A Song of Ice and Fire [2]

So we actually don't use spoiler tags in either thread, with the proviso that in the TV thread we just never mention anything that hasn't happened yet?

I like that. No spoiler tags anywhere.

Spoiler:

soooooooo let me get this straight.
this thread is for people reading the books and obviously know a lot more than the tv show watchers like me who havent read the fucking books. and you book Readers want to discuss the books, but you will put everything in spoilers for those who havent read ALL the books or for casual passers by who may be outraged at finding out who dies,(because lets face it thats the beef) but the other thread is for people who have only seen the tv show and dont want to be spoiled as to who dies next so everything is in spoilers, so basically EVERYFUCKINGTHING is in spoilers. ok so I read all the spoilers anyway cos I just dont care, but is there anywhere a person can just say ermergerd I just saw an Amazing thing did you see the bit where the blood splattered all over her face and she licked it off??? and not have to put it in a spoiler thingie??

No, no, no.....nothing is in spoilers in either thread. Here we just say whatever because we assume people reading the books are at all different points so it's hopeless anyway.

The TV thread is where if you know something that hasn't been broadcast, you stick you fist in your mouth and don't say anything.

No spoilers anywhere. If people are reading the books and don't want to be spoiled, the hell with them, there's no place for them anyway.

Mrs Figg wrote:ok so I read all the spoilers anyway cos I just dont care, but is there anywhere a person can just say ermergerd I just saw an Amazing thing did you see the bit where the blood splattered all over her face and she licked it off??? and not have to put it in a spoiler thingie??

For the third time (fifth if you count Halfy's two most recent posts): you don't have to use spoilers in this thread when talking about either the books or the series.

you book Readers want to discuss the books, but you will put everything in spoilers for those who havent read ALL the books or for casual passers by who may be outraged at finding out who dies,(because lets face it thats the beef)

No. That's the reason for having a separate thread (and a warning in this one's title): anyone who views this thread is opening up themselves to the possibility of seeing untagged spoilers for anything.

halfwise wrote:No spoilers anywhere.  If people are reading the books and don't want to be spoiled, the hell with them, there's no place for them anyway.

Pretty much.  The only grey area is is right after an episode has aired, but because it's so easy to catch up, then TV-only viewers can just avoid that thread for a day or two until they're caught up.  I had initially suggested using spoilers for material in new episodes for the first couple days, but it seems this is unpopular/confusing so we might as well not do that.  Book readers, of course, already have an idea of what's going to happen in any given episode so it's not necessary to hide any TV-related discussion in this thread.

These threads are getting beyond hilarious

oh maybe I got it now, maybe..

I haven't read any of the books or watched any of the show, but I'm loving these threads! 

 

Eldorion wrote:Oh my fucking god.

I'm actually rather proud of that.   

I'd actually kinda been curious about this ever since I read about GRRM's "wizard of DOS" is one of the acknowledgements sections.

It makes sense. MSword drives me crazy sometimes. And nobody will hack him. I suppose he's backing up to floppies. The problem is there's no way to connect to these old computers any more to transfer files. I wonder how he does it?

It does reassure me to know that he isn't updating his LiveJournal from DOS too, although LiveJournal is well on its way to becoming nearly as obsolete.

He might have a Windows 98 or ME machine that came with the option to run DOS as well/instead. I recall those having CD drives, though now that I think about it I don't know if they had read/write capabilities or just read-only.

I doubt if he'd then refer to it as a DOS machine if it had the capability of running windows (do all windows versions still run on top of DOS?).

Since it took so long to discover he did his writing on old technology, I wonder how long we'll have to wait to find out the nuts and bolts of it?

halfwise wrote:I doubt if he'd then refer to it as a DOS machine if it had the capability of running windows (do all windows versions still run on top of DOS?).

I obviously don't know why Martin chose that particular phrasing, but most computers are capable of running more than one operating system.  Whether he actually does have multiple OSes on that computer is a different question; it sounds like he only uses it for DOS though, regardless.

Since it took so long to discover he did his writing on old technology, I wonder how long we'll have to wait to find out the nuts and bolts of it?

It's been known that he uses DOS for a long time but I dunno if anyone actually asked him for details before his appearance on Conan the other day.

Just saw this on another forum, but it might have something to do with how long the books are taking.

George RR Martin only types with one finger -- interview with Authors Road on YouTube

Eldorion wrote:

halfwise wrote:I doubt if he'd then refer to it as a DOS machine if it had the capability of running windows (do all windows versions still run on top of DOS?).

