Damn it sucks to be a double-me-too-er, but same here. While we haven't done this corporate-wide (we work with a number of government contractors, so there's that fun to deal with), those of us in IT and software development who are self-supporting jumped right away, with no issues.
Well... I replaced my recently stolen 720p television with a 1080p - but as I don't own a BluRay player (and really don't think I'll be getting one any time soon), I'm not spoiled yet. It would be really nice to have HD streaming, but I won't be upset that currently the best I'll get is 720x480. At least the Wii will finally join in the fun.
motang writes
"Netflix and Nintendo is set to announce Netflix streaming service for the Wii soon. Subscribers... can watch non-HD version of the movies on their Wii..."
I've been a NetFlix subscriber since about 2001. I can verify that the streaming service was good prior to Silverlight, then sucked it hard for several months as they converted to the new tech, but (at least on Win7) it's been fine for quite a while now.
Every new multimedia technology Microsoft creates sucks until the second major revision (at least).
While I don't think that's an untrue statement in general, it applies to many technologies, both hardware and software. As for hardware, that goes for many things outside the computer industry (car models, washing machines, whatever have you) as real-world use reveals shortcomings the original design and testing didn't take into account.
If I had mod points I'd get you back to 0 at least. Not sure why disagreement = negative mod.
I gotta say I think you hit it right on the head - McGuire got a great paycheck for doing "dork" really well, but man his Spiderman persona is even outdone by the old (60's?, 70's?) Spidey cartoons. That type of wit and playful attitude was what I was hoping for in the first film but didn't get. I saw the second film too, and still wasn't impressed (also again you're right, once past the mecha-arms, it should be easy to kill Doc Oc if you can lift cars).
No points today to give out, but a +1 insightful is owed you for this.
How many times have you said (or heard someone say), "what idiot designed this input screen (or other interface object)?" Clearly, a brain is required to do the job well.
I don't equate wanting plot with film snobbery; also though, I don't look down on you (or anyone) for enjoying sfx and not caring about the overall story. Movies/music/art forms of any type speak to different people differently. Personally, I'd like a movie to have both visual appeal and a great story, but that's me.
Please read no tone of anger, flaming, attitude, or other negative vibes in this post. Lately, I notice that if I reply to someone as if I'm having a normal conversation with them, I get at least one, and often several, angry replies.
Mod this person's comment up to 5 insightful. This was precisely my thought upon reading the summary (no, didn't RTFA). Figure the gross earnings saved/made overall based on tech/IT solutions, then remove loses to reach your net benefit/loss.
I wonder how much money companies would lose if suddenly no IT services were available.
Okay. One reason you didn't like this that I infer from what you wrote: you don't get the insinuations the guy is making. He points out that Lucas SAYS the film is for kids, while demonstrating for you that clearly there are parts that children don't get and never will give a rat's ass about. He doesn't say it - he shows you. Several times. The point is pretty clear that this film tries to be a number of things at once, and because it does it fails at all of them.
No one can describe QGJ without using his character's profession or wardrobe as descriptors... The other one was Queen Amidala.
The question I pose to you is, even if you are more capable than the people he interviewed to come up with descriptors, do you honestly feel the characters in the more recently-produced films are as strong or stronger than those in the originals films? If so, all you and I can do is agree to disagree on that point (and honestly, it's just film, so I'm not up in arms about that - just sayin' I think the newer characters do lack in development and depth).
Also, what's with the editing? It looks like he added his voice to video-from-still images and then edited them for time...
That was all done on purpose - he was going for a "feel" to his work. I'm not going to try to explain it, but there are certainly people who "get" what he did and why. I've talked to them and we had a good laugh over it. Just trust me, it wasn't an accident.
I did too, and know of several others who did as well. Not taking you to task, but you asked. And there are a couple of parts that are, ermm, creepy funny, so I urge you to watch for fun!
