A good number of the TV shows have been rewritten and re-acted for audio only. I believe it's a syndicated radio show in some areas, but we bought the CDs. My son enjoyed these in his early teens, and we often listened to them with the lights off when he went to bed. As a result I've collected all 13(?) volumes (10 stories/volume). (twilightzoneradio.com if it interests you.)
I agree with you that the Twilight Zone Radio Dramas are excellent. One of the best things about them is that they take the original episodes and enhance them (possible since they are longer than 30 minutes and have no commercial breaks).
One of my favorite stories, The Obsolete Man, features additional scenes where we get to know the lead characters better, learn more about the brutal nature of this future society and how it came to power. Vocally, Jason Alexander does as good a job as Burgess Meredith did in the original episode.
The Twilight Zone spawned a lot of great imitators in the 80's and 90's. My favorite was Friday the 13th. They carried the torch for presenting bizarre concepts that stretched your mind. My favorite was a woman from our modern times that gets drawn back in time to the Puritan era. When she lights up a cigarette with a BIC lighter they say she is a witch - "She make fire without flint nor tinder." Great show.
One of my favorites of the Twilight-Zone (TZ) type shows is "Freddy's Nightmares," especially the first season shows. Although they tended to fall into the horror genre, they also had a nice touch of humor at times.
One common feature of the later TZ type shows is that they usually had a frame in which the stories would be fit (and would often drive the story forward. With "Friday The 13th The Series" the search for cursed objects provided the frame for the stories. With "Freddy's Nightmares" the first story would often dovetail neatly into the second story (often a character from the first story would be the focus of the second story). Although the stories did often feature a moral, the main character usually wasn't around to learn it.
This wasn't just limited to the TZ. "The Love Boat" was basically "Love, American Style" on a boat, with the crew and boat providing the frame for stories. Also, like the TZ, "Love, American Style" also had a 1980s revival although it was only on for a short time.
As far as my favorite TZ episodes, I think it is "The Obsolete Man. Although it doesn't get the attention of "Time Enough At Last" it too features terrific performance by Burgess Meredith.
Insightful? I think he was joking. Have you tried to do math with roman numerals? Roman numerals are absolutely useless for math. There is nothing about roman numerals that can teach a skill useful to math (except, perhaps counting, because, although it isn't convenient, it is technically possible to count using roman numerals).
Concerning roman numerals, I borrowed a video from the library called "The Story Of 1." It featured Terry Jones of Monty Python and told the story of how the number 1 developed into its current form (at different points in history it was a scratch on a stick, a small token, a mark on a clay envelope, a ruler, a roman numeral I, and the current hindu-arabic "1" and the digital "1"). Besides being informative, it is a very funny video.
Per that video, roman numerals weren't used for calculations. People would do their calculations on a counting board (an early version of the abacus), and then record the final result in roman numerals.
Heh. Way to illustrate the GP's point. Shakespeare's works are meant to be seen and heard in the theater, not read on some shitty reprint with cliffnotes that you bought from Penguin press for $5.
True calligraphy requires an amazing amount of skill, practice, and artistry to produce consistent and attractive writing... all while focusing on what you want to say. And remember this is done in ink, with a nib that an untrained person would have a hard time writing legible text with, and there is no eraser or "undo" key.
Is it necessary to use calligraphy nowdays? No, but it is a learned skill that some people appreciate. Sounds like the definition of art to me.
And just for the record, Shakespeare submitted his works in handwritten text written with a pen...
Even non-calligraphy print can become art. An example is in comic books. Even though much of the creation process is assisted by computers, it still boils down to a creative team working by hand, including the letterer (the person who prints text in the speech, thought, and comment ballons). In a related point, although Comic Sans is based on comic book lettering, to me it doesn't bare much resemblance any comic book lettering I've seen.
One of the best letterers I've ever seen is Bob Lappan, the man who did the lettering on the late-1980s Justice League comics (a series noted for being one of the funniest comics of its time). Although most of his lettering is in block form (all capitals), by the use of letter size, italics, white space, and other techniques he is able to shape the words in a way that you can almost hear the characters speaking. His work added so much to each issue, and greatly enhanced the humor. For me, it was true art.
Second, WordPerfect was, and probably still is fantastic. Where'd it go? Why did OOo appear when WP was already mature?
I think what happened to WordPerfect is that it wasn't able to make the transition to Windows 3.1 fast enough, while MS-Word was ready when Windows 3.1 launched. That delay cost them the leadership in the word processor field at a time when it was competition with many other DOS word processors, including MS Word, WordStar, Professional Write, AmiWord, and PC-Write.
