But does the modeling software run on Linux? Is it at least open source?
'Cuz somehow I _strongly_ suspect that it does/is not. This would be far from the first way cool geek toy whose software interface is 'Bloze/closed source ONLY. I mean, HOW ARE WE TO INSTRUCT THE YOUNGLINGS in The One True Way when _all_ the toyz are pwned by the Evil Empire?
My friend and supervisor has a five-year-old. He's growing up in a world dominated by a proprietary software monopoly. He has a PSP, but no Software Development Kit for it. I ask you, is that right?
Maybe not a total block, but if anyone is in a position to uhm, 'shape' traffic, toward its customers and away from others, it's looking like Google.
I've always regarded the inclusion of paid advertisements in the search engine output to be, to put it politely, a conflict of interest. Right now these paying guys occupy a seperate place where they're easy to ignore, but as soon as (that's when, not if) they get mixed indistinguishably into the real output, it will be time to look for another search engine.
Or maybe it's time right now, while there are still some competitors left. There's teh door, vote with your feet.
As for M$, the pot does indeed know black very well when it sees it. Unfortunately (for M$) it has long ago expended any goodwill, or even pity, for which it once may possibly have ever been eligible. I won't be looking at ask.com for a replacement for Google search.
Look at the up side: if Google/Doubleclick gains a stranglehold on all Intraweb Advertising(tm)(r)(c), that'll leave only one ad server domain for us to block. Just think of the reduction of labor!
"Don't be Evil"? It sounds to me like the Kool-Aid is kicking in.
Just got a new HD & did the netinstall bit (deb 4(?)'etch', 2.6.18 Kernel) on my A20 Thinkpad. I honestly haven't even dared try the sleep or hibernate buttons yet, as they've _always_ been good for a crash, when they did anything at all. 'Twould be _really_ nice to be able to just shut the lid on the laptop, instead of having to spend 10 minutes shutting it down, another 5 minutes bringing it back up, and losing the three or four dozen browser windows I usually have open...
Then you might go after all those wireless NICs, starting with the ones for sale at Fry's. I have about seven different kinds, from four different mfgr's, both PCI & PCMCIA, and the ONLY one that has a native Linux driver is the relatively high-dollar Cisco card. The off-brand cards and the Netgear cards all require ndiswrapper & Imperial drivers. I consider myself fortunate to be able to run them at all.
IIRC there was one datacenter in a shipping container (with satellite connection?), and another heavily automated camper trailer with a T3 (or was it OC3?).
And it was a LOT more than two years ago.
Re:The winds were NOT very high this morning....
on
Steve Fossett Missing
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· Score: 1
Aren't most of those emergency beacons set to go off automatically by default design?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: Hell, yes!
Part of the core technology of an ELT is a "G-Switch", consisting literally of a ball and spring switch set to make contact iff the airframe it's mounted on experiences a decelerative impulse greater than certain specifications (which I'll post next week) which are set so as not to trip the thing on every hard handing. Any impact hard enough to get injured in triggers the ELT to automatically transmit. Similar technology, I'm sure, is used in ground vehicle airbags. Both are passively armed at installation. You never have to do anything more (other than, of course, crash) to make them go.
Another core technology of an ELT is a startlingly rugged (for its appearance - just tough plastic) enclosure with crash survivability demonstrated to be, yes, comparable to flight data recorders.
I was impressed when one of ours was found a meter deep in the sand on the beach in New Zealand (or maybe it was eastern Oz, that corner of the world) some 16 hours after its aircraft went missing. The aircraft was found down to four meters deep in the sand under the ELT. It had gone down at high tide and was underwater for several hours, so had not been picked up until the tide went out. Somehow we got some photos of the wreckage in a hanger (supposedly where the authorities analyzed it?) and there wasn't a single piece left of it that was the size of your hand. I mean that plane was *shredded*. The analysis estimated that it had gone in at something over Vne (the speed at which parts start getting torn off the airframe by air resistance), yet our ELT had survived not only operational but still watertight.
A boat's EPIRB is rigged to float free of a sinking vessel, and then transmit. Some, as the parent describes, are mounted upside-down and have a tilt switch which activates when righted (floating). IMU another option is a switch setup which activates whenever it leaves its deck bracket. Like lots of modern, hi-tech ocean ship equipment, EPIRBs can be a maintenance nightmare without specially trained personnel. Obvious but shamefully frequent id10t problems include:
A: Painting the entire EPIRB into its bracket, effectively gluing it there and defeating its float-free automatic operation mode altogether. Bogus points are awarded for painting the strobe light lens and obscuring it, as well as killing the specified high-visibility orange color called for in the international regulations. These decrease its value even in manual operation modes.
