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GeekNights 081215 - Portable Words

AprecheApreche
edited December 2008 in GeekNights
Tonight on GeekNights we discuss portable digital books. In the news, net neutrality confusion, and a teacher doesn't know open source exists.

Scott's Thing - MSI Wind OSX
Rym's Thing - Octothorpe
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Comments

  • Loganator456Loganator456
    Most teachers don't know that open source exists.
  • WindUpBirdWindUpBird
    Man, I need to relearn my soldering. And srsly learn my electronics (and my programming). I have a ton of texts sitting around, but not enough materials to put them into practice. That's what my college's electronics lab will be for...:P

    I'll probably get a G1 about the time I get employed, especially since my current Samsung phone doesn't do all the stuff I want it to.
  • sibnovasibnova
    Canberra is the capital of Australia. We created a brand new state for it because both Melbourne and Sydney wanted to be the capital and neither would yield.
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited December 2008
    Canberra is the capital of Australia. We created a brand new state for it because both Melbourne and Sydney wanted to be the capital and neither would yield.
    Eh, It's not exactly common knowledge for most Americans. Honestly, the amount of Americans who ask something along the lines of "What's it like to live in Sydney?" or "So are you descended from criminals/convicts?" as soon as you say "I'm from Australia" or they notice the accent - and those are the better ones. I was even asked once by a teacher while visiting a school(A family friend's son took me in to talk to his high school class) "Do you use money in Australia?" - No, you stupid bint, we use shiny rocks and shells.

    Edit - I don't put Rym, Scott, or the people on this forum, in the above categories - I'm just making a general observation about the fact that Australia isn't a country that most people know much about. Well, except for the last example, there is no excuse in this day and age for that level of ignorance.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Plastic money.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Hey Scrym, if weight is less of a problem than size you might want to search for Mugen batteries, they make these obese batteries with about three times the battery life. They do cost quite a bit.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    G1: A friend of mine got a dev G1 yesterday. He hadn't got it registered and no software was working, but that is one cool device! The keyboard access is really sweet, how the screen swings up, and the keyboard itself seemed responsive. There's a cool trackball thing too, which I'm sure would be good for selecting things pixel perfectly, rather than sausage fingered accurately via the touch screen. I'm not going to get one though, as there is no headphone jack and the battery life is crap.

    Kindle: well, I mentioned in another thread my views. As soon as I can use it in Europe I'll buy one. Maybe that thread was why you did a show on it.

    Education and past media competing with new: guys, haven't you already done entire shows on these topics? No need to repeat yourself over and over. You keep saying there is no need to pay for new media, and this is just rubbish. When a favourite author writes a new book, I'll buy it and read it. Sure, I could read something from 40 years ago, but what about the book that was just written which is a new reflection on the modern world? I love old books, and I've read huge piles of scifi over 40 years old, but I'm not going to wait 40 years to read the next book from Iain M. Banks for the sake of saving 10 euro.
  • RymRym
    You keep saying there is no need to pay for new media, and this is just rubbish.
    That's not the point.
    When a favourite author writes a new book, I'll buy it and read it.
    And how does this author become a favorite in the first place? ;^)
    but I'm not going to wait 40 years to read the next book from Iain M. Banks for the sake of saving 10 euro.
    Extend the situation another 100 years. The amount of media available will always increase, making the competition more and more fierce. It's competition for time, not money. As the number of available works increases, the odds of any particular one being read decrease. The better works become more and more distilled in the face of the drek, and the opportunity cost of reading a weaker work becomes greater and greater.

    The problem is that we have unprecedented access to media, and the curve only steepens. Eventually, there will be a hundred Shakespeares and a thousand Citizen Kanes. There will be dozens of Cowboy Bebops and millions of Fireflies. We already see that our youth have caught on. They do pay for novelty that cannot be had freely if it is novel enough, but regardless have their choice among a market of free media larger than the market for pay media. Eventually, there will be more worthwhile media in the public domain than any human could ever consume in a thousand lifetimes, making the non-free market a tiny niche.

