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Evan Vetere writes "Apple is being petitioned to release a QuickTime client for Linux." Apple has been babystepping around Open Source for awhile now, but multimedia is one area where the veil of secrecy is extremely opaque: the codecs that drive video display and streaming are almost always proprietary. It would be great if apple would lead the way towards fair open standards by releasing an Open Source Quicktime client for Linux. It would do a world of good towards getting it accepted as a standard.

I've been so busy on the code frenzy that I've been behind on the quickies! Tragic! First lets get the serious quickies out of the way: chris sent us the Atlanta Linux Showcase Tutorial and Conference program for the 3rd Annual ALS, comming up October 12-16, 1999, in Atlanta Georgia. Registration is open. Bl0w0ff noted that The dockapp warehouse has been upgraded and redesigned. k-rist sent us SimShatner. Here is a site selling a video history of Atari with interviews with the guys that did Pac-Man and all that early stuff. Someone sent us a link to another place you don't want to see a BSOD. Want some Blair Witch Parodies? irishmikev sent is a Southpark Parody and stairs sent The Blair Family Circus Project. How about a pair of strange places to put a server? Gareth Walwyn sent us one in a potted plant and GFD noted thatLinux Today has a story about a box that runs in a real Pizza Hut Box. If strange Linux boxes ain't your bag, someone submitted Apple Fritter which contains strange cases for Apples (Legos, Radios, and more) Jade wrote in with how to apply for the position of Sith Apprentice. and rjh pointed us to the iMaul (seems like a lot of stuff is coming in pairs today) Evan Vetere noticed that despair.com has new de-motivators. Matthew McCabe sent us tuxtiles which is taking votes on designs for "Linux Blankets". Since we're mentioning merchandise, I gotta plug Think Geek which is the first place I've seen with good stuff. They mailed us a box of freebies, but I actually woulda bought most of the stuff they sent me (mugs with #include <beer.h> and some sweet perl shirts and other cool stuff). Most of the "Geek" sites just sell crap but most of this was actually clever. We probably should also note that Copyleft finally has the new Slashdot shirts from our contest winners, they look great. ralphb was the first to say that Time Digital has an article on Slashdot.

Squeezer sent us the April Edition of ext2 and Jim sent us the April Edition of FreeBSDZine . For the obsessive, Evan Vetere sent us a link to the Amazon preorder form for novelizations of the prequels. Its a 4 book set: 4 different covers, but 4 copies of the same book. Doommaker sent us linkage to info about that other cool movie coming out: Southpark is also gracing the big screen. bjb sent us a link to a applet that will Shred Any Web Page. Particular cheering after a long unsuccessful day. DaMan Penguin Pez Well, its the season for Peeps, and Italica sent us a url to a page of fun things to do to your leftover marshmellow bunnies. Not enough candy torture? frohike writes sent us another one. What did those bunnies do to deserve this? An anonymous reader alerted us to www.fishdot.org. Wierdos. Finally, an another anonymous reader sent us the most Hilarious Attorney Page Ever. Its for Leonard Crabs, Attorney At Law. "If your legal case is not won within 24 days, we''ll buy you a free combo meal at Taco Bell." Go now. Its funny.

Well we don't do it much, but I try to occasionally post reviews of Geeky movies, and today we have one of Deep Impact by Evan Vetere. A word of warning- he's extremely brutal so if you liked the movie, you'll want to stay away from this review (and I haven't seen it, so I have no comment, although if it's this terrible, I have got to see it).

What follows is a review of Deep Impact by Slashdot Reader Evan Vetere

Deep Impact

There are mediocre movies. There are bad movies. And then there are the movies which aren't just 'miserable'; they provoke a desire for vengeance. Deep Impact, the latest offering from Dreamworks SKG (Speilberg's company), is one of the latter variety.

I don't remember much of the beginning of the film; it's very confused, paced badly, and the camera moves in such a way as to make you nauseous. I do recall the first scene - where a young boy discovers a new star in the sky; an enormous comet larger than the brightest star. He sends a query to an astronomer in Santa Fe on a mountain, who realizes this comet is headed for Earth. The astronomer finishes his pizza, hops in his Jeep and starts speeding down the mountainside recklessly. Halfway he collides wi th a tractor-trailer (also with a reckless driver at the helm) and is sent plunging down the mountainside in a fiery ball.

