31st Jan 2010

Ender’s Game

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Ender’s Game is one of those books that I’ve been meaning to read for a few years now, and I just never made time. It’s partly because I always imagined it was going to be too much sci-fi for me. I’m not sure why I tend to shy away from sci-fi books because I usually end up liking them just as much as (if not more than) any other genre. I’ll just go ahead and apologize for that now. This book was simply excellent.

In some ways, “Ender” Wiggin is your typical 5 year old in the future. In many ways, he’s not. Due to the overpopulation of Earth, families are limited to two children except when given explicit governmental permission to have a “Third.” They give permission when a lineage shows particular promise for creating adept military commanders, as they did with the Wiggin family. You see, Earth has had two previous wars with some extra-terrestrials called “Buggers,” who are cunning fighters. Humans only survived the last war because a military genius named Mazer Rackham was able to fend off a massive Bugger attack. The military is trying desperately to discover and train potential leaders for their intergalactic fleet. As Ender embarks on his journey, the threat of a Bugger attack is looming closer than ever. What will become of the fate of mankind?

A bit dramatic? Perhaps, but it works. Watching the military manipulate and challenge children in this age group to see if they “have what it takes to lead” is chilling. It’s remarkable to see the bonds that form between these kids and the intelligence that develops as a result of that pressure. This book gives some keen insight into the military complex and what happens to the mind under stress. More importantly though, it realistically captures how a kid would handle these situations. You empathize with Ender and his friends. You celebrate their victories and wish against their defeats. All-in-all, it’s a really amazing story. If you’ve never read it, check it out!

5/5

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30th Jan 2010

Breakfast of Champions

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Breakfast of Champions is the story of Dwayne Hoover, a car dealer obsessed with the writings of a science fiction author named Kilgore Trout. Hoover has requested that Trout be invited to speak at his town’s art festival. As Trout travels to the city, Hoover undergoes some sort of mental breakdown.

The story is definitely odd, and it’s sprinkled with lots of Vonnegut’s artwork. Unfortunately, the story kind of lost me. Not that I couldn’t figure out what was going on in the plot, but rather that I wasn’t entirely sure of its point. It was definitely funny at times and insightful once or twice, but mainly it just left me wondering if I was missing something. Vonnegut has done that to me before, but usually there’s some other nugget of humor or insight that I can take out of his work. This one was a little tougher to grasp.

So, for Vonnegut, not his best work. For a book in general, it’s not bad, especially if you like humor and goofy illustrations. It’s definitely a quick read. I think I finished in 3 days. If you haven’t checked out some of his other stuff that I’ve reviewed, you may want to start there. According to his Wikipedia entry, in his book Palm Sunday he grades his performance on each of his novels. He gave Breakfast of Champions a “C”. I really enjoyed the work that he graded highly, so maybe I should listen to his reviews and pick up God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater or Mother Night the next time I’m in a Vonnegut mood.

2.5/5

Side note: A reader pointed out that the movie 2081, based on Vonnegut’s short story Harrison Bergeron, was released on DVD this month. Thanks!

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10th Jan 2010

Dad’s Computer

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My dad built a computer a few months ago. He has been talking about building a new one for a few years now, so it was about time he got around to it. He had always talked about building a computer that he use to record some of his music on and he wanted something that was more cutting-edge than his current desktop. I think he succeeded quite nicely and although I would tweak a few things if this was a machine for me, I think it fits the bill.

Total: $2200

That’s pretty expensive for a desktop these days. I was really surprised by the expensive sound card, although it does allow him to record multiple inputs, which he plans to use to plug his guitar into the computer. When I built my mom’s budget desktop back in 2008, I was able to do it for about $300 (without a monitor). She was just going for a bare bones system though. Of course this thing is a beast compared to that thing. I’d be interested to see how the Core i7 is working. Apparently, up until a few days ago, he was having trouble with the machine randomly freezing, but it looks like that problem has sorted itself out. He also grabbed a fancy webcam, so we’re able to chat on Skype.

