E.R.Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (pre-LOTR; rather quirky, but well worth reading)
Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy
Fritz Leiber's stories about Fafhrd and the Mouser (If you get the series that puts them in internal chronological order you may find the first couple of "prequel" stories somewhat weak. But persevere, because the series gets much better.)
The original Conan stories (but not the syndicated drek that has been coming out since the '80s)
Also, though not quite 'fantasy' as usually conceived, try David Drake's Birds of Prey and Vettius and Friends. These are set in the late Roman empire, with a bit of [spoiler] thrown in to make them fantasy-esque. (Alas, this recommendation does not generalize to a recommendation of Drake's stuff that's targeted at the mainstream fantasy market.)
> If M$ is going to get any fair competition, they need to open their formats on Word and Excel so people are not forced to use MS Office if they have to work with those formats.
The 9 states could bypass the DoJ sellout entirely, simply by passing their own legislation specifying that state institutions would not be allowed to create, store, or distribute documents in any format that is not an ANSI standard.
> How do you identify with Conan the Barbarian when you weigh less than his sword arm?
If you weight less than Conan's sword arm you obviously haven't been eating enough pizza and Snickers bars to maintain good standing in the geek community.
Either that, or else you've been getting some unauthorized exercise.
> In other words when our local bank is being robbed, we should send *every police officer in the entire city* over to the bank to help ensure that our robbers are caught and don't escape.
OT, but maybe kinda funny...
I once lived in an apartment complex in a smallish town. One day my neighbor called the police over a suspected wife beating in progress in the next unit down. They told him it would be an hour before anyone could come check it out, because all the local cops were currently tied up on afternoon school-crossing duty.
We decided that if we ever robbed a bank we'd do it right when school let out, so we'd have an hour's start on our getaway.
> If you want it to be absolutely true to the book, the way Harry Potter was, don't see it.
IMO that took HP down a couple of stars in my ratings. What makes a good book is not the same as what makes a good movie.
I haven't read the HP books, so I'll concede that they might be very good. But I went to see the movie with my n&n, and commented to their dad that I thought it was overlong and full of fluff that didn't contribute to the movement of the flick. He said it's because the movie was previewed to audiences of kiddies who raised hell about it not being faithful to the book, so they went back and 'fixed' it. That 'fix' is probably exactly what I didn't like about the movie.
So I'm dubious about LOTR. Where they're not faithful to the book (Arwen the Warrior Princess) I'll hate it for that reason; where they are faithful to the book, I'll hate it for being overlong and stuffy.
The best way to go would be to read good books that aren't derived from films and watch good films that aren't derived from books. Alas, Hollywood's formulaic writing doesn't produce many good yarns that way.
Only if they successfully market it as a kiddie movie. Adults who have read LOTR will see it in droves, but kiddie movies have the advantage that the adults have to go along anyway when they take the kids.
The despised TV actionware/gobletware commercials seem to imply that they are trying to market it to the kiddie audience, though.
> The NASA map also shows that lightning very rarely occurs at sea and is almost never seen at the Earth's poles. Anyone care to speculate on why that is?
Far fewer blasphemers in those regions, of course.
We are fortunate to have discovered a cache of clay tablets that appear to be the remnants of the Bronze Age Jargon File, as witnessed by this sample:
hacker - n., Military slang for warrior armed with a battle axe.
cracker - n., Military slang for a warrior armed with a war hammer. Civilians eager to show off their mastery of military slang often erroneously refer to crackers as hackers, much to the chagrin of the better informed military men.
ping - n., The sound a sling stone makes when it bounces off a bronze helmet. The word is often used as a verb as well, e.g. a general might send his slingers ahead to 'ping' a wood or village and listen for the characteristic sound indicating that the enemy has troops stationed there in ambush.
pron - n., Short for Pronifagri, the Mother Goddess. The term is most often used to refer to those obese Neolithic images of Pronifagri which are still easily found by those who know where to look. (See babe in the Neolithic Jargon File.) Some males collect pron compulsively, completely filling up their barns with it, and in some cases even buying a new, larger barn just to store their huge collections.
troll - n., Someone, usually an adolescent with no social skills, who hangs around the marketplace and makes quips that are calculated to start an argument with the more staid citizens. Taken from the verb trollo, trollere, meaning "to drag a fish ashore" or "to dig in the nose with a finger". (The verb itself is a conflation of traho and uolo, with a basic sense of "aspire to drag".) Trolling is thought to be common throughout the Bronze Age Mediterranean, as it later gave rise to Greek Philosophy. (See Socrates in the Classical Jargon File.)
