I've no great objections to Spider Robinson as an author, but completing Heinlein? I think I'd much prefer John Varley for the job.
Well, there's another author I'd have on my short list. Herb would do a great job of it too.
I'd give the edge to Spider, kind of a gut feel here, plus my sense of how much each person would change (knowingly/unknowingly) in "finishing" the book.
One thing that I'd like to know is: who's going to edit it? Maybe Spider could get Herb to edit it for him?
Now that's a "trilogy" of authors I'd like to see...
Especially since the reason Heinlein set aside the unfinished book and forgot about it was probably that he'd decided it wasn't any good.
Not necessarily. Many times, authors start in on a book, or novella, and it just doesn't feel right, still unfinished, but one doesn't have a clue what to do with it. Best thing to do then is just put it on a shelf and let it sit for a while, IMHO. Sometimes, the time helps and you look at it again fresh, and it all comes together. Other times, as you suggest, you take it off the shelf, try to complete it, and realize it was a dumb idea in the first place.
One would hope Spider wouldn't waste his time if it were the latter.
I agree, Spider's very good, and I think he can keep to the style. I remember competing in a pun contest with him in Vancouver BC, and I still feel a bit apologetic about that virus I gave his skinny Mac way back when (seriously, I did test the programs out on fat Macs and my dual floppy Mac SE, but...).
Last I remember, they use 1/20th the energy of a Compact Flourescent Lightbulb (my house has tons of them, get the four or six-packs at Home Depot in the center aisle, last five years, dirt cheap).
So, even if it's better than the current terrorist-fighting one-eigth energy using less-heat-producing compact flourescent lightbulb - which doesn't work too well in areas with lots of vibration (like right next to your washing machine), switching to LEDs, especially the new GE white light LEDs, might be even better for the environment and your energy bill, plus I seem to recall contain even fewer polluting mercury and other materials.
If you're still using "regular" lightbulbs (incandescents), though, I highly recommend switching to at least CF bulbs, you save a lot and Osama won't like it at all.
No, I was born in San Antonio, and played with rattlesnakes in my crib. Here in America, we refer to our original non-American origins of our parents, grandparents, or other ancestors. It's only when we're outside America that we call ourselves Americans.
They have fairly strict publication restrictions on cases before and during trials, so I would expect this to happen not just in the UK (which is far more than Britain, as any Scot or Welshman could tell you, and I'm both), but also in Canada.
It's a bit more problematic, in terms of Canada, in that you could have a Canadian surf a wireless site just over the border to get his unfiltered press from a nearby US site, and go around the blockade at the border, but if you're using a fixed cable provider like Rogers Cable in British Columbia, they'll probably block certain news articles from your feed.
I still think they should make a game, somewhat like Lego Star Wars, where everything is Peeps, Chocolate Bunnies, and Rubber Duckies.
I can see it now:
Luke Peepstalker: You can't be my father, I'm an edible marshmallow chick!
Darth Ducky: Luke, search inside your soft marshmallow heart, you know that I am your father! Plus, see these nifty red devil horns? I'm a Devil Duckie too!
Luke: Noo!
[Darth chops off Luke's yellow marshmallow hand and eats it. Yum!]
I have a WinXP computer at work, and a WinXP laptop at home. Most of our work computers are Linux.
We aren't buying Windows Vista at work. I won't be buying it at home.
I see no reason to shell out $2000 for a new computer and pay for a product I don't need. If I wanted all the screen cruft, I'd buy another Mac mini, like my son has, and it would be a lot cheaper.
Someone said: Looks like it is about time to short-sell their stock
To which NineNine said: You go ahead and do that. I'll be buying.
To which myself, a different person who has many investments and who has been investing for 30 years say:
I wouldn't recommend it. I've owned Sony. I've made money off of owning Sony stock. I sold my Sony stock and bought Nintendo a few months back, and quite frankly, I have seen absolutely no reason to change my basic decision. Sony just plain isn't getting it - but Nintendo is. And it's not just the gaming platforms, quite frankly, it's the total corporation.
