Oh, god. ..thank you! You just reminded me what a total riot that flick is. I'm getting a DVD drive for my box soon, and "Ghostbusters" is now going to be disk No.1 in my collection.
And a photon gun (or three) to hold it still until they can get it in there! But whatever you do--DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS!
Seriously, though, "ghost photo's" have got to be one of the easiest things in the world to fake, even more then UFO's. I bet I could whip up some spectacular specimens right now, and I've only got Photoshop 5.02 on this rig. Certainly better then what's on the Art Bell ghost page, at any rate.
Shameful to admit, but I've never read *any* Gaiman stuff--no Sandman, nothing. It's my own damn fault--about eight years ago I put down my last Marvel comic, puked, wiped my mouth and said "That's it--I am NEVER reading this mainstream crap again" and ever since then it's been anime/manga all the way. Then earlier this year a friend lent me his copy of "Castle Waiting" and my head exploded. Some of the best stuff I've read this side of "Watchmen!" So now I'm gonna see if I can get ahold of the Sandman trade paperbacks and the "Death" stuff. Can anyone out there recommend some other good U.S. or Brit (or anyone else) comix?
Quake IV. Photoshop 7.x. The next Sim City. Whatever version of Windows comes after Win2K. Faster processors, cheaper ram and bigger hard drives lead to larger and more complex programs, requiring even faster processors, allowing for even more complex programs--empire feeds on itself. Ten years from now as we race towards Terrahertz processors and quantum computing, 1Ghz will seem as pathetic to us as 1 Mhz does now.
Yep, hoax or not, that's just about the worst (and funniest) "translation" I've ever read. Still, for me the prize for most unintentionally humorous word-mangling must go to the subtitles for a Hong Kong actioner called, I kid you not, "Naked Killer." If you ever get the chance to catch it on the big screen, like at a HK film fest or something, do so--it's a riot.
Think about it, people, it would be cool. ..Tux in a cute little sailor fukuso, waving his gew-gaw encrusted energy staff around as he (she?) chases away the demon hordes of the M$ Empire. Bishjo Senshi Sailor Tux: what a concept!
Back in the day, the X-Files was one of my absolute fave shows and not just because Gillian Anderson is a Goddess (which she is;-)).When it was good, it was *really* good--well-written scripts, tight acting, characters you gave a damn about, and mystery. But these last few seasons. . .
I stopped watching the show regularly back in January--it was clear by then that it no longer had any direction, it was just gonna keep going on and on with no resolution to the story arc in sight. In fact, I don't really think that there IS a story arc any more, if there ever was; I believe Carter is now just more or less making it up as he goes. This is why I say Fox should just let it die. Instead of raping the corpse and trying to squeeze one last buck out of it they should wrap it all up neat and tidy this season--with or without an alien invasion--and move on to something else.
Makes me appreciate Babylon 5 all the more--JMS decided at the start that he had a story he wanted to tell, that it would go on for a finite length of time with a beginning, middle and end, and that once it was over it was frigging OVER. I wish that that kind of foresight had gone into X-Files--the show would in all probability be finished by now, but at least it would have ended decently
>Wealth is not a right. Wealth is the privilege of holding a large share of the NATION'S money. It is not their money. It's ours.
Wrong. This is based on the false idea that wealth cannot be created, and that therefore if you make a lot of money then that automaticlly means that someone else (of a lot of someone elses) is losing an equivilant or greater share. This is not true. And yes, you very much do have the right to persue happiness by using your talents and intellect to the highest degree possible to produce products/perform services that people ae willing to pay money for. The more people are willing to buy your product, the more money you make. This is what we Capitalist Pigs(tm) call the profit motive. Learn it, know it, be it.
Bear in mind that I am not one of those uber Libertarian "business can do no wrong" types. The rich should have to pay their fare share of taxes porportionate to how much they make just like the rest of us--and I am very leary of the influence they have in politics today, which is why I would like to see some very stringant campaign finance reform get enacted. But I don't favor putting a cap on how much money an individual can make and I don't favor inheritance taxes--both of these ideas smack of Socialism to me, and we all know, from the glorious example of the EX-U.S.S.R., how well that worked.
