A young man's "one of the oldest stories" is an older man's cliche.
When I need my dollops of Greek Tragedy (or Christian Philosophy or Buddhist Revelation or Qaballah Interpretation or Zoroastrian Interior Design) I think I'll look in directions other than the Brothers Wachowski or, um, Lawrence Fishburne for my enlightenment.
Why must we always cloak our guilty pleasures in layers of "meaning?" (Probably something to do with our Judaeo-Christian mores, but I'll leave that to the armchair theologians and film-makers to posit upon...)
Gimme Carrie-Ann, vinyl trenchcoats, automatic weapons, a hundred Agent Smiths, some wacked out over-the-top Martial Arts, and a big tub of p-corn and I'm happy to suspend my belief. Just don't expect me to gain any insight into my Belief in the process.
odds are pretty good you will see Heineken in the film
In the "old days," before Hollywood wised up, set decorators were careful *not* to use branded properties. Audiences were treated to some made-up logos or beer cans covered in white paper. Now that, my friend, looked cheesy. Nothing pulled an audience out of immersion faster, screaming 'fake,' than a shot of of some dummied-up consumables.
I have no problem whatsoever with a film's producers getting some extra cash while simultaneoulsy adding to (or at least not detracting from) their film's realism.
My big issue in this area has to do with the deal that MGM made in the 90's that switched Bond's vodka to Smirnoff. James Bond would *not* drink Smirnoff, dammit! Glad to see he's moved on to Finlandia with the most recent film. A new generation of Bond fans can sleep soundly again...
You need a Rio or an iPaq or any of a bunch of audio-playing gimcracks that are compatible with the award-winning services offered here. And yes, last time I checked, they offered a Car Talk subscription.
I shudder in recollection of how much money I have spent there...
Re:What's the Point??
on
TiVo For Radio?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The Point would be Talk Radio. It's huge. In fact it's bigger than huge.
This guy already has people paying him for the privelege of listening to his show "24/7." He maintains a 2-week archive.
It's not about the music (is there anyone left who listens to radio for the music?), it's about the gab. This guy's already got one of these radio Tivo's, and has been promoting it's use on his website in his campaign against this guy. And everybody seems to take their cues from this guy, who now has his own nationwide radioshow too. I know as well that NPR audio archives are likewise very popular.
It's all huge, mostly absurd, and now available on-demand. Short term, it make take some money out of the pockets of the outfits that charged for access to their audio archives, but long-term it's gotta be a good thing for a genre that's just getting bigger (and more influential, rightly or wrongly) on a daily basis.
Um, the fact that you work for a developer of Blogging Software that offers a theme called "Slashesque" wouldn't be coloring your opinion here, now, would it?
Actually, from your perspective, do you see Google's move here as somehow "de-legitimizing," or at least taking some of the wind out of the sails of the Blogging fad? What kind of features are your users looking for in the "next-generation" of web-diary gear?
As for my "subjective" decision, no, what I'm saying is that if the person "blogging" derives revenue at the end of the day for his "blogging" work, then his efforts are a class apart from the amateur Web diarists, and Google should not ignore them the way they will be (albeit politely, seating them at the "kids' table") ignoring the "amateur" bloggers.
No. SlashDot aggregates news stories. It's the Web generation of what the BBS guys had in CompuServe Forums and GEnie Roundtables. The staff is paid to aggregate and thread stories that are of interest to a particular community. (Sometimes they aggregate the really, really good ones more than once.) Technically, SlashDot staff don't submit the stories, members of the community do. Bottom line: it's a professional operation. (g'head, g'head, make the jokes, it's Monday, get 'em outta yer system...)
Personally, I would use the litmus test of "professionalism" when doping out what is a blog versus what is "legitimate" content. If the "blogger" makes his living as a writer or journalist, then the blog is "supplemental online material." If the site is, as we referred to the vanity publishing phenomenon back in the early '90's, someone's "homepage," but with the added baggage of semi-regular diary entries, then it's a Blog.
Use of "blogging software" doesn't make someone a writer, or a journalist, and it certainly doesn't automatically grant its user something worth saying, or even something factual to say.
It's great to see Google realizing this and clamping down.
Come now! Even the Democrats don't believe Bush is beatable in 2004, else they would be fielding someone from their first string, and not the bench-warmers that stultified a nation in last weekend's debate. Karl Rove's goal is way beyond merely winning; he's looking for the royal flush of winning in all 50 states. Love him or Hate him, the world has Bush through 2008.
