1: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from
another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by
adroit questioning -- called also Socratic irony
2 a: the use of words to express something other than and
especially the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usually
humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c:
an
ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of
events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked
by such incongruity b: incongruity between a situation developed
in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the
audience but not by the characters in the play -- called also dramatic irony,
tragic irony
So, technically, the part where the plane is crashing, and the man says
Well, isn't this nice is irony. However, as far as I can tell, that is
the only ironic statement in the entire song.
I've been debating the definition of irony for the last couple of weeks.
It's one of the most incorrectly used English words, and one of the ones that
annoys me the most.
It is not the same thing as bad luck, happenstance or coincidence.
Whoa, hold on! The Realm Online came out several months before Meridian 59. It actually existed as a stable open beta for almost a year before that!
It featured, at the time, better graphics, more people playing and a great deal more innovations. Many latter MMORPG concepts were based off the ideas it pioneered.
Development began in 1995 and shortly thereafter Sierra bought the rights to it and began supporting it. It was developed at the same time as the legendary INN. It moved through several companies over the years, including AOL, Codemasters and now it is owned by a player run company, Norseman Games.
It is one of the longest running MMORPG out there, if not the longest. It still has a fairly large and
extremely dedicated fan base.
Since it is under new management, a lot of things are changing. You can expect to see a LOT more about Realm in the coming months.
Check out www.realmserver.com for information and screenshots. The company is even offering a free month
trial of the game.
You know, there don't seem to be any middle ground on the Materia issue. People either loved it or hated it.
Personally, I thought it was one of the best innovations in the FF series. (Yes, I've played 3-10, Kingdom hearts, Tactics, and FF Mystic quest. As soon as I find time, I'm going to go snag the new FF origins for PS1.)
I loved how the materia balls gained AP and the spells you could cast changed depending on the balls level. I loved linking them together to do special things. (Linking Final Action to Phoenix down lets you automatically ressurect once if you die in battle.)
I have to admit that it takes FOREVER to level them up all the way. I also accidently sold one once, just before I finished leveling it. There wasn't another in the entire game and to get it back, I had to start over. That sucked.
But again, it was one of my favorite magic systems for FF games.
Actually, the information I have indicates that Heinlein's choice of title is a quote from the Gettysburg Address: "It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced." (interview with James Gifford)
And I think that very few people out there can claim to have read ALL of Heinlein's works. There are several published under pen names that were never reprinted by Heinlein. ("Bear Island", 1971 a short story published under the name Alistair MacLean springs to mind, as well as several others.)
I've also never been able to track down a copy of 'My Object All Sublime', (1941), published under the name Lyle Monroe. I'd kill to find a copy of that one, since it is one of two Heinlein works I haven't been able to track down in 10 years of searching. The other being the "Project Moonbase" movie script. (1951).
I have every other written word from Heinlein in my collection. He's always been one of my favorite authors.
As a side note, in case anyone was interested, the Realm Online was sold last week to Norseman Games, a company made up of Realm players. They have since hired several programers and a new artist.
Plans call for massivly upgrading the game and starting to advertise it. Something that hasn't been done in almost 5 years. Expect free trial accounts to come out in the next month or two. Check in if you want to experience some good old classic MMORPG.
LMAO! That is the most hilarious article I have read in year! I'm sitting here at work, trying to control my laughter, unsuccessfully. All my coworkers are looking at me like I'm crazy.
Of course, most of them already assume that I am crazy.
Finally someone mentions The Realm Online! I've been playing for about 8 years now. (The first full version was launched in about '97, but the Alpha and Beta stages had been running since about '95.)
I keep telling people about it, but most tell me I'm an idiot for calling it one of the first MMORPG games out there. It came out before Ultima Online, Everquest and Meridian 59, and I still think it's better than all of them combined. (and yes, I've tried most of the MMORPG's out there.)
You know, strangely enough, I have used a Dual Shock PS2 controller as my main gaming controller for years. I use a Yobo USB connector/adaptor that I picked up at a local gaming store about 3 years ago. (I can't seem to find a link online, but I'll go see if I can find one here.)
Anyway, it works fantasticly. It has native plug and play support on versions of Win 98 and up, and is supported by every game I've found that uses a gamepad. I'd much rather use the Playstation controler than any other pad I've ever found on the market. In my opinion, it's the best designed controller on the market. (Though it could use a couple more buttons for some of the newer games.)
