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Linux Enhances Shakespeare

marXian writes "Opening in Norwich UK this week and subsequently visiting Cambridge is makb3th from theatre company pirateutopia.org. The show is very much Linux-powered using aalib, XDirectFB, VLC and more to set the piece (an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth) on an off-shore data haven." Allright, pick your jaw up off the floor ;)

26 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. MacBeth.... by MadBiologist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Double Double... AMD, Intel are in trouble, Chipset burn and servers bubble.... With apologies to Big Willie!

    --
    'Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?'
    1. Re:MacBeth.... by labratuk · · Score: 4, Funny

      Is this a tarball I see before me...

      --
      Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
  2. Linus MacBeth by joshsnow · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Life is a tale told by an idiot, who but struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is gone - unless he is a 19yr old Finnish Computer Science student, in which case he achieves immortality"
    "tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow, Linux World Domination is all I see before me"

    1. Re:Linus MacBeth by mysticgoat · · Score: 3, Funny

      This thread would have been much the safer if it had been entitled in the curse-proof tradition:

      The Scottish Play augmented by the Finnish OS

      Let us hope that the old curse knows not how cross platforms lest all our files be iambically pentameterized...

  3. Shouldn't they call it: by Mac+Degger · · Score: 3, Funny

    YASA (Yet Another Shakespeare adaptation)?

    --
    -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
  4. (2*B) OR (NOT(2*B)) by GQuon · · Score: 5, Funny

    If ((2*B) OR (NOT(2*B))){
    answer="yes";
    }
    else{
    answer="no";
    }

    printf(be);

    >a.out
    >yes

    --
    Irene KHAAAAAAN!
    1. Re:(2*B) OR (NOT(2*B)) by the+endless · · Score: 3, Funny

      I prefer the regex version... /(bb|[^b]{2})/

      To the regex-ignorant... the above matches two B's or not-B twice ("to be or not to be").

      There's even a t-shirt :)

  5. Choice of pager by Migrant+Programmer · · Score: 5, Funny

    The show is very much Linux-powered using aalib, XDirectFB, VLC and more

    Come on now, don't you know all the cool geeks are using less these days?

  6. Shakespeare + Simpsons = by sczimme · · Score: 4, Interesting


    MacHomer. An excerpt from the 'About' page:

    This one-man vocal spectacular features over 50 voices from TV's favourite dysfunctional family in a hilarious performance of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy! Starring 'Homer Simpson' as Macbeth and 'Marge' as Lady Macbeth (in a script which remains 85% Shakespeare), MacHomer is hysterically funny and amazing to watch.

    A friend of mine saw MacHomer in the DC area and though it was great; apparently the voices are quite accurate.

    Oops - sorry: Linux! Linux! Linux!

    (Don't want to be off-topic. D'oh.)

    --
    I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
  7. Breaking news!! (Reuters) 15:22 GMT by borgdows · · Score: 3, Funny

    Shakespeare is dead! Netcraft confirms!

  8. MacBeth, not Hamlet by Jan-Pascal · · Score: 5, Informative

    Go re-read your Shakespeare. The "to be or not to be" quote is from Hamlet, not from MacBeth.

  9. Not so fast! by paiute · · Score: 5, Funny

    This just in - the US Congress today extended copyright protection back to "three business days before the Earth coalesced from the formless void", so the laywer representing the descendants of the Bard will be calling on these IP pirates and terrorists this afternoon with the mother of all cease-and-desist orders.

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    1. Re:Not so fast! by MrHanky · · Score: 4, Funny
      A Congress spokesperson said, commenting on the new extension:

      All causes shall give way: We are in copyright
      Step't in so far that, should we wade no more,
      Returning were as tedious as go o'er:
      Strange things we have in head, that will to hand;
      Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.

      Lawyers are currently debating whether it's feasible to build a time machine to sue those who infringe copyright even before the works have been scanned.
  10. Klingon? by eingram · · Score: 3, Funny

    I bet it's best when presented in its original Klingon.

  11. iMacBeth by GQuon · · Score: 3, Funny

    The new iMacBeth, broght to you by MacOnLinux.
    In stylish blood red colors.

    --
    Irene KHAAAAAAN!
  12. Public Domain by ispivey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's straight up public domain, with no strings attached. Not abandonware, certainly, because there's no copyright on it.

    Ever wonder what theater these days would be like if Shakespeare's plays were protected under copyright by a control-minded estate like that of Kurt Cobain? I imagine the content would stay truer to the originals, but I'm a big fan of the creative and nutty derivative works Shakespeare has inspired over the years.

