Seriously, how many reboots have been good, ever ? I can count them on one hand: BSG, Smallville, um, er... I absolutely agree: Doing something new would be a much, much better idea.
BSG was really well done if you can ignore the ending: When they got to Earth and found it was devasted, that was inspired. Then we should have seen Bill Adama wandering around the beach they visited, cut to Colonel Tigh saying "Frak!", the end. Would have been a whole lot better then the mish mash they cobbled together afterwards.
Batman Begins was like a reboot of a reboot. The first Tim Burton one was good but I didn't like the Joker that much. After that it got dull very quickly, the scriptwriters seemed to forget what kind of character he is. Jump forward to the reboot; well it's not bad but I was really hoping to see how Bruce Wayne became Batman. Instead, he disappears to China and all of a sudden he is a pretty good fighter and all round tough guy who just needs a bit of ninja training.
Superman Returns was pants. Should have been a Smallville movie. Or not. Anyway, any one episode of Smallville is 10x better than that movie. Star Trek TNG was good if you consider it a reboot; but Enterprise, not so good. What were they thinking ? And we all know what happened with the Star Wars reboots: Han didn't shoot first, WTF ?
I think the reboot I am least looking forward to is Predator. It's going to be difficult for them not to ruin a classic movie. One reboot that might be good, is Tron, but only because the original was too ambitious.
The music industry is morally bankrupt. Perhaps from the phoenix of a music apocalypse we can move on to something better: artists who are respected and supported, new talent nurtured and the people allowed to enjoy music without hassle.
I managed to buy my mp3 player before an "iPod tax" was introduced. Every single mp3 I have is ripped from my very own paid for CDs. I prefer CDs as they are better quality and have no compression artefacts; mp3 players are for music on the go. Why the hell should I pay a tax to compensate for something I haven't stolen ?
The fact is that 90% of the world's iPods are owned by 12-16 year olds with no disposable income to use to buy mp3s, but they can afford $150 of mp3 player and $400 smart phones. Something doesn't add up. Oh wait, perhaps it has something to with how the music industry has stifled talent, spent all the budget on manufactured boy/girl bands to up their profits, and now they're scared they've raided the cookie jar too many times and there is nothing left.
Let me put it this way: fscking Pop Idol and X Factor - no one is downloading mp3s of those "artists" to put on their iPod. Someone should tell the record companies straight: the days of mega sales are over, they were over 20 years ago. If you move to $0.99 an album and actually support your artists (real ones) then perhaps there is a chance of saving your industry.
While we're at it, someone should go over and explain it to Peter Mandelson and Lily Allen. Making ISPs cops and going after people who love music isn't going to help your cause.
I do not condone copying music, IMHO downloading something to preview it is not stealing, as long as you delete it or buy it within a reasonably short time frame; also mp3s (inferior quality and downloaded at users' expense) should not cost as much as a CD album (superior quality on a physical medium).
It's more likely that the BBC is being leant on by other content providers (like US networks) that it licences shows such as Heroes from, as well as movies it screens.
Have you ever actually tried to use this "iplayer" that you talk about ? I suggest you take a look at it: iplayer.
There are very few, if any, licensed shows from other networks. There are very few movies from other networks or other countries. In fact it only lists 7 movies, ever.
I think that's a false statement. I would bet there are some of the population wagering that if the BBC could encrypt the signal in some way, then they could better control one of the few revenues they have (aside from the taxpayer). That being DVD sales and sales to a vast amount of the world--namely everyone who is not British.
This is where you are totally wrong on two points.
1. There is not a legion of foreign people living in the UK solely to rip BBC produced shows to sell to other countries illegally. The majority of people downloading BBC shows via P2P are British people who live/travel to other countries who have no other access. The iplayer is not available outside of the UK. Restricting access like this only hurts the people who have the right to access the content, as is the case with the majority of DRM and DVD region coding systems.
2. The BBC is funded by the TV licence system not taxpayers. This raises another two issues of my own:
a. The BBC should be funded by taxpayers with a simple small addition to existing taxes. This would be far cheaper and easier to collect than the current "we hunt you down if you don't pay" system.
b. The BBC should exist to provide 1. unbiased news and educational services, 2. to the British people only. The current remit seems to be "become a world TV service" with countless digital channels, dramas and documentaries. If this were the case then the suggested tax would be far smaller than the TV licence. The top priority should be providing TV to Britain, not making DVD sales.
