... knowing that Episode III is probably going to suck.
I remember hearing rumours of the extra episodes back when the first movies were coming out. It was something I was hoping/looking forward to for over 20 years.
The first movie starts out promising and has its moments, but is overwhelmed by disappointments that can be sumed up in two words: Jar Jar.
The second movie exceeded the first in its banality. Acting was so bad that I was looking for (wishing for) Crow and Tom Servo to popup in the lower right corner of the screen. The movie a complete farse upon itself.
And that is why I cringe whenever I hear talk of Episode III. After loving IV-VI and 20 years of longing for more, its been a huge and utter disappointment.
May the Farse be with you!
P.S. Of course, this all makes you appreciate Peter Jackson all the more.
This incident is part of RIAA's overall online strategy. Here is a quote from a WSJ article from back in July:
"Music executives hope the legal attacks will be part of their broader
Internet strategy, which has included rolling out more legal online
services that include their music. The two major record-label-backed
online subscription offerings, MusicNet and pressplay, have yet to
rival the popularity of their free competitors. But they are both
working to add more inviting features and broader music offerings.
The record labels have also increased their licensing to independent
online music services such as Listen.com Inc."
There was one important point reported by the Wall Street Journal that was left of these other accounts of the memo. Balmer mentioned lowering licensing fees to attract young developers to working with Microsoft tools over Linux.
Certainly one of the factors contributing to the growth of free software is that there is no entry fee for aspiring coders to jump in and start working with a range of free tools available. Thus, MS is not only at risk of loosing end users but also pontential contributors to add to the "value" of their products.
Solution?: Outlaw forging of message headers.
on
I, Spammer
·
· Score: 1
Why not make it illegal to forge message headers, I mean this is a form of fraud, isn't it? According to this quote, it seems to be the thread that the spammers are hanging onto.
"Why do more people buy than complain about it?" Scelson asked. "If [the mail is 100 percent legal, and [ISPs] get a single complaint, they will turn around and kill your circuit, so we go out of business or we're forced to forge the headers. The biggest complain is you can't find us. If you could, you're going to shut us down, so why should we let you find us?"
Of course, enforcement is another issue. However, I think we need to establish that certain spam tactics as illegal and not give the spammers any illusion of legitimacy. Perhaps the threat of lawsuits or statuatory damages could help put some of these guys out of business.
In essence, what we have here is a admission that we've reached the end of the line in closed source computer/software innovation (perhaps with the exception of Apple). The only way for MS and their cronies to hold on to the desktop computer market now is with a lock and key.
Since NS6+ handling of the DOM is not backward compatable with NS4, a lot of existing DHTML code has to be tweaked to "standards compliance." Such is not the case with newer versions of IE, which incorporate innovations while not breaking on older pages. I think this is pretty important in terms of what browsers average folks are going to chose to use, especially when a page they frequent doesn't render otherwise.
I would guess that there are a lot of folks, like me, who started scripting Web pages using examples from books and Web sites, but probably delayed in making the jump to using modular programming techniques, such as modules or classes.
When I pulled out my first Perl cookbook, I learned how to write code to parse a get request from top to bottom. I guess this was worthwhile to learn and get aquainted with the language. It took a little while, however, to find out and start using available modules, but it felt like finding a "holy grail" to me at the time.
Learning to work with classes has also been quite mind blowing, and of course these techniques enforce a kind of multi-tiered approach to writing scripts. The advantages are huge, in terms of maintainence and reusability, not to mention the saving of thousands of innocent brain cells that I would have to keep occupied trying to remember mundane snippets of code that are now safely abstracted and forgotten.
I guess there are probably some books out there that cover "best practices" for coding, but I would love to hear about any recommended titles that do a good job of helping a programming newbie successfully transition into these techniques, without getting lost in the complexity.
Wow, Microsoft sales still knows how to identify an up and coming competitor and go to work on them. Forget all that anti-trust hubbub, its business as usual.
Of course, by annoucing this to the press, Lindows is probably going to make out for the better, given all the attention. If Microsoft is willing to discount to fight Lindows then it might be worth checking out.
I suspect that these over-top-statements were made in order to needle movie theater owners to invest in the digital projectors that George Lucas and his buddies would like to have their movies shown with (since they are now shooting films in digital).
Hense the comparison to DVDs; the digital projector equivalent for the home which is widely accepted.
From what I have read, these digital projectors will make a significant difference in the movie theater experience and perhaps it does make long term sense for the theaters to upgrade. However, with all the crap that Hollywood is putting out now a days (including Star Wars) and theaters' tight margins, I would guess that there is a lot of resistence to upgrade. Hence these crazy statements from a movie producer to try and spur them on.
