AdamCon.org > chat > Sat 2005-01-22

Chat for Sat 2005-01-22 14:57:49

rich-c: confirm
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Dr.D.
rich-c: hi rich
Dr.D.: Hi Richard, I am alive today.
rich-c: i'm on using firefox today - wonder how long it will last?
Dr.D.: I don't know.
Dr.D.: Are you buried in snow today>
rich-c: I had better be - I'm on a 48-hour heart monitor
Dr.D.: ?
Dr.D.: Ah, the monitor.
Dr.D.: I hope it finds what they are looking for.
rich-c: no we aren't buried yet but it's being worked on with enthusiasm 8 - (
Dr.D.: Shovelled twice already today, totalling 2 hours.
Dr.D.: It has been stopped for about 3 hours though.
rich-c: well, they aren't looking for anything specific, more to see what does or doesnt turn up
Dr.D.: Meds still aren't working correctly?
rich-c: ok, hold on, I'llsee what our probs are
Dr.D.: okay
rich-c: from the look of the radar you have lots more to come; we do too but lighter
Dr.D.: I had 3 of the 4 kids to help shovel.
Dr.D.: Joan and Elanor are sick in bed today.
Dr.D.: I have just finally recovered.
rich-c: anyway, maybe the meds are working, maybe they aren't, but which are and which aren't?
rich-c: right - you were down with a cold Wednesday, right?
Dr.D.: I was terrible Wednesday.
Dr.D.: I barely made it through the day.
rich-c: cold or flu?
Dr.D.: Cold.
Dr.D.: Voice had been going since the Science Fiction Marathon last weekend.
rich-c: that can be nasty too - and it runs around a household so fast, espedcially if there are kids
Dr.D.: Tuesday lecture was a strain.
rich-c: that's a film fest?
Dr.D.: Wednesday started with coughing and bit of fever.
Dr.D.: Yes, the annual marathon, #30 this year.
Dr.D.: A rousing success.
rich-c: in all honesty, I think after 30 of them I'd be getting a little blase
Dr.D.: Not this groups.
Dr.D.: group.
Dr.D.: We had an award ceremony for people who had been to at least 25 of them.
rich-c: of course teh group membership changes over time
Dr.D.: About 25 folks up on stage.
Dr.D.: And about 10 of those had been to every one.
Dr.D.: They got medals with their names engraved on them.
rich-c: great heavens! where do they get the endurance?
Dr.D.: Dunno, the oldest are in their middle 50s now.
Dr.D.: Endurance was not in short supply.
rich-c: I'm surprised there have been enough SF films made to support 30 marathons
rich-c: or do you run teh same ones every year?
Dr.D.: Nope, different lineup every time.
Dr.D.: See http://films.cwru.edu/ for the lineup this year.
rich-c: how many fiolms make a marathon?
Dr.D.: About 15.
rich-c: so over time, 450 films?????
Dr.D.: With cartoons and trailers and other shorts thrown in.
Dr.D.: There have been some repeats, of course, but yes.
rich-c: I had no idea there were anything like 450 SF films ever made
rich-c: or is the definition of SF rather elastic?
Dr.D.: There are lots of SF films out there.
Dr.D.: Sometimes elastic.
Dr.D.: Anything utopian or dystopian is fair game (e.g., "The Truman Show").
rich-c: for instance, would LOTR be eligible some year?
Dr.D.: Those, probably not, that would be too big a stretch.
rich-c: but say "The Manchurian candidate" might be?
Dr.D.: Hmmm...maybe as one of the Surprises.
Dr.D.: There are always 2 Surprises (titles unannounced), sometimes more.
rich-c: OK, I'm getting a vague idea - I am not much on the film scene
Dr.D.: The only film I know really well is animation.
Dr.D.: So I get to pick all the cartoons, themed to the films.
rich-c: I thnk the last film I went to was "Gone with the wind" - the first re-issue
Dr.D.: I know SF fairly well from all the stuff I watched on TV as a kid, that isn't shown now.
Dr.D.: You are definitely out of date then :-)
Dr.D.: <Elanor says hello>
rich-c: yeah, if you could get a public performan e licence, then the whole Star Trek series would be fair game
rich-c: hello Elanor
Dr.D.: Public performance licenses for TV stuff are almost impossible to come by, alas.
rich-c: also a good deal of Twilight Zone, Star Wars, etc.
rich-c: oh, not impossible, just impossibly exppensive
rich-c: same difference of course
Dr.D.: No, mostly impossible: the studios will *not* license it.
rich-c: I though it was only Disney was into that, and they are easing a little
Dr.D.: We have asked about Trek, they always say no (if they bother to return calls).
Dr.D.: In the past, before I was Faculty Advisor, sometimes they would run stuff unannounced.
rich-c: of course they won't licence it if they can still sell it for broadcast tv
Dr.D.: The studios are stupid, they should let anyone who wants to give them money show their stuff.
