Whenever people complain about the cost of movie tickets, it's inevitably followed up with, "here in NYC..." Well, yeah, things (all things) are more expensive when you live in the big city. Land ain't cheap and you chose to live there. I'm originally from NY and I moved out because it wasn't worth the cost of living for me to stay. I didn't want to pay $5 for every beer or $6 for the right to cross a bridge, that my tax dollars already payed for. I understand the excitement and desire to live in NYC, it's a wonderful town, but you kind of give up your right to bitch about things like cost of living when it's well understood going in what you're signing up for. I pay $5.25 for a matinee (matinees are obsolete in NY these days) and that's up about $1 over the past year. That's not too bad.
Also on food, I know it's expensive but is it really that hard for Americans to go a lousy two hours without eating? If it's good enough and worth the price, then go for it. I don't understand why people buy the food and then complain about its quality and cost. Just don't buy it. If you can't go two hours without eating, then you have problems, more important than financial, to be worrying about.
I think the article was dead on in recognizing that it's the crappy movies and not the cost, cell phones, whiny babies, that are really driving people away. Almost every movie they mentioned is a remake or sequel or a bad TV show or a movie that no one cares about. It's not home theaters because I'm not about to be renting Bewitched or Fantastic Flop either. And the few decent movies to come along, never make it out of LA or NYC (until DVD), where many have established, is an expensive place to be going to the movies in the first place. Hollywood needs to learn to take chances if they're to remain profitable. They need to be able to give up control because most Hollywood execs lack any of the creativity or connection with the common man, to come up with anything good on their own.
March is a terrible time to release movies, at least according to Hollywood wisdom
I never understood this. I don't care for movies in the summer (there's better stuff to do) and I'm way to busy around Christmas time to ever get to a movie. Fall and Spring are the times I'm most in the mood to watch a movie, yet few good ones come out then (well, it seems like bad movies may not be seasonal these days). Although the first Matrix was a March/April movie and that did pretty well.
The similarites probably aren't coincidental. I believe, in the commentary voice over during the closing credits, it's mentioned that the producer Joel Silver (maybe, could have been someone else) wasn't there to finish up things on Dark City because he left to film "some film called Matrix or something." They both have different feels though and I think the first Matrix movie is better than Dark City, even if the sequels were almost unwatchable.
Dark City is excellent though, but I recommend new viewers fast forward to the part where you actually see Keifer Sutherland on screen. The voice-over in the beginning is unnecessary and ruins much of the movie in my mind.
It seems to me that people who don't pirate come in three different groups:
1. Rubes: Those who believe there is still a rule of law that needs to be followed, even when those in power routinely break it with impunity (Think politicians, judges, movie stars and cops). If the rule of law doesn't apply equally to everyone, then there is no rule of law and you're not morally bound by it.
2. Dumb-asses: Those who can't find DVDShrink on the internet or don't understand the differences between CD-Rs and DVD-Rs.
3. The Self-Righteous: Compliant stooges who don't really have a problem with copying DVDs, yet take immense pleasure pointing out how good and compliant they are. These are the same people who never watch TV and would never own one.
We should be grateful for these three groups of people, as they subsidize the rest. However, most people I know will always shell out the money for a quality product, even if they copy the rest. And most copiers I know, do fall into your hoarders category, and never watch those DVDs again. So it's probably not a big deal in terms of sales (yet).
How does the wifi card impact battery life for you on the Zodiac?
That I can't help you with. I've never surfed long enough on the thing to run the battery down. My workplace doesn't have wireless and I have an always-on computer at home for that aimless surfing. I think I might have gone an hour once and then followed up with some gaming before the juice ran out (it wasn't a fresh charge to begin with). You'd probably get a more scientific response from the forums over at Tapland.
