Geek Novels

This tech blog entry from the Guardian talks about the 'best geek novels written in English since 1932'. The results are part of a highly un-scientific survey proposed by the same blog, back in October. The list is interesting to me, however, since it includes some of my favorites.

I am, without a doubt, a geek, so I feel that I can speak on this topic with authority. :)

I loved the fact that Snow Crash is on the list. Stephenson's novel was an instant hit with me, and I've read it several times. Narthex was just going through the audiobook version, and we were commenting again on how funny it was. Several others on the list get resounding nods of approval - Watchmen, Cryptonomicon, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Neuromancer, and of course The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And what would commentary on a top-anything list would be complete without the gripes? Where is Starship Troopers? What about any of the Lord of the Rings novels?

Overall though, I enjoy lists like this. There are several items on there that I have not read, which are going on my library wish list.

Code Commenting

There was an interesting thread on /. this morning regarding coding practices. There was a lot of decent advice given, some stupid comments (this is Slashdot we're talking about) but most importantly, it got me thinking about my coding practices. After some long hard thought (totaling about twelve seconds) I came up with my guiding principals regarding my coding 'style'

1. Descriptive variable names
2. Camel case
3. Comment only the 'why' of complicated sections.

My thoughts on commenting are based on real-world experience. If you can't read the language I'm writing in (either C#, JavaScript, or CFML) then no amount of comments are going to make things clear to you. Code is a language. Be fluent, or get out of it. I have been completely exaperated by folks coming behind me and saying things like, "You commented why you are doing this, but you didn't say how you were accomplishing it..."

My response to queries like that has always been the same. "Yes, I did. Just read it."

And that is my $.02. This is my blog, after all.

Xbox 360... On the fence.

Well, Microsoft is about to release their next generation game console, the Xbox 360. First off, I think it's a stupid name, but I'm not a marketing wonk, so what do I know?

I've seen this system twice in BestBuy - always from the behind the small mob waiting to play with it - and I have to say, I was impressed. The demo of Call of Duty 2 was absolutely beautiful, and it looked like a lot of fun as well. BestBuy has the 360 connected to an HDTV LCD screen, and it looks fantastic. But I don't want to pay $1000 for an HD monitor just to get nice looking console games, and I'm not sure if the games would look as sharp on my 27inch standard TV at home.

Then I found this article on AnandTech that answered my concerns. Apparently, the 360 can be attached to a VGA monitor.

If you don't have a HDTV but you have a VGA monitor that you'd like to use, Microsoft does offer a VGA cable that will allow you to connect your Xbox 360 to a VGA monitor. If you don't have a HDTV or a monitor but still want a higher quality output, Microsoft also offers a S-Video AV cable.

Of course, it's an add-on option, but combined with my spare monitor, it should provide crisp gaming at a small fraction of the cost of HDTV.

I've not decided if or when I'm going to hop on the 360 bandwagon, but this at least makes it feasible.

Firefly Blues

As of a couple of days ago, I have now seen all the Firefly/Serenity adventures committed to film. With the airing of "Objects in Space" last Friday, the SciFi Channel has completed their first run of Firefly, ordered in the way that Whedon himself indicated was correct. I can only say that I am saddened that there will not be more adventures of this crew on film. I say that because I personally doubt there will be additional movies or episodes. While the show was good, and the movie fantastic, I don't think the studios will have the... fiscal... motivation to green light additional productions.

That said, I give a final salute to Joss Whedon's creation. It was fun, it was humorous, and it was... Shiny!

Dual Monitors for the Masses

Matrox, a pioneer of the easy to use dual monitor cards, has announced a new product that will make it simple to use two displays on just about any PC. The new DualHead2Go device converts a single VGA output to an image capable of being displayed on two connected monitors.

As a daily user of dual LCD's, I cannot explain how much better the multi-monitor experience is over a standard single display. One of the biggest barriers for may folks is the perceived complexity of setting such a system up. This device allows even PC's with onboard video to use twin displays. And with a laptop with VGA out, you could actually have three displays.

Of course, this isn't cheap (retail of $169, plus the cost of displays), but it is easy.

Meat on a Stick and Flying Knives

We went to the fair tonight with the family and some friends. We had a pretty good time; anyplace I can spend a pile of money on junk food can't be all bad.

As we were getting ready to leave, I heard something *clank* off the top of a ride and land in the dirt. When I look, I see a folding knife, opened, laying in the dust. This blade had apparently come out of some idiot's pocket on a nearby thrill ride, flown through the air about forty feet, bounced off the roof of the funhouse, and landed on the midway. Somewhere in the process it opened. I feel pretty lucky that no one was hurt. A carnie picked up the blade and left, no doubt to add it to his collection.

Did I mention that while I had a good time, carnivals make me nervous?

Google Maps and ColdFusion Integration

For one of my applications, I needed a way to display a list of addresses on a map. After some quick Googling, I was surprised to discover that there was no pre-built ColdFusion custom tag or CFC to handle this. So I whipped up my own.

The CFC is simple to use, and I've made it available for download. You will need your own Google Maps API key, which is free, and you'll need to plug that into the CFC source.

The CFC takes a couple of parameters, including map width, height, and starting zoom level. You then pass an array containing the address you want mapped, and the component does the rest. The initial map center is placed at the mean of the address array's latitudes and longitudes, so it should be somewhat near the center of your addresses. I may modify it later to set the starting zoom level based on the number of mapped points and their distance apart, but for now that's set when you call the component.

This code is freeware, feel free to use it as you see fit, leave me a comment if you like it.

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