I learn a bit about my reading habits, likes and dislikes. Usually I take down a book at a time, from beginning to end without stopping or interleaving books. Although a great fan of crime novels, I reading all sorts of literary themes expect when it comes to historical romances where I really need to get motivated to start.
In spite that, a long time ago I got introduced to the works of Peter Hamilton in the form of Pandora’s Start. This sci-fi novel didn’t get my full attention right from the start but things picked near the middle. Unfortunately, when the story was getting good I took the book with me in for a working travel (to fill the void while traveling) and the book was forgotten in the nightstand in a lonely hotel room.
Realizing that the book was lost, and with no time to get it back the best way to avoid a lonely voyage home was to buy any available book right in the nearest bookstore. The selection fell upon a crime novel by Stieg Larsson called The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Unlike the previous book, this novel good my full attention and after no more that 24 hours of intensive reading scattered over 3 or 4 session the book was completed. I have to suggest this excellent novel, the first of a trilogy published postumasly, to anyone who enjoys a good novel.
It turns out that I really prefer crime to sci-fi, but I didn’t abandon Pandora’s Star. A ‘used’ issue is already on the way from amazon.
The last post was so long ago that it’s hard to remember. Usually, the lack of posts comes associated with some huge amount of work. I could say that this is another example how my work takes to much of my own time, but that would not be completely true. In fact, I have been working long hours but the main reason for not having time to write is another…
I don’t see myself has a sysadmin, but I like to do my own experiments… like building a file sharing server (one that no one will hever use), having a wireless network in place (to be used once every month by a computer that could easily be connected using a wired connection) or mounting a home theater PC (an placing the old computer box in the living room and understanding that it really looks ugly and out-of-place).
No, this time it wasn’t one of “my crazy” projects. I just decided to learn a new language… I didn’t actually decided it! Let’s just say that Python started to grow on me. And front my point of view, Python is far better that bash script or perl or any other scripting language out there. With it you can do the simplest things, like inspecting some file’s content or you can do the most complex procedure (including, for example, DB access).
A friend talked about Python with me, and for someone with background in C/C++ and some bash script, Python turned out to be really (REALLY!) simple. I’ve been using it for a couple of months and I already converted all my ‘~/bin’ scripts to Python.
My real interest began after finding “Python for Unix and Linux System Administration” and reading this really hands-on and example based ‘introduction’.
More on my Python experiments, soon… (I hope!)
During my last vacation, I had time to finish a great book. Ensaio sobre a Cegueira is an excellent bedside reading and a great companion for some nice vacations.
José Saramago’s [EN] novel was adapted to the big screen by Fernando Meirelles (the producer of one of my latest favorite ‘independent’ movies - Cidade dos Homens/City of Men). But it is still waiting to premier in Portugal.
Blindness was nominated for the Golden Palm (in the Canne’s Film Festival), and it will be worth the next trip to the theatre.
