My girlfriend's been complaining that she can't get onto MSN all night, and sure enough messenger.msn.com is completely unresponsive, as was Hotmail a few hours ago (though, it seems to be up now). I wish I could just convince her to use Jabber.
Yes. That's exactly what I'd be trying to convince her to do for me.
[The big one that gets all the geeks riled up is they changed the Cantina
scene, so that Jabba's bounty hunter shoots at Han, and he kills him in 'self
defense'. In the original, Han just shoots him under the table and gets up and
leaves.
It effectively changes Han's character from an outlaw who cares only about
himself, to some sort of good guy who found himself in trouble.]
Add to that the fact that the added effects shot was so poorly done that
I still cringe just thinking of it. Greedo is sitting two feet away from Han
with his blaster aimed squarely at him, yet somehow misses by a mile?
Assuming the new scene is the same length as the old scene, it would be pretty
easy to splice the old scene back in.
I don't mind the new Jabba scene, having already seen the film. But I
think it takes away from Jabba's evilness in part VI. Which is one of
the few decent parts of that film...
Why are we sending humans to Mars? The only reason I can think of is to show the
6 billion humans on the planet what we're really capable of. Something
we can be proud of, in awe of even...
From the article:
It needs to be rebuilt as a monument to all of the hard work everybody
put in to beat Russia in one of the most incredible races that this world has
ever seen, said Ross Tierney, chief operating officer of the society.
People sacrificed their lives for this project, and yet, what's going
to happen to the LUT now? he said. It's going to be turned into
disposable razor blades and paperclips. Is that a fitting end to such a structure?
I don't think so.
All spammers selling something are processing the transactions through
credit cards. Put pressure on Visa to cancel the transaction and spammers would
be stopped cold, [Paul] Graham said. So what if it's a Taiwanese
Internet pharmacy? Reach them through their Visa merchant account.
The question I have is this: Is there any change from the book that actually
bothers people?
The Fellowship is IMO easily the best of the three.
I only slightly missed Glorfindel. Arwen's much cuter anyway.
The big problems start happening in The Two Towers.
I didn't mind so much the battle with the wargs, but Aragorn's late arrival
at Helm's Deep just so he could dream about Arwen smeo more...?
Pippin tricking 6000 year old Treebeard into going south? Ridiculous.
Could at least have used a half-way persuasive argument.
The worst deviation is losing Faramir's character. That whole section
is pointless, slowl and stupid (especially when Frodo offers the ring to the
Witch King). The only necessary bit is Frodo's betrayal of
Gollum.
Frodo trusting Sam over Gollum in Return of the King -- highly
unlikely but I suppose the Ring could have distorted his mind that much.
Having said this, I think I think The Two Towers is a much
better film than Return of the King. The Ents and the
Battle of Helm's Deep are superb, whereas the Battle for Minas Tirith has the
Rohirrim charging Oliphaunts (?) and ends with a huge anti-climax (The Dead
going on the rampage could have been much more interesting). The
Return of the King has some pretty lame acting in it too. And
the music isn't as good.
Improving products is merely the last resort of a company trying to retain/extend its monopoly. Microsoft didn't even provide a viable operating system until 2000.
Cool info, most interesting thing I've read on/. in a while.
Your brain switches a left-right bias every 90 mins. You can temporarily override it eg by breathing through the contralateral nostril.
Tips for remembering dreams: 1. Gets a lot easier with practice. 2. As soon as you wake up, keep still. Remember as much as you can, maybe dictate it. 3. Start writing it down and fill in the gaps.
Then you can do Huna Dream Analysis to find out what your subconscious was working on: 1. Regardless of the content of the dream, write down anything, in sequence, that had emotional significance. 2. For each aspect, work out what it meant to you at the time.
eg, if you see a monster with a green face run up and eat your GF, you might have: monster - fear of the unknown green face - jealousy eating your GF -...;)
When you've got the 2nd list, it usually points at a very specific and important issue in your life.
