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As an American student, book prices are absolutely ridiculous. A quick example: Physics: Principles with Applications, 5th Ed from Amazon.com costs $131 while the same book from Amazon.co.uk costs 30.09 pounds or about $55.

"...and that fifth one no one really likes to talk about."

I know what you mean. When I first read the trilogy, it was only in four parts, but when I finally purchased my own copy, there was the fifth part!

I wasn't too sure about 'Mostly Harmless' the first time I read it, but after numerous readings it certainly grows on you. However, it was definitely written in a different style and you felt that Arthur had changed quite a bit. Nevertheless, it's still an amazing book and I am addicted to Adam's style of writing and his superb range of analogies e.g.

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't. ".

As previously mentioned, I'm so glad that I have had the pleasure of reading the Hitchhiker books before the film. I'm also used to the voices of Ford and Arthur from the original BBC Radio tapes, so this will be very strange.

However, after the comparisons with LOTR, I hadn't previously read the books (apart from a few attempts whilst at school) and after seeing the film, I can't wait to read the books...

But the main problem today is that people aren't following any of those standards! Whether we're talking of minor typos, common misspellings ('rediculous' &c), or the complete lack of any order or at all (some postings here...), far too few web pages and posts use English that anyone would recognise.

I find it interesting that those for whom English is a second language generally use it fairly well. Many continental Europeans, for example, put us to shame, rivalling the best native speakers in spelling, grammar, idiom, and other aspects. It's those whose first (and often only) language is English who mistreat it most grievously!

What depresses me most isn't ignorance so much as wilful ignorance. No-one knows the spelling of every word in the language, or makes no grammatical mistakes or typos. But everyone can improve, can spot where they go wrong and learn from their mistakes. However, too few seem to be doing so...

Good English matters. You can't always say "But you knew what I meant." -- Firstly, you're making it much harder for people to know what you meant; often, they won't make the effort. Computers, search engines and the like often don't know what you meant. People may know what you meant but infer unfortunate things about your education and intellect anyway. People still learning English (youngsters or foreigners) may learn the wrong lessons from your bad example. And, maybe most importantly, people often don't know what you meant, or think they do while completely misunderstanding you.

Luckily, quite a few people seem to agree with me -- as evidenced by the unexpected runaway success here in the UK of a book named after an old joke, in which a single misplaced comma completely changes the meaning: Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves .

(Posted on behalf of CaRP, the Campaign for Real Pedantry.)

In case no one's mentioned them, I really enjoyed Mark Saltzman's Game Design: Secrets of the Sages. May be a bit dated (1999), but good reading on the genre. I understand he had a new one out in 2003 called Masters of the Game - don't know what it's like though.

In case no one's mentioned them, I really enjoyed Mark Saltzman's Game Design: Secrets of the Sages. May be a bit dated (1999), but good reading on the genre. I understand he had a new one out in 2003 called Masters of the Game - don't know what it's like though.

I think that it's a bit unfair to criticize the entire Guardian staff based on something that Jack Schofield says about Free or Open Source software. The man is fanatical in his hatred of FOSS; the only interesting question about this is, "why?" I personally believe that he's simply "trolling" for readers. There are lots of people like me who tend to read his column in Guardian Online on Thursdays, just to see what boneheaded nonsense he has come out with this time. (I have, however, stopped buying the Guardian on Thursdays as I don't want to financially support them while they print such rubbish). Other people believe that his behaviour is more characteristic of a person who is scared in some way. He is clearly very familiar with Windows and he might be one of those who would prefer not to learn another operating system (in which case you might reasonably ask why he's a technical journalist, of course!) Another school of thought about his hostility is that when he first tried to install Linux he couldn't for some reason. When he went to the communities for help, somebody was a bit horrible to him and he's been bearing a grudge all these years. This is by far the most amusing theory!

I've just thought that there are some clued-up journalists who work for The Guardian and The Observer (for you non-UK readers, these papers are in the same ownership). Glyn Moody wrote the excellent, Rebel Code and he sometimes writes in The Guardian. And on Sunday there is the incomparable John Naughton, who wrote a compelling history of the internet. Naughton's column appears in the Business section of the Observer. It is required reading, IMHO.

