Before you go bashing Republicans too much, just remember that senator "disney" is a Democrat. I personally can't think of anyone who has sold out more than he has
I personally would like to see it pulled off -- if not by China, then by someone else. The only thing I'm thinking about is, the US has 40+ years of space experience, China has much, much less. I think it will be interesting to follow both the successes and the failures of this project. I wonder if China really knows what they are getting themselves into, there are so many parts of most modern space vehicles and one small one not working can cause big problems (look at the Challanger -- it had a leaky o-ring on one of the tanks).
Ok, I understand what you are both trying to say. It all makes sence. There are ways to make machines go faster and do more without increasing the processing power. However, there is always going to be a need for small compact chips that have a lot of whiz-bang. Sure, a small increase is not going to make a huge difference (I was never saying that it would), but, at some point, there will be a need for something faster. I don't know what that might be, I can't even imagine what it might be, but, it will be needed and, in the mean time, we should try to make processing power become as good and efficient as possible. I hope this makes sence, sorry for the confustion before --cpm
PS- this is what discussion boards are for -- so that people can throw out ideas and they can be debunked/corrected/modified
While I agree with you one some points, we have to remember a couple of things
#1 - from a consumer's perspective, many, many people like the wiz-bang window manager -- even if all they do is word process and play solitaire.
#2 - From a upgrade perpective, do you really want to upgrade that 3 year old computer if you can only get an extra 200 MHz out of a new chip (or a 5-10% increase in speed, whatever that may be) if you are a gamer who puts a lot of demand on a system.
#3 - From an economical point of view, things have to get faster otherwise companies will go out of buisness (intel can't make faster chips, so, dell can't sell as many machines and closes up shop, maybe, maybe not). There are multibillion $ companies that depend on products getting faster to stay in buisness. This is the main reason that new computers don't run any faster -- if they did, that P133 would still be almost top of the line.
#4 - Machines do get a feeling of going slower over time. Most of the time this is a windows user who doesn't defrag for a year or so. There machine is only moving at the speed of a hair and they get this new machine w/ 3-4x the MHz and all of a sudden it moves again. I guess we can call this a new computer feeling. They will remember that this feeling and use it as a judgement for when they need a new computer. If the new one doesn't move much faster, they will feel as though they just wasted a lot of money.
For these reasons, technology must move forward and moore's law needs to apply. I recently heard an addition to moore's law -- every 4 years the cost to manufacter doubles. I feel that this will be very appropriate after this old technology runs out (if it even does).
Some parallels that cannot be made btwn this and the American Revolution were actually pointed out in the article.
The article mentions an empire that does not get in the way of the average citizen. The British Empire did some things that did get in the way of the average citizen (Tea Act, Stamp Act, etc) and also tried to force the Church of England on the colonists as the only accepted religion (and as we know, many colonies were formed for religious tolerance, PA, MD) and others were founded and/or controled by religious bodies (Puritans in Mass, Quakers in PA).
However, this does not by any means invalidate your point. History is written by the winners (most of the time) and, this story could easily be told from the point of view of a benevolent empire who rules well and keeps the peace and everyone is (more or less) happy. Then these 'rebels' could simply be shown as the jealous outsiders who wish to destroy the peaceful, successful empire. In this case, the Empire is like Rome when Caesar took over -- they may have used a lot of force to keep the empire growing, but, people could live, trade could exist with far away places, and infrastructure was built (roads, aquaducts).
History is always slanted, anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool (this is also the reason for revisionist history). If the 'Dark Side' and the Empire were to totally defeat the rebels and jedi, why would they even continue to call themselves the 'dark side', why not, the happy lightsaber police, or something like that.
I actually was just mentioning this article to a friend of mine. He too thought it was interesting, but, put forth the idea that the rebels were probably trying to have the old republic rebuilt.
Just look at the US Revolution, the people didn't really know how they were going to change the government, they just knew that they wanted (or needed) it to change. The new government was created years after the old one was overthrown, and even then people were challenging it even up to and including the Civil War (ok, yes, I know, many causes of the Civil War).
