Having spent much of last year working on an internationalization project, I can assure you that in some parts of the world where dollars are used, such as Canada, the dollar sign follows the amount. At no point did the above poster say it was USD. Even the Euro symbol switches sides from country to country. Before calling someone else a dumbass, perhaps you should examine the intelligence of your own hindquarters.
TWO Iranian supercomputers and nobody's made a Photoshop joke yet?
Re:Python is unusable because of whitespace issue
on
Land of Lisp
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· Score: 1
Sorry, but I've got fifteen years doing exactly that. I am NOT saying that code should not be properly indented; I have a reputation as an indentation nazi. What I AM saying is that using an invisible character that is indistinguishable from three or four spaces to differentiate your code blocks renders the code unmaintainable. That's why God invented curly braces.
I mean, honestly: can you look at a 4-space tab character and four space characters and tell me which is which without turning on "Show Whitespace Characters?" It's a nice idea, but in the real world, where I work very hard every day maintaining hundreds of thousands of lines of code that have been written by everyone from programming masters to farmed-out Indian hacks, it is utterly impractical.
While I agree with your view that the Song of Songs is erotica, your distinction between erotica and pornography is incorrect. The word pornography comes from the Greek porné (whore) and grapho (to write). It is usually translated as "the writing of whores," or "writing about whores." True, the original meaning of grapho was 'to draw,' as in 'graphics,' but most derivations where it follows a prefix indicate writing: biography, autograph, monograph. (For some reason Slashdot does not appear to allow Greek characters, so please forgive the transliterations.)
Re:"Alice" one of the best learning languages toda
on
Land of Lisp
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· Score: 1
Nicely done.
Re:Python is unusable because of whitespace issue
on
Land of Lisp
·
· Score: 1
I agree absolutely. A page of Python looks very pretty. As a tool meant to be used, however, it completely ignores the real world. What kind of twisted logic would lead someone to design a language that depends on an invisible character to designate code blocks? "Because it looks nice" isn't a valid argument when it renders the code unmaintainable.
People get more idiotic with every generation. Back in my day, you didn't see us barreling around corners in our mammoth Buicks pounding away on Underwoods balanced on the dashboard.
No, really. How goddamn fucking stupid do you have to be to TYPE while you drive? I'm 100% for them killing themselves off, and the sooner the better, but unfortunately they tend to take out innocent people while doing it. At least drunks have the excuse that they're drunk when they made the decision to get behind the wheel. Good God, some people are morons.
As pointed out above and below, it is an Ekranoplan, AKA "The Caspian Sea Monster." A small one, actually. Given that it was a top-secret project and that some massive versions were built with the upper decks bristling with missile launchers, I'd say that "Soviet super secret giant seaplane conspiracy theory" is pretty much right on the money.
Good point; porn is ubiquitous now, and becoming more socially acceptable every day. Most people nowdays get it from the internet. Still, given the choice between a standard HD hot babe with a huge rack and and an HD hot babe with a huge rack in full 3D, I think the latter will win hands down, so to speak, and specious complaints about dorky glasses be damned. The market for 3D porn is plainly there. The format the huge 3D racks comes packaged in will be the deciding factor. Whether it is delivered via DVD or internet doesn't mean much. The underlying format does, though. The 3DTV manufacturers will settle on whatever format the porn industry decides is the best way to provide 3D sex. Masturbation has always driven the adoption of non-broadcast media, including the printing press and photography. I see no reason why this will be different.
3D has NOT always looked terrible. You may have only personally witnessed bad 3D, but I assure you, it can be breathtaking when done correctly. Sadly, that is a rarity given the lack of training given to cinematographers and projectionists.
As for the "minimal amount of value," talk to NASA about that. From the Apollo astronauts instructed in the "cha-cha" method of stereo photography, to the current Mars rovers with built-in 3D cameras, to spacebound solar observatories creating 3D images of the sun in realtime, stereography is one of the most valuable tools for astronomers.
It's not easy to shoot good 3D footage, and there are only a handful of cinematographers up to the task. Artistic and compelling 3D takes many years of study. Would you judge the value of art to society based on the finger-paintings of a group of first-graders?
Sorry to break it to you, but 3D was THE dominant form of visual home entertainment from the 1860s until about 1915. The Holmes stereoscope was found in almost every middle-class household, and the production of stereo cards was big business. Visit the Library of Congress Stereograph Cards site to get an rough idea of the popularity of the art form.
