...people still play videogames on their PCs? Didn't you all get that memo about the whole market switching back to consoles like the PS2 and the Xbox? I guess you didn't get the TPS report either...:)
"I believe Reggie Jackson lost his classic car collection in the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire. There are now 6 or 7 houses where his garage/house used to be."
That's not what I heard. I heard it was a plastic surge suppressor catching fire that caused Reggie Jackson's garage to burn down. I have a friend whose father works on product liability issues and apparently it is widely known in that segment of the legal field that plastic surge suppressors are a really bad thing and cause lots of houses to burn. But of course when a company can make something like that for $1 and have it sold at retail for $40, do you really think they are going to go out of their way to educate the consumer?
This is my only peeve with Apple these days. Now people will say "just go ahead and buy a different mouse" but that is not the point. Because of Apple's one button policy, I won't be buying their Bluetooth enabled mouse. That is money that should've went to Apple. I think at this point in the game, every PC and Mac sold should be bundled with a 2 button + scroll wheel.
Now, why again do we need a 3 button mouse if a 2 button + scroll wheel is offered?:)
I got my T616 about a month and a half ago through the AT&T Wireless website. They offered a two-day free T616 promo and I was quick to capitalize it.
1. The Bluetooth works great. I don't have Bluetooth on my PC but I tried it out on my parent's eMac when visiting and it worked like a champ transmitting the photos. Just don't try to buy a Bluetooth adapter at Best Buy. They don't carry the Apple recommended D-Link USB adapter, and they'll charge you $50 for the off-brand adapter. Unfortunately, this was an impulse buy for me.
2. My head doesn't hurt after using the phone. My two prior mobile phones had been Nokias (first through Sprint, then Cingular). I had headaches after only a few minutes of use. Probably had to do with Nokia's great track record of being the cell phones emitting the most radiation. My doctor at Kaiser signed me up for a CAT scan that some unnamed research group paid for (this was early 2002), and thankfully, no tumors!:0
3. I like the joystick, although it sucks for playing Q-Bert. The standard golf game sucks too. Sony Ericsson and AT&T Wireless should offer the classic Atari coin-op ports IMHO.
3. The phone is damn-sexy. Although I am in the market for a screen cover because I don't like scratching it up. I'm sure they sell them.
4. Battery life is awesome.
Now for the not-so-good.
1. I wish the phone was in a clamshell. Yes, Sony is bringing out one in Europe but it isn't shown on their U.S. website.
2. I can't use the phone in my apartment which is in metropolitan SacTown, home of the Kings. Granted, I think this has to do with GSM in general because my Nokia phone using Cingular also had reception problems in the complex. Funny enough, my former roommate's Korean (Samsung or something) through Sprint always received calls. I gather its the *Sprint Principle*, the one area where your GSM phone won't work, that will be the ONE place a Sprint phone will actually work in. Yep, CDMA is definitely superior.
3. I've had issues with text messaging, but again, I think this has to do with the GSM service in my area. AIM worked well through mMode.
4. The operating system has crashed twice. On my girlfriend's T616, the screen locked up and wouldn't respond to any of the buttons being pushed. We had to take the battery out to *kill* it and cause a reboot. The phone worked after that.
So in all, that's really only 2 problems I've encountered outside of my own personal preferences. Despite that, I strongly recommend this phone. Down with Nokia's superiority complex and their radiation levels.:)
"If you're on a budget, look at the T68i and the Nokia N-Gage. I think they are listed at around EUR 250."
The Nokia N-Gage? Are you high? Maybe if you want to use a headset with, but otherwise, you'll have the weirdest experience trying to use the unit like a traditional phone up against your ear. But don't take my word for it, check out the N-Gage's "spoof" page here:
Aside from the service issues in rural communities and the express desire for more competition in the broadband market, why would anyone want broadband via power lines? Its not like we have reliable power in the United States when you factor in all the surges and spikes our household electrical equipment experience on a daily basis. Do the powerline "modems"/adapters have built in surge suppression? Are they made of metal? Because if not, if a major surge goes through your house, the adapter would melt the plastic and set fire to your house. After all, that is how Reggie Jackson lost his classic car collection. And if power lines lose 33% of the electricity that is transmitted, what does that translate to in terms of data loss? Perhaps if the power companies wish to increase their profits, they'd invest in better cabling so more efficient power transmission would occur.