Another factor that worked against WordPerfect (and other word processors) is the integrated office suite. Based on my experience, for a time the integrated office suites had individual applications that tended not to be a good as the standalone applications. This changed with the introduction of MS Office, and the standalone word processors were now competing with an entire suite of applications.
Returing the the subject of word processors, WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS is one of the best word processors I've ever used. However, I gave WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows a try and disliked it so much that I returned to the DOS version after 30 minutes. For a time I worked in an office environment where MS Word, WordPerfect, and WordStar coexisted, but once Windows became the standard PC OS the only word processor that was available to us was MS Word.
Let us know when Open Office becomes better that Microsoft Office.
I think a more important question is: Does OpenOffice.org
meet the needs of the user? If OpenOffice.org meets the needs of the user, why not choose it over MS Office?
RTF is incapable of containing malicious code and is based on well documented standards. (I say incapable in the sense that it doesn't host executable code by definition... it may be capable if an exploit were found in the reading functions in a given application software and used as a mean of compromising the application and the system it is running on.) It's likely why RTF was created in the first place. It is news to me, however, that professional publishers insist on it.
From what I understand, RTF was created to allow documents to travel from one word processor to another while retaining the basic formatting (bold, underlining, and so on). Part of the reason for its creation was that there was trouble moving documents from one version of MS Word to another.
Despite its age, I think the reason that RTF still remains in use is that: (1) it works well as a basic word processing format, and (2) just about every word processor can directly read it. As far as its use by profession publishers goes, I think (just my opinion) that the reason it would be used is that RTF is good at retaining basic in-line text formatting in a document, while being able to be easily converted into other formats.
How much money is NOT being made by NOT publishing stuff that's still under copyright but that isn't profitable enough to pay royalties?? (And maybe isn't profitable enough to justify tracking down an absentee copyright holder.)
Clearly there IS money in publishing old stuff, or most of the pre-1900 classics would be long since out of print, and such is not the case. They continue to be reprinted to this day.
I would guess that over the long haul, long copyrights result in a net reduction of money to be made all along the chain -- remember it's NOT just the author and his agent and the first publishing rights, but also all the reprint houses, distributors, and bookstores. It occurs to me to wonder how much long copyright contributed to the demise of small local bookstores, and may now be contributing to libraries that are social hubs but no longer house vast numbers of books.
I think that a long copyright hinders the creation of new material simply because it may be too close to something already under copyright. For example, a writer is considering writing a story featuring a spy, but decides not to because the spy/story would be too close to an already existing spy/story that is in copyright.
A somewhat recent example of how copyright can hinder story creation is in the series "Star Trek - The Next Generation." In an early season they did an episode featuring Dr. Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories. Due to copyright issues they had to wait years before they could do a follow-up story featuring the character.
I think a consistent and predictable influx of published material into the public domain will, in the long run, lead to the creation of new work. I do think that the rule should be simple and consistent, rather than having several rules (such as extensions) which lead to a situation of "this story which was published in 1950 is in copyright, while this story, which was also published in 1950, is in the public domain."
On the subject of how long copyright should be, rather than having copyright rules which allow for variations (as mentioned above), I think that a better way would be to have a copyright of 30 years (basically one generation) from the date of publication, rounded up to the 1st day of the next year (for example, by this rule anything published in 1979 would fall into the public domain on the 1st of January 2010). This would make it easy to determine what is and is not in the public domain, and would ensure that works do fall into the public domain in time.
Why should we as customers have to suffer because of patent issues most of us don't understand. I just want my Microsoft Word. Without Microsoft computers wouldn't even be able to do anything.
I must respectfully disagree with the last sentence. Although Microsoft (MS) is dominant in the computer industry, it is not the only player. In the case of operating systems and office applications, there are alternatives.
As an example, I've been using StarOffice for a few years, and for the most part I've found it a viable alternative to MS Office for spreadsheets and writing (especially since I prefer to use a spreadsheet as a database instead of a specific database application). It's not as powerful, but it works fine for what I use it for.
If this case results in MS Office no longer being legally available (a very unlikely result), people will find workable alternatives for each of the applications. I think that regardless of the final results of this case, it is likely that some people/businesses may consider alternatives to MS Office due to it.
Does this mean that we can expect to see unending series of cash-in sequels, like Spiderman 3, Fantastic Four 3, Iron Man 2, X-Men 4, etc?!? Oh wait...
