"the line change for Vader from "Bring my shuttle" to "Alert my star destroyer to prepare for my arrival" was a bad idea."
Agreed, for the reasons you mention. Also, he's freakin' DARTH VADER! "Alert my star destroyer for my arrival"? Yeah right. His entire staff would be like terrified meerkats passing the alarm, constantly alerting each and every station sector whenever Vader was about to even pass by, much less arrive at his destination.
You think Patton ever said, "Alert my carrier for my arrival"? You think Genghis Khan ever said "Alert my Horde for my arrival"?
Lucas has the dialog skills of the Zero Wing translation team.
"showing such important changes as the color of Han Solo's jacket before he's frozen in carbonite"
OK, it's official: Someone is in desperate need of a girlfriend.
Tip for first date - don't wear the Y-Wing pilot uniform, try a t-shirt. Also Yoda-speak does not make ladies hot. Unless they're into small green muppets. In which case send me their phone number.
"Apple still cripples the iBook with mirrored-only video. No desktop spanning. The Radeon chipsets they use do support it, but Apple reserves that feature for the Powerbooks"
Actually my G4 iBook (800MHz vintage) does dual display spanning just fine - 1280x1024 on the external, 1024x768 on the iBook's own screen. But I had to void my warranty to do it.
There's a firmware hack that unlocks this. Note that it can be RISKY (read article), but it's been working great for me for nearly a year.
Fantastic little laptop, by the way. I crammed 640MB of RAM into it though. A laptop with less than 512MB RAM (from any vendor) is not seeing its full potential.
"Xbox Media Center Extender allows you to access live TV, plus all your media center content just using one box, other Ethernet (most people already have that or wireless running to their Xbox anyways)."
But this still gets to the issue of Joe Six-Pack using (and with MS's solution) maintaining this interconnected system. It's just too damn complex for the Best Buy/Circuit City crowd.
Clayton Christensen is right, MS is screwing themselves by constantly trying to inject the PC into the equation. Cost, needless complexity, a 12-step solution to a 2-step problem.
Consider what happens when this Media Center PC that is the hub crashes. Virus, worm, Billy installs an ancient game with bad DLLs etc. TiVOs are appliances. A Windows box is damn far from being able to perform as an appliance for the typical consumer. They want to just freakin' watch TV, not worry if they've got their NAT/firewall properly configured and latest updates sorted out.
Bottom Line: From a geek perspective it's an inelegant solution with MS lock-in. From a Joe Six-Pack perspective, it's 3 interconnected devices that need to be hooked up to the TV - and requires maintenance that is demonstrably beyond their abilities.
"Hell, it's just a really complicated replacement of a long stretch of coax."
So Redmond delivers an expensive complicated lock-in solution to take on a generic easily-understood solution. And this is the best they can come up with for Joe Consumer? They are so doomed....
"John Dvorak put it better than I could when he wrote a piece ome time back"
I disagree - that link sounds like more of Dvorak talking out his ass again. Example:
"The closest Christensen comes to a real disruptive technology is digital photography. But it was invented in 1972 and has never been "cheaper" than film."
In what universe? The Land That Time Forgot? My digital camera saved me more than the cost of the camera itself within 6 months of purchasing it! The cost of a 36-exposure roll of film + development really adds up fast.
And that doesn't even factor in the cost advantage of being able to review a shot immediately to know if that rare family reunion pic actually turned out. Not only is digital definitively cheaper in raw dollars, it's far cheaper in terms of recovering from lost/failed photo ops.
Frankly Dvorak has sounded like a tired worn-out gasbag of punditry for over a decade. Maybe two decades - I'll have to check my back-issues of Computer Edge.;-)
"Well, I bet he doesn't have a real girlfriend to write the letter to!"
And future dating prospects are equally bleak when women find out he ended the affair to pursue his newfound love and infatuation with a slightly oily flightless bird that smells of herring.
"Upcomming in the next quarter century is the death of the Baby Boomers. When they start to pass on, they will leave behind more money and jobs than you can possibly imagine. "
So can we just get rid of them now and skip straight to that Golden Age?
"Only the code SCO CURRENTLY says is infringing was tested."
Yes, and what they provided was supposed to be bullet-proof samples of what SCO claimed were clear evidence of copied code. The judge ordered them to offer evidence for IBM to review, not "random snippets" to be replaced by the "REAL" evidence later.
So if that's the best they could produce under the judge's order, SCO are farked. But we already knew that anyway....
I want to see robots that *survive* like a cockroach.
Well, until they turn evil anyway.
Re:Bush on Oil Exploration and Terrorism Then?
on
Bush vs. Kerry on Science
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
"The problem is that when newspapers & TV report on research, they leave out a lot of the qualifiers that we throw in.... Very few people listen to scientists, most listen to journalists."
