Last night I took my wife to Matrix Revolutions for our Friday night date (our kids' Mimi is visiting; we dumped them on her). Earlier this week I said I was disappointed that their wasn't a Matrix-in-a-Matrix and that the final was panned as resoundly that it was.
Did the panners SEE this movie? We thought it was great. Confusing to follow -- we purposefully had a movie and then dinner so we could talk about it -- but rewarding and satisfyingly concluding (the whole universe doesn't have to end just to provide closure, people).
The action was awesome, so was the passion and interpersonal storyline. Neo and Trinity, Morpheous and Nairobi (sp?), Link and his wife (names?), Morpheous and Neo and Oracle, Frenchman and his wife/trophy, Agent Smith and Neo, Oracle and Architect, and even Machines and Humanity. Character development was good, too: the young boy rescued by Neo, between I and II, who idolized Neo developed very well, for example.
At the point Neo made his bargain with the Machines and let Smith infect him I turned to my wife, who I met in a 2 year post-undergraduate degree Bible school, and said, "He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf..." (2 Cor 5:21a) and "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3/partial): that is, Neo localized Agent Smith and, being physically plugged in, even though he could possibly make it into the Matrix without the plugs, he sacrificed himself to terminate the viral agent of death. BTW, If this doesn't sound familiar, look at this:
Although Christ did not have the sin of the flesh, He was crucified in the flesh (Col. 1:22; 1 Pet. 3:18). Thus, on the cross He judged Satan, who is related to the flesh, and the world, which hangs on him (John 12:31; 16:11), thereby destroying Satan (Heb. 2:14). At the same time, through Christ's crucifixion in the flesh, God condemned sin, which was brought by Satan into man's flesh. As a result, it is possible for us to walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us (v. 4).
And there was much other philosophical treats scattered throughout -- love and karma, just words but given meaning by what they are connected with (the latter so very relevant to Slashdotters, especially those remembering Signal11 and the karma whore wars...:-).
In short, once again I think reviews are useless (except in the case of Ben & JLo flicks) and I regret being influenced in the least by the nay-sayers. I think people pan movies like this just because its easier than admitting, "I need to see it again and ponder for a while what it all means."
That's too bad. My wife and I were hoping that the reason Neo had powers in the "real world" was that the "real world" was a part of the Matrix, too and it would take more than a red pill to awake your physical body. IOWs, that Zion was a part of the Matrix for consciousnesses (people) who couldn't believe the default Matrix world was real enough. Another layer of indirection, if you will.
Personally, I was hoping that the matirx and the humans were ALL the creation of an advanced AI program at MIT, or some such, with the creators not aware in the least of the real passion of their created entities.
See the Left Slashbox with 'Advertisement' and an ugly Towering Inferno banner ad? ('Towering Inferno' refers to its vertical orientation and its being a huge catastrophe at the same time.) I guess/., OSDN , VA is feeling a cash crunch? At least blend it into the page...
I became concerned when I read MS fired a "full-time temp employee" that perhaps Ballmer was let go -- after all aren't ALL MS employees, except the Great One, temps?
Or, "Wholly cow," as in answer to "What's the frangrance of Ferndale, WA?" I lived in beautiful Ferndale, WA for about 8 months in 1998. The pictures are beautiful, with Mt Baker standing so proud, Lindon looking so Lutheran and the tulips to die for. But as pictures are worthy a thousand words, the wafting odor of soggy dairy farms with their pools of fermenting cow dung are worth "a thousand miles," or, more precisely, 1500 miles away where I now reside, Southern California (where the air was clear until someone lit a match -- probably to fight off the ordor of dairy farms in Upland, as a matter of fact).
(There's nothing like conversational detours that return you to the subject)
If you're one of the many who doesn't really have a choice but to use Outlook on Windows, there is anti-spam help available in the form of an open source SourceForge project called SpamBayes.
I downloaded and installed the latest version last night and am very impressed with this seemlessly integrated Bayesian Spam Filter (make sure anti-virus software is disabled before installing -- which can be difficult with McAfee as I discovered).
I've been listening to the radio feature of iTunes -- very nice. Better than Windows Mangled Audio. Almost bought some Willie Nelson the other night, but was rescued by losing consciousness (up late for the past week...the mind reels...)
Beware is good. So is the general designation "malware" for the class of programs that cause trouble to the host and benefit the provider.
