I always thought Carrie Fisher was brilliant, especially in 'episode 3', the perfect blend of warm, sexy chick and haughty, smart royalty.
Hammil takes a lot of flack and I don't understand why. I can't picture anyone else in his role in that first movie. He was the perfect dorky kid discovering his own hidden potential.
That right there, to me, it what makes that movie (as opposed to the series) so appealing. We all want, or wanted that for ourselves, discovering an unknown power within us and a meaningful history hidden behind our seemingly mundane day-to-day life. The first movie touches on that perfectly in a way that lets the viewer surrender completely to the fantasy for an hour and a half.
As for the acting, all characters in the recent movies, are embarrassments. Good direction (forgetting the hopeless dialog) could have saved things, but I always get the feeling that Lucas doesn't direct at all. He just has his actors say their lines while wearing costumes and so long as they do that he says, "Great kid. Print it."
I guess he's thinking about effects all the time, and just forgets to tell his actors what to do.
Actors don't just need to 'know their motivation'.
I still can't believe how quickly these terms 'hate speech', 'hate crime' and so on have become accepted, even legally-binding terms in our English parlance.
What are such things but 'thought crimes'?
Of course there's an issue of how to cope with, in legal terms, ethnicity-based verbal or written harassment, defamation and so on which I don't deny, but these words creep into our vernacular, become 'normal' and then explode against us in unpredictable ways.
I didn't have a stressed wrist, but I've used one of the smaller-ball Logitechs for years too and love it. Highly recommended. Otherwise, give me a responsive optical mouse with a wheel on it and I'm good. The scroll-wheel has really helped a lot of people, I think, not having to mouse around quite so drastically.
There was dancing long before the advent of the beat-box and 'house-music', I can assure you!
I have since come to really appreciate a lot of electronic music, but in the mid/late 80's it was really kind of depressing to go to what used to be an up-beat new wave / rock club and be subjected to 20-minute-long barrages of BOOMchikBOOMchickBOOMchikBOOMchik at 180bpm or whatever and very little variation, no 'chorus' or anything like that aside from a few 'diva' soundbites or whatever, only to have that followed by...another 180bpm masterpiece that goes--you guessed it---BOOMchikBOOMchickBOOMchikBOOMchik for another 20 minutes.
In the context of an actual rave where people are running around half (?) naked and lit up on X or whatever that sort of music is great, but for dancing? What's the point? No change, no variation aside from the occasional laborious 'breakdown'.
Hey, whatevah. I like dancing to songs, not cut-and-paste sonic wallpaper.
That said, electronic music HAS gotten a lot more varied and interesting. Even now, though, I enjoy it from a 'how'd he do that?' production standpoint much more than an actual visceral musical one.
It's like political systems. When creative and intelligent people are enslaved by tyranny, they yearn only for the freedom to persue their own fortune without oppression or persecution.
Once that 'state' (of being) is achieved and settles, it becomes the new norm and is taken for granted. The memory of the release from oppression fades.
Now, every little inconvenience becomes a seeming obstacle of tremendous importance, and demands are made for some outside force to provide security from these obstacles.
Eventually, as security piles on top of security, things go from a 'state' to a State, and the oppression and persecution begins again.
Seems to be the way of things, a cycle we're not likely to break out of any time soon.
It is my theory that new technology will not make life easier, but instead will increase our demands.
+1 Insightful
Very, very well said.
I don't wish to deride the very real comforts and pleasures that technology has brought, but the spiral for ever more comfort, convenience and access is endless. Die-hard capitalist that I am, I would love to see a way to softening that endless hunger.
It has to come about naturally, though, and I think in many ways it already is.
So true. I turned off cable TV a few years back and have never missed it. We watch videos and dvd's and that's plenty. I won't say that there's not still some clever programming out there because I'm sure there is, but the other things in my life that have taken their place are infinitely more nourishing, and I know longer waste my time and energy (attention) 'surfing' the sh*t for something of interest. There is enough audio-visual 'interest' on Netflix alone to feed that bug for many lifetimes.
Nutshell: I have lost (in large part if not completely) my fear of silence.
The Fear of Silence is what plagues most of the people I know who are 'hyper-connected' and going nowhere fast. Lots of flash, sizzle and 'choices', almost none of them meaningful or nourishing, but rather chaotic and vampyiric, sucking up our time and attention in almost every area, physical and otherwise, of our lives.
