Re:Yet another for the stack
on
Altered Carbon
·
· Score: 1
[MC's Prey]
That was one frightning book!
I find he's a very good writer for establishing and maintaining suspense, which alas, doesn't translate to the screen on damn bit. Give 'em just enough information to worry about what could happen next and then jump to whatever Bob & Ray are doing for a few pages to let the reader stew.
Re:Yet another for the stack
on
Altered Carbon
·
· Score: 1
And you admit it ?
Hey, I enjoy a good yarn, and as non-US books tend not to sugar-coat stories to satisfy some conservative religious zealots (who probably never miss a Springer show...) it's OK. Besides, it gives me an informed opinion. poke poke
Too bad he used the UN as a character/influential institution -- the story looks dated already.
Well, there's always a place in the US government for an organization willing to postrate before the mighty prez or da house.
You were expecting a League of Extraordinary Nations, mebbe?
Sci-Fi and Music?
on
Altered Carbon
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Sorry man, but it totally escapes me. It's like Silent Lucidity without the music, it's kinda flat. Perhaps if you connected a short passage to something relevent it might work.
Probably my favorite sci-fi inspired tune is Rush's Red Barchetta, but I'll leave that for others to discover all together. (Peart's a genius, BTW)
Re:Sounds good
on
Altered Carbon
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I just order stuff from Amazon.co.uk, even though I live in California, I prefer the cover art of books rolled out in the UK, i.e. Pratchett novels with the decent Kidby and Kirby covers, rather than the hideous covers released in the USA.
Gollancz also happens to be Pratchett's publisher. Seems to take an interest in some of the better fiction.
Yet another for the stack
on
Altered Carbon
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Sounds like a winner, something for the summer reading list (which has MC's Prey, The DaVinci Code and Bryson's Short History of Everything in the heap)
Plowing through Potter 5 at the moment.
A thought on futurist expectations and realities... a book just smacked down a movie. Bound and printed paper outstripped The Hulk on opening weekend for both. Between the proselytizing of digital media
and ebooks (which appear to be failing) a sheaf of dead tree beat out the largest opening weekend grossing movie (not adjusted for inflation for.. er.. inflating hype purposes;-) I think that's
a neat irony.
Did the butler do it? How about the Butler v5.021? A concept related to me back in astronomy (hence the space travel connection) was digitizing people and the prospect of making copies of them (religious ramifications sure to follow)
How a person may fork and how they cope seems ripe for novel exploration
Last, no mention of Bladerunner and/or replicants?
They are supposed to be releasing a phone number to call in after a week (or few)
And it'll probably require you to call in from that number, so Bob Effbeeaye will know exactly where you are at that moment!
Our only hope is if they turn it over to private industry, like Comcast, which is apparently run by such a lot of bureaucrats that nobody knows where anyone is, what their status is and nothing gets done without a bunch of phone calls which eventually get you to some guy named Fred who works out of a broomcloset in Cincinatti and is the only one in the whole company who can actually get anything done (and he's not an employee, but a social engineer who got bored of highschool and decided to pretend he has a job.)
If the FBI, CIA and other assorted snoops can't unravel something like Enron, you know it's because bureaucracies don't interface well.
Wow, a beer snob. I thought the rest of those were gone with the close of the microbrew era back in '99. Get a life man, there are better things to do than knock back $6 glasses of beer while contemptuously sneering at the underclass.
I pay $3 per pint and the way I see it, if I'm going to spend money at all I might as well enjoy it. After drinking decent beer for a few years I feel Eric Idle's comments on american beer were on target.
Basically, it's the same with web surfing, or any other thing which consumes my resources, time or money, use it well and have no regrets. (Besides most of the mega-brews always tasted like salt water by the time I got to the third one. No idea why, but I don't get that with a decent pint on draft.)
In case you are too young or didn't notice (while guzzling your Bud Lite and thumping your chest at what a totally unique and studly american you were) hundreds of small brewries emerged over the past couple decades in the USA. Many offered true to the spirit, even abiding by the German Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot), producing quality ales, stouts, lagers, etc. This, as anyone with a lick of sense could see, could lead to serious encroachment of Mega-Brew markets. So they did the american thing and bought a pile of them to hedge their bets and those small brewers who realised they could do fun things with a lot of money sold out.
