It seems like this (too many scientific papers) is a problem that could be solved by data mining. I know that concept is considered evil these days, but it does have it's practical, non-evil uses.
It was inevitable, really, that at some point there would be more science going on than could conveniently be published.
Monstrous Regiment and Unseen Academicals weren't very good
I'm taking a wild guess that you're neither a feminist nor an Association Football fan.
I dunno. I don't consider myself for or against soccer, and I don't have any particular views on feminism. But I don't have any particularly strong views for or against on many of Pratchett's various subjects, and still found them funny. Those two I didn't, particularly. They just seemed like duds to me.
Are you saying that if one were a feminist or a soccer fan, one would find those novels funny? So, if I for instance found Shaolin Soccer hilarious and cherish my copy of the film, how is it that I didn't feel the same way about Unseen Academicals? I mean, it's about kicking a ball around, and it's supposed to be funny. It wasn't, particularly.
As I said in the original note, I read most of the Discworld novels to my daughter, some (like Hogfather) several times. The only novel we didn't get all the way through (because it bored her) was Unseen Academicals. (We didn't even try the other one.) I'm struggling to postulate how that might have been the fault of my non-interest in European Football. Maybe I read it to her in a boring voice?
His first three novels (in chronological order) are just average fantasy. (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites) I recommend instead the movie "The Colour of Magic" which includes the first two books, was quite well done, and is, frankly, better than the books.
I recommend that newcomers start with Mort, (the fourth book to be published) which is a classic "Death takes a holiday" story and gives you a glimmer of the amazing author Pratchett would become. Then read Reaper Man, Soul Music, and Hogfather, which continues the story started in Mort. (Hogfather had a decent film adaptation in 2006.)
Then, go back and read Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, and Maskerade.
Then go back and read the Guards novels, starting with "Guards! Guards!", Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, and The Fifth Elephant. All of these are good, but the real point of reading them is that they lead up to Night Watch, which is in my opinion where Pratchett crosses the line from "fantasy" into Literature. (Thief of Time is arguably a prelude to Night Watch and should probably be read first.)
After Night Watch comes Thud, which is another truly exceptional novel.
There is also a thread of novels involving the Rincewind character from The Colour of Magic, some of which are very good. (Check the wiki for the reading order.)
There is also the Tiffany Aching series, which is intended for a younger audience but is still an excellent read.
There are several stand-alone novels, Pyramids, Small Gods, Moving Pictures, that take place on the Discworld and may include characters from other books. They are well worth reading.
Pratchett has had a few duds. Monstrous Regiment and Unseen Academicals weren't very good. (I mean, I understand what Pratchett was trying to do in each case, but they just weren't as funny or clever as the others.)
But the rest... you are in for a long stretch of being amazed, amused, and truly moved.
Be sure to read the footnotes! Some of the best stuff is there.
I started reading the Discworld novels to my daughter when she was seven years old. She decided that Hogfather was her most favorite novel and brought it to school for book appreciation day in second grade. (Around 2001.) This caused a hasty parent/teacher conference where I was asked pointedly why I was reading books to my grade school daughter where the main character was Death.
A few years later I wrote about this incident to Terry and passed along a question from my daughter -- what's on the other side of the discworld? Is there a bottom discworld, or just a big brass sign that says "content on other side"? [1]
On the incident, Terry responded "Ah, teachers. We used to have ones that were educated. Once you could respect them." and went on to say that The Amazing Maurice which also has Death as a character, won the Carnegie Medal from children's librarians. About the bottom of the discworld, he said there would only be wet rocks and perhaps some specialized form of life.
God, I'm going to miss him.
[1] I was a Laserdisc enthusiast, and daughter knew that this was the message you got when you played the wrong side of a one-sided disc.
So how long do you think it will take for America to realize that China stole our jobs?
China didn't steal your jobs. Your leadership gave your jobs away to someone who would do it for less, that way they could boost that quarter's numbers and their bonus.
...while somehow not realizing that they're trying to sell their products to the same people they're screwing by sending jobs overseas.
