But I'll admit to downloading a few games over eMule (takes maybe 2 or 3 days to download an ISO) rather than spending $50 on them, simply because my thinking was "why pay for it when I can get it free."
Doesn't that defeat the whole "instant gratification" thing? I mean, you could just pick up the game while you're in the store. Instead, you're willing to wait DAYS to download a gig and half of ISOs, then take an hour or so to burn them to CD, possibly even track down a serial crack, then install it?
Big difference. You actually own the software. It tends to tick me off when manufacturers go overboard to stop their stuff from being pirated. It only annoys their customers without stopping the pirates.
I suppose the one time when pirate software is useful is when you are attempting to pick up a new skill for a possible upcoming job, but you don't have thousands of dollars to shell out on a copy. Even then, however, most software companies have a free version for exactly this reason. Database vendors are a perfect example. Oracle, DB2, Sybase, etc. can all be downloaded at NO cost for educational and/or non-profit use. Of course, Microsoft only does a 90 day trial of SQL Server 2000...
Works great for all those ISOs I download. I was actually a little ticked at Sun that they didn't put the "Free Solaris 9" ISOs on BitTorrent. Downloading them via HTTP felt so passe.
I use crackz mainly to try software that I can't afford to take a chance on. Just like M$, they are forcing me to steal their software just to try it!
One Word: Loser
No one's forcing you to buy anything. Hell, most commerical software has trials or even free-for-noncommerical versions. What is so important that you have to steal? Windows 2003 Advanced Server Edition? Because, you know, Microsoft just FORCED you to steal it. If they'd just GIVEN you a free copy and a 32-way Unisys machine to run it on, you wouldn't need to STEAL it.
I mean, the whole clone business was such an overdone, forced and melodramatic piece of crap
Agreed. However, it was also mildly entertaining. I have this feeling that had all those scenes not been cut out, the acting might not have felt so forced. For example, their whole "it's about family" message is so completely lost in the final cut, that it's amazing we can make heads or tails of it.
BTW, they should have left the seat belt thing. Other than that idiot XO replacement, it was actually a funny scene.
Then again, maybe I just stopped taking Trek seriously. Damn B&B...
Personally, I download Open Source software. Warez and Crackz are great for teenagers, but I don't really have time or energy for this stuff. If an Open Source piece of software does the job, I'll use it. If only a commerical piece of software does the job, I'll buy it. Unfortuately for software makers, I'm buying less and less. Either the product has to be REALLY good, or it has to do something no other product does. e.g. My last few purchases were WMA Recorder, PalmBasket, and BudgetBook. Otherwise I use Firebird, OpenOffice, Azureus, GIMP, FileZilla, EnZip, etc.
You're correct of course. I was trying to make as much sense as possible without confusing people with "baud" and "transmission channels". It's more correct to say that a modem has one channel that serially transmits a baud, while broadband uses multiple channels that are each able to serially transmit a baud, thus allowing for more simultaneous information. While cable is built for these types of transmissions, phone lines have been able to co-opt high range frequencies and separate these into channels. Is that a more satisfying explanation?
You've obviously never used an iBook or Powerbook. I swear those things are indestructable. At the very least, they'll live their 3 year lifetime without complaint. I should know, my youngest son has ripped it off my desk (bending the power connector!) three times, and I've dropped it at least twice. (damn cables...) Save for having to replace the power cord a few times, it's as good as new.
Typical AC. If you paid attention, I refined my explanation here and in other posts throughout the topic. Do you guys ever say ANYTHING without an insult?
Correction: get an iBook or Powerbook. Much more portable and overall useful. PC Desktops tend to be bigger deals because everyone has to have at least one game machine/server combination. These days I see my iBook far more than I see my Desktop.
Wait states have not much to do with the CPU... good advice, but a bad explanation.
True, but it is the CPU waiting. The wait states have more to do with cache misses, bus speed, and memory latency. The end result is that your CPU rarely his 100% capacity, thus real world performance differences between CPUs is somewhat mythical.
