Almost literally. Over the years of assembling computer systems, particularly early on, systems that would work well were ones that I had in some way injured myself in building, usually a skinned knuckle from working in a sharp sheet-metal case. Systems that were assembled with no bodily harm would almost always need a hardware fix fairly soon afterwards. I started calling this my "blood sacrifice." It got to the point that one time, when the hardware assembly had gone smoother than ever before and I was completely unscathed, I actually pricked my finger and touched a drop of blood to the inside of the case.
I've since realized how stupid the whole thing was, but even so, if I skin a knuckle or cut a finger on a case I make a joke about blood sacrifice and breathe a little easier.
It really depends on what you want to do, of course. If you're a "big picture" type, go for systems, they get to figure out how all the parts should interoperate, and get to irritate the software guys to no end. The downside is that there's a lot of inane requirements writing (almost as bad as legalese.)
I'm in software currently, and of course we deal with the details, the "small picture." We take the wishful-thinking requirements and make them actually work, while suggesting useful features back up the chain.
There are merits both ways, of course, but if you choose systems, please be sure you keep familiar with software techniques. There are few things more annoying than an incompetent Systems Engineer trying to push bad requirements on you and not listening to why it won't work, or why it would be easier and more effective to do it slightly differently.
Stock the aircraft carrier with suitable collapsible containers and drive mechanisms (fairly compact) and inflate them with the hydrogen gas. Then simply fly them back to shore.
Too bad about Silent Hill 2; if you had looked at it a little closer, there's an alternate control scheme (my prefered method) which involves pointing where you want to go rather than steering. It's in the options, just switch the 2D/3D setting. SH3 has it also, if you're planning on playing that.
Another one was my April Fool's joke. We get lots of bulletins and memos all the time; updated dress code (it's not too bad, but everybody complains anyway), holiday notifications, timecard instructions, security info, all sorts of stuff. They're printed on colored paper, usually green, and follow a very standard design.
This same group of coworkers goes out for lunch all the time, and the one's wedding was coming up quickly. So, I prepared a security bulletin that I distributed to their mailboxes the night before.
Our company is very security conscious (being a defense contractor) so I played up that angle. Basically, the bulletin said that inter-employee meetings were prohibited outside of the office unless the appropriate forms were filed which might indicate the need of security personnel being assigned to oversee the meeting. Unexpected meetings had to be submitted to security by means of an audio recording. Unrecorded meetings had to be reported, and possibly followed up with interviews.
I didn't really expect to get anyone, but I did; he found the notice in his mailbox and assumed it had been there a few days, so he sent out an e-mail to all of us bringing it up; he propagated my joke without me having to do anything. They figured it out pretty quickly since I included a number of subtle clues that it was fake (didn't want to get in trouble) but everyone still enjoyed it.
I work at a large company but in a fairly small and friendly group, where the friendly banter we have could easily qualify as harassment -- but isn't, since everyone's in on it; the women are the most "offensive" of all.
The worst of them recently got married and so we had to do something to get her back. So while she was on her honeymoon, a bunch of us pulled everything from her cube. All her cabinets got locked, all her stuff got boxed and hidden by various people, her boss even stashed her computer. Her nametag got taken down, everything. They even managed to get her network password reset.
Unfortunately, I wasn't there to see her reaction, but I heard it was pretty good.
I would have to agree with this. I love horror movies and I decorate on Halloween to excess, but as a result, very few horror movies actually scare me. The last one in a long time to do so was The Ring.
I saw Ringu afterwards, and I was not impressed. The American version did not significantly detract from the Japanese version; the only major deviations seemed to be cultural ones, aiming more at ideas that Americans would understand. Also, the camera work seemed far better, the editing and general flow made it far easier to suspend disbelief, and the effects were far more impactful than the lower-budget Japanese film. Hollywood may tend to dumb down stories, but they have pretty much perfected the packaging.
Most people who have told me that Ringu was far better are the types who believe that anything Japanese is inherently better than anything American, who will watch (and buy) any crap anime that is released. Eventually these people either go bankrupt from the horrendous import markup, or come to their senses and realize that the Japanese are just as capable of producing worthless crap as we are and acquire a little taste.
