> How can they have conceived of the Matrix as a > trilogy and now not know where the next two > movies fit in the timeline (i.e. 2 prequels or > 1 prequel and 1 sequel)? Doesn't add up does it?
Ahhh... valid point. I'm sure they will answer they simply had loads of ideas, and couln't incorporate them into just one film. I mean, surely film makers wouldn't simply be after a cheap buck by cashing in on an earlier success?
Firstly; Lets not spoil it for those (fools) who ain't seen it yet. There, said it.
Right then (without giving too much away), how the hell will a certain "Neo" be included in a "prequel"? Apart from the very-near past, there's no role for him. I imagined that any prequel would center around the huge battle between you-know-who and resulting in the loss of energy from the sun, and the new "power sources".
I suppose that a prequel involving Neo could center around his search for Morpheus, and the early days of Morpheus' quest - maybe including more focus on the last remaining city (whose name I've forgotten).
Now, a sequel would be cool. It would definately (I hope) leave were the original left off, which means plenty of action and more gratuitous shots of Carrie-Ann Moss in "nice" clothes.
Incidentally, the majority of the fight sequences did use valid Kung-Foo techniques - it wasn't play-acting like many people claim. I know, because I routinely get my ass kicked at my local Muay Thai camp!
It's great to see another big player in the Linux world, expanding like this. This move by SuSE, the biggest European dist (afaik), represents a big boost to the future of Linux.
The Music Industry differs a bit from the software industry. The actual musicians get but a small cut of profits, the rest goes to the companies coffers.
I'm all for avoiding getting ripped off, but I kinda feel for the Artists.
I'm pretty happy to use "free" Microsoft products - well, as happy as one can be when using MS stuff! But I always feel a little guilty if I copy a song.
Yes, we're being ripped off, yes CD's are overpriced, yes... erm, yes - the phone went... I've forgot. But if we could somehow get lower prices and ensure the artist gets a fair cut, then I'd be happy.
I'm completely hypocritical in saying this (in respect of my HD contents), but Piracy is theft.
I dunno what to say to justify my saying this, but... Don't be sitting there, smugly grinning, knowing you have 1000's of MP3s on your system. Instead, sit there, safe in the knowledge that the big companies are ripping of you, me, the artists, the vendors. Everyone.
Basically, the only people to benefit from Music piracy are people who copy - individually, individual gain from somebody elses work. This surely flies in the face of causes such as Free Software or Open Source? Becuase in this situation, the originator suffers - sucky eh?
Exactly - thats why I asked that people should explain to me exactly wht they think it means. And it means that IBM are gonna get a patent which allows them to "display previously obscured information".
Lets consider what is "obscured information". First, with a brief summation of exactly what information is: Information is "data which informs somebody" - if you are informed by something, this is information.
On this basis, what can you be informed by, and what information can be seen to exist in an obscured state?
Email - once transmited, becomes a load of 0s and 1s
Database - data on a hard disk requires a dbms to interpret
Graphics - a jpeg file means nothing to me - dunno 'bout you!
See where we're going?
File - held as binary on a computer, requires aMethod and system for displaying [this] previously obscured information
So basically, any information displayed on any wimp system would be breaching this copyright.
However, aren't IBM a little late here? I could understand Xerox doing this, but IBM? Humph!
Interestingly, it states that the patent is only concerned with a windowing environment so presumably, if we switch ack to a good old CLI, we'll be fine?
When reading the document, I noticed that it is use of elementary software processes which looks set to be prohibited.
How "elementary" are these processes? I notice, happily, that some of the big names are firmly opposed to this. I also notice the example IBM patent request - read the application description carefully, tell me what you think it means...
It's not _quite_ as it seems. Read about moderation, this explains how scores are awarded. The moderator has no control over what word (Informative, Insightful) is used, in the literal sense anyway. Look, just read the pages about moderation apparently these are a little out of date though.
