Computer-generated, or special effects in general? Big difference there. You can drop Westworld if you're talking CGI, BTW.
If just SFX, hey, Ray Harryhausen (sp?) did some great stuff "back in the day". Certain 2001: A Space Odyssey was the beginning of the realistic stuff. There's nothing in there that looks any worse than Star Wars: A New Hope, and it's a lot more realistic. (Fighters using aerodynamic maneuvers in space? Yeah, right.)
Certainly a lot of technology was invented at ILM for the first three Star Wars films, and you've gotta respect that.
Terminator 2 for the morphing.
Aliens for mixing live action and miniatures (the duel between Ripley and the alien queen was a mix - amazing stuff; just saw a special on the Alien series last night - AMAZING work and you never notice it's fake - that's why it's so great).
For non-human CGI, nothing has surpassed the original Jurassic Park, really - it's pretty much levelled off there, if not gone down a bit, likely due to budgetary concerns. The stuff Weta did for the LOTR movies is great, but isn't groundbreaking in terms of anything other than sheer scale.
For CGI humans, I'd have to say 'Final Flight of the Osiris' in the Animatrix is the best I've seen (same people that did the Final Fantasy movie), but it still has a long ways to go. The skin _still_ isn't right, though the movement is almost perfect. Hair is good, but not great (yet). I suspect hair will be perfected before skin will.
Here's the killer idea: what happens when the only thing left to artificially generate are the voices? Artificial voice actors? Yikes!
You may remember me from such LPI training films as, "rm / -rf, the Silent Killer," and "shutdown -rn now: Express Elevator to Hell, System Going Down!"
Instead of a big red screen on bootup telling them there are new patches, a big screen saying free porn if you click here (which installs any new patches).
C'mon, it's the DUMB people who don't patch their systems, so play to their weaknesses. Free porn, free money, whatever obvious lie (to a normal person) should be enough to get them to fall for it.
> Step 1. Look down at your keyboard. > Step 2. Notice that the "c" and "v" keys are right next to each other. > Step 3. Quit being a spelling Nazi and do something with your life.
The more popular Macs become (because of the advent of OS X the G5 hardware), the more likely they WILL come. That's the price for popularity - people always wanting to take you down a peg or two.
Granted, a superior security model to that of MS products will help limit the damage done by such a virus, but when you have people willing to click on any attachment someone sends to them in an e-mail, you can never totally eliminate the possibility of damage.
> Keynote PPT > ??? Word > ??? Excel > MySQL + Enterprise Objects Framework or something Access > Mail+AddressBook Entourage/Outlook
PowerPoint = Keynote Word = Appleworks wp (rumoured to be under dev) Excel = Appleworks ss (rumoured to be under dev) Access = Filemaker Pro (rumoured to be taken back in-house, though that may have been debunked recently) Outlook = Mail (being upgraded in Panther)
Really, the only 'missing' components are a good word processor and spreadsheet, at this point. We'll see what's missing in the Panther version of Mail as far as how well it compares to Outlook. It may be more of an Outlook Express class app than an Outlook class one.
Macs aren't "vaccinated" against Windows-based e-mail viruses or worms.
Saying Macs are "immune" in this case is about like saying my car is immune to Polio. It just doesn't apply in this case. Macs won't be "immune" to Mac-based viruses, when they come along.
Anyone dumb enough to launch an executable e-mail attachment without first virus-scanning it is dumb enough to do it on any platform they run. Bragging about Macs not being susceptible to this round of viruses is merely bragging about how few Macs there are, and how it isn't worth the time of the virus-writers to make Mac-based viruses. Whoopee.
I'm still saving up money for a G5, though it has nothing to do with how susceptible to viruses it is or isn't.
Hey, Bob was ahead of his time! Misunderstood. So sad. If Bob were alive today, he'd be rolling over in his grave over what people say about him on Slashdot. *BWG*
> Putting DRM, the fact that you have to use Windows to use it, and the fact that some of them can launch IE aside
Yes, putting aside all the EVILNESS, Hitler wasn't a half-bad painter, either. You seem to be missing the point, young padawan.
Evil is bad. It's just no darned good. Ya don't cotton to it. You need to smack it on the nose with the rolled-up newspaper of justice, and say, "Bad dog! Bad dog!" Or at least, that's what the Tick always says. That and something about gravity being a harsh mistress.
Slashdot Mirror
Computer-generated, or special effects in general? Big difference there. You can drop Westworld if you're talking CGI, BTW.
If just SFX, hey, Ray Harryhausen (sp?) did some great stuff "back in the day". Certain 2001: A Space Odyssey was the beginning of the realistic stuff. There's nothing in there that looks any worse than Star Wars: A New Hope, and it's a lot more realistic. (Fighters using aerodynamic maneuvers in space? Yeah, right.)
Certainly a lot of technology was invented at ILM for the first three Star Wars films, and you've gotta respect that.
Terminator 2 for the morphing.
Aliens for mixing live action and miniatures (the duel between Ripley and the alien queen was a mix - amazing stuff; just saw a special on the Alien series last night - AMAZING work and you never notice it's fake - that's why it's so great).
For non-human CGI, nothing has surpassed the original Jurassic Park, really - it's pretty much levelled off there, if not gone down a bit, likely due to budgetary concerns. The stuff Weta did for the LOTR movies is great, but isn't groundbreaking in terms of anything other than sheer scale.
