Where did you read this? I read an interview with some MS or Bungie guy a few months ago, who said NO WORK had been done or was planned on a PC port. I can't find the interview, but it was recent.
Bungie was developing Halo for the the PC. It was going to come out on both Windows and Mac. It's a FPS with a strong multiplayer component.. perfect for computers.
Then Microsoft bought Bungie, saying they would put out an X-Box port in addition to a PC version. Instead, we got ONLY an X-Box version, the PC versions were scrapped, and now it'll never come to the PC, where the original designers wanted it.
You drew pictures on your retina with a rusty nail, eh?
LUXURY!
At least you HAD pictures. We had to push text messages on stone tablets straight up a VERTICAL WALL to get any data to the video card. And the video card wouldn't output pretty little pictures or any of that fancy moddern rubbish, just pure binary. For a 1 it would jolt you with an electric shock and stick you with dull knives, and for a 0, it would stick you with dull knives and jolt you with an electric shock. And we liked it!
So if Congress next year extends copyright by a million years, the Supreme Court should just say, "Hmm, well a million years still fits the general, dictionary definition of 'limited', so this is just fine."!?
That's bullshit. It's passing the buck. They should make a stand on what the framers had in mind when they stated "limited times".
My personal opinion is that "limited" should be relative to a human lifespan. As in, we should have access to modern works before we die. Anything created today (and decades before I was born) will still be under copyright when I have turned to dust.
THAT'S SEEMS PRETTY FUCKING UNLIMITED, RELATIVE TO ME.
Furthermore, the Constitution states that all copyrighted works must return to the public domain. NONE OF IT IS ENTERING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, NOR HAS IT FOR DECADES. Obviously the original intent of the Constitution is being abused.
"The only way you let technology take control of you is if you let it."
Um, that's pretty profound there Brian. Similar to saying the only way I type this message is if I type it.
And when did we start talking about technology controlling us? The fact that you made that jump is revealing in itself. This is about who controls our technology. And how our control is in the process of being undermined and eroded by new "trust" initiatives, whether it is welcome or not.
Look I appreciate the time you spent answering the interview, it's obvious you put a lot of work and thought behind it, nobody is saying otherwise. But you DID evade some sticky questions, and you're doing it now. And don't shovel us that line about how you're not a security expert. These questions are ethical and philosophical in shape. They're about copyright regimes stripping us of technological freedom and empowerment. As a fellow member of the human species (salespeople excepted joke omitted), do you have a raw, honest opinion on that? Or do you just take your paycheck and not think about where this is going? (I say IS going, not COULD go. The parties behind this have goals. Profit by means of as much control as possible.)
Your post is so full of misinformation I don't know where to start.
JavaScript is a client side SCRIPTING language, which has nothing to do with Java. (JavaScript's author, Netscape, decided to cash in on Java's rising popularity by hikacking its name) It does very SIMPLE things through your browser. It has NOT been "overwhelmingly chosen [...] for advanced web-based functionality". Where do you get this stuff?
There are no such thing as "JavaScript developers" anymore than there are "Logo developers". There are web developers who have some scripting skills, and there are real coders who use JavaScript for basic, limited stuff. Advanced client side tasks require something like a Java applet. These are everywhere. Nobody "switches" from JavaScript to Java, the very concept is absurd. They are not designed for the same tasks.
There is huge demand for Java development right now. It is not a niche, it is at the forefront of the mainstream. For desktop apps, AWT is dead and has been for quite a while. Swing 1.3+ is very lightweight and fast, if you know how to code it efficiently. Our company has written many Java desktop apps. Way faster to write than C++ and far less bug prone. And the compiled code will run identically everywhere.
One thing you don't mention at all is Server side apps. Java is kicking ass in this arena and has been for years.
If you read the article, you'd notice it said that Microsoft has been ordered "to begin shipping Sun Microsystems' Java". Not implement their own version. So they won't be tainting it... although they will likely add as much hassle as they can to using it, like not installing it by default.
Oh nice... a bare bones thread list... doesn't even have comment totals on the list. In the basement behind the locked door with a sign that reads "Beware of leopard". 6 discussions posted since... August 2001!? This needs to be VISIBLE... like, say, a prominent, default slashbox on the side which lists popular discussions. This is like, an afterthought tucked away in the corner... or like, "I'm being forced to put in a user created discussion list feature but I don't feel like it so I'll do the absolute minimum possible job."
Thanks for pointing it out though. At this rate of exposure we'll have a dozen discussions started by this time next year!;)
It's got a HUGE (for a handheld) keyboard, big enough to actually touch type at probably 50-75% normal speed, and a nice backlit landscape screen that can do proportional text and graphics (B&W only tho). A pair of AA's lasts 3-6 MONTHS in this thing.
It has 3MB of flash mem, and a genuine Z80 processor! You can code for this thing yourself in Basic, C, or even assembler, and there's lots of user written stuff to download. It's like having a complete 286-era system that fits in your shirt pocket.
Now, it's not Net enabled per se, however, it has a serial port, and there is terminal software written for it, so in theory you can connect it to a cell phone and access the Net through that.
It's several years old and discontinued, I lost mine recently and had to turn to E-Bay for a replacement. It's a really wonderful hacker's PDA though, and it has great community support. When I lost my original one, I did a bunch of searching for a modern PDA that has a similar design (large keyboard, landscape screen, clamshell case) and came up with nothing, especially for as low a price (it was $100 USD new)
Er... not had your coffee yet? That's exactly what he's trying to do. What part of "TO BE USED TO INNUNDATE SLASHDOT EDITORS WITH REQUESTS FOR POSTING TO ASK SLASHDOT" went over your head?
Slashdot, in it's current form, will never be able to cohesively organize. Why? Because it's NOT a public forum. In a true public forum, people can discuss what they want. Try that here and you get immediately Offtopic'd out of anyone's sight. Slashdot is an actively enforced (via voluntary moderation) TOPIC driven site, and furthermore the topics are chosen at whim (we all know the *cough* care and precision that goes into topic selection, right?) by a select few.
