I agree with the comment in the article that we may not see any good Star Trek outside of the books. Thing is, the books have been doing it better than anything on screen ever since DS9 (the last good show IMO) ended.
As a matter of fact, the recently culminated DS9 literary relaunch was like a printed version of the TV show except better... fates of established characters played out, new and interesting characters introduced and given significant development without neglecting others, hanging plot threads from 1st season TNG and beyond brought back and redeveloped... and this is only one example of many being published right now.
Peter David's New Frontier flat-out rocks even if it streches credibility in some places, the Lost Era series has filled in long-standing continuity holes (including aforementioned Sulu-Excelsior, Enterprise-B, and Enterprise-C stories) spectacularly, and next month will see the beginning of a TNG miniseries that will hopefully explain the travesty that was Nemesis. I've watched a total of three episodes of Enterprise, two of which were hyped as the heralds of a new era for the show, and I was barely entertained by any of the three. I could pick out the archetypical Trek crew positions, but some of those were so woefully underdeveloped that they might as well have been cardboard standees. Judging from reviews I've read of other episodes, I can't expect any better fare from this show. Thankfully, the books allow me to remember the magic and good storytelling that assimilated (hur hur) me into Trek fandom.
Now, like every armchair producer, I have my ideas about where Trek should go from here. I would be thankful if Enterprise went away, for the very simple reason that it would reduce the likehood that somebody could confuse it with something I'm actually interested. New and good Trek is already being produced in the books, but this would clear the way for something decent onscreen, which I miss dearly. Unlike most everybody else, I don't think Trek should just disappear for a decade (I've got three movies and part of a TV series planned out in my head... yes I'm a shameless fanboy). They need something epic and awe-inspiring like LotR. I'm not saying rip off LotR (which is probably what Berman would do). LotR did not focus on producing something quick and flashy just to get butts in the seats. LotR was one of the biggest movie productions ever, and it got massive numbers of butts in the seats (including mine (do I even need to mention this on slashdot?)) because it had a story to tell and didn't care how long it took or how much money it spent to do it.
LotR and Trek are similar because they both have an established fanbase and mythos. In the end, I think whoever ends up producing Trek (Christ, get Johnathan Frakes, he's passionate about it) should and should want to focus on this. Put out something that will tell a compelling story with compelling characters and hey, you've got a good product.
Not to compare myself to Einstein, but I've always been somewhat ahead of the curve and bored in school, especially when I was in elementary school. My 5th grade teacher (probably 7 years ago) was under the impression that I was afflicted with ADHD, even going as far as to recommend to my parents various ADHD support groups and drugs such as Ritalin, which was becoming popular right around that time. Thankfully, she eventually relented, because I don't know where I'd be now if I was on that shit.
I knew a pair of brothers who went to the same school and were put on Ritalin, not because they had any real disorder but because their parents wouldn't take the time to care for them properly. They were eventually bumped up to Aderol, which I believe is a more concentrated form (somebody correct me if I'm wrong). The younger brother claimed that the drugs never affected him, and they certainly didn't seem to. His older brother, however, would become lethargic when on a heavy dosage, trailing off in conversation and becoming generally reluctant to do anything. I believe, if anything, the drugs only served to make their behavior more erratic. I haven't seen either of them since their parents' relationship blew up, but I truly hope they're not still on the drugs. I firmly believe that they were on the drugs for the wrong reasons (if there is truly a reason at all), and they'll always be my poster children against the liberal prescription of crap like Ritalin.
I'll probably get modded through the toilet or flamed in the replies for this, but oh well.
I'd like to lift a 2-paragraph or so quote from the CNN article on JFK somebody linked to earlier:
"Some derided the dream as lunacy. Others viewed it as just another strategic move in the Cold War chess match between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Kennedy had just been humiliated in the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba, a communist ally of Moscow. In his speech, he called for many measures to combat communism, requesting billions, for example, to stop red insurgencies in Southeast Asia."
Now granted, in this day and age it's going to be pretty damned easy to beat the terrorists (in place of Communists) to the moon if the terrorists have no intention of going there in the first place. But still, both administrations had a chosen enemy: Kennedy the Communists and Bush Muslim extremists. One could argue that Bush also has an enemy in red China (and that they are the space program's intended target), but that seems less likely considering our trade volume.
