Greenspan's phrase "Irrational Excuberance" is what I would use to describe most of us geeks when it comes to advocating technology. p2p isn't going to turn the head. Where it works well, it will be used. We are simply creating a more complex spiderweb. You can send data through the center of the spiderweb, or along one of many stable and unstable paths, directly or indirectly to it's target.
No big deal. Use p2p when necessary and beneficial. Use other methods when appropriate.
When will everybody, publishers included, quit looking for the "next big thing" when most of them don't understand the abilities of "the big thing already here". After all, look how long it too for p2p to catch on, when the technology has had very little to do with advances in technology.
My gist is that "innovation" doesn't die at the implementation level. To say you can't use an innovative idea without using the original implementation is the point Microsoft is trying to make. It's the difference between them saying "Let's take all of the source from the Linux kernel and make it ours" and "Lets take a look at what made Linux good and model our new kernel after those same ideas." Microsoft wants to sell you on the notion that you can't do one the latter without the former. It is simply a patented attempt to spin a complete lie into FUD.
First point, sure the GPL forces derivitaves and modifications to be released also under GPL and this IS more restrictive than the BSD and other liscences. I'm not that fond of it all the time either..... But Microsoft? Isn't that like the wolf calling the greyhound a threat to the lives of sheep everywhere? How open source software of any breed can possibly be seen a threat to innovation by Microsoft, land of NDAs and open-source rip-offs, is beyond me.
Secondly, the "intellectual property" that the GPL restricts ripping off of is NOT the same as restricted innovation. Do you see a cool and innovative idea that you want to use in your product? THEN WRITE THE SOURCE FOR IT FROM SCRATCH! Original works that are based on a premise or idea that isn't patented was fair game under US Code last I checked.
How GPL software can ever be more of a threat than closed source software in government work, software that always come with plenty of potential for sabotage and bugs and little peer review.... I'll never understand that argument.
Sega hasn't even considered implementations in America. They are most likely going to make a deal with Time Warner in the end if they ever do, but expect it to be even more shaky than the Disney and Time Warner deal(Remember NYC's ABC blackout. "Disney has taken ABC away from you). Sega, Sony, and Nintendo has always done product implementation differently in Japan than in America, and though Sega shouldn't have too much of a problem implementing their technology in Japan first, the rest of the East will be a different story, as the USA and Europe will be too.
Sega goofed in making an underpowered and too-easy-to-manufacture dual purpose machine (the same Dreamcast technology is identical to their Arcade machine) and releasing it too early. I don't have much faith in this new device, period. Sega only wins when they support a powerful software library. They haven't had a big hit in the USA since Sonic 3.
"for IMD it's Motif, a much more mature and standardized API... "
Standardized? Oh, you mean managed by an actual company and sold for $149. I fail to see how it is more mature and "standardized" than Visual Basic.
Sure, Gtk sprang from the loins of Gimp. But I fail to see why people continue to believe that just because Gtk+ started out to fill a specific purpose, that nowadays it is completely incapable of doing it's job, which is to provide a capable graphical toolkit.
You missed the entire point, and failed to defend your original argument:
"If there were no tobacco companies, all those who have died from tobacco related ailments would not have."
As a defense against my historical view, you say:
"my point was not that tobacco companies supplied tobacco. It was that they supplied tobacco and lies about it's health risks at the same time to a populous(sp?) that was not yet educated enough to know better."
Under that line of thought, then, the real problem is that they tricked the American public into thinking that smoking was fine as far as health is concerned, right?
Well, guess what? Now the people know better. Everbody knows that cigarettes can cause lung cancer and other diseases. Today, every box is stamped with the Surgeon General's WARNING. Virtually every claim made by tobacco companies prior to the appliation of the warning label has been smashed.
And guess what else! Today, there are millions of smokers still out there. The differnce now is that they are all just educated smokers who KNOW that they shouldn't smoke, but do anyway.
And after all that, you still haven't said WHY we wouldn't have the tobacco death toll we have today if it weren't for tobacco companies. As with any other drug, as long as there is a demand for tobacco, someone will be there to supply it. Hell, if tobacco companies did not exist, smokers would get their kicks from a good old corncob pipe and hand-ground tobacco! Smoking would be far less regulatable than it is today.