Would be nice if it actually worked. It's not much good having the fastest desktop computer in the world if it isn't stable. Or are they using the Dilbert definition of a PC upgrade ?
Next time, make the fancy video when it's finished guys.
As you probably realised, it's full of heavily opinionated articles usually aimed at more malleable/lower middle intelligence people; including celebrity gossip and trivia. A lot of the news it publishes is true, however, they also have articles of the type "Is my cat psychic?". If some news is exclusively reported in the Daily Mail you start to question it's veracity or quality, I know that in this case the news was also reported in other sources.
You fools! Stop wasting your time debating liberty and freedom of speech.
This is clearly a cunning plan. Now the terrorists think they know which nationalities are not checked and how to beat the scanners they will swarm into the country. However, super intelligent TSA operatives will spot them a mile away and arrest the lot.
I guess the plan was too good; you all bought into it.
Seriously though, think about it: Any big company that does research rewards their staff; some guy thinks he can get a fleetingly novel implementation of a graph accepted by USPTO. Managers ask him (as he is the expert) if he thinks it will fly, he says yes, of course. If it's accepted he gets a few hundred $$$ bonus and a line on his resume.
USPTO's job is not to knock down bad patents; it's job is to generate money for US.gov by selling monopolies on technology. USPTO *want* to give the patent if they possibly can but they have to put it through a review procedure to cover their asses.
If the patent is accepted then it will be published and we can all go about looking for a workaround.
It's a graph and it's small. I think Tufte's point is that small graphs can communicate information without the cruft of detailed axes, labels and so on.
However, this is not a new idea. It has been reinvented by every 7 year old learning how to draw a graph, to be howled at by a teacher for not adding useful detailed axes, labels and so on.
If you read Tufte's website though you may get the impression that it's a brand new idea.
So we have an individual who was using work assets...
I challenge you to deny that you have ever checked a web page, email or anything not work related whilst using "work assets". Have you ever made a personal call with your cell phone while at work or looked at the screen to see whose call you missed or what the start of a message says ? Same thing - maybe you have it coming too.
he quit on the spot... or so says the story, but that's irrelevant anyways. The guy had it coming.
That is totally relevant. I would also quit on the spot any job where my boss goes on a witch hunt for something so minor. Sheesh, talk about trying to see things in perspective. Did he bring the name of the school into disrepute - no, he was posting anonymously, he did not post any identifying information. Did he post any personal information about himself or any member of staff or pupil - no. So his boss was also guilty of blowing it out of proportion.
Greenbaum is obviously an asshole; just "happened to spot the IP address was that of a local school". Yeah, right. He should get a life.
I am requesting a URL that exists on a server. The server is redirecting me to another URL on a different server due to my location. It is not a version of the same document in a different language or a location specific version of the same document. It is a totally different document.
Why can't I have the information that I asked for ?
And why am I getting a HTTP status of "here you go" instead of "we decided that you wanted this instead" ? This is why geolocation is being abused.
Sure, determining a browser's location from the DNS client source IP is not totally reliable.. but it is accurate enough to significantly improve user-visible responsiveness
I disagree.
Getting the wrong web page is not helpful. For example, go to Japan and look up some big name website, e.g. google.com and you get it localized into Japanese. I didn't want google.co.jp, I wanted google.com. How does DNS know what language I speak ?
Many, many times I tried to look up the website of a big American or European company while in Japan and I could only get the the Japanese language version. No matter which page I tried to get brain dead websites trust DNS absolutely and always redirect to a Japanese language page. Japanese friends have these same problems all the time. One friend wanted to buy something from an American company and get it shipped but he simply couldn't check out the specification because they had closed their local operation and all requests originating from Japan were redirected to the local website apologizing for closing their local store.
These examples are not isolated; users in other countries must suffer similar problems. Stop abusing DNS is the answer.
Well actually, the article makes this claim that it was not mainstream "because it didn't catch on". So how does the author know that the Acer will catch on ?
The Sharp laptops were marketed as general consumer products (hence they had XGA displays because it was thought gamers would be happy with that resolution). The article is also misleading.
