...include the meaning of these cryptic terms: thesp segs sked or skedded starrer as well as the contextual meaning of "skein" and "topper", all of which were found in Variety's article, or should that be "arkle"? Possible interpretations include updated versions of "fnord", or possibly hackneyed "showbiz" "lingo."
But hang on space fans. While society is still reeling from this total loss of privacy, the company with the wormhole patent discovers that by adjusting its strnegth, you can actually watch things from the past as they happen. Eventually they work out sound and navigation, so you can in essence watch any point in history from any angle as many times as you want.
So what happens when you get tired of watching N*t*l** P*rtm*n from fertilized ovum onward?
My take on "stuff that matters" is that it should be something that the readership could conceivably and probably want to use. So somebody actually went to the trouble of building and testing one of Leo's designs, which the great man apparently never did himself. So what? Yes, the dude who did it succeeded when everyone else thought that he'd end up as a particularly juicy crop circle. Yes, he said that the ride was smoother. He also cut it loose and actually landed with a regular parachute because his DaVinci Special weighed 187 lbs. and would have crushed him if he'd tried to land with it. So much for jumping "from any great height whatsoever without injury." An interesting historical reconstruction, to be sure, but hardly as sexy as broadswords or backyard rockets, at least to the Klingons among us.
I have been rather extremely disappointed at the design for Vulcan ships - to carry out the stereotype, Vulcan hardware ought to be of extreme ugly functionality. But where I've seen it, it wasn't.
Ah, so you're equating "functionality" with "extreme ugly." That would be the Borg. Vulcans have never lacked for a sense of esthetics--witness Spock's lyre, their written language, their rituals, clothing, etc. I would suggest checking out David Gelertner's book Machine Beauty for an essay on the esthetics of functionality, or is it the other way around...
Kirk gets in the enterprise at spacedock, its like it was just dusted 5 seconds ago and all of the buttons just polished. You're in your typical spacecraft, with its typical array of sci-fi weaponry. It's painted bright white and covered with outdoor floodlights. One would think that would make the craft easy to target, but I'm sure it has its strategic purpose.
A couple of points, m'lud:
1) The Enterprise was a military ship; a certain amount of spit and polish was to be expected, unlike your basic freighter/smuggling vessel. Plus, the Enterprise never landed on a planet and had shields and deflectors to keep away the stardust; how would it get dirty?
2) Don't kid yourself that the spacecraft and their various dogfights, et al. shown in Star Wars are "realistic"; they have all the realism of the stereotypical space babe in the bikini and bubble helmet. The opening sequence of Episode IV is a great example; two starships capable of superluminal speeds have apparently very carefully matched speeds and headings so that they can exchange shots at point-blank range. As you said, I'm sure that there's some sort of strategic reason... but it's more likely that starships could be painted fluorescent green with big red neon crosshairs over their most vulnerable spots, and at the distances and velocities that space battles would be fought, it would scarcely make a difference.
That having been said, yes, Star Wars did make a huge difference in how these things are portrayed; witness Star Trek III, in which the Enterprise actually does pull into spacedock... horribly shot to crap. No reset button there.
Sugar? Alcohol? The same band of extraterrestrials is behind both--the Girl Drink Planet! Now you know what those little paper parasols are really for... they're surveillance devices.
(AP)--In the latest of a series of embarassing security breaches, officials at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory reported that two matchbook-sized hard drives were topped with peanut butter and eaten, allegedly by its newest employee, one H. Simpson. Sources quote Simpson as responding, "D'oh!"
Nice argument, but the pessimist in me insists on pointing out that the likes of M$ don't go after Dick & Jane; they go after Slashdot. The problem with restrictive licensing laws is that they can be selectively enforced, and gee, guess who they select? Kinda like cops who tend to stop mostly African-American motorists, even though everyone else around them is speeding.
Hey--let's not try to discourage any ISP from cutting their losses when subject to attacks from script kiddies. Why, differently-secure websites and their sysadmins and clients have a right to the dubdubdub too, ya know.
In fact, I think that these ISPs should make their, ah, discretion into a marketing tool. The public should be able to instantly recognize when a service is willing to cut someone loose when they dare to provide any sort of controversial content of any type--heck, any sort of content at all. (That's why our world is blessed with so many large, benevolent media conglomerates, after all.)
Now all we need is a logo. I suggest a cheerful cartoon of a barnyard fowl in the process of elimination. Impossible to miss!
Re:doesn't have to be phones
on
Iridium Saved?
·
· Score: 1
You're right, of course; the mothership could, for example, use the satellites to coordinate attacks on the world's major cities by its 15-mile-wide saucers. Gotta watch out for Trojan horses, though.
Point well taken. I think, though, that unless you're doing some type of WebTV couch-surf thing with one of those big ol' 42" flat-panel TVs hooked to your Mac(my dream system, actually), most likely your mouse will remain in close proximity to the rest of your system. Even with the couch-surf setup, the mouse(as described) would still seem to require a pad to rest on in order for the optical sensor to have something to track. How many mousepads do you have in your living room? If anyone out there in dubdubdubland has experience with cordless mice disappearing, pipe up.
