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- A wm2xmcd utility is now included in the xmcd distribution that converts WorkMan CD database files to xmcd format.

Not if you don't care about the population. Recall the Centauri bombardment of the Narn Homeworld in B5 ?? Similar effect, but add an Ice Age as well. . . .

The interesting part is that Legion provides tools that resemble some parts of CORBA, whilst Spring provided tools that grew into CORBA, whilst Sprite provided journalling and cache tools that are essentially what journalling and cache servers provide today.

In a sense, what has happened is that an OS of the 1970s, Unix, has been shown sufficiently malleable that it could integrate in concepts from the research projects of the 1970s and 1980s.

Unfortunately, the 1990s were not a terribly good time for OS research; sort of like The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari of the OS world. There was this minor problem of Microsoft "buying away" whatever serious OS researchers that they could...

Is it my imagination, or does the FIN sound a lot like the Blackwatch organization from Babylon 5?

What you had initially said was half-right. The show DID mutate a bit, but the end of the Shadow War was exactly where it was meant to be from the start.

The reclaiming of Earth from 'Shadow puppets' was supposed to take a bit longer than it did, a little into Season 5, with the openner of S5 being Sheridan's rescue from the Earth prison.. Follow?
The end of S5 would be the brink of the telepath war, I think..

The reason for the shake-up was that TNT threatened to kill the show at the end of season 4. JMS took this very seriously, and tried to tie off as many loose ends in S4, to not leave the audience hanging too badly. Then when TNT renewed contract on B5 for the 5th season, the plot was prematurely completed, and so there was need for filler at the beginning of S5.

S5 was supposed to focus more on the troubles of the new 'Republic', with the Byron thread starting much earlier, probably towards the end of S4.

But the Great War ended in the middle of the series for good reason, so the younger races would have to grow up a bit, and we'd get to see it.

You really ought to visit The Lurker's Guide for the back-story, analysis and 'Everything you ever wanted to know about Babylon 5, but were afraid to ask'. :)

For all new to B5, those who want a plot archive and insider/behind the scenes tid-bits, visit:

The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5

This is probably THE best fan site out there, with plenty of links, back-plot, production info, yadda-yadda... Well worth the click.

For the rec, I'm a HUGE fan of B5. It's a brilliant plot, even though it does tend to lean a bit heavy on Tolken. (Then again, Tolken leans on the Illiad, so NYAH!)

B5 is the only sci-fi show with believable people, alien aliens, characters screwing up because of their faults, the good guys losing, people getting hurt - and staying hurt for several episodes, warm and touching moments, hillarious character banter, deeply developed personalities, teddy bears shoved out of air-locks, and an actual philosopy.

The cheesiest line on B5 beats most of the profound crap on ST:xxx. "Get that cheese to sick-bay" my ass! There is no techno-babble about reversing the polarity if the sub-ionic Heisenberg compensators or any such crap. People hit computers to make them work...

Ah... ramble-ramble... I think I'll go dust of my VCR, to make sure I can get those two episodes I'm missing. Fasten, then zip!!

Sorry about the formatting above.

That site would be:

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html

It's an amazing trove of information.

Gordon.

Simple version: space station Babylon 5 is a United Nations in space. Aliens from different worlds arrive to coexist peacefully, which usually fails to happen. Stuff blows up with increasing frequency.

Thematic details: We start with fairly standard SF stories with a couple of intriguing subplots about the history of the B5 universe and its characters (Season 1).

We then get the table kicked out from under us as a couple of the major races go to war and we realize just who's pulling the strings (Season 2).

The good guys and the string-pullers begin to encounter each other in earnest. In the process the status quo changes cataclysmically for the good guys, and they find themselves warring on more than one front. Meanwhile, some we thought were bad become good, and vice versa (Season 3).

Everything comes to a head, and I mean everything (Season 4).

Time to pick up the pieces -- what is the universe like after a major war's end? Meanwhile, a repressed minority begins to flex its muscle, and a new world order slowly emerges (Season 5).

For info on just about everything about the series, be sure to visit The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5.

Okay, since I very much like B5, I'll take this one.

"TKO" pretty much stands alone.

"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" also does, but it covers a million years and does tie in the fifth season, the Rangers, ISN, and everything else.

And although it does not stand alone, the one episode that stands out more than any other is of course, "Grey 17 Is Missing", since even JMS was embarassed by how the Zarg came out. ("As for the Zarg, that's also one of those things that didn't come off visually as I'd wanted.")

Of course, last time I checked, having two or three episodes out of five years that can pretty much stand on their own is a feat worth mentioning, which is why I am a Babylon 5 fan.

Okay, since I very much like B5, I'll take this one.

"TKO" pretty much stands alone.

"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" also does, but it covers a million years and does tie in the fifth season, the Rangers, ISN, and everything else.

And although it does not stand alone, the one episode that stands out more than any other is of course, "Grey 17 Is Missing", since even JMS was embarassed by how the Zarg came out. ("As for the Zarg, that's also one of those things that didn't come off visually as I'd wanted.")

Of course, last time I checked, having two or three episodes out of five years that can pretty much stand on their own is a feat worth mentioning, which is why I am a Babylon 5 fan.

Okay, since I very much like B5, I'll take this one.

"TKO" pretty much stands alone.

"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" also does, but it covers a million years and does tie in the fifth season, the Rangers, ISN, and everything else.

And although it does not stand alone, the one episode that stands out more than any other is of course, "Grey 17 Is Missing", since even JMS was embarassed by how the Zarg came out. ("As for the Zarg, that's also one of those things that didn't come off visually as I'd wanted.")

