We need a new moderation category! - SPECULATIVE
on
Time Travel
·
· Score: -1, Troll
...or, barring that, something like "POUTA" (Pulled Out of the Ass)
Comments like:
The reason we dont see anyone coming from the future is, when you travel to the future, the past changes, you can never go back to the original past, if you do go back to the past its a new past thats a mirror of the original one.
or
Anyone who travels to the past will vanish forever from our reality
Or
Time is not mapped, its dynamic, it works like this, everything that can happening, is happening if not in this reality in another.
...got me to thinking. Maybe we should have a new moderation category. You know, for all the times you are reading a comment and thinking, "Jeez, this guy is talking using big words but basically pulling shit out of his ass." People talking about Linux v. Microsoft, people commenting without reading the article, most of what Katz has to say... Speculating and pretending to present things as "fact" that are not fact. I'd like to see a new way to moderate these comments so they don't end up as "informative"
Just my two cents...
Re:"Not Possible," says Local Slashdot Reader
on
Time Travel
·
· Score: 1
I believe that, in this case, "absence of evidence is evidence of absence". In other words, the fact that we don't already know about time travel is evidence that time travel will never be possible.
I take it, then, that you don't subscribe to any conspiracy theories. Aliens having visited earth, the CIA taking out JFK, shadow governments, etc.
Just a rhetorical question, of course... Personally, I think we have enough proof to debunk the phrase "absence of evidence is evidence of absence"...
I'm still hopefull that this mentality is a "flash in the pan" in the global scheme of things, but sometimes I get nervous.
Don't get nervous.
And don't get all alarmist, pretending that this hurts ART, though. Yeah, it sucks that your buddies down at the Turf Club -- crappy faux artists who can't make a living in their crappy bands - turn bright green with envy as crappy faux artists go on tour and date other crappy faux artists. NONE of these pretenders make ART. And the RIAA, the Sonny Bono law, and all there kin will never kill ART.
The artistic instinct within us, it evolved over millions of years. As we rose from mostly apelike creatures with slightly larger brains into the social, communicative, deeply inquisitive things we are today, our need to express ourselves in transcendent ways arose as well. Music is perhaps most closely associated with this type of expression. Religious ceremonies, mating rituals... the things that are OUTSIDE ourselves... these are what music came to celebrate and attempt to touch. This is Music (capital M)
But music (lowercase m) now has become commoditized. It is not the Music we evolved and honed over the eons. Now it is used an opportunity for a company, with a pre-selected mass audience, to increase profit. This doesn't mean Music isn't being created SOMEWHERE. It is. It just means that what we are hearing now, on the radio, on our CDs, is not likely to be Music. We are not hearing this deeper expression of our souls.
What passes for music has become background for the commute home Using the LANGUGE of Music, it babbles away unintelligently. We sway to its rhythms, but continue to hunger for something more. "The RIAA (and its likes) have killed music." Wrong. Mass media has made "music" sound empty, derivative and hollow, but it has not - will not, in fact can not destroy real artists, it cannot kill the Music.
Independent (good) bands, unknown prodigies, people in tune with their deeper selves and the need to express something that will touch others... these people will create something beautiful, something real. It won't matter how it is packaged. A record label might pick it up, or it might not. Just because the label selects what will sell to the masses...and just because most of what sells is crap, this does not mean that a label can't pick up something that rings true, something that is Music.
Or maybe they won't, and the Music will sit in obscurity, waiting to be discovered someday. It still exists.
And as for the artist? Well, if we are being honest here, then for the sake of the Music itself, the true creator of Music doesn't need to be "paid" - it is the desire to make it that makes it worthwhile. The artist being paid is looking at the problem thought the lens of a businessperson. That's fine. If they want to be in business. But then we aren't REALLY whining about ARTISTS anymore but businesspeople. The artist who needs to get paid is thinking like a commodity. Hurrah if ANY artist gets paid, but ultimately it doesn't matter for the Art. Not if what they are producing is Art. If they are producing Art then the sight of the Art realized is enough.
