I still have mine! To be precise, it's a VF-1S Super Veritech. The snap-on armor (hence the "Super") gave up the ghost long ago, and one of the knees has lost all tension, but it sits on the headboard of my bed to this day (next to an Invid trooper).
I've heard that Macross (the first 1/3 of Robotech) was actually where the concept of transforming mecha first appeared. Can anyone verify this?
I love the Transformers, but two things about them have always bugged me. First is their terrible aim. C'mon, I'd think that a robot would be deadly accurate, but except for the movie they almost never actually *hit* anything.
Second, if you look at the geometry of the Autobots as they transform from vehicle to robot mode, a grisly fate would await anyone unfortunate enough to be riding *inside* them, particularly with the smaller guys like Bumblebee. I do recall instances in the cartoon where they transformed with passengers inside, but of course the humans never got squished. Kind of a pity...;)
OPTIMUS PRIME: Autobots, transform!
[INSERT TRANSFORMATION SOUND EFFECT]
[INSERT AGONIZED SHRIEK, MIXED WITH WET CRUNCHING SOUND]
OPTIMUS PRIME: Bumblebee, your chest is drenched in blood!
BUMBLEBEE: Oh my god!!!
Hee hee. There's a site out there somewhere (I don't have the URL) that has entire episodes in.mpg format. We used to pull 'em down and watch them off the network when we were on Saturday rotation.
"What's a nubian?" Bitch, you almost made me laugh.;)
Fantastic movie. BTW, for those who don't know, it's a quote from "Chasing Amy."
OK, a little more on-topic, I have to agree that DirecTV's decision to handle this on the technical battlefield rather than the legal one boosts my respect for them considerably. I'm neither a subscriber nor a hacker, but I've been following this story through a friend for several months now. It's amazing stuff. Very cyberpunk/Max Headroom.
I completely agree. I suspect that the screenwriter read the Cliff's Notes a few years back and filled in the (huge) gaps with random crap. It's been quite a while since I read the book, but as I recall the Sardaukar were supposed to be total bad-asses- the Emperor's elite shock troops. So who were those pot-bellied old men escorting Irulan around?
There were a couple of scenes in the book that I'd always wished had been included in the movie, namely the scene with Jessica in the arboreum discovering the message left for her in the plant leaves and Feyd's florentine-style fight against a slave wearing a half-shield. I'm guessing that the scene last night with Jessica in the garden and Feyd kicking that guy's butt with the big stick were supposed to be them, but it's hard to tell because there are almost no other similarities.
The Fremen we've seen so far look positively soft (and in some cases even a bit overweight!).
The Guild steersman looked like a leftover special effect from Cocoon, and "nobody has ever seen one?" Please!
The arial dogfight was pretty, but unimpressive, and had absolutely no business being there in the first place. I'll bet that the sand plays havoc with those ornithopter fans!
It takes more than funky camera angles to make a villain. The Harkonnens were made out to be cartoon-like bad guys. I half expected to hear "my new death ray will destroy the Superfriends once and for all!" And what's up with the name pronunciations? Ugh.
During the first commercial break a friend of mine called me from out of state to say "do you believe how badly they're mangling this?" I told him that you couldn't condemn a 6-hour program based on the first 10 minutes.
Clearly I owe him an apology (Eric, if you're reading this, you're absolutely right).
If Santa's got a blank check, I'd like to have the gift that literally keeps on giving: immortality! The US$50,000 price tag for a neurosuspension at Alcor (http://www.alcor.org) seems cheap considering the potential benefit!
The really big enchilada, though, would be a general nanoassembler (or universal constructor, if you prefer)! Then EVERY day would be Christmas, 'cause you could manufacture pretty much anything you wanted out of dirt and a few heavy metals. Woo hoo!
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRepNATO.html
Maybe he found a way to write a TCP/IP stack and graphical web browser to fit into the 2600's memory. The big buttons are easier to see on the tiny display.;)
I remember back around `83 our whole class went on a field trip from upstate New York to Niagra Falls. One kid had a 2600 that his dad had stripped down and a "portable" (by early `80's standards) TV, along with a battery pack to run 'em. He played Atari games on the bus, and we were all envious as hell.
