Slashdot Mirror

Some more:

http://nostarch.com/
http://pragprog.com/
https://www.baenebooks.com/t-drm.aspx
http://www.dragonmount.com/index.php/News/book-news/new-drm-free-ebook-store-r401
http://lifehacker.com/5946956/grab-a-bundle-of-drm+free-ebooks-on-the-cheap

>>Not true in this book: if anything, it feels like falling down a water slide.

That's Sanderson's trademark style. In Mistborn, you think he's setting everything up for a trilogy. Then events start flying by faster and faster, and by the end of it it seems like he's packed an entire trilogy into the first novel.

I think that's why Harriet picked him to finish the WoT series... if anyone can do it, he can.

Maybe I'll ask Harriet and Brandon when they come to Half-Moon Bay on the 20th. I get to meet them as a Storm Leader, woot!

FYI: They're on a book tour right now. http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=764

A quick survey of the comments so far paints an overwhelmingly negative picture for the series...
I just wanted to point out, as a life long fan of this series, that there IS a reason every book the series has appeared on the New York Times best-seller list, and most of them have been #1 when they first come out.

In one of his final weblog entries before his death, Robert Jordan wrote:

I hear things now and then floating out in the air. For instance, I hear that word was floating about ComicsCon in San Diego that I am displeased with Red Eagle. Too true. Too very true. In a few more months that last contract they have with anyone on God's green earth that so much as mentions my name will come to an end and we can see what happens after that. You see, among other things they forgot an old dictum of LBJ back when he was just a Congressman from Texas, when he famously, or infamously, said "Don't spit in the soup. boys. We all have to eat." Worse, Red Eagle though they could tell me they spit in the soup, or pee in it, if they wanted to and there wasn't anything I could do to stop them. You can't apologize your way out of that with me, not that they tried. There isn't enough money in the world to buy your way out of it with me. Not that they tried that either. So they get no further help from me. Once they are completely out of the picture, we'll see what happens.

The only reason Red Eagle are still in the picture is because they managed to sell an option they had right before it expired. One misstep though, and they'll be belly up. I am waiting with great anticipation for that day.

Rumors and rumors of rumors
Posted by Wilson on September 9th, 2007 in the Robert Jordan's Blog category
During Dragon Conn in Atlanta last week rumors flew about that my brother/cousin was gravely ill, wasn't eating and had in fact had "Last Rites" administered. I just got off the telephone with him and he's surrounded by laughing friends and relatives and is about to enjoy a shrimp-based bowl of gumbo. He got a chuckle out of news of his impending departure.

Go back and reread RJ's blog entries and you'll know exactly what is going on. Armed with those medical facts, if any of you have shared time with very ill relatives you'll know what person looked like and felt like during the ordeal. RJ looks and feels just like that. So, we're not taking any family photos at the moment.

Fact: He is ill, very ill. He has shared that with you in medical jargon. He has told you the prognosis of his physicians and told you that he plans to beat their predictions. I pray that he will. But should it not be in the cards, he'll manage that phase of his life as he has every step he has taken thus far. So, should you hear another "rumor" it's just that. Until you hear it from RJ, Harriet or from me, it's just a rumor.

Fact: He's told you that his appetite comes and goes. It does. He's taking a handful of medications everyday to help him in the fight. Unfortunately some of them have adverse affects on the appetite. Pretty much like a kid in that regard right now. He eats when he feels up to it, and says "No Thanks!" when he doesn't. When I visited a couple of weeks back he had a hankering for Cream of Mushroom soup served with rice and a dash of tabasco. RJ and Harriet were busy in the parlor, so I whipped up the soup. He told me it was good, but not as good as when Harriet prepares it. Duh!?!?

Fact: The deacon from his church visits their home for weekly worship services and to bring communion. RJ doesn't feel up to sitting on two hundred year old wooden pews for an hour. Painful even for someone in the peak of health, which you know RJ is not. These visits are to share communion, which is a weekly (at least) part of RJ and Harriet's lives. Same goes for Janet and me. When RJ is physically stronger, he'll be back on the hard pews. I hope that whatever your faith that you are able to "Commune" with God often.

Bottom line guys, he's been completely forthcoming with you from the very beginning of this ordeal. He intends to continue that dialog. When he and I spoke a few minutes ago, I asked if he wanted to end this rumor or for me to do it? I then reminded him that the last time he wrote you he was feeling as he put it "a bit viperish" and that his posting had kicked over a huge ant hill. He allowed that perhaps I should write you guys this time. Calmer heads and all.

Keep the prayer lines open please. He's a stubborn old cuss but welcomes, appreciates, yes even needs your collective petitions to our God. I'll be seeing RJ and Harriet in a week and will give them a hug and an "I Love You" from each and every one of you.

Thanks for caring.

