Which is the greater risk:
a) Sitting in front of the computer for 20-odd hours a day, risking Deep Vein Thrombosis, or
b) Going outside for a walk and risking being mugged, shot, stabbed, hit by a car, kidnapped, or abducted by aliens. And let's not forget the unpleasant effects that prolonged exposure to solar radiation can have on your skin.
The next logical step here is to stop the manufacture and distribution of Sharpie Permanent Markers, due to their widespread use in labelling pirated CD's.
Quite often, I find myself in the situation where I am almost run down by old people on scooters who seem to think they own the sidewalk. Either that, or I should be complaining that people with cataracts shouldn't drive.
Somehow, the thought of the elderly walking around recklessly in 7-foot tall mini-mecha makes me fear for my health
No, you can't microwave DRM enabled CD's. It would destroy the part(s) of the disc responsible for preventing you from legitimately accessing your data. Thereby, microwaving a DRM enabled CD in order to destroy the copy protection is in clear violation of the DMCA. Furthermore, by making this idea public knowledge, you have also violated the terms of the DMCA by publishing a method of circumventing DRM. As such, you can expect a team of lawyers and moving men to confiscate your Microwave and CD collection. They will also steal your food, and reformat your hard drive with a sledgehammer. Please stop piracy before it starts. To rat out your friends and family, call our toll-free number at 1-888-666-DMCA
Expect DRM-enabled microwaves to be appearing on countertops by mid-2004. They are, after all, just big imprecise CD burners in the end, aren't they?
Well, once in a while, we see a server withstand a slashdotting...so why don't we make some history and stage the world's first real-live slashdotting?
Once someone can submit his IP (In Person) Address in the form of a link to MapQuest, a few thousand people can just suddenly show up at his door demanding to see pictures of his servers. Just picture the traffic nightmare! So, the question becomes, how will we implement the modding system?
PS - has anyone else had the itching feeling that we might have found a better place to send those million AOL CD's?
If you enjoyed watching all those millions of dominoes toppling, you ought to check out Fiat Lux If you enjoy anything to do with CG animation, you should also check this out. It's a rather impressive CG short of thousands of dominoes about the size of the monolith from 2001 (The small one that appeared before the apes - not the giant one in space) toppling through the interior of St. Peter's Basilica. As an added bonus, if you like shiny objects, the domino-monoliths are highly reflective. It's quite a sight to behold.
My crude explanation doesn't do Fiat Lux justice. Go check it out for yourself!
The problem isn't one of being able to get linux running on your proprietary bioware implants. The real problem is going to be deciding which distro to use. I personally vote Caldera, since it's reportedly so simple that even a trained monkey could install it. Once the OS religious war is settled, the next major problem is going to be of establishing network connectivity between the primates. Given the nature of your project, I believe that it would be most effective to implement an 802.11b wireless network, with access points strategically tied to various trees about the area. Personally, I think it might be more cost effective to implement a traditional hard-wired ethernet network, but installing an ethernet card into a simian could prove to be problematic (IE, loose connections and such. It's reliability vs. useability and cost, I guess.)
If you would like to recieve more feedback, please submit this question to Slashback, and possibly to the Slashdot Polls. I'm sure that if we all knew what CowboyNeal would do, we'd be able to better decide a course of action.
Following are my responses to your post. They are not meant to be offensive, demeaning, or unentertaining in any way.
1) I don't really have any quarrel with that point. If you use the term "cartoon" to describe 2D-frame based animation that is primarily hand-drawn, then there's no error in your terminology. I suppose the term anime is used to apply to the general style of the genre that some claim 'separates it' from animation elsewhere in the world.
2) All I can advise is that you watch some anime geared at a more mature audience (Try something like Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, Blood the Last Vampire, or anything else with a rather dark-sounding name) It tends not to have high-pitched squealy characters.
3) Please, take my word that cheesy, low-framerate slideshows are not representative of most anime out there. That style of animation seems to be hallmark of shows that are produced to the standard of a weekly episodic adventure about a boy and his [insert collectible item here]. Purely for marketing purposes. Try to compare it to a show that has a closed storyline and 13 episodes in total. Have a gander at Macross Plus, or Blue Submarine #6, or any of the other anime listed above. That's some very nice animation.
4) Lost in translation? Well, it happens, and I won't deny it. Watch some fan-subbed anime. They sometimes include translation notes indicating the meaning of mistranslated words that had to be bent to fit the English language. From what I gather, the English language has a lot less nuance than Japanese. Some things don't come over so well.
