looking for a word

Recently I changed feed readers and magically caught up on all outstanding posts…ie the new one has a panic button to mark all unread Once more I am trying to keep on top daily without getting behind or being intimidated by how far behind I am. Importantly I’m reading some of the word oriented feeds again such as the OUP blog where I came across an amusing article on absurdities in the OED. It’s a decent piece exploring some of the more obscure entries in the dictionary; one of the more amusing pieces was:

unpoetic: cf. next.
unpoetical: cf. prev.

The comments are also worth reading. Reading elsewhere I came across a rather scary book of nursery rhymes…well known nursery rhymes have been changed with the introduction of christian references. I really don’t like this sort of thing and find it somewhat offensive, and perhaps a little dishonest. Regardless of philosophy or religion, the original rhymes should be retained and not fall victim to this sort of propaganda.

Then of course there’s the joy of moving books around, instead of words.  As a few folk know, I’m about to sell my house and it will be officially on the market in the next week or two. My sister and I are joint owners and we’d each like to get our own places. Trouble is, as others have discovered, I’m having the unenviable task of moving from a house size library to an apartment size library. I can’t afford to buy a house in my area though a unit might be possible, even then we’re talking in high double figure square metres. Serious ouch! True, I have a few too many books and have already weeded a few hundred…admittedly they’re in boxes at my girlfriend’s place, hopefully I’ll take them to a second hand shop soon. I have at least a couple of thousand books; I still have dad’s 3,000 odd books though I’ll be getting rid of most of those (planning to keep 10% at most). Plus I reckon my girlfriend has at least a couple of thousand that I need to work out space for. Needless to say there’s a whole bunch of things about this move I’m not looking forward to, but it does at least mean I get to re-visit some of my books, albeit quickly as they enter the box.

download windows

My trackball was playing up so I went into the settings to see if I could spot anything. I was alerted that there was a new update of my trackball software so I went ahead and clicked yes for update. No idea on the file size, currently at 53Mb but almost finished. The annoying part however is that the download window insists on being on top of all other windows. I don’t have the fastest of connections at work so it’s been there a while; I’ve moved it off screen somewhat but it’s annoying. I upgraded the java client earlier and it happily ran in the background, similarly when I do a windows update. Though a windows update can be annoying with requests at 10 minute intervals to reboot the computer. I keep putting it off, then mis click at the wrong moment, losing the current workspace as the machine shuts down. Hmmm the trackball software is now in install mode and can be minimised. Update finished, and it has created a shortcut on my desktop (quickly deleted). Deary me, it would like me to restart the computer before I can actually use it. Nope, don’t think I will as it turns out the battery in the trackball needed replacing. All good now.

Which brings me to the greatest irony, I have a cordless trackball; I bought the cordless model because I couldn’t find a corded one at the time. Thankfully, a few weeks later I was able to get a corded version for my home setup. A trackball doesn’t move across the table and thus doesn’t have the cable issues a mouse would have. Yet, I have a cordless model that requires a new battery every so often. Sometimes I’d like to scream. Complaints aside, I don’t mind Windows XP (dual boot with Ubuntu) and it’s mostly fine except for occasional annoyances. It’s interesting to read that with the rise of the eee and such, Microsoft might hang on to XP longer than anticipated.

words at home

While noting that the leather Shorter is even cheaper at the moment (now 40% off),  it was nice to read Michael Duffy’s piece on the continuing project devoted to the Dictionary of Sydney. The City Historian, Shirley Fitzgerald, decided after consultation, that such a project should be done digitally, rather than solely in book format. It started in digital format, has seed funding and support from various folk, and is gathering steam. While recognising the need for expert opinion, they are also keen to encourage Sydneysiders to contribute…perhaps I can squeeze in my old man’s efforts, particularly his thesis on public housing [pdf, 7.5Mb]. As part of the Dictionary’s plans, the Sydney journal has been launched, “…a peer reviewed journal of historical writing about Sydney…”. Somehow I suspect, this is one dictionary I’ll struggle to get in leather, although given the history of parts of Sydney, I’d best be careful in what I wish for.