It might be morbidly amusing to see how Disney retcons and bowlderizes some of the more questionable characters. G-rated Marvel Zombies? Lobo?
Fortunately, Lobo is a DC character (although he was vastly toned down during his appearances in the Animated DCU, including no mention of his origin).
It was around 6 months ago, but I remember that the pictures didn't show up, contents needed to be recreated, tables were an issue. Also I tried writing a resume and the formatting wasn't what it looked like in OO compared to Word.
I've found this to be a problem with MS-Word even with short documents. I used to have to work with a special type of one-page document. The problem I ran into was that the document (in MS-Word format) that I received via e-mail looked different on my computer than it did on the originating computer. These documents had to have absolutely no changes from the original, even a single slightly different space between two words was not allowed.
At that time sending a PDF back and forth was not an option, so our only option was to have the sender FAX the document to us so we had an exact copy of the document, and then get it approved. We would FAX changes to them, and they would FAX us an updated version. Once it was approved, the sender would provide use with a hard copy of the original document for processing.
Yes, OO can save in *.doc format. If you have ever tried it with something like a 100 page file with tables, indexes and pictures you will know that it is a waste of time. Word is the only option and thus the problem.
What specific problems came up when saving a file as described above in the.doc format using OpenOffice.org?
Much of the discussion in this thread focuses on how well/badly the new author will emulate Douglas Adams. What if, rather than that, the new author writes a story in his own distinctive style but set in the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy universe? Instead of trying to emulate the past, the new author focuses on writing an entertaining book.
The passage to the new author could even be treated as a point of humor in the new novel (the dark humor is suitable to a Hitchhiker's book). Much like in the movie "Monty Python And The Whole Grail" when the knights survive a monster's attack when the monster disappears because the animator suddenly dies.
As a comic book reader, changing writers is a matter of course for me, and sometimes it can lead to terrific stories. As an example, I've enjoyed Green Lantern over the years and there have been some good stories, but when Geoff Johns took over the series he wrote (and is writing) the best Green Lantern stories I've ever read, and has introduced concepts that taken the series in very different direction. This includes the revelation that there are eight different lantern colors, each linked to a different emotional state, which has lead to a massive war between the different lantern corps.
Veggiesama wrote and included the following with a post:
For me, the funniest parts of the books are the excerpts from the Guide (especially the part about how the Babel Fish has been used for the non-existence of God). If they had added just a couple of minutes to put those into the movie, I think I would've liked it much, much more.
While I agree with you, the producers believed the Guide segments were slowing down the narrative pace, especially in the beginning where lots of Guide segments were used. There's only so much you can put in 1.5 to 2 hours of film and expect a brisk, action-packed story (in contrast to the whimsical, sometimes meandering pace of the book). Two different mediums, two different beasts, and two different presentation philosophies of the same story.
I think the movie and book being two different mediums is the key. With a movie, you only have a limited amount of time to tell the story. Even with the amount of time available in the "Lord Of The Rings" series (the DVD versions I have runs a total of slightly more than 9.25 hours for the three movies) there were still things from the book that were left out of the movie.
It is the same thing with comic books. Even a relatively short story in comic book form can become extremely long in another form. An example is the DC Comics' series "Infinite Crisis." As a comic book it was a total of six regular issues and one longer issue, and in novel form it is 371 pages. As a full-cast audiobook, "Infinite Crisis" is approximately 13 hours long, and it took that much time to get all of the story into the audiobook.
I'm not sure why the Star Wars Universe, would use the time it takes for the Earth to orbit our Sun as a standard measurement of time. We have no idea how long a year is for them. Could be 2 hours.
It would depend on what it is based on.
Possiblity One: It is an already established measure based on a government edict. Since there are so many different planets with years and days that are of different lengths, the Republic could have just said that the standard universal year is this length of time (based on some unchanging universal standard such as the vibration of a quartz crystal).
Possibility Two: The official standard year is based on Coresant itself (if it orbits a star). How long that year is would depend on the size of the planet (the more massive the planet, the longer its year). It is much like in our star system, Mercury's year is much shorter than ours.
Japanese blades often did not have a tsuba (hand guard)
Nonsense. A tsuba is an integral part of a practical katana. Only decorative or ceremonial long blades occasionally (e.g. shirisaya) lacked them. The tsuba didn't just protect the wielder from an opponent's blade, it also prevented the wielder's hand from sliding onto the blade during thrusts. Fighting with a tsuba-less sword would be folly.
