While many celebrities try to isolate themselves from the public as much as possible, except for talk show visits and the like, you've taken the route of being much more responsive to your fans and the world at large - openly posting to sites like Slashdot and Fark, blogging, and all the while being very open and honest about your opinions.
That said, (a) Do you ever regret doing so? and (b) Do you think it's fear of unstable people, overwork, or a holier-than-thou attitude toward the proles (or a combination of the three) that keeps other celebs from being as visible, open, and honest?
I say this because I'm amazed at the down-to-Earth nature of those like yourself, J. K. Rowling, and others who aren't afraid to speak out for what they think and feel. With technology, one may wonder why others might not do so.
Perhaps the iPod's stylishness makes people want to have a trendy-looking computer as well?... And I'd argue (having used both Macs & PCs extensively) that someone who knows how to use a Win XP / 9x machine pretty well can get the hang of a Mac in a decent amount of time, so it's not out of the realm of possibility. You'd need some more in-depth market research to really make claims of iPod-caused migration stick, though - and I'm sure Apple's on top of that. If they're smart, they'll take advantage of this with some saavy tie-ins ("Buy a 40gb iPod, get a $100 rebate towards a Mac system").
Owners of small domains, beware: no more computerless vacations that last more than 4 days at a time!
Come now - how hard is it really to keep track of when your domain expires? Most geeks don't have wedding / dating anniversaries to remember, so there should be at least one empty date register in the old brain...:-)
Seriously - as much as I'd like to see another slip like the relatively-recent lapse of the MS Passport domain name, and something outrageous as thousands of unwitting customers ending up at a pr0n site when they type in "wal-mart.com" or "yahoo.com"... I don't think this will last. There's far too much potential for really ugly squabbles - and even if the registrar's acting according to "the rules," paying to defend oneself in court over a nasty domain name war adds up even if you lose.
Have you read Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, first short story, or played Knights of the Old Republic, desert on Tatooine? Both use to mechanical hunting-bots as aids to hunters.
Can't say I have, either one. Bradbury's good, I should read that one. I was just thinking (what with the time of year 'n' all) of all the normally-lazy people who stop sitting around inside and actually go out into the fresh air... for the chance to blow some deer away. This kind of thing would let them keep watching "rasslin'" and snapping into Slim Jims and still have the joy of killing an eight-point buck.
Sure, I'm a stereotyping bastard, but at least I'm (relatively) funny about it. And I still agree with the late Lewis Grizzard: deer hunters should be forced to carry no more than one bullet and required to hunt in the nude.
Say what you want about our big-ass defense budget - this is technology with a huge potential for civilian uses!
Just imagine the applications:
HUNTER'S HELPER: The lazy backwoods redneck no longer need soil his clothing or even leave the house! Simply be remotely controlling his JethroBot, he can blast away offensive and dangerous deer, squirrels, and "possums" with the flick of a switch! Sure to be a top seller at Wal-Mart stores nationwide.
FOOD FETCHER: Too damned fat to get out the door and make that McDonald's run? Add the handy tray attachment (sold separately) and your shotgun-toting buddy becomes a handy way to get grub once your limbs can no longer support your weight.
PAINTBALL III - RISE OF THE MACHINES:Sick of losing to uber-good paintball players? Buy a fleet of cyborgs, swap those 12 gauges for rapid-fire paint launchers, and tell those wusses "I'll be back". Life-size inflatable Linda Hamilton doll not included.
Wow. You really brought the level of discourse to new heights! [/sarcasm]
O to be a metamoderator, now the Election's near. I don't think maximilln's being elitist. I happen to agree with a number of the things he said, and disagree with others. But that's me, and I guess rational discussion is something not everyone can handle.
I just wish I knew who modded the venerable poot_rootbeer "insightful." I wager they're probably the same people who see nothing wrong with the current political systems (federal, state, and local) as long as they, personally, have a job and their own personal levels of comfort are met - i.e. they can buy GTA San Andreas without signing a release, or they don't get caught downloading pr0n and fined, or they aren't required to pay $400 for a lousy OS that's a POS - or a hunded other things. As long as they're happy, to hell with the rest of the world!
But take a step or two over those boundaries, and look at how quickly half of the sound-bite digestin', fast-quippin' hardcocks on Slashdot (Nightline / Meet The Press / Drudge Report / Air America / the floor of Congress) turn into gung-ho red blooded patriots! It's an amazing transformation, and it lasts just as long as it takes for those silly little needs to be met.
