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5876

Living Room / Re: Censoring Internet Porn?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 10:12 PM »

What is profane? What is obscene?

-Renegade (March 15, 2012, 07:56 PM)

That's simple. Profane is anything I think is wrong - and obscene is whatever turns me off. Isn't it obvious?

Like Rita Rudner said: I don't know why men are so confused about what constitutes sexual harassment. It's really quite simple. If a guy comes on to me, and I like it, it's flirting. If I don't, it's sexual harassment. It all seems crystal clear to me. So...is there anything else I can help you with?

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Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 10:04 PM »

If you analyse anything that you do as a process, then you can quickly establish/see whether it is linear. A lot of what we do can thus be seen to be linear process flow, and even that explosive/connected "discovery" process would be linear if it was broken down (decomposed) into small enough discrete steps. The thing about using the hardcopy reference texts (hardcopy media) though is that it seems non-linear, because it is "fast" (speedy).
It is fast because you can use your trained reading faculties and that media, jumping your attention across a wider span and then focussing in as necessary, in such a way as to minimise the duration of the discrete sequential linear process steps and of any delay intervals between them. You thus accelerate the process.

-IainB (March 15, 2012, 08:09 PM)

I think part of that might be a little more complex than it appears on surface study. When I was in college I had the good fortune to take a course taught by Bernard Lonergan that examined the concept of insight and what it represented in terms of human learning and understanding. It was an absolutely mind-bending course.

I won't even attempt to begin to summarize all that we covered in that class. (Those interested in learning more can look here, here, or here.) But one of the topics that was studied at some length was the process of insight and how it was not linear in that whatever happened at the point of insight (the "aha!" moment) effectively modified our minds (neural patterns) such that although we could not point to a linear progression towards some points of understanding - we could paradoxically reason our way backwards and rationalize (i.e. "explain") how we got there.

And there's enough serious studies that have examined that phenomena to seem to indicate that not all parts of our reasoning and understanding operate in an exclusively linear fashion - even on an extremely granular level. In fact, real breakthrough thinking and realizations appear to occur as a discontinuous function. A quantum leap if you will.

Wild stuff.

----------------

@IainB -  I'll leave you to dissect and play with that as you will. I have no stake in the theory either way so I won't be getting into a long discussion or debate over it. I probably spent more intensive and quality thinking time in that course (mainly thinking about 'thinking') than I ever did with anything before or since. Suffice to say the experience was life changing.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Xara Xtreme 5 Giveaway

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 09:31 PM »

Xara Xtreme was the product that preceded Photo & Graphic Designer. Xtreme is a very versatile and useful graphic package even in the older version. It's worth downloading IMO.

They now have Web Designer 7 and Photo & Graphic Designer 7. And also their flagship Designer Pro 7 which incorporates the previous two products and adds "pro" features (like: Pantone support, color seps, etc. that would primarily be of interest to professional designers.)

I've got P&G Designer. I really like it.

Note: they're also throwing in 20 free handwriting styled fonts from SoftMaker once you register. You also need to register (free) with SoftMaker to get the download link.

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Living Room / Re: Censoring Internet Porn?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 07:18 PM »

He's playing a little fast and loose with what the law says as well as how the courts interpret those laws. But what did you expect. This isn't a news report. It's a rant.

And any discussion involving sexual topics traditionally generates far more heat than light when Americans get on a roll about it.

My biggest complaint about porn is mostly how boring and poorly done virtually all of it is. 

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Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 06:45 PM »

I have really been turned off by this attitude in the universities I have attended.

-superboyac (March 15, 2012, 06:26 PM)

I guess I've been pretty lucky on that score, although it may have been a function of where I went and when I went there. It's a very different world on university campuses than what I knew when I attended. So maybe a part of my attitude is out of date.

And even more so in the workplace.

-superboyac (March 15, 2012, 06:26 PM)

I'll +1 that part, no argument. (That's why I started my own business - and probably why you did too?)

In the end, I just don't want people making me feel guilty or bad about exploring a subject, and I think that's something this country is (should be?  was?) great at.

-superboyac (March 15, 2012, 06:26 PM)

I think you're correct on all three points. It is. Should be. And rapidly is becoming was. That's why we're all constantly fighting the ignorance around us. Don't give up.

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Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 06:37 PM »

As someone who is often fairly off-topic, and who at other times complains about other people going off-topic -

-tomos (March 15, 2012, 06:22 PM)

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. - Ralph Waldo Emerson


Do I contradict myself?
Very well, then, I contradict myself;
(I am large—I contain multitudes.)
                                                  - Walt Whitman

I kind of think it's just up to people to say if they think things are going to far off course for each particular thread.

