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kalelblogdanove · 8 years

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What It Takes To Be A Voice Actor REDUX

In 2015 I wrote a blog about what it takes to be a successful voice actor. I have since come to feel that I was perhaps a little too discouraging in tone. There are plenty of voices in the world to say “no” to your dreams. I don’t wish to be one of them. So here is my previous article on the matter, re-released and annotated to reflect my current thinking.

Old essay in plain text or bold. New thoughts struck throughstruck through and replaced with italics.

I’m going to offer two kinds of advice. First I will touch on passion, work ethic and other similarly rarefied intangibles—the habits and the mentality required to succeed. Only then will I move on to some nuts-and-bolts advice—the stuff you can take to the bank… or the booth, as the case may be.

A few caveats:

I am not a voice actor.

I have directed many wonderful voice actors. I know a lot about what “the biz” is looking for, and I know what I myself am looking for in a good voice actor. But I have done very little professional acting.

This is art, not science.

This is an art form, and like any art form it is squishy. There are no hard-and-fast rules, just guidelines, and the guidelines are riddled with exceptions. Like…keeping your eyes open is a basic rule of effective stand-up comedy, right? Well, tell that to Gilbert Gottfried or Mitch Hedburg. The same goes for VO—a certain amount of wiggle room is inherent.

Some people might disagree with me.

That’s okay! My opinion is subjective, and the industry is always in flux. There are lots of different opinions out there, and if you are a professional and you have one, please send it to me so I can make it available here, and incorporate it into my own understanding.

There is no magic bullet.

It is not a 1+1=you’rethenextNolanNorth scenario. You can follow all these guidelines and still find yourself working at The Cheesecake Factory for years. There is no shame in that. A big ingredient to success is luck. The other major ingredient is persistence and that brings me to…

Part 1: This Is A Very Hard Job To Get

Before you decide to become a voice actor it is essential that you have an understanding of what it will take to break in.

You must love it enough to spend as many as five years breaking in, working other jobs, spending money on classes and demos, and being relentlessly hardworking and self-improving, without landing a single gig. Some people waltz right in. Others have to batter down brick walls. You must be prepared to do the latter. If you are not, do yourself a favor and pick a different career.

Kal 2017: Actually, try this career. ALWAYS try to follow your dreams. You and you alone will know if you’ve had enough and want to do something else. Might take a month, might take five years, might be never. Pick the career you love, don’t let anyone tell you not to.

Let’s revisit those words “relentlessly hardworking and self-improving.”

Throughout your career, but particularly when you are breaking in, you will be competing against the very best actors in the world. You might be talented to begin with, but that is not enough. You MUST MUST MUST push yourself to be better, ALWAYS. I guarantee that your competition will.

Kal 2017: This remains true, but I temper it by saying do not worry if you are not the best to start with. Skills can be built over time. The most important thing is that you have a fun and happy life doing something you enjoy. You can actually hear the sound of stress in a performance, and it’s not a good sound. Try to relax and have fun!

This means acknowledging early-on that you always have something to learn, and then being proactive about learning it. Read books, and take classes.

TAKE CLASSES!

Take voice acting classes, take stage acting classes, take directing classes, take breath work, take improv, take puppetry, take singing lessons. If you can, take an animation class or two. Since you’re going into audio, you might try to learn a bit about audio engineering/editing.

Kal 2017: Side note on this last idea. It is a great idea, if you are moving to Hollywood to do something fun and crazy, to pick up a production/postproduction skill like film/video editing, audio engineering/mixing/mastering, AfterEffects/graphics etc. These disciplines are a great and generally flexibly scheduled way to make a good living while you try to break into the job you’re passionate about.

Why? Because people love to shoot and record, but hate to edit/do post. Post work is an art, but it is also a trade, like plumbing—labor that HAS to get done before anything can be released. If you can get good and fast at this, and you don’t mind spending hours working on reality TV, web content, and infomercials, you can make some sweet bank. You’ll often be your own boss, and even when you’re not, postproduction people tend to be the most chill. Plus you’ll likely make some great contacts within your chosen field as well.

For instance, you can work at a recording studio, and meet voice actors, directors, and producers who have already broken in. If you do an awesome job with a good attitude, and help them be successful in their endeavors, they will be predisposed to say “yes” down the road when you ask for that audition, that recommendation to an agent, that free coaching session.

Believe me, anything and everything related to performance or art will be valuable, even if it is not VO-based.

I want to give a particular shout out to Shakespearean acting techniques, particularly those pioneered by Kristen Linklater. Almost all the best actors I have known have a serious grounding in that material.

Kal 2017: This is a great time to recommend some LA coaches who are awesome. I really like:

Bill Holmes @vodoctor

Andrea Romano

Kalmenson & Kalmenson @kalmenson

The Voice Actor’s Network with Hope Levy @hopelevysings

JB Blanc @thejbblanc — Side note about this one. In addition to being a fantabulous actor, director, and coach, JB is also one of the leading experts on dialects. If you are international and looking to lose your accent, JB is the guy. If you are looking to acquire an accent for a role, JB is the guy.

And of course, me @kalelbogdanove

I’ll try to update with some reliable classes/coaches in other cities.

Also, remember to take movement classes like dance or martial arts. I know it sounds odd, since you will not be physically seen by anyone, but having an understanding of your body’s kinesthetics will improve your work.

Brian T. Delaney (Male Soul Survivor in Fallout 4) isn’t just one of the most physical voice actors I know, he is one of the most physical actors I know, full-stop. This does two things for him. First, it gives him technical control in the booth—he almost never goes off-mic, or hits the stand, or rustles his clothing (which is astonishing, given how much he moves around). Second, it invests all his game work with a sense of space and a sense of place—a layer and texture of reality that could not sound less like a guy reading a line—and his combat work in particular with a breathtaking degree of authenticity.

In short… learn how to move.

“BUT I’M ALREADY AWESOME,” you say.

Or, “I’ve already done a little voice work,” or some other excuse. Doesn’t matter. All the best working voice actors take classes constantly. They do not rest on their laurels. The best directors take classes too, including me. (He said with pompous implications.)

If you can’t afford classes, form a group of like-minded actors and practice together regularly. Watch videos on YouTube. Make your continuing education a priority.

The great thing is, these classes are FUN! You’ll meet like-minded artists! You’ll make great projects! You’ll feel impressive and confident as your abilities grow and grow! Hell, you might get laid.

The point is that while the waiting and the day jobs are can be grueling, the work itself is fun. And if you don’t find it fun… do yourself a favor and pick a different career.

Kal 2017: Again, you’ll know. It’s okay to have a bad class/day/week/month. Stick to it! You can do it! Remain open and willing to grow, and you will likely succeed.

