Re:Sorry, but I have to consider the source
on
UN Attacks Free Speech
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Does the the thought of organized religion fill you not just with anger, but with sincere disgust akin to physical sickness?
I've tried a few times now to read the Bible. I think it is something every good skeptic / freethinker / humanist / atheist / etc... should do. Its important that we understand the document followed by the majority of people who have such a large amount of power over our lives. The only problem is, I get physically ill every time I try to read it. Not because I'm angry, but because I am emotionally and physically disgusted when I think of the sheer volume of people who base their lives, and moral fiber, on such a disturbing piece of literature.
I think of the number of people who seem to ignore the multitude of morally troubling, disturbing, often contradictory rules and events portrayed in the Bible that, in effect, shows "God" is not the nice and moral creator the religious would have you believe. I am nauseated that people would willingly follow a being who is often shown as doing, or making his followers do, things that any sane individual would find morally reprehensible.
That being said, I have been trying to read it. I can get a few pages farther each time without feeling like I want to deposit my lunch all over the floor. But it still sickens me that people would willingly believe, and devote their lives to, the moral guidelines and divine behaviors as shown in the Bible.
The graphic, lovingly photographed violence in Watchmen is what kept people away. Heck, it almost kept me away.
I wish it would have kept me away as I will never get my money, or time, back.
I never read the novel so I had no idea of what the expect when I walked in. My only exposure to Watchmen was the odd comic geek telling me it was an "amazing" story. Problem is I didn't see an amazing story. I did however get to see a bunch of neurotic "super heroes" standing around talking about their feelings, and how crappy their lives were, for three hours.
I, and the friend I conned into going with me, nearly fell asleep. Half a dozen people walked out after the first hour and we nearly did ourselves! I've *never* walked out of a movie before, no matter how bad it was. Yet I can say that had I not paid full admission price I would have walked out of Watchmen, I was that bored.
I don't think the sexual or violent content had anything to do with what is keeping people away. I think it's the scores of "half a dozen" people who have walked out an hour into the film telling their friends, families, co-workers, and anyone else that will listen not to go see this stinker.
Like any good Slashdot geek I can appreciate a little Star Trek humor. But in all seriousness, the original poster is only half right. Nearly infinite clean energy is practically useless without the replication technology that takes advantage of it.
If our ultimate goal as a species is world peace, like the original poster was talking about, then we are going to have to eliminate the planetary struggle and competition of scarce resources that marks our current existence. In order to do that we will need both technologies.
So, on your theory, his publisher is now entitled to make millions selling physical copies of his first novel (for people will surely still buy physical books, no matter how great the Kindle or whatever becomes) while the author gets nothing for his "imaginary" property.
To badly paraphrase a quote I once read, "An idea once shared becomes the property of all those who experience it."
While a work should have a limited exclusivity period [20 years, max] to allow the original creator to recoup their creation costs while making a decent profit, the inspiration fostered by the work being shared with others should be allowed to flourish and provide continued societal progress.
When a work enters the public domain there is absolutely nothing stopping anyone, including the original author from publishing the work. While in your example the "publisher" could makes money on the author's work, so can the author if they choose to compete. Who gets the buyer's money depends on their perceived value of the work. I'm betting the original author would be able to provide enough unique incentives, being the original author and all, to provide a better value for the work.
Don't be afraid of the public domain, embrace it, then make piles of money off of it.
Two words: Networked gameplay. When you're online you need to be seen playing the very latest game, right?
While this might be true for the younger set, I think it also points to the quality of re playability of the game. A good game, where the developers have taken time to craft a thoroughly enjoyable multiplayer experience, will have continue to have players long past the issue date.
Other games where the re playability is fun, in a take it or leave it kind of way, tend not to have many players within a relatively quick time period of the game launching. As someone who has bought a game a year after release in the bargain bin and enjoyed the single player, you feel like your missing out on half the purchase because, while you're all jazzed up to try the multiplayer, people have long moved on to something else.
Now, I tend to buy games that have a strong single player story so that if I can't find any multiplayer, at least I've been satisfied by the story.
This is supposed to be a revenge, so there must be strings attached. If you actually read the full article twice you'd see he's given trivial and tedious work as as bare minimum.
While it is true that there were probably some strings attached, I also doubt his employers would have been overly concerned had he decided not to show up for work every now and again. Continued employment was part of his original settlement, and as long as he could have adequately proven he *was* doing the little work that he was being given, there's really nothing his employers legally could have done to get him.
Also, some people actually enjoy their their work. Taking that away is the worst thing you can do to them.
It *is* true that *some* people do enjoy working. It certainly helps to love what you're doing to become a doctor, teacher, farmer, astronaut, or join any other "non standard" profession. I truly envy those types of people for their ability to do something I've tried and can't do [bloody things make me nauseous, being a man who wants to work with kids is frowned upon, I hate getting dirty (and the smell of manure), I get airsick in cars (not mention amusement rides)].
Still, if you asked, the vast majority of people, assuming they're honest with themselves, would retire in a heartbeat if they knew their material and entertainment needs would be met.
