Actually, Gateway hasn't done a true made to order system in some time. They use a pre-built SKU system of computers with commmon loadouts and changes. This has been around for a good 8-10 months now.
Gateway has been selling their PCs through retail channels for some time, such as Costco, Sam's Club, OfficeMax, etc. This move has a lot more to do with worries of Best Buy selling a competitors product. Gateway is trying to positiion themselves in a way to get their Consumer Electronics products right alongside their eMachines products, in said Best Buy.
This would be a matter of Identity Theaft and Misrepresentation without conscent. I think the more interesting thing to consider is that since there is a credit card involved, this could constitute as wire fruad. That is a much more serious offense than the other two.
I would have to assume that if there is a disclaimer that Visa can sell the information, there would have to be a disclaimer saying they are not liable for the information's use once it is sold. However, if the actual volume is coming in like it is, an easier route would be harrassment class action suits against benefitting parties. Their information was gained illegally, and they are liable for that. So both Visa and the Spam companies could get burned bad, if this is pressed. The person who took the application could be held responsible as well, since they accepted and processed an application without proper verification of identity.
The fact that the person got a credit card is inconsequential, or that no one else took the information is just lucky. It would have been pretty easy to just copy it to a new application and change the address.
I've always wanted to see how many monkeys and computers it would take to get one to produce Duke Nukem Forever. My guess is that the old Shakespear Rule would get us farther than 3D Realms have.
It's always interesting to see how science proves what probably anyone could have told you would happen if you put monkeys in a room with computers.
I suppose I'd have to ask how you define LOtR as 0 for 2. I suppose if you were expecting them to be the books, verbatum (which, though I love Tolken, would be immensly boring), you could knoch them down. But they were two damn fine films, and number 3 should not disappoint.
Star Wars lost the shine of its trilogy with the stains of Episode 1 and lesser stain of Episode 2 (mesa thinks thesa movies sucksa). Indy is an awesome trilogy, of sorts, but lacks the arching story lines of Star Wars, LOtR, and the Matrix.
And I though the Godfather was the trilogy to end all trilogies.
Re:This would make learning a little more fun...
on
Origami and Math
·
· Score: 1
It required doing math, it just didn't require taking any more math courses. I'd survived through Calc 1, they seemed to think that was enough.
At least I didn't say that I learned how to code all of my business applications in Visual Basic, and I just need to trust Microsoft to get my math right.
Actually, I did learn VB, JAVA, and ASP, but I never trusted any figures unless I could work the same thing out on my trusty TI-30 (or whatever model I had then) calculator and get the same answer.
But at no time during my education was I asked to find the integral of a business function. We keep Finance Majors around for that.
Re:This would make learning a little more fun...
on
Origami and Math
·
· Score: 1
Well, this was part of the Computer Science curriculum. It was actually Calc 2 that hurt, and physics was just Calc 2 under a different name. The school recommended that both be taken concurrently. That was the kick.
Sorry, I haven't been keeping up. It was supposed to be out a couple of years ago.
And DNF is imaginationware. Team Fortress 2 is vaporware, because at least it has a screenshot every 6 months or so.
This would make learning a little more fun...
on
Origami and Math
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I wish I would have seen something like this when I was going through school. Geometry was my weakest subject, which made visualizing things in Calc and absolute pain. That in turn hurt me in physics when trying to derive motion calculations.
And all of that together eventually turned me into a Information Systems/Business major, because it didn't require math.
Satan making a deal with an Angel to release a new fancy line of religious based clothing?
This really isn't nothing new, Microsoft is willing to get into bed with anyone they can make money with, and that gives them Market Share. Intel has wanted control for a while, and the Tablet PC has shown a need for a wider variety of platforms.
That's why MS has Office for MacOS, and has flirted with releasing similar products for Linux (I think it was Office 97 that had Linux Executables available, though I don't remember exactly).
I personally hold something against AMD for pulling up some great juxtaposition with Intel a couple of years back. When the Athlon first came out, they attacked Intel saying that MHz wasn't everything, and that you had to look at the performance of the product.
