First, as several other responders have pointed out, a review of something that has previously been posted does not constitute a dupe. Neither does the news that the public beta is expanding. These are separate news items. If you flip out everytime some new Google Beta or marginally-better iPod is announced with a [dupe] and [dupe] and [dupe] and [this too] post, you kind of miss the point: Slashdot is an ongoing conversation, so when something new happens, it's worthy of a post. Would you suggest we go back and post
But on the other hand, you're right about Robert Jordan. I don't read him, but as a card-carrying Nerd, I know who he is, and news of his fate is of interest to me and many other Nerds. It seems you may have run afoul of an editor who didn't know who he is, or his geek-cultural importance, which is unfortunate. Since this is News for Nerds, it would be helpful if all the editors were familiar with all the varied and important flavors of Nerd interest.
in TFA, (from Wired), it's noted that after the previous Mindstorm system was hacked, Lego's IP attorneys were foaming at the mouth, but the company decided that its customers were, in fact, more important than its legal team, and wrote a clause into the software license to allow hacking.
My password is a 256 character random string intialized by digitizing the braying of six donkeys on a semi-daily rotating basis. Once the braying is digitized, and the seven-factor hash table is used to generate the string, it is transfered via secured lasercable to the memory unit of a Sony Aibo. The Aibo has been specially modified with a woodburning unit, and the password is then burned onto a piece of burnished cherry wood, which I am then allowed to view for exactly twelve seconds before it is ground into a very fine sawdust.
All of this takes place behind a triple-secure double-blind firewall, inside a bunker which is encased in twenty-three feet of reinforced concrete and surrounded by a moat with biometrically activated piranhas.
I wouldn't call it rugged. I recently got a new-ish g4 iBook, and though it's more durable than my earier one (white g3 iBook; the plastic creaked when you picked it up and peripheral connections were made out of easily breakable plastic), I reckon it'd still be much more comfortable on a desktop than in a warzone.
You're right, it is moderated by the MPAA, and it's up to the theater owners to do the enforcing. How much enforcing they do corresponds pretty directly with the politics of the moment.
(I remember being CARDED at the door (not the ticket counter) of an R-rated movie the week after Columbine)
Since the whole rating system is basically in place to keep the government off their backs, and this government is particularly...sensitive to its "family friendly" constituency, it seems pretty likely that the enforcement will be with them for this movie.
George Lucas is the one who doesn't have any more ideas. He's not interested in new ideas, at least not from a story-telling perspective--he's much too distracted by new TECHNOLOGY. It's the cameras that turn him on, the gizmos, the CGI. (I think we/. types can at least empathize with that a little bit.)
Ever heard the old cliche "Limitation breeds creativity?" It's never been more clear on a massive, pop-culture scale that it was in the old vs. new star wars movies.
I think if he were to make the original SW series today, they'd just be the same two-hour cantina scene that the new movies have become.
Re:Am I the only one that read this wrong?
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OQO For Sale
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
Careful! Many/. readers might not get the "woman" reference.
It's true that they may not have much new quality material to apply the DRM to, especially since Pixar's gone away (at the same time as Disney has cut all of it's own animation staff.) BUT they have a formidable back catalog, and one can imagine them applying some pretty formidable rules to it. For instance, you can buy Snow White and watch it on your PDA, but only until it goes "back in the vault," after which you'll have to wait 5 years to buy it again.
Your recommended resting on laurels is exactly what Steve Jobs says hurt Apple so much in the late 80s/early 90s. You very much do "have to keep going" or somebody else will do it for you.
From Ars, quoting Newsweek, about Steve Jobs:
"Once a company devises a great product, he says, it has a monopoly in that realm, and concentrates less on innovation than protecting its turf."
JFK committed America to landing a man on the moon within a decade, and sure enough, it happened. Now, GWB is making a similar claim. But there's no analogy. The space race was initiated in the 60's to beat the Russians in the Cold War. We don't have that war now. Today's war is the so-called "war on terror." And the enemies in this war are generally people sick of our meddling in the affairs of their oil-rich countries. The solution? A visionary president right now would commit us to developing complete energy independence in the next decade. Beat terror by getting the heck out of the oil business. Save the earth while your at it.
There's been a lot of press lately about our supersoldiers of the future, and all the gear they'll carry, and how they'll be able to camoflauge themselves with adaptive bodysuits and all this stuff. Now they're going to have robotic dogs (presumably with adaptive camoflauge as well) following them around, but the technology is many years off because robots with legs don't work very well.
I have two suggestions.
1) Use real dogs for now. Dogs can be about as well trained as most soldiers, probably better. They are all-terrain, rugged, and their food probably won't weigh more than a battery.
2)Keep on dumping money into robotics R&D. This keeps geeks and other Worthwhile People in gainful employ, AND the sooner you develop a robot that can walk properly, the sooner you develop a robot that can get me a beer from the fridge.
Slashdot Mirror
You see, I have two problems with what you wrote.
