Stuff I've read lately

"F is for Fugitive" (Sue Grafton)(audio) - I'm reminded of the old TV series "Murder She Wrote" (or, as I liked to call it "Murdered She Was"). Every week Jessica Fletcher (who was also the mother of the "Manchurian Candidate", aka John McCain) visits a relative (she had a lot!). And every week, that relative gets framed for murder, and Jessica needs to find the real killer.

I began to realize the incredible improbability of such events. It was far more likely that Jessica was the murderer. She was also skilled at framing people, as she would frame her relative (sloppily) while actually framing a third party so well (and tormenting them the whole episode - Columbo style) that they would confess!

This time, Kinsey shows up in a small town to investigate a murder from 17 years ago. By the time she is done: the accused murderer's friend and mother are dead, and the original murderee's mother is dead!

Not safe to be around Kinsey!

Stuff I've been reading

"E is for Evidence" (Sue Grafton)(audio) - Should be "E is for Explosions". Kinsey gets blown up (reeal goood!) twice. I don't think she's blown up at all in the other books...

I'm not sure what category these books fall into. They can't be "Whodunit". It's nearly impossible to figure out before the end. Half the time, I have to replay the ending just to figure out why the killer did what they did.

Stuff I've been reading

"Zoe's Tale" (John Scalzi) - I really enjoy the "Old Man's War" universe, and Scalzi's style. That said, I am rather disappointed with this one.

Zoe's Tale is basically a retelling of "Lost Colony" from the point of view of Zoe. In the Acknowledgments, Scalzi tells how he thought this book would be easy - but it turned out very hard. Given his rather low bandwidth (one per year, which is typical for authors), I'd much rather see a new story.

I don't like to reread books. This one was different enough, and it has been long enough since I read LC, that I wasn't bothered. It was somewhat engaging; although it is more characterization, where the other OMW books focus more on events.

Since You've Been Gone

I couldn't hurt anymore
if you dropped a two-ton bowling ball on my toes

Since You've Been Gone
(O Since You've Been Gone)

You know I've been in a butt-load of pain
Since You've Been Gone


I feel almost as bad as I did
When you were still here!

Stuff I've been reading

"Claws That Catch" (John Ringo) - It's been a while since I've read any SF. Ringo comes through again!

The main thing I like about Ringo is brevity. This book is 343 pages long, compared to 600-800 for somebody like Stephenson.

Ringo captures the "hurry up and wait" and "long stretches of boredom, followed by moments of terror" of military life. There is no encounter with the enemy until page 278 - yet, he makes the "boring" parts interesting and funny (along with providing good characterization).

The closing action is as good as any you will find (with boarding actions, giant space battles, and fighters).

I hope Ringo keeps writing lots of books!

NewStars Status

Whew, been a while... I have been putting off work on NewStars. I was afraid of "GUI load/unload", that is, the shuffling of cargo using the GUI. These orders have a separate order type from "Waypoint 0" (both happen before move). I was worried I would need to evaluate these orders in order to show the current levels on planets and in ships. Then, I would need to hide the orders in the order box, yet update the orders when the GUI instructs.

I figured out a way around all that. I left the GUI orders in place (visible and not evaluated) for loading/unloading to a planet. For ship-to-ship, I edit the XML (the reconciler handles edits in the XML).

The basic GUI is now ready:

Here we can see a transfer between the medium freighter and colony ship for player 1. The orders are executed when the window closes (I should add Cancel and Ok buttons...)

With that, everything needed to play is in the GUI!

Stuff I've been reading

"S is for Silence" (Sue Grafton)(audio) - I should gather statistics on how many people are killed in California. It seems like all of them are near (or killed directly by) Kinsey Millhone...