Mandrake was created by Lee Falk. Falk's career began in advertising. He then moved to radio. His interest in magic led him to create a character who would solve crimes and mysteries through the use of reason and magic. King Feature Syndicate bought the idea and Mandrake debuted on June 11, 1934. A Sunday feature began in February of 1935. Phil Davis' artwork was appropriate for the fantasy and mystical adventures in which Mandrake and his giant bodyguard, Lothar, found themselves
WTF? A radio/comic book character from 1934? What the hell difference does it make? So, King Features becomes aware that there is some Linux distribution out there using this name and decides it must defend it's trademark? Lots of customer confusion over that one. King Features Syndicate must be getting lots of customer calls from people having trouble with their Mandrake Linux installs?
OT: That show rocks. It's the new "junkyard wars" except those two are insane and like to destroy things.
I watched the episode this week where they tried to prove/disprove that cellphones caused gas station explosions. When that obviously didn't work, they turned to the theory that women's panties built up static electricity as the source of ignition. They built a leyden jar and charged it by rubbing a pair of panties on a length of pvc, and then discharged it it a lexan booth filled with gas/air mixture.
BOOM! The one guy had all the hair on one side of his face singed off. They also microwaved CD's and spun them at crazy speeds to see what point they shattered (to explore the myth that 52x readers cause disks to shatter). Hell, we used to do stuff like this is my Dad's garage, but no one ever offered _us_ a TV show!
I missed the one with the breathalyzer though (should never have showed the kids how to manipulate the season pass on the TiVo -- I got "Totally Spies" instead of that episode).
Neither? Cingular does *in fact* have an ad running using that music -- I saw it again last night.
OTOH: Milkyway does have a lame-ass commercial too. Some doofus in a convertible trying to sing "Jenny" while stuffing his wind-tube with a frikin' candy bar. Mmmmm, makes me want to run right out and get one!
Beginning Monday, three new TV ads by BBDO's New York and Atlanta offices add a "keep your number" message to Cingular's current "Keep Your Minutes" ads. Cingular (Parents: BLS & SBC) lets customers carry over unused minutes month-to-month. One ad features the 1980s Tommy Tutone hit 867-5309: Jenny. The Cingular deal: 500 bonus rollover minutes. "We've got a solid reason to keep customers and ask new ones to join us," says Daryl Evans, vice president of advertising and marketing communications.
Wonder if "Tommy" is still around to collect royalties from this and the candy-bar ads (Snickers or Milky-way?)
Yep, I got really lucky, guess. I bought two of these to upgrade TiVos for myself and my sister (pretty much right when they came out before the problems became common knowledge).
After a couple months, we noticed some clicking and I started looking for some possible cause/solution. IBM has a utility you can download that can update the firmware and set the 'acoustic settings'. I pulled the drive out of my TiVo, mounted it in my PC and booted the update disk. I updated the firmware and changed the acoustic setting (there was a little slider that you fiddled with until the clicking went away).
Worked a charm. The drive hasn't given me a peep in over a year now. Did the same to my sister's machine.
Only after all this did I find out and start paying attention to this whole problem. I guess I was lucky -- neither drive has failed.
See "The Monster that ate Hollywood" Frontline program on PBS if you can catch it. This program goes into an extremely interesting end enlightening explanation about how moviemaking has gone from a mostly-creative, partly financial process into an almost totally bottom-line, risk-assessment, return-on-investment focused business.
These guys don't like risks. They want to produce something that has a predictable return on investment. They look at similar projects and decide if the movie being considered can be expected to perform based on past experience.
I used to test 9V "transistor" batteries this way. Dip the tip of your tongue across both terminals, that little tingle tells you the battery still has juice.
I've never had the opportunity or incliniation to attempt this oral test method on any of the cylindrical styles (AAA - D)
BTW, what ever happened to single-A and B batteries?
AAA - little tiny remote batteries AA - smaller, walkman sized C - medium, tape decks, etc (good for hiding in your fist to hit someone) D - full-size flashlight size
In the original release, Greedo corners Solo, levels a gun across the table and threatens to turn him into Jabba unless he hands over the money.
Solo distracts him while unholstering his blaster under the table and then blasts poor dumb unsuspecting Greedo in the nuts.
Guess Lucas felt this was unsportsman-like, to blast a guy under the table instead of in a fair gunfight (ala Gary Cooper).
So Lucas changed it in the "Special Edition". Greedo pulls off a shot, misses (how can you miss at point blank range?) and _then_ Solo blasts him in the nuts.
