Red Shirt Volunteer

I used to but I bagged out the bearings too much and didn't feel like putting up money for a new pair - just got into other things. Blades are easy to use if you can ice skate - you can skate almost the same way with the one major exception being stopping. I think it's probably advantageous to be in an urban location to put them to good use; or, you should at least have a lot of smooth streets - it gets pretty boring if you use them in the same place all the time; at least, it did for me. The only problem is if you use them as a means of transportation, they're a bit of a pain to put away - can't keep them outside and sometimes it's hard to find anywhere to keep them safe inside.

Make sure you wear knee and elbow pads. A helmet is also a good idea, especially if you're not very steady on them. Even good skaters eat dirt now and then.

This is indeed sad news. She brought a sense of depth to the show through her portrayal of Cutler and made it feel more down to earth. Her warm smile and demeanour gave us a character we could all like and want to emulate. I always got a chuckle out of Ms. Waymire's scenes and felt like that's how most of us normal people might interact with the crew, and felt like she helped connect with the audience at a level that other aspects of the program didn't. Her absence will be felt by fans in more ways than just her role on the show, but as someone we could all aspire to be like.

By the way, I thought the same thing as Captain Bolivar re. a dedication but nothing in the show. She hadn't appeared in a while and I was beginning to wonder what had happened since she played such a likeable character.

OK, it's XP Home but I've fixed it. Luckily I'm big into backing stuff up and have an extra drive that I use purely for this purpose. I changed the master and slave drives and booted up the back-up copy of XP, then swapped the files I'd changed back the originals. Only to about 10 or 15 minutes to crack it open, switch the HDs and overwrite the new files in safe mode then swap back the drives and put it back in place. In case your wondering, I just got tired of the Windows XP boot screen and the login screen and changed the following files to some cooler pics:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\logonui.exe [for the login]

and

C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe [for the boot screen]

Apparently, Windows XP updates often change the version of the latter and if the one you replace it with isn't identical, well, let's just say you want it to be identical. All good now.

Not sure why I put this here, but it seemed to make sense to keep it in a computer problem thread.

<_< Ha ha ha. I just changed my boot screen and login screen and all my machine does right now is boot. Then reboot. Again and again, automatically just before the login screen appears. Doh!

P.S. I'm writing this from work.

That's the right attitute. No, I'm not being sarcastic. I'd never live in someone else's house just for these reasons. On the other hand, I'd also never rent my place out. I live in an apartment mainly because I don't want to deal with intrusive landlords. I remember looking at one place a few years back and the landlord asked me about my sexual behaviour because foreigners (I live in Japan) are just too noisy. He also questioned my ability to understand his culture. Well, I decided to pay the price and get an apartment (the price is basically 5 months rent that you'll likely never see again) just to avoid having to deal with him.

Basically, they can say whatever they want and there's nothing you can do about it. The only hope we have is to say no to their conditions. On the other hand, if I were renting a place, I'd insist on non-smokers and no pets (sooner or later, accidents happen).

Simply because someone is renting your house does not entitle you to lord over them,and dictate their lives for them.

Hence the term landLORD. :blink:

Yes, if you see this on time, build your own. You'll learn a lot more about how you computer works in the process and probably not need to ever take it to a shop if it breaks down. Getting things fixed is a total rip-off and you can probably put in new and better parts for the same price as some repair jobs (depending on the part). Slap an AMD chip in it to start the savings with a bang. Most store-bought computers have some bad parts, the most likely suspects I've noted being the motherboard, the video card and the RAM (which is almost always the lowest quality available), at least they do in Japan. And if you can see this, buy parts on the Internet using a friend's computer.

A co-worker of mine did something similar. The management had complained that his hair was too long (the contract he was on stated it couldn't be any more than shoulder length), so he shaved most of it except for a bit in the middle and it looked a lot like what you described. The boss didn't like it, but what could he say? The new do fit perfectly within the rules of the contract.

I also had a friend in high school who shaved one side of his head, the other side was a medium length.

I'm not sure I'd want to see Shran every week until the end of the series, but it'd be great to see how Combs would portray him interacting with the crew on a more regular basis. The tension between him and T'Pol would be great. I really wish Combs had been a member of the original cast. This is not to say I don't think one of them was a bad choice, just that I think Combs is that good. Combs every week, yes; Shran every week, hmmm, maybe for a while, but not forever.

I agree with Tank: Hoshi would be an absolutely terrible choice for someone in command. She still whines too much and is a bit indecisive (though she got a lot better in "Exile").

