2009 – Page 9 – Made by Mikal

Drizzle Developer Day

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 25, 2009
Post category:Mysql

I spent the day at the Drizzle Developer Day at Sun's insane asylum campus. I'm not joking here, the campus was apparently a former insane asylum. First off I battled getting Drizzle to compile on Ubuntu 8.10, where the secret sauce appears to be to know about the drizzle-developer PPA. If you're using Ubuntu 8.10, add this to your sources.list and life will be a bit better: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/drizzle-developers/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/drizzle-developers/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main After that compiling drizzle was pretty easy.

Make Room, Make Room!

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 25, 2009
Post category:Book

I must have read this book a few years ago and forgotten, because I have no specific recollection of reading it, but the plot is familiar. This is a distopian novel about the dangers of over population, and was written at a time when the best available population models said that massive over population was going to be a problem by 1999. In the book the population of New York City is 35 million, whereas in reality its much more like 8 million at the moment. In order to support that many people the quality of life has had to radically decline, and the city spends most of its budget on welfare payments instead of maintaining its decaying infrastructure. It turns out that didn't happen, and I think that's partially why I didn't enjoy this book. The underlying story is good, but the book lacks hope, and feels preachy about population control. This book's style is quite different from the rest of Harrison's work that I've read -- there is hardly any humor. Its still an interesting read though and I managed to make it through to the end. I guess what I wanted from this book was a little…

Servant of the Empire

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 20, 2009
Post category:Book

This is the sequel to Daughter of the Empire. The book is long at nearly 700 pages, and contains two basic plots, although both are related and use the same characters. They could easily have been separate books -- one of the things I like about this book is that it tells more of the story than it absolutely has to, whilst still being continuously engaging. The events of this book run parallel to Pug's time on Kelwan from Magician (Apprentice and Master) and its also nice to see an alternate perspective on those events. The main thrust of this book is that while tradition is important, not being wasteful of the resources you're handed is important too. This book is excellent. [isbn: 0553292455]

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Renegade

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 8, 2009
Post category:Book

This book starts poorly, and isn't as interesting as the previous one in the series (Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Changeling). The introduction uses an alien species with spending any time to describe them, and the process of trying to infer what they are and how they operate distracts from the overall plot. Its a little bit like a William Gibson book, but a more clumsy attempt at it which makes the first couple of chapters hard to comprehend. Worse than that, this book spends a lot of time dwelling on physics details (the author is a physicist), and Ariel seems obsessed with a desire for recognition and power that doesn't exist in the previous books. A lot of the book is also about her love affair for Derec and a robot, which is out of place with the rest of the series as well. In the other books the romantic relationship between Derec and Ariel is a minor plot element, not something which has many pages devoted to it, and I think that fitted better with the overall plot.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Changeling

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 4, 2009
Post category:Book

Despite the rather unwieldy name, and being trapped as the seventh book in a share cropping series using Asimov's name, this is actually quite a good book. The plot explores something Asimov didn't do much of (what happens when Asimovian robots meet aliens and define them as human), while not being self righteous about it. The book is also more technically competent that some of the earlier ones in the series -- it doesn't feel like it was written for seven year olds. I think this one is the best in the series so far.

Books read in March 2009

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 1, 2009
Post category:Book

The Dragon Revenant Bio of a Space Tyrant: Mercenary A Time of Exile Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Perihelion

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Perihelion

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 1, 2009
Post category:Book

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I haven't previously been impressed with Wu's work, but this book is the best of the Robot City series. The other books suffer from feeling juvenile, whereas this book tells a story without being badly written and boring. Its a shame that you have to wade through the others in the series to get to this one. Interestingly, this book assures me that there another six in the series. They don't sound like the Robot and Aliens series, as these extra books are meant to more fully explain the origin of Robot City. However, as best as I can tell these additional books were never produced. Wikipedia, Amazon and LibraryThing all have no record of these books existing.

A Time of Exile

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 30, 2009
Post category:Book

This book is the fifth in the Deverry series, but focusses on a different set of characters than the other books. However, the new plot line is tied in nicely with the previous stories, so there is a nice combination of furthering the overall plot without bogging down in territory which has been covered by the previous books. I liked this book, especially the way it starts out like a sequel to the third book, and then something which feels like an aside becomes the major plot line for the book. Its a great way of introducing a new sub plot without the reader realizing until its well under way, and I enjoyed it a lot. This is a a great book, and probably the best in the series after Daggerspell. [isbn: 0553298135;0586207880]

Bio of a Space Tyrant: Mercenary

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 23, 2009
Post category:Book

This book continues the story of a poor Hispanic immigrant made good that started with Bio of a Space Tyrant: Refugee. This book is overall much more positive than the previous one, with hardly any of Hope's friends being killed. The book revolves around Hope's military career, and the leadership team he builds. Its basically a story of personal magnetism, love, sex, and team work. The technical aspects of this book are a little weak, in a similar manner to the first one -- specifically some of the science fiction is hard to believe. Then again if you're willing to suspend disbelief, this is a good book. [isbn: 0380872218]

The Dragon Revenant

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 14, 2009
Post category:Book

I knew what happens at the end of this book before I read it, and I thought I'd be upset about it. Funnily enough, by the time we got there the progression of the story made it seem kind of natural. This is a good book, and a worthy addition to the series, however Salamander's habit of including three words all meaning the same thing in ever sentence gets really annoying. I think I would have punched him in the face if I was one of the characters in the book. [isbn: 0553289098]