I enjoyed both Lord of the Rings and Narnia as a child, though LOTR is the only series that stuck with me.
It is a digression I know, but I just felt like pointing out that one of my biggest grips with the Fantasy inspired by Lord of the Rings (and in part Narnia) is always so focused on the battle between good and evil; which is fine. But why does just about every fantasy series revolve around children, especially boys, who is more often than not "the true heir to the throne". Why is it that fantasy authors for some reason glorify monarchical dynasty and the idea of "the good King".
If anyone can name good mature fantasy (and mature in this context dosnt mean sex; which it seems to indicate more often than not) that doesnt revolve around the end of the world, the fight against the "dark one" and the "chosen one" I would be very interested. Already I have found several authors, more and more these days it seems, but I am always looking for more. Scifi and fantasy are still some of the "settings" that interest me the most. But it just seems to be so much crap dominating those genres (fantasy in particualar).
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Court-Simon-Sebag-Montefiore/dp/1400042305
It might not be scifi, but after reading that however "dark" a scifi (or any other genre) is trying to be it don't compare. And there is no bad guy in fiction that quite comes close. Also it should remove any nightmares they watched the new alien movie at a friends house (now they have new nightmares about camps and purges instead).
Seriously though. I think it is good to read some dark, cynical and edge stories when you are young; it is afterall the periode of your life when you are supposed to learn. And learning that the world is a cruel place that causes the majority of the populace to suffer is something that should be faced at an early age. If not, there is no-one to blame, but ourselves, when our children stick their heads in the sand and pretend all the bad things happening in the world is something they just have to close their senses to. Sheltering the young from pain is instinctual and a part of being a parent, but overprotecting can do more harm than good.
Then again they are pre-teens, so letting them read The Gap Series might not be the best first step in getting them into Scifi.
Personally I started with people like John Bing (norwegian author) who has written a ton of decent scifi books; than I enjoyed a lot when I was in my early teens (and before I seem to vaguely recall). However I can't seem to find any translated into English.
...will encourage people to stay with the safety of yet another rehash of something they've already read.
Like most people since mass printing became possible. There are many authors whos work would give you great satisfaction, but who you will never read. Perhaps by at least giving people a good selection of tailored recomendation; the quality of that selection could hopefully improve.
The span of taste is wide and varied. More so than what any bookstore could provide (unless it is online). However when you take things online you encounter another problem; there is truly a vast (and growing) number of books avalible for purchase; trying to create a system for automated recomendation is a logical goal. Even if a system like that doesn't encourage reading things outside your established field of interest. If you arrive at a point where you need something different, a good system should be able to let you browse the top sellers, best reviewed and established classics of any genre. I have no doubt that after various tries, failures and breakthroughs, and as technology improves; consumers of litterature will be given a good online, digital tool for searching through databases and lists of material they might enjoy.
Indeed, paying the artists directly might be the only way for them to get the full amount. However, that only works for artists you know or have heard about(not to mention that they have to have a working system for accepting donations). Sites like LegalTorrent can help make it easier for new artists get some recognition (and money). Handling what is most often minor donations is probably easier if done at a slightly larger scale than any one artists is able to maintain. Of course you could always just send money to the artists by mail or check I suppose, but doing it online is just so much easier.
They way I see it ilegal filesharing is a problem; but it will NEVER be as big a problem as heavyhanded regulations that stifles our use of the internet and infringes upon the privacy and freedoms were are supposed to have. Yet again I feel that politicans and lawmakers instead of focusing on the problem of ilegal filesharing in a objective way. Or try to understand what social, cultural, technological and economical factors could impact this situation. Their only sulution is to focus on regulating the technology that has made the distribution of digital media so easy.
I feel that if there had been serious study of how material is created and distributed today, there could have been better solutions. Maybe if there had been a better ways to purchase material online more people would have. But to rigidly maintain an outdated structure benefits no one in the end.
I find myself agreeing with those that call politicans clueless concerning these matters. It is easier for them to listen to lobbyist or just skip this entire issue all together. Meaning that what laws are passes are not in the public interest, but either in the interest of the corporate lobby; or the interest of those within Government that want greater control of the distribution of information. Either way, we lose.
Maybe the future is to focus on creating better wireless devices. If everyone in my city had a wireless devices that were capable of merging into one large network, then I could send information from my computer to someone on the other side of the city (or country) aslong as there was a path and nodes for it to leapfrog across. This probably wouldn't be anything like as efficent as a landline, but done right it could provide a secondary internet of sorts; which would be a lot harder to regulate.