Generation X has already come to terms with a less than friendly socio-political environment. I think we all understood what we are up against before these "doomsday" articles came out in the early nineties. Many of us came out of college in the middle of a recession and faced economic challenges from the start. We know what we are up against, and I think we know that our success isn't going to be given to us on a silver plater.
Of course, this article also gives us none of the credit and all of the blame for our participation in the recent Internet/technology boom and bust. The author of this article gives the impression that we were just swept up on the ride. I would argue that, for the most part, our generation made the ride.
"Recommendations addressing higher-level services toward the application layer may have a higher tolerance for RAND terms."
Can you give some examples of these "higher-level services," and characterize the extent that W3C has already provided recommendations in these areas? Would work on standards for higher-level services requiring RAND terms be considered an expansion in the scope of typical W3C activites to date? Under this proposal could RAND terms end up applying to "core" and "lower-level" services as well?
I run a small Web development firm, so telecommuting is something that is easy for us to implement for part of the work week, especially when we are engaged with larger projects that require less day to day collaboration.
As an employer, I see it as a productivity issue. Rather than spending time commuting, that employee can be spending time with their family, getting more sleep and exercise. Thus, they able to put more attention towards their work.
The key issue in convincing an employer to allow you to telecommute is to demonstrate, before you even broach the issue, that you are productive and able to move on to new tasks without direction. You should attempt to show that you can run on "autopilot," such that your employer doesn't feel that s/he has to activity manage your activities. Perhaps a starting point you could suggest meeting with your manager on a weekly basis and get a week's worth of assignments at a time. If this routine is established, telecommuting is the next logical step.
For the manager, the key stumbling block is the issue of control. If you can ease this fear then the issue of telecommuting appears more palatable. Good luck!
I had the great opportunity to study Old English language and Anglo-Saxon literature in college and it was certainly eye opening to consider Tolkien's work in the context of the historical material for which he was so well versed.
For example, it is interesting to note the the name "Alfred" means "Elf Friend." The Tolkien concept of an elf (and the insistance of the plural "elves") is derived from medieval sensibilities. But perhaps Mr. Dribble prefers Peter Pan?
Tolkiens style, his use of meter, reflects the writing of medieval authors. Consider this excert from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
A.D. 938.
Here
Athelstan king,
of earls the lord,
rewarder of heroes,
and his brother eke,
Edmund atheling (son of the king),
elder of ancient race,
slew in the fight,
with the edge of their swords,
the foe at Brumby!
The sons of Edward
their board-walls clove,
and hewed their banners,
with the wrecks of their hammers.
So were they taught
by kindred zeal,
that they at camp oft
'gainst any robber
their land should defend,
their hoards and homes...
As you see the similarities in Tolkien's writing with medival histories and stories, not to mention his invention of languages which appear to be shaped by his own mythos, you begin to see the depth and richness of his creativity.
Certainly he is one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, its unfortuate that some critics can't see that his style of writing is in complete keeping with the works that inspired it.
It was an interesting interview, such that Mr. Torvalds talks much about his motivations as a programmer, how Linux got started, his experience watching his VA Linux stock options ride the tech bubble, and his return to being his more relaxed self.
Is code art? I think that I have appreciated seeing how other people approach programming and their use of logic. However, looking at code is not likely to prompt consideration of ideas beyond the task at hand, let alone any emotional response. To me, real art brings me away from the present, to experience emotions and ideas beyond my current train of consciousness. Art is transcendental.
Haven't your lawyers whipped you guys into shape yet?
In fact, I'm surprised Microsoft is being so nice to you all. Probably because of the public relations fallout they would face if they sued you.
In any case, the idea of knowingly facilitating the disemination of someone's intellectual property is far from free speech, its more like stealing. Disregarding someone's licensing agreement makes me wonder about the value being placed on "open source" license. Or should we just trash that too?
For mostly static pages, I think it is generally easier to start with your page content first and then <? include ?> your design elements. The advantages are:
You probably don't need to pass information in a GET request to display the text you want. This may be more search engine friendly.
It may be easier to keep track of your content, since it is kept on the file being called in the url.
On the other hand, where you have pages where you are changing the content often, it is better to start with your layout first, then call the contents into the page. Many dynamically generated sites, such as Slashdot, probably use this method.
Finally, Slashdot and other sites usually have an archiving method, which converts the older dynamically generated pages into static "archive" pages with a fixed url. Thus, it is likely that one might employ both methods when managing sites with both static and changing content.
The problem with Star Trek as a drama is, by design, there is little on no conflict between major characters. Plus, lets face it, the Federation are a bunch of goody-two-shoes which all makes for pretty boring stuff. (Even with the Borg implants).
