Comment Singapore (Score 4, Interesting) 395
Singaporeans liked the concept of Daylight Saving so much that in 1982 they moved to it permanently. Geographically they should be UTC+7 but they currently work off UTC+8.
</ useless trivia >
</ useless trivia >
Comment Re:Also (Score 4, Interesting) 865
Part of the problem is that there are now so many wardens in the way of new writers that it's almost impossible to get a genuinely original idea to the people with the money (eg. studios). Also it now takes more than having just a great script. You need a great package (insert obvious innuendo here): script, director, star.
Even then original ideas have to survive the rewrites by writers that are already part of the system. And nearly every writer believes that they can write any script better than the last guy. Everyone wants to rewrite the script: studio, producer, director, star, director's cousin's girlfriend.
What you tend to end up with is a generic, derivative mess that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the original idea.
Given the process it's amazing that we have any watchable films at all and that's not even considering the crap that goes on after the cameras start rolling.
Comment Re:More importantly (Score 1) 159
The biggest problem with G+ is that they've rushed to release. Even the badge code for pages isn't ready. For a startup it looks bad but people would probably just shrug it off, for google it's a fucking catastrophe.
Comment Re:Same old Ballmer smack talk (Score 1) 645
You do know that things change and advance? To be honest, the expensive phones 5 year ago really weren't that good. They were clunky, slow and offered features that would be common place in cheap phones now. There's a reason why Apple didn't make iPhone before they did - they had to wait until that time it was actually feasible.
It still sounds like Ballmer is behind the curve which is not good for a tech company CEO.
Comment Re:Players do bad things because: (Score 1) 431
IIRC there were civilians in the hospital map in AA (circa 2006) and shooting them resulted in a loss of honor.
Comment Phew! (Score 1, Funny) 170
Good thing they stopped at one sequel then: Aliens.
Submission + - IOC Sends C&D To Remove Own Photos From Flickr (inquisitr.com)
skribe writes: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has sent a cease and desist notice to a committee member of the Australian Web Industry Association (AWIA) over his publication of photos he took at the Beijing Olympics on Flickr.
Comment Re:10 Years, not Infinity+ years (Score 2, Insightful) 597
More than the authors life is excessive.
I'd prefer lifetime plus some short additional period (say 10-20 years) just for safety's sake. If you make it just lifetime it wouldn't surprise me in the least if some bright, young corpling arranged for an accident or two to 'free up the rights issue we're having'. To a corp it may be considered an acceptable risk to put out a $100k contract rather than fork over a few mill for the movie rights. Just sayin'
skribe
Comment Engagement (Score 1) 576
The reason that TV lost is because people choose to be actively involved in how they spend their entertainment and downtime, rather than being spoon-fed what someone else wants you to watch. Piracy is popular because while people like the shows they want to watch them how and when they want them (sans interruptions like ads). Gaming is popular because you're the hero rather than watching some overpaid action doll doing all the fun stuff. TV is passive. The internet is active. Come get some!
Submission + - Apple's 5th Ave store under attack by Greenpeace
morpheus83 writes: "Around 60 activists took to the streets and starting shining green lights on Apple's iconic store at Fifth avenue and Greenpeace elves danced around the store to protest the company's use of toxic chemicals in their hardware. Despite having an image steeped in California's counterculture, Apple is one of the worst heel-draggers when it comes to recycling and environmental impact. The company claims to have recycled a mere 4500 tons of E-Waste which is puny given the amount of equipment the firm sells."
New Zealand DMCA Moves Forward 153
nzgeek writes "The DMCA-like amendments to the New Zealand Copyright Act passed their first hurdle in parliament today, with an overwhelming 113 to 6 vote to pass the Bill to the Commerce Select Committee for further discussion. The detail-oriented can read the full debate (or rather lack of debate), and one enterprising New Zealand legal blogger has an excellent series of posts on the Bill, its background, and its implications. New Zealanders interested in fighting this legislation have until the 16th of February 2007 to make submissions to the Select Committee, before the committee makes its recommendations and sends the Bill back for a second reading."
