i know i'm gonna get flamed for this but actually, jar-jar is absolutely necessary to the story as it exists: nobody else is stupid enough to be palpatine's tool by suggesting giving palpatine emergency powers. w/out jar-jar, there's no emergency powers and hence, no clone wars. i happen to resent it, but that's the way i think it shakes out.
I saw that, and realized that there was a reason why Lucas made Jar Jar the Uncle Tom of the SW franchise for a reason after all. But it still boils down to poor writing and a lack of imagination (where "imagination" != "special effects"). If the plot was so transparent that only Jar Jar could fall for it, what of the other thousands of supposedly intelligent members of the Senate?
A good writer would have found a way to make Palpatine's plot more devious, more plausible... so inescapable that even Padme would have to agree to it. There are plenty of examples to draw on from recent American history, from McCarthyism to the present.
It didn't take a Jar Jar character in the US Senate when it voted to give Bush the power to wage war -- just incontrovertable "facts" that weren't what they seemed. The Imperial Senate didn't require a fool to lead them astray -- all it would take would have been a well-meaning but fundamentally flawed desire to do right.
I see a bright future for the Star Wars prequels. Unfortunately, it's a more distant future than one year away.
Wait 20 years or so. The original trilogy will continue to be seen as a seminal work, and the "prequels" as a bastardized ripoff. Eventually, Lucas will die, or otherwise give up the franchise (maybe Michael Jackson can trade his Beatles songs for it).
Then, finally, someone can remake parts I through III the way they should have been done in the first place. No midchlorians, no virgin birth, no Jar Jar. Special effects that compliment the story, instead of overshadowing it.
Some future screenwriter and director will have the opportunity to give us back the thrill we had in the '70s, when we saw the original Star Wars in a non-multiplex theater, and were in awe. We who were preteens will be in our 50s... it won't be too late.
Can you really evangelize as an AC? Now there's a moral question.
Haven't you ever found one of those tracts in the mens room, tucked in the condom dispenser slot? You can't get more anonymous than that, unless someone can trace their I-Pee address.
I'm still wondering if there's a way for a band that has disbanded (heh) to put its material back on garageband.com. I'm particularly interested in a bluegrass group called Big Twang -- for details, see my mirror of their now-defunct site. They had three songs at mp3.com, but since the band was gone by December 19, 2003, I guess there's no way to get their account back.
Of course, the.mp3's are safe... on my hard drive. Don't tell the lawyers!
I really wonder why retailers won't sell AO games, 7-11 sells porno mags, video stores carry porn...
Here in Texas, the ancestral home of 7-11, I don't see porno mags like Penthouse or Hustler or Playboy for sale. Just Maxim, FHM, Stuff, Cosmo, Sports Illustrated...
Perhaps NASA should consider employing a fleet of fugu to protect earth from rogue asteroids that accumulate that poison to internal.
In A.D. 2004 Lunch was beginning
Chef: What happen? Waiter: Somebody set up us the fish. Waiter: We get order. Chef: What! Waiter: Main stove turn on. Chef: It's You!! Critic: How are you gastronomes!! Critic: All your fish are belong to us. Critic: You are on the way to destruction. Chef: What you say!! Critic: You have no chance to survive bring my lunch. Critic: Ha Ha Ha Ha.... Chef: Take off every "fugu." Chef: You know what you doing. Chef: Move "fugu". Chef: For great taste.
According to the group of ball male honorary professors same university Noguchi, you say that the globefish eats the living thing which has poison such as asteroid and the shellfish which are in the seabed accumulates that poison to internal.
Cache owner's liability
on
Freecache
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
As I understand the setup, the ideal would be for ISPs to install this system on their networks like AOL's infernal content caching, except that it would only cache what the site owner wants cached. It seems like anyone with a static IP could join in the fun, too.
But would they? I saw this on the new service's message forum I was perusing the content in my cache and checking the detailed status page and I noticed illegal content containing videos in one of the caches I run. What is freecache.org doing to stop people from mirroring illegal content. I currently run 2 fairly heavily used caches and it looks like only one of them had illegal content. I cleared the cache to purge the problem, but the user just abused the service again by uploading the content again. I know freecache.org cannot be responsible for uploaded content, but there has to be some sort of content management system to make sure freecache doesn't turn into just another way to hide illegal content.
