I mean, what happens if the beach system goes out of control and creates some sort of super-cooling vortex? Would they cancel Dubai just like they canceled SGA?
If anyone thinks the plot of a particular show can still be understood after such massive editing, then the show wasn't worth watching in the first place. The true public service is that we get a nice list of shows that aren't worth the waste of time, be it 48, 22 or six minutes.
I think this is a bit different. One of the things that really propelled the DVD as the new format was its purchase price. Once DVDs cost as much or even less than CDs, they became more than a form of entertainment, they became products. Everyone loves products. They demonstrate who we are. How many times have you seen a movie, loved it, and immediately thought "I can't wait for the DVD." You didn't think that because you wanted to rent it. You thought that because you wanted to own it, incorporate it into who you are, put it on the shelf, show it off, watch it over and over. I don't remember people thinking that way about video tape because it was primarily marketed as a rental medium. So . . . the Blockbuster thing does make a big impact, but not nearly a big enough impact to liken this to Betamax.
The house/hotel limit can be used to totally screw people, too. Just keep your four-on-each for your monopolies and you can stop someone from building anything more than two or three houses on each property. The auction rule is incorporated into the on-board electronic version of the game, Monopoly Playmaster. It was produced for one year (1983?) and anyone who loves the game should eBay one of these suckers. It manages to move the game forward without truly compromising the rules. The "buybacks" redistribute properties into monopolies (or attempt to), and the "loan" feature is just fantastic (gives me a reason to own the greens). The bottom line, of course, is that when you have some good players, a LONG game of Monopoly is a pure joy. And I was playing as a kid, so the attention-span argument is silly.
Question about using a TBC: Will that take care of Macrovision? I currently use a SVHS deck plugged into a Canopus ADVC110, and unfortunately discovered that Macrovision was trippping up the entire process for some source material. Putting aside copyright issues, will a TBC basically eliminate the Macrovision effect? Thanks to anyone who can help.
After the initial rush-disappointment, I noticed that it must be an official Goofass® headline, given the official Monty-Python-foot icon, which generally denotes time-wasting non-serious ignore-this-if-you're-looking-for-useful-info after-hours filler that is occasionally found on this otherwise quite informative site. Maybe the headline would have been less horrifically offensive if it was in YRO.
Ah, but this is the new no-DRM version of Apple! User friendly ad infinitum. Anti-DRM, yet I doubt I'll be able to use that nifty box to play my DivX files (without a hack or laborious batch conversion). I agree with your perspective on workflow, with the caveat that Apple's approach will probably be legal.
Well we wouldn't want anyone actually LEARNING but using the Internet, would we? I particularly find it offensive when non-porn, sexually-related material is blocked from the very people who could use that information the most.
It seems like it would be a good idea for certain XBox games to simply require the hard drive. Yes, that would irritate the people who bought their 360s on the cheap, but they could always purchase the hard drive and then play the "advanced" games. Gaming systems used to not come with memory cards, so gamers were required to take care of that on their own. This would be a logical progression from that approach. Are there statistics floating around out there regarding how many 360 owners do not have hard drives?
Does anyone really think that Sony would claim anything else? The article itself says that "this high percentage is likely helped by the bundled Talladega Nights Blu-ray disc with the first 500,000 units of PlayStation 3." I understand that the study itself is not from Sony, but from Nielsen VideoScan. Still, it's way too early to declare anything close to a winner, considering how many people actually own the proper displays (particularly in the US, but I bet the Super Bowl made a big impact on HDTV sales). Show me stats in another six months, as I'll bet that a lot of the PS3 owners who bought Blu-ray movies at a 2:1 rate over HD-DVD might have done just that - they bought two movies, maybe along with two PS3 games, just to try it out (as HappySqurriel says above). If all 360s came with a HD-DVD drive (and they most likely will sometime this year), maybe those people would have done the same thing, and we would (and probably will) see a different ratio. Meanwhile, stand-alone HD-DVD players are a better deal than stand-alone Blu-ray players, and it won't be long before Toshiba lowers the price on those units yet again, so perhaps the overall PS3 impact on the format war won't be a deathblow to HD-DVD (not that I own either format at this point).
I assume that you're sitting at a computer, so go ahead and open your favorite text-editing program. Type in "1000000". Now type an extra "0" at the end. My god, you have made an alteration on the magnitude of nine million! The problem with a no-paper-trail electronic system is that it wouldn't take a vast conspiracy of people to alter the numbers. Just a programmer at the source, and someone else to engage that particular subroutine, flipping a 51-49 vote in the other direction. "Actual ballots" didn't exist in the case of electronic voting. It is a pure numbers game that we later interpret into "actual" votes.
