Why does/. give Star Wars its own topic but not STar Trek? Slashdotters probably waste^B^B^B^B^B spend far more person-hours watching Star Trek than watching Star Wars. Don't get me wrong... I love them both. It just seems to me that there is more discussion here about Star Trek than about many topics that get their own, um, topic.
Use graphics to show real content, not just to decorate your homepage
I like Jakob and generally think he's right on the money, but this specific recommendation makes me wonder if he'd sniffed too much toner the day he wrote that recommendation.
"Light decoration" I can agree with, but no decorative graphics? Does Jakob really expect that the masses will be happy without a few logos, borders, dingbats and other assorted eye candy? Jakob focuses a lot on the idea that content is king, and I couldn't agree more, but the reality of marketing on the web is that, in general, if your site doesn't look slick then people will think it's not quality.
A little eye candy, for all that the term is depracative, is an ok good thing. People simply want their content packaged up pretty.
The final pool of money is only relevent to an individual player if he or she wins it. If the choice is $10,000 for you or $20,000 for someone else, the obvious choice (from a selfish pov) is to take the $10,000.
The EFF is fighting for our freedom, one of the most important and central issues in the world. Women's Rights, Human Rights, Children's Rights, these are all worthy and important issues. They all have on thing in common: they need freedom to make progress.
Posts so far have focused on what sci-fi writer predicted what. However, as I read it, the question is what sci-fi actually helped cause an innovation. In other words, some work of fiction that somebody read and said "hey, great idea, think I'll do it".
My award for the winner in that category is... Donald Duck.
In 1964 the freighter Al-Kuwait sunk to the floor of the Persian Gulf. Because the Persian Gulf is Kuwait's main water supply and because the freighter had 6,000 rotting sheep carcasses aboard this constituted a big problem. They had to get that freighter raised quickly.
Engineer Karl Kroyer remembered reading a Donald Duck comic in which the quacky heroes raised a sunken boat by stuffing it full of ping pong balls. He thought was a pretty nifty idea, so he arranged to stuff the freighter with 27 million polystyrene bubbles... not quite ping pong balls but close enough. It worked like a charm: the freighter rose to the surface.
Donald Duck: King of Science Fiction Makes Reality
An interesting issue indeed. To push the question even further, what issues does this raise for the Internet Archive? Can they be held responsible for publishing a web page as it was last year? If the web page contains slander, is IA somehow responsible for taking down that page from their archive?
One of the ways the web is really different from printed media is that pages have an implication of currentness and ownership, even when they say otherwise. Unlike a newspaper publisher that A) cannot possibly recall all issues of a screwed up edition and B) no longer owns the physical copies of the paper that have been sold to the public, webmasters can always take down a page, and in fact must continue to provide the page in order for it to be available. That proactive providing of the page might to some people imply that archivers of any sort are responsible for the content.
According to one of the Star Trek history books I've read the famous Red Alert klaxon used on Star Trek was effective enough that it was adapted by the U.S. Military for some purposes. The producers of Star Trek received a request from an officer for a tape of the sound and the klaxon was ultimately incorporated it into use.
Of course, this info is from a rah-rah fan book, so take with the appropriate NaCL.
Please don't volunteer for PrimeNet unless you are willing to devote yourself to the project. Too many people are signing up only to realize they are too busy for the task at hand.
If you can't do the time, don't do the prime.
(snort, snicker, guffaw, I can die a happy man now)
The problem with pay-per-page is that it adds a very real psychological weight to every page decision. Every time you want to click a link you're forced to decide (or at least realize) that the decision is costing you. It's not that the penny costs a serious amount, it's that the decision fundamentally changes the way we surf.
Of course, some might argue that it's time we change the way the web works, but personally I like the web the way it is now, and I say this as someone could probably benefit from pay-per-page.
I've come to suspect that bounty requires homogenization. This concept occured to me when reading Travels with Charley in which John Steinbeck, who had once written about starving migrant workers, complains about dull food in restaurants.
Personally, I feel no need for strife to make life interesting. The challenge of my
latest programming project and the excitement of may extracurricular activities makes for a happily interesting life.
Globalism == The trend towards a world culture
on
Defining Globalism
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· Score: 1
Globalism is the ongoing trend towards a single world culture, including a common set of values, a common economy, and a common set of laws. As globalism continues, we'll get the good, the bad, and the ugly of cultures from around the world all mixed together.
