And for good reason. The acting was downright terrible.
But once you got past that and realized that the films were just intended to be good clean light-hearted fun, they were great. This didn't happen for the critics until the dollars started rolling in (after which many of them seemed to change their minds).
The films were better than I thought they'd be, but I don't think they compare to the books. The first was very good, the second so-so, the third...well, it certainly could've been done better. It seems they spent less time on the film the further along they were to completing it.
In comparison to the Matrix, where the phrase "juvenile trash" is most aptly applied, they were definitely masterpieces. I still don't understand the popularity of this teen-geek pseudo-philosophical cyber-jackoff. But perhaps that's because I'm not a teen geek suffering from delusions of grandeur who thinks inane ramblings about the existence of a spoon is the height of intellectual discourse.
...what anyone thinks on the subject. If you and your staff are competent at your job then MyDoom should never have been a problem for you in the first place; if it was, then by defintion you aren't competent and won't be able to keep Nachi off your system either.
Although it may be able to do what you apparently can't: patch your system against future MyDoom-like attacks. Kinda funny, to think that a program like Nachi can easily outperform you, the supposedly highly-skilled IT staffer. If I were your boss you'd be out the door in a heartbeat.
Either way, the losers who aren't qualified for their positions or pay will no doubt come here to Slashdot to bitch, whine, and moan - and probably demand more laws to prosecute 'white knight' programmers, to cover for their own incompetence.
The lazy option is there. My experience has been that when I've taken it, I've got far less out of the games than when my achievements have actually meant something.
If I want endless frustration, inane and nonsensical puzzle-solving, or boring repetition, I'll go to work. I don't need that crap from my games.
...is an open-ended, long-term germ that I could back to over and over again with the same character/player/whatever.
An example: a revised version of Privateer. There's the main story, which you can rip through right away if you're a 15-year-old adrenalin addict. Or you can put the main story 'on hold' and do countless other merchant or combat missions, improving your ship *very* slowly over time, or even buying newer, better ships. Make the galaxy freakin' huge with unique planets, a real economic system, random but distinct quests (most kosher, some not), other doable quest lines that are interesting but don't intertwine with the main story, etc.
Make the challenge of the main quest dependent on your ship and loadout and it won't matter how long you take to get there; it'll never be a cakewalk.
But for an older gamer like myself I get two things: a) my gaming dollar stretches out for quite possibly months, or longer, and b) I can do a simple, quick mission here and there when I have the time, or go back and complete an involved mission for the main quest when I get a few hours in succession to play.
If a game like this game out and was entertaining, I'd definitely buy it - AND the inevitable expansions that add to gameplay.
The upside of this approach: You become much better at the game, the game is more challenging, and when you defeat the game at last, when you master it, the sense of accomplishment is much greater.
For you, perhaps. I sure as hell don't want to play the same damned level over and over again. Two, perhaps three times - PERHAPS. I might have an hour, late at night to play, and the last thing I want out of a game before I switch it off is "fuck, I accomplished nothing and have to play through that shit-hole level again next time."
A game that does this goes into the trash bin. I won't bother donating it to Goodwill because I don't want to inflict it on some other poor unsuspecting motherfucker. And I make a note of the company that produced it so I can avoid their products in the future.
If you're so busy you can't dedicate one daily hour to a game, you shouldn't even try playing adventures
Try eating shit, asshole. My gaming dollar is worth just as much as yours, but I'm not some pasty-faced little loser with an inordinate amount of time to waste. The article writer had it spot-on; there are plenty of people like him (and me) who'd jump at a game that isn't made for little geeks with no social lives and no full-time jobs.
If they want our money, they'll have to build the games to our specifications. The vast majority of dollars spent on games come from people OVER the age of 25, not kiddies with little in the way of real-life responsibilities. It's time for the gaming industry to wake up and smell the coffee.
It's pretty clear that the flash animation in question does not make fun of the actual song
It's pretty clear you've never listened to the lyrics of the actual song. Yes, it's satire of both political parties and the entire election process; but this song was picked *for a reason*. If you want to know the reason, check out the original lyrics and listen to JibJab's version again.
It's hilarious, and quite witty. And satire or not, it also qualifies as a parody of the original song. I think Guthrie would get a hell of a kick out of this, if he were still kickin', that is.
You must've missed it. The jury came in years ago. He's not only a pandering, filthy little snake like his father before him, but a cretin and a fucking loon as well.