Whether you believe this guy's story or not, it seems like this could subject small ISPs to the sort of problems that P2P has brought to regular users. It's not going to matter who's right -- just the idea of having to go to court over content physically residing on your server is a risk I don't see a marginal ISP being willing to take.
So we're left with the folks with static IP addresses. They're in even more trouble if John Ashcroft decides to send his boyz over to check for "enemy combatants" at your IP address.
With the current state of affairs in the US, and the personal risk involved, I'd have to pass on this cool concept.
I don't understand why there is so much anti-hybrid stuff in the news lately. The Prius and Insight both have quite good safety records and really excellent mileage.
Simple, really. The authors of the anti-hybrid articles are upset because there's a waiting list, and the only way they'll ever get one for themselves is to get rid of the demand. I wish them the best of luck, 'cause darn it, I want one too!
Arab news organizations have reported extensively on US troops destroying and stealing things in Iraqi homes during search missions. US news also hasn't covered the closings of anti-US publications in Iraq (which set off the current Najaf situation). These are the kinds of stories that the Arab world sees every day. Since most Americans don't see any of that stuff, we have no idea why they're so upset.
I don't think you've been listening to the right news. I knew about the closing of al-Said's paper the day it happened, thanks to National Public Radio'sAnne Garrels. Her report helped me understand why closing the inflammatory paper was needed, and why the consequences were nearly inevitable. I found myself hoping that the US administration knew what they were getting themselves into -- and I'm not yet sure if my hopes were realized or dashed.
Of course, whenever I try to listen to NPR news with anyone else in the car, they say "isn't there any music?" Then we turn to the local Clear Channel station and listen to a 15-minute commercial set. Maybe when we complain about mainstream news being vapid, we're getting our cause and effect mixed up.
If you watch the ISS pass overhead, or any other satellite, imagine that you have no idea what it is. Look for signs of unusual movements... see how it wiggles around in its path? You can really tell if you're in a moving vehicle -- it chases after you, and then suddenly it's gone!
GOTCHA!
When we went to White Sands, New Mexico, they had a guide show off the excellent view of the stars. He explained some basic astronomy, talked about relative distances and such, and then someone said, "what's that?"
It was a satellite, of course, and he played the trick above on the folks who hadn't watched one go across the sky before. He really had some of them going, too... I heard a few "hmmm!"s from the group as he described the light's perceived non-linear motion.
It gave him a great chance to explain why satellites get reported as UFOs, complete with unusual movements and sudden disappearances. The satellite is moving in a nearly perfect curve across the sky, but your head isn't a very steady viewing platform. And when a light in the sky (distance = way far) gets close to a tree or something (distance = well known), your brain perceives the motion as changing.
Hopefully, he gave the eastbound tourists something to think about on their way to Roswell.
Extended comments at Gizmodo makes it clear that this is 99% rumor/FUD.
Thanks for the info! I was almost thinking about reconsidering my plans to buy a Prius later this year, then I thought about how unlikely it would be to route lossy high-voltage the long way around the frame. Then I saw your link, and that sealed it -- I'm getting a Prius first chance I get.
I'm just afraid folks will fall for it like they've fallen for the cellphones at gas stations myth. Every gas pump in Texas has a label perpetuating this silliness!
but when you have one old one and one new one they stick together without much effort, since the wet soap kind of acts like its own glue
Actually, I had trouble getting the sliver to stick, especially when I share the facilities with three kids and a wife who doesn't see the point. But I discovered that if I cut the surface of the new bar with my fingernails, I get clean fingernails *and* the sliver sticks better.
Though in truth, we got the liquid soap with the scrubby puff on a whim, and the bar soap keeps melting away unused these days.
we have 2 people... 2! and maybe 6 machines to test on... we really need about 5 and 20 machines and 2 servers to test on so we can roll this crap out in a timely manner.
