Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Segwait, Farscape, Leg-pulling
You knew this had to be too good to be true. Joe Ryan from AmericanTower.com writes: "Please note that the information posted Wednesday regarding sites American Tower has for sale is not accurate. American Tower Corporation has a limited number of surplus towers for sale. The list of sites can be accessed through our sites for sale list at http://www.americantower.com/mainweb/SitesForSale.asp. These are the only towers that are for sale. Please also note that these Surplus sites are sold on a strictly "as is-where is."
Thanks for the correction.
If the site you are inquiring about is not on the "Sites For Sale" list, then it is not for sale."
Despite all the lobbying, the wait is on. dgreno writes "Like many other Slashdot readers, I stations signed up with Amazon.com to be notified when the Segway Human Transporter would be available for sale. Today Amazon sent me an email which included the following, "We've recently learned from our supplier that the item you requested to be notified about, Segway Human Transporter (also known as "Ginger" or "IT"), will not be available in the foreseeable future." I guess the sidewalks are safe for a while longer."
Don't they like devoted fans?
$nyper writes "I just wanted to let everyone know that there is major backlash against the Sci-Fi channel from fans about the
cancellation of Farscape. They appear to have miscalculated the Fans. For the past few days Sci-Fi's main office has been inundated with faxes, e-mails, and phone calls to keep the show alive for its 5th season. CNN Headline news also ran a story on the effort yesterday. What it boils down to is that at $1.5 million USD per episode the greatest science-fiction show on television is too expensive for Sci-Fi to produce. Even the top
Executive at the Sci-Fi channel (Bonnie Hammer, Executive Vice President and General
Manager), which is one of Farscape's biggest fans is currently only operating in figure head mode and is being made to keep quiet. Most think she would speak out in favor of the show but is worried about the status of her job at the moment. If you have any questions about what you can do to help out, just pop over to
Farscape World for the best information.
There is also a website setup for detailed up to the minute information about
the struggle to save Farscape over at the main Save
Farscape site including information being supplied under the table y a
Sci-Fi channel mole. :)
After all the coverage Sci-Fi has stopped the construction crews assigned to tear down the sets and have re-entered
negotiations regarding the show. The Jim Henson company that is responsible for the show's creation is also currently courting executives from Showtime and UPN about moving the show to another network for the 5th and future seasons."
This will not be made into a Dummies book for a few years yet. dsyu writes "Follow-up to a previous article -- the good folks at the X-Box Linux Project have posted step-by-step instructions on how to install SuSE 8 on your XBox."
The Nigerian Spam saga wends ever onward. An anonymous coward writes "'Mike Aba' and 'Obi Azuka' are the fake names used by a Nigerian criminal who tried to defraud me. As soon as I read the "DEAR FRIEND" of the first e-mail, I knew it was a scam, but for fun I decided to mislead the criminal into believing that I was falling for his scam. You can read the exchange of e-mails here. This type of fraud is known as the Nigerian Fee scam. Unfortunately, gullible people do fall for this scam. Hopefully this page will alert more people and make criminals like "Mike" less successful."
This Register article says so.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
If you like Farscape, it is easy to show your support for the show by going to Save Farscape. You can help by doing something as simple as logging on to irc.scifi.com and lurking in #farscape. It's not too late for Farscape. We are having an impact. This is a populist movement and you can be a part of it.
Peace out.
Amazon goofed up, there's actually no new news regarding segways and when they'll be available.
Howto here.
Latest CNN story says that "While it will still be a year to 18 months before consumers can purchase the Segway,"
So it looks like this is legit. What could be going wrong? Testing poorly in marketing? Needs to be redesigned to be more sexy, or easier to learn how to use?
I'm a regular of the #farscape channel on irc.scifi.com, and it has been incredible. Here's a java chat link for the lazy. Random stars and makers of the show have been showing up there at least once a day, sometimes several visits throughout the day, to give encouragement to the fans. The channel grew to consistently hold hundreds of users, maxing out at 700 at a time. Here's a quick rundown of some of the news converage that we've gotten:
E! OnlineTV Guide (again)
CNN
Wired
BBC
Its turning out to be a story not just about a bunch of SciFi geeks crying about a lost show, but a protest against corporations directing culture through actions they don't have to justify. I mean, they killed their #2 show after having already made the commitment to the year. I don't consider myself the protesting type, especially over a TV show... but I wrote a letter, linked to it from my site and sent a few emails because I think the people who make and watch the show aren't out of line to demand what was promised to them.
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
"Jeremiah" is pretty good, too. And it's done by the guy who made Babylon 5, to boot.
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
I don't know about SG doing "significantly" better. The show had a large following from the movie and the TV series which was shown on broadcast TV.
