Exactly. I remember some early fanboy "reviews" of LOTR and the endless complaints about it not being faithful to the book.
Everything I've read so far regarding this movie and its early screenings have been fairly positive, but none of the writers who wrote those pieces (the guardian had a favorable piece I recall) were DNA's biographer, thus the lack of severe bias and hysterics.
My real concern is that its always been difficult to sell an absurdist comedy or even just British comedy to American audiences. This kind of thing is seen as too high-brow or "intellectual" and does poorly. Its not a big surprise DNA and the others decided not to be faithful to the books at all for the sake of making a good movie.
It may not even be very good, but I doubt its a disaster like this article claims it is. I have a feeling it might turn out to be Spaceballs with a touch of DNA, which wouldnt be bad, but it wouldnt be great. The positive buzz would probably mean a new generation turned onto the H2G2 trilogy and they can enjoy the books for themselves, without going through the hollywood filter.
Maybe you shouldnt invest your identity on a movie. Seriously. Reminds me of those people who buy those tabloid rags and weep when celebrities get married, get arrested, etc. All they talk about is celebrities and how Hollywood makes them look bad. You're just the geek version of them, as are a lot of people in this thread. Sad really.
This patent may be too closely related to the Coppola's "the first 2/3rds are great and the final 1/3 is unbelievably terrible" patent and the Lucas "50/50" patent.
Fiction has no license defense really. Just about everything we use today was predicted in sci-fi 40 or so years ago. If it was possible to sue, it would have happened. Its one thing to talk about an idea and another to create a working version.
Is WPA a solution? WPA is just as, if not more, susceptible to a dictionary attack because its password based. WEP isnt usually, but in this case they were using a dictionary attack to crack APs which generate keys from english words. Like Linksys does.
True conservatives? Is that like the true christians? Looks like to me appealing to the idealized form while ignoring the reality of what these beliefs have done historically (remember true conservatives also defended segregation,etc) is nothing more than a way to fight cognitive dissonance.
Tech is the new McDonalds. Schools are pushing out any tech program they think will sell (you can get a BS in anything 'hot' now) and they will churn out candidates like the one you describe. People are wise to the situation. It used to be techies were known to have a strong understanding of their field, now anyone can get a tech job. Thus the percieved lack of respect. Not to mention the false assumptions like "My 15 year old can do this!" Heh, I've seen a small corporate network go to a guy's kid and he screwed it up bad. Regardless, computers and IS are not mysterious things anymore. Perhaps its not McDonalds yet, but for a good part of the industry its like being a mechanic or "lower."
For good or bad. The creme will always rise to the top, just like in any industry. Looks like the guy in article needs to learn how to sell himself insead of assuming people will magically understand how good he is.
I remember emailing the creator of Pink 5 a year ago (two?) asking for a high-quality direct download and he told me that Lucas's rules prohibit anyone from distributing their own work for a year or so. He thought it was due to Lucasfilm producing a DVD of the fan films, but I dont think that has ever happened.*
*cavaet: this is all from memory and second hand information
> I wouldn't be surprised at all if they introduced a low-end G5 (as in near Mac Mini) as a grey-box substitute.
This is what apple should be seriously considering. Unlike a mini it should have a normal, not laptop, disk drive. It should have an AGP slot and PCI slots. It should have PS2 connectors and more than two USB connectors. It doesnt have to be as powerful as a G5 (hell, they could get away with a g4), but if they really want to court the PC world, they have to do better than what the mini has to offer.
Torture has been shown to deliver just as much disinformation as information, if not more. Not to mention the humanitarian argument against it. Would you like to be tortured over breaking some IP laws? Or if you didnt want to reveal who sold you a bag of pot? Its not all nukes and Al'queda and once you give a government that power without tons of oversight you get things like Abu Ghraib or Mosul.
>but from the elections (where "blog" was the word of choice for the media),
How is this rated, "Interesting?"
First off, blogs predate the election. Hell, there were more than enough bloggers for the 2000 election. The media says "Linux" quite a bit. Where's your similar outrage?
Funny how people are only bothered by the word blog, which seems to be to be a thinly-veiled attack on cheap micro-publishing. No one seems to have it in for just as silly sounding words like PSP, ReiserFS, GNU/Linux, Gigabit, Bogomips, the Hurd, Kernel, etc.
I think the grandparent is quite correct. It is difficult capturing PKD on film. First off, his stories are usually very dense and character driven. That means a long film and being able to do character development.
