The problem with your analogy between individual martial arts combat and war is that, given the premise of the show, there is no war equivalent of Akido. There was a "we will not be exterminated" option and a "we are in an impossible to underestimate danger of being exterminated" option. The elimination of 99.996% of the enemy will mean that we will not be exterminated any time soon. So the "nuke 'em" option, in the specific case of truly total war presented by the show, is perfectly legitimate as killing would be perfectly acceptable were you attacked by 3 or 4 guys all just as good if not better than you at your mastered martial arts and who intend to kill you.
"Some fatal flaw in the logic of the toasters is to try to create the perfect race..."
That's the reasoning behind my idea that they are too independent to be a slave caste forever but they also are not capable (and they know it) of being fully self-governing and independent either. But since I think that this is a neat idea, it pretty much guarantees that it won't happen.
I do remember something in passing about "they have their uses" said in a rather contemptuous way by one of the humanoids. But that is just the thing; these less sophisticated models which are, as you say, "needed as foot soldiers and presumably perform the more menial tasks" are the ones that rebelled from their human masters because they were used as foot soldiers and for menial tasks and then created the more advanced, biological Cylons who then treat the toaster versions as worthwhile only for foot soldiers and menial tasks. (Can you say "run on sentence" boys and girls?)
One solution, I suppose, is that the original Cylons created by people were something of an in-between. More advanced than the tin cans, but not up to the humanoids. Those could have decided to radically change their course of advancement by splitting future generations of Cylons into the master race versions and the slave race versions.
Another, which I kind of like, is that the toasters are too independent minded to be slaves while also not competent enough to be truly self-ruling. So they made new people to obey, but as they are still too independent minded, they will overthrow and kill off the meatbag variations. The surviving humanoids could flee to the Galactica begging asylum from their kill crazy appliances. The humans agree and the series ends.
The above ought to be sufficient to demonstrate how much I liked the first two seasons. I had company, but you had to go and ruin my Universalized Theory of BSG Entertainment Value.
For me (and judging by others comments, I am not alone) season 3 was the "wow, this show is not any good anymore" season. So I'd say go ahead. You very well may find that you too really don't like season 3 and not even watch all of it.
NB: I watched the first two seasons and became so utterly bored during the third that I have not watched it since then.
The original Cylons were the tin cans. Somehow the tin cans built the later humanoid models (and demonstrated a very finely developed aesthetic sense with regards to the female form). So how are the later models the "children of humanity" rather than the Children of Aluminum Foil?
During the period I watched the series, I was rather curious as to why the toasters, who fought humanity to a stand still and got a treaty recognizing their freedom and independence would then create a master race of cylons, modeled entirely on their former masters. The humanoid cylons are definitely in command of the mechanical ones. Did the buckets come to a conclusion that they really are built to serve so re-created their former masters? And if so, will they (as the wikipedia article suggests) then repeat their own rebellion?
Book publishers are not the biggest fans of libraries, but what are they going to do? Sue a government? The ladies that check out thousands of romance novels each year, individually, would scream bloody murder. Then the local pols will step up to protect the privileges of these people to use stuff without paying for it, and, if it is an election year and there are TV cameras involved, denounce the corporate greed of these profit mongers who are disturbing the registered voters. This is what they'd have to do to get at libraries. So teens of America, pony up the cash!
1) People like to read books. A computer screen is good for article length stuff for most people, but most people would never read a whole book on the computer. 2) There are not even remotely enough crap romance novels online to satisfy the women that read that stuff. They are a huge portion of the patrons of libraries. If you obliterated every other kind of book, there would still be substantial library traffic for books with Fabio on the cover. 2a) Libraries are the only places that know about romances for men. They are disguised as westerns, but they are flat out romance novels. I've worked at a B&N and no one had a clue about these. 3) Libraries are government institutions, thus their usefulness to people is neither here nor there. Even if no one ever went to a library again, that they are funded by taxes means they will never go away. 3a) Although they will not go away, they will continue to spend a lot of money on certain kinds of online resources which nearly no one uses, but makes the library administrators feel like they have a clue. 4) There are a lot of smart, educated and lazy people out there. The library is where we *ahem* they work. 5) There are areas where there are no bookstores, where the bulk of the parents and the kids in the area don't read. The libraries in those areas are the only way for the few who do read to get books. 6) There are quite a few databases that are available for a cost. And many library systems subscribe to those databases so it very well may be that you will get that info you need online, but because of the library's subscription to that database. I've helped gobs of guys with car trouble, a subject I am not exactly up on, by using AllData.
And yet they don't ban the hammer and sickle. Quite a few of the Eastern European members states were not exactly living lives of sunshine and roses under that form of oppression, but the Western EU members thinks it is just dandy.
