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I don't know their name, but they've already registered cbs.com.com...

The Amish (and I believe to a lesser extent, Mennonites in general) believe that you have to make a conscious and informed decision to be baptised and formally join their faith, so Rumspringa lets them have a taste of life on the outside. The majority usually decide to stay, but UPN had a reality TV show Amish in the City and for some reason, the four Amish that were featured all decided to leave the community. Probably had something to do with the fact that they put them up with a bunch of "English" in a big mansion, and got them doing various activities together.

Let's face it, UPN is not interested in programming for the type of audience who would watch Enterprise. Look at this week's schedule and judge for yourself. The overwhelming majority fall into one of three categories: urban themed comedy, reality based or wrestling.

Reality TV: I'm watching it, because it's often funnier or more exciting than scripted shows. I don't watch sitcoms anymore. The good reality shows have funnier one-liners and more interesting personalities than I'm going to find in the seventy-eighth season of "Will & Grace". The good reality shows' storylines are less predictable than most scripted shows, and the characters are often more interesting.

I'm really sick of people grouping all reality TV together and dismissing it as a lump. Just like with scripted TV, there are different types of reality shows of varying quality. Just because "According to Jim" is kind of lame, does that mean "Battlestar Galactica" isn't worth watching? Hardly. One is a sitcom, the other is a sci-fi drama. One is about pandering to the lowest common denominator, the other is about quality storytelling.

Some broad categories of reality TV are Competitive, How-To, and Candid. Examples of each type would be "Survivor," "Trading Spaces," and "Real World." Each category has its good and bad shows, and there are enough out there to suit any taste. But if I can recommend a few for the reality-show skeptic:
- America's Next Top Model: come for the beautiful girls, stay for the wacky cast of judges who steal the show
- The Amazing Race: travel around the world, it's one of the best-edited shows of any kind on TV right now
- Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee: it's supposed to be serious, but it's funnier than any sitcom; this lady just ain't right

So, a girl from California beats a robot. How is this news?

What is ON UPN? Can you name ANYTHING besides Enterprise?

All of Us
America's Next Top Model
Eve
Girlfriends
Half & Half
Kevin Hill
One on One
Missy Elliot
Cuts
Veronica Mars
!!!WWE Smackdown!!!

UPN... We make FOX look good!

It looks like he's giving Professor Kevin Warwick a run for his money...

Next step: interfacing with computers using mind control!

To be honest, are there any other shows on UPN other than soap-opera for nerds and soap-opera for rednecks?

It's not all THAT bad.
It's not like there are other useless channels out there.

People that accept these will likely believe it will turn them into Jake 2.0. Sadly, it's more likely to turn them into human RFID tags.

Plus Smackdown! Or is it RAW? Anyway, one of them is on UPN.

Is that kind of stereotype really that prevalent (or is it just accurate)? All of the NSA folks I've met (not many, mind you) were less shadowy than my mailman.

Is it just another case of life imitating art? ;-)

Using the term "art" extremely loosely, of course.

Spotting NSA agents should be pretty darn easy according to Jake 2.0,
just look for the pretty boy or the hot chick.

Think about it, eventually we'll have a "Universal Planetary Network," or UPN for short.

Anyone who thinks there is no downside to this technology is kidding themselves.

The musical episode was his baby, and I have to admit it was one of my favorites. Alyson Hannigan (Willow) begged Wheadon not to do it: she's not exactly a great singer, and if you watch the episode you'll notice that she only has about two lines. (Amber Benson, and Anthony Stewart Head, on the other hand, were surprisingly good).

Actually - I seem to recall that it was one of the actors who originally joked about doing a musical episode, which caused Wheadon's eyes to glaze over. He obsessed about it for a while, then shocked everyone by announcing that it was gonna happen.

Wheadon as involved in Angel by a long shot. But I have to agree with you that Charsima Carpenter is indeed very... talented.

Speak for yourself, man -- my role model is Willow Rosenberg. Given that she is a fictional Jewish lesbian witch who almost ended the world, which doesn't really describe anything about me, that might be strange, but then again, she certainly ain't "stupid".

On a more serious note, the "Dudes" just get most of the attention. Films and series are full of role models that do the right thing, stand up for what they believe, and work their but off. Star Trek NG and DS9 come to mind; it is exactly after the TV producers left the intelligent, good-people format (Enterprise, anyone?) that the viewers left. "Dudes" are good for the press and the Republicans to rant about, but look at the ratings for what teens really like to see. "Neo" from The Matrix is "not too bright", as we are told in the first part, but is he a bad role model?