Peace be with each of you,

Wilson
Brother/Cousin
4th of 3

Epilog: Yes he is continuing to work through all of this medical calamity. MOL is going into the word processor and onto audio tapes almost daily. Not every day mind you, because the medical fight takes first priority. But, he told you he'd finish and he will. Fact is that it has been finished in his head for years. During a recent family sit around, he became the Gleeman and told the bones of it ALL to Harriet and me. You read that right, I did say ALL. Don't ask, ain't telling. Two and a half hours of story telling by the Creator himself went by in the twinkling of an eye. Truly magical. All I can say is WOW! Best stuff he's ever done. MOL is going to knock your socks off! That's a promise.

It was stated on his blog awhile back that RJ disclosed the entire story to his with and cousin. So with his notes and them knowing the story it will most likely be finished. http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/ The site is down currently (no doubt due to his passing)

Just an FYI from the FAQ at Dragonmount: http://www.dragonmount.com/Faq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=2&id=4&artlang=en

It's sad to hear this news even if I stopped reading somewhere in book 10 because it just got too boring and drawn out. I have always wondered how it will end.

Did you just say that the writer dying is a blessing? How fucking offensive, especially to those of us who were as close to him in the end as we possibly could be as fans. I hope the death of no-one you care about is called a fucking blessing.

Yeah, but Wheel of Time? I mean, that series sucked ;)

In any case, despite the lack of a slashdotting, he is asking for medical bill money: http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=270%20

If memory serves, from the last year for which Federal budget data is available (2003) the NSA receives just over $10 billion a year in funding.

In comparison:

Education - $56 Billion (And remember that federal funding represents about 10% of total school funding, which is mostly provided directly by the states.)

Healthcare (Medicare/Medicaid): $316 Billion

Veterans Administration: $24 Billion -- which I'll agree is a criminally low number.

However, the idea that spending only 0.44% of the federal budget on an agency tasked with protecting the citizens from enemies foreign and domestic is somehow horribly wasteful... well, I have to disagree.

As for the OP's talk of stem cell research, clearly he doesn't understand that the only thing you can't do is use Federal grant money to dice up an embryo to create a new cell line. Not that embryonic stem cell research has provided a single working cure.

Now, adult stem cell research, on the other hand, is currently in the process of saving the life of my favorite fiction author, Robert Jordan.

So I couldn't help but notice that this article is just a dupe.

Apparently, a link to a blog with a couple paragraphs and screenshots of a service that has been covered before is newsworthy. Not in my opinion.

Oh, and if you go to that blog that's linked in the article, there is a "Contact Us" tab which results in the same e-mail that the author of this article (Tam Hanna) linked to their name. This isn't a review, it's a "Oooh, this is neat" article which is odd considering I have a Google Pages account and it's not that neat--it's functional and simplistic but limiting. And please do notice the ads (some by Google) surrounding Tam Hanna's blog. So they'll be making some cash off the Slashdot effect. What a tool Slashdot has become.

If you want an example of something they rejected to bring you a duped article, here's one I submitted this morning that some of you may or may not care about:

About a week ago, Robert Jordan wrote a letter to Locus in which he stated he has amyloidosis. Amyloidosis is a rare blood disease that leaves patients with a median of one (no treatment) to four (with treatment) years left to live. He confirmed this on his publisher's website. This is devastating news for fantasy enthusiasts but on his blog he spoke about the Wheel of Time series: "Worse comes to worst, I will finish A Memory of Light, so the main story arc, at least, will be completed." Let us all wish him a permanent recovery--if he can write the epic tomes of the Wheel of Time, surely beating amyloidosis will be trivial.

The gist of it was a whole "Is Taim Demandred?" thread.

The evidence was pretty profound:

• Taim never smiles throughout Lord of Chaos, which is described repeatedly as a character trait of Demandred.
• Demandred's whereabouts are unknown, nor revealed. But at the end of LoC, he's standing at the Bore and the Dark Lord's laughter echoes, claiming "well done".
• Taim's knowledge of the Age of Legends is pretty wacky. How/why does he know this?
• Taim hadn't succumbed to the taint of saidin in any way/shape/form - and he'd been using the power a long time as a false Dragon, if he was who he said he was.
• The biggest (and most damning) piece of evidence was when Lews takes over Rand with the Seal, and begins gibbering to break it. Taim's look of horror is a pretty profound indicator that he knew what it was and that it would be Bad News to break.

All you need is Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. You'll get sucked into his world.

First you'll borrow the books from the library because of a suggestion from a friend, then you'll go to read them again because a new installment has come out so you buy the soft cover.

Then soft cover won't be good enough, and you need the hard cover.

Then you start trolling newsgroups and finding web sites like www.dragonmount.com.

Then you re-read the books again for the 4th time because book 10 just came out and you want to make sure you havn't forgotten anything (not a light task, each book is like 800+ pages).

Then you start buying the supplimental material...

You get the point. Someone help me...please!!!

Well.. NBC purchased the rights from Robert Jordan for a miniseries of book one, The Eye of the World. Luckily, it doesn't look like anything will come of it. This book was soo long and boring! I greatly preferred the Book-A-Minute version.