So - yeah, the RIAA pretty much guarantees that what you'll find on a CD at Best Buy isn't MUSIC and yeah it'll hurt all our buddies in garage bands. But you know what? The ART will still thrive. You just gotta dig a little. Times have changed. But don't go getting nervous thinking that this'll kill the Art. Art will live on.
IBM/HAL, Santa/Saten, its all part of a biiig plot...
Come -on-!!! Its an anagram, for goodness sake. How hard is it to reuse the same letters!?
I might get modded down for caring... apparently many geeks still don't realize that style really is substance. But the correct spelling is "SATAN" not "saten".
So, I checked out the ABC News for Kids link... interesting news site for kids. The alien "story" raised an eyebrow or two...
But what was really depressing to me were the 4 headlines for kids...
Alien Secrets
America Attacked!
Anthrax!
Happy Holidays!
Sort of makes me yearn for the good old days when I was growing up. Nothing to worry about back then... except for the 'nukes. Ahhh, the good old nukes...
Ummm... I am going to assume you were trolling here...
Though there are many parts of the Reagan-Bush era we might all like to forget, the topic of Emission Credits is one of the wisest to come out of the period.
Frankly, what do you care what the individual mileage (kilometerage for our UK friends?) is for a particular year/make/model? If the point of setting targets is to increase the overall gas/petrol mileage, and the credits help accomplish that -- how is anyone hurt... Using tax-incentives allows the free market to work as it does best, and in a direction we desire. Think about it! Good for us! Or, are you one of those "stick your head with self-righteousness, don't bother me with the facts" types?
OK... rants over now, folks. Just... geesh! Sometimes it so obvious, the utter lack of thinking that goes into some posts...
Since reading this thread, I've tried three (as in beer) times to look up the Microsoft Entry on the Encarta web site and each time I get the following:
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0005'
Invalid procedure call or argument
/shared/spot/xmlsearchcore.inc, line 572
Heh. I'm not a MS basher, but even I found the irony tasty...
We've already proved that we can spell. "I want to vote for Al Gore... hmm, B-U-C-H-A-N-N-O-N
Dude, you did that as a joke, right? *sigh* didn't think so...I got the point you were trying to make (har har) but just so you know, his name is spelled Pat Buchannan...
When, in fact, some of the top selling games of ALL TIME have been those with the least violence. Myst was #1 for something like 2 years, even though DOOM, Quake, and others came and went. Then Roller Coaster Tycoon came around, and it camped out on the top of the list for quite some time.
At the risk of dating myself, games like PacMan, Frogger and Tetris are among the top selling games of "all time" if you want to look at market share/popularity at the time.
By the way - PLEASE continue to develop your game. We need more Mystish games. Don't let numbers discourage you! Where would we be if Linus looked at the market share of MS/Novell (10 years ago), and said, "Screw it - whats the point? It'll never be that widely used."
Ditto, ditto, ditto. Just because there is a dirth of non-violent games now doesn't mean the trend couldn't be changed by just one or two killer games. Heck, with how derivitive everything is lately, if you just make one good one, there will be 50 other people jumping on the new "non-violent game" bandwagon. Back before Linus, everyone was saying, "Open source? Bah!" (Now its just most people saying it...)
Do what you love. If you do it well, success will follow!
...Anyone who just skimmed the above and has some mod points to spare, re-read the above post and mod it up.
More realistically, though, thinks UptownGuy...
You'll just have to settle for my high praise, anonymous coward, whoever you are. There is so much truth in what you wrote above... I actually took the time to read it and re-read it over 5 times. Especially the last paragraph. Truth with a capital "T" my friend. Techie or not, dot-com casualty or not, they are still words of wisdom!
Apparently you reject it on the assumption that we are all mindless robots who follow what others tell us simply because it's easier than thinking on our own.
