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January 31, 2005
Ma Bell is back!
SBC agrees to pay US$16b for AT&T
AT&T investors would receive SBC stock worth US$18.41 a share and a special dividend of US$1.30 a share, the companies said yesterday. The total of US$19.71 a share matches AT&T's Jan 28 closing price. SBC chief executive officer Edward Whitacre, 63, will be CEO of the combined entity.
Posted by Andrew at 04:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 28, 2005
Publish, whatnow?
PRESS RELEASE: Science Fiction Authors Hoax Vanity Publisher
The writers wanted to see where PublishAmerica puts its own quality bar; if the publisher really is selective, as the company claims, or if it is a vanity press that will accept almost anything, as publishing professionals assert."Atlanta Nights" was completed, any sign of literary competence was blue-penciled, and the resulting manuscript was submitted.
PublishAmerica accepted it.
Posted by Andrew at 02:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
I seem to have attended the wrong highschool...
Yahoo! News - Sex Map Shows Chain of Almost 300 High School Lovers
In one instance, 288 students were linked in a one-to-one chain of sexual contact that rarely looped back. In other words, one boy had sex with one girl, who had sex with another boy, who had sex with another girl and so on.And they were doing it this way on purpose, Moody said.
"All the evidence from this network suggests that the kids were very aware of the local pattern and local history of sexual activity," Moody said.
"They know they are not going to date their ex-boyfriend's girlfriend's partner. That's too close."
He said it was almost like an incest taboo. "It forces people to find new partners instead of recycling."
Posted by Andrew at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2005
The future of Linux?
The Linux development process begins and ends with the programmers. While there are still some individual volunteers and government agencies that chip in, more than 90% of the patches now come from employees at tech companies. Many of those workers are formerly independent aces who have been scooped up over the past few years. Some of these people simply submit code, and others, called maintainers, are in charge of improving specific functions.
From there on, it's a continuous cycle. Individuals submit patches; maintainers improve them. Then they're passed off to Torvalds and Morton, who review the patches, ask for improvements, and update the kernel. Every four to six weeks, Torvalds releases a new test version so that thousands of people around the world can probe it for flaws. He puts out a major upgrade every three years or so. Unlike at traditional software companies, there are no deadlines. The Linux kernel is done when Torvalds decides it's ready.
This link should even work!
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January 24, 2005
Go buy yourself some flowers...
I think this is why we schedule the Super Bowl when we do...
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January 22, 2005
Promising
ABC News: Group Ready to Accept Mideast Cease-Fire
The armed groups want Israel to stop arrest raids and targeted killings of wanted Palestinians in exchange for a truce. In the past, Israel refused to promise the militants amnesty, despite requests by Egyptian mediators who have said they could not seal a truce deal without such Israeli guarantees.
Of course, the way these things tend to go, by the time you read this, the deal will be off...
I used to be an optimist...
Posted by Andrew at 01:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 20, 2005
Expletive deleted
I finished the game I had been playing (Master of Orion 3)
I finished my book (To Reign in Hell)
I don't get to go buy a new book for another several hours until the bookstores open.
Now what?
Posted by Andrew at 12:05 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
January 19, 2005
Reviews: (Books) To Reign in Hell
(Warning: This post will break the 3rd or 4th [depending on which sect is doing the numbering] Commandment. Also, metaphors will be mixed)
I am a sucker for a good apocalyptic tale. No, no, don't ask me why. But if the world is about to end, I want a front-row seat-- with nachos. I also think that Steven Brust is the cat's meow as far as writers go. I have no idea why it took me so damned long to read To Reign in Hell...
The basic story is the one familiar to us all: Yaweh and Satan duke it out for control of Heaven, Satan looses. And if storytelling didn't matter, that last sentence would be all you need. But storytelling does matter, and Mr. Brust has found a new an interesting way of telling the story. All elements are there from whatever demonology classes you might have taken; Lilith is a major character. And it's important to remember that Jesus was Yaweh's only begotten son. I don't really wish to say more about the plot for fear of spoiling some interesting twists. The ending, of course, is known to everyone...
From a politico-religious standpoint (my major and minor, so again, I love it) we get to witness the transformation of heaven from a State of Nature into a government. Locke would probably disapprove the manner of storytelling, but he could hardly argue with the politics of it all...
One of the reasons I am so fond of Mr. Brust, something which comes through quite clearly in this book, is his nack for showing people do clever things. A lot of fantasists, will simply state that their characters are clever, and show the results of their cleverness. But it takes real skill to show someone performing an intellectual feet in such a way that it is not only interesting, but also believable. The late, lamented Alfred Bester had this talent in spades, George R.R. Martin can show characters both being clever and being overly clever. Robert Jordan has made a fortune out of showing characters thinking they are clever only to fail miserably. Raymond Feist has never shown a hint of cleverness at all...
One other thing: where Tolkien made a career out of scenery, and Jordan introduces us to every blade of grass on every step of every journey that every character has made-- ever-- Mr. Brust tends to be rather sparing of the physical localities. Whereas the other two gentlemen are, say, photo-realistic in their approach to writing, Mr. Brust uses charcoal to give the reader a broad outline; the landscape is left to the reader as an exercise...