That is why I only date people without hair or facial features. At least then you know what you get. And I don't really have a wallet, and if I did there wouldn't be anything it in. So anyone interested in me pretty much have to be in it for my charming personality; it's all I have (took me five years of only living of cookies to ensure that none are interested in my body either). Take that superficial society!
Or maybe that you actually cared about your security and the concept of identity theft. Or maybe you just prefer meeting gurls in real life, as opposed to some vague flirtation online that could easily have been with someone lying about their details.
Or maybe you are just way to busy spamming slashdot and raiding Sunwell (or whining on the AoC forums) to care about some stupid MySpace/Facebook page.
And http://www.skolelinux.org/ is a Linux distribution developed in Norway primarily for the use at schools. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolelinux With the continued move towards open source and software that does not require expensive licenses (thus reducing costs for the educational system) using this for new computers is already undergoing serious consideration.
I use this only as an example.
My point is that the creation of educational software should and could be done by multiple nations in co-operation. Something made in the US or EU (or anywhere in the world for that matter) could be made to benefit all education institutions regardless of location. Make things in open source (and with Linux support) is simply the best course of action.
I apploud the makers of this program, it is a very good concept and I hope improved versions (and Linux clones) will be avalible for everyone everywhere who sees benefits to their education or lectures. Further more I hope projects like this get all the attention they deserve, regardless what subject they focus on, as interactive forms of education could be a benefit to all who wish to learn.
If you really want to have a safety system I reckon a cellphone (as mentioned by another poster earlier) is prehaps good enough. But if you want something with a bit more kick to it you could always go for a full on satelite rig, and hook your computer/network to an UPS with a generator as a backup system.
If you read the entire thing maybe you would realize that he/she/it is questioning his/her/its own emotions regarding this concept. And it is, in my view, a rhetorical device.
I, of course, don't support public obscenities and indecencies- it's just plainly wrong to do some things in public. But then I try to think why it is, and can't seem to find a good answer. Is it because that's how I was brought up, and that's how I learned it should be?
I am sorry I do not know of anyone personally. I just browsed past a long thread a while back with someone running AoC beta through Wine. As I continue to integrate into Linux I wouldn't mind running AoC through Wine myself.
Fallout Online better be OpenGL with full Linux support or I will start praying to the gods of the underworld for a plaque upon their hard drives.
Basically Ubuntu is the best OS I have used to date. I have always been a computer geek and have used one pretty much daily since I was twelve. The first Linux I tried was Red Hat 4 (I think it was many years ago), but seeing as I am a gamer at heart I abbandoned it since it was more trouble than it was worth (for my needs). However I have always been a supporter and fan of Linux and the Open Source way. For the last few years I have watched in anticipation as it go better and better and when Ubuntu 8.04 was released I finally got my shit together and installed it and it really is amazing. Especially for a guy like me that appreciated being able to chose exactly what I want where and how; GUI customization rocks my world. Now I am thinking of trying out Gentoo:D
Not to mention discover better ways of maintaining the integrity of the human body. Apparently Zero Gravity isn't exactly reckomended for your health.
The most significant adverse effects of long-term weightlessness are muscle atrophy and deterioration of the skeleton, or spaceflight osteopenia. These effects can be minimized through a regimen of exercise. Other significant effects include fluid redistribution, a slowing of the cardiovascular system, decreased production of red blood cells, balance disorders, and a weakening of the immune system. Lesser symptoms include loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, excess flatulence, and puffiness of the face. These effects begin to reverse quickly upon return to the Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_gravity#Health_effects_of_weightlessness
I imagine that traveling to Mars and staying there to do serious research would, without significant advances, mean a shorter lifespan and for some; a martian burial.
Personally I run Windows XP and Ubuntu. I now use Windows exlusivly for games (removing everything from the OS not game related did wonders for my Framerate). I hope to move over to only using Linux, but I am still pretty much a Linux noob and since I already have Windows installed it's just so easy to run them there.
However I salute you for just using Linux. At some point in the future when games are made for OpenGL or Windows turns Directx into Open Source (same day that pigs fly and it rains canaries); I will use Linux exclusively. If I ever have the option of buying either a "Windows" version or an "Linux" version I shall not hesitate to buy the one for the OS of my choice. Until then I will try to use Wine and continue to nag on the forums of any developer/game that interest me for Linux port/support.
