Absolutely right. Leaking too much makes the leak itself the news, while it takes months to figure out what is so important in what was leaked. Part of it's the death of journalism. About the most anyone can say is that a bunch of information was leaked. There are fewer people in the field now that will sift through and find the important parts. So they wait until someone else has deciphered and sorted it out for them, and then report on that. Of course, if journalism were still alive, we wouldn't need Wikileaks so badly.
Great - so for $30, I can go to the store and buy a prepay cell phone. I can cheat for life for only $30! And that's for a brand new fake phone. I could get a used one for next to nothing.
And it's their loss of business because they're afraid to use a manual card imprinter - you know, the hard swiper with the carbon paper? Sure, you might get a couple declined cards when everything comes back up and you go to enter them in - but it's better to do that than to lose all the business of the cashless youth.
Last time I went through a fast food drive through when the card machines were down, they didn't even tell me - I only figured it out when I signed the paper receipt from the manual imprinter. I know that other places act all crippled when the Internet's down or whatever. But there's other people that can handle it just fine.
ditto. I got it for business, but I use it for personal transactions too. It's so convenient to just pull out an iPod and swipe a credit card wherever I am (that also happens to have wireless internet).
Traffic shaping on the last mile is only going to have limited benefit. Unless you're suggesting a complete fiber GamerNet backbone - it still goes over the same backbones as the other ISP's are sharing already.
You can bring that knowledge into court with you. Sure, you have to be careful not to mention it when they are trying to reject such potential jurors. But this is nothing new. Bringing in outside information runs too high a risk of tainting the trial. Thinking this has anything to do with jury nullification, or that it should be reversed for that reason alone is absurd.
I was being extremely absurdly sarcastic with that reference. I was referring to the original MTV. This despecialization of channels has been going on a lot longer than people realize.
Necessary suspension of disbelief aside, we did not have the technology for space ships. They started by hybriding alien propulsion with U.S. aircraft. They had alien help for that, and even more alien help on their ships. That was almost all Asgard help. There was an irony in that Earth, much like the Goa'uld were stealing others' technology, which seems to be taboo to the more advanced races.
Stop while you're ahead. The most recent few episodes of SGU give a glimmer of hope of an interesting storyline. If you don't watch it, you'll never miss the fact that it will never be resolved.
I don't agree with every bit of that but - well said! The only thing you missed in the generic episode formula is the 5 minute music video at the end of each.
I really don't find the addition of starships to be a huge problem or all that forced. It was also always a story of the underdog Earth, beating the odds using technology that they don't understand. The one planet among many that overthrew their oppressors even in ancient Egypt. think it would be harder to believe that the military DIDN'T try to build fighters and starships, especially with the looming thought that Earth is now a target.
Now even so-called "niche" channels want to appeal to the mainstream crowd. You have Court TV getting overrun with COPS shows and turning into TruTV, Sci-Fi has to come up with a new name that sounds like they aren't just making it up, and Food Network is about cake contests more than it is about good eats. By the way, not sure if you've seen MTV lately, but they don't even show music videos anymore.
Agree with all your points. Well-written. I'm definitely an Eli-identifier. I just want to point out that if it were more crew against nature than it was, it might have been better. It was really more crew vs. crew - whether militarily or romantically.
The problem is, Stargate SG-1 made you love the mythos. Atlantis fleshed it out. And SG-U has them on what is ultimately the last remaining legacy of the Ancients, and nobody cares. It's even less than a minor plot point. You can waste half the episode on soap opera, and still come out with a good fan base if the sci-fi storyline at least inches forward in each episode. The ship, where it's going, and what it means for those who are on it.
When nothing changes from episode to episode, it's easy to have a 5 year story arc. The first few disaster survival episodes were interesting, but draining to watch. Then there were mostly episodes where nothing important happens, followed by a crappy music video. Then, at the beginning of the end, they come up with a plot. The funny thing is, when you want to make the show about the characters, you need to give them something to react to, AND have an outcome. Essentially, you still need a plot.
What was lost is that all the good ideas that made up their situation will never be resolved or even explored in the "Stargate" way. It was a brilliant idea for a terrible show. It was painful to watch, but even more painful to see it go.
Well - an encyclopedia that's updated on a near constant basis could present data on the case. You look up a trial on rape when you're on the jury of a major rape case, then there may be a section on notable rape cases that has information you're not supposed to be seeing about the case at hand. An extreme example, yes, but you can't know in advance if the article will taint your knowledge.
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Do you not even support the idea of a police officer posing as a drug buyer in order to catch a drug dealer?
Absolutely right. Leaking too much makes the leak itself the news, while it takes months to figure out what is so important in what was leaked. Part of it's the death of journalism. About the most anyone can say is that a bunch of information was leaked. There are fewer people in the field now that will sift through and find the important parts. So they wait until someone else has deciphered and sorted it out for them, and then report on that. Of course, if journalism were still alive, we wouldn't need Wikileaks so badly.
