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"In normal times, evil would be fought by good. But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil." The Chronicles of Riddick

Anymore, pirates are a hell of a lot more trustworthy than ANY given government or corporation. If I had something serious to leak, or had some crazy theories on even a half way controversial topic - I would trust those flagrant, authority mooning thugs to resist big brother more so than anyone else. The reason? Everyone has there breaking point, regardless of how bad ass you are - you still have one. It's just a matter of who has the higher breaking point as to who I would trust - not to necessarily do something for me, but more to NOT DO SOMETHING.

The false "DOS was vaporware" version of what happened often gets modded up on Slashdot. This is the version told on that stupid made-for-TV, "based on a true story" docudrama Pirates of the Silicon Valley . A much better telling of what actually happened (with actual interviews with Paul Allen, Bill Gates, Steve Balmer, Jack Sams of IBM, and Tim Patterson of SCP) is available from the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds (transcript of the relevant part available here).

I can understand how shows like Night Court (in which Harry Anderson, playing Judge Harry Stone, always had a Macintosh in his office) could feature a product without having it get in the way of a show. And certainly there are car companies that have had cars featured on shows or in movies, such as James Bond. But those were never central to the plot, so they didn't manage to drag things down like the proposed sponsor-centric content promises to. Even the show-within-a-show of The Truman Show didn't seem to have the nasty property they're talking about, since the plot focused on the character... the ads were just incidental ways to add revenue, kind of like hyperlinked ads in and around web articles or the hypertext-captioning of the Interstellar News Network on Babylon 5.

The significant point, however, is that the show comes first. By reversing the creative process and using product promotion as a starting point, not only is the quality of content likely to suffer, but the effectiveness of the advertising along with it.

Your putting it this way made me realize--it's not just the creation but the ongoing generation of new episodes, not to please a fan-base but to exploit a fan-base. Moreover, as the product evolves, the show has to evolve to match... not just as the starting point of the series but for each episode. This means they can't take it where the show wants to go, they have to take it where the product wants to go, and that's going to reach a divergence. It also means that if the product is upgraded or sold or someone wants a "fresh angle", the show is going to be canceled on a dime without any regard for what the public wants. Because shows are about "what viewers want" and ads are about "what we want viewers to want".

This divergence of purpose bodes ill.

I used to write regular parodies of The Young and the Restless (out of irritation for where the writers were taking the show). In the process, I found that writing for characters that viewers understand is something where you can't "lie" in the writing. If you do, you lose the viewers. I'd start to write something trying to make it go a certain way and the voice of the characters would tell me "No, you have to go another direction. That direction is not true to my character." And it worked best to just roll with it and see where the characters would naturally take me. I came to a belief that what makes good writing is when the characters are alive like that in your mind, and the characters are writing a "true" story--not in the sense of non-fiction, but in the sense of following how life would really go. Sort of like method acting but for writing... (Ah, I see. There are no new ideas in the world. Google tells me that the term method writing I just made up is an already elaborated theory. But yes, like that. Count me an instant believer that there is merit in this line of thinking.) Anyway, my point is that the kind of cynical "we can make it go where it needs to go" writing is quite suspect...

I can understand how shows like Night Court (in which Harry Anderson, playing Judge Harry Stone, always had a Macintosh in his office) could feature a product without having it get in the way of a show. And certainly there are car companies that have had cars featured on shows or in movies, such as James Bond. But those were never central to the plot, so they didn't manage to drag things down like the proposed sponsor-centric content promises to. Even the show-within-a-show of The Truman Show didn't seem to have the nasty property they're talking about, since the plot focused on the character... the ads were just incidental ways to add revenue, kind of like hyperlinked ads in and around web articles or the hypertext-captioning of the Interstellar News Network on Babylon 5.

The significant point, however, is that the show comes first. By reversing the creative process and using product promotion as a starting point, not only is the quality of content likely to suffer, but the effectiveness of the advertising along with it.

Your putting it this way made me realize--it's not just the creation but the ongoing generation of new episodes, not to please a fan-base but to exploit a fan-base. Moreover, as the product evolves, the show has to evolve to match... not just as the starting point of the series but for each episode. This means they can't take it where the show wants to go, they have to take it where the product wants to go, and that's going to reach a divergence. It also means that if the product is upgraded or sold or someone wants a "fresh angle", the show is going to be canceled on a dime without any regard for what the public wants. Because shows are about "what viewers want" and ads are about "what we want viewers to want".

