His characters can have depth to them. Ned Stark, Tyrion, Tywin. Others. But so many of the rest might as well be props. The only place I find this excusable is with Joffrey because it really suits his character. The rest, not so much. So many of them have one thought, and that thought it all they think every time the narrator peers into their heads. Bearing in mind I've only just started the second book, so maybe some of those other characters get more interesting later.
**spoilers**
I found the whole proclaiming Robb King of the North to be contrived.
I was bored almost the entire time with the Daenerys storyline, because it was obvious from almost the beginning what was going to happen. It was no surprise when Viserys died. The only part I found interesting was when Drogo died. I didn't expect that.
The were some great parts as well. When Ned Stark betrays his honor and lies. When Joffrey has him killed anyway even though it was a really stupid move, much to the surprise of his mother. Arya and the swordmaster. Walder Frey and Caitlin Stark's interchange. Tyrion at Winterfell on his way south from the wall.
Like I said, an entertaining read, but not "great" in my book.
There's nothing wrong with characters being dicks as long as they are entertaining dicks. You know, like Archer. And you're supposed to *want* to slap the shit out of Joffrey, so...
I liked Peter Dinklage as Tyrion and think Tyrion is probably the most interesting (and complete) character in AGOT. Ned Stark and Arya Stark were good too, both in the book and on the screen. Gregor Clegane should have been CG'ed - the way he is described in the book is essentially impossible in a real human. Arya's 'dancing' instructor was decent, too. The rest I could take or leave, mostly leave. I didn't like Aidin Gillen as Petyr Baelish at all.
I've only read AGOT so I can't speak for his earlier works, but based on my impressions so far, he's the Dean Koontz of Fantasy. Somewhat entertaining, but nothing to write home about.
I'm logged in now, you coward, so feel free to waste another mod point.
AGOT was entertaining. So much so that I am reading the second one now. But no, I'm sorry, it doesn't qualify him as a "damn good author." His decision to merchandise the crap out of it only makes me think he wrote it for a quick buck. There's also the fact that it's not actually a novel. It's the first part of a gigantic unfinished serial.
I wish GRRM the best in whatever it is he is wanting to accomplish with these books. *I* think he's trying to make a quick buck. Great. But just because I am unimpressed with his work does not mean I am a troll. And for the record, I happen to love Dean Koontz. I don't think he's the greatest writer ever, but he keeps me entertained some times. That's the same impression I get from what I've experienced of GRRM.
Hulu may care very much about your dollar. It just may not have a way to get at your dollar that won't cost it even more dollars. I don't see how they are required to take a bath just so you can watch their shows or how their unwillingness to do that justifies piracy.
I don't care either. The risk and effort involved in pirating all that Hulu provides probably outweighs the cost of just setting up a VPS somewhere and having a legitimate Hulu account. Regardless of his reasons, the submitter didn't specifically stated he wasn't interested in illegal downloads.
You don't want to use a specialized service provider. If service providers like Netflix decide to go searching for and blocking proxies, services like unblock-us.com are going to be easy to find - a handful of IP addresses and tons of traffic. Your lone IP address coming from your VPS with a normal amount of traffic is going to be a lot harder - if not impossible - to find and block.
Best case scenario, going with a specialized provider is an arms race in which you'll be paying both sides to arm themselves - all for potentially more downtime than a DIY solution.
The submitter isn't looking for a proxy to hide his identity or online activity. He wants to use a proxy to get around IP address blocks for services restricted by geographic location.
Even if there are no higher physics that can shortcut light speed, they should be here by now.
Why? Even at a significant fraction of the speed of light it's going to take a long, long time to colonize the galaxy. Perhaps less than a million years if you are actively trying to colonize the galaxy as fast as possible. If you're doing it on an as-needed basis, it's going to take a lot longer.
There are hundreds of billions of stars. Even visiting them all in some capacity (e.g. Von Neumann probes) would take a long time and we'd have no way of knowing whether they had been here at all unless they made themselves known.
And all this assumes best case scenarios for:
1. Development of life. 2. Development of intelligence. 3. Development of space-faring technology. 4. Stability of civilization both before and after the start of their Space Age.
And then there is the question of why they would come here in the first place. Resources? There is not much here that isn't available elsewhere and probably closer to their home. Life, intelligence? Well, if it's as common as we're assuming then we are nothing special so why bother?
It depends on who you ask. I remember when the first one came out. For most of my friends and family who have played those earlier ones, 7 killed the series.
However, for my younger brother and others I know for whom 7 was the first experience with the series, it made the series.
For the people who didn't think 7 killed it, 9 was the pinnacle and 10 killed it.
