As I see it, it works like this: you're making a 6-part film about Vietnam. Parts 4, 5 and 6 are set in the jungle. Lots of fighting, not any particularly high-tech stuff on show (especially on the rebel's side). Everything that is on show looks battle-worn and knackered.
Then you make part 1, going back 30 years to look at the politics behind the fight. Hey presto, you're in the 1930's, where technology is less advanced BUT everything looks nicer and the story takes place in the centre of some major cities rather than in some southeast Asian jungle.
The reason RoboCup is a lot more interesting IMHO is that they actually have to control real robots to do real things - they have to cope with all of the fuzziness of the real world. Software automata can get away with things - always knowing where the ball is perfectly, having a "move forward for 0.2s" instruction always move you forward the same distance, etc etc.
...but he sets things up so there's an argument that the guy who thinks problems should be solved violently wins, looking v. cool in the process, and then goes on to say "only people prepared to fight and die on the orders of the state should have a say in how the state is run". Just plain nuts if you ask me. All these ideas are repeated in other books of his, and characters who follow these principles always "win" (get the girl, save Earth, whatever).
But Starship Troopers wasn't particularly dystopian. Most of the particularly off-the-wall foaming-and-dribbling right-wing social ideas are used in his other stuff - for example, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. There's nothing in the book to indicate he disagreed with any of it, and the whole thing is (by the author's own admission) a vehicle to get kids reading and believing the 'philosophy' bits.
But, OTOH, Heinlein was a raving mad right-wing loony. Read Starship Troopers - it's a real eye opener. Remember the line "Throughout human history, most problems have been solved by violence" (or similar) from the movie? If you read the book, it's clear that Heinlein thought this was a good thing and should be encouraged!
I agree. My iPaq has CE, and it's damn well going to stay like that --- there's only just enough room on it at the moment without hacking X in there (especially 'sideways X' which is all they have working at the moment). Didn't people learn from Palms? Palms and PalmOS took off because they were designed for handhelds (my Palm V is also cool). WinCE is also designed for handhelds --- there are major differences between it and my desktop's Win2K! If you want X on a handheld, do the damn work and design XCE, don't just kludge it over and pretend it's cool.
PS: moderators, just because you don't agree doesn't mean I'm trolling.
I think the same way as the original AC, so here we go: Next time, try understanding an article while you're reading it. The following quote might have helped you: "An unpowered projectile, with a carefully designed flat nose and fired from an underwater gun, broke the sound barrier in water. That's nearly 5400 kilometres per hour--or 1.5 kilometres per second." And, moderators, if the parent post is "Interesting", I'd hate to see something you thought was boring.
First step to securing a system is to secure the admin.
Do you mean, make sure only a select (one, even) bunch of people have admin rights and that these people know about security? Or do you mean something else (please forgive a newbie if this is a dum kwestion:)? I remember that when apache got "white-hatted" the report the hackers produced criticised the fact that 9 people could su to admin-rights accounts.
He had to make a gazillion-dollar Hollywood movie that lots of people who'd never heard of the comic book would go see, and filtered through that Hollywood prism, there's no way he could keep the brooding, sometimes haunting edge of the comic.
Balls. Look at Batman for example. Hollywood blockbusters don't always have to be happy-joy cheese-tastic brainlessness festivals. Starship Troopers also springs to mind here (not on the brooding-haunting front; more on the fascist-lunatic-pisstaking front).
It's quite amazing how Katz, who's supposedly employed 'cos he's down with this whole geek-culture thang, knows bollock all about it. In future, timothy, could you not post Katz's rubbish for him? Look down this page (at -1, lots of these complaints will get "Redundant"ed) --- do you see all the people who've engaged their Katz filter? Who don't like to see anything get round it? Who are therefore baying for your blood for this (and for the "book review" disaster)?
a). But every time some idiot posts Katz's rubbish for him and bypasses the filter, I get strangely attracted to the article. It's like looking at a road accident: it's not pretty, I know I'm sick for looking, but it's still difficult to stop.
Gun control laws prevent law-abiding citizens from owning guns
Thank Christ for that. Looking at the murder rate in the States - and the high-school killings - and the number of people who get drunk and shoot apples off each others heads - I'm damn glad that I can't own a gun here in the UK, and none of the idiots who surround me every day can own a gun either.
Anyone know about the sequel that came out a few years ago?
Well, despite the rather intemperate and ill-informed comments that greeted this, there was indeed a sequel published some years ago, and indeed a sequel to the sequel.
Now it's my turn to be intemperate: what the shitty fuck is a hack author like K.W. Jeter, who mostly churns out second-ratemovieandTVtie-ins doing pretending to be Phil Dick? It gets worse: enough people are obviously buying this cheap rip-off shit that he's been let out of daycare to write a fourth. Makes me spit, it does.
Of course, these trashy-flashy-action-and-cool-characters ripoffs gloss over all the profound and significant stuff that made "Do Androids Dream..." and "Blade Runner" so good. They contain nothing original to make up for this loss either.
I would have thought that the web would have made pages obselete...
No way! A major good thing about pages on the web is that they decrease network traffic. For example, I spotted that this article was a steaming pile of elephant droppings after one page and stopped, thus reducing network traffic by 5/6. Some (less perceptive) people seem to have waded halfway through the pachyderm poop. Again, the page at a time nature of this article has saved us 50% in network traffic.
Of course, there are always the clueless lusers who thought this article was relevant or interesting. The only thing you can do for them is dribble-proof the keyboard.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course. I mean, people should obviously be able to ban trolls from posting on their forums. Even though this might be no fun for you...
As I see it, it works like this: you're making a 6-part film about Vietnam. Parts 4, 5 and 6 are set in the jungle. Lots of fighting, not any particularly high-tech stuff on show (especially on the rebel's side). Everything that is on show looks battle-worn and knackered.
