For me, the funniest part of that video has always been the irony inherent in an aging, balding man with a HAND PUPPET making fun of other people for being nerds.
That aside, it IS an amusing clip... for me to poop on... etc.
Re:Updates Anyone?
on
Jaguar is Over
·
· Score: 2, Funny
What does $129 buy you? You're not just buying a OS, you're getting updates and support for the life of the product as well.
Oh, please. It's perfectly acceptable slang. Read on and educate yourself:
The origin of "cut the mustard," meaning "to measure up to standards" or "to be sufficient or successful in accomplishing a task," is the subject of a long-standing debate among language experts. We do know that "cut the mustard" first appeared in print in an O. Henry story in 1907 and has been in pretty constant use since then, but exactly to what mustard "cut the mustard" might refer is still up in the air.
One theory is that "mustard" in the phrase should actually be "muster," meaning "examination." To "muster" troops is to assemble them for inspection, those who meet the necessary standards then being said to have "passed muster." It is possible that "cut the mustard" is simply a mangled form of "cut the muster," with "cut" being used in the sense of "to manage" or "to surpass." One problem with this theory is the lack of any known use of the supposedly proper form "cut the muster" in print.
It is also possible that "cut the mustard" refers to "cutting" (adulterating) mustard to make it less pungent, but this origin, as you note, seems unlikely because the idea of weakening strong mustard is almost completely opposite to the popular "strong enough" sense of "cut the mustard." And, since mustard plants are not notably difficult to harvest, it's not likely that "cut the mustard" refers to any special degree of agricultural stamina.
Fortunately, there's a glimmer of sense in all this. Years before "cut the mustard" showed up to mystify us, "mustard" was being used as slang for "that which adds zest" or "the best of anything," obviously referring to real mustard. To "cut the mustard" would then logically mean "to match the best in any situation." -- Word Detective
Whatever the origins of 'can't cut the mustard', they are about as clear as mustard, the expression 'too old to cut the mustard' is always applied to to men today and conveys the idea of sexual inability. ' Can't cut the mustard', however, means not to be able to handle any job for any reason, not just because of old age. Preceeding the derivation of 'too old to cut the mustard' by about half a century, it derives from the expression 'to be the mustard'. "Mustard" was slang for the " genuine article" or " main attraction" at the time. Perhaps someone cutting up to show that he was 'the mustard', or the greatest, was said 'to cut the mustard' and the phrase was later meant to mean to be able to fill the bill or or do the important or main job. In any case, O. Henry first used the words in this sense in his story "Heart of the West" (1907) when he wrote: " I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard". Today, 'can't cut the mustard' is usually 'can't cut it' or 'can't hack it'. A recent variant on 'too old to cut the mustard' is 'if you can't cut the mustard, you can lick the jar'. -- QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson
So you see, grammar nazi, you don't impress me. Better luck next time.
For $600? Are they nuts?! The thing I don't understand is why these companies are touting features like mp3 and now video playback... but have dismal amounts of memory!
Simple economics: because they want you to buy that $89.95 128 MB memory stick, sold separately.
I think it's because of all the feature-piling. I bought a Visor Neo a year or so ago and have no need for a new PDA in and of itself. The Neo does its job well. But the newer PDAs have cameras, mp3 players, color displays, etc. etc. Of course, sooner or later I will convince myself I can't live without these features, and my old Neo won't cut the mustard anymore. Or, more accurately, will seem like it won't.
Of course, piling on Bluetooth, video players, and other (IMHO, often superfluous) features jacks up the price. The barebones PDAs are still under $100. But there's no need to buy another one of those every year, so they have to drive the market somehow.
That said, when I do get a new PDA, it will be the Zire 71. All the features I need, and a couple I don't, for a (fairly) decent price. And no stupid built-in keyboard (I hate those things).
Well, they "understand" that the last two movies made huge bank to the tune of more than three times what they cost to make. I don't think they'd have much "understanding of his vision" if they'd tanked.
It all still comes down to the bottom line. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
So they're saying this alien race can build these huge inter-stellar vehicles but we can't figure out how to generate water and farm food animals?
And we can land probes on Mars but most people can't program their VCRs or get their voice-mail half the time. Who's to say the aliens coming to "invade" aren't just a bunch of lazy, anti-intellectual exploiters who get a kick out of dressing like other races?
I think you're right about The Matrix being the new Star Wars. After all, when the Slashdot story reviewing the sequel was posted, people came out in droves to say how much it sucked and wasn't worth their time, and how it was a brainless, empty exercise in excessive (and let's not forget crappy) digital effects. The original Matrix, on the other hand, retroactively became a revolutionary epic which produced an effect that could never be repeated by any further expansion of the story.
Yup, sounds like the heir to Star Wars if ever I saw one.
