Tech Oscars Awarded

prostoalex writes "Skip the tuxedos, cleavages and red carpet. Scientific and technical Oscars are awarded for technical excellence and inventive approaches in the field of movie-making. Satellight-X HMI Softlight, DNF-001 multiband digital audio noise suppressor and Tyler Gyroplatform were among nominees, according to MSNBC."

Movie oscars

[thundercatslair]

I bet the LoTR movies take all the 2004 movie oscars

What?!

[erikharrison]

No clevage? Then what's the point?

Re:What?!

[priestx]

It's like blowing your load to a flying rocket!

Re:What?!

[rob_squared]

Like the commercial says, "there's always room for clevage." Or is that jello? Or perhaps both...

Re:What?!

[jmanforever]

"there's always room for clevage." Or is that jello? Or perhaps both..."

Hey! Jello wrestling!!!! YES!

it's not on the women

[SuperBanana]

No clevage? Then what's the point?

There's clevage, but with the science/tech crowd, the guys have clevage too...and you really do want to skip that.

Re:it's not on the women

[Dr.Opveter]

Oh man, you posted and now you can't mod!
Hold on, let me mod it down for you.

Re:it's not on the women

[znode]

DNF-001 multiband digital audio noise suppressor and Tyler Gyroplatform

Liv Tyler Gyrating platform? WHERE?!

Run in fear!

[I kan Spl]

The end of the world is near. Slashdot has linked to MSNBC.

Re:Run in fear!

[ravenspear]

Why wouldn't they? M$ advertises a lot on /.

Re:Run in fear!

[RaguMS]

The end of the world is near. Slashdot has linked to MSNBC.

Perhaps it's not such a bad thing. If MSNBC get Slashdotted, isn't it the DDoS that you've all been wishing for? Either way, hooray for linking to the homepage of 75% of the world's computers.

PopSci

[XFilesFMDS1013]

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,209 67,1027792,00.html

Their coverage. Pretty much the same, only, you know, in a magazine.

Re:PopSci

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,209 67,1027792,00.html [popsci.com]

Pretty much the same, only, you know, an actual frickin' link, you lazy bum.

Lazy

[XFilesFMDS1013]

I'm sorry, who's lazy? Me, or the person that can't be bothered ot highlight and paste? Yeah, probably me.

Hold the phone...

[00Sovereign]

As a Slasdot geek, I do NOT want to skip the cleavages.

The mea;...

[Fitzghon]

"That's not to say that these so-called "gearheads" don't like to party. Champagne and chardonnay flowed, and they ate well, too -- dining on pumpkin soup, asparagus ravioli and a duet of seared beef medallion and fennel-crusted sea bass."

...and then after the appetizers, the ramen was served!

Fitzghon

Re:The mea;...

[JanneM]

...and then after the appetizers, the ramen was served!

Funny, I agree - but I feel it's a shame that ramen has come to be equated with those freeze-dried instant noodles that students everywhere seems to eat instead of actual food.

In Japan (where the dish is hugely popular), real ramen is a whole different thing; thick, intense soup base with slices of meat or seafood, greens, boiled eggs, a mound of chopped leek (well, similar to leek), all floating on top of a large serving of freshly cooked ramen noodles slowly soaking up the flavours of the soup. The instant stuff is just a pale shadow of the real thing.

Re:The mea;...

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the Japanese should come over here and open up Ramen stalls like they've got in Japan. Quick, cheap, and good. It's like McDonalds, but exotic.

Re:The mea;...

[jthayden]

The instant stuff is just a pale shadow of the real thing.

Dude, everything in America is a pale shadow of the original.
McDonalds != Hamburger
Taco Bell != Mexican food
Dairy Queen != Ice Cream
Pizza Hut != Pizza....
Sure some of it might taste ok, but it's all poor imitations of the original.

Re:The mea;...

