Heh. I can't say I ever spent any time with the Go-Bots. I latched on to Transformers first and made it clear no substitute would do. I think I got one Go-Bot once, but it ended up at the back of the closet and ignored. My impression of them, though it may only have been the particular toy that I was given, was that even after "transforming" the robot mode looked almost entirely like the car it had started as, just placed on end with a few flaps folded out, rather than anything even vaguely humanoid. I know a few of the Transformers suffered from that, but I felt even some of the small and cheap ones (Bumblebee for instance) did a decent job of making the robot mode more humanoid.
A few of the Transformers *did* have scattered bits of metal in their construction mixed in with the plastic, though often which pieces and why seemed pretty random. A car door here, half a leg there, some chunk of incongruous shiny gold-colored metal mixed into the grey of a Dinobot for no reason, etc.
I'll admit I never clunked my little brother in the head with a Transformer, and it was entirely because I didn't want to damage the toy, and had nothing to do with fearing I might damage him.
A little bit of both, probably. I'm definitely curious about at least trying some non-web stuff, in addition to likely continuing to do web-based work as well. My last project was a web-based game and I haven't quite figured out what the next project is going to be.
Sounds like Python is appropriate for almost all situations, though, so maybe that's a good direction to pick.
In addition, if I'm a hobbyist programmer who's gotten by on PHP and some JavaScript for web stuff over the last decade and a half, and I'm thinking about picking up something new, should I consider Go or stick with one of the older standards?
However, I'd guess that a planet which already has life, even unintelligent life, is going to be much further along the path to being habitable, which is probably still a nice thing for us.
I know it's not the point of the equation, and actually getting there is still a tremendous obstacle, but given the choice between trying to colonize a planet with some life or a barren one, I'd think the one with other life would be far easier. Plus it'd open up whole new fields of science - biology in particular, but undoubtedly it'd change how we understand other subjects as well.
I look forward to this. My house is at 7400 feet, and my airport is at 6500 feet elevation. Once I get on the 787, I'll actually feel *invigorated* by the thick, rich atmosphere.
The stewardesses will normally ask people to turn down the volume on things with speakers. I've seen it happen multiple times. In one case a middle-aged woman next to me had accidentally plugged her headphones into the microphone jack, so she was blasting music loud enough to get to her through the disconnected headphones. She'd only been doing it for about a minute when the stewardess came up and intervened. (Funnily enough, she assumed that I, as the college-age guy, was blasting the music and asked me to turn it down. We all had a laugh when we figured out what was going on.)
The last time I flew, I brought my Nook with me for reading entertainment, and then after realizing I couldn't use it for about half the flight time (two 1-hour hops means 1 hour of reading and 1 hour of 'no electronics') I bought a physical book in the airport bookstore to have something to read for the entire trip back.
Yeah, I'd be for retraining, too. There aren't many things that change significantly like this one has (though learning how to drive with antilock brakes may be another). For the most part it's all the other things that haven't changed but people have either gotten sloppy about or simply forgotten. For instance: stop *at* the stop sign first, *then* inch forward if you need better visibility, don't just slide to a stop three feet past the sign with your bumper an inch or two from the intersection. Older Americans also apparently never got taught how to navigate roundabouts, which mostly didn't exist in past decades but which seem to be growing in popularity.
For example, if a human parent wants his children to develop competence, wisdom, and discretion, would it be wise for him to shelter his children from anything remotely evil or bad, and force his children to do only good things? or would it be wise to supervise and guide them while allowing them to make their own decisions, make mistakes, and learn from them? The former is robotic and naieve, while the latter is indeed nurturing. Would a bird nurture its young by keeping them in the nest, or by pushing them out so they learn to fly?
I agree entirely with your point that a nurturing parent is better than strict control. What I don't understand is how anyone would say that the monotheistic God is being a nurturing parent. At best God is an absentee parent (invisible, intangible) and has left the children to be raised by other children, hoping unspoken wisdom and guidance will be passed along properly by the kids. I don't call that nurturing at all.
That's an excellent question. I consider myself socially liberal and financially conservative, and vote almost exclusively Democrat because I put significantly more weight on my personal freedoms than the financial issues. The choice has been made easier in recent decades because most of the Republican candidates I could vote for haven't been all that financially conservative in the first place.
Now I don't want to be pidgin holed as one of those P-brains (or pee brains, even) who gets too obsessed over a little thing like spelling, when for all intensive purposes we can usually understand each other well enough, but sometimes you're words really due matter.