My point is, smoking and smokers existed before tobacco companies, and would continue to exist without them. Tobacco companies were CREATED to serve a market. To say that "If there were no tobacco companies, all those who have died from tobacco related ailments would not have." would be to say that smokers would not exist if there were no tobacco companies in the first place, and _that_ would be a LIE. So, what's good for the goose is... ?
Only 3 things will change the tobacco problem:
#1: First, what created the problem will be (and is) the primary killer of the problem. Decades ago, "Keeping up with the Joneses" shot cigarette use to it's all time high point, not marketing. Popular ideas have a great track record at being bad ideas. Slavery, Disco, and (IMHO) Abortion Rights, for example. Nowadays, smoking is considered by "the Joneses" to be a disgusting, smelly, and fatal habit. Not fanshionable at all. Hurrah!
#2 is death. As a demotivator calendar once said, "It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others." Show a hardcore smoker a friend who is dying because he is drowning in the fluids of his own depleted lungs, and I'll show you a person who finally decides he needs help kicking the habit. Fortunately, the mere though of cancer has been enough to get a large part of smokers to reconsider their habit, but sometimes it's just not enough.
#3: Time. When combined with #1 and #2, social change just takes time.
Let's see. Researches think Tobacco started growing in America roughly 8,000 yesrs ago.
About 3,000 years ago, it is believed that Indians started finding ways to smoke the plant which had thrived in many areas.
We've found pictoral records created by the indians that document smoking activities created about 1,200 years ago.
On 1492-10-12, Columbus recieved tobacco leaves, "certain dried leaves which gave off distinct fragrances" as indian gifts.... which he later threw away.
Around 1497, Tobacco started getting smoked in Europe.
Need I go on? People have been smoking for centruies before the founders of modern day cigarette manufacturers were concieved.
"If there were no tobacco companies, all those who have died from tobacco related ailments would not have." is the most ridiculous thing I have read in all my life. Hopefully my children will never attend the same schools you attended. It obviously must have been teaching out of those "new" history books, the ones that say the equator runs through Texas.
What, he's supposed to say "oops, I screwed up." and just sit in bed
Yes. That is exactly what he should say.
30 seconds. No catchphrases. No slogans ("Truth!"). No jokes. If that man said "I am a smoker. I screwed up." and spent the remained of the remainder of the time looking at the camera while beeps of a heart monitor run in the background, that would make a lot more of a difference than saying, essentially, "Phillip Morriss did this to me."
Quite simply, I don't think the technology was implemented correctly in an unsuitable stadium.
I don't believe that the control of the cameras have worked right. The two methods that would handle it the best would be to implant a tracking device into the football, the same way they do for FOX puck trak and the 10-yard-line. The other is to track the game directly from above, but you lack that in an open air stadium.
I couldn't quite figure out how they were directing the cameras in this game, but it wasn't smooth.
The other truth is that 30 cameras simply isn't enough. 104 would be good for a smooth 4 second 360 degree spin. When you rotate 180 around a play in a half oval on 15 cameras in one or two seconds, of course its going to look sucky.:)
Lame. I'm sorry old guy in the bed with a destroyed trachea, but Phillip Morris wont change their product until idiots like you decide to stop putting a roll of burning tobacco between your lips. Quit bitching and accept responsibility for what you have done to yourself.
As for your foundation and that damn Truth campaign, take your frikking money and shove it somewhere where the sun _does_ shine. I'd rather see those billions of dollars go to finding cures for muscular distrophy or cancers that AREN'T self inflicted.
#1: The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 gave the FCC new responsibilities with respect to space communication.
#2: It is not illegal to own and operate descrambling or decoding equipment, but it IS illegal to recieve unathorized programming.
#3: I'm not familiar enough about satellite descramblnig laws nowadays, but recieving unathorized programming is still illegal.
Ever here of the FCC? It's the people's airwaves, and the people here in the USA elected politicians who put the FCC in control of regulating communication over those airwaves.
No, it is not stealing. It is the unathorized use of communications resources set aside for others. Just because something is not stealing does not mean it is not illegal.
