1 - To Enterprise fans, while it may be slowly turning into a good show, it's still not Star Trek. It's not set in the familiar setting and universe that Star trek fans like and know. They seem to have ripped off token aliens such as the Klingons, Romulans, and even the Borg (!!!), but half the time they mess up the characterizations, such as the suddenly dictatorial emo Vulcans. An upside-down Akira-class is kinda cute, to those who get the reference, but it doesn't make much sense 100 years before Kirk. Heck, it didn't even have "Star Trek" in the title for the first two seasons, and they're only just now trying to tie it in!
2 - I think it would've worked much better had they left it as a Quantum Leap spinoff, although it pissed me off that they threw in that Temporal Cold War thing but refused to offer an explanation as to why Al couldn't communicate with Sam. Or is that Daniels guy supposed to be Al's descendant or something? And if he can travel through time at will, why can't they just use his gadgetry to (finally) bring Sam home? And does Sam really survive into the 22nd century so he can leap that far? If so, he must be getting pretty old and moldy strapped into that chair at the research institute. I can see why they abandoned that premise, but I think a complicated resolution would be more interesting than this after-the-fact Star Trek prequel bullshit.
The "Greek life" system currently in place at colleges nationwide seems to use a similar labeling system, albeit with three letters to describe each group instead of just one.
Also, they don't seem to do much as far as promoting social order goes... but they're certainly very efficient at distributing Soma in liquid form.
When money becomes involved, even and perhaps especially the promise of increased tax revenue, the good of humanity typically goes straight out the window. Look up the Poletown case, where an entire neighborhood in Michigan was demolished to make way for a GM plant that never lived up to its promises.
I live in an area of northern California where, due to development pressures, stuff like this pops up from time to time. It usually isn't justified as an improvement to the community, either; it's about some developer needing a specific parcel of land or a specific infrastructure improvement to make their development saleable. That this coincides with someone's private property is merely unfortunate. Therefore, the developer puts out all sort of flowery PR about supposed public improvements, and the city council or county supervisors hand down a decision with increased tax revenue as the primary support. An example is an old backroad on the other side of town from me. People who have lived off this road for 15 or 20 years are now threatened with having their front yards and more taken from them "within three to five years" to widen it. This wouldn't happen if some crazy developer, in collusion with the county supervisors, hadn't gotten the idea to try to build a "new town" outside the city limits. I haven't seen an eminent domain case out here yet that was steadfastly in the public interest.
Eminent domain is one of those well-intentioned powers that seems like a good idea at the time, as your opinion indicates. You may upbraid others for "selfishness," but a cohesive society should not subvert the interests of its individual constituents if it wishes to remain so. Government is not a perfect entity, and its powers will ultimately be wielded by individuals. It gives an easy (if immoral) route to material gain, therefore unscrupulous individuals are most likely to attempt to manipulate its levers. Eminent domain is a very powerful lever with a large potential (and long history) of abuse, so I think twice before calling it fair and necessary.
What I find interesting is the number of people in this thread defending BSG as a really good show. When Enterprise began, the reaction was really lukewarm, but I don't remember there being as many people trying to defend it. There weren't even that many ENT apologists in the "Enterprise is canceled" threads. Go to someplace like TrekBBS, of course, and the collective opinion will be radically different. But threads like this, I think, give a much better indication of whether or not the general sci-fi audience likes a specific show.
The article says that the same company is releasing another MMOFPS based on the Unreal3 engine. That's no indication that APB will be, but if it is, then it will easily be cross-platform. We can always hope.
1. GPS stopped working at point a, and started working at point b. Measure the distance and tax'em.
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Who's to say if you drove the shortest distance? Is the odometer gonna be hooked up to this thing too?
2. Annual inspection. If there is a major difference between GPS miles and odometer miles... and if those miles can't be associated with out of state miles... tax'em.
How do you reliably determine out of state miles? How about I just use a thermal printer to fabricate receipts for a Shell station in Las Vegas while filling my car up one 5-gallon can at a time?