Might sound crazy but do some research before you judge (try it).
Actually, this way, Ep III might actually exceed your expectations and be considered a return to form. The story material is way better than Eps 1 & 2. There's gotta be a sex scene too...
Come on, you should be immune to disappointment by now:)
What you say is true, but I think studies have shown that positive attitude
helps here.
A lot of people feed into the problems by anticipating a terrible withdrawal.
I guess I wasn't clear because you just agreed with me.;)
This is exactly what I mean by placebo addiction.
Again in my professional opinion, I estimate that 90% of addiction to cigarettes,
caffeine etc comes from such expectations, which is why hypnotic suggestion
works well as a treatment. The reverse is true of medications such as
Paxil which was stated to be non-addictive. Consequently, fewer people
suffered withdrawal symptoms, but those who did were thoroughly unprepared for
them.
It is also said that the addictiveness of Valium was manufactured
by bad publicity. In France, where such publicity wasn't widespread, they
don't have much of a problem with Valium. It is also true that Valium
is now widely prescribed under a different name (diazepam).
There is a bit more on the unscientific nature of medicine on my website here.
At some point today I will try to update it with information from that 1993
paper by Fisher and Greenberg.
The problem is there's no easy way of distinguishing a real addiction from a placebo addiction. Participants in placebo trials against benzodiazepines exhibit withdrawal symptoms all the time (even when the nature of the drugs are supposed to be secret).
Nobody knows how addictive nicotine is because nobody has come up with an active nicotine placebo to compare it to.
But there is more chance of that that somebody being fooled into thinking they are taking caffeine when they're not.
One possible clue is the machines' reliance on humans. The battery idea is evidence that either the Wachowski brothers weren't really thinking or that humans provide something else the machines can't mine.
Along the same line, the whole trilogy is about choices. The humans need a choice in order to accept the Matrix. The Architect needs to give The One a choice about rebooting the Matrix.
There are some hints that Gandalf invoked some pretty funky magic using the
Sun to overcome the Uruks at Helm's Deep. The Sun itself was the last fruit
of Laurelin - one of the 2 trees which had provided the light for Valinor, the
home of the Gods.
Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and two other wizards were sent by the Gods to
Middle Earth to keep Sauron in check. This was the first demonstration of Gandalf
the White's new powers after being sent back by the Gods.
Lynch's Dune - I think there is a 4.5 hour version somewhere. I'm told Lynch still hated it, but I'd like to see it. I read the books first and so knew what was going on - none of that comes over in the standard version.
Haven't seen ROTK, but I love the framing, lighting and everything else that critter_hunter complained about. Apart from the brilliant casting, Peter Jackson manages to bring these mythical places to the cinema. Hobbiton is green and friendly, Caradhras is beautiful but freezing and Emyn Muin is hard and unfriendly - you feel the hobbits are very isolated.
The only things I can really complain about are the plot changes and Legolas' surf scene.
Spam is of no value to spammers (or anyone else) whatsoever. Spamming is sold on the hopes and expectations of the vendor/fraud. Either the vendor profits or they don't.
If they don't, there are plenty more idiots looking to get-rich-quick (blame capitalism;)
Anyone employing a spammer is as guilty as the spammer, and should face the same punishment (torture ideally).
Slashdot Mirror
My girlfriend's been complaining that she can't get onto MSN all night, and sure enough messenger.msn.com is completely unresponsive, as was Hotmail a few hours ago (though, it seems to be up now). I wish I could just convince her to use Jabber.
Yes. That's exactly what I'd be trying to convince her to do for me.
It effectively changes Han's character from an outlaw who cares only about himself, to some sort of good guy who found himself in trouble.]
Add to that the fact that the added effects shot was so poorly done that I still cringe just thinking of it. Greedo is sitting two feet away from Han with his blaster aimed squarely at him, yet somehow misses by a mile?
Assuming the new scene is the same length as the old scene, it would be pretty easy to splice the old scene back in.