First, as several other responders have pointed out, a review of something that has previously been posted does not constitute a dupe. Neither does the news that the public beta is expanding. These are separate news items. If you flip out everytime some new Google Beta or marginally-better iPod is announced with a [dupe] and [dupe] and [dupe] and [this too] post, you kind of miss the point: Slashdot is an ongoing conversation, so when something new happens, it's worthy of a post. Would you suggest we go back and post
But on the other hand, you're right about Robert Jordan. I don't read him, but as a card-carrying Nerd, I know who he is, and news of his fate is of interest to me and many other Nerds. It seems you may have run afoul of an editor who didn't know who he is, or his geek-cultural importance, which is unfortunate. Since this is News for Nerds, it would be helpful if all the editors were familiar with all the varied and important flavors of Nerd interest.
in TFA, (from Wired), it's noted that after the previous Mindstorm system was hacked, Lego's IP attorneys were foaming at the mouth, but the company decided that its customers were, in fact, more important than its legal team, and wrote a clause into the software license to allow hacking.
I wonder if Sony is paying attention.
let's just hope this probe doesn't unleash the Spiders from Mars
My password is a 256 character random string intialized by digitizing the braying of six donkeys on a semi-daily rotating basis. Once the braying is digitized, and the seven-factor hash table is used to generate the string, it is transfered via secured lasercable to the memory unit of a Sony Aibo. The Aibo has been specially modified with a woodburning unit, and the password is then burned onto a piece of burnished cherry wood, which I am then allowed to view for exactly twelve seconds before it is ground into a very fine sawdust.
All of this takes place behind a triple-secure double-blind firewall, inside a bunker which is encased in twenty-three feet of reinforced concrete and surrounded by a moat with biometrically activated piranhas.
I love my iBook but...
I wouldn't call it rugged. I recently got a new-ish g4 iBook, and though it's more durable than my earier one (white g3 iBook; the plastic creaked when you picked it up and peripheral connections were made out of easily breakable plastic), I reckon it'd still be much more comfortable on a desktop than in a warzone.
You're right, it is moderated by the MPAA, and it's up to the theater owners to do the enforcing. How much enforcing they do corresponds pretty directly with the politics of the moment.
(I remember being CARDED at the door (not the ticket counter) of an R-rated movie the week after Columbine)
Since the whole rating system is basically in place to keep the government off their backs, and this government is particularly...sensitive to its "family friendly" constituency, it seems pretty likely that the enforcement will be with them for this movie.
George Lucas is the one who doesn't have any more ideas. He's not interested in new ideas, at least not from a story-telling perspective--he's much too distracted by new TECHNOLOGY. It's the cameras that turn him on, the gizmos, the CGI. (I think we /. types can at least empathize with that a little bit.)
Ever heard the old cliche "Limitation breeds creativity?" It's never been more clear on a massive, pop-culture scale that it was in the old vs. new star wars movies.
I think if he were to make the original SW series today, they'd just be the same two-hour cantina scene that the new movies have become.
Careful! Many /. readers might not get the "woman" reference.
It's true that they may not have much new quality material to apply the DRM to, especially since Pixar's gone away (at the same time as Disney has cut all of it's own animation staff.) BUT they have a formidable back catalog, and one can imagine them applying some pretty formidable rules to it. For instance, you can buy Snow White and watch it on your PDA, but only until it goes "back in the vault," after which you'll have to wait 5 years to buy it again.
You can't patent something that's already in SCO Unix.
Your recommended resting on laurels is exactly what Steve Jobs says hurt Apple so much in the late 80s/early 90s. You very much do "have to keep going" or somebody else will do it for you. From Ars, quoting Newsweek, about Steve Jobs: "Once a company devises a great product, he says, it has a monopoly in that realm, and concentrates less on innovation than protecting its turf."
JFK committed America to landing a man on the moon within a decade, and sure enough, it happened. Now, GWB is making a similar claim. But there's no analogy. The space race was initiated in the 60's to beat the Russians in the Cold War. We don't have that war now. Today's war is the so-called "war on terror." And the enemies in this war are generally people sick of our meddling in the affairs of their oil-rich countries. The solution? A visionary president right now would commit us to developing complete energy independence in the next decade. Beat terror by getting the heck out of the oil business. Save the earth while your at it.
There's been a lot of press lately about our supersoldiers of the future, and all the gear they'll carry, and how they'll be able to camoflauge themselves with adaptive bodysuits and all this stuff. Now they're going to have robotic dogs (presumably with adaptive camoflauge as well) following them around, but the technology is many years off because robots with legs don't work very well. I have two suggestions. 1) Use real dogs for now. Dogs can be about as well trained as most soldiers, probably better. They are all-terrain, rugged, and their food probably won't weigh more than a battery. 2)Keep on dumping money into robotics R&D. This keeps geeks and other Worthwhile People in gainful employ, AND the sooner you develop a robot that can walk properly, the sooner you develop a robot that can get me a beer from the fridge.
Bugs? In Quark? That's crazy talk. Didn't you see? According to Apple, it "runs flawlessly" under OS X.