one monkey typing ...
summertime oft begets alfresco dining · 20 July 2008
with fire. mwahahah!
[but wait, there's more]
Happy Caturday #6 · 19 July 2008
oh look. a box of wanker. to the bat cave!
[clicky]
Utah Vacation Megapost · 19 July 2008
after much delay, i'm finally getting around to posting the pictures from our vacation to moab, utah. i've decided to post them in batches, rather than all at once, as i find the idea of posting everything at once somehow daunting. i'm just going to keep tacking pictures on to this slide show as i get around to it. either of the following links will drop you into the same, big slide show (just at different points).
i thought i'd start off with some pix of what was right outside the front door of where we stayed. we had an outstanding view, lots of amusing (domestic) critters to harass, and plenty of wooded hiking just up the hill. we probably could've spent the entire vacation right here and been content.
[basecamp]
next up, a jaunt around arches. it's interesting territory. our visit was full of sunshine, chinese tourists and, yes, arches.
[arches]
stay tuned for more ...
desktops updated · 13 July 2008
i finally got around to adding some new desktop wallpapers. check 'em out.
Anathem: a review from Dusty · 13 July 2008
Dusty read Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" somewhat recently, and was possessed to write a review of it. Untouched by me and without further blathering on my part, here is that review, spoilers possibly present (read at your own peril):
Review of Neal Stephenson’s “Anathem”
4 July 2008
I have just finished reading “Anathem”. How did I do so when it’s not available until 9 September? I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. The method I would use would be death by a thousand paper cuts, which roughly corresponds to one cut per page in this book. Well, since each physical page is printed on both sides, I’d have to cut you twice with each page.
Did you find that whole “twice with each page” thing annoying? More detail than is really necessary? If so, you may not make it through “Anathem”. Stephenson knows this and dares you early on to complain about it. On page 5 the main character thinks “I suffer from attention surplus disorder, Fraa Orolor liked to say, as if it were funny.” That Stephenson is unapologetic about it helps maintain the feeling that the author is in control of the long drawn out process, but at times the reader may wonder if it is worth it.
In the end, I think it is. “Anathem” is a tighter story than the often tedious “Baroque Cycle” with the perspective limited to a single character first person. So while it is a long story, the reader doesn’t have to keep track of who knows what and when as was the case of the “Baroque Cycle” stories.
Our main character in “Anathem” is a young man in an Earth-like world where the science, math and philosophy scholars and students are holed up in co-ed monasteries (complete with chants, included on a CD with the book), isolated from the rest of the world except for specific and very limited times. While initially it seems like this is an indictment of the “ivory towers” of academia, Stephenson ends up doing much more with it. Something interesting happens which requires the outside world to use the mad skillz of the academic elite to solve the problem. (I don’t want to spoil it, but you can probably guess what it is a hundred or so pages ahead of time.) The result is a semi-nerdy-coming-of-age-combined-with-a-mystery-and-an-action-adventure story that somehow works.
As is typical with Stephenson, a background knowledge of history, physics, math and philosophy would be very handy for reading “Anathem”. But, unlike the “Baroque Cycle” stories, he was able to restrain himself somewhat and not include every gory detail he discovered while researching the book. So while at times it seems as though the cover should have stamped on the front “Not for Civilian Use”, the main portion of the text flows pretty well. For those that need a little help (and I suspect to give a bit of a “Dune” feel to the whole process), there is a glossary and appendices at the back of the text.
The text also suffers from Stephenson’s shifting vocabulary style. While at times he is very colloquial, there are awkward instances of formal verbiage. For example, using the words “adroit” and “adroitness” tend to stick out like a sore thumb and be distracting rather than giving a more complex picture of the scene as “fancy” words should.
But in the end Stephenson accomplishes what many consider the highest goal of hard SF: he uses the laws of physics and math legitimately to bring a whole new perspective on the possible while telling an entertaining tale. If he spends a couple dozen too many pages explaining why it is possible, he can be forgiven as he educates or reminds us of the weirdness of reality. (For a list of the Earth scholars that the story’s scholarship is based on, see the acknowledgments at the beginning of the book.)
After I read the “Baroque Cycle” books, I donated them even though they were first editions. “Anathem” I will keep.
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