Do yourself a favor, dear self-righteous one, and re-read what I wrote before you start feeling all persecuted. I don't think I rejected anything in my post except for (1) simple-minded people spouting off lunacy in the name of their religion and (2) People who were quick to label these simple minded people as "Christians" when nothing to do with Christianity was even mentioned.
Not sure what sort of ridicule you thought you were getting from me... In fact, I thought I was even defending your belief when I wrote (in bold, again)
But, just because a belief is common and simple people get it wrong doesn't make it wrong
Sigh...as for my personal belief, it is probably shocking closer to yours than you, oh persecuted one, might suspect. But... I'm really glad to see that you read far more into my post than was there. Ah well... Continue to feel that everyone else is a "them" and disagrees with you. *sigh*
It's common Christian BS to make claims like this.
While I agree with the spirit behind what you wrote, atheos, I have to disagree with the label you chose to use. It isn't common "Christian" BS, it is common Simpleton (fill in the religion of your choice) BS...
Christianity just happens to be the dominant religion of the masses in the West right now. But you better believe that if it was Islam or Wicca or whatever, we'd all be writing, "Its common Islamic BS" or "Its common Wiccan BS" or "Its common Homer Simpson BS" or whatever "correct" belief happens to hold sway at the moment.
But, just because a belief is common and simple people get it wrong doesn't make it wrong
I try to keep an open mind and remember that the merits of a theory/belief system don't rise and fall with the simple-mindedness of its adherents. There is a lot of profound truth to be found in many places, including religion... its a shame the morons out there eat it up so quickly and scare off the intellectuals...
Just my (unorthodox and sure-to-be modded down) two cents...
...and, just to keep this on-topic, think of the struggle that intelligent non-conformists like Hoyle must have waged internally. Yes, they really did have something to add to the scientific debate by questioning established theories. And, yes they did so with well-reasoned arguments and intellect. And then they watched as the loonie fringe would grab on to whatever they felt like and say, "See... even scientists can't agree." (As if scientists are ever supposed to reach 100% consesus)
Ah, but simple people have very different standards for proof. Its just human nature. We could fight it, I suppose. Personally, I think we should just keep on giving 'em more TV and NASCAR to keep them occupied -- the rest of us can go about making the world better without their "help"...
I would have modded up your comment for that sig. alone -- except I wasted all my mod points on the article that got "lost" today when Slashdot was up and down. (A good read, if unoriginal, read by the way about whether a wireless world and the changes it has already made to our social structures.)
Ah well. Even with the bugs being worked out and the ever-present MS bashing, Slashdot is still the best place for consistantly insightful thoughts on the 'Net...
Actually, mainstream people are embarassed to watch bad mainstream programs like Baywatch, Vpier, Knight Rider and the Dukes... There might be a bigger audience, because now you are dealing with a MAINSTREAM subculture instead of a geek subculture, but no matter how big Baywatch got, it was never in the same category of "not a little ashamed to admit it" like a Hill Street Blues, an E.R. or The Sopranos... now those shows were mainstream...
(psst, and you know what? The writing was/is pretty good on each. Never really been a regular viewer of any of them, but they all have a level of sophisticated writing that I only wish a sci-fi show could approach.
There is some sort of stigma attached with Sci Fi that mainstream people just don't seem to like it. Sure there are exceptions (most prominent one being X-Files when it was good), but many people just don't want anything to do with Sci Fi.
Did you read what you just wrote? "Sure there are exceptions like X files when it was good" Its not like the US is a hotbed of high culture, but even mainstream viewers have some taste and, frankly, most Sci Fi sucks!
"...well, it was nice to see another installment in the Star Trek universe, but Voyager's writing sucked..."
"...Dr. Who was ahead of its time, but, gee, the special effects were painful to watch..."
"...Sliders was a great idea, but each new universe was riddled with logical holes..."
"...Lexx... well... Lexx..."
The unfortunate problem with Sci Fi is that rarely anyone besides us "geeks and/or nerds" seem to like it.
The problem (IMHO) with most SciFi is that it is almost never well executed.. Geeks seem have the intelligence to see past the (rather substantial sometimes) flaws and keep watching, but most people are honest enough to just keep channel surfing.
