Also, this is completely unsourced but there are rumors around that the Bretton Woods Accord (pegging the dollar to gold standard) was terminated also for strategic reasons, as the largest supplier of gold (largest gold mines) after South Africa is... Russia.
Russia was the world's largest gold producer in 1850's:
However, when a treatment for life extension becomes available, it seems very likely that religious leaders will call it an aberration and unnatural. Those who refuse to take the treatment will die off in a generation. Those who shun technological advances quickly become a minority, e.g. the amish.
As all things in this life, it is not a black and white issue. Probably there will be traditionalists for an "old" way in which you chose to die at a "natural" age, and early adopters for a "new" way in who will give life extension a shot.
Who will reign? The guys who have all the experience accumulated in 2 or 3 generations lifetime? Or those who actually have 2 or 3 generations during the same time frame? It seems that the former will be less prone to take risks than the latter. I would like to live longer but it is not obvious if that will give me an edge over other organisms. Evolution indeed will pick the ones that are more fit. Remember, in 75 years time (a decent human life expectancy) how many bacteria generations can you count? probably much more than thousands of trillions. And both organisms are still around... although humans certainly rule the planet.
I don't *hate* Microsoft, but do find it extremely disheartening.
The thing that really bothers me is the lack of choice they *impose* and profit on.
They have come up with tons of products that you may or may not find attractive, that is up to you. The problem is, in the past, even if you didn't like what they came up with you have HAD to pay for them and get their products. Case in point, Windows of course. During the 90s and part of the 2000's I required to use a PC and genuinely didn't like the Microsoft OS. I wanted to run specialty 3D software (i.e. Alias Maya) on a laptop at the time and was locked up on using Wintel platform. I literally had no choice.
I paid for a new laptop and the price included probably around $100 or more on a OS that provided questionable security and a lame user interface. I would gladly have paid more to use an alternative OS. Now, I do have a choice, and switched to OS X and Linux, and while not perfect, it is my choice.
You could argue that the *damage* to myself was really only a $100 or so charge for what the OS cost me (probably more). But what pisses me off is that they didn't give me a chance to say Yes, I do like your product or No, I don't. In this day and age, we have come a long way to just let an entity tell you what to do, specially with such a nice a hobby such as computers. One time that a company tells you what is good for you when you know otherwise is one too many.
I think the zune and the xbox are not attractive products. Since I don't have to buy them, their launch is fine with me. I actually would encourage Microsoft to come up with new things, more choices to us customers is a good thing. But Windows.... limiting my choices... that is just plain wrong.
I put a lot of value on design for the gadgets that I consume, hence I am a mac geek. However, a time came when I needed to run a Windows App and had to choose a laptop from the Wintel world.
From all the available options, the VAIOs were by far the most appealing ones, so I bought a GRX. The only problem? How awfully they are manufactured and supported, as I later unfortunately found out.
One day the thing just wouldn't recognize half of the RAM installed and sometimes it would freeze without any warning sign of any kind. When trying to find out what was wrong with it, I contacted SONY, and it showed me the finger. The official support site didn't mention anything and the help line guys told me that I needed to send in the laptop and pay a service fee at my expense just to see what was going on.
I later found out in here that the problem was indeed common (pins one to ten in the first memory socket were not soldered properly), that SONY knew about it for a long time, and still didn't EVEN put it in a website as a potential problem that could arise in a VAIO.
To this day (three and a half years after its release) SONY still hasn't aknowledged the faulty motherboard problem. Now, I really am not that picky as not to buy a product from a company that has had this kind of problem, because in the end, every company has had their fair share. But SONY has this strange corporate attitude.
Nice ideas, but... beats me. No wonder their shares have been tanking. I can tell you I will NOT buy a VAIO again and I wished there were some sort of AMAZON store for laptops with a similar "rating and comments" system where I could put this experience up.
