Vaevictis666 writes, The trader involved came from outside of Egypt.
Anonymous Coward writes, Let start by reading what other informed slashdot posters said: the sexist character in the game wasn't egyptian, he was a traveler from a foreign land.
I write, "What does that mean? HE ISNT FROM EGYPT!
Let my upcoming "Redundant" mod be a lesson to those of you who don't RTFT first before posting.:)
I work for Harris County Public Library which surrounds Houston, Texas. I work in the C.O. and we have 27 branches, 25 of which are WiFi capable. I should know... I designed them and implemented them using old computers in the back room for the gateways, linux and NoCat (www.nocat.net).
That being said, I would like to comment on one of your statements:
The library has the right to restrict access if that means they can keep the program going. From a moral standpoint though I can't understand why the Priest doesn't see his actions as wrong.
Thats where I believe you are misinformed. Remember, the library is not a for-profit entity. Because of that, to get funding, we have to submit to the Commisioner numbers. How many books did we check out for the month? How many new borrowers? How many overdue? How many people used the computers inside the library?
You know, stuff like that...
Concerning the public wireless, all they want are hits. How many people use it? THe higher the number, the more legitimate that system becomes, and the more funding you get for it. Which is why here at HCPL, and I would hope there at the library in question, that they not only allow, but encourage people to use it, even when the library is closed.
Why? Because thats a 'hit', and thats as good as a sale in the library business.
++John
I submitted a paper I wrote to a site...
on
Cheating Made Easy
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Back in 1996, I had to do a paper for a weed-out course Political Science on gun control.
Being the good student, I attacked this paper with vigor, and spent about a week on it, gathering statistics, charts and whatnot. I scored an 'A' since it was overkill for a Freshman/Sophomore course.
Well, I was a C.S. major and the web was just starting to hit full stride, and I heard this commentator talking about a web site called 'School Sucks' (www.schoolsucks.com) which gathered research papers for people to download.
"What a novel idea!", I thought.
So I submitted my Gun Control paper to it, along with my email in case anyone had any problems with it. HEY! I spent a lot of time on this paper! I didn't want it to go to waste! tee hee.
For over 5 years later, about once every week, I got an email from someone who used it, thanking me, and some even adding to it, much like an open source project.
All told, I guess my little research paper led to over 200 A's, and made a lot of people happy.:)
I work for a rather large library system in the Houston area (25 different locations, and I'm in the CO), so I'd like to touch on a few points in your post.
So you don't want Windows, but you want IE, Word, Excel and Powerpoint?
I don't believe she said she didn't want Windows, but rather she was unafraid of a non-Windows alternative.
I'd personally try to push you away from supporting a lot of apps outside of just plain-jane internet access.
That would be suicide! At least in my library system. You see, a lot of the time people come into the library to use the computers because *they dont have one*. What this means is that they use computers for all sorts of things, from doing term papers on Word and using our printers to print them. Some come in and work on a spreadsheet for something they are working on at home. Powerpoint? Sure! Why not? What if they need to do a presentation for a class, or for their own business, and they'd like the resources of a library system at their backs while doing research on it. Again, people come to the library to use the computers for all sorts of reasons, and it would be quite presumptuous of us if we thought they only need Internet access.
My point is, the library is where information is collected with the tools to utilize all of it. Not just Internet access. Heck, we even provide free 'Computer Use' classes that teach people from the nearby trailor parks how to browse the web, or click with a mouse.
Ok, I'm going to feed this Troll in hopes of educating others what this shows purpose was.
So lets get started...
It was a vehicle for more cheesy western tales with a sci-fi twist.
Ok, I honestly dont understand what your problem is with this mixture. You see, at first you complain about it being 'cliche', then you chastise it for being different. I really feel you need to stay consistent with your outright slamming of this show's premise. No other show tried melding these two conecepts, so you cant possibly sit there and say its cliche'.
That's cheesy star trek as you can get, and lets not fault star trek too hard as it was original at its time.
Uhhh... go watch 'A Fist Full of Datas'... or that one episode where Data raises a 'daughter'... "her name is Lol.". Lol indeed! Comparing Firefly to this dredge is an utter insult to yourself... not to anyone who understands the marked differences between these two shows. Not to mention the continuity of Firefly! I am now addicted to television that has an overarching storyline. I cannot stand each episode being a nice little package a la Star Trek. Babylon 5 had the balls to start that trend, and Whedon perfected it, in my opinion.
The girl who was experimented on really didnt go anywhere and seemed horribly out of place.
What do you mean by that? Out of place? OF COURSE SHE WAS! That was the point. If you understood the Captain, you would see a tortured, rather tragic figure. The 'girl' (River was her name) was running from the Big Corporation (A mystery that didnt get explained due to the cancellation). She was there because of her brother, the Doctor. The Captain, at first, took them on board because:
A) He has a natural distrust of 'The Corporation' and the Alliance in general. B) He's broke off his ass and could use a doctor.