As for your quibbles with the language in FF7, there are some points where the translation really is terrible. A quick Google search for "Meaning of Materia" results in this site (albeit a bit buried). I wouldn't call it a bastardization of the word Material. In fact, it appears to be the Latin root of Material. One could in fact say that material is a bastardization of materia. Of course, there's probably some deeper meaning behind it all if one knows Japanese.
I personally don't understand much of the Japanese language, but from what I gather from the many hours I spent playing FF7 and watching subbed anime, the word "Mahou" (meaning magic [anyone feel free to correct me]) sounds tremendously similar to the "Makou" in the Makou reactor. And what do they get out the Makou reactors? The Huge materia, crystallized from the planet's magic (or something to that effect). So, that provides a vague explanation for the naming of materia and why they give you magic in the game. (Or at least the way I see it:) Of course, it could have merely been a commercial decision. Wasn't the original translation of "omnislash" supposed to be something along the lines of "Super Ultimate Champion War God Slash" or something? Omnislash sure sounds better to me.
5) Childish Dialog? Based on what you've said, it sounds like you've been watching childish anime. It follows that the dialog is going to be suitable for its target audience. If you want mature dialog, watch an anime for mature people.
Go support your local video rental chain, and check out some of the stuff I've mentioned. I can't say you'll like what you'll see, but it's definitely possible you might enjoy it. I'd say that the best introduction to anime would be Macross Plus. It is an anime that seems to be a good introduction to the anime style, but lacks many of the extreme oddities and conventions present in more light-hearted anime. Most importantly, Macross Plus is a movie (or small miniseries) that seems to be available in most major video chains, so you shouldn't have trouble finding it. Also, if you're into the really gory and somewhat sick stuff, I'd recommend you take a look at Ninja Scroll. Lotsa fighting, blood, dismemberment, and nudity there. The Kenshin OVA's are actually good in that respect too. A story of treachery, deceit, and a fair bit of action.
Well, all in all, I hope I haven't come off as too much of an anime-zealot. I want to emphasize that I don't believe that everyone in the world should be in love with anime because <SARCASM>it's the most wonderful thing in the world </SARCASM> or something (I hope those tags showed up right:) Everyone's got their tastes, and they all differ greatly. As such, if you'd like to flame me, then don't.
I should have probably added that "I am not a mathematician," or "I am not a market analyst," and that I'm probably oversimplifying things, but you're right - whatever model they're using to predict their revenue does seem flawed.
With respect to your last point, I get the feeling that the industry fears that its profits would be irreperably damaged by lowering its prices, since it's almost impossible to raise prices. Once you give consumers a taste of a good thing, (IE, free MP3's) they won't want to let it go.
The way I see it, if CD's were to halve in price for a month, lots more people would probably start buying CD's. If the industry found that this hurt their profits and tried to raise the prices again, there would be a huge consumer backlash. There would be accusations of price-fixing from people who matter (the consumers), rather than solely from a particular few who outspoken (and largely ignored) individuals.
One interpretation of these numbers is that lower prices == higher revenue. Betcha the RIAA doesn't catch on to it.
So, by your logic, if the RIAA were to market its products for zero dollars, it would recieve the maximum possible revenue. In fact, it would make more sense to attach a negative value to its products, in essence, paying people money to accept its products in order to maximize profits. I, for one, am completely in favour of this marketing plan. Your logic has a certain charm to it that modern business lacks:)
Unfortunately, the industry-standard trick is to use various branches of mathematics (Statistics and Calculus, mostly) to determine the maximum point of the function of numCustomers * price. As price increases, the number of customers decreases, but this may be made up for in profits. As price decreases, more people buy the product, but profits diminish. In the end, there should be a mathematical sweet spot at which enough people part with enough money to buy a new pair of silicone breasts (or, to be fair, buttocks) for whichever star's popularity is in a state of decline. (Oh, and tack on a few dollars to each disc for extra measure...just in case:)
At VCD quality, it's in the neighbourhood of 80 hours of video I think. VCD-compliant MPEGS run around 10megs/minute, don't they?
50GB = 50,000MB
50,000MB / (10 MB/min) = 5,000 min
5,000min / (60 min/hr) = 83.333... hours
First, Sony announces a new DVD burner that supports the two leading DVD-recordable formats. The peasants rejoice.
In response to this, two brand-new incompatible DVD formats are put out in the hopes that competition breeds better business. What will the consumer gain from this? The Sony DVD-R/DVD+R/RW100 and two new abbreviations to play with. How are they going to manage to fit this all onto the faceplate of one multifunction device?
