February 2008
31 posts
YouTube - mantic59's Channel (shaving) →
this dude takes his shaving seriously; a long series on shaving techniques
How To Shave Like Your Grandpa →
impassioned treatise on the use of the double-edged safety razor of yore, along with old fashioned wet shaving technique. interesting in itself, but hilarious for the immediate put-downs from straight-razor enthusiasts in the comments. if I owned a straig
January 2008
32 posts
The Hard Way (Jack Reacher Novels) →
by Lee Child
One Shot (Jack Reacher) →
by Lee Child
The Enemy (Jack Reacher Novels (Paperback)) →
by Lee Child
Persuader (Jack Reacher Novels) →
by Lee Child
Without Fail (Jack Reacher) →
by Lee Child
WS-Enterprise, 2008 →
oh, SOAP. everybody hates you, including tim bray.
California dreamin’, going to Carolina in my mind
Running Blind →
by Lee Child
This has many of the good features of Lee Child’s other Reacher novels, but a glaring flaw that I found distracting throughout. Without emitting a spoiler, here’s the trouble: Reacher spends more or less the whole novel being threatened and pushed around by some FBI assholes, and never references the powerful FBI friends he made in the second book. Why not?
XIFF API →
open source flash library for XMPP, with extension support for things like XMLRPC over XMPP (the same folks make a Java lib, too)
XMPP (a.k.a. Jabber) is the future for cloud... →
interesting argument touting XMPP as better than SOAP for some uses; there are signs of this in action already but I hadn’t heard much buzz
Captain's Fury: Book Four of the Codex Alera →
by Jim Butcher
Like the other books in the series, and like Butcher’s Dresden Files series, this feels a bit hastily constructed. I think the author expends more energy thinking up plot twists than he does on detail work, like wordcraft. So it’s flawed, but… damn, it’s a lot of fun to read. :)
Tripwire →
by Lee Child
Die Trying →
by Lee Child
Killing Floor →
by Lee Child
Typical thriller stuff, I suppose, but well executed. Implausible but somehow very satisfying, like one of those lone-gunman/retribution films from the 70’s. It left me wanting more.
The Android's Dream →
by John Scalzi
Great fun. A quick, light, enjoyable adventure.
I got bored re-entering a bunch of books I’d read before. Just assume that I re-read the whole Terry Pratchett canon, K? K. Resuming now.
SIMILE | Exhibit 2.0 →
pretty awesome javascript API for building data-driven displays
Free Wordpress Layouts →
i know, i know, there are a billion wordpress theme collections. i really like this one, though
NetNewsWire 3.1 is free →
wow coolness :)
100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes →
why am i such a sucker for theme galleries?
The role of political reporters →
is apparently to gossip endlessly and speculate on who will win, but not to report on candidates’ policies, positions, or claims
Should No Child Left Behind Act be reauthorized? →
no, because it provides disincentives for the best teachers to work with the most at-risk kids
Did An Iraqi Soldier Kill US Troops for Kicking a... →
iraqi media says yes, U.S. media says no
clothes shopping with D: apocalypse