DS9 -- This series grew more and changed more than any other Trek series. Even in its early seasons it could surprise you with something great. By its third season it was firing on all cylinders. By its fourth season it had flowered and grown into the into the best Star Trek series ever.
Original -- Forget the cheesy special effects and sometimes outdated stories. The writing on this show really sparkled. They could create excellent, moody stories with minimal sets and primitive special effects. William shatner, for all his flaws as an actor made Kirk into a memorable character -- a larger than life hero that was perfect for the cowboys in space era that the original Star Trek depicted.
TNG -- It paved the way for modern scifi on TV. Patrick Stewart was probably the best actor to ever star in a Trek series.
Enterprise -- Strictly ST lite at this point but frequently enjoyable and entertaining.
Voyager -- The Star Trek series that never grew up. It had perhaps the greatest potential of any Trek series but the writers pissed it all away.
This is the web equivalent of shareware. A company puts out a piece of software, you try it for free, and then after period of time, you have to pay for it or it shuts down or cripples itself or shuts off a few of its best features.
When done right, a piece of shareware can continue to be tremendously useful but will have just enough disabled features that you'll want to by it. When done wrong, you'll just get pissed off and delete it off your hard drive without a second thought. Most shareware falls somewhere in between. Most web applications will probably fall into that somewhere in between area.
I wonder if Warez d00dz will try to crack websites to get free web services the way they try to do with shareware? I'm thinking yes.
So. A cheap, well-understand chemical reaction uses too much power, but gravity generation doesn't?
No, it's just that the backup system for the cheap, well-understood chemical reaction got knocked out by a freak accident while the gravity generation system did not.
Their engine is only 3ft DIA, 10ft long. It rotates. And this will push them faster than light? Should they fill the tank with regular or premium, and how fast can they do 0-60MPH ?
The part you are referring to was only a small part of the engine which takes up over one third of the ship. Their life support dies when the engine is off. Yet they don't start floating around because of lack of artificial gravity?
They specifically say that the explosion took out their backup life support system. Presumably the backup gravity generator remained intact.
Even in Andromeda, they show the long-standing commonwealth forces using force lances which can not only fire energy projectiles, but also turn into handy-dandy 6-foot pikes in an instant.
They also fire both "smart" (radar controlled for better accuracy) and dumb bullets as well.
I think that the Self-Made Critic put it best in his review of The Matrix:
Any review of a Keanu movie must start with Keanu himself. Basically, just how bad is he in this one?
Is he playing a role that adeptly hides how unbelievably horrible he is (Parenthood, the Bill and Ted movies)? Or is he playing a role that broadcasts his complete and utter lameness for all to see(everything else)?
Actually, there is a third class of Keanu films. These are films that are so packed with other distractions - explosions, car chases, semi-naked hotties - that Keanu is given little actual acting to do. These movies include Speed... and... and... did I mention Speed?
Well you can slap The Matrix into that third category. Keanu is so buried in effects and gunfire that he has little to do other than pose. And he poses pretty well.
But what's an episode with pivotal enemies without even seeing them? Hmmm.
Two words: "Das Boot." Do a submarine style episode where the two ships shadow each other in much the same way that the Enterprise and the Romulan ship from "Balance of Terror" did without ever making visual contact. Show a lot of mounting tension as Archer and his crew try to figure out how to deal with the enemy ship and its unseen crew.
They day social engineering is obsolete is the day there are no more humans and computers rule the world.
This is true. A lot of the most successful modern worms and virii are based largely on a social engineering concept -- trying to get people to do something that will compromise their machine. Love Bug, Klez, Sircam all rely on trying to trick people into clicking on an attachment to launch their payload. They masquerade as legitimate e-mail from people you know and hope you're dumb enough to fall for their tricks. That sounds like a form of social engineering to me.
This reminds me of an episode of News Radio where Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman) said that all politicans should be dragged out from their cars and beaten on the Live Radio. And then reports came in of a Politican who was dragged from his car and beaten. Better be careful what you say. Or we could next hear reports on/. that many Spammers have been shot... oh, and their companies too:)
There was also an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati where Johnny Fever jokingly suggested that people drop their garbage off at city hall and people started doing just that. I know this is off-topic but I just wanted to share.
I'd hate to take the written exams to pilot one my own space wagon, though.
