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Zane_Marlowe

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Everything posted by Zane_Marlowe

  1. I think it's a little early to say. Let's see how season three goes, many shows that start out well (as many seem to think about this one) lose their focus and momentum after a few seasons. It's got enough critical acclaim that it will stick around for at least season four I think. Time will tell, but if it does, it won't be predictable from anything on the table now: this series could go up or down from where it's at now.
  2. I think people deserved a rest from the intensity of the season 2-3 cliffhanger series. In his podcast (which I find to be quite illuminating from a story perspective), Ron Moore talked about the latest round of one-off episodes as necessary to balance the show's budget. I also think you need some time to move the characters and relationships forward after the season three opener (as in the boxing episode and the Tigh arc) and there are other threats out there (as in last week's episode). Nonetheless, I'll be glad to see the Cylons assert their continuing menacing presence
  3. Hi Friends, Just a note to let you know that I'm resigning my position as Vice Fleet Leader of ISS. Marc Wubbema will be ably filling in, and has had the acting job for some time now. My next assignment is a semi-autonomous position whose exact nature I'm not free to divulge to anyone outside of top ISS leadership. However, GALCOM's enemies will undoubtedly begin to find it harder to sleep at night.
  4. What an actually disappointing article. There's nothing that actually answers the question except the complaint that there's a dearth of the appropriate software. That's a business problem, not a linux/windows problem. Is that because of the kind of business model you have in Linux? Is it because of Linux's software in some way? I didn't find this very informative.
  5. The iron resolve bit was about putting the Galactica in atmo knowing full well that the ship is a brick with no maneuvering and it would hit the ground. You have to launch vipers and then jump again or the whole thing's over, and you're doing it without having studied the variables involved. The very next time we see the ship, it's a mess, and I take it that the fact that they survived at all is something significant. It's not the act of a a super intellect, but of a hard commander who's got the stones to risk a lot to make things happen. I feel like the show's got integrity insofar as he's got to pay for it though. It was because they did something that risky that they lost the Pegasus, which was a serious loss considering its more effective combat power relative to Galactica. So that's what I mean by "iron resolve," just that they do the job by putting themselves into a more dangerous position, and it's because they pay for it most of the time (and know that they will) that I enjoy it. It takes character to do that I think, and that's what I enjoy. Also, I don't think I was claiming that you didn't care for the characters, I was just saying in general that if someone doesn't care for the characters, then they lose some investment in the show (which I think is a rather uncontroversial claim). If you care for some of the characters, then you're probably partly invested (at least since you apparently keep watching). That said, who do you not like, and why? And what bits of acting did you feel were "b" material?
  6. If you don't care about the characters, you don't care about the show. Action in that show works because you have a stake in the people. I think the latest episode is the latest of many examples that the action isn't about outsmarting the bad guys with some preternatural intelligence or tactics. It's about iron resolve to put yourself in harm's way and throw yourself into the breach. It costs the characters something to do that each and every time, but it's the right thing for them to do, and we cheer when they do it.
  7. Hey Eclipse. Try holding your third mouse button and mousing up or down. I thought that changed it for me in ground battles. I could be wrong.
  8. quote:Originally posted by Eclipse: ...Camera rotation is locked in ground combat making it hard to get the view you need.There's a control in there for this, I've rotated and zoomed the camera often. Also, I think the idea of the unit cap was to promote combined arms since you have to make sure that you have the right ratio of different kinds of units. (At least that's the way it forced ME to play.) This is an aesthetic issue however, and I didn't like it in Warcraft 3 for the same reason then. Try the imperial side if you want lots of space stuff, the tie squadrons are once the destroyers are deployed.
  9. Hmm, big screen, wireless, subscriptions instead of individual song purchases, works with existing formats, Microsoft's budget and built-in OS support... What am I missing here besides Apple's head start?
  10. quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: I think that Edward Norton is the most underrated actor or our time.Here, here. I will see pretty much anything with him in it because he's not just talented, he's good at picking projects to work on. I'm also pretty sure that most of the time his movies aren't going to be same old formula stuff. Good stuff all around, nuff said.