I have the hunch the big web content sites are aware of how such a similar loss of page views to tiny, informative sites could be attractive. I know some have already sold out, even years ago. However, I also expect that some of these big sites could, and maybe are, running their own mini-sites, to capture that interest in focused, quality content and service. After all, who wants to wade through all the crap they have on their main pages? Not everyone, so why not be all stealthy and play both ends of the field, thus hedging their own bets.
Since I got satellite radio I've probably bought a half dozen CD's, those because I liked something I heard on one of the stations. It's a beauty having this LCD display tell me the dark, arcane secrets (singer, song title) which radio DJ's are loathe to reveal. Mostly tho, I've got so much music to listen to I'm pretty much unlikely to buy much more. I can even play MP3's on the CD player in the pickup, but I can find something to listen to in seconds flipping through my favorite channels so I hardly even bother carrying CD's around anymore.
Granted, satellite (Sirius and XM) aren't widely used, yet, if the do survive I expect more people will have less desire to buy CD's when they find 100+ channels to listen to. I spend, on average 2 hours a day driving, so I figure I'd know as well as anyone how convenient satellite is.
I don't work for, nor am compensated by either XM or Sirius. I just happen to be very happy without lugging CD's around and dealing the radio DJ's who totally suck except in their own egos.
And, it is also certainly possible (likely?) that Benn will never recover the $50,000 judgement entered by the court. I doubt he expects it, either, given that Novak hasn't paid $37,000 in attorneys' fees for his LAST bankruptcy.
Seems this would be terribly interesting news to the court where he's currently filing for his next bankruptcy. Considering he had funds to start up, run, and sue critics of petswarehouse and himself. I suppose the judge could look at these facts and determine he's unworthy of bankruptcy this time. What a fine pickle that would put him in.
What's wrong with wires? They tangle. They wad up in my pocket and make it harder to rig my earphone. I have to have a different one to perform each task (attach phone to PDA, attach PDA to GPS, attach GPS to computer, make up all your own permutations). They are expensive and fragile.
And remarkably we still need wires in the office for 802.11 stuff anyway, the computer still needs power, the WiFi base needs a network cable plugged into it. The only thing it simplfies is moving PC's around, so long as there's still a safe plug (we have outlets with protection and backup power for PC's.) Granted this only pertains to 802.11 PC stuff, not BlueTooth.
Do they have to be expensive? Of course they don't. It's a wire, with a plastic doohickey on each end. How many mobile electronics vendors are making universal cable systems? With the conspicuous exception of audio headphones, zero.
There was some really cool standard ages ago for hooking home appliances up to a household network. A friend bought a few of these things and was impressed, however about 0.001% of the public knew about it and that their washing machine or microwave oven even had such a capability. I like the concept of BlueTooth for around the home and plan to get it going on my PC as soon as I have a few bucks to rub together. Screw what 'experts' say.
I hate wires. It's a problem I percieve, and a solution I'm willing to pay for. Therefore, from my perspective, it is good technology.
Indeed. Particularly when used as intended. I have satellite radio in my PU and I can pretty much tell you where WiFi is leaking into the street. 802.11 is kind of a nuisance where it's deployed badly.
For a certain kind of businessman, declaring bankruptcy is sort of like a fisherman deciding "All the fish here have been harvested, so it's time to pull up anchor and go somewhere else." In their minds, there's nothing immoral or embarrassing about it, it's just how they put food on the table.
A judge doesn't necessarily grant full protection from creditors if he/she determines, possibly from information provided which indicates spending it all and declaring bankruptcy was the plan all along, that this is in bad faith.
I've heard people suggest getting a pile of credit cards, max them out, then declare bankruptcy. Well, you can imagine the credit card companies have heard of this strategy, too, and have means to collect on debts, i.e. you are saddled with a payment plan which requires you to pay them back over time. Less kindly creditors are known to employ collection agents. It's probably a bad idea to lend your car to someone who has recently filed for bankruptcy.
Long before I read about Novak's activities, I bought some curious little silver round on an ebay auction, dated 1978, featuring Andrew Jackson below the word 'Courage' It's about 1/2 ouce of 99.9% silver issued by the 'Liberty Lobby', as a fund raising item (IIRC).
