It may be a troll, but it's also a genuinely funny troll who actually put thought into what got posted. I could learn to enjoy trolls who put in effort like this...
String theory requires 10 dimensions. It's been effectively replaced by membrane theory, which requires an 11th dimension. They weren't brought in to make the math easier, they were brought in to make it possible. String theory didn't quite pan out, but membrane theory is gaining strength.
Part of the string theory problem was that there were five totally separate formulations for the theory. Membrane theory allows all five to be related by "gauge transformations."
A gauge transformation is essentially a freedom within the math. When calculating the potential energy of an object, we need a reference height, generally the height of the lowest place it can go. This is totally optional; we can set "ground level" to be the ground, the ceiling, or the basement. As long as we use the same ground level in all calculations, anything that we can measure or observe will be correctly predicted by the theory.
Don't mention it.:) I'm a physics student now, but I plan to work in Academia. I enjoy teaching (informally, and as a lab TA), so I take every chance I get to practice for the times when it's my job to make sure someone understands something.
Besides, I don't see the point in flaming someone because they took different classes than I did in high School and University. What's the point? If you're asking questions now, you're trying to learn. Why should I discourage that?
Dimensions do not have a size. Objects have sizes in a set of dimensions.
Saying a dimension has a "size" is an unfortunate wording born in an attempt to reach a broader audience. Dimensions have scales. I'm a little fuzzy on this part, since I'm in particle physics and not cosmology, but the idea is that the other dimensions could be "curved in" on themselves in such a way that their existance would be masked from our perceptions. I have yet to find a decent layperson's explanation for this, but I'll keep looking. The mathematical gymnastics in the theory do lead to characteristic length scales.
I mean how the hell can you compare two forces with completely causes? It is just as absurd as saying that 1 gram is more than 1 coulomb.
That's right. They're comparing the values of the coupling constants, which are dimensionless quantities (ie. no units), so they can look at things on the same scale. The coupling constant determines the strength of the interaction. (It also has a really bad name; it turns out that it's not constant.)
That's why it's only a proposal waiting to be tested. Scientists have been trying to combine all the forces of nature into one coherent picture for years. The electric and magnetic forces were combined in the last century, joined with the weak nuclear force twenty years ago, and joined with the strong force afterwards. Gravity is the only force that hasn't been pulled into a single, coherent view. Maybe it never will be brought in, but the idea of one force being completely independant of the others raises a whole new set of questions.
Basically, there's no reason for it to be the same, and there's no reason for it to be different, so scientists are checking out all the options.
I think it is in comparison to the other forces (Strong, Weak, and electromagnetic) that gravity is weak.
You're right. The difference is a factor of about 10^-15, IIRC. This is just in terms of the "coupling constants", and doesn't depend on the charge of the body. (The coupling constants are related to Coulomb's "k" and Newton's "G". Also, "charge" usually means electric charge, but it could be any charge. A gravitational charge is mass.)
The MPAA in the US, and I think is used in Canada as well, is a voluntary system. Sure, your film probably won't go anywhere if it isn't rated, but it's still not legally enforced. Computer/video games also use a voluntary system. It hasn't yet become the marketing tool that the MPAA ratings have..
Canada doesn't use the American system. Some provinces have adopted the MPAA's labels and definitions, but it's decided on a provincial level. I can only speak in detail for Alberta (where I worked in a theater for 3 years), but the movie ratings in that province are enforced by law in theaters, although not in rentals. Violation of the ratings laws risks a maximum of a $500 fine for both the customer and the theater, and repeated offenses at a theater can shut the place down. We took it very seriously.
There's a number of good books on the market (like the "Companion" series), but if you're going for the free online kinds, I suggest "The Not-So-Short Guide to LaTeX." I've found it in the past, but I didn't find it quickly today (even with Google). The filename is lshort.pdf in the version I've got, which should let you know if you're on the right track.
Ever gotten into a fight with Microsoft Word over some formating issues? It can be dang near impossible to get it to do what you want because it is being so helpful.
That's why I switched to LaTeX. Well, first I switched to StarOffice for the equation editor, and then I switched to LaTeX for the excellent cross-referencing, table of contents generation, and damn near everything else Word wouldn't get right the first half a dozen times I tried. God, Word's automatic outline generator? I still haven't figured out how to keep the numbering accurate automatically when I change the document. Maybe there's a way, but I never found it. LaTeX is, in my opinion, a far superior product, with much lower system requirements. It's basically a markup language, but anyone with a modest combination of IQ and HTML (eg) experience should be able to pick it up in under half a day.