Did the old British Empire work, for the most part it did. It didn't interfere with the small farmer (like this empire), so the farmers didn't all pick a side until one came and found them. Most of the US revolution came from and began in the larger seaport cities (Philadelphia and Boston were the big ones that I can think of right away). This parallels the Empire in that the small planets, like tatoine that didn't have many cities, really wouldn't see much interferrence from the empire (unless they did something to warrent the empire getting into their buisness, as this guy is claiming).
It is very true that this Dark side is only evil when compared to the alternative (the Light side). The Dark side really doesn't do much that is 'bad'. Their main crime is trying to undermine the light side and gain power. This sounds like commercialism and capitalism (a new competitor trys to build strength while hiding from the old established corporation).
While I may not have all of my ideas straightened out, I just wanted to get some of my ideas out on the forum for dissection (and perhaps some karma in the process:) )
I probably saw it in the same place you did and had most of the same reactions.
I thought that there was definitly too many 'cigarette holes' in the film (those little black circles, watch fight club and understand) and Anakin was really whiney.
One of the problems was there are no screens showing it with digital projectors anywhere in Australia or New Zealand. There really aren't that many in the US either (and the US has about half of them). Since this is the first time digital cameras have been used, the process will only get better on other films. I just wish that they had picked a movie that I don't care about seeing to be the test subject (crossroads would have been a good movie to try it on, but, that would imply that they had a budget for that movie).
In responce to an earlier posting about memorable lines, I like Yoda's "You still have a lot to learn" or some thing like that (hey, I only remember other movie lines b/c I've seen them many times and I was quite drunk last night so I have only had the chance to see it once). I saw TPM twice on the theatre, and will proably see this one again too (as ticket prices are a lot cheaper than back home in the US).
I too saw the 12:01 (or was it 11:59, either way it started about 12:05 + trailers) in sydney.
I like trailers, but, I heard that a couple of theatres in the Sydney area skipped all of the trailers and at 12:01 started w/ the 20th century fox fanfare. That would have been neat. I think it could have done without all of the trailers that have been playing for a while and should have had some new trailers, this was star wars, and a good time to market some new ideas to the masses who got there 10 hours early to try to get a good seat. Maybe I just wished I had seen the Matrix Reloaded trailer instead of having to download it on my slow computer/connection.
Hate to burst your bubble, but, down here in Sydney, we get it first in the English speaking world (as far as I know) a whole 14 hours before NY (and 6 hours before you then). Oh, I have one of those nice 11:59pm tickets as well. I like making fun of my friends back home, I get to be out of the movie around noon on the 15th at their local time.
Well, I've been seeing all of these people complaining about having the plot ruined. Down in Australia where I am now, I can't even get the X-Files. I usually live near NYC, so, it is weird. However, this does give me something to really look forward to when I catch the re-runs for the next 30 or so years. Maybe it ruined it for some, but, don't complain, for some of us, this is the only real news of the show that I can get right now.
I have a voicestream tiband phone (a motorola one -- b/c I like motorola). I am based on the east coast but right now am down in sydney australia. The phone logs onto one of the 3 major carriers in Australia (Telstra, Optus, or Vodaphone) and just works. The service is great (although a bit expensive) and easy to use. They also do not have regulations about which phone you can use -- they even have some info on their web site about how to use a phone not issued by them on their network (they do mention that it has to be a gsm phone).
On the flip side of things, in australia (from what I've seen), phones and plans are sold seperate -- I have 2 friends with the same phone but different carriers that were purchased from the same store (I think).
One of the other problems with products becoming cheap is that it is often cheaper to replace rather than to repair. Old computers can be expensive to replace -- especially parts for laptops (and even more especially if the screen goes bad).
For instance, at one point, we had a vacuum cleaner (from elextrolux) from around 1978. That thing worked great until the mid-90's (when some of the electronics went bad). I was able to repair the switch (with a replacement), but, if I was unable to do so, the repair costs would have been ~US$250. To buy a new vacuum cleaner would run ~US$150 (I think). With these new ones, they are really complex (comparitivly speaking) than the old ones (and harder to open).
So, the whole problem here is, do you try to fix, or just replace. This probably doesn't make much sence, but, I hope that my point is at least somewhat comprehended.
Also, if you check netcraft, it will tell you who owns the netblock, the fact that the ip is owned by the US Securities & Exchange Commission is kind of a dead giveaway.
