First off, it would be nice if software didn't have so many holes, but even the best open source ventures end up having to issue patches and revisions, so while Microsoft may have more holes than most, let's not act as if this is a "the world vs. Microsoft" issue.
This is a very tough one because it is multi-faceted. The most common argument against researchers publishing is it practically guarantees an exploit will surface in the wild sooner rather than later, possibly before a patch is available. OTOH, if they don't publish, it might be discovered by criminals first and exploited more quietly, gaining a foothold in the wild before anyone even knows the hole is there. Sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario.
But when a vendor is sitting on the report and not issuing a patch, it can grow increasingly frustrating for the researcher. They not only have to watch people trundle along, blithely unaware of this gaping hole in their systems, but they cannot get their proper credit for the discovery. It's a bit like publishing for academics. Getting to take credit for the discovery of a security vulnerability has certain perks that the researchers are denied as they sit quietly and wait for some corporation to decide when to go public with the announcement of the hole and the patch for it.
Probably the best solution would be to have a set of universal guidelines set at one of the major conferences. Something that takes fairness to the researcher, fairness to the software vendor, and fairness to the public into account. I know, I sound like a politician saying "let's form a committee to study this", but I doubt that any one person has a solution that makes everyone happy or could even be considered a fair compromise by all involved parties.
I think a major issue here is tradition vs. evolution. The stylized, cartoony look is "classic" Zelda, and for some people, their preference would be to put all the time and energy into gameplay and story while keeping a more classic feel to the visuals. On the other side are the people who feel that since the ability to present more realistically rendered worlds has evolved, so should the worlds of Zelda. More than art vs. reality, I believe the "don't fix what ain't broken" vs. "but there's so much more you could do" argument is what really drives this debate.
Tradition vs. evolution is such a classic set of counterpoints. It pops up in religions, in corporations, in clubs, and it's no wonder it rages now in video games. They now have enough history for tradition to take a foothold. In the long run, though, I doubt that it was the cartoony appearance that really made Zelda players into Zelda fans. It may have been endearing, but it was the gameplay and stories that really made it addictive. IMO, the story, gameplay, and AI quality will be the final arbiters of the fate of this game, not the visual realism or lack thereof.
Cool prototype and proof of concept, but is it ready for primetime with the specs? Four levels of gray are good for text, but poor for B&W photos and certain types of graphs. I'm not trying to denigrate it as an achievement, but as a product... I have some issues with it. Until it can do more shades and possibly a higher resolution, would it be more than a status gadget?
The only hard and fast rule I can say about tipping is that you should always tip the dealer after you get blackjack.
"Tipping out" is to make sure that the people who serve you as a waiter or waitress are encouraged to do so with the same kind of speed and care you give to your customers.
If you want to make sure your drinks get made quick and right, you share tips with the bartender. If you want to make sure that plates are cleared quickly, that your customers get their water refilled, that the little things are taken care of, you share tips with the busboy. Don't tip the hosts and hostesses and watch how quickly your section becomes the screaming babies and crotchety senior citizens section.
The judge may be standing up to them, but it seems only to their use of the courts to try to armtwist people into quietly settling.
Honestly, I think the RIAA is afraid of one of these going to trial because they know the evidence is shaky. That's why they try to push the settlements so hard.
The method seems to be "if you give us the virgin, we'll make sure the volcano doesn't destroy their village." They will try to steer this to an out of court settlement so they don't have to go through the public spectacle of being refused a virgin and the people seeing that the volcano didn't erupt.
So the judge says: "okay, big boys, bring on the lava. Don't try to lure the virgin into the forest and quietly convince her to go to another village. You threatened it, she said she doesn't want to leap, so bring it on and stop pussyfooting around."
Now the question is, will the next analyst who does a Windows vs. Linux TCO comparison include "gets viruses into your product, requiring a recall" as one of the factors in calculating the cost of Windows?
I tried to translate my poetry into Spanish as an extra-credit project in Spanish class in college (I was pursuing a Creative Writing degree with an emphasis in Fiction and Essays, but couldn't escape a couple of poetry workshops). I also took a class in the philosophy of language.
Basic grammar is one thing, but when you get down to the meaning of words and phrases, you start to get into places computers have a much harder time with: abstraction and contextual meaning.
Think about "running a program". That can mean booting an application on a PC, or coordinating a group of lectures, or being executive producer of a television program. And does an executive producer make executive decisions in the production of a movie... or produce executives?
