Great book, but there's a helluva lot more than 500 that are immune. The fatality is quoted as 99.7%, and they estimate in the book there may be as many as a million people left in the United States alone.
It's highly contagious and airborne, much like the common cold. (In fact probably from the same family)
Nobody has managed to ever stop the common cold.
If SARS becomes widespread in the general population, it could kill tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions.
Right now it looks like it is continuing to spread despite best efforts.. you think we know about every single infected person? No way. There are almost certainly infected carriers who are spreading it unknowingly right now, even though they haven't developed any symptoms yet.
"The biggest downside is limited macro support. You can map macros to the M1-M3 buttons on the bottom, each of the 10 devices, and the "power" and "system off" buttons. That's not that many."
Very true... but you get around this by squeezing more functionality out of your Favourite Channel macros!:) For these macros, you are limited to 10 steps, and can only use these buttons: the number keys (0-9), plus Enter, Display, Sys Off, Pow Off, and Info/Pause.
What you do is take an unused device slot (or multiple ones), and program the above keys for it to do whatever commands you want in your macro(s). Presto! Custom macros from your Fav screens, which you can even give descriptive screen names:)
I feel I am somewhat of an authority on this subject. Shortly after Christmas, I embarked on a crusade to find the perfect remote, that offered maximum flexibility and ease of use.
Over the next 2 months, I purchased and returned remote after remote, always dissapointed (until the final one.. keep reading). Here are some opinions on the various types.
Touchscreen models: Sexy, sleek, great cool factor. COMPLETELY AWKWARD TO USE once the "gee wow" factor wears off. You have to press the screen to activate it, then visually search for the button you want, then press the screen again. Zero tactile feedback. I want to be able to find the function I want without even looking at the thing.
All button models: Great for basic use, but too hard to remember what you've set special functions to, and tedious to program (when the red light blinks twice, hold down X until the red light blinks rapidly. If the light is steady and unblinking, you must then proceed to alternately pressing Y and Z while standing on your head and pointing the remote at the constellation Orion.. etc) Aside: With JP1 programming, the Radio Shack/All in One models ARE an unbelievable value and immensely flexible. Worth checking out if you're on a tight budget.
So... where does this leave us? I wanted a remote with the customizability, clarity, and easy programming of a screen model, with the tactile feedback of a buttoned model.
This is truly a dream remote. You have wonderful ergonomic design, thoughtfully placed controls, and the real show stopper: the LCD screen and side buttons. These side buttons are used to select options from the screen, in much the same way a bank machine works. You main menu consists of 10 devices (which you can rename of course), and each of these 10 devices has 2 LCD screens (20 functions) worth of programmable, custom named functions, in addition to all the regular buttons, all of which are fully programmable. And of course the LCD screen provides a full menu driven interface to the remote's features.
Here is a long list of user reviews. (Average score is 4.82 / 5, from 113 reviews)
The only remote that can top this is from the same company, the MX-700. This remote comes with a small, fully programmable buddy remote, can set full length macros on any key, and is computer programmable. It also costs $500 USD! (The MX-500 is ~MSRP $200, I got mine for $112 online)
All my friends are jealous of this remote, I can fully operate it it absolute darkness with just one hand (either left or right), a complete stranger can figure out how to operate my entire entertainment system in 5 minutes flat, it has insane IR power.. I can bounce it from other rooms no problem, and I haven't even SEEN my other remotes since the day I got this. No other remote even comes close. If you're sick of remote clutter, you need to get one these babies. I cannot heap enough praise on this thing.
"WinME has problems with filesystems like you wouldn't believe."
Oh man, tell me about it. MS has been developing OS's for like 20 years, and they still have persistant problems crop up with such basic operations as deleting and renaming. Blows my mind.
Still.... google is just text and small simple graphics. Mozilla does just fine on everything else for me, so hard to believe something like google could cause such a cluster fuck.
Thanks for all the feedback though guys, now at least I know it's uncommon.
Everytime I try to view one of Google News's subsections (World, Entertainment, Business, etc), Mozilla locks up, and takes down the entire operating system too (seems like the entire file system stops responding after a minute or so), forcing a hard reboot. Every single last time.