Part 2: This Is A Very Hard Job To Do

Voice over looks easy but it is VERY DIFFICULT—particularly in games. Take a moment and go on a journey of imagination with me:

Imagine four hours at a time in a booth that is as silent as The Surface of The Moon, unless the director has the talk-back open.

Imagine making seventy major emotional adjustments an hour. (By contrast, on-camera actors make between 2 and 10 per DAY.)

Imagine formulating a performance, delivering it, absorbing a note, reformulating, and redelivering in as little as 30 seconds.

Now imagine doing that 300-600 times in four hours.

This can be extremely tough. You must be able to clear as many as 150 lines an hour, with an average of 70. (Animation is closer to 20-30.) You must be a MUTHAFUCKIN’ BAWSE at cold-reading. (Better always to give a strong-but-wrong take right off the bat, than fiddle-fart around with broken half-takes.)

And line 600 has to be as strong and fresh as line 001.

Do not confuse fun and easy. This is a very fun job when it’s done right. It is ALWAYS very hard work. And if you’re not ready for hard work… do I have to say it again? You’re smart. I don’t. You get the idea.

Kal 2017: I really don’t. Even at its most difficult this is a pretty great job, one of the few remaining that is protected by a strong union. It is hard, but it is also a blast.

Part 3: A Great Voice Actor

I’ll keep this straightforward. A great voice actor is…

Punctual. Be on time. On time means 5-10 minutes early.

Friendly, but not unctuous. Don’t be a sourpuss, don’t climb in anyone’s lap.

Patient. Sometimes (rarely) writers and clients and producers will test your patience, or act outright rude. Try to be Zen. A good director will shield you from as much of this as possible.

CONFIDENT. I’m gonna repeat this—

CONFIDENT! Always give me a strong-but-wrong choice instead of a hesitant garble. I cannot stress this enough. If you are second-guessing yourself, you are wasting everyone’s time undercutting your talent and hard work. Be kind to yourself by standing by your ability, and let the director tell you if we need to adjust the performance.

A great listener. Redirect is gonna come at you thick and fast and you will have to pay close attention!

Dedicated. You may work on some dumb projects in your life. Doesn’t matter. You give every single stupid burger commercial your all. It is your job. Do not phone it in. Do not EVER EVER EVER show up drunk, high, or bored.

A strong reader. No two ways around this one. You have to pick stuff up off the page very rapidly. Kal 2017: Yes, okay, but also don’t be afraid to ask for the script in advance. Some won’t be willing to share it, but many simply assume you do not want it ahead of time. (Many voice actors don’t.) In that case they will be overjoyed to share it so you can rehearse. It never hurts to ask.

Not afraid to ask questions. If you don’t understand a line, or a piece of direction, just ASK ME ABOUT IT. Kal 2017: Please do this. Don’t be shy. We’re here to help YOU, so you can please THE CLIENT, which in turn makes US look good.

Excited to collaborate. You should bring ideas to the material. You should also be willing to totally chuck them and try something new in the spirit of exploration, even if you think it’s gonna be garbage.

Resilient. If you fuck up, just do another one. :) Kal 2017: This is related to confident. It’s okay to mess up. All the pros do. Don’t be embarrassed. Try not to get in your head. Just climb back on that horse.

Part 4: Upsides

There are a lot of upsides. As I said, it can be very fun work. More importantly, it can be very creatively satisfying.

It also pays well. Voice actors are one of the few lucky groups of American workers still protected by a strong union. Union minimums are in the ballpark of $800.00 for a four hour session. Voice actors work like Russian plow-horses, but thanks to SAG/AFTRA they are adequately recompensed for it.

Finally, voice acting is the one realm of acting where your age and your looks do not factor in too heavily. You can break into it fairly late in life, unlike on-camera acting where you essentially reach your expiration date at 30. Steve Blum, who is currently the toast of the VO town (you probably know him as Zeb Orelios in Star Wars Rebels or as Wolverine in just about everything) didn’t really get going in mainstream animation and games until middle age. He is not unique in that respect. It is never too late.

And, you can do it until you literally croak.

Part 5: Reel Etc.

So let’s say I haven’t scared you off. Let’s say you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no other job on earth that will satisfy you, and you are willing to walk barefoot across hot glass and mixed metaphors to be a voice actor.

What now?

Well, if you have been working very hard, and taking your classes and all that stuff I just spent an hour flapping my Tumblrgums about, then you might be ready to record a reel.

A reel is a short audio sample that showcases your best abilities and your best work.

Generally speaking most pro VO actors have:

An animation reel

A videogame reel

A commercial reel

Three separate reels with different material on them. If creature sounds are something they do, they might also also have a fourth creature noise reel.

A basic videogame reel should include:

The Leader—think Captain America, Superman, Princess Leia, Katniss Everdeen, and Jennifer Hale’s incomparable Fem Shep

The Rogue—think Han Solo, Black Widow, Tony Stark, Catwoman, and Marion Ravonwood

The Pale Rider—think Clint Eastwood, Batman, Ellen Ripley, Sarah Conner, Trinity

The weak protagonist — this is, like, an affable scientist with no combat skills — someone who could be endangered.

Strong crazy — this can range from a sinister psycho like The Joker, to a likeable loon like Crazy-Eyes — the key is unhinged/unpredictable.

Weak crazy — the person who saw their whole crew torn apart by demons and is a basket case — edge of sanity.

Strong antagonist sinister, rational — like Voldemort.

Strong antagonist tough, rational — more of a bully in a barfight, a “the fuck you lookin’ at?” kind.

Antagonist crazy/desperate — there’s some overlap here with the weak protag so be sure to differentiate them, or just do one or the other.

Add to this any accents you do REALLY well. Like, indistinguishable from the real thing. Not a Groundskeeper Willy Scottish accent — that belongs on an animation reel — just absolute realism. If you can’t nail these then leave ‘em out!

An animation reel is more of a laundry list of different character voices and characters you can do. The key is total consistency. Don’t add a voice or speech impediment or texture you can’t maintain for four hours at a time.

Commercial reels can play to your strengths type-wise but there’s a few standbys you hear all the time:

If you’re a dude, commercial requires (amongst other clichés)

smooth ad dude (introducing the all new Lexus Privilege RX with comfort ride technology)

excited ad dude (a triple-pounder, large fry and fountain drink for just 3.99? I’m lovin’ it!)

and befuddled husband/boyfriend/father (Honey? What’s this 'Greek yog hurt’? What happened to the double-choco chip?)

If you’re a dudette, you want

smooth ad dudette (again the Lexus)

sexy hamburger subtext (With large fries and gooey, melty cheese. She’s a little too into that sandwich, Man.)

and Motrin Momwife (So you can be the “on the PTA, on the town, side-planking, keeping up with your girlfriends gal” you want to be!)