Rating:
5 Job: a Comedy of Justices out of 5 Cat's Laughing. Just go buy the book, read it, enjoy the theological impliciations...
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January 18, 2005
Speak the what to who now?
Posted by Andrew at 07:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 16, 2005
Social Insecurity.
Daily Howler: Peter Jennings covers for Bush. And Bumiller? Hopeless, as always
I know, I know, the title has been done to death. Still, though, it makes sense, and also is less inflammatory than president lies yet again about social security...
The heart of the Social Security debate is the expected health of the system a few decades from now. Basically, the when my parents retire, they are going to retire at the same time as a hell of a lot of other people. Instead of paying money into the system, they are going to be taking money out of it. Fortunately, for this exact reason, back in the early 1980s the Social Security trust fund was set up. That trust fund is set to run out in 2047, the year my father turns 98, and I turn 69...
So, at that point we no longer get social Security, right? Well, no. See, people will still pay into the system via payroll taxes (FICA) and thus the system will continue to be able to pay out benefits. And if the economy grows at an average of 2% per year those benefits will be larger in real terms than they are today. If the economy doesn't grow at least 2% per year, of course, the US will probably cease to exist as a sovereign nation...
So, why does the Bush Administration want to gut Social Security? As near as I can tell, he (and a lot of conservatives) think that enforced retirement savings are immoral. While this may be true (I don't think so), it is a very different argument than what we've been hearing...
Posted by Andrew at 12:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 14, 2005
HIV/AIDS
Dean's World: FALSIFYING THE UNFALSIFIABLE HYPOTHESIS
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs, so I'd like to see a bit more proof regarding this claim. However, those graphs look damning. If there is anyone out there who didn't fail stats who wants to take a look at the numbers and let me know what they think, please feel free...
Posted by Andrew at 09:09 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
Dino hunters!
Wired News: Ancient Mammal Dined on Dinosaur
Posted by Andrew at 11:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 11, 2005
Funny, true
iProduct.gif (GIF Image, 640x1050 pixels)
Posted by Andrew at 11:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Nerd Score!
Posted by Andrew at 12:42 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Prison Reading
The Pryhills: Book Recommendation: Reader response requested
If you were to choose one book to send to a young person in prison who you care about, what would that book be?
As a bookseller, this is something that I deal with just about ever day. Some guidelines:
Make sure that whatever you send has glued-- not stitched-- binding. Stitched=weapon in the minds of prison guards. Hardback books are commonly stitched together. Stitched paperbacks are rare indeed-- I’ve only seen 1 in the 3.5 years I’ve been selling books. If you have any questions about book binding, show the book to a bookseller-- we’re trained to tell book types apart...
The guards have sole discretion to accept or reject anything. I once saw a paperback copy of a scrabble dictionary sent back. Commonly rejected items are pornography (duh), or even Maxim-style magazines. Also, anything involving weapons, violence, or anything a guard deems likely to get the prisoners all riled up...
Most bookstores are good about accepting returns if the books are shipped back. They _will_ ask your name/phone number, under the assumption that they’ll have to call you. We do not commonly refund the cost of shipping, however...
So, what do I recommend? The Christian Bible is a good place to start. It has _hundreds_ of different stories, and does offer moral instruction. I recommend a New Living Translation or New International Version, as these are the most readable for modern eyes...
Another thought might be (if you can find it in paperback) the complete works of Shakespeare. Again-- lots of stories, and they touch many just about every subject known to man...
Cosmos, as one of your readers mentioned, is not a bad idea. The biggest drawback, as I can see it, is that Cosmos contains only the one story, and is shorter than a stay at prison. Along those lines: A Brief History of Time (Hawking) might be a good idea...
If he has ever read S/F, I might recommend the first book of the Wheel of Time (Jordan). If he likes it, there are 9 more, and they average about 700 pages...
Posted by Andrew at 11:19 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 10, 2005
Project Censored
Project Censored 2005 - Top 25 Censored Stories
I’ve heard about all these stories, but if you missed them, a couple might be worth your notice...
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January 09, 2005
Google's future
Posted by Andrew at 12:54 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 08, 2005
Big oops from Google
Google exposes web surveillance cams | The Register
Video surfers are using this knowledge to peek in on office and restaurant interiors, a Japanese barnyard, women doing laundry, the interior of an Internet collocation facility, and a cage full of rodents, among other things, in locales scattered around the world.
Posted by Andrew at 03:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 06, 2005
Free shipping
Free Shipping From Fed Ex To Help Tsunami Stricken Areas!
Well, what are you waiting for? Go help out!
Posted by Andrew at 09:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 05, 2005
Legoland update:
I’m back. I’ve had classes. Sorry about the lack of Social Security posting. I know you’re all extremely disappointed...
However, I can report 2 pieces of news:
1) I got This) While I was down there. Granted, now that means I need This and a Lego Snoopy, but...
2) I got back together with my Ex Girlfriend. Sorry ladies...
Posted by Andrew at 08:03 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
January 01, 2005
Happiest place on Earth
Ok, kids, I am heading down to San Diego for some pre-quarter LegoLand goodness. Have fun while I’m away...
Yes, you’ll probably get a post on social security reform, assuming my hotel has such modern conveniences as The Internet...
Posted by Andrew at 01:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack