Most of my friends who were once die hard Simpson fans (would watch the current episodes and the 3 re-runs played during the day) watch it rarely these days. I've tried to watch it, but it seems the Simpsons today are a part of the television they used to rise above and mock in early seasons.
The problem is, the Simpsons used to be closely-knit stories with many low-brow and high-brow jokes mixed in, often in the form of references to other movies. It's lost that cohesion, and other shows blow it out of the water on the humor they try.
Political Satire - South Park addresses this all too well these days Obscure references - Family Guy, while now only in reruns, did this better than recent Simpsons Bizarre Factor - Adult Swim shorts (Sealab 2021, ATHF, and SGC2C) blows the Simpsons out of the water on this factor. The Ending with a Smile Factor - Home Movies on Adult Swim leaves a smile on my face by the end of every episode. The combination of innocence and clever witt is phenominal
"We get to know the people who are good testers, who are good at catching bugs. The federal government is legally not allowed to do that. When they told us that, several of the gamers said, 'Well, you're doomed then. Without some degree of accountability, you're going to have problems.'"
Sony Online (EQ in particular) was notorious for ignoring bug testers. Heck, I remember when I still played and there was a public forum, I gave a 100+ itemized bug list, to which they completely ignored. And after that they made a bug discussion group, so they could force everyone to post their problems there and ignore them there. They got to know us all right. They got to know us so they could ignore us.
IF the bug helped the players, it was fixed immediately. If it hindered the players, took several months to fix if it was ever fixed.
Regardless of how elections are run, there are going to be problems ensuring that results are 100% accurate.
Which makes me wonder how much this is truly about security. Do you know how terrified current politicians would be if people who are tech-savy enough to use the internet (Read this as the whole 18 to 27 age group) decided to vote? Young people scare most of these politicians. During this Democratic Primary, one of the candidates was quoted that he watches movies on his VCR during his spare time. Now, one could argue that it's because he tapes them then watches them; but the likelihood is that he, as well as many other politicians, are a good 10-20 years behind the tech curve. They don't want technology coming into voting because it brings in an audience to whom they have no idea how to cater.
We need more commercials like this
on
Superbowling
·
· Score: 1
the 2 second version: "Bush bad because of high deficit"
I want more commercials like this. Problems with no solutions. I remember the good ole days where I'd see a commercial opening with "I am up to my ears in debt" and closing with a viable solution to getting out of personal debt. Instead, we get "BUSH BAD". What does it accomplish? Less votes for Bush? IF so, more votes for whom? We don't even know who's running against him yet. Nadir hasn't said anything officially (Though on Bill Maher he made some hints) and Democrats haven't had their champion chosen yet. What's the point of this ad? I see a food ad during the superbowl, I think "I am kind of hungry". I see a beer commercial, I think "I am kind of thirsty". It's not like this anti-bush commercial is going to make me critically rethink my voting position months before the election, especially if there's a funny commercial and/or football before and after this ad.
Done Ranting. I just don't see the point in playing this commercial during the superbowl, as I can't see more than 2% of the world actually paying attention to it.
Re:These features are what sell the phones
on
KISS
·
· Score: 1
You know what extra features I and half of the IT people I talk to want?
1) Longer Battery Life
2) Durability - I should be able to slip on icy streets, land on the phone, and not have any problems.
3) Better reception - though this is usually not the fault of the phone.
Instead, I get offered more games, cool ring tones, and the ability to take pictures with my phone. All this because phones are "cool". They can make my phone cool after they make it work.
Sony PS1 was doing all right, then FF7 came out and POW, the amount of people that owned a PS1 went way up.
You bring up a good point, though. If Microsoft could get exclusive Console rights to the GTA series, the XBox 3 stands a chance. Halo 3 (or 4, or whatever) just won't cut it. PS has Final Fantasy cornered (though Nintendo is getting some of the action, I digress), which is another huge boost for them. If Sony were smart, when Microsoft starts advertising, they should start hyping up that the next FF online and console game are coming out on the PS3. That alone will deter many people.
The main point is that if a console can get exlusive rights to Rockstar and/or Square (and on a smaller scale, EA), they will be number 1 in the console market.