An example:
the suit. You know (and probably hate) the kind of outfit I'm talking about: matching pants and jacket, a stiff shirt, a tie. It's gone through a lot of different variations, but it's recognized the world over as the official uniform of "business". Happily, it's not the way all business must be transacted anymore, but it's still a common symbol of "business". Somehow this distinctly European invention is now worn in China, Africa, South America and occasionally even in Silicon Valley.
Proponents of globalism say that it's a good thing because it spreads good values around the world, e.g. democracy. Opponents say it's a bad thing because it spreads bad things around the world, e.g. powerful, corrupt corporations.
On balance, I think globalism is a positive trend. Democracy is more popular now than it has even been in the history of the world, and this is due in large part to the spread of capitalism and democratic thought. I acknowledge the problems and hope we'll continue to resolve them, but I don't think the solution lies in artificially compartmentalizing the world in the hope that each compartment magically solves its own problems.
Re:Let me be the first to say "Duuuuuhhhh"
on
Are Videogames Art?
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· Score: 1
I'd say your theory is just a special case of Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap."
Darn! Beaten to the punch!
Re:Let me be the first to say "Duuuuuhhhh"
on
Are Videogames Art?
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· Score: 1
Even though one can successfully argue that the video game genre is an art form, the fact is is that games out there haven't really lived up to the potential of being pure works of art.
I can't disagree with you on that, but consider this: most works in any genre aren't particuarly worthwhile. Most music, most paintings, most sculptures are not very good. Take a tour of the art shops in Greenwich Village some time and count how many works actually seem worth a hoot.
Only a few in any genre give the genre a good name. For every Sistine Chapel you have thousands or poorly painted ceilings. For every Beethoven's Ninth Symphony you have thousands of Undercover Angels.
I think it's *entirely* appropriate that we ask ourselves the last time -- or indeed, if ever -- we were truly moved by a piece of electronic entertainment. Could we perhaps throw these out into the before we christen the entire genre as art?
Fair enough. Let me begin by nominating Marble Madness, one of the most interesting, creative, and visually pretty games I've ever seen.
It was, admittedly, somewhat lacking in the strategy department... it was one of those games where you just keep playing to learn the secrets until you can complete the course... but it had so many different interesting quirks and situations that I for one was fascinated with the game. It wasn't the same basic situation repeated ad infinitum (e.g.somebody shoots at you, you shoot back) the situation actually changed from as the game progressed.
It was visually beautiful to look at and had a wonderful score for each level.
Let me be the first to say "Duuuuuhhhh"
on
Are Videogames Art?
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Of course video games are art! Designing a video game is designing an experience for an audience. You balance a variety of elements such as sound, color, pace, all of which come together to form a unique whole. Different people have different tastes and will come away from the art piece with different impressions.
Art forms like video games tend to get mired in these sort of debates because they lack snob appeal. People figure that if it doesn't need an endowment, it's not art. People don't sit in high-rent apartments in an artsy-fartsy section of town in fancy clothes sipping spritzers and discussing the finer points of Q3, so it must not be art.
Science fiction has gotten mired down in this debate, as has commerical art of all forms, as did theater at one time. Good grief.
How did this end up in the "It's Funny. Laugh." section? This is a sad, depressing story. Regardless of whether you think the experiment was necessary, it's hardly funny.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh great, I'm so proud that my Elvis Lamp posting in the Friends newsgroup will be preserved for posterity.
Why does /. give Star Wars its own topic but not STar Trek? Slashdotters probably waste^B^B^B^B^B spend far more person-hours watching Star Trek than watching Star Wars. Don't get me wrong... I love them both. It just seems to me that there is more discussion here about Star Trek than about many topics that get their own, um, topic.
I like Jakob and generally think he's right on the money, but this specific recommendation makes me wonder if he'd sniffed too much toner the day he wrote that recommendation.
"Light decoration" I can agree with, but no decorative graphics? Does Jakob really expect that the masses will be happy without a few logos, borders, dingbats and other assorted eye candy? Jakob focuses a lot on the idea that content is king, and I couldn't agree more, but the reality of marketing on the web is that, in general, if your site doesn't look slick then people will think it's not quality.
A little eye candy, for all that the term is depracative, is an ok good thing. People simply want their content packaged up pretty.
The final pool of money is only relevent to an individual player if he or she wins it. If the choice is $10,000 for you or $20,000 for someone else, the obvious choice (from a selfish pov) is to take the $10,000.
