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The new theme!
I have chosen the ramart theme, developed by the owner of a blog about Weird Al Yankovic. After going over all of the available themes, I chose this one because it best reflects what my blog has evolved into. As a blog mostly about technology news and the GNU/Linux operating system, I feel this theme…
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A few thoughts on Programming languages
Just a few thoughts on programming languages that have been rattling around in my head this week, but which don’t each merit a full blog post. The main theme is that the culture behind each programming language leads to some interesting choices, as is the case with spoken languages. This week I started learning how…
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Review: RELIGION: Ruining Everything Since 4004 BC
RELIGION: Ruining Everything Since 4004 BC by Zach Weinersmith My rating: 2 of 5 stars I’m generally a fan of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (the source of these comics) and even though I would identify myself as a Christian, I’m not one of those easily-offended, book-banning types. I found lots of the jokes in here…
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What 8bitDo can learn from the Competition (and also what 8bitDo is doing better!)
I’m all-in on 8bitDo. Prior to getting on the 8bitDo train, I was mainly focused on PC gaming, so I would get Xbox controllers (whatever the latest was at the time). But with 8bitDo supporting PC, Switch, Android, and (I think) the Xbox and PS4/5 with addaptors – it’s a no-brainer to go with 8bitDo,…
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2023 in Music (Last.FM and Spotify Listening Trends)
Another year has ended and so it’s time to take a look at the music I listened to all year. First of all, it was yet another year in which I grew my personal music collection. I’ve seen more an more artists removed from places like Spotify, Apple Music, etc, so it’s still important to…
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Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 112, September 2019
Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 112, September 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars Even though AI has been a constant subject in science fiction for nearly 100 years now, it’s interesting reading the two AI-related stories in the 2023, the year of ChatGPT. Although ChatGPT is still far away from general AI,…
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My 2023 Programming Progress
In 2023 I just didn’t have the urge to do as much programming as in years past. I felt more of a tug towards video games, reading, and baking/cooking. So this recap will be quite a bit shorter than usual. A couple upfront themes and ideas: The programming was essentially Go and Python. I started…
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Review: SCIENCE: Ruining Everything Since 1543
SCIENCE: Ruining Everything Since 1543 by Zach Weinersmith My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m a huge fan of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, a nerdy web comic (like XKCD, but not stick figures). What elevates this book beyond a simple collection of science-themed SMBC strips is the ending where Weinersmith creates strips from personal anecdotes…
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Review: Uncanny Magazine Issue 19: November/December 2017
Uncanny Magazine Issue 19: November/December 2017 by Lynne M. Thomas My rating: 3 of 5 stars “Making Us Monsters” (Sam J. Miller & Lara Elena Donnelly) – A story that takes place during WWI and the inter-war period. The main characters are gay and the story serves mostly to remind me of the horrible treatment…
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Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 109, June 2019
Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 109, June 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars SCIENCE FICTIONBetween the Dark and the Dark (Deji Bryce Olukotun) – the story starts off with the common trope of generation ships and leaving a ruined Earth. I’ve even come across it a bunch of times during my current…
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Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 108, May 2019
Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 108, May 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars SCIENCE FICTIONCocoons (Nancy Kress) – This story could very easily have gone to a horror place. But instead it ends up being about the complexity of humanity, the perils of colonizing a new world, and hope. This Way to…
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How My Kids Got into Dungeons and Dragons
Two years ago, while spending time with my brothers, I played Dungeons and Dragons for the first time ever. David had been introduced to D&D by a coworker during COVID. Tony and Alex apparently had played in high school. I’m not sure when David’s wife started playing, but she joined us that night, too. David…
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Review: Come Tumbling Down
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book has a more straight-forward narrative style rather than the more poetic one of the last few stories. Chronologically, it takes place after the events of Beneath the Sugar Sky. Books 4 and 4.5 are prequel novellas. In addition to completing (maybe?)…
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Going to Walt Disney World in 2023
It’s been a while since we last went to Disney; five years, in fact. We were originally supposed to go in 2020, but then, a week before our trip, Disney closed for COVID-19. Finally it was time to go back and boy have things changed. Back when we just had Scarlett, I wrote a blog…
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Color Trends in Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine Covers (by Magazine)
When I was looking at my SFF magazine covers on Calibre-web, I noticed there seems to be somewhat of a house style to the images chosen for the covers. I know I could write a python program to give me a definitive answer, but I’m not currently in the mood for that. So here’s what…