So when I translated the poetry, there were often times I had to stop and consider which phrase in Spanish best conveyed the meaning I was presenting in English. Furthermore, even with the best translation for meaning, I had to consider the rhythms of both poems and keeping their poetic sensibilities. Sometimes, I'd choose something less exact for the sake of the rhythm. I learned that good translation is F'ing hard!
We may be one step closer to Star Trek's "universal translator", but I have a strong belief that computers won't be putting the better flesh-and-blood translators out of work anytime soon.
For anyone who is interested, here's one of the poems. It was inspired by watching a poet taking what seemed to be a rather long time, hunting through a book of his own poetry, trying to find the next poem he wanted to read.
Finding Your place
You would think you know where
each of your poems are in this book. So familiar
are you with your own work and this organization
your mind has imposed on it. One poem extends
past the other, like feet moving
along a path that has been travelled
back and forth numerous times. Flipping along,
you hope you might know just when to stop
this procession of pages, automatically
locating the point you desire, rather than having
to stop in confusion and check
the signpost numbers and titles,
because you have become lost.
Hallar Su paraje
pensarías que conoces donde está
cada poema dentro de este libro. Tan familiar
estás con tu propia obra y esa organización
que la mente le ha impuesto. Un poema se extende
más allá del otro, movimiento de pies
sobre el camino transitado
de aqui hacia allá sin cesar. Hojeando,
esperando que sepas cuando detener
este desfile de páginas, automáticamente
localiza el punto deseado, en vez detener
que parar confudida y verifica
los números y títulos, como los postes indicadores,
porque te has perdido.
Great, but if they really want to find signs of life, they need a tricorder.:-)
Interesting article, though, especially on the steps they're taking not to contaminate the landing site with fuel exhaust and other substances the lander will bring with it. OTOH, it might be interesting if they did some experiments where they purposefully contaminated the landing site, particularly with stuff like "extremophile" organisms that might have a chance at surviving on Mars.
Why does this article make me think of the old saying: "I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member"?
Then again, alternative events (not "alternative" in the sense of the label given to certain rock bands, but actually created as an alternative to a more exclusive event) sometimes do develop into something worthwhile. First one that comes to mind is the Sundance Film Festival alternative, Slamdance.
To me, comics will always be a few pages of pulp between a glossy cover, read in the back of my dad's car to make bearable the 2-hour drive to visit my grandparents. The drive back was spent listening to Dr. Demento (also becoming a relic of the past, sadly).
But addressing the point... Whether it's the funnies available on many newspaper sites or indie stuff like pennyarcade.com, I believe that a comic is defined by the narrative format, both in terms of length, and in terms of having "shots" enclosed in panels. The long ones you can call "graphic novels" if you want, but they're still comics in my mind. And whether they're delivered digitally or in print, they're comics.
Where the border blurs, IMO, is when the panels are animated: still being laid out as a comic, but each panel having more action/content than a printed panel could (possibly with sound as well). I think that's the way digital media is breaking down many old formats and (uggghhh, about to use corporate-speak) creating a new paradigm. It's allowing older mediums to evolve and incorporate new elements that, if not breaking them out of old boxes, allow them to push the envelope of what the status-quo would consider their format to be.
This is why every audio tape had a hidden copying tax, a small royalty, legislated into the price, which had to be remitted by the manufacturers of the tapes to ASCAP to be redistributed to artists. I'm not entirely sure, but I think there is a similar sum legislated into the price of video tapes.
ASCAP was lobbying for a similar tax in the '90s on Digital Audio Tape (DAT). Propably the argument against adding it for burnable CD/DVD media is because it's so often used for data... thus the numbers... to justify their position.
Mr. James: "The original title of this book was 'Jimmy James, Capitalist Lion Tamer' but I see now that it's... 'Jimmy James, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler'... you know what it is... I had the book translated in to Japanese then back in again into English. Macho Business Donkey Wrestler... well there you go... it's got kind of a ring to it don't it? Anyway, I wanted to read from chapter three... which is the story of my first rise to financial prominence... I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street... many days no business come to my hut... my hut... but Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo... dung....Glorious sunset of my heart was fading. Soon the super karate monkey death car would park in my space. But Jimmy has fancy plans... and pants to match. The monkey clown horrible karate round and yummy like cute small baby chick would beat the donkey."
Question: "Mr. James, what did you mean when you wrote bad clown making like super American car racers, I would make them sweat, War War?"
Mr. James: "Well, you know... it's LIKE when a clown is making like a car... racer... it's sorta... like... the FCC. The CLOWN... the clown is like the FCC... and I was opposed to the FCC at the time, right? So it was like I was declaring War. WARRRR!"
Question: "So then did the American yum yum clown monkey also represent the FCC?"