To become a moderator, you need to be a user. I really don't understand why regular readers aren't users - IMHO of course:)
Maybe the reason that there are so many opportunities is because of the growth in the industry, and that people are leaving one job to go to another (presumabably better) job?
Huh, Huh - you want some eh? Ahem...
Anyway, all I seem to do today is dismiss peoples arguments. You're right and I'm wrong:)
As an IT student, what does worry me is that maybe 5 or 10 years down the line, a lot of todays "technical" stuff will be really easy for "average" people to do - putting specialists out of a speciality... It certainly bears thinking about.
I know, I know - I agree that manufacturers should let us have their drivers. Ultimately, an improved driver means that the hardware runs better/faster - which can only be a good thing.
I was generalisng though, and stick by my comments on software.
The debate rages (on and on). Without paid-for software, computing would not be as widespread - many people wouldn't be here.
Can people not see, that in order to undertake big project, you need teams, facilities, _budgets_. Sure, release the source - let people make improvements (I agree, to an extent, with the Netscape stance). If people are gonna invest their time, effort and money into something which people want, why not charge a little - not M$ amounts, but enough to allow them to code the next version. Am I making sense?
There's no such thing as a Free Lunch. With isolated, individuals/organisations developing products, you'll get different standards and differing quality. Wanna go back to the dark old days? I don't.
> Did you wake up this morning and say to > yourself "I could log onto Slashdot and show > my ignorance in much the same fashion that > a baboon shows it's rear end" ? Or was this a > spontaneous demonstration?
Hey! Not nice dude!
Oh sorry, you were beating yourself, for being not putting your name to a mindless insult.
On this NT4(sp3) machine, Kernel32 is 363kb - easily floppy sized eh? winnt/system32/ is 101mb though. Much of this is unused/out of date junk... but it's still a hell of a lot more than 363kb.
You cannot even get close to being as functional as a full NT system on a 100kb kernel. Not that I'm saying NT is particularly functional or anything;)
Running stuff at a 5% speed disadvantage with a big stability advantage is actually a fairly attractive proposition - on the basis of notable recent (fair?) tests this is exactly what Linux does already...
The Space Shuttle uses late 386s or something like that, purely because the last 386s had all the bugs sorted out. Slow, but stable. See? There's many situations where stabilty is far more important.
Besides, with computers running at ridiculous speeds now, would 5% really put you at a major disadvantage to your competitors? Or would the speed of the actual box mean that the 5% becomes irrelevant?
Mong. (Developing a penchant for writing lots, and saying little). * Paul Madley...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
It's common knowledge that MS is bad, and we all know that a big kernel is a bad thing. QED - simple as that.
That said; "She's a witch - throw her in the river, if she floats she's a witch, if she drows, she's not! Well, Ducks float... So? So do other things... wood So, witches are made of wood?"
- A summation of a Python sketch. Proving that 2+2 doesn't always equal 4. On this logic, we could say (using simple chaining methodology...) that if a: In order to know something, you must experience it (Win kernel, big), otherwise, no matter how valid the source, it is only assumed/presumed. Therefore, people are just assuming that NT has a hideous, huge kernel - when in fact it may be gorgeous and petite, with the "bloat" being caused by all the other stuff...
So this bra transmits signals eh? Say somebody fitted sensors throughout it, recording intimately a womans breasts? This info was this then processed into BrHTML (Breast Markup Language) - to be used by people with "touchy-feely" peripherals - purely for medical research, obviously.
So this bra transmits signals eh? Say somebody fitted sensors throughout it, recording intimately a womans breasts? This info was this then processed into BrHTML (Breast Markup Language) - to be used by people with "touchy-feely" peripherals - purely for medical research, obviously.
The lack of positive response was disappointing. Maybe the pioneer spirit of the internet is disappearing?
I certainly didn't expect the personal, nasty emails I received.
Are we all growing comfortable with the commericalisation of our "toy"? After all, many of us helped make the.net and in particular, the WWW, as popular as it now is. Maybe people like me are relics of a bygone era...
