I was in New Zealand last year and the car hire place (a NZ company, not a US affiliate) I went to had only automatic cars for hire save a few very small 2-door cars.
Given how many vehicles are now only available with an automatic transmission, it won't be too long before a stick shift will be like vinyl records: the only people who will use them will be snobs and old fuddy-duddies.
In all fairness, the "Baltar vacationing with the Cylons" was most likely for continuity with the original series, in which "Lord Baltar" briefly had command of a Cylon Basestar.
Why they might have picked this point of similarity when so many others have been stretched and/or ignored, who knows?
Season 3 was sorely lacking in the fast-paced action that got me hooked on BSG in the first place.
Let's see more armies of Centurians with machine gun hands battling it out with scrappy, loveable humans on some weird alien planet, instead of a bunch of "I'm so fracked up because my mom was abusive."
In all seriousness, though, the drama-oriented episodes were great, but c'mon, let's have some balance.
If you would just get over that though, I am sure we could let you back into the Commonwealth:) Technically, only the first 13 original US states could be admitted to the Commonwealth, as they were the only part of the US to ever be governed by the Crown. Unfortunately, Article I of the Constitution forbids individual states from entering into treaties or confederacies, so the US Constitution would have to be amended to allow it to happen.
My wife and I went to vote this morning at a precinct in Boulder County, Colorado where they had about 10 voting booths set up, all paper ballots except for one electronic machine (an 'eSlate' model that advertised "Verifiable Ballot Option").
While we were waiting the electronic station opened up but the election officials didn't escot anyone to it. My wife asked if it was available, and the officials' shocked response was "You want to use the electronic machine???" She said she'd give it a try (she's a techie and was curious). I went to a paper ballot at about the same time, and was finished 10 minutes earlier. When she was done she mentioned that while she didn't think it was "glitchy" it was a pain in the ass to use, because it had so many screens, the "iPod"-esque scrollwheel was touchy, and when it presented the final verification screen, each ammendment and referendum was only listed by number/letter and we had so many of them she couldn't remember which was which.
I'm glad I picked paper -- easy, fast, just fill in the boxes and I could read the issues and vote on them in any order.
I am also 26 and I use paper every single day. I am a scientific software developer by profession and most of my day is front of a computer, both at work and at home. I usually watch TV with a PowerBook on my lap.
That being said, I -always- keep a paper notebook sitting on my desk between my keyboard and display. I'm constantly writing little notes down, things I think of, doodles, anything else. And I actually do go back through my notes to jog my memory on ideas, numbers, formulas, etc. My desk is covered with papers because I can physically sift through them and and scan them (with my eyes) faster than searching for PDF files on my computer or clicking through Google. Plus I make copious use of stickies.
It's not that I don't like reading online, I obviously have a lot more info available through my computer and the web than on paper, and I'm constantly making use of it, but I think there's room for dead trees too - even for someone in the 18-34 year old age group.
I used to work as a subcontractor in a classified secure facility. We ran into an activation nightmare not once, but twice. The problem was that the PC I was installing onto didn't have (and would never have) an internet connection, nor was there a commerical phone in the room where the machine was. The rest of the operation was all Suns and SGIs, but my boss insisted on a Windows machine, which had to be a retail version because we weren't supported by the facility host company and we couldn't use our company's volume license because of association issues.
What ended up happening is that we had to walk through the XP Pro "enter each line into your touch-tone phone" thing without the phone, writing everything down, leave the area, call, write down everything the phone system told us, then come back into the area. Something messed up the first time and it ended up taking over an hour to get it done and working. We had a similar (but not quite as frustrating) experience activating Macromedia Flash.
Given how bad this experience was (and this was pre-WGA!), I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be if Vista suddenly decided it wasn't legit in that sort of environment. I have heard from my former co-workers that they've basically abandoned that machine and are using linux for all their day-to-day work. It interoperates better with the big iron anyway.
This TiVo reminds me of that Simpsons episode, where Homer finds his long lost brother who runs a car company. Homer designs the world's greatest car for the common man, but it turns out to cost $82,000 and his brother's company is ruined. Tivo has done the same thing by added so many frivolous extras (THX Certification comes to mind) that it's priced out of a lot of people's budgets (including mine).
I haven't bothered with a MythTV/MCE because TiVo was cheap (free after rebate for the 40GB model, quickly hacked with bigger HD) and was easy to use and good at what it does. Now if I want to upgrade it's priced right in line with these other technologies that offer more features. Tivo just isn't competitive anymore, especially once MCE supports CableCard.