Just as soon as they're happy again, the poot_rootbeers of the world heave back down onto their collective asses and crack wise at the just and the unjust alike. As long as they get their way, who gives a damn? This's a free country, right?
Hey, mods - I don't blame you. You can't help being sheep. You can't help being unable to think for yourself. It's human nature to only be able to respond to those brighter than yourself by flinging excrement from a distance. I'm just making an observation here. Take it for what it's worth!
I started to avoid this whole discussion because I knew I'd have to wade through mountains of excrement to find one or two pearls of wisdom - but I'm glad I did. These two posts gave me the perfect example to use to bring my one and only salient point to this thousand-plus member flame orgy, ANDto the sick tidal wave of soundbites and non-messages coming in via phone, TV, and the 'Net since last year. I'm nothing if not happy to make an observation on the nature of humanity! As for my karma: [Ron White] "Take 'er down, I don' give a shit." [/Ron White]
"The spots and bumps on the entrails of this vulture I just disembowled prove that John Kerry shall be the victor!"
Seriously, guys & girls. The only thing that matters on election night is (a) the number of votes cast or (b) the number of lawsuits filed within hours contesting same. Whoever wins, wins based on one of these two factors, possibly both. It's our job to make sure that the process is as fair as possible, not to further devalue the process by trying to find a random-chance way of saying it. Real life should, at some point, come into play.
(Insert segue to next argument topic here; suggestion: electronic voting.)
I can understand why they'd want to retire the Shuttles - lots of risks, lots of money involved in not only flying them but keeping them updated, and (now) a lot more questions than before about the safety of them. I wish I had a dollar for everyone who's convinced that the space shuttle ought to never fly again, especially the wave of posts that appear on/. since the Columbia disaster that basically say "good riddance, the shuttles are a liability."
But like it or not, I think scrubbing the shuttle program without a clear choice for a reusable replacement is a bad idea. Yes, disposable rockets might be more cost-effective in the short-term, but I don't trust NASA (as a bureaucratic US gov't agency) not to turn any project into a bottomless pit of money over time - even a rocket program built on a combination of proven technology (the type of rockets used for Mercury or Apollo missions) and modern tools would still carry the temptation to slowly inflate pricetags if the corproate architecture of NASA doesn't change - not to mention the everpresent risks of death due to, as they so coyly put it, a "mishap."
Disclaimer: IANAAOA (I am not an astronaut or astrophysicist).
A lot of Americans, unfortunately, focus on the continent of Africa as "poor" or "third world" - which isn't the total truth. How do you think the various nations of Africa (together or separately) will change this image by embracing technology? How are they already doing so?
Not even close to iMac - this is Alienware Lite
on
Hip-e All-In-One PC
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Hasn't Daddy CEO heard of Alienware? 'Cause this looks like an overhyped attempt to do just what Alienware et al do - put PC technology into 1337 cases. At least Alienware's parts tend to be a little faster / newer tech than the blazing 1.5 ghz in the hip-e...:-)
The market's flooded with people building "hip" PCs in their garages. I wish this guy luck, but I don't expect they'll be around in a year without a MAJOR response or some good ol' 90s-style VC.
Well, yeah, but those aren't things I'd have thought of doing right off the bat, even when I had a broken laptop to deal with myself (the motherboard in my old Thinkpad shorted, transforming itself from state of the art to pure 'n' utter junk in moments). After some research and very careful surgery I separated the LCD and sold it. Brilliant.
IMO things like this that keep stuff out of junkyards is worthwhile:)
Excellent move on the part of the Supreme Court - this decision, moreso than a lot of recent ones, seems to reflect the wishes of the majority of the American people.
Now I wonder how long it will take before the majority of Americans have as well-formed an opinion, or as loud a collective voice, on issues like copyright and fair use of music, movies, software, etc. I fear it'll take as much in-your-face annoyance as telemarketers produced before anything really gets done (and maybe not even then, if corporate greed has anything to say about it...)
Attack on the Death Star, K. Smith style:
on
Star Wars TV Show
·
· Score: 4, Funny
ADMIRAL JAY AKBAR: All right, plan A. We wait 'till the Death Star's right about in orbit, then WHAM! Smack two fuckin' proton torpedoes right up its trench. We're all on 'em with the snub fighters, which Grand Moff LaFours won't be expectin' - their pitiful-ass defenses are designed for capital ships, baby! Then it's back to the Temple on Yavin for some hot Wookie sex and a fattie blunt. May the force be with us! Snootchie-bootchies!
