Dune is my favorite book. By "favorite" I mean it would be the one book I would take with me to a deserted island. I have read the original series (first 6 books) over and over again, and I keep returning to it.
When Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son, first started publishing the House and Legends trilogy, I was generally happy about the concept. After all, what could be bad about reading more of your favorite fantasy world? The books that Bryan wrote weren't as good, but they served as some sort of history archives, setting up the background and the events that led to the Dune story.
Six books of Pre-Dune weren't enough for Brian. Obviously, the trick seemed to be working - write anything that says "Dune" on it, and people will buy it. Yeah, I bought all 6 books of the two trilogies by Brian Herbert. And it was starting to feel weird.
Then came Hunters of Dune. And it wasn't good. At all. Hunters of Dune was supposed to let us know what happened after the somewhat-cryptic ending of Frank Herbert's final Dune book, Chapterhouse: Dune. It is a badly written book, that utterly ruins the spirit and beauty of the original Dune. Frank Herbert was a gifted writer and a man of amazing imagination. His son falls seriously far from that tree, and another writer in the form of Kevin Anderson doesn't really help.
What Frank Herbert could convey in one paragraph, now took a whole page. Perhaps they needed to fill the pages. Maybe the publisher thought it would be a good idea. People love FAT books, and you can charge more for them, can't you?
I didn't even touch Sandworms of Dune. Frankly (no pun intended), I'm too scared. I don't want to read Brian's version of the future of Dune. I know it won't be good. I love Dune too much, and I don't want any more horrible books by the no-good son to spoil it for me.
It could have ended here. But nooooooooooooooooo. Brian apparently needs more money or something of the sort. He is bored, perhaps. His friend, Kevin, probably also feels the need to milk this cash-cow some more. The pair are planning YET ANOTHER SERIES of books, this time more Pre-Dune.
The first volume in the series, Jessica of Dune, is scheduled for an autumn 2009 release in trade paperback. The other books in the series are Irulan of Dune and Leto of Dune for releases in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
And I say - Brian, Leave Dune Alone! In the name of Shai-Hulud! Leave us with the glorious, wonderful world that your father has created, and stop sucking the marrow out of this poor cash-cow that you have found.
Fat chance, though. I hope the upcoming Dune movie will bring us some happiness. In the mean time, we can watch Brian and Kev ruin yet another piece of the Dune universe.
This official video for "Pork and Beans" from Weezer shows quite a few YouTube stars, that you might recognize if you have been visiting the video site in the last year or so, or if your friends regularly bother you with forwarded e-mails.
I spotted the Dramatic Chipmunk, Chris Crocker, The Chocolate Rain kid, The Diet Coke and Mentos guys, The Evolution of Dance dude (still the most popular video EVER on YouTube), Ms. South Carolina, The Numa Boy and Plenty of lightsabers. I probably missed a few things.
Very cool clip, and right now also very hot on the web. Enjoy!
Money is fast becoming a digital, invisible thing. It's in the bank, we pay for things using our credit card and we buy things on the net with a click of the mouse.
Still, money has shape, colors and even smell. Here are 24 cool images of money.
For example, this image of a 10,000 Dollar bill. Apparently, the Federal Reserve used it to transfer money to and from banks and was never issued to the public. They also produced a $500, $1,000, $5,000 and even a $100,000 dollar note. They were last printed in 1945 and have since been discontinued.
After a period of relative silence, Anonymous releases a new Anti-Scientology video to YouTube. The message brings nothing new to the public. Seems like a "we are still here" sort of thing.
From the speech, which was given, as usual, in a distorted voice: "You may have heard of us, or you may have not. We are a collective of people who gather on the internet and wage an on-going campaign against the Church of Scientology. We do not question its beliefs, but its methods that we deem both destructive and criminal".
Anonymous also invites more people to join the cause: "Become who we are and join our cause, fight against the Church of Scientology by educating yourself about it so you may educate others".
The end of the clip shows some flashes of news updates, where Anonymous was mentioned.
Wired has started a Wiki on how to setup a pirate radio station in your own home, garage or whatever.
Naturally, the article is more relevant if you reside in the USA. And of course, there is the small matter of the illegality of broadcasting from a pirate radio station. But hey, Wired says it's for hobbyists. Sure.
I love radio and it's a great medium. However, in the era of internet broadcasting, which is far more accessible, I fail to see the point of a pirate radio station. Still, if you feel like being Christian Slater - go ahead and have some fun!
TorrentFreak gives exclusive updates as to Shareaza's fight with its hijackers.