Dr.D.: The people at the marathon are NOT watching their daggone TV, so it is no competition.
rich-c: well, Trek is still in reruns I believe, and teh DVD compilations are reelatively new on the market
Dr.D.: The hard thing for us is getting it on film.
rich-c: but I agree, if they'll rent it to commercial theatres, they should rent it to small exhibitors
Dr.D.: Being a "film" society, the old-timers don't want to run stuff off of tape or disc.
rich-c: are any movies even being shot on film any more?
Dr.D.: Yes, they all still are, in big studios.
Dr.D.: Independents are all using Betacam.
rich-c: ah yes, dear old Beta - guess it isn't time to toss my Beta VCR yet, then ;-)
Dr.D.: In fact, the FS is having a local filmmakers' night this semester, and everything is DVD.
Dr.D.: Just got the DVD projector installed in the auditorium in August, so we can do it.
rich-c: I do not find that surprising; it makes miore sense
Dr.D.: I give 35 mm film for first-release movies about another 10 years.
Dr.D.: Then something digital, with satellite transmission, will put an end to it almost overnight.
rich-c: is that like a PowerPoint projector, or is it an LCD or plasma tv?
Dr.D.: Sort of like that.
rich-c: actually they are talking satellite transmission much soo er than that
Dr.D.: Satellite transmission is here now, just there is not yet a film-quality digital projection system yet.
rich-c: I suspect teh only obstacle is they havent found a way to foil pirates yet
Dr.D.: The theatres now run all their non-film previews and timewasting entertainment off of video projection systems that are better than TV but clearly not as good as 35 mm.
rich-c: right, film is still the gold standard for resolution
Dr.D.: Maybe as good as 16 mm right now.
rich-c: amateur 16mm, of course
Dr.D.: No, I mean 16 mm prints of 35 mm stuff.
rich-c: oh, haven't see any of that that I know of
Dr.D.: They were mostly for TV prints.
rich-c: yes, with standard tv resolution, who'd notice?
Dr.D.: Which is bad for anything in widescreen, because you tend to get pan-and-scan or outright chopped-off frames.
rich-c: I know they tell us anything over 75 dpi is wasted on a computer monitor
Dr.D.: 35 mm film is effectively 4000 by 3000 pixels.
rich-c: well, now the portables at least are coming out with widescreen format screen
Dr.D.: yes, but they are luckly to be about 1200 pixels wide.
rich-c: which compares with internet standardd resolution of 800 x 600
rich-c: isn't it the proportion - 16:9 rather than 4:3 that counts?
Dr.D.: The proportion makes it widescreen, but the absolute number of pixels determines the resolution.
Dr.D.: brb Richard
rich-c: OK, I always have problems with pixels vs. dpi
rich-c: but dpi is an absolute standard; pixel sixe can vary, right?
Dr.D.: back
rich-c: ok, hope I'm still here
Dr.D.: DPI just means how many pixels can be crammed into a certain space.
Dr.D.: The absolute number of pixels is how much info an image can have.
rich-c: now you've got me thoroughly confused
rich-c: but you are implying that pixel size is a variable
Dr.D.: Yes it is.
Dr.D.: Depends on the size of the monitor/display.
rich-c: that's why the same monitor can display varying resolutions
Dr.D.: A monitor with higher DPI can fit more absolute pixels across in a smaller screen size.
Dr.D.: Correct about varying resolutions.
rich-c: rich - phone - brb
Dr.D.: I am told that we have to go shovel the driveway again....the end is plowed shut.
rich-c: Frances here, rich
Dr.D.: Hi Frances.
Dr.D.: Long time no type :-)
rich-c: Richard went to take a phone call
Dr.D.: The girls are getting ready to go help with some shovelling again.
rich-c: Lots of snow there?
Dr.D.: They helped me this morning.
Dr.D.: Yes.
Dr.D.: Shovelled for 2 hours this morning, did the back twice.
Dr.D.: Now the end is plowed shut at the street, and I have to go out this evening.
rich-c: We've got some too. Don't plan to do anything until our snow clearer comes
rich-c: When they do the roads here, they are supposedmto clear the end of the driveway.
rich-c: Mostly, they do.
Dr.D.: Since we live on a 5-lane highway, not too much hope of that.
rich-c: Richard's back. bye
Dr.D.: Bye Frances.
Dr.D.: Okay Richard, I need to go too; I am drafted for shovelling duty again.
rich-c: our roads are done by graders supplied by road construction companies
Dr.D.: Our plows are owned by the city.
rich-c: OK Rich, take it easy, don't overdo it
Dr.D.: I shan't ... want to make use of the last bit of daylight.
rich-c: glad to see you by, anyway
Dr.D.: See you Wednesday.
Dr.D.: Bye.
Dr.D.: <poof>
rich-c: enjoy
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AdamCon.org > chat > Sat 2005-01-22
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