As for the school/library situation, you're right... but the solution presents itself: check out the mice at the circulation/sysadmin desk whenever someone wants to use the machine. You lose it, you pay for it.
All nudge-nudge teledildonic assumptions aside, this actually sounds like something that I've dreamed about for a while: an ergonomic, user-defineable chording keyboard. Something that could register the number of fingertips pressing on the "control area" and their relative position would eliminate the need for keys in fixed positions and also make the mouse more lefty-friendly.
As for the fears of some that it would be difficult for newbies to learn, I think that the real fear is that it would be one more thing that the kids would have up on us: learning without the barrier of ingrained assumptions, they'd be sailing along on the thing while we're perplexedly searching for the button, like some old codger looking for the crank on the front of his Cadillac.
Learn without training wheels, sez I. You don't need the fixed, clicking button anymore than you need to keep your hands on the keyboard at all times, the exhortations of countless typing instructors (sworn to turn out the fastest typists possible for the secretarial pools of the nation) notwithstanding.
Wrong-o! The ultimate in nano would be Nanonatalie--just like the real Ms Portman, only more, ah... flexible. And able to morph into Alley Baggett on demand.
Also, there are linguistic problems, like the stupid Trek tagline, "Worf, fire at will." How will the game treat that situation? Will Worf shoot Riker?
Alright, Treksters, take a whack at identifying this man's "God":
1)Landru 2)Vaal 3)Jackson Roykirk 4)Kirok 5)R*sh L*mb**gh 6)The next person who gives him a cookie Winners will receive a copy of Violating the Prime Directive : Why Chicks Dig It, by James T. Kirk.*
*That is, when it's published three centuries in the future. Not six, I might add.
It is about time that us "geeks" re-claimed our Internet from the dumbed down masses. We should return to the days of ARPA, when only people with a legitimate requirement could get net access. The "democratization" (i.e. moronification) of the web has gone too far and is responsible for the majority of problems us "original internet users" are seeing. The flood of newbies must not only be stopped, it needs to be REVERSED. These non-tech-savvy people need cable TV, and not something as sophisticated and potentially dangerous as the Internet.
Perhaps a new more exclusive "elite" (in the good sense of the word) Internet should be set up, running only IPv6. Then we could capture some of the community spirit of the pre-AOL "good old days". And maybe these spammers, skript kiddies and trolls would back off.
I'm familiar with this argument, since (as others have observed) it not only pre-dates Mosaic, but the Internet, if not language itself. It's your basic "Last One in Shangri-La" attitude, where the first impulse upon reacing the Promised Land is to fence it in and post sentries. This applies equally to your favorite neighborhood bar (would "Cheers" have been nearly as popular if the producers had shown the tavern as being thronged with the same hordes of tourists which afflict the real-life bar?) and to big-ass networks costing gazillions to build, maintain, and upgrade, most of which cost ultimately comes out of the pockets of, ah, "These non-tech-savvy people".
I think that the reason that this attitude bothers me and others so much is that, at its heart, what AC and his ilk are saying, all affectations of technoelitism aside, is: "I want to be the dumbest, dullest, rudest, crudest, and entirely most useless person on the dubdubdub. I want the bar raised precisely to the point where I can feel it graze the back of my neck as I clumsily heave myself over it. I want the level of expertise set at the last UNIX command or HTML tag that I happened to pick up, pretty much by accident, while shoulder-surfing someone who may not particularly enjoy kibbitzers but, unlike myself, has learned the virtue of patience. I don't want to have to, say, upgrade my own orthography to improve the quality of my searches on "googal". Bottom line: the less mosquitoes, leeches, and ticks there are, more blood for me."
Slashdot Mirror
thesp
segs
sked or skedded
starrer
as well as the contextual meaning of "skein" and "topper", all of which were found in Variety's article, or should that be "arkle"? Possible interpretations include updated versions of "fnord", or possibly hackneyed "showbiz" "lingo."
So what happens when you get tired of watching N*t*l** P*rtm*n from fertilized ovum onward?
LOL! I always figured humanity's last word would be something like, "Oops."
How about, "What do you mean, it doesn't have an 'off' switch?!?"
Ah, so you're equating "functionality" with "extreme ugly." That would be the Borg. Vulcans have never lacked for a sense of esthetics--witness Spock's lyre, their written language, their rituals, clothing, etc. I would suggest checking out David Gelertner's book Machine Beauty for an essay on the esthetics of functionality, or is it the other way around...
...you have issues.
A couple of points, m'lud:
1) The Enterprise was a military ship; a certain amount of spit and polish was to be expected, unlike your basic freighter/smuggling vessel. Plus, the Enterprise never landed on a planet and had shields and deflectors to keep away the stardust; how would it get dirty?