This is why I've long argued for a general discussion board to exist alongside the news commentary, where anyone could start their own topic thread. We've got journals, but those simply aren't high enough visibility to promote large discussions.
Wouldn't work.. no power. The article says it can't do batteries. (Although maybe it will do batteries eventually, or solar cells)
So I guess in the meantime it will come with a message that says "I sent you this toy first, in order to have your advice. Insert batteries, great fun!"
I have wondered if it's possible that gravity is repulsive, and mass acts as a gravity shield.
Like, what if we're being bombarded by repulsive gravity from all directions in the universe, and the Earth merely acts to block gravity from beneath our feet, which means there is a higher net force from above us, hence we are pushed down. (Earth would also exhert it's own replusive force, but less than the sum of forces above us)
It certainly would explain why the universe's expansion is actually accelerating though. Perhaps "dark matter" is just the net repulsive effect of gravity? There's probably some simple counter-example. Hmm, just thought of one.. if the gravity we feel is the net effect of external forces, you'd think it would change depending on the Earth's orientation as it rotates. Oh well. Another wacky hypothesis ruined by inconsiderate facts.
The ring was getting heavier. And I don't mean in a friendly sort of way, no sir, dear reader. This skinny fucking golden donut jangled around my neck like a ball and chain from the funny papers I used to read as a kid back in Shire Rock, Maine. In those days the world seemed brighter, full of possibilities. Before that grey bearded cocksocker showed up and uprooted my life like one of Sam's ol' taters. Cook em, boil em, stick em in a fucking stew, he used to say.
But that was then, and this was now. This was very much fucking NOW. Don't dwell on the past, the old gaffer used to say, or mayhap you'll lose your future. Wouldn't want to be caught daydreaming when one of THEM came riding by, or you'll find yourself a nice Nazgul shish-ka-bob, Frodo my boy. Just the memory of those terrible black shrieking phantoms numbed my mind, turned my spine to ice, and sent my balls shrivelling up into some pre-pubescent hiding place.
"Right...the leaping from building to building, spider robots, and 'faster than 5 speeding bullets' were fine...it was the human battery plot that made it seem like fantasy..."
Well yeah, actually it was fine...:) The power jumping and bullet dodging and stuff merely took place in a SIMULATION. The Matrix. AI controlled virtual reality with a direct brain interface. Certainly conceivable within 40 years or so. And, the "spider robots" well, if you accept AI, designs like that, centuries from now, should be simple.
But using human bodies to generate more energy than you put into them? Sorry, can't buy that. That's not a question of being too far-fetched, it's simply not mathematically possible.
Yeah.. the fundamental reason why the machines kept the humans alive (energy generation) is a completely absurd contrivance. That always bugged me, but not enough to ruin the movie. It does force an unreal (In addition to surreal? Whoah...) feeling to the whole movie, makes you go, "OK, we're in comic book/fantasy land now". It's somehow not as gritty and dark as it could be if you could actually believe machines might eventually enslave (breed, really) our entire species in a virtual zoo for a reason you could actually swallow.
They coulda used some wonky vague ass stuff about the machines figuring out a method of harvesting the untapped power of the human consciousness and I would've been happier... the mind could generate the power itself somehow (emotional energy perhaps?) or maybe act as a conduit for drawing energy from extradimensional space. It would also give em a reason to stimulate and develop helathy human brains via their Matrix simulation instead of just keeping em doped all the time.
No, they'll just add this to their anti-Internet warchest as the "documented dangers of digitally compressed music". Therefore, we must all buy more CDs... won't someone think of the children??
Re:UFOs - a skeptics view
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Starcraft
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· Score: 2
You've completely missed the point, even as you are MAKING it. "Extraordinary" is a subjective, malleable term, that's really a question of dates. Yesterday's extraordinary is today's normality. Extraordinary is in the eye of the beholder. Anyone can declare they find something extraordinary. Extraordinary has NO SCIENTIFIC MEANING.
"To me, a moon landing is not an extra-ordinary claim. A moon landing HOAX is."
That's what you BELIEVE. Others BELIEVE that a hollywood set, and lying politicians, are less extraordinary than a round-trip to another celestial body. That doesn't make either an absolute truth, which is why science is not beholden to people's BELIEFS. Science is the impersonal, objective study of FACTS. Our subjective beliefs do not change the valuation or merit of facts.
A spherical earth WAS an extraordinary claim when everyone "knew" it was flat.
Galileo's claim that gravity accelerates all objects equally WAS extraordinary when everyone "knew" that heavier objects fall faster.
Saying the Earth revolved around the Sun WAS an extraordinary claim when everyone "knew" the Earth was the centre of the Universe.
Saying we could land on the moon WAS an extraordinary claim until we demonstrated how to do it.
I can go on, and on. And on, and on, and on. History is full of radical ideas being laughed at by people, because their BELIEFS differ, not because of actual scientific study.
Speaking of beliefs, *I* firmly believe that one day, when extraterrestrial existance is an accepted fact, someone will add to the above list, "Extraterrestrial visitations WERE an extraordinary claim when everyone 'knew' we were alone in the Galaxy".
Re:UFOs - a skeptics view
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Starcraft
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· Score: 2
No, they don't. They require the same level of proof all scientific hypotheses do... that's why it's called the Standard Method. You don't change the rules just because you're uncomfortable with the conclusion. This is THE Classic Skeptic Trick, and one that has been peddled so successfully by UFO skeptics over the last half century that it has become accepted, even by scientific types who should know better, as common sense. Einstein once defined common sense as the collection of predjudices acquired by age eighteen.
It's the same line the Moon-Landing-Hoax people always drag out. Nothing you show them is good enough to prove such an "extraordinary claim". Same with the Flat Earth Society. This is a fallacious line of reasoning which gives the skeptic carte blanch to arbitrarily dismiss standard, acceptable forms of scientific evidence as "not extraordinary enough".
