The Colbert Report is a popular show among a lot of demographics (nerds included). I'm sure if John Stewart or Stephen Colbert dropped dead today the story would make it onto Slashdot's front page and nobody would complain that it wasn't truly Slashdot material.
On top of which, the story connects with politics so that adds just of a little of "stuff that matters."
X-Wing Alliance was pretty good, and has bunches of mods including graphic updates online.
Definitely. Tie Fighter may be my #1 space sim but Alliance is #2.
I've played it a couple of times lately, mostly because I can coax my PC to play it easier than I can force my rig to play Tie Fighter. I think I even tried using the graphic updates at one point.
Oh well, it's my feeling that the era of LucasArts space sims ended for good some years back and I doubt it will ever make a re-appearance. I'd be happy with Tie Fighter with an up-to-date engine with some upped graphics that installs/runs easily on XP (or Vista).
Eh, the books are still alright. I finished the "Legacy of the Force" series a month-or-so ago and enjoyed it though I was expecting more of a finale.
As far as video games go, some of the recent games were decent as well. The Jedi Knight series was great and the previews for their upcoming 3rd person game sound positive. Then again I haven't played Battlegrounds or SWG. Personally I want an updated "Tie Fighter" game, that was probably their best sim.
My town has a Tech recycling drive once-or-twice a year. They set up a station so they can collect monitor, cables, old computers, etc and recycle them appropriately. They treat the things pretty carefully too, as to not damage them during the hand-off.
I go there every now and then to clean up a little when I want to get rid of my excess crud, though I never give them any storage devices (HD, CD/DVD, Flash drives, etc). That's just asking for trouble.
As for other options, there's: flea markets, extracting the copper so you can sell it, by the pound, donating it to some charity, or giving it to friends/family that might need a random part.
Just because a person is a police officer, that doesn't make them heartless.
I was in the car once with a friend. He was speeding , I think 46MpH in a 35MpH zone. The cop pulled him over and my friend was open and apologetic. It was to the tune of "Yeh, I'm sorry about that. I don't really have an excuse, I just wasn't paying enough attention."
The cop wrote him a ticket for "failure to wear a seat belt" instead of a 10MpH speed limit violation. It was a small fee, but most importantly "NO POINTS" on the insurance. And this was not in my friend's home town, nor did he know the guy.
Officers are just people, and like people you have the Jerks and the ordinary Joes. The only problem is that between power corrupting and attracting the corrupt, the ratio of jerk police officers might seem higher than a crowded room of people. But it's usually not by much.
Reader jafo adds, "Pardon me if I have little confidence that an organization that loses a sensitive laptop for 9 days is able to tell if it was compromised."
It was never actually missing. They just couldn't find it in their own office.
I guess that's possible, I've done that with personal things.
IE, I thought I put my wallet on one end of the table and later can't find it (and thus go into panic mode, fearing that maybe I left it at work). And when in panic mode, you usually miss the obvious. Later I find it on the other end of the table partially covered by a newspaper.
Maybe when they didn't see it on the desk they went into panic mode and didn't do a thorough search of the whole office.
On the other hand it's equally feasible that someone put it back into the office.
Said service would need a big legal department to make sure that Garage Band X wasn't infringing on Mega-Label's band Y, by borrowing lyrics or sampling music. Otherwise the service might be the target of lawsuits.
Besides copyright issues, then you'd have to get some people to listen to said music and make sure that they are tagged appropriately. Mature content songs would need to be flagged as such, otherwise you get parents suing the company because "The Cute Fuzzy Horsie Dance" they got for their 6-year-old daughter had lyrics that would make Howard Stern blush.
It would be a lot of work, as the central company/service/etc would have to make sure that everything was kosher.
I went for a factory in-dash unit for my new car a 2 years ago. The data is updated yearly on DVD (which I haven't bothered getting yet). It "looks nice" and the stereo it was integrated into was nicer than the standard option. I believe the screen *might* be slightly larger than the common handheld and it has almost all of the features I want; save for touchscreen and voice-input (not to be confused with vocal directions).
On the other hand, the graphics aren't as pretty as newer units and it lacks the 2 features mentioned above. I also can't interface it with a PC at home to plan routes or carry it with me when I need to walk an unknown city, and I have to be going under 5MpH for most of the input to work.