Technology is quickly reaching a point where the 'cost of access' is more than the monthly bill. With the first wave of true nanotechnology about to crest, terms like 'computer virus' will take on much more dangerous and invasive connotations, and 'privacy' will utterly and completely be a relic of the past. We will be able to Google each other's private lives (and privates ; ) with near-realtime accuracy.
On the plus side, it will be egalitarian. The hammer with which you can 'smite' (humiliate/swindle/blackmail) me can as easily be used against you.
Interesting times ahead. Relax, keep your chin up and focus on what's important to you. And take the 'vampire' analogy to heart. We are responsible for the consequences of whom and what we invite into our homes/lives.
You should be able to do this pretty easily by having a moderated server with a 'dmz' zone where new players can 'audition' in a short, simple game setting. Accepted players would be accepted for a trial period.
You could have at least 3 or more levels or 'realms' of access, with the higher levels being available to those players who show spirit, interest and stay in character. 'Experience points' or whatever should be lower on the list. If you want good role-players, then award experience/merit for good role-playing and advance them to higher realms (if not levels) based on that.
The highest 'realm' might have lots of lowly 2nd level fighters/mages/whatever and 20th level wizards and so on, but they would all have proven themselves capable of playing by the rules and staying in character. That could afford some really interesting roleplay encounters, rather than a wide-open field with 'L33ts', high-score-hounds, spammers, gender-benders and genuine role-players all in one space. You could develop much more sophisticated storylines and such rather than just having strong characters prey on the week to go for the next level. Weak (low-level) players who are good role-players in a higher-realm setting could be given (in context) information or objects or abilities which make them valuable to the higher-level players in the context of one storyline/adventure or another.
Exclusive access to the higher (more refined) realms would be a good carrot to encourage roleplay. People who don't like that would quickly go elsewhere to 'greener' (?) pastures. That would be a very interesting sort of server, and while I wouldn't be a player myself, I'd love to see some other group put it together and make it work.
I also find it strange that no one comments on the observation that, while Christian in message, the characters and themes in Narnia are unmistakably pagan in nature. But I guess you could say that about Christianity in general.
Indeed.
Narnia is CS Lewis' ideal fantasy of what Christianity should or could be, not what it is.
That is not likely to be something he would have openly admitted to anyone else, let alone perhaps even himself, but to write a 'christian allegory' in which a primary protagonist is a... Satyr... well, whatever. I mean really, if roman catholic christianity meant sailing on ships with spirited piratical bipedal rats, well, you could count me in in a heartbeat!
The Chronicles of Narnia is a wonderful story, way beyond any sodden spirituality or intellectuality he or others have tried to impose on it. Let them gabber on. The very hand of the author who penned the story knew exactly what it was doing, even if the mind of the author wasn't quite so clear. Enjoy and celebrate!
A Merry Christmas to all, in this time of renewal and rebirth...
This is a VERY workable solution. I'd love to see the fallout of this!
Yahoo et al couldn't 'crack down' on the operation without drawing some seriously negative press.
They couldn't crack down on it without cracking down on regular SPAM too.
The parent post should be sitting on top of all the others. This is a solution that slashdotters can work themselves, rather than idle pontificating and posturing on this side of the imaginary fence or that.
So, the summary of the entire article is that many people have already been saying there is "nothing we can do" to stop what is a naturally occuring process that has happened before without us and will happen again after we are gone.
EXACTLY!
This article is nothing more (or less) than the Elite Euro-Intellectual Establishment's attempt to cover their asses as they back away slowly from the pointless and embarrassing morass of their failed Global Armageddon campaign of nonsense.
They've tried and ultimately failed to change/affect world political policy, and now they're giving up on this front. Hooray.
My only question now is, what will they come up with next?
I'm so sick of cheezy 3d graphics I could (and have) puke(d).
This demo is 1000x more charming!
3d is hard because you have to go to great detail and specify EVERYTHING, whereas in 2.xd, you can be a little fuzzier and let the user's brain pan cpu fill in all the gaps.
Doesn't even sound like a real word anymore, does it? Sounds more like a sex crime, or something a meteorite does when it enters the atmosphere a tad too hastily.
Worse, you start abusing them and thumping yourself up as a knowledgeable scientist when you do not even consider all the factors involved in the subject of discussion.
They don't need to consider all the factors. They're Europeans!
"The report includes harrowing testimonies of abduction, deprivation of liberty and denial of freedom of movement, torture and ill-treatment, including psychological threats, beatings and rape."