I get it now. Microsoft isn't the bad guy after all! They're trying like mad to increase your company's staffing by 150%, not to mention the trickle-down effect of quadrupling your machine count.
Microsoft Windows: It's not a virus portal, it's an employment generator!
I'm glad Microsoft's doing something about the outsourcing issue.
(Caution: the above comment contains satire, an element determined by the State of California to cause cognitive dissonance in affected individuals)
Become very, very, very rich. Adopt a favored staff member. Post-mortem involuntary brain transplants
As usual, Robert Heinlein was way ahead of us. In I Will Fear No Evil, the very very very rich character (Johann Sebastian Bach Smith) has his brain transplanted into his secretary's body (Eunice Evans Branca).
However, unlike your scenario, Eunice bit the dust unexpectedly (in an Abandoned Area), and Johann was quite disturbed to find he was now in her body. Fortunately, she was still there, and things worked out just fine until her (his/their) lover kicked the bucket and joined the happy couple in an out-of-in-body menage a trois (quatre, including the baby). Good late-phase Heinlein story, though it fell apart at the end.
Adolph was Austrian... so any studies showing 80% of Germans coming from his country would be equally crap as this one was:)
Have you ever written up a post, hit "Submit", and then thought... "wait a minute, 'X' isn't quite right!" That's me today. I'm happy to apologise to a non-AC for calling BS on my call of BS.:)
About 80 percent of the organisms they found in the flaky scum were in the same genetic families as those known to infect wounds or cause problems for people with AIDS, cancer or other immune system disorders.
What an absolute load of crap. That's like saying "about 80 percent of Germans come from the same country as Adolph Hitler."
What's sorely missing from this article is any sense of journalism. I know that's a passe' concept. But when a "study" like this comes out, stating the obvious in "OMFG the sky is falling!" terms, you should follow the money.
Who pays for "studies" like this? I predict if you follow the money, you'll find that this fine product is from the makers of Lysol and other fine household products.
These would be the same people that supply "educational, informative" news bits to small-market stations that get run alongside the real news. I remember one in the mid-90s that described the horrors facing your family during the Thanksgiving holiday, and how you'd save their lives by using an antibiotic cleanser. Our old friend Lysol was prominently featured -- over and over -- but the company's likely sponsorship of the ad-in-news'-clothing was conveniently left out.
The detective is to be applauded for his creativity in finding the culprit. And let's also have some sympathy for him, 'cause you know this outcome has got him seeing red:
The prankster confessed, and this week pleaded guilty to a single count of making bomb threats. He's not expected to spend any time incarcerated. "They're going to try to come up to some sentence that will put him on track to be more productive," says Keck.
I'll bet five bucks the kid is in the "in crowd". Football season's over, and he's sitting in "gimme an 'A'!" shop class with the other jocks, figuring out what to do after they're done lifting the cheerleaders' skirts. "Hey, I know, let's call in a bomb threat. They'll strip search the geeks while we laugh our a$$ off!"
Here in Texas, 15 year olds who aren't in the "in crowd" get sent to jail for life, and nobody even seems to care. And there are plenty of ridiculousexamples of innocuous behavior being punished by schools.
And this kid, a serial terrorist, is going to get off with a suspension -- probably because he's some bigwig's son, or else he's on "the team". What a load of crap.
Slashdot Mirror
i know i'm gonna get flamed for this but actually, jar-jar is absolutely necessary to the story as it exists: nobody else is stupid enough to be palpatine's tool by suggesting giving palpatine emergency powers. w/out jar-jar, there's no emergency powers and hence, no clone wars. i happen to resent it, but that's the way i think it shakes out.
I saw that, and realized that there was a reason why Lucas made Jar Jar the Uncle Tom of the SW franchise for a reason after all. But it still boils down to poor writing and a lack of imagination (where "imagination" != "special effects"). If the plot was so transparent that only Jar Jar could fall for it, what of the other thousands of supposedly intelligent members of the Senate?
A good writer would have found a way to make Palpatine's plot more devious, more plausible... so inescapable that even Padme would have to agree to it. There are plenty of examples to draw on from recent American history, from McCarthyism to the present.
