His Gap Cycle is brilliant but is barely even listed, if at all, in most "top 100" sci-fi series lists. The portrayal of mankind's antithesis the alien Amnion, and their 'technologies', physiology and psychology are very original. The writing style is dark, hard edged sci-fi without dependence on all the scientific marvels typically separating the characters from space and space travel, so often leveraged in science fiction writing. There is no anti-gravity, just centrifugal force. He uses physics like a mallet to pound the cast of characters and the reader with the hard, cold realities of life in space. It's reminiscent, at times, of classic Arthur C. Clark describing the effects of starlight and gravity on the insides of a Rama vessel and its occupants.
The series also does a wonderful job of paralleling mini and macro power struggles across multiple levels: humanity vs. a very alien Manion, military forces vs. corporate powers, ship to ship combat, antagonist vs. protagonist.
This literary style combined with a blatant attempt to pay homage to Wagner's Ring Cycle makes for a truly unique science fiction series. An underlying device in the series is the rotation from book to book of protagonist, antagonist, victim and tormentor. It's hard to describe what makes it work and still feel believable, authentic and engaging, but somehow it is.
It's too bad this guy couldn't stick with his guns. I'm pretty sure what he said wasn't taken out of context. The fact that he's now reversing himself after some controversy emerged just goes to show that true journalistic integrity has been lost in most mainstream media. Not that I look to Gartner as a source of unbiased product and service reviews and ratings.
This move might have been nice around five years ago but at this point isn't it too little too late? I don't see anyone in the business world these days proudly whipping out their Palm or Palm clone and hastily scribbling away in Graffiti during meetings anymore. It's been years since I've even seen one, with the exception of the Palm III we found recently in a formerly sealed cabinet from the dot-com era.
I guess I just don't see the relevance with the proliferation of BlackBerry and other PDA/phone combos so dominant. I think this ship has sailed...and come back...and sailed off again.
Oh give me a break. This is exactly the kind of story I'm interested in and it's exactly why I/. is my web home page. I'm in the process of specifying a new gaming system for myself and some friends as well, it couldn't be more on-topic for me at this time. It's news for nerds. It's not viral marketing, it's just a story that you're not interested in. I really think your "jaded, dissapointed reader" angle is pretty old and would expect to see this kind of a post on a forum for an MMO under the "Everything sucks about this game but I'm still playing it" section.
I guess it would depend on your definition of arrogant and of grown-up. Perhaps by excluding the vast majority of people working throughout the world from being grown-up you have demonstrated that you are in fact arrogant if not elitist. And, by that same token, I'd say that by defining grown-up as being self employed, you've shown that you consider career to be the sole measure of maturity.
I would argue that being grow-up might consist of being a good husband or wife to one's spouse, being a good mother or father, realizing one's potential in arts and sciences, or simply being accountable for one's actions
That's neat that you're such a winner compared to your former fellow employees. Of course the fact that they were playing games while at work could be part of the reason why they only did okay. For some of us who are gamers there is something incredibly fulfilling about playing. For me, it is like meditation. All of the days stresses seem to be gone after a one to two hour session playing this or that. However, when I'm at work I am usually going all out, managing projects, multitasking, paying attention to the little details etc. Having a job, even at Pixar, where I spend all my time trying to find something to do (reading, gaming) is incomprehensible to me.
I believe the games I've played, especially RTS games have helped me actually multitask better in real life. There was a recent survey where doctors polled who played video games were found to be able to perform procedures faster and with less complications than non-gamers. Pretty interesting info to refute the "stop wasting your life on gaming" claims.
So, based on your post I'd offer the following suggestion. If you want to look down your nose at gamers who play while "working", feel free. That's just not right. But many gamers play on their own time and also somehow find room for relationships and time to bone up on skills, get certs, and even degrees.
As a musician who hasn't even come close to hitting it big I am very offended by Moby's disrespect for his fans. Blaming the technical skill level of your fan base for your latest release's poor sales is pretty lame. Could it be that he's lost his edge? Could it be that his music is not evolving? Could it be that his fan base is moving on to new frontiers while he's regurgitating stale song structure and style? From what I've heard of his latest efforts this is much more probable than some piracy conspiracy.
