Given that independent studies have shown it to be more factual than standard encyclopedias, I'm not sure why people continue to throw about the claim that it will never become as good as a standard encyclopedia.
I dare say, it surpassed standard encyclopedias some time ago.
The Wikipedia is not without fault, but the same can be said for any source.
When I generate ghost images for the PCs here at work, the average desktop user goes through about 4 gigs here, if that. 83 gigs per person is quite a bit.
I'm also curious about Google and the like. Do they not disclose their storage?
Tolkein's writing style wasn't for everyone, but Tolkein was arguably the first to create such an incredible fantasy world. Innovators always get considerably more points than the people who attempt to imitate them, all the while insisting imitation is better than original creation. Jordan was easily the most overrated fantasy author I ever knew, but I'm still sad to see him go.
For years I joked that Jordan intentionally dragged his series out longer than he needed to, and he would die right before the last book was finished. Now I feel pretty shitty for the joke.
I read the first six books, and everyone swore it was the greatest fantasy series ever. He threw in archetypical images from most every culture into a giant mish-mash with tons of side characters and side plots that rarely seemed to amount to anything, but the main plot was repetitive at best. Without spoiling anything too critical the plot of the first book is the protagonists being pursed. They go to one town, are attacked in the middle of the night (he writes continuosly how they never slept) hastily travel to another town, are attacked in the night, and hastily travel to another town, except this continues for 800 pages.
The finale of each book is vague and anti-climactic, sometimes really completely absent from the book with the excuse that the main character passed out and didn't remember the conflict.
The story is told third-person, so regardless of whether he passed out or not, you should still write the end of your books.
I thought maybe it started to go somewhere at the end of book 3, but after reading 6 books at near 1,000 pages a pop, I couldn't believe how ultimately he hadn't told much of a story at all yet, while churning out the same crap. Then fans insisted the next 2 or three books were horrible, but they started to get better at book 9. I didn't intend to both ever again, and so I started with the joke. And 13 was the big number in the series, and for as long as I can recall the series was slated 13 books.
I'm pretty sure he altered that huge master plan of his to wrap things up in 12 because of his illness, and now that remains unfinished. Robert Jordan was known to be full of himself, regularly compare himself to Tolkein, and regularly insist he was writing the most important work of fiction in history. His Conan work was pretty horrid, and trashed by even some of his biggest fans. The worst part is that if he hadn't been taking so much time between books doing side stuff like Conan, he probably could have churned out all 13 WoT books, and let history decide. Or maybe he could have told his story in a much shorter cycle, and not stretched needlessly for books.
With all that being said, it is never a good die to see an author die so quickly from a disease, nor is it good for an audience to be now eternally tortured.
The greatest irony is not that the series wasn't finished when Jordan died, but rather that for a man who wanted so very much to be Tolkein, he emulated him even in death. People seem to forget that Tolkein's work had to be finished after his death as well.
Yep, when Linus said that he didn't really want to get involved in license wars, and wouldn't carry the GPL torch, he clearly demonstrated that he is obnoxious in his desire to trample over people's rights.
When Linus said he didn't care about politics, only code, he was emulating the IRA without a doubt.
When Linus said he didn't intend to take a side with the Novell/Microsoft deal, but rather just focus on writing code, his clear intention to command legal authority and force his hegemony over all.
...the spirit of the GPL was to keep software free so that the source code can't be made proprietary (such as what happened with Microsoft swallowing pieces of BSD like you stated). Linus very much supports that clause, and has always spoken in favor of the GPLv2. I'm curious why you suggest he is against the spirit of the GPLv2. The only anti-GPL statements I've seen him make are in regards to GPLv3, in that he doesn't think a software license should govern or have anything to do with hardware.
I tried figuring micro Newtons to Fig Newtons and couldn't, but I figured it was one of those wacky English/metric calculations NASA is so good at, so I'll leave it to them. Oh, those wacky NASA mathematicians! Friends don't let friends drink and derive!
And if Volkswagen engineering taught us anything, if you can launch a Fig Newton into space it becomes farfegnugen.
