For what it's worth, I'm a computer nerd and I could not care less how the mass media portrays me. Why should I? Why do you?
A couple reasons come to mind:
1) I am a small man with a weak ego that needs validation from others. You seem to be a strong individual that doesn't need outside validation - good for you!
2) The media often portrays Computer nerds as social misfits with narrow interests. At worst, they are criminal virus writers out to destroy your computer. Unfortunately, most people in this country aren't strong individuals like yourself, and are easily swayed by these images.
Now speaking from personal experience, I've had managers tell me "you stick with your computer stuff, let me handle the marketing stuff" [or whatever]. When I try to tell them that I worked in marketing for three years, they don't want to hear any of it! In their minds, all I know is computers, period.
My point is: if "computer nerds" had a rep as being more well-rounded people - like, say, Doctors or Lawyers - it would make my professional and personal life a bit easier. Again, maybe you are one of those people who likes to "take on" the world - good for you, I guess.
3) Maybe one day being a Computer Nerd will be a career with prestige equal to Doctors/Lawyers/what-have-you. In case you haven't heard, colleges are having a hard time getting students to even consider Computer Science degrees. Less students, less technical innovation, etc. etc. There are a lot of good articles on this problem out there.
On the otherhand, if our profession were to increase in prestige, we could see equal higher salaries, better job security, more easily formed social connections and increased life-satisfaction. If you don't see the inherit value in that, then I don't think there's really anything for us to talk about on the subject. (Maybe you live in someone's basement and don't have to deal with these issues?)
4) My wife's family is always bitching to her about how I'm not a doctor. No doubt a few other/.'ers have had the same problem. Us Computer Nerds - we get no respect, I tell yah! Well, if MrsVR's family won't listen to me, maybe CBS Sunday Morning can change their mind a little bit and they will ease up on me:)
5) Wouldn't the world be a better place if we had more people like Hawley blah blah blah etc someone else covered this in this thread, I ain't gonna beat a dead horse.
So the headline should have read "Former MIT Professor." Or maybe "World's Largest Book." For the record, it's 99% likely that CBS reported him as a "former MIT professor," but I mis-heard (and mis-transcribed) it. Oh well - I'm not sure how this affects the story.
Anyway, you comment that he's "no longer a professor of any sort." While it's true that he's no longer part of the faculty, this press release from December still refers to him as being "of the MIT Media lab" and his homepage is still on their server. So I think your clause "of any sort" is not entirely accurate.
Incidentally, the CBS This Morning piece noted that MIT denied him tenure, but I decided to leave it out of my submission because a) I thought it wasn't really relevant to the point of the story; and b) I didn't want to color the story as an "injustice sympathy" piece.
Another thing...being denied tenure doesn't necessarily indicate inferior merit.
My father runs a state-level professional organization for college professors, so I growing up I got to hear all sorts of wacky stories about professors being denied tenure. True Fact: many professors that do solid research are denied tenure. Reasearch is only a part of the criteria.
For starters, professors are expected to regularly (read: constantly) publish long, dry articles in acadmeic journals for peer review. "Publish or Perish." Given Hawley's diverse interests and apparent passion for working with undergraduate students (always a negative in academia), it wouldn't suprise me if he didn't get around to writing boring research articles as often as he should have.
Furthermore, bullshit politics often plays a BIG factor tenure decisions. As noted, Hawley was popular with his students and had a reputation for "relying on hype and PR" in his work (read: jealous colleagues). From the sound of it, he had the tenure odds stacked against him before he even made it to the hearing.
Of course, my impression from the interview was that it didn't seem like he cared too much about tenure anyway.
BTW - Hawley's PR and hype skills obviously suck - compare with Brian Greene. His research on String Theory has - by his own admission - no practical application and is impossible to conclusively prove. Meanwhile, he has two best-selling books and a PBS mini-series. Take note: that's how it's done.
One public service my NYC dot-com provided was parties. Of course, these shindigs were intended as exclusive events with closely guarded invitation lists...but as you might expect, after about an hour everything would go out the window.
