In which Bilbo and the band of heroic dwarves are joined by Legol'c, a reformed Elf who wears a lot of lipstick, and travel time and space to discover other civilisations that also look suspiciously like hobbits and dwarves and mostly use the Common Speech (it all keeps the budget down).
The satellite channels in the UK are saturated with ads because, presumably it's very cheap to advertise in this way in channels with relatively low viewing figures. The terrestrial commercial channels are much better because their higher viewing figures mean they can (and do) charge a lot more, so fewer adverts. Basically it's a vicious circle - low viewing numbers mean more adverts, which pisses off viewers even further. VH1 is almost unwatchable these days - 2 or 3 songs with over 5 mins of adverts in between. Not surprising, therefore, that it's now preferable to record the stuff and FF through the ad breaks. If only my recordable DVD could do it automatically (the technology is there, but no-one dares enable it).
The weird hiring policy reminds me of James Dyson (the vacuum cleaner tycoon). He's done OK out of it personally, but competitors have caught up with the cyclone technology [1] and the public are realising that 250UKP for a plastic hoover (which breaks easily) is about twice the market rate. He's recently outsourced manufacture of the cleaners to the Far East and has made a lot of redundancies in a small English town where Dyson was the biggest employer. He famously refused to employ graduates on the basis that they had been brainwashed and couldn't think for themselves any more.
Google got where it was largely because of the crapness of AltaVista, Yahoo and Hotbot et al; at least some of these have now woken up and smelt the coffee.[1] not new in itself; they've been used for dust extraction in industry for decades
I'll find it more difficult to enjoy the movie knowing that some scenes have been cynically excised for the purposes of selling 35UKP extended DVDs next year (which is where the real money is to be made). That's way too much for me to consider paying (x 3).
If a 3.5-hour film is considered to be too long, they could always have an interval, so don't tell me run-time is the reason for chopping the cinematic version.
What about transmission losses? Even if you crank the output up to several hundred thousand volts, you need some very thick lengths of aluminium to get it out of the desert, let alone over the Atlantic.
Speak in Swedish. No-one bothers learning Swedish except the Swedes.
Seriously, how can you ever really encrypt anything that can be heard by a human? It might work in transmission, but the phone can still be bugged, which is pretty trivial to do.
If they are smart enough to use fibre, a single strand has very good possibilities for future expansion using DWDMs (dense wave division multiplexers). Basically these are devices which take incoming data, split it into different streams and fire those streams down the fibre as different wavelengths (aka colours). The beauty of light waves in a fibre is that they don't interfere with each other, so you can have lots and lots of colours.
Shaft drive is about 90% efficient. A clean chain is 98% efficient, but even a dry or gritty chain is more efficient than a shaft (the bevel gears absorb lots of power if you make them strong enough, e.g. by using hypoid teeth [1]). Remember that a mountain bike hub has as much torque on it (around 110ftlb) as the crankshaft of many cars.
Chains also allow for derailleur gearing, which is high maintenance, but lightweight and simple, plus you can change gears without needing to stop pedalling - important for racing.
[1] a hypoid gear, as used in most cars, is halfway between a basic bevel gear and a worm drive and allows some sliding motion between the teeth. This allows the load to be carried over a larger area but creates more friction. Really heavy trucks use the strongest possible worm drive for their rear axle, and this generates a LOT of heat - hence the enormous size of the differential, to contain enough oil to dissipate it.
Movie history suggests that the third film of a trilogy, like the "difficult" third album of a band, is always the weakest release - see ROTJ.
This story further confirms my suspicions that ROTK will suck, regardless of whether or not this is a cynical marketing ploy (it is - the film is just an advert for the extended DVD, after all). Any director that screwed up the relatively plot-free Two Towers to the extent of
getting the wrong freakin' Two Towers (they should be Orthanc and Minas Morgul)
drafting in new armies for the Battle of Helm's Deep and forgetting it was the trees that killed most of the Orcs
saving all the Shelob stuff for ROTK and inserting some crappy dream sequence where Aragorn discovers his love for a horse
can't really be trusted with something fairly complex like ROTK.
Looks like something Judge Dredd might ride
on
Bombardier's Hot Wheel
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
but I can't see it being stable if you have to stop quickly. How would it resist the inertial force of a 200lb person being thrown forwards?
20 years ago there were no consumer rechargeable batteries. NiCd rechargeables weren't very good for battery life or the environment, but now NiMH rechargeables last about as long as normal batteries.
In the last 5 years, mobile phones have really driven battery technology, with weight being a big consideration - hence Li-ion batteries. In the 1980s mobiles were the size of a house brick and weighed about the same, but you still had to charge them daily. Now they weigh as much as an astronaut's fart and last 5 days (partly because digital phones are less power-hungry, but the battery is still a huge factor).