That clears up a point of confusion for me. In the series "Bleach" the other Soul Reapers find Ichigo Kurusaki's sword surprising because of its size (it's almost as long as he is tall) and that it doesn't have a handguard (as far as I know his is the only sword without one).
BTW, in "Bleach" the sword is called a zanpakto. Its size reflects the power of the soul reaper who wields it. Ichigo's zanpakto (in its normal state) is the largest one that I've seen.
Problem is: When they stop working, it rips you into pieces.;)
True. My opinion on the way Star Trek's gravity system works (based on what we've seen) is that the system is fine as long as everything goes as planned (the system perfectly handles the gravity to ensure there isn't even a sensation of moment). However, it is when anything unexpected (like a shot from an enemy ship) happens that's when the gravity system lags in compensating for the change in momentum. However, it is still fast enough to minimize the danger to the crew (so they get a non-lethal jolt instead of going splat against the wall).
In a similar vein, up until Windows 95, there were various schemes to overcome the 8.3 limitation of DOS filenames. Most used the idea of keeping a separate file (descript.ion for example) containing a short and long filename and merging them in memory with the directory listing for long filename supporting programs. Microsoft decided to do something similar, except they stored the long file names directly within the directory listing--ie, the took two separate streams of information and made them one.
In a related note, this sounds similar to the way that Profession Write used to store its document information. It would automatically create an extra file in the directory that contained document information on all of the Professional Write documents in the directory, including the long document name.
Returning to the topic of the article, I request a clarification. I've read the original article in the original thread and I'm unsure of exactly the issue is. From that I read, it seems like the issue isn't that the document is saved in many pieces (which the OpenDocument format does). Rather, it seems like the issue is that MS Word can create custom made XML tags on its own and that is what the issue is. If that is the case, would this have an affect on the OpenDocument format? Thanks in advance for the clarification.
Or built in LaTeX for extra points? (even e-book readers should be fast enough nowadays for it...)
For me, it isn't important which format is chosen as long as: (1) it renders consistently (as an example, if I choose a font that is supported by the reader, it should reliably render on my reader in that font), and (2) formatting and editing tools are commonly available for users to make their own e-books.
Using the Palm Reader format as an example, Palm provides a guide on how to markup your text files as e-books using a text editor (the markup language is similar to HTML and can be picked up in a few minutes), a free program that allows you to convert the formatted text files into e-books, and a paid program that allows you to convert text, RTF, and HTML files into its markup language, and convert them into e-books. It makes it very easy to create and consistently format your e-books. Based on my own experience, I've found Palm Reader format (.pdb) to be a very good e-book format, and one designed specifically for e-books.
For me, the main advantage of using HTML and RTF as ebook formats is that they are already well established, and if you have a Windows or Mac you already have the tools needed to create and edit these files. I've heard of LaTex, but I'm not sure if it as available and usable for the average user (if I'm wrong please correct me).
But having PDF that has its page size the same size of the screen still defeats one of the major advantages of an ebook. That is, the ability to change font size and re-flow the text accordingly.
I often change font size to fit the conditions in which I'm reading on my Cybook. Typically I use a single font-size that I'm comfortable with, but there are times when I like it to be larger: in dim light when I don't want to strain my eyes reading it; when its on the book stand on my exercise bike and thus further away than I would normally hold it, when I'm on a train and I need to compensate for my hand shaking etc.
I agree that being able to resize the text on the fly is a strong advantage of e-books. With my Sony Reader, even though the text is sized to the screen, I do have the ability to increase the size of the text (it basically just makes the text as large as possible while still fitting the entire page on one screen).
One thing I'd like to see on all e-book readers is the ability to use basic HTML as a format, while using an internal (maintained in the reader) Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) to control the formatting of the text. For instance, the user can set the CSS to render paragraphs in Georgia 14pt with 12pt of blank space after the paragraph, while H1 would rendered in Helvetica 18pt, centered, with a page break before the heading.
if it's created for the sony screen size it works perfectly, and iirc there is a wat to make a pdf that does not have hard page breaks and line breaks but will actually reflow when opened in the sony reader.
I agree that PDFs are terrific on the Sony Reader as long as they are sized for the screen. When it comes for formatting my e-books, I prefer to take care of it myself (setting page size and margins, and having it set the page breaks via styles) rather than making the e-book reader do the work.
When it comes to the new e-book readers, one feature I hope Sony (and other e-book reader makers if they haven't already added the feature) adds to their readers is the ability for the user to choose a typeface when displaying RTF files and plain text files. I prefer to read my e-books in a serif typeface, and often the reader displays them in a sans serif typeface regardless of the actual font in the original document. I searched online for help and wasn't able to find any.
