Actually to drive by car is
$75.25 per the IRS...[probably higher for the metro area. 215 miles x $.35/mile] once you figure out gas, car payment, depreciation, and out-of-control insurance, the cost for 1 trip may be $18 for a tank of gas, but my car costs $100-200/ per month [paid off too!!!] just to keep legal to drive [insurance, repairs, tags, etc]...that's a lot of $$$$ for small trips around town.
Cars are also an excuse for horribly undiciplined american businesses! [kinda like computers...must make more mistakes faster!] True, there's a need for long hours sometimes, but let's face it...employers love cars...they can demand ridiculous hours from employees without any notice or planning, then pass off all the "inconvienance" and hazards of rushing around to the employee. There's no rush to make the train or other transport, no focus on maintaing your other priorities other than work! that's looked down as "irresponsible" here...
In the US local calls are generally "free" and "unlimited" with your normal phone bill. A normal residential account is 400 local calls a month with no time limits...plus long distance. So the "goal" with US dial-up ISPs are to be as "local" as possible to avoid extra charges...that allows mom-n-pop ISPs to pop up all over and be somewhat profitable. Also, Usually the Collages and Universities are the "internet backbone" and offer their bandwith to all equally for flat rates. in addition, the phone companies are mandated to provide high-bandwith connections to every one at "fair" rates as well. It means that unless you're somebody like AOL or MSN there's really fairly equal competition for dial-up access. And even the AOLs and MSNs of the world often simply contract to the mom-n-pops for local access.
This is changing with Cable and DSL though...the telcos realized their mistakes before and have basicly sabotaged the system...Cable operators aren't mandated to "share" like telcos [reason why AOL bought comcast!] and telcos have learned to use their "beaurocracy" to deal with fair-business rules [hence DSL is becomming as locked-in a cable is]. In my area, getting anything other than SBC was painful...sure you can, but it takes weeks of "mysterious issues" between companies to get working..versus SBC working in 3-5 days flat & 1 call over the same lines...get the idea!
So while dial-up is a pretty "free market", broadband [everything faster than 56k] is languishing because the telcos simply refuse to provide service unless they can "monopolize" it and charge extra-high prices.
Not really, there are no Generals in our US chain of succession...they are all civilan elected/apppointed officials...same with BattleStar...Also, you must have missed that "Captian Apollo" is also HER son too! I commented earlier how it was great writing that "Apollo" never backs her up as "son" only ever as "captian" thru the whole movie! They only break it once at the end with a "son/father" thing privately, after the battle is over.
There was a case against "internet Explorer" where MS argued that the tradmark holder couldn't use common words in a valid trade name...so by MS own admission, Lindows is a valid tradmark name...while "windows" is not...that's why the "name" of it is "MicroSoft Windows XX" without the MS at the beginning, it's not a valid tradmark in the US...Outside the US is a different story...foreign court always tend to favor the incumbant in these issues...and of course the "english" names aren't common words in other languages!
It's not complicated! Taken at face value, they made cylons that "look" like 12 people. we've seen 4 or 5...like #6 said, older models aren't considered "beings" by her type. Judging by #6 reaction to being in public, they also would have ruled out making anything by adult models...no childeren or teens...she seemed to have never seen childeren before...or even understood that humans "grow up". As long as the writers don't abuse the whole "cylon duplicte" thing it could be a good story line...just hope they don't give in to finding a new "model" of cylon hiding every week...that gets old fast, and ruins the story...after all, Galactica has everyone who they're ever going to get...don't wear it out!
...but it's obvious that the Cylons only consider themselves [human type] to be "beings" and don't consider the lesser machines "models". They toyed with us searching for models right to the end when they got the all the "Cylons" together. So we saw 5 models, with several copies of each. "boomber", number6, tour guide, arms dealer, [I thought there was a 5th but it may have been an OLD/NEW copy of the tour guide/arms dealer] There's 7 or 8 human types we HAVEN'T SEEN yet. "Robot" versions don't count anymore.
On a side note, did you catch all the "props" from the original in the museum on Galactica...most of the ship types from the orginal were there...quite cool...
