For right or wrong manufactuers have the right to set limits on the goods they sell.
They most certainly do not, not post-sale limits, anyway. They have the right to try and prevent it by making it harder to break those limits in hardware or software, but they do not have the right to dictate post-sale terms unless I sign something. Even the DMCA doesn't allow that, but it does have some workarounds that achieve the same results.
but I don't think it was necessary to have Faramir succumb
I got the impression that he didn't succumb. It's a little interesting, if you watch his character in the movie, at no point does he fall to the power of the ring, certainly not falling in the same manner as Boromir. The ring didn't corrupt him, he simply felt it would better serve Gondor if it were in Minas Tirith. He did not understand the way it could corrupt those around it, and he decided not to take the ring (as the ring may have wanted, and as the narrator suggested would ensure its triumph), but to bring it to his father who would decide what to do with it. A small distinction, but an important one.
Moore does make some good points, perhaps the most important being the culture of fear. I agree with him on that (even if he uses the same tactics at times in the documentary). However, he's a bit lacking in the details, and at times he flat-out lies, makes up statistics, and edits speeches to give them a different focus than the speaker originally had. I recommend this article for some interesting reading.
What an asshole Moore is, and what a shame Bowling for Columbine, that sheer piece of fiction, won. When I heard him trumpeting afterwards that he's so honest in everything he says, I felt like vomiting. He's a habitual liar, and people just put blind faith in him anyway. It's bizarre.
The weird thing about PM is the way Disney tried to "localise" the English version. Fortunately they didn't meddle with the story. But they hired a bunch of Name Actors to do the dubbing. Which was a waste of money, because none of the people they chose has a really distinctive voice!
Eh? I thought in a way this was the English dub of PM's biggest problems -- some of the voices were TOO distinctive. The casting choices were inept and bizarre (Billy Bob Thornton??). The dub of Spirited Away had much better choices.
This pretty much soured relations between Iraq and Kuwait, and Saddam, being the model of restraint that he is, decided that it was simpler to take Kuwait and make it an Iraqi province than to pay back the loans. The fact that he could then control the single larges oil supply in the world (Iraqi reserves + Kuwaiti reserves > Saudi reserves) was just icing on that cake.
Don't forget Iraq's contention that Kuwaitis were drilling at an angle to tap into Iraqi fields. I've no idea how valid a claim that was, but it was an excuse given by Iraq to invade.
My highly Christian friends turn off wrestling when they start the lingere matches.
And that's where things seem truly screwed up.. the rediculous priorities. Violence is just fine, but if there's an attractive human body, must.. avert.. eyes!
Neither mplayer, ogle or xine seem capable of getting the job done, all failing in libdvdcss.
Unfortunately, due to the legal matters surrounding DVD video on Linux, none of the above can distribute players with libdvdcss. I had to download that seperately, and now xine works beautifully.
IIRC, I flashed the drive to RPC-1 about a year ago when it was running W2k. DVD playback worked fine then:p
DVD playback worked under Windows because the DVD player was licensed with the DVDCCA ( I think that's the name of the organization ), who have decided not to allow licenses to any open-source dvd players. So Ogle, Xine, mplayer et all cannot distribute (legally) software capable of playing encrypted DVDs. The blame for all of this mess falls squarely on the DVDCCA.
2. No real money was stolen, however duped (short for duplicated) items and bugged items were sold on ebay, some for about $100 or more. They all "really existed", in the context of the game world, however, so saying they're fake isn't exactly accurate. It's more like selling a cheat program for a game (which I've seen done).
No, saying they're fakes is accurate because they disappear when Blizzard goes on its deduping runs.
I think I've won about 4 "free trips to Vegas" in the past six months. This is starting to become popular in direct marketing. If they can't call you to try to sell you something, then they leave a message on your answering machine asking to call them back because they're offering you a prize or some such BS. Then when you call, the sales pitch begins.. because there are no rules on what they can do when you call them.
Well, maybe I'm doing something right, although I have no idea what it is
It's not what you've done, you've simply been lucky. Many others who have done exactly what you've said and they still get calls.
I wonder why some people seem to get ten or more telemarketing calls each week. Are they just unlucky or have they been careless?
Maybe my credit card company was giving my information out to "partners." And then those partners give it to their partners, etcetc. I get 3-4 telemarketer calls per night, and I don't answer the phone anymore (just let the answering machine get it).
When some low-paid peon stops you in the supermarket and invites you to try a sample of whatever product they are promoting, do you respond with abuse?
