What a poor collection of anecdote and bad writing!
Come on, I'm sure there are more interesting "Netcraft Confirms: Blogs Are Dying!" type articles out there. If you want anecdotes, here's one for you: I read over a dozen blogs daily (not always closely, of course), and all but a couple of my regular reads over the last couple of years are still going strong and putting out generally good and interesting essays. In fact, several have even gone pro or semi-pro, and their output has gotten better and more frequent (especially the reader-supported ones).
Does this prove anything? No more than TFA, certainly. But its relatively small size means you've wasted much less of your life reading it than TFA.
One was that book about mirror magic by Stephen R. Donaldson (my first SRD book, and my last). The other two I don't actually remember. They were in elementary school sometime, and it's been a very long time. All I can remember is that I've been thinking for the longest time that it was 2 books in elementary school, that mirror book, and GWTW.
I thought GWTW was an overrated piece of trash, although with incredible scenery and costumes. I prefer movies with more of a plot and preferably with multi-dimensional characters. Failing that, I'd like the characters to at least be sympathetic, but the only one of the lot I liked was Melanie.
I quit reading the book after I was about 2/3 done (one of only 4 novels I've put down since I started reading 20 years ago), and I left the movie lamenting Sherman's lack of thoroughness in Georgia. Bleh. Good riddance.
That is absolutely correct. DA came to my undergrad (Indiana University) in early 1999, and I took notes during his speech. One of the things he said was what you pointed out: that he was depressed at the time, and the book reflected that.
He also said that he was sick of having to start each book with a hundred pages of gathering up the characters from the various ends of space-time to which they'd been flung at the end of the previous book, so he killed them off just so they'd all be in one place for the start of the next book. He spoke as if he'd always intended to keep expanding his "trilogy."
Well, that may be how the good Mr. Bourne does it, and I respect him for his investment skill, but the rest of the industry seems to operate more or less like I described: with an expected failure rate of 70%, 20% break-even, and 10% massive moneymaker rate.
Of course most of the projects collapsed! VCs dump money into lots of projects with the full knowledge that the vast majority won't come close to turning a profit. It's the handful that do that make a VC company a fortune.
Bingo. The key is that there's only a mild to (at most) moderate chance of a civilization-ending event on Earth, and a remote chance of a humanity-ending one. The probability of such an event striking both Earth and one or more space colonies in quick succession is far lower.
Very good point. I hadn't read that bit by ESR before. I think it's a very good condemnation of Pournelle's general worldview...as well as a great short explanation of why the U.S. has civilian control of its military.
Grim? Heck yeah it was grim. Falkenberg is practically in tears by the end of it. I don't think it was for political order, though. It was to win a war. Basically, he lures a number of armed combatants and the whole enemy brain trust into the stadium, and then kills them. Had they been gathered in a stadium elsewhere and then been bombed, I don't think it would've been any different morally.
Basically, I don't see it as any different than swarming Adm. Yamato's plane and assassinating him (I call 16-3 an assassination, not a dogfight). Falkenberg is losing, so he performs a decapitation strike on enemy leadership.
Of course, my whole argument falls apart if I'm remembering this wrong. I seem to recall that the stadium is full of rebels (many of whom are armed) and their supporters. Sort of like the Continental Congresses--they won, so they're famous, but they'd have been executed if the British had the same chance Falkenberg had.
I'll second your demand for an N-space questionnaire. That would be awesome.
Brilliant? The Libertarian test is useless for doing anything besides telling people how Libertarian they "really" are...honest, now come to our meetings! It's a lot like those ads you occasionally see on tv: "Do you love your family? Do you believe in God? Then come to church X, where you really belong!" Pathetic, if you ask me.
Pournelle's system isn't for the test-taker's personal use--its best use is for people to accurately and efficiently convey their political views to one another. I _know_ what I am, so what I need is a better way to convey that information than the right/left distinction.
As for Pournelle's military SF, well, that was a revolutionary war they were fighting, and people tend to die in wars. Wars are ugly. If you don't like it, don't read about wars.
True to form, our military is preparing to fight the last war. In 2014, we'll probably be hearing about brigades getting lost or forgotten about, blue on blue airstrikes meant for ground support, and other results of a massive attack on military information networks conducted by cells from around the world.
