Andromeda has very little Rodenberry in it other than the names and a very very small plot tie. Originally "Planet Earth" http://imdb.com/title/tt0072000/ was the original Rodenberry vision.
Actually, considering that a call to Germany, for instance, costs 5 cents a minute using AT&T voip, and the same call using Skype would run 2 cents a minute. If you made a lot of international calls then Skype looks like the way to go. If you are in the U.S. and make a lot of domestic calls (more than 1500 minutes) then the AT&T solution would be better at $30 a month (probably not including taxes which would push the number of break-even minutes up). My only question about the Skype thing is the coverage. Would a person be able to call somewhere small and get a connection?
Otherwise you pay for calls to a standard landline or cell user. You can get unlimited voip from at&t to calls in the U.S. (and I think canada) for a flat rate that's relatively low if you use it a lot.
If you don't use it that much then Skype might be a better deal.
there's a big stinking mountain of shit underneath all this that could potentially cripple the whole industry?
Microsoft has been implicated via Baystar. Intel is being implicated. Novel has spoken about SCOs claims, but haven't taken any other definitive action. Nobody holding copyright to code in use by SCO has revoked right for SCO to use any of that code. SCOs use of the UNIX mark hasn't been revoked.
Your 'product' isn't something the customer can hold in their hands, taste, or smell. It's an intangible. They know their machine is getting fixed, the hardware is being installed, thier program is getting written, their network/server is being tweaked, etc... But, it's all intangible to them. That leaves customer service. They have to feel GOOD about what you've done. If they have any feeling that you can't do the work then no matter what you do, however great it is, won't be enough. They'll still feel uneasy about your work.
It also keeps people from calling and asking "Are you still doing computer work?"
What also helps the "warm & fuzzy factor" is when clients call you with no real reason at all. Perhaps all they need to do is reboot, but it's better to go there reboot 'wave a dead chicken around' and assure them that all is well (and bill them for it of course).
I'd also add to not make any promises. All my customers know that I will do what I can within the technical limits of the operating system (windows 99.9% of the time), and that at any given moment any one of a few thousand things in 'the machine' can go wrong. If you make promises that you can't keep, it impacts your reputation harder than anything else. Customers want honesty, not BS.
I absolutely do not believe "everything should be free", and I do think that Mr. Ellison has every right to go after those that copy his work without permission or compensation. I knew the chances that you were Ellison was slim since he is known to be somewhat of a technophobe (kind of a latter day Amish where the net is concerned). It was humor.
Current copyright laws as they are, courtesy of 'The Mouse', are an abomination to what it was originally meant. I recognize the original intent, not the current corporate intent. I work as a freelance computer tech so I'm not the copyright police, but I have lost jobs because I won't install software on multiple machines (such as one copy of windows 98). So, as you see, I do recognize copyright law even though at times it does tend to keep me from 'putting food on the table'.
I also do software so some of my income does rely on copyright law protections, directly.
No attempt to save a series is complete without the inclusion of Ted McGinley. Untill McGinley is on the show; the producers are only making a half-hearted effort to save it.
A bittorrent link. Lemme see.... 21 hours left on the download (and I'm on DSL). I'd much rather use ftp. Bittorrent... "decentralized", but slow as hell... total crap. Spooning my eyes out of my skull would be more fun. Of course it's "free" so it much be better. You fuckers with the modems are probably the ones slowing down the download rate. Get off the net or move over into the breakdown lane.
In my day you had to move little plastic or wood pieces around on a cardboard square, and the npc's (with advanced AI) talked back and sometimes called you names, and you didn't have to even use a keyboard. There were also stacks of little cardboard rectangles with glyphs on them that were also used to play a gazillion games with.
and the obligatory...
In the Soviet Union you didn't play the game, the game played you!
It's not a matter of a non-Linux operating system being used to view the site. It's this text "Please come back with a standards compliant operating system and browser." Who's standards? What standards? There are no 'standards'. If it said "Please come back with a Linux based operating system and browser" it would be another thing entirely. I get the feeling that the person(s) that put the page together are the same type of person(s) that berate people for asking a question about how to do 'X' in Linux using mixed case lettering and telling them they are n00bz.
I've experienced TrekMoo also, using my trusty BOFH Mark IV teletype.
With everything that's slated to be released, and the games at are already released; their going to have to push the Trek thing pretty hard. Sure, there are a lot of trekkies/trekkers that will still go for it, but I don't see it being a huge success in that time frame.