You'd probably wind up with something akin to the old transcontinental railroad where the government builds a series of space stations throughout the solar system with your wagon flying from station to station, mostly following a predetermined route that is downloaded at each port. The only real driving, if any, that you would do would be when you are docking with the station. Otherwise, you would just sit around playing cards, hoping that the course that was laid out for you at Space Central doesn't cross the path of a rogue asteroid.
One of these "things" is a Palm. A cell phone running the PalmOS is still a Palm in my opinion even if it has another company's logo on it. I have a Handspring Treo cell phone and I consider it to be a Palm.
I own a Treo 180g and am looking to upgrade to the 270 model which is in color. My perfect PDA would build on that.
Weighs 5.5 oz. or less
Cell phone integrated with PalmOS style PDA with always-on wireless access to e-mail and the Internet
66MHz Dragonball Processor
32MB of memory
SD slot for expansion and backup
Color that doesn't wash out in sunlight
Digital camera built into flip lid
Voice Recorder
Data sled attachment that can houses:
An external battery
An extra 32MB of Flash memory directly addressable by the operating system
A backup module
An adaptor for other types of expansion like Springboard Modules and CompactFlash cards
Forget about hi-rez screens or MP3. I just want a small, fast wireless device that doubles as my cell phone with good battery life which I can expand as I see fit.
Why is there an upgrade program for people who have a Visorphone, but none for those who want to upgrade the old Treo to one with better battery life and a color screen. I'm happy with my current Treo but damn, don't we all want color?
Seems really stupid for Handspring to Shit on Early Adopters.
Here, here. I own a Treo 180g and I want an upgrade program too. Damnit Handspring, you're turning your back on people who want to give you more of their money!
On a side note, with $700 and $600 price Tags, why not throw in $1000 and just get a Notebook instead? Then again, who cares about cost when your buying toys!:-)
Different toys for different boys. You can pull a PDA from your pocket, look up one thing and put it right back in your pocket. You can't do that with a laptop. You have to pull your laptop out of your briefcase or computer bag, open it up, look for an outlet, if you want to use it for more than a few minutes, and wait for it to boot up before you can do anything with it. You also can't carry your laptop around in your pocket or use it as a cell phone either.
Well, that's the nice thing about these "stupid things." You can take a piece of your computer with you when you go out into that big, blue room with the big, yellow light bulb. A pencil and a notepad have their drawbacks -- especially if you can't read your own handwriting half the time. I can read Slashdot, check my e-mail, make phone calls, get the weather forecast, carry more phone numbers than I can ever remember, more note than will fit in a one those big three ring binders, keep all my passwords encrypted, carry my shopping list, e-books, a copy of the Bible, a dictionary, and a calculator on my Treo 180g.
The Treo is much smaller and lighter than the Kyocera smart phone. The Treo also twice the memory 16MB vs. 8MB and a faster processor 33MHz vs. 16MHz than the Kyocera. The keyboard on the Treo vs. Graffiti on the Kyocera is more a matter of personal preference than anything else.
I disagree completely. (Or course I would, I own a bunch of Springboards that I can't use anymore with my Treo 180g.:-)) When the Visor first came out, epansion didn't exist on the Palm platform.
I got the backup module and it saved my ass plenty of times. I got the Flash module and had a 24MB PalmOS machine at a time when no PalmOS machine was supposed to have more than 8MB of memory. I bought the Eyemodule2 for taking pictures and much later, a Minijam for MP3s.
And I didn't have to buy them all over again when I upgraded from a Visor Deluxe to a Platinum to a Prism. I could reuse all of my Springboard modules on new handheld. I still wish there were some Springboard adaptor so I could use Springboard modules with my Treo 180g.
The Prism isn't just thicker than the Visor Deluxe, it is significantly heavier. The Prism weighs 6.9 oz. The Treo 90 weighs just 4 oz., which does indeed make it one of the smallest PalmOS machines you can buy. So it is a small, low priced color handheld with a keyboard. This is a good combination even if there is no one "hook."
And you underestimate the size difference between the Visor line of handhelds and the Treo. I own a Treo 180g and it just disappears into my pockets while a Visor Deluxe makes a noticeable "lump" in my pocket. The Visor Prism also feels the same way only even heavier.
Also, I notice that before the Treos, Handspring didn't have a handheld with a decent flip cover. The Visors used this clunky snap on cover that was enough of a pain that I never used it unless I was putting my Visor away for long term storage. It's a small thing but I really missed the Palm III's flip cover when I switched from it to a Visor Deluxe.
