How can something be insightful if it is wrong? This is the first article about script kiddies that I saw and I bet the same is true for many people here. Despite that lack of recognition, script kiddies, apparently, didn't stop their doings many years ago, as they should have, according to your logic...
It's really simple in fact. They don't want a recognition from you, they want recognition from their peers. It's the same as with pirates, professional photographers, case modders, etc. They have their online communities where they display their leet skilz.
I wonder if, perhaps in desperation after what Lucas (*hiss* *hiss* tool of the devil!) and the Warchowskis heaved out this past few years we were all just so damn relieved that the LOTR movies didn't totally blow that we all got a bit carried away?
Many people aren't happy with the films, but it is not appreciated when you voice such opinions.
Personally I think that they were a bad adaptation. Not horrendous, but bad. Some things were done brilliantly, but overall it didn't do the book justice. And most problems lied in the script. Art, makeup, special effects, cinematography, music, everything was fine. But directing and scripting sucked. This is not just MHO, this can be supported by numbers. Go to TORN and check out the ratings. Directing, editing and screenplay consistently get much lower scores than everything else (i.e. for all three movies these three scores are the lowest ones). This is indicative of the collective opinions of the LOTR viewers. Many think that movies were great, but they still rate secondary aspects higher than what Jackson was directly responsible for.
So the movies were far from perfect, especially, as an adaptation. I think the main reason for the acclaim they received were 1) hype 2) 300 mln dollars 3) being based on intelligent story 4) being based on the "best book eva" 5) cool visuals 6) being the first decent fantasy blockbuster
Critics were happy, because the story was complex and intelligent (and PJ rightfully retained as much complexity as he could, although butchering the book everywhere else). The public was happy, because it was the great looking fantasy film with just enough intellegence.
In comparision, Star Wars movies are too simple and the Matrix films (2nd and 3rd) are too complex. I don't like Episode I, but AOTC is very well done (except for the stupid factory sequence). The acting is good, the effects are good, the story is good. Nothing brilliant here, just work well done. The Matrix sequels are excellent. It really does take a few repeat viewings and the willingness to spend some effort, but in the end it is worth it. TTT and ROTK may have been targeted very well, but they aren't very good films, IMO. I flinched every 5 minutes watching ROTK. Honestly, it was so stupid and lame, I laughed or cried most of the time, and not because the movie was good...:)
two studios with rights to the film battle it out for rights to make the prequel
This sounds like a ready plot for another cinematic sage? Like "Two kingdoms with ambitions to dominate everything battle it out for domination over all people of Middle Earth."
Exploring new territories does not mean expanding to new territories. So far in our history it always meant it. With a few exceptions, such as Mariana Trench and Antarctica.
I understand your metaphor, but my opinion is that there are more horizons here on Earth. You clearly said that you don't see any, while I think that building a fair society where every person can live peacefully and happily in a comparative material prosperity is one such horizon, much more important than anything we can find on Mars (other than Cydonia with tons of alien artefacts).
As for Vikings, they were pirates, in fact. Actually, the distinction between traders and pirates is a pretty recent one.
As to their literacy, they were probably as literate as anyone else at that time. Which is pretty damn illiterate by our modern standards. I am not singling them out as some "Nordic demons", but they are a great example of what is wrong with us, modern humans.
Once can argue that people expectations are irrelevant. After all, ROTK was a worse film than FOTR, considering acting and the script, but it still won 11 oscars. People wanted to see LOTR and they were happy with the fluff they were shown. I don't see how it will be different with Hobbit...
I am not saying PJ did a good job, I think overall it was pathetic, but you have to give them their dues. Some of the Pellennor scenes were 100% CGI, including the landscape, the sky, the oliphants and the Rohan riders. And this includes both bird-eye and relatively close-up scenes.
Yes, 100% realistic CGI lead actor was still impossible in 2003, but I think it is within our reach. In 2006 it might be done.