TurboGrafx 16 did not die because of when it came out. It died due to complete lack of advertising. In the days that SNES and "SEGA!" Genesis-dominated commercials during Ninja Turtles and other youth-oriented programming, NEC continued to just pump out more and more games, completely forgetting to tell the world about them. The only time you read about TG16 games is when you went to EGM or some other magazine and read their respective "Video Game Awards". "Legendary Axe" won in 1989 I believe. Many games after that won awards too; however, if not many people played them, the system was doomed.
It's a shame too, since numerous games on that system blow away games coming out for the newest systems.
"Greatest Philanthropist in the history of the world?"
In a pure $$$ amount, maybe (though I wonder if we adjusted for inflation how true this would be). We'll see how many artifacts of Gates' kindness leaves a mark in history as compared to Rockefeller or Carnegie. Keep in mind neither of these persons were an example of what is "Good and True" either.
If this world continues to praise (and aspire to) the questionable ways of such modern day "heroes", I sincerely doubt we'll see another true hero rise to the top again (be it financially, politically, or any other way).
Well, now at least the Iraqi people will say what is really on their mind (whether pro or anti-American) because they do not have to fear what Saddam will do to them when we pull out of Iraq (again). No matter what negative way you spin it, Saddam was a bloody tyrant, and he will only be a "martyr" in the eyes of those who are too blind to see otherwise.
Disclaimer: I am not saying that invading Iraq to get rid of this guy was the right thing to do...far from it... but if you are going to invade Iraq with the mindset to remove Saddam, at least get the job done.
Children should be exposed to sexuality in healthy, positive ways
And protecting children from internet porn will allow this to happen? Turn on the television at any given time of day (including the times when Sesame Street is on), and you'll find all sorts of sexual misconduct in Soap Operas, Sitcom reruns, Night time Drama Reruns, Fox Reality shows, etc. None of these are exposing children to sexuality in healthy, positive ways. Just because there's no nudity doesn't make it safe. If parents aren't watching what their kids are doing, kids will get corrupted from some form of media no matter how many laws you put in place to stop said corruption.
When will the RIAA post the list of "Starving Artists" who directly benefitted from the lawsuit against the 12-year old girl?
And not only her, I want to see the list of starving artists that are aided by each and every lawsuit.
VoIP should only be utilized if it can guarantee the same quality of service that a PBX can. Other than the local switch that the (IP) phone is connected to, there should not be any other single point of failure. If you paid a consultant/student to setup a VoIP solution that did not include fully redundant routers, servers and gateways to connect to the PSTN world, then the fault is not with the technology but with the people who installed said solution.
Now instead of 60 percent of the people killing "The Spiteful Crow" to get his "Hope Diamond" to trade for other virtual items or virtual money...
We'll see 100 percent of the people killing it for real cash. That's right, every barbarian-wizard-druid-thief, ninja, and spoony bard will be fighting over the ultra-rare 1's and 0's popping up so they can trade them for real money.
And the issue of abusive GMs is not addressed. Too many a time I have witnessed GM's showing unfairness to some individuals and outright favor to others. When real money gets involved, things can get ugly (many people have mentioned law suits already).
Radiohead's Singles often contain 5 or more tracks, all of which have songs equal to or better than some of the songs on the album (Polyethylene comes to mind quickly from the "Airbag Single"). Every single I've bought from that band have been well worth it: Decent new songs from a band to tide me over til their next full-fledged album.
While I think many of the artists out there are probably complaining for the sake of the almighty dollar bill, I think Radiohead is more scared of the death of themed, flowing albums, from works of their own (OK Computer and Kid A come to mind) to Dark Side of the Moon, to Tommy, to ( ), hell to even Fear Factory's Obsolete (Not a huge fan, but it had a coherent and flowed from one song to the next).
Now can artists still make such albums? Sure can! But when Clear Channel has the option to push, don't you think they'd want a Single every 2-3 months per artist instead of albums? They can streamline the process of forcing junk down our throats via the radio waves. Heck, think of it. If you can sell multi-million copies of a hit single and you only work on producing said single, you can cut down production costs on the filler...as well as time. This allows your short-lived Fad artists (The Brittany Spears, NSync, etc) maximize their usefulness in the eyes of their respective record labels.
Slashdot Mirror
Never dipped in appeal?
