Re:The value of recommendations
on
Snow Crash
·
· Score: 1
Let's do an analogy: "Why do you pay attention to web sites chosen by Hemos & friends? Isn't that what your mind is for?"
Who says that I place greater emphasis on what Hemos & friends points to than my next door neighbor? I certainly don't think I do.
Instead, I choose a more selective tool: recommendations from people whose worldview is similar to my own. From what I saw -- D Adams, D Hofstadter, K Vonnegut, etc, and some others I haven't read yet aha!) -- this is a good choice for me.
We all do that. I certainly didn't mean to imply that I don't take into consideration the opinions of others. That would be a lie as well as ridiculous.
I merely posed my question because I hate to see someone limit themself, even if it is to a list put together by people who share your world view. I'm sure your friends have great taste in books but the fascinating thing about people is that we're individuals. What your friends love, you might find horrible. Reading is a form of self exploration. I have had often had the pleasure of picking up something totally out of my normal world view.
That's all I was trying to say. Take care !
Re:Reading by reference
on
Snow Crash
·
· Score: 1
We do need a (peer reviewed) list of 'essencial readings' that we are defined by. Perhaps a slashdot-like mechanism, where people can submit their items. Others can review what's there and concur or counter a'la moderation), so that a stable set of agreed upon 'must', 'should' and 'see also' items emerges.
While I place great trust in the opinions people close to me share, or even people that I work with who ostensibly would have a propensity to to have similar opinions, albeit on a narrower plane, I above all place greater trust in my own opinions.
I just take humbrage with the way certain people, in their zeal to become part of a group, adopt dogmatic views or cultural appendages without putting much thought into their actions.
In my high school days I thought it would be cool to grow dred locks so I did. One day while walking through the halls I was assailed by someone who thought it was sacreligious that I had appropiated something from the Rastafarian "religion" as though it were no more than a mere fad.
At first I was upset that this person had possessed the gall to intrude on my freedom of opinion. After much thought though, I realized the person was right. Out went the dred locks.
You have certainly provided some colorful prose to support the use for books. I concur with your assessment. I just disagree with the "need" for a peer reviewed list of essential readings. If you don't mind very much, I'll decide what's essential.
Snow Crash was the first hyped Sci-Fi cyberpunk novel that I felt actually merited such high acclaim. I anticipate reading more of Stephenson's works.
Someone posted an earlier comment indicating that the first part of the book that dwelled on the pizza delivery angle was originally released as a short story. That makes a lot of sense when I look back now. I don't recall laughing so hard while reading any of Gibson's works. It seems as though Stephenson's prose is not forced and does not take itself as seriously as Gibson's work does. Maybe that's why I prefer Stephenson.
I could go on for hours about this book but since I'm at work and I feel compelled to at least work for an hour today I will have to do so at another time. I would like to point you people out to the funniest line from the book though. It occurs at a beginning of a chapter around page 272 or so (sorry...didn't bring book to work). It occurs after Hiro has gotten his first sobering view of Raven. I will paraphrase (perhaps horribly):
Every man up until he is 25 harbors the illusion that given the right set of circumstances he very well could be the baddest motherfucker alive.
I laughed my ass off after reading that because it is so indicative of the male pyschology!
Hiro then goes on to say that Raven has thusly ruined that illusion for him. Now that I think about it, I've thoroughly mangled that line. Oh well. Pick up the book to get the correct treatment.
Re:What about the mythology?
on
Snow Crash
·
· Score: 1
I agree with your take on the Sumerian mythology. It was such an integral part of the story and was obviously well researched. The trick was getting the information to the reader in an interesting way and his utilization of the Librarian was a master stroke.
Re:Hey, I like Built-In Operating System
on
Snow Crash
·
· Score: 1
Stephenson admits that his expansion of BIOS was a gaffe and was actually pointed out to him by either and editor or a peer reviewer but he opted to stick with his version in the novel anyway.
