Read about it on its flickr page.

I just ordered a few books from Flipkart.com—which is, by the way, fast becoming my favourite Indian book store—and for a change, these are non-fiction. I think this will be the first non-fiction books I read in over a year:

1. The Pragmatic Programmer has been on my wishlist for years, and shouldn’t need introduction. From what I hear, it’s must-read material for any professional programmer, and it’s about time I read it myself.

2. Programming Pearls is an old gem. I hear it’s as much fun to read as ‘The Little Schemer’—even if this is half true, it’s worth a buy.

3. Design of the Unix Operating System is another old book that I think is still relevant. Unix has a beautiful design, and a Linux user like me should be able to appreciate it (I think).

4. Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator is the only book on the list not related to computers. I come from a family of investment and finance nuts, and at times, feel left out because I don’t really ‘get’ the stock market. This is another classic (published in 1923!), and does not really explain how the modern markets work. But from the reviews, I expect that it’s still relevant. If nothing else, it’ll provide a great historical perspective.

I guess I plan to read around 2-3 such ‘educational’ books a month, my tentative target is 30 books by end of 2010. I don’t want to just read about programming though, as I’m interested in lots of subjects. The object of this exercise if to get into a state of beginner’s mind, and see where it leads me.

Any recommendations, for any topic, are most welcome!

Read about it on its flickr page.

I write in order to help myself think. Putting concrete words to my thoughts is the best way (that I know of) of clearing my head, and enforcing some sort of order to the chaos that is my mind. I think I’m addicted: ever since I stopped writing, I have been getting more and more distracted…

There’s so much going on, I’m just going to capture some highlights here and will try and be more regular in the future.

I’ve been very busy: learning to drive, getting a driver’s license (at the age of 25!), reading awesome books and discovering new music.

Driving is joy. I thought I would hate driving a car, but it turns out to be surprisingly fun. I think the fact that I work from home, and don’t have to drive everyday is why I like it so much: Mumbai’s rush-hour traffic, if I have to face it daily, is sure to suck any joy I have out of the activity and turn it into a chore.

Some book-related excitement:

1. I read the entire Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, and it's really good. I recommend it to everyone who has an imagination.

2. Have started reading Eoin Colfer’s sixth Hitchhiker’s Guide book, And Another Thing. Am mid-way thro’ it, and it’s a fun book. Not a Douglas Adams book, but a fun read nevertheless.

3. Speaking of someone else continuing the works of the original author, I have in my possession The Gathering Storm, Brandon Sanderson’s attempt at completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. I haven’t read it yet, because I’m busy re-reading the original 11 books in the series. Have currently finished re-reading book 7, only four more to go!

By the way, the US cover of The Gathering Storm is my nomination for the worst book cover, ever.

On a more serious note, I am planning to pursue further studies. I am almost certain about the courses/universities I want to join, but I’m not going to talk about it publicly unless everything is final, and my applications have already been sent.

Fun projects:

1. amfiquery—a small web-based API to get the current NAV of Indian mutual funds.

2. My version of trac’s SVN post-commit hook—with a few customizations that may be useful to others.

There are few other such mini-projects that aren’t online yet. I’ll publish them if I can…

Why Android? If I wanted an ordinary smartphone, I could have bought an iPhone already. The iPhone’s problem is that I can’t really develop apps for it myself—the development environment is Mac-only. And I can’t install applications that aren’t on the official app store—unless I mod the phone, which I’m unwilling to do.

Android doesn’t have have iPhone’s polished UI. None of the Android-based phones out so far look as sexy as an iPhone. These issues don’t matter.

Android has a pretty decent (Eclipse-based) development environment. I was reasonably sure that I would be able to develop applications for my small needs myself; and that was before the awesome Android Scripting Environment (ASE) was announced.

ASE allows one to write tiny scripts (in Python, Lua or BeanShell) that can do awesome things. Like allowing me to scan a book’s barcodes and looking-up its details, sending messages, finding my location, using text-to-speech, and creating notifications.

Of course, all this is possible via a normal application. But providing a decent scripting environment really lowers the bar. The possiblity of creating a script in a couple of minutes that’s useful right away allows one to experiment with all sorts of crazy ideas.

The only thing I’m worried about is that when I do end up with an Android phone, I could end up wasting all my time customizing and scripting it. Technology is supposed to be unobtrusive, not all-consuming.

I’ve read quite a few great books recently. John Scalzi’s The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony are excellent. In fact, the whole Old Man’s War series is great; I’m going to grab a copy of Zoe’s Tale next. By the way, you should check out Scalzi’s blog: it’s good stuff.

I am a SciFi/Fantasy nerd. I seem to end up reading more of Fantasy than SciFI, and lately I’ve thought of picking up some hard SciFi books for a change. Although, in the end it doesn’t make much of a difference (to me) whether what I’m reading about has a scientific basis or not—as I mainly read for the narrative, and for getting close to great characters.

I read Chandler’s The Long Goodbye last month; and now I know I have to read some of his other books. Philip Marlowe is a great character; reading about him is effortless. It helps that I love the Dresden Files books; Harry Dresden is similar enough to Marlowe that I felt like I knew him from page one.

I love all the Kurt Vonnegut books I’ve read so far, but the last one I read—Breakfast of Champions—exhausted me. There’s only so much of pessimism one can take; I don’t think I can stomach reading more than a couple of his books each year. They all have been excellent, and I can’t put one down once I start reading it, but they take too much out of me. I’m a pessimist myself, and reading Vonnegut leads me to the lowest of my lows.

And, finally, I just finished reading J.V. Jones’ A Cavern of Black Ice today morning. Now this is great storytelling—a book that keeps me awake till two in the morning, trying to finish it before I fall asleep as I know I won’t be able to do anything else until I do. A story that if you can’t finish that night, you know you’ll dream about and won’t let go of; until you get up the next morning and immedietly continue from where you left-off.

i am craving some sunshine.
this image of silke stoddard's knitting is burned into my mind and tatooed on my heart.
i mean, look at her hair.
in the craft room i throw everything on the homework table. that clears up the floor for more mess craft making.
my happy little life

And:

we are happily enjoying being able to play outside again.
i told cate about st. patrick's day and ireland- she has a lot of irish ancestors through me.
i made this one for a gift, but i've already cast on another for moi.
she wears birkenstocks to fashion shows.

I am tempted to save the message just for its entertainment value.