Then you make part 1, going back 30 years to look at the politics behind the fight. Hey presto, you're in the 1930's, where technology is less advanced BUT everything looks nicer and the story takes place in the centre of some major cities rather than in some southeast Asian jungle.
Kinda makes WWII the Clone Wars, doesn't it?
The reason RoboCup is a lot more interesting IMHO is that they actually have to control real robots to do real things - they have to cope with all of the fuzziness of the real world. Software automata can get away with things - always knowing where the ball is perfectly, having a "move forward for 0.2s" instruction always move you forward the same distance, etc etc.
Surely the cry would be "Free the Apple Juan!"?
...but he sets things up so there's an argument that the guy who thinks problems should be solved violently wins, looking v. cool in the process, and then goes on to say "only people prepared to fight and die on the orders of the state should have a say in how the state is run". Just plain nuts if you ask me. All these ideas are repeated in other books of his, and characters who follow these principles always "win" (get the girl, save Earth, whatever).
But Starship Troopers wasn't particularly dystopian. Most of the particularly off-the-wall foaming-and-dribbling right-wing social ideas are used in his other stuff - for example, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. There's nothing in the book to indicate he disagreed with any of it, and the whole thing is (by the author's own admission) a vehicle to get kids reading and believing the 'philosophy' bits.
"Me fail English? That's umpossible!" - Ralph Wiggum
(not a spelling nazi, just a Simpsons fan)
But, OTOH, Heinlein was a raving mad right-wing loony. Read Starship Troopers - it's a real eye opener. Remember the line "Throughout human history, most problems have been solved by violence" (or similar) from the movie? If you read the book, it's clear that Heinlein thought this was a good thing and should be encouraged!
Well, Ask Slashdot has an article on cleaning your keyboard.
Niven & Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye, yes? Please reply - these things drive me mad...
I agree. My iPaq has CE, and it's damn well going to stay like that --- there's only just enough room on it at the moment without hacking X in there (especially 'sideways X' which is all they have working at the moment). Didn't people learn from Palms? Palms and PalmOS took off because they were designed for handhelds (my Palm V is also cool). WinCE is also designed for handhelds --- there are major differences between it and my desktop's Win2K! If you want X on a handheld, do the damn work and design XCE, don't just kludge it over and pretend it's cool.
PS: moderators, just because you don't agree doesn't mean I'm trolling.
...how do you reconcile this with the fact that, in the end, it all seems to boil down to things like "colour palettes"?
I think the same way as the original AC, so here we go: Next time, try understanding an article while you're reading it. The following quote might have helped you: "An unpowered projectile, with a carefully designed flat nose and fired from an underwater gun, broke the sound barrier in water. That's nearly 5400 kilometres per hour--or 1.5 kilometres per second." And, moderators, if the parent post is "Interesting", I'd hate to see something you thought was boring.
Jeez. The Nutscrape "engineers" must have *hated* their company. Either that, or they really are weenies.
Reading the article (dare I say: reading between the lines), I'd guess the author doesn't care much for Netscape 4...
...only in Nutscrape, though. Looks great in (more-CSS-standards-compliant) IE.
Do you mean, make sure only a select (one, even) bunch of people have admin rights and that these people know about security? Or do you mean something else (please forgive a newbie if this is a dum kwestion :)? I remember that when apache got "white-hatted" the report the hackers produced criticised the fact that 9 people could su to admin-rights accounts.
Balls. Look at Batman for example. Hollywood blockbusters don't always have to be happy-joy cheese-tastic brainlessness festivals. Starship Troopers also springs to mind here (not on the brooding-haunting front; more on the fascist-lunatic-pisstaking front).
It's quite amazing how Katz, who's supposedly employed 'cos he's down with this whole geek-culture thang, knows bollock all about it. In future, timothy, could you not post Katz's rubbish for him? Look down this page (at -1, lots of these complaints will get "Redundant"ed) --- do you see all the people who've engaged their Katz filter? Who don't like to see anything get round it? Who are therefore baying for your blood for this (and for the "book review" disaster)?
...and your name is overloaded
a). But every time some idiot posts Katz's rubbish for him and bypasses the filter, I get strangely attracted to the article. It's like looking at a road accident: it's not pretty, I know I'm sick for looking, but it's still difficult to stop.
Thank Christ for that. Looking at the murder rate in the States - and the high-school killings - and the number of people who get drunk and shoot apples off each others heads - I'm damn glad that I can't own a gun here in the UK, and none of the idiots who surround me every day can own a gun either.
Well, despite the rather intemperate and ill-informed comments that greeted this, there was indeed a sequel published some years ago, and indeed a sequel to the sequel.
Now it's my turn to be intemperate: what the shitty fuck is a hack author like K.W. Jeter, who mostly churns out second-rate movie and TV tie-ins doing pretending to be Phil Dick? It gets worse: enough people are obviously buying this cheap rip-off shit that he's been let out of daycare to write a fourth. Makes me spit, it does.
Of course, these trashy-flashy-action-and-cool-characters ripoffs gloss over all the profound and significant stuff that made "Do Androids Dream..." and "Blade Runner" so good. They contain nothing original to make up for this loss either.
No way! A major good thing about pages on the web is that they decrease network traffic. For example, I spotted that this article was a steaming pile of elephant droppings after one page and stopped, thus reducing network traffic by 5/6. Some (less perceptive) people seem to have waded halfway through the pachyderm poop. Again, the page at a time nature of this article has saved us 50% in network traffic.
Of course, there are always the clueless lusers who thought this article was relevant or interesting. The only thing you can do for them is dribble-proof the keyboard.