Sounds pretty logical to me. Not only that, but that added some intrigue to the story that adds excellent tension throughout the show.
Then the cheesy religious figure.
Ok, this line really is what prompted me to write this diatribe since he was one of the primary reasons why I wanted the show to continue on. Let me just get this out of the way, he *was* a cheesy religious figure on the outside. However, there were so many hints in that show that made any sane man beg to know more. For example, there was one episode where Jayne (the strongman on the ship) and Shephard went out patrolling, and came upon a guy who was shot in the head. The Shephard looks down at him, and goes "Looks like he was killed by a at a range of 200 yards." Jayne looks at him oddly and goes 'Do a lot of shooting at the abbey?'. Another example was when they infliltrated one of those Corporation medical facilities and Shephard was a dead-eye shot, taking people's knee-caps off. HELLOOOO... you arent a bit interested in this guy now? How the Hell does he understand weaponry so well? How did he become such a good shot? Futher, what the fuck is he even doing with this crew? Whats his agenda?... etc... etc. Dude, this is excellent character development if I ever saw it, in my opinion.
I could go on and on about this, but I'll start summing this up. You are implying that the majority of the people hated this show... Where are you getting your information? Those are simply unsubstantiated figures you are pulling out of the air to support your completely empty bashing of this show. You are just saying 'it sucks' to keep this thread alive and giving no examples like I have in my counter. It got canceled due to Fox putting it in the worst time slots... and *then* moving it around 2 or 3 times in various time slots. For a show that had such continuity in it, it demanded the watcher to stay tuned week-to-week. That became increasingly hard with every Fox-move it made on the show.
Time to wrap this up... this was by far the best sci-fi I have ever seen on a television show. It has spoiled me rotten, and it only went 15 episodes. I highly suggest you guys (and the poster that I'm responding to) to go and buy the DVDs (cheap, since its only 15 episodes) and actually watch them. I assure you, you will understand.
So I switched to Gentoo. It was a pain to set up, but I'm very happy with it now.
Agree. Gentoo is definitely a badass, balls-to-the-wall, Linux Distro. When you want to learn it all yourself, install all your programs from source, stability be damned, then go Gentoo.
However, there are those of us that use Linux at work, and in that realm, Gentoo is absolutely not even an option. Now before anyone thinks that I'm just a troll trying to incide a Disto War Thread, I'm not. Let me explain.
YOU know that a properly configured Gentoo box is just as stable in the hands of a very clued admin. You also know that if something breaks in Gentoo, a clued admin can fix it, most times without restarting.
But guess what? Your boss doesnt. Most bosses (at least mine) want to know only 2 things:
1. Is there someone I can call if shit hits the fan?
2. If you quit, or I fire you, can the rest of us figure out what to do with all your servers you've left behind? (ie. see #1).
Not only that, it was the fact that Red Hat *does* have support that allowed me to slowly phase out the old Solaris machines. I would go in my bosses office, say that I wanted to move to Linux for mail/web/etc... and he would say, "Does it have support?" (see reasons above why he asked this)
Why yes... it does, in fact. Five years of it if we go RHEL.
That being said, we moved onto RHEL3 at my company for that very reason after RH9 was starting to go bye-bye.
Why the hell do you think PC sales are so low, and so game companies are turning to consoles? Don't give me the "games were better in the olden days" spin, because we've got everything from Far Cry to Invisible War to SimCity 4 to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 to...you get the picture.
I could go on and on about why PC sales are low, and I'll tell you what.. Piracy is the least of those problems. Let me just sum it up in a few quick points.
1) Many more consoles out there than there are computers THAT PEOPLE PLAY GAMES ON. Hence, a FAR bigger market. Again, this is a no-brainer.
2) Hardware compatibility problems are nill when it comes to developing a game for a console. You got *ONE* system to program the game on. I dont need to elaborate on this. Further, the worst support calls a company will get is 'My CD is scratched.'.
3) You can pirate the SHIT out of Xbox games. Put a mod-chip in, replace the HD with a fat 120G one, and start downloading your games, pal. You can even download save games (for the truly lazy amongst us). And after all this, guess what? They are still whipping the ass of the PC games vendor.
[ed. And by the way, I am a PC gamer.. I prefer the PC over the console anyway, but I'm also not an idiot, and very well aware of the market penetration that consoles have.]
There is absolutely, 100% nothing wrong with the government cracking down on this.
Thats right.. lets spend millions in dollars and hundreds of FBI man-hours to arrest some 15 year olds pirating Halo. Sounds like money well spent to me. And before you go off and say (like another poster did), "I hope a cop laughs at you for getting mugged, since its not as bad as being murdererd or rape." That is so retarted. You are comparing bodidly freaking harm to pirating a video game.
