Yup, Firefly too, although that said, I haven't seen that much of it. It seems a little too-clever-for-its-own-good, like the show they thought they had to make rather than the one they wanted to. Plus, after Farscape, predominantly US casts just don't do it for me. I prefer actors to, you know, act.;-P
Fair point, it was a mediocre example, and I only used it because it was the most recent. Farscape and Lexx are probably closer. Anyway, my point is that a rehash of Blake's 7 will probably be less like the original than some of the shows that have come and gone in the mean time.
I couldn't disagree more! Well, with bringing it back, not with watching it. What I loved about it was that it ended with most of the questions unanswered. It got off the stage while we were still clapping rather than doing encores until we were wandering towards the exits.
Contrast sharply with the neatly wrapped up arcs on Buffy, where every half dozen episodes Joss Whedon had to pull a new uber-baddie or midichlorian trick out of his posterior, so that by the time he tried to revisit basic vampires in the final series, they were a sad joke, and about as threatening as cheese mold. See also X Files dribbling to a sad, unlamented end, and the borg menace that became a slightly embarrasing stumbling joke in Voyager.
Some things are best remembered fondly, and I believe that Ultraviolet is one of them.
Bah, in Andromeda, they are the fascist police state. Uh, Lexx, does that have a plot as such? I kind of zoned out after seeing Barry Bostwick in leather bondage gear in the pilot.
Interesting to note that Terry Nation's widow holds the rights to Blake's 7. The BBC holds most (all?) rights to Dr Who, and they're content to sit on them until nobody cares any more rather than sell or license them. Sigh.
Who needs decent FX? It's possible to do mature character based SF drama with minimal effects - and no rubber monsters - if you have the courage of your convictions.
See Ultraviolet as an example of a recent UK miniseries that redefined a genre for those lucky enough to watch it. Ultraviolet is to Buffy as Hamlet is to Melrose Place.
I believe that Paul Darrow - a bona fide actor - has the potential to do something similar with Blake's 7. In fact, as Farscape picked up where Blake's 7 left off, I'd expect him to want to do something different.
Given that Firefly is basically Blake's 7 with a budget but without the plot (rag tag bunch of renegades on a mission to, uh, uh...), that's rather harsh. Given that only Avon will be returning, I doubt that it will have that much connection to the original. I for one am interested to find out whether it's still possible to do a quality hard core SF series in the UK, rather than a dumbed down populist one. If it takes an old name to secure the money for doing that, then I'm prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt rather than writing it off before filming has even begun.
Sigh of relief when I saw that it was Paul Darrow. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of Blake's 7, but I worked with Paul on the CGI voiceover that he did for Deathtrap Dungeon and I was impressed with his professionalism and enthusiasm. He seems genuinely to care about the projects he works on, and I'm content that this will be a labour of love rather than a cash-in. Huzzah.
You see the adverts on every page? This is a commercial site. Page views pay the mortgages, and nothing draws page views like contentious issues. The "editors" here are simply trolling for dollars.
Aw, sweet. In my current job, I use C, C++, Java, Perl and Python on a regular basis to develop software for Windows 9x/2K/XP, WinCE, X/linux, PalmOS, Symbian and Itron. We also target.net platforms, but using Win32 compatibility at the moment. My decision isn't whether to get a clue or not, it's whether to focus or diversify. But thanks for sharing.
I'm warming up fast to .net
on
Nat Demos Dashboard
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
In fact, the more knee jerk, unsubstantiated, unjustified snide throwaway comments I read about.net and C#, the more inclined I am to think that I'm seeing Ludditism writ large, and that.net is something that I should be taking a look at sooner rather than later if I want to stay employed in the tech business.
Re:Nice to see the sideswipe at .NET (not)
on
Nat Demos Dashboard
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· Score: 4, Funny
You're thinking of kuro5hin. This is slashdot. Slaaaaash, dohhhhht.
