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Saturday, November 28, 2009

Followup to Currently reading: Jeffery Deaver - The Blue Nowhere

It has been quite a few books and weeks since I finished that one, I should post more often.
This is a real good book (fiction) about a few hackers. While it shows at times how old it is (BBS, AOL), I found it accurate and the methods are described without the usual mistakes. There is also a good balance between the computer-word and real-world, and a lot of action. The writing style of Deaver may get on your nerves after a few books, as it is obvious what to expect, but once in a while it is very gripping. There are only few fiction books I would compare it too, to mind come Rudy Rucker: The Hacker and The Ants (there is V 2.0 available) and Neal Stephenson: Snowcrash - but both books touch a wider range of problems, going in to SF and deep philosophical questions, so maybe the comparison is not entirely fair.
It is definitely not boring, and has a few pages in front with a collection of terms and abbreviations, explained. This should help a novice, so you do not need much or even any computer-knowledge to enjoy the book.
It just popped in my mind, there is another great SF-Book, but maybe it is also too far fetched for a comparison: John Brunner: The Shockwave Rider. While that was pure SF by the time it was written, the view into the future was pure genius (betting on the stockmarket outcome, big net, CPU-Power either local or rented).

Followup: My.Yahoo switched Comics content

The answer from yahoo! was as expected, unsatisfying:
I understand that you are disappointed with the recent changes to the
Comics module. The provider of our Comics content has created a new app
for viewing comics data. Old versions will no longer be supported. To
add the new version, click on the "Add New Comics App" link, then,
remove the old version from your page by clicking the "Remove App" link.

Unfortunately, the previous format is no longer available so there is no
option to switch back. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Well, at least it was a fast answer and polite. My personal solution, I link directly to the comics in question completely dropping yahoo and the application. I still cannot understand why someone uses a flash UI to choose static content.