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Boosting Rangers

B

B5_Obsessed

Regular
Thoroughly disgusted with the lack of coverage, and tired of Herc's reviews of "Gilmore Girls" (Yeah, Aint that Cool? Dirty sonufa...), I just sent an email over to some of the premier genre websites to spread the word about "Legend of the Rangers". This email included the link to the trailer page and an attached file of the "large" .mov file so they wouldn't have to wait to see it.

If you'd like to reinforce the message and maybe get them to write something about it, you can send polite, interested queries to:

harry@aintitcool.com
sfeditors@ign.com
feedback@cinescape.com
garth@darkhorizons.com

------------------
"When something we value is destroyed, we rebuild it. If it's destroyed again we rebuild it again. And again, and again, and again. Until it stays. "
~Jeffrey Sinclair
 
I won't be worrying about coverage until early to mid-November, honestly. Believe it or not, but for most of the world, October is STILL really too early to start promoting a mid-January telemovie. And, yes, there are a few new things hanging about, but no new official news (I wonder if Dylan's announcement about Warners' willingness to shop the thing elsewhere counts?).

And right now there are only two trailers. Remember how annoying a trailer gets after you see it a couple times. There's such a thing as saturation. Did you remember heavy promotion for Enterprise only started a month before airdate?

I'm *not* worried yet. And Enterprise is still in the forefront. Let October pass, and then... well, then we'll start worrying.

Hell, I'm grateful the movie even got *made.*

They can't print buzz if there's no buzz to print. If you read Cinescape, they did a little online thing about Dylan's possible choice. You can't really publish something like "Studio heads say Rangers is better than enterprise!" You have to publish something like "Mr. Smith of Whatever Productions says Rangers is better than Enterprise." ESPECIALLY if you're a reputable magazine like Cinescape and you follow the AP Guidelines, which I do believe they do.

TV Guide already did two little things, I think, on Rangers, and I distinctly remember B5 being featured once or twice. I'm pretty sure when the time rolls around, TV Guide will give our heroes a pretty good sell. As with the genre magazines - if they know their stuff, they'll know to write about Rangers. Just give it a little time. Other than the final cut being out and a new trailer hanging around, there really isn't much news.

That's just my two cents.

(Anyone wanna give me a new hobby?!)

------------------
Ranger Channe, the next JMS, who lives for the One and dies for the Chocolate Cheesecake.

[This message has been edited by channe (edited October 10, 2001).]
 
Well, this isn't official press anyway. I'm talking about the scoop and rumor sites that usually run this kind of stuff.
Anyway, it never hurts to try.

------------------
"When something we value is destroyed, we rebuild it. If it's destroyed again we rebuild it again. And again, and again, and again. Until it stays. "
~Jeffrey Sinclair
 
I'm not so sure about that. I mean, they must get tons of mail a day, and now you just sent them an e-mail each with an ~10MB file attached. Some of them may not appreciate that.

In the future, I'd suggest giving a link to a server where the file is kept, rather than sending the file itself. Just like posting big stuff on the boards here.

Also note: just because they have the movie doesn't mean they can post it. I doubt any official site can post the movie without permission from Sci-Fi at least, and usually they prefer posting a link to the original page anyway. I already e-mailed Garth at Dark Horizons about the trailer and gave him a link to the Sci-Fi page, and the next day he posted the link to download the trailers from, as that is the format that he always uses (too many legal issues mirroring the trailers directly, not to mention the space concerns).

Just some thoughts...
-mcn
 
I just sent them the file so they wouldn't have to sit through the wait of scifi.com.

I also gave them the link.

If they don't appreciate the email, you know what they can do with it.

------------------
"When something we value is destroyed, we rebuild it. If it's destroyed again we rebuild it again. And again, and again, and again. Until it stays. "
~Jeffrey Sinclair
 
Yes, they can delete it. And through that, possibly be disgruntled about B5LR in general and *not* report anything about it ever again.