"It is rumored that Aragorn will play as Ra's Al Ghul http://filmforce.ign.com..."
Don't forget Russell Crowe either. That's another of the hot rumors. Although Jeremy Irons, Alan Rickman, or Jason Isaacs would be more apt. Even Timothy Dalton...
"Honestly, Microsoft trying to put a Windows GUI on top of BSD is probably a bad move for them. The problem, as is always the issue with new OSes, is drivers."
Funny, you should mention the drivers issue. I seem to recall that Windows2000 had driver issues (actually, the lack of drivers) when it debuted and that was one of the major reasons why gamers had to stick with Win98SE for their rigs instead of moving to the more stable and SMP supporting Win2000 platform.
Yes, Apple has/had much less hardware to have to support and they did exclude a lot of machines in their migration path to OS X. However, Microsoft does not want to support older hardware either. If Longhorn requires "Trustworthy Computing" built into BIOS and microprocessor chips, then Microsoft will be excluding the entire existing PC base from their operating system roadmap. Therefore, the driver issue wouldn't be an issue anyway since Longhorn (either based on Microsoft code or BSD for this example) will already artificially limit the hardware it will interact with.
Of course, this could all be posturing by Microsoft and they will probably cave in before 2007 on the hardware keys or face even further erosion of their monopoly...
" you got to have Talia, that's an important sub-plot in the whole storyline with Ra's Al Guhl. Oh well, can't have everything I guess."
Apparently the script is borrowing from "Batman Year Two" as well as the animated film "Mask of the Phantasm" if the rumor mill is true. I also think this is an idiotic idea because anybody that has seen "Mask" already knows what this Rachel character will be up to. Talia is the way to go, but maybe David Goyer has something up his sleeve besides the ink on his forearms...
I think Apple has shown the way Microsoft should follow if they wish to bring security and stability to the Windows platform. Apple migrated over to the underpinnings of BSD without compromising the distinctness that only Apple brings to the table. If Microsoft truly cared about "trustworthy computing," they'd shift their gears and concentrate on gluing the Windows GUI and other applications to whatever BSD platform they chose to annoint. After their acquisition last year (the VirtualPC crew), Microsoft has the talents necessary to bring decent emulation of older Windows flavors to their new products. But apparently they [Microsoft] are too stubborn for their own good. It sounds like Longhorn will now be delayed until 2006 or 2007, and every year they slip, the more people and institutions will slip away to Linux and OS X for the very ideal of "trustworthy computing" they profess. Windows is broken as an OS, but as a GUI "bundled" on top of BSD, it would prove to be the magic Microsoft's shareholders are now searching for. And since Microsoft has been infusing SCO with cash, Microsoft would be "safe" from any litigation from SCO in regard to BSD or Linux...
"Not long ago, we were having a conversation about this subject and I was saying that Doc Oc needs to be the next Spiderman villian and that it would really be cool if a batman was done that featured Ra's Al Guhl"
Join the club. Ever since WB was toying with the "Batman Year One" storyline, I had been posting on AICN that that idea was a mistake and that they should pit Bats up with Al Ghul instead of retreading on past movies. I was estatic when the rumors started appearing that Al Ghul was indeed the main villain. I had hoped screenwriter David Goyer had included Al Ghul's daughter Talia as a character (to which I wanted Monica Bellucci to portray) but apparently the film is Talia-less and instead we'll have Katie Holmes as Bruce Wayne's girlfriend named "Rachel" instead.
As for Spidey meets Doc Ock, that had been the plan since the 80s when the "Spider-Man" film property was in the hands of the Cannon Group. Screenwriter Ted Newsom wrote several scripts for Spidey's origin film with Ock as the main villain. He is in fact suing Marvel and Sony over several of his script elements appearing in Spidey1 yet he did not receive a screenwriting credit...
"Clearly Dr. Octopus is the nemesis, but I read the Lizard will be in this movie as well. Maybe he will appear in a future trailer?"