For the single healthy under-25 male living in cheap rented accomodation with a paid off car, no pension plan, and a false name, who only takes cash and who changes his phone number every week. Depending on your exact situation and how lucky you get with your customers, you may find yourself better off on welfare.
I did this for a year or so when I was young and eager, and enjoyed it up until the point where I had a critical mass of customers calling me up at all hours (and I mean all hours) demanding to know what I'd done to their Win95 machines that made them crash 3 months later. No, give me the safe hidey hole of a cube job any day.
This is a fine solution, unless you're in a call centre with a 2-minute-to-cutoff target time. Which is all of them.
Is this a fourth grade book report?
on
Decipher
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· Score: 5, Insightful
This reads like Bart Simpson cribbing Treasure Island from the cover. You spoilered the conclusion (in a plot based book!), you didn't talk about characterisation, style, pacing, about comparable novels, you just blabbed out the plot. Were you making sound effects with your mouth while you wrote this?
I give this review a 1, and - SPOILER ALERT!- it sucks major ass. The only way this could be worse if if (when?) Taco dupes it.
Government supported globally standardised DRM [sic] technology is necessary (but, they point out repeatedly, not sufficient) to encourage online transactions, both commercial and in public services.
We need new payment systems that target the right audience, e.g. paying by a debit against your mobile 'phone bill for under 18s.
Peer-2-peer has to die, as well as DRM [sic] be adopted. This is stated baldly and absolutely. 'There is no possibility of "competing with free"'. It has to be crushed, by law, now.
The availability of content is an essential driver for takeup of broadband services. [They do not, however, explain why paid content is a better driver than free p2p content]
P2P is pretty heavily demonised. "Filesharers don't [...] pay for the infrastructure they use", is the old argument that just because you were sold a 1Mbit connection doesn't mean that you should expect to use it. This is absurd, because the only way that you could pay for the infrastructure would be to buy content from your ISP. That relegates "broadband" to being just another way to pay-per-view. Excuse me, but I can already do that. Don't expect me to pay you extra for some of bits that turn left at my cable splitter rather than right.
They also make the (seperate) point that large scale copyright violation will lead to less money going to content producers, which means that less content will be available. Yes, yes, the economy will collapse, we'll waste our money on things like mortgages and food instead, cats and dogs living together... There's no acknowledgement that if the incumbents die off because they won't change, then maybe, just maybe, something might spring up to take their place and supply the demand under the new conditions. Yes, you can't "compete with free", but why the presumption that content is only created in order to make money? Instead they propose DRM [sic] as a mechanism to prop up the incumbents, again repeating the fallacy that copy rights are designed to protect profits rather than to put work in the public domain. Look, chumps, it doesn't matter how it gets there, or how much money changes hands in the process, as long as someone is prepared to make and distribute it.
I'd go on, but it's just repeating itself from this point. Bear in mind that they assert that "The DVD Video format [is] still relatively secure." Judge from that whether this report is worth your time.
Then perhaps you should read the cite. The first amendment activity in question wasn't the protests, it was the wearing of an anti-war shirt that sparked them. Also, when did non "peacable" become the same as "disruptive"? It's almost impossible to assemble without disrupting someone.
If you live outside the USA, you'll already be well aware of this. The bulk of online music and movie providers are only licensed for US distribution, and everyone else is told to get stuffed.
This is no different from the US getting movies and Region 1 DVDs first, and those who live outside the USA are well used to working around these restrictions. My primary consideration when buying a DVD player was "Is it region free/easy to switch to region 1?", and I regularly buy region 1 DVDs, usually well before and for less money than the region 2 release.
Similarly, I'd have no qualms about using a US based HTTP proxy to obtain music or movies from US licensed sites,then I'd make damn sure to convert it to a non-crippled format before considering the transaction complete.
But given that I don't even have the option to pay for it, and that I'd have to "scam" them to get it, that's not very likely, is it? So, what's my incentive to stop sharing?
Sorry, US buddies, but this is just a case of getting a taste of what it's like for the rest of us. Sucks, doesn't it?