Does it really matter? The DRM is only on the Tapwave specific stuff and I doubt any tapwave specific stuff is going to be developed one way or the other now that they're out of business. Regular Palm apps run just fine without signing and I've got all the Zod-only apps that I'm likely ever gonna need (ie. LJZ) at this point. I don't think removing the DRM requirement will make much of a difference at this point and they don't seem like the type of company that will do that anyway. It's just as worth it to pick one up as it was yesterday.
It looks professional to me. In fact the scientists were using these on the Stargate Atlantis show because they looked like the kind of advanced PDA you'd need to hack into an alien....alright never mind, bad example. It looks professional to me.
Most Zod fans agree that it's more of a PDA than a gaming console. You were almost going down that road. Most of us think that if Tapwave would have focused more on the PDA features (better than the rest IMO), and treated the game stuff as an 'oh by the way, you can also do all of this', it would have sold much better than it had. I think it's still worth picking up a cheap one on e-bay. Don't forget the stereo speakers, they're real good, despite their size, and the MP3 player runs with the screen off, making it a suitable music device too.
However, the Zodiac, was just too big to be carried daily in my cargo pants/shorts like other Palm OS devices.
I fits comfortably in my jeans pocket (with a bunch of other stuff), cargo pants should make it even easier. It's only slightly bigger than other Palms.
They looked like they were going for 12-25, but it was custom built for technophiles age 25-40 who want to play games without carrying around an extra gadget.
That's exactly right. This was for an older crowd. It was never gonna be a "fancy-ass game platform" because of the processor limitations and the inability to upgrade to Palm 6. But it was so much better than a PSP for someone of my 32 years. It was the first gadget I ever bought that felt like it was designed just for me.
I'll be using it as an emulator until it stops working. I'm glad I got the gaming grip (fits over it to give it a console gamepad feel) before they went out of business. I hope other PDA makers steal the best features from the Zod so that there's a suitable replacement a couple of years down the line.
Thought about getting a wifi card for it, but I think the browser/processor combo is too slow to make for comfortable web access.
I'm not sure what your definition of comfortable is but I got the SD256/Wi-Fi card and Novarra nWeb browser and I thought they work pretty well together, for a PDA. Novarra has a proxy site that recompresses images to cut down on bandwidth, making the thing a lot faster than the built in browser (I disable the proxy for SSL though).
I wouldn't aimlessly surf with it, but it's useful for looking up a movie time or checking some fact on IMDB when I'm sitting on the couch watching a movie. And then there are a whole bunch of mobile sites that make things much faster still.
Absolutely. I came across this for the first time a couple of months ago and bought it right away, knowing that they'd be out of business by now. I was about to order a PSP, it was in my cart, and then I found the Zodiac when I was surfing in another window. It was exactly what I was looking for (well it could be faster and they could have built in the wi-fi). I wrote Tapwave calling their marketing department a bunch of dumbasses for I would have bought this as soon as it came out if I had heard of it, even once. I'm still glad I went with it. Emulation is more important to me than another GTA clone on a tiny screen. If I want a modern game, then I'll use my PC to get the best. For a portable device, I want some quick game that I can turn on and off at a moments notice. I don't think you can do that with a PSP. And it does so much more than a PSP will ever be able to do. I would never bring a PSP to a meeting. I never understood the Sony bias out there. Their equipment breaks down if you sneeze at it and they're constantly introducing new restrictions into their crap. I only hope that the death of Tapwave doesn't mean the death of similar, do-it-all devices.
They really should consider that. Every company should. I would have bought a PSP in a second if I thought I could hack it and add my own programs without having to worry about Sony trying to break it. Sure they'd have to worry about piracy, but not before most people would have bought a few games and showed off all the cool PSP hacks to their friends, who then might likely go out an buy one. They can up the price on the unit so that it's profitable to sell. Hell, maybe even sell two models with one being barrier free, but costing more, so they don't have to depend on software sales to make a profit.