Nevertheless, I assume this method of fox-hunting has been part of British popular culture for some time (considering pop culture renditions such as Disney's "Fox and the Hound"). With reference to the grandparent post, if it's "what works" for the British, why bother banning it against the popular will?
The UK, given the right to bear arms, would probably be negatively affected. It's not part of our culture.
I seem to remember quite an outcry from a specific segment of the British population when Parliament recently pushed through a ban on hunting foxes with shotguns. I would think that fox-hunting has been part of British culture for quite a long time, and the employment of shotguns is merely a favorable adaptation to modern technology. There is no indication that those in power will not try to change "what works," if not for the better than to their advantage. A popular democratic mandate may ameliorate this, but I believe most readers would agree with me when I say that a so-called popular mandate doesn't mean much anymore (in the case of George W. Bush).
Anybody who lived through it will know what I'm talking about. I ran Public Beta as my primary OS from its introduction till the 10.0 release, and for $100 I didn't get much of an improvement.
I think that they should instead run an ad promoting the firing of Rick Berman out of a sufficiently large cannon. They could recoup the costs through advance sales of tickets to the event. In fact, they may even stand to turn a profit!
Some guy wrote a game based on the Torque engine called Blockland. You are a little Lego man, and the entire purpose of the game is to build Lego buildings. I honestly think that that could be a revolution in MMORPGs, if you even want to call it that. How about letting the players build from the ground up?
The only description resembling a webpage that I've seen is on the Something Awful forums, but that site requires a subscription account. If you can access the thread publicly then I think it has a download link.
Whenever this ad comes on in the theater, I make it a point to yell, "Avast, ye scalawags! Prepare yerselves fer DOWNLOADIN'!" Gets a favorable response every time.
My grandfather rescued a 1974 VW bus from a junkyard. It took a little bit of work to get it running (considering that a destitute hippie had abandoned it in the middle of the street), but once it was running he needed to pass smog. It only ever needed to pass smog once, as it was running during the last year that 1974 vehicles needed to pass CA smog. So the smog tech tries it first with all the wonderful smog equipment (smog pump, some crappy activated charcoal canister or some shit, etc.) and again without. Naturally, the vehicle does better with all the smog equipment torn off. It remains off to this day, with all the vacuum lines leading to it sealed off with screws.
I have no doubt that newer emissions tech has gotten a lot better, but politicians are the ones who mandate these things, not engineers. As long as the engineers can, in turn, give some set of numbers and statistics that makes it all sound worthwhile... then people like Sheila Kuehl can gain street cred in their constituencies. Of course, I'm not disaffected with the political system at all.
It seems like "they" (lawmakers, judges, whoever has the power at the moment) are constantly redrawing the lines of the law. Now, looking at this, it could be argued that an enforcement official could be required to get a warrant to examine the contents of a packet that such a watchdog system had flagged, but that's ridiculous. They can just build up a vault full of data on each user, and when the time comes, they can find a violation based on the cumbersomely large volume of laws on the books. In the long run, little adjustments in what constitutes "right," like this, are just baby steps.
At what point will they finally abandon the rhetoric of "freedom?" At what point will the system at large collapse into totalitarianism on one extreme or anarchy on the other?
(I myself would prefer the anarchy, as then there would be a lag time before some charismatic group of jerks convinces a majority that their version of "right" is worth imposing.)
I'd laugh if this now becomes incorporated into the Slashdot meme. That is to say, every future "Plan" post, no matter what the subject, somehow features firing Rick Berman out of a cannon and selling tickets. It'd serve him right. I mean, look how quickly the "old people in Korea" thing caught on.
This is Enterprise we're talking about. We could use gold-pressed latinum, but since it's a Ferengi currency, we'd have to be very discreet about it and then forget it ever happened when the episode was over.
Slashdot Mirror
1 - To Enterprise fans, while it may be slowly turning into a good show, it's still not Star Trek. It's not set in the familiar setting and universe that Star trek fans like and know. They seem to have ripped off token aliens such as the Klingons, Romulans, and even the Borg (!!!), but half the time they mess up the characterizations, such as the suddenly dictatorial emo Vulcans. An upside-down Akira-class is kinda cute, to those who get the reference, but it doesn't make much sense 100 years before Kirk. Heck, it didn't even have "Star Trek" in the title for the first two seasons, and they're only just now trying to tie it in!