Intrigued, I thought to look up who this Liberty Lobby was. What I found was as convoluted a pile of conspiracy theories; claims against individuals and institutions; counter claims; and a host of legal battle records. I'm still not sure who or what Liberty Lobby was, but this is what some people do with the internet and courts, not too much unlike the whole petswarehouse fiasco. It's a wonder things take so long to move through the courts with this kind of crap clogging things up.
Though, it's too bad that filing for bankruptcy doesn't mean that the frivolous lawsuits will end.
Indeed. It appears there's more on the dockets to be resolved, including him suing the Circuit Court of Colbert County, AL.
I don't think we've heard the last of Mr. Novak somehow.
Though I have never met the man, it appears this is the sort of thing he enjoys immersing himself in. Providing he achieves some level of income by it or other means (like running an online pet store) he can keep going and going so long as he doesn't tire of it. For all we know he's probably sitting at home, sipping a mug of tea and scanning this/. posting for new candidates.
Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out how he lost to John Benn.
Bankruptcy: IANAL, but it's my understanding that bankruptcy protection from creditors can only be granted every 7 (IIRC) years, at the discretion of a judge. Someone regularly filing for bankruptcy to profit or whenever they feel like it isn't any kind of guarantee.
The real question is how well has he protected his assets. F'rinstance, if his home were included in business assets he stands to lose it. Possibly any pending income from suing petsforum people could be transfered to creditors, too.
Nope, no whistle, no buzz, no whine. 3 stuck pixels, but the only time I notice them is when watching DVD's in Widescreen. For the money, what I got, I'm not complaining. No problem with smearing and black is blacker than any monitor I've ever seen (save those pretty cool ones Apple had ages ago, for the IIgs) Maybe the low setting I have the illumination on will extend that. My Sony Vaio PCG 505tx (on loan to friends in Oz) was ~4 years old and still going strong.
Feeding both with DVI, the image quality is far more sharp and steady than any CRT I've used.
With recent addition of an ATI AIW 9700 Pro I'm using DVI, too. Image is so sharp it'd be kinda nice to fuzz it a little, but there's probably a setting somewhere to do that. At 1280x1024 it's everything I've ever wanted.
Plus, the good thing about LCD is when they say 17" they mean it, where 17" CRT is usually an inch smaller display.
Unless you live in Japan and really need the room, I don't see why anybody would want an LCD monitor.
I sit behind two CRT's at work and used to have my home desk crowded by a 16" Sun monitor. The real estated, if not the power bill or adjustability/versatility is a major selling point. They're also very sharp and do fine for games, those like the Samsung SyncMaster 172t with faster refresh rates. Considering 17" CRTs used to run ~700$US, LCD monitors are progressing downward in pricing nicely.
Samsung is the innovator of Display Technology, Their LCDS are top notch.
Bought a SyncMaster 172t, after a few reviews swayed my opinion. It's amazing alright, the only thing I'd ask is for the ability to get the brightness lower. I could literally read by the lowest brightness settings with standard wallpaper displayed. The brightness is so much at the lowest setting I am having some eyestrain problems and have been considering getting smoked plastic to hang over the screen. The lowest setting is more than adequate with daylight coming in a nearby picture window. 500:1 contrast is great, as black is pretty near black and it rocks for watching DVD's on, but who actually uses a brightness setting higher?
Slashdot Mirror
That was one frightning book!
I find he's a very good writer for establishing and maintaining suspense, which alas, doesn't translate to the screen on damn bit. Give 'em just enough information to worry about what could happen next and then jump to whatever Bob & Ray are doing for a few pages to let the reader stew.
Hey, I enjoy a good yarn, and as non-US books tend not to sugar-coat stories to satisfy some conservative religious zealots (who probably never miss a Springer show...) it's OK. Besides, it gives me an informed opinion. poke poke
If you can digitize and store, you can therefore copy.
Seems a book Hilary Rosen would have been willing to write a forward to, eh?
Well, there's always a place in the US government for an organization willing to postrate before the mighty prez or da house.
You were expecting a League of Extraordinary Nations, mebbe?
