Sunday, March 30, 2003
The Robin Williams Mac OS X Book
(If you've been into Macintosh computing for any length of time, you probably know that the author of this book is not the actor/comedian Robin Williams. Now the rest of you know, too.)
As I mentioned below, I needed to read up on the latest Macintosh operating system. Though I had purchased Mac OS X Unleashed, I was also tempted to pick up this tome. When I happened to see this book at the library, I checked it out to see what I had missed. Like I had determined at the book store, Ms. Williams' book is geared towards the neophyte. In addition to explaining how to use the operating system, she also discusses such basics as to how to use the mouse and keyboard. It definitely was not the book for which I was looking. But having said that, I also must confess that this is a great book. Ms. Williams is very informative and does it with quite an engaging style. Things are explained very clearly and simply. (Even my ten year old daughter has picked up the book and enjoyed it. But then, my ten year old is weird.) It has far more illustrations than Mac OS X Unleashed, which is quite useful. Of course, it also contains only about half as much information. She doesn't even touch on the Unix system beneath OS X. But it does tell you what you need to know about the system. Unless you really want to "get under the hood" and really master your new Mac, this book is a great resource. In fact, even if you do want a tome at the expert level, you might want to check this out first to get a primer on the basics.
Labels: CheckItOut
Thursday, March 20, 2003
A Romance of the Equator
This one is a book I won in a contest given by T5 at the Mysan's Corner message board. (His own site is the T5 Universe, but I digress.) Subtitled "Best Fantasy Stories", it's collection of short stories written between 1960 and 1989. Like one might expect from such a collection, the stories range in characters, location and style. If one tale doesn't strike your fancy, the next one will be quite different and perhaps more to your liking. I found the book to be a very interesting read. Mr. Aldiss is a very poetic writer--sometimes alluding to what's happening rather than spelling it out for you. This is more pronounced in the stories from the late sixties and early seventies, some of which I found to be downright confusing. But even those had an element of mood that touched me. Like I said, poetic. I'd be hard pressed to pick a single favorite. I enjoyed "A Romance of the Equator" for the way it describes love and its ending. In "The Blue Background" and "So Far from Prague", it was the way Aldiss described the setting and situations which caught my interest. "Consolations of Age" offered a good laugh. So, like any book that falls into my hands, I have to determine whether this one is worth keeping. I can't help but feel that these stories will be even better the next time around, so I'm putting this one on my shelf.
Labels: OnMyShelf
Monday, March 10, 2003
J. P. Patches: Northwest Icon
I live in Seattle, but I'm not crazy about it. I'd much rather be living in Chicago, the area wherein I was born and raised. There are a few things in the area, however, which I must concede surpass anything similar in the Windy City. One of those is the legacy of J. P. Patches, a kid's show which ran in Seattle from 1958 to 1981. The people who were kids out here during that era are nuts about it. My wife, a Northwest native, would rave about him. In the past few years I've been able to see J. P. in person, as well as on some of the few tapes that exist of the show. The adulation he receives is well deserved--this man is funny. Funnier than Bozo, Garfield Goose or Ray Rayner, even. (All the Chicago kids now think I'm a traitor and hate my guts.) Anyway, now there's a book about him, which gives a behind the scenes look at the show. It was a very entertaining read, reminiscent of some of the Marx Bros. biographies I've read. J.P. came on the scene when TV was young. Those pioneers of the medium were worked to death... and seemed to have a hell of a lot of fun in the process. Once again, I was wish I had talent and was born in a different era. Oh, well. I don't know if someone who doesn't know J. P. will enjoy this book like I did, but you should still risk checking it out. Or just go to www.jppatches.com and get a taste of what you're missing.
Labels: CheckItOut
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