Frankly, I recommend everyone do the same thing (compare cable to DTV), particularly since all those "you can't put a dish on your property" rules are unenforceable (there's a federal law on the books, written in the era of large satellite dishes, protecting satellite dishes).
I should add; in the last three years, I've lived in two apartments and purchased a house in a gated community.
In all three cases, the salespeople made a POINT of telling me I could put a small dish up, and mentioned that a Federal law protected my right to do so. The salesperson for the house even offered the help of the construction supervisor in deciding on placement, if I decide to get a dish. (Which I won't, since I get hundreds of channels and a discount on Time Warner cable since I'm also a Road Runner subscriber, without any of the hassles of dish service.)
Less cash flowing in means that some new shows may never get the funding to see the light of day.
And it should be pointed out that when cash is tight, shows that are cheap to produce and have a broad audience get made, and shows that are expensive to produce or have a niche audience don't.
So if you want to see Farscape, Dark Angel, Buffy, and Enterprise replaced by sitcoms, by all means get rid of the ads.
Without commercials, we would have to pay for content - using the money that we have saved by not having to pay 20 to 40 percent more for products to cover the cost of their ad campaigns. I can live with that.
Wrong. The companies will still pay for advertising, just in other media, since TV will lose it effectiveness.
So you'll pay just as much for the products, AND pay for your TV besides.
It's not a zero-sum game, you'll be creating new income for radio and print.
Don't be so quick to jump on the "no commercials" idea.
The broadcast networks can only afford to be free if they have income, and if enough people start skipping the commercials, they'll have to do something about it.
So unless you wanna pay a monthly fee for access to the networks and your local stations, you better hope Autoskip stays a niche product.
One of my favorite Trek moments is when Nelix beams aboard Voyager for the first time. Upon greeting Tuvok, he gives him a big hug! Tuvok clearly does not look comfortable with this...
I wouldn't be either, and to the best of your knowledge, I'm not a telepath.
But I'd rather watch Farscape. At least it's internally consistent and the girls can kick as as well as, or better, than any man.
Which one would that be? The one that screams anytime there's anything dangerous, or icky, loud enough to melt metal? You know, the one that's always worried about clothes, and cries if she touches something disgusting?
Look: the leeches were a stupid idea. Really stupid. No amount of justification of modern-day practices can save that scene.
You've got to be kidding me. Leeches are stupid because you say they're stupid, regardless of the fact that modern medical science has RETURNED to their use? Also, keep in mind that Earth doctors in Trek don't use them, and Archer thinks it's weird that Phlox does. You think it's impossible that there could be a race, or even a single doctor, who advocates their use? Who's got too much ego, here?
Vulcan behavior has been established over four series and many movies.
Behavior of ONE VULCAN, who was practically booted out of his family for acting that way. Look at the other Vulcans we've seen:
Sarek: Prejudiced against Starfleet, as being a bad idea, precisely because humans (with very few exceptions) were too illogical to be out in space disturbing the natives. Also arrogant, and stubborn, and even in his first appearance let his anger affect his diplomacy.
Valeris: Prejudiced against Klingons, to the point of being willing to murder to see them get wiped out as a species.
Tuvok: Annoyed easily, stubbornly prideful. Has taken many decades around humans to become comfortable with them.
Saavik: Very controlled, a lot like Spock.
And Spock himself denigrates humans in nearly every episode.
So we've got basically two Vulcans who don't denigrate humans, and one of them has been serving with humans for a century. The rest are arrogant and superior, just like these Vulcans. And these Vulcans are coming from a position of being technologically superior to the Humans, which isn't the case in any of the other series.
Precisely. I object specifically based upon the fact that the complete and utter wimp is a woman, and a stereotypical one at that.
So, we aren't equal if 50% of the wimps are female and 50% are male; we're only equal if 100% of the wimps are male. Right, got it.
But a better solution would be to make the crew the stalwart SOBs they should be.
Yes, because that would be realistic; all humans are unflappable superheroes, there are no wimps. Why, if we implied that there could possibly be people who are less than superhuman, that'd be bad for people's self esteem, right?
