BSG (the show, no idea about this game) seemed to have fairly realistic space flight. The ships could spin and reverse; they didn't bank and dive. The Vipers were aerodynamic, but they also were used in atmosphere.
The landings on Galactica were a bit weird though. They came in fast and had to decelerate quickly, like fighters on an aircraft carrier deck, instead of just slowing down and drifting in slowly and safely. But arguably you don't want to waste time in combat.
They did the usual movie./TV sci-fi thing of having all the ships, including the big capital ships, engage at ranges of a few hundred metres, instead of a few million miles. And no real explanation of why they didn't just nuke each other with guided missiles instead of shooting more or less conventional guns at each other. It was basically WWII naval battles IN SPACE.
It'll be interesting to see how they do Ender's Game since that is supposedly to be filmed soon.
Should I get paid every time they use "my" custom guitar amplifier on a paying gig, and should I get a cut from royalties from recordings done with the amp until I die?
No, but you should get paid every time someone buys your amp. Authors don't get paid every time someone read their book, only when they buy it. And then only 5-110% of the retail.
Anyway, it's apples and oranges. There isn't much of an analogy.
Gotta disagree here. Should be 14 yrs with option for an additional 14 yrs if the author/copyright owner pays a hefty fee prior to the original copyright expiration date. Whether or not the author is dead or alive.......why not just retire to someplace like Tahiti and be done with all the publisher/editor/marketer madness and stress?
I have no problem with a living author reaping the benefits of writing a bestseller for his entire natural life, and his descendants for another 14 after that. If you have written a bunch of bestsellers when you were in your 40s and 50s, then should the income just cut off when you reach 70 and need the money, maybe not capable of writing any more even if you want to, while the books continue to sell and readers are enjoying them? The publishers are still making money from selling the books, but now they don't need to share the income with the author -- is that moral?
There are very few books that remain popular so long anyway. Look at a bestsellers' list from 20 years ago and see if you recognise any of them.
A more important reform would be some form of compulsory licensing, so if a book, (or movie, song, etc.) is out of print but still in copyright that there is some way to get the right to publish it, at a reasonable rate.
You seem to be saying that there should be Hugos for crappy SF, pseudo-SF, and non-SF, just so they they can cover all the categories. Well, if you want the awards to be meaningless, I guess that makes sense.
Don't put words in my mouth. I never said that at all.
I wasn't saying what I wanted or what "should" happen. I was explaining why the programs that won did.
Yeah, but as I said, there are thin pickings for quality SF writing on screen, at the best of times. If "Doctor Who" doesn't deserve a gong, what does? "No award"?
I don't what I find stranger, that Neil Gaiman actually took the time write a Dr. Who episode (part of a lame ripoff of The Time Traveler's Wife) or that people really think it counts as SF.
Gaiman is British, and Doctor Who is truly an icon of British SF. Just about every SF fan, and writer, was weaned on it and feels deep affection for it.I've been watching it since 1964 myself. Doctor Who is very soft core SF, but still tries to be SF.
If you held to strict definitions of SF, you'd hardly ever give out any awards for TV or movies. Game of Thrones is pure fantasy, for instance. "Gritty" fantasy, but still has magic, zombies, dragons, etc. I'm just glad it didn't go to a comic book superhero "franchise". Leave that stuff to Comicon.
aliens, could construct a data stream to take over a receiving computer on any listening planet.
Basically the plot for "A for Andromeda", the 1961 TV series written by Fred Hoyle.
A message is decoded to a computer program for a powerful AI that can answer just about any question. It seems the inventions it creates are designed to make us destroy ourselves; in the sequel it turns out that it was actually an exercise of "tough love" to force us to work together to defeat it rather than nuke each other to oblivion as most intelligent species do.
If some upgraded RAM/Flash + operating system support would allow hibernation on a desktop when the power was cut, that would be very handy.
You don't need upgraded RAM.
Just a capacitor that can power teh sytem for 10 seconds to allow a graceful suspend. Cost trivial.
Spend a few dollars and you could get something to last a few minutes, have it set off a beeping countdown which you could interrupt by plugging it back in.
But I guess that the people who know they need this aren't enough to justify the feature, and so they are forced to spend a hundred times as much to get a full on UPS.
I've got dodgy home electric wiring, damp rises up and shorts it out a few times a year in storms. Or geckos get in the breaker box and electrocute themselves. I just got a surge protector and swear when the power goes off.