I believe this is much more likely the case considering that mp3's and CD burners are just the latest evolution of copying devices. People have been copying albums and tapes for years with tape decks and artists weren't crying foul and blaming poor sales on their fans knowledge of the record button on a tape deck.
This is yet another instance of a clueless artist (although some would see him as geeky enough to have a clue) being the recording industries bitch.
First check with pricewatch.com, to get a feel for average prices per component, and then shop around from their links. Make sure you check the website out and that you don't sense any red flags. If you can't find out how to get an RMA within a couple minutes of clicking around, you should probably stay away. I'd also check warrantee and return policies online, before ordering anything.
The best place that I know of is www.mwave.com. I have ordered around $300K in systems and parts from them over the last five years and they've never dropped the ball on me. They will cross-ship if you get a defective component and they are pretty much hassle free. They won't make you spend hours diagnosing the problem with a tech before letting you send something back. Best of all, their prices are usually within about 1%, either way, of those you'd find on pricewatch.com. Sure you could save $10 on a $1000 system by ordering from all kinds of different vendors, or you could get it all at one place.
How has Google managed to deal so well with ethical issues in the current economic environment? For instance, how has Google managed to avoid going to pop up ads, unfair treatment of search returns based on payoffs, and other challenges? Most search engines and news sites have already caved in to these methods citing budget shortages. Google, on the other hand, seems to be expanding existing services, and acquiring or developing new services. How has Google managed to avoid some of the other pitfalls like clueless corporate officers who push the company into adopting bad technologies or technologies that don't fit the company? How much input and control does the non-management, but highly technical types in the company exert over the corporate vision of technology?
You've stated that the salary increase for the new position was a 50% increase. This amount of money is, in other words, your new starting position at that company. If your current company was willing to counter that offer that's great but think of it this way:
Will you ever see another raise with your existing employer again? Probably not for a long damned time because they just went out of their way to keep you on. With the new employer, however, you are starting from ground zero. You can realisticly expect regular reviews/raises etc.
Also, you don't have to worry about loyalty issues, etc. It's also a chance, because it's a new environment, to learn new skills most likely and broaden your resume. I'd try thinking of the possitives the new position may offer you rather than just the negatives of accepting the counter offer. Seriously, most of the 10 reasons the recruiters list are real. I've seen most of them actually occur in my years in the industry.
Wouldn't it be cool if you actually knew how to reproduce the mythical "brown tone?" It's supposed to induce massive diahrea nearly instantly. I'd love to unleash that on all the damned people trying to get me to try their 21% credit cards!
Wow! I totally agree with what you said about the superhero thing. I'd never really noticed it before but now that you spell it out that way... Good point!
That's an EXTREME example with some EXTREME equipment. For the average dot com the price is almost the same for licensing not 4X. I'd be interested in hearing whether or not your SQL Server 2000 still impresses you in a few months. It probably looks great after a fresh install but we all know the gory history of MS products after they're actually moved into production.
I've seen a whole slew of new commerciales trying to tie together patrotism with some silly product like a car or a bank. Now this? First off, we already have Social Security numbers. Talk about Big Brother. Having once been an MIS director in the mental health field I can tell you that the ramifications of just this unique identifier are amazing. Ever feel a little down and see a social worker? Well guess what? They have to diagnose you for the paper work nazi/bean pushers. That diagnosis will most likely be tied to your social security number (at least in some states). How nice, a unique identifier tying you to a record of mental illness. I can't imagine the consequences of Mr. Ellison's unique identifier tied in with biometrics.
And as if the ramifications of this weren't so bad the whole thing is really a sad, last ditch effort, to sell the most over-priced product (besides MS SQL Server) ever. At least Oracle has some features and a track record for stability. I think the logic behind raising the price of SQL Server was honestly to say, "if it costs as much it must be as good!" Of course, they have no proven track record of stability, features, and scalability but what the hell. I'm surprised Bill Gates and the Cisco guys haven't all piped up with outraged cries that had the WTC been properly networked with Cisco Catelysts and MSN internet access then more lives would have been saved because of better awareness of the gravity of the situation. Give me a break!