The article says that this is the first "mainstream" 3D laptop. In what sense was a laptop by a major electronics goods manufacturer not mainstream ? There was also a second Sharp model, the AL-3D. Aren't 2 generations of laptop enough to be considered out there ?
Neither of the Sharp laptops needed glasses, they were autostereoscopic.
The majority of phones that I have used required some special set up to use MMS and GPRS; usually sending a SMS to register for those services then receiving a message back containing automatically installing settings. Apparently server config for SMS is installed on the SIM as standard but set up for MMS/GPRS/etc was never standardised. I think that's the big reason why so many people don't use MMS, if you ignore the pricing.
No doubt Apple will add appropriate config in the os for the few networks iphone is officially available for.
It's interesting how you've structured this comment to try to avoid the point you are disagreeing with. The point is, that with every other phone MMS is overpriced and hence has not taken off. Just because the iphone has a price plan that includes unlimited MMS doesn't stop it being overpriced for the "time before iphone" (remember, there was a time before the iphone existed).
I'd argue that for many Americans on this site (possibly even the majority of slashdot users), learning about widely held opinions in Europe may certainly qualify as interesting.
I'd argue that any Americans reading have only learned about your prejudices. Widely held opinions or not, that doesn't make hate interesting. Why are you so concerned about educating Americans about who hates the Brits ? And why do you think slashdot is the place to do that ?
Translation: Poor virtuous Britain is being persecuted by irrational continentals. That's certainly a snarky response
If you keep twisting my words you can make anything you like. Why don't you enlighten us to what treaties or agreements the UK has broken ?
Does it truly explain the UK's marginalisation in the EU?
What marginalisation ? The UK is an active member of the EU just like any other member. If you don't want the UK to be a member then petition your government to do something about it but it's pretty childish to post on slashdot "Everyone hates the UK, didn't you know?"
I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but if you have no answers, perhaps you shouldn't just dismiss the questions?
There were no questions, no argument, just bile and prejudice. And you have now confirmed your own.
It's "interesting" because it reflects a widely held view of Britain and the British people throughout the European continent. It's not "flamebait" for the same reason.
Having a widely held view does not make that opinion interesting or less provocative.
The post does not have an argument it is purely hostile. As I said before, EU treaties were all negotiated and signed by more than one party. If the original poster is unhappy with this he should ask the politicians of his country to negotiate differently and not sign treaties his people don't want !
I'm not sure how to defend against something that lacks an argument. AFAIK Britain has kept to her end of all the EU treaties she has signed, or is that defined as "perfidious" ?
The only other thing I can say is that the British people do not identify with this idea that they are clinging on to the remnants of their empire. As far as they are concerned the British Empire is a relic of history books. It seems that it is the rest of the EU that need to get over it. Do I need to defend that too ?
UK (both government and population) behaves like stubborn child, like the black sheep. It does not want to adopt Euro, fully implement Schengen Treaty, European Charter of Human Rights, etc. [.....] Yet they want to rip all the benefits of the common market.
Show me an EU member country that is doing any different. They all act for their own benefits, none of them are selfless.
All countries have negotiated these treaties and agreements, are you saying other countries were unfairly forced to sign and the UK somehow cheated ?
Many of their politicians still behave like 100 years ago when they were a global empire, now the empire is gone and they just pay the price of arrogance
Examples ? Links ? Facts ?
How does this flame bait get modded "Interesting" ?
Yes, you know so little that your computer is unquestionably infected and is probably churning out millions of spam viagra emails in German as you read this.
Here is the procedure you should follow:
1. Disconnect your zombie computer from the internet (pull out the network cable, switch off wi-fi) 2. Learn something about how computers connect to the internet, computer security and viruses 3. Make sure your computer is clean and as secure as you can make it 4. Reconnect to the internet
If step 2 does not take you several weeks then you should start step 2 again.
Cause we all know that Google software starts out at version 1.0.
I see things differently. Who said version numbers have to start at 1 and increment by a positive integer value. How about Fibonacci series numbering or using imaginary numbers ?
Maybe the OP should start at version 4 then go to 5, 6 then back to 1. It worked for Star Wars, didn't it ?
I think this kind of post title, "Linux is now an equal Flash player"
is irresponsible. Please tell me where to download the PPC flash plugin for
Firefox. I'm running Linux PPC, OpenSUSE for cripes sake.