Geeks, for whatever reason, get off on preferring intelligent crap over stylish crap. They would rather see a TV show with the latest uber-gadget/newest buzzwords in physics/hot chicks with the biggest breasts who never seem to have to wear a standard uniform...
But, its not like mainstream people hate SciFi... mainstream people are embarassed to watch bad SciFi, that's all...
Heheh -- wouldn't it be great... if they could bring back David Duchovny (remember the Red Shoe Diaries) and team him with Lucy Lawless... hehe, we'd have the XXX files.
I have been getting upwards of 5-15 of those %@#*(%#@#$ "The Scale Moved" emails a day lately. They are from a company called BerryTrim. I hate them. I have a filter set up a filter in Pine to delete them before I ever can see them and still a few get through!
I HATE THEM
So, lately, I've taken to calling the 1-800 number for the BerryTrim website each day. Sometimes several times a day. I ask to talk to Customer Service and I argue with them about this Spam. They tell me that "those are our associates and we have nothing to do with them" --(sure)
I tell them I don't care and I want the email to stop.
The real reason why I am doing it is this: I want to stay on the phone with them for a while...Those 1-800 numbers are pretty pricy. I used to price out the cost of outsourcing help desks and call centers for Fortune 1000 corporations, and I can tell you that over 90% of the cost is either phone lines or getting warm bodies to sit in the chairs to take the calls.
SO... they spam us...we spam them
The 800 number for BerryTrim is 1-800-401-6327
DO NOT buy anything from them. (duh)
Just stay on the line for a while (heh)
If we can bring down websites with the Slashdot effect, let's do a little group action and take out a spammer or two!
Don't just read this post and chuckle and say, "Cute idea..." PICK UP YOUR PHONE AND CALL. Its toll free and you will be helping to bankrupt a spammer!!!
...of the Clerks reference to the contractors working on the Death Star. Most of 'em weren't in league with the Evil Empire. Hell, most of them probably didn't even care of Lord Vader. They were just "doing their jobs"
Not saying you are culpable, Kondoor, or part of the corrupt system which little-by-little robs each of us of our freedom. No way. Wouldn't say that at all. CERTAINLY wouldn't note that it is very conventient, this distinction you make between what "your employer" wants and what *YOU* want. No sir. That would be rude. And I, for one, am not rude.
If you're right, it's another good story down the tubes. Darn.
Hardly down the tubes. Good science is as much (more?) about disproving "neat" theories than about proving them...
MORE TO THE POINT I know I'll get flamed for saying it, but I'll be glad if we find there is no other life on Mars... cuz if there is life, what do you think we are going to do?
We'll do what we always do:
We'll investigate.
We'll take "precautions"
We'll be "careful"
We'll bring BACK sample to analyze
We'll see how the stuff interacts with OUR stuff
And all this being done by an agency that can't even read its own data 25 years later? Nope, sorry folk, but if there is any sort of life that is hardy enough to survive the Martian elements, we'd be better off leaving it ON Mars... buried.
Before it gets the chance to "interact with our stuff"
(Ever seen a lake/river infested by an exotic species? If so, then you know what I'm talking about...)
How 'bout it Cowboy and company...how hard would it be to cache a few links. We all know and joke about sites being Slashdotted, but I can't imagine that the process is all that funny if it is happening to your site/server. Besides -- it can be frustrating as a reader to want to see the original story/link and have the site be down because of all the traffic.
Would there be IP (intellectual property not the other kind of IP) issues that would make this a big no-no?
The problem with protecting your system with a flux capacitor, of course, is that if the lightning strike is strong enough ( =/ 1.21 jigawatts) you might end up sending your computer back to the stone age...
Slashdot Mirror
...or, barring that, something like "POUTA" (Pulled Out of the Ass)
Comments like:
The reason we dont see anyone coming from the future is, when you travel to the future, the past changes, you can never go back to the original past, if you do go back to the past its a new past thats a mirror of the original one.
or
Anyone who travels to the past will vanish forever from our reality
Or
Time is not mapped, its dynamic, it works like this, everything that can happening, is happening if not in this reality in another.
