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In addition, to the higher standard of living in Indian, they had the opportunity to buy a house (impossible in Britain on their wages) and a family

How much would it cost to buy a family in Britain as opposed to India?

-Colin

"People would be able to see writing in the skies from the Earth no worse than they see the stars," he said. I know I can barely see the stars at all in the city. Is this only going to work to advertise to rural areas?

I hope they are not visible from the city. Given that most advertisers' target audience is young and urban, not being able to see the ads in sky from the city would be a major disincentive.

The day I look up at the moon from the streets of London and see a pepsi logo will be one of the saddest of my life.

-Colin

"People would be able to see writing in the skies from the Earth no worse than they see the stars," he said. I know I can barely see the stars at all in the city. Is this only going to work to advertise to rural areas?

I hope they are not visible from the city. Given that most advertisers' target audience is young and urban, not being able to see the ads in sky from the city would be a major disincentive.

The day I look up at the moon from the streets of London and see a pepsi logo will be one of the saddest of my life.

-Colin

Shouldn't this violate some sort of International Space Law?

Even if if didn't violate a law, there are some things so repugnant that they shouldn't be done.

-Colin

Can ANYONE explain the latest craze about social networks like Orkut or Friendster?

While I can't answer why it's a craze right now, I can tell you why I personally like using Orkut.

I've always liked the idea of bulletin boards and discussion groups on the internet, but I found them less than engaging in practice. The main reason for this for me was because they were faceless. I could never remember if I had replied to HMN22's comments before or not -- I could never get a sense of the personalities I was interacting with.

On the communities in Orkut, I can see a picture of the person next to each comment they make. That is a world of difference for me. Now I can much more easily remember if I've interacted with that person before. Also, I can check out their profile and get more of a sense of who they are.

But as I said, that's just why I like it -- I'm sure many others have very different reasons.

-Colin

Great, the last thing I want is to have to ignore a friend request from Hamlet on Orkut. That guy is so whiney and needy.

Now if only I could think of a clever way to start emailing Juliet.

-Colin

see Shakespeare in an entirely new light.

No thanks. My high school english classes did a good job of making sure that I'd never enjoy classic works.

There's no way to make someone hate reading faster than english classes.

-Colin

I've found that there are very few original thoughts or ideas, and very few people who come up with them. It isn't a matter of plagerism. It's just that there are only so many viable ideas out there. And the more that are already taken, the harder it is to come up with a new one. If you reach too far just to have an original thought, then you end up a wacko.

It's like my physics teacher said, `It was a lot easier to be a science teacher in the past.'

-Colin

I don't do it on my blog, but I hear that a popular way for bloggers to pretend to be in the know is to use the Technorati Current Events list to find things to post about. Then they pretend as though they found it themselves or an insider on the event emailed them the link.

Americans more ignorant about the American politcal system than Europeans?

As an American living in London I can say from first had experience this is true.

I remember having a conversation with a friend from France when she was explaining to me the details of the California recall vote. At which point I admitted to her that I knew absolutely nothing about the French political system. Do they have a King? I wouldn't know.

To my surprise, she wasn't the least bit surprised. She made a comment that I will always remember. "The politics of the United States affects the rest of the world, but the politics of the rest of the world does not affect the United States."

-Colin

Americans more ignorant about the American politcal system than Europeans?

As an American living in London I can say from first had experience this is true.

I remember having a conversation with a friend from France when she was explaining to me the details of the California recall vote. At which point I admitted to her that I knew absolutely nothing about the French political system. Do they have a King? I wouldn't know.

To my surprise, she wasn't the least bit surprised. She made a comment that I will always remember. "The politics of the United States affects the rest of the world, but the politics of the rest of the world does not affect the United States."

-Colin

Anyone else get the feeling that there weren't many people who entered? I love creative commons, but I do not think that these videos are very impressive.

-Colin

And a thousand nerds stand by ready to be the first to get gandalf@googlemail.com and billg@googlemail.com.

-Colin

Boy, I'd love to be the author of that article. He just keeps making money selling it over and over again. In addition the paper's owners must take note of his name when it draws a metric herd of slashdotters.

::Walks off to write an article about virii::

-Colin

First time from wired... it's a story.

Second time on NYT... it's a dupe.

Third time on the observer... it's a trupe?

-Colin

Now, he radiates a small field that protects anything within about two millimeters of his skin.

So... how does he damage anything? It's hard to hurt someone if the protection field around your fist covers the area of their body you strike.

-Colin

It is common knowledge that the sun is slowly increasing in size and will eventually (all be it in a LONG time from now) envelope the Earth.

You and I Sir, have different ideas about what is `common knowledge'. Go out on the street and ask random people some simple science questions and see how much knowledge like the sun's expansion is common.

-Colin

What I would really like to see apple do with the above is a garageband for writers. A place where they can upload their stuff, get exposure, and if they are good make some money.

-Colin

As long as Blizzard doesn't kill World of WarCraft, I don't care. : )


-Colin

How about starting RateTheStudents.com ? Would you like being publicly called a cheat or an incompetent lazy weasel (for good reason or not)? Would you like the profs to consult such a site before they start marking the final exam? I thought not.

The difference is the professor is (potentially) providing a service that I am paying for. It is not the reverse with the students.

-Colin

If something else is actually causing those effects, the whole theoretical edifice would come crashing down.

As it should.

