King's Chronicles

Hyperion Movie

2008-04-08T14:33:00.002-05:00

The internet is abuzz with the talk of a movie based on the first two books of Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. At the forefront of this discussion is the proposed format for the movie. These first two books of the series, Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, are two of my sci-fi favorite books, featuring a delicious blend of science fiction and classic literature (specifically The Canterbury Tales). Needless to say I am horrified at the thought of combining both books into one movie. To do it properly would take an effort on the scale of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. Unfortunately, I do not think there is a large enough fan base for a movie studio to greenlight that kind of production.

As time goes by, I find myself wanting less to see my favorite science fiction books turned into movies.

Blogging Ulysses

2007-06-22T06:13:00.000-05:00

Last year I listened to a borrowed copy of The Teaching Company's audio lecture Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition. If you are a fan of audio books I highly recommend Teaching Company lectures. This particular lecture is quite an experience. Split into 84 half-hour lectures, it covers authors from the unknown writers of the Epic of Gilgamesh all the way up to Samuel Beckett. It took me about four months to make it through the entire series, listening in the car and during dinner.

What surprised me is that the lecture on James Joyce discussed A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man instead of Ulysses. I had always heard what a great book Ulysses was and I remembered back in 2000 that many surveys voted Ulysses as the greatest work of literature of the 20th Century. So why would this lecture about James Joyce not cover Ulysses? The final lecture in the series provided my answer. The final thesis of the lecture series was that 6000 years of western literature could be summed up in Ulysses. Through the use of various writing styles, Joyce's retelling of Homer's Odyssey represents many aspects of the history of western literature. So, the lecture on Joyce did not cover Ulysses because the entire series was really covering what went into the writing of Joyce's classic. My reaction was "Well, I guess I need to read Ulysses."

So here I am, taking on this daunting task of reading one of the most notoriously difficult books in literature. Inspired by the Blogging the Bible series at Salon.com, I decided I would blog my experience with reading Ulysses. After reading Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow several years ago I knew I would need some guide to fully appreciate Ulysses. So I went out and found some help:

Joyce's Ulysses - Another audio lecture from The Teaching Company
The Bloomsday Book - Loaned to me by my grandmother who once took a graduate level course on James Joyce

My first post following this one will be an introduction to the novel. It will provide the background of Ulysses and an overview of how it relates to Homer's Odyssey. Thereafter I will do one blog post per chapter of the book. I am very excited about both reading Ulysses and writing about it. I hope you enjoy reading what I have to say and follow along with my journey.

Neuromancer

2007-05-29T19:34:00.001-05:00

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

This line opens William Gibson's cyberpunk classic Neuromancer. In one line it sums up Gibson's vision of the future and is considered by many to be one of the great opening lines of science fiction literature.

Neuromancer is the story of Case, a computer hacker who makes his living breaking into computer systems for his employers. In Neuromancer, Case is coerced by a mysterious employer into participating in the ultimate computer crime; hacking an artificial intelligence. As time goes by, however, Case begins to learn that not everything is what is seems as well as the shocking truth of who is really pulling the strings.

While Case is the main character, there is little argument that the most interesting character in Neuromancer is Molly. Molly is a former prostitute who has paid to have herself re-engineered to be a bodyguard. Razor-sharp blades extend from beneath her fingernails and she has mirrored lenses permanently grafted over her eye sockets. In a wonderful bit of imagery we learn that her tear ducts have been routed into her mouth, forcing her to spit instead of cry. It is the development of Molly's character that we watch as Case remains rather one dimensional. To prove my point I cite the fact that Molly is the only character in the book to have her own Wikipedia page.

Neuromancer, along the with other books in Gibson's Sprawl trilogy (Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive), are considered THE definitive examples of cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a genre of science fiction that usually combines the high-tech world of computers combined with the hardships of poverty and destitution. The other books in the Sprawl trilogy are not as action-packed as Neuromancer, but instead focus more on the philosophical issues with artificial intelligence and what it means to be an intelligent being. While not as popular as Neuromancer, they are good reads.

Along with Starship Troopers, Neuromancer is one of the books I read repeatedly (probably about once a year). It is a quick read and is always entertaining. I pick it up whenever I am not sure what I am in the mood to read and need something to tide me over for a couple of days. Obviously this puts toward the top of my list of favorite books and means I cannot recommend it enough for science fiction fans.