Probably my favorite sci-fi inspired tune is Rush's Red Barchetta, but I'll leave that for others to discover all together. (Peart's a genius, BTW)
Gollancz also happens to be Pratchett's publisher. Seems to take an interest in some of the better fiction.
A thought on futurist expectations and realities... a book just smacked down a movie. Bound and printed paper outstripped The Hulk on opening weekend for both. Between the proselytizing of digital media and ebooks (which appear to be failing) a sheaf of dead tree beat out the largest opening weekend grossing movie (not adjusted for inflation for .. er .. inflating hype purposes ;-) I think that's
a neat irony.
Did the butler do it? How about the Butler v5.021? A concept related to me back in astronomy (hence the space travel connection) was digitizing people and the prospect of making copies of them (religious ramifications sure to follow) How a person may fork and how they cope seems ripe for novel exploration
Last, no mention of Bladerunner and/or replicants?
And it'll probably require you to call in from that number, so Bob Effbeeaye will know exactly where you are at that moment!
Our only hope is if they turn it over to private industry, like Comcast, which is apparently run by such a lot of bureaucrats that nobody knows where anyone is, what their status is and nothing gets done without a bunch of phone calls which eventually get you to some guy named Fred who works out of a broomcloset in Cincinatti and is the only one in the whole company who can actually get anything done (and he's not an employee, but a social engineer who got bored of highschool and decided to pretend he has a job.)
If the FBI, CIA and other assorted snoops can't unravel something like Enron, you know it's because bureaucracies don't interface well.
I pay $3 per pint and the way I see it, if I'm going to spend money at all I might as well enjoy it. After drinking decent beer for a few years I feel Eric Idle's comments on american beer were on target.
Basically, it's the same with web surfing, or any other thing which consumes my resources, time or money, use it well and have no regrets. (Besides most of the mega-brews always tasted like salt water by the time I got to the third one. No idea why, but I don't get that with a decent pint on draft.)
In case you are too young or didn't notice (while guzzling your Bud Lite and thumping your chest at what a totally unique and studly american you were) hundreds of small brewries emerged over the past couple decades in the USA. Many offered true to the spirit, even abiding by the German Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot), producing quality ales, stouts, lagers, etc. This, as anyone with a lick of sense could see, could lead to serious encroachment of Mega-Brew markets. So they did the american thing and bought a pile of them to hedge their bets and those small brewers who realised they could do fun things with a lot of money sold out.
I have the hunch the big web content sites are aware of how such a similar loss of page views to tiny, informative sites could be attractive. I know some have already sold out, even years ago. However, I also expect that some of these big sites could, and maybe are, running their own mini-sites, to capture that interest in focused, quality content and service. After all, who wants to wade through all the crap they have on their main pages? Not everyone, so why not be all stealthy and play both ends of the field, thus hedging their own bets.
Granted, satellite (Sirius and XM) aren't widely used, yet, if the do survive I expect more people will have less desire to buy CD's when they find 100+ channels to listen to. I spend, on average 2 hours a day driving, so I figure I'd know as well as anyone how convenient satellite is.
I don't work for, nor am compensated by either XM or Sirius. I just happen to be very happy without lugging CD's around and dealing the radio DJ's who totally suck except in their own egos.
Seems this would be terribly interesting news to the court where he's currently filing for his next bankruptcy. Considering he had funds to start up, run, and sue critics of petswarehouse and himself. I suppose the judge could look at these facts and determine he's unworthy of bankruptcy this time. What a fine pickle that would put him in.
And remarkably we still need wires in the office for 802.11 stuff anyway, the computer still needs power, the WiFi base needs a network cable plugged into it. The only thing it simplfies is moving PC's around, so long as there's still a safe plug (we have outlets with protection and backup power for PC's.) Granted this only pertains to 802.11 PC stuff, not BlueTooth.
Do they have to be expensive? Of course they don't. It's a wire, with a plastic doohickey on each end. How many mobile electronics vendors are making universal cable systems? With the conspicuous exception of audio headphones, zero.
There was some really cool standard ages ago for hooking home appliances up to a household network. A friend bought a few of these things and was impressed, however about 0.001% of the public knew about it and that their washing machine or microwave oven even had such a capability. I like the concept of BlueTooth for around the home and plan to get it going on my PC as soon as I have a few bucks to rub together. Screw what 'experts' say.