Danny DeVito's character in the book was a movie star all along.
I distinctly recall being confused reading the book after the movie because of this. The first time he's mentioned, very early on, he's a rock star. In later chapters, they describe him as a movie star. The change happens before his character is introduced. I'd quote page references, but my copy's at home in Canada, and I'm at CERN.
Bryan Singer, the director, says it does relate to social injustice. That was his plan, anyway; it seems the editors felt some of the scenes without action weren't needed, and ended up on the cutting room floor. (I've heard estimates that 20 minutes of film are missing.)
As far as the "geeks and freaks" bit goes, X-Men storylines have always dealt with elements of discrimination. If Katz is most sensitive to a certain kind of discrimination, that's what he'll see. The same is (theoretically) true for all audience members.
Still, I've pretty much given up on ever seeing a film based on a book/comic/graphic novel that isn't at best a poor approximation of the original.
In most cases, the adaptation is horrible. However, sometimes the movie is better. Take Forrest Gump, for example. (Novel by Winston Groom.) That's one of the worst books I've ever read. I only finished it because I was hunting for scenes from a decent movie.
If that's not enough, read Get Shorty. (Novel by Elmore Leonard.) I liked the movie, so I bought the book. I don't know which editor was in charge of that book, but (s)he should be fired. Characters changed names and professions from chapter to chapter, conversations that started Wednesday morning finished Tuesday night, etc. The character played by Danny Devito in the movie was a rock star for the first three chapters, not an actor. If you've seen the movie, you know what this means for the plot. I got the impression Leonard had no plan for the book when he started writing, and ended up introducing various continuity errors as the draft progressed. I'm stunned that it was published in this form. That's one of half a dozen books I've never bothered to finish reading. I average a novel a week, so this should tell you how bad it is.
1. If you read the FAQs, it says that it is possible for some posts to score as low as -2, making them impossible to read. I don't remember exactly, but I think it requires your User Preferences to have certain settings. Is this the case?
2. I'm not sure we all want an update on the MS thing, but we're at least an overwhelming majority. Editors, what happened?
Are you sure this isn't just the download version? The StarOffice 5.1a CD bundled with my copy of RedHat 6.1 required a couple minor questions to install, but installed before broadcasting the results. You can then tell it not to transmit the data. It seems to be designed to function on a computer without an internet connection. You can click the "I've already registered" button, and the prompts go away. Even so, there's nothing preventing you from lying when you answer.
The ultimate goal is to produce humanoid service robots for personal use. If humans had three eyes in a triangular arrangement, so would the P3.
Re:nope, not gonna happen
on
Movies Online?
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· Score: 1
Wow.. Robert DeNiro's mole has gotta be ten feet wide!
- Stranga Kvarko
Re:The Horror and Pain of Film
on
Movies Online?
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· Score: 1
I'm saying every film I've ever seen has had way too much scratches/dust/etc.
If it's scratched, that's probably due to the projectionist. In all my time as a projectionist, I must have dealt with (quick calculation, estimate... three summers... four screens... 25 months... other projectionists...) about 500 separate prints. I've scratched a few myself (about 10 to some degree, but only 4 so that the average customer noticed), and I've seen three prints with factory scratches. This includes the time while I was training. If all the movies you see are scratched/dirty, complain. Scratches happen, but shouldn't happen often. Dirty prints can be cleaned as the film is running through the projector; there's no excuse there, unless the print is very new. However, these new, sensitive prints should be fine after two screenings. If it's dirty on a Saturday, complain.
Note: I've seen a few movies in the ``second-run'' theaters. I've never seen one of these in good shape. I refuse to go to the cheap houses now; there's just too many avoidable errors on screen. This shouldn't happen with new prints, or old, but be ready to see it on old.
A quick guide to scratches: they can be green or black. The colour tells you which side of the film it's on. The can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. Vertical scratches are usually projectionist error. The rare horizontal scratches come from the factory.
Diagonal scratches are a result of projectionist negligence while assembling the film. I know of no other way to produce them. If you see diagonal scratches, especially when the print hasn't shown in any other theater, complain to the management. The projectionists screwed up.