I submit the following:

The Pitts

The Mullets

Need I keep digging to prove my point? OK. So I haven't seen any shows of "The Mullets" yet, but, do you half to? As for The Pits... I'd *LOVE* to know who got blown to get that show on the air...

For those that are still with me and wondering where I'm going... I'm stating that there is already an abundance of CRAP on TV -- even before the ability to skip past commercials is commonplace (I mean, come on, ho wmany people really skip commercials, or even have the ability to, outside of slashdot?) Right now the networks are just blowing smoke up our asses to have yet more technology taken away from us. Nothing more.

anyway.. back to work...

Nope, sorry, he already has a bad sciffy series. If it weren't for that, though, you would be right.

This kind of information is really crucial to get a grip on before Hammer arrives

UPN's website for Buffy reduces the characters to similar titles.

The Slayer, The Witch, The Loyal, The Key, The Bloody, The Demon, The Sorcereress, and the Watcher.

But I doubt many people would argue that Buffy's characters are two-dimensional because of that.

Anybody have more than four local UHF stations?

Last time I checked, Las Vegas had more than a dozen. Only three or four of them are carried by the local cable system; you get to break out the rabbit ears if you want to tune in the rest. (When UPN moved to a different station a few years ago, Cox didn't bother carrying the new channel for a year or two after the move. If you wanted to watch Voyager, you had an antenna.)

Instead, petition UPN to pick it up. They have a history of picking up other networks' shows (Buffy, Roswell, etc.) and this one would fit in well with its lineup.

The address:
UPN Entertainment
11800 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025

IMHO, this is the show's best hope.

I went to the UPN website this morning to see when Enterprise would begin airing. Anyway, the first page displays these words: "By entering this site you are agreeing to the Terms of Use." The part I found funny? They use a meta refresh to send you into the site.

Maybe somebody there has freakin' clue! I might actually have to watch this show. Go to their site site , then their "988.2" alt database section. Then for instance go to the "988.28" white hat/black hat section. (It's all sort of a weird flash site, you'll have to wade through it).

Check out these links there:

The Hacker Quarterly (i.e., 2600)
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Freedom Downtime (free Kevin page)
Attrition.org

There are even others. All and all actually interesting links. This leads me to a question:
&nbsp
WHICH ONE OF YOU BASTARDS HAS STARTED INFORMING ON US TO HOLLYWOOD!! YOU HAVE SOME ANSWERING TO DO!! ;-)

Seriously, if they actually are seeking the advice of computer geeks instead of graphic designers, this show might be sort of cool, in a crappy hollywood sort of way. Anybody seen it?

Those who don't know what "Level 9" TV show is about: Check out its home page on UPN -- http://www.upn.com/shows/levelnine/airdis.html

It requires Flash I think.

Actually, it doesn't appear that Home Deopt "locks you in" with the standard whack-a-mole javascript crap. It appears to have several redirects, but I can hold my back button down (Netscape) and get back to familiar territory - /.

Top9 mentioned UPN as an offender. I tried it...while casual clicking of the back button will more than likely keep you on UPN's site, if you hold down Backspace (IE), you'll break loose. You'll probably end up going back through dozens of previously-viewed pages when you do this, though. (It'd be like putting your car up on blocks in your garage, firewalling the throttle with the tranny in Reverse, and kicking the blocks out from under the car, at which time you'd crash through the garage door and probably slam into the garage across the street. :-) )

_/_
/ v \
(IIGS( Scott Alfter (remove Voyager's hull # to send mail)
\_^_/

The question is, how does observing the answer to a question posed to a quantum computing device change the questioner? If you are a subscriber to the many-worlds inperpretation (MWI), you might surmise that one questioner is created for each possible outcome. Imagine there being two Schrodingers, one for each cat.

I suppose the nice thing about science fiction that is based on the MWI is that it tends to be logically consistent about time travel, while remaining interesting. An example of a fiction that isn't logically consistent: 7 days. One where non-paradoxical time travel leads to fatalism: White Dragon, by Anne McCaffrey. Simon Hawke's Time Wars series, while not being wonderfully written, are at least logically consistent, due to their reliance on the MWI.