Kal 2017: There is a recent trend in VO for commercials that I would be remiss if I did not mention. This is the “read that is so laid back and casual it is almost nonexistent.” Millenials know when they’re being solicited, so the ad industry has adopted a—in my opinion comically— disinterested tone. I call it “maybe you’d like a hamburger or whatever, I don’t care”. Here is the most extreme example I am aware of:

vimeo

Facebook Live "Hidden Talent" from Buck on Vimeo.

It is bizarre from a traditional perspective, and it will go against the grain for anyone who grew up with this:

youtube

Nevertheless, it is here, and you should make sure you have it on your reel.

In all your reels:

NO MORE THAN A SENTENCE OR TWO FROM EACH VOICE. Target length of a whole reel should be around 90 SECONDS TOTAL. If they want more than that, they will ask you to record AN AUDITION, which is what you’re hoping they’ll do anyway. Do not go over in length. You will irritate casting directors who have 500 of these to go through. Kal 2017: TRY not to go over in length, by more than one voice.😁

ONLY YOUR VERY BEST STUFF. When in doubt, leave it out. There are some actors in this business who can do a million voices, there are some who do JUST ONE THING THE BEST. Both kinds work. Better to kill it with three voices than to give them a reason NOT to hire you.

A GOOD MIX ON A GOOD MIC. You will probably have to go to a studio to record your reel. If you do, I recommend getting a voice director to work with you while you’re at it. This will cost money, but it is an investment. If you are the rare and enterprising voice actor who has a ton of equipment and is a sound engineer too, you might be able to do it yourself. Do not go too cheap on this, though. You don’t want great performance undercut by a bad mix.

One final thought:

MOVE TO LOS ANGELES. There is only one place to be if you are a serious professional in this business, and that is L.A. It is the biggest market, and the center of the industry. You might land a couple of radio spots living in East Anywhere, but you are not going to break into the industry proper.

That does not mean that you can’t TRAIN in other, cheaper places. But when you are ready to work, you come to L.A.

No, Austin and San Francisco aren’t just as good. No, your stage work in New York doesn’t count for anything out here. I wish it did, but it doesn’t.

The five year break-in period doesn’t begin until you live here. Sorry folks!

Part 6: Wrap-up

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things here, and I’ll try to fill in the gaps as they occur to me. Please feel free to tweet at me with any questions: @kalelbogdanove

In summary: if you LOVE voice acting, and you can’t imagine doing anything else on Earth, and you are willing to work your butt off to improve, AND you are willing to keep at it for YEARS… then go for it! I’ll see you in the booth.

Kal 2017: Or if you love it and you are willing to give it a whirl and follow your dreams. Always, always follow your dreams. (Just work hard at them, too.)

-Kal-El

P.S. — for a smart (and much shorter) perspective on this subject from an actual actor, you might try reading this Facebook post by industry luminary Tara Strong:

https://www.facebook.com/tara.strong.514/posts/10155956807350494

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skylight20sworldblr-blog · 5 years

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1More Triple Driver Bluetooth Review

1MORE has been greatest recognized within the business for his or her quick attacking releases and plethora of awards they obtain. What as soon as began off to audiophiles as an organization that designed merchandise for Xiaomi has its personal calling and identify now. Present after present, occasion after occasion, 1MORE takes house design and innovation awards on their merchandise and for good purpose. Their headphones are modern and superbly machined.

The 1More Triple Driver Bluetooth In-Ear headphones we’ve at the moment is not any exception. It’s the identical award profitable triple driver method however with a built-in Bluetooth adapter multi functional compact package deal. It’s unsurprising that this might be the subsequent blitz transfer from 1MORE. Excessive constancy Bluetooth streaming requirements are IN lately and including this additional performance to your hottest merchandise is the sensible transfer.

In contrast to different new Bluetooth variants of common headphones from different corporations, 1MORE goes the additional mile. The Audio Technica M50xBT and Focal LISTEN Wi-fi headphones are current examples of award profitable headphones which were given the bluetooth remedy. One factor differentiates their approaches; 1MORE didn’t simply stick an adapter into it. No, 1MORE developed the Triple Driver Bluetooth gadget from the bottom up with all-in one in thoughts. The previous headphones are the identical type issue and pack the usual SBC/AptX and microphones in them.

1MORE, true to its identify, put yet one more function after one other into the Triple Driver Bluetooth In-Ear Headphones. Not solely does it function top quality ‘audiophile grade’ codecs like LDAC and AptX (those talked about earlier than didn’t), it additionally comes with:

Environmental Noise Canceling microphone setup

Built-in name / music controls

Constructed-in Quick Charging

New ergonomic type issue

We’re solely within the opening and it’s clear already that 1MORE has put lots of thought into this gadget. It’s not merely a bluetooth module stacked on the Triple Driver; its an progressive step ahead.

Construct and Usability:

Introductory advertising apart, how does the Triple Driver truly carry out as soon as we get previous what it’s and the way it compares? Let’s discover out, right now I’m your private Guru!

Beginning off with the Bluetooth aspect, I used the IEMs with 4 BT sources. Two have been BT four.2 (Desktop and Laptop computer) and the ultimate two have been each BT 5.zero succesful supporting LDAC and AptX/HD. The Triple Driver’s have been principally used with a BT 5.zero system with LDAC as the popular transmission codec.

The pairing course of is straightforward and begins up mechanically each time you boot the gadget up. Maintain the facility button down for two seconds and a feminine announcement will notify you the system is “Pairing” adopted by the battery degree of your system. Shutting down the gadget is by urgent the facility button down once more however for four seconds. Straightforward proper? For probably the most half sure however I’ve discovered myself irritated, even a month later, at how lengthy the facility off feels. It’s a bore and I want it was the identical two seconds as energy on. That button doesn’t have any further performance anyway so having the Energy On/Off be the identical time would make sense. Opposite to what the guide says, it doesn’t enter pairing after you press the button down for an additional 2 seconds or four seconds from off. It’ll boot up and auto pair each time and holding the button down leads to no further performance.

This model of the Triple Driver contains a feminine assistant to announce battery and standing. It was neat at first however I might moderately 1More have pulled a “Less is More” strategy. That might have given this gadget 1 Extra function by making it much less intrusive. Ranging from the start, if you activate the system you’ll sometimes hear “Power On…PAIRING….Connected…Battery High/Medium/Low”. Not my cup of tea however not dangerous both. The difficulty then is that the system will virtually all the time, 20 minutes into use cease and interrupt your music by reporting to you loudly “Battery Medium/Low” later.

