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MythNetTV release 6

Post author:mikal
Post published:October 4, 2008
Post category:Mythtv

New things in this release: Better testing: r114: Unit tests for video.py r148: Updated unit test now that we create more tables r151: Start work on syndication unit tests r153: Unit test for bad syndication dates, as well as more flexibility in db connections needed for this unit test r157: Nicer unit test failure output, and refactor GetVideoDir() into the utility module r181: Slightly improve syndication unit tests r183: Add flag parsing to unit tests, and fix some more flag name changes Better documentation: r117: Added a man page for video.py -- I'm not 100% happy with its name though Bug fixes: r114: Fixed a bug where the new filename for video transcode could be the same as the input filename, resulting in video corruption. This was found with one of the new video.py unit tests r116: The logic for the --prompt flag was the wrong way around. Fixed. r119: Nicer download status messages r121: Handle 404s in feed updates better r129: Slight tweak to SVN submit script r131: More accurate tracking of proxy usage (update during download, instead of just at the end) r137: Proxy budget being exceeded doesn't count as a failed download attempt r143: Subscribe now renables…

The Malloreon

Post author:mikal
Post published:October 4, 2008
Post category:Book

This is the followup series to the Belgariad. Its mostly a sequel series, but is quite readable and worth the effort. 1988: Guardians of the West 1989: King of the Murgos 1989: Demon Lord of Karanda 1990: Sorceress of Darshiva 1992: Seeress of Kell

The Seeress of Kell

Post author:mikal
Post published:October 4, 2008
Post category:Book

The conclusion to the Malloreon. Quite a good read, although the plot twists are predictable. [isbn: 0345377591]

Books read in September 2008

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

Enchanters' End Game Robot Visions Forward the Foundation Foundation Foundation and Empire Guardians of the West The Stainless Steel Rat for President King of the Murgos Second Foundation Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis (not fully read yet, its a reference book) Foundation's Fear (didn't finish cause it sucked) Demon Lord of Karanda Sorceress of Darshiva

Sorceress of Darshiva

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

This is book four of the Malloreon. It feels like not much happens in this book, although there is plot development happening. I guess it more feels like this book is a connector between the book before and the book after, and not much more. On the other hand, it was an engaging read. [isbn: 0345369351]

Demon Lord of Karanda

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 29, 2008
Post category:Book

I needed something to cheer me up after the previous sucky book. This one did the trick. Again its pretty standard Fantasy stuff, and there were no surprises, but its fun to read. [isbn: 0345363310]

Foundation’s Fear

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 28, 2008
Post category:Book

This book is a solid zero stars in my mind. I got to page 372, but simply couldn't wade through the chore any longer. The plot meanders, and its not clear to me where the story is going. Worse still, basically nothing has happened yet. I am a little surprised, given the generally positive LibraryThing reviews. I should have read the Amazon reviews instead. Some examples: Normally, I do a lot of my reading on the train (BART for those of you familiar with San Francisco), getting to and from work. An engrossing book keeps me awake and I read it relatively quickly. "Foundation's Fear", especially the first half of it, set a record for putting me to sleep. There were days in when I only managed to read a couple of pages. A paragraph or two and I'd be out, even before the train started moving. As others here have pointed out, there is a lot of boring dialogue and description and much of it focuses around the Voltaire and Joan of Arc artificial entities. Hundreds of pages of philosophical noodling and descriptions of imaginary scenes conjured up in cyberspace become numbing. And another: This book is not good,…

Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 25, 2008
Post category:Book

This is the second book I have got from the LibraryThing early reviewer program (the previous book was The Spy Within). I'm going to have to be honest with this book and say that I haven't read all of it yet. Its basically a dictionary and I don't tend to read those cover to cover. On the other hand, I have read about 10% of this book so far, and do intend to read it all. This book is great. The content is interesting, well laid out, and excellently written. That's probably made a lot easier by how interesting the content is -- the stories behind various works tend to be short and novel, which is fun. The book is also useful -- it's already ended an office debate over the origin of the word "hooker". [isbn: 9781846033001]

Please help me test trunk

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 25, 2008
Post category:Mythtv

I'm getting ready to do another MythNetTV release, as I've fixed quite a few things recently. I'd appreciate people testing the new code before I do an official release. You can get the current code like this: svn co http://www.stillhq.com/mythtv/mythnettv/svn That will create a directory called mythnettv, with a subdirectory named trunk, which is the latest development version of the code. You should probably create that directory somewhere where you don't mind a new directory being created. This release has lots of small changes, which are listed in the ChangeLog which will be downloaded with the code. Thanks.

Second Foundation

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

I am starting to think that there is something missing in the Foundation trilogy. Specifically, there isn't much action. Most of it is just people talking at each other -- with pages and pages of dialog. This makes these three books much harder to read (and therefore less compelling) than those elsewhere in the extended Foundation Series. I did enjoy this book, I just feel that I could have done with some more action to make it less hard work. [isbn: 0345336291;0345309014]