Same as we used to keep beer cold in Australia since the 1950s. An "esky" (probably was a brandname, now used generically). A styrofoam box, metal shell for longer lasting. Stick ice in it (in plastic bags for when it melts), or some freezer packs.
Obviously have waterproof box inside that for your gear. Be careful of the police in Saudi though, they will probably suspect you have beer in it.
No, if we, as natural animals, cause the extinction of another species it is because it was unfit to survive and should be left extinct. Human beings are not outside nature and its methods of determining which species are worthy of survival.
It's a very short slippery slope from this to eugenics and genocide.
'd rather be fat and die early having eaten the things I liked, than old, skinny and never enjoyed a triple bacon burger with extra cheese.
"Never"? The study is about diet restriction, reducing the amount of food. You can still eat pretty much anything, just not so much or as frequently.
A friend of mine was "morbidly obese" -- basically like "Fat Bastard". He had a stomach reduction and lost 2/3 of his weight. He still enjoys eating well and drinks wine, but in moderation. He was headed for a very unpleasant old age, probably would have lost his mobility by the time he was 60 but now he 's healthy and active and has a few decades of enjoyable life ahead of him.
Oh, how is it that it carries a story about Japan? How is it that I am reading it in Hong Kong? Is this usw.slashdot.org or www.slashdot.org?
It's not "911" in Japan; it's "119". It's that simple. You don't "translate" facts. You don't say someone was eating hamburger when they were actually eating rice, just to make Americans feel more comfortable.
See the little quote things around the 911?
Yeah. Who are they quoting? No one in the story said that.
. Not only do superfluous vilifications of the author distract from the article
The author invited it with his superfluous vilification of the use of the word "Centre" right at the top of the summary, and it has had the effect of turning the enter focus of discussion away from whatever the hell "bioinspiration" is to debating the degree of pretentiousness of an inoffensive word.
Listen Americans, "911" is the AMERICAN emergency number. The rest of the world doesn't use it. In Japan, its "119", as TFA says. In Australia it's "000". In the UK it's "999". If you really think Americans are too dumb to understand that, just write "emergency number" instead of confusing everyone by trying to "translate" a number.
I worked in tech support in the 1980s and 5.25" floppies were a great (unintended) source of fun.
Sure, you did. I've heard those same stories a million times.
My own true anecdote is the first time I used a Macintosh at university -- the first or second generation -- 128 kB RAM, no hard disk, just ran on a floppy. I borrowed a system disk from a tutor and inserted it to boot it up.The message appeared "Initialise disk?" Since "initialise" means "begin" I of course agreed, and it reformatted the floppy and wiped out the tutor's files.
Yeah, I saw it too late. Fumble fingered typist and too used to revising forum posts after the fact. And Slashdot's preview takes so long I usually just wing it. Some ludicrous results when I screw up the HTML.
So if I paint a painting, and sell ONE copy... It is your duty to copy the painting and sell it?
If I decide to make a limited edition set, it is your duty to make the set unlimited?
You're not obliged to create more copies. It's about threatening anyone else who does -- even if they are willing and offer to pay for the privilege.
Anyway, your painting is unique and no one, not even you, can duplicate it exactly. If someone else does make a copy, including your signature or claiming that it was an original would of course be fraud.
If no one was allowed to reproduce a work of art, even imperfectly, without explicit permission, the only people who would even know what the Mona Lisa looked like would be those who had gone to Paris and seen it at the Louvre.
I mean, that's a lovely assumption, but unless FACT can show it represents the interests of those copyright holders, they have no standing to do anything against UKNova.
Or is that not how the law works in the UK?
A C&D isn't issued by a court, it's just a letter from a lawyer.
If UKNova had a QC to defend them in a court they might indeed win on that basis, five years and a million pounds later.
Because clearly this plan is well thought through and has no obvious but overlooked side effects?
I feel a bit uneasy about storing megatonnes of frozen CO2, that has to be kept refrigerated below -80C, at least 20 degrees below ambient, indefinitely. Makes storing nuclear waste for centuries look simple and safe by comparison.
As you're in a nitpicking mode, you might note that a question mark normally terminates a question; your sentence is simply a statement.
Slashdot Mirror
The landings on Galactica were a bit weird though. They came in fast and had to decelerate quickly, like fighters on an aircraft carrier deck, instead of just slowing down and drifting in slowly and safely. But arguably you don't want to waste time in combat.