...got me to thinking. Maybe we should have a new moderation category. You know, for all the times you are reading a comment and thinking, "Jeez, this guy is talking using big words but basically pulling shit out of his ass." People talking about Linux v. Microsoft, people commenting without reading the article, most of what Katz has to say... Speculating and pretending to present things as "fact" that are not fact. I'd like to see a new way to moderate these comments so they don't end up as "informative"
Just my two cents...
I believe that, in this case, "absence of evidence is evidence of absence". In other words, the fact that we don't already know about time travel is evidence that time travel will never be possible.
I take it, then, that you don't subscribe to any conspiracy theories. Aliens having visited earth, the CIA taking out JFK, shadow governments, etc.
Just a rhetorical question, of course... Personally, I think we have enough proof to debunk the phrase "absence of evidence is evidence of absence"...
I'm still hopefull that this mentality is a "flash in the pan" in the global scheme of things, but sometimes I get nervous.
... these are what music came to celebrate and attempt to touch. This is Music (capital M)
...and just because most of what sells is crap, this does not mean that a label can't pick up something that rings true, something that is Music.
Don't get nervous.
And don't get all alarmist, pretending that this hurts ART, though. Yeah, it sucks that your buddies down at the Turf Club -- crappy faux artists who can't make a living in their crappy bands - turn bright green with envy as crappy faux artists go on tour and date other crappy faux artists. NONE of these pretenders make ART. And the RIAA, the Sonny Bono law, and all there kin will never kill ART.
The artistic instinct within us, it evolved over millions of years. As we rose from mostly apelike creatures with slightly larger brains into the social, communicative, deeply inquisitive things we are today, our need to express ourselves in transcendent ways arose as well. Music is perhaps most closely associated with this type of expression. Religious ceremonies, mating rituals... the things that are OUTSIDE ourselves
But music (lowercase m) now has become commoditized. It is not the Music we evolved and honed over the eons. Now it is used an opportunity for a company, with a pre-selected mass audience, to increase profit. This doesn't mean Music isn't being created SOMEWHERE. It is. It just means that what we are hearing now, on the radio, on our CDs, is not likely to be Music. We are not hearing this deeper expression of our souls.
What passes for music has become background for the commute home Using the LANGUGE of Music, it babbles away unintelligently. We sway to its rhythms, but continue to hunger for something more. "The RIAA (and its likes) have killed music." Wrong. Mass media has made "music" sound empty, derivative and hollow, but it has not - will not, in fact can not destroy real artists, it cannot kill the Music.
Independent (good) bands, unknown prodigies, people in tune with their deeper selves and the need to express something that will touch others... these people will create something beautiful, something real. It won't matter how it is packaged. A record label might pick it up, or it might not. Just because the label selects what will sell to the masses
Or maybe they won't, and the Music will sit in obscurity, waiting to be discovered someday. It still exists.
And as for the artist? Well, if we are being honest here, then for the sake of the Music itself, the true creator of Music doesn't need to be "paid" - it is the desire to make it that makes it worthwhile. The artist being paid is looking at the problem thought the lens of a businessperson. That's fine. If they want to be in business. But then we aren't REALLY whining about ARTISTS anymore but businesspeople. The artist who needs to get paid is thinking like a commodity. Hurrah if ANY artist gets paid, but ultimately it doesn't matter for the Art. Not if what they are producing is Art. If they are producing Art then the sight of the Art realized is enough.
So - yeah, the RIAA pretty much guarantees that what you'll find on a CD at Best Buy isn't MUSIC and yeah it'll hurt all our buddies in garage bands. But you know what? The ART will still thrive. You just gotta dig a little. Times have changed. But don't go getting nervous thinking that this'll kill the Art. Art will live on.
IBM/HAL, Santa/Saten, its all part of a biiig plot...