If Gator, et al, didn't have a click-through EULA and didn't require the user to say Yes in order to install it, it would be classified as a virus, trojan or worm.
Being that I use Google to generate the map requests (by typing something similar to an address in the Google search bar) and that Google gives me the option to choose either Yahoo Maps or MapQuest, I can say boldly without false humility that Yahoo maps are the clearest, best looking and most relevant maps between the two systems.
As for directions, living in Southern California provides lots of chuckles w/r/t suggested (or was that "congested"?) travel routes between two points. I especially love the recommendation to take the 5 north from Orange County through LA downtown. Wha? No, thanks. I was hoping to get there in just one day. Then again, the alternate routes are not a whole lot better.
Good thing I can load up my iPod with good music from Windows iTunes while printing my directions in glorious full color... maybe I will take the 5 afterall so I can listen to the entire "Essential Willie Nelson" album. "Blue skies...."
(I know you think I should have written, "On the road again...", but that would have been chessy).
I've been trying to find some classical music using the store (hard to find Ravel piece) but have been enjoying the radio feature all day (Magnatune Classical). Much nicer and less obtrusive interface than Windows Media, Dell's Joke, er, Jukebox or Real *whatever-its-called-this-week* player.
I can imagine getting an iPod.
So; when will OSX be available for my Dell 5150?:)
Change phone numbers. Not much is invested in the new number (since it's new) so change it. Much easier than tracking down the faxers. Try to get the phone co to pay for the transfer due to "quality of life" issues.
I don't know whether it was TaxCut's slowness to consider draconian licensing protections or Intuit's ferral penchant for disdaining their customers (ever try to contact Quicken for support of their not-cheap proprietary software? Good freaking luck; the only 'free' method is online chat and its not available Thursday or Friday, which makes me think the service is run out of Malaysia). Whatever the reason, they pissed off their base and deserve what they get.
TaxCut worked beautifully for me...hold on, there's a knock at the door...federal agents!!! Aaahhhh!!!
What would be your choice for middle school classrooms with minimal sys admin?
Depends. Are these to be used in classroom/controlled buildings or are they to be truly mobile units to be used at home as well?
Controlled environment use
If I control the room(s) for the use of these units I would definitely make the portable units wireless, laptop-factor thin clients. Especially for administration reasons, but also to reduce per-unit costs and provide simple redundancy for lost/broken/thrown-out-of-2nd-story-windows-on-gra duation-day replacements. Then I'd recommend using the K12 Terminal Server Linux project's distribution to provide the server side with all the apps, storage, etc, admin'ed centrally. Alternatively, you could use Windows Terminal Server (or, better, Citrix) but the licensing costs will be atrocious. For the Linux TS solution, Windows functionality could be provided through Win4Lin, VMWare, Winex, Cross-Over, if experience with Windows was paramount. But, that'd be silly; with this project your SETTING the standard for the next generation, not merely trying to keep pace with the current -- IOWs, business will react to best utilize this new generation's abilities and familarity rather than the school having to match what business does today.
At that point, whether you choose Dell, Apple, or Joe's Barnyard Animals and Refurbished Computers as the per unit dealer comes down to terms.
Mobile stations for anywhere use
I think this is a bad idea. This will make the units critically important to the 6th graders. When something is critically reliant to someone, you hope that they aren't a sixth grader and that their peers are sixth graders who will distroy critical items belonging to others out of spite over petty schoolyard issues.
Anyway, I don't think there is a PC OS available today that is designed to function well when owned and "operated" by 12 to 13 year olds -- when I was this age I beat my Apple ][+ to smithereens (somewhat literally); if there was a registry on the Apple ][+ I would have corrupted it so badly...just out of curiosity.
That said (i.e., it being a stupid idea), with one caveat, it's a toss up. I've owned OS X and WinXP laptops. Both are rather simple to operate and make it difficult, by default, to damage the underlying OS. However, the caveat is that Windows is by design and by being in the bull's eye a machine that needs regular expert maintenance to apply the requisite patches and turn off dumb services/turn on ICF, etc. Over forty critical updates to IE this year alone!
If the state chooses Windows XP they will unleash 130,000 DDoS clients into the world. Heaven help us!
For remote access to the thin client server, some kind of phone-home VPN hardware/software could be used. I really like the thin client solution for this implementation.
