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Here's one by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-04 12:27 · Score: 4, Funny · on Mapping The Corporate Open Source World?

Name: Steve Ballmer

Position: CEO

Company:Microsoft

View on open source: cancer

Star Wars is dying by raduga · 2002-10-17 07:16 · Score: 1 · on Star Wars Producer Says Box Office is Doomed

It is official; Rick McCallum now confirms: Star Wars is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered movie community when LucasFilms confirmed that theatre market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all moviegoers. Coming on the heels of a recent box office survey which plainly states that AoTC has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Box offices are collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Moviegoers comprehensive audience test.

You don't need to be a Ebert to predict Star Wars future. The hand writing is on the wall: Star Wars faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Star Wars because Star Wars is dying. Things are looking very bad for Star Wars. As many of us are already aware, Star Wars continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

LucasFilm is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core producers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time producers as Stanley Kubrick only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Star Wars is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Box Office leader George Lucas states that there are 7000 watchers of Star Wars. How many users of Star Wars are there? Let's see. The number of Star Trek versus Star Wars posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 Star Wars users. Episode I posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of Star Wars posts. Therefore there are about 700 watchers of Episode I. A recent article put Empire Strikes Back at about 80 percent of the Star Wars market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 Empire Strikes Back watchers. This is consistent with the number of Empire Strikes Back Usenet posts.

Due to the troubles of Lucas Ranch, abysmal sales and so on, TPM went out of business and was taken over by AoTC who sell another troubled film. Now AoTC is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

All major surveys show that Star Wars has steadily declined in market share. Star Wars is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Star Wars is to survive at all it will be among cult film dilettante dabblers. Star Wars continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Star Wars is dead.

Fact: Star Wars is dying

He said it best...... by Siriaan · 2002-10-10 15:10 · Score: 5, Insightful · on Live-Action Remake of Akira

I think Roger Ebert, well-known closet otaku, said it best in his review for Titan AE :

I argue for animation because I believe it provides an additional dimension for film art; it frees filmmakers from the anchor of realism that's built into every live-action film, and allows them to visualize their imaginations. Animation need not be limited to family films and cheerful fantasies. The Japanese have known that for years....

The thought of what a live action Akira might be like scares me.

5th commissioner being held up by politics by dcgaber · 2002-10-10 08:11 · Score: 5, Informative · on FCC Approves Digital Radio, Kills Satellite Merger

This is a very timely question. It is answered in this article and this op-ed.

Basically, because Senator Leahy is holding up several judicial nominees, the Republican have fired back and put holds on several Democrat nominees, including Jonathan Adelstein, a staffer for Senate Majority leader Daschle and the current nominee for the 5th FCC spot.

Traditionally, the FCC is filled with 5 commissioners, the majority and minority leader of the House and Senate choosing one each, and the President choosing the Chair.

This is actually a big mess right now and causing some to observe they have not seen this type of rancor EVER in the Senate (and that is saying a lot).

Meanwhile a gripe about the moderation system. I think it is ridiculous I can't mod any posts under this article now that I have chosen to add something to it. I comment on articles I am interested in, and I mod in threads I am interested, but I can't do both...that sucks (and yes, I understand the reasons to do so. But given the choice, I would rather comment than mod, but the best is to be able to do both).

Re:Who in the hell is Robert Novak? by Flamerule · 2002-10-03 05:09 · Score: 2 · on Google sued as PetsWarehouse Lawsuit Continues.

No...

The Robert Novak you're thinking of is the sometimes competent and sometimes wildly partisan conservative columnist and talking head.

The Robert Novak in this story is a sociopathic bully and owner of a horrible online pet store (/., please).

Comdex cancelled :( by MAXOMENOS · 2002-09-24 07:19 · Score: 2 · on Ballmer: "We'll Outsmart Open Source"

The irony of this statement is that Comdex has been cancelled.

Roger Ebert by WEFUNK · 2002-09-22 06:27 · Score: 5, Informative · on Review: Spirited Away

Here's Roger Ebert's review of the dubbed version, as well an essay he wrote that includes an interview with Miyazaki and gives some good background on the dubbed version produced by John Lasseter ("Toy Story") and Disney.

