Funny, but I am in the process of trying to figure out how to schedule the work I need to get done this summer around my european counterparts 8 weeks of vacation. Eight weeks, not including holidays! Funny, they never get labeled as lazy.
Not that I'm against it, mind you. I think the so-called American work ethic -- in this age where we're not even ruled by imperialist lords but by faceless corporations that seemingly have no responsibility to society whatsoever -- is misguided and poisonous. I'll take those eight weeks off, thank you very much.
It is poor (though typical) reporting that these types of claims are reported simply as "so-and-so says", but it saves journalist from having to have any knowledge of or do any research in the field they are covering, they can simply find the nearest person with a degree or job in a superficially relevant field, and get a quote, and go home for the day. If they are particularly ambitious, they'll get two conflicting quotes from different experts, to show "balance".
I see. And so, in your opinion, not-poor reporting would presumably involve the reporter spending the next six years getting an advanced degree in psychiatry and then stating his own opinion?
Or are you just one of those people who gets such a kick out of looking cool and cynical that you must instantly put down anyone who is cited as an expert at anything? (There is a scientific name for such people: "player haters.")
Looking forward to reading your article on the topic.
Forgive me if none of this applies to Linux because my only experience running VMware products is on Windows. But on Windows, VMware Server runs as a service in the background, all the time. This means that you can log out of your current Windows session and your virtual machines will keep running. Workstation, on the other hand, mostly runs like any other user application. When you quit the program or log out of your session, the virtual machines all close down.
Why would you want this? Well, quite frankly, if your main purpose for your computer is running user applications -- in other words, it's a workstation -- then it doesn't seem to make much sense to have VMware consuming a bunch of memory and occasional processor overhead when you're not using it for anything.
I couldn't purchase one from Disney if I wanted to, so some Malaysian pirate got my $20
Twenty? Wow. Hate to say it, but if you paid $20 for a pirated movie in Malaysia you got ripped off. Last time I was there I seem to recall a DVD5 cost about $4-7 and a DVD9 was maybe $7-10.
I bought the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD-9 at the time. Unfortunately they were the Special Editions... they didn't have a DVD9 version of the originals (I've since downloaded DVD images). When I went to buy them the guy in the shop -- which was in a small mall, BTW -- the guy said something like "Good movies." I explained to him that I wanted to buy them because, believe it or not, you could not buy those movies on DVD in the United States. He seemed to think I was nuts, but I assured him that it was, indeed, the case.
Second story about that same shop that speaks a little bit to what other people are saying about DVD piracy in Asia. I went back to that same mall a few days later and the store was closed. This seemed strange, since it was some random weekday in the middle of the afternoon. Later someone else explained it to me: The store owner had been tipped off that the Copyright Police would be coming by for a raid that day, so he simply didn't open his doors.
This seemed to be quite commonplace. You would find guys selling pirate DVDs on the street in just about any major tourist or shopping area, and more than once I saw one of them answer his phone, talk briefly, then pack up his table and beat a hasty retreat. Copyright Cops are apparently everywhere, but it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem for anyone so long as they know which palms to grease. All it takes to avoid them is a well-timed phone call.
You don't give any sources to back up your claim that doctors in "certain states" refuse to diagnose Lyme Disease -- and yet, isn't it funny that I've read articles about Morgellons syndrome that link it to Lyme disease?
This has all the makings of a crazy disease-conspiracy theory to me. I'm sorry, but no matter how bad the American health care system may have become, I can't believe that every doctor in America who encounters this supposed syndrome refuses to treat it. That's just asinine. Believe it or not, there are a few people who go to medical school because they want to help people. Maybe more than a few.
Until I see some real medical research on this, I'm going to assume that wearing a magnetic bracelet for a few weeks will clear it right up.
OK, so the homepage is Slashdotted, and the Mirrordot link is just the notice explaining the Slashdotting. So does anyone have any information about this movie at all?
How long is it?
If it was created using a "community process," how did the writing and direction work?
There's really nothing wrong with NTSC per se. PAL does have slightly higher resolution than NTSC, but on a closed circuit, e.g. from your DVD player to your TV, it's perfectly fine. It does tend to suffer more than PAL over broadcast, though, which is where it gets its reputation for "Never The Same Color" etc.
To your point on frame rates (and the original poster)... every time I go to Europe it takes me a couple of days before I can look at a TV and not see the flicker from the 50Hz refresh rate (vs. the American 60Hz). So neener neener.
Also, magnetic latches instead of mechanical. I'll be interested to see how well that works.
