While it is different, and they do actually buy securities, they are doing some pure "lending" too, in addition to buying up our national debt and other shady stuff.
"China is the single largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasurys. The money it lends to the Feds finances our significant budget deficits. (Americans have been paying about $450 billion a year in interest on the national credit card; without that debt to pay off, personal income taxes could be almost 40 percent lower."CBS Article
China is the country that the USA keeps borrowing money from...wonder how long it will be before we start noticing some policy changes to our internet? What would the US government do if the Chinese government demanded we censor our internet the same way they are, or they won't let us borrow anymore money?
True, but DirectX 11 will support anti-de-Sitter 3D Projection Model 1.0 so you'll have to upgrade eventually.;)
The guys over @ "The Big Bang Theory" are probably scrambling to incorporate this into next season's scripts. Pretty much the only practical application of String Theory for the rest of us.
It is ALWAYS the non-technical bureaucrats making the purchasing decisions, since they have the money. But it is the job of the IT/Computer Techs/Nerds under their command to show them the alternatives and, clearly, state why X is better than Y.
Sure, sometimes that non-technical bureaucrat will still go with an option that most tech-savvy people wouldn't (such as going open source), more times than not "free" + "works almost the same" is enough to get the higher-ups on board. Although the cost of retraining an entire user-base of employees on how to use Linux effectively is a much bigger step than switching from, say, MS Office to OpenOffice.
Case and point, I did contract work for a company that had switched completely over to OpenOffice, and saved themselves a CRAP load of $, which is significant in this troubled economy. I'd be surprised if more companies didn't start doing this, especially if the economy stays in the crapper like it has been. But that same company still runs Windows XP/2000 because the cost of retraining people would outweigh the short-term turnaround. Illogical, but in these tough times it is hard to blame moves like that.
Weird Al doesn't always get permission from people. And he doesn't have to because of the law allowing parodies. It all depends on how closely he is copying a song (lyrics, lyrics + instrumental, just instrumental with original lyrics).
A specific example of this would be when he parodied "Gangsters's Paradise" by Coolio many years ago. He wrote a song using a direct replication of the beat called "Amish Paridise", and the lyrics copied Coolio's so closely that there was a lot of tension and preliminary talk about going to court. The only thing that stopped it was that Weird Al sent a nice FAT check to Coolio cutting him in on the money his album generated, and that made the whole thing moot. There was an interview on MTV back in the day after it all blew over where Coolio said it wasn't that he copied it, it was that he thought Weird Al was making fun of HIM directly, and because it was such a close parody. (Many of the lyrics used the same words only jumbled or extremely close rhymes).
All that work by yourself in a respectable amount of time? No.
All that work in 10+ years? It's at least POSSIBLE. You'd think with a handful of people (like 3-5) you'd be able to do it in 3-5 years. Look at all the indy developed games out there: most of them have teams smaller than 10 people. 3D Realms had 10 years and barely had a trailer out for us to watch. Granted the leaked footage shown recently shows a game that is a bit more finished than even I thought was done, but still...I don't think it is out of the question. 10 years is a long time.
I think everyone is having a hard time finding any pity for 3D Realms. Honestly, how could there be? After dragging the community (and Take Two) along for so long, while poking fun and EMBRACING the fact that nobody thought it was going to come out and laughing at the fact that people called it vaporware, they then went out of business?
Really, no words can put into perspective the amount of irony in play here. While I laughed when I saw 3D Realms was going under, I also was really pissed, considering all the leaked footage and little "trailers" they used to tease us the last few years.
I hope that somehow, Take Two get's their money along with every last scrap of code and data for DNF and shops it to a RESPECTABLE company that will, no doubt, be able to crank out the game in a years time, tops. As long as I get my Duke, i'll be satisfied with whatever outcome comes to pass. I think everyone is at that point now too.
Touche, and it normally isn't;) But for the context of this article that seemed kinda moot. Webcams have been trained in on other body parts for ages now. Perhaps they need some sort of other kind of "recognition" options as well?
This is actually a fairly cool bit of technology. My girlfriend recently got a crazy expensive webcam for herself. I don't know the model # off the top of my head but it is the one of their upper level models that has the Carl Zeiss Optical technology in it. Bundled with the camera comes face recognition and motion sensing software. It locks in on her face and when she moves around it follows her face so that she is never out of frame. It is actually quite accurate and rarely loses track of her.
Not sure how much people who would be using this with the XBOX would be moving around, but it is generally a pretty neat tech.
