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"I'll give you this barometer if you tell me how tall your building is."
Someone has been reading Strata...

If the Iraqis want to save their pennies until they can buy their own phone system,(...) If the Iraquis have a problem with that, then they can build their own cell phone infrastructure.

I wonder if the people in Iraq who already have GSM phones will get a new CDMA phone for free?

There are words for this kind of behaviour.

It seems you think of iraqis as people wearing towels on their heads, or somehow not being like us, and in need of aid. I don't think that is an intelligent attitude, given that Iraq contains the remnants of the city Ur. When Ur thrived, your European ancestors probably were still living in the region around the mediterranean ocean.

I think it's been established that as Strata is an homage/parody of Ringworld (look at the themes, Pratchett's book is similar only in outline and strcture - referential in outward appearance but ideas of his own in the themes), Dark Side of the Sun is homage/parody of Asimov's Foundation (see pratchett's "p-math" :) ). Pratchett himself says:

"I intended Strata to be as much a (pisstake/homage/satire) on Ringworld as, say, Bill the Galactic Hero was of Starship Troopers. All Niven's heroes are competent and all his technology works for millions of years... but he's a nice guy and says he enjoyed the book."

Annotated Pratchett File :)

It isn't necessary to read Pratchett's books in the published order but I recommend that you at least read the 'sets' in order. The sets are sub-series of books featuring the same characters (the city watch, witches, Rincewind, etc).

For instance, the books focusing on the witches include:

Wyrd Sisters
Witches Abroad
Lords And Ladies
Maskerade
and others.

There will be some things happening in Lords and Ladies that you'll want to know about from the previous two, but it wouldn't make any difference if you'd read The Color of Magic, or most of the other books that come first chronologically.

I'd recommend his books to anyone! This site http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/ is very informative. And here is a reading order guide I found through a link on that site. It pretty much confirms what I've suggested.

"Hex is activated by initialising the GBL, which Stibbons reluctantly admits stands for "pulling the Great Big Lever". This releases millions of ants into a network of glass tubing, hence the sticker on Hex that reads "Anthill inside". And it is all powered by a waterwheel covered with sheep skulls. That is, male sheep. In other words, ram."

Hogfather, Terry Pratchett. Check out this interview.

http://www.lspace.org

I disagree -- I rather like New Scientist.

All news is created by people whose job it is to take events and make them seem interesting, to sell more issues. As such all news needs to be run past the bullshit detector. But New Scientist conveys science news much more accurately than any mainstream newspaper I've ever seen. And any speculation on their part is appropriately marked with lots of perhaps's, potentially's, etc.

And it contains much interesting stuff besides. Take for example the story in the 19th October issue (the latest that I have here in Australia), on the Lunar Society, a group of 18th century pro-science people. The print edition of the story features a picture of the society by Joseph Derby. Compare this to the cover art of The Science Of DiscWorld.

For what it's worth, something like this is postulated in Terry Prattchets's Strata, too.

For what it's worth, something like this is postulated in Terry Prattchets's Strata, too.

It might be a new world order but what ever gave them the idea to use such a screwy extension?

Laying on his deathbed King Brak of the Oggs called for his military advisors to warn them that his two enemies were sure to attack all Ogg islands once he passed away. Brak and his advisors came up with a plan to organize and train the Ogg tribesmen to use weapons for the defense of thier villages.

Meanwhile Nanny Ogg can tell us whether MP3's are best served at weddings, Dinner or Audio Compression Victory parties in her cookbook.

I mean there's nothing like launching a new world order when it comes to audio compression using an extension whose browsing can find you great Poinsettias at www.ogg.com

Perhaps you meant here, or perhaps here.

Ogg just sounds like a character from Lord of the Rings

Funny, I thought it sounded like a character from Discworld

(actually, two... Ogg Vorbis).

Ogg just sounds like a character from Lord of the Rings

Funny, I thought it sounded like a character from Discworld

(actually, two... Ogg Vorbis).

Unfortunately I believe this isn't the case, and Josh Kirby passed away in his sleep on 23/10/2001.

You might like to check out announcement on lspace and an obituary in a paper

Taffyd.

When I say that I have a right to my works, I mean the following:

1) I created a document to be viewed in toto as I created it.
2) I provide particular information, often in a scholarly fashion, which contains links. Each of these links has a specific purpose, namely, to provide further bibliographic or internally-referential information.
3) Modification of this information distorts the meaning of the information I have presented.