Oops, meant to post a link to my similarly themed commentary on Fellowship last year. Here it is, in case anyone is interested.
Detailed comparison between novel and film
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LOTR: The Two Towers
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Well, I just got back from the movie. Let me just start with WOW!!! and go from there. As I did with Fellowship last year, I re-read The Two Towers the week before the movie, so as to have a fresh image in mind for a comparison... and here it is.
There will be ***MAJOR SPOILERS*** as I will be discussing the movie in depth... this is not intended as a review of the film's strengths and weaknesses, but rather a description of how the movie differs from the novel. I am not some zealous purist who hates any small differences.. I love how Jackson is adapting them, but I think the changes are an interesting discussion in themself.
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*** MAJOR TWO-TOWERS MOVIE SPOILERS BEGINNING ***
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Still with me? Good.
The movie opens with a replay of the Balrog scene from Fellowship, only this time we follow Gandalf on his plunge into the abyss of Khazad-dum. My jaw was literally gaping for the entire sequence. If someone asks me what the coolest sequence I have EVER seen in a film is, I will name this one without hesitation. Gandalf soars downwards after his sword, Glamdring, takes it from the air, and starts grappling and hewing the Balrog as they continue to fall. This is Mithrandir, the grey pilgrim, greatest of the eternal Istari, in full glory.
We cut to Frodo, who seems to have been dreaming of the Gandalf sequence. Sam and him are lost in the Emyn Muil, and they sense they are not alone. There is some tension between them, Frodo is weary and irritable. I thought Elijah Wood's Frodo was a bit of a single note performance in the first film, but now I see he was merely establishing the baseline for Frodo's descent into a paranoid, obsessed nutbag. Good stuff.
We see shots of the orcs carrying Merry and Pippin, and Aragorn and company in close pursuit. Merry pulls his Lorien clasp off with his teeth and spits it away from an orc back instead of running off and dropping it like in the book. (You really don't see the Orc company stop at all until they reach the edge of Fangorn) Lots of comic relief at Gimli's expense, showing him having trouble keeping up with the other two.
We see an early shot of Edoras, setting up the listless, paralyzed Theoden and the venomous Grima Wormtongue, and see Eomer get exiled.
After an argument among the orcs involving eating the hobbits, Merry and Pip start to crawl away, when the riders of Rohan launch a surprise assault into the heart of the orcs, instead of the protracted herding and encircling described in the novel. Merry and Pippin crawl to freedom during the assault, instead of being carried out by Grishnak... although Grishnak does pursue them into Fangorn, and gets crushed by Treebeard. Treebeard takes them directly to Gandalf (although we don't see him yet). I've read some complaints about the Ents (even one calling them the 'Jar-Jar' of the movie), but I don't know what the problem is, I thought they were great. Slow and ponderous, just like the book.
Frodo and Sam are asleep when Gollum pounces on them, as opposed to the book where they ambushed HIM when he climbed down the cliff. They subdue him, the elven rope burns him, and Frodo extracts his promise. There's a nice sequence of him leading them through the Dead Marshes. Gollum is un-fricken-believably amazing. He steals every scene he's in. His schizophrenic arguments with himself are just brilliantly done. Imagine a naked Steve Buscemi alternately imitating a kitten and then a snake. No wait, don't do that. Don't EVER do that. How a creature so wretched and deceitful can win the compassion and pity of the entire audience is a minor miracle. You really feel sorry for this creature that is so helplessly and violently torn between two natures. An Oscar deserves to be given for this performance, somehow. Don't know if he technically qualifies as an actual actor, but he's got my vote.:)
Aragorn and co. meet up with Eomer and learn of the orc slaughter, and are given 2 horses. This part is very faithful to the book. They find the burial mound, and track the hobbits' trail into Fangorn. They encounter Gandalf, think he is Saruman and actually attack him, he just shrugs it off without trying. Otherwise, this part was very faithful to the book.. with him barely remembering the name Gandalf, etc. They leave Fangorn, meet Shadowfax, and head for Edoras.
There are many shots interspersed of Merry and Pippin being carried by Treebeard, with lots of wonderful dialogue straight from the book.
Frodo, Sam, and Gollum arrive at the Black Gates. Army of evil men entering. Cave trolls working the gate mechanism, nice touch:) Sam slips and falls down, and they are almost discovered, but Frodo covers them with his cloak and they are mistaken for a rock. Gollum persuades them to try his secret way and they leave.
Gandalf, Aragorn and co. arrive at Edoras. Gandalf 'excorcises' Saruman's spirit from Theoden while Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas beat the crap out of the guards bare-handed. This part bears little resemblance to the book, with Gandalf throwing Theoden back into his throne forcefully several times, it reminded me a bit of his fight with Saruman in the first movie. After, they throw Wormtongue down some stairs and he leaves. Some shots of Theoden grieving his son and despairing about the state of the world. Some arguing over what to do, Theoden decides to empty the city and head to Helm's Deep. Theoden comes across as stronger (and perhaps more headstrong) than he does in the book at this point. In the book, Gandalf advises Theoden to go to Helm's Deep. In the movie, Theoden orders it of his volition, in fact Gandalf is against it and calls it a trap.
A bunch of dream/flashback sequences about this point heightening the doomed romance of Aragorn and Arwen, Elrond trying to convince each of them in turn to drop it. Some shots of Elrond and Galadriel discussing (telepathically) whether to leave Middle-Earth alone to its fate.
Around here is the first large departure from the plot of the novel. The refugees from Edoras are attacked by Warg Riders en route to Helm's Deep. Eowyn and the refugees flee while the men deal with the attack. In the ensuing battle (which is very cool) Aragorn, stuck to a Warg, is thrown over a cliff and presumed dead. Of course, he's not, he's just floating in the river, gets washed up on shore, and nuzzled back to life by the ghost of Arwen in a romantic horse scene. Yeah, I said that. I really didn't think the whole Aragorn getting separated thing was neccesary, but it didn't bother me either. I wonder if they added this action sequence to offset the subtraction of Shelob's Lair? It even has the common element of the hero being presumed dead.
