I know I'm switching to Linux when Whistler gets released.
Lastly: I built my own computer, and if Whistler only ships in upgrade format or with new PCs, does this mean I can't build computers anymore? Sounds like someone's paying them to grant a monopoly.
Although some of these patents are completely worthless and stupid and retarded, et cetera, some of them are part of a sort of Daes Dae'mar (for you Wheel of Time [book] fans out there). For those of you who don't read WoT, basically the companies are maneuvering to cause anything from slight problems to major deadness in their competitors (and even friends).
A one-click patent, for example. Sure they didn't expect it to stand up in court, though it appears that it has so far (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm sure that surprises them quite a bit. But the point of it was not so that they could win law suits. They are trying to cost their competitors just enough in court fees that they're pulled back a step, allowing someone else (not necessarily the one pressing charges) to gain a few steps. It's like a race, in which the teams are allowed to help and hinder eachother in order to hinder other teams. Much the same as Bush giving Nader money to pull a few votes away from Gore.
I saw Unbreakable last night, with a friend. We're both in theatre at the moment; she writes plays, and I act. So naturally we watch for things like symbolism and good writing, et cetera.
Let me describe my scale of SciFi movies to you all. 1-10 inclusive, where 10 is the Matrix, and a 0 would be Lost in Space. When it came to plot, Unbreakable was an 8. At the beginning of the movie I expected to see something about a man who couldn't be hurt. I've read it before in books, and I'm not a comic book fan; I've always had a fascination for telekinesis and ESP type stuff, such as that found in Anne McCaffrey's Pegasus series (To Ride Pegasus is the first book of that, I believe). When Elijah was introduced as a character whose bones did break, and quite often, I began to wonder if they were supposed to be like mirrors of eachother (especially since whenever Young Elijah was shown it was in a reflection)--that is, for every time Dunn would've had a bone broken, instead Elijah got the punishment. Turns out I was wrong--it was even better. It was something I'd never seen before. They related it to comic books, and mythology, and mythology's basis in history.
If this movie got an 8 for plot, it was an 11 for symbolism. Embedded in it were themes such as good vs evil, and the definition of evil. For those of you who've seen the movie, the entire part about weaknesses brings forth the question of "Are all humans superheroes?" And at the very beginning of the movie, when Willis' character began hitting on the young woman in the train it showed that even he was morally fallible--something which wouldn't happen with Neo in the Matrix, who was supposed to symbolise Jesus, among other things.
Cinematography also gets a 10. Some of the shots were incredible, particularly on the train at the beginning.
Here's a comparison.
Matrix Unbreakable Lost in Space Acting 9 9 5 Plot 10 8 3 Symbolism 9 11 1 Opinion 10 8 0 Sorry for the weird spacing.
If you like scifi, and if when you read you automatically look for themes and symbolism, you'll enjoy Unbreakable. But don't go in looking for something to make fun of, go in with an open mind. Critics go in to make fun of things, so they always rate things badly (except children's movies, which they absolutely love, how ironic).
I knew it was happening. English is becoming very universal. I've considered the plausability of creating a new, more efficient and expressive language. English has its flaws, moreso than most others. But it has its positive points too. For one, it doesn't have the subjunctive, which is impossible to learn. And how would you write a MUD entirely in Spanish? How would the commands be phrased? Vaya? Va? Ir?
Basically, my response is this: What the hell are you going to do about it? Blow us all up?
SatireWire forgets to point out that Yahoo! is derived from the name Jonathan Swift gave to the savage, sub-human slaves of the horse-people, which were called Yahoos. By the end of that chapter of Gulliver's Travels (I believe it's chapter 4), Gulliver was so brainwashed that when he returned to England he called all of the humans yahoos, including himself, and acted as a virtual slave to his own (regular, unintelligent) horses.
Let me be the first to say, what a stupid name for a PORTAL. Will we all become mindless slaves [to America Online]?
Plus, I hate their stupid logo and color schemes. Worthless.
I got a great ISP. Speakeasy.Net. May have seen them on Thinkgeek if you go there often, or perhaps dslreports.com. They're unbelievable--fast, helpful, fair. They even gave me a second IP address for free, and not only do they allow multiple machines on one residential connection, but they support it.