It didn't take a Jar Jar character in the US Senate when it voted to give Bush the power to wage war -- just incontrovertable "facts" that weren't what they seemed. The Imperial Senate didn't require a fool to lead them astray -- all it would take would have been a well-meaning but fundamentally flawed desire to do right.
I see a bright future for the Star Wars prequels. Unfortunately, it's a more distant future than one year away.
Wait 20 years or so. The original trilogy will continue to be seen as a seminal work, and the "prequels" as a bastardized ripoff. Eventually, Lucas will die, or otherwise give up the franchise (maybe Michael Jackson can trade his Beatles songs for it).
Then, finally, someone can remake parts I through III the way they should have been done in the first place. No midchlorians, no virgin birth, no Jar Jar. Special effects that compliment the story, instead of overshadowing it.
Some future screenwriter and director will have the opportunity to give us back the thrill we had in the '70s, when we saw the original Star Wars in a non-multiplex theater, and were in awe. We who were preteens will be in our 50s... it won't be too late.
Something to look forward to! Just not in 2005.
Can you really evangelize as an AC? Now there's a moral question.
Haven't you ever found one of those tracts in the mens room, tucked in the condom dispenser slot? You can't get more anonymous than that, unless someone can trace their I-Pee address.
Fat geeks in Parkas look just as big as skinny geeks in Parkas.. Girls you meet will never know until you get them back to your igloo.
Ya know, I suspect the girls wear parkas too...
I'm still wondering if there's a way for a band that has disbanded (heh) to put its material back on garageband.com. I'm particularly interested in a bluegrass group called Big Twang -- for details, see my mirror of their now-defunct site. They had three songs at mp3.com, but since the band was gone by December 19, 2003, I guess there's no way to get their account back.
.mp3's are safe... on my hard drive. Don't tell the lawyers!
Of course, the
I really wonder why retailers won't sell AO games, 7-11 sells porno mags, video stores carry porn...
Here in Texas, the ancestral home of 7-11, I don't see porno mags like Penthouse or Hustler or Playboy for sale. Just Maxim, FHM, Stuff, Cosmo, Sports Illustrated...
Ok, I stand corrected. Sorry.
Perhaps NASA should consider employing a fleet of fugu to protect earth from rogue asteroids that accumulate that poison to internal.
....
In A.D. 2004
Lunch was beginning
Chef: What happen?
Waiter: Somebody set up us the fish.
Waiter: We get order.
Chef: What!
Waiter: Main stove turn on.
Chef: It's You!!
Critic: How are you gastronomes!!
Critic: All your fish are belong to us.
Critic: You are on the way to destruction.
Chef: What you say!!
Critic: You have no chance to survive bring my lunch.
Critic: Ha Ha Ha Ha
Chef: Take off every "fugu."
Chef: You know what you doing.
Chef: Move "fugu".
Chef: For great taste.
(Just shoot my Karma now, please)
According to the group of ball male honorary professors same university Noguchi, you say that the globefish eats the living thing which has poison such as asteroid and the shellfish which are in the seabed accumulates that poison to internal.
Poisonous Asteroids?
What's next? DDR with DDT?
As I understand the setup, the ideal would be for ISPs to install this system on their networks like AOL's infernal content caching, except that it would only cache what the site owner wants cached. It seems like anyone with a static IP could join in the fun, too.
But would they? I saw this on the new service's message forum
I was perusing the content in my cache and checking the detailed status page and I noticed illegal content containing videos in one of the caches I run. What is freecache.org doing to stop people from mirroring illegal content. I currently run 2 fairly heavily used caches and it looks like only one of them had illegal content. I cleared the cache to purge the problem, but the user just abused the service again by uploading the content again. I know freecache.org cannot be responsible for uploaded content, but there has to be some sort of content management system to make sure freecache doesn't turn into just another way to hide illegal content.
Whether you believe this guy's story or not, it seems like this could subject small ISPs to the sort of problems that P2P has brought to regular users. It's not going to matter who's right -- just the idea of having to go to court over content physically residing on your server is a risk I don't see a marginal ISP being willing to take.
