Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 201
A very small percent of professors are using books they have written and I have been a professor for many years and have never been offered a kickback and or heard of anyone getting such an offer.
Submission + - Presentation scales in massive online courses; what about interaction? (blogspot.com)
lpress writes: "Coursera has demonstrated that they can scale presentations in massive, open, online courses — they have reached over 1.3 million students in 195 countries since they were funded in April.
But can they scale student interaction? As of this morning, 7,839 Coursera students had formed 1,119 communities on Meetup.com in 1,014 cities — many outside the US."
But can they scale student interaction? As of this morning, 7,839 Coursera students had formed 1,119 communities on Meetup.com in 1,014 cities — many outside the US."
Submission + - Google and Kansas City push to narrow the digital divide
lpress writes: "Google is laying fiber in Kansas City, and will decide the order in which neighborhoods are connected as a function of the percent of households making a $10 reservation payment. When it looked like poor people were not signing up, Google and the city stepped recruiting efforts in poor neighborhoods.
They succeded and 180 of 202 neighborhoods qualifyied for the first round of fiber. That success plus Google's committment to offer free 5mb/s DSL to households and gigabit connectivity for schools, hospitals, libraries and other public buildings is a significant boost for those on the wrong side of the Internet tracks. This is a good example of a partnership between a city government and a private company. (The city is providing power, space and more in addition to recruiting customers)."
They succeded and 180 of 202 neighborhoods qualifyied for the first round of fiber. That success plus Google's committment to offer free 5mb/s DSL to households and gigabit connectivity for schools, hospitals, libraries and other public buildings is a significant boost for those on the wrong side of the Internet tracks. This is a good example of a partnership between a city government and a private company. (The city is providing power, space and more in addition to recruiting customers)."
Comment Re:Lego mindstorm and programming (Score 1) 307
Yes, but it actually works
Why do you say the Raspberry Pi does not work? I am interested in getting Scratch running on it.
Submission + - FCC approves Verizon's spectrum purchase and we lose
lpress writes: "Verizon Wireless on Thursday won unanimous Federal Communications Commission approval to move forward with its $3.9 billion purchase of 4G LTE spectrum from the country’s largest cable providers. The partnership also enables the cable companies to market Verizon services and in some cases sell their own services inside Verizon stores.
It sounds like a "gentleman's agreement" — the cable companies can provide land-line Internet access and the cellular phone companies wireless access. Here are a couple of pertenint quotes:
Dan Mead, president and chief executive of Verizon Wireless: “This purchase represents a milestone in the industry, and we appreciate the F.C.C.’s diligent work to review and approve the transaction.”
David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast: “a smart and efficient way for Comcast to deliver a broader array of wireless services, and is an efficient deployment of this spectrum.”
Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge: “By allowing Verizon and the cable companies to sell each other’s services, the D.O.J. and the F.C.C. are acknowledging what has been clear for some time — that broadband competition policy in the United States has failed."
William Kennard, near the end of his term as F. C. C. chairman: “[regulation is] too often used as a shield, to protect the status quo from new competition — often in the form of smaller, hungrier competitors — and too infrequently as a sword — to cut a pathway for new competitors to compete by creating new networks and services.”"
It sounds like a "gentleman's agreement" — the cable companies can provide land-line Internet access and the cellular phone companies wireless access. Here are a couple of pertenint quotes:
Dan Mead, president and chief executive of Verizon Wireless: “This purchase represents a milestone in the industry, and we appreciate the F.C.C.’s diligent work to review and approve the transaction.”
David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast: “a smart and efficient way for Comcast to deliver a broader array of wireless services, and is an efficient deployment of this spectrum.”
Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge: “By allowing Verizon and the cable companies to sell each other’s services, the D.O.J. and the F.C.C. are acknowledging what has been clear for some time — that broadband competition policy in the United States has failed."
William Kennard, near the end of his term as F. C. C. chairman: “[regulation is] too often used as a shield, to protect the status quo from new competition — often in the form of smaller, hungrier competitors — and too infrequently as a sword — to cut a pathway for new competitors to compete by creating new networks and services.”"
Comment Re:Impressive TDF live coverage (Score 1) 82
PPS -- they work with Euro media France (http://www.euromedia-france.com/), which actually runs the cameras, helicopters, etc. For detail on that, check out: http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2012/07/eyes-in-the-sky-how-the-tour-de-france-is-broadcast-to-the-world/.