I used to. I was born there. Moved out awhile back when it became apparent I'd never be able to own a house that wasn't less than a 2 hour drive from work. I did live there, and I did not understand.
Perhaps if you lived somewhere else *you'd* understand.
And of course, as no true Apple enthusiast at least in this country would dream of wearing a knock-off, even were it electrically and visually identical, Apple will still make a bazillion dollars off the product.
Well, I guess you could call me an "Apple enthusiast", in the sense that I prefer to use a Mac. But I don't plan to get even the cheapest Apple Watch, let alone an expensive one.
I wouldn't call you an apple enthusiast. I have used the products -- I retired a G4 not too long ago, and I still have an old ipod connected to the stereo in my truck. Daughter was a big fan of the ipod touch, 'till she slowly realized that her Android phone does all of that and more. My understanding is that her touch remains in its docking station in the bathroom now, so she can play music while showering. Wife owns a nano. We use Apple products (not a lot, but some) and I will admit to a large amount of animosity towards Microsoft for their business models and recent design choices. Yet I would not call us Apple enthusiasts.
To me, an Apple enthusiast is someone who will camp in front of the store in the rain the night before to be the first to trade their iphone in for a newly released, virtually identical iphone.
I happen to know someone who is currently between jobs, but it's not lost on him that the Apple Watch is just slightly more than a single unemployment check. Yeah, that's an Apple enthusiast.
Well, my company needs to remain nameless so I can't use it as an example. But it's been pretty obvious that when any local guy leaves the department for any reason, the replacement will be from India and have a contractor badge. That's been pretty consistent. I don't have access to salary information (actually I do, as an administrator, but personal ethics prevents me from abusing that authority) but my boss has said in meetings that confining new hires to only H1B employees has saved him a substantial amount of money. I think 50% of the going rate for this job (which $45K would be) seems like a reasonable assumption.
So, bear with me here. The Apple watch is manufactured and assembled in China, except for the solid gold ones, which (I've read, but it hasn't been substantiated) have guts made in China but the final assembly is in the US to avoid shipping gold to China to be made into watch cases. Or something like that.
So, let's assume for the moment that (at least) all the consumer grade Apple watches and all the guts are made in China. We also know that China companies in general have... different... ideas about intellectual property.
...and we know that the Apple Watch is the must-have trinket of this century. Well, 2015. Well, March of 2015. Well, the second week of March, 2015.
And so, anyone who is surprised that "knock-offs" start appearing nearly simultaneously with launch, should be beaten with a switch and made to sit in the corner. Hell, the "knock-offs" could have been made at the same factory.
Funny story -- I'm a photographer, and the brand I use (which will remain nameless) demands premium prices for official accessories, which are often just pieces of plastic with a certain shape and a few basic electronics. Almost immediately after a new product is introduced, a shower of "knock-off" accessories appear, which are often indistinguishable from the official parts. The story is, they're identical because they're a covert run from the same factory, merely with different branding and perhaps not as fastidious quality control. (Or, at least, that last part is what the vendor wants you to believe.) And so an official battery grip may list for $300, street cost $255, and the knock-offs are not more than $50, look and behave identically, and appear to last as long even under rough use. (And you don't mind being rough with them because if they break, you can get another for $50.) However, there will always be (brand name) affectionados who will sneer at your $50 part with "you get what you pay for", even in the face of contradictory evidence.
And of course, as no true Apple enthusiast at least in this country would dream of wearing a knock-off, even were it electrically and visually identical, Apple will still make a bazillion dollars off the product.
Surface owner. Shoulda known. There are all kinds of fanbois. The Microsoft kind is rarer. Especially these days.
You know, I've only ever seen one (1) in the wild. At a conference where laptops running Windows still outnumbered the shiny apple-notebook-whatevers, there was one lonely person wildly swiping on their Windows tablet. Was that you?
There isn't always a technical reason for a product penetration by a major company staying in the low single digits. But I think there might be in this case.
Well, Scientists tell us something, and they're right because they're scientists. And then later they tell us that's incorrect, this over here is right, and we believe that also, because, you know, scientists. And the people who do not believe are heretics, even if they instead believed what later the scientists said is right.
