In my opinion what makes special effects add to a film like LOTRs is not how spectacular they look in isolation, but how the director integrates them into their film.
From what I gather, Mr. Jackson was heavily involved (and very knowledgeable) on what effects were being used where, and he was also very specific as to what he wanted.
A hallmark of a good effects film is where you can't tell where the effects begin and where the effects end. Regardless of how good your effects are, if the audience can identify them directly your not going to captivate them as completely.
My favourite line : "Noncommercial software products in general, and Linux in particular, present a competitive challenge for us and for our entire industry, and they require our concentrated focus and attention."
How do you beat free? Are Microsoft going to pay us to use Windows?
I think Solaris 10 (or maybe a later version, I can't remember) is suppose to support a concept of Quality of Service applied to disk accesses.
Is anyone in the Linux world considering this ?
This is probably more applicable to the enterprise market, but surely any scheme of informing the scheduler about the expected disk transfer characteristics has to improve performance.
On the other hand, it might be just Sun trying to re-invent uses of buzz words to sell their products.
I preface this by saying Google is probably the only search engine I use at the moment but...
This stinks of hype. With an IPO due later this year, a established news source writing at lengths about the wonders of Google sounds a bit fishy. I began to wonder reading the article - who exactly really wrote this...
Apart from checking a publicly accessibly box (i.e. web server), How can you legally prove that company X is running linux - aside from entering the premises and logging in.
And unless the login prompt says "Welcome to company Y's Linux system" how do you prove that such system is running linux - a version of linux that has your "IP".
I don't think that X/Gnome/KDE login screens give the version of linux that you're running either.
I'm not sure if even the version will suffice. The version one admin is running mightn't even have the parts that SCO claim are theirs. Where does that leave you ?
So far I have no complaints against EV1, but a measure like this is only going to hurt its customers - we're going to be the ones who end up paying for the SCO license.
I always told my friends that I'd never buy a SCO license - what do I tell them now.
You often hear people claiming that games/films influenced their actions but at the end of the day its a cop out for taking responsibility for their own actions.
People have been taking inspiration from Art for years - whether film, books, or in more recent time you could claim video games. No one forces people to read these books, watch these films or play these games - they choose to. If someone decides to go nuts, its their own personal decision - a game doesn't make that decision for them. Now the manner in which they go nuts - thats a different story.
You can blame that on all those 'easy-to-read' books on quantum physics. I'm not quite sure, someone might let me know - what is the attraction of attempting to explain something as abstract as quantum physics to lay people.
This type of book does no good what-so-ever except spawn new breeds of armchair physicists.
And it probably drives the authors mad - "how do I explain entanglement to complete beginer".
I'm just waiting for the "Quantum Physics for Dummies" book.
This is another example of the cure being worse than the diease.
One spammer buys a few IPs on a block with an ISP, and SPEWS takes out the entire block. Which is worse - junk email, or the thought that someone else controls if your mail gets delivered.
Far too many people depend on email for it to be potentially dropped into a black hole like this if a neighbour of your ISP happens to be a spammer.
Spam in the inbox isn't desirable either, so where does this leave us ?
This highlights one of the dangers of acquisition: once the mother ship no longer thinks your trendy to have in their portfolio - they'll cut you out faster than they acquired you.
Do users even want vendors to update their software remotely. I know if I want an upgrade, I much prefer to have to expicitly install the upgrade, rather than let the contents of my harddisk to the mercy of sales and marketing.
I'll accept that they've held up their hands and said sorry, and claimed it was only there for upgrading.
On the other hand, it would be very useful in a defense against a piracy lawsuit.
"I would like to point out that the defendant was not always in control of his computer, at several stages various software vendors took control and upgraded their software."
How can the RIAA prove that Earthstation5 didn't download those MP3s during an upgrade when you weren't in control of your computer.
You forgot one. And in the tradition of thermodynamics, should be numbered zero.
0. Cost - In the cut-throat world of STB (settop box) manufacturing, cost is everything. If a manufacturer has to pay a dollar for each patent that the codec uses, per box they sell (ala MP3) then they're going to look for cheaper alternatives.
I don't know enough about DivX and patents but if anyone else knows they might enlighten us.
Tech support is an important part of the contract that the user and vendor enter into when a product is purchased or leased.
This is one of the areas where vendors are actually making it harder on themselves. All the time we hear the terms "easier to use" being flaunted at us with the latest version of any random product.
While this attracts people who mightn't have tried the piece of software in the first place it has adverse effects on people who may know what they are doing.
I hate to take Windows as an example, but hey, this is slashdot. Microsoft advanced Windows up to W2K. Things were looking up. Then, bam. XP. It might be 10 times easier to use for the complete beginer but have you ever tried to "convince" XP that you want to use a different IP address ?
The point. Well, by giving everyone the impression that an idiot can use the software you straight away set the tone of the ensuing technical support call when they can't figure out how to do X. Years ago, people would have sat back and might have checked through a few things before calling tech support. Instead, its a "Ring tech support" first, try other things later approach.
Software sometimes isn't for idiots, so lets not pretend that it is. And give credit where it is due.
And yes our cutting edge surgical robots will reduce your hospitals legal bills as well. Not only will it perform the most complicated surgical procedures 24 hours a day a little or no cost it can make all the correct ethical decisions using our patented ethics routines...
Some how this sales speak might be closer than you think.
Slashdot Mirror
This brings up an interesting topic.
In my opinion what makes special effects add to a film like LOTRs is not how spectacular they look in isolation, but how the director integrates them into their film.
From what I gather, Mr. Jackson was heavily involved (and very knowledgeable) on what effects were being used where, and he was also very specific as to what he wanted.