Dr. Curt Conners might be in the film. He was mentioned as being Pete's boss before Pete got fired from the lab in the original film. Curt Conners in the comics became "The Lizard." However, it is doubtful "The Lizard" will make a reptilian appearance in this film. Remember, Sony plans on Spidey being a never-ending franchise, like MGM/UA's James Bond series.
But, from the way it sounds, the Scarecrow will appear in the new Batman film for the first 10 minutes before the movie focuses on Batman and his main foe, R'as Al Ghul. What a great film...Chris Nolan directing and they already have Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Cain as Alfred, the guy from 28 Days Later as the Scarecrow, and possibly Kurt Russell as Sgt./Commissioner Gordon...
"His mispronunciation of this word is not due to REGIONAL accent. I live in Texas, and I can tell you that 99.9% of the people I know don't pronounce it that way. Only intellectual morons pronounce it that way."
Yeah, but on the other side of the coin, what about the Kennedys? Nobody else in Mass. has their *accent.* Lots of people think JFK was a great president but he pronounced Cuba as "Cue-ber". So are you going to argue that JFK was an *idiot* or worse because of how he pronounced that country's name? Yes, I know you'll counter that with Bush referring to Greeks as "Grecians" (which I thought was pretty funny but didn't sit well with my Greek friend)...:)
Say whatever you will about the Administration, but I will give them credit about thinking about future threats to national security. Just watch the History Channel and check out the Army's "Warrior 2025" program. Yes, it did start during the previous administration, but this Administration seems to be pretty forward thinking in that endeavour. What I don't like is the idle talk about democracy in Iraq yet the Administration won't back Taiwan. Taiwan is another "Cuban Missile Crisis" waiting to happen. Back in 1996, a Chinese general made a candid comment that their nukes could hit Los Angeles if the United States backed Taiwan in a defensive war. Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy that will perish if the PRC takes control. The only way to decouple from Taiwan without aiding the Chinese would be to secretly give the Taiwanese a handful of nuclear warheads to keep the PRC from attacking them. I think its fair play since the PRC was instrumental in giving the North Koreans the ability to create nukes. But then again, that's my opinion...
"What is a voter supposed to do if none of the candidates are worth voting for? There is no box for 'none of the above'"
Here in California, we actually had a ballot initiative (referendum, if you will) about 6 years ago that would've included that on all California ballots, ie. a "none of the above" choice. The whole purpose of it was to give people something to vote for when there was no choice and to rob a candidate of any chance of declaring a "mandate." If I recall, there was no mechanism to cause a new election with different candidates if the "none of the above" choice received 50%. The initiative was bankrolled by the so-called "eccentric" owner of the gas (petrol, if you will, for you Brits) stations called "Cheaper" here in this State. The media labelled the initiative "cynical" and it did not pass, although it received major support from us younger voters. I hope a similar initiative reaches the ballot next time.
I'm willing to bet Howard Dean will get pounded in the next election worse than Walter Mondale in 1984, and that's even with a "legitimate" election from both sides.
Just wait until the anti-Dean commercials start airing with him calling himself a "metrosexual" when he didn't even know what the term meant.
And, just like in the 2000 election, at least President Bush has Colin Powell in his cabinet, and a few other smarty-pants, I might add. Yep, that's right, Mr. "Nukular" himself will actually win the popular vote by a wide margin this time 'round...
"a kinetic-kill weapon in space would keep going, producing widely-ranging hazard zones from old battles."
Space is filled with radiation. So I don't think exploding a nuke or two is going to cause "space environmental" damage. Now if there was a weapon that could somehow ignite/explode dark matter, then you'd probably have a problem. Someone get ahold of Stephen Hawking...
Okay, lemme get this straight. We have wireless access points installed on building rooftops with wireless transmission throughout the area. Sounds like SkyNet to me!:0
"In 2003, PC's perform equitably to the best RISC workstations: you need a really good reason not get a really great Linux workstation for $6-8K instead of high-end RISC hardware for $20-100K."
That figure is not counting power consumption requirements/costs though.
Chips such as the PowerPC970 (ie the "G5") are RISC-based, and the University of Virginia did find that PowerMac G5's were price competitive to x86 based "solutions." Thus affordable RISC-based solutions are possible.
