XKCD Improving the Internet ... Yet Again 204
netbuzz writes "Comic creator Randall Monroe suggested in a recent xkcd strip that YouTube comments would be better — or, more precisely, less idiotic — if only those posting them were forced to hear their words read aloud first. Well, YouTube has gone and made this "audio preview" a reality, albeit an optional one. And, it's not the first time that xkcd has contributed to the betterment of the Internet, as those who are familiar with last year's "Internet census" and its use of a Hilbert curve may remember."
Interesting concept... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Insightful)
Correction. The people who need this feature are likely to use it to get the computer to say naughty things to them. Especially if there is an option to have the voice be the woman with a British accent used on some GPS systems.
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Funny)
Correction accepted. But, I'm more inclined to believe that it's actually an American actress (from Iowa or something) doing her imitation of what she thinks an English accent is--a grotesque hybrid of Received Pronunciation and Cockney.
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I've always been amused by how American accents are frequently portrayed by British actors on the BBC. They are generally done with a barking Texas accent as if they had seen one too many episodes of Dallas growing up.
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Yep, that's sounds about right.
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Hey, I am from Iowa you insensitive clod...
I really am from Iowa, and according to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] so are these people:
Tom Arnold
Lara Flynn Boyle
Terry Farrell
John Getz
David Anthony Higgins
Mary Beth Hurt
Ashton Kutcher
Cloris Leachman
Ron Livingston
Kate Mulgrew
Donna Reed
Brandon Routh
John Wayne
Elijah Wood
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Funny)
I really am from Iowa, and according to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] ...
I just added God and Steve Forbes, too.
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Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Funny)
It's encouraging to see that people can and do escape Iowa, but that probably doesn't help your point.
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Funny)
Pro-tip: When listing famous people from your state, don't lead with Tom Arnold.
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Hey, he's a big guy - and, he's good with knots!
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:4, Funny)
And James T. Kirk. He only works in outer space.
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Seriously, though - I love Iowa, I love corn :)
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Doesn't Capt'n Kirk live there now?
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Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Weeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllsssshhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(pounds fists on ground in despair)
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Actually, I rather like the idea of it being a lower class Scottish accent. Especially if she sounds pissed to the gills and says "shite" a lot.
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Slashdot, cmon: It's been 4 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
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Nah, I want an awesome chav accent to say naughty things to me like. "Wot u look'n' at twat!" and so forth. :-)
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It's okay to call it a 'British accent'. Surely you realize that many Scottish and Welsh people speak with this accent too; and many English people do not.
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Funny)
That would be the Factory Standard GPS Voice (Female) [uncyclopedia.org].
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:5, Funny)
It's done in a Microsoft Sam-like voice. Poking around the site doesn't seem to reveal any options for changing the voice, but on the bright side the system is really easy to use. When posting a comment you have the text field and three buttons under it: First "Audio preview," then "Post Comment," and "Discard." Hopefully they'll change "Post Comment" to "Post" so that Audio preview will be the largest button, causing the quick and the lazy to sometimes accidentally hear their comment. (=
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I think Slashdot's approach with the quick-reply AJAXified version is fine: preview and cancel, with two useless buttons that nobody uses. And after you preview, you still usually have to wait about 15 minutes to post the comment because you type at a rate of more than two words per hour.
Audio previews should really wipe out all but the true extremes - only the most determined idiots and geniuses will actually submit their comments. Whether that's a good thing or not remains to be seen.
Re:Interesting concept... (Score:4, Funny)
I was going to say the mandatory voice would be a pre-pubescent boy, shrieking loudly. If you can stand what you're saying with that coming over the speakers, it's probably exceptionally intelligent and informed.
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I'm so torn... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:I'm so torn... (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe most of us would agree that nothing from idle belongs on the front page.
Re:I'm so torn... (Score:5, Funny)
To be fair, I believe most of those would agree that nothing on Slashdot belongs on the front page.
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It can be fixed. You just go into your preferences (you have a user account, so it's available to you) and untick "idle" from the sections. Not that frickin' hard. Hell, it's easier than posting a comment is.
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"I'm too lazy to log in, but not lazy enough to not comment or just not click on the fucking article"?
Nice.
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It'll still be in the RSS feed, with no indication that it's an idle article until you reach that awful white on green.
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Which is how I get to my Slashdot articles... I don't suppose there's a way to change RSS preferences, is there?
