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Okay, guess I'm left to ask the dumb questions.

First off, I've been using the TUI since the old Commie 64 days (the ay-deez). But, for some reason in all my readings and various meanderings through computer sci I've NEVER heard a command line referred to as a TUI!

So, its stupid question time again. Is TUI pr. as the text equivalent of the GUI? ie goo-eee? Or is it more like a tea-you-eye ?

As to the pro's and cons of using a GIU vs. a TUI, all I can say is "Read In the Beginning Was The Command Line by Neil Stephenson". He explains the pro's and cons of using GUI vs. the TUI much better than I ever could. and you could read it in an afternoon. It's more of an essay than an actual book.

As to what my preferences are..a little Perl, a little Python and Apache! (guess you can see where I stand on this issue)

First result: Amazon

Go to a9.com and search for 'books'.

First result: Barnes and Noble

Will these new "brain chips" be called "microsofts" and plug directly into the back of your skull, coming in all kinds of fashionable colors?

The release in C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3 is not too bad. There is a little hacking to do if you want to use the free Borland compiler with threads. Also cygwin is a must. Once these two things are done, it's easy to develop on Linux and port the final app to windows.

"Enterprise features", like activeX controls, are not in the book release.

There is a GPL Windows port in the works...not from trolltech, but from here.

I think the enterprise license for the Windows release, necessary if you want to use the advanced features of Qt or are doing closed source work, is about $2500 a year (per developer) and about $400 a year (per developer) after that for license maintenance.

It's a nice toolkit. It could be better, the documentation is a little weak in places, some the objects are malformed, they don't use enough STL.

Beyond this, just being able to search on the web for the solutions to common problems is just great.

Personally, I don't care if it's not GPLd under Windows. People who pay for pain won't mind paying for some more! As I say, you can develop and demo under linux for free, and port to windows later...watch out for enterprise or professional only features...they will be missing from the book version.

Some (limited) of what you say has merit...but for the most part not...Most people in this country need to work 2+ jobs just to make ends meet for 1 person...with cost of living (rent, heat, elec, food - absolute necessities) deducted from his pay the average guy making minimum wage makes about $-300/mo. (assuming one job, 40 per week)...Add one child (single parent) and that figure changes drastically...in order to afford rent (without public assist.) That person has to work approx. 100+ hours per week. there's only 168 in a week...when does he have time to sleep let alone see his/her kid. I know...I went from $35/hr with a partner also making $1000 a week to being a single dad trying to make ends meet when I got laid off and she left. That left me trying to find work while paying all the same bills...Sure I have some nice stuff now...but I can no longer afford even the simplest pleasures that I used to. Coffe in the morning has become an expendable luxury item. This book (I currently work at a B&N) is quite the eye opener for the average person making enough to pay the mortgage/rent in one week (single income or dual income).

Obviously it depends on some degree where you live, but I've lived all over the US and wherever the cost of living is low that means there are approx 2 jobs and they both pay crap. The cost of living has increased at a pace not equalled by earnings. Before Nixon you could buy a house with a years salary (modest) and a car with a months salary (again modest). Now the average person spends about a years salary on a car and 5-10 years salary on a house...if they can afford the down. It's a lot harder than it used to be...I don't like it when people assume that everyone spends beyond their means...

Yeah, bowels can be a problem for runners. One thing that running will do for you is remove all self conscience issues over time...First of all you get in great shape, so you don't worry about taking off that shirt in public, and you learn to go to the bathroom anywhere. I've had to stop in the middle of a run to take a dump behind some trees, and wiped with a sock(an extra one I brought to act as a glove/tissue in the cold weather). I know runners (mostly women) who will pee in their shorts before taking a break in a race. "The Complete Guide to Running a Marathon" by Bob Glover has a section on physical problems while running. He's run hundreds of marathons and talks about getting "the runs" and even vomitting during races. I know it sounds like a pretty horrible hobby, but those things really are temporary when they happen and don't happen to everyone.

Once you get used to the rythm of running, you learn to hit "the zone" where you can go long periods of time without getting bored or fatigued. It's kind of a zen like state because you focus on your breathing and the rythm of your steps. Unfortunatley it takes lots of practice without using music and usualy doesn't happen until you're already in shape(ie after the new-running-pains go away)

Agreed, it's a great book: The Case for Mars

"gotta-beat-the-Ruskies"

The correct spelling is "C-H-I-N-E-S-E". :)

On all other points we are mostly in agreement, except that I would hijack some of Zubrin's ideas and lay some groundwork by launching fuel-generating plants in advance of anybody actually going to Mars.