Me? I'd love to be a bench warmer for a baseball team. You know the type, the guy who blows his shoulder three weeks into spring training and can't hit, throw, or do anything. So he sits on the bench for two years, collecting a couple of million dollars, until his contract runs out and he's cut loose.
Since I can't even play ball to begin with, and the whole robbery thing doesn't appeal to me [outside of GTA], I have to rely on the lottery if I want to retire now. I know it's a pipe dream to win the lottery but I still play because hey, you never know, it's currently my best chance of doing it before I'm 65. I mean it's not as though some scientist is close to a breakthrough in developing Star Trek replicators that will free everyone from the mundane boredom and abject wage slavery that the working world is.
Did I mention how much of an idiot this guy was? He was basically "free", like only the rich seem to be able to do, with only a few conditions to it. All he had to do was shut up and enjoy his life. Instead he shits all over the incredible gift of freedom and security he's been given while whining that the work he *does* get to do is meaningless.
I haven't watch Titanic yet, you insensitive clod!
Don't worry, you're not missing much. Movie was boring as all hell, so much so that I still wonder, even today, why people made such a big stink about it that it became one of the longest, if not *the* longest, first run cinema film in history.
It was crazy that it would play to sold out shows, at full movie ticket prices, a full year after its initial release! It was so popular that the film prints started to degrade; the studios had to make new ones!
Still, despite the hype, I didn't really bother to see it until it came out on DVD. I figured, how interesting could it have been since the I knew how it ended? I was right, and I want my three hours back. I can honestly say Jack dying was hands down the only good part of the film.
I read the article and it basically boils down to this:
He sued the state. The people who got in trouble eventually became his boss. They couldn't fire him, so they stuck him in a back corner and basically forgot about him. Now years later, after collecting all kinds of cash, he's kicking up a ruckus so that they'll give him "meaningful" work again.
What an idiot. Really, what... an... idiot...
He has the "dream job". He gets paid to do nothing. I would *love* a job like that. Give me a laptop, so I can "work from home" and they'd never have to worry about me again.
Travel, learn an instrument, write a novel, take a swimming class, etc... It'd be like paid retirement. I'd be happy to retire now. No, I won't get bored; I've got enough imagination to figure out what to do with free money and lots of time.
I always feel profound sadness when people look at me with complete shock when I tell them, at 35, I want to retire now. It's painful to think that so many people simply lack the necessary imagination to figure out what to do with their time when they're not working.
Yes, and that's exactly why Bittorrent is the mechanism of choice for many. What CBS is doing is the future, and it's a pretty good future, where Bittorent isn't needed -- once they figure out that they can solve so many problems by making shows available to the entire world.
Online is great and all, but I also want the shiny pressed disk in case I have a system failure. I don't want my purchases to be lost because my UPS decided to fail while I away for the evening and wasn't able to turn my media server off before a freak lightning storm, only to find out later that my backup DVDs had dye rot.
I've always liked the idea of a subscription model. Drop two hours of content on a DVD (or Blu-Ray), take five to seven bucks off my Visa, and mail it to me. I wouldn't need to hit the Torrent sites because my DVR decided not to record the last episode of Chuck. I would only have to wait until the end of next week and I'll get it commercial free in my mailbox.
Shows also wouldn't get canceled as often, since direct sales to the viewer give them an indication of just how much money they're making. Throw in variable pricing for shows that aren't as popular and I think its "win win" for the studios; I would have paid eight to ten bucks for two hours of Firefly every month.
Better yet, if they make the DVDs region free they could sell them to the entire world. Now that "fringe" or "cult following" show that gets only a small number of sales in the North American audience might turn into a full blown hit on the world stage. Not to mention that it'd be nice if I could legally get to watch Doctor Who and Torchwood at the same time as those in the UK do, especially considering that my tax dollars, through the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company), help pay for it.
I hope this game has a demo as I can't possibly believe the controls will be half as responsive and effective as a mouse and keyboard setup.
I've tried a number of demos for other RTS type games on the 360 and I've never quite liked them. The controls just seemed too clunky and it was difficult to manage units; it's a bad sign when the game is set on "easy" and you *still* can't complete the demo mission without retrying a few times. Out of the few that I did try the "Red Alert 3" demo was about the only one that I thought was *okay*; I was actually able to beat both missions on the "normal" difficulty. I wouldn't pay full price for it, but if it was on sale in the $10 bargin bin I'd probably pick it up.
As for Halo Wars, apparently the demo comes out on February 05, 2009. Personally, I'm looking forward to it as I'm curious myself about the control scheme. *If* it ends up being as good as they say it is, this will likely end up being my first RTS purchase for my 360.
With #1, you need a website making money to pay them for making the content of the website good enough to pay money for. I wonder if ouroboros.com is available?
With #2, you're hoping for the best. You might get good editors, you might not. Would you want to read fiction controlled by Wikipedia editors?
Can you imagine what will happen when you open it up electronically, and everyone including every Harry Potter/Picard fanfic writer submits?
