Dead right. Look at Moorcock. Elric and Hawkmoon take place respectively with and without technology ever having been developed, but in the end there's no difference. Magic and science are completely interchangeable. Science fiction allows an author to build a world around the supposition that on date xxxx, due to some discovery or catastrophic change or simple extrapolation of the way things are, the characters are able to do yyyy, or event zzzz happens. A fantasy author makes those things happen anyway, without trying to give any (generally bogus) scientific arguments.
WOT is fine, but although I've enjoyed all 9 books so far, I'm wondering just how many more it's going to take to finish the story. I'd like to get to the end of it in my lifetime and RJ is no older than me! In my opinion Jordan goes into far too much detail and is guilty of character overload (with over 1600 characters in the book, how the hell am I supposed to remember who Gazumpmeister Wogglestone is when someone mentions him in passing after his one-page appearance four books ago?)
But is there anyone else who is generally embaressed by SciFi covers these days? Ugh... and don't even mention Fantasy. Ugh.
My big problem with Fantasy these days is that hardly anybody writes self contained stories any more, only multi-volume sagas. I see this every time I look in a bookshop for some new fantasy to read: 800-page books with titles like "The Mutant Wizard of Gradonkor -- the eighth book in the best-selling Black Sword of Zoldan series." I don't want to commit myself to a 10-year read to find out what happened in the end. A saga might be well written, but with 10 books down and the end still not in sight <cough>RJ/WOT</cough> it starts to get on my nerves.
Ask the average turkey hunter how they did, and most are willing to talk about anything but whether they actually GOT a turkey. LOL. That reminds me of the people I see fishing from the beach with 8 rods apiece. I've never seen a fish caught yet.
Yes indeed, it's a proteinaceous, infectious on. (They needed some sort of suffix so I guess they thought "on" sounded nice and scientific). To complete the niceties, you might also like to note that bacteria is the plural of bacterium.
I presume it's the ticking off at the end of that post that got your goat up, since the rest seems to dispense some good sensible advice along with a good reason for it. If the poster had begun with "Quite honestly...." and dropped the insult at the end, would it have still qualified as MS-hating?
Isn't that rote rather than intuition? Could someone who had read a book just to find out where a car's controls then leap into the car and start driving?
Sorry, but as a translator I have had quite a few major web sites to translate and this EULA (read "charter" in most other languages) is neither shorter nor longer in any significant way than most others I've seen. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to say what these other sites are (professional ethics...), but I will say that since words are my billing units, meaning I have to count them every time, I know what I'm talking about. 3000 to 4000 words is commonplace -- and believe me, translating them is boring!
I want a car that goes 79 mph down the road without a complaint about hills, and that has an extra 70 mph on top of that, at least 20 of which are right there when I ask for them in order to pass someone. I want a car that's fun to drive, with tight steering, hot acceleration, and good brakes. I want a car that's challenging and interesting to drive, with ABS and traction control that I can turn off when I feel the need to put new tires on. I want a car that expresses my personality. Or, on the other hand, I'd also love to have a truck that I can call a truck. Not a hybrid SUV. Not a POS. But a real pickup truck, like some manufacturers still make even if they forgot how for about 5 years in the mid- to late 90s. A truck with horsepower, heavy frame, fifth-wheel ball, easy-off tailgate, etc. - a truck that can haul or pull anything I throw at it within some semblance of reason.
Would you like me to write to Father Christmas for you?
Is this because you have a computer with smellovision technology? Do you believe taking a bath makes people more interesting to listen to? Do you know what ad hominem means?
My reasoning: noise N = 50dB (or whatever) 50db one time = 50dB Ergo one time quieter = 50dB quieter = 0dB Twenty times quieter is therefore a negative sound source, sucking in noise
Anyway it's not that important. If you're right and I'm wrong I won't lose any sleep.
Exactly. It's a language quirk that entered into usage while nobody was paying attention and there's nothing anyone can do about it now. Is a razor blade that is "twice as thin" the same as one that is half as thick? We have units for measuring thickness (mm, etc.) but what unit do we have for measuring thinness? or quietness for that matter? Here's another perspective, if something is twenty times quieter, how quiet is something that is one time quieter? Logically, shouldn't "one time quieter" mean just plain silent?
Slashdot Mirror
Shouldn't it be "In Soviet Russia, all your Beowulf Cluster are belong to base. Profit!"?
Nah, forget it...
Dead right. Look at Moorcock. Elric and Hawkmoon take place respectively with and without technology ever having been developed, but in the end there's no difference. Magic and science are completely interchangeable.
Science fiction allows an author to build a world around the supposition that on date xxxx, due to some discovery or catastrophic change or simple extrapolation of the way things are, the characters are able to do yyyy, or event zzzz happens. A fantasy author makes those things happen anyway, without trying to give any (generally bogus) scientific arguments.
