A shame I had to get halfway down the comments to find an actual interperetation of the art behind the movie. (Yes art, neither ACC or Kubrick were LSD users.)
One of the interesting things about the movie, is the presense of man-God relationships. The unknown intelligence plays the role of Biblical God when they spark human evolution. Humans play the role of God when they create Hal. Hal's total control of the spaceship is certainly Godlike, but man (Dave) re-asserts his role as creator.
The last 20 mins or so of the film are hard to understand/explain because they are meant to be so. I think that Dave comes into contact with alien technology so advanced that he cannot process its effects on him in a rational way.
I think someone got beat up by a big kid in a yarmulke on the playground and never quite got over it.
Or were you rejected from art school?
It's times like these, when my belief in absolute free speach and my dislike of loud morons come into conflict, that I just have to lay down and take a nap, pretending that all is right in this world.
Actually first person shooters (the ones that sell at least) take longer and more money to develop than any other genre. Electronic Arts could have produced 50 turn based historic war strategy games for what a Quake3 costs. Actually, this is a large part of the problem. Publishing companies expect the kind of percent return that they get from developing the latest whiz-bang engines with tacked on games from everything, so they are killing off less profitable genres. Flightsims, turn based strategy, and many other "classic" genres are no longer supported by the major companies.
I think the solution is a good library for amateur games. It would be cross-platform, powerful, and simple enough so that someone with only modest coding experience could get some sprites on the screen after reading a simple HOWTO. Sounds like a job for the open source community. Any takers?
I bought Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy I (I sold it long ago in a very poorly considered garage sale move) on the same day. I got somewhere on disk 3 of IX and haven't really bothered to finish it. I've played through I (A much more challenging game) several times. Why?
Well, to me, Final Fantasy I is just more fun. I can't really explain it, other than all of the video and effects can do only two things, either they can help tell a story, or detract from the gameplay experience. In FFIX they do both. Only the story isn't that great. Squaresoft games, as much as I love them, really fall short on the story side of things pretty often. IMHO, only FF3, FFVII, and Chrono Trigger (NOT Chrono Cross, good God!) have had storylines and characters worth caring about. So what's left is gameplay, and FFI for all its simplicity, is a purer and more rewarding game experience. Quake2 is not as much fun as Doom. Sure it looks nicer, but that's about it.
I suppose its all a matter of taste, but for me, doing the same thing over and over again with incrimental improvements in technology isn't that rewarding. For instance, the long Megaman series reached its peak of quality with Megaman 2, which was simple, but very well executed.
Also I haven't been impressed with graphics or sound in quite a long while. When I first saw really good FMV on Final Fantasy VII, that was about the last time that my jaw dropped in amazement at graphics. Its like movies. Has anyone else completely stopped being impressed by cgi graphics in film. I look at the armies in the Lord of the Rings trailer and I don't care. In fact, that odd plastic like quality of cgi has really begun to annoy me. Compare Mission to Mars (made in 2000) and 2001: A space odyssey (Made in 1968) Minus the ape suits, 2001 has BETTER special effects. Well done model effects can look better than cgi. Don't tell hollywood.
In the same vein, well done 2D sprite animation can be better than 3D. The limitations of 2D never bothered me, 2D is distanced enough from reality so that even in the 2600 days I could say "OK, those three pixels are that guy's head" but when early 3D games started hitting the shelves, I was bothered by, say, a painted cube or whatnot being someones hand. It bothers me much more when I reach the invisible "wall" at the border of a 3D world than a 2D one. As games better approxamate reality, the differences become more and more clear.
Conspiracy theorists annoy me more than just about any other group of crazies. Sure the government isn't telling the whole truth about everything. So instead of them lets believe.... some nutcase working out of his basement! Its interesting to see people who claim to be so critical of every fact produced by the "authorities" take on nearly blind faith the writings of major conspiracy theorists. Heres a theory: 99% of all conspiracy theories are either hoaxes, or exist to make money through publishing/television.
Personally I don't believe that our government has the ability to cover up anything larger than individual military research projects. Keeping a stealth secret for a few years is one thing, faking a lunar landing with 1960s technology is quite another. Oh and b.t.w. with a very good telescope you can SEE the lunar landing site.