I don't mind the new Jabba scene, having already seen the film. But I think it takes away from Jabba's evilness in part VI. Which is one of the few decent parts of that film...
... in my opinion, though it IS catching up fast.
The answer is that Opera is so much better than the rest it saves me that I would pay $3000 a year to use it, considering how much I use the web.
Why are we sending humans to Mars? The only reason I can think of is to show the 6 billion humans on the planet what we're really capable of. Something we can be proud of, in awe of even...
From the article:
It needs to be rebuilt as a monument to all of the hard work everybody put in to beat Russia in one of the most incredible races that this world has ever seen, said Ross Tierney, chief operating officer of the society.
People sacrificed their lives for this project, and yet, what's going to happen to the LUT now? he said. It's going to be turned into disposable razor blades and paperclips. Is that a fitting end to such a structure? I don't think so.
I think he has a point.
Stop the Cash Flow, Kill the Spam
All spammers selling something are processing the transactions through credit cards. Put pressure on Visa to cancel the transaction and spammers would be stopped cold, [Paul] Graham said. So what if it's a Taiwanese Internet pharmacy? Reach them through their Visa merchant account.
The question I have is this: Is there any change from the book that actually bothers people?
The Fellowship is IMO easily the best of the three. I only slightly missed Glorfindel. Arwen's much cuter anyway.
The big problems start happening in The Two Towers. I didn't mind so much the battle with the wargs, but Aragorn's late arrival at Helm's Deep just so he could dream about Arwen smeo more...?
Pippin tricking 6000 year old Treebeard into going south? Ridiculous. Could at least have used a half-way persuasive argument.
The worst deviation is losing Faramir's character. That whole section is pointless, slowl and stupid (especially when Frodo offers the ring to the Witch King). The only necessary bit is Frodo's betrayal of Gollum.
Frodo trusting Sam over Gollum in Return of the King -- highly unlikely but I suppose the Ring could have distorted his mind that much.
Having said this, I think I think The Two Towers is a much better film than Return of the King. The Ents and the Battle of Helm's Deep are superb, whereas the Battle for Minas Tirith has the Rohirrim charging Oliphaunts (?) and ends with a huge anti-climax (The Dead going on the rampage could have been much more interesting). The Return of the King has some pretty lame acting in it too. And the music isn't as good.
Because everything else you wrote was garbage.
Improving products is merely the last resort of a company trying to retain/extend its monopoly. Microsoft didn't even provide a viable operating system until 2000.
AFAIK Kazaa Lite will also be kicked off FastTrack following the latest Kazaa upgrade, which KL can't follow because the lawyers have shut it down.
There are at least 3 new Lite versions of Kazaa 2.6 already (do a search).
The best one is even legal.
They re-distributed the Kazaa software in a modified form.
However, new K-Lite 2.6 does not, and merely requires the original Kazaa 2.6 install file on your desktop.
It's pretty nice - do a search for it.
Cool info, most interesting thing I've read on /. in a while.
... ;)
Your brain switches a left-right bias every 90 mins. You can temporarily override it eg by breathing through the contralateral nostril.
Tips for remembering dreams:
1. Gets a lot easier with practice.
2. As soon as you wake up, keep still. Remember as much as you can, maybe dictate it.
3. Start writing it down and fill in the gaps.
Then you can do Huna Dream Analysis to find out what your subconscious was working on:
1. Regardless of the content of the dream, write down anything, in sequence, that had emotional significance.
2. For each aspect, work out what it meant to you at the time.
eg, if you see a monster with a green face run up and eat your GF, you might have:
monster - fear of the unknown
green face - jealousy
eating your GF -
When you've got the 2nd list, it usually points at a very specific and important issue in your life.
Might sound crazy but do some research before you judge (try it).
Me too, strange that.
:)
Actually, this way, Ep III might actually exceed your expectations and be considered a return to form. The story material is way better than Eps 1 & 2. There's gotta be a sex scene too...
Come on, you should be immune to disappointment by now
I'm not going to bother with any more Star Warts unless Tarantino directs them.
