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I probably fall into that "casual gamer" category like a lot of others do. Casual enough that I don't own any consoles - not even a classic NES. I just play a couple of games that come with my distro. But your comment reminded me of the movie Impromptu. In it, Chopin criticizes a play that several characters are acting out as being "impertinent", among other adjectives, and generally done at the expense of their hosts, and withdraws his background music services. In response to this, Alfred screams, after a few choice words, that "art does not apologize!!" (followed by an ear-shattering explosion set up by some kids, that unintentionally punctuates his comment).

I'm reminded of this because the various forms of art depicted in the movie, including Chopin's and Liszt's music, were written for their own pleasure and those who they expected would enjoy it. That is to say, the artists deliberately avoided trying to gain the favor of the masses, as this would have meant rewriting or watering-down their works to some extent, and possibly losing the emotion or imagery the works were meant to convey. In doing so, it could be seen as art apologizing - for insulting someone, for not appealing to the masses, or some other generally meaningless thing. Whether you like their movies or not, MGM's slogan still says it well, "ars artis gratis" which was supposed to translate to "art for art's sake" (apparently, the word should have been "gratia", but I digress).

Whether you classify video games as "art" or not is your call of course, and whether or not they have to make gobs of money is up to the producers of those games, but you can't blame a game's author(s) for writing something *they* would enjoy. The same holds true for Hollywood as well as the recording industry; what shows up on the marquee or in the music stores is mostly their call, not yours.

It probably sounds a little ironic, but if it were left up to the masses, we'd have nothing but pop, rap, and maybe one or two other categories of "music" for sale these days, because those sell the most right now. Instead, we have dozens of styles from hundreds of authors, spanning several decades, because other stuff still sells. The same would hold true with games too, I'm pretty sure. Leave it up to the masses and there'd only be one moderately-powered console like Gamecube, with just a couple of varieties of games (probably FPS's and platform/scrollers like Super Mario Bros.). Ok, that's an exaggeration, but you get my point, I hope.

Just sharing the love for Dykstra as I saw this recently: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089489/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092494/

See? All better.

Yeah, isn't that kinda like this movie...?

http://imdb.com/title/tt0264464/

Milla Jovovich did the last part of the run down the city hall herself. Her stunt double did the first part at about 200 feet above ground.

Possibly my favourite Star Trek episode was written by Sturgeon. I did not discover his work til years later and it was some time again later til I noticed his name on the writing credits. It could be coincidence that some of my favourite fiction in two different media is by the same author, but I tend to think it's more likely that it is the quality of the author his (or her) self because I can make the same claim with regards to Dorothy Fontana and others.

What's wrong with a movie about some network device??

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408345/

I watch a lot more Japanese and British content now a days because a lot of the junk being pushed out of hollywood is nothing but CGI foreplay

At the risk of repeating myself: I'm convinced the biggest difference between Tron and Star Wars is John Williams. Go ahead, hum the Tron theme. I'll wait while you try to remember it...

Music isn't the only difference, I'll grant. But I believe it is the biggest.

The 'nothing to hide' argument is quite prevalent.

Says who? It really doesn't sound smart when someone pulls it. Rather hilarious. Perhaps they don't know much about the Stasi. See e.g. the movie 'The lives of others' (Das Leben der Anderen): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094 the Stasi allegedly used the same argument.

After the cinematic masterpiece that was DooM, I just can't wait for the Halo movie.

Haven't you heard? The Halo movie was put on indefinite hold a while back. That said, it looks like they still have Neill Blomkamp in their corner, judging by the short they showed tonight. If you haven't already, you should check out some of his stuff, especially Alive in Joburg. He's a very talented director and cinematographer, and many people were excited to hear that he was going to helm the Halo movie. On top of that, IMDB currently lists Alex Garland (28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later) as the writer for the Halo movie, which shows promise. And finally, Bungie has a huge bible of Halo lore that they use for the games and books, which gives the Halo movie a fighting chance compared to Doom (which only had a story in order to justify why you were hunting for keys and killing demons). If they ever decide to go forward with the movie, I'll be cautiously excited.

I hope they release it in blu-ray or HD-DVD, so I can watch it in all its HighDef glory.

But Blu-Ray is Sony! Eww! Obviously they'll release it as an HD download on Xbox Live instead. :)

[...]a compression algorithm called the aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaa algorithm[...]

That's gotta be the most annoying compression algorithm in the world.

Disney's misuse of mice dates back to at least 1928. But over the past few decades, Disney hasn't been misusing mice as much as misusing politicians to protect its exclusive rights to mice.

Please, Farfour Mouse, be not quite dead.

I assumed it was related to eradicating the deadliest "bio" film of all: Biodome. I can think of no worthier cause.

Let's be clear: You want people to know about your nuclear capability. It's not much of a deterrence if no one knows you have it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/

Two points: First, the physical changes to the drivers' licenses were only the tip of the Real ID iceberg; the bigger part of it was a big database that would contain all the same information as what's stored on the cards, and probably a lot more. This is where the increase in security came from (at least, according to the system's proponents). Instead of just examining the ID, someone at a terminal with access to the Giant Federal Database 'o Fun could swipe your card and see your photo and other information pop up on screen. So in order to "forge" an ID card and use it to get into a Federal Building, you'd not only have to create the physical card, but you'd also have to hack into the database and update the information there.

