Full of Unix puns
Not just Unix puns - the protagonist makes a reference to some programming where INT21 was used as the error handler. Hopefully, on this site, I don't have to explain why I started laughing hysterically when I first read that.
This is a post-atomic war novel, set in *and written in* the late '50's, recounting the experiences of a small town in pre-civil rights rural Florida after the bombs hit. Well written, well thought out, good characters, including good African-American characters who are not cartoons.
If I were teaching history to HS kids, I'd want to assign this to convey both the cold war and race relations of the period (just like I'd assign "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club" by Dorothy Sayers to convey the effect of WW I on British society).
By putting all of this "good for you" freight on the book, I'm afraid that I'm distracting from the fact that this is one hell of an entertaining read. I first read it as a teen; I'm now in my 50's and have read it probably 20 times and it stands up.
An amazing writer. His "Joe Mauser" series posits a world where MegaCorps strive with each other by hiring mercenaries to fight strictly-limited battles that are broadcast on TV.
Thoughtful (he'd have been all over "reality TV" if he'd lived past 1983) , but also hugely entertaining. He also comes from a different ideological angle than most Golden Age SF authors - his dad ran for US President twice as the candidate of the Socialist Labor party, and he himself was a lifetime member of the SLP.
From Wikipedia:
His novels predicted many things which have come to pass, including pocket computers and a worldwide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.
Much of his work is downloadable for free from Gutenberg or the other usual suspects.
It's actually even cheaper to get their eBooks through the webscriptions thing, but since that's basically a subscription to every book Baen publishes, you probably need to read a lot more than the one or two books a month that I do to make it worth it.
Actually, the subscription is equal to the price of three books. If I have two "definites", I can usually gambe that there's at least one good one in the remaining 4 or 5...
...except DRM ensures that you are never actual in control of anything. You can't simply copy things. Your "library manager" is there to make sure you're not a pirate. It's not there to do your bidding. It's there to do Amazon or Apple's bidding.
1) Install Calibre
2) Install DRM removal addons from http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/ebooks-formats-drm-and-you-%E2%80%94-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/
3) ???
4) Profit!
the paperless office
As some pundit said back in the '80s, the first time "the paperless office" came up, "We will have the paperless office the same time as the paperless bathroom".
ALL lenses made for Pentax SLRs (film or digital) work with Pentax digital SLRs (no adapters needed).
How do you make Spotmatic-era M42 screw mount lenses fit on a K-mount Pentax bayonet (K1000 through current) - duct tape?
I agree that I can use my old screw mount lenses on my K100D digital, but it *does* require an adapter....
We've had the obligatory LOTR references; does anyone else remember the 8-bit word processor called Palantir for CP/M and TurboDos? This is software so obscure there isn't even a Wikipedia entry...
Or we could act like adults.
You must be new here...
If I drop a cheeseburger and it breaks, it only costs me $1.69 to replace it. The iPad? $500 and up!
Rip-off artist! A cheeseburger at McDonald's is only $0.89. Even a double cheeseburger is only $1.19.
Kicking myself for not registering earlier.
Oh well, at least I have a 7-digit UID!
I have a low-5-digit UID, and could have had a 4-digit one had I registered earlier.
I'm glad the FSF has someone as uncompromising as Stallman.
I'm reminded that Malcom X once said that the reason that the white establishment was willing to talk to MLK was so they wouldn't have to talk to him.
Happiness is a hard disk.
