I think mattnyc99 (the poster) misses one of his own points by saying "Segway aside."
mattnyc99 points out that Kamen is trying to leverage the distiller side of the market to help fund / drive down costs to get the Stirling side of the product to market.
The technology in the Segway comes originally from a wheelchair system that Kamen and company designed and produced. The Segway was an effort to popularize the technology to drive down costs, so that the wheelchair would be much less expensive, and widely available.
The utter irony of this action by SFWA boggles my mind. I subscribe to the SFWA Bulletin, and read it quarterly. It is obvious from my reading, that they don't *get* electronic publication. Even though they publish articles in their bulletin basically *admitting* that paper SF magazines are dying a prolonged slow death, they refuse to recognize new models. Flip, paper SF *books* are dying out, their numbers dwindling on the shelves.
On the electronic publishing forefront, consider the case of Ray Gun Revival http://www.raygunrevival.com/. They are a great magazine publishing Space Opera (with fantastic cover art btw). They have peer magazines covering other genre (horror, fantasy, contemporary, etc.). These online magazines, and *many* more like them, represent a new model that can keep SF out there and in front of the upcoming generations that are reading *online* more and more. Hint, hint SFWA!
Yet, SFWA blunders along and creates this fiasco, actually striking a kind of blow against electronic publishers like Ray Gun Revival, and writers like Cory Doctorow who embrace these new models. Scribd is one of the ways that electronic publications, that are not run by the big publishing houses, and writers, make themselves *visible*.
I write SF and fantasy, and I *want* a healthy market for my work, so my hope is that SFWA, which has done a lot of good for writers will get their act together and fix what they have done.
I understood his point, and am aware that NUnit uses attributes, and think its cool if the JUnit guys want to add it. Of course, a valid point here is that the Java stuff gets attention, and perhaps the.Net stuff does not....
I was addressing the fact that the xUnit community (at least the various folks that like/use/support the xUnit-style implementations, don't look at NUnit being a "rip-off" of JUnit. I think its great that NUnit initially learned from JUnit (and they from the smalltalk, c++ versions, etc.), and that in turn JUnit is learning from NUnit.
IMHO (and part of my point) is that the xUnit framework stuff has always been multi-language and is outside the whole religious java vs.net vs whatever arguments. It's way cool to me as a test-first developer that I can probably find an xUnit implementation for just about any language I run into.
Cadmann
Re:Where was the headline when NUnit was released?
on
An Early Look at JUnit 4
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Actually, there are a number of xUnit implementations out there. JUnit is just one of many for many languages. NUnit is by no means a rip off of JUnit than JUnit is of pyUnit, or cppUnit, etc.
One thing I forgot to mention in my original post (and which everyone has pointed out) was that some of the actors would obviously have to change. I think Ian Holm would have to be replaced as Bilbo, just due to the age differential. Not sure about Ian McKellen (who has expressed interest in doing "The Hobbit"). My mistake was plastering every actor's name onto each character (even if they'd be fit for a reappearance in a much earlier prequel or not).
Barliman was definately a mistake to add to the list. Momentary brain-fart over timelines. Sigh.
Aragorn would be cool to see, particularly as a kid. Again, obviously, Viggo couldn't play him.
Yes, I forgot Gloin's appearance, and, of course, the eternally-present Eagle's, particularly Gwaihir.
Not sure how they would work Gimli's appearance / cameo into the story. Sorry, don't have all my books handy, but *if* Gimli's birth occurred *before* Smaug's taking the Lonely Mountain, Gimli could appear in historical flashbacks. Or, perhaps he could show up in the end with the other Dwarven kin that arrive before the battle of the Five Armies (staying with the kin while Dad goes with Thorin to reclaim the mountain). Perhaps even have a first-ever encounter between Gimli and Legolas *during* the battle (consistently keeping them disliking each other at this point in history).
Considering that "The Hobbit" became a prequel to "The Lord of the Rings", one could consider the possibility of which LOTR characters / actors could appear in "The Hobbit".
