You're probably right to some extent, but I can tell you that there were a lot less stormtroopers looking for the droids near the abandoned escape pod, Han shot first, that Han and Jabba didn't have that talk, that Mos Isley was a lot more desolate, that Alderan and the Death Star didn't go whoosh nearly so much when they exploded.
Now, the extra troopers at the pod, the extra crowd at Mos Isley, and the extra zoomy planet 'splosions I can deal with, but Han and Jabba's conversation kind of changed the perception of their relationship to one another. The way things played out originally, Jabba was a more sinister, and totally unknown threat, in the remastered version, they seem downright chummy. It also doesn't make sense - Jabba put a price on his head, then goes to TALK to him in person? I dunno.
The part about Han shooting first is the worst one (for me). I mean, in the original, Greedo has the drop on Han, yet Han cleverly keeps him talking long enough to blow Greedo away. In the revised edition, Greedo misses from point blank range, THEN Han shoots? I know that Lucas was trying to make it clear that Han was a good guy, but cummon, he was a scoundrel... a rakish rogue if you will. Han shooting first showed something about his character - that he wasn't exactly Mr. Do-gooder comic book hero who only ever fights in self defense.
Still, you're right - over all, it could be worse - Lucas ~COULD HAVE~ pulled a Spielberg and replaced all the blasters with walkie talkies, and all the Jawas with Gungans! (ewww, I gotta go be sick now).
Don't forget Agway (farm supplies), Digikey (far better electronics and gadgets than Radio shack), MCM Electronics (Ditto), RC Warehouse (Radio Control stuff), etc...
All sorts of places to get off-the-shelf technology and/or parts to build your own. Just about any tool or technology can be used for good or evil. I'd be concerned if someone was asking questions about weapons delivery or other issues where the intent was fairly clear, but even then, do you respond by clamming up, thus indirectly telling them of your suspicions, (and greatly increasing the chances that they will work to avoid attention), or do you maybe notify the authorities so they can use the situation to their advantage?
Unfortunately, to the "bean-counter from hell" that means that you're no longer needed - after all, everything works fine, and you're idle...
I hate when non-technical folks are put in charge of IT departments. It's almost always a disaster where pie charts, power point presentations, and bottom lines are king.
Personally, I think that it's something to do with the radiation of Blackberries being somehow amplified by the proximity to the ever-present golf clubs in their cars that drives most BIG-IT heads completely 'round the bend.:)
Wish I had some mod points... that's incredibly informative. If I were a cabbie, I don't know as I'd object to GPS - even if it was tied back in by cellular or some other means so the company could track me, but the 5% charge coming out of my profits? that would REALLY peeve me.
Plus, if folks put the tip on the credit card, the cabbies are going to loose quite a bit more in taxes. I bet that very few people who receive tips as part of their day-to-day work report 100% of it. Yeah, it's breaking the rules/law, but I can see how they'd be really concerned about credit card terminals.
On the other hand, as a pedestrian in NYC, I'd feel better NOT having to worry about carrying too much cash around.
Know what? you're absolutely right. I've never had a decent GPS fix in any major city I've driven in... at least not when I was downtown in the canyons made by all the tall buildings. Of course, I will admit that I had an older consumer hand-held unit and it's been a year or so since I even tried to use it in such conditions... maybe things have gotten better. Or maybe the commercial system's going to have some kind of terrestrial backup/repeater setup.
Anyone remember the South Park episode "Cartoon Wars", where the show was making fun of the western reaction, and itself was censored? The irony for me was that they had an episode maybe a year or two before that where Mohammed was clearly shown as one of the super heroes in the "Super Best Friends" episode. There hadn't been a blip back then. What's even funnier is that if you watch South Park reruns, the "Cartoon Wars" episode still has the controversial scene censored, but the "Super Best Friends" has been shown since with no alterations.
My guess is that it's a deliberate attempt to make sure that users aren't streaming the music out over the network.
DRM sucks... it's gotten so bad that they're interfering with all sorts of normal (non-infringing) activities in the hopes of getting the genie back in the bottle. When will they learn that it's too little, too late.
I mean, what? I'm supposed to choose between listening to music, or doing my job? BAH!
Every day, MacOS and Linux are looking better and better.