Consider the case of a scholarly paper on something other than French Fries, be it cold fusion, a Higgs boson, Ununoctium, or even pulse rockets. In such an article (if it is indeed scholarly), I will provide links to examples and sources. If some company comes along and modifies my treatise to include other links to something other than that which I have referenced, there is a clear and serious detrimental effect to the validity of my document.

I get a lot of hate mail from Belgians as it is, and changes to my links may generate even more hate mail. Yeah, I'll get over it sooner or later, but the point is that my carefully researched (really) content has been altered, not by the end user, but by a third-party, for-profit company. And it seems there is little I can do about it, even though I could've sued the Washington Post for defamation and character assasination for misquoting me in print.

Consider Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series. The Colour of Magic was done in Germany by a particular publisher (see lspace.org), who modified a couple pages ino order to insert a soup advertisement into the text! Imagine reading a Stephen King novel like this: "Karen, almost frozen with fear, locked the door, but simply locking a door isn't good enough. When it comes to home security, you need ADT. ADT provides 24-hour protection at the push of a button. Or at the first sign of trouble. Unfortunately, Karen doesn't have ADT home security. What's she up to now? Well, Karen, staring out the peephole..."

Why do I have no say in this matter? The changes to my site and links are not being done directly by the user. I have no problem with fair use of my site; it's been quoted and misquoted around the world. I do have a problem with theft and hijacking, which my site has also been subject to. (A number of sites have copied -- verbatim -- the page, Twenty-two Things To Do With French Fries Besides Eat Them and I have crawled up their tightly-closed orifices to protect my creative works).

As I said, my comment was only partly meant in jest. I have serious problems with both sides of the question, even when I take both arguments to the extreme. At the extremes, I tend to favour the laissez-faire approach because I don't want RIAA telling me I can't make a killer mix CD with New Model Army, King's X and The Pogues, but somebody screwing with my content really bugs the shit out of me. You just have no idea of the sacrifices involved in keeping the OFFP going.

woof.

Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

I SHOULD WARN READERS WHEN I AM ABOUT TO SPOIL A BOOK

And no, I'm not going to make it worse by pointing out where you spoiled it, but you spoiled it big time.

And it's not the death of mice, it's the Death of Rats. Does this look like "mice" to you? SQUEAK!

And while on the s ubject of Death's sidekicks, Quoth has to be mentioned. "Croak" (read the book and you'll understand why the quotes).

It should be mentioned that this Carrot fellow Hemos mentions is part of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, which has been masterfully portraied in Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms, as well as the more recent The Fifth Elephant.

About Prachett's books it has to be said that there are two publishing companies printing the hardcovers, one at each side of the pond. One is Doubleday (Transworld Publishers) and the other is Harper Prism. One of them sucks and the other is pure joy. It's a matte r of lenghtly discussions which one is which. Another source of discordance is Paul Kidby vs Josh Kirby as the cover art artist.

And the for dessert, pay a visit to L-space.

Basically, in the 20 or so previous DiscWorld books, Pratchett has built a very rich and detailed history through the events of the characters. However, as would happen with almost any author, there are small timeline mistakes and such that creep into the series, which very devout fans love to point out on USENET.

Thief of Time starts with the explanation of an event in the past of the DiscWorld that caused the Timeline to crash (which explains all the little inconsistancies, since it had to be patched back together). Since then, it's been up to the Monks of History not to merely record history as it happens, but to ensure that history continues to happen at all!

Main characters in the book are Lu Tze (a History Monk patterned after Lao Tzu), Susan Sto Helit (Death's grand-daughter), DEATH, Lobsand Ludd (Lu Tze's apprentice), and The Auditors.

Anyone who enjoys the sort of satirical humor that was present in Hitchhiker's Guide should check this out, and then read the rest of Pratchett's work.

More information about Terry Pratchett and his works can be found at

• L-Space
• alt.fan.pratchett

Project ELF - Anonymous Distributed Filesharing

There's a similarity (to THHGTTG) in the interview too. Douglas Adams says, in 'Mostly Harmless', that he finds writing tremendously difficult. Perhaps there's a certain type of artist who has to struggle to express themselves?

Some, like the wonderful Terry Pratchett just seem to be able to churn out quality. dave

Honestly, get your facts straight...

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IANASRP- I am not a self-referential phrase
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Here that is and search for "Adams".

Cheers,
Ben

Apart from finding "Douglas Adams" in the "If you like Pratchett you might like these guys" section of the FAQ, I found no reference to Pratchett's opinion of being compared to Douglas Adams. I looked at the FAQ here and here.

As a note, from everything I've heard about him, Pratchett definitely isn't a "dick." I'm not on alt.fan.pratchett myself, but I've heard that he visits it frequently, and contributes to and encourages his online fan community. Given the amount of comments he's made on the jackets of his latest books about how much time he spends infront of a keyboard, it might be neat to have a Slashdot interview done with him.