I got my first Hotmail account in '94, I think it was. Great service then, even my non-computer-literate parents loved it, but nowadays it's got nothing on the other e-mail providers out there. Hotmail's got a cruddy, hard-to-use GUI and they annoy the hell out of you with pedantic "warnings" about the need to upgrade to their ridiculous pay service so you don't lose e-mail, contract herpes, etc.
Hotmail does a good job of proving that "you get what you pay for," but Microsoft seems intent on not going beyond a certain level of usability in Hotmail - add space, take away Outlook funtionality - and I don't see how making it harder to use the free service will win them paying customers. I also don't see how any spammer who's actually making a buck won't just upgrade and keep on spammin' - or just use another service. (Something tells me the spammers who're using Hotmail aren't quite the cream of the crop...)
Hotmail gives Microsoft a great advertising base, I guess, but the only reason I use that old account now is for sites that need a confirmed address. Yahoo's been much more reliable and I can actually see and use my 100 mb inbox there.
You, sir or madam, may be a troll, but it's Sunday and my wits need exercising.:)
Fun that everyone bashes Lucas for his multiple releases but it is quite silent about Jackson.
The difference is the handling of the whole thing. Lucas created a story with the original theatrical releases of the Star Wars trilogy - he wasn't using a story that'd been around in one form or another more > 50 years. After he created his story, he went back and changed the story around - making some changes that seem to have pissed off a couple of people here and there...
Biggest difference with LOTR is the attitude behind the DVD marketing. The changes & omissions from LOTR (especially the cutting of Saruman from ROTK) pissed off some people as badly as Greedo "shooting first." But instead of hiding behind artistic license or "piracy concerns" a la Lucas, Jackson's giving people a choice. He's releasing versions which reincorporate scenes that got cut - AND he's still marketing the theatrical versions for those who want them. (Do thank Jackson for not wetting on your childhood memories when you can load up your DVD, or your BD-ROM rip or whatever, of the original LOTR in 25 years.)
It's shrewd marketing, of course. Plenty of people will buy the LOTR theatrical disks and then go back and buy the expanded triology. Say what you will about Lucas and his rights to do what he wants with his movies, but I think Jackson's creating a better public image than Lucas - AND he's getting paid for it.
For once, the Slashdot Effect could be used for good instead of evil! Yeah, once in a while a poor sap's DSL-served Windows box is reduced to molten slag because it was serving the homepage that got linked in a Slashdot story. But tonight, if the server with these instructions falls to the mighty Slashdot Effect, think of all the bikes that WON'T be stolen! Think of all the money that'll be saved by wiping these directions off the Internet for good and all!*
So keep on reloading, Slashdotters! Hundreds, nay - Thousands! - of cyclists' dreams are in your hands!
* Yeah, I know there are mirrors and the Google cache. Yeah, this is a joke.
AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?
Lucas: Not really. The movies are what the movies are.... The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way.
Well put, George. My idea is, the "special edition" isn't the true film. So I'm not buying these.
Oh, and about piracy being a threat to the market? Who wants to bet that in a year or two Lucas says that "I would've released the original versions, but all those pirates on e-Bay selling ripped laserdisc versions ruined the market..."?
Ah well, George - have it your way. I don't think these will sell as well as intended. And I'm waiting for the backlash when the 80% of the public that's expecting the original films on DVD finds out they're getting the "special" editions instead.
I'm glad the court seems to have taken a no B.S. approach here, in response to the piles of it Infinium & its lawyers produced. That lawfirm especially needed its gonads ground into the dirt for the unprofessional way they tried to handle this.
Kudos also to HardOCP for not running scared when faced with legal threats. If more of the "little guys" were able to stand strong against frivolous or iffy strong-armed legal challenges, the world might not be perfect but we'd be headed in a better direction.
It is now official - Neilsen has confirmed: Star Trek is dying.
Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered Star Trek community when recently Neilsen confirmed that Star Trek accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all TV viewers. Coming on the heels of the latest Slashdot poll which plainly states that Star Trek has fewer fans than the Goatse troll, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Star Trek is collapsing in complete disarray.
You don't need to be a Q to predict Star Trek's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Star Trek faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Star Trek because Star Trek is dying.
