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Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! home page or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services. Also, you may find what you're looking for if you try searching below.
Check out the great (and often hilarious) documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" which examines (and rips apart) the MPAA's "voluntary" "please don't call it censorship" ratings system.- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-559517494445537267 (or get the torrent, natch. I'll bet it's even available on DVD!)
The film shows how a voluntary code can seem pretty darn no-so-voluntary. Unrated or NC-17 films have trouble getting into major movie houses, getting advertising in newspapers, obtaining backing from the studio, and so on. And it shows how the ratings are biased, often arbitrary, hard to contest, and so on.
As someone in the film points out, government ratings or censorship might actually be preferable to a voluntary system, as (at least in a proper democracy) the government can be held accountable for its decisions at the end of the day. With a voluntary scheme its like boxing the Michelin man - you can land the punches but they won't have much effect.
One solution offered is to watch the watchmen. The filmmakers go to great efforts to find the member names of the review board and the appeals board, which the MPAA usually keeps a closely guarded secret.
Not a permanent backlash, of course. Just a one-time just-to-piss-everyone-off kind of backlash. Say, pick a day on the calendar where all sites everywhere replace "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" on their stylesheets with "Comic Sans" for 24 hours.
Say it's for charity or a "in an effort to bring awareness to..." kind of thing. Whatever. Just pick something.
I always wondered if there were any such ethical qualms within Hollywood when they made films about WWII while the war was actually going on. "Does this strike to close to home?" "Should we be 100% accurate?" "Should we humanize the enemy?" "Is it OK to make a profit doing this?"
If they did have such qualms it didn't prevent them from making dozens upon dozens of such films. Is this just a case of "new era, new medium" or are games fundamentally different from film?
And remember that its like this because not that long ago the world's "netizens" said in a collective voice "A website that wants to charge us $10.00 a year or 25 cents a shot to read their articles can rot in hell."
Peppermint Patty: You call this a Year 2000, Chuck? You invite us over for New Year's, and this is what we get - popcorn and jelly beans? Where's the space hotels? Where's the hover cars? Where's the robot servants? Where's the caped jumpsuits? Where's the Age of Leisure?!
You do realize that by dedicating a full day of/. to posting April Fool's Day jokes that any arguments, however superficial, that/. aggregates business-relevant content that must be monitored a certain percentage of the workday are completely defenestrated, correct?
Today on the Yawning Puppy Channel, from 3:00 - 5:00 - Bulldogs! And from 5:00 to 7:00, Welsh Corgis! Yawning puppies 24 hours a day! Only on the Yawning Puppy Channel!!
Fifteen years later:
TONIGHT ON BEAST WARS! MECHAGODZILLA VS. DOGMAGGEDDON! WHICH ONE OF THESE CHAMPIONS WILL BE TURNED INTO A BURNING PILE OF SCRAP IRON? FIND OUT TONIGHT ON BEAST WARS!!! ONLY ON THE YPC!
You get the idea. Damn near every cable channel has pulled this. Nothing to see here, move along..
- So they've renamed the channel?
- Si.
- Er, what is the new name?
- Sy.
- Sy?
- Si.
- Well, that's sounds like a terrible name.
- Si.
- I wonder what we can do about it.
- Sue.
- You think we should sue them?
- Si.
- I don't think we have the grounds to do that.
- Sigh.
It was a running gag back in engineering college. A bright-eyed student would start his engineering major (electrical, chemical, etc.), get his ass handed to him, and then switch to computer science.
While there's certainly a steep learning curve in becoming a developer, at the end of the day its just a matter of hands-on experience. Fold flap A into slot B enough times and you eventually get the hang of it.
But most of the concepts are understandable to the everyday human. In business development, the mathematics involve rarely involve anything beyond some complicated algebra. If homeboy was a *real* genius he'd be in game physics or data compression or quantitative analysis or some other programming field where calculus and other brain-bending forms of math raise their ugly head.
I've found that there's a big difference between "clever" and "smart". The smart guys figure out how to store 100GB of information on a 3.5" disk. The clever guys come up with microblogging. Most developers fall into the clever category.
Le Nez - And here's our latest mixture for Red Shirt. Have a whif and tell me what you pick up on.
Marketing Exec - Let's see.. - burning flesh and polyester?
L - Quite right. And?
M - Cold sweat.
L - Anything else?
M - I'm thinking..a hint of self-defecation?
L - Excellent! We also included some sagebrush to give it that "stuck on a barren desert planet" air.
...is another man's sickly yellow. The basic rule of thumb for antiques/collectibles is to never remove its patina e.g. all that crap that's built up on its surface over the years, as it's an undeniable indication of its age (plus sometimes it just looks cool.)
Then again, vintage car fans don't hesitate to break out the paint and the rust remover.
Will diehard technology collectors prefer plastic as yellow as a smoking lounge drop ceiling, or returned to its brilliant off-whiteness?
Slashdot Mirror
Seems like every GeoCities page is coming back:
Sorry, Service Temporarily Unavailable. The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Additionally, a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! home page or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services. Also, you may find what you're looking for if you try searching below.
Unless we slashdotted their butts..
Check out the great (and often hilarious) documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" which examines (and rips apart) the MPAA's "voluntary" "please don't call it censorship" ratings system.- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-559517494445537267 (or get the torrent, natch. I'll bet it's even available on DVD!)
The film shows how a voluntary code can seem pretty darn no-so-voluntary. Unrated or NC-17 films have trouble getting into major movie houses, getting advertising in newspapers, obtaining backing from the studio, and so on. And it shows how the ratings are biased, often arbitrary, hard to contest, and so on.
