Slashdot Mirror

Has anyone bothered to see how the Grape Ape feels about all this? Did he protest against ape society, or was he a supporter in their vast human slave-trade machine?

Let us bring in the ideas by a man who has actually done some thing with legos. Eric Harshbarger. He has created the lego desk.I don't remember to many erector set desks. Eric has also managed to create many other wonderfully engineered pieces. I am sorry this gentleman feels he can blame the demise of British engineering on the lack of proper toys for kids. Besides I was always a Tinker toy person myself.

Now, you do need to be close to a transmitter (kind of like with the wireless internet thing) but they are all over the world. Everywhere. It's amazing how this thing has taken off. This guy named Marconi invented the whole thing in his basement, so he should get plenty of Slashdot cred.

Heck, like TCP/IP the protocol is totally open source, and it's easy to build your own transmitter or receiver. Heck, there is even a simple encryption scheme available.

But wait, there's more. With a simple hardware add on, you can enjoy interactive events and IM.

I tell you. This technology is here, and it is here to stay. Give it a chance. You might enjoy it.

I seem to remember that Weird Al has to get permission to do things like the star wars version of American Pie, but does not to do things like Fat.

You're wrong about Wierd Al... It's not hard to find these facts on the web with a google search...

Al not only had permission from Michael Jackson to do "Fat", but Michael -gave- him the "Bad" set to film the "Fat" video! Very cool.
http://www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/music /mu1208.php
http://www.dailyegyptian.com/fall00/09-29-00/freak .html
http://www.unb.ca/web/bruns/9900/issue9/entertainm ent/weirdal.html

And a quote from the Al man on Michael Jackson: "He is really a nice guy, very sweet and he let me do two parodies "Eat It" and "Fat.""

The game, I believe, is "Hard Drivin'" by Atari games.

(hmmm www.supercow.com is actually a dairy's website)

Funk this crap, the real fun is with the good ol' Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots...

Seriously, can you imagine Gendarme Ludovic Cruchot pulling off what you're implying?

That must be the French strategy... export lots of comical caricatures of your police and in the meantime build up your secret police into an international menace. Much like Canada.

=)

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Space Academy! OMG! Thank you! I have been trying to find the name of this show for YEARS!!! Everytime I ask someone if they remember a show in the late 70's, set in space/asteroid, I get blank stares!
Whew, I'm glad thats over. Now on to finding the Ultimate Question. :)

Later...

Salvage
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Andy Griffith + Sanford and Son
The Skinny: Imagine Matlock building a spaceship out of junk, flying it to the moon, salvaging space junk and using an ordinary fire extinguisher as a handy thruster for space walks. And yes, no episode was complete without some big-shot NASA official scoffing at Andy's home-spun spacecraft built with home-spun wisdom, only to get showed up at the end. One imagines a young Linus Torvalds watching this show, not conscious of how it will inspire him.

Yogi's Space Race
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Yogi Bear + Wacky Races/Laff-a-lympics + Disco fever of the same era
The Skinny: It had four segments, the two Star Wars-inspired ones being Space Race, which had the stable of Hanna-Barbera characters racing in space vehicles and Galaxy Goof-Ups, with Yogi and friends as some kind of space police who spent their off-hours goofing off at the local space disco. A cartoony attempt to swipe as much Star Wars momentum as possible -- I distinctly remember one episode where the bad guy was a Darth Vader rip-off assisted by an R2-D2 rip-off. One imagines George Lucas watching Yogi's space adventures and being inspired to create the Ewoks.

Galaxina
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten + The guy from those '70's Doritos commericals
The Skinny: The Infinity is a ship captained by the Doritos guy and maintained by the ultra-vixen android Galaxina, a robot with feelings. The Infinity crew is a randy bunch of sailors (There's a brothel scene in which the crew sing a song called "Porno Patrol" to the tune of "Bridge Over the River Kwai") and eventually Galaxina and a crewmember fall in love. I actually remember a line in which the guy says "Too bad you don't have a you-know-what," to which Galaxina responds "We can order one in the catalog." Kind of like Arthur C. Clarke's "predictions," except for cyberdildonics. One imagines Rick Berman (writer for the post-Shatner Star Trek series, whose hedonistic appetites are legendary among sci-fi fandom) watching this.

Quark
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Richard Benjamin + Mr. Spock + Mindy's Dad (from Mork and Mindy) + Buck Henry + Sanitation engineering
The Skinny: A sci-fi spoof created by Buck Henry. TV's first "Quark" is not the bar owner from Deep Space Nine, but Richard Benjamin as a garbage scow captain with a nitwit crew. In a tip of the dumpster to Star Trek, the science officer is an emotionless half-human/half-plant being (I remember him saying his species does not kiss, but rather pollenates. I am not making this up). There were a few Star Wars references too, including "The Source," which gave Quark power only if he believed in it, as well as a character named Obeemud, a wookie-like creature who was Quark's boss' side-kick, and a bumbling C3P0-ish android named Andy. If I recall, it never got past a half-dozen shows. This is probably one of Buck Henry's few bombs, but perhaps he was saving his creative energies for other things, such as Saturday Night's Live's "Lord and Lady Douchebag" skit (around the same era, if drug-and-age-addled memory serves). Commentary on science fiction and present-day stuff through a sci-fi lens with unintentionally hilarious results. One imagines a young John Katz watching every episode...twice.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Gil Gerard + Mel Blanc + Skin tight disco outfits
The Skinny: Would you leave your job to play opposite Seven of Nine? Gil Gerard left his job at a chemical engineering firm to play Buck Rogers, Earth's super special agent who often came to the aid of women in skin-tight outfits (this is the future, you know). Upped the cheese factor by getting Gary Coleman to play a child prodigy (a concept that Universal also used in Galactica 1980 with "Doctor Zee"). In later seasons, it tried to be more true to "real" SF with many Asimov references, most notably the character of (gasp) Admiral Asimov. It's the only TV show I recall in which Asimov's Laws of Robotics get metioned. The original formula was so good that Universal Studios recycled it as Knight Rider a few years later -- one imagines a young David Hasselhoff getting his jollies watching this show.

A very painful Carol Burnett show
(for the Tim Conway fan from an earlier posting)
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Tim Conway + Mark Hammill + Christmas
The Skinny: This is the only one for which I have no proof, but only a vague memory (any help would be appreciated). Santa Claus' sled gets abducted by an evil starship and Tim Conway (playing a Luke Skywalker parody), a "Walkie" and a garbage can-shaped droid (the R2D2 parody) attempt to stop the evil. The lame Star Wars jokes continue until Mark Hammill walks on set, bringing the Force -- the Los Angeles Police Force -- who arrest the actors in the skit for copyright infringement. One imagines a young ESR and RMS watching this, shocked at how Carol Burnett's attempt to modify the Star Wars story was crushed under the bootheel of a proprietary screenplay.

Well, writing this has cured my insomnia. Thank you and good night.