I'd suggest reading this, as it might (maybe) put your (and/or other people's) mind at ease a bit. It sounds like the director is really sticking as closely as possible to what DNA wanted.
"Ford's color was never given, or I'm mistaken. We just assumed he was white."
In the books his colour was never given. However, I referred to the tv series. His colour was mentioned by the fact that he was visible on the screen. And he was quite definitely white. The book does mention him having ginger hair, or something like that. We'll see if Mos Def has ginger hair.
"I don't recall Trillian being described physically in the books"
She is quite definitely described. And she is quite definitely described as having dark hair.
As I mentioned in another thread, Douglas Adams wrote the early draft of the script. He had been working on this film for many years before his untimely death, and many of the people still working on it had worked closely with him while he was alive. For all any of us know, he may have personally sketched out the early prototypes of what he wanted this new Heart of Gold to look like. Yet, everything in this movie that isn't 100% identical to the book (or to whatever your particular preferred variation is) will immediately be jumped upon by everyone as "Disney ruining H2G2".
Personally, I intend to go to the movie and enjoy it for what it is, which is yet another incarnation of H2G2. Obviously, I expect that some things will be lifted straight from the books, radio play, tv series, records, stage productions, computer game, whatever. And, I expect that some things will be completely new.
And some of those new things will come from the minds of people other than Douglas Adams. And guess what... that's the way it would have been even if he was still alive. He let Steve Meretzky write some of the jokes for the H2G2 computer game. He had been collaborating with Jay Roach on the early drafts of the movie script. In short, he let other people have input into most (if not all) of his work.
Anyway, I recommend reading the interview with the director at the official movie site. I can respect this guy and what he has done to bring this movie to the screen. It can never be exactly what Douglas Adams wanted, because Douglas Adams didn't live to finish it. But it's going to be close enough, and that's good enough for me.
And I'm certainly not going to whine about the HOG not looking like a shoe.
The obstensible objection to the hardware and software currency detection would probably be that it does nothing to catch actual counterfeiters but does inconveniance legitimate users.
Or perhaps what it really accomplishes is discouraging the amateur counterfeiter.
In other words, we all know that the professional counterfeiters will not be inconvenienced by this one bit. But, what about the teenager who notices that the quality of scanned/printed images he gets using his dad's computer is so good that he can produce an exact duplicate of a $50 bill with little effort? He may not use this new-found skill with much frequency to be a serious concern to law enforcement, but if it's really that easy, he won't be the only one doing this. Suddenly, half the money being spent by 16-year-olds is counterfeit money. Law enforcement can't just crack down on an individual who's doing this, because virtually everyone is doing it.
So, measures such as this come in to prevent that from becoming a problem.
Anyway, that's just something that came to mind as I was reading your post. I don't actually support these measures, but I thought I'd throw that into the ring.
"This chain of event stays the same at least in the numerous plays and the book."
Actually, I think you're correct. What actually happens, I believe, is they go to Magrathea, then on to Milliways, but most of the rest of the events from the first book that happen prior to those two events in the book, happened after them in the radio series. According to the introduction in the omnibus edition of the first four books, the first book was based on radio series episodes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 5 and 6, in that order, and the second book was based on the rest of episode 5, and then a bunch of new stuff. And, as Douglas Adams goes on to explain, the third book was not based on anything, and flatly contradicts episodes 7 through 12.:)
Anyway, the point being: everything changes in the world of H2G2, and that's the way I like.
"That doesn't give Disney the right to come up with a version that not only totally contradicts every single one of Adams' versions, but also totally contradicts everything the man's legions of fans can possibly believe the man himself would ever have come up with."
How do you know Disney came up with the new Heart of Gold? Adams put many years into planning this movie. A lot of people involved with it right now are personal friends of his. Maybe this was his vision.
All I'm saying is that I'm not going to immediately jump on Disney for "ruining" this simply because parts of it, or even most of it if that's the case, differ from the previous versions. I'm going to go see the movie and enjoy it for what it is. It's not the book, and it's not the radio play. It's the movie. And it will be different.
"Sorry, but that rendering of the Heart of Gold looks wrong."
How can it be "wrong"? If that's what it looks like in the movie, then it is absolutely not wrong.
