The thread is wrapping up. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of posters found it necessary to make off-topic comments. If you want to see lots of discussions of Manga, animated television shows, movies, and other boring stuff, read the whole thread.
The topic is supposed to be comic books and physics. Comic books are a much-maligned, yet fascinating form of art. The conjunction of art and science should have made for a fascinating thread, but alas, it didn't.
Classic physics nonsense from the comic books includes:
Superman flies faster than a speeding bullet but does not make a sonic boom.
Iron Man flies thanks to his boot jets, but does not have incredibly strong stomach muscles.
Lots of problems where the energy for Superman style mentally guided flight, force fields, and the like. It's not enough to say "manipulation of gravitons." What is the mechanism for manipulating gravitons? Where does the energy come from to power the mechanism? How exactly does the superhero control the mechanism?
Many powers come from "another dimension." I'd like to visit one of those. Oh. I guess that's impossible. Because they don't exist.
Extra-dimensional travel seems ridiculous. There are no "parallel Earths."
Time travel, like the second Flash (Barry Gordon). Teleportation, like Nightcrawler. Bleargh. Nuff said.
How does Batman stay young after all those decades of crimefighting?
Shrinking or growing, like Hank Pym. Where does the mass go?
The whole telepathic communication with other beings, whether with humans or aniamls, makes no sense. Aquaman is silly. Another problem is the "danger sense" of Spider-Man.
Any really strong character needs to have body armor or tough skin, or he is going to get seriously hurt. Take Sub-Mariner. He can punch holes in steel, but he cuts easily. He should have bled to death by now.
Biological processes are never really explained. Just how does Wolverine's "fast healing" work? They never explain.
The best superhero characters are those that are most plausible. These include Batman, Iron Man, and the relatively low powered characters. It shouldn't be surprising that these are the characters with the most developed and most interesting back stories.
A highly powered character like Superman can be made into a great character by weaving in a tragic flaw or two. Superman not only has to watch out for Kryptonite, he never has a satisfying love life that can last. (Yeah, the physics of him having sex. Har har.) Kal-El (Superman) is a brokenhearted man. He is the last of his race. He wants to help mankind, and will do whatever he can with his superpowers to be of service. But in the end, he is lonely, isolated. In some ways Kal-El is like a religious figure.
The other route is to make a character based on principles that are far beyond what modern physics can suggest. The prototype is Silver Surfer. While Silver Surfer is a great character, the reader can never really relate to a totally alien being like him.
The best route is a superhero without superpowers, or very few superpowers. Gadgets, martial arts, and wits fill the gaps. That's how to make a great superhero character.
Will you please let children enjoy their childhoods?
Re:Here's a couple I really want to know
on
Comic Book Physics
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· Score: 1
Oh my. How much the younger generation has to learn.
The constantly eating Flash was first seen in Flash's rejuvenated book, about the third Flash, Wally West.
You should know that the second Flash, Barry Gordon, died heroically in 1985 in the process of saving the universe during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The only physical problem I see with material that is "undentable" would be what happens when an undentable object meets an irresistable force. As for vibranium, yeah, no problem. Y'know the US military is using that in the next generation of tank shells. Cap's shield is made out of a combination of vibranium and adamantium, and as was said in Fantastic Four #546, it is a totally unique creation of Galactus and can never be duplicated, not even by Steven Hawking.
How far can Reed Richards, Plastic Man, et al strech before they would run out of material?
Oh. I see. The person that wronged you told you it would be useless to sue. So you just give up?
No. You call a lawyer anyway.
Worried about legal fees? In many types of cases, the lawyer can work on a "contingency fee." That means you pay nothing. If you win, the lawyer gets a percentage of your judgment. You keep the rest.
Don't rely on the Internet. Talk to a lawyer.
lawyer up
on
Beyond Pay?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Time for you to lawyer up.