Finally, I must say that the financial loss to pirating can be completely argued. Its been said a hundred times by people who have pirated software that they wouldnt have spent the money on it ANYWAY.
But see, to find the *actual* financial loss would take research, and why would companies even bother with the actual figure even if they had it? Its in their best interest to throw up a big BILLION DOLLAR figure to get people like you to freak out, and the government to go into action with "our" money.
Quixadhal said:
"SWG innovated by offering in-depth crafting and non-combat experience? Please. BatMUD did this a decade ago, and is still around and going strong."...........
You're absolutely wrong. You know how I know? I played BatMUD 10 years ago actually.:)
Their 'crafting' (if you want to call it that) class (or 'guild' as it was refered to) was called "Merchant", and they didnt craft anything. They repaired armor, and weapons. They Featherweighted armor and weapons. And then they cast the all-mighty "MIP" (Money Is Power) on players at 10% charge (converted all the gold the player had to experience points).
But guess what? They didnt get squat for experience for all that. They still had to go out and fight. And fight they did a lot. Usually taking up a secondary class (Reavers) or something.
heh heh heh
But I have to admit... MUDing back in the day was far more fun than MMORPGs today.
Except...
1) Going on massive (50+ player) guild raids in EQ. MUDs simply couldnt top that.
2) The 3D engine really enabled some killer group dynamics that in the MUDing world is tough to beat. For me to explain why this is so, I'll have to write a 100+ page book.
Anyway... other than all that... good to see some old BatMUDers are still out there!:)
++Om
All of you guys on here are foaming at the mouth over Eric Idle *ONCE AGAIN* being a corporate whore.
Have any of you ever thought of WHY its only Eric Idle? Because the rest of them, in numerous interviews, simply stated that the end of MP happened with the death of Graham Chapman, and doing it without him is an injustice.
Meanwhile, you got Eric Idle over here (who in old MP writing sessions back when they were doing Flying Circus wrote largely by himself while everyone else was in teams) continuing to gravy-train this franchise for everything its worth.
Anyone remember the "Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python", the off-broadway show he toured with? Oh the pain! It was done because the other members wouldnt do it, even though they got offered millions. Yet, Eric, never one to turn down a big check at the expense of any kind of dignity chose to go at it alone.
Leave it to Eric Idle to take what was good in Monty Python and drag it through the corporate, money-hungry, cesspool.
As yet another example of the lows Eric Idle has sunk, who else here felt like burning their television set when they saw 'ol Eric in the sit-com 'Suddenly Susan'?
SUDDENLY SUSAN!!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A FREAKING PYTHON!!! A LEGEND!!
Anyway... take whatever Eric Idle does with a grain of salt big enough to choke on.
This has been one of my favorite bands since 1991. I've been to their concerts quite a bit, hung out with the band at an Austin gig, autographs, the works.
They are mentioned on Slashdot? Freaking WIERD.
Here's a little history of this band, in case your curious.
This band is really a one hit wonder when it comes to popularity. Everyone remembers 'Living in Oblivion', their big hit (on their debut album) when their label was Epic.
After that first album (and one hit) they had a fight with Epic and they got dropped. During this time, they recorded an album titled 'Worth'. It was never officially released, but if you can find it, I strongly recommend it. It was recorded when they visited Germany. Very depressing synthpop with a remake of a Beatles song on it.
They had one more album after 'Worth', which was called 'Hope' (anyone seeing a trend?), which didnt have near the sales as the one hit wonder from Epic. Its VERY synth-pop-happy music. Almost bubble-gum synth. Very cool album if your into that sort of thing.
At this point, Dania (the only chick in the band) left, and Claude (the singer, and main songwriter) split off and did a solo album under the band name: 'The Diary'. Very good stuff, I thought. He also released this album (and the previous Hope album) on his own label called 'Orangewerks'.
Finally, after almost forgetting about this band (and the good times I had with friends at their concerts) they released another album around 1998. They dropped the synth deal, and went guitar (yikes!). It sucks, I thought, EXCEPT the song 'Heaven60', which is available for download now, as per the topic. Heaven60 is one of their best songs, and really shows the band maturing.
HOWEVER, they tried one last ditch effort to get popular again by making a video for the song on their album titled '45'. Its a 45 second song, you see. Its also the lamest song I've ever heard. Claude hoped that MTV will give them at least 45 seconds of air time. The video is this cheese-fest! The band members are dressed up like robots (or something) playing on a stage in the Nevada desert with some carboard circular spiral thing behind them. uhhh... okay, whatever.
