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» Good Books - Killing Rommel by Stephen Pressfield Another quick summer read - Killing Rommel is a return to form for Stephen Pressfield - his 'Gates of Fire' was a masterpiece but after that I found 'Tides of War' and 'Last of the Amazons' to be a little dry.

His latest novel tells the tale of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and their various exploits in the North African campaign, culminating in a mission to track down and kill Rommel.   |
» Good Books - Old Mans War by John Scalzi My linkdump sidebar has been a little stale so I thought I'd fill it with a few short reviews.

Over Christmas I was looking for some lightweight reading material and Old Mans War certainly did the trick. Easy to read, great pacing, nice ideas and a milieu that you can't wait to immerse yourself in again (which I did by reading Ghost Brigades soon afterwards).

Both books focus on humanities move to colonise space, the competing species struggling for the same limited resources, the inevitable conflicts that arise and the rather unique solution humanity has come up with to ensure its survival.

Only complaint would have to be the 'el cheapo' Tor publishing values - cramped text and tiny margins made both books tough on the eyes.   |
» IBM Model M You know you want one - IBM Model M keyboards.

Now I know I'm not the only keyboard nut on the interweb.   |
» Retro Remake - Wizball Dust off the joystick - Retrospec has remade Wizball for Windows.

If you had a Commodore64 in the 80's then chances are you had Wizball - one of the classic games on the platform.   |
» Operations Competitive Advantage Those infrastructure guys beavering away in the background really are important - Operations is a competitive advantage.   |
» Lessig: Corruption Lecture Highly recommended viewing - Lawrence Lessig new ten year project is to tackle Corruption - view his presentation here. Starts a little slow but builds momentum and its an entertaining presentation.   |
» FitPC Tiny PC - FitPC. Looks like an ideal way to drive a kiosk or display system.   |
» DHTML Arkanoid If you grew up in the mid to late 80's then you would have heard of Arkanoid - now it can be played in your web browser as pure DHTML Arkanoid.   |
» Retro Mac Wordpress Theme If you use Wordpress try out the Retro Mac Wordpress Theme in all its one-bit glory. Another brilliant domain name too.   |
» For Lego and Apple Fanboys Nifty - Young Woz and Jobs Playset goes on sale in two days. Goes to show that a little creativity goes a looong way on the interweb.   |

Interesting Visio Template

Friday 27 July 2007 at 07:01 am Visio is one of my all time favourite Microsoft (they actually bought the app back in 2000 from Visio Corp) applications - now you can play at being a CSI and draw crime-scenes using specialised specialised templates.

So next time you're drawing up your network diagram be sure to drop in a blood spot or a few footprints :-)

Dr Who

Monday 18 June 2007 at 5:27 pm As per Dave Bishops post - "He's baaaaaack!"

Utopia was a great episode. Looking forward to the final two in the series . . .

Some Arty Links

Thursday 01 March 2007 at 11:29 am Fascinating - Running the numbers. Statistical imagery representing facets of the USA - see how many handguns are out there, how many painkillers are used, how many brown paper bags are used, see a painting made up of cans etc etc

If you fancy yourself as an artiste take a look at The Structure of Man - a blog with video to help you learn to sketch the human form.

Strange Maps

Wednesday 28 February 2007 at 07:06 am if you're a fan of maps and geography check out the Strange Maps blog. Theres a wonderful explanation of how the left/right hand drive systems evolved in different parts of the world.

Services You May Find Useful

Sunday 14 January 2007 at 3:51 pm Useful services you can trust from friends & colleagues - almost all of them are based in the UK but theres a few NZ ones in the list:

* IT Consultation & Help in Cambridge, UK - Cambridge Helpdesk

* Scientific & Technical, Design Documentation & Help Authoring in Cambridge, UK - ScriboScience

* MacVector - Mac DNA/Protein Sequencing - recently spun-off from Accelrys

* Internet Security & Consulting - Liverton - Web/Mail Marshal & SEEMail specialists among other things

* Web Design, Development & Hosting - Face

* Handyman Services - MrLex

These are all firms either started by people I know or who have a key part to play in the services they offer.

So be sure to support small business :-)

Kiwi Art

Wednesday 03 January 2007 at 1:41 pm Some interesting Kiwi artists -

* Michael McCormack - you get a wonderful feel for a variety of Wellington locations from this Island Bay artist.

* Michael Riley - definitely a nice slice of Kiwiana in his photorealistic Weatherboard paintings. You gain a whole new appreciation for weatherboards once you have to strip and repaint them.

Theres some cool stuff available via Affordable Art too.

Data Visualisation

Friday 22 December 2006 at 10:22 am A couple of really interesting data visualisation blogs -

* Infosthetics - look for the Information Cocktail which mixes a drink based on events (in this case a Netherlands/Germany soccer match).

* Datamining - interesting charts based on publicly available data - check the GIS section for some 3d mapping comparisons between Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps etc

A Dirty Question

Wednesday 29 November 2006 at 08:51 am Charles Stross points out a very scary (and not previously mentioned) tidbit concerning the recent death of ex Russian agent Litvinenko -

If something as difficult to acquire and produce as Polonium is being used to bump someone off in central London (a city where Big Brother is definitely watching) then what's to say something infinitely nastier isn't floating around ready to use on the city - A dirty question ?

Procrastination: Political Compass

Friday 27 October 2006 at 11:52 am Try the Political Compass.

I come down kind of in the middle of Left/Libertarian. On the same side as Nelson Mandela & The Dalai Lama.

Nice to see I'm in good company :-)

Tumbleweed Tiny Houses

Wednesday 04 October 2006 at 10:59 am I'm sure I've pointed to these guys before but it took me two days of googling before I found them again (even on my own site) - shows the importance of metadata and keywords. So if you're after a tiny (small) cabin (cottage, house, home) then the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company have plans for some wonderful ones.
 

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