Sounds great to me. My Fujitsu LifeBook P5010 already has a latch-less screen. I believe the box determines whether it's open or closed based on a switch inside the hinge. No magnets on mine, though -- just a little extra friction in the "closed" position of the hinge. Magnet sounds like a welcome addition (considering, that is, that nobody packs magnetic media into their laptop bag anymore... at least, not Mac users).
But no! You have only compounded your own ignorance. Because you have not paid attention to all the sponsored advertising links in your search results, you weren't aware that these links have a "dark side." Who knows what you might have blindly stumbled into, unaware as you were of the problem?
You seem to be arguing in circles. Yes, yes... obviously the responsibility for the government of China rests with the Chinese. Who could say otherwise?
It's this seeming attitude of "the Chinese never did shit to get their freedom, so let 'em rot" that I object to. The fact remains that a lot of Chinese have paid a very heavy price in the name of gaining democracy, and yet they still don't have it. Lots of Chinese have marched and fought and gone to prison and died in the name of it -- in short, I'll wager "the Chinese" as a whole have done a shitload more and sacrificed a shitload more for the hope of freedom than you've ever had to.
I had two mortgages on "my" report, and have never owned a house.
I know it's yet another bugbear of this terrible modern age we live in, but you could actually have been a victim of identity theft. Something similar happened to a guy I know. Turns out his old landlord was the cause of it. The landlord had all my friend's information in his renter's files. He turned around and bought real estate under my friend's name. Twice. My friend never knew about it until years and years later, when the guy had defaulted on his mortgage or something and it showed up as a nice big black mark on my friend's credit report.
Actually, if you look carefully there's even some results on the first page now. Notice the word "massacre" on a couple of the photos. Whoops! That shouldn't oughtta be there.
There appears to be some kind of concerted, grass-roots effort to unravel some of the much-publicized controls on Google.cn, through linking methods, Google bombs and what-have-you.
If the Chinese people wanted to enjoy the same democracy and human rights that we have in the West, then the Chinese people could get democracy and human rights tomorrow.
Seriously, you need to read up a little more on just how extensive the demonstrations around Tiananmen Square really were. That wasn't one guy and a bunch of tanks. It was thousands and thousands of people, getting shot in the back by troops armed with assault rifles as they fled. I recommend a recent Frontline special, called "The Tank Man," for more information.
I actually think it would be shameful for any of the award winners to show up. I notice that the awards ceremony won't be held in San Francisco this year. I take that as further evidence that we have successfully run these clowns out of town on a rail.
"International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences"? My ass. Pray, just what sciences do these esteemed luminaries represent?
Hey, America! New York needs rescuing here. Nebraska? Wisconsin? Arkansas? West Virginia? Surely there's some other state with a town hall big enough to hold this cute little catillion, where the rest of us won't have to hear about it?
Have you looked at the Nokia 770? With the third-party, open source FBreader software it makes a pretty fine e-book reader -- the best I've seen so far, in fact. I've already read 2-3,000 pages on mine. I just saw it on sale for $300 at CompUSA yesterday. One drawback is that it's a traditional LCD, so reading while lying in the sun is almost impossible.
I'm reminded of Bertie Wooster stealing policemens' hats. "Well, they like it, just like foxes like to be hunted." It's not coincidental that Wodehouse was popular in Soviet Russia.
Because, as we all know, in Soviet Russia Jeeves finds stuff on you.
I really dig Evangelion. I recognize it for being a fairly uneven mess, which tends to be very repetitive. One of its biggest problems is that you sort of have to watch the whole thing, or at least most of it, to get everything that's going on -- and yet it's way too long to ask anyone to actually sit down and do that.
I also thought the original ending was pretty lame... but if you add to it the re-done, arguably "real" ending seen in End of Evangelion, it's great! Really harrowing, and leaves you scratching your head with that "what the fuck?" feeling you get after seeing "2001: A Space Odyssey" for the first time. (Interestingly enough, that article includes at least one screen cap from End of Evangelion, without ever mentioning that exists and wasn't part of the original 26 episodes.)
Yeah, a lot of the religious stuff in Evangelion seems tacked-on. It's more accurately described as "pseudo-religious" anyway, because aside from stealing a bunch of names from old Christian mythology it doesn't really have much of anything to do with Christianity. That's OK, though -- it makes it interesting. I'll take a show that even pretends to make you think, as some people are accusing Evangelion of, than one that doesn't even try at all. Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" is another show that comes to mind that's vulnerable to a lot of criticism, but if you watch it with an open mind it can be very rewarding.
