Re:On-demand is the future, today.
on
Television Reloaded
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
What? What'd I say about security?
Re:On-demand is the future, today.
on
Television Reloaded
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Part of the problem here is that television is ad based, and time-slots are a VERY important factor in their pricing. By doing away with the time-slot (as DVRs basically do...) they feel they're going to lose big.
There's probably some truth to it, but I see an alternative. Base advertising on the show instead of the time slot. I mean, seriously, who in their right mind thinks Star Trek is a great time for a tampon or birth-control commercial? Television shows often develop a strong following. Unfortunately, musical time slots often kill well loved shows. (Futurama...) Dedicated viewer base, homeless. With DVRs, they could show new eps at 3am in the morning and they'd still generate revenue.
Unfortunately, this begs the ugly question of whether or not commercial skip should be allowed. Frankly, I think there's a compromise here. Get rid of commercial skip and add fast forward. I know this option won't go well with a lot of people. Sorry. But it's a sticky situation. If ads aren't being watched, the main source of revenue for these shows suddenly disappears.
Another alternative is something like iTunes for tv shows. A buck or two buys you an episode of your favorite show, ad free. Unfortunately, though, this could result in ridiculous monthly expenditures on TV. Conversely, lots of people are buying TV series DVDs. So... eh.
Frankly, I understand why this is contraversial on both sides. The solution isn't likely to make the customers or the television networks completely happy. Right now, I'm paying a pretty heft amount per month for digital cable. If I could funnel that money into an on-demand service instead, somebody could end up with a nifty sized subscription fee per month. Figure out how to make a profit on that, and they'll get my business.
"Get the "facts"? "Independent" analysis? Haven't we had those lies debunked enought that they don't show up in ads on/.?"
Given the Slashdot community's biases, 'debunked' is a strong word to use. I wouldn't go to Slashdot or Microsoft for unbiased 'facts' about Linux or Windows. People still get modded +5 funny for making BSOD jokes around here.
"I don't see how ROTS could have been much better."
Want the list?
1.) There were no interesting revelations made in this movie or in the other 2. The movies were made out of order. They're in a chronological sequence, but the interesting way to watch them is to start with 4, 5, 6 then on to 1, 2 and 3. Watch them chornologically and 5 in particular loses a good deal of dramatic appeal.
1, 2, and 3 didn't do ANYTHING to take advantage of this presentation. Wouldn't it have been interesting if the Jedi fell because they tried to accumulate too much power? Wouldn't it have been interesting if the "Dark Side" was really not as evil as it was made out to be? Wouldn't it have been interesting if the reason that Yoda was so wise was because he did some seriously stupid shit before? Wouldn't it have been interesting if Anakin was really a woman? None of it. Other than some interesting visuals, Ep3 did nothing to fill in any real gaps.
2.) Though we weren't exposed to as much of it, the movie still suffered from terrible terrible dialog. This might be forgivable if not for the rolling of eyes being audible in the theater.
3.) I doubt many found Anakin's allegiance to the Emperor very believable. Though I feel Lucas had some of the right elements in place, they were not executed well. All the sudden BAM I swear my allegiance to you. Riiiight.
4.) The movie spent a long time getting to the final Darth Vader suit moment. And.. then... NOOOO echoed throughout the halls of whatever hospital they were at. That was basically it. Ooooooookay. Was there any real point to that? Not really. Besides completely santizing episode 5 of any real surprises, it didn't do much good. If Lucas really wanted these three movies to precede 4, 5, and 6, they wouldn't have used the name 'vader' at all nor would they have shown him in the suit. When ep4 took place, Darth Vader could simply have been another General Grevious. And then, when you get to 5, BAM, it's Anakin!!
5.) The visuals. argh. The movie had some killer stuff in it, but it also had some seriously obnoxious (or unfinished) imagery that either wasn't necessary or really should have been tidied up. The clone troopers, for example, were totally CG. This wasn't a problem so much with the uniforms, but when he took his helmet off.. ARGH, a character from Grand Theft Auto was starring in the movie! Some may find this forgivable, that's fine. But when a human doesn't look right, it's startling.
