PBS is great if you like news and information selected to not offend their corporate donors Archer-Daniels Midland, GE and the like.
Then there is the obnoxious habit of saving their most popular programming for fund raising marathons (e.g. new episodes of Red Dwarf).
I hope this is true, speaking as a programmer working for a non dot.com start up. Unfortunatly, all the money invested in Donkeyhumper.com means VCs are poorer (having lost a lot of cash), and wary about new startup investments. Rather than simply admit that Donkeyhumper.com was a bad idea, many seem to lump all startups together as having been "too risky".
In our case, we are in the process of securing additional funding, and the VCs are wanting considerably more stock for their investment. As we will be needing that money to pay bills really soon, I suspect we are screwed.
If the pixel density of an LCD is quadrupled, then the effect of one bad pixel is 1/4 as noticeable. Meaning that if you have 4x as many bad pixels and they are distributed randomly across the screen, it will be harder to notice. Quadruple again, and a bad pixel is 1/16 as noticeable. At this point, error rates could be much higher, as you wouldn't be able to see an individual bad pixel.
That is what I am waiting for; massively higher resolution.
The most amazing parody was "Robotech 2 - Not Necessarily the Sentinals". I almost died...
My favorite line was "Just a pile of rust was all they found on that isle, but who would realize that just 10 years later, super space fortress Macross would arise?"
It came, of course, from the opening theme song of the first video only Macek release of Macross, before Robotech. In it, Hikaru was named "Rick Yamada", before becoming "Rick Hunter". And that song!
Macek didn't "introduce" anime, or make it popular in anyway whatsoever. He helped speed up the process, but that is all. I was there, and saw what was happening. We would have made it here without Macek. In the late 70's / early 80's, before Robotech, when anime was an "obscure cult", you could watch on TV:
Mazingar (Tranzor-Z)
Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets)
Yamato (Starblazers)
Maha Go (Speed Racer)
Go Lion/Dairugger 15 (Voltron)
And a variety of other more obscure ones. There were a number of "pioneers" who brought anime to American TV, going back to the 60's; the big shows being Tetsuwan Atom (Astroboy), Jungle Taitei (Kimba) and Maha Go (Speed Racer). These were shown on network cartoon prime time (Saturday morning), not afternoon syndication like Robotech.
The reason anime took off around the time of Robotech was due to three convergences:
VCRs - prior to the 80's, VCRs were non-existant, or highly priced. Once VCRs were affordable, tape trading became possible (one has to admire the early anime collectors, who had to get their Astro Boy on 16mm)
The Internet - this enabled isolated anime fans to make contact, and establish trading networks. More importantly, it enabled the sharing of information (plot summaries and scripts). Before this, knowledge was horded and often inaccurate.
Desktop Video - affordable computer video tools enabled the start of fan subtitling. Prior to the availability of fansubs, people sat in rooms watching videos in Japanese. Switching to an all sub/dub format made anime clubs far more accessable to the masses.
Macek just happened to have been butchering anime at the right time in history. And make no mistake, it was butchery. Cheap-ass dubs with bad acting and altered scripts. Robotech was mild compared to the travesty Macek made of Captain Harlock and Queen of 1000 Years.
My pro-gambler wanna-be friend tells me there is a method for making money at video poker. You have to check the odds listed on the machine, as not all are the same. Then you basically try and get a royal flush, but keep your eyes open for easy money along the way. Add to this the fact that you are getting points on your casino club card, plus free drinks...
I was afraid this was going to be the revenge of bad Streamline dubs. Maybe another "anime festival" featuring Akira, Fist Of the Northstar and Lensman.
I didn't realize Carl was out of business. I'll never forgive him for what he did to Captain Harlock...
I occasionally make music with friends. Some of those recordings were made on MiniDisc. I cannot make a digital copy of my own music. Admittedly, there are many affordibly ways to do home recording. However, MiniDisc is the only low-cost all-in-one digital recording device I am aware of (portable, records, plays back). Why should this technology be crippled?
In my case, we were rewritting "business intelligence" tools; data query, analysis and report writing, with a GUI. OO would not be that great for device drivers, due to inefficiencies.
I never said interfaces didn't change. In the course of the two year project, several interfaces changed multiple times. That did not make interfaces any less valuable however. It is simply a tool for managing complexity, and most OO advocates do not claim it is the magic solution for all situations.
I won't go into more detail on this; others have expressed my opinions more elquoently.
Is this why geeks like it more than other socio-cultural groups? It is well known that geeks are more scared of reality than other subcultures, and so are more likely to run from it into the comforting womb of fantasy.
