stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley

Blathering for Sunday, 05 September 2010

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 02:04:00 GMT

19:04: Mikal shared: Ten ways to survive the pensions crisis | Money | The Guardian

The average UK retirement savings account holds 30,000 pounds? That's a bit worrying.

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Blathering for Wednesday, 01 September 2010

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:57:00 GMT

13:07: Mikal shared: Penn and Teller take on vaccines | Bad Astronomy

Nice video about the dangers of vaccination.

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Blathering for Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:51:00 GMT

10:40: Mikal shared: chumby hacker boards (now available in beta)

Very very tempting. It is a bit of a shame that ethernet isn't built in though.

12:09: Mikal shared: Lloyd's of London - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lloyd's has an interesting history. I like the coffee shop beginnings.

14:02: Mikal shared: FDA Finally Inspects Tainted Egg Farms, Discovers They're Unsanitary

Why isn't the FDA inspecting places like this? That seems like a pretty fundamental requirement to me.

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Old Twentieth

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:50:00 PST

ISBN: 0441013430
LibraryThing

This is actually a relatively simple story, but padded out with a series of historical interludes. These are presented as when the main character is exploring a VR world, but most of them don't directly further the plot. However, they also don't make the story drag along, and are some of the most entertaining parts of the story. Relatively light reading, like The Coming and Marsbound. I enjoyed it.

Tags for this post: book joe_haldeman combat colonization vr nanotech disease
Related posts: Body Armor: 2000; Bill the Galactic Hero Series; First Family; Marsbound; On Basilisk Station; Death Bringer; Cyteen: The Vindication; The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 1; Space Soldiers; Cryptonomicon; There Is No Darkness; Without Warning; The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; Bolo Strike; A Separate War & Other Stories; Blood River; Bolos 4: Last Stand; The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 2; Dragonsdawn; Cyteen: The Rebirth; Colony

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Their Finest Hour

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:22:00 PST

ISBN: 9781439133750
LibraryThing

This book is a disappointment. I was excited about another Bolo book, but this one is all republished stories I'd previously read:

Combat Unit (Keith Laumer): appeared in The Compleat Bolo.
Lost Legion (S. M. Stirling): appeared in Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment.
A Time to Kill (David Weber): appeared in Bolos 4: Last Stand.
Operation Desert Fox (Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon): appeared in Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment.
The Last Command (Keith Laumer): appeared in The Compleat Bolo.
Little Dog Gone (Linda Evans): appeared in Bolos 3: The Triumphant.
As Our Strength Lessens (David Drake): appeared in Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment.
The Traitor (David Weber): appeared in Bolos 4: Last Stand.
A Relic of War (Keith Laumer): appeared in The Compleat Bolo.
Hold Until Relieved (William H. Keith Jr): appeared in Bolos 4: Last Stand.
A Brief Technical History of the Bolo (David Weber): appeared in Bolo!

Overall I'm pretty sad that it wasn't made more clear that this book was entirely reprints.

Tags for this post: book keith_laumer bolo combat anthology keith_laumer david_weber mercedes_lackey larry_dickson linda_evans david_drake william_h_keith_jr
Related posts: Bolos 4: Last Stand; Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment; Bolos 3: The Triumphant; Bolos 6: Cold Steel; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow; Bolo!; Bolos 5: Old Guard; Bolo Strike; Bolos 2: The Unconquerable; Bolo Brigade; The Road to Damascus; Dogs of War; The Compleat Bolo; Old Soldiers; The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 1; Body Armor: 2000; The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 2; The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 3; The Stars Must Wait; Bolo Series; Bolo Rising

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Solomon's Gold

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:14:00 PST

ISBN: 0060750863
Harper Perennial (2005), Paperback, 928 pages
LibraryThing

This is book six of the Baroque Cycle, following on from Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds, Odalisque, Bonanza, and The Juncto (the last two of which are referred to as The Confusion when read together as a single volume).

I'm glad that I accidentally read Longitude before this book, as in this work Daniel is a proponent of the lunar distance method, which was one of the main contenders to win the Longitude Prize. Lord Ravenscar proposed the prize in the book, which is a nice plot element. He of course wants to win the prize as well.

This book is much faster moving than most of the previous (except perhaps for King of the Vagabonds and Bonanza). Its a good read, and I can see how all of the previous setup is starting to pay off.