Comment Re:Impressive TDF live coverage (Score 1) 82
PS -- the Olympic video feed was not from French TV, but from Olympic Broadcasting Services (http://www.obs.es/hostbroadcasterrole.html)
Comment Re:Impressive TDF live coverage (Score 1) 82
Given all that complexity, the raw feed is surprisingly glitch free -- there were hardly any break-ups during the TdF -- but the video quality of NBC's Olympic stream on the Web was pretty bad. There is a lot of room for improvement in the network.
For the TdF production, NBC pay-per-view took the live feed from French TV and added intelligent, well coordinated commentary, producing an informative, entertaining presentation. Contrast that with the Olympics where they streamed the feed without commentary, popped in commercials at seemingly arbitrary points and only made the stream available to subscribers to selected cable TV channels.
I think they can and will do better than their Olympic coverage. For a start, can't they negotiate for more control over the feed from French TV? If an NBC producer could select cameras and coordinate that with the announcer, could we not get the level of integration we see in coverage of NFL, NBA and other events?
Some control could be further decentralized -- to the viewer. Some graphics are tied to the video stream. For example, a shot of a small group of cyclists might be showing the lead group or a group behind the peloton. But, as the BBC demonstrated during the Olympics, the user can control other graphics like the season and current-game statistics of a basketball player.
I don't know how the responsibilities and subcontracts will eventually be divided or how far decentralization of control will be pushed, but for sure we will see change by 2020 when NBC's Olympic contract expires. Technology -- cameras, communication links, compression, caching, end-user equipment, etc -- will have improved, there will be more competition and a larger portion of the audience will be on the Internet.
Comment Re:Impressive TDF live coverage (Score 1) 82
I gave up because your comments and pedantic "sic"s seemed more ad hominem than constructive, so I just figured I'd sign off with a few "sic"s of my own.
Comment Re:15 fucking megabits? (Score 1) 82
That is the download speed test from my house (as reported by Seedtest.net) -- so it was not a constraint. I got around 2.3 Mb/s when going through an English proxy.
Comment Re:Impressive TDF live coverage (Score 1) 82
it is producted by the French, and NBC is one of many many broadcasters present there who add a bit of their own flavour to that coverage and use it
(sic)
(I feel like the slashdot community's changed a lot since I first joined and HEY, GIVE OFF MY LAWN!)
(sic) I am not interested in keeping this up -- sorry for pissing on your lawn -- I'll give off now.
Comment Re:Impressive TDF live coverage (Score 1) 82
it is producted by the French, and NBC is one of many many broadcasters present there who add a bit of their own flavour to that coverage and use it
I meant "produced" in the sense that they contract for the feed then do with it what they will -- add commentary, decide when to cut to commercials, whatever -- the stuff I talked about in the post. The "producer" of a movie does not operate the camera. You sound like a grammar-Nazi kind of person.
As to his idea that they have 'deleted their archive', that is somewhat laughable - removing it from public access is very very different from deleting it, something I can assure him has not happened.
Duh.
The internet streaming is a very very small part of the whole process
Let's revisit that statement in 2020.
Does he really think the NBS was responsible the Olympics venue planning and operation?
I'll give you that one -- I misspoke.
Comment Re:NBC wouldn't take my money!!!!!!!! (Score 1) 82
Well here in Germany everyone who owns a TV has to pay around 17€ per month to fund a consortium of public-service broadcasters.
That sounds like the British license fee of £145.50 per year for a color TV and £49.00 for a black and white TV. We have no such fees in the US, but the cheapest cable subscription would be more than 17€ per month.
Comment Re:NBC wouldn't take my money!!!!!!!! (Score 1) 82
I bet NBC would have gone for it -- more people seeing their ads -- but the satellite and cable companies, including their parent company Comcast, probably forced them to do it. Based on the $29 they charged for the Tour de France, I doubt that your $10-20 would be enough.
Submission + - The Olympic live stream -- observations, recommendations and predictions
lpress writes: "The Tour de France and the Olympics were live streamed on the Web. The BBC streamed 2,500 hours of live coverage of the Olympics and NBC streamed the entire Tour de France and 302 events from all 32 Olympic sports. I watched both events as a fan and as an observer of the online content and the network performance. I blogged detailed descriptions of my experience at http://cis471.blogspot.com/search/label/Olympics and summarized it in 12 observations and recommendations at http://cis471.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-olympic-live-stream-observations.html. The summary concludes with predcitions about the way live events will be covered in the future — coverage of these events was an early step in a major shakeup of the way live events are produced, distributed and viewed."