Havent heard anything since that album until recently (about 2 months ago) I went to yet another Anything Box gig in Houston (at a goth club called 'Spy'). Their show completely sucked. I couldnt believe how far they had sunk. They ripped off the entire audience by singing about 4 songs, and ending the night with 'Living in Oblivion', the only song anyone else even gives a shit about, and walked off the stage. VERY un-Claude-like since he's a very cool person. Ahh well.. everyone has a right to suck every once in a while.
Anyway, thats probably all the history you wanted (of the band you never heard of) for one night. All in all, the above reviewer pretty much has it right about this band. Its very very very 80s.
Enjoy Heaven60.
++Om242
Re:This has to be tough for familes to hear...
on
Latest Columbia News
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I concur with this sentiment.
The moment that I heard the shuttle was lost, I immediately thought of a German by the name of Otto Lilienthal. This man, in the middle 1800s, is known as one of the first aviators. He designed gliders that he used to drop off slopes and glide for many minutes at a time. While in flight, he manuevered himself to actually control the gliders' direction
During the time when people thought flight impossible, his conceptions and his inventions were used by the Wright Brothers and Chanute.
From an article I found: "Lilienthal is not only one of the Father of aviation, he invented piloting, the controlling of aircraft. In any case, he was the first man to have maneuvered in flight, an "heavier than air" machine."
The point of this post (and small history lesson) was his last words. During a glide that he had performed a hundred times, something went wrong, and he plummeted to the earth. The wounds were lethal, but on his deathbed, he uttered the words: "Opfer müssen gebracht werden!", which roughly translates to 'Sacrifices must be made.'
++Om
P.S. To read a little about this man, go to: http://aerostories.free.fr/precurseurs/lilien/page 2.html
He'll go the route all the others went when facing MicroSoft. If this whole thing succeeds, and he can actually forbid MS from using the tech, then Bill Gates will puff on his cigar and say, "We're at Defcon 5."
At which point... a missile will shoot from the heavens directly at the house of this patent holder, exploding 100 yards over it, thus raining 100 dollar bills down. These 100 dollar bills will cover the roof and the yard in a total blanket of green about 1' deep.
Then a man will walk to the door and hand him a letter. On the letter, it will say:
"Any questions?
Love, Bill Gates."
And that will be that.
Its like in the Simpsons when they asked Crusty about something he did. He burst into tears and said "THEY DROVE UP TO MY HOUSE WITH A DUMPTRUCK FULL OF MONEY!!!!"
Re:Agree in Houston - libraries going wireless
on
Libraries Are 31337
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· Score: 2, Informative
How very odd that I read this on here. I happen to work for the very library that the representative is from.:)
I work at Harris County Public Library (www.hcpl.net), in the the information technology area. Basically the central office where all 27 branches are connected to throughout Houston.
Personally, I'm their 'Linux guy' to make my job description short. I admin a small Linux network that works alongside the Windows network which provides various functions for the network as a whole. Network monitoring (using MRTG/RDDTools for display on a web page), IDS (using Snort and Demarc) and backups (backup sendmail server, and web server)
What my collegue and I are attemping to do, is utlilize some freeware software called Nocat (runs on Linux, www.nocat.net) which will allow patrons to the various libraries to walk in with a laptop (and a wireless card), turn it on, and open up IE. The NoCat system which is running as an 'open network' will send DHCP info, and route the http Post to an authentication server, and send the user a login box, which will then (if login succesful) relax the firewall to allow that particular DHCP address to access you're regular ports (80 for the web, and whatever else we feel like allowing them).
I wont get into any more details, but, in my opinion, this really does have interesting implications that I just started to grasp as I was working on this project.
A PUBLIC ISP?
Think about that a bit... seems pretty neat to me as wireless gets more powerful.
I actually bought the game for my girlfriend and I when we first started dating. Me, having experience with MUDs from way back in 91, knew that this had the possibility to really get a hobby that we could do together, and also to see if she even liked this sort of fantasy stuff (which I do).
However, the point where I knew things were going downhill was when we were sitting next to each other playing the game, and after winning the lotto on a new sword I see on my screen amongst a slew of other tells:
"Yiliae tells you, 'Gratz on getting that sword!'
I turn slowly to my girlfriend sitting next to me and say, 'Why did you just type that to me?'
Slashdot Mirror
And those that checked and were denied anyway will get an envelope in the mail with two letters. The first will read:
"Sorry. You can't come in."
The second one, obviously stuffed in at the last minute will say:
"Now you really fucking can't. Piss off, a-hole!"
++Om
I think the more appropriate question to him is:
While interviewing someone, did you ever become afraid...
:)
++Om242
Vaevictis666 writes, The trader involved came from outside of Egypt.
:)
Anonymous Coward writes, Let start by reading what other informed slashdot posters said: the sexist character in the game wasn't egyptian, he was a traveler from a foreign land.
I write, "What does that mean? HE ISNT FROM EGYPT!
Let my upcoming "Redundant" mod be a lesson to those of you who don't RTFT first before posting.