Granted, if voting in America was restricted to particpants on slashdot, college students, inhabitants of LA, NYC, and Boston, and members of the press, Bush would be gone in '04, but inasmuch as the Rest of the Country is allowed to vote, he's got another four years.
Unless you reject the greedy assumption that art must be controlled and deciminated legally by whoever owns it and realize it should belong to the public for the good of society
I'll be happy to, once my mortgage bank and grocery store reject all their greedy assumptions and agree to house and feed me and my family for the good of society.
Dude, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there a bunch of websites onto which an artist can upload his music and do business with consumers more or less directly?
As far as I know, there's always been that option for the local band. The point here is that most bands, local and otherwise, would rather spend their time focusing on making music, and so make arrangements for other organizations to handle their distribution for them. These distribution organizations have traditionally shied away from online distribution -- until now, and that's a Big Deal.
It's highly likely that artists not signed by any of the companies represented in the RIAA will eventually make their way onto an iTune download. I don't think that heralds the death knell for Big Music any more than the combination of Amazon.com and small-press publishers presaged a demise for the major publishing houses.
Humans have demonstrated a remarkable propensity to consume, and, oddly enough, are proving more than willing to compensate those involved in both the creation and distribution of the consumables.
People wanted to be able to download a wide variety of "good" music, load it onto an MP3 player and burn their own CD from their purchase. By all accounts (except perhaps those of some vocal sixteen year olds who think the world owes them a record collection) Apple has delivered this, They did the research, developed the tech, made the difficult deals, took the risks, generated the buzz, and now I hope they profit handsomely from it.
The RIAA reps the companies that get the music into the download -- engineers, producers, designers, and, yes, lawyers -- all of whom need to be paid, and will get their slice. The size of that slice is spelled out in a contract which both parties sign. Is the size of that slice "fair?" I dunno. What percentage of the price of that soda finds its way back to the chemists and bottlers? How many pennies on the cigar dollar get back to the guy rolling the leaves? How many nickels on the Big Mac pricetag work their way back to the cattlerancher? Do we stop consuming these products (and a million others) until we "ger answers?"
Say I'm a small-town chemist who just developed a new flavor -- how do I get my soda bottled and onto the shelves at the 7-11? You mean -- it's not easy?? I can't just pull my truck up to the back of ths store and stock the shelves myself? I have to make a [shudder] DEAL?! Oh, the Injustice!
Is this new venture going to change the world, overthrow evil, and bring about a Glorious Workers' Revolution? No, silly, it's gonna let you download music easily and legally onto your computers and disks. No more or less than it was designed to do.
I've never had a use for Apple, Macs, or Steve Jobs, but my hat is off to them on this.
...and I gotta tell you, having played that trumpet and serving as Music Director for the Celestial Choir since the Dawn of Time, I know Audio, and MP3 is the way to go. I've analyzed OGG, WMV, AAC, and this cute l'il analog thing which that wack job Orpheus put together Back in the Day, and I must say, nothing beats MP3, in your or anyone else's universe.
Of course, I'm logging in here under a pseudonym, so you'll just have to trust me. But hey, would a member of the Heavenly Host lie to you?
Does anyone know if this Star Wars fascination is as big in Europe, specifically the UK, as it is in the US? I really think it fulfills some kind of "missing race memory" or something here, the US missing out on the Dark and Middle Ages and all. Coup Sticks and Dreamcatchers are all very well and good, but they don't hold a cathedral candle to long swords and grail quests.
If we had our own, *real* King Arthur (or as real as King Arthur was, anyways...) would we be clamoring so much for George Lucas' pre-fab techno Arthuriana?
Liberal! LOL! I've been a registered (and voting) Conservative probably longer than you have been alive.
You, son, are the reason we conservatives get such a bad rap in the humor department.
The truth in my joke still holds, however. Any efforts to 'e'-enable voting clearly favor the connected side of the Digital Divide. Google up some stats to see who that does not include, typically. (Hint: They by-and-large did not vote for the same people we did in the last election.)
...and no candidate for US Presidency will ever set foot in Montana again, which, barring any new initiative from the Green Party, is not likely to happen soon.
Sounds Great! Anything that makes it easier for that top societal percentage of young, wealthy, white people to choose our nation's leaders... Hey, I'm on board with it! All you elderly and un-connected peeps? We OWNZED j00, 3uXX0R!!
It is a very small, impotent and inconsequential god whose work can be undone by the likes of our species. Certainly not my God, and who are YOU that you presume to understand my God's Ways?
