Chris Cunningham, the guy who directed the Bjork video, "All is Full of Love," worked with Kubrick on this thing for about a year and a half. He apparently had piles of robots made for the thing. Judging from the robots in the Bjork video, they were probably cool as hell.
Spielberg has hired Stan Winston to do the FX on this one though, which I'm sure means a big pile o' CGI poop.
Interesting that I'd see this tonight, since I finsihed reading Killing Time a couple of days ago. Not a great book, but certainly not a bad one either. Some of his ideas are very important to think about.
The central premise of the book is that since information is so easy to manipulate and modify, that everything you read, hear, or see via some form of media is suspect. Or, at least, it will be in 20 years or so.
His article makes a couple of assumptions. First, that governmental regulation is better than corporate regulation. Probably, but governmental regulation has, in so many ways, been a tool of corporate interest. Nobody is going to convince me that the government overall acts in the interest of the people, unless they are rich. Also, in the novel, the government is one of the prime manipulators of information to control the population.
The second assumption is that traditional media is more reliable and accurate than what you find on the web. This is true to a point, but the largest media providers, including print, are owned by large corporations. I trust what I read in The Nation more than what I might read in USA Today. I agree that the editorial process is a Good Thing, and trust that most of the 'facts' presented in print have been checked. But, the choice of what to present is more and more being curtailed by the interests of the corporations that control the providers.
During the Crusades, a band of Germans slaughtered an entire town, which was mostly Jewish. The Cambridge Medieval History from 1968 refers to this incident as "the misbehaviour of some Germans."
Or, take the story of the Alamo. There is a Kurt Vonnegut novel that breifly explains why there was a fight there in the first place. This story, which is presented in text books as a swashbuckling tale of good Americans fighting injustice against insurmountible odds, has more to it that you may have read in the 8th grade. The Mexican army attacked because the Good Folk of San Antonio owned slaves. Slavery was illegal in Mexico, and San Antonio was a part of Mexico at the time. So, the heros of the Alamo were fighting for the right to own slaves. How utterly American.
You may believe that or you may not. I read it, and it seemed entirely reasonible to me. What's interesting is that I believe it, even though I've never been able to confirm the information. Vonnegut very well could have been making it up. I have been trying to confirm that story, on and off, in various sources for the last five years. I have had no luck.
The last time I attempted to find any confirmation on this information, which I was exposed to about 10 years ago (or more), was about three years ago. I tried looking for info on the Web, which was much smaller then. I have just searched Google for the same thing. There appear to be several essays on the subject out there. Some of them appear to be genuine pieces of scholarship.
I agree that our information exposure might well become a more serious problem. I agree with Clifford Stoll that we don't need more computers in public schools. I also believe that an ideal situation for the Net would be one not regulated by governments or corporations. I also believe this is possible.
This mandate for blocking software irks me to no end, for reasons that go beyond the simple speech issues.
In mandating this, the government is requiring the purchase of products (blocking software) from third parties by public institutions with public funds. The measure doesn't go so far as to mandate a particular brand of software, but this is still Corporate Welfare.
The editorial process is a Good Thing. The accuracy and validity of anything on the Web must be questioned, since there is no editorial process over 99% of the content. People want things fast, cheap, and good. You can have two but never all three. The Web is fast and cheap, but not good, like McDonalds.
In a time when schools are removing libraries to make room for computer labs, there are more important things to be worrying about than if your kids can get to Hamsterdance without cracking their blocking software.
What would you trust more, the Oxford English Dictionary, or Encarta.com?
Tuxgames will sell Q3-TA with a Linux binary CD
on
id On Linux: Bad News
·
· Score: 2
From Linuxquake:
id has stated pretty certainly that the Team Arena CD will not ship with Linux binaries onboard. You will have to download them.
To try and add some backbone to the Linux market share report, Tux Games will ship a Linux installation CD with each copy of Team Arena we sell. As we are a gaming company just for Linux, we will be able to attribute all of our sales to Linux. Lets hope we get enough sales to persuade id to release on the same CD (or on ourown CD) next time.
I agree wholeheartedly with the tasty goodness of Chani/Barbora Kodetova. I don't mind Sean Young, but I didn't care for her much as Chani in the Lynch movie. Not nearly tough enough.
I read the first book the first time when I was probably 11 or 12, in '83 or so. Chani was my fictional girlfriend.
I think it's pretty normal for boys, once hormonal hell starts to kick in, to have a torrid love affair with a fictional character. Especially those Geek Boys (which I certainly was) who believe they have no chance with real girls whatsoever. The less geeked would maybe have fantasised love affairs with the likes of Madonna or Suzanne Sommers. Or, if nerdy enough, some big-breasted character from a Xanth novel.