For instance, Blade Runner has only the setting of the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and the most basic plot elements. Its missing Deckerd's marital problems, Mercerism, the little existential crisis, lots of important scenes and ideas, etc. Scott pretty much took the story and turned it into an action movie, albiet a moody and gorgeous sci-fi action movie.
I just saw Blade Runner again at a late night viewing and am blown away by how well made of a film it is and how it captures the vision of a near-future dystopia, but it has very little in common with the book.
The other PKD stories turned movies have been mostly short-stories, as a short story is pretty much the size and scope of a typical movie. But even Minority Report was trimmed down and the politics from the story were removed and replaced with more action sequences.
1. Its not a feature that is demanded very often. That may change as the MP3 player becomes more of a mainstream device. Arguably, early adoptors and other people willing to drop 300 or so dollars on a player are trying to get away from AM/FM so there isn't much of a demand.
2. Cost. A good FM receiver adds some real cost. My old Neuros had FM but couldnt pick up any of the college stations I liked. I got NPR on it and really didnt listen that often because I prefered music on my train ride home.
I'm sure as the MP3 player market expands you'll have all sorts of new demands, not just FM. Toss in AM. A voice recorder. Something to view jepgs on. A small scheduler. etc. The line will continue to be drawn and someone will continue to complain that feature x isnt available.
Maybe the mp3 player will go the way of the dodo if a good-priced PDA with a HD can compete with it. Or if the MP3 player becomes a PDA as people keep getting more and more features.
Also targeted are content providers, defined as any company that "creates, collects, acquires or organizes electronic data" for profit. Any content provider that the Utah attorney general claims hosts material that's harmful to minors must rate it or face third-degree felony charges.
And people wonder how regimes like the Taliban get off and running. The religious beg for them. Hopefully, this Christian conservative nonsense will be deemed unconstitutional just like it was in Pennsylvania.
Anything can be a "content provider." Do you have photos on your blog? Will the Mormon censor decide that a jpeg of a woman in a bikini "is harmful to children" and arrest you? Sites that talk about sex ed, condoms, or AIDS? Are those harmful? Who wants to take that chance and why should the state even have such broad powers? They shouldnt.
Hey, if you guys dont like our constitution then start your own country. Oh right, you religious nutters did and it was a disaster of the highest order.
>But does the average desk jockey need a 3GHz processor, 160Gb hard drive and 19-inch LCD monitor to send email, run Excel and Word, and surf the web?
Home users deserve power for the money they spend. Period. And they use it.
Okay, I dont know anyone with a 19inch LCD, so lets toss that right out the window for now. Any decent monitor will due and considering most people buy their computers in one package deals, they usually get a sub-par monitor to begin with, not a bad-ass LCD.
3Ghz processor? Well, whats so wrong with that, when the microprocessor industry is constantly developing chips of this speed and thanks to the economics of scale these chips are affordable. That means the home user doesnt experience noticable slowdowns as the CPU hits 100% 99% of time. What exactly is the alternative? Capping them off at 1ghz for the sake of ideology, charging them more because no one makes 1ghz chips anymore, and then telling them to shut up when they complain about slow performance with games, CAD, etc.
160gb hard drive? Heaven forbid we let home users store media files like tv shows, movies, and photos on their computers. Maybe congress and the RIAA along with the MIAA and people like you can lobby for a "20 gigs is enough" HD law for "the people."
>to send email, run Excel and Word, and surf the web?
This is ignorance and elitism. *Some* home users only do these things, but you'll find the digital revolution in full-effect in many homes. Broadband, digital cameras, video editing (yes, people without CS degrees can do this now!), etc.
You forgot to add:
640K ought to be enough for anybody.
or
The market for computers will consist only of the 5 richest kings of Europe
Slashdot Mirror
Clearchannel (part owners of XM) + AOL. Who would want that? Oh right, AOL users. *shivers*
Exactly. I remember some early fanboy "reviews" of LOTR and the endless complaints about it not being faithful to the book.
Everything I've read so far regarding this movie and its early screenings have been fairly positive, but none of the writers who wrote those pieces (the guardian had a favorable piece I recall) were DNA's biographer, thus the lack of severe bias and hysterics.
My real concern is that its always been difficult to sell an absurdist comedy or even just British comedy to American audiences. This kind of thing is seen as too high-brow or "intellectual" and does poorly. Its not a big surprise DNA and the others decided not to be faithful to the books at all for the sake of making a good movie.