Ah yes, those blessed NATO soldiers, bravely going forth and doing what no US soldier would dare.
My addition to the 'maybe this is not such a great idea' meme would be the idea that longer life-spans for adults would lead to an increasingly greater de-valuation of children, whom would increasingly be seen as competition rather than the hope of a new generation.
Gotta 'me too' on this one. Quake 1 was such an incredible leap from Doom that it was very easy to 'surrender' oneself to the game completely!
No game has ever impressed and entertained me as thoroughly as that.
The 'Thief' series had way too many annoying quirks for me to enjoy it at all while 'Undying' was just a bore. Looking forward to taking a look back at System Shock 2. Never played it!
But remember that there is no law that says that they have to provide campus-wide wireless access, or even drop points.
They can pull that out altogether and go back to 'computer labs', with no dial in or drop point access at all. Just like the olde days! How wonderfully retro!
And they will, if they think they have to to save or cover their asses.
Students - Be careful when you go squealing "I KNOW MY RIGHTS!" and starting your own 'nam-style activist campaign.
You might just get exactly what you are asking for.
. . . When I think of all my lefty punker friends in the 80's who insisted that Reagan/Amerikkka was the real Satan for refusing to up and drop our nuclear arsenal and envelop those peace-loving Soviets in a brotherly embrace of peace.
Protesticular ninnies today can't even imagine that there was ever a time when we had a real live Enemy. Surely the Soviets were only acting defensively, protecting their wonderful and loving and 'earth-friendly' way of life!
As an outsider looking in, it is really sad to see a formerly great country sinking so low.
Funny. That's how I feel when I look at places like France, where the 'world's greatest healthcare system' can't even handle a heatwave without a body-count in the 1,000's, and who jumps into bed with dictator's to try and save their failing socialist economy at the expense of others.
Slashdot Mirror
Oops. Episode 4. Whatever.
I always thought Carrie Fisher was brilliant, especially in 'episode 3', the perfect blend of warm, sexy chick and haughty, smart royalty.
Hammil takes a lot of flack and I don't understand why. I can't picture anyone else in his role in that first movie. He was the perfect dorky kid discovering his own hidden potential.
That right there, to me, it what makes that movie (as opposed to the series) so appealing. We all want, or wanted that for ourselves, discovering an unknown power within us and a meaningful history hidden behind our seemingly mundane day-to-day life. The first movie touches on that perfectly in a way that lets the viewer surrender completely to the fantasy for an hour and a half.
As for the acting, all characters in the recent movies, are embarrassments. Good direction (forgetting the hopeless dialog) could have saved things, but I always get the feeling that Lucas doesn't direct at all. He just has his actors say their lines while wearing costumes and so long as they do that he says, "Great kid. Print it."
I guess he's thinking about effects all the time, and just forgets to tell his actors what to do.
Actors don't just need to 'know their motivation'.
They need to be motivated! (by the director)
Sick days I can understand, but Pirate Movies?
What's wrong with Pirate Movies?
I still can't believe how quickly these terms 'hate speech', 'hate crime' and so on have become accepted, even legally-binding terms in our English parlance.
What are such things but 'thought crimes'?
Of course there's an issue of how to cope with, in legal terms, ethnicity-based verbal or written harassment, defamation and so on which I don't deny, but these words creep into our vernacular, become 'normal' and then explode against us in unpredictable ways.
Oh well!
Did anyone else gravitate to this article thinking it was about really tiny model trains?
I didn't have a stressed wrist, but I've used one of the smaller-ball Logitechs for years too and love it. Highly recommended. Otherwise, give me a responsive optical mouse with a wheel on it and I'm good. The scroll-wheel has really helped a lot of people, I think, not having to mouse around quite so drastically.
There was dancing long before the advent of the beat-box and 'house-music', I can assure you!
I have since come to really appreciate a lot of electronic music, but in the mid/late 80's it was really kind of depressing to go to what used to be an up-beat new wave / rock club and be subjected to 20-minute-long barrages of BOOMchikBOOMchickBOOMchikBOOMchik at 180bpm or whatever and very little variation, no 'chorus' or anything like that aside from a few 'diva' soundbites or whatever, only to have that followed by...another 180bpm masterpiece that goes--you guessed it---BOOMchikBOOMchickBOOMchikBOOMchik for another 20 minutes.