I'm using Windows ME, and the latest version of Mozilla (1.3).
Does this happen to anyone else?
Here is a link to the World section you can try (SAVE YOUR WORK BEFORE IN CASE!):
'What evidence do you have that they would "make tons of money?"'
We're speculating on the future here, neither of us has 'evidence' of what would happen. What is your proof they wouldn't make money with such a scheme? Nobody will know for sure until they try it.
I'm not saying piracy would go away if they did this, they would still have to fight it. But it's critical to offer a compelling alternative. What do they think they're accomplishing with these "locked" CDs? Absolutely nothing, they still get ripped and released instantly. Music will be digitized. Therefore they need to compete in the digital arena.
"You don't even know what equilibrium is. I suggest in the future you should have something valuable to say.. blah blah blah"
Yeah, I got it. I'm delusional, naive, don't know the definition of 'equilibrium', and have nothing valuable to say.
Are you incapable of presenting an argument without being condescending and insulting?
There are plenty of examples of people making good money off of digital sales, I'd look a few up for you, but I'm finished spending time on someone so disrespectful. Good day.
Well, I don't know about that, but back in the day when MP3 was brand spanking new and CD rippers didn't even exist, that's how I ripped CDs, track by painful track, on a P166 w/ 16MB RAM. If it worked on THAT hardware...
People are demanding music in a convenient, free form.
No, they're demanding convenience. Radio and TV have been broadcasting free content for decades, yet profits continued.
The reason piracy is so rampant right now is because there is no reasonably priced convenient alternative. The industry isn't even TRYING to compete. If the industry offered their entire back catalog as high quality MP3s for purchase online, they would make tons of money. But they won't, citing piracy as the reason, which is circular because piracy has exploded to fill the DEMAND for digital convenience, which they're not providing.
"If you think the recording industry is making itself irrelevant, I think you're pretty deluded."
Then I'm happy to fit your definition of deluded. Right now the recording industry is a bunch of scribes trying to force the world to not use the printing press. They are trying to retard progress so they can keep charging for their outdated, bloated distribution model. "Give the customer what they want" is no longer in their phrasebook.
"I think the RIAA will inevitably be pushed forward until its anti-piracy efforts reach some equilibrium with the cost of implementing them."
Well, I think you're pretty deluded if you think this "equilibrium" is even possible. They will never prevent ripping, unless they outlaw all recording devices. All they will do is annoy legitimate customers with their increased restrictions.
"Step 5: Record. For this, you should use a program that records to disk such as Cool Edit or Sound Forge."
Or, if you don't have any third party recording recording software, you can use Windows Sound Recorder which comes with all versions of Windows. Look for sndrec32.exe, in your Windows (for 9x) or Windows/System32 (for XP) directory.
You said in another post that idealism doesn't matter, what matters is what is.
Well, what is, is people are getting tired of inflexible arrangements on Shiny Plastic Discs; they demand music in convenient digital form.
As long as 'the industry' opposes this, they are hastening their own obsolescence and irrelevance. Fight piracy, sure, but fight digitization? Forget it. I'm sorry, but "[telling] those file trading college kids to stop ruining everything" will not fix this.
LOL... yeah, just read that in an article and rushed back here to apologize, which I do. You capitalized it, so I could've at least googled it, sorry. In my defense though, you didn't put it in quotes, and the link, which I did try to check, required registration, which I prompty ignored.:) You gotta admit, just taken as a three word sentance, that looked insulting!:) Anyway, sorry again for the insinuation.
Anyway! (Watch me try to turn this around, heh) This aptly illistrates my complete and total ignorance of this guy and demonstrates my objectivity towards him and his work.:)
I don't know what you think you know about the guy's motivations (I don't see how you could possibly truly know.)
But from where I stood, he just looked like a guy with something to say. Yes, controversy is popular. That doesn't automatically make every controversial issue a popularity contest, though. He attacked a more popular position, and one Americans are pretty sensitive to right now (hell, who isn't?) in public, full force. I still think that takes a certain type of bravery. I can't think of another celebrity who would want that on their reputation. Celebrities for the most part seem to wallsit a lot on important issues. That's what I loved about that show Politically Incorrect, you got to hear what some of them really thought.
