Well before you slag me off too-far, why not bother to read my post? I make explicit reference to Speaker for the Dead. Empathy is exactly the point: Orson Scott Card's characterisation is so poor I find it almost impossible to feel anything for the characters. Sorry, I just don't. They seem as cardboard cut-outs. I am well aware of the nature of redemption and rehabilitation - thats why the feebleness of Speaker for the Dead is so annoying to me. These are hard personal hurdles to clear and as such Card does us all a disservice by portraying it as otherwise.
I have read all the original series but not bothered with Ender's Shadow. Certainly I used to like them, but as I say, my feeling is that they appealed to something I'm glad to say I have now got out of my system.
Is in embarassment, bordering on being an ugly and unpleasant abomination.
I can understand why some around here might like it as it is afterall a work of geek wish-fulfillment wank-fest (good at Command and Conquer? You could Save The Universe. Into posting on web forums? You could Command Popular Opinion!) but what you can't overlook is the turgid plot and the leaden prose. Who honestly didn't see the plot twist coming from a million miles away? The first half of the book is a pale rehash of the Heinlein "junvenile" series published by Victor Gollantz (e.g., Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Spacecadet etc).
A further problem with Ender's Game is that it is really quite unpleasant. Young master Wiggam is actually a psychopath and frankly deserves all the shit he gets. I can feel no sympathy for such a debased character, in his way he is possibly even worse than Thomas Covenant (shudder). It is often argued that Speaker for the Dead provides a moral counterpoint to Ender's Game, however this is really a lie. The Ender Wiggam of Speaker for the Dead is an almost completely different character. The character flaws themselves are never addressed beyond a sort of "Well I felt a bit bad about that, so now I'm a changed kinda guy". It just doesn't work.
The reason we approach the classics is because usually (there are exceptions obviously) they stand at the peak of the craft of writing. Ender's Game is pure trex by comparison.
Yes, same here. My character basically stopped gaining experience for anything other than combat. I wasn't even close to topping out or reaching a cap or whatever. I waited a week. Nothing from CS. I struggled in vein to get help from CS. Gave them the week before my subscription ran out to get back to me. They didn't. The end.
I understand people are busy. But I was paying a subscription precisely for customer service throughout the life of the game...
You were the favoured candidate for the job but you decided against it. Now they want you to interview the guy who will be getting the job? I wouldn't do it. You have nothing to gain from this and the damage has already been done by you refusing to apply for the job yourself.
If you persist in this I'm going to guess you'll have some serious issues with this person in about a year...and probably you will lose out.
Sorry if this is rather dull advice (certainly there are fun questions one can ask of a future boss) I think you need to steer clear of this situation altogether.
No it was free, unless you weren't British citizens. Indeed in the 1960s this included a generous maintenance grant! So not only was it free (you needn't pay to attend) it was salaried to an extent as well. My uncle was a student at this time and able to not only attend university, rent digs and socialise, he had enough money to run a small sports car.
These days there are little or no grants available and you have to pay, I think, about 3k a year (set to rise in all probability).
I use the to-do list and calendar in Outlook. Works for me. Yeah, Outlook, it is a bit of a liability, but its what we have at work. No arguments will be entered into by the powers that must be obeyed.
That said, before you snort cheetos and coca-cola out of your nose, I will remind you Don Norman, the reigning king of usability studies is himself is a fan.
If you're in one of the best colleges for your degree, you should probably be getting another degree. If all those things are true, get a graduate degree.
This is possibly the worst possible motivation for getting a graduate degree (I should add I'm an academic myself so I have an idea of what I am talking about). The ONLY reason to get a PhD these days is for love of the subject. I couldn't bear the idea of not being involved in research in my field and my colleagues all felt the same. You will never make up the money you lose doing it, and in the end its not like people fall at my feet in worship everytime I use my title. Its a long, hard slog usually, intelligence is not the main factor in getting through anyway: its a work ethic and a bit of grit.
You can get just as much intellectual stimulation in industry if you land the right post. And get paid handsomely for doing it. The graduate degree is only for those who truly want it, we quite often see those who think of it as an intellectual penis-extending exercise fall by the wayside. And rightly so to be honest.