Clarke wasting namesake on marketing hype.
on
Son of HAL For Sale
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· Score: 1
Arthur C. Clarke is my favorite sci-fi writer but I'd say he's lost some of his objectivity if he's actually going to let this guy use his name for this piece of techno-crap. There's no way it's going to live up to those "verge of AI" claims. Sure, maybe it can start popping up annoying dialog boxes if a user starts deleting system files but those claims are ridiculous.
Come on Arthur, you invented the concept of the communications satellite. Please don't put your name behind something as idiotic as a ultra-friendly home PC!
I guess I just hate to see the concept of the HAL 9000 reduced to a marketing campaign. Why sellout now?!?!
Want to hear something REALLY scary?:) I've been waiting to get my DSL working since February. I'm using Flashcom, Covad, and USWest for my service. After placing my order in February I waited about two weeks and had still heard nothing from Flashcom. I called them and found that they'd cancelled my order because my billing address for them and USWest didn't match. Because USWest had abbreviated my street name to Ceylon St and Flashcom hadn't the two addresses were different and this somehow auto-cancelled my order. In mid-April a very nice tech from Covad brought me my ISDL router and set me up. Sadly the NT1 light just keeps flashing. Apparently there is no physical line connecting my router to anything past my neighborhood. I can't call USWest to get status on the circuit ID because it's a special one for Covad and my name isn't associated with it in any way. If I call Flashcom they call Covad who says, "USWest is working on it." So all in all they've totally screwed up this installation and if that's not bad enough they somehow also screwed up my analog phone line. I can't stay connected to the internet for more than 20 seconds before the modem tries to renegociate the connection. With this going on I'm getting about a 40% packet loss percentage and usually about after five minutes I lose my connection entirely. Every time I call USWest to get a work order issued I give them an elaborate explanation of what my problem is. The sad thing is that the customer reps always translate this to "noise on line." The tech's then come out, plug in their lineman's phone, and tell me, "it sounds clear to me!" So I'm praying for @home to come to my area at this point.
Arthur C Clarke is the ultimate example for this argument. His paper on Extra-terrestrial Relays in 1945 described the modern-day satellite. This paper actually inspired a whole new technology.
Slashdot Mirror
You M.A.D.bro?
I know why people write silly articles like this but why are we wasting our time discussing it here? :)
His Gap Cycle is brilliant but is barely even listed, if at all, in most "top 100" sci-fi series lists. The portrayal of mankind's antithesis the alien Amnion, and their 'technologies', physiology and psychology are very original. The writing style is dark, hard edged sci-fi without dependence on all the scientific marvels typically separating the characters from space and space travel, so often leveraged in science fiction writing. There is no anti-gravity, just centrifugal force. He uses physics like a mallet to pound the cast of characters and the reader with the hard, cold realities of life in space. It's reminiscent, at times, of classic Arthur C. Clark describing the effects of starlight and gravity on the insides of a Rama vessel and its occupants.
The series also does a wonderful job of paralleling mini and macro power struggles across multiple levels: humanity vs. a very alien Manion, military forces vs. corporate powers, ship to ship combat, antagonist vs. protagonist.
This literary style combined with a blatant attempt to pay homage to Wagner's Ring Cycle makes for a truly unique science fiction series. An underlying device in the series is the rotation from book to book of protagonist, antagonist, victim and tormentor. It's hard to describe what makes it work and still feel believable, authentic and engaging, but somehow it is.
It's too bad this guy couldn't stick with his guns. I'm pretty sure what he said wasn't taken out of context. The fact that he's now reversing himself after some controversy emerged just goes to show that true journalistic integrity has been lost in most mainstream media. Not that I look to Gartner as a source of unbiased product and service reviews and ratings.
I wonder what an ad for a strip club would smell like?
This move might have been nice around five years ago but at this point isn't it too little too late? I don't see anyone in the business world these days proudly whipping out their Palm or Palm clone and hastily scribbling away in Graffiti during meetings anymore. It's been years since I've even seen one, with the exception of the Palm III we found recently in a formerly sealed cabinet from the dot-com era.
I guess I just don't see the relevance with the proliferation of BlackBerry and other PDA/phone combos so dominant. I think this ship has sailed...and come back...and sailed off again.