Actually the Ex-wife being in politics was straight out of the original...but I think her posistion was slightly different. I do remember that there was exactly the same sparing in the orignial between her in charge of the people and him in charge of the military. And remember she was 43rd in succession, it wasn't really planned...but that's how civilizations work...by sticking to the rules as much as possible! It's funny because in that situation, any other civilian would instantly ceade power to the military commander...except...his Ex-wife [humanist/school teacher]...who knows how to use military terms to get her point to him!,p.
I thought Katie was great as Starbuck...they took away some of the "nice guy"-ness and simply made her rough-n-tumble, unapollogising. She's not going to be "happy & nice" at the end of every ep. like in the original.
The cylons were using the base as a trap! The agent was just there as the "bell". That's why they had a large FLEET on the other side of the storm...waiting to attack!
They're like little children...going after every small "thrill" in life, breaking things to see "how it works"...but of course they view humans the same way teenage boys view cats! Oops! did I KILL that?
I always wanted to see life on the 12 colonies...just because it seemed to be idilic, yet with drasically different societies on each one, yet they freely traveled between the stars. Perhaps if they did a series they could start back a few months and work up to the movie rather than simply starting where they left off! There's a pretty good backstory created in the original they could expand on...and get some extra milage out of the story too. I think the new "vision" was great...they definately did a job as a worthy follow-up to the original.
Yes, basicly the fleet is destroyed...the admiral's ship, and many of the others are announced...but there are a few ommissions if you listen carefully...Right now, they leave Galactica as the last battlestar...period. But...they seem to be following history pretty well...so we may see another [this is TV, nobody ever actually dies in scifi!]..we may not. And remember Pegasus [only returning battlestar in the orignial] was actually lost in another mission before the Cylons invaded...we also only see 5 models of cylon...after we're strung along thru the whole thing that there are 12 "types". they leave you to ASSUME they mean all "robots", then at the very end expain that the cylons only consider the "human type" ones to be "real"...and they imitate 12 people...of which 5 are revealed in the movie, but only 3 are revealed to characters!
That said...Yes, the pretty much named off the other battlestars as they were destroyed during the movie. Also, the Galactica was the last of the "old models" while being the former flagship, all the others were replaced with newer "flawed" models...hence they were all destroyed. Note: Not ALL the ships were accounted for...some were just assumed lost [i.e. Pegasus!]
I would have prefered they backed up a bit to the end of the Cylon war just to get to see all 12 of the colonies and the fully operational fleet in action...I know they didn't have time in 4 hours, but that was one part of backstory I always missed...they never get us "attached" to the way of life in the colonies. Especially with this group of writers...they did a great job of getting us attached...then killing them off...ouch!
I liked how many small things they kept in, but also how some things changed. Starbuck was still Cigar-smokin, hot-shot pilot, but a little less "friendly" than the 70's version. Same with Baltar...although the 70's Baltar was a formar Battlestar Commander, his character was a bit "70's" style "evil villian". I liked the new one much better...less outright evil and more "cowardly" rather than doing the "right thing"..much more believable. I also loved how the entire thing the mom [president], dad[commander], and pilot[captian] never called each other by family names...only by ranks...it was great...I kept waiting for it to break. Especially when people started contesting "her" orders...the captian never broke rank once!
The small details are what made it from good to killer!
correct...You have to make your PC PVR "look" like and act like a Dish supported VCR....how to do that? I've seen & have software for using A remote with a PC, but what I'm looking for is how to make a PC program respond to a "certian" remote, rather than the one included with the IR pickup. Once you do that, you don't need any expensive extra PVR's! that's the idea here...you already have the hard stuff, channel & schedule, paid for in the reciever you already have!
on another note, is there a way to make a mythTV or Frevo box "look" like a VCR to a normal dish box? They have a cool feature on the standard 301 boxes that will automatically set your VCR to record if you have a supported unit for their universal remote. Then you get to use the built in channel guide and timers to schedule recording! It would be cool to set up a PC PVR so the remote would "act" like a supported remote.
