"The discovery was made on 1 April by a joint team of divers from the Indian National Institute of Oceanography and the Scientific Exploration Society based in Dorset."
Clue number one.
"Expedition leader Monty Halls said: "Our divers were presented with a series of structures that clearly showed man-made attributes.""
Clue number two.
Let me guess, they found an extensive warren of underground treasure troves, right?
Sigh. Second oldest trick in the book, after having a halfling vampire "trapped" in a coffin banging on the lid, trying to get out.
Nah, your library does kick back a small amount per item checked out - so getting a library copy is still better for the author.
Some of my author friends in Seattle get small royalty checks from the library use - yes, it's WAY smaller than the Canadian authors get, but it's still going to the original artist - and not the publishing house alone.
I read the point that it's out of print - but if you went to a local bookstore, it might be a better thing anyway - or used Borders or another place instead.
I recently upgraded a Win box (yes, the shame) from Netscape 4.75 to 6.11 and it's a dog.
Slow as molasses. Tuned it a bit, but it's still dog slow.
I hate IE - but I need something that uses my DSL and doesn't take 60 seconds to render an email or bring up a page.
Is there much difference between the Mozilla 1.0 build and the Netscape 6.11? Should I have chosen native Win code during the install instead of "generic" code?
Are there any useful sites to help with this - and what are their URLs? And does anyone know how much of a difference (stats, URLs, basic ratio) there is between the Netscape build and the Mozilla build?
Yes, I tried Google - and it helped a bit in tuning some things. But I've got a Qwest DSL line, and it's dog slow now.
It's like MP3. My ripping a CD that I bought to play on my MP3 is no problem (fair use). Amazon "reselling" CDs and giving no money to the artists is a problem.
Right now the Writers of America are boycotting Amazon. Every time you buy a used book from them the author gets nothing, nada, not a cent.
They are the pirates of our generation, the RIAA of the MP3 world.
As with music, where you should buy the CD from the musicians instead of thru RIAA (hint - they make $5 for a $6 CD they sell in person, and $0.02 for a $15 CD you buy thru RIAA) - for books you should buy from the author (e.g. printed book). they get no money for their work when you buy it used.
Note that libraries do kick back to authors - and in Canada and the EU they kick back a big chunk of change. So please check it out at the library before you buy it used from Amazon.
Heck, they even ported Sony's trademark porcupine on steroids over to the GameCube.
So, at last count, I have tons of games I want on the GameCube, it's cheaper, and it's fun.
Or I can get a wonky xBox that fries out.
Or I can get the Sony PS2 - but I'm not really sure why I would want to play those games.
And, bonus points, my son can play it and he'll think I got it for him as an 11th birthday present... so not only do I get a cool box, I can pony up for some more games to play on it if it's a GameCube.
It's all about the games, something that Bill G will never learn.
do wish they had that Oddworld ported to the GameCube though...
Sadly I said As I inferred, Jules Verne preceded Mary Shelley in terms of SciFi. But even he has his antecedents.
It was pointed out to me at brunch this past Sunday that while I was correct in regards to timelines for publications (e.g. when they went to print), that in fact Mary Shelley preceded Jules Verne in terms of the date on which her story was written.
My humble apologies. While I may have been technically correct, the timeline does not accurately represent the literary history that occurred, as her story was read by others and may be argued to be the "spark" that started SciFi.
As I inferred, Jules Verne preceded Mary Shelley in terms of SciFi. But even he has his antecedents.
Regardless, while you may enjoy watching Farscape, it has far more in common with Fantasy, regardless of its future orientation, than it has in common with SciFi.
When you've actually received a check for your writings from a reputable SciFi magazine or received a book contract, you can criticize my opinion and I'll regard you as a peer on the subject.
And I've never majored in English, nor have solely college or undergrad qualifications.
Farscape, while entertaining, is not the best that TV has to offer in the realm of SciFi. It is surely better than many other shows branded SciFi, but it qualifies mostly on those grounds.
IMHO, Lexx is closer to the marks in this regards.
You obviously haven't written and sold many SciFi stories then.
Look back at the mags and novels you have. I didn't say Hard SciFi, or even Hard Science SciFi, I said classic SciFi.