B: Removing the EPIRB from its deck mounting bracket without realizing that that will set it off unless it is disarmed first. No real damage done here, just an embarrassing visit from the local authorities, and a battery replacement.
C: Disarming and removing the EPIRB, then painting its entire mounting bracket, including the faces which engage the EPIRB, making it fit too tightly thereafter and defeating its float-free automatic operation mode altogether.
D: Disarming and removing the EPIRB, masking and painting its bracket, putting it all back together and forgetting to rearm the EPIRB. thus defeating its float-free automatic operation mode altogether.
ELT failures are, unfortunately, common, usually from lack of battery maintenance. We get plenty of reworks which have had batteries sit and rot in them until they leak and damage everything. This takes many years beyond their required replacement period.
MikEB Pointer, Inc (The above post is not the official opinion of Pointer, Inc or its management.) pointerinc.com (nor am I responsible for that website!) pointeravionics.com
Every day I get spam from "legitimate" businesses like DiscoverCard, my College (AZ State U)'s Alumni Association, and even my mortgage company (Countrywide). Just because these asshats are BIG deals or have some ongoing business relationship with me does NOT legitimize their spam - it remains unsolicited and unwanted.
Sears and Craftsman tools are the worst - everyday there's something.
You guys need to understand that when Chen Lin sends me penis enlargement spams & offers for fake Rolex watches there isn't much I can do to retaliate for that, but when Craftsman pummels my inbox I quit bothering with the NASCAR truck races and quit going into Sears at all. I'll have nothing more to do with Sears - at least until they drop epending and spamming from their advertizing policies.
I look through my spam repositories regularly, and filter guys like Guns and Ammo Magazine, who were nice enough to ask me to opt-out before spamming me (which I _won't_ do: why should I opt-out of something you shouldn't be sending me in the first place?)
Again, I'm taking names, and you guys are _very_ easy to filter: it's not as if any of yer spam is ever getting read.
If I had enough of a credit rating to refinance my mortgage Countrywide would be gone from my life - not that I would expect that that would actually get them outta my inbox.
If your business has enough of a name to be recognized by your victims, the LAST thing you can afford to do is spam - it's the WORST possible PR outreach you can do. When are "legitimate spammers" gonna get this?
The common element in all those criminal things is "falsehood". (In the US, at least, for now) having the truth on your side is a "perfect defense" against slander, libel, defamation of character, whatever. Yuo can say _anything_, and damn the consequences to whoever, if it's TRUE. If the buyer's story checks out, the authorities will walk away with both feet (well, can't say for sure, it _is_ the U.K.).
when I saw that scene I knew I was going to like this show
They had me when they kicked the bad guy into the engine intake. (which I saw _before_ the dinosaur scene, on the air)
I was surfing the channels, minding my own business, when I caught this sequence where a pretty girl in an atmospheric-capable spacecraft spider-dropped this rather sarcastic dude into a magneto-levitational train full of cowboys, coolies, and - WTF? *Starship Troopers*?
Maybe I was watching something else (yeah, stupid of me), because I missed the next segment altogether. The next I remember of it is this:
CAPTAIN: (from memory, Mum has the DVDs) "Here's all the money Niska gave us. Give it back, and tell him we're not doing his job."
FIRST BADGUY: "Keep it, and buy yourself a nice funeral. I'll hunt you down and kill you _myself_!"
CAPTAIN: <*sigh*> (Kicks bad guy, rocking him back a meter and into the intake stream of the idling spaceship engine, where (through the majic of CGA) he's _SUCKED_IN_ at a hilarious velocity!)
<WOW! Now we see the violence inherent in the sytem! But there's more:>
(Second Bad Guy is dragged before the Captain)
CAPTAIN: "Here's all the money Niska gave us..."
SECOND BADGUY: (Quickly taking the money) "OK, Sure! I'm right with you on that!"
By this time I'm wondering: "Who does this guy think he _is_? Joss Fscking Whedon?" Of course that was answered by the Mutant Enemy trademark at the end: "GRR! ARGH!"
But even after watching all the DVDs, I still have about a hundred questions, starting with "_what's_up_ with that preacher, he's _definately_ got a history!"