I never thought I'd see something like this. Absolutely beautiful.
Agreed- the game is stupendous! They did a marvelous job of capturing the look and feel of the movie, right down to the music.
Interestingly, it also includes the possibility that McCoy, the player's character, is himself a replicant. Further, it can be played through several times as almost completely different games- who's a replicant and who isn't varies each time.
I picked it up when it was still at full retail- no regrets whatsoever.
Egad! I thought I was the only one who ever slogged their way through MLX! It was worth it though to get a "feature-rich" word processor like Speedscript, which I actually used for college papers up until about `91 or so.
Ahh... the days before bloat...
Does anyone know if there are any Xerox PARC PCs still functioning? I saw one on a documentary a couple of years ago.
I must admit that I haven't read "Forever War", but after hearing it compared favorably with Starship Troopers I'll have to give it a look.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Haldeman at a sci-fi con a while back- he's an interesting gentleman.
I can assure you that the ACS is a reputable organization. My wife works "in the biz" and has been affiliated with them for some time.
It seems like just a few short years ago the very idea of molecular nanotechnology was ridiculed by the mainstream. Now the discussion seems to center around "when", rather than "if". It's good to see organizations like the ACS (and IBM, for that matter) lending some respectability to this field.
As far as literature on the subject, I highly recommend "Engines of Creation" by K Eric Drexler. This was my first introduction to nanotech, and it's well thought out. Drexler leans a bit toward the optimistic side (probably rightfully so), but he does cover the potential abuses of nanotech. The entire text of the book is now available online at
http://www.foresight.org/EOC/index.html
As far as fiction goes, there's a wonderful anthology called "Nanotech", edited by Gardner R. Dozois (ISBN 0-7394-0154-8). It kicks much ass! There are several different takes on nanotech provided, and they're all well written and insightful.
Slashdot Mirror
I still have mine! To be precise, it's a VF-1S Super Veritech. The snap-on armor (hence the "Super") gave up the ghost long ago, and one of the knees has lost all tension, but it sits on the headboard of my bed to this day (next to an Invid trooper).
;)
.mpg format. We used to pull 'em down and watch them off the network when we were on Saturday rotation.
I've heard that Macross (the first 1/3 of Robotech) was actually where the concept of transforming mecha first appeared. Can anyone verify this?
I love the Transformers, but two things about them have always bugged me. First is their terrible aim. C'mon, I'd think that a robot would be deadly accurate, but except for the movie they almost never actually *hit* anything.
Second, if you look at the geometry of the Autobots as they transform from vehicle to robot mode, a grisly fate would await anyone unfortunate enough to be riding *inside* them, particularly with the smaller guys like Bumblebee. I do recall instances in the cartoon where they transformed with passengers inside, but of course the humans never got squished. Kind of a pity...
OPTIMUS PRIME: Autobots, transform!
[INSERT TRANSFORMATION SOUND EFFECT]
[INSERT AGONIZED SHRIEK, MIXED WITH WET CRUNCHING SOUND]
OPTIMUS PRIME: Bumblebee, your chest is drenched in blood!
BUMBLEBEE: Oh my god!!!
Hee hee. There's a site out there somewhere (I don't have the URL) that has entire episodes in
-Ares
"It's over, Prime."
-Megatron
"What's a nubian?" Bitch, you almost made me laugh. ;)
Fantastic movie. BTW, for those who don't know, it's a quote from "Chasing Amy."
OK, a little more on-topic, I have to agree that DirecTV's decision to handle this on the technical battlefield rather than the legal one boosts my respect for them considerably. I'm neither a subscriber nor a hacker, but I've been following this story through a friend for several months now. It's amazing stuff. Very cyberpunk/Max Headroom.
-Ares
I completely agree. I suspect that the screenwriter read the Cliff's Notes a few years back and filled in the (huge) gaps with random crap. It's been quite a while since I read the book, but as I recall the Sardaukar were supposed to be total bad-asses- the Emperor's elite shock troops. So who were those pot-bellied old men escorting Irulan around?