True, Stephenson did attempt to create the term, and possibly the concept, avatar, but he found that work was being done in this area while he was putting the novel together.
Re:William Gibson books...
on
Snow Crash
·
· Score: 1
The Johnny Mnemonic short story, which is a pre-cursor to Neuromancer, was excellent. The movie of course was horrible, as is anything Keannu touches. I actually preferred Johnny Mnemonic to Neuromancer.
Whether the signal is digital or analog has nothing to with the quality of the signal. If there is obstruction bewteen the satellite and the dish (and yes, clouds filled with snow and rain will obstruct the signal), the quality of reception degrades.
Line of sight is an issue if you live in a house and your neighbor across the street has a 50 ft tree right in your line of sight. Doesn't matter whether there is one satellite or not. If you don't have 100% line of sight (sorry, branches will fuck it up),you're shit out of luck.
Whether or not the Congress deregulated cable means nothing to me. I don't use it, nor do I care to. I think television, on the whole, is a waste of time.
Good for you. Some of us more uncivilized folk actually do regress from time to time and watch TV. Maybe we can all aspire to your enlightend approach one day.
Did you happen to notice a glaring omission in the roster of adherents to this test ban treaty? Shall I give you a hint as to which nation was not on that list? Think big and red. That's right! It's CHINA!
Whoop de damn do. We (USA) outnumber China by 35-1 in terms of ICBM's. They don't scare me. Unlike you, I refuse to respond to the Republicans attempts to paint China as evil people. Big deal they spy on us. You'd be surprised how much damn spying we do.
The Congress did the *right* thing. If only they'd have had the opportunity to put down the "treaty" that we're adhering to which is seeing us giving up the Panama canal.
Hah. You are something else. So I guess USA should have appropiated the Panama canal because we can? That sounds like the actions of a totalitarian nation. Surprising views coming from a self-styled "libertarian".
(FWIW, this "treaty" we're in the process of making good was more or less an executive order by Jimmy Carter, and was never ratified by our Senate - yet another Democrat giving away our national security).
I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The United States has thing, see, called separation of powers and checks and balances. So what happens is there is a guy called the President who leads something called the Executive branch. Are you following me? Then you have a thing called Congress, right, which leads this other thing called the Leglislative branch. The last branch is led by a bunch of geriatrics called the Supreme Court (I think) which is in charge of the judicial branch.
Based on the secret documents that I have seen, this president guy is in charge of foreign affairs. This loosely means that he deals with foreign nations. Sometimes he proposes things that he would like other countries to do or observe because he believes that this is good for not only the USA but world too. These things are called treaties.
The guys hanging out in congress typically have to decide whether the president has done a good thing. There were times in our past when these congressmen would actually make that decision based on issues like the truth and whether it indeed was good for the country. People say that those days are gone.
Uh, ever heard that not everyone lives in an house can go and hook a dish up on the roof. If satellite dishes were that easy cable would be on it's way out. Unfortunately there are quality issues with satellite dishes. If you don't have a a clear line of sight, you're out of luck. If it snows or rains hard, reception may deteriorate. Heck, if you don't secure the damn thing right a good stiff wind will mess your reception up.
As for whining, I'll stop when you stop acting like a schmuk. I don't think your mommy and daddy can nail anything to the side of the house to fix that.
Do you dispute that the Republican Congress led the effort to de-regulate cable? No, I don't think so. This wonderful Republican Congress just played politics with the lives of the whole damn world by refusing to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. I am sickened to see these myopic, corrupt, pennyante suits pervert what should be a fine institution. And the fact that they wrap all of their bullshit up in nauseating pseudo-religious drivel makes my stomach churn.
Oh, it may be in vogue to be conservative today. I say Fuck That. The idiots running congress are just plain idiots.