Disclaimer: I do appreciate many aspects of Japanese culture. I own a number of Anime titles and have attended Anime conventions. I have seen enough to realize that while there are many good series, OAVs, and movies, there are far more examples of things that are not worth the price of a CD-R to burn the fansub on.
-SablKnight
Re:Gifts are good -- check with your employees!
on
Christmas Bonuses?
·
· Score: 1
BE VERY CAREFUL!!!
My project team management (a small group in a very large company) reported to us this summer that our customer was very happy and had given us a huge cash bonus, and they wanted to share the love. They had a quick poll on the subject (cash bonuses for employees was never even offered) and what won was a dinner cruise around Manhattan for all interested team members.
This was in the summer, when things were nice.
Months later, they finally make good... an evening cruise (1.5 hours) with crappy appetizer-type food (wings, veggies and dip, pizza bites, meatballs, cheese) in late fall with the weather on a downslope, NO GUESTS (not even spouses), and a $10 fee, plus $5 for parking (no company-organized carpools)
Needless to say, most of the team was quite bitter. If you're going to do something, just do it unless you know exactly what your employees are expecting and are willing to follow through. If the same trip had been offered without the bonus announcement and employee poll, people would have been much happier about it.
There are basically two fraud cases we need to prevent, duplicate voters and vote tampering, in addition to the usual problems of voter stupidity and ballot readability. So here is the way these could be addressed.
There are two significant hardware components. The first MUST be networked. The second MUST NOT be.
First, voter registration. People show up to the polling place, present their ID (driver's license, passport, etc.) to verify their identity. Whoever is handling the line finds them in the online voter registration list, checks off that they have come in to vote, and hands them an electronic key of some sort (USB dongle, magnetic strip card) with a random unique number associated with it. This number is enabled in the list of valid numbers. The patient voter then gets in line for a booth.
Once at the booth, the voter uses the electronic key to open the door. This is the limit of the networked portion of the voting process. The number is then disabled and recorded. All networked portions are of course under heavy encryption.
Inside, the voter uses the user-friendly touch screen to vote. Exactly what software is used is more or less unimportant, though it should be open to encourage peer review. The vote should be recorded on a local 3-drive RAID array, encrypted with a strong public-key encryption.
After the election (or periodically throughout the day) election officials with all the surrounding beaurocracy should physically unlock and remove the RAID cartridge and transport it to the local counting center. Here it is plugged in, the private key (kept only here) is used to read off the data and tally votes.
And that's it. This requires a lot of new hardware, but the voting process is secure, with little change to the way things are currently run (at least in my area.) Voter registration information is networked to provide instant feedback in the case of duplicate voting. Vote counting is completely off the network to provide maximum security from outside tampering. And people get pretty back-lit voting menus that all should be perfectly capable of understanding.
OK, I admittedly have only seen it once, (to be remedied sometime soon...) but in the Architect scene, the monitors are shown to represent not only Neo 6.0 but also all of his 5 predecessors. People keep saying that Neo 6.0 is making a different decision than the others, but when he turns towards the door that can save Trinity, don't all the monitors show Neo 1.0-5.0 turning in exactly the same direction? Is this maybe the predetermined choice, and he is continuing the cycle?
I feel obligated to defend my city. Most people, when they think of Newark, think of the riots in the 60s. The city has moved on since then. Sure, there are still some bad areas, but the local colleges (NJIT, Rutgers-Newark, UMDNJ, ECCC) are working hard to improve conditions in their surrounding areas, downtown is booming with the (relatively) new NJ Performing Arts Center, sports arenas are planned, the subway has been recently improved, and the "suburbs" are fine, filled with friendly people. All this, plus the ability to visit NYC at any time, makes it a really nice place to live. So netxt time you smash Newark for being an industrial hell nightmare, please, visit Branchbrook Park, Forest Hills, or NJPAC.
OK, I'm gonna get blasted for this, but what the hell.
"Native" means born in a place. "Indigenous" or "Aboriginal" means from a culture that originated in that place.
I (German-Ukranian) am "native" to America, since I was born there. I am not, however, aboriginal, which means I can't run casinos in many places, and that I sound particularly dorky talking about spirit guides, dream quests, and the like.
A couple of engineers are sitting around discussing what type of engineer God is. Eventually their arguments settle on using the human body as a reference point.
