"Holy shit! We have a launch, repeat, we have a launch! Looks like an SS-N-18 coming out of the Barents Sea!"
"Take us to Defcon 1! Alert the President! Get Major Kong airborne! Bring the WOPR online! Activate the Stargate!"
What the computer industry needs is a machine that can do everything a PC can do now, but do it from the couch via a remote. Hmm. Now, do I invest in voice-recognition software or those one-handed keyboard systems? Or just pizza companies with online ordering services?
Clearly, the entire West Coast must be destroyed for the good of humanity. Now, I know this involves sacrifice - San Francisco is a nice city, Apple are in Palo Alto, and I'm told Seattle is kinda cool. But think of the long-term benefit - no M$, no MPAA, no RIAA, and no never-ending procession of shitty movies!
Advance warning: Joss Whedon, Steve Jobs, John Lasseter and Holly Marie Combs - move about 150 miles inland, right now!
(The next stage will be a targeted strike on Utah to take out Orrin Hatch and Darl. You know you want it!)
Being a former film critic, I've seen a *lot* of bad films - sometimes even seeking them out on purpose just so that I can gain a new appreciation for the rare actual *good* films, as opposed to merely okay, that I saw.
Anyway, here's a (partial) list of some of the horrors I've witnessed, and these don't even include anything from MST3K! (Although if it were ever to come back, they would be eminently suitable for MSTing...)
The Cat In The Hat
Torque
Fire Down Below (Harry Dean Stanton, no! What *were* you thinking?)
Batman & Robin (obvious, I know)
Double Team
Evilspeak
Saturn 3
Practical Magic
Vampire In Brooklyn
Wing Commander
Gigli
Highlander 2
Rollerball (the remake - Jesus, this was from the man who made Die Hard and Predator! What the fuck has he been smoking for the past 15 years?)
Jaws: The Revenge
The Master Of Disguise
Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Pearl Harbor
Ugh. Just thinking of the films on that list makes me want to go and watch North By Northwest or Aliens or The Shining, just to cleanse my brain!
Another good reason (among many) why the BBC should remain a non-commercial operation. Yes, paying the licence fee is an annoyance, but everyone gets a lot out of the Beeb, not just TV (BBC Online has all but replaced daily newspapers for me, and after having grown up with BBC radio, I find commercial radio unlistenable). And they're even bringing back Doctor Who!
Sure, it has its problems, but I'd trust the BBC over any politician, especially ones who make threatening noises about its charter every time it does its job by being independent and embarrassing the government of the day...
I own two Macs, and the one I'm typing on isn't even running OS9, but 8.6. And to my mind, it's 'no-nonsense usability' without a doubt. Any application, Apple-P prints what you've got open. Five seconds' work puts aliases for your apps in the Apple menu, but if you can't even be bothered to do that, just go Apple Menu > Recent Applications and you're off. As for menus on windows, I never quite understood what you were meant to do when you reduced a window to a size when the menus disappeared (which I often need to do when working with a large batch of Photoshop images - say, Expose might actually have a use!;) ). Having used PCs of various flavours (3.1-XP) in my old job, I can only think of *one* occasion when a Windows variant offered something 8.6 couldn't do, and that was literally in the last few weeks - namely the 'view as slideshow' option for a bunch of JPEGs that I wanted to examine but not edit. Since I very rarely have to look at 50+ JPEGs in one go, and 8.6 has been out for over five years, I think that's a reasonable compromise.
"there's no way libraries could have said what they wanted"
Why not? Why couldn't the ruling have specified that the libraries could choose what they wanted from the RIAA members' catalogues, instead of the RIAA being given the chance to dump 17,000 unsold copies of 'Willennium' on them? *That* would have been a proper punishment for the RIAA - actually being not only forced to give up stuff of value rather than tat they couldn't shift, but also to have to give it up for people to share...
1: I'm in the UK, so I can watch live streaming of the Olympics if I want!
2: I think the Olympics are a tedious pile of shite, so I don't have to!
(Wait, that means the BBC has blown an ungodly amount of money on something I have no interest in, and it'll be sport, sport, sport all summer long... So, actually, no changes there. Carry on!)
What is it with this guy and stupid, utterly wrong-headed legislation? If he came along with a proposed bill that said 'murder is wrong', it'd incline me to look a lot more favourably on caving somebody's head in with a bat!
I'd like to see a block of maybe africa and the middle east just say screw it and form their own economic associations independent of the United States.