Bar-hoppers would see the line outside our offices and assume they had stumbled upon a new night club or spontaneous rave, and would proceed to talk their way in. We gave everyone nametags as they entered - I rember this one time I saw a guy that had written "SINGLE" on his. Yeah, those were some wacky times.
Of course, the parties themselves sucked compared to what other (bigger) dot-coms were doing - no caviar, no jumbo-tron screen, no smoke machine, no go-go dancers...but they're still in business though, so I guess that was the right thing to do?
I used to work for a medium-sized job board. True Fact: something like 80% of job listings are actually fakes posted by headhunters "harvesting" resumes. These guys like to boast that they have "100,000" resumes or whatever - it's part of their cold-call pitch. So their goal was just to collect as many resumes as possible. Our dot-com was in the headhunter business too, so I got to see both sides of the equation.
Incidentally, that's why most of the listings have bizzare combinations of tech skills and languages ("Seeking Certified Oracle DBA with 6+ yrs Java, Perl, C++, UNIX, PHP,.NET...") "Cast a wide net." Makes you wonder about the validity of those "language popularity surveys" that are based on job board listings...
people are way too obsessed with developing uber characters and empire building to actually remember that they are supposed to be enjoying themselves.
Argh...that's what really turned me off to AD&D...I always ened up gaming with these dorks that would basically arrange for the DM to *give* them all sorts of magic items, gold, experience points...then they would sit in a huddle giggling about their "awesome" characters. It was really pathetic.
Contrast with Paranoia where "ambitious" players have their character killed off double quick and the very concept "leveling up" is non-existent. Meanwhile, powerful weapons usually blow up on the guy wielding them, having a lot of credits can be used as evidence of treasonous behavior, and players invariably try and push the deathtrap-like "magic items" (R&D experimental equipment) onto each other.
I think the GM manual put it something like this: "Be boring and you're dead." Also "Kill the bastards."
The Paranoia rule book (2nd Edition) actively encouraged the gamemaster to ignore the rules. It was one of the few RPGs I played (AD&D, Mechwarrior, various GURPS) that emphasized having fun above all else. I hope the new edition stays true to this spirit!
That - and I loved the wry satirical and self-referencing tone in which 2nd Edition was written. Sometimes I would sit and just read the rulebook for fun! Reading it as a teenager, I learned a lot about both pop-culture and serious political thought ("Imagine a world designed by Orwell, Sartre, Kafka, Stalin and the Marx Brothers...")
Basically, if The Onion did a sci-fi RPG, it would be Paranoia.
Can't wait to see the new edition!
and remember...THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND! ALL HAIL FRIEND COMPUTER!
I'm an Angel fan, but this was really no suprise. Some thoughts...
1) The writing for Angel recently hasn't been up to par with the Angel/Buffy tradition. The recent story line where they brought back that EVIL lawyer from the first season...meh. If they're not saving the world, then it ain't a Buffy/Angel story line.
For me, a recent low point arrived in the Cordelia return episode (two weeks ago). Angel tells her "It's not like I made a deal with the devil here" and then immediately turns to make lunch-date arragnements with a red-skinned, horned demon sporting a goatee. Give me a break.
2) All the actors in the Angel/Buffy series are talented and it would be great to see them move onto other projects. Actaully, yesterday I was thinking to myself that it would be cool to see James Marsters (Spike) have a role in some drama (not even a blockbuster - even a small, indie film). Now that they're not locked into the rough schedule of filming a TV show, it'll be possible.
Why isn't Nicholas Brendon (Xander) a star yet? Ditto for Amber Benson (Tara). It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!.
3) There are still dozens of hours of entertainment left for people who got to the series late:D I missed the first few years of Angel, so now I'll just watch it in syndication (did the same with Buffy on FX channel).
4) If everyone goes out and buys up all the Angel DVDs, maybe they'll resurrect the series (or a spin off) like they did with Family Guy?
