Actually, one episode was originally not shown in Japan because it dealt with illicit drugs, an extremely sensitive topic in Japan.
You are correct that the entire series was subsequently shown in its entirety on the WOWOW premium cable/satellite channel there. In fact, a lot more more adult anime series are showing up on WOWOW in the last few years.
Good thing Cowboy Bebop is available on DVD here in the USA, so I don't have to worry about what cuts Cartoon Network will make. ^_^
Actually, Microsoft does offer an option in Windows XP that allows you to setup the UI used in Windows 95 for those users who don't want the new Luna interface of Windows XP, which is quite different and does take some getting used to. Besides, the UI pioneered by Windows 95 is six years old, an old-timer by modern computing standards.
Sun's new studies on how the GNOME interface works in my opinion is a bit too ad hoc if they want to improve its look and feel.
They're several years behind what Microsoft has done with their famous Usability Lab. Look at the way Microsoft has designed Windows 95 interface that went into Windows 95/NT4/98/ME/2000; this is due to lots of hours of extensive scientific research into how people use their computers. It's also the reason why the interface of Internet Explorer 4.0 to 6.0 is way, way more polished than the interface of Netscape 6.0x (Netscape blew it big time by abandoning the interface used in Netscape Communicator 4.x versions, which was actually quite good).
What all the Linux supporters need to do is to fund the equivalent of the Microsoft Usability Lab for both KDE and GNOME. I'll guarantee that both KDE and GNOME will be much easier to use once some decent research is done on making the interface easier to use by end users.
What I've read about CAPS is that it allows for some pretty amazing shading effects.
In fact, during the production of Beauty and the Beast, the animators painted a small triangle in a dark skin shade on the cheeks of Belle that would "guide" CAPS to apply the cheek blush coloring at the right spot.
By the way, can you imagine how much it would cost to do animation of Pinocchio by 2001 standards using standard cel animation? This movie was famous for its astonishing detail, especially the whale attack. My guess is that it would take about US$175 million in production costs just to do this by cel animation, but more like US$80 million with the use of CAPS and the Deep Canvas system.
Personally, what I really want Disney to do with the computers they have now is to create backgrounds that seamlessly "blend" with the character animation so you don't have the jarring difference between the characters and the computer-generated background. That has been a problem with every Disney animated feature from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and newer.
I have to wonder how much Disney is using CGI assistance for their feature animation (we're not talking Pixar, natch ^_^ ).
We know about their CAPS (Computer Aided Production System) paintbox system that was used originally in the movie The Rescuers Down Under, the Deep Canvas system used to create backgrounds that was first seen in the movie Tarzan, and some animation sequences originally rendered on computer (remember the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King?).
Has Disney reached the point (at least since the early 1990's) they are trying to do animated features that have most of the feel of traditional cel animation but with heavy computer assistance?
It will be interesting to see how much of their computer systems that run CAPS and Deep Canvas use Linux as their operating systems.
Well, they might have to. New versions of Windows generally don't run well (or fast) on old hardware.
Not necessarily.
If you have an ATX-form factor motherboard that supports DIMM's and AGP graphics cards (e.g., Intel 440LX chipset and newer), a switch to faster and bigger hard drives (really cheap), lots more memory (even more cheap), and a new AGP graphics card (cost depends on how much functionality you want) will make the machine run Windows XP Home Edition pretty well.
Actually, a big issue is the fact that the price of PC hardware in general have taken a major nosedive in the last year or so.
Think about it: just over one year ago the price of a single 128 MB PC-133 SDRAM DIMM (for the branded lifetime guaranteed modules) was US$150. Right now, that same DIMM is selling for US$25!! (thud) The price of most everything else in the computer (with the exception of cutting edge graphics cards) have also dramatically dropped in price, too.
Besides, given the speed of the courts in Washington, DC by the time a new reading from the District Court there is rendered, it'll be at least Spring 2002. Which by then is a bit way too late since Windows XP would be in wide distribution by then.
Ever heard of Legend Computers, China's largest computer manufacturer?
I'm sure they're building computers with 1,000 MHz or faster Intel or AMD CPU's. In that case why bother with the Emotion Engine CPU found on the PlayStation 2?