If you happen to order a connection from them, do me a favor and put me down as a reference. My username is Aciel.
I Asked Jeeves, and found a nifty Mass Conversion Calculator. It claims that 244 grams is approximately 8.6 oz, or a little over half a pound. Hmm, weighs about as much as two quarter pounders from McDonald's (without the cheese, of course, since I'm allergic). It still seems kinda heavy to tote around in one's front pocket, but with that many features, sure! So what if only half of those many features work in my area!
Ender's Game is without a doubt my favorite single book, followed closely by The Hobbit. The Ender Series is my second favorite series (following The Lord of the Rings and followed by The Wheel of Time. It is truly original, in my opinion; the idea of consciousness governing everything was new in Ender's Game, to be repeated in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass and His Dark Materials (another of my favorites).
I must say that it has come to change my outlook on life. I've converted from agnostic to Wiccan since then. I want more than anything for the universe to be conscious--it would be incredible. Orgasmic.
Read this series if you haven't. I'm going to check out the last two books (Ender's Shadow and The Shadow of the Hegemon) as soon as Christmas comes around and I finish reading the ninth book of the Wheel of Time. Also make sure to check out Pullman's The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Excellent books with a similar viewpoint.
I'm certain that floppy quality has decreased. I've got some 8-year-old Windows 3.1 disks in my cabinet which I just used yesterday to fix a computer. And they've experienced speaker magnets, monitor radiation, extreme heat, everything. A few years back I received a SVGA drivers disk from Microsoft when I was having technical problems, and it had been stepped on. It still worked. But any disk purchased within the last three years or so just can't compete. It's quite pathetic.
Sorry to restate what dozens have said already, but why is DARE on a news for nerds board? I could possibly understand if this was something directly concerning marijuana, because hey, everyone knows nerds do marijuauna. But this post is quite obviously talking about drinking.
It bothers me slightly that things like this get posted when my articles on 3D monitors and Smart and Friendly liquidating got rejected.
In 1992 when I got my first computer, a 486 DX/66 with 8 MB RAM, I subscribed to America Online. At the time it seemed pretty nice, though there were no buddylists and instant messages were text only, as were emails. It didn't try to control everything as it does now; there were no parental settings. In fact, it was only a month later that they advertised that AOL's next version would have a "World Wide Web browser" incorporated. Of course, it also cost 2.95 an hour.
I remember, though, that the tech support sucked--it was only available for a few hours a day, and if you called they'd put you on hold forever (which they still do). They never liked to give out information about their systems either.
Then they went flat rate at 20 bucks a month. They dumped all of their old games and signed up with some new game programmers. This really pissed me off, as I was a big fan of Federation (now at ibgames.net) and Gemstone III (www.gemstoneiii.net).
The rates went up. 21 bucks, 22 bucks. I got a cable modem from my cable company, and there I hit on AOL's one advantage. It was very, very reliable, at that point. Of course, that was as recently as a year ago. I wanted to get rid of America Online, except my sister had recently discovered Instant Messages, and being picky as she is, hated to use something that wasn't incredibly stupidly user-friendly.
Unfortunately, this continues to the day. I've dumped my cable modem service, and I'm still paying 23 bucks a month for AOL plus 90 a month for a rather excellent and just-as-reliable DSL service. AOL exists only on my sister's computer now, event though she's connected over the home LAN. She complains that the email program she's using doesn't receive forwards from AOL correctly. How odd, wouldn't you say, that AOL doesn't forward the message in a format that other internet users can view? Hmm. Luckily she's using our ISP's email more now, and AIM instead of AOL. So hopefully we'll be able to get rid of that piece of shit.
On the other hand, I've had GREAT experience with my DSL provider, speakeasy.net. They're unbelievable--the tech support, the service plan, everything. I get unlimited bandwidth, provided I don't use it 24/7. I get two free static IPs and I can order more. They even have installation directions for Linux! And it's never been done when I've wanted to use it (all the time mostly).
Down with AOL!
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
Not only did I win, but Wired interviewed me. The complete article, by Joyce Slaton, is available at:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,39038,00. html
Check it out. I'm "Gamer" John Woods of Arlington, VA, by the way.
