Try it at this end. I am living in a capital city in Australia and broadband is the exception. The vast majority of home internet connections are dialup. A large amount of people don't have access to broadband at all.
It is quite amusing to see the expressions on both sides when American IT professionals come over here to talk about setting up systems over WANs. The costs for what most Americans consider minimum requirments are astronomical.
Lets be realistic about this, I have to support my family's XP machines which they purchased from cheep arse computer stores. They all have 56k dialup on a good day, ever tried patching up from XPSP1 on a dialup connection?
I wish they had just got Apples, that way they have a much diminished chance of getting a virus simply by checking movie times online or whatever. And i would have spent a lot less of my valuable spare time removing viruses or rebuilding PCs
I own a XP machine that I use for gaming, but I use my ibook for important work, as I don't have to patch that nearly as often to keep it safe online.
You guys are all insane, just think of all the bad karma you are going to generate.
Guns are so C20th
Here is an idea: take all the money you would spend on the gun and training and administration and spend it on some insurance. Then IF you get mugged you get to say "here you go, enjoy the ipod, I really like the 1st track on the third album, have a nice day" and then upgrade all your gear, your laptop will be 25% faster, larger and generally better and all the crap you have been meaning to delete of the HDD for months will be gone.
Sorry, I have inspected the US constitution about as closely as I have inspected the UN's Charter.
This is my point; America tells us they are for goodness and light and then acts in complete contradiction of this. Then majority of Yanks are bewildered as to why the world either mildy dislikes or hates their nation, which they themselves see as an enlightened and benevolent state. This is because they have no idea about all the harm the US has inflicted to the rest of us, and when they do hear about it they are told its for the good of those being harmed. The US propaganda machine is every bit as effective as that of the Chinese. To critisise the UN in the way I initially responded to really is hypocritical.
Someone once told me that the US is the most dangerous country in the world becasue they believe their own bullshit.
I subscribe to Vidal's point of view, shut down your Imperium, bugger off and let the rest of us sort out our own shit.
number of whom do the bidding of unfree regimes that want to block and censor the Internet
Unfree regimes? You mean like the US, which is currently suffering under the yoke of militarised corperate feudalism?
Let us talk about freedoms, while the US reverses the preasure it put on the New Zealand government to shut down the Backyard Cruise Missile project illegally.
They openly state in their charter that all humans have certain rights, like freedom of speech, as long as using that right doesn't interfere with a stated goal of the UN.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black; subsitute US for UN and it that sentence still makes perfect sense. At least the UN works (ignoring the security council here) by the concensus of the majority, unlike the nation who has the guy who almost got a concensus of those who can be bothered voting that make up an only just majority of in charge.
Wake up, inspite of the wishes of its people the US is not an enlightened beacon for democracy and civil rights. The way that many Americans believe that they are puts me in mind of the fanatical support the Chinese government gets from its people. Its all a bit boring really.
I was working with an online teaching system (Centra Symposium) in remote and isolated South Australia for the Dept of Education. The end users had been provided with Telstra 2-way satelite connections. Funny thing was that everytime we got some serious cloud coverage over the north of the state students either had problems connecting or would drop out itermitantly. This happened enough to be more than a nusiance.
This VHF solution looks interesting, and in most cases could be a good idea, but some of these kids are 2-3 days 4WD travel from Pt Augusta. I shudder to think how far they are from the exchanges. It might be a silver bullet for the eastern states however with the denser population.
I believe that the fate of the elves was well communicated given the format of the story. I mentioned the council of Galadriel and Elrond refering to conversations held with them, not the specific council discussion. Both Elrond and Galadriel confide their beliefs in Frodo quietly, not proclaiming them to the world. To do otherwise would be against their nature no matter how convienient it would be for conveying plot elements.
a brief exchange by some characters one sixth of the way through is not enough to establish a major plot element
The fate of the elves is brought up a number of times, and contrary to what you seem to be saying they are poignant moments. I reiterate: These are intelligent books designed for people who are prepared to think about the story, not those who want it all hand feed. Your complaint is baseless
Look at the recent example of Vietnam changing to open source because of the complience with global copyright needed for various trade agreements.
Now consider China, having a different dvd format could be a good way of slowing down pirating from an export/import point of view. We know they are hungry to join the international markets, perhaps this policy is seen as helpful in this respect.
What can I say? Back when I was a kid and reading the LOTR one of the major things I picked up was that the Elves would lose no matter what the outcome, but that they clearly believed that the destruction of the ring and thus Sauron was essential.
a brief exchange by some characters one sixth of the way through
I am supprised that you find the council of both Elrond and Galadriel brief exchanges, for me these are turning points in the story when much is revealed, as a kid I payed attention to them.