An electrical engineer points out that the body depends on the electrical nervous system, and that since this is the core of the design, then obviously God is an EE.
A chemical engineer counters this, stating that the neurons, like all the rest of the body, wouldn't work at all without complex chemical interactions, as well as the flow of blood through the vast fluid flow network of the circulatory system.
The lone civil engineer of the group just laughs at all of them, pointing out that God must be a CivE, since nobody else would think to run a toxic waste line through a major recreational area!
A priest, a lawyer, and an engineer are sentenced to die by the guillotine. The priest is led up the steps, his head is put in place, and the string is pulled. Nothing happens. The priest exclaims, "A miracle! God has saved me!" and is let free.
The lawyer is next, he also is put in place and the string is pulled. Again, nothing happens. He stands up and successfully argues that legally, the prisoner cannot be executed twice for the same crime, and he also is set free.
The engineer is led up to the guillotine, but before the executioners can put his head in place he calls out, "Wait! You've got a problem in the release mechanism!"
I'm not complaining about the whole alternating boycott weeks thing, but rather, why did so many people bitch and moan when New Line released the special extended edition of "Fellowship of the Ring" with full disclosure beforehand, and seem to not mind blatant moneygrubbing like this? I love FotR, I knew that the EE was coming out, so I waited patiently (sort of) for it to be released. I love the Matrix too, so, not knowing that a bajillion re-releases were coming, I bought it when it was first available. Look at the Bond DVDs... release magnificent boxed sets of everything, then some time later, start re-releasing! But people complain about two versions of a new movie being released within a few months of each other with press releases before the first declaring their intentions. Whatever.
A friend of mine used to work at Dolby and he told me this same thing. It's very cost effective for the theater, but is extremely bad for the film stock and tends to deteriorate it at a much higher rate than if it were just shown for the equivalent number of screenings.
SablKnight
Re:Faithful to Tolkien's writings?
on
LOTR: The Two Towers
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I saw the movie last night at midnight; I was both very excited and very worried. I was not dissappointed. Most of your points are valid, but I do have to comment on them.
Gimli - Yeah, too much comic relief. I didn't have a problem with him lagging behind on the run, but it should have been because he's naturally slower, not because he was tired. I think that was in the book. Also, I seem to remember him having a problem finding armor that fit in the book as well, but all in all, too much comedy.
Frodo and Sam - yeah, the sidetrip to Osgiliath was a little unnecessary. This was what I was most afraid of going in. But I think it worked, just not exactly like the book. I was really worried about Faramir, but if you think about it, he made the choice that his brother could not. That does make him the stronger one. His was a good performance in my opinion.
Aragorn's fall - this too, I could have done without.
Eowyn - I thought this was pretty much the way it should have been. Aragorn wouldn't give her the time of day in the book, IIRC.
Ninja Ents - I do recall there being a massive battle with the Ents in Isengard. It just wasn't part of the main text, it was related by Merry and Pippin after the fact. Ents did stomp orcs, throw rocks, and get set on fire. And in the end they did open the dams.
Gollum/Smeagol. I did like this. At first, I didn't like the way Gollum was rendered. It was almost too realistic, he seemed more 3d than the actors, since they were in a very harsh light and he seemed more rounded out based on how he was rendered. But if you compare the visuals of Gandalf coming through the pass at the end, it was actual footage and seems just as unrealistic, so I can live with it. The psychology was spot-on though.
Other stuff - I think that the 'exorcism' could have been done better. Theoden should have regained some skin tone and lost some wrinkles, but his beard and nails should have stayed unkempt until he got cleaned up. Gandalf was perfect, if not in the picture enough. There should have been no elves at Helm's Deep other than Legolas; I don't think there was any reason for this at all. And if anybody had sent them, it should have been Galadriel, not Elrond.
One more comment...
The problem is: The first one stayed [largely] true to the book and really felt like it was obviously saying, "Fuck holywood, we're going to make this one right." This one feels much more like, "Hey, we made a really successful movie, so we are God. Let's fuck with whatever we need to to get the holywood weaned audience in and happy." The stupid thing is, the first one was so good exactly because they DIDN'T pander to holywood style.
