I use mine for working in TeX---the integration allows one to do things like http://www.tug.org/tug2003/donate (with a little help from Omega on the G4 here at work)
TeXView.app's ``TeX eq - - eps'' Service is way cool.
Display PostScript programming, and the ability to program custom strokes and fills and have them render on-screen in real time in Altsys Virtuoso (direct antecedent to Macromedia FreeHand v4) is as yet unmatched in Mac (incl OS X) or Windows.
The above helps w/ light illustration work too, esp. since I've got my Wacom ArtZ tablet connected to my Cube.
It's also very nice for general writing, what w/ WriteNow (as another thread noted, it's written in assembly, so quite fast---WriteNow was originally developed for the Mac as a hedge against MacWrite not making it, then when Steve Jobs needed a Word Processor for NeXTstep he bought the company (kind of embarrassing NeXT owning a Mac app) and later it was sold off to T/Maker I think it was).
Webster.app and the Oxford's Book of Quotations and Digital Librarian / Shakespeare are also quite nice when wordsmithing---the big thing is the consistency and synergy and customizability of the UI---tear-off menus allow you to pick and choose what functions are most prominent.
As regards the non-functioning right mouse button, just check the button for ``Enable right mouse button menu'' for an instant pop-up main menu when it's clicked---w/ a bit of practice, some functions can become essentially gestural (punch in Altsys Virtuoso is like that for me)
Look up the spreadsheets Javelin, Lotus Improv and Lighthouse Design's Quantrix. There's an on-going attempt to revive Improv / Quantrix for Mac OS X (they were originally NeXTstep programs), see http://www.materialarts.com/FlexiSheet/
The wikipedia has a good page on Lotus Improv: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Impro v
William (who once tried to inform the ignorance of an author of an encyclopedia article who was blissfully ignorant of 3D spreadsheets)
But by choosing Gnumeric you're letting other people choose for you 'cause Gnumeric is ``merely'' a clone of Excel done 'cause it's the most popular spreadsheet.
I'd give my interest in hell for more people in open source development to be more concerned w/ UI and to attempt to create better more interesting and innovative software---at the least, rather than clone the most popular thing (Excel / Windows), try the best (Improv or Quantrix / NeXTstep---for those who haven't checked in, www.gnustep.org has made some big advances of late;)
Yep, I managed to get in a very nice Keytronic at my first job after leaving the Air Force, and at a computer shop I worked at for a while, always had ``dibs'' on the wonderful IBM PS/2 and other old / good keyboards. Here at work now got in a MacAlly which is pretty decent (though I've not found a USB keyboard I'm really pleased w/).... and at home, still use my classic old NeXT non-ADB keyboard;)
Sorry, ``buttons'' was a poor choice of words. Probably should've said ``controls / widgets''.
As an example of what I mean, I've pried the faceplate off of my PowerMac G4 (Yikes! 400MHz to be exact) and that reveals:
CD-ROM
- headphone jack
- volume control
- eject button (I really hated the clunky drop-down door)
- access light
Zip drive
- eject button
- access light
All but the eject button on the CD-ROM were hidden---and I've found the Zip drive's eject button invaluable for ejecting bad Zip disks infected with the ``click of death''
I'm leaning towards a similar conclusion (``My next boxen will be PowerMac G5'') for when it's finally time to retire my NeXT Cube.
The new case design addresses most of my complaints about the old G3/4 design (funky round handles and irregular surfaces make stacking / arranging things around those problematic, noisy (but grant it is quieter than my NeXT Cube) drive panel access---I guess the SuperDrive has no buttons on the face plate beyond eject?)
and Panther finally brings most of the missing features from NeXTstep (Faxing, PostScript support, speed) and Mac OS 9 (Labels, apparently working QuickDraw/GX like font support).
I'd give my interest in Hell though for a way to change the monolithic, immovable main menu to a movable vertical menu a la NeXTstep (w/ top-level Print and Services!), esp. w/ tear-off sub-menus, and really wish that there was a language option which would give one concise NeXT-style menu shortcut descriptions....
I know what you mean---my 25MHz '040 NeXT Cube is still my main machine for doing TeX and PostScript work.