Slashdot Mirror
As mentioned elsewhere here, at the end of the previous (I won't say "last") series, the BBC announced that "Blake's 7 will return in the Autumn".
Well, they didn't say which Autumn, or on what channel, did they?
You saw them get shot, not shot to death. Remember the genre.
>a genre so overpopulated by flat and uninteresting characters
"Flat" characters? Have you seen 7 of 9 and T'Pol in profile?
Yup, Firefly too, although that said, I haven't seen that much of it. It seems a little too-clever-for-its-own-good, like the show they thought they had to make rather than the one they wanted to. Plus, after Farscape, predominantly US casts just don't do it for me. I prefer actors to, you know, act. ;-P
Come on now, Who was only ridiculous in concept and execution, not in...
No, wait, you're right. It sucked ass. On the other hand, the Daleks would kick the Borg's collective pasty white rump, so let's call it even.
Fair point, it was a mediocre example, and I only used it because it was the most recent. Farscape and Lexx are probably closer. Anyway, my point is that a rehash of Blake's 7 will probably be less like the original than some of the shows that have come and gone in the mean time.
I couldn't disagree more! Well, with bringing it back, not with watching it. What I loved about it was that it ended with most of the questions unanswered. It got off the stage while we were still clapping rather than doing encores until we were wandering towards the exits.
Contrast sharply with the neatly wrapped up arcs on Buffy, where every half dozen episodes Joss Whedon had to pull a new uber-baddie or midichlorian trick out of his posterior, so that by the time he tried to revisit basic vampires in the final series, they were a sad joke, and about as threatening as cheese mold. See also X Files dribbling to a sad, unlamented end, and the borg menace that became a slightly embarrasing stumbling joke in Voyager.
Some things are best remembered fondly, and I believe that Ultraviolet is one of them.
Bah, in Andromeda, they are the fascist police state. Uh, Lexx, does that have a plot as such? I kind of zoned out after seeing Barry Bostwick in leather bondage gear in the pilot.
Interesting to note that Terry Nation's widow holds the rights to Blake's 7. The BBC holds most (all?) rights to Dr Who, and they're content to sit on them until nobody cares any more rather than sell or license them. Sigh.
> We had better fix this. I'll go ask SCO what to do.
SCO: All your Linux Standard Base are belong to us.
Who needs decent FX? It's possible to do mature character based SF drama with minimal effects - and no rubber monsters - if you have the courage of your convictions.
See Ultraviolet as an example of a recent UK miniseries that redefined a genre for those lucky enough to watch it. Ultraviolet is to Buffy as Hamlet is to Melrose Place.
I believe that Paul Darrow - a bona fide actor - has the potential to do something similar with Blake's 7. In fact, as Farscape picked up where Blake's 7 left off, I'd expect him to want to do something different.
Sure, who would want to do a gritty, character based SF drama about a rag tag bunch of renegades in a stolen ship on the run from a fascist police state?
Given that Firefly is basically Blake's 7 with a budget but without the plot (rag tag bunch of renegades on a mission to, uh, uh...), that's rather harsh. Given that only Avon will be returning, I doubt that it will have that much connection to the original. I for one am interested to find out whether it's still possible to do a quality hard core SF series in the UK, rather than a dumbed down populist one. If it takes an old name to secure the money for doing that, then I'm prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt rather than writing it off before filming has even begun.
Sigh of relief when I saw that it was Paul Darrow. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of Blake's 7, but I worked with Paul on the CGI voiceover that he did for Deathtrap Dungeon and I was impressed with his professionalism and enthusiasm. He seems genuinely to care about the projects he works on, and I'm content that this will be a labour of love rather than a cash-in. Huzzah.
>One of their sole means
Well, sabotage is a sole method of protest, if not the sole one.
You see the adverts on every page? This is a commercial site. Page views pay the mortgages, and nothing draws page views like contentious issues. The "editors" here are simply trolling for dollars.
