Yes, there are quite a few typos. Unfortunately
this is now normal in books, with very few publishers providing proper editing and proofing support to their authors.
But those will hopefuly be cleaned up in the (eventual) online copy.
The legal threats may be too bad for Google
to defy Scientology. But there's something they
could do that would reduce the chances of this
happening to them again (or all the time). Google could ALSO
remove every official Scientology web site from
their index. That would send a clear signal
that trying to win an online PR battle by deploying
lawyers against Google is not a good idea.
If you want to write to Google about this,
comments@google.com is the address to use.
An fun attempt at a layperson's cut-down version of "God's book
of the most beautiful proofs" (mentioned in the
interview) is Aigner and Ziegler's Proofs from the BOOK.
... in 1962 an actual rudder-post of one of
Cheng Ho's treasure-ships was discovered... This great timber is 11 metres long... Using accepted
formulae, the approximate length of the ship on which it has been used comes out between 146 metres and 163 metres depending on different assumptions about the draught of the vessel.
Even 163 metres is only 530 feet, of course, but it shows that 1000 feet isn't that unbelieveable.
A common misspelling - I'm sure a lot of people
hitting my review of Connie Willis' Doomsday Book (a decent sf novel) are actually looking for the Domesday Book!
I wonder if that was the idea in Willis' choice of title?
There is a television in the house, but I hardly
ever watch it - maybe an hour a month, if that.
Frankly I'd rather go out to see movies, while
televison news and most documentaries are just
woeful compared to print resources (at least
for what I'm interested in).
Danny.
Re:So, um, is it good?
on
The New Chemistry
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I think the review makes it clear I think the
volume is good: "fascinating", "accessible",...
It is, however, hard to generalise about 17
rather different articles - how "good"
they are likely to be depends a lot on who the
reader is and what their background is.
But some of my reviews are definitely more
substantial than others, 'tis true.
You might like to check out what I think is
the
shortest. The average review length is only 400 words, though that's been climbing slowly.
Historically, capitalism has been inseparable from the state. Indeed the growth of capitalism has gone hand in hand with the creation of modern nation-states. For background on this, I heartily recommend Fernand Braudel's Civilization and Capitalism.
If you can't handle
the Anglo-Saxon, you aren't equipped to provide a scholarly opinion on the work.
True, but there are "scholarly purposes" other than direct commentary on a work.
For example, if you're a specialist on Chinese
mythology, you might want to read Beowulf for
comparative purposes. Ideally even then you'd
learn Anglo-Saxon, but in practice that's not an
effective use of your time, which is probably best spent learning Uighur or Jurchen or something like that.
Thanks for the metaphrase/paraphrase explanation, btw, that was interesting.
I haven't read The Other Wind yet, but I thought even Tehanu had moved a long way from Taoism. In fact I thought it had some elements that were almost Christian. But
see my review for the explanation of that, saves me rewriting it here.
I've never worked up the courage to review The Left Hand of Darkness or
The Dispossessed or The Earthsea Trilogy. For me that would be like reviewing Lord of the Rings. But I'm a great Le Guin fan -
I own more books by her than any other writer -
and I've written reviews of half a dozen of her other books.
My book review site is now getting up around 4000 visitors (10 000 page views) a day. But I've been adding new content to that for nearly ten years now, and I spend many hours a week writing reviews (and even more reading books).
If you can afford it you can short-cut that process - you can buy some good content or convince friends, family, and strangers to provide it. And if the long-term approach to building up a profile is too slow,
you could alwas buy come advertising (all I've ever spent was $20 as an experiment). Just make sure you put the content up before you do the advertising!
this is a $45 book,and amazon has 21 souls looking to unload theirs at $15... sounds like a
one time read at best.
Someone else said the book was #12 on the Amazon sales-rankins... that means they've sold tens of thousands of copies, so 20 of them wanting to resell them is hardly a lot!
make it an ebook - what is it with all these people - negroponte leading the charge -
extolling electronic/cyber/wired life and grinding trees to pass out their gospels? dymitri or no
dymitri, people pay for ebooks.
Wouldn't really work as an ebook - I tried to say that at the end of my review, but it's much easier to understand when you've seen the design of the physical book. It relies on being able to present an eigth of a square metre at the user in one hit, and hardly anyone has windows that big, with sufficiently good resolution, to achieve the same effect.