Also, both presidents were coming off a controversial military action. America had the need for the containment of Communism drilled into its collective skull ever since Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech (if not before), and America has had the "War on Terrorism" drilled into its collective head ever since late 2001. Both presidents were realizing that military action was losing popularity, and both needed something to invigorate the national imagination (to paraphrase the CNN article's title). Now, I'm too lazy and this forum is too casual for me to research specifics of federal budgets and electoral politics during the Kennedy administration, but there may well be some similarities there, too.
In summation, my basic point is that it's possible Bush's intentions may be no less pure than Kennedy's were. Bush is certainly a popular target now, but he's still a part of current events and we don't have 20/20 hindsight through which to evaluate his actions. Current politics taint (or add flavor) to any discussion of this space plan, but only time will tell how it will be remembered.
I was very interested in Legos when I was small (granted, this was about 10 years ago). When I was very small, about 5, my grandfather would build all the sets for me, but I quickly worked up the courage to tackle the building myself. My attempts at custom Lego creations were only half-serious and lackluster, but I thought the sets themselves were really creative.
The distinct themes they had (emphasis on had) were excellent for what you could do with the bricks. Castle, space, pirates, generic city/town stuff... Very few of these required any custom parts, merely reprints or recolorings of existing pieces. The most obvious customs I can think of are the bases for boats and castles (as well as other smaller figure stuff, like dragons and skeletons, but those I found permissible). The diversification of themes as time wore on was really creative as well... Fright Knights/Dragonslayers, UFO, even time machine sets! Now, though, walking down the Lego aisle at Wal-Mart or similar is hardly inspirational... A vast majority is merely Star Wars (and not the cool Star Wars sets like the SSD), with other weird springloaded junk that de-emphasizes the building such as sports legos that feature some kinda whack soccer game. And Bionicle? WTF? Looks like Technic, but marketed as some kind of action figure?
The only new Lego set I would consider dropping money on is a little $15 ISS model. I never was a big custom builder, so the sets themselves provided a lot of my inspiration... but lately Lego has lost that creativity in my mind. They're trying to become some sort of regular toy company, building bizarre action figures and spring-loaded sports toys. That's just not Lego. The little bricks have always been about the building, and it seems they've been losing that inspiration lately.
This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but in Star Trek (admittedly fictional, but a close metaphor for the real world), the Federation's military and exploratory arm are one and the same. Perhaps being involved with exploratory projects will have a moderating influence on the military, rather than a militarizing one on NASA.
MC Hammer actually lives in my town of Tracy, California. When he first moved here, he was highly visible in his black Hummer, but apparently he's since crashed it into a local canal. It's awfully expensive to replace Hummers (real Hummers, not the yuppie H2s), so you never know...
Are there any good QT-based IM clients that could be ported? In my experience, none of the current OS X offerings are completely functional within themselves.
I too am a fan of this game, even though development is stagnant and the public server is down. It's fairly simple, but a lot of fun, especially if you upgrade one of the basic ships or capture some ships and start dueling your friends. I hope development starts up again soon, because this game has a lot of potential and I don't yet have the C++ skills to give it a jumpstart.
Hopefully that site allows direct links to UBB threads...
Rich W was one of the builders on the DeLorean hovercraft episode, and also behind the monster GT40. He has some interesting insight into what really went on during production, and also into Jesse's frame of mind. I thought there were some other threads on that same board where he went into greater detail, but this is the only one I can find.
It would be interesting if the MG producers asked him back, so he could replicate the remote-controlled time machine from the beginning of "Back to the Future.":-D
Walkman as a cultural meme
on
iPod-Jacked
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· Score: 1
Sony acheived such high market penetration with their Walkman product that people began to refer to any generic-brand portable tape player as a "walkman." What with Apple's unique marketing image, I doubt that's going to happen with portable digital players; but the original poster's point is still valid: it's all based on standardized technology, the brand doesn't really matter.
I mean no disrespect, but what you describe sounds disturbingly similar to Douglas Adams' characterization of Arthur Dent as the average British citizen. I certainly hope that your government doesn't decide they're going to plow your house out to build a highway bypass.
