I was aware that some of my spelling was incorrect. Oddly enough I don't keep a four-volume set in my office. Sorry if that bothers you - I trust my points, however, were clear.
Was your point that you were trying to pick up Karma by looking like you knew what you were talking about?
Was your point that you were trying to feel superior by citing obscure things (Dol Guldur) from the books?
Was your point that you could pick on needless details that the films reasonably ignored, given the simplifications required for the medium?
It is obvious that the book needed to be edited into a script, and that is OK to me. That editing, however, should have taken place by cutting away some scenes and spoken lines from the book. To corrupt the basic ideas and themes of an original work can not be forgiven.
Bah. Try looking at some real corruption of basic ideas and original themes: Read Starship Troopers the book, then Watch Starship Troopers the film. Then try and figure out how a film cacn have themes that are entirely directly opposite t those of the book.
Dropping some of the more complex themes and simplifying some of the characters a little to aid with brevity and simplicity in the film medium is not too bad compared to willfully misrepresenting every theme the book has on offer.
This is making my transition to 2.6 on my laptop look much more likely. I was wondering when NVidia would get around to doing such a thing. The fact that it has been relatively prompt seems to suggest that they are still somewhat interested in the Linux market.
The next question is when will they release drivers for Keith Packard's/Freedektop.org's Xserver, because to be honest, I'm very interested in seeing what that can do...
Uh, yeah, but I just configured one with 17inch LCD, 60gig HD, and Combo drive and it only came to $1600. If I upgrade the processor excessively, and throw in a wireless card and all the software packs (games mostly apparently - the Linux is in for free) I can ramp it up to $2000.
I'm not trying to claim Apple is horrendously expensive (though they are in NZ due to local distributors), but really, this isn't such a bad deal on the PC.
I think a year ago people were trumpeting LOTR and the Matrix films as the new genre movies of choice, and not thinking of Ep III at all. Then the Matrix sequels came out and were underwhelming, so maybe there's a chance fans will look to Star Wars again for that inspirational spark or whatever the first trilogy had in spades.
Yes, but unfortunately for George LoTR rather spectacular, and epic, and very successful. Star Wars is going to lose the Genre Film crown - but a large part of that is due to the ill feeling generated by the most recent two films. I doubt the third will offer too many saving graces at the late stage.
Is there a reason that CEO's have to make the obscene amount of money that they do nowadays?
Besides the fact that they've got a nice bunch of artificial protetctions set up for their position? Not really no. And in due course that may well change if India starts setting up it's own software shops rather than being sources of outsourcing - many of those fat US companies (well, fat managenment wise) will find themselves under all sorts of competitive pressure. They'll have the option of cutting executive salaries to compete, or desperately trying to outsource more and more and cut more lower level jobs. My guess is they'll shoose the latter - which will pretty much push the company into oblivion as the productive base that supports the huge well paid management evaporates. Time will tell. I'd be looking for jobs OUTSIDE the US right now.
There are Indian and Chinese Ph.d's working for under $30,000. There are legions of Indians and Chinese programmers and software engineers working for less than one would make working for MickeyD's at minimum wage. Real level playing field...
Well, either you do a better job than them, and deserve what you earn, or you do the same level of job as them, at which point, welcome to the market rate. Is there some reason why someone in the tech industry should earn a lot of money? If there are a lot of people who all do an equally good job then surely the pay level will be determined by what those people are willing to work for. If you want to live in the US, with its relatively high cost of living then find yourself a market niche, or work for less. An awful lot of people live on $30,000 a year - what makes you special? An expensive college education? Then use said education to find yourself a better job. If that education only taught you how to be a code monkey - well, maybe it wasn't worth the cash you paid for it.
Why is it that so many people seem to think they have an intrinsic right to earn more than most people, even though they'll be doing the same work?
I was trying to be generous. The US has a reasonably good history of vocally promoting free trade while simultaneously raising tariffs and providing subsidies to local business.
They claim that Open Source threatens "[The US] continued ability to lead the world in technological innovation/[The US] international competitive position in the global software industry".