This divergence of purpose bodes ill.

I used to write regular parodies of The Young and the Restless (out of irritation for where the writers were taking the show). In the process, I found that writing for characters that viewers understand is something where you can't "lie" in the writing. If you do, you lose the viewers. I'd start to write something trying to make it go a certain way and the voice of the characters would tell me "No, you have to go another direction. That direction is not true to my character." And it worked best to just roll with it and see where the characters would naturally take me. I came to a belief that what makes good writing is when the characters are alive like that in your mind, and the characters are writing a "true" story--not in the sense of non-fiction, but in the sense of following how life would really go. Sort of like method acting but for writing... (Ah, I see. There are no new ideas in the world. Google tells me that the term method writing I just made up is an already elaborated theory. But yes, like that. Count me an instant believer that there is merit in this line of thinking.) Anyway, my point is that the kind of cynical "we can make it go where it needs to go" writing is quite suspect...

Sounds like a predecessor to "Demolition Man"

Kyle XY and Smallville have clearly sponsored content.

Kyle XY and Smallville have clearly sponsored content.

call me when they make one that's 1x4x9.

I'm pretty sure that this is the kind of exploit that David Levinson used back in 1996.

Just like the blind programmer from Sneakers had!

But could they vocalize? Perhaps pitch was more important for their communication.

I've been to Hollywood, I've been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold
I've been in my mind, it's such a fine line,
That keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old

Then there is no hope for us.

I too was thinking of that Star Trek episode, as well as the 1990 movie: Robot Jox.

Unless I'm not finding a link in the article, it seems like they only managed to simulate the letter "e". Not exactly full speech emulation (yet) and sounds a bit like Stephen Hawking. Still, kinda cool. One can only assume the next effort will include the full poetic expression: Eegah

How much training do you think Justin Chatwin had to go through to be able to spend the last 45 minutes of the film with his hands above his head making the biggest spirit bomb EVER!

Apparently something is in development for a 2010 release, but I'll be damned if I'm going to bother to get an imdb account to find out more.

I agree, Robotech would probably sell better over here... though Macross Plus seems to have done a hell of a lot better than The Shadow Chronicles is doing.

Having watched subtitled versions of Macross and Mospeada (and having suffered through The Horrors Of Minmei in two languages), I'm weighing in with the (doubtless smaller) pro-Robotech crowd. The core story is pretty good, and it's a formative part of my childhood.

Live-action - Meaning real actors. Maybe some CG (as usual these days), but live actors. Not animation.
3D - Meaning stereoscopic 3D technology. No red-green glasses. Polarized glasses. Like what Cameron is using for Avatar and Battle Angel.

Live-action - Meaning real actors. Maybe some CG (as usual these days), but live actors. Not animation.
3D - Meaning stereoscopic 3D technology. No red-green glasses. Polarized glasses. Like what Cameron is using for Avatar and Battle Angel.

Your wish shall be granted (at least half of it).. 8^)

A Dragon Ball movie is already on the works, set to be released in 2009.

IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1098327/
Leaked photos: http://themovingpicture.net/new-dragonball-set-photos

A movie so bad that not even Kate Winslett's tits can save it.

Ah, one of the two highlights of the movie.
The other, of course, was Leonardo Di Caprio freezing to death.

This actually was the original premise of The Black Hole, but then sanity prevailed and they realized this would only appeal to very geeky lawyers and process-servers.

Dr. Hans Reinhardt was actually supposed to be the leading process-server of his time, undaunted by the prospect of being crushed by a black hole in the pursuit of his quarry... ;)

No, no. I assure you that Professor Ripley is quite certain that nuking it from orbit is the only way to be sure.

I don't like over-linking to wikipedia, but this image from Colorado Springs appears to be lightbulbs resting on the ground, powered remotely.

And this is from a movie, but in The Prestige, this same experiment appears to be shown.

I don't like over-linking to wikipedia, but this image from Colorado Springs appears to be lightbulbs resting on the ground, powered remotely.

And this is from a movie, but in The Prestige, this same experiment appears to be shown.