Well, let's see... Since it's debut, it's been the highest rated series on Sci-Fi each week, and set the record (2.0) for Sci-Fi for an episode with its finale a couple weeks back (Farscape did have the record at 1.9 for its finale last year). The season's average rating has been 1.7, which is up 42% from when Farscape had the same slot last year. Plus Stargate's rating has been growing each week, which is always seen as a positive.
Sure, being an established series helps, but when you enter your 6th year and lose a major cast member and change networks (with a smaller budget), you face different struggles. Stargate has done so well that they're considering doing a seventh season, when the original plan was to end with this series, and try to launch a spin-off and possibly a movie.
According to this article on news.com the Amazon email about the Segway was inaccurate:
t op
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-957746.html?tag=fd_
As seen in the Excel Spreadsheet
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I also got this e-mail
Greetings from Amazon.com.
You recently received an e-mail from us regarding the Segway Human
Transporter (also known as "Ginger" or "IT"). This e-mail was sent
accidentally by an automated system and the information in it is
incorrect.
In fact, there is no new information on Segway's
availability. Consumer versions of Segway Human Transporters are
currently being piloted in various communities throughout the U.S.
The Segway HT is expected to be released to the general consumer
market in 2003.
We apologize for the confusion. We will keep your e-mail address on
our list of customers who wish to be notified about this item.
Sincerely,
Amazon.com Customer Service
http://www.amazon.com
Forget the ratings issue. (they damaged the show
by moving the timeslot)
Forget the success of SG-1. (Farscape viewers
killing time watching SG-1 until Farscape comes
on)
The important thing is, they took an escape clause
out of their contract to get out of season 5
while the show was still drawing a huge crowd.
They moved the show to 10pm and that destroyed
viewership with fans that have social lives.
They effectively mismanaged the hell out of
the show, then backed out of their season 5
commitment when they tried to demand a lower
amount of money for the show, and EMTV said
no. Despite what anybody thinks, the show has
at least 1 million viewers in the USA alone,
and countless fans overseas. Recent numbers
are starting to make it look like even the
nielsen numbers are wrong (like that's never
happened before) and there are probably even
more fans. Also, it's looking like at least
50 percent of those fans are women. And I'm not
making this stuff up. This was reported on
CNN Headline news 3 days in a row.
How hard would it be for them to actually
try to figure out who their viewing audience is,
attract sponsors based on that audience, and
make a ton of money? Not very hard at all.
Especially now that due to massive amount of
national, and international coverage, interest
in the show will be higher than it's ever been.
They'd be idiots to let this kind of opportunity
to slip by them. They couldn't hope for better
publicity than this for a show. The good news is
there are several other interested parties that
KNOW the type of advertiser dollars that can
be made off this show. To quote Reney at
CNN Headline News:
"College educated, professions, typical incomes $50,000 - $150,000. Technologically inclined, and extremely computer literate. I would think that advertisers would jump all over that."
And my favorite quote:
"But Nina Lump is talking, she is the web mistress of the Save Farscape website at Farscape.wdsection.com. I spoke with her today and she said that site and a related one have had over 600,000 hits since yesterday"
And that's just the net savvy viewers. I
personally blanketed the area I live in with
500 flyers today. I hit video stores, I hit
skateshops, gas stations, malls, you name it.
Most of the people I talked to were NOT on the
net, and most of the people I talked to did
not know the show had been cancelled.
The point
is that SciFi said they'd carry the 4th and 5th
season, they mismanaged the hell out of the show,
they backed out of their 5th season obligation,
and they were not going to tell anybody until
march. There are plenty of people saying some
genuinely misguided things about what's going
on here. I recommend you all take the time
to read the information at http://www.savefarscape.com
before making guesses
about what's REALLY going on.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
The US Secret Service has some more information about these scamsters. In the good old days, they would approach their victims using snail-mail with impressive letterheads. Now, they just spam everyone!
"American Tower may not be selling too many of those sites, they're not exactly honest in saying "these are the only towers that are for sale." They should qualify that to be the only towers that they are selling. "
Isn't that like calling a car salesman a liar when he tells you that they don't have a certain model and you reply "Well it's for sale SOMEWHERE!"
I actually have gotten in touch with them. Their problem is that the link in the original story is a link to the map of EVERY site American Tower owns, not just the surplus ones they were selling. Oh, I'm sure they will sell you one of those non surplus towers - but your gonna pay a shitload more than $25K, since they are working towers and American Tower makes money off them.
These are cash on the barrelhead, WYSIWYG, no deposit no return transactions. Demo the tower because you don't want to pay for the upkeep of the signal lights? Do it yourself. Find some surplus equipment that you want out of the bunker? Better start lifting weights.
If you're still interested, download the spreadsheet, then go to Mapquest and plug in the latitude and longitude. Most of these are in the MOFN, and there towers aren't tall enough to be useful, so that's why they are selling them as surplus.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson