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bgruber

Re:Java 17 / JDK 17: General Availability on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @06:57PM (#28532654)
Slated to be previewed in java 18 https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/405
Re:The Unicorn Tapestries on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @10:40PM (#25145969)
The tapestry in that image is from a different set (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_and_the_Unicorn). The set at the Cloisters is this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_of_the_Unicorn
Re:Bletchley Park Trust to undergo organisational restructure on Saturday August 22, 2020 @03:44PM (#24246725)
While you do have to know what you are looking for, and walk the long way around from the larger Bletchley Park site, the National Museum of Computing is still (as of last year) there with volunteers showing off the workings of a bunch of rebuilt computers including the Colossus. I can't recommend a visit, with a guided tour, enough. And you might as well visit Bletchley itself while you are there, which is a different experience, but still worth while.
Re:Siri, What Time Is It in London? on Friday May 22, 2020 @03:21PM (#23275866)
I had an issue with my own address on google maps (not as severe as this, it just had the wrong zipcode). After trying to correct it using the tools built in to maps 3 times and having my correction rejected every time, I tweeted my complaint @googlemaps, did a quick DM back and forth and it was fixed shortly thereafter.

(please do not take this as an endorsement of google maps support, merely an anecdote of what did work for me that I hope might help you)

Re:The Rise of Microsoft Visual Studio Code on Thursday December 06, 2018 @09:10PM (#18624531)
Re:Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @06:25PM (#17720093)
When going from JFK to somewhere else in queens, yellow cabs are supposed to get a voucher from the dispatcher that allows them to skip to the front of the line when they get back to the airport. The fact that he was surprised when you said Queens implies that the dispatcher failed to do this, which explains both his going back to the dispatcher and his annoyance.
Re:Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum on Monday August 08, 2016 @10:05AM (#12247830)
Re: daily standups. A lot of what the OP criticizes standups for is what I like about them. The content is only half of it. In my experience, it can be very easy for a team to cease feeling like one and instead become a loosely-coupled collection of independent contractors. 15-20 minutes a day of forced synchronous communication goes a long way to making you feel like you're actually on a team and therefore act like it, and is well worth the minimal time. This is especially true if the team isn't all in the same physical space. It can be disruptive, so scheduling it at the right time is important.

Of course, if you already have meeting overload, standup is going to feel like the worst.

it may not be possible to conceptualize all parts of a system simultaneously but that doesn't mean nobody can fully understand the system. A layer of abstraction isn't about not having to understand what's beneath it; it's a tool to aid in understanding.
Re:Docker for Mac and Windows Beta on Thursday March 24, 2016 @12:41PM (#11354281)
try again, and try doing a hard refresh (i needed to)
Re:Day of the Tentacle Remastered on Wednesday March 23, 2016 @08:43AM (#11343879)
i love DoTT, and this looks nice, but I'm disappointed that they don't seem to have given the same attention to the music they did to the visuals.
Re:The Synthesizer Academy on Monday February 22, 2016 @09:40PM (#11156081)
Another (much more expensive) "standard" reference for synthesis algorithms is Curtis Roads' "The Computer Music Tutorial" http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Music-Tutorial-Technology/dp/...
we had hailo. they pulled out of nyc.
Re:Netflix begins audio description for visually impaired on Monday April 20, 2015 @01:48AM (#9406382)
> Few people actually do this.

Is it everything? No. But according to WGBH's media access group, "All major studios now caption and describe all wide released features and nearly all independent studios caption all releases."[1] In 2014, that description was available on at least 88 films released on DVD or Blu-ray[2]. As for television, in the US, the networks and the 5 largest cable stations are required to air about 4 hours of programming a week with description[3].

My point is: The biggest problem is no longer a lack of described content, it's a lack of access, particularly through internet streaming services which have the potential to provide the most accessible experience of all.

[1] http://www.acb.org/adp/movies.html [2] http://www.acb.org/adp/dvds2014.html [3] http://www.fcc.gov/guides/video-description

Re:Netflix begins audio description for visually impaired on Monday April 20, 2015 @01:28AM (#9406334)
When I say that it seems no harder than adding more language tracks, what I'm talking about is adding pre-existing description tracks to Netflix. Of course producing new description is harder than adding existing language tracks.
Re:Netflix begins audio description for visually impaired on Sunday April 19, 2015 @02:07PM (#9404097)
Agreed that starting with their own content makes sense. As for the difficulty of adding existing AD assets, I'm unclear as to why this is any more difficult than adding more language tracks, something Netflix has been doing for years. As for procedural and contractual issues, advocates in the past have gone so far as to get the owners of the assets to agree to license to Netflix free of charge, to no avail.

