Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1

On Sun, 5 Jan 2025, rbowman wrote:

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 12:28:09 +0100, D wrote:
>

Stephenson used to be great in his youth (Snowcrash, Diamond age,
Cryptonomicon) but has gotten worse as he has gotten older. His books
have expanded needlessly and he has gotten more woke as well.
>
I think it is due to financial incentives.

>
I liked 'Reamde' and 'Termination Shock' wasn't too bad. 'Polostan' didn't
capture me, certainly not as the start of a series of relatively expensive
offerings to complete the story line. I don't mind series. Mackey
Chandler's 'April' series was 14 books. Of course it helps that they were
all kindleunlimited so I wasn't paying $5 a pop. Franklin Horton's
'Borrowed World' is up to 11 now.

I try to avoid series, and if I read one, ideally no more than 3 parts. I simply don't have the time. =(

I'd asked Fran Porretto about kindleunlimited and how that works compared
to outright purchases. He went off to find out but I never heard more. He
doesn't do series per se so I wondered if buying the books put a few more
bucks in his piggybank.

I spoke with a science fiction author on a mailinglist I'm a member of, and he said, for the love of god, never write a book because you expect to earn money on it. Apparently it is not the royal road to riches. ;)
I read an interview with Stephenson, it must have been more than 10 years ago, where he said that his books are enough to finance a good middle class living for him. I imagine that over the past 10 years, since royalties are accumulating, it must have surely increased a bit from there.