But why can't you do such research the "old-fashioned" way - with BOOKS? Yes, the library is there to provide
That's absurd. Just because some hyper-conservative parents out there might be terrified of the idea that little Johnny might see *gasp* a bare breast, the entire adult population should happily accept censorship of an entire medium? Sorry, but no.
Say all books with *wicked naked people* (including Cancer and You and Living With Breast Cancer) are banned from public libraries. That's no big deal! Hey, you can read up on that stuff in magazines, right? What are you complaining about?
The point, which has already been made in earlier posts, is that this is
1) Unacceptable censorship of material adults (and in many cases even children) have the right to access.
2) A promotion of an ineffectual technology to solve an exaggerated problem which can only really only be solved by parents getting up off their sofas and becoming involved in their childrens' lives.
But nobody ever got (re-)elected by telling the parents of america that their children are running wild because they're bad parents. So the rest of us have to live with these ridiculous nostrums and snake oil cures. *sigh*
Well said! And my thanks for making a good many points I would have made myself if I had been able to remember so many of those details which you recounted so well. Time to go reread again...
Frodo on the other hand was a totally clueless hobbit: the only magic he knew was Gandalf's fireworks and smoke rings. Not very scary stuff, is it? If he had any idea what powers the ring held he would have been just as terrified.
Frodo was terrified. Gandalf gives him a very clear picture of the power of the ring when he told of how Smeagol was conquered by the ring. So rightly, the very idea of having anything to do with the thing terrified him. He would not have chosen this burden, but since it was thrust upon him, with no better alternatives, he found the strength to carry it.
The elves had the responsibility to destroy the ring as:
a. it was their skills that Sauron had copied to make the ring
Not so. Sauron instructed the elves in the forging of The Three, at a time when he was trusted. He then forged The Seven, The Nine, and The One in secret. The One was made to control all the others - it could not control the Three if he had had no part in their making.
b. they were they supreme race on middle-earth
Nowhere is this even remotely suggested in anything Tokien ever wrote. The gifts given to the Firstborn and to Men were DIFFERENT. Although the elves were essentially immortal, and mastered lore and powers with relative ease, their personalities (at least after the coming of the Men) almost entirely precluded their use. The power of Man was in his will, and his indomitable spirit. Also in the "gift" of death, which gave the lives of man a pace, instead of the kind of complacence and unhurried attitude of many elves. The gifts of hobbits are much the same.
c. they did not know almost anything about hobbits and their resistance to magic or the other physical wounds that you mention as no hobbit before Frodo and his friends had been in such an adventure. Placing their faith on Frodo was therefore totally unjustified.
They knew Frodo had survived, almost untreated, the poisoned, corrupting blade of one of the Nine for several days before arriving at Rivendell. That alone was a fantastic glimpse at the hardiness of a hobbit. They knew Bilbo had borne, and frequently USED, the One for 50+ years without submitting to its evil. How many men OR elves could have done the same? Gandalf had spent much time among hobbits, and knew more of their hardiness than the hobbits themselves did. They had a strength Gandalf knew would be an advantage, and so he argued to allow Pippin, Merry, and Sam to accompany Frodo.
However, I think your main objection is that the One was not at least sent with a few powerful Elven warriors, such as Glorfindel. This is also directly addressed in the Council at Rivendell. If Glorfindel were to go and (I paraphrase) open the way to Mordor by the power that is in him, he would reveal himself to the servants of Sauron, and have the entire army upon him.
The point is that might and power were not the way to Mordor. The only possibility was to go quietly, with a small number of strong companions, and hope to pass unnoticed - something at which hobbits excel.
In general the whole plot of the LotR just seems very "cheap". Gandalf always appears at the right moment to help the others: when he finds the two lesser hobbits (I forget their names), when goes to Gondor, when he rescues Faramir from the fire
It is certainly true that Gandalf played a major role in the events leading to the destruction of the ring - Such was his task in the 3rd age. There was many a time when they would all have been royally screwed without Gandalf.
