed by the president's personal religious beliefs.
George W. Bush represents the real threat to the American way of life.
The current quibble is whether this ammendment[sic] applies to non-citizens as it does to citizens.
What quibble are you talking about? The current administration has asserted that even US citizens apprehended on US soil can be classified as enemy combatants and held outside of the usual (criminal, military) prison systems.
The quibble I'm concerned with is whether the laws of the nation apply to everyone, or if the president and his cronies are exempt.
But hey, it's a free country, so if you want to be ignorant and WRONG, go right ahead.
Have you thought about a tunnel in front of the door? An enclosure about shoulder height (or a little lower) and about 12 to 18 inches long should be big enough for Mr. Bigglesworth to get through, but restrictive enough to force the chip to come close to a detector in the roof of the tunnel.
Training should be a non-issue if the enclosure is placed in front of the existing door. If you relocate the door, set up a flap door at the new location until kitty learns the door has moved, then install the access control system.
My only reservation regarding such a system is the enclosure could become a hiding spot for other animals. You don't want Heathcliff coming home from a night out with the boys to find Pepe le Pew waiting on the doorstep.
I wouldn't normally feed trolls, but this thread is somewhat allegorical to system design problems, so I'll respond to what you've said.
If I really wanted to be a troll, I could say access control should be based on something your cat knows, something your cat is, and something your cat has.
Teaching frisky the special meow won't be easy. And getting him to stand still for the eye scan could be a challenge. But real trouble starts when you realize your cat has no belt loops or shirt pocket on which to clip a badge.
But seriously, if we're talking about an rfid or similar device implanted in the scruff of the neck or between the shoulder blades, it shouldn't be beyond the cat's ability to associate putting a shoulder against the detector with opening the door. That sort of rubbing is a natural action for a cat.
There may be technical issues preventing you from setting up such a system, but I don't think his feline nature would be an obstacle. If anything, your challenge is to teach him to rub up against the detector ONLY when he wants to use the door.
Not only do I think this can be done on the feline behavior side, I think if you can work out the technical issue this is a product that would be carried by every pet store in the country.
If you're thinking about rigging up a power door with a garage-door-opener type switch, cats do learn from watching each other. Your tom 'hacker' would likely have such a system figured out after a couple rounds of shoulder surfing.
This reminds me of those word problems in grade-school math, where they'd put some unrelated sentence in there to throw you off. Something like, "Roy has five apples. Roy gives three apples to Dean. Dean likes movies about gladiators. How many apples does Roy have left?"
His feline nature makes him virtually untrainable.
??? Felines are as trainable as any other domesticated animal. They may be stubborn but they're not stupid. Just because you can't get the cat to do what you want it to do when you want it to do it doesn't mean the cat won't figure out how to get what it wants. I'd wager you'd need to show your cat the location of the reader at most once.
Think of it this way: I'm guessing your desire for a cat door developed from having to manually open the door to let the cat in and out. I'm also guessing your desire for a cat door indicates some acquiescence to the cat's will--you don't throw the cat out when you want it out; you allow the cat out at its request.
Now, how does the cat let you know it wants to go out? Maybe scratches at the door, perhaps some meows, and some being with opposable thumbs opens the door. If you haven't been able to train your cat, at least your cat has done a decent job of training you.
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't that be NBC reporting on the pinheads at G.E.? The network owned by Disney is ABC.
You're confusing the measurement and the thing being measured.
Using your temperature example, let's way we used a dynamic scale such that the average temperature was defined as 100 deg. As the cycles of solar output, ocean currents, green house gases ebbed and flowed, the average temperature WOULD NOT CHANGE. The average temperature would remain 100 deg as long as the definition was unchanged.
In case you haven't picked up on it yet, temperature, like I.Q., is a human construct. It is what we define it as. We define average I.Q. as 100. There may be some delay between changes in the populace and adjustments in the definition, but if some strange radiation turned us into a world of Einsteins, the average I.Q. would still be 100.
Now the intelligence or mental ability represented by that 100 would change, but don't mistake the measurement for that thing being measured.
You mean the energy in the atmosphere would be rising. The temperature would stay the same.
Uh...the average I.Q. is defined as 100. This hasn't increased in decades.
You said we was going to Sizzler!
Any computer on my network can view any program from any of my TiVos. We can all be watching different shows. I can burn shows to CD or DVD on my computer, but there are also TiVo/burner combo units that do this as well.
TiVo-to-computer transfers aren't streaming--can't play until the download completes. However Computer-to-TiVo and TiVo-to-TiVo transfer can start playing before the transfer is complete. And this is all stock TiVo functionality. It's very hackable. Pretty much the only things your DVR can do my TiVo can't is record two shows at once and operate without the pay service.
Oh, and my TiVos get automatic software updates. Your DVR doesn't do that!
- step 1: Prevent anyone, especially the networks, from tracking your viewing data.
- step 2: Family Guy, Futurama, etc. all canceled. As far as the network could tell, no one was watching.
- step 3: Start petitions, grass roots campaigns, etc. to bring back your favorite shows. Now everyone knows what you've been watching.
Is having the networks know what you've been watching really so bad?If so, then please shut your gob when all the geeky shows that attract an audience that might build a DVR get canceled, and all the shows that attract an audience that might have 12:00 blinking on the vcr get re-upped and spun-off.
Eyeballs are the product networks provide to advertisers. You may not want your eyeballs counted as product, but then don't expect the networks to have any motivation to provide programming your eyeballs like.
DVD is neither an abbreviation nor an acronym. Your source bears that out.
If DVD was an abbreviation, wouldn't they write it out 'Digital Versatile Disc'? (all initial caps) From Wikipedia:
Kinda like the 'S' in Harry S. Truman. (And yes, President Truman did write it with the period although it is not an initial for a middle name. That usage has become standard to be consistent with names such as George W. Bush.)