Sadly, many of us are more attached to computers than to our clothes, anyway. Who among us with a new laptop and Wi-Fi in house hasn't traded the wife's (or Mom's) Better Home & Gardens in the mag rack for Slashdot while, er, "downloading"?
As to cellphone games...if you have a Kyocera 23xx phone and want to score big on the first screen of Brick Attack do this:
Click "New" to start a game
Move the paddle all the way to the right...
Wait for the ball to get just about even to the top row of bricks
Scoot all the way to the left!
Wait for the ball to bounce over to the left and just as it begins the return trip
Scoot to the right!
Now the ball will complete the bricks for you (no matter what you do with the paddle from this point)
Score: 31.
Not bad. But wait! Don't click Resume, instead, click New and do it again
Score? at least 67.
Rinse, repeat.
Haven't found an upper limit.
When did I discover this? Waiting in line, sitting in business meetings (turn sound and backlight off), and I perfected this while driving home on the 405 (don't worry...there's time to do a lot between momemtary brake pedal releases).
As to wearing a fridge...many off us could be accussed of hiding one on our person on a cold day...
Top 5 Mail you'll never receive this way
on
Snail Mail As E-Mail
·
· Score: 5, Funny
5) Columbia House CD of the Month Club selection 4) Beer of the Month Club selection 3) Oh...look - shiny! 2) Cookies? What cookies? 1) Congratulations! You're the Publisher's Clearinghouse winner!
Slashdot Mirror
Did the panners SEE this movie? We thought it was great. Confusing to follow -- we purposefully had a movie and then dinner so we could talk about it -- but rewarding and satisfyingly concluding (the whole universe doesn't have to end just to provide closure, people).
The action was awesome, so was the passion and interpersonal storyline. Neo and Trinity, Morpheous and Nairobi (sp?), Link and his wife (names?), Morpheous and Neo and Oracle, Frenchman and his wife/trophy, Agent Smith and Neo, Oracle and Architect, and even Machines and Humanity. Character development was good, too: the young boy rescued by Neo, between I and II, who idolized Neo developed very well, for example.
At the point Neo made his bargain with the Machines and let Smith infect him I turned to my wife, who I met in a 2 year post-undergraduate degree Bible school, and said, "He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf..." (2 Cor 5:21a) and "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3/partial): that is, Neo localized Agent Smith and, being physically plugged in, even though he could possibly make it into the Matrix without the plugs, he sacrificed himself to terminate the viral agent of death. BTW, If this doesn't sound familiar, look at this:
And there was much other philosophical treats scattered throughout -- love and karma, just words but given meaning by what they are connected with (the latter so very relevant to Slashdotters, especially those remembering Signal11 and the karma whore wars...In short, once again I think reviews are useless (except in the case of Ben & JLo flicks) and I regret being influenced in the least by the nay-sayers. I think people pan movies like this just because its easier than admitting, "I need to see it again and ponder for a while what it all means."
Try their public relations manager (fitting, since this is a public relations nightmare). Be nice.
Contact:
Melody Chalaban,
Public Relations Manager
Belkin Components
501 W. Walnut Street
Compton, CA 90220
melodych@belkin.com
(310) 604-2347 direct
(310) 898-1107 fax
www.belkin.com
Not only is TV passive and patronizing but it expensive to produce for, limited in content providers, limited gatekeepers.
The web seems to be moving that direction, but as long as there is choice in browsers (!) there can't be a complete TV-ization of the Internet.
*gulp*
wha?
Personally, I was hoping that the matirx and the humans were ALL the creation of an advanced AI program at MIT, or some such, with the creators not aware in the least of the real passion of their created entities.
Time Was IBM defined enemy of choice, freedom and hackerdom. My how things change.
See the Left Slashbox with 'Advertisement' and an ugly Towering Inferno banner ad? ('Towering Inferno' refers to its vertical orientation and its being a huge catastrophe at the same time.) I guess /., OSDN , VA is feeling a cash crunch? At least blend it into the page...
I hate having to change my sig...
I became concerned when I read MS fired a "full-time temp employee" that perhaps Ballmer was let go -- after all aren't ALL MS employees, except the Great One, temps?
Ok, so that's three. I suck.
YaGottaListen. Not just because he's on ClearChannel and ClearChannel rules the formerly free world, but because he's fantastic.