Hell, I love technology, but when I want to re-read my favorites (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Catcher in the Rye, Mrs. Dalloway) I want dead (or recycled) trees and ink, not a glowing LCD.
I agree, from what I know of protein synthesis, it seems like they should just be able to put this "spider silk" gene into a vat of e. coli cells and produce millions of gallons an hour.
<BR><BR>
but then the goat thing made for a funnier slashdot article.
"Thank you, Science. We'll keep the taxpayer dollars rolling in."
Actually if you had read the article you'd know that the company's funding comes from their IPO, or in other words PRIVATE INVESTORS. So yes thank you, science for trying to make money, which is what most science is, a capitalist endevour.
I really dislike the notion that all science is is publicly funded medical research for the "Good Of Man." Even most cancer research is done by drug companies hoping to get really really rich. And that's the way it should be. So it's silly to critisize scientists for pursueing "worthless" tasks, since they have their motivations.
Readers should be able to moderate whole stories... that way the slash team could know what we do and don't want to see more of....
in fact, a story modding system could be used to *post* stories, thereby removing any central control of slashdot, and getting it closer to its "open" ideal.
actually in most states the age of consent is below 18, in some it is as low as *12* (for non virgins) so while it is legal for two fourteen year olds to have sex, it is illegal to take pictures? how can photographs documenting legal acts be illegal?
also: what about older photographs. "child pornography" is not just sexual acts. according to the law as i read it (i did a paper on US sex laws a year or so ago) "child pornography" also includes close ups of genitalia. there are any number of ways that such images could potentially be produced without harming even young children. one could even imagine a situation in which children acting in innocence could *produce* such images. i've never seen any actual child pornography -- i imagine it is fairly rare given fear of the law, but i would imagine that such non "explicit" photos would also be common enough to be a significant legal concern.
Child porn is an interesting special case with US speach laws as it is the ONLY form of speach that is universally banned. Libel is allowed in some forms - satire, critique, private conversation, and so are images, stories, movies, etc. of almost ANY other illegal act. Raping a child and murdering a child are at worst equally evil acts, one of which though, would be legal to show pictures of. It's confusing and inconsistant.
I'm not suggesting that the laws should be changed. The laws are in place to protect children... and i'm sure they do help. BUT such strict definitions of pornography hurt legitimate artists.
actually it has a *lot* to do with portability. the reason that any of this is possible is that id has released the sourcecode to its older games under the GPL, hence people can make 3d accelerated doom versions and portable quake.
I also want a laptop that weighs less than 2lbs with battery and is about as thick as a notepad.
The Sony Picturebook is actually pretty rad and is exactly what you're looking for.
I love the people that criticise this type of thing. The idea is "why give them computers and schools when they need medicine and food?" My first question to them is "how much food have you given the starving Cambodians?"
I see the necessity of this type of thing. Education and technology are needed to break the cycle of poverty that keeps third world nations locked in their positions. There are other, quite good, organizations that deal with medical aid and hunger relief.<BR><BR><BR>
My other question is, how does this story have anything to do with Judeism, the Aids virus, or the Holocaust? Several ACs are spouting blatant anti-semitic slurrs, for which there is no excuse. Slurrs don't accomplish anything other than lowering the level of intellectual discourse. then Mr. sales_worldwide is posting random links to www.ihr.org and www.rethinkingaids.com, organizations i find questionable, but they certainly have their right to express their views. BUT, these have nothing to do with the article, which, if anyone remembers, is about a program in cambodia to build schools and train orphaned children to use computer technology!!! I've seen some bad posts on Slashdot, but most of this crop really takes the cake.<BR><BR>
/end irritated rant.<BR><BR>
actually, you can be easily traced on usenet by isp logs, your post can be removed by moderators, and your isp can choose to block certain groups, making usenet not at all like freenet.
Slashdot Mirror
A shame I had to get halfway down the comments to find an actual interperetation of the art behind the movie. (Yes art, neither ACC or Kubrick were LSD users.)
One of the interesting things about the movie, is the presense of man-God relationships. The unknown intelligence plays the role of Biblical God when they spark human evolution. Humans play the role of God when they create Hal. Hal's total control of the spaceship is certainly Godlike, but man (Dave) re-asserts his role as creator.