My point is that the story is not depressing just for the heck of it, it is written in a modern style about an epic tale. Epics do have elements of loss and sorrow because they have a greater morale or philosophical point to bring home. To address this in the context of you being a child, it is not a children's story and hardly the fault of the author if you, not being the target audience, lacked the maturity to grasp the point.
In the the Fellowship of the Ring both Elrond and Galadriel both discuss the fact at different points that there is uncertainty about the fate of the Elvish rings when the One is destroyed. They both go on to say that they believe that the power of the Elvish rings will pass and all that they have created and maintained with those rings will fade and vanish.
The fact is that the books are not at all like a movie, pandering to popular sentiment, leaving the viewer with a nice warm fuzzy feeling at the end. The LOTR and the Silmarillion were based on Epics such as the Ring Cycle, and traditionally in an Epic although the protagonists overcome there is great sacrifice in the achievment. Sorry no warm fuzzy, but at least it will leave you thinking, wondering about what it is to struggle and make sacrifices.
You also mistake the importance of bombadil, he is a strong reminder that they are stepping out of the comfortable, entering into events and places that are strange beyond the limited imaginings of the rustic Hobbits. Powerful too, for no one can master Tom but himself.
This aside bambadil is part of a greater thread in LOTR, and this is the hint of things unknown, Tolkien is a master of this, he uses hints and fragments of the elder days with amazing skill to create a world that has so much more depth than most writers can conjure. Sure you can track down this information by reading the appendixes and the Silmarillion, but you dont need to. Once again it is something that will leave you thinking and pondering, using your own imagination to create things and fill in gaps. Tolkien's work will give you the gift of creativity if you will let it.
The problem with these movies is that while they do a good job of captuing all the action and adventure of the books, they have sacrificed the greater underlying epic themes. This is the end of the third age, the Elves have finally decided to abandon the world they share with the other races. The greatest of the Elvish powers are destroyed with the one ring, and with that they loose their havens of Lothlorien and rivendell.
The greatness of the men of Numenor which was gained from association with the elves of the Blessed Relm (Noldor etc.) is fading, and Aragorn is just a distant echo of how great they were. Soon all in Middle Earth will loose its direct associations the Blessed Relm.
This massive change is underlying all that is going on, giving a bitter-sweet taste of loss to the story. The scouring of the Shire is central to this. The Hobbits must learn to stand without the protection of the Valor and those who undertake their works. Every thing Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin go through leads to this point. They return from death and fire with the maturity to save themselves without help from those wiser and greater.
To leave the scouring of the shire out of the movies, while logical from a film making standpoint (expecially given how the films have to the story to this point) is a tragic ommission, and really amplifies the sacrafices that have been made to the story in order to make the movies. While I personally enjoyed the movies I could not help but cringe when Aragorn behaves like a thug towards Frodo when meeting him, when Arwen replaces Glorfindel at the river, when Gandalf hugs Frodo or when Faramir takes Frodo out of his caves as a prisoner.
And what the hell were those elves doing at helm's Deep??
The BBC radio play does a much better job of telling the story. Check it out some time.
Slashdot Mirror
It is quite amusing to see the expressions on both sides when American IT professionals come over here to talk about setting up systems over WANs. The costs for what most Americans consider minimum requirments are astronomical.
I wish they had just got Apples, that way they have a much diminished chance of getting a virus simply by checking movie times online or whatever. And i would have spent a lot less of my valuable spare time removing viruses or rebuilding PCs
I own a XP machine that I use for gaming, but I use my ibook for important work, as I don't have to patch that nearly as often to keep it safe online.
Guns are so C20th
Here is an idea: take all the money you would spend on the gun and training and administration and spend it on some insurance. Then IF you get mugged you get to say "here you go, enjoy the ipod, I really like the 1st track on the third album, have a nice day" and then upgrade all your gear, your laptop will be 25% faster, larger and generally better and all the crap you have been meaning to delete of the HDD for months will be gone.
This is my point; America tells us they are for goodness and light and then acts in complete contradiction of this. Then majority of Yanks are bewildered as to why the world either mildy dislikes or hates their nation, which they themselves see as an enlightened and benevolent state. This is because they have no idea about all the harm the US has inflicted to the rest of us, and when they do hear about it they are told its for the good of those being harmed. The US propaganda machine is every bit as effective as that of the Chinese. To critisise the UN in the way I initially responded to really is hypocritical.
Someone once told me that the US is the most dangerous country in the world becasue they believe their own bullshit.
