It won't crash very often (twice a year perhaps, unless you have some recurring problem)
You're not supposed to turn it off - that's what sleep is for; either you send it to sleep, or it goes to sleep automatically when not in use. Then it wakes up after a few seconds when you press space.
So they're really trying to discourage people from turning their machine off every day and then waiting for it to reboot when they want to use it.
The rules are a little different for U.S. Citizens
And why does that make it acceptable? The fact remains that people can be locked up indefinitely without trial in your country, on suspicion of terrorism (ie, for anything), and held for the rest of their life in cages without charge.
Your government just appointed a man who condones torture to a high position - I think you can expect short thrift for 'Free Speech' for anyone who disagrees with them in the future, whether they're from the chosen people or not.
The 'Free Speech Zone' in New York was just a taste of how they see protest.
and i didn't take anyone else's copy of any movies, i made my own
Oh, and that copy took so much effort, and now you feel you have the moral high ground? Whilst the comparison with salt can be stretched too far, someone claiming that copying a file is some form of civil disobedience shouldn't claim so unless they're willing to stand up for what they believe and go to jail for those beliefs.
Being an anonymous thief on P2P networks is not heroic. If there was a *real* world-wide clampdown on this kind of thing 90% of the users would drop it and stop copying, because it would actually involve the credible possibility of punishment.
If you don't like Hollywood, make your own films (not copies) or watch independent films. If you do like Hollywood films and choose to steal them, please don't try to convince people it's something other than opportunism. You're stealing because it's convenient, free, and there's little chance of being caught. When ISP networks are locked down and searched for this material and the distributors routinely punished, will you still be copying?
I mean think about it. Are you seriously suggesting that this well organized, informative, educational Flash application is "Worse" than all the flashing, beeping Flash ads you run across on the Intraweb?
This site is a perfect example of all that could go wrong with the web if Flash or some other rich toolkit with no style guidelines and a graphically oriented toolkit took over. It would be just as bad in SVG/HTML by the way:).
From the first screen which asks you about your computer (can't it just adapt to the size *you* choose to make the window?) this site recapitulates the worst of web history.
Click next, click next, click next. I feel like I'm installing windows.
Text split up into little chunks so you can't glance ahead or see how big the article is.
Hidden navigation arrows in the bottom left/right that's supposed to fade in but doesn't always when you mouse over it. At least the back and forward buttons work.
Huge amounts of space on either side that could have been used. I seriously doubt the margins are there for aesthetic reasons; they look like the designer was too lazy to make his page adapt wtih the size of the window.
In fact it looks like they took a magazine article and stuffed it into a slideshow.
No indication how far through you are in the 'presentation' (for that's what it resembles most, a power-point or an old fashioned slideshow). The navigation at the bottom (which took me a little while to work out) only shows 3 pages, despite all the space on either side. Would be much better to show all pages.
One URL for the whole mini-site/article.
Think for yourself, for a change. It's not as hard as the hive would have you believe.:) Although it's easier to argue against a straw-man of your own invention, it's not very convincing. I doubt many of the people who dislike Flash on the web do so because they read that they should on Slashdot. Slashdot is itself an example of design by accretion, badly implemented (100s of errors) IMHO. I don't see what this has to do with Pop-Culture anyway. Is this Pop-Culture or just an example of bad design?
Perhaps they save so often because they're worried it'll crash, because the document format is a screwed up binary dump of the program state. : )
There are other ways to speed up saving (break the document up into multiple text files etc) which don't have the horrible consequences of saving freeze-dried OLE objects. Backwards compatability and interoperability become a nightmare, but then perhaps that's by design in Word?
Err, perhaps no-one would lend you money anymore, and the government would be broke? With a currency spiralling out of control, and no assets (which anyone else trusted) to secure more debt against. You can't keep printing money forever. The US would become a pariah state, more so than it is at the moment, particularly if it attempted to secure more oil by military means.
Your arrogance is surprising (Going to war with the US is a bad idea) considering the situation the US is in at the moment in Iraq. The US can't afford this war, let alone another.
A future where one company (Macromedia) controls the format everyone uses for websites? What's to stop them abusing that monopoly; the temptation would certainly be there.
You get a taste of what that experience would be like when you right click on a flash animation today (perhaps an advert, perhaps a graphic). Macromedia controls that menu, not the user, because it's *their* plugin. Incidentally, if I right click and choose 'Settings...' I get a dialog asking if I want to allow ultracomercial.com to 'access' my microphone and webcam. Although I have no intention of letting them, the fact someone thought this was a good idea at Macromedia scares me.
