i don't really have a comment about the certifications...cause i don't really have any myself...although any Java 2 certifications look pretty good (atleast in the line of software consulting that i do)...
in any case, the job market right now sucks, (especially for tech people), and has sucked since late 2001...when i was searching for a job my senior year of college (2001-02) i saw the end of the boom where computer science majors could write their own blank check right away out of school...actually, early in my senior year i signed on with an internet consulting company in nyc for $70K...nice...atleast i thought so...as 2002, came, the economy was even more in the down turn, and a lot of companies started revoking their offers to college graduates (including mine)...so, to make a long story short, i graduated without a job...i ended up having to take an internship with a smaller software consulting company for the summer...but they eventually hired me in Septmber, and i enjoy my job very much...
i guess my point is not to worry if you don't have a job right away...the job climate sucks right now...but computers and the internet aren't going anywhere (duh)...
in any case, it's better to not have a job and be able to look for work, then to sign on with a company and have them keep pushing back their start date...i have friends from school who graduated with me in june of 2001 and went to work with big consulting companies like Accenture...they just recently (Jan or Feb) started...true, Accenture did throw them a little bit of money before hand, but i had a good 6 or 7 months of work experience in before they even started...
personally (no pun intended), i took a personal day on thursday, and went to the midnight show on wednesday night...it was a great movie, plus then i got to sleep in...killed two birds with one stone...
I agree, this scene was out of place, and did not belong...it's the same thing as in Episode I where Lucas put in the two-headed announcer at the podraces...those kind of things are familiar to us in a real life kinda way...but they don't fit in, in the Star Wars universe...actually, it's not that they don't fit in...it's just that the original 3 movies don't have anyhting remotely like that...they were made during a different time...and now, Lucas must feel like he needs to put those scenes in to appeal to a different generation of movie goers..personally i think it's a mistake, and they don't belong...
yes, it did make it into the script...basically they were clones of Jango Fett...then they were genetically altetered for a couple of reasons...first, their will was basically taken away so they were unable to resist command, or basically think for themselves...they were made to think more as a whole then individually...second they were altered so that they would mature faster...this way, it wouldn't take literally "a lifetime" to make a full clone...their agin process was enhanced...hope that clears everything up....
there was a Matrix 2 trailer along with AOTC (atleast in the theatre i saw it at)...i was really looking forward to the Matrix Reloaded trailer, and everyone in the theatre cheered when the familiar "matrix-like" computer characters started scrolling down the screen...while i'm still really looking forward to the movie, i was a little disppointed in trailer...it was just really fast snip-its of action, none sustained long enough that you could actually see anything...that said, it still looked pretty intense...
10 years have passes since Ep I...at the end of Ep I yoda gave in to Obi-wan's request to train Anakin (it was Qui-Gon's dieing wish)...in the past 10 years, Anakin has trained as a Padawan apprentice, and has become very advanced....
I thought that exactly!!!! as soon as Palpatine made the comment in the chambers that they could've counted on Padame if she was there, and then they zoomed in on Jar-jar...i was like, no, Jar-Jar don't do it...
i could see it coming, then he was just so smug with himself when he got the senate to go along with it...it's his fault...he gave palpatine full power...first he ruined Ep I, now the galaxy...
Episode II was light years better then Episode I...while there were numerous scenes in PM that made me cringe at how bad they were, there's very little of that here...
some things to look forward to if you haven't seen it yet...
- Yoda's climactic fight scene...everyone has heard it's coming, but you can't be prepared to see Yoda in a lightsaber duel...the crowd in my theatre was literally cheering the whole time, at how cool it was...
- Mace Windu also has some quality Lightsaber action, and some pretty bad-*ss scenes...only thing that would've made it better was if his lightsaber said "Bad A** Mother F*****" (Pulp Fiction Reference)...
