What is US without oil? The others need energy too. But not as badly. Europe has Rassia's Gas (which is a bit of a worry, but not so bad). China has Coal. Lots of it.
US has, well... a war without end.
After New Orleans, the almighty armor seems very tarnished indeed.
Your political stability seems to be wavering slightly (though only slightly).
That which made you rich is fast diserpating to China, India and elsewhere. Namely low cost labour (your slaves are long gone, thank god), IT (Open Source and india are eating software markets up, as will China, and hardware will quickly follow), Energy (Oil made you rich now it is costing trillians to fight wars to steal other country's resources)...
Yes Cal is looking healthy. But how long will it even stay habitable?
As to China, they are trying to position themselves to own the world economy and then control countries in manners that they see fit(a MUCH larger USA with a nastier attitude).
"I presume you're talking about "them" calling "us" and saying "we've decided not to buy your government-issued debt anymore." Problem is, what would they invest their 1 trillion in government funds in then? It's not like there are that many - if any - safer alternatives? Euro bonds? Uhhh... what was that long-term growth rate again? Yen? yeah right, the Chinese? Swiss Francs? Uhh... sure it's a hard currency, but how much of it can you liquidate when you need to? Dollars are still the best place to park savings."
What unutterable bollox. The US is the most insane investment a person could make right now. While the sheer inertia of trading methods keeps the dollar popular, the dollar itself if far from it...
Sterling, Euros, Yen!!!, they are all far more sensible places to put your cash these days, and the US is just terrified by this.
Of the two, I'd buy shares in Disneyland China (and no I don't care two hoots about American copyright law if America doesn't care two hoots about a nation's sovereignty - yes I talking Iraq - and not its not irrelivant. They're haveing the equiverlant of a 9/11 every month. That, to my mind is relevant in almost any discussion until it ends).
No I don't hate America. But I sure as hell hate its current polotics, and fundeMentalist interpretation of capitalism. Which as many posts have already pointed out, mean that in practice, China is actually closer to 'true' capitalism than they.
Yes, yes. This is Flamebait. But so is this agressive hypocracy spouted by the money mad global expantionist, overly competative expounders of "China is evil". And its getting on my nerves. [/rant]
"A local HD or better still a good RAID storage system is still WAY more reliable than all the technology that needs to work correctly for the Google approach."
Rubbish. dureing the time I've been using Google to staore data of various kinds, I've had one outage (yesterdays) which is now fixed, without me lifting a finger. But during the same period, ALL of my 6 locall machines (half of which have RAID) have lost critical data. Two of which have died completely loosing all that was on them (much of which I had a slightly out of date back up of on a CD/dvd, which still took more than a day to recover to anything like its previous state. And a lot of sweat.
While I was NOT happy lastnight. Even if they'd lost the lot, I'd still trust their systematic redundancy over my own homebrew backup, anyday... And I'm a programmer/Tech Director. Most folk don't know half of the little I know about backups and RAID. Main frain fears are illfounded. As google is run on clustered 3 way redundancy throughout. Not so for old mainframes.
Actually I find the DMX comments just as interlectually baron, as the moronic mumblings of Imus. And I'm a 'liberal'. And I do say as much. And I'm not alone. So you're under a strange misconception I think. A bigot is a bigot is a bigot...
The real question is, is bigotry 'acceptable' on a major media chanel? Maybe in some eyes (even if they are not those of a concious bigot). But not in mine.
If I hadn't already commented in the thread I'd mod you up as interesting. I'm not worried about Big Google Brother. But I do like your use for the tech... Realy like you A.I. take.
I know its not cool to pat backs in here, but I realy like your thinking...
If it does a better job than my local (currenlty non-existant) OCR software, then yep! I'll use that, and not worry about installing something new on my system. I like Google Docs for similar reasons.
Hmmm...
"it really falls short when it comes to navigating around your PC and it also sounds nothing like real speech."
JAWS does a fine job of this, Talklets isn't designed to do this (just web content) all OS built in features that I have tested fail to do this... And I think you'll find Talklets voice far more natural sounging than any that come with an operating system.
"That was basically my whole point. I'm not saying this script is entirely useless just that it really isn't anything new and offers, at best, a small advantage over other solutions."
I'm guessing its news to you that 80% of those registered blind in the UK can use a mouse? And that the vast majority of users that have barriers to reading have perfectly good site? This feature is of huge mportance to a lot of people, including illiterate users for example. Those with English as a second language. Those with failing sight... It is a very long way from useless to these people and more...
