I seem to be in the minority, but I liked the second series. It may, as you say, have lacked the charm of the first, but that might just be because it's told in someone else's voice. Merlin is a different person after all.
Dubbed in english, in my home country.
Subtitled in english, in the US.
I have to say whoever did the english dubbing did a damn good job. The subtitles suffered in comparison. I usually prefer subs, but this time I found them distracting.
Parenthetical note: you might be wondering, why dubbed? Because most people here understand spoken english better than written. Why english? There are multiple native languages spoken in this country. English is at least understoond (to varying extent) everywhere.
You'll find the following in many of the promotional sites for the movie:
The title 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' draws upon an ancient Chinese saying, a proverb used to characterize situations wherein there dwell hidden heroes and the fact that nothing is ever what it seems.
if you're on a Smart phone, it's damned near impossible to connect a call to a Globe phone (and vice versa). in fact, if you're on a Globe phone it can often be difficult to reach a land-line (as land lines are still mostly owned by Smart).
Not quite. The situation is improving, though there can be noticeable degradations in the quality of service during peak hours (just before lunch, 8-12 pm, fridays and saturday evenings...).
Part of the reason that Globe and Smart make it so difficult to interconnect their respective subscribers' phone calls is because of monopoly. The Philippine Long-Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) has had for many many years a virtual monopoly on the telco business. They own Smart. It is not in their interests to allow other players into the field.
Globe is not blameless itself, but I don't have hard facts right here.
Check out PLDT.COM, for some excellent anti-PLDT (and anti-government) writings.
Shaheen writes: However, job security is a big thing among young programmers these days. Why pay some guy $70k a year, when we can pay the next college grad $50k for the same thing?
Some guy is paid $70K for being an experienced knowledge worker. And by that I mean experienced in the way things are done in the industry. They don't teach you that in college.
Interesting point, but your analogy is pretty strange.
RFCs define the mechanisms by which the exchange of information is effected in a physical manner. The RL equivalent might be a description of how the atmosphere conducts sound waves from vocal cord to eardrum. One specific example you cited (s/mime, an app-layer RFC) deals with exchanging information securely. Even this is too low-level to compare to a constitution. An RL equivalent might be a recommended procedure for storing paper in a safety deposit box for someone else to pick up.
The word both of us used was mechanism. That is exactly what they are: mechanical procedures, devoid of value in themselves. A Constitution prescribes guidelines for the content of the information that is exchanged. In all human interaction, information content is not composed solely of the raw data, but also the manner in which it is delivered - and here I make a distinction between physical manner (air, sound waves = low-level) and, for want of a much better word, the emotional (tone of voice, gestures = high-level).
The net does have some v0.01 equivalent of a constitution: netiquette. In some sense, this may be all we need. What is a well-formed Constitution if not a formalization of politeness and respect?
Granted, we're all born into a set of circumstances we don't choose. But there's a point at which we must realize we don't have to accept things the way they are.
My SO and I were q'd up at a McDonalds somewhere. At the counter, I asked for a burger with no extra stuff: just the meat and cheese, thanks. My SO was amazed, and said it'd never occured to it that you could have variations on the standard burger. A venison burger with goat cheese would've been beyond their abilities though.
There's a simplistic example for you.
Maybe 'wishing' is not the best word, but you can certainly _decide_ to take as much control as you can. Much of the world outside your eyes is just so much red tape and social convention anyway. The degree to which you're limited by what's been burned into your soul is a matter of strength of will. Yours, not what mommy tried to impart to you.
But there is choice in the matter. You don't have to wear company apparel, nor use a company-owned home PC.
Why was that woman emotionally distraught? This practice is about as close a violation of the TANSTAAFL rule as we're ever going to find. Companies reward great employees with salary increases. These other things are fringe benefits. Enjoy them!
Privacy is another matter. I'd probably burn my personal stuff onto cds and wipe the hard drives before sending the machine in for maintenance.
Seconded and thirded. I disagree with your "nevermind the story and ideas" statement though. TBOTNS' story is multilayered and absorbing to the nth degree. I've reread it about three times and each time I discover new things.
These are books for the literary geek with _much_ patience.
There is a TBOTNS mailing list with _extremely_ high signal-to-noise ratio. It's home page is at: http://www.moonmilk.com/urth/
I can think of some other authors with a similar density of language and content. Just about anything by them is worth your time and effort.
Neil Gaiman (Sandman) Frank Herbert (Dune) Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast) John Crowley (Little, Big) Stephen Donaldson (Thomas Covenant) Umberto Eco (Focault's Pendulum)
"Do you think there are answers to everything here? Is that true in the place you come from?" - Agia
Slashdot Mirror
1 meter is from the tip of your left shoulder to the tip of your right hand, if you hold your arm horizontally pointing sideways.
