They all have a similar range of possibilites, from mountains to deserted towns to forests to deserts. Plus, there is local talent that will work much more cheaply than traditional movie locations. Why not? Everything in the "traditional" film locations has been shot anyway.
It looks like vanilla nethack, and he's not walking through rock, he's just in a room. Unless you're talking about a different picture than the one I saw.
Changing the name to the stupid glyph was really their shark-jumping moment. They had a great name. They changed it to "Sgi" with stupid looking characters. How could the end not be near, after that? Look at the slashdot archives from that day, and see if you don't see today being widely predicted.
Get a CEO who will sign a contract with that stipulation and we will talk. Better idea: structure your corporation on a completely different paradigm. Do something radically different and novel, succeed with it, and change the world in your wake.
"I guess they were too busy to deal with the little guy."
They would not even deal with the big guys. They nailed their own coffin with our CTO and money people. I assume they blew it with everyone, in a similar way.
We tried to give them our business. We needed graphics workstations and web servers. We bought a few Indigo boxes and they did not do the job better than comparably priced PC's. We tried them as servers, but could not justify the enormous cost compared to commodity intel boxes running linux, or even comparably priced sun hardware. There was simply no benefit to justify the SGI brand; none whatsoever. This was as far back as 1995. When the vendors decided to act like pricks to our money people, dates which I notice happen to correspond with the peak on that stock chart, that was the end. If they treated all potential buyers like they did us, well, who is surprised?
Let them patent everything imaginable now, so that inside of 20 years, a wave of IP-encumbered stuff will come out pretty much all at once. People are so desperate for anything that qualifies as "an invention" that this is what we are down to. It ended! We've been on the trailing edge of a bell curve of discovery that peaked around the 1920s, was still high during the "space age", and today, well, let's just say all the low hanging fruit is picked.
Of Herbert West, who was my friend in college and in other life, I can speak only with extreme terror. This terror is not due altogether to the sinister manner of his recent disappearance, but was engendered by the whole nature of his lifework, and first gained its acute form more than seventeen years ago, when we were in the third year of our course at the Miskatonic University medical school in Arhkam. While he was with me, the wonder and diabolism of his experiments fascinated me utterly, and I was his closest companion. Now that he is gone, and the spell is broken, the actual fear is greater. Memories and possibilities are ever more hideous than realities.
So quality is intrinsically bound to implementation?
It's possible for the patent holder's execution to be at poor tolerances with limited quality control, while the infringer's product could be far better.
This could even become a safety and health concern, given the right kind of product. Say a medical device is made to poor standards by a patent holder. A competitor infringes on the patent, but makes a safer product. What's more important? Life&death&safety, or patent rights?
"My solution has been to copy the really important photos to negative film."
Guaranteed to introduce aberration, alter your colorspace, gives you all the problems of both digital and film without exploiting the benefits of either?
Yikes! I can see going from a digital image to a film negative for artistic reasons, but not for archival reasons.
Before I got that desperate I'd look into CD and DVD pressing (NOT CD/R and DVD/R, etc.) And climate controlled storage.
"There are 7 russians on the list before the first american."
A single generation ago, chess was a national priority of the Soviet Union. It was routine for young people to be evaluated on their chess aptitude, and if they demonstrated it well, they'd go to chess camps. If they performed among the top ranks of the most serious players here, they'd be groomed as potential champions.
In the USA, chess has never been considered as more than a game, certainly not to the point that there is a national priority placed on developing chess masters. And American society does not really tolerate the idea of a person being coerced into a particular profession based on his ability, and at the discretion of some government bureaucrat.
The decline of the soviet system may mean a more level distribution of chess granmasters in future generations. Or it may mean that the very process by which grandmasters are identified early enough to get that kind of training, is gone.
I'm going to ignore your more cynical statements about the USA.
"You really, really need to be careful who you vote in now"
Good thing it's easier to actually be involved in politics at the local level than federal.
The level of apathy means that in many places, important decisions hinge on a few votes (sometimes, not even "a few hundred" votes!) This can be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.
I see it as a good thing, overall, since it means that an individual activist has a genuine prospect of being responsible for change.
"I think we will see a draft return sometime in the next few years if the military continues to fail to meet recruiting goals."
There are a few people in the camp of "things need to get a whole hell of a lot worse before people really start getting mad and taking action", who think a draft would be a step in the right direction.
There are also people who believe that a conscript army has a chance of becoming a revolutionary force that ends up cleaning up the mess.
Slashdot Mirror
> Bulgaria, Romania and _Missouri_ ?
They all have a similar range of possibilites, from mountains to deserted towns to forests to deserts. Plus, there is local talent that will work much more cheaply than traditional movie locations. Why not?
Everything in the "traditional" film locations has been shot anyway.
It looks like vanilla nethack, and he's not walking through rock, he's just in a room. Unless you're talking about a different picture than the one I saw.
> They still have 65 million in cash/investments.
How long will that maintain the interest on their 263 million of debt?
Changing the name to the stupid glyph was really their shark-jumping moment. They had a great name. They changed it to "Sgi" with stupid looking characters. How could the end not be near, after that? Look at the slashdot archives from that day, and see if you don't see today being widely predicted.