Why not use both?
Assuming you have a decently interesting site that is geared towards new and semi-professional authors, you already have a large base of people with which to validate and critique new works. Let the "Option 2" people rate stories and provide feedback. The sheer volume of people should, in theory, allow the better stories to rise to the top.
Then you have the "Option 1" editor read only the highest ranked stories, kind of like reading Slashdot at Score: 5, and then only picking the best of the best stories from that shortened listing for publication in the print magazine.
Or if you're *really* confident in your abilities, and are willing to put your money where your mouth is, you could always do what this guy (http://www.icebergpublishing.com/) did and start your own publishing company. [Disclaimer: I am not in any way associated with the site, but I do admit to enjoying the author's work.]
It's just particularly ironic in this case because, if they were adults at the time of the act, the act wouldn't be a crime.
If they do get charged as adults, you would think the defense lawyer would be able to use that to his advantage.
You're either an adult, or you're not. If you get charged as one, it should be strongly argued that the accused should automatically have all the same rights and responsibilities as one. Since adults have the right to decide if they want to take sexy naked photos of themselves, no crime has really been committed then.
I'd rather have 4x9hour days, a 10% cut in pay, and 3 days off every week.
I've been trying to convince people that we should switch to the "Eight Day Week". With the eight day week we have four days on, four days off. You can work either 10 hours every day and get paid the same as now (assuming a 40 hour work week) or, work a standard eight hour day, lose a day's pay, but still gain two extra days off.
We'd have four eight day weeks per month for eleven months, with the remaining 13 days as a "Statutory / Religious Holiday" month that would grow to 14 days during a leap year. If you have to work during this time, as I imagine people in some service industries would, you would be able to append those days to your holiday the following year. Not including the days you potentially worked in December (Stat Month) everyone would get 16 days off per year, the equivalent of 4 weeks, which could allow some people to take at least an entire month (32 days) off.
It would give everyone flexibility; work the front four, the back four, or in some cases, the middle four. It would provide consistency for employers, October 4th would always be on a Thursday. Throw in no "weekends", as people would be working one of the "fours", planning could be simplified, more consistent, and allow greater efficiencies.
Socially it would also reduce traffic congestion, and likely road maintenance costs, by halving the daily commuters. In addition we could save electricity by reducing the early morning peaks as people tend to sleep in, or at the very least defer their usual morning routine, on their days off.
Families would benefit because they could spend more time together, something sorely lacking in today's society. With one parent working the front four and the other working the middle or back four, couples could reap the benefits of a double income while still being able to take an active role in raising their children. Obviously single parent families would likely continue to make use of day-care but, with fewer two parent families needing to make use of it, the day-care should be smaller and able to devote more one on one time with a child during their formative years.
When it comes to school, half the kids would take classes during the front four, the other half the back four. This reduces class sizes without spending funds to build ever larger schools, or having to resort to potentially unsafe portables.
I hate what we've become but I'm at a loss for how to fix it. Ideas?
I remembered watching this amazing documentary series made back in the sixties that detailed how to run a nearly perfect Utopian Society. It was so popular they kept showing it so that, as a young man in the late Seventies, I too could see the awesomeness of it. Of course I wasn't paying too much attention to the social aspects they were trying to explain, I was just excited about it because all the women wore short skirts and the narrator spent a lot of time banging hot chicks.
Later documentaries made in the Eighties and Nineties clarified some of the earlier concepts and really showed the awesomeness of their world management model. Although I never could figure out why the new narrator kept tugging on his shirt and yelling "Make it so!".
Still, I always thought we'd be much better off as a people if we could model our society on that wonderful documentary series. Of course I don't think a society like the one described in those documentaries could possibly work for us until we somehow managed to figure out the weird magic they use that creates something out of nothing.
I have an old, high end mitsubishi VHS I need to get fixed (tape transport mech)
From "tape transport mech" I'm going to assume you're saying that the tape doesn't go all the way into the unit when you insert it? If this is the case it is often caused by one of the belts that drive the gears, that operate the transport system, being worn so it's not gripping tightly.
This happened to me on my VCR a while back, and still did until my niece decided to spill juice in it.;-)
If you haven't done it yet, take the cover off, plug it back in, and then insert a tape you don't care about. Watch how the gears, levers, and belts move. One of them will look like it's slipping. Probably the one that drives the equipment that pulls the tape in, lowering the cage. If the tape gets stuck, pulling the plug and then plugging it back in will usually cause the sensor to read a tape halfway in and eject it.
Try it a few more times until you can spot what is loose or stuck. Once you spot the location, if it's easily reached, put the tape in and then at the same time use your finger to turn the cylinder / gear / gizmo that the belt is trying to turn. This extra push from you *should* be enough to finish lowering the cage. Obviously if you electrocute yourself, or mangle your finger, or cause any other unforeseen damage to yourself / VCR, I'm not responsible. Use your common judgment and determine for yourself if it's safe.