Wait, why does that sound familiar? It's a number... nineteen... something. I forget.
Sorry to disappoint you, but I abandoned Apple when the G4 needed to be replaced. I've been on Win7 since it came out, and will probably be on it for a good long time, as Win8 absolutely sucks. You don't need to be a glassy-eyed Apple fanboi to recognize that Surface is not the slightest bit interesting.
Normally, if you are a person who is inclined to blow $10k on a piece of jewellery, you would expect that you "investment" *won't* be obsolete in one year.
But if you can afford $10K on a piece of chrome fluff, maybe you don't care.
I see these 3 dimensional images etched deep in plastic cubes via lasers, for sale in novelty stores. I wonder if something like this technique can be used to burn a pattern in a solid block of something (plastic or crystal) that could be read later (by lasers, I guess) and converted back into the original data -- which could easily be video. I'd actually be a little surprised if something like this didn't already exist. The result should have a very long shelf life, sufficient for a time capsule. There would have to be a way to bootstrap the process, giving future people, in an easily readable format, directions to decode.
> You mean wages that are artificially being depressed through the use of import labor both legal and otherwise?
Um, yes. That's exactly what I mean.
As to your other comment, I agree and I started a non-geek side-business a couple years ago that's finally making money. So I'm almost in a position where I can say pay me what I'm worth or forget it.
I just hope Kyocera has the balls to fight this shit and win.
Well, Samsung, LG, Sony, and HTC all pay the MS tax on their Android devices. Does Kyocera have a larger legal war-chest than those companies?
Almost certainly not. Even if you go up to the parent corp (of which Kyocera Communications is a subsidiary) they still have less than a quarter of the revenue of Sony, for instance, and they don't have the motivation of, say, Google to fight. They'll settle.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems like this (too many scientific papers) is a problem that could be solved by data mining. I know that concept is considered evil these days, but it does have it's practical, non-evil uses.
It was inevitable, really, that at some point there would be more science going on than could conveniently be published.
Monstrous Regiment and Unseen Academicals weren't very good
I'm taking a wild guess that you're neither a feminist nor an Association Football fan.
I dunno. I don't consider myself for or against soccer, and I don't have any particular views on feminism. But I don't have any particularly strong views for or against on many of Pratchett's various subjects, and still found them funny. Those two I didn't, particularly. They just seemed like duds to me.
Are you saying that if one were a feminist or a soccer fan, one would find those novels funny? So, if I for instance found Shaolin Soccer hilarious and cherish my copy of the film, how is it that I didn't feel the same way about Unseen Academicals? I mean, it's about kicking a ball around, and it's supposed to be funny. It wasn't, particularly.
As I said in the original note, I read most of the Discworld novels to my daughter, some (like Hogfather) several times. The only novel we didn't get all the way through (because it bored her) was Unseen Academicals. (We didn't even try the other one.) I'm struggling to postulate how that might have been the fault of my non-interest in European Football. Maybe I read it to her in a boring voice?
We are finally asking the right questions. Bravo.
That's a point. But this means it hasn't yet occurred to them that we need money to buy the crap they make.
I absolutely agree with this.
Geeze, I didn't even know about Banks. Now I'm more depressed.
Agree, Good Omens was an exceptional book.
I personally have not read the Nome trilogy yet.
For historical purposes, Strata, published 1981 could be considered a "pre-Discworld", although rooted in science fiction, not fantasy.
Ok, since you asked.
His first three novels (in chronological order) are just average fantasy. (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites) I recommend instead the movie "The Colour of Magic" which includes the first two books, was quite well done, and is, frankly, better than the books.
I recommend that newcomers start with Mort, (the fourth book to be published) which is a classic "Death takes a holiday" story and gives you a glimmer of the amazing author Pratchett would become. Then read Reaper Man, Soul Music, and Hogfather, which continues the story started in Mort. (Hogfather had a decent film adaptation in 2006.)
Then, go back and read Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, and Maskerade.
