Slashdot Mirror

What technologies are the focus in the original Night of the Living Dead?

You might want to take a look at this documentary. In it, they interview the person who invented the cellular phone. Yes, we see it, now, as a fairly obvious extension of the telephone and radio, but he was inspired by the communicators on Star Trek. There's actually a lot of things we take for granted these days which were inspired by sci fi.

Let us celebrate obscurity: The Saragossa Manuscript.
Or the equally excellent original: href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manuscript_Found_in_Saragossa

Both 28 Days Later and Resident Evil were made respectively by a UK director (in the UK), and by a UK company (FilmFour)....

And "Quarantine" is a remake of a Spanish movie, [Rec].

There are four bridges running east/west over the bay

But only one leads to the Playtronics factory where the MacGuffinn is held...

The FCC shouldn't fine a network over an inadvertent nipple slip.

Mostly like the (somewhat broken) MPAA, there should merely by ratings and guidelines that enable parents to make decisions for themselves on how to raise their kids.

I don't want my daughter playing Grand Theft Auto. But I certainly don't want anyone telling me how to raise my kid. Voluntary rating systems are the way to go. However, unlike the MPAA, the rules for how the ratings are determined should be transparent.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493459/

Wake me up when they've built a nuclear powered bus.

They did

You should never be Reliant on your enemy's technology.

Me too!

As long as they didn't have fish for Dinner http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/

A flipped bit in a floating point number can have a disproportionate affect on the outcome of calculations that rely upon it, and short of running the whole simulation a second or third time, one couldn't be confident that such an error did not occur.

First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?
-Contact

TFA says something about "US$14,519 over five years" for one box
Is that cheap enough to justify buying twice what you need and running the simulation in parallel?

As an aside, the biggest problem I see is that it 'only' has 24GB of RAM.
In my uninformed opinion, that doesn't seem nearly enough for supercomputing purposes.

You might not be taking it far enough!

Except that it was not BS. You were just... how do you say in your time... "'tarded"... :P

I bet the guys behind this aren't too happy to hear this.

Bug: Place projectile weapon on the ground.
Edgar: You can have my gun, when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Bug: Your proposal is acceptable.

Men in Black

Something wrong with your analogy is that these restaurants willingly gave you these free samples. Would these restaurants still willingly give you a free sample if you just walked in and forcefully took it?

The parent post didn't mention anything about forcefully stealing anything. The parent post said:

And the point was that you dont have demos in restaurants either, you only get to test it by purchasing.

My response was to point out that restaurants do give free samples voluntarily. I could also point out trade shows and expos where area restaurants show up as vendors and provide free samples of their menu to the thousands of potential customers that attend.

I can also go into my area supermarket on a Saturday and there will be people behind sample stations, trying to get me to test the newest brand condiment or microwave food or brand of cheese, or whatever they are pushing. These are also free samples or demos. We were talking about the presense or absence of demos, and the idea that try before you buy has validity in the marketplace.

In Texas, I can go buy a car. If I don't like it, I have three days in which I can drive back to the dealership and terminate my contract and give them the car back. I don't even lose any money on the deal.

In any loan contract in the United States, the law states a three day Right of Recission, during which the contract can be cancelled without penalty.

Even in a movie theater, a customer can walk out after the first 30 minutes or so and demand their money back. I remember quite a few parents demanding refunds after taking their children to Happy Feet with crying children in tow.

Why shouldn't consumers of software or games get to try before they buy? Why shouldn't consumers be able to demand their money back when a game is marketed as a great experience yet it blows chunks?

This League of Gentlemen film?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052997/

It's great and very much ahead of its time in the way it took the micky out of the English establishment and in its presentation of gay issues.

(said with "King & I" diction) Et Cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Security Admin: Upper management doesn't understand the risk these vulnerabilities pose and we can't get funding to get it fixed. We need it demonstrated through videos and screenshots, exactly what sort of damage can be done by a single attacker given 1 week to exploit this application.

From Sneakers (1992):

Bank Secretary: So, people hire you to break into their places... to make sure no one can break into their places?

Martin Bishop: It's a living.

Bank Secretary: Not a very good one.

In one of the first 'gosh-wow' science shows I remember watching, The Twenty-First Century, the host, Walter Cronkite, was allowed to drive a prototype car controlled with a joystick. It was actually installed on a lap pad! Both steering and acceleration were controlled with the joystick. Walter got it up to thirty or so, then tried to take a turn. He ripped a magnificent donut, and quickly decelerated. The auto engineer assured him that it was safe with practice!

[joke about Boron]

I know the intent was based on the actual periodic table, but it is used in a cult movie I need to mention. I think even on slashdot it might be a bit obscure movie: Gamers: Dorkness Rising.

It is a movie about gamers (mostly the in game adventures their characters are having) and the players social interactions. It is an indy film and is very good. I attend GenCon every year and get to see many of these kinds of films and it is one of the best.