The EFF is fighting for our freedom, one of the most important and central issues in the world. Women's Rights, Human Rights, Children's Rights, these are all worthy and important issues. They all have on thing in common: they need freedom to make progress.
My award for the winner in that category is... Donald Duck.
In 1964 the freighter Al-Kuwait sunk to the floor of the Persian Gulf. Because the Persian Gulf is Kuwait's main water supply and because the freighter had 6,000 rotting sheep carcasses aboard this constituted a big problem. They had to get that freighter raised quickly.
Engineer Karl Kroyer remembered reading a Donald Duck comic in which the quacky heroes raised a sunken boat by stuffing it full of ping pong balls. He thought was a pretty nifty idea, so he arranged to stuff the freighter with 27 million polystyrene bubbles... not quite ping pong balls but close enough. It worked like a charm: the freighter rose to the surface.
Donald Duck: King of Science Fiction Makes Reality
One of the ways the web is really different from printed media is that pages have an implication of currentness and ownership, even when they say otherwise. Unlike a newspaper publisher that A) cannot possibly recall all issues of a screwed up edition and B) no longer owns the physical copies of the paper that have been sold to the public, webmasters can always take down a page, and in fact must continue to provide the page in order for it to be available. That proactive providing of the page might to some people imply that archivers of any sort are responsible for the content.
Of course, this info is from a rah-rah fan book, so take with the appropriate NaCL.
-miko
"He's reaching for the ramen! It looks like it's going to be Mountain Dew and ramen!"
If you can't do the time, don't do the prime.
(snort, snicker, guffaw, I can die a happy man now)
Of course, some might argue that it's time we change the way the web works, but personally I like the web the way it is now, and I say this as someone could probably benefit from pay-per-page.
Personally, I feel no need for strife to make life interesting. The challenge of my latest programming project and the excitement of may extracurricular activities makes for a happily interesting life.
An example: the suit. You know (and probably hate) the kind of outfit I'm talking about: matching pants and jacket, a stiff shirt, a tie. It's gone through a lot of different variations, but it's recognized the world over as the official uniform of "business". Happily, it's not the way all business must be transacted anymore, but it's still a common symbol of "business". Somehow this distinctly European invention is now worn in China, Africa, South America and occasionally even in Silicon Valley.
Proponents of globalism say that it's a good thing because it spreads good values around the world, e.g. democracy. Opponents say it's a bad thing because it spreads bad things around the world, e.g. powerful, corrupt corporations.
On balance, I think globalism is a positive trend. Democracy is more popular now than it has even been in the history of the world, and this is due in large part to the spread of capitalism and democratic thought. I acknowledge the problems and hope we'll continue to resolve them, but I don't think the solution lies in artificially compartmentalizing the world in the hope that each compartment magically solves its own problems.
Darn! Beaten to the punch!
I can't disagree with you on that, but consider this: most works in any genre aren't particuarly worthwhile. Most music, most paintings, most sculptures are not very good. Take a tour of the art shops in Greenwich Village some time and count how many works actually seem worth a hoot.
Only a few in any genre give the genre a good name. For every Sistine Chapel you have thousands or poorly painted ceilings. For every Beethoven's Ninth Symphony you have thousands of Undercover Angels.
BTW, this is my own "Most Art Sucks Theory" ®.
Fair enough. Let me begin by nominating Marble Madness, one of the most interesting, creative, and visually pretty games I've ever seen.
It was, admittedly, somewhat lacking in the strategy department... it was one of those games where you just keep playing to learn the secrets until you can complete the course... but it had so many different interesting quirks and situations that I for one was fascinated with the game. It wasn't the same basic situation repeated ad infinitum (e.g.somebody shoots at you, you shoot back) the situation actually changed from as the game progressed.
It was visually beautiful to look at and had a wonderful score for each level.
Art forms like video games tend to get mired in these sort of debates because they lack snob appeal. People figure that if it doesn't need an endowment, it's not art. People don't sit in high-rent apartments in an artsy-fartsy section of town in fancy clothes sipping spritzers and discussing the finer points of Q3, so it must not be art.
Science fiction has gotten mired down in this debate, as has commerical art of all forms, as did theater at one time. Good grief.
How did this end up in the "It's Funny. Laugh." section? This is a sad, depressing story. Regardless of whether you think the experiment was necessary, it's hardly funny.