Then go back and read the Guards novels, starting with "Guards! Guards!", Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, and The Fifth Elephant. All of these are good, but the real point of reading them is that they lead up to Night Watch, which is in my opinion where Pratchett crosses the line from "fantasy" into Literature. (Thief of Time is arguably a prelude to Night Watch and should probably be read first.)
After Night Watch comes Thud, which is another truly exceptional novel.
There is also a thread of novels involving the Rincewind character from The Colour of Magic, some of which are very good. (Check the wiki for the reading order.)
There is also the Tiffany Aching series, which is intended for a younger audience but is still an excellent read.
There are several stand-alone novels, Pyramids, Small Gods, Moving Pictures, that take place on the Discworld and may include characters from other books. They are well worth reading.
Pratchett has had a few duds. Monstrous Regiment and Unseen Academicals weren't very good. (I mean, I understand what Pratchett was trying to do in each case, but they just weren't as funny or clever as the others.)
But the rest ... you are in for a long stretch of being amazed, amused, and truly moved.
Be sure to read the footnotes! Some of the best stuff is there.
I feel like I've lost a member of the family.
I started reading the Discworld novels to my daughter when she was seven years old. She decided that Hogfather was her most favorite novel and brought it to school for book appreciation day in second grade. (Around 2001.) This caused a hasty parent/teacher conference where I was asked pointedly why I was reading books to my grade school daughter where the main character was Death.
A few years later I wrote about this incident to Terry and passed along a question from my daughter -- what's on the other side of the discworld? Is there a bottom discworld, or just a big brass sign that says "content on other side"? [1]
On the incident, Terry responded "Ah, teachers. We used to have ones that were educated. Once you could respect them." and went on to say that The Amazing Maurice which also has Death as a character, won the Carnegie Medal from children's librarians. About the bottom of the discworld, he said there would only be wet rocks and perhaps some specialized form of life.
God, I'm going to miss him.
[1] I was a Laserdisc enthusiast, and daughter knew that this was the message you got when you played the wrong side of a one-sided disc.
So how long do you think it will take for America to realize that China stole our jobs?
China didn't steal your jobs. Your leadership gave your jobs away to someone who would do it for less, that way they could boost that quarter's numbers and their bonus.
I used to. I was born there. Moved out awhile back when it became apparent I'd never be able to own a house that wasn't less than a 2 hour drive from work. I did live there, and I did not understand.
Perhaps if you lived somewhere else *you'd* understand.
And of course, as no true Apple enthusiast at least in this country would dream of wearing a knock-off, even were it electrically and visually identical, Apple will still make a bazillion dollars off the product.
Well, I guess you could call me an "Apple enthusiast", in the sense that I prefer to use a Mac. But I don't plan to get even the cheapest Apple Watch, let alone an expensive one.
I wouldn't call you an apple enthusiast. I have used the products -- I retired a G4 not too long ago, and I still have an old ipod connected to the stereo in my truck. Daughter was a big fan of the ipod touch, 'till she slowly realized that her Android phone does all of that and more. My understanding is that her touch remains in its docking station in the bathroom now, so she can play music while showering. Wife owns a nano. We use Apple products (not a lot, but some) and I will admit to a large amount of animosity towards Microsoft for their business models and recent design choices. Yet I would not call us Apple enthusiasts.
To me, an Apple enthusiast is someone who will camp in front of the store in the rain the night before to be the first to trade their iphone in for a newly released, virtually identical iphone.
I happen to know someone who is currently between jobs, but it's not lost on him that the Apple Watch is just slightly more than a single unemployment check. Yeah, that's an Apple enthusiast.
Well, my company needs to remain nameless so I can't use it as an example. But it's been pretty obvious that when any local guy leaves the department for any reason, the replacement will be from India and have a contractor badge. That's been pretty consistent. I don't have access to salary information (actually I do, as an administrator, but personal ethics prevents me from abusing that authority) but my boss has said in meetings that confining new hires to only H1B employees has saved him a substantial amount of money. I think 50% of the going rate for this job (which $45K would be) seems like a reasonable assumption.
Alternately, don't do business in California.
So, bear with me here. The Apple watch is manufactured and assembled in China, except for the solid gold ones, which (I've read, but it hasn't been substantiated) have guts made in China but the final assembly is in the US to avoid shipping gold to China to be made into watch cases. Or something like that.