Then again, they would have been in trouble without any number of others as well. Sam took on the burden of the ring when Frodo had fallen. Merry and Eowyn together slew the cheif ringwraith - this was not a battle Galdalf could have won. They could never have reached the battle at Gondor without the aid of Aragorn.
Don't forget - Gandalf was not perfect. In fact, he died. Due to the fact that (unknown to the fellowship) he was a sort of minor deity, he was able to return to finish the job. Don't attribute too much of the success of the fellowship to Gandalf - Sam and Frodo made most of the journey alone and unaided.
like all those stories with the same theme (Star Wars, The Matrix, E.T) it is good for children, but it does not come close to becoming a proper mythology (like the ancient Greek legents with real heroes battling real monsters and god)
But that's exactly what makes LotR a more interesting story than most Greek Legends - the real hero ISN'T the most powerful out there, he doesn't triumph by defeating the medusa, or wrestling the hydra into submission. It's a triumph of the spirit. Frodo and Sam travel through a sea of enemies, barely survive ageless horrors (Shelob), and finally succeed, starving, dehydrated, and with no hope of escaping alive. They gave their lives to the completion of their goal, and only exceedingly good fortune allowed them to escape alive. It's their dedication, and strength of will, not arms, that makes the story so compelling.
If you're looking for some darker storytelling, with less success and more man/elf vs. god type battle, try the Silmarillion. The history of the 1st and 2nd ages is full of tragedy and loss.
Lastly, check out TheOneRing.net for much better worded and considered arguments regarding the choice of the hobbits as ringbearers. In particular, look at the Green Books for some good answers to many of your quesions and objections.
The Lord of the Rings is NOT a children's book. The story is far too deep, the imagery far too dark.
The Hobbit was a children's book, written for children (Tolkien's own), with the same story in mind.
It makes only the most perfect sense that Frodo be the ringbearer. Certainly, there were many many people who were more qualified to make the journey and return. However, none were better chioces to carry the ring on the journey. You may have forgotten that Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel, a wizard, an elven lord, and an elven lady, (of the third generation of elves ever to live, IIRC), all REFUSED the burden of the ring. They claimed the temptation to use the ring would be too great, and they would only replace Sauron as the next great power of the land, vying for dominance. (Absolute power corrupts absolutely.)
The power of the ring corrupts the bearer, as it has much of Sauron's essence in it. This is why its destruction essentially destroys Sauron, as with it, much of his power passes from the world.
The temptation to take the ring and use it would have been too great for any other being - you may remember how Boromir was found incapable to resist the draw of the ring, although he had never even touched it! The feeling of power and madness the ring gave its bearer would cause a powerful warrior to declare himself its rightful owner and to begin his own reign of power - and in doing so reveal himself to Sauron and be destroyed.
Instead, Frodo was sent with strong companions, who would help him and support him on his journey for as far as they could go.
And don't belittle hobbits (no pun intended) so quickly - Bilbo resisted the draw of the ring's evil for what, 50 years, before he released it. And Frodo and the other hobbits each survived blows and injuries which would have slain outright many strong men and elves.
Read the Lord of the Rings again, and take your time with it, especially the council at Rivendell. You'll be surprised at how much of this is written out there in more or less plain speech.
I know how you feel, and sympathize with it. But I also work a bit on the corporate end, and know how multi-platform development goes. You'll never convince a corporation/manager to completely scrap an existing, functional codebase designed for one platform, only to replace it with new code with the same core functionality and a slightly different (albeit more efficient/better) implementation. For some pretty good reasons, too. It makes the task of maintaining the program dramatically more difficult, as each implementation is different. Plus a good amount of the work done would be reinventing work already done.
I strongly approve the attempts of independent organizations to create applications which don't limit themselves to the functionality of existing products tho. I don't want another star office. A fraction of that functionality, implemented cleanly by linux volunteers, would be far more desirable.
Re:So much rhetoric, so little reality
on
On Asteroid Mining
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· Score: 2
Relocate highly pollutive industries to orbit or lagrange points.
Is the king supposed to just decree that this happens? It will happen eventually, when it makes economic sense. But you have to have an economic space infrastructure to support it.