That's not a future I'd be happy in. While Flash is very flexible (via scripting etc) and the tools easy to use (or at least it was and they were when I looked at it a few years ago), I'd prefer a future where a format like SVG was common and supported. SVG is open, searchable, usually text (so easy to manipulate/copy/save by servers and end-users alike), and thus easy to output from common scripting languages. Once one person has written a library to do this, anyone can use that language to output dynamic graphics on their server, using whatever scripting language/platform they choose.
Shame they made the initial spec so huge that no-one wants to implement it all.
Considering Flash as a platform, we've been here before with ActiveX or XAML trying to take over the web, and we should be wary of the same sort of experience. Yes, I know ActiveX is not Flash but the aim of both companies is the same.
*If* English is your first language, and I read something written by you (in a public forum/email) with the same mix of innatention to detail and offensive personal attacks as the parent, I'd be less inclined to take anything you said seriously. I hope you introduced all the grammatical errors in your post deliberately, but I doubt it. You could at least have managed you're an asshole ; in a discussion of grammar your an asshole is more likely to produce sniggers than the intended effect. These are not 'typos' they are gaps in understanding.
I'd say that's a problem for you if you ever want to communicate with others and be taken seriously.
I think the VAT is quite similar in most of the big states:
17.5 in the UK 19.6 in France 16 in Germany
I don't think that really has a big effect on the price differences - France and Germany have the same price for example.
I'm sure most of the customers would have loved a europe-wide store too - I know I would like to be able to buy stuff from the UK & Germany in France and vice-versa, at the moment many of the other countries' artists are missing. Seems frustrating that the multi-national record companies can dictate where you can buy the work of their artists, but I suppose that will change with time.
England is not the UK. In fact the labour governement is still 'considering' the Euro, but given that Gordon Brown (not English), likely the next Prime Minister, is hostile to it a switch doesn't look likely in the short term. Eventually I imagine they'll have to switch over to the Euro - it's certainly quite handy for frequent travellers within the EU and for businesses.
The prices have never been equivalent to the exchange rates (not even close). The UK store has consistently been more expensive. This is probably because the record companies think they can get away with it (as they do with CDs), not because of exchange rate difficulties.
It's really a bit of a farce that they're forced to have different stores in different countries anyway. Apple would probably prefer to just have one store and let the user change their language/music preferences, but the music companies have too much to lose from allowing a global marketplace in their IP, so they're trying to hold out as long as possible.
As with regional DVD encoding it'll probably die a quiet death somewhere between 2010 and 2020.
oh please. Wake up and stop talking about 'The terrorists' (about whom you probably know as much as me, ie very little). Presumably you're talking about Al Qaeda? Replace terrorists with communists in your rhetoric and we could rewind 50 years.
There are many terrorist groups in the world, funded by many different individuals and governements. Some are (gasp) less evil than others. Some you might call a secret service and other people might call terrorists (Sept 11th, 1973 springs to mind). If our respective governments (I'm living in France right now) wanted to get rid of regimes like Saddam's they could have done so in the 80s, instead of supporting him throughought that decade (both the US and France and many others) while he slaughtered his own people in a pointless, dirty war with Iran. Rumsfeld was even there in the 80's shaking hands with his sworn enemy over trade deals. Nothing so bitter like a friendship betrayed eh.
All this because our politicians and civil servants thought they were playing the 'Great Game' with consumate skill. Instead they were arming a dictator who outlived his usefulness, and messed up all our ambitions for a tidy, oppressed and obedient middle east, by taking a step out of line and invading Kuwait. Same mess in Iran; same interference. If you want to see where Iraq will be in 20 years, look to Iran.
I wonder when the dictatorship in Pakistan will no longer be flavour of the month, and will stop receiving massive amounts of funds? The US is not with the rest of the western world on Iraq, in fact most of the western world has lost patience with America and its people after the election results last month.
So stop talking about the 'free world' or the 'civilised world' when you mean yourself and the USA.
US Debt as a percentage of GDP was falling when the US first went to the moon. So the USA really isn't in the same situation as it was then. Add to that a very weak dollar which might encourage less lending, and things aren't looking that great. Debt isn't just bad in the short term, it's expensive to maintain and difficult to get rid of.
The US is doing this at a time when other countries like the UK are cutting back their debt as much as possible to limit interest payments. Here's a similar graph for the UK
Now I'm no economist, and this obviously isn't the only economic indicator which is important, but it looks kind of scary given the expensive war that the neo-cons have taken on all alone, and the others they still appear to be planning (Iran springs to mind). Perhaps this is the dawn of a new era of faith-based budgets.