I think that it's a bit unfair to criticize the entire Guardian staff based on something that Jack Schofield says about Free or Open Source software. The man is fanatical in his hatred of FOSS; the only interesting question about this is, "why?" I personally believe that he's simply "trolling" for readers. There are lots of people like me who tend to read his column in Guardian Online on Thursdays, just to see what boneheaded nonsense he has come out with this time. (I have, however, stopped buying the Guardian on Thursdays as I don't want to financially support them while they print such rubbish). Other people believe that his behaviour is more characteristic of a person who is scared in some way. He is clearly very familiar with Windows and he might be one of those who would prefer not to learn another operating system (in which case you might reasonably ask why he's a technical journalist, of course!) Another school of thought about his hostility is that when he first tried to install Linux he couldn't for some reason. When he went to the communities for help, somebody was a bit horrible to him and he's been bearing a grudge all these years. This is by far the most amusing theory!

I've just thought that there are some clued-up journalists who work for The Guardian and The Observer (for you non-UK readers, these papers are in the same ownership). Glyn Moody wrote the excellent, Rebel Code and he sometimes writes in The Guardian. And on Sunday there is the incomparable John Naughton, who wrote a compelling history of the internet. Naughton's column appears in the Business section of the Observer. It is required reading, IMHO.

Is the source available on GPL?

No, but you can buy the SDK here.

• They Live because it was out-of-print in the US (it came out soon after and I have purchased a Region 1 copy)
• Flash Gordon because it is long out-of-print in the US, still with no sign of a reissue
• The War of the Worlds because I wanted to compare it to my Region 1 version, maybe even merge the language tracks into a new combined edition (the disks' capacities are underutilized), especially as the UK version has a stereo English track only available on Laserdisc in the US, and
• Doctor Who , the Fox TV movie still not available in the US in any format!

This player has been available on Amazon for quite a while now - not only does it play any region's DVD's, but it will also play DivX and XVid encoded AVI files.

The BPI are threatening to go after Play and Amazon next. It'll be interesting to see whether they win so easily against bigger companies who can afford lawyers.

I'll be particularly gutted if Play are forced to raise their prices. I buy all my DVDs from there.

With a monopoly over He3 production they could cripple OPEC and effectively build their own society with an iron grip over the earth's economy. AKA Peter F Hamiltons Nights Dawn Trilogy

Yeah, even Amazon.co.uk sell primarily multi-region players. I'd say it's pretty common;' arguably more difficult to get a region-restricted one these days.

Boards of Canada / Geogaddi
one of the better electronic albums of the last few years.
listen to samples at amazon if there's none
at warp (their website was clearly not prepared
for this onslaught from reg and slashdot users)

Too late already to make it into that showcase of watches, All tomorrow's parties. Cooler than the Jaeger LeCoultre Futurematic, anyways.

I've always thought the system proposed by (Kim Stanley Robinson) in the Mars Trilogy books was kinda neat:

All clocks stop at midnight, wait 40 minutes, then tick over to 00:01

(Yes, there are practicality and "yes, but *WHAT'S the TIME*??!?" issues, but I still reckon it'd be cool)

That's nothing. Amazon UK has been taking pre-orders for Duke Nukem Forever!

to spread the cost for the public benefit of universal access.

I would be very interested to see if there is any hard evidence that it is a "public benefit". I mean, would it be a "public" benefit" if the government subsidized every household having a PlayStation?

It's like computers in schools. Sure, they sound like a good idea, but as Clifford Stoll observes between the ages of 6 and 16, computers are actually bad for education, because they divert time and resources away from real learning... it's as if astronomy students spent all their time studying telescopes and none on actual stars.

GTA-SA.com

but just in case I was wrong, I got gta-sc.com too ;) Interesting to note: Just a few days ago, Amazon began pre-selling "GTA4: Sin City", but later changed the name to "GTA: The next episode"
Forum Topic
Amazon Link

During WW2, soviet dog were trained to go hunt tanks. The dogs carried explosives and ran under tanks were the bomb evantually detonated. The problem was that the dogs didn't make the differance between the bad and the good guys tanks. The dogs mostly ran under the soviet tanks that were used for their training. You can find this story in that book Book

I was thinking about something along those lines myself last night. I also think a $99 price is doable, especially if you used something like uClinux as its OS, basically you want one of these squashed down a bit more.

