One of the things that has made me cooler towards BSG, is that it lacks, ironically, one of the things I've hated about the original BSG: Humor.
First season: Kewl! Seriousness! No disco music in space, no comedy relief robot antics, none of the (then)cornball jokes! Second season: Kewl. More seriousness, nice parallel with current events in the real world. Third season: Kewl? More seriousness, moving now into more oooh spooky booga booga mysticism.
I mean, come on, put something in to lighten the mood! Yeah yeah, post 9/11 this, post 9/11 that, I don't think the terrorists stole our sense of humor, however. Hate us for it like they may.
In BSG, the only light mood stuff was a fight club boxing match and they found food on the algae planet (talk about your unimaginative stellar cartographers there, eh?). Render unto me a freaking break, to quote a friend.
IMO, the problem today is that there is no unified effort to resurrect the Amiga. Hell, even in the case of the AmigaOne motherboard, you had to have an original Amiga to hook it up to, in order to utilize the existing graphics chipset. It was made by a relatively unknown company (presumably the lowest bidder) for a barely existant company (ditto), and died because they couldn't even find a vendor for a decent northbridge chipset. Frankly, with this amount of discordant practice, it's a miracle they made the AmigaOne board to begin with.
Instead, what is needed is a company that can handle all aspects from fabrication through coding, which before Commodore was plowed into the ground (ironically, by the same guy who later plowed Atari into the ground), was what they had. Only without the guy who would plow it into the ground.
Ironically, the one company that technically could do it (and open up a whole new arena for their multimedia capabilities) is Apple. It's a pity they don't buy out the Amiga rights altogether (and a touch ironic to boot, since Amiga was their chief multimedia competitor for many years).
For that matter, who owns the rights to the Amiga graphics chipsets these days? Why not just restart fabs on those, incorporate them onto a PCI card, with a modern kickstart rom? The chipset should be easy enough to make with modern equipment, if not cheaper, or even just combining the lot to one single chip. All hypothetically speaking, mind you.
Hell, they could easily update it to use in their new videogame console project, maybe it'll even fare better than Pippin.
Boost Mobile has built in GPS systems in their current phones, and even have a game where you seek and locate friends with the same setup.
Now depending on the age of the kids, the whole "YRO" aspect is kinda dubious. Considering we live in an age where kids under 14 have cellular phones, is it really so wrong for parents to want to know where they are, and for that matter, is it really an issue of "rights"? Sure, if it's being used for tracking adults, then yes, it is. But not in keeping track of kids (as opposed to what, implanting chips/RFID chips in them? At the least, this is the least intrusive).
I think a better idea would be to have an entire Federation ship get transported, crew and all, to the post "Mirror Mirror" universe. Imagine trying to bring Federation ideals to a universe where the entirity of humanity has been enslaved, their allies in their own universe are even more vengeful and corrupt, and for the most part, theirs is the only ship really capable of holding its' own (and that's just barely).
Imagine the Hell of finding any allies, let alone their having to lead by example, with Federation rules and regulations.
Unlike Voyager, they're familiar with all of the species and planets, and irony of ironies, even the Borg have a chance at making for a formidable ally species.
Or, for that matter, why not make an ENTIRE series take place in the Mirror Mirror universe, no Federation, instead, follow those rebelling against their oppressors?
HDTV is currently experiencing the same growing pains as color TV. Chiefly price. Unless you have a well secured job and have been socking away money for several rainy days, and have stellar credit, it's unlikely you'll be willing to drop 1/2 to 1 month's wages on a set, even if it's to impress your friends.
It's when you see the most basic HDTV sets (eg; 20" or so, no fancy features short of one HDMI port) going for under $200, that you'll see an explosion of business for broadcasters.
There's precious little incentive to spend an additional $100 for an digital enabled SDTV set either, because there isn't really any point to having it right now. That, however, may be the only way to get the business model underway, since we won't really have any choice by the time the decade's out.
It's a pity they won't allow for further backwards compatability, which will make at least half the TV sets into landfill waste (don't worry, it'll be our kids, or our *insert random word* overlords' problem).
Besides that, imagine how things would be in areas where corporal punishment gets a relatively free hand (so to speak). Who would know about it, if someone wasn't there with a camera?
For the last, what, one, two centuries, teachers have regularly abused their students, beating them down, in some form of apparent pathology or another. Some because they felt they had to squash intelligent students because they were as well, when they were kids, or in others, they chose to because some students threatened the status quo.
However, in another recent case, someone with a cell phone camera recorded a pro-creationist teacher telling science students in school that they would go to Hell for not accepting creationism as fact.