Right.. it's absolutely impossible any of his success is due to being thought provoking. I'm sure that "Best Documentary of All Time" award he was awarded from a worldwide filmmaker's poll (3 years ago when nobody had heard of him) is entirely because of how far left he is, and has nothing to do with merit.
You sound pretty biased, not to mention downright hostile towards this guy. And what's with your racial "Stupid White Men" comment?
I dunno about how accurate an automated system could be... I think you'd get a lot of false results, and that'd never fly with money on the line. I'm pretty good at Battlefield 1942 (anyone else here a BFStats score whore?;) ), and get accused of cheating all the time, usually happens when you've wasted some poor newbie 3 times in a row.:) I've never cheated, in fact I don't even know if any real cheats even exist for that game, I've never seem to come across an unusually unstoppable player.
Oh yeah, that reminds me... So when can I get some damn money for my Battlefield scores?;)
Man, take it easy, I haven't even SEEN "Bowling for Columbine", this isn't about the validity of Moore's views at all. (I did mention I got a laugh out of it, after all)
But I think it's kind of brave to stand up in front of an audience that loves you for winning, and throw that away in a heartbeat; make them hate you by sticking to your guns.
The question is, IF you shared his viewpoint, would you have found it easy to stand up at the Oscars (not to mention the diminished yet still massive worldwide television audience) and get yourself booed off stage? I sure as hell wouldn't.
Inaccurate, rigged, biased, unfair.. all of these words can be used to describe the Oscars. But irrelevant? Definitely not. That's like calling politics irrelevant.
It's precisely because Oscar recognition is so highly coveted in the industry that they're the target of scandals and lobbying. If they were really irrelevant, nobody would care.
"When movies start picking up several oscars, it's just a sign of that movie's popularity at the moment. The voters get all carried away with one movie and it ends up sweeping the whole show."
That's a pretty wild statement... nothing can possibly win more than a single Oscar based on its merits?
And I don't really think Chicago "swept" the Oscars this year. The only "biggie" it took was Best Picture. It didn't get Best Actor, Actress, Director, or Writing. (3 of those went to The Pianist, and it absolutely deserved them)
I got a laugh out of Moore.. guy is kind of tactless but very brave I think.
But Brody.. wow. A summary for those who missed it:
Brody gets up on stage, looking completely floored. He says he didn't write a speech because whenever he did for any award in the past, he didn't win. He goes on for a while, flustered as hell, then he mentions they're already flashing the "Time's up" at him, but he's just getting started on his thank yous, to his parents, to the filmmakers, etc.
Now he's WAY over max time, and they cut into his speech with the ceremony music, you know, the "OK, we're done being polite and subtle, get OFF THE STAGE NOW" music, and this is where things got REALLY interesting. He looks up and says, "Just a second. Just one more second" The music continues, uncaring. But Brody's determined, he knows he can do no wrong in this particular instant of time and space. "I mean it. Turn that stuff OFF!" he says.. and the music actually STOPS. I was cheering. Lopsided grin, "I've just got one shot at this."
Then, in a very emotional voice on the edge of breaking, he talks about how making The Pianist made him aware of the horrors of war, and how, whatever you believe in, God or Allah or anyone, he hopes for everyone to get home safe, and for a quick end to the conflict.
He got a deafening, standing ovation, and for the next 10 minutes or so, the Oscars were... different. The power of his words had tremendously affected everyone. It was evident that Dustin Hoffman, who was presenting a clip of The Pianist for Best Picture immediately after Brody, was having some trouble continuing his speech.
Bravo Brody. Guy deserved a second Oscar on the spot.
The first "Strike on Iraq" story from yesterday has 3700+ comments. I've never seen a count that high, not even after 9/11. This story currently has 1300+ comments and is growing like mad.
Obviously Slashdotters want to discuss it, and that's why these stories belong here.
"now I have to read about it when I want my geek fix?"
Nobody is forcing you to do anything, much less read the comments section and post one of your own. You can just skip to the next story the instant you see "Iraq" in the headline.
"Continuing storylines are often used as a replacement for decent writing - the writers get lazy, I guess."