Well, of the two hot babes mentioned, one has certainly shown herself to be unnaturally good in a fight...
Indeed, River would be the gal to have around in a firefight. Another reply to the parent suggests she does some hand-to-hand in the movie. I've always suspected that, when push comes to shove, she's a LOT more functional than she normally appears. There's also the "I can kill you with my brain" thing, which reminds me of the blue-hands guys and their bleeding-out-the-cranial-orifices method of execution. My theory is that River can do that only better, maybe _without_ the equipment, or at superior range (which is, of course, why they're SO hot after her).
...and the other generally avoids fights but has shown herself to be a pretty good shot with a hand laser.
While I don't recall this, I'll take your word, and point out Inara's brief scrap with "our Mrs. Reynolds" (who completely held her own against _Mr_Reynolds) and her ability to school Mal (and prolly Zoe & Cobb) in the use of a sword. With rifles at 100 meters, I dunno If I'd want Inara or Jayne (her buddy Mandi was certainly dangerous), but at close range it'd be nolo contendere:
COBB: (takes a potentially face-altering swing at Inara)
INARA: (dodges, giggles, and pulls down the bodice of her dress, revealing sweet, milky globes)
COBB: (wide-eyed, slack-jawed) "Whoa..."
INARA: (a quick whirl-kick to Jayne's ear)
COBB: (falling to teh deck, unconscious) "Duhh."
Yeah, it's pretty obvious that "the Whore Academy" (I forget its real name) trains its students _well_ in self-defense.
The standout characteristic of the violence tendancies of both babes is that they're quite defensive, as opposed to Reynolds, Zoe, Cobb, and to some extent the Preacher, who are ready to walk into a situation with _intent_ to kick butt.
Simon, Kaylee, and pretty much Wash, OTOH, have all proven themselves rather useless in the fight situations...
This is why I'd pair up (in the first round): Simon & Kaylee (obvious) Jayne & River (as unlikely as that sounds) Book & Inara (already hinted at)
In the second round (third season): Wash & Zoe split up (over Wash's fear of reproduction, already hinted at) Reynolds & Zoe (take me _hard_, Captain!) Jayne & Simon both prove too clumsy to maintain lasting relationships Inara cries a lot and maybe even leaves Perhaps a new character to provide romantic interest for Book (a la Oz/Willow or Laila/Wesley)
Third round (fifth season): Mal & Inara (finally, after five years, like Buffy & Spike) Jayne marries a cowgirl/merc/whore they pick up somewhere. Possible major personality changes or additional new characters for other combinations. Think Gunn/Winnifred & Willow/Tara. Anything can happen in five years on a Whedon show.
Now, that woulda been the _original_ plan, the cancellation and movie may of course accelerate _some_ of that, while simply not leaving time for most of it.
**** MY POINT ****
It's been remarked that Firefly (and Buffy, and Angel) have all been greatly character-driven shows. This is gonna be the tragedy of Firefly's cancellation: without the hundred or hundred-and-fifty hours it'll take to treat them properly, we'll never get to meet say, Book, as well as we've come to know Spike (who never even _showed_up_ in the first season). Zoe and Kaylee simply don't have the _chance_ at as much life as Cordelia and Willow enjoyed, and this is the part that makes me want to cry.
I had so hoped, though, that we were finally going to get beyond the x86 architecture - that their strategy of piling kluge on top of kluge on top of kluge in the name of backwards-compatibility was finally going to come crashing down.
I do not see anyhthing in Jobs' statements about the x86, just Intel, who's (by now) as eager as anybody to break away from the x86 legacy (and show us some new innovation in hardware dewign). Note that the 8086 _was_ pretty cool and innovative - in 1975.
Unlike the situation with the Wintel architecture, there's NO thing limiting Apple to backward x86 compatability. They can just march straight forward with Itanium, I64, AMD64, or whatever the 64-bit mode is gonna be. My guess is that Intel will be happy to supply them with modern, 64-bit CPUs, without x86 legacy compatability.
Why bother with x86? They never had it, and _don't_ need it!
Jeri Ryan is made of plastic. Jolene Blalock might not be.
Not to burst yer bubble, but Jolene is a skinny little skater grrl. I've heard her interviewed (by Howard Stern) and she describes her on-screen rack as totally artificial. "Tube socks".
Personally I think Terry Farrell has it all over both of 'em.
DOH! I spoke too soon - it'll be delayed two hours and aired at 9PM. Wow, the season finale must be _important_ - usually they just go with Malcolm at its usual 9PM and delay Enterprise until 2AM Saturday!