And as for the XEON, check out what SETI is showing on their webpage. The AMD Athlon64 is leading the pack amongst x86 processors in terms of number crunching abilities. Unfortunately the AthlonFX64 does not support SMP, which this XEON solution does...
"Speaking of which, it's be great to see a movie version of "The Prisoner"...it keeps getting talked about here and there, a good remake could bring mainstream interest back into sci-fi"
The last time I heard, Mel Gibson now owned the rights to a theatrical release. Which means Number Six himself could be cast into a part considering Gibson did cast him in "Braveheart." The downside of course, would be that since Mr. Gibson has a hand in it, the British will be the ambiguous villains of the re-imagining...
'Till then, there was that graphic novel sequel from the early 90s (I believe DC published it), not to mention the two Simpsons episodes that paid tribute to the show ("Animaniacs" too)...
I went in very skeptical since I really did like the original series. However, I am now won over.
Boltar rocked. He was a lame character in the original series. I can't wait to see a revision to the "Lucifer" character (anyone notice the robot homage character on "Samurai Jack" last year?)... Boltar is complicated and you actually feel for the guy.
Adama was great. Olmos didn't *phone-in* the performance, nor was it a casting like "hey, let's give Lorne Green" something to do in his old age.
Starbuck. I still don't think it was a good idea to change her gender. As Richard Hatch (the original "Apollo") contends, there were female pilot characters in the original series like Sheeba that they should've cast. However, the actress did a good job so I'm not upset. They really should bring in Dirk Benedict to play her father, the "original" Starbuck who was in Adama's old squadron.
The Vipers. Excellent.
The Cylons. Excellent. Although I'm surprised writer Moore was so candid to announce to fandom that he named "Number Six" after "The Prisoner" which he just finished watching. To say you haven't watched "The Prisoner" before is like saying you've never watched "Doctor Who" yet you call yourself a sci-fi writer (or fan). Moore mentioned he thought in the original series the Cylons were originally reptilian before switching over to being cybernetic; sounds like he was thinking of the Daleks on wheels. Loved the references to the "old" Cylons, as walking toasters.
And the added bonus was that this show did not look like the typical cheapo Sci-Fi Network original knock-off genre flick shot in Vancouver with cheesy special effects. Good job, Sci-Fi!
Just wait until Microsoft jumps in on this game. There is a reason why they are building in VoIP support in Longhorn. Sure, office-wise, Longhorn Pro will target the business clients, but I'm sure Longhorn Home Edition will offer a VoIP service as well.
As a matter of fact, I would bet Apple will build this first into OS X 10.4 or in the next push of.Mac services... Are you listening, Mr. Jobs? (or, for that matter, AOL?). An "iTalk A Lot" for the teenage female audience...
I asked this in the SmoothWall story from a couple of days ago but I didn't receive a reply regarding Vonage usage. So the better question is, has anyone used any of these VoIP services?
Just to note, Vonage is using a new Motorola adapter that plugs directly to your cable modem now...it was covered on Gizmodo the other day...
"I just thought they were a bit too Linux-unfriendly. He did also mention lots of MS sponsorship money on getting their techs certified, funding for their tech-center kiosks/displays, etc. Not sure if any of that is true either."
Certified, you say? Back in 1999, none of the techs at the store I worked with had official A+ certification. The company didn't care about paying for training nor paid enough salary-wise for actual techies applying for positions. This was a stark contrast to CompUSA who pretty much had all of their techs at the area stores certified. At the time, Worst Buy and MSN were really cozy when MS kicked in a large amount of money to be the official ISP of the chain (thereby kicking out the pathetic Prodigy service which was nothing but trouble). Today, Worst Buy offers all the major ISP/cable/DSL companies.
Starting in late 2001, I had a friend still at the store and the management paid lip service to get him his A+ certification in an attempt to coax him to take the supervisor position of the tech dept. But management never came through, of course. Kinda like honoring student hours which the stupid computerized scheduling system always screwed up.
Slashdot Mirror
...people still play videogames on their PCs? Didn't you all get that memo about the whole market switching back to consoles like the PS2 and the Xbox? I guess you didn't get the TPS report either... :)
"I believe Reggie Jackson lost his classic car collection in the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire. There are now 6 or 7 houses where his garage/house used to be."