6.) The twins. This point is similar to the one about Vader. Although, I'd grant Lucas a little wiggle room here. I don't have a problem with knowing Padme gave birth to twins. But... man, there are serious reprecussions to 4, 5, and 6 as a result of knowing that Princess Leia is the other twin. Let's skip over the implied incestuous desires in ep 4 and skip right ahead to 5. When Luke was dangling from an antenna on the Cloud City, he used the force to reach out to Leia. Puzzlement! Why her? Why would that even work? That's a shocker in Ep 6. But, thanks to 3, whoop-de-fuck.
I envy you for being able to watch that movie twice. I don't like finding all these faults in the movie, afterall it cost me $8.50 to not like a movie.
1.) One of the important elements of all 6 movies was that droids were so ubiquitous that they were hardly noticed. Droids, to them, are like cell phones to us. Also take into account that there are a LOT of droids around that look just like C3PO and R2D2. If this is really bothering you, watch Empire Strikes back a little more carefully.
2.) I half agree, but this didn't bother me a whole lot. Vader seemed pretty pre-occupied with maintaining order. He also suffered a lot of pain with Padme's death. He likely blocked out any desire to find his child.
3.) Vader force choked her. Hey may have done more than that, given his 'new powers' with the force. That excuse may seem a little flimsy (blame Lucas for not spelling this out more clearly) but Anakin was quite quite angry with her.
4.) Eh. Depends on how you look at it. Yoda was old. He damn near bought it when he fought with him. He felt powerless to stop the Emperor so he voluntarily banished himself. So how exactly did he fail? Well, under his watch, nearly all the Jedi were killed, the Republic collapsed, and he didn't sniff out the Sith Lord right under his nose. Donald Trump would have fired him.
5.) Don't forget that Anakin was scarily powerful and on the Emperor's side. Not to mention they successfully wiped out every other Jedi.
I agree with everything else, though. This movie could have used another year cooking, mainly in the script department.
"Or does anyone else not give a flying fuck about all these overanalysed, selfserving reviews. Not just Star Wars, but any movie."
Some of us use these reviews to work out whether or not we want to dump $8.50 x Guests + 2-3 hours of one's life into seeing them or not.
Like it or not, some of the 'over-analysis' is a pleasant warning that there are things in the movies that catch you wrong. When you see a fucked up CGI effect, instead of enjoying the movie, you're sitting there thinking "WTF was that?". Too many of those can ruin a movie.
I wouldn't give a flying fuck about reviews either if I was hellbent on seeing the movie. I'd also get noisy about it if I didn't want to hear criticisms about something I like.
"The problem is, analog sticks existed before that too. MS even had controllers for PC. Atari had one"
Never said Nintendo invented them.
Nintendo added them because they had a 3D system and they needed a 3D friendly navigation interface. The PS1 was a 3d system, but they didn't think that far ahead.
Slashdot has users go out and find stories. They then copy and paste a part of the story and link to it. They then add a comments section so that people can earn karma by either stating restating public opinion on the matter or by finding fault in it, even if it requires going to ridiculous extremes. The whole time this is happening, Slashdot is posting ads. The more people comment, the more ads get served, the more ads Slashdot can sell.
What I find so ridiculously funny about this whole Roland deal is that the constant bitching about it. There's an ad being served for every rply to it. Right now, I'm seeing a Vonage ad while I'm posting this. All these efforts to bitch about Roland until he goes away are actually giving Slashdot a damned good reason to keep him around.
I've been saying this, but I guess I'll just have to keep saying this: Quitcherbitchen. When Roland stories only generate a handful of comments, they won't accept his stories anymore. It's not as fun as going on a crusade against him, but if you really care about your goals...
"I am not sure how Nintendo is going to improve their controler scheme and maintain backwards compatiblity, but they say they will."
The cheap way would be to put GC controller ports on the unit.
They could also build on the existing design. Leave the button layout the way it is, put touch sensors on the handles, and a gyro sensor somewhere in there. (Frankly, I'd settle for just the gyro. Anybody who's tried to use the sniper rifle in San Andreas knows what I'm talking about.)
"I know that Nintendo has a reputation for being tight lipped but I think that in their current situation, they have more to gain be announcing details..."
