Genius Podcasting

Some partial backups of posts from the past (Feb, 2004)
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vicdan
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Post by vicdan »

Dan Rowden wrote:There's something oddly Ukranian about that post...
haha
Do you know what Sib does there, Victor? That is, what his academic field is?
Plasma physics. Specifically, plasma fluid dynamics, IIRC.

I just looked at UNH physics department, though, and I can't find him. I would have to check my old mail to determine his RL name.
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Shahrazad
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Post by Shahrazad »

Awesome.
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Diebert van Rhijn
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Post by Diebert van Rhijn »

Dan, David, Kevin, FYI

The 'Listen Now' popup at the site does not function on my Apple OSX system. I do have MS Mediaplayer installed but the web plug-in functionality (with FLip4MAC) is limited, often it just doesn't work on sites including this one. I'd suggest you return to some Flash based player like the one you had so less people have problems with this.

Downloading the mp3 works fine though so it doesn't seem like a big issue.

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Dan Rowden
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Post by Dan Rowden »

I had a feeling this would be an issue when Kevin suggested the pop-up script option. If there isn't an addition that can be made to that script to overcome it I guess we'll have to look at some stats as to what % of the audience may be forced to download the file first and decide if it's worth going back to a Flash method.
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Diebert van Rhijn
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Post by Diebert van Rhijn »

Dan Rowden wrote:I had a feeling this would be an issue when Kevin suggested the pop-up script option. If there isn't an addition that can be made to that script to overcome it I guess we'll have to look at some stats as to what % of the audience may be forced to download the file first and decide if it's worth going back to a Flash method.
I'm using a Flash player in a popup elsewhere. It's almost the same as you're using now but without any reference to Microsoft elements. I've to add that your pop-up in itself does work and a player is presented but it just doesn't play anything for me.

code sample:
<html>
<body>
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="osc_player.swf width="193" height="265">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" />
</object>
</body>
</html>
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Jamesh
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Post by Jamesh »

I could easily have guessed Diebert would have an Apple.
I suggest you ignore this issue. It is the cost of being in a minority.
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vicdan
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Post by vicdan »

I have a Mac with Flip4Mac installed, and it works fine for me. I do use Firefox, that could be the difference.
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Diebert van Rhijn
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Post by Diebert van Rhijn »

Thanks for the input, Victor.

It made me take another good look and found out the weird thing that in the recent past, by installing a newer version Microsoft Media Player for OSX, an extra plugin was added to Firefox that overruled the Flip one, some of the times at least.

This lead to the weird result that by un-installing the web-plugin from Microsoft I can play Microsoft content in webpages again.

This insanity is only one extra reason for me to ask Dan to use a Flash player instead. :)

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Dan Rowden
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Post by Dan Rowden »

I'll wait and see how much feedback I get on the issue before making any decisions about player methods. I could end up employing both methods.
Tharan
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Re: Cognitive degeneration

Post by Tharan »

vicdan wrote:I saw this and just had to reply...
Jamesh wrote:That was quite an interesting interview with Pearce- re the affects of TV, computers and so on on kids.

"Researchers found that twenty years ago young people could distinguish between 360 different shadings of a single color category like red or blue. Today it's down to about 130. That's over a 2/3 loss of their ability to detect shadings of color."

I don't know if has exaggerated or misquoted scientific investigations (statistic lies), but I'll assume he isn't. Stuff like this is a worry. I watch a hell of a lot of TV, movies and computer shit, and noticed that I get more out of a good anime film than, than most normal films these days.
I think stuff like that indicates that something is going on we don't understand, and that something is not the mere fact of watching too much TV.

There is this interesting thing called Flynn Effect -- it's the fact that IQ worldwide has been steadily, slowly going up (though it may have plateaued lately). By now, the IQ has gone up around a full standard deviation since the inception of the IQ tests, though the number varies by country.

What I suspect we may be observing is that the distribution of specialization between different parts of the brain is changing. What generally happens is that during development, brain works in a very competitive way -- the sections which receive lots of stimuli basically take over the neurons which receive less, they can take over entire cortex segments.

So, if I had to make a guess, I would say that we aren't observing simply sensory or cognitive degradation in the young generation. What we are observing, I suspect, is the change in the brain which amounts to giving up the ability to, say, distinguish super-fine color shades, but gains the ability to cope with absolutely massive information streams. I suspect it's not a simple degradation but a trade-off, and one we might make willingly if we understood what is being traded for what.

P.S. Sirbytor works at the University of NH IIRC, and I can dig up his name if I have to.
I agree with this and have observed the same thing. Children live in a different world than the one that was designed for them to inhabit. It might show in various tests as "failings" on traditional subjects, but the same kid who cannot do long division has finely-tuned motor skills and a fantastic imagination due to media input and interaction.
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