What bothered me the most about Idiocracy was that it tried to talk about how people, and in particular movie audiences, were getting dumber to the point that "Ass" could be the most popular movie in the country.
And yet Mike Judge felt the need to use a voice-over to explain every single detail of the film to the audience, perhaps expecting that they might not understand it otherwise.
In related news, I know a PR guy who's looking for a job...
I know that guy, he's pretty good. He wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls, and is a good friend of Cliffy B, Scott Lowe, the guys from Penny Arcade and the mayor of Boston.
If Volkswagen is turning off the email servers, I can't even do that. I actually have to wait to send the email until they are working
Um, they're not turning off _your_ mail server, they're just turning off their own.
Way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, cavemen using primative SMTP servers fashioned from stone knives, bear skins and RFC 821 figured out how to store and forward email, and if the remote server was not available then to try again later. If your SMTP service is unable to deliver mail despite transient errors then please contact your network administrator about it.
If you are your network administrator, but have misconfigured your mail server, there is no need for ritual suicide. You can cleanse yourself of most of the shame by reading the appropriate documentation and fixing the problem.
If circuits broke entirely at random without any reason at all then that would be a fair assessment. It's more likely that breaks will be a result of circuit boards being placed under stress as a result of design flaws, and that will happen in the same place every time. I know a number of notebook computer owners who would be happy to demonstrate this.
What's the point of a warranty that's void if the device breaks?
You're thinking like a consumer again. The point is that it gives the manufacturer another excuse not to honour an otherwise expensive warranty, much like the "water damage detectors" inside many phones which are sensitive enough to turn red if somebody sneezes in the next room.
What happens when it breaks a second time? Then it's just as broken.
This kind of thing may help resist a sudden, one-time shock, but it won't do a thing to protect electronics from ongoing wear. Perhaps if there were a way of notifying the device that it had been broken so that it could quickly inform the user and void its own warranty then it would be more useful.
Now all we need is an original copy of the Jim Theis classic "The Eye of Argon", complete with illustrations and the missing final chapter, and our collection will be complete.
Really? A bomb... that's a danger to people on the street... yet small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand? Is shrapnel really considered a terrorist threat nowadays?
They're called "Hand Grenades" for a reason, you know. It's because they can fit in the palm of one's hand. And they have a long history of being a danger to people.
Or did he think its antimatter explosion would eradicate the entire city block?
No, but he probably thought that a modern anti-personnel grenade was capable of throwing fragments over two hundred meters away. That makes for an area about _five_ city blocks long that could get quite uncomfortable for passers-by, with a "what's left of you will wish you were dead" zone about a third of a city block across at the centre. The real thing is nothing at all like Counter-Strike.
But, you know what? You're right. I'm just being silly. After all, nobody ever sets off bombs in England, so I'm sure there's no reason for anyone to worry about anything. Ever.
That's kinda more accurate than what really happened actually. Paul Revere warned almost no Americans. Dude got picked up by the Brits almost before he left.
If by "almost no Americans" you meant "The militia at Charleston, Lexington and Concord who went on to fight the battles of Lexington and Concord" and by "almost before he left" you meant "three hours later, after doing what he set out to do" and that "picked up by the British" means "picked up and then released", and you ignore all the other guys who were doing the same thing and weren't stopped then... yeah, you're absolutely right.
And if you interpret "Seeing the signal lights up in the church tower then quietly passing on the message to Samuel Adams and John Hancock in person that an attack was coming and that they had best be ready for it" as "Warning the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms by ringing bells firing warning shots", then Palin was spot on.
But many years later, his name fit well into a song, and so everyone now knows about his midnight ride.
It was about eightyfive years later, in the poem "Paul Revere's Ride". It was a fictionalized account and got quite a few details wrong, such as leaving out the other riders like William Dawes, but was still more accurate than that embarrassing sound-bite was.
I will freely admit that Palin has demonstrated that she attended history class in High School at least once, but I am still unconvinced that she was awake at the time.
Or maybe it's the name of the game. "1943" was quite a popular game long before you were born, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and video games were played in strange darkened rooms called "Arcades".
Even Greenpeace only puts the death toll from Chernobyl at 200,000 from 1990 to 2004, less than two thirds of what American Coal accomplished over the same time, and they didn't even have an accident to blame. That's just business as usual.
Slashdot Mirror
What bothered me the most about Idiocracy was that it tried to talk about how people, and in particular movie audiences, were getting dumber to the point that "Ass" could be the most popular movie in the country.
And yet Mike Judge felt the need to use a voice-over to explain every single detail of the film to the audience, perhaps expecting that they might not understand it otherwise.
Or maybe watch "Game of Thrones", which is the correct title of the ten hour long HBO series, in a theatre, for one hour every week?
I could swear I heard someone suggest that some time today.
It wasn't that long ago that Slashdot conversations were both rational and coherently written.
Honestly, I think that may be a sign you're growing up.
Or sobering up.
In related news, I know a PR guy who's looking for a job...
I know that guy, he's pretty good. He wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls, and is a good friend of Cliffy B, Scott Lowe, the guys from Penny Arcade and the mayor of Boston.
Good article, but then...
I read the comments after it.
What was I thinking?
If Volkswagen is turning off the email servers, I can't even do that. I actually have to wait to send the email until they are working
Um, they're not turning off _your_ mail server, they're just turning off their own.