And yeah, sjbe nailed it with everything in his/her post. You can see Lucas himself practically admitting some things suck but trying to self-justify, while all of his yes-people clearly don't want to say anything negative. Text and video each have their proper places, and this one was well done.
I agree with your overall assessment, but want the factual pedant in me wants to point out two things, just for precision:
The major merchandise tie ins to movies didn't exist.
This trend actually began with the Planet of the Apes films, which predate Star Wars.
The concept of a blockbuster didn't exist either. It succeeds on its own merits.
Funny, I literally looked this up right before reading your post because I believed the term "blockbuster" had been coined due to the Star Wars phenomenon. Turns out we're wrong. Still, it DID succeed on its own merits, as you point out.
You're correct of course, but the deeper question is, did you really care? Was it convincing to you as a viewer? I know Lucas didn't achieve those things for me. I was neither motivated to sympathize with Anakin's character as presented in the films, nor was I moved by his turn to evil. Bad writing + bad acting = bad viewer experience, no matter what the character's stated or revealed motivation.
Its disappointing that Lucas, after all these years, still doesn't understand the basic movie making concept that story is most important.
It's actually incredibly disappointing that, after all these years, Lucas NO LONGER understands these things. Watch "THX1138," "American Graffiti," and to an extent Episode 6. In his early years he used to say emphatically that the effects were absolutely secondary to a good story, and that without the story you couldn't do much worth a darn. He went so far as to point out that in "ANH," the fact that the Empire had significant advantages in technology but lacked a soul and were defeated was an analogy for this concept.
I think even Lucas realized this mis-step, which is precisely why the midi-whatsits were ignored in the other films.
Further, it's a shame that on at least one more occasion (R2 having booster rockets is one example) Lucas introduced something that had no later historical reality (in the scope of his fictional universe).
The first movies didn't suck like the last three, and Luke was in his late teens/very early 20's, yet *they* were incredibly successful from a marketing/toy/etc. perspective.
That's correct. What usually happens is you begin to have trouble hearing each other - the voice will fade away then maybe come back. Eventually your cell phone will basically think the call has been ended, and it will look at if the other person hung up - only it happens to both people this way. Anyway, that's the most common way it looks/happens.
As for being smug or not - ha! I wish the United States would be as progressive in some ways (especially technology) as Europe and Japan are. You are justified in being happy your system is more reliable:)
You are correct of course, that there are inherent problems in building a reliable cellular network. I work with a Motorola reseller right now (though not on that side of the business) and have had a *small* amount of training on tower and broadcast technology, so I do understand to a limited degree it's not as easy as setting up new towers (that's incredibly costly, for starters, and even when you ARE making a boatload of cash it's hard to earn the investment back). I simply note that at least for now other carriers seem - based on admittedly unscientific surveys that I've read - to have a more stable setup. There will still be dropped calls certainly, and as phones that do more than make calls continue to rise in popularity, we'll likely see a number of other carriers eventually suffer some of the issues AT&T is feeling today.
Perhaps they'll all want or need to go to metered usage at some point until some currently-unknown solution is found. Remember when minutes used to be twenty cents/minute or higher in the earlier days, rather than slightly more or less than a penny that is charged in the bundle options today? I'm hoping that eventually tech will emerge that will ease the data crunch. The companies will make a reasonable profit, the consumers will receive what was agreed upon in their contract.
Well stated, IMHO. I wish I could remember who said this, but to paraphrase, "America's greatest strength is its diversity; that is also going to be its greatest weakness." You've done a good job of illustrating that (this isn't a sarcastic statement - hard to tell how it will read without that disclaimer - wouldn't want you to get pissed and shoot me:) ).
Slashdot Mirror
Funny-ass post, as you often provide. I don't agree with your conclusion, but I got a nice chuckle.
Damn it sucks to be a double-me-too-er, but same here. While we haven't done this corporate-wide (we work with a number of government contractors, so there's that fun to deal with), those of us in IT and software development who are self-supporting jumped right away, with no issues.