True, but I just found it kinda crappy that Klingon and Starfleet ships held the same design while a Romulan mining ship showed no signs of the established design. While it is a "future" mining ship, the only thing that screamed "mining" about the whole damn thing was the tether and drilling laser. Other than that, it could have been anything. Attach that tether to a classic Romulan Warbird and you could have called that a "mining ship" too;)
Haha, I suppose that is true to a degree. The LCARS GUI that they developed was the Apple-design of it's day for sure. Although it at least became a consistent thing that Trek upheld throughout it's series. It was very identifiable. I'm not sure how well the bridge of the Enterprise from the new Trek will age though. I'm not saying I DISLIKED it, I'm just not a big Apple fan and immediately that's what I thought when I saw the new bridge.
That and their liberal use of the Lens Flare effect
Ha. The movie was more about the Enterprise crew and bringing them back together than about Nero's "I'm angry at Spock" part of the storyline. Most people can see this. He was the least "bad" bad guy in a Trek film that I can remember. Honestly, if YOU can't see my point, it doesn't bother me. NO need for insults in this case. I'm just saying he wasn't a good bad guy. Very forgettable. Hence my mistake in leaving out an "R"...which is where all your disdain is coming from. Quite funny.
I was outside all day Saturday. Was there a point to your post or were you just hoping to instill some sort of negative feeling in me for my analysis of a sci-fi franchise that I enjoy? Rest assured, I probably get out, enjoy the company of females, and generally live a better life than you:)
Oh, no, I totally understand WHY the franchise needed a reset. I have been championing that decision for a long time now. Classic-trek wasn't making any $, and I'd rather see it continue in this alternate timeline than see it die, but that still doesn't negate my mourning for what lead up to this reset.
Simple typo. Besides, Nero wasn't exactly the most prominent figure in the movie. I found his character very lacking the "I care" department. As a villain, he was pretty mediocre. Sorry I didn't have my nerd spell check turned on. If you are going to not take my comments "seriously" because of a forgotten "R", then so be it.
I think that most of the $ from the first weekend was mostly all the Star Trek fans coming out in full force. Hopefully word of mouth will help spread that it is a good movie that can appeal to people beyond the average Trek geek.
As a big fan of all things Trek, I am happy to see a Trek movie finally get good reviews and make a lot of $. It has been over a decade (since 1996 and First Contact) since we have seen Trek on top at the box office. And remember, in 1996 there was no such thing as thepiratebay and torrents. Literally 24 hours after Star Trek hit the theaters this past Thursday, it was up with a decent watchable copy on TPB and most other torrent sites. So to see it doing this well in spite of the easy accessibility to most Trek fans is encouraging.
But as a Trek fan, I am a little disappointed with how the storyline stacks up. I mean, Trek is known for having some plot holes here and there, but this movie really just forgoes all notion of continuity or semblance of some of the more recent Trek constants. To name a few:
The Temporal Prime Directive
In the Future, there is a division of Starfleet that watches the timeline for massive changes
The fact that reversing the damage caused by Neo would require a simple bit of time travel (jump to the past to reverse the damage caused, then jump to the future to prevent Neo from ever going back)
Neo's ship conforms to NONE of the established Romulan shiip design
Voyager's Chakotay-style Face Tattoos on romulans?
An Enterprise bridge designed by Apple
There are some things I REALLY liked (the CG, the fact that space was FINALLY silent, the constant use of the Z-Axis, etc) and I thought they did a GREAT job with the casting, but I am worried they will totally negate all the Trek that lead up to this...
"On Time" is something 3D Realms didn't understand. I mean, they EMBRACED the fact that everyone called it vaporware and LOVED that nobody thought it was coming out. I hope it stings REALLY bad for them now that they aren't going to get to release it, cause I know after all the little things they've let slip out over the last couple years (trailers, screenshots, etc) that it pisses me off.
I agree with making the project open source. That would be nice. But hopefully a big name dev will pick it up and finish it off (probably in like 6 months time since they won't be a bunch of bumbling idiots like 3D Realms was) and we can finally play the game. I don't even care if it is only "OK". After all this time, I'll be perfectly happy just to hear some Duke catch phrases while I frag some aliens. The industry needs it.
Yea, it had his blessing...before they turned it into a 5 season long arc about the Federation at war. Gene was very against having a lot of fighting and WAR was very much not even a possibility as a small arc, let alone one that took up much of the series time.
Now don't get me wrong, DS9 was GREAT! But I don't think that Gene would have been happy about the direction it took in the later seasons. Although the character development and the stories surrounding the war had Gene's ideals written all over them. Great series.
