klchoward - Slashdot User

Tron: Legacy — Too Much Imagination Required? 429

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday December 28, 2010 @12:11AM from the who-needs-it-when-we-have-cgi dept.

MoldySpore writes "Stepping back from the positive and negative reviews of the new Tron sequel, Tron: Legacy (which has so far amassed over $111,000,000 world-wide), something occurred to me after seeing the movie and reading the numerous reviews. It seems many of the reviews, and perhaps the reviewers themselves, can be split into two categories: those who saw the original Tron when it came out and can put the new movie in context, and those who either watched Tron recently to prepare for the sequel or never saw it and jumped right into the new movie." Read on for the rest of MoldySpore's thoughts.

Submission + - Tron: Legacy - Too Much Imagination Required? 5

Submitted by MoldySpore on Monday December 27, 2010 @03:11PM

MoldySpore writes: Stepping back from the positive and negative reviews of the new Tron sequel, Tron: Legacy (which has so far amassed over $111,000,000 dollars world-wide), something occurred to me after seeing the movie and reading the numerous reviews. It seems many of the reviews, and perhaps the reviewers themselves, can be split into two categories: Those who saw the original Tron when it came out and can put the new movie in context and those who either watched Tron recently to prepare for the sequel and/or never saw it and jumped right into the new movie.

While nostalgia plays an important role in any franchise's resurrection, technology has come so far in the last 28 years since the original release of Tron in 1982, it would seem the human imagination regarding technology has become somewhat disenchanted. Back in 1982, most anyone who saw the original Tron (or a few years after as it garnered "cult classic" status) was captivated, not just by the amazing computer generated graphics of the time, but about the possibility of a world inside a computer system, where programs walk around and interact with each other like humans, where bits and bytes are interactive things you could touch and see, and artificial intelligence was something to be feared (in the form of the MCP) rather than embraced.

For the new movie, most of my friends were born in the 80's, and the ones that saw the original Tron were much more open to the storyline than the ones who never saw the original or who watched it only recently to prepare for watching the new movie. While they all agreed the CG and 3D was amazing, they felt the story was "unimaginative" or "run-of-the-mill". Also, any younger people not born in the 80's, such as my younger sister who is very tech savvy herself, seemed to dismiss the plot and characters completely instead speaking only of the quality of the graphics and the music. I believe this speaks to how the human race has grown out of it's own imagination when it comes to technology since it entered the digital age. Young people can't see passed the fact that there isn't a world inside the computer, programs are just tools to be used by humans, and artificial intelligence is something discussed on a daily basis and should be embraced.

I'd be interested to hear what the Slashdot community's experiences and feelings have been about the new movie and it's effect on the people who went and saw it. Imagination is something uniquely human and has always played an important part in our ability to look passed our current limitations. With negative reviews of the new movie often referencing the "...sub-moronic script that feels like it was written by people who had never used a computer...", has some of this been lost now that digital technology is part of our daily lives? Does this signal a movement towards humans becoming indifferent to technological advances, and by association, the hindering of outside-the-box thinking when it comes to technology?

Submission + - How to preview post as you type in WordPress (techattitude.com)

Submitted by precogtyrant on Thursday September 23, 2010 @12:45PM

precogtyrant writes: While writing a draft in WordPress, you hit the Preview Post link to see how the post would look like after being published. But clicking on the Preview link everytime is a bit tedious. So, you can customize your Wordpress editor to enable it to show the posts as they would look on the blog. You'll need to create a new CSS file and add the CSS codes from your theme's stylesheet to it. Then you'll need to edit the functions.php file as well so that Wordpress finds the new CSS file. This technique is very helpful as you'll be able to preview any post easily.

Submission + - Microsoft Missed 2009 Published Article on Stuxnet (threatpost.com)

Submitted by chicksdaddy on Thursday September 23, 2010 @12:39PM

chicksdaddy writes: A security flaw affecting Microsoft's Windows operating system that was exploited by the Stuxnet worm was publicly disclosed more than a year before the worm appeared, buried in the pages of Hackin9, a hacking bi-monthly published out of Warsaw, Poland. Microsoft claims that it didn't read the article and wasn't informed of the hole by the researcher who wrote it. Hmmm...

Comment Scientific research still getting funded (Score 2, Informative) 599

by klchoward on Thursday June 11, 2009 @11:51AM (#28294837) Attached to: Why Isn't the US Government Funding Research?

Even though some scientific funding has been hurt recently the government is still funding scientific research (i.e., my own funding). I know for a fact that the NSF (National Science Foundation) is sending out more funding since they received bailout/recovery money from the government. Global warming research is one of the most important that needs to continue to be funded. Hands down it's the most important area that needs to be realized...we're talking about saving our world! Green technologies go along with this...more research into solar energy, biofuel, etc.

Comment FORTAN alive and kicking in meteorological world (Score 2, Insightful) 794

by klchoward on Thursday June 11, 2009 @11:40AM (#28294671) Attached to: Should Undergraduates Be Taught Fortran?

A resounding YES to undergrads being taught FORTRAN. I am a graduate student in Meteorology and FORTRAN is alive and kicking in the meteorological community. It is a vital part of many of our programs and models. Perl and Cshell are also very important but I wouldn't be able to do major parts of my thesis without the aid of FORTRAN. The undergrads at my graduate school are required to take FORTRAN (especially if they are in the met program) and they use it in their upper-level core classes. I wish I'd taken the FORTRAN class at my undergrad so I wouldn't have had to catch up during my thesis. Knowing FORTRAN definitely helped me grasp other languages faster.

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