Mr. James: "Yeah, it did. Thanks a LOT!"
Question: "What did you mean when you said, "Feel my skills, donkey donkey donkey, donkey donkey?"
Did anyone see the episode of "News Radio" where Jimmy James' business book was translated into an Asian language and then translated back to English? The scene where he did a public reading from it had me on the floor.
Anyway, to clarify the situation, this nice fuzzy penguin movie has not yet become #2, and has no chance at #1.
Actually, it surpassed "Bowling For Columbine" with this weekend's take and reached #2. On top of that, it's still growing weekly due to positive word of mouth.
Whether it can overtake "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a question to ponder, not to dismiss with a wave of your hand.
It was an "in joke" for fans of a comic strip, not a spoiler.
I doubt that stating a comic strip penguin finally finds his mother (anyone remember when he raided a Mary Kay testing lab in search of her?) ruined the end of the movie.
It may not have been a funny joke, and you may have found that idiotic. That, I accept. But if you think I spoiled the end of the movie, any cred you may have as a "trivia geek" could be in jeopardy.
There is a meme in certain circles that G-rated films gross higher than R-rated films. Could this kind of flocking (hehe) to see a documentary about penguins be indicative of a trend towards a silent audience demand for wholesome, informative movies rather than violent and crass fare?
In the meantime, the R-rated "The Wedding Crashers" is a summer sleeper as well, running at #2 for it's first two weekends, then up to #1 in its third weekend, then back to #2 this weekend, putting it's tally for less than 4 full weeks at over $144 million. And while "March..." did really well this weekend, it's because it nearly tripled its screen count. Yet vs. "The Wedding Crashers" it had a lower per-screen gross ($3709 vs. $5312) on fewer screens (1867 vs. 3106).
We'll have to watch it longer term to see if it's legs keep up.
What's neat to observe is that Warner Bros. is rolling in the dough this weekend with the gamut of ratings.
This Weekend's Top Grossers
#1: Dukes of Hazzard (Warner Brothers) - PG-13
#2: The Wedding Crashers (Newline - owned by WB) - R
#3: Charlie and the chocolate Factory (Warner Brothers) - PG
#5: Must Love Dogs (Warner Brothers) - PG-13
#6: March of the Penguins (Warner Independent) - G
Penguins are actual animal. Linus Torvalds did not invent them. I fail to see the relevance of some boring smelly animal on slashdot, or some movie about said creature.
The interesting thing (or "news for nerds") is that a scientific documentary has become the second-highest grossing non-IMAX documentary in history... as opposed to another one where Michael Moore makes fun of people he disagrees with.
I don't mean to be rude, or be a grammar Nazi, but that word really gets on my nerves, because everybody seems to use it without even knowing where it comes from, and how it makes those who use it come across...
Okay, the Nazis killed millions of people and were one of the greatest forces for evil on this planet in the last century. Do you know how it makes you look to use the word "Nazi" to describe attempting to enforce a minor peevishness?
When we compare minor martinets to Hitler, and call those who try to enforce their pet peeves "Nazis", we diminish and dismiss the horror and evil those words should conjure. We demean the people Hitler and the Nazis killed.
You want to take me to task for using a cutesy piece of slang like "boxen"? Fine. But do it without offensively minimizing the evil of Hitler and his followers by equating Naziism with peevishness. They were murderers, not hall monitors.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a very tough one because it is multi-faceted. The most common argument against researchers publishing is it practically guarantees an exploit will surface in the wild sooner rather than later, possibly before a patch is available. OTOH, if they don't publish, it might be discovered by criminals first and exploited more quietly, gaining a foothold in the wild before anyone even knows the hole is there. Sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario.
But when a vendor is sitting on the report and not issuing a patch, it can grow increasingly frustrating for the researcher. They not only have to watch people trundle along, blithely unaware of this gaping hole in their systems, but they cannot get their proper credit for the discovery. It's a bit like publishing for academics. Getting to take credit for the discovery of a security vulnerability has certain perks that the researchers are denied as they sit quietly and wait for some corporation to decide when to go public with the announcement of the hole and the patch for it.
Probably the best solution would be to have a set of universal guidelines set at one of the major conferences. Something that takes fairness to the researcher, fairness to the software vendor, and fairness to the public into account. I know, I sound like a politician saying "let's form a committee to study this", but I doubt that any one person has a solution that makes everyone happy or could even be considered a fair compromise by all involved parties.