Well, yes, it does. That is only because up until now we have been talking about what amounts to a closed protectionist system via closed formats, software patents etc. Welcome to the free market. That's not to say that the US position in the software industry won't be very competitive, merely that they'll actually have to compete with everyone else on a level playing field.
Is he arguing that free markets are against US ideology? Interesting take - might even be true from the point of view of some elements of congress.
Something else to note is that OSDL is targetting the corporate desktop. Sure, you don't know a lot of friends who are buying Linux desktops, but then there aren't that many businesses (outside print/design/media businesses) that are buying Macs - meanwhile there _are_ more businesses deploying Linux across their desktops. You eefectively have a very niche sample if you just run on perception.
I didn't claim the film should have "realistic" women. I was merely pointing out that the women drawn weere a long way from "dumpy". Older than what was in the anime - yes. Dumpy? No. I expect them to cast a nice improbably proportioned actress - that's what I'd expect and want to see in such a film, but that doesn't make the sketches "dumpy".
makes them all look like dumpy 20 or 30somethings IMHO.
Anyone who thinks the girls in those images look "dumpy" needs a good quick reality check.
Also note that if this is going to be "Live Action" it doesn't matter a damn what Weta draws the characters to look like - it only matters what the costumes look like. The characters will look like whatever the casting agent casts. Take your concerns up with them.
But have you seen the early concept art for LoTR? Some of that was remarkably poor too - that's because they were sketching it to get an idea of one aspect of the whole, and you're looking at it as a finished product. Combine that with the fact that they produce literally hundreds of sketches working toward a single character or creature simply to explore all the different (some good, some bad) possibilities. Anyone who has seen all the concept sketches of the Cave Troll, or the Slime Balrog (not used in the films) will know what I mean.
Give them a chance to work through their ideas, and judge their finished product. I have a lot of faith in Weta Workshop (partly because I know some of the people who work there), and I'm sure they'll have something spectacular by the end.
Actually I'm holding out for IBM to make a nice PPC970 laptop with Linux pre-installed. That could be very nice indeed.
Surely such a thing has to be coming - it would be the ultimate biochem/math/physics/engineer laptop, a community that already uses linux quite widely, and would actually appreciate and know what to 64bits.
We need something we can't have. And if you ask for it you get flamed for asking: device drivers for YOUR hardware. As an alternative, we could make do with real hardware compatability lists, but they would have to really say what to buy, and they'd have to be current.
This is a nasty chicken and egg situation though. If enough people are using Linux then the hardware manufacturers will start providing drivers themselves. Hell, most provide drivers for Mac, and they only have a 3% desktop share, so it won't take too much - mostly it will take mindshare: A belief that Linux is useable and viable on the desktop for at least a reasonable range of people.
By "Year of Desktop Linux" I don't think they mean having a 20% share of the desktop by the end of the year, but rather, maybe just a 2% share, but a growing perception that maybe "YOU" could be using Linux on the desktop. In the end, desktop linux is going to grow slowly out of the niches, and it is already doing that.
Okay, I just went there for the first time. Now, their artist selection is small.
Thankfully they have many of the artists I care about if they've got all of Warp. For a number of people that'll be quite enough - that is, it isn't a broad selection, but Warp means they would have a very very good selection for a niche audience. Next best thing - almost better in some ways.
It might have been nice if they'd used to $80 billion or so that went to the war on Iraq for this instead. I suspect that we'd have a permanent moon base before 2015 with an $80 billion dollar increase into NASA spending.
Well, maybe, presuming inept bureaucracy didn't manage to create a black hole for the cash. At this stage I'd rather see them hand a mere $100 million into the X-Prize kitty. That seems a more productive use of funds at this stage.
Who wants to bet the X-prize gets claimed this year? Odds are looking pretty good considering Scaled Composties latest rounds of testing.