Since all three movies were shot at once, this was a decision made long before the success of the first movie was known. Doing the middle of a trilogy is always going to be difficult for a number of reasons already presented by many people, and the storyline did need some tweaking. That said, some things did seem added just for the hell of it, with no real intent to further the storyline. Anyway, I've said enough for now...
Wow, legal proof that you should always split the check...
-SablKnight
Re:The possibilites are endless.
on
Virtual Simerica
·
· Score: 1
OK, what TSOL really needs here is a GTA crossover. Think about it! After buying little Billy Sim his pet dog, you can see them both get run down by a camaro, the driver still clutching a fistfull of money dripping with hooker blood! Have to push for this, definitely.
Since congresscritters tend to do things for their own benefit most of the time, maybe we could make things more personal. Grab their e-mail addresses (the public ones are probably OK, private ones better but more shady) and include them in your signature when you post to newsgroups, e-mail lists, what-have-you. Something innocent, like:
I participate in the legal system, you should too! E-mail your representatives! Mine are: Sen. Bribetaker: bribetaker@senate.gov.fake Sen. Moneybags: moneybags@senate.gov.fake Rep. B.S.Artiste: artiste@congress.gov.fake
or whatever. Then post furiously in public forums, let the address grabbers pick up on the addresses, and wait until pure annoyance causes anti-spam legislation.
Ever heard the vans with loud-speakers that go around town campaigning for a certain candidate? Notice how a politician in the U.S. would go to jail if he tried it.
I don't know where you live, but local politicians do this all the time around me (NJ). It gets really damned annoying too. Plus there's the door-to-door people trying to excite interest in themselves or the candidates they represent. And there's the mudslinging on TV all the time. If I didn't feel the civic urge to vote, I'd lock myself in a closet for about a month before voting day.
Politicians make the laws, they can get away with whatever the hell they want.
Slashdot Mirror
Almost literally. Over the years of assembling computer systems, particularly early on, systems that would work well were ones that I had in some way injured myself in building, usually a skinned knuckle from working in a sharp sheet-metal case. Systems that were assembled with no bodily harm would almost always need a hardware fix fairly soon afterwards. I started calling this my "blood sacrifice." It got to the point that one time, when the hardware assembly had gone smoother than ever before and I was completely unscathed, I actually pricked my finger and touched a drop of blood to the inside of the case.
I've since realized how stupid the whole thing was, but even so, if I skin a knuckle or cut a finger on a case I make a joke about blood sacrifice and breathe a little easier.
It really depends on what you want to do, of course. If you're a "big picture" type, go for systems, they get to figure out how all the parts should interoperate, and get to irritate the software guys to no end. The downside is that there's a lot of inane requirements writing (almost as bad as legalese.)
I'm in software currently, and of course we deal with the details, the "small picture." We take the wishful-thinking requirements and make them actually work, while suggesting useful features back up the chain.
There are merits both ways, of course, but if you choose systems, please be sure you keep familiar with software techniques. There are few things more annoying than an incompetent Systems Engineer trying to push bad requirements on you and not listening to why it won't work, or why it would be easier and more effective to do it slightly differently.
Very simply...
;)
Stock the aircraft carrier with suitable collapsible containers and drive mechanisms (fairly compact) and inflate them with the hydrogen gas. Then simply fly them back to shore.
Time for zeppelins to make a comeback
-SablKnight
Actually, that was an SNL reference, something Kerry said during their skit of the first debate. Personally I can't stand either one.
Cthulhu '04: Why vote for the lesser evil?
-SablKnight
He changes his position based upon the audience he is in front of. If that is not a flip-flop, I don't know what is.
That's not flip-flopping, that's pandering... and the American People deserve a president who knows the difference.
-SablKnight
Too bad about Silent Hill 2; if you had looked at it a little closer, there's an alternate control scheme (my prefered method) which involves pointing where you want to go rather than steering. It's in the options, just switch the 2D/3D setting. SH3 has it also, if you're planning on playing that.
-SablKnight
Another one was my April Fool's joke. We get lots of bulletins and memos all the time; updated dress code (it's not too bad, but everybody complains anyway), holiday notifications, timecard instructions, security info, all sorts of stuff. They're printed on colored paper, usually green, and follow a very standard design.