Having said all this, I must confess that when I looked at Handspring's two new machines, I was drooling over the Treo 270, not the 90. Like I mentioned before, I own a Treo 180g, so the 270 is a natural upgrade for me.
But with the 90, its natural competitor would be the Palm m130 which is comparable to it in terms of size, specs, and price. Other than the keyboard, the 90 doesn't have an overwhelming advantage over the m130. The keyboard will appeal to PDA newbies who don't want to learn Graffiti. But Graffiti is so easy to learn that this may not be a huge advantage. Long-time Palm users are unlikely to switch to the 90 from another PalmOS machine unless they are really bad at Graffiti and will likely gravitate to a more traditional PDA like the m130.
I'd say that the Treo 90 will do well in terms of sales but it will never be as big a seller as the Visor Deluxe was for Handspring.
Slashdot Mirror
This is the web equivalent of shareware. A company puts out a piece of software, you try it for free, and then after period of time, you have to pay for it or it shuts down or cripples itself or shuts off a few of its best features.
When done right, a piece of shareware can continue to be tremendously useful but will have just enough disabled features that you'll want to by it. When done wrong, you'll just get pissed off and delete it off your hard drive without a second thought. Most shareware falls somewhere in between. Most web applications will probably fall into that somewhere in between area.
I wonder if Warez d00dz will try to crack websites to get free web services the way they try to do with shareware? I'm thinking yes.
So. A cheap, well-understand chemical reaction uses too much power, but gravity generation doesn't?
No, it's just that the backup system for the cheap, well-understood chemical reaction got knocked out by a freak accident while the gravity generation system did not.
Their engine is only 3ft DIA, 10ft long. It rotates. And this will push them faster than light? Should they fill the tank with regular or premium, and how fast can they do 0-60MPH ?
The part you are referring to was only a small part of the engine which takes up over one third of the ship.
Their life support dies when the engine is off. Yet they don't start floating around because of lack of artificial gravity?
They specifically say that the explosion took out their backup life support system. Presumably the backup gravity generator remained intact.
Even in Andromeda, they show the long-standing commonwealth forces using force lances which can not only fire energy projectiles, but also turn into handy-dandy 6-foot pikes in an instant.
They also fire both "smart" (radar controlled for better accuracy) and dumb bullets as well.
He was not born in the U.S. Heck, he was not born on earth.
Still, you have to admire his willingness to stand up for Truth, Justice, and the American Way when he isn't even eligible to run for president.
Too late.
But what's an episode with pivotal enemies without even seeing them? Hmmm.
Two words: "Das Boot." Do a submarine style episode where the two ships shadow each other in much the same way that the Enterprise and the Romulan ship from "Balance of Terror" did without ever making visual contact. Show a lot of mounting tension as Archer and his crew try to figure out how to deal with the enemy ship and its unseen crew.
Whenever I'm someplace where I'm likely to disturb people, I just put my phone on vibrate. This seems like a pretty easy solution to me.
I can't remember - Is AOL the evil corporate empire today or are they the champions fighting against M$? Let me check my calendar..
But isn't it possible for an evil corporation to do good?
With the "Stay On in Cradle" feature activated and using BigClock with a custom theme my Palm IIIc is the best looking desk clock I've ever owned.
They day social engineering is obsolete is the day there are no more humans and computers rule the world.
This is true. A lot of the most successful modern worms and virii are based largely on a social engineering concept -- trying to get people to do something that will compromise their machine. Love Bug, Klez, Sircam all rely on trying to trick people into clicking on an attachment to launch their payload. They masquerade as legitimate e-mail from people you know and hope you're dumb enough to fall for their tricks. That sounds like a form of social engineering to me.
This reminds me of an episode of News Radio where Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman) said that all politicans should be dragged out from their cars and beaten on the Live Radio. And then reports came in of a Politican who was dragged from his car and beaten. Better be careful what you say. Or we could next hear reports on
There was also an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati where Johnny Fever jokingly suggested that people drop their garbage off at city hall and people started doing just that. I know this is off-topic but I just wanted to share.
I'd hate to take the written exams to pilot one my own space wagon, though.
You'd probably wind up with something akin to the old transcontinental railroad where the government builds a series of space stations throughout the solar system with your wagon flying from station to station, mostly following a predetermined route that is downloaded at each port. The only real driving, if any, that you would do would be when you are docking with the station. Otherwise, you would just sit around playing cards, hoping that the course that was laid out for you at Space Central doesn't cross the path of a rogue asteroid.