Right now I have one of the cheapo Packard-bell media remotes you can get for $10 at computer shows. I'd love to use that as the IR reciever for a PC PVR to go with my dish reciever...
Now if we got to "see" Anikin and Padame get together, that'd be worth sitting thru the rest of the movie! But shucks! Lucas is only making PG movies...but it's "key" to the plot George...
That's how they caught Tim McVeigh! He was like 50 miles away by the time the APB went out and some cop had just "happened" to pull him over for a minor traffic infraction like you said....Dumb luck or fate???
Unfortunately, this is New Zealand [not the US so our rules don't apply]...perhaps he was building it to take out that "tower of evil" with the flaming eye, Peter Jackson was filming! But seriously, a country like Austraila or New Zealand would be perfect for a "home base" of such operations if you really wanted to be evil. They're big, empty, neighbors aren't too nosey...and far away from anyplace you'd want to actually attack...the US govt is probably riding them particularly hard to watch for that type of stuff! I definetely wouldn't advertize planning such a project...I prefer giant, killer robots myself...
While I happen to agree with you, that companies should simply focus on hardware...and get drivers out for anyone and everyone who wants them...the business facts are different. You have to "wean" the "higher powers" into dealing with OSS.
Also, never forget the power of MS...many DX9 features for example are actually patented by MS rather than ATI or nVidia! I'd bet bill gate's money that if linux ever took off, they'd sic the dogs on ATI & nVidia in a hot minute...after Xbox, perhaps they already have? Same goes for many, many other things. think winmodems...I'd bet EVERYONE that sells winmodems simply copies MS standard driver...that's the real problem. These companies are too lazy to write 100% their own code [or use non-MS tools!]...and couldn't seperate themselves and their products from MS windows if their lives depended on it....At least allow them to "hide" behind propeietary drivers so we have SOME drivers!
The nVida drivers are the clasic test case for this...
Generally, if I sit down with Linux and write "hello world" using standard C calls and compile with normal methods, that's mine and not a derivitive work at all. The problem comes with drivers such as nVidia's. They are not just "windows" drivers with a wrapper for linux. They get into the system and re-route system API calls, much about with non-standard kernel features and the like. And that's the problem with "bianary" modules. The problem with nVidia's approach is that it's hard to tell where their drivers start and the kernel begins...heck, they could rewrite half the kernel and simply override it in their module, it would be hard to fiugure out for normal users...it's that poteitial for abuse that is the cause of such arguments.
On nVidia's defence though, Ther was talk for 2.6 about removing the API calls they try to legally use in favor of others that would require 100% GPL code. That's also a problem because certian vocal parts of the community are actively trying to make the current scheme too "sour" for compaines like nVidia to publish their code. On a side note, there are certian things nVidia CAN'T publish if they have to use GPL! Much of the hardware they build is "patented" from outside sources...they would get into IBM/SCO style lawsuits...but without any cause to defend themselves! That leaves them [and us] with bianary drivers--or NO drivers.
My opinion right now is that Linus is sticking his head in the sand on this issue...other stuff I've read he seems to fully support how nVidia is working, but then allows changes to APIs that clearly theaten that way of working???? This IS a key issue with linux...If companies can't use proprietary, binary modules to protect their/others IP, then Linux will never be a truly "first class" OS. What's needed is for the community to "standardize" the rules [make them just a bit more attractive to business?]...and stop the FSF and such from "legal creeping" against the people who go out of their way RIGHT NOW to support Linux.
More citizens arrest would be good...we should take turns "arresting" each other for every single stupid law...like after your GF [mythological creature sorry/.ers] gives "favors"...you shoud arrest each other afterword. Catch a cop speeding, get pals together and citizens arrest! If enough people started actually enforcing all the stupid laws out there to absolutely every letter, the politicans would have to do SOMETHING very quickly. Things like "registries" would be swamped overnight with silly claims, procecutors HAVE to register and try every vaild legal complaint!!! You could bury the legal system overnight...What could they do about the people simply enforcing the laws as written. Whenever legislatures are asked to fix the lawbooks it's too much of a problem, but this is like voting, everyone would have to do it to make it effective. LOL
The largest group of programmers work in-house for large private corps...their apps usually are never seen outside the company. The problem is that in said environment there are "feifs" due to licensing agreements [thank you MS & co + viruses] everybodies box has to be under "Master Control" all the time. That means for a developer your box is never "yours". in that environ you have to worry about Sys admins pushing the latest "time clock" apps or MS patches that break your dev box! they're just doing their jobs, but don't like to surrender to leaving "holes" in their precious networks...and tend lately to get managements blessing for a "lockdown" due to the large number of security issues.