Time to start using One-Time Pads: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_time_pads#Security
One-time pads are "information-theoretically secure" in that the encrypted message (i.e., the ciphertext) provides no information about the original message to a cryptanalyst (except the length of the message). This is a very strong notion of security first developed during WWII by Claude Shannon and proved, mathematically, to be true of the one-time pad by Shannon about the same time. His result was published in the Bell Labs Technical Journal in 1949. Properly used one-time pads are secure in this sense even against adversaries with infinite computational power. A bit unpractical, but done properly it should be pretty much impossible to break.
I dunno if this is a point or not, but apparently there are people running Age of Conan and Team Fortress 2 under Wine (and a host of other games I a certain); I imagine they will be happy that they can get better (hopefully) drivers for their graphicscard.
It's not so much about left, right, center or a combination of those; but authoritarian tendencies. People from proclaimed Left and Right parties have been against government control, pro government control, pro more surveilance, against more surveilance, pro war, against war, pro-life, pro-choice, pro equal rights, against equal rights and etc ad infinitum.
Left and Right are terms so broad they are essentially rendered meaningless. The political spectrum is far more complex than what can be explained by a simplistic model. One indication of this is that Left and Right means different things in different Nations. As do Liberal and Conservative. The views a person can hold relating to the social, political and economical organization of his/her nation is varied to the extreme.
One serious problem with this system is that is makes people oversimplify serious and complex issues. Calling those that oppose/support whatever term is classified as negative among their supporters or targeted audience.
Often, it seems to me, important decisions that affect many people are taken on an emotional basis. Those that want a law to pass or fail use peoples emotions to get them to think or feel like they want them to. How many citizens of Sweden, or people in the rest of the world, have an opinion on this matter without having read or comprehended the implications and details of this new law?
In the interview he makes it clear that mail with encrypted contents are of special interest to the FRA. Possible terrorists would likely not use clear-text naming of where they will strike and with what sort of force. Supposedly encryption applications like PGP are hard to break but with one or more computers in the million SEK range it will be possible to break everything from encrypted love-letters to journalist correspondance with protected sources. The latter is protected by constitutional rights. FRA can not know anything about the content before the encryption is broken. Thus a catch-22 is created. In practice the constitutional paragraph regarding protection of sources worthless. Well lets all send lots of emails encrypted with the best avalible methods, and lets make sure that the text we encrypt is just random letters and numbers. If they are going to monitor our traffic at the very least we can do our best to flood the system with crap.
4a) Fewer of the best and brightest don't choose technology/research, because it's quite clear our society values lawyers and management more. Or try to start a TV career through the weekly flavor of Reality Shows.;)
Slashdot Mirror
I enjoyed both Lord of the Rings and Narnia as a child, though LOTR is the only series that stuck with me.
It is a digression I know, but I just felt like pointing out that one of my biggest grips with the Fantasy inspired by Lord of the Rings (and in part Narnia) is always so focused on the battle between good and evil; which is fine. But why does just about every fantasy series revolve around children, especially boys, who is more often than not "the true heir to the throne". Why is it that fantasy authors for some reason glorify monarchical dynasty and the idea of "the good King".
If anyone can name good mature fantasy (and mature in this context dosnt mean sex; which it seems to indicate more often than not) that doesnt revolve around the end of the world, the fight against the "dark one" and the "chosen one" I would be very interested. Already I have found several authors, more and more these days it seems, but I am always looking for more. Scifi and fantasy are still some of the "settings" that interest me the most. But it just seems to be so much crap dominating those genres (fantasy in particualar).
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Court-Simon-Sebag-Montefiore/dp/1400042305
It might not be scifi, but after reading that however "dark" a scifi (or any other genre) is trying to be it don't compare. And there is no bad guy in fiction that quite comes close. Also it should remove any nightmares they watched the new alien movie at a friends house (now they have new nightmares about camps and purges instead).
Seriously though. I think it is good to read some dark, cynical and edge stories when you are young; it is afterall the periode of your life when you are supposed to learn. And learning that the world is a cruel place that causes the majority of the populace to suffer is something that should be faced at an early age. If not, there is no-one to blame, but ourselves, when our children stick their heads in the sand and pretend all the bad things happening in the world is something they just have to close their senses to. Sheltering the young from pain is instinctual and a part of being a parent, but overprotecting can do more harm than good.
Then again they are pre-teens, so letting them read The Gap Series might not be the best first step in getting them into Scifi.
Personally I started with people like John Bing (norwegian author) who has written a ton of decent scifi books; than I enjoyed a lot when I was in my early teens (and before I seem to vaguely recall). However I can't seem to find any translated into English.