I've known that Darth Vader falls into lava during a fight with Obi-Wan since 1977. Even then there was quite a bit of additional mythology around the film.
They're shown on TV fairly frequently and I have a DVD recorder. This way I don't need to suffer Lucas splicing Amidala into the "ghosts" final scene of ROTJ, as he's rumored to be doing.
Having said that, if he could do something (anything) about the Ewoks, the world would be a better place;-)
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In which Bilbo and the band of heroic dwarves are joined by Legol'c, a reformed Elf who wears a lot of lipstick, and travel time and space to discover other civilisations that also look suspiciously like hobbits and dwarves and mostly use the Common Speech (it all keeps the budget down).
The satellite channels in the UK are saturated with ads because, presumably it's very cheap to advertise in this way in channels with relatively low viewing figures. The terrestrial commercial channels are much better because their higher viewing figures mean they can (and do) charge a lot more, so fewer adverts. Basically it's a vicious circle - low viewing numbers mean more adverts, which pisses off viewers even further. VH1 is almost unwatchable these days - 2 or 3 songs with over 5 mins of adverts in between. Not surprising, therefore, that it's now preferable to record the stuff and FF through the ad breaks. If only my recordable DVD could do it automatically (the technology is there, but no-one dares enable it).
"This desk set wants to fly!" Oh hang on, part of it already has.
Google got where it was largely because of the crapness of AltaVista, Yahoo and Hotbot et al; at least some of these have now woken up and smelt the coffee.[1] not new in itself; they've been used for dust extraction in industry for decades
If a 3.5-hour film is considered to be too long, they could always have an interval, so don't tell me run-time is the reason for chopping the cinematic version.
I think it was called Nimda!
For when the traffic light turns red and you're in 53/12 with no time to change down.
What about transmission losses? Even if you crank the output up to several hundred thousand volts, you need some very thick lengths of aluminium to get it out of the desert, let alone over the Atlantic.
Seriously, how can you ever really encrypt anything that can be heard by a human? It might work in transmission, but the phone can still be bugged, which is pretty trivial to do.
What's the average rainfall of the Amazon basin?
If they are smart enough to use fibre, a single strand has very good possibilities for future expansion using DWDMs (dense wave division multiplexers). Basically these are devices which take incoming data, split it into different streams and fire those streams down the fibre as different wavelengths (aka colours). The beauty of light waves in a fibre is that they don't interfere with each other, so you can have lots and lots of colours.
The best I can get is 64K ISDN, you insensitive clod!
2) The BPI (UK equivalent of the RIAA) takes a much less aggressive stance on piracy, and certainly isn't trawling Kazaa looking for people to sue.
Without a plaintiff, there can be no (civil) lawsuit!
Chains also allow for derailleur gearing, which is high maintenance, but lightweight and simple, plus you can change gears without needing to stop pedalling - important for racing.
[1] a hypoid gear, as used in most cars, is halfway between a basic bevel gear and a worm drive and allows some sliding motion between the teeth. This allows the load to be carried over a larger area but creates more friction. Really heavy trucks use the strongest possible worm drive for their rear axle, and this generates a LOT of heat - hence the enormous size of the differential, to contain enough oil to dissipate it.
This story further confirms my suspicions that ROTK will suck, regardless of whether or not this is a cynical marketing ploy (it is - the film is just an advert for the extended DVD, after all). Any director that screwed up the relatively plot-free Two Towers to the extent of
- getting the wrong freakin' Two Towers (they should be Orthanc and Minas Morgul)
- drafting in new armies for the Battle of Helm's Deep and forgetting it was the trees that killed most of the Orcs
- saving all the Shelob stuff for ROTK and inserting some crappy dream sequence where Aragorn discovers his love for a horse
can't really be trusted with something fairly complex like ROTK.but I can't see it being stable if you have to stop quickly. How would it resist the inertial force of a 200lb person being thrown forwards?
In the last 5 years, mobile phones have really driven battery technology, with weight being a big consideration - hence Li-ion batteries. In the 1980s mobiles were the size of a house brick and weighed about the same, but you still had to charge them daily. Now they weigh as much as an astronaut's fart and last 5 days (partly because digital phones are less power-hungry, but the battery is still a huge factor).
Winston Smith thought that hope lay in the proles. We know that it actually lies in the Google cache ;-)
more of those crappy Flash animations that take over the WHOLE SCREEN. So how do you disable Flash?
Walt Disney was cremated, according to his death certificate.
I'm just amazed that a Slashdot reader was willing to pay $102 for MS software in the first place.
I can pick up the 2 disc version for half price as soon as this one comes out!
I've known that Darth Vader falls into lava during a fight with Obi-Wan since 1977. Even then there was quite a bit of additional mythology around the film.
Having said that, if he could do something (anything) about the Ewoks, the world would be a better place ;-)
1. Dai Rhys-Jones :-)
2. A really cool place to work