Yep... the ISBN number of 0974312002 checks out...

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble (They recongize the number, but don't have it.)
CafePress.com
NerdBooks.com

Faster Than the Speed of Light just came out on paperback and is a good read AND a good intro to cosmology.

The End of Time is also available in paperback. I never managed to get though more than 4 chapters, but Barbour has some very intriguing ideas about time, and I've seen him mentioned along with Loop Quantum Gravity, which is a good sign.

Hyperspace was written before TEU, and suffers from age a bit. It was written before Witten unleashed M-Theory on everyone (or just after) I read it immediately after TEU so I bored me, the rehash of Relativity and QM can get a bit tedious in these books unless you spice it up like Greene does.

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity looks promising, and details String Theory's main competitor on the Quantum Gravity front, Loop Quantum Gravity. I picked it up, but couldn't get into it.

I've read Hawking and a few others, but I've never been able to get into things from the 'classical' side of the equasion. Feynman is REALLY difficut to get into, his prose just doesn't flow like Greene's. Perhaps I'm a mass consumer and so esoteric physisits don't appeal to me as authors.

Faster Than the Speed of Light just came out on paperback and is a good read AND a good intro to cosmology.

The End of Time is also available in paperback. I never managed to get though more than 4 chapters, but Barbour has some very intriguing ideas about time, and I've seen him mentioned along with Loop Quantum Gravity, which is a good sign.

Hyperspace was written before TEU, and suffers from age a bit. It was written before Witten unleashed M-Theory on everyone (or just after) I read it immediately after TEU so I bored me, the rehash of Relativity and QM can get a bit tedious in these books unless you spice it up like Greene does.

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity looks promising, and details String Theory's main competitor on the Quantum Gravity front, Loop Quantum Gravity. I picked it up, but couldn't get into it.

I've read Hawking and a few others, but I've never been able to get into things from the 'classical' side of the equasion. Feynman is REALLY difficut to get into, his prose just doesn't flow like Greene's. Perhaps I'm a mass consumer and so esoteric physisits don't appeal to me as authors.

Faster Than the Speed of Light just came out on paperback and is a good read AND a good intro to cosmology.

The End of Time is also available in paperback. I never managed to get though more than 4 chapters, but Barbour has some very intriguing ideas about time, and I've seen him mentioned along with Loop Quantum Gravity, which is a good sign.

Hyperspace was written before TEU, and suffers from age a bit. It was written before Witten unleashed M-Theory on everyone (or just after) I read it immediately after TEU so I bored me, the rehash of Relativity and QM can get a bit tedious in these books unless you spice it up like Greene does.

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity looks promising, and details String Theory's main competitor on the Quantum Gravity front, Loop Quantum Gravity. I picked it up, but couldn't get into it.

I've read Hawking and a few others, but I've never been able to get into things from the 'classical' side of the equasion. Feynman is REALLY difficut to get into, his prose just doesn't flow like Greene's. Perhaps I'm a mass consumer and so esoteric physisits don't appeal to me as authors.

Faster Than the Speed of Light just came out on paperback and is a good read AND a good intro to cosmology.

The End of Time is also available in paperback. I never managed to get though more than 4 chapters, but Barbour has some very intriguing ideas about time, and I've seen him mentioned along with Loop Quantum Gravity, which is a good sign.

Hyperspace was written before TEU, and suffers from age a bit. It was written before Witten unleashed M-Theory on everyone (or just after) I read it immediately after TEU so I bored me, the rehash of Relativity and QM can get a bit tedious in these books unless you spice it up like Greene does.

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity looks promising, and details String Theory's main competitor on the Quantum Gravity front, Loop Quantum Gravity. I picked it up, but couldn't get into it.

I've read Hawking and a few others, but I've never been able to get into things from the 'classical' side of the equasion. Feynman is REALLY difficut to get into, his prose just doesn't flow like Greene's. Perhaps I'm a mass consumer and so esoteric physisits don't appeal to me as authors.

Read Lucifer's Hammer ... It's an excellent book by Jerry Pournell that covers that scenario.

There -is- a God Particle!