"Why would you want to re-encode an AAC to an MP3?"

Because you have something which plays MP3s?

If I recall correctly, Michael Foale was onboard Mir when it sprung a leak due to a collision with an unmanned Progress supply rocket. They were testing a new automated docking system and it malfunctioned, causing the unmanned rocket to collide with Mir causing a significant leak. [wanders off to actual _read_ the article]

Yup, my memory is correct. The current situation is massively different from the previous one in which they had something like 30 minutes of breathable air left in the station and Michael Foale was already sitting in the escape capsule preparing it for launch / release, IIRC. Dragonfly: An Adventure of Survival in Outer Space is a well written book that describes the Mir program, including this incident.

You know, sailors have supersitions about "unlucky" crew and someone who is involved in too many incidents find that they are no longer welcome on board. Michael may ind himself in this situation after this. :-)

... in After Virtue.

There's plenty of damaging information about Kissinger already in the public domain. See The Trial of Henry Kissinger, a book that makes the case for his indictment.

The only firm circumstantial evidence we have to go on is Marcus Marci's letter to Anasthasius Kirchir, which mentions that the manuscript was sold to King Rudolph for 600 ducats.

I got Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman for Christmas, and while it's short (too short?) it contains lots of small but possibly significant little references and mysteries, relating to an Oxford in a parallel universe and to our own. There's a list of books for sale on the back of an included map, and included is 'Polymathestatos: A Festschrift in honour of Joscelyn Godwin' - edited by a certain Athanasius Kircher. I read your post, and the name sounded familiar, so I checked...

Pullman's book has an alchemical theme, and now I'm off to see what else in the book exists in our universe and not just Lyra's.

Hang on - I've found Joscelyn Godwin, and it appears that in our universe, he wrote a book about Anasthasius Kircher - in 1979. Heh. :-)

I suspect some kind of psychological de-sensitization process(with repetition of extreme images and the like) might be able to erase a section of memory through trauma(something the human mind is quite capable of- and may willingly do for the sake of the occupants sanity).

I would be much less skeptical of the induced trauma method than an invasive destruction. If you were to know which memories were to be erased- using those with seriously traumatic images may cause the brain to erect a filter around them.

The only problem is that they may leak out, and it may leave someone severely mentally unstable. Similar I would Imagine, to the behaviour of Corto/Armitage when wintermute begins to loose its hold on him.If you have read Neuromancer you'll know what I mean.

I would imagine it would also all be spilled out under any hypnosis or councilling though...

The other idea is some kind of "neural programming"- sending pulses of light directly into the retina which mess with the brains short term/long term memory stuff. In other words - the MIB "flashy thing".

I doubt that you'll see KR songs that skew to the 1930's or 1940's, seeing as the majority of PS2 game players are probably not in that target audience. Of course, Konami and PS2 have a huge benefit of being able to draw from the catalog of Sony artists (not actually checking to see if Avril, REM, and Cher -- artists currently on the KR game -- are on any of the Sony-related labels). Cross-promotion can be a wonderful cost-reducing thing for everyone.

A side note about my earlier question on the "karaoke DVD/video game microphone adapter" -- it looks like it's just a box that sits between the audio in/out feeds from the DVD/game system and the stereo. I wouldn't want to feed the video through it (looks like it supports composite only, not s-video or component), and I question if I would want to permanently pass all audio through the box as well in case that would affect any Dolby/surround game features from other non-karaoke games... aside from the fact that I'd want to run audio through the optic cable instead of the RCA cables. So, back to the original question: any other suggestions for connecting microphones to a stereo while still allowing DVD audio to play?

That's OK there are many things that can be usefully done even if you're not a programmer.

For example I have a project which has happily had a few people contribute to - but I know there are areas I cannot manage myself.

Contribute a logo?, or contribute some documentation? These are equally valid ways of given some time to help the project.