As with all choices there are pros and cons. The important thing is which pros and cons are important to you (specifically). Personally I prefer the integrated nature of it over some of the other features. I like to keep my car clean/neat/organized and external unit would look like "clutter" to me (even though it's useful).
On the other hand I can easily see why one would want a portable unit. My next car will be a used one, at which point I'll probably get an external one.
First, you misread my post (or I did not elaborate). I did not say they make little money internationally, but that they would lose a little money (internationally) because of the delay while dubbing versus releasing it in all major languages simultaneously.
Example: I release "Hulk" in the US in June and take my time dubbing the French version so it doesn't get released until October.
Chances are fewer French viewers would watch it after it in October than they would have in June because a) it's no longer Summer, b) word of mouth from the US is it was so/so, and c) the hype is gone.
As far as hype, I agree that it's something advertising needs to just "time" correctly. But looking at Dark Knight, if it took another year to come out the numbers might have been down. Though it was a great movie, Ledger's death did bring us sales quite a bit. A year from now it might not affect sales as much.
The movie is done shooting and editing? Good. Translate first, then release it world-wide.
But that takes time, and I'd imagine after spending millions (if not hundreds of millions) they'd rather get the money sooner than later if no other reason than to start getting back interest.
I'm sure someone did a cost/benefit analysis down the line. My guess is interest and hype are the 2 major factors, though I don't know why they don't simul-release in English-speaking countries
Release english version now: + Takes more advantage of hype + Get large money up front + Make interest back on early money (x%) + Spend less on dub because it isn't priority (y%) + Generate more hype (internationally) if good movie - Generate poor publicity if a stinker - Lose a little money (z%) from foreign markets
Hold off release until all major languages dubbed + Won't lose as much hype internationally if movie was a stinker + Probably get most of z% lost from scenario 1 - Lose some hype as it takes longer to release - Lose money (x%) you could have made in interest by release a few months earlier - Spend more money on dubbing because you want to hurry up the process (y%)
If it's something I cannot wait to see (like Iron Man) I'll go see it in the theater.
Otherwise I wait for it to be released on DVD/BluRay.
I'd rather watch a movie in the comfort of my own home with a nice screen than go to a theater. This way I don't have to deal with whining kids, loud-mouthed punks, or teens making out. And heck, when I decided to see Hellboy 2 the experience was horrible. The reel was having issues so we only got to see 1/2 of a trailer and the sound was buggy during the movie itself.
If you don't want to see it at the theater then wait for it to come out on DVD. The only bad thing is if it has a twist ending, then you have to avoid discussions about the movie for months or a year.
Unfortunately the general public doesn't know the name so it won't matter.
It wouldn't matter even if Ive did 99.9% of design and business decisions during the last decade, the general public doesn't know him so they won't care. So even if they announced all of this at a press conference they'd think "Yeh right, they must be in trouble to lie about Ive. We all know it's only Jobs"
Sure a careful investor might know and breathe a sign of relief but the market is flooded with people that base their decisions on popular knowledge. And their fear can move mountains.
Their laptops are also quite popular, I might even say more popular than their iMacs. They are decent rigs, and after a hardware refresh their prices are in the ballpark of Dell's offerings with similar hardware (bluetooth, integ camera, LED backlit screen, etc).
Likewise, OS X is a major asset as it serves as a large reason people get their machines (though not the only one).
I'd say their business model is more about integration than trendiness.
OSX + Apple-branded hardware.
iTunes+iPod/iPhone.
iTunes+appleTV
etc
That's why even before the whole PsyStar fiasco I felt that Apple would never want to release OS X into the wild, it would brake their integration strategy.
Brake their integration and they will have major financial problems.
No when you are a public figure and so much people (users and investors, depends on you.
I hate that excuse, it's the same thing the paparazzi use when they sneak on private property to take pictures of celebrity's children.
If you saved some person's life one day and became a minor celebrity for a few days, would you want your personal past and medical records plastered on the TV? What if they announced that you had a major bout with depression, would you want them to report that?
A person's health is their own business (as well as their family's). If you aren't sure if you want to invest, then bail out.
The only thing I would care about is if a President (governmental, not corporate) was no longer competent due to recent brain damage, or a psychotic break. Because then he/she would no longer be capable to make the hard decisions that affected the lives of so many.
