Hey, you got me - I meant to say canyons and such, but my grasp of the English language seemed to escape me at that moment. Thanks for clarifying that with me.
If NASA is able to spot a polar lander from orbital photography, why do we still have all these disputes over the history of mars; i.e. whether or not Mars had water, whether canals were formed by water, etc. It just seems like they would be able to determine it with that kind of image clarity. Perhaps someone more informed on the subject could elaborate...
Re:How this movie could have been stronger...
on
Enemy At The Gates
·
· Score: 1
I understand that it was reality based, but I'm talking about how it could have been made stronger as a movie. Sometimes truth is better than fiction, however in this case it might not have been.
Also, I do agree with you that Harris' character probably suffered from editing constraints. The part about his son could have been expanded a bit, as well as some of his history. Unfortunately, it appears that the producers didn't want this to be a Saving Private Ryan-esque epic (at least in terms of time, so this wasn't possible.
How this movie could have been stronger...
on
Enemy At The Gates
·
· Score: 2
Warning: some plot is discussed, no endings revealed
I just saw the movie on Friday night, and I came out with the impression that the movie could have been made to be much stronger. Here are a few of the ways:
1. Get rid of the girl. The stupid love triangle relationship is far to overdone. The girl should have been removed completely, as her appearance only weakened the movie.
2. Remove Danilov as a significant character. Danilov didn't do as well as he could have in the movie, and I think his role was a bit overinflated. This was mainly due to the love triangle (see above)
3. Develop the characters of Vasily and Konig much more. This is my main suggestion for the movie. Vasily's background was limited to one 20 second flashback to the Urals with his grandfather. Konig's character was not really developed at all. If we could have seen the background from which these two fueding experts came, it would have really strengthened the movie. I feel that such a meeting of expertise would outplay a love triangle cliche any day. Tell me this: would you rather watch a soap opera, or a meeting between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson (to use an eighties sports analogy), two of the greatest and most storied basketball players of that time?
The movie did turn out to be entertaining, but I really believe it could have been much stronger.
This is an easy problem to fix. It requires folks sit down and make some real, hard choices. Let's try the following, just as a vague thought experiment, nothing serious:
1. Provide one windows manager. One. Not two. Not four. One. It doesn't really matter if it is GNOME or KDE or some new jumble of letters. Ensure that it is the same one for all flavors of the operating system, period. Time for someone to win.
2. Provide one shell. One. Not two. Not four. One. It doesn't really matter if it is Korn or Bash or something some kid whipped up in a dream. No one cares what is whose favorite when it comes to the marketplace - keep your shell politics out of the decision. Pick the one that seems to work the best and stick with it. That way, there is a direction in which to proceed to making it easier.
3. Provide a unified Linux "look and feel." A company or consortium of companies needs to sit down and figure out what would be the absolute best standardized look across every one of their workstations.
4. Remove options. Preferably, remove all options short of "able to move around icons and change desktop images." The Linux desktop should have about as many options as the Macintosh, and no one except the common Linux hobbyist should realize it can be super-configured with a random application of VI.
5. Create a windows manager that couldn't crash if it was hit by a Navy submarine piloted by rich civilians. The desktop should never crash, and God help us, it should never crash and dump a user into a shell.
So, she pretty much wants us to turn Linux into Windows, eh? What's that you say? Number 5? Oh, I didn't see that part; it appears her vision for Linux differs completely from that of Windows.
This is true. Notice, however, that I said these were future possiblities for the internet. It's almost a given that as more and more households get broadband, industries will attempt to make money out of the development in any way possible. Now, it is not feasible to have a 30sec flash intro on top of each commercial site. But, as the buzzwords of "streaming content" and "realtime multimedia internet" actually become viable for the everyday user, companies will no doubt have no hesitations about incorporating bigger, badder, and much more bandwidth intensive advertising into their sites.