To be more precise, the movie is not the book. The book is not the radio play. The radio play is not the tv series. And the tv series is most definitely not the Infocom text adventure game.
If I recall correctly, in the radio play and tv series, the characters went to Milliways before they got to Magrathea. In the books, Milliways happened in the second book, with Magrathea happening in the first. Definite contradiction there. In the books, Trillian is clearly described as being brunette and extremely intelligent. In the tv series she was a dumb ditzy blonde. In the movie, Ford Prefect is black. In the tv series, he was white.
Douglas Adams always changed things up when the story went from one medium to another. There is no right or wrong in telling the H2G2 story. The story simply is whatever it is in whatever medium you happen to be experiencing it in. In this medium, the Heart of Gold is a ball. In the book, it was a shoe. If you want the shoe version, read the book. But this isn't the book, it's the movie, and it will differ, even contradict, the other versions -- which, by the way, frequently contradict each other already. This is nothing new. It's the way it has always been in the universe of H2G2.
"And I thought the general shape of the Heart of Gold was that of a sneaker"
The thing about the H2G2 universe, though, is that everything changes, nothing is definite, and many things that exist in one of the versions of the story (radio, tv, book, computer game, movie, whatever) completely contradict the way things are in the other versions. That's the way Douglas Adams wanted it to be.
To quote the man himself (from A Guide To The Guide: Some unhelpful remarks from the author in the omnibus edition of the first four books in the Trilogy...
The History of
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is now so complicated that every time I tell it I contradict myself, and whenever I do get it right I'm misquoted. So the publication of this omnibus edition seemed like a good opportunity to set the record straight -- or at least firmly crooked. Anything that is put down wrong here is, as far as I'm concerned, wrong for good.
And you'll notice that he made that statement in 1943. You'll also notice that the statement is not "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers ever." What he said was probably quite true at that time.
"A one man performance of the original material, is a transfer of media or adaptation. Without intent to parody this is actually copyright infringement..."
Just an interesting note regarding the above... if the grandparent poster was referring to this guy, not only does Lucas approve of what he's done, but apparently the guy has been invited to the Episide III launch celebration in Minneapolis, where he will also perform his show with the help of LucasFilm staff.
You know, oddly enough it is her personality that makes me want to see her movies. I mean, I'm not denying the physical attraction factor. She is, in my humble opinion, the single sexiest woman in Hollywood. But that is not just because of her physical appearance. Her personality is a huge part of what makes her attractive to me, and a huge part of why I go to see her movies.
I'm also a big fan of Steve Buscemi, and I'll see any movie he's in. I'm in no way attracted to him the way I am to Angelina Jolie, but I like his personality, and possibly more importantly, I respect his opinion regarding what films are worth being in. If he's in a movie, experience has taught me that it generally means it's going to be a good movie.
I've mentioned this in another comment, and others have pointed it out as well. To a lot of people, the big draw to a movie is the actors that are in it. For example, I will go see absolutely any movie that has Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy, or Angelina Jolie in it. Take away the star factor, and you take away the reason a lot of people will bother to see the movie.
"The studios would much rather have CG actors than have to pay $10-25 million dollars to actors."
Personally, I'm going to see this movie for one reason: Angelina Jolie is in it. I'm going with a female friend of mine, who wants to see it for one reason: Jude Law is in it.
For a lot of people, it's the personalities of specific actors that draw them into the theatres.
Of course, if movie companies start putting out movies with all CG characters, and nobody goes to see them, they'll just blame the decline in ticket sales on piracy and push for more laws.
I have responses to your other points, but it's point #2 that I hear the most and want to reply to.
SPs invite use of vendor-specific features, and therefore lock-in and loss of portability.
First of all, is this really an issue? I mean, I'm sure that there are companies out there that actually switch their DBMS at some point, but how often does this occur? Most of the companies I've worked for made a DBMS decision ages ago and stuck with it. It seems to me that a lot of people talk about the idea of DBMS portability as if it's just one of those things you plan for regardless of whether or not you actually have a reason to plan for it. I think it's an issue that becomes a reality only in a tiny fraction of situations.