Since we're talking about fiction here... How about using this tool to draw the connections amongst characters in the Cryptnomicon/Baroque Cycle series? This guy makes some pretty headspinning connections! It took a little bit for me to realize/remember who was a "papist", who was a "barker" and who was an Anglican, etc etc etc in Quicksilver and what the ramifications were. No need to explain, I have it down but a tool like this to represent these things visually would've been helpful. Actually, he does include some diagrams as to how the characters connect! But it almost seems as if more might've been helpful at times! Snowcrash (one of my faves) was a bit of an easier go!

Since we're talking about fiction here... How about using this tool to draw the connections amongst characters in the Cryptnomicon/Baroque Cycle series? This guy makes some pretty headspinning connections! It took a little bit for me to realize/remember who was a "papist", who was a "barker" and who was an Anglican, etc etc etc in Quicksilver and what the ramifications were. No need to explain, I have it down but a tool like this to represent these things visually would've been helpful. Actually, he does include some diagrams as to how the characters connect! But it almost seems as if more might've been helpful at times! Snowcrash (one of my faves) was a bit of an easier go!

My point is this: why is it so bad to ask these questions?

I don't think it's bad to ask the questions. However, when people start constructing massive theories based on scant evidence and then cling to them madly, that's a different matter.

Scientists are smart people, and many of them are happy to answer questions from people who don't specialize in that area. It can be frustrating, though, when one of those people is dead set on believing something that is completely crazy.

For comparison, I went to a lecture by Brian Greene (author of The Elegant Universe) last night. He's a very, very smart guy, but he is also good at explaining things like quantum mechanics and string theory to non-physicists like me.

At the end of the lecture, there was a question and answer session.

One of the people asked a lengthy question about similarities between the language of mysticism (the "word of God" and the vibrational jibber-jabber that some people are into now) and that of advanced physics (e.g. string theory and the idea that all particles are actually the result of vibrations). He was obviously a misguided UFO guy, but because he asked the question in an open-minded way, Greene was able to turn it into an interesting topic.

Later, a woman came to the microphone and started off by accusing him of being biased towards "European mathematics," and that if he's interested in the higher dimensions that string theory predicts, he should be investigating the Africans who can enter the fifth dimension and that Einstein was looking for some Buddhist chant that would function as a unified theory. Because she was dead set in her crazy ways, he couldn't turn it into an interesting discussion and basically had to just tell her she was wrong.

My guess is that we end users are going to pay much more than just a dime xtra for those CD medias.. :(

I disagree. As simple and stupid as it may sound, I for one see this as a disruptive technology. Sometimes the DTs aren't the most innovative technologies, but ones that solve age-old problems. The technology itself doesn't seem to me as if it would cost more. So they aren't going to make HUGE profit margins by introducing this technology; but, when $10 extra buys a burner wish this technology, the average consumer would realize that it's not much more than the average CD-marker set.

Naturally, most all sales will be routed to this new technology and the producers that don't adapt will go under.

I suggest The Innovator's Dilemma as a wonderful look at the effects of disruptive technologies over time. It's all a matter of meeting the consumer demands where they are noticable (though may not seem important to you) to the consumer.

A great movie that shows a personal injury lawyer in a bad light is The Sweet Hereafter, about a school bus accident in a small town, and the lawsuits that follow, and much more. This is a Canadian film by Atom Egoyan.

There was a more entertaining rendition of this concept (if somewhat less intellectually stimulating) in a wryly satirical book called "Dad's Nuke" by Marc Laidlaw. Families gathered around the television each evening to watch the latest episodes of their neighbor's lives...

Getting that behind-the-scenes look at the job I thought I wanted was SO valuable! Chefs work hard (12 hour days or more, 6 days a week) and don't get paid all that much (I guess there are exceptions) - it really gave me the chance to see how good I had it as a programmer and that's what I really loved to do - to solve puzzles and write the code to solve 'em. My urges to cook are satisfied by cooking at home on a hobbyist basis.

So that's what I would say ... do some research into what you're thinking of switching to on an extra-curricular basis. Don't leave your job until you're sure ... well, that is, if you have a job. There is some truth to the adage "the grass is greener on the other side of the pasture." You don't want to find out after switching sides that the side you were on was already pretty green.

I'd also recommend a good book: What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question, by Po Bronson ... we've talked about it before. I've read most (if not all -- I forget) of it. It doesn't answer your questions, but it does offer some insights into people who have done similar things.

Mount Dragon, by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston, where they are hard at work on X-FLU ... very cool book - two thumbs up, as well as most of their other books.

Mount Dragon, by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston, where they are hard at work on X-FLU ... very cool book - two thumbs up, as well as most of their other books.