I completely agree with you. Mainstream "journalism" is in a pretty damn sad state in the U.S. Following the SCO coverage alone was sad enough. They just parrot whatever they're handed in a press release. They don't ask the hard questions. They drop qualifiers for sexy headlines, turn complex issues into "News McNuggets". They don't pin down politicians and suits even when they're spouting the most obvious of lies or misconceptions.
Journalism in America is dead. Now it's all just one giant "Access Hollywood" sham. So much for the Fourth Estate.
Re:Bush on Oil Exploration and Terrorism Then?
on
Bush vs. Kerry on Science
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
"Actually, I think you reinforced his point quite well.
I think the thrust of the comment was that stem cell research is not a panacea, does not promise to be a panacea, and is certainly not the only way to find cures for these diseases."
I left implicit what should have been made explicit. The examples I chose were topics near and dear to Bush's policies, to prove that by his own login on stem cell research, his energy and defense pet projects are equally pointless. That was explicit, and meant to illustrate how Bush's views on the matter are easily demonstrated to be rather silly.
What I left implicit was that the fact that Bush and crew are stating that stem cell research is "claimed" to be a panacea, and therefore is overblown. In reality (admittedly unfamiliar turf for the Bush administration) stem cell researchers are very careful to point out that it is NOT a panacea, but a VERY promising line of research.
Bush sets up the straw man ("they say it's a panacea and due any day now") then knocks it down. In his Black/White Me/Terrorists binary world maybe that's the only way he is capable of looking at it. But it's patently false.
"It's the people who will be diagnosed with these problems ten years from now that will benefit."
Errrr... yeah, so don't bother researching it! Screw those folks who will be diagnosed 10 years from now! We didn't have a cure so neither should they! If we can't have it NOW then nobody should get it!
Great.
"So, don't lead the afflicted on, thinking that this research will benefit them"
Can you PLEASE tell me WHO exactly are making these claims of instant gratification right around the corner? Because I've never heard it from reputable scientists in the field. Only from Bush operatives trying to justify religion interfering with basic research. Basic research, by the way, that will be perfected by other countries long before the U.S. at this rate.
"Bush makes it quite clear that people should stop thinking of stem cell research as a solution to all medical problems, and especially NOW, at the current time, we shouldn't be giving false hope to people who have recently been diagnosed."
Let's turn that around, shall we? Replace "oil exploration" with "stem cell research".
Bush makes it quite clear that people should stop thinking of [oil exploration] as a solution to all [energy] problems, and especially NOW, at the current time, we shouldn't be giving false hope to people who have recently been [paying jacked-up oil prices].
One more time, with "ballistic missile defense system".
Bush makes it quite clear that people should stop thinking of [the ballistic missile defense system] as a solution to all [national security] problems, and especially NOW, at the current time, we shouldn't be giving false hope to people who have recently been [attacked by terrorists]
See, when you divorce the logic from the religious dogma held by some re: stem cell research, it's sounds incredibly stupid doesn't it?
"From what I saw - to upgrade to a newer release - Firefox has to be uninstalled and then re-installed"
I just upgraded from Firefox 0.9 to 1.0PR without uninstalling. Working great. And even with the Mozilla vulnerabilities I worry far less than if I was running IE.
All of my friends, most of my co-workers and family are now running Firefox. It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than praying to YourDiety.Name() everytime you start up IE.
If you're not 100% sold on Firefox then try Opera, but get them off of IE as soon as you can.
Slashdot Mirror
"there must be some other reason why the ladies aren't all over me. "
Have you tried wearing a "Han Shot First" t-shirt?
"the line change for Vader from "Bring my shuttle" to "Alert my star destroyer to prepare for my arrival" was a bad idea."
Agreed, for the reasons you mention. Also, he's freakin' DARTH VADER! "Alert my star destroyer for my arrival"? Yeah right. His entire staff would be like terrified meerkats passing the alarm, constantly alerting each and every station sector whenever Vader was about to even pass by, much less arrive at his destination.
You think Patton ever said, "Alert my carrier for my arrival"? You think Genghis Khan ever said "Alert my Horde for my arrival"?
Lucas has the dialog skills of the Zero Wing translation team.
"Kissing leads to sucking, sucking leads to screwing, screwing leads to cum-ming!"
ROTFLMOA! I read that in "Yoda Voice" and damn near spewed coffee across my keyboard!
I'll never see that scene the same again. :-)
"maybe George Lucas can use his magic movie editing powers for good instead of evil."
He could, except that he's evil.
