Smoking is generally a pretty disgusting habit. However, I don't really have a problem with people who smoke. Not even women. The problem is that the way she handles it, she comes across like a dirty (as in literally dirty, as in covered in ashes) old man. (Even though she's a woman. Go figure.) Her last scene in particular gave me that impression. I could practically smell the ashes. I suppose that's good acting, but the original StarBuck always seemed very careful with his cigar. You never got the impression that he was about to soil his uniform with ashes. Of course, that may be in part because he was a womanizer...
Like I said, she had her moments. Of course, she'd use the next few moments to completely disgust you again. Overall, her character sucked though. The original StarBuck had a slightly weasely disposition, while the new one is a punk rock reject.
As for actually serving with these people? I don't think I'd want ANY of them. Adama maybe. But not Apollo, not StarBuck, not Boomer, not any of them!
Wait. Scratch that. I want that deck chief. Anyone who can tell a guy with a gun to get the fuck out of his way so he can arm/repair his battleship, is someone worth serving with!
1. Why did you link to the Lexington? The USS Enterprise (CVN-65) would have been a better choice. She's the largest ship on the waters, bar none. The Lexington was about 800 and some change feet. The Enterprise is 1,100+ feet! That's quite a difference!
2. The original show suggested that the Galactica was hundreds of years old. I kind of like that idea myself. She's not a simple carrier, but an entire colony in space devoted to the defense of human kind. That also makes her self-sustaining, something that a simple carrier is not.
Ok, so you could argue that #2 doesn't work with the new series. After all, how would you decommission something that big? Of course, they could have simply had her in retirement, with nothing but old Vipers for show. That would have given her a chance to actually join the battle and kick some Shiny Cylon ass!!! Instead, they mope around looking for bullets while their modern vipers get shutdown and blown up.
No! It's a BATTLE STAR! As in, an entire planetary defense rolled into one. That ship should have 10,000+ people on board and guns the size of 747s!
I don't think the Galactica really needs to be maneuverable; space battles would be very much like sea battles in that regard. And the FTL engines don't seem to require any acceleration at all.
My comment about the engines was not so much about maneuverability as it was about aesthetics. Big engines help convey the idea that the ship is big. Those engines make her look very small and powerless. She is after all a Battle Star. In full fighting form, she should be one of the most frighteningly awesome sights in the universe. A modern day carrier in full battle action certainly conveys that sense.
Besides, the Galactica was hideously out-proportioned by the Base Stars. WTF is up with that? I can't respect a ship that can't bring the fight to the enemy!
I read that the purposely did not want to use the grand, sweeping music like in Star Wars or the original BSG for the series, they wanted to give the show a different feel from the typical "Space Opera"
That's great. Now, if anyone can point me to a modern space epic, I'd be much obliged.
Anyone?
See, while I don't necessarily have a problem with trying to make something "different", it does get annoying when everyone's "different" is all the same. At this point, a space epic actually would have been different!
However I think the cold emotionless snapping of the infants neck was quite spine-chilling.... Hmmm.. side note: If you had read that scene in some original BSG novel first, would you be as put off by it?
Yes, I would. By your comments, I'm going to assume that you're not a parent. Scenes like that look much different when you can empathize with them.
I saw it. But we never actually saw a *live* one. That would have been cool. Plus we only saw the corner of the tin can as they panned away from him. Highly annoying.
Since you haven't seen the second one yet I don't want to give too much away but it seems the cylons have some kind of soft spot for children.
Eh? What makes you say that? The plot twist at the end is that the guy we thought Baltar framed really was a Cylon, and Boomer is supposedly a Cylon. The problem is that we don't know what her actual motives are, so I wouldn't say that "Cylons have a soft spot for kids".
I'd also disagree about the baby-killing scene. Sure, it was sick, but I thought it spoke volumes about the Cylons.
While I'm sure it did, I simply find that it goes to far. It's especially bad for us parents who end up empathizing with the situation. When you put it on a scale of "necessary for the story" against "disgusting sick and not wanted", the scene loses out.
I pretty much agree with this review. The sex was especially annoying. (For example, when she reached for his *ahem* while they were on the bridge.) They really could have done that better. The scene where she showed up during the "guilt" conversation was a good example of how they COULD have handled the entire subject. Plus it was funny at the same time.