Much more honorable. Han is going to be a major Alliance general and hero. Can't have him shooting first under a table - not Kosher. Bit of revisionist history, actually. Solo was presumably a smuggler scumbag before meeting up with Luke and Ben. I'm sure blasting Greedo from under the table is not the worst thing he did before getting the hots for Leia and joining her rebellion.
According to Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn, both the studio and Lucasfilm arrived at the September 21st date to gain maximum exposure during the holiday season: "We sold about 17 million VHS 'Star Wars' units during two fall release periods in '95 and '97," he explained. "With that in mind, we designed our release strategy to pick the best release date that had the most gentle sales curve decline on home video."
translation: we are waiting until the best possible moment to extract the maximum mileage from getting these poor dumb slobs, err, fans buying the same content yet again. We are timing the release relative to the seasonal holiday buying spree (formerly known as Christmas).
What if we were just another type-13 planet, trying to resolve this question of dark matter, only not realizing that our scientists were about to accidentally unlock the secret that would render our planet into a super-dense collection of particles the size of a pea?...or something like that;-)
that's exactly my point -- Disney may be able to duplicate the technology, but that alone does not make good movies. The creative talent behind the character design and story telling is what seems to be lacking at Disney these days.
I rented TP when it came out on video and I counted about 5 previews for direct-to-video titles that looked to be poor quality, squeeze money out of the original, sequels.
Atlantis: Milo's Return
Cinderella II
Lady and Tramp 2
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
Lion King 1 & 1/2
No chance of focusing attention and resources on producing something new and entertaining when there is money to be made turning out crap like this that "leverages the value of existing franchises".
Oh, and Hunchback of Notre Dame II with Jennifer Love Hewitt as Quasimodo's love interest? Give me a break!
You lose. I have kids 7 and 10 and there isn't a Disney picture they _haven't_ seen (except song-o-the-south).
We used to go see new Disney movies the weekend they opened. We used to buy tapes/DVD the week they came out. We stopped doing this, with the exception of Pixar flicks, after Atlantis came out.
We wait to either see them at the second-run theatre, or wait until they have moved off the 'new releases' shelf at the rental shop.
When we started seeing previews for Treasure Planet, I started to groan. When it came out, my kids wanted to go see it and I held off until it was in the local $2.50 theatre.
It sucked, bad. I didn't like they way they adapted the story, I didn't like the characters, and I hated the mix of computer/traditional animation (and what wtf is with the boy-band hair on Jim Hawkins?)
When it came out on DVD, we didn't buy, we waited for it to move off the new releases shelf before we rented. The kids watched it once (which is unusual, they typically watch it 2-3 times). When the title showed up in the $9.99 previously viewed bin, we took a pass.
We went back and watched 'Muppet Treasure Island' -- that was _far_ more entertaining!!
How long do you think it would take Disney to setup a Pixar knock-off?
Like PDI/Dreamworks? A looong time.
Creating a reasonable facimile of the technology to generate these kinds of pictures? Probably not too long?
Assebmling an organization with the talent needed to produce films on par with Monsters, Nemo, Shrek, Ice Age, etc? That's a different question. That seems to be the area where they can't deliver anymore, innit?
Once upon a time, they had ppl that could develop stories and characters that made films like Lion King, Beauty & Beast, Aladdin, etc the successes that they were. Then something happened. Disney started making crap like Atlantis, Treasure Planet, etc. No amount of mind-blowing animation technology can make up for a basic lack of entertaining story and characters.
Pixar makes some beautiful movies, to be sure. These movies would not be nearly as successful without the Woody's, Buzz's, Mike's, Sully's, Marlin's and Dory's
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oops (again), the dvd release is 2003, but the movie is from 1939 (apparently colorized)
starring Warren Hull
K, replying to my own post for lack of proper googling...
There is a 2003 release movie...
Mandrake the Magician
and a 1954 tv series
comic book character?
mandrake the magician
Mandrake was created by Lee Falk. Falk's career began in advertising. He then moved to radio. His interest in magic led him to create a character who would solve crimes and mysteries through the use of reason and magic. King Feature Syndicate bought the idea and Mandrake debuted on June 11, 1934. A Sunday feature began in February of 1935. Phil Davis' artwork was appropriate for the fantasy and mystical adventures in which Mandrake and his giant bodyguard, Lothar, found themselves
WTF? A radio/comic book character from 1934? What the hell difference does it make? So, King Features becomes aware that there is some Linux distribution out there using this name and decides it must defend it's trademark? Lots of customer confusion over that one. King Features Syndicate must be getting lots of customer calls from people having trouble with their Mandrake Linux installs?