Re:The Horror and Pain of Film
on
Movies Online?
·
· Score: 1
Before I respond to this, I should say that I worked as a projectionist for about two and a half years.
Now:
Image quality? I've never seen a projected film that wasn't utterly full of 'projected defects'. Even the preview of Chicken Run that I went to two days before it's opening had so much it was noticable during ~20-30% of the film(*).
This could be a result of a rushed print. As the film chemically dries, a white powder accumulates on the surface. If the film is rushed, it's possible that it's sensitive enough when it reaches theaters that the cleaning equipment would scratch the print. This is not a problem inherent to the technology, it's a problem with implementation by production companies rushing to meet the advertised release date. Look at ID4; that one was so rushed that some theaters didn't get prints, because they weren't made yet. The theater I worked at got it's copy shipped in cardboard boxes because they hadn't tracked down the actual film cans for it.
The sound? Always: Too loud. Off center. Decidedly over-done(*).
The projectionists can change this at any time. However, the sound mixers are instructed to make loud parts loud, and quiet parts quiet, which often results in inaudible conversation at a level where the loud parts are tolerable. Complain to the manager first; if (s)he gives you this explanation, (s)he actually knows what (s)he's talking about. Ask how to complain to the film company about it. Any other explanation, and (s)he's probably instructed the projectionists to turn it up. Keep complaining.
The 'social' atmosphere? You mean the autistic guy sitting in the row in front of me doing his thing every 15 minutes(**), or the woman bringing in her 6 month old?(*)
If someone disturbs you, tell the management. If it's a young child, point out the experiments with ``baby'' night at some theaters, and ask your theater to implement one.
As far as other social interaction goes, there are a lot of people who spend a night a week seeing a movie with friends, and then going to a local coffee shop to talk about it. Even if it's a terrible movie, trashing it for a few hours can be an entertaining evening.
Oh yeah, that 24 fps is just *spectacular* for all the action. I'll just hold my damn breath until this 48 fps stuff comes out within 5 miles of me.
The west wall in my apartment is a nice flat white, 12 feet wide by 8 feet high. I'm just dreaming about the day I can project 1600x1200 HDTV/DVD onto it(***). My current HDs can hold 70 hours of DivX Mpeg4. Fuck theaters. They're dead meat.
And the 30 frames per second DVD refresh rate is so much better than 24, right?
The online movie business can draw people like you out fo the theater, but it won't kill the regular theaters. There's just too many of us who like to see movies with a lot of people. I have a DVD-ROM, and I enjoyed it when I still had Windows around to watch movies, but a computer screen is rarely able to accomodate, say, 8 people who all want to see a movie together. A full-wall screen can accomodate, but how many people are going to go for that? How many movie tickets can you buy for the cost of that equipment? (Yes, I know admission prices are going up. When I worked at a theater, anywhere from 65-85 percent of the ticket price went straight back to the movie company. Box office rarely covers rent in a theater; hence the concession prices. Since then, the film company's cut has risen considerably. The concession prices have reached their limits, so the box office prices have to climb to cover costs.) Harp on the film companies to take smaller cuts, and you'll see admission prices stabilize.
I've seen people try this with DVDs. (ie the cover of the DVD is taped to some sturdy backing, and then you browse through them.) It's not as eye-catching, so most companies would oppose releasing their products this way. The dealer would inevitably stack them, or put them in a file to fit more on the shelf. All of a sudden, the only flashy package that will catch the buyer's eye is the one that happens to be out front. I think most companies would oppose any packaging that allows their product to share shelf space with anything else.
I don't know about TP7, but I goofed around with software I wrote in TP6 on my Athlon and it worked fine. (Just a simple numeric integration, with Simpson's rule. Makes a good, cheap benchamrk for the work I do. I tend to use C and Linux now, but the TP6 code already exists...)
Re:maybe you need to check some Spec numbers
on
AMD's Duron Birthed
·
· Score: 1
The program produced a few megabytes of output. At home, that was written to the hard drive. At school, that was written to the server a few floors below us. Since there were about 15 people all writing several megabytes of data to this server at any given time, I'd believe in a bottleneck. The CPU was likely to spend time idling waiting for write confirmation before moving on. (The CPU was a P2-300.)