Things are looking very bad for Star Trek. As many of us are already aware, Star Trek continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. "Enterprise" is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core viewers (preteen males with an income of $100 - $500).
Due to George Lucas' ego, abysmal sales of "Episode 1" and so on, some Star Wars fans turned to "Enterprise" who sell another cheesy repackaging of the same plots and characters. Now "Enterprise" is also dead, its cast soon to be turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that Star Trek has steadily declined in market share. Star Trek is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Star Trek is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. Star Trek continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Star Trek is dead.
Nope. Unless something changed in the last 24 hours, the reruns ended in Jan. when Best Brains' last contract with the Sci-Fi Channel ended.
They'd been showing an ever-smaller pool of reruns for several years; as time went by they lost the rights to keep showing about 1/2 of their last three seasons, so they were down to about 10 - 12 episodes in the rotation.
I love MST, but I kind of hate to see one group of smartass movie lovers going all corporate on another group of smartass movie lovers. But in their defense, Best Brains has been tolerant of those who trade copies of MST eps online or on tape, as long as they don't sell / copy the ones commercially available on VHS or DVD...
I was one of the people who got to meet Doohan, however briefly, with a family friend who's a newspaper reporter. We got to speak with him for a few minutes behind the scenes at a convention in Charlotte, NC over a decade ago. He was friendly and courteous; I was 11 at the time and a major fan of TNG and TOS, and though you know he dealt with his share of babbling fans (young and old) he smiled the whole time and signed several autographs for us.
I can't think of a lot of actors - especially ones who're mainly famous for an offbeat role in a campy '60s series - who could maintain that good humor after a lot of years; the other cast members (William "Get A Life" Shatner and Leonard "I Am Not Spock" Nimoy had their ups and downs with the typecasting that came with their roles, and they've written about it in their memoirs)... But when all was said and done, James Doohan seems to have done well for himself and enjoyed his part in Trek-lore all the way.
If the RIAA *is* behind this, it seems awfully damned counterproductive.
Think about it. So-called "time shifting" is (for the moment) legal. They never minded people taping things off the radio. They're mad as hell about people not paying for their music - but radio airplay makes money for them through compulsory fees, not to mention publicity (at least in theory, IANA broadcaster...)
Enter Sirius / XM; the industry still gets money and still gets publicity (perhaps more than before; with all the niche stations and lack of commercials & inane banter, I've been tempted to subscribe...) And more people are willing to PAY FOR MUSIC because of this service - just not the $18 or so they want 'em to pay.
So if the RIAA is behind the move to get rid of the XMPCR, what do they expect? That a lot of the people who subscribe will continue to pay for XM, AND pay for a copy of the CD, AND pay another couple of bucks for a "legal" version for their portable player once it becomes illegal or impossible to rip it yourself... And of course piracy is a perfect excuse^H^H^H^Hplanation for why XM will lose subscribers from this.
The only thing I wonder about is how the MPAA and its member companies will take this. Hopefully Apple's talked to them already or is in the process or they could find themselves with a wonderful videoPod without any way to get movies for it legally.
It's certainly an interesting concept - but how will it work? Remember, this is the industry behind ideas such as "disposable" DVDs and making it a felony to videotape a movie in the theater (with stronger punishments than you might get in some places for actually stealing a DVD from a store).
I find it hard to believe that the MPAA will like this idea; I find it harder to believe that, if they do help Apple out, it will be a good deal for the consumer. "Buy our heavily-DRMed, no-special-features stream of All Dogs Go To Heaven for $4... wait, nobody's buying it? Damn pirates!"
Slashdot Mirror
That said, (a) Do you ever regret doing so? and (b) Do you think it's fear of unstable people, overwork, or a holier-than-thou attitude toward the proles (or a combination of the three) that keeps other celebs from being as visible, open, and honest?
I say this because I'm amazed at the down-to-Earth nature of those like yourself, J. K. Rowling, and others who aren't afraid to speak out for what they think and feel. With technology, one may wonder why others might not do so.
Like your blog, btw. Good to see you back on /.!
Perhaps the iPod's stylishness makes people want to have a trendy-looking computer as well? ... And I'd argue (having used both Macs & PCs extensively) that someone who knows how to use a Win XP / 9x machine pretty well can get the hang of a Mac in a decent amount of time, so it's not out of the realm of possibility. You'd need some more in-depth market research to really make claims of iPod-caused migration stick, though - and I'm sure Apple's on top of that. If they're smart, they'll take advantage of this with some saavy tie-ins ("Buy a 40gb iPod, get a $100 rebate towards a Mac system").