I subscribe to Vidal's point of view, shut down your Imperium, bugger off and let the rest of us sort out our own shit.
Unfree regimes? You mean like the US, which is currently suffering under the yoke of militarised corperate feudalism?
Let us talk about freedoms, while the US reverses the preasure it put on the New Zealand government to shut down the Backyard Cruise Missile project illegally.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black; subsitute US for UN and it that sentence still makes perfect sense. At least the UN works (ignoring the security council here) by the concensus of the majority, unlike the nation who has the guy who almost got a concensus of those who can be bothered voting that make up an only just majority of in charge.
Wake up, inspite of the wishes of its people the US is not an enlightened beacon for democracy and civil rights. The way that many Americans believe that they are puts me in mind of the fanatical support the Chinese government gets from its people. Its all a bit boring really.
This VHF solution looks interesting, and in most cases could be a good idea, but some of these kids are 2-3 days 4WD travel from Pt Augusta. I shudder to think how far they are from the exchanges. It might be a silver bullet for the eastern states however with the denser population.
You know you have lost when you have to make it personal.
I believe that the fate of the elves was well communicated given the format of the story. I mentioned the council of Galadriel and Elrond refering to conversations held with them, not the specific council discussion. Both Elrond and Galadriel confide their beliefs in Frodo quietly, not proclaiming them to the world. To do otherwise would be against their nature no matter how convienient it would be for conveying plot elements.
a brief exchange by some characters one sixth of the way through is not enough to establish a major plot element
The fate of the elves is brought up a number of times, and contrary to what you seem to be saying they are poignant moments. I reiterate: These are intelligent books designed for people who are prepared to think about the story, not those who want it all hand feed. Your complaint is baseless
Now consider China, having a different dvd format could be a good way of slowing down pirating from an export/import point of view. We know they are hungry to join the international markets, perhaps this policy is seen as helpful in this respect.
a brief exchange by some characters one sixth of the way through
I am supprised that you find the council of both Elrond and Galadriel brief exchanges, for me these are turning points in the story when much is revealed, as a kid I payed attention to them.
My point is that the story is not depressing just for the heck of it, it is written in a modern style about an epic tale. Epics do have elements of loss and sorrow because they have a greater morale or philosophical point to bring home. To address this in the context of you being a child, it is not a children's story and hardly the fault of the author if you, not being the target audience, lacked the maturity to grasp the point.
The fact is that the books are not at all like a movie, pandering to popular sentiment, leaving the viewer with a nice warm fuzzy feeling at the end. The LOTR and the Silmarillion were based on Epics such as the Ring Cycle, and traditionally in an Epic although the protagonists overcome there is great sacrifice in the achievment. Sorry no warm fuzzy, but at least it will leave you thinking, wondering about what it is to struggle and make sacrifices.
You also mistake the importance of bombadil, he is a strong reminder that they are stepping out of the comfortable, entering into events and places that are strange beyond the limited imaginings of the rustic Hobbits. Powerful too, for no one can master Tom but himself.
This aside bambadil is part of a greater thread in LOTR, and this is the hint of things unknown, Tolkien is a master of this, he uses hints and fragments of the elder days with amazing skill to create a world that has so much more depth than most writers can conjure. Sure you can track down this information by reading the appendixes and the Silmarillion, but you dont need to. Once again it is something that will leave you thinking and pondering, using your own imagination to create things and fill in gaps. Tolkien's work will give you the gift of creativity if you will let it.
The greatness of the men of Numenor which was gained from association with the elves of the Blessed Relm (Noldor etc.) is fading, and Aragorn is just a distant echo of how great they were. Soon all in Middle Earth will loose its direct associations the Blessed Relm.
This massive change is underlying all that is going on, giving a bitter-sweet taste of loss to the story. The scouring of the Shire is central to this. The Hobbits must learn to stand without the protection of the Valor and those who undertake their works. Every thing Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin go through leads to this point. They return from death and fire with the maturity to save themselves without help from those wiser and greater.
To leave the scouring of the shire out of the movies, while logical from a film making standpoint (expecially given how the films have to the story to this point) is a tragic ommission, and really amplifies the sacrafices that have been made to the story in order to make the movies. While I personally enjoyed the movies I could not help but cringe when Aragorn behaves like a thug towards Frodo when meeting him, when Arwen replaces Glorfindel at the river, when Gandalf hugs Frodo or when Faramir takes Frodo out of his caves as a prisoner.
And what the hell were those elves doing at helm's Deep??
The BBC radio play does a much better job of telling the story. Check it out some time.
If Neil Armstrong could recognise that standing on the surface of the moon 34 years ago then why can't you today?
Perhaps he had a better view?