Slashdot Mirror
It may be a troll, but it's also a genuinely funny troll who actually put thought into what got posted. I could learn to enjoy trolls who put in effort like this...
String theory requires 10 dimensions. It's been effectively replaced by membrane theory, which requires an 11th dimension. They weren't brought in to make the math easier, they were brought in to make it possible. String theory didn't quite pan out, but membrane theory is gaining strength.
Part of the string theory problem was that there were five totally separate formulations for the theory. Membrane theory allows all five to be related by "gauge transformations."
A gauge transformation is essentially a freedom within the math. When calculating the potential energy of an object, we need a reference height, generally the height of the lowest place it can go. This is totally optional; we can set "ground level" to be the ground, the ceiling, or the basement. As long as we use the same ground level in all calculations, anything that we can measure or observe will be correctly predicted by the theory.
Don't mention it. :) I'm a physics student now, but I plan to work in Academia. I enjoy teaching (informally, and as a lab TA), so I take every chance I get to practice for the times when it's my job to make sure someone understands something.
Besides, I don't see the point in flaming someone because they took different classes than I did in high School and University. What's the point? If you're asking questions now, you're trying to learn. Why should I discourage that?
When I calculate, I do. However, using it here would defeat the purpose of relating things to constants people know from high school physics.
Dimensions do not have a size. Objects have sizes in a set of dimensions.
Saying a dimension has a "size" is an unfortunate wording born in an attempt to reach a broader audience. Dimensions have scales. I'm a little fuzzy on this part, since I'm in particle physics and not cosmology, but the idea is that the other dimensions could be "curved in" on themselves in such a way that their existance would be masked from our perceptions. I have yet to find a decent layperson's explanation for this, but I'll keep looking. The mathematical gymnastics in the theory do lead to characteristic length scales.
I mean how the hell can you compare two forces with completely causes? It is just as absurd as saying that 1 gram is more than 1 coulomb.
That's right. They're comparing the values of the coupling constants, which are dimensionless quantities (ie. no units), so they can look at things on the same scale. The coupling constant determines the strength of the interaction. (It also has a really bad name; it turns out that it's not constant.)
That's why it's only a proposal waiting to be tested. Scientists have been trying to combine all the forces of nature into one coherent picture for years. The electric and magnetic forces were combined in the last century, joined with the weak nuclear force twenty years ago, and joined with the strong force afterwards. Gravity is the only force that hasn't been pulled into a single, coherent view. Maybe it never will be brought in, but the idea of one force being completely independant of the others raises a whole new set of questions.
Basically, there's no reason for it to be the same, and there's no reason for it to be different, so scientists are checking out all the options.
I think it is in comparison to the other forces (Strong, Weak, and electromagnetic) that gravity is weak.
You're right. The difference is a factor of about 10^-15, IIRC. This is just in terms of the "coupling constants", and doesn't depend on the charge of the body. (The coupling constants are related to Coulomb's "k" and Newton's "G". Also, "charge" usually means electric charge, but it could be any charge. A gravitational charge is mass.)
The MPAA in the US, and I think is used in Canada as well, is a voluntary system. Sure, your film probably won't go anywhere if it isn't rated, but it's still not legally enforced. Computer/video games also use a voluntary system. It hasn't yet become the marketing tool that the MPAA ratings have..
Canada doesn't use the American system. Some provinces have adopted the MPAA's labels and definitions, but it's decided on a provincial level. I can only speak in detail for Alberta (where I worked in a theater for 3 years), but the movie ratings in that province are enforced by law in theaters, although not in rentals. Violation of the ratings laws risks a maximum of a $500 fine for both the customer and the theater, and repeated offenses at a theater can shut the place down. We took it very seriously.
There's a number of good books on the market (like the "Companion" series), but if you're going for the free online kinds, I suggest "The Not-So-Short Guide to LaTeX." I've found it in the past, but I didn't find it quickly today (even with Google). The filename is lshort.pdf in the version I've got, which should let you know if you're on the right track.
Ever gotten into a fight with Microsoft Word over some formating issues? It can be dang near impossible to get it to do what you want because it is being so helpful.