Corportations are so hung up on control these days that they can't seem to make a profit. They think profit comes through control (not quality control mind you) when it really comes through a relationship with the customer. Sony puts out crap hardware and spend most of their time trying to impose restrictions on it. That's why no one owns Sony MP3 players. As a rule, I stay away from Sony products. I know a lot of other people who do too.
If I were an electronics company, I'd come out with an MP3 player, portable game machine, and TiVo like device, with nothing but a minimal operating systems and a reliable, easy-to-use, well-documented API, and let the internet do the rest. I'm a software engineer, so I'm probably shooting myself in the foot, but why pay scores of developers lots of money to develop OSes and software that nobody wants when there are hundreds of people out there willing to do it for free? Give up control, save money, and collect profits hand-over-fist when people like us rush to buy them. In fact by controlling the API, they can still maintain a degree of security while still allowing the freedom to innovate. Make profit, not war!
Why don't you just get a Palm Pilot for your emulation and e-reader needs? It would cost the same and you'd be able to use it for many other things. I went with a Zodiac (Palm with PSP like controls) over a PSP because it was better for emualtors and that's all I wanted anyway (Zods don't run SNES at an acceptable speed for some, but there are other Palms out there with twice the processor speed that would). Google "Little John Palm" or "Little John Z" for the ultimate SNES/NES/GAMEBOY/GENESIS/ETC palm emulator.
You're in an all-volunteer army invading a country that has done us no wrong and wasn't a threat to us or their neighbors. Congress hasn't even declared a war (authorizations of force are not declarations of war and actions this long aren't covered by the war powers act), Article 51 can't begin to cover the case for invasion and it completely flies in the face of just-war theory on the reciprocity princlple alone. When you, as a volunteer soldier, kill somebody in a war that has no legal basis, then you are a murderer by definition. Nobody has forced you into the marines, you're resonsible for your own actions. You don't have to join the marines, therefore you don't have to kill. There wasn't a gun to your head until you decided to put it there. It's that simple. What d'ya think you were gonna do when you signed up, bake cookies and rap about Jesus? And saying our leaders lied about Iraq is not an excuse since the lies were unbelievable right from the start. Nobody was duped unless they wanted to be.
Code will never be considered art precisely because your typical layman will never be in a position to examine an application's code. With a bridge, the beauty is in the end product. I think that with code, the beauty lies in the design of the code, the end-product doesn't factor as much into the art of the application.
As a programmer who has often got up in the middle of night because I had some sudden inspiration that turns a messy portion of a project into a simple, clean, flexible perfect little piece of code, I certainly feel it to be an art. It satistfies my creative urges in ways I don't think other mediums can. Much more than plucking the same 6 strings in a different way, or painting yet another bowl of fruit.
I tend to cringe when I hear peoples original songs or see their paintings. It's not because they are so bad (well, often they are), it's because these things seem more like an appeal for attention, rather than a desperate desire to express a concept. Most so-called artists develop their art to be perceived by others, and therefore their work is corrupted. When I program (job aside), I do it for myself. I can't keep up with all the software I want to write, but I still spend the time (recoding a nearly working project from the ground up is necessary) to make my design as elegant as possible because it's more than just a tool to be finished in my mind. It's the harmonious expression of certain abstract concepts.
I don't know how normals see coders. I wish I could express what it's like to design and code a complex project from scratch to these people, but we just don't speak the same language (most coders don't speak it well either). It's not even about programming, it's about using creativity to solve a problem. Most people can't even set the clock on their VCR, how could they possibly even conceive of what I do on a daily basis, much less appreciate it as art?
Art, like beauty, is in the mind of the beholder. It's relative. I have no problem with that. I do not consider most modern (splotch) paintings to be art, since the meaning tends to come afterward and is rarely intentional. Just like painters, I too deal in symbols and metaphors, but I also get to build upon, refine and grow my art for the rest of my life, whereas once shown, a painting stays within it's confines for all time.
