Cross-media retellings generally suck. The novellization of a movie, the movie of a novel, the miniseries of the novel, the comic adaptation, and the video game license.
Cross media *shared universes* however, can be great. Note the Halo novels; the retelling of the video game blows, the other two novels are wonderful. Riddick: Butcher's Bay; not the movie, just a different chapter.
Enter the Matrix, well, I didn't think it was so bad. Rushed, certainly, but I quite liked it.
Imagine a world where PHBs can turn their office wall into a window onto any cube.
It's called a fucking VIDEO CAMERA.
Christ, we need a new medical term for people who see mind control lasers and Big Brother around every (transparant) corner; like hypochondria is unreasonable fear of disease.
I'm sorry, but how is this interesting? This reminds me of Dilbert's boss; 'anything I don't understand must be simple.'
Why do you assume that the police are such mindless automatons? "Duh...there's DNA here from over fifty people...must have been a hell of a murder. Send out the paddy wagons." Come on.
DNA evidence will never convict somebody by itself, any more than a fingerprint or an eye witness account will. Eye witness accounts, as any cop or DA will tell you, are unreliable as hell; this is why forensic science is so important.
The DNA found matches ten people in the database? Fine. That gives them some leads. You were found in the area, you have powder marks on your hands, and you were known to not like the deader? There you go.
It's not easy to plant fingerprints at the scene of a crime. What are the chances that if this becomes standard crooks will be scattering DNA at crime scenes like confetti at a wedding.
Yeah, the cops will never be able to do things like determine DNA planting by dispersal patterns, sample ages, and so on.
Just remember what happened recently to the Oregon lawyer who was unlucky enough to have a fingerprint fairly close to that of terrorist suspect. A false positive match put him in prison for some weeks as a "material witness" and he was only released when Spanish police made a match to another person. There was no evidence against the guy, apart from the fingerprint.
And if it wasn't a fingerprint, it would be a description. Or a similar SSN. Or something.
Sometimes I wonder, if/. were around during other 'great' inventions, what people would say about them.
What? Mr. Bell is CLEARLY hoping to plant a listening device in EVERY HOUSE IN THE UNION! This 'telephone' is obviously nothing less than a gross breach of our private affairs!
Sounds like an INTP, aye. If you can read this and start adding your own name to the various descriptions, that's a good sign.
If this is the case, remember that we're 1 percent of the general population, and the the world is more or less specifically designed to piss us off.
Learn to recognize the fact that you'll feel that way, learn to recognize that in many cases, what somebody's doing that makes you really really mad is making you mad because of your brain wiring, not because they're trying to piss you off, and you'll get along fine.
You will, however, find it annoying in a vague and distant way that you'll find a new hobby, throw yourself into it body and soul for a few weeks to a few months, become proficient, and drop it for a few years. On the other hand, I find that this isn't so bad, as I often collect so much stuff during the acquisition/learning phase that I don't get to it all during the use phase, so I have something waiting for me when I get back to it later.
If part of your religious belief is "non-believers will be consigned to an eternity of damnation," then, no, you can't keep your beliefs to yourself, as by doing so, you are actively consigning people to, well, eternal damnation.
Well, assuming that's supposed to be an incremental counter, at some point, that's going to wrap to 0 (or some negative number, depending on how you've declared it) which is probably not a good behaviour.
But, in your example, you haven't written a program. You've written a line of code.
And if you read their contracts, you'll probably find lots of clauses about ''best effort' basis and 'as is' and 'does not warrent coverage' and so on.
What, you've never accidentally programmed an infinite loop? I have.
Self-replicating machines are prohibitively complex.
Maybe, but you only have to make it once.
The real problem with nano machines would be simple design flaws, not replication.
Reference right back to your first point; they'll do what you design them to do. The problem comes when you either a) fuck up, or b) don't think through clearly the consequences of what you're asking them to do.
Actually, the problem is that 'The Flood' was written by an idiot, while the other two were written by a thoughful, intelligent author.
"The Flood" commited the most unforgivable thing; it turned the Covenant aliens into human beings with rubber masks. The other two novels do a very good job of making the aliens seem alien.