Chani was my fictional ideal woman. Ms. Kodetova just about perfectly matches what any of my puberty enraged fantasies would have constructed if given the Weird Science chance.
I'm an Apple Seed tester. I won't violate my NDA (no more free crap!), so I'll be vague.
The public beta isn't the last beta before the final release. Updated versions between the PB and Release are being sent to seed testers. Not all of the changes between versions are bug fixes.
One interesting thing is that lots of Mac users who are running the PB have gotten interested in *nix. Many of the messages on the Seed message boards are of the "Where do I go to learn more about Unix?" flavor.
A lot of people seem to really LIKE the idea of having a shiny new car with a big-ass engine under the hood.
There are things about the mini that I like better than the Lynch movie. Then there are things that are just plain wrong.
I LIKE the new stillsuits. Well, I like them better than the ones in the Lynch movie. The Fremen look more like I thought they were described in the book, with robes and masks. They have a genuinely frightening appearance coming up out of the sand. I never cared for the whole bondage look that Lynch did, and could never figure out how those little tubes were supposed to capture moisture when everyone is talking and breathing through their mouths.
As far as the story goes... the novel has too much depth and is too long for even 6 hours to do it justice. Lynch dealt with this by cutting giant chunks of the movie out, but he pretty much explained what was going on in every scene he used. This mini-series make some huge assumptions, and the decision to eliminate the characters internal monologues was a huge mistake, since the novel depended on them so much.
I don't much care for the pronounciation of various things in the Mini. Like, "Harkonnen" and "Chani." The pronounciations in the Lynch movie pretty much matched what I thought they'd sound like when I read it the first time. PLUS, Lynch had access to Herbert, who was still alive when in 1984. I even had a tape of an interview with Lynch AND Herbert... wish I could find it so I could see how Frank pronounced certain things.
Interpretive dancers doing the post-water-of-life orgy scene??? Huh???? Well, it's TV I suppose. And why did the hunter-killer look like a sperm? They pretty much ignored the doctor and his imperial conditioning, and covered up his forhead HIDING THE DIAMOND TATTOO. C'mon, you know we were going to look for it.
The Chech actress playing Chani is a better choice that Sean Young was, I thought. I dunno, maybe the accent. The portrayal of the Barron in the mini is, I think, better. Evil and nasty, but not stupid...and not oozing slime on the floor either.
Fans of the book (and Dune is on my Five Favorite Novels list) can fill in the blanks in the mini and probably enjoy it.
A device which aids the end user in elevating heavy objects, or pieces of heavy objects, from any surface (ground, table, toilet, etc). Device consists of two parts:
1) A sturdy rod or plank of variable length (henceforth known as the CyberBar(tm)) which can be either flat or round.
2) An irregular-shaped polyhedron, also made of sturdy material (henceforth known as the HyperFocus(tm)).
The HyperFocus(tm) is placed some distance from the object to be elevated. The CyberBar(tm) is set on top of the HyperFocus(tm) by the User and one end of the HyperFocus(tm) is inserted under the object to be elevated.
The user can slide the Hyperfocus(tm) forward and backward, so as to create more LeverAge(tm). By pressing down on the oposite end of the CyberBar(tm), LeverAge(tm) is created, thereby elevating the object.
E doesn't have a whole lot of momentum these days. The truth is, most of it is still being written by Raster and Mandrake, who have real jobs. EFM *will* be sweet, but at the moment much of the sweet stuff it will do has been in the works for some time.
E is really just another face on top of X. Don't get me wrong, I love it, its the only WM I use, but one WM is much like another functionally (hmmm...instant flamebait?). I really don't think Raster is trying to put a super user-happy face on top of Linux. The point of E has always been about giving the user control to customize as much stuff as possible inside the GUI. E will never be the magic egg the Linux community is looking for (a GUI that your average iMac owner would have no trouble with...), because its philosophy runs counter to this.
And I really don't think the E-Team is after desktop domination anyway. They want to make cool, useful toys that other like-minded geeks will have fun with.
Irony: Half the people in IT staffs don't have time to read that article.
Whenever I read an article that focuses on some aspect of working in IT, or IS, or IS&T (when will we finally decide WHAT to call it?), I notice that journalists tend to zoom in on programmers.
While we certainly all love programmers (and who wouldn't? all those glowing eyes... staring at you...), Tech Support staffs are just as understaffed and harried as anyone.
I do TS for a small, private college. I have 8 servers and 200 workstations to take care of. I have a faculty teaching with software who don't know how to use the software. I have students who are used to being coddled who run to the President's office en masse whenever a zip disk gets stuck in a drive.