I actually just saw this movie again with a very mixed group, including several friends who are normally VERY opposed to anything that bears the name "Star Trek". Why were they there? Because the trailer "looked cool". Their reaction? A resounding "Hell yea, that was awesome!".
Being a pretty big Star Trek fan myself, I found it to be just "good" or "very good". Not the best Trek, not "OMFGWTFBBQ!!!!!! BEST FILM EVER!!!".
But the reaction from my non-trekkie friends and the people all around me was nothing but positive. And that is what this film was attempting to do. I think the box office #'s will show that. If this film grosses more than Nemesis, or any other Star Trek in recent history, then I do believe my points are valid and their attempt to get the people who aren't Trekkies in the theater was a success. If even half of those people are now fans of "Star Trek" (whatever incarnation that may be) it's a win.
Re:Fans are disconnected
on
Reviews: Star Trek
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· Score: 2, Interesting
So, you are saying this is BETTER or WORSE than Nemesis? Because honestly, if it is even a LITTLE bit better, then this is a win for the franchise and fans everywhere because that turd they called Nemesis was an embarrassment to TNG and everything Star Trek should be.
Regardless of how this is viewed by the huge, ridiculous, hardcore star trek robo-nerds, this is a welcome reboot to keep Trek alive. Don't kid yourselves: if this movie tanks, then Trek is dead forever. So you better pray this does VERY well and makes 100's of millions so Paramount doesn't declare it dead forever.
Honestly though, I'd love for a new series to come out that follows the normal progression of other ST series (I.E. Jump ahead X number of years in the canon timeline and go from there...Enterprise J they showed in the time travel scene in Enterprise's 3rd season anyone?). Other than that, they can do all the blockbuster action flicks they want, as long as they make $ and are worth my $10 to actually go and see in the theater. And from what I can gather, that is exactly what this film is.
I am a huge Trek fan, and sure I would have loved to see another TNG-cast film that follows Roddenberry's dream exactly. But that just isn;t what the franchise needed. It did not need another niche film that only appealed to about the 3 million HARDCORE Star Trek fans. They needed something moms and dads and people who don't normally care could get behind. And that is this film.
Slashdot Mirror
While it is different, and they do actually buy securities, they are doing some pure "lending" too, in addition to buying up our national debt and other shady stuff.
"China is the single largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasurys. The money it lends to the Feds finances our significant budget deficits. (Americans have been paying about $450 billion a year in interest on the national credit card; without that debt to pay off, personal income taxes could be almost 40 percent lower." CBS Article
China is the country that the USA keeps borrowing money from...wonder how long it will be before we start noticing some policy changes to our internet? What would the US government do if the Chinese government demanded we censor our internet the same way they are, or they won't let us borrow anymore money?
A slippery slope, indeed.
True, but DirectX 11 will support anti-de-Sitter 3D Projection Model 1.0 so you'll have to upgrade eventually. ;)
The guys over @ "The Big Bang Theory" are probably scrambling to incorporate this into next season's scripts. Pretty much the only practical application of String Theory for the rest of us.
It is ALWAYS the non-technical bureaucrats making the purchasing decisions, since they have the money. But it is the job of the IT/Computer Techs/Nerds under their command to show them the alternatives and, clearly, state why X is better than Y.
Sure, sometimes that non-technical bureaucrat will still go with an option that most tech-savvy people wouldn't (such as going open source), more times than not "free" + "works almost the same" is enough to get the higher-ups on board. Although the cost of retraining an entire user-base of employees on how to use Linux effectively is a much bigger step than switching from, say, MS Office to OpenOffice.
Case and point, I did contract work for a company that had switched completely over to OpenOffice, and saved themselves a CRAP load of $, which is significant in this troubled economy. I'd be surprised if more companies didn't start doing this, especially if the economy stays in the crapper like it has been. But that same company still runs Windows XP/2000 because the cost of retraining people would outweigh the short-term turnaround. Illogical, but in these tough times it is hard to blame moves like that.
Weird Al doesn't always get permission from people. And he doesn't have to because of the law allowing parodies. It all depends on how closely he is copying a song (lyrics, lyrics + instrumental, just instrumental with original lyrics).