What we need now is for his apprentice to throw him over the edge into the Death Star 2.0's core, and restore balance to the Force.
"showing such important changes as the color of Han Solo's jacket before he's frozen in carbonite"
OK, it's official: Someone is in desperate need of a girlfriend.
Tip for first date - don't wear the Y-Wing pilot uniform, try a t-shirt. Also Yoda-speak does not make ladies hot. Unless they're into small green muppets. In which case send me their phone number.
"Apple still cripples the iBook with mirrored-only video. No desktop spanning. The Radeon chipsets they use do support it, but Apple reserves that feature for the Powerbooks"
Actually my G4 iBook (800MHz vintage) does dual display spanning just fine - 1280x1024 on the external, 1024x768 on the iBook's own screen. But I had to void my warranty to do it.
There's a firmware hack that unlocks this. Note that it can be RISKY (read article), but it's been working great for me for nearly a year.
Fantastic little laptop, by the way. I crammed 640MB of RAM into it though. A laptop with less than 512MB RAM (from any vendor) is not seeing its full potential.
"Xbox Media Center Extender allows you to access live TV, plus all your media center content just using one box, other Ethernet (most people already have that or wireless running to their Xbox anyways)."
But this still gets to the issue of Joe Six-Pack using (and with MS's solution) maintaining this interconnected system. It's just too damn complex for the Best Buy/Circuit City crowd.
Clayton Christensen is right, MS is screwing themselves by constantly trying to inject the PC into the equation. Cost, needless complexity, a 12-step solution to a 2-step problem.
Consider what happens when this Media Center PC that is the hub crashes. Virus, worm, Billy installs an ancient game with bad DLLs etc. TiVOs are appliances. A Windows box is damn far from being able to perform as an appliance for the typical consumer. They want to just freakin' watch TV, not worry if they've got their NAT/firewall properly configured and latest updates sorted out.
Bottom Line: From a geek perspective it's an inelegant solution with MS lock-in. From a Joe Six-Pack perspective, it's 3 interconnected devices that need to be hooked up to the TV - and requires maintenance that is demonstrably beyond their abilities.
Doomed.
"Hell, it's just a really complicated replacement of a long stretch of coax."
So Redmond delivers an expensive complicated lock-in solution to take on a generic easily-understood solution. And this is the best they can come up with for Joe Consumer? They are so doomed....
(Drums of Doom begin pounding in the distance...)
"Microsoft is gearing up to compete directly with the TIVO DVR market with a product that will have a huge market penetration"
That is, for those who purchase/own an Xbox, a Windows Media Center edition machine, and this new gadget on top of it all.
Or I can just get a TiVO? Cripes! Who wants three MS boxes chained together (cross your fingers) just to get TiVO functionality?
Smells like another money-losing venture for MS.
"John Dvorak put it better than I could when he wrote a piece ome time back"
I disagree - that link sounds like more of Dvorak talking out his ass again. Example:
"The closest Christensen comes to a real disruptive technology is digital photography. But it was invented in 1972 and has never been "cheaper" than film."
In what universe? The Land That Time Forgot? My digital camera saved me more than the cost of the camera itself within 6 months of purchasing it! The cost of a 36-exposure roll of film + development really adds up fast.
And that doesn't even factor in the cost advantage of being able to review a shot immediately to know if that rare family reunion pic actually turned out. Not only is digital definitively cheaper in raw dollars, it's far cheaper in terms of recovering from lost/failed photo ops.
Frankly Dvorak has sounded like a tired worn-out gasbag of punditry for over a decade. Maybe two decades - I'll have to check my back-issues of Computer Edge. ;-)
"screams "I'm a Democrat, I hate Republicans!" to me."
I know. Reality is SO freakin' biased. Why do the facts hate Bush and his followers? Why oh why? There should be a law!
The scary thing is that at this rate I could actually see one being created:
The RightThink Homeland Defense Act - "Because only a terrorist would question the President's motives!"
"Of course this regime would respond to a Digital Pearl Harbor by invading Mexico."
To make the analogy complete, they'd invade Apple HQ and deride OSX's "lack of security" after an uberSasser++ attack on Windows.
"I can't quite envision how an inflatable object would behave in zero-G."
I can guarantee Larry Flynt will provide the answer in an exlusive photo spread. ;-)
Seriously though, it will behave the same as any other object.
" but in a vacuum, presumably explosion would be quite a difficult problem."
Not with the proper materials and a good compartmentalized design. Try not to think of it like a birthday balloon. Completely different stuff.
"Yet another reason for me to ignore people who start a sentence with 'yet another reason'."
Irony, meet NanoGator. NanoGator, meet irony. I'll leave you two alone to get acquainted now.