In the context of an actual rave where people are running around half (?) naked and lit up on X or whatever that sort of music is great, but for dancing? What's the point? No change, no variation aside from the occasional laborious 'breakdown'.
Hey, whatevah. I like dancing to songs, not cut-and-paste sonic wallpaper.
That said, electronic music HAS gotten a lot more varied and interesting. Even now, though, I enjoy it from a 'how'd he do that?' production standpoint much more than an actual visceral musical one.
It's like political systems. When creative and intelligent people are enslaved by tyranny, they yearn only for the freedom to persue their own fortune without oppression or persecution.
Once that 'state' (of being) is achieved and settles, it becomes the new norm and is taken for granted. The memory of the release from oppression fades.
Now, every little inconvenience becomes a seeming obstacle of tremendous importance, and demands are made for some outside force to provide security from these obstacles.
Eventually, as security piles on top of security, things go from a 'state' to a State, and the oppression and persecution begins again.
Seems to be the way of things, a cycle we're not likely to break out of any time soon.
It is my theory that new technology will not make life easier, but instead will increase our demands.
+1 Insightful
Very, very well said.
I don't wish to deride the very real comforts and pleasures that technology has brought, but the spiral for ever more comfort, convenience and access is endless. Die-hard capitalist that I am, I would love to see a way to softening that endless hunger.
It has to come about naturally, though, and I think in many ways it already is.
So true. I turned off cable TV a few years back and have never missed it. We watch videos and dvd's and that's plenty. I won't say that there's not still some clever programming out there because I'm sure there is, but the other things in my life that have taken their place are infinitely more nourishing, and I know longer waste my time and energy (attention) 'surfing' the sh*t for something of interest. There is enough audio-visual 'interest' on Netflix alone to feed that bug for many lifetimes.
Nutshell: I have lost (in large part if not completely) my fear of silence.
The Fear of Silence is what plagues most of the people I know who are 'hyper-connected' and going nowhere fast. Lots of flash, sizzle and 'choices', almost none of them meaningful or nourishing, but rather chaotic and vampyiric, sucking up our time and attention in almost every area, physical and otherwise, of our lives.
Technology is quickly reaching a point where the 'cost of access' is more than the monthly bill. With the first wave of true nanotechnology about to crest, terms like 'computer virus' will take on much more dangerous and invasive connotations, and 'privacy' will utterly and completely be a relic of the past. We will be able to Google each other's private lives (and privates ; ) with near-realtime accuracy.
On the plus side, it will be egalitarian. The hammer with which you can 'smite' (humiliate/swindle/blackmail) me can as easily be used against you.
Interesting times ahead. Relax, keep your chin up and focus on what's important to you. And take the 'vampire' analogy to heart. We are responsible for the consequences of whom and what we invite into our homes/lives.
You should be able to do this pretty easily by having a moderated server with a 'dmz' zone where new players can 'audition' in a short, simple game setting. Accepted players would be accepted for a trial period.
You could have at least 3 or more levels or 'realms' of access, with the higher levels being available to those players who show spirit, interest and stay in character. 'Experience points' or whatever should be lower on the list. If you want good role-players, then award experience/merit for good role-playing and advance them to higher realms (if not levels) based on that.
The highest 'realm' might have lots of lowly 2nd level fighters/mages/whatever and 20th level wizards and so on, but they would all have proven themselves capable of playing by the rules and staying in character. That could afford some really interesting roleplay encounters, rather than a wide-open field with 'L33ts', high-score-hounds, spammers, gender-benders and genuine role-players all in one space. You could develop much more sophisticated storylines and such rather than just having strong characters prey on the week to go for the next level. Weak (low-level) players who are good role-players in a higher-realm setting could be given (in context) information or objects or abilities which make them valuable to the higher-level players in the context of one storyline/adventure or another.
Exclusive access to the higher (more refined) realms would be a good carrot to encourage roleplay. People who don't like that would quickly go elsewhere to 'greener' (?) pastures. That would be a very interesting sort of server, and while I wouldn't be a player myself, I'd love to see some other group put it together and make it work.
I also find it strange that no one comments on the observation that, while Christian in message, the characters and themes in Narnia are unmistakably pagan in nature. But I guess you could say that about Christianity in general.
... Satyr ... well, whatever. I mean really, if roman catholic christianity meant sailing on ships with spirited piratical bipedal rats, well, you could count me in in a heartbeat!
Indeed.