You never can tell when or if Enterprise will be on. No wonder it got poor ratings - we can't find it even if we try.
and robots that _don't_ have these laws built into them as motivational imperitaves are just plain scary.
Go rent "Robocop" or "Saturn 3" or "2001" or "Collosus: The Forbin Project" or any of about a million other bad robot / bad computer movies if you doubt this. The trouble _always_ starts with violation of the three laws.
I don't see police work being one of the initial, or even second-tier, applications that robots will be deployed into. Surveillance, maybe, but police do one helluva lot more than that. Even surveillance might be dodgy: if you got wise to a robot following you, and you told it to Sod Off, it would have to prioritize your order against the orders of its sender. Complex at best, I don't like it.
Neither did Isaac, his detective was human, charged with getting to the bottom of WTF was up with the robots and the subtle conflicts of their programming.
Whaddya mean, we can't believe everything we read on the WWW?
I'd check that one again. Half the trick of making such a deal would be maintaining plausible deniability.
Now we have reports that the Empire is unbundling WMP? That's gotta be crap.
Everyone knows that, once assimilated, middleware CANNOT be removed from WinBloze! The Emperor, himself, testified under oath (though the DoJ's documents are indexed SO poorly that it's near-impossible to find anything there) that he'd have to withdraw WinBloze from the market (and, I guess, go out of business) if ordered to undertake the Impossibility Of Removing Internet Exploiter. To back down from that position would open him up to perjury accusations. Don't hold your breath.
I'd keep looking, and (hopefully) find where he actually says this, were it not for the tendancy of The Emperor's very weaselly testimony to make me physically ill. He doesn't know what a browser is ("uh, it's kinda part of an OS, right?"), he doesn't understand how software of any kind (Browsers or OSsen) might be distributed, he doesn't remember _ever_ sending or receiving _any_ email, he has NO CLUE how the PC software market works (despite his public statements that he created it), except that there're all those terrible competitors out there that hate M$, and want its marketshare. oOps - "marketshare, what's that?" He doesn't understand how _anyone_ could accuse him af aything unethical, much less illegal. They're just jealous, because "a few people choose" to use Windoze, and all those "anti" websites badmouthing him just can't stand that. Puh-lease.
You're sure, again, that he didn't purchase evil, outright? Maybe he just bought the _licensing_ rights, with Satan retaining the copyright. Yeah. That sounds more likely.
The Cylons look like humans now. No news there. The Boomer on Caprica knows she's a Cylon. That wasn't apparent. She's playing Helo. No news there. Six is too territorial to let Gaius get anywhere near Starbuck. Can't really blame her, it's not as if she hasn't already caught him banging another chick. Tyrol's people are pretty loyal. Duh. Everybody's paranoid. You'd be paranoid, too, if they really _were_ out to get you. Nearly everybody has _something_ to hide. Investigatotions given Carte Blanche quickly turn into Witch Hunts. ST:TNG didn't make that up. They caught Tyrol & Boomer, but they didn't find the still. Some investigation. The Chief isn't likely to cover for Boomer quite so automatically anymore. Six is actively driving the development of the Cylon detector. Here's the angle: she _needs_ the Cylon detector to clear Boomer, because the twit is SO clumsy that she's bound to get caught.
I give it about a 3. No cigar this week. Next week oughta be better. Six shows up in the, er, flesh, oh, my.
This week Atlantis gets the cigar. Sheppard "did the Captain Kirk", with an _ancient_ babe, no less! Teyla didn't look amused, but it was Rodney who went positively ballistic. Ah, jealousy is so _very_ ugly...
Slashdot Mirror
Probably just ordinary consumers, since it's in all likelihood closed-source and therefore controlled by the monopolist.
But does the modeling software run on Linux? Is it at least open source?
'Cuz somehow I _strongly_ suspect that it does/is not. This would be far from the first way cool geek toy whose software interface is 'Bloze/closed source ONLY. I mean, HOW ARE WE TO INSTRUCT THE YOUNGLINGS in The One True Way when _all_ the toyz are pwned by the Evil Empire?
My friend and supervisor has a five-year-old. He's growing up in a world dominated by a proprietary software monopoly. He has a PSP, but no Software Development Kit for it. I ask you, is that right?
</rantmode>
Maybe not a total block, but if anyone is in a position to uhm, 'shape' traffic, toward its customers and away from others, it's looking like Google.