Actually, before reading this article, I hadn't
even thought about applying this type of technology to myself. Thanks for
the eye opener MrIcee. But it is
true. As we get older, this type of technology is going to become all to
personal. I should really have considered it before, since I'm near
sighted with over 13 points of loss so far. (If my glasses weren't this
new carbon stuff, my glasses would be a little short of a 1/2 inch thick on the
edges.)
Anyway, the first thing that came to
mind was a vision of Sneakers, a movie from 1992, that included David
Strathairn as Whistler, who was visually impaired. He read Playboy in
Braille, and had a great box that let him read what was on the computer screen.
It's not quite the same but I found something that can do the same thing.
http://www.deafblind.com/display.html Unfortunately, these refreshable
Braille displays are EXTREMELY expensive. I've been finding prices of
about $5,000 to $12,000. They are also prone to breaking down.
By the way, does anyone know how hard
it is to learn Braille? I've never tried. Is it something I should
do now, while younger, or is it easy enough that I shouldn't worry until I go
blind?
And last, but not least, since I am a
bibliophile, I had to find some Braille e-books for download.
http://library.utah.gov/web-braille.html But you have to be blind to
sign up for the service.
Umm. I hate to throw myself into this feeding frenzy, but the Wachowski brothers never made the point that the machines were evil.
In fact, from several lines in the original Matrix, it is apparent that the machines were simply defending themselves. Humans released the bombs that clouded the skies, hoping to kill the robots.
The Agents tell (Morpheous, I think) that the first matrix they created was a paradise, but that humans rejected it. Without pain and suffering, humans couldn't exist. The Machines were trying to keep humans as happy as they could.
And humans were never expendable. The machines needed the energy produced by humans to exist.
I think it's more a case of "When does self defense and the right to exist clash with the right of others to do the same?" In otherwords, Neither humans nor AI is truly evil. They are both just trying to preserve their own lives.
Calmiche
Quick correction.. TWAIN - Technology Without an Interesting Name
It's the driver that interfaces a scanner/ digital camera/ etc... with graphics programs.
I have to agree. I REALLY hate reading on my computer monitor. It gives me a cricked neck, horrible eye-strain and afterimages after just 45 minutes or so. Changing it to white text on black background helps a lot, but what you really need is a palm pilot!
I use an m505 and it's great. Any of the newer generations palms should be great. (Don't use the nasty old green screen ones.)
I can fit tons of books on it. (My 64 meg card holds about 160 books.) I use a program called Handstory, which allows me to change font sizes, bookmark lines, sort books into catagories, convert documents back and forth to my computer as well as acting as an online or offline webbrowser.
It's great, since it's nice and compact. I can carry it in my pocket. My girlfriend likes it since I can read in bed, using the backlight, without disturbing her. A fully charged battery will last 8 hours, and it only takes 20 minutes or so to recharge enough to read for a couple more hours.
It is a lot more comfortable, and my eyes don't hurt from using it like my computer screen does.
The only problems I have is that, 1 the up and down buttons are placed at the bottom, rather than on the sides. (Some of the new Sony Clie's have jog dials on the side.) and 2, I have a hard time working with technical books, since drawings and schematics don't do well on such a small screen.
Hmm.. I actually turned my PDA into a GameBoy. Does that count? Liberty works well, if you can get your processor above about 55 mhz. It works with some of the overclocking software, but kills battey life. (My palm m505 only lasts about 2 hours instead of 8.)
(Sorry, this got a little longer than it should have been. I will most likely think of some others later, but since it is 6:00 a.m. my time, my brain isn't functioning to well.)
Hmm.. Actually, I love the Discworld series, (Now on #26:Thief of Time plus about ten books not exactly in the main sequence, including The Last Hero, Nanny Ogg's Cookbook and Maurice and his Amazing Educated Rodents, which are short novels with a lot fo pictures.)
I think that the later books are actually getting better. Though there are a lot of in jokes that require you to read the preceding books.
However, that is the only series that I can think of that is any good beyond the first ten books, and the Honor Harrington series is the only one that I can think of that goes up to eight (nine with the new book to be released in October.)