Sorry, but that's just nuts. You think maintaining complicated continuity, dozens of ongoing subplots and backstories, planning threads that don't pay out for years, is a sign of LAZINESS?
JM Straczynski has said that his work on Babylon 5 took enormous tolls on his health. He writes for 10 hours a day, every single day of the year except for Christmas and his birthday.
Check out this page, and look at seasons 3 through 5. Notice anything interesting about the writing credits? They're ALL Straczynski (except for one ep. in s5 by sci-fi author Neil Gaiman). Nobody in television history, AKAIK, has written an entire season singlehandedly, much less three in a row. And B5 has exceptional writing, and the awards and critical praise to prove it.
B5 is a masterpiece of interwoven, dynamic, rich, epic storytelling. Would you accuse novel writers of laziness because you can't just jump into any chapter and enjoy it fully without reading the previous ones? If you prefer anthologies to novels, that's great, I'm sure lots do in today's world of ever-dwindling attention spans. But saying that long-term writing is a sign of laziness, just strikes me as disrespectful and downright offensive.
"It's like do you REALLY want to put all your eggs in one basket with energy?"
Hell no... where did I use the word "one"?:) Of course you want redundancy and reliability. I'm just saying EVERYONE doesn't need their own internal combustion engine.
The power never goes out here, except maybe during an extremely bad winter storm. If people need a personal generator, that's fine... but it should be a BACKUP, right? Not a primary, like cars are today.
If everyone starts putting up solar panels and windmills and such, that's great! I just think that reducing gasoline engines is a good thing, even if (in the meantime) the energy that replaces it is just as dirty. And for the record, I've been taking nothing but public transit for several years now. It's cheaper, no parking hassles, and I can read while I commute:)
Slashdot Mirror
So... you're basing your ethical delimiters on how much work it takes? Or what kind of quality you're getting?
Great book, but there's a helluva lot more than 500 that are immune. The fatality is quoted as 99.7%, and they estimate in the book there may be as many as a million people left in the United States alone.
It's highly contagious and airborne, much like the common cold. (In fact probably from the same family)
Nobody has managed to ever stop the common cold.
If SARS becomes widespread in the general population, it could kill tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions.
Right now it looks like it is continuing to spread despite best efforts.. you think we know about every single infected person? No way. There are almost certainly infected carriers who are spreading it unknowingly right now, even though they haven't developed any symptoms yet.
Very true... but you get around this by squeezing more functionality out of your Favourite Channel macros!
What you do is take an unused device slot (or multiple ones), and program the above keys for it to do whatever commands you want in your macro(s). Presto! Custom macros from your Fav screens, which you can even give descriptive screen names
I feel I am somewhat of an authority on this subject. Shortly after Christmas, I embarked on a crusade to find the perfect remote, that offered maximum flexibility and ease of use.
/All in One models ARE an unbelievable value and immensely flexible. Worth checking out if you're on a tight budget.
Over the next 2 months, I purchased and returned remote after remote, always dissapointed (until the final one.. keep reading). Here are some opinions on the various types.
Touchscreen models: Sexy, sleek, great cool factor. COMPLETELY AWKWARD TO USE once the "gee wow" factor wears off. You have to press the screen to activate it, then visually search for the button you want, then press the screen again. Zero tactile feedback. I want to be able to find the function I want without even looking at the thing.
All button models: Great for basic use, but too hard to remember what you've set special functions to, and tedious to program (when the red light blinks twice, hold down X until the red light blinks rapidly. If the light is steady and unblinking, you must then proceed to alternately pressing Y and Z while standing on your head and pointing the remote at the constellation Orion.. etc) Aside: With JP1 programming, the Radio Shack
So... where does this leave us? I wanted a remote with the customizability, clarity, and easy programming of a screen model, with the tactile feedback of a buttoned model.
Enter the Home Theatre Master MX-500. (Big picture)
This is truly a dream remote. You have wonderful ergonomic design, thoughtfully placed controls, and the real show stopper: the LCD screen and side buttons. These side buttons are used to select options from the screen, in much the same way a bank machine works. You main menu consists of 10 devices (which you can rename of course), and each of these 10 devices has 2 LCD screens (20 functions) worth of programmable, custom named functions, in addition to all the regular buttons, all of which are fully programmable. And of course the LCD screen provides a full menu driven interface to the remote's features.
