I wouldn't expect a Hugo for it, and it would probably be a sad irony for anyone to even nominate, for next year's awards, but stranger things happen.
Douglas Adams' Salmon of Doubt due out in May
on
Hugo Award Voting Open
·
· Score: 4, Offtopic
Ok, last time I plug this, it's been rejected 3 times on submission, but here it is to keep Hitchhikers posted:
Since originally reading here
and here,
the possibility of Douglas' last works coming to print, I've been checking periodically.
On Jan. 9th a hit
came up on Amazon for Salmon of Doubt - Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time.
A quick check of Harmony Books seems to confirm
it's due out in May, one year after the death of Douglas Noel Adams. There's at least cover artwork, as oppose to the last time, back in the mid-90's, or so, when I saw listing of this same book.
Speculation has been that Salmon and other bits have been harvested from DNA's computer hard drive.
As much as Douglas, a tough critic of his own work, may not have wanted other eyes to see work he deemed unfit
to publish, it's coming. I'll probably buy the book. Perhaps a pint of bitter, with a pleasantly nutty taste and some Dire
Straits will help cope with the mixed feelings.
Haven't seen it, but I've been getting these litter like ads for quite a while, on other sites, where the feed dies or locks up if I close the pop-up right away. Seems they're not going to let me see what's on the site if I won't pay the courtesy of reading their advertisers message.
It's probably just a matter of time until slashdot posters are doing the same thing.
With North Korea, being a paranoid, stalinist state, the "war" would be over in probably less than an hour, anyway. The north and south would conduct a scorched earth attack with missiles which nothing would be capable of bringing down entirely. Rather than relinquish power the north's generals would effectively commit suicide and genocide simultaneiously. Both nations would be in ruins.
Only afterward could ground forces go in, probably encountering remnants of fanatical troops, mines and assorted boobie traps. The US would probably lose most of the ~30,000 troops on station there...
Ground Pounders
on
The Drone War
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Before Afghanistan, conventional military wisdom held that a war can't be
won without substantial numbers of ground troops. Even as the Afghanistan
campaign began, pundits flooded cable talk shows asserting that air power
alone wasn't enough, that there would be substantial human sacrifice.
Well, those Northern Alliance guys were humans.
The Afghanistan campaign is a very different kind of fight.
Only within the context that that the indiginous people, with the assistance of overwhelming and unopposed US airpower, drove out an unpopular occupying force.
The chief reason the Taliban fell so fast was because they didn't have an airforce or any sophisticated weapons. Let's see how this analysis holds up with North Korea, eh?
While I don't doubt that technology is changing the arsenal, the war is still fought between people. To take it to the begining, the attack of Sept. 11, was about the same as a Kamikaze mission, just using the resources of the foe. The face of terrorism has changed and remote countrol drones and tomahawk missiles are ineffective when sorting out who the village terrorist is. Back to the intelligence game for that.
I don't think we need to look for Terminators quite yet.
Sun is not just a hardware company. They provide services, too, check their webpage to see what Products and Solutions they list. Open Source refinement and enhancement of their product line would help in improving those revenues.
The only question she can't answer is whether/when Java might be Open Sourced.
Me, too. Me, too.
This is the only thing that interests me, and I've often felt the way to keep the Microsoft wolves at bay was to Open Source Java, which I feel would push it much further than Sun can. Keeping a lid on Java may be the best gift to Redmond in terms of.NET acceptance, not that having hoards of PHB's saying, "Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM^H^H^HMicrosoft", hurts their efforts.
If I had a question, which she may be demurring on already, it would be, "What's the big obstacle? Or is it one of those Committee things, where nobody will accept respobsibility for standing in the way and points fingers at the Committee"? I'll understand, if in the interests of preserving her position she can't answer that, either.
As my Nobel-Laureate physics lab professor used to say, "ALWAYS use leading zeros with decimal points; that way your readers can tell the difference between a fraction and fly shit."
Marginal on-topicness, but I have this coupon in my pocket for.55c off something. Like you say, is that 55/100 of a Cent or do they mean 55 cents?:)
You know what else is ironic? He didn't have a Pilot's License either.