-tomos (March 15, 2012, 06:22 PM)

Works for me.

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Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 06:21 PM »

I feel at the same time highly frustrated by the relatively tedious linearity of the whole process I am engaged in, when compared to the exploding connectivity and richness of of that "discovery" experience.

-IainB (March 15, 2012, 03:54 PM)

That, I think, cuts right to the heart of it for some of us. Online and electronic lookups tend to be linear activities .

@IainB - Linear! (That's twice this month you've hit on the exact word I was looking for! You're hired.)

5883

Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 06:15 PM »

Just me, or anybody else think that a wiki on DC would be goddamn awesome?...

-Stephen66515 (March 15, 2012, 06:08 PM)

I seem to recall it's been proposed a few times....

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Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 06:03 PM »

I just think that discussions should try to stay on topic, and be conducted with an eye towards their permanent existence on the site as a knowledge repository.

-mouser (March 15, 2012, 03:42 PM)

I agree with staying on topic as much as possible. But I sort of disagree with the "for posterity" concept.

Informal discussions are (to me) exactly that. Informal discussions. IMO if something is really worth preserving for posterity (as opposed to "Until the next version of Windows comes out.") it really should be written up as a white paper of some sort (if it's static) - or relegated to a wiki if it's more of a 'living' document topic.

There are differences of opinion on this, but I've found tightening up on open forum areas has a bad tendency to reduce peoples willingness to think out loud and share what they're thinking. The minute people start thinking too much about posterity, a lot of the openness and willingness to explore ideas goes out the door. People start drafting formal comments, watching their words, and looking over their shoulders. From there it's only a short hop to posturing and making speeches.

I see open forum topic areas as brainstorming sessions. And first rule of  those is: don't disrupt the flow. Most of the really interesting insights I've seen in the forum came out of people ranging off and around the topic fairly widely before it re-coalesced into something larger than what it originally started out as. I'd hate to see that go away.

But that's me.

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Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 05:43 PM »

I'd just as soon go to sources like wikipedia that are willing to be transparent and engage in open and honest debates.

-superboyac (March 15, 2012, 05:24 PM)

Except they're really not. There are all sorts of agendas, cliques, and power brokers within the Wikipedia community. Just like everywhere else. (Get involved as a contributor and you'll find that out pretty quickly.) So while I don't think having a PhD should automatically be the final word in a discussion, I still think juried articles and extensive peer reviews of research data and findings goes a long way towards keeping things honest. At least more often than not.

Not that it will matter. The free exchange of academic information is coming to an end as more and more academic research gets sponsored by business and government interests and now tends to disappear into information silos - or behind paywalls and NDAs - as fast as it's collected and written up.

I'm not defending the ivory towers. But I am experienced enough not to think that getting rid of our current known problem children is automatically going to solve things. Most times, you get rid of one group of rascals and a bigger group of absolute thugs take their place.
 

5886

Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 05:23 PM »

But studies have shown that the quality (i.e., error rate) of Britannica is only somewhat better than Wikipedia -- they're both of similar magnitude.

I fear that the stigma really stems from academia (right down to elementary school) believing in a top-down model, a priesthood of experts who dictate to the masses, whereas WP stands for power from the ground up.

-CWuestefeld (March 15, 2012, 04:47 PM)

While I can agree in spirit with that argument (academics having much to answer for) I still worry about the current trend towards confusing consensus with fact and proof. I've seen too much scientifically determined fact dismissed with comments like: "Well, that's just your opinion." or "I'm sorry, but we don't see it that way." to be too anxious to toss out our entire qualified peer review system in favor of mob rule when it comes to creating reference materials.

And while crowd sourcing may be all the rage, I can't help but wonder why the opinions of experts or scientific research is now often considered less reliable and acceptable than the off-the-cuff collective opinion of 400 laymen, a talk show host, or a badly designed and conducted poll.

Small surprise we now see things like over 500 locales authoritatively listed as the number one place (singular) for starting a business in America - if the magazines can be trusted. Or how worries about carbon and global warming are dismissed by our policy makers because their is no 'scientific' consensus to support the concern.

Not to say that everyone isn't entitled to their opinion.

It's just that I think its both naive and potentially dangerous to think that everyone's opinion should automatically be given equal weight.