Aisle admit to some fussiness. I apparently have a deep-seeded need to correct verbal foe paws when I see them, ranging from stray apostrophe's to unnecessary quotes put around 'words' for emphasis, but as the mourning star shines, what really makes me cry grate crocodile tiers of frustration is the spelling error. Even when I'm not a steak-holder in the matter, such as someone else's conversation on a discussion bored (you really think they'd be more exciting), I still feel the kneed to make corrections. Old King Coal was a merry old sole, but apparently I'm a reel stickler for details.
Whether it's big causes like visualizing whirled peas or helping those starving euthanasia, down to the most miner house-holed conversations, proper communication is key. It *should* be as easy as pi, but four sum reason it's knot.
For example, recently Eye replied to an appalling posting which red, "your in this country, learn the language" with an offer to make the poster the first deportee, but my suggestion only earned an unappreciative "yore a jerk." Their may be a colonel of truth to that, but I still think it was the foolish poster who looked bad for making such a silly mistake. You simply can't expect someone to take you seriously while you're talking about a title wave, or a device that scans for finger prince, or most especially if you're trying to peek customer interest in a sneak peak of your product. Precise spelling gets a bad wrap at times, but you'll be mocked if you mangle the lyrics to Comma Chameleon, and calling someone a no-nothing will only cause readers to glance askance at the extent of your own knowledge (unless the principal of the double negative means you really intended
to call him a "something-something," which may be fare game.)
In the same vain, if you try to take the reigns, be prepared for "your royal highness" jokes — far less likely to get any kings or queens than jokers and lumbar jacks. As the great barred once said, "Two bee, ore not too B."
Or was that a line from The Malty's Falcon? I always get those too mixed up.
But that pails in comparison to the thyme my brother warned me to (and you'll have to pardon my French here) "look out for the big asshole" in the parking lot, and as I looked around for an improperly behaving pedestrian or vehicle, I ran through the big-ass pothole that he'd been trying to point out.
Now some may argue that the time spent trying to be precise is waisted if other people can figure it out anyway, but in my mind it's shear arrogance to save yourself the trouble of doing the thinking if it puts the burden on the other party. If you don't have your queue stick lined up with the Q ball, don't make it *my* fault when your intentions go awry. Even if you have the best can-dew, never-say-dye attitude, I refuse to let your accross-the-bored misspellings make a lyre of me.
Mostly it's the principal of the thing (have I used principal already? My apologies if the repetition wares on you), that if you have a
capitol idea to share butt know-buddy is abel to understand it, then you mite ass whale not bother.
The effect still carries over. The reason they know the author's name in the first place is, mostly, because they saw that name on a store bookshelf at one time or another. Or a friend recommended the author, because the friend found the name on a bookshelf. Given a few more decades that may start to change, but the ebook movement is new enough that nearly every current author of serious standing made their name with print books.
As for the other things you mention, those are also almost entirely tied to physical books put out by traditional publisher. Reviews? They're basically only going to happen because the author is already established, or because the publisher is pushing a new author. How is a reviewer even going to find out about a self-published work by a new author to review it? (Or maybe you meant reader reviews, like on Amazon, but then that's still a matter of how do readers find this obscure author to read the book and review it, without some larger forces at play guiding them to the author?) Advertisements? Those generally come from the publisher or the retailer, and neither of them will do much advertising for anything other than the big names. I'm not sure most self-published authors can afford enough advertising to make a difference. Book covers are also best done by professional artists, something a new writer can rarely afford.
Mistakes do slip through the cracks--more mistakes than I think is reasonable--but I think there's still a LOT of editing that goes on. You should see some of those books *before* the editor and proofreader get to them.
Wow that's really bad. Though for something that widespread, it sounds more like a search/replace error, which could have slipped in at the last moment. I know when I did my proofreading there was always at least one round of consolidation and revision *after* I had submitted my comments.
For humor, the Eagleheart series by C.T. Westcott. Gritty dystopian near future on earth, after a limited nuclear war. As a kid I struggled with the sometimes painful humor, but some of my buddies swore it was the funniest thing they'd ever read.
I'll second the vote for the initial two trilogies, but I have reservations about most of the rest of the Krynn books. Many of the other books are by other authors, and I never felt they held up to the same quality, and the constant rehashing of the same events from different viewpoints or in prequels wore on me after a while. The nail in the coffin for me was when Weiss and Hickman returned to the world (Dragons of Summer Flame?) and did their best to destroy everything they'd created. (I'm curious about Darkness and Light, though, because a truly funny book is to be treasured.)
Similarly for the Drizz't series: the first six books are brilliant, after which the next several books became a slog through more of the exact same stuff. I know Salvatore kept writing, so maybe they finally got better again, but he was in a serious rut for a while and it drove me away.