In fact, I can't think of very many authors that have more than four or five in a series...
Robert Asprin's Myst series died at about book five for me, even though there are about eleven or twelve now.
All of Piers Anthony's series died at about book two. I lasted in the Xanth series, when I was about twelve years old, until about book seven. (There are about twenty plus now.)
The one that sprang first to mind were L. Ron Hubbard's decolagy (Ten Books) "Mission Earth." Though those also died about the sixth book in.
I guess you can count many of Robert A. Heinlein's books as a continuing series, his "Future History", but I'm not sure if it counts.
Orson Scott Card got away with about seven in several different series while keeping them quite interesting.
Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth novels have about twelve now, though not in strict series. (Though his last one, Reunion, sucked royaly.)
Raymond E. Feist has about eleven or twelve in his Midkemia series, and those are quite good.
There are seven in Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Deathgate sequence, and I loved all of those.
Anne McCaffrey has about twenty or so in her Pern series, and I liked almost all of those, although some were stinkers.
And of course, Rojer Zelany's Amber chronicles are huge. I think there are about twenty-two or so.
Okay, let's try this again, hopefully with a more informed aproach.
First, I am going to be VERY anxious to see the results of sales on these books. Eric Flint has been working for quite some time to try and dispel the ridiculous idea that distribution of e-books hurts sells. That is just plain ludicrous. The more advertising an author can get, the more he can sell. It dosen't matter that he looses a few sales.
In fact, to use one of Eric Flint's own arguments, it dosen't even count as a lost sale! To be counted as a lost sale, the person 1.) Has to have the money to buy the book. 2.) He has to want to buy the book and 3.) He has to choose not to buy the book in favor of getting a pirated copy.
Now, let's look at that. That rules out the kids and everyone who dosen't have the cash. That is not a lost sale, even if they pirate the book and read it.They wouldn't have bought it anyway!
In fact, by allowing pirated copies, the authors and publishing companies are gaining invaluable advertising at no cost to themselves. There is no printing or distribution fee, no payment to rent shelfspace in bookstores and no advertising costs.
Now, this kid with a pirated copy does 2 things. First, he passes the book on, especially if he liked it. In fact, this is how I heard about many of my favorite authors. Someone loaned me a book. (Almost the same thing as pirating, according to some very narrow minded authors and publishers.) Second, the kid grows up.
I found Robert A. Heinlein's books when I was 11 years old. At that time I did NOT have the cash to buy any of his books, so I bought used copies from used bookstores and checked them out of the library. (Again, some narrowminded publishers and authors see both used bookstores and library to be evil and a form of piracy. A way of loosing sales.) Since I was a child, I now own close to 90 copies of Robert A. Heinlein's stories. Many of them are doubles copies, or even triples. I've given away at least 50 and probably closer to 70 copies of different novels as birthday presents or just to friends. In fact, I bet that I have spent close to $1000 over the last 10 or 15 years, just on Heinlein novels. Does that count as lost sales?
Personally, I have at least 2,000 pulp novels in my house, which adverages out to about $15,000 I have spent on books so far. I usually spend about $100 a month or so on new books. I read at least a book a day, and sometimes two a day, and one of the things that makes me angry is to go out and spend $7 or $8 for a paperback, or $20+ for a hardback, and not like the book well enough to read it.
I also own close to 3,000 e-books. In fact, that is how I ran across John Ringo himself. I found him on the Baen Free Book Library. (A Hymn Before Battle.) I downloaded the book onto my palm, read it in one day, and then went out the next day and bought as many of his books as I could find in the local bookstore, including several in hardback. I spent more that $60 in one trip. Would I have found John Ringo without that free book? Maybe, but not very likely. There were several other books that I was considering buying.
Now, the other way around. I also downloaded David Drake's "With the Lightnings" from the Baen site, and really disliked it. I felt that it was badly written and not a very good book. Yet, I did not pay money for it, and so I do not feel cheated. It was the first book by David Drake that I had read, and if I had bought it, I probably never would have bought anything by him again, ever. Instead, I downloaded a different book, "Old Nathan", and loved it. I have since bought several of his books. Does it count as a lost sale if I don't buy "With the Lightnings"? What about the gained sales from the other books I bought later? Don't those count?