So why is anime shown on prime time Japanese television? Or are the Japanese "geekier" than Americans?
And I dispute that this is a "well known fact"
I think we should think very carefully about how anime is promoted - it is clearly further removed from reality than other artforms, and so it is more dangerous.
Sure you can write OO code in C. I can tell you fron personal experience that it is a pain in the ass.
We had inheritance. Kind of.
We had virtual functions. Kind of.
We had templates. Kind of.
We had exceptions. Kind of.
It was all proprietary (meaning that new employees would have to learn "our way" rather than just use existing knowledge of C++). It also integrated poorly with debugging tools, and contained bugs. (And I realize that templates and exceptions are not OO per se...)
Switching to C++ and throwing out most of that crap was amazingly liberating...
Ages ago in college, I simply thought object = data structure + functions. It is a way of packaging code. Later in the military, I went through some OO courses (using Ada, which ironically was not object oriented). When I started to learn C++, I thought "this is just C with objects; I understand this."
It wasn't until after about 2 years of C++ programming, when our group started to get heavily into interfaces that the light bulb went off, and suddenly I "got it".
For me, interfaces are the key (in C++ lingo, abstract classes). You can take a class, implement an interface, then plug it into another class that was coded to work with that interface. This is amazingly powerful. You can adapt existing classes to multiple purposes, mix in new behaviour, or swap out an old class for a better designed one.
Check out the introductory chapters to Design Patterns. I missed it the first time I flipped through the book, but it is all in there... One of the problems with books on C++ and/or object oriented programming is that they focus on simple self contained classes such as Stack, List, etc. Interfaces are key when dealing with complex systems of interrelated objects.
WTF? Infocom didn't invent Zork. I was playing Zork on PDPs before the IBM PC was even released. Not only that, the PC version dumbed down the game, omitting some of the obscure hacker jokes.
Can someone out there post the real history of Zork?
Fifty percent of the royalties will be distributed to the copyright holders - usually, the record labels. The balance will be divvied up among the artists.
This means that 50% goes to "the artists", and 50% goes to the copyright holders. The copyright holders may be the record companies or it may be the song writer. It isn't the RIAA.
The corporations have already sabotaged our ability to make digital recordings of our own music. When CDs arrived, the next logical format to come was digital tape, to replace the obsolete analog cassette format. Yet, to this day, we are still using cassette. What happened?
DAT (digital audio tape) was developed, but crippled by the record companies. First, they refused to release pre-recorded material on the new format. Secondly, they coerced manufacturers to restrict the ability of consumers to make digital recordings. Modern DAT machines use a copy protection scheme called SCMS. Even if I record my own music onto a DAT, I can only make one digital-to-digital copy of that DAT. The only (legal) way around this is to buy a high priced "professional" deck that does not have SCMS. Even "consumer" decks cost a lot of money, despite the fact that they are no more complicated than VCRs. We can thank the music industry for this.
Predating SDMI, the corporations tried to foist off a copy protection scheme involving an "inaudible" alteration of the analog signal (sound familiar?). Fortunatly, listening tests with audio experts quickly revealed the absurdity of that plan.
The mini disc was created by Sony, and agressively promoted, so recorders can be purchased at reasonable cost. I believe that they also use SCMS. The MD is seductively cool. They are small, convienent, and sound great. I thought about getting one, so I could listen to some of the music I helped create with my friends. Then I realized that I cannot make a digital-to-digital copy of those discs (unless I cough up the cash for a "pro" MD machine...)
The only reason we now can make CD-R copies of music is because the computer companies developed the technology, independantly of the music industry.
On the other hand, my "dirty" Asus board with built in IDE and ultra SCSI2 has had exactly zero problems for the last 2 years. If these parts had been purchased separatly, it would cost 2 to 3 times as much. In fact, I believe the cost of the equivalent Adaptec card was nearly equal to the cost of the MB.
Whoops, I forgot... I'm a Luser because I don't run *nix...
I'm only half way through this, but it is one of the best articles on programming I've read.
A personal perspective: I think I am insanely great (and even have some evidence to back that up). In my new job, the lack of ownership is turning me from an excellent performer (last job) to an average performer (this job). On the other hand, I have plenty of time to read/.
Slashdot Mirror
Was busy adding your links to my favorites, when I hit this POS... Disables the back button. I don't think I'll ever bother returning.
PBS is great if you like news and information selected to not offend their corporate donors Archer-Daniels Midland, GE and the like. Then there is the obnoxious habit of saving their most popular programming for fund raising marathons (e.g. new episodes of Red Dwarf).