Lloyd Alexander Passes Away

2007-05-17T17:43:00.000-05:00

Via SF Signal, I see that fantasy author Lloyd Alexander has died. While I would never call myself a fan, I would consider his Chronicles of Prydain to be my introduction into fantasy. I remember ordering The Book of Three in fifth grade from one of those book order brochures we would get every couple of months. Also the final book in the series, The High King, was on the approved list of book reports in my fifth grade English class. I had to finish the book in the car on the way home from my grandparents' house Memorial Day weekend. If I remember correctly I had to do my book report in the car as well.

So, thank you Mr. Alexander, for The Book of Three and my interest in fantasy.

Visiting the Monitor Center

2007-05-14T16:51:00.000-05:00

After blogging about the Monitor Center a few weeks ago, I was finally able to visit it last weekend. The Mariners' Museum did an excellent job with this new addition and I was very impressed.

The exhibit is divided into two main parts: the history of the Monitor and its recovery. The history portion covered the development of naval warfare and the advantage of an iron clad warship over wooden ones. It also covered the construction of both the Monitor and the Virginia as a sort of arms race to produce a functional ironclad. The highpoint of the history portion of the exhibit is a 17 minute multimedia presentation of the Battle of Hampton Roads. It includes overhead maps of the "battlefield" and computer animation of the battle. The presentation does well in communicating the fear that must have been felt by the sailors on the Union ships as the Virginia unleashed its first attack, and the shock felt by the crew of the Virginia as the Monitor appears out of nowhere to eventually force a stalemate.

The second portion of the exhibit covers the recovery of Monitor from its wreck off the coast of Cape Hatteras. The exhibit includes includes a mock up of the Monitor's turret as it was recovered from the sea floor as well as a full scale replica of the ship itself. Finally, there is an observation platform where you can see the restoration effort on the items recovered. The centerpieces of this are the turret and the two cannon which are plainly visible in the water tanks used to leach out the salt from the iron.

Overall, the Monitor Center is a wonder addition to the Mariners' Museum and definitely worth the visit if you find yourself in the vicinity of Newport News, VA.

Authors, Readers, and Writers

2007-05-04T09:23:00.000-05:00

Authors, Readers, and Writers is a blog carnival featuring links to articles about literature related topics. This month's edition refers to the post on my Hugo-Nebula Project. There are lots of other good links in there as well, I encourage you to go check it out.

History Carnival

2007-05-03T22:23:00.000-05:00

My post on The Monitor Center was included in this month's History Carnival. It is just one of the many blogs referenced. I was not sure what to expect when I submitted my post for inclusion, but I am very impressed with the number of different blogs included in the carnival. If you are interested in history it is definitely worth checking out.

Fox Cancels Drive

2007-04-26T14:09:00.000-05:00

Well, that did not take long. Fox has canceled its new show Drive after only two weeks and four episodes. I felt the show had some potential and I was excited to see Nathan Fillion and Tim Minear have some work again. With Firefly and now this, those two should stay as far away from Fox as possible.

Fox is reporting that the final two created episodes will air this summer. With my luck they will air at the same time as the final episodes of Studio 60.

The Monitor Center

2007-04-25T18:21:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite things about living in Virginia is being surrounded by tons of history. Whether it is the history of colonial America from the first colony at Jamestown to the victory over the British at Yorktown or one of the dozens of Civil War battlefields, it really gives you a sense of accomplishment about how far we have come as a country. One the greatest turning points in that history is the Battle of Hampton Roads.

The Battle of Hampton Roads is more commonly known as the duel between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (also known as the Merrimack). While this first battle between ironclad warships ended in a stalemate, it would change the rules of naval warfare forever. Unfortunately, the fates of these two ships was less glamorous. The Virginia is destroyed by her own crew to avoid capture and the Monitor was lost at sea off the coast of Cape Hatteras.

Luckily, in recent years the wreck of the Monitor was found and efforts made to recover artifacts from the wreck. These artifacts are now being housed at the newly opened Monitor Center at The Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA. It has always been a wonderful museum and can only imagine that the new addition of Monitor artifacts has made it even better.

Book Review: The Fountains of Paradise

2007-04-22T18:21:00.001-05:00

The Fountains of Paradise is the second book by Arthur C. Clarke on my science fiction reading list. It tells the story of the construction of mankind's first space elevator set against the background of a world just coming to grips with its potential for growth.

The first half of the book takes place mostly on a small island in the Indian Ocean; a fictional version of Sri Lanka. Clarke tells the story of the history of the island while his main character explains why it is the ideal location for a space elevator. This part of the story revolves around the political and social battles surrounding the elevator's construction.