  11. Okay, just got back from seeing this. It's in limited release right now, but it was excellent. Great performances by Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. Jessica Beals was okay. She didn't add anything amazing but she didn't drag the movie down either. I enjoyed again seeing one of my favorite under-appreciated actors, Rufus Sewell (see Dark City if you haven't). I don't have the technical resources to be too specific about how the lighting and cinematography worked, but I thought everything looked really good. 9/10
  12. I'm going to give it better marks as well. Being about "story" is not an instant turn-off for me. I DO think that he should have cast someone else instead of himself in that role, but I thought that the reason I watched it was for the reasons Aramike suggested as well as the fact that the scenes between the characters were lots of fun. 7/10
  13. quote:Failing that, go play something else. I hear Eve is still recruiting. Have fun with that. quote:Eve? Meh! I'd rather watch grass grow.What's the difference between those two choices? Okay, on to my reason for posting. quote:We at ISS are currently working on or planning a number of projects that could be offered to the community as a whole (Marc is pretty overloaded with them all), if anyone else here is skilled in programming php-nuke, we can make them community-wide projects and host them at a fleet-neutral site (or here if SC is in favour).Something that I'd propose is that ISS can already be considered in some sensea fleet-neutral site. Let me elaborate: How is Fleet content hosted? 1. The fleets have topic threads and an official membership database here at 3000AD. However, they are not part of the official canon of the 3000AD universe, so it sort of makes sense that their distinctive content wouldn't be hosted at the official site. That said, the official site has historically been the way that people find the fleets. 2. The fleets currently host all their distinctive content on their own individual sites, but this has disadvantages. Namely, one must locate and then regularly check all the various sites and their various forum threads to stay up to date on their doings. That's a lot of work if everyone were to be as busy as I know ISS has been (and as busy as we'd like the fleet community to be). On the other hand, these sites emerged from the need for fleets to discuss internal matters and to host distinctive content that would highlight their organization and advantages as a fleet for the purposes of prestige and recruiting. Now, let's take a moment to examine ISS' context. ISS is the support, logistics, and intelligence-gathering arm of GALCOM. ISS and CIOPS would normally service allied fleets and compile information on enemy fleet strength and movements (respectively). What if relevant fleet content and selected forum topic areas were hosted at ISS in the form of logistical support (for allies) and "intelligence briefs" or "emergency action messages" (for enemies)? There is a good rationale to host any fleet content at ISS since it's RP context is an information and support clearinghouse, and this is especially true of inter-fleet content. The existing fleet sites would continue to exist in their present form because in many cases they don't do much more than serve forums for their members. That said, I've already seen the extra stuff Prime and the Insurgent site host to describe themselves. That content could either stay or migrate to ISS at the discretion of their leadership; the ISS site could easily absorb that content in new or existing modules, perhaps by "wrapping" that content into existing structures in ISS that compile reference information. The same is true for any and all other fleets. That content would presumably be supported/generated by the owning fleet, and implemented in coordination with ISS personnel if it wasn't just uploaded to a pre-selected FTP folder. The official site would continue to function as it always has: 1) as the official record of membership, and 2) as the best way to direct players to fleet activities. No changes needed or requested. The advantages of this approach are thus: 1. It emphasizes RP elements for each fleet. The game's background text is all told from the perspective of GALCOM anyway, so this gives our Insurgent friends a chance to be even more "infamous," and for our GALCOM friends to actually plug in to an actual service presentation by the fleet responsible for logistics. 2. It centralizes fleet content and inter-fleet discussions so one doesn't have to search out several sites to put together the bigger picture. It's interesting that there's lot of discussion going on, but it's spread out to the point where it seems pretty thin if you don't read broadly. 3. Fleets can contribute to one another within a common software framework. In other words, if developers in one fleet develop a good custom module, other fleets can gain the benefit of that module. Inter-fleet development efforts can be more coordinated, and developer efficiency goes up. 4. Proprietary or "secret" information can continue to be hosted on the individual fleet sites, and there is a clear distinction between classified and declassified information. 5. ... Well, there is no five. I could probably sit and think and make something up, but this is getting longish, and it's honestly kind of a musing at the moment. Also, what I'm suggesting is more of a thought experiment at the moment, so I wouldn't want to get too far down the road here before I'd heard some reaction, especially from other ISS leadership since it's our site I'm suggesting as the central depository. That said, the key idea is this: ISS can be considered a "fleet-neutral" site in the sense that all fleets can be well-represented there in a way that reinforces their (and our) RP role. So... thoughts?
