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Submission + - Autoplay is Vile

whisper_jeff writes: For some odd reason, Facebook has decided to burn user's bandwidth with autoplay video clips rather than leaving the user to make a choice whether or not to click should they wish to watch a video (because one click must be hard...). Not wishing to be outdone, Slashdot has decided to jump on the autoplay bandwagon with possibly the most useless autoplay ever — audio clips that robotically read the content of the page you're reading. Now, it may just be an April Fools joke but, if not, short of disabling the "feature" or providing an easy way for users to turn it off, this will be the straw that breaks this camel's back and will be the end of me being a regular Slashdot reader. And, if it's an April Fools joke, it's moronic because, for the remainder of the day, I won't be reading Slashdot because, quite frankly, autoplay media is just that annoying. And we all know driving away readers is good for business...

Comment My Kingdom... (Score 1) 2

My kingdom for a method to TURN THIS THE FUCK OFF!!

Seriously, do these assholes want me to stop coming to Slashdot because this could well be the straw that breaks this camel's back. The quality of content and discussions has damn near bottomed out and now I am forced to listen to this shit, burning my bandwidth? Trust me, that won't last, one way or another...

Submission + - What THE FUCK is up with autoplay on story pages? 2

ScuzzMonkey writes: I'm not here often enough to bitch about all the other poorly-considered site changes that are apparently in the works, but the autoplay audio summary? Not cool. Maybe this is the April Fools Joke this year, I don't know, but if so, it's not funny, particularly with no readily apparent means of disabling it.

If there is nothing else showing how much this site is changing for the worse under new management, there you go. There are some transgressions that every geek knows to be verboten. Audio playing automatically when you hit a web page is one of them. Bring on the blink tags if you want to try for retro funny.

Comment Re:Google's Firing of a Recruiter Made Jobs Smile( (Score 0, Flamebait) 148

Really? :) now equals "evil smiley"?

Since when did :) mean _EVIL_ smiley? When did this change happen? Last I heard it just mean "smile" and I've been on the internet a LONG time so you'd think I'd have heard that it had changed.

Oh. Wait. I see. You're trying to make Jobs sound more malicious by adding that little descriptor (while omitting any such ominous descriptors for Schmidt nor any Google people).

Biased much? :)

Submission + - Facebook Acquires Oculus for $2b (oculusvr.com)

trawg writes: Facebook have just announced that they're acquiring VR headset maker Oculus for $2b. Oculus have made an announcement explaining that the two companies are "culturally aligned with a focus on innovating". They go on to say "we want to contribute to a more open, connected world; and we both see virtual reality as the next step".

Comment Re: approximately the resolution of an adult eye (Score 1) 217

I understand the point you're trying to make but, in this case, it's not accurate. What you referenced were different things. What we were discussing are not different things.

I've corrected several people in this thread who have confused DPI and LPI because one is image resolution and the other is halftone print resolution. The two are different things. They are related in so much as they are involved in the quality of a final printed piece but they are different things.

DPI, PPI, and SPI are the same thing all measures of image resolution. They mean dots, pixels or samples per inch but that all is the same thing. They are a measure of how many units per inch are used to make up a digital image. They all mean image resolution.

A better computer example would be to discuss how RAM and Memory are two terms used to describe the same thing. It isn't quite the same thing but it's close enough to use as a parallel.

Comment Re: approximately the resolution of an adult eye @ (Score 1) 217

LPI is lines per inch, and is used only when talking about text.

No, it isn't. It's also used to denote the resolution of a halftone screen.

Printer resolution and image resolution (DPI -- dots per inch) are the exact same thing.

Your desktop printer and the press that I send jobs to are not the same thing. Don't confuse the two.

Comment Re: approximately the resolution of an adult eye @ (Score 1) 217

300dpi for print is actually a lot lower than 300ppi for displays. Each dot for print is, depending on your technology, either black, cyan, magenta or yellow, or one of a very small (typically 4-16) shades of these colours.

You are confusing DPI (image resolution) and LPI (effectively printer resolution). They are not the same thing.

Comment Re: approximately the resolution of an adult eye @ (Score 5, Informative) 217

For an adult human, 400-600 is about the limit of what we can detect.

No.

For most average human adults, the limit is about 300 dpi.

Speaking as a graphic designer with over two decades of experience, there is a reason that graphic designers have always targeted a print resolution of 300 dpi for colour images.

How 400-600 entered the conversation is beyond me. The percentage of people who can visually tell the difference between a 300 dpi output and anything higher than that is very, very small. The number of people who can spot the difference at 400+ is not even a consideration for discussion. I'm sure there are some who can but don't even vaguely think that they in any way represent the norm.

Any manufacturer who targets a screen resolution above about 350 or so is just targeting big numbers for the marketing benefit - the average user will never be able to tell the difference.

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