As someone who frequents local record shops for Norwegian Black Metal or early Rolling Stones/Howlin' Wolf records, I wholly appreciate the selection that they provide. Indeed, it becomes imperative to shop at such places if you want something rare or old. Ever try to compare the price of The Rolling Stones "Out Of Our Heads" on vinyl ($5 used) to its retail cousin? ($18.99 for a record that's been out since 1965!?!) For anything more mainstream or contemporary, online music offerings duplicate the efforts of major retail chains. Its where the money is, for better or worse. What would my benefit be in going to a store and downloading files verse doing it at home?
The point I'm making is that the value of going to record stores is the physicality of the media. Remove that and you're complicating an already established process of downloading at home. Accentuate that value and you may make it worthwhile to go out to a store.
It won't work because the world was just sold virtually (perhaps a pun?!) the same concept by Apple except that you get to do all this from your couch. The only reason I, or anyone else sold on "music via files", would bother going to a record shop is obtaining the physical album art.
I think the online music sales will support only one or two outlets for the same reason that brick and mortar stores can diversify; stores have a unified format (CDs or whatever) and a unified payment method (my money is good wherever I shop). People are less inclined to join different music services if they have to create an account each time.
Although it makes me smile to hear about bullies getting some of their own, I would never teach my own children to respond that way.
Physical revenge may be emotionally satisfying, at least initially. However, I don't think anyone would agree that it is worth it when the bully comes back and makes his own justice with a gun.
The philosophy of answering violence with violence is the same lame answer that governments use to start wars they can't exit.
I was trying to find directions for an apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey from northwest Jersey. Instead of giving me directions for a scenic trip along the Hudson River, I was instructed to go into New York City via the George Washington Bridge, go down the length of Manhattan Island, and then back through the Lincon Tunnel into Hoboken. Talk about a scenic route. Such a route would add 45 minutes to the travel time and add $6 for the bridge crossing.
The highlight of Macworld Boston for me was the excellent anti-MS Bob t-shirts. The back of the shirt featured a Marathon "Bob" (human assistant) grabbing MS Bob by his collar and holding a gun to his face. In bloody letters the caption read, "My Bob is bigger than your Bob." Priceless.
My local cable monopoly is Time-Warner and when I signed up with them half a year ago, I ordered Road Runner broadband access for $35 a month which hasn't changed. My girlfriend's mother just bought a new G4 and wanted to upgrade her AOL access to broadband which costs $45.99. My girlfriend and I tried to convince her to go to Road Runner, thinking it was cheeper, until we saw that they have up'd their price to match AOL's. I think Time Warner is try to put the squeeze on AOL to get some juice out of them.
Although I don't think the author articulated what he was trying to say, I do think there is merit to his commentary.
I saw a demo by Alias/Wavefront in college a few years ago that featured interface concepts that they were working on at the time. The presenter demo'ed several ideas that attempted to rethink interaction with computers on a simpler levels than the complex mechanical avatars and the ilk the author of the article discussed.
Among the ideas that were presented was the idea of using both hands to "mouse". The presenter pointed out that selection boxes (when you click and hold to select a group of icons, for example) don't make sense because you can't modify the upper left/right hand corner of the box once you click and hold. He used the analogy of two hands holding and stretching a rubber band to suggest that two mouses/hands would be able to manipulate the selection rectangle more adeptly.
To me, the natural evolution of GUIs is to incorporate such natural tendencies as using both hands. Command lines have given way (for many, not all) to GUIs where you manipulate icons because an "object" is easier to conceive and handle than a location path on a hard drive. If we interact with one another using gestures and expressions, then it would be only natural to work with a computer this way.
Having worked at creative departments for major companies, I could see this as a boon to the print world, initially. Being that deadlines are always tight, the ability to move files electronicly becomes imperative. I, begrudgingly, have transfered image files as jpegs when tiff files would be too large but considering how jpeg tosses out a lot of the dark areas, this isn't an option always. A new jpeg standard would really help us move files around so that the yuppies in marketing could use the file in their Powerpoint presentation just as easily as the printer could use it for going to press.