XPostFacto is software to allow installation on OldWorld machines, found at http://www.opendarwin.org/projects/XPostFacto/. I've already verified that the 10.3 installer gives a kernel panic when booting on the Beige machine in question, but the point of XPF is to have drivers for the hardware that is unbootable with a stock install. Since the source code to Darwin 7.0 underlying Panther was released last night, it should be good to go in short order.
I went to MacDaddy Computers, an Apple Specialist in Modesto, about a 20 minute drive from my house. It's a really small store on one of the main drags through town, and there was literally nobody there at 9:00PM outside of the store employees. I was lucky enough to snag the last copy they had; they had put a "sold out" sign in the window right before I got there. I also got some dog tags with the cool metal X logo and the requisite 10.3 t-shirt.
As far as the OS goes, it's by far the best one yet. With each new release of OS X, there have been reviewers going on about the massive speed increases over the previous versions... but this is the only upgrade where I have actually felt the massive speed increase. This, along with numerous other interface improvements, make it worth every penny (I paid full price).
For example, I thought I would hate the new Finder, but it's really great, and I find it more usable than the 10.2 Finder. If you don't like the sidebar and/or the brushed metal, you can make them both go away with a click of the toolbar widget. Once they're gone, the Finder behaves pretty much exactly like the OS 9 Finder, a throwback I (and the spatial-finder dude at Ars Technica) really appreciate. Expose's coolness factor is matched only by its utility. The guy who runs MacDaddy said I'd be loving it on a 12" iBook screen, and I really am. The application switcher that pops up in lieu of the Dock is pretty much lifted from Windows and KDE, but is so much cooler because it displays icons in their full 128x128 glory.
Now the only thing I have to wait for is an update to XPostFacto so I can put it on my Beige G4. I don't think I'm ever going to bother with installing 10.2 or below on anything again.:-D
Please note that Star Trek history also contains the Eugenics Wars in 1996 (which spawned the world-ruling tyrant Khan Noonien Singh) and a worldwide nuclear war in the 2050s (which eventually leads to Zefram Cochrane's warp ship being built on top of a missile, etc.).
Also note that it's still a point of contention among fans whether or not Enterprise is Star Trek's history.:-D
I'm just going to make a really quick gripe about the following. I have an AIM account that I actively use, and Yahoo! and ICQ accounts that I not-so actively use.
The official AIM client for OS X is trash. Pure and simple.
There are three big third-party alternatives: Fire, iChat, and Adium. Of these, two are OSS and Fire is multi-protocol. However, all are significantly lacking in their capabilities. For instance, iChat does not support sending profiles or animated buddy icons, nor does it support tabbed IM windows. Fire and Adium support this, but Adium only has alpha OSCAR support and Fire is somewhat unstable. There are clients that I'm glazing over completely, such as Proteus and probably at least one other, but suffice to say, the state of IM is pretty damn shitty.
I'm going to make a desperate plea for someone to make a native Aqua port of GAIM. GAIM is the greatest IM client ever. I've used the Windows port, and other than slow window resizing, it's great. I would do this myself, but my programming experience is very slim.
Barring an actual port, does anybody have compilation instructions for OS X so I can at least run it under X11?
Even better than that would be a modernization of a van such as the Vanagon with one of the higher-horsepower European TDI engines in it. The rear-engined design of this vehicle (same as the old bus) is much more space-efficient than anything designed for passenger use before or since, especially SUVs.:-)
Also note that the US has been stuck with the same basic 90hp TDI engine since VW starting importing it in the 90's. Apparently we should start seeing 150hp and up (as well as a twin-turbo-diesel V10) pretty soon, but it's been quite a long wait... A website such as TDIClub will probably have more info.
Also also note that, unless something's changed, VWoA states that using biodiesel in a US TDI will void the warranty, since in America, biodiesel is unregulated and the less refined stuff can seriously screw up your injectors.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with the comment in the article that we may not see any good Star Trek outside of the books. Thing is, the books have been doing it better than anything on screen ever since DS9 (the last good show IMO) ended.
As a matter of fact, the recently culminated DS9 literary relaunch was like a printed version of the TV show except better... fates of established characters played out, new and interesting characters introduced and given significant development without neglecting others, hanging plot threads from 1st season TNG and beyond brought back and redeveloped... and this is only one example of many being published right now.