Given that Stallman is adamant about terminology, I find it odd that he makes such a big issue about Free Software versus Open Source while promoting a license with so many restrictions.
Restrictions are the opposite of free software. Somedays I really think he forget where he came from.
No publisher wanted any piece of this game initially. Irrational wanted to acquire the rights to do System Shock 3, and no one would foot the bill. In fact, when they pitched this game, most publishers insisted this game would bomb, and it was just another pointless FPS.
Irrational makes fine games, and I'm glad to see someone saw the potential in this title. Consumers sure did.
I respect the contributions that Richard Stallman has made. Really I do. But please consider the following quotes:
Stallman proclaimed that "the prospect of charging money for software was a crime against humanity."
The Linux desktop (and I will call it Linux as opposed to GNU/Linux, because we don't append the name of every software package installed to placate anyone's ego, but rather call the desktop by the one name that unifies all Linux desktops, the kernel. Beyond that, many of us are running very different software packages) has proven that volunteer communities can produce some great software for free, but the vast majority of software in the world still comes from the commercial sector. And I have this crazy idea that a person deserves the right to paid for their work.
If commercial software didn't exist, and programming wasn't a valid career field, then far fewer people would learn it in the first place, further decreasing the free software market. And last time I checked, several of the main programmers who develop GNU software, are paid to do so by companies who charge money for software, like Novell.
Here is the kicker. From Richard Stallman:
"I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a software license agreement."
He once spoke of how all software should be completely free, with no restrictions, yet his licenses have become more complicated, and more restricted.
Will the GPLv3 drive me away from Linux? Only if it becomes the prevailing license across most Linux software and the kernel. Certain programs like Samba that went GPLv3 will likely have a GPLv2 fork. However, I do believe that GPLv3 is approaching hypocrisy and lunacy. If the trend continues, I very much will consider moving to BSD.
Spin: This proves that kids are getting their hands on M-rated games, and we must fight to push these bills that classify video-games in the same camp as pornography!
Spin: Well, duh, studies have also shown that the vast majority of gamers are adults, and that the average age of gamers continues to rise. It isn't shocking that adult gamers might purchase content catered to a mature audience.
Spin: In addition to trying to get Bush to testify, Thompson will now subpoena The Pope, Nolan Bushnell, and Big Bird to prove that the war in Iraq was caused by a generation of adults raised on violent games like Pong.
I played and loved Half Life 1, but then I got married, got way in debt, and had a kid. When my gaming rig died, I frankly couldn't afford to rebuild it. Recently I've rebuilt my budget gaming rig, but hopefully it should be capable of running HL 2 (AMD X2 3600+, GeForce 7600 GT). If anyone does buy the Orange Box just for the beta, I'll happily take those extra codes off you. If not, I'm assuming I can pick up HL 2 cheap these days, but I might as well ask.
Isn't Linux Adoption considerably more commonplace in Europe?
I think what he is currently doing (spreading the word of bad service to a great deal number of people via Slashdot) is a great first step. Spread the word everywhere you can, including local media. Then write a letter to the regional/corporate headquarters for PC World, and explain the amount of bad publicity they have received due to a manager's insistence that it is PC World's policy to weasel out of warranty repairs.
I've never heard of PC World as a manufacturer, and I'm assuming they are a British retailer. Warranty repairs are paid for by the manufacturer, and PC World doesn't lose any money by making the repair. They just authorize it and bill the manufacturer.
All in all, this was a really poor decision by a manager. I'm sure that is the only time anyone has ever typed that sentence on Slashdot.
Not too closely. He mainly does application support for some proprietary systems, all on Windows boxes of course. Everyone has very specific roles, and we wear very few hats, which is vastly different from what I'm used to.
I just interviewed for a new SysAdmin position (which I got thankfully) where I would be responsible for both Linux and Windows servers, though the Linux servers are more mission-critical. So during the peer-interview portion when I was asked about relevant experience, I started with all my *nix experience, to which one of the current SysAdmins responded that Linux is programmed by a bunch of teenage turds who probably don't know anything about anything, and no one in their right mind puts Linux on servers, or anything critical. He went on to explain that every Microsoft product has been perfect out of the box, and all the problems in the world are caused by third-party people who can't properly write drivers or apps for Microsoft platforms.