Ever read the DC Comic Kingdom Come? Essentially, all the good Superheroes have left the scene or gone a little nutty and the world is overrun with Superheroes without self-restraint or the black and white morals of the Golden Years. They've killed off most, if not all, of those you could easily identify as villains and become what they're supposed to be fighting.

In the book, Superman rounds up a bunch of the old gang and builds a superhero prison to hold the most questionable ones. It's a really good read (and I'm a Marvel guy generally) and I thought of it immediately when I heard there were no villains.

the phonebooks of course, searched with rphonebook: for residential and bphonebook: for business, also does reverse lookup for the phone #'s themeselves.

specifying a site to search with site: is awesome

Everyone's already mentioned the calculator

If anyone wants a nice in depth look at some of Google's geekier features I highly recomend the book Google Hacks.

Because they're not using shaped explosive charges, it's just a lump of metal. In fact it's usually described as a "crowbar".

Exactly. As soon as I saw the article description, I thought "Holy crap, someone is finally going to build a crowbar!"

See David's Sling (out of print, sadly) for a fictional book with extensive use of them.

Things continued in that state of suspended animation for weeks, although some things did happen. Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful."

--Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale

Been there, Done that.

You and whoever marked this insightful really have some kind of grudge against Christianity. That's sad. I've got a reading recommendation for you - and it covers the good and bad (including the tired old Inquisition and witch trials) in case you were going to object on those grounds.

I don't know about the person who marked me insightful, but as for me I find it interesting that you claim I have some kind of grudge against christianity. Is that really the only circumstance under which you can imagine someone criticizing it? That would really show a lack of imagination. I also note that you didn't reply to any of my actual points. That's not particularly suprising, but it is rather sad.

With regards to the reading recommendation, the blurb from the publisher begins "Had Jesus never been born, this world would be far more miserable than it is." Doesn't sound very neutral to me. But since you were kind enough to make a recommendation to me, let me make one for you. This one isn't neutral either, of course, but it's non-neutral in the other direction.

You and whoever marked this insightful really have some kind of grudge against Christianity. That's sad. I've got a reading recommendation for you - and it covers the good and bad (including the tired old Inquisition and witch trials) in case you were going to object on those grounds.

True enough about the utilities.. although, as an aside, phone service is a utility and we have choices (at least here in Denver) of who provides our home phone service..

Though I didn't state it, I didn't mean to infer that the Internet only would have come about had AT&T been broken up. I recognize that it was created outside of AT&T by DARPA, but my point is that the explosion of home connected users, DSL connections, ISPs providing services over the phone lines, etc. would not have come about had AT&T not been broken up, and in the aftermath of that breakup having the rules change in that now you can operate whatever you want to over the phone lines. As it was before, AT&T had control, and if they didn't approve of the machine accessing the phone line, then that access was illegal. If AT&T was still a monopoly and thus had that same level of control, would we be seeing VOIP now? I doubt it.

So the Internet may well have existed, but our access to it as a society would probably not be what it is today (or has been since 1994+).

Also monopolies exist to make sure that there never will be another monopoly in their field. I find it highly unlikely that AT&T would have allowed any one else to create another service (cellular in this case) that would supplant their own. Even if you say they had no control, I think that they would have. What good would a cell phone be if you couldn't call land based lines? AT&T had control, so its more likely they would have bought that competitor in their infancy or made their services non-interoperable.

But progress in anything does not happen when only one single-minded entity has control of something. Only when disruptive ideas are allowed to flourish is progress made.

One thing I am assuming is that you haven't read The Future Of Ideas. I'd be interested to know what you thought after you read it.

Hax.

• Q: Why is Amazon doing any of this?
• A: To make a buck.

From their perspective, a totally bogus but glowing review is fine, just as long as it will sell more books.

Amazon claims an impartiality that is totally lacking in practice, but I say they are shooting themselves in the foot--or maybe in the head. I think the people who most want to buy and read books are the same people who most strongly object to censorship. Actually the desire of those people for access to all of the data is likely to cause them to read more books from all angles. (And I really don't think the fans of the goddess of hate could actually be reading more than one book a year.)

Amazon's money-grubbing slanted policies have so damaged their credibility that I actively avoid buying anything from them (unless I really can't find another source--but unfortunately they are also abusing their market influence to become an increasingly monopolistic sole source).

His Books start at number 7 in the search.

Same old stuff by someone scared that Open Source means their livelihood is at stake.