As for 3D movies, there have been five major waves of popularity:
The 1920s, with gooseneck rotary-shutter viewers (much like current liquid crystal shutterglasses) mounted on the seat in front of you. Admittedly this was limited mostly to a couple of theaters in NYC.
The 1952-53 3D boom, which produced most of the cliches so annoying now. Although if you want to see 3D done right, watch Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" in 3D sometime. The only time anything pokes out of the screen, it's for precisely the right reason. Cameron followed his example for "Avatar." I can also recommend "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "It Came from Outer Space" as superior 3D movies from the period.
The early Seventies sexploitation movies, mostly typified by "The Stewardesses" (mostly unwatchable), and "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein," which is very, very watchable, and uses 3D to compound the jokes.
The unfortunate 1983 3D boom, which had precisely zero good movies. The two most famous are "Jaws 3D" and "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone," which should give you an idea of the craptaculosity of the rest of them.
The current period, which shows some promise.
For recent films, you must distinguish between movies specifically photographed in 3D, such as Avatar, Coraline, and any of the computer-generated animated films, and the synthetic 3D done in post-production, like most of the really crappy cardboard-cutout abominations out there now.
3D isn't going to go away, although its popularity may wax and wane. Personally I hope this time it's finally here to stay. There are always idiot filmmakers going to throw things at the screen, and idiot studios who think you can use a computer to make a 2D movie 3D.
There have been less than a hundred movies originally filmed in 3D (not 2D conversions) since the invention of the cinema. It's an expensive process that requires a director able to visualize in three dimensions. How many silent films were made before we got Griffith or Eisenstein or Lang?
The US Army had an operational flying jeep 53 years ago, the Piasecki VZ-8 Airgeep. You can see a video of it in action here. And it didn't need any dorky wings to fly, either.
If you could find a way to make the exterior sticky as it's being deployed, then anything in a similar orbit and speed would be swept up as well. And I shall call it... The Space-Swiffer!
Great idea; both logic and justice prevail. Of course it'll never happen because that would inconvenience selfish bastards, and selfish bastards must be appeased at every opportunity. This is truly a golden age for sociopaths. Not so much for the rest of us.
I agree. Nukes do have peacetime uses once in a great while. The spill could have been completely stopped within a few days. The Russians have successfully done this before. I dare say the ecological devastation of a kiloton device or two would be far less than the gazillion barrels of oil BP released. Oh, yeah... that would have destroyed the well and eliminated any future profits from it. Screw the environment; let's help BP's shareholders!
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How do you sleep at night?
Having spent much of last year working on an internationalization project, I can assure you that in some parts of the world where dollars are used, such as Canada, the dollar sign follows the amount. At no point did the above poster say it was USD. Even the Euro symbol switches sides from country to country. Before calling someone else a dumbass, perhaps you should examine the intelligence of your own hindquarters.
Oops! Missed it up there. Thank you, Slashdot, for restoring my faith in humanity.
TWO Iranian supercomputers and nobody's made a Photoshop joke yet?
Sorry, but I've got fifteen years doing exactly that. I am NOT saying that code should not be properly indented; I have a reputation as an indentation nazi. What I AM saying is that using an invisible character that is indistinguishable from three or four spaces to differentiate your code blocks renders the code unmaintainable. That's why God invented curly braces. I mean, honestly: can you look at a 4-space tab character and four space characters and tell me which is which without turning on "Show Whitespace Characters?" It's a nice idea, but in the real world, where I work very hard every day maintaining hundreds of thousands of lines of code that have been written by everyone from programming masters to farmed-out Indian hacks, it is utterly impractical.
While I agree with your view that the Song of Songs is erotica, your distinction between erotica and pornography is incorrect. The word pornography comes from the Greek porné (whore) and grapho (to write). It is usually translated as "the writing of whores," or "writing about whores." True, the original meaning of grapho was 'to draw,' as in 'graphics,' but most derivations where it follows a prefix indicate writing: biography, autograph, monograph. (For some reason Slashdot does not appear to allow Greek characters, so please forgive the transliterations.)
Nicely done.
I agree absolutely. A page of Python looks very pretty. As a tool meant to be used, however, it completely ignores the real world. What kind of twisted logic would lead someone to design a language that depends on an invisible character to designate code blocks? "Because it looks nice" isn't a valid argument when it renders the code unmaintainable.
I apologize. I was mislead by four guys wearing jumpsuits and bizarre plastic headgear while playing quirky music.
People get more idiotic with every generation. Back in my day, you didn't see us barreling around corners in our mammoth Buicks pounding away on Underwoods balanced on the dashboard.
