I really liked this quote

Not that I have anything against OO..

 

"I think the lack of reusability comes in object-oriented languages, not in functional languages. Because the problem with object-oriented languages is they’ve got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle".

-Joe Armstrong (creator of Erlang and OTP)

It just clicked

Unix is telling me how to live. Read, Write and Execute. It was there all this time. Clever.

The End of Eternity

Asimov takes time travel to a new level in this short novel. We had had too many loners traveling into past; here we meet an entire organization engaged in doing that and that alone. And not just travel into past, they make changes to the past to get the present that gives (in their opinion) the 'greatest happiness to the greatest number'. This means there is an abundance of realities, each as real to its inhabitants as ours is to us, coming into existence when the current past (whatever that is) leads to it, and going out of existence when past changes again (leading to an alternate reality). Not the best Asimov novel in terms of character development, but readable, and provides quite a bit of food for thought.

Reading update

Some good books I read recently.

The information by James Gleick - The book accessibly traces the history of the technology and the concept of Information, and how it came to dominate our present times. You will see the rise of writing (Plato was no fan to it), the first dictionaries and encyclopedias, telegraphs and African talking drums. And you will meet the work of Shannon and Chaitin and Kolmogorov. Quite fascinating.

In praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell - It's a collection of essays on various socio-political topics. For example in the title essay he discusses the benifits that might accrue if work hours were to be reduced, giving people more leisure. He presents the case for Socialism, and philosophical history of fascism. And he talks about the delights of 'useless' knowledge, which enriches our experience of the world, despite having no practical application. In some cases you might find yourself disagreeing with Russell, but the concern, clear thinking and quality that are present will surely impress you.

The man who loved only numbers by Paul Hoffman - A biographical sketch of eminent number theorist Paul Erdős. One of the most prolific mathematicians ever, he published 1475 papers in his lifetime, with 485 collaborators. He organized his life to maximize his time for mathematics, which meant no wife or children or family, no home, no permanent job either. He lived his life out of a suitace, always moving and finding new collaborators. What little money he earned almost entirely went to needy students, relatives or charities. A warm, delightful book about an extraordinary life.

The counter expires

When you have waited long enough and hard enough for something, it is hard to be objective when you actually get it. Watched 'The Dark Knight Rises' today. And due to this absence, I will refrain from swaying your opinion one way or another, by ending this post right here.

Couple of updates

Read 'The old man and the sea'. A touching little story. Written as a single section so a little hard to read. Plus some of the fishing/sailing references were hard to figure out. By the way this is the book that won Hemingway (the author) the Nobel.

Watched first episode of 'Sherlock' the TV series. Loved this modern interpretation. Wondered if the precision logic that Holmes employed was somehow an overgrowth of certitude of Victorian science in general. If so, one cannot write a Holmes today.

A first

What do you do when you finish a novel and are all touched by it and pondering it and only in the afterword you come to realize that it is based on actual events? Not much I guess, except being swept in the thought storm that follows. This is exactly what happened with me and Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. It holds the world record for a bestseller for number of times it was turned down by publishers (121). And it has some poignant and pertinent and wise things to say. And you might find part of your own journey reflected there. Worth a second read I think.

P.S.
Wikipedia fetched this good interview with the author.