You probably want to buy Ford... while all their top execs and engineers are fleeing the company. A wiser choice would be Honda, Toyota (missed the curve on that), or even GM, but buying Ford now is just as nuts as buying Sony is.
Red Herring used to be like Business 2.0, but they moved to India a while ago and went paperless (Net/Web-only). About the time I stopped reading them, was when I stopped investing in Chinese IPOs (made a mint, got out before people realized it's hard to liquidate your holdings in Chinese corporations that are normally held more than 50 percent by the Chinese government).
They used to be insightful, but IMHO, their main target audience is now in India and that region of the world.
Well, my son played the beta, but found it too boring, and everything I've seen severely underwowed this Starcraft and Diablo II and Warcraft I/II player.
He's mostly playing flash anime games, I'm mostly doing the Sims until the Wii comes out with Spore and Animal Crossing and hopefully a Diablo spinoff.
Given fluctuations, you'd need not only around $300,000,000,000.00 dollars USD to buy up the shares, you'd need a majority of shares, which means both Bill Gates and most of the major shareholders would have to sell (or want to).
It's much more likely that Gates et al would decide to take Microsoft private instead, lowballing income and increasing expenses to make it look less profitable, so that other shareholders would sell to them at a discount, then after a few years bring it out for a public IPO again, after spinning off various units.
But since much of Microsoft is in literal cash (short term debt notes, corporate, Canada treasuries, etc.), even that is not that likely.
If I thought they were going to go private, I'd be buying them up. I made the money for the downpayment (20 percent) of my first house by buying and selling MSFT on publicly available information in trade magazines, after all.
Good thing we'll have Friend Codes to keep our online experience pollution-free.
I agree. I got tired of playing Diablo II when all the spam bots and gold miners and cursing teens started showing up.
I kept having to use my Mute capability way too often.
It's part of why I'm not that interested in WoW. But I'm looking forward to Animal Crossing and Spore on the Wii, and the ability to talk and share with real friends I know, not total strangers who cuss at the drop of a shovel.
Say I created a game in which you spent 15 minutes having sex with a prostitute, then 15 minutes beating her to death and cutting her up into pieces. Would this game be 50% violent, 50% having sex with hookers?
That depends. If you spent linear time, perhaps. But if you combined both, say with S&M or B&D, then it's possible to have a game by more than 50 percent of both.
My question would be why you're playing such a game in the first place...
By her "logic", chess is an incredibly violent game.
Originally, chess was played by kings, lords, barons, and knights who used it to learn strategy and plan bloody wars that killed people.
In fact, if you look at the pieces, they have pawns, bishops, knights, and so on - and they "kill" their opponents. Just think of the violence inherent in the system, and the class structure imposed on an otherwise peaceful agrarian society in harmony with nature! Sometimes they would attack peaceful anarchistic syndicalist communes yearning to break free of their tyranny, and use coconuts!
Since when does having a Ph.D. excuse someone from making moronic statements?
It doesn't. I think the Pretzeldent has an MBA from Harvard, so you raise a good point.
It's not the violence inherent in the system, it's the actual impact. Most studies in peer-reviewed journals I've seen seem to indicate that one should be far more concerned with Bruce Willis in terms of making us more violent than Pac-Man or any video games.
Seriously, during my seven years in uniform, I probably spent way too much money on Ms. Pac-Man. Pac-Man is for civvies, real Army types prefer Ms. Pac-Man.
Slashdot Mirror
I've no great objections to Spider Robinson as an author, but completing Heinlein? I think I'd much prefer John Varley for the job.
...
Well, there's another author I'd have on my short list. Herb would do a great job of it too.
I'd give the edge to Spider, kind of a gut feel here, plus my sense of how much each person would change (knowingly/unknowingly) in "finishing" the book.
One thing that I'd like to know is: who's going to edit it? Maybe Spider could get Herb to edit it for him?
Now that's a "trilogy" of authors I'd like to see
Especially since the reason Heinlein set aside the unfinished book and forgot about it was probably that he'd decided it wasn't any good.
