Alas, you're quite right. If they make it into an action movie, the book's intellectual paylod will vanish. If they try to deliver the payload, it will be a box-office flop.
...while so many of Lem's novels just scream to be put to the screen: The Invincible (battling the aliens, with a huge twist), Eden, The Futurological Congress (The Matrix, done right), The Chain of Chance (could be made into an interestingly subversive take on terrorism), His Master's Voice (a bit like Contact, but without more far-out and the sappy conclusion), Fiasco (battling the aliens, with no idea who or what or why we're battling - sounds familiar?), Peace on Earth (incisive political comedy)... and these are just the novels whose English titles I don't have to look up.
Glad you mentioned "The Futurological Congress" because, if one disregards the bland title, it's not only one of the funniest and most incisive things Lem wrote, it's also a blueprint for "The Matrix", except Lem based the concept on psychoactives, not rebel computers. (And published the novel around 1973.)
This does spoil The Matrix for me, because while the jumpin' and kickin' is cool, the conceptual content of the movie is just Lem - severely watered down.
Why, checkboxes, radio buttons, wizard interface... Just click "Next" three times and accept the default settings. Oh, and we'll need an EULA:
"If you want Micros~1 Robot Wizard (tm) to allow this Robot to perform operations that may be harmful to you, your spouse, your children, pets, neighbors or other Robots, click the "I Agree" button."
If Wayback Machine is slashdotted, can I find their archive in Google cache? And does the Wayback Machine archive items from Google cache? And does Google cache the Wayback archives of its cache? And does Wayback archive the Goog**stack overflow**
Resource files. You still have to (re-)build the software (at least parts of it), using the resource files, to test the translation. During the testing phase this can be done on a daily basis.
Of course the exaxt logistics of the process depend on the software house, vendor, etc. Builds can be compiled on site, or, in some cases, are farmed out to the vendor who's providing the translation. (I work for such vendors and have been involved in translating and testing)
Of course you have to install it, because you have to TEST it. Thoroughly. In fact, typical tests of localized software packages entail _numerous_ install/uninstall cycles. We're talking a large codebase, lots of text, lots of testcases, lots of localization issues to fix, _lots_ of new builds to test. In some phases of the testing, you'll install and uninstall the package a few times a day. It takes weeks, sometimes months.
...and not just FBI warnings. Some DVDs have copyright warnings in several languages (most of which I don't speak, of course), and you get to sit through them all. But of course, since none of these warnings is ever in my mother tongue, I still don't feel bound by any of them!
Heh, according to BBC World (no link, saw it on TV) sports fans waited _all night_ to catch a 5 second glimpse of some English footballer getting into his van, a couple of days ago. Not to disagree with you at all, but just to say that it's hard to single out a particular group of people as dumb...
Re:Blacklists are cool ... for people WE hate
on
Surveillance Update
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· Score: 1
Bogus. You blacklist a spammer when you have a proof positive (spam samples, traceroutes, etc) that the person/company is spamming. That's like having a list of people already known to be terrorists. But _this_ is about _profiling_ people who "might" "potentially" "fit" a "terrorist" "profile". It's a whole different matter altogether.
Actually, I think a better analogy would be Time Magazine calling you up after you order Time
Sorry, no. You're talking about a "prior business relationship" with TIME. Whether that gives them the right to solicit more business is a separate issue. But the millions of people who receive spam daily have absoutely no prior business relationship with the spammers. I know I don't.
This suit has been making the rounds in the anti-spam circles
And for a good reason. So far, whenever a spammer was taken to court, it was usually beause he was peddling pr0n or pyramid schemes or otherwise the merchandise/services offered were legally suspicious.
This time, the spammer is being sued for spamming. Which is a much clearer case, whatever its outcome.
They're much, much worse. Not just popups - they will hijack the browser entirely. One of the things they do is, whenever get a DNS error (because you mistyped a URL, or because of a DNS failure), you get redirected to their "search engine", which basically just serves paid-for ads. And oh, they plug themselves into the IE built-in search facility to. More here (the link is to a site that explains in detail what lop.com does; this is not a link to lop.com)
Not users: stupid Windows, period. On Windows 95/98 (maybe ME too, don't know), there is a relatively limited amount of system resources, and they're poorly managed too. Three, five IE windows on screen, no problem. Ten windows, no big deal. Twenty, and the system begins to creak. Sixty, and it _will_ go down, especially if each of these windows has an animated.gif, some looping JavaScript and whatnot.
To make things sweeter, as you close these windows, the original max amout of resources used remains in place, i.e. closing each window does not release the resources it allocated. You have to close _all_ IE windows: when you close the last one, you get your resources back (minus whatever was leaked, IE 5.x still leaks resources with each window opened).
Slashdot Mirror
Changed what? She's Harey in the Polish original. "Rhea" is a crappy Hollywood name, like Xena or such.
Doesn't mean this won't be a good movie, but there it is.
Damn, I meant to say: His Master's Voice (a bit like Contact, but more far-out and without the sappy conclusion),
Alas, you're quite right. If they make it into an action movie, the book's intellectual paylod will vanish. If they try to deliver the payload, it will be a box-office flop.