Sell "rare" Dragonball Z product imports and "rare" Pokemon imports on ebay. Pretty cheap and easy to find... One I found japanese pokemon cards at my local HEB.
Stuff like this doesn't happen often. Transformers rock....
Anyway, my dad tried to get me away from Transformers when I was 8 by giving me $10 bucks and going to an overpriced toy store. I coulda gone home with a go-bot or saved my money for a transformer next month. I saved my money.;)
Eventually I grew out of them and went back to legos. Recently, went to go see "Transformers The Movie"... Now everytime I hear about transformers I am reminded about the retarded junkbots doing that ridiculous victory dance. Whatever happened to the turbo-tounged VA anyway?
This same thing happens every time a new tool comes out. Anyone with half a brain knows that computers do not automatically make our youth smarter. However, anyone with half a brain AND a liberal agenda knows that their agenda comes first, common sense comes dead last.
In the 70s poor kids were being disenfranchised because they were forced to use slide rules... or even pencil and paper *gasp*... while the rich kids were able to use digital calculators!
In the 50s, poor families couldn't afford televisions, and medium income families sometimes had onle ONE television. Oh my gosh, how were they ever able to get their news!?!?!
Reading your column, it sounds like anyone born before 1975 was doomed to failure because of the lack of computers in their upbringing.
Computer experience helps get jobs, but come on, you can get all the experience you need for most jobs by visiting a library, flipping through a light computer book, and spending a bit of time on the computer there. An hour a day over a week, you are set. That's why it's there. Not everybody can afford a book collection either, and many of us simply doesn't need one.
Stupidity is not a problem that can be fixed by computers or by money. Hell, Mr Katz, you've been here on slashdot for quite some time and it doesn't seem that computers have done much for your education either. It takes time, effort, and work on both the part of students and parents. Extra tools tend to be publicly availiable through our libraries. But there will always be a divide between the rich and the poor. It's easy to fall from the top, especially if you are born there. It's hard to climb from the bottom, but the ability to climb is what separates the real men from the boys, and the real women from the girls. That's what it's been about since the dawn of time, it's just that most of us who hit bottom aren't instantly killed by the lions nowadays.
Phillips have been big on CD-R's and "making your own mixes".... Sony seems to be thinking that supporting CD-Rs and even their long struggling minidisc format will hurt their newest champion, the memory stick. This is a bit odd to me, for it seems like Sony's left hand doesn't know what it's right hand is doing. Sony picture frames, computers, and even printers are supporting the memory stick, but the PS2, DVD players, radio tuners, and TV's arent.
The lack of CD-R support is definitely intentional, as even old car CD players support them. It's worth noting that a number of less popular and new DVD player manufacturers are supporting CD-Rs packed with MP3s:) (EPOX is the only one that comes to mind right now)
Go to ebay.com . Click on the "Antiques" category, then the "economic fallout" subcategory, and click on "dotcom clearing house". There will be approximately 2,938,032,238 belly-up dotcoms there. Search for "open" AND "source" AND "helix" AND "code" AND "linux" and "GNOME" to narrow the choices down to approximately 2,300,323,232. From there, click on the "mascots" drop-down menu, scroll down through "jumping man" "happy runner" "skydiver" and so on, and about 281 scrolled pages through, between "monsters" and "gazelle" should be a selection titled "spidermonkey". Double click that, then click on the 543rd item on the following page. Here, you will be able to buy helixcode's old domain name and identification. Read the fine print, because in doing so you will learn that the only assets you gain are the domain name and company identification, and you will be assuming all of helixcode's tax burden for the year 2000.
I've seen a few other alternatives listed today. Most of them suck, IMHO. I am a man who has seen more B movies than any other man on earth, and I can give you the lowdown on which movies you should rent this holiday season that has not been embraced by US pop culture. Feel free to take them home for the holidays! Here they are....
"Seven Samauri" (1954): I feel like starting with a classic from the fifties. This foreign flick inspired the story for everything from "The Magnificent Seven" to "A Bug's Life", and set the bar that most dramatic martial arts movies try yo live up to even today. I even believe this is one of the top 10 movies on IMDB's ratings list.