I meant details the in the robots themselves. The first Transformers series had every-day objects "transformed" into robots. (OK I know it is the other way around in the series, but I am thinking from a point of view of a designer trying to come up with this). And yes it was funny to see Megatron change size and Optimus Prime's trailer just disappear...and don't get me started with the guy who transformed into a rocket... he had a whole launching platform disappear =P
I don't complain about the animation, which was decent for its time. Rather, I am talking about more the details in the design / story. This is why liked the vehicles Voltron so much, being able to form teams, every episode was a problem of coordination from 100 pilots that could change configurations according to the problem. The adaptation-to-terrain concept was neat
Transformers had enough variety of robots to keep me interested, planes, cars, trucks, guns... take your pick. Whereas the Voltron being talked about here had "only" 5 mechanized lions and a princess to defend... it just didn't grab my attention.
However I did like the fact that both pilots in the right shoulder of each Voltron were brothers and made reference to one another from time to time =D
I just mentioned the EVAs because we will be seeing a Hollywood version sometime in the future.. and being a fan from the series... there was a time (maybe 10 years ago) when I would have paid anything to see a computer generated version of all these series that I like. But as I already mentioned, some efforts have disappointed me, namely the X-men and the Fantastic Four movies... among others. Don't get me wrong I like them, but there is so much more potential in them... that I think they will not be able to "translate" it well to the big screen =(
I don't know about you, but I liked the "vehicles" based Voltron much better. Somehow the one based on tiger-like vehicles didn't appeal to me.
The main reason is I liked the robots with much more details, like the transformers.
It is nice to see that 20 years later, people are pursuing new ways to tell those stories that defined our childhood. But, I am skeptical as to how it will be presented in the screen, because I know I will NOT like somebody in a giant suit (a la Ultraman or power rangers) and I believe that other than original cel animation it will be very hard to translate to the silver screen.
The more detailed and anime-like, the more difficult to translate... I wonder if I'll like the EVAs, Transformers, and even if they attempted to, Robotech or other anime that it is in my "must own" list.
I am a comics fan, and a hard core X-men at that, and I know I didn't like the live action most of the Marvel incarnations, except for Daredevil and maybe the first Spdierman. And I think those were "easier" to translate...
It is regrettable that these things happen *at all*, there is just no excuse or justification for taking human lives for any motive.
However upon hearing the latest developments, it stroke me as strange that the attack was not more aggresive in nature. I worked in "the city" (the financial district) for a year, and it was a very widespread impression that if London was to be attacked, the subway would be a primary target. I remember seeing Picadilly ( a major line) being closed for simulated attack responses from Biological weapons or other means that would require a complete isolation of the train.
Having said that, I still think that this type of disruption was much less of what not only authorities were expecting, but maybe even Londoners. Perharps some of them can share their thoughts on this.
Dude, one of the most compelling and rich comments I have read among rants and complaints on Star Wars in years... Which shows that if you look hard enough... you'll get more than your fairy tale in space everyone's been complaining about...
Love is a powerful "Force" that can turn you over or win you back... and still not many people talk about it in the Star Wars saga as a thing they learned...
Must have been DAMN scary to offer yourself as a sacrifice to give it *A* shot to bring your father back... As Leia said.. "Luke, run away and foget everything..." And he almost failed...
Luke is a damn strong kid... even in his darkest hour.
Since its inception, Apple has always been willing to gamble more with new products than most other companies
Granted, they flopped with the Newton... but they came out with the mac, the powerbook, peer2peer file sharing out of the box, the trackpad, the powerbook duo, speech recognition integrated on the OS on the 90's, quicktime, and the list goes on... (I would like to give them the mouse and the interface, but as with everything they also have a dark side)
It is good to see they are ripping the benefits of believing in something completely new... ( As they believed in a portable media player by some bogus guy who was rejected by other companies)
The same topics have been circulating for a while now in slashdot... the pirating,
how CD sales are going down and how is DRM to help/fix/damage this...