For further benefits of the system: It has a centralized lexicon dictionary, meaning we can (and do) update pronounciations for our users daily. This is a unique quality of the system, and incredibly inportant in the evolution od TTS. Then there's the fact that I can swap browser and operating system and not have to learn a whole bunch of new hotkeys... Then theres the fact that its the only currently available method of automating the process of self voiceing Flash in FireFox, or Safari (i.e. makeing it accessible). Then there's the fact that most people with barriers to reading haven't the financial standing to purchase $600 worth of tech, so providing a means for them to access your content affordably if of parramount importance to their access of it... I could go on...
"From my point of view, if someone offers a public accessible computer lab (at least in the US) they are required to provide reasonable access for the handicapped which almost always means that they will set aside one or two PCs which have huge monitors and real Text-to-speech software (you know the kind that can read the menu items too)."
I realize thats your point of view, but mine is of someone who needs that assistive tech, and have tried useing those 'dedicated' machines, and they such royaly. They only ever cater to blind users, they tend not to be as well maintained, they have the 'stigma' of being the 'handicaped PCs' etc... They are not a solution for me or most users with barriers to reading.
"I will concede that it is possible that you may occasionally need some form of text to speech software and not have access to it when using other peoples PCs. In these cases your software could possibly be more helpful than the Windows service, but even in these cases you are ignoring the other settings a PC will need to accommodate these people. Because even while my friends don't lock their PCs down to the point it is not possible to install software-- apparently yours do. I'm curious, do your friends also lock out the control panel? Because if I can't see the pointer how do I know what I'm pointing at. Not to mention that I will also need the other accessibility features turned on and most of my friend do turn those off first thing when they install a fresh copy of Windows. The facts are that someone who is completely blind has little use for the "point and read" feature of your software and someone who has severe vision problems needs allot more than a Text-to-speech reader to even be able to begin to effectively navigate a GUI environment (meaning that some setup is going to be required either way; so why not install a text-to-speech application while you're at it? [rhet])."
I don't get this whole paragraph. I don't want to install stuff on my friends machines because it would be an imposition, and is also often against the license of AT. I thought you'd found out how to use the access keys (F9). And refer to my previous about use of the mouse.
You would have heard the instructions if you were blind. You'
"How is a blind person supposed to be able to use that weblets thing if they can't see the freaking buttons to activate it?"
You are audibly told to press F9 to switch on hotkeys. Then F12 to here a list of these keys. If you have cookies on you will only here this once (so as not to become annoying. If you were not sighted you would have waiting to here this.
"Not to mention that it has all the same flaws as a regular text reader in that it is next to impossible to use on a website made for sighted people. "
Well actually on the main content in the middle of the front page we say:
"but we believe that there is no substitute for good web design and standards adherence as a fundamental of effective web communication. "
" In fact most operating systems already have support for this sort of technology which makes it hard to define a situation for which this is the superior tool. "
Rightly or wrongly most computers run on Windows, and windows does not offer a practical means to read web content if you are blind (try using narrator with your screen off)
The situation this is useful in, is if I want to use someone else's computer. As someone with need for assistive tech, I can tell you I want to same freedom you have to roam onto another computer to check my mail, or show a friend something, or check the weather, or...
You may find "it hard to define a situation", but I have many I could offer.
just because its useless to you doesn't mean its not VERY important to someone else. Indeed lots of other people. Possibly 10% or even 20% of the population have significant barriers to literacy/reading. That a very significant proportion of a market place. And on a human level, that 20% is just as important as the rest.
I don't wan't to have to ask permission (and usually be denied) to intall something just to let me read a web site, while out the house. I'm sure you wouldn't.
Do you see my point? Many users do...
"A current game with current graphics is way closer to reality than whatever we had. "
I think this is the most interesting issue here. While its still VERY clear to my kid (6 year old Girl) the anything on the screen is not 'real', even the people are usually talkling rubbish, games are going through a continued, fast pasted, evolution. IF games ever became more intertwined with are lives, or SO imersive that you forget your in them, then the psychology will get tricky and relevant. But right now, my 6yr daughter can spot a 'good' fake effect, much better than I could figure out what I saw when watching Jason and the Argonaughts, when I was her age. But we both know and knew it wasn't 'real'.
