You know, I've just never understood people that feel like they *have* to find someone, that somehow that person will fix whatever is wrong with their lives. What a sadly passive existence. Make yourself happy, and then you are well-prepared to make someone else happy.
"If you are lonely while you're alone, you are in bad company." - Jean-Paul Sartre
This isn't about people who don't know about computers, it's about people who are too stupid to think about what they are doing.
Classic example from a class I once taught: "Move your cursor to the Apple in the upper left hand corner of your screen"
The person I was standing next to proceeded to move their arrow to the upper right corner. Is this a computer problem? Nope - this is a person problem.
I think you're right - QT is a very important piece when it comes to multimedia. Certainly a key component when you start talking about packages like Director and Premiere.
Perhaps I forgot about it because of my repressed anger from seeing that 'upgrade now' box everytime I play a movie on the web now...
1. Dreamweaver 2. Flash 3. Director 4. Fireworks 5. Photoshop 6. Illustrator 7. Freehand 8. Premiere 9. Acrobat 10. Internet Explorer
Note that all except #10 are Macromedia or Adobe, and pretty crucial to doing professional web work. As for IE, well, if you design for the web, you have to have IE to see how most folks see your pages.
Sure, I've seen plenty of cases where corporations were fined. But in how many cases were people criminally charged with the threat of jail time? And how many times do these violations ever merit a breaking news story?
I read somewhere that Electronic Arts' gross profit for the past fiscal year was something like $600 million. MS's profit was in the billions. While I'm sure that there are plenty of small software houses that get hit pretty hard by piracy, I don't doubt that a lot of folks see these numbers and it eases their consciences somehow.
I don't think anyone with money would spend the time it takes to download one of these things at +500 MB (even on a fast connections) to save the $3 rental fee. It's just not worth it.
What's interesting to me is that we've never seen anyone in a corporation that was installing software without licenses tried and convicted. And these guys are running their business (and making a profit) with this software, not just screwing around in the dorm room for fun.
I think the most dubious one here is Wired News. I mean, most news places regurgitate press releases, but that DVD Anywhere story was regurgitating 'news' about a product that was months old like it just came out. Then to follow it up a couple of weeks later with another X10 'newsflash.' Geez - I guess waiting at the fax machine for a press release beats actually working to find real news out there.
I like playing around with X10 crap, but I have to say that their marketing techniques are enormously offensive, from the 'babe' banner ads to the endlessly repeating 'last day' sales and constant spam.
And who needs the software? I reprogrammed the Phone mode button to instead launch WinAmp and then have all of the MouseRemote buttons control Winamp by having buttons trigger the WinAmp keyboard shortcuts.
If you are into Linux, while the Mouseremote is a dud at the moment, you could easily set scripts using heyu and normal X10 controllers to control your mpegs.
You know you're an MP3 freak when you take a new CD home and the first thing you do is rip it...
"But "MST3K"'s values -- reflex irony, hatred of everything outmoded and aesthetically dated,the paranoid fear of the imagination and the absences that might wake it -- are simply those of the dominant culture. "
Hatred, paranoid fear - is this a review of a puppet show or of a Leni Riefenstahl film? Somehow I get the feeling that this guy is as much fun at a party as a can of tear gas...
What annoys me is that after the first show on Sci-Fi, they pretty much stopped promoting it until the final episode. In the meantime, you see commercials for Sliders and all of that other crap every 15 seconds.
Castle of Fu Manchu Monster A-Go-Go - "there was no monster..." Robot vs the Aztec Mummy
By themselves, they were *completely* unwatchable. Even MST'd, they are pretty tough (I feel asleep trying to watch Castle of Fu Manchu several times).
I know there are a lot of folks out there that think the show ended when Joel left, but the truth is, despite how good Joel, Trace, and Frank were, the star of the show has always been the writing. And that's remained consistently good through the show's run.
While the Gamera eps are sweet, I'd have to give my vote to Godzilla vs Megalon as the best riffed-on giant monster movie. The commentary on the tag-team match is soo funny:
"Why doesn't he just go straight to the flame?" - Crow "Because the man is a true professional." - Joel
The problem with almost all MST3K shows (except those based on movies in the public domain) is that they depend on having the rights for the original movies as well as for the show itself. I believe when MST3K first did a lot of the CC-era movies, they got the rights for a limited time-period, which meant that after that time-period expired, they couldn't broadcast that show anymore. To be able to re-run them all would mean that someone would have to renegotiate the rights to use all of those movies, and let's face it, MST3K has always gotten such poor ratings that no TV executive would even consider it worthwhile.
Let's face it folks - 10 years is an incredible run for any show, especially one that so few people get. I'm just glad that years ago I figured out that this show would probably be the only one in television history not to be perpetually rerun in the future, and got them all on tape...
We set up an new Intranet web server then gave folks their passwords. Afraid that they weren't going to remember that they could be mixed-case, I put the following on the entry page:
Remember: Your password is case-sensitive.