> A recent (?) episode of Myth Busters
OT: That show rocks. It's the new "junkyard wars" except those two are insane and like to destroy things.
I watched the episode this week where they tried to prove/disprove that cellphones caused gas station explosions. When that obviously didn't work, they turned to the theory that women's panties built up static electricity as the source of ignition. They built a leyden jar and charged it by rubbing a pair of panties on a length of pvc, and then discharged it it a lexan booth filled with gas/air mixture.
BOOM! The one guy had all the hair on one side of his face singed off. They also microwaved CD's and spun them at crazy speeds to see what point they shattered (to explore the myth that 52x readers cause disks to shatter). Hell, we used to do stuff like this is my Dad's garage, but no one ever offered _us_ a TV show!
I missed the one with the breathalyzer though (should never have showed the kids how to manipulate the season pass on the TiVo -- I got "Totally Spies" instead of that episode).
Neither? Cingular does *in fact* have an ad running using that music -- I saw it again last night.
OTOH: Milkyway does have a lame-ass commercial too. Some doofus in a convertible trying to sing "Jenny" while stuffing his wind-tube with a frikin' candy bar. Mmmmm, makes me want to run right out and get one!
Feh, had I just googled a bit before posting, I wouldn't be replying to my own post and risking being modded down...
Carriers focus on keeping existing customers
Beginning Monday, three new TV ads by BBDO's New York and Atlanta offices add a "keep your number" message to Cingular's current "Keep Your Minutes" ads. Cingular (Parents: BLS & SBC) lets customers carry over unused minutes month-to-month. One ad features the 1980s Tommy Tutone hit 867-5309: Jenny. The Cingular deal: 500 bonus rollover minutes. "We've got a solid reason to keep customers and ask new ones to join us," says Daryl Evans, vice president of advertising and marketing communications.
Wonder if "Tommy" is still around to collect royalties from this and the candy-bar ads (Snickers or Milky-way?)
a spokeswoman for BellSouth said nothing prevents a customer from transferring a number to someone else.
"What two parties do between themselves is between them," she said. "We provide phone service."
Right on. The phone company can stay the hell away from poking their nose into what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own...
oh, nevermind
BTW, isn't Verizon the one running an ad with the Jenny song for number portability (or was it Cingular)?
*I wonder if the renewed interest in the Jenny number has more to do with the number portability ad from Verizon or the stupid candy bar commercial?
the real test?
more evil than satan
miserable failure
and of course...
litigious bastards
seems to work just fine!
Yep, I got really lucky, guess. I bought two of these to upgrade TiVos for myself and my sister (pretty much right when they came out before the problems became common knowledge).
After a couple months, we noticed some clicking and I started looking for some possible cause/solution. IBM has a utility you can download that can update the firmware and set the 'acoustic settings'. I pulled the drive out of my TiVo, mounted it in my PC and booted the update disk. I updated the firmware and changed the acoustic setting (there was a little slider that you fiddled with until the clicking went away).
Worked a charm. The drive hasn't given me a peep in over a year now. Did the same to my sister's machine.
Only after all this did I find out and start paying attention to this whole problem. I guess I was lucky -- neither drive has failed.
No, I missed that, but saw this other one
2 million feet of fiber for $4 mil?
This is exactly right.
See "The Monster that ate Hollywood" Frontline program on PBS if you can catch it. This program goes into an extremely interesting end enlightening explanation about how moviemaking has gone from a mostly-creative, partly financial process into an almost totally bottom-line, risk-assessment, return-on-investment focused business.
These guys don't like risks. They want to produce something that has a predictable return on investment. They look at similar projects and decide if the movie being considered can be expected to perform based on past experience.
you're doing something wrong - mine uses D-cells ;-)
I used to test 9V "transistor" batteries this way. Dip the tip of your tongue across both terminals, that little tingle tells you the battery still has juice.
I've never had the opportunity or incliniation to attempt this oral test method on any of the cylindrical styles (AAA - D)
BTW, what ever happened to single-A and B batteries?
AAA - little tiny remote batteries
AA - smaller, walkman sized
C - medium, tape decks, etc (good for hiding in your fist to hit someone)
D - full-size flashlight size
>What is this about Han shooting first?
In the original release, Greedo corners Solo, levels a gun across the table and threatens to turn him into Jabba unless he hands over the money.
Solo distracts him while unholstering his blaster under the table and then blasts poor dumb unsuspecting Greedo in the nuts.