This is the main reason that I choose to format my e-books as PDFs. With RTF and plain text files I couldn't control the typeface the text would be shown in. With RTF files, sometimes they would display in the typeface that I chose, and at other times they would display in a different typeface.
When I was using my Palm T/X as an ebook reader, one of the features I liked about the ereader program was I could choose the specific font that I wanted my ebooks to displayed in. I had the option of several different fonts that I could use.
Pete Townsend of The Who had hearing damage, which occoured due to excessive headphone volume in the recording studio, not live gigs.
I remember hearing in a TV program (I think it was on VH1) that Pete Townsend's hearing was damaged during The Who's performance of "My Generation" on The Smothers Brothers Show. An explosion was set up to go off in the drumset at the end of the appearance, but it set up to be far too powerful. When the explosion went off it damaged Pete Townsend's hearing.
I'd add basic HTML to the list of durable formats. Even if there is difficulty in rendering it as a webpage, it can be opened the file in a text editor and the document information (such as the text and formatting) is easy to figure out.
Not only have I forgotten how to write in cursive, I've forgotten how to write in lower case.
I also don't use lower case letters when writing. Rather, my "lower case" letters are simply half the size of my "capital" letters.
This is due to my time in the military, when I was working in jobs that trained me to write in all upper case letters for clarity (errors caused by unclear handwriting were not acceptable). Even when no longer required by the job, I found that I liked the clarity that writing that way provided to both me and people who needed to read my handwriting.
That is the main reason, besides lack of use, that I no longer write in cursive. Even when writing in cursive regularly, at times my own handwriting was difficult for me to read when I tried to read something that I'd written recently. But with things I've written in block letters (as described above), even decades later they are still as legible as computer-printed documents.
Despite the advent of computers, I think there will always be a need for handwriting. But as it has been made clear by the many posts in the thread, one of the main reasons cursive is fading from use is that many people find it much easier to write in block lettering or in upper/lower case lettering. That, and people's bad experience in trying to learn and use cursive have caused them to abandon cursive when no longer required to use it.
I think that, eventually, cursive writing will move into the same realm as calligraphy. It will be an admired artistic skill that (when done well) produces beautiful results.
If I recall correctly these days some researchers are classifying Generation X as those born between the mid-60s and the late 70s and Generation Y as those born from the mid-80s to the mid-90s with those born inbetween these two generations being called the "Cold Y Generation".
/Mikael
There was a book called "13th Gen" released a few years ago that deals with the people that have also been called "Generation X." Per that book, using those born in the mid-60s to mid-80s as the defining birth years is based on the end of the baby boom. "13th Gen" refers to those born between 1961 and 1981 as the thirteen generation since the founding of the United States.
The reason that the book "13th Gen" uses 1961 to 1981 as the defining birth years for the 13th Gen is that while the baby boom continued to the mid-1960s, the individuals born after 1960 were socially and culturally different from those who were part of the Baby Boom Generation.
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ortholattice wrote:
I agree with you that the Twilight Zone Radio Dramas are excellent. One of the best things about them is that they take the original episodes and enhance them (possible since they are longer than 30 minutes and have no commercial breaks).
One of my favorite stories, The Obsolete Man, features additional scenes where we get to know the lead characters better, learn more about the brutal nature of this future society and how it came to power. Vocally, Jason Alexander does as good a job as Burgess Meredith did in the original episode.
tedgyz wrote:
One of my favorites of the Twilight-Zone (TZ) type shows is "Freddy's Nightmares," especially the first season shows. Although they tended to fall into the horror genre, they also had a nice touch of humor at times.
One common feature of the later TZ type shows is that they usually had a frame in which the stories would be fit (and would often drive the story forward. With "Friday The 13th The Series" the search for cursed objects provided the frame for the stories. With "Freddy's Nightmares" the first story would often dovetail neatly into the second story (often a character from the first story would be the focus of the second story). Although the stories did often feature a moral, the main character usually wasn't around to learn it.
This wasn't just limited to the TZ. "The Love Boat" was basically "Love, American Style" on a boat, with the crew and boat providing the frame for stories. Also, like the TZ, "Love, American Style" also had a 1980s revival although it was only on for a short time.