Speaking of advancements in tech... Talklets is one such step forward. Instead of the visually impaired user needing to have a bulky app installed on the computer they with to veiw a site from (in practice often meening they must only use their own computer - not a library, school, friend's etc...), the site itself can allow hot-key and speech enablement. Interest declared...
Haveing seen some pretty big chunk of space junk (Russion again;), its not that simple. As mentioned, the debris was fore and aft the plane. The rentering beris that I saw took up a significant arc of the sky. It was HUGE! Realy. VERY big. It scared the crap out of me. I thought Finland was going to be wiped out or something. The scale and speed was so, well, alien. Obviously it wasn't that big, and Finland survived, but it was many hundreds of times longer than a plane's length.
My point is, if the debris were a point, you'd have one, but its not, it a LARGE (often) desintegrating mass, granular.
Keep hoping. The fact is, most people who sign up to be cops, don't want to do the kind of learning that is require (not disparageing and this comes with all the caveats of any generalization). Its just not their bag...
I find your tone frightfully vulgar. If you were a decent chap, you'd already be apologising, but as you clearly are not, I'll be forced to chastise you in the only becoming fashion your primitive culture can comprehend.
Biglesworth, release the centinals!
The prob he's going to have is that the agendum of the media is not that of academia. Slashdot comes close because its 'for nerds'. Digg is just a freefall directory of crap. Not a magazine. It points to articles, but doesn't have/create any. Its agenda are closer to those of the media however.
"small irrelevant wastage."
Like you? I mean literally. You are unlikely to make a difference right? Who ever you are. So why bother right? One More SUV is hardly going to kill the planet. Not switching you crap off before going to bed - Buying your power from a company useing or investing heavily in renewables... None of it is going to make a noticable change right?
Fuck whit.
Not so. The solution is relatively simple. You take the mixer audio and remove it from the mic audio stream (which should be done anyway to stop music fucking with your system) and then only let mic minus wav trigger recognition.
Slashdot Mirror
I just used all my mod points :(
+1 Funny!!
It was implied.
What is US without oil? The others need energy too. But not as badly. Europe has Rassia's Gas (which is a bit of a worry, but not so bad). China has Coal. Lots of it.
US has, well... a war without end.
After New Orleans, the almighty armor seems very tarnished indeed.
Your political stability seems to be wavering slightly (though only slightly).
That which made you rich is fast diserpating to China, India and elsewhere. Namely low cost labour (your slaves are long gone, thank god), IT (Open Source and india are eating software markets up, as will China, and hardware will quickly follow), Energy (Oil made you rich now it is costing trillians to fight wars to steal other country's resources)...
Yes Cal is looking healthy. But how long will it even stay habitable?
So, sorry I'm not putting a penny in the Dollar.
As to China, they are trying to position themselves to own the world economy and then control countries in manners that they see fit(a MUCH larger USA with a nastier attitude).
Is that at all possible?
"I presume you're talking about "them" calling "us" and saying "we've decided not to buy your government-issued debt anymore." Problem is, what would they invest their 1 trillion in government funds in then? It's not like there are that many - if any - safer alternatives? Euro bonds? Uhhh ... what was that long-term growth rate again? Yen? yeah right, the Chinese? Swiss Francs? Uhh ... sure it's a hard currency, but how much of it can you liquidate when you need to? Dollars are still the best place to park savings."
What unutterable bollox. The US is the most insane investment a person could make right now. While the sheer inertia of trading methods keeps the dollar popular, the dollar itself if far from it...
Sterling, Euros, Yen!!!, they are all far more sensible places to put your cash these days, and the US is just terrified by this.
Of the two, I'd buy shares in Disneyland China (and no I don't care two hoots about American copyright law if America doesn't care two hoots about a nation's sovereignty - yes I talking Iraq - and not its not irrelivant. They're haveing the equiverlant of a 9/11 every month. That, to my mind is relevant in almost any discussion until it ends).
No I don't hate America. But I sure as hell hate its current polotics, and fundeMentalist interpretation of capitalism. Which as many posts have already pointed out, mean that in practice, China is actually closer to 'true' capitalism than they.
