Why is this a /. article?
on
'Snatch'
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· Score: 1
C'mon, I like films, I see many. I even like guy Ritchie's films. But what relationship does Snatch have to the Slashdot community at large, other than there's enough slashdot readers that some of them will like movies? Ever hear of an engineering term called "scope creep"? Try and keep a little focus here, people. This is worse than Harlan Ellison writing a tv column reviewing Flipper in the 1960s just so he could give free advertising to the waterbed company that gave him the waterbed for free (part of the column that week was his admitting he took the waterbed as payola, part was a review of the Flipper tv series, and part was about the joys of screwing on a waterbed).
Now if Katz's review had even tried to draw some kind of connection between the movie and the experiences/lifestyles/mindset/whatever of "the average/. reader", however lame or stretching of a point it might have been, I wouldn't have bothered writing this comment. But Katz didn't even try.
Reread it: WARN allows sixty days salary in lieu of notice. I went to work for a company (Imonics) as a contractor in July of one year, and was hired as an employee in April. I was laid off, along with half the company of 450 or so, by the first week of September. So as a result of WARN, I received two months' severance pay after four months or employment. Can I get this deal at my next job, please?
I like Liet/Kynes in the miniseries more than in the Lynch film: he feels like much more of a wildcard politically, and much more the quintessential geek/nerd that would be a career ecologist in the first place.
Interesting they're using an Egyptian/Byzantine motif for Arrakis scenery & sets instead of the Arabic feel the Lynch film did (inspired because Herbert wrote the novel Dune based on the life of Mohammed and the historical origin of Islam).
The Atreides look leans towards British/Austrian military uniforms and is interesting (although the huge epaulets they put on Paul's outfits are just stupid). Loved Princess Irulan's butterfly geisha court dress (and speaking of Irulan, did they just send for Uma Thurman's little sister or what?) The Sardaukar outfits look pretty good, even with the oversized floppy black berets. Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen gets the "worst-dressed" award for that stupid little paper triangle - what is he supposed to be, a Japanese lantern? I like the stillsuits as a significant improvement over the rubber fetish outfits of Lynch's film, though. I want the Baron Harkonnen's metal fan for Christmas, too (accessorize, accessorize...). And I like the loose braid & metal tipped hair of the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother in the first scene - her "hat" loosely reminds me of a cardinal's headgear in Catholicism.
The hand weaponry was wrong for shield work: should have been straight like a dirk, not wavy like a kukri crossed with a bowie blade. Epees and misericordes, that's what you'd need with kinetic energy shields.
Also why were the Fremen's eyes glowing brilliant blue, like firefly bright? It looked like they had blue glowsticks under their eyelids. If they'd cut the brilliance value down a bit it'd look a bit more realistic. Graeme Revell's score is pleasant, and appropriate.
It goes without saying I was slightly disappointed the overdecorated Chapman Stick used as a baliset in the Lynch film was replaced by a mere ordinary lute in this miniseries, but I'm biased because I play a Stick, ok?
The actor playing Paul Atreides was annoying at first, and settled into the character nicely. He's not Kyle McLachlan, but he's pretty good. I wasn't sure about William Hurt, who can be hit or miss sometimes, but he did well. I thought actress portraying the Shadout Mapes was ok, but Linda Hunt's portrayal in the Lynch film was definitive for me (Hunt is one of my favorite character actors). Duncan Idaho was well-portrayed. Thufir Hawat was better done in the Lynch film. The Guild ship was nicely done, and accurate to the book.
I liked the ducted-fan look of the ornithopters, I liked the sandworms (maybe not more than I did the sandworms in the Lynch film, but the Lynch sandworms were fantastic - these are quite satisfactory).
The mentats lacked the stained lips they should have had, and the sort-of-uniform they wore didn't adequately present them for me (also, it'd be nice for at least some hint somewhere of what is a mentat and why every nobleman has one around - I'm not asking for a full explanation of the Butlerian Jihad).