  14. Well, apart from whatever degree of comment you'll get from Derek, you're overlooking the fact that a lot of what you're talking about is Derek's IP, not just our sandbox. I would not therefore expect anything that's written into the games themselves to be open to change. That does leave open the idea of revising the fleets since they were not part of the game universe officially, but I'm not sure I'd agree that most of the veterans are inactive and the newer people are more so. I've seen more of the newcomers come and go than I've seen of those veterans here today. Not that my opinion on this counts for more than $.02, but you should examine your expectations I think.
  15. ontopic: "A Scanner Darkly" is the title to Philip K. Dick's book, and is an updated reference to the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12. "For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known." Paul's referring to the next world, but Dick's novel is about a deep cover narcotics cop and what he "sees" in the course of his work. I've read the book, and I'll be interested to see if the movie is as smart. Don't judge a book...
  16. I'm also Christian, and I'm not sure what theology would be compromised by Jesus' having had offspring. I'm not interested in entertaining a theology discussion here, so I'll just leave it at that, but I think the thing that Christians get riled at Dan Brown for is that his book seems to take a lot of cheap shots at organized religion as such, and one might feel properly defensive about such broad strokes as I'm told his writing makes (I haven't read it yet). Find me any human institution (religious or not) that survives a thousand years with that degree of social power that doesn't have its ups and downs. I tend to think Christianity has done about as well as anyone could ask relatively speaking. As far as the movie went, I enjoyed the mystery of it, although I agree with the reviewer from AICN who said that when McKellen appeared that we got too much too early. I'm a bit of a pushover too though since I'm not so demanding as long as I'm entertained.
  17. Rubbish to the tune of approximately 77 million according to box office headlines I'm reading.
  18. Of all the things to get in pissing contests about... Sheesh! These characters appeal to people for different reasons, and liking both is possible, but they're apples and oranges. Superman's great because he's NOT dark Scriv. Superman will not be a gorefest with hardcore sexuality or terrifying and depraved departures into mental aberrancy. (Not that such things describe Batman, but I'm anticipating one of Scriv's normal reviews.) Believe it or not, that's NOT because the directors and editors were censored by Hollywood execs afraid to stir the moral center of the American middle class! The flying man in blue tights has lasted in spite of the blue tights (not because of them) because we like to see wonder and goodness. That's not what's great about Batman, but it's good enough for my nine bucks.
  19. I think we're going to be pleasantly surprised at the quality of the presentation, but I just personally have a hard time getting behind this Superman, Routh just seems a little too pretty and skinny. He's got a good honest look, but he looks real young, and I just think he should have been ... thicker, for lack of a better term.
  20. I haven't stopped playing Empire at War since I got it.
  21. I suppose it's lost in the shuffle that the wiretapping in question is on calls placed internationally that we have probably cause to suspect are terror-related. Our Bay Area and Great White Northern friends are perhaps a little to the left of the American mainstream which, if memory serves, runs about 40% to each party and 20% in the mushy middle (basically, people who vote on Charisma and single issues, not on their own worked out political theory). In other words, conservatives will continue to vote conservative (because the alternative is always worse); liberals will continue to vote liberal. Third parties won't get anywhere because neither side wants a Perot or Nader to siphon off a winning margin from their base. Those in the middle will vote for the guy with the best hair. That's really just about it. The one thing I'll say at present is that America will continue to vote conservative as long as conservatives have a discernible and cohesive political philosophy. Americans know where conservatives stand. Liberals do not seem to have much of an organized platform here since they're busier trying to make conservatives look bad than they are with trying to make themselves look good or at least get a coherent set of ideas behind a single message. Watch what the American political left is doing for a message and you won't hear a platform, you'll hear a host of "the problem with the president" or "Bush blah blah blah" or something about how America is going to be doomed by some fateful social problem. Conservatives have won because they proposed their own initiatives and ideas and ran on them. I'm not seeing the same from the American left.
  22. I don't know, but it is a high fidelity sim, so there is a learning curve. I can say that I didn't find it a hassle, there is a good manual in PDF that walks you through things one step at a time. Anyone still game for this?
  23. Others have used "fracking," before BSG, but I don't think that term was so widely distributed before now.
  24. Well, I know I'm dragging up an old thread, but I finally got the dough and bought this title. I'm taking my time and learning how to do things right; interested parties can PM me and we'll fly some missions some evening. Also, check out multiviperforums.com for a decent online server. Clear Skies
  25. That winnebago story's an urban legend, I've heard it before. Check snopes.com.
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