Thanks; never used Java or Struts so that'd be why I wondered what all the fuss was about.
Re:Ruby seems on the right track.
on
RAD with Ruby
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Just out of interest, which web developement systems use thousands of XML configuration files? There must be some awful uses of XML config files out there, because a lot of developers complain about it.
I don't know much about it, but seems like they could have a use in some circumstances, and allowing users to edit those rather than strings in the code might be a Good Thing. This depends of course on them having a decent end-user XML editor, clear and succinct XML, and tools for processing XML for the programmer.
We transfer technology paid for by the US government (research, infrastructure) and US consumers (far higher prices, our taxes that pay for research and infrastructure) over to foreign countries
The world does not owe the west, and in particular the USA, a living.
Yes completely free trade is a Bad Thing, but your proposed alternative of attempting to keep all production/design in the United States is just not going to wash given the new econimic power of many Asian nations. Why should they accept an unequal partnership like that?
Isn't it possible to encourage better working conditions everywhere rather than just in your own backyard? (By using the WTO and protectionist measures where necessary).
As for your moanings about Fox News, NBC, CBS, and ABC all lean left
Actually a news source can attempt to allow different opinions framed in a non-confrontational way, not in opposition but by choosing a measured position on each topic, and occassionally allowing quotes from one side or the other to show how they diverge. Le monde and BBC news do this well for example. Far better than any newspaper or news channel in the UK or the USA that I've seen.
This doesn't mean 'Fair and Balanced' à la Fox which leads the viewer to think that both views (however extreme) chosen by the programme to frame the issue may have merit. To put ideas in a gladatorial fight to the death like that doesn't help understanding, it just encourages the viewer to pick a side (ie : I'm from the left. I'm from the right). Jon Stewart's interevention on that 'Crossfire' program in the US recently was interesting in that regard.
It's an old fashioned idea, but people and the media should STOP thinking in terms of left and right, and attempt to evaluate ideas for social security or whatever else on the basis of merit, not on the basis of whether it's advanced by 'the most liberal senator... blah blah' or 'that crazy Bush'. That might require more thought than most are willing to devote to their politics though. Most of the myths in politics about the other side are downright wrong - eg Democrats in the US 'Tax and Spend' and Republicans are fiscally responsible, Privitisation is always bad (from the UK) etc etc.
PS As I'm sure you're aware, what you call 'left' in the USA is generally what the rest of the world would call center. The way you talk about 'leftist leanings' makes it sound like the word communism in the 50s.
Hmmm.... where do I start? Tolkien and Lewis are mediocre, which is why they are read and loved by more readers in the world who have read all of the modernists combined.
Popularity is not related to quality. We probably (as you point out) have a different definition of quality anyway.
You were talking about CS Lewis then and not Lewis Carroll? (If it was Lewis Carroll I would have agreed with you).
A century from now, who will sit through "To the Lighthouse"? Who will sit through "Finnegans Wake", let alone "Ulysses"?
Well, Joyce, as a deliberately obscure and difficult writer, is a bit of a trap in this instance (which is why you chose him;). He is not representative of the majority of writers who are part of the accepted canon, in that he is difficult to read and enjoy without loads of prior knowledge. Personally I haven't read Ulysses, only Dubliners. He is often cited as an influence, though how much of that is bluff and how much is real admiration is hard to discern.
However to take 'To the Lighthouse' as an example, I wouldn't say it requires a lot of cultural codes to get it, on the contrary, it's interesting precisely because it's like an archeological dig through the social/sexual relations of the time (and, ok, because it's well written).
The Silmarillion I quite liked that (though I found it hard), but I suspect the vast readerships that you're using as a yardstick of quality dwindle to a hardcore of interested fans in this case - does this make it a bad book?
And as for the insult that I would rank Rowling highly
Not intended as an insult; I was talking about the reasons for her current high profile. I don't believe that profile is based on the quality of the books compared to other fiction (and specifically childrens') out there.
Slashdot Mirror
So they're really trying to discourage people from turning their machine off every day and then waiting for it to reboot when they want to use it.
I imagine the OS will come with it, just like every other mac product.
Since it ships with the iLife software, hopefully they'll give you something to run that on : )
No screen on the iPod shuffle.
The rules are a little different for U.S. Citizens
And why does that make it acceptable? The fact remains that people can be locked up indefinitely without trial in your country, on suspicion of terrorism (ie, for anything), and held for the rest of their life in cages without charge.
