Why XP? Because, in my case, much of the Chinese-language software I use (encyclopedic dictionary, OCR) wouldn't work on 2000 at all but runs just fine under XP without Chinese-enabling software. On my old system I had to dual-boot Win98SE and Win2K. And, no, I know of know GNU/Linux equivalents for the dictionary or the OCR software.
The Australians have not taken well, in the past, to companies not selling copyrighted materials there (because of the way the US and the Brits divided up the market), and passed a law to deal just with that. IIRC, it says, if you don't distribute your copyrighted material to Australia within [whatever the fairly short time limit is], anyone in Australia can print it. I haven't followed the progress of the law or British publishers' compliance with it, but to me it seemed a very good way to deal with a stupid situation that was created by companies that just didn't care when the Ozzies got to read the latest books.
Given that precedent, I don't think the Ozzies would take well a threat from Microsoft not to sell the X-Box there, and a similar law could be passed. And if the Ozzies got really pissed, they could probably just make Linux the preferred gov't software. And tax MS software. And be very unpleasant to MS otherwise. Lord knows, someone should be.
I've used (and use) the HP Capshare but I find it too badly designed, ergonomically and electronically (almost a study in bad design), to make for pleasant scanning. Nowadays, I generally use a Sony Vaio notebook and a USB scanner, a CanoScan 670U. The Canon scanner is powered via the USB 1.1 port so I needn't bring a brick to the library, and I can choose exactly the type of scan necessary for the material I'm using (everything from B&W text through 600dpi full color). I don't think the scanner weighs two pounds, it's only about an inch thick, and the scan area is 8.5"X11". And it cost under a $100 at CompUSA.
The idea is a lot older than Apple. Perhaps 45 or 50 years ago science fiction writer Fred Pohl (poss. collaborating with C.M. Kornbluth) wrote a story in which he/they described how the military of the future spiced up manuals to keep the soldiers' interest: a fairly simple rifle manual, for example, might be illustrated with scantily clad women demonstrating the various features of the rifle; because of its complexity, a tank manual, on the other hand, would be heavily pornographic.
As well, I seem to recall an excellent topology textbook used at NYU in the 1960s that began with chapter 00 (double-zero), progressed through 0 (zero) and on up, and was quite witty (in the way of all togologists, I suppose).
And, let us not forget "The ZH Guide" by China Scholar George Kennedy (published by the Far Eastern something or other at Yale?). One would normally expect a manual on a (Classical) Chinese encyclopedic dictionary to be quite dry. But Prof. Kennedy was prone to pose tough questions of his students: why (he might ask) does one commonly used Chinese character for Japanese contain elements meaning "yellow" and "dwarf" . . . I imagine the use of such devices kept his readers' interest (I know they worked for me). But, for some reason, this work seems no longer to be in print.
I read the original screenplay, long before Star Wars came out, edited the manuscript of the novelization of Star Wars. I know the novelizer personally, and knew the publisher, Judy-Lynn del Rey, very well (worked for her for 11 years then took over the Del Rey imprint when she had a stroke). In the period from 1976 (when the ghost-written first novel appeared) through 1980, no one ever mentioned a Campbell connection in the publisher's office nor did they mention any other element that might have contributed to Star Wars than pulp science fiction, Saturday morning movie serials (e.g., Wasn't it in Don Winslow of the Navy? where the evil Japanese were always trying to squash people in rooms with walls that moved?), and elements that had appeared earlier in less successful sf films (R2D2, for instance, was very like Huey, Dewey and Louie -- I think they were -- in Cool Running). And, for several reasons, the publisher was distraught when Leigh Brackett died: (1) Brackett was a personal friend, (2) "That's the end of Star Wars". What Judy-Lynn meant was: "there's no inspiration left to be found in the project other than Leigh's."
The Salon story seems to me, an old fan of science fiction, a founding editor of Del Rey Books, and its editor in chief for more than ten years, quite nicely done. There are many who could tell the story in more detail, I'm sure, but they didn't choose to write. And what was written has, to me, the ring of truth.
As a long-time editor of general fiction, I was involved as a witness in a lawsuit brought against the State of Washington on behalf of a writer who lived in Seattle. He lost; Washington approaches the writers one by one and taxes them. Some give in without a fight, others battle to the state supreme court. At least one of my authors relocated from Washington to Nevada to avoid the tax.
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Why XP? Because, in my case, much of the Chinese-language software I use (encyclopedic dictionary, OCR) wouldn't work on 2000 at all but runs just fine under XP without Chinese-enabling software. On my old system I had to dual-boot Win98SE and Win2K. And, no, I know of know GNU/Linux equivalents for the dictionary or the OCR software.