What could they have to gain? Right now, the XBOX 360 and the PS3 are BFD's. If Nintendo announced details now, they'd be competing with those two. (The fun part of that is that for Nintendo to keep up, they'd have to make up numbers like Sony and MS are.) If Nintendo waits a couple of months instead, they'd have the benefit of the PS3 and XBOX 360 being old news.
Nintendo doesn't need a year of hype. (It certainly doesn't need it early enough for the competition to rip off their ideas.) When SpaceWorld debuted the GameCube, lots of people had already made up their minds they were going to get it. They didn't need 12 months to sit on the idea.
"Sony made a dual shock in japan before the N64 came out..."
Thanks for proving my point, though it was unintentional. The N64 + analog controller were shown a full year before it was released. When the N64 finally reached market, the competition had already tried to soften the blow.
" I have never had a problem accidentally hitting shoulder buttons."
Oops, sorry dude, I thought I had deleted my comment on shoulder buttons.
Well, maybe you can memorize button commands really quickly. Fine for you. However, when you're playing a game and one of the shoulder buttons is 'fire' and the other one is 'turn', it actually is quite easy to hit the wrong button. I don't mean "I hit R1 instead of R2", but rather "Uh.. wait, what does R1 do and what does R2 do?"
The problem with two shoulder buttons on each side is that they're rarely used intuitively. They're often used for secondary functions, as opposed to using them because their placement implies that function.
"No offense man, but if you can't master circle, triangle, X, and square...you aren't going to do much better with A, B, C, D."
Not true. At least with AB/XY, there's a pattern to it. With Sony's Lucky Charms shapes, you have to memorize specifically where each shape is. Eventually it isn't a big deal, but it sure made getting to know my Playstation a lot of unnecessary fun.
"I have never had a problem accidentally hitting shoulder buttons."
L3 isn't a shoulder button. If you push down on the left analog stick (which often happens if you're DRIVING), *click* there it goes. Half the time when I'm in hot pursuit in San Andreas, my car horn's honking. Really f'n annoying.
"Maybe it is just you. I suggest trying an Atari. It has one button and a joystick. Don't get too upset if you accidentally hit its only button though."
That's a pretty bold statement for somebody that hasn't dented any of my points.
"To combat this problem, the next generation console's controller will consist of a single giant, red button."
Sony, on the other hand, has a lot of faith in the hand-eye coordination of its customers. It will have 16 buttons on the face and 4 more shoulder buttons on each side. All the buttons will be clearly labeled with a variety of simple shapes. For example: The rainbow dodecahedron will typically be used for selecting the second menu option for most games, provided they follow any sort of standard.
"Their tight-lipped attitude this E3 is apparently an attempt to ensure they don't tip their hand to rivals."
I can forgive them for that. Shortly after announcing the N-64, the PS1 got the Dual Shock controller and the Saturn got an analog controller.
"Iwata said the new console is aimed at customers who hate clutter and find current games and the controllers used to play them to be confusing and difficult."
Normally I would have called bullshit. But then I thought about some of the 'fun' I've had playing San Andreas lately. Hitting the correct shoulder button is an exercise in "Dammit!". I keep hitting the L3 button by accident whenever I make a sharp turn. (Oh, brilliant design there, Sony. Put a button where I can accidently hit it a LOT.) Then I played that damn dancing level where the button shapes would fly by and I had to hit the right one. Yeah Sony, thanks for using heiroglyphics for your button labels.
Yeah, I'm ready for simpler. I'm also really hoping that the gyro rumor is true. Analog sticks just don't cut it with shooting games.
Slashdot Mirror
What? What'd I say about security?
Part of the problem here is that television is ad based, and time-slots are a VERY important factor in their pricing. By doing away with the time-slot (as DVRs basically do...) they feel they're going to lose big.
There's probably some truth to it, but I see an alternative. Base advertising on the show instead of the time slot. I mean, seriously, who in their right mind thinks Star Trek is a great time for a tampon or birth-control commercial? Television shows often develop a strong following. Unfortunately, musical time slots often kill well loved shows. (Futurama...) Dedicated viewer base, homeless. With DVRs, they could show new eps at 3am in the morning and they'd still generate revenue.