Call me crazy, but from what I've seen, something like 80% of what's out there talking (i.e. the "All I know is______" crowd) isn't entitled to an opinion because they simply don't know enough (and usually can't be bothered to learn enough) to be qualified to even have an opinion worth listening to.
 

5887

Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 03:45 PM »

@CW - I saw one of those. It was pretty amazing. About the only thing about it I didn't like was it didn't support tables. So anything that was formatted as a table didn't appear. And it also didn't let you know which things beyond the obvious (like graphics) got left out. No full text search either, which was a problem for me.

Still, for what it was and what it cost it was pretty amazing. (I don't put it even remotely on par with TEB. But for a quick&dirty desk reference, or a take-along on a trip, I could see the the electronic Wikipedia making a lot of sense.)

BTW- I also tried the electronic Britannica. Much like SB, I found it unusable.

5888

Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 01:08 PM »

However, when totally new discussions start at random in a topic about a different discussion, it just seems strange IMO.

-wraith808 (March 15, 2012, 12:21 PM)

I'm not sure I've seen that. Or at least not as much as you seem to be seeing. Got some recent examples you can point me to?  

5889

Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 12:10 PM »

Of course once it's purely electronic it would make it much easier to enforce censorship over it. I could imagine a situation where different versions could easily be made to accommodate local political and religious authorities. I'd imagine something like the story of the Crusades being treated differently in an Iranian edition as opposed to a UK edition. Same goes for treatments of economic and political subjects.

Hmm... I can see it now...Encyclopedia Britannica - available in Standard Western, Mideastern, Muslim, Socialist, Christian Conservative, and North Korean editions - with more to follow...

Next comes something like this...

News update: last week authorities disabled all electronic use of the Encyclopedia Britannica in _______ after determining the collection was "rife" with what were characterized as "severe factual errors" and "morally offensive" articles and topics. Authorities further stated that they were opposed to censorship in any form and only reluctantly took this action in order that school children not be put "at risk."

Authorities and the publishers of the Encyclopedia Britannica met behind closed doors yesterday with the goal of resolving their differences and working out a mutually acceptable "accommodation" in order that sales and use of the Britannica collection could resume as quickly as possible...
 

5890

Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 11:47 AM »

I'll agree and admit to going off topic on more than a few occasions. But I don't see it as a problem per se in an area like the living room. I was always under the impression that forum areas such as that were pretty much intended as "anything goes" boards, whereas things like "general software discussion" et al were expected to be more focused and narrow.

Free ranging discussion is also (in my experience) the way people actually do talk about things - including serious topics - as may be witnessed by the popularity of the Living Room compared to the other boards.  So going off on a related theme or digressing is not at all the same thing as "talking nonsense." And, as was pointed out earlier, sometimes some horseplay or diggression defuses a tense situation and allows a discussion to resume on a less emotional level.

For a focused treatment of a topic - and one intended for posterity - I think a wiki would be a much better venue than a forum. But others may see it differently.
 
 

5891

Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 09:22 AM »

I wouldn't buy it in e-book format.

But that's because I don't go to Britannica to research or look things up. I go to it for intellectual entertainment. I browse and read it for fun and personal edification. I like to turn pages, flip around, pull volumes down at random, and be surprised. I'll often start reading something, follow up on something mentioned, and end up happily sitting with five or six open volumes heaped around me with dozens of paper notes and post-it's sprinkled over everything. Some people play computer games. I'll go book or encyclopedia crawling when I'm looking for something to do. And sometimes the connections and correlations you discover, or the insights you gain, are extremely valuable.

I can't do that with an e-book. A <go to random article> button isn't the same thing for me.

If I actually wanted to use Britannica as a reference tool, I'd be more inclined to just open an online account rather than get the electronic version.

But that's me.  

5892

Living Room / Re: New Time management system from Mark Forster

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2012, 08:12 AM »

Ok. Finished reading the first installment. It's ok as far as it goes. I'm not sure what exactly the author feels is so different about this scheme. I'm sure I've read similar approaches before - but I'm not up on the micro-subtleties separating one to-do system from another so a specialist may see something I'm not seeing. There's a little hint of NLP-style head games in it, but that's about it.

Hopefully the uniqueness will become  more apparent with subsequent newsletter installments when he fleshes it out a bit more.

5893

Living Room / Re: New Time management system from Mark Forster

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2012, 10:01 PM »

If it didn't take work ideologically I'd sign up then private-email all comers of the result.

-TaoPhoenix (March 14, 2012, 07:05 PM)

It always disappoints me to see people posting things like this around here.