If you are waiting for when it makes economic sense for companies to move large factories off-planet, you're in for a long wait. It will only become economically feasible when all but the last fraction of a percent of useful resources has already been converted into disposable diapers. Around then, it will be cheaper to get resources from space, and I'm sure the big congolmerates will all launch advertising campaigns about how great they are for caring about the earth and moving their nasty factories into orbit around this useless, polluted, lump of...err, I mean, beautiful, fragile world we call home.
Will this take some serious capital/scientific investments? Absolutely. But the major corporations that own these factories can better afford to foot the bill than the world's governments can, and if the governments actually set some REAL sanctions against pollution, they might actually do it.
And no, of course money does not make science. Scientists make science. How many more scientists do you think would work on this type of project if they could get paid a salary comparable to what they could get in industry? How many goverment employees are in their current jobs because the pay is just outstanding? Pay the scientists what their efforts are worth, and you'll have giant brains the world over lining up on the street to fill out job applications, unlike now, where there are a few idealists and enthusiasts, and the rest guys who couldn't cut it in industry.
Of course, no goverment will ever have the courage to shoot itself in the pocketbook by doing any of this, so the entire discussion is pointless...
The American Heritage Dictionary...
on
1.21 Quickiewatts
·
· Score: 1
...of the English Language, 3rd Edition indicates that either a hard g or a j sound is correct.
In recent news, internet hackers have broken the secret codes which protect music online. The software, created by a company called Musicrypt.com, uses powerful security techniques to make it safe for musicians to place their music online. The software created by Musicrypt uses a complicated security technique (called random guessing). It works by verifying that the listener is actually the legal owner of the song in question, by being so innacurate as to force the listener to purchase a new copy every time they wish to listen to the music.
An RIAA spokesperson was quoted as saying, "These internet pirates are stealing the food from our mouths! We hardly have enough money to light the pilots on our gas stoves. The government needs to step in and once again make the world safe for music, puppies, and the American Dream." The RIAA has issued an injunction against anyone using the internet pirate hacker technique (called "typing slowly" in hacker jargon). All users of the MP3 software are required to type in a normal way, as defined in the Musicrypt EULA.
Here's a few nobody has mentioned...and should!
on
Essential Anime
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· Score: 1
3x3 Eyes -- (Pronounce it Sazan Eyes, I don't know why), first four episodes. You can get them all at once in the Perfect Collection. After the first four, they made some more in a different style, and they really, really stink. But the first four are amazing. Kind of a fantasy in the modern world. Cute girl with 3 eyes devours soul of nice boy, nice boy becomes unkillable. (You can actually have a good time just trying to count the number of times the poor guy gets creamed...)
Gunsmith Cats -- Girls, guns, and grenades.:) It's silly at times, but most of the action sequences are great. Phenomenal detail on all the weapons and vehicles.
Iria: Zeiram the Animation -- Most original culture I've seen created in a long time. Kind of a modern techno-arabic. Cute girl fights/runs from/fights nearly invincible enemy. Lots of very cool details that give it a really different flavor.
Vampire (Princess) Miyu -- Somebody mentioned this, but I just can't say enough good things about it. Great story, action sequences are satisfying, amazing character development. If you think your life sucks, wait til you see what happened to this poor kid.;) If there is gothic anime, this is it.
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku --:) Exceptionally silly, but very cute, and very funny. Boy's pet cat dies, and his father (who happens to be a runaway android designer) places the cat's brain in a (cute female) mega-powerful android body. Oh yeah, and it has one of the best tag-lines I've ever seen in anime - Nine Lives - Nine Thousand Horsepower
Armitage III -- Good stuff, the main theme (what does it mean to be human? Do sentient machines have rights? Should lifelike robots even be created?) has been done before, but if you pay attention, there's some interesting twists. Please o please DON'T see the Polymatrix version, they used Kiefer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley to do the voice acting for the leads, and in particular, Sutherland does an especially miserable job. I swear, he must have been pissed off at his agent for signing him on this one, because he never broke monotone the whole time. Go for the sub or dubbed version.