The really painful thing is the comments from Mac developers when they first tried out OpenStep 4.2 on decent white boxes in preparation for what was then called Rhapsody...
``windows vanish (instantly) (after clicking the close box)''
``feels rock solid''
``man I hope the real thing performs this snappily''
There was recently a post to comp.sys.next.advocacy from a guy who got OpenStep running on a something.something GHz box w/ 1GB or DDR or somesuch RAM.... may have to think 'bout setting up something like that myself, thoough I'd really miss the cool old-style NeXT keyboard....
I think you need to look a bit harder---there've been some very interesting games along those lines---for the comedic angle there's _The Incredible Machine_ series.
For didactic there was the short-lived _Widget Workshop_ by Maxis, http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/scienc e1/widget/merge.shtml which is way cool.
D/l'd a copy of UCB Logo(1) and started working through _The Great Logo Adventure_(2) w/ her---she got a big kick out of making the computer do what she wanted, esp. once I showed her the abbreviations (FD == forward &c.). Minor glitch was TGLA was writte n w/ MSW Logo in mind, so TRI was undefined....
Other things I've been meaning to try with her include:
Boxer(3), which oddly is only readily available for the Mac. It's positioned as an alternative to Logo and feels a lot like Squeak(4).
Apple had a s ystem called ``Cocoa'' (this was before the NeXT purchase) which was lauded for kids' programming, but not finding much about it now.
One commercial program which I'm saddened has vanished is Widget Workshop by Maxis(5) and wasn't carried farther.
That last really points out that a more visual tool might be better for kids. Although there's been some interesting research on this(6), none of the available tools(7) are really suitable for kids excepting Drape(8).
LinuxPPC live was also placed on the CD bundled w/ that year's MacWorld Expo issue.
William (who's still trying to get MkLinux or something like to it installed on his wife's PowerMac 8100 (again! Had it installed before, but things haven't been working since adding a non-Apple HD and CD-ROM:(
Apparently you missed that Wacom is the OEM for most of the tablet digitizing systems?
Take a look at: http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/index.cfm
There's link to a download which enables pressure sensitivity for graphics apps (Download enhanced driver for Tablet PC).
Other comments in no particular order:
- there are convertible machines with keyboards (Toshiba's Portege)
- building a Tablet PC is a lot more complex than just removing the keyboard from a laptop and adding a digitizer---cf. Fujitsu's Stylistic (built w/ a dynamic thermal engineering model to keep the machine cool) w/ Motion Computing's M1200 (which comes w/ a warning prolonged exposure to unprotected flesh may be uncomfortable)
- while the idea of playing games like Everquest and Diablo is interesting they don't work well 'cause using the pen for movement and pointing results in a disconnect between pen location and cursor location (hence, when I play Diablo on my Fujitsu pen slate I have to use a mouse)
While I'm a big afficionado of pen computing (I've wanted a pen slate since reading Pournelle / Niven's _The Mote in God's Eye_ as a kid), contemporary systems have the following problems / issues:
- there's no one perfect machine which combines a 12.1" display, cool (temperature-wise) case, long (8+ hours) battery life and Wacom digitizer and light weight. A number get one or two such features, (actually I think the weight on all of them is fine), but nothing has all of them:(
- TabletPC requires Windows XP and it's erratic which apps work w/ handwriting recognition
- no cross-platform standard for ink
I've posted links here in the past on interesting pen computing URLs / projects, Berkeley in particular has some pretty cool stuff (look up SATIN / SILK at GUIR)
William
Re:Things that I like after 40 years of reading Sc
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One other book which I failed to add, Herman Hesse's _The Glass Bead Game_---interestingly there's an effort to actually implement the game described in the books.
No mention of Neverwinter Nights on AOL, nor of the current version, nor of Diablo---seems to skip straight from MUDs to Everquest.
I guess the real question here is whether there should be some established standards on the obligations of the company / entity which maintains the virtual world as opposed to the situation now where it's all handled by contract law (and possibly computer cracking / security laws)---since AOL wiped my Elven Champion-Wizard-12th level Master Thief (Dreamsmyth, an ``Elflord'' and founder and one-time Guildmaster of ``The Grey Company'' the private Elven guild, as well as his Girdle of Storm Giant Strength, Elfin Chainmail +3, +3 Frostbrand and a Cloak of Elvenkind and pair of +3 rings of protection) w/o even notifying me when they pulled the plug on Neverwinter Nights, and seriously damaged the viability of demi-human characters in the move from v1 to v2, I'd be inclined to agree.
