If FOX takes Futurama away from us or (as recently) simply decides to pre-empt or randomly move it then do yourself and your sense of humor a favor and stay up later (usually about 11:15) to watch Sealab 2021 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block.
It's Sci-Fi (Robots, Time Travel, Black Debbie), it's got great characters (Stormy, Hesh, Chubby Cox), and some of the best comedy writing and voice talent (Erik Estrada!) on tv EVER.
Zim is in fact, still cancelled. I work at nick, I've seen the ratings from last month, the above statements are, unfortunately, untrue:(
There are still some episodes left to air that are being finished up, including a possible xmas episode, there will be a total of about 27 episodes when all is said and done, but there are no "new" shows nor a "next season" after this lot. Sorry.
disclaimer: I work at nickelodeon, but not in programming.
disclaimer2: Zim is my favorite animated show.
I can't say much for our programming department, I don't even really know who they are being as I don't work with them, but I sure would love to give them a swift kick in the ass.
Firstly Zim premiered and showe Friday nights at 9:30.. no wonder the ratings weren't that high, they barely gave it a chance in that slot. Reruns during the week were scarse and oddly timeslotted as well.
Secondly, its too good for Nick. Its quite simple, as Ren and Stimpy was too good. Its offbeat, its different, its interesting.. that means its scary to network executives who would rather contract another cookie-cutter piece of crap show from Klasky Csupo than take a risk on something exciting such as Zim.
Thirdly, they did very little in the way of promotion. I can't tell you how many people tell me that they've never heard of Zim, despite either watching Nick themselves, or having children that do. What do you do with the bastard child? Ignore it and hope he goes away.. good job.
Fourthly, Zim appeals to a very odd demographic which makes it hard to target. Its too dark for kids, its too weird for older parents, its almost right for the teenage crowd, but they're usually doing something else friday nights. It REALLY appeals to most 18-27 year old I've talked to, which unfortunately is not Nick's market. We've become the MTV of the pre-teeners, since MTV is now filled with teenagers.
Fifthly.. wait is that a word? Ok nevermind, I've gone on too long. I'm just quite upset at the news and I hang onto hope that someone here will get their head straight and give Zim another chance, its one of the most original, refreshing, and fun cartoons to come out of any network in a long time. No more rugrats, no more Arnold, Spongebob can stay, but he must OBEY THE FIST.
Could this lead to new data compression schemes for non-detail critical images and other files? A sort of JPG with half detail and half math? It wouldnt be high quality but it would be a fraction of the size, perhaps yet another low-bandwidth video codec?
Well.. one thing's for sure, if I ever have a doctor reading my brain MRI I sure as hell don't want half of it removed (neither my brain, nor the scan).
Okkkay.. now I'm wired. Thank god.. Oh wait, I can't afford and/or receive said wireless service. What to do?
I'm staying away from ANY wireless "standard" in my metropolitan area (NYC) until I can find a cheap and reliable service provider. Right now my SprintPCS phone provides better internet access at a better value than any PDA based wireless networks in the area. A step in the right direction maybe, but more PDAs need wireless included as a standard feature before this becomes great news for the majority of us.
Has another mockup in their user section, this is the site that had that horribly fake iWalk device featured right before iPod was announced.
It's not quite as sexy as the acorncreative mockups, and apparently a CD/DVD would 'poop' out the back.. but maybe they're just breaking a computer down into basic bodily functions for the iMac crowd to understand easier.
Where to score some black magnetic goo.
on
Magnetic Fluids
·
· Score: 5, Informative
A few friends and I bought a large bottle of the stuff, it's pretty neat to play with along with some magnets, but you need some SERIOUS power to get any real decent results, initially we were messing around with some discarded large speaker magnets and voice coils (fixed magnetic power). We went so far as to have ordered some higher power electromagnets and some extra hardware to control their strength. Unfortunately due to the recent events in our neighborhood (NYC) we haven't had a chance to experiment much more lately.
Oh and its more like liquid than goo, so dont get your hopes of creating a giant black goo monster up too high.