That's not what I heard. I heard it was a plastic surge suppressor catching fire that caused Reggie Jackson's garage to burn down. I have a friend whose father works on product liability issues and apparently it is widely known in that segment of the legal field that plastic surge suppressors are a really bad thing and cause lots of houses to burn. But of course when a company can make something like that for $1 and have it sold at retail for $40, do you really think they are going to go out of their way to educate the consumer?
This is my only peeve with Apple these days. Now people will say "just go ahead and buy a different mouse" but that is not the point. Because of Apple's one button policy, I won't be buying their Bluetooth enabled mouse. That is money that should've went to Apple. I think at this point in the game, every PC and Mac sold should be bundled with a 2 button + scroll wheel.
:)
Now, why again do we need a 3 button mouse if a 2 button + scroll wheel is offered?
I got my T616 about a month and a half ago through the AT&T Wireless website. They offered a two-day free T616 promo and I was quick to capitalize it.
:0
.
:)
1. The Bluetooth works great. I don't have Bluetooth on my PC but I tried it out on my parent's eMac when visiting and it worked like a champ transmitting the photos. Just don't try to buy a Bluetooth adapter at Best Buy. They don't carry the Apple recommended D-Link USB adapter, and they'll charge you $50 for the off-brand adapter. Unfortunately, this was an impulse buy for me.
2. My head doesn't hurt after using the phone. My two prior mobile phones had been Nokias (first through Sprint, then Cingular). I had headaches after only a few minutes of use. Probably had to do with Nokia's great track record of being the cell phones emitting the most radiation. My doctor at Kaiser signed me up for a CAT scan that some unnamed research group paid for (this was early 2002), and thankfully, no tumors!
3. I like the joystick, although it sucks for playing Q-Bert. The standard golf game sucks too. Sony Ericsson and AT&T Wireless should offer the classic Atari coin-op ports IMHO.
3. The phone is damn-sexy. Although I am in the market for a screen cover because I don't like scratching it up. I'm sure they sell them.
4. Battery life is awesome.
Now for the not-so-good.
1. I wish the phone was in a clamshell. Yes, Sony is bringing out one in Europe but it isn't shown on their U.S. website.
2. I can't use the phone in my apartment which is in metropolitan SacTown, home of the Kings. Granted, I think this has to do with GSM in general because my Nokia phone using Cingular also had reception problems in the complex. Funny enough, my former roommate's Korean (Samsung or something) through Sprint always received calls. I gather its the *Sprint Principle*, the one area where your GSM phone won't work, that will be the ONE place a Sprint phone will actually work in. Yep, CDMA is definitely superior
3. I've had issues with text messaging, but again, I think this has to do with the GSM service in my area. AIM worked well through mMode.
4. The operating system has crashed twice. On my girlfriend's T616, the screen locked up and wouldn't respond to any of the buttons being pushed. We had to take the battery out to *kill* it and cause a reboot. The phone worked after that.
So in all, that's really only 2 problems I've encountered outside of my own personal preferences. Despite that, I strongly recommend this phone. Down with Nokia's superiority complex and their radiation levels.
"If you're on a budget, look at the T68i and the Nokia N-Gage. I think they are listed at around EUR 250."
The Nokia N-Gage? Are you high? Maybe if you want to use a headset with, but otherwise, you'll have the weirdest experience trying to use the unit like a traditional phone up against your ear. But don't take my word for it, check out the N-Gage's "spoof" page here:
http://www.sidetalking.com
Aside from the service issues in rural communities and the express desire for more competition in the broadband market, why would anyone want broadband via power lines? Its not like we have reliable power in the United States when you factor in all the surges and spikes our household electrical equipment experience on a daily basis. Do the powerline "modems"/adapters have built in surge suppression? Are they made of metal? Because if not, if a major surge goes through your house, the adapter would melt the plastic and set fire to your house. After all, that is how Reggie Jackson lost his classic car collection. And if power lines lose 33% of the electricity that is transmitted, what does that translate to in terms of data loss? Perhaps if the power companies wish to increase their profits, they'd invest in better cabling so more efficient power transmission would occur.