Guess Lucas felt this was unsportsman-like, to blast a guy under the table instead of in a fair gunfight (ala Gary Cooper).
So Lucas changed it in the "Special Edition". Greedo pulls off a shot, misses (how can you miss at point blank range?) and _then_ Solo blasts him in the nuts.
Much more honorable. Han is going to be a major Alliance general and hero. Can't have him shooting first under a table - not Kosher. Bit of revisionist history, actually. Solo was presumably a smuggler scumbag before meeting up with Luke and Ben. I'm sure blasting Greedo from under the table is not the worst thing he did before getting the hots for Leia and joining her rebellion.
According to Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn, both the studio and Lucasfilm arrived at the September 21st date to gain maximum exposure during the holiday season: "We sold about 17 million VHS 'Star Wars' units during two fall release periods in '95 and '97," he explained. "With that in mind, we designed our release strategy to pick the best release date that had the most gentle sales curve decline on home video."
translation: we are waiting until the best possible moment to extract the maximum mileage from getting these poor dumb slobs, err, fans buying the same content yet again. We are timing the release relative to the seasonal holiday buying spree (formerly known as Christmas).
duh
What if we were just another type-13 planet, trying to resolve this question of dark matter, only not realizing that our scientists were about to accidentally unlock the secret that would render our planet into a super-dense collection of particles the size of a pea? ...or something like that ;-)
I have no intention of paying any money to let my kids see any of those.
that's exactly my point -- Disney may be able to duplicate the technology, but that alone does not make good movies. The creative talent behind the character design and story telling is what seems to be lacking at Disney these days.
I rented TP when it came out on video and I counted about 5 previews for direct-to-video titles that looked to be poor quality, squeeze money out of the original, sequels.
No chance of focusing attention and resources on producing something new and entertaining when there is money to be made turning out crap like this that "leverages the value of existing franchises".
Oh, and Hunchback of Notre Dame II with Jennifer Love Hewitt as Quasimodo's love interest? Give me a break!
I am betting the above poster hasn't seen it.
You lose. I have kids 7 and 10 and there isn't a Disney picture they _haven't_ seen (except song-o-the-south).
We used to go see new Disney movies the weekend they opened. We used to buy tapes/DVD the week they came out. We stopped doing this, with the exception of Pixar flicks, after Atlantis came out.
We wait to either see them at the second-run theatre, or wait until they have moved off the 'new releases' shelf at the rental shop.
When we started seeing previews for Treasure Planet, I started to groan. When it came out, my kids wanted to go see it and I held off until it was in the local $2.50 theatre.
It sucked, bad. I didn't like they way they adapted the story, I didn't like the characters, and I hated the mix of computer/traditional animation (and what wtf is with the boy-band hair on Jim Hawkins?)
When it came out on DVD, we didn't buy, we waited for it to move off the new releases shelf before we rented. The kids watched it once (which is unusual, they typically watch it 2-3 times). When the title showed up in the $9.99 previously viewed bin, we took a pass.
We went back and watched 'Muppet Treasure Island' -- that was _far_ more entertaining!!
How long do you think it would take Disney to setup a Pixar knock-off?
Like PDI/Dreamworks? A looong time.
Creating a reasonable facimile of the technology to generate these kinds of pictures? Probably not too long?
Assebmling an organization with the talent needed to produce films on par with Monsters, Nemo, Shrek, Ice Age, etc? That's a different question. That seems to be the area where they can't deliver anymore, innit?
Once upon a time, they had ppl that could develop stories and characters that made films like Lion King, Beauty & Beast, Aladdin, etc the successes that they were. Then something happened. Disney started making crap like Atlantis, Treasure Planet, etc. No amount of mind-blowing animation technology can make up for a basic lack of entertaining story and characters.
Pixar makes some beautiful movies, to be sure. These movies would not be nearly as successful without the Woody's, Buzz's, Mike's, Sully's, Marlin's and Dory's
Walt Disney has licensed Microsoft's Windows Media DRM technology
Wow, so they un-froze his head long enough to sign a license? Cool!
Oh, you mean the Walt Disney Company !!!
Reminds me of the "Bob and Ron" radio show where they did they "Penisin" commercial parody (kind of like Tinactin or other itch-remedy product).
Start by using a liberal handful of Penisin, rubbing it into the affected area.
"ooh, ahhh, yeah!!! ummm...."
You'll notice a warm, tingly feeling right away -- that tells you that Penisin is working!
"Oh, wow!! mmm, aaahhh!!"
You may find that you need several applications daily to provide maximum relief!
gas pipeline blows up you!
;-)
??