Roger Ebert by WEFUNK · 2002-09-22 06:27 · Score: 5, Informative · on Review: Spirited Away

Here's Roger Ebert's review of the dubbed version, as well an essay he wrote that includes an interview with Miyazaki and gives some good background on the dubbed version produced by John Lasseter ("Toy Story") and Disney.

Re:What is Spirited Away? by sdo1 · 2002-09-19 15:06 · Score: 2 · on Miyazaki's Spirited Away U.S. Release

It's a Japanese anime, but it has become the highest grossing movie in Japanese history.

Roger Ebert has a story on it though is review seems to be missing at the moment (he loved it... so did Roeper).

The IMDB entry is here.

-S

Roger Ebert has a write up on this... by jdbo · 2002-09-19 14:51 · Score: 5, Informative · on Miyazaki's Spirited Away U.S. Release

..which includes a brief interview with Miyazaki.

Here 'tis.

It's a rather fawning bit, but this seems to me to be one of the rare interviews in which the director isn't just puffing up his work, but actually discussing it.

Besides, this movie looks to be that good. I grabbed a VCD bootleg of this in Taiwan many moons ago, and despite the crappy transfer quality + lack of dubbing/subtitles, I watched the entire first half before I began to feel lost (stopped after that so that I could enjoy the movie in its full-fledged form more). Miyazaki is a fine, fine visual storyteller, and by all accounts so far, the dub (lead by John Lassetter of Pixar fame) is an achievement in of itself.

Ebert on the visibility of effects by sielwolf · 2002-08-21 14:46 · Score: 2 · on Report From The Land of SFX

There is an interesting back and forth between Roger Ebert and Peter Donen (a Visual Effects Supervisor) on the effects of The Bourne Identity.

It seems that during "Ebert & Roeper at the Movies", Roeper said that "no computer effects are as good as a well-shot movie in Paris" to which Ebert responded "this movie is a convincing argument for really photographing real things happening on real locations."

Then Doren responded (as he had worked on The Bourne Identity) saying that there were actually over 150 special effect shots "includ[ing] miniatures, blue screen, wire removal, time manipulation, 3D character animation and background replacement for starters."

His take on his job: "I come from the school that says if I do my job well, my work will not be noticed by the audience."

Ebert on the visibility of effects by sielwolf · 2002-08-21 14:46 · Score: 2 · on Report From The Land of SFX

There is an interesting back and forth between Roger Ebert and Peter Donen (a Visual Effects Supervisor) on the effects of The Bourne Identity.

It seems that during "Ebert & Roeper at the Movies", Roeper said that "no computer effects are as good as a well-shot movie in Paris" to which Ebert responded "this movie is a convincing argument for really photographing real things happening on real locations."

Then Doren responded (as he had worked on The Bourne Identity) saying that there were actually over 150 special effect shots "includ[ing] miniatures, blue screen, wire removal, time manipulation, 3D character animation and background replacement for starters."

His take on his job: "I come from the school that says if I do my job well, my work will not be noticed by the audience."

Re:Here here! by cburley · 2002-08-09 10:50 · Score: 1 · on WorldCom Fraud Doubles

Any talk of this being a Clinton-caused recession is just willfully ignoring that the Bush's tax cut caused nearly half of the budget shortfall.

Uh, what does one have to do with the other? Other than the generally-observed fact that tax cuts stimulate economic growth?

You might also, in case you actually care one whit about the truth, take a look at this article, which might as well have been titled Corporate Profits Misstated by Clinton Administration?".

Re:Keep it UP...US government! by BrockHarding · 2002-08-09 01:24 · Score: 1 · on WorldCom Fraud Doubles

In fact the US Goverment has been doing it, too.

The Commerce Department had to "restate earnings" itself this past week. The announced level of before-tax profits by US nonfinancial corporations was at least 10% too high in 1999 and 2000 and that amount rose to 30% during the 2000 Presidential Election campaign.

See Robert Novak's column of August 8, 2002 here.

BH

A good movie about this: by Anonymous Coward · 2002-08-08 00:11 · Score: 0 · on The Last Place

Called "The Cup". About foreign 'culture' influencing ancient Buddhist traditions.
Read about it here, here and here.

Although I don't come from a Buddhist land, I know first hand what it is like to have your country destroyed by Americanism.