...while so many of Lem's novels just scream to be put to the screen: The Invincible (battling the aliens, with a huge twist), Eden, The Futurological Congress (The Matrix, done right), The Chain of Chance (could be made into an interestingly subversive take on terrorism), His Master's Voice (a bit like Contact, but without more far-out and the sappy conclusion), Fiasco (battling the aliens, with no idea who or what or why we're battling - sounds familiar?), Peace on Earth (incisive political comedy)... and these are just the novels whose English titles I don't have to look up.
"Memoirs" _is_ a Mobius strip. It's an amazing book.
Glad you mentioned "The Futurological Congress" because, if one disregards the bland title, it's not only one of the funniest and most incisive things Lem wrote, it's also a blueprint for "The Matrix", except Lem based the concept on psychoactives, not rebel computers. (And published the novel around 1973.)
This does spoil The Matrix for me, because while the jumpin' and kickin' is cool, the conceptual content of the movie is just Lem - severely watered down.
Why, checkboxes, radio buttons, wizard interface... Just click "Next" three times and accept the default settings. Oh, and we'll need an EULA:
"If you want Micros~1 Robot Wizard (tm) to allow this Robot to perform operations that may be harmful to you, your spouse, your children, pets, neighbors or other Robots, click the "I Agree" button."
If Wayback Machine is slashdotted, can I find their archive in Google cache? And does the Wayback Machine archive items from Google cache? And does Google cache the Wayback archives of its cache? And does Wayback archive the Goog**stack overflow**
Resource files. You still have to (re-)build the software (at least parts of it), using the resource files, to test the translation. During the testing phase this can be done on a daily basis.
Of course the exaxt logistics of the process depend on the software house, vendor, etc. Builds can be compiled on site, or, in some cases, are farmed out to the vendor who's providing the translation. (I work for such vendors and have been involved in translating and testing)
Of course you have to install it, because you have to TEST it. Thoroughly. In fact, typical tests of localized software packages entail _numerous_ install/uninstall cycles. We're talking a large codebase, lots of text, lots of testcases, lots of localization issues to fix, _lots_ of new builds to test. In some phases of the testing, you'll install and uninstall the package a few times a day. It takes weeks, sometimes months.
...and not just FBI warnings. Some DVDs have copyright warnings in several languages (most of which I don't speak, of course), and you get to sit through them all. But of course, since none of these warnings is ever in my mother tongue, I still don't feel bound by any of them!
Heh, according to BBC World (no link, saw it on TV) sports fans waited _all night_ to catch a 5 second glimpse of some English footballer getting into his van, a couple of days ago. Not to disagree with you at all, but just to say that it's hard to single out a particular group of people as dumb...
Bogus. You blacklist a spammer when you have a proof positive (spam samples, traceroutes, etc) that the person/company is spamming. That's like having a list of people already known to be terrorists. But _this_ is about _profiling_ people who "might" "potentially" "fit" a "terrorist" "profile". It's a whole different matter altogether.
If you couldn't refuse a collect call, you bet it would be illegal.
Sorry, no. You're talking about a "prior business relationship" with TIME. Whether that gives them the right to solicit more business is a separate issue. But the millions of people who receive spam daily have absoutely no prior business relationship with the spammers. I know I don't.
Sorry, this is bull. You could just as well say that by havkng your phone number listed you are consenting to receive collect calls.
When your cellphone is ringing, you can see the number calling and simply not answer the call. You cannot do the same with email.
Instead - I can't believe nobody has commented on this yet - instead, he put advertisements, all neon-like, all over the cityscape. Ugh.
You mean, Jar Jar really is a pathetic Gollum ripoff?
But nobody thinks they will.
And for a good reason. So far, whenever a spammer was taken to court, it was usually beause he was peddling pr0n or pyramid schemes or otherwise the merchandise/services offered were legally suspicious.
This time, the spammer is being sued for spamming. Which is a much clearer case, whatever its outcome.
Beautifully said. Thanks for writing this.
They already do, you know? In China.
Not speech. Commercial activity. Selling things is not speech (even in the extended, legal/US-constitutional sense of the word).
They're much, much worse. Not just popups - they will hijack the browser entirely. One of the things they do is, whenever get a DNS error (because you mistyped a URL, or because of a DNS failure), you get redirected to their "search engine", which basically just serves paid-for ads. And oh, they plug themselves into the IE built-in search facility to. More here (the link is to a site that explains in detail what lop.com does; this is not a link to lop.com)
Not users: stupid Windows, period. On Windows 95/98 (maybe ME too, don't know), there is a relatively limited amount of system resources, and they're poorly managed too. Three, five IE windows on screen, no problem. Ten windows, no big deal. Twenty, and the system begins to creak. Sixty, and it _will_ go down, especially if each of these windows has an animated .gif, some looping JavaScript and whatnot.
To make things sweeter, as you close these windows, the original max amout of resources used remains in place, i.e. closing each window does not release the resources it allocated. You have to close _all_ IE windows: when you close the last one, you get your resources back (minus whatever was leaked, IE 5.x still leaks resources with each window opened).