I've always regarded the inclusion of paid advertisements in the search engine output to be, to put it politely, a conflict of interest. Right now these paying guys occupy a seperate place where they're easy to ignore, but as soon as (that's when, not if) they get mixed indistinguishably into the real output, it will be time to look for another search engine.
Or maybe it's time right now, while there are still some competitors left. There's teh door, vote with your feet.
As for M$, the pot does indeed know black very well when it sees it. Unfortunately (for M$) it has long ago expended any goodwill, or even pity, for which it once may possibly have ever been eligible. I won't be looking at ask.com for a replacement for Google search.
Look at the up side: if Google/Doubleclick gains a stranglehold on all Intraweb Advertising(tm)(r)(c), that'll leave only one ad server domain for us to block. Just think of the reduction of labor!
"Don't be Evil"? It sounds to me like the Kool-Aid is kicking in.
Just got a new HD & did the netinstall bit (deb 4(?)'etch', 2.6.18 Kernel) on my A20 Thinkpad.
I honestly haven't even dared try the sleep or hibernate buttons yet, as they've _always_ been good for a crash, when they did anything at all. 'Twould be _really_ nice to be able to just shut the lid on the laptop, instead of having to spend 10 minutes shutting it down, another 5 minutes bringing it back up, and losing the three or four dozen browser windows I usually have open...
Then you might go after all those wireless NICs, starting with the ones for sale at Fry's. I have about seven different kinds, from four different mfgr's, both PCI & PCMCIA, and the ONLY one that has a native Linux driver is the relatively high-dollar Cisco card. The off-brand cards and the Netgear cards all require ndiswrapper & Imperial drivers. I consider myself fortunate to be able to run them at all.
Didn't I see this on the X-Files?
IIRC there was one datacenter in a shipping container (with satellite connection?), and another heavily automated camper trailer with a T3 (or was it OC3?).
And it was a LOT more than two years ago.
Short answer: yes. Long answer: Hell, yes!
Part of the core technology of an ELT is a "G-Switch", consisting literally of a ball and spring switch set to make contact iff the airframe it's mounted on experiences a decelerative impulse greater than certain specifications (which I'll post next week) which are set so as not to trip the thing on every hard handing. Any impact hard enough to get injured in triggers the ELT to automatically transmit. Similar technology, I'm sure, is used in ground vehicle airbags. Both are passively armed at installation. You never have to do anything more (other than, of course, crash) to make them go.
Another core technology of an ELT is a startlingly rugged (for its appearance - just tough plastic) enclosure with crash survivability demonstrated to be, yes, comparable to flight data recorders.
I was impressed when one of ours was found a meter deep in the sand on the beach in New Zealand (or maybe it was eastern Oz, that corner of the world) some 16 hours after its aircraft went missing. The aircraft was found down to four meters deep in the sand under the ELT. It had gone down at high tide and was underwater for several hours, so had not been picked up until the tide went out. Somehow we got some photos of the wreckage in a hanger (supposedly where the authorities analyzed it?) and there wasn't a single piece left of it that was the size of your hand. I mean that plane was *shredded*. The analysis estimated that it had gone in at something over Vne (the speed at which parts start getting torn off the airframe by air resistance), yet our ELT had survived not only operational but still watertight.
A boat's EPIRB is rigged to float free of a sinking vessel, and then transmit. Some, as the parent describes, are mounted upside-down and have a tilt switch which activates when righted (floating). IMU another option is a switch setup which activates whenever it leaves its deck bracket. Like lots of modern, hi-tech ocean ship equipment, EPIRBs can be a maintenance nightmare without specially trained personnel. Obvious but shamefully frequent id10t problems include:
A: Painting the entire EPIRB into its bracket, effectively gluing it there and defeating its float-free automatic operation mode altogether. Bogus points are awarded for painting the strobe light lens and obscuring it, as well as killing the specified high-visibility orange color called for in the international regulations. These decrease its value even in manual operation modes.
B: Removing the EPIRB from its deck mounting bracket without realizing that that will set it off unless it is disarmed first. No real damage done here, just an embarrassing visit from the local authorities, and a battery replacement.
C: Disarming and removing the EPIRB, then painting its entire mounting bracket, including the faces which engage the EPIRB, making it fit too tightly thereafter and defeating its float-free automatic operation mode altogether.