Most of my friends who were once die hard Simpson fans (would watch the current episodes and the 3 re-runs played during the day) watch it rarely these days. I've tried to watch it, but it seems the Simpsons today are a part of the television they used to rise above and mock in early seasons.
The problem is, the Simpsons used to be closely-knit stories with many low-brow and high-brow jokes mixed in, often in the form of references to other movies. It's lost that cohesion, and other shows blow it out of the water on the humor they try.
Political Satire - South Park addresses this all too well these days
Obscure references - Family Guy, while now only in reruns, did this better than recent Simpsons
Bizarre Factor - Adult Swim shorts (Sealab 2021, ATHF, and SGC2C) blows the Simpsons out of the water on this factor.
The Ending with a Smile Factor - Home Movies on Adult Swim leaves a smile on my face by the end of every episode. The combination of innocence and clever witt is phenominal
"We get to know the people who are good testers, who are good at catching bugs. The federal government is legally not allowed to do that. When they told us that, several of the gamers said, 'Well, you're doomed then. Without some degree of accountability, you're going to have problems.'"
Sony Online (EQ in particular) was notorious for ignoring bug testers. Heck, I remember when I still played and there was a public forum, I gave a 100+ itemized bug list, to which they completely ignored. And after that they made a bug discussion group, so they could force everyone to post their problems there and ignore them there. They got to know us all right. They got to know us so they could ignore us.
IF the bug helped the players, it was fixed immediately. If it hindered the players, took several months to fix if it was ever fixed.
Regardless of how elections are run, there are going to be problems ensuring that results are 100% accurate.
Which makes me wonder how much this is truly about security. Do you know how terrified current politicians would be if people who are tech-savy enough to use the internet (Read this as the whole 18 to 27 age group) decided to vote? Young people scare most of these politicians. During this Democratic Primary, one of the candidates was quoted that he watches movies on his VCR during his spare time. Now, one could argue that it's because he tapes them then watches them; but the likelihood is that he, as well as many other politicians, are a good 10-20 years behind the tech curve. They don't want technology coming into voting because it brings in an audience to whom they have no idea how to cater.
the 2 second version: "Bush bad because of high deficit"
I want more commercials like this. Problems with no solutions. I remember the good ole days where I'd see a commercial opening with "I am up to my ears in debt" and closing with a viable solution to getting out of personal debt. Instead, we get "BUSH BAD". What does it accomplish? Less votes for Bush? IF so, more votes for whom? We don't even know who's running against him yet. Nadir hasn't said anything officially (Though on Bill Maher he made some hints) and Democrats haven't had their champion chosen yet. What's the point of this ad? I see a food ad during the superbowl, I think "I am kind of hungry". I see a beer commercial, I think "I am kind of thirsty". It's not like this anti-bush commercial is going to make me critically rethink my voting position months before the election, especially if there's a funny commercial and/or football before and after this ad.
Done Ranting. I just don't see the point in playing this commercial during the superbowl, as I can't see more than 2% of the world actually paying attention to it.
You know what extra features I and half of the IT people I talk to want?
1) Longer Battery Life
2) Durability - I should be able to slip on icy streets, land on the phone, and not have any problems.
3) Better reception - though this is usually not the fault of the phone.
Instead, I get offered more games, cool ring tones, and the ability to take pictures with my phone. All this because phones are "cool". They can make my phone cool after they make it work.
There is a design flaw in my (and everyone else's) office that irks me to no end:
I look down at my keyboard:
7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3
I look down at my phone:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
Blows my mind
Square.
Pure and simple.
Sony PS1 was doing all right, then FF7 came out and POW, the amount of people that owned a PS1 went way up.
You bring up a good point, though. If Microsoft could get exclusive Console rights to the GTA series, the XBox 3 stands a chance. Halo 3 (or 4, or whatever) just won't cut it. PS has Final Fantasy cornered (though Nintendo is getting some of the action, I digress), which is another huge boost for them. If Sony were smart, when Microsoft starts advertising, they should start hyping up that the next FF online and console game are coming out on the PS3. That alone will deter many people.
The main point is that if a console can get exlusive rights to Rockstar and/or Square (and on a smaller scale, EA), they will be number 1 in the console market.