Bush, for example, prohibited the use of US aid on abortion counseling in other countries.
Given that the majority of Americans are pro-choice I fail to see how this statement supports your argument. Even assuming this is a democracy, which it isn't.
Don't you assholes have a halfway legitimate reason for jacking up my taxes to put people in space?
Don't you assholes have a half-way legitimate reason for jacking up my taxes to do Thing X?
I'm sure you have some pet government projects that you think are absolutely justified, but that I think are pure bullshit and a waste of my tax dollars. I don't see you offering to return my money to me, though.
several decades during which pumping money into manned space flights wouldn't produce the same amount of benefit for mankind as pumping those resources into tech advancements here on earth.
Except that this is merely supposition on your part. You have absolutely no proof that what you say is true.
There is evidence that humans in the "hunter-gatherer lifestyle" were healthier and lived longer.
Prior to the agricultural revolution, the average human being lived between 30 and 35 years. Death was common, and premature aging (or what we consider premature aging today) the norm. This was a time when a toothache or an infected scratch could kill, and human beings starved, on average, once in every three years.
Either your Athro course or your memory of it is swimming in horse-pucky.
Yes, because in the advent of a catastrophe that wipes out the Earth, the space program could (with adequate funding and research) maintain a non-viable breeding stock of a dozen or so people alive on Mars for a couple months until their supplies run out. Hooray!
Oh, goody. Yet another troll who insists that technology is stagnant, and simply because we can't do something *now* we'll never, ever be able to do it in the foreseeable future.
Of course, he doesn't address the question of how we're supposed to advance that technology if we never research it.
And the data the space program gathers on other planets is pretty fucking useless if we never intend to leave this one. Occasional bits and pieces might be of some value, but the bulk is a waste of time and money - just like manned space flight, by your definition. Either we're going to go, or we aren't; if we aren't then there's little point in a space program beyond geocentric orbit.
To pay for it with tax money, it has to be good enough for other people, not just you.
That's amusing. My tax dollars are spent on all sorts of crap that definitely aren't 'good enough for me', yet I don't see folks like you arguing that I should be able to keep them instead. You selectively target the space program, while ignoring everything else?
Well, if folks like you are going to kill national space programs (and spend *my* tax dollars on what, I ask? You going to ask my permission first?) then it falls on the shoulders of private industry to find a payoff.
Which is a good thing. It means that folks like you can rant and rail against the 'uselessness' of a private space industry, but that you're powerless to put an end to it. You don't even get a vote.
As for eventually finding a payoff, there's a hell of a lot of intermediary steps inbetween. If you can't think beyond a five-year profit/loss statement then you have no business playing the game. Or even commenting on it, for that matter.
A journey to the moon or to Mars would be the equivalent of Christopher Columbus setting off on a voyage to the gates of hell in the hope that future generations could somehow make hell hospitable
With Mars, perhap they can. Throw a few thousand iceballs from the Oort Cloud at it to restore an atmosphere and free surface water and you have a bearable (if cold) human-habitable environment, after some terraforming.
Not the best choice, to be sure, but the only viable one in our solar system. And good practice for any near-Earth planets found in other solar systems that might be worth terraforming.
Lets do a short course: the Earth is the only place in this solar system we can live unaided.
Which doesn't mean that a self-sustaining series of colonies couldn't be created off Earth. Unless you're seriously suggesting that that sort of thing is beyond our abilities for all time, and shouldn't even be contemplated.
That's because I thought of the first two. The third was already covered in the article; I restated it because I think it's a good thing, not a bad or wasteful one.
Slashdot Mirror
And for good reason. The acting was downright terrible.
But once you got past that and realized that the films were just intended to be good clean light-hearted fun, they were great. This didn't happen for the critics until the dollars started rolling in (after which many of them seemed to change their minds).
Max
The films were better than I thought they'd be, but I don't think they compare to the books. The first was very good, the second so-so, the third...well, it certainly could've been done better. It seems they spent less time on the film the further along they were to completing it.
In comparison to the Matrix, where the phrase "juvenile trash" is most aptly applied, they were definitely masterpieces. I still don't understand the popularity of this teen-geek pseudo-philosophical cyber-jackoff. But perhaps that's because I'm not a teen geek suffering from delusions of grandeur who thinks inane ramblings about the existence of a spoon is the height of intellectual discourse.