Also, as another poster pointed out, why would you spend $x00,000 on DBMS product X, and not actually use the features it gives you? The use of vendor-specific features should be, to some extent, the very reason you went with that vendor in the first place.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head. For the record, I'm somewhat on the fence on this issue. I think SPs are essential in a client/server environment (yes, there are still tons of them out there, even new projects), but I'm still debating their use in an n-tiered environment.
"...we should be dedicated staff who desire to be responsive and should do what it takes to make that happen. The rumor now is that we should also pay for blackberries, cell phones and pagers."
Absolutely!
At the company I run, not only are my employees dedicated enough that they're willing to go the extra mile to ensure availability in the off hours, but they do the same during workdays as well. They work in a cubicle that they rent, with a desktop PC that they purchase from the company (at a more than reasonable rate, due to the volume discount that we get and generously pass on to them), use office supplies that they provide, and even pitch in for their share of the electric bill.
Some would call it "wage slavery". I call it "smart business".
Of course, this is only theoretical, since I haven't actually hired anyone yet. In fact, no one has even sent me a resume. I'm sure it's because everyone's such loyal and dedicated employees that they just don't want to leave the companies they're already working for.
The whole point of certification, in my opinion, is to get your foot in the door. I put my certifications on my resume in the hopes that a recruiter will be interested in interviewing me. Once we're in the interview, that's when we talk about experience. I don't mention the certifications at that point. They exist to convince the recruiter that I'm worth talking to, in order to find out whether or not I'm worth hiring.
Certification on resume != hired
... but...
Certification on resume = interview Impressive interview = hired
"...THX 1138 is not something that's likely to appeal to too many Star Wars fans..."
You seem to make the assumption that Star Wars fans only like movies that are like Star Wars. This is a rather silly assumption, considering that most of us are Star Wars fans because we grew up on it, and have completely different tastes in movies as adults than we did as children. As a child, I loved "Howard the Duck". I also loved "The Jungle Book". As an adult, I'll take something along the lines of "Memento" or "Following", or "Fargo" when I'm in the mood for a laugh, or just about anything with William H. Macey in it, or Steve Buscemi -- with the exception of "Armageddon", which is about the closest he's come to a "Star Wars"-ish movie, and you couldn't pay me to watch it. And I loved "THX 1138".
If you're careful about where you give out your email address, you can give it out and avoid spam. The problem is, all it takes is one small mistake and you're screwed.
My work email address has never received a single bit of spam (so far). I give it out frequently, but I'm careful about who I give it to. My home email address didn't get any spam for many years, until I made a single post to a newsgroup and (accidentally) included my real email address. That address is now essentially unusable. It gets 50 or so spam emails every day.
At first glance it may not seem like "stuff that matters", but it's attracted more comments than any other item on the main page at this point in time.
In case you needed proof that geeks are an odd bunch.....
The problem I have with what you're saying is that you're pointing to arguments that are essentially academic. The simple reality is that in all the years that I've been surfing the web, experimenting with various versions of IE, Netscape, Opera (I still secretly cheer for Opera) Avant Browser and Mozilla, I've never encountered a rendering issue in IE/Avant in any of my day-to-day web use. I have encountered rendering issues in all of the other browsers I've tried -- except Mozilla, but I only used it once to check out a page I'd built, just to be sure it looked good on multiple browsers.
I do realize that, to some extent, this is because people code to IE. But, like it or not, that simply means that the best browsing experience on a Windows box will be with IE, or, in my opinion, with Avant.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd suggest reading this, as it might (maybe) put your (and/or other people's) mind at ease a bit. It sounds like the director is really sticking as closely as possible to what DNA wanted.
In the books his colour was never given. However, I referred to the tv series. His colour was mentioned by the fact that he was visible on the screen. And he was quite definitely white. The book does mention him having ginger hair, or something like that. We'll see if Mos Def has ginger hair.
"I don't recall Trillian being described physically in the books"
She is quite definitely described. And she is quite definitely described as having dark hair.
As I mentioned in another thread, Douglas Adams wrote the early draft of the script. He had been working on this film for many years before his untimely death, and many of the people still working on it had worked closely with him while he was alive. For all any of us know, he may have personally sketched out the early prototypes of what he wanted this new Heart of Gold to look like. Yet, everything in this movie that isn't 100% identical to the book (or to whatever your particular preferred variation is) will immediately be jumped upon by everyone as "Disney ruining H2G2".
