This is great news... now I can use my Turtle Beach Montego A3DXstream (Vortex 1 8820 chipset) in my gaming box! I was stuck with my old Ensoniq VIVO90 that I paid $10 to OSS for the drivers (since the PNP version don't work so well with the free drivers), but now I can toss away my last legacy card in that box!
Whew, first I get rid of Win98, now I can get rid of ISA... I'm having a good time with this.
Re:Who are the monkeys doing these reviews?
on
The Sparrow
·
· Score: 1
Heinlein ain't my favorite author in the world, but he can write more entertaining novels, even granting his maddening characterization; and occasionally has some lasting merit. Despite SSL's flaws, it was something completely *new*. And he deals with more social issues per pound of dead trees than any other major sf writer in the last 5 decades.
Most sf writers have a problem with characterization, either because they stay focused on the story or technology, or because characterization isn't trendy to do in "modern" writing. (One of my favorite exceptions is Walter M. Miller, Sr.)
At any rate, Sparrow didn't sit well with me, despite the priest's odyssey and development in suffering; it seemed a bit overwrought and in need of editorial work. YMMV.
Who are the monkeys doing these reviews?
on
The Sparrow
·
· Score: 3
None of these books reviewed ever gets less than an 8/10... and "Sparrow" certainly doesn't deserve a 9/10. I would save a near-perfect rating for something like "Canticle for Leibowitz", if you're going the religion-in-science-fiction route, or a classic like "Brave New World".
Sparrow's not *bad*, but it's not a 9/10 either. It's a slightly-better-than-mediocre first attempt at sci-fi by a decent author, there's good ideas in there, but half of the book could have been edited out and left none the worse. Parts read more like a soap opera than a serious novel -- I like personal conflict and characterization, but with development and growth (beyond a single axis of personality), please! I'd give it a 6/10. If you like religion in your scifi, it's probably worth a read; but I can think of a dozen Heinlein, P.K. Dick or Vonnegut books that can tear this to shreds.
I'm as much for protecting my personal privacy as anyone else here, but having grown up in the DC area and gone to school/worked/been neighbors with the folks who work for No Such Agency, I can see the need for Echelon. Folks outside the States certainly might not agree with me (along with a lot of US citizens), but the reason Americans enjoy the benefits of political and economic hegemony is from slightly shady actions and projects like this. Is it right to use this for economic gain? Perhaps not in a sense of absolute morality, but international relations isn't governed by morality, it's governed by the conflicting desires of sovereign (er, at least, in name for those states which function as puppets of US policy) states for economic, political, and military gain.
In this respect, the NSA & company are out there trying to keep the US ahead of the rest of the world. It might not be moral, but that's never stopped any other state from exploiting others for its advantage. One couldn't accuse the Brits, for example, of selecting the straight and narrow path every time ("Britain has no permanent allies, only permanent interests").
No, seriously, Debian 2.1 out-of-the-box has good support for IP masq'ing and firewall rules. Took me 5 minutes (yes, 5 minutes!) to get my dial-up connection up and running and masquerading for my home network after the OS booted, and it was the first time I'd ever used Debian.
I've never owned an Amiga. And I will never get the chance to own one, at this rate...
Amiga has performed another open-water full turnabout for the umpteenth time in the last two years. No, they're not building a set-top box, they're not building a Linux box, they're not building a QNX box, they're not building a Multimedia Convergence machine (ye gods, what marketing crap), they're building... software?
What's next, branding their logo onto Happy Meals? Their corporate direction can't get much more emphermal than "...produce software technology that will enable Internet services on an emerging category of products...". Even their plans (because they have no deliverable goods) have devolved to nothingness.
Guess they don't need to make money to be stupid.
Despite whatever positive karma they've earned from their first machines, they seem doomed to float aimlessly, never dying off, consigned to wander the halls of computing as a feeble non-entity whispering murmurs of their past glory.
Everytime I drive up to my company's Columbia, MD office, I pass by signs for Fort Meade. For those on the East Coast of the US, it's along I-95 in Maryland, between Baltimore and the DC Beltway. Take the Route 32 (east) exit, and don't mind the concealed cameras.
Think of the bennies -- able to work on your project with little funding hassles (beyond simple office politics), no recognition but you get to work with some of the best mathematicians in the business.
The NSA recruits a LOT of EE's and mathematicians, mostly the really good ones. A hacker friend of mine from HS ended up working at Fort Meade thanks to a full ride to school from the NSA... they do a lot of that sort of stuff.
Hmm, if Bell Atlantic is so concerned about getting DSL to paying customers, they could expand their service areas a little quicker... I'd like some sort of fast Net access, and I'd rather go with BA than Media General.
Ultimately, RedHat is a vendor, and they will do vendor-ish things like try to sell their product and make it more attractive than the competition (Debian, Slackware, SuSE & Co.). And their basic installed software is lacking in some departments -- but how many vendors include all of the *alternatives* to their basic software? Ya can't switch 95's or NT's window managers out of the box...
There's some annoying things about them, but they've created an open, commercial standard for Linux and are pretty dedicated to the community. If Microsoft did *half* of the things that RedHat does, I'd still be using NT -- but I'll take RedHat as a vendor over MS anyday.