Hell, I expatriated from Toronto, gosh, about two years ago, after spending a year out of work, for just this reason; too many cooks, not enough kitchens, so to speak.
"I'm not sure. I won't know until I ping it or not, but the act of pinging it might change it's state. And even if I do ping it, I'll either know the RTTs, or the number of hops. Not both."
OR, you've played games like Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, and you've been conditioned that if you jump through a window (or a door, or even just walking down an uneven path) you'll run into a laser tripmine that can only be found by running into it, dying, and reloading.
Agreed. It can be damn hard to tell if a window is for looking out of, if it's for jumping through, if it's for decoration, or what.
Two examples, spoilers ahoy. The first is for Robotech: Battlecry, the second is for Fallout: BOS (pc version).
In the second last mission for R:BC, there are lots of instances where, it turns out, you're supposed to stand behind some hunks of concrete rubble that happent o look like sniper hides. If you stand behind these hunks, enemies magically stop shooting at you. They can see you, they could hit you easily if you shot, but you won't get shot at, as long as your behind them. Hell, as you're maneuvering into them, the enemy will track you and plug you right though the hole, but then, nothing. And you can merrily plug away.
In Fallout: BOS, I stopped playing after one level where you're supposed to get onto the roof of a library or some such. Well, there's some nice stairs. But the stairs are blocked off with some sandbags. About three feet high. Well, your soldiers cannot move the sandbags, jump over the sandbags, cut open the sandbags to let the sand drain out, blow up the sandbags with C4, nothing.
That's not right. The resolution, by the way, is to follow the path the developers laid out which goes around the neighbourhood, up a fire escape, and across the roofs.
The point? Solutions to problems can be so obvious as to be dismissed as unfeasable, or so non-obvious (or, the "obivious" solution simply ignored or disallowed) so as to put players off.
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Cross-media retellings generally suck. The novellization of a movie, the movie of a novel, the miniseries of the novel, the comic adaptation, and the video game license.
Cross media *shared universes* however, can be great. Note the Halo novels; the retelling of the video game blows, the other two novels are wonderful. Riddick: Butcher's Bay; not the movie, just a different chapter.
Enter the Matrix, well, I didn't think it was so bad. Rushed, certainly, but I quite liked it.
Even though the switch board lady will be listening in on your calls?
It's called a fucking VIDEO CAMERA.
Christ, we need a new medical term for people who see mind control lasers and Big Brother around every (transparant) corner; like hypochondria is unreasonable fear of disease.
It suddenly occurs to me to mention that I'm Canadian; might have something to do with my outlook on such things. :-)
I'm sorry, but how is this interesting? This reminds me of Dilbert's boss; 'anything I don't understand must be simple.'
Why do you assume that the police are such mindless automatons? "Duh...there's DNA here from over fifty people...must have been a hell of a murder. Send out the paddy wagons." Come on.
DNA evidence will never convict somebody by itself, any more than a fingerprint or an eye witness account will. Eye witness accounts, as any cop or DA will tell you, are unreliable as hell; this is why forensic science is so important.
The DNA found matches ten people in the database? Fine. That gives them some leads. You were found in the area, you have powder marks on your hands, and you were known to not like the deader? There you go.
Yeah, the cops will never be able to do things like determine DNA planting by dispersal patterns, sample ages, and so on.
And if it wasn't a fingerprint, it would be a description. Or a similar SSN. Or something.
Sometimes I wonder, if /. were around during other 'great' inventions, what people would say about them.
Sounds like an INTP, aye. If you can read this and start adding your own name to the various descriptions, that's a good sign.
If this is the case, remember that we're 1 percent of the general population, and the the world is more or less specifically designed to piss us off.
Learn to recognize the fact that you'll feel that way, learn to recognize that in many cases, what somebody's doing that makes you really really mad is making you mad because of your brain wiring, not because they're trying to piss you off, and you'll get along fine.
You will, however, find it annoying in a vague and distant way that you'll find a new hobby, throw yourself into it body and soul for a few weeks to a few months, become proficient, and drop it for a few years. On the other hand, I find that this isn't so bad, as I often collect so much stuff during the acquisition/learning phase that I don't get to it all during the use phase, so I have something waiting for me when I get back to it later.