    We see already 98% piracy rates with some games and entire industries that can't compete with their own past products. Extend our current trends, and the outcome is obvious. This was held off in the past only because access to publication was costly and more modern media (sound, film) always came up on the horizon, unable to be taken home at first. We've "solved" both of these problems. It used to be that getting an old book or TV show was difficult and costly. They used to throw away the masters of television shows at the studio, with the mindset of "who would ever watch this again?" Now, it's all there, and all available, for practically zero effort and little cost.
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited December 2008
    Plastic money.
    Top of the class. Bonus points if you can tell us why the $20 bill is sometimes nicknamed a "rock lobster" without going to Google or wikipedia.
    The battery must last an entire trans-atlantic flight
    My Palm Pilot TX will do that, considering that I won't read for an entire 28 hour flight. Even if I did, it would last almost all of the way - I might miss two or three hours at the tail end.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • BronzdragonBronzdragon
    edited December 2008
    I would agree but for the fact that media keeps getting better. Have you recently seen 2001: A Space Odyssey? It's unwatchable. While newer films are 'better'. That doesn't mean that the latest film is the best one, but we keep creating new forms of media, and learning how to use the new media.
    Post edited by Bronzdragon on
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Plastic money.
    Top of the class. Bonus points if you can tell us why the $20 bill is sometimes nicknamed a "rock lobster" without going to Google or wikipedia.
    No idea. I've spent a total of 3 weeks in Australia over the past few years. All I know is that my stomach was as red as a lobster when I got sun burnt.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Eventually, there will be more worthwhile media in the public domain than any human could ever consume in a thousand lifetimes, making the non-free market a tiny niche.
    This is where we disagree, I guess. I don't think non-free, instant access media is going anywhere, not even into a niche. Books will be written about new topics and with new themes and stories, news will be reported about new events, commentary will be made on those same new events, new sport events will be watched, games will be made using new technologies, films will be made with new visuals and new stars.

    Competition from old art will exist, and grow from where it is now, but I think new media and art will balance it. No matter how much good stuff there is, the new will always appeal for the fact it is new.
  • ChurbaChurba
    No idea. I've spent a total of 3 weeks in Australia over the past few years. All I know is that my stomach was as red as a lobster when I got sun burnt.
    The Colour. It's not common slang anymore, though, I know plenty of Australians who don't know the term. But you really have to watch the sun, it really is something different to nearly about anywhere else in the world.
  • AprecheApreche
    I would agree but for the fact that media keeps getting better. Have you recently seen 2001: A Space Odyssey? It's unwatchable.
    It's far from unwatchable. It's amazing. You're a fool.
  • FunfetusFunfetus
    edited December 2008
    The idea of entertainment industries not being able to compete with their past products doesn't seem quite right to me. I believe (and I don't have any stats to back this up, but I know I've read this various places) that the people who buy the most music and go to the most movies are teenagers and young adults. And I seriously can't imagine your average teenager skipping the latest Kanye West album because friggin Elvis is there for free. Same with movies. There are a lot of people who simply won't even watch anything that's in black & white. Many people, and young people in particular, want shiny new media that they perceive to be relevant to them.

    As for myself, for instance, there are tons of public domain comics available that I just don't read. They're from a different era, and most of them aren't particularly interesting to me except as a historical artifact. I read stuff mostly from within the last 10-15 years, and within the last 30 almost exclusively. Anything much before that is going to have to be pretty exceptional to catch my interest.

