Not physically intimidating, nothing of the sort. I wasn't going for that at all. But last movie he had a very menacing act about him. I think Chris Lee did fine in this movie with what he was given, but he just wasn't given squat in the script to work with, that was the problem. I have no qualms about the actor himself.:)
OMFG, was that a cool movie. I liked one other reviewer's comments: "Was it
better than LOTR:FOTR? No. Was it just as good? Yup!" and I would agree
with that statement when I view the movie as a whole. There were, obviously,
parts that I liked better and parts that I didn't. Watch it, people, watch
it and then watch it again.
It goes FAST. I never looked at my watch once, and it was almost exactly 3
hours long. Why or WHY is next December so far away????
Advice: Make sure you go to a theatre that has Dolby 5.1 sound. I didn't,
but the midnight premire was only at this theater, but some parts are VERY
hard to hear if the sound sucks.
SPOILER SECTION FOLLOWING
IF I WAS RUNNING THE OSCARS FOR THIS MOVIE: Best Actor: King Theoden (Bernard Hill)
I would have given this to Gandalf but he just didn't have nearly as much
screentime in this one as last. Bernard Hill gave my mind Theoden again and
again...and in true Peter Jackson directing, gave me a human king...one I
loved. The man *cried*. And did it in a beautiful way, I was never so much
touched as the scene where he's mourning for his son. Gorgeous, wonderful
filming and acting. He was full of despair and power, hope and anguish.
Kudos.
Best Actress: Eowyn (Miranda Otto)
I just *knew* that this would be my best actress before I went in, and she
didn't disappoint me. OMFG, can that woman act! I was in love, I was
enamoured, I yearned/pined/ached. The tears, the smiles, the sighs, the
terror....everything. The hair in front of the face shot when she's looking
over the hills and the sword fighting with Aragorn are two of the best
scenes....the scene with Wormtongue where you don't know if she hates him or
wants to kiss him or what...but where she really shows the power of subtle
acting is when Aragorn shows up at Helms Deep and she has to portray the
horribly mixed powerful emotions inside of her churning....She pulled me
along all the way. And, ladies pardon this, holy cow is she CUTE! Double
kudos for an EXCELLENT job well done.
Best Supporting Actor: Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen)
I know the movies were all shot together, but his character had a lot more to
work with and did a much better job in this one, for some reason. I liked
him a lot more, much more depth and such. Maybe it was just better
scripting, but much better, Viggo.
Best Supporting Actress: Arwen (Liv Tyler)
Much more depth to her character and some real emotions gave her the
supporting actress, she was much more lifelike in this one. Great stuff.
Best Evil Dude: Wormtongue (Brad Dourif)
Was this the absolute incarnation of Wormtongue or was it just me? Although,
I would have rather seen his character give Gandalf grief for a bit longer
instead of getting out of the way so quick, but that was scripting...not his
fault. The scene should have been longer, period. Excellent job on his
part. Nice makeup, too.
Worst Evil Dude: Sauruman (Christopher Lee)
Sauruman sucked, period. What a crappy role in this movie. Ugh. I've seen
steamed peas that were more intimidating.
MOMENTS I NEARLY WET MYSELF
Gollum. Enough said. Esp. the inner fight with himself.
The scene at Theodred's mourning.
The Wargs.
Helm's Deep
The Dead Marshes (damn that was cool)
The moment when the Elves at Helm's Deep (read the note below for the
displeasure part of this) turned inside their ranks to face Haldir. Very
nice.
The final battle scene of Helm's Deep where the Riders and Gandalf dive
into the fray. Well done.
The eye of Sauron.
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? moments
What in blazes were ELVES doing at Helm's Deep? This was stupid,
stupid, stupid, and we will be able to hear the yelps of displeasure all
across the country when people see the movie, just due to this one factor.
Poor choice, PJ. Bad director. No bone.
The ring is going to Gondor? The ring went to Osgiliath? Faramir is a
real asshole? Frodo had Big Macs in his pack instead of lembas? Which of
these crazy, outrageous statements is true? Unfortunately, too damn many of
them. Whereas we did get to see the lembas, the rest we saw and hated.
The Ents. They were.....odd. Not bad, not good....odd. PJ didn't
render them out of the books to my satisfaction, but I'm not sure how I would
have had him do them, really. They were nice, very nice...just not....yeah.
I dunno. I'm kinda at a loss for words except to say that they almost didn't
fit in the movie at all. The jury will be out on this one a looong time, for
a lot of people, I think.
PJ mussed with the story a bit more than I would have wanted him to in this one. In FOTR, he just removed things, except for that whole Glorfindel/Arwen thing. There were a LOT of changes in this one, which made my stomach twist in places. But, all in all, excellent movie, fits nicely with the first, and can't wait the year for the second.
Is anyone else disgusted by NASA's complete lack of any sort of enthusiasm or conviction towards any goals at all?
When I was a kid, I would read the sci-fi novels that spurned my interest in the space program, watch the movies and shows that showed great battleships and starfleets and such, and I wanted to go up. Badly. I loved space.
When I found out about NASA, came to realize what they had done in the past (moon) and what they were planning for the future, I was excited as hell. I was enthused, I wanted to be a part of it.
Now, after time and time again of NASA screwing up missions, calling off projects, backing out of research opportunities, doing a half a million things all at once, none of them with any decent research behind it, I find myself slipping more and more back into the book world of the sci-fi, because I can't get my fix from realistic space exploration anymore.
Isn't that sad? That the dreams of a young boy once matched by a space administration of a country that used to care are now only allowed to run free in the confines of someone else's creation. Instead of seeing potential all I see is a huge cloud of red tape, policies, and unmotivated people who have forgotten to dream.
Quit, NASA. You've lost the edge, if you ever had it at all. Humankind didn't advance because we sat back and made policy that it should. We dared to dream the impossible. Give the idea of space back to those of us who give a crap and take your hateful dream-killers with you.