One of these "things" is a Palm. A cell phone running the PalmOS is still a Palm in my opinion even if it has another company's logo on it. I have a Handspring Treo cell phone and I consider it to be a Palm.
She loves the local Spanish channel 66.
Forget about hi-rez screens or MP3. I just want a small, fast wireless device that doubles as my cell phone with good battery life which I can expand as I see fit.
Why is there an upgrade program for people who have a Visorphone, but none for those who want to upgrade the old Treo to one with better battery life and a color screen. I'm happy with my current Treo but damn, don't we all want color?
Seems really stupid for Handspring to Shit on Early Adopters.
Here, here. I own a Treo 180g and I want an upgrade program too. Damnit Handspring, you're turning your back on people who want to give you more of their money!
On a side note, with $700 and $600 price Tags, why not throw in $1000 and just get a Notebook instead? Then again, who cares about cost when your buying toys!
Different toys for different boys. You can pull a PDA from your pocket, look up one thing and put it right back in your pocket. You can't do that with a laptop. You have to pull your laptop out of your briefcase or computer bag, open it up, look for an outlet, if you want to use it for more than a few minutes, and wait for it to boot up before you can do anything with it. You also can't carry your laptop around in your pocket or use it as a cell phone either.
Yeah but did you ever try to hold a laptop to your ear to make a phone call? It's not a pretty sight.
Well, that's the nice thing about these "stupid things." You can take a piece of your computer with you when you go out into that big, blue room with the big, yellow light bulb. A pencil and a notepad have their drawbacks -- especially if you can't read your own handwriting half the time. I can read Slashdot, check my e-mail, make phone calls, get the weather forecast, carry more phone numbers than I can ever remember, more note than will fit in a one those big three ring binders, keep all my passwords encrypted, carry my shopping list, e-books, a copy of the Bible, a dictionary, and a calculator on my Treo 180g.
The Treo is much smaller and lighter than the Kyocera smart phone. The Treo also twice the memory 16MB vs. 8MB and a faster processor 33MHz vs. 16MHz than the Kyocera. The keyboard on the Treo vs. Graffiti on the Kyocera is more a matter of personal preference than anything else.
I disagree completely. (Or course I would, I own a bunch of Springboards that I can't use anymore with my Treo 180g. :-)) When the Visor first came out, epansion didn't exist on the Palm platform.
I got the backup module and it saved my ass plenty of times. I got the Flash module and had a 24MB PalmOS machine at a time when no PalmOS machine was supposed to have more than 8MB of memory. I bought the Eyemodule2 for taking pictures and much later, a Minijam for MP3s.
And I didn't have to buy them all over again when I upgraded from a Visor Deluxe to a Platinum to a Prism. I could reuse all of my Springboard modules on new handheld. I still wish there were some Springboard adaptor so I could use Springboard modules with my Treo 180g.
The Prism isn't just thicker than the Visor Deluxe, it is significantly heavier. The Prism weighs 6.9 oz. The Treo 90 weighs just 4 oz., which does indeed make it one of the smallest PalmOS machines you can buy. So it is a small, low priced color handheld with a keyboard. This is a good combination even if there is no one "hook."
And you underestimate the size difference between the Visor line of handhelds and the Treo. I own a Treo 180g and it just disappears into my pockets while a Visor Deluxe makes a noticeable "lump" in my pocket. The Visor Prism also feels the same way only even heavier.
Also, I notice that before the Treos, Handspring didn't have a handheld with a decent flip cover. The Visors used this clunky snap on cover that was enough of a pain that I never used it unless I was putting my Visor away for long term storage. It's a small thing but I really missed the Palm III's flip cover when I switched from it to a Visor Deluxe.
Having said all this, I must confess that when I looked at Handspring's two new machines, I was drooling over the Treo 270, not the 90. Like I mentioned before, I own a Treo 180g, so the 270 is a natural upgrade for me.
But with the 90, its natural competitor would be the Palm m130 which is comparable to it in terms of size, specs, and price. Other than the keyboard, the 90 doesn't have an overwhelming advantage over the m130. The keyboard will appeal to PDA newbies who don't want to learn Graffiti. But Graffiti is so easy to learn that this may not be a huge advantage. Long-time Palm users are unlikely to switch to the 90 from another PalmOS machine unless they are really bad at Graffiti and will likely gravitate to a more traditional PDA like the m130.
I'd say that the Treo 90 will do well in terms of sales but it will never be as big a seller as the Visor Deluxe was for Handspring.