Okay, moving on.. No, I do not think that electronic books will ever take the place of pulp books, but I do think that they have a strong place in the library of any reader.
There are many good readers out there, including many PDA's. (you probably need one of the color ones though. The green or black and white ones don't have good enough definition.) I personally use a Palm m505, which cramps my fingers, but the battery lasts about 12 hours, or 7 hours with the backlight on.
One of the best of the e-book readers I have ever seen was the
Gemstar REB 1100. The battery lasts about 25 hours with the backlight on, it is about the same size as a paperback novel, (And about the same weight.) And it has a USB interface to connect to a computer. It's got an 8 meg internal memory (Holds about 16 books) and takes Smart Media cards. (Up to 128 meg or about 260 large e-books)
My final point is a simple one. I have about 140 files on my computer written by Robert A. Heinlein. Many of these works are out of print. How else would I be able to read them, if not for the wonder of e-books?
Oh, and David Weber is one of my favorite authors. I have almost every single one of his books, most of them in hardcover.
You know, you can always use MusicMatch Jukebox to look up tags on mp3's. It is especially easy if you have the album name or the artist... Or all the mp3's in the album. You enter whatever information you can, then select the Options > Music Library > Edit track Tags. highlight them and click the Lookup Tags button. It will look through the CCDB and try to use whatever information you have, the track length, etc.. and return as many options as possible as to what the song is. Of course, if you are looking up individual songs and don't have a clue as to the artist, album and song name.... you are pretty much screwed.
Sorry about that.. I have the reworked version of Orson Scott Card's book, released in 1988, named simply "Treason" rather than "A Planet Called Treason". It is reedited, corrected, and with about 40 pages of added text.
While I really liked the Ender books, as well as some of his other series, probably one of the best Orson Scott card books I have ever read was Treason. It was fantasticly dark and with some increadible plot twists. Including the main character turning from a man into a woman and then growing extra appendages, to exactly what happened to his brother, the second heir to the throne. Fantastic stuff.
Calmiche,
Well, I got about half way through these cooments before running out of time, but I'll throw another couple of things out there.
I haven't seen Alt - F4 mentioned. On almost any windows based program, it quickly closes just about any program.
As for Games, I really like nethack. It's small, fun, and really, really hard to beat.
Civilization 1 is one of the best old games. It fits on two meg, and can take up to 6 hours to play.
Calmiche,
Actually, although I don't play Everquest, I found this a fascinating study. I play several other online RPG's, and I'm starting to wonder how different games relate on the questions that were asked. For instance, the main game I play in "The Realm", by Codemasters. I know that a great deal of the people that play this game are older. There was a survey ran a year or so ago that put the adverage age at about 28.
Slashdot Mirror
1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from
another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by
adroit questioning -- called also Socratic irony
: the use of words to express something other than and
especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually
humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c :
an
ironic expression or utterance
: incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of
events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked
by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed
in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the
audience but not by the characters in the play -- called also dramatic irony,
tragic irony
2 a
3 a (1)
So, technically, the part where the plane is crashing, and the man says Well, isn't this nice is irony. However, as far as I can tell, that is the only ironic statement in the entire song.
I've been debating the definition of irony for the last couple of weeks. It's one of the most incorrectly used English words, and one of the ones that annoys me the most.
It is not the same thing as bad luck, happenstance or coincidence.
It featured, at the time, better graphics, more people playing and a great deal more innovations. Many latter MMORPG concepts were based off the ideas it pioneered.
Development began in 1995 and shortly thereafter Sierra bought the rights to it and began supporting it. It was developed at the same time as the legendary INN. It moved through several companies over the years, including AOL, Codemasters and now it is owned by a player run company, Norseman Games.
It is one of the longest running MMORPG out there, if not the longest. It still has a fairly large and extremely dedicated fan base.
Since it is under new management, a lot of things are changing. You can expect to see a LOT more about Realm in the coming months.
Check out www.realmserver.com for information and screenshots. The company is even offering a free month trial of the game.
Personally, I thought it was one of the best innovations in the FF series. (Yes, I've played 3-10, Kingdom hearts, Tactics, and FF Mystic quest. As soon as I find time, I'm going to go snag the new FF origins for PS1.)