My donations went to the EFF, thanks...
Right on.
Moderators: perdida's post deserves a rating of "Funny", not "Insightful"
I hope this is true, speaking as a programmer working for a non dot.com start up. Unfortunatly, all the money invested in Donkeyhumper.com means VCs are poorer (having lost a lot of cash), and wary about new startup investments. Rather than simply admit that Donkeyhumper.com was a bad idea, many seem to lump all startups together as having been "too risky".
In our case, we are in the process of securing additional funding, and the VCs are wanting considerably more stock for their investment. As we will be needing that money to pay bills really soon, I suspect we are screwed.
If the pixel density of an LCD is quadrupled, then the effect of one bad pixel is 1/4 as noticeable. Meaning that if you have 4x as many bad pixels and they are distributed randomly across the screen, it will be harder to notice. Quadruple again, and a bad pixel is 1/16 as noticeable. At this point, error rates could be much higher, as you wouldn't be able to see an individual bad pixel.
That is what I am waiting for; massively higher resolution.
The most amazing parody was "Robotech 2 - Not Necessarily the Sentinals". I almost died...
My favorite line was "Just a pile of rust was all they found on that isle, but who would realize that just 10 years later, super space fortress Macross would arise?"
It came, of course, from the opening theme song of the first video only Macek release of Macross, before Robotech. In it, Hikaru was named "Rick Yamada", before becoming "Rick Hunter". And that song!
"Kinghts and crusaders of a new age... Macross!"
Yeah, but you had to love the ending theme. At the end of each episode, the audience would be signing along and clapping.
"Gypsieeeee... lai la-la-lai la-la-lai! Hey!"
Mazingar (Tranzor-Z)
Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets)
Yamato (Starblazers)
Maha Go (Speed Racer)
Go Lion/Dairugger 15 (Voltron)
And a variety of other more obscure ones. There were a number of "pioneers" who brought anime to American TV, going back to the 60's; the big shows being Tetsuwan Atom (Astroboy), Jungle Taitei (Kimba) and Maha Go (Speed Racer). These were shown on network cartoon prime time (Saturday morning), not afternoon syndication like Robotech.
The reason anime took off around the time of Robotech was due to three convergences:
VCRs - prior to the 80's, VCRs were non-existant, or highly priced. Once VCRs were affordable, tape trading became possible (one has to admire the early anime collectors, who had to get their Astro Boy on 16mm)
The Internet - this enabled isolated anime fans to make contact, and establish trading networks. More importantly, it enabled the sharing of information (plot summaries and scripts). Before this, knowledge was horded and often inaccurate.
Desktop Video - affordable computer video tools enabled the start of fan subtitling. Prior to the availability of fansubs, people sat in rooms watching videos in Japanese. Switching to an all sub/dub format made anime clubs far more accessable to the masses.
Macek just happened to have been butchering anime at the right time in history. And make no mistake, it was butchery. Cheap-ass dubs with bad acting and altered scripts. Robotech was mild compared to the travesty Macek made of Captain Harlock and Queen of 1000 Years.
Right on.
My pro-gambler wanna-be friend tells me there is a method for making money at video poker. You have to check the odds listed on the machine, as not all are the same. Then you basically try and get a royal flush, but keep your eyes open for easy money along the way. Add to this the fact that you are getting points on your casino club card, plus free drinks...
A new dub track is also being produced[...]
THANK YOU JESUS!!!!
I was afraid this was going to be the revenge of bad Streamline dubs. Maybe another "anime festival" featuring Akira, Fist Of the Northstar and Lensman.
I didn't realize Carl was out of business. I'll never forgive him for what he did to Captain Harlock...
Both are overrated. Especially given the mediocre dubbing jobs...
No. We competed against Crystal Reports. Report writing is one component of the system.
This is the Business Intelligence marketspace, worth several billion and expected to grow...
I occasionally make music with friends. Some of those recordings were made on MiniDisc. I cannot make a digital copy of my own music. Admittedly, there are many affordibly ways to do home recording. However, MiniDisc is the only low-cost all-in-one digital recording device I am aware of (portable, records, plays back). Why should this technology be crippled?
Uh, so that we can sell products to customers for money?
In my case, we were rewritting "business intelligence" tools; data query, analysis and report writing, with a GUI. OO would not be that great for device drivers, due to inefficiencies.
I never said interfaces didn't change. In the course of the two year project, several interfaces changed multiple times. That did not make interfaces any less valuable however. It is simply a tool for managing complexity, and most OO advocates do not claim it is the magic solution for all situations.