++Om
They weren't "slaves". This is some man projecting his fantasies of enslaved women onto the game. And it's incredibly insulting.
I got an idea... why don't you read the article. Since you're obviously too lazy, and just want to act insulted, I'll quote an integral part of it:
"He passed in and quickly introduced himself as Malaki, claiming to be from a far off land and having items for trade."
What does that mean? HE ISNT FROM EGYPT!
++Om
I work for Harris County Public Library which surrounds Houston, Texas. I work in the C.O. and we have 27 branches, 25 of which are WiFi capable. I should know... I designed them and implemented them using old computers in the back room for the gateways, linux and NoCat (www.nocat.net).
That being said, I would like to comment on one of your statements:
The library has the right to restrict access if that means they can keep the program going. From a moral standpoint though I can't understand why the Priest doesn't see his actions as wrong.
Thats where I believe you are misinformed. Remember, the library is not a for-profit entity. Because of that, to get funding, we have to submit to the Commisioner numbers. How many books did we check out for the month? How many new borrowers? How many overdue? How many people used the computers inside the library?
You know, stuff like that...
Concerning the public wireless, all they want are hits. How many people use it? THe higher the number, the more legitimate that system becomes, and the more funding you get for it. Which is why here at HCPL, and I would hope there at the library in question, that they not only allow, but encourage people to use it, even when the library is closed.
Why? Because thats a 'hit', and thats as good as a sale in the library business.
++John
Back in 1996, I had to do a paper for a weed-out course Political Science on gun control.
:)
:)
Being the good student, I attacked this paper with vigor, and spent about a week on it, gathering statistics, charts and whatnot. I scored an 'A' since it was overkill for a Freshman/Sophomore course.
Well, I was a C.S. major and the web was just starting to hit full stride, and I heard this commentator talking about a web site called 'School Sucks' (www.schoolsucks.com) which gathered research papers for people to download.
"What a novel idea!", I thought.
So I submitted my Gun Control paper to it, along with my email in case anyone had any problems with it. HEY! I spent a lot of time on this paper! I didn't want it to go to waste! tee hee.
For over 5 years later, about once every week, I got an email from someone who used it, thanking me, and some even adding to it, much like an open source project.
All told, I guess my little research paper led to over 200 A's, and made a lot of people happy.
Was good fun.
++Om
I work for a rather large library system in the Houston area (25 different locations, and I'm in the CO), so I'd like to touch on a few points in your post.
:)
So you don't want Windows, but you want IE, Word, Excel and Powerpoint?
I don't believe she said she didn't want Windows, but rather she was unafraid of a non-Windows alternative.
I'd personally try to push you away from supporting a lot of apps outside of just plain-jane internet access.
That would be suicide! At least in my library system. You see, a lot of the time people come into the library to use the computers because *they dont have one*. What this means is that they use computers for all sorts of things, from doing term papers on Word and using our printers to print them. Some come in and work on a spreadsheet for something they are working on at home. Powerpoint? Sure! Why not? What if they need to do a presentation for a class, or for their own business, and they'd like the resources of a library system at their backs while doing research on it. Again, people come to the library to use the computers for all sorts of reasons, and it would be quite presumptuous of us if we thought they only need Internet access.
My point is, the library is where information is collected with the tools to utilize all of it. Not just Internet access. Heck, we even provide free 'Computer Use' classes that teach people from the nearby trailor parks how to browse the web, or click with a mouse.
Hope this helps clear up a few things.
++Om
[This movie needs] Rick Berman as a scriptwriter or at least plot consultant.
I'll pencil your lynching down for Saturday at 10:00PM. Is that good for you?
++Om
Ok, I'm going to feed this Troll in hopes of educating others what this shows purpose was.
So lets get started...
It was a vehicle for more cheesy western tales with a sci-fi twist.
Ok, I honestly dont understand what your problem is with this mixture. You see, at first you complain about it being 'cliche', then you chastise it for being different. I really feel you need to stay consistent with your outright slamming of this show's premise. No other show tried melding these two conecepts, so you cant possibly sit there and say its cliche'.
That's cheesy star trek as you can get, and lets not fault star trek too hard as it was original at its time.
Uhhh... go watch 'A Fist Full of Datas'... or that one episode where Data raises a 'daughter'... "her name is Lol.". Lol indeed! Comparing Firefly to this dredge is an utter insult to yourself... not to anyone who understands the marked differences between these two shows. Not to mention the continuity of Firefly! I am now addicted to television that has an overarching storyline. I cannot stand each episode being a nice little package a la Star Trek. Babylon 5 had the balls to start that trend, and Whedon perfected it, in my opinion.
The girl who was experimented on really didnt go anywhere and seemed horribly out of place.