I don't see the uncontitutional acts either. The only thing that might "worry" me is that perhaps it's an opening volley for more attacks and uneducated statements by politicians and parental groups. After all they are trying to make video games into the new scapegoat for all of society's childhood woes.
Some of what they're asking for is redundant; games already label the age-ranges as well as the mature subjects it covers. For example a game might read "Rated M" and list "explicit gore, animated violence, simulated drug use, etc." But now they want a new label?
As for parental lock down on consoles, it's not a big deal so long as it's turned off by default. TVs and such already have V-chips and as an adult that has never affected me one iota.
So I don't mind the actions so long as I (as an adult) am not affected.
But the overall concern still remains. I don't think young kids should play violent games beyond their age bracket, but that's just my opinion. I wouldn't want my opinion to affect the way the studios and stores act beyond voting with my wallet and think video games should not be treated any differently than movies.
If a parent wants to let their kid play, fine. If a store wants to stock "Gibb Maker 2000," fine. Age / ID checks at the register, OK I guess... do they even do this for DVD purchases or only at movie theaters?
What I don't understand is how their measures will actually do much to clean the air within the next 3 weeks (which is when the Olympics start).
Fine, let's say between removing pollution sources and planting more trees they reduce the overall production of pollution down to 40% (a MAJOR stretch, but just for the heck of it). Will that really mean anything over the course of of the 3 weeks they have left?
At best, wouldn't it just be as polluted as maybe a few months ago which was already off the charts? I really doubt they'll be able to do much to clean the air between now and August. Sure, they'll make sure it doesn't increase much over that time (and maybe roll it back some) but it will still be a disaster.
I'd almost say they should do it in pristine regions of various countries like plains and low-populated areas with less air pollution. But then said areas would be destroyed by the development of the Olympics infrastructure (stadiums and such) and mass influx of spectators.
I don't think measuring 62mph vs 45mph can be regarded as a "calibration error". That's 25% off. Who'd make measuring devices that wander off so much over time? I can see a 5mph error. But not 17mph.
Actually it's not too hard. For example there are instances where uncalibrated devices said that a stationary object is doing 10MpH. That's off by a factor of infinity if you want to get testy.
It happens often which is why they have to calibrate them every week (or so). The newer laser detectors aren't as bad but I believe they too need to be calibrated.
What about the mental component? While the movie Batman Begins didn't do too much with it, Batman's greatest asset is his mind.
He's a genius and one of the greatest minds in the DC universe. He uses it be one of the greatest detectives and occasional research, and use strategies/tactics to take down even the greatest forces (even Superman).
It isn't his physic and toys that let him stand with the greatest heroes and face the most dangerous villains, but his greatest asset: his mind.
Without his mind he's just some generic tough guy.
OS X is alright on resources, I never had a problem.
However the very-specific software I am forced to use does not run on OSX so I am forced to use Windows (or Linux). I'd use Linux but my comfort level isn't that great and I have to use Windows at my other location for various reasons so I might as well keep it the same.
If I have to run a local Oracle instance, this annoying proprietary IDE, and the Application Server all at the same time on the same machine then I need as much memory as possible, especially if it's a large project. The IDE really does stink and uses up a lot of mem.
When I fired up my brother's Vista box I was surprised how much RAM it was using. I don't recall the numbers but that would be useful mem for my dev.
I'd go for Vista on my secondary partition (I have a MacBook Pro).
But when I'm in Windows it's usually to do J2EE and/or Oracle development. And when doing that I like as much RAM available as possible. Vista takes up more resources than I'd like.
3) I didn't buy into Abe's love interest 100%. Though I could rationalize it perhaps that he is inexperienced in love and perhaps more infatuated or desperate so I can let it slide.
I agree with most of your points, but not the Abe thing.
For an ordinary person (or whatever) it would be a stretch for him to fall so completely so quickly. But you forget the did mind-meld-thing early on, who knows what he learned or how intimate something like that can be. The resulting knowledge/experience might have been equal to knowing her for months.
Slashdot Mirror
When I said "nobody would complain" it was followed by "that it wasn't truly Slashdot material."
IE, nobody should/would mind that Slashdot took up front-page space to show let us know it happened since we care about them.
What both of those men do is definitely more than just comedy.