The second half of The Fountains of Paradise deals with the actual construction of the elevator. There is a lot of hard science in the latter half of the novel, with the story taking a back seat to technical discussions of weather and orbital mechanics. Do not be afraid though, the science is both interesting and relatively easy to digest.

My overall impressions of the novel are mixed. I felt it jumped around a lot between the history of the island and the book's "present". While knowing the history of the island added to the social conflict of the story, I had difficulty following it until one of the modern day characters summarized it all in a few paragraphs.

In addition, Clarke also forces in a story line about first contact with an alien race. It does not add much to the overall story; it only explains the death of religion that has taken place in the back story of The Fountains of Paradise. In the end, I get the feeling that Clarke had a couple of different ideas that never made it into books of their own and, instead, just joined them together to make this one.

Literature Meme

2007-04-12T13:47:00.000-05:00

I have seen this meme floating around for a couple of weeks, so I figured I would take a wack at it. If you would like to hear my impressions on any of the books I have read then leave me a comment.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
+5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
+6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
+7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
*10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
*14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
*17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)

+21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
+22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
*24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
+26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
+28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

+31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
+33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
*39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
*42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
*43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
+45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)

51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
+54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
*56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)

+61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
+62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
*65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch–22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint–Exupery)

71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
*72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
+76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
*79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)

*81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
*83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
*88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)

*91. In The Skin Of a Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Firefox Extensions for Web Development

2007-04-09T11:38:00.000-05:00

I use Firefox on a daily basis, not just for browsing, but as a vital part of my web development platform. The key to this is the excellent web development extensions that users have written for Firefox. Here are the extensions for Firefox that I cannot live without.

Web Developer

The extension that started it all. I did not use Firefox much until I found this. The Web Developer extension provides too many features to document here, but some notables are:

Resize the browser window to represent different monitor resolutions.
Display details for all of the fields in a HTML form.
Outline block level elements.
Disable JavaScript, CSS, or images.
Validate the HTML against its DOCTYPE.

HTML Validator

While the Web Developer extension provides the ability to validate your HTML, you still have to click menu item from the Web Developer tool bar to do it. The HTML Validator extension will validate your HTML automatically when you load the page. The validation result is displayed as an icon in the status bar. The extension also integrates with Firefox's source code view so you can easily see which lines of code do not validate and why.

IE Tab

While Firefox is my preferred browser, I always have to make sure my web pages work in Internet Explorer. The IE Tab extension adds an icon that allows you to view your current web page using Internet Explorer rendering. This is very useful for testing. The extension also allows you to define certain URLs that should be viewed in Internet Explorer. So if you use certain web sites that require Internet Explorer, this extension will allow you to switch automatically. Many people use this in order to use online banking web sites that required Internet Explorer.

Firebug

Firebug adds extra functionality useful for JavaScript debugging. I like the interface better than the default JavaScript console. In addition it allows you to view the source code for the page not based on the HTML source received from the server, but based on the DOM as the browser has rendered the page. This allows you to see elements added via JavaScript at run-time.

Tamper Data

The Tamper Data extension is a must for Ajax development. It allows you see all of the HTTP requests and responses, including those created by XmlHttpRequest object. It displays the content and headers of each request and response, which comes in handy when you are trying to figure why an Ajax request is not working. In addition, Tamper Data allows you to intercept and change the contents of HTTP communication. I have not used this feature yet, but I can see where this may come in handy.

Selenium IDE

One of the hot topics in software development in recent is automated testing. Like many other, I have had difficulty getting started with this technique. Enter Selenium IDE. Although not a unit test tool, it does allow you to record and playback browsing actions from within Firefox. In addition you can script tests on the page content that should be executed along with the script. If you have ever wanted to add some automatic testing for your web site, this is the place to start.

Load Time Analyzer

This is a new addition to my arsenal. It shows you every JavaScript event that fires while browsing. This includes HTTP request and responses for the images and CSS files used by you page. The Load Time Analyzer extension is useful to find the bottlenecks in your web page, whether the cause is bandwidth, number of HTTP requests, or client-side JavaScript processing.

Update: While I really like the Load Time Analyzer extension, I have found it clobbers my CPU, making Firefox respond much slower. Therefore I have uninstalled it.