As far as my favorite TZ episodes, I think it is "The Obsolete Man. Although it doesn't get the attention of "Time Enough At Last" it too features terrific performance by Burgess Meredith.
wile_e_wonka wrote:
Concerning roman numerals, I borrowed a video from the library called "The Story Of 1." It featured Terry Jones of Monty Python and told the story of how the number 1 developed into its current form (at different points in history it was a scratch on a stick, a small token, a mark on a clay envelope, a ruler, a roman numeral I, and the current hindu-arabic "1" and the digital "1"). Besides being informative, it is a very funny video.
Per that video, roman numerals weren't used for calculations. People would do their calculations on a counting board (an early version of the abacus), and then record the final result in roman numerals.
cyn1c77 wrote:
Even non-calligraphy print can become art. An example is in comic books. Even though much of the creation process is assisted by computers, it still boils down to a creative team working by hand, including the letterer (the person who prints text in the speech, thought, and comment ballons). In a related point, although Comic Sans is based on comic book lettering, to me it doesn't bare much resemblance any comic book lettering I've seen.
One of the best letterers I've ever seen is Bob Lappan, the man who did the lettering on the late-1980s Justice League comics (a series noted for being one of the funniest comics of its time). Although most of his lettering is in block form (all capitals), by the use of letter size, italics, white space, and other techniques he is able to shape the words in a way that you can almost hear the characters speaking. His work added so much to each issue, and greatly enhanced the humor. For me, it was true art.
holophrastic wrote as part of a post:
I think what happened to WordPerfect is that it wasn't able to make the transition to Windows 3.1 fast enough, while MS-Word was ready when Windows 3.1 launched. That delay cost them the leadership in the word processor field at a time when it was competition with many other DOS word processors, including MS Word, WordStar, Professional Write, AmiWord, and PC-Write.
Another factor that worked against WordPerfect (and other word processors) is the integrated office suite. Based on my experience, for a time the integrated office suites had individual applications that tended not to be a good as the standalone applications. This changed with the introduction of MS Office, and the standalone word processors were now competing with an entire suite of applications.
Returing the the subject of word processors, WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS is one of the best word processors I've ever used. However, I gave WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows a try and disliked it so much that I returned to the DOS version after 30 minutes. For a time I worked in an office environment where MS Word, WordPerfect, and WordStar coexisted, but once Windows became the standard PC OS the only word processor that was available to us was MS Word.
Rockoon wrote:
I think a more important question is: Does OpenOffice.org meet the needs of the user? If OpenOffice.org meets the needs of the user, why not choose it over MS Office?
erroneus wrote:
From what I understand, RTF was created to allow documents to travel from one word processor to another while retaining the basic formatting (bold, underlining, and so on). Part of the reason for its creation was that there was trouble moving documents from one version of MS Word to another.
Despite its age, I think the reason that RTF still remains in use is that: (1) it works well as a basic word processing format, and (2) just about every word processor can directly read it. As far as its use by profession publishers goes, I think (just my opinion) that the reason it would be used is that RTF is good at retaining basic in-line text formatting in a document, while being able to be easily converted into other formats.
Reziac wrote:
I think that a long copyright hinders the creation of new material simply because it may be too close to something already under copyright. For example, a writer is considering writing a story featuring a spy, but decides not to because the spy/story would be too close to an already existing spy/story that is in copyright.
A somewhat recent example of how copyright can hinder story creation is in the series "Star Trek - The Next Generation." In an early season they did an episode featuring Dr. Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories. Due to copyright issues they had to wait years before they could do a follow-up story featuring the character.
I think a consistent and predictable influx of published material into the public domain will, in the long run, lead to the creation of new work. I do think that the rule should be simple and consistent, rather than having several rules (such as extensions) which lead to a situation of "this story which was published in 1950 is in copyright, while this story, which was also published in 1950, is in the public domain."
On the subject of how long copyright should be, rather than having copyright rules which allow for variations (as mentioned above), I think that a better way would be to have a copyright of 30 years (basically one generation) from the date of publication, rounded up to the 1st day of the next year (for example, by this rule anything published in 1979 would fall into the public domain on the 1st of January 2010). This would make it easy to determine what is and is not in the public domain, and would ensure that works do fall into the public domain in time.
Anonymous Coward wrote:
I must respectfully disagree with the last sentence. Although Microsoft (MS) is dominant in the computer industry, it is not the only player. In the case of operating systems and office applications, there are alternatives.
As an example, I've been using StarOffice for a few years, and for the most part I've found it a viable alternative to MS Office for spreadsheets and writing (especially since I prefer to use a spreadsheet as a database instead of a specific database application). It's not as powerful, but it works fine for what I use it for.