They did the usual movie./TV sci-fi thing of having all the ships, including the big capital ships, engage at ranges of a few hundred metres, instead of a few million miles. And no real explanation of why they didn't just nuke each other with guided missiles instead of shooting more or less conventional guns at each other. It was basically WWII naval battles IN SPACE.
It'll be interesting to see how they do Ender's Game since that is supposedly to be filmed soon.
The problem is at your end. You either deliberately or carelessly misinterpreted what I wrote to prop up your soapbox.
Should I get paid every time they use "my" custom guitar amplifier on a paying gig, and should I get a cut from royalties from recordings done with the amp until I die?
No, but you should get paid every time someone buys your amp. Authors don't get paid every time someone read their book, only when they buy it. And then only 5-110% of the retail.
Anyway, it's apples and oranges. There isn't much of an analogy.
Gotta disagree here. Should be 14 yrs with option for an additional 14 yrs if the author/copyright owner pays a hefty fee prior to the original copyright expiration date. Whether or not the author is dead or alive.......why not just retire to someplace like Tahiti and be done with all the publisher/editor/marketer madness and stress?
I have no problem with a living author reaping the benefits of writing a bestseller for his entire natural life, and his descendants for another 14 after that. If you have written a bunch of bestsellers when you were in your 40s and 50s, then should the income just cut off when you reach 70 and need the money, maybe not capable of writing any more even if you want to, while the books continue to sell and readers are enjoying them? The publishers are still making money from selling the books, but now they don't need to share the income with the author -- is that moral?
There are very few books that remain popular so long anyway. Look at a bestsellers' list from 20 years ago and see if you recognise any of them.
A more important reform would be some form of compulsory licensing, so if a book, (or movie, song, etc.) is out of print but still in copyright that there is some way to get the right to publish it, at a reasonable rate.
You seem to be saying that there should be Hugos for crappy SF, pseudo-SF, and non-SF, just so they they can cover all the categories. Well, if you want the awards to be meaningless, I guess that makes sense.
Don't put words in my mouth. I never said that at all.
I wasn't saying what I wanted or what "should" happen. I was explaining why the programs that won did.
Yeah, but as I said, there are thin pickings for quality SF writing on screen, at the best of times. If "Doctor Who" doesn't deserve a gong, what does? "No award"?
I don't what I find stranger, that Neil Gaiman actually took the time write a Dr. Who episode (part of a lame ripoff of The Time Traveler's Wife) or that people really think it counts as SF.
Gaiman is British, and Doctor Who is truly an icon of British SF. Just about every SF fan, and writer, was weaned on it and feels deep affection for it.I've been watching it since 1964 myself. Doctor Who is very soft core SF, but still tries to be SF.
If you held to strict definitions of SF, you'd hardly ever give out any awards for TV or movies. Game of Thrones is pure fantasy, for instance. "Gritty" fantasy, but still has magic, zombies, dragons, etc. I'm just glad it didn't go to a comic book superhero "franchise". Leave that stuff to Comicon.
something that might lead to a legal suit or a C&D.
Since "Skywalker Sound" is credited for post production, I think we can assume they have that sorted.
Anyway, after watching the first episode, it's pretty crap; without the Star Wars jokes it'd be complete crap.
aliens, could construct a data stream to take over a receiving computer on any listening planet.
Basically the plot for "A for Andromeda", the 1961 TV series written by Fred Hoyle. A message is decoded to a computer program for a powerful AI that can answer just about any question. It seems the inventions it creates are designed to make us destroy ourselves; in the sequel it turns out that it was actually an exercise of "tough love" to force us to work together to defeat it rather than nuke each other to oblivion as most intelligent species do.
If some upgraded RAM/Flash + operating system support would allow hibernation on a desktop when the power was cut, that would be very handy.
You don't need upgraded RAM.
Just a capacitor that can power teh sytem for 10 seconds to allow a graceful suspend. Cost trivial.
Spend a few dollars and you could get something to last a few minutes, have it set off a beeping countdown which you could interrupt by plugging it back in.
But I guess that the people who know they need this aren't enough to justify the feature, and so they are forced to spend a hundred times as much to get a full on UPS.
I've got dodgy home electric wiring, damp rises up and shorts it out a few times a year in storms. Or geckos get in the breaker box and electrocute themselves. I just got a surge protector and swear when the power goes off.
Obviously have waterproof box inside that for your gear. Be careful of the police in Saudi though, they will probably suspect you have beer in it.