Book Review: Heart of Darkness

2007-04-02T19:28:00.000-05:00

Most people take a break from classic literature by reading something light, like science fiction. I seem to be doing the opposite; taking a break from science fiction by reading classic literature. In this case it was Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. As the literary inspiration for the movie Apocalypse Now, I have wanted to read this for quite sometime. So when I had a break between reading Forever Peace and Dreamsnake I decided to give it a go.

Heart of Darkness is based on the real life experiences of the author, Joseph Conrad, as he worked as a steam boat captain in the Belgian Congo. Conrad was so horrified by what he witnessed there that he resigned soon after his first voyage. However, Heart of Darkness is a work of fiction and only resembles Conrad’s actual experiences in its depiction of life in the Congo Free State and the exploitation of the Congo in the late 19th Century.

The story is narrated by Marlow, a fictional version of Conrad in his sailing days who appears in several of Conrad’s works. To entertain his passengers while waiting to set sail from London, Marlow spins the tale of his experience skippering a steam boat in Africa. Although he never mentions the Congo Free State directly, it is well understood to be the locale of the story. As Marlow is preparing this boat for its first trip upriver he describes what life in the Congo. For the European traders, the day to day routine consists of exploiting the local population while making your political moves to secure a better position. This backstabbing is all in the hope of finding a source of ivory and thus receiving a commission.

During the time it takes to repair his boat, Marlow slowly begins to hear rumors of a man named Kurtz. Kurtz manages the very last station on the river and has become famous for his ability to gather far more ivory than any other trader on the river. As contact is lost with Kurtz, Marlow receives this first assignment. He his to transport a group to the last station on the river and discover what has happened to Kurtz.

The voyage up the river is a slow decent into chaos and madness. Office politics and bickering soon turn into paranoia and fear as the boat gets farther from the base camp and closer to Kurtz’s station. The climax of the book is reached as Marlow’s boat arrives at the station and we discover not only what happened to Kurtz to make him drop out of contact, but also how he has managed to gather more ivory than anyone had even dreamed possible.

Heart of Darkness is a short book (my copy was only 75 pages), that keeps you engaged. However, sometimes the the narrative style can be a little confusing so do not be afraid to re-read some paragraphs to make sure you do not miss anything. The themes of this book are used repeatedly throughout literature and film. I have even found some similarities in Vonda McEntyre’s Dreamsnake from my science fiction list. Now I can not wait to re-watch Apocalypse Now.

Valyrian Steel

2007-03-21T09:56:00.000-05:00

It looks like the A Song of Fire and Ice marketing machine is getting rolling. George R. R. Martin has announced that he signed a deal with a company to create replicas of some of the weapons from his books. Now, if we could just get him to finish his books faster I would be really happy.

Book Reviews: Forever War and Forever Peace

2007-03-12T20:22:00.000-05:00

I waited to review Joe Haldeman's Forever War until I also finished Forever Peace. Although Forever Peace is not a true sequel, Haldeman does see it as a continuation of the themes he started in Forever War.

Forever War
In Forever War, Haldeman tells the story of a great war between mankind and a mysterious alien race. What makes Haldeman's story stand out from other novels with a similar story is that mankind has not mastered faster-than-light travel. So as the soldiers in the war spend a few weeks on a campaign, hundreds of years pass on Earth. Every time they come home they are confronted with drastic changes in humanity and forced further into alienation.

Forever War is an excellent blend of action and thoughtful reflection. In this way it reminds me a lot of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. As the story progresses you begin to truly understand the real toll it is taking on the main characters and the price they pay for the war.

Forever Peace
As I mentioned earlier, Forever Peace is not a true sequel to Forever War. Forever Peace takes place in the near future as the technologically advanced nations of Earth are at war with the third-world. The main character is drafted into the army as a "mechanic", the remote operator of a robotic fighting machine. He spends nine days at at time connected to his machine as well as maintaining a telepathic link to the other soldiers in his platoon. The themes started in Forever War are continued here as Haldeman show the progressing sense of alienation and guilt by the soldiers involved in the war.

Unfortunately it seems to me that Haldeman loses his way about halfway through the book. At this point the threat of a doomsday weapon is revealed and the characters must unite humanity to thwart it. I did not mind the change in focus so much, but it feels like Haldeman changed writing styles. Whereas the first half of the books is told from the perspective of the main character, the second half jumps from character to character and back and forth between first and third person. Also large parts of the story are told strictly in a narrative style with little dialog. I get the feeling that the second half of the novel was rushed.

