Many of Moore's citations come from suspicious sources, though. Don't get me wrong, I like Moore, but when reading "Stupid white men", I noticed that, while his heart is at the right place, his facts on a number of things were more than a bit off.
I appreciate that he tries to give us an angle which is different from what the corporate media present to the average US citizen (and the world at large), but using Milosevic-era Serbian TV footage to shed light on the Balkan conflict is a bit like using WWII Nazi footage to shed light on the holocaust.
Michael Moore is a populist. That said, his sources and conclusions are often more reliable than those of the mainstream media, so his work is important. Just keep a healthy distance and don't accept everything he says as gospel. I'm sure he doesn't want you to either.
Well, since the first contact with the Romulans happens during TOS, this is hard to imagine. Actually, before their first contact with the Federation, Romulans were not a warp-capable race. It would be cool if they could incorporate some of Diane Duane's storyline, about the Federation first discovering Romulans, and the battles which ensued.
Two problems with this, though: This happens much later in the timeline and I don't think Berman would use such a good source as Diane Duane. Shame really.
The wages of those several thousand scientists + the cost of all the materials and tests could easily feed hundreds of thousands of hungry people in many parts of China. Perhaps they decided that this was more important than the prestige gained by doing something the Americans did 50 years ago.
Then again, they might use that money to censor free speech and execute people, just like the US are spending billions bombing the desert on the other side of the globe. That money would truly be better spent on a space programme or, even better, feeding the poor.
That article is full of errors. It was probably written by some early-twenties geek writing from his own memory. Short on data, no sources, full of gaping holes and incorrect statements.
I think this is what really sets Pixar apart, just like the old Sierra and LucasArts adventures set themselves apart from the competition. Not only through great graphics for their time, but also through the amazing humour.
Before watching 'Nemo' in the cinema, they showed one of the earliest Pixar short films, the one about the little snowman. Even in such a short and simple movie (which was clearly a demonstration of technology at the time it was made), the characters are likable, the story is interesting and the whole film is friggin' funny!
"Finding Nemo" was a movie for children and parents. For people between 15 and 35, it was mostly a yawner, with forgettable characters. Still a nice movie, but not a patch on Toy Story or Monsters Inc.
In this case, it probably has a lot to do with the genre. Electronic music is generally easy for codecs to shrink because they are not as acoustically rich. Try encoding some brass band, jazz or really distorted guitars and the difference becomes quite apparent.
I didn't use to notice the differences much until I burnt some of my mp3s to audio CDs and listened to them on my stereo system at loud volume. I could definitely hear the difference between the mp3s encoded at 128 kbs and original CDs from my collection.
Sounds good. In Germany you need a license whether you watch TV or not. If you want to avoid paying, you have to take your TV set down to the basement.
Oh, I agree that you shouldn't spend all your time on languages. I think everything you mentioned is worth learning about!
That's why I'm trying to learn as many languages as I can while I'm working on a PhD, playing instruments, mastering perl/HTML/CSS and several other things:-)
I don't understand people who take a phone to the gym:-) I guess you might need to be contacted in the case of an emergency, or whatever, but I find it distracting when people start babbling on the phone in the gym, and I certainly have other things to concentrate when I'm in there. I usually leave the phone at home for the two hours or so I spend in the gym.
Being on call is one thing but I think some people are owned by their mobile phones instead of it being the other way around. They interrupt their training, conversation, shower, anything, whenever the phone rings. Then they shout into the phone with the entire city listening. Really, sometimes you need to shut the damn thing off and enjoy some privacy.
You make learning languages sound so difficult and horrible, and it's actually fun and interesting. Most of the world learns English as a second language, so it can't be that hard.
If you're only interested in increasing value to your company, then you would probably think that learning languages is only for the elitists (no cash? useless!). You can never learn everything in the field of engineering either, but that doesn't mean you should stop bothering to learn anything outside the narrow scope of your field.
Languages are the way people communicate and anything that increases your ability to communicate and understand other people and cultures improves you as a person. You might not sorely need it, but if you're not at all interested, that's tragic.
Every piece of software gets updates as bugs get squashed and new features added. The gripe with windows is that the updates don't come as often and they often break other things, so your system can be vulnerable for long periods of time. Also, Microsoft has been known to ignore critical errors, while linux problems generally get fixed very quickly.