[JanneM]

Please note that I wasn't referring to the US at all; those same rectangular packets with instant noodles are popular all over the world (including Japan itself). It's quick, it's really cheap and you need next to nothing in equipment or cooking knowledge to prepare it.

By contrast, real Ramen is much tastier but it is more expensive and very difficult to actually make yourself; boiling pig bones for several hours for the tonkotsu broth isn't something you really want to do yourself when you can buy a finis

Re:The mea;...

[shadow0_0]

Absolutely! The best thing is that each prefecture you visit, the soup base and ingredient is slightly different. For example, in Kyushuu, the soup base is usually made from pork bone instead of miso. Kisumen in Kyoto is interesting too.

More Sources

[sandstorming]

FW News [fortwayne.com]
Reuters [reuters.co.uk]
NYTimes [nytimes.com]
Daily Herald [dailyherald.com]
Google News [google.com]

Re:More Sources

[shadowkoder]

Mod Saviour?

Re:More Sources

[ari_j]

Posting 4 sources and then Google News? Too bad there's not a mod for "Internally redundant." ;)

NEVER

[ellem]

Never ever ever never ever ever skip the cleavage. Never!

Re:NEVER, EVER, SKIP CLEAVAGE

[kiore]

Never.

Geeks have the same rights to a spathic [reference.com] presenter as anyone.

... and probably more need.

Re:NEVER, EVER, SKIP CLEAVAGE

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

The real geeks clicked the link and got the joke.

Good thing you found that AC button...

"Tech Oscars"?

[sczimme]

That's a rather boring name. Shouldn't the awards be called the 'Geekies' or 'Nerdies' or something?

Re:"Tech Oscars"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Teh 05c4r$

Re:"Tech Oscars"?

[eclectro]

Shouldn't the awards be called the 'Geekies' or 'Nerdies' or something?

No, it should be called "We are not going to let you anywhere near a hot movie actress so you get your own show" ceremony.

What more could a geek want?

[FunWithHeadlines]

Lots of tech goodness, awards handed to geeks while praising them, geeks getting to give speeches to other geeks who applaud them, and Scarlett Johansson struggling to pronounce what you do. What more could a geek want?

Oh, right, having Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman.

Re:What more could a geek want?

[awtbfb]

During graduation at my school (engineering) it was tradition to cheer for the most obscure thesis title. The ChemE's always got the loudest cheers...

Re:What more could a geek want?

[Kehvarl]

chemees? you went to berkley, didn't you?

Re:What more could a geek want?

[UWC]

Not necessarily. At my non-Berkeley alma mater, CE = Civil Engineering, ChemE = Chemical Engineering, and CompE = Computer Engineering (my major). Why are there so many "C" fields of engineering? Look at all the unused letters! And best of all, abbreviations tend to differ between schools, so I can't just say I have a "CompE B.E." No, I have to say "Computer Engineering."

spelling...

[tadheckaman]

I read the topic as "Teh Oscars Awarded" and I thought "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

Re:spelling...

[redJag]

man I read the same thing :( it really wouldn't be that inappropriate of an alternate title :)

Where are the frontiers?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing that one frontier would be user interface. Right now, most of this wonderful gear needs serious skills to use it. The trouble is that the people with the skills to operate the equipment aren't the people with the vision and the story telling ability. Equipment with an interface that even a director could use would be a big hit.

Of course, this is all leading to the ability to produce movies on our desktops. Then instead of an unpublished novel, everyone would have an unpublished movie in th

Re:Where are the frontiers?

[Frogbeater]

As a person that uses that gear on a daily basis, I will point out that HMI lighting and Tyler mounts (for example) are not just un-user friendly (to the layman) they are actually dangerous in the wrong hands.

There is plenty of gear out there that you can use with a consumer camera to create decent images.

The people that can afford shooting with a Satellight-X HMI can afford a crew to operate it.

They might still edit on Final Cut Pro.