Then again, I didn't really feel like giving a dissertation on why CPU speed doesn't matter. Getting a good MoBo is about all you can do to really improve the issue. Since "quality components" was already in my advice, I figured that anyone reading it would do just fine.:-)
But I prefer shopping at well known internet sites than compusa.
Actually, I found that local computer stores often do a good job. I built my last computer from parts I bought at a small computer store in Concord, CA. All the parts were ASUS or Intel (including the ASUS GeForce 2 GTS with shutter glasses which I didn't know what to do with). The only things I got from CompUSA were a midrange case (largest they had) and a new 19" Monitor. Put all the parts together, and that self-same system is still running today. The quality parts have stood up through extreme temperature changes, always on operation, and have been so compatible that they've allowed me to review just about any OS I wanted to try.
Believe it or not, the prices weren't much higher than the online retailers. And as I said, many online retailers will sell you some foreign jobby like "AZUZ" instead of the true blue components.
You know, when I read that, I just kept thinking "He knocked out the cord to the power supply, didn't he?" Of course, he never tells us. One day it's broken, next day he plugs in a new fan and it works. Go figure.
This guy wasn't just forcing it, he was handling it in the most slapdash manner possible! And how could he get a heatsink that barely fits the case? Where's all the air going to go?!
Bah. Here's what I learned about building a machine:
1. Buy as much as possible from the same retailer. That way when something goes wrong, there's no back and forth on it.
2. Buy from a store. There are a lot of "cheap" internet sites that will happily sell you unreliable hardware, then become hard to contact afterwards. Swap meets are an especially bad place to purchase new hardware components. With a store, you can walk through the door and strangle the guy behind the counter.
3. Buy as big of a case as you possibly can. This will allow you a lot of room to work on the inside, as well as good airflow and extra mounts.
4. Find out what every cable is *before* you plug it in. Also, make sure which direction it goes. Sometimes they need forcing, but only force after you're SURE that it's supposed to fit that way.
5. Take your time and assemble the components as early as possible. Some things can only be inserted inside the case, but others (such as CPU, fan, and DIMMs) can be assembled outside the case. It also never hurts to leave things like the hard drive unplugged just to make sure your system turns on and functions. Remember, SLOWLY.
6. Buy quality components. It may look cheaper to buy that AZUZ motherboard instead of the ASUS one, but the difference is tremendous.
One last tip: don't buy the latest and greatest processor unless you absolutely have a reason to do so. The performance difference between that and the next model down is almost imperceptible due to wait states in the CPU. You're much better off investing your money into more RAM. Less heat, more speed. For gaming, go for the best vid card, though. Unless you like to upgrade, you'll be with it for a long time.
But you can only deduct it from your taxes if it exceeds 2% of you AGI. Now, you may be getting paid poorly, but I'm guessing that your broadband connection, cell phone, blackberry, and other gizmos don't add up to 2%, even if they were exclusively used for work.
Quick, thought experiment! Let's say I make $50,000 a year. 2% of my AGI would then be $1000. Here's my invoice:
Broadband: $60 mo Cell Phone: $50 mo ----------------- Total Per Month: $110 mo Total Per Year: $1320 yr
Seems like it's pretty easy to spend 2% of your AGI on technology.
It's quite common for companies to attempt to "redefine" a term once it has entered common usage. By doing this, they can latch onto the term to promote their own products or services. Personally, I find that this drives me bonkers. I get used to the technical term, then someone comes along and says "well, it REALLY means X" where "X" is something stupid and made up by a marketing department.
In the strictest sense, "Broadband" means that the transmission method is capable of carrying multiple bits simultaneously. Modems don't meet this definition because they tend to carry information in a "serial" fashion. (i.e. One bit after another.) Broadband is obviously superior because the use of a wide range of data bands means that more data can be carried at the same rate as a serial device would. Thus, improvements to serial speeds result in an exponential improvement to broadband speeds.