Of course, last time I checked, having two or three episodes out of five years that can pretty much stand on their own is a feat worth mentioning, which is why I am a Babylon 5 fan.

Its complex; keep watching. If after the episode "And the Sky Full of Stars" you haven't found you like it, feel free to stop, but give it a chance to that point. (its the episode where Sinclair is captured, drugged and has his mind probed.) The Lurkers guide is the best place for information: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/

"The Geometry of Shadows" was the episode with the technomages. (Talk about hackers... they're everything hackers -- physics, computers, space flight,...)

It was "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars", and yes, it was good.

Personally, I really liked "Severed Dreams". Delenn's speech was moving to more than the bad guys.

Of course, then there's G'Kar's voiceover at the end of season three in "Z'ha'dum", which I actually had on my desk at work.

And of course, "Confessions and Lamentations" was the most wrenching episode of anything I have ever seen. The feeling in Delenn when the doors opened to show her there with nobody left alive has haunted me ever since.

No other series has ever had a moment burn itself so deeply into my mind as Babylon 5, and that is why it is significant.

It was "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars", and yes, it was good.

Personally, I really liked "Severed Dreams". Delenn's speech was moving to more than the bad guys.

Of course, then there's G'Kar's voiceover at the end of season three in "Z'ha'dum", which I actually had on my desk at work.

And of course, "Confessions and Lamentations" was the most wrenching episode of anything I have ever seen. The feeling in Delenn when the doors opened to show her there with nobody left alive has haunted me ever since.

No other series has ever had a moment burn itself so deeply into my mind as Babylon 5, and that is why it is significant.

It was "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars", and yes, it was good.

Personally, I really liked "Severed Dreams". Delenn's speech was moving to more than the bad guys.

Of course, then there's G'Kar's voiceover at the end of season three in "Z'ha'dum", which I actually had on my desk at work.

And of course, "Confessions and Lamentations" was the most wrenching episode of anything I have ever seen. The feeling in Delenn when the doors opened to show her there with nobody left alive has haunted me ever since.

No other series has ever had a moment burn itself so deeply into my mind as Babylon 5, and that is why it is significant.

It was "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars", and yes, it was good.

Personally, I really liked "Severed Dreams". Delenn's speech was moving to more than the bad guys.

Of course, then there's G'Kar's voiceover at the end of season three in "Z'ha'dum", which I actually had on my desk at work.

And of course, "Confessions and Lamentations" was the most wrenching episode of anything I have ever seen. The feeling in Delenn when the doors opened to show her there with nobody left alive has haunted me ever since.

No other series has ever had a moment burn itself so deeply into my mind as Babylon 5, and that is why it is significant.

Season 4 was supposed to end with Sheridan in prison (Intersection in Real Time).

Most of season 5 was supposed to be about the Earth civil war, probably ending midseason. Check out The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 for more information.

Actually, doesn't Delenn have a Croatian / Yugoslavian accent (born in Zagreb, Croatia, according to Lurker's Guide.

In the Divided Loyalties episode of the second season of Babylon 5, there was a passing reference to a newspaper that was customized for each person's tastes. An interesting idea, as long as my custom choices were not being sold to some telemarketer every three or four days.

Personally, I would choose every comics section, the local restaurant reviews, real estate listings, coupons and not much else.

Aside to the Courier Journal: I stopped buying your newspaper after you reduced your comics pages. Before your merger with The Louisville Times, there were two full pages of comics every day, and a full eight pages of color comics on Sunday. Now, you have maybe a page?

Briefly, this notion of community that the author argues is part of evolution is supported by Richard Dawkins analysis of the evolution of the DNA in "The Selfish Gene" (http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/selfish.h tm).

Most notably is the notion of the "Prisoner's Dilemma", which shows that the most effective path for success of a gene (or of an entire organism or society) is co-operation. Nice explanation and applet at http://www.midwinter.com/~piaw/p risoner/prisoner.htm.

Most people commonly think that the only way is strong competition and the "survival of the fittest", when in fact there is so much evidence against this.

The computer community and the whole 'open-source thang' has always seemed to be in tune with this. Thankfully.

It has to be real, because I saw it in In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
---

I picked up "A Canticle for Leibowitz" after a recommendation from JMS (Babylon 5 creator)... It's almost like a retelling of the dark ages of Western civilization when the monks ... spent centuries collecting and hiding manuscripts and preserving knowledge for future generations.

Very interesting. There is an episode of Babylon 5 entitled, "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars", which includes a segment about this exact same thing, nearly verbatim.

If you read the page linked to for the episode, you will find JMS came up with this idea independently, and then, on an unrelated project, discovered both the dark age connection and the Canticle connection.

Great minds think alike, I guess.

This will probably be moderated down as unrelated, but it fits this thread

I've submitted stories about it, here at slashdot, and they haven't put them up. Babylon5 has been getting the bad end of the stick in relation to TNT.. aparently TNT wants more sex, violence, and other wrestling/cowboy related stuff.

The first episode was horrible but half of that is TNT's fault.

I kinda compare crusade to the first season of B5, kinda crappy but can see it as a build up to something good.

Check out The lurker's guide for more info.

Have fun

Only the pilot movie was rendered by a network of Amiga 3000s (using screamernet) with a MS-DOS machine with a 1 GB harddrive acting as the fileserver. (that was a lot in 1993-94)
Lightwave was used all the time though. Later software appeaeds on Wintel before Amiga, and nowadays hardly at all.

See http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/mak ing/effects.html