Beyond that, I really liked some of the plot twists toward the end. The ships were also very cool and the maneuvering jets were a nice touch. That being said...
- The characters were weak. At no point did I actually CARE about any of the characters. Starbuck had her likable moments, but I can't help but feeling that leaving the characters similar to the original (with Cassiopeia and Athena intact) would have allowed a much better people dynamic. Plus that cigar makes Starbuck come across a little disgusting.
- The uniforms suck. The flight suits are okay, but the wrestling outfits are terrible!
- No suspense or excitement WHAT SO EVER. Their constant camera zooms made it only that much harder to get into the action and figure out what was going on. Action basically worked like this: See lots of fighters. See lots of missiles. Zoom up and see things go BOOM while the stars fly by (presumably because they're going so fast).
- The Galactica needs bigger engines. Those puny pipes sticking out don't look like they do jack squat.
- The Galactica needs to be BIGGER. You get the sense that she's about the size of a modern aircraft carrier. That's big, but nowhere near as big as the concept of a "BattleStar" calls for.
- The scene with the baby-killing was sick. Pure and simple. It added nothing to the story.
- Would have been cool to see some actual Cylons. Those long nailed versions were on the screen for a very short time and weren't very cool.
- Some Epic music like the original had would have been great.
Oh, and did the original reviewers screw up, or did they add the whole Earth thing in later?
All and all it was pretty good. But the senseless sex and violence are really stinking it up.
half way through the season they'll figure out that they're loosing ratings and have the characters suddenly stumble upon evidence of the Xinidi^H^H^H^H^H^H Earth and begin a quest to find it.
Told you so.:-) In fact the ending of the BG miniseries almost guarantees that they'll continue it. Although, they may do it in the form of a new miniseries every few months. Oh, and I predict that Baltar is a Cylon and doesn't know it.
Uhhh... you do realize that a P4 disipates about 30 Watts? Hard drives are no slouches either. Electro-mechanical components by nature draw a lot of power. If the computer is DOING something, it can use 150 watts easily. If it's sitting with a light load, 20-50W is reasonable.
i don't know my exact energy usage, or my cost per KWh,
Well, there's your problem. I used 10 cents a KWH as a figure I pulled out of thin air. Your costs may be much less, especially since they vary depending on location. Also, 150 watts is based on a reasonably heavy usage. If your machines sit there in power saving mode most of the time, they're going to use less power.
I gave the calculation as a ballpark figure because that's what the guy asked for. Take it for what it's worth.:-)
And is http://www.datadino.com/ running on said combo firewall?
No. I have a hosting provider for DataDino. It would be foolish for me to host it myself when I can simply pay someone else to do it. My home firewall is for family and friend use, such as photos, my wife's recipe database, Squirrel Mail, etc.
Besides, my BSD machine needs to be patched FAR less than comparable Windows and Linux machines. Especially because I'm using stable (read: older) versions of everything that have had most of the bugs knocked out. Dangerous services (e.g. Telnet) are either turned off or firewalled. Sure, I may not have the latest and greatest features, but that's not always a necessity.
Simple math, but how much of the 300 watts is used for an idling PC
There's no way a PC without a monitor is going to draw 300 Watts unless it's a specialty super-computer. (i.e. Runs at 100% CPU power at all times, while making use of heavy draw hardware such as GPU rendering.)
150 Watts is a much better average. 24 hours a day, with ~30 days in a month, at 150 watts gives:
As an example, I've seen people "save money" by reusing old PC's as firewalls instead of buying a cheap $50 unit that does the same job. They're spending more money in electricity than it would have cost to buy the dedicated unit.
A fair enough point. But if I may, you're assuming that the firewall is ONLY going to be a firewall. Many of us use these old machines as combination firewall, NAT, FTP server, Web Server, CVS server, DHCP server, etc. That old PC can provide a very powerful internet front end and home collaboration point that a $50 box just can't do.
By the same token, a DIY PVR has advantages in areas such as network streaming and cool plugins like MAME. Not to mention that you can now change things you don't like. For example, let's say I don't like the way TIVO's "record show" feature works. With a DIY model, I might scrape the TV Guide site and match records based on a regular expression. As a Sci-Fi buff, it would be great to record any shows with the name "Space" in it. And if I don't like the results (e.g. Trading Spaces), I can tweak the filters to my liking.