So we're left with the folks with static IP addresses. They're in even more trouble if John Ashcroft decides to send his boyz over to check for "enemy combatants" at your IP address.
With the current state of affairs in the US, and the personal risk involved, I'd have to pass on this cool concept.
I don't understand why there is so much anti-hybrid stuff in the news lately. The Prius and Insight both have quite good safety records and really excellent mileage.
Simple, really. The authors of the anti-hybrid articles are upset because there's a waiting list, and the only way they'll ever get one for themselves is to get rid of the demand. I wish them the best of luck, 'cause darn it, I want one too!
Perhaps moderators should check sources as well.
Crap! I just M2'd the Insightful mod as "Fair". Wish I could take that back, now.
I should have known something smelled fishy... darned work distracted me from my Slashdot. I'm calling my boss!
Arab news organizations have reported extensively on US troops destroying and stealing things in Iraqi homes during search missions. US news also hasn't covered the closings of anti-US publications in Iraq (which set off the current Najaf situation). These are the kinds of stories that the Arab world sees every day. Since most Americans don't see any of that stuff, we have no idea why they're so upset.
I don't think you've been listening to the right news. I knew about the closing of al-Said's paper the day it happened, thanks to National Public Radio's Anne Garrels. Her report helped me understand why closing the inflammatory paper was needed, and why the consequences were nearly inevitable. I found myself hoping that the US administration knew what they were getting themselves into -- and I'm not yet sure if my hopes were realized or dashed.
Of course, whenever I try to listen to NPR news with anyone else in the car, they say "isn't there any music?" Then we turn to the local Clear Channel station and listen to a 15-minute commercial set. Maybe when we complain about mainstream news being vapid, we're getting our cause and effect mixed up.
If you watch the ISS pass overhead, or any other satellite, imagine that you have no idea what it is. Look for signs of unusual movements... see how it wiggles around in its path? You can really tell if you're in a moving vehicle -- it chases after you, and then suddenly it's gone!
GOTCHA!
When we went to White Sands, New Mexico, they had a guide show off the excellent view of the stars. He explained some basic astronomy, talked about relative distances and such, and then someone said, "what's that?"
It was a satellite, of course, and he played the trick above on the folks who hadn't watched one go across the sky before. He really had some of them going, too... I heard a few "hmmm!"s from the group as he described the light's perceived non-linear motion.
It gave him a great chance to explain why satellites get reported as UFOs, complete with unusual movements and sudden disappearances. The satellite is moving in a nearly perfect curve across the sky, but your head isn't a very steady viewing platform. And when a light in the sky (distance = way far) gets close to a tree or something (distance = well known), your brain perceives the motion as changing.
Hopefully, he gave the eastbound tourists something to think about on their way to Roswell.
Extended comments at Gizmodo makes it clear that this is 99% rumor/FUD.
Thanks for the info! I was almost thinking about reconsidering my plans to buy a Prius later this year, then I thought about how unlikely it would be to route lossy high-voltage the long way around the frame. Then I saw your link, and that sealed it -- I'm getting a Prius first chance I get.
I'm just afraid folks will fall for it like they've fallen for the cellphones at gas stations myth. Every gas pump in Texas has a label perpetuating this silliness!
but when you have one old one and one new one they stick together without much effort, since the wet soap kind of acts like its own glue
Actually, I had trouble getting the sliver to stick, especially when I share the facilities with three kids and a wife who doesn't see the point. But I discovered that if I cut the surface of the new bar with my fingernails, I get clean fingernails *and* the sliver sticks better.
Though in truth, we got the liquid soap with the scrubby puff on a whim, and the bar soap keeps melting away unused these days.
Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act
Oh, man, that Onion. Their stories are always such a hoot. I've got to go check out the original, see if they've got a picture to go with it.
Oh, crap.
I'm outta here.
we have 2 people... 2! and maybe 6 machines to test on... we really need about 5 and 20 machines and 2 servers to test on so we can roll this crap out in a timely manner.
I get it now. Microsoft isn't the bad guy after all! They're trying like mad to increase your company's staffing by 150%, not to mention the trickle-down effect of quadrupling your machine count.