As for Lucas, you must realise the breathtaking pace of CGI progress. Both PJ and Lucas pushed the limits of possible. That means they did stuff which was actually impossible to do 100% well. AOTC was probably better than FOTR and Matrix 2 was definitely so. But ROTK was better than AOTC (in terms of CGI, of course). Just wait for the Ep.3, Troy and other new films.
There's a difference between an estimate reached by people who know a hell of a lot more than we do and something that's just "pulled out of someone's ass." Well, the estimate had a political purpose, to justify bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so we can't rely on it. From what I've read, the validity of the number is extremely questionable. If you can provide any sources that say "Yes, it would be 3 mln people dead and not a man less", I would be very interested.
As for the coup, you are correct, but that still doesn't mean Japanese would be ready to fight much longer.
Nonsense. It's barbaric to start a war. It's hardly barbaric to end one. It's not starting or ending the war, which is barbaric, it's the way you do it. Japanese started the war barbarically and Americans ended it so. Compare that with the Soviet Union, who ended the war with Germany non-barbarically.
You mean MacArthur? Don't be absurd. I don't recall the name, really. Sorry.
I know enough about Vikings to conclude that they were mostly pirates, who relied primarily on oral tradition to pass their sagas to next generation. Apparently, most of them were, in fact, illiterate, although some knew the runic script.
You said that we've run out of horizons on Earth. It logically follows that to further ourselves we need to expand to new territories, i.e. Mars. If you implied anything else, you clearly failed to communicate that.
The problem is human irrationality. People will oppose genetic treatment as long as they don't need one. They will oppose stem cells until they need a new organ grown. They will bitch about dehumanising humans and what not, until they need a robot for some obsure reason. The problem is not that someone decides he doesn't want a new computer/robot/gadget/etc. and quitly goes to live in the forest. The problem is that people try to actively prevent others from living the way they want.
But in any case, these people can't stop progress. The only thing they can do is make themselves look stupid in 40 years.
Nursing homes are not seen as a financially viable option in a society where the portion of people aged 65 or over is forecast to soar to 36 percent in 2050, from 19 percent today. By that time there may be only one worker for every retiree.
I wonder if that ever occured to James Brooke that in 2050 medicine will be able to care about 65-year olds a little bit better than today. You can be a complete anti-future green luddite, but you still have to admit that the progress is happening. Even if none of the promising advanced technologies come to fruition, to believe that 65+ year olds will have to retire because they are unable to lead productive lives is folly. And if the advanced technologies do come the situation will be a lot different: - these 65 year old Japanese will be 100% healthy and practically immortal - robots will be as smart and as capable as humans - nanobots will keep our designed bodies clean, making baths unnecessary
This is the most common mistake done when talking about the future - assume that only one thing will change and all the rest will remain the same for arbitrary long period of time. In this particular case the journalist assumed that in 50 years we will see ever more advanced human washing machines, but it would be just about the only invention to be made.
In Russia we used to joke that after Perestroyka we found out that most of what capitalist propaganda was saying about the Soviet Union was true. Unfortunately, we also found out that most of what Soviet propaganda was saying about the West was also true.:) But, joking aside, you make a good point. It seems that corporations/politicians were more scared of communism than USSR was scared of capitalism.
To give another perspective, almost 20 years after the catastrophe 25% of the Belarus state budget and 10% of the Ukrainian budget is still spent on Chernobyl-related issues every year.
This is not true. First, the 3 mln number is pulled out of someone's ass (cite some sources, if you disagree). Second, Japanese were almost ready to surrender, there have been talks already and the biggest remaining problem was that Americans wanted to remove the emperor from power, while Japanese were not ready to do that. In any case, Soviet army was ready and would happily save Americans their effort, keeping Japan for themselves, of course.;)
This was unacceptable to Americans, thus they decided to accelerate the events with this barbaric bombings. BTW, the American general responsible for the Pacific war theatre (IIRC) later admitted that nuclear bombings were a very bad idea and should not have been done.