The big difference is in the development process, so you can see what exactly is changing, you can fix things that break your system (for example, the nvidia problem somebody mentioned already) and you can choose between different kernels (more feature-rich, more stable, or more performance-oriented) maintained by different people. You don't get this freedom with closed-source software.
Or perhaps you mean that I should want to have such things. Because languages are good for me or some such. Sorry, but I have way too much to learn already, that'll have to wait for another lifetime.
There is an old European proverb that says: With each language you learn, you're worth one more person.
Learning languages is great. Learning languages is a unique gateway into loads of new information, new literature, and other cultures. Think of all the good scientific work written in German. Think of all the South American literature. Think of all the Asian philosophy.
I really could never understand people who are not interested in learning languages. Maybe it's because I grew up in Europe, but I see people who don't at least speak one language next to their own as just shy of illiterate (and they often ARE illiterate).
It's also interesting that GMail doesn't do HTML e-mails. Indie-Mail doesn't either through the web (client limitation) but I allow POP3 and IMAP so you can use any client. There are no built in restrictions to the actual mail server.
Hotmail doesn't do HTML e-mails either. On any browser other than explorer and any system other than windows.
You mean that Google should pollute the web with more Microsoft ActiveX proprietary 'standards'? No thanks.
For another thing, you don't have to start programs in THE. You access your data, and it takes care of starting the program that manipulates the data.
I understand the point behind document-oriented interfaces and all that, but it is really, extremely annoying when it is shoved down your throat. Like those programs which register themselves for everything under the sun and you have to get them out of the way to use your favourite program.
Some webpages I want to edit in Quanta. Some I want to do in vim. Some movies are better viewed in Kaffeine than MPlayer, or whatever. The computer shouldn't prevent me from starting the program I want by magically knowing what it should start. Don't know if THE does things that way, but the document-centered craze is starting to get on my nerves slowly.
You are wrong here. The default KDE install does remind one of Windows, but it can be easily configured to work almost exactly like you want it, including the look & feel of MacOS, NextSTEP, or whatever tickles your fancy.
The windows thing is for people who are new to it. I keep it for my guest user, as they find it less confusing than my usual setup.
I think some people really don't know how configurable KDE is and are too lazy to click an icon and set it up. Hence all the windows bitching.
Education is declared a human right in several countries, specifically the developing countries, but do they get it? Even with government-funded schools and subsidies? Isn't this a case of stuff-in-your-face?
It is, and it should be. Education is not just a basic human right, but also a basic human responsibility towards others. If you don't want to learn how to live in a civilised society, go live in a cave somewhere.
I pity all the people who don't have access to free education, or are denied it all over the world, while some fat kids from rich countries think it is their right to sit in front of the TV and never learn to spell. Let them eat cake, I say.
It might be an interesting statistic, but do you really think they questioned everybody at that installfest about their religious/political beliefs? Looks like they had their hands full just copying the friggin CDs!
Yeah, but most people don't encode their music to OGG. They download MP3s/WMAs/whatever and put them on their players.
You do understand that transcoding from MP3 to OGG means absolutely shitty quality regardless on what bitrate you use? The result is always worse than what you started with.
As an example, I find SNL and the Daily Show irritating because lately they try to make lame political statements. So I just don't watch them anymore... instead I stick to Chapelle Show, South Park, and adult swim.
Let me get this straight: you watch South Park because it doesn't try to make political statements?
This is a glorified WP 8.0. Based on Motif and all. After that bombastic press release, I was expecting a bit too much, I guess; this is roughly the same thing we had in 1999.
When they come back with a decent interface, all of WP12 features and full support for OASIS format, they may have a chance. This is just half-arsed.
It's just a matter of time before all wrong words spoken by uneducated people get added to different dictionaries. Sooner or later, we will find "diffnatley" and "defiantly" as synonyms for 'definitely' (nevermind that 'defiantly' is an actual word with very different meaning), along with 200 other misspellings, and "I of saw" as a modern version of present perfect phrase "I have seen".
Put it in as many dictionaries as you will, but "irregardless" is wrong. It is a word, but it's a word used by illiterate people.
Slashdot Mirror
Many of Moore's citations come from suspicious sources, though. Don't get me wrong, I like Moore, but when reading "Stupid white men", I noticed that, while his heart is at the right place, his facts on a number of things were more than a bit off.