Exactly what I mean. It's funny though, you can get such a difference in level of support from two different people. I called last night about a signal problem:
Some of the digital channels I'm supposed to have are either coming up "one moment please, your channel should be available shortly" or are pixelating and breaking up so bad as to be useless, or are coming up "no signal" depending on the device (I have one CableCard, one digital cable box (hooked up to an older ReplayTV), and one Comcast HD DVR). The analog signals look ok, and many of the digital channels are ok too. Though the response varies slightly, the same channels on each device seem to be affected.
The first lady I talked to could not get off her script - she believed that each was a case of broken equipment on my end... that my cable card, my digital tuner box, and my Comcast DVR were all independently broken... in the same basic way, with the same channels not working properly.
Fortunately, my cell phone lost signal in the middle of me RE-EXPLAINING that the problem had to be common to all of em, and I had to call back.
The new lady I got understood the first time I explained it, tried sending a reset signal, and apologized that she had to send a tech, but that the problem was likely signal and/or wire related, and would I like an appointment for between 5 and 7 tomorrow evening?
"... a HVDC power grid might be a better system than what we have."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the reason Tesla (AC) beat out Edison (DC) was that AC travels long distances much better and with a lot less loss than DC. I mean, if you're talking superconductors or something super cool like that (pun intended), then maybe, but is that actually practical?
'requires the expertise of a reseller and installer'
Um, I call "shenanigans" on that!
Expertise of a reseller? BAH! Comcast isn't hiring the Bangalore Bargain Bin for their phone support, but the folks you talk to at the cable co call center have far less knowledge about the systems that your average geek.
Expertise of an installer? To carefully install a card in the right slot of your TV, then find the right menu to call up the relevant stats, then update a system with them? Not difficult at all, I say. Except of course, that there's no customer-side interface to update your account with the right serial numbers and IDs.
My guess is that by having an installer do the work, they don't have to worry about making a web front-end for the card info system, and they can make sure that you're installing it into an "approved device". At least that's my theory.
That said, all of my ads are google ads. Which means no animations, no sounds, no popups, etc. 50% are text link ads, and the other 50%, simple banner ads... And they don't jump in the middle of conent (just one ad at the top, and one along the side). If that's too much for you, let me know...
... and that's why I don't bother blocking ads from google... they don't annoy me and ~sometimes~ they actually even advertise something I just ~might~ be interested in... unlike the crap that doubleclick and the like spew out.
Hmm, I'd love to read the article, but it's either Slashdotted, or they're not letting my FireFox see the page that says why FireFox can't see the page.:(
J&J may have a ~right~ to do this, but it seems like it might not be the smartest thing to do (PR-wise).
On the other hand, if they don't take action to protect their trademark, they may face the prospect of loosing it.
I think the important take-away here is that our Intellectual Property laws are really messed up. The Red cross (chartered or not) has been using that symbol long before J&J), so it seems kind of broken that J&J gets to tell the Red cross what they can do with it just because they weren't on the ball enough to have registered it first.
Oblig. Underpants Gnome Meme Reference:
1) Find a company with a successful product that has failed to get a trademark on it 2) Register it yourself, then sue them 3) PROFIT!!!
I agree in principal and take a similar course of action, but the fact is that there are a great number of complete IDIOTS out there who will buy from an advertiser who uses such tactics. The percentage is small, but this is BigNumbers. So:
1) Get this thing on as many millions of desktops as possible 2) hope for a.0001% response rate 3) PROFIT as you get 1000 buyers for every million you spammed
Never underestimate the ability of a very small number of stupid people to completely ruin everything for the rest of us... case in point: Congress.
I've always hated the media's tendency to measure things in football fields {area} (American football of course), Football Stadiums {numbers of people and/or volume} (again, American football), Olympic swimming pools, Empire State Buildings, Statues of Liberty*, feet of water covering a given US State, and trips to the moon.
Ok, maybe I can see that some folks would have a problem understanding volume (because our poor educational system means that we are barely able to manage two dimensions), but why must they insist on measuring things in terms of these other objects?
Ahh, must be because our poor educational system means that we really CAN'T manage a two dimensions, and even have trouble with one.
~sigh~
* I for one was quite surprised at the actual size of the Statue of Liberty the first time I saw it in person... I somehow imagined it being quite a bit taller.