"On-Demand" features are carried over the Cable Provider's network. i.e. Directly on the other side of your wire is a set of servers with the movies on their drives. While they may have enough bandwidth to deliver it to you in specific areas, the bandwidth doesn't *quite* exist to reliably stream movies and TV directly from the Internet. Especially since such a venture would be very expensive and would require as large of a market as possible.
The big advantage to Internet movies and TV is that the storage costs are distributed across providers. Instead of the small selection that Comcast offers, you can pretty much any TV series (beginning to end, the way God intended it!) at any time, just as long as there is a carrier.
Of the remainder, a good chunk has no access to broadband. America is largely rural, and you don't even have to be that remote to not have broadband options. I lived 15 minutes from Annapolis, MD and had no options. Too expensive to string cable across the chesapeake.
I don't know what the problem is in Maryland, but you can get DSL (and supposedly cable) Internet in many rural Wisconsin towns.
Re:It comes from...
on
Planet Broadband
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Two Greek words: "broad", mneaning "a word", and "band", meaning "that has something to do with the internet."
This is the LAMEST excuse for karma trolling I've ever seen. (Apologies to the parent if he's just trying to be funny.) From dictionary.com:
A specific range of wavelengths or frequencies of electromagnetic radiation.
"Broad"-band means that the "band" of frequencies has been broadened to provide more "in-band" data transfer. In english, the bandwidth problem was solved by simultaneously transmitting multiple bits instead of a more traditional serial transmission with a higher bit-rate.
It is the title of a new book by Rouzbeh Yassini which answers the question of where the term 'broadband' originated and why is it used when discussing cable internet services."
Seems a little obvious to me. Even back in the days of modems, we used the term "bandwidth" to mean that "this much data fits in band during this time period". "Broadband" simply meant that we had a very wide (i.e. Broad) data width in band.
As for the author's "ideas" on what Broadband was supposed to mean, give it time. People are still getting used to having an always-on connection. It's going to take them awhile to adapt to the idea of plugging the bandwidth as a home utility rather than a feature of your computer. Which is actually a good thing, because the bandwidth doesn't quite yet exist to play true TV or Movies on demand. So this adjustment period gives us time to eat away at the problem by both creating better algorithms and lighting up some of our dark fibre.
Bezos knows that software patents are out of control. He has asked for changes to this system because he knows the way it is going only companies with huge patent portfolios will be able to produce and use software.
My biggest question then is, why does he enforce these patents? Most corporations patent stupid things because it gives them leverage in a legal fire fight. They don't usually pursue someone who's using the technology unless they either want to preemptively take them out, or defend against an incoming attack.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Eye candy has been the only reason to watch star drek ever since they introduced 36 of Double-D on Voyager.
1. T'Pol is fugly. Hoshi is attractive, but why invent obviously-contrived situations to show it off? The TNG females simply wore attractive clothing. No need to go all Beavis and Butthead.
2. Some of us still remember the suspense and glory of Best of Both Worlds. That, my friend, was theater at its best, even if it was on TV. As the First TV Drama guy is fond of saying, "No, no, no! Build UP the suspense!" BoBW was all about suspense and drama. Enterprise is all about "History needs a dumbass!"
Yet TNG was truly special because they didn't just stop at BoBW. They went on to do earth shattering episodes like Darmok and Inner Light. They developed characters such as Barkley, and Dr. Brahms. They gave us entertainment and a future to look forward to. Even Voyager, in all its ridiculous moments, managed to produce gems like "Year of Hell" and "Equinox".
Name ONE episode of Enterprise that you actually walked away from without feeling gypped, confused, or just plain disgusted. I can't. In fact, I believe that B&B have screwed up the basic premise to such a degree, that a Big, Fat, Giant, Red, RESET button is the only way to make the show interesting again. Let's reset the time stream, start with a new crew (Maybe someone who ACTS like a Naval commander?) and modified ship (nukes instead of torpedos, Das Boot style), and let's go and fight some Romulans who can't cloak!