- Greg
Tradition vs. evolution is such a classic set of counterpoints. It pops up in religions, in corporations, in clubs, and it's no wonder it rages now in video games. They now have enough history for tradition to take a foothold. In the long run, though, I doubt that it was the cartoony appearance that really made Zelda players into Zelda fans. It may have been endearing, but it was the gameplay and stories that really made it addictive. IMO, the story, gameplay, and AI quality will be the final arbiters of the fate of this game, not the visual realism or lack thereof.
- Greg
- Greg
"Tipping out" is to make sure that the people who serve you as a waiter or waitress are encouraged to do so with the same kind of speed and care you give to your customers.
If you want to make sure your drinks get made quick and right, you share tips with the bartender. If you want to make sure that plates are cleared quickly, that your customers get their water refilled, that the little things are taken care of, you share tips with the busboy. Don't tip the hosts and hostesses and watch how quickly your section becomes the screaming babies and crotchety senior citizens section.
Honestly, I think the RIAA is afraid of one of these going to trial because they know the evidence is shaky. That's why they try to push the settlements so hard.
The method seems to be "if you give us the virgin, we'll make sure the volcano doesn't destroy their village." They will try to steer this to an out of court settlement so they don't have to go through the public spectacle of being refused a virgin and the people seeing that the volcano didn't erupt.
So the judge says: "okay, big boys, bring on the lava. Don't try to lure the virgin into the forest and quietly convince her to go to another village. You threatened it, she said she doesn't want to leap, so bring it on and stop pussyfooting around."
- Greg
- Greg
Basic grammar is one thing, but when you get down to the meaning of words and phrases, you start to get into places computers have a much harder time with: abstraction and contextual meaning.
Think about "running a program". That can mean booting an application on a PC, or coordinating a group of lectures, or being executive producer of a television program. And does an executive producer make executive decisions in the production of a movie... or produce executives?
So when I translated the poetry, there were often times I had to stop and consider which phrase in Spanish best conveyed the meaning I was presenting in English. Furthermore, even with the best translation for meaning, I had to consider the rhythms of both poems and keeping their poetic sensibilities. Sometimes, I'd choose something less exact for the sake of the rhythm. I learned that good translation is F'ing hard!
We may be one step closer to Star Trek's "universal translator", but I have a strong belief that computers won't be putting the better flesh-and-blood translators out of work anytime soon.
For anyone who is interested, here's one of the poems. It was inspired by watching a poet taking what seemed to be a rather long time, hunting through a book of his own poetry, trying to find the next poem he wanted to read.
Finding Your place
You would think you know where
each of your poems are in this book. So familiar
are you with your own work and this organization
your mind has imposed on it. One poem extends
past the other, like feet moving
along a path that has been travelled
back and forth numerous times. Flipping along,
you hope you might know just when to stop
this procession of pages, automatically
locating the point you desire, rather than having
to stop in confusion and check
the signpost numbers and titles,
because you have become lost.
Hallar Su paraje
pensarías que conoces donde está
cada poema dentro de este libro. Tan familiar
estás con tu propia obra y esa organización
que la mente le ha impuesto. Un poema se extende
más allá del otro, movimiento de pies
sobre el camino transitado
de aqui hacia allá sin cesar. Hojeando,
esperando que sepas cuando detener
este desfile de páginas, automáticamente
localiza el punto deseado, en vez detener
que parar confudida y verifica
los números y títulos, como los postes indicadores,
porque te has perdido.
- Greg
Interesting article, though, especially on the steps they're taking not to contaminate the landing site with fuel exhaust and other substances the lander will bring with it. OTOH, it might be interesting if they did some experiments where they purposefully contaminated the landing site, particularly with stuff like "extremophile" organisms that might have a chance at surviving on Mars.
- Greg
Then again, alternative events (not "alternative" in the sense of the label given to certain rock bands, but actually created as an alternative to a more exclusive event) sometimes do develop into something worthwhile. First one that comes to mind is the Sundance Film Festival alternative, Slamdance.
- Greg
Whoops, minor correction. Should have had a dash in that URL... penny-arcade.com.
But addressing the point... Whether it's the funnies available on many newspaper sites or indie stuff like pennyarcade.com, I believe that a comic is defined by the narrative format, both in terms of length, and in terms of having "shots" enclosed in panels. The long ones you can call "graphic novels" if you want, but they're still comics in my mind. And whether they're delivered digitally or in print, they're comics.
Where the border blurs, IMO, is when the panels are animated: still being laid out as a comic, but each panel having more action/content than a printed panel could (possibly with sound as well). I think that's the way digital media is breaking down many old formats and (uggghhh, about to use corporate-speak) creating a new paradigm. It's allowing older mediums to evolve and incorporate new elements that, if not breaking them out of old boxes, allow them to push the envelope of what the status-quo would consider their format to be.