However, note that most of them only came out within the last 12 months or so.
Spielberg alienated quite a lot of DVD fans for a number of years because he refused to let any of the movies he directed be available on DVD because until recently the only surround-sound encoding available on DVD discs was Dolby Digital 5.1 (I believe Spielberg had a stake in DTS).
Mind you, I did like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade the best.:-) The interaction between father and son worked brilliantly in this movie; Sean Connery should have been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, IMHO.
Actually, I think it would not be a bad movie if Lucas and Spielberg gets a decent writer for a proposed Indiana Jones movie in regards to Atlantis.
If I remember correctly, Raiders of the Lost Ark was based a bit on Hitler's obsession with the occult (which is quite real and well-documented), with Nazi-sponsored archeologists going all over the world looking for proof of Aryan superiority and trying to find magical items that will ensure Nazi victory.
They need not go to the Atlantis per se (that would just rehash the plot of Disney's new animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire), but magical items from ancient Atlantis could become the basis for a good movie plot.
Now that Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace is coming out on DVD, I think you will see the Indiana Jones movies on DVD within a year or so.
If I remember correctly, one reason why Spielberg wouldn't release the movies he directed on DVD format for some years was the fact that they lacked DTS surround sound encoding. Now that DTS-encoded DVD discs are commonly available (and most good-quality A/V-receivers have DTS decoding built-in), you're starting to see Spielberg-directed movies on DVD.
I think what AOL Time Warner is looking for are companies that out of the box can handle the high bandwidth requirements necessary to run broadband Internet access without bogging down their network.
Their choice of EarthLink and Juno are smart choices because both these ISP's have large high-speed infrastructures in place to handle such a big load. EarthLink is very qualified to do this, given their extensive experience being the one of the primary ISP's for SBC's DSL network and the Sprint Broadband Direct fixed wireless broadband service.
While I agree that's true if you're talking espresso-style coffee, for regular coffee I would recommend a coffeemaker that 1) dispenses hot water at around 90-93 degrees Celsius and 2) uses a cone-style filter (and use the permanent gold-plated filter as much as possible). Most German coffeemakers (Krups and Braun) are made this way, hence their popularity worldwide (I have a Krups myself).
If you grind the coffee beans at the correct consistency, a top-line drip machine can make great coffee. And drip coffee has a very strong buzz, too--80 mg of caffeine per 6 oz. of liquid.
It really depends on the type of bean and level of grind of the coffee itself.
Most good coffee should be served on a drip-style coffeemaker using cone filters and near-boiling hot water (the latter is common on Krups and Braun coffeemakers).
The nice thing about Krups and Braun machines is that they dispense hot water at around 90 degrees Celsius, which extracts out the most in coffee flavor. The problem with American machines is that the dispense hot water more like 75 degrees Celsius, which results in not-so-great coffee.:-(
I think with Gillian Anderson announcing this is the last season she will be on X-Files, I think it is time for creator Chris Carter to finally end the show.
It has been a long, nice run, but without Mulder and Scully it really isn't the same.:-(
While Maxtor should be applauded for creating such a huge capacity hard drive, I think we're now running into a big problem: how do we back up such a big hard drive?
It's already bad enough backing up today's 20-30 GB hard drives. You need 31 to 47 650 MB CD-R/RW discs to back up today's hard drives; high-end tape drives that store over 30 GB per tape starts costing thousands of dollars for models that run off SCSI or IEEE-1394 interfaces.
I'm not looking forward to backing up a 128 GB hard drive with 183 700 MB capacity CD-R/RW disks. (thud)
Re:anti-bsd posts up 75% on slashdot!!!!!
on
USENIX Reports
·
· Score: 2
What's even more interesting is the fact that OpenBSD was being used on high-volume web sites far longer than Linux. It's only with the release of the 2.4.x version Linux kernels that Linux finally now has the ability out of the box to run high-volume web sites. I think the impetus of Dell and IBM to support Linux on a large scale is a good reason why the 2.4.x kernel was finally finished.