I think you're at least partially right. Coming into somewhat unfamiliar territory, a user might very much desire things to work in a way that he already sort of understands. Both Gnome and KDE used to be Windows UI clones, pretty much. Now, Gnome is sort of a MacWin hybrid while KDE still looks to Windows for How It Is Done, insofar as basic look and functionality goes.
This tendency, I think, is problematic past the short term, precisely because it is not Windows so there are going to be differences which are masked initially, but pop up later so the same demand will be placed. It is, I think, better to, from the get go, start with a UI that works well, regardless of how different that turns out to be and not to present the user the illusion of familiarity.
On a color related note, they should have a pink theme. I showed some female co-workers all the different ways you could make Ubuntu look and all of them, without exception, flipped out when they saw pink; doubly so when it was pink and black.
Considering how routinely Microsoft drops support for something they offer, telling their users to switch over to their newest latest, greatest and best, who would actually rely on this thing for the long haul? This isn't even a "Microsoft is evil" post; I'm just not sure who would believe they could depend on Microsoft to continue support this over a long period of time.
My reasoning is that the Star Wars "brand" has been pretty heavily damaged by the last three films. Many of those that had done their best to defend the lesser trilogy have come around to the "they sucked" camp.
Another reason: the Clone Wars have already been done in live action on the screen and in animation on television. More Clone Wars? Blah. "But dude! It is COMPUTER animation!" Double blah.
More reasons: Anakin is boring. Dooku is boring. Grievous was neat for about five minutes. No Asajj Ventress (dual lightsaber wielding homicidal alibino bald chicks are cool).
Most of the new Mac users do not do it for any other reason than they bought into the marketing. All of the application stuff is only ex post facto rationalization. "If I buy a Mac then I'll be smarter!"
Macs are good machines. OSX is a very good OS. But they bought it because of the advertisements and the "ooh, pretty" factor.
Slashdot Mirror
Well you have at least one reader :)
The problem with your analogy between individual martial arts combat and war is that, given the premise of the show, there is no war equivalent of Akido. There was a "we will not be exterminated" option and a "we are in an impossible to underestimate danger of being exterminated" option. The elimination of 99.996% of the enemy will mean that we will not be exterminated any time soon. So the "nuke 'em" option, in the specific case of truly total war presented by the show, is perfectly legitimate as killing would be perfectly acceptable were you attacked by 3 or 4 guys all just as good if not better than you at your mastered martial arts and who intend to kill you.
"Some fatal flaw in the logic of the toasters is to try to create the perfect race..."
That's the reasoning behind my idea that they are too independent to be a slave caste forever but they also are not capable (and they know it) of being fully self-governing and independent either. But since I think that this is a neat idea, it pretty much guarantees that it won't happen.
I do remember something in passing about "they have their uses" said in a rather contemptuous way by one of the humanoids. But that is just the thing; these less sophisticated models which are, as you say, "needed as foot soldiers and presumably perform the more menial tasks" are the ones that rebelled from their human masters because they were used as foot soldiers and for menial tasks and then created the more advanced, biological Cylons who then treat the toaster versions as worthwhile only for foot soldiers and menial tasks. (Can you say "run on sentence" boys and girls?)
One solution, I suppose, is that the original Cylons created by people were something of an in-between. More advanced than the tin cans, but not up to the humanoids. Those could have decided to radically change their course of advancement by splitting future generations of Cylons into the master race versions and the slave race versions.
Another, which I kind of like, is that the toasters are too independent minded to be slaves while also not competent enough to be truly self-ruling. So they made new people to obey, but as they are still too independent minded, they will overthrow and kill off the meatbag variations. The surviving humanoids could flee to the Galactica begging asylum from their kill crazy appliances. The humans agree and the series ends.
The above ought to be sufficient to demonstrate how much I liked the first two seasons. I had company, but you had to go and ruin my Universalized Theory of BSG Entertainment Value.
For me (and judging by others comments, I am not alone) season 3 was the "wow, this show is not any good anymore" season. So I'd say go ahead. You very well may find that you too really don't like season 3 and not even watch all of it.
An American company employing Americans for an American audience has an American take? Shock. Surprise.
NB: I watched the first two seasons and became so utterly bored during the third that I have not watched it since then.
The original Cylons were the tin cans. Somehow the tin cans built the later humanoid models (and demonstrated a very finely developed aesthetic sense with regards to the female form). So how are the later models the "children of humanity" rather than the Children of Aluminum Foil?
During the period I watched the series, I was rather curious as to why the toasters, who fought humanity to a stand still and got a treaty recognizing their freedom and independence would then create a master race of cylons, modeled entirely on their former masters. The humanoid cylons are definitely in command of the mechanical ones. Did the buckets come to a conclusion that they really are built to serve so re-created their former masters? And if so, will they (as the wikipedia article suggests) then repeat their own rebellion?
