By Tom Fotherby on July 1, 2006
Sci-fi, 6/10 – June 2006
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The Culture usually sounds like such a wonderful utopian place, but this book makes some good arguments that make the Culture out to be far more tarnished and corrupt than I have previously seen, one of them from a Hub mind itself. I found myself not being sure who I wanted to succeed, despite the atrocity that was being planned.
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Banks seems to put at least one scene of stomach-churning nastiness into each book. In this one, the scene in question comes only a few pages from the end, is very short, but violently demonstrates the revenge of the culture.
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged Ian M Banks, Sci-fi |
By Tom Fotherby on July 1, 2006
Getting married was the best day of my life. I was a bit apprehensive that I wouldn’t be able to handle being the centre of attention and making a speech and stuff but all the nerves and anxiety helped make the day special and unforgettable. It was so touching that so many people went out of their way to help.
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I wrote a 2 page article about our wedding a bit like what you can find in all the wedding magazines, it has some photos in it and helps give a summary of what the wedding was like: weddingPublication.pdf
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Posted in Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on July 1, 2006
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The best radio alarm clock we’ve ever owned. We like the large central snooze button and a sleep timer (adjustable by 5 minute increments up to 60 minutes). The radio stations don’t need tuning in because they are digital and it hides no less than four alarms, which can be individually set to any combination of single, weekday, weekend or daily settings.
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Posted in Toys |
By Tom Fotherby on May 6, 2006
I first got bitten by the coding bug by writing a little game on a 486 laptop at school.
Not real screenshot
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It was a much inferior copy of a helicopter bombing game where you passed lower and lower over some sky-scrapers which you had to flatten before you eventually hit them. It was written in Turbo Pascal.
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I found the level of concentration and obsessive nature of programming totally engrossing. I loved it. My next proper piece of coding was in Java. I wrote a cocktail program which could tell you what cocktails you could make given the alcohol ingredients in you cupboard. It was an excellent idea and I might try to resurrect it when I can load it onto a mobile-phone.
Posted in Tech Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on May 5, 2006
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Microsoft has prided itself on having the smartest employees on the planet yet they aren’t usually the people that produce the best software. Microsoft copy promising software and muscle it out of the market by using their advantage of owning the operating system. The only reason IE won over Netscape was that IE came free with Windows. But now Firefox, a Netscape ancestor is fighting back and Google is leaping ahead in the Internet search area. Google is a tough competitor because it’s free to users. Microsoft didn’t buy Google because it’s built around Linux. Linux is causing Microsoft all sorts of headaches. Linux is eating Microsofts market share in the server area.
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I can’t wait till Linux is good enough to compete at a desktop level! I predict 2008 is the year of the Linux desktop selling in PC World alongside Windows and MacOS.
Posted in Tech Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on May 4, 2006
I’m not going to vote Tory because I’m detested by their smear-campaign. I’m not going to vote Lib dem because replacing council tax with a local income tax would totally screw me over. So I’m left with Labour or the Green party. I would vote for the Green party except they won’t win so I should probably support Labour to help them win. I want to show my support for the Iraq war, I’m impressed by the introduction of the minimum wage, I think tax’s are fair and I think changing around the government all the time just wastes effort and money.
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I’m going to vote Labour. Besides, I like Tony Blair, I think he’s human because I’ve watched him get grey hair during the war. I’m also a sucker for a smile 🙂
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Posted in Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on May 4, 2006
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I stayed up late because early in the morning on the 4th of May the time and date was “01:02:03 04/05/06”. It was too much of a unique and interesting date to miss. I used the opportunity to add anniversary reminders to my current software project (FothoFax).
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Fothofax screenshot
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Then I realised it’s not long till the next Awesome date! The MOST EVIL DATE OF ALL: “06:06:06 06/06/06”, 4 days before our wedding! I’ll have to get up extra early and watch a horror movie or something.
Posted in Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on May 1, 2006
Thriller, 6/10 – April 2006
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Anti-matter contained in magnetised jars, I mean – come off it! This book is so far-fetched that it becomes totally trashy (especially with the poor romantic sub plot). It has the same lead character as the Da Vinci code (Robert Langdon) and also has a Catholic theme but it’s lacking the detail. I enjoyed the ambigrams and fast-paced rush against time but didn’t like the science fiction.