For me, I liked 10 and 10-2. I also liked 12 because it was different. (I've never played 11 or any other MMO.)
13 is a steaming pile. I played it. And played it. And played it. And kept waiting for it to 'open up'. The way the earlier ones always wait to make you play by forcing you along a certain track and only letting you play 5 seconds here or there out of the first 30 minutes of the 'game' was always the worst part, but I could always make it through that and then pretty much enjoy the game. That *is* the game with 13. IT. NEVER. OPENS. UP.
14? WhoTF cares? It's like the GP says, it's not a FF title. It's an MMO with a FF name there to sell it.
An expense that someone suffers due to a physical infirmity is not "charging people." Someone provides them with a service or product that they need and expects to be compensated in return.
What you are suggesting is charging Paul to pay for Peter rather than having Peter pay his own way. There may be some value in subsidizing keeping people alive, but that's a political conversation I sure as hell don't want to have on/.
Can we have something other than a Wikipedia article as a source? It seems to me that just because a single chlorine atom CAN react with 100,000 ozone molecules doesn't mean it will or that it does on average.
What's the actual damage to the ozone layer from these devices? Is the cost of that damage more or less than the cost of banning these devices?
ESPN is a delivery service. Guess how much MLB baseball I watched on ESPN this season. (Hint: None).
Now, this is a bit easier for me than for other folks, since my team is not the local team and so it is never blacked out for me. But the second MLB can make more money streaming this content directly to everyone (or through some other service) than going through ESPN, they're going to do it, local games and all. ESPN wants their contract. They only want ESPN when ESPN makes the best offer.
Slashdot Mirror
His characters can have depth to them. Ned Stark, Tyrion, Tywin. Others. But so many of the rest might as well be props. The only place I find this excusable is with Joffrey because it really suits his character. The rest, not so much. So many of them have one thought, and that thought it all they think every time the narrator peers into their heads. Bearing in mind I've only just started the second book, so maybe some of those other characters get more interesting later.
**spoilers**
I found the whole proclaiming Robb King of the North to be contrived.
I was bored almost the entire time with the Daenerys storyline, because it was obvious from almost the beginning what was going to happen. It was no surprise when Viserys died. The only part I found interesting was when Drogo died. I didn't expect that.
The were some great parts as well. When Ned Stark betrays his honor and lies. When Joffrey has him killed anyway even though it was a really stupid move, much to the surprise of his mother. Arya and the swordmaster. Walder Frey and Caitlin Stark's interchange. Tyrion at Winterfell on his way south from the wall.
Like I said, an entertaining read, but not "great" in my book.
Yeah, the "didn't" wasn't supposed to be there.
There's nothing wrong with characters being dicks as long as they are entertaining dicks. You know, like Archer. And you're supposed to *want* to slap the shit out of Joffrey, so...
I liked Peter Dinklage as Tyrion and think Tyrion is probably the most interesting (and complete) character in AGOT. Ned Stark and Arya Stark were good too, both in the book and on the screen. Gregor Clegane should have been CG'ed - the way he is described in the book is essentially impossible in a real human. Arya's 'dancing' instructor was decent, too. The rest I could take or leave, mostly leave. I didn't like Aidin Gillen as Petyr Baelish at all.
How does it compare to his earlier stuff? I know Robert Jordan was a fan of his, which is one thing that got me into reading AGOT in the first place.
I've only read AGOT so I can't speak for his earlier works, but based on my impressions so far, he's the Dean Koontz of Fantasy. Somewhat entertaining, but nothing to write home about.
I'm logged in now, you coward, so feel free to waste another mod point.
AGOT was entertaining. So much so that I am reading the second one now. But no, I'm sorry, it doesn't qualify him as a "damn good author." His decision to merchandise the crap out of it only makes me think he wrote it for a quick buck. There's also the fact that it's not actually a novel. It's the first part of a gigantic unfinished serial.
I wish GRRM the best in whatever it is he is wanting to accomplish with these books. *I* think he's trying to make a quick buck. Great. But just because I am unimpressed with his work does not mean I am a troll. And for the record, I happen to love Dean Koontz. I don't think he's the greatest writer ever, but he keeps me entertained some times. That's the same impression I get from what I've experienced of GRRM.
I'd be interested in what a lawyer has to say on it. Seems to me he will probably be violating terms of service, but would it really be illegal?
Hulu may care very much about your dollar. It just may not have a way to get at your dollar that won't cost it even more dollars. I don't see how they are required to take a bath just so you can watch their shows or how their unwillingness to do that justifies piracy.