As someone in the film points out, government ratings or censorship might actually be preferable to a voluntary system, as (at least in a proper democracy) the government can be held accountable for its decisions at the end of the day. With a voluntary scheme its like boxing the Michelin man - you can land the punches but they won't have much effect.
One solution offered is to watch the watchmen. The filmmakers go to great efforts to find the member names of the review board and the appeals board, which the MPAA usually keeps a closely guarded secret.
So who's working for the IWF?
Theoretical physicists do come up with their best hypotheses on 4/20.
Not a permanent backlash, of course. Just a one-time just-to-piss-everyone-off kind of backlash. Say, pick a day on the calendar where all sites everywhere replace "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" on their stylesheets with "Comic Sans" for 24 hours.
Say it's for charity or a "in an effort to bring awareness to..." kind of thing. Whatever. Just pick something.
So, October 1 good for everybody?
"So what's Achewood?" I ask. So I click the link. Now I have *another* timesuck in my life. So thanks for that.
I always wondered if there were any such ethical qualms within Hollywood when they made films about WWII while the war was actually going on. "Does this strike to close to home?" "Should we be 100% accurate?" "Should we humanize the enemy?" "Is it OK to make a profit doing this?"
If they did have such qualms it didn't prevent them from making dozens upon dozens of such films. Is this just a case of "new era, new medium" or are games fundamentally different from film?
You lucky motherfucker.
I thought Doctor Smith was only known for the terms like "Bumbling bucket of bolts" and "Oh no! We're all going to die!!"
Just go to the print view.
And remember that its like this because not that long ago the world's "netizens" said in a collective voice "A website that wants to charge us $10.00 a year or 25 cents a shot to read their articles can rot in hell."
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"
- John Greenleaf Whittier
More sad are these we daily see:
"It is, but hadn't ought to be."
- Bret Harte
Peppermint Patty: You call this a Year 2000, Chuck? You invite us over for New Year's, and this is what we get - popcorn and jelly beans? Where's the space hotels? Where's the hover cars? Where's the robot servants? Where's the caped jumpsuits? Where's the Age of Leisure?!
You do realize that by dedicating a full day of /. to posting April Fool's Day jokes that any arguments, however superficial, that /. aggregates business-relevant content that must be monitored a certain percentage of the workday are completely defenestrated, correct?
Sincerely,
Buzz Killington
Dictated but not read.
Do they improve peripheral vision? Just sayin'..
You graduated! Yer full-fledged tank paratroopers!
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/938744/
"The Tingler is loose in THIS theater! Scream! Scream for your lives!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tingler#Percepto:_.22Scream_for_your_lives.21.22
Today on the Yawning Puppy Channel, from 3:00 - 5:00 - Bulldogs! And from 5:00 to 7:00, Welsh Corgis! Yawning puppies 24 hours a day! Only on the Yawning Puppy Channel!!
Fifteen years later:
TONIGHT ON BEAST WARS! MECHAGODZILLA VS. DOGMAGGEDDON! WHICH ONE OF THESE CHAMPIONS WILL BE TURNED INTO A BURNING PILE OF SCRAP IRON? FIND OUT TONIGHT ON BEAST WARS!!! ONLY ON THE YPC!
You get the idea. Damn near every cable channel has pulled this. Nothing to see here, move along..
- So they've renamed the channel?
- Si.
- Er, what is the new name?
- Sy.
- Sy?
- Si.
- Well, that's sounds like a terrible name.
- Si.
- I wonder what we can do about it.
- Sue.
- You think we should sue them?
- Si.
- I don't think we have the grounds to do that.
- Sigh.
It was a running gag back in engineering college. A bright-eyed student would start his engineering major (electrical, chemical, etc.), get his ass handed to him, and then switch to computer science.
While there's certainly a steep learning curve in becoming a developer, at the end of the day its just a matter of hands-on experience. Fold flap A into slot B enough times and you eventually get the hang of it.
But most of the concepts are understandable to the everyday human. In business development, the mathematics involve rarely involve anything beyond some complicated algebra. If homeboy was a *real* genius he'd be in game physics or data compression or quantitative analysis or some other programming field where calculus and other brain-bending forms of math raise their ugly head.
I've found that there's a big difference between "clever" and "smart". The smart guys figure out how to store 100GB of information on a 3.5" disk. The clever guys come up with microblogging. Most developers fall into the clever category.
It's safe from surface-to-air missiles.
Surface-to-air blimps, on the other hand...
The full text of the legislation will presumably require the blurring out of schools, churches, government buildings...
...and the residences of government officials.
He already has a working model -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3OSTflMO80
Who run Carpettown?
Le Nez - And here's our latest mixture for Red Shirt. Have a whif and tell me what you pick up on.
Marketing Exec - Let's see.. - burning flesh and polyester?
L - Quite right. And?
M - Cold sweat.
L - Anything else?
M - I'm thinking..a hint of self-defecation?
L - Excellent! We also included some sagebrush to give it that "stuck on a barren desert planet" air.
...is another man's sickly yellow. The basic rule of thumb for antiques/collectibles is to never remove its patina e.g. all that crap that's built up on its surface over the years, as it's an undeniable indication of its age (plus sometimes it just looks cool.)
Then again, vintage car fans don't hesitate to break out the paint and the rust remover.
Will diehard technology collectors prefer plastic as yellow as a smoking lounge drop ceiling, or returned to its brilliant off-whiteness?
Mouser Mecha-Catbot might have a shot at beating BioHazard.