Not necessarily. Many times, authors start in on a book, or novella, and it just doesn't feel right, still unfinished, but one doesn't have a clue what to do with it. Best thing to do then is just put it on a shelf and let it sit for a while, IMHO. Sometimes, the time helps and you look at it again fresh, and it all comes together. Other times, as you suggest, you take it off the shelf, try to complete it, and realize it was a dumb idea in the first place.
One would hope Spider wouldn't waste his time if it were the latter.
I agree, Spider's very good, and I think he can keep to the style. I remember competing in a pun contest with him in Vancouver BC, and I still feel a bit apologetic about that virus I gave his skinny Mac way back when (seriously, I did test the programs out on fat Macs and my dual floppy Mac SE, but ...).
He'd be on my short list of authors to do it.
Looking forward to it when it's in print!
Last I remember, they use 1/20th the energy of a Compact Flourescent Lightbulb (my house has tons of them, get the four or six-packs at Home Depot in the center aisle, last five years, dirt cheap).
So, even if it's better than the current terrorist-fighting one-eigth energy using less-heat-producing compact flourescent lightbulb - which doesn't work too well in areas with lots of vibration (like right next to your washing machine), switching to LEDs, especially the new GE white light LEDs, might be even better for the environment and your energy bill, plus I seem to recall contain even fewer polluting mercury and other materials.
If you're still using "regular" lightbulbs (incandescents), though, I highly recommend switching to at least CF bulbs, you save a lot and Osama won't like it at all.
No, I was born in San Antonio, and played with rattlesnakes in my crib. Here in America, we refer to our original non-American origins of our parents, grandparents, or other ancestors. It's only when we're outside America that we call ourselves Americans.
They said Britain, not the British Isles.
Most people in Scotland would not agree with your definition of Britain, although some Welsh might.
They have fairly strict publication restrictions on cases before and during trials, so I would expect this to happen not just in the UK (which is far more than Britain, as any Scot or Welshman could tell you, and I'm both), but also in Canada.
It's a bit more problematic, in terms of Canada, in that you could have a Canadian surf a wireless site just over the border to get his unfiltered press from a nearby US site, and go around the blockade at the border, but if you're using a fixed cable provider like Rogers Cable in British Columbia, they'll probably block certain news articles from your feed.
I still think they should make a game, somewhat like Lego Star Wars, where everything is Peeps, Chocolate Bunnies, and Rubber Duckies.
I can see it now:
Luke Peepstalker: You can't be my father, I'm an edible marshmallow chick!
Darth Ducky: Luke, search inside your soft marshmallow heart, you know that I am your father! Plus, see these nifty red devil horns? I'm a Devil Duckie too!
Luke: Noo!
[Darth chops off Luke's yellow marshmallow hand and eats it. Yum!]
is ... they pay me.
I have a WinXP computer at work, and a WinXP laptop at home. Most of our work computers are Linux.
We aren't buying Windows Vista at work. I won't be buying it at home.
I see no reason to shell out $2000 for a new computer and pay for a product I don't need. If I wanted all the screen cruft, I'd buy another Mac mini, like my son has, and it would be a lot cheaper.
Someone said: Looks like it is about time to short-sell their stock
... while all their top execs and engineers are fleeing the company. A wiser choice would be Honda, Toyota (missed the curve on that), or even GM, but buying Ford now is just as nuts as buying Sony is.
To which NineNine said: You go ahead and do that. I'll be buying.
To which myself, a different person who has many investments and who has been investing for 30 years say:
I wouldn't recommend it. I've owned Sony. I've made money off of owning Sony stock. I sold my Sony stock and bought Nintendo a few months back, and quite frankly, I have seen absolutely no reason to change my basic decision. Sony just plain isn't getting it - but Nintendo is. And it's not just the gaming platforms, quite frankly, it's the total corporation.
You probably want to buy Ford
Red Herring used to be like Business 2.0, but they moved to India a while ago and went paperless (Net/Web-only). About the time I stopped reading them, was when I stopped investing in Chinese IPOs (made a mint, got out before people realized it's hard to liquidate your holdings in Chinese corporations that are normally held more than 50 percent by the Chinese government).
