An additional word about 'blocky trans..'
on
Star Wars on DVD
·
· Score: 1
You know when I saw Star Wars in the theatre in 1977 (actually I think it was 1978 by the time we saw it), I never saw those transparencies around the ships. Maybe I was young and easily fooled, but I have to say that I was shocked to see how obvious it was on VHS some years later.
I have to say that I could do without that. Light celophane around tie fighters is not what I remember from the original so I could care less if they choose to 'sex up' the effects a bit.
What DOES bother me is the 'Greedo' scene. What is it with these directors starting feeling guilty in their old age and US having to suffer? It's like those damn guns to walkie-talkies in E.T...
Uh... WHY???!!!
Such a stupid, pointless change because apparently, Spielberg doesn't like gun violence now.
What does the future hold for current films if the trend follows? What happens if Quintin Tarrentino becomes a Quaker? What happens if he decides to change 'Pulp Fiction' so that all bloody scenes are 'cleaned up' for the Super HD DVD version?
I think the only answer will be to allow whatever changes people want to make to it, made. I think that eventually anyone will have the ability to shape their programming more to their taste and that ability will occur with or without (probably without) the studio's help.
Look at the Episode One remix that was floating around the 'net as a primative example. Is this a bad thing? Ah, probably no more so than other pop culture trends. Who knows? Maybe then someone will be able to make 'Battlefield Earth' not SUCK so bad...
Check out where these guys are getting their samples from. A LOT of those LPs are totally forgotten - never made it to digital.
A good DJ scratchin' for truly original samples won't look in Sam Goody's. He'll be in 'Bob's Bunker' in Philly or some other old record shop or thrift store.
Part of the reason why? CD's sound too damn clean! Doesn't THAT sound familiar?!
'Star Wars - Interactive' - God help us...
on
Star Wars on DVD
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Be careful what you wish for - I envision the future this way:
***Yo, Yo, Yo!!!*** - Check It! It's 'Star Wars Interactive' comin' to you on Supa Blu-Ray!
- See the original blocky transparencies around Tie Fighters and X-Wings! (Some of you out there really want that, huh?)
- Replace Greedo with Jar-Jar and make Han shoot first again! And again. And again!
- See the original Irish guy who played the part of Jabba the Hutt and put him in Episode Six!
- Give Boba Fett some extra rocket fuel so he can escape his fate!
Seriously, you know this sort of thing is coming eventually. So is all this panic about original versions a case of purity or old-tyme familiarity for us old farts? Believe me, it's hard to see some of this stuff happening to the films I grew up with (I was 12 when I saw Star Wars), but is the fact that Greedo shot first going to change the entire demeanor of the film?
Maybe it's a question of relevancy. As time goes on, you can expect more of this sort of thing to happen to films like it has with music.
Example: Look at Rap. Rap recycles old music into newer stuff. Should that be outlawed too?
There is the possibility of converting water to hydrogen through solar. That seems like it would make a lot more sense. As cool as direct solar cars are, they aren't, and never will be practical. No amount of testing (or human sacrifice) will change that fact.
Using huge solar furnaces, wind, or wave power to make hydrogen doesn't seem as sexy, but that will probably be the reality after oil peaks and people wake up to the possiblity of $10/gallon for gas.
Or, conversely they use the LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) and go thin client. They could also use USB keys to store their info.
I have no doubt that a lot of governments and schools could save money going to OSS but change is hard. Just getting my school to switch to Open/StarOffice was challenging enough!
Apparently moving to OSS on the backend is a lot more palatable. Suggesting that you use Apache rather than IIS is a no-brainer and not very challenging compared to:
"Hey guys! Let's drop MS Office and move to OpenOffice.org instead!"
However, it almost seemed like they were suggesting Linux on the desktop. In that unlikely case, MS Office wouldn't be an option.
How about reading the second paragraph of the article where they demand that Kerry open up his records (as the media and the Left forced Bush to), to clear the air.
"Windows 95 compared to Windows XP was horrible buggy shit that never worked."
You are right in the present view but remember the mess that was Win 3.1/DOS. Multimedia and games were on a big upswing and a lot of that stuff still had to run in DOS. What a HUGE pain in the ass that was!
A whole market sprang up helping people automatically configure their memory to allow for CD-ROM/Audio/Mouse drivers. 95 didn't eliminate that need entirely, but it standardized the process for future software.
There was a feeling back then that Mac's were for... Special people - artists and the like. I know, because I worked retail for over 10 years in the field. That feeling still pervades to this day. Ask your average person about the Mac and they'll often tell you that they are good for multimedia, desktop publishing, or Photoshop... As if the PC is still hobbled in this respect!