Anyway, if you want to pick some up for yourself try these places:
They (AVID owned Softimage team) can't even port their newest "Next-Generation 3D Animation" effort to the once SI|3D Native IRIX. Softimage|XSI 1.0 on IRIX is actually the NT version running under emulation, causing horrible slow-down and a considerable ammount of bugs. Many under valid support contracts who got their XSI "upgrades" have been most disappointed by their IRIX performance.
While TOONZ for LINUX may seem like a step in the right direction, take into consideration that TOONZ is actually developed by an R&D Company called DIGITAL VIDEO. I take this directly from the softimage.com toonz legal type:
Toonz is developed in Italy by SBP S.p.a, Itaca S.r.l. and Digital Video S.r.L. and is distributed by Softimage Co. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
So if you're expecting the Montreal team to put out anything other than buggy and non-production ready software i.e. XSI 1.0, don't hold your breath. You might get lucky with Mental Ray though, as that is also developed by a seperate company, MENTAL IMAGES.
I for one hope that Softimage can get their colletive heads out of their collective butts and jump on the cross-platform compatibility bandwagon a'la A|W's Maya. Otherwise they (or at least their 3D division) face a rapidly growing dissatisfied and defeated user base who have had enough of their lies, bull and empty promises.
How's ICE AGE coming Danimal? Are the fur TD's crapping their pants after seeing Dinosaur or are they keeping up?;) More importantly, how is the story? Are the characters interesting and three dimentional (no pun intended)? I'd hate to see FOX's adventures into 3D CGI movie-making fall as flat as Bluth's drawings. As a huge fan of any type of animation I am always looking for "alternatives" to the Disney feces we are constantly exposed to. Is the story an in-house production or did FOX bring in some outsiders to tweak the script and character development? I know you probably can't say much about the production, but I'm curious to see if you think it's headed in the right direction! -na
Slashdot Mirror
If FOX takes Futurama away from us or (as recently) simply decides to pre-empt or randomly move it then do yourself and your sense of humor a favor and stay up later (usually about 11:15) to watch Sealab 2021 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block.
It's Sci-Fi (Robots, Time Travel, Black Debbie), it's got great characters (Stormy, Hesh, Chubby Cox), and some of the best comedy writing and voice talent (Erik Estrada!) on tv EVER.
hey did you notice that the dock on the bottom of that Apple ad has the letter "WXP" on the bottom?.. Bill has already got to them.
ABahahahahah... Katepoo... bahaha.. oooh man.. sorry, i really have nothing to say.
forget making the case a sub, park one of THESE badboys in the corner and you're all set :P~~~
Zim is in fact, still cancelled. I work at nick, I've seen the ratings from last month, the above statements are, unfortunately, untrue :(
There are still some episodes left to air that are being finished up, including a possible xmas episode, there will be a total of about 27 episodes when all is said and done, but there are no "new" shows nor a "next season" after this lot. Sorry.
It's full of STARS!
disclaimer: I work at nickelodeon, but not in programming.
disclaimer2: Zim is my favorite animated show.
I can't say much for our programming department, I don't even really know who they are being as I don't work with them, but I sure would love to give them a swift kick in the ass.
Firstly Zim premiered and showe Friday nights at 9:30.. no wonder the ratings weren't that high, they barely gave it a chance in that slot. Reruns during the week were scarse and oddly timeslotted as well.
Secondly, its too good for Nick. Its quite simple, as Ren and Stimpy was too good. Its offbeat, its different, its interesting.. that means its scary to network executives who would rather contract another cookie-cutter piece of crap show from Klasky Csupo than take a risk on something exciting such as Zim.
Thirdly, they did very little in the way of promotion. I can't tell you how many people tell me that they've never heard of Zim, despite either watching Nick themselves, or having children that do. What do you do with the bastard child? Ignore it and hope he goes away.. good job.
Fourthly, Zim appeals to a very odd demographic which makes it hard to target. Its too dark for kids, its too weird for older parents, its almost right for the teenage crowd, but they're usually doing something else friday nights. It REALLY appeals to most 18-27 year old I've talked to, which unfortunately is not Nick's market. We've become the MTV of the pre-teeners, since MTV is now filled with teenagers.