Anyone else notice the Shakespearean touches and echoes, especially the habit of Baron Harkonnen's closing lines rhyming? Shakespeare does that to close at least every act, if not every scene of every act.
There's a number of items the miniseries got less accurate when compared to the novel than the Lynch film did (the appearance of the Navigators, the purpose of the gom jabbar test, others) but I think part of that was conscious differentiation from the Lynch film: by making it slightly less accurate in some ways, it's more faithful to its own interpretation, and less a slavish copy of the Lynch film. Definitely plan to watch the remaining two episodes of the miniseries.
Virtus used to make architectural 3D design software. One of their success stories was James Cameron using their software to lay out the sets for The Abyss and realizing he could drop an entire wing of one set, directly saving him $1million in construction costs. They've reincorporated as Virtus Entertainment now, and taken their 3d modeling into the gaming arena with their subsidiary company Red Storm and other related ventures.
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
- Hunter S Thompson
"How often have you heard someone at a party say, 'Oh, change the music, nobody is dancing to this song!'
Well, that problem is now solved with this lego dj....[snip]
1) If your DJ is lame enough they can't figure out no one's dancing, they deserve to be replaced with a Lego animatron.
2) Sarcasm aside, this is ingenious. I'd use one myself at a party: not so I can take half-hour breaks from DJing, but to give the party attendees something extra and interactive to play with.
Can you show us the link to the webpage you refer to, please? The ibiblio FAQ I find on their site contains neither the word "Christian" nor the word "morals".
Given the long-term contribution of the people involved with sunsite and metalab, I predict ibiblio.org will be contributing to peoples' lives both personally and professionally long after Windows ME is gone and forgotten. This is not a Microsoft bash, incidentally - even if Windows ME is a wonderful OS, it will be outgrown and replaced, and irrelevant while ibiblio will continue as a major resource. Windows ME may be news indeed, but this story about ibiblio isn't filler.
First, you're asking the slashdot community as a start. After you read through the various replies and sift out the useful ones, I would find an attorney conversant in IP and pay for some of his or her time to figure what you want versus what is likely to be doable. Good luck, it's a difficult situation.
NC State University recently added a "webmaster certification" program to their continuing education curriculum. My friend, who is primarily a Macintosh user, has been studying the basics of web design on his own. He's decided this cert will help him get a job (an entirely different discussion) and is signing up for it. He is required to buy a Windows computer because the courses explicitly require you use the apps they've chosen, and they've standardized on Windows. We'll just ignore the amount of web dev apps available for Macintosh, shall we?
This is another reason why you should *carefully* (oh so carefully) read employment agreements before you sign them. If the company says no personal email over the network, it's their network - they can say what they will allow on their property, and what they will do if you ignore that rule. I know an acquaintance who recently stated they'd refuse to work for a company that prohibits ICQ and AIM, not even mentioning personal email. That's that person's choice as to what they feel they need in their workplace, and I wish them well - some people insist on windows in their office.
*If*: a) the company gives you a piece of paper stating "Goofing off during work hours is grounds for termination with cause. Goofing off consists of: * excessive (as defined by your supervisor) personal telephone calls * personal email * ICQ * AIM Other specific prohibitions that if violated are grounds for termination with cause include: * installing software on company-issued software not specfically authorized by the IT department * running security software such as SATAN or a portscanner without such action being part of your job definition, * bringing personal computer hardware into the office and connecting such to the network without written approval by supervisor Etc. etc...."
b) AND you then sign that piece of paper, tough for you: they told you in writing, you agreed to it, you signed it. You sign the employment contract, you're obliged to the terms of the contract as long as they do not violate the employment laws of your jurisdiction. You install ICQ, they can fire you for it. Some companies make adherence to dress codes as a high requirement, some make timeliness, some require other conditions. I'm not saying it's nice, or fair, or reasonable, but if you want that job, those are part of what you have to do for that job.
Yes, I've seen all of the above conditions on employment agreements I've been handed - I'm not making them up. My personal response to them is irrelevant. Read contracts before you sign. If you don't know what you're reading, get an expert's advice. If the company protests they won't allow you to consult with a lawyer, ask yourself why.