It seems to me that the industry as a whole is moving away from the largely ineffectual revenue collection system of banner ads. I foresee the advent of subscription based pay services, micropayments, and perhaps even internet "commercials"
Subscription based pay services are obvious. Check out strategy.com They provide subscription based services to a number of online businesses, which are then used by the end users of each business.
Micropayments are relatively simple as well; using a standardized system such as paypal, each website could charge a fee, such as $.1 per page view. For a site like/., that could add up to 3000$ a day.
Last is the possibility of internet "commercials". These would merely be much more immersive banner ads, similar to what is shown on TV now. Before accesing the site, the browser would first have to view a 30 second flash movie from a sponsor, for example.
These are only some of the many future revenue possibilities...
I just came across this, and it seems to address the topic quite frankly. It is, however, wuite simplistic and provides little technical detail. Perhaps someone more familiar with the field could comment...
There is a simple way to get around this rule. That is, one only has to attach a notice in your sig, allowing anyone to forward your message. For example:
----------- Joe H. Schmoe joe@schmoe.com *I hereby give you written permission to forward this message*
Something as simple as that would work, even though I'm not so sure how well it would hold up in court.
Well, if we're talkin ways to get around the tax, I think Big BG doesn't like the tax cut for a simple reason; his team of highly trained lawyers has most likely been working on getting his fortune past the estate tax for years, and now Bush wants to come along and ruin everything. I would be pouty like Bill too if that happened to me!
Maybe if you took the time to read the article, you'd understand.
The "rich" are against the estate tax repeal for one reason; the repeal could sound the death knell of the American meritocracy. (at least in the reasoning of the "rich") By allowing wealth to be passed along down the lines, the millionaires believe that we would in fact create an aristocracy. They believe that Bush's tax cut is the end of the American dream. A quote from the article describes what the elite would be like:
[It would be] comparable to "choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics. We would consider that as absolute folly in terms of athletic competition."
So there you have it; the reason why the rich are opposing this tax cut.
The thing that struck me most when watching Ghost in the Shell was the traditional Japanese? soundtrack. It really all came together to add amazing atmosphere to the movie. My greatest hope for the sequel is a soundtrack of equal or better quality, as that is really what is still captured in my mind from the first.
Well, not really. I had actually just finished up installing some new drivers for my video card (in Windows, for the mad Counterstrike action), and after rebooting I pulled up some/. I guess I just got lucky..
According to the article, the patent was filed on May 8, 1998. There is most certainly prior art existing if Apple even tries to take out Linux theming in any way. In fact, I really don't think they have plans to go after themes in Linux. I merely think they're more concerned with Microsoft "stealing" their ideas, and coming out with new customizeable guis with different types of setups (whistler, hint hint).
Please, I just want to UNDERSTAND it all! I've done some searching, but I still can't find an email address for you. If you could email me back about the "all your base stuff", that'd be great.
The FOX TV network has cancelled plans for a "Vietnam: Was it a Hoax?" shockumentary, as well as a "Cuban Missile Crisis: JFK's Popularity Stunt" miniseries...
I really don't think a 3.9 GPA at Stuyvesant is really all that great. I happen to go to TJHSST (the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) here in Alexandria, VA. Stuyvesant has been our "rival" for a while, but I think I can now safely say that TJ is one of (if not "the") best PUBLIC high schools in the country. We regularly have students winning national contests, and other such fun things. We have the most national merit semi-finalists in the country. We have a huge number of Intel Science Talent search semi finalists and finalists. In fact, Intel recently honored TJHSST and Stuyvesant for repeated excellence in the prestigious competition. (It's been going since 1944, originally the "Westinghouse Science Talent Search"). And, to top all that off, I have a 4.02 GPA. Bah!
There is a simple reason why geeks, and yes, even normal people, hate GIFS. The blinking ones are annyoing as hell! They get tacky very fast, as proven by this page of abominations. Simple is elegant is better. This doesn't only apply to geeks my friend. This is pure common sense.
Is it any wonder then that the internet has come to be dominated by corporations? These are the only organisations that have had the foresight and desire to implement the common mans preferences. From AOL to Amazon, these are the organisations now controlling the internet, much to the geeks chagrin.