The psychoanalytical stuff in Evangelion is more interesting than the religious stuff. A lot of people here describe it as "Freudian," but while I don't know a whole lot about the various schools of psychoanalysis, I don't know if that's strictly accurate. What it does do is try to get inside the heads of these characters in a way that is, at times, profoundly disturbing (if you've managed to pay attention through the whole show).
One thing that's probably lost on a lot of American, non-otaku audiences, though, is that much of what was going on in Evangelion was meant to be sort of a criticism of otaku culture. Early episodes of Evangelion regularly feature teasers of the next episode that promise lots of "fan service" and seem to make it clear that it's meant to be the ultimate show for fans. But the later, more psychological episodes try to delve in to the characters' minds, many of whom have personality traits that the producers of the show thought were common in anime fandom in Japan.
The long and the short of it: That joke about Slashdot people living in their parents' basements, watching anime? That's how the creator of Evangelion saw anime fandom, basically.
The main character of Evangelion, Shinji, is extremely introverted in a way that a lot of Japanese anime fans are. He can't connect with girls, or with anyone really. He feels his parents can't understand him, and has a bad relationship with him. Then he discovers that he can pilot this giant robot and it makes him feel worthwhile. His fellow pilots have this same feeling too; they begin to feel worthless if they are no longer able to fly the giant robots. In that sense, you could say the purpose of the larger pseudo-religious conspiracy storyline going on in the background is really just to point out, Meanwhile there's a whole big world going on out there. All the characters are just too wrapped up in themselves and their angst to see it at first. Shinji's main character arc is his discovery of himself as an individual and coming to terms with what it means to be an adult living in the world.
This subject matter isn't going to appeal to everyone. If you aren't interested in fun stories about cool-looking giant robots battling alien monsters, then the first few episodes aren't going to appeal to you at all. But if you can't get that far, then the later episodes are going to seem hollow, silly, and contrived. Basically, though Evangelion has a broad audience, if there's no part of y
All I know is, when I was buying AD&D manuals the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Deities and Demigods each retailed for around $11. The Dungeon Masters' Guide was maybe $12.50. That, a bunch of clear plastic dice, a few afternoons crafting the world's most elaborate and comprehensive character sheet (complete with box to draw your guy in), and one friend who was sucker enough to buy the Dungeon Master's Screen were pretty much all you needed. Lead figures were optional (albeit cool).
I finally convinced my wife she's crazy for working overtime when she only starts getting paid for it after 45 hours.
I know exactly what you're talking about. This is a lesson I learned the hard way. But I swear to you, convincing a buddy of mine that he was wasting his life and driving himself crazy working tons of overtime was like convincing the Pope that God didn't exist. Finally he told me he took some time off. Had I finally convinced him? Apparently not -- a few months ago he told me that his vacation was precipitated by him having what used to be known as a "nervous breakdown." He totally freaked out on the job to the point that it spooked his boss, who immediately ordered him to take some time off. And as far as I can tell, he's still trying to come to terms with what is a reasonable work/life balance. It's hard for me to understand, personally, because I'm way over all of that -- but there's no denying that it's deep rooted in the American work culture.
If you can walk across the street just once and find the same video card discounted $50 off what you'd pay at Fry's, you're going to start checking out the prices at Wal-Mart before you buy at Fry's.
Then one day you're not going to be looking for computer parts; maybe you're looking to buy new towels for your bathroom. But while you're at Wal-Mart, you'll notice that they have that latest hot MMORPG on sale, and while you're there, you'll buy it. That's a sale that Fry's never got a chance to compete for (and it's one less trip you'll make to Fry's in the near future). If this kind of thing happens often enough, profits at Fry's start to go down, which starts them down the slippery slope of finding ways to get more money out of their customers.
Wal-Mart is the master of this kind of competition... you don't think people talk about Wal-Mart's business so much for no reason, do you?
Slashdot Mirror
Not that I'm against it, mind you. I think the so-called American work ethic -- in this age where we're not even ruled by imperialist lords but by faceless corporations that seemingly have no responsibility to society whatsoever -- is misguided and poisonous. I'll take those eight weeks off, thank you very much.
Or are you just one of those people who gets such a kick out of looking cool and cynical that you must instantly put down anyone who is cited as an expert at anything? (There is a scientific name for such people: "player haters.")
Looking forward to reading your article on the topic.
