Men At Arms Posted
Saturday, June 29, 2002 by wlofie
Title: Men At Arms
Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher:
Published:
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN:
Men at arms
The Patrician has started a minority hiring programme for the night watch. This is the beginning of the plot, which later includes: Angua, the W…!, who needs her breastplate beaten out really well here and there; Cuddy, the dwarf who likes trolls (very unusual); Deitrius, the troll that likes dwarves (equally unusual) and has problems saluting (he knocks himself out). We'll also reacquaint ourselves with corporal Carrot, Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race for shoving) and captain Vimes the semi-alcoholic dutybound lifetime cop.
Men At Arms is funny and has a very small amount of satire (for Terry Pratchett, that is). It is highly recommended and could make a tax man laugh so much he'll probably forget your debts (which might be useful).
These books (Terry Pratchett's) are all very good and full of humour. If you've read a Discworld novel before you'll know what to expect, otherwise you're in for a wonderful surprise. The only recommendation I can give is read and enjoy.
wlofie
The Last Hero (Terry Pratchett) Posted
Saturday, June 29, 2002 by wlofie
Title: The Last Hero (A DiscworldŽ Fable)
Author: Terry Pratchett (Illustrated by Paul Kidby)
Publisher: Victor Gollancz Ltd
Published: 2001
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: 0-575-06885-X
The Last Hero (this should be heroes) is of course Cohen the Barbarian, that geriatric slaughterer with troll's teeth for dentures and an affinity for schooft toilet paper.
Cohen and his Silverhorde are on their way to give fire back to the gods, with a vengance. The wizards have calculated that this will destroy Discworld. Of course a mission is started, to stop Cohen.
The Mission crew is:
Maskerade (Terry Pratchett) Posted
Saturday, June 29, 2002 by wlofie
Title: Maskerade
Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: BCA
Published: 1996
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: N/A
Maskerade
Here we meet Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg again. They have again left for Ankh-Morpork (heaven help us) with them is Greebo, the tomcat, belonging to Nanny, that sometimes becomes human and otherwise is unwise to approach unless wearing a suit of armour and you would still have to pray fervently that the cat couldn't use a can-opener. There they intend to recruit Agnes, a girl from the Ramtops that has potential for magic. The two witches (Granny and Nanny) get into a lot of trouble trying to get Agnes to give up her career as opera singer (which was what she ran away to become). That the opera is haunted by a ghost doesn't make things better.
This is a hilarious continuation of the Discworld series and gives the reader a fun insight into "the phantom of the opera" theme.
wlofie
Soul Music (Terry Pratchett) Posted
Saturday, June 29, 2002 by wlofie
Title: Soul Music
Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: BCA
Published: 1994
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: N/A
Soul music
Music with rocks in it, is taking over Ankh-Morpork, Discworld city extraordinaire. Wizards wearing leather robes with "Born to Rune", "Dean" and the horrifying idea of plateau shoes, or horror above all horrors tone deaf barbarians strumming guitars. The musicians guild is in uproar as is the world. The really bad part is that Death, that anthropomorphic personification, wants to forget. He goes about this in the ordinary ways, for example: he joins the eh err hm, oh yes, the Klatchian foreign legion; tries to get really drunk and get thrown out onto the river Ankh (luckily he didn't get a concussion), and tries living with the outcasts of the city like Foul Ol' Ron, the only man whose smell precedes him and has a physical character. The fact that Death has a desire to forget leaves a hole in the space-time-continuum, into this hole Susan Death's granddaughter is "sucked". Susan is probably the only girl who never got a xylophone for a birthday present, she just asked her grandfather to take off his shirt.
This is also a book about Imp y Celyn, the bard with a possessed guitar, who plays Music with rocks in it together with Glod, the horn playing, home decorating dwarf and Cliff, the rock (drum) playing troll.
S.M. (mind your filthy mind, I meant Soul Music) shouldn't be popular with the artist's agents since it pokes quite a few fingers into their collective eye, despite this I think it will be very popular with them, since many people never notice Terry Pratchett's subtle sarcasm, irony and general naughtiness underlying the theme.
wlofie
Terry Pratchett (author information) Posted
Saturday, June 29, 2002 by wlofie
Say the name Terry Pratchett to a fantasy lover, and he'll get a dreamy look in his eyes and start mumbling incoherently about an anthropomorphic personification (Death), crazy wizards (Rincewind and company), and a two metres long dwarf (corporal Carrot). After this all you need to do to reduce him to a dribbling, shivering mass of ecstasy is to gently whisper the name: Discworld and he'll start pawing you for reading material like a heroin addict with his dealer (don't try this in public, it might prove embarrassing.).