Max
If you bring back "The Scarlet Letter" I'll hunt you down and kill you like a dog.
Max
As if our Republican overlords and their corporate buddies have any interest whatsoever in free elections.
Neither do our Democratic overlords and their corporate buddies, when the Democrats are in charge.
It's all football. The only thing that changes is the color of the jerseys.
Max
...what anyone thinks on the subject. If you and your staff are competent at your job then MyDoom should never have been a problem for you in the first place; if it was, then by defintion you aren't competent and won't be able to keep Nachi off your system either.
Although it may be able to do what you apparently can't: patch your system against future MyDoom-like attacks. Kinda funny, to think that a program like Nachi can easily outperform you, the supposedly highly-skilled IT staffer. If I were your boss you'd be out the door in a heartbeat.
Either way, the losers who aren't qualified for their positions or pay will no doubt come here to Slashdot to bitch, whine, and moan - and probably demand more laws to prosecute 'white knight' programmers, to cover for their own incompetence.
Max
The lazy option is there. My experience has been that when I've taken it, I've got far less out of the games than when my achievements have actually meant something.
If I want endless frustration, inane and nonsensical puzzle-solving, or boring repetition, I'll go to work. I don't need that crap from my games.
Max
...is an open-ended, long-term germ that I could back to over and over again with the same character/player/whatever.
An example: a revised version of Privateer. There's the main story, which you can rip through right away if you're a 15-year-old adrenalin addict. Or you can put the main story 'on hold' and do countless other merchant or combat missions, improving your ship *very* slowly over time, or even buying newer, better ships. Make the galaxy freakin' huge with unique planets, a real economic system, random but distinct quests (most kosher, some not), other doable quest lines that are interesting but don't intertwine with the main story, etc.
Make the challenge of the main quest dependent on your ship and loadout and it won't matter how long you take to get there; it'll never be a cakewalk.
But for an older gamer like myself I get two things: a) my gaming dollar stretches out for quite possibly months, or longer, and b) I can do a simple, quick mission here and there when I have the time, or go back and complete an involved mission for the main quest when I get a few hours in succession to play.
If a game like this game out and was entertaining, I'd definitely buy it - AND the inevitable expansions that add to gameplay.
Max
The upside of this approach: You become much better at the game, the game is more challenging, and when you defeat the game at last, when you master it, the sense of accomplishment is much greater.
For you, perhaps. I sure as hell don't want to play the same damned level over and over again. Two, perhaps three times - PERHAPS. I might have an hour, late at night to play, and the last thing I want out of a game before I switch it off is "fuck, I accomplished nothing and have to play through that shit-hole level again next time."
A game that does this goes into the trash bin. I won't bother donating it to Goodwill because I don't want to inflict it on some other poor unsuspecting motherfucker. And I make a note of the company that produced it so I can avoid their products in the future.
Max
If you're so busy you can't dedicate one daily hour to a game, you shouldn't even try playing adventures
Try eating shit, asshole. My gaming dollar is worth just as much as yours, but I'm not some pasty-faced little loser with an inordinate amount of time to waste. The article writer had it spot-on; there are plenty of people like him (and me) who'd jump at a game that isn't made for little geeks with no social lives and no full-time jobs.
If they want our money, they'll have to build the games to our specifications. The vast majority of dollars spent on games come from people OVER the age of 25, not kiddies with little in the way of real-life responsibilities. It's time for the gaming industry to wake up and smell the coffee.
Max
It's pretty clear that the flash animation in question does not make fun of the actual song
It's pretty clear you've never listened to the lyrics of the actual song. Yes, it's satire of both political parties and the entire election process; but this song was picked *for a reason*. If you want to know the reason, check out the original lyrics and listen to JibJab's version again.
It's hilarious, and quite witty. And satire or not, it also qualifies as a parody of the original song. I think Guthrie would get a hell of a kick out of this, if he were still kickin', that is.
Max
The Jury is still out on Gorge W. Bush
You must've missed it. The jury came in years ago. He's not only a pandering, filthy little snake like his father before him, but a cretin and a fucking loon as well.
Too bad that Kerry isn't much better.
Max
And the 5 year for SpaceShipOne is.....?
Reading comprehension fails a slashdotter yet again. I said *beyond* a five year profit/loss statement.
Max
Bush, for example, prohibited the use of US aid on abortion counseling in other countries.