On the plus side, by the time we fight the Mongolian Khanate in 2037 we'll have the best network firewalls in the world.:)
Really? I started using Mozilla 1.0 on my old K6 300 with 48mb RAM and it ran as fast or faster than IE 4. Beat the heck out of Netscape 4.7, which is what I was using before the Rockwalrus turned me on to Mozilla. That's faster than your machine, but it was a Compaq, which pretty much negates the speed difference.
(Darth Raymond) "I challenge you to a duel, Master Gates."
(Jedi Gates) "All right, just let me boot up my light saber."
10 minutes pass
(G) "Ok, my blade's on."
(R) "Then to battle!"
(G) "No, wait, now I need to turn on Windows Media Player so I can change my saber color."
(R) "What?"
(G) "Great, now let me close all of these pop-ups that show up whenever I turn on my saber."
(R) "You get light saber popups?"
(G) "Yes, but that'll be fixed in Service Pack 20, due out next year, barring unforeseen delays. Popups are really a normal part of dueling, you know."
(R) "You're a loony."
(G) "Am not!"
They fight. Gates is skilled, but after a few strikes his blade flickers and goes out, letting Raymond's blade slip through and destroy him.
(R) "Bill, Bill, Bill...didn't you read your own EULA? Longhorn isn't for use in airports, nuclear power plants, or other dangerous environments."
First, Wikipedia is licensed in such a way that, if I want a copy of the whole thing to fork it, they have to give it to me. If someone doesn't like where it's going, they can start up their own. The GNU FDL isn't perfect, but it'll work as advertised.
Second, Google may just want to be in on the ground floor if and when Wikipedia decides to allow Adsense-type ads.
Third, companies do often do charitable things. It's a tax write-off.
Given those three things, I recommend that some commenters pay attention to the big, friendly letters in the subject line.
A second problem is that we don't know how many surveyed just make up answers at random. The 90-year-old cross-dressing skate boarders from Baton Rouge are particularly into this.
The Lego Grandfather Clock was too tall for the shelf So it stood for five years on the floor More complicated by half than my lego castles And weighed a whole lot more It was built on the verge of a major Lego urge And was a major source of his pride Till its server stopped, short Never to go again When 'twas Slashdotted till it died
Age has got nothing to do with it. I love LoTR, as well as Heinlein and some of the other old greats. I just wouldn't apply the term "classic" to any of the books SRD poops out on a regular basis. To me, "classic" implies something > mere age, something that SRD's work does not have and that SRD himself may not be able to comprehend.
That said, I respect him for his skill to part people from their money. Simple plots, one-dimensional characters, ample sex, and the eventual triumph of good over evil sell well. I'm just not buying it.
Let me get this straight: someone who thinks that the Thomas Covenant Chronicle is a "classic...series" wants me to read something of Donaldson's because they say it's even better? Um...no.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean This Island Earth?
Oh, wait, this wasn't a poll, was it? Nevermind.
Come on, I'm sure there are more interesting "Netcraft Confirms: Blogs Are Dying!" type articles out there. If you want anecdotes, here's one for you: I read over a dozen blogs daily (not always closely, of course), and all but a couple of my regular reads over the last couple of years are still going strong and putting out generally good and interesting essays. In fact, several have even gone pro or semi-pro, and their output has gotten better and more frequent (especially the reader-supported ones).
Does this prove anything? No more than TFA, certainly. But its relatively small size means you've wasted much less of your life reading it than TFA.
One was that book about mirror magic by Stephen R. Donaldson (my first SRD book, and my last). The other two I don't actually remember. They were in elementary school sometime, and it's been a very long time. All I can remember is that I've been thinking for the longest time that it was 2 books in elementary school, that mirror book, and GWTW.
I quit reading the book after I was about 2/3 done (one of only 4 novels I've put down since I started reading 20 years ago), and I left the movie lamenting Sherman's lack of thoroughness in Georgia. Bleh. Good riddance.
If I'd have known I was causing them problems, I would've stopped trying to microwave their paint off their house as a practical joke.
He also said that he was sick of having to start each book with a hundred pages of gathering up the characters from the various ends of space-time to which they'd been flung at the end of the previous book, so he killed them off just so they'd all be in one place for the start of the next book. He spoke as if he'd always intended to keep expanding his "trilogy."
I really miss him.