To be honest, I didn't expect to win--I was just sending in a description of a funny thing that happened to me...and kaboom! They wanted to interview me! I hope they send me a T-shirt or something...
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I got DSL a few months ago after giving the boot to a really awful unidirectional cablemodem. Admittedly I ordered it around the end of March and it wasn't installed until early June, but that was Verizon's fault (Verizon also mistakenly broke one of my phone lines in the process, boo). I've seen a lot of crappy DSL companies out there (ie Infospeed), so I was very careful about reading the contract when I found one I liked. And it worked! Bell Atlantic didn't have an office in my area, oddly enough, though they stuck an advertisement on my doorknob...so I contacted about five Covad ISPs with questions about policies and finally found mine.
Now I'm surfing the web on a 1500/384 RADSL connection from Speakeasy.net (also the Seattle-based owners of one of the first ever Internet Cafes) and haven't had even a second of downtime since it got activated. They're all very helpful, and you get two free IPs with your order. You can get dynamic or static--your choice, and up to eight extras for 2.95 each (for more you need a business account). Plus I can run just about any kind of [non-IRC] server without violating the contract, and they'll even help me set up my hostname, et cetera. Two email addresses too, and a Q3A server. It's unbelievable--I must be extremely lucky. The only downside is that the closest POP is New York, and they route you through Seattle as default (you can request another POP, but they have to change your IP addresses--and that's not so bad anyway), even if you live in Washington, DC, like I do. But they're planning new POPs all over, including one in Phoenix if I remember correctly.
For more information, they're at http://www.speakeasy.net. If you register, please put down Aciel as the reference.
Happy surfing!
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I think I must bring to your attention a book called Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Why is this relevant? In the story, the main character's siblings, both of which are quite underage, sign on to their family's internet-of-the-future-account and take on the aliases of Locke and Demosthenes. They write political essays and participate in debates, rising through the informal political ranks until they are considered the foremost politicians in the world (all politicians are on the Internet in their era). Well, anyway, I better wrap it up. Wouldn't want to tell you what happens--but it's a great story, even if their rise through politics isn't the main storyline.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
The Music Building's Library at UNC Greensboro has a similar setup. Though you don't have to sign anything, the only thing you can access on any of the computers is Netscape. Dunno about the regular library, though. Worse still, it runs Windows.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
It's really too bad they can't think up some new design that will run that fast and yet much, much cooler. Who wants to buy one of those Kryotech cases just so they can upgrade their processor, anyway?
Argh.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
Google may be exploit-proof, but as nerds we must all acknowledge that it's like the student council; the person selected is not the most responsible or the most worthy in most cases, but rather the most popular. Google works in just such a way, listing the most popular pages rather than the best pages. Now for websites in general this would be good, but for individual webpages on specific subjects that aren't extremely sought-after...well...give up, Seymour.
I think this interest in the occult stems from the interest of nerds in general in scifi/fantasy (the genre). I know I became involved in computers partially because of scifi. And doesn't everyone just love that computer in Discworld?
I know that I for one wish magic existed, just as I wish I could be in Captain Picard's shoes, or have sex with Deanna Troi, Seven of Nine, and Dax all at once. Just as I wish I could be a character in the Wheel of Time, or the Lord of the Rings. Just as I wish I was telekinetic.
In short, with all of us being technology buffs merely by using computers, it is natural that we be sci-fi buffs, and thus fantasy buffs as well, and therefore that we have an interest in the occult.
Steve Rogers
aciel@speakeasy.net
That is absurd. You can't compare them; you're talking about technological innovations, all of which are different, and therefore not comparable. Humans are always looking for analogies, and there are no good ones for those timeframes; everything can be argued. I myself believe that the Internet has had the biggest impact of any innovation in the last millennium. But other people could say that no, electricity has, because without that there could be no Internet.
Slashdot Mirror
...once MS percieves you as a threat...
Doesn't that sound familiar? Perhaps from Star Trek? Microsoft lives up to its slashdot icon once again.
Resistance is futile.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I know I'm switching to Linux when Whistler gets released.
Lastly: I built my own computer, and if Whistler only ships in upgrade format or with new PCs, does this mean I can't build computers anymore? Sounds like someone's paying them to grant a monopoly.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
Exactly. This guy should get his karma raised by a hundred. He's got the right idea.
