Wayland's New Writeups

John Dykstra (person)

2002-10-17T05:18:37Z

John Dykstra, the Godfather of Movie Special Effects.

âStar Wars was me and my buddies who all got together and created a great big garage known as ILM"

John Dykstra was born June 3rd, 1947, Long Beach, CA. Graduating from the California State University at Long Beach he begins an award winning, critically acclaimed career in Film Special effects. He cut his teeth at Trumbull Film Effects, this was Douglas Trumbull's effects house. Trumbull was most noted for the effects he had created for 2001: A space Odyssey. John was learning with the best. His first film was in 1971, working as special effects cameraman and industrial designer on Trumbull's Silent Running.

"This is where I was learning how to learn, I was working with Doug Trumbull and it was a terrific opportunity to learn from a guy whoâs a master of invention. Heâs a futurist and so far ahead of his time that itâs painful"

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On Making E2 Distributed (idea)

2002-08-21T10:36:03Z

Fair enough, indeed a man with a plan. However I don't think splitting the ecore is a prudent move, this could do more damage than good. I have an idea that might work a bit better. The idea is E2 is big sluggish and costs a fortune in bandwidth. So we spread the load around. Its quite tricky and has to be done correctly but this would be the plan:
ecore stays where it is, but stop running apache, no web pages, all it does is host the database. In front of that machine is a DNS machine that all DNS requests come to. This machine can be anywhere in the world. Then you have web servers, as many as you need where ever you need. I think between 10 and 20 would be a good place to start.

This set-up up would enable E2 to stay centralised, all Gods and Editors would remain the same with the same power, E2 would look and feel the same except it would be an awful lot quicker. This is how it would work.

Noder at home would type in the address bar

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De Havilland Chipmunk (thing)

2002-01-30T08:41:48Z

Chipmunk Is also the name of the De Havilland DHC-1

Designed by the Canadian subsidiary company of the British airframe manufacturer De Havilland, it first entered service in 1946. It was primarily designed to replace the old Moth biplane. This subsidiary was famous for building the Mosquito Bomber. The Chipmunk was to be used as the primary training aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force, which it did between 1947-1971. The United Kingdom also made these planes for the same reason and made 1000 of these planes. In 1957 the Plane was removed as the primary training plane at the flight school based on RAF Cranwell for a newer aircraft. However in 1958 the Air Training Corps purchased 50 of them to use in their Air Experience Flight Squadrons. Where it remained in an active role until 1996 (The same year the Chipmunk celebrated its 50th Anniversary) before being replaced again by the Bulldog. The Chipmunk was a tandem two seat primary…

Should you cheat on your PhD ? (idea)

2002-01-28T21:59:55Z

Why buy a Ph.D.?

if you are not the literary genius you think you are, and are unable to earn yourself a PhD or have no real desire to be a poor college student, Then there is another way you could try.

However, this option is indeed the Dark Side.

Do you need a one?
The first question you must ask yourself is "Do I need a Ph.D.?" This is one of the most important issues you must face. Why do you want one? Do you have a school reunion to go to soon? Are you having difficulty making friends at the Golf Club? Does your Wife not respect you? You might be getting stopped for speeding a lot! or you are having difficulty getting a loan? There can be a thousand reasons why you might want a Ph.D., and a million reasons why you can't have one. As long as you're happy with your reason for needing one without actually earning one.

I want one now!
Due to taking many years of hard work and dedication to earn such an accolade, the…

Industrial Light and Magic (thing)

2002-01-28T01:59:27Z

ILM Is THE best effects house in the world. It has won many awards including 15 Oscars. Originally set up in 1975 just so George Lucas could have the special effects he wanted in Star Wars. This task needed nothing less than a fully independent and staffed effects house. After they had completed Star Wars he needed to keep the personnel ready for when he completed the script for The Empire Strikes Back so he kept them all together, named the company Industrial Light and Magic and sold their services to other film makers (Although, in the beginning he only let close friends use the almighty power of ILM). At the start George Lucas hired a chap called John Dykstra to head up his little project. John was the genius behind the stunning S/FX in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, sadly that film focused a little too much on the effects and not enough on the plot. John didn't go with ILM when the moved to North California. He left to set up his own effects house called Apogee,…

The Cape (place)

2002-01-23T16:21:33Z

A term the Astronauts and NASA personel use to for Cape Canaveral.

Although it is popular belief, the Apollo Moon launches were not launched from The Cape. Launch Complex 39, where the Saturn V's were launched was in fact on the grounds of Kennedy Space Center and not Cape Canaveral Air Force base.

Although almost everyone referred to the whole Florida launch layout as "The Cape," the Deputy Director for Kennedy Space Center Management, wrote to a member of the Space Task Group in Houston to point out that Launch Complex 39 was situated entirely within the geographical boundaries of the entity known as the "Kennedy Space Center, NASA." Noting that the widespread use of "The Cape" was a nostalgic hearkening back to Mercury and Cape Canaveral, the Deputy nevertheless maintained that "NASA report writers ought not to confuse geographic proximity to the Cape as the same thing as being on it." However that may have been, the terminology "launched from the Cape . . ." continued to be used by the media.