If this case results in MS Office no longer being legally available (a very unlikely result), people will find workable alternatives for each of the applications. I think that regardless of the final results of this case, it is likely that some people/businesses may consider alternatives to MS Office due to it.
jollyreaper wrote and included with a post:
Fortunately, Lobo is a DC character (although he was vastly toned down during his appearances in the Animated DCU, including no mention of his origin).
kregg wrote:
I've found this to be a problem with MS-Word even with short documents. I used to have to work with a special type of one-page document. The problem I ran into was that the document (in MS-Word format) that I received via e-mail looked different on my computer than it did on the originating computer. These documents had to have absolutely no changes from the original, even a single slightly different space between two words was not allowed.
At that time sending a PDF back and forth was not an option, so our only option was to have the sender FAX the document to us so we had an exact copy of the document, and then get it approved. We would FAX changes to them, and they would FAX us an updated version. Once it was approved, the sender would provide use with a hard copy of the original document for processing.
kregg wrote:
What specific problems came up when saving a file as described above in the .doc format using OpenOffice.org?
Much of the discussion in this thread focuses on how well/badly the new author will emulate Douglas Adams. What if, rather than that, the new author writes a story in his own distinctive style but set in the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy universe? Instead of trying to emulate the past, the new author focuses on writing an entertaining book.
The passage to the new author could even be treated as a point of humor in the new novel (the dark humor is suitable to a Hitchhiker's book). Much like in the movie "Monty Python And The Whole Grail" when the knights survive a monster's attack when the monster disappears because the animator suddenly dies.
As a comic book reader, changing writers is a matter of course for me, and sometimes it can lead to terrific stories. As an example, I've enjoyed Green Lantern over the years and there have been some good stories, but when Geoff Johns took over the series he wrote (and is writing) the best Green Lantern stories I've ever read, and has introduced concepts that taken the series in very different direction. This includes the revelation that there are eight different lantern colors, each linked to a different emotional state, which has lead to a massive war between the different lantern corps.
Veggiesama wrote and included the following with a post:
I think the movie and book being two different mediums is the key. With a movie, you only have a limited amount of time to tell the story. Even with the amount of time available in the "Lord Of The Rings" series (the DVD versions I have runs a total of slightly more than 9.25 hours for the three movies) there were still things from the book that were left out of the movie.
It is the same thing with comic books. Even a relatively short story in comic book form can become extremely long in another form. An example is the DC Comics' series "Infinite Crisis." As a comic book it was a total of six regular issues and one longer issue, and in novel form it is 371 pages. As a full-cast audiobook, "Infinite Crisis" is approximately 13 hours long, and it took that much time to get all of the story into the audiobook.
prockcore wrote:
It would depend on what it is based on.
zakur wrote (and included with a post):
That clears up a point of confusion for me. In the series "Bleach" the other Soul Reapers find Ichigo Kurusaki's sword surprising because of its size (it's almost as long as he is tall) and that it doesn't have a handguard (as far as I know his is the only sword without one).
BTW, in "Bleach" the sword is called a zanpakto. Its size reflects the power of the soul reaper who wields it. Ichigo's zanpakto (in its normal state) is the largest one that I've seen.
Hurricane78 wrote:
True. My opinion on the way Star Trek's gravity system works (based on what we've seen) is that the system is fine as long as everything goes as planned (the system perfectly handles the gravity to ensure there isn't even a sensation of moment). However, it is when anything unexpected (like a shot from an enemy ship) happens that's when the gravity system lags in compensating for the change in momentum. However, it is still fast enough to minimize the danger to the crew (so they get a non-lethal jolt instead of going splat against the wall).
10101001 10101001 wrote as part of a post:
In a related note, this sounds similar to the way that Profession Write used to store its document information. It would automatically create an extra file in the directory that contained document information on all of the Professional Write documents in the directory, including the long document name.
Returning to the topic of the article, I request a clarification. I've read the original article in the original thread and I'm unsure of exactly the issue is. From that I read, it seems like the issue isn't that the document is saved in many pieces (which the OpenDocument format does). Rather, it seems like the issue is that MS Word can create custom made XML tags on its own and that is what the issue is. If that is the case, would this have an affect on the OpenDocument format? Thanks in advance for the clarification.
sznupi wrote:
For me, it isn't important which format is chosen as long as: (1) it renders consistently (as an example, if I choose a font that is supported by the reader, it should reliably render on my reader in that font), and (2) formatting and editing tools are commonly available for users to make their own e-books.