Thanks to y'all for pointing out the fact. I'll go eat my crow a la mode now. :-)
Come now - how hard is it really to keep track of when your domain expires? Most geeks don't have wedding / dating anniversaries to remember, so there should be at least one empty date register in the old brain ... :-)
Seriously - as much as I'd like to see another slip like the relatively-recent lapse of the MS Passport domain name, and something outrageous as thousands of unwitting customers ending up at a pr0n site when they type in "wal-mart.com" or "yahoo.com" ... I don't think this will last. There's far too much potential for really ugly squabbles - and even if the registrar's acting according to "the rules," paying to defend oneself in court over a nasty domain name war adds up even if you lose.
Can't say I have, either one. Bradbury's good, I should read that one. I was just thinking (what with the time of year 'n' all) of all the normally-lazy people who stop sitting around inside and actually go out into the fresh air ... for the chance to blow some deer away. This kind of thing would let them keep watching "rasslin'" and snapping into Slim Jims and still have the joy of killing an eight-point buck.
Sure, I'm a stereotyping bastard, but at least I'm (relatively) funny about it. And I still agree with the late Lewis Grizzard: deer hunters should be forced to carry no more than one bullet and required to hunt in the nude.
Just imagine the applications:
HUNTER'S HELPER: The lazy backwoods redneck no longer need soil his clothing or even leave the house! Simply be remotely controlling his JethroBot, he can blast away offensive and dangerous deer, squirrels, and "possums" with the flick of a switch! Sure to be a top seller at Wal-Mart stores nationwide.
FOOD FETCHER: Too damned fat to get out the door and make that McDonald's run? Add the handy tray attachment (sold separately) and your shotgun-toting buddy becomes a handy way to get grub once your limbs can no longer support your weight.
PAINTBALL III - RISE OF THE MACHINES:Sick of losing to uber-good paintball players? Buy a fleet of cyborgs, swap those 12 gauges for rapid-fire paint launchers, and tell those wusses "I'll be back". Life-size inflatable Linda Hamilton doll not included.
Go fuck yourself, elitist prick.
Wow. You really brought the level of discourse to new heights! [/sarcasm]
O to be a metamoderator, now the Election's near. I don't think maximilln's being elitist. I happen to agree with a number of the things he said, and disagree with others. But that's me, and I guess rational discussion is something not everyone can handle.
I just wish I knew who modded the venerable poot_rootbeer "insightful." I wager they're probably the same people who see nothing wrong with the current political systems (federal, state, and local) as long as they, personally, have a job and their own personal levels of comfort are met - i.e. they can buy GTA San Andreas without signing a release, or they don't get caught downloading pr0n and fined, or they aren't required to pay $400 for a lousy OS that's a POS - or a hunded other things. As long as they're happy, to hell with the rest of the world!
But take a step or two over those boundaries, and look at how quickly half of the sound-bite digestin', fast-quippin' hardcocks on Slashdot (Nightline / Meet The Press / Drudge Report / Air America / the floor of Congress) turn into gung-ho red blooded patriots! It's an amazing transformation, and it lasts just as long as it takes for those silly little needs to be met.
Just as soon as they're happy again, the poot_rootbeers of the world heave back down onto their collective asses and crack wise at the just and the unjust alike. As long as they get their way, who gives a damn? This's a free country, right?
Hey, mods - I don't blame you. You can't help being sheep. You can't help being unable to think for yourself. It's human nature to only be able to respond to those brighter than yourself by flinging excrement from a distance. I'm just making an observation here. Take it for what it's worth!
I started to avoid this whole discussion because I knew I'd have to wade through mountains of excrement to find one or two pearls of wisdom - but I'm glad I did. These two posts gave me the perfect example to use to bring my one and only salient point to this thousand-plus member flame orgy, AND to the sick tidal wave of soundbites and non-messages coming in via phone, TV, and the 'Net since last year. I'm nothing if not happy to make an observation on the nature of humanity! As for my karma: [Ron White] "Take 'er down, I don' give a shit." [/Ron White]
Seriously, guys & girls. The only thing that matters on election night is (a) the number of votes cast or (b) the number of lawsuits filed within hours contesting same. Whoever wins, wins based on one of these two factors, possibly both. It's our job to make sure that the process is as fair as possible, not to further devalue the process by trying to find a random-chance way of saying it. Real life should, at some point, come into play.