Narnia is CS Lewis' ideal fantasy of what Christianity should or could be, not what it is.
That is not likely to be something he would have openly admitted to anyone else, let alone perhaps even himself, but to write a 'christian allegory' in which a primary protagonist is a
The Chronicles of Narnia is a wonderful story, way beyond any sodden spirituality or intellectuality he or others have tried to impose on it. Let them gabber on. The very hand of the author who penned the story knew exactly what it was doing, even if the mind of the author wasn't quite so clear. Enjoy and celebrate!
A Merry Christmas to all, in this time of renewal and rebirth...
This is a VERY workable solution. I'd love to see the fallout of this!
Yahoo et al couldn't 'crack down' on the operation without drawing some seriously negative press.
They couldn't crack down on it without cracking down on regular SPAM too.
The parent post should be sitting on top of all the others. This is a solution that slashdotters can work themselves, rather than idle pontificating and posturing on this side of the imaginary fence or that.
So, the summary of the entire article is that many people have already been saying there is "nothing we can do" to stop what is a naturally occuring process that has happened before without us and will happen again after we are gone.
EXACTLY!
This article is nothing more (or less) than the Elite Euro-Intellectual Establishment's attempt to cover their asses as they back away slowly from the pointless and embarrassing morass of their failed Global Armageddon campaign of nonsense.
They've tried and ultimately failed to change/affect world political policy, and now they're giving up on this front. Hooray.
My only question now is, what will they come up with next?
I'm so sick of cheezy 3d graphics I could (and have) puke(d).
This demo is 1000x more charming!
3d is hard because you have to go to great detail and specify EVERYTHING, whereas in 2.xd, you can be a little fuzzier and let the user's brain pan cpu fill in all the gaps.
"Astonishing images of . . . that is nothing short of astonishing!"
Okay, I'm astonished already.
astonishing astonishing astonishing astonishing astonishing astonishing astonishing astonishing
Doesn't even sound like a real word anymore, does it? Sounds more like a sex crime, or something a meteorite does when it enters the atmosphere a tad too hastily.
atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere
Worse, you start abusing them and thumping yourself up as a knowledgeable scientist when you do not even consider all the factors involved in the subject of discussion.
They don't need to consider all the factors. They're Europeans!
"The report includes harrowing testimonies of abduction, deprivation of liberty and denial of freedom of movement, torture and ill-treatment, including psychological threats, beatings and rape."
Ah yes, those blessed NATO soldiers, bravely going forth and doing what no US soldier would dare.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3686173.stm
My addition to the 'maybe this is not such a great idea' meme would be the idea that longer life-spans for adults would lead to an increasingly greater de-valuation of children, whom would increasingly be seen as competition rather than the hope of a new generation.
Gotta 'me too' on this one. Quake 1 was such an incredible leap from Doom that it was very easy to 'surrender' oneself to the game completely!
No game has ever impressed and entertained me as thoroughly as that.
The 'Thief' series had way too many annoying quirks for me to enjoy it at all while 'Undying' was just a bore. Looking forward to taking a look back at System Shock 2. Never played it!
But remember that there is no law that says that they have to provide campus-wide wireless access, or even drop points.
They can pull that out altogether and go back to 'computer labs', with no dial in or drop point access at all. Just like the olde days! How wonderfully retro!
And they will, if they think they have to to save or cover their asses.
Students - Be careful when you go squealing "I KNOW MY RIGHTS!" and starting your own 'nam-style activist campaign.
You might just get exactly what you are asking for.
What do you mean 'just'???!
The end result is exactly the same! Sorry this doesn't jive with your Star Trek fantasy.
. . . When I think of all my lefty punker friends in the 80's who insisted that Reagan/Amerikkka was the real Satan for refusing to up and drop our nuclear arsenal and envelop those peace-loving Soviets in a brotherly embrace of peace.
Protesticular ninnies today can't even imagine that there was ever a time when we had a real live Enemy. Surely the Soviets were only acting defensively, protecting their wonderful and loving and 'earth-friendly' way of life!
As an outsider looking in, it is really sad to see a formerly great country sinking so low.
Funny. That's how I feel when I look at places like France, where the 'world's greatest healthcare system' can't even handle a heatwave without a body-count in the 1,000's, and who jumps into bed with dictator's to try and save their failing socialist economy at the expense of others.
Oh well. It's not my fault!
Doity goodfanuttin' sunzabitch'z!