"The social component is big because it gives players a false sense of relationships and identity," Parker said. "They say they have friends, but they don't know their names."
So how's everyone's "false relationships" going on out there in Slashdot-land? And by the way, apparently since you don't know my name, none of you are my friends.:)
1. You should never break or accelerate in a turn until the car has reached the apex of the curve. Doing so, especially at high speeds will cause the car to skid out. Break before the turn.
2. If you're going up hill, you will increase, not decrease, speed if you go to a lower gear. Lower gears mean more power is getting to the engine. Your car would stall otherwise.
The first point would be particularly hard to compensate for with AI in your scenario unless the car had some kind of input akin to sight.
All that and more learned from playing GT/Project Gotham... who says you don't learn from games?!
I juggle a bit and I think it would be harder for jugglers to cope considering the attention that's paid to gravity by the profession. Perhaps the hand-eye coordination would compensate some but given the comfort level a juggler has with gravity (behind the back catches, not watching hand, etc) we would have a far more difficult time.
Its a hard thing for anyone to gauge the absence of gravity considering how little we leave it during our lives.
Child labor laws aren't a throw back to 19th century New York as you described. They are quite relevant in a society that's increasing trying to treat children as adults. Growing up, I worked at a computer retail store that would frequently threaten to fire me if I didn't work late nights for inventory etc. My only recourse in these situations was to remind them that I was a minor and couldn't work until 2 am. Otherwise, I would have to choose between completing school work or not having money to live.
I think some of the brightest and best people for the tech industry are those who are growing up in it. Hell, I'm one of those kids who was put on a blacklist at school because I understood computers to a higher degree than my school's admin. However, I don't think that negates the natural process of maturity that comes with age. Nurture that need for learning but realize who and where you are right now.
Having worked at CompUSA for several years back in the dark days of Windows 3.1 and 95, I always found it funny that the largest section of software that Mac users were supposedly missing out on were the emergency fix-it programs and disk doctor tools. I mean, I really must have been "missing out" if I couldn't by the three or four repair tools I needed to be stable.
Acutally, a good camera animator will build a rig in Softimage to simulate a real camera rig. There are a group of animators who subscribe to the philosophy that you should never key the camera directly; only key its rigged constraints.
On a side note, I find it interesting that the digital world is trying to animate virtual cameras to simulate reality and the real world camera operators try to simulate digital camera moves such as scene in "The Matrix".
Reminds me of a Mr. Show episode where a movie company puts out a movie called "Coupon: The Movie" The movie tanks at the box office so the movie company sues the American public for their losses and the judge rules in the movie company's favor.
The settlement is that everyone now has to go out and see the movie. My favorite quote is when they're interviewing people coming out of the theater and the reporter asks one movie-goer, "So what did you think about the movie?"
His response: "I saw the shit out of it!" We laugh but who knows... it might get to that point.
I'm just repeating what I read in Cinefex. According to the writer, the lead animators were using their own faces. I haven't seen the documentary so I'll have to take your word on that. However, as I stated before, the characters don't seem to express themselves using the mannerisms of the respective actors.
Conflicting news sources.. who would have thought?
I am a 3d modeler/animator by trade and I have to say that Final Fantasy is exactly what I've been waiting for. Too many 3d animation movies are geared towards kids because of the cost of making one of these films. They only way they can guarantee that a 3d animated movie will cover its costs is by developing it for the largest market available - children. The 3d environment offers something that no other medium offers - photo realism without the constrains of the physical world. Stop animation comes close to this but in the end you're still held back by having to support your model's weight through trickery. The 3d environment can be a place for the wildest fantasies we can imagine to be visually realized. Unfortunately movie studios still have to be worried wether or not the main character will make the side of a Burger King cup.
I think Final Fantasy fell flat in the method that they used for animating the characters. Traditional 3d animation studios such as Pixar and Dreamworks videotape the actors saying their lines. The actors' key facial poses are then incorporated by the lead animators into the library of expressions. When you watch Scully from Monsters Inc. smile; it looks and acts like John Goodman for a reason. This also helps the character fit the voice. The Final Fantasy team had three actors fill the shoes of one character. The voices were done by the big name actors (ie Steve Buscemi), the body motion was done with motion capture for the most part, and the facial expressions were done by the lead animators looking at themselves in mirrors. The characters fall flat, to me, as a result.
