I think people are in two camps on this. I see them as obvious silly plot holes covered in duck tape. But I've got a friend who happily accepts them all. He even thinks the Phantom Menace and The Core were pretty good movies, and sees nothing wrong with humans-as-batteries in the Matrix. I point out the absurdity of some plot tools and he just shrugs and says something like "but that actress was really cute" or something.

In some sense science fiction and fantasy allow you to tell some really good stories, but they typically try to keep an internal logic. You accept a few unrealistic ideas (magic or time travel or FTL actually exists) but the rest of background remains logically consistent. At least in the good stories. But a lot of Hollywood writers abuse this to no end, and assume that they can make up anything as long as the lame story keeps moving. They're often writing for people with incredibly short attention spans so that they have to keep the action moving continuously, punctuated with explosions that they say "oooh!" instead of "huh?"

Now if these writers were actually making a good story, they could be forgiven. But the stories themselves are crap. So you're just left with action and special effects and visuals. It's fine if you say "what if" and follow with "humans were really living in virtual reality and everything is illusion", and then create a story that explores the implications of this. But too often it's "what if" followed by "we can blow lots of stuff ". Compare Dark City to The Matrix for instance.

But as long as there's an audience that pays good money for this stuff, Hollywood is going to produce the same drek.

The university degree is a measure of competence not on attendance. You can still test out of many classes at an accredited university without needing to enroll at all. Moreover many classes can be taken online. Many professors most their material online and do nothing more than present the material in the textbook in class, so if a student doesn't feel it is a good use of time to go to class, they shouldn't have to go.

These kinds of standards have set a precedent that does NOT include attendance. The university does not care.

The people that are bothered the most are teachers, because teachers don't like to lecture to an empty classroom, and because they know that students who skip are usually the ones who fail. Teachers don't like to give out failing grades because it reflects badly on them, and also because it disrespects them to not show up to their classes.

I would feel violated to carry around a tracking device. If they want a more efficient electronic means of measuring attendance then I think having a card to swipe in (like a business) would be much less controversial.

I support Barack Obama, but not his mission.

Great. Then I support Osama bin Laden, but not his mission.

. . . with Flying Robotic Penguins

It works better than speaking into the mouse.

Does this even qualify as porn in 2010?

At least the models are human and at least 18 years old (I hope or we're all going to jail).

If you need the source for .NET now, your best bet is .NET Reflector Free Edition (http://www.red-gate.com/products/reflector/)

Bush certainly held the (absolute dollar, not inflation adjusted) record for overspending. Until Obama's first year, where he outspent Bush's 8 years in just his first. The rest of your comment is even less useful, so I'll just leave it at that.

We're just applying his own party's definitions of the word.

Personally, I don't think pictures of a naked woman not engaged in a sex act should be classified as porn. But. The GOP has decided that naked = sex, and that is bad for their version of America. These guys are sexually intimidated by statues, FFS.

And their only reason for making it is so THEY can specify the required DRM compliance for high-bandwidth devices. It was the foremost issue during development. It's the only reason they've re-branded and protocol-ized existing technology. HDCP 3.0 anyone?

5,000 barrels a day is the lowest estimate of the rate of oil leaking. Around 30,000 bbl/day seems more reasonable. (My boos is actually on the crisis team so he should know, but he's tight lipped.)

Of course, anyone talking about world-wide catastrophes is still going over the top.

The computational ecosystem does fine with well defined interfaces.

Most programmers don't care to micromanage to begin with.

Accuracy and repeatability of results is far more important than seeing what's in the black box.

So is the stability of the interface itself.

Infact: subjecting every Fortran programmer to the guts of every GPU is probably a horrific idea.

I take it you've never actually seen a modern printing press, then, eh? You can actually get ones that take from a computer, rather than having to make plates.

It doesn't look like porn to me. It looks like art. I know it's hard to believe, but pictures with nudity are not necessary pornographic!

I agree, but tell that to John Ashcroft, Jesse Helms, most of the GOP, and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who now wants to modify the State Seal, because the Roman goddess Virtus has a bare breast.

21 comments, and half are along the lines of "I don't see what the problem is".

It's an inappropriate picture, being looked at on a taxpayer's purchased computer, through taxpayer provided Internet connectivity, by a taxpayer funded lawmaker, and the floor of the State Senate. Call me a prude, but I don't appreciate this asshole using my tax dollars to ogle naked chicks at my office; no more than the GOP appreciated the SEC doing the same. Nice set of double standards we've got working there.