Well, it's news for Nerds and stuff that matters.
The Colbert Report is a popular show among a lot of demographics (nerds included). I'm sure if John Stewart or Stephen Colbert dropped dead today the story would make it onto Slashdot's front page and nobody would complain that it wasn't truly Slashdot material.
On top of which, the story connects with politics so that adds just of a little of "stuff that matters."
X-Wing Alliance was pretty good, and has bunches of mods including graphic updates online.
Definitely. Tie Fighter may be my #1 space sim but Alliance is #2.
I've played it a couple of times lately, mostly because I can coax my PC to play it easier than I can force my rig to play Tie Fighter. I think I even tried using the graphic updates at one point.
Oh well, it's my feeling that the era of LucasArts space sims ended for good some years back and I doubt it will ever make a re-appearance. I'd be happy with Tie Fighter with an up-to-date engine with some upped graphics that installs/runs easily on XP (or Vista).
Eh, the books are still alright. I finished the "Legacy of the Force" series a month-or-so ago and enjoyed it though I was expecting more of a finale.
As far as video games go, some of the recent games were decent as well. The Jedi Knight series was great and the previews for their upcoming 3rd person game sound positive. Then again I haven't played Battlegrounds or SWG. Personally I want an updated "Tie Fighter" game, that was probably their best sim.
My town has a Tech recycling drive once-or-twice a year. They set up a station so they can collect monitor, cables, old computers, etc and recycle them appropriately. They treat the things pretty carefully too, as to not damage them during the hand-off.
I go there every now and then to clean up a little when I want to get rid of my excess crud, though I never give them any storage devices (HD, CD/DVD, Flash drives, etc). That's just asking for trouble.
As for other options, there's: flea markets, extracting the copper so you can sell it, by the pound, donating it to some charity, or giving it to friends/family that might need a random part.
Just because a person is a police officer, that doesn't make them heartless.
I was in the car once with a friend. He was speeding , I think 46MpH in a 35MpH zone. The cop pulled him over and my friend was open and apologetic. It was to the tune of "Yeh, I'm sorry about that. I don't really have an excuse, I just wasn't paying enough attention."
The cop wrote him a ticket for "failure to wear a seat belt" instead of a 10MpH speed limit violation. It was a small fee, but most importantly "NO POINTS" on the insurance. And this was not in my friend's home town, nor did he know the guy.
Officers are just people, and like people you have the Jerks and the ordinary Joes. The only problem is that between power corrupting and attracting the corrupt, the ratio of jerk police officers might seem higher than a crowded room of people. But it's usually not by much.
It was never actually missing. They just couldn't find it in their own office.
I guess that's possible, I've done that with personal things.
IE, I thought I put my wallet on one end of the table and later can't find it (and thus go into panic mode, fearing that maybe I left it at work). And when in panic mode, you usually miss the obvious. Later I find it on the other end of the table partially covered by a newspaper.
Maybe when they didn't see it on the desk they went into panic mode and didn't do a thorough search of the whole office.
On the other hand it's equally feasible that someone put it back into the office.
Ah, but then you run into legal issues.
Said service would need a big legal department to make sure that Garage Band X wasn't infringing on Mega-Label's band Y, by borrowing lyrics or sampling music. Otherwise the service might be the target of lawsuits.
Besides copyright issues, then you'd have to get some people to listen to said music and make sure that they are tagged appropriately. Mature content songs would need to be flagged as such, otherwise you get parents suing the company because "The Cute Fuzzy Horsie Dance" they got for their 6-year-old daughter had lyrics that would make Howard Stern blush.
It would be a lot of work, as the central company/service/etc would have to make sure that everything was kosher.
It has its pros and cons.
I went for a factory in-dash unit for my new car a 2 years ago. The data is updated yearly on DVD (which I haven't bothered getting yet). It "looks nice" and the stereo it was integrated into was nicer than the standard option. I believe the screen *might* be slightly larger than the common handheld and it has almost all of the features I want; save for touchscreen and voice-input (not to be confused with vocal directions).
On the other hand, the graphics aren't as pretty as newer units and it lacks the 2 features mentioned above. I also can't interface it with a PC at home to plan routes or carry it with me when I need to walk an unknown city, and I have to be going under 5MpH for most of the input to work.