It may not even be very good, but I doubt its a disaster like this article claims it is. I have a feeling it might turn out to be Spaceballs with a touch of DNA, which wouldnt be bad, but it wouldnt be great. The positive buzz would probably mean a new generation turned onto the H2G2 trilogy and they can enjoy the books for themselves, without going through the hollywood filter.
Are you still a child? I mean, as an adult you should be able to handle changes to a once loved series.
> George murdered my childhood with Episode I.
Maybe you shouldnt invest your identity on a movie. Seriously. Reminds me of those people who buy those tabloid rags and weep when celebrities get married, get arrested, etc. All they talk about is celebrities and how Hollywood makes them look bad. You're just the geek version of them, as are a lot of people in this thread. Sad really.
> Neither "conservatives" nor "liberals" necessarily believe in freedom.
Then why is the ACLU considered a liberal organization by most? Which philosophy gives you a better chance at:
1. Dying with dignity.
2. Decriminalzing non-addictive substances.
3. Ensuring the rights of unpopular groups (minorities, gays, atheists, etc).
Which one has historically? I'll give you a hint, it doesn't start with a C.
This patent may be too closely related to the Coppola's "the first 2/3rds are great and the final 1/3 is unbelievably terrible" patent and the Lucas "50/50" patent.
>(ok, forget the fight over sodomy laws).
Not to mention pornography, sex toys, gay rights, minority rights, etc.
Conservatism is the defense of the status quo. Today and in the past. Anything else is sophistry and revisionism.
Fiction has no license defense really. Just about everything we use today was predicted in sci-fi 40 or so years ago. If it was possible to sue, it would have happened. Its one thing to talk about an idea and another to create a working version.
Is WPA a solution? WPA is just as, if not more, susceptible to a dictionary attack because its password based. WEP isnt usually, but in this case they were using a dictionary attack to crack APs which generate keys from english words. Like Linksys does.
More info here.
I just block ads outright and dont worry about what plugin is running what or what extensions I need to install to handle hostile advertisers.
True conservatives? Is that like the true christians? Looks like to me appealing to the idealized form while ignoring the reality of what these beliefs have done historically (remember true conservatives also defended segregation,etc) is nothing more than a way to fight cognitive dissonance.
At musicthing. Godfried is more than a little odd.
Yeah, describing the washington post as "liberal" just cracks me up.
Tech is the new McDonalds. Schools are pushing out any tech program they think will sell (you can get a BS in anything 'hot' now) and they will churn out candidates like the one you describe. People are wise to the situation. It used to be techies were known to have a strong understanding of their field, now anyone can get a tech job. Thus the percieved lack of respect. Not to mention the false assumptions like "My 15 year old can do this!" Heh, I've seen a small corporate network go to a guy's kid and he screwed it up bad. Regardless, computers and IS are not mysterious things anymore. Perhaps its not McDonalds yet, but for a good part of the industry its like being a mechanic or "lower."
For good or bad. The creme will always rise to the top, just like in any industry. Looks like the guy in article needs to learn how to sell himself insead of assuming people will magically understand how good he is.
I remember emailing the creator of Pink 5 a year ago (two?) asking for a high-quality direct download and he told me that Lucas's rules prohibit anyone from distributing their own work for a year or so. He thought it was due to Lucasfilm producing a DVD of the fan films, but I dont think that has ever happened.*
*cavaet: this is all from memory and second hand information
> I wouldn't be surprised at all if they introduced a low-end G5 (as in near Mac Mini) as a grey-box substitute.
This is what apple should be seriously considering. Unlike a mini it should have a normal, not laptop, disk drive. It should have an AGP slot and PCI slots. It should have PS2 connectors and more than two USB connectors. It doesnt have to be as powerful as a G5 (hell, they could get away with a g4), but if they really want to court the PC world, they have to do better than what the mini has to offer.
100% efficiency?
Torture has been shown to deliver just as much disinformation as information, if not more. Not to mention the humanitarian argument against it. Would you like to be tortured over breaking some IP laws? Or if you didnt want to reveal who sold you a bag of pot? Its not all nukes and Al'queda and once you give a government that power without tons of oversight you get things like Abu Ghraib or Mosul.
>but from the elections (where "blog" was the word of choice for the media),
How is this rated, "Interesting?"
First off, blogs predate the election. Hell, there were more than enough bloggers for the 2000 election. The media says "Linux" quite a bit. Where's your similar outrage?
Funny how people are only bothered by the word blog, which seems to be to be a thinly-veiled attack on cheap micro-publishing. No one seems to have it in for just as silly sounding words like PSP, ReiserFS, GNU/Linux, Gigabit, Bogomips, the Hurd, Kernel, etc.
