Geoff's Blog [Opinionated Geek]

“Unseen Academicals” by Terry Pratchett

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:40:42 GMT

“Yep, Another Discworld Book”
Score: 3/5

Terry Pratchett

£9.49

Fun as this book was, it’s a Pratchett Discworld book. If you’ve read any of the Discworld books (and there are a load of ‘em) you’ll know exactly what to expect. And you’d be right.

They are getting very ‘samey’, but there are still a few good gags in there and it’s still fun to read. But how much longer can this continue?

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‘The Algebraist’ by Iain M. Banks

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:48:09 GMT

“As Per Previous Review”
Score: 4/5

The Algebraist

Iain M. Banks

£5.31

For reasons too dull to go into, I read this book again. My thoughts haven’t really changed in the intervening 4 years, so go read that review instead.

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“Simon’s Cat” by Simon Tofield

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:33:53 GMT

“Wonderful Cat Mannerisms, Drawn”
Score: 4/5

Simon's Cat

Simon Tofield

£12.99

I first saw Simon’s Cat in a YouTube video a long time ago. The simply-drawn cat worked well, I thought, because of all the little cat-mannerisms the artist had put into the actions. The way the cat moved its tail, folded its ears back, scurried, jumped, all the movements had a felinity to them.

And the videos made me laugh. That’s important too.

A few more videos came out, and I noticed he’d started his own YouTube channel for the videos. Then more videos came out.

And then Christmas loomed over the horizon.

SWMBO is also a fan of the Simon’s Cat videos, so in a brief moment of insight (or random act of purchasing) I decided to get her the “Simon’s Cat” book for Christmas. She likes books, she likes Simon’s Cat, should be grand.

And to prove just how good a match we make, she got me the “Simon’s Cat” book for Christmas too.

I like to think of this as us passing a compatibility test, rather than us both being boringly predictable.

Anyway, the book is as you’d expect – pages and pages of the cat, up to hijinks as usual. Some of the mannerisms carry over to the page, but it’s still better in video.

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Cleaning up Ram’s Island

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:27:47 GMT

Ram’s Island isn’t even big enough to merit a name label on Google Maps (even if you zoom in!)

View Larger Map

Still, on Saturday we traipsed off there to take part in a de-littering. There are already a bunch of pics up on the official Ram’s Island site about the event.

I like the way they’re trying to turn the island into a wildlife reserve. There’s no in-your-face environmentalism or conservation, just a bunch of folks trying to make that bit of the world a better place.

It’s only a small island, but there was a lot of litter washed up from the recent floods (and a huge number of spent shotgun shells). I think we managed to make a big difference on the day, but we probably need another one to tackle the bits of the island we didn’t get to last time… If you want to join in, let me know.

A walk around Glenariff

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:26:54 GMT

You probably couldn’t give a monkey’s about such things, but SWMBO and I went for a walk around Glenariff Forest Park on Friday and I used my phone’s GPS to trace the path. Here’s where we walked:

It may not look like much in the map, but it’s a beautiful bit of the country.

As a side note, even though we took a brief detour, we did the 8.9km walk in only 8.7km. Our next job is to do the Kessel Run in less than ‘less than 12 parsecs’.

‘The Age Of Speed’ by Vince Posente

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:22:17 GMT

‘How To Speed Up’
Score: 3/5

The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World

Vince Poscente

£8.74

I didn’t get a lot from this book. That’s either because:

I’m brilliant and already know this stuff, or
It’s already obvious or pretty well known.

Much as I’d like to believe it’s the former, it’s pretty clearly the latter. I don’t think the things this book tells us are particularly obvious, just common knowledge these days. I reckon the time for this book has passed. It may have been good in its day, but its day is gone.

And it was only published in 2008.

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Belfast4Haiti5k

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:22:38 GMT

Just over a week ago, I ran my first public 5k. With other people! I still find 5k tough going, and I’ve only run beside another runner once (and that was only about 3k), so it was quite an experience.

I thought I’d beaten my fastest 5k time because RunKeeper pinged the 5k alert at 33 minutes 40 seconds. (Look, it’s a record for me, OK? I’m slow – I admit it.) Unfortunately, the iPhone’s flaky GPS had got a couple of points wrong, and it thought I’d run further than I had.

