July 2001 - Social

Re: whois alug_social_members was Re: [alug social] Great website idea
by MJ Ray 19 Jul '01

19 Jul '01

Yes, I'm here in digest.

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stupid me!
by Adam Bower 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

Hi all, just thought you might like to hear of my stupidity! I have just spent 30 minutes saying lots of swear words as my new scanner (USB Epson 640) didn't work, I had gone through the configs a million times etc. and it should all of worked. Stupid me forgot to check the permissions on /dev/usbscanner as I had to create the device node by hand! a quick chmod 666 /dev/usbscanner and it of course now all works lovely! and yes I am going to change the permissions to something a little more secure in a second. I also have gimp-print working well with my Epson Photo 700 inkjet printer so I am well chuffed, I now have a linux gfx design workstation! Anyway does anyone know of any good books on the gimp? I have been toying with the idea of getting 'grokking the gimp' but I am unsure of which books on the gimp are any good and don't want to waste precious money. Adam -- This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed Adam

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Re: [alug social] Great website idea
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

> errrm, I un-nominate myself as I don't even know if I'll be in the UK for the next meeting... OK, I nominate Jo ;-) How about everyone who can make the next meeting submit their names over the next week, we compile a list similar to IRC method, and work from there? We'd need to post this on main alug list, of course. jen-virgo

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You are going ______ today
by David Freeman 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

Saw this article on the bbc > my comments indented. Smart dashboard watches while you drive One day you might have another passenger behind this By BBC News Online technology correspondent Mark Ward Almost since cars have had back seats, motorists have been plagued by the hectoring advice of back seat drivers. But soon car drivers could be praising rather than cursing those nagging voices as IBM scientists develop an artificial passenger to help drowsy drivers stay awake and on the road. > its called resting often or public transport, why reinvent the wheel? The artificial passenger can analyse speech for signs of sleepiness and is programmed to ask startling questions to provoke drivers in wakefulness. > How startling? "My god your your ugly?" If all else fails the dashboard will squirt cold water into the face of a driver to keep them concentrating on the road ahead. > That'll go down well with the leather seats! And what about people with contact lenses? Sleep signs New Scientist reports that Wlodek Wlodzimierz and Dimitri Kanevsky at IBM's Thomas J Watson lab in New York are creating the software surrogate that will lurk in a modified dashboard monitoring what a driver is doing. > how long till we get this into windows? "I'm sorry I think you must be falling asleep visiting sites like that one, try this MS site instead!" Drivers that nod off while at the wheel are thought to be responsible for causing up to 30% of road traffic accidents according to figures from the Transport Research Laboratory in Crowthorne, Berkshire quoted by New Scientist. > ooh quotes of quotes, nice. The artificial passenger will work out if a driver is in danger of falling asleep by initiating conversations and monitoring responses. The conversational cues are created by consulting a profile of a drivers likes and dislikes stored by the smart software. > Boy would it be buggered if you get a nerd behind the wheel? can we get computers which are capable of holding a debate on the merits on OS's? Responses to provocative questions by the artificial passenger are analysed to see if your response is slow or the intonation of the speech is slurred, perhaps reflecting how fatigued a driver has become. > And If I ignore it, its sprays me with water, "You will talk to me" And people who have speach impedements? don't sound to great a tech to me? As well as listening to responses the passenger uses a camera to watch the mouth of a driver and fine tune its speech recognition system. > And If I am deaf? or unable to speak? what happens on the way back from getting a filling! If a response indicates a driver is getting sleepy the artificial passenger has several options available to rouse them. It could wind down a window to let cold air circulate, sound a buzzer and perhaps even use a spray to dash cold water into the face of a driver to wake them. > See above comment on contact lenses, also what if its raining/snowing outside? Other possible actions include changing radio station, or telling jokes in a bid to jerk a drowsing driver into wakefulness. > "OI I was listening to that" <distracted changing station back> crunch. As for the jokes, wont be funny they will be far to PC! The two scientists are reportedly talking to car makers about adopting the artificial passenger. "If this is something people want, it's doable within three to five years," Dr Wlodzimierz told New Scientist. > oh bugger, we're doomed. Thanks D ===== -------------------- "We all know Linux is great... it does infinite loops in 5 seconds." Linus Torvalds __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

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Re: [alug social] Great website idea
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

Adam B wrote: >Nah the easiest way to do food would be get people to nominate the food >master, I nominate Adam.

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Re: [alug social] Great website idea
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

David Freeman wrote:>I know I say this alot, but do you **really** need to use a >database for it? is that overkill? That's not the point - it is a learning exercise!

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Re: [alug social] stupid me!
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

>just thought you might like to hear of my stupidity! I love hearing about other people's stupidity - it makes me realise I am not alone.

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Re: [alug social] Great website idea
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

I'll keep it as fiction, so it will only include great works such as "Bill: His Life and Acheivements" and "the Great Gatesy". Snigger.

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Re: [alug social] Great website idea
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

>Hmmmmm, even better. Microsoft products are *far* better than anything >that the crappy unix and open source communitys could produce. I would of >course use Microsoft products exclusively but as I am poor I can't afford >to buy this superior software so am stuck with these crap open source >things. I would really like to use Microsoft as the applications and >capabilitys of the systems far exceed that of *any* other companys >products ever.... Adam - that's a useless start to a thread war, you know we all agree with you. I mean, there's no dispute there really. Ho hum. David - have you worked out how to do the bbq thing yet? Perhaps you should get one person to bring all the food, splitting the costs between everyone. Don't ask me or you'll all be having beanburgers........

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Re: [alug social] Great website idea
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 18 Jul '01

18 Jul '01

Martyn wrote: >That way, you have third party people ensuring that the >opinion of the book is going to be worth reading. Well, a book database is something I've always meant to do for personal use simply because I have a brain like a seive. So I spend ages with furrowed brow trying to recall the name of an author of a book I remember loving at the time but now can't remember anything about. This would just be doing it publicly so that other people can interact, like the web page embodiment of meeting someone and saying "I read this great book, by so-and-so" and they reply "oh, you must read such and such". It was more comments as to what the book content contains rather than personal opinions I was planning. (Although whether or not a book is worth reading is personal opinion i suppose...) David - nope, this would be connected to a database rather than a static list. I need more coffee, I'm not making any sense............................

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