TM2YC

doubleofive said:

Microsoft is trying to make things more efficient, but it's harder for us ingrained into the old way of doing things. Look at the Office Ribbon. For those who knew how to do things the long way, it took them years to get used to it. If you're new to office or all of the things Excel in particular can do, the Ribbon makes everything more efficient. If driving a Ford with a joystick saved 20 MPG, you might be willing to relearn.

Do we really need to have a Start menu, or even a file system, when you can search for whatever you want? I don't even use the Start Menu on Win7 or OSX, I search for everything. It's about making your workflow more smooth.

But, alas, every time MS tries to push something forward, they have to drag it back. 8.1 is getting a traditional Start Menu. I expect they'll start shipping Xbox One's without Kinects before too long.

 Difference is, that me as a Windows, Win95, Win98, XP, Vista and Win7 user, finds my parent's Win8 PC incomprehensible but can more easily use my brother's Apple OS. That can't be right.

On another subject I recently bitched about... YouTube. Eureka I've found out how to 'unhide' all my channel subscriptions so now I can use the site almost as easily as before they "improved" it.

Any chance that Kenobi's dragon thing can have the voice of The Neverending Story's Falkor, The Luckdragon?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBUOACCdZi8

or re-voice Kenobi and his steed during that whole sequence with these two...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm29QHaRyuY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLNJVhKNEMI

Bingowings said:

While Scotland had a sizable Tibetan refugee community during the time of Planet of the Spiders not many were actors. The Abominable Snowman had the same problem a few years earlier but hardly anyone seems to mind there because it's in marvelous monochrome.

Talking of which, next time I watch Warrior's Gate I'm going to turn off the colour for that full Cocteau feel.

True, monochrome does help a lot. Also a bit of cultural sensitivity helps.

Orson Welles directing himself in the monochrome Othello is still wonderful...

...but Laurence Olivier directing himself in the colour Othello is a crime against humanity...

It's mental.

My parents have recently got themselves a Win8 PC. Usually I sort out the bugs and setup stuff for them but I'm totally lost on the Win8 interface. I can't figure out to do the most basic things on it, that I'd take for granted on Win7.

I think Microsoft were still light-headed from actually getting Win7 to be better than XP and not a disaster like Vista and thought they could afford to get arrogant again. I'll wait for Win9 aka Windows: The Hubris Edition.

DrCrowTStarwars said:

Yeah there were not a whole lot of American actors in the UK at the time.

 But the few there were, got plenty of work! Many faces in Star Wars can be found cropping up in British TV to play Americans.

Mac McDonald - Is practically a one-man industry for playing Americans in British Sci-Fi TV and Film or American movie productions shot in the UK...

Red Dwarf

Fifth Element

Aliens

Batman

Bingowings said:

Doctor Who never had a problem finding actors of African ancestry because of the influx of West Indian people into the country around the time. Similarly finding actors originating from the Indian subcontinent was also not that difficult.

It became a bit of a stretch casting lots of actors from the Orient.

So while a genuine oriental actors where cast in Mind of Evil when it came to The Talons of Weng-Chiang (which is practically banned in some countries) or Marco Polo the available actors had to be supplemented with white actors in yellow face.

 One of the Doctor Who DVDs I watched recently (The Mutants) had an interesting documentary (Narrated by Noel Clarke aka Mickey) called 'Race Against - Time' (LOL) that looked into percieved "rascist" casting on Doctor Who during the 70s. While early 60s Who had colour-blind casting of roles (And great roles for women too for that matter) it also would cast white actors in yellow and brown face on rare occasions during the 1970s. Such as the examples you give and Cho-Je from 'Planet of the Spiders' comes to mind too...

The writers and producers interviewed said there weren't any actors easily available but I find that a bit hard to believe (And many of those interviewed found it hard to believe too). But given the progressive politics of the Who creative team during the 70s, it's inconceivable that it was done with any ill will. It was just a different time as you say, now of course, you wouldn't dream of casting a white actor, you'd just look a lot harder for the correct person.

One theory the documentary put forward was that colour-blind casting across Brtish TV (Including Who) was the norm in the 60s. But after Enoch Powell's notorious so-called "Rivers of blood" speech in 1968, racial tensions were much increased and TV producers became unintentionaly less likely to hire multi-ethnic actors for roles, unless it was a specificly non-white character.