The Bene Caffeinate Mantra
on
Caffeine Vault
·
· Score: 1
(If I'd known this article was coming along as a story, I wouldn't have posted the msg below to the caffeine poll thread)
The coffee-lover's version of the mentat mantra from Frank Herbert's Dune:
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, The hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning, It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Reread the overview of the keynote: the 1-processor G4 beat the 1-processor win2K (100sec vs. 120 sec). The dual processor G4 did the same task in 61 seconds. Your point about company spokespeople & objective testing has merit, but your criticism would be stronger if you'd not erred here.
Right you are. As a sysadmin for a team of web designers, I get called when the servers act up. I *like* my cellphone waking me up at 8:30am, because it means I didn't get up at 6 to get dressed and shave and put on a suit and tie and drive 25 miles to sit in a cubicle by 7:30am. Yes, I am normally working at 11pm, but that's after spending the evening with the family. And I have a minute to read & respond to this article, too.
On the other hand, I've taken precisely one day of vacation since October, and ended up working christmas, new years, and july 4th. I take lots of little breaks, but almost no long ones. At least I make a point of turning my cellphone *off* during a movie, making some of my associates envious:).
Disney has a history of buying companies, changing their minds about agreements and plans after the fact, then axing them. Case in point is Disney's treatment of Mammoth Records: see the Mouse that Ate Mammoth.
While I actually agree with several other posters that a working Mozilla browser would be nice, I like this idea - back when Netscape 2 came out and the introduction of the plug-in architecture, I started to argue "the browser is the operating system". Amusing to see it eventually coming true. Of course, the next thing we'll see is the gnu utilities suite recreated in UnrealScript:).
netsnipe's advice is exactly right: I was considering employment with a company a while back. Their contract stated *any* code I wrote while an employee, specifically including areas not in my job description and work done on my own time, belonged to the company. I objected to this, they didn't budge, I went elsewhere.
So read your contract first, then talk to your manager and explain the situation clearly. Give your manager a chance to be a reasonable person:). The fact that you've already completed several of these changes will be good news, and you can argue you want to spend a little company time on QA & regression testing of the changes for reliability. If they seem unwilling to work with you, fork the tree as another poster recommended.
Let's see: a flat-panel video display on a wall mount, a flexboard mounted on the counter (or on a cable so I can plop it anywhere I'm not using for mixing bowls), a wireless ethernet card and a SMALL case I can mount in the corner of a kitchen cabinet, and I have the recipe database access terminal design. Cool.
You're right about the Man-Kzin Wars being popular, but those stories were mostly solicited by the publisher with Nien, and subject to his approval. As Niven wrote in his intro to _The Man-Kzin wars IV_, "Jim Baen and I have solicited stories which we bought and then rejected because they didn't fit my standards".
Slashdot Mirror
C'mon, I like films, I see many. I even like guy Ritchie's films. But what relationship does Snatch have to the Slashdot community at large, other than there's enough slashdot readers that some of them will like movies? Ever hear of an engineering term called "scope creep"? Try and keep a little focus here, people. This is worse than Harlan Ellison writing a tv column reviewing Flipper in the 1960s just so he could give free advertising to the waterbed company that gave him the waterbed for free (part of the column that week was his admitting he took the waterbed as payola, part was a review of the Flipper tv series, and part was about the joys of screwing on a waterbed). /. reader", however lame or stretching of a point it might have been, I wouldn't have bothered writing this comment. But Katz didn't even try.
Now if Katz's review had even tried to draw some kind of connection between the movie and the experiences/lifestyles/mindset/whatever of "the average
Reread it: WARN allows sixty days salary in lieu of notice. I went to work for a company (Imonics) as a contractor in July of one year, and was hired as an employee in April. I was laid off, along with half the company of 450 or so, by the first week of September. So as a result of WARN, I received two months' severance pay after four months or employment. Can I get this deal at my next job, please?