It held true for a while, when Intel was stuck with Rambus. Then the P4 moved to DDR and higher-speed FSB, and the Intel was faster, MHz-and-performance wise. AMD responds by using the great power of Marketing, hack cough hack, to brand the XP+ Processors with needlessly-confusing part numbers, like the 1800, 2000, 2200, which was meant to show the relative speed, when the actual speed was slower.
Intel actually tried to lower their bottom price while AMD inflated it, and somehow, they switched places.
That and we're all still bitter that the 64-bit processor is still close to vapor. Don't get me wrong, I've been using AMD processors since the K6-2, and have loved them. But they're more insterested in Marketing than pushing the envelope and giving us cutting-edge products.
Actually, I could care less about the price. I feel that Linux cannot gain success by staying free, and Windows cannot keep success by staying expensive.
Microsoft has purchased my last 3 copies of Windows for me. I have purchased copies of Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE and Debian. It's not a matter of not appreceating it, it's a matter of not being able to do what I want with it. If I could, I would switch in a heartbeat.
I have looked at WineX, the problem with it is that it takes individual upgrades for specific games. It's just me, but I'd rather see native support for the individual titles than getting emulated support for the titles, which adds an unnecesary proccessing layer to the system. I know I'm getting flamed for up above, but I support Linux.
I want Linux to succeed more than anything, because I love some of the things that it does. KDE and Gnome both blow away Windows from the level of usefullness and power, and the control and security of Linux are awesome. But the programs I use the most, Bryce 5, Photoshop, and MS Office, are Windows only, and the competing applications are just not up to where they are.
Blender has a learning curve steeper than everest, and I'd have to program my own lab plugins to do the work I do now. Gimp is a good program, but 6 years of work with Photoshop have made me dependant. And Office is still the best of Microsofts programming.
I may do the switch soon though, because I'm taking up PHP coding for web application deployment and programming. So we'll see.
In fact, a lot of security issues could be stopped before they ever happen if we look more closely at the Operating System instead of all the software!
Very true. It's one of the odd curiosities I've always seen between security issues for Linux and Windows. Linux has the exploits published against applications, and Windows has them published against the OS when an application is exploited.
I have to wonder if this will move the Linux kernal closer to the level of the Windows Kernal [READ, EASE OF USE - NOT SECURITY] for overall marketability to individuals. I'd like to see Linux settle into that niche that Windows dominates for ease of use. Linux may be powerful, but there isn't anyone who can argue it's easy to use.
Linux could play games other than Q3/UT, have the ability to easily install programs. Don't get me wrong, I'd switch to Linux if I could do the same things in it that I can in Windows.
There are graphs and studies on this. I covered it in a Technical Writing class as a senior in college last year. If I dug around, I'm sure I could find it. It was basically saying that they're all sharing the pie.
File-sharing just serves as a convenient excuse for a decline in an industry as a whole, and not a root cause. True, maybe people buy a few less CDs than they would if they couldn't download them, but I've always noticed that the worst offenders wouldn't buy CDs anyway. I personally keep a very large live/bootleg Mp3 collection, since that's what I like to get. If I happen across an artist I really like (Most recent example, Rhett Miller's The Instigator) I'll purchase the CD. I buy an absolute ton of CDs, yet still budget so much.
Another interesting trend is that there has been an increase in entertainment spending, and that units moved is almost always based on price incentive. Big initial-week sales are due to price breaks for DVDs. I try to buy everything then, because you can save $5 or more, and get bonus items. The typical price-break for a CD is around $1, if anything. DVD pricing has been dropping, while CDs have been increasing stedily.
Maybe part of it is just making people want to grab a piece of the pie.
After reading the release, about how DVD growth is because of File Trading, I was reminded again how these arguments hurt. Not just us, but the entire cause of file-trading.
First off, the rise in DVD sales is due to the emmergence of digital technology and the market penetration of Digital Devices, on things like Computers, Playstations, etc. Sales of individual films has risen because of the drop of prices of the discs while things like rental costs and PPV fees have risen. Paying $15 for a DVD full of features isn't so bad when you have to pay $4-7 to rent it.
