Last year sometime I recieved a Word doc from a friend entitled StarWarsEP3_FirstDraft. I read a bit of it; it came across as pretty authentic but I always assumed it was a piece of well-done fan fiction. But the title is the same.... Maybe it's the real thing? Anyone else aware of a screenplay leak?
Wouldn't surprise me at all if bad management led to the failure. I'd never grasped the value of good management until my current job, which lacks it. Not that I'm any kind of great programmer, but I always felt before that the burden of success was mine, 100%, when in fact it's a lot less than that. The people making the higher level decisions (resource/time allocation, features, scope, requirements) are the ones who can really fuck things up. Heh, that seems pretty trite now that I've typed it...
When I can trade karma for a blowjob, then I'll give a shit...
You know, if you could do that the quality of discussion on Slashdot would increase a thousandfold...
I used to read pretty much nothing but sf/fantasy, but my tastes have since diversified. Here are some things you might enjoy:
Raymond Chandler - Any of the Marlowe novels, particulary The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. If you like William Gibson's stripped-down prose style, here's where he probably got it.
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest. Those of you who find Stephenson's digressive technique entertaining should check this out.
Michael Swanwick - The Iron Dragon's Daughter. A hybrid of sf and fantasy that could be considered steampunk. Whatever it is, it's brilliant.
China Mieville - Perdido Street Station and The Scar. More "Steampunk." Perilously close to genius.
George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones. First book in a series of epic fantasy by a writer who gets a lot more mileage out of his Rs than that other guy.
Nonfiction:
Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States. Sure he's a commie. Sure you won't agree with half of what he says. But you won't look at US history quite the same way again.
Douglas Hofstadter - Godel, Escher, Bach. If you've been feeling intellectually lazy, here's the equivalent of a membership at the Y.
David Cook - Robot Building for Beginners. Looking for a new hobby? You could do worse than start here.
I lived in Japan for a year and I can verify that you pretty much need a cell phone if you want to conduct any sort of social life. It's a kind of ritual to exchange numbers very shortly after meeting a new person: you'd slip right through the cracks without a cell phone. And as has been posted elsewhere, text messaging completely overshadows voice conversations in terms of frequency of use/effectiveness. After you get used to it you can type quicker than you might think on the keypad (though somehow it seems that Japanese is a little better suited to that sort of entry). Their phones are also years ahead of what's available in the US.
When I was in Japan I saw similar kiosks in a variety of places, except that they recorded to MD rather than CD (minidisc is much more popular there than, say, the US). Another odd (I thought) thing that is common in Japan is CD rental. You can take it home for a couple hundred yen and copy it at your leisure. The stores even thoughtfully put the blank MD displays right next to the rental counter!
This reminds me of my 10th grade history teacher who once told us about a classified ad he put in the paper: "Last chance: Send dollar now!" and his address -- that's all. Not sure if it worked or not...
when it realizes that all the TERRORISTS have to do is put the following bit in their HTML:
to conceal their web-based activities....
Looking forward to reading it.
on
The Last Hero
·
· Score: 1
I've read all the other Discworld novels, so I'm sure I'll get around to this one too(he sure kicks 'em out fast...). Not sure how I'll like about the art, though; I usually have mixed feelings about graphic novels for some reason.
And I have to say that Soul Music (which the reviewer didn't care for) is probably my favorite Pratchett novel: I mean how can you beat Death riding to battle on a skeletal motorcycle with a black rose in his teeth?!
Another one already, huh?
on
The Last Hero
·
· Score: 0, Troll
I've read all the other Discworld novels, so I'm sure I'll get around to this one too(he sure kicks 'em out fast...). Not sure how I'll like about the art, though; I usually have mixed feelings about graphic novels for some reason.
And I have to say that Soul Music (which the reviewer didn't care for) is probably my favorite Pratchett novel: I mean how can you beat Death riding to battle on a skeletal motorcycle with a black rose in his teeth?!
I know there are restrictions on cell phone design here in the US (eg sparser grid-->more powerful transmitter needed-->bulky phones), but I still get jealous when I see the new European and Japanese phones that are coming out. And for god's sake why doesn't anyone use text messaging here? Once you get some practice typing on the keypad it's not as big a hassle as you might think, and quite convenient.
According to the article, some of the rowers are opting to just toss their gadgets into the sea to reduce weight. I guess that says something about their actual utility.
It's never a suprise to me when a Republican administration takes an anti-tax position or a Democratic one a pro tax position. Bush may not know a damn thing about the internet but when he sees that word "tax" well gooool-dang it he's gonn say "NO!" It kind of reminds me of Pavlov and his dogs. (just for the record I agree internet taxation is a bad idea.)
Perhaps the problem is that the de-facto leader of the project is the person who initiated it; they might be a good developer but maybe they don't have the organizational/managerial/basic people skills to keep things going smoothly. This is one area (IMO) in which the traditional "corporate" system of separate management and development teams (at least potentially) has an advantage on the OSS model.
While I question the taste of what looks to me like just a novelty project, at least this movie might mark a return to more old-school martial arts. I don't know about everyone else, but I've had my fill of people flying around, dodging bullets and hitting guys with motorcycles (wtf??). It was cool in the matrix but it's since lost its charm.
I don't know if anyone here is familiar with the band Marillion, but they were able to cut out the record companies and self-finance their latest album with pre-order sales via their web site - proof if anyone needed it that the RIAA et. al. are not stricty necessary to artists' success. Here's the press release.
Slashdot Mirror
Last year sometime I recieved a Word doc from a friend entitled StarWarsEP3_FirstDraft. I read a bit of it; it came across as pretty authentic but I always assumed it was a piece of well-done fan fiction. But the title is the same.... Maybe it's the real thing? Anyone else aware of a screenplay leak?