From the Apple store: "Please note: Selecting the ATI Radeon X1900 XT may delay the shipment of your Mac Pro."
The only other option is the 7300, or the $1649 Quadro FX 4500.
I don't see an option on the site for 3GB of ram, though. 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, etc.
Anyway, most people will be purchasing the Mac Pro with a 7300 card, both saving money over the ATI and avoiding the "delay" of shipment.
Yes, and the liberal use of stuntmen means that the repeated "will his back go out" comments are ultimately moot. Do you really think that Harrison Ford jumped that chasm in the opening sequence of the original film? Also, if they go with a hybrid approach, some scenes can have Ford's face mapped onto the body of a bad-ass stuntman, just as they did with Christopher Lee during his big sabre duel. In the case of Lee, the duel itself was so un-samurai that it was about as interesting as the mega-Smith fight in that corny Matrix sequel, but it could work for Indiana Jones, given that there is already a level of camp and absurdity built into the "genre" approach to those films.
I agree with all of this, but, as a person who doesn't own either x-box system, I wonder if this is ultimately a case of giving people what they want. The Halo games basically defined the x-box, yet, again, they are just story-driven FPS. A friend just bought a 360 and he's excited about . . . yes, Halo 3 (whenever that comes out) and the next GTA (again, whenever that comes out). I have nothing but conjecture to support this, but I wonder if x-box owners are more into FPS than owners of competing systems. Regardless, a year into this system we should be seeing something new. It still seems that both the 360 and the PS3 are focused on the same games with better graphics.
As I already believe that MS is uploading information about the contents of my hard drive when Windows phones home (that's a separate debate), it wouldn't surprise me if the Zune/MS music service was set up to do the same thing. That is, MS tracks the amount of tracks stored on each Zune that were not purchased through its store. Then they report this to the RIAA for statistics. Then the RIAA brings "real" numbers to Apple, claiming that 30% of all music on all Zunes is of dubious origin. Not that this would work, but I just don't trust MS with my data.
Actually, in 1788 Mozart released the sheet music to many of his earlier compositions, so that any moderately competent musician could alter the music accordingly, thus "remixing" it. At the time, it was seen as a tawdry, money-generating gimmick, but now, 218 years later, Peter Gabriel has finally proven that Mozart was, in fact, a closet genius.
"If someone out there won't even interview you because you don't have a college degree, or certifications, then they are an idiot, and you wouldn't want to work for them anyway."
Or perhaps the company/institution is looking for someone with a well-rounded background and a bit more interpersonal skills than your average I-learned-by-locking-myself-in-my-room tech professional. If I'm looking through a stack of 50 resumes and 15 of them have similar work experience, I'm going to interview the 5 who, on paper, demonstrate either some additional realm of knowledge or, as evident by continuing education, the assertiveness to keep learning.
A good script costs a lot less than $200M. Maybe moviegoers wouldn't "change their habits" if the movie makers would take the risk of combining honest human emotion and dialogue with science fiction ideas and imagery. Maybe then my fiance wouldn't cringe every time I suggest watching Episode 3.
Awesome! This had better be the original, classic Sonic. Screw Blu-ray, downloads, and vibro-hover-senso controllers . . . as long as I can play old-school in HD I'll be happy. Maybe they'll make Mario, too. Who do I send the money to? Just tell me what to pay.
This is going to make me sound like a nut-case, but I fear that this speaks to the in-bed deal between MS and the government. Specifically, I've had the feeling that things were neatly wrapped up in the United States MS case right around the time that it became "okay" for the government to monitor its citizens. Yes, this is an uninformed opinion, but MS got off easy over here and now they're the 800 pound gorilla that everyone ignores when debating wire tapping and the government's monitoring of private information. Seems that it would be a simple effort for MS to allow government access to at least the hard drive directories of every windows user. Just to make sure things are safe. Flame away or mod me into obscurity.
Seems like a good argument to play old arcade games. An "epic" round of Robotron can top out at 4-5 minutes (yeah, I'm not that good, but that's a fast fast game). Ms. Pac-Man can drone on for a full twenty minutes. A close friend could flip Galaga, and that was a multi-hour commitment (or maybe it was just 45 minutes). I know that the author expressly enjoys the immersive narrative plot, but I generally miss the innovation and creativity of a good, simple arcade-style game that would instantly please.
Slashdot Mirror
I mean, what happens if the beach system goes out of control and creates some sort of super-cooling vortex? Would they cancel Dubai just like they canceled SGA?