"Hard Boiled" (1993): This is what most of us video junkies would call, at a minimum, "John Woo's greatest movie ever". Take the coreographed gun battles from some of his US movies "MI:2" "Hard Target" and "Face Off", combine them and multiply by 15, then add Chow Yun Fat. A masterpeice that includes a 45 minute shootout in a hospital that probably cost him a fortune to do. If, somehow this is taken, then try his classic breakthrough "A Better Tommorrow". Watch it, then get the DVD.
"Iron Monkey" (1993): If you have the blues and want to see something built like Crouching Tiger, then try Iron Monkey. This is laugh out loud ridiculous but has well produced martial arts stunts. Taking the story of Robin Hood and twisting it into Fist of Legend, this also features good and bad guys that can jump over rooftops and change direction in midair, but it doesn't stop there. Ever wonder why Chinese royalty wears those humongous sleaves? It's a weapon that can shoot out up to 100 feet! Just go rent it;)
"El Mariachi" (1992): Starting south of the border, this movie is what inspired Quintin Tarentino to create the sequel, "Desperado", here in the USA.
The production isn't nearly as high class, but the story is far better and much less predictable, and it is very enjoyable to watch. BTW, it stars the same dude playing backup guitar during the intro of Desperado. And, no, he didn't really get his hand shot onstage, that's a dream that QT inserted to keep from spoling part of the first movie....
"City Hunter" (1992): Jackie Chan dressed like Chun Li (street fighter II). 'Nuff said? Not yet. This is one of Jackie's worse movies as far as story goes, mainly due to the fact it was based on a Japanese comic book. Look beyond that flaw and you'll see the most innovative fighting and weapon scenes just short of Drunken Master 2 and also, a rarity in Jackie movies, gunbusting! If you've ever seen him spinning people around his body, even in DM2, this is where it began and where it worked best. It's also good for a laugh.
Is that they are loosing propositions for those who live in societies that function under capitalism. Bandwidth costs money for most of us, and it's a miracle that any abandonware site, such as home of the underdogs had until recently, can stay up for a long period of time. The days are numbered for a certain popular mame rom site that I won't advertise here, because I'd hate to see the bottomfeeders of slashdot bring it to its knees.
As far as money for IP goes, I think Alexy P. (tetris creator) handled it best when Nintendo was going to pay royalties to him for Tetris. But they couldn't. He lived in socialist Russia at the time. (Don't worry, he's well off nowadays.)
If it's truly abandonware, then stick with it. There's plenty of games, such as Subspace, that were released without copy protection after the parent company died in some manner (such as VIE in this case).
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would meet another Space War guy;)...
I think me and my brother once played a single game (out of fuel) for maybe a whole hour. Don't remember, it was a _long_ time ago. And it was a cool game.
If I remember my "Ancient History of America" class, teenagers in 1987, upon the receipt of Super Mario Brothers II (which in reality was not originally a Mario game but was a game called Doki Doki Panic for the famicom disk system (disk image name: yumekojo.fds ) that featured arabian characters instead of the mushroom planet people) were so enamored raw power of the 2-mhz, 4kb machine that they ran into the street to publicly burn their Atari cartridges, vowing never to be seduced by crappy graphics and gameplay again. Collections like my 76 carts are rare these days.
Of course, to play any of the classics, just get an emulator and down all 6 or 7-hundred roms from classicgaming.com . However, you only need one game. Combat. Combat revolutionized 2-player gaming (not an easy task considering it's predecessors like pong.... and.... uhm.... super video pong) and has not been surpased yet. Ever. Combat is, no conest, the greatest game of all time. Combat rocks. Period. End of Story. Hundreds of hours of fun at your local frat house. Play it today, or you will die an empty man.
#1: The popular vote does keep changing, and it will have to be waited out. My comment about neither winning the election still stands.
#2: Virginia's vote may have been a deciding vote in many of the last few elections. My point was not that, but that if 500 times as many people voted in New York and Cali than all the other states, they still would have little (not controlling) efect outside of their chosen electoral college representatives.
Slashdot Mirror
In Rome. Gladiators, Slaves, Collisieums, Ampitheater in every town, mass audience.