Ok, let's examine that statement. Amazon, a corporation which "dominates the internet" is run by one of the biggest self-admitted geeks of them all: Jeff Bezos. If you look more closely, I believe you'll find that the corporations dominating the internet are running it through the geeks, not leaving them in the dust. Most conventional corporations wouldn't have a clue how to run an e-commerce program, a large scale network, or other highly technical fields. Those require the "geeks" you complain are left out of the big picture.
We had a chance, an opportunity, for a commerce free web, an arena of equality and information. But we did not grasp it, we did not show enough imagination. It is our fault, us, the geeks, that the commercial corporations are taking the initiative and providing the internet that the common man wants.
Let's face it: what could we, the geeks, provide that would be of interest to the common man. Geeks (in a general stereotypical statement) enjoy technical matters, so-called "dry academia" as you stated. That's why we're here reading slashdot, buying o'reilly books, and doing other such geek-ish things. The common man (in another stereotypical statement) does not enjoy the same things we do. They actually want to recieve news from corporations like CNN, be able to order merchandise online, and interact with corporations, not technical academia. Geeks could not provide a "common man's internet" even if we tried.
So, in summation, your comment has a few valid points, but seems to be missing the fact that geeks never really had a chance to dominate the whizz bang internet of the common man in the first place. That's why sites here like/. exist. It's not the common mans news; "News for Nerds, stuff that matters."
Either that was an elegant troll, or you are wrong...
Better be careful, they might sue slashdot for using OS X-like the Apple icon."
Actually, it is likely that apple will not sue slashdot for using the logo. If you look very closely, you can see a little copyright symbol at the lower right corner. Apple would have no grounds for suing slashdot, so there is no possible way for them to hold up a case...
Now I feel like a complete dick for flaming a guy's innocent joke. Oh well, such is Slashdot.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, you got me - I meant to say canyons and such, but my grasp of the English language seemed to escape me at that moment. Thanks for clarifying that with me.
If NASA is able to spot a polar lander from orbital photography, why do we still have all these disputes over the history of mars; i.e. whether or not Mars had water, whether canals were formed by water, etc. It just seems like they would be able to determine it with that kind of image clarity. Perhaps someone more informed on the subject could elaborate...
I understand that it was reality based, but I'm talking about how it could have been made stronger as a movie. Sometimes truth is better than fiction, however in this case it might not have been.
Also, I do agree with you that Harris' character probably suffered from editing constraints. The part about his son could have been expanded a bit, as well as some of his history. Unfortunately, it appears that the producers didn't want this to be a Saving Private Ryan-esque epic (at least in terms of time, so this wasn't possible.
Warning: some plot is discussed, no endings revealed
I just saw the movie on Friday night, and I came out with the impression that the movie could have been made to be much stronger. Here are a few of the ways:
1. Get rid of the girl. The stupid love triangle relationship is far to overdone. The girl should have been removed completely, as her appearance only weakened the movie.
2. Remove Danilov as a significant character. Danilov didn't do as well as he could have in the movie, and I think his role was a bit overinflated. This was mainly due to the love triangle (see above)
3. Develop the characters of Vasily and Konig much more. This is my main suggestion for the movie. Vasily's background was limited to one 20 second flashback to the Urals with his grandfather. Konig's character was not really developed at all. If we could have seen the background from which these two fueding experts came, it would have really strengthened the movie. I feel that such a meeting of expertise would outplay a love triangle cliche any day. Tell me this: would you rather watch a soap opera, or a meeting between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson (to use an eighties sports analogy), two of the greatest and most storied basketball players of that time?
The movie did turn out to be entertaining, but I really believe it could have been much stronger.
From the article:
This is an easy problem to fix. It requires folks sit down and make some real, hard choices. Let's try the following, just as a vague thought experiment, nothing serious:
1. Provide one windows manager. One. Not two. Not four. One. It doesn't really matter if it is GNOME or KDE or some new jumble of letters. Ensure that it is the same one for all flavors of the operating system, period. Time for someone to win.