They used to be insightful, but IMHO, their main target audience is now in India and that region of the world.
because, face it, if you can't text edit with Vi, you really shouldn't be trying to work Open Source.
Well, my son played the beta, but found it too boring, and everything I've seen severely underwowed this Starcraft and Diablo II and Warcraft I/II player.
He's mostly playing flash anime games, I'm mostly doing the Sims until the Wii comes out with Spore and Animal Crossing and hopefully a Diablo spinoff.
but I'm looking forward to picking up one for $5 at a garage sale here in Seattle.
You say that, but I don't think Carly Fiorina ever realised what she was doing to HP.
Right now HP is doing a lot better than Dell, according to the Wall Street Journal over the last few weeks of articles I've read.
Given fluctuations, you'd need not only around $300,000,000,000.00 dollars USD to buy up the shares, you'd need a majority of shares, which means both Bill Gates and most of the major shareholders would have to sell (or want to).
It's much more likely that Gates et al would decide to take Microsoft private instead, lowballing income and increasing expenses to make it look less profitable, so that other shareholders would sell to them at a discount, then after a few years bring it out for a public IPO again, after spinning off various units.
But since much of Microsoft is in literal cash (short term debt notes, corporate, Canada treasuries, etc.), even that is not that likely.
If I thought they were going to go private, I'd be buying them up. I made the money for the downpayment (20 percent) of my first house by buying and selling MSFT on publicly available information in trade magazines, after all.
And I'm not. Buying that is.
Much more likely that Intel would be LBO'd, IMHO.
Good thing we'll have Friend Codes to keep our online experience pollution-free.
I agree. I got tired of playing Diablo II when all the spam bots and gold miners and cursing teens started showing up.
I kept having to use my Mute capability way too often.
It's part of why I'm not that interested in WoW. But I'm looking forward to Animal Crossing and Spore on the Wii, and the ability to talk and share with real friends I know, not total strangers who cuss at the drop of a shovel.
So long as the Wii has Net capability by the time that Spore comes out, I'll be happy.
...
I've got a cable modem and a b/g wireless base station and I'm dying to put those to the test
I'm serious. I'm sick and tired of buying unnecessary computers and graphics cards just to play a frickin game.
Either it works on the Wii or I won't play it. Period.
I think I Played this Game. Grand Theft Something...
...
No, my son's playing that this morning, was using the cheats to pop up the jetpack and the tank and all that.
Pretty pointless game - says he has something like $14 million dollars.
Spends all his time putting mines on top of cop cars and then blowing them up
And that's my final decision.
...
Sorry, Blizzard, I loved Starcraft I and II, Diablo I and II, but
Say I created a game in which you spent 15 minutes having sex with a prostitute, then 15 minutes beating her to death and cutting her up into pieces. Would this game be 50% violent, 50% having sex with hookers?
...
That depends. If you spent linear time, perhaps. But if you combined both, say with S&M or B&D, then it's possible to have a game by more than 50 percent of both.
My question would be why you're playing such a game in the first place
By her "logic", chess is an incredibly violent game.
Originally, chess was played by kings, lords, barons, and knights who used it to learn strategy and plan bloody wars that killed people.
In fact, if you look at the pieces, they have pawns, bishops, knights, and so on - and they "kill" their opponents. Just think of the violence inherent in the system, and the class structure imposed on an otherwise peaceful agrarian society in harmony with nature! Sometimes they would attack peaceful anarchistic syndicalist communes yearning to break free of their tyranny, and use coconuts!
Time to ban chess!
Since when does having a Ph.D. excuse someone from making moronic statements?
It doesn't. I think the Pretzeldent has an MBA from Harvard, so you raise a good point.
It's not the violence inherent in the system, it's the actual impact. Most studies in peer-reviewed journals I've seen seem to indicate that one should be far more concerned with Bruce Willis in terms of making us more violent than Pac-Man or any video games.
Ms. Pac-Man.
Seriously, during my seven years in uniform, I probably spent way too much money on Ms. Pac-Man. Pac-Man is for civvies, real Army types prefer Ms. Pac-Man.