When I read the books, I always pictured Cary Elwes as Arthur Dent and Tony Slattery as Ford Prefect (watch enough old Whose Line... and you'll see what I mean). Also, in my "Perfect Version", the narrarator would either be an on-screen person or a voiceover (like in the miniseries), and would have to be John Cleese.
Also, I think I read somewhere that when Douglas Adams had originally sold the movie rights (they eventually expired and he got them back, I think he sold them again once MIB came out and made the Sci-Fi Comedy interesting to Hollywood again) he had stated that the perfect Slartibartfast would be Sean Connery, so I always pictured him in that role. Picture "It was made from the rib cage of a Stegosaurus." in a Scottish accent!
Granted, Ian McKellen seems to have the "old man in a famous literary role" market cornered
I've read the first HP book and, though I'm not a hardcore reader, I could probably put away the other three in less than a month, so I'll do the "read book quickly before movie comes out" routine for this one.
That having been said, I noticed that the books get longer and longer, with the fourth one going over 700 pages. At this rate Harry Potter 7 may give War & Peace a run for its money (W&P, BTW, makes for a hilarious gag on the back of your toilet). However, the first movie was three hours long and we all know that audiences don't have an attention span longer than that (myself included). I assume that HP2 will be 3 hours as well, but given the "faithful/not faithful" debate, doesn't it stand to reason that the movie series is doomed to become less and less faithful to the books as the movies have to cut more and more out?
Am I the only one that thinks they shoukd have made the first movie 2 hours and left themselves some room?
This is offtopic but I decided to ask this question the next time a Star Wars topic came around.
As we've seen, there are lots of SourceForge ads on Slashdot (both part of OSDN, I know). There are a few different kinds, but the two I see most often are the ones based off of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Now, I dunno/don't care about the LOTR ones but I was curious - since we all know how hard Lucas___ can come down on copyright infringement, how is it that SourceForge is able to advertise using clearly Star Wars related ads? Or are they different enough from Star Wars to avoid it?
...that this book will wind up in that bin at every bookstore right next to AOL For Dummies, How to run OS/2, and Netscape 4.0 Complete.
Tell me this - does it have chapters on how to propagate your page with pictures of your cat? Or how to flash your tits so that they point to your wishlist?
Well no, I don't use WMP for MP3 playing, that would just be silly. However, I've had RealPlayer, Quicktime, et al, bring my system to a screeching halt much more often than WMP ever has. And of course I go to the small WMP skin.
Perhaps I should qualify that I was referring to the new Winamp 3 which, despite the 1.0 designation, is clearly not ready for prime time yet. Many features in Winamp 2.x are either gone or hidden badly, it never remembers anything I tell it (which is why it keeps reclaiming my video files) and it keeps trying to send that "harmless anonymous usage information" despite the fact that I tell it not to constantly (it always starts out with that opt-in box checked no matter what I do - thanks ZoneAlarm). Back to Winamp 2 I go.
More significantly, though, it will allow computer manufacturers and consumers to switch off and conceal Microsoft's e-mail, Web browser, Internet audio-video player and other software programs. That gives computer vendors and users the option to select rival software -- instead of Microsoft applications -- as default programs.
Which is all fine and dandy, except for the unfortunate reports that, since XP shipped with few bugs, PC makers are going to be slow to implement it. And to think this was exactly what they wanted a while back...
Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 already has the "Set Program Access and Defaults" bit, which should be (I think) the same as the version in XP SP1. True to form it lets you choose the Microsoft version or the "current version" and lets you hide the Microsoft version if you like. It also specifies "Hide this Program", not "remove" or "disable", so it's not as if it's lying to you.
Now here's the funny part. In my opinion Windows Media Player is freaking great. It's fast, it's not bloated, and it plays crap like MPEGs wonderfully. As a result, when I install a piece of software like (shudder) RealPlayer or Quicktime or (oddly enough) the new Winamp that tries to take all this back from WMP, it annoys me quite a bit. This lets me easily switch back to WMP. Same goes for IE, though rival browsers are better about that.
Also, for those of you who have problems wherein the Sun Java VM won't run certian things that the Microsoft Java VM will and vice versa (oh, the irony...) then you'll love the feature where you can chose which Java VM to use. I wonder if this will help or hurt Java in the long run...