I edited the GPS track on RunKeeper’s web site (I love being able to do that!), and it tells me I did the 5k in 36 minutes 9 seconds, which isn’t my best. (The course was a bit easier than the one I did my fastest time on too!)

Still, it was a good experience, and it was fun seeing folks I’d only ‘seen’ on Twitter. And – most importantly – it raised a lot of money for charity. They’d hoped that the fun run and the music event would raise £20,000, but one week later it’s raised (so far) £40,819.79! Well done all!

It looks like I’m just no good at poker

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:40:03 GMT

It’s a fairly damning indictment of someone who has set up a system for playing poker via Twitter, but it looks like I’m just no good at poker.

I busted out of the 19th annual World Rec Gambling Poker Tournament (WRGPT19) in 674th place. That’s out of 1059 entrants. I’m not even in the top 50%!

Still, it’s better than last year, when I came 1029th, when I was eliminated in November. That was a bit embarrassing. At least this year I made it to January (and nearly February!) My best performance is still WRGPT15, where I came 72nd.

Here are my results from all the WRGPT tournaments I’ve participated in:

Tournament	Year	I Finished	Out Of	Elimination Date
WRGPT15	2005-2006	72	*1284	7th April 2006
WRGPT16	2006-2007	1204	1314	16th November 2006
WRGPT17	2007-2008	700	1173	12th January 2008
WRGPT18	2008-2009	1029	*1076	17th November 2008
WRGPT19	2009-2010	674	1059	31st January 2010

(* That’s the number left in after the first hand, which is all the data I have).

My excuse is – this year I just didn’t get the cards. I know, I know, we all say that. This time though, I really felt the hole cards were against me, and I couldn’t get anything to play with. I was getting blinded out of the tournament, and everyone else’s stack was increasing. So I went all in pre-flop with suited AQ. I know it’s not the best possible hand to go all in with, but my options were limited and it really was the best hole cards I’d had in a long time.

I lost.

Ah well.

Here’s the log of the hand from the WRGPT server:

! Table c17, Hand 71, Day 77
! unn folds
! Pot right ($73325), flopping/dealing/drawing cards
! 3 players, 3 all in
! Flopped cards: 5s 8s 6s
! Flopped card: 7d
! Flopped card: 5c
+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
|#|   Name                     |Bankroll| Action |Status|Pot#|Pot Size|
+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
1|   Ed Kearns                |      0 | 25375 |all-in| 2 | 23150 |
2|D skatesave                |      0 | 31450 |all-in| 1 |   6075 |
3|   Randy Collack            | 48650 |    500 |folded|    |        |
4|   ksbigfoot                | 121000 |    900 |folded|    |        |
5|   Marc Rind                | 29500 |    100 |folded|    |        |
6|   ncvandy                  | 32950 |    100 |folded|    |        |
7|   OpinionatedGeek          |      0 | 13800 |all-in| 3 | 44100 |
8|   erich                    | 25875 |    100 |folded|    |        |
9|> unn                      | 81750 |    900 |folded|    |        |
10|   Puddy                    | 33500 |    100 |folded|    |        |
+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
! History of this hand:
! 01/28/10 20:19:21! Dealing a new hand
! 01/28/10 20:19:21! Everyone antes $100
! 01/28/10 20:19:21! Randy Collack blinds $400
! 01/28/10 20:19:21! ksbigfoot blinds $800
! 01/28/10 21:28:15! Marc Rind folds
! 01/29/10 07:07:10! ncvandy folds
! 01/29/10 07:17:34! OpinionatedGeek calls
! 01/29/10 07:17:34! erich folds
! 01/29/10 07:36:22! unn calls
! 01/29/10 07:53:29! Puddy folds
! 01/29/10 08:55:57! Ed Kearns raises $24475 and is all in
! 01/29/10 10:10:53! skatesave raises $6075 and is all in
! 01/29/10 10:10:53! Randy Collack folds
! 01/29/10 10:10:53! ksbigfoot folds
! 01/31/10 09:50:11! OpinionatedGeek calls - side pot
! 01/31/10 13:31:39! unn folds
! 01/31/10 13:31:39! Pot right ($73325), flopping/dealing/drawing cards
! 01/31/10 13:31:39! 3 players, 3 all in
! 01/31/10 13:31:39! Flopped cards: 5s 8s 6s
! 01/31/10 13:31:39! Flopped card: 7d
! 01/31/10 13:31:39! Flopped card: 5c
! Hand over, current board is: 5s 8s 6s 7d 5c
! Ed Kearns                has: 8d 8c
! skatesave                has: Ks Kc
! OpinionatedGeek          has: Ah Qh
! Pot 1: uncalled $6075 returned to skatesave
! Pot 2: Ed Kearns wins $23150 with Full House (8 8 8 5 5)
! Pot 3: Ed Kearns wins $44100 with Full House (8 8 8 5 5)
+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
|#|   Name                     |Bankroll| Action |Status|Pot#|Pot Size|
+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
1|   Ed Kearns                | 67250 |        |      |    |        |
2|   skatesave                |   6075 |        |      |    |        |
3|D Randy Collack            | 48650 |        |      |    |        |
4|   ksbigfoot                | 121000 |        |      |    |        |
5|   Marc Rind                | 29500 |        |      |    |        |
6|   ncvandy                  | 32950 |        |      |    |        |
8|   erich                    | 25875 |        |      |    |        |
9|> unn                      | 81750 |        |      |    |        |
10|   Puddy                    | 33500 |        |      |    |        |
+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
! OpinionatedGeek is eliminated!
! 673 players left in the tournament, 0 tables down to six players
! A new hand will be dealt shortly

