"... Being a huge Asimov fan I have not made up my mind if this is a good or bad thing. "
Man. I understand your mixed feelings on this one. It's like being a Judge Dredd fan and wathing Stallone unmask and otherwise butcher a legend. Considering Smith's recent work, I have the feeling I must miss this one, as I just can't see him doing a good serious acting job. Can anyone vouch a good bit of dramatic work he's actually done? Seems like a blunder in the making.
Nobody in their right mind is going to mess with them until they absolutely can't get strung along anymore, because they know that crashing, say, a HMO's appointment handling system would be what we call a "career limiting" move.
Ah, yeah, we sane people can say that. But, haven't you ever met the kind of department head who comes in and says, "No Sir, I don't like it", changes everything and then departs before the fecal matter hits the impeller? Stuff happens. Even when conventional wisdom screams, "No, you fool, leave well enough alone", because change, goals and accomplishments are what advancement minded people look to as opportunity, and usually its the peons who get blamed for when it doesn't work, not the guy who broke it.
Many times we've tossed similar thoughts around at work, when would PC's replace big iron. Well, CPU speed isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's like a hamster going 3,000 RPM on a treadmill. Fast, yeah, but it's still a hamster. PC's are firmly geared toward single user, desktop apps, even x86 servers take a lot of money to measure up to the HP 9000 we're running our development system on.
I'm sure the humblest x86 can now run rings around old PDP 11 and IBM 360 systems, but it's still amazing how fast some parts of those old machines were, including core memory swap disks.
These are merely my observations, your mileage may vary:
Spam increases on weekends, usually Friday through Sunday I'm hit hardest.
Fraudulent spam usually arrives late afternoon on Fridays, (IMHO) due to weakest period of weak for customer support and access to policing agencies.
My volume, on average daily basis, has already doubled since September.
Purveyors of adult material are no longer coy about it, the subject lines are pretty clear about content.
If your phone rang as many times, or your postal mailbox were filled with the same daily content, government would do something about it, or heads would roll.
Years of frustrated users, with tempers rising in all parts of the country, some parting with the Web, due to high pressure sells from spam and a few fleeced of their retirements over the plains states.
I just got back from a week off and found 472 pieces of junk in my mailbox and web advertising as relentless as ever. Someone is paying, but perhaps fewer people, considering the attitudes of some friends, they can live without it all. I wonder which demographics then are more highly represented?
"Look ma, I got 18 more offers to make money at home and a penile enlargement and russian women are dying to meet me! Hyuk! Hyuk!"
Found this also, you all might enjoy. I think it's Flash, so be forewarned. People here were busting out laughing at these great sendups, a cross between Flintstones and Star Trek.
Back when we used to write
pacman for the terminals and run it in 2 in the morning.
I recall playing VT100 invaders on a PDP 11/50, which was pretty darn cool. Among other games, all we lacked was 3D and third dimension thinking. The logic behind the games still remains pretty much the same. (The fellow who wrote NBA JAM originally cut his teeth writing squash and tennis games to play on VT52 terminals)
Still, those behemoth VAXen, PDP, System 370s, etc. did introduce those of us to tried, to writing multiplayer/multi access applications.
Pick on Crichton if you must...
on
Electronic Life
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Pick on Crichton if you must, but even Bill Gates failed to anticipate the impact of the internet in "The Road Ahead" They're not alone. The textbook I was assigned to buy for college classes, back in 1983, were as as fanciful and completely off target as Crichton and Gates.
A more enlightened approach would have been to observe what people were actually doing and how a vastly faster computer of small size might be useable to them, in ways other than balancing their checkbook.
Science fiction and some really old comic books are amazingly on target, frequently, although they still depicted computers as being massive things.
... It just seems like they shoulda tried to release it before "Die Another Day" to get higher opening day ticket sales, instead of battling the other two movies for income.
Redundant? Not really, silly moderator.