Funny you should mention Cowboy Bebop...I suppose you could also add to that list Macross, Evangelion, Escaflowne, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Gundam W and many others that didn't make it to the US - Not to mention all the Ramna 1/2 and Inuyasha movies (3?) that exist.
I purposely left out anime, because Japanese marketing "rules" are a bit different than the US's. In Japan, it seems like almost every anime series gets a theatrical release - even if they just paste together footage from the TV episodes.
Furthermore, successful TV shows are quickly made into full-length movies, even though most TV shows are only 24 episodes long (note how there is no second season of Cowoboy Beebop). It's their standard formula. Compare with Simpsons, X-Files, Beavis etc. which only get movies after years of proven popularity.
Personally, I noticed a decline in the Pokemon fad after the movie broke. Maybe the cartoon is still going (with improved animation quality), but stateside the big thing with "the kids" now is Yu-Gi-Oh.
Firewalk with Me came after the regular TV series ended...so in a weird way it almost follows the pattern of Japanese TV/Movies.
Ever noticed that with the sole of the exception of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut - a television show usually peaks by jumping to the big screen. Decline and inevitable cancellation usually soon follow.
For example: X-Files, Beavis and Butthead Do America, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
And don't forget all the children's shows: Transformers the Movie, GI Joe the Movie, Masters of the Universe, Pokemon, Power Rangers, Ducktales(!), Rugrats... (Ok, not all these shows were cancelled but someone could definitely make the case for "decline").
I feel like I'm forgetting someting...help me out here people...
The guys (and they were mostly guys) in the article were describing using Visual Basic as the cutting edge of programming. One became recognized as elite because he worked out how to use multithreading. Like don't over-estimate the skills of these guys here.
I agree with your point that these guys are all losers etc. with amateur programming skillz - but keep in mind that it's a lot easier/funner to code - say - Outlook automation using Visual Basic than from, say C++.
Unlike other languages, VB was written specifically for Windows. So, if your goal is to mess with a Windows system, it's arguably your best choice.
Plus Microsoft provides all those great "Objects" that makes controlling somebody else's computer that much easier. Considering what you're doing (COM programming - blah) using C++ or whatever doesn't really give you that much of an advantage. Might as well just use VB
Also, VB let's you code "system hooks" that can do all sorts or tricky stuff via the Win32 API. So you can do key-logging, etc. too.
I suspect the answer is very technical and involves the Unicode standard.
Also, I remember reading that java was designed as a "language focused" language - meaning that Best Practices of programming language design was their first priority. There have undoubtedly been studies demonstrating that consistent text case improves code comprehension and increases efficiency (ok, I don't have a link to such a study, but after reading Code Complete, I have to believe it exists).
Finally, case-sensitivity makes for some really tricky (and annoying) questions on the Java Programmer Certification exam.
Is that this law was passed almost a month ago, and it's only coming to light now...
It makes you wonder what other similar laws have also been passed (or are about to come up to vote) that we won't find out about until after the fact...
It's nice to have an article discussing the theoretical reasons why outsourcing code is bad long-term - complete with quotes from Michael Porter (Competetive Strategy). However, what I really want to see are some case-studies demonstrating how outsourcing software development actually hurt a specific company (i.e. took them into a slump or resulted in lost marketshare).
Instead, the author can only present the statistics about HP and Oracle doubling their outsourcing legions. Not very encouraging...
In order for something to become grade-school fiction it needs to be well written, meaningful, and all around worthwhile to teach & study.
Well, written at a grade school level (i.e. children can read and understand it).
See also: Little House on the Prairie series, which I had to read at the same time as LW&W. Also, a little later A Seperate Peace which, just because it is widely read in US public schools, don't make it no literary classic. Meh.
Oh, I don't even know where to begin with what is wrong with that statment.
After I posted this I realized that "kick ass" is probably the wrong phrase. I should have had a disclaimer like "this in no way implies that it approaches the same level of Tolkien." On the other hand, while it lacks the prose and complexity of Tolkien, it is a lot more accessible (hence, potential as a movie).