In any case, If you say it like a word, it's an acronym; f you spell it out, it's an abbreviation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Ah man. I was hoping for a pointless flame war that could be settled in 5 seconds if one side bothered to check a dictionary.
(Just in case it's not too late: acronym v. abbreviation. RADAR is one, CTO is the other, DVD is neither.)
Ok...
1. Not to rain your parade, but those 15 year-olds are most likely FBI trolling for pedophiles.
And 2. Pink pony. That's hawt.
On what basis do you make that statement? If anyone in Guantanamo is really such a threat, I say string 'em up.
Problem is, just saying so doesn't make it true. Some evidence might be nice. Perhaps a process that had some passing resemblance to due process.
The president said Iraq had WMDs--we even had pictures. Only now, no WMDs. The president said he saw into Putin's heart, that he was a good guy. Only now Putin has spent the last 4 years dismantling democratic institutions and using the justice system to nationalize industries. The president said he stood by Rafael Palmeiro as someone who wouldn't cheat and lie. And we know how that turned out.
So...if any of the prisoners in Guantanamo really tried to attack the US, I'll flip the switch, pull the trigger, whatever, myself. But not just because I've been told there's a threat. Especially considering the source.
No, I do not think it is OK. I also do not think torture is OK. Nor using sexual harassment as an interrogation technique.
It's Bush and Cheney saying these things are acceptable. They're the ones splitting hairs over who gets Geneva Convection protection and who doesn't.
It takes two to tango. You can't support an Attorney General who says the Geneva Convention protections for prisoners are "quaint" and then complain when our enemies take the same position.
So, basically they would have sounded (or will sound) like this.
How long before the gorillas freeze to death?
No, please don't go on. Your ignorance is painful. About those bodies hanging from a bridge...
Oh, so those weren't soldiers, not part of the a regular uniformed force. Well, according to our president they couldn't be prisoners of war and not covered by the Geneva Convention. And besides, there are a few morons in every bunch, right?
If that were true we'd be invading Washington D.C. instead of Iraq. Education policy decided on personal religious beliefs, science and research policy decided on personal religious beliefs, health and medical policy, who you can consider part of your family, all policies on the federal level being directed by the president's personal religious beliefs.
George W. Bush represents the real threat to the American way of life.
What quibble are you talking about? The current administration has asserted that even US citizens apprehended on US soil can be classified as enemy combatants and held outside of the usual (criminal, military) prison systems.
The quibble I'm concerned with is whether the laws of the nation apply to everyone, or if the president and his cronies are exempt.
But hey, it's a free country, so if you want to be ignorant and WRONG, go right ahead.
You can have all the passion you want as long as it doesn't hurt the CEO's stock options.
BTW, your analysis of Brokeback Mountain is 100% spot on.
Have you thought about a tunnel in front of the door? An enclosure about shoulder height (or a little lower) and about 12 to 18 inches long should be big enough for Mr. Bigglesworth to get through, but restrictive enough to force the chip to come close to a detector in the roof of the tunnel.
Training should be a non-issue if the enclosure is placed in front of the existing door. If you relocate the door, set up a flap door at the new location until kitty learns the door has moved, then install the access control system.
My only reservation regarding such a system is the enclosure could become a hiding spot for other animals. You don't want Heathcliff coming home from a night out with the boys to find Pepe le Pew waiting on the doorstep.
If I really wanted to be a troll, I could say access control should be based on something your cat knows, something your cat is, and something your cat has.
Teaching frisky the special meow won't be easy. And getting him to stand still for the eye scan could be a challenge. But real trouble starts when you realize your cat has no belt loops or shirt pocket on which to clip a badge.
But seriously, if we're talking about an rfid or similar device implanted in the scruff of the neck or between the shoulder blades, it shouldn't be beyond the cat's ability to associate putting a shoulder against the detector with opening the door. That sort of rubbing is a natural action for a cat.
There may be technical issues preventing you from setting up such a system, but I don't think his feline nature would be an obstacle. If anything, your challenge is to teach him to rub up against the detector ONLY when he wants to use the door.
Not only do I think this can be done on the feline behavior side, I think if you can work out the technical issue this is a product that would be carried by every pet store in the country.
If you're thinking about rigging up a power door with a garage-door-opener type switch, cats do learn from watching each other. Your tom 'hacker' would likely have such a system figured out after a couple rounds of shoulder surfing.
You ever seen a grown man naked?
??? Felines are as trainable as any other domesticated animal. They may be stubborn but they're not stupid. Just because you can't get the cat to do what you want it to do when you want it to do it doesn't mean the cat won't figure out how to get what it wants. I'd wager you'd need to show your cat the location of the reader at most once.
Think of it this way: I'm guessing your desire for a cat door developed from having to manually open the door to let the cat in and out. I'm also guessing your desire for a cat door indicates some acquiescence to the cat's will--you don't throw the cat out when you want it out; you allow the cat out at its request.
Now, how does the cat let you know it wants to go out? Maybe scratches at the door, perhaps some meows, and some being with opposable thumbs opens the door. If you haven't been able to train your cat, at least your cat has done a decent job of training you.
My keyboard has a special key for songs (and other things) with such ratings. I call it the 'delete' key.
Seriously, why bother rating something you never want to hear again? Why not just delete it? It this an iTunes thing?
I was thinking it sounds a lot like what goes wrong with "The Fly"
Just say no to Jeff Goldblum. Think of the children.
Well, yeah, Cosmologists. But what about the Voguelogists and Glamourlogists?
Oh sorry, that was about a different unscrupulous company.