I'm sorry but I'll stay on the Republicans. I despise the Republican congress. I would not be remiss if a couple of bombs went off in their chambers soon. Dick Armey, Trent Lott, Jess Helms...the whole damn gang can go to Hell for all I care.
You can geesh all you want buddy because you can go to hell too. Stay anonymous by the way. It suits your pussy attitude.
Listen folks, the Republican congress is no friend of the consumer. They only care about aggrandizing big business. Remember, these are the folks who de-regulated the cable industries. We all know how well that's gone. Poor customer service. Rampant increase in cost in comparison to inflationary costs and investment in infrastructure.
My cable company went from having 2 plans (basic or expanded) to a "tier" structure giving consumers 3 options. This was done, according to the cable folks, so that customers would only pay for the channels they actually wanted to view. The customers who wanted fewer channels would not have to subsidize other views, they told us.
Here's how it really works. The cable companies have shifted a good majority of the cable channels that used to be part of the basic service to the top tier. This is all done under the guise of giving you, the consumer, more choice. More money out of your pocket. Cable companies don't offer a la carte programming. When asked why not, they never give a reason. Local sports programming that used to be included as part of basic service is now part of the top tier service.
Opening up broadband will not weaken the cable companies any more than opening up the phone system to independent carriers weakened the local telephone monopolies. It's called competition. Not too many people in business want to compete anymore. And we all lose out.
I decided to opt of the cable service. Unfortunately, I won't have that luxury with broadband.
You're right, you don't have the power to change my mind. Especially when you've wasted your time with that comment.
HTML allows peole to communicate. If Joe Shmoe half way around the world wants to leave his diary for the world to see, all he needs is HTML. He doesn't need C. He doesn't need Perl.
But I gather you don't find communication important. No, you believe everything has to be teched the hell out. Get over yourself buddy.
Hahaha. So your prolific output and canned commentary makes you "intelligent" ? Now I've heard everything. I think I would attribute the quantity of your output to a lack of a life. But you are of course free to misconstrue it any way you like.
Kit, Kish, whatever the hell you are called, I'm glad to see that you put blind faith in the moderation system. I believe the system is pointless. It figures that someone like you, someone desparately seeking affirmation and coddling would brag about moderation points. You are a true sycophant.
I agree with you 100%. The current system is lacking. I think the Slashdot crew is going to have to come up with something better. Heck, they may have to even bite the bullet and kick out a few of those Andover.net IPO dollars and hire some moderators who will have to answer for their actions. And please, don't tell me about the moderation of the moderators. You can't fix a broken hack with an equally cumbersome hack.
hahaha. You moderators make me laugh. If you're going to bring me down at least stop for a second and think. Do you understand what a troll is? If anything my comment should have been marked as flamebait. But I guess that happens when you give any jackass moderation points.
Remember, some newspapers still think that HTML is a programming language..
Granted, HTML doesn't contain case or iteration constructs that define true programming languages, but godamn, you can still use it to get things done. Where has the media used HTML in the wrong context? If you're trying to make some generic point you picked a lame example. You need to get off your high horse and join everyone else, because you ain't all that.
And oh yeah, don't bother with the long drawn out cliche-full response. You remember my last reply to one of your comments, don't you. You bore me.
You think MTV's recognition of one of the largest genre's of music was the start of the fall? Must be really hard to think with those tight KKK masks on, huh?
1. And this we all know.. Linux is NOT ready for the main stream. If it was than I would be typing this from work on my Caldera box with Netscape and not from NT with Explorer 4.0
That only proves that you work for brain-washed, inferior middle managers who have been led down that path by prior Gartner prognostications. Those managers are idiots and don't bring anything positive to the workforce. Things will change. Just give it time.
I guess Andrew Leonard had some free time on his hands this morning. Maybe he and John Katz should get together. I'm sure between the two of them they can come up with something original and relative.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's do an analogy: "Why do you pay attention to web sites chosen by Hemos & friends? Isn't that what your mind is for?"