Oh give me a break. This is exactly the kind of story I'm interested in and it's exactly why I /. is my web home page. I'm in the process of specifying a new gaming system for myself and some friends as well, it couldn't be more on-topic for me at this time. It's news for nerds. It's not viral marketing, it's just a story that you're not interested in. I really think your "jaded, dissapointed reader" angle is pretty old and would expect to see this kind of a post on a forum for an MMO under the "Everything sucks about this game but I'm still playing it" section.
I guess it would depend on your definition of arrogant and of grown-up. Perhaps by excluding the vast majority of people working throughout the world from being grown-up you have demonstrated that you are in fact arrogant if not elitist. And, by that same token, I'd say that by defining grown-up as being self employed, you've shown that you consider career to be the sole measure of maturity.
I would argue that being grow-up might consist of being a good husband or wife to one's spouse, being a good mother or father, realizing one's potential in arts and sciences, or simply being accountable for one's actions
That's neat that you're such a winner compared to your former fellow employees. Of course the fact that they were playing games while at work could be part of the reason why they only did okay. For some of us who are gamers there is something incredibly fulfilling about playing. For me, it is like meditation. All of the days stresses seem to be gone after a one to two hour session playing this or that. However, when I'm at work I am usually going all out, managing projects, multitasking, paying attention to the little details etc. Having a job, even at Pixar, where I spend all my time trying to find something to do (reading, gaming) is incomprehensible to me.
I believe the games I've played, especially RTS games have helped me actually multitask better in real life. There was a recent survey where doctors polled who played video games were found to be able to perform procedures faster and with less complications than non-gamers. Pretty interesting info to refute the "stop wasting your life on gaming" claims.
So, based on your post I'd offer the following suggestion. If you want to look down your nose at gamers who play while "working", feel free. That's just not right. But many gamers play on their own time and also somehow find room for relationships and time to bone up on skills, get certs, and even degrees.
As a musician who hasn't even come close to hitting it big I am very offended by Moby's disrespect for his fans. Blaming the technical skill level of your fan base for your latest release's poor sales is pretty lame. Could it be that he's lost his edge? Could it be that his music is not evolving? Could it be that his fan base is moving on to new frontiers while he's regurgitating stale song structure and style? From what I've heard of his latest efforts this is much more probable than some piracy conspiracy.
I believe this is much more likely the case considering that mp3's and CD burners are just the latest evolution of copying devices. People have been copying albums and tapes for years with tape decks and artists weren't crying foul and blaming poor sales on their fans knowledge of the record button on a tape deck.
This is yet another instance of a clueless artist (although some would see him as geeky enough to have a clue) being the recording industries bitch.
First check with pricewatch.com, to get a feel for average prices per component, and then shop around from their links. Make sure you check the website out and that you don't sense any red flags. If you can't find out how to get an RMA within a couple minutes of clicking around, you should probably stay away. I'd also check warrantee and return policies online, before ordering anything.
The best place that I know of is www.mwave.com. I have ordered around $300K in systems and parts from them over the last five years and they've never dropped the ball on me. They will cross-ship if you get a defective component and they are pretty much hassle free. They won't make you spend hours diagnosing the problem with a tech before letting you send something back. Best of all, their prices are usually within about 1%, either way, of those you'd find on pricewatch.com. Sure you could save $10 on a $1000 system by ordering from all kinds of different vendors, or you could get it all at one place.
Mark
How has Google managed to deal so well with ethical issues in the current economic environment? For instance, how has Google managed to avoid going to pop up ads, unfair treatment of search returns based on payoffs, and other challenges? Most search engines and news sites have already caved in to these methods citing budget shortages. Google, on the other hand, seems to be expanding existing services, and acquiring or developing new services. How has Google managed to avoid some of the other pitfalls like clueless corporate officers who push the company into adopting bad technologies or technologies that don't fit the company? How much input and control does the non-management, but highly technical types in the company exert over the corporate vision of technology?
You've stated that the salary increase for the new position was a 50% increase. This amount of money is, in other words, your new starting position at that company. If your current company was willing to counter that offer that's great but think of it this way:
Will you ever see another raise with your existing employer again? Probably not for a long damned time because they just went out of their way to keep you on. With the new employer, however, you are starting from ground zero. You can realisticly expect regular reviews/raises etc.