As an example, Frankenstein is the first SciFi ever. Anyone who writes knows that Mary Shelley expanded Jules Verne's pantheon - and if you haven't been to Nantes (France), and visited the Museum of Jules Verne, you're probably ignorant of the other writers who started everything as well.
Purity is in the eyes of the beholder. SciFi is in the eyes of the publisher and the writer. When you have sold a few stories, get back to me. Until then, you're just an uniformed AC who needs to audit a course at his local University on SciFi before he dares post.
Some other good ones are SpongeBob Squarepants - love the trips to the moon; Powerpuff Girls (strong SF underlay, with some Fantasy); and that Space Ranger that hangs out with Cowboy Woody (whatever his name is) - anyway, it's a great SciFi series in the classic space opera genre.
True, Farside is more along the lines of Doctor Who with muppets in space, as you said.
Lexx, on the other hand, is more classic SF, although all the recent "visit to Earth" stuff is a big yawn for the most part (though I did like the Dr Frankenstein working in the Morgue and the Dracula in Vampire castle themes - great homages).
Sadly, from my viewpoint, Farscape is an offense to classic SF, and at best could be termed Science Fantasy, whereas Lexx which is billed as Science Fantasy by many is undoubtably classic Science Fiction.
But that's just what some of us who've written this stuff think...
And she recently went to a really cool Washington Lawyers for the Arts panel discussion on this issue in Seattle.
It turns out that most of the panel attendees and audience actually believe that we in the USA are most likely going to end up with a legal situation more akin to the models used in Europe and Canada than to the more extreme RIAA positions.
One of the stopping points is the US Congress and the multinational music, TV, and film industries which feed them with dollars to influence their votes.
Naturally, this is my interpretation of what she told me about it, but it was good to hear that the lawyer community isn't being snowed by the extremists like RIAA.
And, yes, she is a fox.
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Globalism is undemocratic and anti-enviro
on
Globalism Post 9/11
·
· Score: 2
First, if you don't know about it already, there's some cool resources like ATTAC which have email lists and go through the economic underpinnings of why globalism as currently practised is not a good idea. They started in France, of course, www.attac.fr.
The main thing is that we, the people, never get to vote for these organizations. Globalism as it is practised is intended to reduce barriers - and those barriers are local laws that protect labor requirements (e.g. kids can't work more than 2 hours per school day) or environmental restrictions (e.g. you can't dump chemicals untreated in creeks).
There is another form - which is that corporations, which are really only asset poolings for investors like you and I that limit our losses, be required to conform to the countries that they operate in.
Where globablism attacks fraud, waste, and bribery - this is good. But it usually doesn't seem to mind this at the multinational corporate level. Where it attacks reasonable labor and environmental laws - this is bad. And multinationals seem to spend most of their energies trying to attack these.
GDP is flawed in that it does not measure social good as a benefit and it does not measure environmental damage as a cost.
-
April Fool's post by Katz - almost had me!
on
Globalism Post 9/11
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Man, you almost had me going with this April Fools post, pretending it was by Jon Katz.
You really nailed his style - long, overflowing words instead of crisp, concise statements - and the tendency to pontificate on things he knows precious little about.
But...
you blew it by not including how this article links to ubergeek techno kiddies. That's when I figured out you just forgot to submit the story yesterday as an April Fools post.
Face it, if it doesn't go on and on and on talking about how the "new generation" of technologically-savvy cyberkidlings are subverting the paradigm, it ain't a Katz story.
Theater owners have film projectors now which will work for 20 years and cost 1/50th the amount to maintain. Or they can shell out millions for technology that will cost 1/10th the current price in 3 years.
Any theater chain or owner buying digital today instead of 2005 is obviously floating in money.
End result - don't expect any growth in digital movie technology.
Exception - film company owned theaters who can save the money on film production and get a chance to give "their" theaters the film 10 days before everyone else.
[caveat - I'm a lifetime member of Cinema Seattle and have relatives and friends in the film industry]
You can do magic....its called catching your Sim on fire and turning it into an Urn.
Well, I do have quite a few haunted houses on my blocks. On my Win machine (the one with House Party) there are at least five houses.