Aw, sweet. In my current job, I use C, C++, Java, Perl and Python on a regular basis to develop software for Windows 9x/2K/XP, WinCE, X/linux, PalmOS, Symbian and Itron. We also target .net platforms, but using Win32 compatibility at the moment. My decision isn't whether to get a clue or not, it's whether to focus or diversify. But thanks for sharing.
In fact, the more knee jerk, unsubstantiated, unjustified snide throwaway comments I read about .net and C#, the more inclined I am to think that I'm seeing Ludditism writ large, and that .net is something that I should be taking a look at sooner rather than later if I want to stay employed in the tech business.
You're thinking of kuro5hin. This is slashdot. Slaaaaash, dohhhhht.
For the single healthy under-25 male living in cheap rented accomodation with a paid off car, no pension plan, and a false name, who only takes cash and who changes his phone number every week. Depending on your exact situation and how lucky you get with your customers, you may find yourself better off on welfare.
I did this for a year or so when I was young and eager, and enjoyed it up until the point where I had a critical mass of customers calling me up at all hours (and I mean all hours) demanding to know what I'd done to their Win95 machines that made them crash 3 months later. No, give me the safe hidey hole of a cube job any day.
This is a fine solution, unless you're in a call centre with a 2-minute-to-cutoff target time. Which is all of them.
This reads like Bart Simpson cribbing Treasure Island from the cover. You spoilered the conclusion (in a plot based book!), you didn't talk about characterisation, style, pacing, about comparable novels, you just blabbed out the plot. Were you making sound effects with your mouth while you wrote this?
I give this review a 1, and - SPOILER ALERT!- it sucks major ass. The only way this could be worse if if (when?) Taco dupes it.
P2P is pretty heavily demonised. "Filesharers don't [...] pay for the infrastructure they use", is the old argument that just because you were sold a 1Mbit connection doesn't mean that you should expect to use it. This is absurd, because the only way that you could pay for the infrastructure would be to buy content from your ISP. That relegates "broadband" to being just another way to pay-per-view. Excuse me, but I can already do that. Don't expect me to pay you extra for some of bits that turn left at my cable splitter rather than right.
They also make the (seperate) point that large scale copyright violation will lead to less money going to content producers, which means that less content will be available. Yes, yes, the economy will collapse, we'll waste our money on things like mortgages and food instead, cats and dogs living together... There's no acknowledgement that if the incumbents die off because they won't change, then maybe, just maybe, something might spring up to take their place and supply the demand under the new conditions. Yes, you can't "compete with free", but why the presumption that content is only created in order to make money? Instead they propose DRM [sic] as a mechanism to prop up the incumbents, again repeating the fallacy that copy rights are designed to protect profits rather than to put work in the public domain. Look, chumps, it doesn't matter how it gets there, or how much money changes hands in the process, as long as someone is prepared to make and distribute it.
I'd go on, but it's just repeating itself from this point. Bear in mind that they assert that "The DVD Video format [is] still relatively secure." Judge from that whether this report is worth your time.
Then perhaps you should read the cite. The first amendment activity in question wasn't the protests, it was the wearing of an anti-war shirt that sparked them. Also, when did non "peacable" become the same as "disruptive"? It's almost impossible to assemble without disrupting someone.
If you live outside the USA, you'll already be well aware of this. The bulk of online music and movie providers are only licensed for US distribution, and everyone else is told to get stuffed.
This is no different from the US getting movies and Region 1 DVDs first, and those who live outside the USA are well used to working around these restrictions. My primary consideration when buying a DVD player was "Is it region free/easy to switch to region 1?", and I regularly buy region 1 DVDs, usually well before and for less money than the region 2 release.
Similarly, I'd have no qualms about using a US based HTTP proxy to obtain music or movies from US licensed sites,then I'd make damn sure to convert it to a non-crippled format before considering the transaction complete.
But given that I don't even have the option to pay for it, and that I'd have to "scam" them to get it, that's not very likely, is it? So, what's my incentive to stop sharing?
Sorry, US buddies, but this is just a case of getting a taste of what it's like for the rest of us. Sucks, doesn't it?