I’m an embedded software program engineer and have labored with controllers earlier than, I can already see the code that implements this. My magic globe exhibits me a loop routine that checks the battery voltage degree and the second its under a sure quantity, will pause the Bluetooth and trigger the announcer to inform the consumer. The implementation is just too primary and requires an added algorithm/processing layer to stop it from notifying the consumer EVERY time you employ it after 20 minutes. Higher but, eliminate battery notifications. The Triple Driver BT helps battery degree monitoring via your Android gadget (untested on iOS) and you may see it there. Typical Bluetooth units will simply merely die and sputter into the graves when the final ounce is juice is gone and shoppers are used to that already. There doesn’t have to be 1 Extra function added, that simply contributes to over complication.

The Bluetooth chipset on the Triple Driver works greatest when you’ve one supply within the loop. Right now in my Guru profession, I’ve amassed and examined fairly a number of bluetooth units and have developed a knack for a way nicely a Receiver/Transmitter system works. The Triple Driver BT fall in the midst of the pack. With only one supply within the loop, it’s all the time quick and straightforward to attach and use. Nevertheless if you’re in a room with 4 units that you’ve it paired to, the Triple Driver has tripped up prior to now. The quickest repair I’ve discovered was to disable Bluetooth on each different gadget you’re not utilizing, flip off the Triple Driver and switch it on once more whereas trying a guide re-pair in your supply. As for compatibility, I’ve had the perfect luck with Android units and combined outcomes when utilizing the Triple Drivers with Home windows 10 (Model 1809).

Connection reliability is robust on the Triple Driver. The chip doesn’t play properly with units it doesn’t like however when it will get a maintain of a supply, it latches on. As soon as the great occasions roll, it doesn’t cease. I’ve nary a sign drop or stutter when utilizing the Triple Driver with my Important PH-1 carried in my denims pocket. It’s some of the constant units in streaming playback I’ve had and is reliable in that regards.

Bodily, you both like neckbuds otherwise you don’t. When you’ve got by no means appreciated neckbuds, this gained’t change your thoughts. It has the identical usability quirks that you simply’ll discover in all the remaining and I’ll mearley be paroting them on this assessment so I’ll be temporary. They aren’t probably the most snug, the brief earbud wires get caught in quarter-zips so much, and are awkward to put and get proper. The Triple Driver BT regardless of the way it appears can also be not IP rated and so formally don’t help water or mud resistance. The location of the controls are ergonomic and have been straightforward for me to study and get used to.

The one qualm I’ve with the bodily construct can be the charging port. Please 1MORE, redesign this. The port ‘door’ is janky and a multitude to cope with. The rubber connecting arm isn’t lengthy sufficient and VERY troublesome to retract again into the opening. I’ve to struggle the door each time to get a USB C cable into the opening. The standard course of includes utilizing one hand to fling the door and bending it in place whereas I attempt to jimmy a USB C cable in. As soon as completed, it takes one other 10 seconds of cautious angular physics of making an attempt to jam the door again into place. Please repair this 1More, I shouldn’t need to battle it to cost it. An unchargeable system merely begs to be an unused gadget.

Taking calls with the in-line management was quick and seamless with callers noting that I sounded clear even in a light-noise environments. The quantity management can also be cross synched together with your smartphone so that you don’t have to fret about two quantity zones to fiddle with; the quantity buttons are the MAIN management and also will change your smartphones. The bodily construct is commonplace with different neckbuds I’ve seen which suggests fairly good truly. It’s clean and feels strong like you’ll be able to chuck in a backpack or stuff in a pocket. I can undoubtedly see a enterprise skilled that has no issues with neckbuds commuting with these on mass transport as soon as they get the match proper.

The Triple Driver BT is quirky however operates nice when all the things is related. Unquestionably, there are elements that critically bug me however it truthfully works properly. I can sit in my chair or commute and have them in my ears for an hour or two whereas feeling snug they may hold the connection and keep in place. I simply want two straightforward issues from 1More and that’s eradicating the voice notifications and fixing the charging door.

Sound:

The Triple Driver was used with the units I listed above for close to equal quantities of time. The strategy I’m taking with the unit is to assessment it as a shopper pleasant gadget with ‘good’ sound high quality. This IEM doesn’t goal audiophiles and is neither tuned for it, nor acts like it’s; its’ a neckbud, sufficient stated.

Two issues to notice earlier than we get began. One is that since this unit is self contained, its personal built-in DAC and amplifier are your solely choices. That is essential as I’ve discovered the amplifier to be under-powered at occasions. With older tracks with none digital normalization and a low noise flooring, the Triple Driver BT has issues getting loud sufficient. The most typical quantity I take heed to with trendy mastered tracks is already at 76-82% and leaves little or no headroom above it. Take this as what you’ll on loudness, what’s protected or not and what you personally select to pay attention at. The second is that the Triple Driver does have a slight hiss and noise when the amplifier is on. It has a quick appearing shut-off to stop this from carrying on when no audio is enjoying again. Undoubtedly noticeable and once more as much as you as to how you’re taking it.

Beginning off, I selected “Take The Power Back” by Rage Towards the Machine. I select this monitor as I discovered the Triple Driver to sport a thick bass that this music would put to check. A couple of seconds into the track and my curiosity was validated. The guitar and percussion kicks arduous and exhibits off the impression the Triple Driver has. It’s loud and has sufficient sonic strain behind it that you would be able to really feel the immense weight of the notes being performed. The low finish of the headphone is satisfying however not overly tight. The easiest way to explain it will be the sensation of a seperate loud subwoofer unit on a newbie house theater system; it’s there, it kicks, however lacks complicated integration and feels extra like an unbiased system.

Zack de la Rocha’s lyrics within the music are laid again. The Triple Driver has the power to maintain his efficiency going because of how dense every thing is intertwined. However regardless of having devoted balanced armature drivers, the tuning is such that the mids are pulled again particularly are the center vocal part. The higher finish of the mid vary nevertheless is one other story and takes a entrance stage when the guitars kick in at 2:45. They’re extra ahead in presence and have a shiny edge to every observe. Competent sufficient however not precisely the Triple Driver’s most popular style.

Subsequent up is “Orion” by Kenshi Yonezu, a music used because the ending theme for March Comes In Like a Lion. This monitor is solemn and melancholic though crammed with immense emotion because the singer yearns for one thing extra. The very first thing I observed was the presentation of the backing parts that are far more ahead and exhausting hitting. The intertwining of the violin adopted by the percussion at a gentle tempo provides us a take a look at one of many advantages of the balanced armature; its seperated and has unbiased management over the frequency response it covers. This enables for a combinatory facet of the a number of drivers featured on this unit (three if the identify Triple Driver hasn’t clued you in but) to create a cohesive ultimate image. There’s a plethora happening with the monitor and the way tightly managed the drivers are could make or break the sensation. Personally, I felt a necessity for extra intimacy within the vocal vary and element within the singer’s voice. However previous that, the three drivers type fairly the mesh with the dynamic driver pushing out gobs of underlying strain for the percussion whereas the 2 balanced armature models take entrance with the precise meat. It’s not as tightly woven as say a 6 to eight driver BA and the dynamic driver does have its personal means because the subwoofer of the group. The easiest way I can relate the Triple Driver can be as if it was a pc 2.1 speaker setup; it nonetheless combines to type a full image however isn’t the best at creating the impression of a singular entity.