Peter David's New Frontier flat-out rocks even if it streches credibility in some places, the Lost Era series has filled in long-standing continuity holes (including aforementioned Sulu-Excelsior, Enterprise-B, and Enterprise-C stories) spectacularly, and next month will see the beginning of a TNG miniseries that will hopefully explain the travesty that was Nemesis. I've watched a total of three episodes of Enterprise, two of which were hyped as the heralds of a new era for the show, and I was barely entertained by any of the three. I could pick out the archetypical Trek crew positions, but some of those were so woefully underdeveloped that they might as well have been cardboard standees. Judging from reviews I've read of other episodes, I can't expect any better fare from this show. Thankfully, the books allow me to remember the magic and good storytelling that assimilated (hur hur) me into Trek fandom.
Now, like every armchair producer, I have my ideas about where Trek should go from here. I would be thankful if Enterprise went away, for the very simple reason that it would reduce the likehood that somebody could confuse it with something I'm actually interested. New and good Trek is already being produced in the books, but this would clear the way for something decent onscreen, which I miss dearly. Unlike most everybody else, I don't think Trek should just disappear for a decade (I've got three movies and part of a TV series planned out in my head... yes I'm a shameless fanboy). They need something epic and awe-inspiring like LotR. I'm not saying rip off LotR (which is probably what Berman would do). LotR did not focus on producing something quick and flashy just to get butts in the seats. LotR was one of the biggest movie productions ever, and it got massive numbers of butts in the seats (including mine (do I even need to mention this on slashdot?)) because it had a story to tell and didn't care how long it took or how much money it spent to do it.
LotR and Trek are similar because they both have an established fanbase and mythos. In the end, I think whoever ends up producing Trek (Christ, get Johnathan Frakes, he's passionate about it) should and should want to focus on this. Put out something that will tell a compelling story with compelling characters and hey, you've got a good product.
Not to compare myself to Einstein, but I've always been somewhat ahead of the curve and bored in school, especially when I was in elementary school. My 5th grade teacher (probably 7 years ago) was under the impression that I was afflicted with ADHD, even going as far as to recommend to my parents various ADHD support groups and drugs such as Ritalin, which was becoming popular right around that time. Thankfully, she eventually relented, because I don't know where I'd be now if I was on that shit.
I knew a pair of brothers who went to the same school and were put on Ritalin, not because they had any real disorder but because their parents wouldn't take the time to care for them properly. They were eventually bumped up to Aderol, which I believe is a more concentrated form (somebody correct me if I'm wrong). The younger brother claimed that the drugs never affected him, and they certainly didn't seem to. His older brother, however, would become lethargic when on a heavy dosage, trailing off in conversation and becoming generally reluctant to do anything. I believe, if anything, the drugs only served to make their behavior more erratic. I haven't seen either of them since their parents' relationship blew up, but I truly hope they're not still on the drugs. I firmly believe that they were on the drugs for the wrong reasons (if there is truly a reason at all), and they'll always be my poster children against the liberal prescription of crap like Ritalin.
I'll probably get modded through the toilet or flamed in the replies for this, but oh well.
I'd like to lift a 2-paragraph or so quote from the CNN article on JFK somebody linked to earlier:
"Some derided the dream as lunacy. Others viewed it as just another strategic move in the Cold War chess match between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Kennedy had just been humiliated in the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba, a communist ally of Moscow. In his speech, he called for many measures to combat communism, requesting billions, for example, to stop red insurgencies in Southeast Asia."
Now granted, in this day and age it's going to be pretty damned easy to beat the terrorists (in place of Communists) to the moon if the terrorists have no intention of going there in the first place. But still, both administrations had a chosen enemy: Kennedy the Communists and Bush Muslim extremists. One could argue that Bush also has an enemy in red China (and that they are the space program's intended target), but that seems less likely considering our trade volume.
Also, both presidents were coming off a controversial military action. America had the need for the containment of Communism drilled into its collective skull ever since Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech (if not before), and America has had the "War on Terrorism" drilled into its collective head ever since late 2001. Both presidents were realizing that military action was losing popularity, and both needed something to invigorate the national imagination (to paraphrase the CNN article's title). Now, I'm too lazy and this forum is too casual for me to research specifics of federal budgets and electoral politics during the Kennedy administration, but there may well be some similarities there, too.
