Slashdot Mirror
Review: The Dish
For months, NASA officials had planned to beam video from Apollo 11 as it rounded the earth's Southern hemisphere. But on the eve of the moonwalk, NASA scientists realized that the Australian dish was the only one on this planet capable of broadcasting the live images of the first steps on the moon. If there were a screw-up, the whole world would -- or wouldn't -- see it. Australian pride would get an enormous black eye.
Kevin Harrington plays the grim, efficient and seemingly humorless NASA engineer sent over as liason between Houston and Australia. His vigilance and second-guessing ruffle the fierce pride of the Aussies, including Cliff (Sam Neill), the gentle, quirky scientist who runs the satellite station. Along with the rest of Australia -- particularly the tiny town of Parkes -- he sees this involvement in the moon landing as a historic justification for science in general, and Australian science in particular.
Resentment at the powerful Americans jousts with a touching desire to be part of something big, and to perform creditably. There's also a great sense of wonder -- easy to forget in the midst of the computer revolution -- about the moon expedition and its meaning to a transfixed world. Every scientist wanted a piece of it.
Although the movie is about a scientific achievement, it is a very funny, human story, skillfully capturing the humor, informality and individuality for which Australians are famous. The nerds at the Australian station tolerate and support one another, as well as the moon landing.
Dish , a much-touted movie at the Sundance Film Festival, is in a lot of ways a romantic comedy. Although there's a geek-goes-after-the-girl subplot, its real love story is between this small cadre of strange scientists and science itself. Thrust suddenly into history, they're desperate not to screw things up, which they very nearly do.
One of the techs forgets to fuel a back-up generator, and during a brief power failure, the dish station loses all its computer data. They can't locate the signal from Apollo 11. The crew decide to hide this potential disaster from NASA. Fearful of getting shut out of the project, they sit up all night re-configuring calculations and re-booting as the NASA bureaucrat covers for them -- at which point this really becomes a team effort. He gets their pride and sense of excitement; they get his.
In a smaller way, there's as much heat on the satellite station as there is on Mission Control in Houston. At least, one of movie's many strengths is that it makes you feel that way. The U.S. Ambassador is hovering anxiously nearby, as is the Australian Prime Minister (who learned of the whole project a few days before the launch in a phone call from President Nixon), the town's proud and ambitious mayor, and much of the country.
Few Hollywood studios would make a movie as small in scale. There are no stars, besides Neill, no special effects, bloodshed, faux drama, just an affectionate portrayal of a few decent people caught up in history and trying to live up to that responsibility. Mostly, it's an ode to the people who care passionately about science, and will do almost anything to advance it.
It's typical of U.S.-centric approaches to history that few of us watching her had any consciousness of the fact that those black and white pictures -- footage that's been reproduced all over the planet for years -- were made possible by the ingenuity, determination and tech skills of a handful of Australian nerds.
It's typical too, that The Dish the highest grossing Australian film in the history of Australian cinema -- is struggling to get wide distribution in American movie theaters. Probably it's too warm, funny and smart. Catch it if you can: The movie deserves support, and you'll enjoy seeing it.
Amen from the highest fucking rooftops.
He directed The Castle too. He also directed most of his TV stuff, Frontline, A River Somewhere, The Late Show etc. If you spell his name right you can look him up on the IMDB
--
--
enterfornone - logging in for a change
Champagne comedy that...
--
--
enterfornone - logging in for a change
Get Konqueror It rocks!
My journal has hot
I liked this movie because I was a high school exchange student in this tiny little town, way back in the late 1980s. It was genuine and warmm and so is the movie. One problem is that I had heard many conflicting approximations of the "Story" while living there. I was very excited to hear about a movie version, so that I might actually know what happened. After seeing the movie opening at Toronto last summer, I'm not sure that I understand I really know what went on either!
There is a whole heap of information about Parkes and the Apollo 11 broadcast at this CSIRO site, including lots of interesting technical info that didn't make it into the film, including original audio from the NET 2 comms loop.
--
--
We apologise for the inconvenience.
Here's a link to the official movie website. (Not posting as anonymous because I am a karma whore. :)
It really _is_ live, but seems delayed because of the time dilation caused by the constant accelleration due to gravity. It's just an expected side effect of relativity. Nothing to get excited about :-)
A dingo ate my sig...