So if there are still screaming 'rescue me!' women in the future, where are the screaming 'rescue me!' men?
Well, in the original Trek, it was Chekov. They have a woman in that role this time. Is that a problem? Must there be two? Or is it just that you object to a woman getting the role instead of a man this time? Maybe it'd be better if they fired her and replaced her with a man?
Get it in writing, with your name specifically on it, and signed the President, that's what.
Otherwise, you're gonna have to fight it as "entrapment", and good luck when the jury is made up of 12 people who were too dumb to get out of jury duty, and who's definition of "hacker" comes from typing the word in on AOL.
The communications chick was a complete loser, the stereotypical pre-Xena "I'm a screaming bitch who needs to be rescued by a big strong man" kind of girl. I thought we'd put those days behind us in SF....
Are you saying that, since Xena aired, there are no women like that left on the planet Earth? Not even one?
Correct me if I'm wrong but... didn't Warp Drive come along as a result of contact with the Wyn from the Wyn Star Cluster?
At first, I thought this was one of the funniest trolls I've seen, but then I looked at your posting history and signature.
The Wyn are part of Star Fleet Battles, which isn't based on Star Trek directly, but rather on one particular piece of fanfic, the old Star Fleet Technical Manual. The SFB authors are the first to proclaim that their universe diverges utterly from Star Trek.
I read this in the old original Star Trek book series upon which alot of Star Trek the show was based.
This was the line that at first made me think you were hoaxing, it's rather much like a hoax we used to do on the old Fidonet TREK Echo.
Star Trek the TV series was around before any books about it. It wasn't "based on" anything.
I think the first episode that was "based on" a book was the Animated Series episode "The Slaver Weapon", and the production staff deliberately ignores the animated series for purposes of continuity. It's considered more of a "based on" Trek than a "part of" Trek.
I know that they had a wierd episode in ST-TNG where warp drive was supposedly created, we were recognised by the Vulcans and we narrowly escaped the BORG
It's amazing that you know something that didn't happen. There was a MOVIE where warp drive was created, and we narrowly escaped the Borg, but the Vulcans didn't see or recognize the Enterprise in it. This is 90 years after that, so it's appropriate for them to still have warp drive, not "just impulse and reaction engines".
Crew: Interesting, but I was hoping for at least a little bit more of a clash between everyone's feelings toward each other.
They've been together for four days, and they all had a Vulcan to get mad at. Give the humans time, they'll piss each other off; but anybody can get along for four days.
First off, scenes with any human rubbing ANYthing on ANY Vulcan's skin are totally ridiculous. Vulcans are TOUCH TELEPATHS. They are beings of calm reserve and inner discipline, and they can't tolerate being physically touched by emotional and uncontrolled beings like humans. It leads to telepathic overflow of human emotional garbage, thus Vulcans avoid ALL physical (skin to skin) contact with humans as if it were the PLAGUE.
Please name one scene in ANY of the series or movies in which it is stated that they can't control their telepathy enough to withstand touching.
It is ungodly bad manners to shake hands with a Vulcan, or even offer to.
Yes, and we saw some evidence of another explanation for that last night; they don't touch their food, either. Is it because they're afraid the death screams of the carrots will overload their brains? No problem, Vulcan brains are evidently removable.:-)
If I lose my theoretical $60k/year job because of some stupid CEO that ran the company into the ground (and is making $10 million/year to do it), I'm shit out of luck.
Yeah, people are buying fewer PCs, and the stock market is down because some terrorists flew two jumbos into the World Trade Center, and that's some stupid CEO's fault.
Wise up, and maybe you WILL have a $60k a year job to lose.
The US could have been shattered into multiple warring states and had several of them break and reunite between the start of the alternate Star Trek time line and the start of the federation.
Yes, and the Earth could have been covered in frog carcasses after they rained from the sky for 40 days and 40 nights.
My point is that the fact that a World War III happened isn't proof that there's no longer a USA, so let's watch the damn show and see what happens, instead of assuming such a large amount from a single event.
