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."
Did someone finally figure out that very few people would be willing to pay so much for the product?
Did someone finally figure out that those who are most likely to use it, those without a car, usually don't have the 3000 to pony up for one of these things? (Excepting a few people in Boston and NYC, but the sidewalks are so crowded as it is! not to mention trying to take it on a subway...)
funny sure, but did he not commit a felony by providing the 'fake passport'?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Farscape is one of the greatest sci-fi series ever, in the same tier as The Outer Limits, Star Wars (Eps 4-6), B5, Star Trek (original series and Next Gen), Hitchhiker's Guide, and Doctor Who.
Each has a somewhat unique point, but Farscape's was most off-kilter: the characters live in a realm defined more by the fantastic than the scientific. The characters are of strange colors and shapes, there are robots and sentient bacteria and living ships, and an almost magical feel permeates the screen.
Farscape is a sci-fi show that should be destined to be a classic, and the reason why is because it focused much much more on the fiction than the science.
I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
Real life is underrated.
I don't really think these are people you want to fuck with. There are stories floating around about people who were beated or killed after travelling to meet these scammers. I wouldn't be surprised if they had ties to organized crime.
One thing they do not seem to be is stupid. Sure, they suck at english, but they aren't going to ever give you their real info. I'm sure they get some patsy to go get the money transfers for them, using high quality fabricated documents such as the ones linked to. They probably wind up scamming those people too.
This guy has written an e-book that is supposedly about his experience baiting the scammers and going as far as to actually follow it through to the end. I have not read it.
You have to think for a minute... If these guys were really that stupid as to give you real info about them just because you trail them along for a little while, don't you think law enforcement would have stopped them by now?
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I'm not sure when you cancelled Showtime, but Odyssey 5 is a good sci-fi show. Hell, my wife is addicted to it, which says a lot. I've never seen Farscape, so I can't compare, but O5 certainly has my attention.
In fact, I've been wondering why I haven't seen more about it on Slashdot. Perhaps no one knows about it, or maybe it truly is disliked by the sci-fi crowd.
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.
Many people don't watch Sci Fi, or don't have access to it, but were willing to follow their show to a new network.
Farscape has no such advantage, and moreover, has virtually no exposure outside the Sci Fi Channel. It does not help that SFC did nothing to promote Farscape, and has not even deigned to show reruns regularly.
Farscape can hardly build a larger fanbase when it is not even being broadcast by SFC for half the year, and only available once a week the other half.
I'm a big Farscape fan, but at $1.5 million per episode, I'm surprised that the Sci-Fi channel could keep it going for 1 season, let alone 4. I mean, looking at Sci-Fi's other proprietary shows - First Wave and Lexx - you would think they had a minimal budget. I'm quite surprised by this figure.
I don't know much about TV show production costs, though, so (is this)/(is this not) a lot of money for one episode? I get the feeling that it really is, though all the stuff in the show is evidence of where it goes.
Realistically, I don't think the advertisements during Farscape have been pulling in anything close to $1.5 million. The rest has to be coming from them, so no wonder they want to cancel it.
I've noticed there are several types of networks. There's the type that just runs programs to make bucks. There's nothing wrong that -- businesses are created to make money and so people can make a living. Then there's the networks that are run by people that like what they're doing. For example, TVLand. Maybe I'm wrong, but when one of the VPs of a network writes books about the types of shows his network airs, I figure he's into the product. Oxygen seems similar -- it's focused on women and it seems like the people involved with the network are in tune with what they show. This type of network has an integrated and obvious image that viewers can identify with -- they will often leave their TV on that network or go to it first before checking other networks.
USA, on the other hand, to me, never seemed to be about anything but profit. They seemed to pick shows only for ratings, not because the people running the network were interested in a particular type of show or because there was any emotional motivation -- all they ever seemed to care about was profit. This kind of network, at least to me, always seemed to have no other identity or image other than "Aren't we cool with these cool shows? We've got the top ten," or something like that.
While Sci-Fi has an image, it has seemed to me for a long time that the network was about money, and nothing else. That the people behind it were doing SF, but that the endeavor was more about money than the subject matter. I really liked The Invisible Man -- for once there was a show about an invisible man that wasn't contrived -- it didn't always boil down to "We're in trouble and the only thing that can save us is invisibility." It actually had interesting characters and a complex world. I understand it was making the numbers in the ratings, but still canned.