Many years ago, before the web was even new, a man named Jay David Bolter wrote a book called Writing Space. This book was written with/in a piece of software he (with others) was writing called Storyspace.
The preface to Writing Space reads:
You may make as many electronic copies of this text as you wish. You may distribute these copies to anyone under any terms. You may give the disks away or sell them. If you can convince someone to pay you for an electronic copy of this text, take the money.
This was written in the late 80's, and sounds a lot like the GPL applied to a piece of scholarship.
Incidently, Writing Space is availible from Eastgate Systems in electronic form for $10US.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't Bikram just a school for Hatha Yoga?
Spielberg has hired Stan Winston to do the FX on this one though, which I'm sure means a big pile o' CGI poop.
The central premise of the book is that since information is so easy to manipulate and modify, that everything you read, hear, or see via some form of media is suspect. Or, at least, it will be in 20 years or so.
His article makes a couple of assumptions. First, that governmental regulation is better than corporate regulation. Probably, but governmental regulation has, in so many ways, been a tool of corporate interest. Nobody is going to convince me that the government overall acts in the interest of the people, unless they are rich. Also, in the novel, the government is one of the prime manipulators of information to control the population.
The second assumption is that traditional media is more reliable and accurate than what you find on the web. This is true to a point, but the largest media providers, including print, are owned by large corporations. I trust what I read in The Nation more than what I might read in USA Today. I agree that the editorial process is a Good Thing, and trust that most of the 'facts' presented in print have been checked. But, the choice of what to present is more and more being curtailed by the interests of the corporations that control the providers.
During the Crusades, a band of Germans slaughtered an entire town, which was mostly Jewish. The Cambridge Medieval History from 1968 refers to this incident as "the misbehaviour of some Germans."
Or, take the story of the Alamo. There is a Kurt Vonnegut novel that breifly explains why there was a fight there in the first place. This story, which is presented in text books as a swashbuckling tale of good Americans fighting injustice against insurmountible odds, has more to it that you may have read in the 8th grade. The Mexican army attacked because the Good Folk of San Antonio owned slaves. Slavery was illegal in Mexico, and San Antonio was a part of Mexico at the time. So, the heros of the Alamo were fighting for the right to own slaves. How utterly American.
You may believe that or you may not. I read it, and it seemed entirely reasonible to me. What's interesting is that I believe it, even though I've never been able to confirm the information. Vonnegut very well could have been making it up. I have been trying to confirm that story, on and off, in various sources for the last five years. I have had no luck.
The last time I attempted to find any confirmation on this information, which I was exposed to about 10 years ago (or more), was about three years ago. I tried looking for info on the Web, which was much smaller then. I have just searched Google for the same thing. There appear to be several essays on the subject out there. Some of them appear to be genuine pieces of scholarship.
I agree that our information exposure might well become a more serious problem. I agree with Clifford Stoll that we don't need more computers in public schools. I also believe that an ideal situation for the Net would be one not regulated by governments or corporations. I also believe this is possible.
In mandating this, the government is requiring the purchase of products (blocking software) from third parties by public institutions with public funds. The measure doesn't go so far as to mandate a particular brand of software, but this is still Corporate Welfare.
But still, doing research on the Net is next to useless. Clifford Stoll's excellent meditation on technology in schools, High Tech Heretic questions the vallidity of ANY internet access in schools, especially pre High School.
The editorial process is a Good Thing. The accuracy and validity of anything on the Web must be questioned, since there is no editorial process over 99% of the content. People want things fast, cheap, and good. You can have two but never all three. The Web is fast and cheap, but not good, like McDonalds.
In a time when schools are removing libraries to make room for computer labs, there are more important things to be worrying about than if your kids can get to Hamsterdance without cracking their blocking software.
What would you trust more, the Oxford English Dictionary, or Encarta.com?
I read the first book the first time when I was probably 11 or 12, in '83 or so. Chani was my fictional girlfriend.
I think it's pretty normal for boys, once hormonal hell starts to kick in, to have a torrid love affair with a fictional character. Especially those Geek Boys (which I certainly was) who believe they have no chance with real girls whatsoever. The less geeked would maybe have fantasised love affairs with the likes of Madonna or Suzanne Sommers. Or, if nerdy enough, some big-breasted character from a Xanth novel.
Chani was my fictional ideal woman. Ms. Kodetova just about perfectly matches what any of my puberty enraged fantasies would have constructed if given the Weird Science chance.
Bravo ... very nice.
The public beta isn't the last beta before the final release. Updated versions between the PB and Release are being sent to seed testers. Not all of the changes between versions are bug fixes.
One interesting thing is that lots of Mac users who are running the PB have gotten interested in *nix. Many of the messages on the Seed message boards are of the "Where do I go to learn more about Unix?" flavor.