Final up is an oldie however goodie, “Moonlight Shadow” by Lacking Coronary heart (remix off music by Mike Oldfield). This monitor is energetic and poppy with a narrative centered round a gentle beat. The monitor strikes quick and is consistently pushed ahead by the digitally altered vocals. The Triple Driver velocity clever is sluggish with some sonic resonance inside its chamber. It’s noticeable on most songs I’ve heard with it and greater than something, creates a extra intimate listening expertise. However previous that, the track was performed faithfully and actually highlights the most effective strengths of the Triple Driver that are truthfully how enjoyable and jumpy it’s. The headphone is clean and undoubtedly falls into heat territory. It’s greatest used with trendy hip-hop/pop because the style it jives one of the best with. Rock, classical, and jazz have been agreeable sufficient however to not the extent of affinity the Triple Driver’s have with placing its greatest foot ahead with pop songs. The rationale? It’s that thick bass influence that isn’t overwhelming and good for the event.

The sound of the Triple Driver is a particular deal with for many shopper consumers. It’s the pure & progressive step up for the informal trendy socialite when on the lookout for headphones. It’s extremely punchy and dynamic and un-offensive to the ears missing any brilliant or harsh parts.

Conclusion:

The 1MORE Triple Driver Bluetooth mannequin has some quirks on this rendition of the favored wired fashions however nonetheless gives up a compelling case. You get an all-in-one package deal with the award profitable Triple Driver headphones hooked up and what’s extra at the moment are freed from wires. Simply as how the sound is the subsequent step up for many shoppers on their seek for higher audio, the Triple Driver BT is the subsequent step up for people who already like this headphone however need it wirelessly. It’s so simple as getting the Triple Driver IEMs however with 1 Extra function, a bluetooth receiver.

Web site

Specs:

Worth: $199 MSRP

Driver: Two Balanced Armature and one Dynamic Driver

Impedance: 32 Ohms

Vary: 35 Ft

BT Codec: LDAC, SBC, AAC

Bluetooth Model: four.2 with HFP/A2DP/AVRCP

Battery: 7 Hours

Weight: 42.5 grams

The post 1More Triple Driver Bluetooth Review appeared first on List Technology.

#Bluetooth #Featured #Headphones #In-Ear Monitor #Technology #Wireless

0 notes

aethermystfan-blog · 5 years

Text

1More Triple Driver Bluetooth Review

Environmental Noise Canceling microphone setup

Built-in name / music controls

Constructed-in Quick Charging

New ergonomic type issue

Construct and Usability:

Introductory advertising apart, how does the Triple Driver truly carry out as soon as we get previous what it’s and the way it compares? Let’s discover out, right now I’m your private Guru!

Sound:

Conclusion:

Web site

Specs:

Worth: $199 MSRP

Driver: Two Balanced Armature and one Dynamic Driver

Impedance: 32 Ohms

Vary: 35 Ft

BT Codec: LDAC, SBC, AAC

Bluetooth Model: four.2 with HFP/A2DP/AVRCP

Battery: 7 Hours

Weight: 42.5 grams

The post 1More Triple Driver Bluetooth Review appeared first on List Technology.

#Bluetooth #Featured #Headphones #In-Ear Monitor #Technology #Wireless

0 notes

jimeshbathija3896-blog · 5 years

Text

1More Triple Driver Bluetooth Review

Environmental Noise Canceling microphone setup

Built-in name / music controls

Constructed-in Quick Charging

New ergonomic type issue

Construct and Usability:

Introductory advertising apart, how does the Triple Driver truly carry out as soon as we get previous what it’s and the way it compares? Let’s discover out, right now I’m your private Guru!

Sound:

Conclusion:

Web site

Specs:

Worth: $199 MSRP

Driver: Two Balanced Armature and one Dynamic Driver

Impedance: 32 Ohms

Vary: 35 Ft

BT Codec: LDAC, SBC, AAC

Bluetooth Model: four.2 with HFP/A2DP/AVRCP

Battery: 7 Hours

Weight: 42.5 grams

The post 1More Triple Driver Bluetooth Review appeared first on List Technology.

#Bluetooth #Featured #Headphones #In-Ear Monitor #Technology #Wireless

0 notes

superplhis-blog · 5 years

Text

1More Triple Driver Bluetooth Review

Environmental Noise Canceling microphone setup

Built-in name / music controls

Constructed-in Quick Charging

New ergonomic type issue

Construct and Usability:

Introductory advertising apart, how does the Triple Driver truly carry out as soon as we get previous what it’s and the way it compares? Let’s discover out, right now I’m your private Guru!

Sound:

Conclusion:

Web site

Specs:

Worth: $199 MSRP

Driver: Two Balanced Armature and one Dynamic Driver

Impedance: 32 Ohms

Vary: 35 Ft

BT Codec: LDAC, SBC, AAC

Bluetooth Model: four.2 with HFP/A2DP/AVRCP

Battery: 7 Hours

Weight: 42.5 grams

The post 1More Triple Driver Bluetooth Review appeared first on List Technology.

#Bluetooth #Featured #Headphones #In-Ear Monitor #Technology #Wireless

0 notes

shutupxdance-blog · 6 years

Text

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES! 3

『♬♬♬』

It’s the FUTURISTIC SPACE YEAR OF 2002, and a HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN logo bounces around the sky behind Cíoroc, as pixelated stars shine above a poorly 3D-rendered city. “And in the end, it turns out that all Arno Cyberspace 2, the evil one, ever needed, was to be loved, and also for the evil AI that he made for some reason to be destroyed because nobody had thought of doing that before. But enough about our serious lore, and on to what really matters: the characters. They’re what we’re all here for, after all. That’s what some of our producers forget sometimes, you know? What we’re really here for. Welcome back to another segment of 『THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!』” He pauses. “It’s a pun this time.”

“When I was younger,” Horang’s, or rather, Chan-yeol’s voice begins in the interview footage, “I would look at kkachi horangi paintings, which were totally weird looking, but fun at the same time. They meant something back then, but I don’t remember what.” A young boy and his slightly older sister sit alone in the house, while a festival goes on outside. The footage, no longer as grainy as the VHS footage from previous segments but now afflicted by screen tearing, pixelated noise, frame skipping, and a wide variety of other playback glitches, switches to two adults, clearly the parents, gambling away in a smoky room. “Tigers are known to keep evil away and good luck in, which is what I fucking need. I’m not that superstitious,” Chan-yeol continues as the young boy gets older, attending high school, walking curiously down the streets of a red light district, surrounded by adverts for strip clubs and bars, “But taking on the name might give me something at least. Maybe at least confidence.”