D: Disarming and removing the EPIRB, masking and painting its bracket, putting it all back together and forgetting to rearm the EPIRB. thus defeating its float-free automatic operation mode altogether.
ELT failures are, unfortunately, common, usually from lack of battery maintenance. We get plenty of reworks which have had batteries sit and rot in them until they leak and damage everything. This takes many years beyond their required replacement period.
MikEB
Pointer, Inc
(The above post is not the official opinion of Pointer, Inc or its management.)
pointerinc.com (nor am I responsible for that website!)
pointeravionics.com
Every day I get spam from "legitimate" businesses like DiscoverCard, my College (AZ State U)'s Alumni Association, and even my mortgage company (Countrywide). Just because these asshats are BIG deals or have some ongoing business relationship with me does NOT legitimize their spam - it remains unsolicited and unwanted.
Sears and Craftsman tools are the worst - everyday there's something.
You guys need to understand that when Chen Lin sends me penis enlargement spams & offers for fake Rolex watches there isn't much I can do to retaliate for that, but when Craftsman pummels my inbox I quit bothering with the NASCAR truck races and quit going into Sears at all. I'll have nothing more to do with Sears - at least until they drop epending and spamming from their advertizing policies.
I look through my spam repositories regularly, and filter guys like Guns and Ammo Magazine, who were nice enough to ask me to opt-out before spamming me (which I _won't_ do: why should I opt-out of something you shouldn't be sending me in the first place?)
Again, I'm taking names, and you guys are _very_ easy to filter: it's not as if any of yer spam is ever getting read.
If I had enough of a credit rating to refinance my mortgage Countrywide would be gone from my life - not that I would expect that that would actually get them outta my inbox.
If your business has enough of a name to be recognized by your victims, the LAST thing you can afford to do is spam - it's the WORST possible PR outreach you can do. When are "legitimate spammers" gonna get this?
Right, under USAPATRIOT, all accountability has been removed from the Government.
Silly of me...
This is the most hilarious thing I've seen since the Rodona Garst debacle!
The common element in all those criminal things is "falsehood".
(In the US, at least, for now) having the truth on your side is a "perfect defense" against slander, libel, defamation of character, whatever. Yuo can say _anything_, and damn the consequences to whoever, if it's TRUE. If the buyer's story checks out, the authorities will walk away with both feet (well, can't say for sure, it _is_ the U.K.).
...prequels suck.
Has there ever been a good prequel?
Can anyone name one?
Uh, The Hobbit, maybe?
There, that's better.
Nobody knows what the ^H joke means unless you are ready for a retirement home
when I saw that scene I knew I was going to like this show
They had me when they kicked the bad guy into the engine intake.
(which I saw _before_ the dinosaur scene, on the air)
I was surfing the channels, minding my own business, when I caught this sequence where a pretty girl in an atmospheric-capable spacecraft spider-dropped this rather sarcastic dude into a magneto-levitational train full of cowboys, coolies, and - WTF? *Starship Troopers*?
Maybe I was watching something else (yeah, stupid of me), because I missed the next segment altogether. The next I remember of it is this:
CAPTAIN: (from memory, Mum has the DVDs) "Here's all the money Niska gave us. Give it back, and tell him we're not doing his job."
FIRST BADGUY: "Keep it, and buy yourself a nice funeral. I'll hunt you down and kill you _myself_!"
CAPTAIN: <*sigh*> (Kicks bad guy, rocking him back a meter and into the intake stream of the idling spaceship engine, where (through the majic of CGA) he's _SUCKED_IN_ at a hilarious velocity!)
<WOW! Now we see the violence inherent in the sytem! But there's more:>
(Second Bad Guy is dragged before the Captain)
CAPTAIN: "Here's all the money Niska gave us..."
SECOND BADGUY: (Quickly taking the money) "OK, Sure! I'm right with you on that!"
By this time I'm wondering: "Who does this guy think he _is_? Joss Fscking Whedon?" Of course that was answered by the Mutant Enemy trademark at the end: "GRR! ARGH!"
But even after watching all the DVDs, I still have about a hundred questions, starting with "_what's_up_ with that preacher, he's _definately_ got a history!"
Well, of the two hot babes mentioned, one has certainly shown herself to be unnaturally good in a fight...
...and the other generally avoids fights but has shown herself to be a pretty good shot with a hand laser.