Malcolm's just too eager to fire off his piece and is a bit pushy - I don't think he'd be at all good at considering the overall objectives of a mission or other officers' suggestions. He's also a bit too negative - this would not be inspirational to any subordinates.

Travis generally makes the right decisions and shows a flare for what he does. I say Travis should get it if anyone, but then again, he has had such a small role to date, it's really hard to justify it. At this point, I'm against any promotions, but if it has to happen, then Mayweather gets my vote. He's competent, confident and able to come up with good alternatives to solve problems.

This isn't directed at anyone in particular, just my thoughts on the spelling issue.

Personally, I don't have a big problem with poor spelling as long as it's limited to a few words. I don't think it represents a lack of intelligence at all, and a lot of people just have trouble picking it up. Some of my best friends are surprised by my, generally, good spelling and grammar, but I know for a fact that they are far more advanced in other fields than I could hope to be. We all have different skills.

On the other hand, SoCalTom is right that it's bad netiquette. It's a pain reading messages that are poorly constructed or riddled with spelling mistakes to the point that I have to do extra interpretation to figure out what they mean. So why not just use a spell-checker (which can help with grammar, too) if it's difficult? It takes very little time and can improve a message greatly. It amazes me that people will take the time to add glowing text or goofy smilies (though I have to say I'm prone to using them), but not check their spelling. It's just frustrating having to read through poorly constructed paragraphs - I just give up now. The worst ones are those that don't use caps (or use them too much) and don't separate ideas into paragraphs properly. They're just irritating to read.

Looks like it could be a fun episode. I'd like to see Malcolm in a cowboy hat doing a bad accent for a laugh, but it looks like he's the cavalry at the end if we judge by these pictures. Who's the bad guy? I feel like I've seen him somewhere before.

Thanks for all the info. The impression I get is that the XP firewall has no function if you have another one running, which I do. I've got lots of security-related software on my machine for finding and deleting ad-spy-ware, trojans, etc., stopping viruses and protecting it from hackers, so I think I can probably just kill off the XP firewall. Thanks for confirming all of this for me - it was very helpful.

It's a hypothetical question. I blundered on the name in the original post, but the current song is not an option. Don't say "Where My Heart Will Take Me" because it wasn't exactly a song a lot of us would've known before Ent. began.

Choose whatever song you think would fit, not necessarily one from my list. Those were just some that sprung to mind. I'm not suggesting the theme needs changing. As I already said, I think it works, though the new one is a little too upbeat. The question is simply: If you had been the person responsible for choosng the song, which one would you have used?

It might have been fun to see Miles, Cochrane and Riker having a few drinks together. Could have been a good comedy scene.

There's been a lot of talk about the theme song already. Some love it. Some hate it. Personally, I liked the first one and thought that it matched the spirit of the show quite well. I don't mind the new version (let's face it, it's basically the same thing), but I'm not sure the more upbeat sound fits with the journey into the dreaded expanse.

My question is: If you had to choose a song for the show, which one would you use? Please do not say an instrumental, "Where My Hear Will Take Me" or something along those lines. Choose a modern song that you think would work well as an introduction (or at least give us a laugh). Obviously it would have to be an abbreviated version of the song to fit into the time allotted for credits, but I'm sure most of us can account for that.

I had a few in mind (obviously these represent my taste in music to some degree):

"Parallel Universe" (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

"Fly Away" (Lenny Kravitz)

"Supersatellite" (Our Lady Peace)

"2000 Light Years from Home" (The Rolling Stones - skip the long intro)

Wow, some nice pics there. And yeah, I think subcommanderbeavis is right about the location: The bridge should be buried. They see everything on a viewscreen anyway, so it doesn't make much sense to have it exposed like that. I mean, they've got all these safety features, but wouldn't it make more sense to have it in a fairly central location to allow people to move quickly to other parts of the ship in case of emergency, or just as a matter of convenience?

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not too worried about the firewall as it pertains to this site since I know nothing nasty will happen here. I was kind of more concerned with the following:

1. Has anyone noticed problems re. performance and other programs when the XP Firewall is on?

2. Is it effective as a firewall, or just a waste of resources if you're already using another one?

Thanks again for any help you can offer.

Thanks for the info, CaptainFreeman. I also can't see moving smilies with my firewall on, though it doesn't bother me. I can, however, see the text editing, so maybe if you play with the setting you'll be able to. I'm using Zone Alarm Pro, which is a great firewall, so I'm also wondering if the XP firewall even does anything or if it's just redundant and using up system resources.