From The Book
- Bilbo - Ian Holm
- Gandalf - Ian McKellen
- Elrond - Hugo Weaving
- Gollum / Smeagol - Andy Serkis
Possible LOTR Characters Cameos
- Legolas - Orlando Bloom (Legolas is the son of King Thranduil of Mirkwood (the Elvenking of "The Hobbit"))
- Arwen Evenstar - Liv Tyler (daughter of Elrond, but stayed at Lothlorien at times - unlikely to appear, but it could make an appearance)
- Aragorn / Strider - Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn was raised in Rivendell, and so could make an appearance. He's known in "The Fellowship of the Ring" to be good friends with Bilbo)
- Barliman Butterbur - David Weatherley (though Bree is not mentioned, I believe, Bilbo and company could easily pass through Bree as its on the way)
- Other LOTR Elves - most any could show again if desired
Unlikely To Appear
- LOTR Hobbits - mostly all too young
- Gimli - probably too young or not born, as Gloin, Gimli's father, is described, I believe, as a young dwarf in "The Hobbit". On the other hand, dwarves are long lived (compared to humans) and so what's "young"? Hobbits came of age in their 30's or 40's (can't remember which off the top of my head).
Amazing. Considering who's heading things up, I guess one should *not* be suprised to see that Counterpane and Bruce Schneier are not part of the list.
Mr. Schneier represents a calm voice that is firmly, lucidly, and actively opposed to the tradeoffs being made by giving away too much liberty in return for too little new security.
He's got some excellent essays here. Highly recommended.
From the Miles Vorkosigan series (Military SF) These are omnibus editions containing multiple novels and novellas.
Young Miles(includes "Warrior's Apprentice" and others).
Miles Errant(includes "Borders of Infinity" and others).
Lois McMaster Bujold's "Paladin of Souls" made the fantasy novel list. It and the book before it, "Curse of Chalion" are awesome, and unique fantasy.
Any geek that hasn't read her Mile's books certainly should consider them also. "Warrior's Apprentice" or "Borders of Infinity" are good starting points. Military SF at its best.
That's one of the great things (if you like it that way) about St. Louis. The city itself is moderate in size, surrounded by lots of urban stuff. But if you go 25 miles south, or 45 miles west, you're in the sticks.
Works for me anyway. Get to work in good tech community, and get back to nature on the drive home.
I know exactly where you're coming from as I'm in almost the identical circumstances. Currently I just eat the cost of the metro-type calling solution and use landline for dial-up IP.
However, some friends have looked at this solution. I've not had a chance to look at it much yet. This company provides internet service from cellular towers in your area. They claim (I believe), that if you can use a cell phone from home, then you can use their stuff for your internet access.
Anyway, here's the URL: http://www.convergenow.net
I'd be really curious if any other slashdotters have had success with these folks or similar ones.
This past year in college, my son used a Sony Clie SL10 pda, and the Sony folding keyboard for doing all of his note taking in class. We picked up the WordSmith word processor, and some other handy utilities, and away he went.
His main complaints were centered on battery usage (keyboard and, when needed, backlight), and the screen itself. But these issues were primarily due to the fact that we did it on the cheap (less than $250).
I could see using one of the new Sharp Zaurus pdas (look like mini-laptops) like the model 750 in a similar, though more expensive, way. They look to run about $600 I believe.
We went this route because he wanted a full-featured PC in dorm, and something easy / light for note taking.
I just finished reading Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon". Great read. One of the things he expressed about hackers is that they often have alot of unusual hobbies. Many of the replies in this discussion bear this out.
Hacker's also tend to gravitate to studying all sorts of stuff. A few years ago for me this was astronomy. Or emergency preparedness. Or Converting cassette tapes of family vocal histories to digital format. Or, after "Cryptonomicon", crypto's got my attention for a while.
Actually I'm a Barnes and Pournelle fan and never read Niven. Why do you ask?;->
Heh heh.
Actually I adopted "Cadmann" as my "quake" name years ago and it stuck. And yes, "The Legacy of Heorot" by Nivens, Pournelle, and Barnes is one of my favorites....
Cadmann
And "Inconstant Moon" was originally one of Niven's excellent short stories. For anyone new to Niven, I'd highly recommend picking up one of his short story collections (Such as "N-Space" or "Playgrounds of the Mind" which he mentions in the interview).
Slashdot Mirror
"Mirabile" is a great read
I think mattnyc99 (the poster) misses one of his own points by saying "Segway aside."
mattnyc99 points out that Kamen is trying to leverage the distiller side of the market to help fund / drive down costs to get the Stirling side of the product to market.
The technology in the Segway comes originally from a wheelchair system that Kamen and company designed and produced. The Segway was an effort to popularize the technology to drive down costs, so that the wheelchair would be much less expensive, and widely available.