> Linux has started to become the platform of choice for extremely complex and involved multimedia production, powering enormous render farms and video storage RAID arrays, yet still, Linux falls on its face for mundane day-to-day productivity work.
That's funny... I've been using Linux for mundane day-to-day productivity work for years.
> in an episode that will likely be our season finale in May, all of the following: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols
Is that the reality TV episode, where we vote them off the Enterprise one at a time?
> If MS threw this bone to the DOJ, they might consider some quid pro quo on the antitrust front (not like they need to with the way things are going, though).
<conspiracytheory>Maybe this is why things are going the way they're going on that front?</conspiracytheory>
> You sir, are mistaken. The only ability a programming language really needs is to output "Hello world" to the screen. Here's an interpreter (in Perl)...
That's nothing. I'm putting the finishing touches on my new processor design, and includes a native PHW opcode, no arguments.
Slashdot Mirror
> Perhaps for GNOME 2, they should change it to a RIGHT foot instead... just a thought.
No, it's going to have two big toes.
I would also recommend:
- E.R.Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (pre-LOTR; rather quirky, but well worth reading)
- Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy
- Fritz Leiber's stories about Fafhrd and the Mouser (If you get the series that puts them in internal chronological order you may find the first couple of "prequel" stories somewhat weak. But persevere, because the series gets much better.)
- The original Conan stories (but not the syndicated drek that has been coming out since the '80s)
Also, though not quite 'fantasy' as usually conceived, try David Drake's Birds of Prey and Vettius and Friends. These are set in the late Roman empire, with a bit of [spoiler] thrown in to make them fantasy-esque. (Alas, this recommendation does not generalize to a recommendation of Drake's stuff that's targeted at the mainstream fantasy market.)> If M$ is going to get any fair competition, they need to open their formats on Word and Excel so people are not forced to use MS Office if they have to work with those formats.
The 9 states could bypass the DoJ sellout entirely, simply by passing their own legislation specifying that state institutions would not be allowed to create, store, or distribute documents in any format that is not an ANSI standard.
> How do you identify with Conan the Barbarian when you weigh less than his sword arm?
If you weight less than Conan's sword arm you obviously haven't been eating enough pizza and Snickers bars to maintain good standing in the geek community.
Either that, or else you've been getting some unauthorized exercise.
> In other words when our local bank is being robbed, we should send *every police officer in the entire city* over to the bank to help ensure that our robbers are caught and don't escape.
OT, but maybe kinda funny...
I once lived in an apartment complex in a smallish town. One day my neighbor called the police over a suspected wife beating in progress in the next unit down. They told him it would be an hour before anyone could come check it out, because all the local cops were currently tied up on afternoon school-crossing duty.
We decided that if we ever robbed a bank we'd do it right when school let out, so we'd have an hour's start on our getaway.
> What is the FBI so afraid of? Someone using Photoshop and Kai's power tools to distort the presidents face?
No, they're afraid of someone using Photoshop to make a picture with a stern looking Bert peering over his shoulder.
> How could nobody else realize that they've totally destroyed the Shire scenes by making Bilbo's eyes the wrong color
Hey! You promised no spoilers!!!
> If you want it to be absolutely true to the book, the way Harry Potter was, don't see it.
IMO that took HP down a couple of stars in my ratings. What makes a good book is not the same as what makes a good movie.
I haven't read the HP books, so I'll concede that they might be very good. But I went to see the movie with my n&n, and commented to their dad that I thought it was overlong and full of fluff that didn't contribute to the movement of the flick. He said it's because the movie was previewed to audiences of kiddies who raised hell about it not being faithful to the book, so they went back and 'fixed' it. That 'fix' is probably exactly what I didn't like about the movie.
So I'm dubious about LOTR. Where they're not faithful to the book (Arwen the Warrior Princess) I'll hate it for that reason; where they are faithful to the book, I'll hate it for being overlong and stuffy.
The best way to go would be to read good books that aren't derived from films and watch good films that aren't derived from books. Alas, Hollywood's formulaic writing doesn't produce many good yarns that way.
> So, will it beat Harry Potter?