As with all choices there are pros and cons. The important thing is which pros and cons are important to you (specifically). Personally I prefer the integrated nature of it over some of the other features. I like to keep my car clean/neat/organized and external unit would look like "clutter" to me (even though it's useful).
On the other hand I can easily see why one would want a portable unit. My next car will be a used one, at which point I'll probably get an external one.
First, you misread my post (or I did not elaborate). I did not say they make little money internationally, but that they would lose a little money (internationally) because of the delay while dubbing versus releasing it in all major languages simultaneously.
Example: I release "Hulk" in the US in June and take my time dubbing the French version so it doesn't get released until October.
Chances are fewer French viewers would watch it after it in October than they would have in June because a) it's no longer Summer, b) word of mouth from the US is it was so/so, and c) the hype is gone.
As far as hype, I agree that it's something advertising needs to just "time" correctly. But looking at Dark Knight, if it took another year to come out the numbers might have been down. Though it was a great movie, Ledger's death did bring us sales quite a bit. A year from now it might not affect sales as much.
But that takes time, and I'd imagine after spending millions (if not hundreds of millions) they'd rather get the money sooner than later if no other reason than to start getting back interest.
I'm sure someone did a cost/benefit analysis down the line. My guess is interest and hype are the 2 major factors, though I don't know why they don't simul-release in English-speaking countries
Release english version now:
+ Takes more advantage of hype
+ Get large money up front
+ Make interest back on early money (x%)
+ Spend less on dub because it isn't priority (y%)
+ Generate more hype (internationally) if good movie
- Generate poor publicity if a stinker
- Lose a little money (z%) from foreign markets
Hold off release until all major languages dubbed
+ Won't lose as much hype internationally if movie was a stinker
+ Probably get most of z% lost from scenario 1
- Lose some hype as it takes longer to release
- Lose money (x%) you could have made in interest by release a few months earlier
- Spend more money on dubbing because you want to hurry up the process (y%)
I don't believe in bootlegs.
If it's something I cannot wait to see (like Iron Man) I'll go see it in the theater.
Otherwise I wait for it to be released on DVD/BluRay.
I'd rather watch a movie in the comfort of my own home with a nice screen than go to a theater. This way I don't have to deal with whining kids, loud-mouthed punks, or teens making out. And heck, when I decided to see Hellboy 2 the experience was horrible. The reel was having issues so we only got to see 1/2 of a trailer and the sound was buggy during the movie itself.
If you don't want to see it at the theater then wait for it to come out on DVD. The only bad thing is if it has a twist ending, then you have to avoid discussions about the movie for months or a year.
Unfortunately the general public doesn't know the name so it won't matter.
It wouldn't matter even if Ive did 99.9% of design and business decisions during the last decade, the general public doesn't know him so they won't care. So even if they announced all of this at a press conference they'd think "Yeh right, they must be in trouble to lie about Ive. We all know it's only Jobs"
Sure a careful investor might know and breathe a sign of relief but the market is flooded with people that base their decisions on popular knowledge. And their fear can move mountains.
Perception = Reality.
Their laptops are also quite popular, I might even say more popular than their iMacs. They are decent rigs, and after a hardware refresh their prices are in the ballpark of Dell's offerings with similar hardware (bluetooth, integ camera, LED backlit screen, etc).
Likewise, OS X is a major asset as it serves as a large reason people get their machines (though not the only one).
I'd say their business model is more about integration than trendiness.
That's why even before the whole PsyStar fiasco I felt that Apple would never want to release OS X into the wild, it would brake their integration strategy.
Brake their integration and they will have major financial problems.
SG-1 did it the other way around, they put the asteroid into hyperspace for a few seconds so it would skip over the earth.
Unless you're thinking of a late-series episode where they put an Alternate earth out of phase so the Orii couldn't find or attack it.
Moving the asteroid would probably be more favorable, as you wouldn't have to worry about jumping the earth too far as screwing with it's orbit.
I hate that excuse, it's the same thing the paparazzi use when they sneak on private property to take pictures of celebrity's children.
If you saved some person's life one day and became a minor celebrity for a few days, would you want your personal past and medical records plastered on the TV? What if they announced that you had a major bout with depression, would you want them to report that?