When I asked for a correction (because I thought all their mission-critical stuff was Linux) he said, "hell, no! I've seen the windows on those boxes and stuff" to which his coworker corrected him, and said they were all Linux. He was confused, and they had to explain to him that Linux was capable of a GUI, to which he insisted it wasn't.
I agree. Firefox in the 2.x branch does have a fork for using QT, but it is long abandoned and neglected.
QT uses less memory, and runs faster. And all this time has been spent on working on a new rendering engine for Firefox 3, when perhaps they might have saved themselves a whole bunch of time and effort by coming efforts with Apple, Trolltech, and the KDE guys on Webkit, which is ACID compliant, and supposedly the fastest rendering engine out there right now.
I would absolutely love to see a fork of Firefox that used QT4/Webkit.
God forbid a company turn a profit. Clearly any game company who sells their game is evil. How dare they charge money for something that cost them tens of millions of dollars! Oh, the humanity of it all!
Please explain to me what I made up or lied about. I will then in turn bury you in a pile of evidence and facts and expose you for the troll you are.
They're making a fortune? Most every MMO company went bankrupt.
Just because one game is a huge success doesn't mean the entire industry can afford to give their product away. WoW is a rare success, and I doubt even their business model would support giving away the subscription for free.
Slashdot Mirror
Given that independent studies have shown it to be more factual than standard encyclopedias, I'm not sure why people continue to throw about the claim that it will never become as good as a standard encyclopedia.
I dare say, it surpassed standard encyclopedias some time ago.
The Wikipedia is not without fault, but the same can be said for any source.
For purposes of disaster recovery, I sure hope not.
When I generate ghost images for the PCs here at work, the average desktop user goes through about 4 gigs here, if that. 83 gigs per person is quite a bit.
I'm also curious about Google and the like. Do they not disclose their storage?
http://www.google.com/search?q=wheel+of+time+repetitive
Search through the reviews of pretty much every WoT book out there, and the most consistent complaint you will hear is how repetitive they are.
How many carbon-copy inns were in which Rand was attacked in the first book in the exact same circumstances?
Is this world-class epic storytelling? Epic is not defined by page count, by the way.
I'll take Eddings or Moorecock for the win.
Tolkein's writing style wasn't for everyone, but Tolkein was arguably the first to create such an incredible fantasy world. Innovators always get considerably more points than the people who attempt to imitate them, all the while insisting imitation is better than original creation. Jordan was easily the most overrated fantasy author I ever knew, but I'm still sad to see him go.
For years I joked that Jordan intentionally dragged his series out longer than he needed to, and he would die right before the last book was finished. Now I feel pretty shitty for the joke.
I read the first six books, and everyone swore it was the greatest fantasy series ever. He threw in archetypical images from most every culture into a giant mish-mash with tons of side characters and side plots that rarely seemed to amount to anything, but the main plot was repetitive at best. Without spoiling anything too critical the plot of the first book is the protagonists being pursed. They go to one town, are attacked in the middle of the night (he writes continuosly how they never slept) hastily travel to another town, are attacked in the night, and hastily travel to another town, except this continues for 800 pages.
The finale of each book is vague and anti-climactic, sometimes really completely absent from the book with the excuse that the main character passed out and didn't remember the conflict.
The story is told third-person, so regardless of whether he passed out or not, you should still write the end of your books.
I thought maybe it started to go somewhere at the end of book 3, but after reading 6 books at near 1,000 pages a pop, I couldn't believe how ultimately he hadn't told much of a story at all yet, while churning out the same crap. Then fans insisted the next 2 or three books were horrible, but they started to get better at book 9. I didn't intend to both ever again, and so I started with the joke. And 13 was the big number in the series, and for as long as I can recall the series was slated 13 books.
