Stuff I've read lately

"Privateer" (S.M. Stirling) - I found this book to be much better than the first. Perhaps Stirling is settling into the material. It is still very campy, but I think that is the target audience. The main issue I have is with Stirling's battle balancing. He takes somewhat fair conditions, then throws in radical elements to make it wildly against the heroes. Then he has to pull out crazy saves for the heroes. I'd much prefer to just see a straight-up fight.

"Understanding the Purpose and Power of Prayer" (Myles Munroe) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

Musical Interlude

Put down that chainsaw and listen to me!
It's time for us to join in the fight.


It's time to make a mountain out of a molehill,
So can I have a volunteer.


Buy some sensible shoes and a Chevrolet,
Then party 'til your broke and they drag you away, it's ok.

New Stars Status

After much delay, I have load and unload orders working. Here is a clip from the load unload test:



Here we can see the idle fleet has been changed to move to Beta 9 and unload its colonists. I need to fix the text for the order in classdef.h. I also need to fix the engine to understand all the various Stars! cargo orders. But first I need colonize and new game generation. Then the game should be playable.

Stuff I've read lately

"Through the Breach" (David Drake) - This is a classic Drake military sci-fi book set in his "sidereal-bubble" universe. It has a almost overwhelming age of sail feel, but I think he manages to pull it off. The science is hard enough to maintain my suspension of disbelief, and the universe has a lot of character. This one seems a lot harsher than I remember Drake's books being, and the impact on the characters psyche is very well done.

Stuff I've read lately

"The Dawn of Amber" (John Gregory Betancourt) - I liked the original books by Zelazny, the world was unusual and the characters well done. This one didn't seem as good. Not sure if I am no longer as interested in that world, or if Betancourt is still warming up.

"Judas and the Gospel of Jesus" (N. T. Wright) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

Ruby.new chunky_bacon

Do you want to learn Ruby? Do you want a bookful of random stuff? Better random stuff than I can write? Lots of chunky bacon? Check out "Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby".

Word is C++ is dying, and everyone knows Tcl has never been more than a zombie. So I need a new language. Is Ruby it? Please don't suggest Java, I know I need to learn Java, but I refuse. :)