Hello, Oompa-Loompas! :)

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I'm not a fan of invisible fences (or any training based on punishment), but some dogs are just naturally runners, and it's very hard to train it out of them because they escape during the one minute you're not watching them, and you can't punish them for coming back.

Invisible fences use simple operand conditioning; It doesn't matter if you know the "reason" or not as long as the stimulus is consistent. If you think dogs need explanations to not get screwed up, you're misapplying a piece of folk psychology that isn't even accurate for humans.

Many people lock their dogs up inside the house to prevent them from running away or messing up their garden. In my view that's much more cruel than making them learn that straying too far from the house is bad. Plus dogs are pretty smart, they get it very fast. I'm sure if you could ask them they'd prefer this to being locked in permanently or to being run over by a garbage truck.

No it's not. This may shock you, but a 2x4 is not actually a 2x4. It's a "1.5 x 3.5." And many have tried to convert Imperial Lumber Math to metric and were never heard from again, so tread carefully...

Yes, very subtle, grasshopper...

If VP8 ever gets widely used, I suspect we'll find out very fast...

• They selected 1,000,000 random pics from the web, without any selection for compression quality. And srsly, are they trying to tell me that *google* doesn't have access to a sufficient number of raw images?
• They compared the algorithms at PSNR around 40, which is not that highly compressed.
• They make a big deal out of the fact that the advantage of using their algorithm is greater for small (low-res) pics... I would assume (without any data to back me up) that low-res pics on the web tend to be more highly compressed to begin with. I'm assuming this because small pics would tend to not be photographs, and because if you use low resolution, you're probably trying to save bandwidth and web space, so compressing more would be logical.

And anyway, these are by no means the only problems with what they're doing.

• As others have pointed out, where are the standard pictures everybody uses to compare compression quality?
• Why did they arbitrarily compare the algorithms at PSNR=40?
• Comparing with jpeg at this point is like kicking a puppy. The comparisons with j2k is meaningless (see above).
• If they're just trying to create a better alternative to jpeg without the patent hassle, they should say so. But in that case, what's wrong with promoting any of the existing algorithms?
• The main problem with jpeg is that it's used blindly for all kinds of images, and it was simply not designed for that. Suggesting that one new algorithm should take over everything that jpeg does right now is idiotic. The right replacement at this point depends on what the image is you're trying to compress. E.g. j2k is good for large photographs at relatively high bit rates. Png is actually very good at things like line drawings. Etc...

They're comparing webP to jpeg by testing how well both algorithms can recompress (a set of almost entirely) jpeg images? Really? Really???
More to the point, jpeg compression artifacts (discontinuities) are a *nightmare* for wavelet coders, so this is in no way fair to jpeg2k.

Also, from TFA:

WTF, this is exactly what a wavelet coder like jpeg2k does, only in a much more sophisticated way.

This whole thing is so far below any accepted standard of image compression research, it should just be silently ignored.

Yes, I'm sure they take every single hill in holland into account :p

I'd call my iPhone 4 reasonably smart, but unfortunately they forgot to make it an actual phone, so I don't think the poll applies...

Also, they forgot to tell it about the existence of porn, and it still hasn't figured it out... So by human standards that would probably not be the "Genius" option.

And the part of the cable that was malfunctioning was the price?

(1) I know how to patch a Linux kernel and I own/want an iPad
(2) I know how to patch a Linux kernel and I don't want an iPad
(3) I don't know how to patch a Linux kernel and I own/want an iPad
(4) I don't know how to patch a Linux kernel and I don't want an iPad
(5) I'll buy one right after Cowboy Neal

I'm pretty sure some people here would be surprised...

I don't see how that proves any kind of point whatsoever. First, the reference to Orson Welles was not there so Jordanians should get it, it was there for the /. crowd. (not that there's no intersection). Second, the implication that Jordanians should know about the War of the Worlds scare was clearly a joke -- but wouldn't it have been useful if they had? Third, again, how are you not comparing apples and oranges? Give me the name of a Jordanian film director who was involved in a prank that, if known in the US would have been highly useful in avoiding an embarrasing similar occurrence there. Then we'll talk.

No, I didn't know who he was. Yes, I did look him up, as you might see from the fact that I referred to him as a political figure, not, say, a member of a Jordanian boy band. And no, I wasn't serious when I said you made the name up. There should really be an irony tag.