And, it should be noted, the series was largely a marketing ploy for TSR.
On the other hand, it's probably one of the few (only?) D&D novels that non-D&D-nerds (i.e. regular fantasy/sci-fi readers like my wife) have read and enjoyed on a large scale.
Also, I didn't like The Godfather. I don't like movies that glorify (to whatever degree) criminals and evil behavior. Guess I'm just old fashioned. Plus I am young, so it keeps me from appreciating the ground-breaking nature of the film, whose devices and technique we now Take for Granted.
ALSO, I remember reading somewhere that literary critics universally panned LotR when it was first published (they wanted another The Hobbit).
If Hollywood (New Zealand-wood?) is going to jump on the Fantasy Bandwagon, at least let them make a movie from another kick-ass series like Dragonlance.
The Lion, Witch Wardrobe. Sheesh, what's next, A Wrinkle in Time? Let's hear it for grade-school fiction!
And please, no responses about how Dungeons and Dragons sucked (i.e. therefore Dragonlance will suck and/or won't be made). Some people thought that LotR was going to turn out like Willow - well, we know now how wrong they were.
Ugly and blatant, perhaps. But many minority representatives (both State and Federal) would not have been / would not be elected without redistricting.
Slashdot Mirror
For what it's worth, I'm a computer nerd and I could not care less how the mass media portrays me. Why should I? Why do you?
/.'ers have had the same problem. Us Computer Nerds - we get no respect, I tell yah! Well, if MrsVR's family won't listen to me, maybe CBS Sunday Morning can change their mind a little bit and they will ease up on me :)
A couple reasons come to mind:
1) I am a small man with a weak ego that needs validation from others. You seem to be a strong individual that doesn't need outside validation - good for you!
2) The media often portrays Computer nerds as social misfits with narrow interests. At worst, they are criminal virus writers out to destroy your computer. Unfortunately, most people in this country aren't strong individuals like yourself, and are easily swayed by these images.
Now speaking from personal experience, I've had managers tell me "you stick with your computer stuff, let me handle the marketing stuff" [or whatever]. When I try to tell them that I worked in marketing for three years, they don't want to hear any of it! In their minds, all I know is computers, period.
My point is: if "computer nerds" had a rep as being more well-rounded people - like, say, Doctors or Lawyers - it would make my professional and personal life a bit easier. Again, maybe you are one of those people who likes to "take on" the world - good for you, I guess.
3) Maybe one day being a Computer Nerd will be a career with prestige equal to Doctors/Lawyers/what-have-you. In case you haven't heard, colleges are having a hard time getting students to even consider Computer Science degrees. Less students, less technical innovation, etc. etc. There are a lot of good articles on this problem out there.
On the otherhand, if our profession were to increase in prestige, we could see equal higher salaries, better job security, more easily formed social connections and increased life-satisfaction. If you don't see the inherit value in that, then I don't think there's really anything for us to talk about on the subject. (Maybe you live in someone's basement and don't have to deal with these issues?)
4) My wife's family is always bitching to her about how I'm not a doctor. No doubt a few other
5) Wouldn't the world be a better place if we had more people like Hawley blah blah blah etc someone else covered this in this thread, I ain't gonna beat a dead horse.
Anyway, ask a question, get an answer
So the headline should have read "Former MIT Professor." Or maybe "World's Largest Book." For the record, it's 99% likely that CBS reported him as a "former MIT professor," but I mis-heard (and mis-transcribed) it. Oh well - I'm not sure how this affects the story.
Anyway, you comment that he's "no longer a professor of any sort." While it's true that he's no longer part of the faculty, this press release from December still refers to him as being "of the MIT Media lab" and his homepage is still on their server. So I think your clause "of any sort" is not entirely accurate.
Incidentally, the CBS This Morning piece noted that MIT denied him tenure, but I decided to leave it out of my submission because a) I thought it wasn't really relevant to the point of the story; and b) I didn't want to color the story as an "injustice sympathy" piece.