Only if they successfully market it as a kiddie movie. Adults who have read LOTR will see it in droves, but kiddie movies have the advantage that the adults have to go along anyway when they take the kids.
The despised TV actionware/gobletware commercials seem to imply that they are trying to market it to the kiddie audience, though.
> I think that Peter Jackson has "got it", although I'm waiting in dubious anticipation for the lists of "All the things that suck about this movie".
From my limited exposure to the trailers, the impression I get is that it's strangely lacking in "atmosphere". Kind of like a made-for-TV movie.
> I'm just sick of seeing those commercials for the light-up goblets; it cheapens the film before it's even out.
<cynical>Yeah, but if they wait until after it's out they'll miss the Christmas action-figure rush.</cynical>
No r? Since this is a Christmas thread, your subject should have been No l.
> Anyone want to buy
My backers can drum up 327 karma points.
> The NASA map also shows that lightning very rarely occurs at sea and is almost never seen at the Earth's poles. Anyone care to speculate on why that is?
Far fewer blasphemers in those regions, of course.
> ader [Govt. Lawyer] responded that he didn't know what was meant by such basic terms as "individual trust data" and "computer,"
This kind of thing is going to continue to be a problem, until the courts determine what the word "means" means.
We are fortunate to have discovered a cache of clay tablets that appear to be the remnants of the Bronze Age Jargon File, as witnessed by this sample:
hacker - n., Military slang for warrior armed with a battle axe.
cracker - n., Military slang for a warrior armed with a war hammer. Civilians eager to show off their mastery of military slang often erroneously refer to crackers as hackers, much to the chagrin of the better informed military men.
ping - n., The sound a sling stone makes when it bounces off a bronze helmet. The word is often used as a verb as well, e.g. a general might send his slingers ahead to 'ping' a wood or village and listen for the characteristic sound indicating that the enemy has troops stationed there in ambush.
pron - n., Short for Pronifagri, the Mother Goddess. The term is most often used to refer to those obese Neolithic images of Pronifagri which are still easily found by those who know where to look. (See babe in the Neolithic Jargon File.) Some males collect pron compulsively, completely filling up their barns with it, and in some cases even buying a new, larger barn just to store their huge collections.
troll - n., Someone, usually an adolescent with no social skills, who hangs around the marketplace and makes quips that are calculated to start an argument with the more staid citizens. Taken from the verb trollo, trollere, meaning "to drag a fish ashore" or "to dig in the nose with a finger". (The verb itself is a conflation of traho and uolo, with a basic sense of "aspire to drag".) Trolling is thought to be common throughout the Bronze Age Mediterranean, as it later gave rise to Greek Philosophy. (See Socrates in the Classical Jargon File.)
Ever heard of "porn"?
> This is amazing technology!
Sorry, but I'm saving my money for the Nimbus 2000.
> Linux has started to become the platform of choice for extremely complex and involved multimedia production, powering enormous render farms and video storage RAID arrays, yet still, Linux falls on its face for mundane day-to-day productivity work.
That's funny... I've been using Linux for mundane day-to-day productivity work for years.
And it's still getting better.
> in an episode that will likely be our season finale in May, all of the following: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols
Is that the reality TV episode, where we vote them off the Enterprise one at a time?
> Corporate morality is a greased pig on a very slippery glass hill.
Hey - wouldn't that make a great skin for Tux Racer?
> If MS threw this bone to the DOJ, they might consider some quid pro quo on the antitrust front (not like they need to with the way things are going, though).
<conspiracytheory>Maybe this is why things are going the way they're going on that front?</conspiracytheory>
> All ML does, by being a Trojan, is get non-criminal technologists pissed off over civil rights and such.
Probably it's just a ruse to make crooks think the spyware will be delivered that way, whereas in fact it will use a different mechanism.
> You sir, are mistaken. The only ability a programming language really needs is to output "Hello world" to the screen. Here's an interpreter (in Perl)...
That's nothing. I'm putting the finishing touches on my new processor design, and includes a native PHW opcode, no arguments.
> First of all, the government is the last entity I think of when I consider responsive, efficient organizations.
Never went to the university, did you?
Or tried to get support for COTS software?
> In times of war the DOT has the authority to take over whatever roads the military needs to move troops/supplies.
When Ashcroft decides the "emergency" requires him to cut off your internet access, you're gonna get snipped whether the gummit is your ISP or not.