We know there was enough of the population left over to allow Zeframe Cochran to build a warp drive, and that within his own lifetime there's enough civilization left for them to still be growing corn in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, which is close enough to several important nuke targets (including Tinker Air Force base) that you wouldn't be growing anything but extra heads there if there'd been a full nuclear exchange. So let's stop making up history, and let Rick Berman make up history.
The odd thing is that many fans feel the third season of TOS is best, which was after Gene backed off a little and had help.
TNG got better and better throughout it's run, IMO, although it's a shame what they did to your character.
However, I really think Berman et. al. are starting to "get it", and Enterprise has a real chance. Yes, Voyager sucked; but I think they understand why.
If they can just avoid time travel, and REMEMBER that they don't have a Prime Directive, maybe they can recreate what made TOS great. Let's give 'em a chance.
(Of course, Wil, you know that the folks who hate DS9 and Voyager usually hate you, too, and will use your endorsement as another reason to hate Enterprise, right?:-) )
Oh, God; you said the C word, now we're gonna get James Dixon in here with a 4,000 line post explaining where Rush Hour fits in with Supercop... way to go, dude.:-)
Yet, of each of the shows above, only Lexx -- an un-ST like show if there ever was -- hasn't killed off a major character perminately.
Well, except for the one that's been dead the whole time.:-)
Seriously, it's hard to kill off a main character when you've only got three. Five, if you count the robot head and the ship, but they can't very well kill off the Lexx...
Slashdot Mirror
More power to 'em.
If they want to use a format I can't play, I'll just have a great reason not to pay them for music.
Since I already stopped paying them when they sued Napster, and haven't looked back, this affects me not.
Frankly, I recommend everyone do the same thing (compare cable to DTV), particularly since all those "you can't put a dish on your property" rules are unenforceable (there's a federal law on the books, written in the era of large satellite dishes, protecting satellite dishes).
I should add; in the last three years, I've lived in two apartments and purchased a house in a gated community.
In all three cases, the salespeople made a POINT of telling me I could put a small dish up, and mentioned that a Federal law protected my right to do so. The salesperson for the house even offered the help of the construction supervisor in deciding on placement, if I decide to get a dish. (Which I won't, since I get hundreds of channels and a discount on Time Warner cable since I'm also a Road Runner subscriber, without any of the hassles of dish service.)
Less cash flowing in means that some new shows may never get the funding to see the light of day.
And it should be pointed out that when cash is tight, shows that are cheap to produce and have a broad audience get made, and shows that are expensive to produce or have a niche audience don't.
So if you want to see Farscape, Dark Angel, Buffy, and Enterprise replaced by sitcoms, by all means get rid of the ads.
Uh, yeah. I guess my 70-ish year old mother & father are abberations.
They looked at what cable TV cost and DirecTV cost and signed up when they realized cable cost twice as much for the same channels.
Yes, they are abberations. Cable TV far outstrips DirecTV in sales. And the cost difference isn't the same everywhere.
Plus, who really wants to spend at minimum $700 on a RPTV when you can find DirecTiVos for as little at $129 with new DirecTV service.
The average person doesn't have or want DirectTV, and doesn't want to hack his box.
I'm not getting one of these either, but you and I are not normal.
Without commercials, we would have to pay for content - using the money that we have saved by not having to pay 20 to 40 percent more for products to cover the cost of their ad campaigns. I can live with that.
Wrong. The companies will still pay for advertising, just in other media, since TV will lose it effectiveness.
So you'll pay just as much for the products, AND pay for your TV besides.
It's not a zero-sum game, you'll be creating new income for radio and print.
Don't be so quick to jump on the "no commercials" idea.
The broadcast networks can only afford to be free if they have income, and if enough people start skipping the commercials, they'll have to do something about it.
So unless you wanna pay a monthly fee for access to the networks and your local stations, you better hope Autoskip stays a niche product.
A year from now, when they want to have a 64-bit UNIX product,
They'll use one of the ones they already have...
One of my favorite Trek moments is when Nelix beams aboard Voyager for the first time. Upon greeting Tuvok, he gives him a big hug! Tuvok clearly does not look comfortable with this...
I wouldn't be either, and to the best of your knowledge, I'm not a telepath.