Another failing in the paper is no mention of the matter of viable virtual property running afoul of gambling statutes---there was a really interesting story on this concept in _Dragon Magazine_ a couple of years ago, ``Catacomb'' I think it was called. Basically, if one pays money to get stuff in the game, can then leverage that to get more stuff which can be sold for real money (think cashing out your chips at a casino) that meets the prevailing legal definition of gambling which is at the least, highly regulated.
William
Re:Some Non-Sci-Fi Picks for the real Thinker
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Agreed! Pressfield's _Gates of Fire_ is an excellent, compelling read.
As a counterpoint, Eiji Yoshikawa's fictionalized account of the life of Miyamoto Musashi is also quite good, and an interesting insight into the Japanese mindset. Also read _The Book of Five Rings_ and Sun Tzu's _The Art of War_ as well as Machiavelli's _The Prince_ if you've not.
Another juvenile fantasy series which hasn't been mentioned here yet AFAICT is Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy which is a wonderful re-working of the Arthurian mythos. Hmm, kind of interesting that no one mentioned anything Arthurian AFAICT---so if you've not read it, be sure to try John Steinbeck's (sadly incomplete) re-telling of Malory's _The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights_.
President Bush has a pilot's license and flew F-102 Delta Darts in the Air National Guard---have you ever flown a plane from Texas to Washington DC? (Bush did that once for a date w/ Pres. Nixon's daughter Pat;) He's bi-lingual (Spanish) and has an MBA from Yale. I don't see the occasional stutter or mis-wording as that big a deal---character is a lot more important, and he's far more a man of his word than Al Gore. What's ironic is his shift in attitude (influenced by his advisors I believe) on foreign policy---before election, ``humble'', after ``resolute and determined''.
As regards India's president---I really think they need a reformer who's willing to dismantle their caste system rather than a technocrat. Gandhi once said ``an eye for an eye results in a nation of the blind''---I suppose I'd have a similar opinion of human morality / nature if I lived in a nation which tolerates systematic human degradation as India does.
William
Re:Varley (anthologies), Saberhagen (berserker), B
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_Jhereg_ was Brust's first published novel AFAIK, and shows that badly---I suspect _Yendi_ was written before it and it shows---his writing gets better in the later books, becoming quite introspective, and even changing point of view in _Athyra_ and _Orca_.
William
Re:Things that I like after 40 years of reading Sc
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Interesting list. Quite agree about Frank Herbert's _Dune_ and Roger Zelazny's _Nine Princes of Amber_ (and the series which they spawned), but not so sure on the rest---_Gateway_ didn't do much for me (though it was a good read), and other books by Ursula K. LeGuin are better (esp. _The Lathe of Heaven_).
I haven't been reading for quite forty years... but... some books / series to add (in no particular order) which I haven't seen added elsewhere in this list:
- _Wild Cards_ - comic books w/ almost realistic physics
- _The Stainless Steel Rat_ by Harry Harrison - classic science fiction, and available in Esperanto!
- Barry Hughart's ``Master Li Novels'' - _Bridge of Birds_, _The Story of the Stone_ and _Eight Skilled Gentleman_ --- read these in private if you're embarrassed by laughing out loud. Fantasies of a China which never was but should have been.
- Roger Zelazny's _Damnation Alley_ and its sequel _Hardwired_ by Walter Jon Williams (who says ``thanks'' to RZ for ``letting me play in his alley'' in the foreword).
- Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle, esp. the Jeremiah Cornelius books. This is where the concept of ``multiverse'' reaches its full breadth and depth.