I do believe that slashdotters are from all earth citizens... the bunch who
are nearer to understanding the problem.
That is however a problem in itself. Do the average Joe or heck.. do even RIAA
or the firms they represent, understand the problem? not at all...
I am currently a postgraduate student in Economics, and I am writing my dissertation
(Thesis) on all of this. Several top schools (Chicago/Harvard) can't even agree
by using postgraduate economic measurements if there has been ANY
impact of P2P on CD sales.
What are we to do then? The problem is, as I said, a monstrous amount of misinformation.
The all time cliche that we fear what we don't understand is specially true
now. Two centuries ago Luddites smashed machines in England to *prevent* technological
progress from displacing artisans... and of course, the government supported
them... until they needed the machines to combat famine and other economic shocks...
Is piracy wrong? of course. Are we, users of kazaa and bit torrent, to blame?
partly... the other persons responsible to that are the record labels themselves that didn't
provide a business model before Napster came along. Had they
understood the market.. they would have invested on it ages before
and we would be enjoying new technological progress on music.. and later movies
and software...But no.. they decided to sit on their comfortable sofas and watch
the eternal kingdom of CDs.
But businesses that forget to watch technological trends are
just too many. And we never learn. Of course a natural answer is to use the law or some
other means to savage whatever is left of what they don't want to believe, but
definately is, a sinking ship... I can safely bet that if Kodak could sue digital
camera users they surely would.. that is certainly less expensive than investing
tons on R&D and assesing the new tech threat.
Our children will still be complaining of how a company should stop protecting its old business model instead of promoting innovation. It always happens.
The answer lies in the record labels themselves.. the CD market is a gonner...
they have to provide new ways to entice users to buy content... Did anyone care
to buy the same CD even if they had an old vynil record? of
course not... Did anyone complain in buying the same DVDs again
in order to update your VHS libraries.. of course not... and that is because
there is extra value on the new technology... (nonlinear search and extra features
anyone?)
Come up with a new idea to sell content, *that is your job* spend
on Research.. and customers wil surely come in droves... just see the i-pod...
Don't get me wrong, I think Lucas is a terrible writer since 1977. However, I grew up with these movies and *the one* thing that I always wanted to see is the future of whatever happened after episode VI.
Of course there are tons of novels and comics... but... isn't it a little bit interesting to just imagine SEEING Han, Leia and all the gang as good ol' pals? That can only happen in a movie...
But of course.. I wouldn't expect much from the story or other *NEW* Characters.
Would u think Carrie is that hot with so many wrinkles and overwight?.. Well after all she had to take care of a reckless ex-smuggler... well.. at least we know Han (Harrison) is IN SHAPE =P
Actually... I am no physicist but.. just how far are we from a true fusion reactor?
It just sounds to me that, like the Space Station, this will split the R&D costs for some time until a politician really thinks it is going to be feasible in the near political future
Then... we will have to wait for some time and the US will announce that we have clean energy from fussion, just like the stealth plane, a mission to mars... or god know what the US is working on as CLASSIFIED?
The site is really no concern.. until the horizon of feasibility approaches.... just my.02
making money from ROMs??
on
Borrowing ROMs
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Nintendo should stop this nonsense of protecting NES and Arcade ROMs. Once they are freely available even from Nintendo.com or in an extreme case $1 a pop as some suggest (geez buddy why not buy me a donut and Ill let you copy my ROM of {insert your fav game here} or better yet Ill send it to you by email.)fans will lose interest eventually and perharps will be interested again in 10 more years.
My point is that Nintendo should add value. I dont want to spend money on Millipede or Super Mario 3 again... I already did (or rather, my parents:P ). Now, Nintendo allows me to play Super Mario 2 full color and whenever and wherever I want. That is a feat no emulator can do. And i am willing to pay 30 bucks to play Zelda, Mario and Final fight again in an 8-hour flight in a gb advance, without carrying a pc monolith.