After all this Star Trek biz and such, what's up for you in the future? Do you see yourself continuing your relationship with PriceLine and other commercial opportunities, or do you envision (or have planned) a larger project? Do you have plans to lay back and relax or to push forward into something else?
I put a computer, hooked to my company's internal network, on the front steps of the company. It's just sitting there with the screen on the Windows desktop. No keyboard, no mouse.
All of a sudden, someone comes along, plugs in a keyboard and starts using the service. Should I be mad? Is he an instant theif?
What's the legislation here, folks? What determines when something that is publically accessible is privately controllable? There has to be some point at which breaking past certain barriers is considered "illegal". If said computer on the front steps had a fence around it with a lock and a security login program on the screen, breaking past that seems a bit more illegal to me than simply coming along and using a very open resource.
At some point, things that are private become public, too. Sidewalks, for instance. Maintained by private companies and people and available for public use. Defining that point is necessary, especially for wireless due to its nature of not staying between visible barriers.
The real power of Open Source is that, despite whatever the default configuration of a system might be, you can customize it any way you want!
I really don't care if the standard Linux desktop starts to look and act like Windows in default configurations. In fact, I encourage it. It's the only way Linux will go corporate, companies will start making software for it, and support for things like hardware and drivers will finally become what they need to be.
As long as it retains the ability to be as configurable and adjustable as it is right now, I'm a happy man. So what if your kernel comes configured generically for every piece of hardware in the world? If you have the know-how, configure it yourself. Recompile the software, the applications, the windowing system...write your own drivers, apps, utilities. Colorize your bash prompt. Interface with the toaster.
Remember: With Linux there is Choice. Microsoft never even bothered to give you one. Keep that philosophy in mind and we'll be all good.
I agree with all you say. However, until there is someone or something that can enforce said standards, trying to make them in defiance of the mainstream is useless. The general public doesn't care about standards in the computer industry. If most of the public is running IE and it doesn't conform to the standard, will web developers be the martyrs and refuse to break standards? Nope. They'll get bitched out by their bosses because the page looks shitty, then they'll go back and write it so it looks good and sells the product to the customer. Until there is an enforcing body, that's the (sad, very sad) truth.
First of all, denying the force that M$ is is just ignoring the elephant in the living room. They're large, they're the majority, and everyone plays catchup to what they do because people have a hard time accepting things if they're not standard. Try asking a KDE developer/designer whose example they're modeling after. No, they're not creating another Windows, but I guarantee that unless KDE has many similar features of Windows they won't stay alive long on the desktop.
Similarily, if M$ decides to "support" a new feature in web browsing, they jolly well probably will. They have the weight to throw around. Other browsers don't have to follow if they don't want to, but I'd recommend it as once all the Windows users upgrade, the web will jump ahead of the slackers. Until Windows is no longer the majority, I'm afraid the industry "standards" will be defined by them, however much anyone dislikes it.
Microsoft is only likely to retaliate by vastly changing the standards when they perceive a sufficient chance to ensure conflict with a competing browser platform. Is M$ worried about Konqueror? I doubt it. Gaelon? Nope. Opera? Quite a bit more than the former two. Mozilla? Probably at least as much as Opera. NS? A lot, as they've battled that one before. Out of the browsers above (and I know there are more), Netscape and Mozilla are the two worries to M$. If they're dead, not bucking the standards, or don't offer enough to compete with M$, Billy will likely leave them alone. It's not in M$'s best interest to move unless the benefit is theirs.
I appreciate Mozilla. It's never worked well for me, but I can see some real thought and time behind it, and that earns my respect. NS has been struggling for awhile and you have to wonder if it's not just time to let it die and be happy with it. Firing up the NS marketing team again will only thwack the beehive of Redmond and won't get you anywhere. Better to spend that time on slowly but surely penetrating the desktop arena with the software and browsers that M$ isn't worried about and once you get enough leverage, then you can try to boss around. I guess my point is that NS doesn't have any ground to stand on to base a piss-off contest with M$ right now, and it would only do more harm than good for the industry.
For my sanity, usefulness, and the pleasure of all, please kindly do the following:
Don't start up the browser wars again. The browser wars were hell on productivity and usefulness. Since dying down, I can now choose one of my two favorite browsers (IE or Konq) and comfortably browse about 99% of all Internet sites and they render nicely and consistently. All the browser wars did was make people and browser companies squabble over standards and compliance and do backhanded things to undermine the other guy. For us users, it made surfing a living hell of badly rendered webpages and for us developers, a double living hell of development and compatibility.
Screw your blessed standards and the horse you rode in on. - The standard is what everyone is using, folks. No friggin' standard does me any good if noone uses it or noone complies to it. You can preach about your W3C standards till you're blue in the face and I'm going to go home and look at non-standards-compliant webpages with a non-standards-compliant browser that will show me what I want, when I want it for 98% of the Internet. I'm all for setting guidelines, folks, but if something isn't standard and yet is used by 90% of the Internet, you have to wonder why it isn't in the standard.
Let NS die peacefully - please. - We finally just got all of our clients to acknowledge that NS4x sucks and to switch to IE (which on their Windows boxes runs better, faster, and easier). If NS once again gets the market share or any larger piece of it, support issues fly through the roof and everyone becomes confused again. I hate M$ as much as the next guy but my users don't. They just hate lost time, money, and productivity. IE gives them joy, NS gives them headaches, end of story. Promote the offbeat browsers to the more knowledgeable (Konq rules my world, personally) but leave the sheep to their sheep pen.