Besides, the zealotry of much of the Linux crowd has turned off way too many IT managers out there to start with. I know I'll get modded down for saying this, but some Linux supporters have an attitude that reminds me of things said in the Communist Manifesto. (shrug)
Are they relevant? They better be with US$30 BILLION of liquid assets on hand.
Let's face some blatant facts:
1. Linux is not making it as a desktop operating system. Its primary strength are in servers, high-end workstations and possibly embedded devices.
2. Companies that have invested heavily in Linux are for the most part not making money. Very few commercial Linux distribution companies are profitable, for starters.
3. Microsoft's.NET initiative could have interesting effects for the pure-Linux crowd. Especially if Microsoft provides Open Source hooks for Linux servers to work in the.NET environment, something Microsoft may likely do in order for.NET components to work everywhere.
4. Note that Palm is having big problems financially lately. People have seen the PocketPC-powered Compaq iPaq and are buying them in major droves.
Right now, Microsoft shares have held on very well despite the recent fall. MSFT stock price have never dropped to almost nothing like stocks of other Internet companies, mostly because Microsoft is still making good revenue from sales of Windows and their Office business suite.
However, with the ruling vacated, it means that more appropriate penalties--such as strictly-controlled regulations in regards to OEM contracts--may be put into place. Don't be surprised if that becomes part of the settlement that is announced by August-September 2001 time frame.
Re:No More Movie Reviews Please
on
Review: Atlantis
·
· Score: 1
I find it very interesting you would say this.
This is because in the geek community watching lots of movies is quite common, mostly to relieve the stress of sometimes 60+ hour work weeks. After all, if you've read the biography of Bill Gates, one of the common things Microsoft did when they started at Albuquerque (sp?), NM was to watch a lot of movies to relieve the stress of frequently seven-day work weeks working almost around the clock.
That's why I don't blame Slashdot for doing the occasional movie review.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, one episode was originally not shown in Japan because it dealt with illicit drugs, an extremely sensitive topic in Japan.
You are correct that the entire series was subsequently shown in its entirety on the WOWOW premium cable/satellite channel there. In fact, a lot more more adult anime series are showing up on WOWOW in the last few years.
Good thing Cowboy Bebop is available on DVD here in the USA, so I don't have to worry about what cuts Cartoon Network will make. ^_^
Actually, Microsoft does offer an option in Windows XP that allows you to setup the UI used in Windows 95 for those users who don't want the new Luna interface of Windows XP, which is quite different and does take some getting used to. Besides, the UI pioneered by Windows 95 is six years old, an old-timer by modern computing standards.
Sun's new studies on how the GNOME interface works in my opinion is a bit too ad hoc if they want to improve its look and feel.
They're several years behind what Microsoft has done with their famous Usability Lab. Look at the way Microsoft has designed Windows 95 interface that went into Windows 95/NT4/98/ME/2000; this is due to lots of hours of extensive scientific research into how people use their computers. It's also the reason why the interface of Internet Explorer 4.0 to 6.0 is way, way more polished than the interface of Netscape 6.0x (Netscape blew it big time by abandoning the interface used in Netscape Communicator 4.x versions, which was actually quite good).
What all the Linux supporters need to do is to fund the equivalent of the Microsoft Usability Lab for both KDE and GNOME. I'll guarantee that both KDE and GNOME will be much easier to use once some decent research is done on making the interface easier to use by end users.
What I've read about CAPS is that it allows for some pretty amazing shading effects.
In fact, during the production of Beauty and the Beast, the animators painted a small triangle in a dark skin shade on the cheeks of Belle that would "guide" CAPS to apply the cheek blush coloring at the right spot.
By the way, can you imagine how much it would cost to do animation of Pinocchio by 2001 standards using standard cel animation? This movie was famous for its astonishing detail, especially the whale attack. My guess is that it would take about US$175 million in production costs just to do this by cel animation, but more like US$80 million with the use of CAPS and the Deep Canvas system.
Personally, what I really want Disney to do with the computers they have now is to create backgrounds that seamlessly "blend" with the character animation so you don't have the jarring difference between the characters and the computer-generated background. That has been a problem with every Disney animated feature from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and newer.