Nintendo and other paranoid ROM protectors should focus on creating *NEW* value, as thats what makes their business alive. ROM profit cannot possibly stand as a core cash inflow... those Roms are a legacy to humanity and all of us have already paid more than was due while Asteroids and SuperPunch Out were in the arcades.....
hhmmmm First of all... Let's just answer the question what makes a good core movie?
Yeah it's the story... Titanic, well it's not the good physics display of the ship sinking, or DiCaprios hottie scene in the car... everyone wanted to live the tragedy that was surrounded and symbolized in that ship... I remember old people during my childhood years being amazed by such tragedies as World War II, the Hindenburg, and Titanic. They wanted to tell the story again and again. Seeing it with your own eyes is Fantastic.
Now lets get back to 1977, a guy tells a story about light sabers, the Force, Good vs Evil... a farm boy that is the chosen one to destroy evil... nothing particularly new, but the effects blew everyone away..Who wouldn't one light saber to kick some imperial butt! And a moon that destroys planets... cool!
And then it starts to get interesting, we see that light-sabers not only sound cool, but cut body parts too! What? my father you say? a twist in the plot! yay! This Vader guy isn't fooling around!
And then you get the wrap-up with some teddy-bears
saving the day...
The story wasn't exactly a best seller... hey who remembers rushing to the bookstore and buying Star Wars - a soon to be released Motion Picture from Fox?... exaclty,me neither... but the Special Fx were worth seeing.. several times...
Now that we are grown ups.. we DEMAND a good story... sorry folks but it ain't gonna happen.. the first ones were written all in one giant script, that's why they were so tightly integrated(well at least they were continuous).
Now we say what? midiclorians... where did the mystic feeling go? Jar jar... wtf?!?!? Sorry folks lousy writing again... and now they are going one episode at a time... You tell me what it's going to happen... two sided light sabers and Green men rolling are not much plot savers....
Was I the only one who said at the Skywalker-Amiddala wedding, excuse me, can I speak to the bride?, I think she wasn't on the same dimension when his fiancee said he slaughtered an entire village and punished them like animals because they deserved to... He has a problem.. and she has several for wanting to marry someone like him consciously...
Any how... since the scripts are so lousy and they are not going to change... does it matter if Spielberg or Lucas are at the helm? hmmmm
Hollywood is not exactly known for delivering good stories, and the directors are focusing on profits.. not art. Spielberg has a strong passion for authoritarism-i.e. the nazis, Saving Private Ryan, all nazis appearances in the Jones films, Schindlers list, the control of society in minority report...
I think he could have contributed and put a little bit of passion in the Jedi Massacre and tight control for the emperor in the film to follow but that hardly saves a so-so story, and Lucas knows how to do special effects, so I think it is gonna be a good FX movie with a lousy story, with either director... yet again.
I have seen this story already... so while I read the real thing... William Schirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.. and see how the senate is dissolved, a guy gets all the power of the state and nearly conquers the galaxy, ahem Europe...
I'll be looking forward to see more light-saber wielding, more battlescenes, with star destroyers and star fighters that will make my jaw drop... because there is nothing more to be seen in episode iii. If you want to see a good story read Tolkien, Dumas or Shakespeare.
However, we have to give Lucas some credit... in a time when nobody gave a dime to do Sci Fi movies, he had the courage to follow his dreams... he persuaded the studio to do some film about droids and the like... a sure flop said the investors... and then
everybody was overwhelmed by the novelty...
And now 25 years later everybody complains because we are seeing Lucas' vision all over again...hmmm excuse me but if you don't like what you see stop waiting in line 1 week in advance for tickets and stop paying to see it several times... because you are making the producers rich and encouraging to film episodes 7-9! so stop bugging me!;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Also, this is completely unsourced but there are rumors around that the Bretton Woods Accord (pegging the dollar to gold standard) was terminated also for strategic reasons, as the largest supplier of gold (largest gold mines) after South Africa is... Russia.