One is a Black Widow - she's very charming, but there are many urns and gravestones on her tiny plot.
Another is a surfer dude and his boardbabe. They have a surf shrine and a few have died at their cookouts cause it was too crowded. That's why they sleep on the second floor of their bamboo shack.
Another is a family of ghouls. There's just a couple of them, but their plot has a moving pool that has claimed many a victim in its meandering path.
And the last is a couple who are continually building stuff - they seem to have a habit of walling in their guests, forgetting about not having any doors, and then changing the layout.
I wish we could get the expansions working in WINE - but until then I'll have to be satisfied with The Sims at least working on my Linux boxen.
yeah, "Today I killed 200 innocent civilians, when I refilled my tank." or "I shot an American combat soldier in the back today when I decided to buy a lower mpg car."
nah, if you have a bike, keep it. if you have Ginger, keep it. if you have a car, keep it. if you have an SUV, keep it. if you have a truck, keep it.
just next time you buy one (or get one for a kid or parent or girlfriend) - then get a replacement vehicle that gets 5 mpg better than your last one. If your last one was a 12 mpg truck, get a 17 mpg truck.
The tech is there. We just need to use it gradually. Fast change is inefficient.
Slashdot Mirror
But does this mean faster rendering times or quicker loads for email?
Seriously, I'm finding Netscape 6.11 a dog, and am wondering if the Win version of Mozilla 1.0 will be faster.
Not really into CSS, so it's not a big deal on my side, although the XML support is a criteria.
But I need to have my email load faster - will using Mozilla mean a faster experience, given that I have DSL at 256K?
-
To quote:
...
"The discovery was made on 1 April by a joint team of divers from the Indian National Institute of Oceanography and the Scientific Exploration Society based in Dorset."
Clue number one.
"Expedition leader Monty Halls said: "Our divers were presented with a series of structures that clearly showed man-made attributes.""
Clue number two.
Let me guess, they found an extensive warren of underground treasure troves, right?
Sigh. Second oldest trick in the book, after having a halfling vampire "trapped" in a coffin banging on the lid, trying to get out.
Gets them every time
-
Nah, your library does kick back a small amount per item checked out - so getting a library copy is still better for the author.
Some of my author friends in Seattle get small royalty checks from the library use - yes, it's WAY smaller than the Canadian authors get, but it's still going to the original artist - and not the publishing house alone.
I read the point that it's out of print - but if you went to a local bookstore, it might be a better thing anyway - or used Borders or another place instead.
-
I recently upgraded a Win box (yes, the shame) from Netscape 4.75 to 6.11 and it's a dog.
Slow as molasses. Tuned it a bit, but it's still dog slow.
I hate IE - but I need something that uses my DSL and doesn't take 60 seconds to render an email or bring up a page.
Is there much difference between the Mozilla 1.0 build and the Netscape 6.11? Should I have chosen native Win code during the install instead of "generic" code?
Are there any useful sites to help with this - and what are their URLs? And does anyone know how much of a difference (stats, URLs, basic ratio) there is between the Netscape build and the Mozilla build?
Yes, I tried Google - and it helped a bit in tuning some things. But I've got a Qwest DSL line, and it's dog slow now.
-
If you do it, it's no prob.
If Amazon does it, it is a problem.
It's like MP3. My ripping a CD that I bought to play on my MP3 is no problem (fair use). Amazon "reselling" CDs and giving no money to the artists is a problem.
Used on amazon from $2.00..
3 5 [amazon.com]
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/03453356
It is quite a good story, actually.
Right now the Writers of America are boycotting Amazon. Every time you buy a used book from them the author gets nothing, nada, not a cent.
They are the pirates of our generation, the RIAA of the MP3 world.
As with music, where you should buy the CD from the musicians instead of thru RIAA (hint - they make $5 for a $6 CD they sell in person, and $0.02 for a $15 CD you buy thru RIAA) - for books you should buy from the author (e.g. printed book). they get no money for their work when you buy it used.
Note that libraries do kick back to authors - and in Canada and the EU they kick back a big chunk of change. So please check it out at the library before you buy it used from Amazon.
