If you're an Aussie (although talking about a vacation coming up "in the spring" implies your in that _other_ hemisphere I'm told is out there (maybe explaining those strange vowels on my TV) try Australian Business Volunteers www.abv.org.au
If you're not an Aussie, I'm sure you're OK anyway, contact them to see if they can give you ideas.
I know these guys and they're not an NGO with an agenda, although they often place thorugh NGOs as they're often the ones with vacancies in developing countries.
Transporting gigabytes of data on a small cheap plastic and metal disk is currently the most efficient form of delivering video. The answers to your questions appear to be simple economics. Until the majority of consumers have efficient/reliable 8mbps connections and huge hard drives, there is not much point to mass investment in non-DVD delivery. I have often given up on a tedious video download to walk to the nearest DVD store. Not only is there better quality and convenience, but also, after factoring in a reasonable estimate of bandwidth cost, it works out about the same $-wise.
This will be fascinating. I've always wondered whether Stephenson's books would be filmable or not. How to handle the drummers (feral undersea tunnel dwellers who burn up when used as human information processors)? The army naked of teenage girls that lock their bodies to create a human amphibian landing craft to rebel against their creator? The sea of intelligent defensive and move with an auto-correct for the wind? I think a huge budget or great CGI is required to give merit to Stephenson's WFT elements, else they may become lame/silly or simply omitted. The touching story of the voice actress of the original Primer I think would make a great story for TV if well acted and written.
Slashdot Mirror
If you're an Aussie (although talking about a vacation coming up "in the spring" implies your in that _other_ hemisphere I'm told is out there (maybe explaining those strange vowels on my TV) try Australian Business Volunteers www.abv.org.au If you're not an Aussie, I'm sure you're OK anyway, contact them to see if they can give you ideas. I know these guys and they're not an NGO with an agenda, although they often place thorugh NGOs as they're often the ones with vacancies in developing countries.
Transporting gigabytes of data on a small cheap plastic and metal disk is currently the most efficient form of delivering video. The answers to your questions appear to be simple economics. Until the majority of consumers have efficient/reliable 8mbps connections and huge hard drives, there is not much point to mass investment in non-DVD delivery. I have often given up on a tedious video download to walk to the nearest DVD store. Not only is there better quality and convenience, but also, after factoring in a reasonable estimate of bandwidth cost, it works out about the same $-wise.
This will be fascinating. I've always wondered whether Stephenson's books would be filmable or not. How to handle the drummers (feral undersea tunnel dwellers who burn up when used as human information processors)? The army naked of teenage girls that lock their bodies to create a human amphibian landing craft to rebel against their creator? The sea of intelligent defensive and move with an auto-correct for the wind? I think a huge budget or great CGI is required to give merit to Stephenson's WFT elements, else they may become lame/silly or simply omitted. The touching story of the voice actress of the original Primer I think would make a great story for TV if well acted and written.