Force NS to prove that they mean business if you insist on bringing them back. - NS has sucked for so long, even if they released 7.1 tomorrow and said that it had features that would do my laundry, I wouldn't trust it. 4x sucked. 6x doubly so. Earn my respect back, NS, or you'll never get me back. Be consistent, be useful, be stable, be fast, be a resource miser, and be headache-free. Then I'll give you a chance.
It's rather amazing, but from my experience, especially in the healthcare field there are an amazing number of custom, legacy, older-than-hills-but-works-well software to support or handle. I should know, my company's product is one of them.
Mind you, after being in the industry this long, I can see WHY companies take so long to port to anything new, the regulations and codes are staggering.
Linux will take a long time, if ever, before it becomes a major player in healthcare. There's just too much stuff to move.
Most online "weather" reports kinda suck. One shows all routers in the world down right now, and the one you linked to is difficult at best to understand. I'd like a little better graph if you're going to give it to me visually.
I was talking more of a regular, syndicated, CNN News Today Internet weather report or something. Something that, because so many people are affected by the Internet, would regularly tune into and watch...like the weather channel or something.
I always wondered how long it would be before someone tried to give a "weather report" for the Internet. I imagined that some day the daily Internet traffic report would appear right alongside Reporter Bob up in TrafficCopter 7 reporting on the condition of Highway 69 at 8am.
"Well, Joan, it looks like Slashdot it at it again. You'll want to keep clear of Alter.net this morning as it appears to be having congestion problems around the Midwest. Communications to anything near a corn field is likely to be slow to smack-me-dead stupid through the 9 o'clock hour. Queue up those emails, folks."
One has to wonder if it's even possible to predict and gauge incoming traffic problems. I guess you would have to know the effective capacity of the Internet, and sub-portions of it, at all times. I can see how a router's effective capacity could be measured by its effective throughput and cache. Your "sentinal level" would occur when the cache is full and bandwidth is maxed and the packets start to get a one-way trip to/dev/null. However, I would think it'd be tough to always keep up on what everyone has for capacity unless the backbone providers regularly publish these stats, as well as the stats on current traffic.
I don't know if it would be helpful or not. One one hand, it'd be handy to know that the reason I'm getting 1900ms ping time to SF this morning is because some dumbass tripped on a power cord, but on the other hand, if I really care that much, I can probably figure it out using traceroute et al.
Maybe it's a solution to keep everyone and their dog from flooding the 'net each time a router bites the big one and makes a suburb blink out of existence for a few hours. Other than that, it just sounds like a good excuse to draw pretty graphs.
I'm not so against fair use or parents doing what they want....that wasn't my point, perhaps it didn't come across well enough. What I'm against is these large groups making movies "safe" for children, essentially removing the "responsibility" that parents have of evaluating what their child sees or doesn't.
By your comment, I see you have viewed Braveheart, determined its value (or lack thereof) to your child's experience, and have made your decision. How many other parents *don't* make that choice, that evaluation, and instead just trust one of the "safe" groups to make the movie "ok" for their child? THAT is what I'm against.
I'll agree with the sentiment of "if I own it I want to do anything with it I want". Goodness knows I'm ALL for that. I'm objecting to the editing of the film prior to it arriving at my home, my TV, or in the stores.
Good Parents: This point can be debated, of course. I view a good parent as one who doesn't distort the view of reality from their kids. I, for one, would never show my kids an edited movie. It goes against my beliefs of what rights movie producers and directors have in their art. I would simply not show them the movie, or instead, tell them, "This movie contains language, actions, and pictures that some people may be offended by. Let's talk about this movie after we watch to make sure you understand what things aren't acceptable for you to be doing or saying."
To show a kid an edited movie is like shielding a child from the realities of the world. Hey kids. The world's a shithole, you're gonna get crapped on time and time again, your heart broken, your ass worked off at some jobs you don't like, and the government sucks. There are great joys, sex is damn fun and dangerous too, and you can get a lot of kicks in life from doing crazy and potentially stupid things. Not that I would recommend it.
Life IS pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. - The Princess Bride
I, for one, would like to see some heads roll for those who edit movies for TV or edit movies and resell them edited. This, to me, is a violation of the director's/writer's vision and intent. Edited LOTR for content? I convulse.
I am sick and tired of parents not taking good responsibility for their kids. You know what? Some movies are not meant for kids to watch. PERIOD. If you can't "get over" that fact, mommy, daddy, then learn to deal with the consequences.
I'm also tired of parents thinking that their children are naive. Where did this idea come in? That your children are virgin, clean, pure, and haven't ever heard the word, "fuck", at the age of 9? Like hell.
I watched lots of movies with questionable content when I was a kid. I didn't see a lot because my parents objected to them, so I didn't see them at all, not some farked up edited piece of dung. I had to wait till I was of a maturity level high enough to handle it properly. I was constantly reminded by my parents that, "This is not acceptable in our house or in public, no matter what the movies say." I understood, I followed.
Learn to be a good parent and quit blaming the depravity of society on the artists.
Oh, I agree with the shortening of the release cycle. My only point that I was trying to drive (and heck, it was late, maybe I wasn't clear enough) was that in software development, you have to balance the need to get the product out with the need to get the important features in. Although Linux isn't being "sold" to anyone, in a sense it is...to maintain corporate support and usage of Linux, the kernel has to maintain a software product's appeal, despite its free nature.
To this end, I put on my corporate CTO's hat and looked at the listing of things being left out and said, "Uh...maybe a tad longer development cycle rather than shorter and getting a few more of the features in would be a good thing for the market."
Mind you, I'm not a kernel hacker and therefore some of these issues I may have said, "Ok, why aren't these in?" and the reason is because they're involved beyond what I know.
Now, someone correct me, but it sounds like a lot of really really necessary crap is (probably) going to be left out of the 2.5 kernel (which will become 2.6 stable eventually). I'd like to mention a few here and why I'm stunned that they probably won't make it.