Another thing...being denied tenure doesn't necessarily indicate inferior merit.
My father runs a state-level professional organization for college professors, so I growing up I got to hear all sorts of wacky stories about professors being denied tenure. True Fact: many professors that do solid research are denied tenure. Reasearch is only a part of the criteria.
For starters, professors are expected to regularly (read: constantly) publish long, dry articles in acadmeic journals for peer review. "Publish or Perish." Given Hawley's diverse interests and apparent passion for working with undergraduate students (always a negative in academia), it wouldn't suprise me if he didn't get around to writing boring research articles as often as he should have.
Furthermore, bullshit politics often plays a BIG factor tenure decisions. As noted, Hawley was popular with his students and had a reputation for "relying on hype and PR" in his work (read: jealous colleagues). From the sound of it, he had the tenure odds stacked against him before he even made it to the hearing.
Of course, my impression from the interview was that it didn't seem like he cared too much about tenure anyway.
BTW - Hawley's PR and hype skills obviously suck - compare with Brian Greene. His research on String Theory has - by his own admission - no practical application and is impossible to conclusively prove. Meanwhile, he has two best-selling books and a PBS mini-series. Take note: that's how it's done.
One public service my NYC dot-com provided was parties. Of course, these shindigs were intended as exclusive events with closely guarded invitation lists...but as you might expect, after about an hour everything would go out the window.
Bar-hoppers would see the line outside our offices and assume they had stumbled upon a new night club or spontaneous rave, and would proceed to talk their way in. We gave everyone nametags as they entered - I rember this one time I saw a guy that had written "SINGLE" on his. Yeah, those were some wacky times.
Of course, the parties themselves sucked compared to what other (bigger) dot-coms were doing - no caviar, no jumbo-tron screen, no smoke machine, no go-go dancers...but they're still in business though, so I guess that was the right thing to do?
I used to work for a medium-sized job board. True Fact: something like 80% of job listings are actually fakes posted by headhunters "harvesting" resumes. These guys like to boast that they have "100,000" resumes or whatever - it's part of their cold-call pitch. So their goal was just to collect as many resumes as possible. Our dot-com was in the headhunter business too, so I got to see both sides of the equation.
.NET...") "Cast a wide net." Makes you wonder about the validity of those "language popularity surveys" that are based on job board listings...
Incidentally, that's why most of the listings have bizzare combinations of tech skills and languages ("Seeking Certified Oracle DBA with 6+ yrs Java, Perl, C++, UNIX, PHP,
I stopped playing after 2nd Edition :P
people are way too obsessed with developing uber characters and empire building to actually remember that they are supposed to be enjoying themselves.
Argh...that's what really turned me off to AD&D...I always ened up gaming with these dorks that would basically arrange for the DM to *give* them all sorts of magic items, gold, experience points...then they would sit in a huddle giggling about their "awesome" characters. It was really pathetic.
Contrast with Paranoia where "ambitious" players have their character killed off double quick and the very concept "leveling up" is non-existent. Meanwhile, powerful weapons usually blow up on the guy wielding them, having a lot of credits can be used as evidence of treasonous behavior, and players invariably try and push the deathtrap-like "magic items" (R&D experimental equipment) onto each other.
I think the GM manual put it something like this: "Be boring and you're dead." Also "Kill the bastards."
Cyrano-V-ARG
Ummmmmmm...but everyone did it...ummmm...yeah...ummmmmm
[Fails fasttalk roll]
zapzapzapzapzapzapzapzap!!!
The Paranoia rule book (2nd Edition) actively encouraged the gamemaster to ignore the rules. It was one of the few RPGs I played (AD&D, Mechwarrior, various GURPS) that emphasized having fun above all else. I hope the new edition stays true to this spirit!
That - and I loved the wry satirical and self-referencing tone in which 2nd Edition was written. Sometimes I would sit and just read the rulebook for fun! Reading it as a teenager, I learned a lot about both pop-culture and serious political thought ("Imagine a world designed by Orwell, Sartre, Kafka, Stalin and the Marx Brothers...")