Somebody probably already posted this, but the moon landing was the 20th. Get your facts together, Katz.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Then that's even worse, isn't it? Katz said 19 July 1969.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Wasn't it July 20?
I remember this date because it's my father's B-day.
This is written and produced by the same people that did The Castle, another hirlarious Australian comedy. If you did enjoy The Dish, then you will most likely enjoy this, and vice versa.
Still like Jon Katz said there is a cool sub-plot and you shouldn't be warned off if your not Australian.
Also if you live or go to Australia, watch The Panel. It's the same people again, and its a really enjoyable show.
The telecine no doubt performed a 3:2 pulldown.
Free Hans!
Kevin Harrington plays Mitch, one of the Australians -- the "humorless" NASA engineer is played by Patrick Warburton (better known as David Puddy on "Seinfeld" and, soon, as The Tick in the live-action TV show of The Tick).
Two people could not look more different... Kevin Harrington is short and pudgy, Patrick Warburton is tall and barrel-chested.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
-----
Re:Date of moon landing (Score:1)
by ari_j on 02:04 AM April 23rd, 2001 EAS (#31)
(User #90255 Info)
In Australia or the US?
-----
If you are in the USA, compare the time shown above to the time Slash is showing you. Yes, you are a long way behind the world ;-)
The International Space Station.
Over a dozen years in the planning, nine years under construction in orbit, sixteen countries participating, fourty-eight rocket launches, scores of space walks, six robot arms and thousands of times more computational power than Apollo. Plus at the end of it all, you get a working space station with six laboratories that will be in use for decades.
The only problem with the space station is that it lack the theatrical "ta-da" moment that Apollo had when Neil stepped foot on the surface.
--
Slashdot monitor for your Mozilla sidebar or Active Desktop.
What an incredibly futile waste of moderation points. I look for 0-point AC posts that contain actual useful content and mod them up so that _someone_ will ever see them. If I have any points left, I will look for overrated +5/4 posts that need to come down...
---
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
But no, no ads on TV, no trailers in the theatre. Had to go looking online to find out anything about this.
(*the poster is a silouette (sp?) of the dish surrounded by a flock of sheep. I have no idea why this caught my interest, initially. Must have a thing for wool, I guess)
---
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
This is a cool review to see on slashdot! I'm not a huge fan of the Hollywood fare that Katz somtimes does his damnedest to find a "geek" element ... and I'm even less of a fan of the geek-finding effort itself;)
... ) here every week, they should be about movies like this -- quirky, less well-known, worthy, decent.
:)
If there are going to be movie reviews (adn TV shows? huh? Well I guess the same applies to them
This is one I'd like to see based on this review, and I'd never heardd of it (well, I had heard the *title* but that doesn't mean much to me!).
Thanks Jon, now please find some more like it. I don't want to hear about how "Friends" is secretly about channeled Geek Aggression, or how Columbine influences "Malcolm in the Middle" or how great "Saving Private Ryan" is. (OK, ok, so you liked SPR. Great. So everyone fawns over that asanine Tom Hanks. Fine, but leave me out of it.)
A happy rant (this week) from someone sick of WWII movies and banal mainstream flicks being touted as particularly Geek-a-zoid. Not everyone who reads slashdot is a Geek-Jock who has to fit *everything* in the world into a few pre-approved, community-tested memes and attitudes. There are cool technical-themed movies to talk about which few people have heard of, as this review is proof -- so talk about those
gruntled for the moment,
simon
"Hey Carlito, r'membah me? Benny Blanco from the Bronx!"
Good God, man, what would be a great feat since then?? It's still the greatest single engineering achievement in history, yes, even over the Pyramids and the Great Wall.
Some may argue that the Pyramids or Great Wall is greater, but I think what makes it the greatest is the organizational complexity, not the technology. It is by far the biggest project ever undertaken by mankind, and they did it successfully. The Pyramids didn't take nearly as many people as many think, and the Great Wall was a very decentralized project that was completed over multiple eras (not that each era's building wasn't impressive!).
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
I suspect a lot of the jokes might be somewhat lost on non-Australians, but there's still a LOT in there for everyone. The American national anthem is my personal favourite.
They keep doing really nice shots of the dish from the ground and the air. Beautiful colours, and a really nice setting.