Yes, yes. This is Flamebait. But so is this agressive hypocracy spouted by the money mad global expantionist, overly competative expounders of "China is evil". And its getting on my nerves. [/rant]
"A local HD or better still a good RAID storage system is still WAY more reliable than all the technology that needs to work correctly for the Google approach." Rubbish. dureing the time I've been using Google to staore data of various kinds, I've had one outage (yesterdays) which is now fixed, without me lifting a finger. But during the same period, ALL of my 6 locall machines (half of which have RAID) have lost critical data. Two of which have died completely loosing all that was on them (much of which I had a slightly out of date back up of on a CD/dvd, which still took more than a day to recover to anything like its previous state. And a lot of sweat. While I was NOT happy lastnight. Even if they'd lost the lot, I'd still trust their systematic redundancy over my own homebrew backup, anyday... And I'm a programmer/Tech Director. Most folk don't know half of the little I know about backups and RAID. Main frain fears are illfounded. As google is run on clustered 3 way redundancy throughout. Not so for old mainframes.
"You cant come in 2nd in a war."
yet America so frequently does..?
Actually I find the DMX comments just as interlectually baron, as the moronic mumblings of Imus. And I'm a 'liberal'. And I do say as much. And I'm not alone. So you're under a strange misconception I think. A bigot is a bigot is a bigot...
The real question is, is bigotry 'acceptable' on a major media chanel? Maybe in some eyes (even if they are not those of a concious bigot). But not in mine.
If I hadn't already commented in the thread I'd mod you up as interesting. I'm not worried about Big Google Brother. But I do like your use for the tech... Realy like you A.I. take.
I know its not cool to pat backs in here, but I realy like your thinking...
If it does a better job than my local (currenlty non-existant) OCR software, then yep! I'll use that, and not worry about installing something new on my system. I like Google Docs for similar reasons.
What about a free service to upload scanned images to and recieve html in return?... Please....
Hmmm... "it really falls short when it comes to navigating around your PC and it also sounds nothing like real speech." JAWS does a fine job of this, Talklets isn't designed to do this (just web content) all OS built in features that I have tested fail to do this... And I think you'll find Talklets voice far more natural sounging than any that come with an operating system.
"That was basically my whole point. I'm not saying this script is entirely useless just that it really isn't anything new and offers, at best, a small advantage over other solutions."
I'm guessing its news to you that 80% of those registered blind in the UK can use a mouse? And that the vast majority of users that have barriers to reading have perfectly good site? This feature is of huge mportance to a lot of people, including illiterate users for example. Those with English as a second language. Those with failing sight... It is a very long way from useless to these people and more...
For further benefits of the system: It has a centralized lexicon dictionary, meaning we can (and do) update pronounciations for our users daily. This is a unique quality of the system, and incredibly inportant in the evolution od TTS. Then there's the fact that I can swap browser and operating system and not have to learn a whole bunch of new hotkeys... Then theres the fact that its the only currently available method of automating the process of self voiceing Flash in FireFox, or Safari (i.e. makeing it accessible). Then there's the fact that most people with barriers to reading haven't the financial standing to purchase $600 worth of tech, so providing a means for them to access your content affordably if of parramount importance to their access of it... I could go on...
"From my point of view, if someone offers a public accessible computer lab (at least in the US) they are required to provide reasonable access for the handicapped which almost always means that they will set aside one or two PCs which have huge monitors and real Text-to-speech software (you know the kind that can read the menu items too)."
I realize thats your point of view, but mine is of someone who needs that assistive tech, and have tried useing those 'dedicated' machines, and they such royaly. They only ever cater to blind users, they tend not to be as well maintained, they have the 'stigma' of being the 'handicaped PCs' etc... They are not a solution for me or most users with barriers to reading.
"I will concede that it is possible that you may occasionally need some form of text to speech software and not have access to it when using other peoples PCs. In these cases your software could possibly be more helpful than the Windows service, but even in these cases you are ignoring the other settings a PC will need to accommodate these people. Because even while my friends don't lock their PCs down to the point it is not possible to install software-- apparently yours do. I'm curious, do your friends also lock out the control panel? Because if I can't see the pointer how do I know what I'm pointing at. Not to mention that I will also need the other accessibility features turned on and most of my friend do turn those off first thing when they install a fresh copy of Windows. The facts are that someone who is completely blind has little use for the "point and read" feature of your software and someone who has severe vision problems needs allot more than a Text-to-speech reader to even be able to begin to effectively navigate a GUI environment (meaning that some setup is going to be required either way; so why not install a text-to-speech application while you're at it? [rhet])."
I don't get this whole paragraph. I don't want to install stuff on my friends machines because it would be an imposition, and is also often against the license of AT. I thought you'd found out how to use the access keys (F9). And refer to my previous about use of the mouse.