Does anyone use the XP firewall? With it on or off, do you notice any changes to performance of your computer? Also, is it an effective firewall if you have something else?

I kind of thought "Impulse" was a Halloween special with all those zombie-like Vulcans running around. Then again, I get tapes sent to me and see them a couple of weeks (or more) after everyone else, so I doubt anybody but me even thoguht there was a connection - I just happened to see it for the first time on Oct 30 if I remember correctly.

Essentially that's what I'm saying. I feel the reuse of classic stories can be a good thing in establishing that connection to TOS or what we already know about the Trek universe. It's hard for any writer to come up with completely unique material. Besides, if they did, it would likely be lost on many of us because it wouldn't connect with our experiences or the program in general. The seies is among the best that Trek has offered in my opinion.

On the other hand, I do feel there has been a certain level of repetition in Ent we haven't seen before. This is probably due to the fact that it's a prequel and that we've had so much other Trek in recent years (continuous (I think) since TNG through Voyager). A few of the episodes have been a tad, shall we say, reminiscent of things I've seen before a few too many times.

The problem for the writers is to remain true to the spirit of the show and use the classic stories that are easy to understand and can draw in new fans; however, they also simultaneously have to appeal to those of us who've seen a lot of Trek and want some surprises. I'd say they're doing a very good job in general, but don't quite get it together right on the occasional episode. Season 3 appears to be moving in the right direction and getting away from this pattern so far.

Just so nobody thinks this is only my opinion, here's another thread where other people state basically the same thing, interspersed with some colourful commentary about Trip's appearance:

An old thread on "Dawn"

Whatever. I said in my orginal post that I like the show - did you bother to read it? I tried to post something substantial and I didn't get angry at all. I would just like to see a response with some detail in it instead of blindly cheering on Ent. I've said elsewhere that I do like it, so that's why I post here, and not at startrek.com where it was a wasteland of complaining. If you can't reply to critique, what am I supposed to do? There's not much point in posting and discussing it if people aren't even willing to see it from more than one point of view. I don't see anything in my post lacking civility - I'm not willing to compromise what I believe based on a comments like "Lighten up." And really, is there any need for you guys to jump all over me and attack what I said. The last 2 posts have had almost nothing to do with the topic or added very little to it. If you have a problem with my posts, show some tact and send a PM to me or the Admin.

I've also said elsewhere that I thought Ent was improving of late in other areas. Am I not allowed to have a different opinion on different aspects of the program?

The question isn't about every other sci-fi show, it's about Ent and its place in the Star Trek as far as originality goes - so please try to stay on topic. I didn't say it stole ideas on a regular basis, I said there have been a few episodes that were a little lacking on creativity. I said I like the show and most eps are good, but don't go saying every one is brand new. Come off it. Have you even seen "Enemy Mine?" It's fairly blatant. I'm not saying it was a bad episode, it was fine - but nothing special and certainly nothing creative.

What's the point of this thread anyway? Nobody's brought up one single example of evidence except me. For goodness sake, at least argue what elements of the episode of "Dawn" were original. Do I have to make a comprehensive list? I feel I must request that you at least back up what you're saying with something more than your opinion. The thing is, for younger viewers I can see how it would seem original; but, for those of us who have seen our share of sci-fi, it was a pretty weak attempt. If you tried to pass something like this off as academic work, you'd probably be expelled (from any decent university) if the makers of "Enemy Mine" weren't given credit for the idea. I'm open to the idea that "Enemy Mine" even got the idea from elsewhere, but that's not the point because it just adds to the unoriginal nature of it.

I don't even expect Ent to be completely original. There should be some classic elements in it to help link it with themes from TOS and the other history we know of Starfleet, etc.

There's no problem using classic storylines or conflicts, but let's not be too optimistic. Although I thought "Dawn" was a decent episode to help develop Trip's character a bit, it was a blantant rip-off of stories that have been seen before in TNG and the filme, "Enemy Mine." There have been a few other eps I'm sure, but I can't be bothered listing them. Since no eps were listed in the previous posts here indicating where people had claimed they were rip-offs then explaining why they weren't, I don't really feel like putting much effort into stating why some of them are.

Basically, I think it's fine if they reuse the general structure and conflicts of old plots, but when there are too many similarities, it's just lame writing. How many times did we see Archer get captured? I think everyone got a little tired of that scenario after a while, and it was just the first 2 seasons. I'm not saying I don't like Ent because I actually think it's the best all-around series I've seen so far, but let's not completely ignore its weaknesses.