(Insert segue to next argument topic here; suggestion: electronic voting.)
But like it or not, I think scrubbing the shuttle program without a clear choice for a reusable replacement is a bad idea. Yes, disposable rockets might be more cost-effective in the short-term, but I don't trust NASA (as a bureaucratic US gov't agency) not to turn any project into a bottomless pit of money over time - even a rocket program built on a combination of proven technology (the type of rockets used for Mercury or Apollo missions) and modern tools would still carry the temptation to slowly inflate pricetags if the corproate architecture of NASA doesn't change - not to mention the everpresent risks of death due to, as they so coyly put it, a "mishap."
Disclaimer: IANAAOA (I am not an astronaut or astrophysicist).
A lot of Americans, unfortunately, focus on the continent of Africa as "poor" or "third world" - which isn't the total truth. How do you think the various nations of Africa (together or separately) will change this image by embracing technology? How are they already doing so?
The market's flooded with people building "hip" PCs in their garages. I wish this guy luck, but I don't expect they'll be around in a year without a MAJOR response or some good ol' 90s-style VC.
Well, yeah, but those aren't things I'd have thought of doing right off the bat, even when I had a broken laptop to deal with myself (the motherboard in my old Thinkpad shorted, transforming itself from state of the art to pure 'n' utter junk in moments). After some research and very careful surgery I separated the LCD and sold it. Brilliant.
IMO things like this that keep stuff out of junkyards is worthwhile :)
Now I wonder how long it will take before the majority of Americans have as well-formed an opinion, or as loud a collective voice, on issues like copyright and fair use of music, movies, software, etc. I fear it'll take as much in-your-face annoyance as telemarketers produced before anything really gets done (and maybe not even then, if corporate greed has anything to say about it...)
ADMIRAL JAY AKBAR: All right, plan A. We wait 'till the Death Star's right about in orbit, then WHAM! Smack two fuckin' proton torpedoes right up its trench. We're all on 'em with the snub fighters, which Grand Moff LaFours won't be expectin' - their pitiful-ass defenses are designed for capital ships, baby! Then it's back to the Temple on Yavin for some hot Wookie sex and a fattie blunt. May the force be with us! Snootchie-bootchies!
actually, yeah, '96 sounds about right. I was still in high school. All those late nights of LORD and Tradewars must've muddled my memory. :)
I got my first Hotmail account in '94, I think it was. Great service then, even my non-computer-literate parents loved it, but nowadays it's got nothing on the other e-mail providers out there. Hotmail's got a cruddy, hard-to-use GUI and they annoy the hell out of you with pedantic "warnings" about the need to upgrade to their ridiculous pay service so you don't lose e-mail, contract herpes, etc. Hotmail does a good job of proving that "you get what you pay for," but Microsoft seems intent on not going beyond a certain level of usability in Hotmail - add space, take away Outlook funtionality - and I don't see how making it harder to use the free service will win them paying customers. I also don't see how any spammer who's actually making a buck won't just upgrade and keep on spammin' - or just use another service. (Something tells me the spammers who're using Hotmail aren't quite the cream of the crop...) Hotmail gives Microsoft a great advertising base, I guess, but the only reason I use that old account now is for sites that need a confirmed address. Yahoo's been much more reliable and I can actually see and use my 100 mb inbox there.
Fun that everyone bashes Lucas for his multiple releases but it is quite silent about Jackson.
The difference is the handling of the whole thing. Lucas created a story with the original theatrical releases of the Star Wars trilogy - he wasn't using a story that'd been around in one form or another more > 50 years. After he created his story, he went back and changed the story around - making some changes that seem to have pissed off a couple of people here and there...
Biggest difference with LOTR is the attitude behind the DVD marketing. The changes & omissions from LOTR (especially the cutting of Saruman from ROTK) pissed off some people as badly as Greedo "shooting first." But instead of hiding behind artistic license or "piracy concerns" a la Lucas, Jackson's giving people a choice. He's releasing versions which reincorporate scenes that got cut - AND he's still marketing the theatrical versions for those who want them. (Do thank Jackson for not wetting on your childhood memories when you can load up your DVD, or your BD-ROM rip or whatever, of the original LOTR in 25 years.)