[note - I'm biased, I've sold stories myself]
-
Ugh ... No you don't. At least, not if the demo is any indication of what the game is like.
...
Darn. Well, must admit I've only seen the commercials and had hoped it might be one of the few xBox games I was even remotely interested in.
Guess I have no reason to stray from just wanting PS2 ports for the GameCube then
-
Heck, they even ported Sony's trademark porcupine on steroids over to the GameCube.
... so not only do I get a cool box, I can pony up for some more games to play on it if it's a GameCube.
...
So, at last count, I have tons of games I want on the GameCube, it's cheaper, and it's fun.
Or I can get a wonky xBox that fries out.
Or I can get the Sony PS2 - but I'm not really sure why I would want to play those games.
And, bonus points, my son can play it and he'll think I got it for him as an 11th birthday present
It's all about the games, something that Bill G will never learn.
do wish they had that Oddworld ported to the GameCube though
-
Nintendo.
Seriously.
Look, follow the money. Sony doesn't make much money on each box. Microsoft loses almost $100 on each box.
Nintendo makes money on both the box and on the games.
Now, I'm not saying they're number one - but they make money - and the other two don't do as well.
-
Sadly I said As I inferred, Jules Verne preceded Mary Shelley in terms of SciFi. But even he has his antecedents.
It was pointed out to me at brunch this past Sunday that while I was correct in regards to timelines for publications (e.g. when they went to print), that in fact Mary Shelley preceded Jules Verne in terms of the date on which her story was written.
My humble apologies. While I may have been technically correct, the timeline does not accurately represent the literary history that occurred, as her story was read by others and may be argued to be the "spark" that started SciFi.
-
As I inferred, Jules Verne preceded Mary Shelley in terms of SciFi. But even he has his antecedents.
Regardless, while you may enjoy watching Farscape, it has far more in common with Fantasy, regardless of its future orientation, than it has in common with SciFi.
When you've actually received a check for your writings from a reputable SciFi magazine or received a book contract, you can criticize my opinion and I'll regard you as a peer on the subject.
And I've never majored in English, nor have solely college or undergrad qualifications.
Farscape, while entertaining, is not the best that TV has to offer in the realm of SciFi. It is surely better than many other shows branded SciFi, but it qualifies mostly on those grounds.
IMHO, Lexx is closer to the marks in this regards.
You obviously haven't written and sold many SciFi stories then.
Look back at the mags and novels you have. I didn't say Hard SciFi, or even Hard Science SciFi, I said classic SciFi.
As an example, Frankenstein is the first SciFi ever. Anyone who writes knows that Mary Shelley expanded Jules Verne's pantheon - and if you haven't been to Nantes (France), and visited the Museum of Jules Verne, you're probably ignorant of the other writers who started everything as well.
Purity is in the eyes of the beholder. SciFi is in the eyes of the publisher and the writer. When you have sold a few stories, get back to me. Until then, you're just an uniformed AC who needs to audit a course at his local University on SciFi before he dares post.
-
Some other good ones are SpongeBob Squarepants - love the trips to the moon; Powerpuff Girls (strong SF underlay, with some Fantasy); and that Space Ranger that hangs out with Cowboy Woody (whatever his name is) - anyway, it's a great SciFi series in the classic space opera genre.
-
True, Farside is more along the lines of Doctor Who with muppets in space, as you said.
...
Lexx, on the other hand, is more classic SF, although all the recent "visit to Earth" stuff is a big yawn for the most part (though I did like the Dr Frankenstein working in the Morgue and the Dracula in Vampire castle themes - great homages).
Sadly, from my viewpoint, Farscape is an offense to classic SF, and at best could be termed Science Fantasy, whereas Lexx which is billed as Science Fantasy by many is undoubtably classic Science Fiction.
But that's just what some of us who've written this stuff think
-
For the cost of the repairs.
They sell shoddy merchandise that damages your audio playing equipment, then they are responsible for the damage.
This is how we play with the big boys.
And she recently went to a really cool Washington Lawyers for the Arts panel discussion on this issue in Seattle.
It turns out that most of the panel attendees and audience actually believe that we in the USA are most likely going to end up with a legal situation more akin to the models used in Europe and Canada than to the more extreme RIAA positions.