Indeed, River would be the gal to have around in a firefight. Another reply to the parent suggests she does some hand-to-hand in the movie. I've always suspected that, when push comes to shove, she's a LOT more functional than she normally appears. There's also the "I can kill you with my brain" thing, which reminds me of the blue-hands guys and their bleeding-out-the-cranial-orifices method of execution. My theory is that River can do that only better, maybe _without_ the equipment, or at superior range (which is, of course, why they're SO hot after her).
While I don't recall this, I'll take your word, and point out Inara's brief scrap with "our Mrs. Reynolds" (who completely held her own against _Mr_Reynolds) and her ability to school Mal (and prolly Zoe & Cobb) in the use of a sword. With rifles at 100 meters, I dunno If I'd want Inara or Jayne (her buddy Mandi was certainly dangerous), but at close range it'd be nolo contendere:
COBB: (takes a potentially face-altering swing at Inara)
INARA: (dodges, giggles, and pulls down the bodice of her dress,
revealing sweet, milky globes)
COBB: (wide-eyed, slack-jawed) "Whoa..."
INARA: (a quick whirl-kick to Jayne's ear)
COBB: (falling to teh deck, unconscious) "Duhh."
Yeah, it's pretty obvious that "the Whore Academy" (I forget its real name) trains its students _well_ in self-defense.
The standout characteristic of the violence tendancies of both babes is that they're quite defensive, as opposed to Reynolds, Zoe, Cobb, and to some extent the Preacher, who are ready to walk into a situation with _intent_ to kick butt.
Simon, Kaylee, and pretty much Wash, OTOH, have all proven themselves rather useless in the fight situations...
This is why I'd pair up (in the first round):
Simon & Kaylee (obvious)
Jayne & River (as unlikely as that sounds)
Book & Inara (already hinted at)
In the second round (third season):
Wash & Zoe split up (over Wash's fear of reproduction, already hinted at)
Reynolds & Zoe (take me _hard_, Captain!)
Jayne & Simon both prove too clumsy to maintain lasting relationships
Inara cries a lot and maybe even leaves
Perhaps a new character to provide romantic interest for Book (a la Oz/Willow or Laila/Wesley)
Third round (fifth season):
Mal & Inara (finally, after five years, like Buffy & Spike)
Jayne marries a cowgirl/merc/whore they pick up somewhere.
Possible major personality changes or additional new characters
for other combinations. Think Gunn/Winnifred & Willow/Tara. Anything can happen in five years on a Whedon show.
Now, that woulda been the _original_ plan, the cancellation and movie may of course accelerate _some_ of that, while simply not leaving time for most of it.
**** MY POINT ****
It's been remarked that Firefly (and Buffy, and Angel) have all been greatly character-driven shows. This is gonna be the tragedy of Firefly's cancellation: without the hundred or hundred-and-fifty hours it'll take to treat them properly, we'll never get to meet say, Book, as well as we've come to know Spike (who never even _showed_up_ in the first season). Zoe and Kaylee simply don't have the _chance_ at as much life as Cordelia and Willow enjoyed, and this is the part that makes me want to cry.
I had so hoped, though, that we were finally going to get beyond the x86 architecture - that their strategy of piling kluge on top of kluge on top of kluge in the name of backwards-compatibility was finally going to come crashing down.
I do not see anyhthing in Jobs' statements about the x86, just Intel, who's (by now) as eager as anybody to break away from the x86 legacy (and show us some new innovation in hardware dewign). Note that the 8086 _was_ pretty cool and innovative - in 1975.
Unlike the situation with the Wintel architecture, there's NO thing limiting Apple to backward x86 compatability. They can just march straight forward with Itanium, I64, AMD64, or whatever the 64-bit mode is gonna be. My guess is that Intel will be happy to supply them with modern, 64-bit CPUs, without x86 legacy compatability.
Why bother with x86? They never had it, and _don't_ need it!
ISP Tech Support: "Go to 'My Computer'..."
Me: "That's about a 15-minute drive. Aren't you downtown?"
ISP: "Uh... What OS are you using?"
Me: "Debian - Sarge."
ISP: "Uuhhhh..."
Now it'll be:
ISP Tech: "Go to 'Computer'."
Me: "Go _where_? It's right here, at arm's reach."
Actually, in all seriousness, I renamed it "Bill's Computer" a LONG time ago, 'cuz that's who _really_ 0wnz it, this is no new thing.
Jeri Ryan is made of plastic. Jolene Blalock might not be.
Not to burst yer bubble, but Jolene is a skinny little skater grrl. I've heard her interviewed (by Howard Stern) and she describes her on-screen rack as totally artificial. "Tube socks".