Well... I replaced my recently stolen 720p television with a 1080p - but as I don't own a BluRay player (and really don't think I'll be getting one any time soon), I'm not spoiled yet. It would be really nice to have HD streaming, but I won't be upset that currently the best I'll get is 720x480. At least the Wii will finally join in the fun.
will movies streamed by Netflix display in HD?
No. From the summary:
motang writes "Netflix and Nintendo is set to announce Netflix streaming service for the Wii soon. Subscribers ... can watch non-HD version of the movies on their Wii ..."
Every new multimedia technology Microsoft creates sucks until the second major revision (at least).
While I don't think that's an untrue statement in general, it applies to many technologies, both hardware and software. As for hardware, that goes for many things outside the computer industry (car models, washing machines, whatever have you) as real-world use reveals shortcomings the original design and testing didn't take into account.
If I had mod points I'd get you back to 0 at least. Not sure why disagreement = negative mod.
I gotta say I think you hit it right on the head - McGuire got a great paycheck for doing "dork" really well, but man his Spiderman persona is even outdone by the old (60's?, 70's?) Spidey cartoons. That type of wit and playful attitude was what I was hoping for in the first film but didn't get. I saw the second film too, and still wasn't impressed (also again you're right, once past the mecha-arms, it should be easy to kill Doc Oc if you can lift cars).
I haven't seen film #3. No plans to do so.
No points today to give out, but a +1 insightful is owed you for this.
How many times have you said (or heard someone say), "what idiot designed this input screen (or other interface object)?" Clearly, a brain is required to do the job well.
Hey jerk! What the fu... oh! Wait. You're agreeing with me. Darn, that ruins my chance to flame you. A$$hole!
;)
So there will be no Windows machines or any other Microsoft software on this new Internet?
I think it's, "there will be no computing devices of any kind on this new Internet."
Sorry if that offends your film snobbery.
I don't equate wanting plot with film snobbery; also though, I don't look down on you (or anyone) for enjoying sfx and not caring about the overall story. Movies/music/art forms of any type speak to different people differently. Personally, I'd like a movie to have both visual appeal and a great story, but that's me.
Please read no tone of anger, flaming, attitude, or other negative vibes in this post. Lately, I notice that if I reply to someone as if I'm having a normal conversation with them, I get at least one, and often several, angry replies.
Mod this person's comment up to 5 insightful. This was precisely my thought upon reading the summary (no, didn't RTFA). Figure the gross earnings saved/made overall based on tech/IT solutions, then remove loses to reach your net benefit/loss.
I wonder how much money companies would lose if suddenly no IT services were available.
"Because TPM is for kids" does not suffice.
Okay. One reason you didn't like this that I infer from what you wrote: you don't get the insinuations the guy is making. He points out that Lucas SAYS the film is for kids, while demonstrating for you that clearly there are parts that children don't get and never will give a rat's ass about. He doesn't say it - he shows you. Several times. The point is pretty clear that this film tries to be a number of things at once, and because it does it fails at all of them.
As soon as I saw your post, I had a bad feeling about this.
No one can describe QGJ without using his character's profession or wardrobe as descriptors... The other one was Queen Amidala.
The question I pose to you is, even if you are more capable than the people he interviewed to come up with descriptors, do you honestly feel the characters in the more recently-produced films are as strong or stronger than those in the originals films? If so, all you and I can do is agree to disagree on that point (and honestly, it's just film, so I'm not up in arms about that - just sayin' I think the newer characters do lack in development and depth).
Also, what's with the editing? It looks like he added his voice to video-from-still images and then edited them for time...
That was all done on purpose - he was going for a "feel" to his work. I'm not going to try to explain it, but there are certainly people who "get" what he did and why. I've talked to them and we had a good laugh over it. Just trust me, it wasn't an accident.