In summation, my basic point is that it's possible Bush's intentions may be no less pure than Kennedy's were. Bush is certainly a popular target now, but he's still a part of current events and we don't have 20/20 hindsight through which to evaluate his actions. Current politics taint (or add flavor) to any discussion of this space plan, but only time will tell how it will be remembered.
Where do you think they ripped the name Sentinel off from?
FREEZE, MUTANT!
I was very interested in Legos when I was small (granted, this was about 10 years ago). When I was very small, about 5, my grandfather would build all the sets for me, but I quickly worked up the courage to tackle the building myself. My attempts at custom Lego creations were only half-serious and lackluster, but I thought the sets themselves were really creative.
The distinct themes they had (emphasis on had) were excellent for what you could do with the bricks. Castle, space, pirates, generic city/town stuff... Very few of these required any custom parts, merely reprints or recolorings of existing pieces. The most obvious customs I can think of are the bases for boats and castles (as well as other smaller figure stuff, like dragons and skeletons, but those I found permissible). The diversification of themes as time wore on was really creative as well... Fright Knights/Dragonslayers, UFO, even time machine sets! Now, though, walking down the Lego aisle at Wal-Mart or similar is hardly inspirational... A vast majority is merely Star Wars (and not the cool Star Wars sets like the SSD), with other weird springloaded junk that de-emphasizes the building such as sports legos that feature some kinda whack soccer game. And Bionicle? WTF? Looks like Technic, but marketed as some kind of action figure?
The only new Lego set I would consider dropping money on is a little $15 ISS model. I never was a big custom builder, so the sets themselves provided a lot of my inspiration... but lately Lego has lost that creativity in my mind. They're trying to become some sort of regular toy company, building bizarre action figures and spring-loaded sports toys. That's just not Lego. The little bricks have always been about the building, and it seems they've been losing that inspiration lately.
This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but in Star Trek (admittedly fictional, but a close metaphor for the real world), the Federation's military and exploratory arm are one and the same. Perhaps being involved with exploratory projects will have a moderating influence on the military, rather than a militarizing one on NASA.
Is there anything like XEarth, but with a Martian desktop display?
Looks like a catch-22...
but what does this have to do with ssh?
3) Paramount will give him another Star Trek acting job, out of the public interest.
Surely nobody disagrees: It couldn't be worse than Enterprise.
MC Hammer actually lives in my town of Tracy, California. When he first moved here, he was highly visible in his black Hummer, but apparently he's since crashed it into a local canal. It's awfully expensive to replace Hummers (real Hummers, not the yuppie H2s), so you never know...
Are there any good QT-based IM clients that could be ported? In my experience, none of the current OS X offerings are completely functional within themselves.
I too am a fan of this game, even though development is stagnant and the public server is down. It's fairly simple, but a lot of fun, especially if you upgrade one of the basic ships or capture some ships and start dueling your friends. I hope development starts up again soon, because this game has a lot of potential and I don't yet have the C++ skills to give it a jumpstart.
Don't give the Catholic Church such ideas...
http://entermyworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=153
:-D
Hopefully that site allows direct links to UBB threads...
Rich W was one of the builders on the DeLorean hovercraft episode, and also behind the monster GT40. He has some interesting insight into what really went on during production, and also into Jesse's frame of mind. I thought there were some other threads on that same board where he went into greater detail, but this is the only one I can find.
It would be interesting if the MG producers asked him back, so he could replicate the remote-controlled time machine from the beginning of "Back to the Future."
Sony acheived such high market penetration with their Walkman product that people began to refer to any generic-brand portable tape player as a "walkman." What with Apple's unique marketing image, I doubt that's going to happen with portable digital players; but the original poster's point is still valid: it's all based on standardized technology, the brand doesn't really matter.
thumb a hundred to save the clocktower! That thing was struck by lightning 70 years ago!
(ref. Back to the Future Part II)
I mean no disrespect, but what you describe sounds disturbingly similar to Douglas Adams' characterization of Arthur Dent as the average British citizen. I certainly hope that your government doesn't decide they're going to plow your house out to build a highway bypass.
And someday, it will be.