"That's a good thing, though - it shows that there isn't a film to end all films. The Matrix and LOTR may be popular now, but give Hollwood another 20 years, and who knows what we'll be watching?"
I do. Dude, I Still Don't Know Where My Car Is, I Still Know What Your Boobs Did in the Summer of 2013, American Pie XII: Filling Time, Friday the 13th Part XXI, Girls Gone Wild the Movie 7...
Of course, if they turned out both a box set AND the individual packages, or spaced the DVDs out a few months apart, or never turned out the Indiana Jones DVDs at all, George Lucas would also be evil under these circumstances.
Let's just concede that everything evil that happens in the world is George Lucas' fault, that everything good in the world is the doing of the director of Empire Strikes Back, and that Lucas can do no right, and just move on with our lives, okay?
Most of the games that really get under my skin are in the 3d shooter category (some spoilers):
Quake -- I thought it was just another 3rd person shooter, albeit with better graphics. Then the Fiend leaped at me for the first time, and I yelped and nearly threw my mouse across the room. I got killed -- but it was worth it for the adrenaline rush.
Thief -- During the haunted monastery episode, while I was watching an in-game "cut scene," one of the undead Hammers snuck up behind me. Just by coincidence I happened to turn around just in time to see a six-foot skeleton swinging his weapon at my head. I nearly had a heart attack and spent the rest of the game deathly afraid of those things. When the sequel came out, and I found myself trapped in a basement with one of those things, I said "forget it," and just stopped playing.
System Shock (the original) -- still one of the most cinematic games in history, IMHO. Best scene in any game ever: I finally set the station to self-destruct, and fought my way to the escape pod... then, just as the countdown is about to reach 0 to launch and I am breathing easy... the countdown stops and Shodan appears on the screen. "You're not leaving!" Oh, hell. I didn't know whether to laugh or scream -- as I recall, I did both.
Half-Life - though the game is excellent throughout, I think it has the best opening in video game history. Walking through the Black Mesa installation, causing the "resonance cascade scenario," then running back through the same installation, except this time it's trashed and all the scientists and security guards you were talking to are dead... fantastic. That, and the huge monster running after you through the parking garage, tipping over SUVs as it charges... breathtaking. There are so many great moments in that game. I can't wait for the sequel.
Alien DOOM Full Conversion -- Much older, and many years before the AvP video game, but so scary I could never stand to play it for long. Especially when you had to go into the tunnels full of facehuggers. Screw that.
Omikron - Not a perfect game, but very underrated IMHO. You enter a parallel world where you possess the bodies of other people and are stalked by invisible demons that only you can see. A great adventure game with a great plot; not without its flaws, but original enough to be very compelling. It was all I could think about for days after playing it.
I'm sure there are more, but these are the games that come to mind immediately...
Of course, this all has to happen RIGHT AFTER I ship my iBook back to Apple to get repaired, which also happened RIGHT AFTER I got my new AirPort wireless hub.
I could be gettin' me some wireless DSL-speed mp3 lovins right this very minute... BUT NO....
I don't know, I'd say these coincidences are every bit as possible as every other preposterous thing that happens in the Star Wars movies -- planet-destroying superlasers, swords made out of light, teddy bears defeating trained military soldiers, mercenaries with hearts of gold, telekinesis, precognition, neurotic androids, spaceships that move in complete violation of Newtonian physics while making whooshing sounds in airless space -- a few characters showing up more often than usual seems pretty trite by comparison.
Yeah, tell me about it... I've driven the wrong way down the freeway at 85 mph on a motorcycle with a little Asian dude on my back so many times... let me tell you, it looks nothing like that.
And instantly piss off your customers to such a degree that a tidal wave of complaint letters would probably flood right into the offices of said company.
Yes, they can beam advertising right into your head, but people aren't going to like that, and it sure isn't going to make people want to buy their product. If any company is silly enough to try that tactic, I'm willing to bet they will learn very quickly how counterproductive it is.
Re:? that was unnecassary.
on
Lucky Wander Boy
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Yeah, lord knows when I see someone posting insulting flamebait on Slashdot, the first thing I think is "now there's a guy that's secure in his self-image!"
Slashdot Mirror
"Drizzt?" "Elric of Melnibone," "Thulsa-Doom," "The Gray Mouser"... now *these* are Fantasy Names!
I had Thulsa Doom once. I didn't come out of the bathroom for a week.
*rimshot*
For me, the funniest part of that video has always been the irony inherent in an aging, balding man with a HAND PUPPET making fun of other people for being nerds.
That aside, it IS an amusing clip... for me to poop on... etc.
What does $129 buy you? You're not just buying a OS, you're getting updates and support for the life of the product as well.
Yeah, all eight months of it.