Simply put? Just as people can use cameras in this surveillance based society to imprison the innocent, it can equally be used to imprison the guilty. So if you can't deal with the idea of being dressed down because you were stupid enough to let your own stupidity be caught on camera, don't bitch about it. Suck it up, or cut it out. Plain and simple.
Kent: We've come up with a camera so tiny it fits into this oversized
novelty hat.
[Homer puts it on, and struggles to stand upright]
Now, go get us some incriminating footage, and remember: you have
to get in and out in ten minutes, or you'll suffer permanent neck
damage.
Man: [neck horribly twisted] He's not kidding. -- Moving in for the kill, "Homer and Apu"
Homer walks towards the Kwik-E-Mart doors, swaying and weaving. Apu watches him, curious. {Two seconds of the swaying and weaving are cut in syndication.}
Apu: Huh? Homer: Don't be alarmed, Apu. Just go about your daily routine like I'm
not wearing the hat.
Apu: Your headgear seems to be emitting a buzzing noise, sir. Perhaps
you have a bee in your bonnet? Homer: Bee? Aah! [stomps on hat, runs out]
Kent: Homer, that hat's been with the station twenty years! He had one
day left till retirement. -- A sad day for Channel Six, "Homer and Apu"
But the camera inside the hat still works. It is pointed at Apu.
Apu: Well, time to replenish the hot dog roller. La, la -- oops
[drops a hot dog] Oh, no -- it is encrusted with filth. [blows
it off] Oh well, let's sell it anyway. Now this is just between
me and you...smashed hat. Hee hee --
As I recall, back in '96 there were a lot of Republicans whining about voter fraud. Same thing happened when Nixon lost to Kennedy. So whining about voting fraud isn't exclusively their right.
The iPod theater headset has been around for over a decade now, this one is just a retool of the "virtual TV" sold during the 90s. I can't believe they're calling this new.
I'd be more willing to spend $199 (or whatever the retail price is) on OS X for generic x86, than I would be to pay the price (both for a legit copy, and a whole new machine) for Vista.
I'm just not 1337 enough to use Linux, being a graphic artist and not willing to have to relearn a completely different OS.
I was using Macs before the PC got to a point of usability for me with Windows, it would be ironic to go full circle.
Way back when, if memory serves, there wasn't really any such thing as "nerds". Even if their preferred levels of study were scientific, back in the 40s/50s, most of those who were in academics were either (a) fighting the evil Nazi scientists, or (b) fighting the evil Communist scientists.
Beyond that, most astronauts were (at least according to "The Right Stuff", if not local lore, if not bios) in it, in those days, to be "The First". It didn't matter how low. First astronaut to orbit the Earth twice? Woo hoo! First astronaut to do a spacewalk? Woo hoo! First astronaut to piss his spacesuit? Woo -uh... Screw it, woo hoo!
And so on and so forth. In a sense, this is kind of why a lot of human space exploration has gotten kinda boring. There aren't really any new "firsts". So in essense, the only true "nerds" in space travel, are the entrepeneurs and dreamers who're fighting red tape and whatnot, to be the first to put civilians in space.
Ironically, something Nasa, et al, have promised for almost 40 years now.
For one, if said beef doesn't involve adding non-species DNA, or said milk, then why is it a problem? Secondly, I've grown up with the general idea of "tank raised beef". Sure, it was sci-fi then (around the late 70s, early 80s), but you know, if there's no nervous system in the food stock, there's no guilt.
Since there's no need for hundreds, if not thousands of acreage to raise said meat/milk, then you're basically making an improvement.
Even if there's a usage of antibiotics and steroids to maintain this supply, it's no different or worst than what we're doing now with breathing and feeling animals. Most of the usual whiners should, in fact, welcome this.
Slashdot Mirror
That's okay, Harrison Ford will return the favor with the next TV to movie adaptation, titled "Ranger: Texas Walker".
Please, will someone stop the old action heroes before someone shatters a hip?
Along with other genitalia, but really, is porn THAT nessesarily dependant on absolute clarity?
Pornography is largely fantasy to begin with. It is dependant on imagery at best. It is hardly dependant on detail.
It's like the Bill Hicks "Hairy Man Ass Channel" joke. Do you really need to see *that* level of detail?
Except for quality of direction, and level of quality, do you need to be able to view spermatozoa @720i to be able to judge a money shot?
No, that's just Michael Bay.
"There's farts in them thar hills!" doesn't have the same appeal.
There. Now gimme my goddamned Ferarri laptop, Bill.
