I have a couple of these remixes, and it's interesting because it serves as a sort of proof-by-example of one of the central theses of The KLF's The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way, namely, that all pop music is essentially "the same old plate of meat and two veg". Eminem and Britney Spears are at virtually opposite ends of the spectrum from a market appeal standpoint, yet their songs are so similar, down to details such as tempo and chord changes in the right places, that the vocals of one can be overlaid on top of the instrumentals of the other, and the result sound arguably better than the original tracks did. (Look for an em pee three of "The Real Slim Shady" superimposed on "Oops, I Did It Again". The result of this DJ's experiment is quite surprising.)
A contract is a contract is a contract... but only between Farengi.:) Maybe Quark was a member of Sorenson's legal team? Big tech companies often exude Farengi-like levels of sleaziness so it wouldn't surprise me...
A technology can become buzzwordified if there is a lot of hype surrounding it and those pushing it don't really understand what it's all about. For example, XML is a big buzzword today. Everybody is all jazzed up about XML, but not many people understand its benefits and shortcomings, or that there are more compact human-readable data formats out there (Windows.INI files and s-expression structures as written by LISP/Scheme programs come to mind); they just think that linking against expat is going to give their program some special interoperability magic.
I have a computer with a pre-installed version of Windows. It's a package deal. This Is Significant And Important (TM). I donate the PC to a school. The Windows license must accompany it.
I seem to require Microsoft EULA's forbidding sale, donation, or otherwise transfer of licenses to Microsoft software without express written permission from Microsoft.
I guess this means that if I want to give a PC away, I have to write Bill Gates a letter asking him mother-may-I.
Anyway, I think it's BS, and all the more reason why schools (and everyone else) should embrace Linux or BSD. It builds their brains, too!
What they mean, I suspect, is that the publications/Amazon category has higher barriers to entry - the amount of adertising etc being a greater sunk cost, and likely to deter any aspiring internet book retailers. In purely economic terms, that makes the category less competitive. As an illustration, ask yourself if the operating system software market is more or less competitive because it is dominated by one large brand in Microsoft?
Less competitive, unless you're Microsoft, in which case it's "the most competitive industry in the world".
This is true of Webcomics as well. Ask someone what their favorite Webcomic is, and they will almost invariably respond with one of the following: User Friendly, Penny Arcade, PvP, Sluggy, Sinfest, Megatokyo or Exploitation Now. With the exception of Penny Arcade, I have found the total combined quality (art + writing + humor) to be fair at best, and atrocious at worst (guess what the worst is; hint: think of a little dustball with feet). But these sites are linked to from all over, and they often link to each other, creating "flash crowds" from Slashdot, other comic sites, personal home pages, etc.
There is a class of "second tier" comics which have nice little followerships: Little Gamers, Sexy Losers, Polymer City and Cool Cat Studio (really, any Keenspot comic that isn't Sinfest or EN) are among these. Everyone else, myself and my comic included, is "third tier", i.e., tumbleweeds rolling across their allotted server space.
Then there is Pokey, which stands conspicuously on its own. HOORAY.
On my system, at least, this would make the system unusable!!! 'exec' is a shell builtin that calls execve() to replace the shell process with another process. 'true' just returns a true value to a shell script, and does nothing really.
But, like the Dreamcast, it will die a slow death from lackluster titles. (Soul Calibur wasnt enough to carry a console, sorry.)
I said before, I'll say it again: Lackluster titles are what CARRY a console in the marketplace. The gaming platform with the most shovelware invariably wins. Look at NES, SNES and Genesis, PlayStation. They won because they had a good selection of killer games, plus "a library of a zillion titles" which sucked but which could be picked up from a bargain bin and stuffed into stockings.
The Dreamcast probably lost because of its low number of games, a great many of which were solid titles. And because unlike Sony, Sega didn't run around screaming, "OUR CONSOLE WILL PHYSICALLY KICK YOUR ASS WITH ITS L33T POLYGON-RENDERING SK1LLZ."
While I agree with you about Microsoft's "games as art" bit of marketing spin (it's a bit like Romero crowing "Design is law!" and then shitting out Daikatana), producing a truly artistic game is platform-agnostic, and Nintendo is perhaps the company that wins overall when it comes to bringing the art nature to gaming.