Similar to you, I'm in a situation where there's only two computer people...and wisely[?], our firewall is handled by our ISP and locked down TOO tight. When we want something we just go do it, and change it back when we're done. But it also means we're spending more time patching PCs for the latest worm than doing cool programming.
Even Linus has said that 2.6-pre is more "finished" than 2.4 upto like.10. That's a pretty big accomplishment...If your doing NEW EXPERIMENTAL WORK anyway, why would you NOT use 2.6 and want to have to port all the work over again??? He is correct in stating the obvious...
...but people are correctly cautious after what happened in the middle of 2.4. Who would want to re-do a critical in-house driver project halfway thru because the kernel maintainers changed their minds on how to impement your new features. Once bitten...
to take your thoughts one step further, a truly successful next-next-gen search engine shoud be able to not just search for popular view on subjects, but also critical minority views as well...the one "voice in the wind" so to speak that may provide an unpopular, but insightful counter-approach to said subject.
...is for buyers and sellers to all SLOW DOWN and pay attention to long term performance rather than minute-by-minute numbers which aren't real meaningful statistics anyway. Frankly anything outside the offical quarterly reports is speculation anyway! Simply allowing only 1 trade per 24 hour period per stock would fix many, many issues with the market right now. The "day traders" should be restricted to playing "numbers" with Magic:TG cards and Ty Beanie Babies....rather than mucking with our financial backbone.
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Cars are also an excuse for horribly undiciplined american businesses! [kinda like computers...must make more mistakes faster!] True, there's a need for long hours sometimes, but let's face it...employers love cars...they can demand ridiculous hours from employees without any notice or planning, then pass off all the "inconvienance" and hazards of rushing around to the employee. There's no rush to make the train or other transport, no focus on maintaing your other priorities other than work! that's looked down as "irresponsible" here...
This is changing with Cable and DSL though...the telcos realized their mistakes before and have basicly sabotaged the system...Cable operators aren't mandated to "share" like telcos [reason why AOL bought comcast!] and telcos have learned to use their "beaurocracy" to deal with fair-business rules [hence DSL is becomming as locked-in a cable is]. In my area, getting anything other than SBC was painful...sure you can, but it takes weeks of "mysterious issues" between companies to get working..versus SBC working in 3-5 days flat & 1 call over the same lines...get the idea!
So while dial-up is a pretty "free market", broadband [everything faster than 56k] is languishing because the telcos simply refuse to provide service unless they can "monopolize" it and charge extra-high prices.
Not really, there are no Generals in our US chain of succession...they are all civilan elected/apppointed officials...same with BattleStar...Also, you must have missed that "Captian Apollo" is also HER son too! I commented earlier how it was great writing that "Apollo" never backs her up as "son" only ever as "captian" thru the whole movie! They only break it once at the end with a "son/father" thing privately, after the battle is over.
There was a case against "internet Explorer" where MS argued that the tradmark holder couldn't use common words in a valid trade name...so by MS own admission, Lindows is a valid tradmark name...while "windows" is not...that's why the "name" of it is "MicroSoft Windows XX" without the MS at the beginning, it's not a valid tradmark in the US...Outside the US is a different story...foreign court always tend to favor the incumbant in these issues...and of course the "english" names aren't common words in other languages!
It's not complicated! Taken at face value, they made cylons that "look" like 12 people. we've seen 4 or 5...like #6 said, older models aren't considered "beings" by her type. Judging by #6 reaction to being in public, they also would have ruled out making anything by adult models...no childeren or teens...she seemed to have never seen childeren before...or even understood that humans "grow up". As long as the writers don't abuse the whole "cylon duplicte" thing it could be a good story line...just hope they don't give in to finding a new "model" of cylon hiding every week...that gets old fast, and ruins the story...after all, Galactica has everyone who they're ever going to get...don't wear it out!