Add XFS (A journaling filesystem from SGI) - Excuse-the-hell me? Isn't the idea to get journaling filesystems in to the kernel because that's what everyone wants? XFS is proven, get it the heck in there.
Asynchronous IO (aio) support - This is really surprising in some ways. IIRC from the kernel summit summary, this was a hot topic and argued vehemently. Even Linus agreed it was a Good Thing(tm) and should be done. If I also remember correctly, it's a hell of a lot of work, so I can justify that.
Full compliance with IPv6 - Ok, for crying in my lukewarm beer, this needs to get in there, folks. IPv6 needs to get going and you're not helping.
ext2/ext3 large directory support: HTree index - Sounds like something that enterprise Linux people would enjoy, yes?
Remove the 2TB block device limit - Ditto.
Overhaul PCMCIA support - Ogg heat metal. Ogg form new stick from copper, copper much better than wood stick. Ogg progresses. Anyone else think that PCMCIA sucks under Linux? It could use an overhaul in a large, hairy, neanderthal way.
Reiserfs v4 - See the comment above about XFS.
Serial ATA support - I don't know how close this standard is to manufacturing, but it certainly sounds like this is the way that hardware is going (and bless them, too.) Probably a good thing to NOT leave in the dust.
That about does it for the ones that make me cringe uncomfortably. Past that, I can rationalize the other ones out. These just flick that, "Whoa, aren't you making a mistake?" light inside my head.
And would anyone care to comment on the SCSI interface? According to the kernel summit, there was going to be much code yoinkage and redoing for the entire subsystem. Where does that play in the 2.5 freeze?
Whistle me a tune, Adolph. I've heard your line before.
When Linus first developed this OS the geeks flocked on Usenet to support him. We must support him or this will never survive! He'll quit it! Long live Linus!
When each distro formed, the drums called the masses to the parade. C'mon, man...use it and advocate it or they'll stop making it! Go Slack/RedHat/Debian/etc!
When Linux first made an approach into the mainstream industry, supporting servers and mission-critical applications, the magazines and newspapers threw the mud in the face of Linux. Linux? Won't last. Can't last. Buncha geeks supporting it. HA! And the wave of fear once again traveled among the masses, To arms! To arms! We'll lose the day if we don't advocate! Convert your grandmother! Quiltix!
And so now, from a guy who is an NT network sysadmin and cites doomsday evidence of the revolution we hear the cry to war again.
Listen, folks: The war isn't over, nor is this a critical junction in the life of Linux.
The war has always been there...why wouldn't it? The brainchild of a geeky programmer is now running the huge servers of major industries. You can't tell me that the war hasn't been fought already and will still be fought on every line. It's not a single assault, folks, it's a never-ending push towards an ideal that we've conceived (or have been given) and we now advocate.
Advocate Linux.....*snort* What do you think we've been doing all this time?
Pan and Scan? Ugh, the mere thought of watching the golden brainchild of PJ on the screen in a dibilitating format like Pan & Scan inspires my gastrointestinal track to display a scene of impressive disgust.
If you are thinking about buying this film and haven't seen it yet (what are the chances?), please, please.....make sure you get the Letterboxed format (widescreen). It's good for you, it's good for the world. This is not one of those movies that will look good any other way.br> The Mines of Moria in P&S? I shudder.
Alternatively-powered cars can not and will not make a majority sell in the world so long as hydrocarbons exit to burn.
A bold statement? Perhaps. But realistic? I think so.
You thought M$ has a stranglehold on the computing industry -- can you even conceive of the grip that the hydrocarbon industry has on the automobile industry? Internal combustion engines are going to be around for a looong time, my friend.
Nothing to say of the efforts and successes that we've had in making alternate fuels work. Good job, good science, but it won't fly on the market. Years ago science had developed the 50mpg engine...where is it? Oh, right, Geo Metros that sound like a bumblebee and have 2 cylinders. Big success there.
Is the oil industry ready to back down in favor of more environmentally-friendly fuels? Right. Tell an oil tycoon to shut down his wells because he'd be doing the world a favor and he'll tell you what to put in your pipe and where to smoke it.
Consider this, my fellow ingenious geeks: Which is better, Microsoft or GNU/Linux? Is that a resounding vote for Linux I detect? Ok, then...so why isn't it the dominant OS?
Which is better: internal combustion or alternate fuels? Alternates? Then why isn't that the market standard?
Fact is, folks: A speeding train is really tough to stop. A speeding train with the combined momentum of the oil industry, automobile industry, and lobbyists is even harder to stop. Pure money still speaks volumes and will for years, as long as the public has enough Preparation H and is eased into high prices slowly enough.
There is a time and place for every attitude, and this is certainly one of them.
First of all, I liked your comment. It's absolutely right on in terms of how the desktop needs to be deployed by the system administrators to the system users. The users need functionality, stability, lack of hassle, and no interaction with the setup of their systems. (in a business setting) This makes the sysadmin job easy, enjoyable, and you get some real work done instead of constantly fixing mistakes.
Secondly, if I was your boss and ever caught you expressing this attitude to Joe User, you'd be on the sidewalk on your ass so fast it'd make your bits spin.
BOFH is funny. Very funny. I absolutely crack on it. It has no practical or applicable place in the industry, however.
I develop software for nursing homes and the nurses that use it. Nurses aren't computer geeks, they're barely computer users. They're nurses, and most of them are very good at it. They don't want to know how their computer and software works and they shouldn't HAVE to. They want to do their nursing job quickly, efficiently, and correctly, that's all.
I don't know about you, but when I walk into the hospital and I need medical attention now, I don't give a flying poke at a 9-track tape if they can hack their computer, I want to be fixed.