Two words, dude: SPACE COLONIZATION. Space FRIGGING colonization, exploration and industrialization! Hell, with 6+ billon people on this rock, we should have BEEN doing this irregardless of advances in the feild of medicine.
Keep in mind that you'd be killing children who have no clue about your ideology.
Um, excuse me, but. ..so what?
In war, absolute victory is the only option, or else don't bother to fight--you'd just be wasting lives to no good end (see Vietnam for a perfect example of this--and IMOHO, we should never have gotten involved in that situation in the first place). The object of war is to kill as many of the enemy as you can--men, women and children--until they surrender. The idea that there can be "laws" of war or "rules of conduct" is a sham--war is just organized slaughter that must be conducted as ruthlessly as possible until one side or the other is victorious. To believe otherwise is just limp-wristed self deceit.
>Laissez faire remains our best hope for long term survival. "Leave those genes alone".
Sorry, no. I *like* the idea of genetic engineering and people being able to reconfigure their unborn children to be stonger, faster, more intelligent and have open-ended life spans. And make no mistake, that's where it's headed eventually, you know--even if Luddites here in the U.S. succeed in getting such modifications/research banned, the Fedgov doesn't control the world, as much as they may like to imagine otherwise. Science is science, weather here or in labratories in China, Iran, Japan or wherever else. Sooner or later, my friend.
>The "right direction" only exists in the minds of the anointed ones, generally found in the ivory towers of science and on the Left.
Interesting terminology. I have never heard of such people described as Leftists; usually they are tarred as Neo-Nazi eugenicists (sp?).
>F. A. Hayek's book "The Road to Serfdom"
I've heard this book mentioned before on this page and elsewere. As soon as I'm done with "The Diamond Age" I'll have to check it out. What's it about?
My big bro', who's been using an A/4000 since '94 for 3D animation and the like has been wondering these past several months weather or not to go over the Mac side of the Force. I had advised him to wait, as it looked for awhile like Amiga, Inc. was really rolling and that we could all look forward to the second great computer industry resurrection of this decade, Apple's being the first. When I saw the concept drawings of the new machines I drooled right along with him, though I'm a Mac/Win98 man myself--hey, I like competition in the comp industry!--and I had high hopes, too for the clones/PPC variants being touted by the likes of Phase5 and Genesis. But then months passed with lotsa hot air and no real product on the shelves, except for the afrementioned Genesis; then their President and some other Amiga bigwigs suddenly resigned and it became clear to all who have eyes to see that the handwriting was on the wall. And now at last, as the end of the whole sorry tale comes this "Ha ha, fooled yaz, we ain't releasing any new machines after all! We'se nuthin' but Vaporware Unlimited, and all y'all can just suck the big one iff'in yaz doan' like it!! Bwahahaha!!"
Sigh. . .
Even back when I hated them, I wouldn't have wished this kind of fate on friggin' Micro$oft. RIP, Amiga. You deserved better, by Babbage! And as for my brother, I'm recommending that he save for a G4. And yeah, some may think I'm a fool for saying this, but I still believe it: were it not for Steve Jobs, Apple would be today where the Amiga is right now. Dead.
I keep hearing different estimates as to how close we are to true, functional nanotech--i.e., "teeny" (heh heh--he said "teeny") machines that can run through our blood streams repairing cellular damage, etc. Some say decades off, other maintain that it's just around the corner. So to put it in language that everyone here can understand: are we as close today to true nano as the British "Colossus" was to today's G4 or PIII's, or are we farther off (Difference Engine)? Or nearer (C64)? Or is my analogy totally whack?
I remember reading something like this in one of the Americanized Dirty Pair manga--by Adam Warren, I believe. In it, Earth was uninhabited because some time before, nanites got out of control and pretty much smoked everybody plantetside. Didn't matter *too* much, however, as humanity had already colonized much of nearby space by then, so it was like, "A great tragedy, but oh well." Heh--yet one more reason go get our lazy carcasses off this rock before it's too late!
I'm gonna be in Tokyo, Japan on the big day, so I'm not too worried. If the lights do go out, at least the Japanese will be much less likely riot and burn then us Yanks would under similar circumstances. And the sight from Tokyo Tower should be breathtaking. ..even if it is a view of all the city lights shutting off. . .