The word is that there are two widely circulated keys in particular that are targeted. Not sure if SP1 will disable those systems or if it will just refuse to install
Someone claims he invented something painfully obvious (like the question mark). Usually claims he patented it a long time ago. (Given that patents take years to process, this is probably true)
Said someone fires off lawsuit to largest offender of his patent.
World + Slashdot get into a tizzy. Many people (myself included) start to think its time to get rid of the patent system.
World + Slashdot start thinking about how far and wide the patent claim could reach. My favorite example is that guy a while back who claimed a patent on computer graphics - every GUI amd game in history could owe him big time.
Then... Nothing happens. We never hear of this guy again, we never hear of the outcome of the lawsuit, we never hear anything.
So is it that these lawsuits are being settled out of court for undisclosed terms, are the lawsuits dropped, or are they being pitched out by some (smart) judge?
And don't we all know that this is what is going to happen here?
A few things, really. First, TRON 2.0 is really early into production, so no use in putting information out there that's potentially wrong. Second, lack of information at early stages makes for more tension and hype. But really part of it has to be based off of the idea that Disney may well pull the plug on the whole thing. A TRON sequel has been in the talking/development hell stages for years and years now.
Monolith wanted their upcoming TRON 2.0 game to be based off of the sequel, but after waiting so long they gave up and persued (and won) the right to do up TRON 2.0 as a game, regardless of if the movie is made. Oddly enough, it looks like all the hype the game has created has made Disney more anxious to work on the movie, which is why we're hearing more and more about it.
It doesn't work properly with the one or two sites I visit that actually use java
My guess would be that the Java on those sites was coded for special things within the MS JVM, which renders Sun's complaint valid, and their handling of it asinine. I too recently reinstalled XP and ran across the no-JVM for you! issue. I stooped to the Sun JVM and now all Java runs hella slow on my system and have an annoying tray icon to remind me.
if Sun gets their way, I'm moving all of my Java code to.Net
Ah, but will you JUMP to C# or use J#? Also, is Mono trying to port all of.NET over, or just C# (and any other ECMA.NET languages)?
yeah but all this talk of "Microsoft killed Java" wouldn't have happened were it not for the fact that MS pulled the browser market away from Netscape. Now think about this - MS eyes the Browser market in 1996 or so. They decide to emulate everything about Netscape except for Netscape 2.0's Java ability. Would everything have been OK if Sun had just marketed Java as a plugin from day one? I mean, I don't see the notion that not everyone has Flash/Shockwave installed slowing down the usage of those products, even with advertisements. Or is it that Sun realizes that Java can't possibly survive as a plugin and they have to embed it in everything from day one, in which case they can blame Microsoft for Java's slowed rise or failure?
Perhaps if Java was as great as Sun believes then a lack of Java in IE would have kept Netscape in the black. Windows XP comes with CD Burning software but Roxio and Ahead stay in business, it comes with a firewall but I wouldn't swear off of ZoneAlarm. Hell, most people can take any browser other than the one they use and find one tiny little thing that keeps them from switching - maybe Java would have kept people off of IE.
Re:Google, and WAP?
on
Mr Anti-Google
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· Score: 4, Informative
rather than open up google on IE, it gives me a download box
Short answer: It's a bug/quirk/feature of IE that, somehow, the page came across screwed up and got cached that way and, despite anything and everything you may have told IE about "check for a new page every time I visit...", it still checks this screwed up cache version first. The solution is to delete your temporary Internet files (Tools->Internet Options->"Delete Files" in "Temporary Internet Files")
Long answer:I had this problem with a site I frequent quite a bit. Since I know the author personally I told her about it. When I would actually save and view the page as prompted I would see all the HTML like I was supposed to but tons and tons of gibberish right before it. I told her to republish her blog but that didn't do it. No one else on her forum was having these problems and I figured since I told IE to check for a new version of the page every time that that couldn't be it. However, after clearing my cache out that did it.
Slightly More Elegant Solution: Instead of setting your homepage to Google, get the Google Toolbar. This way you can set your homepage to whatever and use the Toolbar to do whatever Google searching you want. With all the options its got it's easily the most useful thing I've ever used. Be sure to check the experimental options as well.