A valid point, however, this is the time of year to roll out your
big budget flicks. Though I'll be camping the Thanksgiving week away, I'll have about 10 days of solid vacation from mid-december onward and, like many others, and kids of young ages, too, I'll be standing in line with my wad of bucks and conveniently forgetting what bastards the MPAA are.
"I'll have a small popcorn with synthetic butter-like grease and a small Coke." "That's $15.25. Will that be cash, check, credit, or would you like to apply for a 20% interest loan?"
'For us it is not a question of Microsoft versus Linux. It is just a matter of choosing between a free software and a monopoly. We feel that when we are putting public information out in the open, then it should not be through a proprietary software.'
Do you suppose Digvijay Singh reads slashdot?
Meanwhile, deep in the bowels beneath stinking bowels beneath Redmond, a lone figure seeks comfort with his Ooky.
There's a line by Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) in Star Wars (A New Hope), I wish I could remember it verbatim, but it goes something like this:
addressing Darth Vader: "the more you tighten your grip, the more
star systems will slip through your fingers"
The reason I bring this up is because game players loyalty is only so strong. Keep trying to steer them toward your revenue vice and they'll just walk away. Better to work with them, you may lose a little, but you gain so much more with a loyal following.
I think they should merge Comdex and CES. So much shows up at CES (consumer electronics show) which really would also appear at a Comdex and the merging of business items (i.e. the PC) into entertainment (i.e. Home entertainment platform) they might as well. Besides, it also makes CES that much more worthwhile to sneak into as an, uh, respresentative of some ficticious business. (c=
There was a time when shows like Comdex were locally run, smaller shows, better targetted towards the local market (i.e. DPMA Great Lakes Computer Show, may it rest in peace) but being so uneconomical for manufacturers to zip all over the place they try to hold just a few big shows. Hmm.. seems not to be working, where's the scienterrific or economic model showing this failure? I know Computer Shopper is a mere shadow of it's former self, could it be the same forces? I don't think so, probably just less interest in spending on IT at the moment, and IT is reaching the point in the curve where advances produces less of a return, so older equipment and software is just fine.
Seriously, isn't this thing overrated? IMHO the person who can quiet down noisy skateboards should get a Nobel prize, but skateboards, scooters, bicycles, rollerblades and Razors (and assorted ripoffs) all have if over these things because they're self powered, efficient and effective. And, you could buy a full set of all of the above, at a very high quality for the minimum price of one Segway. I expect they have some nice limited use, but they're no substitute for ambulation.
By the way Segways are now for sale, not shipping until March, but if you've got $4K rattling around and want to look like Dick Tracy, all else you'll need is the hat and trench coat.
Title shoudl read "yet, more animated star wars" there was the ewoks and there was some cartoon with c3po and r2d2 for a while. I don't hold much hope for it being anything more than half hour long toy commercials, milking (or further watering down) the Star Wars franchise.
Perhaps on a better note, and possibly already mentioned somewhere here, Rendezvous with Rama is apparently to be all CGI, due out next year sometime. See here for details.
At the end of a long list of credits, which I didn't sit through as I had to visit the loo, I heard Gilderoy Lockhart appears in one of the animated picture frames wearing a straight jacket.
He played the part well and say what you like about Rickman's Severus Snape being a bit part, the part of Mr. Nasty is played well enough by (David Bradley) Argus Filch and (Jason Isaacs) Lucius Malfoy, meanwhile Professor Flitwick looks like a bad rubber toy.
shaped somewhat like a dragon (it has the shiny curves of an AIBO, IMO). The Banryu can walk 15m/min., hear, sense in the infrared, and apparently "smell" a fire in the home. It even transmit real-time video."
He can sense fire, scare intruders, run about 15m per SECOND, he's still working on the real time video... Really, this is a cool gadget, but who needs it?
Who needs Legos PC cases?
Who needs case mods?
Who needs overclocking with liquid nitrogen?
Who needs a PDA with Linux?
YOU do! Now get out there and get busy! Start by imagining a beowulf cluster of these things and proceed to make them do things unnatural to their original design (i.e. have it go down the street for pizza while you're sitting here reading slashdot) Maybe make it walk your dog for you. Make it talk like Yoda! Endless are the possibilities!