Frodo and Sam witness the attack of Faramir's company on the Southrons, complete with a pair of Oliphaunts. Very cool. They are seized by Faramir's men, bound, and taken to their hidden waterfall hideout at Henneth Annun. Lots of talking about the Fellowship and Boromir and such. (although Faramir never mentions just HOW he knows Boromir is dead) Frodo lies to Faramir, says Sam and him are alone (he admits Gollum is a companion they met on the road in the novel) but then later Frodo admits he's their guide when he intervenes at the Forbidden Pool to help them capture Gollum instead of kill him.
Initially, this is very faithful to the book, but then, probably the biggest change of all occurs: Faramir tells them the Ring will go to Gondor, and they are dragged forcefully to Osgiliath, which is under attack. I have to say honestly I did NOT like this change.. it seems like a core change to one of the main characters of the last two books. Faramir resists the Ring in the book, in fact he tells them he would not take the Ring if he found it lying by the road. Denethor and eldest son Boromir were desperate to save Gondor, and thus easily swayed by the power of the Ring, but Faramir was of a more pure heart. I don't know why Peter Jackson decided we needed another Boromir figure... I mean, the Ring corrupts, we GET it already!
Helm's Deep prepares for the siege. Lots of very effective shots of children and elderly arming for brutal combat. Aragorn returns from his invented detour, spies the approaching army, and enters the Deep. At the last second, a company of Elvish archers led by Haldir arrives! This of course is not in the book.. the prologue calls it the Last Alliance of Men and Elves for a reason, the species are estranged and the Elves dwindle and fade. But I don't care, I loved it anyway. It's almost like the Lothlorien Elves were pissed they didn't get to slaughter the Orcs pursuing the Fellowship out of Moria like in the book (anyone see the storyboard sequence on the DVD for that? Oh.. if only they shot that..), so they decided to pitch in on Helm's Deep instead.
The Entmoot begins. This is a large difference in chronology from the book... where the Ents are already at Isengard in time to see Saruman's army depart. Here, they are discussing what to do as the assault on Helm's Deep begins.
Back at beseiged Osgiliath, Sam makes an impassioned speech to Faramir about how Boromir was driven mad by his desire for the Ring, and attacked Frodo whom he swore to protect, which seems to give Faramir some pause. A flying Nazgul nearly takes the Ring from Frodo, Sam saves him, then Frodo goes all psycho Sting-in-your-face on Sam for a minute. Faramir decides to let them go, despite this meaning his own life is forfeit, so I guess he kinda redeems his character a bit in that sense.
The Helm's Deep battle itself is awesome. The overall progression of the battle is exactly what I remember from the book, and many details have made it in very well, including to my delight Gimli and Legolas's death count competition. I have read people smugly pointing out how it only takes up a dozen pages in the novel and gets more than a half hour of screen time here, but that's a silly comparison. The battle described in the book is epic in scope and takes all night long, they did a phenomenally perfect job of capturing this.
The Entmoot concludes, and unlike the book, the Ents decide NOT to take any action, despite Merry's persistance. However, Merry convinces Treebeard to drop them off near Isengard, that wascally wittle hobbit. When Treebeard sees the devastation surrounding Isengard (he was already aware in the book), he lets out a piercing bellow, and the forest erupts instantly with angry Ents. So much for not being hasty, but I digress.
The battle of Helm's Deep is going badly, the wall is breached, Haldir dies in Aragorn's arms. When they have been forced to retreat to their last holdout, the innermost keep of the Hornburg, surrounded by a sea of enemies, Theoden and Aragorn lead a final, thrilling, mounted charge down the exterior ramp. Then Gandalf arrives with the dawn, and several thousand horsemen. The White Rider leading the charge of Light down the slope into Saruman's army nearly topped the Balrog scene for me. I want a giant poster of that singular, breathtaking image, the two armies colliding with the battered remains of Helm's Deep in the background. Beautiful, extraordinary stuff. No army of Huorns show up to mop up the retreating Orcs, but I couldn't care less.. too much tree action gives a deus ex machina feeling anyway.
Speaking of tree action, the Ents whack the crap out of everything still moving at Isengard, and flood the whole ring. We don't get to see Gandalf and co. confront Saruman and meet up with Merry and Pippin, but I'm glad.. a long march to Isengard after the spectacular triumph of Helm's Deep? I don't think so. However it does have the effect of severely weakening Merry and Pippin's roles in this movie... perhaps that's why Jackson had them more directly involved with the Ents decision.
Meanwhile, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum approach Mordor, and we hear evil Cartman, er.. I mean Gollum, conspire to let "her" kill the other two... but the movie ends before they reach Shelob's Lair. Now that I have seen how powerful Helm's Deep is, I understand and am glad they have saved this for the start of the next movie, for an eager audience instead of a drained one.
Well... closing thoughts... Another year? AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gnight.
"the mail relay he's using will hit a process limit and be unable to continue sending spam until the spammer notices and resets it or moves on to another relay."
Cool idea... unfortunately all that needs to be done to circumvent this is to set a send timeout on the mail server, which will inevitably happen if this becomes commonplace. Technological countermeasures are their own greatest enemy:)
Yes, exactly. Both 2001 and Babylon 5 feature space stations which simulate gravity through centripetal force... that was my point:) A realistic solution was thought of a long time ago.
Remind me to be more clear and less ironical next time;)
You're right... until someone invents a magic gravity generator like on Star Trek, nobody will ever figure out a way to realistically counter the effects of zero gravity.
Think I'll go watch 1968's 2001, and then maybe some Babylon 5...;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Where did you read this? I read an interview with some MS or Bungie guy a few months ago, who said NO WORK had been done or was planned on a PC port. I can't find the interview, but it was recent.