All-in-all, it’s a very nice machine that makes me quite jealous. I had fun giving him my thoughts as he was picking everything out. Too bad I don’t have some spare money lying around because I’ve been brainstorming for an HTPC recently. Oh well, some day!

Soaked up in g33k | 4 Comments »

3rd Jan 2010

The Sound of White

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My first encounter with singer-songwriter Missy Higgins was so positive that I had to check out her debut album, The Sound Of White. I have been eying this album for a while now, and I finally got it for Christmas this year.

I was turned on to this album after hearing All For Believing, Higgins’ first song that she astonishingly wrote when she was only 16. Maybe I was expecting too much from The Sound of White, but I was less impressed by it than On A Clear Night. Higgins had not quite perfected the variety and edginess evident in her later work. That’s not to say it was a bad album by any means, and surely it will grow on me as I listen to it over the coming weeks. I was just hoping for the near perfection found in her second album, which admittedly is a little unfair of me.

Despite my lackluster review, there are a few stand-out songs, including All For Believing and Scar. If you were a fan of On A Clear Night, this album is still a solid addition to your collection. Her voice continues to be unique, refreshing, and a pleasure to listen to. If there was this much improvement between her first two albums, I am now awaiting her next release even more eagerly.

3/5

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31st Dec 2009

Honeysuckle Weeks

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I discovered The Submarines as many people did, even if they did not realize it. Their music plays in nearly every iPhone commercial, namely the songs You Me and the Bourgeoisie and Submarine Symphonika. I went in search of other music by The Submarines only to find that I liked a lot of it. For some reason, I never got around to purchasing the album this year, so I asked for it for Christmas.

I popped in Honeysuckle Weeks on one of my many hour-long drives this holiday season and was mildly blown away by it. I hadn’t heard much of their music since discovering them back in March, so I had forgotten how great they are. The entire album is refreshing. The band is a male/female duo, and the vocals are shared by both John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard. I especially enjoy Blake’s voice, and interestingly I see from the wikipedia article on their band that she is the great-granddaughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Stand-out songs, besides the two already mentioned, include Swimming Pool and The Wake Up Song. The energy of the album seemed to dwindle near the end, which was mildly disappointing. My biggest complaint, however, was that the album was too short! It didn’t last my full trip to Chicago from Sadie’s house. And if that’s my biggest complaint, you know the album is pretty good. Next up, I’ll have to check out the duo’s debut album, Declare A New State.

4.5/5

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30th Dec 2009

The Lost Symbol

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I spent the first week of my holiday break reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. This novel follows a similar format to Brown’s previous Robert Langdon stories, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. I enjoyed both of those stories a lot, which made reading this latest installment a no-brainer. In fact, I like Brown’s writing style quite a bit. I think it’s the short chapters that keep me saying, “I’ve got time for one more.” I also like that they tend to have a lot of puzzles, mystery, and suspense. Plus, I end up learning a lot about history by the end of the story.

As for this particular novel, it follows Robert Langdon as he is swept up in a tale surrounding the Ancient Mysteries when his close friend and leader of the Freemasons is captured by a madman. The story takes place almost entirely in Washington D.C., which was also interesting. As Sadie pointed out in her review, we traveled to D.C. a few years ago, so it was fun to picture some of the scenes.

So how does this novel compare with Brown’s other novels? I thought it was pretty good. I still think The Da Vinci Code is my favorite, but maybe that’s because it was also the first Dan Brown I’d ever read. I think I liked Angels & Demons a little bit more than The Lost Symbol, simply because I found the background of the Catholic Church a little bit more interesting than the Freemasons. I think I liked it as much as Digital Fortress and more than Deception Point. So, how’s that for a breakdown? My only real complaint about The Lost Symbol is that I guessed a few of the plot twists too early. It’s probably just because I’ve read too many of Brown’s stories before, though. Don’t forget to go vote for your favorite Brown novel over at Sadie’s blog if you haven’t already.