Basically, if The Onion did a sci-fi RPG, it would be Paranoia.
Can't wait to see the new edition!
and remember...THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND! ALL HAIL FRIEND COMPUTER!
How do the breasts of all those super-heroines manage to defy gravity so well?
I'm an Angel fan, but this was really no suprise. Some thoughts...
1) The writing for Angel recently hasn't been up to par with the Angel/Buffy tradition. The recent story line where they brought back that EVIL lawyer from the first season...meh. If they're not saving the world, then it ain't a Buffy/Angel story line.
For me, a recent low point arrived in the Cordelia return episode (two weeks ago). Angel tells her "It's not like I made a deal with the devil here" and then immediately turns to make lunch-date arragnements with a red-skinned, horned demon sporting a goatee. Give me a break.
2) All the actors in the Angel/Buffy series are talented and it would be great to see them move onto other projects. Actaully, yesterday I was thinking to myself that it would be cool to see James Marsters (Spike) have a role in some drama (not even a blockbuster - even a small, indie film). Now that they're not locked into the rough schedule of filming a TV show, it'll be possible.
Why isn't Nicholas Brendon (Xander) a star yet? Ditto for Amber Benson (Tara). It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!.
3) There are still dozens of hours of entertainment left for people who got to the series late:D I missed the first few years of Angel, so now I'll just watch it in syndication (did the same with Buffy on FX channel).
4) If everyone goes out and buys up all the Angel DVDs, maybe they'll resurrect the series (or a spin off) like they did with Family Guy?
5) Charisma Charpenter is going to be in Playboy later this year. Coming soon: Cordelia the Animated Series on SpikeTV. 'Nuff said.
Martian Email Scam ("my recently deposed president Marvin...")
Movie hax0rz routing their connection "through Mars" to avoid detection
RIAA supoenas Spirit rover
Don't worry, they got fucked in the M2 ;)
Funny you should mention Cowboy Bebop...I suppose you could also add to that list Macross, Evangelion, Escaflowne, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Gundam W and many others that didn't make it to the US - Not to mention all the Ramna 1/2 and Inuyasha movies (3?) that exist.
I purposely left out anime, because Japanese marketing "rules" are a bit different than the US's. In Japan, it seems like almost every anime series gets a theatrical release - even if they just paste together footage from the TV episodes.
Furthermore, successful TV shows are quickly made into full-length movies, even though most TV shows are only 24 episodes long (note how there is no second season of Cowoboy Beebop). It's their standard formula. Compare with Simpsons, X-Files, Beavis etc. which only get movies after years of proven popularity.
Personally, I noticed a decline in the Pokemon fad after the movie broke. Maybe the cartoon is still going (with improved animation quality), but stateside the big thing with "the kids" now is Yu-Gi-Oh.
Firewalk with Me came after the regular TV series ended...so in a weird way it almost follows the pattern of Japanese TV/Movies.
Ever noticed that with the sole of the exception of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut - a television show usually peaks by jumping to the big screen. Decline and inevitable cancellation usually soon follow.
For example: X-Files, Beavis and Butthead Do America, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
And don't forget all the children's shows:
Transformers the Movie, GI Joe the Movie, Masters of the Universe, Pokemon, Power Rangers, Ducktales(!), Rugrats...
(Ok, not all these shows were cancelled but someone could definitely make the case for "decline").
I feel like I'm forgetting someting...help me out here people...
Also, I Googled up this interesting article:
The Challenges of the Big Screen Cartoon
The guys (and they were mostly guys) in the article were describing using Visual Basic as the cutting edge of programming. One became recognized as elite because he worked out how to use multithreading. Like don't over-estimate the skills of these guys here.
I agree with your point that these guys are all losers etc. with amateur programming skillz - but keep in mind that it's a lot easier/funner to code - say - Outlook automation using Visual Basic than from, say C++.