I'm not saying they will, I'm just saying it's possible. Similar to writing a nasty e-mail to Sci-Fi saying "Why the *(@&#(*&@ dont' you show B5LR sooner?". Granted, it gets the point across, but it has the potential of getting them angry and further associating that anger with B5LR, which is exactly what we're trying to work *against*.

Further, by attaching it to an e-mail, you have:
1) Possibly overloaded their mail server, which might not accept such large attachments and thus cause them to miss *other* e-mail, or
2) If not, then you've *forced* them to download the entire trailer via your e-mail, instead of giving them the *choice* of downloading it from a website. I for one would be resentful of having a 10MB download forced on me, no matter how good the end result was.
3) If it doesn't take them that long to download it via e-mail, then it'd take just as little time to download it on the web, so you haven't saved them anything. If anything, the web source is bound to be faster than their e-mail server (for those who have fast connections, at any rate).

Polite, interested queries is a good thing. Overloading their servers isn't. They're bound to appreciate or at least politely receive the former. Not the latter. And at this point, I don't think anyone will argue with me when I say B5LR needs all the supporters it can get right now.

{/rant}
Cheers,
-mcn
 
I'll have to cast my vote with Capt Neville.

I get Very Annoyed with people who E-Mail Megabyte attachments. Even with a Fast conection, they take a Long time to download. Particularly since most ISPs use their slowest servers for E-Mail. After all, the Heavy traffic is in web pages, so that gets their fastest server.

It doesn't matter how fast my connection is. The slowest server involved in the transaction sets the download speed.



------------------
Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
 
Thanks, bakana :)

But aren't you just supposed to fly in, blow everything up, and say "You are not ready for megabyte attachments"? :)

Cheers,
--mcn
 
It's a real pity Glen, the guy who used to run the TV section, left. He was very reliable (he found out about TNT's plans for Crusade before jms) and was a big B5 fan.

------------------
You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are only entitled to your own informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison qouting Gustave Flaubert
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by drakh:
I have my email adress set to filter out non-text attatchments. If someone wants to send me a file they should have my permission first, and there are much more efficent ways to do it.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Out of curiousity: what are they? I don't exactly send 10MB attachments, but sometimes some students have a hard time with them. What really takes up the memory is not really the quiz or exam I send out, but the work they have to send back along with their answers.

Some of my students use zip files, and that seems to work well. But out of curiousity, what other efficient ways are there to do it?

------------------
"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo
 
In your case, the options aren't that many. You could have a FTP server of some kind (with a web interface to make things easier) that they can upload their files to. That would probably be the best way, although not necessarily the most user-friendly for your students. OTOH, an FTP server is far more capable of handling that amount of data than an e-mail server is. Also, posting quizes and exams as web pages are always nicer than sending out files (they can always print out the web pages if they want :)

If you still have to resort to e-mails, ZIP files are certainly the way to go. Doesn't work too well for movies or MP3s, which are already compressed, but for text files and such, ZIP files work wonders :)

Oh, and incidentally, Dark Horizons is down today. Not entirely sure why...

Cheers,
--mcn
 
I'm sure scifi will take care of advertising the movie the closer it gets to January and will see lots
cool.gif


------------------
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Capt. Neville:

Oh, and incidentally, Dark Horizons is down today. Not entirely sure why...

Cheers,
--mcn

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm not either. maybe their server is down.

------------------
No one here is exactly what he appears.
G'Kar - Andreas Katsulas

Nothing's the same anymore.
Commander Sinclair - Michael O'Hare

Babylon 5
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hypatia:
Some of my students use zip files, and that seems to work well. But out of curiousity, what other efficient ways are there to do it?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>ICQ or IRC file transfer functions... Goes directly from one computer to another.

------------------
You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are only entitled to your own informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison qouting Gustave Flaubert
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> ICQ or IRC file transfer functions... Goes directly from one computer to another. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Uh, not unless you have a direct Phone Line or null modem cable between them.