True. I remember reading a book about him (damned if I can remember the title; my books are in storage atm - perhaps someone can help?). I understand he was actually having problems getting reviewers. The nature of the problem is such that even masked review wasn't fooling anyone.
It doesn't make the author wrong to keep slogging away if he is genuinely remaining consciencious in his scholarship (alas I am not qualified to know if this can be ajudged to be true or not).
whenever talk of WW2 codebreaking comes up, I do wish the Polish were more often given proper respect for their contribution, in particular the work of Marian Rejewski. He was the first to figure out the details of the commerical (class D) engima machine and was instrumental in constructing the first code breaking machines ('Bombas', hence the British and American use of the similar term, 'Bombes')
Interestingly Rejewski made it first to France (where his work on Enigma continued) and then to Britain. Where his talents were wasted and he was apparently shocked after the war to learn what had gone on at Bletchley. After the war he went back to Poland and worked in a factory.
It seems cryptanalysts often got the short end of the stick, alas.
If theres an arrangement that you can move to that would suit you better, go for it. Its my opinion that these things aren't necessarily part and parcel of IT and tech, its just they tend to be given the nature of management in these areas. Whats cool and groovy for 20 somethings chugging their free sodas and stay up all night and think management is a joke can be a pain in the ass for older people. Horses for courses.
But all that said, when I was a kid my dad worked long hours. It was a tricky time for the industry he was in, its how it had to be. Its OK though, I didn't turn to drugs or crime. We had and continue to have a good relationship. I respect him for providing for us and working damn hard to do it. It wasn't a bad example to follow. What I'm trying to say is, don't be too hard on yourself with regard to this issue. You'll know yourself when the balance is wrong I guess.
Hehe. If you want to play games that old it would be cheaper and easier to buy an old Playstation bundled with them (UT2004 and not much else being the exception). Seriously, most of those are either like card games, mine sweeper/tetris clones or versions of rogue/nethack. Nothing wrong with them, I'm quite keen on nethack myself, but its like showing opening a cinema showing black and white cowboy films and trying to compete with the local multiplex.
I do have one game I play on Linux. And it isn't on that list. The excellent Uplink which comes on a dual-format disk Win/Linux CD-ROM.
Well, I would continue to be facetious about it, but I get the feeling the MI5 agent currently holding a revolver to my head wouldn't like it very much!
For more information see "The Code Book" by Simon Singh.
It was developed by the superbly named Clifford Cocks, a at GCHQ in 1973 (IIRC thats three years before Rivest et al.) Apparently he thought it no big deal (completing an implementation of Ellis' original proof-of-concept practically overnight) and filed it away for further reference. End of story. Cocks is now chief mathematician at GCHQ; and given that he's probably intercepting this communication as I write, I dare say he will pop-up if what I've said is inaccurate!
The true tragedy is obviously that RSA is called RSA, rather than the far more amusing "Cocks Encryption" or similar. The sheer weight of punnage (e.g., "Hard Cocks Encryption" anyone?) is a tragic is a loss to humanity IMHO.
Sir Clive Sinclair is a case in point here. British electronics mogul in the 1970s and the 1980s (OK, the C5 was crazy, but his company Sinclair Research got calculators, 'mini radios' and digital watches early to the market and the ZX80/81/Spectrum defined an era in computing for some of us). High-profile member of Mensa as well (nb. for the record I think Mensa is a very stupid notion indeed, but I digress).
A keen poker player he has appeared a number of times on televised Poker in the UK. The recevied wisdom is actually that he is rubbish, and indeed caused a stir by storming off the set having lost 1500 quid in the first episode. This is really a bit unfair because I have heard from those more knowledgable in these matters that he doesn't do too badly at tournaments in general.
And yes, I play myself. It does seem to be a case that mathemticians and 'geeks' have an affinity for the game. As a psychologist I always pretend to be "in computers" so as not to sour things from the get go (ironic really as I think a firm grasp of numbers and a decent memory is far more important than the actually very little psychology has to say on the subject, but theres nothing one can do about stereotypes).