- Hayden Christenson is a huge improvement over Jake Loyd as Anakin (then again it would be hard not to be)...he's brilliant in the scenes where he has to show flashes of evil and flashes of the dark side...
- From the trailers, i thought that the romantic part of the movie was gonna be super cheesy, but it's actually not as bad as i expected...though, there is one point when they're in that big field on a picnic, when it looks like a scene out of "Sound of Music"...
- The worst part (IMO) was Lucas' attempts at some uneeded humor (much like Jar-Jar in Ep I)...in Ep II he uses C3P0 and R2D2 to deliver this humor both physically (in a ridiculous sequence with C3P0) and also in a series of bad puns involving the two of them...
- Natalie Portman looks great in the movie...and if you've seen the trailers, you know the tight white top that she wears...well, let's just say, that it must be cold on Tatooine...
i never said anything about the quality of these movies...just that they were some of my favorite uses of 'questionable' technology...i own Hackers on DVD, and it's actually one of my favorite movies....
one thing i never got...alright, they had to dig a hole what, 800 feet or something to drop the bomb in, right? well, when Bruce Willis pushes the button to detonate it (after the remote detonator stoppped working), he's clearly on the surface of the asteroid...i didn't see a 800 ft extension cord attached to his detonator...so, what gives???
thanx for the info...i'll have to take you word for it after a i couldn't find anything about it during a cursory search through google...but if the movie was actually making an obscure reference to that, then that's pretty cool...
Some of my favorite movies moments that defy Physics/Science...
Independence Day
Who knew alien technology was compatibile with a Mac laptop?
Will Smith's wife would not have survived the fireball through the tunnel scene by hididng in the little side closet...at the very least, the fire ball would have sucked all the oxegyn out of there....
Hackers
So many bad computer things in this movie...my favorite though...how do you stop the cookie monster virus? type "Cookie"...yeah, okay, right...
Tomb Raider
How in the name of physics did Angelina Jolie's chest stay so upright and perky during that movie???
It is a well known fact that AMD Duron processors are made in a sweatshop in Maylasia.
- i have never read anything about AMD making their processors in sweatshops...do you have any information to back that up? even if they are, does that mean we should stay away from all stores that sell AMD processors...jeez, i dunno where i'm gonna shop for electronics anymore...
A large portion of Wal-Mart's merchandise is produced in third-world countries under sweatshop conditions
- i dunno about your Wal-Mart, but in my Wal-Mart they sell tons of brand name merchandise...the same brand name merchandise that you can find in any mall, toy store, electronics store, etc...if you have a problem with the business practices of a particular brand of merchandise (e.g. Nike), then i suggest you protest their company in particular, rather then make a dangerous blanket statement like you did...
-if you were gonna slam Wal-Mart for anything, you could've slammed them from not hiring union workers (atleast i don't think they still do)...that would be a legitimate complaint (although, i don't have a problem with it)...that is one of the ways they keep their prices down, in fact...but instead, you came in with unsubstantiated claims about AMD, and a bunch of "evil" talk about Wal-Mart...nice try...
here's a link to the MENSA comment form, i think we should send them a copy of your post, and protest your membership...
After last season, i thought for sure that Simpsons was gonna be cancelled...heck, i was calling for it myself...most of the shows last season (like the one with the elf-jockeys) made little or no sense, and even had some self depricating humor that suggested that the series had out lived it's usefulness...however, i think this year's season has be a strong comeback for Homer and the Simpson clan...sure, it's not their glory years, but it's still a damn entertaining show....
Peter: "What would you do if you had a million dollars?"
Lawrence: "I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man."
Peter: "That's it? If you had a million dollars, you'd do two chicks at the same time?"
Lawrence: "Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I had a million dollars I could hook that up, cause chicks dig a dude with money."
Peter: "Well, not all chicks."
Lawrence: "Well the kind of chicks that'd double up on me do."