Any such bloc would be fucked over - probably with bombs - in very short order. The current US National Security Strategy is so loosely worded that (viewed with a Rumsfeldian eye) it gives the US more or less carte blanche to intervene militarily as and when it chooses, anywhere in the world, if it feels its interests - ie, the interests of those in power - are threatened. On the surface it's very noble - it's all couched in the language of 'bring democracy and freedom to the developing world'. But read between the lines, and it's more a case of 'open up the developing world's markets to US interests'. The biotechnology clause is blatantly pro-Monsanto and co, for a start. 'They want aid? Then make the bastards buy our patented GM seeds!'
The ruling politicians of the other English-speaking developed nations - Australia, the UK - are so desperate to be a part of Bush's banquet that they'll happily sign away the rights of their citizens for the chance to lick the few drops of spilt gravy from America's trouser bottoms. It's an absolute fucking disgrace, but there doesn't seem to be any credible opposition because all the other politicians just want their own chance to get under the table.
How can Sony claim that ATRAC offers better performance than MP3 when the chances are it'll be converting songs *from* MP3? Lossy format to another lossy format? No thanks. When will Sony (and other companies) realise that people don't want weird, crippled formats?
I've seen parts of the new documentary (I was at the UK press launch for the DVDs some weeks ago) and while the bits I saw (about 20-25 minutes'-worth) had lots of archive material, it wasn't (from memory, anyway) the same as the 'Making Of...' specials.
There is, regrettably, also some revisionism from Lucas about various things. "It was always about these twins, a brother and a sister." Um, not in the early drafts when it was still *The* Star Wars, it wasn't. And Vader wasn't always Luke's father, either, since in the first draft Vader was just one of several evil generals who got blown up at the end. Hell, in the first draft Luke Skywalker was an old man!
But now that Lucas is a billionaire he can change history however he wants, I suppose. Apparently Greedo *still* shoots first in the DVDs...
If you haven't already made enough money off something 50 years after it was created, then maybe it's not worth keeping hold of.
I bet we'll see a change to the law slipped through before the end of the year, though. Blair will do anything that the Americans tell him just so that he can have his ego-trip of thinking he's Bush's best friend, even as Bush pounds him in the ass. The man's a fucking disgrace to this country.
When was the last time they put out a decent game? Back in my days as a game journalist, a Midway game turning up for review usually meant yet another fucking ice hockey game.
I wouldn't give any game that's sold on its 'street' credentials the time of day. I have never, and will never, have any aspirations toward being a playa. (And before you ask, GTA:SA will, like the previous GTA games, be *parodying* its milieu, not glorifying it. So that's all right.)
Slashdot Mirror
"Holy shit! We have a launch, repeat, we have a launch! Looks like an SS-N-18 coming out of the Barents Sea!"
"Take us to Defcon 1! Alert the President! Get Major Kong airborne! Bring the WOPR online! Activate the Stargate!"
What the computer industry needs is a machine that can do everything a PC can do now, but do it from the couch via a remote. Hmm. Now, do I invest in voice-recognition software or those one-handed keyboard systems? Or just pizza companies with online ordering services?
Advance warning: Joss Whedon, Steve Jobs, John Lasseter and Holly Marie Combs - move about 150 miles inland, right now!
(The next stage will be a targeted strike on Utah to take out Orrin Hatch and Darl. You know you want it!)
Anyway, here's a (partial) list of some of the horrors I've witnessed, and these don't even include anything from MST3K! (Although if it were ever to come back, they would be eminently suitable for MSTing...)
The Cat In The Hat
Torque
Fire Down Below (Harry Dean Stanton, no! What *were* you thinking?)
Batman & Robin (obvious, I know)
Double Team
Evilspeak
Saturn 3
Practical Magic
Vampire In Brooklyn
Wing Commander
Gigli
Highlander 2
Rollerball (the remake - Jesus, this was from the man who made Die Hard and Predator! What the fuck has he been smoking for the past 15 years?)
Jaws: The Revenge
The Master Of Disguise
Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Pearl Harbor
Ugh. Just thinking of the films on that list makes me want to go and watch North By Northwest or Aliens or The Shining, just to cleanse my brain!
"KILL THE HUMANOID! KILL THE INTRUDER!"
Old videogames have the answer to everything!
Sure, it has its problems, but I'd trust the BBC over any politician, especially ones who make threatening noises about its charter every time it does its job by being independent and embarrassing the government of the day...
Woohoo! Now I can finally put myself into some animated pr0n!
*(And yes, I know Alan Dean Foster actually wrote it. I'm just being annoyingly literal for comedic effect - hey, I'm a Trekkie!)