XPostFacto is software to allow installation on OldWorld machines, found at http://www.opendarwin.org/projects/XPostFacto/. I've already verified that the 10.3 installer gives a kernel panic when booting on the Beige machine in question, but the point of XPF is to have drivers for the hardware that is unbootable with a stock install. Since the source code to Darwin 7.0 underlying Panther was released last night, it should be good to go in short order.
I went to MacDaddy Computers, an Apple Specialist in Modesto, about a 20 minute drive from my house. It's a really small store on one of the main drags through town, and there was literally nobody there at 9:00PM outside of the store employees. I was lucky enough to snag the last copy they had; they had put a "sold out" sign in the window right before I got there. I also got some dog tags with the cool metal X logo and the requisite 10.3 t-shirt.
:-D
As far as the OS goes, it's by far the best one yet. With each new release of OS X, there have been reviewers going on about the massive speed increases over the previous versions... but this is the only upgrade where I have actually felt the massive speed increase. This, along with numerous other interface improvements, make it worth every penny (I paid full price).
For example, I thought I would hate the new Finder, but it's really great, and I find it more usable than the 10.2 Finder. If you don't like the sidebar and/or the brushed metal, you can make them both go away with a click of the toolbar widget. Once they're gone, the Finder behaves pretty much exactly like the OS 9 Finder, a throwback I (and the spatial-finder dude at Ars Technica) really appreciate. Expose's coolness factor is matched only by its utility. The guy who runs MacDaddy said I'd be loving it on a 12" iBook screen, and I really am. The application switcher that pops up in lieu of the Dock is pretty much lifted from Windows and KDE, but is so much cooler because it displays icons in their full 128x128 glory.
Now the only thing I have to wait for is an update to XPostFacto so I can put it on my Beige G4. I don't think I'm ever going to bother with installing 10.2 or below on anything again.
There is water, and there is Dr. Pepper. That is all. Pepsi is irrelevant.
However, I may buy a Pepsi or two now, just to see if I can score some free music... damned marketing Borg.
Well, I did put a 1GHz G4, a Radeon, and a USB/FW combo card in mine, so I am able to get a marginal amount of work done.
I don't know about the other five poor suckers, tho.
Please note that Star Trek history also contains the Eugenics Wars in 1996 (which spawned the world-ruling tyrant Khan Noonien Singh) and a worldwide nuclear war in the 2050s (which eventually leads to Zefram Cochrane's warp ship being built on top of a missile, etc.).
:-D
Also note that it's still a point of contention among fans whether or not Enterprise is Star Trek's history.
I'm just going to make a really quick gripe about the following. I have an AIM account that I actively use, and Yahoo! and ICQ accounts that I not-so actively use.
The official AIM client for OS X is trash. Pure and simple.
There are three big third-party alternatives: Fire, iChat, and Adium. Of these, two are OSS and Fire is multi-protocol. However, all are significantly lacking in their capabilities. For instance, iChat does not support sending profiles or animated buddy icons, nor does it support tabbed IM windows. Fire and Adium support this, but Adium only has alpha OSCAR support and Fire is somewhat unstable. There are clients that I'm glazing over completely, such as Proteus and probably at least one other, but suffice to say, the state of IM is pretty damn shitty.
I'm going to make a desperate plea for someone to make a native Aqua port of GAIM. GAIM is the greatest IM client ever. I've used the Windows port, and other than slow window resizing, it's great. I would do this myself, but my programming experience is very slim.
Barring an actual port, does anybody have compilation instructions for OS X so I can at least run it under X11?
Even better than that would be a modernization of a van such as the Vanagon with one of the higher-horsepower European TDI engines in it. The rear-engined design of this vehicle (same as the old bus) is much more space-efficient than anything designed for passenger use before or since, especially SUVs. :-)
Also note that the US has been stuck with the same basic 90hp TDI engine since VW starting importing it in the 90's. Apparently we should start seeing 150hp and up (as well as a twin-turbo-diesel V10) pretty soon, but it's been quite a long wait... A website such as TDIClub will probably have more info.
Also also note that, unless something's changed, VWoA states that using biodiesel in a US TDI will void the warranty, since in America, biodiesel is unregulated and the less refined stuff can seriously screw up your injectors.