Also, 'Star Trek: TOS' can be jaw-droppingly sexist despite it's barrier-busting reputation. But compared to other shows of the time it really was a leap forward and so was Doctor Who.

I just finished watching a William Hartnell serial, which I've seen very few of (Unearthly Child and maybe one or two others) called 'The Gunfighters'. It's mentioned on the DVD extras, that this got some of the lowest Audience Appreciation Scores in the history of the program. It isn't that bad but it's not great either.

The main problem is that it's just feels like a typical dated Cowboy TV show with The Doctor and Co playing little or no part in the preceedings beyond the most superficial level. I think you could almost edit the Doctor out of the whole thing and still have the story intact.

The wild-west accents range from passable to just plain terrible (Let's just do Cockney with "I reckon" at the end of every sentence LOL). Ironicly Peter Purves' accent which is supposed to be bad, is actually better than most of the rest of the cast can do. But the worst thing is the constant use of this annoying vocal narration song every 30 seconds.

On the plus side, William Hartnell as a Cowboy, dressed nearly all in black with the hat, gunbelt and sheriff's badge looked badass. The direction is pretty good with all the classic Western camera angles being deployed. The set and costumes are really excellent and I did enjoy Anthony Jacobs' turn as the duplicitous Doc Holliday.

Next Hatnell adventure on my itinerary... 'The Keys of Marinus' (I hope it's better).

JayArgonaut said:

   

 Boba Fett isn't gay??!?! That's a new one to me.

I thought that's why his father Jango went down the cloning option, instead of just getting a lady pregnant. And since Jango was clearly gay, then all his clones would be too. Boba Fett and the Stromtroopers ;-)

(This is the point where thejediknighthusezni says that's why the Empire lost to the rebels LOL (See politics thread))

Awesome site, thanks!

I thought about using a lot of this 'temp' music, so it was great to see it being used over actual scenes and to hear what worked best.

Disney unveal new EpVII titlecard...

"Twenty-Oh-One: A Space Odyssey"

thejediknighthusezni said:

      Mozilla? Pffffffftt, that's nothing.

      We now have millions of homosexuals joining our enlightened masters in working themselves up into fits. They are agitating for a most intense confrontation with the 10 THOUSAND nuclear warheads in Russia's arsenal. Millions more who would normally oppose this sort of war mongering have gone off into the tall brush grumbling.

      Why? Because Putin DARED to say that the targeting of Russian boys by cruel predators is really not such a great thing. 

     These homosexuals were the the indispensible leaders of the effort to destroy the US position for stopping the Iran nuke program. Ya can't blame them. Dubya got political support from parents and grandparents who DARED to be unenthusiastic about RRRRAAAAAAMMMMMING "Guys who rub each other's excrement on their dicks are married" HHHAAAAAARRRRRRD down the throats of their children.

      Even if they are playing a game with Putin for a "limited" conflict, this is DANGEROUS BEYOND IMAGINING.

      Ya gotta love the Militant Homosexual Mindset (no, seriously, ya GOTTA LOVE them MHMs),  between arming the Iranians with nukes and joining the dove slaughtering satanic Jesuit operation to "help" the "Catholics" in the Ukraine, the MHM is fixin' to be the key indispensible factor in THE DESTRUCTION OF PLANET EARTH!!!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8WmvMCTW_g

(Always worth posting that clip in these cases)

I bought 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' yesterday because the shop had it for just £5 brand new (About $8). I thought, I know it's supposed be bad but how bad can an Aliens game be for that price?

Turns out, pretty damn bad.

The graphics are inferior to not just the last 2010 AvP game but in some respects, they don't even hold up next to the classic Avp from 15 years ago! When you lob a grenade it is animated with less explosive impact that a party popper. The lighting is so bad and lacking in atmosphere that it doesn't even matter wether you use your lamp or flares (Something normally integral to Marine gameplay). The character models resemble waxworks with lips that barely move or synch with the dialogue.

But the worst aspect is the Aliens themselves. First off there is no build up whatsover. You are facing off against one within 3 minutes. And the very first Alien got itself stuck in the floor and just sat facing the wall while I shot it in the back. I then walked over it's body just to see what the efect was. Nothing! You don't get burned by the acid! This is an Alien game?!?

The second group of Aliens I came across was also glitched to hell. When the first one attacked I went into an automatic push-back mode and then the next attack automatically launched that same mode. and again and again until I was dead. The game woudn't let me draw my pulse rifle and defend myself properly. This is after a year of large updates and bug fixes? God knows what kind of mess people must have been facing on day one.