Certainly cost was a factor, and maybe that is what continues to feed Apple's 'caviar' perception. But even back then, the illusion of software compatibility was strong. People imagined running all their DOS crap in 95 and when it didn't quite work out, they got pissed off. When Apple threw their 8-bit customers away, they set a precident few of them would forget.
He's right, and what's more - Amiga people know this drill the best.
Back before 'multimedia' was a phrase, Apple, Atari, and Commodore lived the dream. The problem was the business PC users who would actually say things like, "Ahhhhh! I don't need any fancy graphics or sound..."
Imagine that attitude today! Well, you don't have to - it still exists - it's called DENIAL. 90% of the time when people go to buy a replacement computer they say things like, "Well, we'll give the old one to the kids to play games on..."
Oh really? Say, why not give the kids a USABLE box since the old one is just FINE for spreadsheets and word processing. I'll tell you why - because they're in denial about the fact that they DO want the bells and whistles after all, but due to our culture THEY ARE AFRAID TO ADMIT IT.
How much more proof do you need than Compaq's internal sound being called, "BUSINESS AUDIO"! What the hell does THAT mean? It means you get to hide your addiction to Doom better.
Few non-geek types like to be thought of as a child. Children play games after all - not adults, and certainly not on a computer! This attitude has been slowly changing but in the 80's, this was the way it was.
...not enough of another. Not quite fast enough to be a Mac, forgotten enough to be an Apple.
I actually went to an unveiling of the GS at a computer store in Vermont. I was totally impressed with the demo, but then I actually USED it. Then I happily went back to my Amiga.
I agree with the author of the article. By relegating their past customers to 'steerage' status, Apple managed to alienate much of their base. I know people that continued to use their trust Apple II's and Franklin's right up until the early 90's.
What should be learned here is: Never throw away paying customers. Since the only real competition was from the PC, and much of that was non-graphical anyway, it might have made since to at least made compatibility an OPTION. People invested a lot of money in software. And think about it: If you had all that invested and had to throw it all away, why NOT go with IBM?
At the time I kind of grinned about this since I was a total Atari/Commodore fanatic (a misnomer if there ever was one!) But even as a kid I could see Apple's misstep here - why couldn't they?
Yep, I fear it also. The girls return on the 7th and I just know the level of spyware and crap on those machines will be at an all-time high. I base this assumption on what my relatives computers have been looking like lately. Sheesh!
Ahahaha! I couldn't remember the name of it but, yeah... Lynx... Had to use that last month on a SuSE installation. It reminded me of a simpler time - back when my Atari 800 burned up the lines at 1200 baud...:)
This is what bothers me - how does Seagate know where he's been applying? How much spying is a corporation allowed to do to enforce the non-compete?
And what if they were wrong? What if the guy signed on to work in the cafeteria? What if a year later he gets 'promoted' to Lead Drive Spin Tech? How far can a company like this go?
There are security issues like people bringing in their worm-infested laptops. AS the admin of a small boarding school, I can tell you that that's the only way we managed to get hit last year. The policy here is that all machines get scanned and patched before they get connected to the network - period.
Nasty worms like this don't care about Internet access so much as they like to flood local LANS filled with unpatched computers. That's why, when I see companies or hospitals who don't patch before extensive, lengthy testing; I don't see this as a 'great' solution.
For a lot of these organizations (particularly those without extensive Layer 3 switching), the day may again come where a massive attack worm will wheedle it's way to every machine. It's happened before and will undoubtedly happen again.
I thought you had to have Admin rights to install the thing in the first place. In the second, I would think that most mega-corps would have their users classified as 'users' or 'guests'.
The best sites (IMHO) to check for this sort of information are anandtech.com and tomshardware.com. Based on the information they (and others) have presented, I've decided to purchase an AMD 3500+ Athlon 64 next week.
Now this was a difficult decision for me because my main box does an awful lot of stuff - it's rarely just sitting there. If I'm not gaming or surfing, then I might be rendering or producing a DVD. Render times for this stuff can be annoying.
It's not that Intel couldn't do the job - in fact, there are places where Intel beats AMD (DiVX encoding and Lightwave rendering comes to mind). But it's close - and here's the kicker: So far, most of these are all just 32-bit software comparisons. Wait for the 64-bit stuff to show up! If I got an Intel, I wouldn't even have that future option.
Slashdot Mirror
You know when I saw Star Wars in the theatre in 1977 (actually I think it was 1978 by the time we saw it), I never saw those transparencies around the ships. Maybe I was young and easily fooled, but I have to say that I was shocked to see how obvious it was on VHS some years later.
I have to say that I could do without that. Light celophane around tie fighters is not what I remember from the original so I could care less if they choose to 'sex up' the effects a bit.
What DOES bother me is the 'Greedo' scene. What is it with these directors starting feeling guilty in their old age and US having to suffer? It's like those damn guns to walkie-talkies in E.T...
