The Surfer is about to take over the world, along with the other primary members of the Defenders (Hulk, Namor, Dr. Strange). (They've decided that if they're going to be forced into the duty of protecting the Earth (due to a curse they're under), that taking over will let them perform that duty more efficiently and with the least impact on their lives.) Look for the miniseries "The Order".
Not having seen the data, I would guess that if one were looking only at post-1960 comics Spider-Man would have the edge, having had a magazine (Marvel Team-Up) dedicated to him meeting other characters for over 150 issues. Captain America has been a nearly constant member of the Avengers team, but that can't match the variety from MTU. (The Thing has a similar advantage, with a hundred issues or so of Marvel Two-In-One to add to his Fantastic Four membership and his own series.) Only by adding in the 1940's-era can Captain America get any sort of edge in connectivity.
Any discussion about the duration of copyright laws should, I think, include a mention of Spider Robinson's (Hugo award winning) story "Melancholy Elephants", currently in print in his collection "By Any Other Name". Spoiler warning: The characters discuss an extension of copyright into perpetuity. His argument against this is that we do not create (for example) melodies, we discover aesthetically pleasing sequences of notes and rhythms. And the number of such sequences is finite. "Eventually, the infinite number of monkeys will have nothing left to type but the complete works of Shakespeare."
In this case, the friction between web and paper comics exists because Gary Groth publishes paper comics. He has frequently demonstrated the ability to use thousands of words to hide the fact that his opinions generally boil down to: If it's from Fantagraphics Books, it's good; if it's not, it's very unlikely to be good; if it's good for Fantagraphics, it's good for the industry; if it isn't, most likely it's an abomination.
Farscape's coming out on DVD, four discs so far, two episodes each. And unlike what you might expect for tv-based discs, these have notable extra features: ten minute pieces on a character/actor each disc; audio commentary by actors and directors...
And the Sci-fi Channel's web sub-site on Farscape (trivial url) will help fill in some more of the holes.
I'm a fairly recent convert to Farscape myself, so I think you will find it worth the effort.
Check out the episode of Babylon 5 that Joe Straczynski had to delay for a year (Passing Through Gethsemane), or the novel Marion Zimmer Bradley was unable to publish (couldn't find a link), then ask how much is Sturgeon's Law and how much is justifiable paranoia.
>Credit card numbers can have 19 digits, not just 16. This is going to burn lots of people who assume that the cards are only 16.
I think the extra three digits in question is a security code frequently found on the back of the card in the signature area; I don't know if they really qualify as part of the card number. (MBNA's ShopSafe system, one of the systems this whole article is about (and the one with which I have personal experience), generates these codes...)
I use the MBNA system as well. (And it works from a Mac; a Control Strip module tells the web browser to open a small window on their flash page...) My understanding is that the temporary account is tied to the first web-based merchant that uses it; even if a cracker were to get the number, if he attempted to use that account it would be denied because he's not that company, not just because of the time or credit limits.
Moderators should be ashamed. This isn't funny, it's flamebait. Using "cartoon porn" to refer to anime in general is brain-damaged; saying that about a masterpiece like Princess Mononoke can only be blamed on intentional offensiveness, no one is that stupid.
"...at least as many lines of comment as machine readable code..."
That sounds like over-commenting to me. Comments that are redundant with the code are worthless.
The code should be sufficient to describe what's going on; the names of variables and functions should go a long way toward explaining the why's behind the what's; comments are for any why's left over.
Charles Sheffield had a novel, "Web Between the Worlds", that dealt with the orbital tower/ space elevator/ beanstalk (Sheffield's preferred terminology), that was published about the same time as Clarke's "Fountains of Paradise" -- one of those coincedences of simultaneous independent development of similar ideas...
Hardly anyone has mentioned the series Key the Metal Idol yet (except CmdrTaco in the initial post). Three DVDs, each three-plus hours; the first is available now, with the other two due soon. Tokiko Mima aka Key is a robot in the form of a teenager who, since her grandfather/creator died, has to become human before her power system runs out. Her grandfather said that becoming human would require her to make friends "who would cry for her, who would give her their strength". Thirty thousand friends. Either that, or she's just a girl who's severly deluded. But if that were the case, why would the head of Ajo Heavy Industries be so concerned with the Mima family, and why would the combat robots that Ajo is making (and testing in the streets of Tokyo) go haywire when Key is nearby? (And that's just the first half-hour...)
It sounds to me like you haven't read the book in question ("The Mote in God's Eye", Niven and Pournelle; its sequal "The Gripping Hand" isn't as good); please do so before jumping to any conclusions about why the Moties have been constantly at war with themselves. (I've already spoiled too much.)