OK, so the headlines are all "Microsoft is disclosing Windows Code", "Microsoft is disclosing Windows Source Code", "Microsoft is revealing/giving away Source Code". My question is this - it sounds from the headlines like Microsoft is taking source code from Windows, zipping it up, and handing it to everyone. However, all I've seen is documentation on API calls - not actual "source code". Am I missing something? Is source code forthcoming? Or is this all that Microsoft is revealing and the news media is vastly confused as to what "source code" actually is?
By that logic, is this part of Microsoft's plan? Since Linux is seen as good by the general public for, amongst other reasons, giving away the source code, is Microsoft trying to make the (erroneous) impression that they're giving away source code as well?
All you have to do is winess the general confusion when a game maker releases some source code ("The RtCW Source Code has been released! This means the game is free!") to see that the general public still doesn't "get" this idea.
Ummm... Stuntman, Test Drive, Unreal Tournament, and this little game called Neverwinter Nights are under the Atari label.;)
Exactly, they're under the Atari label. Atari as a company is no more and hasn't been for several years now. For that matter, the main thing I liked about Atari - that it was an American company in a Japanese market (consoles) - is now gone since they're owned, as a label, by Infogrames, which is a UK company. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but its a less romantic/nostalgic notion. Still, Infogrames is reportedly considering changing their name to Atari.
The more obvious parallel in the parent quote was the fact that Napster is doomed to be the next Amiga. Amiga of course made their line of computers for a while before going bankrupt but vowed to return their line of computers soon. After years and years of Amiga diehards waiting and hoping Amiga announced their triumphant return - in the embedded devices market.
I agree - Napster's never going to return. Especially now that Liquid Audio is getting Liquidated (*rimshot*) and they were doing similar things.
It's Liquid Audio for goodness sake, it sucked and it always will suck
Well that and the fact that wasn't the whole gimmick with Liquid Audio was that it was this ultra-secure method to let people download/buy music in a way that it couldn't be shared or traded? Wouldn't GPL'ing remove its one selling point? I'd say the Open Source affectionados continue to throw their support behind Ogg Vorbis instead.
Re:Is Quake Still Played?
on
Tenebrae Quake
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· Score: 4, Funny
Well whether or not people still play Quake is not the point - rather, the point of this is
The technical demo of retrofitting an existing OpenGL engine with the new stuff they're doing with DOOM III
The fact that Quake is one of a few games with available GPL'd source
The fact that many people still own the game or have ever owned it (I had to break out my old CD)
The sheer novelty of it - he could have chosen the more up to date (relatively speaking) Quake II engine but this is even more impressive
And finally, this now officially labels this guy as a badass graphics programmer.
I can hear it now...
MR. BURNS: "I need a programmer! Get John Carmack on the line!"
SMITHERS: "He's unavailable sir."
MR. BURNS: "Then get me his non-union Belgian equivalent!"
Re:Quite right, and possibly a Good Thing
on
CD Copy Stopper
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· Score: 2
Yeah but the crux to this is that it's only useful in that
It doesn't allow you to make a copy of the disc, and
It really only works for "usage" if the CD is in the drive when you use the application.
Meaning that if, say, Office.NET (or whatever they call it) uses this then you won't be able to copy a CD and give it to a friend, nor can you upload it to the Internet (unless you could crack it, which most casual users can't). You could of course still hand the CD to a friend and let them install it (though in this case Product Activation kicks in, but that's another story).
Games would be the real application for this. Neverwinter Nights shipped with a copy protection called SecuROM and though I had no problems with it, many people did. SecuROM has problems with "very old or very new" drives, so if this technology can avoid those kinds of problems then it could be a contender.
But yeah if, say, Microsoft were to require the CD every time you wanted to run Word then they can kiss that market goodbye.
Actually I just picked up the 40x Lite-On last week and I can say without a doubt it beats the hell out of the Creative 4X burner I've had in my system for three years (the last six of which it has been broken)
Quake 3 has been out for some time so you can follow the progress of this card in reference to other cards, even ones in the distant past (1999).