Looking through the logs a while later - I saw multiple entries of people trying to use "case-sensitive" as their password...
Elvis, John Lennon, Madonna, and Princess Diana in the top twenty in a vote for the 'Person of the Century'? Where are the truly important figures of the last hundred years - Alf, Yahoo Serious, and Bob Saget?
Seriously, though - the only thing that polls show us is how the media shapes truly meaningless information into 'news.' I guess they need something to do when the feed of corporate press releases they regurgitate begins to slow down.
It's easy to rag on schools or libraries for caving in on filtering software, but let's face it - this is something that they have to do because of lawsuit-phobia. Parents don't want to take responsibility for teaching their kids right and wrong, and how to make good choices in life. And god forbid that students are actually held accountable for making bad choices. Instead, they'll just sue the school.
I don't think cyberspace as Gibson visualized it in Neuromancer exists quite yet, and it certainly didn't back in the mid 80's when he wrote it. Books like this can be important because they act as points of inspiration for the folks who later make these ideas a reality. I'm reminded of how I once saw all of these NASA scientists and astronauts talking about how Star Trek sparked their interest in space when they were kids. Just as the novels of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells inspired earlier generations...
Don't get me wrong, I liked Tron when I saw it as a kid, but it did terribly in terms of box office (I remember the theater being almost completely empty). And companies like Disney don't remake movies when the original lost money.
Cascading Style Sheet Probs - Not Just Netscape
on
Mozilla M8 Released
·
· Score: 1
People are afraid to develop CSS-based content using W3C standards because of the non-standard implementation by *both* NN 4 and IE4/5. I personally enjoyed how MS, instead of cleaning up and fully implementing CSS level 1 in IE5, instead just added new stuff with more problems. While I'd love to see Mozilla kick ass and be completely standards-compliant, the truth is that it probably won't matter, because we're stuck with the stupid mistakes of the past for years to come as folks stick with legacy browsers. It's discouraging because had Netscape and MS just had the tiniest bit of vision a couple of years ago, web developers could be focusing on creating amazing sites instead of wasting an inordinate amount of time just making sure their pages don't break on one browser or the other.
I think what we need to remember folks is that Amazon is just a store. And it's there to sell us stuff. We don't become smarter or hipper because we buy the next piece of crap for our collection from Amazon or fatbrain or the local Walmart. We just, if everything goes right, get what we buy. If we expect more, well perhaps we should stop worshipping at the altar of consumption for a minute and start thinking about why that is.
I seem to recall hearing something a while back about NT-based systems on a Navy missile boat crashing and the ship being basically defenseless as a result. I'd love to hear the captain calling MS tech support and being told to download a patch. Heh.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, I've just never understood people that feel like they *have* to find someone, that somehow that person will fix whatever is wrong with their lives. What a sadly passive existence. Make yourself happy, and then you are well-prepared to make someone else happy.
"If you are lonely while you're alone, you are in bad company." - Jean-Paul Sartre
Classic example from a class I once taught: "Move your cursor to the Apple in the upper left hand corner of your screen"
The person I was standing next to proceeded to move their arrow to the upper right corner. Is this a computer problem? Nope - this is a person problem.
I think you're right - QT is a very important piece when it comes to multimedia. Certainly a key component when you start talking about packages like Director and Premiere.
Perhaps I forgot about it because of my repressed anger from seeing that 'upgrade now' box everytime I play a movie on the web now...
1. Dreamweaver
2. Flash
3. Director
4. Fireworks
5. Photoshop
6. Illustrator
7. Freehand
8. Premiere
9. Acrobat
10. Internet Explorer
Note that all except #10 are Macromedia or Adobe, and pretty crucial to doing professional web work. As for IE, well, if you design for the web, you have to have IE to see how most folks see your pages.
Sure, I've seen plenty of cases where corporations were fined. But in how many cases were people criminally charged with the threat of jail time? And how many times do these violations ever merit a breaking news story?
I read somewhere that Electronic Arts' gross profit for the past fiscal year was something like $600 million. MS's profit was in the billions. While I'm sure that there are plenty of small software houses that get hit pretty hard by piracy, I don't doubt that a lot of folks see these numbers and it eases their consciences somehow.
I don't think anyone with money would spend the time it takes to download one of these things at +500 MB (even on a fast connections) to save the $3 rental fee. It's just not worth it.
What's interesting to me is that we've never seen anyone in a corporation that was installing software without licenses tried and convicted. And these guys are running their business (and making a profit) with this software, not just screwing around in the dorm room for fun.
I think the most dubious one here is Wired News. I mean, most news places regurgitate press releases, but that DVD Anywhere story was regurgitating 'news' about a product that was months old like it just came out. Then to follow it up a couple of weeks later with another X10 'newsflash.' Geez - I guess waiting at the fax machine for a press release beats actually working to find real news out there.
I like playing around with X10 crap, but I have to say that their marketing techniques are enormously offensive, from the 'babe' banner ads to the endlessly repeating 'last day' sales and constant spam.
