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The proof is HERE. It's on the internet, so it has to be true, right?

A certain webmaster has gotten into a little trouble over this one...but there are eight pages of the Star Wars Episode 2 screenplay HERE.

I assumed they were fake at first, but the reaction from Fox 2000 makes me think otherwise. Judge for yourself.

Does anybody else think that Shaft got the "white treatment" in the new film? I said that in my own review a while ago, which was immediately dismissed by the public as being more of my unintelligible psychotic ramblings. But sure enough, a week later I saw at least two "real" reviewers agreed with me, including TNT's Roughcut. Did any of you get that same vibe?

To me it's more proof that Hollywood has a real problem with color (as if that idea still needed to be proven).

On Titan A.E., does anybody else agree that it would have worked better as an all-CGI movie? The movie failed on its opening weekend because teenagers though it was a kiddie movie. They're less likely to think that about a CGI feature (I know I didn't feel silly going to see Toy Story 2, but I'll wait to rent Titan cause, well, its a cartoon).

Hey,

That's an interesting question. My mersonal favourite algorithm is IDEA, because it's reasonably fast, secure and it has a good acronym. If you're writing your own program, I suggest a look at the Scramdisk webpage. They have a nice bit about algorithms and choosing between them.

If you're presenting the question as an irrelevent question, like one might ask 'What does the scroll lock button do?' I'd say most programmers center thier choices on

1) If it's ever been broken.
2) What algorithms they know.
3) Key Length.
4) Speed.
5) Anything else.

Angorithm, however, is irrelevent in the big picture. The majority of effective attacks use things like buffer overflows and reverse engineering, not brute-force attacks, just like the easiest way of hacking is bribing employees. Well, that or threatening them.

Just my $0.02

Michael Tandy

It's shameful, really.

I remember I had an interesting article on this very topic on my web site, which also happens to be THE internet source for home-made moonshine and other fine products.

Web site whores like that should be shot.

I bring this all up because I still buy CD's at the same rate I used to... but I use Napster to sample them first...

I won't spend $15.00 on a CD that has ONE SONG I like. Screw that, I'll download that one song (or rip it off a friend's CD). But if there are 3-4 songs I like, I have no problem paying for it, and getting the cover art, lyrics, etc.

I mean, let's face it. If I like an entire album, it's a huge pain to download EVERY song, convert them to wavs, burn them to a CD that won't have the same quality or scratch resistance that a factory disc has....

So maybe the record industry won't be the hardest hit... maybe it'll be those "artists" who had one catchy song in them, and were hoping to sell 5 million albums based on that one single...

heyyyyy Macarena......

David Wong

When I heard about songs getting "leaked" before the release dates, I secretly wondered if that wasn't a ploy by the artist (or somebody) to do sort of a pre-release... see how the song goes over before you start throwing promotional money behind it.

Maybe I'm way off base here, but I know Napster was ablaze with early tracks off of N'Sync's (or one of those boy groups) last album before the album came out. That was the album that then set the all-time record for first-week sales once it hit record shops.

I know several publications, including Entertainment Weekly, soon pointed out that there was one instance where the leaked tracks helped build hype over the album. Makes sense to me.

-David Wong

You don't even have to go that far with it. The music companies aren't doomed to extinction, but they'd better damned well change they way they do business if they want to keep the same profit margins. As in, offer us something we can't get off Napster.

In fact, the biggest reason I root for Napster is because I know it will force the music distribution people to offer us more, or offer us the same for less money, in order to keep our business. They've been gouging us on the price of CD's since their debut, and now the pressure is on.

You listening, Columbia? You want me to buy the new N'Sync album, rather than just download the tunes? Well, what kind of deal are you willing to make me, you greedy bastards? (insert evil laughter here)

Come on, guys. You can spend millions on your lawyers fighting pointless lawsuits for the next ten years, or you can use that money to bring your company into the digital age. Deal with the new reality.

-David Wong

That really is the beauty of Napster, and is what has allowed it to last this long... if they had a huge server full of illegal MP3's operating in the open they would have been shut down within four seconds of opening.

But in reality, they don't have a single illegal piece of software on their servers.

The other, related problem for the music industry, of course, is that millions of us Napster users already have the MP3's on our hard drives, THEREFORE if they shut Napster down, and a replacement arises (as is already happening) we don't have to start over... the files are still out there, on C drives around the world.... just waiting for another piece of software to connect them.

David Wong

IF any of you can answer these questions, I'll give you my car-

1. IF Napster is killing off the recorded music industry, why was Eminem able to sell 1.7 million copies of his new album within ONE WEEK of its debut? The demographic he's selling to are also, coincidentally, the heaviest Napster users...

2. Even if overall CD sales are down... how can it be PROVEN IN A COURT OF LAW that it's Napster's fault, and not other market forces?

Now, I'm not saying it's not Napster's fault - I'm just saying it's gonna be tough to prove. What will they do, poll everyone who didn't buy a CD that week to find out why? And even if they present that data, how will they possibly prove that those same people would have bought CD's if Napster hadn't been around? You see where the waters start to get muddy?

I used to work in a law office. If you're gonna make a claim like "Napster is hurting our sales!" you'd better damned well be able to prove it, or else the judge will just give you a long, hard stare and tell you to get the hell out of his courtroom.

-David Wong
Pointless Waste of Time.com

The Severed Limb That Regrows Itself?

Actually, I'm waiting for the extra limb option.

From childhood I've dreamed of replacing my existing arms with a flamethrower and a chainsaw... but sadly this would reduce my effectiveness as a data entry clerk significantly (up to 20%, by my estimates).

However, if I could grow two new arms, then I could have the best of both worlds, and finally achieve my potential as a human being.

The future can't get here soon enough!

-David Wong, Pointless Waste of Time.com

I sent the URL to the studio to see if they wanted to use that concept for their print ad campaign. They never did get back to me.

-David Wong
CEO
Pointless Waste of Time.com

I sent the URL to the studio to see if they wanted to use that concept for their print ad campaign. They never did get back to me.

-David Wong
CEO
Pointless Waste of Time.com

The guys at pointless waste of time called "Battlefield Earth" the best film ever. Check out their review.

--Shoeboy
(former microserf)

The guys at pointless waste of time called "Battlefield Earth" the best film ever. Check out their review.

--Shoeboy
(former microserf)