-The reactor will be started up in orbit and, like all missions carrying nuclear material, it's well-shielded and, even if it weren't, basically huggable without detrimental effects
I love this line. Screw the tree huggers! I'm gonna be a reactor hugger!:-D
I think you're misinterpreting my statements. I'm referring to the agreement between the author and a licensee (aka user).
As to your interpretation, consider this for a moment. Copyright law states that I can resell my copy of any work I purchase or obtain. If I decline to accept the GPL, may I sell my copy without source? Can I keep obtaining new copies (e.g. by downloading) and reselling them without source? What if I bundled my own modules and don't provide source for those? As long as I keep obtaining new copies and rebundling my changes I should be fine, right?
In any case, this is all academic. The original point holds. There's no difference between needing a license from Sparc Intl. to make derivitive works of the Sparc architecture and licensing GPL software/hardware for making derivitive works.
The best way to stop terrorism is to control that which creates an environment for it exist in.
Two problems:
1. How to you plan to control the social and political environment? Controlling the environment necessitates controlling people, which goes against what the US stands for.
2. The terrorists hate us for being successful. i.e. They disagree with our way of life. While I have no problem with their opinion, what does one do when they take up arms to force you to change your way of life? The solution (again) is to control people, something that goes against the principles of the US.
I think Teddy Roosevelt said it best when he said "Walk softly, but carry a big stick." Everyone wants a peaceful resolution to differences. However, a good defense will keep others from considering options OTHER than a peaceful resolution. Why do you think that 90% of our military power is never deployed? It's there as an insurance policy, not just to waste money.
My proposal is not "Star Wars as is", but rather to build upon that technology (which, let's face it is SO 1980's;-)) and make it a viable "air safety" system.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me try to make myself clearer. I don't give a crap how much it added to the story. The scene crossed the line. Period, end of story.
Smoking is generally a pretty disgusting habit. However, I don't really have a problem with people who smoke. Not even women. The problem is that the way she handles it, she comes across like a dirty (as in literally dirty, as in covered in ashes) old man. (Even though she's a woman. Go figure.) Her last scene in particular gave me that impression. I could practically smell the ashes. I suppose that's good acting, but the original StarBuck always seemed very careful with his cigar. You never got the impression that he was about to soil his uniform with ashes. Of course, that may be in part because he was a womanizer...
Like I said, she had her moments. Of course, she'd use the next few moments to completely disgust you again. Overall, her character sucked though. The original StarBuck had a slightly weasely disposition, while the new one is a punk rock reject.
As for actually serving with these people? I don't think I'd want ANY of them. Adama maybe. But not Apollo, not StarBuck, not Boomer, not any of them!
Wait. Scratch that. I want that deck chief. Anyone who can tell a guy with a gun to get the fuck out of his way so he can arm/repair his battleship, is someone worth serving with!
BTW, two more comments:
1. Why did you link to the Lexington? The USS Enterprise (CVN-65) would have been a better choice. She's the largest ship on the waters, bar none. The Lexington was about 800 and some change feet. The Enterprise is 1,100+ feet! That's quite a difference!
2. The original show suggested that the Galactica was hundreds of years old. I kind of like that idea myself. She's not a simple carrier, but an entire colony in space devoted to the defense of human kind. That also makes her self-sustaining, something that a simple carrier is not.
Ok, so you could argue that #2 doesn't work with the new series. After all, how would you decommission something that big? Of course, they could have simply had her in retirement, with nothing but old Vipers for show. That would have given her a chance to actually join the battle and kick some Shiny Cylon ass!!! Instead, they mope around looking for bullets while their modern vipers get shutdown and blown up.
Well, it *is* just an aircraft carrier, isn't it?
No! It's a BATTLE STAR! As in, an entire planetary defense rolled into one. That ship should have 10,000+ people on board and guns the size of 747s!
I don't think the Galactica really needs to be maneuverable; space battles would be very much like sea battles in that regard. And the FTL engines don't seem to require any acceleration at all.
My comment about the engines was not so much about maneuverability as it was about aesthetics. Big engines help convey the idea that the ship is big. Those engines make her look very small and powerless. She is after all a Battle Star. In full fighting form, she should be one of the most frighteningly awesome sights in the universe. A modern day carrier in full battle action certainly conveys that sense.