No, that's not ironic, he had been taking lessons for ~2 years (last I heard) and he wasn't really a terrorist, just a kid who wanted to do himself in. The sympathy for bin-Laden was probably more a product of his mental statem, rather than the motivation for the suicide. But we'll never know.
Footsoldiers for "holy" wars have usually, and in the Taliban's case, been recruited as children, when they're most susceptable to accepting a cause.
Guess I better contact Chicago about paying those two outstanding parking tickets from 1991...
I worry not just a little about how this could go wrong, since when I applied for mine in California (which was already doing this with some states as of 1997) and informed someone did something shady with my Michigan drivers liscense (which had been picked with my wallet at Cedar Point) in Ohio and a warrant may be out for me there. I've been too lazy to contact the Ohio State Police (or whatever they call themselves, Buckies?) to straighten it all out (also worried I'd have to blow money on a lawyer and/or plane ticket just to claim my innocense:P ) As we all learn eventually, you have to work to preserve your freedom. Guess I should make an effort there before any of the above interfer with my ability to get Thai take-out.
"You bad man! We no serve! No gang phed for you Chollie!"
Before breaking out the nooses and rounding up suspects let's consider for a moment that this, and other instances, are not the result of an executive order from the big fraud himself (Balmer), but the work of loyal employees (minions)
Under either scenario it's a PR ding for Microsoft. Look for their deflector shields to be raised (spin-meisters, obfuscators, trolls) to preserve the untarnished image of the company (recently found guilty of being an evil monopolist, which is just fine with the current administration's cabinet.)
In all fairness, there's probably hoards of OpenSource advocates, Linux faithful, or just hackers, who would do the same thing if there were a ZD uk poll on best operating system.
Ok, now you can bust out the ropes and round up suspects, because they're likely guilty of something anyway.
My favorite was our DEC TU16. It was frequently my job to run backups, using SAVER, and cleaning the vacuum chambers. It was kinda fun to wait while writing tapes with PIP or any of my various utilities and listen to the soft, gentle thup-thup, thip-thip as it loaded. Then the raspberry when it completely rewound tape and the trailing end flapped in the breeze in one of the vacuum chambers. Marvelous. DAT just isn't the same...
There's countless other ways you're tracked and your surfing (or suffering) logged. Your habits are worth money, I suggest patenting (or copyrighting, or copylefting, whichever is more appropriate) you surfing methods so you can sue the bastages. =)
"You heard me right! I want a cut of whatever you get from the people who you sell my information, and of the profits realized on sales to myself as a result of targeted advertising to same."
The president does NOT appoint anyone to the supreme court.
No fooling? And here I was thinking I had only to pay a courtesy call on W. on my way to the SJC and he didn't even have to like me.
Last time I looked, the pres appoints them, but the SJC confirms (or doesn't depending upon concerns of dope smoking or childcare by illegal aliens, but not for chasing secretaries around the office) that appointment.
With a balance struck by a conservative president and a liberal (or left of center) senate, hopefully the next pick won't be a wacko, but then, Thomas did get past a Dem. controlled congress...
I if any of the present retire that they're replaced by someone tech savvy and people oriented.
For me to shell out more money for a new box, they better be offering some real compelling content.
Or they just stop supporting the old boxes. But such a blow to their established market would be a fatal error, no matter what promise the new technology holds.
Suppose, though, that cash strapped as they are, they offer you a trade-in/upgrade. What would you do?
As far as I'm concerned, the choices are getting muddier. Things aren't getting better, they're getting worse because some of these companies are now soley focused on profit. Technology of tomorrow with the quality of VHS, all for a subscription fee. Gee, thanks.
Which side would you cast as the side of goodness and which is the side of evil? Personally I'd put Real on an equal (or worse) "evil" basis with Microsoft any day.
I'm still working this out... there's:
Microsoft/Comcast and the XBox, possible further development which ties it and set-top into same platform
RePlay, dunno who they're teaming up with yet
Real & TiVo (I like TiVo)
Microsoft and DVD players for Windows Media
Real in bed with Hitachi, Philips, Sony, STMicroelectonics (They're right across the street from me) for DVD and PS2
What else? A Linux box with Ogg Vorbis or MPEG-4 thrown into the mix?