Not only is it running on IIS, but, according to the netcraft link you provided, the owner of the ip address is Microsoft Corporation. Anyone wonder why the solaris and linux machines were phased out?
I just wanted to add some of the problems I've been having using 802.11 on a small scale.
#1 Stuff in between the transmitter and the reciever. This causes problems
#2 Cordless phones. Some new phones use the 2.4 GHz range. I would hate to tell people that they can't use these phones/lose your connection every time someone uses one of these phones
Also remember that you have to pay to keep the equipment working and also pay for the internet access on the other end.
I just ran a test on my machine. If you chmod everything to 711, other users cannot read your files and, the web server can still execute all perl scripts (haven't tried php or python), and, they cannot be read or executed by other users, at least, it works fine on my SuSE 7.0.
Slashdot Mirror
-CPM
Cheers-
-CPM
PS- this is what discussion boards are for -- so that people can throw out ideas and they can be debunked/corrected/modified
#1 - from a consumer's perspective, many, many people like the wiz-bang window manager -- even if all they do is word process and play solitaire.
#2 - From a upgrade perpective, do you really want to upgrade that 3 year old computer if you can only get an extra 200 MHz out of a new chip (or a 5-10% increase in speed, whatever that may be) if you are a gamer who puts a lot of demand on a system.
#3 - From an economical point of view, things have to get faster otherwise companies will go out of buisness (intel can't make faster chips, so, dell can't sell as many machines and closes up shop, maybe, maybe not). There are multibillion $ companies that depend on products getting faster to stay in buisness. This is the main reason that new computers don't run any faster -- if they did, that P133 would still be almost top of the line.
#4 - Machines do get a feeling of going slower over time. Most of the time this is a windows user who doesn't defrag for a year or so. There machine is only moving at the speed of a hair and they get this new machine w/ 3-4x the MHz and all of a sudden it moves again. I guess we can call this a new computer feeling. They will remember that this feeling and use it as a judgement for when they need a new computer. If the new one doesn't move much faster, they will feel as though they just wasted a lot of money.
For these reasons, technology must move forward and moore's law needs to apply. I recently heard an addition to moore's law -- every 4 years the cost to manufacter doubles. I feel that this will be very appropriate after this old technology runs out (if it even does).
Cheers-
-CPM
The article mentions an empire that does not get in the way of the average citizen. The British Empire did some things that did get in the way of the average citizen (Tea Act, Stamp Act, etc) and also tried to force the Church of England on the colonists as the only accepted religion (and as we know, many colonies were formed for religious tolerance, PA, MD) and others were founded and/or controled by religious bodies (Puritans in Mass, Quakers in PA).
However, this does not by any means invalidate your point. History is written by the winners (most of the time) and, this story could easily be told from the point of view of a benevolent empire who rules well and keeps the peace and everyone is (more or less) happy. Then these 'rebels' could simply be shown as the jealous outsiders who wish to destroy the peaceful, successful empire. In this case, the Empire is like Rome when Caesar took over -- they may have used a lot of force to keep the empire growing, but, people could live, trade could exist with far away places, and infrastructure was built (roads, aquaducts).
History is always slanted, anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool (this is also the reason for revisionist history). If the 'Dark Side' and the Empire were to totally defeat the rebels and jedi, why would they even continue to call themselves the 'dark side', why not, the happy lightsaber police, or something like that.
-CPM
I thought it was "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away"?
This is probably one of the most famous lines from Star Wars and it was messed up, I for one find this amusing
-CPM
Just look at the US Revolution, the people didn't really know how they were going to change the government, they just knew that they wanted (or needed) it to change. The new government was created years after the old one was overthrown, and even then people were challenging it even up to and including the Civil War (ok, yes, I know, many causes of the Civil War).
Did the old British Empire work, for the most part it did. It didn't interfere with the small farmer (like this empire), so the farmers didn't all pick a side until one came and found them. Most of the US revolution came from and began in the larger seaport cities (Philadelphia and Boston were the big ones that I can think of right away). This parallels the Empire in that the small planets, like tatoine that didn't have many cities, really wouldn't see much interferrence from the empire (unless they did something to warrent the empire getting into their buisness, as this guy is claiming).