Unless it's all in the same room, or at least the same Building, you seldom know What computers the message passes through.

The only thing that varies with ICQ and IRC functions is Which message passing protocol gets used. Some protocols are faster than others because they have less processing overhead. It has more to do with error checking and routing verification than anything else.

Some message protocols do extra processing to verify that the message got delivered. If they don't get an acknowledgement within a set time limit they send the message again.

Others just send the message and forget about it. Send and forget is Faster because all the traffic for each message is One Way.



------------------
Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
 
I have my email adress set to filter out non-text attatchments. If someone wants to send me a file they should have my permission first, and there are much more efficent ways to do it.

------------------
You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are only entitled to your own informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison qouting Gustave Flaubert

[This message has been edited by drakh (edited October 11, 2001).]
 
Sigh...

A great sentiment, vis-à-vis attempting to gain attention through Ain't It Cool News, however...

Essentially, what it boils down to is that Harry Knowles is quite a rabid fan of Babylon 5 in all of its incarnations, but with regards to matters relating to the television and other sections of his site, Harry siphons off responsibility to consarnedly biased, idiotic fanboys such as "Robogeek" and "Hercules the Strong," who -- the latter in particular -- are quite notoriously anti-B5, and go out of their way time and time again to suppress any coverage it might receive.

Best way to go?

Contact Harry directly and attempt to appeal to his better judgment.

------------------
 
For a single file transfer from one person to another, nothing beats ICQ for simplicity and versatility (well, except for one bug on some systems that causes ICQ to crash when the file is over 20MB, but I digress).

The point is though that Hypatia is talking about his students sending him files. Given a typical class of 15-30 or even 50 students, and given that they all could be submitting their assignments at any time, I doubt that he'd want to keep ICQ open on auto download, nor have the time to sit around and accept each file transfer manually. Plus, ICQ doesn't work on all systems (last I heard, it still conflicted with AOL dialups, go figure), so that would limit the students that could use it.

So for single file transfers from buddy to buddy, ICQ is the best IMHO. But in Hypatia's case, my FTP/web site upload solution would be far preferrable, not to mention the best solution overall.

Oh, and bakana: yeah, you *could* send a file via UDP and not bother with the two-way traffic, but lose just one packet... =:O TCP/IP exists for a reason :)

Cheers,
--mcn
 
Captain, Hypatia is a she.
laugh.gif


And UDP is, well, unreliable.
laugh.gif
It's good for time critical applications (i.e. sending current time, where confirmation would make the time obsolete) but for others, as the Captain has said, it's no good, since the loss of even one packet makes the entire file virtually unreadable.

The FTP load does look like the better option.

I've used email to send my assignments with attachments though, and the prof didn't mind. Of course, he didn't have each student doing it... and files were only a few K or at most a meg. At the risk of overworking the server, email is another valid option, as it allows the user to choose to get the attachment by opening the message.

------------------
Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up. It's depressing.
Ivanova: So in that case we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.
 
Apologies to Hypatia for the he/she confusion.

As for the e-mail attachment issue: yes, the user has a choice to *open* the attachment, but they don't get a choice of whether to *download* it, which was my original point. FTP gives them both options, not to mention giving an automatic backup of all the files uploaded (since e-mail typically downloads them to your local computer and then deletes them from the server--either that, or the e-mail sys admin gets very angry with you :)

FTP upload with a web interface would be just as easy as e-mail attachments, not to mention giving all the students one unified interface for submitting their assignments. She could also then post rules for submission on the interface page, not to mention that the upload page could live right next to the assignments page, or even be the same page (i.e. for each assignment, it gets its own page, along with the submission interface at the bottom of the assignment). A CGI script could easily append the interface automatically to whatever assignment pages she makes, to avoid the trouble of adding it manually. Then it's just a matter of an FTP browser for her to look up the files on the server, or to make life easier, a batch file or script to download all of them to a local folder.

Again, just my 2-1/2 cents...

Cheers,
--mcn
 
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