We've run out of horizons on Earth. What do you mean by "horizons"? I think it would be much more fitting to us as 21st century people to change the Earth into a hospitable place for every human being, not to "explore" Mars, like we are a bunch of illiterate Vikings.
We don't need territory that much any more and your stone age preconceptions about optimal strategies are no longer as useful as they used to be.
It would be much better if over the next 5 or so years he (fortunately not he, but his successor) could persuade the Chinese to join the international efforts. The competition between the superpowers is just stupid at this point. We need to grow up, it's the 21st century already.
whoops. ignore I said any of that. tinfoil hat slipped
Actually, if your tinfoil had slipped, you would not say anything of that, since THEY would obviously be able to manipulate thoughts in your brain, unprotected from the biomagnetic mind control devices. Assuming THEY == guvmint, you would be forced to believe that the mission to Moon in fact happened and nothing interesting was found there.
So I would presume you are an agent of the system, be it the guvmint or aliens. You are attempting to turn the question of the true Moon findings into a joke, trying to make those of us with fully functional tin hats and those immune to mind control believe that there was nothing of note there. But you will not fool us!
These are the HW guys. They made a gadget to take all these photos. Now it's up to the Software Systems team to create an application that would automatically categorise all these thousands of photos for you.:)
If you combine it with some location-based services (or at least a GPS receiver), you can easily create a timeline. You can then easily divide the day into small chunks of time, which are either being in some place for some time or moving from one place to another. By calculating the speed, you can find out, whether it was walking or driving. By doing some very rudimentary image analysis it should be possible to automatically recognise known places (such as your office desk, your favourite bar, etc.). Combine this with the map and the ability to mark custom locations and you already have a pretty easy to use tool. Image recognition is tricky, but it should at least be possible to find the faces on the image and crop pics.
So there are many ways to make this useful. In the unlikely case MS decides to do anything with this soon, they have a chance to add some moderately complex software and do something cool.
The creative act of assembling a database -- and if you don't think it's creative, you've never done it, it takes a TREMENDOUS effort to assemble and maintain a useful data relation even if you're using publically accessible information -- is something that should be protected.
I've done it and, sorry, it's not creative. The technologies you use for compiling huge databases may be creative, but that doesn't mean the act of assembling the database itself is creative. It may require an effort, but it isn't like the companies working in this field need any additional protections. They seem to be doing quite well. If anything, they are too inefficient and greedy to be let alone - the competition from other firms reusing the data will be beneficial to the society/economy.
Yeah, I am always simpathetic when a huge oligopolistic player demands for stricter laws protecting his business against hypothetical potential threats, making us believe that he will go out of business without such laws... I am eagerly awaiting for Walmart to suing competing small grocery stores for copying its prices... or something. What are other monopolies that haven't tried to create laws to protect its monopolistic position? Are there any?
This would be the very definition of a frivolous lawsuit.
Aren't there some solutions
on
Meet the Nasalnaut
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I think there must be some medical solutions to temporarily reduce human sense of smell. Some nasal spray should be capable of disabling or outright killing chemoreceptors in our noses. When something really smelly is found in the space, [temporarily] losing the smell might be preferable to cancelling the mission.
Let me say first that I support good parenting, blah-blah-blah. But I want to draw your attention to the fact that most kids raised (who become adults) turn out to be less than stellar job. The majority of people in most developed countries are functionally illiterate (i.e. they can't really understand written text and don't understand the concept of numbers), irrational and uninformed. Most are also unethical. I can elaborate on that, if necessary.
I'm not trying to pick on anyone, and in decent countries the society usually keeps most people withing the bounds pretty well, but it is the truth that most people are of really poor quality, if I am allowed to say so. And this leads us to the conclusion that even if someone lets their 3-year old boy watch/play GTA the society will hardly notice the negative effect.
Slashdot Mirror
Giving credit is overrated. Do you always give credit when you use "All your *** are belong to us" line? Should you?
How can something be insightful if it is wrong? This is the first article about script kiddies that I saw and I bet the same is true for many people here. Despite that lack of recognition, script kiddies, apparently, didn't stop their doings many years ago, as they should have, according to your logic...
