One of the reasons snacks cost so much is that a large portion of the cost of a ticket goes straight to the studio the film came from, so the theater has to put huge mark-ups on its snacks just to survive.
This is one of the reasons that I've always felt theater chains are just shafted in the movie industry. The quantity of business they get is almost completely out of their control, since it's determined by the quality/popularity of movies that other people. If it's a bad year for films, it's a bad year for them, and there's not much they could have done about it.
Not to mention the fact that every ten years someone comes along and says that there's this fabulous new technology that they have to buy for their theaters. Last time it was digital sound, now it's digital projectors. That the studios are offering to front part of the cost is nice, but I have to believe that the theater chains are still stuck with some of it, and choosing to opt out isn't really much of an option if they want to stay competitive. It's really just a very short stick.
> Wozniak (sp.) is old, for instance, but he's managing.
This is deceptive. Steve Wozniak (I'm assuming this is who you are talking about, don't know too many others) is only managing because he had lots of stock in Apple and is now incredible rich. He's not exactly *working* anymore, at least not for any substantial amount of money, and certainly not because he needs the money.
Of course, this brings up another way out of this: get really rich in your twenties, and you won't even *have* to work for the rest of your life.
As far as the Aint-it-cool-news piece, I wouldn't put too much stock in it. First of all, this news comes second hand from a minimum-wage employee of a video store, not the greatest of sources. Also, on the very same page is someone else who seems much more reliable saying that there will be absolutely no DVD in the forseeable future. Furtheremore, Lucas has said time and time again that there will be no Star Wars DVDs until all 6 are finished, so I think it's a safe bet that we still have a long wait ahead of us.
Finally, some real software for us, the minority of the minority, who managed to put Linux where all too few people knew it could go. Maybe I'll finally be able to spend some time playing a game under Linux that isn't minesweeper! In short, a real victory for the three of us who actually run LinuxPPC and have been holding out to be recognized by companies that we know would have to be out of their minds to support such a ridiculously unused platform. But, hey, I'm not complaining!
p.s. Why does my sound still not work under Linux? Hmm...
Speaking of MPEG, does anyone know of any *nix software that can actually *compress* MPEG movies? I'm sure there is some, but it doesn't seem to be quite as publicised as it probably should. I do a lot of POV-ray animations, and find myself compiling GIF animations to view them under Linux, which is just about the silliest animation format ever made. When I do a final render, I have to reboot into MacOS and use a shareware program called Moover to compile the frames into Quicktime. This is quite possibly the most annoying operation ever, and would very much like some software that I could use under Linux that could turn a bunch of frame images into an MPEG movie.
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One of the reasons snacks cost so much is that a large portion of the cost of a ticket goes straight to the studio the film came from, so the theater has to put huge mark-ups on its snacks just to survive.
This is one of the reasons that I've always felt theater chains are just shafted in the movie industry. The quantity of business they get is almost completely out of their control, since it's determined by the quality/popularity of movies that other people. If it's a bad year for films, it's a bad year for them, and there's not much they could have done about it.
Not to mention the fact that every ten years someone comes along and says that there's this fabulous new technology that they have to buy for their theaters. Last time it was digital sound, now it's digital projectors. That the studios are offering to front part of the cost is nice, but I have to believe that the theater chains are still stuck with some of it, and choosing to opt out isn't really much of an option if they want to stay competitive. It's really just a very short stick.
> Wozniak (sp.) is old, for instance, but he's managing.
This is deceptive. Steve Wozniak (I'm assuming this is who you are talking about, don't know too many others) is only managing because he had lots of stock in Apple and is now incredible rich. He's not exactly *working* anymore, at least not for any substantial amount of money, and certainly not because he needs the money.
Of course, this brings up another way out of this: get really rich in your twenties, and you won't even *have* to work for the rest of your life.
As far as the Aint-it-cool-news piece, I wouldn't put too much stock in it. First of all, this news comes second hand from a minimum-wage employee of a video store, not the greatest of sources. Also, on the very same page is someone else who seems much more reliable saying that there will be absolutely no DVD in the forseeable future. Furtheremore, Lucas has said time and time again that there will be no Star Wars DVDs until all 6 are finished, so I think it's a safe bet that we still have a long wait ahead of us.
Finally, some real software for us, the minority of the minority, who managed to put Linux where all too few people knew it could go. Maybe I'll finally be able to spend some time playing a game under Linux that isn't minesweeper! In short, a real victory for the three of us who actually run LinuxPPC and have been holding out to be recognized by companies that we know would have to be out of their minds to support such a ridiculously unused platform. But, hey, I'm not complaining!
p.s. Why does my sound still not work under Linux? Hmm...
Speaking of MPEG, does anyone know of any *nix software that can actually *compress* MPEG movies? I'm sure there is some, but it doesn't seem to be quite as publicised as it probably should. I do a lot of POV-ray animations, and find myself compiling GIF animations to view them under Linux, which is just about the silliest animation format ever made. When I do a final render, I have to reboot into MacOS and use a shareware program called Moover to compile the frames into Quicktime. This is quite possibly the most annoying operation ever, and would very much like some software that I could use under Linux that could turn a bunch of frame images into an MPEG movie.