I loved how the materia balls gained AP and the spells you could cast changed depending on the balls level. I loved linking them together to do special things. (Linking Final Action to Phoenix down lets you automatically ressurect once if you die in battle.)
I have to admit that it takes FOREVER to level them up all the way. I also accidently sold one once, just before I finished leveling it. There wasn't another in the entire game and to get it back, I had to start over. That sucked.
But again, it was one of my favorite magic systems for FF games.
Calmiche,
Actually, the information I have indicates that Heinlein's choice of title is a quote from the Gettysburg Address: "It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced." (interview with James Gifford) And I think that very few people out there can claim to have read ALL of Heinlein's works. There are several published under pen names that were never reprinted by Heinlein. ("Bear Island", 1971 a short story published under the name Alistair MacLean springs to mind, as well as several others.) I've also never been able to track down a copy of 'My Object All Sublime', (1941), published under the name Lyle Monroe. I'd kill to find a copy of that one, since it is one of two Heinlein works I haven't been able to track down in 10 years of searching. The other being the "Project Moonbase" movie script. (1951). I have every other written word from Heinlein in my collection. He's always been one of my favorite authors.
Plans call for massivly upgrading the game and starting to advertise it. Something that hasn't been done in almost 5 years. Expect free trial accounts to come out in the next month or two. Check in if you want to experience some good old classic MMORPG.
The Realm Online
Calmiche,
LMAO! That is the most hilarious article I have read in year! I'm sitting here at work, trying to control my laughter, unsuccessfully. All my coworkers are looking at me like I'm crazy.
Of course, most of them already assume that I am crazy.
But man! That's good comedy.
Calmiche,
Calmiche,
I keep telling people about it, but most tell me I'm an idiot for calling it one of the first MMORPG games out there. It came out before Ultima Online, Everquest and Meridian 59, and I still think it's better than all of them combined. (and yes, I've tried most of the MMORPG's out there.)
Anyway, it works fantasticly. It has native plug and play support on versions of Win 98 and up, and is supported by every game I've found that uses a gamepad. I'd much rather use the Playstation controler than any other pad I've ever found on the market. In my opinion, it's the best designed controller on the market. (Though it could use a couple more buttons for some of the newer games.)
Calmiche,
Actually, before reading this article, I hadn't even thought about applying this type of technology to myself. Thanks for the eye opener MrIcee. But it is true. As we get older, this type of technology is going to become all to personal. I should really have considered it before, since I'm near sighted with over 13 points of loss so far. (If my glasses weren't this new carbon stuff, my glasses would be a little short of a 1/2 inch thick on the edges.)
Anyway, the first thing that came to mind was a vision of Sneakers, a movie from 1992, that included David Strathairn as Whistler, who was visually impaired. He read Playboy in Braille, and had a great box that let him read what was on the computer screen. It's not quite the same but I found something that can do the same thing. http://www.deafblind.com/display.html Unfortunately, these refreshable Braille displays are EXTREMELY expensive. I've been finding prices of about $5,000 to $12,000. They are also prone to breaking down.
By the way, does anyone know how hard it is to learn Braille? I've never tried. Is it something I should do now, while younger, or is it easy enough that I shouldn't worry until I go blind?
I also found a couple of solutions.. There is a company that sells both large print keyboards, http://hooleon.com/prod-vis.htm and Braile keyboards http://hooleon.com/prod-braille.htm. (Or you can get them both.)
I also found a couple of software packages that seem to be pretty common for reading text out loud off computer screens.
IBM Home Page Reader http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.htmls .asp
pwWebSpeak http://www.soundlinks.com/pwgen.htm
Jaws http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_downloads/jaw
And last, but not least, since I am a bibliophile, I had to find some Braille e-books for download. http://library.utah.gov/web-braille.html But you have to be blind to sign up for the service.
In fact, from several lines in the original Matrix, it is apparent that the machines were simply defending themselves. Humans released the bombs that clouded the skies, hoping to kill the robots.
The Agents tell (Morpheous, I think) that the first matrix they created was a paradise, but that humans rejected it. Without pain and suffering, humans couldn't exist. The Machines were trying to keep humans as happy as they could.
And humans were never expendable. The machines needed the energy produced by humans to exist.