At points, I actually found myself pulling out my motion tracker just to hear that heartbeat sound, to manually add some atmosphere myself! I honestly can't remember a worst made game released at this level or from a pedigree gaming franchise like this.

In short, if somebody offers you this game free... I'd still advise you to think twice. It's not worth the time it takes to install even for a few pounds.

(btw Any word on the lawsuit against the developers for false advertising)

As this was formerly "The Homosexuality Discussion Thread" I thought I'd mention Episode 2 of the new series of 'Rev'. It's a simply wonderful BBC sitcom about the day-to-day trials of Adam Smallbone (Played by POTC's Tom Hollander), an Anglican Vicar in a Central London parish. It covered the subject of 'Gay Marriage' in a very interesting way and the writers timed the airdate of the episode beautifully.

Adam is asked by two gay friends if they can marry in his Church (Something he would be excommunicated for doing). They don't just want to get legally married at a Registry Office and have a church blessing, they want to commit to each other in the sight of god. So needless to say, Adam has a few problems on his hands: to satisfy church law, to not offend his two friends and to decide what he thinks God would want him to do. 'Rev' is that special kind of comedy that not only has belly-laughs in spades, but also has more thought, character, drama and emotion than most proper dramas. Go check it out.

FrankT said:

Star Wars = war

Star Trek = peace

The difference is night and day!

 Yes, which is also the reason why Nicholas Meyer's two 'Sod all this peace, let's just have submarine warfare in space' Star Trek films are the best.

Mungo Baobab, more like...

Evey Hammond vs Captain Kirk's Dad vs Hrothgar King Of Denmark vs The Borg Queen: Asgard 2013AD

Watched the very short 2-parter 'The Awakening' from the Peter Davison era. I do love the world-weary chemistry of the Turlough, Tegan and Davison trio so I was looking forward to this but sadly it was all a little meh.

The 50 minute running time leaves precious little time to develop the characters who were really promising and even short changes the setup. A shame because it was a great basic concept, of the Doctor and Co trapped in an otherwise sleepy English village recreating the English Civil War, very, VERY seriously. I honestly don't really know what the Malus was, or why, or when, or how, or how it's plan worked? etc etc (But it looked cool).

It never felt like our heroes were ever in much danger as a couple of the villagers themselves, openly voice their decent of the nominal baddie's plans without any reprisals. For the most part they are wondering round the village playing along with the jolly war games. Come to think of it (Leaving the very final showdown aside) I don't think a single person died in it? Surely some kind of unique feat of tensionless writing, in the history of the usually body-count-high classic era of the show.

A final postive note. Eric Pringle's location direction was fantastic.

I'm staying well out of a debate on 'Israel Vs. Palestine'.  Hopefully there will be peace in that region one day, before they're all blind.

Good idea,

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/The-Star-Wars-The-Lost-Cut-FanEdit-New-version-in-the-works/topic/15460/

;-)

But seriously go for it. I was thinking about restarting work on my cut very soon but I guess two versions are better than one.

darth_ender said:

Boy, I think we know which news outlets Ryan McAvoy relies on.

United Nations News Center?

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=5480&Cr=unrwa&Cr1=

The Guardian?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/11/israeli-troops-accused-children-gaza

Wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Miller_%28filmmaker%29

Fox News?

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/02/27/rights-group-says-israeli-troops-used-unnecessary-force-in-shooting-deaths/

Amnesty International?

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/trigger-happy-israeli-army-and-police-use-reckless-force-west-bank-2014-02-27

CNN?

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/31/israel.arrest/

etc

Warbler said:

Another thing, doesn't Israel allow women to serve at the front?  Maybe we could find out how they solve the problems that Ferris meantioned.

 Good point. Being women never stopped Israeli soldiers shooting children, foreign aid workers and journalists.

Bingowings said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

^ That's can't be allowed can it?

 I'don'ts know

 :p

^ That's can't be allowed can it?

Warbler said:

When I could afford it, I was in therapy for my temper.   When I can afford to do so again, I will go back.

 I can't understand all the controversy there has been about trying to improve health care in the US recently. In the UK it's free at-the-point-of-need, anything else just seems like callous insanity. If you are concerend about your health Warbler, I think it's immoral that you have to make a financial choice not to get it. But that's a whole other can of worms.