Forgive me if none of this applies to Linux because my only experience running VMware products is on Windows. But on Windows, VMware Server runs as a service in the background, all the time. This means that you can log out of your current Windows session and your virtual machines will keep running. Workstation, on the other hand, mostly runs like any other user application. When you quit the program or log out of your session, the virtual machines all close down.
Why would you want this? Well, quite frankly, if your main purpose for your computer is running user applications -- in other words, it's a workstation -- then it doesn't seem to make much sense to have VMware consuming a bunch of memory and occasional processor overhead when you're not using it for anything.
No, he means one where the major record labels pay him to play their music.
I bought the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD-9 at the time. Unfortunately they were the Special Editions ... they didn't have a DVD9 version of the originals (I've since downloaded DVD images). When I went to buy them the guy in the shop -- which was in a small mall, BTW -- the guy said something like "Good movies." I explained to him that I wanted to buy them because, believe it or not, you could not buy those movies on DVD in the United States. He seemed to think I was nuts, but I assured him that it was, indeed, the case.
Second story about that same shop that speaks a little bit to what other people are saying about DVD piracy in Asia. I went back to that same mall a few days later and the store was closed. This seemed strange, since it was some random weekday in the middle of the afternoon. Later someone else explained it to me: The store owner had been tipped off that the Copyright Police would be coming by for a raid that day, so he simply didn't open his doors.
This seemed to be quite commonplace. You would find guys selling pirate DVDs on the street in just about any major tourist or shopping area, and more than once I saw one of them answer his phone, talk briefly, then pack up his table and beat a hasty retreat. Copyright Cops are apparently everywhere, but it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem for anyone so long as they know which palms to grease. All it takes to avoid them is a well-timed phone call.
You don't give any sources to back up your claim that doctors in "certain states" refuse to diagnose Lyme Disease -- and yet, isn't it funny that I've read articles about Morgellons syndrome that link it to Lyme disease?
This has all the makings of a crazy disease-conspiracy theory to me. I'm sorry, but no matter how bad the American health care system may have become, I can't believe that every doctor in America who encounters this supposed syndrome refuses to treat it. That's just asinine. Believe it or not, there are a few people who go to medical school because they want to help people. Maybe more than a few.
Until I see some real medical research on this, I'm going to assume that wearing a magnetic bracelet for a few weeks will clear it right up.
There's really nothing wrong with NTSC per se. PAL does have slightly higher resolution than NTSC, but on a closed circuit, e.g. from your DVD player to your TV, it's perfectly fine. It does tend to suffer more than PAL over broadcast, though, which is where it gets its reputation for "Never The Same Color" etc.
... every time I go to Europe it takes me a couple of days before I can look at a TV and not see the flicker from the 50Hz refresh rate (vs. the American 60Hz). So neener neener.
To your point on frame rates (and the original poster)
But no! You have only compounded your own ignorance. Because you have not paid attention to all the sponsored advertising links in your search results, you weren't aware that these links have a "dark side." Who knows what you might have blindly stumbled into, unaware as you were of the problem?
You seem to be arguing in circles. Yes, yes ... obviously the responsibility for the government of China rests with the Chinese. Who could say otherwise?
It's this seeming attitude of "the Chinese never did shit to get their freedom, so let 'em rot" that I object to. The fact remains that a lot of Chinese have paid a very heavy price in the name of gaining democracy, and yet they still don't have it. Lots of Chinese have marched and fought and gone to prison and died in the name of it -- in short, I'll wager "the Chinese" as a whole have done a shitload more and sacrificed a shitload more for the hope of freedom than you've ever had to.
Actually, if you look carefully there's even some results on the first page now. Notice the word "massacre" on a couple of the photos. Whoops! That shouldn't oughtta be there.
There appears to be some kind of concerted, grass-roots effort to unravel some of the much-publicized controls on Google.cn, through linking methods, Google bombs and what-have-you.
This is where it got them.
Seriously, you need to read up a little more on just how extensive the demonstrations around Tiananmen Square really were. That wasn't one guy and a bunch of tanks. It was thousands and thousands of people, getting shot in the back by troops armed with assault rifles as they fled. I recommend a recent Frontline special, called "The Tank Man," for more information.
I actually think it would be shameful for any of the award winners to show up. I notice that the awards ceremony won't be held in San Francisco this year. I take that as further evidence that we have successfully run these clowns out of town on a rail.
"International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences"? My ass. Pray, just what sciences do these esteemed luminaries represent?
Hey, America! New York needs rescuing here. Nebraska? Wisconsin? Arkansas? West Virginia? Surely there's some other state with a town hall big enough to hold this cute little catillion, where the rest of us won't have to hear about it?