It's really simple in fact. They don't want a recognition from you, they want recognition from their peers. It's the same as with pirates, professional photographers, case modders, etc. They have their online communities where they display their leet skilz.
I wonder if, perhaps in desperation after what Lucas (*hiss* *hiss* tool of the devil!) and the Warchowskis heaved out this past few years we were all just so damn relieved that the LOTR movies didn't totally blow that we all got a bit carried away?
:)
Many people aren't happy with the films, but it is not appreciated when you voice such opinions.
Personally I think that they were a bad adaptation. Not horrendous, but bad. Some things were done brilliantly, but overall it didn't do the book justice. And most problems lied in the script. Art, makeup, special effects, cinematography, music, everything was fine. But directing and scripting sucked. This is not just MHO, this can be supported by numbers. Go to TORN and check out the ratings. Directing, editing and screenplay consistently get much lower scores than everything else (i.e. for all three movies these three scores are the lowest ones). This is indicative of the collective opinions of the LOTR viewers. Many think that movies were great, but they still rate secondary aspects higher than what Jackson was directly responsible for.
So the movies were far from perfect, especially, as an adaptation. I think the main reason for the acclaim they received were
1) hype
2) 300 mln dollars
3) being based on intelligent story
4) being based on the "best book eva"
5) cool visuals
6) being the first decent fantasy blockbuster
Critics were happy, because the story was complex and intelligent (and PJ rightfully retained as much complexity as he could, although butchering the book everywhere else). The public was happy, because it was the great looking fantasy film with just enough intellegence.
In comparision, Star Wars movies are too simple and the Matrix films (2nd and 3rd) are too complex. I don't like Episode I, but AOTC is very well done (except for the stupid factory sequence). The acting is good, the effects are good, the story is good. Nothing brilliant here, just work well done. The Matrix sequels are excellent. It really does take a few repeat viewings and the willingness to spend some effort, but in the end it is worth it. TTT and ROTK may have been targeted very well, but they aren't very good films, IMO. I flinched every 5 minutes watching ROTK. Honestly, it was so stupid and lame, I laughed or cried most of the time, and not because the movie was good...
two studios with rights to the film battle it out for rights to make the prequel
This sounds like a ready plot for another cinematic sage? Like "Two kingdoms with ambitions to dominate everything battle it out for domination over all people of Middle Earth."
Exploring new territories does not mean expanding to new territories.
So far in our history it always meant it. With a few exceptions, such as Mariana Trench and Antarctica.
I understand your metaphor, but my opinion is that there are more horizons here on Earth. You clearly said that you don't see any, while I think that building a fair society where every person can live peacefully and happily in a comparative material prosperity is one such horizon, much more important than anything we can find on Mars (other than Cydonia with tons of alien artefacts).
As for Vikings, they were pirates, in fact. Actually, the distinction between traders and pirates is a pretty recent one.
As to their literacy, they were probably as literate as anyone else at that time.
Which is pretty damn illiterate by our modern standards. I am not singling them out as some "Nordic demons", but they are a great example of what is wrong with us, modern humans.
Once can argue that people expectations are irrelevant. After all, ROTK was a worse film than FOTR, considering acting and the script, but it still won 11 oscars. People wanted to see LOTR and they were happy with the fluff they were shown. I don't see how it will be different with Hobbit...
Bilbo should appear exactly the same as in FOTR prologue (Gollum's cave). He was significantly younger than in the Shire.
I am not saying PJ did a good job, I think overall it was pathetic, but you have to give them their dues. Some of the Pellennor scenes were 100% CGI, including the landscape, the sky, the oliphants and the Rohan riders. And this includes both bird-eye and relatively close-up scenes.
Yes, 100% realistic CGI lead actor was still impossible in 2003, but I think it is within our reach. In 2006 it might be done.
