The worst kind of movie is a failed comedy, and this is like something a bunch of stupid teenage kids would come up with if they had access to a junior high school video production lab. It's so unfunny it's physically painful.
I have a funny real-life name which is often misspelled, so I set up a catchall on my mail server to forward everything sent to my domain that doesn't quite match any of the addresses set there.
At first, yes, I did get a lot of spam. However, it's tapered off thanks to two things, I think: 1) Mail filtering on my end (I use SpamBayes and LOVE it to death), and 2) spammers gradually abandoning the tactic of mailbombing a server with any name they can generate at random.
I'm not so sure about #2, but I have been getting almost all my spam sent to a specific email address of mine that is public. Curiously, it is NOT the email that I used on my site to contact me with.
Sum of comment: I use it, and the spam problem hasn't stopped me from using it.
The major problem with 3D desktops is that they're like trying to cram Beethoven's Fifth into a music box. I tried out the Sun 3D desktop once and got such a headache within five minutes that I was begging to go back to a command line.
Is anyone reminded of the whole way VRML on the web turned out to be such a massive dud? Why replicate the whole experience of browsing the aisles for a particular book when you can just type the name and find it a hundred times faster?
...most definitely affects the final product. I am currently working on a digital film myself with some friends where the original images are being done at Hi-Def resolution (1080 lines) and then downsampled to 525 for output to DVD. In the event this does wind up going to celluloid (unlikely, but possible), we might need to ramp things back up to 2,000 lines. If we're stuck halfway through, rather than redraw a lot of the material, we might be able to use a product like PhotoZoom Pro to make up the difference (at a slight cost).
I suspected we would need to start making 4K digital safeties of film as a standard practice at some point. Hi-Def telecines are good as telecines, but not for archiving.
I loved Infocom from the very beginning, not only because they made great interactive fiction / text adventures, but because they had really funny ads.
One of the best was a picture of a brain with the caption: WE STICK OUR GRAPHICS WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE.
I'm waiting for a new book along the lines of "The Japan That Can Say No" (sans the jingoism) -- about a new breed of CIO and IT manager that can push back when told to accomplish the impossible within an unrealistic timeframe.
Part of the problem is, I think, the New Success Story psychology. CEOs are so brainwashed into thinking that accomplishing the impossible is what defines you as a successful CEO, that they push their people to do absurdly difficult things in the most miniscume timespans. It's not doing the impossible that's a hallmark of a good CEO, it's doing the possible well and doing the impossible when you HAVE to -- not because it'll win you bragging rights.
(Of course, the whole question of what constitutes a "have to" in this case is probably open-ended.)
There's a group from Norway called Voice Crack, who create experimental electronic music from what they call "cracked everyday electronics." One album of theirs I heard used everything from a broken Speak and Spell to an electronic greeting card. Definitely not music as we know it, but interesting if you are drawn to that sort of thing. I imagine they would love being at something like this (and if they were there, correct me, please!).
"That goes completely against the scientific spirit. Keep an open mind."
Yes, but not so open your brains fall out.
Zero-point energy systems are not considered feasible simply because in order for them to work they need to upset a good deal of what we know about how the universe works. If someone can show us how to do that, then they can line up and claim their Nobel Prize. (The presence of virtual particles is one thing. Tapping into something like that in a way that is remotely efficient or feasible is entirely another.)
But a disturbing amount of the work done in this realm has been by people who seem more interested in garnering funding by selling shares in something that hasn't been invented yet than by putting their ideas up for peer review.
Anyone who thinks that the oil companies, let alone the government, can keep secrets about quasi-unlimited power is themselves naive. Then again, if you're determined to believe someone's hiding something from you, you'll find a million ways to confirm it.
If someone shows me a workable way to tap into zero-point energy, great. The problem is that involves undoing 100+ years of other people's work. Good luck.
...that doesn't mean it's going to be remotely palatable reading.
The gist of this discussion is not that people should not write about such things, but that most of the time, it's handled in such a way that it is a massive turn-off.