In the supermarket, no. At my private residence on the lines I pay for? Different story.
Uh, no. No animated film will ever again receive a Best Picture nomination (Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 1991 is the only time it's happened). For some reason the Academy believes it's inappropriate for cartoons to compete with "real" movies for honors, so last year they created the Best Animated Feature Film category (won by Shrek). Yeah, it's a load of bullshit. But this way Disney's happy; they have three movies up for the award (Lilo & Stitch, Spirited Away, and the wholly undeserving Treasure Planet).
While it's certainly unlikely it will ever happen again, given the Academy's prejudices (and even cluelessness, giving Jimmy Neutron's nomination) concerning animation, I don't think it's impossible for an animated feature to be nominated for best picture, given the precident of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which could have simply taken the best Foreign Language Film award.
And be totally honest with yourselves: did The Two Towers really deserve a Best Picture nomination this year?
Yeah, I'm not so sure about that one. It deserves it more than The Hours, though.
And yet another is with Faramir, where he doesn't pass the test of the ring and leads Frodo and Sam on another 20-minute
Actually, I'll disagree with that. Faramir -did- pass the test of the ring. He was uncorrupted by it. He didn't take it for himself, which would have doomed the quest. He saw it as a possible weapon, and decided that would be its course. But he was not corrupted as Boromir was.
What I don't understand is that the computer generation actually adds little to the movie, outside of meeting the producers image of what Gollum looks like. I think they could have come up with a way of just costuming him in makeup and acheiving the same result,
Honestly, I'm not sure if they could have done the same without it being painfully, painfully obvious that it was a guy in a costume. You just can't get that level of gauntness and decrepity with a regular character, and I doubt Serkis wanted to drop down to 90 pounds. He's a pretty big guy.
That is pretty much the definition of "the universe." Whatever adds energy to the universe is part of the universe. Unless you want to get all theological...
Again, they had a good reason for the changes. Why change Gimli in TTT? Without Gimli, it would have been really dark movie.
And perhaps it would have been a better movie in that regard. Oh, but it wouldn't have been as "Hollywoodish" a movie though.
They needed some comic relief, and Gimli provided it.
I honestly don't have a problem with any of Gimli's lines (They were great! Comic relief can be terrible when poorly executed, but in this case it was well executed), my objection is that that's the -only- side of Gimli you see in the movie. The only lines at all that he has are the "funny" ones.
I didn't like how Faramir was portrayed in the Two Towers. I realized that they needed to make changes (even in the book, he really does seem like he's too damned perfect), but in the movie he becomes less of a character, and little more than a plot device. His only purpose in the movie is to delay Frodo to getting to Mordor, nothing more. Making him more human is one thing, but he's practically a sneering villain until the final scene.
If you are referring to the destruction of the Shire, it will not be in the movie. Why? Because the climax is the destruction of the ring. Having the Shore-thingy in the end would diminsh that climax, and the movie would not end with a bang, but with a whimper. Again, this again boils down to differences between books and movies as a media.
Are you sure about that? Jackson mentions a few times in the director's commentary for FotR "yes, and this scene helps to set up the Scourging of the Shire in the third movie.."
Primarily, my main desktop is an e-mail drone. If Evolution actually worked (ie. didn't take 8 minutes to exit on my machine), then it would be fine. But without a spellchecker competitive to prevalent software, Linux/KDE or Linux/Gnome doesn't even make a good e-mail drone. The spellchecker is so 1995. I want an underlining spell checker.
I can understand why you think it should be there.. but why would you -want- an underlining spell checker? In general, they are a bad idea, as they don't improve your writing in any way, and by breaking up and interrupting your train of thought constantly, it makes it much harder to write. I always turn the underline feature off.. it's cool for eye candy, but it wasn't a well-thought out feature. When you're trying to get your thoughts down on paper, you do not want constant interruptions.
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They most certainly do not, not post-sale limits, anyway. They have the right to try and prevent it by making it harder to break those limits in hardware or software, but they do not have the right to dictate post-sale terms unless I sign something. Even the DMCA doesn't allow that, but it does have some workarounds that achieve the same results.
I got the impression that he didn't succumb. It's a little interesting, if you watch his character in the movie, at no point does he fall to the power of the ring, certainly not falling in the same manner as Boromir. The ring didn't corrupt him, he simply felt it would better serve Gondor if it were in Minas Tirith. He did not understand the way it could corrupt those around it, and he decided not to take the ring (as the ring may have wanted, and as the narrator suggested would ensure its triumph), but to bring it to his father who would decide what to do with it. A small distinction, but an important one.