What do you mean by that? Out of place? OF COURSE SHE WAS! That was the point. If you understood the Captain, you would see a tortured, rather tragic figure. The 'girl' (River was her name) was running from the Big Corporation (A mystery that didnt get explained due to the cancellation). She was there because of her brother, the Doctor. The Captain, at first, took them on board because:
A) He has a natural distrust of 'The Corporation' and the Alliance in general.
B) He's broke off his ass and could use a doctor.
Sounds pretty logical to me. Not only that, but that added some intrigue to the story that adds excellent tension throughout the show.
Then the cheesy religious figure.
Ok, this line really is what prompted me to write this diatribe since he was one of the primary reasons why I wanted the show to continue on. Let me just get this out of the way, he *was* a cheesy religious figure on the outside. However, there were so many hints in that show that made any sane man beg to know more. For example, there was one episode where Jayne (the strongman on the ship) and Shephard went out patrolling, and came upon a guy who was shot in the head. The Shephard looks down at him, and goes "Looks like he was killed by a at a range of 200 yards." Jayne looks at him oddly and goes 'Do a lot of shooting at the abbey?'. Another example was when they infliltrated one of those Corporation medical facilities and Shephard was a dead-eye shot, taking people's knee-caps off. HELLOOOO... you arent a bit interested in this guy now? How the Hell does he understand weaponry so well? How did he become such a good shot? Futher, what the fuck is he even doing with this crew? Whats his agenda?... etc... etc. Dude, this is excellent character development if I ever saw it, in my opinion.
I could go on and on about this, but I'll start summing this up. You are implying that the majority of the people hated this show... Where are you getting your information? Those are simply unsubstantiated figures you are pulling out of the air to support your completely empty bashing of this show. You are just saying 'it sucks' to keep this thread alive and giving no examples like I have in my counter. It got canceled due to Fox putting it in the worst time slots... and *then* moving it around 2 or 3 times in various time slots. For a show that had such continuity in it, it demanded the watcher to stay tuned week-to-week. That became increasingly hard with every Fox-move it made on the show.
Time to wrap this up... this was by far the best sci-fi I have ever seen on a television show. It has spoiled me rotten, and it only went 15 episodes. I highly suggest you guys (and the poster that I'm responding to) to go and buy the DVDs (cheap, since its only 15 episodes) and actually watch them. I assure you, you will understand.
++Om
So I switched to Gentoo. It was a pain to set up, but I'm very happy with it now.
Agree. Gentoo is definitely a badass, balls-to-the-wall, Linux Distro. When you want to learn it all yourself, install all your programs from source, stability be damned, then go Gentoo.
However, there are those of us that use Linux at work, and in that realm, Gentoo is absolutely not even an option. Now before anyone thinks that I'm just a troll trying to incide a Disto War Thread, I'm not. Let me explain.
YOU know that a properly configured Gentoo box is just as stable in the hands of a very clued admin. You also know that if something breaks in Gentoo, a clued admin can fix it, most times without restarting.
But guess what? Your boss doesnt. Most bosses (at least mine) want to know only 2 things:
1. Is there someone I can call if shit hits the fan?
2. If you quit, or I fire you, can the rest of us figure out what to do with all your servers you've left behind? (ie. see #1).
Not only that, it was the fact that Red Hat *does* have support that allowed me to slowly phase out the old Solaris machines. I would go in my bosses office, say that I wanted to move to Linux for mail/web/etc... and he would say, "Does it have support?" (see reasons above why he asked this)
Why yes... it does, in fact. Five years of it if we go RHEL.
That being said, we moved onto RHEL3 at my company for that very reason after RH9 was starting to go bye-bye.
++Om
Why the hell do you think PC sales are so low, and so game companies are turning to consoles? Don't give me the "games were better in the olden days" spin, because we've got everything from Far Cry to Invisible War to SimCity 4 to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 to...you get the picture.
I could go on and on about why PC sales are low, and I'll tell you what.. Piracy is the least of those problems. Let me just sum it up in a few quick points.
1) Many more consoles out there than there are computers THAT PEOPLE PLAY GAMES ON. Hence, a FAR bigger market. Again, this is a no-brainer.
2) Hardware compatibility problems are nill when it comes to developing a game for a console. You got *ONE* system to program the game on. I dont need to elaborate on this. Further, the worst support calls a company will get is 'My CD is scratched.'.
3) You can pirate the SHIT out of Xbox games. Put a mod-chip in, replace the HD with a fat 120G one, and start downloading your games, pal. You can even download save games (for the truly lazy amongst us). And after all this, guess what? They are still whipping the ass of the PC games vendor.
[ed. And by the way, I am a PC gamer.. I prefer the PC over the console anyway, but I'm also not an idiot, and very well aware of the market penetration that consoles have.]
There is absolutely, 100% nothing wrong with the government cracking down on this.