I'm pretty sure he altered that huge master plan of his to wrap things up in 12 because of his illness, and now that remains unfinished. Robert Jordan was known to be full of himself, regularly compare himself to Tolkein, and regularly insist he was writing the most important work of fiction in history. His Conan work was pretty horrid, and trashed by even some of his biggest fans. The worst part is that if he hadn't been taking so much time between books doing side stuff like Conan, he probably could have churned out all 13 WoT books, and let history decide. Or maybe he could have told his story in a much shorter cycle, and not stretched needlessly for books.
With all that being said, it is never a good die to see an author die so quickly from a disease, nor is it good for an audience to be now eternally tortured.
The greatest irony is not that the series wasn't finished when Jordan died, but rather that for a man who wanted so very much to be Tolkein, he emulated him even in death. People seem to forget that Tolkein's work had to be finished after his death as well.
Tell that to Microsoft and Apple.
You're honestly suggesting that Google, HP, IBM and Novell don't contribute code?
Yep, when Linus said that he didn't really want to get involved in license wars, and wouldn't carry the GPL torch, he clearly demonstrated that he is obnoxious in his desire to trample over people's rights.
When Linus said he didn't care about politics, only code, he was emulating the IRA without a doubt.
When Linus said he didn't intend to take a side with the Novell/Microsoft deal, but rather just focus on writing code, his clear intention to command legal authority and force his hegemony over all.
...the spirit of the GPL was to keep software free so that the source code can't be made proprietary (such as what happened with Microsoft swallowing pieces of BSD like you stated). Linus very much supports that clause, and has always spoken in favor of the GPLv2. I'm curious why you suggest he is against the spirit of the GPLv2. The only anti-GPL statements I've seen him make are in regards to GPLv3, in that he doesn't think a software license should govern or have anything to do with hardware.
I'd contend that Pauldis is the best package manager I've ever seen.
I tried figuring micro Newtons to Fig Newtons and couldn't, but I figured it was one of those wacky English/metric calculations NASA is so good at, so I'll leave it to them. Oh, those wacky NASA mathematicians! Friends don't let friends drink and derive!
And if Volkswagen engineering taught us anything, if you can launch a Fig Newton into space it becomes farfegnugen.
Why aren't you using DOS 3.3 then? Or even Linux 1.0?
You've already been convinced to upgrade to Linux 2.2
Why aren't you running Netscape Navigator, or some early prototype of Mozilla?
You've already been convinced to upgrade to Firefox.
Clearly, modern software has doomed you.
Given that Stallman is adamant about terminology, I find it odd that he makes such a big issue about Free Software versus Open Source while promoting a license with so many restrictions.
Restrictions are the opposite of free software. Somedays I really think he forget where he came from.
That would be awesome. Thanks.
enderandrew @ gmail . com
> Stop getting steamed up about a minor license revision, you only end up looking really silly.
As opposed to everyone who pushed for the license in the first place, because they couldn't pirate Tivo.
No publisher wanted any piece of this game initially. Irrational wanted to acquire the rights to do System Shock 3, and no one would foot the bill. In fact, when they pitched this game, most publishers insisted this game would bomb, and it was just another pointless FPS.
Irrational makes fine games, and I'm glad to see someone saw the potential in this title. Consumers sure did.
I respect the contributions that Richard Stallman has made. Really I do. But please consider the following quotes:
Stallman proclaimed that "the prospect of charging money for software was a crime against humanity."
The Linux desktop (and I will call it Linux as opposed to GNU/Linux, because we don't append the name of every software package installed to placate anyone's ego, but rather call the desktop by the one name that unifies all Linux desktops, the kernel. Beyond that, many of us are running very different software packages) has proven that volunteer communities can produce some great software for free, but the vast majority of software in the world still comes from the commercial sector. And I have this crazy idea that a person deserves the right to paid for their work.
If commercial software didn't exist, and programming wasn't a valid career field, then far fewer people would learn it in the first place, further decreasing the free software market. And last time I checked, several of the main programmers who develop GNU software, are paid to do so by companies who charge money for software, like Novell.
Here is the kicker. From Richard Stallman:
"I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a software license agreement."
He once spoke of how all software should be completely free, with no restrictions, yet his licenses have become more complicated, and more restricted.