Tags for this post: book neal_stephenson baroque_cycle natural_philosophy longitude london
Related posts: Quicksilver; The Confusion; Bonanza; Longitude; The Juncto; King of the Vagabonds; Odalisque; Cryptonomicon; Cryptonomicon

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San Diego

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:04:00 PST

Work took me down to San Diego for a couple of days. There was a party on the beach with movies. Can't complain.

See more thumbnails

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Blathering for Monday, 23 August 2010

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:28:00 GMT

17:28: Mikal shared: AFP: China's nine-day traffic jam stretches 100km

9 day long traffic jam...

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Asimov's Aurora

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:56:00 PST

ISBN: 0743444604
I Books (2002), Paperback, 464 pages
LibraryThing

This is the third and final book in the iBook Asimov Robots spinoff series. The first two were Asimov's Mirage and Asimov's Chimera. Like the second one, this is better than the first and has a nice flow to the plot line. The story also is easier to believe than those used in previous spinoffs such as the Robot City and Robots and Aliens series. Weirdly, this is the first of the books in those spinoff series to really use sex as a plot element. The other books haven't been celibate, but they also haven't been as in your face as this one. That was probably the weakest part of the book, because those parts felt clumsy and extraneous.

Tags for this post: book mark_w_tiedemann isaac_asimov robot robot_city robots_and_aliens caliban crime cybernetics politics disease
Related posts: Chimera; Asimov's Mirage; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Humanity; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Maverick; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Alliance; The Robot City, Robots and Aliens Series; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Intruder; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Changeling; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Renegade; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Cyborg; Caves of Steel; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Perihelion; Caliban Series; Isaac Asimov's Utopia; Mona Lisa Overdrive; Isaac Asimov's Caliban; The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; Foundation's Triumph; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Prodigy; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Odyssey; Naked Sun

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Blathering for Saturday, 21 August 2010

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:11:00 GMT

23:11: Mikal shared: Make: Online : Open source Breathalyzer? There's a shield for that

Nice, the MQ-3 alcohol sensor requires no calibration, and they're $9 USD on ebay.

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Mona Lisa Overdrive

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:24:00 PST

ISBN: 0553281747
Spectra (1989), Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
LibraryThing

This is the book which wraps up the Sprawl series (Burning Chrome, Neuromancer and Count Zero). Its a great book, with several separate story lines which are beautifully molded together by the end of the book. It also wraps up the confusing elements of the various other stories nicely. I really enjoyed it.

Tags for this post: book william_gibson hacking robot ai crime sprawl hugo nebula prometheus
Related posts: Count Zero; Neuromancer; Burning Chrome; Caves of Steel; Saturn's Children; Foundation's Edge; Chimera; All The Weyrs of Pern; Foundation and Empire; Nightfall (short stories); Robots of Dawn; Asimov's Mirage; Asimov's Aurora; Naked Sun; Forever Peace; Cryptonomicon; Dragonflight; Friday; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow; Robot Dreams; The Forever War

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Blathering for Friday, 13 August 2010

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:48:00 GMT

03:19: Mikal shared: Hotel Playa del Carmen, Mexico Hotel Riu Palace Riviera Maya - RIU Hotels & Resorts

This sounds like fun

03:19: Mikal shared: DuplicityBackupHowto - Community Ubuntu Documentation

I built off site backs the other day using duplicity. Its a nice tool.

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Blathering for Thursday, 12 August 2010

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:53:00 GMT

10:53: Mikal shared: What Happened to Yahoo

Interesting read about what Paul Graham thinks went wrong at Yahoo

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Longitude

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:47:00 PST

ISBN: 1857025717
LibraryThing

This is the story of John Harrison, the inventor of modern accurate clocks. Its an interesting read, and very engaging for a non-fiction book. I think this is helped by the conversational style of the book, and the fact that its not terribly long. A good read.

Tags for this post: book dava_sobel non-fiction longitude natural_philosophy london
Related posts: Solomon's Gold; Quicksilver; The Confusion; Bonanza; The Juncto; King of the Vagabonds; Odalisque

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Blathering for Tuesday, 10 August 2010

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:15:00 GMT

05:24: Mikal shared: YouTube - Telephone Remake

You are required to like this, as these guys have guns.

05:25: Mikal shared: YouTube - Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce Vs. Metallica "Telephone vs. Enter Sandman" (Djs From Mars Bootleg Remix

The original of this video was taken down, which is sad. Here's a new copy.