Who says that I place greater emphasis on what Hemos & friends points to than my next door neighbor? I certainly don't think I do.
Instead, I choose a more selective tool: recommendations from people whose worldview is similar to my own. From what I saw -- D Adams, D Hofstadter, K Vonnegut, etc, and some others I haven't read yet aha!) -- this is a good choice for me.
We all do that. I certainly didn't mean to imply that I don't take into consideration the opinions of others. That would be a lie as well as ridiculous.
I merely posed my question because I hate to see someone limit themself, even if it is to a list put together by people who share your world view. I'm sure your friends have great taste in books but the fascinating thing about people is that we're individuals. What your friends love, you might find horrible. Reading is a form of self exploration. I have had often had the pleasure of picking up something totally out of my normal world view.
That's all I was trying to say. Take care !
We do need a (peer reviewed) list of 'essencial readings' that we are defined by. Perhaps a slashdot-like mechanism, where people can submit their items. Others can review what's there and concur or counter a'la moderation), so that a stable set of agreed upon 'must', 'should' and 'see also' items emerges.
While I place great trust in the opinions people close to me share, or even people that I work with who ostensibly would have a propensity to to have similar opinions, albeit on a narrower plane, I above all place greater trust in my own opinions.
I just take humbrage with the way certain people, in their zeal to become part of a group, adopt dogmatic views or cultural appendages without putting much thought into their actions.
In my high school days I thought it would be cool to grow dred locks so I did. One day while walking through the halls I was assailed by someone who thought it was sacreligious that I had appropiated something from the Rastafarian "religion" as though it were no more than a mere fad.
At first I was upset that this person had possessed the gall to intrude on my freedom of opinion. After much thought though, I realized the person was right. Out went the dred locks.
You have certainly provided some colorful prose to support the use for books. I concur with your assessment. I just disagree with the "need" for a peer reviewed list of essential readings. If you don't mind very much, I'll decide what's essential.
Snow Crash was the first hyped Sci-Fi cyberpunk novel that I felt actually merited such high acclaim. I anticipate reading more of Stephenson's works.
Someone posted an earlier comment indicating that the first part of the book that dwelled on the pizza delivery angle was originally released as a short story. That makes a lot of sense when I look back now. I don't recall laughing so hard while reading any of Gibson's works. It seems as though Stephenson's prose is not forced and does not take itself as seriously as Gibson's work does. Maybe that's why I prefer Stephenson.
I could go on for hours about this book but since I'm at work and I feel compelled to at least work for an hour today I will have to do so at another time. I would like to point you people out to the funniest line from the book though. It occurs at a beginning of a chapter around page 272 or so (sorry...didn't bring book to work). It occurs after Hiro has gotten his first sobering view of Raven. I will paraphrase (perhaps horribly):
Every man up until he is 25 harbors the illusion that given the right set of circumstances he very well could be the baddest motherfucker alive.
I laughed my ass off after reading that because it is so indicative of the male pyschology!
Hiro then goes on to say that Raven has thusly ruined that illusion for him. Now that I think about it, I've thoroughly mangled that line. Oh well. Pick up the book to get the correct treatment.
I agree with your take on the Sumerian mythology. It was such an integral part of the story and was obviously well researched. The trick was getting the information to the reader in an interesting way and his utilization of the Librarian was a master stroke.
Stephenson admits that his expansion of BIOS was a gaffe and was actually pointed out to him by either and editor or a peer reviewer but he opted to stick with his version in the novel anyway.
True, Stephenson did attempt to create the term, and possibly the concept, avatar, but he found that work was being done in this area while he was putting the novel together.
The Johnny Mnemonic short story, which is a pre-cursor to Neuromancer, was excellent. The movie of course was horrible, as is anything Keannu touches. I actually preferred Johnny Mnemonic to Neuromancer.
Why do you need to be told what to read? Isn't that what your mind is there for?
