I love it -- best OSC book in years! I've been a little disappointed with the Shadow series, which while very good, by the time I finish reading the book, it feels a little formulaic, and a little soap opera-y.
Anyway, I have to point out a slight hypocrisy (not too seriously though) in Empire.
It's the part where Microsoft is bashed. When Reuben and Cole are speculating about who could make the Mechs -- clearly it isn't Microsoft, because they don't crash.
The polarization theme of the book reminds me of the polarization in the tech industry, with the Macnorati on one side and the Microsofties on the other. It's clear where OSC has cast his lot, and, it seems, is unable to see the merit of the other side
Tut, tut.
Posted by PrometheusBound (Member # 10020) on :
Actualy, I think OSC has cast his lot in with the Great Sata— I mean Bill Gates.
Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :
Oh, goodie.
We've found another area where Card has issued statements critical of both sides of the aisle, and therefore supporters of both sides can brand him as an extremist in the other dirertion.
Or use his statements critical of the opposition to consider him as firmly entrenched in their own camp.
I'll bet we find more before the year is up, possibly involving whipped yogurt.
Posted by Sibyl (Member # 10079) on :
There's another side to this aisle yet, maybe more, the Unix/Linux/FreeBSD side. Those folks seem to have contempt for Microsoft also, maybe less for Mac, or maybe it's just that they remember I'm a Machead and take it easy when I'm around.
I have a Unix/Linux oriented friend on IRC who has a popup he uses frequently: "As a responsible professional in the computer industry, I can recommend Microsoft products only for the purpose of personal amusement."
Posted by Laurence Moroney (Member # 10187) on :
quote:Originally posted by docmagik: We've found another area where Card has issued statements critical of both sides of the aisle, and therefore supporters of both sides can brand him as an extremist in the other dirertion.
Or use his statements critical of the opposition to consider him as firmly entrenched in their own camp.
Whipped yoghurt aside, where is his anti-Macnorati statement?
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:I don't know about you, but I'm about fed up with all the free -- and ridiculous -- advertising and publicity Apple Computers gets. If they decided to bottle air and sell it, calling it, no doubt, "PowerAir" or "AirMac" or "AirPod," they'd claim that they had invented air. Then all the articles about the new MacAir would treat that claim as if it were true and suddenly start treating other air-packagers as mere imitators, playing "catch-up" with Apple.
I remember years ago, when Apple came out with their PowerBook notebook computer. I was at a meeting with an extraordinarily dumb young movie producer who kept going on and on about all the cool things his PowerBook could do. "It can sign on the internet and get email! I can care it with me on planes and it runs on batteries!"
Finally I got fed up and just showed him my Toshiba laptop. "I can do all those things, and this computer cost me a thousand dollars less than yours."
It was a cruel thing to do, I thought, to take the wind out of his sails like that. But no, I had forgotten: He was an Apple user! He gave me a withering look and said, "Yes, but mine is an Apple."
Well, yes, but he said it as if that were a good thing.
Think about it. All the rigid, corporate-determined uniformity and buy-it-from-us-or-drop-dead attitude of Microsoft, but you have to buy your hardware from them, too. I watch Apple users attempt to manipulate their clunky operating system -- click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, just to get where I can go with a single action on my keyboard -- and I hear them raving on and on about what wonderful trhings Apple is finally deigning to make available to them, but which PC users have had for years, and it all makes me vaguely sad.
"Windows crashes all the time," they say with a smirk. Then, when they're talking among themselves and they don't think you're listening, they reveal the evil truth: Macs crash too. And Mac software has bugs and flaws and security gaps and stupidity built in, just like Windows.
quote:I got the normal flood of "how dare you" letters about my rant on the subject of hype about Apple computer products. The letters were full of the very hype I was complaining about, of course -- to hear Mac users, you'd think Apple delivered them perfect software and hardware all the time, with never a crash or lockup or maddeningly inefficient interface.
But power users -- the people who push a computer to its limits in the course of their daily work -- know the truth: Apple makes idiotic decisions just like Microsoft does. It's just that Mac users have no choice but to live with what they're given from On High.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)