What I would really like (although I don't know if licensing would permit it from either company) is a Rockenbok (sp?) interface to LEGO Mindstorm/LEGO Technics. Rockenbok makes the neat multichannel R/C construction vehicles and their building materials are already LEGO compatible. A set of motors and controls tied to a Rockenbok receiver would mean you could could build some pretty cool R/C robots and vehicles. I'm thinking of hacking my own.
I'd heard about it, but never read it either. Personally, I think it is a rather pretentious review by someone who didn't like the book and who feels that, since he didn't like it, anyone else who does must be deluded or juvenile.
I'm not big on cultural relativism, but it is a simple fact that all books aren't for all people. Borges said (paraphrased) that if you are reading a book and don't like it, put it down. It wasn't written for you. There are plenty of books out there that were.
I can be objective enough to the see the faults in LOTR, yet it is still one of my favorite books. I cringe at the racism of the orc's portrayal, but I can put it in historical context. The stilted dialogue reminds me more of translations of Beowulf than of Howard Pyle and I can easily conceive that people in Middle Earth had a peculiar sense of grammar -- although it is going to be really interesting seeing how the dialogue is adapted for the screen. If Tolkien had written LOTR with a early 20th century style of English, it would be as dated and silly as the dialogue in The Knight's Tale movie was (although I thought it was funny in the movie).
Some of Wilson's points I concede, but others I disagree with totally. The fact that Sauron is not shown is a plus, as is the lack of detail of what horrible things go on in Mordor. You have to have a poor imagination not to create in your mind more horrors than Tolkein would have dared set to paper.
I personally like reviews that say, "'I' liked this book/movie because..." or "'I' thought his book/movie sucked because...". Yes, I think some books and movies are so bad that no one should possibly enjoy them, but I'm not sure I can always make that decision for everyone.
I am assuming that the point is that you *can't* type very fast on a chicklet keyboard or an onscreen keyboard on your PDA (I haven't used Graffiti much, so I can't comment on input speed). I played around with the demo for a while (man, I haven't seen a DOS app in a long time) and I couldn't type nearly as fast as I do two-handed, but I could get better.
The weird thing was how my left hand "knew" where the right hand keys were. I would hit a few wrong due to aim (and I had a hard time remembering whether I was shifted or not), but I could type pretty well without looking almost from the start.
I think this keyboard design would be excellent for cell phone devices.
OK, let me get this straight: Republicans are rich, evil, and stupid, while Democrats are poor, virtuous, and smart? The only wealthy Democrats are politicians and actors, the higher majority are low wage earners enjoying the handouts provided by the government. That is, of course, a sweeping generalization, but one that is not much more inaccurate than your portrayal.
Political ranting aside, the scariest thing about the teaching profession is that, in almost all colleges, education has the lowest entrace requirements -- sometimes lower than the "advertised" entrance requirements for the school as a whole. This is done to "encourage" new teachers, but it often ends up as the curriculum of choice for people who can't cut it in other programs. Can't do the math to get an engineering degree? Simple, change to education and *teach* math.
If you can't attract qualified people to the teaching profession with pay, benefits, and prestige, you get what we have now.
I've never understood why people object to characters in books having religious lives. It seems that the only tolerated portrayal of religious people is if it is treated as a character flaw or humorous element. Race, geography, social background, etc. are all valid character traits, but if the character is "casually" religious, then the author is accused of preaching.
While I'm not particularly religious myself, most of my family and many of my friends are and I consider their beliefs to be an important aspect of who they are and how they view the world and, with a few exceptions, I certainly don't see it is a character flaw.
When I read Lost Boys, I didn't see it as a pro-Mormon tract, I was intrigued at the portrayal of a Mormon family in a realistic manner. People who read SF and fantasy don't have a problem with magic and religion. Most readers don't have a problem with Catholic characters (The Sparrow comes to mind), or with pagans or new-agers. IMO, Protestants really get the shaft in literature.
I think Card is really interesting because most conservative religious writers would never touch the topics that Card does. I also think it is interesting that most of the conflicts in his books are based from morality and ethics -- another taboo subject.
I haven't read all of the Alvin Maker books (I'll wait til he's finished), but I was surprised that he portrayed Satan as the origin of the original Mormon notion that black people cannot be saved. I know the Mormon's dropped that part of their canon years ago, but I imagine that would still irk some Mormons.
I know what Ginger means, seriously!
on
What is 'IT'?
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· Score: 1
When the I-Bot was in top-secret tests, before it was announced, the project code name was "Fred", which we didn't understand (yes, I have inside knowledge about the I-Bot, but I have no idea what IT is). Now, it is obvious that it stood for Fred Astaire, because of the nimbleness it gave wheelchair bound people, and maybe a pun because it can climb stairs.
Ginger, therefore, stands for Ginger Rogers. Maybe the ducted fan helicopter/jetpack does make sense, because then Rogers could also be a pun on Buck Rogers.
I, too, regularly converse with a bunch of people I have never met IRL through e-mail. Most of them are "friends of friends" that got sucked into our e-mail lists. There is an old joke about the difference between a friend and a best friend. A friend is someone you can call to help you move. A best friend is someone you can call to help you move... a body. I kinda define "community" the same way. If these people I have never met were coming into town and needed a place to crash, I "know" them well enough to invite them over. I would like to meet them all face to face. If I need something (information wise), I would never hesitate to ask them. In a way, they are like virtual neighbors.
I might add that I am fortunate enough to live in a real neighborhood community where I know most all of my (physical neighbors) and we spend a lot of time gossiping on the porch or the front yard, have block parties, pick up each other's kids from school and babysit if the need arises, etc.