Russia was the world's largest gold producer in 1850's:
http://www.goldminershq.com/VLAD.HTM
Just imagine during the cold war looking at this graph...
http://www.goldsheetlinks.com/production.htm
Had you been in the oval office with everybody in the white house and the kremlin as tense as they were, stayed with the gold standard?
mac
However, when a treatment for life extension becomes available, it seems very likely that religious leaders will call it an aberration and unnatural. Those who refuse to take the treatment will die off in a generation. Those who shun technological advances quickly become a minority, e.g. the amish.
As all things in this life, it is not a black and white issue. Probably there will be traditionalists for an "old" way in which you chose to die at a "natural" age, and early adopters for a "new" way in who will give life extension a shot.
Who will reign? The guys who have all the experience accumulated in 2 or 3 generations lifetime? Or those who actually have 2 or 3 generations during the same time frame? It seems that the former will be less prone to take risks than the latter. I would like to live longer but it is not obvious if that will give me an edge over other organisms. Evolution indeed will pick the ones that are more fit. Remember, in 75 years time (a decent human life expectancy) how many bacteria generations can you count? probably much more than thousands of trillions. And both organisms are still around... although humans certainly rule the planet.
I don't *hate* Microsoft, but do find it extremely disheartening.
The thing that really bothers me is the lack of choice they *impose* and profit on.
They have come up with tons of products that you may or may not find attractive, that is up to you. The problem is, in the past, even if you didn't like what they came up with you have HAD to pay for them and get their products. Case in point, Windows of course. During the 90s and part of the 2000's I required to use a PC and genuinely didn't like the Microsoft OS. I wanted to run specialty 3D software (i.e. Alias Maya) on a laptop at the time and was locked up on using Wintel platform. I literally had no choice.
I paid for a new laptop and the price included probably around $100 or more on a OS that provided questionable security and a lame user interface. I would gladly have paid more to use an alternative OS. Now, I do have a choice, and switched to OS X and Linux, and while not perfect, it is my choice.
You could argue that the *damage* to myself was really only a $100 or so charge for what the OS cost me (probably more). But what pisses me off is that they didn't give me a chance to say Yes, I do like your product or No, I don't. In this day and age, we have come a long way to just let an entity tell you what to do, specially with such a nice a hobby such as computers. One time that a company tells you what is good for you when you know otherwise is one too many.
I think the zune and the xbox are not attractive products. Since I don't have to buy them, their launch is fine with me. I actually would encourage Microsoft to come up with new things, more choices to us customers is a good thing. But Windows.... limiting my choices... that is just plain wrong.
That is impossible! Even for a computer!
Amen to that MR Willeh.
I put a lot of value on design for the gadgets that I consume, hence I am a mac geek. However, a time came when I needed to run a Windows App and had to choose a laptop from the Wintel world.
From all the available options, the VAIOs were by far the most appealing ones, so I bought a GRX. The only problem? How awfully they are manufactured and supported, as I later unfortunately found out.
One day the thing just wouldn't recognize half of the RAM installed and sometimes it would freeze without any warning sign of any kind. When trying to find out what was wrong with it, I contacted SONY, and it showed me the finger. The official support site didn't mention anything and the help line guys told me that I needed to send in the laptop and pay a service fee at my expense just to see what was going on.
I later found out in here that the problem was indeed common (pins one to ten in the first memory socket were not soldered properly), that SONY knew about it for a long time, and still didn't EVEN put it in a website as a potential problem that could arise in a VAIO.
To this day (three and a half years after its release) SONY still hasn't aknowledged the faulty motherboard problem. Now, I really am not that picky as not to buy a product from a company that has had this kind of problem, because in the end, every company has had their fair share. But SONY has this strange corporate attitude.