TurboGrafx 16 did not die because of when it came out. It died due to complete lack of advertising. In the days that SNES and "SEGA!" Genesis-dominated commercials during Ninja Turtles and other youth-oriented programming, NEC continued to just pump out more and more games, completely forgetting to tell the world about them. The only time you read about TG16 games is when you went to EGM or some other magazine and read their respective "Video Game Awards". "Legendary Axe" won in 1989 I believe. Many games after that won awards too; however, if not many people played them, the system was doomed.
It's a shame too, since numerous games on that system blow away games coming out for the newest systems.
"Greatest Philanthropist in the history of the world?"
In a pure $$$ amount, maybe (though I wonder if we adjusted for inflation how true this would be). We'll see how many artifacts of Gates' kindness leaves a mark in history as compared to Rockefeller or Carnegie. Keep in mind neither of these persons were an example of what is "Good and True" either.
If this world continues to praise (and aspire to) the questionable ways of such modern day "heroes", I sincerely doubt we'll see another true hero rise to the top again (be it financially, politically, or any other way).
Well, now at least the Iraqi people will say what is really on their mind (whether pro or anti-American) because they do not have to fear what Saddam will do to them when we pull out of Iraq (again). No matter what negative way you spin it, Saddam was a bloody tyrant, and he will only be a "martyr" in the eyes of those who are too blind to see otherwise.
Disclaimer: I am not saying that invading Iraq to get rid of this guy was the right thing to do...far from it... but if you are going to invade Iraq with the mindset to remove Saddam, at least get the job done.
Children should be exposed to sexuality in healthy, positive ways
And protecting children from internet porn will allow this to happen? Turn on the television at any given time of day (including the times when Sesame Street is on), and you'll find all sorts of sexual misconduct in Soap Operas, Sitcom reruns, Night time Drama Reruns, Fox Reality shows, etc. None of these are exposing children to sexuality in healthy, positive ways. Just because there's no nudity doesn't make it safe. If parents aren't watching what their kids are doing, kids will get corrupted from some form of media no matter how many laws you put in place to stop said corruption.
When will the RIAA post the list of "Starving Artists" who directly benefitted from the lawsuit against the 12-year old girl? And not only her, I want to see the list of starving artists that are aided by each and every lawsuit.
VoIP should only be utilized if it can guarantee the same quality of service that a PBX can. Other than the local switch that the (IP) phone is connected to, there should not be any other single point of failure. If you paid a consultant/student to setup a VoIP solution that did not include fully redundant routers, servers and gateways to connect to the PSTN world, then the fault is not with the technology but with the people who installed said solution.
For more reference on the reliability of a VoIP solution:
The Five Nines Story
Now instead of 60 percent of the people killing "The Spiteful Crow" to get his "Hope Diamond" to trade for other virtual items or virtual money...
We'll see 100 percent of the people killing it for real cash. That's right, every barbarian-wizard-druid-thief, ninja, and spoony bard will be fighting over the ultra-rare 1's and 0's popping up so they can trade them for real money.
And the issue of abusive GMs is not addressed. Too many a time I have witnessed GM's showing unfairness to some individuals and outright favor to others. When real money gets involved, things can get ugly (many people have mentioned law suits already).
I see it being tried; I don't see it working.
Radiohead's Singles often contain 5 or more tracks, all of which have songs equal to or better than some of the songs on the album (Polyethylene comes to mind quickly from the "Airbag Single"). Every single I've bought from that band have been well worth it: Decent new songs from a band to tide me over til their next full-fledged album.
While I think many of the artists out there are probably complaining for the sake of the almighty dollar bill, I think Radiohead is more scared of the death of themed, flowing albums, from works of their own (OK Computer and Kid A come to mind) to Dark Side of the Moon, to Tommy, to ( ), hell to even Fear Factory's Obsolete (Not a huge fan, but it had a coherent and flowed from one song to the next).
Now can artists still make such albums? Sure can! But when Clear Channel has the option to push, don't you think they'd want a Single every 2-3 months per artist instead of albums? They can streamline the process of forcing junk down our throats via the radio waves. Heck, think of it. If you can sell multi-million copies of a hit single and you only work on producing said single, you can cut down production costs on the filler...as well as time. This allows your short-lived Fad artists (The Brittany Spears, NSync, etc) maximize their usefulness in the eyes of their respective record labels.
NoseSocks