That's why I switched to LaTeX. Well, first I switched to StarOffice for the equation editor, and then I switched to LaTeX for the excellent cross-referencing, table of contents generation, and damn near everything else Word wouldn't get right the first half a dozen times I tried. God, Word's automatic outline generator? I still haven't figured out how to keep the numbering accurate automatically when I change the document. Maybe there's a way, but I never found it. LaTeX is, in my opinion, a far superior product, with much lower system requirements. It's basically a markup language, but anyone with a modest combination of IQ and HTML (eg) experience should be able to pick it up in under half a day.
Danny DeVito's character in the book was a movie star all along.
I distinctly recall being confused reading the book after the movie because of this. The first time he's mentioned, very early on, he's a rock star. In later chapters, they describe him as a movie star. The change happens before his character is introduced. I'd quote page references, but my copy's at home in Canada, and I'm at CERN.
Bryan Singer, the director, says it does relate to social injustice. That was his plan, anyway; it seems the editors felt some of the scenes without action weren't needed, and ended up on the cutting room floor. (I've heard estimates that 20 minutes of film are missing.)
As far as the "geeks and freaks" bit goes, X-Men storylines have always dealt with elements of discrimination. If Katz is most sensitive to a certain kind of discrimination, that's what he'll see. The same is (theoretically) true for all audience members.
To whoever coded the KatzBot: great job.
Ooo... bad mental pictures... suddenly my mind is filled with an 80's tune that sounds too much like "Rockin' the KatzBot! Rockin' the KatzBot!"
Still, I've pretty much given up on ever seeing a film based on a book/comic/graphic novel that isn't at best a poor approximation of the original.
In most cases, the adaptation is horrible. However, sometimes the movie is better. Take Forrest Gump, for example. (Novel by Winston Groom.) That's one of the worst books I've ever read. I only finished it because I was hunting for scenes from a decent movie.
If that's not enough, read Get Shorty. (Novel by Elmore Leonard.) I liked the movie, so I bought the book. I don't know which editor was in charge of that book, but (s)he should be fired. Characters changed names and professions from chapter to chapter, conversations that started Wednesday morning finished Tuesday night, etc. The character played by Danny Devito in the movie was a rock star for the first three chapters, not an actor. If you've seen the movie, you know what this means for the plot. I got the impression Leonard had no plan for the book when he started writing, and ended up introducing various continuity errors as the draft progressed. I'm stunned that it was published in this form. That's one of half a dozen books I've never bothered to finish reading. I average a novel a week, so this should tell you how bad it is.
Two notes:
1. If you read the FAQs, it says that it is possible for some posts to score as low as -2, making them impossible to read. I don't remember exactly, but I think it requires your User Preferences to have certain settings. Is this the case?
2. I'm not sure we all want an update on the MS thing, but we're at least an overwhelming majority. Editors, what happened?
Are you sure this isn't just the download version? The StarOffice 5.1a CD bundled with my copy of RedHat 6.1 required a couple minor questions to install, but installed before broadcasting the results. You can then tell it not to transmit the data. It seems to be designed to function on a computer without an internet connection. You can click the "I've already registered" button, and the prompts go away. Even so, there's nothing preventing you from lying when you answer.
The ultimate goal is to produce humanoid service robots for personal use. If humans had three eyes in a triangular arrangement, so would the P3.
Wow.. Robert DeNiro's mole has gotta be ten feet wide!
- Stranga Kvarko
I'm saying every film I've ever seen has had way too much scratches/dust/etc.
If it's scratched, that's probably due to the projectionist. In all my time as a projectionist, I must have dealt with (quick calculation, estimate... three summers... four screens... 25 months... other projectionists...) about 500 separate prints. I've scratched a few myself (about 10 to some degree, but only 4 so that the average customer noticed), and I've seen three prints with factory scratches. This includes the time while I was training. If all the movies you see are scratched/dirty, complain. Scratches happen, but shouldn't happen often. Dirty prints can be cleaned as the film is running through the projector; there's no excuse there, unless the print is very new. However, these new, sensitive prints should be fine after two screenings. If it's dirty on a Saturday, complain.
Note: I've seen a few movies in the ``second-run'' theaters. I've never seen one of these in good shape. I refuse to go to the cheap houses now; there's just too many avoidable errors on screen. This shouldn't happen with new prints, or old, but be ready to see it on old.
A quick guide to scratches: they can be green or black. The colour tells you which side of the film it's on. The can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. Vertical scratches are usually projectionist error. The rare horizontal scratches come from the factory.