Nuff said...
That's all I have to say.
Greenspan's phrase "Irrational Excuberance" is what I would use to describe most of us geeks when it comes to advocating technology. p2p isn't going to turn the head. Where it works well, it will be used. We are simply creating a more complex spiderweb. You can send data through the center of the spiderweb, or along one of many stable and unstable paths, directly or indirectly to it's target.
No big deal. Use p2p when necessary and beneficial. Use other methods when appropriate.
When will everybody, publishers included, quit looking for the "next big thing" when most of them don't understand the abilities of "the big thing already here". After all, look how long it too for p2p to catch on, when the technology has had very little to do with advances in technology.
My gist is that "innovation" doesn't die at the implementation level. To say you can't use an innovative idea without using the original implementation is the point Microsoft is trying to make. It's the difference between them saying "Let's take all of the source from the Linux kernel and make it ours" and "Lets take a look at what made Linux good and model our new kernel after those same ideas." Microsoft wants to sell you on the notion that you can't do one the latter without the former. It is simply a patented attempt to spin a complete lie into FUD.
First point, sure the GPL forces derivitaves and modifications to be released also under GPL and this IS more restrictive than the BSD and other liscences. I'm not that fond of it all the time either..... But Microsoft? Isn't that like the wolf calling the greyhound a threat to the lives of sheep everywhere? How open source software of any breed can possibly be seen a threat to innovation by Microsoft, land of NDAs and open-source rip-offs, is beyond me.
Secondly, the "intellectual property" that the GPL restricts ripping off of is NOT the same as restricted innovation. Do you see a cool and innovative idea that you want to use in your product? THEN WRITE THE SOURCE FOR IT FROM SCRATCH! Original works that are based on a premise or idea that isn't patented was fair game under US Code last I checked.
How GPL software can ever be more of a threat than closed source software in government work, software that always come with plenty of potential for sabotage and bugs and little peer review.... I'll never understand that argument.
Bill, fire this idiot.
because 1.5 million per year would just about match the money Britney Spears uses on het velvet toilet paper.
Sega hasn't even considered implementations in America. They are most likely going to make a deal with Time Warner in the end if they ever do, but expect it to be even more shaky than the Disney and Time Warner deal(Remember NYC's ABC blackout. "Disney has taken ABC away from you). Sega, Sony, and Nintendo has always done product implementation differently in Japan than in America, and though Sega shouldn't have too much of a problem implementing their technology in Japan first, the rest of the East will be a different story, as the USA and Europe will be too.
Sega goofed in making an underpowered and too-easy-to-manufacture dual purpose machine (the same Dreamcast technology is identical to their Arcade machine) and releasing it too early. I don't have much faith in this new device, period. Sega only wins when they support a powerful software library. They haven't had a big hit in the USA since Sonic 3.
"for IMD it's Motif, a much more mature and standardized API ... "
Standardized? Oh, you mean managed by an actual company and sold for $149. I fail to see how it is more mature and "standardized" than Visual Basic.
Sure, Gtk sprang from the loins of Gimp. But I fail to see why people continue to believe that just because Gtk+ started out to fill a specific purpose, that nowadays it is completely incapable of doing it's job, which is to provide a capable graphical toolkit.
You missed the entire point, and failed to defend your original argument:
"If there were no tobacco companies, all those who have died from tobacco related ailments would not have."
As a defense against my historical view, you say:
"my point was not that tobacco companies supplied tobacco. It was that they supplied tobacco and lies about it's health risks at the same time to a populous(sp?) that was not yet educated enough to know better."
Under that line of thought, then, the real problem is that they tricked the American public into thinking that smoking was fine as far as health is concerned, right?
Well, guess what? Now the people know better. Everbody knows that cigarettes can cause lung cancer and other diseases. Today, every box is stamped with the Surgeon General's WARNING. Virtually every claim made by tobacco companies prior to the appliation of the warning label has been smashed.
And guess what else! Today, there are millions of smokers still out there. The differnce now is that they are all just educated smokers who KNOW that they shouldn't smoke, but do anyway.