My job is to be an excellent computer programmer and admin. Part of that job and responsibility is to have respect for people whose job is not computers. This is the secretary down the hall, this is the pointy-haired boss, this is your father, this is burger-flippin' Jimmy. If you lack that respect and understanding, you are going to go nowhere. That is what probably pisses me off the most about the elitist community, which is probably most often expressed in the Linux and OS communities due to our "rouge" nature. Learn when and when not to express your ego because not everyone's going to bow at your feet to pay homage to your skills if you don't acknowledge theirs.
Folks, it's simple. The stuff has to go somewhere, it has to go soon, and the best place at the moment is Yucca. Something a lot of people are forgetting is the fact that just because it goes to Yucca does not mean it has to stay at Yucca.
C'mon. We're a race of intelligent, efficient, innovative people. You can't honestly look me in the eye and say that within 10,000 years...no, within 100...within 10 YEARS we won't have a better idea of how to handle this.
How old is nuke power? 50 years? (I'm guessing) Have we not gone from being complete and utter morons about it (can you say sticks of uranium in a pocket to ward off disease?) to doing some very intelligent things with it?
I, for one, have complete confidence in our ability to revisit this issue, research and design new solutions and approaches to the problems of nuclear waste, and to come up with better solutions and maybe even uses for the stuff.
Nevada, quit whining like a chastised toddler. Be honoured; the research that has gone into finding the best place to put this stuff has probably benefitted you in tremendous ways...would that all our states' geography get such a thorough examination. Suck it up, it won't likely be there forever anyway.
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Not physically intimidating, nothing of the sort. I wasn't going for that at all. But last movie he had a very menacing act about him. I think Chris Lee did fine in this movie with what he was given, but he just wasn't given squat in the script to work with, that was the problem. I have no qualms about the actor himself. :)
OMFG, was that a cool movie. I liked one other reviewer's comments: "Was it better than LOTR:FOTR? No. Was it just as good? Yup!" and I would agree with that statement when I view the movie as a whole. There were, obviously, parts that I liked better and parts that I didn't. Watch it, people, watch it and then watch it again.
It goes FAST. I never looked at my watch once, and it was almost exactly 3 hours long. Why or WHY is next December so far away????
Advice: Make sure you go to a theatre that has Dolby 5.1 sound. I didn't, but the midnight premire was only at this theater, but some parts are VERY hard to hear if the sound sucks.
SPOILER SECTION FOLLOWING
IF I WAS RUNNING THE OSCARS FOR THIS MOVIE:
Best Actor: King Theoden (Bernard Hill)
I would have given this to Gandalf but he just didn't have nearly as much screentime in this one as last. Bernard Hill gave my mind Theoden again and again...and in true Peter Jackson directing, gave me a human king...one I loved. The man *cried*. And did it in a beautiful way, I was never so much touched as the scene where he's mourning for his son. Gorgeous, wonderful filming and acting. He was full of despair and power, hope and anguish. Kudos.
Best Actress: Eowyn (Miranda Otto)
I just *knew* that this would be my best actress before I went in, and she didn't disappoint me. OMFG, can that woman act! I was in love, I was enamoured, I yearned/pined/ached. The tears, the smiles, the sighs, the terror....everything. The hair in front of the face shot when she's looking over the hills and the sword fighting with Aragorn are two of the best scenes....the scene with Wormtongue where you don't know if she hates him or wants to kiss him or what...but where she really shows the power of subtle acting is when Aragorn shows up at Helms Deep and she has to portray the horribly mixed powerful emotions inside of her churning....She pulled me along all the way. And, ladies pardon this, holy cow is she CUTE! Double kudos for an EXCELLENT job well done.
Best Supporting Actor: Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen)
I know the movies were all shot together, but his character had a lot more to work with and did a much better job in this one, for some reason. I liked him a lot more, much more depth and such. Maybe it was just better scripting, but much better, Viggo.
Best Supporting Actress: Arwen (Liv Tyler)
Much more depth to her character and some real emotions gave her the supporting actress, she was much more lifelike in this one. Great stuff.
Best Evil Dude: Wormtongue (Brad Dourif)
Was this the absolute incarnation of Wormtongue or was it just me? Although, I would have rather seen his character give Gandalf grief for a bit longer instead of getting out of the way so quick, but that was scripting...not his fault. The scene should have been longer, period. Excellent job on his part. Nice makeup, too.
Worst Evil Dude: Sauruman (Christopher Lee)
Sauruman sucked, period. What a crappy role in this movie. Ugh. I've seen steamed peas that were more intimidating.
MOMENTS I NEARLY WET MYSELF
- Gollum. Enough said. Esp. the inner fight with himself.
- The scene at Theodred's mourning.
- The Wargs.
- Helm's Deep
- The Dead Marshes (damn that was cool)
- The moment when the Elves at Helm's Deep (read the note below for the
displeasure part of this) turned inside their ranks to face Haldir. Very
nice.
- The final battle scene of Helm's Deep where the Riders and Gandalf dive
into the fray. Well done.
- The eye of Sauron.
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? moments- What in blazes were ELVES doing at Helm's Deep? This was stupid,
stupid, stupid, and we will be able to hear the yelps of displeasure all
across the country when people see the movie, just due to this one factor.
Poor choice, PJ. Bad director. No bone.
- The ring is going to Gondor? The ring went to Osgiliath? Faramir is a
real asshole? Frodo had Big Macs in his pack instead of lembas? Which of
these crazy, outrageous statements is true? Unfortunately, too damn many of
them. Whereas we did get to see the lembas, the rest we saw and hated.
- The Ents. They were.....odd. Not bad, not good....odd. PJ didn't
render them out of the books to my satisfaction, but I'm not sure how I would
have had him do them, really. They were nice, very nice...just not....yeah.
I dunno. I'm kinda at a loss for words except to say that they almost didn't
fit in the movie at all. The jury will be out on this one a looong time, for
a lot of people, I think.