Given that the majority of Americans are pro-choice I fail to see how this statement supports your argument. Even assuming this is a democracy, which it isn't.
Max
Don't you assholes have a halfway legitimate reason for jacking up my taxes to put people in space?
Don't you assholes have a half-way legitimate reason for jacking up my taxes to do Thing X?
I'm sure you have some pet government projects that you think are absolutely justified, but that I think are pure bullshit and a waste of my tax dollars. I don't see you offering to return my money to me, though.
'Cuz, like, what *you* want is reasonable, right?
Max
several decades during which pumping money into manned space flights wouldn't produce the same amount of benefit for mankind as pumping those resources into tech advancements here on earth.
Except that this is merely supposition on your part. You have absolutely no proof that what you say is true.
Max
There is evidence that humans in the "hunter-gatherer lifestyle" were healthier and lived longer.
Prior to the agricultural revolution, the average human being lived between 30 and 35 years. Death was common, and premature aging (or what we consider premature aging today) the norm. This was a time when a toothache or an infected scratch could kill, and human beings starved, on average, once in every three years.
Either your Athro course or your memory of it is swimming in horse-pucky.
Max
Yes, because in the advent of a catastrophe that wipes out the Earth, the space program could (with adequate funding and research) maintain a non-viable breeding stock of a dozen or so people alive on Mars for a couple months until their supplies run out. Hooray!
Oh, goody. Yet another troll who insists that technology is stagnant, and simply because we can't do something *now* we'll never, ever be able to do it in the foreseeable future.
Of course, he doesn't address the question of how we're supposed to advance that technology if we never research it.
And the data the space program gathers on other planets is pretty fucking useless if we never intend to leave this one. Occasional bits and pieces might be of some value, but the bulk is a waste of time and money - just like manned space flight, by your definition. Either we're going to go, or we aren't; if we aren't then there's little point in a space program beyond geocentric orbit.
Max
Then you pay for it yourself, and keep your hands of my tax money.
Do the same for your pet government projects. Fund them your own damned self, and keep your hands out of my pockets.
Max
To pay for it with tax money, it has to be good enough for other people, not just you.
That's amusing. My tax dollars are spent on all sorts of crap that definitely aren't 'good enough for me', yet I don't see folks like you arguing that I should be able to keep them instead. You selectively target the space program, while ignoring everything else?
Talk about "intellectually dishonest".
Max
Well, if folks like you are going to kill national space programs (and spend *my* tax dollars on what, I ask? You going to ask my permission first?) then it falls on the shoulders of private industry to find a payoff.
Which is a good thing. It means that folks like you can rant and rail against the 'uselessness' of a private space industry, but that you're powerless to put an end to it. You don't even get a vote.
As for eventually finding a payoff, there's a hell of a lot of intermediary steps inbetween. If you can't think beyond a five-year profit/loss statement then you have no business playing the game. Or even commenting on it, for that matter.
So move along, now. You aren't invited.
Max
A journey to the moon or to Mars would be the equivalent of Christopher Columbus setting off on a voyage to the gates of hell in the hope that future generations could somehow make hell hospitable
With Mars, perhap they can. Throw a few thousand iceballs from the Oort Cloud at it to restore an atmosphere and free surface water and you have a bearable (if cold) human-habitable environment, after some terraforming.
Not the best choice, to be sure, but the only viable one in our solar system. And good practice for any near-Earth planets found in other solar systems that might be worth terraforming.
Max
Lets do a short course: the Earth is the only place in this solar system we can live unaided.
Which doesn't mean that a self-sustaining series of colonies couldn't be created off Earth. Unless you're seriously suggesting that that sort of thing is beyond our abilities for all time, and shouldn't even be contemplated.
Max
don't use my tax money for it.
I agree with this, so long as *you* don't use *my* tax money for things *I* don't approve of.
That doesn't imply manned missions at all.
Sure it does. Last I checked, Asimo can't mine asteroids. In fact, Asimo can't do any mining here on Earth, a much simpler task.
Hell, Asimo can't even make me a pot of coffee.
Max
A couple? I count three?
That's because I thought of the first two. The third was already covered in the article; I restated it because I think it's a good thing, not a bad or wasteful one.
Max
(1) Avoiding single points of failure for the entire human race (e.g., giant asteroid nails Earth);
(2) Profiting off the immense riches to be had in space, once the technology is advanced enough to gather those riches at a profit;
(3) The same reason people climb K2
Max