Although some of these patents are completely worthless and stupid and retarded, et cetera, some of them are part of a sort of Daes Dae'mar (for you Wheel of Time [book] fans out there). For those of you who don't read WoT, basically the companies are maneuvering to cause anything from slight problems to major deadness in their competitors (and even friends).
A one-click patent, for example. Sure they didn't expect it to stand up in court, though it appears that it has so far (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm sure that surprises them quite a bit. But the point of it was not so that they could win law suits. They are trying to cost their competitors just enough in court fees that they're pulled back a step, allowing someone else (not necessarily the one pressing charges) to gain a few steps. It's like a race, in which the teams are allowed to help and hinder eachother in order to hinder other teams. Much the same as Bush giving Nader money to pull a few votes away from Gore.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I could have sworn I heard an Olympic Theme or something John Williams or Alan Silvestri-ish in the trailer, and I know I'd heard it elsewhere too.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I saw Unbreakable last night, with a friend. We're both in theatre at the moment; she writes plays, and I act. So naturally we watch for things like symbolism and good writing, et cetera.
Let me describe my scale of SciFi movies to you all. 1-10 inclusive, where 10 is the Matrix, and a 0 would be Lost in Space. When it came to plot, Unbreakable was an 8. At the beginning of the movie I expected to see something about a man who couldn't be hurt. I've read it before in books, and I'm not a comic book fan; I've always had a fascination for telekinesis and ESP type stuff, such as that found in Anne McCaffrey's Pegasus series (To Ride Pegasus is the first book of that, I believe). When Elijah was introduced as a character whose bones did break, and quite often, I began to wonder if they were supposed to be like mirrors of eachother (especially since whenever Young Elijah was shown it was in a reflection)--that is, for every time Dunn would've had a bone broken, instead Elijah got the punishment. Turns out I was wrong--it was even better. It was something I'd never seen before. They related it to comic books, and mythology, and mythology's basis in history.
If this movie got an 8 for plot, it was an 11 for symbolism. Embedded in it were themes such as good vs evil, and the definition of evil. For those of you who've seen the movie, the entire part about weaknesses brings forth the question of "Are all humans superheroes?" And at the very beginning of the movie, when Willis' character began hitting on the young woman in the train it showed that even he was morally fallible--something which wouldn't happen with Neo in the Matrix, who was supposed to symbolise Jesus, among other things.
Cinematography also gets a 10. Some of the shots were incredible, particularly on the train at the beginning.
Here's a comparison.
Matrix Unbreakable Lost in Space
Acting 9 9 5
Plot 10 8 3
Symbolism 9 11 1
Opinion 10 8 0
Sorry for the weird spacing.
If you like scifi, and if when you read you automatically look for themes and symbolism, you'll enjoy Unbreakable. But don't go in looking for something to make fun of, go in with an open mind. Critics go in to make fun of things, so they always rate things badly (except children's movies, which they absolutely love, how ironic).
Enjoy
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I have a very simple response to this article.
I knew it was happening. English is becoming very universal. I've considered the plausability of creating a new, more efficient and expressive language. English has its flaws, moreso than most others. But it has its positive points too. For one, it doesn't have the subjunctive, which is impossible to learn. And how would you write a MUD entirely in Spanish? How would the commands be phrased? Vaya? Va? Ir?
Basically, my response is this:
What the hell are you going to do about it? Blow us all up?
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
SatireWire forgets to point out that Yahoo! is derived from the name Jonathan Swift gave to the savage, sub-human slaves of the horse-people, which were called Yahoos. By the end of that chapter of Gulliver's Travels (I believe it's chapter 4), Gulliver was so brainwashed that when he returned to England he called all of the humans yahoos, including himself, and acted as a virtual slave to his own (regular, unintelligent) horses.
Let me be the first to say, what a stupid name for a PORTAL. Will we all become mindless slaves [to America Online]?
Plus, I hate their stupid logo and color schemes. Worthless.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I got a great ISP. Speakeasy.Net. May have seen them on Thinkgeek if you go there often, or perhaps dslreports.com. They're unbelievable--fast, helpful, fair. They even gave me a second IP address for free, and not only do they allow multiple machines on one residential connection, but they support it.