A person's health is their own business (as well as their family's). If you aren't sure if you want to invest, then bail out.
The only thing I would care about is if a President (governmental, not corporate) was no longer competent due to recent brain damage, or a psychotic break. Because then he/she would no longer be capable to make the hard decisions that affected the lives of so many.
I don't see the uncontitutional acts either. The only thing that might "worry" me is that perhaps it's an opening volley for more attacks and uneducated statements by politicians and parental groups. After all they are trying to make video games into the new scapegoat for all of society's childhood woes.
Some of what they're asking for is redundant; games already label the age-ranges as well as the mature subjects it covers. For example a game might read "Rated M" and list "explicit gore, animated violence, simulated drug use, etc." But now they want a new label?
As for parental lock down on consoles, it's not a big deal so long as it's turned off by default. TVs and such already have V-chips and as an adult that has never affected me one iota.
So I don't mind the actions so long as I (as an adult) am not affected.
But the overall concern still remains. I don't think young kids should play violent games beyond their age bracket, but that's just my opinion. I wouldn't want my opinion to affect the way the studios and stores act beyond voting with my wallet and think video games should not be treated any differently than movies.
If a parent wants to let their kid play, fine. If a store wants to stock "Gibb Maker 2000," fine. Age / ID checks at the register, OK I guess... do they even do this for DVD purchases or only at movie theaters?
But it's got elec-tra-lites.
Definitely an under-appreciated movie.
What I don't understand is how their measures will actually do much to clean the air within the next 3 weeks (which is when the Olympics start).
Fine, let's say between removing pollution sources and planting more trees they reduce the overall production of pollution down to 40% (a MAJOR stretch, but just for the heck of it). Will that really mean anything over the course of of the 3 weeks they have left?
At best, wouldn't it just be as polluted as maybe a few months ago which was already off the charts? I really doubt they'll be able to do much to clean the air between now and August. Sure, they'll make sure it doesn't increase much over that time (and maybe roll it back some) but it will still be a disaster.
I'd almost say they should do it in pristine regions of various countries like plains and low-populated areas with less air pollution. But then said areas would be destroyed by the development of the Olympics infrastructure (stadiums and such) and mass influx of spectators.
I don't think measuring 62mph vs 45mph can be regarded as a "calibration error". That's 25% off. Who'd make measuring devices that wander off so much over time?
I can see a 5mph error. But not 17mph.
Actually it's not too hard. For example there are instances where uncalibrated devices said that a stationary object is doing 10MpH. That's off by a factor of infinity if you want to get testy.
It happens often which is why they have to calibrate them every week (or so). The newer laser detectors aren't as bad but I believe they too need to be calibrated.
What about the mental component? While the movie Batman Begins didn't do too much with it, Batman's greatest asset is his mind.
He's a genius and one of the greatest minds in the DC universe. He uses it be one of the greatest detectives and occasional research, and use strategies/tactics to take down even the greatest forces (even Superman).
It isn't his physic and toys that let him stand with the greatest heroes and face the most dangerous villains, but his greatest asset: his mind.
Without his mind he's just some generic tough guy.
The difference is now the case is closed. What you link to is the start of the case and the fact that they were using the GPS as an argument.
Now we see they won their argument.
OS X is alright on resources, I never had a problem.
However the very-specific software I am forced to use does not run on OSX so I am forced to use Windows (or Linux). I'd use Linux but my comfort level isn't that great and I have to use Windows at my other location for various reasons so I might as well keep it the same.
If I have to run a local Oracle instance, this annoying proprietary IDE, and the Application Server all at the same time on the same machine then I need as much memory as possible, especially if it's a large project. The IDE really does stink and uses up a lot of mem.
When I fired up my brother's Vista box I was surprised how much RAM it was using. I don't recall the numbers but that would be useful mem for my dev.
I'd go for Vista on my secondary partition (I have a MacBook Pro).
But when I'm in Windows it's usually to do J2EE and/or Oracle development. And when doing that I like as much RAM available as possible. Vista takes up more resources than I'd like.
I agree with most of your points, but not the Abe thing.
For an ordinary person (or whatever) it would be a stretch for him to fall so completely so quickly. But you forget the did mind-meld-thing early on, who knows what he learned or how intimate something like that can be. The resulting knowledge/experience might have been equal to knowing her for months.