You're spot on there. It's also an invitation to police corruption. For example it's illegal to sell X-rated (explicit sex, but no violence or "bad" fetishes) videos in all Australian states, but at least in New South Wales pretty much every adult shop sells them quite openly. It's hard to believe there aren't kickbacks of some kind involved there.
We pointed the politicians at the Canadian decision when the Federal legislation came around two years ago, but they don't seem to care that no one else (no Western democracy, anyway) has chosen this path.
Contacting your local member is good. If politicians realise there's community concern about this issue - and not just "community concern about pornography" - then they may speak up in the party room discussions (where decisions are often actually made, before things ever go public).
This is meant to be "uniform national legislation" and it's even further advanced in South Australia, so my guess is that it will be coming to Victoria and Queensland and West Australia and Tasmania in the not too distant future.
RMS has never tried to claim "all the credit" for free software for himself - he does ask for more recognition for the GNU Project, but that's not just RMS, that's thousands of developers. If you check out the partial "GNU's Who" on the web site, you'll find RMS in alphabetical position, not promoted over the others.
If I were voting for GNOME directors, I should think RMS would make a fine choice. He's an experienced developer himself, he knows a lot about licencing issues, and his committment to free software development is unquestioned. Sure, he'll bring some politics into it, but the whole point of the GNOME Foundation is surely to do the politics, public relations, marketing, and so forth so the developers don't have to.
Slashdot Mirror
But those will hopefuly be cleaned up in the (eventual) online copy.
Danny.
If you want to write to Google about this, comments@google.com is the address to use.
Danny.
Danny.
Danny.
Here is one quote relevant to your question:
Even 163 metres is only 530 feet, of course, but it shows that 1000 feet isn't that unbelieveable.Danny.
I wonder if that was the idea in Willis' choice of title?
Danny.
Frankly I'd rather go out to see movies, while televison news and most documentaries are just woeful compared to print resources (at least for what I'm interested in).
Danny.
But some of my reviews are definitely more substantial than others, 'tis true. You might like to check out what I think is the shortest. The average review length is only 400 words, though that's been climbing slowly.
Danny.
Danny.
And Stanislaw Lem, while Polish rather than Russian, has always been popular in Russia.
Danny.
Danny.
Danny.
True, but there are "scholarly purposes" other than direct commentary on a work. For example, if you're a specialist on Chinese mythology, you might want to read Beowulf for comparative purposes. Ideally even then you'd learn Anglo-Saxon, but in practice that's not an effective use of your time, which is probably best spent learning Uighur or Jurchen or something like that.
Thanks for the metaphrase/paraphrase explanation, btw, that was interesting.
Danny.
Danny.
Danny.
Danny.
Danny.
If you can afford it you can short-cut that process - you can buy some good content or convince friends, family, and strangers to provide it. And if the long-term approach to building up a profile is too slow, you could alwas buy come advertising (all I've ever spent was $20 as an experiment). Just make sure you put the content up before you do the advertising!
Danny.
Danny.
Someone else said the book was #12 on the Amazon sales-rankins... that means they've sold tens of thousands of copies, so 20 of them wanting to resell them is hardly a lot!
make it an ebook - what is it with all these people - negroponte leading the charge - extolling electronic/cyber/wired life and grinding trees to pass out their gospels? dymitri or no dymitri, people pay for ebooks.
Wouldn't really work as an ebook - I tried to say that at the end of my review, but it's much easier to understand when you've seen the design of the physical book. It relies on being able to present an eigth of a square metre at the user in one hit, and hardly anyone has windows that big, with sufficiently good resolution, to achieve the same effect.
Danny.
Danny.
Danny.
This is meant to be "uniform national legislation" and it's even further advanced in South Australia, so my guess is that it will be coming to Victoria and Queensland and West Australia and Tasmania in the not too distant future.
Danny.
If I were voting for GNOME directors, I should think RMS would make a fine choice. He's an experienced developer himself, he knows a lot about licencing issues, and his committment to free software development is unquestioned. Sure, he'll bring some politics into it, but the whole point of the GNOME Foundation is surely to do the politics, public relations, marketing, and so forth so the developers don't have to.
Danny.
Danny.