And after all that, you still haven't said WHY we wouldn't have the tobacco death toll we have today if it weren't for tobacco companies. As with any other drug, as long as there is a demand for tobacco, someone will be there to supply it. Hell, if tobacco companies did not exist, smokers would get their kicks from a good old corncob pipe and hand-ground tobacco! Smoking would be far less regulatable than it is today.
My point is, smoking and smokers existed before tobacco companies, and would continue to exist without them. Tobacco companies were CREATED to serve a market. To say that "If there were no tobacco companies, all those who have died from tobacco related ailments would not have." would be to say that smokers would not exist if there were no tobacco companies in the first place, and _that_ would be a LIE. So, what's good for the goose is... ?
Only 3 things will change the tobacco problem:
#1: First, what created the problem will be (and is) the primary killer of the problem. Decades ago, "Keeping up with the Joneses" shot cigarette use to it's all time high point, not marketing. Popular ideas have a great track record at being bad ideas. Slavery, Disco, and (IMHO) Abortion Rights, for example. Nowadays, smoking is considered by "the Joneses" to be a disgusting, smelly, and fatal habit. Not fanshionable at all. Hurrah!
#2 is death. As a demotivator calendar once said, "It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others." Show a hardcore smoker a friend who is dying because he is drowning in the fluids of his own depleted lungs, and I'll show you a person who finally decides he needs help kicking the habit. Fortunately, the mere though of cancer has been enough to get a large part of smokers to reconsider their habit, but sometimes it's just not enough.
#3: Time. When combined with #1 and #2, social change just takes time.
Let's see. Researches think Tobacco started growing in America roughly 8,000 yesrs ago.
About 3,000 years ago, it is believed that Indians started finding ways to smoke the plant which had thrived in many areas.
We've found pictoral records created by the indians that document smoking activities created about 1,200 years ago.
On 1492-10-12, Columbus recieved tobacco leaves, "certain dried leaves which gave off distinct fragrances" as indian gifts.... which he later threw away.
Around 1497, Tobacco started getting smoked in Europe.
Need I go on? People have been smoking for centruies before the founders of modern day cigarette manufacturers were concieved.
"If there were no tobacco companies, all those who have died from tobacco related ailments would not have." is the most ridiculous thing I have read in all my life. Hopefully my children will never attend the same schools you attended. It obviously must have been teaching out of those "new" history books, the ones that say the equator runs through Texas.
Yes. That is exactly what he should say.
30 seconds. No catchphrases. No slogans ("Truth!"). No jokes. If that man said "I am a smoker. I screwed up." and spent the remained of the remainder of the time looking at the camera while beeps of a heart monitor run in the background, that would make a lot more of a difference than saying, essentially, "Phillip Morriss did this to me."
Quite simply, I don't think the technology was implemented correctly in an unsuitable stadium.
:)
I don't believe that the control of the cameras have worked right. The two methods that would handle it the best would be to implant a tracking device into the football, the same way they do for FOX puck trak and the 10-yard-line. The other is to track the game directly from above, but you lack that in an open air stadium.
I couldn't quite figure out how they were directing the cameras in this game, but it wasn't smooth.
The other truth is that 30 cameras simply isn't enough. 104 would be good for a smooth 4 second 360 degree spin. When you rotate 180 around a play in a half oval on 15 cameras in one or two seconds, of course its going to look sucky.
Lame. I'm sorry old guy in the bed with a destroyed trachea, but Phillip Morris wont change their product until idiots like you decide to stop putting a roll of burning tobacco between your lips. Quit bitching and accept responsibility for what you have done to yourself.
As for your foundation and that damn Truth campaign, take your frikking money and shove it somewhere where the sun _does_ shine. I'd rather see those billions of dollars go to finding cures for muscular distrophy or cancers that AREN'T self inflicted.
#1: The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 gave the FCC new responsibilities with respect to space communication.
#2: It is not illegal to own and operate descrambling or decoding equipment, but it IS illegal to recieve unathorized programming.
#3: I'm not familiar enough about satellite descramblnig laws nowadays, but recieving unathorized programming is still illegal.
Ever here of the FCC? It's the people's airwaves, and the people here in the USA elected politicians who put the FCC in control of regulating communication over those airwaves.