Terry Pratchett, born 1948, lives in Somerset where he writes books and grows carnivorous plants. He is the creator of the Discworld series (The Discworld is a world which is a statistical anomaly. It exists only because the gods enjoy a joke.), and has been called "the Dickens of the twentieth century". According to his publishers his greatest fear is that someone will find out how much he enjoys writing, and stop him from doing it. Oh, by the way, he, like most of us think that the world could use more orang-utans.
T.P. writes humorously with many literary "shenanigans", and he sometimes displays why satire is considered to be the only "real" form of comedy.
wlofie
Pegasus Mail Posted
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 by wlofie
Pegasus Mail 4.01 (w32) (Freeware)
---------------------------------------
Weblocation: http://www.pmail.com
Size of download:3.69
Cost:N/A
Test Computer: Pentium 100mhz, 32mb ram, MS-WIN98second edition(swe)
My opinion:
Ease of use:
Not very, once you leave the "lightweight stuff", in this, pmail is very much like "The Bat"
Documentation:
Here is the downside, the inbuilt help is good, yes, but the REAL documentation is where pmail makes money. you can have the program for free, the documentation will cost you. That said, the inbuilt one and some experimenting will give you most of the features.
Looks:
Pretty stripped down, with small icons (much like "The Bat") it gives the stripped for action feeling
Intuitivness:
It isn't that intuitive but with either Eudora or "The Bat" behind you or with a somewhat average knowledge of linux mail (for instance a mutt and procmail combo) it becomes pretty natural.
Technical serious(filters and so):
This is at the level of, if not higher than "The Bat", both these programs leave Eudora far behind and eating dust.
Technical toys:
N/A (they have however included mapi now)
Stability:
0 crashes 0 lockups during test
The Bat Posted
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 by wlofie
The Bat 1.60H (evaluation mode)
---------------------------------------
Weblocation: http://www.ritlabs.com/the_bat
Size of download:2.34MB
Cost:35$ (licence) 55$ (boxed edition)
Test Computer: Pentium 100mhz, 32mb ram, MS-WIN98second edition(swe)
My opinion:
Ease of use:
Not very easy to use for the more complex things but for the normal stuff it's easy enough, we are now into pro-mailer territory, and here, when it comes to the complex stuff, there is a trade off between power and user-friendliness.
Documentation:
The inbuilt one is good and the one on the page (which has several support forums) seems good too.
Looks:
It looks more sleek than Eudora. There is more of a "stripped for action battleship" feeling as opposed to eudoras "Luxury liner"
Intuitivness:
This one was made by heavy users of e-mail for heavy users of e-mail, for me it was as intuitive as coming home.
Technical serious(filters and so):
Filter any header against any sorting or action, autoreply, run an external program, autoforward, extract a file, add to a mailing list, what ever you want, it's most likely in here somewhere.
Technical toys:
The little "last mail received" ticker tape was cute
Stability:
0 crashes 0 lockups during test
Eudora Posted
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 by wlofie
Eudora 5.1 (in sponsored mode)
---------------------------------------
Weblocation: http://www.Eudora.com/
Size of download:6.08MB
Cost:N/A for sponsored mode
Test Computer: Pentium 100mhz, 32mb ram, MS-WIN98second edition(swe)
My opinion:
Ease of use:
Well Eudora is easy to use, with large friendly icons, the downside is, if you ever run in 640x480 resolution you won't be able to see the entire screen.
Documentation:
The inbuilt help system is good, and the online support (knowledge base on the webpage) is quite good too, also there are a lot of Eudora users around whom one can ask.
Looks:
To me Eudora looks semi ok, I'd prefer smaller icons (more icons on screen) as for the rest, if one discounts not being able to see all screens in lower resolutions (which makes making filters hell) it doesn't look bad at all.
Intuitivness:
well here I have to admit that Eudora was never my favourite, I'm sure it's intuitive, it must be, but not for me.
Technical serious(filters and so):
The filters are quite nice, not "outrageously" handy but nice. They are in this test, the weakest ones.
Technical toys:
Here Eudora excels, talking, cross connecting, it's like a fairground ride.
Stability:
0 crashes 0 lockups during test
Baby Sitting (story) Posted
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 by wlofie
Baby sitting
-------------
Once upon a time there was
-When?
A long long time ago little one
-HOW LONG?!
Longer than from here till Christmas!
-Wow that's LONG!
Anyway, A time back, longer than from here till Christmas, there was a wicked witch.
-What was her name?
I don't know little one
-She has to have a name everyone has a name!
OK so her name was Octavia!