Come -on-!!! Its an anagram, for goodness sake. How hard is it to reuse the same letters!?
I might get modded down for caring... apparently many geeks still don't realize that style really is substance. But the correct spelling is "SATAN" not "saten".
So, I checked out the ABC News for Kids link... interesting news site for kids. The alien "story" raised an eyebrow or two...
But what was really depressing to me were the 4 headlines for kids...
Alien Secrets
America Attacked!
Anthrax!
Happy Holidays!
Sort of makes me yearn for the good old days when I was growing up. Nothing to worry about back then... except for the 'nukes. Ahhh, the good old nukes...
BR
Sigh...
Ummm... I am going to assume you were trolling here...
Though there are many parts of the Reagan-Bush era we might all like to forget, the topic of Emission Credits is one of the wisest to come out of the period.
Frankly, what do you care what the individual mileage (kilometerage for our UK friends?) is for a particular year/make/model? If the point of setting targets is to increase the overall gas/petrol mileage, and the credits help accomplish that -- how is anyone hurt... Using tax-incentives allows the free market to work as it does best, and in a direction we desire. Think about it! Good for us! Or, are you one of those "stick your head with self-righteousness, don't bother me with the facts" types?
OK... rants over now, folks. Just... geesh! Sometimes it so obvious, the utter lack of thinking that goes into some posts...
So, will we see U.S. military commanders marrying into influential Afghani families?
Hmmmm... interesting point. Seemed to work amazingly well for Osama bin Ladin.
Since reading this thread, I've tried three (as in beer) times to look up the Microsoft Entry on the Encarta web site and each time I get the following:
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0005'
Invalid procedure call or argument
/shared/spot/xmlsearchcore.inc, line 572
Heh. I'm not a MS basher, but even I found the irony tasty...
We've already proved that we can spell. "I want to vote for Al Gore ... hmm, B-U-C-H-A-N-N-O-N
Dude, you did that as a joke, right? *sigh* didn't think so...I got the point you were trying to make (har har) but just so you know, his name is spelled Pat Buchannan...
When, in fact, some of the top selling games of ALL TIME have been those with the least violence. Myst was #1 for something like 2 years, even though DOOM, Quake, and others came and went. Then Roller Coaster Tycoon came around, and it camped out on the top of the list for quite some time.
At the risk of dating myself, games like PacMan, Frogger and Tetris are among the top selling games of "all time" if you want to look at market share/popularity at the time.
By the way - PLEASE continue to develop your game. We need more Mystish games. Don't let numbers discourage you! Where would we be if Linus looked at the market share of MS/Novell (10 years ago), and said, "Screw it - whats the point? It'll never be that widely used."
Ditto, ditto, ditto. Just because there is a dirth of non-violent games now doesn't mean the trend couldn't be changed by just one or two killer games. Heck, with how derivitive everything is lately, if you just make one good one, there will be 50 other people jumping on the new "non-violent game" bandwagon. Back before Linus, everyone was saying, "Open source? Bah!" (Now its just most people saying it...)
Do what you love. If you do it well, success will follow!
...Anyone who just skimmed the above and has some mod points to spare, re-read the above post and mod it up.
More realistically, though, thinks UptownGuy...
You'll just have to settle for my high praise, anonymous coward, whoever you are. There is so much truth in what you wrote above... I actually took the time to read it and re-read it over 5 times. Especially the last paragraph. Truth with a capital "T" my friend. Techie or not, dot-com casualty or not, they are still words of wisdom!
Apparently you reject it on the assumption that we are all mindless robots who follow what others tell us simply because it's easier than thinking on our own.
Do yourself a favor, dear self-righteous one, and re-read what I wrote before you start feeling all persecuted. I don't think I rejected anything in my post except for
(1) simple-minded people spouting off lunacy in the name of their religion and
(2) People who were quick to label these simple minded people as "Christians" when nothing to do with Christianity was even mentioned.