Paul Gerhardt, Joint Director, BBC Creative Archive explains: "We want to work in partnership with other broadcasters and public sector organisations to create a public and legal domain of audio visual material for the benefit of everyone in the UK."
Don't see you mentioned there I'm afraid. We accept cash, VISA and Mastercard though.
But seriously, my feeling is that this isn't over by a long chalk yet. Wait until the tabloids (esp. the Daily Mail) find out about this. If as you say it ends up with programmes we pay for being made freely available around the world (heh, not that the BBC World Service doesn't already do this on the radio) there will be uproar. Now we may joke about these fuddy-duddies in the shires, but "Middle England" is very good at turning out to vote, so their views carry disproporitonate weight for this reason (hunting with hounds anyone?). Theres a section of British society that doesn't like the license fee in the first place and will be out to cause a stink the next time the charter is up for renewal anyway.
I can never decide if the discount for the registered blind is: 1. Almost comical tight-fisted meanness 2. Scrupulous fairness 3. Because sound is 50% of the broadcast (do registered deaf get 50% off though? No, IIRC).
Its not quite what you are asking for, but I've good results in that area using an iPAQ and writing my own little apps to allow the functionality I require. It can also double-up as a universal remote control for parts of the system that aren't necessarily under computer control. If its a dedicated home theater system I would have thought this would make more sense actually; an PDA is a smaller, handier size and it would be a pain to have the cat hit "CTRL-ALT-DEL" on a keyboard half way through a feature.
I don't know when Lucas lost it (I think it was when he changed the Greedo/Solo scene for the re-release of the original trilogy) but I have no problem saying the emperor has no clothes.
Urgh. But he is so old and wrinkly and everything...
I don't personally believe this has any political implications whatsoever in the sense that whenever you develop an 'offensive' technology it would make sense to develop the 'defensive' technology. In this sense the arms race rages between groups of scientists rather than nations. The development of quantum cryptography to counter eavesdropping (bear in mind that Europe does not have the same freedom of information rules as the US; what have WE got, who knows?) is only as ironic as the fact the US has both nuclear weapons and has (attempted) to develop things like 'Star Wars' to counter nuclear strikes.
I think this development need not be regarded with any sort of alarmism.
Slashdot Mirror
Well before you slag me off too-far, why not bother to read my post? I make explicit reference to Speaker for the Dead. Empathy is exactly the point: Orson Scott Card's characterisation is so poor I find it almost impossible to feel anything for the characters. Sorry, I just don't. They seem as cardboard cut-outs. I am well aware of the nature of redemption and rehabilitation - thats why the feebleness of Speaker for the Dead is so annoying to me. These are hard personal hurdles to clear and as such Card does us all a disservice by portraying it as otherwise. I have read all the original series but not bothered with Ender's Shadow. Certainly I used to like them, but as I say, my feeling is that they appealed to something I'm glad to say I have now got out of my system.
Is in embarassment, bordering on being an ugly and unpleasant abomination.
I can understand why some around here might like it as it is afterall a work of geek wish-fulfillment wank-fest (good at Command and Conquer? You could Save The Universe. Into posting on web forums? You could Command Popular Opinion!) but what you can't overlook is the turgid plot and the leaden prose. Who honestly didn't see the plot twist coming from a million miles away? The first half of the book is a pale rehash of the Heinlein "junvenile" series published by Victor Gollantz (e.g., Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Spacecadet etc).
A further problem with Ender's Game is that it is really quite unpleasant. Young master Wiggam is actually a psychopath and frankly deserves all the shit he gets. I can feel no sympathy for such a debased character, in his way he is possibly even worse than Thomas Covenant (shudder). It is often argued that Speaker for the Dead provides a moral counterpoint to Ender's Game, however this is really a lie. The Ender Wiggam of Speaker for the Dead is an almost completely different character. The character flaws themselves are never addressed beyond a sort of "Well I felt a bit bad about that, so now I'm a changed kinda guy". It just doesn't work.
The reason we approach the classics is because usually (there are exceptions obviously) they stand at the peak of the craft of writing. Ender's Game is pure trex by comparison.