Here is an extremely in-depth professional review.
Here is a long list of user reviews. (Average score is 4.82 / 5, from 113 reviews)
The only remote that can top this is from the same company, the MX-700. This remote comes with a small, fully programmable buddy remote, can set full length macros on any key, and is computer programmable. It also costs $500 USD! (The MX-500 is ~MSRP $200, I got mine for $112 online)
All my friends are jealous of this remote, I can fully operate it it absolute darkness with just one hand (either left or right), a complete stranger can figure out how to operate my entire entertainment system in 5 minutes flat, it has insane IR power.. I can bounce it from other rooms no problem, and I haven't even SEEN my other remotes since the day I got this. No other remote even comes close. If you're sick of remote clutter, you need to get one these babies. I cannot heap enough praise on this thing.
"WinME has problems with filesystems like you wouldn't believe."
Oh man, tell me about it. MS has been developing OS's for like 20 years, and they still have persistant problems crop up with such basic operations as deleting and renaming. Blows my mind.
Still.... google is just text and small simple graphics. Mozilla does just fine on everything else for me, so hard to believe something like google could cause such a cluster fuck.
Thanks for all the feedback though guys, now at least I know it's uncommon.
Everytime I try to view one of Google News's subsections (World, Entertainment, Business, etc), Mozilla locks up, and takes down the entire operating system too (seems like the entire file system stops responding after a minute or so), forcing a hard reboot. Every single last time.
I'm using Windows ME, and the latest version of Mozilla (1.3).
Does this happen to anyone else?
Here is a link to the World section you can try (SAVE YOUR WORK BEFORE IN CASE!):
http://news.google.com/news/gnworldleftnav.html
Google News is pretty plain as web pages go.. wtf is going on here? Is Moz messed up or do I have midget monkeys in my box pissing on the CPU?
It's still there! It is called moricons.dll
:)
On my WinME box here, it's 82 KB, XP's is 206 KB for some reason.
It's funny to look at the ancient icons still in there.. Paradox, Borland Turbo Pascal, Lotus 123, etc
6 bits, actually: 101010.
*double take*
WOW! Lookit that regular pattern! Who'd have guessed? It really IS the ultimate answer. Everything makes sense now.
It will be... tricky.
'What evidence do you have that they would "make tons of money?"'
We're speculating on the future here, neither of us has 'evidence' of what would happen. What is your proof they wouldn't make money with such a scheme? Nobody will know for sure until they try it.
I'm not saying piracy would go away if they did this, they would still have to fight it. But it's critical to offer a compelling alternative. What do they think they're accomplishing with these "locked" CDs? Absolutely nothing, they still get ripped and released instantly. Music will be digitized. Therefore they need to compete in the digital arena.
"You don't even know what equilibrium is. I suggest in the future you should have something valuable to say.. blah blah blah"
Yeah, I got it. I'm delusional, naive, don't know the definition of 'equilibrium', and have nothing valuable to say.
Are you incapable of presenting an argument without being condescending and insulting?
There are plenty of examples of people making good money off of digital sales, I'd look a few up for you, but I'm finished spending time on someone so disrespectful. Good day.
Well, I don't know about that, but back in the day when MP3 was brand spanking new and CD rippers didn't even exist, that's how I ripped CDs, track by painful track, on a P166 w/ 16MB RAM. If it worked on THAT hardware...
People are demanding music in a convenient, free form.
No, they're demanding convenience. Radio and TV have been broadcasting free content for decades, yet profits continued.
The reason piracy is so rampant right now is because there is no reasonably priced convenient alternative. The industry isn't even TRYING to compete. If the industry offered their entire back catalog as high quality MP3s for purchase online, they would make tons of money. But they won't, citing piracy as the reason, which is circular because piracy has exploded to fill the DEMAND for digital convenience, which they're not providing.
"If you think the recording industry is making itself irrelevant, I think you're pretty deluded."