Actually, the best bit is the occasional literal translation that they gives, for instance, from the Finnish section:
Vittujen kevat: Goddamn! (lit. Spring of the pussies!) Suksi vittuun: Fuck off (lit. Ski into a cunt) Aitisi nai poroja: Son of a bitch (lit. Your mother copulates with reindeer)
I run Windows XP, and almost everything I do is done via a command. Create a folder called c:\shortcuts. Copy shortcuts to your favorite apps, vbscripts, whatever to this folder and name them whatever you want.
Wonderful, on windows I have to create and maintain my own bin directory!
To be honest I prefer the UNIX system. For those that complain about programs having their contents spread throughout the filesystem:
(1) Package management easily takes care of that issue for the most part. (2) plenty of options are available (I use stow) for code you compile yourself.
That means the Linux desktop can't be "good enough" -- it actually has to be better than Windows to get OEM traction.
I wasn't trying to claim that Desktop Linux would get traction - merely that the potential threats of upping changes for Windows so MS can get their way are less viable now. I doubt Dell or HP would make any switches to Linux. That doesn't mean they can't threaten to if MS tries to bully them.
At the moment MS doesn't have to do any bullying - though if this HP thing keeps going they might start contemplating it.
"Industry standard choices" means WMA, WMV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4.
Non-industry standards are Vorbis, FLAC, among others.
Well, either Vorbis is a standard because it's an effective and open standard, or you're talking about "Industry Standard" in terms of what gets most popularly used, which is, I assume, what you mean.
Welcome to Apple's plan: AAC will be an industry standard by that measure very soon. Especially if they keep having sponsired song giveaways on iTMS. Industry standards can (and will) change.
Slashdot Mirror
I was aware that some of my spelling was incorrect. Oddly enough I don't keep a four-volume set in my office. Sorry if that bothers you - I trust my points, however, were clear.
Was your point that you were trying to pick up Karma by looking like you knew what you were talking about?
Was your point that you were trying to feel superior by citing obscure things (Dol Guldur) from the books?
Was your point that you could pick on needless details that the films reasonably ignored, given the simplifications required for the medium?
If it was any of the above I got your point, yes.
Jedidiah.
It is obvious that the book needed to be edited into a script, and that is OK to me. That editing, however, should have taken place by cutting away some scenes and spoken lines from the book. To corrupt the basic ideas and themes of an original work can not be forgiven.
Bah. Try looking at some real corruption of basic ideas and original themes: Read Starship Troopers the book, then Watch Starship Troopers the film. Then try and figure out how a film cacn have themes that are entirely directly opposite t those of the book.
Dropping some of the more complex themes and simplifying some of the characters a little to aid with brevity and simplicity in the film medium is not too bad compared to willfully misrepresenting every theme the book has on offer.
Jedidiah.
You know, I wonder about "devout fans of the books" who can't even spell the names of major characters correctly:
Theoden not Theodan
Galadriel not Galadrial
And I would have to look up the correct spelling for Dol Guldur(sp?) But I do know that what you have "Dol Guilder" is patently wrong.
I wouldn't mind save for the fact that the people doing this are claiming to huge fans of the book, and being remarkably pedantic.
Jedidiah.
This is making my transition to 2.6 on my laptop look much more likely. I was wondering when NVidia would get around to doing such a thing. The fact that it has been relatively prompt seems to suggest that they are still somewhat interested in the Linux market.
The next question is when will they release drivers for Keith Packard's/Freedektop.org's Xserver, because to be honest, I'm very interested in seeing what that can do...
Jedidiah
Uh, yeah, but I just configured one with 17inch LCD, 60gig HD, and Combo drive and it only came to $1600. If I upgrade the processor excessively, and throw in a wireless card and all the software packs (games mostly apparently - the Linux is in for free) I can ramp it up to $2000.
I'm not trying to claim Apple is horrendously expensive (though they are in NZ due to local distributors), but really, this isn't such a bad deal on the PC.
Jedidiah.
I think a year ago people were trumpeting LOTR and the Matrix films as the new genre movies of choice, and not thinking of Ep III at all. Then the Matrix sequels came out and were underwhelming, so maybe there's a chance fans will look to Star Wars again for that inspirational spark or whatever the first trilogy had in spades.