books for sale

Pruning for want of a better word, perhaps weeding. I am, finally, going through all my boxes of books. Most of my books are in boxes, and it has been such for several years. I live in a house full of my dad’s books, which I also love; dad passed away a few years ago. According to my sister, who has stamped each book in memory of dad, there’s about 3,000. I’m planning to keep at most, around 10% of that, and my sister will be keeping some too. Once the house is sold, we will need to dispose of the remainder. One plan is to invite all his friends over, and ask them to choose a book they’d like. The rest will no doubt end up at a second hand shop (a fair chunk are of good academic stock), of which I have a couple of possibilities in mind. I will end up in a smaller place than this, probably a unit, so book space will be tight. Consequently I am going through all my books, and weeding, as I have a few thousand too. Already managed to weed out a few hundred, out went the Hardy Boys, and old sets of encyclopedias, retained, of course, are my Biggles, and Enid Blyton, and I daresay others. These too, will end up in secondhand shops, though some may end up at the UNSW Bookfair, a place at which I’ve scored many a bargain in years gone by.

Yet, still I’m tempted to buy more. Though I have a leatherbound Shorter, I am tempted to buy another, for the office. The standard Shorter is available for approx $120 via Amazon (locally it’s $250) whereas the leather is approx $240 via Amazon (locally it’s $825). At around a difference of $120 (+pp), it remains very tempting just to get a second leatherbound edition. One day I hope to buy the full OED and I’ve noticed on Amazon US that it’s anywhere between 32-40% off of late, in fact, I don’t think I’ve seen it full price, similarly the Shorter. Current price for the full OED is approx $717 via Amazon (locally it’s $2,500). On Amazon, the full OED is currently 33% off, though I’m sure it hit 40% off a week or two back. Even at full price, it’s much, much cheaper to buy it from the US Amazon than locally. I do support my local bookshops where I can, but the price differences are too huge on these. They’re so expensive that I wouldn’t consider buying them at all locally. Even buying direct from the UK is cheaper than buying them in Oz, where the leather Shorter is available for approx $387 via Amazon UK (direct from OUP UK, it’s approx $544) and the full OED is approx $1,630 via Amazon (direct from OUP UK is the same). Hmmm…I didn’t actually mean to end up doing a price comparison between Oz, the UK, and the US on the OED but those price differentials are fascinating. Playing into that of course are the sizes of the respective markets, not to mention exchange rates (which are great for buying overseas at the moment), but still the price in Oz is well, just a wee bit high.

I had planned to spend a sentence on my OED fetish and move on to another book I’m interested in, which I spotted in a local bookshop this evening. That is, BibliOdyssey, and it’s gleanings from the blog of the same name. Essentially a collection of images, found online, and occasional text ie a printed version of the blog. It’s smaller than I anticipated but a nice little book nonetheless. As for the price, which is what I’d done my initial cross country comparison on, try these (all amounts, as with the OED, are converted to an Oz dollar equivalent): Oz: $60, UK: $31, US: $25.

scraps of paper; scrawl

Maps, a little text, odd browsing here and there; dipping in for a bit then shelving. It has been said, indeed it must be said, that I have something of a book fetish. Not just books to read, but so too a desire for books as objects; having nice looking books on the shelf. A leather bound Shorter, rather than the standard, leather bound and rice paper pages for Lord of the Rings, nevermind fascinating books that I cannot read. Some things endlessly fascinating, some things instantly dismissed, “not my cup of tea”. I like maps, I don’t know why I like maps but I do, especially olde worlde (the extra e is part of the attraction) with ornate framings. As part of the packing of my things (house is about to hit the market), I moved a couple of old canvas maps that hung on the wall at my primary school. I’d rescued them from the bin, but have yet to display them, or even have the requiste wall space to do so. One day perhaps. My girlfriend sent me a reference to a new book on maps from the NLA. Maps are an essential part of my existence: finding my way, losing my way, appreciating different ways, discovering new directions. Don Watson has a new book out, which is a map of sorts, of his journey in America and his exploration of the american psyche. It felt nice in the hand, to touch, to browse. Books on a shelf, the book in front of you, to the side, underneath, stacked on top. A hand, a mind…reaching.