I hate wires. It's a problem I percieve, and a solution I'm willing to pay for. Therefore, from my perspective, it is good technology.
Indeed. Particularly when used as intended. I have satellite radio in my PU and I can pretty much tell you where WiFi is leaking into the street. 802.11 is kind of a nuisance where it's deployed badly.
Yeah and with 802.11 you find chalk outside your door and someone has taken over control of your electric nosehair groomer.
Oh, wait, PHB's read this stuff but not slashdot, nevermind.
A judge doesn't necessarily grant full protection from creditors if he/she determines, possibly from information provided which indicates spending it all and declaring bankruptcy was the plan all along, that this is in bad faith.
I've heard people suggest getting a pile of credit cards, max them out, then declare bankruptcy. Well, you can imagine the credit card companies have heard of this strategy, too, and have means to collect on debts, i.e. you are saddled with a payment plan which requires you to pay them back over time. Less kindly creditors are known to employ collection agents. It's probably a bad idea to lend your car to someone who has recently filed for bankruptcy.
Intrigued, I thought to look up who this Liberty Lobby was. What I found was as convoluted a pile of conspiracy theories; claims against individuals and institutions; counter claims; and a host of legal battle records. I'm still not sure who or what Liberty Lobby was, but this is what some people do with the internet and courts, not too much unlike the whole petswarehouse fiasco. It's a wonder things take so long to move through the courts with this kind of crap clogging things up.
Indeed. It appears there's more on the dockets to be resolved, including him suing the Circuit Court of Colbert County, AL.
I don't think we've heard the last of Mr. Novak somehow.
Though I have never met the man, it appears this is the sort of thing he enjoys immersing himself in. Providing he achieves some level of income by it or other means (like running an online pet store) he can keep going and going so long as he doesn't tire of it. For all we know he's probably sitting at home, sipping a mug of tea and scanning this /. posting for new candidates.
Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out how he lost to John Benn.
The real question is how well has he protected his assets. F'rinstance, if his home were included in business assets he stands to lose it. Possibly any pending income from suing petsforum people could be transfered to creditors, too.
Well said! It's long overdue comeuppance for that spiteful amature lawyer, now maybe some of the same medicine will dealt PanIP and other scalawags.
And yet, the rebels prevail.
Reminds of all the FUD from Edison about this ridiculous Tesla guy and his "Alternating Current" (the work of the devil)
Some things just never change.
Nope, no whistle, no buzz, no whine. 3 stuck pixels, but the only time I notice them is when watching DVD's in Widescreen. For the money, what I got, I'm not complaining. No problem with smearing and black is blacker than any monitor I've ever seen (save those pretty cool ones Apple had ages ago, for the IIgs) Maybe the low setting I have the illumination on will extend that. My Sony Vaio PCG 505tx (on loan to friends in Oz) was ~4 years old and still going strong.
With recent addition of an ATI AIW 9700 Pro I'm using DVI, too. Image is so sharp it'd be kinda nice to fuzz it a little, but there's probably a setting somewhere to do that. At 1280x1024 it's everything I've ever wanted.
Plus, the good thing about LCD is when they say 17" they mean it, where 17" CRT is usually an inch smaller display.
I sit behind two CRT's at work and used to have my home desk crowded by a 16" Sun monitor. The real estated, if not the power bill or adjustability/versatility is a major selling point. They're also very sharp and do fine for games, those like the Samsung SyncMaster 172t with faster refresh rates. Considering 17" CRTs used to run ~700$US, LCD monitors are progressing downward in pricing nicely.
Bought a SyncMaster 172t, after a few reviews swayed my opinion. It's amazing alright, the only thing I'd ask is for the ability to get the brightness lower. I could literally read by the lowest brightness settings with standard wallpaper displayed. The brightness is so much at the lowest setting I am having some eyestrain problems and have been considering getting smoked plastic to hang over the screen. The lowest setting is more than adequate with daylight coming in a nearby picture window. 500:1 contrast is great, as black is pretty near black and it rocks for watching DVD's on, but who actually uses a brightness setting higher?