Bungie was developing Halo for the the PC. It was going to come out on both Windows and Mac. It's a FPS with a strong multiplayer component.. perfect for computers.
Then Microsoft bought Bungie, saying they would put out an X-Box port in addition to a PC version. Instead, we got ONLY an X-Box version, the PC versions were scrapped, and now it'll never come to the PC, where the original designers wanted it.
Great. Now more PC games like Halo can be hijacked in a desperate to promote the X-Box.
Regarding Superman:
"Here's a guy who changes his clothes in a phone booth and flies through the air," says Mr. Cooper. "Does that mean he's now an animal?"
No.. it means he's NOT HUMAN you dumb fuck. There are other options, like, oh, say, an alien species from the planet Krypton?
You drew pictures on your retina with a rusty nail, eh?
LUXURY!
At least you HAD pictures. We had to push text messages on stone tablets straight up a VERTICAL WALL to get any data to the video card. And the video card wouldn't output pretty little pictures or any of that fancy moddern rubbish, just pure binary. For a 1 it would jolt you with an electric shock and stick you with dull knives, and for a 0, it would stick you with dull knives and jolt you with an electric shock. And we liked it!
So if Congress next year extends copyright by a million years, the Supreme Court should just say, "Hmm, well a million years still fits the general, dictionary definition of 'limited', so this is just fine."!?
That's bullshit. It's passing the buck. They should make a stand on what the framers had in mind when they stated "limited times".
My personal opinion is that "limited" should be relative to a human lifespan. As in, we should have access to modern works before we die. Anything created today (and decades before I was born) will still be under copyright when I have turned to dust.
THAT'S SEEMS PRETTY FUCKING UNLIMITED, RELATIVE TO ME.
Furthermore, the Constitution states that all copyrighted works must return to the public domain. NONE OF IT IS ENTERING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, NOR HAS IT FOR DECADES. Obviously the original intent of the Constitution is being abused.
"The only way you let technology take control of you is if you let it."
Um, that's pretty profound there Brian. Similar to saying the only way I type this message is if I type it.
And when did we start talking about technology controlling us? The fact that you made that jump is revealing in itself. This is about who controls our technology. And how our control is in the process of being undermined and eroded by new "trust" initiatives, whether it is welcome or not.
Look I appreciate the time you spent answering the interview, it's obvious you put a lot of work and thought behind it, nobody is saying otherwise. But you DID evade some sticky questions, and you're doing it now. And don't shovel us that line about how you're not a security expert. These questions are ethical and philosophical in shape. They're about copyright regimes stripping us of technological freedom and empowerment. As a fellow member of the human species (salespeople excepted joke omitted), do you have a raw, honest opinion on that? Or do you just take your paycheck and not think about where this is going? (I say IS going, not COULD go. The parties behind this have goals. Profit by means of as much control as possible.)
Your post is so full of misinformation I don't know where to start.
JavaScript is a client side SCRIPTING language, which has nothing to do with Java. (JavaScript's author, Netscape, decided to cash in on Java's rising popularity by hikacking its name) It does very SIMPLE things through your browser. It has NOT been "overwhelmingly chosen [...] for advanced web-based functionality". Where do you get this stuff?
There are no such thing as "JavaScript developers" anymore than there are "Logo developers". There are web developers who have some scripting skills, and there are real coders who use JavaScript for basic, limited stuff. Advanced client side tasks require something like a Java applet. These are everywhere. Nobody "switches" from JavaScript to Java, the very concept is absurd. They are not designed for the same tasks.
There is huge demand for Java development right now. It is not a niche, it is at the forefront of the mainstream. For desktop apps, AWT is dead and has been for quite a while. Swing 1.3+ is very lightweight and fast, if you know how to code it efficiently. Our company has written many Java desktop apps. Way faster to write than C++ and far less bug prone. And the compiled code will run identically everywhere.
One thing you don't mention at all is Server side apps. Java is kicking ass in this arena and has been for years.
If you read the article, you'd notice it said that Microsoft has been ordered "to begin shipping Sun Microsystems' Java". Not implement their own version. So they won't be tainting it... although they will likely add as much hassle as they can to using it, like not installing it by default.
Oh nice... a bare bones thread list... doesn't even have comment totals on the list. In the basement behind the locked door with a sign that reads "Beware of leopard". 6 discussions posted since... August 2001!? This needs to be VISIBLE... like, say, a prominent, default slashbox on the side which lists popular discussions. This is like, an afterthought tucked away in the corner... or like, "I'm being forced to put in a user created discussion list feature but I don't feel like it so I'll do the absolute minimum possible job."
;)
Thanks for pointing it out though. At this rate of exposure we'll have a dozen discussions started by this time next year!
Check out the Sharp Wizard OZ-770PC. (Big picture, specifications)
It's got a HUGE (for a handheld) keyboard, big enough to actually touch type at probably 50-75% normal speed, and a nice backlit landscape screen that can do proportional text and graphics (B&W only tho). A pair of AA's lasts 3-6 MONTHS in this thing.
It has 3MB of flash mem, and a genuine Z80 processor! You can code for this thing yourself in Basic, C, or even assembler, and there's lots of user written stuff to download. It's like having a complete 286-era system that fits in your shirt pocket.
Now, it's not Net enabled per se, however, it has a serial port, and there is terminal software written for it, so in theory you can connect it to a cell phone and access the Net through that.
It's several years old and discontinued, I lost mine recently and had to turn to E-Bay for a replacement. It's a really wonderful hacker's PDA though, and it has great community support. When I lost my original one, I did a bunch of searching for a modern PDA that has a similar design (large keyboard, landscape screen, clamshell case) and came up with nothing, especially for as low a price (it was $100 USD new)
try to get it submitted as an "Ask /."
Er... not had your coffee yet? That's exactly what he's trying to do. What part of "TO BE USED TO INNUNDATE SLASHDOT EDITORS WITH REQUESTS FOR POSTING TO ASK SLASHDOT" went over your head?