I appreciate that he tries to give us an angle which is different from what the corporate media present to the average US citizen (and the world at large), but using Milosevic-era Serbian TV footage to shed light on the Balkan conflict is a bit like using WWII Nazi footage to shed light on the holocaust.
Michael Moore is a populist. That said, his sources and conclusions are often more reliable than those of the mainstream media, so his work is important. Just keep a healthy distance and don't accept everything he says as gospel. I'm sure he doesn't want you to either.
Well, since the first contact with the Romulans happens during TOS, this is hard to imagine. Actually, before their first contact with the Federation, Romulans were not a warp-capable race. It would be cool if they could incorporate some of Diane Duane's storyline, about the Federation first discovering Romulans, and the battles which ensued.
Two problems with this, though: This happens much later in the timeline and I don't think Berman would use such a good source as Diane Duane. Shame really.
The wages of those several thousand scientists + the cost of all the materials and tests could easily feed hundreds of thousands of hungry people in many parts of China. Perhaps they decided that this was more important than the prestige gained by doing something the Americans did 50 years ago.
Then again, they might use that money to censor free speech and execute people, just like the US are spending billions bombing the desert on the other side of the globe. That money would truly be better spent on a space programme or, even better, feeding the poor.
That article is full of errors. It was probably written by some early-twenties geek writing from his own memory. Short on data, no sources, full of gaping holes and incorrect statements.
I think this is what really sets Pixar apart, just like the old Sierra and LucasArts adventures set themselves apart from the competition. Not only through great graphics for their time, but also through the amazing humour.
Before watching 'Nemo' in the cinema, they showed one of the earliest Pixar short films, the one about the little snowman. Even in such a short and simple movie (which was clearly a demonstration of technology at the time it was made), the characters are likable, the story is interesting and the whole film is friggin' funny!
Damn, and I thought I was the only one!
"Finding Nemo" was a movie for children and parents. For people between 15 and 35, it was mostly a yawner, with forgettable characters. Still a nice movie, but not a patch on Toy Story or Monsters Inc.
In this case, it probably has a lot to do with the genre. Electronic music is generally easy for codecs to shrink because they are not as acoustically rich. Try encoding some brass band, jazz or really distorted guitars and the difference becomes quite apparent.
I didn't use to notice the differences much until I burnt some of my mp3s to audio CDs and listened to them on my stereo system at loud volume. I could definitely hear the difference between the mp3s encoded at 128 kbs and original CDs from my collection.
Sounds good. In Germany you need a license whether you watch TV or not. If you want to avoid paying, you have to take your TV set down to the basement.
Oh, and you have to pay for radio as well.
Oh, I agree that you shouldn't spend all your time on languages. I think everything you mentioned is worth learning about!
:-)
That's why I'm trying to learn as many languages as I can while I'm working on a PhD, playing instruments, mastering perl/HTML/CSS and several other things
I don't understand people who take a phone to the gym :-) I guess you might need to be contacted in the case of an emergency, or whatever, but I find it distracting when people start babbling on the phone in the gym, and I certainly have other things to concentrate when I'm in there. I usually leave the phone at home for the two hours or so I spend in the gym.
Being on call is one thing but I think some people are owned by their mobile phones instead of it being the other way around. They interrupt their training, conversation, shower, anything, whenever the phone rings. Then they shout into the phone with the entire city listening. Really, sometimes you need to shut the damn thing off and enjoy some privacy.
You make learning languages sound so difficult and horrible, and it's actually fun and interesting. Most of the world learns English as a second language, so it can't be that hard.
If you're only interested in increasing value to your company, then you would probably think that learning languages is only for the elitists (no cash? useless!). You can never learn everything in the field of engineering either, but that doesn't mean you should stop bothering to learn anything outside the narrow scope of your field.
Languages are the way people communicate and anything that increases your ability to communicate and understand other people and cultures improves you as a person. You might not sorely need it, but if you're not at all interested, that's tragic.
No,
Linux updates = good
Microsoft updates = good
Whatever keeps those crappy windows worms at bay is great. The problem with windows updates is:
1) They don't happen often enough
2) They break things
3) They change license while you're not looking
If you're still having problems, I can break it down into even simpler terms.
Every piece of software gets updates as bugs get squashed and new features added. The gripe with windows is that the updates don't come as often and they often break other things, so your system can be vulnerable for long periods of time. Also, Microsoft has been known to ignore critical errors, while linux problems generally get fixed very quickly.