Not some home made distro, SUSE! We've never had flash.
Linux isn't only x86 y'know, all it would take is a source code tar ball and I could
compile it. Thanks.
Now I could be wrong, but I thought all the 9/11 bombers were legally allowed to be where they were, and were using valid documents?
Why let the truth get in the way of a good wheeze to spend more money watching your citizens ?
My understanding is that most Muslim suicide bombers carry correct ID with them so that they can be properly identified for the sake of their families and martyred. I never understood the draw of spending eternity with 72 virgins - don't they quickly become uh non-virgins ?
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, how many reboots have been good, ever ? I can count them on one hand: BSG, Smallville, um, er... I absolutely agree: Doing something new would be a much, much better idea.
BSG was really well done if you can ignore the ending: When they got to Earth and found it was devasted, that was inspired. Then we should have seen Bill Adama wandering around the beach they visited, cut to Colonel Tigh saying "Frak!", the end. Would have been a whole lot better then the mish mash they cobbled together afterwards.
Batman Begins was like a reboot of a reboot. The first Tim Burton one was good but I didn't like the Joker that much. After that it got dull very quickly, the scriptwriters seemed to forget what kind of character he is. Jump forward to the reboot; well it's not bad but I was really hoping to see how Bruce Wayne became Batman. Instead, he disappears to China and all of a sudden he is a pretty good fighter and all round tough guy who just needs a bit of ninja training.
Superman Returns was pants. Should have been a Smallville movie. Or not. Anyway, any one episode of Smallville is 10x better than that movie. Star Trek TNG was good if you consider it a reboot; but Enterprise, not so good. What were they thinking ? And we all know what happened with the Star Wars reboots: Han didn't shoot first, WTF ?
I think the reboot I am least looking forward to is Predator. It's going to be difficult for them not to ruin a classic movie. One reboot that might be good, is Tron, but only because the original was too ambitious.
For those of us who aren't American, can someone please translate "Holiday Season" ?
Christmas ? Easter ? Spring break ? Summer ?
Thanks!
The music industry is morally bankrupt. Perhaps from the phoenix of a music apocalypse we can move on to something better: artists who are respected and supported, new talent nurtured and the people allowed to enjoy music without hassle.
I managed to buy my mp3 player before an "iPod tax" was introduced. Every single mp3 I have is ripped from my very own paid for CDs. I prefer CDs as they are better quality and have no compression artefacts; mp3 players are for music on the go. Why the hell should I pay a tax to compensate for something I haven't stolen ?
The fact is that 90% of the world's iPods are owned by 12-16 year olds with no disposable income to use to buy mp3s, but they can afford $150 of mp3 player and $400 smart phones. Something doesn't add up. Oh wait, perhaps it has something to with how the music industry has stifled talent, spent all the budget on manufactured boy/girl bands to up their profits, and now they're scared they've raided the cookie jar too many times and there is nothing left.
Let me put it this way: fscking Pop Idol and X Factor - no one is downloading mp3s of those "artists" to put on their iPod. Someone should tell the record companies straight: the days of mega sales are over, they were over 20 years ago. If you move to $0.99 an album and actually support your artists (real ones) then perhaps there is a chance of saving your industry.
While we're at it, someone should go over and explain it to Peter Mandelson and Lily Allen. Making ISPs cops and going after people who love music isn't going to help your cause.
I do not condone copying music, IMHO downloading something to preview it is not stealing, as long as you delete it or buy it within a reasonably short time frame; also mp3s (inferior quality and downloaded at users' expense) should not cost as much as a CD album (superior quality on a physical medium).
Have you ever actually tried to use this "iplayer" that you talk about ? I suggest you take a look at it: iplayer.
There are very few, if any, licensed shows from other networks. There are very few movies from other networks or other countries. In fact it only lists 7 movies, ever.
This is where you are totally wrong on two points.
1. There is not a legion of foreign people living in the UK solely to rip BBC produced shows to sell to other countries illegally. The majority of people downloading BBC shows via P2P are British people who live/travel to other countries who have no other access. The iplayer is not available outside of the UK. Restricting access like this only hurts the people who have the right to access the content, as is the case with the majority of DRM and DVD region coding systems.