I obviously don't know why Martin chose that particular phrasing, but most computers are capable of running more than one operating system.  Whether he actually does have multiple OSes on that computer is a different question; it sounds like he only uses it for DOS though, regardless.

If he refers to it as a DOS machine, it's probably something like an old 8085 or early IBM PC which counts its onboard memory in kilobytes. No room for a second OS. Just one good jpeg would kill it. If he's just using it for a word processor though, you don't need a lot of memory. He's probably got a big solid old-school keyboard that his fingers know by heart, and his fingers (or finger) have long since memorized all the ctl- codes.

Something like that becomes a part of the creative process, just like a lot of people who learned to type on a manual typewriter kept typing on them when they were being creative, long after electric and electronic keyboards became the norm, just because they needed the clatter/ding/bang! of the keys, bell and carriage-return to satisfy their Muse. I think it's pretty cool really!

(but then, my phone still has a rotary dial...  )

halfwise wrote:It makes sense.  MSword drives me crazy sometimes.  And nobody will hack him.  I suppose he's backing up to floppies.  The problem is there's no way to connect to these old computers any more to transfer files.  I wonder how he does it?

I thought some of the very late DOS machines had 28.8k modems... maybe he uses that? Or a floppy drive (the small ones, the the old big ones that were actually floppy).

I am sure there are people out there that have created code to attach floppy drives to modern p.cs.

Eldorion wrote:Just saw this on another forum, but it might have something to do with how long the books are taking.

George RR Martin only types with one finger -- interview with Authors Road on YouTube

  

Lancebloke wrote:

halfwise wrote:It makes sense.  MSword drives me crazy sometimes.  And nobody will hack him.  I suppose he's backing up to floppies.  The problem is there's no way to connect to these old computers any more to transfer files.  I wonder how he does it?

I thought some of the very late DOS machines had 28.8k modems... maybe he uses that? Or a floppy drive (the small ones, the the old big ones that were actually floppy).

I am sure there are people out there that have created code to attach floppy drives to modern p.cs.

But it's not something you can pick up off the shelf. It could be that he has several sets of overlapping technology: two old computers that straddle changes in technology could do it. I have an old macintosh for which the only way I can get info off it is to connect it to the internet by phone jack then email things to myself.

I type with one finger. My Little Finger

badoomtush!

halfwise wrote:

Lancebloke wrote:

halfwise wrote:It makes sense.  MSword drives me crazy sometimes.  And nobody will hack him.  I suppose he's backing up to floppies.  The problem is there's no way to connect to these old computers any more to transfer files.  I wonder how he does it?

I thought some of the very late DOS machines had 28.8k modems... maybe he uses that? Or a floppy drive (the small ones, the the old big ones that were actually floppy).

I am sure there are people out there that have created code to attach floppy drives to modern p.cs.

But it's not something you can pick up off the shelf.  It could be that he has several sets of overlapping technology: two old computers that straddle changes in technology could do it.   I have an old macintosh for which the only way I can get info off it is to connect it to the internet by phone jack then email things to myself.

How about having somebody with a soldering gun wire up a serial-port to USB adapter?  Then you could just plug in a flashdrive and skip the floppies entirely.

Ringdrotten wrote:

Eldorion wrote:Just saw this on another forum, but it might have something to do with how long the books are taking.

George RR Martin only types with one finger -- interview with Authors Road on YouTube

  

Well, having done this one finger typing thing his whole life, as he says in that video, he's probably quite adept and quick at it by now.

Still, would he have finished his series by now if someone had taught him the touch method? I guess we'll never know.  

I don't use the touch method either, but I type fast enough using my own weird technique. Knowing you're going to write thousands of pages and not making an effort to expand your typing-horizon is like knowing you're going to live thirty miles away from work and not bothering to get a driver's license. You'll get there, but you'll spend a lot of unnecessary time doing it. Still, I'm not complaining - as long as he gets there, I'll be a happy fan

Yeah.   Though it's hard to say. His rate of typing might match his creative rate anyway, so it might not make a difference.

And I don't think it's a good idea generally to judge a creative process on anything but it's output, but he might have opened himself up for some criticism in that respect with the way the last two books came about.  

I'll never understand how people manage without touch-typing.  Don't get me wrong, it was a bitch for me to learn, but eventually I just had to once I started writing college papers.  What years of typing practice couldn't do, one semester of English did. I can't imagine having typed 25 pages while glancing at the keyboard every few seconds.  Although maybe such things are possible if you don't put assignments off as much as I did.