And a literary magazine called The sun, that does mostly personal essays, fiction, interviews, poetry, and photographs.
I've never seen it described that way before!
Although now you mention it, its does publish a lot of fiction and the page 3 photographs aren't bad...
Yes, same here. My character basically stopped gaining experience for anything other than combat. I wasn't even close to topping out or reaching a cap or whatever. I waited a week. Nothing from CS. I struggled in vein to get help from CS. Gave them the week before my subscription ran out to get back to me. They didn't. The end.
I understand people are busy. But I was paying a subscription precisely for customer service throughout the life of the game...
I can't remember the rest of the words...
Well, its better than the Free Software Song anyway.
[Time to find out how US-centric moderation is...]
You were the favoured candidate for the job but you decided against it. Now they want you to interview the guy who will be getting the job? I wouldn't do it. You have nothing to gain from this and the damage has already been done by you refusing to apply for the job yourself.
If you persist in this I'm going to guess you'll have some serious issues with this person in about a year...and probably you will lose out.
Sorry if this is rather dull advice (certainly there are fun questions one can ask of a future boss) I think you need to steer clear of this situation altogether.
No it was free, unless you weren't British citizens. Indeed in the 1960s this included a generous maintenance grant! So not only was it free (you needn't pay to attend) it was salaried to an extent as well. My uncle was a student at this time and able to not only attend university, rent digs and socialise, he had enough money to run a small sports car. These days there are little or no grants available and you have to pay, I think, about 3k a year (set to rise in all probability).
I use the to-do list and calendar in Outlook.
Works for me. Yeah, Outlook, it is a bit of a liability, but its what we have at work. No arguments will be entered into by the powers that must be obeyed.
That said, before you snort cheetos and coca-cola out of your nose, I will remind you Don Norman, the reigning king of usability studies is himself is a fan.
to be about the release of Revolution OS II... hehe.
This is possibly the worst possible motivation for getting a graduate degree (I should add I'm an academic myself so I have an idea of what I am talking about). The ONLY reason to get a PhD these days is for love of the subject. I couldn't bear the idea of not being involved in research in my field and my colleagues all felt the same. You will never make up the money you lose doing it, and in the end its not like people fall at my feet in worship everytime I use my title. Its a long, hard slog usually, intelligence is not the main factor in getting through anyway: its a work ethic and a bit of grit.
You can get just as much intellectual stimulation in industry if you land the right post. And get paid handsomely for doing it. The graduate degree is only for those who truly want it, we quite often see those who think of it as an intellectual penis-extending exercise fall by the wayside. And rightly so to be honest.
It doesn't make the author wrong to keep slogging away if he is genuinely remaining consciencious in his scholarship (alas I am not qualified to know if this can be ajudged to be true or not).
Interestingly Rejewski made it first to France (where his work on Enigma continued) and then to Britain. Where his talents were wasted and he was apparently shocked after the war to learn what had gone on at Bletchley. After the war he went back to Poland and worked in a factory.
It seems cryptanalysts often got the short end of the stick, alas.
If theres an arrangement that you can move to that would suit you better, go for it. Its my opinion that these things aren't necessarily part and parcel of IT and tech, its just they tend to be given the nature of management in these areas. Whats cool and groovy for 20 somethings chugging their free sodas and stay up all night and think management is a joke can be a pain in the ass for older people. Horses for courses. But all that said, when I was a kid my dad worked long hours. It was a tricky time for the industry he was in, its how it had to be. Its OK though, I didn't turn to drugs or crime. We had and continue to have a good relationship. I respect him for providing for us and working damn hard to do it. It wasn't a bad example to follow. What I'm trying to say is, don't be too hard on yourself with regard to this issue. You'll know yourself when the balance is wrong I guess.
Hehe. If you want to play games that old it would be cheaper and easier to buy an old Playstation bundled with them (UT2004 and not much else being the exception). Seriously, most of those are either like card games, mine sweeper/tetris clones or versions of rogue/nethack. Nothing wrong with them, I'm quite keen on nethack myself, but its like showing opening a cinema showing black and white cowboy films and trying to compete with the local multiplex. I do have one game I play on Linux. And it isn't on that list. The excellent Uplink which comes on a dual-format disk Win/Linux CD-ROM.