So basically, we're expected within the first 5 minutes of the movie to suspend logic in two areas: first, to forget about the hundreds of radio telescopes scanning the Belt constantly for asteroids and believe that a teenage boy with a visual scope can d etect this killer rock before anyone else; secondly, believe that because this one astronomer manages to get killed, the world will never find out about the asteroid.

That's way too much to ask of me. I'll stick my disbelief in my coat pocket during a movie if the producers so desire, but not logic. Lost In Space, which I reviewed previously for this estimable mag, had brains. It had satire and irony oozing from the ti cket stubs. This film...

The following line is spoken by a television anchor (the main character) during the movie: "We have lost our visual link with the [starship attempting to divert the asteroid from its course], but we will continue coverage here at MSNBC. [Blank stare at sc reen displaying white noise]" Yeah, right - as if a television station covering the demise of the world would break away to hawk the mouth-watering succulencies of Kraft Cheese Singles.

If I were handed the script for this movie, I or anyone else with a high school education would be able to fix it in three or four hours' time. I sincerely doubt director Mimi Leder will sit at the helm of a theatrical release any time soon. Steven Speilb erg is not someone whose movies I've ever really liked, but this is a new all-time low for him.

The special effects are pathetic, too. Anyone with a nice Macintosh at home and a copy of Adobe Photoshop could have done a better job. And the producers of this movie have bragged about how accurate their physics are... well, there's a point in the movie where the asteroid headed for Earth is broken into two pieces. They quickly spin apart from each other... and stop. Newton's first law of motion anyone?

This is one of the very few movies I regret ever having seen. I'd have been better off staying home on Friday night and watching Chris Carter's Millennium on Fox. At least that TV show is shot well and is moderately entertaining.

Well we don't do it much, but I try to occasionally post reviews of Geeky movies, and today we have one of Deep Impact by Evan Vetere. A word of warning- he's extremely brutal so if you liked the movie, you'll want to stay away from this review (and I haven't seen it, so I have no comment, although if it's this terrible, I have got to see it).

What follows is a review of Deep Impact by Slashdot Reader Evan Vetere

Deep Impact

There are mediocre movies. There are bad movies. And then there are the movies which aren't just 'miserable'; they provoke a desire for vengeance. Deep Impact, the latest offering from Dreamworks SKG (Speilberg's company), is one of the latter variety.

I don't remember much of the beginning of the film; it's very confused, paced badly, and the camera moves in such a way as to make you nauseous. I do recall the first scene - where a young boy discovers a new star in the sky; an enormous comet larger than the brightest star. He sends a query to an astronomer in Santa Fe on a mountain, who realizes this comet is headed for Earth. The astronomer finishes his pizza, hops in his Jeep and starts speeding down the mountainside recklessly. Halfway he collides wi th a tractor-trailer (also with a reckless driver at the helm) and is sent plunging down the mountainside in a fiery ball.

So basically, we're expected within the first 5 minutes of the movie to suspend logic in two areas: first, to forget about the hundreds of radio telescopes scanning the Belt constantly for asteroids and believe that a teenage boy with a visual scope can d etect this killer rock before anyone else; secondly, believe that because this one astronomer manages to get killed, the world will never find out about the asteroid.

That's way too much to ask of me. I'll stick my disbelief in my coat pocket during a movie if the producers so desire, but not logic. Lost In Space, which I reviewed previously for this estimable mag, had brains. It had satire and irony oozing from the ti cket stubs. This film...

The following line is spoken by a television anchor (the main character) during the movie: "We have lost our visual link with the [starship attempting to divert the asteroid from its course], but we will continue coverage here at MSNBC. [Blank stare at sc reen displaying white noise]" Yeah, right - as if a television station covering the demise of the world would break away to hawk the mouth-watering succulencies of Kraft Cheese Singles.

If I were handed the script for this movie, I or anyone else with a high school education would be able to fix it in three or four hours' time. I sincerely doubt director Mimi Leder will sit at the helm of a theatrical release any time soon. Steven Speilb erg is not someone whose movies I've ever really liked, but this is a new all-time low for him.

The special effects are pathetic, too. Anyone with a nice Macintosh at home and a copy of Adobe Photoshop could have done a better job. And the producers of this movie have bragged about how accurate their physics are... well, there's a point in the movie where the asteroid headed for Earth is broken into two pieces. They quickly spin apart from each other... and stop. Newton's first law of motion anyone?

This is one of the very few movies I regret ever having seen. I'd have been better off staying home on Friday night and watching Chris Carter's Millennium on Fox. At least that TV show is shot well and is moderately entertaining.