Testing Computer Software

by Cem Kaner, Jack L. Falk, Hung Quoc Nguyen, Jack Falk, Hung Q. Nguyen

If you plan on doing this as a career I am sure you will encounter something by James Bach, IMO he is overated and a bit of an ass (sent me outside a classroom because I didn't have any questions for him?! So I came up with a lame question I already knew the answer to and proceeded to fall asleep for the rest of the lecture).

yes it does have a macro language. i haven't used it, but this book seems to know about them ... "OOoSwitch: 501 Things You Want to Know About Switching OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office" ... at bn.com

I see that Fallen Host by Lyda Morehouse is on the novel nomination list. This is great! I actually know Lyda, and her next book looks like it will be great! If you haven't read her LINK series, you need to start. They're very much like Gibson and Stevenson, but with an interesting twist. I expect most geeks who like Gibson and Stevenson novels will love the LINK series.

Ironically, Fallen Host is no longer being printed by the publisher. I guess due to declining sales, even though it's a Nebula Award nominee, and book #2 of a 4-book series. I can't find it on Amazon anymore. New copies aren't available on BN.com anymore, either, although they do list some used copies. Also check your local bookstores, including used bookstores.

No, the hardcover edition is out, but the paperback is still available at bn and at amazon.

Cheers

Try Journey Through Genius by Will Dunham.

It covers a sampling of many of the great theorems and proofs of mathematics in a form that anyone with high school math can follow, as well as giving interesting insights into the personalities of the mathematicians (where this can be known). Most of them were, um eccentric. It is nice to know that Euler at least was well adjusted, if you couldn't exactly call him normal.

Euclid is represented twice here: once for his proof of the Pythagorean theorm and once for his proof of the infinitude of primes.

What happened before ? See this work by Steven Brust.

Brust noticed that nobody ever talked about Lucifer's ethics and went from there. It's a very nice, if straightforward, story dealing with the rise of the conflict between the individual and the group with an emphasis on 'for the the good of the many some must sacrifice" (or be sacrificed).

And Remember if he had made the book exactly into a movie it would have been 100 hours and had long drawn out peroids that would be oh so boring.

Close. Unabridged versions of LOTR, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion will give you 11 hours for the Hobbit, 52 hours for LotR and some 14 hours for The Silmarillion. A total of about 77 hours, available here. Boring? Not even close. If you have a mp3 player in your car, just put it on 5 CD's (1 for each book) and enjoy your traficjams.

What they could also do is film it in 'real time'. It would then take several years, or if you just take the quest itself, about a year and a half, or so.

What drew me to the Hitchhikers Guide series?

For the uninitiated, go into any bookstore in America and look for the "Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide" - one volume, five+ books, $15. Cheap!

So .. corporate trainer?? is that the new code word for 'escort' in NYC??

You're an ass. No newsflash there, since that's something you (and everyone around you) already knows. Immature to boot.

You're also probably jelous of my girlfriend getting $2,000 a day to teach people at companies like Pfizer, CS First Boston, Merck, IBM and Astra Zenica how *not* to behave like 5 year olds. It's apparently not as easy as you might think! People in high power corporations can usually be pretty immature.

At any rate, I don't blame you for being jelous. I'm am too! I'd love to get that kind of money for what I do and I feel that I work much harder than she does.

But if you're serious about getting into her line of work, you can start by getting a PhD in Psychology, then working as a VP for a large bank for about 7 or 8 years before striking out on your own.

I knew I had a winner when she chatted me up on the subway because I was standing in front of her on the 6 train reading this book. A beautiful well spoken girl who can hang with me in a conversation about artificial intelligence? I don't blame you for wanting to be me!

Looks like I'll finally get to delve into Hacking the Xbox. I'm not willing to potentially compromise my main gaming box for a developing set of skills and competencies that I could acquire from this book. Not while the Xbox is at the $200 level. But at the $100 level I am. It seems like a really nice guide to reverse engineering other low-level stuff that could also possibly help me get more out of this book now that it's finally in print.

Looks like I'll finally get to delve into Hacking the Xbox. I'm not willing to potentially compromise my main gaming box for a developing set of skills and competencies that I could acquire from this book. Not while the Xbox is at the $200 level. But at the $100 level I am. It seems like a really nice guide to reverse engineering other low-level stuff that could also possibly help me get more out of this book now that it's finally in print.