/. forums are quite techy, but I would hope that most of you have interests in other things as well.
Take a chance. Peruse the bookstore (virtual or real) and pick up something that you think may be interesting. If it isn't, pick up something else.
I understand that most people who reside in the
Whether the signal is digital or analog has nothing to with the quality of the signal. If there is obstruction bewteen the satellite and the dish (and yes, clouds filled with snow and rain will obstruct the signal), the quality of reception degrades.
Line of sight is an issue if you live in a house and your neighbor across the street has a 50 ft tree right in your line of sight. Doesn't matter whether there is one satellite or not. If you don't have 100% line of sight (sorry, branches will fuck it up),you're shit out of luck.
Any other questions.
Whether or not the Congress deregulated cable means nothing to me. I don't use it, nor do I care to. I think television, on the whole, is a waste of time.
Good for you. Some of us more uncivilized folk actually do regress from time to time and watch TV. Maybe we can all aspire to your enlightend approach one day.
Did you happen to notice a glaring omission in the roster of adherents to this test ban treaty? Shall I give you a hint as to which nation was not on that list? Think big and red. That's right! It's CHINA!
Whoop de damn do. We (USA) outnumber China by 35-1 in terms of ICBM's. They don't scare me. Unlike you, I refuse to respond to the Republicans attempts to paint China as evil people. Big deal they spy on us. You'd be surprised how much damn spying we do.
The Congress did the *right* thing. If only they'd have had the opportunity to put down the "treaty" that we're adhering to which is seeing us giving up the Panama canal.
Hah. You are something else. So I guess USA should have appropiated the Panama canal because we can? That sounds like the actions of a totalitarian nation. Surprising views coming from a self-styled "libertarian".
(FWIW, this "treaty" we're in the process of making good was more or less an executive order by Jimmy Carter, and was never ratified by our Senate - yet another Democrat giving away our national security).
I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The United States has thing, see, called separation of powers and checks and balances. So what happens is there is a guy called the President who leads something called the Executive branch. Are you following me? Then you have a thing called Congress, right, which leads this other thing called the Leglislative branch. The last branch is led by a bunch of geriatrics called the Supreme Court (I think) which is in charge of the judicial branch.
Based on the secret documents that I have seen, this president guy is in charge of foreign affairs. This loosely means that he deals with foreign nations. Sometimes he proposes things that he would like other countries to do or observe because he believes that this is good for not only the USA but world too. These things are called treaties.
The guys hanging out in congress typically have to decide whether the president has done a good thing. There were times in our past when these congressmen would actually make that decision based on issues like the truth and whether it indeed was good for the country. People say that those days are gone.
Uh, ever heard that not everyone lives in an house can go and hook a dish up on the roof. If satellite dishes were that easy cable would be on it's way out. Unfortunately there are quality issues with satellite dishes. If you don't have a a clear line of sight, you're out of luck. If it snows or rains hard, reception may deteriorate. Heck, if you don't secure the damn thing right a good stiff wind will mess your reception up.
As for whining, I'll stop when you stop acting like a schmuk. I don't think your mommy and daddy can nail anything to the side of the house to fix that.
Do you dispute that the Republican Congress led the effort to de-regulate cable? No, I don't think so. This wonderful Republican Congress just played politics with the lives of the whole damn world by refusing to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. I am sickened to see these myopic, corrupt, pennyante suits pervert what should be a fine institution. And the fact that they wrap all of their bullshit up in nauseating pseudo-religious drivel makes my stomach churn.
Oh, it may be in vogue to be conservative today. I say Fuck That. The idiots running congress are just plain idiots.
I'm sorry but I'll stay on the Republicans. I despise the Republican congress. I would not be remiss if a couple of bombs went off in their chambers soon. Dick Armey, Trent Lott, Jess Helms...the whole damn gang can go to Hell for all I care.
