A&E is releasing sets of DVDs comprising all the episodes of three ITC classics: Space 1999, The Prisoner, and The Thunderbirds.
The Prisoner: Can this be labeled scifi? I think so. It had those white bubble thingys, right (what were they)? Kinda James Bondish but man this was a great show.
The Thunderbirds: Marionettes with an attitude. The models in this show were so detailed you had to be impressed.
Space 1999: One of my all time favourites. I actually think this show had more atmosphere than Star Trek. Moon Base Alpha was just such a dark and forboding place. The stories had none of the cheerfulness of the Trek shows. The cast was great (Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Barry Morse), the effects were pretty good for the day, and some of the stories were outstanding. Check it out if you were too young to catch it the first time around.
All sets contain two DVDs. Each Prisoner boxed set seem to contain around 4 epsiodes, while the Space 1999 and Thunderbirds contain 6 episodes per set.
Ethical Hacking is just a term people use to justify their illegal activities, done for selfish reasons (the thrill or challenge), not for the good of the systems owner who didn't ask for the cracker's help. If he was really looking out for the best interests of the system's owner, a simple email would suffice (although the cracker might not know about the flaw without an attack, which would be unethical).
A better analogy for "ethical" hacking would be a person exploiting a flaw in my home alarm system and breaking into my house. This person entering my house may make claims to me that this was merely ethical breaking and entering (or ethical home invasion?) and that he was merely pointing out flaws in my home alarm system. He can keep claiming that this was "ethical" behavior right up to the point where I put him down with my 9mm home protection device, or until the cops haul him away.
Of course then everybody will be whining when this guy gets some prison time (probably more than seven years) because really very little damage was done when he broke into my home and he was merely "helping" me to see the flaws in my home security system. But hopefully, the effect would be that those practicing the arts of "ethical" breaking and entering will think twice before they decide to do it again.
To say that gaming is a form of art is debateable. Gaming is first and foremost a means of entertainment (although there is often educational value), and part of the entertainment industry. Entertainment does not necessarily equal art.
Let me make the disclaimer that naturally any statements I make about what is art and its value are subject to interprettaion, but you should get the general idea.
The motivation behind art is to evoke an emotional response from a person/people, particularly the artist. Primarily, art is produced to indulge the artist. While the artist hopes for a favorable reaction from others, as long as the artist is happy with what he's produced, that's what really matters.
Entertainment on the otherhand, while it does evoke an emotional response, is generally produced to engage the mind. As far as the entertainment industry is concerned, this will hopefully result in people throwing huge wads of cash at them.
Now, one reason we have government and privately sponsored arts endowements/funds/etc... is to encourage these artists to continue to produce these things which we feel may have some sort of cultural value. These things may stand the test of time and point out what a great society/civilization we were to have produced such marvels.
Now I'm not saying that games have nothing of artistic value to them. As a programmer, I like to think of myself as a craftsman. And certainly there must be some artistic value to some of the visuals and music produced for a game. But that doesn't make the game as a whole something we want to preserve and encourage people to create as something that will point to what a great civilization/society we have. Therefore, gaming is not something we as a society want to be throwing public funds at.
Gaming MAY have some scientific value. I'm sure that some of the awesome 3D and AI routines game designers are coming up with may have some greater applications. Unfortunately though, the reasons these routines are being developed is to make money (having the better product than your competitor). That's why public funds for this type of research are thrown at the people who are tackling specific problems which we feel as a society it is in out best interests to solve.
Unfortunately many of the responses here are what I come to expect from the Slashdot crowd, with dissenting opinions generally modded down.
It saddens me that no one here seems to be appalled by the fact that the Dems have been so intent on making sure this whole sordid affair is mired in the judicial system. The Gore campaign seems to embody the recent litigious direction our society has been turning. 'I feel I am entitled to something and the courts will give it to me.' The Gore campaign has even gone as far as 'judge shopping'. It is also unfortunate that the Bush campaign has decided to hop on the litigation bandwagon, but I do believe they were given no choice, as they were forced to represent their interests in the courts as well.
It is also convenient that the Dem supporters here (most of the Slashdotters by the looks of it) choose to ignore the absentee ballot issue. I guess it shouldn't surpise me though, as t has been the trend of the Dems and their supporters to discount the people who serve our country and are willing to back up their beliefs with something other than words and lawyers.
Why are the Dems afraid of the military vote? A large portion of the military are minorities who traditionally vote Democrat, as well as people who hail from Democrat supported parts of the country. I am from the northeast and was born and raised on the Kennedies, as democrat as they come. And why, since Billy-Bob has been in office, has military retention reached an all time, catastrophic low? Because the Dems have little interest in the people who maintain our freedom and way of life.
I served twelve years, but finally got fed up with having to deploy into combat zones all the time because the Dems cut our military to the point where we don't have the forces to adequately maintain the military commitments the Dems have levied on us. It is so bad that Guardsmen and Reservists are forced to set their lives aside for up to six months at a time so that they can help fullfill these commitments which the active forces can no longer sustain. Many of these Guardsmen and Reservists return home to no job and no spouse, by the way. The tremendous tempo of recent military deployments is also destroying the familiy lives of the active duty forces. Divorces and suicides in the military are up since ole Billy Bob took the helm.
But back to the point... I am sure words like honor and responsibility are probably foreign to many here, but think what you are doing when you are supporting this guy who is only placing his own self-interests at heart, and not doing the honorable thing and stepping aside, and ignoring his responsibility to the American people by not ending this debacle he perpetrated in Florida.
It is obvious that the basic methodology behind the collecting of web stats is flawed. For one thing, most web sites count requests, when in fact it is individual sessions that sould be counted.
