Old trek fan here. I recently watched Star Trek 5 to some Plinkett and Rifftrax commentaries, and got a good laugh at it. Yet, to me, that cheesy movie, arguably the worst of all the star trek films, embodies the spirit of trek whereas the 2009 version does not.

It was about the collective drive to explore the unknown (and well, fly around in cheesy rocket boots) whereas the 2009 trek was about punching a bad guy in the face (and the enterprise being powered by beer brewing tanks). Mind you, I had a good time, but I don't consider it trek. That'd be like considering a child who dresses up in his father's clothes as the father himself.

And yes, some old trek episodes ARE GOOD as I remember. That has nothing to do with nostalgia but everything to do with good writing. Just sayin'.

Great argument guys ... It's a pleasure to read two very intelligent people discuss the pros and cons of languages without devolving into feces tossing. It's kind of rarity these days.

Hats off to both of you!

Once you learn that, and how to use GrdiBagLayout properly then you are 'away laughing'

heh ... laughing from insanity? I think this sums up my experience with Gridbag. I ended up switching to Mig Layout which was a paradise compare to Gridbag. It actually made Swing work fun.

And therein lies the crux of the problem. The grandparent makes a good point. We may be impressed by his hacking skills but what is his daughter actually learning? Daddy can fix it.

As a parent myself, I want my kids to be self reliant. If my daughter wanted to see gender equality in Donkey Kong, then I'd include her in the process of hacking. Granted, she'd probably pick her nose and walk away but then it wasn't that important to her. And that's fine by me. More time to pick my own nose :)

But if she was interested it -- and you'll be surprised about kids -- they like all kinds of crazy things -- you will have opened up a new landscape.

You may argue that she's only three and may treat her like she's only three, but that's recipe for creating a three-year old adult.

Also, she's going to learn more about gender relations from how you treat your wife (and other women in your life) than any video game could teach her (hacked or not).

naah ... I can handle a story like this one every day or so. What almost drove me away not too long ago was the stream of flamebait mobile stories slashdot was publishing not so long ago. Those stories were literally tearing the community apart for pageviews.

Thankfully, things have calmed down to the point where discussions don't fly off the rails at the mention of iOS or Android anymore.

Yeah ... I was "that guy". The first time I installed Linux in 2000, I was annoyed that I needed "permission" to write to a directory outside of my home directory. I was coming from a Windows world, after all.

I solved this "problem" by chmod 777 the entire filesystem. Hah. Problem solved. Needless to say, I couldn't start the machine back up again. I'm guessing it killed itself from the shear embarrassment. After that, I decided it may be in my best interest to read the manual.

I'll do that one of these days :)

Wow ... you seem to be lacking some basic empathy skills. Do you have any idea what it is like to be squeezed by some institutional power for no other reason than doing the right thing? It's brutal enough to be squeezed when you have some experience under your belt, but this kid was only twenty years old.

Now, let's say he finds himself in the same position a few years down the road and he repeats his actions, expecting a different result. Then, I'd call him an idiot. In this case, I call him exactly as he was: a student. It was a shitty lesson, but that's the point of college. It's not to get a job or join some pro football team. It's to learn and he learned by fire.

Delivering a hardware is not a hard thing to do ....

Hmm ... methinks the backers of the zioneyez project will disagree with you here.

I had the pleasure of reading through all the Ian Flemming books last summer. They were really fun reads that hold up nicely (well, some of them do). I think it was The Spy Who Loved Me that really drives home the point about Bond And it's this -

Bond is a villain. The only difference with him is that he's our villain.

In such light, I think Daniel Craig looks perfect for the part. Just my two cents.

If you haven't read Jurassic Park, check it out. I picked up recently and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. The article made me think of this passage
----
"But don't you find it boring to wear only two colors?"

"Not at all. I find it liberating. I believe my life has value, and I don't want to waste it thinking about clothing," Malcolm said. "I don't want to think about what I will wear in the morning. Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion? Professional sports, perhaps. Grown men swatting little balls, while the rest of the world pays money to applaud. But, on the whole, I find fashion even more tedious than sports

they might be more likely to do business with other Freemasons

I don't see why your concern is exclusive to masony. What about running clubs? Play-dates? Or hell, even bowling leagues?

they have these requirements to be a Freemason like belief in a Supreme being

Again, there are plenty of other clubs that have similar requirements. The big difference is that masonry is open to people of different religions.

It also bothers me that it's so pervasive.

A lot of things are pervasive. Again, what does masonry have to do with it?

If you're purely doing it to spend time with your wife, does any aspect of it bother you?

I really don't understand that question. Masonry is a fraternal organization.

I'm not sure I understand your hesitations with the organization. I'm guessing you've heard one too many stories. Personally, I think it's a great way for people of different politics and religions to talk to one another in a meaningful way without getting trapped in hyperbole.

I'm not a mason, btw.

Before Disney, you could find a whole variety of animation styles.

Disney was established in 1923. Animation was in its infancy. Filmmaking was in its infancy. Such a statement needs clarification.

But the vision of Disney was to make everything round and smooth and beautiful. Every animation cel was to look like a masterpiece portrait -- because that was the general populace's desired art at the time.

Citation needed. Disney has almost ninety years of animation history with a range of divergent styles. I can't say what 1920's American looked for in its art, but I can certainly say that animation was a novelty at its time.

And that's what Disney was trying to make, animated art.

Again, citation needed. And also clarification ... Disney the company? Disney the man? Disney the man started making shorts such as Steamboat Willie. 1928. The point of this short wasn't to make art, but to entertain. Disney the company has been making a range of animated films for years of many different styles. All can be described as "art". Even Steamboat Willie.

You might have found a sharp edge on a villain like Jafar in Aladdin but the main character would be round and warm.

Now we are in the Eisner era. This needed to be noted at the start of the argument.

Others tried to mimic the stylings and it became a de facto standard mostly because it sold.

What others? And seriously ... do you think Disney was the first to use lines, curves and edges as a way to depict stylistically character? That's a ludicrous statement which needs a citation.

That's just the first paragraph. It may make great banter for cocktail parties, but it means nothing.