Submission + - When hyperlinking becomes a crime.
downundarob writes: The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a court ruling has given the recording industry the green light to go after individuals who link to material from their websites, blogs or MySpace pages that is protected by copyright.
A full bench of the Federal Court of Australia yesterday upheld an earlier ruling that Stephen Cooper, the operator of mp3s4free.net, as well as the internet service provider that hosted the website, were guilty of authorising copyright infringement because they provided a search engine through which a user could illegally download MP3 files.
The website did not directly host any copyright-protected music, but the court held that simply providing links to the material effectively authorised copyright infringement.
Dale Clapperton, vice-chairman of the non-profit organisation Electronic Frontiers Australia, explained the ruling as follows: "If you give someone permission to do something that infringes copyright, that in itself is infringement as if you'd done it yourself. Even if you don't do the infringing act yourself, if you more or less condone someone else doing it, that's an infringing act."
A full bench of the Federal Court of Australia yesterday upheld an earlier ruling that Stephen Cooper, the operator of mp3s4free.net, as well as the internet service provider that hosted the website, were guilty of authorising copyright infringement because they provided a search engine through which a user could illegally download MP3 files.
The website did not directly host any copyright-protected music, but the court held that simply providing links to the material effectively authorised copyright infringement.
Dale Clapperton, vice-chairman of the non-profit organisation Electronic Frontiers Australia, explained the ruling as follows: "If you give someone permission to do something that infringes copyright, that in itself is infringement as if you'd done it yourself. Even if you don't do the infringing act yourself, if you more or less condone someone else doing it, that's an infringing act."
Submission + - Why Adobe is not developing Photoshop for Linux
i_dream_in_black_and writes: "Yesterday Adobe announced the availability of Photoshop CS3 Beta for Windows and Mac. Since they recently released Flash 9 Beta for Linux, I pondered the question, "Why no Photoshop CS3 for Linux?". I got my answers from Adobe developers Scott Byer and Chris Cox.
Scott wrote: "It really comes down to a cost/benefit analysis. Right now the Linux market is still small and fragmented, and the cost of developing for it is very high (I've done a Unix + X Windows version of Photoshop — remember 2.5 and 3.0 for Sun/SGI? — so I'm familiar with what it would take). There are also missing infrastructure pieces (color management, printing) that would make it a less-than-ideal experience right now."
Chris wrote: "...Linux developers and users are what's holding it back. As long as they are unwilling to pay for commercial software, unwilling to standardize the distributions and APIs, unwilling to support basic OS toolbox features (like a working window system — and anything based on X-WIndows is non-working by definition), unwilling to listen to the developers who keep telling them WHY they can't develop for Linux, etc. nothing will change. (of course, there are also problems in the OSS community that are holding things back, and that relates pretty directly to Linux)"
What insight can the slashdot crowd give to the developers at Adobe to address these issues? Is the future of the Linux desktop limited by it's own limitless customization?"
Scott wrote: "It really comes down to a cost/benefit analysis. Right now the Linux market is still small and fragmented, and the cost of developing for it is very high (I've done a Unix + X Windows version of Photoshop — remember 2.5 and 3.0 for Sun/SGI? — so I'm familiar with what it would take). There are also missing infrastructure pieces (color management, printing) that would make it a less-than-ideal experience right now."
Chris wrote: "...Linux developers and users are what's holding it back. As long as they are unwilling to pay for commercial software, unwilling to standardize the distributions and APIs, unwilling to support basic OS toolbox features (like a working window system — and anything based on X-WIndows is non-working by definition), unwilling to listen to the developers who keep telling them WHY they can't develop for Linux, etc. nothing will change. (of course, there are also problems in the OSS community that are holding things back, and that relates pretty directly to Linux)"
What insight can the slashdot crowd give to the developers at Adobe to address these issues? Is the future of the Linux desktop limited by it's own limitless customization?"