Unfortunately, this begs the ugly question of whether or not commercial skip should be allowed. Frankly, I think there's a compromise here. Get rid of commercial skip and add fast forward. I know this option won't go well with a lot of people. Sorry. But it's a sticky situation. If ads aren't being watched, the main source of revenue for these shows suddenly disappears.
Another alternative is something like iTunes for tv shows. A buck or two buys you an episode of your favorite show, ad free. Unfortunately, though, this could result in ridiculous monthly expenditures on TV. Conversely, lots of people are buying TV series DVDs. So... eh.
Frankly, I understand why this is contraversial on both sides. The solution isn't likely to make the customers or the television networks completely happy. Right now, I'm paying a pretty heft amount per month for digital cable. If I could funnel that money into an on-demand service instead, somebody could end up with a nifty sized subscription fee per month. Figure out how to make a profit on that, and they'll get my business.
"Get the "facts"? "Independent" analysis? Haven't we had those lies debunked enought that they don't show up in ads on /.?"
Given the Slashdot community's biases, 'debunked' is a strong word to use. I wouldn't go to Slashdot or Microsoft for unbiased 'facts' about Linux or Windows. People still get modded +5 funny for making BSOD jokes around here.
"2. how did they manage to make a woman as beautiful as Natalie Portman look so bad?"
I thought that was a testament to what marriage and pregnancy does to a woman. I read somewhere that Ed O'neil was a consultant for that movie.
Grevious was more like Darth Vader than like C-3PO with a smoking problem.
"I don't see how ROTS could have been much better."
... man, there are serious reprecussions to 4, 5, and 6 as a result of knowing that Princess Leia is the other twin. Let's skip over the implied incestuous desires in ep 4 and skip right ahead to 5. When Luke was dangling from an antenna on the Cloud City, he used the force to reach out to Leia. Puzzlement! Why her? Why would that even work? That's a shocker in Ep 6. But, thanks to 3, whoop-de-fuck.
Want the list?
1.) There were no interesting revelations made in this movie or in the other 2. The movies were made out of order. They're in a chronological sequence, but the interesting way to watch them is to start with 4, 5, 6 then on to 1, 2 and 3. Watch them chornologically and 5 in particular loses a good deal of dramatic appeal.
1, 2, and 3 didn't do ANYTHING to take advantage of this presentation. Wouldn't it have been interesting if the Jedi fell because they tried to accumulate too much power? Wouldn't it have been interesting if the "Dark Side" was really not as evil as it was made out to be? Wouldn't it have been interesting if the reason that Yoda was so wise was because he did some seriously stupid shit before? Wouldn't it have been interesting if Anakin was really a woman? None of it. Other than some interesting visuals, Ep3 did nothing to fill in any real gaps.
2.) Though we weren't exposed to as much of it, the movie still suffered from terrible terrible dialog. This might be forgivable if not for the rolling of eyes being audible in the theater.
3.) I doubt many found Anakin's allegiance to the Emperor very believable. Though I feel Lucas had some of the right elements in place, they were not executed well. All the sudden BAM I swear my allegiance to you. Riiiight.
4.) The movie spent a long time getting to the final Darth Vader suit moment. And.. then... NOOOO echoed throughout the halls of whatever hospital they were at. That was basically it. Ooooooookay. Was there any real point to that? Not really. Besides completely santizing episode 5 of any real surprises, it didn't do much good. If Lucas really wanted these three movies to precede 4, 5, and 6, they wouldn't have used the name 'vader' at all nor would they have shown him in the suit. When ep4 took place, Darth Vader could simply have been another General Grevious. And then, when you get to 5, BAM, it's Anakin!!
5.) The visuals. argh. The movie had some killer stuff in it, but it also had some seriously obnoxious (or unfinished) imagery that either wasn't necessary or really should have been tidied up. The clone troopers, for example, were totally CG. This wasn't a problem so much with the uniforms, but when he took his helmet off.. ARGH, a character from Grand Theft Auto was starring in the movie! Some may find this forgivable, that's fine. But when a human doesn't look right, it's startling.
6.) The twins. This point is similar to the one about Vader. Although, I'd grant Lucas a little wiggle room here. I don't have a problem with knowing Padme gave birth to twins. But
I envy you for being able to watch that movie twice. I don't like finding all these faults in the movie, afterall it cost me $8.50 to not like a movie.