You would have heard the instructions if you were blind. You'
"How is a blind person supposed to be able to use that weblets thing if they can't see the freaking buttons to activate it?"
You are audibly told to press F9 to switch on hotkeys. Then F12 to here a list of these keys. If you have cookies on you will only here this once (so as not to become annoying. If you were not sighted you would have waiting to here this.
"Not to mention that it has all the same flaws as a regular text reader in that it is next to impossible to use on a website made for sighted people. "
Well actually on the main content in the middle of the front page we say:
"but we believe that there is no substitute for good web design and standards adherence as a fundamental of effective web communication. "
" In fact most operating systems already have support for this sort of technology which makes it hard to define a situation for which this is the superior tool. "
Rightly or wrongly most computers run on Windows, and windows does not offer a practical means to read web content if you are blind (try using narrator with your screen off)
The situation this is useful in, is if I want to use someone else's computer. As someone with need for assistive tech, I can tell you I want to same freedom you have to roam onto another computer to check my mail, or show a friend something, or check the weather, or...
You may find "it hard to define a situation", but I have many I could offer.
just because its useless to you doesn't mean its not VERY important to someone else. Indeed lots of other people. Possibly 10% or even 20% of the population have significant barriers to literacy/reading. That a very significant proportion of a market place. And on a human level, that 20% is just as important as the rest.
I don't wan't to have to ask permission (and usually be denied) to intall something just to let me read a web site, while out the house. I'm sure you wouldn't. Do you see my point? Many users do...
I think this is the most interesting issue here. While its still VERY clear to my kid (6 year old Girl) the anything on the screen is not 'real', even the people are usually talkling rubbish, games are going through a continued, fast pasted, evolution. IF games ever became more intertwined with are lives, or SO imersive that you forget your in them, then the psychology will get tricky and relevant. But right now, my 6yr daughter can spot a 'good' fake effect, much better than I could figure out what I saw when watching Jason and the Argonaughts, when I was her age. But we both know and knew it wasn't 'real'.
Speaking of advancements in tech... Talklets is one such step forward. Instead of the visually impaired user needing to have a bulky app installed on the computer they with to veiw a site from (in practice often meening they must only use their own computer - not a library, school, friend's etc...), the site itself can allow hot-key and speech enablement. Interest declared...
Haveing seen some pretty big chunk of space junk (Russion again ;), its not that simple. As mentioned, the debris was fore and aft the plane. The rentering beris that I saw took up a significant arc of the sky. It was HUGE! Realy. VERY big. It scared the crap out of me. I thought Finland was going to be wiped out or something. The scale and speed was so, well, alien. Obviously it wasn't that big, and Finland survived, but it was many hundreds of times longer than a plane's length.
My point is, if the debris were a point, you'd have one, but its not, it a LARGE (often) desintegrating mass, granular.
Keep hoping. The fact is, most people who sign up to be cops, don't want to do the kind of learning that is require (not disparageing and this comes with all the caveats of any generalization). Its just not their bag...
I find your tone frightfully vulgar. If you were a decent chap, you'd already be apologising, but as you clearly are not, I'll be forced to chastise you in the only becoming fashion your primitive culture can comprehend. Biglesworth, release the centinals!
Volts don't course through anything. You want to mock the physics, learn it first.
What about personal security? Am I still allowed to care more about me than 'my' country?
... to find the culprets after a car bomb goes off. One is smeared to on the wreckage, the other is in the Whitehouse.
The prob he's going to have is that the agendum of the media is not that of academia. Slashdot comes close because its 'for nerds'. Digg is just a freefall directory of crap. Not a magazine. It points to articles, but doesn't have/create any. Its agenda are closer to those of the media however.
It'll be interesting, but it won't be a magazine.
And has this reporter ever heard of WEEKENDS!?... Not Speculation - Just plain silly.
"specifically rejected by the universal catholic church as frauds."
Gosh.
"small irrelevant wastage."
Like you? I mean literally. You are unlikely to make a difference right? Who ever you are. So why bother right? One More SUV is hardly going to kill the planet. Not switching you crap off before going to bed - Buying your power from a company useing or investing heavily in renewables... None of it is going to make a noticable change right?
Fuck whit.
Not so. The solution is relatively simple. You take the mixer audio and remove it from the mic audio stream (which should be done anyway to stop music fucking with your system) and then only let mic minus wav trigger recognition.
Done.
Next...