Besides, the Galactica was hideously out-proportioned by the Base Stars. WTF is up with that? I can't respect a ship that can't bring the fight to the enemy!
I read that the purposely did not want to use the grand, sweeping music like in Star Wars or the original BSG for the series, they wanted to give the show a different feel from the typical "Space Opera"
That's great. Now, if anyone can point me to a modern space epic, I'd be much obliged.
Anyone?
See, while I don't necessarily have a problem with trying to make something "different", it does get annoying when everyone's "different" is all the same. At this point, a space epic actually would have been different!
However I think the cold emotionless snapping of the infants neck was quite spine-chilling. ... Hmmm.. side note: If you had read that scene in some original BSG novel first, would you be as put off by it?
Yes, I would. By your comments, I'm going to assume that you're not a parent. Scenes like that look much different when you can empathize with them.
I saw it. But we never actually saw a *live* one. That would have been cool. Plus we only saw the corner of the tin can as they panned away from him. Highly annoying.
Since you haven't seen the second one yet I don't want to give too much away but it seems the cylons have some kind of soft spot for children.
Eh? What makes you say that? The plot twist at the end is that the guy we thought Baltar framed really was a Cylon, and Boomer is supposedly a Cylon. The problem is that we don't know what her actual motives are, so I wouldn't say that "Cylons have a soft spot for kids".
I'd also disagree about the baby-killing scene. Sure, it was sick, but I thought it spoke volumes about the Cylons.
While I'm sure it did, I simply find that it goes to far. It's especially bad for us parents who end up empathizing with the situation. When you put it on a scale of "necessary for the story" against "disgusting sick and not wanted", the scene loses out.
It's just rotation. The stars will "zoom" if you fly in an arc instead of a straight line.
I pretty much agree with this review. The sex was especially annoying. (For example, when she reached for his *ahem* while they were on the bridge.) They really could have done that better. The scene where she showed up during the "guilt" conversation was a good example of how they COULD have handled the entire subject. Plus it was funny at the same time.
Beyond that, I really liked some of the plot twists toward the end. The ships were also very cool and the maneuvering jets were a nice touch. That being said...
- The characters were weak. At no point did I actually CARE about any of the characters. Starbuck had her likable moments, but I can't help but feeling that leaving the characters similar to the original (with Cassiopeia and Athena intact) would have allowed a much better people dynamic. Plus that cigar makes Starbuck come across a little disgusting.
- The uniforms suck. The flight suits are okay, but the wrestling outfits are terrible!
- No suspense or excitement WHAT SO EVER. Their constant camera zooms made it only that much harder to get into the action and figure out what was going on. Action basically worked like this: See lots of fighters. See lots of missiles. Zoom up and see things go BOOM while the stars fly by (presumably because they're going so fast).
- The Galactica needs bigger engines. Those puny pipes sticking out don't look like they do jack squat.
- The Galactica needs to be BIGGER. You get the sense that she's about the size of a modern aircraft carrier. That's big, but nowhere near as big as the concept of a "BattleStar" calls for.
- The scene with the baby-killing was sick. Pure and simple. It added nothing to the story.
- Would have been cool to see some actual Cylons. Those long nailed versions were on the screen for a very short time and weren't very cool.
- Some Epic music like the original had would have been great.
Oh, and did the original reviewers screw up, or did they add the whole Earth thing in later?
All and all it was pretty good. But the senseless sex and violence are really stinking it up.
half way through the season they'll figure out that they're loosing ratings and have the characters suddenly stumble upon evidence of the Xinidi^H^H^H^H^H^H Earth and begin a quest to find it.
:-) In fact the ending of the BG miniseries almost guarantees that they'll continue it. Although, they may do it in the form of a new miniseries every few months. Oh, and I predict that Baltar is a Cylon and doesn't know it.
Told you so.
No frick'in way. More like 20-50W tops...
Uhhh... you do realize that a P4 disipates about 30 Watts? Hard drives are no slouches either. Electro-mechanical components by nature draw a lot of power. If the computer is DOING something, it can use 150 watts easily. If it's sitting with a light load, 20-50W is reasonable.
i don't know my exact energy usage, or my cost per KWh,
:-)
Well, there's your problem. I used 10 cents a KWH as a figure I pulled out of thin air. Your costs may be much less, especially since they vary depending on location. Also, 150 watts is based on a reasonably heavy usage. If your machines sit there in power saving mode most of the time, they're going to use less power.