Overall, it’s not the best Langdon book, but definitely a must-read for any fans of Brown’s work. If you’ve never read a Langdon book before, you may be better off starting with The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons. And if there is anyone out there who has only seen the movies and not read the books, please do yourself a favor and read the books. You won’t be disappointed!

4/5

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21st Dec 2009

Show your support

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Advertising is a huge business on the Internet. Actually, advertising is huge just about everywhere.

Some readers get annoyed by bloggers who use referral links in posts to promote products that will ultimately make them money. They feel like the Internet should be free of ads, and in some ways they’re justified. Occasionally, bloggers use these posts purely to generate money for their site (i.e. the post is simply a commercial), but others are just interested in telling their readers about a new product that they’ve discovered. And there’s a difference between promoting products that you use and love and just being a shill. In the same way, from a potential buyer’s perspective there’s a difference between watching a commercial or listening to a sales pitch telling you that Chevy makes the best cars and having your friend who’s a mechanic tell you how reliable Chevy’s are.

A lot of people (myself included) get annoyed by the amount of advertising on the Internet. It’s easy to become dismissive of the pop-up flashing pictures and AdWords, but I think there’s something to be said for people and sites that provide a service or take the time to tell you about a product that they use and enjoy. For example, last year I had never heard of the group Vampire Weekend, but I discovered their newest album on The Hype Machine Zeitgeist 2008 and really liked it. When I decided to buy the album, I made sure to click the referral link from The Hype Machine website to Amazon MP3 so that they’d get credit for my purchase because, in all honesty, they deserved it. We (as Internet consumers) need to embrace this and actually promote effective advertising. If a person, blog, or website grabs your interest enough for you to purchase something and they offer a referral link, give them credit and help them make a little bit of cash. It encourages them to keep doing what they’re doing and it usually doesn’t take any charity on your part.

If enough people take the time to encourage those who are advertising effectively (and unobtrusively), it will send a message to the industry that quality is at least as important as quantity in advertising.

I also feel compelled to promote less tangible goods. I use a lot of free software every day. It’s easy to forget that most Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developers are working in their free time, which could easily be spent with their friends and families. Many such developers accept Paypal donations or offer an Amazon wishlist for people to donate from. A number of bigger software projects also sell merchandise that helps make them money. If you (consciously or unconsciously) have trouble convincing yourself to donate money, this is a great alternative that allows you to get something in return. I encourage people to buy these things for me as gifts, and I buy some myself. So far I’ve got 2 Firefox shirts and 2 xkcd shirts. I’ve got a list of quite a few other projects that I plan to support by purchasing merchandise in the future.

Advertising is a huge business on the Internet. Make sure to remember that you, the consumer, have the power to reinforce effective advertising and to support people who make your life better without providing a tangible product. If you provide useful information or reviews on your website, it might be a good idea for you to provide referral links that can actually get you something in return for your work. And before you buy your next purchase online, stop and consider who or what influenced your purchase. Is there any way for you to give them credit for it? If we could all capitalize on this word-of-mouth advertising, it would (hopefully) decrease the amount of in-your-face advertising that plagues us all.

Side note: Don’t get the wrong idea. This post is in no way implying anything about my wanting to make money from this blog or for projects that I support. It’s just a statement on advertising in general.

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19th Dec 2009

Amazon MP3 on Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit

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I recently reinstalled Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) on both my desktop and laptop. When I went to buy an album on Amazon MP3, I remembered that Amazon only offers a 32-bit version of their MP3 downloader. Unfortunately, there’s not a very intuitive way to install the Amazon downloader on a 64-bit system, and you need it to have this application installed in order to buy more than a single MP3 from Amazon. If you want, you can try out the command-line tool Clamz. Otherwise, I’ll walk you through the moderately painful steps to installing the real program on your 64-bit version of Ubuntu. Note that this guide pertains to the Amazon MP3 downloader version for Ubuntu 9.04. I’m installing it on Ubuntu 9.10 (although this should work for any version of Ubuntu 9.04 and above). Adapted from Cappy.