Parkes is around 3-4 hours from where I am (Sydney, Australia). I've never seen the dish first hand, but after seeing the movie, I'm keen to go see the dish now. I might go take a look-see at our other radio telescope (the Australia Telescope) too now. That one is a doozy!
URL for the Parkes Observatory is at http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/, and the Australia Telescope Compact Array http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/ (This one is an array of five small dishes that move along a 3Km long rail track).
One good thing about being so far from anywhere is that conditions are great for observatories down here!
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
NASA was prepared for a loss of signal. Check out this backup plan from the point of view of one of the technicians that staged it.
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
I agree that something that has been modded up to 2 is usually better than something that only got to 2 through the bonus. The problem is that there are a lot of people who can post at +2 and it doesn't cost anything to do it so they usually do. Very few moderators bother to mod a "natural" 2 post down unless it's a troll or flamebait. Since most 2 posts are noise and there aren't enough mod points to mod all the noise down why waste what points you do have?
http://www.laurin.com/Content/Feb98/techMoon.htm l
The truth shall set you free!
50 Bucks =) ..
Damn that was a fine show =) ..
--
Jon - TheSpork
...for still pictures, many of which were taken with 2 1/4 inch format film cameras. But in 1969 videotape required both a huge machine and huge amounts of tape, for which there was no room on the mission. In fact, it was still pretty standard at that time for TV series to be distributed on 35mm photographic film, to be projected into a video camera for broadcast. The equipment was smaller and cheaper; the only perceived disadvantage was that you had to develop the film, and it was one-use. Needless to say, there was no room for a 35mm film movie camera on the lander either.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
It's my bonus and I'll do with it whatever I damn well please. I don't play the game of posting under another account to "preserve my precious karma." FYI the system doesn't care if your karma is 43 or 50. There is plenty of room before the bonus is really in jeopardy, unless you really are a dedicated troll.
I don't really take it personally when I get modded down, but it does annoy me when it's obviously due to ignorance on the part of the moderator. Really, that's worse than being modded down for disagreement IMO. Learn how the system works before sticking your fingers in its moving parts. Your fingers will thank you.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
"The 1995 launch of Microsoft's revolutionary new product"
Yeah, instead of having to buy Windows 4.0 and MS-DOS 7.0 in two different packages, you could buy it all in one box!
"product's stability, appearance and intuitive interface"
Actually, when we all jumped ship, we discovered that it was about as stable as 3.11 was. And the interface wasn't all that intuitive when the whole world was used to 3.x.
"Then, as in the early 80s, when Microsoft were instrumental in the first truly personal computerThen, as in the early 80s, when Microsoft were instrumental in the first truly personal computer"
How could they be responsible for the same thing twice, unless one (or both?) of them didn't really happen? "For the first time, the elderly, the young, and the technically illiterate were empowered to use computers"
No, they're still all on hold with Microsoft tech support.
"Although computers still betrayed some of their arcane origins of a time when computing was the real of those with genius IQs and degrees in mathematics",/I>
I first started tinkering with the BASIC package of my ADAM when I was 5. In the early 90's, I figured out how to get onto the local BBS scene with my 286/12, 2400 modem, and Telemate. I'm no genius, and neither were all the flamers and l33t hax0rs that also frequented the boards. It was an awful lot like /., actually, without the pretty HTML.
"This was achieved by always providing what the market needed"
I think you mean "convincing the market that they needed it." How much did they spend on advertising and playing that Rolling Stones song over and over? They should have let the lyrics keep going... "You make a grown man cry..."
"The Microsoft formula was to pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap"
I prefer the name "slash and burn" myself...
"Microsoft's success came through out-maneuvering the competition."
I think you meant to say "hype and intimidation."
"Revolutionary was the approach that said that a spreadsheet, which at one would have cost over a thousand dollars, could be sold for a fraction of the price",
Besides the fact that no version of Windows has ever come with a spreadsheet app, Microsoft Excel for Windows (1988, "Windows" being "Windows 2.0") cost around $200 or so.
The only reason Excel's price has come down from that is because, when all is said and done, 90% of it is still the same old code they've had since the 80's. It'd be down further if they didn't put in all those damned easer eggs and talking paperclips.
"This approach drove the computing revolution of the 80s" If it were released in 1995...