Re:Sun spent $20 million to promote a free product
on
James Gosling on Java
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· Score: 1
The Java libraries range from mediocre to terrible, but that's a separate issue.
Are you on crack? Slam Java for whatever reason you want, but the libraries are widely agreed to be it's greatest strength. Even the libraries that aren't provided in the standard JDK tend to be standardized and very easy to use, javadoced to the hilt. Java's not my favorite, Smalltalk will always have me there, but just which language do you consider to have better built-in library support? C may have more options, but it's a dependency nightmare and libraries aren't nearly as clean, consistent and forward/backward compatible as the Java ones are. I can find easily find a free, well-implemented libary to do whatever I want in Java.
Perhaps the biggest reason for me is seating. Movie theater chairs feel like airplane seating. Kind of hard and sloped down. It drives me crazy during a 2+ hour movie (plus the time you have to get their early to get that well-situated, uncomfortable seat).
Give me a theater with temperpedic seating (that Brookstone memory foam) and I'd probably go more often. Or even just shaping the existing seats better. This goes for airlines too. Perhaps if I ate more of the crap they sell, I'd have a fatter ass and I wouldn't mind sitting on a hard slab for all that time.
Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Most people I know only see maybe three movies a year. So I don't understand why people can't wait until they have a baby sitter or just rely on DVDs until they grow up a little. It blows my mind when people bring babies to loud, rated R scare-fests and then seem dismayed when they can't get their baby to stop crying.
I don't understand why multiplexes don't use different theaters for say babies, smoking and drinking. Hell maybe even have one for people who like to talk and scream out jokes. They don't learn. The whole "babies, cell phones and commercials" thing is killing theaters. That and all the schlock that's coming out lately.
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I even asked them to be quite twice.... only to receive dirty looks by them as if "how dare i ask them to shut the fuck up in a theater"
Did you expect them to blow you kisses for telling them to "shut the fuck up?" Still, I get where you're coming from.
Don't they smack kids where you come from?
Whenever people complain about the cost of movie tickets, it's inevitably followed up with, "here in NYC..." Well, yeah, things (all things) are more expensive when you live in the big city. Land ain't cheap and you chose to live there. I'm originally from NY and I moved out because it wasn't worth the cost of living for me to stay. I didn't want to pay $5 for every beer or $6 for the right to cross a bridge, that my tax dollars already payed for. I understand the excitement and desire to live in NYC, it's a wonderful town, but you kind of give up your right to bitch about things like cost of living when it's well understood going in what you're signing up for. I pay $5.25 for a matinee (matinees are obsolete in NY these days) and that's up about $1 over the past year. That's not too bad.
Also on food, I know it's expensive but is it really that hard for Americans to go a lousy two hours without eating? If it's good enough and worth the price, then go for it. I don't understand why people buy the food and then complain about its quality and cost. Just don't buy it. If you can't go two hours without eating, then you have problems, more important than financial, to be worrying about.
I think the article was dead on in recognizing that it's the crappy movies and not the cost, cell phones, whiny babies, that are really driving people away. Almost every movie they mentioned is a remake or sequel or a bad TV show or a movie that no one cares about. It's not home theaters because I'm not about to be renting Bewitched or Fantastic Flop either. And the few decent movies to come along, never make it out of LA or NYC (until DVD), where many have established, is an expensive place to be going to the movies in the first place. Hollywood needs to learn to take chances if they're to remain profitable. They need to be able to give up control because most Hollywood execs lack any of the creativity or connection with the common man, to come up with anything good on their own.
March is a terrible time to release movies, at least according to Hollywood wisdom
I never understood this. I don't care for movies in the summer (there's better stuff to do) and I'm way to busy around Christmas time to ever get to a movie. Fall and Spring are the times I'm most in the mood to watch a movie, yet few good ones come out then (well, it seems like bad movies may not be seasonal these days). Although the first Matrix was a March/April movie and that did pretty well.