I don't care either. The risk and effort involved in pirating all that Hulu provides probably outweighs the cost of just setting up a VPS somewhere and having a legitimate Hulu account. Regardless of his reasons, the submitter didn't specifically stated he wasn't interested in illegal downloads.
You don't want to use a specialized service provider. If service providers like Netflix decide to go searching for and blocking proxies, services like unblock-us.com are going to be easy to find - a handful of IP addresses and tons of traffic. Your lone IP address coming from your VPS with a normal amount of traffic is going to be a lot harder - if not impossible - to find and block.
Best case scenario, going with a specialized provider is an arms race in which you'll be paying both sides to arm themselves - all for potentially more downtime than a DIY solution.
The submitter isn't looking for a proxy to hide his identity or online activity. He wants to use a proxy to get around IP address blocks for services restricted by geographic location.
Even if there are no higher physics that can shortcut light speed, they should be here by now.
Why? Even at a significant fraction of the speed of light it's going to take a long, long time to colonize the galaxy. Perhaps less than a million years if you are actively trying to colonize the galaxy as fast as possible. If you're doing it on an as-needed basis, it's going to take a lot longer.
There are hundreds of billions of stars. Even visiting them all in some capacity (e.g. Von Neumann probes) would take a long time and we'd have no way of knowing whether they had been here at all unless they made themselves known.
And all this assumes best case scenarios for:
1. Development of life.
2. Development of intelligence.
3. Development of space-faring technology.
4. Stability of civilization both before and after the start of their Space Age.
And then there is the question of why they would come here in the first place. Resources? There is not much here that isn't available elsewhere and probably closer to their home. Life, intelligence? Well, if it's as common as we're assuming then we are nothing special so why bother?
As far as I know we still have both words.
GP == the OP of another thread I read :)
It depends on who you ask. I remember when the first one came out. For most of my friends and family who have played those earlier ones, 7 killed the series.
However, for my younger brother and others I know for whom 7 was the first experience with the series, it made the series.
For the people who didn't think 7 killed it, 9 was the pinnacle and 10 killed it.
For me, I liked 10 and 10-2. I also liked 12 because it was different. (I've never played 11 or any other MMO.)
13 is a steaming pile. I played it. And played it. And played it. And kept waiting for it to 'open up'. The way the earlier ones always wait to make you play by forcing you along a certain track and only letting you play 5 seconds here or there out of the first 30 minutes of the 'game' was always the worst part, but I could always make it through that and then pretty much enjoy the game. That *is* the game with 13. IT. NEVER. OPENS. UP.
14? WhoTF cares? It's like the GP says, it's not a FF title. It's an MMO with a FF name there to sell it.
I find your bid suspiciously low and therefore won't hire you to ruin my company.
Yes, B&N does have an app store. The Nook Color is essentially a specialized Android tablet. I'd expect Amazon to come out with something similar.
Despite its marriage to iTunes, the iPad is a general purpose device. It's app-centric.
The B&N Nook is book/magazine-centric. It's designed primarily for the consumption of that media.
I'd expect a tablet Kindle to develop along the lines of a media consumption device rather than a general purpose device. At least at first.
Buy them all iPads!
Right or wrong, you have that backwards.
An expense that someone suffers due to a physical infirmity is not "charging people." Someone provides them with a service or product that they need and expects to be compensated in return.
What you are suggesting is charging Paul to pay for Peter rather than having Peter pay his own way. There may be some value in subsidizing keeping people alive, but that's a political conversation I sure as hell don't want to have on /.
-1, Irrelevant
No one is surprised that other CFC devices are banned. We're talking about devices that save people's lives, not hair spray.
Can we have something other than a Wikipedia article as a source? It seems to me that just because a single chlorine atom CAN react with 100,000 ozone molecules doesn't mean it will or that it does on average.
What's the actual damage to the ozone layer from these devices?
Is the cost of that damage more or less than the cost of banning these devices?
Looks like somebody finally thought of the children.
ESPN is a delivery service. Guess how much MLB baseball I watched on ESPN this season. (Hint: None).
Now, this is a bit easier for me than for other folks, since my team is not the local team and so it is never blacked out for me. But the second MLB can make more money streaming this content directly to everyone (or through some other service) than going through ESPN, they're going to do it, local games and all. ESPN wants their contract. They only want ESPN when ESPN makes the best offer.
Yes, there is nothing I want interfacing with my body more than neutron radiation. :) (Well except girls, but let's be real here...)
But if I move into the basement mom won't make me pancakes anymore.
Jesus! It's not that I don't agree with you more or less, but why don't you and science get a room?
You're completely forgetting the religious aspect. Only fornicators destined for hell are going to get AIDS. Clearly we need to bomb the free clinic.
Also, it causes autism.