“It sounds over the top and glittery,” STELLAR —Seishirou — says from across the table, green hair in stark contrast to Cíoroc’s pink, as a young boy in the low-res archival footage is shoved against a well by a trio of larger boys, a glitch obscuring the screen before he’s left wiping a bloody nose and being comforted by another boy as he cries, “I’m really into that.”

“What’s your price, baby?” Cíoroc asks, voice crisp and clear, winking behind his shades at the unfortunate souls on the other side of the table.

Chan-yeol walks into a cabaret, music thudding, drunk patrons cheering, someone dancing on stage. “The cabaret, as it is. My boss... y’see...” After the show, he approaches the dancer, the words they say to each other inaudible as the voiceover takes precedence, but a few months later he’s back, waiting tables, and even later than that, the footage flickering as it fast-forwards, everything advancing at an incredible pace, he’s a singer up on the stage, getting money and spending it as soon as he gets it, an unending cycle of fluorescent lights and the bottom of a bottle. One day, he comes in, and the man who he talked to on his first night is nowhere to be seen, a number of people hurrying to show him a pile of paperwork left on a table which he stares at with bleary confusion. “He ran away after signing my name under everything. All of it. He was the piece of shit who got me here in the first place and left me behind.” Meetings with unsavory people, men in black suits, midnight drives. “I... can’t keep a whole business afloat and worry if these people are gonna die because of me. I can’t live with that. “

Seishirou’s voice is as calm and conversational as ever, the version of him in the glitchy archival footage studying late nights, getting more and more confident as the years flicker by, the same boy who comforted him by his side the entire time. “Simply put; my medical license.” Seishirou is wearing a white coat and a smile as the voiceover continues, studying even harder. “It was more than just a piece of paper. It was even more than the proof of some years spent at school. I can earn it back if I make it through, of course, but nothing will replace that… physical proof that I survived.” He walks with his friend, the two happily talking, when all of a sudden the boy, now a man, is struck by a speeding bus. As the Seishirou in the footage runs over, forcing his panic aside to begin performing medical procedures, the voiceover is calm, if a little wistful. “That I didn’t kill myself and got to study what I love. The reminder of everything Hideki has done to help me… It meant a lot to me, that silly piece of paper. But Hideki means so much more to me.”

There’s another glitch, strange colours and dead pixels radiating out from the center of the screen, the sound alert of an error message playing over and over again, layering over itself until the voiceover is now Memory’s voice. Meri’s voice, cheerful and lighthearted. “Hmmm....Aha, you caught me there!” A building collapses violently on screen, an accident that must have killed dozens or hundreds and that likely doesn’t cross the mind of the young girl, no more than a toddler, being delivered to the front door of an elderly couple, far too old to be her parents. She doesn’t mourn, she doesn’t cry, she just goes about her life, going to school, talking to her grandparents, and going up to her room to use her computer, a cycle that just repeats over and over again, each brief conversation barely worth a frame of video. “I just thought it sounded cute…but I suppose I could say because I’m very reminiscent of the past, haha.”

A young Meri does make a friend, walking everywhere with a girl, wearing matching outfits, and then one day, she says something, her posture making it clear what it is: a confession. The girl shouts at her, recoiling, and leaves. Meri looks crushed, and the next few years of her life are dull, colours drained from the footage, going by in a low-res blur. The cycle continues, a non-existence, until she starts taking photos of herself in different outfits and a screen tear causes the audio to jump; when the video resumes, Meri is posing for the cover of a magazine. “My medicine. For my illness, that is,” she says, as the magazine crumples and falls out of view, Meri now dressed not in any designer outfit but in a hospital gown. “Haha. It was only important to me...like...physically. To keep me alive. I don’t really give a shit about them. Without them, I’ll probably die way sooner than expected. That’s fine though. I’d rather live a few weeks in happiness opposed to living like this for another miserable decade.” An IV is hooked up to her arm and she lies in bed, checking her phone, refreshing repeatedly before putting it down. “I can’t keep living like this anymore.”

The footage is crisp and clean now, right from the show, ad banners running along the bottom of the screen, and Seishirou, Horang and Meri are talking, laughing together, sharing a moment. A roll of distortion obscures them and then Seishirou is standing over his friend, lying with his eyes closed in a hospital bed, another doctor saying something that can’t be made out, vague electronic beeping the only indication that this footage ever had audio. “It’s nothin’ more and nothin’ less than the knowledge needed to cure,” the doctor keeps talking, and Seishirou’s posture gets tenser and tenser, “Full body paralysis, specifically, irreparable nerve damage, anything I need to know to prevent unexpected complications. I want to-... I need to be able to do it myself. I can’t fail again.” There’s a skip, another barrage of error messages and for a few moments a frame of Seishirou’s friend lying, against a storefront is interposed on a frame of Meri sleeping in a hospital bed and then with the rapidly flickering images of Horang and Seishirou’s bodies. “Why? Maybe because I’m selfish. Maybe because I can’t let go of someone I care deeply about. Of course, Hideki is the only thing on my mind most of the time, but… That doesn’t mean I can’t keep using that knowledge for good after, right?”

“Everybody wants to feel secure, right? Everybody wants to feel like they can take care of themselves in the future. That they don’t have to spend their rent money on food or lose it all because... ha. They gambled it all away.” That’s Chan-yeol’s voice, of course. The scenes of footage are brief. Dancing. The bottom of a bottle. Singing. Wads of cash, thrown at him. A meal at a restaurant. Gambling. Dates with a number of different people; a graphical glitch seems to blur them all together at one point. “I just want to finally... settle my debt. I want loan sharks off my ass. I want my name off of any papers I didn’t actually sign. I just want to get out of the fucking underground.” The cycle repeats and it doesn’t stop, but soon there’s conversations with shady-looking men, and the dancing and singing are replaced with carrying strange packages, a man in a too-nice suit helping him go over paperwork. “I could... buy back jobs. Build a new cabaret. I could send my sister money. Ji-min... I could fund her whole life for her, if she wanted me to. Fuck, I’ll even send my parents to a retirement home in the future.” The lights of the red light district pulse and throb like the lights of the faerie world. “I just. I just want control, for once. Money has always been control.”

