Posts by Andre Alessi
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I started using Chrome after Firefox went from a small, fast browser to a memory hog. It'd slow down my 8 GB gaming system just by being open with two tabs and with no addons beyond NoScript and AdBlock plus.
I want a browser that lets me browse the Internet, not one that makes me wait. A the moment, Chrome's the clear winner in that regard over Firefox, and I appreciate its minimalism in other respects (e.g. installing addons doesn't require a restart of the browser.)
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Charging it to the tax-payer, abso-fucking-loutely our business.
Sure it's "our business". The colour of the carpets on the floor of the House is our business too, for exactly the same reason. Does that lead to it being somehow more significant than, say, someone's policy decisions? Because thats exactly what's happening here.
Something can be "in the public interest" without being remotely relevant to the interests of the public.
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No wonder he's being branded a sex fiend. Chocolate binges, well we know what that means!
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(and no, that's not why I'm feeling rough – I had two drinks all night)
Sadly, that's all I need to get munted, even on a good day. My tombstone will read "Lightweight".
Well, that or "He was a cheap date, thank goodness."
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To quote Neil Gaiman: George R.R. Martin is not your bitch. -- and every syllable of his reality check for fans with inflamed entitleitis is quotable for truth.
I'm not complaining out of a sense of entitlement, believe me. That doesn't mean I can't point out that being unable to lock down a 600 page book in 5 years on themes and characters already established (when an author is not on hiatus) does not bode well for the quality of the remainder of the series. Seriously. I'll still read it when he finally gets aroumd to it, but I'm getting the sense that it'll be significantly overdone by the time it hits the shelves.
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No -- because if there's every been an "easy" Treaty settlement, I've never heard of it.
Tuhoe have been remarkably good at managing a single narrative on their ownership of this land for over a hundred years. Even allowing for the inevitable Ngati Newfullahs (and legitimate iwi, hapu, etc) that pop up around the time many of the larger settlements start being discussed, there's been little indication we'd see dissent or competing claims in this case. If there is such a thing as an easy settlement, this is it.
Just that there's something about basing the argument (or any public policy debate) on "moral claims" that makes me twitchy.
But many of these issues are moral in nature. "Was it wrong to take this particular resource from this particular group of people at this particular time?" isn't a question that can be answered without recourse to moral language, but it's a question that needs to be asked. The only other alternative is to rely totally on the written law of the time, which, funnily enough, didn't necessarily take that question into account.
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One thing I love about PA is that I can start reading a thread knowing all the things I want to talk about, and seeing them all checked off before I ever get to the end post. Bastards!
China Mieville's The City & the City is a great book, well worth it if you're not normally a fantasy fan, because this is one that isn't fantasy. I still prefer Perdido Street Station for sheer wild inventiveness, but the latest one is the sort of book you read and think "Hmm, in eighty years English teachers will be boring their favourite students by trying to get them to read this, and the kids won't know what they're missing..." It's one of those quiet classics that can be read either as straightforward fiction or as a commentary on human behaviour.
Also looking forward to another Ian M. Banks book, Culture-bound or not. I think he did dig himself into a bit of a rut by developing character archetypes to use over and over, but who knows? He's an enjoyable writer and he can't get it wrong forever.
2010 seems to be the year that the Malazan books of Steven Erikson really made themselves known, even though he's been writing them for ten years. Two books published this year IIRC (if you include the one by Ian C. Esselmont) bringing the total to, what, ten already? Grown up, exciting, fun fantasy. I found his books particularly good after subjecting myself to a series of not so good authors, from the old school careerists (Terry Brooks, Stephen R. Donaldson) to the execrable production line idiots (Kevin J. Anderson, who I will personally hunt down and berate if I ever have the misfortune of reading another of his dull, poorly written monstrosities.)
On a more positive note: Robin Hobb's now two books in to her new series, with the second book coming out a month or so ago. Hobb's undoubtedly my favourite fantasy author, and one of the few authors my girlfriend (whose tastes tend more towards Jane Austen and Victoria Clayton) and I both enjoy. And Tad Williams' Shadowrise continues an interesting series that could wrap up well or could go south quickly, while Brandon Sanderson picked up the Wheel of Time series and did remarkably well at making things happen in a series where nothing have for a couple of thousand pages (though the painful sexism of Jordan's last few books still sits awkwardly across the entire concept.)
George R.R. Martin still hasn't turned in another __Game of Thrones_ book though. Come on George, you've had five years now.
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Out of interest, where does one shop for cravats these days?
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I admit, I tried the Stripy Shirt approach for years. Never worked. Never once was I sexually harassed by a woman (or a man, for that matter-even the drag queens on K Rd seemed to think I was beneath contempt.)
Then I grew a beard and pow!
I'm thinking I could possibly pull off the Dark and Brooding nowadays if I wanted.
Edit: And by the way, I still <3 my Lynx.
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You'll be mishearing "German" as "Jewman" next.