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."
The only reason I buy HBO is for the series shows (Sopranos, Oz, etc) ... the reason I canceled Showtime when they lost Stargate was because of no series that interested me. I'd be sure to resubscribe if Farscape moved there.
I really wish more serial shows would move to commercial free tv, I'd be happy to pay for it.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.
This Register article says so.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
Here's where a couple guys respond to Nigerian scam pages as David Lee Roth and say they'll send the money. It's pretty good getting Nigerian scammers to go to the airport to meet them holding a sign that says "David Lee Roth" on it.
Sorry it's on geocities, but hey...
http://www.geocities.com/scamjokepage/
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
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 must admit I did like their
photoshopped Passport they provided.
But - they got his place of birth wrong ? I thought he was from Iowa, he only worked in outer space ?
I want my three dollars!
Long but funny. Make sure to read to the end.
is at Buddy Weiserman's site. The complete, extensive email exchange with photos is shown there. He actually got the scammer to travel to another country and run around flapping his arms like a chicken! "Buddy Weiserman"'s name was of course inspired by Budweiser beer, but the scammer didn't figure that out either.
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.
Mike finally got enought money out of people to pay to get his CAPS LOCK KEY FIXED
IANAL, but my expectation is "no." I imagine the fake was created with photoshop, so the question is "Is creating a photoshop image of a fake passport illegal?". To answer that, I'd ask "Is creating a photoshop image of a fake murder illegal?" or "Is creating a photoshop image of a speedometer reading 200mph on a public road illegal?"
I think most folks would agree that an image of a thing is not the thing. Of course, there's the whole "simulated child pornography" thing which goes the other way, but it's unclear how far that will fly in the courts. And, fake passports being much less of a hotbutton issue than child porn, I daresay this guy can sleep well at night.
Now, trying to *use* the image for anything would be a whole different story.
Cheers
-b
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.
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 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.