The only reason that BWP is being touted as "An Internet Film(tm)" is because the net is now mature enough to act as a conduit for advertising and guerilla marketing campaigns. It's got nothing to do with the actual quality of the movie itself, or any imagined generation gap.
A few years back, another excellent low-budget flick was being hailed all over the place for it's success despite the lack of traditional Hollywood mega-hype--anyone remember "El Meriachi?" Which was made with how low a budget? Bitchin' movie, that, btw. Anyway, the point is that had the net been as widespread and adored/demonized then as it is now, "Meriachi" would have been considered some kind of Net Revolution irregardless of the actual merits of the film itself.
Now me, I loved BWP (finally a horror movie that actually tries to scare you for once! The audacity!) and hype is neither here nor there for me, but one thing I do wish is that all filmmakers would simply know when to stop. BWP was a great flick, and now they should just move on to somthing else. Making sequel after grade-Z sequel is what often ruins these things! The first "Rocky" flick--fantastic. ..but then they made all those crappy sequels. The first "Jaws"--manifique! But then came "Jaws II," "Jaws 3-D," "Return Of The Son Of Night Of The Living Jaws," etc ad nauseum. "Planet Of The Apes," "Superman," "Batman"--all of these could only have benifitted IMOHO from filmmakers just stopping after the first one, or at most the second. I realize that there are exceptions to the rule, and that studios big and small have to make money and yadda yadda yadda but still. . .
Ya know, there are a number of issues on which I disagree with the Libertarians--e.g., I like the idea of a Food and Drug Administration to ensure that no one is selling poisoned meat or tainted medicinals. But things have been getting so out of hand with the so-called "War On Drugs" that I fear I must start to give them serious consderation the next time elections roll around. Better too much freedom then too little.
BWP? Saw it a few months ago at a sneak preview here in town. Scariest flick I ever saw. Slept with the light on for 2 days afterward and got very little sleep. I think it frightened me so much because of the relative realism with which the situation was portrayed, and the fact that the film makers left so much to the imagination--something you don't often see in films of any genre, these days. I'm gonna go see "The Haunting" this weekend but just from the trialers I can already tell it won't frighten me--big, loud orgies of computer animation never do. Oh, well.
What if the directors had decided to make the movie about the three actors, secretly filming them out in the woods, leaving no notes and harassing them for days until they broke down and began to really believe there was a blair witch? Would that be enough realism for you?
Oh, come on--can you imagine the lawsuits they would be opening themselves up to if they did that? I mean, really. However, your question about "movie as science experiment" brings to mind an old flick John Lennon and Yoko Ono did (correct me if I'm wrong) called "Rape:" essentially it consisted of these cameramen following this girl around everywhere she went. At first she's flattered by the attention but by the end she's broken down crying, begging them to leave her alone. I can't recall if she was just acting or not, I only read about it. . .
Intresting. The first thing I thought of when I heard of this was Blade Runner's "Replicants;" which may or may not date me;-). The point remains the same, however: if one is building a true artificial intelligence, either hard code it with Isaac Asimov's Three Laws Of Robotics or don't build it at all. Period.
Well, Eureka's cool Trilobyte vacuum looks pretty useful to me. A single-purpose device, it seems a bit more feasable then something that is multiply tasked like robo-butler. And it's cute, too;-).
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Oh, god. . .thank you! You just reminded me what a total riot that flick is. I'm getting a DVD drive for my box soon, and "Ghostbusters" is now going to be disk No.1 in my collection.
Seriously, though, "ghost photo's" have got to be one of the easiest things in the world to fake, even more then UFO's. I bet I could whip up some spectacular specimens right now, and I've only got Photoshop 5.02 on this rig. Certainly better then what's on the Art Bell ghost page, at any rate.
Shameful to admit, but I've never read *any* Gaiman stuff--no Sandman, nothing. It's my own damn fault--about eight years ago I put down my last Marvel comic, puked, wiped my mouth and said "That's it--I am NEVER reading this mainstream crap again" and ever since then it's been anime/manga all the way. Then earlier this year a friend lent me his copy of "Castle Waiting" and my head exploded. Some of the best stuff I've read this side of "Watchmen!" So now I'm gonna see if I can get ahold of the Sandman trade paperbacks and the "Death" stuff. Can anyone out there recommend some other good U.S. or Brit (or anyone else) comix?