John Steakly
Armor - This is an exciting read and will wear you out and make you feel the physical exhaustion of the characters. As Steakly said this book is the action in starship troopers. Orson Scott Card mentions it in his introduction in one of his books. I forget which one. If you do read this. Don;t stop after part one. You'll want to: Don't.
Vampire$ - This is what a vampire novel should be. People working for the Vatican to slay vampires for fun and profit. The book rocks, but Damn, the John Carpenter movie version in the 80's sucks ass. Don;t ever watch it.
Can't say enough good things about these two. The man could write gripping action and also be hilariously funny. I've read both multiple times, often at a single all-night sitting, because once I get started I can't put them back down.
I hate this meme, but if there's a place for a "yo dawg I put a problem in your problem so you could find a solution while you're in a solution" I guess it's here.
Yep, pretty reasonable, assuming the company isn't completely paranoid. Particularly when it comes to travel, I have no qualms using the work computer after hours for my own entertainment. The computer may belong to the company, but after hours my life belongs to me, and if they're going to sent me away from the comforts of home they'd be pretty unreasonable to expect me to travel with two computers just to avoid doing a little web browsing or game playing on theirs.
What, the nice mortgage broker tells you that you can afford a mortgage far above what makes sense to you? Well, he IS the expert and he's on your side! He works for your bank, after all...
You still have to be willfully blind to let them convince you that you can make numbers that large work. It doesn't make me a super-genius that I pulled up an online mortgage calculator, plugged in a couple of sample mortgage values, and looked at the monthly payment so that I knew before talking to a broker what I could afford. It only took a minute, and no math was required.
When the guy told me I could get pre-approved for 50% more than that, I shrugged it off because I knew that was crazy talk. At least three different times during the process someone ran the numbers showing me what our monthly payment was going to be. I don't see how anyone could sign up for a six-figure purchase and not bother to check that information at least once.
Now I do understand that balloon mortgages and interest-only loans can obscure the costs, and none of this is to take any blame away from shady lenders, but you've got to work pretty hard at ignoring the alarm bells if someone sells you a house half again or more expensive than you can afford.
Slashdot Mirror
Heh. I can't say I ever spent any time with the Go-Bots. I latched on to Transformers first and made it clear no substitute would do. I think I got one Go-Bot once, but it ended up at the back of the closet and ignored. My impression of them, though it may only have been the particular toy that I was given, was that even after "transforming" the robot mode looked almost entirely like the car it had started as, just placed on end with a few flaps folded out, rather than anything even vaguely humanoid. I know a few of the Transformers suffered from that, but I felt even some of the small and cheap ones (Bumblebee for instance) did a decent job of making the robot mode more humanoid.
A few of the Transformers *did* have scattered bits of metal in their construction mixed in with the plastic, though often which pieces and why seemed pretty random. A car door here, half a leg there, some chunk of incongruous shiny gold-colored metal mixed into the grey of a Dinobot for no reason, etc.
I'll admit I never clunked my little brother in the head with a Transformer, and it was entirely because I didn't want to damage the toy, and had nothing to do with fearing I might damage him.
A little bit of both, probably. I'm definitely curious about at least trying some non-web stuff, in addition to likely continuing to do web-based work as well. My last project was a web-based game and I haven't quite figured out what the next project is going to be.
Sounds like Python is appropriate for almost all situations, though, so maybe that's a good direction to pick.
Go-Bots suck. Transformers are the only acceptable sentient machinery.
Funny, though, I'll give you that.
In addition, if I'm a hobbyist programmer who's gotten by on PHP and some JavaScript for web stuff over the last decade and a half, and I'm thinking about picking up something new, should I consider Go or stick with one of the older standards?
I know it's not the point of the equation, and actually getting there is still a tremendous obstacle, but given the choice between trying to colonize a planet with some life or a barren one, I'd think the one with other life would be far easier. Plus it'd open up whole new fields of science - biology in particular, but undoubtedly it'd change how we understand other subjects as well.
My inner Homer Simpson is hoping for donut shaped.
I look forward to this. My house is at 7400 feet, and my airport is at 6500 feet elevation. Once I get on the 787, I'll actually feel *invigorated* by the thick, rich atmosphere.
The stewardesses will normally ask people to turn down the volume on things with speakers. I've seen it happen multiple times. In one case a middle-aged woman next to me had accidentally plugged her headphones into the microphone jack, so she was blasting music loud enough to get to her through the disconnected headphones. She'd only been doing it for about a minute when the stewardess came up and intervened. (Funnily enough, she assumed that I, as the college-age guy, was blasting the music and asked me to turn it down. We all had a laugh when we figured out what was going on.)