Peter: "Good point."
yeah, i acknowledge that missing an episode or two is a problem with 24...but at the same time, the complexity of the plot really rewards the viewer who sticks with the program...and to help out, they also re-run the episode friday night on FOX, and i think at other times on Fx...also, i think they do an okay job at the beginning of the episode trying to remind the viewer what's been happening recently...but even if they change the format, i'd bet it will still be a continuing story line throughout the season, so will it really help those people who miss an episode???
as for "Undeclared", if what you said is true, that's ashame...i loved watching that show becuase every character was a charicature of someone i knew in college...it was great...
Fox has done an excellent job this year bringing 24 to their schedule...that show is fantastic, Keifer Sutherland is awesome, and Dennis Hoppers' addition to the cast in the past few episodes has been outstanding too...to me, this was the best new show on any newtork this season...of course, it sounds like their gonna ruin it next season when, according to articles i've read, the shows switch from 24 episodes each covering one hour of time...to each episode covering 1 24-hour block of time...it just won't be the same..please FOX, try to bring it back in the original format...
also...
Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Undeclared are, in my opinion, two of the funniest new shows this season...yet, Undeclared has been conspicously absent from the spring schedule, and there are rumours that Andy Richter will not be picked up for next season...these two shows are great...and if you haven't checked out Andy Richter consider watching..it's on Tuesday's at 8:30 (although not this tuesday) as a lead in to "24"...it's damn funny...and the office humour in it is great...
i do think Fox's lineup does have some potential over all....these 3 shows i mentioned....plus Simpsons, Malcom in the Middle, King of the Hill and That 70's show give them a nice core group of programming...albeit one that doesn't really appeal to older viewers....but it should appeal to the all important 18-25 year old male demographic...
Slashdot Mirror
i forgot my favorite one...
"does your system have a back door entry?"
i was trying to think of some good nerd/geek/Mozilla themed pickup lines for a Mozilla party...i came up with...
"Do you wanna see my lizard?"
"Wanna help me with my buffer overflow problem?"
and...
"Are you interested in a brute force attack?"
any other helpful suggestions???
check again, www.news.com.com, news.com.com, www.cnet.com and www.news.com are all CNet, and all resolve to the same block of IP Addresses...
i don't really have a comment about the certifications...cause i don't really have any myself...although any Java 2 certifications look pretty good (atleast in the line of software consulting that i do)...
in any case, the job market right now sucks, (especially for tech people), and has sucked since late 2001...when i was searching for a job my senior year of college (2001-02) i saw the end of the boom where computer science majors could write their own blank check right away out of school...actually, early in my senior year i signed on with an internet consulting company in nyc for $70K...nice...atleast i thought so...as 2002, came, the economy was even more in the down turn, and a lot of companies started revoking their offers to college graduates (including mine)...so, to make a long story short, i graduated without a job...i ended up having to take an internship with a smaller software consulting company for the summer...but they eventually hired me in Septmber, and i enjoy my job very much...
i guess my point is not to worry if you don't have a job right away...the job climate sucks right now...but computers and the internet aren't going anywhere (duh)...
in any case, it's better to not have a job and be able to look for work, then to sign on with a company and have them keep pushing back their start date...i have friends from school who graduated with me in june of 2001 and went to work with big consulting companies like Accenture...they just recently (Jan or Feb) started...true, Accenture did throw them a little bit of money before hand, but i had a good 6 or 7 months of work experience in before they even started...
personally (no pun intended), i took a personal day on thursday, and went to the midnight show on wednesday night...it was a great movie, plus then i got to sleep in...killed two birds with one stone...
