Stumbled across an unexpected treasure in our local public library: Cory Doctorow's short story collection Overclocked. I've read the first two stories, much geeky SF fun! "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" is such a great tale of apocalyptic woe that I'm still smiling. I'll probably re-read that story (after I finish the rest in the collection) at least once before I return it. Find and read already!
It appears Fate has opted to control my reading. My mentor and friend Dr. Castelein left a book for me to read (and I just finished Factoring Humanity, the previous book he lent me). This time a non-fiction work of techno-history called Masters of Deception. Looks good, but there's just not enough time to read EVERYTHING on my stack (I still have a copy of Eragon, loaned from a relative, staring guiltily at me. I refuse to rent the DVD before I read the book.)
Life is basically good. There's much weirdness (no, no tremors in the Force, nor any fevers, either) just weirdness. I find myself singing on the sidewalk more than usual (be thankful for your geographical remoteness from that particular experience.) I'm also sending a telepathic message to the resident of Logan County who has "The Maltese Falcon" checked out: RETURN IT!!! (please...)
I hope that you all have a wonderful Friday 13th and a great weekend! (I've got house cleaning and, likely, grading. Oh joy! The end of the semester approaches...)
Friday, April 13, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Cinderella and the Geek
Just finished watching Cinderella III with my daughter. I've never been a big Cinderella fan, but I actually enjoyed the movie. I'm not saying I fell in love with a Disney character (especially since Tink would be really jealous), but I found both Cinderella and the Prince to be much more interesting characters than I remembered from before. Musically, the movie wasn't as good (to my sensibilities) as either classic Disney nor the best of the new Disney tunes, but the story and characters more than made up for it, for me anyway.
Geek news: Debian Linux finally released version 4.0 this month. May 1 is the release date for OpenBSD 4.1, but the biggest news, for my money, is the flurry of activity in the Slackware -current changelog. Whether the next release is 11.1 or 12 only Pat knows, but there are several major upgrades, including the gcc 4 series for the compiler tool chain and no more 2.4 kernels! So much for all those trolls who claim Slackware is "the bleeding edge of 1995." While the new book from No Starch Press about Designing BSD Rootkits is a tempting call to join the FreeBSD camp, Slackware still continues to deliver an operating system that feels like home.
In other news... I've been thinking about "childhood friends and the dreams we had." Dreams. I'm not sure that most of my dreams were terribly realistic (I'm not sure any of my current ones are, either). One of you bloggers has talked about seeing what's in front of you. C.S. Lewis talks about how going backwards is sometimes the way to make progress (like if you've gone down a wrong path, you have to go back to where you've went amiss to get to the right path). I'm not saying that I've gone down a wrong path (but I have, of course, made my share--and then some--of mistakes), but sometimes looking backward is the way to see what's in front of you. Maybe. Like River, "I don't know what I'm saying, I never know what I'm saying."
Geek news: Debian Linux finally released version 4.0 this month. May 1 is the release date for OpenBSD 4.1, but the biggest news, for my money, is the flurry of activity in the Slackware -current changelog. Whether the next release is 11.1 or 12 only Pat knows, but there are several major upgrades, including the gcc 4 series for the compiler tool chain and no more 2.4 kernels! So much for all those trolls who claim Slackware is "the bleeding edge of 1995." While the new book from No Starch Press about Designing BSD Rootkits is a tempting call to join the FreeBSD camp, Slackware still continues to deliver an operating system that feels like home.
In other news... I've been thinking about "childhood friends and the dreams we had." Dreams. I'm not sure that most of my dreams were terribly realistic (I'm not sure any of my current ones are, either). One of you bloggers has talked about seeing what's in front of you. C.S. Lewis talks about how going backwards is sometimes the way to make progress (like if you've gone down a wrong path, you have to go back to where you've went amiss to get to the right path). I'm not saying that I've gone down a wrong path (but I have, of course, made my share--and then some--of mistakes), but sometimes looking backward is the way to see what's in front of you. Maybe. Like River, "I don't know what I'm saying, I never know what I'm saying."
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Engagement! You're All Invited...
...to a wedding, exactly one year from today! Last week I met the most wonderful woman: she's smart, funny, liberal, spiritual. We knew within fifteen minutes that we were meant to be. Oh, she's also rich (which helps considerably) and cute (which never hurts!) The wedding will be held somewhere near Area 51. Did I mention that she's half-Native American, half-Irish, and half-Transylvanian? Pretty cool mix. Oh, and she's an honorary "queen" of some small country that used to be part of the British empire. Yep, one year from today, I'll be marrying April the First! I hope y'all can make it!
But Seriously Folks...
The kids have next week off for spring break, so I'm taking it as vacation time. Since work is my only net access at the moment, I'll probably be more or less silent for the next several days (I know, this differs from my current track record how?) For those who appreciate: a blessed Easter to you! For the rest, welcome to Spring!
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