And who needs the software? I reprogrammed the Phone mode button to instead launch WinAmp and then have all of the MouseRemote buttons control Winamp by having buttons trigger the WinAmp keyboard shortcuts.
If you are into Linux, while the Mouseremote is a dud at the moment, you could easily set scripts using heyu and normal X10 controllers to control your mpegs.
You know you're an MP3 freak when you take a new CD home and the first thing you do is rip it...
"But "MST3K"'s values -- reflex irony, hatred of everything outmoded and aesthetically dated,the paranoid fear of the imagination and the absences that might wake it -- are simply those of the dominant culture. "
Hatred, paranoid fear - is this a review of a puppet show or of a Leni Riefenstahl film? Somehow I get the feeling that this guy is as much fun at a party as a can of tear gas...
What annoys me is that after the first show on Sci-Fi, they pretty much stopped promoting it until the final episode. In the meantime, you see commercials for Sliders and all of that other crap every 15 seconds.
Ummm...remember these early CC stinkbombs?
Castle of Fu Manchu
Monster A-Go-Go - "there was no monster..."
Robot vs the Aztec Mummy
By themselves, they were *completely* unwatchable. Even MST'd, they are pretty tough (I feel asleep trying to watch Castle of Fu Manchu several times).
I know there are a lot of folks out there that think the show ended when Joel left, but the truth is, despite how good Joel, Trace, and Frank were, the star of the show has always been the writing. And that's remained consistently good through the show's run.
"Why doesn't he just go straight to the flame?" - Crow
"Because the man is a true professional." - Joel
The problem with almost all MST3K shows (except those based on movies in the public domain) is that they depend on having the rights for the original movies as well as for the show itself. I believe when MST3K first did a lot of the CC-era movies, they got the rights for a limited time-period, which meant that after that time-period expired, they couldn't broadcast that show anymore. To be able to re-run them all would mean that someone would have to renegotiate the rights to use all of those movies, and let's face it, MST3K has always gotten such poor ratings that no TV executive would even consider it worthwhile.
Let's face it folks - 10 years is an incredible run for any show, especially one that so few people get. I'm just glad that years ago I figured out that this show would probably be the only one in television history not to be perpetually rerun in the future, and got them all on tape...
Remember: Your password is case-sensitive.
Looking through the logs a while later - I saw multiple entries of people trying to use "case-sensitive" as their password...
Elvis, John Lennon, Madonna, and Princess Diana in the top twenty in a vote for the 'Person of the Century'? Where are the truly important figures of the last hundred years - Alf, Yahoo Serious, and Bob Saget?
Seriously, though - the only thing that polls show us is how the media shapes truly meaningless information into 'news.' I guess they need something to do when the feed of corporate press releases they regurgitate begins to slow down.
It's easy to rag on schools or libraries for caving in on filtering software, but let's face it - this is something that they have to do because of lawsuit-phobia. Parents don't want to take responsibility for teaching their kids right and wrong, and how to make good choices in life. And god forbid that students are actually held accountable for making bad choices. Instead, they'll just sue the school.
I don't think cyberspace as Gibson visualized it in Neuromancer exists quite yet, and it certainly didn't back in the mid 80's when he wrote it. Books like this can be important because they act as points of inspiration for the folks who later make these ideas a reality. I'm reminded of how I once saw all of these NASA scientists and astronauts talking about how Star Trek sparked their interest in space when they were kids. Just as the novels of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells inspired earlier generations...
Don't get me wrong, I liked Tron when I saw it as a kid, but it did terribly in terms of box office (I remember the theater being almost completely empty). And companies like Disney don't remake movies when the original lost money.
People are afraid to develop CSS-based content using W3C standards because of the non-standard implementation by *both* NN 4 and IE4/5. I personally enjoyed how MS, instead of cleaning up and fully implementing CSS level 1 in IE5, instead just added new stuff with more problems. While I'd love to see Mozilla kick ass and be completely standards-compliant, the truth is that it probably won't matter, because we're stuck with the stupid mistakes of the past for years to come as folks stick with legacy browsers. It's discouraging because had Netscape and MS just had the tiniest bit of vision a couple of years ago, web developers could be focusing on creating amazing sites instead of wasting an inordinate amount of time just making sure their pages don't break on one browser or the other.
I think what we need to remember folks is that Amazon is just a store. And it's there to sell us stuff. We don't become smarter or hipper because we buy the next piece of crap for our collection from Amazon or fatbrain or the local Walmart. We just, if everything goes right, get what we buy. If we expect more, well perhaps we should stop worshipping at the altar of consumption for a minute and start thinking about why that is.
I seem to recall hearing something a while back about NT-based systems on a Navy missile boat crashing and the ship being basically defenseless as a result. I'd love to hear the captain calling MS tech support and being told to download a patch. Heh.
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/entertainment/htm l98/goth_19990429.html