Hitting The Gibson Brakes

I've mentioned on this weblog a few times that William Gibson is my current favorite author. You have to realize that my upbringing included most of the Sci-Fi greats:(In no particular order) Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Huxley (Aldous), and now Gibson. I read and forgot most of Neuromancer, 20 plus years ago. I picked up Pattern Recognition maybe three years ago and was hooked. I guess I wasn't the only one, the movie will be out shortly, directed by Peter Weir.

His descriptive vision of computing functions gets me every time. Those qualities, subdued in PR (above) came to full bloom in his trilogy IDORU, VIRTUAL LIGHT, and ALL TOMORROW'S PARIIES. In the tradition of Star Wars I read them backwards.

I'm 2/3's through Idoru and I've hit the brakes.

It happened with Virtual Light too. I just get to a point where I don't want the story to end. I like this realm Gibson has created, and I want to stay a while. Just a bit longer.

Good story tellers can do that to you.

Gibson is one of them.

Online Books

Good for Google, for fighting the good fight and making "books" available online.

Sure, most people thought it was a good "IDEA", but were too busy trying to think of a way to make money on it. Google finds another, maybe "better" way.

Put it out there, and the audience (do not say market), will find you, IF it's worth it.

Want to know where the AUDIENCE is? Take a glimpse at what Teenage Japanese Girls are doing. They're reading books, (a sentence at a time), on their cell phones.

I've started reading a mini-book (Online), on using Python for working on the 3D Graphics program called Blender. One Linux Desktop for the Book another Linux Desktop for the Blender Program.

Pretty cool.

Feeling Disconnected : No Wires attached

This Last week I delved into the murky waters of Wireless Connectivity on Linux. And even with a fairly recent Distro: Suse 10.0, the results were less than perfect. I must admit the WiFi card WAS a bit dated, but Linux has had wifi plug-ins for some time now, still no-go. For 4 rugged days I was without DSL and the WEB. I do believe it affected my wife more than me. I can always find other things to do with OS technology.

Ethernet cable and the onboard NIC connected and Wham, back in business.

One Step Forward, TWO Steps Back...

Problems at MS OS, again.

This week Microsoft had to inform investors that Vista was being held back until 2007.

It seems the much awaited successor to Windows XP, Windows Vista needed to be reworked.

SlashDot tells us 60% of the code has to be redone. MS PR says that's not true.

Considering the FACT that Vista is ALREADY 2 YEARS Late, this should be considered more than just a Setback, don't you think?

I bet some programming heads at Microsoft are going to roll.

Microsoft did say it would not be pulling programming staff from XBOX 360. Wall Street should applaud that.

I know I do.

The midnight oil should be burning bright (I hate using that word in this context) for the next few months at MS.

Digital Memories are made of This...

Frys AD, Wednesday, March 22, 2006: 2 GB Secure Digital (SD format) for $64.99 - 15.00 mail-in rebate = $49.99.




I paid $39 plus dollars (a few years back) for the 128 MB SD that's in my Vivitar Digital camera. (Incidently, the internal storage of the Vivicam 3705 is 8 MB.)

2 GB is 16X the capacity of the 128 MB for $10.00 more!

And my son is waiting for the 8 GB memory chip to go into his Sony PSP.

As I often say, the "Digital GIG IS UP, WAY UP!"

The Light at the End of The Virtual Tunnel

Almost done with Gibson's "Virtual Light". I slow down towards the end because I really don't want it to end.

Fortunately it's part of a trilogy, that I have been reading in reverse order (don't ask me why...). I may put off the first novel for a while and jump into Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code". I don't like to jump into things that have negative controversy, hence my reluctance in reading "Code". But the Ron Howard/Tom Hanks movie will be out soon and I don't want to be left behind. And I really liked "Digital Fortress" and "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown.

Movies rarely match the impact of the book because it has to compress too much of details. John Grisham's "A Time To Kill" being a perfect example of what hollywood can do to a good book.

That's it for now, time to hit the Books...

I Hate the Word PROJ

Every so often a writer messes with you. Take William Gibson. One of my current favorite writers. I like the way he writes. Kinda like a cross between Faulkner and Hemingway. Not an easy thing to do by the way.
Well, in my latest READ of his Virtual Light, I come across the word : proj, and I don't have a clue about what it means. I know it's street slang for something, but that's it. Even Google couldn't help me, damn. I hate it.

That, by the way is the reason behind the Yahoo Answer button to the right there >--->. I posted my question to the "Group Mind". Good idea. Real people. Real answers. Still waiting for a reasonable answer....

Maybe I should write Mr. Gibson, but I'd hate interfering work on a new novel. I really like the guy, even if some of his words tick me off sometimes.

Okay. I'm stepping off my soapbox for a while.

Two steps.

First On the Block Syndrome

I recall reading an old Byte magazine article (yeah, I've been at this that long) maybe Chaos Manor, and Jerry (or whoever) got the first modem on the block and couldn't call anyone.

I've done that over the years, it is kinda fun to be the first at trying out new technology.

I got the first SuSE 9.1 because it came with 5 + 2 CD-Roms. The +2 CD's were the 64 bit version of the Linux OS. I didn't have a 64 bit machine at the time, and still don't. But I Was First with OS that supported it.

I mention this because today February 9, 2006 I did the same thing. I signed up for a free VOIP account. VOIP stands for Voice Over IP, or Web based telephone access. I don't know anyone who uses VOIP.

That's okay.

I'll be here waiting for them when they do.

Two Steps

Dos Possos can be translated many ways. In spanish, it means literally, two steps. But wait, there's more. In computing it can refer to DOS passing into oblivion (not that I believe that). And, of course, in literature there was John Dos Possos, a writer much forgotten today, but part of the era that produced Hemingway, Faulkner and even Vonnegut.

This blog is dedicated to the small steps needed to get from point A to point B in Language, Shell programming and Literatti (literature et al).

It's for writers and programmers and language, la lingua franca. The frank tongue.

Ciao.