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My nomination... by TheSHAD0W · 2005-11-21 05:10 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

...is for Daniel Keys Moran's novel, The Long Run. I don't think it's been in print for years, which is probably the only reason it's not on the list. I'd also recommend the other novels of the Continuing Time, including Emerald Eyes, but The Long Run is a good start.

Sixty-two thousand years before the birth of Yeshua ha Notzri, whom later humans knew as Jesus the Christ, the Time Wars ended, for reasons which no sentient being now knows. With that ending, the Continuing Time began.

My nomination... by TheSHAD0W · 2005-11-21 05:10 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

...is for Daniel Keys Moran's novel, The Long Run. I don't think it's been in print for years, which is probably the only reason it's not on the list. I'd also recommend the other novels of the Continuing Time, including Emerald Eyes, but The Long Run is a good start.

Sixty-two thousand years before the birth of Yeshua ha Notzri, whom later humans knew as Jesus the Christ, the Time Wars ended, for reasons which no sentient being now knows. With that ending, the Continuing Time began.

Re:The children will ask themselves by FattyBoeBatty · 2005-11-21 03:38 · Score: 1 · on The Prodigy Puzzle

I gotta say -- this post right here speaks volumes about the social scars you still have and why you, despite having a wonderful gift, have squandered it and lived a life of mediocrity.

1. I'm not talking about the "gifted" people way down there in the 125-140 IQ range [emphasis mine]. Heh, referring to people that are already lucky enough to have an above average IQ is an easy way to belittle 90%+ of the population. Kudos! I don't even know my IQ, but after reading this sentence I already dislike you.

2. I have an IQ of 151 Okay, apparently it's show-and-tell day. Your post would have been just as relevant without dropping that information, which was already clearly implied from the previous point. This is like a lawyer coming to pick up her kid from a daycare center and telling the employee "Oh, I don't need a parking permit, I found a spot for my BMW in front" -- merely referring to it as a car would have been more than sufficient to make your point. But good job finding yet another chance to brag!

3. which is the 125-135 people, who aren't too bright Okay, and now I'm going to call bullshit. Someone in the 125-135 is certainly 'bright' by IQ standards, and you know it, too. But this is a great job of you finding yet another opportunity to let us all know that your IQ is apparently well above 135. Congrats! I can really feel myself wanting to hang out with you and hear your opinion on other matters now!

My friend, I've got some advise for you. Find a way to forgive the world for what they did to you, learn to accept yourself, and make your life more about helping others rather than propping up your own ego. And read THIS book. Seriously. I know the world is a tough place, but by continuing as you are you're never going to hurt anyone except yourself. And the great thing about life is that it's never, never too late to change.

Cheers..
Fatty

Amazon Can Easily Solve This Problem by lperdue · 2005-11-21 03:18 · Score: 1 · on Jack Thompson vs Amazon?

A couple of years ago, when huge numbers of similarities were spotted between Da Vinci Code and my previous books, Da Vinci Legacy and Daughter of God, there was a blizzard of Amazon reviews trashing my books. It was determined that most of these came from a handful of people who were logging in with numerous fake accounts. Amazon,to their credit, investigated and removed all of the reviews where they could determine that the reviewers were fake. Some suspect reviews remained, but they could not be conclusively determined to be fake. It was the best Amazon could do then, but they have better tools now.

This sort of situation (not just mine) is one of the key reasons that Amazon started the "Real Name" system.

With this existing system, Amazon could eliminate or curtail fake review flames by:

(a) Restricting reviews only to those with Real Name badges, or
(b) Allowing reviews by all, but only allowing ratings by Real Name reviewers to count toward the star ratings.

Obviously this is no guarantee against bad reviews, but it does help assure that the reviewers are real people and not robo-trashes and people with a grudge and no life.

Re:Don't hold us back... but don't push us, either by elwinc · 2005-11-21 03:16 · Score: 1 · on The Prodigy Puzzle

Are you familiar with the "Prodigy Syndrome"? You can see some info with a google print search. I read about it in Norbert Weiner's autobiograpy . Freeman Dyson wrote a thumbnail bio .

Weiner was a classic prodigy; spoke Greek and Latin by age 5; he graduated Tufts at age 14, had his PhD from Harvard by 19. Weiner said that the Prodigy syndrome is something a parent, frequently the father, does to a child. It involves bing very demanding, and vary very sparing of praise. Weiner said it got him a 5-year head start in his research, but cost him his whole childhood. He said he would never do that to his own child (though apparently he was a relatively demanding father). Weiner also said he believed the prodigy syndrome could be worked on most kids; that there was nothing exceptional about himself. He also mentions some tragic prodigies he knew personally who burned out and stopped trying.

My first point is this: don't confuse having a pushy parent with being really smart. The difference will not show up until one gets beyond regurgitating book learning and into original research. My second point is this: don't steal anyone's childhood; they are irreplaceable.

Re:Ringworld... by AlphaJoe · 2005-11-21 02:58 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

Everyone always brings up Ringworld with Larry Niven, but I have always been more partial towards The Integral Trees and Footfall, although Footfall was a collaboration between Niven and Pournell. Of course, when you put those two together, you get some great stuff, such as The Mote in Gods Eye and Inferno.

Re:Ringworld... by AlphaJoe · 2005-11-21 02:58 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

Everyone always brings up Ringworld with Larry Niven, but I have always been more partial towards The Integral Trees and Footfall, although Footfall was a collaboration between Niven and Pournell. Of course, when you put those two together, you get some great stuff, such as The Mote in Gods Eye and Inferno.