Wouldn't surprise me at all if bad management led to the failure. I'd never grasped the value of good management until my current job, which lacks it. Not that I'm any kind of great programmer, but I always felt before that the burden of success was mine, 100%, when in fact it's a lot less than that. The people making the higher level decisions (resource/time allocation, features, scope, requirements) are the ones who can really fuck things up. Heh, that seems pretty trite now that I've typed it...
Your subject line lends itself so easily to a dumb joke that I find I just don't have the heart...
Nice gearlist dude. So you work for Access? Any chance of slipping me a Virus C out the back door? ;)
When I can trade karma for a blowjob, then I'll give a shit... You know, if you could do that the quality of discussion on Slashdot would increase a thousandfold...
Ayn, is that you?
I used to read pretty much nothing but sf/fantasy, but my tastes have since diversified. Here are some things you might enjoy:
Raymond Chandler - Any of the Marlowe novels, particulary The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. If you like William Gibson's stripped-down prose style, here's where he probably got it.
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest. Those of you who find Stephenson's digressive technique entertaining should check this out.
Michael Swanwick - The Iron Dragon's Daughter. A hybrid of sf and fantasy that could be considered steampunk. Whatever it is, it's brilliant.
China Mieville - Perdido Street Station and The Scar. More "Steampunk." Perilously close to genius.
George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones. First book in a series of epic fantasy by a writer who gets a lot more mileage out of his Rs than that other guy.
Nonfiction:
Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States. Sure he's a commie. Sure you won't agree with half of what he says. But you won't look at US history quite the same way again.
Douglas Hofstadter - Godel, Escher, Bach. If you've been feeling intellectually lazy, here's the equivalent of a membership at the Y.
David Cook - Robot Building for Beginners. Looking for a new hobby? You could do worse than start here.
I lived in Japan for a year and I can verify that you pretty much need a cell phone if you want to conduct any sort of social life. It's a kind of ritual to exchange numbers very shortly after meeting a new person: you'd slip right through the cracks without a cell phone. And as has been posted elsewhere, text messaging completely overshadows voice conversations in terms of frequency of use/effectiveness. After you get used to it you can type quicker than you might think on the keypad (though somehow it seems that Japanese is a little better suited to that sort of entry). Their phones are also years ahead of what's available in the US.
When I was in Japan I saw similar kiosks in a variety of places, except that they recorded to MD rather than CD (minidisc is much more popular there than, say, the US). Another odd (I thought) thing that is common in Japan is CD rental. You can take it home for a couple hundred yen and copy it at your leisure. The stores even thoughtfully put the blank MD displays right next to the rental counter!
Hah, you sound like a villian in an Ayn Rand novel...
(That said, I agree with you totally!)
The swedish(?) company Elecktron makes a gadget called the SIDstation based around the c64 SID chip. It's intended for use in electronic music.
beat me to it!
Wow, I thought I was the only person on slashdot who'd read Infinite Jest...
This reminds me of my 10th grade history teacher who once told us about a classified ad he put in the paper: "Last chance: Send dollar now!" and his address -- that's all. Not sure if it worked or not...
when it realizes that all the TERRORISTS have to do is put the following bit in their HTML: to conceal their web-based activities....
I've read all the other Discworld novels, so I'm sure I'll get around to this one too(he sure kicks 'em out fast...). Not sure how I'll like about the art, though; I usually have mixed feelings about graphic novels for some reason. And I have to say that Soul Music (which the reviewer didn't care for) is probably my favorite Pratchett novel: I mean how can you beat Death riding to battle on a skeletal motorcycle with a black rose in his teeth?!
I've read all the other Discworld novels, so I'm sure I'll get around to this one too(he sure kicks 'em out fast...). Not sure how I'll like about the art, though; I usually have mixed feelings about graphic novels for some reason.
And I have to say that Soul Music (which the reviewer didn't care for) is probably my favorite Pratchett novel: I mean how can you beat Death riding to battle on a skeletal motorcycle with a black rose in his teeth?!
I know there are restrictions on cell phone design here in the US (eg sparser grid-->more powerful transmitter needed-->bulky phones), but I still get jealous when I see the new European and Japanese phones that are coming out. And for god's sake why doesn't anyone use text messaging here? Once you get some practice typing on the keypad it's not as big a hassle as you might think, and quite convenient.
According to the article, some of the rowers are opting to just toss their gadgets into the sea to reduce weight. I guess that says something about their actual utility.
It's never a suprise to me when a Republican administration takes an anti-tax position or a Democratic one a pro tax position. Bush may not know a damn thing about the internet but when he sees that word "tax" well gooool-dang it he's gonn say "NO!" It kind of reminds me of Pavlov and his dogs. (just for the record I agree internet taxation is a bad idea.)
Perhaps the problem is that the de-facto leader of the project is the person who initiated it; they might be a good developer but maybe they don't have the organizational/managerial/basic people skills to keep things going smoothly. This is one area (IMO) in which the traditional "corporate" system of separate management and development teams (at least potentially) has an advantage on the OSS model.
While I question the taste of what looks to me like just a novelty project, at least this movie might mark a return to more old-school martial arts. I don't know about everyone else, but I've had my fill of people flying around, dodging bullets and hitting guys with motorcycles (wtf??). It was cool in the matrix but it's since lost its charm.
I don't know if anyone here is familiar with the band Marillion, but they were able to cut out the record companies and self-finance their latest album with pre-order sales via their web site - proof if anyone needed it that the RIAA et. al. are not stricty necessary to artists' success. Here's the press release.
..that surgeons make enough mistakes that something like this is perceived as necessary.
What we really need is a system that will automatically skip to the "good parts..."