No, if we, as natural animals, cause the extinction of another species it is because it was unfit to survive and should be left extinct. Human beings are not outside nature and its methods of determining which species are worthy of survival.
It's a very short slippery slope from this to eugenics and genocide.
Er, what? Is this like a modern day "Television isn't a real word" type of deal?
No, it's like the old days, when words were in "books", such as "dictionaries".
Its gotta start somewhere. In this case, I've seen "Bioinspiration" used a number of times already.
I don't read lot of zoo press releases, so I guess I'm out of the loop on this.
So is Google apparently
'd rather be fat and die early having eaten the things I liked, than old, skinny and never enjoyed a triple bacon burger with extra cheese.
"Never"? The study is about diet restriction, reducing the amount of food. You can still eat pretty much anything, just not so much or as frequently.
A friend of mine was "morbidly obese" -- basically like "Fat Bastard". He had a stomach reduction and lost 2/3 of his weight. He still enjoys eating well and drinks wine, but in moderation. He was headed for a very unpleasant old age, probably would have lost his mobility by the time he was 60 but now he 's healthy and active and has a few decades of enjoyable life ahead of him.
Besides, it's an American website,
Oh, how is it that it carries a story about Japan? How is it that I am reading it in Hong Kong? Is this usw.slashdot.org or www.slashdot.org?
It's not "911" in Japan; it's "119". It's that simple. You don't "translate" facts. You don't say someone was eating hamburger when they were actually eating rice, just to make Americans feel more comfortable.
See the little quote things around the 911?
Yeah. Who are they quoting? No one in the story said that.
You don't get to work in Mission Control without being pretty good at your job, but that isn't what he's famous for: his hairdo..
. Not only do superfluous vilifications of the author distract from the article
The author invited it with his superfluous vilification of the use of the word "Centre" right at the top of the summary, and it has had the effect of turning the enter focus of discussion away from whatever the hell "bioinspiration" is to debating the degree of pretentiousness of an inoffensive word.
At least it's actually a real word, if not the spelling you may prefer, unlike "Bioinspiration".
Listen Americans, "911" is the AMERICAN emergency number. The rest of the world doesn't use it. In Japan, its "119", as TFA says. In Australia it's "000". In the UK it's "999". If you really think Americans are too dumb to understand that, just write "emergency number" instead of confusing everyone by trying to "translate" a number.
I worked in tech support in the 1980s and 5.25" floppies were a great (unintended) source of fun.
Sure, you did. I've heard those same stories a million times.
My own true anecdote is the first time I used a Macintosh at university -- the first or second generation -- 128 kB RAM, no hard disk, just ran on a floppy. I borrowed a system disk from a tutor and inserted it to boot it up.The message appeared "Initialise disk?" Since "initialise" means "begin" I of course agreed, and it reformatted the floppy and wiped out the tutor's files.
Yeah, I saw it too late. Fumble fingered typist and too used to revising forum posts after the fact. And Slashdot's preview takes so long I usually just wing it. Some ludicrous results when I screw up the HTML.
But the guy for fraud, sure, but the "investors" were idiots.
So if I paint a painting, and sell ONE copy... It is your duty to copy the painting and sell it? If I decide to make a limited edition set, it is your duty to make the set unlimited?
You're not obliged to create more copies. It's about threatening anyone else who does -- even if they are willing and offer to pay for the privilege.
Anyway, your painting is unique and no one, not even you, can duplicate it exactly. If someone else does make a copy, including your signature or claiming that it was an original would of course be fraud.
If no one was allowed to reproduce a work of art, even imperfectly, without explicit permission, the only people who would even know what the Mona Lisa looked like would be those who had gone to Paris and seen it at the Louvre.
I mean, that's a lovely assumption, but unless FACT can show it represents the interests of those copyright holders, they have no standing to do anything against UKNova. Or is that not how the law works in the UK?
A C&D isn't issued by a court, it's just a letter from a lawyer.
If UKNova had a QC to defend them in a court they might indeed win on that basis, five years and a million pounds later.
Because clearly this plan is well thought through and has no obvious but overlooked side effects?
I feel a bit uneasy about storing megatonnes of frozen CO2, that has to be kept refrigerated below -80C, at least 20 degrees below ambient, indefinitely. Makes storing nuclear waste for centuries look simple and safe by comparison.
As you're in a nitpicking mode, you might note that a question mark normally terminates a question; your sentence is simply a statement.