It is very true that this Dark side is only evil when compared to the alternative (the Light side). The Dark side really doesn't do much that is 'bad'. Their main crime is trying to undermine the light side and gain power. This sounds like commercialism and capitalism (a new competitor trys to build strength while hiding from the old established corporation).
While I may not have all of my ideas straightened out, I just wanted to get some of my ideas out on the forum for dissection (and perhaps some karma in the process :) )
-CPM
-CPM
I thought that there was definitly too many 'cigarette holes' in the film (those little black circles, watch fight club and understand) and Anakin was really whiney.
One of the problems was there are no screens showing it with digital projectors anywhere in Australia or New Zealand. There really aren't that many in the US either (and the US has about half of them). Since this is the first time digital cameras have been used, the process will only get better on other films. I just wish that they had picked a movie that I don't care about seeing to be the test subject (crossroads would have been a good movie to try it on, but, that would imply that they had a budget for that movie).
In responce to an earlier posting about memorable lines, I like Yoda's "You still have a lot to learn" or some thing like that (hey, I only remember other movie lines b/c I've seen them many times and I was quite drunk last night so I have only had the chance to see it once). I saw TPM twice on the theatre, and will proably see this one again too (as ticket prices are a lot cheaper than back home in the US).
Cheers-
-CPM
I too saw the 12:01 (or was it 11:59, either way it started about 12:05 + trailers) in sydney.
I like trailers, but, I heard that a couple of theatres in the Sydney area skipped all of the trailers and at 12:01 started w/ the 20th century fox fanfare. That would have been neat. I think it could have done without all of the trailers that have been playing for a while and should have had some new trailers, this was star wars, and a good time to market some new ideas to the masses who got there 10 hours early to try to get a good seat. Maybe I just wished I had seen the Matrix Reloaded trailer instead of having to download it on my slow computer/connection.
-CPM
Hate to burst your bubble, but, down here in Sydney, we get it first in the English speaking world (as far as I know) a whole 14 hours before NY (and 6 hours before you then). Oh, I have one of those nice 11:59pm tickets as well. I like making fun of my friends back home, I get to be out of the movie around noon on the 15th at their local time.
Cheers
-CPM
Well, I've been seeing all of these people complaining about having the plot ruined. Down in Australia where I am now, I can't even get the X-Files. I usually live near NYC, so, it is weird. However, this does give me something to really look forward to when I catch the re-runs for the next 30 or so years. Maybe it ruined it for some, but, don't complain, for some of us, this is the only real news of the show that I can get right now.
-CPM
I have a voicestream tiband phone (a motorola one -- b/c I like motorola). I am based on the east coast but right now am down in sydney australia. The phone logs onto one of the 3 major carriers in Australia (Telstra, Optus, or Vodaphone) and just works. The service is great (although a bit expensive) and easy to use. They also do not have regulations about which phone you can use -- they even have some info on their web site about how to use a phone not issued by them on their network (they do mention that it has to be a gsm phone).
On the flip side of things, in australia (from what I've seen), phones and plans are sold seperate -- I have 2 friends with the same phone but different carriers that were purchased from the same store (I think).
For instance, at one point, we had a vacuum cleaner (from elextrolux) from around 1978. That thing worked great until the mid-90's (when some of the electronics went bad). I was able to repair the switch (with a replacement), but, if I was unable to do so, the repair costs would have been ~US$250. To buy a new vacuum cleaner would run ~US$150 (I think). With these new ones, they are really complex (comparitivly speaking) than the old ones (and harder to open).
So, the whole problem here is, do you try to fix, or just replace. This probably doesn't make much sence, but, I hope that my point is at least somewhat comprehended.
-CPM
Also, if you check netcraft, it will tell you who owns the netblock, the fact that the ip is owned by the US Securities & Exchange Commission is kind of a dead giveaway.
Not only is it running on IIS, but, according to the netcraft link you provided, the owner of the ip address is Microsoft Corporation. Anyone wonder why the solaris and linux machines were phased out?
-CPM
#1 Stuff in between the transmitter and the reciever. This causes problems
#2 Cordless phones. Some new phones use the 2.4 GHz range. I would hate to tell people that they can't use these phones/lose your connection every time someone uses one of these phones
Also remember that you have to pay to keep the equipment working and also pay for the internet access on the other end.
That's all I can think of now
-CPM
Enjoy, The CatPieMan