I knew I liked you! :) This is of course the only sensible solution. We have a couple of TV sets but no cable/satellite/etc. And the TVs are never switched on. In fact, yesterday I thought I might turn on the TV downstairs to play some movies off the server, and I just about choked on the dust.
I found them completely unsuitable for my matter transmitter. Kept introducing glitches on re-materialization (ugly!).
This won't work "as is". Each "local affilliate" can time shift (small amounts) the programming material. I'm not sure what the contractual arrangement is with the national broadcasters (i.e., how many of "their" commercials are they OBLIGATED to pass through). Obviously, local (commercial) content is also generated -- is the time for this set-aside "universally"? Or, does each affiliate inject them willy-nilly?
I.e., "knowledge of the future".
Note, however, the parallel: if your spam filter *unilaterally* decided to delete anything that it considered spam, you run the risk of a false positive causing you to lose a valid email message.
As such, most spam filters flag/divert the suspect message and give *you* the final say over whether or not it is "spam". This is a tacit admission by the filter designer that it is not "100% perfect".
A "commercial detector" would need the same ability -- i.e., at the very least, "memory" so you could reinject the erroneously silenced audio/video into the actual viewing stream in the event that it mistakenly declares a portion of "content" as "commercial".
The problem with that approach is you can't watch *movies*. Granted, many of *those* are "shit". But, some are actually entertaining. (watching video -- or listening to music -- on a PC is a crippling experience... as is "reading a book" with such a device)
Call me crippled then - I haven't watched a movie except on a PC (usually a laptop) for quite a few years now. And most of the reading I do now is ebooks on my phone (which I put in a ziploc bag to make it safe-ish for my favorite reading location, which is the bath).
I find doing anything at a PC other than work to be uncomfortable (physically, since the seated position most favorable to working is geared toward alert interaction -- not "pleasurable relaxation"). When flying, I will sometimes watch a movie on a PSP, iPod or whatever PMP I happen to have with me at the time.
We are currently arguing (negotiating?) the merits of installing a motorized projection screen "in the ceiling" to move to a DLP instead of a traditional "TV" (I don't like having electronic devices cluttering up the house and have been systematically re-engineering them out of the environment).
Unfortunately, I have not found any of the reading devices to yield a comparable experience to a paper book. Perhaps a generational thing but I suspect the harshness of most displays plays an important role. The same applies for PC's -- if I am faced with a 1,000 page datasheet, I'll run it off on one of the laser printers, read it and then discard (recycle) the pages thus "consumed". Anything more than a few page technical paper *or* a quick "consult" of something I have already read goes this route.
This is unfortunate as I am a voracious reader (30,000+pp annually, not counting "technical materials") and could benefit from keeping a library on a portable device (books take up a LOT of space and have a *lot* of mass!) -- though audio books (or, audio renderings of text) would be even better (reading while walking is next to impossible, for me).
Ah, but I should add that I never - at least not for ~8 years - sit down for an immersive "all I'm doing is watching a movie" experience. I am working on one computer (typically a laptop), and have another monitor behind or to one side of it playing the movie - I glance at it occasionally. For me, movies are background noise/side entertainment. I get much more absorbed in books than movies.
I find that as soon as I boot up the laptop and start playing movies, I fall asleep :) Still, nothing beats working on a boring PowerPoint presentation at 25,000 feet with a whisky in my hand. Truly I feel that I've joined the marketing club.
Ah, I would not claim that they do. The paper-book experience for me is most enjoyable with an old book, where the smell and texture of the paper are part of the reading experience. I have some very interesting late-1800s blackletter books printed around Philadelphia, for instance, that would not be fun to read electronically, because most of the enjoyment is in handling the artifact, not just understanding the text.
However, I have all my old favorites - Dickens, Verne, Wells, Thoreau, Forester, ... - electronically on my phone, where they're accessible whenever I need to escape for a while.
Heh. My boss is similar - send her a 1,000 page document electronically and she'll print it. I am the exact opposite - give me a 1,000 page document and I'll drop it into one of the office scanners, PDF it to myself, and throw away the original (our facility does not recycle paper).
Algorithmic TTS isn't very enjoyable for me. But I do have some audiobooks for the car. If you get a moment, go to
I treat movies similarly -- lying down on the floor with a laptop while glancing up at the screen from time to time.
Agreed. But having two or three hours "undisturbed" to consume a novel is a luxury I rarely have. Notable exceptions are long flights -- which makes my reliance on *paper* books even more annoying (there are only so many things you can cram into your pockets -- I never have "luggage" -- when travelling)
I find a book ideal in these situations. Usually I am traveling alone and gambling on having a good conversationalist in the seat nearby is a losing proposition. OTOH, immersing oneself in a book is easy to do (lighting is thankfully sufficient) and the constant drone of the engines helps tune out the activity around me.
Exactly! It is a far more intimate experience than the "confrontation" between a screen and reader/viewer.
I just can't deal with the screens. It tires my eyes too quickly and makes what should be an enjoyable experience into a tedious one. I consider reading to be one of the most delightfully
*selfish* experiences in which a person can indulge. So, I take pains to avoid anything that can "cheapen" that for me E.g., I have learned *not* to read while "on the can" (if you get caught up in the story, you end up with a *really* sore ass!) or "in the tub" (the "shriveled up" sensation of prolonged soaking can become painful after a couple of hours! :-/I will preserve the electronic copy of everything that I use/reference. However, to "digest" something, I want paper to touch and mark up and dog-ear, etc. I suspect it has historical throwbacks to how I "learned" to study... This would be consistent with other research I've seen regarding study/recall mechanisms.
I am not averse to "mechanical" TTS -- I've considerable exposure to speech synthesizers over the years (at one point, I could do a remarkable impersonation of a Votrax VS6.3!). Rather, my brain is not wired to process information "aurally". When digesting something in this manner, I have to close my eyes in order to process it -- this is not a good idea when walking along the roadside!
So, I stick with music -- selecting material with a cadence appropriate for my walking speed -- and let my brain wander on architectural issues (where you don't have to track/remember "detail"). I console myself that I'm only "wasting" an hour -- and, technically, the walking *is* beneficial :-/
Vladimir Vassilevsky expounded in news:bPWdncqtDsxwB1nRnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
You'll need some core memory for it. Yes, they really used core memory.
So wait for the "WTB: Core memory".
Warren
larwe expounded in news:fc9913b4-31af-4601-8cfc- snipped-for-privacy@j18g2000yqd.googlegroups.com:
The simplest way to do this is to probably just look at the audio level of commercials. Besides being extremely compressed, they tend to be obnoxiously loud.
Another trend that my wife and I have noticed, is that it seems many channels synchronize their commercials now. So flipping channels can be extremely frustrating.
Warren
The A/D converters that you need are called "video capture cards". They come in both PCI and USB varieties for around $100. If you're planning on building your own video capture card, start with a reference design from one of the manufacturers that produces video capture chips. If you're planning on building your own video capture chip (and sending the signal to where?) you probably won't finish your project before the end of the semester.
There is already a fairly mature commercial detector here:
I have no idea what you're talking about here. Sadly, I suspect neither do you.
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