Great - so for $30, I can go to the store and buy a prepay cell phone. I can cheat for life for only $30! And that's for a brand new fake phone. I could get a used one for next to nothing.
You beat me to it - exactly what I was going to say.
Sounds like this place needs to invest in a better drop safe.
And it's their loss of business because they're afraid to use a manual card imprinter - you know, the hard swiper with the carbon paper? Sure, you might get a couple declined cards when everything comes back up and you go to enter them in - but it's better to do that than to lose all the business of the cashless youth.
Last time I went through a fast food drive through when the card machines were down, they didn't even tell me - I only figured it out when I signed the paper receipt from the manual imprinter. I know that other places act all crippled when the Internet's down or whatever. But there's other people that can handle it just fine.
ditto. I got it for business, but I use it for personal transactions too. It's so convenient to just pull out an iPod and swipe a credit card wherever I am (that also happens to have wireless internet).
Traffic shaping on the last mile is only going to have limited benefit. Unless you're suggesting a complete fiber GamerNet backbone - it still goes over the same backbones as the other ISP's are sharing already.
Oil is what $50/barrel or not far off? Going to $500 is a 10fold increase. Multiplying GP's numbers by 10 doesn't make the huge change that you claim.
Artificial gravity is never even different on alien spaceships where the alien planet probably had different gravity...
Essentially, they patented "X.....on the Internet!"
We need just a general rule that invalidates that whole train of thought in patents.
You can bring that knowledge into court with you. Sure, you have to be careful not to mention it when they are trying to reject such potential jurors. But this is nothing new. Bringing in outside information runs too high a risk of tainting the trial. Thinking this has anything to do with jury nullification, or that it should be reversed for that reason alone is absurd.
I was being extremely absurdly sarcastic with that reference. I was referring to the original MTV. This despecialization of channels has been going on a lot longer than people realize.
Necessary suspension of disbelief aside, we did not have the technology for space ships. They started by hybriding alien propulsion with U.S. aircraft. They had alien help for that, and even more alien help on their ships. That was almost all Asgard help. There was an irony in that Earth, much like the Goa'uld were stealing others' technology, which seems to be taboo to the more advanced races.
You just wrote the next season of SG-1. Now we just have to get SyFy on board and rebuild the sets. Sounds better than SGU.
Stop while you're ahead. The most recent few episodes of SGU give a glimmer of hope of an interesting storyline. If you don't watch it, you'll never miss the fact that it will never be resolved.
I don't agree with every bit of that but - well said! The only thing you missed in the generic episode formula is the 5 minute music video at the end of each.
Don't get me started, that show jumped the shark so many times, you'd think they were in a rubber room full of sharks (pardon my lack of creativity).
They cancelled Atlantis to have the budget to do SG-U exactly how they wanted.
I really don't find the addition of starships to be a huge problem or all that forced. It was also always a story of the underdog Earth, beating the odds using technology that they don't understand. The one planet among many that overthrew their oppressors even in ancient Egypt. think it would be harder to believe that the military DIDN'T try to build fighters and starships, especially with the looming thought that Earth is now a target.
Now even so-called "niche" channels want to appeal to the mainstream crowd. You have Court TV getting overrun with COPS shows and turning into TruTV, Sci-Fi has to come up with a new name that sounds like they aren't just making it up, and Food Network is about cake contests more than it is about good eats. By the way, not sure if you've seen MTV lately, but they don't even show music videos anymore.
Agree with all your points. Well-written. I'm definitely an Eli-identifier. I just want to point out that if it were more crew against nature than it was, it might have been better. It was really more crew vs. crew - whether militarily or romantically.
The problem is, Stargate SG-1 made you love the mythos. Atlantis fleshed it out. And SG-U has them on what is ultimately the last remaining legacy of the Ancients, and nobody cares. It's even less than a minor plot point. You can waste half the episode on soap opera, and still come out with a good fan base if the sci-fi storyline at least inches forward in each episode. The ship, where it's going, and what it means for those who are on it.
When nothing changes from episode to episode, it's easy to have a 5 year story arc. The first few disaster survival episodes were interesting, but draining to watch. Then there were mostly episodes where nothing important happens, followed by a crappy music video. Then, at the beginning of the end, they come up with a plot. The funny thing is, when you want to make the show about the characters, you need to give them something to react to, AND have an outcome. Essentially, you still need a plot.
What was lost is that all the good ideas that made up their situation will never be resolved or even explored in the "Stargate" way. It was a brilliant idea for a terrible show. It was painful to watch, but even more painful to see it go.
Well - an encyclopedia that's updated on a near constant basis could present data on the case. You look up a trial on rape when you're on the jury of a major rape case, then there may be a section on notable rape cases that has information you're not supposed to be seeing about the case at hand. An extreme example, yes, but you can't know in advance if the article will taint your knowledge.