Obviously, this database thing does not go over well with a lot of people. The Federal government has a piss-poor history of IT and information security. The whole place, at least on the civilan/unclassified side, leaks like a sieve and loses computers and data at a terrifying rate. The last thing most people want is to be put into a national 'one stop shop' for stalking, ID theft, unwanted "investigation," data mining, etc.

Second: Although Canada and the U.S. are alike in many ways, they're not the same. Attitudes, particularly in regards to government, are quite different. What people find acceptable in Canada -- and what may actually work in Canada -- are not necessarily the same things that will work in the U.S. If you, as a Canadian, say that you have a similar Giant Central Database, and your government uses it responsibly and the whole thing doesn't devolve into a Brazilian bureaucratic nightmare, I'll take your word for it. However, that gives me no faith at all that a similar system wouldn't be an absolute terror, were it implemented here. Maybe you have more responsible leaders. Maybe we're paranoid. Maybe the water in D.C. is contaiminated with Brain Slug larvae. Who knows; but I don't trust my government further than I can throw it, and nothing I've seen recently has encouraged me to re-evaluate that decision.

Greek geeks?

Yup, they're called Lambdas.

Greek geeks?

Yup, they're called Lambdas.

Greek geeks?

Yup, they're called Lambdas.

Greek geeks?

Yup, they're called Lambdas.

...have there been any other screen adaptations of his books?...

That's Brazil the Terry Gilliam movie, not the South American country. Thought I'd clear that up before Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva decides to invade Slashdistan for badmouthing.

I think they're called tentacles (or testicles, if you're a pretty, French foreign-exchange student).

+1 Fitting Movie Reference

It is also quite impressive that _all_ the props will be CGI. It must have been incredibly painful to sync them with a live actor.

btw, the garden scenes in Casshern were a joy to my eyes.

It is also quite impressive that _all_ the props will be CGI. It must have been incredibly painful to sync them with a live actor.

btw, the garden scenes in Casshern were a joy to my eyes.

It is also quite impressive that _all_ the props will be CGI. It must have been incredibly painful to sync them with a live actor.

btw, the garden scenes in Casshern were a joy to my eyes.

It is also quite impressive that _all_ the props will be CGI. It must have been incredibly painful to sync them with a live actor.

btw, the garden scenes in Casshern were a joy to my eyes.

They are more familar with the idea of secrecy and control than ideas like cooperation and standards.

We're the United States Government! We don't deal with that sort of thing.

I hope it's better than 2001: A Space Travesty

Without Warning

Way off topic here, so posting as AC... But yes, there are good Adam Sandler movies:

- Punch Drunk Love http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/, great romantic comedy.
- Click! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389860/ will probably make you cry.

Note that in both movies, Adam Sandler is not playing his normal Happy Gilmore / Big Daddy / Mr. Deeds role.

Way off topic here, so posting as AC... But yes, there are good Adam Sandler movies:

- Punch Drunk Love http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/, great romantic comedy.
- Click! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389860/ will probably make you cry.

Note that in both movies, Adam Sandler is not playing his normal Happy Gilmore / Big Daddy / Mr. Deeds role.

I'm still waiting for Rendezvous with Rama to come out. They used to have some info up at the domain name, which is registered by Revelations Entertainment and was supposed to be sponsored by Intel. If the IMDB page is accurate, this might be coming out in a few years... but it's been simmering for about a decade so who knows how accurate that is.

I love it when people release these spy tools publicly. Finally "Joe Mousepad" can catch up with the NSA, and spy on his neighbors.

"Suspicion Breeds Confidence"

Not sure how many folks remember the 1984 movie Runaway with Tom Seleck, but the first robot going crazy that Officer Jack Ramsay had to deal with was an agrobot that worked in crop fields killing bugs.

So how long before the personal heat seeking bullets are perfected?

Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind having Susan Dey from Looker either.

It's from Sneakers.

Sneakers @ Wikipedia, Sneakers @ IMDB.

you mean DVDA like in Orgazmo ?

I can think of almost nothing more environmentally unsound than monkeying around with this field

Don't worry! If it stops, we'll just drill a hole down to the center of the earth and set off a nuclear bomb to make the core start spinning again. We'll have plenty of advance notice, as when the core slows down, pigeons will be unable to navigate, and 32 people with pacemakers will drop dead in Boston -- unfortunate, but a small price to pay! (Don't believe the part about the Golden Gate Bridge collapsing... that's just hooey!

Sigh. See the actual plot summary for the game and its movie follow up.

sounds like a summer blockbuster to me!

That has some unintended consequences.

You can get the next laws and amendment for Massachusetts here

i highly recommend for people to watch sycko


after watching this i am shocked, USA is in a bigger mess than i taught!

as a European i am happy i don't have to make tough choices when it comes to my health, if i need treatment i would get treatment with little hassle

i highly recommend for any Americans with Irish roots to come back here (u wont get hassle getting citizenship!) the economy in last 10 years has grown so much the country is unrecognizable, and u get quality health care (its not perfect but compared to the US...)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100168/

Back on topic, though, it's quite obvious that we need to turn the various candidates on to the idea that people should retain total control of their credit.
However, if they drink too deeply of this 'freedom' kool-aid, they may want to opt out of some of the other Social programs intended for their Security.
Big Brother needs to take a very careful look at all of this talk of independence.

The movie is Half Baked and it was written by and starred Dave Chappelle before he got his Comdey Central show.