I just finished reading the 7 books of the Chronicals of Narnia, and I have to say I come away with mixed feelings. Granted, they are stories that were written to help children through a tumultuous period of time, they still tend to wind up being a bit over-simplified, and undeveloped.

Overall, though, they are a enjoyable, quick and easy read...I just can't imagine they'd find the same success in this modern day world of Harry Potters.

In roughly a week and a half, the long-awaited, and even longer-delayed, part 4 of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice will be released in the US. It was released in Britain mid-October (bloody lucky bastards!).

I have been regularly but futily perusing the usual places (gnutella, usenet, irc) for a pre-release copy so I could sate my lust until GRRM's signing in NYC on 11/15, but alas, all my searches have been in vain. Certainly some enterprising person has scanned all 900 or so pages by now!

Never has a book release excited me as much as this one. I'm not about to write a review here, but believe me, the series holds nothing back and will have your emotions in a knot before the end of the first book.

Anyway...

Any other fans of this series? Any other fans attending the signing in NYC?

With the past year's buzz about free iPods, it's still a wonder to me that so many Slashdot people (and others) still call offers like this a scam. Is it truly that hard to believe that you can get something for so relatively little these days? Now, due to the success of a certain freebie "scam", these sites are popping up all over the place and for a multitude of different items ranging from iPods to TiVO machines, from laptops to designer handbags.

Here is a list of the various freebie sites that I've run across that have been proven legit.

There are plenty of positive stories about people receiving free stuff now that it has been proven to be legit. Spam from these companies is negligible to nonexistent, except from the clueless referral linkers who post their links in forums and such. It is possible that you will hand out your credit card number and address information, but to a legit corporation like Audigy or Video Professor.

Basically, if you are one of those who will refuse the offers' legitness until the end of the world, that's fine and dandy with me--but don't berate my (almost) free stuff. I have iPods and an xbox to show for minimal effort.

Honestly, I think I'll continue to be scammed--and who do you think will make out better in the end?

Update 3/3/05: So far I've gotten three items from these "scams"--20 GB iPod, 1 GB iPod Shuffle, and an xBox. Believe it or not, they are legit.