I have to wonder how much Disney is using CGI assistance for their feature animation (we're not talking Pixar, natch ^_^ ).
We know about their CAPS (Computer Aided Production System) paintbox system that was used originally in the movie The Rescuers Down Under, the Deep Canvas system used to create backgrounds that was first seen in the movie Tarzan, and some animation sequences originally rendered on computer (remember the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King?).
Has Disney reached the point (at least since the early 1990's) they are trying to do animated features that have most of the feel of traditional cel animation but with heavy computer assistance?
It will be interesting to see how much of their computer systems that run CAPS and Deep Canvas use Linux as their operating systems.
Well, they might have to. New versions of Windows generally don't run well (or fast) on old hardware.
Not necessarily.
If you have an ATX-form factor motherboard that supports DIMM's and AGP graphics cards (e.g., Intel 440LX chipset and newer), a switch to faster and bigger hard drives (really cheap), lots more memory (even more cheap), and a new AGP graphics card (cost depends on how much functionality you want) will make the machine run Windows XP Home Edition pretty well.
Actually, a big issue is the fact that the price of PC hardware in general have taken a major nosedive in the last year or so.
Think about it: just over one year ago the price of a single 128 MB PC-133 SDRAM DIMM (for the branded lifetime guaranteed modules) was US$150. Right now, that same DIMM is selling for US$25!! (thud) The price of most everything else in the computer (with the exception of cutting edge graphics cards) have also dramatically dropped in price, too.
Besides, given the speed of the courts in Washington, DC by the time a new reading from the District Court there is rendered, it'll be at least Spring 2002. Which by then is a bit way too late since Windows XP would be in wide distribution by then.
Actually, the ancients considered everything west over the Atlantic as literally the end of the world. It would be akin to us looking in the space.
It's small wonder why legends about superior people from the west of the Atlantic are so prevalent in European mythology.
Ever heard of Legend Computers, China's largest computer manufacturer?
I'm sure they're building computers with 1,000 MHz or faster Intel or AMD CPU's. In that case why bother with the Emotion Engine CPU found on the PlayStation 2?
Given that the Chinese already manufacture CD-ROM drives in China, the leap to build DVD-ROM drives in China is already there.
This suggestion to Sony is a case of closing the barn door after the horse has left.
However, note that most of them only came out within the last 12 months or so.
Spielberg alienated quite a lot of DVD fans for a number of years because he refused to let any of the movies he directed be available on DVD because until recently the only surround-sound encoding available on DVD discs was Dolby Digital 5.1 (I believe Spielberg had a stake in DTS).
Mind you, I did like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade the best. :-) The interaction between father and son worked brilliantly in this movie; Sean Connery should have been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, IMHO.
Actually, I think it would not be a bad movie if Lucas and Spielberg gets a decent writer for a proposed Indiana Jones movie in regards to Atlantis.
If I remember correctly, Raiders of the Lost Ark was based a bit on Hitler's obsession with the occult (which is quite real and well-documented), with Nazi-sponsored archeologists going all over the world looking for proof of Aryan superiority and trying to find magical items that will ensure Nazi victory.
They need not go to the Atlantis per se (that would just rehash the plot of Disney's new animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire), but magical items from ancient Atlantis could become the basis for a good movie plot.
Now that Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace is coming out on DVD, I think you will see the Indiana Jones movies on DVD within a year or so.
If I remember correctly, one reason why Spielberg wouldn't release the movies he directed on DVD format for some years was the fact that they lacked DTS surround sound encoding. Now that DTS-encoded DVD discs are commonly available (and most good-quality A/V-receivers have DTS decoding built-in), you're starting to see Spielberg-directed movies on DVD.
Erik,
I think what AOL Time Warner is looking for are companies that out of the box can handle the high bandwidth requirements necessary to run broadband Internet access without bogging down their network.
Their choice of EarthLink and Juno are smart choices because both these ISP's have large high-speed infrastructures in place to handle such a big load. EarthLink is very qualified to do this, given their extensive experience being the one of the primary ISP's for SBC's DSL network and the Sprint Broadband Direct fixed wireless broadband service.