It's been a while since I read it, but I'm pretty sure that when humans first see the Mote, they comment on all the impact craters. I think the midshipmen learn more in the museum, but I'm not sure.
"Firestar", "Rogue Star", and "Lodestar" (and more coming) by Michael Flynn. A woman obsessed with this topic has the means to start a commercial space program, jump-starting a whole industry. In the third volume, we finally start to see how justified her obsession is...
What if you told the customer that this little change would take X time/cost to implement, while this new feature woult take Y, and let him choose which is worthwhile and which should be done first?
> Either he changes your functions or he adds new similar-but-different functions.
In XP, he can "change your functions"; the unit tests make sure that nothing breaks. (And they're not "your" functions anyway, since there's no code ownership.)
And the potential problem of similar-but-different functions are covered by the practices of refactoring and of saying/doing things no more than once.
Read the book and the web sites before jumping to conclusions.
Another site is ExtremeProgrammingRoadmap. This is a "WikiWikiWeb" site, where every page can be edited by anybody, and new pages and links spring into existance automagically just by RunningCapitalizedWordsTogether. This site also covers pattern languages, java idioms, and other semi-related topics...
M was played consistantly by Bernard Lee from Dr. No through Moonraker (11 times); when Lee died in 1981, they filled in once (For Your Eyes Only) with a Minister of Defense (Geoffrey Keen), not an "M", then Robert Brown played M in Octopussy, View to a Kill, and Dalton's two (Living Daylights, License to Kill). Dame Judi Dench came aboard along with Brosnan (so she's been M less times than any one else who has been M, though she's been given more to do with the role than the others put together).
And Lois Maxwell, not Dench, was Moneypenny through all the Connery's and Moore's (and the Lazenby); Caroline Bliss was in Dalton's two, and Samantha Bond has been in Brosnan's three.
Slashdot Mirror
The Surfer is about to take over the world, along with the other primary members of the Defenders (Hulk, Namor, Dr. Strange). (They've decided that if they're going to be forced into the duty of protecting the Earth (due to a curse they're under), that taking over will let them perform that duty more efficiently and with the least impact on their lives.) Look for the miniseries "The Order".
Not having seen the data, I would guess that if one were looking only at post-1960 comics Spider-Man would have the edge, having had a magazine (Marvel Team-Up) dedicated to him meeting other characters for over 150 issues. Captain America has been a nearly constant member of the Avengers team, but that can't match the variety from MTU. (The Thing has a similar advantage, with a hundred issues or so of Marvel Two-In-One to add to his Fantastic Four membership and his own series.) Only by adding in the 1940's-era can Captain America get any sort of edge in connectivity.
Wrong universe/publisher; Aquaman is DC, not Marvel.
Any discussion about the duration of copyright laws should, I think, include a mention of Spider Robinson's (Hugo award winning) story "Melancholy Elephants", currently in print in his collection "By Any Other Name". Spoiler warning: The characters discuss an extension of copyright into perpetuity. His argument against this is that we do not create (for example) melodies, we discover aesthetically pleasing sequences of notes and rhythms. And the number of such sequences is finite. "Eventually, the infinite number of monkeys will have nothing left to type but the complete works of Shakespeare."
The laserdisc edition of Toy Story had all (at that time) five of the shorts: Luxo Jr, Andre/Wally B, Red's Dream, Knickknack, and Tin Toy.
In this case, the friction between web and paper comics exists because Gary Groth publishes paper comics. He has frequently demonstrated the ability to use thousands of words to hide the fact that his opinions generally boil down to: If it's from Fantagraphics Books, it's good; if it's not, it's very unlikely to be good; if it's good for Fantagraphics, it's good for the industry; if it isn't, most likely it's an abomination.
Farscape's coming out on DVD, four discs so far, two episodes each. And unlike what you might expect for tv-based discs, these have notable extra features: ten minute pieces on a character/actor each disc; audio commentary by actors and directors...
And the Sci-fi Channel's web sub-site on Farscape (trivial url) will help fill in some more of the holes.
I'm a fairly recent convert to Farscape myself, so I think you will find it worth the effort.
Check out the episode of Babylon 5 that Joe Straczynski had to delay for a year (Passing Through Gethsemane), or the novel Marion Zimmer Bradley was unable to publish (couldn't find a link), then ask how much is Sturgeon's Law and how much is justifiable paranoia.
>Credit card numbers can have 19 digits, not just 16. This is going to burn lots of people who assume that the cards are only 16.