Slashdot, in it's current form, will never be able to cohesively organize. Why? Because it's NOT a public forum. In a true public forum, people can discuss what they want. Try that here and you get immediately Offtopic'd out of anyone's sight. Slashdot is an actively enforced (via voluntary moderation) TOPIC driven site, and furthermore the topics are chosen at whim (we all know the *cough* care and precision that goes into topic selection, right?) by a select few.
This is why I've long argued for a general discussion board to exist alongside the news commentary, where anyone could start their own topic thread. We've got journals, but those simply aren't high enough visibility to promote large discussions.
Wouldn't work.. no power. The article says it can't do batteries. (Although maybe it will do batteries eventually, or solar cells)
So I guess in the meantime it will come with a message that says "I sent you this toy first, in order to have your advice. Insert batteries, great fun!"
I have wondered if it's possible that gravity is repulsive, and mass acts as a gravity shield.
Like, what if we're being bombarded by repulsive gravity from all directions in the universe, and the Earth merely acts to block gravity from beneath our feet, which means there is a higher net force from above us, hence we are pushed down. (Earth would also exhert it's own replusive force, but less than the sum of forces above us)
It certainly would explain why the universe's expansion is actually accelerating though. Perhaps "dark matter" is just the net repulsive effect of gravity? There's probably some simple counter-example. Hmm, just thought of one.. if the gravity we feel is the net effect of external forces, you'd think it would change depending on the Earth's orientation as it rotates. Oh well. Another wacky hypothesis ruined by inconsiderate facts.
The ring was getting heavier. And I don't mean in a friendly sort of way, no sir, dear reader. This skinny fucking golden donut jangled around my neck like a ball and chain from the funny papers I used to read as a kid back in Shire Rock, Maine. In those days the world seemed brighter, full of possibilities. Before that grey bearded cocksocker showed up and uprooted my life like one of Sam's ol' taters. Cook em, boil em, stick em in a fucking stew, he used to say.
But that was then, and this was now. This was very much fucking NOW. Don't dwell on the past, the old gaffer used to say, or mayhap you'll lose your future. Wouldn't want to be caught daydreaming when one of THEM came riding by, or you'll find yourself a nice Nazgul shish-ka-bob, Frodo my boy. Just the memory of those terrible black shrieking phantoms numbed my mind, turned my spine to ice, and sent my balls shrivelling up into some pre-pubescent hiding place.
"Right...the leaping from building to building, spider robots, and 'faster than 5 speeding bullets' were fine...it was the human battery plot that made it seem like fantasy..."
:) The power jumping and bullet dodging and stuff merely took place in a SIMULATION. The Matrix. AI controlled virtual reality with a direct brain interface. Certainly conceivable within 40 years or so. And, the "spider robots" well, if you accept AI, designs like that, centuries from now, should be simple.
Well yeah, actually it was fine...
But using human bodies to generate more energy than you put into them? Sorry, can't buy that. That's not a question of being too far-fetched, it's simply not mathematically possible.
Yeah.. the fundamental reason why the machines kept the humans alive (energy generation) is a completely absurd contrivance. That always bugged me, but not enough to ruin the movie. It does force an unreal (In addition to surreal? Whoah...) feeling to the whole movie, makes you go, "OK, we're in comic book/fantasy land now". It's somehow not as gritty and dark as it could be if you could actually believe machines might eventually enslave (breed, really) our entire species in a virtual zoo for a reason you could actually swallow.
They coulda used some wonky vague ass stuff about the machines figuring out a method of harvesting the untapped power of the human consciousness and I would've been happier... the mind could generate the power itself somehow (emotional energy perhaps?) or maybe act as a conduit for drawing energy from extradimensional space. It would also give em a reason to stimulate and develop helathy human brains via their Matrix simulation instead of just keeping em doped all the time.
No, they'll just add this to their anti-Internet warchest as the "documented dangers of digitally compressed music". Therefore, we must all buy more CDs... won't someone think of the children??
You've completely missed the point, even as you are MAKING it. "Extraordinary" is a subjective, malleable term, that's really a question of dates. Yesterday's extraordinary is today's normality. Extraordinary is in the eye of the beholder. Anyone can declare they find something extraordinary. Extraordinary has NO SCIENTIFIC MEANING.
"To me, a moon landing is not an extra-ordinary claim. A moon landing HOAX is."
That's what you BELIEVE. Others BELIEVE that a hollywood set, and lying politicians, are less extraordinary than a round-trip to another celestial body. That doesn't make either an absolute truth, which is why science is not beholden to people's BELIEFS. Science is the impersonal, objective study of FACTS. Our subjective beliefs do not change the valuation or merit of facts.
A spherical earth WAS an extraordinary claim when everyone "knew" it was flat.
Galileo's claim that gravity accelerates all objects equally WAS extraordinary when everyone "knew" that heavier objects fall faster.
Saying the Earth revolved around the Sun WAS an extraordinary claim when everyone "knew" the Earth was the centre of the Universe.
Saying we could land on the moon WAS an extraordinary claim until we demonstrated how to do it.
I can go on, and on. And on, and on, and on. History is full of radical ideas being laughed at by people, because their BELIEFS differ, not because of actual scientific study.
Speaking of beliefs, *I* firmly believe that one day, when extraterrestrial existance is an accepted fact, someone will add to the above list, "Extraterrestrial visitations WERE an extraordinary claim when everyone 'knew' we were alone in the Galaxy".
Remember "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof".
No, they don't. They require the same level of proof all scientific hypotheses do... that's why it's called the Standard Method. You don't change the rules just because you're uncomfortable with the conclusion. This is THE Classic Skeptic Trick, and one that has been peddled so successfully by UFO skeptics over the last half century that it has become accepted, even by scientific types who should know better, as common sense. Einstein once defined common sense as the collection of predjudices acquired by age eighteen.