I'd actually think about buying Nemesis if, and only if, they restored Wil Wheaton's cut scenes *and* pay him royalties.
Why do you think I want the extra hour of footage? They cut out Wil, they cut out Geordi with Brahms, they cut out Data and Picard's heart to heart, they cut out Shinzon's staging of the coup, and about 500 other scenes that really would have added to the movie. But instead of producing a special edition, or even giving us ALL the deleted scenes, they gave us about 6 minutes worth of "deleted scenes" (not even run through post production!) and told us that's all we're getting. And do you think that B&B would actually listen to us and decide to make money off of a special edition?! NO! They're too busy trying to find some way to make Archer fall into T'Pol's boobs, or get Hoshi on screen without a shirt. Bastards.
That logic just doesn't make sense. If I type a random bunch of characters, I *could* produce the works of Shakespeare.
Yes, you could. By attempting random combinations, you could achieve the proper result in about 3 times the amount of time it will take for the universe to reach its heat death. You can test the theory with this simulation. A quick search on Google also presents this math for the traditional Million Monkeys problem.
If I change a random gene, it *could* be beneficial.
It could be beneficial. Not because we know that it could be beneficial, but because we don't know enough about genetics to positively state that it absolutely would not be beneficial. This is similar to saying that it could be possible to time travel and violate causality. It could be true, but we don't know enough to make the statement one way or another.
How can you possibly argue that a random change can't be beneficial ever?
Actually, I argued that existing evidence suggests that random changes are never positive. While a heap of data doesn't qualify as proof, there is current zero evidence of an absolutely beneficial mutation. Until such a mutation can be isolated and identified, evolution by mutation is pure speculation. If evidence actually existed, then it could graduate to a theory.
Mutations that are positive are also far less obvious. If your child is slightly stronger than normal, would you notice?
Most people do notice. In fact my first child was born rather strong. It took four people to hold him when he was getting his shots. The question is, was it a mutation, or was it existing genetics? By sequencing samplings of the population, we are starting to isolate enough genes that we may soon be able to answer that. We've already identified genes for color, strength, obesity, etc. With any luck, we'll soon be able to know if positive mutations are a real phenomenon, or just wishful thinking.
If they have a crippling disability, on the other hand, you sure will.
Of course. "Bad" mutations are almost always obvious. The problem is that if positive mutations exist, then negative mutations must outweigh them by an overwhelming margin. We can induce mutations, but they always turn out either negative or settle as dormant genes.
Again, why? One example from agriculture doesn't prove anything. All it proves is that we don't know how to do it properly. That *may* be because it isn't possible but not necessarily.
It's hardly "one example". My colleagues of which I speak are PHDs in the field of genetics. They were not only educated in the field, but they dealt with genetics on a daily basis. All genetics data to date suggests that genetic manipulation is a zero sum game. That's why Eugenics can't work. You'll never get a race of "super-men", you'll only create a race of people who have traits you desire. How shallow are you willing to make your "super-men"? If you breed for intelligence, then strength may suffer. If you breed for strength, then intelligence may suffer. If you breed for height, then your people will have less lifting power. If you breed for shortness, then leverage will suffer. So on and so forth.
Ah, but i believe 2 in 4 are protected from malaria? Evolution has selected for the sickle-cell property because it provides an overall benefit for the group. African Americans still have the mutation but it is fading out (hence the lower prevalence). Evolution takes time, especially now that modern medical practices mean that many more sufferers survive.
Yet again, if this is a "good" mutation, why does it need to be bread out of the gene pool? "Micro-evolution" speculates that positive mutations crucial to the development of an organism must have occurred and remained. You didn't acquire lungs just so they could be bread out in six generations down the line, did you? No! The mutation must have become a standard part of the genome.