Re:Ringworld... by AlphaJoe · 2005-11-21 02:58 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

Everyone always brings up Ringworld with Larry Niven, but I have always been more partial towards The Integral Trees and Footfall, although Footfall was a collaboration between Niven and Pournell. Of course, when you put those two together, you get some great stuff, such as The Mote in Gods Eye and Inferno.

Re:Ringworld... by AlphaJoe · 2005-11-21 02:58 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

Everyone always brings up Ringworld with Larry Niven, but I have always been more partial towards The Integral Trees and Footfall, although Footfall was a collaboration between Niven and Pournell. Of course, when you put those two together, you get some great stuff, such as The Mote in Gods Eye and Inferno.

Re:Get over yourselves. This could be interesting. by stry_cat · 2005-11-21 02:24 · Score: 1 · on The Prisoner To Be Remade On U.K. TV

Christ, people. At worst, it'll suck. Big deal, so does most of everything on TV. It certainly couldn't be worse than yet more Eastenders, Are You Being Served?, 'Allo 'Allo, or any of the other crap that's been spewed by the BBC over the years.

First, Are You Being Served? was one of the best TV shows ever made. It's a sitcom but yet it does the full range from funny and stilly to serious and a bit depressing. For Americans it provide a very interesting look into the still highly structured British society of the 60's and 70's.

Now the awful Are You Being Served Again just plained sucked. It had all the right elements, but the writters took the show in the wrong direction into plain looney sistuations.

Second, you are right about the remake of the Prisoner. It will suck, no big deal. About 90-99% of TV suck anyway. Worst that will happen is that we all go find the first series on DVD and show it to all of our friends. Amazon.com has the entire series it for just $70! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005NKCQ/104-40 95099-4359934?v=glance&n=130&n=507846&s=dvd&v=glan ce

Re:What about "The Adolescence of P-1" by AJ+Mexico · 2005-11-21 02:18 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

The Adolescence of P-1, Thomas J. Ryan 1977.
I vote for this one! It's extra geeky. This novel shows what an AI could do even with the technology of the '70s. The book is set in the IBM mainframe world of the early '70s, even though the cover shows an early microcomputer and a VDT. I found the technology and terminology believable for the era, once you get past the slip on the first page: "Rich finished loading a pack on a 2314 disk file and ... ". You mounted (or loaded) a disk pack on a disk drive, not a file. Maybe that terminolgy varied at some sites though. Generally, the book captures the feel of an early machine room.
Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671559702/103-53 69917-7467851?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v =glance

Wow by gowen · 2005-11-21 01:57 · Score: 5, Funny · on Andrew Morton on Kernel Hacking

I'm suprised he finds the time, given the heavy load of muck raking biographies that he manages to write.

I'm partial to Final Victim by jocknerd · 2005-11-21 01:45 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

Final Victim http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380728168/104-81 19741-8893512?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v =glance is written by Stephen J. Cannell. Its the typical law enforcement vs. serial murderer novel but with technology thrown in. The reprint was issued in 1997 yet the story details how the serial murderer's use of Linux.

Re:Before there were geeks by julesh · 2005-11-20 23:12 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

I'll see your Abbot and raise you a Stewart. Flatterland.

Re:The children will ask themselves by Ironica · 2005-11-20 19:06 · Score: 2, Interesting · on The Prodigy Puzzle

All I'm saying is if the kids are so fucking smart they should be able to figure out how to entertain themselves.

Bitter much?

I never had any trouble entertaining myself in school. The trouble I had was stopping entertaining myself and actually doing what someone else expected of me, especially if it was way below my challenge level.

I'll never forget the day I had a sub for math in fourth grade, and when I asked to get my workbook (which was 5th grade level) to work from instead of doing the (stupid) worksheet she'd handed out, she took an attitude with me. So I tossed it right back, and told her the recent results of the IQ test they'd put me through. "Oh! Well you ought to be able to finish this in no time then!" she said, tossing the worksheet back at me.

Guess what? Tedious is tedious. If it's also difficult, then at least there's some thrill of accomplishment, but how many of you do long division for fun just to prove you can these days? I created an impressive doodle on the margin of the paper, and didn't do a single problem. Why should I? The teacher wasn't going to look for my worksheet when she got back, because I wasn't supposed to be in that class. And to this day, I still remember the total lack of respect I had for that sub, who obviously didn't think that it was important for me to actually learn anything.

No, it's not a child's job to both (a) do the tedious busywork the teacher expects them to do and simultaneously (b) come up with their own challenging and fun projects to work on. We have teachers for a reason... because raw intelligence doesn't do you any good without some education. In fact, some careful studies have found that you actually gain IQ from formal education (or lose it by missing out). To control for self-selection bias, they studied the effects of multi-year school closures in a few places, due to disease outbreaks or fear of desegregation. The difference is small, but significant.... I think it totaled to about 10 IQ points over 12 years of school. (Source: What's Going On In There , by Lise Eliot.)

but what about... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-11-20 17:17 · Score: 0 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

Where's "The Cuckoo's Egg", by Cliff Stoll?

(available here)

What about Geek Love? by gubachwa · 2005-11-20 17:01 · Score: 1 · on Top 20 Geek Novels

Why isn't Geek Love by Katherine Dunn on the list?

Oh.. you meant geek as in computer geek. Not geek as in a circus performer that bites the heads off of chickens. Sorry.. my mistake.

Links to the books here by pmc257 · 2005-11-20 16:40 · Score: 0 · on Top 20 Geek Novels