"Introducing Bobcat!"
Oh, please. It's perfectly acceptable slang. Read on and educate yourself:
The origin of "cut the mustard," meaning "to measure up to standards" or "to be sufficient or successful in accomplishing a task," is the subject of a long-standing debate among language experts. We do know that "cut the mustard" first appeared in print in an O. Henry story in 1907 and has been in pretty constant use since then, but exactly to what mustard "cut the mustard" might refer is still up in the air.
One theory is that "mustard" in the phrase should actually be "muster," meaning "examination." To "muster" troops is to assemble them for inspection, those who meet the necessary standards then being said to have "passed muster." It is possible that "cut the mustard" is simply a mangled form of "cut the muster," with "cut" being used in the sense of "to manage" or "to surpass." One problem with this theory is the lack of any known use of the supposedly proper form "cut the muster" in print.
It is also possible that "cut the mustard" refers to "cutting" (adulterating) mustard to make it less pungent, but this origin, as you note, seems unlikely because the idea of weakening strong mustard is almost completely opposite to the popular "strong enough" sense of "cut the mustard." And, since mustard plants are not notably difficult to harvest, it's not likely that "cut the mustard" refers to any special degree of agricultural stamina.
Fortunately, there's a glimmer of sense in all this. Years before "cut the mustard" showed up to mystify us, "mustard" was being used as slang for "that which adds zest" or "the best of anything," obviously referring to real mustard. To "cut the mustard" would then logically mean "to match the best in any situation." -- Word Detective
Whatever the origins of 'can't cut the mustard', they are about as clear as mustard, the expression 'too old to cut the mustard' is always applied to to men today and conveys the idea of sexual inability. ' Can't cut the mustard', however, means not to be able to handle any job for any reason, not just because of old age. Preceeding the derivation of 'too old to cut the mustard' by about half a century, it derives from the expression 'to be the mustard'. "Mustard" was slang for the " genuine article" or " main attraction" at the time. Perhaps someone cutting up to show that he was 'the mustard', or the greatest, was said 'to cut the mustard' and the phrase was later meant to mean to be able to fill the bill or or do the important or main job. In any case, O. Henry first used the words in this sense in his story "Heart of the West" (1907) when he wrote: " I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard". Today, 'can't cut the mustard' is usually 'can't cut it' or 'can't hack it'. A recent variant on 'too old to cut the mustard' is 'if you can't cut the mustard, you can lick the jar'. -- QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson
So you see, grammar nazi, you don't impress me.
Better luck next time.
For $600? Are they nuts?! The thing I don't understand is why these companies are touting features like mp3 and now video playback... but have dismal amounts of memory!
Simple economics: because they want you to buy that $89.95 128 MB memory stick, sold separately.
I think it's because of all the feature-piling. I bought a Visor Neo a year or so ago and have no need for a new PDA in and of itself. The Neo does its job well. But the newer PDAs have cameras, mp3 players, color displays, etc. etc. Of course, sooner or later I will convince myself I can't live without these features, and my old Neo won't cut the mustard anymore. Or, more accurately, will seem like it won't.
Of course, piling on Bluetooth, video players, and other (IMHO, often superfluous) features jacks up the price. The barebones PDAs are still under $100. But there's no need to buy another one of those every year, so they have to drive the market somehow.
That said, when I do get a new PDA, it will be the Zire 71. All the features I need, and a couple I don't, for a (fairly) decent price. And no stupid built-in keyboard (I hate those things).
No, to please the fans this movie will actually be shot on location in the real live Mordor...
WTF?!
Well, they "understand" that the last two movies made huge bank to the tune of more than three times what they cost to make. I don't think they'd have much "understanding of his vision" if they'd tanked.
It all still comes down to the bottom line. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
They're "freedom fighters."
What kind of lazy writing is that?
Television writing?
So they're saying this alien race can build these huge inter-stellar vehicles but we can't figure out how to generate water and farm food animals?
And we can land probes on Mars but most people can't program their VCRs or get their voice-mail half the time. Who's to say the aliens coming to "invade" aren't just a bunch of lazy, anti-intellectual exploiters who get a kick out of dressing like other races?
The heck with that, I'm still waiting for Sci-Fi to remake Airwolf, Automan, and Manimal!
So I can blow my brains out, that is -- but let's not split hairs.
Nudeness optional, but recommended.
The kind of person who would be interested in this kind of game, you would probably not want to see naked.
I think you're right about The Matrix being the new Star Wars. After all, when the Slashdot story reviewing the sequel was posted, people came out in droves to say how much it sucked and wasn't worth their time, and how it was a brainless, empty exercise in excessive (and let's not forget crappy) digital effects. The original Matrix, on the other hand, retroactively became a revolutionary epic which produced an effect that could never be repeated by any further expansion of the story.