Now if a company is interested in gathering web statistics in order to steer corporate decision making, then they should really look at collaborative filtering as a means to do this. No matter what else you have to say about Amazon.com, their implementation of the Net Perceptions collaborative filtering engine is incredibly accurate at analyzing and predicting their customers' needs/desires.
Slashdot Mirror
A&E is releasing sets of DVDs comprising all the episodes of three ITC classics: Space 1999, The Prisoner, and The Thunderbirds. The Prisoner: Can this be labeled scifi? I think so. It had those white bubble thingys, right (what were they)? Kinda James Bondish but man this was a great show. The Thunderbirds: Marionettes with an attitude. The models in this show were so detailed you had to be impressed. Space 1999: One of my all time favourites. I actually think this show had more atmosphere than Star Trek. Moon Base Alpha was just such a dark and forboding place. The stories had none of the cheerfulness of the Trek shows. The cast was great (Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Barry Morse), the effects were pretty good for the day, and some of the stories were outstanding. Check it out if you were too young to catch it the first time around. All sets contain two DVDs. Each Prisoner boxed set seem to contain around 4 epsiodes, while the Space 1999 and Thunderbirds contain 6 episodes per set.
A better analogy for "ethical" hacking would be a person exploiting a flaw in my home alarm system and breaking into my house. This person entering my house may make claims to me that this was merely ethical breaking and entering (or ethical home invasion?) and that he was merely pointing out flaws in my home alarm system. He can keep claiming that this was "ethical" behavior right up to the point where I put him down with my 9mm home protection device, or until the cops haul him away.
Of course then everybody will be whining when this guy gets some prison time (probably more than seven years) because really very little damage was done when he broke into my home and he was merely "helping" me to see the flaws in my home security system. But hopefully, the effect would be that those practicing the arts of "ethical" breaking and entering will think twice before they decide to do it again.
Let me make the disclaimer that naturally any statements I make about what is art and its value are subject to interprettaion, but you should get the general idea.
The motivation behind art is to evoke an emotional response from a person/people, particularly the artist. Primarily, art is produced to indulge the artist. While the artist hopes for a favorable reaction from others, as long as the artist is happy with what he's produced, that's what really matters.
Entertainment on the otherhand, while it does evoke an emotional response, is generally produced to engage the mind. As far as the entertainment industry is concerned, this will hopefully result in people throwing huge wads of cash at them.
Now, one reason we have government and privately sponsored arts endowements/funds/etc... is to encourage these artists to continue to produce these things which we feel may have some sort of cultural value. These things may stand the test of time and point out what a great society/civilization we were to have produced such marvels.
Now I'm not saying that games have nothing of artistic value to them. As a programmer, I like to think of myself as a craftsman. And certainly there must be some artistic value to some of the visuals and music produced for a game. But that doesn't make the game as a whole something we want to preserve and encourage people to create as something that will point to what a great civilization/society we have. Therefore, gaming is not something we as a society want to be throwing public funds at.
Gaming MAY have some scientific value. I'm sure that some of the awesome 3D and AI routines game designers are coming up with may have some greater applications. Unfortunately though, the reasons these routines are being developed is to make money (having the better product than your competitor). That's why public funds for this type of research are thrown at the people who are tackling specific problems which we feel as a society it is in out best interests to solve.
But I guess that's a whole different topic...
Unfortunately many of the responses here are what I come to expect from the Slashdot crowd, with dissenting opinions generally modded down. It saddens me that no one here seems to be appalled by the fact that the Dems have been so intent on making sure this whole sordid affair is mired in the judicial system. The Gore campaign seems to embody the recent litigious direction our society has been turning. 'I feel I am entitled to something and the courts will give it to me.' The Gore campaign has even gone as far as 'judge shopping'. It is also unfortunate that the Bush campaign has decided to hop on the litigation bandwagon, but I do believe they were given no choice, as they were forced to represent their interests in the courts as well. It is also convenient that the Dem supporters here (most of the Slashdotters by the looks of it) choose to ignore the absentee ballot issue. I guess it shouldn't surpise me though, as t has been the trend of the Dems and their supporters to discount the people who serve our country and are willing to back up their beliefs with something other than words and lawyers. Why are the Dems afraid of the military vote? A large portion of the military are minorities who traditionally vote Democrat, as well as people who hail from Democrat supported parts of the country. I am from the northeast and was born and raised on the Kennedies, as democrat as they come. And why, since Billy-Bob has been in office, has military retention reached an all time, catastrophic low? Because the Dems have little interest in the people who maintain our freedom and way of life. I served twelve years, but finally got fed up with having to deploy into combat zones all the time because the Dems cut our military to the point where we don't have the forces to adequately maintain the military commitments the Dems have levied on us. It is so bad that Guardsmen and Reservists are forced to set their lives aside for up to six months at a time so that they can help fullfill these commitments which the active forces can no longer sustain. Many of these Guardsmen and Reservists return home to no job and no spouse, by the way. The tremendous tempo of recent military deployments is also destroying the familiy lives of the active duty forces. Divorces and suicides in the military are up since ole Billy Bob took the helm. But back to the point... I am sure words like honor and responsibility are probably foreign to many here, but think what you are doing when you are supporting this guy who is only placing his own self-interests at heart, and not doing the honorable thing and stepping aside, and ignoring his responsibility to the American people by not ending this debacle he perpetrated in Florida.
Now if a company is interested in gathering web statistics in order to steer corporate decision making, then they should really look at collaborative filtering as a means to do this. No matter what else you have to say about Amazon.com, their implementation of the Net Perceptions collaborative filtering engine is incredibly accurate at analyzing and predicting their customers' needs/desires.
Spraying graffiti on the outside of my house/business is not a felony. Breaking into my house/business and spraying graffiti most certainly is.