AD Police Files, especially #3, The Man who Bites his Tongue. -- Seriously twisted stuff. Robocop - anime style. Very good psychological thriller/action anime. (They actually list a psychologist in the credits on this one!) AD Police is the prequel to Bubblegum Crisis, and shares a few of the same characters and plot elements. Pretty dark stuff.
I hope that one of these days, some big american animation studios will realize there is a market for animation with a serious plot. The first 3-4 minutes of Mulan had me IN AWE of what kind of serious story and animation Disney could create when they want. And then, they introduced that damn little dragon...*sigh*
For everybody running unix based boxen, all you need to do is run finger johnc@idsoftware.com and you get the.plan without going through Blue's terribly/.ed finger script...
I disagree - there is an excellent reason for people to pursue this kind of anti-advertising campaign. Half of these STUPID web-blender.com sites are put up because people want them, or they hear about it, and think it's a good idea, for some god-forsaken reason. If they can show Joe Average Consumer how absurd most of these websites are, by giving examples of just slightly more absurd sites, they might cut down on the willingness of the consumer to put up with that kind of crap.
Every time I hear about a new MMORPG based on popular fiction, I start to wonder about how the developers are going to mess it up. Anybody who followed the development of Middle Earth Online will know what I mean. The original developers set out to create a world VERY consistent with Tolkien's Middle Earth, and to eliminate lots of the problems that made games like UO such a waste of time for players into doing some serious role playing. True to the Lord of the Rings, there would be few (if any) conventional wizards, elves would be a rare sight, etc., etc. The development team was doing a fantastic job. Game engine done, they were getting close to a beta release...and then the top level management decided that the game as it stood didn't appeal to enough of a mass market. Ya see, 12 year old assholes WANT to run around wearing a loincloth yelling "I AM C00l1CU$ D00D1CU$! PH34r mY 1000000 point fireballs, L4m3r!" And if they think that they can earn $20 extra a month, the producers will grab it, at the expense of the story, and at the expense of all the prospective players who want to actually role-play inside a deep, powerful, and awesome world. So they fired the entire dev team and scrapped 2-3 years worth of work, and started over. I suspect that the game will now turn out to be a UO knockoff with hobbits and 20000 Glamdrings.
So don't hold your breath hoping for a star wars rpg with a small number of jedi, and a reasonable race balance.
OK guys, that does it. From this point on, you are commanded to never communicate with any living being again except through/. posts or email. I don't care if you're going into anaphylatic shock - if you don't wanna die, post it. "HEART FAILURE! - from the 'I dont wanna die department'" Oh yeah, and have some cards made up for when the paramedics arrive. "Yes, that hurts a lot." "WHERE are you going to stick that?!"
If you guys wanna know why there's such a fuss made about crackers, and why the judges tend to try to put them away for as long as they can get away with, you have to remember the stupidity of the Common Man(TM). Look at the journalists writing stories about this stuff in the big, mainstream media. 99% of the time, they don't have the slightest clue what they're talking about, and don't understand the how, the why, or even the what of the subject at hand. They know "hackers" attacked the FBI's webpage. FBI COMPUTER SYSTEMS UNDER ATTACK BY VINDICTIVE HACKERS! It's a website, it's all about PR. There's no sensitive material there. But people are afraid of what they don't understand. People are afraid of computers, and they're afraid of hackers. Most of them (including reporters, jurors, judges, and lawmakers) don't understand what computers CAN do, and what computers can do over the internet. Ask the man on the street if he thinks that if a "hacker" could break into a DoD computer, he could launch nuclear missles, or crash spy sattelites. I bet a good number of them would say yes, and many honestly wouldn't know.
The people at large don't understand hackers OR crackers, and what each of them can and will do. They see strange, incredibly smart, indecipherable people, with the power to collapse their world with a few keystrokes. Do you really blame them for erring on the side of greater caution than tolerance?