A lot of people seem to really LIKE the idea of having a shiny new car with a big-ass engine under the hood.
Lady Jessica (Francesca Annis) - Current lover of Ralph Fiennes, who is 20 years younger than her. (Hurm ...)
The Emperor (Jose Ferrer) - Dead.
Nefud (Jack Nance) - Dead.
Thufir (Freddy Jones) - Dead.
Barron Harkonnen (Ken McMillan) - Dead.
Alia (Alicia Witt) - Not dead but I bet you didn't know it was her.
Chani (Sean Young) - Career Dead.
I LIKE the new stillsuits. Well, I like them better than the ones in the Lynch movie. The Fremen look more like I thought they were described in the book, with robes and masks. They have a genuinely frightening appearance coming up out of the sand. I never cared for the whole bondage look that Lynch did, and could never figure out how those little tubes were supposed to capture moisture when everyone is talking and breathing through their mouths.
As far as the story goes ... the novel has too much depth and is too long for even 6 hours to do it justice. Lynch dealt with this by cutting giant chunks of the movie out, but he pretty much explained what was going on in every scene he used. This mini-series make some huge assumptions, and the decision to eliminate the characters internal monologues was a huge mistake, since the novel depended on them so much.
I don't much care for the pronounciation of various things in the Mini. Like, "Harkonnen" and "Chani." The pronounciations in the Lynch movie pretty much matched what I thought they'd sound like when I read it the first time. PLUS, Lynch had access to Herbert, who was still alive when in 1984. I even had a tape of an interview with Lynch AND Herbert ... wish I could find it so I could see how Frank pronounced certain things.
Interpretive dancers doing the post-water-of-life orgy scene??? Huh???? Well, it's TV I suppose. And why did the hunter-killer look like a sperm? They pretty much ignored the doctor and his imperial conditioning, and covered up his forhead HIDING THE DIAMOND TATTOO. C'mon, you know we were going to look for it.
The Chech actress playing Chani is a better choice that Sean Young was, I thought. I dunno, maybe the accent. The portrayal of the Barron in the mini is, I think, better. Evil and nasty, but not stupid...and not oozing slime on the floor either.
Fans of the book (and Dune is on my Five Favorite Novels list) can fill in the blanks in the mini and probably enjoy it.
1) A sturdy rod or plank of variable length (henceforth known as the CyberBar(tm)) which can be either flat or round.
2) An irregular-shaped polyhedron, also made of sturdy material (henceforth known as the HyperFocus(tm)).
The HyperFocus(tm) is placed some distance from the object to be elevated. The CyberBar(tm) is set on top of the HyperFocus(tm) by the User and one end of the HyperFocus(tm) is inserted under the object to be elevated.
The user can slide the Hyperfocus(tm) forward and backward, so as to create more LeverAge(tm). By pressing down on the oposite end of the CyberBar(tm), LeverAge(tm) is created, thereby elevating the object.
E is really just another face on top of X. Don't get me wrong, I love it, its the only WM I use, but one WM is much like another functionally (hmmm...instant flamebait?). I really don't think Raster is trying to put a super user-happy face on top of Linux. The point of E has always been about giving the user control to customize as much stuff as possible inside the GUI. E will never be the magic egg the Linux community is looking for (a GUI that your average iMac owner would have no trouble with ...), because its philosophy runs counter to this.
And I really don't think the E-Team is after desktop domination anyway. They want to make cool, useful toys that other like-minded geeks will have fun with.
Whenever I read an article that focuses on some aspect of working in IT, or IS, or IS&T (when will we finally decide WHAT to call it?), I notice that journalists tend to zoom in on programmers.
While we certainly all love programmers (and who wouldn't? all those glowing eyes ... staring at you ...), Tech Support staffs are just as understaffed and harried as anyone.
I do TS for a small, private college. I have 8 servers and 200 workstations to take care of. I have a faculty teaching with software who don't know how to use the software. I have students who are used to being coddled who run to the President's office en masse whenever a zip disk gets stuck in a drive.
Some days I'd rather be a programmer ... ugh.
The preface to Writing Space reads:
You may make as many electronic copies of this text as you wish. You may distribute these copies to anyone under any terms. You may give the disks away or sell them. If you can convince someone to pay you for an electronic copy of this text, take the money.
This was written in the late 80's, and sounds a lot like the GPL applied to a piece of scholarship.
Incidently, Writing Space is availible from Eastgate Systems in electronic form for $10US. :-)
His pithy little missives at the end of American Justice have already proven him a whore.
Sendmail supports the RBL as a feature in version 8 I believe. I'm not a sendmail hack at all, and I had the whole thing set up in about 10 minutes.