Uh... WHY???!!!
Such a stupid, pointless change because apparently, Spielberg doesn't like gun violence now.
What does the future hold for current films if the trend follows? What happens if Quintin Tarrentino becomes a Quaker? What happens if he decides to change 'Pulp Fiction' so that all bloody scenes are 'cleaned up' for the Super HD DVD version?
I think the only answer will be to allow whatever changes people want to make to it, made. I think that eventually anyone will have the ability to shape their programming more to their taste and that ability will occur with or without (probably without) the studio's help.
Look at the Episode One remix that was floating around the 'net as a primative example. Is this a bad thing? Ah, probably no more so than other pop culture trends. Who knows? Maybe then someone will be able to make 'Battlefield Earth' not SUCK so bad...
Probably not tho...
Check out where these guys are getting their samples from. A LOT of those LPs are totally forgotten - never made it to digital.
A good DJ scratchin' for truly original samples won't look in Sam Goody's. He'll be in 'Bob's Bunker' in Philly or some other old record shop or thrift store.
Part of the reason why? CD's sound too damn clean! Doesn't THAT sound familiar?!
Be careful what you wish for - I envision the future this way:
***Yo, Yo, Yo!!!*** - Check It! It's 'Star Wars Interactive' comin' to you on Supa Blu-Ray!
- See the original blocky transparencies around Tie Fighters and X-Wings! (Some of you out there really want that, huh?)
- Replace Greedo with Jar-Jar and make Han shoot first again! And again. And again!
- See the original Irish guy who played the part of Jabba the Hutt and put him in Episode Six!
- Give Boba Fett some extra rocket fuel so he can escape his fate!
Seriously, you know this sort of thing is coming eventually. So is all this panic about original versions a case of purity or old-tyme familiarity for us old farts? Believe me, it's hard to see some of this stuff happening to the films I grew up with (I was 12 when I saw Star Wars), but is the fact that Greedo shot first going to change the entire demeanor of the film?
Maybe it's a question of relevancy. As time goes on, you can expect more of this sort of thing to happen to films like it has with music.
Example: Look at Rap. Rap recycles old music into newer stuff. Should that be outlawed too?
...They didn't replace the original Anakin with Jar-Jar!
(The HORROR!)
There is the possibility of converting water to hydrogen through solar. That seems like it would make a lot more sense. As cool as direct solar cars are, they aren't, and never will be practical. No amount of testing (or human sacrifice) will change that fact.
Using huge solar furnaces, wind, or wave power to make hydrogen doesn't seem as sexy, but that will probably be the reality after oil peaks and people wake up to the possiblity of $10/gallon for gas.
Or, conversely they use the LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) and go thin client. They could also use USB keys to store their info.
I have no doubt that a lot of governments and schools could save money going to OSS but change is hard. Just getting my school to switch to Open/StarOffice was challenging enough!
Apparently moving to OSS on the backend is a lot more palatable. Suggesting that you use Apache rather than IIS is a no-brainer and not very challenging compared to:
"Hey guys! Let's drop MS Office and move to OpenOffice.org instead!"
However, it almost seemed like they were suggesting Linux on the desktop. In that unlikely case, MS Office wouldn't be an option.
Sure. As soon as we have real documentation as to what his purple hearts were REALLY for, I'd say it's all still hearsay.
How about reading the second paragraph of the article where they demand that Kerry open up his records (as the media and the Left forced Bush to), to clear the air.
What's fair is fair, right?
"Windows 95 compared to Windows XP was horrible buggy shit that never worked."
You are right in the present view but remember the mess that was Win 3.1/DOS. Multimedia and games were on a big upswing and a lot of that stuff still had to run in DOS. What a HUGE pain in the ass that was!
A whole market sprang up helping people automatically configure their memory to allow for CD-ROM/Audio/Mouse drivers. 95 didn't eliminate that need entirely, but it standardized the process for future software.
There was a feeling back then that Mac's were for... Special people - artists and the like. I know, because I worked retail for over 10 years in the field. That feeling still pervades to this day. Ask your average person about the Mac and they'll often tell you that they are good for multimedia, desktop publishing, or Photoshop... As if the PC is still hobbled in this respect!
Certainly cost was a factor, and maybe that is what continues to feed Apple's 'caviar' perception. But even back then, the illusion of software compatibility was strong. People imagined running all their DOS crap in 95 and when it didn't quite work out, they got pissed off. When Apple threw their 8-bit customers away, they set a precident few of them would forget.
He's right, and what's more - Amiga people know this drill the best.
Back before 'multimedia' was a phrase, Apple, Atari, and Commodore lived the dream. The problem was the business PC users who would actually say things like, "Ahhhhh! I don't need any fancy graphics or sound..."