That they had a prototype unit up and running does not make it real. Real is when they have them coming off the assembly line and available in stores.
The negative news surrounding the company is because they have promised the moon and delivered squat. Game library: no show. Alliances with developers: zilch. The unit itself? As far as I can tell, ONE prototype was demoed. A prototype is not proof that the device is being mass-manufactured.
Can I buy the console? No. Can I play anything on it? Not really. Ergo: vapor.
"a half-hearted dub" - Sorry to nitpick, but the entire dub was written and checked with the input of the original studio and was even synchronized to the original mouth movements, something most dub studios never bother with. The amount of work that went into making the English-language version of SPIRITED AWAY was on a par with the original-language version of most Disney movies.
I think we have much bigger things to worry about than programming languages if human languages begin going extinct, like the concomitant disappearance of ethnic diversity.
"Do your homework before posting half-informed diatribes to the front page."...but this is Slashdot! The whole POINT is to post half-informed diatribes and cause people to assume it's a rights-trampling orgy!
I've said before that if someone discovered Linux was in use in a prison system somewhere, the/. headline for that would read: "Windows Still Used To Violate Civil Rights" or something equally idiotic.
I'm inclined to agree. I gave the first book a try and found it to be very poorly written.
I don't have anything against people offering their writing freely, but the one thing people have to always invest when reading a book is a measure of their time.
They did? Strange, I searched in vain for such a thing -- I guess it was not something that ever "broke wide"... of course, by this time I suspect many of the cameras out there are cheaper than the module itself?
Slashdot Mirror
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0274518/combined
The worst kind of movie is a failed comedy, and this is like something a bunch of stupid teenage kids would come up with if they had access to a junior high school video production lab. It's so unfunny it's physically painful.
I've upgraded five machines as well of widely varying hardware configurations. None of them were borked after the patch.
Ever get the feeling they were looking for ways to screw things up? Just wondering...
I have a funny real-life name which is often misspelled, so I set up a catchall on my mail server to forward everything sent to my domain that doesn't quite match any of the addresses set there.
At first, yes, I did get a lot of spam. However, it's tapered off thanks to two things, I think: 1) Mail filtering on my end (I use SpamBayes and LOVE it to death), and 2) spammers gradually abandoning the tactic of mailbombing a server with any name they can generate at random.
I'm not so sure about #2, but I have been getting almost all my spam sent to a specific email address of mine that is public. Curiously, it is NOT the email that I used on my site to contact me with.
Sum of comment: I use it, and the spam problem hasn't stopped me from using it.
The millionaire -- his clothes get dirtier.
I couldn't agree more.
The major problem with 3D desktops is that they're like trying to cram Beethoven's Fifth into a music box. I tried out the Sun 3D desktop once and got such a headache within five minutes that I was begging to go back to a command line.
Is anyone reminded of the whole way VRML on the web turned out to be such a massive dud? Why replicate the whole experience of browsing the aisles for a particular book when you can just type the name and find it a hundred times faster?
Thanks for the info. Mod this one up, folks.
"There is a reason people switched from wind up watches to digital watches."
Yes, you can stiff people forever for watch batteries.
...most definitely affects the final product. I am currently working on a digital film myself with some friends where the original images are being done at Hi-Def resolution (1080 lines) and then downsampled to 525 for output to DVD. In the event this does wind up going to celluloid (unlikely, but possible), we might need to ramp things back up to 2,000 lines. If we're stuck halfway through, rather than redraw a lot of the material, we might be able to use a product like PhotoZoom Pro to make up the difference (at a slight cost).
I suspected we would need to start making 4K digital safeties of film as a standard practice at some point. Hi-Def telecines are good as telecines, but not for archiving.
I loved Infocom from the very beginning, not only because they made great interactive fiction / text adventures, but because they had really funny ads.
One of the best was a picture of a brain with the caption: WE STICK OUR GRAPHICS WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE.
