mikal – Page 69 – Made by Mikal

Without Warning

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 24, 2009
Post category:Book

LibraryThing, of which I am a member runs a program where members are shipped early copies of books for free, with the preference for them writing a review when they're done reading the book. The books are shipped by the publisher directly to the reviewers. This isn't that uncommon in the publishing industry -- both of my books have experienced a similar process, although less formal. A pre-release version of this book was provided by this mechanism. The pre-release had some quite annoying typographical and grammar errors. I assume they are corrected in the final published version. I am a little conflicted about this story. On the one hand, the author comes from my home town, as do about 0% of popular authors. You can see he's Australian in the text -- several of the main characters are Australian, Greg Norman gets a cameo, and Tasmania is a hiding place of preference for refugees. On the other hand, I found this book a slow read. The story is good, and the ideas very interesting. The story is good too, with most chapters ending with a hook to keep you going. On the other hand, I just couldn't get into the…

Life, the Universe and Everything

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 15, 2009
Post category:Book

Another classic from the trilogy of four. I'd always known that Cricket was somehow evil.

The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 3

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 11, 2009
Post category:Book

This book consists of three paperbacks combined into one volume, and follows in from Volume 1 and Volume 2. I'll cover each story separately: The sharp end: this story is a little different from the other Hammer's Slammers stuff. To be honest, its a bit less grim. Normally the stories are about how war is in the end just a bunch of guys trying to not die (for the grunts at least), whereas this story is a little bit more hopeful than that. Then again, there is still plenty of the negative side of war in this story. Paying the piper: I've seen other people complain that this book is disjointed, which is a fair comment. Concepts are reintroduced several times, even though they've already been covered. I wonder if this was originally a set of short stories in a series? Its a good read however. The darkness: a much shorter story, which is a lot more like the ones in Volume 1 and Volume 2. [isbn: 9781892389800]

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 3, 2009
Post category:Book

Another classic. This book is probably a little better than The Hichhiker's Guide because it doesn't have to spend so much time explaining the background to the story. It is a very fast read, just like the other book, and I enjoyed it.

Books read in January 2009

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 2, 2009
Post category:Book

Bio of a Space Tyrant: Refugee Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow The Compleat Bolo Prince of the Blood Dawnspell The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Refuge

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Refuge

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 2, 2009
Post category:Book

This is the fifth book in the Robot City series. I think its actually the best written of those that I have read so far. The story makes sense, isn't hard to believe like some of the others, and the dialog doesn't feel wooden.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 31, 2009
Post category:Book

Ok, so this is a classic. I hadn't read it in years though, and it's still awesome. Loved it. Things to note that I hadn't thought of before -- "SubEtha" is talked about a lot, that probably explains "SubEtha Edit" which is an editor I have used in the past; the term "Googleplex" is used in the book, its also the name of the campus I work on; I love the idea of depressed computers, I should see if I can whip one up.

Restricting anonymous edits

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 31, 2009
Post category:Mythtv

Because of two examples of wiki spam today, I am restricting anonymous edits. From now on you will be required to have a wiki account before you can make an edit. That doesn't seem all that onerous to me, and lets me avoid having to deal with spam.

MythTV Chapter Ready: The Easy Way: Installing MythBuntu

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 29, 2009
Post category:Mythtv

The The Easy Way: Installing MythBuntu chapter is now ready. This chapter provides an overview of a basic MythBuntu installation, which is something which wasn't covered at all in Practical MythTV, as MythBuntu wasn't ready at the time. MythBuntu provides a simple installation and configuration option for those people who want to build a new MythTV system from scratch, and want to hide the normal Ubuntu install. Thanks to Michael Carden and Jost Stewart for their reviews of this chapter, as well as Paul Wayper for his comments.

Looking for a logo

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 28, 2009
Post category:Mythtv

I'm not a very graphical person, so I'm looking for someone to help me with a logo for the online MythTV book project -- specifically I need something to replace this image: I hope you agree that the current logo lacks a certain... something. A simple logo which somehow says "book about MythTV" would be really cool. It would also be good to have a version which works as a favicon. Please email me if you think you can help.