PJ mussed with the story a bit more than I would have wanted him to in this one. In FOTR, he just removed things, except for that whole Glorfindel/Arwen thing. There were a LOT of changes in this one, which made my stomach twist in places. But, all in all, excellent movie, fits nicely with the first, and can't wait the year for the second.Is anyone else disgusted by NASA's complete lack of any sort of enthusiasm or conviction towards any goals at all?
When I was a kid, I would read the sci-fi novels that spurned my interest in the space program, watch the movies and shows that showed great battleships and starfleets and such, and I wanted to go up. Badly. I loved space.
When I found out about NASA, came to realize what they had done in the past (moon) and what they were planning for the future, I was excited as hell. I was enthused, I wanted to be a part of it.
Now, after time and time again of NASA screwing up missions, calling off projects, backing out of research opportunities, doing a half a million things all at once, none of them with any decent research behind it, I find myself slipping more and more back into the book world of the sci-fi, because I can't get my fix from realistic space exploration anymore.
Isn't that sad? That the dreams of a young boy once matched by a space administration of a country that used to care are now only allowed to run free in the confines of someone else's creation. Instead of seeing potential all I see is a huge cloud of red tape, policies, and unmotivated people who have forgotten to dream.
Quit, NASA. You've lost the edge, if you ever had it at all. Humankind didn't advance because we sat back and made policy that it should. We dared to dream the impossible. Give the idea of space back to those of us who give a crap and take your hateful dream-killers with you.
After all this Star Trek biz and such, what's up for you in the future? Do you see yourself continuing your relationship with PriceLine and other commercial opportunities, or do you envision (or have planned) a larger project? Do you have plans to lay back and relax or to push forward into something else?
Ok. Scenario:
I put a computer, hooked to my company's internal network, on the front steps of the company. It's just sitting there with the screen on the Windows desktop. No keyboard, no mouse.
All of a sudden, someone comes along, plugs in a keyboard and starts using the service. Should I be mad? Is he an instant theif?
What's the legislation here, folks? What determines when something that is publically accessible is privately controllable? There has to be some point at which breaking past certain barriers is considered "illegal". If said computer on the front steps had a fence around it with a lock and a security login program on the screen, breaking past that seems a bit more illegal to me than simply coming along and using a very open resource.
At some point, things that are private become public, too. Sidewalks, for instance. Maintained by private companies and people and available for public use. Defining that point is necessary, especially for wireless due to its nature of not staying between visible barriers.
The real power of Open Source is NOT:
- A variety of applications
- Multiple configurations
- Configurable kernels
- Source code available
- Community of users
The real power of Open Source is that, despite whatever the default configuration of a system might be, you can customize it any way you want!I really don't care if the standard Linux desktop starts to look and act like Windows in default configurations. In fact, I encourage it. It's the only way Linux will go corporate, companies will start making software for it, and support for things like hardware and drivers will finally become what they need to be.
As long as it retains the ability to be as configurable and adjustable as it is right now, I'm a happy man. So what if your kernel comes configured generically for every piece of hardware in the world? If you have the know-how, configure it yourself. Recompile the software, the applications, the windowing system...write your own drivers, apps, utilities. Colorize your bash prompt. Interface with the toaster.
Remember: With Linux there is Choice. Microsoft never even bothered to give you one. Keep that philosophy in mind and we'll be all good.
I guess the birds will need tiny spacesuits and rocket packs to make it back and forth.
Incoming interstellar hen!
I agree with all you say. However, until there is someone or something that can enforce said standards, trying to make them in defiance of the mainstream is useless. The general public doesn't care about standards in the computer industry. If most of the public is running IE and it doesn't conform to the standard, will web developers be the martyrs and refuse to break standards? Nope. They'll get bitched out by their bosses because the page looks shitty, then they'll go back and write it so it looks good and sells the product to the customer. Until there is an enforcing body, that's the (sad, very sad) truth.
Similarily, if M$ decides to "support" a new feature in web browsing, they jolly well probably will. They have the weight to throw around. Other browsers don't have to follow if they don't want to, but I'd recommend it as once all the Windows users upgrade, the web will jump ahead of the slackers. Until Windows is no longer the majority, I'm afraid the industry "standards" will be defined by them, however much anyone dislikes it.
I appreciate Mozilla. It's never worked well for me, but I can see some real thought and time behind it, and that earns my respect. NS has been struggling for awhile and you have to wonder if it's not just time to let it die and be happy with it. Firing up the NS marketing team again will only thwack the beehive of Redmond and won't get you anywhere. Better to spend that time on slowly but surely penetrating the desktop arena with the software and browsers that M$ isn't worried about and once you get enough leverage, then you can try to boss around. I guess my point is that NS doesn't have any ground to stand on to base a piss-off contest with M$ right now, and it would only do more harm than good for the industry.
For my sanity, usefulness, and the pleasure of all, please kindly do the following:
It's rather amazing, but from my experience, especially in the healthcare field there are an amazing number of custom, legacy, older-than-hills-but-works-well software to support or handle. I should know, my company's product is one of them.
Mind you, after being in the industry this long, I can see WHY companies take so long to port to anything new, the regulations and codes are staggering.
Linux will take a long time, if ever, before it becomes a major player in healthcare. There's just too much stuff to move.
I always wondered how long it would be before someone tried to give a "weather report" for the Internet. I imagined that some day the daily Internet traffic report would appear right alongside Reporter Bob up in TrafficCopter 7 reporting on the condition of Highway 69 at 8am.
/dev/null. However, I would think it'd be tough to always keep up on what everyone has for capacity unless the backbone providers regularly publish these stats, as well as the stats on current traffic.
"Well, Joan, it looks like Slashdot it at it again. You'll want to keep clear of Alter.net this morning as it appears to be having congestion problems around the Midwest. Communications to anything near a corn field is likely to be slow to smack-me-dead stupid through the 9 o'clock hour. Queue up those emails, folks."