Using the Palm Reader format as an example, Palm provides a guide on how to markup your text files as e-books using a text editor (the markup language is similar to HTML and can be picked up in a few minutes), a free program that allows you to convert the formatted text files into e-books, and a paid program that allows you to convert text, RTF, and HTML files into its markup language, and convert them into e-books. It makes it very easy to create and consistently format your e-books. Based on my own experience, I've found Palm Reader format (.pdb) to be a very good e-book format, and one designed specifically for e-books.
For me, the main advantage of using HTML and RTF as ebook formats is that they are already well established, and if you have a Windows or Mac you already have the tools needed to create and edit these files. I've heard of LaTex, but I'm not sure if it as available and usable for the average user (if I'm wrong please correct me).
jecblackpepper wrote:
I agree that being able to resize the text on the fly is a strong advantage of e-books. With my Sony Reader, even though the text is sized to the screen, I do have the ability to increase the size of the text (it basically just makes the text as large as possible while still fitting the entire page on one screen).
One thing I'd like to see on all e-book readers is the ability to use basic HTML as a format, while using an internal (maintained in the reader) Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) to control the formatting of the text. For instance, the user can set the CSS to render paragraphs in Georgia 14pt with 12pt of blank space after the paragraph, while H1 would rendered in Helvetica 18pt, centered, with a page break before the heading.
initdeep wrote:
I agree that PDFs are terrific on the Sony Reader as long as they are sized for the screen. When it comes for formatting my e-books, I prefer to take care of it myself (setting page size and margins, and having it set the page breaks via styles) rather than making the e-book reader do the work.
When it comes to the new e-book readers, one feature I hope Sony (and other e-book reader makers if they haven't already added the feature) adds to their readers is the ability for the user to choose a typeface when displaying RTF files and plain text files. I prefer to read my e-books in a serif typeface, and often the reader displays them in a sans serif typeface regardless of the actual font in the original document. I searched online for help and wasn't able to find any.
This is the main reason that I choose to format my e-books as PDFs. With RTF and plain text files I couldn't control the typeface the text would be shown in. With RTF files, sometimes they would display in the typeface that I chose, and at other times they would display in a different typeface.
When I was using my Palm T/X as an ebook reader, one of the features I liked about the ereader program was I could choose the specific font that I wanted my ebooks to displayed in. I had the option of several different fonts that I could use.
Falconhell wrote as part of a post:
I remember hearing in a TV program (I think it was on VH1) that Pete Townsend's hearing was damaged during The Who's performance of "My Generation" on The Smothers Brothers Show. An explosion was set up to go off in the drumset at the end of the appearance, but it set up to be far too powerful. When the explosion went off it damaged Pete Townsend's hearing.
The following is a link to a YouTube video of the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9-JdubfUCw
I'd add basic HTML to the list of durable formats. Even if there is difficulty in rendering it as a webpage, it can be opened the file in a text editor and the document information (such as the text and formatting) is easy to figure out.
jkiol wrote:
I also don't use lower case letters when writing. Rather, my "lower case" letters are simply half the size of my "capital" letters.
This is due to my time in the military, when I was working in jobs that trained me to write in all upper case letters for clarity (errors caused by unclear handwriting were not acceptable). Even when no longer required by the job, I found that I liked the clarity that writing that way provided to both me and people who needed to read my handwriting.
That is the main reason, besides lack of use, that I no longer write in cursive. Even when writing in cursive regularly, at times my own handwriting was difficult for me to read when I tried to read something that I'd written recently. But with things I've written in block letters (as described above), even decades later they are still as legible as computer-printed documents.
Despite the advent of computers, I think there will always be a need for handwriting. But as it has been made clear by the many posts in the thread, one of the main reasons cursive is fading from use is that many people find it much easier to write in block lettering or in upper/lower case lettering. That, and people's bad experience in trying to learn and use cursive have caused them to abandon cursive when no longer required to use it.
I think that, eventually, cursive writing will move into the same realm as calligraphy. It will be an admired artistic skill that (when done well) produces beautiful results.
mikael_j wrote:
There was a book called "13th Gen" released a few years ago that deals with the people that have also been called "Generation X." Per that book, using those born in the mid-60s to mid-80s as the defining birth years is based on the end of the baby boom. "13th Gen" refers to those born between 1961 and 1981 as the thirteen generation since the founding of the United States.
The reason that the book "13th Gen" uses 1961 to 1981 as the defining birth years for the 13th Gen is that while the baby boom continued to the mid-1960s, the individuals born after 1960 were socially and culturally different from those who were part of the Baby Boom Generation.