-You said you didn't know, are you FIBBING me?
Well she might have been called Octavia?
-And maybe not!
Yes, well, hush up and listen!
-k
A time back, longer than from here till Christmas, there was a wicked witch, who might or might not have been called Octavia. She lived in a castle and was very vain.
-What's vain? And what kind of castle?
Vain is when you like looking at yourself and like how you look
-ooooh
And the castle was your normal stone and high towers kind of castle
-No dragons?
No, no dragons in this story, next time I tell it I'll write in some ok?
-k
Well this wicked witch who was also a queen, had a magical mirror, and she used to ask it "mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"
-Stupid lady, mirrors can't talk!
Well this mirror was magical, so it could talk!
-hmmmm *disbelief*
And the mirror would reply "you my fair come in honorably second and fairest of them all is snow white"
-Who is snow white?
Snow white is the pretty young lady who is prettier than the queen is. She's the hero
-oooh does she look like the girls dad whistles after when mom isn't with us?
I suppose so. Anyway each time she heard this from the mirror she got really upset, and jealous. She started plotting how to get rid of snow white. And came up with many a plan and many an idea, but none that was good for a long time. Finally she decided to poison snow white.
Now this wasn't easy because snow white lived in the forest with 7 dwarves and was friends with all the animals.
-They aren't dwarves, they are called vertically challenged persons!
OOOk, she lived in the forest with 7 vertically challenged persons, and was friends with all the animals
-Even icky ones like snails and spiders?
Yes, even those.
-wow!
Yes, quite. Now as you can imagine, living with all these friends made it hard for the queen to poison her
-uh huh
So the queen dressed up as an old apple-selling crone. And went into the forest with lots of green apples and one red poisoned shiny apple
-Why was the poison apple red?
So the queen would know which apple was poisoned.
-ooh
She walked up to the cottage where snow white and the dwa..vertically challenged persons lived, and knocked on the door.
-Didn't they have a doorbell?
No, they didn't in those days
-ooh long time ago, right?
Yes, very long ago. Snow white opened the door and was offered the red apple. She took a bite and fell into a deep sleep
-Is this a trick to make me sleep
Oooh no! Definitely not!
-Good, cause I'm not tired
That's ok. So snow white is on the floor with a piece of red poisoned apple in her throat, deep asleep.
-I know, go on!
Sorry! The queen went back to her castle. The dwarves returned and found snow white and were sad and upset. Finally they decided to put her in a glass box to keep her safe.
-Like a fish tank?
Yes, like a big fish tank.
-Did she lie on her back?
Why yes, I think she did
-Then the dwarves should have flushed her out the toilet like mum does the goldfish.
No no, she wasn't dead, she was asleep!
-Couldn't the gold fish just be asleep too?
Hmmm no, for a gold fish to sleep on back means it's dead. It doesn't work like that for humans
-If I lie on my back I'll live forever?
No, you won't! Hush now!
-k
A while later a prince came riding. An..
-What color was the horse?
White, all heroes' horses are white.
-oh
And he saw her in the glass box, and thought she was the prettiest woman he'd ever seen.
-So he whistled and winked right? Like dad!
No, he didn't whistle and wink.
He got off the horse, opened the box and kissed her. And broke the spell.
-He kissed the lady that had apple in throat and didn't brush teeth and slept for long time?
Yes!
-GROSS!
Well maybe she had good mouthwash, kid!
-Hmmm tell me another one uncle!
*Said with a wicked smile* How about I give you a red apple instead pumpkin?
Comments (1)
Perl Beginners Books---"Programming Perl" ; "Learning Perl (2nd edition)" Posted
Friday, June 14, 2002 by wlofie
Double review
Title: "Programming Perl" ; "Learning Perl (2nd edition)"
Author: Larry Wall and Randal L Schwartz ; Randal L Schwarts and Tom Christiansen (foreword Larry Wall)
Publisher:O'Reilly & Associates
Published:1992 ; 1997
Genre: Fact/Learning
ISBN:0-937175-64-1 ; 1-56592-284-0
Larry Wall is the "creator of perl" if one can put it that way. This book is old, so it doesn't give the newest way of doing things, but all in all it is a good referance, it covers up to perl4, anything that is changed hugely since then you might need to brush up on elsewhere.
Learning perl covers up to perl 5.004 so it is pretty much up to today's standard.
I personally find "learning perl" a better beginner book, but when i was a few chapters into "learning perl", "programming perl" became a good companion.
If you only intend to read one book I'd stick with "learning perl".