Slashdot Mirror
You're probably right to some extent, but I can tell you that there were a lot less stormtroopers looking for the droids near the abandoned escape pod, Han shot first, that Han and Jabba didn't have that talk, that Mos Isley was a lot more desolate, that Alderan and the Death Star didn't go whoosh nearly so much when they exploded.
Now, the extra troopers at the pod, the extra crowd at Mos Isley, and the extra zoomy planet 'splosions I can deal with, but Han and Jabba's conversation kind of changed the perception of their relationship to one another. The way things played out originally, Jabba was a more sinister, and totally unknown threat, in the remastered version, they seem downright chummy. It also doesn't make sense - Jabba put a price on his head, then goes to TALK to him in person? I dunno.
The part about Han shooting first is the worst one (for me). I mean, in the original, Greedo has the drop on Han, yet Han cleverly keeps him talking long enough to blow Greedo away. In the revised edition, Greedo misses from point blank range, THEN Han shoots? I know that Lucas was trying to make it clear that Han was a good guy, but cummon, he was a scoundrel... a rakish rogue if you will. Han shooting first showed something about his character - that he wasn't exactly Mr. Do-gooder comic book hero who only ever fights in self defense.
Still, you're right - over all, it could be worse - Lucas ~COULD HAVE~ pulled a Spielberg and replaced all the blasters with walkie talkies, and all the Jawas with Gungans! (ewww, I gotta go be sick now).
I totally missed that.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention. (Gosh, I love Slashdot)
Don't forget Agway (farm supplies), Digikey (far better electronics and gadgets than Radio shack), MCM Electronics (Ditto), RC Warehouse (Radio Control stuff), etc...
All sorts of places to get off-the-shelf technology and/or parts to build your own. Just about any tool or technology can be used for good or evil. I'd be concerned if someone was asking questions about weapons delivery or other issues where the intent was fairly clear, but even then, do you respond by clamming up, thus indirectly telling them of your suspicions, (and greatly increasing the chances that they will work to avoid attention), or do you maybe notify the authorities so they can use the situation to their advantage?
Unity,
What if by then folks have really convincing, non-glasses-based 3D movies? I bet LOTR would look pretty fake then...
Not to me though: then again, I'm just showing my age because I still prefer the un-bastartized Star Wars.
(and by the way, Han shot first!)
Unfortunately, to the "bean-counter from hell" that means that you're no longer needed - after all, everything works fine, and you're idle...
:)
I hate when non-technical folks are put in charge of IT departments. It's almost always a disaster where pie charts, power point presentations, and bottom lines are king.
Personally, I think that it's something to do with the radiation of Blackberries being somehow amplified by the proximity to the ever-present golf clubs in their cars that drives most BIG-IT heads completely 'round the bend.
Wish I had some mod points... that's incredibly informative. If I were a cabbie, I don't know as I'd object to GPS - even if it was tied back in by cellular or some other means so the company could track me, but the 5% charge coming out of my profits? that would REALLY peeve me.
Plus, if folks put the tip on the credit card, the cabbies are going to loose quite a bit more in taxes. I bet that very few people who receive tips as part of their day-to-day work report 100% of it. Yeah, it's breaking the rules/law, but I can see how they'd be really concerned about credit card terminals.
On the other hand, as a pedestrian in NYC, I'd feel better NOT having to worry about carrying too much cash around.
Anyhow thanks again for the insight.
Know what? you're absolutely right. I've never had a decent GPS fix in any major city I've driven in... at least not when I was downtown in the canyons made by all the tall buildings. Of course, I will admit that I had an older consumer hand-held unit and it's been a year or so since I even tried to use it in such conditions... maybe things have gotten better. Or maybe the commercial system's going to have some kind of terrestrial backup/repeater setup.
Thanks for the laugh.
Anyone remember the South Park episode "Cartoon Wars", where the show was making fun of the western reaction, and itself was censored? The irony for me was that they had an episode maybe a year or two before that where Mohammed was clearly shown as one of the super heroes in the "Super Best Friends" episode. There hadn't been a blip back then. What's even funnier is that if you watch South Park reruns, the "Cartoon Wars" episode still has the controversial scene censored, but the "Super Best Friends" has been shown since with no alterations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park
The Cartoon Wars episode was played uncensored in the UK, and the world failed to end - go figure.
My guess is that it's a deliberate attempt to make sure that users aren't streaming the music out over the network.