He has given us the tools to better ourselves, individually and across generations. To NOT use these gifts is the sin. And if the world does not have enough resources to sustain us if we start living to 150 (as if!), it will be time to find some new worlds.
How do you know that's not part of His Plan for us as well?
Re:Lotus Agenda - Now THAT was a PIM!
on
Chandler 0.1 Released
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· Score: 5, Interesting
There's never been anything like Agenda, before or since. Now, THERE was software!
DOS-based, fast as lightning, completely (and intimidatingly) customizable (It opened into a blank page, if I recall correctly). It took any bit of info you wanted to throw at, and allowed you to establish your own relations among the bits. It was a database, an organizer, a rolodex, a "sketchpad for ideas," it was transcendant! No online component (E-Mail, Web) cuz there was no online component to your life -- this was circa 91-92.
In the small office where I was the Tech guru at the time, no two workers' Agenda looked and ran the same -- everybody used it a different way, and the interface reflected that (Ultimately, it was probably that aspect of it which prevented it's widespread adoption in bigger shops.)
Then along came Windows 3.1 and the Web, and upheaval. Lotus spiked Agenda, replacing it with a Win-based Lotus Organizer 1.0. I moved the company over to Jensen's "Commence" program, which held some of Agenda's flavor but proved an administrative bear.
If Chandler can even approach lighting a candle to Agenda (sorry...) -- and run on Linux as well -- I'm there, Opneing Day. But I suspect it'll be targeting the regimented Outlook suits, and not us "Agenda hippies"...
The Spectre / Allure of Hollywood
on
Ask Warren Ellis
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Given the revival of Hollywood's interest in comic books, and the general public's interest in Hollywood's treatment of same, how much of your character/world-building is influenced by the prospect of birthing the next big Happy Meal franchise? Do you give any thought at all to how such-and-such a notion might play and/or be accepted "cinematically," when creating (ostensibly) for the comic book medium?
...oh, and Warren, even though this is SlashDot, it's OK to admit to wanting to make money -- lots and lots of money. I'm interested in knowing how that prospect influences the creation, or whether it is more meaningful (and maybe more profitable, long-term) to ignore such-and-such a trend that could make you a bajillionaire...
Slashdot Mirror
De-select "Movies" in your preferences section for this site. You won't have to see the stories, and we won't have to hear you whine about them.
Sweet, huh?
Meh.
A young man's "one of the oldest stories" is an older man's cliche.
When I need my dollops of Greek Tragedy (or Christian Philosophy or Buddhist Revelation or Qaballah Interpretation or Zoroastrian Interior Design) I think I'll look in directions other than the Brothers Wachowski or, um, Lawrence Fishburne for my enlightenment.
Why must we always cloak our guilty pleasures in layers of "meaning?" (Probably something to do with our Judaeo-Christian mores, but I'll leave that to the armchair theologians and film-makers to posit upon...)
Gimme Carrie-Ann, vinyl trenchcoats, automatic weapons, a hundred Agent Smiths, some wacked out over-the-top Martial Arts, and a big tub of p-corn and I'm happy to suspend my belief. Just don't expect me to gain any insight into my Belief in the process.
odds are pretty good you will see Heineken in the film
In the "old days," before Hollywood wised up, set decorators were careful *not* to use branded properties. Audiences were treated to some made-up logos or beer cans covered in white paper. Now that, my friend, looked cheesy. Nothing pulled an audience out of immersion faster, screaming 'fake,' than a shot of of some dummied-up consumables.
I have no problem whatsoever with a film's producers getting some extra cash while simultaneoulsy adding to (or at least not detracting from) their film's realism.
My big issue in this area has to do with the deal that MGM made in the 90's that switched Bond's vodka to Smirnoff. James Bond would *not* drink Smirnoff, dammit! Glad to see he's moved on to Finlandia with the most recent film. A new generation of Bond fans can sleep soundly again...
Anyone else feel that the Matrix Reloaded Heineken commercial just makes the Matrix franchise appear "cheap"?
What, you mean in a way that the videogames, comic books, cartoons, action figures and Carrie-Ann Moss dipped in latex do not?
Seeing today how much time and passion you have put into defending Wil Wheaton and defining Nerd-dom, I would say that you, sir, are the Uber-geek.
I doubt that even Wil Wheaton regards Wil Wheaton as highly as you do. Stand Proud, son!
You need a Rio or an iPaq or any of a bunch of audio-playing gimcracks that are compatible with the award-winning services offered here. And yes, last time I checked, they offered a Car Talk subscription.
I shudder in recollection of how much money I have spent there...
The Point would be Talk Radio. It's huge. In fact it's bigger than huge.