...will encourage people to stay with the safety of yet another rehash of something they've already read.
Like most people since mass printing became possible. There are many authors whos work would give you great satisfaction, but who you will never read. Perhaps by at least giving people a good selection of tailored recomendation; the quality of that selection could hopefully improve.
The span of taste is wide and varied. More so than what any bookstore could provide (unless it is online). However when you take things online you encounter another problem; there is truly a vast (and growing) number of books avalible for purchase; trying to create a system for automated recomendation is a logical goal. Even if a system like that doesn't encourage reading things outside your established field of interest. If you arrive at a point where you need something different, a good system should be able to let you browse the top sellers, best reviewed and established classics of any genre. I have no doubt that after various tries, failures and breakthroughs, and as technology improves; consumers of litterature will be given a good online, digital tool for searching through databases and lists of material they might enjoy.
Indeed, paying the artists directly might be the only way for them to get the full amount. However, that only works for artists you know or have heard about(not to mention that they have to have a working system for accepting donations). Sites like LegalTorrent can help make it easier for new artists get some recognition (and money). Handling what is most often minor donations is probably easier if done at a slightly larger scale than any one artists is able to maintain. Of course you could always just send money to the artists by mail or check I suppose, but doing it online is just so much easier.
They way I see it ilegal filesharing is a problem; but it will NEVER be as big a problem as heavyhanded regulations that stifles our use of the internet and infringes upon the privacy and freedoms were are supposed to have. Yet again I feel that politicans and lawmakers instead of focusing on the problem of ilegal filesharing in a objective way. Or try to understand what social, cultural, technological and economical factors could impact this situation. Their only sulution is to focus on regulating the technology that has made the distribution of digital media so easy.
I feel that if there had been serious study of how material is created and distributed today, there could have been better solutions. Maybe if there had been a better ways to purchase material online more people would have. But to rigidly maintain an outdated structure benefits no one in the end.
I find myself agreeing with those that call politicans clueless concerning these matters. It is easier for them to listen to lobbyist or just skip this entire issue all together. Meaning that what laws are passes are not in the public interest, but either in the interest of the corporate lobby; or the interest of those within Government that want greater control of the distribution of information. Either way, we lose.
Maybe the future is to focus on creating better wireless devices. If everyone in my city had a wireless devices that were capable of merging into one large network, then I could send information from my computer to someone on the other side of the city (or country) aslong as there was a path and nodes for it to leapfrog across. This probably wouldn't be anything like as efficent as a landline, but done right it could provide a secondary internet of sorts; which would be a lot harder to regulate.
"But... but... all the other world leaders are doing in!"
"If all the other world leaders jumped of a cliff, would you?"
/sulk
That is why I only date people without hair or facial features. At least then you know what you get. And I don't really have a wallet, and if I did there wouldn't be anything it in. So anyone interested in me pretty much have to be in it for my charming personality; it's all I have (took me five years of only living of cookies to ensure that none are interested in my body either). Take that superficial society!
Or maybe that you actually cared about your security and the concept of identity theft. Or maybe you just prefer meeting gurls in real life, as opposed to some vague flirtation online that could easily have been with someone lying about their details.
Or maybe you are just way to busy spamming slashdot and raiding Sunwell (or whining on the AoC forums) to care about some stupid MySpace/Facebook page.
This is a list of schools across the world that are already using Skolelinux http://www.skolelinux.no/slschools/slschools.php
I live in Europe and I consider this sort of software highly interesting. However Norway is making moves toward open source software by among other things declaring that ODF will be an official format from 2009. http://www.skolenettet.no/templates/News.aspx?id=46186&epslanguage=NO&scope=ScopeLaerAns (in norwegian).
And http://www.skolelinux.org/ is a Linux distribution developed in Norway primarily for the use at schools. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolelinux With the continued move towards open source and software that does not require expensive licenses (thus reducing costs for the educational system) using this for new computers is already undergoing serious consideration.
I use this only as an example.
My point is that the creation of educational software should and could be done by multiple nations in co-operation. Something made in the US or EU (or anywhere in the world for that matter) could be made to benefit all education institutions regardless of location. Make things in open source (and with Linux support) is simply the best course of action.
I apploud the makers of this program, it is a very good concept and I hope improved versions (and Linux clones) will be avalible for everyone everywhere who sees benefits to their education or lectures. Further more I hope projects like this get all the attention they deserve, regardless what subject they focus on, as interactive forms of education could be a benefit to all who wish to learn.