I think it's more a case of "When does self defense and the right to exist clash with the right of others to do the same?" In otherwords, Neither humans nor AI is truly evil. They are both just trying to preserve their own lives. Calmiche
Quick correction.. TWAIN - Technology Without an Interesting Name It's the driver that interfaces a scanner/ digital camera/ etc... with graphics programs.
I use an m505 and it's great. Any of the newer generations palms should be great. (Don't use the nasty old green screen ones.)
I can fit tons of books on it. (My 64 meg card holds about 160 books.) I use a program called Handstory, which allows me to change font sizes, bookmark lines, sort books into catagories, convert documents back and forth to my computer as well as acting as an online or offline webbrowser.
It's great, since it's nice and compact. I can carry it in my pocket. My girlfriend likes it since I can read in bed, using the backlight, without disturbing her. A fully charged battery will last 8 hours, and it only takes 20 minutes or so to recharge enough to read for a couple more hours.
It is a lot more comfortable, and my eyes don't hurt from using it like my computer screen does. The only problems I have is that, 1 the up and down buttons are placed at the bottom, rather than on the sides. (Some of the new Sony Clie's have jog dials on the side.) and 2, I have a hard time working with technical books, since drawings and schematics don't do well on such a small screen.
Calmiche,
Hmm.. I actually turned my PDA into a GameBoy. Does that count? Liberty works well, if you can get your processor above about 55 mhz. It works with some of the overclocking software, but kills battey life. (My palm m505 only lasts about 2 hours instead of 8.)
I think that the later books are actually getting better. Though there are a lot of in jokes that require you to read the preceding books.
However, that is the only series that I can think of that is any good beyond the first ten books, and the Honor Harrington series is the only one that I can think of that goes up to eight (nine with the new book to be released in October.)
In fact, I can't think of very many authors that have more than four or five in a series... Robert Asprin's Myst series died at about book five for me, even though there are about eleven or twelve now.
All of Piers Anthony's series died at about book two. I lasted in the Xanth series, when I was about twelve years old, until about book seven. (There are about twenty plus now.)
The one that sprang first to mind were L. Ron Hubbard's decolagy (Ten Books) "Mission Earth." Though those also died about the sixth book in.
I guess you can count many of Robert A. Heinlein's books as a continuing series, his "Future History", but I'm not sure if it counts.
Orson Scott Card got away with about seven in several different series while keeping them quite interesting.
Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth novels have about twelve now, though not in strict series. (Though his last one, Reunion, sucked royaly.)
Raymond E. Feist has about eleven or twelve in his Midkemia series, and those are quite good.
There are seven in Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Deathgate sequence, and I loved all of those.
Anne McCaffrey has about twenty or so in her Pern series, and I liked almost all of those, although some were stinkers.
And of course, Rojer Zelany's Amber chronicles are huge. I think there are about twenty-two or so.
Okay, let's try this again, hopefully with a more informed aproach. First, I am going to be VERY anxious to see the results of sales on these books. Eric Flint has been working for quite some time to try and dispel the ridiculous idea that distribution of e-books hurts sells. That is just plain ludicrous. The more advertising an author can get, the more he can sell. It dosen't matter that he looses a few sales. In fact, to use one of Eric Flint's own arguments, it dosen't even count as a lost sale! To be counted as a lost sale, the person 1.) Has to have the money to buy the book. 2.) He has to want to buy the book and 3.) He has to choose not to buy the book in favor of getting a pirated copy. Now, let's look at that. That rules out the kids and everyone who dosen't have the cash. That is not a lost sale, even if they pirate the book and read it.They wouldn't have bought it anyway! In fact, by allowing pirated copies, the authors and publishing companies are gaining invaluable advertising at no cost to themselves. There is no printing or distribution fee, no payment to rent shelfspace in bookstores and no advertising costs. Now, this kid with a pirated copy does 2 things. First, he passes the book on, especially if he liked it. In fact, this is how I heard about many of my favorite authors. Someone loaned me a book. (Almost the same thing as pirating, according to some very narrow minded authors and publishers.) Second, the kid grows up. I found Robert A. Heinlein's books when I was 11 years old. At that time I did NOT have the cash to buy any of his books, so I bought used copies from used bookstores and checked them out of the library. (Again, some narrowminded publishers and authors see both used bookstores and library to be evil and a form of piracy. A way of