As for Lucas, you must realise the breathtaking pace of CGI progress. Both PJ and Lucas pushed the limits of possible. That means they did stuff which was actually impossible to do 100% well. AOTC was probably better than FOTR and Matrix 2 was definitely so. But ROTK was better than AOTC (in terms of CGI, of course). Just wait for the Ep.3, Troy and other new films.
There's a difference between an estimate reached by people who know a hell of a lot more than we do and something that's just "pulled out of someone's ass."
Well, the estimate had a political purpose, to justify bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so we can't rely on it. From what I've read, the validity of the number is extremely questionable. If you can provide any sources that say "Yes, it would be 3 mln people dead and not a man less", I would be very interested.
As for the coup, you are correct, but that still doesn't mean Japanese would be ready to fight much longer.
Nonsense. It's barbaric to start a war. It's hardly barbaric to end one.
It's not starting or ending the war, which is barbaric, it's the way you do it. Japanese started the war barbarically and Americans ended it so. Compare that with the Soviet Union, who ended the war with Germany non-barbarically.
You mean MacArthur? Don't be absurd.
I don't recall the name, really. Sorry.
I know enough about Vikings to conclude that they were mostly pirates, who relied primarily on oral tradition to pass their sagas to next generation. Apparently, most of them were, in fact, illiterate, although some knew the runic script.
You said that we've run out of horizons on Earth. It logically follows that to further ourselves we need to expand to new territories, i.e. Mars. If you implied anything else, you clearly failed to communicate that.
The problem is human irrationality. People will oppose genetic treatment as long as they don't need one. They will oppose stem cells until they need a new organ grown. They will bitch about dehumanising humans and what not, until they need a robot for some obsure reason. The problem is not that someone decides he doesn't want a new computer/robot/gadget/etc. and quitly goes to live in the forest. The problem is that people try to actively prevent others from living the way they want.
But in any case, these people can't stop progress. The only thing they can do is make themselves look stupid in 40 years.
Nursing homes are not seen as a financially viable option in a society where the portion of people aged 65 or over is forecast to soar to 36 percent in 2050, from 19 percent today. By that time there may be only one worker for every retiree.
I wonder if that ever occured to James Brooke that in 2050 medicine will be able to care about 65-year olds a little bit better than today. You can be a complete anti-future green luddite, but you still have to admit that the progress is happening. Even if none of the promising advanced technologies come to fruition, to believe that 65+ year olds will have to retire because they are unable to lead productive lives is folly. And if the advanced technologies do come the situation will be a lot different:
- these 65 year old Japanese will be 100% healthy and practically immortal
- robots will be as smart and as capable as humans
- nanobots will keep our designed bodies clean, making baths unnecessary
This is the most common mistake done when talking about the future - assume that only one thing will change and all the rest will remain the same for arbitrary long period of time. In this particular case the journalist assumed that in 50 years we will see ever more advanced human washing machines, but it would be just about the only invention to be made.
In Russia we used to joke that after Perestroyka we found out that most of what capitalist propaganda was saying about the Soviet Union was true. Unfortunately, we also found out that most of what Soviet propaganda was saying about the West was also true. :) But, joking aside, you make a good point. It seems that corporations/politicians were more scared of communism than USSR was scared of capitalism.
To give another perspective, almost 20 years after the catastrophe 25% of the Belarus state budget and 10% of the Ukrainian budget is still spent on Chernobyl-related issues every year.
This is not true. First, the 3 mln number is pulled out of someone's ass (cite some sources, if you disagree). Second, Japanese were almost ready to surrender, there have been talks already and the biggest remaining problem was that Americans wanted to remove the emperor from power, while Japanese were not ready to do that. In any case, Soviet army was ready and would happily save Americans their effort, keeping Japan for themselves, of course. ;)
This was unacceptable to Americans, thus they decided to accelerate the events with this barbaric bombings. BTW, the American general responsible for the Pacific war theatre (IIRC) later admitted that nuclear bombings were a very bad idea and should not have been done.