No, really. How goddamn fucking stupid do you have to be to TYPE while you drive? I'm 100% for them killing themselves off, and the sooner the better, but unfortunately they tend to take out innocent people while doing it. At least drunks have the excuse that they're drunk when they made the decision to get behind the wheel. Good God, some people are morons.
As pointed out above and below, it is an Ekranoplan, AKA "The Caspian Sea Monster." A small one, actually. Given that it was a top-secret project and that some massive versions were built with the upper decks bristling with missile launchers, I'd say that "Soviet super secret giant seaplane conspiracy theory" is pretty much right on the money.
Good point; porn is ubiquitous now, and becoming more socially acceptable every day. Most people nowdays get it from the internet. Still, given the choice between a standard HD hot babe with a huge rack and and an HD hot babe with a huge rack in full 3D, I think the latter will win hands down, so to speak, and specious complaints about dorky glasses be damned. The market for 3D porn is plainly there. The format the huge 3D racks comes packaged in will be the deciding factor. Whether it is delivered via DVD or internet doesn't mean much. The underlying format does, though. The 3DTV manufacturers will settle on whatever format the porn industry decides is the best way to provide 3D sex. Masturbation has always driven the adoption of non-broadcast media, including the printing press and photography. I see no reason why this will be different.
And for the record, "Alice" was not actually 3D. It was a 2D to 3D conversion, and thus by definition utter shit.
3D has NOT always looked terrible. You may have only personally witnessed bad 3D, but I assure you, it can be breathtaking when done correctly. Sadly, that is a rarity given the lack of training given to cinematographers and projectionists.
As for the "minimal amount of value," talk to NASA about that. From the Apollo astronauts instructed in the "cha-cha" method of stereo photography, to the current Mars rovers with built-in 3D cameras, to spacebound solar observatories creating 3D images of the sun in realtime, stereography is one of the most valuable tools for astronomers.
It's not easy to shoot good 3D footage, and there are only a handful of cinematographers up to the task. Artistic and compelling 3D takes many years of study. Would you judge the value of art to society based on the finger-paintings of a group of first-graders?
Mod parent up. This really IS the deciding factor. Home video was a bust until the porn producers got into the act.
Sorry to break it to you, but 3D was THE dominant form of visual home entertainment from the 1860s until about 1915. The Holmes stereoscope was found in almost every middle-class household, and the production of stereo cards was big business. Visit the Library of Congress Stereograph Cards site to get an rough idea of the popularity of the art form.
As for 3D movies, there have been five major waves of popularity:
For recent films, you must distinguish between movies specifically photographed in 3D, such as Avatar, Coraline, and any of the computer-generated animated films, and the synthetic 3D done in post-production, like most of the really crappy cardboard-cutout abominations out there now.
3D isn't going to go away, although its popularity may wax and wane. Personally I hope this time it's finally here to stay. There are always idiot filmmakers going to throw things at the screen, and idiot studios who think you can use a computer to make a 2D movie 3D.
There have been less than a hundred movies originally filmed in 3D (not 2D conversions) since the invention of the cinema. It's an expensive process that requires a director able to visualize in three dimensions. How many silent films were made before we got Griffith or Eisenstein or Lang?
The US Army had an operational flying jeep 53 years ago, the Piasecki VZ-8 Airgeep. You can see a video of it in action here. And it didn't need any dorky wings to fly, either.
If you could find a way to make the exterior sticky as it's being deployed, then anything in a similar orbit and speed would be swept up as well. And I shall call it... The Space-Swiffer!
REAL real men program with patch cables.
I concur. Literate, multilayered, ruthlessly on-point and funny. Slashdot should give fuzzyfuzzyfungus and daeley some kind of award.
Great idea; both logic and justice prevail. Of course it'll never happen because that would inconvenience selfish bastards, and selfish bastards must be appeased at every opportunity. This is truly a golden age for sociopaths. Not so much for the rest of us.
I agree. Nukes do have peacetime uses once in a great while. The spill could have been completely stopped within a few days. The Russians have successfully done this before. I dare say the ecological devastation of a kiloton device or two would be far less than the gazillion barrels of oil BP released. Oh, yeah... that would have destroyed the well and eliminated any future profits from it. Screw the environment; let's help BP's shareholders!
Kai su, teknon? - There, fixed that for you. Not universally accepted, but he certainly didn't utter Shakespeare's line.
Thanks. That gives me a jumping-off point.
This sounds quite interesting. Can you provide any details so I can look it up?