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July 28, 2009
My Last Desktop PC?
Temperature control in a home office is always problematic - and that's certainly true for us. We have Dawnises iMac, her second LCD, my desktop linux box (with a fairly large and hence hot power supply on account of the graphics card) with two LCDs, our NAS, a small PC doing server duty, and a couple external hard drives being hosted for friends.
When the temperature started to climb, I decided to turn off my desktop in the hopes of keeping the room a bit cooler. Going on 4 days later, I've realized I don't miss it that much, and I'm wondering if its days are numbered...
Posted by dberger at 9:49 PM
Budayeen Nights
Just finished Budayeen Nights, a collection of short stories by the late George Alec Effinger set in the same world as When Gravity Fails and its sequels.
A couple of the stories really grabbed me, one or two left me totally flat, and overall I enjoyed the read. And, to be honest, it's so damn hot right now I can't think about doing anything but laying on the sofa with a good book and a cold drink.
The intros to each story, written by Barbara Hambly were a nice added touch, and helped put some of the material in context.
If you're a fan of the novels, the collection is definitely worth a read.
Posted by dberger at 9:36 PM
July 26, 2009
World War Z
Just finished World War Z. I had trouble, throughout the book, reconciling the factual tone of the story telling with my own suspension of disbelief, but in spite of that, it was a very good read.
The structure of the story telling was very effective - characters I started caring about after only a few pages, and briefly described moments that had surprisingly visceral or emotional impact.
The structure of the book - told as a set of interviews, ranging from less than a page to around 10 pages - makes it perfect for reading in short bursts.
Posted by dberger at 2:36 PM
On Case Sensitive File Systems
I've been using Unix and Unix-like systems for almost my entire computing "career." After leaving AmigaDOS behind, I ran Windows (3.1) long enough to ditch it for OS/2, and ran that just until it became practical to run Linux.
So the idea that the file system is case sensitive is just something I'm "used to."
Over time, however, I've come to the conclusion that the Windows and OSX model of being case preserving but not case sensitive is probably the right one - if not generally than certainly for a desktop (i.e. user-centric) operating system, and I figured I'd see what the options were in Posix (specifically Linux) land.
Continue reading "On Case Sensitive File Systems"
Posted by dberger at 12:22 PM
July 19, 2009
A Swing and a Miss
Got a call from the shop on Friday while at the Museum of Flight with my folks. The bushings from Race Tech arrived, and they're completely wrong. As a last resort, they (the shop) are going to see if they can find a suitable bushing out of the Yamaha or Suzuki catalogs, and I'm going to try getting on the phone direct to Triumph on Monday.
Continue reading "A Swing and a Miss"
Posted by dberger at 10:42 AM
July 18, 2009
This Is Not a Game
Just finished Walter Jon William's This Is Not a Game. While it had some interesting moments, and a couple novel ideas, it just failed to rise above the level of the mediocre.
I haven't read much Williams lately - though I was a big fan of Hardwired when I read it nearly 20 years ago (!). I think I'll toss a couple more of his newer works on my library queue in the hopes that I find one worth recommending.
Posted by dberger at 7:07 PM
July 16, 2009
Motorcycles
I'm now something like 6 weeks into trying to get the front fork seals replaced on the Trophy. The first time parts took 2-and-a-bit weeks to arrive, then the shop neglected to tell me that the bushings needed replacing before they put it all back together.
Continue reading "Motorcycles"
Posted by dberger at 8:57 PM
July 5, 2009
Are Macs Really Overpriced?
The other day my mom asked my advice on a new notebook computer - she was comparing two models from HP - both with 17" screens, reasonable amounts of RAM and hard disk space, and a dual core processor.
Both around $700.
I really wanted to suggest she buy a Mac, but how could I tell her that the right answer was to spend $1700 more to get a macbook pro with the 17" screen she wanted?
All arguments about component/build quality aside - that's a serious chunk of money.
Posted by dberger at 9:45 PM
The City and The City
Just finished China Mieville's The City and The City.
In some respects it's "just" a police procedural murder mystery - but in another sense, it's very Mieville. The cities the title references are both part of the mystery and a mystery of their own - and a fascinating setting for the story.
It's both more approachable than Perdido St. Station and at the same time more opaque. Like other Mieville works, it has some moments of completely realized imagery that are likely to stick with me for quite a while.
I definitely enjoyed it, though I'm not sure I completely "got" it.
Posted by dberger at 8:45 PM