I've always wondered why the environmental evangelism only cares about cars, solar panels, and plastic shopping bags. Stop taxing my bags and start taxing products that just don't last. We have the data, we know what products last a long time and we know that "modern" versions of them won't last a long time. For god sake we know how to engineer better products.
This is a very fresh approach to the problem. And he's right. Every new product means new manufacturing, shipping, packaging, storage space, landfill space. We really should tax products extra based on the length of their warranty (or lack thereof).
My girls (who are teens now but were kids when the prequels came out) actually prefer 1-3. They think #4 (Star Wars itself) is incredibly boring and way too long to get started. They like #5 and while they like the Ewoks in #6 (because they're cute), they think the final battle is completely ridiculous.
They have valid points. The original trilogy is put up on a pedestal by our generation. The prequels are incredibly similar, it is us who have changed.
Star Wars is the MOST nuanced film series of all time. I have seen them dozens of times, maybe 50. And I am always catching new things based on small pieces of things I read online, etc. I can't think of any other movie series where that is possible. George drops you into a living, breathing world that has everything already going on.
And, nobody told you the difference between hyperbolic, headline-grabbing crucifixion and thoughtful criticism. Most of these sci-fi movies that induce Slashdot nerd rage seems to somehow build up a big fan base, revenue, and many-many repeat viewings. Yet, the critically acclaimed sci-fi flicks get nothing more than quiet whimpering over how poor the quality is of your pirated copy.
Absolutely right. No matter how much Slashdot whines about the prequels, they made over $300 million each in the theater. And Empire, which everyone says is the best (cause it's dark, right), made the least of all.
What you as a techo-geek like, and what the more average and female population like, are two different things. (My wife loves the romance between Anakin and Padme. It's just like her lame novels.)
I have seen the TV show and while I can stomach a few of the episodes, they are not even close to the quality of the prequels. The Cartoon Network version was actually better than the CGI version, IMO.
Exactly this. None of the movies are terrible in my opinion. But the difference between Empire and the others is that Irvin Kershner and Harrison Ford ignored George's poor writing and substituted their own. Instead of "I love you," "I love you too," (and this can even be seen in the Empire Strikes Back novel and comic book I have) it became the iconic "I love you" "I know."
The very first cut did NOT have Episode IV in the crawl, because Fox made Lucas take it out. In every subsequent printing, he inserted it back in without telling them.
And yet, he got a different grade with the EXACT same papers.
I had the same experience. I took a Calculus class in High School and got an A. It was chapters 1-12 in a certain book.
I took it again in College from a professor who, I found out half way through the class, liked to fail lots of people. Same textbook, chapters 9-12. I had JUST had this the year before in High School and I knew it very well. I got an F and failed the class. It was the only class I failed in college.
I took it again the next semester from a foreign exchange professor from China whose accent was so thick 90% of the class couldn't understand a word he said. I only understood half of it. I got an A, because, you know, I knew it REALLY well then.
Grades are WAY too subjective. There need to be more standardized tests for subjects.
Right, so many are far worse off. We really need to have a better system that encourages trades for people that would not do well in college. There's no shame in that, but the country heaps shame on people for "not going to college".
You forgot 4) Move to a better neighborhood. Public school quality in America is VERY dependent on the neighborhood and parental involvement. If you run a bad school in a good neighborhood, the district superintendent can get run out of town very quickly. It happened in my hometown (we were all happy to see him go since he was moving all the money from the schools to making the district office nicer and his salary higher).
My uncle recently retired from being a professor and lamented the same thing. If he had tried to keep to the standards he had his first year, he would have had only 1-2 students pass. There was no choice but to dumb it down some.
Actually, this is a requirement of more people graduating from college. When only, let's say, the 130-140 IQ people were going to college (1890s), you can have very high standards that require geniuses. But when you start admitting 90 IQ people because "everyone should go to college" by necessity it must be easier.
The question is whether it is a good thing or a bad thing to send everyone to colleges with lower standards, and I think it's a good thing as long as the cost isn't prohibitive (for example, if they can't pay off the loans in less than 10 years, it's definitely prohibitively expensive).
Slashdot Mirror
That was very informative. Thanks.
I've always wondered why the environmental evangelism only cares about cars, solar panels, and plastic shopping bags. Stop taxing my bags and start taxing products that just don't last. We have the data, we know what products last a long time and we know that "modern" versions of them won't last a long time. For god sake we know how to engineer better products.
This is a very fresh approach to the problem. And he's right. Every new product means new manufacturing, shipping, packaging, storage space, landfill space. We really should tax products extra based on the length of their warranty (or lack thereof).