Perhaps it's time that the media turned the eye over to itself for a few minutes and asked "what are we doing to prevent violence from appearing on our streets?" All too often, the media brings news of carnage and destruction into the homes of people worldwide. It (at least, what I can see in the American media) hops from catastrophe to catastrophe and scandal to scandal, paying no heed to interesting and useful developments in the rest of the world. Coincidentally, that's why I enjoy reading Slashdot. Less news about death and carnage. Let's have a look at CNN.
CNN has a bit of a record for fixating upon single bits of news, and for broadcasting uncensored and disturbing material. Have a look at the CNN website, and what will you see? A page that's packed with news about Al-Queda, post-9-11 articles, and some tiny little links to seemingly unimportant kidnappings. In other news, last night, CNN aired footage of a dog being gassed to death, and then described the entire process in gory detail. You say that video games are a source of gruesome and grizzly stimuli? You can read the CNN article about the death of a dog right here.
Also of worthy mention, is the fact that you can pay to download footage of this very dog being killed by subscribing to CNN's NewsPass. (look for the "Chemical Tests" link on the right-hand side) Keep in mind that this footage was actually put on air last night, for the general populace to see.
Thinking back about incidents where CNN has aired rather disturbing material, think back to 9/11. Indeed, it was truly a frightening event, but footage of people jumping out of buildings and splattering on the pavement seems somewhat unnecessary upon reflection. I can't really name a game, or a television show that has portrayed anything that disturbing.
Well, I suppose that in the end, this isn't violence. It's news. And people have a right to know what's going on in the real world...even if the real world is way more violent, destructive, and disgusting than the fantasy worlds of video games.
BTW: For some significantly broader news, go visit the BBC News Website. It's about violence happening outside of the United States and Afghanistan.
My apologies if I've offended anyone with this post.
I can just see the Northwest Airlines ads now..."Bend over and smile - We now have mandatory cavity searches for passenger safety" "Bend over and smile - slimmest fingers in the airline business"
And they expect customers to *SIT* for a three-hour flight afterwards? I can just see a lineup of masochists forming at the counter now.
Slashdot Mirror
It's Attack of the Clones all over again!!
Which is the greater risk:
a) Sitting in front of the computer for 20-odd hours a day, risking Deep Vein Thrombosis, or
b) Going outside for a walk and risking being mugged, shot, stabbed, hit by a car, kidnapped, or abducted by aliens. And let's not forget the unpleasant effects that prolonged exposure to solar radiation can have on your skin.
The next logical step here is to stop the manufacture and distribution of Sharpie Permanent Markers, due to their widespread use in labelling pirated CD's.
Quite often, I find myself in the situation where I am almost run down by old people on scooters who seem to think they own the sidewalk. Either that, or I should be complaining that people with cataracts shouldn't drive.
Somehow, the thought of the elderly walking around recklessly in 7-foot tall mini-mecha makes me fear for my health
No, you can't microwave DRM enabled CD's. It would destroy the part(s) of the disc responsible for preventing you from legitimately accessing your data. Thereby, microwaving a DRM enabled CD in order to destroy the copy protection is in clear violation of the DMCA. Furthermore, by making this idea public knowledge, you have also violated the terms of the DMCA by publishing a method of circumventing DRM. As such, you can expect a team of lawyers and moving men to confiscate your Microwave and CD collection. They will also steal your food, and reformat your hard drive with a sledgehammer. Please stop piracy before it starts. To rat out your friends and family, call our toll-free number at 1-888-666-DMCA
Expect DRM-enabled microwaves to be appearing on countertops by mid-2004. They are, after all, just big imprecise CD burners in the end, aren't they?
Well, once in a while, we see a server withstand a slashdotting...so why don't we make some history and stage the world's first real-live slashdotting?
Once someone can submit his IP (In Person) Address in the form of a link to MapQuest, a few thousand people can just suddenly show up at his door demanding to see pictures of his servers. Just picture the traffic nightmare! So, the question becomes, how will we implement the modding system?
PS - has anyone else had the itching feeling that we might have found a better place to send those million AOL CD's?
If you enjoyed watching all those millions of dominoes toppling, you ought to check out Fiat Lux If you enjoy anything to do with CG animation, you should also check this out. It's a rather impressive CG short of thousands of dominoes about the size of the monolith from 2001 (The small one that appeared before the apes - not the giant one in space) toppling through the interior of St. Peter's Basilica. As an added bonus, if you like shiny objects, the domino-monoliths are highly reflective. It's quite a sight to behold. My crude explanation doesn't do Fiat Lux justice. Go check it out for yourself!