Then I'm happy to fit your definition of deluded. Right now the recording industry is a bunch of scribes trying to force the world to not use the printing press. They are trying to retard progress so they can keep charging for their outdated, bloated distribution model. "Give the customer what they want" is no longer in their phrasebook.
"I think the RIAA will inevitably be pushed forward until its anti-piracy efforts reach some equilibrium with the cost of implementing them."
Well, I think you're pretty deluded if you think this "equilibrium" is even possible. They will never prevent ripping, unless they outlaw all recording devices. All they will do is annoy legitimate customers with their increased restrictions.
"Step 5: Record. For this, you should use a program that records to disk such as Cool Edit or Sound Forge."
Or, if you don't have any third party recording recording software, you can use Windows Sound Recorder which comes with all versions of Windows. Look for sndrec32.exe, in your Windows (for 9x) or Windows/System32 (for XP) directory.
You said in another post that idealism doesn't matter, what matters is what is.
Well, what is, is people are getting tired of inflexible arrangements on Shiny Plastic Discs; they demand music in convenient digital form.
As long as 'the industry' opposes this, they are hastening their own obsolescence and irrelevance. Fight piracy, sure, but fight digitization? Forget it. I'm sorry, but "[telling] those file trading college kids to stop ruining everything" will not fix this.
LOL... yeah, just read that in an article and rushed back here to apologize, which I do. You capitalized it, so I could've at least googled it, sorry. In my defense though, you didn't put it in quotes, and the link, which I did try to check, required registration, which I prompty ignored. :) You gotta admit, just taken as a three word sentance, that looked insulting! :) Anyway, sorry again for the insinuation.
:)
Anyway! (Watch me try to turn this around, heh) This aptly illistrates my complete and total ignorance of this guy and demonstrates my objectivity towards him and his work.
I don't know what you think you know about the guy's motivations (I don't see how you could possibly truly know.)
But from where I stood, he just looked like a guy with something to say. Yes, controversy is popular. That doesn't automatically make every controversial issue a popularity contest, though. He attacked a more popular position, and one Americans are pretty sensitive to right now (hell, who isn't?) in public, full force. I still think that takes a certain type of bravery. I can't think of another celebrity who would want that on their reputation. Celebrities for the most part seem to wallsit a lot on important issues. That's what I loved about that show Politically Incorrect, you got to hear what some of them really thought.
Right.. it's absolutely impossible any of his success is due to being thought provoking. I'm sure that "Best Documentary of All Time" award he was awarded from a worldwide filmmaker's poll (3 years ago when nobody had heard of him) is entirely because of how far left he is, and has nothing to do with merit.
You sound pretty biased, not to mention downright hostile towards this guy. And what's with your racial "Stupid White Men" comment?
I dunno about how accurate an automated system could be... I think you'd get a lot of false results, and that'd never fly with money on the line. I'm pretty good at Battlefield 1942 (anyone else here a BFStats score whore? ;) ), and get accused of cheating all the time, usually happens when you've wasted some poor newbie 3 times in a row. :) I've never cheated, in fact I don't even know if any real cheats even exist for that game, I've never seem to come across an unusually unstoppable player.
;)
Oh yeah, that reminds me... So when can I get some damn money for my Battlefield scores?
Man, take it easy, I haven't even SEEN "Bowling for Columbine", this isn't about the validity of Moore's views at all. (I did mention I got a laugh out of it, after all)
But I think it's kind of brave to stand up in front of an audience that loves you for winning, and throw that away in a heartbeat; make them hate you by sticking to your guns.
The question is, IF you shared his viewpoint, would you have found it easy to stand up at the Oscars (not to mention the diminished yet still massive worldwide television audience) and get yourself booed off stage? I sure as hell wouldn't.
Inaccurate, rigged, biased, unfair.. all of these words can be used to describe the Oscars. But irrelevant? Definitely not. That's like calling politics irrelevant.
It's precisely because Oscar recognition is so highly coveted in the industry that they're the target of scandals and lobbying. If they were really irrelevant, nobody would care.
"When movies start picking up several oscars, it's just a sign of that movie's popularity at the moment. The voters get all carried away with one movie and it ends up sweeping the whole show."
That's a pretty wild statement... nothing can possibly win more than a single Oscar based on its merits?