So, let's assume for the moment that (at least) all the consumer grade Apple watches and all the guts are made in China. We also know that China companies in general have ... different ... ideas about intellectual property.
And so, anyone who is surprised that "knock-offs" start appearing nearly simultaneously with launch, should be beaten with a switch and made to sit in the corner. Hell, the "knock-offs" could have been made at the same factory.
Funny story -- I'm a photographer, and the brand I use (which will remain nameless) demands premium prices for official accessories, which are often just pieces of plastic with a certain shape and a few basic electronics. Almost immediately after a new product is introduced, a shower of "knock-off" accessories appear, which are often indistinguishable from the official parts. The story is, they're identical because they're a covert run from the same factory, merely with different branding and perhaps not as fastidious quality control. (Or, at least, that last part is what the vendor wants you to believe.) And so an official battery grip may list for $300, street cost $255, and the knock-offs are not more than $50, look and behave identically, and appear to last as long even under rough use. (And you don't mind being rough with them because if they break, you can get another for $50.) However, there will always be (brand name) affectionados who will sneer at your $50 part with "you get what you pay for", even in the face of contradictory evidence.
And of course, as no true Apple enthusiast at least in this country would dream of wearing a knock-off, even were it electrically and visually identical, Apple will still make a bazillion dollars off the product.
Surface owner. Shoulda known. There are all kinds of fanbois. The Microsoft kind is rarer. Especially these days.
You know, I've only ever seen one (1) in the wild. At a conference where laptops running Windows still outnumbered the shiny apple-notebook-whatevers, there was one lonely person wildly swiping on their Windows tablet. Was that you?
There isn't always a technical reason for a product penetration by a major company staying in the low single digits. But I think there might be in this case.
I dunno, "Apple" and "Priced more keenly" seems unlikely in the same sentence.
Especially at Halloween.
Well, Scientists tell us something, and they're right because they're scientists. And then later they tell us that's incorrect, this over here is right, and we believe that also, because, you know, scientists. And the people who do not believe are heretics, even if they instead believed what later the scientists said is right.
Wait, why does that sound familiar? It's a number... nineteen... something. I forget.
Sorry to disappoint you, but I abandoned Apple when the G4 needed to be replaced. I've been on Win7 since it came out, and will probably be on it for a good long time, as Win8 absolutely sucks. You don't need to be a glassy-eyed Apple fanboi to recognize that Surface is not the slightest bit interesting.
Normally, if you are a person who is inclined to blow $10k on a piece of jewellery, you would expect that you "investment" *won't* be obsolete in one year.
But if you can afford $10K on a piece of chrome fluff, maybe you don't care.
> Apple could be working on a more powerful tablet, something that could compete with Microsoft's Surface Pro line.
What, really? Apple is designing a table that is only ever seen on Hawaii Five-0?
I see these 3 dimensional images etched deep in plastic cubes via lasers, for sale in novelty stores. I wonder if something like this technique can be used to burn a pattern in a solid block of something (plastic or crystal) that could be read later (by lasers, I guess) and converted back into the original data -- which could easily be video. I'd actually be a little surprised if something like this didn't already exist. The result should have a very long shelf life, sufficient for a time capsule. There would have to be a way to bootstrap the process, giving future people, in an easily readable format, directions to decode.
> You mean wages that are artificially being depressed through the use of import labor both legal and otherwise?
Um, yes. That's exactly what I mean.
As to your other comment, I agree and I started a non-geek side-business a couple years ago that's finally making money. So I'm almost in a position where I can say pay me what I'm worth or forget it.
I just hope Kyocera has the balls to fight this shit and win.
Well, Samsung, LG, Sony, and HTC all pay the MS tax on their Android devices. Does Kyocera have a larger legal war-chest than those companies?
Almost certainly not. Even if you go up to the parent corp (of which Kyocera Communications is a subsidiary) they still have less than a quarter of the revenue of Sony, for instance, and they don't have the motivation of, say, Google to fight. They'll settle.