2) Don't kid yourself that the spacecraft and their various dogfights, et al. shown in Star Wars are "realistic"; they have all the realism of the stereotypical space babe in the bikini and bubble helmet. The opening sequence of Episode IV is a great example; two starships capable of superluminal speeds have apparently very carefully matched speeds and headings so that they can exchange shots at point-blank range. As you said, I'm sure that there's some sort of strategic reason... but it's more likely that starships could be painted fluorescent green with big red neon crosshairs over their most vulnerable spots, and at the distances and velocities that space battles would be fought, it would scarcely make a difference.
That having been said, yes, Star Wars did make a huge difference in how these things are portrayed; witness Star Trek III, in which the Enterprise actually does pull into spacedock... horribly shot to crap. No reset button there.
(AP)--In the latest of a series of embarassing security breaches, officials at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory reported that two matchbook-sized hard drives were topped with peanut butter and eaten, allegedly by its newest employee, one H. Simpson. Sources quote Simpson as responding, "D'oh!"
OK, let's put this baby to rest, once and for all:
Everything in the universe, by definition, moves, simply because it all revolves around me.
Say, has Nerve had its IPO yet?
Kinda like talking about what went on before the Big Bang, yes?
In fact, I think that these ISPs should make their, ah, discretion into a marketing tool. The public should be able to instantly recognize when a service is willing to cut someone loose when they dare to provide any sort of controversial content of any type--heck, any sort of content at all. (That's why our world is blessed with so many large, benevolent media conglomerates, after all.)
Now all we need is a logo. I suggest a cheerful cartoon of a barnyard fowl in the process of elimination. Impossible to miss!
As for the school/library situation, you're right... but the solution presents itself: check out the mice at the circulation/sysadmin desk whenever someone wants to use the machine. You lose it, you pay for it.
As for the fears of some that it would be difficult for newbies to learn, I think that the real fear is that it would be one more thing that the kids would have up on us: learning without the barrier of ingrained assumptions, they'd be sailing along on the thing while we're perplexedly searching for the button, like some old codger looking for the crank on the front of his Cadillac.
Learn without training wheels, sez I. You don't need the fixed, clicking button anymore than you need to keep your hands on the keyboard at all times, the exhortations of countless typing instructors (sworn to turn out the fastest typists possible for the secretarial pools of the nation) notwithstanding.
4D, huh? You mean that she ages? Lara has breast-reduction surgery as they begin to sag, gets a real estate license, hits on your little brother.
Hey, I'd play it.
Wrong-o! The ultimate in nano would be Nanonatalie--just like the real Ms Portman, only more, ah... flexible. And able to morph into Alley Baggett on demand.
Also, there are linguistic problems, like the stupid Trek tagline, "Worf, fire at will." How will the game treat that situation? Will Worf shoot Riker?
One can only hope.
1)Landru
2)Vaal
3)Jackson Roykirk
4)Kirok
5)R*sh L*mb**gh
6)The next person who gives him a cookie
Winners will receive a copy of Violating the Prime Directive : Why Chicks Dig It, by James T. Kirk.*
*That is, when it's published three centuries in the future. Not six, I might add.
Perhaps a new more exclusive "elite" (in the good sense of the word) Internet should be set up, running only IPv6. Then we could capture some of the community spirit of the pre-AOL "good old days". And maybe these spammers, skript kiddies and trolls would back off.
I'm familiar with this argument, since (as others have observed) it not only pre-dates Mosaic, but the Internet, if not language itself. It's your basic "Last One in Shangri-La" attitude, where the first impulse upon reacing the Promised Land is to fence it in and post sentries. This applies equally to your favorite neighborhood bar (would "Cheers" have been nearly as popular if the producers had shown the tavern as being thronged with the same hordes of tourists which afflict the real-life bar?) and to big-ass networks costing gazillions to build, maintain, and upgrade, most of which cost ultimately comes out of the pockets of, ah, "These non-tech-savvy people".
I think that the reason that this attitude bothers me and others so much is that, at its heart, what AC and his ilk are saying, all affectations of technoelitism aside, is: "I want to be the dumbest, dullest, rudest, crudest, and entirely most useless person on the dubdubdub. I want the bar raised precisely to the point where I can feel it graze the back of my neck as I clumsily heave myself over it. I want the level of expertise set at the last UNIX command or HTML tag that I happened to pick up, pretty much by accident, while shoulder-surfing someone who may not particularly enjoy kibbitzers but, unlike myself, has learned the virtue of patience. I don't want to have to, say, upgrade my own orthography to improve the quality of my searches on "googal". Bottom line: the less mosquitoes, leeches, and ticks there are, more blood for me."
Nice try, ace, but the original post read:
Coherent and well-argued, Jon.
Why aren't your articles like that?
That's not a request, it's begging the question.
Yours for better reading comprehension skills,
HJ