It's kinda like when all the armies are showing up, dwarves, men, elves, orcs, Nazgul, etc. and ya figure at some point there's going to be a big shakeout (the market commoditizes for good and for bad)
Go into the Hospital and get her wrists operated on. Once they've been cut open and require time to heal and physical therapy, she should easily qualify for disabled.
Slashdot Mirror
I wouldn't expect a Hugo for it, and it would probably be a sad irony for anyone to even nominate, for next year's awards, but stranger things happen.
Since originally reading here and here, the possibility of Douglas' last works coming to print, I've been checking periodically. On Jan. 9th a hit came up on Amazon for Salmon of Doubt - Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. A quick check of Harmony Books seems to confirm it's due out in May, one year after the death of Douglas Noel Adams. There's at least cover artwork, as oppose to the last time, back in the mid-90's, or so, when I saw listing of this same book.
Speculation has been that Salmon and other bits have been harvested from DNA's computer hard drive. As much as Douglas, a tough critic of his own work, may not have wanted other eyes to see work he deemed unfit to publish, it's coming. I'll probably buy the book. Perhaps a pint of bitter, with a pleasantly nutty taste and some Dire Straits will help cope with the mixed feelings.
I'm one of those old curmudgeons who still uses feeble [fvwm] :-)
Still pretty impressed with what it does on my 70MHz SparcIPX (it's got a sped up processor ;)
It's probably just a matter of time until slashdot posters are doing the same thing.
Only afterward could ground forces go in, probably encountering remnants of fanatical troops, mines and assorted boobie traps. The US would probably lose most of the ~30,000 troops on station there...
Well, those Northern Alliance guys were humans.
The Afghanistan campaign is a very different kind of fight.
Only within the context that that the indiginous people, with the assistance of overwhelming and unopposed US airpower, drove out an unpopular occupying force.
The chief reason the Taliban fell so fast was because they didn't have an airforce or any sophisticated weapons. Let's see how this analysis holds up with North Korea, eh?
While I don't doubt that technology is changing the arsenal, the war is still fought between people. To take it to the begining, the attack of Sept. 11, was about the same as a Kamikaze mission, just using the resources of the foe. The face of terrorism has changed and remote countrol drones and tomahawk missiles are ineffective when sorting out who the village terrorist is. Back to the intelligence game for that.
I don't think we need to look for Terminators quite yet.
Sun is not just a hardware company. They provide services, too, check their webpage to see what Products and Solutions they list. Open Source refinement and enhancement of their product line would help in improving those revenues.
Me, too. Me, too.
This is the only thing that interests me, and I've often felt the way to keep the Microsoft wolves at bay was to Open Source Java, which I feel would push it much further than Sun can. Keeping a lid on Java may be the best gift to Redmond in terms of .NET acceptance, not that having hoards of PHB's saying, "Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM^H^H^HMicrosoft", hurts their efforts.
If I had a question, which she may be demurring on already, it would be, "What's the big obstacle? Or is it one of those Committee things, where nobody will accept respobsibility for standing in the way and points fingers at the Committee"? I'll understand, if in the interests of preserving her position she can't answer that, either.
How soon until someone from the boondocks contests this with failure to provide "equal protection under the law" because they don't have access to:
a computer
a fast enoug computer
a compatible computer
"The court finds the defendant, with the IBM PC AT with CGA, guilty. We sentence him to 5 years of Microsoft Customer Support."
Marginal on-topicness, but I have this coupon in my pocket for .55c off something. Like you say, is that 55/100 of a Cent or do they mean 55 cents? :)
No, that's not ironic, he had been taking lessons for ~2 years (last I heard) and he wasn't really a terrorist, just a kid who wanted to do himself in. The sympathy for bin-Laden was probably more a product of his mental statem, rather than the motivation for the suicide. But we'll never know.
Footsoldiers for "holy" wars have usually, and in the Taliban's case, been recruited as children, when they're most susceptable to accepting a cause.
I think several NYC Cabbies must be terrorists and carrying Valid drivers licenses. Heck, they terrorized me! I had no idea 30 mph was so fast!