Reminds me of another domestic bargaining chip.
Manager: "Well, our techies say we could move some of our stuff over to linux."
MS: "How about some fat discounts?"
You're right, this is negotiation and its part of businesss as well as politics.
The article is essentially some non-denials from Chirac's advisors. Not exactly a done deal.
# Supports MP3, WMA, OGG, USB 2.0, mounts as flash drive.
Gee, I'm not sure. No stopwatch?
I think the grandparent is quite correct. It is difficult capturing PKD on film. First off, his stories are usually very dense and character driven. That means a long film and being able to do character development.
For instance, Blade Runner has only the setting of the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and the most basic plot elements. Its missing Deckerd's marital problems, Mercerism, the little existential crisis, lots of important scenes and ideas, etc. Scott pretty much took the story and turned it into an action movie, albiet a moody and gorgeous sci-fi action movie.
This review has an interesting quote: The film version, on the other hand, was shaped along the lines of a mean-streets detective novel by Raymond Chandler. In it the pervasive confusion is a puzzle to be solved, not an exercise in mind-bending.
I just saw Blade Runner again at a late night viewing and am blown away by how well made of a film it is and how it captures the vision of a near-future dystopia, but it has very little in common with the book.
The other PKD stories turned movies have been mostly short-stories, as a short story is pretty much the size and scope of a typical movie. But even Minority Report was trimmed down and the politics from the story were removed and replaced with more action sequences.
A few reasons:
1. Its not a feature that is demanded very often. That may change as the MP3 player becomes more of a mainstream device. Arguably, early adoptors and other people willing to drop 300 or so dollars on a player are trying to get away from AM/FM so there isn't much of a demand.
2. Cost. A good FM receiver adds some real cost. My old Neuros had FM but couldnt pick up any of the college stations I liked. I got NPR on it and really didnt listen that often because I prefered music on my train ride home.
I'm sure as the MP3 player market expands you'll have all sorts of new demands, not just FM. Toss in AM. A voice recorder. Something to view jepgs on. A small scheduler. etc. The line will continue to be drawn and someone will continue to complain that feature x isnt available.
Maybe the mp3 player will go the way of the dodo if a good-priced PDA with a HD can compete with it. Or if the MP3 player becomes a PDA as people keep getting more and more features.
Its not optional for the websites in question. And people wonder how regimes like the Taliban get off and running. The religious beg for them. Hopefully, this Christian conservative nonsense will be deemed unconstitutional just like it was in Pennsylvania.
Anything can be a "content provider." Do you have photos on your blog? Will the Mormon censor decide that a jpeg of a woman in a bikini "is harmful to children" and arrest you? Sites that talk about sex ed, condoms, or AIDS? Are those harmful? Who wants to take that chance and why should the state even have such broad powers? They shouldnt.
Hey, if you guys dont like our constitution then start your own country. Oh right, you religious nutters did and it was a disaster of the highest order.
And how many families can afford a systems admin to do this and the support they need.
A geek anecdote is hardly specific to the home market.
>But does the average desk jockey need a 3GHz processor, 160Gb hard drive and 19-inch LCD monitor to send email, run Excel and Word, and surf the web?
Home users deserve power for the money they spend. Period. And they use it.
Okay, I dont know anyone with a 19inch LCD, so lets toss that right out the window for now. Any decent monitor will due and considering most people buy their computers in one package deals, they usually get a sub-par monitor to begin with, not a bad-ass LCD.
3Ghz processor? Well, whats so wrong with that, when the microprocessor industry is constantly developing chips of this speed and thanks to the economics of scale these chips are affordable. That means the home user doesnt experience noticable slowdowns as the CPU hits 100% 99% of time. What exactly is the alternative? Capping them off at 1ghz for the sake of ideology, charging them more because no one makes 1ghz chips anymore, and then telling them to shut up when they complain about slow performance with games, CAD, etc.
160gb hard drive? Heaven forbid we let home users store media files like tv shows, movies, and photos on their computers. Maybe congress and the RIAA along with the MIAA and people like you can lobby for a "20 gigs is enough" HD law for "the people."
>to send email, run Excel and Word, and surf the web?
This is ignorance and elitism. *Some* home users only do these things, but you'll find the digital revolution in full-effect in many homes. Broadband, digital cameras, video editing (yes, people without CS degrees can do this now!), etc.
You forgot to add:
640K ought to be enough for anybody.
or
The market for computers will consist only of the 5 richest kings of Europe