Slashdot Mirror
But I'll admit to downloading a few games over eMule (takes maybe 2 or 3 days to download an ISO) rather than spending $50 on them, simply because my thinking was "why pay for it when I can get it free."
Doesn't that defeat the whole "instant gratification" thing? I mean, you could just pick up the game while you're in the store. Instead, you're willing to wait DAYS to download a gig and half of ISOs, then take an hour or so to burn them to CD, possibly even track down a serial crack, then install it?
Is your time worth that little?
Big difference. You actually own the software. It tends to tick me off when manufacturers go overboard to stop their stuff from being pirated. It only annoys their customers without stopping the pirates.
I suppose the one time when pirate software is useful is when you are attempting to pick up a new skill for a possible upcoming job, but you don't have thousands of dollars to shell out on a copy. Even then, however, most software companies have a free version for exactly this reason. Database vendors are a perfect example. Oracle, DB2, Sybase, etc. can all be downloaded at NO cost for educational and/or non-profit use. Of course, Microsoft only does a 90 day trial of SQL Server 2000...
> Azureus
Hehe...
Works great for all those ISOs I download. I was actually a little ticked at Sun that they didn't put the "Free Solaris 9" ISOs on BitTorrent. Downloading them via HTTP felt so passe.
I use crackz mainly to try software that I can't afford to take a chance on. Just like M$, they are forcing me to steal their software just to try it!
One Word: Loser
No one's forcing you to buy anything. Hell, most commerical software has trials or even free-for-noncommerical versions. What is so important that you have to steal? Windows 2003 Advanced Server Edition? Because, you know, Microsoft just FORCED you to steal it. If they'd just GIVEN you a free copy and a 32-way Unisys machine to run it on, you wouldn't need to STEAL it.
Christ, people. Get a life.
I mean, the whole clone business was such an overdone, forced and melodramatic piece of crap
Agreed. However, it was also mildly entertaining. I have this feeling that had all those scenes not been cut out, the acting might not have felt so forced. For example, their whole "it's about family" message is so completely lost in the final cut, that it's amazing we can make heads or tails of it.
BTW, they should have left the seat belt thing. Other than that idiot XO replacement, it was actually a funny scene.
Then again, maybe I just stopped taking Trek seriously. Damn B&B...
Personally, I download Open Source software. Warez and Crackz are great for teenagers, but I don't really have time or energy for this stuff. If an Open Source piece of software does the job, I'll use it. If only a commerical piece of software does the job, I'll buy it. Unfortuately for software makers, I'm buying less and less. Either the product has to be REALLY good, or it has to do something no other product does. e.g. My last few purchases were WMA Recorder, PalmBasket, and BudgetBook. Otherwise I use Firebird, OpenOffice, Azureus, GIMP, FileZilla, EnZip, etc.
You're correct of course. I was trying to make as much sense as possible without confusing people with "baud" and "transmission channels". It's more correct to say that a modem has one channel that serially transmits a baud, while broadband uses multiple channels that are each able to serially transmit a baud, thus allowing for more simultaneous information. While cable is built for these types of transmissions, phone lines have been able to co-opt high range frequencies and separate these into channels. Is that a more satisfying explanation?
You've obviously never used an iBook or Powerbook. I swear those things are indestructable. At the very least, they'll live their 3 year lifetime without complaint. I should know, my youngest son has ripped it off my desk (bending the power connector!) three times, and I've dropped it at least twice. (damn cables...) Save for having to replace the power cord a few times, it's as good as new.
Typical AC. If you paid attention, I refined my explanation here and in other posts throughout the topic. Do you guys ever say ANYTHING without an insult?
7. Get an iMac! ...oh wait.
Correction: get an iBook or Powerbook. Much more portable and overall useful. PC Desktops tend to be bigger deals because everyone has to have at least one game machine/server combination. These days I see my iBook far more than I see my Desktop.
Wait states have not much to do with the CPU... good advice, but a bad explanation.