It's your own fault for buying things the cashier has never seen before... What are you buying, anyway?
XP SP2 also broke support for a couple motherboard chipsets. They never worked on SP2 or higher.
Makes me glad I quit playing the clarinet.
Or that HP sucks as a software company.
This is my fear as well. Still, there's a decent possibility that they could do better.
And he was fantastic in Disturbia.
My girls (who are teens now but were kids when the prequels came out) actually prefer 1-3. They think #4 (Star Wars itself) is incredibly boring and way too long to get started. They like #5 and while they like the Ewoks in #6 (because they're cute), they think the final battle is completely ridiculous.
They have valid points. The original trilogy is put up on a pedestal by our generation. The prequels are incredibly similar, it is us who have changed.
Star Wars is the MOST nuanced film series of all time. I have seen them dozens of times, maybe 50. And I am always catching new things based on small pieces of things I read online, etc. I can't think of any other movie series where that is possible. George drops you into a living, breathing world that has everything already going on.
But in every government incompetent people get elected because they are popular and then screw everything up. It's George's whole point.
And, nobody told you the difference between hyperbolic, headline-grabbing crucifixion and thoughtful criticism. Most of these sci-fi movies that induce Slashdot nerd rage seems to somehow build up a big fan base, revenue, and many-many repeat viewings. Yet, the critically acclaimed sci-fi flicks get nothing more than quiet whimpering over how poor the quality is of your pirated copy.
Absolutely right. No matter how much Slashdot whines about the prequels, they made over $300 million each in the theater. And Empire, which everyone says is the best (cause it's dark, right), made the least of all.
What you as a techo-geek like, and what the more average and female population like, are two different things. (My wife loves the romance between Anakin and Padme. It's just like her lame novels.)
That's your fault for being too old.
I have seen the TV show and while I can stomach a few of the episodes, they are not even close to the quality of the prequels. The Cartoon Network version was actually better than the CGI version, IMO.
Exactly this. None of the movies are terrible in my opinion. But the difference between Empire and the others is that Irvin Kershner and Harrison Ford ignored George's poor writing and substituted their own. Instead of "I love you," "I love you too," (and this can even be seen in the Empire Strikes Back novel and comic book I have) it became the iconic "I love you" "I know."
The very first cut did NOT have Episode IV in the crawl, because Fox made Lucas take it out. In every subsequent printing, he inserted it back in without telling them.
And yet, he got a different grade with the EXACT same papers.
I had the same experience. I took a Calculus class in High School and got an A. It was chapters 1-12 in a certain book.
I took it again in College from a professor who, I found out half way through the class, liked to fail lots of people. Same textbook, chapters 9-12. I had JUST had this the year before in High School and I knew it very well. I got an F and failed the class. It was the only class I failed in college.
I took it again the next semester from a foreign exchange professor from China whose accent was so thick 90% of the class couldn't understand a word he said. I only understood half of it. I got an A, because, you know, I knew it REALLY well then.
Grades are WAY too subjective. There need to be more standardized tests for subjects.
Right, so many are far worse off. We really need to have a better system that encourages trades for people that would not do well in college. There's no shame in that, but the country heaps shame on people for "not going to college".
You forgot 4) Move to a better neighborhood. Public school quality in America is VERY dependent on the neighborhood and parental involvement. If you run a bad school in a good neighborhood, the district superintendent can get run out of town very quickly. It happened in my hometown (we were all happy to see him go since he was moving all the money from the schools to making the district office nicer and his salary higher).
My uncle recently retired from being a professor and lamented the same thing. If he had tried to keep to the standards he had his first year, he would have had only 1-2 students pass. There was no choice but to dumb it down some.
Actually, this is a requirement of more people graduating from college. When only, let's say, the 130-140 IQ people were going to college (1890s), you can have very high standards that require geniuses. But when you start admitting 90 IQ people because "everyone should go to college" by necessity it must be easier.
The question is whether it is a good thing or a bad thing to send everyone to colleges with lower standards, and I think it's a good thing as long as the cost isn't prohibitive (for example, if they can't pay off the loans in less than 10 years, it's definitely prohibitively expensive).
Oh. Dat make cents now. Tanks.
If you would like to see just how far it has fallen, here is an 1899 entrance exam from Harvard:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/education/harvardexam.pdf
Anybody know how this differs from PhoneGap? Any comparisons or comments as to which is better and why?
Christ, it's spelled "BRAKE".
He already knows that, seeing that he's omniscient and all. Still, I hear he's a swell guy, so he probably won't say anything...