The similarites probably aren't coincidental. I believe, in the commentary voice over during the closing credits, it's mentioned that the producer Joel Silver (maybe, could have been someone else) wasn't there to finish up things on Dark City because he left to film "some film called Matrix or something." They both have different feels though and I think the first Matrix movie is better than Dark City, even if the sequels were almost unwatchable.
Dark City is excellent though, but I recommend new viewers fast forward to the part where you actually see Keifer Sutherland on screen. The voice-over in the beginning is unnecessary and ruins much of the movie in my mind.
It seems to me that people who don't pirate come in three different groups:
1. Rubes: Those who believe there is still a rule of law that needs to be followed, even when those in power routinely break it with impunity (Think politicians, judges, movie stars and cops). If the rule of law doesn't apply equally to everyone, then there is no rule of law and you're not morally bound by it.
2. Dumb-asses: Those who can't find DVDShrink on the internet or don't understand the differences between CD-Rs and DVD-Rs.
3. The Self-Righteous: Compliant stooges who don't really have a problem with copying DVDs, yet take immense pleasure pointing out how good and compliant they are. These are the same people who never watch TV and would never own one.
We should be grateful for these three groups of people, as they subsidize the rest. However, most people I know will always shell out the money for a quality product, even if they copy the rest. And most copiers I know, do fall into your hoarders category, and never watch those DVDs again. So it's probably not a big deal in terms of sales (yet).
How does the wifi card impact battery life for you on the Zodiac?
That I can't help you with. I've never surfed long enough on the thing to run the battery down. My workplace doesn't have wireless and I have an always-on computer at home for that aimless surfing. I think I might have gone an hour once and then followed up with some gaming before the juice ran out (it wasn't a fresh charge to begin with). You'd probably get a more scientific response from the forums over at Tapland.
Does it really matter? The DRM is only on the Tapwave specific stuff and I doubt any tapwave specific stuff is going to be developed one way or the other now that they're out of business. Regular Palm apps run just fine without signing and I've got all the Zod-only apps that I'm likely ever gonna need (ie. LJZ) at this point. I don't think removing the DRM requirement will make much of a difference at this point and they don't seem like the type of company that will do that anyway. It's just as worth it to pick one up as it was yesterday.
It looks professional to me. In fact the scientists were using these on the Stargate Atlantis show because they looked like the kind of advanced PDA you'd need to hack into an alien....alright never mind, bad example. It looks professional to me.
Most Zod fans agree that it's more of a PDA than a gaming console. You were almost going down that road. Most of us think that if Tapwave would have focused more on the PDA features (better than the rest IMO), and treated the game stuff as an 'oh by the way, you can also do all of this', it would have sold much better than it had. I think it's still worth picking up a cheap one on e-bay. Don't forget the stereo speakers, they're real good, despite their size, and the MP3 player runs with the screen off, making it a suitable music device too.
However, the Zodiac, was just too big to be carried daily in my cargo pants/shorts like other Palm OS devices.
I fits comfortably in my jeans pocket (with a bunch of other stuff), cargo pants should make it even easier. It's only slightly bigger than other Palms.
Never heard of them. Anyone know why they failed?
Usually the answer follows the question, not the other way around.
They looked like they were going for 12-25, but it was custom built for technophiles age 25-40 who want to play games without carrying around an extra gadget.
That's exactly right. This was for an older crowd. It was never gonna be a "fancy-ass game platform" because of the processor limitations and the inability to upgrade to Palm 6. But it was so much better than a PSP for someone of my 32 years. It was the first gadget I ever bought that felt like it was designed just for me.
I'll be using it as an emulator until it stops working. I'm glad I got the gaming grip (fits over it to give it a console gamepad feel) before they went out of business. I hope other PDA makers steal the best features from the Zod so that there's a suitable replacement a couple of years down the line.
Thought about getting a wifi card for it, but I think the browser/processor combo is too slow to make for comfortable web access.