I'm not screaming for any kind of "reclaim the net" campaign, I suppose as long as we have places like Slashdot, and our favourite BBS's ( FIX - shameless advertising!) then we'll always have our little corner. But why not try and make our corner a little bigger?
A great loss - a little before my nettime, but I was fortunate to come across it towards the end of it's heyday.
Maybe we should do it ourselves? There's enough writers, researchers, designers et al here to do just that. There's definately enough people to physically host it and run it. Is there enough enthusiasm? Is there enough intrest?
There should be.
Unfortunately (as is often the case), I don't have enough time to organise something on this scale - that said, I've no experience of anything this big. But if like me, you can help in even a small way... Some crazy Norwegian friends of mine started a project like this a while back - but they simply couldn't commit enough time and resources. But in these, we already have a starting point (any FIXers reading this?).
So, who wants to get this show off the road?
Am I just being reactionary and unrealisitic? Or do people out there still care?
Nothing terribly revealing in that, but adds to the whole idea of "personalities" though.
I was interested by the final comment about a P100/16mb - My friend recently installed Gnome on a P133/32mb and it was pretty damn sluggish (although it did have a reasonably old gfx card) -AK states earlier that his intention isn't too make WM look "pretty" - just functional and easy to use. Nice to see that traditional values and sensible sys requirements still hold true...
Slashdot Mirror
> How can they have conceived of the Matrix as a
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
> trilogy and now not know where the next two
> movies fit in the timeline (i.e. 2 prequels or
> 1 prequel and 1 sequel)? Doesn't add up does it?
Ahhh... valid point. I'm sure they will answer they simply had loads of ideas, and couln't incorporate them into just one film. I mean, surely film makers wouldn't simply be after a cheap buck by cashing in on an earlier success?
Hmm, how many Batman movies were there?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Firstly; Lets not spoil it for those (fools) who ain't seen it yet. There, said it.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Right then (without giving too much away), how the hell will a certain "Neo" be included in a "prequel"? Apart from the very-near past, there's no role for him. I imagined that any prequel would center around the huge battle between you-know-who and resulting in the loss of energy from the sun, and the new "power sources".
I suppose that a prequel involving Neo could center around his search for Morpheus, and the early days of Morpheus' quest - maybe including more focus on the last remaining city (whose name I've forgotten).
Now, a sequel would be cool. It would definately (I hope) leave were the original left off, which means plenty of action and more gratuitous shots of Carrie-Ann Moss in "nice" clothes.
Incidentally, the majority of the fight sequences did use valid Kung-Foo techniques - it wasn't play-acting like many people claim. I know, because I routinely get my ass kicked at my local Muay Thai camp!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Maybe he's on holiday? It being summer and all that. Even nerds need a break I guess (I know I do!)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
It's great to see another big player in the Linux world, expanding like this. This move by SuSE, the biggest European dist (afaik), represents a big boost to the future of Linux.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Lemme see... you're getting this huge system, Quad Xeons and all that... and you're worried about the cost of NT as opposed to Linux?
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Hmm...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
True, but by applying a strict backward chaining methodology.....
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Bah! Never mind
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Valid point - I'll try and see if it's true by playing many stadium gigs, as opposed to local Pubs n Clubs :)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong. Prole Scum.
* Paul Madley
The Music Industry differs a bit from the software industry. The actual musicians get but a small cut of profits, the rest goes to the companies coffers.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I'm all for avoiding getting ripped off, but I kinda feel for the Artists.
I'm pretty happy to use "free" Microsoft products - well, as happy as one can be when using MS stuff! But I always feel a little guilty if I copy a song.
Yes, we're being ripped off, yes CD's are overpriced, yes... erm, yes - the phone went... I've forgot. But if we could somehow get lower prices and ensure the artist gets a fair cut, then I'd be happy.