Ironic note, the 15 year old who plowed that plane into the Tampa skyscraper didn't have his drivers license yet. Hmm!
I worry not just a little about how this could go wrong, since when I applied for mine in California (which was already doing this with some states as of 1997) and informed someone did something shady with my Michigan drivers liscense (which had been picked with my wallet at Cedar Point) in Ohio and a warrant may be out for me there. I've been too lazy to contact the Ohio State Police (or whatever they call themselves, Buckies?) to straighten it all out (also worried I'd have to blow money on a lawyer and/or plane ticket just to claim my innocense :P ) As we all learn eventually, you have to work to preserve your freedom. Guess I should make an effort there before any of the above interfer with my ability to get Thai take-out.
"You bad man! We no serve! No gang phed for you Chollie!"
This explains the one vote for Whizzo Chocolate Company Spring Surprise.
Before breaking out the nooses and rounding up suspects let's consider for a moment that this, and other instances, are not the result of an executive order from the big fraud himself (Balmer), but the work of loyal employees (minions)
Under either scenario it's a PR ding for Microsoft. Look for their deflector shields to be raised (spin-meisters, obfuscators, trolls) to preserve the untarnished image of the company (recently found guilty of being an evil monopolist, which is just fine with the current administration's cabinet.)
In all fairness, there's probably hoards of OpenSource advocates, Linux faithful, or just hackers, who would do the same thing if there were a ZD uk poll on best operating system.
Ok, now you can bust out the ropes and round up suspects, because they're likely guilty of something anyway.
My favorite was our DEC TU16. It was frequently my job to run backups, using SAVER, and cleaning the vacuum chambers. It was kinda fun to wait while writing tapes with PIP or any of my various utilities and listen to the soft, gentle thup-thup, thip-thip as it loaded. Then the raspberry when it completely rewound tape and the trailing end flapped in the breeze in one of the vacuum chambers. Marvelous. DAT just isn't the same...
"You heard me right! I want a cut of whatever you get from the people who you sell my information, and of the profits realized on sales to myself as a result of targeted advertising to same."
No fooling? And here I was thinking I had only to pay a courtesy call on W. on my way to the SJC and he didn't even have to like me.
Last time I looked, the pres appoints them, but the SJC confirms (or doesn't depending upon concerns of dope smoking or childcare by illegal aliens, but not for chasing secretaries around the office) that appointment.
With a balance struck by a conservative president and a liberal (or left of center) senate, hopefully the next pick won't be a wacko, but then, Thomas did get past a Dem. controlled congress...
I if any of the present retire that they're replaced by someone tech savvy and people oriented.
Or they just stop supporting the old boxes. But such a blow to their established market would be a fatal error, no matter what promise the new technology holds.
Suppose, though, that cash strapped as they are, they offer you a trade-in/upgrade. What would you do?
As far as I'm concerned, the choices are getting muddier. Things aren't getting better, they're getting worse because some of these companies are now soley focused on profit. Technology of tomorrow with the quality of VHS, all for a subscription fee. Gee, thanks.
Keep in mind that this is the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and the spin isn't intended so much for the public as within the CE industry.
I'm still working this out... there's:
Microsoft/Comcast and the XBox, possible further development which ties it and set-top into same platform
RePlay, dunno who they're teaming up with yet
Real & TiVo (I like TiVo)
Microsoft and DVD players for Windows Media
Real in bed with Hitachi, Philips, Sony, STMicroelectonics (They're right across the street from me) for DVD and PS2
What else? A Linux box with Ogg Vorbis or MPEG-4 thrown into the mix?
It's kinda like when all the armies are showing up, dwarves, men, elves, orcs, Nazgul, etc. and ya figure at some point there's going to be a big shakeout (the market commoditizes for good and for bad)
Reminds me of that Tolkien battle with all the armies and the Nazgul and everyone.
"We find the complaintant's claim invalid, furthermore we suggest she be confined to San Francisco Liberal Penal Colony with all the other wackos."
Go into the Hospital and get her wrists operated on. Once they've been cut open and require time to heal and physical therapy, she should easily qualify for disabled.