I won't go into more detail on this; others have expressed my opinions more elquoently.
Is this why geeks like it more than other socio-cultural groups? It is well known that geeks are more scared of reality than other subcultures, and so are more likely to run from it into the comforting womb of fantasy.
So why is anime shown on prime time Japanese television? Or are the Japanese "geekier" than Americans?
And I dispute that this is a "well known fact"
I think we should think very carefully about how anime is promoted - it is clearly further removed from reality than other artforms, and so it is more dangerous.
Nice troll...
Sure you can write OO code in C. I can tell you fron personal experience that it is a pain in the ass.
We had inheritance. Kind of.
We had virtual functions. Kind of.
We had templates. Kind of.
We had exceptions. Kind of.
It was all proprietary (meaning that new employees would have to learn "our way" rather than just use existing knowledge of C++). It also integrated poorly with debugging tools, and contained bugs. (And I realize that templates and exceptions are not OO per se...) Switching to C++ and throwing out most of that crap was amazingly liberating...
Ages ago in college, I simply thought object = data structure + functions. It is a way of packaging code. Later in the military, I went through some OO courses (using Ada, which ironically was not object oriented). When I started to learn C++, I thought "this is just C with objects; I understand this."
It wasn't until after about 2 years of C++ programming, when our group started to get heavily into interfaces that the light bulb went off, and suddenly I "got it".
For me, interfaces are the key (in C++ lingo, abstract classes). You can take a class, implement an interface, then plug it into another class that was coded to work with that interface. This is amazingly powerful. You can adapt existing classes to multiple purposes, mix in new behaviour, or swap out an old class for a better designed one.
Check out the introductory chapters to Design Patterns. I missed it the first time I flipped through the book, but it is all in there... One of the problems with books on C++ and/or object oriented programming is that they focus on simple self contained classes such as Stack, List, etc. Interfaces are key when dealing with complex systems of interrelated objects.
WTF? Infocom didn't invent Zork. I was playing Zork on PDPs before the IBM PC was even released. Not only that, the PC version dumbed down the game, omitting some of the obscure hacker jokes.
Can someone out there post the real history of Zork?
The VAX/VMS screen editor (what was it called?)
VAXTPU comes to mind
Fifty percent of the royalties will be distributed to the copyright holders - usually, the record labels. The balance will be divvied up among the artists.
This means that 50% goes to "the artists", and 50% goes to the copyright holders. The copyright holders may be the record companies or it may be the song writer. It isn't the RIAA.
The corporations have already sabotaged our ability to make digital recordings of our own music. When CDs arrived, the next logical format to come was digital tape, to replace the obsolete analog cassette format. Yet, to this day, we are still using cassette. What happened?
DAT (digital audio tape) was developed, but crippled by the record companies. First, they refused to release pre-recorded material on the new format. Secondly, they coerced manufacturers to restrict the ability of consumers to make digital recordings. Modern DAT machines use a copy protection scheme called SCMS. Even if I record my own music onto a DAT, I can only make one digital-to-digital copy of that DAT. The only (legal) way around this is to buy a high priced "professional" deck that does not have SCMS. Even "consumer" decks cost a lot of money, despite the fact that they are no more complicated than VCRs. We can thank the music industry for this.
Predating SDMI, the corporations tried to foist off a copy protection scheme involving an "inaudible" alteration of the analog signal (sound familiar?). Fortunatly, listening tests with audio experts quickly revealed the absurdity of that plan.
The mini disc was created by Sony, and agressively promoted, so recorders can be purchased at reasonable cost. I believe that they also use SCMS. The MD is seductively cool. They are small, convienent, and sound great. I thought about getting one, so I could listen to some of the music I helped create with my friends. Then I realized that I cannot make a digital-to-digital copy of those discs (unless I cough up the cash for a "pro" MD machine...)
The only reason we now can make CD-R copies of music is because the computer companies developed the technology, independantly of the music industry.
On the other hand, my "dirty" Asus board with built in IDE and ultra SCSI2 has had exactly zero problems for the last 2 years. If these parts had been purchased separatly, it would cost 2 to 3 times as much. In fact, I believe the cost of the equivalent Adaptec card was nearly equal to the cost of the MB.
Whoops, I forgot... I'm a Luser because I don't run *nix...
Agreed.
/.
I'm only half way through this, but it is one of the best articles on programming I've read.
A personal perspective: I think I am insanely great (and even have some evidence to back that up). In my new job, the lack of ownership is turning me from an excellent performer (last job) to an average performer (this job). On the other hand, I have plenty of time to read