"and the net revolution of the 90s"
95 has no intrinsic web hosting capabilities. NT still relied to heavily on NetBEUI to make it all that good of a hosting platform. It wasn't until Windows 2000 that Microsoft actually released an OS that spoke TCP/IP as a first language.
I'd say Al Gore did more to help the internet than Bill Gates.
"Microsoft's aggressive approach made computing far more affordable"
Even if you don't take into the account the price of the OS itself and the glorified bug-fixes they sell for $80, just about every major computer and buisiness magazine in publication agrees that the cost of ownership of a Windows PC is simply too high for a business.
"Microsoft's approach of providing the product the market wanted "
You're still confusing it with "convincing the market that it's what they wanted." Nobody wants built-in obsalescence.
"empowering thousands of small businesses,"
"often without the funds to employ dedicated IT admin staff"
If you don't need a dedicated IT staff, then why is the job market for MCSEs so good?
"to manage their own computer networks and to sell themselves on the web,"
As I said in an earlier post, the box might as well say right on the front "MCSE Not Included." The average small business without a dedicated IT department will not be able to utilize NT or 2000 in that way out of the box because the average small business owner has a business to run, which leaves them no time to spend a month reading texts and documentation.
If it were so easy, Microsoft wouldn't be telling you that it takes at least 7 months to get your MCSE cert.
"Similarly, Microsoft's masterful integration of the internet within Windows means that for most people the internet MEANS Internet Explorer."
Sites like this one put the lie to Microsoft's "integrated" claim.
On the other hand, instead of integrating core internet technologies like TCP/IP in their products, NT came with products like "NetBIOS over IP" and WINS, products that can only be described as shoddy work-arounds for NT's native NetBIOS networking structure. This instead of a genuine OS patch to get NT to speak TCP/IP natively.
Microsoft is at least three steps behind when it comes to the internet.
"by making their product vastly superior to the competition"
Logic time: If it were vastly superior to the competition, why is there still competition?
"the consumer sees that he is benefiting and is happy to acquiesce"
No, the consumer only sees the way that what was once done with blazing speed on a 90 MHz Pentium now all but requires gigahertz speed and gigahertz pricing. Why do you think hardware sales (and, subsequently, Windows ME sales as well) are in such a slump?
"but for the companies, small and large, who were able to compete thanks to the low barrier to entry erected by Microsoft."
Oh? By all accounts, XP won't run any MP3 software except that written by Microsoft. That sounds like a very high barrier to entry to me.
"described as an end to frustration for the millions of computer users"
By your own arguments, Windows 95 was that supposed end. Why should we believe that XP will be more of a solution than 95?
Requiring a Pentium II processor to run your OS is more indicative of a problem than a solution.
"discover the highly logical (but also deeply complicated) way that computing systems such as Windows"
I've spent the past few weeks studying to be an MCSE (I figure it'd provide income while I pursue a college degreen in physics). The more I read, the more it becomes patently appearant that what you call "logical" is more than 50% work-arounds of their old code. They insist on piling more on top of their old code instead of sitting down and actually writing something new (which, to my knowledge, Microsoft has never done). The books (published by Microsoft, mind you) spend more time telling you the ways that you CAN'T do something than the ways you can.
"Millions of dollars of research, of observation"
If you need to spend millions of dollars to learn about your customer base, how in-touch with them could you possibly be?
"a product where computing is a natural experience rather than a painful one, with effortless remote maintenance and inter-computer interaction. "
Again, I thought you said that's what 95 was.
"At the same time that Microsoft is on the brink of launching of a product that makes them feel 'super super excited'"
If I were going to launch something I expected would make me billions (if not trillions) of dollars, I'd be "super super excited," too.
"the competition is still hopeless"
Then why is it still around? Better yet, why is it gaining market share?
"Particularly for Linux, the outlook looks bleak"
In order to make that statement true, you need to replace the word 'Linux' with the phrase 'Windows 2000'
"No longer buffeted by the heady currents of the internet goldrush"
Didn't you just say that Microsoft was responsible for that gold rush? If so, then wouldn't the current economy be the fault of Microsoft as well? Can we really trust them, then?
"Linux-based companies - which have never made any appreciable amount of money "
IBM what?
"they are also recognizing that companies required by their underlying philosophy to give their product away, do not have significant revenue opportunities. "
Then in what way is the price-slashing you espoused earlier better?