- Stephen Brust's ``Taltos'' books, _Jhereg_, _Yendi_, &c. (Spoiler: Interesting application of Clarke's law). There's a prequel series written in the style of Alexandre Dumas which are a lot of fun (everyone did read Dumas as a child, right? If not, go and read _The Count of Monte Cristo_ and all the other books first)
- John Varley's Gaea trilogy - _Titan_, _Wizard_ and _Demon_
- _The Princess Bride_ S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure --- the good parts version by William Goldman. Get the older edition (Ballantine Books 1973 if possible 'cause the newer editions have a bunch of typos:(
- L.E. Modesitt, Jr. _The Forever Hero_, _Dawn for a Distant Earth_, &c. - fun to read as a pastiche of other books which doesn't require that much thought
- Steve Perry's Matador books are a lot of fun and an interesting view of human potential (though he cops out and punts on the immortality issue when he did the Stellar Ranger books:(
- Jack Chalker, esp. his Well of Souls books
- C. J. Cherryh, - her Merchanter novels are classics, _Rimrunner_ is particularly good (though one pretty much needs to read _Downbelow Station_ first for the background. Her Morgaine books are also fantasy classics.
- Fred Saberhagen - his Dracula books are way cool (haven't read his novelization of the movie though---get _The Dracula Tape_ instead), as well as _The Frankenstein Papers_. and for the sci-fi tie in, ``Berserker''
- Jack Vance's _Dying Earth_ is a classic, and his Lyonesse trilogy should be
- Manly Wade Wellman wrote a lot of good stuff, but there're few things as wholly American and mystical, and moving as his stories about Silver John---the short story collection _John the Balladeer_ is a good beginning.
- Robert Heinlein 'nuff said
- Lord Dunsany - _The Charwoman's Shadow_ is haunting, and interesting to contrast with _The Return of the King_. I'm fortunate to have a Modern Library edition of _The Book of Wonder_ from ~1908 or so which is a frequent companion when camping.
- R. A. MacAvoy's books are quite good, and here _Tea with the Black Dragon_ even works in a couple of people who work w/ computers---way cool, though a bit dated.
Lastly, Terri Windling at Ace Books created ``The Fairy Tale Series'' which are re-tellings of classic fairy tales by contemporary authors, all of which are quite good, especially the haunting _Briar Rose_ by Jane Yolen which I think everyone should read.
William (whose resume's objective line reads, ``To make beautiful books'';)
short story collections (was Re:Vinge of course)
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Absolutely essential Vinge, and a short story mentioned in ``The Jargon File'' is his ``True Names'' which is a prototypical story of cyberspace. It's available in the short story collection _True Names and Other Dangers_ and is the gem of the lot.
Another story like to that (which was amazingly prophetic) was the short story ``Catacomb'' which was published in _Dragon Magazine_ a long while back.
Another excellent short story collection is Hal Clement's _Space Lash_ (originally published as _Small Changes_). ``The Mechanic'' is a fascinating story (though badly described on the back cover text) of genegeneering by ``mechanics'' whose knowledge encompasses that of several PhDs of the previous generation.
Try the spiffy (free!) utility All Chars for Windows which is modeled on DEC's ``Compose'' key for their proprietary word processors---DEC later made a free utility called ``Compose.exe'' which did this for Windows ?? up to 95 beta something or other, then MS broke it so even though it's on the first Windows 95 Secrets CD-ROM, it doesn't work w/ Win95.
All Chars is available at: http://allchars.zwolnet.com/userman122.html Highly recommended, even though it lacks some of the features of Compose.exe (apparently doing things like popping up a scrollable windows of all the chars for the current font (handly for dingbat or ligature or alternate fonts) is difficult in Win95 and later).
William (who'd like to see a similar utility for Mac OS X, or better still something like this which works well with Pen Services for Windows 2.0)
Actually, in-line text links were tried by DejaNews when it was trying to save itself (before Google bought them), and were not well-received (perhaps mostly because it was other's texts to which they were added). I think they're intrusive though and interfere w/ just using (selecting, copying...) the text.
Slashdot Mirror
I use mine for working in TeX---the integration allows one to do things like http://www.tug.org/tug2003/donate (with a little help from Omega on the G4 here at work)
TeXView.app's ``TeX eq - - eps'' Service is way cool.
Display PostScript programming, and the ability to program custom strokes and fills and have them render on-screen in real time in Altsys Virtuoso (direct antecedent to Macromedia FreeHand v4) is as yet unmatched in Mac (incl OS X) or Windows.
The above helps w/ light illustration work too, esp. since I've got my Wacom ArtZ tablet connected to my Cube.