Conclusion
Do not let my perceptions of Forever Peace dissuade you, both are excellent books. Both are well written and really make you feel for the characters. In addition, It is interesting to see how Haldeman's themes evolved during the years between these two books.

Related Posts

The Hugo-Nebula Project

Switching to the Mac

2007-03-01T23:29:00.000-05:00

This week has marked a major change in my computing habits. After 15 years of living in the PC/Windows world, I have made the switch to the Mac. Two days ago I received my new 17" MacBook Pro. Over the last year or so I have become more and more dissatisfied with Windows, and it did not look like Vista was going to be any better. In addition, many of the blogs I read share a lot of information about OS X and some of the interesting software that runs on it. After weighing the pros and cons, I decided it was time to make the switch.

In the days and weeks to come I will share more of my experience of becoming a new Mac user. For now I will share my first impressions. If I had to pick one word to sum up my experience with the Mac so far it would be "seamless". Since Apple has full control, OS X and the Mac hardware feel like one seamless product.

Here is one example. Just like in Windows, the first time you start OS X you create an administrator account and select an image to represent the account. By default it allows you to take a snapshot of yourself using the built-in web camera (is this just a MacBook thing?). That's right, before you have even completed the first start up of the operating system, the web camera is fully functional. I cannot imagine what it would take for that to work in Windows.

Book Review of Doomsday Book

2007-02-26T20:36:00.000-05:00

Another book on my science fiction reading list, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis took me completely by surprise. The premise is simple, a scientist is sent back in time to study the society of the middle ages. I felt like I had heard this story a million times, so I had pretty low expectations going in. Fortunately I was wrong.

A scientist is sent back in time to a village in the middle ages. Of course, something goes wrong and she becomes trapped in the past. Meanwhile, in the present, a sudden flu outbreak prevents her co-workers from mounting a rescue.

There are two main reasons for why I enjoyed this book so much. The first is the science background of the story. The science used to tell the story is subtle, yet well thought out. This applies to how the main character is prepared for her trip into the past as well as the actual technique of time travel. As you read the book, it has you believing this is how a time travel program like this would actually work.

The other reason I have for enjoying Doomsday Book is the outstanding character development. Both the future and past story lines have characters you connect with. This is especially true in the past story line where Willis presents characters that reflect their bitter poverty and at the same time are real, multi-dimensional people.

So far this has been my favorite book on my reading list. I will definitely looking for more books by Connie Willis to read.

Related Posts

The Hugo-Nebula Project

Another Reason to get HBO

2007-02-21T20:51:00.000-05:00

Variety is reporting the HBO has acquired the rights to George R. R. Martin's fantasy series "A Song of Fire & Ice". This has to be one of the best bits of news I have heard in a long time. Being a fan of HBO's Rome, now in its second season, I can definitely see how this will work. From the Variety article:

The series will begin with the 1996 first book, "A Game of Thrones," and the intention is for each novel (they average 1,000 pages each) to fuel a season's worth of episodes.

"A Song of Fire & Ice" is one of my favorite series so this is great news. The article also reveals that the series will have a total of seven books (Martin is currently finishing book 5) finishing sometime in 2011.

XM and Sirius to Merge

2007-02-20T08:23:00.000-05:00

I was thrilled to hear the buzz yesterday that the two satellite radio providers, XM and Sirius, are going to merge. Sure enough, this morning I see Sirius has the press release up on its website. One of the frustrations of being a Sirius subscriber was that I always wondered if I picked the right company. Since much of their premier content is mutually exclusive I knew subscribing to Sirius meant I would not get any of the good content from XM. So while it sounds like it will take about a year for their programming to merge, it is nice to know I that eventually I will have the best of both worlds.

Book Review of Crime and Punishment

2007-02-13T20:40:00.000-05:00

In addition to my current reading project, one of my ongoing goals is to re-read books from my high school English classes that I feel I was too immature to enjoy at that time. I feel strongly that reading is ruined for many high school students by forcing on them books they are not ready to enjoy. For me, the first of these books is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Crime and Punishment was part of the curriculum for my 12th grade English class. Not only did I feel I was not quite getting it, I did not even finish the book. This is partly due to it being a difficult book to read, but also because I had to read a book for a term paper (for the same English class) at the same time. I decided getting my term paper done was more important. Although difficult, I did enjoy the story of Crime and Punishment and knew even then that I would revisit the book some day. I finally decided to take up this challenge and I finished the book this past December.