One of the stopping points is the US Congress and the multinational music, TV, and film industries which feed them with dollars to influence their votes.
Naturally, this is my interpretation of what she told me about it, but it was good to hear that the lawyer community isn't being snowed by the extremists like RIAA.
And, yes, she is a fox.
-
First, if you don't know about it already, there's some cool resources like ATTAC which have email lists and go through the economic underpinnings of why globalism as currently practised is not a good idea. They started in France, of course, www.attac.fr.
The main thing is that we, the people, never get to vote for these organizations. Globalism as it is practised is intended to reduce barriers - and those barriers are local laws that protect labor requirements (e.g. kids can't work more than 2 hours per school day) or environmental restrictions (e.g. you can't dump chemicals untreated in creeks).
There is another form - which is that corporations, which are really only asset poolings for investors like you and I that limit our losses, be required to conform to the countries that they operate in.
Where globablism attacks fraud, waste, and bribery - this is good. But it usually doesn't seem to mind this at the multinational corporate level. Where it attacks reasonable labor and environmental laws - this is bad. And multinationals seem to spend most of their energies trying to attack these.
GDP is flawed in that it does not measure social good as a benefit and it does not measure environmental damage as a cost.
-
Man, you almost had me going with this April Fools post, pretending it was by Jon Katz.
...
You really nailed his style - long, overflowing words instead of crisp, concise statements - and the tendency to pontificate on things he knows precious little about.
But
you blew it by not including how this article links to ubergeek techno kiddies. That's when I figured out you just forgot to submit the story yesterday as an April Fools post.
Face it, if it doesn't go on and on and on talking about how the "new generation" of technologically-savvy cyberkidlings are subverting the paradigm, it ain't a Katz story.
Good one, though. You almost had me there.
-
I thought the wedding was the April Fool's story, just someone had set the system date off by a few weeks ....
My copy says 14 years for copyright.
...
I never voted for a rewrite.
Maybe we should act like the founding fathers and revolt over this issue
-
Theater owners have film projectors now which will work for 20 years and cost 1/50th the amount to maintain. Or they can shell out millions for technology that will cost 1/10th the current price in 3 years.
Any theater chain or owner buying digital today instead of 2005 is obviously floating in money.
End result - don't expect any growth in digital movie technology.
Exception - film company owned theaters who can save the money on film production and get a chance to give "their" theaters the film 10 days before everyone else.
[caveat - I'm a lifetime member of Cinema Seattle and have relatives and friends in the film industry]
You can do magic....its called catching your Sim on fire and turning it into an Urn.
Well, I do have quite a few haunted houses on my blocks. On my Win machine (the one with House Party) there are at least five houses.
One is a Black Widow - she's very charming, but there are many urns and gravestones on her tiny plot.
Another is a surfer dude and his boardbabe. They have a surf shrine and a few have died at their cookouts cause it was too crowded. That's why they sleep on the second floor of their bamboo shack.
Another is a family of ghouls. There's just a couple of them, but their plot has a moving pool that has claimed many a victim in its meandering path.
And the last is a couple who are continually building stuff - they seem to have a habit of walling in their guests, forgetting about not having any doors, and then changing the layout.
I wish we could get the expansions working in WINE - but until then I'll have to be satisfied with The Sims at least working on my Linux boxen.
-
yeah, "Today I killed 200 innocent civilians, when I refilled my tank." or "I shot an American combat soldier in the back today when I decided to buy a lower mpg car."
That's what it means.
-
nah, if you have a bike, keep it.
if you have Ginger, keep it.
if you have a car, keep it.
if you have an SUV, keep it.
if you have a truck, keep it.
just next time you buy one (or get one for a kid or parent or girlfriend) - then get a replacement vehicle that gets 5 mpg better than your last one. If your last one was a 12 mpg truck, get a 17 mpg truck.
The tech is there. We just need to use it gradually. Fast change is inefficient.
Think about it.
But at least we'll be able to play Warcraft III.
Or maybe they could do a WINE-compatible version of The Sims: Hackers Unite!
Then we can have LAN parties inside of LAN parties.
Severely sweet!
-