I'm completely hypocritical in saying this (in respect of my HD contents), but Piracy is theft.
I dunno what to say to justify my saying this, but... Don't be sitting there, smugly grinning, knowing you have 1000's of MP3s on your system. Instead, sit there, safe in the knowledge that the big companies are ripping of you, me, the artists, the vendors. Everyone.
Basically, the only people to benefit from Music piracy are people who copy - individually, individual gain from somebody elses work. This surely flies in the face of causes such as Free Software or Open Source? Becuase in this situation, the originator suffers - sucky eh?
And yes, I am a musician... kinda shows huh?
Mong. Apologising for his disjointed argument.
* Paul Madley
Lets consider what is "obscured information". First, with a brief summation of exactly what information is: Information is "data which informs somebody" - if you are informed by something, this is information.
On this basis, what can you be informed by, and what information can be seen to exist in an obscured state?
See where we're going?
File - held as binary on a computer, requires aMethod and system for displaying [this] previously obscured information
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
So basically, any information displayed on any wimp system would be breaching this copyright.
However, aren't IBM a little late here? I could understand Xerox doing this, but IBM? Humph!
Interestingly, it states that the patent is only concerned with a windowing environment so presumably, if we switch ack to a good old CLI, we'll be fine?
IBM? IMBeciles?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
When reading the document, I noticed that it is use of elementary software processes which looks set to be prohibited.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
How "elementary" are these processes? I notice, happily, that some of the big names are firmly opposed to this. I also notice the example IBM patent request - read the application description carefully, tell me what you think it means...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
It's not _quite_ as it seems. Read about moderation, this explains how scores are awarded. The moderator has no control over what word (Informative, Insightful) is used, in the literal sense anyway. Look, just read the pages about moderation apparently these are a little out of date though.
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
To become a moderator, you need to be a user. I really don't understand why regular readers aren't users - IMHO of course
Hopefully, this piece was "informative".
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Maybe the reason that there are so many opportunities is because of the growth in the industry, and that people are leaving one job to go to another (presumabably better) job?
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Huh, Huh - you want some eh? Ahem...
Anyway, all I seem to do today is dismiss peoples arguments. You're right and I'm wrong
As an IT student, what does worry me is that maybe 5 or 10 years down the line, a lot of todays "technical" stuff will be really easy for "average" people to do - putting specialists out of a speciality... It certainly bears thinking about.
Mong. Forteller of Doom!
* Paul Madley
I know, I know - I agree that manufacturers should let us have their drivers. Ultimately, an improved driver means that the hardware runs better/faster - which can only be a good thing.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I was generalisng though, and stick by my comments on software.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
The debate rages (on and on). Without paid-for software, computing would not be as widespread - many people wouldn't be here.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Can people not see, that in order to undertake big project, you need teams, facilities, _budgets_. Sure, release the source - let people make improvements (I agree, to an extent, with the Netscape stance). If people are gonna invest their time, effort and money into something which people want, why not charge a little - not M$ amounts, but enough to allow them to code the next version. Am I making sense?
There's no such thing as a Free Lunch. With isolated, individuals/organisations developing products, you'll get different standards and differing quality. Wanna go back to the dark old days? I don't.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
> Did you wake up this morning and say to
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
> yourself "I could log onto Slashdot and show
> my ignorance in much the same fashion that
> a baboon shows it's rear end" ? Or was this a
> spontaneous demonstration?
Hey! Not nice dude!
Oh sorry, you were beating yourself, for being not putting your name to a mindless insult.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
On this NT4(sp3) machine, Kernel32 is 363kb - easily floppy sized eh? winnt/system32/ is 101mb though. Much of this is unused/out of date junk... but it's still a hell of a lot more than 363kb.
;)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
You cannot even get close to being as functional as a full NT system on a 100kb kernel. Not that I'm saying NT is particularly functional or anything
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Running stuff at a 5% speed disadvantage with a big stability advantage is actually a fairly attractive proposition - on the basis of notable recent (fair?) tests this is exactly what Linux does already...
