Interesting Links for 11-3-2011

[andrewducker]

• Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era.
  (tags: roleplaying religion judaism christianity)
• Would You Please Fucking Stop? (Ursula K Le Guin on swearing)
  (tags: sf swearing writing)
• Cameron + del Toro + Gaiman = $300 million epic Chinese trilogy based on Journey To The West.
  (tags: JamesCameron GuillermoDelToro neilgaiman china movies)
• How do I create a topmost window that is never covered by other topmost windows?
  (tags: funny windows)
• Tips For The Workers Of Wisconsin
  (tags: usa unions funny)
• Sir Fred Goodwin, former RBS chief, obtains super-injunction - ok, who knows what for?
  (tags: Law uk censorship)
• Roger Ebert _really_ doesn't like Battle: Los Angeles
  (tags: rogerebert movies)
• Why Nokia failed: 'Wasted 2,000 man years' on UIs that didn't work
  (tags: nokia mobile_phones EpicFail)
• English libel law is a vulture circling the world
  (tags: libel freespeech uk law)

Comments

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Finally, living in France has taught me something useful.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Is Battle: Los Angeles almost identical to a recent alien-invasion-we're-so-fucked film, or is it the older trailers I'm thinking of? Something called 'vertical' or something...?

[andrewducker]

Skyline is probably the movie you're thinking of.

Battle LA is the one that's supposed to look like Call of Duty: With Aliens.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

"Call of Duty: With Aliens."

Talk dirty to me some more, you know what I like.

Oh yes... oh yes... don't stop now

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Apropos Sir Fred Goodwin ...

[andrewducker]

I've left more info over on the post (which I applaud).

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Trust Guido to take the libertarian view...

http://order-order.com/

[andrewducker]

Hah! That's very nicely done!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

One of the older pieces of my extensive RPG collection is a boxed copy of 'Man, Myth & Magic', which was an RPG with a birth of civilisation kind of setting. Not that dissimilar to Old Testament settings perhaps.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/behold-the-nicolas-cage-matrix.php

Thought you might like this if you haven't seen it.

Incidentally, almost every link I pass you that you haven't already got comes from alasdair. You should consider friending him.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Also that Biblical setting looks awesome. And I would totally play Biblical D&D 3rd Ed just for the blasphemy value.

[andrewducker]

Added, and thanks!

(Had seen Nicholas Cage matrix before, but didn't think I'd have that many Nicholas Cage fans)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Wait, someone asked Raymond Chen how to make a window always topmost without it being a logical contradiction AGAIN? I wouldn't want to be within 15 miles of someone asking him that...

[simont]

In principle it needn't be a logical contradiction. As long as, once you've created two always-topmost windows, the WM never lets them overlap, so that maximising either is forbidden and dragging or resizing either makes it stop when it hits the boundary of the other.

It's only over-restrictive programming that makes WMs insist on the z-order being total. It should in principle be a partial order, and able to have multiple maximal elements!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

ROFL. Well, yes, excellent correct :) But I suspect many people wanting to display something topmost DO want it full-screen. It might even not be a contradiction if it always goes to the first one, or something, though I don't think so.

OTOH, I am very amused at the thought of the windows jostling for position, trying to fill up as much of the screen as possible :)

For that matter, Raymond was correct in criticising the question,understandably so, but COULD plausibly have suggested a better system, for instance, using a master program to do the polling and decide which app (in priority order) should be on top.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Nokia wasted 2000 man-years on UIs? Doesn't surprise me. When I worked there (1994-1996) they were in the process of wasting ~200 man years on a single product (the SDH network management product TMS-OS) over a five-year period.

[andrewducker]

It does amaze me how inefficient organisations can be.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

"Obviously the more celebrated the director, the busier they are."

But not celebrated enough to do a $150 million R rated film.

"There is nothing inherently Greek about The Odyssey. These are big stories that work with people."

Sergio Leone used to say that Homer was the source for his westerns, so I can see this.