Jolt Country

We can't have nice un-hijacked things.

Well now I'm reading The Difference Engine by Will Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Good steampunk stuff.

THE
GOGGLES ON HATS
AARDVARK

I think the stress has gotten to the Commander. Is there anyone he hasn't insulted in the last week?

AArdvark wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:44 pm

those who know things will know you're stupid and uninformed

That was harsh.

Aardvark, I apologize. I'll not go into a pages-long explanation about why, other than to say I am a technically trained man with a very strong background in law. As a result, I notice symbols and operators ahead of words. So I'm likely to notice the case citation before noticing the pariies.

I'm not sure if you've ever done progrsamming or you might understand what is involved. One time I downloaded a program and looked at the source code. Total time, about 20 seconds. And in that small amount of time I noticed the guy had done something redundant, totally unnecessary. Way before noticing what the program actually did.

Often programmers notice different things ahead of others.

And again, I'm sorry if I was insulting to you. I should have taken more time to rephrase it. I know that I caught myself on another mesage and toned down my response.

Why did you download a program if you didn't know what it did?

Gonna open this up.

There is a book contained in this complilation:

The book in question is called The Wolves of Memory. It is my #2 or #3 or whatever favorite book. (It existed on its own, but the Kindle version is in the above.)

That said, there is a question I have had ever since reading it. There is absolutely no place on the internet where I can discuss the book with other people. None. NONE. So my offer is:

1. If you think you might want to read it, let me know and I will buy it for you over Kindle
2. If this happens I would love to start a thread where we ask questions about what was going on.

I strongly suspect I am missing something that is obvious to everyone else. And what the hell, there is nothing else going on in the world, why not have this experience.

Er...it's good, is it? Can you give us a plot summary? Not a Commander version, just a quick sketch.

THE
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY
AARDVARK

Apology accepted.

THE
MOSQUITO COURT
SYSTEM
AARDVARK

AArdvark wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:49 pm Er...it's good, is it? Can you give us a plot summary? Not a Commander version, just a quick sketch.

THE
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY
AARDVARK

Sure - there is a computer that runs things on earth. It decides what jobs the citizens should be doing, but doesn't understand talent, training and aptitude. It gives up on helping our protagonist. He is sent to a world with other people that the computer has given up on finding a place in the world for.

The computer system itself is an absolute smarmy piece of shit and you'll want to strangle it.

But there's a few ways to interpret what is really going on in the book and no review I've ever read has ever remotely touched on it.

https://archive.org/details/HuntForTheS ... r/mode/2up

Hunt for the Skinwalker

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 5:35 pmSure - there is a computer that runs things on earth.

That's literally the plot point that season 3 of Westworld rests on. I need to get back into reading books I guess.

Flack wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:57 am Why did you download a program if you didn't know what it did?

It was part of the CBT collection of mainframe programs. In this case, it was probably listed as "support utilities," which might be a bunch of routines do things like allocate memory, get and format date/time, write a message to the screen or (if batch mode) to the printer, determine whether the program was interactive on terminal or batch, that sort of thing.

On windows, when you use a high level language or call a Windows DLL to do something, the language, environment or callable DLLs do all the "heavy lifting" of various functions. Mainframe operating systems tend to provide very basic functionality and you either write code or you use a pre-written module.

I'm currently reading The New Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo. I plan on using coin magic to needlessly prolong vending machine usage when someone else is waiting to use the same vending machine.

Tdarcos wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:23 pm

Flack wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:57 am Why did you download a program if you didn't know what it did?

It was part of the CBT collection of mainframe programs. In this case, it was probably listed as "support utilities," which might be a bunch of routines do things like allocate memory, get and format date/time, write a message to the screen or (if batch mode) to the printer, determine whether the program was interactive on terminal or batch, that sort of thing.

On windows, when you use a high level language or call a Windows DLL to do something, the language, environment or callable DLLs do all the "heavy lifting" of various functions. Mainframe operating systems tend to provide very basic functionality and you either write code or you use a pre-written module.

High level DLL sends (memory calls to high places) are more efficient, which is why so many of my own programs run slowly.

Clearly, I've got sends in low places.

Great, now I have to hit F5 on this page every five seconds.

I've stalled out on getting to current with Robert Caro's LBJ Biography. (Only 150 pages left! That's like only ONE ENTIRE ACTUAL BOOK.)

Last Wolf Hall is on th- A stack here. Might be a nice change-up.

You know what helps you recover from feeling like an abject failure? Loading up an old women's Kindle with 75 Tom Clancy novels. I seriously do not understand how people are able to read his stuff.

Although I'm re-reading the entire Dark Tower series, so I guess I don't have any room to call her out.

Tom Clancy is for gun heads and military dingers. You can almost feel he is writing one handed when he describes the hardware.

AArdvark wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2020 3:09 pm Tom Clancy is for gun heads and military dingers. You can almost feel he is writing one handed when he describes the hardware.

I read Tom Clancy - Under Fire last year! It was on sale for 3$ at Dollar General. I actually like that part of these books haha. Describing secret op military hardware in a book is just as interesting as Tolkein describing a tree. Admittedly, it's the only Tom book I ever read.. mainly due the admission price and it having to do with North Korea (figured it was good material to think about for my DPRK game) I really did enjoy it.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 1:22 pm 1. If you think you might want to read it, let me know and I will buy it for you over Kindle
2. If this happens I would love to start a thread where we ask questions about what was going on.

Sure, why not? Would you happen to have an ePub version laying around somewhere?

Just re-read Lord Of the Flies again. Every time I read it I find small things that I never noticed before, kinda interesting. I think it would be a much less dark book if it was a planeload of girls that got stranded. Not that I want a Ghostbuster-esqe remake or anything, just think would be an interesting take if it was English girls instead of boys.

Next up is Cyberia, that pre-internet enlightening novel. It's like Bruce Sterling fights Nietzsche for brain domination. A little too heavy on the drugs for me, but the snapshot of the time period is fascinating.

THE
EXPANDING
AARDVARK