Microsoft Windows: It's not a virus portal, it's an employment generator!
I'm glad Microsoft's doing something about the outsourcing issue.
(Caution: the above comment contains satire, an element determined by the State of California to cause cognitive dissonance in affected individuals)
Become very, very, very rich.
Adopt a favored staff member.
Post-mortem involuntary brain transplants
As usual, Robert Heinlein was way ahead of us. In I Will Fear No Evil, the very very very rich character (Johann Sebastian Bach Smith) has his brain transplanted into his secretary's body (Eunice Evans Branca).
However, unlike your scenario, Eunice bit the dust unexpectedly (in an Abandoned Area), and Johann was quite disturbed to find he was now in her body. Fortunately, she was still there, and things worked out just fine until her (his/their) lover kicked the bucket and joined the happy couple in an out-of-in-body menage a trois (quatre, including the baby). Good late-phase Heinlein story, though it fell apart at the end.
I'll have to agree totally with your statement. The lack of profanity also makes you seem more intelligent than the average /. ranter
Don't give me too much credit. My first thought when I read your message was to think, "wow, no s#it!"
Adolph was Austrian... so any studies showing 80% of Germans coming from his country would be equally crap as this one was :)
:)
Have you ever written up a post, hit "Submit", and then thought... "wait a minute, 'X' isn't quite right!" That's me today. I'm happy to apologise to a non-AC for calling BS on my call of BS.
About 80 percent of the organisms they found in the flaky scum were in the same genetic families as those known to infect wounds or cause problems for people with AIDS, cancer or other immune system disorders.
What an absolute load of crap. That's like saying "about 80 percent of Germans come from the same country as Adolph Hitler."
What's sorely missing from this article is any sense of journalism. I know that's a passe' concept. But when a "study" like this comes out, stating the obvious in "OMFG the sky is falling!" terms, you should follow the money.
Who pays for "studies" like this? I predict if you follow the money, you'll find that this fine product is from the makers of Lysol and other fine household products.
These would be the same people that supply "educational, informative" news bits to small-market stations that get run alongside the real news. I remember one in the mid-90s that described the horrors facing your family during the Thanksgiving holiday, and how you'd save their lives by using an antibiotic cleanser. Our old friend Lysol was prominently featured -- over and over -- but the company's likely sponsorship of the ad-in-news'-clothing was conveniently left out.
Or maybe I'm just another paranoid Green.
Sounds like you were "stip searched" a lot for not being in the "in crowd."
In the words of Beavis (or was it Butt-Head?): "Heh. Did I just score?"
If he does it again though I'm sure that he'll be deported or maybe even defenistratred.
Whoa, you're harsh! Sending him away is one thing, but making him run Linux? Damn!
(Disclaimer: I'm trying to defenestrate, with limited success. I can run Frozen Bubble, at least.)
and now have an angry grudge
Well, duh. This is Slashdot, after all...
(p.s. your website is dixiechicks.com... just making sure you know that)
No, it's not. It's dixie dash chicks dot com. Big difference, at least to us not- popular- in- high- school types.
The detective is to be applauded for his creativity in finding the culprit. And let's also have some sympathy for him, 'cause you know this outcome has got him seeing red:
The prankster confessed, and this week pleaded guilty to a single count of making bomb threats. He's not expected to spend any time incarcerated. "They're going to try to come up to some sentence that will put him on track to be more productive," says Keck.
I'll bet five bucks the kid is in the "in crowd". Football season's over, and he's sitting in "gimme an 'A'!" shop class with the other jocks, figuring out what to do after they're done lifting the cheerleaders' skirts. "Hey, I know, let's call in a bomb threat. They'll strip search the geeks while we laugh our a$$ off!"
Here in Texas, 15 year olds who aren't in the "in crowd" get sent to jail for life, and nobody even seems to care. And there are plenty of ridiculous examples of innocuous behavior being punished by schools.
And this kid, a serial terrorist, is going to get off with a suspension -- probably because he's some bigwig's son, or else he's on "the team". What a load of crap.