I'd like to see a rework of the woefully silly episode where Riker becomes an officer on a Klingon ship. However, rather than Riker easily taking over the ship in 15 minutes (yeah right), have a considerably less goofy character and develop the idea of into a short (1-2 year) series.
I'm thinking a cross between Apocalypse Now/Schinder's List/Moby Dick/Jane Goodall.
Slashdot Mirror
... knowing that Episode III is probably going to suck.
I remember hearing rumours of the extra episodes back when the first movies were coming out. It was something I was hoping/looking forward to for over 20 years.
The first movie starts out promising and has its moments, but is overwhelmed by disappointments that can be sumed up in two words: Jar Jar.
The second movie exceeded the first in its banality. Acting was so bad that I was looking for (wishing for) Crow and Tom Servo to popup in the lower right corner of the screen. The movie a complete farse upon itself.
And that is why I cringe whenever I hear talk of Episode III. After loving IV-VI and 20 years of longing for more, its been a huge and utter disappointment.
May the Farse be with you!
P.S. Of course, this all makes you appreciate Peter Jackson all the more.
...it appears that abuse and extortion are what our legal system is all about. Its not about justice, its about who has the deeper pockets.
"Send lawyers, guns and money..."
How pathetic. Sounds like this lawyer probably got one too many wedgies when he was in sixth grade.
This incident is part of RIAA's overall online strategy. Here is a quote from a WSJ article from back in July:
Full article at:http://detritus.net/contact/rumori/200211/0123. html
Yeah... sure... whatever...
There was one important point reported by the Wall Street Journal that was left of these other accounts of the memo. Balmer mentioned lowering licensing fees to attract young developers to working with Microsoft tools over Linux.
Certainly one of the factors contributing to the growth of free software is that there is no entry fee for aspiring coders to jump in and start working with a range of free tools available. Thus, MS is not only at risk of loosing end users but also pontential contributors to add to the "value" of their products.
Why not make it illegal to forge message headers, I mean this is a form of fraud, isn't it? According to this quote, it seems to be the thread that the spammers are hanging onto.
"Why do more people buy than complain about it?" Scelson asked. "If [the mail is 100 percent legal, and [ISPs] get a single complaint, they will turn around and kill your circuit, so we go out of business or we're forced to forge the headers. The biggest complain is you can't find us. If you could, you're going to shut us down, so why should we let you find us?"
Of course, enforcement is another issue. However, I think we need to establish that certain spam tactics as illegal and not give the spammers any illusion of legitimacy. Perhaps the threat of lawsuits or statuatory damages could help put some of these guys out of business.
In essence, what we have here is a admission that we've reached the end of the line in closed source computer/software innovation (perhaps with the exception of Apple). The only way for MS and their cronies to hold on to the desktop computer market now is with a lock and key.
Since NS6+ handling of the DOM is not backward compatable with NS4, a lot of existing DHTML code has to be tweaked to "standards compliance." Such is not the case with newer versions of IE, which incorporate innovations while not breaking on older pages. I think this is pretty important in terms of what browsers average folks are going to chose to use, especially when a page they frequent doesn't render otherwise.
I would guess that there are a lot of folks, like me, who started scripting Web pages using examples from books and Web sites, but probably delayed in making the jump to using modular programming techniques, such as modules or classes.
When I pulled out my first Perl cookbook, I learned how to write code to parse a get request from top to bottom. I guess this was worthwhile to learn and get aquainted with the language. It took a little while, however, to find out and start using available modules, but it felt like finding a "holy grail" to me at the time.
Learning to work with classes has also been quite mind blowing, and of course these techniques enforce a kind of multi-tiered approach to writing scripts. The advantages are huge, in terms of maintainence and reusability, not to mention the saving of thousands of innocent brain cells that I would have to keep occupied trying to remember mundane snippets of code that are now safely abstracted and forgotten.
I guess there are probably some books out there that cover "best practices" for coding, but I would love to hear about any recommended titles that do a good job of helping a programming newbie successfully transition into these techniques, without getting lost in the complexity.
Cheers!
I've been wondering what those muppets had been up to lately... I guess with Farscape's demise you have to get work where you can.
Perhaps the first person should simply register for the rest of us?
u: slashdot
p: effect
Wow, Microsoft sales still knows how to identify an up and coming competitor and go to work on them. Forget all that anti-trust hubbub, its business as usual.
Of course, by annoucing this to the press, Lindows is probably going to make out for the better, given all the attention. If Microsoft is willing to discount to fight Lindows then it might be worth checking out.
From his colorful languange, I guess Balmer is into sadism. Probably has a few leather bras and Zeplin hats in his closet.