This guy already has people paying him for the privelege of listening to his show "24/7." He maintains a 2-week archive.
It's not about the music (is there anyone left who listens to radio for the music?), it's about the gab. This guy's already got one of these radio Tivo's, and has been promoting it's use on his website in his campaign against this guy. And everybody seems to take their cues from this guy, who now has his own nationwide radioshow too. I know as well that NPR audio archives are likewise very popular.
It's all huge, mostly absurd, and now available on-demand. Short term, it make take some money out of the pockets of the outfits that charged for access to their audio archives, but long-term it's gotta be a good thing for a genre that's just getting bigger (and more influential, rightly or wrongly) on a daily basis.
Um, the fact that you work for a developer of Blogging Software that offers a theme called "Slashesque" wouldn't be coloring your opinion here, now, would it?
Actually, from your perspective, do you see Google's move here as somehow "de-legitimizing," or at least taking some of the wind out of the sails of the Blogging fad? What kind of features are your users looking for in the "next-generation" of web-diary gear?
As for my "subjective" decision, no, what I'm saying is that if the person "blogging" derives revenue at the end of the day for his "blogging" work, then his efforts are a class apart from the amateur Web diarists, and Google should not ignore them the way they will be (albeit politely, seating them at the "kids' table") ignoring the "amateur" bloggers.
/. is a blog, no?
No. SlashDot aggregates news stories. It's the Web generation of what the BBS guys had in CompuServe Forums and GEnie Roundtables. The staff is paid to aggregate and thread stories that are of interest to a particular community. (Sometimes they aggregate the really, really good ones more than once.) Technically, SlashDot staff don't submit the stories, members of the community do. Bottom line: it's a professional operation. (g'head, g'head, make the jokes, it's Monday, get 'em outta yer system...)
Personally, I would use the litmus test of "professionalism" when doping out what is a blog versus what is "legitimate" content. If the "blogger" makes his living as a writer or journalist, then the blog is "supplemental online material." If the site is, as we referred to the vanity publishing phenomenon back in the early '90's, someone's "homepage," but with the added baggage of semi-regular diary entries, then it's a Blog.
Use of "blogging software" doesn't make someone a writer, or a journalist, and it certainly doesn't automatically grant its user something worth saying, or even something factual to say.
It's great to see Google realizing this and clamping down.
I suspect that after he looses the 2004 election
Come now! Even the Democrats don't believe Bush is beatable in 2004, else they would be fielding someone from their first string, and not the bench-warmers that stultified a nation in last weekend's debate. Karl Rove's goal is way beyond merely winning; he's looking for the royal flush of winning in all 50 states. Love him or Hate him, the world has Bush through 2008.
Granted, if voting in America was restricted to particpants on slashdot, college students, inhabitants of LA, NYC, and Boston, and members of the press, Bush would be gone in '04, but inasmuch as the Rest of the Country is allowed to vote, he's got another four years.
Unless you reject the greedy assumption that art must be controlled and deciminated legally by whoever owns it and realize it should belong to the public for the good of society
I'll be happy to, once my mortgage bank and grocery store reject all their greedy assumptions and agree to house and feed me and my family for the good of society.
Until then, pay up, parasite...
Dude, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there a bunch of websites onto which an artist can upload his music and do business with consumers more or less directly?
As far as I know, there's always been that option for the local band. The point here is that most bands, local and otherwise, would rather spend their time focusing on making music, and so make arrangements for other organizations to handle their distribution for them. These distribution organizations have traditionally shied away from online distribution -- until now, and that's a Big Deal.
It's highly likely that artists not signed by any of the companies represented in the RIAA will eventually make their way onto an iTune download. I don't think that heralds the death knell for Big Music any more than the combination of Amazon.com and small-press publishers presaged a demise for the major publishing houses.
Humans have demonstrated a remarkable propensity to consume, and, oddly enough, are proving more than willing to compensate those involved in both the creation and distribution of the consumables.
People wanted to be able to download a wide variety of "good" music, load it onto an MP3 player and burn their own CD from their purchase. By all accounts (except perhaps those of some vocal sixteen year olds who think the world owes them a record collection) Apple has delivered this, They did the research, developed the tech, made the difficult deals, took the risks, generated the buzz, and now I hope they profit handsomely from it.