I gave the calculation as a ballpark figure because that's what the guy asked for. Take it for what it's worth.
But somehow, I can't imagine Kermit Longhorn as a species... :-)
That's because it goes by the nickname: "Horny Toad".
And is http://www.datadino.com/ running on said combo firewall?
No. I have a hosting provider for DataDino. It would be foolish for me to host it myself when I can simply pay someone else to do it. My home firewall is for family and friend use, such as photos, my wife's recipe database, Squirrel Mail, etc.
Besides, my BSD machine needs to be patched FAR less than comparable Windows and Linux machines. Especially because I'm using stable (read: older) versions of everything that have had most of the bugs knocked out. Dangerous services (e.g. Telnet) are either turned off or firewalled. Sure, I may not have the latest and greatest features, but that's not always a necessity.
Simple math, but how much of the 300 watts is used for an idling PC
There's no way a PC without a monitor is going to draw 300 Watts unless it's a specialty super-computer. (i.e. Runs at 100% CPU power at all times, while making use of heavy draw hardware such as GPU rendering.)
150 Watts is a much better average. 24 hours a day, with ~30 days in a month, at 150 watts gives:
24*30*150 = 108,000 Watt-Hours = 108 Kilowatt-Hours
Look up what you're paying per KW hour and multiply that by 108. For example, 10 cents per KWH gives you a monthly cost of $10.80.
As an example, I've seen people "save money" by reusing old PC's as firewalls instead of buying a cheap $50 unit that does the same job. They're spending more money in electricity than it would have cost to buy the dedicated unit.
A fair enough point. But if I may, you're assuming that the firewall is ONLY going to be a firewall. Many of us use these old machines as combination firewall, NAT, FTP server, Web Server, CVS server, DHCP server, etc. That old PC can provide a very powerful internet front end and home collaboration point that a $50 box just can't do.
By the same token, a DIY PVR has advantages in areas such as network streaming and cool plugins like MAME. Not to mention that you can now change things you don't like. For example, let's say I don't like the way TIVO's "record show" feature works. With a DIY model, I might scrape the TV Guide site and match records based on a regular expression. As a Sci-Fi buff, it would be great to record any shows with the name "Space" in it. And if I don't like the results (e.g. Trading Spaces), I can tweak the filters to my liking.
Actually, let's not pursue this analogy any further, in case SCO somehow manage to destroy the Death Star^W^WIBM ...
IBM is "Big Blue". Everyone knows that the REAL Death Star is elsewhere...
-The reactor will be started up in orbit and, like all missions carrying nuclear material, it's well-shielded and, even if it weren't, basically huggable without detrimental effects
:-D
I love this line. Screw the tree huggers! I'm gonna be a reactor hugger!
This goes for you too.
I think you're misinterpreting my statements. I'm referring to the agreement between the author and a licensee (aka user).
As to your interpretation, consider this for a moment. Copyright law states that I can resell my copy of any work I purchase or obtain. If I decline to accept the GPL, may I sell my copy without source? Can I keep obtaining new copies (e.g. by downloading) and reselling them without source? What if I bundled my own modules and don't provide source for those? As long as I keep obtaining new copies and rebundling my changes I should be fine, right?
In any case, this is all academic. The original point holds. There's no difference between needing a license from Sparc Intl. to make derivitive works of the Sparc architecture and licensing GPL software/hardware for making derivitive works.
The best way to stop terrorism is to control that which creates an environment for it exist in.
Two problems:
1. How to you plan to control the social and political environment? Controlling the environment necessitates controlling people, which goes against what the US stands for.
2. The terrorists hate us for being successful. i.e. They disagree with our way of life. While I have no problem with their opinion, what does one do when they take up arms to force you to change your way of life? The solution (again) is to control people, something that goes against the principles of the US.
I think Teddy Roosevelt said it best when he said "Walk softly, but carry a big stick." Everyone wants a peaceful resolution to differences. However, a good defense will keep others from considering options OTHER than a peaceful resolution. Why do you think that 90% of our military power is never deployed? It's there as an insurance policy, not just to waste money.
My proposal is not "Star Wars as is", but rather to build upon that technology (which, let's face it is SO 1980's ;-)) and make it a viable "air safety" system.