See: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/VC.htmlp _fin/papers/SER-VCandGrowth_WP_dec_2002.pdf o ok/TransU4L2.htm
http://www.research.smu.edu.sg/faculty/edge/entre
http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/chinese/business/textb
Of course most of the projects collapsed! VCs dump money into lots of projects with the full knowledge that the vast majority won't come close to turning a profit. It's the handful that do that make a VC company a fortune.
World's Latest First Post!
Ah, a specimen of the elusive Damogran Frond Crested Eagle right here on /.!
Bingo. The key is that there's only a mild to (at most) moderate chance of a civilization-ending event on Earth, and a remote chance of a humanity-ending one. The probability of such an event striking both Earth and one or more space colonies in quick succession is far lower.
Grim? Heck yeah it was grim. Falkenberg is practically in tears by the end of it. I don't think it was for political order, though. It was to win a war. Basically, he lures a number of armed combatants and the whole enemy brain trust into the stadium, and then kills them. Had they been gathered in a stadium elsewhere and then been bombed, I don't think it would've been any different morally.
Basically, I don't see it as any different than swarming Adm. Yamato's plane and assassinating him (I call 16-3 an assassination, not a dogfight). Falkenberg is losing, so he performs a decapitation strike on enemy leadership.
Of course, my whole argument falls apart if I'm remembering this wrong. I seem to recall that the stadium is full of rebels (many of whom are armed) and their supporters. Sort of like the Continental Congresses--they won, so they're famous, but they'd have been executed if the British had the same chance Falkenberg had.
I'll second your demand for an N-space questionnaire. That would be awesome.
Pournelle's system isn't for the test-taker's personal use--its best use is for people to accurately and efficiently convey their political views to one another. I _know_ what I am, so what I need is a better way to convey that information than the right/left distinction.
As for Pournelle's military SF, well, that was a revolutionary war they were fighting, and people tend to die in wars. Wars are ugly. If you don't like it, don't read about wars.
I've always found this quiz to be extremely uninstructive, and therefore I much prefer the Pournelle Axes.
On the plus side, by the time we fight the Mongolian Khanate in 2037 we'll have the best network firewalls in the world. :)
Ask not for whose dream the bell tolls. It tolls for ours.
Really? I started using Mozilla 1.0 on my old K6 300 with 48mb RAM and it ran as fast or faster than IE 4. Beat the heck out of Netscape 4.7, which is what I was using before the Rockwalrus turned me on to Mozilla. That's faster than your machine, but it was a Compaq, which pretty much negates the speed difference.
(Darth Raymond) "I challenge you to a duel, Master Gates."
(Jedi Gates) "All right, just let me boot up my light saber."
10 minutes pass
(G) "Ok, my blade's on."
(R) "Then to battle!"
(G) "No, wait, now I need to turn on Windows Media Player so I can change my saber color."
(R) "What?"
(G) "Great, now let me close all of these pop-ups that show up whenever I turn on my saber."
(R) "You get light saber popups?"
(G) "Yes, but that'll be fixed in Service Pack 20, due out next year, barring unforeseen delays. Popups are really a normal part of dueling, you know."
(R) "You're a loony."
(G) "Am not!"
They fight. Gates is skilled, but after a few strikes his blade flickers and goes out, letting Raymond's blade slip through and destroy him.
(R) "Bill, Bill, Bill...didn't you read your own EULA? Longhorn isn't for use in airports, nuclear power plants, or other dangerous environments."
Anyone can copy and fork it at any time, provided they abide by section 2-4.
Furthermore, comparisons to the USENET archive are spurious because USENET is not licensed under the GNU FDL.
Second, Google may just want to be in on the ground floor if and when Wikipedia decides to allow Adsense-type ads.
Third, companies do often do charitable things. It's a tax write-off.
Given those three things, I recommend that some commenters pay attention to the big, friendly letters in the subject line.
No we're not!
The Lego Grandfather Clock was too tall for the shelf
So it stood for five years on the floor
More complicated by half than my lego castles
And weighed a whole lot more
It was built on the verge of a major Lego urge
And was a major source of his pride
Till its server stopped, short
Never to go again
When 'twas Slashdotted till it died
That said, I respect him for his skill to part people from their money. Simple plots, one-dimensional characters, ample sex, and the eventual triumph of good over evil sell well. I'm just not buying it.
Let me get this straight: someone who thinks that the Thomas Covenant Chronicle is a "classic...series" wants me to read something of Donaldson's because they say it's even better? Um...no.