Maybe you got burned out from seeing the same stories constantly rehashed? How many variations on forehead wrinkles can you watch in Star Trek shows? Could just be a case of "familiarity breeds contempt".
It has nothing to do with whether it is good or not, it is a matter of being true to your historical sources. You may not like creationism but if you do a movie about the Garden of Eden please call them Adam and Eve not Fred and Ethel.
"There aren't a lot of them, but they get neither more nor less frequent over the decades"
I think you can say the same thing for great books, tv, music, and other genres of movies. There is a lot of dreck to dig through to find the few gems.
I'd add "Alien" to that list too. Even though it is basically a horror film it still had some great new ideas and imagery for sci-fi films.
"Contact" was also a break from the space opera mold though it was a bit melodramtic for me. It presented an alien civilization as benevolent (as in Close Encounters) but it had them as nebulous beings similar to those in 2001.
I wonder if this is cheaper for licensing too. If Oracle (for example) charged by the CPU then having multicore CPUs would be a great way to save money, until Oracle changed licensing of course.
"On the other hand, you can always pursue what you really love, and hope that you happen to get lucky and that your obscure interest is the Next Big Thing (TM). That's how the really great ones did it."
The problem is that the people who do that and spend the rest of their life struggling to pay the bills are the ones you never hear about. For every "great one" there are LOTS of never got great ones.
Small shops *love* jack-of-all-trades because they have to be able to cover a lot of bases without specialized help. I've worked of academic and government agencies where they had limited budgets to hire many people so I had to dabble in DBA, Unix Admin, Apps Admin, Developer, User Support, etc all at the same time. I never became a master of Unix admin tasks (big hardware changes justified getting some help) but now I know enough to understand other specialists. My DBA knowledge alone is very valuable for performance recommendations or simply knowing when to say "This is a DBA issue, not a code issue". Even when you work with a group of specialists you quickly become important if you have a broad base.
In his defense he probably meant that to appeal to a wide range of people usually requires that something be watered down to eliminate any "edges" it might have. Just like how they make mass marketed food rather bland, never that spicy, etc and similar to how most popular movies must have a positive ending.
I do agree though that bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are examples of very good groups that also have mass appeal.
I've also gotten more into the 60-70s music but I think this can give you a false image of the music of that period. You only dig up the best stuff from the past and think it was all so much better back then. The truth is that a lot of the popular music was crap back then also (as another poster pointed out). Only the good stuff has survived. This goes for movies and TV shows too.
That's right kids! MTV actually used to play MUSIC. Honest to god! This was before they decided to become a 24 hr "Idiots in a Cross Country Bus"/"Idiots Sharing an Apartment" network.
I agree that creativity is most likely based on how you connect seemingly unrelated ideas. As an example, this is vital in spoken comedy (as opposed to slapstick). Pay attention to any good comedian and you'll notice thier jokes depend on seemingly bizarre connections and metaphors. Our ability to think in abstracts is probably related to this.
I'd say that some of our youthful creativity is lost as our brains mature and our natural pattern seeking skills develop. Finding patterns is great for survival ("Most red fruits are edible...") but can stifle creativity ("Don't bother with those blue berries, keep looking for red ones!").
If they are licenses then I'm waiting for the music biz to start rescinding then.
"Sorry, our data shows that you played the CD 'Cheezy-Poof' at a party in violation of your license. Please send the CD back to the publisher immediately. Thank you."
It'll just pose a challenge to their CS and EE students. Just wait until they start rigging up wireless links to outside connections. I welcome our new Indian hackers.
You assume though that the digital format you've chosen will be readable decades later. The details of the encoding method may be forgotten or even hidden behind DRM laws and the physical means of reading them may be lost as the technology changed. How many 5.25" floppy drives do you still see? I think NASA has faced this issue with old Apollo data fom the 60s.
Slashdot Mirror
No goatse link?
Don't forget Microsoft flaming!
Maybe you got burned out from seeing the same stories constantly rehashed? How many variations on forehead wrinkles can you watch in Star Trek shows? Could just be a case of "familiarity breeds contempt".
It has nothing to do with whether it is good or not, it is a matter of being true to your historical sources. You may not like creationism but if you do a movie about the Garden of Eden please call them Adam and Eve not Fred and Ethel.
"...while "Next" is simply the next Nicolas Cage orgy of destruction, with an ESP angle worked in."
"'I Am Legend,' has been filmed (for the third time) as an action vehicle for Will Smith."