Slashdot Mirror
But why can't you do such research the "old-fashioned" way - with BOOKS? Yes, the library is there to provide
That's absurd. Just because some hyper-conservative parents out there might be terrified of the idea that little Johnny might see *gasp* a bare breast, the entire adult population should happily accept censorship of an entire medium? Sorry, but no.
Say all books with *wicked naked people* (including Cancer and You and Living With Breast Cancer) are banned from public libraries. That's no big deal! Hey, you can read up on that stuff in magazines, right? What are you complaining about?
The point, which has already been made in earlier posts, is that this is
1) Unacceptable censorship of material adults (and in many cases even children) have the right to access.
2) A promotion of an ineffectual technology to solve an exaggerated problem which can only really only be solved by parents getting up off their sofas and becoming involved in their childrens' lives.
But nobody ever got (re-)elected by telling the parents of america that their children are running wild because they're bad parents. So the rest of us have to live with these ridiculous nostrums and snake oil cures. *sigh*
Well said! And my thanks for making a good many points I would have made myself if I had been able to remember so many of those details which you recounted so well. Time to go reread again...
:)
Frodo on the other hand was a totally clueless hobbit: the only magic he knew was Gandalf's fireworks and smoke rings. Not very scary stuff, is it? If he had any idea what powers the ring held he would have been just as terrified.
Frodo was terrified. Gandalf gives him a very clear picture of the power of the ring when he told of how Smeagol was conquered by the ring. So rightly, the very idea of having anything to do with the thing terrified him. He would not have chosen this burden, but since it was thrust upon him, with no better alternatives, he found the strength to carry it.
The elves had the responsibility to destroy the ring as: a. it was their skills that Sauron had copied to make the ring
Not so. Sauron instructed the elves in the forging of The Three, at a time when he was trusted. He then forged The Seven, The Nine, and The One in secret. The One was made to control all the others - it could not control the Three if he had had no part in their making.
b. they were they supreme race on middle-earth
Nowhere is this even remotely suggested in anything Tokien ever wrote. The gifts given to the Firstborn and to Men were DIFFERENT. Although the elves were essentially immortal, and mastered lore and powers with relative ease, their personalities (at least after the coming of the Men) almost entirely precluded their use. The power of Man was in his will, and his indomitable spirit. Also in the "gift" of death, which gave the lives of man a pace, instead of the kind of complacence and unhurried attitude of many elves. The gifts of hobbits are much the same.
c. they did not know almost anything about hobbits and their resistance to magic or the other physical wounds that you mention as no hobbit before Frodo and his friends had been in such an adventure. Placing their faith on Frodo was therefore totally unjustified.
They knew Frodo had survived, almost untreated, the poisoned, corrupting blade of one of the Nine for several days before arriving at Rivendell. That alone was a fantastic glimpse at the hardiness of a hobbit. They knew Bilbo had borne, and frequently USED, the One for 50+ years without submitting to its evil. How many men OR elves could have done the same? Gandalf had spent much time among hobbits, and knew more of their hardiness than the hobbits themselves did. They had a strength Gandalf knew would be an advantage, and so he argued to allow Pippin, Merry, and Sam to accompany Frodo.
However, I think your main objection is that the One was not at least sent with a few powerful Elven warriors, such as Glorfindel. This is also directly addressed in the Council at Rivendell. If Glorfindel were to go and (I paraphrase) open the way to Mordor by the power that is in him, he would reveal himself to the servants of Sauron, and have the entire army upon him.
The point is that might and power were not the way to Mordor. The only possibility was to go quietly, with a small number of strong companions, and hope to pass unnoticed - something at which hobbits excel.
In general the whole plot of the LotR just seems very "cheap". Gandalf always appears at the right moment to help the others: when he finds the two lesser hobbits (I forget their names), when goes to Gondor, when he rescues Faramir from the fire
It is certainly true that Gandalf played a major role in the events leading to the destruction of the ring - Such was his task in the 3rd age. There was many a time when they would all have been royally screwed without Gandalf.