  1. Save the 32-bit AmazonMP3 installer for Ubuntu 9.04 to your computer (Don’t attempt to ‘Open’ it). By default on Ubuntu 9.10, it’s saved in your Downloads folder. I will assume that’s where the file is from now on.
  2. Install getlibs. (You can just ‘Open’ this one. If that link doesn’t work, look here.)
  3. Open Terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and run the following (one bullet point at a time, pressing Enter after each blurb of code) [Tip: press Ctrl+Shift+V to paste in Terminal]:
    • sudo apt-get install libboost-signals1.34.1 libboost-date-time1.34.1 libglademm-2.4-1c2a libboost-iostreams1.34.1 libboost-thread1.34.1 libboost-regex1.34.1 libboost-filesystem1.34.1
    • [Type your password and hit enter when prompted]
    • sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i ~/Downloads/amazonmp3.deb
    • getlibs /usr/bin/amazonmp3
    • [Press 'y' and hit enter when prompted by getlibs]

  4. Close the terminal when it’s finished.
  5. Open AmazonMP3 via Applications -> Internet -> Amazon MP3 Downloader. This should open the program and the Amazon MP3 website in Firefox. Follow the directions on Amazon.com to finish the installation and download your free song.

Too bad Amazon won’t release a 64-bit version of their program or open source it. These hoops are a huge pain to jump through, and it makes our system appear overly complex to new users. If I’ve made this guide more complicated than it needs to be, feel free to let me know.

Soaked up in Guides, g33k | No Comments »

18th Dec 2009

Hype album, Vol. 1

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My Caption

It’s been a while since I discovered The Hype Machine. I’ve been enjoying their monthly “radio show” podcast a lot. The site itself is really useful, especially if you know what you’re looking for. It can be a little unwieldy to browse at times, but it’s a decent way to find some new tunes. Plus, it’s really great for grabbing promotional copies of the music you’re listening to. I also started listening to Pandora again, which is another really great way to find some new tunes. So I decided to make a random mix CD with some of the new music I’ve found on The Hype Machine, Pandora, and elsewhere on the interwebs. I grabbed all these songs as free promotional downloads from The Hype Machine.

  1. M.I.A. – Paper Planes
  2. Phoenix – 1901
  3. Little Boots – Remedy
  4. Beck – Sunday Morning
  5. Chris Brown – Forever
  6. Michael Franti – Say Hey (I Love You)
  7. Discovery – I Want You Back
  8. Missy Higgins – All For Believing
  9. Temper Trap – Fader
  10. Passion Pit – Little Secrets
  11. Vampire Weekend – Ottoman
  12. Petra Haden – Let Your Love Flow
  13. Phoenix – Lisztomania
  14. The Big Pink – Dominoes
  15. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
  16. Yael Naim – New Soul
  17. Phoenix – Girlfriend
  18. Chromeo – Night By Night
  19. The Very Best – Warm Heart Of Africa

Let me know what you think, and if have any suggestions for Vol. 2, leave them in the comments!

(Photo CC-BY-NC-SA by gtmcknight)

Soaked up in Music | 1 Comment »

Smoke and Mirrors | 28th Sep 2009

Apparently Lenovo has put a lot of work in making Windows 7 boot “unbelievably fast.” When you go on to read the article, you see that you’ll get a boot time possibly as “quickly” as 30 seconds, which is a significant improvement for Windows. Of course to explain how they get that, you get a bunch of vague double-speak. They push back loading drivers and various Windows services until after booting “finishes.” They also make some claims about preventing “Windows rot” by doing some work with drivers. Not quite sure what they’re doing there. Sounds like they need to take some tips from the pros: 10 seconds on a mid-level machine to a logged in idle computer without delaying any background services. Your computer is ready to use in 10 seconds. That’s the goal for Ubuntu 10.04, due out in April 2010. Ubuntu 9.10, due out in a few weeks, already has Lenovo’s Windows 7 numbers beat, so 10.04 will just be some sweet icing on the cake. And then of course, there’s reason to believe boot speed will actually be closer to 5 seconds when it’s all said and done… Maybe some day Windows will catch Ubuntu. (0)
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