There were a couple of scenes in the book that I'd always wished had been included in the movie, namely the scene with Jessica in the arboreum discovering the message left for her in the plant leaves and Feyd's florentine-style fight against a slave wearing a half-shield. I'm guessing that the scene last night with Jessica in the garden and Feyd kicking that guy's butt with the big stick were supposed to be them, but it's hard to tell because there are almost no other similarities.
The Fremen we've seen so far look positively soft (and in some cases even a bit overweight!).
The Guild steersman looked like a leftover special effect from Cocoon, and "nobody has ever seen one?" Please!
The arial dogfight was pretty, but unimpressive, and had absolutely no business being there in the first place. I'll bet that the sand plays havoc with those ornithopter fans!
It takes more than funky camera angles to make a villain. The Harkonnens were made out to be cartoon-like bad guys. I half expected to hear "my new death ray will destroy the Superfriends once and for all!" And what's up with the name pronunciations? Ugh.
During the first commercial break a friend of mine called me from out of state to say "do you believe how badly they're mangling this?" I told him that you couldn't condemn a 6-hour program based on the first 10 minutes.
Clearly I owe him an apology (Eric, if you're reading this, you're absolutely right).
One could go on and on, but I'll end here.
-Cybrex
If Santa's got a blank check, I'd like to have the gift that literally keeps on giving: immortality! The US$50,000 price tag for a neurosuspension at Alcor (http://www.alcor.org) seems cheap considering the potential benefit!
The really big enchilada, though, would be a general nanoassembler (or universal constructor, if you prefer)! Then EVERY day would be Christmas, 'cause you could manufacture pretty much anything you wanted out of dirt and a few heavy metals. Woo hoo!
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRepNATO.html
-Cybrex
Maybe he found a way to write a TCP/IP stack and graphical web browser to fit into the 2600's memory. The big buttons are easier to see on the tiny display. ;)
I remember back around `83 our whole class went on a field trip from upstate New York to Niagra Falls. One kid had a 2600 that his dad had stripped down and a "portable" (by early `80's standards) TV, along with a battery pack to run 'em. He played Atari games on the bus, and we were all envious as hell.
I never thought I'd see something like this. Absolutely beautiful.
-Cybrex
Agreed- the game is stupendous! They did a marvelous job of capturing the look and feel of the movie, right down to the music.
Interestingly, it also includes the possibility that McCoy, the player's character, is himself a replicant. Further, it can be played through several times as almost completely different games- who's a replicant and who isn't varies each time.
I picked it up when it was still at full retail- no regrets whatsoever.
-Cybrex
Egad! I thought I was the only one who ever slogged their way through MLX! It was worth it though to get a "feature-rich" word processor like Speedscript, which I actually used for college papers up until about `91 or so.
Ahh... the days before bloat...
Does anyone know if there are any Xerox PARC PCs still functioning? I saw one on a documentary a couple of years ago.
-Cybrex
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Haldeman at a sci-fi con a while back- he's an interesting gentleman.
I can assure you that the ACS is a reputable organization. My wife works "in the biz" and has been affiliated with them for some time.
It seems like just a few short years ago the very idea of molecular nanotechnology was ridiculed by the mainstream. Now the discussion seems to center around "when", rather than "if". It's good to see organizations like the ACS (and IBM, for that matter) lending some respectability to this field.
As far as literature on the subject, I highly recommend "Engines of Creation" by K Eric Drexler. This was my first introduction to nanotech, and it's well thought out. Drexler leans a bit toward the optimistic side (probably rightfully so), but he does cover the potential abuses of nanotech. The entire text of the book is now available online at
http://www.foresight.org/EOC/index.html
As far as fiction goes, there's a wonderful anthology called "Nanotech", edited by Gardner R. Dozois (ISBN 0-7394-0154-8). It kicks much ass! There are several different takes on nanotech provided, and they're all well written and insightful.
For what it's worth.
-Eric Krastel