I was able to use my old VCR for an extra 4 years, until the aforementioned niece decided it would be fun to spill a drink in there.;-)
Of course, if this doesn't work it probably won't be fixable with the "turning gizmo with finger" method. In this case you'll want to look for a local "mom and pop" electronics store that does home electronics repairs. Or you could just look online for another high-end VCR, I do believe they still make them, although I haven't looked.
So why is it that Disney is allowed to create pent-up demand by putting a work back 'in the Disney vault' as their commercials say, using copyright as a bludgeon to remove works from availability?
To allow a copyright holder the opportunity to profit from their intangible works, copyright law correctly gives the holder the sole right to determine how to distribute said work. This includes the right to *not* distribute it.
However, as a society, we agreed that in order to prevent the culture derived from these works from being locked up indefinitely, these granted rights would be mitigated by relatively short term limits allowing for their use in creating new culture. Unfortunately due to the creation of "corporate citizens", and their ability to lobby with more money than any one citizen could possibly hope to amass, term lengths have now increased to a point beyond any normal person's lifetime.
It has now become legally, although not morally, correct to control culture and prevent those who aren't authorized from creating it.
I never have understood, and probably never will understand, where people get this idea that the show has gone downhill.
Battlestar Galactica has always been, original and remake, about the last great Battlestar. Her ongoing fight, and flight, from a superior enemy with the sole focus of wiping out the last remnants of humanity. The peoples of the fleet are united against this goal. They are driven, literally and figuratively, to great physical, mental, and emotional depths in order to survive against their superior enemy.
These people are on the run, constantly. They are ruthlessly hunted. They are always dogged. They are always under attack. Every loss is a tragedy. Every win, fleeting. They can pause, sometimes, they can never stop. They can have fun, sometimes, they can never relax. They must *always* move. Constantly. For if they don't, their enemies will destroy them and all will perish.
Speed, stealth, cunning, bravery, camaraderie, brother/sister-hood, trust, ingenuity and blind luck are the only things that separate them from extinction.
The strong pacing and sense of constant fear for the life of the characters from the mini-series and first two seasons has been replaced with endless melodrama.
The strong, ruthless, enemy has been replaced with whiners that second guess, bicker, and argue over every decision.
The previously tough, interesting, flawed people, of the human fleets have been replaced with whiners that second guess, bicker, and argue over every decision.
And in the midst of all this endless bickering, endless whining, endless soul searching, endless talk about people's feelings, and endless romantic triangles, Ron Moore has changed the show from Battlestar Galactica we all fell in love with to a cheesy bastardized soap opera version of All My Children with Starships.
I don't know, seven year old me thought the Flying Motorcycles were cool!
In fact, I still do. Somebody else must of thought so too, they used them a few years later in Megaforce!
When you think about it, out of all the crap that came out of the craptastic show that was Galactica 1980 the *only* good thing was the flying motorcycles... and the Halloween episode.;-)
Now if they did a series about the first cylon war, that might be worth my time.
If the second Cylon war hasn't been worth our time since the end of Season Two, what makes you think the First Cylon war would be any better?
The way Ron Moore handles this show we'd probably hear all about how the other Battlestars are winning the battles, while we watch Husker and Random Marine #2 play cards on the mess deck talking about their feelings.
They should have just given Richard Hatch the go ahead to do his continuation series, rather than try to reboot it. I'd seen his self-produced trailer three times and I cried every time over how good, and faithful to the original source material, it was. Now I just cry out of sheer boredom over a remake that was once good but now spends so much time on character development, at the expense of the original premise of the story, that I keep falling asleep while watching it.
The *only* thing still keeping me watching this sad excuse for a show is that I hate to walk away without knowing how it's going to end and my secret hope that perhaps, like Lucas with Episode III, this sub-par remake will end with something that doesn't completely suck.
but that the jet engine noise of the DVD reader was gone.
Not only that you don't need to worry about read failures encountered over long play sessions.
It keeps happening to me. If I play a game for more than a few hours the drive will all of a sudden get *very* quiet and then the window pops up telling me that the disc is dirty and can't be read anymore. Of course it keeps happening just as I'm about to beat the level, boss, mission, etc...
I've taken it in to get it repaired under warranty but since it works just fine in the store I can't get them to swap it for a new one, let alone repair it.
So I put a copy of Civ Rev on the hard-drive last night just to test it out and the game was so much quicker, more responsive, and didn't inexplicably slow down whenever you changed menus. Unfortunately I have one of the old 20 GB models, which only ends up being about 16 after the MS bloat for the file system. Throw in a few videos, a couple of ripped CD's (for games that don't have soundtracks), and some Arcade purchases and I don't have much space left!
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Does the the thought of organized religion fill you not just with anger, but with sincere disgust akin to physical sickness?
I've tried a few times now to read the Bible. I think it is something every good skeptic / freethinker / humanist / atheist / etc... should do. Its important that we understand the document followed by the majority of people who have such a large amount of power over our lives. The only problem is, I get physically ill every time I try to read it. Not because I'm angry, but because I am emotionally and physically disgusted when I think of the sheer volume of people who base their lives, and moral fiber, on such a disturbing piece of literature.
