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durrandon

@durrandon@geekdom.social

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

Tim_Eagon , (edited ) to random
@Tim_Eagon@dice.camp avatar

So, I watched Game of Thrones to the bitter end and was wondering if House of the Dragon was worth watching.

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@Tim_Eagon

Fire & Blood is not my favorite Westerosi story line, but it has the distinct advantage of being a story that George RR Martin has finished, and the show runners are doing a good job with it.

pluralistic , to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

A decade ago, a hedge fund had an improbable viral comedy hit: a 294-page slide deck explaining why Olive Garden was going out of business, blaming the failure on too many breadsticks and insufficiently salted pasta-water:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/940944/000092189514002031/ex991dfan14a06297125_091114.pdf

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/#invertebrates

1/

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@pluralistic

"These places are easy pickings for looters because the people who patronize them have little power in our society – and because those of us with more power are easily tricked into sneering at these places' failures as a kind of comeuppance that's all that's due to tacky joints that serve the working class."

Kind of feeling seen here.

deinol , to random
@deinol@dice.camp avatar

I have finished reading Chapterhouse Dune. My fools errand is finished. It’s not good, and of course ends with loose ends.

I think my personal recommendation is reading the first two books. Although just one or even zero are solid choices. Three is alright, except it’s a trap if it makes you curious and want to read more.

I’m tempted to revisit Heinlein who I haven’t read in at least twenty years, but I’m also afraid he’ll be disappointing.

#Reading #SciFi #Dune #ChapterhouseDune

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@deinol
@croyle

Got into Heinlein through his short stories as a teen. Stopped after reading Starship Troopers.

snarfed.org , to random
@snarfed.org@snarfed.org avatar

Hi all! Well, I didn’t plan it, but word got out anyway: Bridgy Fed‘s Bluesky <=> fediverse support went online a couple weeks ago, quietly and without announcement, but people still found it. Over 1200 accounts have turned it on so far and bridged themselves one direction or the other. It’s great to see so much early interest!

(For anyone unfamiliar with Bridgy Fed, here’s an introduction.)

It’s still very early, and I wasn’t quite prepared for this much volume this quickly. Expect lots of bugs, missing features, downtime, and other rough edges. The docs are mostly up to date, at least. If you hit a problem, search the open issues, and if you don’t see it there, feel free to file it.

Also, much of the current state is not final. Expect some design and policy choices to change. For example, right now you have to manually enable the bridge, but that may change eventually, at least for Bluesky accounts bridging into the fediverse.

Otherwise, there’s a ton to do, and I’m only one person, doing this on the side, so progress will be slow. They say if you don’t feel uncomfortable when you ship, you probably waited too long, so let me just say that I feel very uncomfortable right now, hopefully in a good way. 😀 Thanks again for all the interest, and for your patience!

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@rolle @snarfed.org@snarfed.org
Kind of curious. I have a test account on Bluesky. I have it bridged and I am following it from my Mastodon account and vice versa. (Masto account is also bridged.) That had delays, but works. But none of my new posts on either end are showing after 25 minutes. Is this similar for other folks? (I am asking other people testing this out. Please ignore me Ryan. I know you are busy.)

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@BeAware
Oh, I know.

deinol , to random
@deinol@dice.camp avatar

One of the weird premises of Dune is the notion of scientific secrets. It’s really hard to keep scientific secrets. Once you know something is possible, if you have the resources of numerous planets for centuries, you can absolutely recreate anything ever invented.

Usually the limiting factor is resources.

Okay, now that I think about it’s one of the least weird assumptions. Just a dumb one.

#Dune #SciFi #Reading

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@SJohnRoss
@deinol

It probably seemed very reasonable in the context of the Cold War, especially when the first book was written.

deinol , to random
@deinol@dice.camp avatar

I have finished Heretics of Dune

I don’t really know what to make of it. On the one hand, it’s back to political maneuvering and is at least readable. But it’s still mostly about eugenics. And controlling people through sex.

I feel like you can skip God and enjoy this one, but you are still better off ending at either 1, 2, or at most 3.

#Dune #Reading #SciFi #HereticsOfDune #DuncanIdahoIsASexGod

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@deinol
You've officially made it further than me. I dropped Heretics before hitting 100 pages. No regrets.

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@deinol
I do kind of wonder if Frank was so awful to his gay son and wrote so much homophobic stuff in God Emperor because he was repressing his own true feelings about Duncan Idaho.

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@deinol
The forward in the copy I started was Frank going off about how his wife agreed that Heretics was a feminist masterpiece.

deinol , to random
@deinol@dice.camp avatar

I have finished reading God Emperor of Dune. It ended exactly as it must, but I’m still not certain what to think of it. So far it’s my least favorite book, mostly because of the homophobia.

My recommendation is to probably stop at book 2 or 3.

But I shall forge ahead anyway.

#Reading #SciFi #Dune #GodEmperorOfDune

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@deinol
Ooh, and the gender essentialism; can't leave that out. I quit during the beginning the next book. It was the rant about how horrible liberals are. Not a leftist-socialist rant, mind you; definitely a right wing, libertarian rant, written at the height of the Reagan era.

durrandon ,
@durrandon@geekdom.social avatar

@deinol
That said, stopping at book 2 might be recommended, but stopping at book 3 would be weird. I didn't think I could have watched Leto become a worm and then been like, yeah I didn't want to see what he does with this.

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