loosing sales.) Since I was a child, I now own close to 90 copies of Robert A. Heinlein's stories. Many of them are doubles copies, or even triples. I've given away at least 50 and probably closer to 70 copies of different novels as birthday presents or just to friends. In fact, I bet that I have spent close to $1000 over the last 10 or 15 years, just on Heinlein novels. Does that count as lost sales? Personally, I have at least 2,000 pulp novels in my house, which adverages out to about $15,000 I have spent on books so far. I usually spend about $100 a month or so on new books. I read at least a book a day, and sometimes two a day, and one of the things that makes me angry is to go out and spend $7 or $8 for a paperback, or $20+ for a hardback, and not like the book well enough to read it. I also own close to 3,000 e-books. In fact, that is how I ran across John Ringo himself. I found him on the Baen Free Book Library. (A Hymn Before Battle.) I downloaded the book onto my palm, read it in one day, and then went out the next day and bought as many of his books as I could find in the local bookstore, including several in hardback. I spent more that $60 in one trip. Would I have found John Ringo without that free book? Maybe, but not very likely. There were several other books that I was considering buying. Now, the other way around. I also downloaded David Drake's "With the Lightnings" from the Baen site, and really disliked it. I felt that it was badly written and not a very good book. Yet, I did not pay money for it, and so I do not feel cheated. It was the first book by David Drake that I had read, and if I had bought it, I probably never would have bought anything by him again, ever. Instead, I downloaded a different book, "Old Nathan", and loved it. I have since bought several of his books. Does it count as a lost sale if I don't buy "With the Lightnings"? What about the gained sales from the other books I bought later? Don't those count? Okay, moving on.. No, I do not think that electronic books will ever take the place of pulp books, but I do think that they have a strong place in the library of any reader. There are many good readers out there, including many PDA's. (you probably need one of the color ones though. The green or black and white ones don't have good enough definition.) I personally use a Palm m505, which cramps my fingers, but the battery lasts about 12 hours, or 7 hours with the backlight on. One of the best of the e-book readers I have ever seen was the Gemstar REB 1100. The battery lasts about 25 hours with the backlight on, it is about the same size as a paperback novel, (And about the same weight.) And it has a USB interface to connect to a computer. It's got an 8 meg internal memory (Holds about 16 books) and takes Smart Media cards. (Up to 128 meg or about 260 large e-books) My final point is a simple one. I have about 140 files on my computer written by Robert A. Heinlein. Many of these works are out of print. How else would I be able to read them, if not for the wonder of e-books? Oh, and David Weber is one of my favorite authors. I have almost every single one of his books, most of them in hardcover.
You know, you can always use MusicMatch Jukebox to look up tags on mp3's. It is especially easy if you have the album name or the artist... Or all the mp3's in the album. You enter whatever information you can, then select the Options > Music Library > Edit track Tags. highlight them and click the Lookup Tags button. It will look through the CCDB and try to use whatever information you have, the track length, etc.. and return as many options as possible as to what the song is. Of course, if you are looking up individual songs and don't have a clue as to the artist, album and song name.... you are pretty much screwed.
Sorry about that.. I have the reworked version of Orson Scott Card's book, released in 1988, named simply "Treason" rather than "A Planet Called Treason". It is reedited, corrected, and with about 40 pages of added text.
While I really liked the Ender books, as well as some of his other series, probably one of the best Orson Scott card books I have ever read was Treason. It was fantasticly dark and with some increadible plot twists. Including the main character turning from a man into a woman and then growing extra appendages, to exactly what happened to his brother, the second heir to the throne. Fantastic stuff. Calmiche,
Well, I got about half way through these cooments before running out of time, but I'll throw another couple of things out there. I haven't seen Alt - F4 mentioned. On almost any windows based program, it quickly closes just about any program. As for Games, I really like nethack. It's small, fun, and really, really hard to beat. Civilization 1 is one of the best old games. It fits on two meg, and can take up to 6 hours to play. Calmiche,
Actually, although I don't play Everquest, I found this a fascinating study. I play several other online RPG's, and I'm starting to wonder how different games relate on the questions that were asked. For instance, the main game I play in "The Realm", by Codemasters. I know that a great deal of the people that play this game are older. There was a survey ran a year or so ago that put the adverage age at about 28.