The last 20 mins or so of the film are hard to understand/explain because they are meant to be so. I think that Dave comes into contact with alien technology so advanced that he cannot process its effects on him in a rational way.
Wow! My friends have no emotions? Sure fooled me.
I think someone got beat up by a big kid in a yarmulke on the playground and never quite got over it.
Or were you rejected from art school?
It's times like these, when my belief in absolute free speach and my dislike of loud morons come into conflict, that I just have to lay down and take a nap, pretending that all is right in this world.
No, scam to get april fools laughs... so who's the clueless PHB now?
... what the animal on the cover will be?
can't think of anything appropriate.
Actually first person shooters (the ones that sell at least) take longer and more money to develop than any other genre. Electronic Arts could have produced 50 turn based historic war strategy games for what a Quake3 costs. Actually, this is a large part of the problem. Publishing companies expect the kind of percent return that they get from developing the latest whiz-bang engines with tacked on games from everything, so they are killing off less profitable genres. Flightsims, turn based strategy, and many other "classic" genres are no longer supported by the major companies.
I think the solution is a good library for amateur games. It would be cross-platform, powerful, and simple enough so that someone with only modest coding experience could get some sprites on the screen after reading a simple HOWTO. Sounds like a job for the open source community. Any takers?
I bought Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy I (I sold it long ago in a very poorly considered garage sale move) on the same day. I got somewhere on disk 3 of IX and haven't really bothered to finish it. I've played through I (A much more challenging game) several times. Why?
Well, to me, Final Fantasy I is just more fun. I can't really explain it, other than all of the video and effects can do only two things, either they can help tell a story, or detract from the gameplay experience. In FFIX they do both. Only the story isn't that great. Squaresoft games, as much as I love them, really fall short on the story side of things pretty often. IMHO, only FF3, FFVII, and Chrono Trigger (NOT Chrono Cross, good God!) have had storylines and characters worth caring about. So what's left is gameplay, and FFI for all its simplicity, is a purer and more rewarding game experience. Quake2 is not as much fun as Doom. Sure it looks nicer, but that's about it.
I suppose its all a matter of taste, but for me, doing the same thing over and over again with incrimental improvements in technology isn't that rewarding. For instance, the long Megaman series reached its peak of quality with Megaman 2, which was simple, but very well executed.
Also I haven't been impressed with graphics or sound in quite a long while. When I first saw really good FMV on Final Fantasy VII, that was about the last time that my jaw dropped in amazement at graphics. Its like movies. Has anyone else completely stopped being impressed by cgi graphics in film. I look at the armies in the Lord of the Rings trailer and I don't care. In fact, that odd plastic like quality of cgi has really begun to annoy me. Compare Mission to Mars (made in 2000) and 2001: A space odyssey (Made in 1968) Minus the ape suits, 2001 has BETTER special effects. Well done model effects can look better than cgi. Don't tell hollywood.
In the same vein, well done 2D sprite animation can be better than 3D. The limitations of 2D never bothered me, 2D is distanced enough from reality so that even in the 2600 days I could say "OK, those three pixels are that guy's head" but when early 3D games started hitting the shelves, I was bothered by, say, a painted cube or whatnot being someones hand. It bothers me much more when I reach the invisible "wall" at the border of a 3D world than a 2D one. As games better approxamate reality, the differences become more and more clear.
Wow that rambled.
Conspiracy theorists annoy me more than just about any other group of crazies. Sure the government isn't telling the whole truth about everything. So instead of them lets believe.... some nutcase working out of his basement! Its interesting to see people who claim to be so critical of every fact produced by the "authorities" take on nearly blind faith the writings of major conspiracy theorists. Heres a theory: 99% of all conspiracy theories are either hoaxes, or exist to make money through publishing/television.
Personally I don't believe that our government has the ability to cover up anything larger than individual military research projects. Keeping a stealth secret for a few years is one thing, faking a lunar landing with 1960s technology is quite another. Oh and b.t.w. with a very good telescope you can SEE the lunar landing site.
Hell, I love technology, but when I want to re-read my favorites (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Catcher in the Rye, Mrs. Dalloway) I want dead (or recycled) trees and ink, not a glowing LCD.
that I'm a very big fan of this!!! oh, I kill me!
