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Comment Re:Battlestar Galactica (Score 1) 852

Saying that Star Wars (and other stories) shouldn't be called Science Fiction since they could be told in other settings, seems like unnecessary purism.

I do think that Star Wars shouldn't be categorized in the same genre as classic science fiction but "can't be told in other settings" was a poor attempt at a definition. See my comment below.

I guess that depends which of the common definitions you subscribe to

I don't really subscribe to any one line definitions even though I tried to give one in my last post. To really understand the genre you would have to go to the book store and buy an anthology or two of classic science fiction stories (most are short stories) and just sit down and read. To try and distill a definition of the genre down to one or two lines is something that dictionary writers need to do but that doesn't mean they're accurate. I would say that's actually true for all literary genres. You can't understand what any genre, be it sci-fi, drama, western, horror, or anything really is unless you read it.

p.s. I don't mean to imply that I don't like Star Wars. It's actually one of my favorite movies.

Comment Re:Battlestar Galactica (Score 1) 852

For me Science Fiction means any narrative or story set in a world at a higher technological stage than us.

It's disappointing that the common definition of science fiction has degenerated so much. In classic science fiction the technology or science plays a central role in the story; it's not just part of the backdrop. If you can take the story and, without losing the central theme, re-write it in an alternate setting without the science and tech aspects then it's not real science fiction.

Philip K. Dick's 'Minorty Report' and Issac Asimov's 'I Robot' are good examples of classic science fiction. The story requires the technology. OTOH, Star Wars and most episodes of Star Trek (varies by series) are, imo, examples of stories which should not rightly be called science fiction since they could easily be rewritten in another setting and still retain the core themes and plot points.

Comment Re:Wow! (Score 2, Interesting) 264

Cell phones will drive IPv6. Large service providers like Sprint are already dedicating significant resources to IPv6 because they know they will need it for 4G. NATing won't work because there are just too many phones. So those 4G phones will have to be IPv6. And then they can only access the IPv6 internet. So that will drive everything to switch.
Classic Games (Games)

Submission + - Checkers has been solved (bbc.co.uk)

lazyl writes: From the article: A Canadian team has created a computer program that can win or draw any game, no matter who the opponent is. It took an average of 50 computers nearly two decades to sift through the 500 billion billion possible draughts positions to come up with the solution.
The Internet

Submission + - The Usefulness of the Simple Command Line

Michael writes: Sugarcodes is a new site that has extremely basic functionality but, like old-timer YubNub , is an awesome productivity tool for many users. It's basically nothing more than a command line, where a search of just about any web service can be conducted using a simple dedicated command. "g books" does a search on Google for books... From an article on TechCrunch
Sony

Submission + - French court slaps down Sony DRM

john-da-luthrun writes: A French court has ruled that Sony's CONNECT Store infringes French consumer law, reports the TechnoLlama IP blog. Under French law, it is illegal to tie the purchase of a service (such as downloading a music file) to the purchase of a another product, so Sony were held to be breaking the law by selling music files that required a Sony player in order to access them. The court also found that Sony had failed to inform customers that its ATRAC 3 files can only be played on Sony digital players. A similar case in France involving Apple's iTunes/iPod tie-in is ongoing.

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