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This is great news... now I can use my Turtle Beach Montego A3DXstream (Vortex 1 8820 chipset) in my gaming box! I was stuck with my old Ensoniq VIVO90 that I paid $10 to OSS for the drivers (since the PNP version don't work so well with the free drivers), but now I can toss away my last legacy card in that box!
Whew, first I get rid of Win98, now I can get rid of ISA... I'm having a good time with this.
Heinlein ain't my favorite author in the world, but he can write more entertaining novels, even granting his maddening characterization; and occasionally has some lasting merit. Despite SSL's flaws, it was something completely *new*. And he deals with more social issues per pound of dead trees than any other major sf writer in the last 5 decades.
Most sf writers have a problem with characterization, either because they stay focused on the story or technology, or because characterization isn't trendy to do in "modern" writing. (One of my favorite exceptions is Walter M. Miller, Sr.)
At any rate, Sparrow didn't sit well with me, despite the priest's odyssey and development in suffering; it seemed a bit overwrought and in need of editorial work. YMMV.
None of these books reviewed ever gets less than an 8/10... and "Sparrow" certainly doesn't deserve a 9/10. I would save a near-perfect rating for something like "Canticle for Leibowitz", if you're going the religion-in-science-fiction route, or a classic like "Brave New World".
Sparrow's not *bad*, but it's not a 9/10 either. It's a slightly-better-than-mediocre first attempt at sci-fi by a decent author, there's good ideas in there, but half of the book could have been edited out and left none the worse. Parts read more like a soap opera than a serious novel -- I like personal conflict and characterization, but with development and growth (beyond a single axis of personality), please! I'd give it a 6/10. If you like religion in your scifi, it's probably worth a read; but I can think of a dozen Heinlein, P.K. Dick or Vonnegut books that can tear this to shreds.
Yeah, they're spooks, but they're *our* spooks.
I'm as much for protecting my personal privacy as anyone else here, but having grown up in the DC area and gone to school/worked/been neighbors with the folks who work for No Such Agency, I can see the need for Echelon. Folks outside the States certainly might not agree with me (along with a lot of US citizens), but the reason Americans enjoy the benefits of political and economic hegemony is from slightly shady actions and projects like this. Is it right to use this for economic gain? Perhaps not in a sense of absolute morality, but international relations isn't governed by morality, it's governed by the conflicting desires of sovereign (er, at least, in name for those states which function as puppets of US policy) states for economic, political, and military gain.
In this respect, the NSA & company are out there trying to keep the US ahead of the rest of the world. It might not be moral, but that's never stopped any other state from exploiting others for its advantage. One couldn't accuse the Brits, for example, of selecting the straight and narrow path every time ("Britain has no permanent allies, only permanent interests").
Use Debian instead.
No, seriously, Debian 2.1 out-of-the-box has good support for IP masq'ing and firewall rules. Took me 5 minutes (yes, 5 minutes!) to get my dial-up connection up and running and masquerading for my home network after the OS booted, and it was the first time I'd ever used Debian.
I've never owned an Amiga. And I will never get the chance to own one, at this rate...
Amiga has performed another open-water full turnabout for the umpteenth time in the last two years. No, they're not building a set-top box, they're not building a Linux box, they're not building a QNX box, they're not building a Multimedia Convergence machine (ye gods, what marketing crap), they're building... software?
What's next, branding their logo onto Happy Meals? Their corporate direction can't get much more emphermal than "...produce software technology that will enable Internet services on an emerging category of products...". Even their plans (because they have no deliverable goods) have devolved to nothingness.
Guess they don't need to make money to be stupid.
Despite whatever positive karma they've earned from their first machines, they seem doomed to float aimlessly, never dying off, consigned to wander the halls of computing as a feeble non-entity whispering murmurs of their past glory.
I'll have to drop by there on my way to work...
Everytime I drive up to my company's Columbia, MD office, I pass by signs for Fort Meade. For those on the East Coast of the US, it's along I-95 in Maryland, between Baltimore and the DC Beltway. Take the Route 32 (east) exit, and don't mind the concealed cameras.
Think of the bennies -- able to work on your project with little funding hassles (beyond simple office politics), no recognition but you get to work with some of the best mathematicians in the business.
The NSA recruits a LOT of EE's and mathematicians, mostly the really good ones. A hacker friend of mine from HS ended up working at Fort Meade thanks to a full ride to school from the NSA... they do a lot of that sort of stuff.
{off-topic}
Hmm, if Bell Atlantic is so concerned about getting DSL to paying customers, they could expand their service areas a little quicker... I'd like some sort of fast Net access, and I'd rather go with BA than Media General.
-Waiting for my DSL line outside of Falls Church-
Ultimately, RedHat is a vendor, and they will do vendor-ish things like try to sell their product and make it more attractive than the competition (Debian, Slackware, SuSE & Co.). And their basic installed software is lacking in some departments -- but how many vendors include all of the *alternatives* to their basic software? Ya can't switch 95's or NT's window managers out of the box...
There's some annoying things about them, but they've created an open, commercial standard for Linux and are pretty dedicated to the community. If Microsoft did *half* of the things that RedHat does, I'd still be using NT -- but I'll take RedHat as a vendor over MS anyday.