"It is rumored that Aragorn will play as Ra's Al Ghul http://filmforce.ign.com..."
Don't forget Russell Crowe either. That's another of the hot rumors. Although Jeremy Irons, Alan Rickman, or Jason Isaacs would be more apt. Even Timothy Dalton...
"Honestly, Microsoft trying to put a Windows GUI on top of BSD is probably a bad move for them. The problem, as is always the issue with new OSes, is drivers."
:)
Funny, you should mention the drivers issue. I seem to recall that Windows2000 had driver issues (actually, the lack of drivers) when it debuted and that was one of the major reasons why gamers had to stick with Win98SE for their rigs instead of moving to the more stable and SMP supporting Win2000 platform.
Yes, Apple has/had much less hardware to have to support and they did exclude a lot of machines in their migration path to OS X. However, Microsoft does not want to support older hardware either. If Longhorn requires "Trustworthy Computing" built into BIOS and microprocessor chips, then Microsoft will be excluding the entire existing PC base from their operating system roadmap. Therefore, the driver issue wouldn't be an issue anyway since Longhorn (either based on Microsoft code or BSD for this example) will already artificially limit the hardware it will interact with.
Of course, this could all be posturing by Microsoft and they will probably cave in before 2007 on the hardware keys or face even further erosion of their monopoly...
Interesting post, by the way...
" you got to have Talia, that's an important sub-plot in the whole storyline with Ra's Al Guhl. Oh well, can't have everything I guess."
Apparently the script is borrowing from "Batman Year Two" as well as the animated film "Mask of the Phantasm" if the rumor mill is true. I also think this is an idiotic idea because anybody that has seen "Mask" already knows what this Rachel character will be up to. Talia is the way to go, but maybe David Goyer has something up his sleeve besides the ink on his forearms...
I think Apple has shown the way Microsoft should follow if they wish to bring security and stability to the Windows platform. Apple migrated over to the underpinnings of BSD without compromising the distinctness that only Apple brings to the table. If Microsoft truly cared about "trustworthy computing," they'd shift their gears and concentrate on gluing the Windows GUI and other applications to whatever BSD platform they chose to annoint. After their acquisition last year (the VirtualPC crew), Microsoft has the talents necessary to bring decent emulation of older Windows flavors to their new products. But apparently they [Microsoft] are too stubborn for their own good. It sounds like Longhorn will now be delayed until 2006 or 2007, and every year they slip, the more people and institutions will slip away to Linux and OS X for the very ideal of "trustworthy computing" they profess. Windows is broken as an OS, but as a GUI "bundled" on top of BSD, it would prove to be the magic Microsoft's shareholders are now searching for. And since Microsoft has been infusing SCO with cash, Microsoft would be "safe" from any litigation from SCO in regard to BSD or Linux...
"Not long ago, we were having a conversation about this subject and I was saying that Doc Oc needs to be the next Spiderman villian and that it would really be cool if a batman was done that featured Ra's Al Guhl"
Join the club. Ever since WB was toying with the "Batman Year One" storyline, I had been posting on AICN that that idea was a mistake and that they should pit Bats up with Al Ghul instead of retreading on past movies. I was estatic when the rumors started appearing that Al Ghul was indeed the main villain. I had hoped screenwriter David Goyer had included Al Ghul's daughter Talia as a character (to which I wanted Monica Bellucci to portray) but apparently the film is Talia-less and instead we'll have Katie Holmes as Bruce Wayne's girlfriend named "Rachel" instead.
As for Spidey meets Doc Ock, that had been the plan since the 80s when the "Spider-Man" film property was in the hands of the Cannon Group. Screenwriter Ted Newsom wrote several scripts for Spidey's origin film with Ock as the main villain. He is in fact suing Marvel and Sony over several of his script elements appearing in Spidey1 yet he did not receive a screenwriting credit...
"Clearly Dr. Octopus is the nemesis, but I read the Lizard will be in this movie as well. Maybe he will appear in a future trailer?"
:0
Dr. Curt Conners might be in the film. He was mentioned as being Pete's boss before Pete got fired from the lab in the original film. Curt Conners in the comics became "The Lizard." However, it is doubtful "The Lizard" will make a reptilian appearance in this film. Remember, Sony plans on Spidey being a never-ending franchise, like MGM/UA's James Bond series.