Of course I like toys/rewards but even minor things like a good bugreport will make my day.

I think a lot of projects are very similar to mine, a large userbase but a very small core of people who will tell you what they want and give you a small patch every now and again.

It's not often that a project gets large enough to actually get lots of people working on it, and I'm glad that mine isn't like that to be honest. Sure I'd like to think that at some point I can hand it away to others and it will continue to exist - but as long as I've had fun along the way and learnt interesting things that's enough for me.

The next time you find some free software and have trouble installing it why don't you write up your experiences and post it to a newsgroup/mailing list. Google will happily index it and chances are six months later somebody you've never met on the other side of the world will be very grateful you took the time to contribute documentation. It's a funny world like that!

I got this book. It sure is weird all right. Pretty hysterically funny, too. I think my favourite has to be the one where a woman who looks like she's just gone twelve rounds with a van der Graaf generator is sitting in an armchair whilst a little bunny loads a copy of Fatal Attraction into the VCR...

You do not have to use Linux to appreciate Vorbis;-)

Not Microsoft, but Babbage steam engines, obviously. And they smelled of rotten eggs.

Thanks for pointing me at that, I'll be interested to read it.

Thanks for the recommendation. It sounds pretty interesting. I couldn't find anything on Amazon.com (US), but I did find this on Amazon.co.uk:

"Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss

The BBC in the UK already made TV series of four of the Narnia books and have just released a 3-disc Chronicles of Narnia DVD box set as well...

Probably not what you're looking for, but there was an episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads (probably the best sitcom the BBC has ever produced) where Terry, explaining to a copper why Bob is zonked out, says "It's not the drink, officer, it's the drugs!" Bob had fallen asleep in a launderette because of the cough medicine he'd taken, mixed with the alcohol consumed on his stag night. As to why they were in the launderette, well, watch it and find out.

And no, I don't make any money from the Amazon link; it was just the easiest place to find it ;-)

Hell, I'm with you there! Cheers!

(As an aside, if you're British and love your pint you might find Man Walks in to a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer by Pete Brown entertaining and informative in equal measures - I read it a couple of months back and can thoroughly recommend it!)

North America sucks. We only have the first 2 here so far. On the bright side, I can skip through the copyright warnings pretty easily :)

This is common. You will find that the Euros are always one or two seasons ahead with TV Series DVDS. Consider the Euro Buffy on DVD, now at season 6 and in all seasons in widescreen while the US is stuck with always 4:3 and just-released Season 5.

As a US dweller....what's out there that would be good to watch

Well there is plenty of stuff, though you need to be open minded about the cultral content and language. Without knowing what you like its hard to make a case, though I'll see what I can do. For example, there are many anime fans that prefer the orginal Japanese version and don't have the patience to wait for the translated version, so this is one case. Another would be films that are featured at the Cannes Film Festival. Also, there are plenty of films available in other countries, that just aren't available here. You can browse Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Japan, FNAC and many others.

As I said, you need to be ready to go beyond what you are familiar with culturaly and linguistically and experiment.

If you can'y play R1 DVDs in the UK, you're just not trying. All major vendors sell multi-region kit. Have you considered this, or perhaps this. Your multiregion woes will be behind you.

If you can'y play R1 DVDs in the UK, you're just not trying. All major vendors sell multi-region kit. Have you considered this, or perhaps this. Your multiregion woes will be behind you.

Oh nooo!
It's useless, don't buy that! Apart from the very cool form factor, there is really nothing good about that: I ended up exchanging it for a larger model after seeing the dire results...yuck: very few colours, pixelated to death, just not good enough.
OK, my standards might be high as I have done a lot of photography (I normally use a leica M6), but I know you can get better for the price, if you give up on the credit card size.
Try thisCasio EX-S2 for $249 or Konica Revio C2 for $ 79...

:-X

If you listen to electronic music, this is probably all you need anyway.

Hong Kong is NTSC. It is also very cheap, even for legitimate discs (as this site sells). After all, if it's legal there, it's usually legal for you to import it, although not to sell. You might need an all-region player (HK being in region 3), but a lot of legit HK discs - like Shaolin Soccer - are code 0 anyway.