Nice ideas, but... beats me. No wonder their shares have been tanking. I can tell you I will NOT buy a VAIO again and I wished there were some sort of AMAZON store for laptops with a similar "rating and comments" system where I could put this experience up.
If you are thinking of buying a VAIO... DON'T.
I meant details the in the robots themselves. The first Transformers series had every-day objects "transformed" into robots. (OK I know it is the other way around in the series, but I am thinking from a point of view of a designer trying to come up with this). And yes it was funny to see Megatron change size and Optimus Prime's trailer just disappear...and don't get me started with the guy who transformed into a rocket... he had a whole launching platform disappear =P
I don't complain about the animation, which was decent for its time. Rather, I am talking about more the details in the design / story. This is why liked the vehicles Voltron so much, being able to form teams, every episode was a problem of coordination from 100 pilots that could change configurations according to the problem. The adaptation-to-terrain concept was neat
Transformers had enough variety of robots to keep me interested, planes, cars, trucks, guns... take your pick. Whereas the Voltron being talked about here had "only" 5 mechanized lions and a princess to defend... it just didn't grab my attention.
However I did like the fact that both pilots in the right shoulder of each Voltron were brothers and made reference to one another from time to time =D
I just mentioned the EVAs because we will be seeing a Hollywood version sometime in the future.. and being a fan from the series... there was a time (maybe 10 years ago) when I would have paid anything to see a computer generated version of all these series that I like. But as I already mentioned, some efforts have disappointed me, namely the X-men and the Fantastic Four movies... among others. Don't get me wrong I like them, but there is so much more potential in them... that I think they will not be able to "translate" it well to the big screen =(
I don't know about you, but I liked the "vehicles" based Voltron much better. Somehow the one based on tiger-like vehicles didn't appeal to me.
The main reason is I liked the robots with much more details, like the transformers.
It is nice to see that 20 years later, people are pursuing new ways to tell those stories that defined our childhood. But, I am skeptical as to how it will be presented in the screen, because I know I will NOT like somebody in a giant suit (a la Ultraman or power rangers) and I believe that other than original cel animation it will be very hard to translate to the silver screen.
The more detailed and anime-like, the more difficult to translate... I wonder if I'll like the EVAs, Transformers, and even if they attempted to, Robotech or other anime that it is in my "must own" list.
I am a comics fan, and a hard core X-men at that, and I know I didn't like the live action most of the Marvel incarnations, except for Daredevil and maybe the first Spdierman. And I think those were "easier" to translate...
It is regrettable that these things happen *at all*, there is just no excuse or justification for taking human lives for any motive.
However upon hearing the latest developments, it stroke me as strange that the attack was not more aggresive in nature. I worked in "the city" (the financial district) for a year, and it was a very widespread impression that if London was to be attacked, the subway would be a primary target. I remember seeing Picadilly ( a major line) being closed for simulated attack responses from Biological weapons or other means that would require a complete isolation of the train.
Having said that, I still think that this type of disruption was much less of what not only authorities were expecting, but maybe even Londoners. Perharps some of them can share their thoughts on this.
Dude, one of the most compelling and rich comments I have read among rants and complaints on Star Wars in years... Which shows that if you look hard enough... you'll get more than your fairy tale in space everyone's been complaining about...
Love is a powerful "Force" that can turn you over or win you back... and still not many people talk about it in the Star Wars saga as a thing they learned...
Must have been DAMN scary to offer yourself as a sacrifice to give it *A* shot to bring your father back... As Leia said.. "Luke, run away and foget everything..." And he almost failed...
Luke is a damn strong kid... even in his darkest hour.
Since its inception, Apple has always been willing to gamble more with new products than most other companies
Granted, they flopped with the Newton... but they came out with the mac, the powerbook, peer2peer file sharing out of the box, the trackpad, the powerbook duo, speech recognition integrated on the OS on the 90's, quicktime, and the list goes on... (I would like to give them the mouse and the interface, but as with everything they also have a dark side)
It is good to see they are ripping the benefits of believing in something completely new... ( As they believed in a portable media player by some bogus guy who was rejected by other companies)
Kudos to Apple
I do believe that slashdotters are from all earth citizens... the bunch who are nearer to understanding the problem.