Thats right.. lets spend millions in dollars and hundreds of FBI man-hours to arrest some 15 year olds pirating Halo. Sounds like money well spent to me. And before you go off and say (like another poster did), "I hope a cop laughs at you for getting mugged, since its not as bad as being murdererd or rape." That is so retarted. You are comparing bodidly freaking harm to pirating a video game.
Finally, I must say that the financial loss to pirating can be completely argued. Its been said a hundred times by people who have pirated software that they wouldnt have spent the money on it ANYWAY.
But see, to find the *actual* financial loss would take research, and why would companies even bother with the actual figure even if they had it? Its in their best interest to throw up a big BILLION DOLLAR figure to get people like you to freak out, and the government to go into action with "our" money.
++Om
And you guys thought that Mac gaming was behind the times! Sheesh!
Quixadhal said: "SWG innovated by offering in-depth crafting and non-combat experience? Please. BatMUD did this a decade ago, and is still around and going strong." ...........
You're absolutely wrong. You know how I know? I played BatMUD 10 years ago actually. :)
Their 'crafting' (if you want to call it that) class (or 'guild' as it was refered to) was called "Merchant", and they didnt craft anything. They repaired armor, and weapons. They Featherweighted armor and weapons. And then they cast the all-mighty "MIP" (Money Is Power) on players at 10% charge (converted all the gold the player had to experience points).
But guess what? They didnt get squat for experience for all that. They still had to go out and fight. And fight they did a lot. Usually taking up a secondary class (Reavers) or something.
heh heh heh
But I have to admit... MUDing back in the day was far more fun than MMORPGs today.
Except...
1) Going on massive (50+ player) guild raids in EQ. MUDs simply couldnt top that.
2) The 3D engine really enabled some killer group dynamics that in the MUDing world is tough to beat. For me to explain why this is so, I'll have to write a 100+ page book.
Anyway... other than all that... good to see some old BatMUDers are still out there! :)
++Om
I absolutely agree. This is pathetic!
All of you guys on here are foaming at the mouth over Eric Idle *ONCE AGAIN* being a corporate whore.
Have any of you ever thought of WHY its only Eric Idle? Because the rest of them, in numerous interviews, simply stated that the end of MP happened with the death of Graham Chapman, and doing it without him is an injustice.
Meanwhile, you got Eric Idle over here (who in old MP writing sessions back when they were doing Flying Circus wrote largely by himself while everyone else was in teams) continuing to gravy-train this franchise for everything its worth.
Anyone remember the "Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python", the off-broadway show he toured with? Oh the pain! It was done because the other members wouldnt do it, even though they got offered millions. Yet, Eric, never one to turn down a big check at the expense of any kind of dignity chose to go at it alone.
Leave it to Eric Idle to take what was good in Monty Python and drag it through the corporate, money-hungry, cesspool.
As yet another example of the lows Eric Idle has sunk, who else here felt like burning their television set when they saw 'ol Eric in the sit-com 'Suddenly Susan'?
SUDDENLY SUSAN!!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A FREAKING PYTHON!!! A LEGEND!!
Anyway... take whatever Eric Idle does with a grain of salt big enough to choke on.
++Om
[I'm Like a Chocoholic, but for Booze]
"Now, Now.... The Canadian government has apologized for Brian Adams many times in the past."
++U.N. Rep of Canada in South Park movie.
Honestly, Wil...
:)
The only thing the Geeks want you to write about is your makeout session with Ashley Judd in the episode titled "The Game".
That, my friend, was when your stardom peaked.
++Om
About 100,000...
clicking to your site through Slashdot.
Just to add to this:
This has been one of my favorite bands since 1991. I've been to their concerts quite a bit, hung out with the band at an Austin gig, autographs, the works.
They are mentioned on Slashdot? Freaking WIERD.
Here's a little history of this band, in case your curious.
This band is really a one hit wonder when it comes to popularity. Everyone remembers 'Living in Oblivion', their big hit (on their debut album) when their label was Epic.
After that first album (and one hit) they had a fight with Epic and they got dropped. During this time, they recorded an album titled 'Worth'. It was never officially released, but if you can find it, I strongly recommend it. It was recorded when they visited Germany. Very depressing synthpop with a remake of a Beatles song on it.
They had one more album after 'Worth', which was called 'Hope' (anyone seeing a trend?), which didnt have near the sales as the one hit wonder from Epic. Its VERY synth-pop-happy music. Almost bubble-gum synth. Very cool album if your into that sort of thing.
At this point, Dania (the only chick in the band) left, and Claude (the singer, and main songwriter) split off and did a solo album under the band name: 'The Diary'. Very good stuff, I thought. He also released this album (and the previous Hope album) on his own label called 'Orangewerks'.