It's sad that in the UK, VOD services are even further behind on accessibility. I do hope that Netflix is actively seeking out AD, but given their track record so far, I'll believe it when I see it.

Most of all though, I wanted to respond to one particular thing you said: "And for all the stick they get, Netflix actually leads the way in accessible content"

The lesson I've taken from this is that they don't get nearly enough, or perhaps the right kind of, stick. Advocates (and legislators in some countries) have been after Netflix on this issue for years, but what finally seems to have gotten Netflix to take action was when the mainstream media started picking up on the story. That action was swift and completely addressed the story that the media told. I therefore think it important to keep the story going in an attempt to ensure that Netflix keeps working on this problem.

Re:Netflix begins audio description for visually impaired on Sunday April 19, 2015 @12:47PM (#9403802)
a non-press-release version of this story, from the washington post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/04/14/ne...

this is the result of a multi-year fight by disability advocates, most notably Robert Kingett from the accessible Netflix project (https://netflixproject.wordpress.com/). What finally put them over the edge was the release of Daredevil, which made for a story the popular press finally bit: blind people can't enjoy a show about a blind superhero.

honestly, the fact that netflix remedied the situation so quickly once the PR situation got bad enough does not improve their reputation on this issue in my eyes. For a long time, I thought that maybe there was some great technical complication I just didn't understand that made this much harder than it seemed from the outside. Apparently that wasn't the case.

Also, as Kingett has said, "now comes the easy part." Adding description tracks on Netflix for all of the movies and TV shows for which they have been available all along.

Re:Samsung Global Privacy Policy - SmartTV Supplement on Sunday February 08, 2015 @11:05PM (#9019682)
The Samsung TVs do perform voice recognition through the mic on the TV as well as on the remote (well, at least mine, which is a couple years old, does). Even if you have the voice recognition setting turned off, the one on the remote still works by pressing the button.

The non-remote one does use a trigger word ("hi tv" by default) and it definitely does that processing locally (I know because i disconnected my TV from the internet and tried it). Basic commands ("channel up" etc) also worked. I don't know what else to try to figure out when it goes out to the internet. I'd also add that the camera/microphone have a very visible hardware off (which I keep off, because life is too much like 1984 already).

Again, this is a 2013 model.

Re:Introducing Google Cast for audio on Monday January 05, 2015 @10:52PM (#8842840)
if you're using android, i suggest you try bubbleupnp https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.... It doesn't seem to have the problems you describe, and it's also very happy to send stuff to a chromecast instead of a DLNA renderer. I could see how it's possible that your renderer is the cause of the problems, and that can be harder to replace since it's probably embedded in your TV (I've only used chromecast and samsung TVs).

I've actually had little to no trouble with DLNA overall, using among other things the ReadyDLNA server for a sparc readynas and rygel on ubuntu. i suppose it only takes one bad implementation among the components in your setup to ruin the whole experience, but i've been pleasantly surprised over the years how well it seems to work.

bubble doesn't have the best UI, but it's not bad, and there are other apps that are prettier (allcast comes to mind). in the past i would have totally agreed that most upnp controllers i had used had TERRIBLE usability, but most of those were embedded in A/V equipment (TVs, receivers), and what A/V equipment have you ever used with a good UI?

Re:Introducing Google Cast for audio on Monday January 05, 2015 @10:35PM (#8842793)
well, i guess that means miracast is done for.
Re:Hailo Re-Thunk on Sunday November 02, 2014 @08:01PM (#8548855)
i've been rooting for hailo, but in new york, the experience i've had the last 3 times i've tried to use it has been that despite an initial promise with a time estimate, they were unable to actually get me a car. sadly, no redesign is really going to address that.
Re:Strengthening 2-Step Verification with Security Key on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @02:07PM (#8488783)
redhat also makes a prettier version (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.fedorahost...). not as pretty as authy, but less sketchy w/ the pointless permissions. Also, authy cloud syncs your accounts which seems like a bad idea.
Re:Sonic Pi – A Music Live Coding Environment for Schools on Sunday September 21, 2014 @01:36PM (#8347720)
Before Max 5, making vst plugins with was very much supported, and was explicitly dropped in favor of Max for Live. Here's a blog post exploring some alternatives from when the drop in support was announced: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/05/cycling-74-ditches-plu...
Re:The end of neighbours on Monday August 11, 2014 @11:14PM (#8166437)
if this bothers you, meetup is hiring: http://www.meetup.com/jobs/

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