2 - I think it would've worked much better had they left it as a Quantum Leap spinoff, although it pissed me off that they threw in that Temporal Cold War thing but refused to offer an explanation as to why Al couldn't communicate with Sam. Or is that Daniels guy supposed to be Al's descendant or something? And if he can travel through time at will, why can't they just use his gadgetry to (finally) bring Sam home? And does Sam really survive into the 22nd century so he can leap that far? If so, he must be getting pretty old and moldy strapped into that chair at the research institute. I can see why they abandoned that premise, but I think a complicated resolution would be more interesting than this after-the-fact Star Trek prequel bullshit.
Does this mean that they convinced Paramount to give up and not bother airing the last... 6 or however many Enterprise episodes are left?
The "Greek life" system currently in place at colleges nationwide seems to use a similar labeling system, albeit with three letters to describe each group instead of just one.
Also, they don't seem to do much as far as promoting social order goes... but they're certainly very efficient at distributing Soma in liquid form.
When money becomes involved, even and perhaps especially the promise of increased tax revenue, the good of humanity typically goes straight out the window. Look up the Poletown case, where an entire neighborhood in Michigan was demolished to make way for a GM plant that never lived up to its promises.
I live in an area of northern California where, due to development pressures, stuff like this pops up from time to time. It usually isn't justified as an improvement to the community, either; it's about some developer needing a specific parcel of land or a specific infrastructure improvement to make their development saleable. That this coincides with someone's private property is merely unfortunate. Therefore, the developer puts out all sort of flowery PR about supposed public improvements, and the city council or county supervisors hand down a decision with increased tax revenue as the primary support. An example is an old backroad on the other side of town from me. People who have lived off this road for 15 or 20 years are now threatened with having their front yards and more taken from them "within three to five years" to widen it. This wouldn't happen if some crazy developer, in collusion with the county supervisors, hadn't gotten the idea to try to build a "new town" outside the city limits. I haven't seen an eminent domain case out here yet that was steadfastly in the public interest.
Eminent domain is one of those well-intentioned powers that seems like a good idea at the time, as your opinion indicates. You may upbraid others for "selfishness," but a cohesive society should not subvert the interests of its individual constituents if it wishes to remain so. Government is not a perfect entity, and its powers will ultimately be wielded by individuals. It gives an easy (if immoral) route to material gain, therefore unscrupulous individuals are most likely to attempt to manipulate its levers. Eminent domain is a very powerful lever with a large potential (and long history) of abuse, so I think twice before calling it fair and necessary.
What I find interesting is the number of people in this thread defending BSG as a really good show. When Enterprise began, the reaction was really lukewarm, but I don't remember there being as many people trying to defend it. There weren't even that many ENT apologists in the "Enterprise is canceled" threads. Go to someplace like TrekBBS, of course, and the collective opinion will be radically different. But threads like this, I think, give a much better indication of whether or not the general sci-fi audience likes a specific show.
Make it work at 88 miles per hour and then they'll be on to something.
There's the problem of convincing them to pay for it...
Enterprise was aiming for the "Manos: The Hands of Fate" style of comedy: it's so bad, it's hilarious.
Well... it was, wasn't it?
The article says that the same company is releasing another MMOFPS based on the Unreal3 engine. That's no indication that APB will be, but if it is, then it will easily be cross-platform. We can always hope.
Worse yet, what if you thought it was a grapefruit?
That'd be a nasty breakfast surprise...
If there was, would we tell you?
Well, I dunno, with the episode "The Way to Eden," Roddenberry seemed to capture some of the laid-back, pipe-weed-smoking personality of the hobbits.
Not to mention Leonard Nimoy's rendition of "Bilbo Baggins."
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Who's to say if you drove the shortest distance? Is the odometer gonna be hooked up to this thing too?
