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ImageMagick book
MythTV book
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Thu, 02 Jul 2009
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05:46: Mikal shared: qw-cheatsheet-print-zoom.jpg
Let's say you have to recreate modern technology from scratch... Happens to me all the time.
Tags for this post: blather( )
posted at: 12:46 | path: /blather | permanent link to this entry
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Tue, 30 Jun 2009
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When leaving the US, I stayed in the Wild Palms Hotel. I selected it for three reasons: I'd stayed there before; it is part of the Joie De Vivre chain which I have had good experiences with before; and it was very cheap on Expedia ($77 compared to an average rate in the area of about $150). I learnt some interesting things I thought I'd share:
- The hotel is ok, just make sure you get an upstairs room. I was woken by mating elephants at 5am two days running because the floors are so thin. Be the mating elephant, not the victim of it! Once I moved to an upstairs room this probably went away.
- The executive rooms aren't worth it. I got moved into one of these because of the noise problems. Its advantages was it was away form the road, had a bathrobe (really), and a LCD TV. I don't watch TV much, so the extra cost if I was paying isn't worth it.
- The cleaning service kept "short sheeting" the bed. By short sheeting I mean pulled the sheets up to make the top of the bed look impressive, but leaving the bottom couple of inches of the mattress uncovered. Lots of hotels do this, and I find it crazily annoying.
- The air conditioner was insanely loud. It was 38 when I was staying there, and every time the air conditioner kicked in I would be woken up by it.
- Its a lot further south than I realized. It took about 20 minutes to get to work if you took El Camino. Depending on traffic its probably much faster to go all the way to the 101 and then take that. The Lawrence Expressway looks like the best way to get to the 101 from the hotel.
So, overall this hotel was "ok", apart from some minor annoyances. I'll keep staying there so long as they're cheap. If they're not running a special, then you're much better off staying further north.
Tags for this post: travel( ) usa( ) california( ) sunnyvale( )
posted at: 14:25 | path: /travel/usa/california/sunnyvale | permanent link to this entry
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Sun, 28 Jun 2009
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Tue, 23 Jun 2009
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Fri, 19 Jun 2009
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Mon, 15 Jun 2009
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ISBN: 0307394913
Harmony (2007), Hardcover, 288 pages
LibraryThing
| I seem to be on a bit of a trivia book kick, which is at least partially motivated by getting through all my Christmas presents so I can pack them into a box and move to a different country. This book was written as part of the production of the very excellent BBC quiz show Quite Interesting and is quite a contrast from the extremely average Why Do Men Have Nipples that I just finished reading. This book feels well researched, and is on par with Why Don't Penguin's Feet Freeze, although the style is quite different (the New Scientist book offers multiple answers for each question, and is written by real scientists in the fields discussed, this book flows as one manuscript). I suspect it helps here to have seen the quiz show, because many of the other reviews I have seen online complain about the style of the book, which reads in much the same manner as Stephen Fry's commentary during the program. If you're familiar with the format, then the book flows quite nicely (whereas if you haven't, you might end up why the book jumps around so much). I really liked this book.
Tags for this post: book( ) John_Lloyd_and_John_Hitchinson( ) |
posted at: 18:45 | path: /book/John_Lloyd_and_John_Hitchinson | permanent link to this entry
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Sat, 13 Jun 2009
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Fri, 12 Jun 2009
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Wed, 10 Jun 2009
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Sat, 06 Jun 2009
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Thu, 04 Jun 2009
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Sat, 30 May 2009
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Fri, 29 May 2009
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Wed, 27 May 2009
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A while ago Thomas Mashos registered a launch pad project for MythNetTV (here for those that care). Launch pad annoys me quite a bit, although thats probably because I'm failing to understand how to use it in some way. So, perhaps people have guidance for me. Some questions:
- How do I take over ownership of the project?
- How do I mark bugs as resolved / fixed / finalized? They just seem to hang around in "fix committed".
- How do I delete a blueprint that someone submitted that isn't going to get implemented?
- Given I wrote all the code, and fixed all the bugs, how come someone who writes a two paragraph blueprint that is never going to get implemented gets more Karma than me? Not that I think the Karma system really matters, but it does seem ridiculous.
- How do I tell launchpad the code is stored in an external SVN repository?
Here's hoping someone can make launch pad less annoying for me.
Tags for this post: blog( )
posted at: 07:35 | path: /diary | permanent link to this entry
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Mon, 25 May 2009
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Fri, 22 May 2009
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ISBN: 0812550587
Tor Books (1995), Mass Market Paperback, 222 pages
LibraryThing
| This is a relatively short collection of Harry Harrison short stories. They are:
- I always do what Teddy says: what happens when we abdicate teaching our youngsters moral values to machine, and then don't test that the machine is working correctly? A short story about unit testing?
- Space rats of the CCC: this story is just silly. Its a little bit like Bill the Galactic Hero in style, but also a little bit annoying. It didn't really work for me.
- Down to earth: I'm sure I've read this basic plot line about a billion times, for example Hawk Among the Sparrows being just one example. This one didn't even have a good twist at the end.
- A criminal act: Harrison feels strongly about population grow (see also Make Room, Make Room!). Its pretty obvious in this story, although its not as preachy as Make Room, Make Room.
- Famous first words: I actually really liked this one.
- The Pad - a story of the day after the day after tomorrow: seducing women is hard work for billionaires, apparently.
- If: a pretty standard "don't alter the time lines" tale, with a small if predictable twist.
- Mute Milton: what important discoveries have been lost through the ages through racism or accident?
- Simulated trainer: this is an interesting story -- I quite like the concept, and the execution is more believable than most Harrison stories.
- At last, the true story of Frankenstein: this is a good story too, with a nice twist at the end.
- The robot who wanted to know: a pretty classic robot story, which could just as easily fit in an Asimov collection as a Harrison collection. I'm quite partial to robot stories, and I enjoyed it.
- Bill the Galactic Hero's happy holiday: I've previous complained about the overall style of the Bill the Galactic Hero series. I think it works better as a short story than a novel, because the level of annoyance it develops in the reader is smaller. This was actually better than the novel length Bill stories that I've read so far.
Overall, a solid collection, but not startlingly good.
Tags for this post: book( ) Harry_Harrison( ) |
posted at: 08:52 | path: /book/Harry_Harrison | permanent link to this entry
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