I seem to be in the minority, but I liked the second series. It may, as you say, have lacked the charm of the first, but that might just be because it's told in someone else's voice. Merlin is a different person after all.
Dubbed in english, in my home country. Subtitled in english, in the US.
I have to say whoever did the english dubbing did a damn good job. The subtitles suffered in comparison. I usually prefer subs, but this time I found them distracting.
Parenthetical note: you might be wondering, why dubbed? Because most people here understand spoken english better than written. Why english? There are multiple native languages spoken in this country. English is at least understoond (to varying extent) everywhere.
You'll find the following in many of the promotional sites for the movie:
The title 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' draws upon an ancient Chinese saying, a proverb used to characterize situations wherein there dwell hidden heroes and the fact that nothing is ever what it seems.
Not quite. The situation is improving, though there can be noticeable degradations in the quality of service during peak hours (just before lunch, 8-12 pm, fridays and saturday evenings...).
Part of the reason that Globe and Smart make it so difficult to interconnect their respective subscribers' phone calls is because of monopoly. The Philippine Long-Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) has had for many many years a virtual monopoly on the telco business. They own Smart. It is not in their interests to allow other players into the field.
Globe is not blameless itself, but I don't have hard facts right here.
Check out PLDT.COM, for some excellent anti-PLDT (and anti-government) writings.
Man, you're mean! You're not too far wrong on the IRC bit though...
IANAL, but I believe there is a difference. However, I'm in mortal fear of being in the custody of the police here for any reason.
There's cgicc, which you can get here
Shaheen writes:
However, job security is a big thing among young programmers these days. Why pay some guy $70k a year, when we can pay the next college grad $50k for the same thing?
Some guy is paid $70K for being an experienced knowledge worker. And by that I mean experienced in the way things are done in the industry. They don't teach you that in college.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we seem to honor political and religious heroes far more than we do men of science.
Not that the politicals and religious heroes don't deserve the credit they get.
It just seems a bit out of proportion though, IMHO.
Interesting point, but your analogy is pretty strange.
RFCs define the mechanisms by which the exchange of information is effected in a physical manner. The RL equivalent might be a description of how the atmosphere conducts sound waves from vocal cord to eardrum. One specific example you cited (s/mime, an app-layer RFC) deals with exchanging information securely. Even this is too low-level to compare to a constitution. An RL equivalent might be a recommended procedure for storing paper in a safety deposit box for someone else to pick up.
The word both of us used was mechanism. That is exactly what they are: mechanical procedures, devoid of value in themselves. A Constitution prescribes guidelines for the content of the information that is exchanged. In all human interaction, information content is not composed solely of the raw data, but also the manner in which it is delivered - and here I make a distinction between physical manner (air, sound waves = low-level) and, for want of a much better word, the emotional (tone of voice, gestures = high-level).
The net does have some v0.01 equivalent of a constitution: netiquette. In some sense, this may be all we need. What is a well-formed Constitution if not a formalization of politeness and respect?
Just being gender-independent here. *g*
Granted, we're all born into a set of circumstances we don't choose. But there's a point at which we must realize we don't have to accept things the way they are.
My SO and I were q'd up at a McDonalds somewhere. At the counter, I asked for a burger with no extra stuff: just the meat and cheese, thanks. My SO was amazed, and said it'd never occured to it that you could have variations on the standard burger. A venison burger with goat cheese would've been beyond their abilities though.
There's a simplistic example for you.
Maybe 'wishing' is not the best word, but you can certainly _decide_ to take as much control as you can. Much of the world outside your eyes is just so much red tape and social convention anyway. The degree to which you're limited by what's been burned into your soul is a matter of strength of will. Yours, not what mommy tried to impart to you.
> owned by a cult.
But there is choice in the matter. You don't have to wear company apparel, nor use a company-owned home PC.
Why was that woman emotionally distraught? This practice is about as close a violation of the TANSTAAFL rule as we're ever going to find. Companies reward great employees with salary increases. These other things are fringe benefits. Enjoy them!
Privacy is another matter. I'd probably burn my personal stuff onto cds and wipe the hard drives before sending the machine in for maintenance.
Seconded and thirded. I disagree with your "nevermind the story and ideas" statement though. TBOTNS' story is multilayered and absorbing to the nth degree. I've reread it about three times and each time I discover new things.
These are books for the literary geek with _much_ patience.
There is a TBOTNS mailing list with _extremely_ high signal-to-noise ratio. It's home page is at: http://www.moonmilk.com/urth/
I can think of some other authors with a similar density of language and content. Just about anything by them is worth your time and effort.
Neil Gaiman (Sandman)
Frank Herbert (Dune)
Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast)
John Crowley (Little, Big)
Stephen Donaldson (Thomas Covenant)
Umberto Eco (Focault's Pendulum)
"Do you think there are answers to everything here? Is that true in the place you come from?"
- Agia