DRM sucks... it's gotten so bad that they're interfering with all sorts of normal (non-infringing) activities in the hopes of getting the genie back in the bottle. When will they learn that it's too little, too late.
I mean, what? I'm supposed to choose between listening to music, or doing my job? BAH!
Every day, MacOS and Linux are looking better and better.
now, THAT is geek-cred.
Well done.
Exactly what I mean. It's funny though, you can get such a difference in level of support from two different people. I called last night about a signal problem:
The first lady I talked to could not get off her script - she believed that each was a case of broken equipment on my end... that my cable card, my digital tuner box, and my Comcast DVR were all independently broken... in the same basic way, with the same channels not working properly.
Fortunately, my cell phone lost signal in the middle of me RE-EXPLAINING that the problem had to be common to all of em, and I had to call back.
The new lady I got understood the first time I explained it, tried sending a reset signal, and apologized that she had to send a tech, but that the problem was likely signal and/or wire related, and would I like an appointment for between 5 and 7 tomorrow evening?
Wow, I really appreciate the explanation. I never thought of it in those terms. I guess I learned something today. :)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the reason Tesla (AC) beat out Edison (DC) was that AC travels long distances much better and with a lot less loss than DC. I mean, if you're talking superconductors or something super cool like that (pun intended), then maybe, but is that actually practical?
Um, I call "shenanigans" on that!
Expertise of a reseller? BAH! Comcast isn't hiring the Bangalore Bargain Bin for their phone support, but the folks you talk to at the cable co call center have far less knowledge about the systems that your average geek.
Expertise of an installer? To carefully install a card in the right slot of your TV, then find the right menu to call up the relevant stats, then update a system with them? Not difficult at all, I say. Except of course, that there's no customer-side interface to update your account with the right serial numbers and IDs.
My guess is that by having an installer do the work, they don't have to worry about making a web front-end for the card info system, and they can make sure that you're installing it into an "approved device". At least that's my theory.
If it did, that could give a whole new meaning to the term Fire Fox!
~ducking~
Hmm, I'd love to read the article, but it's either Slashdotted, or they're not letting my FireFox see the page that says why FireFox can't see the page. :(
I believe you're onto something with counting "potential sales"... Brings to mind something about not counting your chickens before they hatch. ~grin~
Ahh, but they'll give you a 50 cent instant rebate in exchange... woo hoo sign ME up! /sarcasm
You make a lot of sense ... darn my kneejerk reactions.
This seems like a sticky issue:
J&J may have a ~right~ to do this, but it seems like it might not be the smartest thing to do (PR-wise).
On the other hand, if they don't take action to protect their trademark, they may face the prospect of loosing it.
I think the important take-away here is that our Intellectual Property laws are really messed up. The Red cross (chartered or not) has been using that symbol long before J&J), so it seems kind of broken that J&J gets to tell the Red cross what they can do with it just because they weren't on the ball enough to have registered it first.
Oblig. Underpants Gnome Meme Reference:
1) Find a company with a successful product that has failed to get a trademark on it
2) Register it yourself, then sue them
3) PROFIT!!!
OOps - self-innumeracy check:
2) hope for a 0.01% response rate
I agree... and I think someone else also imagined such a world (GATTACA)
dgun,
.0001% response rate
I agree in principal and take a similar course of action, but the fact is that there are a great number of complete IDIOTS out there who will buy from an advertiser who uses such tactics. The percentage is small, but this is BigNumbers. So:
1) Get this thing on as many millions of desktops as possible
2) hope for a
3) PROFIT as you get 1000 buyers for every million you spammed
Never underestimate the ability of a very small number of stupid people to completely ruin everything for the rest of us... case in point: Congress.
I've always hated the media's tendency to measure things in football fields {area} (American football of course), Football Stadiums {numbers of people and/or volume} (again, American football), Olympic swimming pools, Empire State Buildings, Statues of Liberty*, feet of water covering a given US State, and trips to the moon.
Ok, maybe I can see that some folks would have a problem understanding volume (because our poor educational system means that we are barely able to manage two dimensions), but why must they insist on measuring things in terms of these other objects?
Ahh, must be because our poor educational system means that we really CAN'T manage a two dimensions, and even have trouble with one.
~sigh~
* I for one was quite surprised at the actual size of the Statue of Liberty the first time I saw it in person... I somehow imagined it being quite a bit taller.