/mac evangelism

PS. Woo-Hoo. Something involving my job is on Slashdo

Disgusting

[CastrTroy]

Does anyone else find it appauling that they can dedicate 4 hours to all the pretty stars, and that they can't include tech oscars in with the other oscars. It's a sad day for society when people only care about looking at pretty faces, and couldn't care less about the technology that makes the movie possible in the first place. Without the technology, we might as well just go to live plays.

Re:Disgusting

[GeorgeMcBay]

Quit whining you friggin' nerd.

Re:Disgusting

[MatthewNewberg]

How can you complain when you are guilty of this yourself. Do you keep track who makes video games or do you keep track of sound engineers that make your music? I bet you know atleast a 100 actors, actress, directors even if you dont follow movies. No one cares about what happens behind the scenes in media unless they do something really special, and then they only get 15 minutes of fame.

Re:Disgusting

[The Grey Clone]

While my spelling might not be the best, I can certianly list several game developers off the top of my head.

Sid Meier (Civilization, Pirates)
Peter Molyneux (Most recently Fable and Black and White. Those stunk but his others, whose names escape me at the moment, were better)
Shigeru Miyamoto (Zelda, Mario)
Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid)
Will Wright (The Sims)
Richard Garriot (Lord British from Ultima!)

Now, the only person I can think of for music off hand is Nobuo Uematsu from the Final Fantasy games, but

Re:Disgusting

[MatthewNewberg]

Six. I am guessing you should be able to name atleast 6 stars in one movie. You did miss atleast two which I assumed you would be able to guess. John Carmack John Romero Seriously there could be more (stars), but I can't remeber half of them, and that is the point. People just dont care about things they dont see.

Re:Disgusting

[SuiteSisterMary]

Fine, you know Peter Molyneux's name. Can you name any of the actual programmers who worked on Fable? In this context, Peter is the pretty face. Name the tech guys.

Re:Disgusting

[sahala]

He's got a point. Knowing the leads for all these games is analogous to knowing the director to hollywood movies.

Re:Disgusting

[PsiPsiStar]

Makes sense. It's a totally different audience who is interested in these things.

Re:Disgusting

[miu]

It's just division of labour. The pretty people look good for the camera and the smart people make all the important things possible and are entitled to hold an opinion about things other than clothing, fad diets, and exercise regimes. Come on admit it - you don't want to waste time listening to some vapid starlet prattle about zen or politics and no one wants to waste time watching non-pretty people be awkward in front of a camera.

Re:Disgusting

[sahonen]

...Except many live theatre productions feature a good deal of technology developed and operated by undercredited people as well.

Re:Disgusting

[harmonica]

Does anyone else find it appauling that they can dedicate 4 hours to all the pretty stars, and that they can't include tech oscars in with the other oscars.

There are a couple of tech Oscars already included with the "real" Oscars. Those parts are usually boring because the tech people - mostly in hordes of three to four - are neither funny nor emotional.

It's a sad day for society when people only care about looking at pretty faces, and couldn't care less about the technology that makes the movie possib

I hereby nominate...

[GillBates0]

...the cast and crew [nylug.org] of the New York LUG for their special achievements in realistically geeky costume design and visual effects.

Re:I hereby nominate...

[TummyX]

It's actually a bitmap (not a jpeg) and DIBs store the image upside down.

For a Complete Overview

[calambrac]

if you want something more than the glossover,here you go: http://www.oscars.org/77academyawards/sci-techawar ds/ [oscars.org]

Telaprompter?

[mi]

Legend under Scarlett's picture:

Actress Scarlett Johansson has trouble with the technical jargon and tosses up her hands as she reads a telaprompter in the back of the room during the ceremony Scientific and Technical Awards banquet.

I wonder, is it supposed to be "tell-a-prompter" or "teleprompter"?..

Satellight-X HMI Softlight

[cyberfunk2]

Gotta say, as someone in theater.. those lights are really quite expensive, but they collapse very nicely and provide excellent wash lighting.