Here's two places to go relearn handheld history:
Sony Magic Link website for one of the most popular hardware platforms for Magic Cap
Yahoo Magic Cap operating system category
There's a number of items the miniseries got less accurate when compared to the novel than the Lynch film did (the appearance of the Navigators, the purpose of the gom jabbar test, others) but I think part of that was conscious differentiation from the Lynch film: by making it slightly less accurate in some ways, it's more faithful to its own interpretation, and less a slavish copy of the Lynch film. Definitely plan to watch the remaining two episodes of the miniseries.
Here's some other links for you:
Dictionary of Dune terms from the books
behind the scenes of the Lynch film, lots of good pics
Fremen.org Dune FAQ
The link given above and included here to the story in LinuxToday leads to a This story has been unposted page. Here is the link to the new location of the story.
Virtus used to make architectural 3D design software. One of their success stories was James Cameron using their software to lay out the sets for The Abyss and realizing he could drop an entire wing of one set, directly saving him $1million in construction costs. They've reincorporated as Virtus Entertainment now, and taken their 3d modeling into the gaming arena with their subsidiary company Red Storm and other related ventures.
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
- Hunter S Thompson
"How often have you heard someone at a party say, 'Oh, change the music, nobody is dancing to this song!' Well, that problem is now solved with this lego dj....[snip]
1) If your DJ is lame enough they can't figure out no one's dancing, they deserve to be replaced with a Lego animatron.
2) Sarcasm aside, this is ingenious. I'd use one myself at a party: not so I can take half-hour breaks from DJing, but to give the party attendees something extra and interactive to play with.
I was just in the process of composing a similar note when I noticed this, so I'll just add a second vote of confidence to this.
Can you show us the link to the webpage you refer to, please? The ibiblio FAQ I find on their site contains neither the word "Christian" nor the word "morals".
Given the long-term contribution of the people involved with sunsite and metalab, I predict ibiblio.org will be contributing to peoples' lives both personally and professionally long after Windows ME is gone and forgotten. This is not a Microsoft bash, incidentally - even if Windows ME is a wonderful OS, it will be outgrown and replaced, and irrelevant while ibiblio will continue as a major resource. Windows ME may be news indeed, but this story about ibiblio isn't filler.
First, you're asking the slashdot community as a start. After you read through the various replies and sift out the useful ones, I would find an attorney conversant in IP and pay for some of his or her time to figure what you want versus what is likely to be doable. Good luck, it's a difficult situation.
NC State University recently added a "webmaster certification" program to their continuing education curriculum. My friend, who is primarily a Macintosh user, has been studying the basics of web design on his own. He's decided this cert will help him get a job (an entirely different discussion) and is signing up for it. He is required to buy a Windows computer because the courses explicitly require you use the apps they've chosen, and they've standardized on Windows. We'll just ignore the amount of web dev apps available for Macintosh, shall we?
Three starting points:. ent.idg/index.html
r ingURbox.html
a)
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9906/03/linux
b)
a local user group presentation on networking and security issues
http://www.mindspring.com/~joncarnes/linux/secu
c)
a nicely done presentation to TriLUG on Linux security in August 1999, archived at
http://www.nwo.net/security/
This is another reason why you should *carefully* (oh so carefully) read employment agreements before you sign them. If the company says no personal email over the network, it's their network - they can say what they will allow on their property, and what they will do if you ignore that rule. I know an acquaintance who recently stated they'd refuse to work for a company that prohibits ICQ and AIM, not even mentioning personal email. That's that person's choice as to what they feel they need in their workplace, and I wish them well - some people insist on windows in their office.