I would really like to see some sci-fi or horror brought to the screen via 3d animation but for now I think we're stuck with whatever fits on a Happy Meal. Our only hope is mid range budget studios similar to those of the 70's that produced great original horror movies such as "Phantasm" and 'Night of the Living Dead". They are the only film makers with enough freedom and money to do what they want, and do it well.
They state in an issue of Cinefex that they set up production on an island because they wanted a sense of community among the employees. Also, they stated that land is extremely cheep in Hawaii if you're not on the beach. Setting up a studio where you can wire your already digital shots is no problem from there. This isn't Jurrasic Park, you know.:)
If these are 3d work stations for modeling and animation and not for rendering, then a fast video card and a good pipeline to the screen is all you need. Fast processors really only come into play when you're crunching on something like radiosity in Mental-Ray. I have a 400 mhz PII PC with 200+ MB RAM and a low end Oxygen card that can display much higher frames in Softimage 3D and XSI than a new 1.2G P4 with a Geforce 3 card.
I thought television wasn't really measured in frames per second. Isn't American TV 60 fields per second? How does it drop frames in interlaced video? You're really seeing half of two frames at all times because the gun scans the even then the odd lines... right?
The fun thing to point out is that cable tv was originally commercial free because you were paying for it. I guess we sucked it up just like we're doing with our $9 movies. Does paying $$$ for a movie preceded with commercials piss anyone else off?
Slashdot Mirror
looks like this
The point I'm making is that the value of going to record stores is the physicality of the media. Remove that and you're complicating an already established process of downloading at home. Accentuate that value and you may make it worthwhile to go out to a store.
Ivan
I think the online music sales will support only one or two outlets for the same reason that brick and mortar stores can diversify; stores have a unified format (CDs or whatever) and a unified payment method (my money is good wherever I shop). People are less inclined to join different music services if they have to create an account each time.
Ivan
Physical revenge may be emotionally satisfying, at least initially. However, I don't think anyone would agree that it is worth it when the bully comes back and makes his own justice with a gun.
The philosophy of answering violence with violence is the same lame answer that governments use to start wars they can't exit.
Ivan
Seems to be a federal holiday... Will the post office stay open?
Ivan
I was trying to find directions for an apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey from northwest Jersey. Instead of giving me directions for a scenic trip along the Hudson River, I was instructed to go into New York City via the George Washington Bridge, go down the length of Manhattan Island, and then back through the Lincon Tunnel into Hoboken. Talk about a scenic route. Such a route would add 45 minutes to the travel time and add $6 for the bridge crossing.
Ivan
My local cable monopoly is Time-Warner and when I signed up with them half a year ago, I ordered Road Runner broadband access for $35 a month which hasn't changed. My girlfriend's mother just bought a new G4 and wanted to upgrade her AOL access to broadband which costs $45.99. My girlfriend and I tried to convince her to go to Road Runner, thinking it was cheeper, until we saw that they have up'd their price to match AOL's. I think Time Warner is try to put the squeeze on AOL to get some juice out of them.
Makes walking through a subway terminal and implanting your info on others attractive a viable idea for spammers, eh?
I saw a demo by Alias/Wavefront in college a few years ago that featured interface concepts that they were working on at the time. The presenter demo'ed several ideas that attempted to rethink interaction with computers on a simpler levels than the complex mechanical avatars and the ilk the author of the article discussed.
Among the ideas that were presented was the idea of using both hands to "mouse". The presenter pointed out that selection boxes (when you click and hold to select a group of icons, for example) don't make sense because you can't modify the upper left/right hand corner of the box once you click and hold. He used the analogy of two hands holding and stretching a rubber band to suggest that two mouses/hands would be able to manipulate the selection rectangle more adeptly.
To me, the natural evolution of GUIs is to incorporate such natural tendencies as using both hands. Command lines have given way (for many, not all) to GUIs where you manipulate icons because an "object" is easier to conceive and handle than a location path on a hard drive. If we interact with one another using gestures and expressions, then it would be only natural to work with a computer this way.