"actual personal harassment"
If you are at the receiving end, take the following steps:
Call a lawyer. If you don't know one, go to Google and search for "state bar association" +nameofyourstate. They will have a lawyer referral service. This is a great way to get a lawyer.
If you can't find a lawyer that way, look through the yellow pages or some other place.
The first thing you should ask the lawyer is how much he charges for an "initial consultation." This might be free. It should not be exorbitant.
By talking to a lawyer you will gain a good picture of whether you have a case.
If you have a case and wish to proceed, you should call at least two lawyers before choosing one of them.
You have legal rights. You should at least find out what they are.
What other minor, apparently trivial barriers exist to personal Linux use?
Frankly, I don't feel like pluging into the user forums and mailing lists only to get flamed because I didn't read the entire 400 pp manual accessible only with less.
I don't feel like getting flamed on IRC or Usenet or Slashdot for asking what to me is a really hard question and to you what is really easy.
I don't feel like it because right now I've got what I need on Windows. If some day I can switch to Linux with a little online support that will not result in a bunch of elitist geeks calling me whiny or annoying or stupid just because I asked a question or tried to answer a question that f********* calls for people to be whiny in the damn first place, then maybe I'll switch.
If you want people to join your &#&$##@ club, don't bitch them out when they walk in for the first time. It's just basic.
Get a laptop and do your late night typing outside the room.
If I had only done that back when I was in college....it would have been much, much better. I would not have fallen behind in my studies, become depressed, got stressed out, had a major fight with my roommate, ruined the best friendship I ever had, and lost out on an opportunity for a menage et tois with the two cute neighbors down the hall.
But no, I didn't want to spring for another $200. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
Should be in place quite soon.
Bug 124029 at bugzilla dot mozilla dot org tracks the recent progress of those working on it. You are welcome to contribute time or money to the effort.
You will be relieved to learn that it was recently decided that Firebird/Firefox will NOT replace the Mozilla Application Suite. Rather, they will be developed concurrently.
What is "WEFSAFD"? I don't know and neither does Google.
You are very right that MusicXML is not the best for human readability. It was designed for computer readability. I'm sure you would be even less pleased by a binary format.
You are an artist, a composer. You do not really have to look at the guts of the data format for Music XML or PDF or whatever. Computer jockeys do, however, have to look at that stuff. Trust me. It is better to have an open standard like XML than a proprietary standard like a binary format. As for PDF, it works for display but is awfully unwieldy as a storage format.
Take an example. Let's say you've written your masterpiece. Unfortunately, the art world is too cynical and they don't recognize you. Gradually, all of your musical works crumble into dust, totally unnoticed. Fifty years after your death, some young fellow comes across the last surviving remnant of your work. This also includes your masterpiece. Unfortunately, this person has no idea what he is looking at. All he sees is a file marked
JDU377WTX.FTF
He opens the file up, notices it is a binary file, and deletes it.
Then he moves onto the next file. It is marked:
JDU377WTX.XML
He opens the file up, notices it is XML, plugs it into his super-duper-future-web-browser, and--pow, up pops your masterwork, perfectly represented as sheet music. Since this person is a musician and has an open mind, he recognizes your greatness. Soon your masterpiece is beloved by billions of people all over the world. Statues of you are placed in the great concert halls of the world. Women name their babies after you. Young artists are inspired as never before.
Good thing you saved it in XML and not just a non-standard proprietary data format.
Some people want to include bars of music within their markup text. They would like to do both text and scores all in XML.
Some people want their data stored in an open, free data format that is not locked into just one software program or another. They don't want a MUS or FTF or whatever because 10 years from now, their program might not know what that is. XML will be readable for decades to come.
Ideally, a commercial score-writing software program could store your data in MusicXML and output, if necessary, to a variety of formats, including PDF.
Slashdot Mirror
The 60s and 70s Flash would have been the second Flash, Barry Gordon. He did not have to eat voraciously. See the Wikipedia article.
