8th August 2010
I definitely enjoyed this high-quality book. It provides enough details to vividly imagine all the people and events, but that is not the main reason I like it. The main reason is duty (or, to be more precise, military duty, albeit highly civil-oriented). Due to high level of details, some may find this book boring – but not those who can remember all the details of what they’ve ever seen.
I would even call this a heroic novel, as heroism (together with duty, persistence and high morals) best describes the actions of Captain Honor Harrington.
I found both a PDF version here (provided by World Public Library Association), and an audio-book here, although I’m not sure those copies are legitimate (i.e. not pirate copies violating international copyright treaties). Use at your own discretion, or just buy a paperback.
This book happens to be the first in Honor Harrington series. I haven’t yet seen other books or reviews thereof, but this one is definitely worth reading on its own.
Posted in Books, Links | No Comments »
19th June 2010
Will be useful to anyone dealing with more than 1 piece of computer hardware: Disk failures in the real world: What does an MTTF of 1,000,000 hours mean to you?
To get the essence quickly – just scan the tables and figures, and read conclusions.
You might want to read what google engineers tell about HDD failures.
Posted in Hardware, Links | No Comments »
9th May 2010
Just found a really nice, “almost interactive” TED talk about digital/real-world interfaces. The ideas aren’t new – they have been around for quite a while, as exemplified both by Sci-Fi movies and several digital implant enthusiasts – but this time it comes with a seemingly-tested implementation, which is – WOW! – both cheap and working. Moreover, here ideas are taken to a level of example applications with functional prototypes – which gives hope to have at least some of those market-ready within 5-10 years
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Links, Software, Technologies | No Comments »
30th April 2010
Last updated: 2011-12-13
- Clementine music player
- DeaDBeeF (as in 0xDEADBEEF) is an audio player for GNU/Linux systems with X11 (though now it also runs in plain console without X, in FreeBSD, and in OpenSolaris) with CUE sheets support
- AudioPlayer51 is a free, open-source, cross-platform audio player written to handle FLAC files and CUE sheets (exclusively). If you don’t use FLAC files and CUE sheets, you won’t find AudioPlayer51 very useful.
- Amarok: only for WAV+CUE, doesn’t currently support FLAC+CUE; version 2.3.1 is promised to fully support CUE sheets
- Audacious (through the .cue plugin)
- QMMP (haven’t tested this one)
- XMMS through mp3cue (also untested)
- foobnix (untested, suggested in this comment)
- cueplay
Some extra links:
Posted in *nix, Links, Software | 8 Comments »
1st April 2010
Up or Out: Solving the IT turnover crisis is an in-depth analysis of the “best employees quit, mediocre employees stay” paradox, with a focus on the culture of quitting.
Posted in Links | No Comments »