Made by Mikal – Page 71

MythBuntu 8.10 just made me sad

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

I figured it was time to give MythBuntu a try, so I set up a MythBuntu 8.10 instance in VirtualBox today. That was a mistake. I'm not 100% sure I understand how it happened, but MythBuntu somehow managed to delete my entire mythconverg MySQL database instance. Not pleased. I've restored it from last night's backup, but now I'll need to recover recordings which happened today, assuming I can be bothered. I'm writing this just as a warning to others -- if you're playing with MythBuntu, backup your MySQL instance if its not a test one.

Darkspell

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 15, 2008
Post category:Book

This is the second book in the Deverry series, and I liked it. Its a direct continuation of Daggerspell, and deals with Rodrhys and Jill's life on the road. [isbn: 0553568884;0586200797]

The state of Blu Ray on Linux / MythTV

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 14, 2008
Post category:Mythtv

The DVD drive in one of my MythTV machines has given up the ghost. I have to go to Fry's tomorrow to replace a dead hard disk, so I'll pick up a new drive while I am at it. I am surprised to discover that Blu Ray drives are now just $90. I wonder what the state of Blu Ray playback on Linux is like at the moment. How's the MythTV support? Time to find out.

Amtrak Wars

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 12, 2008
Post category:Book

A post apocalyptic struggle between the three groups of North American survivors -- a military society called "The Amtrak Federation", the mutes (the survivors of American poor neighborhoods), and Ne Issan (former Japanese who sailed from Japan when their islands were flooded). 1983: Cloud Warrior 1985: First Family 1987: Iron Master 1988: Blood River 1989: Death-Bringer 1990: Earth-Thunder

Earth Thunder

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 12, 2008
Post category:Book

This is the last book of the Amtrak Wars series. I'm much less comfortable with Steven's character in this book -- he's always been a bit mixed up, and I don't blame him for that given his background, but in this book he's actively disloyal to those he loves, which is something new. That made the first 50 or so pages of this book quite hard to read, because I find it hard to read books where I hate the main protagonist. A lot of people complain about the ending of this book, especially as its the last Amtrak Wars book written, but doesn't resolve the main plot line. I didn't think it was that bad though, although perhaps that's because the coda didn't appear in earlier versions? The coda resolves a lot for me, and although the ending is sad, I thought it was fair. I liked this book overall. [isbn: 0747400024]

Killing a blocking thread in python?

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 11, 2008
Post category:Python

It seems that there is no way of killing a blocking thread in python? The standard way of implementing thread death seems to be to implement an exit() method on the class which is the thread, and then call that when you want the thread to die. However, if the run() method of the thread class is blocking when you call exit(), then the thread doesn't get killed. I can't find a way of killing these threads cleanly on Linux -- does anyone have any hints?

Death Bringer

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

I feel sorry for Jake Olsen. It must be hard having the ensign-in-the-red-shirt role. This book is as good as the rest of the series, and the First Family truly are bastards. I really liked this one. [isbn: 0747400016]

Books read in November 2008

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

Belgarath the Sorcerer Foundation's Triumph Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains A Darkness at Sethanon Foundation's Edge Foundation and Earth Daggerspell Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Odyssey Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Suspicion Blood River

Blood River

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

This is the fourth book in the Amtrak Wars series. Its pretty good, about the same level of writing as Cloud Warrior and Iron Master, which I guess means it was better than First Family (which was mostly a connector between the first and third books in the series). In this book we learn that the first family are even more nasty than previously disclosed, and that Cadillac is possibly the most annoying person on the planet. This book must not have been very popular in the US, because I've never seen it for sale in the US, but its reasonably common in Australia. That's a shame because the copy I have is about to fall apart, which means I'll have to wait until next time I am back home to try and find a replacement copy. Overall this book was quite readable, and I enjoyed it. [isbn: 0747400008]

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Suspicion

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 27, 2008
Post category:Book

This is the second book in the Isaac Asimov's Robot City series, and follows on directly from Odyssey. In fact, it follows so closely that it feels like it should be part of that earlier book. I preferred this book to the first in the series, I suspect because it didn't need to use a random unexplained change to escape a dying plot line (which is what I felt happened about a third of the way through the first book). This book does feel a little juvenile though, but I forgive it.