I think the Stink Demon is a standard feature of Japanese folklore. I could be mistaken.
Good point about the river spirit, but I don't think that rates as a central moral of the movie. In any case, I think Miyazaki's views on the environment are more complicated than "don't mess it up". At least that's impression I take away from Princess Mononoke.
Obviously, he intends to use the typewriter keyboard for input. A step backwards from sending email via computer, but perhaps he has a computer-phobic relative.
I got the manners part, but where was there a moral about the environment?
(Somehow I heard that Miyazaki came out of retirement to make Spirited Away after meeting a particularly spoiled child. But I suspect he'll never retire. Not that I want him to!)
You're right about Miyazaki always having a moral. But that might suggest to people who've never seen his work that he's preachy. Anything but. His stories are always simple, charming, and easy to enjoy.
It is not perfectly simple. There are many games and applications that simply REQUIRE elevated rights to run!
But that's a feature of the program, not the OS. In theory, you could have the same problem in Linux or OS X. In practice, you don't, because developers for those platforms don't think that way. As I said, the difference is cultural, not technical.
I want to install software as admin and not as the user.
Windows has the admin/user distinction too (at least in 32-bit versions). The "every user an admin" situation in Windows is more cultural than technical.
I don't want to minimize the security flaws in Windows -- of which there are way too many. But security has a social component too. Right now, most computer users are to some degree their own system administrator -- and most of them just don't have the skills to do it.
It's perfectly simple to set up a Windows box so that you have to enter an Admin password before you can install anything. But with most users no knowing when they should or should not supply that password, you don't really get any extra security that way.
As long as people are willing to pay for herbal Viagra, cheap mortgages, etc. based on spam, so too will spam annoy the rest of us.
You're right about where spam comes from. But that doesn't mean we can't get rid of it. We just have to replace the email infrastructure that was designed around the assumption that all Internet users are good citizens.
I find myself pretty unsympathetic with Le Guin. Nobody put a gun to her head and said "Sell us your movie rights." Plenty of authors hold out for more creative input, though there is a financial cost. Instead, she found it convenient to believe her agent and the studio, both of whom had a vested interest in telling her what she wanted to hear.
That they would wanted to water down her story is something she should have assumed as matter of principle -- has she been to any movies lately? In particular, she should not have assumed that they'd carry over the racial ideas of her stories intact. Except for shows and movies specially targetted at non-whites, it's pretty unusual to have to have a hero that "the audience can't identify with".
And so what? They took a silly pointless book with a dark edge and turned it into a silly pointless movie with a comic edge. Hardly the biggest travesty in Hollywood history.
(the original Star Trek was about as low budget as Sci Fi comes)
Wrong. When TOS came out, it was the most expensive TV series ever made. It only looks low-budget to somebody used to CGI and other modern gimmicks. But back in 1966, a big budget didn't buy what it buys now.
Of course, if you look at the later, shark-jumping episodes, you can see them cutting corners to save money. But that's something that happens to all TV series, especially ones that are struggling to stay alive.
You almost have a point, but you'll need a better example before you're there. After all, you can do a simple visual metaphor like "it's in the red book" in 2D space as easily as in 3D space. And that's also what you need to do before you can get 3D GUIs taken seriously: you have to come up with a interaction metaphor that works better in 3 dimensions -- not just take existing 2D metaphors and put them in a more complex environment.
Re:MacOS X already is. In a sensible way
on
3D User Interfaces
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OS X has effects that are 3D. (So does Windows, for that matter, though it's not as conspicuous.) But the basic interaction metaphor is still in a 2D space.
So instead of keeping my files in such-and-such a directory on my computer, I put them in the second drawer of the third virtual filing cabinet from the door of my virtual castle. I'd guess it would work, but I don't see how you've made life any easier. Well, you have made it easier to lose things...
Two-dimensional user interfaces (UIs) have been around for a long time, and people are accustomed to using them. However, 3-dimensional user interfaces have not yet received as much exposure.
If you mean, "3D UIs haven't been widely accepted", that's true. But if you mean, "We're stuck in a 2D rut because nobody pays attention to 3D UIs," then you have a short memory. Every couple of years there's some new "breakthrough" in 3D technology that's supposed to change the way we use computers -- everything from simple 3D GUI metaphors to "immersive" user interfaces. These have a few applications (mostly having to do with simulating the real world), but mostly people aren't interested.
And why should they be? Adding a third dimension adds an order of complexity to the interface. The challenge of user interface design is to make things simpler.
At least Mike got 5 of the 6 buttons right. When the come out with a new Palm they sometimes introduce improvements, but they always lose at lease one feature they should have kept.
Keeping text files in your Palm makes perfect sense. It's great to always have reading matter in your pocket. And the Vx supports this perfectly well, though not out of the box. You simply convert the file to DOC, download it, and read it with a suitable reader.