:-)
True, but it is the CPU waiting. The wait states have more to do with cache misses, bus speed, and memory latency. The end result is that your CPU rarely his 100% capacity, thus real world performance differences between CPUs is somewhat mythical.
Then again, I didn't really feel like giving a dissertation on why CPU speed doesn't matter. Getting a good MoBo is about all you can do to really improve the issue. Since "quality components" was already in my advice, I figured that anyone reading it would do just fine.
But I prefer shopping at well known internet sites than compusa.
Actually, I found that local computer stores often do a good job. I built my last computer from parts I bought at a small computer store in Concord, CA. All the parts were ASUS or Intel (including the ASUS GeForce 2 GTS with shutter glasses which I didn't know what to do with). The only things I got from CompUSA were a midrange case (largest they had) and a new 19" Monitor. Put all the parts together, and that self-same system is still running today. The quality parts have stood up through extreme temperature changes, always on operation, and have been so compatible that they've allowed me to review just about any OS I wanted to try.
Believe it or not, the prices weren't much higher than the online retailers. And as I said, many online retailers will sell you some foreign jobby like "AZUZ" instead of the true blue components.
"I shouldn'ta broke off the white thingie."
You know, when I read that, I just kept thinking "He knocked out the cord to the power supply, didn't he?" Of course, he never tells us. One day it's broken, next day he plugs in a new fan and it works. Go figure.
This guy wasn't just forcing it, he was handling it in the most slapdash manner possible! And how could he get a heatsink that barely fits the case? Where's all the air going to go?!
Bah. Here's what I learned about building a machine:
1. Buy as much as possible from the same retailer. That way when something goes wrong, there's no back and forth on it.
2. Buy from a store. There are a lot of "cheap" internet sites that will happily sell you unreliable hardware, then become hard to contact afterwards. Swap meets are an especially bad place to purchase new hardware components. With a store, you can walk through the door and strangle the guy behind the counter.
3. Buy as big of a case as you possibly can. This will allow you a lot of room to work on the inside, as well as good airflow and extra mounts.
4. Find out what every cable is *before* you plug it in. Also, make sure which direction it goes. Sometimes they need forcing, but only force after you're SURE that it's supposed to fit that way.
5. Take your time and assemble the components as early as possible. Some things can only be inserted inside the case, but others (such as CPU, fan, and DIMMs) can be assembled outside the case. It also never hurts to leave things like the hard drive unplugged just to make sure your system turns on and functions. Remember, SLOWLY.
6. Buy quality components. It may look cheaper to buy that AZUZ motherboard instead of the ASUS one, but the difference is tremendous.
One last tip: don't buy the latest and greatest processor unless you absolutely have a reason to do so. The performance difference between that and the next model down is almost imperceptible due to wait states in the CPU. You're much better off investing your money into more RAM. Less heat, more speed. For gaming, go for the best vid card, though. Unless you like to upgrade, you'll be with it for a long time.
Quick, thought experiment! Let's say I make $50,000 a year. 2% of my AGI would then be $1000. Here's my invoice:Seems like it's pretty easy to spend 2% of your AGI on technology.
It's quite common for companies to attempt to "redefine" a term once it has entered common usage. By doing this, they can latch onto the term to promote their own products or services. Personally, I find that this drives me bonkers. I get used to the technical term, then someone comes along and says "well, it REALLY means X" where "X" is something stupid and made up by a marketing department.
In the strictest sense, "Broadband" means that the transmission method is capable of carrying multiple bits simultaneously. Modems don't meet this definition because they tend to carry information in a "serial" fashion. (i.e. One bit after another.) Broadband is obviously superior because the use of a wide range of data bands means that more data can be carried at the same rate as a serial device would. Thus, improvements to serial speeds result in an exponential improvement to broadband speeds.