But, from the way it sounds, the Scarecrow will appear in the new Batman film for the first 10 minutes before the movie focuses on Batman and his main foe, R'as Al Ghul. What a great film...Chris Nolan directing and they already have Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Cain as Alfred, the guy from 28 Days Later as the Scarecrow, and possibly Kurt Russell as Sgt./Commissioner Gordon...
Oh yeah, back to Spider-Man 2!
"His mispronunciation of this word is not due to REGIONAL accent. I live in Texas, and I can tell you that 99.9% of the people I know don't pronounce it that way. Only intellectual morons pronounce it that way."
:)
Yeah, but on the other side of the coin, what about the Kennedys? Nobody else in Mass. has their *accent.* Lots of people think JFK was a great president but he pronounced Cuba as "Cue-ber". So are you going to argue that JFK was an *idiot* or worse because of how he pronounced that country's name? Yes, I know you'll counter that with Bush referring to Greeks as "Grecians" (which I thought was pretty funny but didn't sit well with my Greek friend)...
Say whatever you will about the Administration, but I will give them credit about thinking about future threats to national security. Just watch the History Channel and check out the Army's "Warrior 2025" program. Yes, it did start during the previous administration, but this Administration seems to be pretty forward thinking in that endeavour. What I don't like is the idle talk about democracy in Iraq yet the Administration won't back Taiwan. Taiwan is another "Cuban Missile Crisis" waiting to happen. Back in 1996, a Chinese general made a candid comment that their nukes could hit Los Angeles if the United States backed Taiwan in a defensive war. Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy that will perish if the PRC takes control. The only way to decouple from Taiwan without aiding the Chinese would be to secretly give the Taiwanese a handful of nuclear warheads to keep the PRC from attacking them. I think its fair play since the PRC was instrumental in giving the North Koreans the ability to create nukes. But then again, that's my opinion...
"I'll take that bet. How much have you got? I'll cover every dime you can raise."
:)
$5 US currency. That would be fair... Is the point spread the same as the 84 election?
Too bad PayPal couldn't offer this service...
"What is a voter supposed to do if none of the candidates are worth voting for? There is no box for 'none of the above'"
Here in California, we actually had a ballot initiative (referendum, if you will) about 6 years ago that would've included that on all California ballots, ie. a "none of the above" choice. The whole purpose of it was to give people something to vote for when there was no choice and to rob a candidate of any chance of declaring a "mandate." If I recall, there was no mechanism to cause a new election with different candidates if the "none of the above" choice received 50%. The initiative was bankrolled by the so-called "eccentric" owner of the gas (petrol, if you will, for you Brits) stations called "Cheaper" here in this State. The media labelled the initiative "cynical" and it did not pass, although it received major support from us younger voters. I hope a similar initiative reaches the ballot next time.
I'm willing to bet Howard Dean will get pounded in the next election worse than Walter Mondale in 1984, and that's even with a "legitimate" election from both sides.
Just wait until the anti-Dean commercials start airing with him calling himself a "metrosexual" when he didn't even know what the term meant.
And, just like in the 2000 election, at least President Bush has Colin Powell in his cabinet, and a few other smarty-pants, I might add. Yep, that's right, Mr. "Nukular" himself will actually win the popular vote by a wide margin this time 'round...
"a kinetic-kill weapon in space would keep going, producing widely-ranging hazard zones from old battles."
Space is filled with radiation. So I don't think exploding a nuke or two is going to cause "space environmental" damage. Now if there was a weapon that could somehow ignite/explode dark matter, then you'd probably have a problem. Someone get ahold of Stephen Hawking...
Okay, lemme get this straight. We have wireless access points installed on building rooftops with wireless transmission throughout the area. Sounds like SkyNet to me!
"In 2003, PC's perform equitably to the best RISC workstations: you need a really good reason not get a really great Linux workstation for $6-8K instead of high-end RISC hardware for $20-100K."
That figure is not counting power consumption requirements/costs though.
Chips such as the PowerPC970 (ie the "G5") are RISC-based, and the University of Virginia did find that PowerMac G5's were price competitive to x86 based "solutions." Thus affordable RISC-based solutions are possible.