Personally, I intend to go to the movie and enjoy it for what it is, which is yet another incarnation of H2G2. Obviously, I expect that some things will be lifted straight from the books, radio play, tv series, records, stage productions, computer game, whatever. And, I expect that some things will be completely new.
And some of those new things will come from the minds of people other than Douglas Adams. And guess what... that's the way it would have been even if he was still alive. He let Steve Meretzky write some of the jokes for the H2G2 computer game. He had been collaborating with Jay Roach on the early drafts of the movie script. In short, he let other people have input into most (if not all) of his work.
Anyway, I recommend reading the interview with the director at the official movie site. I can respect this guy and what he has done to bring this movie to the screen. It can never be exactly what Douglas Adams wanted, because Douglas Adams didn't live to finish it. But it's going to be close enough, and that's good enough for me.
And I'm certainly not going to whine about the HOG not looking like a shoe.
In other words, we all know that the professional counterfeiters will not be inconvenienced by this one bit. But, what about the teenager who notices that the quality of scanned/printed images he gets using his dad's computer is so good that he can produce an exact duplicate of a $50 bill with little effort? He may not use this new-found skill with much frequency to be a serious concern to law enforcement, but if it's really that easy, he won't be the only one doing this. Suddenly, half the money being spent by 16-year-olds is counterfeit money. Law enforcement can't just crack down on an individual who's doing this, because virtually everyone is doing it.
So, measures such as this come in to prevent that from becoming a problem.
Anyway, that's just something that came to mind as I was reading your post. I don't actually support these measures, but I thought I'd throw that into the ring.
Actually, I think you're correct. What actually happens, I believe, is they go to Magrathea, then on to Milliways, but most of the rest of the events from the first book that happen prior to those two events in the book, happened after them in the radio series. According to the introduction in the omnibus edition of the first four books, the first book was based on radio series episodes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 5 and 6, in that order, and the second book was based on the rest of episode 5, and then a bunch of new stuff. And, as Douglas Adams goes on to explain, the third book was not based on anything, and flatly contradicts episodes 7 through 12. :)
Anyway, the point being: everything changes in the world of H2G2, and that's the way I like.
How do you know Disney came up with the new Heart of Gold? Adams put many years into planning this movie. A lot of people involved with it right now are personal friends of his. Maybe this was his vision.
All I'm saying is that I'm not going to immediately jump on Disney for "ruining" this simply because parts of it, or even most of it if that's the case, differ from the previous versions. I'm going to go see the movie and enjoy it for what it is. It's not the book, and it's not the radio play. It's the movie. And it will be different.
How can it be "wrong"? If that's what it looks like in the movie, then it is absolutely not wrong.
To be more precise, the movie is not the book. The book is not the radio play. The radio play is not the tv series. And the tv series is most definitely not the Infocom text adventure game.
If I recall correctly, in the radio play and tv series, the characters went to Milliways before they got to Magrathea. In the books, Milliways happened in the second book, with Magrathea happening in the first. Definite contradiction there. In the books, Trillian is clearly described as being brunette and extremely intelligent. In the tv series she was a dumb ditzy blonde. In the movie, Ford Prefect is black. In the tv series, he was white.
Douglas Adams always changed things up when the story went from one medium to another. There is no right or wrong in telling the H2G2 story. The story simply is whatever it is in whatever medium you happen to be experiencing it in. In this medium, the Heart of Gold is a ball. In the book, it was a shoe. If you want the shoe version, read the book. But this isn't the book, it's the movie, and it will differ, even contradict, the other versions -- which, by the way, frequently contradict each other already. This is nothing new. It's the way it has always been in the universe of H2G2.
The thing about the H2G2 universe, though, is that everything changes, nothing is definite, and many things that exist in one of the versions of the story (radio, tv, book, computer game, movie, whatever) completely contradict the way things are in the other versions. That's the way Douglas Adams wanted it to be.
To quote the man himself (from A Guide To The Guide: Some unhelpful remarks from the author in the omnibus edition of the first four books in the Trilogy...
For the love of god and all that is holy, my anus is bleeding!!!
For the love of god and all that's holy, don't do that again!!!
And you'll notice that he made that statement in 1943. You'll also notice that the statement is not "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers ever." What he said was probably quite true at that time.