The big difference is in the development process, so you can see what exactly is changing, you can fix things that break your system (for example, the nvidia problem somebody mentioned already) and you can choose between different kernels (more feature-rich, more stable, or more performance-oriented) maintained by different people. You don't get this freedom with closed-source software.
Or perhaps you mean that I should want to have such things. Because languages are good for me or some such. Sorry, but I have way too much to learn already, that'll have to wait for another lifetime.
There is an old European proverb that says: With each language you learn, you're worth one more person.
Learning languages is great. Learning languages is a unique gateway into loads of new information, new literature, and other cultures. Think of all the good scientific work written in German. Think of all the South American literature. Think of all the Asian philosophy.
I really could never understand people who are not interested in learning languages. Maybe it's because I grew up in Europe, but I see people who don't at least speak one language next to their own as just shy of illiterate (and they often ARE illiterate).
It's also interesting that GMail doesn't do HTML e-mails. Indie-Mail doesn't either through the web (client limitation) but I allow POP3 and IMAP so you can use any client. There are no built in restrictions to the actual mail server.
Hotmail doesn't do HTML e-mails either. On any browser other than explorer and any system other than windows.
You mean that Google should pollute the web with more Microsoft ActiveX proprietary 'standards'? No thanks.
Pizza ordering doesn't belong in the kernel, you INSENSITIVE CLOD! It clearly belongs in userspace.
For another thing, you don't have to start programs in THE. You access your data, and it takes care of starting the program that manipulates the data.
I understand the point behind document-oriented interfaces and all that, but it is really, extremely annoying when it is shoved down your throat. Like those programs which register themselves for everything under the sun and you have to get them out of the way to use your favourite program.
Some webpages I want to edit in Quanta. Some I want to do in vim. Some movies are better viewed in Kaffeine than MPlayer, or whatever. The computer shouldn't prevent me from starting the program I want by magically knowing what it should start. Don't know if THE does things that way, but the document-centered craze is starting to get on my nerves slowly.
You are wrong here. The default KDE install does remind one of Windows, but it can be easily configured to work almost exactly like you want it, including the look & feel of MacOS, NextSTEP, or whatever tickles your fancy.
The windows thing is for people who are new to it. I keep it for my guest user, as they find it less confusing than my usual setup.
I think some people really don't know how configurable KDE is and are too lazy to click an icon and set it up. Hence all the windows bitching.
Education is declared a human right in several countries, specifically the developing countries, but do they get it? Even with government-funded schools and subsidies? Isn't this a case of stuff-in-your-face?
It is, and it should be. Education is not just a basic human right, but also a basic human responsibility towards others. If you don't want to learn how to live in a civilised society, go live in a cave somewhere.
I pity all the people who don't have access to free education, or are denied it all over the world, while some fat kids from rich countries think it is their right to sit in front of the TV and never learn to spell. Let them eat cake, I say.
It might be an interesting statistic, but do you really think they questioned everybody at that installfest about their religious/political beliefs? Looks like they had their hands full just copying the friggin CDs!
Yeah, but most people don't encode their music to OGG. They download MP3s/WMAs/whatever and put them on their players.
You do understand that transcoding from MP3 to OGG means absolutely shitty quality regardless on what bitrate you use? The result is always worse than what you started with.
Great! Now we can slashdot an MP3 player. Way to go!
As an example, I find SNL and the Daily Show irritating because lately they try to make lame political statements. So I just don't watch them anymore ... instead I stick to Chapelle Show, South Park, and adult swim.
Let me get this straight: you watch South Park because it doesn't try to make political statements?
This is a glorified WP 8.0. Based on Motif and all. After that bombastic press release, I was expecting a bit too much, I guess; this is roughly the same thing we had in 1999.
When they come back with a decent interface, all of WP12 features and full support for OASIS format, they may have a chance. This is just half-arsed.
It's just a matter of time before all wrong words spoken by uneducated people get added to different dictionaries. Sooner or later, we will find "diffnatley" and "defiantly" as synonyms for 'definitely' (nevermind that 'defiantly' is an actual word with very different meaning), along with 200 other misspellings, and "I of saw" as a modern version of present perfect phrase "I have seen".
Put it in as many dictionaries as you will, but "irregardless" is wrong. It is a word, but it's a word used by illiterate people.