And I don't really think Chicago "swept" the Oscars this year. The only "biggie" it took was Best Picture. It didn't get Best Actor, Actress, Director, or Writing. (3 of those went to The Pianist, and it absolutely deserved them)
I got a laugh out of Moore.. guy is kind of tactless but very brave I think.
But Brody.. wow. A summary for those who missed it:
Brody gets up on stage, looking completely floored. He says he didn't write a speech because whenever he did for any award in the past, he didn't win. He goes on for a while, flustered as hell, then he mentions they're already flashing the "Time's up" at him, but he's just getting started on his thank yous, to his parents, to the filmmakers, etc.
Now he's WAY over max time, and they cut into his speech with the ceremony music, you know, the "OK, we're done being polite and subtle, get OFF THE STAGE NOW" music, and this is where things got REALLY interesting. He looks up and says, "Just a second. Just one more second" The music continues, uncaring. But Brody's determined, he knows he can do no wrong in this particular instant of time and space. "I mean it. Turn that stuff OFF!" he says.. and the music actually STOPS. I was cheering. Lopsided grin, "I've just got one shot at this."
Then, in a very emotional voice on the edge of breaking, he talks about how making The Pianist made him aware of the horrors of war, and how, whatever you believe in, God or Allah or anyone, he hopes for everyone to get home safe, and for a quick end to the conflict.
He got a deafening, standing ovation, and for the next 10 minutes or so, the Oscars were... different. The power of his words had tremendously affected everyone. It was evident that Dustin Hoffman, who was presenting a clip of The Pianist for Best Picture immediately after Brody, was having some trouble continuing his speech.
Bravo Brody. Guy deserved a second Oscar on the spot.
Look, nobody is accusing Bush of being a genocidal expansionist madman, but that doesn't mean ALL comparisons are "idiocy" as you say.
Just ask yourself this: has America become more fascist and/or nationalistic since Sept 11th?
The first "Strike on Iraq" story from yesterday has 3700+ comments. I've never seen a count that high, not even after 9/11. This story currently has 1300+ comments and is growing like mad.
Obviously Slashdotters want to discuss it, and that's why these stories belong here.
"now I have to read about it when I want my geek fix?"
Nobody is forcing you to do anything, much less read the comments section and post one of your own. You can just skip to the next story the instant you see "Iraq" in the headline.
"Continuing storylines are often used as a replacement for decent writing - the writers get lazy, I guess."
Sorry, but that's just nuts. You think maintaining complicated continuity, dozens of ongoing subplots and backstories, planning threads that don't pay out for years, is a sign of LAZINESS?
JM Straczynski has said that his work on Babylon 5 took enormous tolls on his health. He writes for 10 hours a day, every single day of the year except for Christmas and his birthday.
Check out this page, and look at seasons 3 through 5. Notice anything interesting about the writing credits? They're ALL Straczynski (except for one ep. in s5 by sci-fi author Neil Gaiman). Nobody in television history, AKAIK, has written an entire season singlehandedly, much less three in a row. And B5 has exceptional writing, and the awards and critical praise to prove it.
B5 is a masterpiece of interwoven, dynamic, rich, epic storytelling. Would you accuse novel writers of laziness because you can't just jump into any chapter and enjoy it fully without reading the previous ones? If you prefer anthologies to novels, that's great, I'm sure lots do in today's world of ever-dwindling attention spans. But saying that long-term writing is a sign of laziness, just strikes me as disrespectful and downright offensive.
"It's like do you REALLY want to put all your eggs in one basket with energy?"
:) Of course you want redundancy and reliability. I'm just saying EVERYONE doesn't need their own internal combustion engine.
:)
Hell no... where did I use the word "one"?
The power never goes out here, except maybe during an extremely bad winter storm. If people need a personal generator, that's fine... but it should be a BACKUP, right? Not a primary, like cars are today.
If everyone starts putting up solar panels and windmills and such, that's great! I just think that reducing gasoline engines is a good thing, even if (in the meantime) the energy that replaces it is just as dirty. And for the record, I've been taking nothing but public transit for several years now. It's cheaper, no parking hassles, and I can read while I commute