The last time I flew, I brought my Nook with me for reading entertainment, and then after realizing I couldn't use it for about half the flight time (two 1-hour hops means 1 hour of reading and 1 hour of 'no electronics') I bought a physical book in the airport bookstore to have something to read for the entire trip back.
Yeah, I'd be for retraining, too. There aren't many things that change significantly like this one has (though learning how to drive with antilock brakes may be another). For the most part it's all the other things that haven't changed but people have either gotten sloppy about or simply forgotten. For instance: stop *at* the stop sign first, *then* inch forward if you need better visibility, don't just slide to a stop three feet past the sign with your bumper an inch or two from the intersection. Older Americans also apparently never got taught how to navigate roundabouts, which mostly didn't exist in past decades but which seem to be growing in popularity.
For example, if a human parent wants his children to develop competence, wisdom, and discretion, would it be wise for him to shelter his children from anything remotely evil or bad, and force his children to do only good things? or would it be wise to supervise and guide them while allowing them to make their own decisions, make mistakes, and learn from them? The former is robotic and naieve, while the latter is indeed nurturing. Would a bird nurture its young by keeping them in the nest, or by pushing them out so they learn to fly?
I agree entirely with your point that a nurturing parent is better than strict control. What I don't understand is how anyone would say that the monotheistic God is being a nurturing parent. At best God is an absentee parent (invisible, intangible) and has left the children to be raised by other children, hoping unspoken wisdom and guidance will be passed along properly by the kids. I don't call that nurturing at all.
That's an excellent question. I consider myself socially liberal and financially conservative, and vote almost exclusively Democrat because I put significantly more weight on my personal freedoms than the financial issues. The choice has been made easier in recent decades because most of the Republican candidates I could vote for haven't been all that financially conservative in the first place.
Now I don't want to be pidgin holed as one of those P-brains (or pee brains, even) who gets too obsessed over a little thing like spelling, when for all intensive purposes we can usually understand each other well enough, but sometimes you're words really due matter.
Aisle admit to some fussiness. I apparently have a deep-seeded need to correct verbal foe paws when I see them, ranging from stray apostrophe's to unnecessary quotes put around 'words' for emphasis, but as the mourning star shines, what really makes me cry grate crocodile tiers of frustration is the spelling error. Even when I'm not a steak-holder in the matter, such as someone else's conversation on a discussion bored (you really think they'd be more exciting), I still feel the kneed to make corrections. Old King Coal was a merry old sole, but apparently I'm a reel stickler for details.
Whether it's big causes like visualizing whirled peas or helping those starving euthanasia, down to the most miner house-holed conversations, proper communication is key. It *should* be as easy as pi, but four sum reason it's knot.
For example, recently Eye replied to an appalling posting which red, "your in this country, learn the language" with an offer to make the poster the first deportee, but my suggestion only earned an unappreciative "yore a jerk." Their may be a colonel of truth to that, but I still think it was the foolish poster who looked bad for making such a silly mistake. You simply can't expect someone to take you seriously while you're talking about a title wave, or a device that scans for finger prince, or most especially if you're trying to peek customer interest in a sneak peak of your product. Precise spelling gets a bad wrap at times, but you'll be mocked if you mangle the lyrics to Comma Chameleon, and calling someone a no-nothing will only cause readers to glance askance at the extent of your own knowledge (unless the principal of the double negative means you really intended to call him a "something-something," which may be fare game.)
In the same vain, if you try to take the reigns, be prepared for "your royal highness" jokes — far less likely to get any kings or queens than jokers and lumbar jacks. As the great barred once said, "Two bee, ore not too B." Or was that a line from The Malty's Falcon? I always get those too mixed up.
But that pails in comparison to the thyme my brother warned me to (and you'll have to pardon my French here) "look out for the big asshole" in the parking lot, and as I looked around for an improperly behaving pedestrian or vehicle, I ran through the big-ass pothole that he'd been trying to point out.
Now some may argue that the time spent trying to be precise is waisted if other people can figure it out anyway, but in my mind it's shear arrogance to save yourself the trouble of doing the thinking if it puts the burden on the other party. If you don't have your queue stick lined up with the Q ball, don't make it *my* fault when your intentions go awry. Even if you have the best can-dew, never-say-dye attitude, I refuse to let your accross-the-bored misspellings make a lyre of me.
Mostly it's the principal of the thing (have I used principal already? My apologies if the repetition wares on you), that if you have a capitol idea to share butt know-buddy is abel to understand it, then you mite ass whale not bother.
It isn't zero. It is just a lot in any direction.