I think we'll all eventually forget about Grand Theft Auto 3, but Mario and Zelda are forever.
As an example, I played Sinistar for the first time via MAME just a few weeks ago. I had no prior exposure to this 1982 game, ergo, no nostalgia factor.
I was quite impressed with the gameplay of the game, thinking it to be quite a bit tighter, and more challenging, than many of the PlayStation games I'd experienced. Of course there isn't much room for realism. Especially considering that in space, you wouldn't be able to hear Sinistar talk!
In those days, it really WAS different: having challenging, engaging mechanics of gameplay was paramount, as that's what kept people feeding quarters into the machine. Those days are lost, as game publishers gained the ability to add checklist features like "smooth skin Lara Croft model with inverse nippomatics".
... because if history is any indication, then the console with the most shovelware titles invariably wins. Atari 2600: shovelware. (Remember E.T.?) NES: shovelware. PlayStation: shovelware.
True, a lot of great games are released for these systems but the idea is to get "a library of over a hojillion titles" because new game developers, if they want their game to sell well, will jump on board the biggest bandwagon.
It may not be doing so hot now, but a few more quality titles and the X-box will be king.
When I get bored with what's online I head over to Portal of Evil and see what's shaking there. It's kinda like when the big top gets boring you head to the sideshow to check out the freaks.:)
No. Java IS the platform. Programs written in Java run on the Java environment, but if Java ran on itself, it'd be like that old saw about the Earth being a plate on the back of a giant turtle: "turtles all the way down".:)
Tack a dead person's name onto it. Examples: Megan's Law, Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act. I'm surprised they didn't call this the Chuck Jones Consumer Boradband and Ditigal Television Promotion Act.
Slashdot Mirror
I am referring of course, to the original KLF, Bill Drummond and Jim Cauty.
They wrote The Manual in 1988, after the success of "Doctorin' the Tardis".
I have a couple of these remixes, and it's interesting because it serves as a sort of proof-by-example of one of the central theses of The KLF's The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way, namely, that all pop music is essentially "the same old plate of meat and two veg". Eminem and Britney Spears are at virtually opposite ends of the spectrum from a market appeal standpoint, yet their songs are so similar, down to details such as tempo and chord changes in the right places, that the vocals of one can be overlaid on top of the instrumentals of the other, and the result sound arguably better than the original tracks did. (Look for an em pee three of "The Real Slim Shady" superimposed on "Oops, I Did It Again". The result of this DJ's experiment is quite surprising.)
A contract is a contract is a contract... but only between Farengi. :) Maybe Quark was a member of Sorenson's legal team? Big tech companies often exude Farengi-like levels of sleaziness so it wouldn't surprise me...
A technology can become buzzwordified if there is a lot of hype surrounding it and those pushing it don't really understand what it's all about. For example, XML is a big buzzword today. Everybody is all jazzed up about XML, but not many people understand its benefits and shortcomings, or that there are more compact human-readable data formats out there (Windows .INI files and s-expression structures as written by LISP/Scheme programs come to mind); they just think that linking against expat is going to give their program some special interoperability magic.
"Sir, my first job was programming binary load lifters, very similar to your vaporators in most respects."
Sorry, couldn't resist. The printer scenario reminded me of this.
I seem to require
s/require/remember/
I seem to require Microsoft EULA's forbidding sale, donation, or otherwise transfer of licenses to Microsoft software without express written permission from Microsoft.
I guess this means that if I want to give a PC away, I have to write Bill Gates a letter asking him mother-may-I.
Anyway, I think it's BS, and all the more reason why schools (and everyone else) should embrace Linux or BSD. It builds their brains, too!
Less competitive, unless you're Microsoft, in which case it's "the most competitive industry in the world".
This is true of Webcomics as well. Ask someone what their favorite Webcomic is, and they will almost invariably respond with one of the following: User Friendly, Penny Arcade, PvP, Sluggy, Sinfest, Megatokyo or Exploitation Now. With the exception of Penny Arcade, I have found the total combined quality (art + writing + humor) to be fair at best, and atrocious at worst (guess what the worst is; hint: think of a little dustball with feet). But these sites are linked to from all over, and they often link to each other, creating "flash crowds" from Slashdot, other comic sites, personal home pages, etc.