Hey, that's not the only one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/

Well, first I was really pissed off and then it got to the part about puss, antibiotics and growth hormones in milk from cows injected with RBGH.

I switched to organic milk a few years ago after watching a documentary called The Corporation, which discussed the bovine growth hormone/fox news/monsanto fiasco. Good doc, worth watching.

And here I was going to make a Janos Bartok and Nicodemus Legend reference. Something about upgrading from Tesla coils to lasers.

(BTW, the merchandising links are wrong: those are the Legend (1985) movie soundtracks. A pity there's no option for correcting them.)

And here I was going to make a Janos Bartok and Nicodemus Legend reference. Something about upgrading from Tesla coils to lasers.

(BTW, the merchandising links are wrong: those are the Legend (1985) movie soundtracks. A pity there's no option for correcting them.)

And here I was going to make a Janos Bartok and Nicodemus Legend reference. Something about upgrading from Tesla coils to lasers.

(BTW, the merchandising links are wrong: those are the Legend (1985) movie soundtracks. A pity there's no option for correcting them.)

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Chopping Mall

A bad idea, from a BAD movie. Just look at what imdb says you'll also like. Why Lurker2288, why?

You picked the wrong 1980s sci-fi film to reference. is much more appropriate.

"You have 4 more seconds to comply...3...2...1. Lethal force authorized!!!"

You know how I know calling your armed robots SWORDs is a bad idea? Because I saw this movie, that's how: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112993/

I guess this is Microsoft's answer to the movie "Antitrust", in which the Bill Gates character was not only the head of a massive software concern in the Pacific Northwest, he was also a murder. Scott McNeally made a cameo. It came out in 2001. Not bad really, but kind of over-the-top.

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/

ONE horrible movie? Oh, I beg to differ.

Which one? Pick one!

'It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic'

What a cast-iron star that man was :)

Iron Man will be renaming himself "Palladium," fighting to keep your computer trustworthy against open terror!

I will be smelling stale milk for weeks after putting it out my nose laughing. I guess the "Heroes Happen Here" stuff isn't taking off?

--
Toro

(Note: I believe this article was about a new comic book, not the movie, which features "Iron Monger" (Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane) as the enemy.)

[[UAC warning: Someone is making a schizoid post! mod Funny or Informative? Yeah, you should probably just click "ignore" ;^)]]

As soon as I read his name as Anderson, I imediatly thought of The matrix http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ and the scene where agent Smith sits down in the interogation room with "Mr Anderrsonnn" . Then for some reason I thought of agent Smith as agent Google, isnt that weird? I havnt had my coffee yet, that must be what it is.

The Future Of Food covers the Monsanto thing in good detail. Summary: a large company buys up all the seed, genetically modifyies some strains to be Roundup-ready, then sues into submission anyone who ends up with a cross-pollination with Roundup-ready strains, while creating a strain that is _inferior_, requiring increased fertilization and dependence on said company. File under 'Stuff that matters'.

For the uninitiated:

The quote is from Blazing Saddles

Thats alright, I thought it was calling into question a movie that was made some 15 years ago.

It's interesting to compare the state of things in the video game industry to the movie industry. These complaints are very familiar to anyone who followed action movies in the eighties. Robert Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle satirized the industry at a time where the bulk of roles for blacks were pimps, criminals or, at best, the gruff sergeant. The leads were always white. Times changed, of course, and no one is surprised when movies like "Serenity" can give nonstereotypical rolls to nonwhites or when Will Smith carries a movie. From what I can tell, the videogame industry quite simply hasn't advanced as much. It's still stuck in the bad old days with the street talkin' black man. It is a bit sad that the best the industry can do is have a black man in a supporting role in something like Halflife 2 (and that is remarkable in its uniqueness) yet the summer is full of movies starring Will Smith or Denzel Washington or Wesley Snipes or a Halle Barry or...

What they need is an Oddball at launches to demand people stop sending out "negative waves".

The Captain has known since 1986 that sound waves, particularly the very potent tones of Jimi at Berkeley, can destroy oncoming rockets.

Reference: Riders of the Storm

Elliot Carver anyone ?

...is you're fired.

Indeed. I pondered on that point for a moment or two.

I guess you are looking for Electric dreams