1.) One of the important elements of all 6 movies was that droids were so ubiquitous that they were hardly noticed. Droids, to them, are like cell phones to us. Also take into account that there are a LOT of droids around that look just like C3PO and R2D2. If this is really bothering you, watch Empire Strikes back a little more carefully.
2.) I half agree, but this didn't bother me a whole lot. Vader seemed pretty pre-occupied with maintaining order. He also suffered a lot of pain with Padme's death. He likely blocked out any desire to find his child.
3.) Vader force choked her. Hey may have done more than that, given his 'new powers' with the force. That excuse may seem a little flimsy (blame Lucas for not spelling this out more clearly) but Anakin was quite quite angry with her.
4.) Eh. Depends on how you look at it. Yoda was old. He damn near bought it when he fought with him. He felt powerless to stop the Emperor so he voluntarily banished himself. So how exactly did he fail? Well, under his watch, nearly all the Jedi were killed, the Republic collapsed, and he didn't sniff out the Sith Lord right under his nose. Donald Trump would have fired him.
5.) Don't forget that Anakin was scarily powerful and on the Emperor's side. Not to mention they successfully wiped out every other Jedi.
I agree with everything else, though. This movie could have used another year cooking, mainly in the script department.
"Old news... Chewie did it in RotJ while swinging onto the AT-ST w/ the 2 ewoks. This just harkens back to that other scene."
It was funny when he did it in RotJ. This time, they might as well have used the 12345 joke when R2 was trying to get the elevator going.
"Or does anyone else not give a flying fuck about all these overanalysed, selfserving reviews. Not just Star Wars, but any movie."
Some of us use these reviews to work out whether or not we want to dump $8.50 x Guests + 2-3 hours of one's life into seeing them or not.
Like it or not, some of the 'over-analysis' is a pleasant warning that there are things in the movies that catch you wrong. When you see a fucked up CGI effect, instead of enjoying the movie, you're sitting there thinking "WTF was that?". Too many of those can ruin a movie.
I wouldn't give a flying fuck about reviews either if I was hellbent on seeing the movie. I'd also get noisy about it if I didn't want to hear criticisms about something I like.
"You know that bit where Obi-Wan says "It's like...she's lost the will to live"? She wasn't the only one."
For the first time, the audience will win an award for best dramatic acting.
"The problem is, analog sticks existed before that too. MS even had controllers for PC. Atari had one"
Never said Nintendo invented them.
Nintendo added them because they had a 3D system and they needed a 3D friendly navigation interface. The PS1 was a 3d system, but they didn't think that far ahead.
"What other explanation exists?"
His stories generates a lot of negative comments so Slashdot's ad-serv counter starts spinning.
"M$Winblows is teh sux. The gummint is out to get us. Dumbya sux0rs. Gentoo is l337. Star Wars rules."
Sometimes I wonder if karma originally started as a model of capitalism. Most comments like that are an appeal to those with mod points.
Slashdot has users go out and find stories. They then copy and paste a part of the story and link to it. They then add a comments section so that people can earn karma by either stating restating public opinion on the matter or by finding fault in it, even if it requires going to ridiculous extremes. The whole time this is happening, Slashdot is posting ads. The more people comment, the more ads get served, the more ads Slashdot can sell.
What I find so ridiculously funny about this whole Roland deal is that the constant bitching about it. There's an ad being served for every rply to it. Right now, I'm seeing a Vonage ad while I'm posting this. All these efforts to bitch about Roland until he goes away are actually giving Slashdot a damned good reason to keep him around.
I've been saying this, but I guess I'll just have to keep saying this: Quitcherbitchen. When Roland stories only generate a handful of comments, they won't accept his stories anymore. It's not as fun as going on a crusade against him, but if you really care about your goals...
"open source code for a proprietary platform? I don't think so. I suspect RMS would call this sharecropping'
Are you guys really that zealous about what OSS code is? It's a simple programming contest, not a web browser.
"What's the name of this fantasy world you live in where stealing anothers work isn't considered theft?"
He's right. I stole the lyrics of a song once and released it myself. I made all the money and the other guy didn't. Arrr matey!
"Yeah, that's what your girlfriend said!!!"
