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The Magpie Developer
Jeff Atwood is one of the best programmer/writers around. I love reading his stuff, some I agree wholeheartedly with, other stuff we disagree, but this post is about a dead-on as they come. This idea has been floating in my head for a long time, but it is hard for me to conceptualize it in words, Atwood does a brilliant job at it. Must read for any developer. |
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Andy Olmsted's Last Blog Entry.
(Warning: Pretty rough) No matter how you feel politically about the war, this reminds you that each number people throw around as statistics is a human life. This is extremely well written, and pretty rough on your soul towards the end, but something everyone should read. Its a shitty situation all around, but there is always a human face behind the statistics and I want to make sure I never forget that. |
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Drinking stories that put yours to shame
Via Keith
To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.
Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood. |
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making vodka pills in 24 hours
Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.' I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms. |
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Strategy Letter VI - joelonsoftware.com
As a programmer, thanks to plummeting memory prices, and CPU speeds doubling every year, you had a choice. You could spend six months rewriting your inner loops in Assembler, or take six months off to play drums in a rock and roll band, and in either case, your program would run faster. Assembler programmers don’t have groupies.
Entire Article is Dead On. A must read for anyone in the software biz. |
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(Tuesday, May 23)
IT'S A MOVIE FOR PAGANS! FILTHY PAGANS!
We went and saw The DaVinci Code tonight. First off, I am a huge fan of the book, I do not think that the book was overrated even with all the commercial success it had (Ask Bobafred how long he had to wait for a paperback version). A friend of mine Tosh suggested I read Angels & Demons first and I must admit I did enjoy that novel about as much as Davinci, but with the popularity of DaVinci I totally understand why they made it into a movie first. I still have Digital Fortress sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be read.
Ok. I enjoyed the movie. It did not blow me away by any means, but I would have no hesitation suggesting it is worth the $20 to go see it at the movies on the big screen. The Actors: Although Hanks kinda seemed like he was on a double dose of Alavert the entire movie (aka a little groggy, but still there, but just enough groggy to notice) I do think that he portrayed Langston very well. I admit that I had always heard the 'Harrison Ford in Tweed' description of Langdon and always envisioned Harrison as Langdon, but I think that Hanks pulled it off well. It isn't an Oscar winning performance a la Gump/Phillidelphia/Apollo/Road to Perdition but he is certainly good for the part, and any actor who has been in so many big name films that can just sink into a role like that with the crowd barely noticing its the same actor from Saving Private Ryan, deserves to be recognized. Iam McKellen was great (as always), Paul Bettanie was a great choice for Silas. He looks kind of fuk'd up to begin with, when you turn him into an albino with a penchant for masochism without the actual sex, then he just seems all the more freakier. Now to my fav character Sophie, played by Audrey Tautou. She WAS the exact person I had in my mind for Sophie Neveu when I read the book (probably because her, Julliet Benochie (sp?) and Sophia Marceu are probably the only three French actresses I can remember). And Audrey Tautou is waaaaaaay more smokin than the other 2. I loved Amelie and I think that is probably the reason that I thought of her when I was reading this. She was THE choice for this movie ( similar to Patrick Stewart for Professor X) and I am glad she was in it. Did I mention she was smokin'? She has a very regal/classy look to me, that almost seems like it belongs in the 40s ala West/Hepburn. The actor who plays Fache (Jean Reno - had to look it up) has been seen as multiple bad guys in other movies, but does a great job with Fache. I seem to remember a lot more development of Fache's character in the book, but that leads me to probably the one thing that I didn't like about the movie was the speed of it. I wish it had a good 3 or 3:30 for the entire story because it isn't really rushed, I just don't think that people who have not read the book are going to get all the reasoning behind some of the character's decisions towards the end of the film. I think that is one of the reasons I really enjoyed the book was that you think that an object or idea means something to someone then the character will surprise you with an action, then you will realize that either a.) the action was a ruse or b.) a more rooted feeling took over and made them make the decision to take that action. It is kinda hard to explain, but if you read any of Dan Brown's novels you will see that each of the main characters is very fleshed out and very memorable, each with their own goals.
One thing about the movie that really surprised me was the freedom that the screen writer and Ron Howard didn't take with the script/movie. Howard is in his own right a pretty good director, he could have had some licence to change some of the book around for movie purposes, but he really didn't. The movie stuck VERY close to the book all the way till some small changes at the end but they even left in a lot of Brown's jokes. Which in hindsight I am actually glad about, but the movie doesnt really stand out as a Ron Howard movie, it really seems like any director could have pulled this off with these elite actors.
All in all I would give it a 7 out of 10. It is a good movie. Very Very close to the book, but nothing absolutely amazing. Pros: Audrey Tautou Cons: Lack of "Ah-ha!" moments like in the book.
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Travis - The Boy With No Name
Travis is back. I wouldn't say I hated 12 memories, it was meant to be very political, I just thought it went a little overboard and was somewhat preachy. Then when the greatest hits CD came out to be honest I was really hoping it didn't mean the end to one of my favorite brit bands. Boy With No Name is everything they were capable of. Supurb CD all the way through. Every song is brilliant. Big Chair is probably my favorite song and the opening to the CD on 3 Times is as good as it gets in music imho. |
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Pop! Why Bubbles are Great For The Economys (Gross)
One of the better economic books I have read in while, where the author gets their premise across in a well written, clear and concise manner. Basically Gross believes that the infrastructure left over after economic bubbles, provides companies with the ability to move forward (maybe more than the original bubble did). Not a hard read, I would definitely suggest it for a day and the beach/lake. |
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Feist - The Reminder
I CANNOT GET "I feel it all" OUT OF MY HEAD. Period. Great album, angelic voice. |
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Catan - Xbox Live Arcade
I am hopelessly addicted to this board-turned-video game on the xbox360. I had never played the board game but had seen it being played in some comic shops growing up. Click the Pick and play the demo, it isn't the 360 interface, but same game. |
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Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worse Nightmare
No Sophomore slump here. Just as good (if not better) than Whatever they Say. |
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Beautiful Evidence (Tufte)
Tufte reads like a text book, most people would say bleh, but the information about "information" that he can deliver is top notch. My first Tufte book was "A Visual Display To Quantitative Information" and it was extremely well done, albeit confusing at time. I think beautiful Evidence is a little easier of a read (I am still only half way through it) and a little easier for myself to understand the ideas he is presenting.. |
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Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
Fountains of Wayne are the Gods of pop music. If Welcome Interstate Managers was a collection of short stories in song form, then Traffic and Weather is an even better collection with more humor. I already feel like CNN has the hottest female anchors, imagining them throwing their lust around like the Title track to the CD makes it even better. |
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Game of Thrones (Martin)
I started this book assuming it was going to be a high fantasy novel. Elfs, Dragons, Magic and the like. It isn't. It IS fantasy but more surrounding the politics and cunning of a few high ranking families. Incest, Murder, Intrigue, unscrupulous midgets. It has it all and more. |
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.
© Copyright 2003-2007, Eric Thompson |
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