But I'd rather watch Farscape. At least it's internally consistent and the girls can kick as as well as, or better, than any man.
Which one would that be? The one that screams anytime there's anything dangerous, or icky, loud enough to melt metal? You know, the one that's always worried about clothes, and cries if she touches something disgusting?
Look: the leeches were a stupid idea. Really stupid. No amount of justification of modern-day practices can save that scene.
You've got to be kidding me. Leeches are stupid because you say they're stupid, regardless of the fact that modern medical science has RETURNED to their use? Also, keep in mind that Earth doctors in Trek don't use them, and Archer thinks it's weird that Phlox does. You think it's impossible that there could be a race, or even a single doctor, who advocates their use? Who's got too much ego, here?
Vulcan behavior has been established over four series and many movies.
Behavior of ONE VULCAN, who was practically booted out of his family for acting that way. Look at the other Vulcans we've seen:
Sarek: Prejudiced against Starfleet, as being a bad idea, precisely because humans (with very few exceptions) were too illogical to be out in space disturbing the natives. Also arrogant, and stubborn, and even in his first appearance let his anger affect his diplomacy.
Valeris: Prejudiced against Klingons, to the point of being willing to murder to see them get wiped out as a species.
Tuvok: Annoyed easily, stubbornly prideful. Has taken many decades around humans to become comfortable with them.
Saavik: Very controlled, a lot like Spock.
And Spock himself denigrates humans in nearly every episode.
So we've got basically two Vulcans who don't denigrate humans, and one of them has been serving with humans for a century. The rest are arrogant and superior, just like these Vulcans. And these Vulcans are coming from a position of being technologically superior to the Humans, which isn't the case in any of the other series.
Precisely. I object specifically based upon the fact that the complete and utter wimp is a woman, and a stereotypical one at that.
So, we aren't equal if 50% of the wimps are female and 50% are male; we're only equal if 100% of the wimps are male. Right, got it.
But a better solution would be to make the crew the stalwart SOBs they should be.
Yes, because that would be realistic; all humans are unflappable superheroes, there are no wimps. Why, if we implied that there could possibly be people who are less than superhuman, that'd be bad for people's self esteem, right?
So if there are still screaming 'rescue me!' women in the future, where are the screaming 'rescue me!' men?
Well, in the original Trek, it was Chekov. They have a woman in that role this time. Is that a problem? Must there be two? Or is it just that you object to a woman getting the role instead of a man this time? Maybe it'd be better if they fired her and replaced her with a man?
Get it in writing, with your name specifically on it, and signed the President, that's what.
Otherwise, you're gonna have to fight it as "entrapment", and good luck when the jury is made up of 12 people who were too dumb to get out of jury duty, and who's definition of "hacker" comes from typing the word in on AOL.
The communications chick was a complete loser, the stereotypical pre-Xena "I'm a screaming bitch who needs to be rescued by a big strong man" kind of girl. I thought we'd put those days behind us in SF....
Are you saying that, since Xena aired, there are no women like that left on the planet Earth? Not even one?
Correct me if I'm wrong but... didn't Warp Drive come along as a result of contact with the Wyn from the Wyn Star Cluster?
At first, I thought this was one of the funniest trolls I've seen, but then I looked at your posting history and signature.
The Wyn are part of Star Fleet Battles, which isn't based on Star Trek directly, but rather on one particular piece of fanfic, the old Star Fleet Technical Manual. The SFB authors are the first to proclaim that their universe diverges utterly from Star Trek.
I read this in the old original Star Trek book series upon which alot of Star Trek the show was based.
This was the line that at first made me think you were hoaxing, it's rather much like a hoax we used to do on the old Fidonet TREK Echo.
Star Trek the TV series was around before any books about it. It wasn't "based on" anything.
I think the first episode that was "based on" a book was the Animated Series episode "The Slaver Weapon", and the production staff deliberately ignores the animated series for purposes of continuity. It's considered more of a "based on" Trek than a "part of" Trek.