It's also very nice for general writing, what w/ WriteNow (as another thread noted, it's written in assembly, so quite fast---WriteNow was originally developed for the Mac as a hedge against MacWrite not making it, then when Steve Jobs needed a Word Processor for NeXTstep he bought the company (kind of embarrassing NeXT owning a Mac app) and later it was sold off to T/Maker I think it was).
Webster.app and the Oxford's Book of Quotations and Digital Librarian / Shakespeare are also quite nice when wordsmithing---the big thing is the consistency and synergy and customizability of the UI---tear-off menus allow you to pick and choose what functions are most prominent.
As regards the non-functioning right mouse button, just check the button for ``Enable right mouse button menu'' for an instant pop-up main menu when it's clicked---w/ a bit of practice, some functions can become essentially gestural (punch in Altsys Virtuoso is like that for me)
William
Fascinating, especially the last line of the article where the Prof. notes that he runs this OS on his computer at home (and doesn't do Windows).
It'd be interesting to d/l this and compare it to QNX.
Unfortunately, the ftp.tron.org site wants a username and password (and anonymous / myemailname@domain.com doesn't work)
William
Been done before, but it's just not survived.
o v
Look up the spreadsheets Javelin, Lotus Improv and Lighthouse Design's Quantrix. There's an on-going attempt to revive Improv / Quantrix for Mac OS X (they were originally NeXTstep programs), see http://www.materialarts.com/FlexiSheet/
The wikipedia has a good page on Lotus Improv:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Impr
William
(who once tried to inform the ignorance of an author of an encyclopedia article who was blissfully ignorant of 3D spreadsheets)
But by choosing Gnumeric you're letting other people choose for you 'cause Gnumeric is ``merely'' a clone of Excel done 'cause it's the most popular spreadsheet.
;)
I'd give my interest in hell for more people in open source development to be more concerned w/ UI and to attempt to create better more interesting and innovative software---at the least, rather than clone the most popular thing (Excel / Windows), try the best (Improv or Quantrix / NeXTstep---for those who haven't checked in, www.gnustep.org has made some big advances of late
William
Yep, I managed to get in a very nice Keytronic at my first job after leaving the Air Force, and at a computer shop I worked at for a while, always had ``dibs'' on the wonderful IBM PS/2 and other old / good keyboards. Here at work now got in a MacAlly which is pretty decent (though I've not found a USB keyboard I'm really pleased w/).... and at home, still use my classic old NeXT non-ADB keyboard ;)
William
Uh, in Mac OS X when you grab the disk icon of a removable media drive the trash bin changes into a universal ``eject'' symbol....
William
Sorry, ``buttons'' was a poor choice of words. Probably should've said ``controls / widgets''.
As an example of what I mean, I've pried the faceplate off of my PowerMac G4 (Yikes! 400MHz to be exact) and that reveals:
CD-ROM
- headphone jack
- volume control
- eject button (I really hated the clunky drop-down door)
- access light
Zip drive
- eject button
- access light
All but the eject button on the CD-ROM were hidden---and I've found the Zip drive's eject button invaluable for ejecting bad Zip disks infected with the ``click of death''
William
I'm leaning towards a similar conclusion (``My next boxen will be PowerMac G5'') for when it's finally time to retire my NeXT Cube.
The new case design addresses most of my complaints about the old G3/4 design (funky round handles and irregular surfaces make stacking / arranging things around those problematic, noisy (but grant it is quieter than my NeXT Cube) drive panel access---I guess the SuperDrive has no buttons on the face plate beyond eject?)
and Panther finally brings most of the missing features from NeXTstep (Faxing, PostScript support, speed) and Mac OS 9 (Labels, apparently working QuickDraw/GX like font support).
I'd give my interest in Hell though for a way to change the monolithic, immovable main menu to a movable vertical menu a la NeXTstep (w/ top-level Print and Services!), esp. w/ tear-off sub-menus, and really wish that there was a language option which would give one concise NeXT-style menu shortcut descriptions....
William
I know what you mean---my 25MHz '040 NeXT Cube is still my main machine for doing TeX and PostScript work.
The really painful thing is the comments from Mac developers when they first tried out OpenStep 4.2 on decent white boxes in preparation for what was then called Rhapsody...
