It wasn't dumbed down everywhere. In the UK and Canada, it was still the philosopher's stone.
Note that this in no way counters the argument that Hollywood dumbs things down, since "Hollywood" in the case can be used as a label for the U.S. movie industry.
"They appeared convinced that what they were doing wasn't illegal"?
I'm glad that these guys got what was coming to them. Ignorance of the law has never been an allowable excuse for any other computer based crime (even if that so-called crime is merely someone doing something basically harmless, with no intent other than learning about how to play on networks). Seeing someone who DID have an intrusive intent arguing a defense that hasn't protected those that didn't and not getting away with it is definitely minor key justice being done.
Now if only this can become a good, solid precedent...
Well, after scrambling around various online bookstores looking for this one, I finally found it by author searching, and lo and behold, got the following title: "Creatures: The Quest to Create Artificial Life" (actually 'Cratures', which I assume is a typo) at the chapters.ca website. The ISBN number was right, too. Other online stores have proven less than useful in finding this.
At least they read the Evil Overlord list...
on
Review: 'Titan A.E.'
·
· Score: 1
Yes, the plot was pretty linear.
Yes, there were homages to Star Wars and Heavy Metal. (I kind of liked it more for them, actually...)
Take it too seriously, and yes, it has its flaws and has them in fairly large numbers. BUT... It was a damned good ride that, if taken none too deeply, was a lot of fun.
SPOILER ALERT!!
And frankly, the intelligent guard scene was worth the whole price of admission. Yes, there were cliches, but there was also a fair amount of poking of fun at some of the standard cliches. Or "I think I'll take a little nap now..." In any other movie, it would've been the character's death. In this one? It's an excuse to hit us with "Nap is over now!". Yeah, it's got its sillinesses, but hey, it's the goofball bits that raised it above the complete production line drek and made me (and the friends I saw it with) laugh.
I may have a weird philosophy, but it's a simple one. I believe in the right of anyone to do or say whatever they like, so long as it doesn't adversely affect the ability of others to do the same.
In this context, yes, I'll defend your rights to free speech, and your rights to beliefs that run counter to mine. I will NOT defend your ability to try to shove them down my throat, however. In fact, I will defend my rights to my own beliefs just as strongly as I will defend those of others, if not more strongly.
It's to each their own to determine what they want to believe and what they don't. If they chose to to believe something heinous, I may not like it. But their headspace is their headspace, and that, to me, is sacrosanct. The flipside of that coin, though, is that when someone tells me something, I'm not going to blindly believe it, either. At the top of this article was a comment made about education being the proper response to ignorant and destructive claims; I couldn't agree more. It's more blind adherance and letting others do your thinking for you that hurt our society and allow hate and dissession to grow. We should have protections against people using the liberties granted them as a weapon against the very society that grants those liberties to them!
Think, people! Before blindly agreeing (and our society has set us up wonderfully to do so, consumer culture that we are) to anything, look over the issue. Read books. Talk to people. Think about all sides of the issue, not just the one in your face. Liberty is a right, not a priviledge.
Enough ranting on the mindless mindset we have to deal with in our world today.
I'm on a mailing list of folks who've been hacking wearable computing for quite a while now, and there's a guy by the name of Eric Laforest who's done just that, hacked a netwinder into a portable. You can probably look him up in the mail archives at http://wearables.blu.org/, which, btw, is a damn good source for ANY information on wearable computing.
OpenDesk.com is our first major application of the SmartWorker API. It's open source, based on (mod_)Perl/Apache/MySQL (though the latter is only the starting point, other DB support is in the pipe), and extendable by users who want to add apps to what we'll already be offering. (We're launching with a small suite of apps, but have a number more already in development, and are more than happy to accept more developers into our family. You don't see something you want in a web application framework? Feel free to build it yourself, and we'll see what we can do about helping you and hosting it).
Anyhow, before this further degenerates into a developer gushing about his own project, I'll let you folks go out and decide for yourselves.;)
Slashdot Mirror
It wasn't dumbed down everywhere. In the UK and Canada, it was still the philosopher's stone.
Note that this in no way counters the argument that Hollywood dumbs things down, since "Hollywood" in the case can be used as a label for the U.S. movie industry.
"They appeared convinced that what they were doing wasn't illegal"?
I'm glad that these guys got what was coming to them. Ignorance of the law has never been an allowable excuse for any other computer based crime (even if that so-called crime is merely someone doing something basically harmless, with no intent other than learning about how to play on networks). Seeing someone who DID have an intrusive intent arguing a defense that hasn't protected those that didn't and not getting away with it is definitely minor key justice being done.
Now if only this can become a good, solid precedent...
Well, after scrambling around various online bookstores looking for this one, I finally found it by author searching, and lo and behold, got the following title: "Creatures: The Quest to Create Artificial Life" (actually 'Cratures', which I assume is a typo) at the chapters.ca website. The ISBN number was right, too. Other online stores have proven less than useful in finding this.
Yes, there were homages to Star Wars and Heavy Metal. (I kind of liked it more for them, actually...)
Take it too seriously, and yes, it has its flaws and has them in fairly large numbers. BUT... It was a damned good ride that, if taken none too deeply, was a lot of fun.
SPOILER ALERT!!
And frankly, the intelligent guard scene was worth the whole price of admission. Yes, there were cliches, but there was also a fair amount of poking of fun at some of the standard cliches. Or "I think I'll take a little nap now..." In any other movie, it would've been the character's death. In this one? It's an excuse to hit us with "Nap is over now!". Yeah, it's got its sillinesses, but hey, it's the goofball bits that raised it above the complete production line drek and made me (and the friends I saw it with) laugh.
In this context, yes, I'll defend your rights to free speech, and your rights to beliefs that run counter to mine. I will NOT defend your ability to try to shove them down my throat, however. In fact, I will defend my rights to my own beliefs just as strongly as I will defend those of others, if not more strongly.
It's to each their own to determine what they want to believe and what they don't. If they chose to to believe something heinous, I may not like it. But their headspace is their headspace, and that, to me, is sacrosanct. The flipside of that coin, though, is that when someone tells me something, I'm not going to blindly believe it, either. At the top of this article was a comment made about education being the proper response to ignorant and destructive claims; I couldn't agree more. It's more blind adherance and letting others do your thinking for you that hurt our society and allow hate and dissession to grow. We should have protections against people using the liberties granted them as a weapon against the very society that grants those liberties to them!
Think, people! Before blindly agreeing (and our society has set us up wonderfully to do so, consumer culture that we are) to anything, look over the issue. Read books. Talk to people. Think about all sides of the issue, not just the one in your face. Liberty is a right, not a priviledge.
Enough ranting on the mindless mindset we have to deal with in our world today.
Zed
I'm on a mailing list of folks who've been hacking wearable computing for quite a while now, and there's a guy by the name of Eric Laforest who's done just that, hacked a netwinder into a portable. You can probably look him up in the mail archives at http://wearables.blu.org/, which, btw, is a damn good source for ANY information on wearable computing.
That having been said, the site is actually http://www.smartworker.org/
OpenDesk.com is our first major application of the SmartWorker API. It's open source, based on (mod_)Perl/Apache/MySQL (though the latter is only the starting point, other DB support is in the pipe), and extendable by users who want to add apps to what we'll already be offering. (We're launching with a small suite of apps, but have a number more already in development, and are more than happy to accept more developers into our family. You don't see something you want in a web application framework? Feel free to build it yourself, and we'll see what we can do about helping you and hosting it).
Anyhow, before this further degenerates into a developer gushing about his own project, I'll let you folks go out and decide for yourselves. ;)