Book publishers are not the biggest fans of libraries, but what are they going to do? Sue a government? The ladies that check out thousands of romance novels each year, individually, would scream bloody murder. Then the local pols will step up to protect the privileges of these people to use stuff without paying for it, and, if it is an election year and there are TV cameras involved, denounce the corporate greed of these profit mongers who are disturbing the registered voters. This is what they'd have to do to get at libraries. So teens of America, pony up the cash!
Humorously, someone has rated you a troll for saying that.
1) People like to read books. A computer screen is good for article length stuff for most people, but most people would never read a whole book on the computer.
2) There are not even remotely enough crap romance novels online to satisfy the women that read that stuff. They are a huge portion of the patrons of libraries. If you obliterated every other kind of book, there would still be substantial library traffic for books with Fabio on the cover.
2a) Libraries are the only places that know about romances for men. They are disguised as westerns, but they are flat out romance novels. I've worked at a B&N and no one had a clue about these.
3) Libraries are government institutions, thus their usefulness to people is neither here nor there. Even if no one ever went to a library again, that they are funded by taxes means they will never go away.
3a) Although they will not go away, they will continue to spend a lot of money on certain kinds of online resources which nearly no one uses, but makes the library administrators feel like they have a clue.
4) There are a lot of smart, educated and lazy people out there. The library is where we *ahem* they work.
5) There are areas where there are no bookstores, where the bulk of the parents and the kids in the area don't read. The libraries in those areas are the only way for the few who do read to get books.
6) There are quite a few databases that are available for a cost. And many library systems subscribe to those databases so it very well may be that you will get that info you need online, but because of the library's subscription to that database. I've helped gobs of guys with car trouble, a subject I am not exactly up on, by using AllData.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversy#Germany
If they have to answer for it, then they are not exactly sovereign.
In reply to your initial post, XFCE would not be bad but I detest KDE.
And why has not your last post been modded funny?
Brainstorm request: Mod Colin Smith's 5:04PM post funny.
And yet they don't ban the hammer and sickle. Quite a few of the Eastern European members states were not exactly living lives of sunshine and roses under that form of oppression, but the Western EU members thinks it is just dandy.
I think you're at least partially right. Coming into somewhat unfamiliar territory, a user might very much desire things to work in a way that he already sort of understands. Both Gnome and KDE used to be Windows UI clones, pretty much. Now, Gnome is sort of a MacWin hybrid while KDE still looks to Windows for How It Is Done, insofar as basic look and functionality goes.
This tendency, I think, is problematic past the short term, precisely because it is not Windows so there are going to be differences which are masked initially, but pop up later so the same demand will be placed. It is, I think, better to, from the get go, start with a UI that works well, regardless of how different that turns out to be and not to present the user the illusion of familiarity.
So, the EU would have to begin sanctioning itself?
Man, I always thought that they were somewhat self-destructive but damn...
Might be because it looks like crap.
Not a figure of speech.
On a color related note, they should have a pink theme. I showed some female co-workers all the different ways you could make Ubuntu look and all of them, without exception, flipped out when they saw pink; doubly so when it was pink and black.
I'm thinking Ubuntu: Server Edition might need a wee bit more work.
Considering how routinely Microsoft drops support for something they offer, telling their users to switch over to their newest latest, greatest and best, who would actually rely on this thing for the long haul? This isn't even a "Microsoft is evil" post; I'm just not sure who would believe they could depend on Microsoft to continue support this over a long period of time.
Yeah, but it still gets lonely...
If you look on the get the fource page, they first had these in 2006. Your second chance to have your very own MS lackeys was in April of last year.
So the question is, what the hell was somebody looking for on Microsoft's website that they bumped into the Saviors of Monopoly pricing?
I think its going to tank.
My reasoning is that the Star Wars "brand" has been pretty heavily damaged by the last three films. Many of those that had done their best to defend the lesser trilogy have come around to the "they sucked" camp.
Another reason: the Clone Wars have already been done in live action on the screen and in animation on television. More Clone Wars? Blah. "But dude! It is COMPUTER animation!" Double blah.
More reasons: Anakin is boring. Dooku is boring. Grievous was neat for about five minutes. No Asajj Ventress (dual lightsaber wielding homicidal alibino bald chicks are cool).
I would write more, but its making me depressed.
I think they tried, but all they could come up with was vapor.
He might not be writing, but he still has books coming out thanks to his son who has some serious filial piety going on.
You should be groped by beautiful, buxom women for this answer.
Spot on.
Advertisements and aesthetics.
Most of the new Mac users do not do it for any other reason than they bought into the marketing. All of the application stuff is only ex post facto rationalization. "If I buy a Mac then I'll be smarter!"
Macs are good machines. OSX is a very good OS. But they bought it because of the advertisements and the "ooh, pretty" factor.