I nominate SCO

[PsiPsiStar]

For "best performance as a real corporation"

From the article

[PsiPsiStar]

Also in abundance were hearty guffaws for the corny and sometimes suggestive jokes of the one-and-only Mac King, a Las Vegas lounge act with a thing for card tricks.

Steve Jobs as a thing for card tricks?

For the complete list of winners.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.oscars.org/77academyawards/sci-techawar ds/winners.html [oscars.org]

No cleavage? You are wrong.

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

I was there. From where I was Scarlett Johansson's cleavage was clearly visible. To be honest, I hadn't realized she had anything significant in that department up until that point. But if you find a picture - check out the awful 80s hairdo she was sporting.

Re:No cleavage? You are wrong.

[ian mills]

To be honest, I hadn't realized she had anything significant in that department up until that point.

Someone hasn't seen Lost in Translation.

Re:No cleavage? You are wrong.

[lavaface]

Here ya go: boobies! [defamer.com]

Now where's my informative mod? ; )

This isn't an article about the tech oscars

[PsiPsiStar]

It's an article about how they couldn't find a blonde capable of understanding the awards she was giving out.

There's almost nothing on what these advances mean to the industry.

Re:This isn't an article about the tech oscars

[cgenman]

It's an article about how they couldn't find a blonde capable of understanding the awards she was giving out.

There's almost nothing on what these advances mean to the industry.

What, you think the AP could find a reporter capable of understanding the awards that were given out?

Re:This isn't an article about the tech oscars

[PsiPsiStar]

If not, they should hire someone capable of explaining it to them in language that they could understand.

Re:This isn't an article about the tech oscars

[Kehvarl]

If not, they should hire someone capable of explaining it to them in language that they could understand.

Unfortunately, the US has laws agains child labor, and would frown upon exploting three year olds like that.

Slashdot Awards

[Tablizer]

Why doesn't slashdot feature such contests with reader votes/ranks? (We can even have a "funny" and "best troll" category :-)

Re:only gays watch the tech oscars!

[JeffWhitledge]

Black men never watch the tech Oscars. The acadamy ignores all of the comedic scientific advances.

I think Jennifer Garner did a better job...

[antdude]

I believe Jennifer Garner [imdb.com] had little or no problems with those difficult words/terms last year. Plus, she is hotter than Scarlett Johansson. :)~

Tech guys

[Gogo Dodo]

For those curious, here's a group photo of all the winners [oscars.org].

Re:Tech guys

[carlmenezes]

Yep and there are 5 Indians in there.

What a snub!

[iluvcapra]

The DNF-100 Multiband Digital Noise Supressor! Will the Sonic Solutions NoNoise HTDM plug-in ever get over this snub!?

Re:What a snub!

[PipsqueakOnAP133]

Maybe if it sounds like a weapon in Duke Nukem Forever?

"The DNF-100 multiband digital alien suppressor! Get your's today!"

That Music

[clamatius]

If this is modelled on the real Oscars, presumably they pre-emptively play the ceremonial "Get Off The Stage You Geek" music before any winner gets near a microphone.

Boring shows,

[Bender Unit 22]

The oscar shows are about the most boring I have ever seen, I have stayed up in the middle of the night twice to see the show live. The Oscar show are all about fashion, being seen and patting each others backs. If you are into gossip and following celebs, then the show are great but it has little value to people who are actually interested in movies.
I'd like them to show the techical oscars too and the background behind it. But again, the show are not about the movies, it's all about the celebs and getting

Re:Never

[RaguMS]

I refuse to click on the link, because it is MSNBC slashdot has gone down a point for having a link to msnbc on their home page... I refuse to touch even the mirrordot mirror of it with a 10 foot pole...

Yeah, lets keep Microsoft [microsoft.com]-based links in the comments only.

Re:The plural of 'cleavage' is 'cleavage'

[caffiend666]

Yes. But, what's the gerund form? Cleaving? Cleavaging?