Imagine that attitude today! Well, you don't have to - it still exists - it's called DENIAL. 90% of the time when people go to buy a replacement computer they say things like, "Well, we'll give the old one to the kids to play games on..."
Oh really? Say, why not give the kids a USABLE box since the old one is just FINE for spreadsheets and word processing. I'll tell you why - because they're in denial about the fact that they DO want the bells and whistles after all, but due to our culture THEY ARE AFRAID TO ADMIT IT.
How much more proof do you need than Compaq's internal sound being called, "BUSINESS AUDIO"! What the hell does THAT mean? It means you get to hide your addiction to Doom better.
Few non-geek types like to be thought of as a child. Children play games after all - not adults, and certainly not on a computer! This attitude has been slowly changing but in the 80's, this was the way it was.
...not enough of another. Not quite fast enough to be a Mac, forgotten enough to be an Apple.
I actually went to an unveiling of the GS at a computer store in Vermont. I was totally impressed with the demo, but then I actually USED it. Then I happily went back to my Amiga.
I agree with the author of the article. By relegating their past customers to 'steerage' status, Apple managed to alienate much of their base. I know people that continued to use their trust Apple II's and Franklin's right up until the early 90's.
What should be learned here is: Never throw away paying customers. Since the only real competition was from the PC, and much of that was non-graphical anyway, it might have made since to at least made compatibility an OPTION. People invested a lot of money in software. And think about it: If you had all that invested and had to throw it all away, why NOT go with IBM?
At the time I kind of grinned about this since I was a total Atari/Commodore fanatic (a misnomer if there ever was one!) But even as a kid I could see Apple's misstep here - why couldn't they?
Yep, I fear it also. The girls return on the 7th and I just know the level of spyware and crap on those machines will be at an all-time high. I base this assumption on what my relatives computers have been looking like lately. Sheesh!
Mod me down if you must, but whenever I think of automation on a scale like this I can't help but think of that robot-building factory in Episode II.
Well that, and an 'I, Robot' quote, "Robots building robots... Now that's just stupid."
Ahahaha! I couldn't remember the name of it but, yeah... Lynx... Had to use that last month on a SuSE installation. It reminded me of a simpler time - back when my Atari 800 burned up the lines at 1200 baud... :)
This is what bothers me - how does Seagate know where he's been applying? How much spying is a corporation allowed to do to enforce the non-compete?
And what if they were wrong? What if the guy signed on to work in the cafeteria? What if a year later he gets 'promoted' to Lead Drive Spin Tech? How far can a company like this go?
There are security issues like people bringing in their worm-infested laptops. AS the admin of a small boarding school, I can tell you that that's the only way we managed to get hit last year. The policy here is that all machines get scanned and patched before they get connected to the network - period.
Nasty worms like this don't care about Internet access so much as they like to flood local LANS filled with unpatched computers. That's why, when I see companies or hospitals who don't patch before extensive, lengthy testing; I don't see this as a 'great' solution.
For a lot of these organizations (particularly those without extensive Layer 3 switching), the day may again come where a massive attack worm will wheedle it's way to every machine. It's happened before and will undoubtedly happen again.
...Why not ban the use of mouse? GUI OS's can be so irritating anyway... :)
I thought you had to have Admin rights to install the thing in the first place. In the second, I would think that most mega-corps would have their users classified as 'users' or 'guests'.
So is this message really for IT then?
And so a patient, doctor, or nurse plugs in her trojan-infected machine to a local port.
Fun ensues...
...he's only lending VOICE talent? Could he now be realistically rendered? I wonder...
Anandtech will be benching a 'disappointing' GeForce 4mx against the somewhat superior Nvidia 6800.
Polish up the irons boys, there's gonna be a SHOOTOUT! Yee HAW!
Bundle this with SP3...
;)
On the other hand, based on how long it took SP2 to show up, maybe IE 7 WILL ship with Longhorn after all!
The best sites (IMHO) to check for this sort of information are anandtech.com and tomshardware.com. Based on the information they (and others) have presented, I've decided to purchase an AMD 3500+ Athlon 64 next week.
Now this was a difficult decision for me because my main box does an awful lot of stuff - it's rarely just sitting there. If I'm not gaming or surfing, then I might be rendering or producing a DVD. Render times for this stuff can be annoying.
It's not that Intel couldn't do the job - in fact, there are places where Intel beats AMD (DiVX encoding and Lightwave rendering comes to mind). But it's close - and here's the kicker: So far, most of these are all just 32-bit software comparisons. Wait for the 64-bit stuff to show up! If I got an Intel, I wouldn't even have that future option.
...between Dell's theme music and Intel's jingle? Not too damn many I suspect...