It's shrewd marketing, of course. Plenty of people will buy the LOTR theatrical disks and then go back and buy the expanded triology. Say what you will about Lucas and his rights to do what he wants with his movies, but I think Jackson's creating a better public image than Lucas - AND he's getting paid for it.
So keep on reloading, Slashdotters! Hundreds, nay - Thousands! - of cyclists' dreams are in your hands!
* Yeah, I know there are mirrors and the Google cache. Yeah, this is a joke.
Lucas: Not really. The movies are what the movies are. ... The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way.
Well put, George. My idea is, the "special edition" isn't the true film. So I'm not buying these.
Oh, and about piracy being a threat to the market? Who wants to bet that in a year or two Lucas says that "I would've released the original versions, but all those pirates on e-Bay selling ripped laserdisc versions ruined the market..."?
Ah well, George - have it your way. I don't think these will sell as well as intended. And I'm waiting for the backlash when the 80% of the public that's expecting the original films on DVD finds out they're getting the "special" editions instead.
Kudos also to HardOCP for not running scared when faced with legal threats. If more of the "little guys" were able to stand strong against frivolous or iffy strong-armed legal challenges, the world might not be perfect but we'd be headed in a better direction.
Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered Star Trek community when recently Neilsen confirmed that Star Trek accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all TV viewers. Coming on the heels of the latest Slashdot poll which plainly states that Star Trek has fewer fans than the Goatse troll, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Star Trek is collapsing in complete disarray.
You don't need to be a Q to predict Star Trek's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Star Trek faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Star Trek because Star Trek is dying.
Things are looking very bad for Star Trek. As many of us are already aware, Star Trek continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. "Enterprise" is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core viewers (preteen males with an income of $100 - $500).
Due to George Lucas' ego, abysmal sales of "Episode 1" and so on, some Star Wars fans turned to "Enterprise" who sell another cheesy repackaging of the same plots and characters. Now "Enterprise" is also dead, its cast soon to be turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that Star Trek has steadily declined in market share. Star Trek is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Star Trek is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. Star Trek continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Star Trek is dead.
Fact: Star Trek is dead.
They'd been showing an ever-smaller pool of reruns for several years; as time went by they lost the rights to keep showing about 1/2 of their last three seasons, so they were down to about 10 - 12 episodes in the rotation.
I love MST, but I kind of hate to see one group of smartass movie lovers going all corporate on another group of smartass movie lovers. But in their defense, Best Brains has been tolerant of those who trade copies of MST eps online or on tape, as long as they don't sell / copy the ones commercially available on VHS or DVD...
I can't think of a lot of actors - especially ones who're mainly famous for an offbeat role in a campy '60s series - who could maintain that good humor after a lot of years; the other cast members (William "Get A Life" Shatner and Leonard "I Am Not Spock" Nimoy had their ups and downs with the typecasting that came with their roles, and they've written about it in their memoirs) ... But when all was said and done, James Doohan seems to have done well for himself and enjoyed his part in Trek-lore all the way.
Think about it. So-called "time shifting" is (for the moment) legal. They never minded people taping things off the radio. They're mad as hell about people not paying for their music - but radio airplay makes money for them through compulsory fees, not to mention publicity (at least in theory, IANA broadcaster...)
Enter Sirius / XM; the industry still gets money and still gets publicity (perhaps more than before; with all the niche stations and lack of commercials & inane banter, I've been tempted to subscribe...) And more people are willing to PAY FOR MUSIC because of this service - just not the $18 or so they want 'em to pay.
So if the RIAA is behind the move to get rid of the XMPCR, what do they expect? That a lot of the people who subscribe will continue to pay for XM, AND pay for a copy of the CD, AND pay another couple of bucks for a "legal" version for their portable player once it becomes illegal or impossible to rip it yourself ... And of course piracy is a perfect excuse^H^H^H^Hplanation for why XM will lose subscribers from this.
It's certainly an interesting concept - but how will it work? Remember, this is the industry behind ideas such as "disposable" DVDs and making it a felony to videotape a movie in the theater (with stronger punishments than you might get in some places for actually stealing a DVD from a store).
I find it hard to believe that the MPAA will like this idea; I find it harder to believe that, if they do help Apple out, it will be a good deal for the consumer. "Buy our heavily-DRMed, no-special-features stream of All Dogs Go To Heaven for $4 ... wait, nobody's buying it? Damn pirates!"