"relies on ideas stolen directly from Windows. "
1.) Windows was stolen from Apple and Xerox
2.) I've yet to see anything in KDE or Gnome that were anything but an improvement on what Windows offered. Really. Name one thing about the Windows interface that is better than either of those two.
"and enormous goodwill to shoddy workmanship and incomplete and buggy software (the likes of which would not be tolerated from commercial software)"
If it really weren't tolerated, then Microsoft wouldn't have gotten away with releasing Windows 98 (Windows 4.1) or Windows ME (Windows 4.9)after releasing Windows 95 (Windows 4.0). Each with a premium price.
"The in-fighting and lack of commercial rigor of the Unix and open source world has left a system of wild inconsistencies and rough edges, "
"For everyone else, Linux remains something that is frustrating to use, with its bewildering array of arcane concepts (file permissions,
Linux's short list of file permissions (user, group, everyone each can have read/write/execute permissions) pales in comparison with the monolithic list of NT/2000 file permissions (many of which seemingly overlap).
"symbolic links"
And what would you call a Windows 95 shortcut? Oh, and speaking of which, a "new" feater of Windows 2000 is the ability to mount a hard drive partition to a folder...
"compilers to install software"
Haven't touched a compiler since that C course 5 years ago.
(something users used to InstallShield would find troubling))"
I find InstallShield more difficult to use and comprehend than RedHat's Packagme Manager.
If all of these concepts were so bad, why is Windows trying so hard to include them? And if they really are bad, what does this say about Windows' efforts to include them?
"The almost total lack of co-operation between projects means that there is no consistent graphical configuration tool to match Windows' Control Panel. "
If you want something that puts Control Panel to shame, look at Mandrake 8.0.
"The ultimate cause of it in many cases is probably human nature, as there is no doubt that we are programmed to be resentful of success and to be envious of those who succeed -"
Then we should be hating IBM, not Microsoft. Of the two, IBM has more money (and is therefore more "successful.")
"That these feelings should be directed at a company largely responsible for the massively improved levels of prosperity brought by bringing computing to the masses"
Again, we should also be hating IBM for their open-architecture PC.
"since as humans are essentially selfish beings, personal reassurance is a far more important emotion than altruism."
Then we should be far more concerned about the interests of Microsoft and it's One True Leader than the Linux collective. How can we counteract any selfishness on the part of Bill Gates? Claiming that Bill Gates is altruistic and may be the only non-selfish person out there sounds a little too close to Nazi propoganda for comfort.
", resentful in part that computing should become accessible to the uninitiated,"
No, I'm resentful of the time I worked in Dell tech support, and all the times I had to tell an angry customer that there was nothing I could do for them, because the problem was a "feature" of Windows. I'm resentful of the fact that networking with Windows 2000 has such a high barrier to entry due to its price and liscencing racket. I'm resentful that the latest and greatest operating systems from Microsoft shuts down my dial-up networking connection for no appearant reason. I'm resentful of the fact that, as a Windows user, I cannot choose to not use IE. I'm resentful of the fact that I need a minimum of 100 MB of hard drive space to install a Microsoft product that's marginally equivalent to WordPerfect 5.1. I'm resentful of the fact that Microsoft would knowingly ship a product with 65,000 known bugs, and then try to push for these products to be used in mission-critical environments. I'm resentful of the fact that Microsoft is single-handedly responsible for the anti-virus software market, with the way they leave security holes through their "functionality" that no well-informed person would accept. I'm resentful of the way that Microsoft works hard to make sure that there are as few "well-informed" people as possible. I'm resentful of the fact that my parents had to pay for and learn a new operating system when they paid for a new computer. I'm resentful of the way I have to tell my parents that their new $2000 machine has bugs like the aforementioned dial-up problems, and that the only explaination I can offer them is "It's Windows." I'm resentful of the fact that a Pentium 233 MMX with 96 MB of RAM boots Windows 98 faster than a Pentium 4 1.3 GHz with 256 MB of RAM boots Windows ME (even with the fast boot option configured in the BIOS). And, last but not least, I resent any company that works planned obsolescence into their product, and then has the balls to say to a court of law that it's "innovation."
OK, I now return you to your regularly scheduled flame war.