2. The BBC is funded by the TV licence system not taxpayers. This raises another two issues of my own:
a. The BBC should be funded by taxpayers with a simple small addition to existing taxes. This would be far cheaper and easier to collect than the current "we hunt you down if you don't pay" system.
b. The BBC should exist to provide 1. unbiased news and educational services, 2. to the British people only. The current remit seems to be "become a world TV service" with countless digital channels, dramas and documentaries. If this were the case then the suggested tax would be far smaller than the TV licence. The top priority should be providing TV to Britain, not making DVD sales.
Would be nice if it actually worked. It's not much good having the fastest desktop computer in the world if it isn't stable. Or are they using the Dilbert definition of a PC upgrade ?
Next time, make the fancy video when it's finished guys.
As you probably realised, it's full of heavily opinionated articles usually aimed at more malleable/lower middle intelligence people; including celebrity gossip and trivia. A lot of the news it publishes is true, however, they also have articles of the type "Is my cat psychic?". If some news is exclusively reported in the Daily Mail you start to question it's veracity or quality, I know that in this case the news was also reported in other sources.
You fools! Stop wasting your time debating liberty and freedom of speech.
This is clearly a cunning plan. Now the terrorists think they know which nationalities are not checked and how to beat the scanners they will swarm into the country. However, super intelligent TSA operatives will spot them a mile away and arrest the lot.
I guess the plan was too good; you all bought into it.
It's the only way that makes sense.
The Daily Mail ? That bastion of truth ?
It was quite a good summary until that link got added; to what ? Improve the quality ? This isn't Wikipedia you know. And no, I'm not new here.
US Patent System messed up, movie at 11.
Seriously though, think about it: Any big company that does research rewards their staff; some guy thinks he can get a fleetingly novel implementation of a graph accepted by USPTO. Managers ask him (as he is the expert) if he thinks it will fly, he says yes, of course. If it's accepted he gets a few hundred $$$ bonus and a line on his resume.
USPTO's job is not to knock down bad patents; it's job is to generate money for US.gov by selling monopolies on technology. USPTO *want* to give the patent if they possibly can but they have to put it through a review procedure to cover their asses.
If the patent is accepted then it will be published and we can all go about looking for a workaround.
It's a graph and it's small. I think Tufte's point is that small graphs can communicate information without the cruft of detailed axes, labels and so on.
However, this is not a new idea. It has been reinvented by every 7 year old learning how to draw a graph, to be howled at by a teacher for not adding useful detailed axes, labels and so on.
If you read Tufte's website though you may get the impression that it's a brand new idea.
I challenge you to deny that you have ever checked a web page, email or anything not work related whilst using "work assets". Have you ever made a personal call with your cell phone while at work or looked at the screen to see whose call you missed or what the start of a message says ? Same thing - maybe you have it coming too.
That is totally relevant. I would also quit on the spot any job where my boss goes on a witch hunt for something so minor. Sheesh, talk about trying to see things in perspective. Did he bring the name of the school into disrepute - no, he was posting anonymously, he did not post any identifying information. Did he post any personal information about himself or any member of staff or pupil - no. So his boss was also guilty of blowing it out of proportion.
Greenbaum is obviously an asshole; just "happened to spot the IP address was that of a local school". Yeah, right. He should get a life.
By the way. Pussy.
You are missing the point.
I am requesting a URL that exists on a server. The server is redirecting me to another URL on a different server due to my location. It is not a version of the same document in a different language or a location specific version of the same document. It is a totally different document.
Why can't I have the information that I asked for ?
And why am I getting a HTTP status of "here you go" instead of "we decided that you wanted this instead" ? This is why geolocation is being abused.
I disagree.
Getting the wrong web page is not helpful. For example, go to Japan and look up some big name website, e.g. google.com and you get it localized into Japanese. I didn't want google.co.jp, I wanted google.com. How does DNS know what language I speak ?
Many, many times I tried to look up the website of a big American or European company while in Japan and I could only get the the Japanese language version. No matter which page I tried to get brain dead websites trust DNS absolutely and always redirect to a Japanese language page. Japanese friends have these same problems all the time. One friend wanted to buy something from an American company and get it shipped but he simply couldn't check out the specification because they had closed their local operation and all requests originating from Japan were redirected to the local website apologizing for closing their local store.