Nailing a dude's gf is cool, but what she said about you was pretty cold.
From the "Gentlemen-faces-on-stun" department.
"I am not sure how Nintendo is going to improve their controler scheme and maintain backwards compatiblity, but they say they will."
The cheap way would be to put GC controller ports on the unit.
They could also build on the existing design. Leave the button layout the way it is, put touch sensors on the handles, and a gyro sensor somewhere in there. (Frankly, I'd settle for just the gyro. Anybody who's tried to use the sniper rifle in San Andreas knows what I'm talking about.)
"I know that Nintendo has a reputation for being tight lipped but I think that in their current situation, they have more to gain be announcing details..."
What could they have to gain? Right now, the XBOX 360 and the PS3 are BFD's. If Nintendo announced details now, they'd be competing with those two. (The fun part of that is that for Nintendo to keep up, they'd have to make up numbers like Sony and MS are.) If Nintendo waits a couple of months instead, they'd have the benefit of the PS3 and XBOX 360 being old news.
Nintendo doesn't need a year of hype. (It certainly doesn't need it early enough for the competition to rip off their ideas.) When SpaceWorld debuted the GameCube, lots of people had already made up their minds they were going to get it. They didn't need 12 months to sit on the idea.
"Sony made a dual shock in japan before the N64 came out..."
Thanks for proving my point, though it was unintentional. The N64 + analog controller were shown a full year before it was released. When the N64 finally reached market, the competition had already tried to soften the blow.
" I have never had a problem accidentally hitting shoulder buttons."
Oops, sorry dude, I thought I had deleted my comment on shoulder buttons.
Well, maybe you can memorize button commands really quickly. Fine for you. However, when you're playing a game and one of the shoulder buttons is 'fire' and the other one is 'turn', it actually is quite easy to hit the wrong button. I don't mean "I hit R1 instead of R2", but rather "Uh.. wait, what does R1 do and what does R2 do?"
The problem with two shoulder buttons on each side is that they're rarely used intuitively. They're often used for secondary functions, as opposed to using them because their placement implies that function.
"No offense man, but if you can't master circle, triangle, X, and square...you aren't going to do much better with A, B, C, D."
Not true. At least with AB/XY, there's a pattern to it. With Sony's Lucky Charms shapes, you have to memorize specifically where each shape is. Eventually it isn't a big deal, but it sure made getting to know my Playstation a lot of unnecessary fun.
"I have never had a problem accidentally hitting shoulder buttons."
L3 isn't a shoulder button. If you push down on the left analog stick (which often happens if you're DRIVING), *click* there it goes. Half the time when I'm in hot pursuit in San Andreas, my car horn's honking. Really f'n annoying.
"Maybe it is just you. I suggest trying an Atari. It has one button and a joystick. Don't get too upset if you accidentally hit its only button though."
That's a pretty bold statement for somebody that hasn't dented any of my points.
"To combat this problem, the next generation console's controller will consist of a single giant, red button."
Sony, on the other hand, has a lot of faith in the hand-eye coordination of its customers. It will have 16 buttons on the face and 4 more shoulder buttons on each side. All the buttons will be clearly labeled with a variety of simple shapes. For example: The rainbow dodecahedron will typically be used for selecting the second menu option for most games, provided they follow any sort of standard.
"Their tight-lipped attitude this E3 is apparently an attempt to ensure they don't tip their hand to rivals."
I can forgive them for that. Shortly after announcing the N-64, the PS1 got the Dual Shock controller and the Saturn got an analog controller.
"Iwata said the new console is aimed at customers who hate clutter and find current games and the controllers used to play them to be confusing and difficult."
Normally I would have called bullshit. But then I thought about some of the 'fun' I've had playing San Andreas lately. Hitting the correct shoulder button is an exercise in "Dammit!". I keep hitting the L3 button by accident whenever I make a sharp turn. (Oh, brilliant design there, Sony. Put a button where I can accidently hit it a LOT.) Then I played that damn dancing level where the button shapes would fly by and I had to hit the right one. Yeah Sony, thanks for using heiroglyphics for your button labels.
Yeah, I'm ready for simpler. I'm also really hoping that the gyro rumor is true. Analog sticks just don't cut it with shooting games.