Or, "Wholly cow," as in answer to "What's the frangrance of Ferndale, WA?" I lived in beautiful Ferndale, WA for about 8 months in 1998. The pictures are beautiful, with Mt Baker standing so proud, Lindon looking so Lutheran and the tulips to die for. But as pictures are worthy a thousand words, the wafting odor of soggy dairy farms with their pools of fermenting cow dung are worth "a thousand miles," or, more precisely, 1500 miles away where I now reside, Southern California (where the air was clear until someone lit a match -- probably to fight off the ordor of dairy farms in Upland, as a matter of fact).
(There's nothing like conversational detours that return you to the subject)
- I personally would have preferred if some good programer had enhanced Mozilla composer to the same level of feature richnes as the Macromedia suite.
I believe there is a project to extend Notepad.exe to match MacroMedia's Dreamweaver feature for feature....And there's a project to make Honda Accords match the new Hummer H2's with slight modifications.
I downloaded and installed the latest version last night and am very impressed with this seemlessly integrated Bayesian Spam Filter (make sure anti-virus software is disabled before installing -- which can be difficult with McAfee as I discovered).
Very much recomeeded.
I've been listening to the radio feature of iTunes -- very nice. Better than Windows Mangled Audio. Almost bought some Willie Nelson the other night, but was rescued by losing consciousness (up late for the past week...the mind reels...)
1) Spend bazillions on new web marketing campaign
2) Alienate web users with pop-unders and fake pr0n
3) ???
4) Bankrupcy!
;^)
If Gator, et al, didn't have a click-through EULA and didn't require the user to say Yes in order to install it, it would be classified as a virus, trojan or worm.
As for directions, living in Southern California provides lots of chuckles w/r/t suggested (or was that "congested"?) travel routes between two points. I especially love the recommendation to take the 5 north from Orange County through LA downtown. Wha? No, thanks. I was hoping to get there in just one day. Then again, the alternate routes are not a whole lot better.
Good thing I can load up my iPod with good music from Windows iTunes while printing my directions in glorious full color ... maybe I will take the 5 afterall so I can listen to the entire "Essential Willie Nelson" album. "Blue skies...."
(I know you think I should have written, "On the road again...", but that would have been chessy).
I've been trying to find some classical music using the store (hard to find Ravel piece) but have been enjoying the radio feature all day (Magnatune Classical). Much nicer and less obtrusive interface than Windows Media, Dell's Joke, er, Jukebox or Real *whatever-its-called-this-week* player. I can imagine getting an iPod. So; when will OSX be available for my Dell 5150? :)
Change phone numbers. Not much is invested in the new number (since it's new) so change it. Much easier than tracking down the faxers. Try to get the phone co to pay for the transfer due to "quality of life" issues.
TaxCut worked beautifully for me ...hold on, there's a knock at the door...federal agents!!! Aaahhhh!!!
- What would be your choice for middle school classrooms with minimal sys admin?
Depends. Are these to be used in classroom/controlled buildings or are they to be truly mobile units to be used at home as well?- Controlled environment use
- Mobile stations for anywhere use
For remote access to the thin client server, some kind of phone-home VPN hardware/software could be used. I really like the thin client solution for this implementation.- C:\Una\Lesbian Porn>DIR | more
I tried and tried this but all I got was- The system cannot find the path specified.
Damn.As to cellphone games...if you have a Kyocera 23xx phone and want to score big on the first screen of Brick Attack do this:
- Click "New" to start a game
- Move the paddle all the way to the right
... - Wait for the ball to get just about even to the top row of bricks
- Scoot all the way to the left!
- Wait for the ball to bounce over to the left and just as it begins the return trip
- Scoot to the right!
- Now the ball will complete the bricks for you (no matter what you do with the paddle from this point)
- Score: 31.
- Not bad. But wait! Don't click Resume, instead, click New and do it again
- Score? at least 67.
- Rinse, repeat.
- Haven't found an upper limit.
When did I discover this? Waiting in line, sitting in business meetings (turn sound and backlight off), and I perfected this while driving home on the 405 (don't worry...there's time to do a lot between momemtary brake pedal releases).As to wearing a fridge...many off us could be accussed of hiding one on our person on a cold day...
5) Columbia House CD of the Month Club selection
4) Beer of the Month Club selection
3) Oh...look - shiny!
2) Cookies? What cookies?
1) Congratulations! You're the Publisher's Clearinghouse winner!