Democrats were the Tax and Spenders? Most states are have Republican Governors.
Democrats "got" us into wars. Bush Sr. didn't finish the job, now Jr. wants to, with considerably less justification.
I've heard the parties have been doing a flip-flop, and aren't as far apart ideologially as they once were, but I've noticed the other parties have done better in gathering votes in this mid-term election. Could a coalition government be far away?
As for taxes on internet, mail and phone sales, I'm all for them. Rather than chasing business from the web, businesses will now be courted to locate based upon where their market is, which is a good thing, considering where I live. I've got a monitor on order, from a place in Miami. It's sitting on the dock in Oakland, 90 miles away from me, but it has to go to Miami, then back to me, rather than finding a place with a better price near the port of entry.
It was prescribed because within two years I went from negative to positive. It's not really so bad, I just have to cut back on beer and watch a few things. I had a reaction on Friday night and it scared the heck out of me. The main concern is that TB is very difficult to kill, partially because the body's defense it to trap it. That means it could reside, quietly for decades then come out when I'm 70+ and have a bad bronchial infection. BOOM!
By and large I don't worry much. There's worse things, and I've lived through one of them. Eat well, exercise, get rest and you're probably pretty safe. People who get TB and die generally live in shitty conditions and have poor diets.
Slashdot Mirror
Man. I understand your mixed feelings on this one. It's like being a Judge Dredd fan and wathing Stallone unmask and otherwise butcher a legend. Considering Smith's recent work, I have the feeling I must miss this one, as I just can't see him doing a good serious acting job. Can anyone vouch a good bit of dramatic work he's actually done? Seems like a blunder in the making.
Now Wil Wheaton, that's another story ;-)
Ah, yeah, we sane people can say that. But, haven't you ever met the kind of department head who comes in and says, "No Sir, I don't like it", changes everything and then departs before the fecal matter hits the impeller? Stuff happens. Even when conventional wisdom screams, "No, you fool, leave well enough alone", because change, goals and accomplishments are what advancement minded people look to as opportunity, and usually its the peons who get blamed for when it doesn't work, not the guy who broke it.
I'm sure the humblest x86 can now run rings around old PDP 11 and IBM 360 systems, but it's still amazing how fast some parts of those old machines were, including core memory swap disks.
Spam increases on weekends, usually Friday through Sunday I'm hit hardest.
Fraudulent spam usually arrives late afternoon on Fridays, (IMHO) due to weakest period of weak for customer support and access to policing agencies.
My volume, on average daily basis, has already doubled since September.
Purveyors of adult material are no longer coy about it, the subject lines are pretty clear about content.
If your phone rang as many times, or your postal mailbox were filled with the same daily content, government would do something about it, or heads would roll.
I just got back from a week off and found 472 pieces of junk in my mailbox and web advertising as relentless as ever. Someone is paying, but perhaps fewer people, considering the attitudes of some friends, they can live without it all. I wonder which demographics then are more highly represented?
"Look ma, I got 18 more offers to make money at home and a penile enlargement and russian women are dying to meet me! Hyuk! Hyuk!"
StoneTrek
I recall playing VT100 invaders on a PDP 11/50, which was pretty darn cool. Among other games, all we lacked was 3D and third dimension thinking. The logic behind the games still remains pretty much the same. (The fellow who wrote NBA JAM originally cut his teeth writing squash and tennis games to play on VT52 terminals)
Still, those behemoth VAXen, PDP, System 370s, etc. did introduce those of us to tried, to writing multiplayer/multi access applications.
A more enlightened approach would have been to observe what people were actually doing and how a vastly faster computer of small size might be useable to them, in ways other than balancing their checkbook.
Science fiction and some really old comic books are amazingly on target, frequently, although they still depicted computers as being massive things.
Star Trekkin
Redundant? Not really, silly moderator.