In a few months, coming to a store near you.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
http://www.stalker-game.com/index_eng.html
http://www.russobit-m.ru/eng/games/oblivion/
http://www.3dgamers.com/games/stalker/
Scarier than DOOM3, prettier than Half-Life 2.
Check out the screenshots and the trailers, they will blow your away.
We've run out of horizons on Earth.
What do you mean by "horizons"? I think it would be much more fitting to us as 21st century people to change the Earth into a hospitable place for every human being, not to "explore" Mars, like we are a bunch of illiterate Vikings.
We don't need territory that much any more and your stone age preconceptions about optimal strategies are no longer as useful as they used to be.
It would be much better if over the next 5 or so years he (fortunately not he, but his successor) could persuade the Chinese to join the international efforts. The competition between the superpowers is just stupid at this point. We need to grow up, it's the 21st century already.
whoops. ignore I said any of that. tinfoil hat slipped
Actually, if your tinfoil had slipped, you would not say anything of that, since THEY would obviously be able to manipulate thoughts in your brain, unprotected from the biomagnetic mind control devices. Assuming THEY == guvmint, you would be forced to believe that the mission to Moon in fact happened and nothing interesting was found there.
So I would presume you are an agent of the system, be it the guvmint or aliens. You are attempting to turn the question of the true Moon findings into a joke, trying to make those of us with fully functional tin hats and those immune to mind control believe that there was nothing of note there. But you will not fool us!
These are the HW guys. They made a gadget to take all these photos. Now it's up to the Software Systems team to create an application that would automatically categorise all these thousands of photos for you. :)
If you combine it with some location-based services (or at least a GPS receiver), you can easily create a timeline. You can then easily divide the day into small chunks of time, which are either being in some place for some time or moving from one place to another. By calculating the speed, you can find out, whether it was walking or driving. By doing some very rudimentary image analysis it should be possible to automatically recognise known places (such as your office desk, your favourite bar, etc.). Combine this with the map and the ability to mark custom locations and you already have a pretty easy to use tool. Image recognition is tricky, but it should at least be possible to find the faces on the image and crop pics.
So there are many ways to make this useful. In the unlikely case MS decides to do anything with this soon, they have a chance to add some moderately complex software and do something cool.
The creative act of assembling a database -- and if you don't think it's creative, you've never done it, it takes a TREMENDOUS effort to assemble and maintain a useful data relation even if you're using publically accessible information -- is something that should be protected.
I've done it and, sorry, it's not creative. The technologies you use for compiling huge databases may be creative, but that doesn't mean the act of assembling the database itself is creative. It may require an effort, but it isn't like the companies working in this field need any additional protections. They seem to be doing quite well. If anything, they are too inefficient and greedy to be let alone - the competition from other firms reusing the data will be beneficial to the society/economy.
Yeah, I am always simpathetic when a huge oligopolistic player demands for stricter laws protecting his business against hypothetical potential threats, making us believe that he will go out of business without such laws... I am eagerly awaiting for Walmart to suing competing small grocery stores for copying its prices... or something. What are other monopolies that haven't tried to create laws to protect its monopolistic position? Are there any?
This would be the very definition of a frivolous lawsuit.
I think there must be some medical solutions to temporarily reduce human sense of smell. Some nasal spray should be capable of disabling or outright killing chemoreceptors in our noses. When something really smelly is found in the space, [temporarily] losing the smell might be preferable to cancelling the mission.
Let me say first that I support good parenting, blah-blah-blah. But I want to draw your attention to the fact that most kids raised (who become adults) turn out to be less than stellar job. The majority of people in most developed countries are functionally illiterate (i.e. they can't really understand written text and don't understand the concept of numbers), irrational and uninformed. Most are also unethical. I can elaborate on that, if necessary.
I'm not trying to pick on anyone, and in decent countries the society usually keeps most people withing the bounds pretty well, but it is the truth that most people are of really poor quality, if I am allowed to say so. And this leads us to the conclusion that even if someone lets their 3-year old boy watch/play GTA the society will hardly notice the negative effect.