I think of the number of people who seem to ignore the multitude of morally troubling, disturbing, often contradictory rules and events portrayed in the Bible that, in effect, shows "God" is not the nice and moral creator the religious would have you believe. I am nauseated that people would willingly follow a being who is often shown as doing, or making his followers do, things that any sane individual would find morally reprehensible.
That being said, I have been trying to read it. I can get a few pages farther each time without feeling like I want to deposit my lunch all over the floor. But it still sickens me that people would willingly believe, and devote their lives to, the moral guidelines and divine behaviors as shown in the Bible.
The graphic, lovingly photographed violence in Watchmen is what kept people away. Heck, it almost kept me away.
I wish it would have kept me away as I will never get my money, or time, back.
I never read the novel so I had no idea of what the expect when I walked in. My only exposure to Watchmen was the odd comic geek telling me it was an "amazing" story. Problem is I didn't see an amazing story. I did however get to see a bunch of neurotic "super heroes" standing around talking about their feelings, and how crappy their lives were, for three hours.
I, and the friend I conned into going with me, nearly fell asleep. Half a dozen people walked out after the first hour and we nearly did ourselves! I've *never* walked out of a movie before, no matter how bad it was. Yet I can say that had I not paid full admission price I would have walked out of Watchmen, I was that bored.
I don't think the sexual or violent content had anything to do with what is keeping people away. I think it's the scores of "half a dozen" people who have walked out an hour into the film telling their friends, families, co-workers, and anyone else that will listen not to go see this stinker.
Hey, I saw that Star Trek episode too.
Like any good Slashdot geek I can appreciate a little Star Trek humor. But in all seriousness, the original poster is only half right. Nearly infinite clean energy is practically useless without the replication technology that takes advantage of it.
If our ultimate goal as a species is world peace, like the original poster was talking about, then we are going to have to eliminate the planetary struggle and competition of scarce resources that marks our current existence. In order to do that we will need both technologies.
So, on your theory, his publisher is now entitled to make millions selling physical copies of his first novel (for people will surely still buy physical books, no matter how great the Kindle or whatever becomes) while the author gets nothing for his "imaginary" property.
To badly paraphrase a quote I once read, "An idea once shared becomes the property of all those who experience it."
While a work should have a limited exclusivity period [20 years, max] to allow the original creator to recoup their creation costs while making a decent profit, the inspiration fostered by the work being shared with others should be allowed to flourish and provide continued societal progress.
When a work enters the public domain there is absolutely nothing stopping anyone, including the original author from publishing the work. While in your example the "publisher" could makes money on the author's work, so can the author if they choose to compete. Who gets the buyer's money depends on their perceived value of the work. I'm betting the original author would be able to provide enough unique incentives, being the original author and all, to provide a better value for the work.
Don't be afraid of the public domain, embrace it, then make piles of money off of it.
Two words: Networked gameplay.
When you're online you need to be seen playing the very latest game, right?
While this might be true for the younger set, I think it also points to the quality of re playability of the game. A good game, where the developers have taken time to craft a thoroughly enjoyable multiplayer experience, will have continue to have players long past the issue date.
Other games where the re playability is fun, in a take it or leave it kind of way, tend not to have many players within a relatively quick time period of the game launching. As someone who has bought a game a year after release in the bargain bin and enjoyed the single player, you feel like your missing out on half the purchase because, while you're all jazzed up to try the multiplayer, people have long moved on to something else.
Now, I tend to buy games that have a strong single player story so that if I can't find any multiplayer, at least I've been satisfied by the story.
This is supposed to be a revenge, so there must be strings attached. If you actually read the full article twice you'd see he's given trivial and tedious work as as bare minimum.
While it is true that there were probably some strings attached, I also doubt his employers would have been overly concerned had he decided not to show up for work every now and again. Continued employment was part of his original settlement, and as long as he could have adequately proven he *was* doing the little work that he was being given, there's really nothing his employers legally could have done to get him.
Also, some people actually enjoy their their work. Taking that away is the worst thing you can do to them.
It *is* true that *some* people do enjoy working. It certainly helps to love what you're doing to become a doctor, teacher, farmer, astronaut, or join any other "non standard" profession. I truly envy those types of people for their ability to do something I've tried and can't do [bloody things make me nauseous, being a man who wants to work with kids is frowned upon, I hate getting dirty (and the smell of manure), I get airsick in cars (not mention amusement rides)].
Still, if you asked, the vast majority of people, assuming they're honest with themselves, would retire in a heartbeat if they knew their material and entertainment needs would be met.
Me? I'd love to be a bench warmer for a baseball team. You know the type, the guy who blows his shoulder three weeks into spring training and can't hit, throw, or do anything. So he sits on the bench for two years, collecting a couple of million dollars, until his contract runs out and he's cut loose.