``windows vanish (instantly) (after clicking the close box)''
``feels rock solid''
``man I hope the real thing performs this snappily''
There was recently a post to comp.sys.next.advocacy from a guy who got OpenStep running on a something.something GHz box w/ 1GB or DDR or somesuch RAM.... may have to think 'bout setting up something like that myself, thoough I'd really miss the cool old-style NeXT keyboard....
William
i
I think you need to look a bit harder---there've been some very interesting games along those lines---for the comedic angle there's _The Incredible Machine_ series.
c e1/widget/merge.shtml
For didactic there was the short-lived _Widget Workshop_ by Maxis, http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/scien
which is way cool.
William
D/l'd a copy of UCB Logo(1) and started working through _The Great Logo Adventure_(2) w/ her---she got a big kick out of making the computer do what she wanted, esp. once I showed her the abbreviations (FD == forward &c.). Minor glitch was TGLA was writte n w/ MSW Logo in mind, so TRI was undefined....
) http://www.squeak.orgc e1/widget/merge.shtml
Other things I've been meaning to try with her include:
Boxer(3), which oddly is only readily available for the Mac. It's positioned as an alternative to Logo and feels a lot like Squeak(4).
Apple had a s ystem called ``Cocoa'' (this was before the NeXT purchase) which was lauded for kids' programming, but not finding much about it now.
One commercial program which I'm saddened has vanished is Widget Workshop by Maxis(5) and wasn't carried farther.
That last really points out that a more visual tool might be better for kids. Although there's been some interesting research on this(6), none of the available tools(7) are really suitable for kids excepting Drape(8).
William
(1) http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/logo.html
(2) http://www.softronix.com/download/tgla.zip
(3) http://www.soe.berkeley.edu/~boxer/index.html
(4
(5) http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/scien
(6) http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~maratb/cs2 63/paper/paper.html
(7) http://www.nwoods.com/sanscript/index.htm
(8) http://www.cs.uu.nl/~markov/kids/drape.html
Ë
LinuxPPC live was also placed on the CD bundled w/ that year's MacWorld Expo issue.
:(
William
(who's still trying to get MkLinux or something like to it installed on his wife's PowerMac 8100 (again! Had it installed before, but things haven't been working since adding a non-Apple HD and CD-ROM
Right, as I noted, I do use a mouse when playing Diablo on my pen slate.
My point was that game UI would need to be adapted somewhat for a lot of games, esp. those which involve scrolling.
William
Apparently you missed that Wacom is the OEM for most of the tablet digitizing systems?
:(
Take a look at:
http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/index.cfm
There's link to a download which enables pressure sensitivity for graphics apps (Download enhanced driver for Tablet PC).
Other comments in no particular order:
- there are convertible machines with keyboards (Toshiba's Portege)
- building a Tablet PC is a lot more complex than just removing the keyboard from a laptop and adding a digitizer---cf. Fujitsu's Stylistic (built w/ a dynamic thermal engineering model to keep the machine cool) w/ Motion Computing's M1200 (which comes w/ a warning prolonged exposure to unprotected flesh may be uncomfortable)
- while the idea of playing games like Everquest and Diablo is interesting they don't work well 'cause using the pen for movement and pointing results in a disconnect between pen location and cursor location (hence, when I play Diablo on my Fujitsu pen slate I have to use a mouse)
While I'm a big afficionado of pen computing (I've wanted a pen slate since reading Pournelle / Niven's _The Mote in God's Eye_ as a kid), contemporary systems have the following problems / issues:
- there's no one perfect machine which combines a 12.1" display, cool (temperature-wise) case, long (8+ hours) battery life and Wacom digitizer and light weight. A number get one or two such features, (actually I think the weight on all of them is fine), but nothing has all of them
- TabletPC requires Windows XP and it's erratic which apps work w/ handwriting recognition
- no cross-platform standard for ink
I've posted links here in the past on interesting pen computing URLs / projects, Berkeley in particular has some pretty cool stuff (look up SATIN / SILK at GUIR)
William
One other book which I failed to add, Herman Hesse's _The Glass Bead Game_---interestingly there's an effort to actually implement the game described in the books.
