Instead, people who listen to what's on the radio now are merely guinea pigs for deciding what will become classic music
If any of today's music becomes classic music I'm gonna shoot myself. Please don't make me listen to Britney for the rest of my life...
You have a point, but I do believe that well-done and tastefully-used special effects can serve to enhance a movie. Sometimes you just need to use them to convey an image that you couldn't convey otherwise. F/X should serve the story, not the other way around. While a lot of movies seem to have forgotten that, LOTR has struck the perfect balance, IMHO.
Also, don't forget that F/X is used a lot in non sci-fi movies, and in non-obvious places. Nobody ever comments on the F/X because it doesn't occur to you that it is. Forrest Gump is a huge one. You know the actor doesn't really have legs, and Tom Hanks isn't really shaking hands with Reagan, but it's so seamless and natural that you don't really think about it. That's how F/X should be.
Return of the King, hands down. Best integration of effects with story I've seen, and come on, nothing was more impressive than Gollum. Most expressive CG character I've ever seen, take that Jar-Jar.
Well, I don't think it's gonna be that bad. Targetted ads doesn't mean they're going to hypnotise you and make you buy their products, and it doesn't mean more ads than before. You get the same amount of advertising, only it's for stuff you're ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN. For one, it means no more watching tampon commercials, or commercials for children's toys while you're watching cartoons.
It's been said before, a car/plane hybrid will be useless, because:
1) All you'll end up with is something that's pretty mediocre at both.
2) Airplanes are too complicated to fly without special training (which current costs an average of $5-6000 dollars, and that's just for the FIRST license)
3) I wouldn't trust a computer to fly a plane for me unless I KNEW I could take over if it failed. See 2.
4) Current aviation laws mean you wouldn't legally be able to fly to work in most metropolitan areas, especially those with major international airports nearby, which is where most people who can afford this stuff live and work anyway.
Don't forget that each of these people would have to carry the fuel to take them out there and back, on top of the fuel they're bringing to help the guy out. Assuming similar fuel consumption, that's 800 liters per plane, plus an extra 50 liters each to give to the guy. You know how much 850 liters of fuel weighs?
So it'll save you $6k/mo, and it'll cost $60k to install. What's the holdup? It'll pay for itself in less than a year, I'd go for it, as long as the protocol is something that'll be around for a while.
I'd rather get a CirrusSR-22, and just buy an SUV. A car cannot be an airplane, and vice versa, I'd much rather have two vehicles which do what they werre designed to do very well than one vehicle that does two things poorly.
Not to mention the absurdity of trying to design avionics that work for both ground and air navigation... Imagine your car yelling at you for busting class B airspace when you drive past an international airport.
I find that the most efficient interfaces are never intuitive. Blender makes itself efficient by moving actions onto the keyboard where your hand-eye coordination can hit the buttons with your fingers intead of trying to hit 8x8 pixel buttons with a clunky mouse. Plus side: It doesn't crowd your window with a thousand useless icons. Downside: You gotta learn all the hotkeys.
Believe me when I say that spending an hour REALLY LEARNING Blender will reveal to you an amazingly efficient interface.
But then Netscape started to suck. I used to use Netscape in spite of the pretty IE icon sitting right there, but then I saw that IE was faster and rendered pages better. Now that IE's behind the times, I've switched to Firebird and I'm getting all my friends to as well.
The bleeding edge of a couple years ago is enough to play most of the latest games today, unless you're playing at 1280x1024 or something. Half-Life 2 is apparently supposed to be playable on a TNT2, which makes me happy because I don't have enough money to upgrade mine. =D
Anyway, point being, you don't need to spend that much money. $500/year sounds about right to keep up with the bleeding edge, but you don't need that unless you're a fanatic.
Pretty much anything I picked that wasn't an animal, vegetable or mineral, I won. One time I was thinking of a drum and it said cuckoo clock. Oh well, out of all the objects in the world I don't think you can get them all in just 20 questions.
Asmiov expanded it into a book in three parts, the parts entitled "Against Stupidity..." "...The Gods Themselves..." "...Contend in Vain?" Asimov also makes a reference to it in his short story "Gold," in which a writer pays a filmmaker to make a book of his into a movie, the story bearing an unusual resemblance to the middle third of "The Gods Themselves."
I just finished reading it for the second time, and that's what I immediately thought of when I read the grandparent post.
Slashdot Mirror
Instead, people who listen to what's on the radio now are merely guinea pigs for deciding what will become classic music If any of today's music becomes classic music I'm gonna shoot myself. Please don't make me listen to Britney for the rest of my life...
I was about to say the same thing. I don't think a Half-Life mod deserves front page of Slashdot.