The topic is supposed to be comic books and physics. Comic books are a much-maligned, yet fascinating form of art. The conjunction of art and science should have made for a fascinating thread, but alas, it didn't.
Classic physics nonsense from the comic books includes:
- Superman flies faster than a speeding bullet but does not make a sonic boom.
- Iron Man flies thanks to his boot jets, but does not have incredibly strong stomach muscles.
- Lots of problems where the energy for Superman style mentally guided flight, force fields, and the like. It's not enough to say "manipulation of gravitons." What is the mechanism for manipulating gravitons? Where does the energy come from to power the mechanism? How exactly does the superhero control the mechanism?
- Many powers come from "another dimension." I'd like to visit one of those. Oh. I guess that's impossible. Because they don't exist.
- Extra-dimensional travel seems ridiculous. There are no "parallel Earths."
- Time travel, like the second Flash (Barry Gordon). Teleportation, like Nightcrawler. Bleargh. Nuff said.
- How does Batman stay young after all those decades of crimefighting?
- Shrinking or growing, like Hank Pym. Where does the mass go?
- The whole telepathic communication with other beings, whether with humans or aniamls, makes no sense. Aquaman is silly. Another problem is the "danger sense" of Spider-Man.
- Any really strong character needs to have body armor or tough skin, or he is going to get seriously hurt. Take Sub-Mariner. He can punch holes in steel, but he cuts easily. He should have bled to death by now.
- Biological processes are never really explained. Just how does Wolverine's "fast healing" work? They never explain.
The best superhero characters are those that are most plausible. These include Batman, Iron Man, and the relatively low powered characters. It shouldn't be surprising that these are the characters with the most developed and most interesting back stories.A highly powered character like Superman can be made into a great character by weaving in a tragic flaw or two. Superman not only has to watch out for Kryptonite, he never has a satisfying love life that can last. (Yeah, the physics of him having sex. Har har.) Kal-El (Superman) is a brokenhearted man. He is the last of his race. He wants to help mankind, and will do whatever he can with his superpowers to be of service. But in the end, he is lonely, isolated. In some ways Kal-El is like a religious figure.
The other route is to make a character based on principles that are far beyond what modern physics can suggest. The prototype is Silver Surfer. While Silver Surfer is a great character, the reader can never really relate to a totally alien being like him.
The best route is a superhero without superpowers, or very few superpowers. Gadgets, martial arts, and wits fill the gaps. That's how to make a great superhero character.
Will you please let children enjoy their childhoods?
The constantly eating Flash was first seen in Flash's rejuvenated book, about the third Flash, Wally West.
You should know that the second Flash, Barry Gordon, died heroically in 1985 in the process of saving the universe during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Maybe he could do that before, but in recent years (in the comics) he is just a really strong guy who can fly.
They just call it "U of M."
The only physical problem I see with material that is "undentable" would be what happens when an undentable object meets an irresistable force. As for vibranium, yeah, no problem. Y'know the US military is using that in the next generation of tank shells. Cap's shield is made out of a combination of vibranium and adamantium, and as was said in Fantastic Four #546, it is a totally unique creation of Galactus and can never be duplicated, not even by Steven Hawking.
How far can Reed Richards, Plastic Man, et al strech before they would run out of material?
Not sure, but I would say about 42.
Yeah right. Prove it.
I don't know. I happen to like PEN AND PAPER.
No. You call a lawyer anyway.
Worried about legal fees? In many types of cases, the lawyer can work on a "contingency fee." That means you pay nothing. If you win, the lawyer gets a percentage of your judgment. You keep the rest.
Don't rely on the Internet. Talk to a lawyer.
"actual personal harassment"
If you are at the receiving end, take the following steps:
- Call a lawyer. If you don't know one, go to Google and search for "state bar association" +nameofyourstate. They will have a lawyer referral service. This is a great way to get a lawyer.
