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Off Armageddon Reef
I like David Weber novels, even though they are terrible, in the same way that I like action movies. You more or less know what is going to happen, and you can tell the good guys from the bad guys in the first page or scene, and the dialogue is vastly different from anything any…
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Internet Answers
Reasonably often, when you ask a question on a mailing list or newsgroup, nobody answers. Only a few people take the time to answer questions, and often nobody will bother. However, if you make an incorrect assertion, many people will take the time to correct you. Of course it does depend on the forum. In…
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Oil Money
Oil is currently purchased in dollars. That means that the price is set in dollars, and oil producers accept payments in dollars. There are occasional suggestions that the price should be denominated in some other currency, typically euros. This is generally intended to weaken U.S. hegemony. But does it make any sense? In today’s financial…
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Lord Shakespeare
There are various theories that the plays attributed to Shakespeare were actually written by somebody else, such as the Earl of Oxford. I think one of the stronger arguments against this claim is the considerable lack of great literature, or great art in general, produced by members of the aristocracy. I don’t believe that great…
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Free Theater
I’m sure everybody who works with free software has occasionally encountered the question as to why anybody would work on it. Obviously people do work on free software, and there are many different reasons why they do. However, there is a certain type of person who finds it all rather mysterious. I recently thought of…