    Also, maybe I misunderstood what you guys were saying, but isn't copyright for life plus 50 (or 70) years? So the aforementioned latest Kanye West album won't be public domain in 2058, but 50 years after Kanye dies, right?
    Post edited by Funfetus on
  • AprecheApreche
    Also, maybe I misunderstood what you guys were saying, but isn't copyright for life plus 50 (or 70) years? So the aforementioned latest Kanye West album won't be public domain in 2058, but 50 years after Kanye dies, right?
    I'm pretty sure the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act extended it to 95 years. We were speaking hypothetically about how much more of a problem competition with the past would be if copyright weren't bullshit, and had a more reasonable term. You may have not heard me use the word "if."
  • Kate MonsterKate Monster
    edited December 2008
    Her main point seems to be that Linux would be less helpful and relevant for the students' education. This point, while still absurd, is at least somewhat open for discussion as opposed to the open-source-is-illegal idea.
    Post edited by Kate Monster on
  • TaselTasel
    edited December 2008
    Maybe I misheard, but you said that the iPhone doesn't download podcast over wifi? The latest update allows pod-casts downloads up to 10MB over cell towers, any size over wifi, and if something is too big for the cell connection, it queues it for when you get within a wifi connection. Please correct me if I misheard due to some car noise or something, because I was pretty sure you guys already knew that.
    Post edited by Tasel on
  • AprecheApreche
    Maybe I misheard, but you said that the iPhone doesn't download podcast over wifi? The latest update allows pod-casts downloads up to 10MB over cell towers, any size over wifi, and if something is too big for the cell connection, it queues it for when you get within a wifi connection. Please correct me if I misheard due to some car noise or something, because I was pretty sure you guys already knew that.
    It does, but it doesn't subscribe to them. That's a big difference. There's really no technological reason for iTunes to exist. They can just put all of iTunes on the iPhone. They just don't.
  • kero905kero905
    Happy to hear Arduino being talked about. Sorry in advance, I am about to talk about my Arduino journey. I have used AVRs many years ago in either assembly or C. One of the hardest things was having to build boards, having to do mundane tasks like connecting programing headers to the controller and then having connection issues. I didn't complete many projects and disappointment cause me to leave the embedded/physical computing hobby. A few weeks ago my first Arduino board arrived (the official Duemilanove one). Uploading stuff to it was easy via USB, but it didn't seem very breadboard friendly. Then I got and built ladyada's protoshield with mini breadboard on it. Developing was fun on the official board/proto shield.. but it cost a lot. Because I wasn't willing to throw $45 at a project, I bought and built some arduino clone boards (like BBB and RBBB) that leave out the USB chip but they are much cheaper. So I don't feel bad about them living in a project forever. So now im addicted, buying lots of stuff.. I even got an adapter for a wii nunchuck, so it can easily sit in a breadboard. good times.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/keroism/3112751384/

    Last weekend I visited Eyebeam NYC for Holiday Hackshop 2008, they had like 30 naked tickle-me-elmos with Arduino brains controlled wirelessly via XBee. They are minions, digital minions!
  • AprecheApreche
    Last weekend I visited Eyebeam NYC for Holiday Hackshop 2008, they had like 30 naked tickle-me-elmos with Arduino brains controlled wirelessly via XBee. They are minions, digital minions!
    I definitely think that after I feel comfortable doing basic stuff like controlling LEDs with the pressure sensors, and getting the board to interact with the Internet a bit, I'm going to have to go by some toys to mess with. Anyone know any cool simple electronic toys that would be cool to modify? I'm thiking along the lines of simple RC cars or talking Darth Vader masks and such.
  • CHOIS CHOIS CHOISCHOIS CHOIS CHOIS
    I've noticed Time Warner Cable in my area always slowing down my content downloads. I'll be downloading a show from iTunes and the first 20% is fine and then it slows down a lot. Or last year when I played COD 4, I downloaded some huge Mod maps, and about half-way through most of the them, I would lose connection to the Internet on all computers in my house. I call and complain and they say that they're slowing my connection because they think I'm pirating stuff.

    Fucking TWC
  • NeitoNeito
    Are you sure you don't just have something like PowerBoost, which gives you say thirty seconds of a very fast speed, then sends you down to a more moderate speed?
  • kero905kero905
    hmm.. RC car.. Popsci has an article on this: http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-07/arduino-muscle-car
  • YoshoKatanaYoshoKatana
    I want to take that clip of you talking about illiterate computer users, and play that clip at work. Over and over.

    I just want the computer illiterate people to die off. Really. Really. The lack of headaches totally outweighs any negative impact their deaths would have.

    In other news, I got my first migraine at work today. Fun stuff.
  • AndrewAndrew
    In other news, I got my first migraine at work today. Fun stuff
    I am one of the few people who suffer from migranes with a visual aura symptom. They are usually so painful that they are debilitating.
  • ThirdWorldManThirdWorldMan
    Just listened to this one today and alas, there are those in engineering that do turn evil.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    Engineer? Maybe.
    Intelligent? No.
  • FunfetusFunfetus
    That killer Santa thing? Happened less than a mile from my place.
  • AprecheApreche
    Well, think about it. There are millions of people on earth with engineering knowledge. It is clear that any such person has the potential to be incredibly dangerous. They have the skills to devise methods of avoiding security as well as the ability to do damage more efficiently through technology. Of course, there are few who actually are evil. I mean, look at the adware guy in my latest news. It's just that the number who turn evil are an incredibly low percentage. Imagine if people with engineering minds actually became real terrorists aiming for mass destruction. We'd all be screwed.
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