They both use simple examples, "learning perl" uses simpler and more practical examples (for me at least). I also found that the foreword in "learning perl" motivated me. Larry Wall made such a good impression there that i WANTED to learn it, not because of him but because it seemed fun, it seemed as if he had fun making perl. The LW foreword is full of geeky humour and the book is worth a library visit only to read the foreword.
The whole of both books is done in a slow "build as you go" fashion:
let's start with :
small program...
add a feature...explain feature...new program listing...
add a few more features, explain them, new program listing
so on, in programs that actually can be of use.
They are also full of geeky humor, "learning perl" more clearly so than "programming perl", never-the-less it's there in both of them.
I found the explanations in "learning perl" more clear, but after i began to understand regex somewhat "programming perl" also became clearer.
"Programming perl" has some advantages though, it does things the old way, now this isn't neccessarily a bad thing, sometimes you want to avoid using external libraries and so forth, and do for instance raw socket access without a lot of interferance, then "programming perl" tells you more about that than "learning perl" does.
"learning perl" does however have a chapter on what most people probably want perl for:CGI's. It also has a chapter on cpan libraries
Both are good books if you are starting out in perl.
If you like me want a good solid base to stand on, read them both.
If you just want to get started, read "learning perl".
noticed after this review:
the cgi chapter contains some errors (i think they are)
page 186
contains
#!/path/to/perl
use CGI qw("param");
print less-than-signless-than-sign End_of_Start;
Content-type: text/html
the html header here up to and including start body tag
then
End_of_Start
my $favorite = param("flavor");
print "p-tag your favourite icecream is $favorite";
print less-than-signless-than-sign all_done;
end body and html tags
all_done
ok..now i can't get that to work
also i see it uses CGI.pm
i might be wrong..hey i'm a very very beginner but looking at other scripts (even in this book) using pm's (perl modules?) requires a different approach..usually => or ->
true nuff in this case...
#!/path/to/perl
use CGI; # use CGI.pm
my $q = new CGI; # create new CGI object
print less-than-signless-than-sign End_of_Start
Content-type: text/html
the html header there up to and including start body tag
then
End_of_Start
# now get value of a form parameter named 'name'
my $favorite = $q->param('favorite');
print "p-tag your favourite icecream is $favorite";
print less-than-signless-than-sign all_done;
end body and html tags
all_done
would probably work though
it is untested but i used those commands in another script that works
whereas if i tried the original from the book it did NOT work
typos can happen but check extra carefully for them
perl is forgiving but not THAT forgiving
wlofie
Comments (0)
Snow white and the seven samurai Posted
Friday, June 7, 2002 by wlofie
Title: Snow white and the seven samurai
Author:Tom Holt
Publisher:BCA
Published:2000
Genre:Fantasy/humour
ISBN:N/A
In fairytale land the evil queen's mirrors 3.0 has crashed due to a hack attempt. There are backups but it has corrupted the entire weave of storythreads. Now the evil queen and one of the hackers has to put it right.
From the conversation with the mirror:
"mirror mirror on the wall, whose the fairest of them all?"
bad error or command "whose"
"mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"
snowwhite
To the:
badwolf metamorphosing and being afraid to go back to wolfpac headquarters. This book spoofs with, plays with, and generally makes fun of most the childhood stories I've read.
The style is very like that of Terry Pratchett's, except that Tom Holt doesn't use subclauses as much. But if you like sick funny pulled outta proportion and totally weird fantasy, this is a definate "must read"
wlofie
Seize the Night - Slips from the Grasp Posted
Thursday, June 6, 2002 by sdew
Seize the Night by Dean Koontz was a book I have been droolingly longing to get for the past two years. I had been completely captivated by the characters and story in its predecessor, Fear Nothing. These books feature Christopher Snow, a twenty-eight year old with a rare disorder that requires that he not be touched by light. He's made a life for himself in a sleepy little central Californian coastal town, but that life continues to be disrupted by ongoing scientific work at the recently closed Fort Wyvern.
Fear Nothing won me over with descriptions of Bobby Halloway, the surfer friend, Sasha Goodall, the mysterious girlfriend, and a host of less central but quite three dimensional supporting characters. It also charmed me with the effortless flow between current story and backstory.
That flow is missing in Seize the Night. When your adrenaline is pumping because any moment Snow is about to be eaten by a mutant monkey, the last thing you want is a fond trip down memory lane, of the "At times like this, I can draw resolve from the love of my family, who..." variety. There's a time for reminiscing, and a time for action, and in this novel, Koontz mixes them up way too much, constantly breaking the stride of the story.
The characters are still every bit as captivating as before. To bad the disorienting style of the storytelling distracts the reader too much for proper enjoyment.