It's the same line the Moon-Landing-Hoax people always drag out. Nothing you show them is good enough to prove such an "extraordinary claim". Same with the Flat Earth Society. This is a fallacious line of reasoning which gives the skeptic carte blanch to arbitrarily dismiss standard, acceptable forms of scientific evidence as "not extraordinary enough".
Oops, meant to post a link to my similarly themed commentary on Fellowship last year. Here it is, in case anyone is interested.
Well, I just got back from the movie. Let me just start with WOW!!! and go from there. As I did with Fellowship last year, I re-read The Two Towers the week before the movie, so as to have a fresh image in mind for a comparison... and here it is.
:)
:) Sam slips and falls down, and they are almost discovered, but Frodo covers them with his cloak and they are mistaken for a rock. Gollum persuades them to try his secret way and they leave.
There will be ***MAJOR SPOILERS*** as I will be discussing the movie in depth... this is not intended as a review of the film's strengths and weaknesses, but rather a description of how the movie differs from the novel. I am not some zealous purist who hates any small differences.. I love how Jackson is adapting them, but I think the changes are an interesting discussion in themself.
-
*** MAJOR TWO-TOWERS MOVIE SPOILERS BEGINNING ***
-
Still with me? Good.
The movie opens with a replay of the Balrog scene from Fellowship, only this time we follow Gandalf on his plunge into the abyss of Khazad-dum. My jaw was literally gaping for the entire sequence. If someone asks me what the coolest sequence I have EVER seen in a film is, I will name this one without hesitation. Gandalf soars downwards after his sword, Glamdring, takes it from the air, and starts grappling and hewing the Balrog as they continue to fall. This is Mithrandir, the grey pilgrim, greatest of the eternal Istari, in full glory.
We cut to Frodo, who seems to have been dreaming of the Gandalf sequence. Sam and him are lost in the Emyn Muil, and they sense they are not alone. There is some tension between them, Frodo is weary and irritable. I thought Elijah Wood's Frodo was a bit of a single note performance in the first film, but now I see he was merely establishing the baseline for Frodo's descent into a paranoid, obsessed nutbag. Good stuff.
We see shots of the orcs carrying Merry and Pippin, and Aragorn and company in close pursuit. Merry pulls his Lorien clasp off with his teeth and spits it away from an orc back instead of running off and dropping it like in the book. (You really don't see the Orc company stop at all until they reach the edge of Fangorn) Lots of comic relief at Gimli's expense, showing him having trouble keeping up with the other two.
We see an early shot of Edoras, setting up the listless, paralyzed Theoden and the venomous Grima Wormtongue, and see Eomer get exiled.
After an argument among the orcs involving eating the hobbits, Merry and Pip start to crawl away, when the riders of Rohan launch a surprise assault into the heart of the orcs, instead of the protracted herding and encircling described in the novel. Merry and Pippin crawl to freedom during the assault, instead of being carried out by Grishnak... although Grishnak does pursue them into Fangorn, and gets crushed by Treebeard. Treebeard takes them directly to Gandalf (although we don't see him yet). I've read some complaints about the Ents (even one calling them the 'Jar-Jar' of the movie), but I don't know what the problem is, I thought they were great. Slow and ponderous, just like the book.
Frodo and Sam are asleep when Gollum pounces on them, as opposed to the book where they ambushed HIM when he climbed down the cliff. They subdue him, the elven rope burns him, and Frodo extracts his promise. There's a nice sequence of him leading them through the Dead Marshes. Gollum is un-fricken-believably amazing. He steals every scene he's in. His schizophrenic arguments with himself are just brilliantly done. Imagine a naked Steve Buscemi alternately imitating a kitten and then a snake. No wait, don't do that. Don't EVER do that. How a creature so wretched and deceitful can win the compassion and pity of the entire audience is a minor miracle. You really feel sorry for this creature that is so helplessly and violently torn between two natures. An Oscar deserves to be given for this performance, somehow. Don't know if he technically qualifies as an actual actor, but he's got my vote.
Aragorn and co. meet up with Eomer and learn of the orc slaughter, and are given 2 horses. This part is very faithful to the book. They find the burial mound, and track the hobbits' trail into Fangorn. They encounter Gandalf, think he is Saruman and actually attack him, he just shrugs it off without trying. Otherwise, this part was very faithful to the book.. with him barely remembering the name Gandalf, etc. They leave Fangorn, meet Shadowfax, and head for Edoras.
There are many shots interspersed of Merry and Pippin being carried by Treebeard, with lots of wonderful dialogue straight from the book.
Frodo, Sam, and Gollum arrive at the Black Gates. Army of evil men entering. Cave trolls working the gate mechanism, nice touch
Gandalf, Aragorn and co. arrive at Edoras. Gandalf 'excorcises' Saruman's spirit from Theoden while Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas beat the crap out of the guards bare-handed. This part bears little resemblance to the book, with Gandalf throwing Theoden back into his throne forcefully several times, it reminded me a bit of his fight with Saruman in the first movie. After, they throw Wormtongue down some stairs and he leaves. Some shots of Theoden grieving his son and despairing about the state of the world. Some arguing over what to do, Theoden decides to empty the city and head to Helm's Deep. Theoden comes across as stronger (and perhaps more headstrong) than he does in the book at this point. In the book, Gandalf advises Theoden to go to Helm's Deep. In the movie, Theoden orders it of his volition, in fact Gandalf is against it and calls it a trap.
A bunch of dream/flashback sequences about this point heightening the doomed romance of Aragorn and Arwen, Elrond trying to convince each of them in turn to drop it. Some shots of Elrond and Galadriel discussing (telepathically) whether to leave Middle-Earth alone to its fate.