These examples are not isolated; users in other countries must suffer similar problems. Stop abusing DNS is the answer.
Well actually, the article makes this claim that it was not mainstream "because it didn't catch on". So how does the author know that the Acer will catch on ? The Sharp laptops were marketed as general consumer products (hence they had XGA displays because it was thought gamers would be happy with that resolution). The article is also misleading.
The article says that this is the first "mainstream" 3D laptop. In what sense was a laptop by a major electronics goods manufacturer not mainstream ? There was also a second Sharp model, the AL-3D. Aren't 2 generations of laptop enough to be considered out there ? Neither of the Sharp laptops needed glasses, they were autostereoscopic.
The majority of phones that I have used required some special set up to use MMS and GPRS; usually sending a SMS to register for those services then receiving a message back containing automatically installing settings. Apparently server config for SMS is installed on the SIM as standard but set up for MMS/GPRS/etc was never standardised. I think that's the big reason why so many people don't use MMS, if you ignore the pricing.
No doubt Apple will add appropriate config in the os for the few networks iphone is officially available for.
It's interesting how you've structured this comment to try to avoid the point you are disagreeing with. The point is, that with every other phone MMS is overpriced and hence has not taken off. Just because the iphone has a price plan that includes unlimited MMS doesn't stop it being overpriced for the "time before iphone" (remember, there was a time before the iphone existed).
I'd argue that any Americans reading have only learned about your prejudices. Widely held opinions or not, that doesn't make hate interesting. Why are you so concerned about educating Americans about who hates the Brits ? And why do you think slashdot is the place to do that ?
If you keep twisting my words you can make anything you like. Why don't you enlighten us to what treaties or agreements the UK has broken ?
What marginalisation ? The UK is an active member of the EU just like any other member. If you don't want the UK to be a member then petition your government to do something about it but it's pretty childish to post on slashdot "Everyone hates the UK, didn't you know?"
There were no questions, no argument, just bile and prejudice. And you have now confirmed your own.
Having a widely held view does not make that opinion interesting or less provocative.
The post does not have an argument it is purely hostile. As I said before, EU treaties were all negotiated and signed by more than one party. If the original poster is unhappy with this he should ask the politicians of his country to negotiate differently and not sign treaties his people don't want !
I'm not sure how to defend against something that lacks an argument. AFAIK Britain has kept to her end of all the EU treaties she has signed, or is that defined as "perfidious" ?
The only other thing I can say is that the British people do not identify with this idea that they are clinging on to the remnants of their empire. As far as they are concerned the British Empire is a relic of history books. It seems that it is the rest of the EU that need to get over it. Do I need to defend that too ?
Show me an EU member country that is doing any different. They all act for their own benefits, none of them are selfless. All countries have negotiated these treaties and agreements, are you saying other countries were unfairly forced to sign and the UK somehow cheated ?
Examples ? Links ? Facts ?
How does this flame bait get modded "Interesting" ?
Yes, you know so little that your computer is unquestionably infected and is probably churning out millions of spam viagra emails in German as you read this.
Here is the procedure you should follow:
1. Disconnect your zombie computer from the internet (pull out the network cable, switch off wi-fi)
2. Learn something about how computers connect to the internet, computer security and viruses
3. Make sure your computer is clean and as secure as you can make it
4. Reconnect to the internet
If step 2 does not take you several weeks then you should start step 2 again.
Cause we all know that Google software starts out at version 1.0.
I see things differently. Who said version numbers have to start at 1 and increment by a positive integer value. How about Fibonacci series numbering or using imaginary numbers ?
Maybe the OP should start at version 4 then go to 5, 6 then back to 1. It worked for Star Wars, didn't it ?
I think this kind of post title, "Linux is now an equal Flash player" is irresponsible. Please tell me where to download the PPC flash plugin for Firefox. I'm running Linux PPC, OpenSUSE for cripes sake. Not some home made distro, SUSE! We've never had flash.
Linux isn't only x86 y'know, all it would take is a source code tar ball and I could compile it. Thanks.
Why let the truth get in the way of a good wheeze to spend more money watching your citizens ?
My understanding is that most Muslim suicide bombers carry correct ID with them so that they can be properly identified for the sake of their families and martyred. I never understood the draw of spending eternity with 72 virgins - don't they quickly become uh non-virgins ?