And as for the XEON, check out what SETI is showing on their webpage. The AMD Athlon64 is leading the pack amongst x86 processors in terms of number crunching abilities. Unfortunately the AthlonFX64 does not support SMP, which this XEON solution does...
"Speaking of which, it's be great to see a movie version of "The Prisoner"...it keeps getting talked about here and there, a good remake could bring mainstream interest back into sci-fi"
The last time I heard, Mel Gibson now owned the rights to a theatrical release. Which means Number Six himself could be cast into a part considering Gibson did cast him in "Braveheart." The downside of course, would be that since Mr. Gibson has a hand in it, the British will be the ambiguous villains of the re-imagining...
'Till then, there was that graphic novel sequel from the early 90s (I believe DC published it), not to mention the two Simpsons episodes that paid tribute to the show ("Animaniacs" too)...
I went in very skeptical since I really did like the original series. However, I am now won over.
Boltar rocked. He was a lame character in the original series. I can't wait to see a revision to the "Lucifer" character (anyone notice the robot homage character on "Samurai Jack" last year?)... Boltar is complicated and you actually feel for the guy.
Adama was great. Olmos didn't *phone-in* the performance, nor was it a casting like "hey, let's give Lorne Green" something to do in his old age.
Starbuck. I still don't think it was a good idea to change her gender. As Richard Hatch (the original "Apollo") contends, there were female pilot characters in the original series like Sheeba that they should've cast. However, the actress did a good job so I'm not upset. They really should bring in Dirk Benedict to play her father, the "original" Starbuck who was in Adama's old squadron.
The Vipers. Excellent.
The Cylons. Excellent. Although I'm surprised writer Moore was so candid to announce to fandom that he named "Number Six" after "The Prisoner" which he just finished watching. To say you haven't watched "The Prisoner" before is like saying you've never watched "Doctor Who" yet you call yourself a sci-fi writer (or fan). Moore mentioned he thought in the original series the Cylons were originally reptilian before switching over to being cybernetic; sounds like he was thinking of the Daleks on wheels. Loved the references to the "old" Cylons, as walking toasters.
And the added bonus was that this show did not look like the typical cheapo Sci-Fi Network original knock-off genre flick shot in Vancouver with cheesy special effects. Good job, Sci-Fi!
Just wait until Microsoft jumps in on this game. There is a reason why they are building in VoIP support in Longhorn. Sure, office-wise, Longhorn Pro will target the business clients, but I'm sure Longhorn Home Edition will offer a VoIP service as well.
.Mac services... Are you listening, Mr. Jobs? (or, for that matter, AOL?). An "iTalk A Lot" for the teenage female audience...
As a matter of fact, I would bet Apple will build this first into OS X 10.4 or in the next push of
"has anyone used any of these VoIP services?"
That should've read "has anyone used any of these VoIP services with SmoothWall or IPCop? Obviously, I was not meant to be an editor...
I asked this in the SmoothWall story from a couple of days ago but I didn't receive a reply regarding Vonage usage. So the better question is, has anyone used any of these VoIP services?
Just to note, Vonage is using a new Motorola adapter that plugs directly to your cable modem now...it was covered on Gizmodo the other day...
"I just thought they were a bit too Linux-unfriendly. He did also mention lots of MS sponsorship money on getting their techs certified, funding for their tech-center kiosks/displays, etc. Not sure if any of that is true either."
Certified, you say? Back in 1999, none of the techs at the store I worked with had official A+ certification. The company didn't care about paying for training nor paid enough salary-wise for actual techies applying for positions. This was a stark contrast to CompUSA who pretty much had all of their techs at the area stores certified. At the time, Worst Buy and MSN were really cozy when MS kicked in a large amount of money to be the official ISP of the chain (thereby kicking out the pathetic Prodigy service which was nothing but trouble). Today, Worst Buy offers all the major ISP/cable/DSL companies.
Starting in late 2001, I had a friend still at the store and the management paid lip service to get him his A+ certification in an attempt to coax him to take the supervisor position of the tech dept. But management never came through, of course. Kinda like honoring student hours which the stupid computerized scheduling system always screwed up.