The Shareaza team informs their supporters that they are "announcing that we have legal representation and will be contesting the trademark application on our name and identity taken out by Discordia Ltd. After that, we’ll be looking to get our old domain back from the people who threatened, bullied and intimidated the team member holding it on the project’s behalf and who are now using as the gateway to their deceptive business model".
Good luck, guys!
An Australian swimmer claims he managed to survive a great white shark attack, by poking the shark in the eye.
Jason Cull, the swimmer, was apparently seized by the left leg as he was swimming at Middleton Beach in southwestern Australia on Saturday.
“Initially I thought it was a dolphin but when it came up and banged straight into me, I realized what it was,” said Cull.
According to Cull, he struggled with the huge shark, and somehow managed to find its eye and poke it with his fingers. The shark then turned away and went back to sea. Cull's leg was seriously mauled, but he underwent surgery and since he is talking about it in the media, I guess he'll make it.
A teenage surfer was killed in a shark attack last month, bringing the death toll in Australia to 12 since 2000, according to US database International Shark Attack File.
Do you use Open Source software? You might be using it and not even know about it. Collecting data about open source usage is a difficult task. Self-reporting seems to be about the only way to get any numbers at all, although it's a biased method and might be unreliable.
"The Open Source Census is a global, collaborative project to collect and share quantitative data on the use of open source software in the enterprise". The project tries to count how many enterprise installations there are in the world for each open source package.
Although the project focuses on open source use in the enterprise arena, individuals are also able to participate. Separate reports are provided for individuals and companies.
How it works?
You register anonymously - all you need to give is a user name and password, and there's no need to provide your real name or your e-mail address. You'll receive a Census-Code, and you will then download a tool called OSS Discovery, which will scan your computer for open source installations (this is where you'll need the code your were given), and report back to the Census. By using command line options in OSS Discovery, you can decide whether to contribute scan reports at the time the scans are run, at a later time, or not at all.
Whether you choose to participate or not, you can definitely view the interesting reports and data gathered by the The Open Source Census.
For example, you can see a list of the Top 20 Open Source Packages: Firefox leads the list with 81% of installations. OpenOffice was found on 64% of the machines scanned. Zlib is ranked 2nd.
Of the Linux distros, Ubuntu seems to take the lead at the moment. A whole third of the participants reside in the USA. The rest come mainly from Canada and Europe.
This project looks very interesting. I'm having my computer scanned as I write this post. I'm not expecting to be surprised - I use Pidgin, Firefox, OpenOffice and a few other open source programs. How about you?
Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo suffered a chipped bone in his left ankle after a spectacular fall during practice for Sunday's Grand Prix of China. It appears that Lorenzo suffered no upper body injury despite taking the impact of the fall on his forearms.
There's much talk lately about ISPs that block or slow down torrent traffic. Users who have enjoyed the great download rates of torrents, find themselves looking at very slow connections, with no apparent reason.
ISPs that throttle torrent traffic were recently exposed by Azureus. The data was gathered from many users, using the Azureus plugin, and it confirms that Comcast continues to use TCP-resets to manage BitTorrent traffic on their network, but they are not alone. You can read the full results of the research here (PDF format).
Now the research is expanding. If you are using a different torrent client than Azureus, and you want to check if your ISP is messing up your downloads, you can do it with this service. The test servers are working hard, and you might get a "busy" response - so simply try again later.
The test creates a BitTorrent-like transfer between your machine and our server, and determines whether or not your ISP is limiting such traffic.
The test focuses on the BitTorrent protocol. This type of traffic can be identified by the port it is sent on (e.g., TCP port 6881) or by BitTorrent content headers which occur in the packets.
It's going to be very interesting to see the results. I am still waiting for the servers to clear, so I can run the test myself. Updates will follow.
Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby yesterday, winning horse racing's marquee event that ended tragically with the death of Eight Belles.
As Big Brown was draped with roses, Eight Belles, the first filly to run the Derby in nine years, was euthanized after breaking both of her front ankles. It was the first time in Derby history that a horse died.
Said Dr. Larry Bramlege, the attending veterinarian: ''She was easing down, near an outrider by the seven-eighths pole, when he saw both ankles collapse. I was shocked to hear him call out. The left front opened the skin and was contaminated. The right had a broken sesamoid. She did not have a front leg to stand on even to get into the ambulance. There is absolutely nothing you can do.''
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My name is Revital Salomon. I'm a lady who lives on the net 24/7. I am the sole owner and CEO of TheSharkLady - Killer Content Management.
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