7. november 2010

Oktobrsko branje

Peter Hamilton, The Evolutionary Void

»“I told you, dude,” Ozzie said with an edge. “I’m ancient. Human bodies aren’t designed with this kind of life span in mind. Grab the ‘in mind’ bit there? Back in the first-era Commonwealth when all we had was rejuve, we used to edit memories and store the ones that weren’t important. Then there was memorycells and neural augmentation chips. Biononics added a whole load of new memory capacity. And there’s always an expanded mentality network.” He raised his head and glared at a random point on the ceiling. “That’s if you want to carry all that junk around, contaminating your body. I didn’t. Not anymore.”«

Zadnji del trilogije Praznina. V bistvu peti in zaključni del zgodbe, ki jo je Hamilton začel v Pandora’s Star. Prava vesoljska opera s strašno hitrimi vesoljskimi ladjami in kibernetično nadgrajenimi ljudmi. Odlično!

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Benjamin C. Pierce, Types and Programming Languages

»Recall that  a term that cannot take a step under the evaluation relation is called a normal form. Interestingly, some terms cannot be evaluated to a normal form. For example, the divergent combinator contains just one redex, and reducing this redex yields exactly omega again!«

Malo računalniške teorije. Take zoprne, z lambda računom, ki sem jih sledil nekje do konca prve tretjine, potem sem se pa začel izgubljati v matematiki. Bo treba prebrat še enkrat, še bolj počasi.

Gail Carriger, Blameless

»Alexia Maccon’s parasol had been designed at prodigious expense, with considerable imagination and much attention to detail. It could emit a dart equipped with a numbing agent, a wooden spike for vampires, a silver spike for werewolves, a magnetic disruption field, and two kinds of toxic mist, and, of course, it possessed a plethora of hidden pockets. It had recently been entirely overhauled and refurbished with new ammunition, which, unfortunately, did little to improve its appearance. It was not a very prepossessing accessory, for all its serviceability, being both outlandish in design and indifferent in shape. It was a drab slate-gray color with cream ruffle trim, and it had a shaft in the new ancient Egyptian style that looked rather like an elongated pineapple. Despite its many advanced attributes, Lady Maccon’s most common application of the parasol was through brute force enacted directly upon the cranium of an opponent.«

Tretji (in še vedno ne zadnji, očitno misli to serijo Gail vlečt v neskončnost) del zgodbe o Alexii in njenem sončniku. Witty as usual.

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Jerry Spinelli, Z ljubeznijo, Zvezdica

»To je bilo vse, kar sem rekla. Gledali sva, kako nebo spreminja barvo iz biserno sive do sinje modre … in tam … zunaj, več kot sto štirideset kilometrov stran, svetlikajoča se, v meglico zavita svetleča gmota, vetrc … tam … zdaj! … in nenadoma sem švignila pokonci in začela teči, ko sem sprevidela, da sem na napačni strani sani, zamujala sem nekaj, kar je še mogočnejše od vzhoda sonca samega.«

Drugi del Zvezdice, napisan iz njenega zornega kota. Še boljše od prvega dela, vsaj meni (tamala je rekla, da je prvi del boljši).

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Isabel Allende, Portret v sepiji

»Naučila sta se, da se v javnosti nista dotikala, da sta v gledališču sedela ločeno ter da sta po ulici hodila z nekaj koraki razdalje. V določene restavracije in hotele nista mogla vstopiti skupaj in ko sta odšla v Anglijo, ona, da bi obiskala svojo krušno mater Rose Sommers, in on, da bi predaval na seminarju o akupunkturi na kliniki Hobbs, na ladji nista mogla potovati v prvem razredu, prav tako si nista mogla deliti kabine, čepra se je ona ponoči potihoma pretihotapila k njemu, da bi spala skupaj.«

Tretji del trilogije (kaj češ, včasih je treba kaj začet brat na koncu) o družini Sommers. Taka enakomerno tekoča, monotona zadeva z množico detajlov o življenju na koncu 19. stoletja. Na trenutke precej Marquezovsko. Všeč. Bom prebral tudi prvi dve knjigi.

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Felix Mitterer, Superkokoš Hana

»Sama že dolgo ne nesem več jajc. No ja, saj ni čudno, ko pa sem že dokaj v letih, Kokoš navadno dočaka pet do šest let, če je prej ne zakoljejo. Jaz pa jih imam na grbi skoraj sto.«

Čisto otroška zadeva o stoletni kokoši, ki zna leteti, govoriti, ima leseno nogo in se bori proti baterijski reji kur.

Bruce Sterling, Crystal Express

»Nikolai smiled ruefully. "I suppose you're right. I never knew anyone who understood my innermost feelings the way you do." He looked at her affectionately. "How do you do it?" "I have infrared scanners," she said. "I read the patterns of blood flow in your face."«

Zbirka Sterlingovih kratkih zgodb, nekaj iz istega sveta, nekaj nepovezanih. Tko-tko.

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Bruce Sterling, Heavy Weather

»They didn't irrigate open fields anymore, because with their aquifer declining that was illegal as well as useless, But they had genetic crops with the chlorophyll hack, and they'd done a great deal with greenhouses. Enormous greenhouses, beautiful ones, huge curved foam-metal spars and vast ribbed expanses of dew-beaded transparent membrane, greenhouses as big as cornfields, greenhouses that were their cornfields, basically. Vast expanses of welldesigned, modern, moisture-tight greenhouses, pegged down tight and neat across the landscape just like a big sheet of giant bubblepak.«

Zemlja čez nekaj desetletij, podrt ekosistem, ljudje, ki zasledujejo megatornade. Všeč.

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William Gibson, Zero History

»“This is different,” said Heidi. “Inchmale doesn’t know what it is, right? Otherwise, he’d tell. Can’t keep a secret. But his wife’s been getting the signals at work, some kind of London PR hive-mind thing. Wires are humming, she says. Wires are hot, but there’s no actual signal. Kind of subsonic buzz. PR people dreaming of Bigend. Imagining they see his face on coins. Saying his name when they mean someone else. Omens, Reg says. Like before a quake. He wants to talk to you about that. Just not on the phone.”«

Gibson, moj priljubljeni cyberpunker, se v zadnjem času loteva bolj časovno bližnjih tem. Zero History bi se pravzaprav lahko dogajal kar v sedanjosti, saj v njem ni najti SF elementov. Odličen pogled na sedanjost, razen tega pa precej dolgočasno delo. Manjka energija, ki jo je Gibson imel na pretek v mladosti.

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Berem: Permakulturni vrt, Domain Driven Design Quickly

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