Eh? I thought in a way this was the English dub of PM's biggest problems -- some of the voices were TOO distinctive. The casting choices were inept and bizarre (Billy Bob Thornton??). The dub of Spirited Away had much better choices.
Don't forget Iraq's contention that Kuwaitis were drilling at an angle to tap into Iraqi fields. I've no idea how valid a claim that was, but it was an excuse given by Iraq to invade.
And that's where things seem truly screwed up.. the rediculous priorities. Violence is just fine, but if there's an attractive human body, must.. avert.. eyes!
Ah, but you see that would go against the whole Hacker Manifesto mentality, so that would be bad.
Unfortunately, due to the legal matters surrounding DVD video on Linux, none of the above can distribute players with libdvdcss. I had to download that seperately, and now xine works beautifully.
IIRC, I flashed the drive to RPC-1 about a year ago when it was running W2k. DVD playback worked fine then :p
DVD playback worked under Windows because the DVD player was licensed with the DVDCCA ( I think that's the name of the organization ), who have decided not to allow licenses to any open-source dvd players. So Ogle, Xine, mplayer et all cannot distribute (legally) software capable of playing encrypted DVDs. The blame for all of this mess falls squarely on the DVDCCA.
Civilization was crap?
Oh, if only more (on both sides of the political spectrum) could be as open-minded.
Here, let me amend the above statement a little:
DMCA is for large corporations, not individual citizens.
That should give people a little better idea who will come out on top of a DMCA lawsuit.
Is it always? Are several competing sub-par solutions (the state of video under Linux today) better than one or two excellent solutions?
No, saying they're fakes is accurate because they disappear when Blizzard goes on its deduping runs.
It's not what you've done, you've simply been lucky. Many others who have done exactly what you've said and they still get calls.
I wonder why some people seem to get ten or more telemarketing calls each week. Are they just unlucky or have they been careless?
Maybe my credit card company was giving my information out to "partners." And then those partners give it to their partners, etcetc. I get 3-4 telemarketer calls per night, and I don't answer the phone anymore (just let the answering machine get it).
When some low-paid peon stops you in the supermarket and invites you to try a sample of whatever product they are promoting, do you respond with abuse?
In the supermarket, no. At my private residence on the lines I pay for? Different story.
While it's certainly unlikely it will ever happen again, given the Academy's prejudices (and even cluelessness, giving Jimmy Neutron's nomination) concerning animation, I don't think it's impossible for an animated feature to be nominated for best picture, given the precident of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which could have simply taken the best Foreign Language Film award.
And be totally honest with yourselves: did The Two Towers really deserve a Best Picture nomination this year?
Yeah, I'm not so sure about that one. It deserves it more than The Hours, though.
Actually, I'll disagree with that. Faramir -did- pass the test of the ring. He was uncorrupted by it. He didn't take it for himself, which would have doomed the quest. He saw it as a possible weapon, and decided that would be its course. But he was not corrupted as Boromir was.
Honestly, I'm not sure if they could have done the same without it being painfully, painfully obvious that it was a guy in a costume. You just can't get that level of gauntness and decrepity with a regular character, and I doubt Serkis wanted to drop down to 90 pounds. He's a pretty big guy.
And perhaps it would have been a better movie in that regard. Oh, but it wouldn't have been as "Hollywoodish" a movie though.
They needed some comic relief, and Gimli provided it.
I honestly don't have a problem with any of Gimli's lines (They were great! Comic relief can be terrible when poorly executed, but in this case it was well executed), my objection is that that's the -only- side of Gimli you see in the movie. The only lines at all that he has are the "funny" ones.
I didn't like how Faramir was portrayed in the Two Towers. I realized that they needed to make changes (even in the book, he really does seem like he's too damned perfect), but in the movie he becomes less of a character, and little more than a plot device. His only purpose in the movie is to delay Frodo to getting to Mordor, nothing more. Making him more human is one thing, but he's practically a sneering villain until the final scene.
Are you sure about that? Jackson mentions a few times in the director's commentary for FotR "yes, and this scene helps to set up the Scourging of the Shire in the third movie.."
I can understand why you think it should be there.. but why would you -want- an underlining spell checker? In general, they are a bad idea, as they don't improve your writing in any way, and by breaking up and interrupting your train of thought constantly, it makes it much harder to write. I always turn the underline feature off.. it's cool for eye candy, but it wasn't a well-thought out feature. When you're trying to get your thoughts down on paper, you do not want constant interruptions.