There's quite a few multiplayer games in the works, and this one is just a statistic now. On a fluke I did a yahoo search for a star trek mmorpg. Looks like one is in the works, but the release date is sometime in 2007. It will become a statistic also, and will fall under the "too sucky too late" category. Star Wars Galaxies barely scraped by that category although it's just kinda sucky.
Quite a few of the movies and tv shows that seem to be, or thought to be 'aimed' at children tend to be made by and for adults originally. Take "The Muppet Show" (which may have not been made for adults, specifically), for example. It's hilarious to a kid to watch, but it's even funnier to adults that get a lot of the 'in' jokes that only adult experience catches. Same for Looney Tunes cartoons.
I remember those days. I ran a BBS in northern california, but I was part of the Apple scene out there in the late 80's.
There's no difference (real) between now and then. It takes just as long to download an item over broadband (generally) as it did over a 12-2400 baud modem at that time.
It's played up as some cool new thing because ever 20 or so years everything comes full circle. All fashions do.
We that did it then just grew up and moved on to legitimate business. Those that do it now will, hopefully, grow up and move on to legitimate business. Those that don't will still be living in their parents basement 20 years from now, jacking off to stolen porn, bragging about how much credit they have that they can 'spend' to download more porn, and posting to slashdot or bragging to wired about how cool it is to be 'part of the scene'.
"Interesting that there is a capacity to seize land, especially in the United States where the right to property seems so enshrined in your constitution? I'll have to look into this further."
No need to look. There's no such thing as 'property rights' in the United States. Generally citizens 'rent' land from the local municpalities in the form of taxes. Don't pay your taxes, lose your land. Those that run traditional protection rackets should be proud.
Slashdot Mirror
Andromeda has very little Rodenberry in it other than the names and a very very small plot tie. Originally "Planet Earth" http://imdb.com/title/tt0072000/ was the original Rodenberry vision.
Actually, considering that a call to Germany, for instance, costs 5 cents a minute using AT&T voip, and the same call using Skype would run 2 cents a minute. If you made a lot of international calls then Skype looks like the way to go. If you are in the U.S. and make a lot of domestic calls (more than 1500 minutes) then the AT&T solution would be better at $30 a month (probably not including taxes which would push the number of break-even minutes up). My only question about the Skype thing is the coverage. Would a person be able to call somewhere small and get a connection?
Otherwise you pay for calls to a standard landline or cell user. You can get unlimited voip from at&t to calls in the U.S. (and I think canada) for a flat rate that's relatively low if you use it a lot.
If you don't use it that much then Skype might be a better deal.
there's a big stinking mountain of shit underneath all this that could potentially cripple the whole industry?
Microsoft has been implicated via Baystar.
Intel is being implicated.
Novel has spoken about SCOs claims, but haven't taken any other definitive action.
Nobody holding copyright to code in use by SCO has revoked right for SCO to use any of that code.
SCOs use of the UNIX mark hasn't been revoked.
There's a lot of silence out there.
Your 'product' isn't something the customer can hold in their hands, taste, or smell. It's an intangible. They know their machine is getting fixed, the hardware is being installed, thier program is getting written, their network/server is being tweaked, etc... But, it's all intangible to them. That leaves customer service. They have to feel GOOD about what you've done. If they have any feeling that you can't do the work then no matter what you do, however great it is, won't be enough. They'll still feel uneasy about your work.
It also keeps people from calling and asking "Are you still doing computer work?"
What also helps the "warm & fuzzy factor" is when clients call you with no real reason at all. Perhaps all they need to do is reboot, but it's better to go there reboot 'wave a dead chicken around' and assure them that all is well (and bill them for it of course).
I'd also add to not make any promises. All my customers know that I will do what I can within the technical limits of the operating system (windows 99.9% of the time), and that at any given moment any one of a few thousand things in 'the machine' can go wrong. If you make promises that you can't keep, it impacts your reputation harder than anything else. Customers want honesty, not BS.
I absolutely do not believe "everything should be free", and I do think that Mr. Ellison has every right to go after those that copy his work without permission or compensation. I knew the chances that you were Ellison was slim since he is known to be somewhat of a technophobe (kind of a latter day Amish where the net is concerned). It was humor.