Increased sales are also because of the fading of legacy technology, like VCRs, and the amount of Players shipped, which has risen by over 100% a year (I don't know the exact number, but it's high) over the last few years.
The special features themselves have been the motivating factor, as have the release of both budget movies ($5-$14 range) and the special features that are released with almost all movies. Take Lord of the Rings for example. I bought both versions of the movie for those special features.
File Sharing has been an after-thought to the rise in sales. Broadband is still a low percent of the internet users out there, and the people that download movies are not the people that buy the most movies. Yes, we buy a lot of movies, but just a fraction of the total out there.
What is often ignored in the whole "CD-Sales" drop equation is that DVDs and CDs and Video Games compete for the same dollar. They are luxary goods that fall within the same niche of recreation items. CD sales have dropped because DVD sales have risen. I keep a budget of $20 a week for entertainment, and that basically equates to 1 CD or 1 DVD. Most people are going to be in the same boat.
Look at the top selling CDs and you will see the same trend that has pushed DVDs. Bonus content in the form of DVDs or extra songs, instead of the "HyperCD" or Enhanced CD technology (that was more annoying than useful. I wouldn't buy Enhanced CDs for quite a while). Also some strong sales promotions, such as "The Next Sound" promotion at Target, and then similar copycat ideas at Best Buy and other retailers. New CDs priced at $6-$8 by new Artists. Some of the CDs I've gotten off the promotion: Linkin Park, Papa Roach, 30 Seconds to Mars, Five for Fighting, Chevelle... and more others than I can remember.
I think the biggest change is going to come in interfacing, and how you can set up new servers and domains in 2003. I was in the Beta test for it, and they made the setup of almost any "server role" seemless and simple. It was a nice addition. As for changes under the hood, I'm not sure. There was not a lot of demand for changes there. There is also the integration of the.NET initiative directly into the server structure, as compared to an add-on, like it was for 2000.
I think the main reason for the censors cutting American Import "Anime" is the difference between audiences in America and Japan. There, Anime is part of adult culture. Here, cartoons are still overwealmingly targeted to kids.
Sex, violence, nudity, and adult themes are cut out because it's still not in public circles that Anime is an adult art form. With the most popular cartoons being things like Pokemon, it's getting harder to convince people. DBZ in America is targeted to kids and teenagers (personally, I've always hated that show, then again, I'm 25 so that could be it), but the Japanese versions I've seen are plainly adult.
It's not just about the actual show though. For a cartoon series to be successful in America, there has to be some marketability for toys, videos, video games or the like. Go to Target, and you see Dragon Ball, Gundam, Pokemon, but you don't see Slyaers toys anywhere.
The anime I've always enjoyed has steered towards comedy and a little bit more "mature" action, for lack of a better word. I've enjoyed Ranma, mostly because the premise is funny. I've also enjoyed Slayers and the Lodoss War series. Gundam is a straight hack ripoff of Robotech, though I'm basing this on their toys and the 10 mintues of the show I've seen.
Transformers was a Japanese comic book that won appeal as an American Cartoon. The toys ruled, and I had them. I don't forsee any of the modern cartoons having the sort of lasting appeal that Transformers has (and the modern, lame, cartoon of Transformers doesn't count). Kids that are growing up aren't going to talk about how Pokemon and DBZ affected their lives. However guys my age still talk about seeing Optimus Prime die, though typically among men or when drinking.
Batman (and Batman Beyond) are probably the most unique american cartoons that have aired recently. I watched them in college, and they were unique because they placed storytelling above animation and the "pizzaz" factor of other cartoons. If you ever had a chance to watch the series Gargoyles, it was very similar in the storytelling aspect. If you can dig up some of those, I recommend it highly.
Are we talking the Modern cartoons, that are mostly Anime-influenced? Or are we talking classic American cartoons from the 80s and early 90s?
And if you love robot Anime, watch Robotech. It's the father of a good 50% of the Anime out there, and chances are they though of it first (and then Gundum just ripped it off).