I remember buying one and having no T&L games to play on it.
A lot of people feed into the problems by anticipating a terrible withdrawal.
I guess I wasn't clear because you just agreed with me. ;)
This is exactly what I mean by placebo addiction.
Again in my professional opinion, I estimate that 90% of addiction to cigarettes, caffeine etc comes from such expectations, which is why hypnotic suggestion works well as a treatment. The reverse is true of medications such as Paxil which was stated to be non-addictive. Consequently, fewer people suffered withdrawal symptoms, but those who did were thoroughly unprepared for them.
It is also said that the addictiveness of Valium was manufactured by bad publicity. In France, where such publicity wasn't widespread, they don't have much of a problem with Valium. It is also true that Valium is now widely prescribed under a different name (diazepam).
There is a bit more on the unscientific nature of medicine on my website here. At some point today I will try to update it with information from that 1993 paper by Fisher and Greenberg.
The problem is there's no easy way of distinguishing a real addiction from a placebo addiction. Participants in placebo trials against benzodiazepines exhibit withdrawal symptoms all the time (even when the nature of the drugs are supposed to be secret).
Nobody knows how addictive nicotine is because nobody has come up with an active nicotine placebo to compare it to.
But there is more chance of that that somebody being fooled into thinking they are taking caffeine when they're not.
From a professional who treats addictions, the key step is making a commitment.
This will bring all subconsciously anticipated problems to the surface as well as prevent you from making half-hearted attempts or putting it off.
Address all your fears as best you can and then isolate yourself from all sources of caffeine (presumably over a weekend).
Naturally, look after yourself: eat healthily, get some exercise, sun & fresh air.
I could go into more depth, but chances are nobody will bother to read this anyway...
One possible clue is the machines' reliance on humans. The battery idea is evidence that either the Wachowski brothers weren't really thinking or that humans provide something else the machines can't mine.
Along the same line, the whole trilogy is about choices. The humans need a choice in order to accept the Matrix. The Architect needs to give The One a choice about rebooting the Matrix.
There are some hints that Gandalf invoked some pretty funky magic using the Sun to overcome the Uruks at Helm's Deep. The Sun itself was the last fruit of Laurelin - one of the 2 trees which had provided the light for Valinor, the home of the Gods.
Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and two other wizards were sent by the Gods to Middle Earth to keep Sauron in check. This was the first demonstration of Gandalf the White's new powers after being sent back by the Gods.
Encyclopedia of Arda: Sun
Agree, apart from the fact it was Uma & Lucy fighting ;)
Much preferred the fighting in the Matrix films. Haven't seen a good Martial Arts film for a while... Will look up your recommendations.
There's actually more hints of a plot in the second 2 Matrix films, though I think there's a lot missing.
OK, I've still not seen RotK, but the Matrix Revolutions port defense scene is the most exciting I've ever seen.
And the CGI looked pretty good to me.
Lynch's Dune - I think there is a 4.5 hour version somewhere. I'm told Lynch still hated it, but I'd like to see it. I read the books first and so knew what was going on - none of that comes over in the standard version.
Haven't seen ROTK, but I love the framing, lighting and everything else that critter_hunter complained about. Apart from the brilliant casting, Peter Jackson manages to bring these mythical places to the cinema. Hobbiton is green and friendly, Caradhras is beautiful but freezing and Emyn Muin is hard and unfriendly - you feel the hobbits are very isolated.
The only things I can really complain about are the plot changes and Legolas' surf scene.
Are these the only photos? My phone has a better resolution than that.
If spamming is illegal, then surely paying someone to spam is equally illegal?
Spam is of no value to spammers (or anyone else) whatsoever.
;)
Spamming is sold on the hopes and expectations of the vendor/fraud. Either the vendor profits or they don't.
If they don't, there are plenty more idiots looking to get-rich-quick (blame capitalism
Anyone employing a spammer is as guilty as the spammer, and should face the same punishment (torture ideally).