Diagonal scratches are a result of projectionist negligence while assembling the film. I know of no other way to produce them. If you see diagonal scratches, especially when the print hasn't shown in any other theater, complain to the management. The projectionists screwed up.
Before I respond to this, I should say that I worked as a projectionist for about two and a half years.
Now:
Image quality? I've never seen a projected film that wasn't utterly full of 'projected defects'. Even the preview of Chicken Run that I went to two days before it's opening had so much it was noticable during ~20-30% of the film(*).
This could be a result of a rushed print. As the film chemically dries, a white powder accumulates on the surface. If the film is rushed, it's possible that it's sensitive enough when it reaches theaters that the cleaning equipment would scratch the print. This is not a problem inherent to the technology, it's a problem with implementation by production companies rushing to meet the advertised release date. Look at ID4; that one was so rushed that some theaters didn't get prints, because they weren't made yet. The theater I worked at got it's copy shipped in cardboard boxes because they hadn't tracked down the actual film cans for it.
The sound? Always: Too loud. Off center. Decidedly over-done(*).
The projectionists can change this at any time. However, the sound mixers are instructed to make loud parts loud, and quiet parts quiet, which often results in inaudible conversation at a level where the loud parts are tolerable. Complain to the manager first; if (s)he gives you this explanation, (s)he actually knows what (s)he's talking about. Ask how to complain to the film company about it. Any other explanation, and (s)he's probably instructed the projectionists to turn it up. Keep complaining.
The 'social' atmosphere? You mean the autistic guy sitting in the row in front of me doing his thing every 15 minutes(**), or the woman bringing in her 6 month old?(*)
If someone disturbs you, tell the management. If it's a young child, point out the experiments with ``baby'' night at some theaters, and ask your theater to implement one.
As far as other social interaction goes, there are a lot of people who spend a night a week seeing a movie with friends, and then going to a local coffee shop to talk about it. Even if it's a terrible movie, trashing it for a few hours can be an entertaining evening.
Oh yeah, that 24 fps is just *spectacular* for all the action. I'll just hold my damn breath until this 48 fps stuff comes out within 5 miles of me.
The west wall in my apartment is a nice flat white, 12 feet wide by 8 feet high. I'm just dreaming about the day I can project 1600x1200 HDTV/DVD onto it(***). My current HDs can hold 70 hours of DivX Mpeg4. Fuck theaters. They're dead meat.
And the 30 frames per second DVD refresh rate is so much better than 24, right?
The online movie business can draw people like you out fo the theater, but it won't kill the regular theaters. There's just too many of us who like to see movies with a lot of people. I have a DVD-ROM, and I enjoyed it when I still had Windows around to watch movies, but a computer screen is rarely able to accomodate, say, 8 people who all want to see a movie together. A full-wall screen can accomodate, but how many people are going to go for that? How many movie tickets can you buy for the cost of that equipment? (Yes, I know admission prices are going up. When I worked at a theater, anywhere from 65-85 percent of the ticket price went straight back to the movie company. Box office rarely covers rent in a theater; hence the concession prices. Since then, the film company's cut has risen considerably. The concession prices have reached their limits, so the box office prices have to climb to cover costs.) Harp on the film companies to take smaller cuts, and you'll see admission prices stabilize.
- BlaineI've seen people try this with DVDs. (ie the cover of the DVD is taped to some sturdy backing, and then you browse through them.) It's not as eye-catching, so most companies would oppose releasing their products this way. The dealer would inevitably stack them, or put them in a file to fit more on the shelf. All of a sudden, the only flashy package that will catch the buyer's eye is the one that happens to be out front. I think most companies would oppose any packaging that allows their product to share shelf space with anything else.
I don't know about TP7, but I goofed around with software I wrote in TP6 on my Athlon and it worked fine. (Just a simple numeric integration, with Simpson's rule. Makes a good, cheap benchamrk for the work I do. I tend to use C and Linux now, but the TP6 code already exists...)
The program produced a few megabytes of output. At home, that was written to the hard drive. At school, that was written to the server a few floors below us. Since there were about 15 people all writing several megabytes of data to this server at any given time, I'd believe in a bottleneck. The CPU was likely to spend time idling waiting for write confirmation before moving on. (The CPU was a P2-300.)
Really? I haven't that problem with POVRay. Are you sure it's not an out-of-memory problem?