One has to wonder if it's even possible to predict and gauge incoming traffic problems. I guess you would have to know the effective capacity of the Internet, and sub-portions of it, at all times. I can see how a router's effective capacity could be measured by its effective throughput and cache. Your "sentinal level" would occur when the cache is full and bandwidth is maxed and the packets start to get a one-way trip to
I don't know if it would be helpful or not. One one hand, it'd be handy to know that the reason I'm getting 1900ms ping time to SF this morning is because some dumbass tripped on a power cord, but on the other hand, if I really care that much, I can probably figure it out using traceroute et al.
Maybe it's a solution to keep everyone and their dog from flooding the 'net each time a router bites the big one and makes a suburb blink out of existence for a few hours. Other than that, it just sounds like a good excuse to draw pretty graphs.
Repeat after me:
I want to get laid often, I will buy a diamond.
I want to get laid often, I will buy a diamond.
I want to get laid often, I will buy a diamond.
I'm not so against fair use or parents doing what they want....that wasn't my point, perhaps it didn't come across well enough. What I'm against is these large groups making movies "safe" for children, essentially removing the "responsibility" that parents have of evaluating what their child sees or doesn't.
By your comment, I see you have viewed Braveheart, determined its value (or lack thereof) to your child's experience, and have made your decision. How many other parents *don't* make that choice, that evaluation, and instead just trust one of the "safe" groups to make the movie "ok" for their child? THAT is what I'm against.
I'll agree with the sentiment of "if I own it I want to do anything with it I want". Goodness knows I'm ALL for that. I'm objecting to the editing of the film prior to it arriving at my home, my TV, or in the stores.
Good Parents: This point can be debated, of course. I view a good parent as one who doesn't distort the view of reality from their kids. I, for one, would never show my kids an edited movie. It goes against my beliefs of what rights movie producers and directors have in their art. I would simply not show them the movie, or instead, tell them, "This movie contains language, actions, and pictures that some people may be offended by. Let's talk about this movie after we watch to make sure you understand what things aren't acceptable for you to be doing or saying."
To show a kid an edited movie is like shielding a child from the realities of the world. Hey kids. The world's a shithole, you're gonna get crapped on time and time again, your heart broken, your ass worked off at some jobs you don't like, and the government sucks. There are great joys, sex is damn fun and dangerous too, and you can get a lot of kicks in life from doing crazy and potentially stupid things. Not that I would recommend it.
Life IS pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. - The Princess Bride
I, for one, would like to see some heads roll for those who edit movies for TV or edit movies and resell them edited. This, to me, is a violation of the director's/writer's vision and intent. Edited LOTR for content? I convulse.
I am sick and tired of parents not taking good responsibility for their kids. You know what? Some movies are not meant for kids to watch. PERIOD. If you can't "get over" that fact, mommy, daddy, then learn to deal with the consequences.
I'm also tired of parents thinking that their children are naive. Where did this idea come in? That your children are virgin, clean, pure, and haven't ever heard the word, "fuck", at the age of 9? Like hell.
I watched lots of movies with questionable content when I was a kid. I didn't see a lot because my parents objected to them, so I didn't see them at all, not some farked up edited piece of dung. I had to wait till I was of a maturity level high enough to handle it properly. I was constantly reminded by my parents that, "This is not acceptable in our house or in public, no matter what the movies say." I understood, I followed.
Learn to be a good parent and quit blaming the depravity of society on the artists.
Oh, I agree with the shortening of the release cycle. My only point that I was trying to drive (and heck, it was late, maybe I wasn't clear enough) was that in software development, you have to balance the need to get the product out with the need to get the important features in. Although Linux isn't being "sold" to anyone, in a sense it is...to maintain corporate support and usage of Linux, the kernel has to maintain a software product's appeal, despite its free nature.
To this end, I put on my corporate CTO's hat and looked at the listing of things being left out and said, "Uh...maybe a tad longer development cycle rather than shorter and getting a few more of the features in would be a good thing for the market."
Mind you, I'm not a kernel hacker and therefore some of these issues I may have said, "Ok, why aren't these in?" and the reason is because they're involved beyond what I know.
- Add XFS (A journaling filesystem from SGI) - Excuse-the-hell me? Isn't the idea to get journaling filesystems in to the kernel because that's what everyone wants? XFS is proven, get it the heck in there.
- Asynchronous IO (aio) support - This is really surprising in some ways. IIRC from the kernel summit summary, this was a hot topic and argued vehemently. Even Linus agreed it was a Good Thing(tm) and should be done. If I also remember correctly, it's a hell of a lot of work, so I can justify that.
- Full compliance with IPv6 - Ok, for crying in my lukewarm beer, this needs to get in there, folks. IPv6 needs to get going and you're not helping.
- ext2/ext3 large directory support: HTree index - Sounds like something that enterprise Linux people would enjoy, yes?
- Remove the 2TB block device limit - Ditto.
- Overhaul PCMCIA support - Ogg heat metal. Ogg form new stick from copper, copper much better than wood stick. Ogg progresses. Anyone else think that PCMCIA sucks under Linux? It could use an overhaul in a large, hairy, neanderthal way.
- Reiserfs v4 - See the comment above about XFS.
- Serial ATA support - I don't know how close this standard is to manufacturing, but it certainly sounds like this is the way that hardware is going (and bless them, too.) Probably a good thing to NOT leave in the dust.
That about does it for the ones that make me cringe uncomfortably. Past that, I can rationalize the other ones out. These just flick that, "Whoa, aren't you making a mistake?" light inside my head.And would anyone care to comment on the SCSI interface? According to the kernel summit, there was going to be much code yoinkage and redoing for the entire subsystem. Where does that play in the 2.5 freeze?