Yes, but unfortunately for George LoTR rather spectacular, and epic, and very successful. Star Wars is going to lose the Genre Film crown - but a large part of that is due to the ill feeling generated by the most recent two films. I doubt the third will offer too many saving graces at the late stage.
Jedidiah.
Is there a reason that CEO's have to make the obscene amount of money that they do nowadays?
Besides the fact that they've got a nice bunch of artificial protetctions set up for their position? Not really no. And in due course that may well change if India starts setting up it's own software shops rather than being sources of outsourcing - many of those fat US companies (well, fat managenment wise) will find themselves under all sorts of competitive pressure. They'll have the option of cutting executive salaries to compete, or desperately trying to outsource more and more and cut more lower level jobs. My guess is they'll shoose the latter - which will pretty much push the company into oblivion as the productive base that supports the huge well paid management evaporates. Time will tell. I'd be looking for jobs OUTSIDE the US right now.
Jedidiah.
There are Indian and Chinese Ph.d's working for under $30,000. There are legions of Indians and Chinese programmers and software engineers working for less than one would make working for MickeyD's at minimum wage. Real level playing field...
Well, either you do a better job than them, and deserve what you earn, or you do the same level of job as them, at which point, welcome to the market rate. Is there some reason why someone in the tech industry should earn a lot of money? If there are a lot of people who all do an equally good job then surely the pay level will be determined by what those people are willing to work for. If you want to live in the US, with its relatively high cost of living then find yourself a market niche, or work for less. An awful lot of people live on $30,000 a year - what makes you special? An expensive college education? Then use said education to find yourself a better job. If that education only taught you how to be a code monkey - well, maybe it wasn't worth the cash you paid for it.
Why is it that so many people seem to think they have an intrinsic right to earn more than most people, even though they'll be doing the same work?
Jedidiah.
I was trying to be generous. The US has a reasonably good history of vocally promoting free trade while simultaneously raising tariffs and providing subsidies to local business.
Jedidiah.
They claim that Open Source threatens "[The US] continued ability to lead the world in technological innovation/[The US] international competitive position in the global software industry".
Well, yes, it does. That is only because up until now we have been talking about what amounts to a closed protectionist system via closed formats, software patents etc. Welcome to the free market. That's not to say that the US position in the software industry won't be very competitive, merely that they'll actually have to compete with everyone else on a level playing field.
Is he arguing that free markets are against US ideology? Interesting take - might even be true from the point of view of some elements of congress.
Jedidiah.
Something else to note is that OSDL is targetting the corporate desktop. Sure, you don't know a lot of friends who are buying Linux desktops, but then there aren't that many businesses (outside print/design/media businesses) that are buying Macs - meanwhile there _are_ more businesses deploying Linux across their desktops. You eefectively have a very niche sample if you just run on perception.
Jedidiah.
you spelled 'australians' wrong :P (i'm canadian too eh)
In case you curious we New Zealanders spell it "bastards"
Jedidiah.
However, I don't go to a movie for reality.
I didn't claim the film should have "realistic" women. I was merely pointing out that the women drawn weere a long way from "dumpy". Older than what was in the anime - yes. Dumpy? No. I expect them to cast a nice improbably proportioned actress - that's what I'd expect and want to see in such a film, but that doesn't make the sketches "dumpy".
Jedidiah.
makes them all look like dumpy 20 or 30somethings IMHO.
Anyone who thinks the girls in those images look "dumpy" needs a good quick reality check.
Also note that if this is going to be "Live Action" it doesn't matter a damn what Weta draws the characters to look like - it only matters what the costumes look like. The characters will look like whatever the casting agent casts. Take your concerns up with them.
Jedidiah.
But have you seen the early concept art for LoTR? Some of that was remarkably poor too - that's because they were sketching it to get an idea of one aspect of the whole, and you're looking at it as a finished product. Combine that with the fact that they produce literally hundreds of sketches working toward a single character or creature simply to explore all the different (some good, some bad) possibilities. Anyone who has seen all the concept sketches of the Cave Troll, or the Slime Balrog (not used in the films) will know what I mean.