While I agree that's true if you're talking espresso-style coffee, for regular coffee I would recommend a coffeemaker that 1) dispenses hot water at around 90-93 degrees Celsius and 2) uses a cone-style filter (and use the permanent gold-plated filter as much as possible). Most German coffeemakers (Krups and Braun) are made this way, hence their popularity worldwide (I have a Krups myself).
If you grind the coffee beans at the correct consistency, a top-line drip machine can make great coffee. And drip coffee has a very strong buzz, too--80 mg of caffeine per 6 oz. of liquid.
Wrongo. :-)
It really depends on the type of bean and level of grind of the coffee itself.
Most good coffee should be served on a drip-style coffeemaker using cone filters and near-boiling hot water (the latter is common on Krups and Braun coffeemakers).
You just described my Krups coffeemaker. :-)
:-(
The nice thing about Krups and Braun machines is that they dispense hot water at around 90 degrees Celsius, which extracts out the most in coffee flavor. The problem with American machines is that the dispense hot water more like 75 degrees Celsius, which results in not-so-great coffee.
I think with Gillian Anderson announcing this is the last season she will be on X-Files, I think it is time for creator Chris Carter to finally end the show.
:-(
It has been a long, nice run, but without Mulder and Scully it really isn't the same.
Hello eBay. :-)
A lot of repossessed stuff ends up on eBay, because it's usually the fastest way to dispose of equipment from failed dot-coms.
While Maxtor should be applauded for creating such a huge capacity hard drive, I think we're now running into a big problem: how do we back up such a big hard drive?
It's already bad enough backing up today's 20-30 GB hard drives. You need 31 to 47 650 MB CD-R/RW discs to back up today's hard drives; high-end tape drives that store over 30 GB per tape starts costing thousands of dollars for models that run off SCSI or IEEE-1394 interfaces.
I'm not looking forward to backing up a 128 GB hard drive with 183 700 MB capacity CD-R/RW disks. (thud)
What's even more interesting is the fact that OpenBSD was being used on high-volume web sites far longer than Linux. It's only with the release of the 2.4.x version Linux kernels that Linux finally now has the ability out of the box to run high-volume web sites. I think the impetus of Dell and IBM to support Linux on a large scale is a good reason why the 2.4.x kernel was finally finished.
Besides, the zealotry of much of the Linux crowd has turned off way too many IT managers out there to start with. I know I'll get modded down for saying this, but some Linux supporters have an attitude that reminds me of things said in the Communist Manifesto. (shrug)
Are they relevant? They better be with US$30 BILLION of liquid assets on hand.
.NET initiative could have interesting effects for the pure-Linux crowd. Especially if Microsoft provides Open Source hooks for Linux servers to work in the .NET environment, something Microsoft may likely do in order for .NET components to work everywhere.
Let's face some blatant facts:
1. Linux is not making it as a desktop operating system. Its primary strength are in servers, high-end workstations and possibly embedded devices.
2. Companies that have invested heavily in Linux are for the most part not making money. Very few commercial Linux distribution companies are profitable, for starters.
3. Microsoft's
4. Note that Palm is having big problems financially lately. People have seen the PocketPC-powered Compaq iPaq and are buying them in major droves.
Right now, Microsoft shares have held on very well despite the recent fall. MSFT stock price have never dropped to almost nothing like stocks of other Internet companies, mostly because Microsoft is still making good revenue from sales of Windows and their Office business suite.
However, with the ruling vacated, it means that more appropriate penalties--such as strictly-controlled regulations in regards to OEM contracts--may be put into place. Don't be surprised if that becomes part of the settlement that is announced by August-September 2001 time frame.
I find it very interesting you would say this.
:)
This is because in the geek community watching lots of movies is quite common, mostly to relieve the stress of sometimes 60+ hour work weeks. After all, if you've read the biography of Bill Gates, one of the common things Microsoft did when they started at Albuquerque (sp?), NM was to watch a lot of movies to relieve the stress of frequently seven-day work weeks working almost around the clock.
That's why I don't blame Slashdot for doing the occasional movie review.