Quake IV. Photoshop 7.x. The next Sim City. Whatever version of Windows comes after Win2K. Faster processors, cheaper ram and bigger hard drives lead to larger and more complex programs, requiring even faster processors, allowing for even more complex programs--empire feeds on itself. Ten years from now as we race towards Terrahertz processors and quantum computing, 1Ghz will seem as pathetic to us as 1 Mhz does now.
Yep, hoax or not, that's just about the worst (and funniest) "translation" I've ever read. Still, for me the prize for most unintentionally humorous word-mangling must go to the subtitles for a Hong Kong actioner called, I kid you not, "Naked Killer." If you ever get the chance to catch it on the big screen, like at a HK film fest or something, do so--it's a riot.
I think I'll run and hide now. ;-)
Oh. . .my.
I have to say, that is just the *coolest*. Now I'm gonna see if I can save it, resize it, convert it to .bmp and use it as the desktop on my '98 box.
I stopped watching the show regularly back in January--it was clear by then that it no longer had any direction, it was just gonna keep going on and on with no resolution to the story arc in sight. In fact, I don't really think that there IS a story arc any more, if there ever was; I believe Carter is now just more or less making it up as he goes. This is why I say Fox should just let it die. Instead of raping the corpse and trying to squeeze one last buck out of it they should wrap it all up neat and tidy this season--with or without an alien invasion--and move on to something else.
Makes me appreciate Babylon 5 all the more--JMS decided at the start that he had a story he wanted to tell, that it would go on for a finite length of time with a beginning, middle and end, and that once it was over it was frigging OVER. I wish that that kind of foresight had gone into X-Files--the show would in all probability be finished by now, but at least it would have ended decently
Been there, done that. I believe it was called "V."
O.K.: Commie!! ;-)
>Wealth is not a right. Wealth is the privilege of holding a large share of the NATION'S money. It is not their money. It's ours.
Wrong. This is based on the false idea that wealth cannot be created, and that therefore if you make a lot of money then that automaticlly means that someone else (of a lot of someone elses) is losing an equivilant or greater share. This is not true. And yes, you very much do have the right to persue happiness by using your talents and intellect to the highest degree possible to produce products/perform services that people ae willing to pay money for. The more people are willing to buy your product, the more money you make. This is what we Capitalist Pigs(tm) call the profit motive. Learn it, know it, be it.
Bear in mind that I am not one of those uber Libertarian "business can do no wrong" types. The rich should have to pay their fare share of taxes porportionate to how much they make just like the rest of us--and I am very leary of the influence they have in politics today, which is why I would like to see some very stringant campaign finance reform get enacted. But I don't favor putting a cap on how much money an individual can make and I don't favor inheritance taxes--both of these ideas smack of Socialism to me, and we all know, from the glorious example of the EX-U.S.S.R., how well that worked.
Two words, dude: SPACE COLONIZATION. Space FRIGGING colonization, exploration and industrialization! Hell, with 6+ billon people on this rock, we should have BEEN doing this irregardless of advances in the feild of medicine.
Um, excuse me, but. . .so what?
In war, absolute victory is the only option, or else don't bother to fight--you'd just be wasting lives to no good end (see Vietnam for a perfect example of this--and IMOHO, we should never have gotten involved in that situation in the first place). The object of war is to kill as many of the enemy as you can--men, women and children--until they surrender. The idea that there can be "laws" of war or "rules of conduct" is a sham--war is just organized slaughter that must be conducted as ruthlessly as possible until one side or the other is victorious. To believe otherwise is just limp-wristed self deceit.
>Laissez faire remains our best hope for long term survival. "Leave those genes alone".
Sorry, no. I *like* the idea of genetic engineering and people being able to reconfigure their unborn children to be stonger, faster, more intelligent and have open-ended life spans. And make no mistake, that's where it's headed eventually, you know--even if Luddites here in the U.S. succeed in getting such modifications/research banned, the Fedgov doesn't control the world, as much as they may like to imagine otherwise. Science is science, weather here or in labratories in China, Iran, Japan or wherever else. Sooner or later, my friend.