2. Provide one shell. One. Not two. Not four. One. It doesn't really matter if it is Korn or Bash or something some kid whipped up in a dream. No one cares what is whose favorite when it comes to the marketplace - keep your shell politics out of the decision. Pick the one that seems to work the best and stick with it. That way, there is a direction in which to proceed to making it easier.
3. Provide a unified Linux "look and feel." A company or consortium of companies needs to sit down and figure out what would be the absolute best standardized look across every one of their workstations.
4. Remove options. Preferably, remove all options short of "able to move around icons and change desktop images." The Linux desktop should have about as many options as the Macintosh, and no one except the common Linux hobbyist should realize it can be super-configured with a random application of VI.
5. Create a windows manager that couldn't crash if it was hit by a Navy submarine piloted by rich civilians. The desktop should never crash, and God help us, it should never crash and dump a user into a shell.
So, she pretty much wants us to turn Linux into Windows, eh?
What's that you say? Number 5? Oh, I didn't see that part; it appears her vision for Linux differs completely from that of Windows.
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
Hey man, I actually meant to put $.01 in my original comment. I agree; 10 cents is a bit much to pay per page view! You bring up a valid point though.
This is true. Notice, however, that I said these were future possiblities for the internet. It's almost a given that as more and more households get broadband, industries will attempt to make money out of the development in any way possible. Now, it is not feasible to have a 30sec flash intro on top of each commercial site. But, as the buzzwords of "streaming content" and "realtime multimedia internet" actually become viable for the everyday user, companies will no doubt have no hesitations about incorporating bigger, badder, and much more bandwidth intensive advertising into their sites.
It seems to me that the industry as a whole is moving away from the largely ineffectual revenue collection system of banner ads. I foresee the advent of subscription based pay services, micropayments, and perhaps even internet "commercials"
/., that could add up to 3000$ a day.
Subscription based pay services are obvious. Check out strategy.com They provide subscription based services to a number of online businesses, which are then used by the end users of each business.
Micropayments are relatively simple as well; using a standardized system such as paypal, each website could charge a fee, such as $.1 per page view. For a site like
Last is the possibility of internet "commercials". These would merely be much more immersive banner ads, similar to what is shown on TV now. Before accesing the site, the browser would first have to view a 30 second flash movie from a sponsor, for example.
These are only some of the many future revenue possibilities...
I just came across this, and it seems to address the topic quite frankly. It is, however, wuite simplistic and provides little technical detail. Perhaps someone more familiar with the field could comment...
There is a simple way to get around this rule. That is, one only has to attach a notice in your sig, allowing anyone to forward your message. For example:
-----------
Joe H. Schmoe
joe@schmoe.com
*I hereby give you written permission to forward this message*
Something as simple as that would work, even though I'm not so sure how well it would hold up in court.
Well, if we're talkin ways to get around the tax, I think Big BG doesn't like the tax cut for a simple reason; his team of highly trained lawyers has most likely been working on getting his fortune past the estate tax for years, and now Bush wants to come along and ruin everything. I would be pouty like Bill too if that happened to me!
The "rich" are against the estate tax repeal for one reason; the repeal could sound the death knell of the American meritocracy. (at least in the reasoning of the "rich") By allowing wealth to be passed along down the lines, the millionaires believe that we would in fact create an aristocracy. They believe that Bush's tax cut is the end of the American dream. A quote from the article describes what the elite would be like:
So there you have it; the reason why the rich are opposing this tax cut.
The thing that struck me most when watching Ghost in the Shell was the traditional Japanese? soundtrack. It really all came together to add amazing atmosphere to the movie. My greatest hope for the sequel is a soundtrack of equal or better quality, as that is really what is still captured in my mind from the first.
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
That is EXACTLY what I do...
/. I guess I just got lucky..