A specific example of this would be when he parodied "Gangsters's Paradise" by Coolio many years ago. He wrote a song using a direct replication of the beat called "Amish Paridise", and the lyrics copied Coolio's so closely that there was a lot of tension and preliminary talk about going to court. The only thing that stopped it was that Weird Al sent a nice FAT check to Coolio cutting him in on the money his album generated, and that made the whole thing moot. There was an interview on MTV back in the day after it all blew over where Coolio said it wasn't that he copied it, it was that he thought Weird Al was making fun of HIM directly, and because it was such a close parody. (Many of the lyrics used the same words only jumbled or extremely close rhymes).
If you know anyone who can help BA Dave in his plight, please contact him.
...if you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe YOU can hire...The A-Team.
All that work by yourself in a respectable amount of time? No.
All that work in 10+ years? It's at least POSSIBLE. You'd think with a handful of people (like 3-5) you'd be able to do it in 3-5 years. Look at all the indy developed games out there: most of them have teams smaller than 10 people. 3D Realms had 10 years and barely had a trailer out for us to watch. Granted the leaked footage shown recently shows a game that is a bit more finished than even I thought was done, but still...I don't think it is out of the question. 10 years is a long time.
I think everyone is having a hard time finding any pity for 3D Realms. Honestly, how could there be? After dragging the community (and Take Two) along for so long, while poking fun and EMBRACING the fact that nobody thought it was going to come out and laughing at the fact that people called it vaporware, they then went out of business?
Really, no words can put into perspective the amount of irony in play here. While I laughed when I saw 3D Realms was going under, I also was really pissed, considering all the leaked footage and little "trailers" they used to tease us the last few years.
I hope that somehow, Take Two get's their money along with every last scrap of code and data for DNF and shops it to a RESPECTABLE company that will, no doubt, be able to crank out the game in a years time, tops. As long as I get my Duke, i'll be satisfied with whatever outcome comes to pass. I think everyone is at that point now too.
Touche, and it normally isn't ;) But for the context of this article that seemed kinda moot. Webcams have been trained in on other body parts for ages now. Perhaps they need some sort of other kind of "recognition" options as well?
This is actually a fairly cool bit of technology. My girlfriend recently got a crazy expensive webcam for herself. I don't know the model # off the top of my head but it is the one of their upper level models that has the Carl Zeiss Optical technology in it. Bundled with the camera comes face recognition and motion sensing software. It locks in on her face and when she moves around it follows her face so that she is never out of frame. It is actually quite accurate and rarely loses track of her.
Not sure how much people who would be using this with the XBOX would be moving around, but it is generally a pretty neat tech.
Here's hoping we will see some Neo Star Trek Borg action!
Crap. It's Star Trek 4. Go ahead call me out on it. I can't talk to people @ work and post on Slashdot at the same time.
I agree and see your point on all this except for "... time travel technology which did not exist in that era."
3 Words: Star Trek III ("The crew devise a plan to slingshot around the Sun to time travel back to the late 20th century and return with a whale")
It reminded me of the throttle on my boat actually. I thought it was cool, while being kinda out of place.
True, but I just found it kinda crappy that Klingon and Starfleet ships held the same design while a Romulan mining ship showed no signs of the established design. While it is a "future" mining ship, the only thing that screamed "mining" about the whole damn thing was the tether and drilling laser. Other than that, it could have been anything. Attach that tether to a classic Romulan Warbird and you could have called that a "mining ship" too ;)
Haha, I suppose that is true to a degree. The LCARS GUI that they developed was the Apple-design of it's day for sure. Although it at least became a consistent thing that Trek upheld throughout it's series. It was very identifiable. I'm not sure how well the bridge of the Enterprise from the new Trek will age though. I'm not saying I DISLIKED it, I'm just not a big Apple fan and immediately that's what I thought when I saw the new bridge.
That and their liberal use of the Lens Flare effect
Ha. The movie was more about the Enterprise crew and bringing them back together than about Nero's "I'm angry at Spock" part of the storyline. Most people can see this. He was the least "bad" bad guy in a Trek film that I can remember. Honestly, if YOU can't see my point, it doesn't bother me. NO need for insults in this case. I'm just saying he wasn't a good bad guy. Very forgettable. Hence my mistake in leaving out an "R"...which is where all your disdain is coming from. Quite funny.
I was outside all day Saturday. Was there a point to your post or were you just hoping to instill some sort of negative feeling in me for my analysis of a sci-fi franchise that I enjoy? Rest assured, I probably get out, enjoy the company of females, and generally live a better life than you :)
Oh, no, I totally understand WHY the franchise needed a reset. I have been championing that decision for a long time now. Classic-trek wasn't making any $, and I'd rather see it continue in this alternate timeline than see it die, but that still doesn't negate my mourning for what lead up to this reset.
