CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Can't remember the last time the Mekon was on here.

Then again, I can only just about remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

And I certainly can't remember reading some of these books.

[BR14]

Can't remember the last time the Mekon was on here.

it was only a delta release?

[DoctorStrangelove]

Can't remember the last time the Mekon was on here.

sigh...if only she was attractive & owned a pub

HTH.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"History Lesson" by Arthur C. Clarke.

https://siliconshelf.files.wordpress..._lesson_ss.pdf

"Rescue Party" by same:

- Chapter 1

"A pail of air": Fritz Leiber.

- Chapter 6

"The Micro Revolution" by Peter Large of the Grauniad, being the state of computing in 1979/80, including all the usual specious crap emitted by politicians whilst in opposition that is totally ignored 6 months later when they're in power.

To be followed by "The Micro Revolution Revisited" which the added advantage of being written in 1984/5 which was around the time the bottom started falling out of the home computer market.

[AlfredJPruffock]

"History Lesson" by Arthur C. Clarke.

https://siliconshelf.files.wordpress..._lesson_ss.pdf

"Rescue Party" by same:

- Chapter 1

"A pail of air": Fritz Leiber.

- Chapter 6

"The Micro Revolution" by Peter Large of the Grauniad, being the state of computing in 1979/80, including all the usual specious crap emitted by politicians whilst in opposition that is totally ignored 6 months later when they're in power.

To be followed by "The Micro Revolution Revisited" which the added advantage of being written in 1984/5 which was around the time the bottom started falling out of the home computer market.

Interesting to reflect on the IT - or should I say Data Processing Scene of 1984/1985 - at the time I was studying Data Processing at Annieland College Glasgow - mainly Mainframe Systems and COBOL programming using punch cards.

One day they installed some COMMODORE Pets - this was revoloutionary as you could actually type your BASIC Code and see the results immedialtely - well nearly.

Contrast that with submiting your COBOL program in the form of a stack of punch cards - if you were lucky you might get the compilation back - in a couple of days.

Who can recall - about 1987 I think as microcomputers became more widespread - certainly as I was working in the Smoke at the time - the curious media cult of TechnoFear ???!!

For thoese who dont know this was a fairly irrational anxiety of the public concerning interacting with computer technology.

Ah - nostalgia aint what it used to be.

[quackhandle]

Not reading but listening to Andy Serkis read aloud The Hobbit.

qh

[DoctorStrangelove]

To be followed by "The Micro Revolution Revisited" which the added advantage of being written in 1984/5 which was around the time the bottom started falling out of the home computer market.

Got a bit bored with that so now it's "The Venona Secrets" by Herbert Romerstein and Eri Breindel, being yet another telling of the Venona tale, hopefully easier to read than the previous epic.

Hopefully it's an easier read than

Venona: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War: Amazon.co.uk: West, Nigel: 9780006530718: Books

[DoctorStrangelove]

Having finished the previous bedtime tome about WWII spying, the new bedtime tome is "The Second World War" by Anthony Beevor.

The Second World War: Amazon.co.uk: Beevor, Antony: 9780297844976: Books

[DoctorStrangelove]

After the seemingly interminable "The Venona Secrets", it's onward to "The Floating Egg", being an odd sort of book about geology in Yorkshire & surroundings by Roger Osborne.

Inneresting enough in its rather odd way, once you twig that you don't really have to read all the fecking quotes from Socrates, Homer, et al.

What remains is the history of geology from about 1700 onwards.

Apparently alum was produced from the rocks in the area, said rocks containing a multitude of fossils.

The Floating Egg: Episodes in the Making of Geology: Amazon.co.uk: Osborne, Roger: 9780712666862: Books

[Old Greg]

Not reading but listening to Andy Serkis read aloud The Hobbit.

qh

Dim sits down and starts singing about gold.