Fifthly.. wait is that a word? Ok nevermind, I've gone on too long. I'm just quite upset at the news and I hang onto hope that someone here will get their head straight and give Zim another chance, its one of the most original, refreshing, and fun cartoons to come out of any network in a long time. No more rugrats, no more Arnold, Spongebob can stay, but he must OBEY THE FIST.
-ride the pig, -nA
Could this lead to new data compression schemes for non-detail critical images and other files? A sort of JPG with half detail and half math? It wouldnt be high quality but it would be a fraction of the size, perhaps yet another low-bandwidth video codec?
Well.. one thing's for sure, if I ever have a doctor reading my brain MRI I sure as hell don't want half of it removed (neither my brain, nor the scan).
Wow great info.. wait, I couldnt read it, that Microsoft Technet page link actually crashed my IE.
Okkkay.. now I'm wired. Thank god.. Oh wait, I can't afford and/or receive said wireless service. What to do?
I'm staying away from ANY wireless "standard" in my metropolitan area (NYC) until I can find a cheap and reliable service provider. Right now my SprintPCS phone provides better internet access at a better value than any PDA based wireless networks in the area. A step in the right direction maybe, but more PDAs need wireless included as a standard feature before this becomes great news for the majority of us.
-nA
http://www.spymac.com/imacpredictions01.html
Has another mockup in their user section, this is the site that had that horribly fake iWalk device featured right before iPod was announced.
It's not quite as sexy as the acorncreative mockups, and apparently a CD/DVD would 'poop' out the back.. but maybe they're just breaking a computer down into basic bodily functions for the iMac crowd to understand easier.
-ab!deadzebra
A few friends and I bought a large bottle of the stuff, it's pretty neat to play with along with some magnets, but you need some SERIOUS power to get any real decent results, initially we were messing around with some discarded large speaker magnets and voice coils (fixed magnetic power). We went so far as to have ordered some higher power electromagnets and some extra hardware to control their strength. Unfortunately due to the recent events in our neighborhood (NYC) we haven't had a chance to experiment much more lately.
Oh and its more like liquid than goo, so dont get your hopes of creating a giant black goo monster up too high.
Anyway, if you want to pick some up for yourself try these places:
Edmund Scientific
(also has magnets, electromagnets)
Teacher Source
(this is where we got our large 1000ml bottle)
and more listed at the official ferroftec web site:
ferrofluidics
-nA
They (AVID owned Softimage team) can't even port their newest "Next-Generation 3D Animation" effort to the once SI|3D Native IRIX. Softimage|XSI 1.0 on IRIX is actually the NT version running under emulation, causing horrible slow-down and a considerable ammount of bugs. Many under valid support contracts who got their XSI "upgrades" have been most disappointed by their IRIX performance.
:)
While TOONZ for LINUX may seem like a step in the right direction, take into consideration that TOONZ is actually developed by an R&D Company called DIGITAL VIDEO. I take this directly from the softimage.com toonz legal type:
Toonz is developed in Italy by SBP S.p.a, Itaca S.r.l. and Digital Video S.r.L. and is distributed by Softimage Co. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
So if you're expecting the Montreal team to put out anything other than buggy and non-production ready software i.e. XSI 1.0, don't hold your breath. You might get lucky with Mental Ray though, as that is also developed by a seperate company, MENTAL IMAGES.
I for one hope that Softimage can get their colletive heads out of their collective butts and jump on the cross-platform compatibility bandwagon a'la A|W's Maya. Otherwise they (or at least their 3D division) face a rapidly growing dissatisfied and defeated user base who have had enough of their lies, bull and empty promises.
-not bitter
How's ICE AGE coming Danimal? Are the fur TD's crapping their pants after seeing Dinosaur or are they keeping up? ;) More importantly, how is the story? Are the characters interesting and three dimentional (no pun intended)? I'd hate to see FOX's adventures into 3D CGI movie-making fall as flat as Bluth's drawings. As a huge fan of any type of animation I am always looking for "alternatives" to the Disney feces we are constantly exposed to. Is the story an in-house production or did FOX bring in some outsiders to tweak the script and character development? I know you probably can't say much about the production, but I'm curious to see if you think it's headed in the right direction! -na