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What I would really like (although I don't know if licensing would permit it from either company) is a Rockenbok (sp?) interface to LEGO Mindstorm/LEGO Technics. Rockenbok makes the neat multichannel R/C construction vehicles and their building materials are already LEGO compatible. A set of motors and controls tied to a Rockenbok receiver would mean you could could build some pretty cool R/C robots and vehicles. I'm thinking of hacking my own.
I'd heard about it, but never read it either. Personally, I think it is a rather pretentious review by someone who didn't like the book and who feels that, since he didn't like it, anyone else who does must be deluded or juvenile.
I'm not big on cultural relativism, but it is a simple fact that all books aren't for all people. Borges said (paraphrased) that if you are reading a book and don't like it, put it down. It wasn't written for you. There are plenty of books out there that were.
I can be objective enough to the see the faults in LOTR, yet it is still one of my favorite books. I cringe at the racism of the orc's portrayal, but I can put it in historical context. The stilted dialogue reminds me more of translations of Beowulf than of Howard Pyle and I can easily conceive that people in Middle Earth had a peculiar sense of grammar -- although it is going to be really interesting seeing how the dialogue is adapted for the screen. If Tolkien had written LOTR with a early 20th century style of English, it would be as dated and silly as the dialogue in The Knight's Tale movie was (although I thought it was funny in the movie).
Some of Wilson's points I concede, but others I disagree with totally. The fact that Sauron is not shown is a plus, as is the lack of detail of what horrible things go on in Mordor. You have to have a poor imagination not to create in your mind more horrors than Tolkein would have dared set to paper.
I personally like reviews that say, "'I' liked this book/movie because..." or "'I' thought his book/movie sucked because...". Yes, I think some books and movies are so bad that no one should possibly enjoy them, but I'm not sure I can always make that decision for everyone.
I am assuming that the point is that you *can't* type very fast on a chicklet keyboard or an onscreen keyboard on your PDA (I haven't used Graffiti much, so I can't comment on input speed). I played around with the demo for a while (man, I haven't seen a DOS app in a long time) and I couldn't type nearly as fast as I do two-handed, but I could get better.
The weird thing was how my left hand "knew" where the right hand keys were. I would hit a few wrong due to aim (and I had a hard time remembering whether I was shifted or not), but I could type pretty well without looking almost from the start.
I think this keyboard design would be excellent for cell phone devices.
OK, let me get this straight: Republicans are rich, evil, and stupid, while Democrats are poor, virtuous, and smart? The only wealthy Democrats are politicians and actors, the higher majority are low wage earners enjoying the handouts provided by the government. That is, of course, a sweeping generalization, but one that is not much more inaccurate than your portrayal. Political ranting aside, the scariest thing about the teaching profession is that, in almost all colleges, education has the lowest entrace requirements -- sometimes lower than the "advertised" entrance requirements for the school as a whole. This is done to "encourage" new teachers, but it often ends up as the curriculum of choice for people who can't cut it in other programs. Can't do the math to get an engineering degree? Simple, change to education and *teach* math. If you can't attract qualified people to the teaching profession with pay, benefits, and prestige, you get what we have now.
I've never understood why people object to characters in books having religious lives. It seems that the only tolerated portrayal of religious people is if it is treated as a character flaw or humorous element. Race, geography, social background, etc. are all valid character traits, but if the character is "casually" religious, then the author is accused of preaching.
While I'm not particularly religious myself, most of my family and many of my friends are and I consider their beliefs to be an important aspect of who they are and how they view the world and, with a few exceptions, I certainly don't see it is a character flaw.
When I read Lost Boys, I didn't see it as a pro-Mormon tract, I was intrigued at the portrayal of a Mormon family in a realistic manner. People who read SF and fantasy don't have a problem with magic and religion. Most readers don't have a problem with Catholic characters (The Sparrow comes to mind), or with pagans or new-agers. IMO, Protestants really get the shaft in literature.
I think Card is really interesting because most conservative religious writers would never touch the topics that Card does. I also think it is interesting that most of the conflicts in his books are based from morality and ethics -- another taboo subject.
I haven't read all of the Alvin Maker books (I'll wait til he's finished), but I was surprised that he portrayed Satan as the origin of the original Mormon notion that black people cannot be saved. I know the Mormon's dropped that part of their canon years ago, but I imagine that would still irk some Mormons.
When the I-Bot was in top-secret tests, before it was announced, the project code name was "Fred", which we didn't understand (yes, I have inside knowledge about the I-Bot, but I have no idea what IT is). Now, it is obvious that it stood for Fred Astaire, because of the nimbleness it gave wheelchair bound people, and maybe a pun because it can climb stairs. Ginger, therefore, stands for Ginger Rogers. Maybe the ducted fan helicopter/jetpack does make sense, because then Rogers could also be a pun on Buck Rogers.
I, too, regularly converse with a bunch of people I have never met IRL through e-mail. Most of them are "friends of friends" that got sucked into our e-mail lists. There is an old joke about the difference between a friend and a best friend. A friend is someone you can call to help you move. A best friend is someone you can call to help you move ... a body. I kinda define "community" the same way. If these people I have never met were coming into town and needed a place to crash, I "know" them well enough to invite them over. I would like to meet them all face to face. If I need something (information wise), I would never hesitate to ask them. In a way, they are like virtual neighbors.
I might add that I am fortunate enough to live in a real neighborhood community where I know most all of my (physical neighbors) and we spend a lot of time gossiping on the porch or the front yard, have block parties, pick up each other's kids from school and babysit if the need arises, etc.