... I'd never sign up under false pretenses then e-mail someone else's work out.  That seems on the other spectrum of wrong.
.
.
... it is his prerogative, and I'd not undermine that.

-wraith808 (March 14, 2012, 08:13 PM)

On the other hand, I'm always gratified when someone posts something like this.

5894

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2012, 03:31 PM »

The next one I'm going to try is the Cowon J3, which a lot of people consider one of the better players ever made.

-superboyac (March 14, 2012, 03:09 PM)

If you do, let me know how you make out? It supports FLAC natively which would be a big plus for me. Nice size too. 56x106x10mm? Pretty svelte for the specs it's claiming.

A little pricey at $260 for 32Gb (which puts it out of my range for something to try just out of curiosity) - but I guess you get what you pay for with this type of product. And this little bugger is reporting some awfully impressive features and specs. (An 11 hour video runtime on full battery? To me. that's impressive.)
 

5895

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2012, 03:00 PM »

@SB - thanks for the feedback. That's pretty much what I was able to find out too.

Oh well. Not really a problem since it sounds great (really great actually ) and works just fine the way it is. I was, however, hoping I wouldn't have to install that lousy software Sansa gives you to access it's library functions.

Switching the USB mode lets the directories show up under Windows 7 and Linux so hopefully I can do a drag and drop and the titles database will automatically scan and update. If not, I guess I'll have to use Sansa's utility. If I do I'll probably just load this puppy up with decent tunes and then uninstall the Sansa software.

Besides, beneficiaries of a freebie shouldn't complain, right?

----------------

Update: Yup. Switching USB mode to MTP let's you get into it via Windows Explorer. If you drag and drop, the database rescans when you disconnect the USB cable and all works as it should. You just need to remember the folder hierarchy, which is your standard <artist><album><song> arrangement.

Woo-hoo! Nice little MP3 player! And the price was right too.

5896

Living Room / Re: New Time management system from Mark Forster

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2012, 12:15 PM »

What I'd personally like to see is a time management system for people with more time on their hands than they'd like. I'm thinking of normally busy people who suddenly find themselves in slow periods with too much time and not enough to do. Because that's when you really start developing bad time management habits.
 

5897

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2012, 12:06 PM »

Ouch! So sorry 40hz!  (That's what I get for posting from that damn Android browser! Site don’t look the same, formatted for the mobile browser; I miss on most of the tiny buttons and links with large finger aiming for miniscule buttons; etc.)

-J-Mac (March 14, 2012, 11:59 AM)

 

No problem! I once made a fool out of myself in front of a client responding to something using Safari on my iPhone - so I can fully understand what you're talking about. (Who comes up with these "mobile" page layouts anyway?)

 

5898

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2012, 11:54 AM »

Question for you Rockbox/Sansa mavens:

I was recently given a lovely 2GB Sansa Model e250v2. Love it. But it's one of the Sansas that shipped with Rhapsody included. It's running version 03.01.16A software.

Do the Sansas that came with Rhapsody have the same onboard software as the ones that didn't. Or can you convert a Sansa Rhapsody version to a standard Sansa player if they're not?

Any good URLs or other info would be appreciated. Thx.

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Living Room / Re: New Time management system from Mark Forster

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2012, 11:38 AM »

I'm always amazed that some people feel the need to make you jump through hoops just to get some straight information out of them about something.

-40hz (March 14, 2012, 09:46 AM)

Yeah, I'm not really sure what that's about.
Normally I wouldnt post something so obscure, but he got a fair bit of attention during the Getting Organised Experiments here.

-tomos (March 14, 2012, 11:06 AM)

I remember that. That's why I was semi-interested in what he had to say.

I could copy and paste his email but I think that would probably be against his wishes. Hopefully he'll "out" it on his site soon.

I agree. I don't like his approach - although he may also have a very good reason for doing it this way he hasn't shared with us yet.

And...he is the author...so I think it's only right we respect his wishes and not broadband his emails if we do decide to receive them.

edit/ If I get the time to have a closer look I'll report back.

Much appreciated. Now that I'm more fully coherent (and in an admittedly less cranky mood now that my allergy meds have started working) I'll probably subscribe too.
 

5900

Living Room / Re: New Time management system from Mark Forster

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2012, 09:46 AM »

I'm always amazed that some people feel the need to make you jump through hoops just to get some straight information out of them about something.

Ok. So be it. Maybe I'll look into it later on when Mr. Forrester starts acting a little less coy about it.