How do you reliably determine out of state miles? How about I just use a thermal printer to fabricate receipts for a Shell station in Las Vegas while filling my car up one 5-gallon can at a time?
Nevertheless, I assume this method of fox-hunting has been part of British popular culture for some time (considering pop culture renditions such as Disney's "Fox and the Hound"). With reference to the grandparent post, if it's "what works" for the British, why bother banning it against the popular will?
Wow, this has nothing to do with global warming.
I seem to remember quite an outcry from a specific segment of the British population when Parliament recently pushed through a ban on hunting foxes with shotguns. I would think that fox-hunting has been part of British culture for quite a long time, and the employment of shotguns is merely a favorable adaptation to modern technology. There is no indication that those in power will not try to change "what works," if not for the better than to their advantage. A popular democratic mandate may ameliorate this, but I believe most readers would agree with me when I say that a so-called popular mandate doesn't mean much anymore (in the case of George W. Bush).
Anybody who lived through it will know what I'm talking about. I ran Public Beta as my primary OS from its introduction till the 10.0 release, and for $100 I didn't get much of an improvement.
:)
All has been forgiven since then, though.
These guys just broke my bullshit meter. That's an expensive piece of equipment. I'm calling my lawyers.
I think that they should instead run an ad promoting the firing of Rick Berman out of a sufficiently large cannon. They could recoup the costs through advance sales of tickets to the event. In fact, they may even stand to turn a profit!
Some guy wrote a game based on the Torque engine called Blockland. You are a little Lego man, and the entire purpose of the game is to build Lego buildings. I honestly think that that could be a revolution in MMORPGs, if you even want to call it that. How about letting the players build from the ground up?
The only description resembling a webpage that I've seen is on the Something Awful forums, but that site requires a subscription account. If you can access the thread publicly then I think it has a download link.
Whenever this ad comes on in the theater, I make it a point to yell, "Avast, ye scalawags! Prepare yerselves fer DOWNLOADIN'!" Gets a favorable response every time.
My grandfather rescued a 1974 VW bus from a junkyard. It took a little bit of work to get it running (considering that a destitute hippie had abandoned it in the middle of the street), but once it was running he needed to pass smog. It only ever needed to pass smog once, as it was running during the last year that 1974 vehicles needed to pass CA smog. So the smog tech tries it first with all the wonderful smog equipment (smog pump, some crappy activated charcoal canister or some shit, etc.) and again without. Naturally, the vehicle does better with all the smog equipment torn off. It remains off to this day, with all the vacuum lines leading to it sealed off with screws.
I have no doubt that newer emissions tech has gotten a lot better, but politicians are the ones who mandate these things, not engineers. As long as the engineers can, in turn, give some set of numbers and statistics that makes it all sound worthwhile... then people like Sheila Kuehl can gain street cred in their constituencies. Of course, I'm not disaffected with the political system at all.
G-House: Protoss-specific services.
It seems like "they" (lawmakers, judges, whoever has the power at the moment) are constantly redrawing the lines of the law. Now, looking at this, it could be argued that an enforcement official could be required to get a warrant to examine the contents of a packet that such a watchdog system had flagged, but that's ridiculous. They can just build up a vault full of data on each user, and when the time comes, they can find a violation based on the cumbersomely large volume of laws on the books. In the long run, little adjustments in what constitutes "right," like this, are just baby steps.
At what point will they finally abandon the rhetoric of "freedom?" At what point will the system at large collapse into totalitarianism on one extreme or anarchy on the other?
(I myself would prefer the anarchy, as then there would be a lag time before some charismatic group of jerks convinces a majority that their version of "right" is worth imposing.)
I'd laugh if this now becomes incorporated into the Slashdot meme. That is to say, every future "Plan" post, no matter what the subject, somehow features firing Rick Berman out of a cannon and selling tickets. It'd serve him right. I mean, look how quickly the "old people in Korea" thing caught on.
Hm, I'd better get started propagating.
This is Enterprise we're talking about. We could use gold-pressed latinum, but since it's a Ferengi currency, we'd have to be very discreet about it and then forget it ever happened when the episode was over.