I did too, and know of several others who did as well. Not taking you to task, but you asked. And there are a couple of parts that are, ermm, creepy funny, so I urge you to watch for fun!
And yeah, sjbe nailed it with everything in his/her post. You can see Lucas himself practically admitting some things suck but trying to self-justify, while all of his yes-people clearly don't want to say anything negative. Text and video each have their proper places, and this one was well done.
Dude, I bet you weigh less than a duck... think we're gonna have to burn you!
The major merchandise tie ins to movies didn't exist.
This trend actually began with the Planet of the Apes films, which predate Star Wars.
The concept of a blockbuster didn't exist either. It succeeds on its own merits.
Funny, I literally looked this up right before reading your post because I believed the term "blockbuster" had been coined due to the Star Wars phenomenon. Turns out we're wrong. Still, it DID succeed on its own merits, as you point out.
You're correct of course, but the deeper question is, did you really care? Was it convincing to you as a viewer? I know Lucas didn't achieve those things for me. I was neither motivated to sympathize with Anakin's character as presented in the films, nor was I moved by his turn to evil. Bad writing + bad acting = bad viewer experience, no matter what the character's stated or revealed motivation.
Its disappointing that Lucas, after all these years, still doesn't understand the basic movie making concept that story is most important.
It's actually incredibly disappointing that, after all these years, Lucas NO LONGER understands these things. Watch "THX1138," "American Graffiti," and to an extent Episode 6. In his early years he used to say emphatically that the effects were absolutely secondary to a good story, and that without the story you couldn't do much worth a darn. He went so far as to point out that in "ANH," the fact that the Empire had significant advantages in technology but lacked a soul and were defeated was an analogy for this concept.
Religion vs. science!
:)
Can't we all just get along!?!?
Ergo, bad plot element.
I think even Lucas realized this mis-step, which is precisely why the midi-whatsits were ignored in the other films.
Further, it's a shame that on at least one more occasion (R2 having booster rockets is one example) Lucas introduced something that had no later historical reality (in the scope of his fictional universe).
The first movies didn't suck like the last three, and Luke was in his late teens/very early 20's, yet *they* were incredibly successful from a marketing/toy/etc. perspective.
That's correct. What usually happens is you begin to have trouble hearing each other - the voice will fade away then maybe come back. Eventually your cell phone will basically think the call has been ended, and it will look at if the other person hung up - only it happens to both people this way. Anyway, that's the most common way it looks/happens.
:)
As for being smug or not - ha! I wish the United States would be as progressive in some ways (especially technology) as Europe and Japan are. You are justified in being happy your system is more reliable
You are correct of course, that there are inherent problems in building a reliable cellular network. I work with a Motorola reseller right now (though not on that side of the business) and have had a *small* amount of training on tower and broadcast technology, so I do understand to a limited degree it's not as easy as setting up new towers (that's incredibly costly, for starters, and even when you ARE making a boatload of cash it's hard to earn the investment back). I simply note that at least for now other carriers seem - based on admittedly unscientific surveys that I've read - to have a more stable setup. There will still be dropped calls certainly, and as phones that do more than make calls continue to rise in popularity, we'll likely see a number of other carriers eventually suffer some of the issues AT&T is feeling today.
Perhaps they'll all want or need to go to metered usage at some point until some currently-unknown solution is found. Remember when minutes used to be twenty cents/minute or higher in the earlier days, rather than slightly more or less than a penny that is charged in the bundle options today? I'm hoping that eventually tech will emerge that will ease the data crunch. The companies will make a reasonable profit, the consumers will receive what was agreed upon in their contract.
Well stated, IMHO. I wish I could remember who said this, but to paraphrase, "America's greatest strength is its diversity; that is also going to be its greatest weakness." You've done a good job of illustrating that (this isn't a sarcastic statement - hard to tell how it will read without that disclaimer - wouldn't want you to get pissed and shoot me :) ).