Then again, they would have been in trouble without any number of others as well. Sam took on the burden of the ring when Frodo had fallen. Merry and Eowyn together slew the cheif ringwraith - this was not a battle Galdalf could have won. They could never have reached the battle at Gondor without the aid of Aragorn.
Don't forget - Gandalf was not perfect. In fact, he died. Due to the fact that (unknown to the fellowship) he was a sort of minor deity, he was able to return to finish the job. Don't attribute too much of the success of the fellowship to Gandalf - Sam and Frodo made most of the journey alone and unaided.
like all those stories with the same theme (Star Wars, The Matrix, E.T) it is good for children, but it does not come close to becoming a proper mythology (like the ancient Greek legents with real heroes battling real monsters and god)
But that's exactly what makes LotR a more interesting story than most Greek Legends - the real hero ISN'T the most powerful out there, he doesn't triumph by defeating the medusa, or wrestling the hydra into submission. It's a triumph of the spirit. Frodo and Sam travel through a sea of enemies, barely survive ageless horrors (Shelob), and finally succeed, starving, dehydrated, and with no hope of escaping alive. They gave their lives to the completion of their goal, and only exceedingly good fortune allowed them to escape alive. It's their dedication, and strength of will, not arms, that makes the story so compelling.
If you're looking for some darker storytelling, with less success and more man/elf vs. god type battle, try the Silmarillion. The history of the 1st and 2nd ages is full of tragedy and loss.
Lastly, check out TheOneRing.net for much better worded and considered arguments regarding the choice of the hobbits as ringbearers. In particular, look at the Green Books for some good answers to many of your quesions and objections.
The Lord of the Rings is NOT a children's book. The story is far too deep, the imagery far too dark.
The Hobbit was a children's book, written for children (Tolkien's own), with the same story in mind.
It makes only the most perfect sense that Frodo be the ringbearer. Certainly, there were many many people who were more qualified to make the journey and return. However, none were better chioces to carry the ring on the journey. You may have forgotten that Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel, a wizard, an elven lord, and an elven lady, (of the third generation of elves ever to live, IIRC), all REFUSED the burden of the ring. They claimed the temptation to use the ring would be too great, and they would only replace Sauron as the next great power of the land, vying for dominance. (Absolute power corrupts absolutely.)
The power of the ring corrupts the bearer, as it has much of Sauron's essence in it. This is why its destruction essentially destroys Sauron, as with it, much of his power passes from the world.
The temptation to take the ring and use it would have been too great for any other being - you may remember how Boromir was found incapable to resist the draw of the ring, although he had never even touched it! The feeling of power and madness the ring gave its bearer would cause a powerful warrior to declare himself its rightful owner and to begin his own reign of power - and in doing so reveal himself to Sauron and be destroyed.
Instead, Frodo was sent with strong companions, who would help him and support him on his journey for as far as they could go.
And don't belittle hobbits (no pun intended) so quickly - Bilbo resisted the draw of the ring's evil for what, 50 years, before he released it. And Frodo and the other hobbits each survived blows and injuries which would have slain outright many strong men and elves.
Read the Lord of the Rings again, and take your time with it, especially the council at Rivendell. You'll be surprised at how much of this is written out there in more or less plain speech.
I know how you feel, and sympathize with it. But I also work a bit on the corporate end, and know how multi-platform development goes. You'll never convince a corporation/manager to completely scrap an existing, functional codebase designed for one platform, only to replace it with new code with the same core functionality and a slightly different (albeit more efficient/better) implementation. For some pretty good reasons, too. It makes the task of maintaining the program dramatically more difficult, as each implementation is different. Plus a good amount of the work done would be reinventing work already done.
I strongly approve the attempts of independent organizations to create applications which don't limit themselves to the functionality of existing products tho. I don't want another star office. A fraction of that functionality, implemented cleanly by linux volunteers, would be far more desirable.
Is the king supposed to just decree that this happens? It will happen eventually, when it makes economic sense. But you have to have an economic space infrastructure to support it.