Not sure what sort of ridicule you thought you were getting from me... In fact, I thought I was even defending your belief when I wrote (in bold, again)
But, just because a belief is common and simple people get it wrong doesn't make it wrong
Sigh...as for my personal belief, it is probably shocking closer to yours than you, oh persecuted one, might suspect. But... I'm really glad to see that you read far more into my post than was there. Ah well... Continue to feel that everyone else is a "them" and disagrees with you. *sigh*
It's common Christian BS to make claims like this.
While I agree with the spirit behind what you wrote, atheos, I have to disagree with the label you chose to use. It isn't common "Christian" BS, it is common Simpleton (fill in the religion of your choice) BS...
Christianity just happens to be the dominant religion of the masses in the West right now. But you better believe that if it was Islam or Wicca or whatever, we'd all be writing, "Its common Islamic BS" or "Its common Wiccan BS" or "Its common Homer Simpson BS" or whatever "correct" belief happens to hold sway at the moment.
But, just because a belief is common and simple people get it wrong doesn't make it wrong
I try to keep an open mind and remember that the merits of a theory/belief system don't rise and fall with the simple-mindedness of its adherents. There is a lot of profound truth to be found in many places, including religion... its a shame the morons out there eat it up so quickly and scare off the intellectuals...
Just my (unorthodox and sure-to-be modded down) two cents...
...and, just to keep this on-topic, think of the struggle that intelligent non-conformists like Hoyle must have waged internally. Yes, they really did have something to add to the scientific debate by questioning established theories. And, yes they did so with well-reasoned arguments and intellect. And then they watched as the loonie fringe would grab on to whatever they felt like and say, "See... even scientists can't agree." (As if scientists are ever supposed to reach 100% consesus)
Ah, but simple people have very different standards for proof. Its just human nature. We could fight it, I suppose. Personally, I think we should just keep on giving 'em more TV and NASCAR to keep them occupied -- the rest of us can go about making the world better without their "help"...
There's some good stuff at score level 1
So true, so true.
I would have modded up your comment for that sig. alone -- except I wasted all my mod points on the article that got "lost" today when Slashdot was up and down. (A good read, if unoriginal, read by the way about whether a wireless world and the changes it has already made to our social structures.)
Ah well. Even with the bugs being worked out and the ever-present MS bashing, Slashdot is still the best place for consistantly insightful thoughts on the 'Net...
So then tell me why Troi got away with it, too... you tell me that smart guy.
You know its about the breasts...
Actually, mainstream people are embarassed to watch bad mainstream programs like Baywatch, Vpier, Knight Rider and the Dukes... There might be a bigger audience, because now you are dealing with a MAINSTREAM subculture instead of a geek subculture, but no matter how big Baywatch got, it was never in the same category of "not a little ashamed to admit it" like a Hill Street Blues, an E.R. or The Sopranos... now those shows were mainstream ...
(psst, and you know what? The writing was/is pretty good on each. Never really been a regular viewer of any of them, but they all have a level of sophisticated writing that I only wish a sci-fi show could approach.
There is some sort of stigma attached with Sci Fi that mainstream people just don't seem to like it. Sure there are exceptions (most prominent one being X-Files when it was good), but many people just don't want anything to do with Sci Fi.
Did you read what you just wrote? "Sure there are exceptions like X files when it was good" Its not like the US is a hotbed of high culture, but even mainstream viewers have some taste and, frankly, most Sci Fi sucks!
"...well, it was nice to see another installment in the Star Trek universe, but Voyager's writing sucked..."
"...Dr. Who was ahead of its time, but, gee, the special effects were painful to watch..."
"...Sliders was a great idea, but each new universe was riddled with logical holes..."
"...Lexx... well... Lexx..."
The unfortunate problem with Sci Fi is that rarely anyone besides us "geeks and/or nerds" seem to like it.
The problem (IMHO) with most SciFi is that it is almost never well executed.. Geeks seem have the intelligence to see past the (rather substantial sometimes) flaws and keep watching, but most people are honest enough to just keep channel surfing.