I agree, this scene was out of place, and did not belong...it's the same thing as in Episode I where Lucas put in the two-headed announcer at the podraces...those kind of things are familiar to us in a real life kinda way...but they don't fit in, in the Star Wars universe...actually, it's not that they don't fit in...it's just that the original 3 movies don't have anyhting remotely like that...they were made during a different time...and now, Lucas must feel like he needs to put those scenes in to appeal to a different generation of movie goers..personally i think it's a mistake, and they don't belong...
yes, it did make it into the script...basically they were clones of Jango Fett...then they were genetically altetered for a couple of reasons...first, their will was basically taken away so they were unable to resist command, or basically think for themselves...they were made to think more as a whole then individually...second they were altered so that they would mature faster...this way, it wouldn't take literally "a lifetime" to make a full clone...their agin process was enhanced...hope that clears everything up....
i took a personal day today...saw the movie last night at 12:01...maybe i'll see it again today while everyone else is still at work...
there was a Matrix 2 trailer along with AOTC (atleast in the theatre i saw it at)...i was really looking forward to the Matrix Reloaded trailer, and everyone in the theatre cheered when the familiar "matrix-like" computer characters started scrolling down the screen...while i'm still really looking forward to the movie, i was a little disppointed in trailer...it was just really fast snip-its of action, none sustained long enough that you could actually see anything...that said, it still looked pretty intense...
ah, that's what i meant, slipped an extra A** in there by misstake...that's funny though, if his lightsaber really did say that...
they are in fact real people...genetically enhanced clones of bounty hunter Jango Fett (Boba's father)...
incidentally, Boba is also a clone of his father, just not genetically altered...
neither of these two things should be spoilers, both were widely known before the movie...
10 years have passes since Ep I...at the end of Ep I yoda gave in to Obi-wan's request to train Anakin (it was Qui-Gon's dieing wish)...in the past 10 years, Anakin has trained as a Padawan apprentice, and has become very advanced....
I thought that exactly!!!! as soon as Palpatine made the comment in the chambers that they could've counted on Padame if she was there, and then they zoomed in on Jar-jar...i was like, no, Jar-Jar don't do it...
i could see it coming, then he was just so smug with himself when he got the senate to go along with it...it's his fault...he gave palpatine full power...first he ruined Ep I, now the galaxy...
Episode II was light years better then Episode I...while there were numerous scenes in PM that made me cringe at how bad they were, there's very little of that here...
some things to look forward to if you haven't seen it yet...
- Yoda's climactic fight scene...everyone has heard it's coming, but you can't be prepared to see Yoda in a lightsaber duel...the crowd in my theatre was literally cheering the whole time, at how cool it was...
- Mace Windu also has some quality Lightsaber action, and some pretty bad-*ss scenes...only thing that would've made it better was if his lightsaber said "Bad A** Mother F*****" (Pulp Fiction Reference)...
- Hayden Christenson is a huge improvement over Jake Loyd as Anakin (then again it would be hard not to be)...he's brilliant in the scenes where he has to show flashes of evil and flashes of the dark side...
- From the trailers, i thought that the romantic part of the movie was gonna be super cheesy, but it's actually not as bad as i expected...though, there is one point when they're in that big field on a picnic, when it looks like a scene out of "Sound of Music"...
- The worst part (IMO) was Lucas' attempts at some uneeded humor (much like Jar-Jar in Ep I)...in Ep II he uses C3P0 and R2D2 to deliver this humor both physically (in a ridiculous sequence with C3P0) and also in a series of bad puns involving the two of them...
- Natalie Portman looks great in the movie...and if you've seen the trailers, you know the tight white top that she wears...well, let's just say, that it must be cold on Tatooine...
well, that's my thoughts...
i dunno if it provides lift...but i do know that as Jim Croce would say... "You don't tug on Superman's cape "...
i never said anything about the quality of these movies...just that they were some of my favorite uses of 'questionable' technology...i own Hackers on DVD, and it's actually one of my favorite movies....
one thing i never got...alright, they had to dig a hole what, 800 feet or something to drop the bomb in, right? well, when Bruce Willis pushes the button to detonate it (after the remote detonator stoppped working), he's clearly on the surface of the asteroid...i didn't see a 800 ft extension cord attached to his detonator...so, what gives???
thanx for the info...i'll have to take you word for it after a i couldn't find anything about it during a cursory search through google...but if the movie was actually making an obscure reference to that, then that's pretty cool...
