It's the second half of the fourth. Apparently the fourth book was getting so long that he separated out roughly half of the plotlines and set them aside for another volume, which is why a lot of characters don't show up in the fourth. Since he was originally planning on 7 books, this may push it to 8 or even more volumes for the series.
They sound astonishingly sane.
Sadly, I don't think that they have a snowball's chance in hell of doing too well, as they're going to step on far too many toes. But this is still one of the sanest platforms I've seen.
If the many quiet and pleasant religionists (not my chosen word, I'm just working from the phrase) don't do anything to curtail the few loud and obnoxious ones, if they don't step up and deny any connection at all, then they are providing a tacit endorsement of the loud and obnoxious ones - they are, by their silence, allowing the obnoxious ones to represent them too. If they don't speak up, how can we even know that they disagree or for that matter, exist?
Don't try to shift the blame onto a minority, all religionists are responsible in one way or another.
An opinion that seems very prolific on Slashdot is that consumers have a right to consume anything that has been created. They don't. The right to consume is not recognized by law, nor should it be.
On the contrary - it is. That is, after all, the whole point of copyright: The temporary granting of control over who can copy your work in order to encourage you to produce more. Once that temporary period is over, it's freely available for anyone to consume. Sure, there may be production costs, which is why paying for a copy of Shakespeare's plays is acceptable under law (and they'll usually come with commentary, thus being a 'new' edition), but you can freely obtain the basic text without anyone complaining.
In other words, the default position - for the majority of the lifespan of the civilisation - is freedom to consume anything that you like. It's only for a very small space of time that this freedom is waived.
The problem is that this temporary period is getting longer and longer, and that people (such as yourself) are believing the propoganda that this is How Things Should Be.
These are all good points, but as it stands, the the US has a major problem - patents and copyrights. These are causing the country to slowly tear itself apart due to stifling innovation and creativity, and the resulting feeding frenzy of lawsuits. Maybe dealing with the RIAA is low on people's lists, but it's one of the pieces that needs to be dealt with before the situation can be repaired. Going along with them is not only permitting this problem to continue to exist, but it gives them a form of tacit approval - after all, if people from the RIAA are given high posts in the DOJ, surely they can't be all that bad, now can they./sarcasm
It's true that some people should be killed, but for me that's more about mercy. As far as I'm concerned, a death penalty is no big deal. I'd rather not die, but at least it's over and done with. Being locked up in prison for years and decades? Only to emerge vastly older, out of touch and with no hope of operating in the world, not least because of the stigma that's attached to being an ex-con and likely made worse when people find out why you were there? Not terribly appealing, you know. "But at least you're not dead." Pfah. There are worse things than death.
He doesn't. These were all sold long, long ago. It's just that nobody actually turned them into movies until fairly recently. After the appalling work done adapting his stories, he's done the best he can and had his name removed from any future ones.
Sure, he's egotistical and all, but I defy anyone to say with a straight face that any of the adaptations of his stories were actually good films.
I don't run it on my primary machine precisely because it is so intrusive and demanding when the machine turns on. It is used on my secondary machine and the machines of two of my friends, all of which have decent specs. With these, you might as well wander off when you boot up, because anything that you try to do will be so incredibly slow that it really isn't worth the effort. As far as I can tell, the program works fine otherwise, but it has a horrible UI.
Slashdot Mirror
It's the second half of the fourth. Apparently the fourth book was getting so long that he separated out roughly half of the plotlines and set them aside for another volume, which is why a lot of characters don't show up in the fourth. Since he was originally planning on 7 books, this may push it to 8 or even more volumes for the series.
Yes, it means that I can finally play Dwarf Fortress at a decent speed!
They sound astonishingly sane. Sadly, I don't think that they have a snowball's chance in hell of doing too well, as they're going to step on far too many toes. But this is still one of the sanest platforms I've seen.
If the many quiet and pleasant religionists (not my chosen word, I'm just working from the phrase) don't do anything to curtail the few loud and obnoxious ones, if they don't step up and deny any connection at all, then they are providing a tacit endorsement of the loud and obnoxious ones - they are, by their silence, allowing the obnoxious ones to represent them too. If they don't speak up, how can we even know that they disagree or for that matter, exist? Don't try to shift the blame onto a minority, all religionists are responsible in one way or another.
Perhaps with a car analogy?
An opinion that seems very prolific on Slashdot is that consumers have a right to consume anything that has been created. They don't. The right to consume is not recognized by law, nor should it be.
On the contrary - it is. That is, after all, the whole point of copyright: The temporary granting of control over who can copy your work in order to encourage you to produce more. Once that temporary period is over, it's freely available for anyone to consume. Sure, there may be production costs, which is why paying for a copy of Shakespeare's plays is acceptable under law (and they'll usually come with commentary, thus being a 'new' edition), but you can freely obtain the basic text without anyone complaining. In other words, the default position - for the majority of the lifespan of the civilisation - is freedom to consume anything that you like. It's only for a very small space of time that this freedom is waived. The problem is that this temporary period is getting longer and longer, and that people (such as yourself) are believing the propoganda that this is How Things Should Be.
Try it in base 13...
These are all good points, but as it stands, the the US has a major problem - patents and copyrights. These are causing the country to slowly tear itself apart due to stifling innovation and creativity, and the resulting feeding frenzy of lawsuits. Maybe dealing with the RIAA is low on people's lists, but it's one of the pieces that needs to be dealt with before the situation can be repaired. Going along with them is not only permitting this problem to continue to exist, but it gives them a form of tacit approval - after all, if people from the RIAA are given high posts in the DOJ, surely they can't be all that bad, now can they. /sarcasm
It's true that some people should be killed, but for me that's more about mercy. As far as I'm concerned, a death penalty is no big deal. I'd rather not die, but at least it's over and done with. Being locked up in prison for years and decades? Only to emerge vastly older, out of touch and with no hope of operating in the world, not least because of the stigma that's attached to being an ex-con and likely made worse when people find out why you were there? Not terribly appealing, you know. "But at least you're not dead." Pfah. There are worse things than death.
Could have sworn that I modded 'insightful'... Something went screwy though
Posting to cancel borked moderation.
He doesn't. These were all sold long, long ago. It's just that nobody actually turned them into movies until fairly recently. After the appalling work done adapting his stories, he's done the best he can and had his name removed from any future ones. Sure, he's egotistical and all, but I defy anyone to say with a straight face that any of the adaptations of his stories were actually good films.
I don't run it on my primary machine precisely because it is so intrusive and demanding when the machine turns on. It is used on my secondary machine and the machines of two of my friends, all of which have decent specs. With these, you might as well wander off when you boot up, because anything that you try to do will be so incredibly slow that it really isn't worth the effort. As far as I can tell, the program works fine otherwise, but it has a horrible UI.