On a side note, did you catch all the "props" from the original in the museum on Galactica...most of the ship types from the orginal were there...quite cool...
Actually the Ex-wife being in politics was straight out of the original...but I think her posistion was slightly different. I do remember that there was exactly the same sparing in the orignial between her in charge of the people and him in charge of the military. And remember she was 43rd in succession, it wasn't really planned...but that's how civilizations work...by sticking to the rules as much as possible! It's funny because in that situation, any other civilian would instantly ceade power to the military commander...except...his Ex-wife [humanist/school teacher]...who knows how to use military terms to get her point to him! ,p.
I thought Katie was great as Starbuck...they took away some of the "nice guy"-ness and simply made her rough-n-tumble, unapollogising. She's not going to be "happy & nice" at the end of every ep. like in the original.
The cylons were using the base as a trap! The agent was just there as the "bell". That's why they had a large FLEET on the other side of the storm...waiting to attack!
They're like little children...going after every small "thrill" in life, breaking things to see "how it works"...but of course they view humans the same way teenage boys view cats! Oops! did I KILL that?
I always wanted to see life on the 12 colonies...just because it seemed to be idilic, yet with drasically different societies on each one, yet they freely traveled between the stars. Perhaps if they did a series they could start back a few months and work up to the movie rather than simply starting where they left off! There's a pretty good backstory created in the original they could expand on...and get some extra milage out of the story too. I think the new "vision" was great...they definately did a job as a worthy follow-up to the original.
Yes, basicly the fleet is destroyed...the admiral's ship, and many of the others are announced...but there are a few ommissions if you listen carefully...Right now, they leave Galactica as the last battlestar...period. But...they seem to be following history pretty well...so we may see another [this is TV, nobody ever actually dies in scifi!]..we may not. And remember Pegasus [only returning battlestar in the orignial] was actually lost in another mission before the Cylons invaded...we also only see 5 models of cylon...after we're strung along thru the whole thing that there are 12 "types". they leave you to ASSUME they mean all "robots", then at the very end expain that the cylons only consider the "human type" ones to be "real"...and they imitate 12 people...of which 5 are revealed in the movie, but only 3 are revealed to characters!
That said...Yes, the pretty much named off the other battlestars as they were destroyed during the movie. Also, the Galactica was the last of the "old models" while being the former flagship, all the others were replaced with newer "flawed" models...hence they were all destroyed. Note: Not ALL the ships were accounted for...some were just assumed lost [i.e. Pegasus!]
I would have prefered they backed up a bit to the end of the Cylon war just to get to see all 12 of the colonies and the fully operational fleet in action...I know they didn't have time in 4 hours, but that was one part of backstory I always missed...they never get us "attached" to the way of life in the colonies. Especially with this group of writers...they did a great job of getting us attached...then killing them off...ouch!
The small details are what made it from good to killer!
correct...You have to make your PC PVR "look" like and act like a Dish supported VCR....how to do that? I've seen & have software for using A remote with a PC, but what I'm looking for is how to make a PC program respond to a "certian" remote, rather than the one included with the IR pickup. Once you do that, you don't need any expensive extra PVR's! that's the idea here...you already have the hard stuff, channel & schedule, paid for in the reciever you already have!
Right now I have one of the cheapo Packard-bell media remotes you can get for $10 at computer shows. I'd love to use that as the IR reciever for a PC PVR to go with my dish reciever...
Now if we got to "see" Anikin and Padame get together, that'd be worth sitting thru the rest of the movie! But shucks! Lucas is only making PG movies...but it's "key" to the plot George...