I'm not sure what your definition of comfortable is but I got the SD256/Wi-Fi card and Novarra nWeb browser and I thought they work pretty well together, for a PDA. Novarra has a proxy site that recompresses images to cut down on bandwidth, making the thing a lot faster than the built in browser (I disable the proxy for SSL though).
I wouldn't aimlessly surf with it, but it's useful for looking up a movie time or checking some fact on IMDB when I'm sitting on the couch watching a movie. And then there are a whole bunch of mobile sites that make things much faster still.
Absolutely. I came across this for the first time a couple of months ago and bought it right away, knowing that they'd be out of business by now. I was about to order a PSP, it was in my cart, and then I found the Zodiac when I was surfing in another window. It was exactly what I was looking for (well it could be faster and they could have built in the wi-fi). I wrote Tapwave calling their marketing department a bunch of dumbasses for I would have bought this as soon as it came out if I had heard of it, even once. I'm still glad I went with it. Emulation is more important to me than another GTA clone on a tiny screen. If I want a modern game, then I'll use my PC to get the best. For a portable device, I want some quick game that I can turn on and off at a moments notice. I don't think you can do that with a PSP. And it does so much more than a PSP will ever be able to do. I would never bring a PSP to a meeting. I never understood the Sony bias out there. Their equipment breaks down if you sneeze at it and they're constantly introducing new restrictions into their crap. I only hope that the death of Tapwave doesn't mean the death of similar, do-it-all devices.
They really should consider that. Every company should. I would have bought a PSP in a second if I thought I could hack it and add my own programs without having to worry about Sony trying to break it. Sure they'd have to worry about piracy, but not before most people would have bought a few games and showed off all the cool PSP hacks to their friends, who then might likely go out an buy one. They can up the price on the unit so that it's profitable to sell. Hell, maybe even sell two models with one being barrier free, but costing more, so they don't have to depend on software sales to make a profit.
Corportations are so hung up on control these days that they can't seem to make a profit. They think profit comes through control (not quality control mind you) when it really comes through a relationship with the customer. Sony puts out crap hardware and spend most of their time trying to impose restrictions on it. That's why no one owns Sony MP3 players. As a rule, I stay away from Sony products. I know a lot of other people who do too.
If I were an electronics company, I'd come out with an MP3 player, portable game machine, and TiVo like device, with nothing but a minimal operating systems and a reliable, easy-to-use, well-documented API, and let the internet do the rest. I'm a software engineer, so I'm probably shooting myself in the foot, but why pay scores of developers lots of money to develop OSes and software that nobody wants when there are hundreds of people out there willing to do it for free? Give up control, save money, and collect profits hand-over-fist when people like us rush to buy them. In fact by controlling the API, they can still maintain a degree of security while still allowing the freedom to innovate. Make profit, not war!
Why don't you just get a Palm Pilot for your emulation and e-reader needs? It would cost the same and you'd be able to use it for many other things. I went with a Zodiac (Palm with PSP like controls) over a PSP because it was better for emualtors and that's all I wanted anyway (Zods don't run SNES at an acceptable speed for some, but there are other Palms out there with twice the processor speed that would). Google "Little John Palm" or "Little John Z" for the ultimate SNES/NES/GAMEBOY/GENESIS/ETC palm emulator.
We don't want to kill if we don't have to.
You're in an all-volunteer army invading a country that has done us no wrong and wasn't a threat to us or their neighbors. Congress hasn't even declared a war (authorizations of force are not declarations of war and actions this long aren't covered by the war powers act), Article 51 can't begin to cover the case for invasion and it completely flies in the face of just-war theory on the reciprocity princlple alone. When you, as a volunteer soldier, kill somebody in a war that has no legal basis, then you are a murderer by definition. Nobody has forced you into the marines, you're resonsible for your own actions. You don't have to join the marines, therefore you don't have to kill. There wasn't a gun to your head until you decided to put it there. It's that simple. What d'ya think you were gonna do when you signed up, bake cookies and rap about Jesus? And saying our leaders lied about Iraq is not an excuse since the lies were unbelievable right from the start. Nobody was duped unless they wanted to be.