WOT is fine, but although I've enjoyed all 9 books so far, I'm wondering just how many more it's going to take to finish the story. I'd like to get to the end of it in my lifetime and RJ is no older than me!
In my opinion Jordan goes into far too much detail and is guilty of character overload (with over 1600 characters in the book, how the hell am I supposed to remember who Gazumpmeister Wogglestone is when someone mentions him in passing after his one-page appearance four books ago?)
But is there anyone else who is generally embaressed by SciFi covers these days? Ugh... and don't even mention Fantasy. Ugh.
My big problem with Fantasy these days is that hardly anybody writes self contained stories any more, only multi-volume sagas. I see this every time I look in a bookshop for some new fantasy to read: 800-page books with titles like "The Mutant Wizard of Gradonkor -- the eighth book in the best-selling Black Sword of Zoldan series." I don't want to commit myself to a 10-year read to find out what happened in the end. A saga might be well written, but with 10 books down and the end still not in sight <cough>RJ/WOT</cough> it starts to get on my nerves.
What's this? A well-developed, factual argument? You do realise you're on Slashdot don't you?
Ask the average turkey hunter how they did, and most are willing to talk about anything but whether they actually GOT a turkey.
LOL. That reminds me of the people I see fishing from the beach with 8 rods apiece. I've never seen a fish caught yet.
Yes indeed, it's a pr oteinaceous, i nfectious on . (They needed some sort of suffix so I guess they thought "on" sounded nice and scientific).
To complete the niceties, you might also like to note that bacteria is the plural of bacterium.
In Europe SuSe and RedHat are far more important than RedHat.
That's pretty undeniable.
But could you now please change one of those RedHats for another name so we know WTF you mean. Thank you.
And what part of "Has Escher's copyright run out yet" did you find confusing?
I presume it's the ticking off at the end of that post that got your goat up, since the rest seems to dispense some good sensible advice along with a good reason for it. If the poster had begun with "Quite honestly...." and dropped the insult at the end, would it have still qualified as MS-hating?
Nuf said
Isn't that rote rather than intuition? Could someone who had read a book just to find out where a car's controls then leap into the car and start driving?
Offtopic? Some people got no sensayuma.
Sorry, but as a translator I have had quite a few major web sites to translate and this EULA (read "charter" in most other languages) is neither shorter nor longer in any significant way than most others I've seen. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to say what these other sites are (professional ethics...), but I will say that since words are my billing units, meaning I have to count them every time, I know what I'm talking about. 3000 to 4000 words is commonplace -- and believe me, translating them is boring!
Nuf said?
I want a car that goes 79 mph down the road without a complaint about hills, and that has an extra 70 mph on top of that, at least 20 of which are right there when I ask for them in order to pass someone. I want a car that's fun to drive, with tight steering, hot acceleration, and good brakes. I want a car that's challenging and interesting to drive, with ABS and traction control that I can turn off when I feel the need to put new tires on. I want a car that expresses my personality. Or, on the other hand, I'd also love to have a truck that I can call a truck. Not a hybrid SUV. Not a POS. But a real pickup truck, like some manufacturers still make even if they forgot how for about 5 years in the mid- to late 90s. A truck with horsepower, heavy frame, fifth-wheel ball, easy-off tailgate, etc. - a truck that can haul or pull anything I throw at it within some semblance of reason.
Would you like me to write to Father Christmas for you?
His (or her) posts didn't get modded up. Just as you start with 0, he (or she) started with 2.
Glad to be of help.
Irrespective or regardless. Please choose.
</vocabularyNitpick>
Back of the tongue actually, like dogs when they trap criminals in corners and say grrrrrrr
Is this because you have a computer with smellovision technology? Do you believe taking a bath makes people more interesting to listen to? Do you know what ad hominem means?
noise N = 50dB (or whatever)
50db one time = 50dB
Ergo one time quieter = 50dB quieter = 0dB
Twenty times quieter is therefore a negative sound source, sucking in noise
Anyway it's not that important. If you're right and I'm wrong I won't lose any sleep.
Exactly. It's a language quirk that entered into usage while nobody was paying attention and there's nothing anyone can do about it now. Is a razor blade that is "twice as thin" the same as one that is half as thick? We have units for measuring thickness (mm, etc.) but what unit do we have for measuring thinness? or quietness for that matter?
Here's another perspective, if something is twenty times quieter, how quiet is something that is one time quieter? Logically, shouldn't "one time quieter" mean just plain silent?
Wait a minute, how many frigging Kramniks are there out there??
I mean, Coca Cola is a popular drink, but you don't see them claiming it builds muscle or makes your penis/breats grow
I couldn't say for sure about my penis, but my breats are definitely twice the size they were before I started drinking coke.
Lone inventors a myth? Nonesense! What about Stephen Olson?