You can geesh all you want buddy because you can go to hell too. Stay anonymous by the way. It suits your pussy attitude.
Do you like all the viruses that come in those attachments too?
Listen folks, the Republican congress is no friend of the consumer. They only care about aggrandizing big business. Remember, these are the folks who de-regulated the cable industries. We all know how well that's gone. Poor customer service. Rampant increase in cost in comparison to inflationary costs and investment in infrastructure.
My cable company went from having 2 plans (basic or expanded) to a "tier" structure giving consumers 3 options. This was done, according to the cable folks, so that customers would only pay for the channels they actually wanted to view. The customers who wanted fewer channels would not have to subsidize other views, they told us.
Here's how it really works. The cable companies have shifted a good majority of the cable channels that used to be part of the basic service to the top tier. This is all done under the guise of giving you, the consumer, more choice. More money out of your pocket. Cable companies don't offer a la carte programming. When asked why not, they never give a reason. Local sports programming that used to be included as part of basic service is now part of the top tier service.
Opening up broadband will not weaken the cable companies any more than opening up the phone system to independent carriers weakened the local telephone monopolies. It's called competition. Not too many people in business want to compete anymore. And we all lose out.
I decided to opt of the cable service. Unfortunately, I won't have that luxury with broadband.
You're right, you don't have the power to change my mind. Especially when you've wasted your time with that comment.
HTML allows peole to communicate. If Joe Shmoe half way around the world wants to leave his diary for the world to see, all he needs is HTML. He doesn't need C. He doesn't need Perl.
But I gather you don't find communication important. No, you believe everything has to be teched the hell out. Get over yourself buddy.
Hahaha. So your prolific output and canned commentary makes you "intelligent" ? Now I've heard everything. I think I would attribute the quantity of your output to a lack of a life. But you are of course free to misconstrue it any way you like.
Kit, Kish, whatever the hell you are called, I'm glad to see that you put blind faith in the moderation system. I believe the system is pointless. It figures that someone like you, someone desparately seeking affirmation and coddling would brag about moderation points. You are a true sycophant.
How was my response a "troll"? What do you define as trolling?
I agree with you 100%. The current system is lacking. I think the Slashdot crew is going to have to come up with something better. Heck, they may have to even bite the bullet and kick out a few of those Andover.net IPO dollars and hire some moderators who will have to answer for their actions. And please, don't tell me about the moderation of the moderators. You can't fix a broken hack with an equally cumbersome hack.
hahaha. You moderators make me laugh. If you're going to bring me down at least stop for a second and think. Do you understand what a troll is? If anything my comment should have been marked as flamebait. But I guess that happens when you give any jackass moderation points.
Here comes Kit shoveling more of his garbage:
Remember, some newspapers still think that HTML is a programming language..
Granted, HTML doesn't contain case or iteration constructs that define true programming languages, but godamn, you can still use it to get things done. Where has the media used HTML in the wrong context? If you're trying to make some generic point you picked a lame example. You need to get off your high horse and join everyone else, because you ain't all that.
And oh yeah, don't bother with the long drawn out cliche-full response. You remember my last reply to one of your comments, don't you. You bore me.
You think MTV's recognition of one of the largest genre's of music was the start of the fall? Must be really hard to think with those tight KKK masks on, huh?
1. And this we all know.. Linux is NOT ready for the main stream. If it was than I would be typing this from work on my Caldera box with Netscape and not from NT with Explorer 4.0
That only proves that you work for brain-washed, inferior middle managers who have been led down that path by prior Gartner prognostications. Those managers are idiots and don't bring anything positive to the workforce. Things will change. Just give it time.
I guess Andrew Leonard had some free time on his hands this morning. Maybe he and John Katz should get together. I'm sure between the two of them they can come up with something original and relative.
Yes, Brian? Oh, I see, well I am sorry about your father's Yugo...
Now that's what you call some funny shit!!!
hahahahahahaha !!!!!!!!