I agree with you on one point: the Vx was absolutely the high point of Palm development. It had enough memory and processing power for any practical palmtop app (if you needed more you should probably be using a laptop anyway). And the battery lasted for days, even under heavy usage.
The Vx has one major flaw -- the up button sticks out too far, so the cover presses against it when it's in your pocket. This is severely uncool, since all the function buttons double as power buttons. Fortunately, a hack with the (self-explanatory) name of StayOffIfUp provides a reasonable workaround.
I'd still be using my Vx if I hadn't lost it. Should have tried to find a used one. Instead, I "upgraded" to the m515. Which has a bunch of new features I either never use or positively hate. The color hirez display looks cool, but usually needs backlighting to be readable -- which is a terrible battery drain. And they had to go and change all the physical parameters, so all the third-party styluses and covers for V series don't fit. And all the function buttons stick out too far!
It's not as simple as "the Internet killed the edition." They tried to introduce a new paper to an already-crowded market and failed. Hardly suprising, with or without the Internet. The only role the Internet plays here is to provide a cheap delivery alternative. The existance of that alternative might have played a role in the Times' decision, but certainly not a crucial one.
Online newspapers are not a big success story. They cost a lot more to run (on a per-reader basis) than print editions, and they don't generate a lot of ad revenue. They're not going to replace print editions any time soon.
I think you're trying to describe the so-called Von Neumann Machine. Having RAM is just a detail. What's important is that it treats programming code as a kind of data. Which might seem trivial to anybody who's grown up since the PC revolution, but which was a big conceptual breakthrough when it happened.
JvN is kind of over-rated, at least as a computer scientist. He made a name for himself as a mathematician and economist, and acquired so much prestige that some of his work wasn't properly critiqued during his own lifetime. He did write the classic papers that described the VNM and had a lot to do with it pushing out competing models. But other people invented the basic concepts.
One of JvNs big failures was that he never grasped the importance of software. Which is ironic, considering that the conceptual model he "invented" is what made the whole notion of software possible.
Sure ideas get reused. But if you can't make them fresh, you're a hack, period. Is the Andy Warhol on the same level as Rembrandt just because they both do portraits?
As for "Sturgeon's Law", that's BS. It's an SF writer's lame excuse for a genre that attracts a lot of bad writers. They get away with it because too many SF readers never read anything else, not because of some deep universal law.
You're right about the built-in audience factor, but I don't think that's the primary reason. Which is risk aversion. It's become harder and harder to get backing for a movie unless you can convince the studio that they're backing a sure thing.
One way to do this is to propose a movie that has elements of previous blockbusters. ("It's called 'Noise of Love'. Think of it as Mad Max meets Fatal Attraction.") Which explains why movies have gotten so damned formulaic.
Remakes, come to think of it, are much less limiting. Instead of being constrained by successful but tired formulas, you just have to adapt a successful movie that most of your audience has never seen. That leaves you free to change stories and characters until there's little or no resemblance to the original -- all the while telling your backers that you're not taking any risks.
The fact that the design was bollixed became very obvious back in 1980 when the first flight of Columbia kept getting delayed by strange technical issues. As for the design committee, I imagine they've long since retired.
Besides, what were they supposed to do? Congress told them to build a reusable shuttle, but didn't want to spend enough money to do it properly. So they kludged up a design that pretended to fit their budget constraints and still work. In the end it did neither, of course.
Perhaps the designers should have refused to go ahead without a proper budget. But that's a career ending move. No doubt there were individuals who did just that -- quit NASA rather than go through the motions. But can you really blame those who stayed? They just wanted to keep the project alive.
The right direction to look at this point is forward, not backward. If the current shuttle doesn't work, time to design one that does. I doubt if its politically feasible, but it's still a more worthy goal than finding scapegoats for decisions made a quarter-century ago.
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Good point about the river spirit, but I don't think that rates as a central moral of the movie. In any case, I think Miyazaki's views on the environment are more complicated than "don't mess it up". At least that's impression I take away from Princess Mononoke.
Obviously, he intends to use the typewriter keyboard for input. A step backwards from sending email via computer, but perhaps he has a computer-phobic relative.
(Somehow I heard that Miyazaki came out of retirement to make Spirited Away after meeting a particularly spoiled child. But I suspect he'll never retire. Not that I want him to!)
You're right about Miyazaki always having a moral. But that might suggest to people who've never seen his work that he's preachy. Anything but. His stories are always simple, charming, and easy to enjoy.
I don't want to minimize the security flaws in Windows -- of which there are way too many. But security has a social component too. Right now, most computer users are to some degree their own system administrator -- and most of them just don't have the skills to do it.
It's perfectly simple to set up a Windows box so that you have to enter an Admin password before you can install anything. But with most users no knowing when they should or should not supply that password, you don't really get any extra security that way.