22:00: Mikal shared: YouTube - Time Warp starring Tony Abbott

This ad is awesome, if short on actual content.

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Space Soldiers

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:07:00 PST

ISBN: 0441008240
LibraryThing

This is a collection of short stories about soldiers in space. Its not the strongest such collection I have read -- Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow, Body Armor 2002 and Dogs of War are all better.

The Gardens of Saturn (Paul J McAuley): veterans with jacked up nervous systems encounter genetically engineered people in deep space.
Soldiers Home (William Barton): veterans and other castoffs from conflict struggle to find meaning in continued existence.
Legacies (Tom Purdom): a not particularly interesting story about the psychological impact of losing a parent to war. Oh, except we don't really talk about the impact. We talk about the bureaucracy around getting permission to treat. Dull.
Moon Duel (Fritz Leiber): an interesting concept (interstellar criminals abandoned on the moon). A bit dated, but ok apart from that.
Saviour (Robert Reed): another good concept, but I don't think this story is particularly well written.
Galactic North (Alastair Reynolds): a relativistic chase across deep space with a confusing terraforming gone wrong subplot.
Masque of the Red Shift (Fred Saberhagen): this is the second Berserker story I've read (the other is "What Do You Want Me To Do To Prove Im Human Stop" from Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow. It was ok, although I suspect I was meant to know more about the universe than I actually do.
Time Piece (Joe Haldeman): read before in Dogs of War, and I didn't like it back then.
On The Orion Line (Stephen Baxter): I think this is the best story of the bunch. Its about expansionist humanity and their battle with aliens who can tweak the laws of physics.

Tags for this post: book anthology combat paul_j_mcauley william_barton tom_purdom fritz_leiber robert_reed alastair_reynolds fred_saberhagen joe_haldeman stephen_baxter
Related posts: Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow; Body Armor: 2000; There Is No Darkness; A Separate War & Other Stories; Old Twentieth; Forever Peace; Dogs of War; The Forever War; Bill the Galactic Hero Series; First Family; Marsbound; On Basilisk Station; Death Bringer; The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 1; Cryptonomicon; Without Warning; Bolo Strike; Blood River; Bolos 4: Last Stand; The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 2; The Complete Hammer's Slammers Volume 3

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Blathering for Monday, 09 August 2010

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 05:55:00 GMT

05:28: Mikal shared: dygraphs JavaScript Visualization Library

Looks useful. If only it could display more than one row per day.

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Blathering for Sunday, 08 August 2010

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 06:47:00 GMT

23:05: Mikal shared: EFO iPazzPort Keyboard looks like a BlackBerry, calls your HTPC instead of your boss

$45 is a bit high. I paid around $30 for two of these the other day. The keyboard is really clicky (it feels a lot like a blackberry), but apart from that I think they'll make good HTPC remotes for more advanced users.

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The Coming

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:45:00 PST

ISBN: 0441008763
LibraryThing

This book wasn't as good as I hoped it would be -- some of Joe's other work has been excellent (The Forever War, Forever Peace and Marsbound being examples). However, some of his other books are very weak, such as Forever Free and There Is No Darkness. This book is an interesting experiment in story telling style, where many different very short chapters are told by different characters. Each chapter follows on directly from the previous one. However, this style makes the story confusing to read until you can remember the names of all the characters. Worse than that though, the idea behind the story isn't terribly strong, and the resolution is weak as well.

Overall and ok read, but not Joe's best work and not a book I would recommend.

Tags for this post: book joe_haldeman alien space_travel florida first_contact
Related posts: Marsbound; The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Humanity; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Maverick; Dragon's Egg; A busy couple of days; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Alliance; The Ship Who Sang; The Robot City, Robots and Aliens Series; Arrived at Disney World!; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Intruder; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Changeling; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Renegade

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Some Girls: My Life in a Harem

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:16:00 PST

ISBN: 0452296315
LibraryThing

This is the memoir of a Jewish girl from New York who ends up working in the Harem of a Prince of Brunei. Its not so much a story about Harem life, although that's mentioned in places. Its more about Jillian's psychological journey, her troubled childhood, and working out who she is in the world. Worryingly, that final issue isn't really resolved in the book, which is frustrating. The book is surprisingly readable, and you genuinely start to care about Jillian along the way, even if a few of her decisions seem pretty suboptimal to me. A good read.

Tags for this post: book jillian_lauren non_fiction prostitution harem brunei

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