Video of George Friedman on ‘The Next 100 Years’

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:33:27 GMT

I enjoyed the book ‘The Next 100 Years’, and thought the arguments about what would happen in the future made some sense.

I got the book because I’d read a few Stratfor briefings - the briefings are normally very expensive, but permission was granted to John Mauldin to pass a few specific ones on last year, and they were very interesting.

Now I find they have their own ‘channel’ on YouTube. The video briefings are quite short, but they still have a bit more insight than you see on the news. (Or, perhaps, a lot more insight than you see on the news, depending on what news you watch.)

The videos are worth checking out, but I feel the need to embed this one in particular, where the author of ‘The Next 100 Years’, George Friedman, describes some of the topics the book covers.

“Ender In Exile” by Orson Scott Card

geoff@opinionatedgeek.com — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:07:10 GMT

“Ender Back On Form”
Score: 5/5

Ender in Exile (Ender 6)

Orson Scott Card

£7.99

I’ve written before about how I like a lot of what Orson Scott Card writes, and when I haven’t liked one of his books I’ve said so. But I was starting to get concerned that I liked early Orson Scott Card stuff, and the later stuff was less and less to my taste.

Well, that’s changed with this book. It may turn out I mostly just like the Ender saga – Ender’s Game was what started me reading his books after all. Maybe not though – I still think he’s a great author. But the Ender books seem especially good to me.

I’m not sure why. It’s not as if I see myself as Ender. I think the author does a great job conveying Ender’s character, and creating a great deal of empathy (in me at any rate). I’ve felt that about Ender – and other characters – throughout the Ender saga. Less so in the Shadow saga though, even though it’s set in the same ‘universe’ and some of the characters are the same. I’ve generally had less empathy towards characters in other Orson Scott Card books. I wonder if he consciously does anything different when writing them…

The book is a little odd in that it’s a ‘midquel’ – a term I’d never heard before (and hope not to hear again). The book takes place between chapters 14 and 15 of Ender’s Game, so we know not just the events that led up to it but also the events that came after it. (Also, pedants will probably grate on the inconsistencies it introduces, but they’re noted in the author’s Afterword and my memory was nowhere near encyclopaedic enough to notice.) It does make me wonder in what order I would recommend reading the series. The general chronological order of the series? The order they were written? The exact chronological of the Ender universe (which would entail starting Ender’s Game, then starting and finishing Ender In Exile and the Shadow series before finishing Ender’s Game). OK, that would all be just too bizarre. Read them in the order they were written – it was how I read them, and it didn’t do me any harm.

For different reasons, I enjoyed Ender’s Game, Speaker For The Dead, and Xenocide. I can now quite happily add Ender In Exile to that list.

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