You're stereotyping. Amish may have a "humble" lifestyle, but they are not antitechnology. Many of them have phones.
If you're going to cripple Internet Explorer that way, why use it at all?
That they would wanted to water down her story is something she should have assumed as matter of principle -- has she been to any movies lately? In particular, she should not have assumed that they'd carry over the racial ideas of her stories intact. Except for shows and movies specially targetted at non-whites, it's pretty unusual to have to have a hero that "the audience can't identify with".
And so what? They took a silly pointless book with a dark edge and turned it into a silly pointless movie with a comic edge. Hardly the biggest travesty in Hollywood history.
Of course, if you look at the later, shark-jumping episodes, you can see them cutting corners to save money. But that's something that happens to all TV series, especially ones that are struggling to stay alive.
You almost have a point, but you'll need a better example before you're there. After all, you can do a simple visual metaphor like "it's in the red book" in 2D space as easily as in 3D space. And that's also what you need to do before you can get 3D GUIs taken seriously: you have to come up with a interaction metaphor that works better in 3 dimensions -- not just take existing 2D metaphors and put them in a more complex environment.
OS X has effects that are 3D. (So does Windows, for that matter, though it's not as conspicuous.) But the basic interaction metaphor is still in a 2D space.
So instead of keeping my files in such-and-such a directory on my computer, I put them in the second drawer of the third virtual filing cabinet from the door of my virtual castle. I'd guess it would work, but I don't see how you've made life any easier. Well, you have made it easier to lose things...
And why should they be? Adding a third dimension adds an order of complexity to the interface. The challenge of user interface design is to make things simpler.
Remember the router scene in Bound. Very sexy!
At least Mike got 5 of the 6 buttons right. When the come out with a new Palm they sometimes introduce improvements, but they always lose at lease one feature they should have kept.
I agree with you on one point: the Vx was absolutely the high point of Palm development. It had enough memory and processing power for any practical palmtop app (if you needed more you should probably be using a laptop anyway). And the battery lasted for days, even under heavy usage.
The Vx has one major flaw -- the up button sticks out too far, so the cover presses against it when it's in your pocket. This is severely uncool, since all the function buttons double as power buttons. Fortunately, a hack with the (self-explanatory) name of StayOffIfUp provides a reasonable workaround.
I'd still be using my Vx if I hadn't lost it. Should have tried to find a used one. Instead, I "upgraded" to the m515. Which has a bunch of new features I either never use or positively hate. The color hirez display looks cool, but usually needs backlighting to be readable -- which is a terrible battery drain. And they had to go and change all the physical parameters, so all the third-party styluses and covers for V series don't fit. And all the function buttons stick out too far!
Online newspapers are not a big success story. They cost a lot more to run (on a per-reader basis) than print editions, and they don't generate a lot of ad revenue. They're not going to replace print editions any time soon.
JvN is kind of over-rated, at least as a computer scientist. He made a name for himself as a mathematician and economist, and acquired so much prestige that some of his work wasn't properly critiqued during his own lifetime. He did write the classic papers that described the VNM and had a lot to do with it pushing out competing models. But other people invented the basic concepts.
One of JvNs big failures was that he never grasped the importance of software. Which is ironic, considering that the conceptual model he "invented" is what made the whole notion of software possible.
Sure ideas get reused. But if you can't make them fresh, you're a hack, period. Is the Andy Warhol on the same level as Rembrandt just because they both do portraits?
As for "Sturgeon's Law", that's BS. It's an SF writer's lame excuse for a genre that attracts a lot of bad writers. They get away with it because too many SF readers never read anything else, not because of some deep universal law.
One way to do this is to propose a movie that has elements of previous blockbusters. ("It's called 'Noise of Love'. Think of it as Mad Max meets Fatal Attraction.") Which explains why movies have gotten so damned formulaic.
Remakes, come to think of it, are much less limiting. Instead of being constrained by successful but tired formulas, you just have to adapt a successful movie that most of your audience has never seen. That leaves you free to change stories and characters until there's little or no resemblance to the original -- all the while telling your backers that you're not taking any risks.
Oops, you're quite correct. I should have stuck with the extra energy issue.
Besides, what were they supposed to do? Congress told them to build a reusable shuttle, but didn't want to spend enough money to do it properly. So they kludged up a design that pretended to fit their budget constraints and still work. In the end it did neither, of course.
Perhaps the designers should have refused to go ahead without a proper budget. But that's a career ending move. No doubt there were individuals who did just that -- quit NASA rather than go through the motions. But can you really blame those who stayed? They just wanted to keep the project alive.
The right direction to look at this point is forward, not backward. If the current shuttle doesn't work, time to design one that does. I doubt if its politically feasible, but it's still a more worthy goal than finding scapegoats for decisions made a quarter-century ago.