Give them a chance to work through their ideas, and judge their finished product. I have a lot of faith in Weta Workshop (partly because I know some of the people who work there), and I'm sure they'll have something spectacular by the end.
Jedidiah.
Actually I'm holding out for IBM to make a nice PPC970 laptop with Linux pre-installed. That could be very nice indeed.
Surely such a thing has to be coming - it would be the ultimate biochem/math/physics/engineer laptop, a community that already uses linux quite widely, and would actually appreciate and know what to 64bits.
Jedidiah.
We need something we can't have. And if you ask for it you get flamed for asking: device drivers for YOUR hardware. As an alternative, we could make do with real hardware compatability lists, but they would have to really say what to buy, and they'd have to be current.
This is a nasty chicken and egg situation though. If enough people are using Linux then the hardware manufacturers will start providing drivers themselves. Hell, most provide drivers for Mac, and they only have a 3% desktop share, so it won't take too much - mostly it will take mindshare: A belief that Linux is useable and viable on the desktop for at least a reasonable range of people.
By "Year of Desktop Linux" I don't think they mean having a 20% share of the desktop by the end of the year, but rather, maybe just a 2% share, but a growing perception that maybe "YOU" could be using Linux on the desktop. In the end, desktop linux is going to grow slowly out of the niches, and it is already doing that.
Jedidiah.
Okay, I just went there for the first time. Now, their artist selection is small.
Thankfully they have many of the artists I care about if they've got all of Warp. For a number of people that'll be quite enough - that is, it isn't a broad selection, but Warp means they would have a very very good selection for a niche audience. Next best thing - almost better in some ways.
Jedidiah.
Well, maybe, presuming inept bureaucracy didn't manage to create a black hole for the cash. At this stage I'd rather see them hand a mere $100 million into the X-Prize kitty. That seems a more productive use of funds at this stage.
Who wants to bet the X-prize gets claimed this year? Odds are looking pretty good considering Scaled Composties latest rounds of testing.
Jedidiah.
Actually, the best bit is the occasional literal translation that they gives, for instance, from the Finnish section:
Vittujen kevat: Goddamn! (lit. Spring of the pussies!)
Suksi vittuun: Fuck off (lit. Ski into a cunt)
Aitisi nai poroja: Son of a bitch (lit. Your mother copulates with reindeer)
Quite creative those Finns.
Jedidiah.
I run Windows XP, and almost everything I do is done via a command. Create a folder called c:\shortcuts. Copy shortcuts to your favorite apps, vbscripts, whatever to this folder and name them whatever you want.
Wonderful, on windows I have to create and maintain my own bin directory!
To be honest I prefer the UNIX system. For those that complain about programs having their contents spread throughout the filesystem:
(1) Package management easily takes care of that issue for the most part.
(2) plenty of options are available (I use stow) for code you compile yourself.
Jedidiah.
Linkage
Jedidiah.
Will the RIAA be able to afford their paratroopers now?
They seem to be able to afford them just fine:
RIAA adopts paramilitary garb for parking lot bust
Jedidiah.
That means the Linux desktop can't be "good enough" -- it actually has to be better than Windows to get OEM traction.
I wasn't trying to claim that Desktop Linux would get traction - merely that the potential threats of upping changes for Windows so MS can get their way are less viable now. I doubt Dell or HP would make any switches to Linux. That doesn't mean they can't threaten to if MS tries to bully them.
At the moment MS doesn't have to do any bullying - though if this HP thing keeps going they might start contemplating it.
Jedidiah.
"Industry standard choices" means WMA, WMV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4.
Non-industry standards are Vorbis, FLAC, among others.
Well, either Vorbis is a standard because it's an effective and open standard, or you're talking about "Industry Standard" in terms of what gets most popularly used, which is, I assume, what you mean.
Welcome to Apple's plan: AAC will be an industry standard by that measure very soon. Especially if they keep having sponsired song giveaways on iTMS. Industry standards can (and will) change.
Jedidiah.