Ivan
AC Propulsion TZero
http://www.rapidcars.com/tzero.html
which is entirely battery powered and will out-accelerate the neighbor's Ferrari 355,
and the strange but wonderful
RinSpeed Advantage R
http://www.rapidcars.com/advantager.html
which features a moving cockpit and runs on household garbage, Back to The Future style.
Ivan
Ivan
So how's everyone's "false relationships" going on out there in Slashdot-land? And by the way, apparently since you don't know my name, none of you are my friends. :)
Ivan
1. You should never break or accelerate in a turn until the car has reached the apex of the curve. Doing so, especially at high speeds will cause the car to skid out. Break before the turn.
2. If you're going up hill, you will increase, not decrease, speed if you go to a lower gear. Lower gears mean more power is getting to the engine. Your car would stall otherwise.
The first point would be particularly hard to compensate for with AI in your scenario unless the car had some kind of input akin to sight.
All that and more learned from playing GT/Project Gotham... who says you don't learn from games?!
Ivan
Its a hard thing for anyone to gauge the absence of gravity considering how little we leave it during our lives.
Ivan
I think some of the brightest and best people for the tech industry are those who are growing up in it. Hell, I'm one of those kids who was put on a blacklist at school because I understood computers to a higher degree than my school's admin. However, I don't think that negates the natural process of maturity that comes with age. Nurture that need for learning but realize who and where you are right now.
Ivan
Ivan
On a side note, I find it interesting that the digital world is trying to animate virtual cameras to simulate reality and the real world camera operators try to simulate digital camera moves such as scene in "The Matrix".
- Ivan
Cool!
Oh mine smasher, well that's cool too. Maybe it can be converted...
The settlement is that everyone now has to go out and see the movie. My favorite quote is when they're interviewing people coming out of the theater and the reporter asks one movie-goer, "So what did you think about the movie?"
His response: "I saw the shit out of it!" We laugh but who knows... it might get to that point.
Ivan
Conflicting news sources.. who would have thought?
I think Final Fantasy fell flat in the method that they used for animating the characters. Traditional 3d animation studios such as Pixar and Dreamworks videotape the actors saying their lines. The actors' key facial poses are then incorporated by the lead animators into the library of expressions. When you watch Scully from Monsters Inc. smile; it looks and acts like John Goodman for a reason. This also helps the character fit the voice. The Final Fantasy team had three actors fill the shoes of one character. The voices were done by the big name actors (ie Steve Buscemi), the body motion was done with motion capture for the most part, and the facial expressions were done by the lead animators looking at themselves in mirrors. The characters fall flat, to me, as a result.
I would really like to see some sci-fi or horror brought to the screen via 3d animation but for now I think we're stuck with whatever fits on a Happy Meal. Our only hope is mid range budget studios similar to those of the 70's that produced great original horror movies such as "Phantasm" and 'Night of the Living Dead". They are the only film makers with enough freedom and money to do what they want, and do it well.
They state in an issue of Cinefex that they set up production on an island because they wanted a sense of community among the employees. Also, they stated that land is extremely cheep in Hawaii if you're not on the beach. Setting up a studio where you can wire your already digital shots is no problem from there. This isn't Jurrasic Park, you know. :)
If these are 3d work stations for modeling and animation and not for rendering, then a fast video card and a good pipeline to the screen is all you need. Fast processors really only come into play when you're crunching on something like radiosity in Mental-Ray. I have a 400 mhz PII PC with 200+ MB RAM and a low end Oxygen card that can display much higher frames in Softimage 3D and XSI than a new 1.2G P4 with a Geforce 3 card.
I thought television wasn't really measured in frames per second. Isn't American TV 60 fields per second? How does it drop frames in interlaced video? You're really seeing half of two frames at all times because the gun scans the even then the odd lines... right? The fun thing to point out is that cable tv was originally commercial free because you were paying for it. I guess we sucked it up just like we're doing with our $9 movies. Does paying $$$ for a movie preceded with commercials piss anyone else off?