Since I can't even play ball to begin with, and the whole robbery thing doesn't appeal to me [outside of GTA], I have to rely on the lottery if I want to retire now. I know it's a pipe dream to win the lottery but I still play because hey, you never know, it's currently my best chance of doing it before I'm 65. I mean it's not as though some scientist is close to a breakthrough in developing Star Trek replicators that will free everyone from the mundane boredom and abject wage slavery that the working world is.
Did I mention how much of an idiot this guy was? He was basically "free", like only the rich seem to be able to do, with only a few conditions to it. All he had to do was shut up and enjoy his life. Instead he shits all over the incredible gift of freedom and security he's been given while whining that the work he *does* get to do is meaningless.
I haven't watch Titanic yet, you insensitive clod!
Don't worry, you're not missing much. Movie was boring as all hell, so much so that I still wonder, even today, why people made such a big stink about it that it became one of the longest, if not *the* longest, first run cinema film in history.
It was crazy that it would play to sold out shows, at full movie ticket prices, a full year after its initial release! It was so popular that the film prints started to degrade; the studios had to make new ones!
Still, despite the hype, I didn't really bother to see it until it came out on DVD. I figured, how interesting could it have been since the I knew how it ended? I was right, and I want my three hours back. I can honestly say Jack dying was hands down the only good part of the film.
You think it's funny until you see my Wolfenstein 3D benchmarks.
Your Wolfenstein 3D benchmarks pale in comparison to my Wing Commander benchmarks!
I read the article and it basically boils down to this:
He sued the state. The people who got in trouble eventually became his boss. They couldn't fire him, so they stuck him in a back corner and basically forgot about him. Now years later, after collecting all kinds of cash, he's kicking up a ruckus so that they'll give him "meaningful" work again.
What an idiot. Really, what... an... idiot...
He has the "dream job". He gets paid to do nothing. I would *love* a job like that. Give me a laptop, so I can "work from home" and they'd never have to worry about me again.
Travel, learn an instrument, write a novel, take a swimming class, etc... It'd be like paid retirement. I'd be happy to retire now. No, I won't get bored; I've got enough imagination to figure out what to do with free money and lots of time.
I always feel profound sadness when people look at me with complete shock when I tell them, at 35, I want to retire now. It's painful to think that so many people simply lack the necessary imagination to figure out what to do with their time when they're not working.
Yes, and that's exactly why Bittorrent is the mechanism of choice for many. What CBS is doing is the future, and it's a pretty good future, where Bittorent isn't needed -- once they figure out that they can solve so many problems by making shows available to the entire world.
Online is great and all, but I also want the shiny pressed disk in case I have a system failure. I don't want my purchases to be lost because my UPS decided to fail while I away for the evening and wasn't able to turn my media server off before a freak lightning storm, only to find out later that my backup DVDs had dye rot.
I've always liked the idea of a subscription model. Drop two hours of content on a DVD (or Blu-Ray), take five to seven bucks off my Visa, and mail it to me. I wouldn't need to hit the Torrent sites because my DVR decided not to record the last episode of Chuck. I would only have to wait until the end of next week and I'll get it commercial free in my mailbox.
Shows also wouldn't get canceled as often, since direct sales to the viewer give them an indication of just how much money they're making. Throw in variable pricing for shows that aren't as popular and I think its "win win" for the studios; I would have paid eight to ten bucks for two hours of Firefly every month.
Better yet, if they make the DVDs region free they could sell them to the entire world. Now that "fringe" or "cult following" show that gets only a small number of sales in the North American audience might turn into a full blown hit on the world stage. Not to mention that it'd be nice if I could legally get to watch Doctor Who and Torchwood at the same time as those in the UK do, especially considering that my tax dollars, through the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company), help pay for it.
I hope this game has a demo as I can't possibly believe the controls will be half as responsive and effective as a mouse and keyboard setup.
I've tried a number of demos for other RTS type games on the 360 and I've never quite liked them. The controls just seemed too clunky and it was difficult to manage units; it's a bad sign when the game is set on "easy" and you *still* can't complete the demo mission without retrying a few times. Out of the few that I did try the "Red Alert 3" demo was about the only one that I thought was *okay*; I was actually able to beat both missions on the "normal" difficulty. I wouldn't pay full price for it, but if it was on sale in the $10 bargin bin I'd probably pick it up.
As for Halo Wars, apparently the demo comes out on February 05, 2009. Personally, I'm looking forward to it as I'm curious myself about the control scheme. *If* it ends up being as good as they say it is, this will likely end up being my first RTS purchase for my 360.
With #1, you need a website making money to pay them for making the content of the website good enough to pay money for. I wonder if ouroboros.com is available?
With #2, you're hoping for the best. You might get good editors, you might not. Would you want to read fiction controlled by Wikipedia editors?
Can you imagine what will happen when you open it up electronically, and everyone including every Harry Potter/Picard fanfic writer submits?
Why not use both?
Assuming you have a decently interesting site that is geared towards new and semi-professional authors, you already have a large base of people with which to validate and critique new works. Let the "Option 2" people rate stories and provide feedback. The sheer volume of people should, in theory, allow the better stories to rise to the top.
