I’m now reading The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones. Another in The Chrestomanci Series. These are quite quick to read; I’m already half way through it and I only started it this morning.
Monthly Archives: January 2003
ReferBomb
Charmed Life
I’ve just finished reading Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, part of The Chrestomanci Series. I really enjoyed it. It’s another kids book (11+), but I didn’t find it too simple. I liked the main characters, and the plot was good too. I wouldn’t rate it up with the likes of Harry Potter, but still, a good read.
Merge Mania
I’ve spent all day merging code streams together today. It’s been quite painful because I’ve not been able to use CVS‘s automatic merging, and had to do it all by hand. Basically, half the stuff on one branch has already been merged, and now they want the other half, except for one change. But I think I’ve got it all done now. I just need to test it thoroughly.
Making a Living From OpenSource
There is a nice article over at NewsForge called Making a Living Saving the Government Money about how a small company, Devis are making a modest profit developing large scale solutions for the US government based almost entirely on Open Source applications.
Peter Gallagher is president of devIS (AKA Development Infostructure), a Virginia-based company that designs, develops, hosts, and operates large-scale custom Internet applications for government agencies and private consultants. He says devIS saves its clients a minimum of $100,000 per contract by using Open Source Software. Gallagher also claims none of the Web sites or Web applications devIS has produced have ever been hacked. And here’s the real clincher: devIS makes money.
The devIS business model is one Open Source and Free Software proponents have been advocating for years, namely selling software services instead of selling software products.
Minority Report
I’ve just finished watching Minority Report. What a great movie! I really enjoyed it. I liked pretty much everything about this movie. There wasn’t anything I could really complain about. Thanks to Andy Don for lending me the DVD.
One thing though, here in the UK, the DVD was rated ’12’ meaning not suitable for children under 12. Or rather, as this BBFC rating is restrictive, no-one under the age of 12 is allowed to see it. I personally would not allow a twelve year old to see this movie. I think the murders in it are too graphic (though they are not glorified) for that age group. I’ll leave the rest of my thoughts on this subject to a later rant.
The Trapp Family Singers
I’m quite enjoying The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp. It’s the true story on which The Sound of Music is based (in case you didn’t know). The story is very different from the movie, and quite an eye opener. One thing I have noticed, is that it is very much a recollection of events and you don’t really get a feel for the characters of the children or any of the many friends they made. And why ever did they change (almost all) their names? You really only get Maria and a little of Georg. More when I’ve finished it.
More Nu Metal
A friend at work (Andy Don) has lent me a ton of Nu Metal/Nu Punk CDs. Sum 41, Blink-182, etc. I’m busy plowing my way through them. So far I like both the above two bands. They both remind of the ‘old days’ (I’m talking the late 70’s/early 80’s. Good stuff. I’ve some more to get through yet, Foo Fighters, some band with a Japanese sounding name…