    1. Re:Public Domain by Mr.+Bad+Example · · Score: 4, Informative

      I imagine the content would stay truer to the originals

      The problem there is that there really aren't any definitive versions of the originals--playwrights back in the day used to give their work over to professional copyists who would introduce their own errors, for one thing. For another, a lot of the plays weren't actually published until after Shakespeare's death, and a lot of those were taken from different performing copies. Ask just about any English literature major about the various quartos and folios and so on.

      I know, I know...a Shakespeare geek is me.

  13. Re:Context is everything. by ch-chuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ok, I'll give it a shot:

    -+-+-+-+

    SEYTON: The server, my lord, is dead!

    MACBETH: It should have died hereafter;
    There would have been bandwidth for such requests.
    Page after page after page
    Creeps in this petty pace from client to client
    To the last tag of a slashdotted site,
    and all our access logs have lighted admins
    to way to budget denials. Out, out router activity light!
    The web's but a dancing banner ad, a poor merchandiser
    that struts and frets his hour upon the screen
    and then is heard no more: it is an offer
    made by an idiot, full of grandiose promises,
    signifying nothing.

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  14. Re: Macbeth : Act V Scene VIII by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Could someone translate that to English for us?"

    You mean *from* English poetry into American prose, right? :)

    I can see it now:

    Yo! What's wit dis damn spot?

    KFG

  15. On a related note... by Mr.+Bad+Example · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've always liked to quote the following when people ask me what software development is like:

    "...we but teach bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague the inventor..."

    --Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII

  16. shakespeare parser by Miguel+de+Icaza · · Score: 4, Interesting

    sorry if this is going offtopic. but reading about this reminded me of a paper I read a few years back... It was about a computer program that parsed the full text of shakespears lifes work and then could predict the probability that a play or part of a play was infact not written by shakespeare. The program was used to independantly prove a hypothisis long held by scholars about some of the sonnets. Can't seem to find this interesting topic anyware on google - anyone remember it?

    Probably the tech was bought up by the CIA and classified - could be being used to verify identities of known persons in transcripts of discussions intelligence intercepts in bagdad right now.

    --
    Before adopting WHATWG, read the moonlight.NET EULA [http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/moonlight.mspx]
  17. All the web's a stage by arvindn · · Score: 4, Funny

    All the www's a stage,
    And all the web designers and database admins merely players:
    They have their exits and their entrances;
    And one programmer in his time plays many parts,
    His acts being seven ages. At first the n00b,
    Drooling and clicking on his brother's comp.
    And then the whining freshman, with his pirated WinXP
    And shining new imac, lugging his laptop
    Unwillingly to class. And then the coder,
    Cursing like furnace, with a woeful sigh
    On the night of the deadline. Then a hacker,
    Full of strange perl scripts and bearded like RMS,
    Jealous in GNU/honor, sudden and quick in attacking M$,
    Seeking the wizard reputation
    Even in the economic downturn. And then the guru,
    In fair round belly with long flowing hair,
    With eyes severe and beard uncut,
    Full of wise one-liners and modern programming paradigms;
    And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
    Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
    With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
    His youthful PDP11 code, well saved, now obsolete
    On his rusting i686; and his quick nerdy keystrokes,
    Falling again toward newbie typing speeds, null pointers
    And unmatched parentheses in his code. Last scene of all,
    That ends this strange eventful history,
    Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
    Sans keyboard, sans monitor, sans processor, sans everything.

    Didn't get it? Read Shakespeare's original

  18. new topic by jonnyfivealive · · Score: 3, Interesting

    now, ive only been on /. for 6 mos or so, but i would imagine that that topic pic had to be made expecially for this story... how many times does theater come up on /.?

  19. Wrong old story... by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... instead a millon monkeys on typewriters to reproduce all shakespeare books, all they need are penguins.

  20. In other news ... by Greedo · · Score: 4, Funny

    RSS was kicked out of opening night for complaining that it wasn't called "GNU/MacBeth"

    --
    Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
  21. Awful play by Gantic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This actual play premiered in my school (Thurston Community College) just outside Bury St. Edmunds. Everyone in the audience (drama students aged 13-18) thought the play was awful, the acting abysmal and the scene where some dodgy old man started making love to an ugly woman on stage terrible. If you're thinking of seeing makb3th (or as we like to pronounce mak-be-three-ith) then think again, it was not a good version of the original macbeth.

    Having said that, pretty cool that something in my area got slashdotted, never thought I would see the day! \o/