At least, that's the way I see it.
for the editors over at Ray Gun Revival magazine.... :-)
The utter irony of this action by SFWA boggles my mind. I subscribe to the SFWA Bulletin, and read it quarterly. It is obvious from my reading, that they don't *get* electronic publication. Even though they publish articles in their bulletin basically *admitting* that paper SF magazines are dying a prolonged slow death, they refuse to recognize new models. Flip, paper SF *books* are dying out, their numbers dwindling on the shelves.
On the electronic publishing forefront, consider the case of Ray Gun Revival http://www.raygunrevival.com/. They are a great magazine publishing Space Opera (with fantastic cover art btw). They have peer magazines covering other genre (horror, fantasy, contemporary, etc.). These online magazines, and *many* more like them, represent a new model that can keep SF out there and in front of the upcoming generations that are reading *online* more and more. Hint, hint SFWA!
Yet, SFWA blunders along and creates this fiasco, actually striking a kind of blow against electronic publishers like Ray Gun Revival, and writers like Cory Doctorow who embrace these new models. Scribd is one of the ways that electronic publications, that are not run by the big publishing houses, and writers, make themselves *visible*.
I write SF and fantasy, and I *want* a healthy market for my work, so my hope is that SFWA, which has done a lot of good for writers will get their act together and fix what they have done.
I've been hearing questions like this about Jobs for more years than I care to count.
Please move along. There is nothing here to read.
They need to get on the Cluetrain!
http://www.cluetrain.com/
Cadmann
I understood his point, and am aware that NUnit uses attributes, and think its cool if the JUnit guys want to add it. Of course, a valid point here is that the Java stuff gets attention, and perhaps the .Net stuff does not....
.net vs whatever arguments. It's way cool to me as a test-first developer that I can probably find an xUnit implementation for just about any language I run into.
I was addressing the fact that the xUnit community (at least the various folks that like/use/support the xUnit-style implementations, don't look at NUnit being a "rip-off" of JUnit. I think its great that NUnit initially learned from JUnit (and they from the smalltalk, c++ versions, etc.), and that in turn JUnit is learning from NUnit.
IMHO (and part of my point) is that the xUnit framework stuff has always been multi-language and is outside the whole religious java vs
Cadmann
Actually, there are a number of xUnit implementations out there. JUnit is just one of many for many languages. NUnit is by no means a rip off of JUnit than JUnit is of pyUnit, or cppUnit, etc.
For more info on xUnit testing frameworks for many different languages and platforms see (way down the page is a table):
http://www.xprogramming.com/software.htm/
Cadmann
Lots of great comments!
:-)
One thing I forgot to mention in my original post (and which everyone has pointed out) was that some of the actors would obviously have to change. I think Ian Holm would have to be replaced as Bilbo, just due to the age differential. Not sure about Ian McKellen (who has expressed interest in doing "The Hobbit"). My mistake was plastering every actor's name onto each character (even if they'd be fit for a reappearance in a much earlier prequel or not).
Barliman was definately a mistake to add to the list. Momentary brain-fart over timelines. Sigh.
Aragorn would be cool to see, particularly as a kid. Again, obviously, Viggo couldn't play him.
Yes, I forgot Gloin's appearance, and, of course, the eternally-present Eagle's, particularly Gwaihir.
Not sure how they would work Gimli's appearance / cameo into the story. Sorry, don't have all my books handy, but *if* Gimli's birth occurred *before* Smaug's taking the Lonely Mountain, Gimli could appear in historical flashbacks. Or, perhaps he could show up in the end with the other Dwarven kin that arrive before the battle of the Five Armies (staying with the kin while Dad goes with Thorin to reclaim the mountain). Perhaps even have a first-ever encounter between Gimli and Legolas *during* the battle (consistently keeping them disliking each other at this point in history).
"Twenty-one! Twenty-two! Twenty-three!"....
Cadmann
Considering that "The Hobbit" became a prequel to "The Lord of the Rings", one could consider the possibility of which LOTR characters / actors could appear in "The Hobbit".