William
No mention of Neverwinter Nights on AOL, nor of the current version, nor of Diablo---seems to skip straight from MUDs to Everquest.
I guess the real question here is whether there should be some established standards on the obligations of the company / entity which maintains the virtual world as opposed to the situation now where it's all handled by contract law (and possibly computer cracking / security laws)---since AOL wiped my Elven Champion-Wizard-12th level Master Thief (Dreamsmyth, an ``Elflord'' and founder and one-time Guildmaster of ``The Grey Company'' the private Elven guild, as well as his Girdle of Storm Giant Strength, Elfin Chainmail +3, +3 Frostbrand and a Cloak of Elvenkind and pair of +3 rings of protection) w/o even notifying me when they pulled the plug on Neverwinter Nights, and seriously damaged the viability of demi-human characters in the move from v1 to v2, I'd be inclined to agree.
Another failing in the paper is no mention of the matter of viable virtual property running afoul of gambling statutes---there was a really interesting story on this concept in _Dragon Magazine_ a couple of years ago, ``Catacomb'' I think it was called. Basically, if one pays money to get stuff in the game, can then leverage that to get more stuff which can be sold for real money (think cashing out your chips at a casino) that meets the prevailing legal definition of gambling which is at the least, highly regulated.
William
Agreed! Pressfield's _Gates of Fire_ is an excellent, compelling read.
As a counterpoint, Eiji Yoshikawa's fictionalized account of the life of Miyamoto Musashi is also quite good, and an interesting insight into the Japanese mindset. Also read _The Book of Five Rings_ and Sun Tzu's _The Art of War_ as well as Machiavelli's _The Prince_ if you've not.
William
Excellent point about L'Engle's books.
Another juvenile fantasy series which hasn't been mentioned here yet AFAICT is Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy which is a wonderful re-working of the Arthurian mythos. Hmm, kind of interesting that no one mentioned anything Arthurian AFAICT---so if you've not read it, be sure to try John Steinbeck's (sadly incomplete) re-telling of Malory's _The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights_.
William
President Bush has a pilot's license and flew F-102 Delta Darts in the Air National Guard---have you ever flown a plane from Texas to Washington DC? (Bush did that once for a date w/ Pres. Nixon's daughter Pat ;) He's bi-lingual (Spanish) and has an MBA from Yale. I don't see the occasional stutter or mis-wording as that big a deal---character is a lot more important, and he's far more a man of his word than Al Gore. What's ironic is his shift in attitude (influenced by his advisors I believe) on foreign policy---before election, ``humble'', after ``resolute and determined''.
As regards India's president---I really think they need a reformer who's willing to dismantle their caste system rather than a technocrat. Gandhi once said ``an eye for an eye results in a nation of the blind''---I suppose I'd have a similar opinion of human morality / nature if I lived in a nation which tolerates systematic human degradation as India does.
William
_Jhereg_ was Brust's first published novel AFAIK, and shows that badly---I suspect _Yendi_ was written before it and it shows---his writing gets better in the later books, becoming quite introspective, and even changing point of view in _Athyra_ and _Orca_.
William
Interesting list. Quite agree about Frank Herbert's _Dune_ and Roger Zelazny's _Nine Princes of Amber_ (and the series which they spawned), but not so sure on the rest---_Gateway_ didn't do much for me (though it was a good read), and other books by Ursula K. LeGuin are better (esp. _The Lathe of Heaven_).
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I haven't been reading for quite forty years... but... some books / series to add (in no particular order) which I haven't seen added elsewhere in this list:
- _Wild Cards_ - comic books w/ almost realistic physics
- _The Stainless Steel Rat_ by Harry Harrison - classic science fiction, and available in Esperanto!
- Barry Hughart's ``Master Li Novels'' - _Bridge of Birds_, _The Story of the Stone_ and _Eight Skilled Gentleman_ --- read these in private if you're embarrassed by laughing out loud. Fantasies of a China which never was but should have been.
- Roger Zelazny's _Damnation Alley_ and its sequel _Hardwired_ by Walter Jon Williams (who says ``thanks'' to RZ for ``letting me play in his alley'' in the foreword).
- Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle, esp. the Jeremiah Cornelius books. This is where the concept of ``multiverse'' reaches its full breadth and depth.