Whistle me a tune, Adolph. I've heard your line before.
When Linus first developed this OS the geeks flocked on Usenet to support him. We must support him or this will never survive! He'll quit it! Long live Linus!
When each distro formed, the drums called the masses to the parade. C'mon, man...use it and advocate it or they'll stop making it! Go Slack/RedHat/Debian/etc!
When Linux first made an approach into the mainstream industry, supporting servers and mission-critical applications, the magazines and newspapers threw the mud in the face of Linux. Linux? Won't last. Can't last. Buncha geeks supporting it. HA! And the wave of fear once again traveled among the masses, To arms! To arms! We'll lose the day if we don't advocate! Convert your grandmother! Quiltix!
And so now, from a guy who is an NT network sysadmin and cites doomsday evidence of the revolution we hear the cry to war again.
Listen, folks: The war isn't over, nor is this a critical junction in the life of Linux.
The war has always been there...why wouldn't it? The brainchild of a geeky programmer is now running the huge servers of major industries. You can't tell me that the war hasn't been fought already and will still be fought on every line. It's not a single assault, folks, it's a never-ending push towards an ideal that we've conceived (or have been given) and we now advocate.
Advocate Linux.....*snort* What do you think we've been doing all this time?
Cate Blanchett or Liv Tyler in the nude???
To murder a Simpsons quote: "Elves in the nude? Do I dare live out a Rings fan's dream?"
Finally, we get to see what they use those pointy ears for.
Pan and Scan? Ugh, the mere thought of watching the golden brainchild of PJ on the screen in a dibilitating format like Pan & Scan inspires my gastrointestinal track to display a scene of impressive disgust.
If you are thinking about buying this film and haven't seen it yet (what are the chances?), please, please.....make sure you get the Letterboxed format (widescreen). It's good for you, it's good for the world. This is not one of those movies that will look good any other way.br>
The Mines of Moria in P&S? I shudder.
Alternatively-powered cars can not and will not make a majority sell in the world so long as hydrocarbons exit to burn.
A bold statement? Perhaps. But realistic? I think so.
You thought M$ has a stranglehold on the computing industry -- can you even conceive of the grip that the hydrocarbon industry has on the automobile industry? Internal combustion engines are going to be around for a looong time, my friend.
Nothing to say of the efforts and successes that we've had in making alternate fuels work. Good job, good science, but it won't fly on the market. Years ago science had developed the 50mpg engine...where is it? Oh, right, Geo Metros that sound like a bumblebee and have 2 cylinders. Big success there.
Is the oil industry ready to back down in favor of more environmentally-friendly fuels? Right. Tell an oil tycoon to shut down his wells because he'd be doing the world a favor and he'll tell you what to put in your pipe and where to smoke it.
Consider this, my fellow ingenious geeks: Which is better, Microsoft or GNU/Linux? Is that a resounding vote for Linux I detect? Ok, then...so why isn't it the dominant OS?
Which is better: internal combustion or alternate fuels? Alternates? Then why isn't that the market standard?
Fact is, folks: A speeding train is really tough to stop. A speeding train with the combined momentum of the oil industry, automobile industry, and lobbyists is even harder to stop. Pure money still speaks volumes and will for years, as long as the public has enough Preparation H and is eased into high prices slowly enough.
There is a time and place for every attitude, and this is certainly one of them.
First of all, I liked your comment. It's absolutely right on in terms of how the desktop needs to be deployed by the system administrators to the system users. The users need functionality, stability, lack of hassle, and no interaction with the setup of their systems. (in a business setting) This makes the sysadmin job easy, enjoyable, and you get some real work done instead of constantly fixing mistakes.
Secondly, if I was your boss and ever caught you expressing this attitude to Joe User, you'd be on the sidewalk on your ass so fast it'd make your bits spin.
BOFH is funny. Very funny. I absolutely crack on it. It has no practical or applicable place in the industry, however.
I develop software for nursing homes and the nurses that use it. Nurses aren't computer geeks, they're barely computer users. They're nurses, and most of them are very good at it. They don't want to know how their computer and software works and they shouldn't HAVE to. They want to do their nursing job quickly, efficiently, and correctly, that's all.
I don't know about you, but when I walk into the hospital and I need medical attention now, I don't give a flying poke at a 9-track tape if they can hack their computer, I want to be fixed.
My job is to be an excellent computer programmer and admin. Part of that job and responsibility is to have respect for people whose job is not computers. This is the secretary down the hall, this is the pointy-haired boss, this is your father, this is burger-flippin' Jimmy. If you lack that respect and understanding, you are going to go nowhere. That is what probably pisses me off the most about the elitist community, which is probably most often expressed in the Linux and OS communities due to our "rouge" nature. Learn when and when not to express your ego because not everyone's going to bow at your feet to pay homage to your skills if you don't acknowledge theirs.
Folks, it's simple. The stuff has to go somewhere, it has to go soon, and the best place at the moment is Yucca. Something a lot of people are forgetting is the fact that just because it goes to Yucca does not mean it has to stay at Yucca.
C'mon. We're a race of intelligent, efficient, innovative people. You can't honestly look me in the eye and say that within 10,000 years...no, within 100...within 10 YEARS we won't have a better idea of how to handle this.
How old is nuke power? 50 years? (I'm guessing) Have we not gone from being complete and utter morons about it (can you say sticks of uranium in a pocket to ward off disease?) to doing some very intelligent things with it?
I, for one, have complete confidence in our ability to revisit this issue, research and design new solutions and approaches to the problems of nuclear waste, and to come up with better solutions and maybe even uses for the stuff.
Nevada, quit whining like a chastised toddler. Be honoured; the research that has gone into finding the best place to put this stuff has probably benefitted you in tremendous ways...would that all our states' geography get such a thorough examination. Suck it up, it won't likely be there forever anyway.