One of the things that has made me cooler towards BSG, is that it lacks, ironically, one of the things I've hated about the original BSG: Humor.
First season: Kewl! Seriousness! No disco music in space, no comedy relief robot antics, none of the (then)cornball jokes!
Second season: Kewl. More seriousness, nice parallel with current events in the real world.
Third season: Kewl? More seriousness, moving now into more oooh spooky booga booga mysticism.
I mean, come on, put something in to lighten the mood! Yeah yeah, post 9/11 this, post 9/11 that, I don't think the terrorists stole our sense of humor, however. Hate us for it like they may.
In BSG, the only light mood stuff was a fight club boxing match and they found food on the algae planet (talk about your unimaginative stellar cartographers there, eh?). Render unto me a freaking break, to quote a friend.
IMO, the problem today is that there is no unified effort to resurrect the Amiga. Hell, even in the case of the AmigaOne motherboard, you had to have an original Amiga to hook it up to, in order to utilize the existing graphics chipset. It was made by a relatively unknown company (presumably the lowest bidder) for a barely existant company (ditto), and died because they couldn't even find a vendor for a decent northbridge chipset. Frankly, with this amount of discordant practice, it's a miracle they made the AmigaOne board to begin with.
Instead, what is needed is a company that can handle all aspects from fabrication through coding, which before Commodore was plowed into the ground (ironically, by the same guy who later plowed Atari into the ground), was what they had. Only without the guy who would plow it into the ground.
Ironically, the one company that technically could do it (and open up a whole new arena for their multimedia capabilities) is Apple. It's a pity they don't buy out the Amiga rights altogether (and a touch ironic to boot, since Amiga was their chief multimedia competitor for many years).
For that matter, who owns the rights to the Amiga graphics chipsets these days? Why not just restart fabs on those, incorporate them onto a PCI card, with a modern kickstart rom? The chipset should be easy enough to make with modern equipment, if not cheaper, or even just combining the lot to one single chip. All hypothetically speaking, mind you.
Hell, they could easily update it to use in their new videogame console project, maybe it'll even fare better than Pippin.
Boost Mobile has built in GPS systems in their current phones, and even have a game where you seek and locate friends with the same setup.
Now depending on the age of the kids, the whole "YRO" aspect is kinda dubious. Considering we live in an age where kids under 14 have cellular phones, is it really so wrong for parents to want to know where they are, and for that matter, is it really an issue of "rights"? Sure, if it's being used for tracking adults, then yes, it is. But not in keeping track of kids (as opposed to what, implanting chips/RFID chips in them? At the least, this is the least intrusive).
From past observations, I think what it really boils down to is:
When Republicans do something bad, they pretend that it wasn't.
When Democrats do something bad, they pretend they never did it.
I think a better idea would be to have an entire Federation ship get transported, crew and all, to the post "Mirror Mirror" universe. Imagine trying to bring Federation ideals to a universe where the entirity of humanity has been enslaved, their allies in their own universe are even more vengeful and corrupt, and for the most part, theirs is the only ship really capable of holding its' own (and that's just barely).
Imagine the Hell of finding any allies, let alone their having to lead by example, with Federation rules and regulations.
Unlike Voyager, they're familiar with all of the species and planets, and irony of ironies, even the Borg have a chance at making for a formidable ally species.
Or, for that matter, why not make an ENTIRE series take place in the Mirror Mirror universe, no Federation, instead, follow those rebelling against their oppressors?
HDTV is currently experiencing the same growing pains as color TV. Chiefly price. Unless you have a well secured job and have been socking away money for several rainy days, and have stellar credit, it's unlikely you'll be willing to drop 1/2 to 1 month's wages on a set, even if it's to impress your friends.
It's when you see the most basic HDTV sets (eg; 20" or so, no fancy features short of one HDMI port) going for under $200, that you'll see an explosion of business for broadcasters.
There's precious little incentive to spend an additional $100 for an digital enabled SDTV set either, because there isn't really any point to having it right now. That, however, may be the only way to get the business model underway, since we won't really have any choice by the time the decade's out.
It's a pity they won't allow for further backwards compatability, which will make at least half the TV sets into landfill waste (don't worry, it'll be our kids, or our *insert random word* overlords' problem).
Besides that, imagine how things would be in areas where corporal punishment gets a relatively free hand (so to speak). Who would know about it, if someone wasn't there with a camera?
For the last, what, one, two centuries, teachers have regularly abused their students, beating them down, in some form of apparent pathology or another. Some because they felt they had to squash intelligent students because they were as well, when they were kids, or in others, they chose to because some students threatened the status quo.