I agree, from what I know of protein synthesis, it seems like they should just be able to put this "spider silk" gene into a vat of e. coli cells and produce millions of gallons an hour.
<BR><BR>
but then the goat thing made for a funnier slashdot article.
"Thank you, Science. We'll keep the taxpayer dollars rolling in." Actually if you had read the article you'd know that the company's funding comes from their IPO, or in other words PRIVATE INVESTORS. So yes thank you, science for trying to make money, which is what most science is, a capitalist endevour. I really dislike the notion that all science is is publicly funded medical research for the "Good Of Man." Even most cancer research is done by drug companies hoping to get really really rich. And that's the way it should be. So it's silly to critisize scientists for pursueing "worthless" tasks, since they have their motivations.
Readers should be able to moderate whole stories... that way the slash team could know what we do and don't want to see more of....
in fact, a story modding system could be used to *post* stories, thereby removing any central control of slashdot, and getting it closer to its "open" ideal.
actually in most states the age of consent is below 18, in some it is as low as *12* (for non virgins) so while it is legal for two fourteen year olds to have sex, it is illegal to take pictures? how can photographs documenting legal acts be illegal?
also: what about older photographs. "child pornography" is not just sexual acts. according to the law as i read it (i did a paper on US sex laws a year or so ago) "child pornography" also includes close ups of genitalia. there are any number of ways that such images could potentially be produced without harming even young children. one could even imagine a situation in which children acting in innocence could *produce* such images. i've never seen any actual child pornography -- i imagine it is fairly rare given fear of the law, but i would imagine that such non "explicit" photos would also be common enough to be a significant legal concern.
Child porn is an interesting special case with US speach laws as it is the ONLY form of speach that is universally banned. Libel is allowed in some forms - satire, critique, private conversation, and so are images, stories, movies, etc. of almost ANY other illegal act. Raping a child and murdering a child are at worst equally evil acts, one of which though, would be legal to show pictures of. It's confusing and inconsistant.
I'm not suggesting that the laws should be changed. The laws are in place to protect children... and i'm sure they do help. BUT such strict definitions of pornography hurt legitimate artists.
i've seen a 92 and 89 port of wolf somewhere, but i've got no idea about a link... anyone have it?
actually it has a *lot* to do with portability. the reason that any of this is possible is that id has released the sourcecode to its older games under the GPL, hence people can make 3d accelerated doom versions and portable quake.
oh shut up! someone makes a portable QUAKE and you bitch about the LCD?
some people...
... that a phone number has been slashdotted. although I'm probably wrong about that. :-)
I also want a laptop that weighs less than 2lbs with battery and is about as thick as a notepad. The Sony Picturebook is actually pretty rad and is exactly what you're looking for.
He was joking right? right?
someone please tell me he was joking.
I love the people that criticise this type of thing. The idea is "why give them computers and schools when they need medicine and food?" My first question to them is "how much food have you given the starving Cambodians?"
I see the necessity of this type of thing. Education and technology are needed to break the cycle of poverty that keeps third world nations locked in their positions. There are other, quite good, organizations that deal with medical aid and hunger relief.<BR><BR><BR>
My other question is, how does this story have anything to do with Judeism, the Aids virus, or the Holocaust? Several ACs are spouting blatant anti-semitic slurrs, for which there is no excuse. Slurrs don't accomplish anything other than lowering the level of intellectual discourse. then Mr. sales_worldwide is posting random links to www.ihr.org and www.rethinkingaids.com, organizations i find questionable, but they certainly have their right to express their views. BUT, these have nothing to do with the article, which, if anyone remembers, is about a program in cambodia to build schools and train orphaned children to use computer technology!!! I've seen some bad posts on Slashdot, but most of this crop really takes the cake.<BR><BR>
/end irritated rant.<BR><BR>
I like pop, just not popular pop. "Poppy" Beach Boys influenced bands like the Apples in Stereo are great.
when i first read your sig i thought it said "mountain of feces" man i'm getting tired...
If your sig was meant to be ironic, then good job.
If not, then it's still damn funny.<BR><BR>
actually, you can be easily traced on usenet by isp logs, your post can be removed by moderators, and your isp can choose to block certain groups, making usenet not at all like freenet.
I hate people who hate people