For those interested, L-Space has a giant library of Pratchett quotes, most amassed from his posts on alt.fan.pratchett.

This sounds very much like Terry Pratchett's idea of L-Space, a way in which all the libraries of the universe are linked because of the high density of knowledge.... for more info check out The official (i think) Terry Pratchett fan site...
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A full Discworld bibliography is at http://www.colin-smythe.com/authors/tp/titles/nove ls.htm

Much more is at http://www.lspace.org/

The early books are much less rich than the later ones, so don't give The Colour of Magic as a first book. Instead try any of Mort, Wierd Sisters or Guards Guards. Also don't forget his non diskworld books, especially the "Johnny" books and the Gnomes trilogy (aka "The Bromeliad"), which are aimed at younger readers.

For more details about TP, go to the fan site.

The Guide is an excellent book for an aspiring sci-fi fan, especially because she can go back and read it again. But it gets better:
The Guide is not hard sci-fi. It is an excellent way to get readers interested in other grandmasters who blur the line between sci-fi and fantasy, like Terry Pratchett, whom I strongly recommend.
Pratchett is well-known in some circles for his marvelous Discworld Chronicles (see above). Premise: The world is flat and disc-shaped, and sits ont he backs of four giant elephants, who ride on Great A'Tuin, a gargantuan interstellar turtle (gender unkown). In the begnining, it made of fun of conventional 'trash' fantasy (hack-and-slash, wizards and swords, you the style). But now the fantasy is in the background, and it only serves as a vehicle for some of the greatest wisdom and insight of nay science fiction book.
Pratchett has also written some marvelous sc-fi, which is unfrotunately a wee bit hard to find, at least in the US. Strata, an unrelated precursor to Discworld is a wonderful book about a 200-year-old woman who creates planets and who discovers a disc-shaped world. It's like a comedic, sexless version of Ringworld. Intentionally, though. Niven apparently loved it.
Shame on any /.er who has not read Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's hilarious and magical book about the Apocalypse, Good Omens. It's marvelous.
I am still in the process of tracking down Pratchett's other, older sci-f books, such as The Dark Side of the Sun and The Carpet People. If you live in the UK, this might be a bit easier. *deep breath*
Lerry Niven is very good too, though possibly for someone just a bit older. Certainly one of his greatest books, Ringworld has a bit too much sexual content. But Protector is excellent as well.
I would highly recommend Arthur C. Clarke, especially the Rama books. But only the first one, Rendezvous With Rama. They go completely downhill after that (my theory: Clarke writes an excellent sci-fi book. He gives it to Gentry Lee, who takes out the best parts and puts in a lot of silly sex.)
That's all for this post...
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-Ravagin

"I'm sure the oppressed women and minorities on Slashdot are going to be appropriately grateful that Mr. Katz has appointed himself their spokesman."

This one perhaps? Linked to from lspace.org.

Sadly, Pratchett isn't that well known in the US, and his Discworld series doesn't receive half the acclaim it deserves. With any luck, 'Good Omens' will be a success and prompt other Pratchett novels to be put onto the bigscreen.

There has been a LONG-running debate on alt.fan.pratchett about who would play what roles in his books, so it'll be interesting to see what the producers can come up with for a cast...

I know that this is a little off topic but it is Pratchett related.

July this year sees the start of "MillenniCon Hand & Shrimp" - the 3rd Discworld Convention. This year it is being held at the Raddison Edwardian Hotel near Heathrow England. From 29th - 31st July there will be much merriment and drinking ;O)

Confirmed Guests included

• Terry Pratchett
• Josh Kirby
• Paul Kidby
• Stephen Briggs
• Bernard Pearson
• Graham Higgins
• Colin Smythe
• Tina Hannan

If you are interested have a look at the web site www.lspace.org/fandom/cons/dwcon2k or email memberships@dwcon.lspace.org

We now return you to your abnormal service...

Frugal - Memberships/Chair of Vice DWCon2k

"That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans:

A European says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with me?
An American says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?

I make no suggestion that one side or other is right, but observation over many years leads me to believe it is true."

I think it applies to this poster too. Please reread Mr Katz's article; although it is strongly focused on a small number of issues, the point it makes is a worthy one, and I would like to think that "my" people (geeks in general, Slashdotters in particular) could mostly see its value.

: Fruitbat :

I agree. Also, LSpace is an excellent place to go for information about Discworld. I'd probably recommend Small Gods over Feet of Clay, however.

David