Then you have the "Option 1" editor read only the highest ranked stories, kind of like reading Slashdot at Score: 5, and then only picking the best of the best stories from that shortened listing for publication in the print magazine.
Or if you're *really* confident in your abilities, and are willing to put your money where your mouth is, you could always do what this guy (http://www.icebergpublishing.com/) did and start your own publishing company. [Disclaimer: I am not in any way associated with the site, but I do admit to enjoying the author's work.]
It's just particularly ironic in this case because, if they were adults at the time of the act, the act wouldn't be a crime.
If they do get charged as adults, you would think the defense lawyer would be able to use that to his advantage.
You're either an adult, or you're not. If you get charged as one, it should be strongly argued that the accused should automatically have all the same rights and responsibilities as one. Since adults have the right to decide if they want to take sexy naked photos of themselves, no crime has really been committed then.
DRM is not designed to stop pirates forever.
DRM has nothing to do with pirates and everything to do with denying your right to first sale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine).
I'd rather have 4x9hour days, a 10% cut in pay, and 3 days off every week.
I've been trying to convince people that we should switch to the "Eight Day Week". With the eight day week we have four days on, four days off. You can work either 10 hours every day and get paid the same as now (assuming a 40 hour work week) or, work a standard eight hour day, lose a day's pay, but still gain two extra days off.
We'd have four eight day weeks per month for eleven months, with the remaining 13 days as a "Statutory / Religious Holiday" month that would grow to 14 days during a leap year. If you have to work during this time, as I imagine people in some service industries would, you would be able to append those days to your holiday the following year. Not including the days you potentially worked in December (Stat Month) everyone would get 16 days off per year, the equivalent of 4 weeks, which could allow some people to take at least an entire month (32 days) off.
It would give everyone flexibility; work the front four, the back four, or in some cases, the middle four. It would provide consistency for employers, October 4th would always be on a Thursday. Throw in no "weekends", as people would be working one of the "fours", planning could be simplified, more consistent, and allow greater efficiencies.
Socially it would also reduce traffic congestion, and likely road maintenance costs, by halving the daily commuters. In addition we could save electricity by reducing the early morning peaks as people tend to sleep in, or at the very least defer their usual morning routine, on their days off.
Families would benefit because they could spend more time together, something sorely lacking in today's society. With one parent working the front four and the other working the middle or back four, couples could reap the benefits of a double income while still being able to take an active role in raising their children. Obviously single parent families would likely continue to make use of day-care but, with fewer two parent families needing to make use of it, the day-care should be smaller and able to devote more one on one time with a child during their formative years.
When it comes to school, half the kids would take classes during the front four, the other half the back four. This reduces class sizes without spending funds to build ever larger schools, or having to resort to potentially unsafe portables.
Now I'm rambling, but I think you get the idea.
I hate what we've become but I'm at a loss for how to fix it. Ideas?
I remembered watching this amazing documentary series made back in the sixties that detailed how to run a nearly perfect Utopian Society. It was so popular they kept showing it so that, as a young man in the late Seventies, I too could see the awesomeness of it. Of course I wasn't paying too much attention to the social aspects they were trying to explain, I was just excited about it because all the women wore short skirts and the narrator spent a lot of time banging hot chicks.
Later documentaries made in the Eighties and Nineties clarified some of the earlier concepts and really showed the awesomeness of their world management model. Although I never could figure out why the new narrator kept tugging on his shirt and yelling "Make it so!".
Still, I always thought we'd be much better off as a people if we could model our society on that wonderful documentary series. Of course I don't think a society like the one described in those documentaries could possibly work for us until we somehow managed to figure out the weird magic they use that creates something out of nothing.
And the starving. There's always the starving.
There's always Soylent Green.
I have an old, high end mitsubishi VHS I need to get fixed (tape transport mech)
From "tape transport mech" I'm going to assume you're saying that the tape doesn't go all the way into the unit when you insert it? If this is the case it is often caused by one of the belts that drive the gears, that operate the transport system, being worn so it's not gripping tightly.
This happened to me on my VCR a while back, and still did until my niece decided to spill juice in it. ;-)
If you haven't done it yet, take the cover off, plug it back in, and then insert a tape you don't care about. Watch how the gears, levers, and belts move. One of them will look like it's slipping. Probably the one that drives the equipment that pulls the tape in, lowering the cage. If the tape gets stuck, pulling the plug and then plugging it back in will usually cause the sensor to read a tape halfway in and eject it.
Try it a few more times until you can spot what is loose or stuck. Once you spot the location, if it's easily reached, put the tape in and then at the same time use your finger to turn the cylinder / gear / gizmo that the belt is trying to turn. This extra push from you *should* be enough to finish lowering the cage. Obviously if you electrocute yourself, or mangle your finger, or cause any other unforeseen damage to yourself / VCR, I'm not responsible. Use your common judgment and determine for yourself if it's safe.