Simple typo. Besides, Nero wasn't exactly the most prominent figure in the movie. I found his character very lacking the "I care" department. As a villain, he was pretty mediocre. Sorry I didn't have my nerd spell check turned on. If you are going to not take my comments "seriously" because of a forgotten "R", then so be it.
I think that most of the $ from the first weekend was mostly all the Star Trek fans coming out in full force. Hopefully word of mouth will help spread that it is a good movie that can appeal to people beyond the average Trek geek.
As a big fan of all things Trek, I am happy to see a Trek movie finally get good reviews and make a lot of $. It has been over a decade (since 1996 and First Contact) since we have seen Trek on top at the box office. And remember, in 1996 there was no such thing as thepiratebay and torrents. Literally 24 hours after Star Trek hit the theaters this past Thursday, it was up with a decent watchable copy on TPB and most other torrent sites. So to see it doing this well in spite of the easy accessibility to most Trek fans is encouraging.
But as a Trek fan, I am a little disappointed with how the storyline stacks up. I mean, Trek is known for having some plot holes here and there, but this movie really just forgoes all notion of continuity or semblance of some of the more recent Trek constants. To name a few:
There are some things I REALLY liked (the CG, the fact that space was FINALLY silent, the constant use of the Z-Axis, etc) and I thought they did a GREAT job with the casting, but I am worried they will totally negate all the Trek that lead up to this...
"On Time" is something 3D Realms didn't understand. I mean, they EMBRACED the fact that everyone called it vaporware and LOVED that nobody thought it was coming out. I hope it stings REALLY bad for them now that they aren't going to get to release it, cause I know after all the little things they've let slip out over the last couple years (trailers, screenshots, etc) that it pisses me off.
I agree with making the project open source. That would be nice. But hopefully a big name dev will pick it up and finish it off (probably in like 6 months time since they won't be a bunch of bumbling idiots like 3D Realms was) and we can finally play the game. I don't even care if it is only "OK". After all this time, I'll be perfectly happy just to hear some Duke catch phrases while I frag some aliens. The industry needs it.
Yea, it had his blessing...before they turned it into a 5 season long arc about the Federation at war. Gene was very against having a lot of fighting and WAR was very much not even a possibility as a small arc, let alone one that took up much of the series time.
Now don't get me wrong, DS9 was GREAT! But I don't think that Gene would have been happy about the direction it took in the later seasons. Although the character development and the stories surrounding the war had Gene's ideals written all over them. Great series.
I actually just saw this movie again with a very mixed group, including several friends who are normally VERY opposed to anything that bears the name "Star Trek". Why were they there? Because the trailer "looked cool". Their reaction? A resounding "Hell yea, that was awesome!".
Being a pretty big Star Trek fan myself, I found it to be just "good" or "very good". Not the best Trek, not "OMFGWTFBBQ!!!!!! BEST FILM EVER!!!".
But the reaction from my non-trekkie friends and the people all around me was nothing but positive. And that is what this film was attempting to do. I think the box office #'s will show that. If this film grosses more than Nemesis, or any other Star Trek in recent history, then I do believe my points are valid and their attempt to get the people who aren't Trekkies in the theater was a success. If even half of those people are now fans of "Star Trek" (whatever incarnation that may be) it's a win.
So, you are saying this is BETTER or WORSE than Nemesis? Because honestly, if it is even a LITTLE bit better, then this is a win for the franchise and fans everywhere because that turd they called Nemesis was an embarrassment to TNG and everything Star Trek should be.
Regardless of how this is viewed by the huge, ridiculous, hardcore star trek robo-nerds, this is a welcome reboot to keep Trek alive. Don't kid yourselves: if this movie tanks, then Trek is dead forever. So you better pray this does VERY well and makes 100's of millions so Paramount doesn't declare it dead forever.
Honestly though, I'd love for a new series to come out that follows the normal progression of other ST series (I.E. Jump ahead X number of years in the canon timeline and go from there...Enterprise J they showed in the time travel scene in Enterprise's 3rd season anyone?). Other than that, they can do all the blockbuster action flicks they want, as long as they make $ and are worth my $10 to actually go and see in the theater. And from what I can gather, that is exactly what this film is.
I am a huge Trek fan, and sure I would have loved to see another TNG-cast film that follows Roddenberry's dream exactly. But that just isn;t what the franchise needed. It did not need another niche film that only appealed to about the 3 million HARDCORE Star Trek fans. They needed something moms and dads and people who don't normally care could get behind. And that is this film.