This same group of coworkers goes out for lunch all the time, and the one's wedding was coming up quickly. So, I prepared a security bulletin that I distributed to their mailboxes the night before.
Our company is very security conscious (being a defense contractor) so I played up that angle. Basically, the bulletin said that inter-employee meetings were prohibited outside of the office unless the appropriate forms were filed which might indicate the need of security personnel being assigned to oversee the meeting. Unexpected meetings had to be submitted to security by means of an audio recording. Unrecorded meetings had to be reported, and possibly followed up with interviews.
I didn't really expect to get anyone, but I did; he found the notice in his mailbox and assumed it had been there a few days, so he sent out an e-mail to all of us bringing it up; he propagated my joke without me having to do anything. They figured it out pretty quickly since I included a number of subtle clues that it was fake (didn't want to get in trouble) but everyone still enjoyed it.
I work at a large company but in a fairly small and friendly group, where the friendly banter we have could easily qualify as harassment -- but isn't, since everyone's in on it; the women are the most "offensive" of all.
The worst of them recently got married and so we had to do something to get her back. So while she was on her honeymoon, a bunch of us pulled everything from her cube. All her cabinets got locked, all her stuff got boxed and hidden by various people, her boss even stashed her computer. Her nametag got taken down, everything. They even managed to get her network password reset.
Unfortunately, I wasn't there to see her reaction, but I heard it was pretty good.
I would have to agree with this. I love horror movies and I decorate on Halloween to excess, but as a result, very few horror movies actually scare me. The last one in a long time to do so was The Ring.
I saw Ringu afterwards, and I was not impressed. The American version did not significantly detract from the Japanese version; the only major deviations seemed to be cultural ones, aiming more at ideas that Americans would understand. Also, the camera work seemed far better, the editing and general flow made it far easier to suspend disbelief, and the effects were far more impactful than the lower-budget Japanese film. Hollywood may tend to dumb down stories, but they have pretty much perfected the packaging.
Most people who have told me that Ringu was far better are the types who believe that anything Japanese is inherently better than anything American, who will watch (and buy) any crap anime that is released. Eventually these people either go bankrupt from the horrendous import markup, or come to their senses and realize that the Japanese are just as capable of producing worthless crap as we are and acquire a little taste.
Disclaimer: I do appreciate many aspects of Japanese culture. I own a number of Anime titles and have attended Anime conventions. I have seen enough to realize that while there are many good series, OAVs, and movies, there are far more examples of things that are not worth the price of a CD-R to burn the fansub on.
-SablKnight
BE VERY CAREFUL!!!
My project team management (a small group in a very large company) reported to us this summer that our customer was very happy and had given us a huge cash bonus, and they wanted to share the love. They had a quick poll on the subject (cash bonuses for employees was never even offered) and what won was a dinner cruise around Manhattan for all interested team members.
This was in the summer, when things were nice.
Months later, they finally make good... an evening cruise (1.5 hours) with crappy appetizer-type food (wings, veggies and dip, pizza bites, meatballs, cheese) in late fall with the weather on a downslope, NO GUESTS (not even spouses), and a $10 fee, plus $5 for parking (no company-organized carpools)
Needless to say, most of the team was quite bitter. If you're going to do something, just do it unless you know exactly what your employees are expecting and are willing to follow through. If the same trip had been offered without the bonus announcement and employee poll, people would have been much happier about it.
-SablKnight
Maybe it's because your link goes to doubleclick, purveyor of annoying ads, instead of to IMDB directly?
There are basically two fraud cases we need to prevent, duplicate voters and vote tampering, in addition to the usual problems of voter stupidity and ballot readability. So here is the way these could be addressed.
There are two significant hardware components. The first MUST be networked. The second MUST NOT be.
First, voter registration. People show up to the polling place, present their ID (driver's license, passport, etc.) to verify their identity. Whoever is handling the line finds them in the online voter registration list, checks off that they have come in to vote, and hands them an electronic key of some sort (USB dongle, magnetic strip card) with a random unique number associated with it. This number is enabled in the list of valid numbers. The patient voter then gets in line for a booth.
Once at the booth, the voter uses the electronic key to open the door. This is the limit of the networked portion of the voting process. The number is then disabled and recorded. All networked portions are of course under heavy encryption.