"On-Demand" features are carried over the Cable Provider's network. i.e. Directly on the other side of your wire is a set of servers with the movies on their drives. While they may have enough bandwidth to deliver it to you in specific areas, the bandwidth doesn't *quite* exist to reliably stream movies and TV directly from the Internet. Especially since such a venture would be very expensive and would require as large of a market as possible.
The big advantage to Internet movies and TV is that the storage costs are distributed across providers. Instead of the small selection that Comcast offers, you can pretty much any TV series (beginning to end, the way God intended it!) at any time, just as long as there is a carrier.
Of the remainder, a good chunk has no access to broadband. America is largely rural, and you don't even have to be that remote to not have broadband options. I lived 15 minutes from Annapolis, MD and had no options. Too expensive to string cable across the chesapeake.
I don't know what the problem is in Maryland, but you can get DSL (and supposedly cable) Internet in many rural Wisconsin towns.
Two Greek words: "broad", mneaning "a word", and "band", meaning "that has something to do with the internet."
This is the LAMEST excuse for karma trolling I've ever seen. (Apologies to the parent if he's just trying to be funny.) From dictionary.com:
A specific range of wavelengths or frequencies of electromagnetic radiation.
"Broad"-band means that the "band" of frequencies has been broadened to provide more "in-band" data transfer. In english, the bandwidth problem was solved by simultaneously transmitting multiple bits instead of a more traditional serial transmission with a higher bit-rate.
Everyone catch that? Good.
It is the title of a new book by Rouzbeh Yassini which answers the question of where the term 'broadband' originated and why is it used when discussing cable internet services."
Seems a little obvious to me. Even back in the days of modems, we used the term "bandwidth" to mean that "this much data fits in band during this time period". "Broadband" simply meant that we had a very wide (i.e. Broad) data width in band.
As for the author's "ideas" on what Broadband was supposed to mean, give it time. People are still getting used to having an always-on connection. It's going to take them awhile to adapt to the idea of plugging the bandwidth as a home utility rather than a feature of your computer. Which is actually a good thing, because the bandwidth doesn't quite yet exist to play true TV or Movies on demand. So this adjustment period gives us time to eat away at the problem by both creating better algorithms and lighting up some of our dark fibre.
Bezos knows that software patents are out of control. He has asked for changes to this system because he knows the way it is going only companies with huge patent portfolios will be able to produce and use software.
My biggest question then is, why does he enforce these patents? Most corporations patent stupid things because it gives them leverage in a legal fire fight. They don't usually pursue someone who's using the technology unless they either want to preemptively take them out, or defend against an incoming attack.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Eye candy has been the only reason to watch star drek ever since they introduced 36 of Double-D on Voyager.
1. T'Pol is fugly. Hoshi is attractive, but why invent obviously-contrived situations to show it off? The TNG females simply wore attractive clothing. No need to go all Beavis and Butthead.
2. Some of us still remember the suspense and glory of Best of Both Worlds. That, my friend, was theater at its best, even if it was on TV. As the First TV Drama guy is fond of saying, "No, no, no! Build UP the suspense!" BoBW was all about suspense and drama. Enterprise is all about "History needs a dumbass!"
Yet TNG was truly special because they didn't just stop at BoBW. They went on to do earth shattering episodes like Darmok and Inner Light. They developed characters such as Barkley, and Dr. Brahms. They gave us entertainment and a future to look forward to. Even Voyager, in all its ridiculous moments, managed to produce gems like "Year of Hell" and "Equinox".
Name ONE episode of Enterprise that you actually walked away from without feeling gypped, confused, or just plain disgusted. I can't. In fact, I believe that B&B have screwed up the basic premise to such a degree, that a Big, Fat, Giant, Red, RESET button is the only way to make the show interesting again. Let's reset the time stream, start with a new crew (Maybe someone who ACTS like a Naval commander?) and modified ship (nukes instead of torpedos, Das Boot style), and let's go and fight some Romulans who can't cloak!
Do I hear an Amen?