Well, not really. I had actually just finished up installing some new drivers for my video card (in Windows, for the mad Counterstrike action), and after rebooting I pulled up some
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
I predict the first message will read something like this...
"So long, and thanks for all the fish."
Sorry, I just couldn't resist it.
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
According to the article, the patent was filed on May 8, 1998. There is most certainly prior art existing if Apple even tries to take out Linux theming in any way. In fact, I really don't think they have plans to go after themes in Linux. I merely think they're more concerned with Microsoft "stealing" their ideas, and coming out with new customizeable guis with different types of setups (whistler, hint hint).
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
So does this mean that the Library of Congress will now be home to the greatest collection of ASCII porn ever assembled by man?
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
Please, I just want to UNDERSTAND it all! I've done some searching, but I still can't find an email address for you. If you could email me back about the "all your base stuff", that'd be great.
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
The FOX TV network has cancelled plans for a "Vietnam: Was it a Hoax?" shockumentary, as well as a "Cuban Missile Crisis: JFK's Popularity Stunt" miniseries...
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
Reports are streaming in that Bill Gates has ordered a large quantity of black cloth and a "Do-it-Yourself Dark Emperor of the Sith Make-up Kit".
Steve Ballmer was also said to have purchased a black cape and a foreboding black helmet...
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
Oops. I had Stuyvesant confused with Bronx Science on the topic of the Intel Science Talent Search. Doesn't change too much else though.
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
I really don't think a 3.9 GPA at Stuyvesant is really all that great. I happen to go to TJHSST (the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) here in Alexandria, VA. Stuyvesant has been our "rival" for a while, but I think I can now safely say that TJ is one of (if not "the") best PUBLIC high schools in the country. We regularly have students winning national contests, and other such fun things. We have the most national merit semi-finalists in the country. We have a huge number of Intel Science Talent search semi finalists and finalists. In fact, Intel recently honored TJHSST and Stuyvesant for repeated excellence in the prestigious competition. (It's been going since 1944, originally the "Westinghouse Science Talent Search"). And, to top all that off, I have a 4.02 GPA. Bah!
(not to brag or anything...)
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
you wouldn't expect the "Mako Shark...mmmmm" at the end of the article. Cannibalising one's own namesake, eh?
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
There is a simple reason why geeks, and yes, even normal people, hate GIFS. The blinking ones are annyoing as hell! They get tacky very fast, as proven by this page of abominations. Simple is elegant is better. This doesn't only apply to geeks my friend. This is pure common sense.
Ok, let's examine that statement. Amazon, a corporation which "dominates the internet" is run by one of the biggest self-admitted geeks of them all: Jeff Bezos. If you look more closely, I believe you'll find that the corporations dominating the internet are running it through the geeks, not leaving them in the dust. Most conventional corporations wouldn't have a clue how to run an e-commerce program, a large scale network, or other highly technical fields. Those require the "geeks" you complain are left out of the big picture.
Let's face it: what could we, the geeks, provide that would be of interest to the common man. Geeks (in a general stereotypical statement) enjoy technical matters, so-called "dry academia" as you stated. That's why we're here reading slashdot, buying o'reilly books, and doing other such geek-ish things. The common man (in another stereotypical statement) does not enjoy the same things we do. They actually want to recieve news from corporations like CNN, be able to order merchandise online, and interact with corporations, not technical academia. Geeks could not provide a "common man's internet" even if we tried.
So, in summation, your comment has a few valid points, but seems to be missing the fact that geeks never really had a chance to dominate the whizz bang internet of the common man in the first place. That's why sites here like
Either that was an elegant troll, or you are wrong...
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
Better be careful, they might sue slashdot for using OS X-like the Apple icon."
Actually, it is likely that apple will not sue slashdot for using the logo. If you look very closely, you can see a little copyright symbol at the lower right corner. Apple would have no grounds for suing slashdot, so there is no possible way for them to hold up a case...
Now I feel like a complete dick for flaming a guy's innocent joke. Oh well, such is Slashdot.
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)