If Nicolas Cage and Will Smith fought each other to the death with axes who would win?
A. Nicolas Cage
B. Will Smith
C. The movie going public
(apologies to David Letterman)
"There aren't a lot of them, but they get neither more nor less frequent over the decades"
I think you can say the same thing for great books, tv, music, and other genres of movies. There is a lot of dreck to dig through to find the few gems.
I'd add "Alien" to that list too. Even though it is basically a horror film it still had some great new ideas and imagery for sci-fi films.
"Contact" was also a break from the space opera mold though it was a bit melodramtic for me. It presented an alien civilization as benevolent (as in Close Encounters) but it had them as nebulous beings similar to those in 2001.
I wonder if this is cheaper for licensing too. If Oracle (for example) charged by the CPU then having multicore CPUs would be a great way to save money, until Oracle changed licensing of course.
Unless your area goes away and the tech that replaces it turns you off.
"On the other hand, you can always pursue what you really love, and hope that you happen to get lucky and that your obscure interest is the Next Big Thing (TM). That's how the really great ones did it."
The problem is that the people who do that and spend the rest of their life struggling to pay the bills are the ones you never hear about. For every "great one" there are LOTS of never got great ones.
Small shops *love* jack-of-all-trades because they have to be able to cover a lot of bases without specialized help. I've worked of academic and government agencies where they had limited budgets to hire many people so I had to dabble in DBA, Unix Admin, Apps Admin, Developer, User Support, etc all at the same time. I never became a master of Unix admin tasks (big hardware changes justified getting some help) but now I know enough to understand other specialists. My DBA knowledge alone is very valuable for performance recommendations or simply knowing when to say "This is a DBA issue, not a code issue". Even when you work with a group of specialists you quickly become important if you have a broad base.
I just can't get my hair pointy enough to do it.
In his defense he probably meant that to appeal to a wide range of people usually requires that something be watered down to eliminate any "edges" it might have. Just like how they make mass marketed food rather bland, never that spicy, etc and similar to how most popular movies must have a positive ending.
I do agree though that bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are examples of very good groups that also have mass appeal.
I've also gotten more into the 60-70s music but I think this can give you a false image of the music of that period. You only dig up the best stuff from the past and think it was all so much better back then. The truth is that a lot of the popular music was crap back then also (as another poster pointed out). Only the good stuff has survived. This goes for movies and TV shows too.
That's right kids! MTV actually used to play MUSIC. Honest to god! This was before they decided to become a 24 hr "Idiots in a Cross Country Bus"/"Idiots Sharing an Apartment" network.
I agree that creativity is most likely based on how you connect seemingly unrelated ideas. As an example, this is vital in spoken comedy (as opposed to slapstick). Pay attention to any good comedian and you'll notice thier jokes depend on seemingly bizarre connections and metaphors. Our ability to think in abstracts is probably related to this.
I'd say that some of our youthful creativity is lost as our brains mature and our natural pattern seeking skills develop. Finding patterns is great for survival ("Most red fruits are edible...") but can stifle creativity ("Don't bother with those blue berries, keep looking for red ones!").
The joke setups here are just getting waaaayyyy too easy.
They meant "Horde". It is obviously being run by a WoW guild.
Printer manufacturers should rename them "ink consuming devices", or maybe "cash extractors". My next printer will be a laser printer.
If they are licenses then I'm waiting for the music biz to start rescinding then.
"Sorry, our data shows that you played the CD 'Cheezy-Poof' at a party in violation of your license. Please send the CD back to the publisher immediately. Thank you."
"The best thing to do would be to raise the requirements for classes, thus forcing people to have to study more"
Judging from the intense competition to get in I'd say they are under enough stress already.
It'll just pose a challenge to their CS and EE students. Just wait until they start rigging up wireless links to outside connections. I welcome our new Indian hackers.
Well if they try hard enough they can not only alienate fans enough to stop unauthorized use but also interest.
Waiting for someone to mod you "troll". 1...2...3...
Go tell your boss that. Then start working on your resume.
We recognize 49 states and the District of Columbia. We do not accept business from Alabama. It'll take more than one beer for any further details
You assume though that the digital format you've chosen will be readable decades later. The details of the encoding method may be forgotten or even hidden behind DRM laws and the physical means of reading them may be lost as the technology changed. How many 5.25" floppy drives do you still see? I think NASA has faced this issue with old Apollo data fom the 60s.