The full quote from the film (if I can fully remember) during a discussion of the traditional earth, wind, water, fire elements: "The four elements alone are weak, but when combined, they make the strong fifth element....boron"

Yes, off topic, but couldn't resist the opportunity.

Doctor Who references to Robots controlled by organic brain's include:
- Mr. Sin, aka: the Peking Homunculus, a robot controlled by a pig's brain, from the Talon's of Weng Chiang. Mr. Sin probably matches the experiment in the article the most closely, because he was a robot controlled by a portion of an animal's brain.
- Morbius, from the Brain of Morbius. Does everyone remember the talking brain in a jar?
- The Genesis of the Daleks shows that Dalek's are fully formed aliens and can kill people without being inside the "Travel" machines. As can be also be seen in the early episodes that "made" Doctor Who, the Daleks.
- The Attack of the Cyberman shows clearly how the Cyberman evolved by replacing body parts with metal parts, until they were just human brains controlling robots. Of course, the new series updates the brains in a robot with more nasty implications.
- Master. In the Planet of Fire, a miniaturized Master remotely controlled the robot Chameleon.
- Rani. In Time and The Rani, the Rani made a organic brain into a giant Beowulf cluster of the world's brightest minds. Her goal was to destroy the universe and a variety of other evil. Trouble ensued when the Rani realized that the Doctor was slightly crazy ...

Other movie references are:
- Saturn 3 - a movie where someone grows a brain in a jar and puts it in an 8 foot killer robot. Oh, did I mention that the personality imprint for the brain comes from a killer?
- Robocop proof that good things could possibly happen if someone attaches a human brain to a robot, and the sequel, Robocop 2, that shows bad things are what normally occur.

Doctor Who references to Robots controlled by organic brain's include:
- Mr. Sin, aka: the Peking Homunculus, a robot controlled by a pig's brain, from the Talon's of Weng Chiang. Mr. Sin probably matches the experiment in the article the most closely, because he was a robot controlled by a portion of an animal's brain.
- Morbius, from the Brain of Morbius. Does everyone remember the talking brain in a jar?
- The Genesis of the Daleks shows that Dalek's are fully formed aliens and can kill people without being inside the "Travel" machines. As can be also be seen in the early episodes that "made" Doctor Who, the Daleks.
- The Attack of the Cyberman shows clearly how the Cyberman evolved by replacing body parts with metal parts, until they were just human brains controlling robots. Of course, the new series updates the brains in a robot with more nasty implications.
- Master. In the Planet of Fire, a miniaturized Master remotely controlled the robot Chameleon.
- Rani. In Time and The Rani, the Rani made a organic brain into a giant Beowulf cluster of the world's brightest minds. Her goal was to destroy the universe and a variety of other evil. Trouble ensued when the Rani realized that the Doctor was slightly crazy ...

Other movie references are:
- Saturn 3 - a movie where someone grows a brain in a jar and puts it in an 8 foot killer robot. Oh, did I mention that the personality imprint for the brain comes from a killer?
- Robocop proof that good things could possibly happen if someone attaches a human brain to a robot, and the sequel, Robocop 2, that shows bad things are what normally occur.

Doctor Who references to Robots controlled by organic brain's include:
- Mr. Sin, aka: the Peking Homunculus, a robot controlled by a pig's brain, from the Talon's of Weng Chiang. Mr. Sin probably matches the experiment in the article the most closely, because he was a robot controlled by a portion of an animal's brain.
- Morbius, from the Brain of Morbius. Does everyone remember the talking brain in a jar?
- The Genesis of the Daleks shows that Dalek's are fully formed aliens and can kill people without being inside the "Travel" machines. As can be also be seen in the early episodes that "made" Doctor Who, the Daleks.
- The Attack of the Cyberman shows clearly how the Cyberman evolved by replacing body parts with metal parts, until they were just human brains controlling robots. Of course, the new series updates the brains in a robot with more nasty implications.
- Master. In the Planet of Fire, a miniaturized Master remotely controlled the robot Chameleon.
- Rani. In Time and The Rani, the Rani made a organic brain into a giant Beowulf cluster of the world's brightest minds. Her goal was to destroy the universe and a variety of other evil. Trouble ensued when the Rani realized that the Doctor was slightly crazy ...

Other movie references are:
- Saturn 3 - a movie where someone grows a brain in a jar and puts it in an 8 foot killer robot. Oh, did I mention that the personality imprint for the brain comes from a killer?
- Robocop proof that good things could possibly happen if someone attaches a human brain to a robot, and the sequel, Robocop 2, that shows bad things are what normally occur.

This can't turn out well.

Unless it's for a sexbot, of course.

Oh, wait. Even just a few human brain cells are enough to know to steer clear of the oddness of nerds.