No, it is not stealing. It is the unathorized use of communications resources set aside for others. Just because something is not stealing does not mean it is not illegal.
Sell "rare" Dragonball Z product imports and "rare" Pokemon imports on ebay. Pretty cheap and easy to find... One I found japanese pokemon cards at my local HEB.
Stuff like this doesn't happen often. Transformers rock....
;)
Anyway, my dad tried to get me away from Transformers when I was 8 by giving me $10 bucks and going to an overpriced toy store. I coulda gone home with a go-bot or saved my money for a transformer next month. I saved my money.
Eventually I grew out of them and went back to legos. Recently, went to go see "Transformers The Movie"... Now everytime I hear about transformers I am reminded about the retarded junkbots doing that ridiculous victory dance. Whatever happened to the turbo-tounged VA anyway?
This same thing happens every time a new tool comes out. Anyone with half a brain knows that computers do not automatically make our youth smarter. However, anyone with half a brain AND a liberal agenda knows that their agenda comes first, common sense comes dead last.
In the 70s poor kids were being disenfranchised because they were forced to use slide rules... or even pencil and paper *gasp*... while the rich kids were able to use digital calculators!
In the 50s, poor families couldn't afford televisions, and medium income families sometimes had onle ONE television. Oh my gosh, how were they ever able to get their news!?!?!
Reading your column, it sounds like anyone born before 1975 was doomed to failure because of the lack of computers in their upbringing.
Computer experience helps get jobs, but come on, you can get all the experience you need for most jobs by visiting a library, flipping through a light computer book, and spending a bit of time on the computer there. An hour a day over a week, you are set. That's why it's there. Not everybody can afford a book collection either, and many of us simply doesn't need one.
Stupidity is not a problem that can be fixed by computers or by money. Hell, Mr Katz, you've been here on slashdot for quite some time and it doesn't seem that computers have done much for your education either. It takes time, effort, and work on both the part of students and parents. Extra tools tend to be publicly availiable through our libraries. But there will always be a divide between the rich and the poor. It's easy to fall from the top, especially if you are born there. It's hard to climb from the bottom, but the ability to climb is what separates the real men from the boys, and the real women from the girls. That's what it's been about since the dawn of time, it's just that most of us who hit bottom aren't instantly killed by the lions nowadays.
Phillips have been big on CD-R's and "making your own mixes".... Sony seems to be thinking that supporting CD-Rs and even their long struggling minidisc format will hurt their newest champion, the memory stick. This is a bit odd to me, for it seems like Sony's left hand doesn't know what it's right hand is doing. Sony picture frames, computers, and even printers are supporting the memory stick, but the PS2, DVD players, radio tuners, and TV's arent. The lack of CD-R support is definitely intentional, as even old car CD players support them. It's worth noting that a number of less popular and new DVD player manufacturers are supporting CD-Rs packed with MP3s :) (EPOX is the only one that comes to mind right now)
Go to ebay.com . Click on the "Antiques" category, then the "economic fallout" subcategory, and click on "dotcom clearing house". There will be approximately 2,938,032,238 belly-up dotcoms there. Search for "open" AND "source" AND "helix" AND "code" AND "linux" and "GNOME" to narrow the choices down to approximately 2,300,323,232. From there, click on the "mascots" drop-down menu, scroll down through "jumping man" "happy runner" "skydiver" and so on, and about 281 scrolled pages through, between "monsters" and "gazelle" should be a selection titled "spidermonkey". Double click that, then click on the 543rd item on the following page. Here, you will be able to buy helixcode's old domain name and identification. Read the fine print, because in doing so you will learn that the only assets you gain are the domain name and company identification, and you will be assuming all of helixcode's tax burden for the year 2000.
I've seen a few other alternatives listed today. Most of them suck, IMHO. I am a man who has seen more B movies than any other man on earth, and I can give you the lowdown on which movies you should rent this holiday season that has not been embraced by US pop culture. Feel free to take them home for the holidays! Here they are....
;)
"Seven Samauri" (1954): I feel like starting with a classic from the fifties. This foreign flick inspired the story for everything from "The Magnificent Seven" to "A Bug's Life", and set the bar that most dramatic martial arts movies try yo live up to even today. I even believe this is one of the top 10 movies on IMDB's ratings list.