A valid point, however, this is the time of year to roll out your big budget flicks. Though I'll be camping the Thanksgiving week away, I'll have about 10 days of solid vacation from mid-december onward and, like many others, and kids of young ages, too, I'll be standing in line with my wad of bucks and conveniently forgetting what bastards the MPAA are.
"I'll have a small popcorn with synthetic butter-like grease and a small Coke."
"That's $15.25. Will that be cash, check, credit, or would you like to apply for a 20% interest loan?"
not as we know it,
not as we know it
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, Captain
Mathematica
LPL
AMPL
I code it all myself in assembler, thank you very much!
Fingers and toes
Another method
CowboyNeal works it out for me on his abacus
Do you suppose Digvijay Singh reads slashdot?
Meanwhile, deep in the bowels beneath stinking bowels beneath Redmond, a lone figure seeks comfort with his Ooky.
addressing Darth Vader: "the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers"
The reason I bring this up is because game players loyalty is only so strong. Keep trying to steer them toward your revenue vice and they'll just walk away. Better to work with them, you may lose a little, but you gain so much more with a loyal following.
There was a time when shows like Comdex were locally run, smaller shows, better targetted towards the local market (i.e. DPMA Great Lakes Computer Show, may it rest in peace) but being so uneconomical for manufacturers to zip all over the place they try to hold just a few big shows. Hmm.. seems not to be working, where's the scienterrific or economic model showing this failure? I know Computer Shopper is a mere shadow of it's former self, could it be the same forces? I don't think so, probably just less interest in spending on IT at the moment, and IT is reaching the point in the curve where advances produces less of a return, so older equipment and software is just fine.
Seriously, isn't this thing overrated? IMHO the person who can quiet down noisy skateboards should get a Nobel prize, but skateboards, scooters, bicycles, rollerblades and Razors (and assorted ripoffs) all have if over these things because they're self powered, efficient and effective. And, you could buy a full set of all of the above, at a very high quality for the minimum price of one Segway. I expect they have some nice limited use, but they're no substitute for ambulation.
Damn, he's faster than Santa Claus!
By the way Segways are now for sale, not shipping until March, but if you've got $4K rattling around and want to look like Dick Tracy, all else you'll need is the hat and trench coat.
Diet Smith, we hardly new you.
Perhaps on a better note, and possibly already mentioned somewhere here, Rendezvous with Rama is apparently to be all CGI, due out next year sometime. See here for details.
He played the part well and say what you like about Rickman's Severus Snape being a bit part, the part of Mr. Nasty is played well enough by (David Bradley) Argus Filch and (Jason Isaacs) Lucius Malfoy, meanwhile Professor Flitwick looks like a bad rubber toy.
Who needs Legos PC cases?
Who needs case mods?
Who needs overclocking with liquid nitrogen?
Who needs a PDA with Linux?
YOU do! Now get out there and get busy! Start by imagining a beowulf cluster of these things and proceed to make them do things unnatural to their original design (i.e. have it go down the street for pizza while you're sitting here reading slashdot) Maybe make it walk your dog for you. Make it talk like Yoda! Endless are the possibilities!
...and next thing you know North Korea will turn it into a weapon!
Democrats were the Tax and Spenders? Most states are have Republican Governors.
Democrats "got" us into wars. Bush Sr. didn't finish the job, now Jr. wants to, with considerably less justification.
I've heard the parties have been doing a flip-flop, and aren't as far apart ideologially as they once were, but I've noticed the other parties have done better in gathering votes in this mid-term election. Could a coalition government be far away?
As for taxes on internet, mail and phone sales, I'm all for them. Rather than chasing business from the web, businesses will now be courted to locate based upon where their market is, which is a good thing, considering where I live. I've got a monitor on order, from a place in Miami. It's sitting on the dock in Oakland, 90 miles away from me, but it has to go to Miami, then back to me, rather than finding a place with a better price near the port of entry.
I thought it was: "I think someone just received a FAX!"
By and large I don't worry much. There's worse things, and I've lived through one of them. Eat well, exercise, get rest and you're probably pretty safe. People who get TB and die generally live in shitty conditions and have poor diets.