The Quake 3 engine has improved quite a bit, especially in more recent games like Jedi Knight II and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Quake 3 has proven quite stable and popular and powers a lot of games.
ATI just got done with QuakeCon, so they're obviously big fans of id.
The 9700 powers DOOM III pretty good (just got done seeing it this weekend at QuakeCon) and so it makes sense to see how well it will do with id's current engine before wondering what it will do with the next one.
Most importantly, everyone uses Quake 3 to benchmark.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, I think I read somewhere that when Douglas Adams had originally sold the movie rights (they eventually expired and he got them back, I think he sold them again once MIB came out and made the Sci-Fi Comedy interesting to Hollywood again) he had stated that the perfect Slartibartfast would be Sean Connery, so I always pictured him in that role. Picture "It was made from the rib cage of a Stegosaurus." in a Scottish accent!
Granted, Ian McKellen seems to have the "old man in a famous literary role" market cornered
Terry Gilliam.
That having been said, I noticed that the books get longer and longer, with the fourth one going over 700 pages. At this rate Harry Potter 7 may give War & Peace a run for its money (W&P, BTW, makes for a hilarious gag on the back of your toilet). However, the first movie was three hours long and we all know that audiences don't have an attention span longer than that (myself included). I assume that HP2 will be 3 hours as well, but given the "faithful/not faithful" debate, doesn't it stand to reason that the movie series is doomed to become less and less faithful to the books as the movies have to cut more and more out?
Am I the only one that thinks they shoukd have made the first movie 2 hours and left themselves some room?
As we've seen, there are lots of SourceForge ads on Slashdot (both part of OSDN, I know). There are a few different kinds, but the two I see most often are the ones based off of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Now, I dunno/don't care about the LOTR ones but I was curious - since we all know how hard Lucas___ can come down on copyright infringement, how is it that SourceForge is able to advertise using clearly Star Wars related ads? Or are they different enough from Star Wars to avoid it?
Tell me this - does it have chapters on how to propagate your page with pictures of your cat? Or how to flash your tits so that they point to your wishlist?
Perhaps I should qualify that I was referring to the new Winamp 3 which, despite the 1.0 designation, is clearly not ready for prime time yet. Many features in Winamp 2.x are either gone or hidden badly, it never remembers anything I tell it (which is why it keeps reclaiming my video files) and it keeps trying to send that "harmless anonymous usage information" despite the fact that I tell it not to constantly (it always starts out with that opt-in box checked no matter what I do - thanks ZoneAlarm). Back to Winamp 2 I go.
Now here's the funny part. In my opinion Windows Media Player is freaking great. It's fast, it's not bloated, and it plays crap like MPEGs wonderfully. As a result, when I install a piece of software like (shudder) RealPlayer or Quicktime or (oddly enough) the new Winamp that tries to take all this back from WMP, it annoys me quite a bit. This lets me easily switch back to WMP. Same goes for IE, though rival browsers are better about that.
Also, for those of you who have problems wherein the Sun Java VM won't run certian things that the Microsoft Java VM will and vice versa (oh, the irony...) then you'll love the feature where you can chose which Java VM to use. I wonder if this will help or hurt Java in the long run...
The word is that there are two widely circulated keys in particular that are targeted. Not sure if SP1 will disable those systems or if it will just refuse to install
- Someone claims he invented something painfully obvious (like the question mark). Usually claims he patented it a long time ago. (Given that patents take years to process, this is probably true)
- Said someone fires off lawsuit to largest offender of his patent.
- World + Slashdot get into a tizzy. Many people (myself included) start to think its time to get rid of the patent system.
- World + Slashdot start thinking about how far and wide the patent claim could reach. My favorite example is that guy a while back who claimed a patent on computer graphics - every GUI amd game in history could owe him big time.
- Then... Nothing happens. We never hear of this guy again, we never hear of the outcome of the lawsuit, we never hear anything.
So is it that these lawsuits are being settled out of court for undisclosed terms, are the lawsuits dropped, or are they being pitched out by some (smart) judge?And don't we all know that this is what is going to happen here?