Way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, cavemen using primative SMTP servers fashioned from stone knives, bear skins and RFC 821 figured out how to store and forward email, and if the remote server was not available then to try again later. If your SMTP service is unable to deliver mail despite transient errors then please contact your network administrator about it.
If you are your network administrator, but have misconfigured your mail server, there is no need for ritual suicide. You can cleanse yourself of most of the shame by reading the appropriate documentation and fixing the problem.
Because pesky consumer protection laws require that one be offered.
If circuits broke entirely at random without any reason at all then that would be a fair assessment. It's more likely that breaks will be a result of circuit boards being placed under stress as a result of design flaws, and that will happen in the same place every time. I know a number of notebook computer owners who would be happy to demonstrate this.
What's the point of a warranty that's void if the device breaks?
You're thinking like a consumer again. The point is that it gives the manufacturer another excuse not to honour an otherwise expensive warranty, much like the "water damage detectors" inside many phones which are sensitive enough to turn red if somebody sneezes in the next room.
What happens when it breaks a second time? Then it's just as broken.
This kind of thing may help resist a sudden, one-time shock, but it won't do a thing to protect electronics from ongoing wear. Perhaps if there were a way of notifying the device that it had been broken so that it could quickly inform the user and void its own warranty then it would be more useful.
And don't forget a level of scientific accuracy that makes CSI look like Richard Feynman.
Now all we need is an original copy of the Jim Theis classic "The Eye of Argon", complete with illustrations and the missing final chapter, and our collection will be complete.
As long as you don't use something obvious like "Humpty-Dumpty" [...]
Are you saying that name is fake?
It's as real as Naughtius Maximus, Sillius Soddus or Bigus Dickus.
How can Wired write an entire article, and slashdot write a summary, all about a website, and nobody includes the link to Kahn Academy!?? Geesh
Oh, it's THAT Khan Academy? Here I was looking for lectures at the other one.
This discussion makes a lot more sense now.
The casualty radius on a M67 is 15 meters, with a kill radius of 5 meters
Which gives you a rough diameter of 30m, or about one third of an average 79m city block. It's good to see that you agree with me.
Really? A bomb... that's a danger to people on the street... yet small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand? Is shrapnel really considered a terrorist threat nowadays?
They're called "Hand Grenades" for a reason, you know. It's because they can fit in the palm of one's hand. And they have a long history of being a danger to people.
Or did he think its antimatter explosion would eradicate the entire city block?
No, but he probably thought that a modern anti-personnel grenade was capable of throwing fragments over two hundred meters away. That makes for an area about _five_ city blocks long that could get quite uncomfortable for passers-by, with a "what's left of you will wish you were dead" zone about a third of a city block across at the centre. The real thing is nothing at all like Counter-Strike.
But, you know what? You're right. I'm just being silly. After all, nobody ever sets off bombs in England, so I'm sure there's no reason for anyone to worry about anything. Ever.
"My unsatisfying job at Best Buy has led me to drink heavily."
Because it saves time that way.
More interesting is how does one cheat fairly?
By crediting your references properly, so that everyone else can use them to cheat too.
The US doesn't use paper, it's a cloth and it has withstood the test of time and abuse better than any other currency.
And the US abuses its currency more than any other nation in the world, so that means a lot.
Indeed. The poor bastards still consider rioting, looting and arson to be unusual things.
That's kinda more accurate than what really happened actually. Paul Revere warned almost no Americans. Dude got picked up by the Brits almost before he left.
If by "almost no Americans" you meant "The militia at Charleston, Lexington and Concord who went on to fight the battles of Lexington and Concord" and by "almost before he left" you meant "three hours later, after doing what he set out to do" and that "picked up by the British" means "picked up and then released", and you ignore all the other guys who were doing the same thing and weren't stopped then... yeah, you're absolutely right.
And if you interpret "Seeing the signal lights up in the church tower then quietly passing on the message to Samuel Adams and John Hancock in person that an attack was coming and that they had best be ready for it" as "Warning the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms by ringing bells firing warning shots", then Palin was spot on.
But many years later, his name fit well into a song, and so everyone now knows about his midnight ride.
It was about eightyfive years later, in the poem "Paul Revere's Ride". It was a fictionalized account and got quite a few details wrong, such as leaving out the other riders like William Dawes, but was still more accurate than that embarrassing sound-bite was.
I will freely admit that Palin has demonstrated that she attended history class in High School at least once, but I am still unconvinced that she was awake at the time.
Or perhaps Paul Revere himself will change to conform to Wikireality.
Who among us hasn't heard the story of his famous Midnight Ride, where he rode up to the British screaming "You're coming! You're coming!"?
Maybe 1943 is a brand name?
Or maybe it's the name of the game. "1943" was quite a popular game long before you were born, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and video games were played in strange darkened rooms called "Arcades".
No, but "1943" is from 1987.
While everything is going right, nuclear power is quite safe.
While everything is going right, coal power still kills 24,000 people in the USA alone every year. And that's not even mentioning things like the 48 tons of mercury released into the air and water every year by perfectly functioning coal plants in which nothing has gone wrong.
Even Greenpeace only puts the death toll from Chernobyl at 200,000 from 1990 to 2004, less than two thirds of what American Coal accomplished over the same time, and they didn't even have an accident to blame. That's just business as usual.
So, yeah, go Coal. Let's put an end to those dangerous nuclear plants and return to safe, clean power.