Independence Day
Hackers
Tomb Raider
It is a well known fact that AMD Duron processors are made in a sweatshop in Maylasia.
- i have never read anything about AMD making their processors in sweatshops...do you have any information to back that up? even if they are, does that mean we should stay away from all stores that sell AMD processors...jeez, i dunno where i'm gonna shop for electronics anymore...
A large portion of Wal-Mart's merchandise is produced in third-world countries under sweatshop conditions
- i dunno about your Wal-Mart, but in my Wal-Mart they sell tons of brand name merchandise...the same brand name merchandise that you can find in any mall, toy store, electronics store, etc...if you have a problem with the business practices of a particular brand of merchandise (e.g. Nike), then i suggest you protest their company in particular, rather then make a dangerous blanket statement like you did...
-if you were gonna slam Wal-Mart for anything, you could've slammed them from not hiring union workers (atleast i don't think they still do)...that would be a legitimate complaint (although, i don't have a problem with it)...that is one of the ways they keep their prices down, in fact...but instead, you came in with unsubstantiated claims about AMD, and a bunch of "evil" talk about Wal-Mart...nice try...
here's a link to the MENSA comment form, i think we should send them a copy of your post, and protest your membership...
After last season, i thought for sure that Simpsons was gonna be cancelled...heck, i was calling for it myself...most of the shows last season (like the one with the elf-jockeys) made little or no sense, and even had some self depricating humor that suggested that the series had out lived it's usefulness...however, i think this year's season has be a strong comeback for Homer and the Simpson clan...sure, it's not their glory years, but it's still a damn entertaining show....
Peter: "What would you do if you had a million dollars?"
Lawrence: "I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man."
Peter: "That's it? If you had a million dollars, you'd do two chicks at the same time?"
Lawrence: "Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I had a million dollars I could hook that up, cause chicks dig a dude with money."
Peter: "Well, not all chicks."
Lawrence: "Well the kind of chicks that'd double up on me do."
Peter: "Good point."
- Office Space
but it worked on my computer...
yeah, i acknowledge that missing an episode or two is a problem with 24...but at the same time, the complexity of the plot really rewards the viewer who sticks with the program...and to help out, they also re-run the episode friday night on FOX, and i think at other times on Fx...also, i think they do an okay job at the beginning of the episode trying to remind the viewer what's been happening recently...but even if they change the format, i'd bet it will still be a continuing story line throughout the season, so will it really help those people who miss an episode???
as for "Undeclared", if what you said is true, that's ashame...i loved watching that show becuase every character was a charicature of someone i knew in college...it was great...
Fox has done an excellent job this year bringing 24 to their schedule...that show is fantastic, Keifer Sutherland is awesome, and Dennis Hoppers' addition to the cast in the past few episodes has been outstanding too...to me, this was the best new show on any newtork this season...of course, it sounds like their gonna ruin it next season when, according to articles i've read, the shows switch from 24 episodes each covering one hour of time...to each episode covering 1 24-hour block of time...it just won't be the same..please FOX, try to bring it back in the original format...
also...
Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Undeclared are, in my opinion, two of the funniest new shows this season...yet, Undeclared has been conspicously absent from the spring schedule, and there are rumours that Andy Richter will not be picked up for next season...these two shows are great...and if you haven't checked out Andy Richter consider watching..it's on Tuesday's at 8:30 (although not this tuesday) as a lead in to "24"...it's damn funny...and the office humour in it is great...
i do think Fox's lineup does have some potential over all....these 3 shows i mentioned....plus Simpsons, Malcom in the Middle, King of the Hill and That 70's show give them a nice core group of programming...albeit one that doesn't really appeal to older viewers....but it should appeal to the all important 18-25 year old male demographic...
just my opinion...