Finally, after almost forgetting about this band (and the good times I had with friends at their concerts) they released another album around 1998. They dropped the synth deal, and went guitar (yikes!). It sucks, I thought, EXCEPT the song 'Heaven60', which is available for download now, as per the topic. Heaven60 is one of their best songs, and really shows the band maturing.
HOWEVER, they tried one last ditch effort to get popular again by making a video for the song on their album titled '45'. Its a 45 second song, you see. Its also the lamest song I've ever heard. Claude hoped that MTV will give them at least 45 seconds of air time. The video is this cheese-fest! The band members are dressed up like robots (or something) playing on a stage in the Nevada desert with some carboard circular spiral thing behind them. uhhh... okay, whatever.
Havent heard anything since that album until recently (about 2 months ago) I went to yet another Anything Box gig in Houston (at a goth club called 'Spy'). Their show completely sucked. I couldnt believe how far they had sunk. They ripped off the entire audience by singing about 4 songs, and ending the night with 'Living in Oblivion', the only song anyone else even gives a shit about, and walked off the stage. VERY un-Claude-like since he's a very cool person. Ahh well.. everyone has a right to suck every once in a while.
Anyway, thats probably all the history you wanted (of the band you never heard of) for one night. All in all, the above reviewer pretty much has it right about this band. Its very very very 80s.
Enjoy Heaven60.
++Om242
I concur with this sentiment.
e 2.html
The moment that I heard the shuttle was lost, I immediately thought of a German by the name of Otto Lilienthal. This man, in the middle 1800s, is known as one of the first aviators. He designed gliders that he used to drop off slopes and glide for many minutes at a time. While in flight, he manuevered himself to actually control the gliders' direction
During the time when people thought flight impossible, his conceptions and his inventions were used by the Wright Brothers and Chanute.
From an article I found: "Lilienthal is not only one of the Father of aviation, he invented piloting, the controlling of aircraft. In any case, he was the first man to have maneuvered in flight, an "heavier than air" machine."
The point of this post (and small history lesson) was his last words. During a glide that he had performed a hundred times, something went wrong, and he plummeted to the earth. The wounds were lethal, but on his deathbed, he uttered the words: "Opfer müssen gebracht werden!", which roughly translates to 'Sacrifices must be made.'
++Om
P.S. To read a little about this man, go to: http://aerostories.free.fr/precurseurs/lilien/pag
Ok, here's the deal...
He'll go the route all the others went when facing MicroSoft. If this whole thing succeeds, and he can actually forbid MS from using the tech, then Bill Gates will puff on his cigar and say, "We're at Defcon 5."
At which point... a missile will shoot from the heavens directly at the house of this patent holder, exploding 100 yards over it, thus raining 100 dollar bills down. These 100 dollar bills will cover the roof and the yard in a total blanket of green about 1' deep.
Then a man will walk to the door and hand him a letter. On the letter, it will say:
"Any questions?
Love, Bill Gates."
And that will be that.
Its like in the Simpsons when they asked Crusty about something he did. He burst into tears and said "THEY DROVE UP TO MY HOUSE WITH A DUMPTRUCK FULL OF MONEY!!!!"
++Om
What you say?
How very odd that I read this on here. I happen to work for the very library that the representative is from. :)
I work at Harris County Public Library (www.hcpl.net), in the the information technology area. Basically the central office where all 27 branches are connected to throughout Houston.
Personally, I'm their 'Linux guy' to make my job description short. I admin a small Linux network that works alongside the Windows network which provides various functions for the network as a whole. Network monitoring (using MRTG/RDDTools for display on a web page), IDS (using Snort and Demarc) and backups (backup sendmail server, and web server)
What my collegue and I are attemping to do, is utlilize some freeware software called Nocat (runs on Linux, www.nocat.net) which will allow patrons to the various libraries to walk in with a laptop (and a wireless card), turn it on, and open up IE. The NoCat system which is running as an 'open network' will send DHCP info, and route the http Post to an authentication server, and send the user a login box, which will then (if login succesful) relax the firewall to allow that particular DHCP address to access you're regular ports (80 for the web, and whatever else we feel like allowing them).
I wont get into any more details, but, in my opinion, this really does have interesting implications that I just started to grasp as I was working on this project.
A PUBLIC ISP?
Think about that a bit... seems pretty neat to me as wireless gets more powerful.
++John
I actually bought the game for my girlfriend and I when we first started dating. Me, having experience with MUDs from way back in 91, knew that this had the possibility to really get a hobby that we could do together, and also to see if she even liked this sort of fantasy stuff (which I do).
However, the point where I knew things were going downhill was when we were sitting next to each other playing the game, and after winning the lotto on a new sword I see on my screen amongst a slew of other tells:
"Yiliae tells you, 'Gratz on getting that sword!'
I turn slowly to my girlfriend sitting next to me and say, 'Why did you just type that to me?'
++Om