I own two Macs, and the one I'm typing on isn't even running OS9, but 8.6. And to my mind, it's 'no-nonsense usability' without a doubt. Any application, Apple-P prints what you've got open. Five seconds' work puts aliases for your apps in the Apple menu, but if you can't even be bothered to do that, just go Apple Menu > Recent Applications and you're off. As for menus on windows, I never quite understood what you were meant to do when you reduced a window to a size when the menus disappeared (which I often need to do when working with a large batch of Photoshop images - say, Expose might actually have a use! ;) ). Having used PCs of various flavours (3.1-XP) in my old job, I can only think of *one* occasion when a Windows variant offered something 8.6 couldn't do, and that was literally in the last few weeks - namely the 'view as slideshow' option for a bunch of JPEGs that I wanted to examine but not edit. Since I very rarely have to look at 50+ JPEGs in one go, and 8.6 has been out for over five years, I think that's a reasonable compromise.
But, like, I said, it's what you're used to...
Those pictures make it look like Vejur, coming to cleanse the carbon-unit infestation from the Creator's planet...
Why not? Why couldn't the ruling have specified that the libraries could choose what they wanted from the RIAA members' catalogues, instead of the RIAA being given the chance to dump 17,000 unsold copies of 'Willennium' on them? *That* would have been a proper punishment for the RIAA - actually being not only forced to give up stuff of value rather than tat they couldn't shift, but also to have to give it up for people to share...
"Bidibidibidi, nice ass, Wilma!"
2: I think the Olympics are a tedious pile of shite, so I don't have to!
(Wait, that means the BBC has blown an ungodly amount of money on something I have no interest in, and it'll be sport, sport, sport all summer long... So, actually, no changes there. Carry on!)
What is it with this guy and stupid, utterly wrong-headed legislation? If he came along with a proposed bill that said 'murder is wrong', it'd incline me to look a lot more favourably on caving somebody's head in with a bat!
Yes! Wake me up on December 31st 2999! Just be careful where you insert the career chip. And the hot billionaire Martian intern is *mine*, dammit!
Any such bloc would be fucked over - probably with bombs - in very short order. The current US National Security Strategy is so loosely worded that (viewed with a Rumsfeldian eye) it gives the US more or less carte blanche to intervene militarily as and when it chooses, anywhere in the world, if it feels its interests - ie, the interests of those in power - are threatened. On the surface it's very noble - it's all couched in the language of 'bring democracy and freedom to the developing world'. But read between the lines, and it's more a case of 'open up the developing world's markets to US interests'. The biotechnology clause is blatantly pro-Monsanto and co, for a start. 'They want aid? Then make the bastards buy our patented GM seeds!'
The ruling politicians of the other English-speaking developed nations - Australia, the UK - are so desperate to be a part of Bush's banquet that they'll happily sign away the rights of their citizens for the chance to lick the few drops of spilt gravy from America's trouser bottoms. It's an absolute fucking disgrace, but there doesn't seem to be any credible opposition because all the other politicians just want their own chance to get under the table.
Quite the contrary - when the only boxes you can buy are hobbled with the broadcast flag and other DRM, it'll probably become a lot more valuable!
...if someone had installed spyware on *my* machine to see what I was doing during the day, Slashdot would have been a recurring theme!
How can Sony claim that ATRAC offers better performance than MP3 when the chances are it'll be converting songs *from* MP3? Lossy format to another lossy format? No thanks. When will Sony (and other companies) realise that people don't want weird, crippled formats?
You going to argue with the Governator?
"I'm sorry, Michael - I honestly thought it would make them happy if I winked at them!"
Now if you're a supermodel, the plan may work. "No veal for you!"
There is, regrettably, also some revisionism from Lucas about various things. "It was always about these twins, a brother and a sister." Um, not in the early drafts when it was still *The* Star Wars, it wasn't. And Vader wasn't always Luke's father, either, since in the first draft Vader was just one of several evil generals who got blown up at the end. Hell, in the first draft Luke Skywalker was an old man!
But now that Lucas is a billionaire he can change history however he wants, I suppose. Apparently Greedo *still* shoots first in the DVDs...
I bet we'll see a change to the law slipped through before the end of the year, though. Blair will do anything that the Americans tell him just so that he can have his ego-trip of thinking he's Bush's best friend, even as Bush pounds him in the ass. The man's a fucking disgrace to this country.
I wouldn't give any game that's sold on its 'street' credentials the time of day. I have never, and will never, have any aspirations toward being a playa. (And before you ask, GTA:SA will, like the previous GTA games, be *parodying* its milieu, not glorifying it. So that's all right.)