Unlike other languages, VB was written specifically for Windows. So, if your goal is to mess with a Windows system, it's arguably your best choice.
Plus Microsoft provides all those great "Objects" that makes controlling somebody else's computer that much easier. Considering what you're doing (COM programming - blah) using C++ or whatever doesn't really give you that much of an advantage. Might as well just use VB
Also, VB let's you code "system hooks" that can do all sorts or tricky stuff via the Win32 API. So you can do key-logging, etc. too.
For those of you about to retire, we three-finger salute you!
I suspect the answer is very technical and involves the Unicode standard.
Also, I remember reading that java was designed as a "language focused" language - meaning that Best Practices of programming language design was their first priority. There have undoubtedly been studies demonstrating that consistent text case improves code comprehension and increases efficiency (ok, I don't have a link to such a study, but after reading Code Complete, I have to believe it exists).
Finally, case-sensitivity makes for some really tricky (and annoying) questions on the Java Programmer Certification exam.
I am interested in discovering if anything similar to this occured in recent history - where the Democrats were the perpetrators.
Aside from the NewsMax.com nonsense posted (and de-bunked) elsewhere on this thread, anyway.
Is that this law was passed almost a month ago, and it's only coming to light now...
It makes you wonder what other similar laws have also been passed (or are about to come up to vote) that we won't find out about until after the fact...
Men who drank 6 cups of coffee a day lowered their risk by 50%, while womens risk dropped 30%.
6 cups a day?! If the test-subjects die from a heart-attack before diabetes can get them, does that really mean their risk has been lowered?
It's nice to have an article discussing the theoretical reasons why outsourcing code is bad long-term - complete with quotes from Michael Porter (Competetive Strategy). However, what I really want to see are some case-studies demonstrating how outsourcing software development actually hurt a specific company (i.e. took them into a slump or resulted in lost marketshare).
Instead, the author can only present the statistics about HP and Oracle doubling their outsourcing legions. Not very encouraging...
In order for something to become grade-school fiction it needs to be well written, meaningful, and all around worthwhile to teach & study.
Well, written at a grade school level (i.e. children can read and understand it).
See also: Little House on the Prairie series, which I had to read at the same time as LW&W. Also, a little later A Seperate Peace which, just because it is widely read in US public schools, don't make it no literary classic. Meh.
Oh, I don't even know where to begin with what is wrong with that statment.
After I posted this I realized that "kick ass" is probably the wrong phrase. I should have had a disclaimer like "this in no way implies that it approaches the same level of Tolkien." On the other hand, while it lacks the prose and complexity of Tolkien, it is a lot more accessible (hence, potential as a movie).
And, it should be noted, the series was largely a marketing ploy for TSR.
On the other hand, it's probably one of the few (only?) D&D novels that non-D&D-nerds (i.e. regular fantasy/sci-fi readers like my wife) have read and enjoyed on a large scale.
Also, I didn't like The Godfather. I don't like movies that glorify (to whatever degree) criminals and evil behavior. Guess I'm just old fashioned. Plus I am young, so it keeps me from appreciating the ground-breaking nature of the film, whose devices and technique we now Take for Granted.
ALSO, I remember reading somewhere that literary critics universally panned LotR when it was first published (they wanted another The Hobbit).
If Hollywood (New Zealand-wood?) is going to jump on the Fantasy Bandwagon, at least let them make a movie from another kick-ass series like Dragonlance.
The Lion, Witch Wardrobe. Sheesh, what's next, A Wrinkle in Time? Let's hear it for grade-school fiction!
And please, no responses about how Dungeons and Dragons sucked (i.e. therefore Dragonlance will suck and/or won't be made). Some people thought that LotR was going to turn out like Willow - well, we know now how wrong they were.
Ugly and blatant, perhaps. But many minority representatives (both State and Federal) would not have been / would not be elected without redistricting.
All sorts of interesting articles and view points available via Google.
Here is an interesting page with a lot of resources on the subject.