-Colin

Internet was looking for a candidate

Really? I didn't know the Internet like to be anthropomorphised.

-Colin

Imagine what would have happened if this was Firefox 1.0, not Firefox 0.8.

[SARCASM]

Oh the horror!

[/SARCASM]

-Colin

Worth noting that ThunderBird .5 has been released as well.

Don't you mean ThunderFox?

-Colin

But it's a lot easier to produce and "distribute" a crap web page than a crap book.

That is true, but the vice is also the virtue. The 'net gives a voice to those who would not otherwise be heard.

-Colin

Not all books are enriching.

Not all internet pages are crap.

-Colin

I used that in my quote section of my high school yearbook. I thought it made a nice little fuck-you goodbye to the school : )

-Colin

...is like talking to a dog

-Colin

Let me tell you something: if you think you have the worst job, there's always a more dire one.

That's only true if there are an unlimited number of jobs, which I don't think is the current situation.

-Colin

Even if the laws of mathematics are not universal, that doen't mean that the laws of the universe aren't... er... universal. There isn't any law that says `Nature follows math'. As far as we know, math is a useful tool that seems to be able to predict what will happen - but that doesn't mean that math is the cogs and wheels behind the scenes.

-Colin

A team from the University of Michigan is proposing an economic solution to spam. Instead of relying on technical solutions or government regulations, they use a sender warranty system. In some cases, they argue, it can even be superior to a perfect filter with zero cost, and no errors. Their working paper is available at SSRN. With the caveat that some infrastructure is necessary (isn't it always?), they also claim their approach restores control to the recipient, halts spam, and creates a marketplace for valuable information exchange.

Would you mind writing a little more and saying a little less. I found this description too short and full of specific information.

-Colin

Yes - but on the other hand, for every person who was proclaimed to be full of crap but was actually a genius, there really were 999 people who were, in fact, just full of crap.

I wish that 1 out of a thousand people were a Newton or Feynman. But alas, I fear the rate is much lower than that.

-Colin

I read Doctorow's book and all I got was this lousy wuffie.

Now that's a T-shirt I would like.

-Colin

I'm still waiting for a GarageBand for writers. That's something I'd really like to see.

-Colin

They did the same thing with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, because LEG is not quite as cool as LXG

-Colin

You Sir, have a mind at metal and wheels.

--
In London? Need a Physics Tutor?

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You Sir, have a mind at metal and wheels.

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The question I have is this: Is there any change from the book that actually bothers people?

Pretending that Strider died in TT. It wasn't necessary, and didn't serve to move the plot.

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The question I have is this: Is there any change from the book that actually bothers people?

Pretending that Strider died in TT. It wasn't necessary, and didn't serve to move the plot.

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American Weblog in London

Merry does not recognize Eowyn in armor until she confronts the Lord of the Nazgul (ROTK p.93,142). Jackson has Merry recognize her right away.

Well duh.

This is exactly the sort of scene that works well in a book but horribly in a movie. Different mediums require changes. I remember in the BBC audio-dramatization (my favorite incantation of the Lord of the Rings Story) they did that scene without Sam recognizing her and it just doesn't work. Even with the 'I'm speaking from inside a helmet' effect, it's clearly Eowyn.

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Merry does not recognize Eowyn in armor until she confronts the Lord of the Nazgul (ROTK p.93,142). Jackson has Merry recognize her right away.

Well duh.

This is exactly the sort of scene that works well in a book but horribly in a movie. Different mediums require changes. I remember in the BBC audio-dramatization (my favorite incantation of the Lord of the Rings Story) they did that scene without Sam recognizing her and it just doesn't work. Even with the 'I'm speaking from inside a helmet' effect, it's clearly Eowyn.

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Jeez, how on earth did you compile such a long list of tiny details. Did you read along as you watched the movie?

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Jeez, how on earth did you compile such a long list of tiny details. Did you read along as you watched the movie?

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All that and he didn't mention the ommission of my favorate minor character: Radagast the Brown.

I swear, the first one who calls him simple or a fool or a bird-tamer is getting a punch in the mouth. : )

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All that and he didn't mention the ommission of my favorate minor character: Radagast the Brown.

I swear, the first one who calls him simple or a fool or a bird-tamer is getting a punch in the mouth. : )

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Gandalf first grabs Sam by the shoulders outside the window of Bag End and scolds him, then he carefully lifts him through the window (FOTR p.97-98). Jackson has Gandalf pull Sam quickly through the window and onto a table. Unnecessary and poorly handled. Why did Gandalf need to treat poor Sam so violently? It was also an obvious stuffed dummy prop.

I think because this is a movie, and we need to quickly show that this is a very serious matter that Gandalf is talking about. Plus it gives more punch to the '...and something about the end of the world.' line.

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Gandalf first grabs Sam by the shoulders outside the window of Bag End and scolds him, then he carefully lifts him through the window (FOTR p.97-98). Jackson has Gandalf pull Sam quickly through the window and onto a table. Unnecessary and poorly handled. Why did Gandalf need to treat poor Sam so violently? It was also an obvious stuffed dummy prop.

I think because this is a movie, and we need to quickly show that this is a very serious matter that Gandalf is talking about. Plus it gives more punch to the '...and something about the end of the world.' line.

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If you don't know that, I'm note sure you should be on slashdot : )

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If you don't know that, I'm note sure you should be on slashdot : )

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What about parody movies like space balls? Can Lucas sue them because they made money?

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