You have a point, but I do believe that well-done and tastefully-used special effects can serve to enhance a movie. Sometimes you just need to use them to convey an image that you couldn't convey otherwise. F/X should serve the story, not the other way around. While a lot of movies seem to have forgotten that, LOTR has struck the perfect balance, IMHO.
Also, don't forget that F/X is used a lot in non sci-fi movies, and in non-obvious places. Nobody ever comments on the F/X because it doesn't occur to you that it is. Forrest Gump is a huge one. You know the actor doesn't really have legs, and Tom Hanks isn't really shaking hands with Reagan, but it's so seamless and natural that you don't really think about it. That's how F/X should be.
Return of the King, hands down. Best integration of effects with story I've seen, and come on, nothing was more impressive than Gollum. Most expressive CG character I've ever seen, take that Jar-Jar.
Well, I don't think it's gonna be that bad. Targetted ads doesn't mean they're going to hypnotise you and make you buy their products, and it doesn't mean more ads than before. You get the same amount of advertising, only it's for stuff you're ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN. For one, it means no more watching tampon commercials, or commercials for children's toys while you're watching cartoons.
It's been said before, a car/plane hybrid will be useless, because:
1) All you'll end up with is something that's pretty mediocre at both.
2) Airplanes are too complicated to fly without special training (which current costs an average of $5-6000 dollars, and that's just for the FIRST license)
3) I wouldn't trust a computer to fly a plane for me unless I KNEW I could take over if it failed. See 2.
4) Current aviation laws mean you wouldn't legally be able to fly to work in most metropolitan areas, especially those with major international airports nearby, which is where most people who can afford this stuff live and work anyway.
Methinks you've been getting too much spam.
Don't forget that each of these people would have to carry the fuel to take them out there and back, on top of the fuel they're bringing to help the guy out. Assuming similar fuel consumption, that's 800 liters per plane, plus an extra 50 liters each to give to the guy. You know how much 850 liters of fuel weighs?
So it'll save you $6k/mo, and it'll cost $60k to install. What's the holdup? It'll pay for itself in less than a year, I'd go for it, as long as the protocol is something that'll be around for a while.
1 bel louder is perceived as twice as loud. 10 decibels = 1 bel.
I'd rather get a Cirrus SR-22, and just buy an SUV. A car cannot be an airplane, and vice versa, I'd much rather have two vehicles which do what they werre designed to do very well than one vehicle that does two things poorly.
Not to mention the absurdity of trying to design avionics that work for both ground and air navigation... Imagine your car yelling at you for busting class B airspace when you drive past an international airport.
Shift-click the box to enter a number manually.
I find that the most efficient interfaces are never intuitive. Blender makes itself efficient by moving actions onto the keyboard where your hand-eye coordination can hit the buttons with your fingers intead of trying to hit 8x8 pixel buttons with a clunky mouse. Plus side: It doesn't crowd your window with a thousand useless icons. Downside: You gotta learn all the hotkeys.
Believe me when I say that spending an hour REALLY LEARNING Blender will reveal to you an amazingly efficient interface.
Would using IR detectors instead of weight sensors at traffic lights be cheaper? And how would the light know if you're turning?
But then Netscape started to suck. I used to use Netscape in spite of the pretty IE icon sitting right there, but then I saw that IE was faster and rendered pages better. Now that IE's behind the times, I've switched to Firebird and I'm getting all my friends to as well.
I don't know anyone who uses anything but Google anymore.
This is going to be a goatse link in about 15 minutes.
Nice try, anti-slash trolls.
The bleeding edge of a couple years ago is enough to play most of the latest games today, unless you're playing at 1280x1024 or something. Half-Life 2 is apparently supposed to be playable on a TNT2, which makes me happy because I don't have enough money to upgrade mine. =D
Anyway, point being, you don't need to spend that much money. $500/year sounds about right to keep up with the bleeding edge, but you don't need that unless you're a fanatic.
Pretty much anything I picked that wasn't an animal, vegetable or mineral, I won. One time I was thinking of a drum and it said cuckoo clock. Oh well, out of all the objects in the world I don't think you can get them all in just 20 questions.
I made a journal entry about that, see my sig.
Since when is being offended by something a reason not to read it?
Encryption and SETI@Home? You're thinking too small. I'm talking about being able to run Doom 3 at a decent resolution and framerate.
Do you have a name? Anything we can google?
Asmiov expanded it into a book in three parts, the parts entitled "Against Stupidity..." "...The Gods Themselves..." "...Contend in Vain?" Asimov also makes a reference to it in his short story "Gold," in which a writer pays a filmmaker to make a book of his into a movie, the story bearing an unusual resemblance to the middle third of "The Gods Themselves."
I just finished reading it for the second time, and that's what I immediately thought of when I read the grandparent post.
Hmm, interesting, I might have to try that, thanks.