Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2008 April 24

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April 24

Paper Rock Scissors Variations

I'm looking for a page on Paper-rock-scissors variations, I have found it before but can't seem to find it now. It was a lengthy page, and had alot of topics on variations with more than three hands, and a game that one of the presidents made up involving guns.

If any information can be attributed to the whereabouts of these topics or the page, it would be greatly appreciated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.255.35.126 (talk) 00:23, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Start with Rock-paper-scissors#Variations and Jan-ken-pon. Here is an external site with additional variations. I did a quick bounce back through the edit history of Rock-paper-scissors (500 at a time), but did not see a mention of the variation that you mentioned. --Gwguffey (talk) 02:08, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I think I may have found it, but I need some help translating Japanese.

This page, and scroll down to the article "ミャンマー1" Here.

I think this is the one I'm looking for.

entertainment system configuration

What is the difference between PAL and NTSC? I see this mainly in DVDs and VCRs, but I don't know the meaning of them or the difference.41.220.237.70 (talk) 02:45, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

It's a type of TV configuration, according to our articles on these. NTSC includes North America, while PAL comprises most of Europe, Africa, and Oceania. See the image to the right. bibliomaniac15 Do I have your trust? 05:24, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

For technical differences, see PAL#PAL vs. NTSC Think outside the box 13:34, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

The short answer is that each of these systems indicate a specific way that the electronic signals represent the images you see. In vague terms you can think of them as indicating the "language" for describing pictures, that the TV transmitter speaks in and the TV set understands. --Anonymous, 02:39 UTC, April 25, 2008.

They are different ways of encoding the color of the pictures. The black and white parts are the same.F (talk) 11:34, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Actually, while PAL refers specifically to a color encoding, the original NTSC was a black-and-white standard. --Anon, 02:29 UTC, April 30, 2008.

Is realism extinct?

So, I'm watching Live Free or Die Hard and a question occurred to me. Are there any movies made that deal with computers, espionage, etc. that are actually realistic? Dismas|^(talk) 05:12, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

The movie Breach was based on a true story, doesn't deal with computers so much, just the espionage side of it for the most part, but I thought it avoided most of the normal Hollywood action movie nonsense while still being exciting. AlexiusHoratius (talk) 07:12, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Espionage in real life is far less interesting, so probably not. I was really disappointed when I found out WarGames wasn't realistic. Neıl ☎ 09:56, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you really want to watch a movie that consists solely of people typing on command-line terminals and talking to each other in a normal tone of voice about technical stuff (most of which is ridiculous acronyms) and maybe leaving for the washroom or food once in a while? Because that is pretty much how the real thing is. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 17:19, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

The first part of Three Days of the Condor takes place at a CIA office that uses a realistic-looking computer (a PDP-11 as I recall). Moving outside of espionage, the computer usage in Apollo 13 is also pretty realistic. --Anonymous, 02:41 UTC, April 25, 2008.

Thank you all. I just finished watching Breach and it was excellent! Though I did find the actor's makeup, especially that of Chris Cooper, distracting at times. I've seen Apollo 13 and have been meaning to see Three Days of the Condor. To the anon, 74.48, I guess what I was getting at is the liberal use of the Hollywood OS, hackers being handed a PDA and being able to break into anything, and using a computer to zoom in and enhance a grainy surveillance video image. While I expect these things from something like Live Free or Die Hard, it would be nice to see something that's more thought out than "We'll just have some kid do some computer wizardry and we can move the story along". Dismas|^(talk) 03:10, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

The Matrix Reloaded saw Trinity use a real exploit with nmap. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.210.249.81 (talk) 11:22, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I can't remember where I saw it, but I vaguely remember a conversation about Daniel Jackson from Stargate (or was it the Disney snowclone?) and his glasses. Audiences have been conditioned to recognize that /the/ guy with glasses is /the/ nerd. I think it was called "narrative shorthand." It's obvious enough - a movie "has" to be about 90 minutes, that's more or less what audiences will tolerate. Take Independence Day (film) - yes, the deus ex of the Mac book being connected to the alien mothership is pretty outrageous. But would we have really enjoyed watching Mister Goldbloom spending days deciphering an alien assembly language? The symbols - and their shorthand - conveyed the story. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ironmandius (talk • contribs) 11:55, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I personally would have enjoyed watching someone write out assembly for two hours, but that probably would have cut into the box office. But couldn't they have said he did it, and then shown him running scripts from a command line instead of having his pretty little gui? Really it would be about a 5 second concession to the geeks would that have hurt the story? I even would have been satisfied by "By a remarkable coincidence thier operating system is identical to Windows 3.1!" I'm just amazed at the time and expense Hollywood goes to make things not realistic. They could just gloss over the technical parts, but instead they show something that looks pretty then throw out a bunch of technical sounding words. Mad031683 (talk) 17:03, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

My favorite of the genre is The Net, starring Sandra Bullock, in which a computer virus has infected most of the computers of the world, in effect making Bullock's character and her entire history disappear from all records in the world. The removal of the virus somehow manages to automatically undo all of the damage it has caused. Corvus cornix_talk 17:15, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

A fairly realistic movie about spying (by a private eye, in this case) is The Conversation. Since the movie is over 3 decades old, the equipment used is rather dated. A remake of this movie is scheduled for next year. StuRat (talk) 06:26, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

"Spatial Architects"

To what religion, quasi-religion or fictional religion do the lyrics to the Demons & Wizards song "Spatial Architects" most likely refer? NeonMerlin 13:47, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Sounds vaguely Cthulhuish. ···日本穣^{? · Talk to Nihonjoe} 03:57, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Maybe some influence of Erich von Däniken? SaundersW (talk) 13:35, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Janet and Vince

Janet and Vince are singing group comprised of Janet Russelland her boyfriendVince LaSalle.

Janet Russel was born on April 22, 1990 to Jayvia Russell and LeBron Russell in Atlanta, Georgia and she has no siblings at all.

Vince LaSalle was born on May 23, 1992 to George LaSalleand Linda LaSalle. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vintrs2008 (talk • contribs) 22:45, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Hello, Janet and Vince. Welcome to Red Link Land. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:45, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

And congratulations Vince, you dog, for bagging an older woman! Adam Bishop (talk) 03:23, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I am intrigued by the strength of your declaration that she has no siblings at all. Has some trickster been posing as her kid brother? SaundersW (talk) 13:32, 27 April 2008 (UTC)