- Stephen Brust's ``Taltos'' books, _Jhereg_, _Yendi_, &c. (Spoiler: Interesting application of Clarke's law). There's a prequel series written in the style of Alexandre Dumas which are a lot of fun (everyone did read Dumas as a child, right? If not, go and read _The Count of Monte Cristo_ and all the other books first)
- John Varley's Gaea trilogy - _Titan_, _Wizard_ and _Demon_
- _The Princess Bride_ S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure --- the good parts version by William Goldman. Get the older edition (Ballantine Books 1973 if possible 'cause the newer editions have a bunch of typos
- L.E. Modesitt, Jr. _The Forever Hero_, _Dawn for a Distant Earth_, &c. - fun to read as a pastiche of other books which doesn't require that much thought
- Steve Perry's Matador books are a lot of fun and an interesting view of human potential (though he cops out and punts on the immortality issue when he did the Stellar Ranger books
- Jack Chalker, esp. his Well of Souls books
- C. J. Cherryh, - her Merchanter novels are classics, _Rimrunner_ is particularly good (though one pretty much needs to read _Downbelow Station_ first for the background. Her Morgaine books are also fantasy classics.
- Fred Saberhagen - his Dracula books are way cool (haven't read his novelization of the movie though---get _The Dracula Tape_ instead), as well as _The Frankenstein Papers_. and for the sci-fi tie in, ``Berserker''
- Jack Vance's _Dying Earth_ is a classic, and his Lyonesse trilogy should be
- Manly Wade Wellman wrote a lot of good stuff, but there're few things as wholly American and mystical, and moving as his stories about Silver John---the short story collection _John the Balladeer_ is a good beginning.
- Robert Heinlein 'nuff said
- Lord Dunsany - _The Charwoman's Shadow_ is haunting, and interesting to contrast with _The Return of the King_. I'm fortunate to have a Modern Library edition of _The Book of Wonder_ from ~1908 or so which is a frequent companion when camping.
- R. A. MacAvoy's books are quite good, and here _Tea with the Black Dragon_ even works in a couple of people who work w/ computers---way cool, though a bit dated.
Lastly, Terri Windling at Ace Books created ``The Fairy Tale Series'' which are re-tellings of classic fairy tales by contemporary authors, all of which are quite good, especially the haunting _Briar Rose_ by Jane Yolen which I think everyone should read.
William
(whose resume's objective line reads, ``To make beautiful books''
Absolutely essential Vinge, and a short story mentioned in ``The Jargon File'' is his ``True Names'' which is a prototypical story of cyberspace. It's available in the short story collection _True Names and Other Dangers_ and is the gem of the lot.
Another story like to that (which was amazingly prophetic) was the short story ``Catacomb'' which was published in _Dragon Magazine_ a long while back.
Another excellent short story collection is Hal Clement's _Space Lash_ (originally published as _Small Changes_). ``The Mechanic'' is a fascinating story (though badly described on the back cover text) of genegeneering by ``mechanics'' whose knowledge encompasses that of several PhDs of the previous generation.
William
Try the spiffy (free!) utility All Chars for Windows which is modeled on DEC's ``Compose'' key for their proprietary word processors---DEC later made a free utility called ``Compose.exe'' which did this for Windows ?? up to 95 beta something or other, then MS broke it so even though it's on the first Windows 95 Secrets CD-ROM, it doesn't work w/ Win95.
All Chars is available at:
http://allchars.zwolnet.com/userman122.html
Highly recommended, even though it lacks some of the features of Compose.exe (apparently doing things like popping up a scrollable windows of all the chars for the current font (handly for dingbat or ligature or alternate fonts) is difficult in Win95 and later).
William
(who'd like to see a similar utility for Mac OS X, or better still something like this which works well with Pen Services for Windows 2.0)
The browsing / reading does seem to work better in IE5 than in Netscape 4.7---is that what you mean?
Dunno if I'd characterize that as ``crippleware'', but I'm hard put to think of a better term....
William
Actually, in-line text links were tried by DejaNews when it was trying to save itself (before Google bought them), and were not well-received (perhaps mostly because it was other's texts to which they were added). I think they're intrusive though and interfere w/ just using (selecting, copying...) the text.
William