Lest everyone forget, this is a bus we're talking about. I don't think I ever saw WRX STi badging on that bad boy, so while reducing wheel weight is good as it reduces the gyro effect when the wheel spins, but I doubt that these vehicles are going to wind up facing wheel-skip problems... I hope. They're not making any more Speed sequels/prequels/craptinuations, are they?

If it gets much bigger, we'll have to call Steve McQueen for help!

A movie can't think.

Dr. Wheeler would probably beg to differ.

This documentary explains how CO can be used to help obtain organs for transplantation.

Some might argue he already has.

It continually amazes me how people who know little about the Internet, or just got on it recently, have rewritten its history to such an extent.

Net history has been rewritten but to say without that without the government there would not be a network like the internet is to ignore or be ignorant of history also. That I know of, there may of been some earlier, the earliest network I known of was setup in 1969 as Compu-Serv Network, Inc. by an insurance company. After the birth of homebrew computers or microcomputers in the 1970s bulletin board systems or BBSes started cropping up. People, especially here on slashdot, complain how made up Mathew Broderick's "WarGames" was but back then there were BBSes and people did wardial looking for BBSes and any other computer connected to the phone lines. (Okay I know some people's complaint is about a thinking WOPR.)

Without government it would have taken longer but a network of networks would still have been developed.

Falcon

Any chance the show was "Dads"? Apparently that show was used in exactly the manner you described for a number of years to test various commercials.

Reminds me of a bit from one of my favorite movies "You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire; you build egos the size of cathedrals; fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse; grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies, until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own God... and where can you go from there?"

You mix the combination of giant egos with Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory and you end up with some seriously large douches. But the problem with laws like this is they ALWAYS get abused. Look at the 6 year old who was suspended and looking at being sent to a school for juvenile offenders for bring his cub scout multi-tool to school to eat lunch with. Laws like this will be badly abused, and the last thing we need is one of the last bastions of truly free speech turning into a place where you can't speak your mind for fear of getting arrested or sued. I for one would rather have free speech than some bureaucrat deciding whether or not something I said on a forum could take away my freedom, wouldn't you?

I'm feeling more compelled to go have another orgy with vampires in Second Life!

As long as we can still play D&D whilst doing it, count me in!

Your Second Life avatars will sit at their virtual computers to play D&D Online.

Meanwhile, your "real" body is actually a surrogate and everything is inside the Matrix, and the universe is a 3-D holographic projection anyway.

We'll perform this simple apendectomy. WITH A CHAINSAW!

Well I suppose if dentists still use drills... wait a sec - Bruce?

There was a Sci Fi version of that called "Looker" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/

The aliens already abducted our top videogame players in the eightees: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087597/
OTOH, there weren't any wall-hacks back then.

Star Wars in some medieval context? Never would have thunk it.

[igniting Luke's saber]
Darth Vader: I see you have constructed a new light saber. Your skills are complete. Indeed you are powerful as the Emperor has foreseen.

It all goes downhill from the "machine that goes PING!".

Sorry.

Would like to point out to a really good science fiction movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/

You'll probably want to watch it two times.

There was a tv show with something to that effect.

This actually reminded me of the mini-series The Triangle a few years back.

In true White Goodman fashion, cheating is something losers come up with to make them feel better about losing.

Is Intel the 500 lb. gorilla in chipsets? Sure, and they got there by 'cheating.' Which is winning.

Aint capitalism grand?

For all you losers who don't know who the great White Goodman is: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364725/

Is there something wrong with me if I was turned on by her in Exit to Eden?

yes. yes there is.

Is there something wrong with me if I was turned on by her in Exit to Eden?

Has none of you seen 'The Dark Crystal' for details on how to solve that ?

Yes, that IS what happened -> http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/02/25/005398.html and it was pretty seedy. He actually demonstrated to each of the companies his technology, they stopped responding to his calls, they released cars with HIS functionality. He had a years long battle to win compensation as a result. I may be wrong but I believe that Ford in particular thought themselves too big for the little guy to take down and tried to steamroll him. This came out in the proceedings if memory serves.
.
This is but ONE example that sprung to mind immediately. Simply getting "credit" for being first isn't good enough IMO. Of course it is possible for two different people to be completely disconnected and have the same idea. However the chances of this are becoming pretty slim. Simply giving the first guy a footnote if the second guy makes billions is pathetic and unfair. I do not see properly compensating the first person to slow progress at all, in fact I think just the opposite. If people are fairly compensated for innovative ideas then perhaps ideas will be shared more readily. If you didn't have to fear someone stealing the idea, as the wiper story demonstrates, then perhaps you will be more likely to be open about it. Suppose all of the money and time Robert spent fighting was put back into developing new ideas - what might he have created?
.
I've just remembered - they made a movie about his story! I haven't seen it but it ought to prove enlightening to you and perhaps interesting. Adding it to my NetFlix now :-) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054588/

looks like I was not the only one watching johnny mnemonic last night. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113481/