Monolith wanted their upcoming TRON 2.0 game to be based off of the sequel, but after waiting so long they gave up and persued (and won) the right to do up TRON 2.0 as a game, regardless of if the movie is made. Oddly enough, it looks like all the hype the game has created has made Disney more anxious to work on the movie, which is why we're hearing more and more about it.
Perhaps if Java was as great as Sun believes then a lack of Java in IE would have kept Netscape in the black. Windows XP comes with CD Burning software but Roxio and Ahead stay in business, it comes with a firewall but I wouldn't swear off of ZoneAlarm. Hell, most people can take any browser other than the one they use and find one tiny little thing that keeps them from switching - maybe Java would have kept people off of IE.
Short answer: It's a bug/quirk/feature of IE that, somehow, the page came across screwed up and got cached that way and, despite anything and everything you may have told IE about "check for a new page every time I visit...", it still checks this screwed up cache version first. The solution is to delete your temporary Internet files (Tools->Internet Options->"Delete Files" in "Temporary Internet Files")
Long answer:I had this problem with a site I frequent quite a bit. Since I know the author personally I told her about it. When I would actually save and view the page as prompted I would see all the HTML like I was supposed to but tons and tons of gibberish right before it. I told her to republish her blog but that didn't do it. No one else on her forum was having these problems and I figured since I told IE to check for a new version of the page every time that that couldn't be it. However, after clearing my cache out that did it.
Slightly More Elegant Solution: Instead of setting your homepage to Google, get the Google Toolbar. This way you can set your homepage to whatever and use the Toolbar to do whatever Google searching you want. With all the options its got it's easily the most useful thing I've ever used. Be sure to check the experimental options as well.
By that logic, is this part of Microsoft's plan? Since Linux is seen as good by the general public for, amongst other reasons, giving away the source code, is Microsoft trying to make the (erroneous) impression that they're giving away source code as well?
All you have to do is winess the general confusion when a game maker releases some source code ("The RtCW Source Code has been released! This means the game is free!") to see that the general public still doesn't "get" this idea.
Yellow #5's rumors can be debunked here. Seriously, just keep reading Snopes and you'll be a few degrees smarter than everyone you know.
The more obvious parallel in the parent quote was the fact that Napster is doomed to be the next Amiga. Amiga of course made their line of computers for a while before going bankrupt but vowed to return their line of computers soon. After years and years of Amiga diehards waiting and hoping Amiga announced their triumphant return - in the embedded devices market.
I agree - Napster's never going to return. Especially now that Liquid Audio is getting Liquidated (*rimshot*) and they were doing similar things.
- The technical demo of retrofitting an existing OpenGL engine with the new stuff they're doing with DOOM III
- The fact that Quake is one of a few games with available GPL'd source
- The fact that many people still own the game or have ever owned it (I had to break out my old CD)
- The sheer novelty of it - he could have chosen the more up to date (relatively speaking) Quake II engine but this is even more impressive
- And finally, this now officially labels this guy as a badass graphics programmer.
I can hear it now...MR. BURNS: "I need a programmer! Get John Carmack on the line!"
SMITHERS: "He's unavailable sir."
MR. BURNS: "Then get me his non-union Belgian equivalent!"
- It doesn't allow you to make a copy of the disc, and
- It really only works for "usage" if the CD is in the drive when you use the application.
Meaning that if, say, Office.NET (or whatever they call it) uses this then you won't be able to copy a CD and give it to a friend, nor can you upload it to the Internet (unless you could crack it, which most casual users can't). You could of course still hand the CD to a friend and let them install it (though in this case Product Activation kicks in, but that's another story).Games would be the real application for this. Neverwinter Nights shipped with a copy protection called SecuROM and though I had no problems with it, many people did. SecuROM has problems with "very old or very new" drives, so if this technology can avoid those kinds of problems then it could be a contender.
But yeah if, say, Microsoft were to require the CD every time you wanted to run Word then they can kiss that market goodbye.
Burned a 700MB disc last night with the Lite-On in the article. Nero got it done in 3:30.
Actually I just picked up the 40x Lite-On last week and I can say without a doubt it beats the hell out of the Creative 4X burner I've had in my system for three years (the last six of which it has been broken)
Offtopic: Is it hard to pull the fan off the existing card?