Your government just appointed a man who condones torture to a high position - I think you can expect short thrift for 'Free Speech' for anyone who disagrees with them in the future, whether they're from the chosen people or not.
The 'Free Speech Zone' in New York was just a taste of how they see protest.
Go back to playing counterstrike.
and i didn't take anyone else's copy of any movies, i made my own
Oh, and that copy took so much effort, and now you feel you have the moral high ground? Whilst the comparison with salt can be stretched too far, someone claiming that copying a file is some form of civil disobedience shouldn't claim so unless they're willing to stand up for what they believe and go to jail for those beliefs.
Being an anonymous thief on P2P networks is not heroic. If there was a *real* world-wide clampdown on this kind of thing 90% of the users would drop it and stop copying, because it would actually involve the credible possibility of punishment.
If you don't like Hollywood, make your own films (not copies) or watch independent films. If you do like Hollywood films and choose to steal them, please don't try to convince people it's something other than opportunism. You're stealing because it's convenient, free, and there's little chance of being caught. When ISP networks are locked down and searched for this material and the distributors routinely punished, will you still be copying?
I mean think about it. Are you seriously suggesting that this well organized, informative, educational Flash application is "Worse" than all the flashing, beeping Flash ads you run across on the Intraweb?
:).
:) Although it's easier to argue against a straw-man of your own invention, it's not very convincing. I doubt many of the people who dislike Flash on the web do so because they read that they should on Slashdot. Slashdot is itself an example of design by accretion, badly implemented (100s of errors) IMHO. I don't see what this has to do with Pop-Culture anyway. Is this Pop-Culture or just an example of bad design?
This site is a perfect example of all that could go wrong with the web if Flash or some other rich toolkit with no style guidelines and a graphically oriented toolkit took over. It would be just as bad in SVG/HTML by the way
From the first screen which asks you about your computer (can't it just adapt to the size *you* choose to make the window?) this site recapitulates the worst of web history.
Click next, click next, click next. I feel like I'm installing windows.
Text split up into little chunks so you can't glance ahead or see how big the article is.
Hidden navigation arrows in the bottom left/right that's supposed to fade in but doesn't always when you mouse over it. At least the back and forward buttons work.
Huge amounts of space on either side that could have been used. I seriously doubt the margins are there for aesthetic reasons; they look like the designer was too lazy to make his page adapt wtih the size of the window.
In fact it looks like they took a magazine article and stuffed it into a slideshow.
No indication how far through you are in the 'presentation' (for that's what it resembles most, a power-point or an old fashioned slideshow). The navigation at the bottom (which took me a little while to work out) only shows 3 pages, despite all the space on either side. Would be much better to show all pages.
One URL for the whole mini-site/article.
Think for yourself, for a change. It's not as hard as the hive would have you believe.
Perhaps they save so often because they're worried it'll crash, because the document format is a screwed up binary dump of the program state. : )
There are other ways to speed up saving (break the document up into multiple text files etc) which don't have the horrible consequences of saving freeze-dried OLE objects. Backwards compatability and interoperability become a nightmare, but then perhaps that's by design in Word?
His point is if you're using a tablet, you wouldn't have that option.
What do you think?
Err, perhaps no-one would lend you money anymore, and the government would be broke? With a currency spiralling out of control, and no assets (which anyone else trusted) to secure more debt against.
You can't keep printing money forever. The US would become a pariah state, more so than it is at the moment, particularly if it attempted to secure more oil by military means.
Your arrogance is surprising (Going to war with the US is a bad idea) considering the situation the US is in at the moment in Iraq. The US can't afford this war, let alone another.
Flash is the future, my friend
A future where one company (Macromedia) controls the format everyone uses for websites? What's to stop them abusing that monopoly; the temptation would certainly be there.
You get a taste of what that experience would be like when you right click on a flash animation today (perhaps an advert, perhaps a graphic). Macromedia controls that menu, not the user, because it's *their* plugin. Incidentally, if I right click and choose 'Settings...' I get a dialog asking if I want to allow ultracomercial.com to 'access' my microphone and webcam. Although I have no intention of letting them, the fact someone thought this was a good idea at Macromedia scares me.
That's not a future I'd be happy in. While Flash is very flexible (via scripting etc) and the tools easy to use (or at least it was and they were when I looked at it a few years ago), I'd prefer a future where a format like SVG was common and supported. SVG is open, searchable, usually text (so easy to manipulate/copy/save by servers and end-users alike), and thus easy to output from common scripting languages. Once one person has written a library to do this, anyone can use that language to output dynamic graphics on their server, using whatever scripting language/platform they choose.