>The "right direction" only exists in the minds of the anointed ones, generally found in the ivory towers of science and on the Left.
Interesting terminology. I have never heard of such people described as Leftists; usually they are tarred as Neo-Nazi eugenicists (sp?).
>F. A. Hayek's book "The Road to Serfdom"
I've heard this book mentioned before on this page and elsewere. As soon as I'm done with "The Diamond Age" I'll have to check it out. What's it about?
Huh. Cute. That's also a Black "joke" too, btw. Either way it's still racist as hell. I'm surprised at you guys.
Sigh. . .
Even back when I hated them, I wouldn't have wished this kind of fate on friggin' Micro$oft. RIP, Amiga. You deserved better, by Babbage! And as for my brother, I'm recommending that he save for a G4. And yeah, some may think I'm a fool for saying this, but I still believe it: were it not for Steve Jobs, Apple would be today where the Amiga is right now. Dead.
I keep hearing different estimates as to how close we are to true, functional nanotech--i.e., "teeny" (heh heh--he said "teeny") machines that can run through our blood streams repairing cellular damage, etc. Some say decades off, other maintain that it's just around the corner. So to put it in language that everyone here can understand: are we as close today to true nano as the British "Colossus" was to today's G4 or PIII's, or are we farther off (Difference Engine)? Or nearer (C64)? Or is my analogy totally whack?
I remember reading something like this in one of the Americanized Dirty Pair manga--by Adam Warren, I believe. In it, Earth was uninhabited because some time before, nanites got out of control and pretty much smoked everybody plantetside. Didn't matter *too* much, however, as humanity had already colonized much of nearby space by then, so it was like, "A great tragedy, but oh well." Heh--yet one more reason go get our lazy carcasses off this rock before it's too late!
I'm gonna be in Tokyo, Japan on the big day, so I'm not too worried. If the lights do go out, at least the Japanese will be much less likely riot and burn then us Yanks would under similar circumstances. And the sight from Tokyo Tower should be breathtaking. . .even if it is a view of all the city lights shutting off. . .
What if they merged with Apple? They're both pretty big in the graphics industry. Or are they just *too* different?
A few years back, another excellent low-budget flick was being hailed all over the place for it's success despite the lack of traditional Hollywood mega-hype--anyone remember "El Meriachi?" Which was made with how low a budget? Bitchin' movie, that, btw. Anyway, the point is that had the net been as widespread and adored/demonized then as it is now, "Meriachi" would have been considered some kind of Net Revolution irregardless of the actual merits of the film itself.
Now me, I loved BWP (finally a horror movie that actually tries to scare you for once! The audacity!) and hype is neither here nor there for me, but one thing I do wish is that all filmmakers would simply know when to stop. BWP was a great flick, and now they should just move on to somthing else. Making sequel after grade-Z sequel is what often ruins these things! The first "Rocky" flick--fantastic. . .but then they made all those crappy sequels. The first "Jaws"--manifique! But then came "Jaws II," "Jaws 3-D," "Return Of The Son Of Night Of The Living Jaws," etc ad nauseum. "Planet Of The Apes," "Superman," "Batman"--all of these could only have benifitted IMOHO from filmmakers just stopping after the first one, or at most the second. I realize that there are exceptions to the rule, and that studios big and small have to make money and yadda yadda yadda but still. . .
What if the directors had decided to make the movie about the three actors, secretly filming them out in the woods, leaving no notes and harassing them for days until they broke down and began to really believe there was a blair witch? Would that be enough realism for you?
Oh, come on--can you imagine the lawsuits they would be opening themselves up to if they did that? I mean, really. However, your question about "movie as science experiment" brings to mind an old flick John Lennon and Yoko Ono did (correct me if I'm wrong) called "Rape:" essentially it consisted of these cameramen following this girl around everywhere she went. At first she's flattered by the attention but by the end she's broken down crying, begging them to leave her alone. I can't recall if she was just acting or not, I only read about it. . .
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