a night with yuri

It appears April 12 is approaching and with it the annual celebration known as Yuri’s Night. On the 12th of April, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. According to his wikipedia entry, he spent a total of 1 hour and 48 minutes in space.

executing executives

I usually keep an eye on jobs in my field, aka library stuff, just in case something really cool pops up. Today, something interesting popped up, though I wouldn’t necessarily call it cool:

…someone is looking for an execution consultant…wonder if it involves relocating to Texas. Interestingly if you read further down:

An Execution Consultant will “…manage the entire recruitment process to successful conclusion.” Now I’m scared. Although, it sounds like the position relates to growth, rather than..hmmm…the opposite of growth…so perhaps there’s a counter intuitive explanation for hiring an execution consultant during a time of expansion. Or more likely, it’s just a case of poor proofreading…afterall it’s not the sort of error a spellchecker is going to pick up.

rip gygax

A mate emailed me yesterday that Gary Gygax had passed away. Like many folk, I too played D&D in my teen years, and most of the group are still playing as we all approach our 40s. Even though I don’t sit down and play with the social group these days (and truth be said haven’t for at least 15 years), roleplaying games remain my thang. My love for interactive fiction, and particularly Infocom (and others), springs from the same well. I was playing God of War on the PS2 last night and that too, reflects the sort of environment or genre that was inspired by the work of Gygax. A mixture of fighting and problem solving, taking on the role of a character and exploring new worlds, or old worlds differently configured. One of the strengths of traditional D&D style gaming is that it’s very social: a group of people, usually gathered in one room, combining their imagination to create a unique storytelling experience. Computer games try to approach this and give as much “freedom” to the gamer as possible, but it falls very, very short of that face to face creativity, where simply tossing a beer mug in a pub can create an interesting story in and of itself.

more eee and zork

It’s just been announced that there’s a new eee due out with a bigger screen but similar footprint. It looks like it will be around 75g heavier weighing in at just under a kilo, compared with 920g of my current eee. Personally that’s going in the wrong direction; when I’m ready (and that won’t be for a year or two at least I reckon), I’ll be looking for a lighter eee, optimistically around the half kilo mark. Price point is likely to be around $6-700 but noone’s sure on the Oz model yet. At $500 it was pretty much an instant purchase, at $700 I need to pause and consider. $500 is a fair whack of moolah but at that price, the eee was a bargain and a purchase that I’ve had no regrets about, 3 months later. There’s also an XP version of mine due out next week and the RRP is $579, ie about $80 more just for XP instead of Linux.

I’ll stick with linux, which is proving quite easy to install new software on; if I see a program I like, it’s mostly a matter of

sudo apt-get install program

and that’s enough for it to check the repository, download, and install. I did add the debian repository to the default Xandros one a while back, which means most stuff I want is available. Realised last night I hadn’t installed any text adventures, having come across a mention of Zork in an eee forum. Found the Interactive Fiction Archive, tried to ftp in to get the files and discovered I didn’t have ftp installed. A few seconds later, thanks to apt-get, I was happily ftping game files and a linux interpreter (frotz, which I think I also installed via apt-get).

memory

I’m keeping a close eye on storage prices at the moment. Noticed on the weekend that Harvey Norman had a 1 terabyte drive on sale for $348! Personally, I’m not buying one until I can get it in pocket size for under $100. Speaking of which, according to the Officeworks website (can’t seem to link directly to item), they have a Western Digital 120G pocket size drive (in a few colours) for $99 at the moment. The other area I’m keeping a close eye on is the SD, or rather SDHC, market as this is what I’m using for additional storage on my eee. I currently have a 2G SD card (they’re so small, calling them a card sounds wrong) installed; however it’s been announced that 32G versions are coming on to the market in a few months, at least one of which will be around the US$350 mark. That’s 32G on a card that fits in to your basic digital camera. Likewise I won’t bother being an early adopter (the 2G is fine for now) but will be tempted when these drop to much cheaper prices.