Just an interesting note regarding the above... if the grandparent poster was referring to this guy, not only does Lucas approve of what he's done, but apparently the guy has been invited to the Episide III launch celebration in Minneapolis, where he will also perform his show with the help of LucasFilm staff.
No, Lucas has been doing parodies a lot longer than that. It all started around November 1978.....
I'm also a big fan of Steve Buscemi, and I'll see any movie he's in. I'm in no way attracted to him the way I am to Angelina Jolie, but I like his personality, and possibly more importantly, I respect his opinion regarding what films are worth being in. If he's in a movie, experience has taught me that it generally means it's going to be a good movie.
I've mentioned this in another comment, and others have pointed it out as well. To a lot of people, the big draw to a movie is the actors that are in it. For example, I will go see absolutely any movie that has Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy, or Angelina Jolie in it. Take away the star factor, and you take away the reason a lot of people will bother to see the movie.
Personally, I'm going to see this movie for one reason: Angelina Jolie is in it. I'm going with a female friend of mine, who wants to see it for one reason: Jude Law is in it.
For a lot of people, it's the personalities of specific actors that draw them into the theatres.
Of course, if movie companies start putting out movies with all CG characters, and nobody goes to see them, they'll just blame the decline in ticket sales on piracy and push for more laws.
SPs invite use of vendor-specific features, and therefore lock-in and loss of portability.
First of all, is this really an issue? I mean, I'm sure that there are companies out there that actually switch their DBMS at some point, but how often does this occur? Most of the companies I've worked for made a DBMS decision ages ago and stuck with it. It seems to me that a lot of people talk about the idea of DBMS portability as if it's just one of those things you plan for regardless of whether or not you actually have a reason to plan for it. I think it's an issue that becomes a reality only in a tiny fraction of situations.
Also, as another poster pointed out, why would you spend $x00,000 on DBMS product X, and not actually use the features it gives you? The use of vendor-specific features should be, to some extent, the very reason you went with that vendor in the first place.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head. For the record, I'm somewhat on the fence on this issue. I think SPs are essential in a client/server environment (yes, there are still tons of them out there, even new projects), but I'm still debating their use in an n-tiered environment.
Absolutely!
At the company I run, not only are my employees dedicated enough that they're willing to go the extra mile to ensure availability in the off hours, but they do the same during workdays as well. They work in a cubicle that they rent, with a desktop PC that they purchase from the company (at a more than reasonable rate, due to the volume discount that we get and generously pass on to them), use office supplies that they provide, and even pitch in for their share of the electric bill.
Some would call it "wage slavery". I call it "smart business".
Of course, this is only theoretical, since I haven't actually hired anyone yet. In fact, no one has even sent me a resume. I'm sure it's because everyone's such loyal and dedicated employees that they just don't want to leave the companies they're already working for.
Don't wish, google... http://www.missblackwidow.com/drugs.html
Certification on resume != hired
... but ...
Certification on resume = interview
Impressive interview = hired
You seem to make the assumption that Star Wars fans only like movies that are like Star Wars. This is a rather silly assumption, considering that most of us are Star Wars fans because we grew up on it, and have completely different tastes in movies as adults than we did as children. As a child, I loved "Howard the Duck". I also loved "The Jungle Book". As an adult, I'll take something along the lines of "Memento" or "Following", or "Fargo" when I'm in the mood for a laugh, or just about anything with William H. Macey in it, or Steve Buscemi -- with the exception of "Armageddon", which is about the closest he's come to a "Star Wars"-ish movie, and you couldn't pay me to watch it. And I loved "THX 1138".
Zaphod was neither English nor Scottish. To be true to the book, he should have a Betelguesian accent.
Oh, how I wish I could forget the Wookie porn scene. *shudder*
My work email address has never received a single bit of spam (so far). I give it out frequently, but I'm careful about who I give it to. My home email address didn't get any spam for many years, until I made a single post to a newsgroup and (accidentally) included my real email address. That address is now essentially unusable. It gets 50 or so spam emails every day.
In case you needed proof that geeks are an odd bunch.....
I do realize that, to some extent, this is because people code to IE. But, like it or not, that simply means that the best browsing experience on a Windows box will be with IE, or, in my opinion, with Avant.