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Comment: "Google Play Music All Access" (Score 0) 29

by Animats (#43769511) Attached to: Google's Nexus Q Successor Hits the FCC

Wonder how long "Google Play Music All Access" will last? Compared to PlaysForSure (Microsoft), Zune Music Pass (Microsoft), and WalMart Music Download Service. Just having a big company behind it is no guarantee of success. Google has never had a successful consumer product that people had to pay for.

List of discontinued Google products.

Comment: Problem is, private becomes public (Score 1) 154

by SuperKendall (#43769215) Attached to: Head-mounted displays / sensors like Google Glass are:

How extraordinarily douchey. You are most likely recorded by hundreds of video cameras every day.

I agree that spraying someone with something that could blind them is not really acceptable - in fact it's more assault than "douchey".

However you have to remember these people are mostly recording NOT in public. Yes in public video cameras are everywhere. But then you got to a party at someone's house or a booth in a restaurant, now you are not nearly so much "in public" - but there are glasses users there. What if you are on a date with someone wearing them, do you not have a reason to expect your entire date would not be recorded?

That's the real problem, is that Glasses wearers extend the practical notion of what is "public" to anywhere they go. I mean, how long before the auto-recorded segments are subject to subpoena because something happened at a party?

So I wouldn't spraypaint people wearing them, but I don't think it's a good idea to wear them most places you would go.

Comment: Re:Dorky (Score 3) 154

by SuperKendall (#43769143) Attached to: Head-mounted displays / sensors like Google Glass are:

That is the best summary I have yet seen as to the problems someone who is inherently a technologist can see with the product.

The other aspect of this I find troubling in a consumer product, is that SO MUCH money is spent getting rid of glasses - Lasick, contacts, etc. - that I can't see how they can find much of a market that wants bulky things you have to wear on your head all the time.

Even he watches like Pebble, I can see some appeal to them for normal people even though I don't want one myself (got rid of watches years ago). But Google Glasses, I cannot see the appeal outside of a very tiny minority.

Comment: Why is it odd? (Score 2) 73

by SuperKendall (#43769111) Attached to: John McAfee's Belize Home Burns To Ground

It's an odd choice of words from a man whom the Belize police found suspicious

Police try to frame MCaffe, he escapes.

Next best thing - burn down his house.

I failed to see why this does not greatly support his narrative of what happened. He's not even there to burn it down himself...

I mean, lets say a corrupt government was after you. Why do you think it unlikely they would burn down your house after you crossed them?

Comment: "Social" is a lose (Score 5, Insightful) 81

by Animats (#43768681) Attached to: Yahoo Board Approves a $1.1B Pricetag For Tumblr

Despite all the noise, almost nobody is making money in "social". Even Facebook isn't very profitable, despite its size. The business strategy in "social" seems to be to give the service away for a few years, build a following, then crank up the density of ads until the users get fed up. Worked for Myspace, right?

Facebook traffic peaked about a year ago. Twitter is now exploring the user's threshold of pain with "sponsored tweets". This is robocalling in another form.

Basic truth: ads with search results are useful to users and effective for advertisers, because they're presented when the user is actively looking for something relevant. Ads on "social" are merely annoying because the user is looking at what their friends are doing.

Comment: Arduno fanboy has been heard from (Score 1) 23

by Animats (#43768619) Attached to: Arduino Branches Out, With a Plug-and-Program Robot

OK, a fanboy from the Arduno cult has been heard from.

Back in 1979, Milton Bradley introduced the Big Trak. This was the first mass-market battery-motor-wheels-CPU toy 'bot. Since then, there have been more machines in that category and slightly above it, like Lego Mindstorms.

It's been three decades since the Big Trak. There hasn't been much progress above that level in mass-market devices. A Roomba is only slightly smarter than a BigTrak. Mobile phones, on the other hand, have advanced somewhat since the late 1970s. R/C toys have become much better, but most of that reflects improved batteries, and the good stuff is still at a rather high price point.

There's a new BigTrak from 2010. It has an optional camera and a WiFi connection, and will connect to an iPhone. It has the basic hardware to be an intelligent autonomous vehicle. But it's no smarter than the original BigTrak. If you want something as dumb as a BigTrak, you can buy one of these. No assembly required. Ages 6 and up.

Here's what's possible today at the hobbyist level: an autonomous paintball robot. Runs a maze and hits targets. Uses a Kinect as a sensor. Has 2D SLAM; builds a map of its environment. That's what new products should be doing.

Comment: Re:You cannot vote out government (Score 1) 194

All government entities were new at one point. Your statement would suggest that all all government entities are a bad idea.

The evidence is in; it's more true than not. You sit on the wrong side of this very obvious fence what with the IRS being used as a hammer by the Democrats.

if we accept that there is violence then it should follow that there will be one organization that is capable of more violence than any other.

That sounds like a fucking horrible idea. I'll end this with one word:

Nazis.

It should not follow or be desired that there be one group more able to deal violence than another, the best situation is balanced competing groups.

USENET would be a better laboratory is there were more labor and less oratory. -- Elizabeth Haley

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