Chan-yeol is sitting in a casino, and then there’s a wipe and it’s Meri in a casino, faeries each jostling for her business, wide smiles and glowing eyes and eclectic outfits. A text box offers GLIMPSES OF THE FUTURE and she smiles at the faerie behind the table, who holds up a deck of cards enticingly. “I don’t actually care about modelling all that much. I just want the fame I used to have before it was taken away from me.” Archival footage is intercut, a girl who looks just a little but not quite like Meri wearing outfits like hers, smiling like hers, on the cover of every magazine. “Everyone who admired me. I want them back.” Back to the show, and Meri is staring into the distance, shellshocked. In her room, she puts on a mask. “I’m scared to die alone,” she admits in the voiceover, as the Meri on screen grips a sword tightly in her hand. “My career...The fame that came with it...it’s the only thing that’s ever made me truly happy. It’s the only thing that made living feel different from being dead for once.” There’s another digital glitch, and Chan-yeol — or should that be Horang? — goes down, blood staining his clothes. “I’ve never felt that before..besides when I found out I was dying and lost all that I cared about. Then dying felt much scarier than living. I don’t want to die afraid and alone.” Seishirou’s eyes widen as he looks at the scene — Meri turns to him and says something, the movement of her lips blurred out by errant slides of colour. “I want to die while I’m still happy. I want people to be sad. I want them to miss me. I don’t want my existence to be forgotten and meaningless.”

She’s talking to Cíoroc in the interview, happy, ready for the show to begin. “After all, I don’t have any family left to carry on my blood. I feel bad that...I don’t miss them like they deserve. I’m rather hypocritical for not wishing the same upon myself, huh?” Cíoroc listens, smile serene and implacable as always. Seishirou, or, well, STELLAR, bleeds out, expression peaceful. Horang lies on the floor.

Chan-yeol’s voice speaks as Horang Lee bleeds out on the floor. “...I visit my sister. I tell her... as much as I can about all the years we were apart. I don’t tell her about this show, but I tell her that some... big local talent show gave me a shot and I won. I tell her something, but bottom line,” and the footage begins to fade into nothing but electronic noise, “I spend the rest of my life taking care of her. I find everybody whose lives I ruined because of the cabaret and send them money. I buy a real apartment. Maybe I’ll get a cat. And I just... live as quietly and as peacefully as possible until I die. That’s my plan.” The lights of the red light district flash and pulse. It’s always the same; prices and prizes.

STELLAR and Meri… well, it’s Memory, right? — talk as the former dies. Instead of their voices, it’s Seishirou’s dub. “Help Hideki. He… Ahah, it’s weird. I know he wasn’t too keen on staying alive, especially the past years. How the tables had turned, right?” He looks serious as he gives the interview answer to Cíoroc. Far away, a man lies motionless in a hospital, hooked up to wires and monitors. “But I can’t… let him meet his end like this. Withering away in a hospital bed. Lucid but immobile. I want another chance at making him happy. Doing for him what he did for me. And, selfishly, I... don’t want to live without him. “ On the stage of HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, STELLAR breathes his last breath. “After that, well… I just hope we can keep living. Together.”

The rest is familiar. Memory at the trial. The execution. Her smile at the interview table is bright and cheery. A glitch causes another screen tear, half of the pixels of the hospital bed visible onscreen instead of what should be there. “Live for however long I have left. Enjoy the admiration. Die happily and surrounded by people. Be remembered. I don’t care if it’s only a few weeks or so. As long as I...get it back. Hey, even if I don’t win though...hopefully I’ll be remembered- no, immortalized...through this show?”

And with that, it’s back to Cíoroc. He’s still smiling, but it’s a curious smile. It’s not a happy one. Is he, perhaps, actually sad? Nah, that’s impossible. “Hahahaha… it’s a funny thing, right? She’s just like me when I was younger. Oh, the good old days. Who’d have thought old Watershed from season three would end up a star like Cíoroc Mair, huh?” A pixelated portrait of Memory flickers into existence behind him inside an empty Paint window. “Don’t worry, Memory. Nobody’s going to forget a performance like that. Nobody. You don’t get the fame you wanted, but you’re not in bad company there, not with Kleos from season one, Taiyang from season two, Cathode from season five, Divinity from season seven, Gloria from season nine, Starlight from season ten, Parameshwara from season twelve, Sveca from season thirteen, Five from season fourteen, Yeong-gwang from season sixteen, Shirley from season eighteen, Ursula from season nineteen, Bundy from season twenty-one, Uzuri from season twenty-three, Alexandria from season twenty-five, Glamorama from season twenty-seven, Shrine from season twenty-eight, Takibi from season thirty, Ganymede from season thirty-two, al-Aziz from season thirty-four, Zhuchiren from season thirty-six, and Blue from season thirty-seven!”

Although he names a lot of names, Memory’s portrait remains central, each portrait of another contestant circling hers in a curious sort of mosaic. After a few seconds, Cíoroc reaches out, taps the ‘save’ button, and continues as Horang’s portrait appears. “Wishing for money to get out of their problems we find Scoop from season one, Rat from season three, Cooper from season five, Marie Antoinette from season seven, Flashpoint from season ten, Don from season eleven, Real from season thirteen, Jinzi from season sixteen, Penny from season seventeen, Boxcars from season nineteen, Grendel from season twenty-three, Gatsby from season twenty-five, X from season twenty-nine, Rembrandt from season thirty-four, and Kisamata from season thirty-eight.” With another tap, a portrait of STELLAR joins them. “And wishing for the skills to save a friend or loved one, we see STELLAR joining up with Chaos from season four, Desperado from season eight, Bonnie from season thirteen, Sun Wukong from season nineteen, Gwydion from season twenty-five, and Sancho Panza from season thirty-two.”

He pauses. “This show’s been going on for a long time, huh? Kind of makes you wonder when it’s going to grind to a stop. Oh, wait, that’s right, never! The show must go on, and we’ve got an audience who wants to keep watching, right? Still, the longer we make it, the more it feels like everyone’s moving on. Even the people watching right now, you know? They’ve moved on in their hearts already. Showbiz, baby. It can be tough. See you all next episode, where we’ll be challenging our contestants to survive in the deadly wilderness of an on-studio location with a full camera crew! Constant scenery changes keep things from getting fresh and stale by letting characters interact in new settings, you know? That’s just a little showbiz secret!”

Cíoroc then proceeds to make robot noises for the entire remaining thirty-minute duration of the broadcast.

#episode three #plotline #thanks for the memories!

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gta-5-cheats · 6 years

Text

Students confront the unethical side of tech in ‘Designing for Evil’ course

New Post has been published on http://secondcovers.com/students-confront-the-unethical-side-of-tech-in-designing-for-evil-course/

Students confront the unethical side of tech in ‘Designing for Evil’ course

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Whether it’s surveilling or deceiving users, mishandling or selling their data, or engendering unhealthy habits or thoughts, tech these days is not short on unethical behavior. But it isn’t enough to just say “that’s creepy.” Fortunately, a course at the University of Washington is equipping its students with the philosophical insights to better identify — and fix — tech’s pernicious lack of ethics.