However, in another recent case, someone with a cell phone camera recorded a pro-creationist teacher telling science students in school that they would go to Hell for not accepting creationism as fact.
Simply put? Just as people can use cameras in this surveillance based society to imprison the innocent, it can equally be used to imprison the guilty. So if you can't deal with the idea of being dressed down because you were stupid enough to let your own stupidity be caught on camera, don't bitch about it. Suck it up, or cut it out. Plain and simple.
Wiimen and Chiildren fiirst!
Kent: We've come up with a camera so tiny it fits into this oversized
novelty hat.
[Homer puts it on, and struggles to stand upright]
Now, go get us some incriminating footage, and remember: you have
to get in and out in ten minutes, or you'll suffer permanent neck
damage.
Man: [neck horribly twisted] He's not kidding.
-- Moving in for the kill, "Homer and Apu"
Homer walks towards the Kwik-E-Mart doors, swaying and weaving. Apu
watches him, curious. {Two seconds of the swaying and weaving are cut
in syndication.}
Apu: Huh?
Homer: Don't be alarmed, Apu. Just go about your daily routine like I'm
not wearing the hat.
Apu: Your headgear seems to be emitting a buzzing noise, sir. Perhaps
you have a bee in your bonnet?
Homer: Bee? Aah! [stomps on hat, runs out]
Kent: Homer, that hat's been with the station twenty years! He had one
day left till retirement.
-- A sad day for Channel Six, "Homer and Apu"
But the camera inside the hat still works. It is pointed at Apu.
Apu: Well, time to replenish the hot dog roller. La, la -- oops
[drops a hot dog] Oh, no -- it is encrusted with filth. [blows
it off] Oh well, let's sell it anyway. Now this is just between
me and you...smashed hat. Hee hee --
My mom mentioned that when she first saw the ugly mass of blocks composing the building, that she thought it was a sewage treatment plant.
Ironically, she wasn't that far from the truth.
As I recall, back in '96 there were a lot of Republicans whining about voter fraud. Same thing happened when Nixon lost to Kennedy. So whining about voting fraud isn't exclusively their right.
And it was delicious!
The iPod theater headset has been around for over a decade now, this one is just a retool of the "virtual TV" sold during the 90s. I can't believe they're calling this new.
Took me half a second to find a varient being sold online:
http://www.audio-outfitters.com/ezVision.html
That's what Bender said in the Robo-Were-Car episode of Futurama, the episode tonight. And ironically, it's true today!
I'd be more willing to spend $199 (or whatever the retail price is) on OS X for generic x86, than I would be to pay the price (both for a legit copy, and a whole new machine) for Vista.
I'm just not 1337 enough to use Linux, being a graphic artist and not willing to have to relearn a completely different OS.
I was using Macs before the PC got to a point of usability for me with Windows, it would be ironic to go full circle.
Way back when, if memory serves, there wasn't really any such thing as "nerds". Even if their preferred levels of study were scientific, back in the 40s/50s, most of those who were in academics were either (a) fighting the evil Nazi scientists, or (b) fighting the evil Communist scientists.
Beyond that, most astronauts were (at least according to "The Right Stuff", if not local lore, if not bios) in it, in those days, to be "The First". It didn't matter how low. First astronaut to orbit the Earth twice? Woo hoo! First astronaut to do a spacewalk? Woo hoo! First astronaut to piss his spacesuit? Woo -uh... Screw it, woo hoo!
And so on and so forth. In a sense, this is kind of why a lot of human space exploration has gotten kinda boring. There aren't really any new "firsts". So in essense, the only true "nerds" in space travel, are the entrepeneurs and dreamers who're fighting red tape and whatnot, to be the first to put civilians in space.
Ironically, something Nasa, et al, have promised for almost 40 years now.
And actually tried to play "E.T." on the 2600 when he was a kid.
Atari! What hath thou wrought?!
For one, if said beef doesn't involve adding non-species DNA, or said milk, then why is it a problem?
Secondly, I've grown up with the general idea of "tank raised beef". Sure, it was sci-fi then (around the late 70s, early 80s), but you know, if there's no nervous system in the food stock, there's no guilt.
Since there's no need for hundreds, if not thousands of acreage to raise said meat/milk, then you're basically making an improvement.
Even if there's a usage of antibiotics and steroids to maintain this supply, it's no different or worst than what we're doing now with breathing and feeling animals. Most of the usual whiners should, in fact, welcome this.
Nibblonium! And it shall double as spaceship fuel, as long as the Nibblonians continue to be prolific poopers.