If you happen to order a connection from them, do me a favor and put me down as a reference. My username is Aciel.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I Asked Jeeves, and found a nifty Mass Conversion Calculator. It claims that 244 grams is approximately 8.6 oz, or a little over half a pound. Hmm, weighs about as much as two quarter pounders from McDonald's (without the cheese, of course, since I'm allergic). It still seems kinda heavy to tote around in one's front pocket, but with that many features, sure! So what if only half of those many features work in my area!
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
CORNY>Celestix 1.0--a new Open Diaper operating system--was released today. Need I say more?
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
Ender's Game is without a doubt my favorite single book, followed closely by The Hobbit. The Ender Series is my second favorite series (following The Lord of the Rings and followed by The Wheel of Time. It is truly original, in my opinion; the idea of consciousness governing everything was new in Ender's Game, to be repeated in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass and His Dark Materials (another of my favorites).
I must say that it has come to change my outlook on life. I've converted from agnostic to Wiccan since then. I want more than anything for the universe to be conscious--it would be incredible. Orgasmic.
Read this series if you haven't. I'm going to check out the last two books (Ender's Shadow and The Shadow of the Hegemon) as soon as Christmas comes around and I finish reading the ninth book of the Wheel of Time. Also make sure to check out Pullman's The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Excellent books with a similar viewpoint.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
Whatever happened to Mojo Nation? Aciel aciel@speakeasy.net
They should have used Linux.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I'm certain that floppy quality has decreased. I've got some 8-year-old Windows 3.1 disks in my cabinet which I just used yesterday to fix a computer. And they've experienced speaker magnets, monitor radiation, extreme heat, everything. A few years back I received a SVGA drivers disk from Microsoft when I was having technical problems, and it had been stepped on. It still worked. But any disk purchased within the last three years or so just can't compete. It's quite pathetic.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
Sorry to restate what dozens have said already, but why is DARE on a news for nerds board? I could possibly understand if this was something directly concerning marijuana, because hey, everyone knows nerds do marijuauna. But this post is quite obviously talking about drinking.
It bothers me slightly that things like this get posted when my articles on 3D monitors and Smart and Friendly liquidating got rejected.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
In 1992 when I got my first computer, a 486 DX/66 with 8 MB RAM, I subscribed to America Online. At the time it seemed pretty nice, though there were no buddylists and instant messages were text only, as were emails. It didn't try to control everything as it does now; there were no parental settings. In fact, it was only a month later that they advertised that AOL's next version would have a "World Wide Web browser" incorporated. Of course, it also cost 2.95 an hour. I remember, though, that the tech support sucked--it was only available for a few hours a day, and if you called they'd put you on hold forever (which they still do). They never liked to give out information about their systems either. Then they went flat rate at 20 bucks a month. They dumped all of their old games and signed up with some new game programmers. This really pissed me off, as I was a big fan of Federation (now at ibgames.net) and Gemstone III (www.gemstoneiii.net). The rates went up. 21 bucks, 22 bucks. I got a cable modem from my cable company, and there I hit on AOL's one advantage. It was very, very reliable, at that point. Of course, that was as recently as a year ago. I wanted to get rid of America Online, except my sister had recently discovered Instant Messages, and being picky as she is, hated to use something that wasn't incredibly stupidly user-friendly. Unfortunately, this continues to the day. I've dumped my cable modem service, and I'm still paying 23 bucks a month for AOL plus 90 a month for a rather excellent and just-as-reliable DSL service. AOL exists only on my sister's computer now, event though she's connected over the home LAN. She complains that the email program she's using doesn't receive forwards from AOL correctly. How odd, wouldn't you say, that AOL doesn't forward the message in a format that other internet users can view? Hmm. Luckily she's using our ISP's email more now, and AIM instead of AOL. So hopefully we'll be able to get rid of that piece of shit. On the other hand, I've had GREAT experience with my DSL provider, speakeasy.net. They're unbelievable--the tech support, the service plan, everything. I get unlimited bandwidth, provided I don't use it 24/7. I get two free static IPs and I can order more. They even have installation directions for Linux! And it's never been done when I've wanted to use it (all the time mostly). Down with AOL! Aciel aciel@speakeasy.net
Not only did I win, but Wired interviewed me. The complete article, by Joyce Slaton, is available at: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,39038,00. html
Check it out. I'm "Gamer" John Woods of Arlington, VA, by the way.