Shame they made the initial spec so huge that no-one wants to implement it all.
Considering Flash as a platform, we've been here before with ActiveX or XAML trying to take over the web, and we should be wary of the same sort of experience. Yes, I know ActiveX is not Flash but the aim of both companies is the same.
very easily "process" (ie. delete with extreme prejudice) encrypted emails from unknown senders.
But doesn't that kind of go against the whole point of a public keyserver (people not on your keyring can look up your key)????
hee hee : ) That was a typo, honest
inattention
*If* English is your first language, and I read something written by you (in a public forum/email) with the same mix of innatention to detail and offensive personal attacks as the parent, I'd be less inclined to take anything you said seriously.
I hope you introduced all the grammatical errors in your post deliberately, but I doubt it. You could at least have managed you're an asshole ; in a discussion of grammar your an asshole is more likely to produce sniggers than the intended effect. These are not 'typos' they are gaps in understanding.
I'd say that's a problem for you if you ever want to communicate with others and be taken seriously.
I think the VAT is quite similar in most of the big states :
17.5 in the UK
19.6 in France
16 in Germany
I don't think that really has a big effect on the price differences - France and Germany have the same price for example.
I'm sure most of the customers would have loved a europe-wide store too - I know I would like to be able to buy stuff from the UK & Germany in France and vice-versa, at the moment many of the other countries' artists are missing. Seems frustrating that the multi-national record companies can dictate where you can buy the work of their artists, but I suppose that will change with time.
England is not the UK. In fact the labour governement is still 'considering' the Euro, but given that Gordon Brown (not English), likely the next Prime Minister, is hostile to it a switch doesn't look likely in the short term. Eventually I imagine they'll have to switch over to the Euro - it's certainly quite handy for frequent travellers within the EU and for businesses.
The prices have never been equivalent to the exchange rates (not even close). The UK store has consistently been more expensive. This is probably because the record companies think they can get away with it (as they do with CDs), not because of exchange rate difficulties.
It's really a bit of a farce that they're forced to have different stores in different countries anyway. Apple would probably prefer to just have one store and let the user change their language/music preferences, but the music companies have too much to lose from allowing a global marketplace in their IP, so they're trying to hold out as long as possible.
As with regional DVD encoding it'll probably die a quiet death somewhere between 2010 and 2020.
oh please. Wake up and stop talking about 'The terrorists' (about whom you probably know as much as me, ie very little). Presumably you're talking about Al Qaeda? Replace terrorists with communists in your rhetoric and we could rewind 50 years.
There are many terrorist groups in the world, funded by many different individuals and governements. Some are (gasp) less evil than others. Some you might call a secret service and other people might call terrorists (Sept 11th, 1973 springs to mind). If our respective governments (I'm living in France right now) wanted to get rid of regimes like Saddam's they could have done so in the 80s, instead of supporting him throughought that decade (both the US and France and many others) while he slaughtered his own people in a pointless, dirty war with Iran. Rumsfeld was even there in the 80's shaking hands with his sworn enemy over trade deals. Nothing so bitter like a friendship betrayed eh.
All this because our politicians and civil servants thought they were playing the 'Great Game' with consumate skill. Instead they were arming a dictator who outlived his usefulness, and messed up all our ambitions for a tidy, oppressed and obedient middle east, by taking a step out of line and invading Kuwait. Same mess in Iran; same interference. If you want to see where Iraq will be in 20 years, look to Iran.
I wonder when the dictatorship in Pakistan will no longer be flavour of the month, and will stop receiving massive amounts of funds? The US is not with the rest of the western world on Iraq, in fact most of the western world has lost patience with America and its people after the election results last month.
So stop talking about the 'free world' or the 'civilised world' when you mean yourself and the USA.
Take a look at this graph (taken from figures on the White House website)
US Debt
US Debt as a percentage of GDP was falling when the US first went to the moon. So the USA really isn't in the same situation as it was then. Add to that a very weak dollar which might encourage less lending, and things aren't looking that great. Debt isn't just bad in the short term, it's expensive to maintain and difficult to get rid of.
The US is doing this at a time when other countries like the UK are cutting back their debt as much as possible to limit interest payments. Here's a similar graph for the UK
UK Debt
Now I'm no economist, and this obviously isn't the only economic indicator which is important, but it looks kind of scary given the expensive war that the neo-cons have taken on all alone, and the others they still appear to be planning (Iran springs to mind). Perhaps this is the dawn of a new era of faith-based budgets.