If you are waiting for when it makes economic sense for companies to move large factories off-planet, you're in for a long wait. It will only become economically feasible when all but the last fraction of a percent of useful resources has already been converted into disposable diapers. Around then, it will be cheaper to get resources from space, and I'm sure the big congolmerates will all launch advertising campaigns about how great they are for caring about the earth and moving their nasty factories into orbit around this useless, polluted, lump of...err, I mean, beautiful, fragile world we call home.
Will this take some serious capital/scientific investments? Absolutely. But the major corporations that own these factories can better afford to foot the bill than the world's governments can, and if the governments actually set some REAL sanctions against pollution, they might actually do it.
And no, of course money does not make science. Scientists make science. How many more scientists do you think would work on this type of project if they could get paid a salary comparable to what they could get in industry? How many goverment employees are in their current jobs because the pay is just outstanding? Pay the scientists what their efforts are worth, and you'll have giant brains the world over lining up on the street to fill out job applications, unlike now, where there are a few idealists and enthusiasts, and the rest guys who couldn't cut it in industry.
Of course, no goverment will ever have the courage to shoot itself in the pocketbook by doing any of this, so the entire discussion is pointless...
...of the English Language, 3rd Edition indicates that either a hard g or a j sound is correct.
Look for yourself.
I'd post the pronunciation here, but I don't know how to make i-breves and stuff in html.
In recent news, internet hackers have broken the secret codes which protect music online. The software, created by a company called Musicrypt.com, uses powerful security techniques to make it safe for musicians to place their music online. The software created by Musicrypt uses a complicated security technique (called random guessing). It works by verifying that the listener is actually the legal owner of the song in question, by being so innacurate as to force the listener to purchase a new copy every time they wish to listen to the music.
An RIAA spokesperson was quoted as saying, "These internet pirates are stealing the food from our mouths! We hardly have enough money to light the pilots on our gas stoves. The government needs to step in and once again make the world safe for music, puppies, and the American Dream." The RIAA has issued an injunction against anyone using the internet pirate hacker technique (called "typing slowly" in hacker jargon). All users of the MP3 software are required to type in a normal way, as defined in the Musicrypt EULA.
3x3 Eyes -- (Pronounce it Sazan Eyes, I don't know why), first four episodes. You can get them all at once in the Perfect Collection. After the first four, they made some more in a different style, and they really, really stink. But the first four are amazing. Kind of a fantasy in the modern world. Cute girl with 3 eyes devours soul of nice boy, nice boy becomes unkillable. (You can actually have a good time just trying to count the number of times the poor guy gets creamed...)
:) It's silly at times, but most of the action sequences are great. Phenomenal detail on all the weapons and vehicles.
;) If there is gothic anime, this is it.
:) Exceptionally silly, but very cute, and very funny. Boy's pet cat dies, and his father (who happens to be a runaway android designer) places the cat's brain in a (cute female) mega-powerful android body. Oh yeah, and it has one of the best tag-lines I've ever seen in anime - Nine Lives - Nine Thousand Horsepower
Gunsmith Cats -- Girls, guns, and grenades.
Iria: Zeiram the Animation -- Most original culture I've seen created in a long time. Kind of a modern techno-arabic. Cute girl fights/runs from/fights nearly invincible enemy. Lots of very cool details that give it a really different flavor.
Vampire (Princess) Miyu -- Somebody mentioned this, but I just can't say enough good things about it. Great story, action sequences are satisfying, amazing character development. If you think your life sucks, wait til you see what happened to this poor kid.
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku --
Armitage III -- Good stuff, the main theme (what does it mean to be human? Do sentient machines have rights? Should lifelike robots even be created?) has been done before, but if you pay attention, there's some interesting twists. Please o please DON'T see the Polymatrix version, they used Kiefer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley to do the voice acting for the leads, and in particular, Sutherland does an especially miserable job. I swear, he must have been pissed off at his agent for signing him on this one, because he never broke monotone the whole time. Go for the sub or dubbed version.
AD Police Files, especially #3, The Man who Bites his Tongue. -- Seriously twisted stuff. Robocop - anime style. Very good psychological thriller/action anime. (They actually list a psychologist in the credits on this one!) AD Police is the prequel to Bubblegum Crisis, and shares a few of the same characters and plot elements. Pretty dark stuff.