That is however a problem in itself. Do the average Joe or heck.. do even RIAA or the firms they represent, understand the problem? not at all...
I am currently a postgraduate student in Economics, and I am writing my dissertation (Thesis) on all of this. Several top schools (Chicago/Harvard) can't even agree by using postgraduate economic measurements if there has been ANY impact of P2P on CD sales.
What are we to do then? The problem is, as I said, a monstrous amount of misinformation. The all time cliche that we fear what we don't understand is specially true now. Two centuries ago Luddites smashed machines in England to *prevent* technological progress from displacing artisans... and of course, the government supported them... until they needed the machines to combat famine and other economic shocks...
Is piracy wrong? of course. Are we, users of kazaa and bit torrent, to blame? partly... the other persons responsible to that are the record labels themselves that didn't provide a business model before Napster came along. Had they understood the market.. they would have invested on it ages before and we would be enjoying new technological progress on music.. and later movies and software...But no.. they decided to sit on their comfortable sofas and watch the eternal kingdom of CDs.
But businesses that forget to watch technological trends are just too many. And we never learn. Of course a natural answer is to use the law or some other means to savage whatever is left of what they don't want to believe, but definately is, a sinking ship... I can safely bet that if Kodak could sue digital camera users they surely would.. that is certainly less expensive than investing tons on R&D and assesing the new tech threat.
Our children will still be complaining of how a company should stop protecting its old business model instead of promoting innovation. It always happens.
The answer lies in the record labels themselves.. the CD market is a gonner... they have to provide new ways to entice users to buy content... Did anyone care to buy the same CD even if they had an old vynil record? of course not... Did anyone complain in buying the same DVDs again in order to update your VHS libraries.. of course not... and that is because there is extra value on the new technology... (nonlinear search and extra features anyone?)
Come up with a new idea to sell content, *that is your job* spend on Research.. and customers wil surely come in droves... just see the i-pod...
Just my 2 cents...
Ok so this shouldn't be bad news at all...
Don't get me wrong, I think Lucas is a terrible writer since 1977. However, I grew up with these movies and *the one* thing that I always wanted to see is the future of whatever happened after episode VI.
Of course there are tons of novels and comics... but ... isn't it a little bit interesting to just imagine SEEING Han, Leia and all the gang as good ol' pals? That can only happen in a movie...
But of course.. I wouldn't expect much from the story or other *NEW* Characters.
Would u think Carrie is that hot with so many wrinkles and overwight?.. Well after all she had to take care of a reckless ex-smuggler... well.. at least we know Han (Harrison) is IN SHAPE =P
Just my two cents
Actually... I am no physicist but.. just how far are we from a true fusion reactor?
It just sounds to me that, like the Space Station, this will split the R&D costs for some time until a politician really thinks it is going to be feasible in the near political future
Then... we will have to wait for some time and the US will announce that we have clean energy from fussion, just like the stealth plane, a mission to mars... or god know what the US is working on as CLASSIFIED?
The site is really no concern.. until the horizon of feasibility approaches.... just my .02
Nintendo should stop this nonsense of protecting NES and Arcade ROMs. Once they are freely available even from Nintendo.com or in an extreme case $1 a pop as some suggest (geez buddy why not buy me a donut and Ill let you copy my ROM of {insert your fav game here} or better yet Ill send it to you by email.)fans will lose interest eventually and perharps will be interested again in 10 more years.
My point is that Nintendo should add value. I dont want to spend money on Millipede or Super Mario 3 again... I already did (or rather, my parents :P ). Now, Nintendo allows me to play Super Mario 2 full color and whenever and wherever I want. That is a feat no emulator can do. And i am willing to pay 30 bucks to play Zelda, Mario and Final fight again in an 8-hour flight in a gb advance, without carrying a pc monolith.