I know that they had a wierd episode in ST-TNG where warp drive was supposedly created, we were recognised by the Vulcans and we narrowly escaped the BORG
It's amazing that you know something that didn't happen. There was a MOVIE where warp drive was created, and we narrowly escaped the Borg, but the Vulcans didn't see or recognize the Enterprise in it. This is 90 years after that, so it's appropriate for them to still have warp drive, not "just impulse and reaction engines".
The old Cochrane-style warp scale is supposed to be cubic: v/c = w^3 (where v is velocity, c the speed of light and w the warp factor).
They never, ever mentioned how fast a Warp Factor was during the original series.
However, they DID say how fast they were going in kps last night.
Onscreen information trumps fanfic, period.
Crew: Interesting, but I was hoping for at least a little bit more of a clash between everyone's feelings toward each other.
They've been together for four days, and they all had a Vulcan to get mad at. Give the humans time, they'll piss each other off; but anybody can get along for four days.
First off, scenes with any human rubbing ANYthing on ANY Vulcan's skin are totally ridiculous. Vulcans are TOUCH TELEPATHS. They are beings of calm reserve and inner discipline, and they can't tolerate being physically touched by emotional and uncontrolled beings like humans. It leads to telepathic overflow of human emotional garbage, thus Vulcans avoid ALL physical (skin to skin) contact with humans as if it were the PLAGUE.
:-)
Please name one scene in ANY of the series or movies in which it is stated that they can't control their telepathy enough to withstand touching.
It is ungodly bad manners to shake hands with a Vulcan, or even offer to.
Yes, and we saw some evidence of another explanation for that last night; they don't touch their food, either. Is it because they're afraid the death screams of the carrots will overload their brains? No problem, Vulcan brains are evidently removable.
If I lose my theoretical $60k/year job because of some stupid CEO that ran the company into the ground (and is making $10 million/year to do it), I'm shit out of luck.
Yeah, people are buying fewer PCs, and the stock market is down because some terrorists flew two jumbos into the World Trade Center, and that's some stupid CEO's fault.
Wise up, and maybe you WILL have a $60k a year job to lose.
The US could have been shattered into multiple warring states and had several of them break and reunite between the start of the alternate Star Trek time line and the start of the federation.
Yes, and the Earth could have been covered in frog carcasses after they rained from the sky for 40 days and 40 nights.
My point is that the fact that a World War III happened isn't proof that there's no longer a USA, so let's watch the damn show and see what happens, instead of assuming such a large amount from a single event.
We know there was enough of the population left over to allow Zeframe Cochran to build a warp drive, and that within his own lifetime there's enough civilization left for them to still be growing corn in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, which is close enough to several important nuke targets (including Tinker Air Force base) that you wouldn't be growing anything but extra heads there if there'd been a full nuclear exchange. So let's stop making up history, and let Rick Berman make up history.
The odd thing is that many fans feel the third season of TOS is best, which was after Gene backed off a little and had help.
:-) )
TNG got better and better throughout it's run, IMO, although it's a shame what they did to your character.
However, I really think Berman et. al. are starting to "get it", and Enterprise has a real chance. Yes, Voyager sucked; but I think they understand why.
If they can just avoid time travel, and REMEMBER that they don't have a Prime Directive, maybe they can recreate what made TOS great. Let's give 'em a chance.
(Of course, Wil, you know that the folks who hate DS9 and Voyager usually hate you, too, and will use your endorsement as another reason to hate Enterprise, right?
Oh, God; you said the C word, now we're gonna get James Dixon in here with a 4,000 line post explaining where Rush Hour fits in with Supercop... way to go, dude. :-)
Yet, of each of the shows above, only Lexx -- an un-ST like show if there ever was -- hasn't killed off a major character perminately.
:-)
Well, except for the one that's been dead the whole time.
Seriously, it's hard to kill off a main character when you've only got three. Five, if you count the robot head and the ship, but they can't very well kill off the Lexx...
This was *after* WWIII, remember? There was no more USA after that.
Who says? We know the US wasn't completely destroyed, and in "The Voyage Home" Kirk doesn't say "I'm from North America", he says "I'm from Iowa."
There may be a United Earth, but the US would certainly have been a major player in creating it, and a major source of it's early funding.