Yup, sounds like the heir to Star Wars if ever I saw one.
Does this mean we will be seeing a "Special Economic Suicide Edition" of all the movies out there now?
Or will they just be "Straight to Landfill" releases a la The Onion?
"That's a good thing, though - it shows that there isn't a film to end all films. The Matrix and LOTR may be popular now, but give Hollwood another 20 years, and who knows what we'll be watching?"
I do. Dude, I Still Don't Know Where My Car Is, I Still Know What Your Boobs Did in the Summer of 2013, American Pie XII: Filling Time, Friday the 13th Part XXI, Girls Gone Wild the Movie 7...
Of course, if they turned out both a box set AND the individual packages, or spaced the DVDs out a few months apart, or never turned out the Indiana Jones DVDs at all, George Lucas would also be evil under these circumstances.
Let's just concede that everything evil that happens in the world is George Lucas' fault, that everything good in the world is the doing of the director of Empire Strikes Back, and that Lucas can do no right, and just move on with our lives, okay?
Most of the games that really get under my skin are in the 3d shooter category (some spoilers):
Quake -- I thought it was just another 3rd person shooter, albeit with better graphics. Then the Fiend leaped at me for the first time, and I yelped and nearly threw my mouse across the room. I got killed -- but it was worth it for the adrenaline rush.
Thief -- During the haunted monastery episode, while I was watching an in-game "cut scene," one of the undead Hammers snuck up behind me. Just by coincidence I happened to turn around just in time to see a six-foot skeleton swinging his weapon at my head. I nearly had a heart attack and spent the rest of the game deathly afraid of those things. When the sequel came out, and I found myself trapped in a basement with one of those things, I said "forget it," and just stopped playing.
System Shock (the original) -- still one of the most cinematic games in history, IMHO. Best scene in any game ever: I finally set the station to self-destruct, and fought my way to the escape pod... then, just as the countdown is about to reach 0 to launch and I am breathing easy... the countdown stops and Shodan appears on the screen. "You're not leaving!" Oh, hell. I didn't know whether to laugh or scream -- as I recall, I did both.
Half-Life - though the game is excellent throughout, I think it has the best opening in video game history. Walking through the Black Mesa installation, causing the "resonance cascade scenario," then running back through the same installation, except this time it's trashed and all the scientists and security guards you were talking to are dead... fantastic. That, and the huge monster running after you through the parking garage, tipping over SUVs as it charges... breathtaking. There are so many great moments in that game. I can't wait for the sequel.
Alien DOOM Full Conversion -- Much older, and many years before the AvP video game, but so scary I could never stand to play it for long. Especially when you had to go into the tunnels full of facehuggers. Screw that.
Omikron - Not a perfect game, but very underrated IMHO. You enter a parallel world where you possess the bodies of other people and are stalked by invisible demons that only you can see. A great adventure game with a great plot; not without its flaws, but original enough to be very compelling. It was all I could think about for days after playing it.
I'm sure there are more, but these are the games that come to mind immediately...
Of course, this all has to happen RIGHT AFTER I ship my iBook back to Apple to get repaired, which also happened RIGHT AFTER I got my new AirPort wireless hub.
I could be gettin' me some wireless DSL-speed mp3 lovins right this very minute... BUT NO....
*sigh*
I don't know, I'd say these coincidences are every bit as possible as every other preposterous thing that happens in the Star Wars movies -- planet-destroying superlasers, swords made out of light, teddy bears defeating trained military soldiers, mercenaries with hearts of gold, telekinesis, precognition, neurotic androids, spaceships that move in complete violation of Newtonian physics while making whooshing sounds in airless space -- a few characters showing up more often than usual seems pretty trite by comparison.
Great! I've been wondering what happened to her ever since she stopped playing Natalie on The Facts of Life...
Oh... CINDY Cohn. Well, forget it.
And the best part is, it's so simple to use! It has only one command: "reboot."
Yeah, tell me about it... I've driven the wrong way down the freeway at 85 mph on a motorcycle with a little Asian dude on my back so many times... let me tell you, it looks nothing like that.
Reading the article, this inventor sounds like the "I'm crushing your head" guy from Kids in the Hall.
Look at you! I'm beaming sounds into your head! Hah hah hah!
And instantly piss off your customers to such a degree that a tidal wave of complaint letters would probably flood right into the offices of said company.
Yes, they can beam advertising right into your head, but people aren't going to like that, and it sure isn't going to make people want to buy their product. If any company is silly enough to try that tactic, I'm willing to bet they will learn very quickly how counterproductive it is.
Yeah, lord knows when I see someone posting insulting flamebait on Slashdot, the first thing I think is "now there's a guy that's secure in his self-image!"
Good one, kid.