The problem isn't one of being able to get linux running on your proprietary bioware implants. The real problem is going to be deciding which distro to use. I personally vote Caldera, since it's reportedly so simple that even a trained monkey could install it. Once the OS religious war is settled, the next major problem is going to be of establishing network connectivity between the primates. Given the nature of your project, I believe that it would be most effective to implement an 802.11b wireless network, with access points strategically tied to various trees about the area. Personally, I think it might be more cost effective to implement a traditional hard-wired ethernet network, but installing an ethernet card into a simian could prove to be problematic (IE, loose connections and such. It's reliability vs. useability and cost, I guess.)
If you would like to recieve more feedback, please submit this question to Slashback, and possibly to the Slashdot Polls. I'm sure that if we all knew what CowboyNeal would do, we'd be able to better decide a course of action.
If they don't already have Ogg, I have the feeling that they'll definitely be adding it soon.
Following are my responses to your post. They are not meant to be offensive, demeaning, or unentertaining in any way.
:) Of course, it could have merely been a commercial decision. Wasn't the original translation of "omnislash" supposed to be something along the lines of "Super Ultimate Champion War God Slash" or something? Omnislash sure sounds better to me.
:) Everyone's got their tastes, and they all differ greatly. As such, if you'd like to flame me, then don't.
1) I don't really have any quarrel with that point. If you use the term "cartoon" to describe 2D-frame based animation that is primarily hand-drawn, then there's no error in your terminology. I suppose the term anime is used to apply to the general style of the genre that some claim 'separates it' from animation elsewhere in the world.
2) All I can advise is that you watch some anime geared at a more mature audience (Try something like Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, Blood the Last Vampire, or anything else with a rather dark-sounding name) It tends not to have high-pitched squealy characters.
3) Please, take my word that cheesy, low-framerate slideshows are not representative of most anime out there. That style of animation seems to be hallmark of shows that are produced to the standard of a weekly episodic adventure about a boy and his [insert collectible item here]. Purely for marketing purposes. Try to compare it to a show that has a closed storyline and 13 episodes in total. Have a gander at Macross Plus, or Blue Submarine #6, or any of the other anime listed above. That's some very nice animation.
4) Lost in translation? Well, it happens, and I won't deny it. Watch some fan-subbed anime. They sometimes include translation notes indicating the meaning of mistranslated words that had to be bent to fit the English language. From what I gather, the English language has a lot less nuance than Japanese. Some things don't come over so well.
As for your quibbles with the language in FF7, there are some points where the translation really is terrible. A quick Google search for "Meaning of Materia" results in this site (albeit a bit buried). I wouldn't call it a bastardization of the word Material. In fact, it appears to be the Latin root of Material. One could in fact say that material is a bastardization of materia. Of course, there's probably some deeper meaning behind it all if one knows Japanese.
I personally don't understand much of the Japanese language, but from what I gather from the many hours I spent playing FF7 and watching subbed anime, the word "Mahou" (meaning magic [anyone feel free to correct me]) sounds tremendously similar to the "Makou" in the Makou reactor. And what do they get out the Makou reactors? The Huge materia, crystallized from the planet's magic (or something to that effect). So, that provides a vague explanation for the naming of materia and why they give you magic in the game. (Or at least the way I see it
5) Childish Dialog? Based on what you've said, it sounds like you've been watching childish anime. It follows that the dialog is going to be suitable for its target audience. If you want mature dialog, watch an anime for mature people.
Go support your local video rental chain, and check out some of the stuff I've mentioned. I can't say you'll like what you'll see, but it's definitely possible you might enjoy it. I'd say that the best introduction to anime would be Macross Plus. It is an anime that seems to be a good introduction to the anime style, but lacks many of the extreme oddities and conventions present in more light-hearted anime. Most importantly, Macross Plus is a movie (or small miniseries) that seems to be available in most major video chains, so you shouldn't have trouble finding it. Also, if you're into the really gory and somewhat sick stuff, I'd recommend you take a look at Ninja Scroll. Lotsa fighting, blood, dismemberment, and nudity there. The Kenshin OVA's are actually good in that respect too. A story of treachery, deceit, and a fair bit of action.
Well, all in all, I hope I haven't come off as too much of an anime-zealot. I want to emphasize that I don't believe that everyone in the world should be in love with anime because <SARCASM>it's the most wonderful thing in the world </SARCASM> or something (I hope those tags showed up right
I should have probably added that "I am not a mathematician," or "I am not a market analyst," and that I'm probably oversimplifying things, but you're right - whatever model they're using to predict their revenue does seem flawed.