“Designing for Evil” just concluded its first quarter at UW’s Information School, where prospective creators of apps and services like those we all rely on daily learn the tools of the trade. But thanks to Alexis Hiniker, who teaches the class, they are also learning the critical skill of inquiring into the moral and ethical implications of those apps and services.

What, for example, is a good way of going about making a dating app that is inclusive and promotes healthy relationships? How can an AI imitating a human avoid unnecessary deception? How can something as invasive as China’s proposed citizen scoring system be made as user-friendly as it is possible to be?

I talked to all the student teams at a poster session held on UW’s campus, and also chatted with Hiniker, who designed the course and seemed pleased at how it turned out.

The premise is that the students are given a crash course in ethical philosophy that acquaints them with influential ideas, such as utilitarianism and deontology.

“It’s designed to be as accessible to lay people as possible,” Hiniker told me. “These aren’t philosophy students — this is a design class. But I wanted to see what I could get away with.”

The primary text is Harvard philosophy professor Michael Sandel’s popular book Justice, which Hiniker felt combined the various philosophies into a readable, integrated format. After ingesting this, the students grouped up and picked an app or technology that they would evaluate using the principles described, and then prescribe ethical remedies.

As it turned out, finding ethical problems in tech was the easy part — and fixes for them ranged from the trivial to the impossible. Their insights were interesting, but I got the feeling from many of them that there was a sort of disappointment at the fact that so much of what tech offers, or how it offers it, is inescapably and fundamentally unethical.

I found the students fell into one of three categories.

Not fundamentally unethical (but could use an ethical tune-up)

WebMD is of course a very useful site, but it was plain to the students that it lacked inclusivity: its symptom checker is stacked against non-English-speakers and those who might not know the names of symptoms. The team suggested a more visual symptom reporter, with a basic body map and non-written symptom and pain indicators.

Hello Barbie, the doll that chats back to kids, is certainly a minefield of potential legal and ethical violations, but there’s no reason it can’t be done right. With parental consent and careful engineering it will be in line with privacy laws, but the team said that it still failed some tests of keeping the dialogue with kids healthy and parents informed. The scripts for interaction, they said, should be public — which is obvious in retrospect — and audio should be analyzed on device rather than in the cloud. Lastly, a set of warning words or phrases indicating unhealthy behaviors could warn parents of things like self-harm while keeping the rest of the conversation secret.

Shop On SecondCovers

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WeChat Discover allows users to find others around them and see recent photos they’ve taken — it’s opt-in, which is good, but it can be filtered by gender, promoting a hookup culture that the team said is frowned on in China. It also obscures many user controls behind multiple layers of menus, which may cause people to share location when they don’t intend to. Some basic UI fixes were proposed by the students, and a few ideas on how to combat the possibility of unwanted advances from strangers.

Netflix isn’t evil, but its tendency to promote binge-watching has robbed its users of many an hour. This team felt that some basic user-set limits like two episodes per day, or delaying the next episode by a certain amount of time, could interrupt the habit and encourage people to take back control of their time.

Fundamentally unethical (fixes are still worth making)

FakeApp is a way to face-swap in video, producing convincing fakes in which a politician or friend appears to be saying something they didn’t. It’s fundamentally deceptive, of course, in a broad sense, but really only if the clips are passed on as genuine. Watermarks visible and invisible, as well as controlled cropping of source videos, were this team’s suggestion, though ultimately the technology won’t yield to these voluntary mitigations. So really, an informed populace is the only answer. Good luck with that!

China’s “social credit” system is not actually, the students argued, absolutely unethical — that judgment involves a certain amount of cultural bias. But I’m comfortable putting it here because of the massive ethical questions it has sidestepped and dismissed on the road to deployment. Their highly practical suggestions, however, were focused on making the system more accountable and transparent. Contest reports of behavior, see what types of things have contributed to your own score, see how it has changed over time, and so on.

Tinder’s unethical nature, according to the team, was based on the fact that it was ostensibly about forming human connections but is very plainly designed to be a meat market. Forcing people to think of themselves as physical objects first and foremost in pursuit of romance is not healthy, they argued, and causes people to devalue themselves. As a countermeasure, they suggested having responses to questions or prompts be the first thing you see about a person. You’d have to swipe based on that before seeing any pictures. I suggested having some deal-breaker questions you’d have to agree on, as well. It’s not a bad idea, though open to gaming (like the rest of online dating).

Fundamentally unethical (fixes are essentially impossible)

The League, on the other hand, was a dating app that proved intractable to ethical guidelines. Not only was it a meat market, but it was a meat market where people paid to be among the self-selected “elite” and could filter by ethnicity and other troubling categories. Their suggestions of removing the fee and these filters, among other things, essentially destroyed the product. Unfortunately, The League is an unethical product for unethical people. No amount of tweaking will change that.

Duplex was taken on by a smart team that nevertheless clearly only started their project after Google I/O. Unfortunately, they found that the fundamental deception intrinsic in an AI posing as a human is ethically impermissible. It could, of course, identify itself — but that would spoil the entire value proposition. But they also asked a question I didn’t think to ask myself in my own coverage: why isn’t this AI exhausting all other options before calling a human? It could visit the site, send a text, use other apps and so on. AIs in general should default to interacting with websites and apps first, then to other AIs, then and only then to people — at which time it should say it’s an AI.

To me the most valuable part of all these inquiries was learning what hopefully becomes a habit: to look at the fundamental ethical soundness of a business or technology and be able to articulate it.

That may be the difference in a meeting between being able to say something vague and easily blown off, like “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” and describing a specific harm and reason why that harm is important — and perhaps how it can be avoided.

As for Hiniker, she has some ideas for improving the course should it be approved for a repeat next year. A broader set of texts, for one: “More diverse writers, more diverse voices,” she said. And ideally it could even be expanded to a multi-quarter course so that the students get more than a light dusting of ethics.

With any luck the kids in this course (and any in the future) will be able to help make those choices, leading to fewer Leagues and Duplexes and more COPPA-compliant smart toys and dating apps that don’t sabotage self-esteem.

0 notes

theinvinciblenoob · 6 years

Link

I talked to all the student teams at a poster session held on UW’s campus, and also chatted with Hiniker, who designed the course and seemed pleased at how it turned out.

The premise is that the students are given a crash course in ethical philosophy that acquaints them with influential ideas, such as utilitarianism and deontology.

I found the students fell into one of three categories.

Not fundamentally unethical (but could use an ethical tune-up)

Fundamentally unethical (fixes are still worth making)

Fundamentally unethical (fixes are essentially impossible)

To me the most valuable part of all these inquiries was learning what hopefully becomes a habit: to look at the fundamental ethical soundness of a business or technology and be able to articulate it.

via TechCrunch

#IFTTT #TechCrunch

0 notes