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I was in New Zealand last year and the car hire place (a NZ company, not a US affiliate) I went to had only automatic cars for hire save a few very small 2-door cars.
Given how many vehicles are now only available with an automatic transmission, it won't be too long before a stick shift will be like vinyl records: the only people who will use them will be snobs and old fuddy-duddies.
In all fairness, the "Baltar vacationing with the Cylons" was most likely for continuity with the original series, in which "Lord Baltar" briefly had command of a Cylon Basestar.
Why they might have picked this point of similarity when so many others have been stretched and/or ignored, who knows?
Season 3 was sorely lacking in the fast-paced action that got me hooked on BSG in the first place.
Let's see more armies of Centurians with machine gun hands battling it out with scrappy, loveable humans on some weird alien planet, instead of a bunch of "I'm so fracked up because my mom was abusive."
In all seriousness, though, the drama-oriented episodes were great, but c'mon, let's have some balance.
Just my $0.02.
An enemy has fired upon you... Cancel or Allow?
My wife and I went to vote this morning at a precinct in Boulder County, Colorado where they had about 10 voting booths set up, all paper ballots except for one electronic machine (an 'eSlate' model that advertised "Verifiable Ballot Option").
While we were waiting the electronic station opened up but the election officials didn't escot anyone to it. My wife asked if it was available, and the officials' shocked response was "You want to use the electronic machine???" She said she'd give it a try (she's a techie and was curious). I went to a paper ballot at about the same time, and was finished 10 minutes earlier. When she was done she mentioned that while she didn't think it was "glitchy" it was a pain in the ass to use, because it had so many screens, the "iPod"-esque scrollwheel was touchy, and when it presented the final verification screen, each ammendment and referendum was only listed by number/letter and we had so many of them she couldn't remember which was which.
I'm glad I picked paper -- easy, fast, just fill in the boxes and I could read the issues and vote on them in any order.
I am also 26 and I use paper every single day. I am a scientific software developer by profession and most of my day is front of a computer, both at work and at home. I usually watch TV with a PowerBook on my lap.
That being said, I -always- keep a paper notebook sitting on my desk between my keyboard and display. I'm constantly writing little notes down, things I think of, doodles, anything else. And I actually do go back through my notes to jog my memory on ideas, numbers, formulas, etc. My desk is covered with papers because I can physically sift through them and and scan them (with my eyes) faster than searching for PDF files on my computer or clicking through Google. Plus I make copious use of stickies.
It's not that I don't like reading online, I obviously have a lot more info available through my computer and the web than on paper, and I'm constantly making use of it, but I think there's room for dead trees too - even for someone in the 18-34 year old age group.
I used to work as a subcontractor in a classified secure facility. We ran into an activation nightmare not once, but twice. The problem was that the PC I was installing onto didn't have (and would never have) an internet connection, nor was there a commerical phone in the room where the machine was. The rest of the operation was all Suns and SGIs, but my boss insisted on a Windows machine, which had to be a retail version because we weren't supported by the facility host company and we couldn't use our company's volume license because of association issues.
What ended up happening is that we had to walk through the XP Pro "enter each line into your touch-tone phone" thing without the phone, writing everything down, leave the area, call, write down everything the phone system told us, then come back into the area. Something messed up the first time and it ended up taking over an hour to get it done and working. We had a similar (but not quite as frustrating) experience activating Macromedia Flash.
Given how bad this experience was (and this was pre-WGA!), I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be if Vista suddenly decided it wasn't legit in that sort of environment. I have heard from my former co-workers that they've basically abandoned that machine and are using linux for all their day-to-day work. It interoperates better with the big iron anyway.
This TiVo reminds me of that Simpsons episode, where Homer finds his long lost brother who runs a car company. Homer designs the world's greatest car for the common man, but it turns out to cost $82,000 and his brother's company is ruined. Tivo has done the same thing by added so many frivolous extras (THX Certification comes to mind) that it's priced out of a lot of people's budgets (including mine).
I haven't bothered with a MythTV/MCE because TiVo was cheap (free after rebate for the 40GB model, quickly hacked with bigger HD) and was easy to use and good at what it does. Now if I want to upgrade it's priced right in line with these other technologies that offer more features. Tivo just isn't competitive anymore, especially once MCE supports CableCard.
Perhaps "he-or-she-or-it" could just be shorted to "HOrShIt"...
Apple's Tech Info Library (http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n24 940) says,
"Note: In compliance with the MPAA, DVD-R discs with CSS-encrypted video data cannot be read."