The story focuses on a Russian student named Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov believes that certain people (himself included) are destined to do great things, and therefore should not be constrained by the same laws as everyone else. To prove his theory he sets out to commit the perfect murder. Crime and Punishment follows his crime and he consequences he and those around him face as he deals with his guilt.

When I mentioned earlier that the book was difficult, do not misunderstand me. I say it is difficult primarily because of the Russian names and places. This is compounded by the characters being referred to by either their first or last names interchangeably throughout the book. The story itself is easy to follow and is very entertaining.

[Warning, possible spoiler below.]

When I set out the read Crime and Punishment again, I was hoping to find at least one aspect of the book that escaped me back in high school. I was successful. After committing his crime, Raskolnikov becomes very ill, both physically and mentally. In high school I interpreted this as manifestation of his guilt. He felt guilty, so he got sick. This time around I realized this was not the case.

According to his theory, Raskolnikov's superiority to others means that he should not feel guilt over his crime. Instead of throwing out his theory, Raskolnikov comes to believe that he is not one of the elite that are beyond the law. Instead, he is just like everyone else in the slums of St. Petersburg. It is this realization of being ordinary that induces his sickness and pushes him to the edge of madness.

It is exactly this type of re-interpretation that motivated me to pick up Crime and Punishment again after so many years.

Links for 2007-01-30

2007-01-31T05:34:00.001-05:00

Hack Attack: Burn almost any video file to a playable DVD
Instructions on how to use DVD Flick, a free application to burn videos to DVD
26 Tips to Keep Your Computer Up and Functioning
A good list of tasks for keeping your computer healthy along with a schedule on how often to do them

Links for 2007-01-29

2007-01-30T02:00:00.001-05:00

Tasks Jr
Lightweight web-based task manager
Light or Lighter Weight Aps To Replace Memory Hogs in Windows XP
Open source alternatives to known resource hogs in Windows XP
How to Add Google Analytics to Your Blogger Blog

Links for 2007-01-28

2007-01-29T09:28:00.001-05:00

VMTN - Virtual Appliance Marketplace
Free virtual machines for VMWare

Links for 1/27/2007

2007-01-28T06:37:00.001-05:00

FunctionalJ - A library for Functional Programming in Java
FunctionalJ is a library which makes it easy to use functional programming constructs in Java code.
Windows PowerShell
New command shell for Windows XP and Vista based on .NET 2.0
Geek to Live: The self-repairing hard drive - Lifehacker
A batch script that takes disk maintenance to the next level by checking all your hard drives for errors, repairing any it finds, and then defragmenting.
Web Developer's Handbook
CSS, Web Development, Color Tools, SEO, Usability etc.
Protolize.org
Essential web tools in one place

How I Learned to Love Amazon.com

2007-01-27T11:43:00.000-05:00

When I first started shopping online in the late 90's, Amazon.com was the last place I would go. Today, about 10 years later, it is my primary shopping destination on the web. I have been thinking lately about this turnaround and how I got from hating it to Amazon.com becoming my favorite shopping site.

[Disclaimer: Amazon.com is an advertiser on this blog.]

So here are the features that turned me into an Amazon.com shopper:

Gift Wrap Options - Sure everyone offers gift wrap. Actually, this past Christmas I was surprised by some big name chains that did not. Amazon is one of the few online stores I am aware of that offers an individual message for each gift wrapped item in a shipment.
Selection - When Amazon first switched from books to selling everything I thought it was a mistake. However, I soon learned to appreciate the ability to buy books, electronic devices, and kitchenware all from the same store, at the same time.
Customer Reviews - This is the big one. Of all of its features, Amazon customer reviews help me to shop more than anything else. Even if I do not plan on buying from Amazon I will check the site for product reviews.
My Wish List - A feature I just started using a few years ago. I like being able to keep track of the items I want to buy. It also make a good queuing area for impulse buys. Many times instead of buying an item on impulse I just add it to my wish list. After a couple of weeks, if I still want to buy it I do so.
Recommendations - By default, the products Amazon recommends is pretty broad. However, I found by creating a wish list and rating products the list of recommendations starts to get really accurate. Plus, being able to tell Amazon what I already own and which items I am not interested in takes them off my recommendations list completely.
Used Books - Years ago I remember spending an entire day searching used book stores for a copy of The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny. Today I can find and purchase used books along side of new ones. Amazon takes care of routing the payment to the seller and even allows me to use an Amazon gift card as payment.

So I hope this was not too much praise for one of my advertisers. I just wanted to share why I am now a loyal customer of a company I once hated.