A hallmark of a good effects film is where you can't tell where the effects begin and where the effects end. Regardless of how good your effects are, if the audience can identify them directly your not going to captivate them as completely.
My favourite line : "Noncommercial software products in general, and Linux in particular, present a competitive challenge for us and for our entire industry, and they require our concentrated focus and attention."
How do you beat free? Are Microsoft going to pay us to use Windows?
I think Solaris 10 (or maybe a later version, I can't remember) is suppose to support a concept of Quality of Service applied to disk accesses.
Is anyone in the Linux world considering this ?
This is probably more applicable to the enterprise market, but surely any scheme of informing the scheduler about the expected disk transfer characteristics has to improve performance.
On the other hand, it might be just Sun trying to re-invent uses of buzz words to sell their products.
I preface this by saying Google is probably the only search engine I use at the moment but ...
This stinks of hype. With an IPO due later this year, a established news source writing at lengths about the wonders of Google sounds a bit fishy. I began to wonder reading the article - who exactly really wrote this...
Hopefully its just the paranoid part of me.
Some one, please, prove me wrong.
Apart from checking a publicly accessibly box (i.e. web server), How can you legally prove that company X is running linux - aside from entering the premises and logging in.
And unless the login prompt says "Welcome to company Y's Linux system" how do you prove that such system is running linux - a version of linux that has your "IP".
I don't think that X/Gnome/KDE login screens give the version of linux that you're running either.
I'm not sure if even the version will suffice. The version one admin is running mightn't even have the parts that SCO claim are theirs. Where does that leave you ?
As a customer of Ev1 I'm definetly upset.
So far I have no complaints against EV1, but a measure like this is only going to hurt its customers - we're going to be the ones who end up paying for the SCO license.
I always told my friends that I'd never buy a SCO license - what do I tell them now.
I'd imagine you meant BBC.
:)
I'm sure BCC has something to do with email, but I could be wrong.
You often hear people claiming that games/films influenced their actions but at the end of the day its a cop out for taking responsibility for their own actions.
People have been taking inspiration from Art for years - whether film, books, or in more recent time you could claim video games. No one forces people to read these books, watch these films or play these games - they choose to. If someone decides to go nuts, its their own personal decision - a game doesn't make that decision for them. Now the manner in which they go nuts - thats a different story.
Check out: http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=sco.com
Apparently SCO are running Linux.
They just didn't want to see if Linux could hack the pressure.
You can blame that on all those 'easy-to-read' books on quantum physics. I'm not quite sure, someone might let me know - what is the attraction of attempting to explain something as abstract as quantum physics to lay people.
This type of book does no good what-so-ever except spawn new breeds of armchair physicists.
And it probably drives the authors mad - "how do I explain entanglement to complete beginer".
I'm just waiting for the "Quantum Physics for Dummies" book.
Yeah, but what about the other sites hosted by NAC. Its not just DSLR/BBR that's effected by this block.
This is another example of the cure being worse than the diease.
One spammer buys a few IPs on a block with an ISP, and SPEWS takes out the entire block. Which is worse - junk email, or the thought that someone else controls if your mail gets delivered.
Far too many people depend on email for it to be potentially dropped into a black hole like this if a neighbour of your ISP happens to be a spammer.
Spam in the inbox isn't desirable either, so where does this leave us ?
I think we all now where AOL's interests now lie.
This highlights one of the dangers of acquisition: once the mother ship no longer thinks your trendy to have in their portfolio - they'll cut you out faster than they acquired you.
How many games or entertainment packages are supported under the JDS ?
Do users even want vendors to update their software remotely. I know if I want an upgrade, I much prefer to have to expicitly install the upgrade, rather than let the contents of my harddisk to the mercy of sales and marketing.
I'll accept that they've held up their hands and said sorry, and claimed it was only there for upgrading.
On the other hand, it would be very useful in a defense against a piracy lawsuit.
"I would like to point out that the defendant was not always in control of his computer, at several stages various software vendors took control and upgraded their software."
How can the RIAA prove that Earthstation5 didn't download those MP3s during an upgrade when you weren't in control of your computer.
You forgot one. And in the tradition of thermodynamics, should be numbered zero.
0. Cost - In the cut-throat world of STB (settop box) manufacturing, cost is everything. If a manufacturer has to pay a dollar for each patent that the codec uses, per box they sell (ala MP3) then they're going to look for cheaper alternatives.
I don't know enough about DivX and patents but if anyone else knows they might enlighten us.
But it all boils down to the almighty buck.
Tech support is an important part of the contract that the user and vendor enter into when a product is purchased or leased.
This is one of the areas where vendors are actually making it harder on themselves. All the time we hear the terms "easier to use" being flaunted at us with the latest version of any random product.
While this attracts people who mightn't have tried the piece of software in the first place it has adverse effects on people who may know what they are doing.
I hate to take Windows as an example, but hey, this is slashdot. Microsoft advanced Windows up to W2K. Things were looking up. Then, bam. XP. It might be 10 times easier to use for the complete beginer but have you ever tried to "convince" XP that you want to use a different IP address ?
The point. Well, by giving everyone the impression that an idiot can use the software you straight away set the tone of the ensuing technical support call when they can't figure out how to do X. Years ago, people would have sat back and might have checked through a few things before calling tech support. Instead, its a "Ring tech support" first, try other things later approach.
Software sometimes isn't for idiots, so lets not pretend that it is. And give credit where it is due.
Just my 1/2 cent for the day.
And yes our cutting edge surgical robots will reduce your hospitals legal bills as well. Not only will it perform the most complicated surgical procedures 24 hours a day a little or no cost it can make all the correct ethical decisions using our patented ethics routines...
Some how this sales speak might be closer than you think.
Read the article. It says that he can't stick the current situation much longer, but at no point does he say that he has resigned.