I think the extra three digits in question is a security code frequently found on the back of the card in the signature area; I don't know if they really qualify as part of the card number. (MBNA's ShopSafe system, one of the systems this whole article is about (and the one with which I have personal experience), generates these codes...)
I use the MBNA system as well. (And it works from a Mac; a Control Strip module tells the web browser to open a small window on their flash page...) My understanding is that the temporary account is tied to the first web-based merchant that uses it; even if a cracker were to get the number, if he attempted to use that account it would be denied because he's not that company, not just because of the time or credit limits.
Actually, O'Reilly used to publish a quarterly X windows journal (was it The X Journal? I can't recall).
Moderators should be ashamed. This isn't funny, it's flamebait. Using "cartoon porn" to refer to anime in general is brain-damaged; saying that about a masterpiece like Princess Mononoke can only be blamed on intentional offensiveness, no one is that stupid.
"...at least as many lines of comment as machine readable code..."
That sounds like over-commenting to me. Comments that are redundant with the code are worthless.
The code should be sufficient to describe what's going on; the names of variables and functions should go a long way toward explaining the why's behind the what's; comments are for any why's left over.
Charles Sheffield had a novel, "Web Between the Worlds", that dealt with the orbital tower/ space elevator/ beanstalk (Sheffield's preferred terminology), that was published about the same time as Clarke's "Fountains of Paradise" -- one of those coincedences of simultaneous independent development of similar ideas...
Hardly anyone has mentioned the series Key the Metal Idol yet (except CmdrTaco in the initial post). Three DVDs, each three-plus hours; the first is available now, with the other two due soon. Tokiko Mima aka Key is a robot in the form of a teenager who, since her grandfather/creator died, has to become human before her power system runs out. Her grandfather said that becoming human would require her to make friends "who would cry for her, who would give her their strength". Thirty thousand friends. Either that, or she's just a girl who's severly deluded. But if that were the case, why would the head of Ajo Heavy Industries be so concerned with the Mima family, and why would the combat robots that Ajo is making (and testing in the streets of Tokyo) go haywire when Key is nearby? (And that's just the first half-hour...)
It sounds to me like you haven't read the book in question ("The Mote in God's Eye", Niven and Pournelle; its sequal "The Gripping Hand" isn't as good); please do so before jumping to any conclusions about why the Moties have been constantly at war with themselves. (I've already spoiled too much.)
It's been a while since I read it, but I'm pretty sure that when humans first see the Mote, they comment on all the impact craters. I think the midshipmen learn more in the museum, but I'm not sure.
"Firestar", "Rogue Star", and "Lodestar" (and more coming) by Michael Flynn. A woman obsessed with this topic has the means to start a commercial space program, jump-starting a whole industry. In the third volume, we finally start to see how justified her obsession is...
That, plus the fact that the Moties had already used all the convenient asteroids as weapons in their infinite number of wars.
Everyone is entitled to an *informed* opinion.
Since you have not yet read the book or the web sites that have been listed, your opinion is not yet an informed one.
What if you told the customer that this little change would take X time/cost to implement, while this new feature woult take Y, and let him choose which is worthwhile and which should be done first?
Funny, that's what the XP people call the Planning Game...
> Either he changes your functions or he adds new similar-but-different functions.
In XP, he can "change your functions"; the unit tests make sure that nothing breaks. (And they're not "your" functions anyway, since there's no code ownership.)
And the potential problem of similar-but-different functions are covered by the practices of refactoring and of saying/doing things no more than once.
Read the book and the web sites before jumping to conclusions.
Another site is ExtremeProgrammingRoadmap. This is a "WikiWikiWeb" site, where every page can be edited by anybody, and new pages and links spring into existance automagically just by RunningCapitalizedWordsTogether. This site also covers pattern languages, java idioms, and other semi-related topics...
Both howardpj and scudsucker are incorrect.
M was played consistantly by Bernard Lee from Dr. No through Moonraker (11 times); when Lee died in 1981, they filled in once (For Your Eyes Only) with a Minister of Defense (Geoffrey Keen), not an "M", then Robert Brown played M in Octopussy, View to a Kill, and Dalton's two (Living Daylights, License to Kill). Dame Judi Dench came aboard along with Brosnan (so she's been M less times than any one else who has been M, though she's been given more to do with the role than the others put together).
And Lois Maxwell, not Dench, was Moneypenny through all the Connery's and Moore's (and the Lazenby); Caroline Bliss was in Dalton's two, and Samantha Bond has been in Brosnan's three.
When in doubt, check with imdb. I did.
I'd suggest Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics for a good definition of comics. (I believe DC has picked up publication of this...)