I think my parent post has some of the mod points that are owing more to this chap. Thanks.
Well, I would continue to be facetious about it, but I get the feeling the MI5 agent currently holding a revolver to my head wouldn't like it very much!
You know, I have the funny feeling he has probably heard it all before...
For more information see "The Code Book" by Simon Singh.
It was developed by the superbly named Clifford Cocks, a at GCHQ in 1973 (IIRC thats three years before Rivest et al.) Apparently he thought it no big deal (completing an implementation of Ellis' original proof-of-concept practically overnight) and filed it away for further reference. End of story. Cocks is now chief mathematician at GCHQ; and given that he's probably intercepting this communication as I write, I dare say he will pop-up if what I've said is inaccurate!
The true tragedy is obviously that RSA is called RSA, rather than the far more amusing "Cocks Encryption" or similar. The sheer weight of punnage (e.g., "Hard Cocks Encryption" anyone?) is a tragic is a loss to humanity IMHO.
Sir Clive Sinclair is a case in point here. British electronics mogul in the 1970s and the 1980s (OK, the C5 was crazy, but his company Sinclair Research got calculators, 'mini radios' and digital watches early to the market and the ZX80/81/Spectrum defined an era in computing for some of us). High-profile member of Mensa as well (nb. for the record I think Mensa is a very stupid notion indeed, but I digress).
A keen poker player he has appeared a number of times on televised Poker in the UK. The recevied wisdom is actually that he is rubbish, and indeed caused a stir by storming off the set having lost 1500 quid in the first episode. This is really a bit unfair because I have heard from those more knowledgable in these matters that he doesn't do too badly at tournaments in general.
And yes, I play myself. It does seem to be a case that mathemticians and 'geeks' have an affinity for the game. As a psychologist I always pretend to be "in computers" so as not to sour things from the get go (ironic really as I think a firm grasp of numbers and a decent memory is far more important than the actually very little psychology has to say on the subject, but theres nothing one can do about stereotypes).
Paul Gerhardt, Joint Director, BBC Creative Archive explains: "We want to work in partnership with other broadcasters and public sector organisations to create a public and legal domain of audio visual material for the benefit of everyone in the UK."
Don't see you mentioned there I'm afraid. We accept cash, VISA and Mastercard though.
But seriously, my feeling is that this isn't over by a long chalk yet. Wait until the tabloids (esp. the Daily Mail) find out about this. If as you say it ends up with programmes we pay for being made freely available around the world (heh, not that the BBC World Service doesn't already do this on the radio) there will be uproar. Now we may joke about these fuddy-duddies in the shires, but "Middle England" is very good at turning out to vote, so their views carry disproporitonate weight for this reason (hunting with hounds anyone?). Theres a section of British society that doesn't like the license fee in the first place and will be out to cause a stink the next time the charter is up for renewal anyway.
Believe when you see it is what I'm saying.
I can never decide if the discount for the registered blind is:
1. Almost comical tight-fisted meanness
2. Scrupulous fairness
3. Because sound is 50% of the broadcast
(do registered deaf get 50% off though? No, IIRC).
Well yes, actually when I want to post to Slashdot he takes dictat...MORE FISH. NO MORE TYPING. MORE FISH. MORE FISH!
Its not quite what you are asking for, but I've good results in that area using an iPAQ and writing my own little apps to allow the functionality I require. It can also double-up as a universal remote control for parts of the system that aren't necessarily under computer control. If its a dedicated home theater system I would have thought this would make more sense actually; an PDA is a smaller, handier size and it would be a pain to have the cat hit "CTRL-ALT-DEL" on a keyboard half way through a feature.
I don't know when Lucas lost it (I think it was when he changed the Greedo/Solo scene for the re-release of the original trilogy) but I have no problem saying the emperor has no clothes. Urgh. But he is so old and wrinkly and everything...
I think this development need not be regarded with any sort of alarmism.