With respect to your last point, I get the feeling that the industry fears that its profits would be irreperably damaged by lowering its prices, since it's almost impossible to raise prices. Once you give consumers a taste of a good thing, (IE, free MP3's) they won't want to let it go.
The way I see it, if CD's were to halve in price for a month, lots more people would probably start buying CD's. If the industry found that this hurt their profits and tried to raise the prices again, there would be a huge consumer backlash. There would be accusations of price-fixing from people who matter (the consumers), rather than solely from a particular few who outspoken (and largely ignored) individuals.
One interpretation of these numbers is that lower prices == higher revenue. Betcha the RIAA doesn't catch on to it.
:)
:)
So, by your logic, if the RIAA were to market its products for zero dollars, it would recieve the maximum possible revenue. In fact, it would make more sense to attach a negative value to its products, in essence, paying people money to accept its products in order to maximize profits. I, for one, am completely in favour of this marketing plan. Your logic has a certain charm to it that modern business lacks
Unfortunately, the industry-standard trick is to use various branches of mathematics (Statistics and Calculus, mostly) to determine the maximum point of the function of numCustomers * price. As price increases, the number of customers decreases, but this may be made up for in profits. As price decreases, more people buy the product, but profits diminish. In the end, there should be a mathematical sweet spot at which enough people part with enough money to buy a new pair of silicone breasts (or, to be fair, buttocks) for whichever star's popularity is in a state of decline. (Oh, and tack on a few dollars to each disc for extra measure...just in case
At VCD quality, it's in the neighbourhood of 80 hours of video I think. VCD-compliant MPEGS run around 10megs/minute, don't they? 50GB = 50,000MB 50,000MB / (10 MB/min) = 5,000 min 5,000min / (60 min/hr) = 83.333... hours
First, Sony announces a new DVD burner that supports the two leading DVD-recordable formats. The peasants rejoice.
In response to this, two brand-new incompatible DVD formats are put out in the hopes that competition breeds better business. What will the consumer gain from this? The Sony DVD-R/DVD+R/RW100 and two new abbreviations to play with. How are they going to manage to fit this all onto the faceplate of one multifunction device?
Perhaps it's time that the media turned the eye over to itself for a few minutes and asked "what are we doing to prevent violence from appearing on our streets?" All too often, the media brings news of carnage and destruction into the homes of people worldwide. It (at least, what I can see in the American media) hops from catastrophe to catastrophe and scandal to scandal, paying no heed to interesting and useful developments in the rest of the world. Coincidentally, that's why I enjoy reading Slashdot. Less news about death and carnage. Let's have a look at CNN.
CNN has a bit of a record for fixating upon single bits of news, and for broadcasting uncensored and disturbing material. Have a look at the CNN website, and what will you see? A page that's packed with news about Al-Queda, post-9-11 articles, and some tiny little links to seemingly unimportant kidnappings. In other news, last night, CNN aired footage of a dog being gassed to death, and then described the entire process in gory detail. You say that video games are a source of gruesome and grizzly stimuli? You can read the CNN article about the death of a dog right here.
Also of worthy mention, is the fact that you can pay to download footage of this very dog being killed by subscribing to CNN's NewsPass. (look for the "Chemical Tests" link on the right-hand side) Keep in mind that this footage was actually put on air last night, for the general populace to see.
Thinking back about incidents where CNN has aired rather disturbing material, think back to 9/11. Indeed, it was truly a frightening event, but footage of people jumping out of buildings and splattering on the pavement seems somewhat unnecessary upon reflection. I can't really name a game, or a television show that has portrayed anything that disturbing.
Well, I suppose that in the end, this isn't violence. It's news. And people have a right to know what's going on in the real world...even if the real world is way more violent, destructive, and disgusting than the fantasy worlds of video games.
BTW: For some significantly broader news, go visit the BBC News Website. It's about violence happening outside of the United States and Afghanistan.
My apologies if I've offended anyone with this post.
I can just see the Northwest Airlines ads now..."Bend over and smile - We now have mandatory cavity searches for passenger safety" "Bend over and smile - slimmest fingers in the airline business" And they expect customers to *SIT* for a three-hour flight afterwards? I can just see a lineup of masochists forming at the counter now.
Funny...if you hit reload enough times, you'll eventually get an ad for 50% more phone minutes on the right side of the page.