Over in the UK, all of our our DVD players can play both PAL and NTSC, almost all of the cheap supermarket ones are already or can be made multiregion by remote, and certain high-street hi-fi chains sell modded MR product (I have a MR Pioneer 360 from them). Even our version of Amazon sells modded multiregion kit - the current top spot is a modded Sony DVP-NS330. Multiregion is much more widespread here, and that's a good thing for British consumers (even though most of them don't know about it). I try to let my friends know.

I'm happy with my Sony Ericsson T68i. I use it with iSync on OS X 10.3 without problems. It's a basic phone without useless extras like a built-in camera (though you can buy an add-on camera for it, IIRC). I only use bluetooth for syncing, I don't know if you can also use a bluetooth headphone with it.

JP

'Would you like a drink first?' asked Colin. 'I've finished my pianocktail and we could try it out.'

'Does it really work?' asked Chick.

'Of course it does. I had a hard job perfecting it, but the finished result is beyond my wildest dreams. When I played the Black and Tan Fantasy I got a really fantastic concoction.'

'How does it work?' asked Chick.

'For each note,' said Colin, 'there's a corresponding drink - either a wine, spirit, liqueur or fruit juice. The loud pedal puts in egg flip and the soft pedal adds ice. For soda you play a cadenza in F sharp. The quantities depend on how long a note is held - you get the sixteenth of a measure for a hemidemisemiquaver; a whole measure for a black note; and four measures for a semibreve. When you play a slow tune, then tone comes into control too to prevent the amounts growing too large and the drink getting too big for a cocktail - but the alcoholic content remains unchanged. And, depending on the length of the tune, you can, if you like, vary the measures used, reducing them, say, to a hundredth in order to get a drink taking advantage of all the harmonics, by means of an adjustment on the side.'

'It's a bit complicated,' said Chick.

'The whole thing is controlled by electrical contacts and relays. I won't go into all the technicalities because you know all about them anyway. And, besides, the piano itself really works.'

'It's wonderful,' said Chick.

'Only one thing still worries me,' said Colin, 'and that's the loud pedal and the egg flip. I had to put in a special gear system because if you play something too hot, lumps of omelette fall into the glass, and they're rather hard to swallow. I've still got a little bit of modification to do there. But it's all right if you're careful. And for a dash of fresh cream, you add a chord in G major.'

'I'm going to try an improvisation on Loveless Love,' said Chick. 'That should be crazy.'

'It's still in the junk room that I use as my workshop,' said Colin, 'because the guard plates aren't screwed down yet. Come in there with me. I'll set it for two cocktails of about seventy-five milligallons each to start with.'

Chick sat at the piano. When he'd reached the end of the tune a section of the front panel came down with a sharp click and a row of glasses appeared. Two of them were brimming with an appetizing mixture.

'You scared me,' said Colin. 'You played a wrong note once. Luckily it was only in the harmonization.'

'You don't mean to say that that comes into it too?' said Chick.

'Not always,' said Colin. 'That would make it too elaborate. So we just give it a few passing acknowledgements. Now drink up-and we'll go and eat.'

Maybe this is his newest book in the USA, over here the sequel is already out: The Sundering (got that link of WJW's page).

I find myself agreeing with much of the review (cardboard cutout characters getting killed or surviving in predictable ways), but at the same time I really enjoyed the book. I particularly liked the way that, since the Shaa had restricted various sorts of tech, you could zap around between stars at FTL via the fixed wormholes, but once in a system were stuck with relativistic physics (and no nanotechnology or AI to help out).

One point I think the review missed - the reason that the characters manage to survive against vastly superior odds is that neither side have any idea how to conduct a space battle - no enemy apart from the Shaa has a fleet of any size or control of the wormholes, so all the actions in the illustrious thousands-year history of the grand Shaa spacefleet have basicallly been bombarding planets into submission from orbit. This is brought out more in the sequel.

Could have lived without the rant about the series by a different author (but I haven't read the Honor Harrington stuff so maybe it was relevant).

So go on Peter Jackson, make a film of that. I dare ya.

Shame, that. The guy did some great albums.

Shame, that. The guy did some great albums.