Also, you don't have to worry about loyalty issues, etc. It's also a chance, because it's a new environment, to learn new skills most likely and broaden your resume. I'd try thinking of the possitives the new position may offer you rather than just the negatives of accepting the counter offer. Seriously, most of the 10 reasons the recruiters list are real. I've seen most of them actually occur in my years in the industry.
Mark
Wouldn't it be cool if you actually knew how to reproduce the mythical "brown tone?" It's supposed to induce massive diahrea nearly instantly. I'd love to unleash that on all the damned people trying to get me to try their 21% credit cards!
Wow! I totally agree with what you said about the superhero thing. I'd never really noticed it before but now that you spell it out that way... Good point!
That's an EXTREME example with some EXTREME equipment. For the average dot com the price is almost the same for licensing not 4X. I'd be interested in hearing whether or not your SQL Server 2000 still impresses you in a few months. It probably looks great after a fresh install but we all know the gory history of MS products after they're actually moved into production.
I've seen a whole slew of new commerciales trying to tie together patrotism with some silly product like a car or a bank. Now this? First off, we already have Social Security numbers. Talk about Big Brother. Having once been an MIS director in the mental health field I can tell you that the ramifications of just this unique identifier are amazing. Ever feel a little down and see a social worker? Well guess what? They have to diagnose you for the paper work nazi/bean pushers. That diagnosis will most likely be tied to your social security number (at least in some states). How nice, a unique identifier tying you to a record of mental illness. I can't imagine the consequences of Mr. Ellison's unique identifier tied in with biometrics.
And as if the ramifications of this weren't so bad the whole thing is really a sad, last ditch effort, to sell the most over-priced product (besides MS SQL Server) ever. At least Oracle has some features and a track record for stability. I think the logic behind raising the price of SQL Server was honestly to say, "if it costs as much it must be as good!" Of course, they have no proven track record of stability, features, and scalability but what the hell. I'm surprised Bill Gates and the Cisco guys haven't all piped up with outraged cries that had the WTC been properly networked with Cisco Catelysts and MSN internet access then more lives would have been saved because of better awareness of the gravity of the situation. Give me a break!
Arthur C. Clarke is my favorite sci-fi writer but I'd say he's lost some of his objectivity if he's actually going to let this guy use his name for this piece of techno-crap. There's no way it's going to live up to those "verge of AI" claims. Sure, maybe it can start popping up annoying dialog boxes if a user starts deleting system files but those claims are ridiculous.
Come on Arthur, you invented the concept of the communications satellite. Please don't put your name behind something as idiotic as a ultra-friendly home PC!
I guess I just hate to see the concept of the HAL 9000 reduced to a marketing campaign. Why sellout now?!?!
Dissident
Want to hear something REALLY scary? :) I've been waiting to get my DSL working since February. I'm using Flashcom, Covad, and USWest for my service. After placing my order in February I waited about two weeks and had still heard nothing from Flashcom. I called them and found that they'd cancelled my order because my billing address for them and USWest didn't match. Because USWest had abbreviated my street name to Ceylon St and Flashcom hadn't the two addresses were different and this somehow auto-cancelled my order. In mid-April a very nice tech from Covad brought me my ISDL router and set me up. Sadly the NT1 light just keeps flashing. Apparently there is no physical line connecting my router to anything past my neighborhood. I can't call USWest to get status on the circuit ID because it's a special one for Covad and my name isn't associated with it in any way. If I call Flashcom they call Covad who says, "USWest is working on it." So all in all they've totally screwed up this installation and if that's not bad enough they somehow also screwed up my analog phone line. I can't stay connected to the internet for more than 20 seconds before the modem tries to renegociate the connection. With this going on I'm getting about a 40% packet loss percentage and usually about after five minutes I lose my connection entirely. Every time I call USWest to get a work order issued I give them an elaborate explanation of what my problem is. The sad thing is that the customer reps always translate this to "noise on line." The tech's then come out, plug in their lineman's phone, and tell me, "it sounds clear to me!" So I'm praying for @home to come to my area at this point.
Arthur C Clarke is the ultimate example for this argument. His paper on Extra-terrestrial Relays in 1945 described the modern-day satellite. This paper actually inspired a whole new technology.