I've never been able to really get into Anime since I watched Robotech as a kid. I loved that show, and still love watching it. It's not because I love Anime, but it reminds me of those cartoons.
For me, my cartoon loves are strictly American for the most part. I haven't been able to figure out why that is, since most of my friends love the Anime. I love classics like Transformers, G.I. Joe, things like that. I have quite the collection of downloaded episodes, and also have DVDs of my childhood cartoon loves.
I still watch the modern adult cartoons: South Park, KOTH, Simpsons, but don't really consider them cartoons. I have enjoyed some Anime movies, but to me, most seem watered down, or geared towards another culture and mindset. I can only watch so many cartoons with giggling girls, food jokes and the like. I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell, though I suppose that's qualified as Magna (I do not know the difference).
As for the other things, the Matrix rules, but it's just as much Sci-Fi as anything else.
I would have more people to threaten and put at risk of losing an Eye. I would be able to throw my custom shirts around and do all kinds of damage...
There could be a whole business promo thing going on here. Stand at a Pizza Hut and fire promo pictures over to Domino's. Or better yet, I could travel down to Texas and blast some Gateway Shirts at Dell. Stand outside Microsoft and pelt the building with Linux shirts, things like that. Civil Disobedience and Advertising finailly mix, at least in ways that does not require Butterflys.
I think my single worst experience has been with the entire CD-RW industry. I've been waiting for a $10 Rebate from PNY for about 2 years, and their webpage lists it as "In Progress - You Should Recieve Your rebate in 2-4 Weeks." It has for over a year now.
I think companies like Best Buy are the worst at getting comsumers subjected to this. How often do they show a computer item for an actual sale price. Usually they'll show you that 120gig Special Edition Hard Drive for $99, then in fine print "After $50 Mail-In Rebate". Or those $2.99 100 CD-Spindles that have a $40 mail-in rebate. It assumes you get the right form from them, mail it in, they process it and it doesn't get mucked up in the middle. That's a lot of ifs.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, Gateway hasn't done a true made to order system in some time. They use a pre-built SKU system of computers with commmon loadouts and changes. This has been around for a good 8-10 months now.
Gateway has been selling their PCs through retail channels for some time, such as Costco, Sam's Club, OfficeMax, etc. This move has a lot more to do with worries of Best Buy selling a competitors product. Gateway is trying to positiion themselves in a way to get their Consumer Electronics products right alongside their eMachines products, in said Best Buy.
This would be a matter of Identity Theaft and Misrepresentation without conscent. I think the more interesting thing to consider is that since there is a credit card involved, this could constitute as wire fruad. That is a much more serious offense than the other two.
I would have to assume that if there is a disclaimer that Visa can sell the information, there would have to be a disclaimer saying they are not liable for the information's use once it is sold. However, if the actual volume is coming in like it is, an easier route would be harrassment class action suits against benefitting parties. Their information was gained illegally, and they are liable for that. So both Visa and the Spam companies could get burned bad, if this is pressed. The person who took the application could be held responsible as well, since they accepted and processed an application without proper verification of identity.
The fact that the person got a credit card is inconsequential, or that no one else took the information is just lucky. It would have been pretty easy to just copy it to a new application and change the address.
I've always wanted to see how many monkeys and computers it would take to get one to produce Duke Nukem Forever. My guess is that the old Shakespear Rule would get us farther than 3D Realms have.
It's always interesting to see how science proves what probably anyone could have told you would happen if you put monkeys in a room with computers.
This probe was launched a while back. The intersection with the planet is in a little over a year, but I figured this was old news.
I suppose I'd have to ask how you define LOtR as 0 for 2. I suppose if you were expecting them to be the books, verbatum (which, though I love Tolken, would be immensly boring), you could knoch them down. But they were two damn fine films, and number 3 should not disappoint.
Star Wars lost the shine of its trilogy with the stains of Episode 1 and lesser stain of Episode 2 (mesa thinks thesa movies sucksa). Indy is an awesome trilogy, of sorts, but lacks the arching story lines of Star Wars, LOtR, and the Matrix.