Nintendo and other paranoid ROM protectors should focus on creating *NEW* value, as thats what makes their business alive. ROM profit cannot possibly stand as a core cash inflow... those Roms are a legacy to humanity and all of us have already paid more than was due while Asteroids and SuperPunch Out were in the arcades.....
hhmmmm First of all... Let's just answer the question what makes a good core movie? Yeah it's the story... Titanic, well it's not the good physics display of the ship sinking, or DiCaprios hottie scene in the car... everyone wanted to live the tragedy that was surrounded and symbolized in that ship... I remember old people during my childhood years being amazed by such tragedies as World War II, the Hindenburg, and Titanic. They wanted to tell the story again and again. Seeing it with your own eyes is Fantastic. Now lets get back to 1977, a guy tells a story about light sabers, the Force, Good vs Evil... a farm boy that is the chosen one to destroy evil... nothing particularly new, but the effects blew everyone away..Who wouldn't one light saber to kick some imperial butt! And a moon that destroys planets... cool! And then it starts to get interesting, we see that light-sabers not only sound cool, but cut body parts too! What? my father you say? a twist in the plot! yay! This Vader guy isn't fooling around! And then you get the wrap-up with some teddy-bears saving the day... The story wasn't exactly a best seller... hey who remembers rushing to the bookstore and buying Star Wars - a soon to be released Motion Picture from Fox?... exaclty,me neither... but the Special Fx were worth seeing.. several times... Now that we are grown ups.. we DEMAND a good story... sorry folks but it ain't gonna happen.. the first ones were written all in one giant script, that's why they were so tightly integrated(well at least they were continuous). Now we say what? midiclorians... where did the mystic feeling go? Jar jar... wtf?!?!? Sorry folks lousy writing again... and now they are going one episode at a time... You tell me what it's going to happen... two sided light sabers and Green men rolling are not much plot savers.... Was I the only one who said at the Skywalker-Amiddala wedding, excuse me, can I speak to the bride?, I think she wasn't on the same dimension when his fiancee said he slaughtered an entire village and punished them like animals because they deserved to... He has a problem.. and she has several for wanting to marry someone like him consciously... Any how... since the scripts are so lousy and they are not going to change... does it matter if Spielberg or Lucas are at the helm? hmmmm Hollywood is not exactly known for delivering good stories, and the directors are focusing on profits.. not art. Spielberg has a strong passion for authoritarism-i.e. the nazis, Saving Private Ryan, all nazis appearances in the Jones films, Schindlers list, the control of society in minority report... I think he could have contributed and put a little bit of passion in the Jedi Massacre and tight control for the emperor in the film to follow but that hardly saves a so-so story, and Lucas knows how to do special effects, so I think it is gonna be a good FX movie with a lousy story, with either director... yet again. I have seen this story already... so while I read the real thing... William Schirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.. and see how the senate is dissolved, a guy gets all the power of the state and nearly conquers the galaxy, ahem Europe... I'll be looking forward to see more light-saber wielding, more battlescenes, with star destroyers and star fighters that will make my jaw drop... because there is nothing more to be seen in episode iii. If you want to see a good story read Tolkien, Dumas or Shakespeare. However, we have to give Lucas some credit... in a time when nobody gave a dime to do Sci Fi movies, he had the courage to follow his dreams... he persuaded the studio to do some film about droids and the like... a sure flop said the investors... and then everybody was overwhelmed by the novelty... And now 25 years later everybody complains because we are seeing Lucas' vision all over again...hmmm excuse me but if you don't like what you see stop waiting in line 1 week in advance for tickets and stop paying to see it several times... because you are making the producers rich and encouraging to film episodes 7-9! so stop bugging me! ;-)