Will the GPLv3 drive me away from Linux? Only if it becomes the prevailing license across most Linux software and the kernel. Certain programs like Samba that went GPLv3 will likely have a GPLv2 fork. However, I do believe that GPLv3 is approaching hypocrisy and lunacy. If the trend continues, I very much will consider moving to BSD.
Spin: This proves that kids are getting their hands on M-rated games, and we must fight to push these bills that classify video-games in the same camp as pornography!
Spin: Well, duh, studies have also shown that the vast majority of gamers are adults, and that the average age of gamers continues to rise. It isn't shocking that adult gamers might purchase content catered to a mature audience.
Spin: In addition to trying to get Bush to testify, Thompson will now subpoena The Pope, Nolan Bushnell, and Big Bird to prove that the war in Iraq was caused by a generation of adults raised on violent games like Pong.
I played and loved Half Life 1, but then I got married, got way in debt, and had a kid. When my gaming rig died, I frankly couldn't afford to rebuild it. Recently I've rebuilt my budget gaming rig, but hopefully it should be capable of running HL 2 (AMD X2 3600+, GeForce 7600 GT). If anyone does buy the Orange Box just for the beta, I'll happily take those extra codes off you. If not, I'm assuming I can pick up HL 2 cheap these days, but I might as well ask.
Isn't Linux Adoption considerably more commonplace in Europe?
I think what he is currently doing (spreading the word of bad service to a great deal number of people via Slashdot) is a great first step. Spread the word everywhere you can, including local media. Then write a letter to the regional/corporate headquarters for PC World, and explain the amount of bad publicity they have received due to a manager's insistence that it is PC World's policy to weasel out of warranty repairs.
I've never heard of PC World as a manufacturer, and I'm assuming they are a British retailer. Warranty repairs are paid for by the manufacturer, and PC World doesn't lose any money by making the repair. They just authorize it and bill the manufacturer.
All in all, this was a really poor decision by a manager. I'm sure that is the only time anyone has ever typed that sentence on Slashdot.
Not too closely. He mainly does application support for some proprietary systems, all on Windows boxes of course. Everyone has very specific roles, and we wear very few hats, which is vastly different from what I'm used to.
I just interviewed for a new SysAdmin position (which I got thankfully) where I would be responsible for both Linux and Windows servers, though the Linux servers are more mission-critical. So during the peer-interview portion when I was asked about relevant experience, I started with all my *nix experience, to which one of the current SysAdmins responded that Linux is programmed by a bunch of teenage turds who probably don't know anything about anything, and no one in their right mind puts Linux on servers, or anything critical. He went on to explain that every Microsoft product has been perfect out of the box, and all the problems in the world are caused by third-party people who can't properly write drivers or apps for Microsoft platforms.
When I asked for a correction (because I thought all their mission-critical stuff was Linux) he said, "hell, no! I've seen the windows on those boxes and stuff" to which his coworker corrected him, and said they were all Linux. He was confused, and they had to explain to him that Linux was capable of a GUI, to which he insisted it wasn't.
I agree. Firefox in the 2.x branch does have a fork for using QT, but it is long abandoned and neglected.
QT uses less memory, and runs faster. And all this time has been spent on working on a new rendering engine for Firefox 3, when perhaps they might have saved themselves a whole bunch of time and effort by coming efforts with Apple, Trolltech, and the KDE guys on Webkit, which is ACID compliant, and supposedly the fastest rendering engine out there right now.
I would absolutely love to see a fork of Firefox that used QT4/Webkit.
God forbid a company turn a profit. Clearly any game company who sells their game is evil. How dare they charge money for something that cost them tens of millions of dollars! Oh, the humanity of it all!
Please explain to me what I made up or lied about. I will then in turn bury you in a pile of evidence and facts and expose you for the troll you are.
They're making a fortune? Most every MMO company went bankrupt.
Just because one game is a huge success doesn't mean the entire industry can afford to give their product away. WoW is a rare success, and I doubt even their business model would support giving away the subscription for free.
Stop whining and pay for your products.