From The Book
- Bilbo - Ian Holm
- Gandalf - Ian McKellen
- Elrond - Hugo Weaving
- Gollum / Smeagol - Andy Serkis
Possible LOTR Characters Cameos
- Legolas - Orlando Bloom (Legolas is the son of King Thranduil of Mirkwood (the Elvenking of "The Hobbit"))
- Arwen Evenstar - Liv Tyler (daughter of Elrond, but stayed at Lothlorien at times - unlikely to appear, but it could make an appearance)
- Aragorn / Strider - Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn was raised in Rivendell, and so could make an appearance. He's known in "The Fellowship of the Ring" to be good friends with Bilbo)
- Barliman Butterbur - David Weatherley (though Bree is not mentioned, I believe, Bilbo and company could easily pass through Bree as its on the way)
- Other LOTR Elves - most any could show again if desired
Unlikely To Appear
- LOTR Hobbits - mostly all too young
- Gimli - probably too young or not born, as Gloin, Gimli's father, is described, I believe, as a young dwarf in "The Hobbit". On the other hand, dwarves are long lived (compared to humans) and so what's "young"? Hobbits came of age in their 30's or 40's (can't remember which off the top of my head).
Others?
Cadmann
Amazing. Considering who's heading things up, I guess one should *not* be suprised to see that Counterpane and Bruce Schneier are not part of the list.
Mr. Schneier represents a calm voice that is firmly, lucidly, and actively opposed to the tradeoffs being made by giving away too much liberty in return for too little new security.
He's got some excellent essays here. Highly recommended.
Cadmann
Sigh. Lame to reply to self, but I should have included links, eh?
From the World of Chalion (fantasy)
Paladin of Souls
The Curse of Chalion (available in paperback)
From the Miles Vorkosigan series (Military SF) These are omnibus editions containing multiple novels and novellas.
Young Miles(includes "Warrior's Apprentice" and others).
Miles Errant(includes "Borders of Infinity" and others).
There, now I feel better.
Cadmann
Lois McMaster Bujold's "Paladin of Souls" made the fantasy novel list. It and the book before it, "Curse of Chalion" are awesome, and unique fantasy.
Any geek that hasn't read her Mile's books certainly should consider them also. "Warrior's Apprentice" or "Borders of Infinity" are good starting points. Military SF at its best.
Cadmann
That's one of the great things (if you like it that way) about St. Louis. The city itself is moderate in size, surrounded by lots of urban stuff. But if you go 25 miles south, or 45 miles west, you're in the sticks.
:-)
Works for me anyway. Get to work in good tech community, and get back to nature on the drive home.
Cadmann
I know exactly where you're coming from as I'm in almost the identical circumstances. Currently I just eat the cost of the metro-type calling solution and use landline for dial-up IP.
However, some friends have looked at this solution. I've not had a chance to look at it much yet. This company provides internet service from cellular towers in your area. They claim (I believe), that if you can use a cell phone from home, then you can use their stuff for your internet access.
Anyway, here's the URL: http://www.convergenow.net
I'd be really curious if any other slashdotters have had success with these folks or similar ones.
Cadmann
This past year in college, my son used a Sony Clie SL10 pda, and the Sony folding keyboard for doing all of his note taking in class. We picked up the WordSmith word processor, and some other handy utilities, and away he went.
His main complaints were centered on battery usage (keyboard and, when needed, backlight), and the screen itself. But these issues were primarily due to the fact that we did it on the cheap (less than $250).
I could see using one of the new Sharp Zaurus pdas (look like mini-laptops) like the model 750 in a similar, though more expensive, way. They look to run about $600 I believe.
We went this route because he wanted a full-featured PC in dorm, and something easy / light for note taking.
Cadmann
I just finished reading Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon". Great read. One of the things he expressed about hackers is that they often have alot of unusual hobbies. Many of the replies in this discussion bear this out.
Hacker's also tend to gravitate to studying all sorts of stuff. A few years ago for me this was astronomy. Or emergency preparedness. Or Converting cassette tapes of family vocal histories to digital format. Or, after "Cryptonomicon", crypto's got my attention for a while.
Cadmann
...to briefly read of the birth of something that'll be extinct almost as quickly.
Also fascinating to see the marketing heads continue to try and shoehorn things that "work" in other media into the web.
Sigh.
Actually I'm a Barnes and Pournelle fan and never read Niven. Why do you ask? ;->
Heh heh.
Actually I adopted "Cadmann" as my "quake" name years ago and it stuck. And yes, "The Legacy of Heorot" by Nivens, Pournelle, and Barnes is one of my favorites....
Cadmann
And "Inconstant Moon" was originally one of Niven's excellent short stories. For anyone new to Niven, I'd highly recommend picking up one of his short story collections (Such as "N-Space" or "Playgrounds of the Mind" which he mentions in the interview).
Great stuff....
Cadmann