The RIAA reps the companies that get the music into the download -- engineers, producers, designers, and, yes, lawyers -- all of whom need to be paid, and will get their slice. The size of that slice is spelled out in a contract which both parties sign. Is the size of that slice "fair?" I dunno. What percentage of the price of that soda finds its way back to the chemists and bottlers? How many pennies on the cigar dollar get back to the guy rolling the leaves? How many nickels on the Big Mac pricetag work their way back to the cattlerancher? Do we stop consuming these products (and a million others) until we "ger answers?"
Say I'm a small-town chemist who just developed a new flavor -- how do I get my soda bottled and onto the shelves at the 7-11? You mean -- it's not easy?? I can't just pull my truck up to the back of ths store and stock the shelves myself? I have to make a [shudder] DEAL?! Oh, the Injustice!
Is this new venture going to change the world, overthrow evil, and bring about a Glorious Workers' Revolution? No, silly, it's gonna let you download music easily and legally onto your computers and disks. No more or less than it was designed to do.
I've never had a use for Apple, Macs, or Steve Jobs, but my hat is off to them on this.
So we know we hate this guy and he'd never be our official representative, but who *is*?
Never mind "this guy," who's this "we" you are talking about?
I nominate Brigette Helm, her character "Maria," and her creator Rotwang. Oh, I guess we should acknowledge Fritz Lang as well, huh?
"Metropolis" is Eternal.
...and I gotta tell you, having played that trumpet and serving as Music Director for the Celestial Choir since the Dawn of Time, I know Audio, and MP3 is the way to go. I've analyzed OGG, WMV, AAC, and this cute l'il analog thing which that wack job Orpheus put together Back in the Day, and I must say, nothing beats MP3, in your or anyone else's universe.
Of course, I'm logging in here under a pseudonym, so you'll just have to trust me. But hey, would a member of the Heavenly Host lie to you?
Does anyone know if this Star Wars fascination is as big in Europe, specifically the UK, as it is in the US? I really think it fulfills some kind of "missing race memory" or something here, the US missing out on the Dark and Middle Ages and all. Coup Sticks and Dreamcatchers are all very well and good, but they don't hold a cathedral candle to long swords and grail quests.
If we had our own, *real* King Arthur (or as real as King Arthur was, anyways...) would we be clamoring so much for George Lucas' pre-fab techno Arthuriana?
Open Source Money Program for the Mac: "Apple pyDough"
How about "MING?" ("MoneyDance Is Not GNUCash"?)
A Deluxe Money Program for really, really rich people: "xCESS"
3) MoneyDance, IMHO, is not a very professional sounding name. It sounds like shareware.
Compared to what passes as naming conventions in Open Source, MoneyDance sounds positively Redmondian.
It could easily have been called "The gtkFooGnuTklDough" and we'd all be congratulating ourselves on our cleverness.
liberal
Liberal! LOL! I've been a registered (and voting) Conservative probably longer than you have been alive.
You, son, are the reason we conservatives get such a bad rap in the humor department.
The truth in my joke still holds, however. Any efforts to 'e'-enable voting clearly favor the connected side of the Digital Divide. Google up some stats to see who that does not include, typically. (Hint: They by-and-large did not vote for the same people we did in the last election.)
Undo God's work?
It is a very small, impotent and inconsequential god whose work can be undone by the likes of our species. Certainly not my God, and who are YOU that you presume to understand my God's Ways?
He has given us the tools to better ourselves, individually and across generations. To NOT use these gifts is the sin. And if the world does not have enough resources to sustain us if we start living to 150 (as if!), it will be time to find some new worlds.
How do you know that's not part of His Plan for us as well?
There's never been anything like Agenda, before or since. Now, THERE was software!
DOS-based, fast as lightning, completely (and intimidatingly) customizable (It opened into a blank page, if I recall correctly). It took any bit of info you wanted to throw at, and allowed you to establish your own relations among the bits. It was a database, an organizer, a rolodex, a "sketchpad for ideas," it was transcendant! No online component (E-Mail, Web) cuz there was no online component to your life -- this was circa 91-92.
In the small office where I was the Tech guru at the time, no two workers' Agenda looked and ran the same -- everybody used it a different way, and the interface reflected that (Ultimately, it was probably that aspect of it which prevented it's widespread adoption in bigger shops.)
Then along came Windows 3.1 and the Web, and upheaval. Lotus spiked Agenda, replacing it with a Win-based Lotus Organizer 1.0. I moved the company over to Jensen's "Commence" program, which held some of Agenda's flavor but proved an administrative bear.
If Chandler can even approach lighting a candle to Agenda (sorry...) -- and run on Linux as well -- I'm there, Opneing Day. But I suspect it'll be targeting the regimented Outlook suits, and not us "Agenda hippies"...