Hylaean Theoric World be damned.
If anyone thinks the plot of a particular show can still be understood after such massive editing, then the show wasn't worth watching in the first place. The true public service is that we get a nice list of shows that aren't worth the waste of time, be it 48, 22 or six minutes.
I think this is a bit different. One of the things that really propelled the DVD as the new format was its purchase price. Once DVDs cost as much or even less than CDs, they became more than a form of entertainment, they became products. Everyone loves products. They demonstrate who we are. How many times have you seen a movie, loved it, and immediately thought "I can't wait for the DVD." You didn't think that because you wanted to rent it. You thought that because you wanted to own it, incorporate it into who you are, put it on the shelf, show it off, watch it over and over. I don't remember people thinking that way about video tape because it was primarily marketed as a rental medium. So . . . the Blockbuster thing does make a big impact, but not nearly a big enough impact to liken this to Betamax.
The house/hotel limit can be used to totally screw people, too. Just keep your four-on-each for your monopolies and you can stop someone from building anything more than two or three houses on each property. The auction rule is incorporated into the on-board electronic version of the game, Monopoly Playmaster. It was produced for one year (1983?) and anyone who loves the game should eBay one of these suckers. It manages to move the game forward without truly compromising the rules. The "buybacks" redistribute properties into monopolies (or attempt to), and the "loan" feature is just fantastic (gives me a reason to own the greens). The bottom line, of course, is that when you have some good players, a LONG game of Monopoly is a pure joy. And I was playing as a kid, so the attention-span argument is silly.
Question about using a TBC: Will that take care of Macrovision? I currently use a SVHS deck plugged into a Canopus ADVC110, and unfortunately discovered that Macrovision was trippping up the entire process for some source material. Putting aside copyright issues, will a TBC basically eliminate the Macrovision effect? Thanks to anyone who can help.
After the initial rush-disappointment, I noticed that it must be an official Goofass® headline, given the official Monty-Python-foot icon, which generally denotes time-wasting non-serious ignore-this-if-you're-looking-for-useful-info after-hours filler that is occasionally found on this otherwise quite informative site. Maybe the headline would have been less horrifically offensive if it was in YRO.
Actually, the fact that it was modded to a +5 Informative is what seals it for me. Yikes.
Ah, but this is the new no-DRM version of Apple! User friendly ad infinitum. Anti-DRM, yet I doubt I'll be able to use that nifty box to play my DivX files (without a hack or laborious batch conversion). I agree with your perspective on workflow, with the caveat that Apple's approach will probably be legal.
Well we wouldn't want anyone actually LEARNING but using the Internet, would we? I particularly find it offensive when non-porn, sexually-related material is blocked from the very people who could use that information the most.
It seems like it would be a good idea for certain XBox games to simply require the hard drive. Yes, that would irritate the people who bought their 360s on the cheap, but they could always purchase the hard drive and then play the "advanced" games. Gaming systems used to not come with memory cards, so gamers were required to take care of that on their own. This would be a logical progression from that approach. Are there statistics floating around out there regarding how many 360 owners do not have hard drives?
Does anyone really think that Sony would claim anything else? The article itself says that "this high percentage is likely helped by the bundled Talladega Nights Blu-ray disc with the first 500,000 units of PlayStation 3." I understand that the study itself is not from Sony, but from Nielsen VideoScan. Still, it's way too early to declare anything close to a winner, considering how many people actually own the proper displays (particularly in the US, but I bet the Super Bowl made a big impact on HDTV sales). Show me stats in another six months, as I'll bet that a lot of the PS3 owners who bought Blu-ray movies at a 2:1 rate over HD-DVD might have done just that - they bought two movies, maybe along with two PS3 games, just to try it out (as HappySqurriel says above). If all 360s came with a HD-DVD drive (and they most likely will sometime this year), maybe those people would have done the same thing, and we would (and probably will) see a different ratio. Meanwhile, stand-alone HD-DVD players are a better deal than stand-alone Blu-ray players, and it won't be long before Toshiba lowers the price on those units yet again, so perhaps the overall PS3 impact on the format war won't be a deathblow to HD-DVD (not that I own either format at this point).
I assume that you're sitting at a computer, so go ahead and open your favorite text-editing program. Type in "1000000". Now type an extra "0" at the end. My god, you have made an alteration on the magnitude of nine million! The problem with a no-paper-trail electronic system is that it wouldn't take a vast conspiracy of people to alter the numbers. Just a programmer at the source, and someone else to engage that particular subroutine, flipping a 51-49 vote in the other direction. "Actual ballots" didn't exist in the case of electronic voting. It is a pure numbers game that we later interpret into "actual" votes.