My main gripe is that it's in the RSS feed.
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Hitler doesn't just love your favourite band - he loves all music, all forms of art, your mother and all computing technology apart from the iPhone. I discovered this while using a man in the middle attack on an email conversation between himself and Elvis.
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Ah, yes. We call him Little Bobby Tables...
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The thing I dislike about xkcd is the cringeworthy lameness of it, which crosses the line (as this site often does) from 'geeky but interesting' to 'jesus, I hope your nerdiness doesn't rub off on me'.
I disagree, although I do see where you're coming from as this is pretty much exactly how I feel about User Friendly [userfriendly.org]. XKCD does have it's slightly lame/cringe moments but for the most part it's inspired observational comedy imho.
I'm impressed! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Completely on topic, since this is idle and we are talking about pants.
What does "idle is pants" mean? I laugh every time I see it, but have no clue to its meaning.
Re:I'm impressed! (Score:5, Informative)
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Note to self: Never say "My junk is in my pants" to my British friends.
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Re:I'm impressed! (Score:5, Funny)
As an American, I always had a problem with this expression because I thought, what's a Brit to do when someone is wearing pants that are rubbish? Are they to say, "my good fellow, those pants are completely pants!" But then someone corrected me and noted that they would say "those trousers are completely pants." I felt much better after that conversation.
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Trousers=Pants in the UK. And yes, you can mod me informative.
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Will do!
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This comes from the British "pants" which is short for "underpants". Which I guess is kind of weird etymologically, but since we didn't call trousers "pants" in the first place it doesn't matter to us
Taco's Sig (Score:2)
"Pants are still optional, but recommended for you." ~ CmdrTaco's Sig
I thought it had something to do his sig in a way I couldn't quite understand. Thanks for clearing that up Brit folk! I feel rather daft now.
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JFGI? [google.co.uk]
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I figured it out.
click the triangle and the front of the tags.
PS: I apologies for my previous post since it is not true since we can still tag this story: idleispants
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Someone clue me in here. It doesn't matter in any
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so he just followed the example set by our leaders
and silenced his critics.
Hey now, Obama isn't president *yet*, don't call him our leader. You know, the guy who threatened to revoke the FCC charters for many stations that ran negative ads - that guy?
No good (Score:5, Insightful)
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I stand corrected, suxzorz does in fact get parsed and spoken.... That's sad...
Of course... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Informative)
That's a pretty bad example if you ask me, given that both sites were created by the same person.
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Re:Of course... (Score:5, Funny)
How pointless. It would be more accurate to simply have a text file which reads "no".
Re:Of course... (Score:4, Funny)
Life imitates XKCD (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Life imitates XKCD (Score:5, Funny)
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Why, because he might wet his pants and cry like a little girl? Why else would he push the "tough guy" image, if he wasn't a scared little wuss?
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How, he's like a Dragon. Can you subdue him with the flat of your blade?
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Katana? That's clearly just a special-order XXL shaving razor.
Now if they could just get the order right (Score:2)
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Why should everyone else's defaults be configured to what you think is sane?
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And Youtube comments, as well as blog posts, are often discussions and people replying to each other. Because it breaks up the logical order of discussion. Why is top posting bad?
I have to ask... (Score:5, Insightful)
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if only... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:if only... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, then people, would realize, how their comment wheezes, when it is full, of unnecessary commas.
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Re:if only... (Score:5, Funny)
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Wait a minute... (Score:5, Funny)
Shades of Soylent Green (Score:2)
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First Impressions (Score:2)
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To call the comments we're talking about "communication" is an insult to everyone reading this. (I mean, at least you guys can read.)
pot kettle black (Score:2)
Also (Score:2)
Comment on Daft Punk videos (Score:2)
Try these:
Workit, better, faster, stronger.
Great (Score:2)
<3 xkcd though.
Opinion of Idle (Score:2)
idle.slashdot.org reminds me of CNN's "half hour news hour", which was a pale imitation of The Daily Show. idle is like a pale imitation of fark. Now with even narrower text entry boxes!
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Half Hour News Hour was FOX not CNN.
And yes, it was awful.
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Already done. [factcheck.org]
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(...And I shouldn't ignore PolitiFact [politifact.com]...)
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The phrase is "case in point" [thefreedictionary.com].
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Ex.
I'm teh suxxorz. wen he told me, i wuz liek: zOMG dat's totally kewl. I nevr thot u