Thanks; never used Java or Struts so that'd be why I wondered what all the fuss was about.
Just out of interest, which web developement systems use thousands of XML configuration files?
There must be some awful uses of XML config files out there, because a lot of developers complain about it.
I don't know much about it, but seems like they could have a use in some circumstances, and allowing users to edit those rather than strings in the code might be a Good Thing. This depends of course on them having a decent end-user XML editor, clear and succinct XML, and tools for processing XML for the programmer.
Adolphus B. Huxley
I think you're supposed to think of Aldous Huxley
Probably just another hoax, particularly given the icon the story has.
We transfer technology paid for by the US government (research, infrastructure) and US consumers (far higher prices, our taxes that pay for research and infrastructure) over to foreign countries
The world does not owe the west, and in particular the USA, a living.
Yes completely free trade is a Bad Thing, but your proposed alternative of attempting to keep all production/design in the United States is just not going to wash given the new econimic power of many Asian nations. Why should they accept an unequal partnership like that?
Isn't it possible to encourage better working conditions everywhere rather than just in your own backyard? (By using the WTO and protectionist measures where necessary).
You'd have a sidebar with article contributers - with links to diff detail of what they'd changed.
nick (23 words changed)
nick (1 word added)
As for your moanings about Fox News, NBC, CBS, and ABC all lean left
Actually a news source can attempt to allow different opinions framed in a non-confrontational way, not in opposition but by choosing a measured position on each topic, and occassionally allowing quotes from one side or the other to show how they diverge. Le monde and BBC news do this well for example. Far better than any newspaper or news channel in the UK or the USA that I've seen.
This doesn't mean 'Fair and Balanced' à la Fox which leads the viewer to think that both views (however extreme) chosen by the programme to frame the issue may have merit. To put ideas in a gladatorial fight to the death like that doesn't help understanding, it just encourages the viewer to pick a side (ie : I'm from the left. I'm from the right). Jon Stewart's interevention on that 'Crossfire' program in the US recently was interesting in that regard.
It's an old fashioned idea, but people and the media should STOP thinking in terms of left and right, and attempt to evaluate ideas for social security or whatever else on the basis of merit, not on the basis of whether it's advanced by 'the most liberal senator... blah blah' or 'that crazy Bush'. That might require more thought than most are willing to devote to their politics though. Most of the myths in politics about the other side are downright wrong - eg Democrats in the US 'Tax and Spend' and Republicans are fiscally responsible, Privitisation is always bad (from the UK) etc etc.
PS
As I'm sure you're aware, what you call 'left' in the USA is generally what the rest of the world would call center. The way you talk about 'leftist leanings' makes it sound like the word communism in the 50s.
Dear god, I hope you're a script.
On a related note - what happens when Slashdot is taken over by scripts? Will they talk amongst themselves? Will they dream of other scripts?
Hei,
;). He is not representative of the majority of writers who are part of the accepted canon, in that he is difficult to read and enjoy without loads of prior knowledge. Personally I haven't read Ulysses, only Dubliners. He is often cited as an influence, though how much of that is bluff and how much is real admiration is hard to discern.
Hmmm.... where do I start? Tolkien and Lewis are mediocre, which is why they are read and loved by more readers in the world who have read all of the modernists combined.
Popularity is not related to quality. We probably (as you point out) have a different definition of quality anyway.
You were talking about CS Lewis then and not Lewis Carroll? (If it was Lewis Carroll I would have agreed with you).
A century from now, who will sit through "To the Lighthouse"? Who will sit through "Finnegans Wake", let alone "Ulysses"?
Well, Joyce, as a deliberately obscure and difficult writer, is a bit of a trap in this instance (which is why you chose him
However to take 'To the Lighthouse' as an example, I wouldn't say it requires a lot of cultural codes to get it, on the contrary, it's interesting precisely because it's like an archeological dig through the social/sexual relations of the time (and, ok, because it's well written).
The Silmarillion
I quite liked that (though I found it hard), but I suspect the vast readerships that you're using as a yardstick of quality dwindle to a hardcore of interested fans in this case - does this make it a bad book?
And as for the insult that I would rank Rowling highly
Not intended as an insult; I was talking about the reasons for her current high profile. I don't believe that profile is based on the quality of the books compared to other fiction (and specifically childrens') out there.
Hei hei (Have to love a language like that).