There is a class of "second tier" comics which have nice little followerships: Little Gamers, Sexy Losers, Polymer City and Cool Cat Studio (really, any Keenspot comic that isn't Sinfest or EN) are among these. Everyone else, myself and my comic included, is "third tier", i.e., tumbleweeds rolling across their allotted server space.
Then there is Pokey, which stands conspicuously on its own. HOORAY.
ACK!!!
On my system, at least, this would make the system unusable!!! 'exec' is a shell builtin that calls execve() to replace the shell process with another process. 'true' just returns a true value to a shell script, and does nothing really.
Be careful of this troll.
No, nobody codes to anything greater than Java 1.1.x because then their applet won't be viewable on the majority of browsers.
.NET executables.
Five years from now, Java applets will have all but vanished entirely, and be replaced with
But, like the Dreamcast, it will die a slow death from lackluster titles. (Soul Calibur wasnt enough to carry a console, sorry.)
I said before, I'll say it again: Lackluster titles are what CARRY a console in the marketplace. The gaming platform with the most shovelware invariably wins. Look at NES, SNES and Genesis, PlayStation. They won because they had a good selection of killer games, plus "a library of a zillion titles" which sucked but which could be picked up from a bargain bin and stuffed into stockings.
The Dreamcast probably lost because of its low number of games, a great many of which were solid titles. And because unlike Sony, Sega didn't run around screaming, "OUR CONSOLE WILL PHYSICALLY KICK YOUR ASS WITH ITS L33T POLYGON-RENDERING SK1LLZ."
While I agree with you about Microsoft's "games as art" bit of marketing spin (it's a bit like Romero crowing "Design is law!" and then shitting out Daikatana), producing a truly artistic game is platform-agnostic, and Nintendo is perhaps the company that wins overall when it comes to bringing the art nature to gaming.
I think we'll all eventually forget about Grand Theft Auto 3, but Mario and Zelda are forever.
Honneamise and Gunbuster will be GAINAX's masterpieces for the foreseeable future.
If you like Eva, you must check these titles out.
Go Huskies!
As an example, I played Sinistar for the first time via MAME just a few weeks ago. I had no prior exposure to this 1982 game, ergo, no nostalgia factor.
I was quite impressed with the gameplay of the game, thinking it to be quite a bit tighter, and more challenging, than many of the PlayStation games I'd experienced. Of course there isn't much room for realism. Especially considering that in space, you wouldn't be able to hear Sinistar talk!
In those days, it really WAS different: having challenging, engaging mechanics of gameplay was paramount, as that's what kept people feeding quarters into the machine. Those days are lost, as game publishers gained the ability to add checklist features like "smooth skin Lara Croft model with inverse nippomatics".
But Ulala is still sexier. :)
... because if history is any indication, then the console with the most shovelware titles invariably wins. Atari 2600: shovelware. (Remember E.T.?) NES: shovelware. PlayStation: shovelware.
True, a lot of great games are released for these systems but the idea is to get "a library of over a hojillion titles" because new game developers, if they want their game to sell well, will jump on board the biggest bandwagon.
It may not be doing so hot now, but a few more quality titles and the X-box will be king.
Sonic on PDAs. :)
It's easy to imagine Evil Linus with a goatee, but what would Evil RMS look like?
Pretty much the same, I imagine. As he is he's a dead ringer for the "Rasputin" character from the World Heroes video game.
When I get bored with what's online I head over to Portal of Evil and see what's shaking there. It's kinda like when the big top gets boring you head to the sideshow to check out the freaks. :)
but if Java ran on itself
That should read "if Java only ran on itself".
No. Java IS the platform. Programs written in Java run on the Java environment, but if Java ran on itself, it'd be like that old saw about the Earth being a plate on the back of a giant turtle: "turtles all the way down". :)
"Boradband"? "Ditigal"? My fingers are confused tonight :)
Tack a dead person's name onto it. Examples: Megan's Law, Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act. I'm surprised they didn't call this the Chuck Jones Consumer Boradband and Ditigal Television Promotion Act.