I hope that one of these days, some big american animation studios will realize there is a market for animation with a serious plot. The first 3-4 minutes of Mulan had me IN AWE of what kind of serious story and animation Disney could create when they want.
And then, they introduced that damn little dragon...*sigh*
For everybody running unix based boxen, all you need to do is run .plan without going through Blue's terribly /.ed finger script...
finger johnc@idsoftware.com
and you get the
...for the preceeding "jokes." Those responsible have been sacked.
I disagree - there is an excellent reason for people to pursue this kind of anti-advertising campaign. Half of these STUPID web-blender.com sites are put up because people want them, or they hear about it, and think it's a good idea, for some god-forsaken reason. If they can show Joe Average Consumer how absurd most of these websites are, by giving examples of just slightly more absurd sites, they might cut down on the willingness of the consumer to put up with that kind of crap.
Every time I hear about a new MMORPG based on popular fiction, I start to wonder about how the developers are going to mess it up. Anybody who followed the development of Middle Earth Online will know what I mean. The original developers set out to create a world VERY consistent with Tolkien's Middle Earth, and to eliminate lots of the problems that made games like UO such a waste of time for players into doing some serious role playing. True to the Lord of the Rings, there would be few (if any) conventional wizards, elves would be a rare sight, etc., etc.
The development team was doing a fantastic job. Game engine done, they were getting close to a beta release...and then the top level management decided that the game as it stood didn't appeal to enough of a mass market. Ya see, 12 year old assholes WANT to run around wearing a loincloth yelling "I AM C00l1CU$ D00D1CU$! PH34r mY 1000000 point fireballs, L4m3r!" And if they think that they can earn $20 extra a month, the producers will grab it, at the expense of the story, and at the expense of all the prospective players who want to actually role-play inside a deep, powerful, and awesome world.
So they fired the entire dev team and scrapped 2-3 years worth of work, and started over. I suspect that the game will now turn out to be a UO knockoff with hobbits and 20000 Glamdrings.
So don't hold your breath hoping for a star wars rpg with a small number of jedi, and a reasonable race balance.
I 4M D4r7h D00D1Cu$, n4k3D $1th L0rD fr0M H3LL!
It should be Murray, Dark Linux Lizard of the Apocalypse!
We may smile when we say global domination, but that doesn't mean we're kidding.
&ru
OK guys, that does it. From this point on, you /. posts or
are commanded to never communicate with any
living being again except through
email. I don't care if you're going into
anaphylatic shock - if you don't wanna die, post
it. "HEART FAILURE! - from the 'I dont wanna die
department'"
Oh yeah, and have some cards made up for when the
paramedics arrive. "Yes, that hurts a lot."
"WHERE are you going to stick that?!"
If you guys wanna know why there's such a fuss made about crackers, and why the judges tend to try to put them away for as long as they can get away with, you have to remember the stupidity of the Common Man(TM). Look at the journalists writing stories about this stuff in the big, mainstream media. 99% of the time, they don't have the slightest clue what they're talking about, and don't understand the how, the why, or even the what of the subject at hand. They know "hackers" attacked the FBI's webpage. FBI COMPUTER SYSTEMS UNDER ATTACK BY VINDICTIVE HACKERS! It's a website, it's all about PR. There's no sensitive material there. But people are afraid of what they don't understand. People are afraid of computers, and they're afraid of hackers. Most of them (including reporters, jurors, judges, and lawmakers) don't understand what computers CAN do, and what computers can do over the internet. Ask the man on the street if he thinks that if a "hacker" could break into a DoD computer, he could launch nuclear missles, or crash spy sattelites. I bet a good number of them would say yes, and many honestly wouldn't know.
The people at large don't understand hackers OR crackers, and what each of them can and will do. They see strange, incredibly smart, indecipherable people, with the power to collapse their world with a few keystrokes. Do you really blame them for erring on the side of greater caution than tolerance?