Good thing they didn't call it "Big Blue Ray" or you'd be in quite a pickle.
Code will never be considered art precisely because your typical layman will never be in a position to examine an application's code. With a bridge, the beauty is in the end product. I think that with code, the beauty lies in the design of the code, the end-product doesn't factor as much into the art of the application.
As a programmer who has often got up in the middle of night because I had some sudden inspiration that turns a messy portion of a project into a simple, clean, flexible perfect little piece of code, I certainly feel it to be an art. It satistfies my creative urges in ways I don't think other mediums can. Much more than plucking the same 6 strings in a different way, or painting yet another bowl of fruit.
I tend to cringe when I hear peoples original songs or see their paintings. It's not because they are so bad (well, often they are), it's because these things seem more like an appeal for attention, rather than a desperate desire to express a concept. Most so-called artists develop their art to be perceived by others, and therefore their work is corrupted. When I program (job aside), I do it for myself. I can't keep up with all the software I want to write, but I still spend the time (recoding a nearly working project from the ground up is necessary) to make my design as elegant as possible because it's more than just a tool to be finished in my mind. It's the harmonious expression of certain abstract concepts.
I don't know how normals see coders. I wish I could express what it's like to design and code a complex project from scratch to these people, but we just don't speak the same language (most coders don't speak it well either). It's not even about programming, it's about using creativity to solve a problem. Most people can't even set the clock on their VCR, how could they possibly even conceive of what I do on a daily basis, much less appreciate it as art?
Art, like beauty, is in the mind of the beholder. It's relative. I have no problem with that. I do not consider most modern (splotch) paintings to be art, since the meaning tends to come afterward and is rarely intentional. Just like painters, I too deal in symbols and metaphors, but I also get to build upon, refine and grow my art for the rest of my life, whereas once shown, a painting stays within it's confines for all time.
The Java libraries range from mediocre to terrible, but that's a separate issue.
Are you on crack? Slam Java for whatever reason you want, but the libraries are widely agreed to be it's greatest strength. Even the libraries that aren't provided in the standard JDK tend to be standardized and very easy to use, javadoced to the hilt. Java's not my favorite, Smalltalk will always have me there, but just which language do you consider to have better built-in library support? C may have more options, but it's a dependency nightmare and libraries aren't nearly as clean, consistent and forward/backward compatible as the Java ones are. I can find easily find a free, well-implemented libary to do whatever I want in Java.
Perhaps the biggest reason for me is seating. Movie theater chairs feel like airplane seating. Kind of hard and sloped down. It drives me crazy during a 2+ hour movie (plus the time you have to get their early to get that well-situated, uncomfortable seat).
Give me a theater with temperpedic seating (that Brookstone memory foam) and I'd probably go more often. Or even just shaping the existing seats better. This goes for airlines too. Perhaps if I ate more of the crap they sell, I'd have a fatter ass and I wouldn't mind sitting on a hard slab for all that time.
"air conditioner cranked, curled up in a blanket"
ummmmmm...nevermind
Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Most people I know only see maybe three movies a year. So I don't understand why people can't wait until they have a baby sitter or just rely on DVDs until they grow up a little. It blows my mind when people bring babies to loud, rated R scare-fests and then seem dismayed when they can't get their baby to stop crying.
I don't understand why multiplexes don't use different theaters for say babies, smoking and drinking. Hell maybe even have one for people who like to talk and scream out jokes. They don't learn. The whole "babies, cell phones and commercials" thing is killing theaters. That and all the schlock that's coming out lately.
Thankfully, I saw that in an IMAX. They haven't gotten around to putting commercials into those yet.