FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

To be clear: I was referring to The Stand, which is a single, long book. When it was originally published he was a best selling author and his publisher made him trim the book down by a few hundred pages.

Twelve years later, he was STEPHEN KING and he was able to get the book published as he'd intended.

The series you're thinking of is The Dark Tower. I've never read all of it. But I always remember King saying that he wrote it as it came to him and there was every possibility that the series would never end.

Still King holds the record of prolonging the pain...Bar none..!

Sorry mods and good folks, off topic but still sorta on..Let me go back to my cave...Grin.

What I ? love to peek into his mind, or maybe not....hoot.

[Richwood]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Maybe it's my background, but it's the idea of looking up the conversions in a book that strikes me as silly. I do most one-byte conversions in my head, two-byte values might take me a little longer, and if I can't do that for some reason (large values, or maybe not enough sleep), a pencil and a scrap of paper do just dandy.

I mean, seriously - take 10101001. Split it into four-digit pieces to make things easy: 1010 and 1001. Anyone who knows what binary is should be able to read those as "ten" and "nine." Getting that to decimal is simple: "ten times sixteen plus nine" equals 169. Going to hex is even easier: ten is A, nine is 9, write 'em next to each other, that's A9. (There's a reason we use four-bit chunks!) Works almost as easily in reverse.

Or, for a more timely comparison that RAH should have been able to figure out, if a WWII ship's radio operator can transcribe Morse code by ear because that's his job, his Space Patrol counterpart who works with binary-decimal-hex all day long will be just at good at translating that in his head. Even better, probably; Morse code relies on remembering a table, whereas this is grade-school multiplication.

Early Univac computers used octal notation in the manuals, 3 bit chunks.

[Dngrsone]

In one of my former lives, I had to be able to read and convert data between decimal, octal, hexadecimal and binary on a regular basis. We also had handwritten tables for navigating paths through switching subsystems. Not everyone was a mathematician, though and some of our people had problems remembering that B was eleven...

[pdurrant]

I think the thread drift has gone on long enough. The mods would be grateful if members would return to only posting FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy deals in this thread.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

To get back on topic: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein is $1.99 at Amazon.

Luckily, this classic book has never been revised after publication

A real classic. I recommended it in another thread.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Richwood

Early Univac computers used octal notation in the manuals, 3 bit chunks.

Octal trivia: the Intel 8080 instruction set was easiest to read in octal since that made seeing which registers were being used very easy.

In a pathetic attempt to remain on topic, Doranna Durgin's The Reckoners is on sale at Kobo (likely Amazon as well) for $0.99. I've liked some of her books so will be picking it up though she's been rather hit and miss for my tastes.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by DNSB

In a pathetic attempt to remain on topic, Doranna Durgin's The Reckoners is on sale at Kobo (likely Amazon as well) for $0.99. I've liked some of her books so will be picking it up though she's been rather hit and miss for my tastes.

99p on Amazon.co.uk as well. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reckoners-T...doranna+durgin

Although I generally like Durgin's work, I may pass on this one - it seems to be straying close to her romance series rather than her fantasy series and I've way too much on my TBR pile as it is.

[Dngrsone]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is $2.99 at Amazon US right now.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is $2.99 at Amazon US right now.

In an admission that will get me fired from this board: I could never get into The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's funny enough. But the rambling plotless nature of the story made me give up on it partway through the first book repeatedly.

Yes, yes. I understand it is due to the origins of the story. So what? It still keeps me from ever getting into it.

I enjoyed Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency a bit more and like Douglas Adams as a person a lot more.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

In an admission that will get me fired from this board: I could never get into The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's funny enough. But the rambling plotless nature of the story made me give up on it partway through the first book repeatedly.

Yes, yes. I understand it is due to the origins of the story. So what? It still keeps me from ever getting into it.

I enjoyed Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency a bit more and like Douglas Adams as a person a lot more.

Have you tried listening to the radio broadcasts first? The book makes a lot more sense if you do so.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by maddz

Have you tried listening to the radio broadcasts first? The book makes a lot more sense if you do so.

It's not that the book doesn't make sense. I just fail to find it interesting.

I have listened to the beginning of the Stephen Fry narrated audio book, read most of the DC comics adaptation (loved the artwork) and watched some of the BBC miniseries (which is the format I've enjoyed the most, so far).

I have never gone back to listen to the original radio series. Maybe I'd like it that way.

I do have a friend that tore through the books and loved them. On the other hand, my better half has attempted the book a couple of times (that's why I heard Stephen Fry's reading) and like me, never made it through.

[maddz]

Be glad you're not a fan-grrl like me. I saw the film adaptation and was embarrassed that I could predict the dialogue about 10 seconds before it was in the film. My other half was just as bad... We were good and made sure we were speaking under our breath.

I will admit that the books do ramble rather; the radio scripts are better, and the broadcasts better still (6 x 30-minute episodes per series).

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by maddz

Be glad you're not a fan-grrl like me. I saw the film adaptation and was embarrassed that I could predict the dialogue about 10 seconds before it was in the film. My other half was just as bad... We were good and made sure we were speaking under our breath.

I went to see a live production of Sweeney Todd and the teen fangirl behind me sang along with it all so much I turned around and asked her to knock it off. Then I felt like a jerk through the rest of the show.

[maddz]

If you've ever heard me sing, you'll understand why I don't sing in public...

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I went to see a live production of Sweeney Todd and the teen fangirl behind me sang along with it all so much I turned around and asked her to knock it off. Then I felt like a jerk through the rest of the show.

No wonder. Without badges, you have no authority to tell her to knock it off