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Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on April 1, 2006
Thriller, 8/10 – March 2006
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This book is an intelligent treasure hunt that doesn’t drop the pace of the action for a minute. It produced a constant trickle of puzzle clues and solutions but at the same time managed to build and build all the way to the end. The storyline is enriched with some fascinating speculation about Christianity, Paganism and of course, Leonardo Da Vinci. This information includes some history behind various symbols, gestures and words that are still used today. The book is interesting and fun and is good conversation starting material.
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Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on March 29, 2006
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I feel ashamed that I’ve succumbed to the dark side and got a mobile. No longer am I gloriously cut off from the world. Why did I finally get one? I needed one to arrange my wedding (there’s only so many phone calls one can make from a work phone without feeling guilty).
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I was one of the last people I know to get a mobile phone. They are good though. I like being able to meet Chloe after work when my coach gets into Reading and I like having it in the car in case I break down. Perhaps I’ll be more sociable now?
Posted in Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on March 11, 2006
This is my first printer and I’m glad I waited so long because it’s grown up enough to play nice with Linux (it was actually easier to get working with Linux than it was with Windows)! It’s a network printer so Kix and I can share it and we can put it where we have space rather than next to our PC’s. We’ve used the flatbed scanner to photocopy a recipe from “1000 vegetarian recipes” and we’ve used the photo copier to duplicate an old pic of me with the rowers. So now we’re ready to put it to it’s real purpose – printing our wedding invitations and order-of-service.
Posted in Toys |
By Tom Fotherby on March 1, 2006
Fantasy, 6/10 – February 2006
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This is the final book of the chronicles and it really needs to be read last because it gives away all the secrets and has a fantastic, chilling ending. I’ve known about the Christian sub-plot all along but it is confirmed in this book. It turns out that Aslan is God, he created Narnia and at the end of this book he destroys Narnia and judges all. Furthermore, only the faithful get to go to his heaven.
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I thought it all beautiful except for two things. Firstly, the baddies are distinctly Middle-Eastern who are known as “darkies” and worship an “evil” God and secondly, poor Susan is left without friends or family but nobody seems to care at all! (she isn’t Christian enough in her teenage years?). I think the book can be enjoyed more if you don’t think that it’s trying to teach you a Christian message and is just about magic and battles and fantasy.
Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on February 20, 2006
Fantasy, 7/10 – February 2006
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This 6th adventure in Narnia is taken by Eustace from the last book and a new character called Jill Pole. They get a break from school and are given a task by Aslam. The children and the reader are taught that appearances can be deceptive and even those who look good on the outside can have evil in their hearts. The title of the book only makes sense near the end.
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There’s two actually quite spooky bits that would have kept me awake at night when I was a child especially as the Narnia books have little illustrations that help enliven the story and characters. I did have a juvenile snigger at some of the old-fashioned words like “funk” and especially about the “gay” behaviour of Jill. I quote: “Though her tongue was never still, you could hardly say she talked: she prattled and giggled. She made love to everyone – the grooms, the porters, the housemaids, the ladies-in-waiting, and the elderly giant lords whose hunting days were past.” I know I need to grow up! This book is a good adventure, even if it did have a frog for a main character (kind of).
Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on February 1, 2006
DS,Battle Racing,9/10 – January 2006
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This is my first WIFI game. What this means is I can play 3 other REAL people from anywhere in my house. They might be in America, Europe, Mongolia, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that they are a so much more worthy and fun opponent than a AI simulation. It’s totally magic and doesn’t cost a penny. Admittedly, I have played against a few people who switch their gameboy off if they are about to lose – a pox on their character.
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As for the single player part, I don’t think any Mario Kart fan could be disappointed, it’s exactly want you’d expect. There are the normal three engine sizes (50cc, 100cc and 150cc) with 16 new race tracks and 16 classic race tracks from the previous Mario kart games (SNES, N64 and the Gamecube). Nintendo brought back the ability to make your kart ‘hop’ when power-sliding round corners (or to get more height from jumps). Plus there’s the spark-boost from the Gamecube version where you can boost from staying in someone’s slipstream long enough. It’s a must have DS game.
Toms Killer App Award! – The reason to own a DS
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on February 1, 2006
Fantasy, 8/10 – January 2006
This is the fifth out of the seven books that make up the chronicles of Narnia.
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It’s about an adventure made up of lots of really exciting little adventures all about Caspian going in search of his lost relatives. A Narnian take on Homer’s Odyssey. One of my favourite parts was when Aslam helped Eustace peal away his dragon skin to become a boy again and I also especially liked the Dufflepuds. Reepicheep is a great character, completely unafraid of anything and as well spoken as any of the Narnian Royalty.
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A book good for ones imagination.
Posted in Book Reviews |