>CEO's should get layed off first and paid last.
Get a CEO who will sign a contract with that stipulation and we will talk. Better idea: structure your corporation on a completely different paradigm. Do something radically different and novel, succeed with it, and change the world in your wake.
"I guess they were too busy to deal with the little guy."
They would not even deal with the big guys. They nailed their own coffin with our CTO and money people. I assume they blew it with everyone, in a similar way.
You're suggesting that the demise of SGI is going to end a sector of IT that spans four major industries.
You sure it's not because those industries have moved on already?
We tried to give them our business. We needed graphics workstations and web servers. We bought a few Indigo boxes and they did not do the job better than comparably priced PC's. We tried them as servers, but could not justify the enormous cost compared to commodity intel boxes running linux, or even comparably priced sun hardware. There was simply no benefit to justify the SGI brand; none whatsoever. This was as far back as 1995. When the vendors decided to act like pricks to our money people, dates which I notice happen to correspond with the peak on that stock chart, that was the end. If they treated all potential buyers like they did us, well, who is surprised?
"Criminals already cut fingers to open car doors, no thanks for our eyes."
Cite? Police report detailing a single such incident?
Oops, make that *five* figures. Majored in math, not artithmetic or standup comedy. so shoot me.
> I suppose when I started making 6 figures...
Minimum wage is a couple hundred short of being six figures too.
>When will the stupidity end?
Let them patent everything imaginable now, so that inside of 20 years, a wave of IP-encumbered stuff will come out pretty much all at once. People are so desperate for anything that qualifies as "an invention" that this is what we are down to. It ended! We've been on the trailing edge of a bell curve of discovery that peaked around the 1920s, was still high during the "space age", and today, well, let's just say all the low hanging fruit is picked.
Zombie dogs revive YOU!
Sorry. Had to do it.
Of Herbert West, who was my friend in college and in other life, I can speak only with extreme terror. This terror is not due altogether to the sinister manner of his recent disappearance, but was engendered by the whole nature of his lifework, and first gained its acute form more than seventeen years ago, when we were in the third year of our course at the Miskatonic University medical school in Arhkam. While he was with me, the wonder and diabolism of his experiments fascinated me utterly, and I was his closest companion. Now that he is gone, and the spell is broken, the actual fear is greater. Memories and possibilities are ever more hideous than realities.
So quality is intrinsically bound to implementation?
It's possible for the patent holder's execution to be at poor tolerances with limited quality control, while the infringer's product could be far better.
This could even become a safety and health concern, given the right kind of product. Say a medical device is made to poor standards by a patent holder. A competitor infringes on the patent, but makes a safer product. What's more important? Life&death&safety, or patent rights?
"My solution has been to copy the really important photos to negative film."
Guaranteed to introduce aberration, alter your colorspace, gives you all the problems of both digital and film without exploiting the benefits of either?
Yikes! I can see going from a digital image to a film negative for artistic reasons, but not for archival reasons.
Before I got that desperate I'd look into CD and DVD pressing (NOT CD/R and DVD/R, etc.) And climate controlled storage.
"There are 7 russians on the list before the first american."
A single generation ago, chess was a national priority of the Soviet Union. It was routine for young people to be evaluated on their chess aptitude, and if they demonstrated it well, they'd go to chess camps. If they performed among the top ranks of the most serious players here, they'd be groomed as potential champions.
In the USA, chess has never been considered as more than a game, certainly not to the point that there is a national priority placed on developing chess masters. And American society does not really tolerate the idea of a person being coerced into a particular profession based on his ability, and at the discretion of some government bureaucrat.
The decline of the soviet system may mean a more level distribution of chess granmasters in future generations. Or it may mean that the very process by which grandmasters are identified early enough to get that kind of training, is gone.
I'm going to ignore your more cynical statements about the USA.
"It is sad that after 1 1/2 year, we are still talking about reforming the patent system, instead of actually doing something."
How many slashdotters are patent examiners, patent attorneys, federal judges or congresspersons?
"You really, really need to be careful who you vote in now"
Good thing it's easier to actually be involved in politics at the local level than federal.
The level of apathy means that in many places, important decisions hinge on a few votes (sometimes, not even "a few hundred" votes!) This can be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.
I see it as a good thing, overall, since it means that an individual activist has a genuine prospect of being responsible for change.
" Do you really think Sony is making a profit on PSP's at $250?"
If manufacturing and distribution cost is higher than that per unit, then they don't deserve to make a profit!
Warn in one hand, shit in the other... See which one fills up first.
"I think we will see a draft return sometime in the next few years if the military continues to fail to meet recruiting goals."
There are a few people in the camp of "things need to get a whole hell of a lot worse before people really start getting mad and taking action", who think a draft would be a step in the right direction.
There are also people who believe that a conscript army has a chance of becoming a revolutionary force that ends up cleaning up the mess.
" I hate to say this but UNIX and Linux do not get viruses."
Mail-borne malware travels through UNIX and Linux mail gateways.
"suggesting the slight possibility that the craft is in a lower than expected orbit but may deploy it's solar sails in 4 days."
Lower than expected = the bottom of the ocean?
Sorry,too many people have too many misconceptions about the concepts of slander and libel.