I was able to use my old VCR for an extra 4 years, until the aforementioned niece decided it would be fun to spill a drink in there. ;-)
Of course, if this doesn't work it probably won't be fixable with the "turning gizmo with finger" method. In this case you'll want to look for a local "mom and pop" electronics store that does home electronics repairs. Or you could just look online for another high-end VCR, I do believe they still make them, although I haven't looked.
I would love to have a Star Trek -licensed GPS unit.
Dammit Jim! I'm a Doctor, not a tour guide!
so we're destined to have 15 Enterprise movies now (to make up for the DS9 & Voyager movies that we haven't had yet, and now can't have). Crap.
Whether it's "Crap" or not depends on if they ignore the first three seasons. If they do, movies based on Enterprise could be good.
So why is it that Disney is allowed to create pent-up demand by putting a work back 'in the Disney vault' as their commercials say, using copyright as a bludgeon to remove works from availability?
To allow a copyright holder the opportunity to profit from their intangible works, copyright law correctly gives the holder the sole right to determine how to distribute said work. This includes the right to *not* distribute it.
However, as a society, we agreed that in order to prevent the culture derived from these works from being locked up indefinitely, these granted rights would be mitigated by relatively short term limits allowing for their use in creating new culture. Unfortunately due to the creation of "corporate citizens", and their ability to lobby with more money than any one citizen could possibly hope to amass, term lengths have now increased to a point beyond any normal person's lifetime.
It has now become legally, although not morally, correct to control culture and prevent those who aren't authorized from creating it.
I never have understood, and probably never will understand, where people get this idea that the show has gone downhill.
Battlestar Galactica has always been, original and remake, about the last great Battlestar. Her ongoing fight, and flight, from a superior enemy with the sole focus of wiping out the last remnants of humanity. The peoples of the fleet are united against this goal. They are driven, literally and figuratively, to great physical, mental, and emotional depths in order to survive against their superior enemy.
These people are on the run, constantly. They are ruthlessly hunted. They are always dogged. They are always under attack. Every loss is a tragedy. Every win, fleeting. They can pause, sometimes, they can never stop. They can have fun, sometimes, they can never relax. They must *always* move. Constantly. For if they don't, their enemies will destroy them and all will perish.
Speed, stealth, cunning, bravery, camaraderie, brother/sister-hood, trust, ingenuity and blind luck are the only things that separate them from extinction.
The strong pacing and sense of constant fear for the life of the characters from the mini-series and first two seasons has been replaced with endless melodrama.
The strong, ruthless, enemy has been replaced with whiners that second guess, bicker, and argue over every decision.
The previously tough, interesting, flawed people, of the human fleets have been replaced with whiners that second guess, bicker, and argue over every decision.
And in the midst of all this endless bickering, endless whining, endless soul searching, endless talk about people's feelings, and endless romantic triangles, Ron Moore has changed the show from Battlestar Galactica we all fell in love with to a cheesy bastardized soap opera version of All My Children with Starships.
flying motorcycles
I don't know, seven year old me thought the Flying Motorcycles were cool!
In fact, I still do. Somebody else must of thought so too, they used them a few years later in Megaforce!
When you think about it, out of all the crap that came out of the craptastic show that was Galactica 1980 the *only* good thing was the flying motorcycles... and the Halloween episode. ;-)
Now if they did a series about the first cylon war, that might be worth my time.
If the second Cylon war hasn't been worth our time since the end of Season Two, what makes you think the First Cylon war would be any better?
The way Ron Moore handles this show we'd probably hear all about how the other Battlestars are winning the battles, while we watch Husker and Random Marine #2 play cards on the mess deck talking about their feelings.
They should have just given Richard Hatch the go ahead to do his continuation series, rather than try to reboot it. I'd seen his self-produced trailer three times and I cried every time over how good, and faithful to the original source material, it was. Now I just cry out of sheer boredom over a remake that was once good but now spends so much time on character development, at the expense of the original premise of the story, that I keep falling asleep while watching it.
The *only* thing still keeping me watching this sad excuse for a show is that I hate to walk away without knowing how it's going to end and my secret hope that perhaps, like Lucas with Episode III, this sub-par remake will end with something that doesn't completely suck.
but that the jet engine noise of the DVD reader was gone.
Not only that you don't need to worry about read failures encountered over long play sessions.
It keeps happening to me. If I play a game for more than a few hours the drive will all of a sudden get *very* quiet and then the window pops up telling me that the disc is dirty and can't be read anymore. Of course it keeps happening just as I'm about to beat the level, boss, mission, etc...
I've taken it in to get it repaired under warranty but since it works just fine in the store I can't get them to swap it for a new one, let alone repair it.
So I put a copy of Civ Rev on the hard-drive last night just to test it out and the game was so much quicker, more responsive, and didn't inexplicably slow down whenever you changed menus. Unfortunately I have one of the old 20 GB models, which only ends up being about 16 after the MS bloat for the file system. Throw in a few videos, a couple of ripped CD's (for games that don't have soundtracks), and some Arcade purchases and I don't have much space left!
If only the 120 GB drive didn't cost so much!!!