I've only been traveling outside the US for a couple of years (mostly to Europe, but one trip to Hong Kong with the boyfriend). The article alludes to the Culture Shock series of books. I find them very helpful and recommend them very highly for both work and personal culture explanations.

Culture Shock Books from B&N

The strongest reason for having a limited government in the first place is that people have a right to do whatever they want as long as they don't harm anyone else. Religion has nothing to do with it.

Why do people have that right? Where does it come from? If it's simply a good idea someone thought up once, what's to stop someone else from having the idea that you don't have that "right"? The concept that there is a Higher Authority that believes in justice gives us an absolute standard from which to derive our rights. Without this, might makes right, for what reason would anyone have for not gaining as much to himself as he could? No one is going to take you to account for your actions, because no one in this world has enough power to stop you, and there is nothing after this world. The existence of God who has laws for us to follow radically alters the scenario.

Well, I'm an atheist and I don't abuse what power I've been entrusted with. You appear to be saying you would if you weren't afraid of hell. I guess that's just a moral difference between us.

First, I'm not saying that I would. But knowing what I do of human nature, I know there are many, many people that would. People are not perfect: we lie, cheat, steal, are impatient, rude, callous, and uncaring. We do it unintentionally, without even thinking. Children aren't taught to do these things, they happen naturally. It seems to be part of who we are. In Christianity, we call this the "sinful nature" we are born with. Even if you don't agree with the "spiritual-ese" language, you can agree that no one is perfect. Simply calling it "sin" is shorthand, if you will.

Second, I didn't say I was afraid of hell. If you define hell as separation from God, then I'd agree it's something I don't desire. I love God, and desire to be with Him. But I would disagree with your negative phrasing. People who say "Christians are just afraid of hell" have a fundamental misunderstanding of Christianity. It's not just a place of eternal fire and torment we'd rather not go to! It's the absence of a God we have a relationship with. Since Christians believe humans are spiritual beings designed to be in communion with God, being apart from that very thing for all of eternity would indeed be torment.

The behavior of christian political leaders in the past and present as well as that of televangelists and certain catholic priests conclusively proves that religion is not a protection against abuse of power.

I didn't say it was protection. It's cliche but true: Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. At least I know the moral goals a Christian aspires to. With an atheist, I don't know what the goals are, or even if there are any at all.

History disproves this. You won't see atheists launching crusades and burning witches. Even recently you have christian morons like George Bush Sr. saying that atheists "shouldn't be considered citizens". No, christians are no more or less trustworthy than anyone else.

False. History does prove it. You can think of some examples of religious zealotry (Christian and non-) run amuck, but there are also many examples of atheist and anti-religious zealotry. In fact, there have been more people killed by secular (atheistic) governments (Nazis killed millions of Jews, Stalin killed millions of dissenters, Christians murdered in China, Pol Pot and others in SE Asia) in the 20th century alone than by Christians in all twenty centuries together. This was addressed in What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?

There was a time when Europe was ruled by christianity. We call this period the Dark Ages.

I would make a distinction between Christianity and Christendom. Sitting in a church pew does not make one Christian

DS9 also did really well when it had to compete against Babylon 5.

Urban legend has it that J. Michael Straczynski went to Paramount trying to sell his idea for this innovate new space opera whose central focus was life aboard a space station. The way I've heard it told, the studio brass sat there nodding silently and appreciatively during the pitch session but ultimately said "Thanks, but No Thanks".

Then, mysteriously, a new show appeared featuring Star Trek themes and ...whaddya know! many spacefaring races mingling in intrigue and commerce on a space station! Go figure, what were the odds of something like that happening? Two shows with nearly identical scenarios hitting the air at roughly the same time? ;)

But to tell the truth the Star Trek folk were just doling out a bit of what they got back in the 60s (okay a bit of a stretch, but bear with me here). According to William Shatner in his book about the making of 60's series he told of how Roddenberry approached (I think it was CBS) trying to sell his "wagon train to the stars" (making an attempt to appeal the success of a show called Gunsmoke) to the execs there. One major selling point was how cheaply the show could be made because of his "similar worlds theory". The theory in question states that given the enormity of the universe there is a mathematically possibility that other worlds could have evolved similarly to the earth. That being the case, depictions of allien races could be achieved cheaply through inexpensive costuming techniques and alien landscapes could be achieved through location shoots. Like their Paramount counterparts of the 1990's, they sat there and said "Interesting, good, but ultimatly no thanks". Then...lo and behold look what hits the air before Roddenberry can get the okay to do Star Trek...