Personally I think Terry Farrell has it all over both of 'em.
Where it'll be preempted for basketball.
DOH! I spoke too soon - it'll be delayed two hours and aired at 9PM.
Wow, the season finale must be _important_ - usually they just go with Malcolm
at its usual 9PM and delay Enterprise until 2AM Saturday!
You never can tell when or if Enterprise will be on. No wonder it got poor ratings - we can't find it even if we try.
And interface protocols, like ActiveSync.
There's more to it than just the API.
And it has to be available for software licensed under the GPL. The Sender-ID mess is a good example of their unwillingness to play nicely.
"It's a trap!"
...thanks to a lot of cool, smart, good-hearted people, i can eliminate proprietary software from my life. in fact, i've done just that.
Nothing more to see here, I'm speechless for once...
and robots that _don't_ have these laws built into them as motivational imperitaves are just plain scary.
Go rent "Robocop" or "Saturn 3" or "2001" or "Collosus: The Forbin Project" or any of about a million other bad robot / bad computer movies if you doubt this. The trouble _always_ starts with violation of the three laws.
I don't see police work being one of the initial, or even second-tier, applications that robots will be deployed into. Surveillance, maybe, but police do one helluva lot more than that. Even surveillance might be dodgy: if you got wise to a robot following you, and you told it to Sod Off, it would have to prioritize your order against the orders of its sender. Complex at best, I don't like it.
Neither did Isaac, his detective was human, charged with getting to the bottom of WTF was up with the robots and the subtle conflicts of their programming.
Well, that's my $.02.
Microsoft Purchases Evil From Satan
Whaddya mean, we can't believe everything we read on the WWW?
I'd check that one again. Half the trick of making such a deal would be maintaining plausible deniability.
Now we have reports that the Empire is unbundling WMP? That's gotta be crap.
Everyone knows that, once assimilated, middleware CANNOT be removed from WinBloze! The Emperor, himself, testified under oath (though the DoJ's documents are indexed SO poorly that it's near-impossible to find anything there) that he'd have to withdraw WinBloze from the market (and, I guess, go out of business) if ordered to undertake the Impossibility Of Removing Internet Exploiter. To back down from that position would open him up to perjury accusations. Don't hold your breath.
I'd keep looking, and (hopefully) find where he actually says this, were it not for the tendancy of The Emperor's very weaselly testimony to make me physically ill. He doesn't know what a browser is ("uh, it's kinda part of an OS, right?"), he doesn't understand how software of any kind (Browsers or OSsen) might be distributed, he doesn't remember _ever_ sending or receiving _any_ email, he has NO CLUE how the PC software market works (despite his public statements that he created it), except that there're all those terrible competitors out there that hate M$, and want its marketshare. oOps - "marketshare, what's that?" He doesn't understand how _anyone_ could accuse him af aything unethical, much less illegal. They're just jealous, because "a few people choose" to use Windoze, and all those "anti" websites badmouthing him just can't stand that.
Puh-lease.
You're sure, again, that he didn't purchase evil, outright?
Maybe he just bought the _licensing_ rights, with Satan retaining the copyright.
Yeah. That sounds more likely.
Lessee...
The Cylons look like humans now. No news there.
The Boomer on Caprica knows she's a Cylon. That wasn't apparent. She's playing Helo. No news there.
Six is too territorial to let Gaius get anywhere near Starbuck. Can't really blame her, it's not as if she hasn't already caught him banging another chick.
Tyrol's people are pretty loyal. Duh.
Everybody's paranoid. You'd be paranoid, too, if they really _were_ out to get you.
Nearly everybody has _something_ to hide.
Investigatotions given Carte Blanche quickly turn into Witch Hunts. ST:TNG didn't make that up.
They caught Tyrol & Boomer, but they didn't find the still. Some investigation.
The Chief isn't likely to cover for Boomer quite so automatically anymore.
Six is actively driving the development of the Cylon detector. Here's the angle: she _needs_ the Cylon detector to clear Boomer, because the twit is SO clumsy that she's bound to get caught.
I give it about a 3. No cigar this week.
Next week oughta be better. Six shows up in the, er, flesh, oh, my.
This week Atlantis gets the cigar. Sheppard "did the Captain Kirk", with an _ancient_ babe, no less! Teyla didn't look amused, but it was Rodney who went positively ballistic. Ah, jealousy is so _very_ ugly...