I'd actually think about buying Nemesis if, and only if, they restored Wil Wheaton's cut scenes *and* pay him royalties.
Why do you think I want the extra hour of footage? They cut out Wil, they cut out Geordi with Brahms, they cut out Data and Picard's heart to heart, they cut out Shinzon's staging of the coup, and about 500 other scenes that really would have added to the movie. But instead of producing a special edition, or even giving us ALL the deleted scenes, they gave us about 6 minutes worth of "deleted scenes" (not even run through post production!) and told us that's all we're getting. And do you think that B&B would actually listen to us and decide to make money off of a special edition?! NO! They're too busy trying to find some way to make Archer fall into T'Pol's boobs, or get Hoshi on screen without a shirt. Bastards.
BTW, you may be interested in knowing that the Monkey Simulator has reached an all time record of 17 letters of "Troilus and Cressida"!
After 9,151,670 billion billion monkey-years, that is.
That logic just doesn't make sense. If I type a random bunch of characters, I *could* produce the works of Shakespeare.
Yes, you could. By attempting random combinations, you could achieve the proper result in about 3 times the amount of time it will take for the universe to reach its heat death. You can test the theory with this simulation. A quick search on Google also presents this math for the traditional Million Monkeys problem.
If I change a random gene, it *could* be beneficial.
It could be beneficial. Not because we know that it could be beneficial, but because we don't know enough about genetics to positively state that it absolutely would not be beneficial. This is similar to saying that it could be possible to time travel and violate causality. It could be true, but we don't know enough to make the statement one way or another.
How can you possibly argue that a random change can't be beneficial ever?
Actually, I argued that existing evidence suggests that random changes are never positive. While a heap of data doesn't qualify as proof, there is current zero evidence of an absolutely beneficial mutation. Until such a mutation can be isolated and identified, evolution by mutation is pure speculation. If evidence actually existed, then it could graduate to a theory.
Mutations that are positive are also far less obvious. If your child is slightly stronger than normal, would you notice?
Most people do notice. In fact my first child was born rather strong. It took four people to hold him when he was getting his shots. The question is, was it a mutation, or was it existing genetics? By sequencing samplings of the population, we are starting to isolate enough genes that we may soon be able to answer that. We've already identified genes for color, strength, obesity, etc. With any luck, we'll soon be able to know if positive mutations are a real phenomenon, or just wishful thinking.
If they have a crippling disability, on the other hand, you sure will.
Of course. "Bad" mutations are almost always obvious. The problem is that if positive mutations exist, then negative mutations must outweigh them by an overwhelming margin. We can induce mutations, but they always turn out either negative or settle as dormant genes.
Again, why? One example from agriculture doesn't prove anything. All it proves is that we don't know how to do it properly. That *may* be because it isn't possible but not necessarily.
It's hardly "one example". My colleagues of which I speak are PHDs in the field of genetics. They were not only educated in the field, but they dealt with genetics on a daily basis. All genetics data to date suggests that genetic manipulation is a zero sum game. That's why Eugenics can't work. You'll never get a race of "super-men", you'll only create a race of people who have traits you desire. How shallow are you willing to make your "super-men"? If you breed for intelligence, then strength may suffer. If you breed for strength, then intelligence may suffer. If you breed for height, then your people will have less lifting power. If you breed for shortness, then leverage will suffer. So on and so forth.
Ah, but i believe 2 in 4 are protected from malaria? Evolution has selected for the sickle-cell property because it provides an overall benefit for the group. African Americans still have the mutation but it is fading out (hence the lower prevalence). Evolution takes time, especially now that modern medical practices mean that many more sufferers survive.
Yet again, if this is a "good" mutation, why does it need to be bread out of the gene pool? "Micro-evolution" speculates that positive mutations crucial to the development of an organism must have occurred and remained. You didn't acquire lungs just so they could be bread out in six generations down the line, did you? No! The mutation must have become a standard part of the genome.