I stopped watching Sci-Fi years ago EXCEPT for shows I could record and watch later. I got fed up with 4 minute commercial breaks. I was frustrated with watching Hercules or Xena re-runs (I didn't watch them when they were first aired). Remember, both shows have an overall story arc and the characters change. Sci-Fi started with airing episodes in reverse order and, later, when they were airing the shows daily, they'd cut them off at the end of the quarter when their schedule changed -- without reaching the series end. When they started re-airing the shows, I started watching again and -- guess what? They cut them off before the end of the series and at the end of the quarter again!
If these guys (the Sci-Fi staff) were running NBC in the late 1960s, let's face it, Star Trek would have been killed after 2 seasons (I know -- with the 3rd season, that may have been a blessing!). Look at other classics -- not SF, but Dick Van Dyke was cancelled after year 1, then the producers talked them into keeping the series and it had a great 5 year run overall and was as profitable as a TV show can be. Decisions like this can not always be made based on the numbers, but at Sci-Fi, it is, has been, and always will be about nothing but the numbers.
I stopped watching Sci-Fi several years ago. A friend talked me into I-Man, and let me see his tapes of the show each week. I do watch Stargate, but when that ends, I won't bother with Sci-Fi. I'm tired of 4 minute commercial breaks. I'm tired of getting into a show and seeing the re-runs cut short. I'm tired of getting into a show and seeing it cancelled before it's ready to go.
USA networks doesn't care about any show. All they care about is the bottom line. I've seen episodes of Farscape and find it impressive, but I'll be damned if I get involved with any more shows on Sci-Fi. It's clear to me they dont' give a tinker's dam about the viewers/fans. Only the buck.
Farscape will be much better off if it can move to Showtime and be the 3rd show for Sci-Fridays.
"Futurama only survived because Matt Groening created it. It was never very original, inventive nor groundbreaking"
It was no less 'ground-breaking' than Farscape. In both cases we have recycled plot lines, cliched romance, absurd situations, a setting where everything in space is weird for no real interesting reason, and poorly animated creatures.
The difference is that Futurama is a parody. Heh.
"Derp de derp."
The problem with discussions like this is the potential to sink to a simple flame-fest. This discussion is especially prone to such degradation when one favorite is attacked ("I was rather happy when I heard of [Farscape's] demise in the first place") and another is placed upon a pedestal ("And Star Trek is simply way out of Farscape's league"). Further idolization with such pretentious statements such as "Star Trek has its entire universe devoted to exploring humanity itself" sets one favorite on such a high pedestal that it makes a really tempting target. But I'll avoid the temptation.
On the other hand, I do agree with some of the observations on what makes some of the mentioned SciFi shows interesting. It might be worth noting that none of these shows are without criticism. But each show does have some appeal - whether it appeals to you personally or not is a matter of personal taste.
So the question was asked: what is appealing about Farscape?
Star Wars has lost its impact between the older and newer movies even as it has held on to its theme of "good vs. evil". What it didn't hold on to was its core heros. The first trilogy was not about individual characters, but rather a group thrown together by chance. Each character contributes to the bigger-than-oneself events around them and, ultimately, challenge an Empire.
Farscape also has a core group of disparate characters thrown together by fate. And this group also challenges greater powers than themselves. Though in this case, our central core of heroes aren't always agreeable witch each other. And while it is sometimes a frustrating plot device - it also has a ring of truth for all but the most structured group environments.
I also find the human character Crichton interesting. The character goes from being one of the top in his field (scientist and astronaut) to fish-out-of-water baggage. He then adapts to the oddity around him. Eventually, he gains the respect of his fellow fugitives and begins to thrive in his new surroundings. In effect, Crichton adapts to and overcomes the insane situation he is thrust in to... with a bit of irreverent insanity of his own.
It might be worth noting that the Farscape world itself has some appeal. There is a different look to the show. Often animatronics and puppets are used to give the Farscape world a more alien feel. Subtle oddities such as biological ships and the human-like Sebatian race's deadly susceptibility to heat add to a fantastic, unique world.
That's not to say Farscape is beyond criticism. Overall, I really enjoy the writing behind the series. Occasionally, there is an episode that seems to... slip. And unfortunately, the latest season seems to be slipping more often than not. I hope Farscape picks the pace back up. Or is mercilessly put out of its misery.
I can understand why there is some shock at Farscape's popularity. It took me awhile to become a fan of the show. But once I started watching, I found more than enough to appeal to me.