And I though the Godfather was the trilogy to end all trilogies.
It required doing math, it just didn't require taking any more math courses. I'd survived through Calc 1, they seemed to think that was enough.
At least I didn't say that I learned how to code all of my business applications in Visual Basic, and I just need to trust Microsoft to get my math right.
Actually, I did learn VB, JAVA, and ASP, but I never trusted any figures unless I could work the same thing out on my trusty TI-30 (or whatever model I had then) calculator and get the same answer.
But at no time during my education was I asked to find the integral of a business function. We keep Finance Majors around for that.
Well, this was part of the Computer Science curriculum. It was actually Calc 2 that hurt, and physics was just Calc 2 under a different name. The school recommended that both be taken concurrently. That was the kick.
Sorry, I haven't been keeping up. It was supposed to be out a couple of years ago.
And DNF is imaginationware. Team Fortress 2 is vaporware, because at least it has a screenshot every 6 months or so.
I wish I would have seen something like this when I was going through school. Geometry was my weakest subject, which made visualizing things in Calc and absolute pain. That in turn hurt me in physics when trying to derive motion calculations.
And all of that together eventually turned me into a Information Systems/Business major, because it didn't require math.
Satan making a deal with an Angel to release a new fancy line of religious based clothing?
This really isn't nothing new, Microsoft is willing to get into bed with anyone they can make money with, and that gives them Market Share. Intel has wanted control for a while, and the Tablet PC has shown a need for a wider variety of platforms.
That's why MS has Office for MacOS, and has flirted with releasing similar products for Linux (I think it was Office 97 that had Linux Executables available, though I don't remember exactly).
I personally hold something against AMD for pulling up some great juxtaposition with Intel a couple of years back. When the Athlon first came out, they attacked Intel saying that MHz wasn't everything, and that you had to look at the performance of the product.
It held true for a while, when Intel was stuck with Rambus. Then the P4 moved to DDR and higher-speed FSB, and the Intel was faster, MHz-and-performance wise. AMD responds by using the great power of Marketing, hack cough hack, to brand the XP+ Processors with needlessly-confusing part numbers, like the 1800, 2000, 2200, which was meant to show the relative speed, when the actual speed was slower.
Intel actually tried to lower their bottom price while AMD inflated it, and somehow, they switched places.
That and we're all still bitter that the 64-bit processor is still close to vapor. Don't get me wrong, I've been using AMD processors since the K6-2, and have loved them. But they're more insterested in Marketing than pushing the envelope and giving us cutting-edge products.
Actually, I could care less about the price. I feel that Linux cannot gain success by staying free, and Windows cannot keep success by staying expensive.
Microsoft has purchased my last 3 copies of Windows for me. I have purchased copies of Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE and Debian. It's not a matter of not appreceating it, it's a matter of not being able to do what I want with it. If I could, I would switch in a heartbeat.
I have looked at WineX, the problem with it is that it takes individual upgrades for specific games. It's just me, but I'd rather see native support for the individual titles than getting emulated support for the titles, which adds an unnecesary proccessing layer to the system. I know I'm getting flamed for up above, but I support Linux.
I want Linux to succeed more than anything, because I love some of the things that it does. KDE and Gnome both blow away Windows from the level of usefullness and power, and the control and security of Linux are awesome. But the programs I use the most, Bryce 5, Photoshop, and MS Office, are Windows only, and the competing applications are just not up to where they are.
Blender has a learning curve steeper than everest, and I'd have to program my own lab plugins to do the work I do now. Gimp is a good program, but 6 years of work with Photoshop have made me dependant. And Office is still the best of Microsofts programming.
I may do the switch soon though, because I'm taking up PHP coding for web application deployment and programming. So we'll see.
Sorry. It should have been a little clearer, and I shouldn't post while drinking.
In fact, a lot of security issues could be stopped before they ever happen if we look more closely at the Operating System instead of all the software!
Very true. It's one of the odd curiosities I've always seen between security issues for Linux and Windows. Linux has the exploits published against applications, and Windows has them published against the OS when an application is exploited.
I have to wonder if this will move the Linux kernal closer to the level of the Windows Kernal [READ, EASE OF USE - NOT SECURITY] for overall marketability to individuals. I'd like to see Linux settle into that niche that Windows dominates for ease of use. Linux may be powerful, but there isn't anyone who can argue it's easy to use.
Linux could play games other than Q3/UT, have the ability to easily install programs. Don't get me wrong, I'd switch to Linux if I could do the same things in it that I can in Windows.
But I can't.
There are graphs and studies on this. I covered it in a Technical Writing class as a senior in college last year. If I dug around, I'm sure I could find it. It was basically saying that they're all sharing the pie.
File-sharing just serves as a convenient excuse for a decline in an industry as a whole, and not a root cause. True, maybe people buy a few less CDs than they would if they couldn't download them, but I've always noticed that the worst offenders wouldn't buy CDs anyway. I personally keep a very large live/bootleg Mp3 collection, since that's what I like to get. If I happen across an artist I really like (Most recent example, Rhett Miller's The Instigator) I'll purchase the CD. I buy an absolute ton of CDs, yet still budget so much.
Another interesting trend is that there has been an increase in entertainment spending, and that units moved is almost always based on price incentive. Big initial-week sales are due to price breaks for DVDs. I try to buy everything then, because you can save $5 or more, and get bonus items. The typical price-break for a CD is around $1, if anything. DVD pricing has been dropping, while CDs have been increasing stedily.
Maybe part of it is just making people want to grab a piece of the pie.
*Sigh*
After reading the release, about how DVD growth is because of File Trading, I was reminded again how these arguments hurt. Not just us, but the entire cause of file-trading.
First off, the rise in DVD sales is due to the emmergence of digital technology and the market penetration of Digital Devices, on things like Computers, Playstations, etc. Sales of individual films has risen because of the drop of prices of the discs while things like rental costs and PPV fees have risen. Paying $15 for a DVD full of features isn't so bad when you have to pay $4-7 to rent it.
Increased sales are also because of the fading of legacy technology, like VCRs, and the amount of Players shipped, which has risen by over 100% a year (I don't know the exact number, but it's high) over the last few years.
The special features themselves have been the motivating factor, as have the release of both budget movies ($5-$14 range) and the special features that are released with almost all movies. Take Lord of the Rings for example. I bought both versions of the movie for those special features.
File Sharing has been an after-thought to the rise in sales. Broadband is still a low percent of the internet users out there, and the people that download movies are not the people that buy the most movies. Yes, we buy a lot of movies, but just a fraction of the total out there.
What is often ignored in the whole "CD-Sales" drop equation is that DVDs and CDs and Video Games compete for the same dollar. They are luxary goods that fall within the same niche of recreation items. CD sales have dropped because DVD sales have risen. I keep a budget of $20 a week for entertainment, and that basically equates to 1 CD or 1 DVD. Most people are going to be in the same boat.
Look at the top selling CDs and you will see the same trend that has pushed DVDs. Bonus content in the form of DVDs or extra songs, instead of the "HyperCD" or Enhanced CD technology (that was more annoying than useful. I wouldn't buy Enhanced CDs for quite a while). Also some strong sales promotions, such as "The Next Sound" promotion at Target, and then similar copycat ideas at Best Buy and other retailers. New CDs priced at $6-$8 by new Artists. Some of the CDs I've gotten off the promotion: Linkin Park, Papa Roach, 30 Seconds to Mars, Five for Fighting, Chevelle... and more others than I can remember.
Long rant, but I dislike bad logic
I think the biggest change is going to come in interfacing, and how you can set up new servers and domains in 2003. I was in the Beta test for it, and they made the setup of almost any "server role" seemless and simple. It was a nice addition. As for changes under the hood, I'm not sure. There was not a lot of demand for changes there. There is also the integration of the .NET initiative directly into the server structure, as compared to an add-on, like it was for 2000.
I think the main reason for the censors cutting American Import "Anime" is the difference between audiences in America and Japan. There, Anime is part of adult culture. Here, cartoons are still overwealmingly targeted to kids.