If you really want to have a safety system I reckon a cellphone (as mentioned by another poster earlier) is prehaps good enough. But if you want something with a bit more kick to it you could always go for a full on satelite rig, and hook your computer/network to an UPS with a generator as a backup system.
I can't really make head or tail of this theory.
A polar bear was apparently sighted in Norway two years ago http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2006/05/19/466637.html I for one welcome our new white (and furry) overlords!
If I don't open my bills do they still exist? Sounds like a conundrum worthy of SchrÃdinger.
Problem? I see no problem. I have never had any problems sacrificing people for science. As proved by my RACE OF ATOMIC SUPERMEN! MU HA HA HA HA HA
I am sorry I do not know of anyone personally. I just browsed past a long thread a while back with someone running AoC beta through Wine. As I continue to integrate into Linux I wouldn't mind running AoC through Wine myself.
Fallout Online better be OpenGL with full Linux support or I will start praying to the gods of the underworld for a plaque upon their hard drives.
Basically Ubuntu is the best OS I have used to date. I have always been a computer geek and have used one pretty much daily since I was twelve. The first Linux I tried was Red Hat 4 (I think it was many years ago), but seeing as I am a gamer at heart I abbandoned it since it was more trouble than it was worth (for my needs). :D
However I have always been a supporter and fan of Linux and the Open Source way. For the last few years I have watched in anticipation as it go better and better and when Ubuntu 8.04 was released I finally got my shit together and installed it and it really is amazing. Especially for a guy like me that appreciated being able to chose exactly what I want where and how; GUI customization rocks my world. Now I am thinking of trying out Gentoo
The most significant adverse effects of long-term weightlessness are muscle atrophy and deterioration of the skeleton, or spaceflight osteopenia. These effects can be minimized through a regimen of exercise. Other significant effects include fluid redistribution, a slowing of the cardiovascular system, decreased production of red blood cells, balance disorders, and a weakening of the immune system. Lesser symptoms include loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, excess flatulence, and puffiness of the face. These effects begin to reverse quickly upon return to the Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_gravity#Health_effects_of_weightlessness
I imagine that traveling to Mars and staying there to do serious research would, without significant advances, mean a shorter lifespan and for some; a martian burial.
Personally I run Windows XP and Ubuntu. I now use Windows exlusivly for games (removing everything from the OS not game related did wonders for my Framerate). I hope to move over to only using Linux, but I am still pretty much a Linux noob and since I already have Windows installed it's just so easy to run them there.
However I salute you for just using Linux. At some point in the future when games are made for OpenGL or Windows turns Directx into Open Source (same day that pigs fly and it rains canaries); I will use Linux exclusively. If I ever have the option of buying either a "Windows" version or an "Linux" version I shall not hesitate to buy the one for the OS of my choice. Until then I will try to use Wine and continue to nag on the forums of any developer/game that interest me for Linux port/support.
One-time pads are "information-theoretically secure" in that the encrypted message (i.e., the ciphertext) provides no information about the original message to a cryptanalyst (except the length of the message). This is a very strong notion of security first developed during WWII by Claude Shannon and proved, mathematically, to be true of the one-time pad by Shannon about the same time. His result was published in the Bell Labs Technical Journal in 1949. Properly used one-time pads are secure in this sense even against adversaries with infinite computational power.
A bit unpractical, but done properly it should be pretty much impossible to break.
I dunno if this is a point or not, but apparently there are people running Age of Conan and Team Fortress 2 under Wine (and a host of other games I a certain); I imagine they will be happy that they can get better (hopefully) drivers for their graphicscard.
It's not so much about left, right, center or a combination of those; but authoritarian tendencies. People from proclaimed Left and Right parties have been against government control, pro government control, pro more surveilance, against more surveilance, pro war, against war, pro-life, pro-choice, pro equal rights, against equal rights and etc ad infinitum.
Left and Right are terms so broad they are essentially rendered meaningless. The political spectrum is far more complex than what can be explained by a simplistic model. One indication of this is that Left and Right means different things in different Nations. As do Liberal and Conservative. The views a person can hold relating to the social, political and economical organization of his/her nation is varied to the extreme.
One serious problem with this system is that is makes people oversimplify serious and complex issues. Calling those that oppose/support whatever term is classified as negative among their supporters or targeted audience.
Often, it seems to me, important decisions that affect many people are taken on an emotional basis. Those that want a law to pass or fail use peoples emotions to get them to think or feel like they want them to. How many citizens of Sweden, or people in the rest of the world, have an opinion on this matter without having read or comprehended the implications and details of this new law?