I signed up for Northpoint DSL through Phoenix Networks last year. Phoenix notified me in February that they would have to switch me to Telocity and would send me a new modem. The new modem came in early March and when my Phoenix networks connection went out on March 15th, I set up the new modem and was good to go. Some companies actually seem to care about their customers.
Looking at the one-meter photos got me thinking. What if we had a series of shots like this of a crime scene? You could probably make out the color of a car and its general shape on a one-half meter photo. This could be another tool for prosecuting high profile criminal cases. Maybe someday a prosecutor will be able to say to a jury, "we have a satellite photo of a brown truck at the crime scene and a photo of the defendant's driveway with no brown truck even though he says he was home." The evidence would be circumstantial, so you couldn't convict anybody with just a satelite picture. Still, it would be effective for casting doubt on shaky alibis.
Many of the people posting criticism of Dune are missing the point. The characterizations are good on the whole, not great, but the book isn't about the characters as much as it is an allegory and a vision. It shows a vision of a mystical world with equally strong ties to mankind's future and past--a vision that is wonderous and frightening. The series illustrates sociological principles that won't change no matter how civilized we become (the inevitability of jihad/revolution, the necessary sacrifice of the messiah-like character in the second book.) In a way, Dune is a book about the setting. The main focus is the universe the characters inhabit, not the characters themselves.
To relate to recent geek culture, consider The Matrix. The focus of the movie was the setting and the setting was used to convey that reality is a collective halucination. However, a movie about a place doesn't generally have enough dialog to keep people (including me) interested. So, the writers introduced Morpheus and Agent Smith as a on-screen narrators whose job was simply to tell us about the setting when they're not kicking Neo's ass. The movie is not about Neo, it's about the world he discovers and what that means for our perception of reality.
In a book, the narrator is taken for granted, thus there's no need for a Morpheus character in Dune. Instead, the characters serve to fill the universe rather than the universe being a backdrop for the characters. It's a daring perspective that few writers outside SF use (and few SF writers pull off successfully.) It's the main reason why Dune still sells thousands of copies a year.
I agree with your sentiment wholeheartedly except for one key point. Several powerful representatives and senators (Barney Frank and Rod Grams are the two I remember), have lately come to embrace e-mail from constituents as just as valid as snail mail. The others are catching on. So go ahead and e-mail your representative and/or senators and let them know how you feel.
My college avoided the debate over long distance carriers by refusing to allow any toll calls. If you wanted to call long distance, you used a calling card. This discussion has started me thinking, though. I had friends in long-distance relationships who could rack up $100+/month on a 15 cent/minute phone card. The average student probably spent $25/month. On a big campus, that equates to over a million minutes every month. Why haven't universities taken that buying power and negotiated five-cent-a-minute deals (or less)? Fewer people would go through the hassle of using IP telephony to save $3.00 on an hour-long call. Solves any bandwidth-sharing problems and saves the students money.
I recently graduated from a mid-western college and lived under a very strict intervisitation policy that had been in place since the founding of the school: No opposite sex visitors in the dorms at any time except Friday and Saturday from 6 pm - 1 am. The dorm advisors were the enforcers and were actually sent on patrols through the halls between 1 am and 4 am to listen for the sounds of the opposite sex. (Sad, I know.) The students are overwhelmingly in favor of a change, but the president and board are children of the fifties and sixties. At that time, social biases kept men and women from developing friendships and pursuing the same majors. There was no need for mixed sex study groups. Few guys had friends who were girls or vice versa. The only opposite sex visitors were girl/boyfriends. The problem here is that the people who are trying to make these rules had a college experience that would be unrecognizable to most of today's college students.
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I signed up for Northpoint DSL through Phoenix Networks last year. Phoenix notified me in February that they would have to switch me to Telocity and would send me a new modem. The new modem came in early March and when my Phoenix networks connection went out on March 15th, I set up the new modem and was good to go. Some companies actually seem to care about their customers.
Looking at the one-meter photos got me thinking. What if we had a series of shots like this of a crime scene? You could probably make out the color of a car and its general shape on a one-half meter photo. This could be another tool for prosecuting high profile criminal cases. Maybe someday a prosecutor will be able to say to a jury, "we have a satellite photo of a brown truck at the crime scene and a photo of the defendant's driveway with no brown truck even though he says he was home." The evidence would be circumstantial, so you couldn't convict anybody with just a satelite picture. Still, it would be effective for casting doubt on shaky alibis.
To relate to recent geek culture, consider The Matrix. The focus of the movie was the setting and the setting was used to convey that reality is a collective halucination. However, a movie about a place doesn't generally have enough dialog to keep people (including me) interested. So, the writers introduced Morpheus and Agent Smith as a on-screen narrators whose job was simply to tell us about the setting when they're not kicking Neo's ass. The movie is not about Neo, it's about the world he discovers and what that means for our perception of reality.
In a book, the narrator is taken for granted, thus there's no need for a Morpheus character in Dune. Instead, the characters serve to fill the universe rather than the universe being a backdrop for the characters. It's a daring perspective that few writers outside SF use (and few SF writers pull off successfully.) It's the main reason why Dune still sells thousands of copies a year.
I agree with your sentiment wholeheartedly except for one key point. Several powerful representatives and senators (Barney Frank and Rod Grams are the two I remember), have lately come to embrace e-mail from constituents as just as valid as snail mail. The others are catching on. So go ahead and e-mail your representative and/or senators and let them know how you feel.
The house provides a search facility to make it easy to find your representative:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
The senate is not quite so helpful, but they also provide a list of members and e-mail links:
http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.c fm
My college avoided the debate over long distance carriers by refusing to allow any toll calls. If you wanted to call long distance, you used a calling card. This discussion has started me thinking, though. I had friends in long-distance relationships who could rack up $100+/month on a 15 cent/minute phone card. The average student probably spent $25/month. On a big campus, that equates to over a million minutes every month. Why haven't universities taken that buying power and negotiated five-cent-a-minute deals (or less)? Fewer people would go through the hassle of using IP telephony to save $3.00 on an hour-long call. Solves any bandwidth-sharing problems and saves the students money.
I recently graduated from a mid-western college and lived under a very strict intervisitation policy that had been in place since the founding of the school: No opposite sex visitors in the dorms at any time except Friday and Saturday from 6 pm - 1 am.
The dorm advisors were the enforcers and were actually sent on patrols through the halls between 1 am and 4 am to listen for the sounds of the opposite sex. (Sad, I know.)
The students are overwhelmingly in favor of a change, but the president and board are children of the fifties and sixties. At that time, social biases kept men and women from developing friendships and pursuing the same majors. There was no need for mixed sex study groups. Few guys had friends who were girls or vice versa. The only opposite sex visitors were girl/boyfriends. The problem here is that the people who are trying to make these rules had a college experience that would be unrecognizable to most of today's college students.