To be honest, I didn't expect to win--I was just sending in a description of a funny thing that happened to me...and kaboom! They wanted to interview me! I hope they send me a T-shirt or something...
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I got DSL a few months ago after giving the boot to a really awful unidirectional cablemodem. Admittedly I ordered it around the end of March and it wasn't installed until early June, but that was Verizon's fault (Verizon also mistakenly broke one of my phone lines in the process, boo). I've seen a lot of crappy DSL companies out there (ie Infospeed), so I was very careful about reading the contract when I found one I liked. And it worked! Bell Atlantic didn't have an office in my area, oddly enough, though they stuck an advertisement on my doorknob...so I contacted about five Covad ISPs with questions about policies and finally found mine. Now I'm surfing the web on a 1500/384 RADSL connection from Speakeasy.net (also the Seattle-based owners of one of the first ever Internet Cafes) and haven't had even a second of downtime since it got activated. They're all very helpful, and you get two free IPs with your order. You can get dynamic or static--your choice, and up to eight extras for 2.95 each (for more you need a business account). Plus I can run just about any kind of [non-IRC] server without violating the contract, and they'll even help me set up my hostname, et cetera. Two email addresses too, and a Q3A server. It's unbelievable--I must be extremely lucky. The only downside is that the closest POP is New York, and they route you through Seattle as default (you can request another POP, but they have to change your IP addresses--and that's not so bad anyway), even if you live in Washington, DC, like I do. But they're planning new POPs all over, including one in Phoenix if I remember correctly. For more information, they're at http://www.speakeasy.net. If you register, please put down Aciel as the reference. Happy surfing! Aciel aciel@speakeasy.net
I think I must bring to your attention a book called Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Why is this relevant? In the story, the main character's siblings, both of which are quite underage, sign on to their family's internet-of-the-future-account and take on the aliases of Locke and Demosthenes. They write political essays and participate in debates, rising through the informal political ranks until they are considered the foremost politicians in the world (all politicians are on the Internet in their era). Well, anyway, I better wrap it up. Wouldn't want to tell you what happens--but it's a great story, even if their rise through politics isn't the main storyline. Aciel aciel@speakeasy.net
The Music Building's Library at UNC Greensboro has a similar setup. Though you don't have to sign anything, the only thing you can access on any of the computers is Netscape. Dunno about the regular library, though. Worse still, it runs Windows. Aciel aciel@speakeasy.net
It's really too bad they can't think up some new design that will run that fast and yet much, much cooler. Who wants to buy one of those Kryotech cases just so they can upgrade their processor, anyway? Argh. Aciel aciel@speakeasy.net
Google may be exploit-proof, but as nerds we must all acknowledge that it's like the student council; the person selected is not the most responsible or the most worthy in most cases, but rather the most popular. Google works in just such a way, listing the most popular pages rather than the best pages. Now for websites in general this would be good, but for individual webpages on specific subjects that aren't extremely sought-after...well...give up, Seymour.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
I think this interest in the occult stems from the interest of nerds in general in scifi/fantasy (the genre). I know I became involved in computers partially because of scifi. And doesn't everyone just love that computer in Discworld? I know that I for one wish magic existed, just as I wish I could be in Captain Picard's shoes, or have sex with Deanna Troi, Seven of Nine, and Dax all at once. Just as I wish I could be a character in the Wheel of Time, or the Lord of the Rings. Just as I wish I was telekinetic. In short, with all of us being technology buffs merely by using computers, it is natural that we be sci-fi buffs, and thus fantasy buffs as well, and therefore that we have an interest in the occult. Steve Rogers aciel@speakeasy.net
That is absurd. You can't compare them; you're talking about technological innovations, all of which are different, and therefore not comparable. Humans are always looking for analogies, and there are no good ones for those timeframes; everything can be argued. I myself believe that the Internet has had the biggest impact of any innovation in the last millennium. But other people could say that no, electricity has, because without that there could be no Internet.
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net