- If you can't find a lawyer that way, look through the yellow pages or some other place.
- The first thing you should ask the lawyer is how much he charges for an "initial consultation." This might be free. It should not be exorbitant.
- By talking to a lawyer you will gain a good picture of whether you have a case.
- If you have a case and wish to proceed, you should call at least two lawyers before choosing one of them.
You have legal rights. You should at least find out what they are.Frankly, I don't feel like pluging into the user forums and mailing lists only to get flamed because I didn't read the entire 400 pp manual accessible only with less.
I don't feel like getting flamed on IRC or Usenet or Slashdot for asking what to me is a really hard question and to you what is really easy.
I don't feel like it because right now I've got what I need on Windows. If some day I can switch to Linux with a little online support that will not result in a bunch of elitist geeks calling me whiny or annoying or stupid just because I asked a question or tried to answer a question that f********* calls for people to be whiny in the damn first place, then maybe I'll switch.
If you want people to join your &#&$##@ club, don't bitch them out when they walk in for the first time. It's just basic.
Capice, kemosabe?
If you can tell us what's wrong, we'd be mighty appreciative.
Oh yes. How could I forget?
Fire. The Wheel. Writing. Paper. Iron. The arch. The printing press. Electricity. The airplane. The rocket. The computer. DOS.
If I had only done that back when I was in college....it would have been much, much better. I would not have fallen behind in my studies, become depressed, got stressed out, had a major fight with my roommate, ruined the best friendship I ever had, and lost out on an opportunity for a menage et tois with the two cute neighbors down the hall.
But no, I didn't want to spring for another $200. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
Should be in place quite soon. Bug 124029 at bugzilla dot mozilla dot org tracks the recent progress of those working on it. You are welcome to contribute time or money to the effort.
Apparently yes. See bug 225500 at bugzilla dot mozilla dot org.
Here they are.
In the Mozilla Application Suite, you can associate file types with Mozilla under Edit | Preferences | Advanced | System.
You will be relieved to learn that it was recently decided that Firebird/Firefox will NOT replace the Mozilla Application Suite. Rather, they will be developed concurrently.
Wow. That was perhaps the least mindblowing article I have read on Slashdot in some time.
You are very right that MusicXML is not the best for human readability. It was designed for computer readability. I'm sure you would be even less pleased by a binary format.
You are an artist, a composer. You do not really have to look at the guts of the data format for Music XML or PDF or whatever. Computer jockeys do, however, have to look at that stuff. Trust me. It is better to have an open standard like XML than a proprietary standard like a binary format. As for PDF, it works for display but is awfully unwieldy as a storage format.
Take an example. Let's say you've written your masterpiece. Unfortunately, the art world is too cynical and they don't recognize you. Gradually, all of your musical works crumble into dust, totally unnoticed. Fifty years after your death, some young fellow comes across the last surviving remnant of your work. This also includes your masterpiece. Unfortunately, this person has no idea what he is looking at. All he sees is a file marked
JDU377WTX.FTF
He opens the file up, notices it is a binary file, and deletes it.
Then he moves onto the next file. It is marked:
JDU377WTX.XML
He opens the file up, notices it is XML, plugs it into his super-duper-future-web-browser, and--pow, up pops your masterwork, perfectly represented as sheet music. Since this person is a musician and has an open mind, he recognizes your greatness. Soon your masterpiece is beloved by billions of people all over the world. Statues of you are placed in the great concert halls of the world. Women name their babies after you. Young artists are inspired as never before.
Good thing you saved it in XML and not just a non-standard proprietary data format.
Whatever. As a data storage format XML is superior.
Some people want their data stored in an open, free data format that is not locked into just one software program or another. They don't want a MUS or FTF or whatever because 10 years from now, their program might not know what that is. XML will be readable for decades to come.
Ideally, a commercial score-writing software program could store your data in MusicXML and output, if necessary, to a variety of formats, including PDF.