When developers wanted to build $1M+ houses and a golf course in the eastern foothills above Silicon Valley in the 1990's, the short answer should have been no. Alas, the City of San Jose didn't see it that way. Taxpayers paid $200 million to run water and sewer lines out to the new development. The HOA for that development nearly went bankrupt during the Great Recession when people moved out, no one wanted to move in, and everyone else didn't want to pay for keeping the golf course green.
The bottom line: If you want a phone line extended out into the boonies, maybe you should propose building some $1M homes and give generously to the local politicians. Water and sewer lines are freebies.
Star Trek: The Next Generation was generally well-done, with interesting charcerters and only a few clunker episodes.
I found Deep Space 9 an interesting concept let down by unimaginative writing.
I found Voyager unwatchable. Janeway came across as an affirmative action bureaucrat. A Captain is a monarch, not a bureaucrat. Patrick Stewart had played Shakespearean kings, and played Picard the same way. It worked. What Janeway needed was a good desk.
Sliders was a really interesting premise that ran out of steam. The same story every week. Yawn.
The X Files also started out well and also ran out of steam, descending in to torture porn.
Didn't watch any of the others, so no comment.
...laura
There is strong encryption, and there is unbreakable encryption. They are not necessarily the same thing.
Strong encryption is theoretically breakable, but it is not computationally feasible to do so. What is computationally feasible changes with time. Look at how key-length standards for RSA have changed, for example.
One-time pad encryption, on the other hand, is not breakable. It doesn't matter how much computer power you throw at it: if you don't have the key, you can't read the message.
...laura
Newegg has 120 DirectX video cards available. So what's the hold up on drivers?
"Ninety percent of baseball is half mental." -- Yogi Berra