Current copyright laws as they are, courtesy of 'The Mouse', are an abomination to what it was originally meant. I recognize the original intent, not the current corporate intent. I work as a freelance computer tech so I'm not the copyright police, but I have lost jobs because I won't install software on multiple machines (such as one copy of windows 98). So, as you see, I do recognize copyright law even though at times it does tend to keep me from 'putting food on the table'.
I also do software so some of my income does rely on copyright law protections, directly.
No attempt to save a series is complete without the inclusion of Ted McGinley. Untill McGinley is on the show; the producers are only making a half-hearted effort to save it.
Hi Mr. Ellison!
What is the potential lifespan of these things?
A bittorrent link. Lemme see.... 21 hours left on the download (and I'm on DSL). I'd much rather use ftp. Bittorrent... "decentralized", but slow as hell... total crap. Spooning my eyes out of my skull would be more fun. Of course it's "free" so it much be better.
You fuckers with the modems are probably the ones slowing down the download rate. Get off the net or move over into the breakdown lane.
In my day you had to move little plastic or wood pieces around on a cardboard square, and the npc's (with advanced AI) talked back and sometimes called you names, and you didn't have to even use a keyboard. There were also stacks of little cardboard rectangles with glyphs on them that were also used to play a gazillion games with.
and the obligatory...
In the Soviet Union you didn't play the game, the game played you!
It's not a matter of a non-Linux operating system being used to view the site. It's this text "Please come back with a standards compliant operating system and browser." Who's standards? What standards? There are no 'standards'. If it said "Please come back with a Linux based operating system and browser" it would be another thing entirely. I get the feeling that the person(s) that put the page together are the same type of person(s) that berate people for asking a question about how to do 'X' in Linux using mixed case lettering and telling them they are n00bz.
It certainly won't bring more people to Linux.
Yup, looks like a rock allright. Move along little rover, nothing more to see here.
I've experienced TrekMoo also, using my trusty BOFH Mark IV teletype.
With everything that's slated to be released, and the games at are already released; their going to have to push the Trek thing pretty hard. Sure, there are a lot of trekkies/trekkers that will still go for it, but I don't see it being a huge success in that time frame.
"You do know there's more MUD players in the world than there are MMORPG players right?"
That's a lot of teletypes.
"That won't change until your average geek can run his own MMORPG server."
That's a lot of teletypes to upgrade.
"In terms of gameplay there's no difference between the two what-so-ever anyway."
Perhaps, but teletypes make more noise. That noise must echo pretty loudly off of the walls in your parents basement.
There's quite a few multiplayer games in the works, and this one is just a statistic now. On a fluke I did a yahoo search for a star trek mmorpg. Looks like one is in the works, but the release date is sometime in 2007. It will become a statistic also, and will fall under the "too sucky too late" category. Star Wars Galaxies barely scraped by that category although it's just kinda sucky.
A 'MUD'? You use a teletype with that? What model teletype?
Doesn't KDE come with a calculator?
Quite a few of the movies and tv shows that seem to be, or thought to be 'aimed' at children tend to be made by and for adults originally. Take "The Muppet Show" (which may have not been made for adults, specifically), for example. It's hilarious to a kid to watch, but it's even funnier to adults that get a lot of the 'in' jokes that only adult experience catches. Same for Looney Tunes cartoons.
Ye gods!
Someone takes 2600 seriously these days? Aren't those guys still taking pictures of payphones? 2600 became irrelevant a long, long time ago.
I remember those days. I ran a BBS in northern california, but I was part of the Apple scene out there in the late 80's.
There's no difference (real) between now and then. It takes just as long to download an item over broadband (generally) as it did over a 12-2400 baud modem at that time.
It's played up as some cool new thing because ever 20 or so years everything comes full circle. All fashions do.
We that did it then just grew up and moved on to legitimate business. Those that do it now will, hopefully, grow up and move on to legitimate business. Those that don't will still be living in their parents basement 20 years from now, jacking off to stolen porn, bragging about how much credit they have that they can 'spend' to download more porn, and posting to slashdot or bragging to wired about how cool it is to be 'part of the scene'.
Bah, amber was a latecomer to the scene.
"Interesting that there is a capacity to seize land, especially in the United States where the right to property seems so enshrined in your constitution? I'll have to look into this further."
No need to look. There's no such thing as 'property rights' in the United States. Generally citizens 'rent' land from the local municpalities in the form of taxes. Don't pay your taxes, lose your land. Those that run traditional protection rackets should be proud.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.