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
The Space Shuttle uses late 386s or something like that, purely because the last 386s had all the bugs sorted out. Slow, but stable. See? There's many situations where stabilty is far more important.
Besides, with computers running at ridiculous speeds now, would 5% really put you at a major disadvantage to your competitors? Or would the speed of the actual box mean that the 5% becomes irrelevant?
Mong. (Developing a penchant for writing lots, and saying little).
* Paul Madley
It's common knowledge that MS is bad, and we all know that a big kernel is a bad thing. QED - simple as that.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
That said;
"She's a witch - throw her in the river, if she floats she's a witch, if she drows, she's not!
Well, Ducks float...
So? So do other things... wood
So, witches are made of wood?"
- A summation of a Python sketch. Proving that 2+2 doesn't always equal 4. On this logic, we could say (using simple chaining methodology...) that if a: In order to know something, you must experience it (Win kernel, big), otherwise, no matter how valid the source, it is only assumed/presumed. Therefore, people are just assuming that NT has a hideous, huge kernel - when in fact it may be gorgeous and petite, with the "bloat" being caused by all the other stuff...
Long winded I know, but I'm simple...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Time for a conspiracy story!
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
So this bra transmits signals eh? Say somebody fitted sensors throughout it, recording intimately a womans breasts? This info was this then processed into BrHTML (Breast Markup Language) - to be used by people with "touchy-feely" peripherals - purely for medical research, obviously.
Hmm, gives a new meaning to "hands on".
Mong.
* Paul Madley
So this bra transmits signals eh? Say somebody fitted sensors throughout it, recording intimately a womans breasts? This info was this then processed into BrHTML (Breast Markup Language) - to be used by people with "touchy-feely" peripherals - purely for medical research, obviously.
Hmm, gives a new meaning to "hands on".
Mong.
* Paul Madley
The lack of positive response was disappointing. Maybe the pioneer spirit of the internet is disappearing?
.net and in particular, the WWW, as popular as it now is. Maybe people like me are relics of a bygone era...
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I certainly didn't expect the personal, nasty emails I received.
Are we all growing comfortable with the commericalisation of our "toy"? After all, many of us helped make the
I'm not screaming for any kind of "reclaim the net" campaign, I suppose as long as we have places like Slashdot, and our favourite BBS's ( FIX - shameless advertising!) then we'll always have our little corner. But why not try and make our corner a little bigger?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
A great loss - a little before my nettime, but I was fortunate to come across it towards the end of it's heyday.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Maybe we should do it ourselves? There's enough writers, researchers, designers et al here to do just that. There's definately enough people to physically host it and run it. Is there enough enthusiasm? Is there enough intrest?
There should be.
Unfortunately (as is often the case), I don't have enough time to organise something on this scale - that said, I've no experience of anything this big. But if like me, you can help in even a small way... Some crazy Norwegian friends of mine started a project like this a while back - but they simply couldn't commit enough time and resources. But in these, we already have a starting point (any FIXers reading this?).
So, who wants to get this show off the road?
Am I just being reactionary and unrealisitic? Or do people out there still care?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Nothing terribly revealing in that, but adds to the whole idea of "personalities" though.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I was interested by the final comment about a P100/16mb - My friend recently installed Gnome on a P133/32mb and it was pretty damn sluggish (although it did have a reasonably old gfx card) -AK states earlier that his intention isn't too make WM look "pretty" - just functional and easy to use. Nice to see that traditional values and sensible sys requirements still hold true...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
I bow to your superior wisdom oh wise one!
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
On this basis though, somebody could write low-quality messages frequently, and then get a higher score automatically.
Benefits outweigh the disadvantages though, I guess.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Steven,
;)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
No offense, but why was your posting instantly uprated to a "2" score?
Hmm, somebody likes you
Mong.
* Paul Madley