Inside, the voter uses the user-friendly touch screen to vote. Exactly what software is used is more or less unimportant, though it should be open to encourage peer review. The vote should be recorded on a local 3-drive RAID array, encrypted with a strong public-key encryption.
After the election (or periodically throughout the day) election officials with all the surrounding beaurocracy should physically unlock and remove the RAID cartridge and transport it to the local counting center. Here it is plugged in, the private key (kept only here) is used to read off the data and tally votes.
And that's it. This requires a lot of new hardware, but the voting process is secure, with little change to the way things are currently run (at least in my area.) Voter registration information is networked to provide instant feedback in the case of duplicate voting. Vote counting is completely off the network to provide maximum security from outside tampering. And people get pretty back-lit voting menus that all should be perfectly capable of understanding.
-SablKnight
OK, I admittedly have only seen it once, (to be remedied sometime soon...) but in the Architect scene, the monitors are shown to represent not only Neo 6.0 but also all of his 5 predecessors. People keep saying that Neo 6.0 is making a different decision than the others, but when he turns towards the door that can save Trinity, don't all the monitors show Neo 1.0-5.0 turning in exactly the same direction? Is this maybe the predetermined choice, and he is continuing the cycle?
-SablKnight
I feel obligated to defend my city. Most people, when they think of Newark, think of the riots in the 60s. The city has moved on since then. Sure, there are still some bad areas, but the local colleges (NJIT, Rutgers-Newark, UMDNJ, ECCC) are working hard to improve conditions in their surrounding areas, downtown is booming with the (relatively) new NJ Performing Arts Center, sports arenas are planned, the subway has been recently improved, and the "suburbs" are fine, filled with friendly people. All this, plus the ability to visit NYC at any time, makes it a really nice place to live. So netxt time you smash Newark for being an industrial hell nightmare, please, visit Branchbrook Park, Forest Hills, or NJPAC.
-SablKnight
OK, I'm gonna get blasted for this, but what the hell.
"Native" means born in a place.
"Indigenous" or "Aboriginal" means from a culture that originated in that place.
I (German-Ukranian) am "native" to America, since I was born there. I am not, however, aboriginal, which means I can't run casinos in many places, and that I sound particularly dorky talking about spirit guides, dream quests, and the like.
Resume flaming.
-SablKnight
A couple of engineers are sitting around discussing what type of engineer God is. Eventually their arguments settle on using the human body as a reference point.
An electrical engineer points out that the body depends on the electrical nervous system, and that since this is the core of the design, then obviously God is an EE.
A chemical engineer counters this, stating that the neurons, like all the rest of the body, wouldn't work at all without complex chemical interactions, as well as the flow of blood through the vast fluid flow network of the circulatory system.
The lone civil engineer of the group just laughs at all of them, pointing out that God must be a CivE, since nobody else would think to run a toxic waste line through a major recreational area!
Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal!
-SablKnight
A priest, a lawyer, and an engineer are sentenced to die by the guillotine. The priest is led up the steps, his head is put in place, and the string is pulled. Nothing happens. The priest exclaims, "A miracle! God has saved me!" and is let free.
The lawyer is next, he also is put in place and the string is pulled. Again, nothing happens. He stands up and successfully argues that legally, the prisoner cannot be executed twice for the same crime, and he also is set free.
The engineer is led up to the guillotine, but before the executioners can put his head in place he calls out, "Wait! You've got a problem in the release mechanism!"
-SablKnight
Actually, it's "Take what you want" I think.
-SablKnight
I'm not complaining about the whole alternating boycott weeks thing, but rather, why did so many people bitch and moan when New Line released the special extended edition of "Fellowship of the Ring" with full disclosure beforehand, and seem to not mind blatant moneygrubbing like this? I love FotR, I knew that the EE was coming out, so I waited patiently (sort of) for it to be released. I love the Matrix too, so, not knowing that a bajillion re-releases were coming, I bought it when it was first available. Look at the Bond DVDs... release magnificent boxed sets of everything, then some time later, start re-releasing! But people complain about two versions of a new movie being released within a few months of each other with press releases before the first declaring their intentions. Whatever.