I suspect that these over-top-statements were made in order to needle movie theater owners to invest in the digital projectors that George Lucas and his buddies would like to have their movies shown with (since they are now shooting films in digital).
Hense the comparison to DVDs; the digital projector equivalent for the home which is widely accepted.
From what I have read, these digital projectors will make a significant difference in the movie theater experience and perhaps it does make long term sense for the theaters to upgrade. However, with all the crap that Hollywood is putting out now a days (including Star Wars) and theaters' tight margins, I would guess that there is a lot of resistence to upgrade. Hence these crazy statements from a movie producer to try and spur them on.
What a bunch of baloney!
Generation X has already come to terms with a less than friendly socio-political environment. I think we all understood what we are up against before these "doomsday" articles came out in the early nineties. Many of us came out of college in the middle of a recession and faced economic challenges from the start. We know what we are up against, and I think we know that our success isn't going to be given to us on a silver plater.
Of course, this article also gives us none of the credit and all of the blame for our participation in the recent Internet/technology boom and bust. The author of this article gives the impression that we were just swept up on the ride. I would argue that, for the most part, our generation made the ride.
Can you give some examples of these "higher-level services," and characterize the extent that W3C has already provided recommendations in these areas? Would work on standards for higher-level services requiring RAND terms be considered an expansion in the scope of typical W3C activites to date? Under this proposal could RAND terms end up applying to "core" and "lower-level" services as well?
I run a small Web development firm, so telecommuting is something that is easy for us to implement for part of the work week, especially when we are engaged with larger projects that require less day to day collaboration.
As an employer, I see it as a productivity issue. Rather than spending time commuting, that employee can be spending time with their family, getting more sleep and exercise. Thus, they able to put more attention towards their work.
The key issue in convincing an employer to allow you to telecommute is to demonstrate, before you even broach the issue, that you are productive and able to move on to new tasks without direction. You should attempt to show that you can run on "autopilot," such that your employer doesn't feel that s/he has to activity manage your activities. Perhaps a starting point you could suggest meeting with your manager on a weekly basis and get a week's worth of assignments at a time. If this routine is established, telecommuting is the next logical step.
For the manager, the key stumbling block is the issue of control. If you can ease this fear then the issue of telecommuting appears more palatable. Good luck!
I had the great opportunity to study Old English language and Anglo-Saxon literature in college and it was certainly eye opening to consider Tolkien's work in the context of the historical material for which he was so well versed.
For example, it is interesting to note the the name "Alfred" means "Elf Friend." The Tolkien concept of an elf (and the insistance of the plural "elves") is derived from medieval sensibilities. But perhaps Mr. Dribble prefers Peter Pan? Tolkiens style, his use of meter, reflects the writing of medieval authors. Consider this excert from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
As you see the similarities in Tolkien's writing with medival histories and stories, not to mention his invention of languages which appear to be shaped by his own mythos, you begin to see the depth and richness of his creativity.
Certainly he is one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, its unfortuate that some critics can't see that his style of writing is in complete keeping with the works that inspired it.
NPR's Fresh Air has a real audio version of their interview with Linus Torvalds, which aired Monday evening.
http://freshair.npr.org/dayFA.cfm?todayDate=curren t
It was an interesting interview, such that Mr. Torvalds talks much about his motivations as a programmer, how Linux got started, his experience watching his VA Linux stock options ride the tech bubble, and his return to being his more relaxed self.
Is code art? I think that I have appreciated seeing how other people approach programming and their use of logic. However, looking at code is not likely to prompt consideration of ideas beyond the task at hand, let alone any emotional response. To me, real art brings me away from the present, to experience emotions and ideas beyond my current train of consciousness. Art is transcendental.
In fact, I'm surprised Microsoft is being so nice to you all. Probably because of the public relations fallout they would face if they sued you.
In any case, the idea of knowingly facilitating the disemination of someone's intellectual property is far from free speech, its more like stealing. Disregarding someone's licensing agreement makes me wonder about the value being placed on "open source" license. Or should we just trash that too?
On the other hand, where you have pages where you are changing the content often, it is better to start with your layout first, then call the contents into the page. Many dynamically generated sites, such as Slashdot, probably use this method.
Finally, Slashdot and other sites usually have an archiving method, which converts the older dynamically generated pages into static "archive" pages with a fixed url. Thus, it is likely that one might employ both methods when managing sites with both static and changing content.
I'd like to see a rework of the woefully silly episode where Riker becomes an officer on a Klingon ship. However, rather than Riker easily taking over the ship in 15 minutes (yeah right), have a considerably less goofy character and develop the idea of into a short (1-2 year) series.
I'm thinking a cross between Apocalypse Now/Schinder's List/Moby Dick/Jane Goodall.