The team of presenters and booth babes who will go on tour to events to promote the chips will be known as the EXTREME CORE 2 LIVE CREW.
Proprietary OS? It runs Linux. You install software with .deb packages.
Where did you hear that the 2006 OS will cost money?
Have you looked at the Nokia 770? With the third-party, open source FBreader software it makes a pretty fine e-book reader -- the best I've seen so far, in fact. I've already read 2-3,000 pages on mine. I just saw it on sale for $300 at CompUSA yesterday. One drawback is that it's a traditional LCD, so reading while lying in the sun is almost impossible.
I also thought the original ending was pretty lame... but if you add to it the re-done, arguably "real" ending seen in End of Evangelion, it's great! Really harrowing, and leaves you scratching your head with that "what the fuck?" feeling you get after seeing "2001: A Space Odyssey" for the first time. (Interestingly enough, that article includes at least one screen cap from End of Evangelion, without ever mentioning that exists and wasn't part of the original 26 episodes.)
Yeah, a lot of the religious stuff in Evangelion seems tacked-on. It's more accurately described as "pseudo-religious" anyway, because aside from stealing a bunch of names from old Christian mythology it doesn't really have much of anything to do with Christianity. That's OK, though -- it makes it interesting. I'll take a show that even pretends to make you think, as some people are accusing Evangelion of, than one that doesn't even try at all. Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" is another show that comes to mind that's vulnerable to a lot of criticism, but if you watch it with an open mind it can be very rewarding.
The psychoanalytical stuff in Evangelion is more interesting than the religious stuff. A lot of people here describe it as "Freudian," but while I don't know a whole lot about the various schools of psychoanalysis, I don't know if that's strictly accurate. What it does do is try to get inside the heads of these characters in a way that is, at times, profoundly disturbing (if you've managed to pay attention through the whole show).
One thing that's probably lost on a lot of American, non-otaku audiences, though, is that much of what was going on in Evangelion was meant to be sort of a criticism of otaku culture. Early episodes of Evangelion regularly feature teasers of the next episode that promise lots of "fan service" and seem to make it clear that it's meant to be the ultimate show for fans. But the later, more psychological episodes try to delve in to the characters' minds, many of whom have personality traits that the producers of the show thought were common in anime fandom in Japan.
The long and the short of it: That joke about Slashdot people living in their parents' basements, watching anime? That's how the creator of Evangelion saw anime fandom, basically.
The main character of Evangelion, Shinji, is extremely introverted in a way that a lot of Japanese anime fans are. He can't connect with girls, or with anyone really. He feels his parents can't understand him, and has a bad relationship with him. Then he discovers that he can pilot this giant robot and it makes him feel worthwhile. His fellow pilots have this same feeling too; they begin to feel worthless if they are no longer able to fly the giant robots. In that sense, you could say the purpose of the larger pseudo-religious conspiracy storyline going on in the background is really just to point out, Meanwhile there's a whole big world going on out there. All the characters are just too wrapped up in themselves and their angst to see it at first. Shinji's main character arc is his discovery of himself as an individual and coming to terms with what it means to be an adult living in the world.
This subject matter isn't going to appeal to everyone. If you aren't interested in fun stories about cool-looking giant robots battling alien monsters, then the first few episodes aren't going to appeal to you at all. But if you can't get that far, then the later episodes are going to seem hollow, silly, and contrived. Basically, though Evangelion has a broad audience, if there's no part of y
All I know is, when I was buying AD&D manuals the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, Deities and Demigods each retailed for around $11. The Dungeon Masters' Guide was maybe $12.50. That, a bunch of clear plastic dice, a few afternoons crafting the world's most elaborate and comprehensive character sheet (complete with box to draw your guy in), and one friend who was sucker enough to buy the Dungeon Master's Screen were pretty much all you needed. Lead figures were optional (albeit cool).
Then one day you're not going to be looking for computer parts; maybe you're looking to buy new towels for your bathroom. But while you're at Wal-Mart, you'll notice that they have that latest hot MMORPG on sale, and while you're there, you'll buy it. That's a sale that Fry's never got a chance to compete for (and it's one less trip you'll make to Fry's in the near future). If this kind of thing happens often enough, profits at Fry's start to go down, which starts them down the slippery slope of finding ways to get more money out of their customers.
Wal-Mart is the master of this kind of competition... you don't think people talk about Wal-Mart's business so much for no reason, do you?