I'm waiting for a new book along the lines of "The Japan That Can Say No" (sans the jingoism) -- about a new breed of CIO and IT manager that can push back when told to accomplish the impossible within an unrealistic timeframe.
Part of the problem is, I think, the New Success Story psychology. CEOs are so brainwashed into thinking that accomplishing the impossible is what defines you as a successful CEO, that they push their people to do absurdly difficult things in the most miniscume timespans. It's not doing the impossible that's a hallmark of a good CEO, it's doing the possible well and doing the impossible when you HAVE to -- not because it'll win you bragging rights.
(Of course, the whole question of what constitutes a "have to" in this case is probably open-ended.)
It's made from porcinite!
Yes, as the immensely civilized tone of Linux zealots vs. everyone else testifies. "RTFM!!! LAm0RZ!!!"
Ah, well, better that than anthrax in the mail, I guess...
You've been beaten to it. Well, sort of.
There's a group from Norway called Voice Crack, who create experimental electronic music from what they call "cracked everyday electronics." One album of theirs I heard used everything from a broken Speak and Spell to an electronic greeting card. Definitely not music as we know it, but interesting if you are drawn to that sort of thing. I imagine they would love being at something like this (and if they were there, correct me, please!).
"That goes completely against the scientific spirit. Keep an open mind."
Yes, but not so open your brains fall out.
Zero-point energy systems are not considered feasible simply because in order for them to work they need to upset a good deal of what we know about how the universe works. If someone can show us how to do that, then they can line up and claim their Nobel Prize. (The presence of virtual particles is one thing. Tapping into something like that in a way that is remotely efficient or feasible is entirely another.)
But a disturbing amount of the work done in this realm has been by people who seem more interested in garnering funding by selling shares in something that hasn't been invented yet than by putting their ideas up for peer review.
Anyone who thinks that the oil companies, let alone the government, can keep secrets about quasi-unlimited power is themselves naive. Then again, if you're determined to believe someone's hiding something from you, you'll find a million ways to confirm it.
If someone shows me a workable way to tap into zero-point energy, great. The problem is that involves undoing 100+ years of other people's work. Good luck.
Slashdot to Commence Fair and Balanced Reporting
Yeah, you know me!
A computer. ...what, you were expecting a whole bevy of singing and tapdancing gerbils?
...in this case, has neon chaser lights.
...that doesn't mean it's going to be remotely palatable reading.
The gist of this discussion is not that people should not write about such things, but that most of the time, it's handled in such a way that it is a massive turn-off.
That they had a prototype unit up and running does not make it real. Real is when they have them coming off the assembly line and available in stores.
The negative news surrounding the company is because they have promised the moon and delivered squat. Game library: no show. Alliances with developers: zilch. The unit itself? As far as I can tell, ONE prototype was demoed. A prototype is not proof that the device is being mass-manufactured.
Can I buy the console? No. Can I play anything on it? Not really. Ergo: vapor.
"a half-hearted dub" - Sorry to nitpick, but the entire dub was written and checked with the input of the original studio and was even synchronized to the original mouth movements, something most dub studios never bother with. The amount of work that went into making the English-language version of SPIRITED AWAY was on a par with the original-language version of most Disney movies.
I think we have much bigger things to worry about than programming languages if human languages begin going extinct, like the concomitant disappearance of ethnic diversity.
Just a thought.
"Do your homework before posting half-informed diatribes to the front page." ...but this is Slashdot! The whole POINT is to post half-informed diatribes and cause people to assume it's a rights-trampling orgy!
/. headline for that would read: "Windows Still Used To Violate Civil Rights" or something equally idiotic.
I've said before that if someone discovered Linux was in use in a prison system somewhere, the
I'm inclined to agree. I gave the first book a try and found it to be very poorly written.
I don't have anything against people offering their writing freely, but the one thing people have to always invest when reading a book is a measure of their time.
They did? Strange, I searched in vain for such a thing -- I guess it was not something that ever "broke wide"... of course, by this time I suspect many of the cameras out there are cheaper than the module itself?