-SablKnight
A friend of mine used to work at Dolby and he told me this same thing. It's very cost effective for the theater, but is extremely bad for the film stock and tends to deteriorate it at a much higher rate than if it were just shown for the equivalent number of screenings.
SablKnight
I saw the movie last night at midnight; I was both very excited and very worried. I was not dissappointed. Most of your points are valid, but I do have to comment on them.
Gimli - Yeah, too much comic relief. I didn't have a problem with him lagging behind on the run, but it should have been because he's naturally slower, not because he was tired. I think that was in the book. Also, I seem to remember him having a problem finding armor that fit in the book as well, but all in all, too much comedy.
Frodo and Sam - yeah, the sidetrip to Osgiliath was a little unnecessary. This was what I was most afraid of going in. But I think it worked, just not exactly like the book. I was really worried about Faramir, but if you think about it, he made the choice that his brother could not. That does make him the stronger one. His was a good performance in my opinion.
Aragorn's fall - this too, I could have done without.
Eowyn - I thought this was pretty much the way it should have been. Aragorn wouldn't give her the time of day in the book, IIRC.
Ninja Ents - I do recall there being a massive battle with the Ents in Isengard. It just wasn't part of the main text, it was related by Merry and Pippin after the fact. Ents did stomp orcs, throw rocks, and get set on fire. And in the end they did open the dams.
Gollum/Smeagol. I did like this. At first, I didn't like the way Gollum was rendered. It was almost too realistic, he seemed more 3d than the actors, since they were in a very harsh light and he seemed more rounded out based on how he was rendered. But if you compare the visuals of Gandalf coming through the pass at the end, it was actual footage and seems just as unrealistic, so I can live with it. The psychology was spot-on though.
Other stuff - I think that the 'exorcism' could have been done better. Theoden should have regained some skin tone and lost some wrinkles, but his beard and nails should have stayed unkempt until he got cleaned up. Gandalf was perfect, if not in the picture enough. There should have been no elves at Helm's Deep other than Legolas; I don't think there was any reason for this at all. And if anybody had sent them, it should have been Galadriel, not Elrond.
One more comment...
The problem is: The first one stayed [largely] true to the book and really felt like it was obviously saying, "Fuck holywood, we're going to make this one right." This one feels much more like, "Hey, we made a really successful movie, so we are God. Let's fuck with whatever we need to to get the holywood weaned audience in and happy." The stupid thing is, the first one was so good exactly because they DIDN'T pander to holywood style.
Since all three movies were shot at once, this was a decision made long before the success of the first movie was known. Doing the middle of a trilogy is always going to be difficult for a number of reasons already presented by many people, and the storyline did need some tweaking. That said, some things did seem added just for the hell of it, with no real intent to further the storyline. Anyway, I've said enough for now...
SablKnight
Wow, legal proof that you should always split the check...
-SablKnight
OK, what TSOL really needs here is a GTA crossover. Think about it! After buying little Billy Sim his pet dog, you can see them both get run down by a camaro, the driver still clutching a fistfull of money dripping with hooker blood! Have to push for this, definitely.
-SablKnight
Write (spam :-) your congress person.
Since congresscritters tend to do things for their own benefit most of the time, maybe we could make things more personal. Grab their e-mail addresses (the public ones are probably OK, private ones better but more shady) and include them in your signature when you post to newsgroups, e-mail lists, what-have-you. Something innocent, like:
I participate in the legal system, you should too!
E-mail your representatives! Mine are:
Sen. Bribetaker: bribetaker@senate.gov.fake
Sen. Moneybags: moneybags@senate.gov.fake
Rep. B.S.Artiste: artiste@congress.gov.fake
or whatever. Then post furiously in public forums, let the address grabbers pick up on the addresses, and wait until pure annoyance causes anti-spam legislation.
-SablKnight
Ever heard the vans with loud-speakers that go around town campaigning for a certain candidate? Notice how a politician in the U.S. would go to jail if he tried it.
I don't know where you live, but local politicians do this all the time around me (NJ). It gets really damned annoying too. Plus there's the door-to-door people trying to excite interest in themselves or the candidates they represent. And there's the mudslinging on TV all the time. If I didn't feel the civic urge to vote, I'd lock myself in a closet for about a month before voting day.
Politicians make the laws, they can get away with whatever the hell they want.
-SablKnight