Around here is the first large departure from the plot of the novel. The refugees from Edoras are attacked by Warg Riders en route to Helm's Deep. Eowyn and the refugees flee while the men deal with the attack. In the ensuing battle (which is very cool) Aragorn, stuck to a Warg, is thrown over a cliff and presumed dead. Of course, he's not, he's just floating in the river, gets washed up on shore, and nuzzled back to life by the ghost of Arwen in a romantic horse scene. Yeah, I said that. I really didn't think the whole Aragorn getting separated thing was neccesary, but it didn't bother me either. I wonder if they added this action sequence to offset the subtraction of Shelob's Lair? It even has the common element of the hero being presumed dead.
Frodo and Sam witness the attack of Faramir's company on the Southrons, complete with a pair of Oliphaunts. Very cool. They are seized by Faramir's men, bound, and taken to their hidden waterfall hideout at Henneth Annun. Lots of talking about the Fellowship and Boromir and such. (although Faramir never mentions just HOW he knows Boromir is dead) Frodo lies to Faramir, says Sam and him are alone (he admits Gollum is a companion they met on the road in the novel) but then later Frodo admits he's their guide when he intervenes at the Forbidden Pool to help them capture Gollum instead of kill him.
Initially, this is very faithful to the book, but then, probably the biggest change of all occurs: Faramir tells them the Ring will go to Gondor, and they are dragged forcefully to Osgiliath, which is under attack. I have to say honestly I did NOT like this change.. it seems like a core change to one of the main characters of the last two books. Faramir resists the Ring in the book, in fact he tells them he would not take the Ring if he found it lying by the road. Denethor and eldest son Boromir were desperate to save Gondor, and thus easily swayed by the power of the Ring, but Faramir was of a more pure heart. I don't know why Peter Jackson decided we needed another Boromir figure... I mean, the Ring corrupts, we GET it already!
Helm's Deep prepares for the siege. Lots of very effective shots of children and elderly arming for brutal combat. Aragorn returns from his invented detour, spies the approaching army, and enters the Deep. At the last second, a company of Elvish archers led by Haldir arrives! This of course is not in the book.. the prologue calls it the Last Alliance of Men and Elves for a reason, the species are estranged and the Elves dwindle and fade. But I don't care, I loved it anyway. It's almost like the Lothlorien Elves were pissed they didn't get to slaughter the Orcs pursuing the Fellowship out of Moria like in the book (anyone see the storyboard sequence on the DVD for that? Oh.. if only they shot that..), so they decided to pitch in on Helm's Deep instead.
The Entmoot begins. This is a large difference in chronology from the book... where the Ents are already at Isengard in time to see Saruman's army depart. Here, they are discussing what to do as the assault on Helm's Deep begins.
Back at beseiged Osgiliath, Sam makes an impassioned speech to Faramir about how Boromir was driven mad by his desire for the Ring, and attacked Frodo whom he swore to protect, which seems to give Faramir some pause. A flying Nazgul nearly takes the Ring from Frodo, Sam saves him, then Frodo goes all psycho Sting-in-your-face on Sam for a minute. Faramir decides to let them go, despite this meaning his own life is forfeit, so I guess he kinda redeems his character a bit in that sense.
The Helm's Deep battle itself is awesome. The overall progression of the battle is exactly what I remember from the book, and many details have made it in very well, including to my delight Gimli and Legolas's death count competition. I have read people smugly pointing out how it only takes up a dozen pages in the novel and gets more than a half hour of screen time here, but that's a silly comparison. The battle described in the book is epic in scope and takes all night long, they did a phenomenally perfect job of capturing this.
The Entmoot concludes, and unlike the book, the Ents decide NOT to take any action, despite Merry's persistance. However, Merry convinces Treebeard to drop them off near Isengard, that wascally wittle hobbit. When Treebeard sees the devastation surrounding Isengard (he was already aware in the book), he lets out a piercing bellow, and the forest erupts instantly with angry Ents. So much for not being hasty, but I digress.
The battle of Helm's Deep is going badly, the wall is breached, Haldir dies in Aragorn's arms. When they have been forced to retreat to their last holdout, the innermost keep of the Hornburg, surrounded by a sea of enemies, Theoden and Aragorn lead a final, thrilling, mounted charge down the exterior ramp. Then Gandalf arrives with the dawn, and several thousand horsemen. The White Rider leading the charge of Light down the slope into Saruman's army nearly topped the Balrog scene for me. I want a giant poster of that singular, breathtaking image, the two armies colliding with the battered remains of Helm's Deep in the background. Beautiful, extraordinary stuff. No army of Huorns show up to mop up the retreating Orcs, but I couldn't care less.. too much tree action gives a deus ex machina feeling anyway.
Speaking of tree action, the Ents whack the crap out of everything still moving at Isengard, and flood the whole ring. We don't get to see Gandalf and co. confront Saruman and meet up with Merry and Pippin, but I'm glad.. a long march to Isengard after the spectacular triumph of Helm's Deep? I don't think so. However it does have the effect of severely weakening Merry and Pippin's roles in this movie... perhaps that's why Jackson had them more directly involved with the Ents decision.
Meanwhile, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum approach Mordor, and we hear evil Cartman, er.. I mean Gollum, conspire to let "her" kill the other two... but the movie ends before they reach Shelob's Lair. Now that I have seen how powerful Helm's Deep is, I understand and am glad they have saved this for the start of the next movie, for an eager audience instead of a drained one.
Well... closing thoughts... Another year? AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gnight.
"the mail relay he's using will hit a process limit and be unable to continue sending spam until the spammer notices and resets it or moves on to another relay."
:)
Cool idea... unfortunately all that needs to be done to circumvent this is to set a send timeout on the mail server, which will inevitably happen if this becomes commonplace. Technological countermeasures are their own greatest enemy
Yes, exactly. Both 2001 and Babylon 5 feature space stations which simulate gravity through centripetal force... that was my point :) A realistic solution was thought of a long time ago.
;)
Remind me to be more clear and less ironical next time
You're right... until someone invents a magic gravity generator like on Star Trek, nobody will ever figure out a way to realistically counter the effects of zero gravity.
;-)
Think I'll go watch 1968's 2001, and then maybe some Babylon 5...