Greg
ASCAP was lobbying for a similar tax in the '90s on Digital Audio Tape (DAT). Propably the argument against adding it for burnable CD/DVD media is because it's so often used for data... thus the numbers... to justify their position.
Mr. James: "The original title of this book was 'Jimmy James, Capitalist Lion Tamer' but I see now that it's... 'Jimmy James, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler'... you know what it is... I had the book translated in to Japanese then back in again into English. Macho Business Donkey Wrestler... well there you go... it's got kind of a ring to it don't it? Anyway, I wanted to read from chapter three... which is the story of my first rise to financial prominence... I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street... many days no business come to my hut... my hut... but Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo... dung. ...Glorious sunset of my heart was fading. Soon the super karate monkey death car would park in my space. But Jimmy has fancy plans... and pants to match. The monkey clown horrible karate round and yummy like cute small baby chick would beat the donkey."
Question: "Mr. James, what did you mean when you wrote bad clown making like super American car racers, I would make them sweat, War War?"
Mr. James: "Well, you know... it's LIKE when a clown is making like a car... racer... it's sorta... like... the FCC. The CLOWN... the clown is like the FCC... and I was opposed to the FCC at the time, right? So it was like I was declaring War. WARRRR!"
Question: "So then did the American yum yum clown monkey also represent the FCC?"
Mr. James: "Yeah, it did. Thanks a LOT!"
Question: "What did you mean when you said, "Feel my skills, donkey donkey donkey, donkey donkey?"
Mr. James: *Sigh*
- G
- Greg
With all the talk about mult-core processors, there has often been mention of Oracle's per-core licensing fees. And remember the whole debacle with the state of California's Oracle contract.
- Greg
Actually, it surpassed "Bowling For Columbine" with this weekend's take and reached #2. On top of that, it's still growing weekly due to positive word of mouth.
Whether it can overtake "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a question to ponder, not to dismiss with a wave of your hand.
- Greg
I guess I'd mod that "smartass", but would that be a +1 or -1 mod? :-)
- Greg
It's filed under "Science", not "Linux".
When you assume, you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me".
- Greg
Idiot.
It was an "in joke" for fans of a comic strip, not a spoiler.
I doubt that stating a comic strip penguin finally finds his mother (anyone remember when he raided a Mary Kay testing lab in search of her?) ruined the end of the movie.
It may not have been a funny joke, and you may have found that idiotic. That, I accept. But if you think I spoiled the end of the movie, any cred you may have as a "trivia geek" could be in jeopardy.
- Greg
In the meantime, the R-rated "The Wedding Crashers" is a summer sleeper as well, running at #2 for it's first two weekends, then up to #1 in its third weekend, then back to #2 this weekend, putting it's tally for less than 4 full weeks at over $144 million. And while "March..." did really well this weekend, it's because it nearly tripled its screen count. Yet vs. "The Wedding Crashers" it had a lower per-screen gross ($3709 vs. $5312) on fewer screens (1867 vs. 3106).
We'll have to watch it longer term to see if it's legs keep up.
What's neat to observe is that Warner Bros. is rolling in the dough this weekend with the gamut of ratings.
This Weekend's Top Grossers
#1: Dukes of Hazzard (Warner Brothers) - PG-13
#2: The Wedding Crashers (Newline - owned by WB) - R
#3: Charlie and the chocolate Factory (Warner Brothers) - PG
#5: Must Love Dogs (Warner Brothers) - PG-13
#6: March of the Penguins (Warner Independent) - G
- Greg
The interesting thing (or "news for nerds") is that a scientific documentary has become the second-highest grossing non-IMAX documentary in history... as opposed to another one where Michael Moore makes fun of people he disagrees with.
- Greg
- Greg
He'll just trump out.
- Greg
ITMS Ankh Morpork (running on Hex OS)
...
ITMS Xanth (running on Com-Pewter OS)
ITMS Amber (running on Ghostwheel OS)
- Greg
Okay, the Nazis killed millions of people and were one of the greatest forces for evil on this planet in the last century. Do you know how it makes you look to use the word "Nazi" to describe attempting to enforce a minor peevishness?
When we compare minor martinets to Hitler, and call those who try to enforce their pet peeves "Nazis", we diminish and dismiss the horror and evil those words should conjure. We demean the people Hitler and the Nazis killed.
You want to take me to task for using a cutesy piece of slang like "boxen"? Fine. But do it without offensively minimizing the evil of Hitler and his followers by equating Naziism with peevishness. They were murderers, not hall monitors.
Sheesh.
- Greg