Tried doing Chinese OCR in Linux?
What he's figured out is that it is defamatory to accuse someone of a felony if he hasn't committed one.
Even with his half-hearted retraction, the damage is done. The student should sue him for his net worth.
Z
The Australians have not taken well, in the past, to companies not selling copyrighted materials there (because of the way the US and the Brits divided up the market), and passed a law to deal just with that. IIRC, it says, if you don't distribute your copyrighted material to Australia within [whatever the fairly short time limit is], anyone in Australia can print it. I haven't followed the progress of the law or British publishers' compliance with it, but to me it seemed a very good way to deal with a stupid situation that was created by companies that just didn't care when the Ozzies got to read the latest books.
Given that precedent, I don't think the Ozzies would take well a threat from Microsoft not to sell the X-Box there, and a similar law could be passed. And if the Ozzies got really pissed, they could probably just make Linux the preferred gov't software. And tax MS software. And be very unpleasant to MS otherwise. Lord knows, someone should be.
I've used (and use) the HP Capshare but I find it too badly designed, ergonomically and electronically (almost a study in bad design), to make for pleasant scanning. Nowadays, I generally use a Sony Vaio notebook and a USB scanner, a CanoScan 670U. The Canon scanner is powered via the USB 1.1 port so I needn't bring a brick to the library, and I can choose exactly the type of scan necessary for the material I'm using (everything from B&W text through 600dpi full color). I don't think the scanner weighs two pounds, it's only about an inch thick, and the scan area is 8.5"X11". And it cost under a $100 at CompUSA.
The idea is a lot older than Apple. Perhaps 45 or 50 years ago science fiction writer Fred Pohl (poss. collaborating with C.M. Kornbluth) wrote a story in which he/they described how the military of the future spiced up manuals to keep the soldiers' interest: a fairly simple rifle manual, for example, might be illustrated with scantily clad women demonstrating the various features of the rifle; because of its complexity, a tank manual, on the other hand, would be heavily pornographic.
As well, I seem to recall an excellent topology textbook used at NYU in the 1960s that began with chapter 00 (double-zero), progressed through 0 (zero) and on up, and was quite witty (in the way of all togologists, I suppose).
And, let us not forget "The ZH Guide" by China Scholar George Kennedy (published by the Far Eastern something or other at Yale?). One would normally expect a manual on a (Classical) Chinese encyclopedic dictionary to be quite dry. But Prof. Kennedy was prone to pose tough questions of his students: why (he might ask) does one commonly used Chinese character for Japanese contain elements meaning "yellow" and "dwarf" . . . I imagine the use of such devices kept his readers' interest (I know they worked for me). But, for some reason, this work seems no longer to be in print.
Some are. I may be one of those.
Got me!
Not at all; the robots were memorable, the movie and its title were not.
Editors, some of them, are extraordinarily competent people. I am one of those. Editors, many of them, are fallible. I am also one of those.
I read the original screenplay, long before Star Wars came out, edited the manuscript of the novelization of Star Wars. I know the novelizer personally, and knew the publisher, Judy-Lynn del Rey, very well (worked for her for 11 years then took over the Del Rey imprint when she had a stroke). In the period from 1976 (when the ghost-written first novel appeared) through 1980, no one ever mentioned a Campbell connection in the publisher's office nor did they mention any other element that might have contributed to Star Wars than pulp science fiction, Saturday morning movie serials (e.g., Wasn't it in Don Winslow of the Navy? where the evil Japanese were always trying to squash people in rooms with walls that moved?), and elements that had appeared earlier in less successful sf films (R2D2, for instance, was very like Huey, Dewey and Louie -- I think they were -- in Cool Running). And, for several reasons, the publisher was distraught when Leigh Brackett died: (1) Brackett was a personal friend, (2) "That's the end of Star Wars". What Judy-Lynn meant was: "there's no inspiration left to be found in the project other than Leigh's."
The Salon story seems to me, an old fan of science fiction, a founding editor of Del Rey Books, and its editor in chief for more than ten years, quite nicely done. There are many who could tell the story in more detail, I'm sure, but they didn't choose to write. And what was written has, to me, the ring of truth.
As a long-time editor of general fiction, I was involved as a witness in a lawsuit brought against the State of Washington on behalf of a writer who lived in Seattle. He lost; Washington approaches the writers one by one and taxes them. Some give in without a fight, others battle to the state supreme court. At least one of my authors relocated from Washington to Nevada to avoid the tax.