Geeks, for whatever reason, get off on preferring intelligent crap over stylish crap. They would rather see a TV show with the latest uber-gadget/newest buzzwords in physics/hot chicks with the biggest breasts who never seem to have to wear a standard uniform...
But, its not like mainstream people hate SciFi... mainstream people are embarassed to watch bad SciFi, that's all...
I love you, A.C. I really do. I used to hate you -- usually your posts suck. But this one really made me change my mind about you!
Shades of "Silk Stalkings" methinks
Heheh -- wouldn't it be great... if they could bring back David Duchovny (remember the Red Shoe Diaries) and team him with Lucy Lawless... hehe, we'd have the XXX files.
I have been getting upwards of 5-15 of those %@#*(%#@#$ "The Scale Moved" emails a day lately. They are from a company called BerryTrim. I hate them. I have a filter set up a filter in Pine to delete them before I ever can see them and still a few get through!
I HATE THEM
So, lately, I've taken to calling the 1-800 number for the BerryTrim website each day. Sometimes several times a day. I ask to talk to Customer Service and I argue with them about this Spam. They tell me that "those are our associates and we have nothing to do with them" --(sure)
I tell them I don't care and I want the email to stop.
The real reason why I am doing it is this: I want to stay on the phone with them for a while...Those 1-800 numbers are pretty pricy. I used to price out the cost of outsourcing help desks and call centers for Fortune 1000 corporations, and I can tell you that over 90% of the cost is either phone lines or getting warm bodies to sit in the chairs to take the calls.
SO... they spam us...we spam them The 800 number for BerryTrim is 1-800-401-6327
DO NOT buy anything from them. (duh)
Just stay on the line for a while (heh)
If we can bring down websites with the Slashdot effect, let's do a little group action and take out a spammer or two!
Don't just read this post and chuckle and say, "Cute idea..." PICK UP YOUR PHONE AND CALL. Its toll free and you will be helping to bankrupt a spammer!!!
Thanks!
...of the Clerks reference to the contractors working on the Death Star. Most of 'em weren't in league with the Evil Empire. Hell, most of them probably didn't even care of Lord Vader. They were just "doing their jobs"
Not saying you are culpable, Kondoor, or part of the corrupt system which little-by-little robs each of us of our freedom. No way. Wouldn't say that at all. CERTAINLY wouldn't note that it is very conventient, this distinction you make between what "your employer" wants and what *YOU* want. No sir. That would be rude. And I, for one, am not rude.
If you're right, it's another good story down the tubes. Darn.
... cuz if there is life, what do you think we are going to do?
Hardly down the tubes. Good science is as much (more?) about disproving "neat" theories than about proving them...
MORE TO THE POINT I know I'll get flamed for saying it, but I'll be glad if we find there is no other life on Mars
We'll do what we always do:
We'll investigate.
We'll take "precautions"
We'll be "careful"
We'll bring BACK sample to analyze
We'll see how the stuff interacts with OUR stuff
And all this being done by an agency that can't even read its own data 25 years later? Nope, sorry folk, but if there is any sort of life that is hardy enough to survive the Martian elements, we'd be better off leaving it ON Mars... buried.
Before it gets the chance to "interact with our stuff"
(Ever seen a lake/river infested by an exotic species? If so, then you know what I'm talking about...)
...A few really big versions of these space droids out there to protect us from what is statistically sure to come...
While they are waiting to do their main job, they can just clean the Hubble or something...
Just a thought...
...I've thought it myself many times.
How 'bout it Cowboy and company...how hard would it be to cache a few links. We all know and joke about sites being Slashdotted, but I can't imagine that the process is all that funny if it is happening to your site/server. Besides -- it can be frustrating as a reader to want to see the original story/link and have the site be down because of all the traffic.
Would there be IP (intellectual property not the other kind of IP) issues that would make this a big no-no?
The problem with protecting your system with a flux capacitor, of course, is that if the lightning strike is strong enough ( =/ 1.21 jigawatts) you might end up sending your computer back to the stone age...