If part of your religious belief is "non-believers will be consigned to an eternity of damnation," then, no, you can't keep your beliefs to yourself, as by doing so, you are actively consigning people to, well, eternal damnation.
Well, assuming that's supposed to be an incremental counter, at some point, that's going to wrap to 0 (or some negative number, depending on how you've declared it) which is probably not a good behaviour.
But, in your example, you haven't written a program. You've written a line of code.
Agreed; the first rule of security (let alone *computer* security* is that you can't stop human stupidity.
That's because you haven't yet built the Self Aware Colony project.
But seriously, there's no way to prevent crime; only punish it after the fact.
And if you read their contracts, you'll probably find lots of clauses about ''best effort' basis and 'as is' and 'does not warrent coverage' and so on.
No, it's funny because they're going to jail, see, they won't be 'free.'
And I doubt it's a reference to either slavery or Dune, so much as, well, a name. Maybe a reference to Morgan Freeman. Morgan...Gordon...spooky.
Isn't it ironic that they've been arrested for stealing a game who's main character is named 'Freeman'?
What, you've never accidentally programmed an infinite loop? I have.
Maybe, but you only have to make it once.
Reference right back to your first point; they'll do what you design them to do. The problem comes when you either a) fuck up, or b) don't think through clearly the consequences of what you're asking them to do.
Actually, the problem is that 'The Flood' was written by an idiot, while the other two were written by a thoughful, intelligent author.
"The Flood" commited the most unforgivable thing; it turned the Covenant aliens into human beings with rubber masks. The other two novels do a very good job of making the aliens seem alien.
After begging and pleading with Judi Dench to appear in the movie, he then invited her to join into his D&D group. She declined.
I remember listening to a clip that was the sound of wind on Io or some such; it was freaky. That's the best way I can describe it; freaky.
Hell, I expatriated from Toronto, gosh, about two years ago, after spending a year out of work, for just this reason; too many cooks, not enough kitchens, so to speak.
Too late.
"Hey, Bob, is the rover responding to pings?"
"I'm not sure. I won't know until I ping it or not, but the act of pinging it might change it's state. And even if I do ping it, I'll either know the RTTs, or the number of hops. Not both."
"Fucking Quantum TCP/IP."
Good; they would have solved their heating problems, too.
Compliments graciously accepted.
OR, you've played games like Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, and you've been conditioned that if you jump through a window (or a door, or even just walking down an uneven path) you'll run into a laser tripmine that can only be found by running into it, dying, and reloading.
Agreed. It can be damn hard to tell if a window is for looking out of, if it's for jumping through, if it's for decoration, or what.
Two examples, spoilers ahoy. The first is for Robotech: Battlecry, the second is for Fallout: BOS (pc version).
In the second last mission for R:BC, there are lots of instances where, it turns out, you're supposed to stand behind some hunks of concrete rubble that happent o look like sniper hides. If you stand behind these hunks, enemies magically stop shooting at you. They can see you, they could hit you easily if you shot, but you won't get shot at, as long as your behind them. Hell, as you're maneuvering into them, the enemy will track you and plug you right though the hole, but then, nothing. And you can merrily plug away.
In Fallout: BOS, I stopped playing after one level where you're supposed to get onto the roof of a library or some such. Well, there's some nice stairs. But the stairs are blocked off with some sandbags. About three feet high. Well, your soldiers cannot move the sandbags, jump over the sandbags, cut open the sandbags to let the sand drain out, blow up the sandbags with C4, nothing.
That's not right. The resolution, by the way, is to follow the path the developers laid out which goes around the neighbourhood, up a fire escape, and across the roofs.
The point? Solutions to problems can be so obvious as to be dismissed as unfeasable, or so non-obvious (or, the "obivious" solution simply ignored or disallowed) so as to put players off.
The thought had occured to me. But if so, I have nothing but sympathy for the man, but he should have been removed from office.
Somehow, though, I doubt his 'I don't recall' statements stemmed from any actual inability to, well, recall.