My physics is rusty, but I'm pretty sure if there's zero acceleration, there's zero force.
The effect still carries over. The reason they know the author's name in the first place is, mostly, because they saw that name on a store bookshelf at one time or another. Or a friend recommended the author, because the friend found the name on a bookshelf. Given a few more decades that may start to change, but the ebook movement is new enough that nearly every current author of serious standing made their name with print books.
As for the other things you mention, those are also almost entirely tied to physical books put out by traditional publisher. Reviews? They're basically only going to happen because the author is already established, or because the publisher is pushing a new author. How is a reviewer even going to find out about a self-published work by a new author to review it? (Or maybe you meant reader reviews, like on Amazon, but then that's still a matter of how do readers find this obscure author to read the book and review it, without some larger forces at play guiding them to the author?) Advertisements? Those generally come from the publisher or the retailer, and neither of them will do much advertising for anything other than the big names. I'm not sure most self-published authors can afford enough advertising to make a difference. Book covers are also best done by professional artists, something a new writer can rarely afford.
Mistakes do slip through the cracks--more mistakes than I think is reasonable--but I think there's still a LOT of editing that goes on. You should see some of those books *before* the editor and proofreader get to them.
Wow that's really bad. Though for something that widespread, it sounds more like a search/replace error, which could have slipped in at the last moment. I know when I did my proofreading there was always at least one round of consolidation and revision *after* I had submitted my comments.
And if you are using scientific names, nobody will ever manage to spell them right. Keeps the processor demand low, at least.
For humor, the Eagleheart series by C.T. Westcott. Gritty dystopian near future on earth, after a limited nuclear war. As a kid I struggled with the sometimes painful humor, but some of my buddies swore it was the funniest thing they'd ever read.
I'll second the vote for the initial two trilogies, but I have reservations about most of the rest of the Krynn books. Many of the other books are by other authors, and I never felt they held up to the same quality, and the constant rehashing of the same events from different viewpoints or in prequels wore on me after a while. The nail in the coffin for me was when Weiss and Hickman returned to the world (Dragons of Summer Flame?) and did their best to destroy everything they'd created. (I'm curious about Darkness and Light, though, because a truly funny book is to be treasured.)
Similarly for the Drizz't series: the first six books are brilliant, after which the next several books became a slog through more of the exact same stuff. I know Salvatore kept writing, so maybe they finally got better again, but he was in a serious rut for a while and it drove me away.
John Steakly Armor - This is an exciting read and will wear you out and make you feel the physical exhaustion of the characters. As Steakly said this book is the action in starship troopers. Orson Scott Card mentions it in his introduction in one of his books. I forget which one. If you do read this. Don;t stop after part one. You'll want to: Don't. Vampire$ - This is what a vampire novel should be. People working for the Vatican to slay vampires for fun and profit. The book rocks, but Damn, the John Carpenter movie version in the 80's sucks ass. Don;t ever watch it.
Can't say enough good things about these two. The man could write gripping action and also be hilariously funny. I've read both multiple times, often at a single all-night sitting, because once I get started I can't put them back down.
... then a problem in a problem will ...
I hate this meme, but if there's a place for a "yo dawg I put a problem in your problem so you could find a solution while you're in a solution" I guess it's here.
Yep, pretty reasonable, assuming the company isn't completely paranoid. Particularly when it comes to travel, I have no qualms using the work computer after hours for my own entertainment. The computer may belong to the company, but after hours my life belongs to me, and if they're going to sent me away from the comforts of home they'd be pretty unreasonable to expect me to travel with two computers just to avoid doing a little web browsing or game playing on theirs.
I'm curious what this contract was for? I can't say anyone's ever tried to rush me through paperwork.
What, the nice mortgage broker tells you that you can afford a mortgage far above what makes sense to you? Well, he IS the expert and he's on your side! He works for your bank, after all...
You still have to be willfully blind to let them convince you that you can make numbers that large work. It doesn't make me a super-genius that I pulled up an online mortgage calculator, plugged in a couple of sample mortgage values, and looked at the monthly payment so that I knew before talking to a broker what I could afford. It only took a minute, and no math was required.
When the guy told me I could get pre-approved for 50% more than that, I shrugged it off because I knew that was crazy talk. At least three different times during the process someone ran the numbers showing me what our monthly payment was going to be. I don't see how anyone could sign up for a six-figure purchase and not bother to check that information at least once.
Now I do understand that balloon mortgages and interest-only loans can obscure the costs, and none of this is to take any blame away from shady lenders, but you've got to work pretty hard at ignoring the alarm bells if someone sells you a house half again or more expensive than you can afford.