*If*:
a) the company gives you a piece of paper stating "Goofing off during work hours is grounds for termination with cause. Goofing off consists of:
* excessive (as defined by your supervisor) personal telephone calls
* personal email
* ICQ
* AIM
Other specific prohibitions that if violated are grounds for termination with cause include:
* installing software on company-issued software not specfically authorized by the IT department
* running security software such as SATAN or a portscanner without such action being part of your job definition,
* bringing personal computer hardware into the office and connecting such to the network without written approval by supervisor
Etc. etc...."
b) AND you then sign that piece of paper, tough for you: they told you in writing, you agreed to it, you signed it. You sign the employment contract, you're obliged to the terms of the contract as long as they do not violate the employment laws of your jurisdiction. You install ICQ, they can fire you for it. Some companies make adherence to dress codes as a high requirement, some make timeliness, some require other conditions. I'm not saying it's nice, or fair, or reasonable, but if you want that job, those are part of what you have to do for that job.
Yes, I've seen all of the above conditions on employment agreements I've been handed - I'm not making them up. My personal response to them is irrelevant. Read contracts before you sign. If you don't know what you're reading, get an expert's advice. If the company protests they won't allow you to consult with a lawyer, ask yourself why.
(If I'd known this article was coming along as a story, I wouldn't have posted the msg below to the caffeine poll thread)
The coffee-lover's version of the mentat mantra from Frank Herbert's Dune:
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion,
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
The hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning,
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Reread the overview of the keynote: the 1-processor G4 beat the 1-processor win2K (100sec vs. 120 sec). The dual processor G4 did the same task in 61 seconds. Your point about company spokespeople & objective testing has merit, but your criticism would be stronger if you'd not erred here.
The Moviehell review is here. If it's been moved, it'll be available from the Moviehell main site.
Right you are. As a sysadmin for a team of web designers, I get called when the servers act up. I *like* my cellphone waking me up at 8:30am, because it means I didn't get up at 6 to get dressed and shave and put on a suit and tie and drive 25 miles to sit in a cubicle by 7:30am. Yes, I am normally working at 11pm, but that's after spending the evening with the family. And I have a minute to read & respond to this article, too.
:).
On the other hand, I've taken precisely one day of vacation since October, and ended up working christmas, new years, and july 4th. I take lots of little breaks, but almost no long ones. At least I make a point of turning my cellphone *off* during a movie, making some of my associates envious
Disney has a history of buying companies, changing their minds about agreements and plans after the fact, then axing them. Case in point is Disney's treatment of Mammoth Records: see the Mouse that Ate Mammoth.
While I actually agree with several other posters that a working Mozilla browser would be nice, I like this idea - back when Netscape 2 came out and the introduction of the plug-in architecture, I started to argue "the browser is the operating system". Amusing to see it eventually coming true. Of course, the next thing we'll see is the gnu utilities suite recreated in UnrealScript :).
Mission: Impossible II - an impressionistic review, done as a spoken word performance.
(steps up to the microphone)
*ahem*
"Mission: Impossible II: an impressionistic review.
Boom! Blam-blam-blam. Boom. Surprise! Boom blam-blam. Twirl-blam-blam. Look, doves! Blam-race-blam-blam-boom. Thwap-thwap-thud-Surprise!-blam.
Awww...."
(And the Triumph Speed Triples make nice horses for an extended chase/fight scene.)
netsnipe's advice is exactly right: I was considering employment with a company a while back. Their contract stated *any* code I wrote while an employee, specifically including areas not in my job description and work done on my own time, belonged to the company. I objected to this, they didn't budge, I went elsewhere.
:). The fact that you've already completed several of these changes will be good news, and you can argue you want to spend a little company time on QA & regression testing of the changes for reliability. If they seem unwilling to work with you, fork the tree as another poster recommended.
So read your contract first, then talk to your manager and explain the situation clearly.
Give your manager a chance to be a reasonable person
Let's see: a flat-panel video display on a wall mount, a flexboard mounted on the counter (or on a cable so I can plop it anywhere I'm not using for mixing bowls), a wireless ethernet card and a SMALL case I can mount in the corner of a kitchen cabinet, and I have the recipe database access terminal design. Cool.
You're right about the Man-Kzin Wars being popular, but those stories were mostly solicited by the publisher with Nien, and subject to his approval. As Niven wrote in his intro to _The Man-Kzin wars IV_, "Jim Baen and I have solicited stories which we bought and then rejected because they didn't fit my standards".