For CGI humans, I'd have to say 'Final Flight of the Osiris' in the Animatrix is the best I've seen (same people that did the Final Fantasy movie), but it still has a long ways to go. The skin _still_ isn't right, though the movement is almost perfect. Hair is good, but not great (yet). I suspect hair will be perfected before skin will.
Here's the killer idea: what happens when the only thing left to artificially generate are the voices? Artificial voice actors? Yikes!
That would the just the 'Elevator to Hell', not the Express. The express gives no warning. :)
You may remember me from such LPI training films as, "rm / -rf, the Silent Killer," and "shutdown -rn now: Express Elevator to Hell, System Going Down!"
> General Issimo Francisco Franko is still dead.
He's not dead - he's hiding in my closet with Elvis, Jimmy Hoffa and God.
Seriously.
Instead of a big red screen on bootup telling them there are new patches, a big screen saying free porn if you click here (which installs any new patches).
C'mon, it's the DUMB people who don't patch their systems, so play to their weaknesses. Free porn, free money, whatever obvious lie (to a normal person) should be enough to get them to fall for it.
> Step 1. Look down at your keyboard.
:)
> Step 2. Notice that the "c" and "v" keys are right next to each other.
> Step 3. Quit being a spelling Nazi and do something with your life.
Step 4. PROFIT!
(I can't believe you didn't complete that!)
> True. But they don't. And that's the point :-)
The more popular Macs become (because of the advent of OS X the G5 hardware), the more likely they WILL come. That's the price for popularity - people always wanting to take you down a peg or two.
Granted, a superior security model to that of MS products will help limit the damage done by such a virus, but when you have people willing to click on any attachment someone sends to them in an e-mail, you can never totally eliminate the possibility of damage.
> What the hell does "putting marzipan in your pie plate bingo!" mean?
It means you don't watch enough Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that's what it means.
> Keynote PPT
> ??? Word
> ??? Excel
> MySQL + Enterprise Objects Framework or something Access
> Mail+AddressBook Entourage/Outlook
PowerPoint = Keynote
Word = Appleworks wp (rumoured to be under dev)
Excel = Appleworks ss (rumoured to be under dev)
Access = Filemaker Pro (rumoured to be taken back in-house, though that may have been debunked recently)
Outlook = Mail (being upgraded in Panther)
Really, the only 'missing' components are a good word processor and spreadsheet, at this point. We'll see what's missing in the Panther version of Mail as far as how well it compares to Outlook. It may be more of an Outlook Express class app than an Outlook class one.
Rumour has it they're enhancing their own products, so this may turn out well in the end, after all. Just not via Open Source products...
> what doesn't kill you, will only make you stronger.
:)
Yeah, or cripple you for life, or make you go broke, or, or, or... There are more than two outcomes...
> We should start calling them Outlook viruses. Put the blame where it belongs, on the bad email applications.
:)
Well, I use Outlook, and *I* don't get these viruses. If we put the blame where it belongs, we should called them User viruses.
Macs aren't "vaccinated" against Windows-based e-mail viruses or worms.
Saying Macs are "immune" in this case is about like saying my car is immune to Polio. It just doesn't apply in this case. Macs won't be "immune" to Mac-based viruses, when they come along.
Anyone dumb enough to launch an executable e-mail attachment without first virus-scanning it is dumb enough to do it on any platform they run. Bragging about Macs not being susceptible to this round of viruses is merely bragging about how few Macs there are, and how it isn't worth the time of the virus-writers to make Mac-based viruses. Whoopee.
I'm still saving up money for a G5, though it has nothing to do with how susceptible to viruses it is or isn't.
They'll be lucky if their "settlement" doesn't end with a double-tap to the head.
I love that phrase precisely because most people completely miss it. :)
And hey, if _Houdini_ says it's a neat trick, it's a neat friggin' trick!
Do you work for the government, by any chance? :)
Hey, Bob was ahead of his time! Misunderstood. So sad. If Bob were alive today, he'd be rolling over in his grave over what people say about him on Slashdot. *BWG*
Alas, poor Bob, I knew him well...
I'd rather they go with the original Amiga one, the Guru Meditation Error. That was sweet, and sorely missed when they removed it.
> MS Bob v2.0
:)
Dude, a little respect, if you please. That's "MS Bob 2005" to you, okay?
> But I suppose we could encurrage them to develope some 18 year old robots instead.
Cherry 2000!
"And I, for one, _welcome_ our new childlike robot masters..."
- Kent Brockman
let's let Japan do all the spending on the project, then we'll buy one of their fancy schancy new robots, and reproduce it ourselves.
> See, if we get everybody to take xanax or zoloft, there's no limit to how fast computers will appear to be working.
Let's just kill everyone, then our computers will seem infinitely fast! Dude, if you're gonna dream, Dream Big!
"Spoon!"
Can't believe I forgot to mention that. *sigh*
> Putting DRM, the fact that you have to use Windows to use it, and the fact that some of them can launch IE aside
Yes, putting aside all the EVILNESS, Hitler wasn't a half-bad painter, either. You seem to be missing the point, young padawan.
Evil is bad. It's just no darned good. Ya don't cotton to it. You need to smack it on the nose with the rolled-up newspaper of justice, and say, "Bad dog! Bad dog!" Or at least, that's what the Tick always says. That and something about gravity being a harsh mistress.