"where is ratbert's toidy?"
Being a rat, anywhere he chooses.
"I may not be smart, but I'm aerodynamic!" -Ratbert
"Well, I bet he doesn't have a real girlfriend to write the letter to!"
And future dating prospects are equally bleak when women find out he ended the affair to pursue his newfound love and infatuation with a slightly oily flightless bird that smells of herring.
(They sure are cuddly at night though...)
"Upcomming in the next quarter century is the death of the Baby Boomers. When they start to pass on, they will leave behind more money and jobs than you can possibly imagine. "
So can we just get rid of them now and skip straight to that Golden Age?
"Only the code SCO CURRENTLY says is infringing was tested."
Yes, and what they provided was supposed to be bullet-proof samples of what SCO claimed were clear evidence of copied code. The judge ordered them to offer evidence for IBM to review, not "random snippets" to be replaced by the "REAL" evidence later.
So if that's the best they could produce under the judge's order, SCO are farked. But we already knew that anyway....
I want to see robots that *survive* like a cockroach.
Well, until they turn evil anyway.
"The problem is that when newspapers & TV report on research, they leave out a lot of the qualifiers that we throw in.
I completely agree with you. Mainstream "journalism" is in a pretty damn sad state in the U.S. Following the SCO coverage alone was sad enough. They just parrot whatever they're handed in a press release. They don't ask the hard questions. They drop qualifiers for sexy headlines, turn complex issues into "News McNuggets". They don't pin down politicians and suits even when they're spouting the most obvious of lies or misconceptions.
Journalism in America is dead. Now it's all just one giant "Access Hollywood" sham. So much for the Fourth Estate.
"Actually, I think you reinforced his point quite well. I think the thrust of the comment was that stem cell research is not a panacea, does not promise to be a panacea, and is certainly not the only way to find cures for these diseases."
I left implicit what should have been made explicit. The examples I chose were topics near and dear to Bush's policies, to prove that by his own login on stem cell research, his energy and defense pet projects are equally pointless. That was explicit, and meant to illustrate how Bush's views on the matter are easily demonstrated to be rather silly.
What I left implicit was that the fact that Bush and crew are stating that stem cell research is "claimed" to be a panacea, and therefore is overblown. In reality (admittedly unfamiliar turf for the Bush administration) stem cell researchers are very careful to point out that it is NOT a panacea, but a VERY promising line of research.
Bush sets up the straw man ("they say it's a panacea and due any day now") then knocks it down. In his Black/White Me/Terrorists binary world maybe that's the only way he is capable of looking at it. But it's patently false.
"It's the people who will be diagnosed with these problems ten years from now that will benefit."
Errrr... yeah, so don't bother researching it! Screw those folks who will be diagnosed 10 years from now! We didn't have a cure so neither should they! If we can't have it NOW then nobody should get it!
Great.
"So, don't lead the afflicted on, thinking that this research will benefit them"
Can you PLEASE tell me WHO exactly are making these claims of instant gratification right around the corner? Because I've never heard it from reputable scientists in the field. Only from Bush operatives trying to justify religion interfering with basic research. Basic research, by the way, that will be perfected by other countries long before the U.S. at this rate.
"Bush makes it quite clear that people should stop thinking of stem cell research as a solution to all medical problems, and especially NOW, at the current time, we shouldn't be giving false hope to people who have recently been diagnosed."
Let's turn that around, shall we? Replace "oil exploration" with "stem cell research".
Bush makes it quite clear that people should stop thinking of [oil exploration] as a solution to all [energy] problems, and especially NOW, at the current time, we shouldn't be giving false hope to people who have recently been [paying jacked-up oil prices].
One more time, with "ballistic missile defense system".
Bush makes it quite clear that people should stop thinking of [the ballistic missile defense system] as a solution to all [national security] problems, and especially NOW, at the current time, we shouldn't be giving false hope to people who have recently been [attacked by terrorists]
See, when you divorce the logic from the religious dogma held by some re: stem cell research, it's sounds incredibly stupid doesn't it?
"Sniperdermic Needles"
These guys are way ahead of you. :-)
"As a counterexample, what about "The Phantom Edit"?"
Once again proving that post-release edits come from both the Dark and the Light side.
"From what I saw - to upgrade to a newer release - Firefox has to be uninstalled and then re-installed"
I just upgraded from Firefox 0.9 to 1.0PR without uninstalling. Working great. And even with the Mozilla vulnerabilities I worry far less than if I was running IE.
All of my friends, most of my co-workers and family are now running Firefox. It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than praying to YourDiety.Name() everytime you start up IE.
If you're not 100% sold on Firefox then try Opera, but get them off of IE as soon as you can.