DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

This is the best science fiction novel I’ve read in years.

I had not read the original short story, so the plot was new to me. The novel tells the story of a 6-year old outcast who is selected and rigorously trained to lead Earth’s battle fleet in a war against an alien race. The boy is a genius, and at several points I wondered that the author may also be one, to construct such intelligent, glib dialog and fascinating situations.

The best thing I can say about this book is that I immediately purchased the sequel.

There are some wonderful reviews of the book at the Amazon links below.

Patronize these links, man:

• Amazon (Paperback)
• Amazon (Hardback)

This book is a powerhouse — immensely satisfying, entertaining, and rewarding. It requires something of a commitment from the reader, to follow two groups of characters and two story lines as they converge over a distance of 50 years. At 900 pages this is not a light read, but the author’s detours are fascinating and often hilarious.

This book is rare in that the author clearly understands the science and technology he describes. Fans of hard science fiction, hacking, cryptography, and even historical (WWII) fiction will find something to like.

I wrote a bit more about the book in this piece about breakfast cereal.

Patronize these links, man:

• Amazon (paperback)
• Amazon (Hardback)
• Book Site

I learned something important about LCD monitors today. I’m not sure I’m happy about it.

Before I go on I’ll make the disclaimer that I’ve experimented with exactly 1 LCD monitor, the Samsung 770 TFT. My experience is not universal, and my analysis may not be correct.

LCD monitors seem to have a “native” resolution, and any other signal is simply scaled to fit. This monitor’s native resolution is (AFAICS) 1280x1024. At that resolution, letterforms are crisp and sharp. At any smaller resolution, the image is scaled up to fit into 1280x1024 pixels, making letters smeary. This is more noticable (more annoying) in some fonts; probably I could tweak my font choices for a few weeks until I’m happy. But I’m tending to leave the monitor at its highest resolution, even though this makes text (at small point sizes) too small to read comfortably.

The monitor’s built-in menu allows me to disable scaling, but then the desktop floats in the middle of the screen; all the remaining pixels (to fill 1280x1024) are dark. This isn’t exactly what anyone used to a multisync CRT will expect.

All in all it’s not the miracle solution I was expecting it to be.

Also, Samsung’s support for MacOS simply sucks. The monitor works with my Mac — both have a standard VGA connector — but the CD of calibration software is Windows only. For that, I give Samsung my special Brainwashed by Wintel salute (hint: I only need one finger).

This groove is amazing. It’s not original; I programmed it as written in John Xepoleas’ book, Lessons with the Greats, and he’d transcribed it from something Steve Gadd played.

I’ve included the MIDI version at two tempos to show how the feel of it changes with the tempo.

        1e+a2e+a | 1e+a2e+a
        --------------------
 2  RC  O O oO O |  oO OO O
 -  SD   o o  o  | O    O  
 4  KD  O   OO   |      O   

Patronize these links, man:

• Virtual Drummer loop
• MIDI (60bpm)
• MIDI (110bpm)
• MP3

We returned to the local pub tonight to see if we’d get lucky with a second good band in as many weekends. Ultimately we failed, or rather the band failed, but we saw some interesting characters nonetheless.

A tall, skinny woman was dancing with some ferocity. Fast songs or slow, loud or quiet, she was all about impact — sharp, jabbing motions that (like Bruce Lee attacks) come straight from the solar plexus.

The intensity was shocking. Later I was not surprised to see her dominate every conversation she became involved in. It seemed to fit with her dancing.

My wife remarked, “dancing shows your personality.” I had to laugh — I do not dance, at all. Draw your own conclusions here!