"Hard Boiled" (1993): This is what most of us video junkies would call, at a minimum, "John Woo's greatest movie ever". Take the coreographed gun battles from some of his US movies "MI:2" "Hard Target" and "Face Off", combine them and multiply by 15, then add Chow Yun Fat. A masterpeice that includes a 45 minute shootout in a hospital that probably cost him a fortune to do. If, somehow this is taken, then try his classic breakthrough "A Better Tommorrow". Watch it, then get the DVD.
"Iron Monkey" (1993): If you have the blues and want to see something built like Crouching Tiger, then try Iron Monkey. This is laugh out loud ridiculous but has well produced martial arts stunts. Taking the story of Robin Hood and twisting it into Fist of Legend, this also features good and bad guys that can jump over rooftops and change direction in midair, but it doesn't stop there. Ever wonder why Chinese royalty wears those humongous sleaves? It's a weapon that can shoot out up to 100 feet! Just go rent it
"El Mariachi" (1992): Starting south of the border, this movie is what inspired Quintin Tarentino to create the sequel, "Desperado", here in the USA.
The production isn't nearly as high class, but the story is far better and much less predictable, and it is very enjoyable to watch. BTW, it stars the same dude playing backup guitar during the intro of Desperado. And, no, he didn't really get his hand shot onstage, that's a dream that QT inserted to keep from spoling part of the first movie....
"City Hunter" (1992): Jackie Chan dressed like Chun Li (street fighter II). 'Nuff said? Not yet. This is one of Jackie's worse movies as far as story goes, mainly due to the fact it was based on a Japanese comic book. Look beyond that flaw and you'll see the most innovative fighting and weapon scenes just short of Drunken Master 2 and also, a rarity in Jackie movies, gunbusting! If you've ever seen him spinning people around his body, even in DM2, this is where it began and where it worked best. It's also good for a laugh.
That's enough for now. Enjoy!
Is that they are loosing propositions for those who live in societies that function under capitalism. Bandwidth costs money for most of us, and it's a miracle that any abandonware site, such as home of the underdogs had until recently, can stay up for a long period of time. The days are numbered for a certain popular mame rom site that I won't advertise here, because I'd hate to see the bottomfeeders of slashdot bring it to its knees.
As far as money for IP goes, I think Alexy P. (tetris creator) handled it best when Nintendo was going to pay royalties to him for Tetris. But they couldn't. He lived in socialist Russia at the time. (Don't worry, he's well off nowadays.)
If it's truly abandonware, then stick with it. There's plenty of games, such as Subspace, that were released without copy protection after the parent company died in some manner (such as VIE in this case).
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would meet another Space War guy ;)...
I think me and my brother once played a single game (out of fuel) for maybe a whole hour. Don't remember, it was a _long_ time ago. And it was a cool game.
If I remember my "Ancient History of America" class, teenagers in 1987, upon the receipt of Super Mario Brothers II (which in reality was not originally a Mario game but was a game called Doki Doki Panic for the famicom disk system (disk image name: yumekojo.fds ) that featured arabian characters instead of the mushroom planet people) were so enamored raw power of the 2-mhz, 4kb machine that they ran into the street to publicly burn their Atari cartridges, vowing never to be seduced by crappy graphics and gameplay again. Collections like my 76 carts are rare these days.
Of course, to play any of the classics, just get an emulator and down all 6 or 7-hundred roms from classicgaming.com . However, you only need one game. Combat. Combat revolutionized 2-player gaming (not an easy task considering it's predecessors like pong.... and.... uhm.... super video pong) and has not been surpased yet. Ever. Combat is, no conest, the greatest game of all time. Combat rocks. Period. End of Story. Hundreds of hours of fun at your local frat house. Play it today, or you will die an empty man.
#1: The popular vote does keep changing, and it will have to be waited out. My comment about neither winning the election still stands.
#2: Virginia's vote may have been a deciding vote in many of the last few elections. My point was not that, but that if 500 times as many people voted in New York and Cali than all the other states, they still would have little (not controlling) efect outside of their chosen electoral college representatives.