Unfortunately, this is New Zealand [not the US so our rules don't apply]...perhaps he was building it to take out that "tower of evil" with the flaming eye, Peter Jackson was filming! But seriously, a country like Austraila or New Zealand would be perfect for a "home base" of such operations if you really wanted to be evil. They're big, empty, neighbors aren't too nosey...and far away from anyplace you'd want to actually attack...the US govt is probably riding them particularly hard to watch for that type of stuff! I definetely wouldn't advertize planning such a project...I prefer giant, killer robots myself...
Also, never forget the power of MS...many DX9 features for example are actually patented by MS rather than ATI or nVidia! I'd bet bill gate's money that if linux ever took off, they'd sic the dogs on ATI & nVidia in a hot minute...after Xbox, perhaps they already have? Same goes for many, many other things. think winmodems...I'd bet EVERYONE that sells winmodems simply copies MS standard driver...that's the real problem. These companies are too lazy to write 100% their own code [or use non-MS tools!]...and couldn't seperate themselves and their products from MS windows if their lives depended on it....At least allow them to "hide" behind propeietary drivers so we have SOME drivers!
but sometimes they're right!
Generally, if I sit down with Linux and write "hello world" using standard C calls and compile with normal methods, that's mine and not a derivitive work at all. The problem comes with drivers such as nVidia's. They are not just "windows" drivers with a wrapper for linux. They get into the system and re-route system API calls, much about with non-standard kernel features and the like. And that's the problem with "bianary" modules. The problem with nVidia's approach is that it's hard to tell where their drivers start and the kernel begins...heck, they could rewrite half the kernel and simply override it in their module, it would be hard to fiugure out for normal users...it's that poteitial for abuse that is the cause of such arguments.
On nVidia's defence though, Ther was talk for 2.6 about removing the API calls they try to legally use in favor of others that would require 100% GPL code. That's also a problem because certian vocal parts of the community are actively trying to make the current scheme too "sour" for compaines like nVidia to publish their code. On a side note, there are certian things nVidia CAN'T publish if they have to use GPL! Much of the hardware they build is "patented" from outside sources...they would get into IBM/SCO style lawsuits...but without any cause to defend themselves! That leaves them [and us] with bianary drivers--or NO drivers.
My opinion right now is that Linus is sticking his head in the sand on this issue...other stuff I've read he seems to fully support how nVidia is working, but then allows changes to APIs that clearly theaten that way of working???? This IS a key issue with linux...If companies can't use proprietary, binary modules to protect their/others IP, then Linux will never be a truly "first class" OS. What's needed is for the community to "standardize" the rules [make them just a bit more attractive to business?]...and stop the FSF and such from "legal creeping" against the people who go out of their way RIGHT NOW to support Linux.
More citizens arrest would be good...we should take turns "arresting" each other for every single stupid law...like after your GF [mythological creature sorry /.ers] gives "favors"...you shoud arrest each other afterword. Catch a cop speeding, get pals together and citizens arrest! If enough people started actually enforcing all the stupid laws out there to absolutely every letter, the politicans would have to do SOMETHING very quickly. Things like "registries" would be swamped overnight with silly claims, procecutors HAVE to register and try every vaild legal complaint!!! You could bury the legal system overnight...What could they do about the people simply enforcing the laws as written. Whenever legislatures are asked to fix the lawbooks it's too much of a problem, but this is like voting, everyone would have to do it to make it effective. LOL
Similar to you, I'm in a situation where there's only two computer people...and wisely[?], our firewall is handled by our ISP and locked down TOO tight. When we want something we just go do it, and change it back when we're done. But it also means we're spending more time patching PCs for the latest worm than doing cool programming.
to take your thoughts one step further, a truly successful next-next-gen search engine shoud be able to not just search for popular view on subjects, but also critical minority views as well...the one "voice in the wind" so to speak that may provide an unpopular, but insightful counter-approach to said subject.
...is for buyers and sellers to all SLOW DOWN and pay attention to long term performance rather than minute-by-minute numbers which aren't real meaningful statistics anyway. Frankly anything outside the offical quarterly reports is speculation anyway! Simply allowing only 1 trade per 24 hour period per stock would fix many, many issues with the market right now. The "day traders" should be restricted to playing "numbers" with Magic:TG cards and Ty Beanie Babies....rather than mucking with our financial backbone.