Sex, violence, nudity, and adult themes are cut out because it's still not in public circles that Anime is an adult art form. With the most popular cartoons being things like Pokemon, it's getting harder to convince people. DBZ in America is targeted to kids and teenagers (personally, I've always hated that show, then again, I'm 25 so that could be it), but the Japanese versions I've seen are plainly adult.
It's not just about the actual show though. For a cartoon series to be successful in America, there has to be some marketability for toys, videos, video games or the like. Go to Target, and you see Dragon Ball, Gundam, Pokemon, but you don't see Slyaers toys anywhere.
The anime I've always enjoyed has steered towards comedy and a little bit more "mature" action, for lack of a better word. I've enjoyed Ranma, mostly because the premise is funny. I've also enjoyed Slayers and the Lodoss War series. Gundam is a straight hack ripoff of Robotech, though I'm basing this on their toys and the 10 mintues of the show I've seen.
Transformers was a Japanese comic book that won appeal as an American Cartoon. The toys ruled, and I had them. I don't forsee any of the modern cartoons having the sort of lasting appeal that Transformers has (and the modern, lame, cartoon of Transformers doesn't count). Kids that are growing up aren't going to talk about how Pokemon and DBZ affected their lives. However guys my age still talk about seeing Optimus Prime die, though typically among men or when drinking.
Batman (and Batman Beyond) are probably the most unique american cartoons that have aired recently. I watched them in college, and they were unique because they placed storytelling above animation and the "pizzaz" factor of other cartoons. If you ever had a chance to watch the series Gargoyles, it was very similar in the storytelling aspect. If you can dig up some of those, I recommend it highly.
I guess I'm basing my comment on the name of the company on the DVD case. Thanks for the clarification.
Are we talking the Modern cartoons, that are mostly Anime-influenced? Or are we talking classic American cartoons from the 80s and early 90s?
And if you love robot Anime, watch Robotech. It's the father of a good 50% of the Anime out there, and chances are they though of it first (and then Gundum just ripped it off).
I've never been able to really get into Anime since I watched Robotech as a kid. I loved that show, and still love watching it. It's not because I love Anime, but it reminds me of those cartoons.
For me, my cartoon loves are strictly American for the most part. I haven't been able to figure out why that is, since most of my friends love the Anime. I love classics like Transformers, G.I. Joe, things like that. I have quite the collection of downloaded episodes, and also have DVDs of my childhood cartoon loves.
I still watch the modern adult cartoons: South Park, KOTH, Simpsons, but don't really consider them cartoons. I have enjoyed some Anime movies, but to me, most seem watered down, or geared towards another culture and mindset. I can only watch so many cartoons with giggling girls, food jokes and the like. I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell, though I suppose that's qualified as Magna (I do not know the difference).
As for the other things, the Matrix rules, but it's just as much Sci-Fi as anything else.
I would have more people to threaten and put at risk of losing an Eye. I would be able to throw my custom shirts around and do all kinds of damage...
There could be a whole business promo thing going on here. Stand at a Pizza Hut and fire promo pictures over to Domino's. Or better yet, I could travel down to Texas and blast some Gateway Shirts at Dell. Stand outside Microsoft and pelt the building with Linux shirts, things like that. Civil Disobedience and Advertising finailly mix, at least in ways that does not require Butterflys.
I think my single worst experience has been with the entire CD-RW industry. I've been waiting for a $10 Rebate from PNY for about 2 years, and their webpage lists it as "In Progress - You Should Recieve Your rebate in 2-4 Weeks." It has for over a year now.
I think companies like Best Buy are the worst at getting comsumers subjected to this. How often do they show a computer item for an actual sale price. Usually they'll show you that 120gig Special Edition Hard Drive for $99, then in fine print "After $50 Mail-In Rebate". Or those $2.99 100 CD-Spindles that have a $40 mail-in rebate. It assumes you get the right form from them, mail it in, they process it and it doesn't get mucked up in the middle. That's a lot of ifs.