2008 – Page 10 – Made by Mikal

Isaac Asimov’s Nightfall Short Stories

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 9, 2008
Post category:Book

Asimov published two books named Nightfall 1 and Nightfall 2 which are collections of short stories. I have both of these books in a single volume named "Nightfall', which is not to be confused with the novel of the same name by Asimov and Silverberg. I was getting quite confused about which robot short stories I had already read already (many appear in more than one collection), so I built this table to help: Nightfall1969 The Complete Robot1982 Robot Dreams1986 Robot Visions1990 Nightfall Green Patches Hostess Breeds There a Man C-Chute In a Good Cause What If - Sally Flies Nobody Here But - It's Such a Beautiful Day Strikebreaker Insert Knob A in Hole B The Up-to-date Sorcerer Unto the Fourth Generation What is this Thing Called Love? The Machine That Won the War My Son, the…

The Rest of the Robots

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 7, 2008
Post category:Book

This is an Asimov short story collection about robots, where the stories are entirely contained in The Complete Robot, although in a different order. These stories are similar in vein to those in I, Robot, although it is odd that not all of the hyperspace development stories are present (perhaps some weren't written yet?). This is a good book, I liked it. [isbn: 0586025944]

SSL, X509, ASN.1 and certificate validity dates

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 6, 2008
Post category:Python

I was curious about how SSL certificates store validity information (for example when a certificate expires), so I ended up reading the X509 specification (excitingly called "Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile"), as well as the ASN.1 information for UTCTimes. This is all new to me, but I am sure lots of other people understand this. In the end it wasn't too hard, and now I have hacked support for displaying certificate validity into Python's TLSlite. The point of this post is mainly so I can find that documentation again if I need it, although I'll put the TLSlite patch online as soon as I have had a chance to test it a little better.

Stainless Steel Visions

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 5, 2008
Post category:Book

A collection of Harry Harrison short stories that I read on the flight back from Australia to the US. Includes a Stainless Steel Rat story, as well as a story using the Deathworld characters (I haven't read any of the Deathworld books yet). Excellent read. [isbn: 0099925605]

Books read in July 2008

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 2, 2008
Post category:Book

Utopia The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted The Stainless Steel Rat Sings The Blues The Stars, Like Dust The Currents of Space Pebble in the Sky The Stainless Steel Rat Prelude to Foundation The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World

The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 1, 2008
Post category:Book

I thought this was quite weak -- certainly the weakest Stainless Steel Rat book. It was ok, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who hasn't read any of the others first. Frankly the time travel premise is hard to believe, and the resolution at the end of the story is a total non-resolution. [isbn: 0727845373;0722143699;0553173960]

The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 31, 2008
Post category:Book

I'm frantically trying to reduce the size of the mound of books I need to take back to the US at the end of our annual trip back to Australia. As part of this I read the Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge last night and on a flight to Sydney this morning. That's not in any particular rush though -- the Stainless Steel Rat books are pretty light reading. I didn't like this one as much as the others, to be honest. It wasn't as humorous, and seemed to lag a little in the middle. It kept me occupied on the plane though. [isbn: 0441779123;0722144822;0553173952]

Prelude To Foundation

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 30, 2008
Post category:Book

Written well after the original Foundation novels, Prelude to Foundation is one of two prequels. The book ties in nicely with Robots and Empire, as well as the other robot novels. Its a good book too, with its 460ish pages only taking a few days to read (I think I knocked it over in about four days). The story is sufficiently engaging that I kept looking up and discovering that I had read another 100 pages. There are also a couple of twists in the book (I count three in fact), only two of which I had figured out before the characters. A good book. Probably better than Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire, and definitely better than Allen's Caliban trilogy (Caliban, Inferno, and Utopia. [isbn: 0586071113;0553278398]

The Stainless Steel Rat

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 24, 2008
Post category:Book

I'll keep this post short and sweet, like the book which took me three hours to read. This is the first Stainless Steel Rat book, and I think the best that I have read so far. Love it. [isbn: 1857984986]

Pebble in the Sky

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 24, 2008
Post category:Book

This is Asimov's first book, and not his best. Its set on an Earth which is radioactive (possibly because of a global nuclear war as supposed in the book, or perhaps because of events described in Robots and Empire). There is a galactic empire at this point, and overall humans have forgotten that they originated on Earth. (I find that a little hard to believe by the way. Whilst it is true that we have lost historical records from thousands of years ago, we do have some and archeology has constructed at least a partial history for humanity. Additionally, we now have pretty solid record keeping as a society, and it is left unexplained where all those records might have gone. Finally, there is no mention of techniques like carbon dating, which presumably could have been used to prove that Earth is indeed the original planet.) I did like the general gist of the book, although the conclusion was unsatisfying as well. Overall, not Asimov's best work. [isbn: B000K052KS;0345335635] [award: nominee hugo 1951]