Thing is... he was right, from a professional perspective. Do not underestimate the amount of work that was needed to turn Linux into a kernel that could support an enterprise level requirement. If anything Linux was more a triumph of the open source model than a triumph of Linus' code (although that certainly was not terrible).

If you were a hobbyist, Linux was great, and it goes without saying that it had what it took to be turned into something great. Still, when you ask a pro what he thinks of what was, at the time, a toy, the response was predictable.

Sorry, I have to go with sirwired on this one. Lobbyists write laws because a single congressman is not much more informed about the variety of topics he or she has to know about than a similarly well-read bystander. They have a staff, but it is not as large as you think, and they frankly are not experts in 95% of the fields that they have to legislate from. So where do you get technical information? People who are professionals. Thing is... everyone who is a professional is busy actually working at their jobs, and what's more, they probably have their own biases based on more profits for their own company. Hell, I'm not in love with my corporation necessarily, but I know what sorts of improvements are going to get me a bonus, or at the very least, make it easier to do my job. What do you think I am going to favor in my recommendations? If I have integrity, I may well point out the other options, but really, just how much do you expect out of people?

The problem is very simply this. The government is too big. This isn't a rant because I am afraid of "teh socialism", it's because it is being used well beyond it's capability to service it's responsibilities, and we keep tacking on more shit every year. When outside forces are writing the bills for your legislators, it means that your legislators are far out of their level of competence. And as long as we keep electing people based on a grouping of people in a very large geographic area, who can and must legislate on everything from high-energy physics, to finance, to health care, what do YOU think is going to happen?

One of the greatest foundations of economic stability in the US is actually the ability of normal people to actually buy and own land by obtaining a mortgage. Land and a house on it gives individuals security as well as an investment that they can use to improve their lot in life. There's nothing "crazy" about being able to have a 30-year mortgage if you go into it with the full intention and ability to pay it off. It sounds like a long time, but even before you pay it off, it is the basis for all sorts of buying power that you can use to do other things, and I am not talking about credit cards or loans for Plasma TVs, I mean the ability to borrow to do things like open a business, for instance.

And you *can* pay it off, and people who do so actually own something that is theirs free and clear that they could never have considered having as theirs in one lump payment.

Now, yes, if he cannot afford a house, he shouldn't have bought it, but I assume that he actually can afford it, *unless* he decides to go discover himself. And to be fair, more power to him if he has his affairs in order. There is no need to own "things" to be happy in life, but he damn well better look out for his family first. He has an obligation to them to help keep those kids safe and make sure his spouse is not doing everything herself.

I once came across a guy who decided that he was going to up and leave his job because he didn't like it, but he made this decision right after his wife had been laid off and while he had two young kids. Beside the fact that his wife had no job, it was clear that he expected her to go get a well paying job to support his lazy ass while he "found himself". I'm not saying this guy is like that, but I sincerely hope he understands that other people are affected by his decisions.

Being a developer can be a grind, but it's far from the worst job in the world, especially if you have decided to simply sit back, do what you are told and not get bent out of shape when you have to deal with morons. You smile, shrug, and do what you are told and spend not a single minute in the office longer than you have to. If you play it right, it can almost be country club-like. You won't get ahead that way, but by easing off a notch or two, you can turn your previously horrible job into something almost nice.

I made it to book nine before I flamed out, but I have a *very* good memory and it was still touch and go for a long time before that.

Yes. And since he has now become involved in a TV series... which is now quite faithfully rehashing the first few books... he may well redefine the effect as the Martin Effect.

That said, it is a damn good series, if you can handle what is essentially a fantasy soap opera, with gigantic cast of characters, multiple parallel storylines, and everything.

So there is hope to get a reasonably decent movie out of WoT then? I imagine you could easily use actual editing to turn all 10,000 pages into a 90 minute movie. The braid pulling and skirt smoothing could be done at the same time lines are actually delivered. It's like parallel processing for literature. Genius!

Well there is a little Facebook icon here for you to publish the link. Then you can like it on your own FB page.

You can thank me later.

Yes. Things like the braid or Mat's favorite curse phrase are mannerisms that certainly should have continued throughout the series, as that is part of their personality, but we probably only need to be reminded of them maybe once or twice a book.

Still, I will say this much, I'm never going to forget what stories the irascible, braid pulling Aes Sedai is in.

It is almost a testament to how the books started to drag that he literally died before he could finish it. While admittedly he died younger than he should have, if a series takes almost two decades to finish, without stopping, it's probably been going a little too long.

One of the reasons for marriage, one of the pragmatic ones anyway, is being able to buy things and share them. This creates cost efficiencies. I mean even the RIAA and MPAA isn't going to sue for sharing with your wife.