From the Apple store: "Please note: Selecting the ATI Radeon X1900 XT may delay the shipment of your Mac Pro." The only other option is the 7300, or the $1649 Quadro FX 4500. I don't see an option on the site for 3GB of ram, though. 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, etc. Anyway, most people will be purchasing the Mac Pro with a 7300 card, both saving money over the ATI and avoiding the "delay" of shipment.
Yes, and the liberal use of stuntmen means that the repeated "will his back go out" comments are ultimately moot. Do you really think that Harrison Ford jumped that chasm in the opening sequence of the original film? Also, if they go with a hybrid approach, some scenes can have Ford's face mapped onto the body of a bad-ass stuntman, just as they did with Christopher Lee during his big sabre duel. In the case of Lee, the duel itself was so un-samurai that it was about as interesting as the mega-Smith fight in that corny Matrix sequel, but it could work for Indiana Jones, given that there is already a level of camp and absurdity built into the "genre" approach to those films.
I agree with all of this, but, as a person who doesn't own either x-box system, I wonder if this is ultimately a case of giving people what they want. The Halo games basically defined the x-box, yet, again, they are just story-driven FPS. A friend just bought a 360 and he's excited about . . . yes, Halo 3 (whenever that comes out) and the next GTA (again, whenever that comes out). I have nothing but conjecture to support this, but I wonder if x-box owners are more into FPS than owners of competing systems. Regardless, a year into this system we should be seeing something new. It still seems that both the 360 and the PS3 are focused on the same games with better graphics.
As I already believe that MS is uploading information about the contents of my hard drive when Windows phones home (that's a separate debate), it wouldn't surprise me if the Zune/MS music service was set up to do the same thing. That is, MS tracks the amount of tracks stored on each Zune that were not purchased through its store. Then they report this to the RIAA for statistics. Then the RIAA brings "real" numbers to Apple, claiming that 30% of all music on all Zunes is of dubious origin. Not that this would work, but I just don't trust MS with my data.
Biggest selling point: the wiimote bitch-slap.
Actually, in 1788 Mozart released the sheet music to many of his earlier compositions, so that any moderately competent musician could alter the music accordingly, thus "remixing" it. At the time, it was seen as a tawdry, money-generating gimmick, but now, 218 years later, Peter Gabriel has finally proven that Mozart was, in fact, a closet genius.
Just when they forgot about us, we stick a laser on top of one of their old landing platforms. Sheesh.
"If someone out there won't even interview you because you don't have a college degree, or certifications, then they are an idiot, and you wouldn't want to work for them anyway."
Or perhaps the company/institution is looking for someone with a well-rounded background and a bit more interpersonal skills than your average I-learned-by-locking-myself-in-my-room tech professional. If I'm looking through a stack of 50 resumes and 15 of them have similar work experience, I'm going to interview the 5 who, on paper, demonstrate either some additional realm of knowledge or, as evident by continuing education, the assertiveness to keep learning.
A good script costs a lot less than $200M. Maybe moviegoers wouldn't "change their habits" if the movie makers would take the risk of combining honest human emotion and dialogue with science fiction ideas and imagery. Maybe then my fiance wouldn't cringe every time I suggest watching Episode 3.
Awesome! This had better be the original, classic Sonic. Screw Blu-ray, downloads, and vibro-hover-senso controllers . . . as long as I can play old-school in HD I'll be happy. Maybe they'll make Mario, too. Who do I send the money to? Just tell me what to pay.
This is going to make me sound like a nut-case, but I fear that this speaks to the in-bed deal between MS and the government. Specifically, I've had the feeling that things were neatly wrapped up in the United States MS case right around the time that it became "okay" for the government to monitor its citizens. Yes, this is an uninformed opinion, but MS got off easy over here and now they're the 800 pound gorilla that everyone ignores when debating wire tapping and the government's monitoring of private information. Seems that it would be a simple effort for MS to allow government access to at least the hard drive directories of every windows user. Just to make sure things are safe. Flame away or mod me into obscurity.
Seems like a good argument to play old arcade games. An "epic" round of Robotron can top out at 4-5 minutes (yeah, I'm not that good, but that's a fast fast game). Ms. Pac-Man can drone on for a full twenty minutes. A close friend could flip Galaga, and that was a multi-hour commitment (or maybe it was just 45 minutes). I know that the author expressly enjoys the immersive narrative plot, but I generally miss the innovation and creativity of a good, simple arcade-style game that would instantly please.