The middle books grind down because Jordan kept wandering into side plots that would have been better served as standalone books (say, similar to how the Dragonlance books were handled). He knew where the finish line was, just wasn't in a hurry to get there.

Sanderson, on the other hand, was brought in to do the "last" book. (Yes, Jordan had claimed there was only *one* book left). It's pretty easy to see Sanderson picking out the leftover plots, punting them to the curb, and goosing the accelerator to get the plot train home ASAP. Which also made the books way better, since we finally get to the finale.

I think it could make a good mini-series, though - you can consolidate a bunch of points, ditch some of the sideplots that aren't necessary, and keep the plot train moving.

And I've always thought WoT would make a decent mini-series, since all that futz turns into action - it's far less annoying to watch those tics than to read it over and over.

My wife is the real WoT fan in the house, though - not sure if I should tell her this exists...

Not saying it was the wrong software (and the second laptop I tried worked fine out of the box).

My point was intended towards the tendency in the new distros (at least in my experience) to insulate the user from details, even when they're looking for them. For instance, the Network Manager (which cheerfully pre-install found both wired and wireless networks), after install refused to accept that a network card might exist, and didn't expose any method to see that a blacklist existed, much less change it. And installing packages wouldn't help because the package is already there - the install disabled it and didn't tell me.

My daughter is actually enjoying her new Linux box (now that it has a network and runs Minecraft) a great deal - my issue was that the installation has moved a bit too far from the old "OK, I hope the user knows what he's doing because the OS ain't gonna help" to the new "OK, I hope the OS knows what it's doing because we're not going to tell the user anything" model.

Was the current version of Ubuntu, an old Dell, and I booted using a USB key, network worked there, installed from that, no network.

Google seems to say it's a known issue of some sort. Didn't need to install anything, just edit some obscure file and type the usual arcane words into a terminal.

But the take-away is that requiring a network connection doesn't help if your system disables all the network connections. (And worse, the GUI was no help in correcting the problem.)

Not enough mod points in the world for this

Oliver on HBO has it made. Weekly vs. Daily means he has time to really dig into an issue. He can spend ten minutes ripping a particular topic to shreds and that doesn't mess with advertiser time. And having no sponsors or ads to deal with means that he can go for the jugular Each And Every Time.

Going back to CC would mean less time to prep, more oversight, and more restrictions. Unless that came with a *really* big briefcase of money (and really, are we counting on Comedy Central to outbid HBO?), Oliver ain't going nowhere.

Unless it does what it did to me last weekend, where the step in-between is: Linux blacklists *all* the network-drivers, so on reboot you have a machine that says you don't have a network card. Proceed to spend several hours walking between computers while figuring out that it was blacklisted, and how to fix the blacklist and manually reset the drivers.

I'm all for making things simpler, but I do miss the 90s-era installs where you were asked what components you wanted. (And I'm fine if there's a "shut-up and give me the usual" button - I just want the *ability* to pick and choose, y'know?)

My favorite "scale" was the Penny Arcade Report format, where the game was listed, the names of folks were across the top, and it was a straight "this guy liked it, this guy didn't, this guy hasn't played it yet".

What worked is that you could quickly get a sense of what sort of games each person liked, and that gave you a lot better information - you don't really care what *Everyone* thinks, just people who enjoy the same sorts of games you do.

Of course, if the Knitting Channel isn't profitable, it'll just get rolled back with the Crochet channel and they'll share programming.

Let's face it - the world would be a better place if Discovery, NatGeo, and History (to name three that group nicely) just took their *good* shows and had a single Science Channel, instead of having three channels full of filler.

I've been off-cord for almost five years, and I'm only occasionally thinking of getting an OTA antenna. But Christmas at the in-laws really did reinforce that most days, there is *nothing* on.

I'll agree with point 1 - if you like the work, pay for it. (I do make an exception for works that I can't find for sale for whatever reason. If you can't be arsed to put a copy up for sale, Disney, don't bitch when everyone finds a copy on their own.)

Point 2 is where you lose me - they already have inherited the fruits of the writing - assuming Mom & Dad didn't spend all that money up front. And a world where there's no tax or limitation on inheritance is a world that creates "trust fund babies" - kids who are rich, will continue to be rich, and they became rich by the hard work of being born to someone rich. It always strikes me as notable that the defenders of copyright only worry about the recent stuff. Disney will fight to the death to keep the Mouse in copyright, but happily steals much older public domain sources for free. What would the world look like if someone was still collecting royalties on Shakespeare? Or even James Bond and Sherlock Holmes?

If the tweet had referenced Karl Rove instead (another Dec 25 birthday), would they be as upset?

Or more generally - do the hard-core Christians seriously think that no-one else has ever been born on this day?

I'll be charitable and say that perhaps because everyone wants to point at "X people charged in $CRIME_OF_DAY ring" headlines, it simply isn't enough of a win for cops to spend the extra time on those cases?

This opens up a good point - I'm all in favor of taking criminal history into account, so long as we're talking relevant history.

Take your example - if I'm hiring you to drive in the company car, then DUI (and worse, reckless driving) are relevant crimes. But if the job was "show up, sit in cubicle, keep servers running", without driving as part of the job? Then what do I care?

Honestly, I'll take the fact that they have actual personalities and motivations as a good start. They do stuff, at least. (Yes, vaguely stupid stuff, but apparently Brave didn't do so well, so we're not ready to ditch the mandatory romantic plot just yet. Pity).

(Still impressed they didn't go with the "ice guy hooks up with ice powers lady"..) Disney might be learning...

Off the cuff, I'd say if you were going to get my kid into coding, Minecraft would be the better angle. Not only more directly connected (code this, get that in your Favorite Game of all time), it's gender-neutral *and* probably better correlation. (Just gonna guess the Minecraft-programmer overlap is a bit wider than the princess-programmer, based on my daughter's circle of friends).

Even for Disney, I'd have picked Vanellope Von Schweetz (from Wreck-It Ralph). Bit more connectivity there.