Book Review - The Theban Plays (Oedipus)

Well known to sniggering psychology students, Oedipus is the fictional king of Thebes who famously kills his father and marries his mother.

Oedipus spends his life trying to escape his fate. His true parents even cast him into the wilderness when he is a child to prevent his destiny. However destiny conspires against Oedipus and he cannot prevent his fate.

Oedipus is appalled by his own accidental actions and resigns himself to exile. His daughter Antigone accompanies Oedipus. Antigone's care and protection for her (now blind) father Oedipus shows that from dishonour and despair; honour may spring forth.

Title: The Theban plays : Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

Author: Sophocles. Edited by: Lattimore, Grene

ISBN: 978-1-85715-093-3

Rating: 4/5

Book Review - Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker

I read this trilogy after finding it at my local library. I thought it would be a bit of a daggy read, so I took it home.

I was impressed with the general quality of the writing. I was a little less impressed with the lack of political correctness.

There is some degree of misogyny and poor race relations (e.g. the chapter N****r Heaven in Live and Let Die). Having said that the presentation of woman in particular is much more positive and capable than most Bond movies.

Casino Royale

When a communist leader attempts to gamble himself and his organisation out of debt, the powers that be decide to send their best gambler. Of course their best gambler is Bond that we all know and love.

It is quite refreshing that the villains are quite happy to shoot our hero or beat him up, rather than selecting some over the top method of doing him in.

I was surprised how good this book was and it was not at all "over the top".

Rating: 4/5

Live and Let Die

Bond is out for revenge against SMERSH, so he is chasing a shadowy figure called Mr Big.

Although Mr Big does go for the slightly complicated method of dispatching Mr Bond it is somewhat justified - he doesn't want to leave a mess after all.

Rating: 3/5

Moonraker

Moonraker is a more typical Bond story. A mysterious multi-millionaire offers to build a ballistic missile on behalf of Great Britain - what could possibly go wrong?

From the strange, diabolical attempts on Bond's life to the incredible way he saves all Brittania and his own skin, this story is pure Bond.

Yes Moonraker is well written and exciting but it is also a little over the top.

Rating: 3/5


Title: Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker
Author: Ian Fleming
ISBN: 9780141187419

Book Review - True Believers

True Believers is an accessible history of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, however the narrative is a little dull.

As a political tragic I found the book compelling, however True Believers is not particularly effective at presenting an interesting narrative. I believe this is due to the lack of linkage to the impact on Australian society. Most of the book is "Caucus this and Cabinet that". Perhaps an outsider would have been better at focusing on the Australian public's perspective.

The book The Great Crash by Sexton is proof that political history does not need to have a dull narrative.

Rating: 3/5

Title: True Believers: The Story of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party
Author: Faulkner and Macintyre
ISBN: 9871865085272

Going Native 2012

I recently viewed some amazing videos from the Going Native 2012 conference. I would thoroughly recommend the videos for C++ developers on all platforms.

There is substantial coverage of the new C++11 features and clang. Even though this conference was sponsored by Microsoft the majority of the material is common to all platforms.

Specific videos I would recommend are:

• Bjarne Stroustrup: C++11 Style
• Threads and Shared Variables in C++11 
• STL11: Magic && Secrets  
• Clang: Defending C++ from Murphy's Million Monkeys

If you have time I would also recommend the end of day round up: Interactive Panel: Ask Us Anything!

Update: the question  in Interactive Panel: Ask Us Anything! at 1:16 regarding tooling is very enlightening, particularly Carruth's (clang) answer at 1:20 Looks like Java-like analysis tools are coming through.

William's Train Story

This is a story I made up for William.

William, his sister and his mummy and daddy climbed out of the car. They were going to the show on the train.

William and his family walked from the car to the train station. William's daddy went to the ticket window to buy everyone a ticket.

William, his sister, his mummy and his daddy came down the steps to the platform. Everybody was waiting for the train. There was a screen that showed when the next train was coming.

William and his sister remembered to stay behind the yellow line and not run on the platform. Trains are very big and can be dangerous.

Finally the train arrived. William held mummy's hand and William's sister held daddy's hand. Getting on the train can be tricky, and there is a gap between the train and the platform where it is easy to fall down.

Now everyone was on the train. William and his sister looked out the window at the trees whooshing past. Sometimes the train would stop at a station to pick up more passengers going to the show.

William and his sister explored the train. William explored the top level and his sister explored the bottom level. They both met again at the other end of the carriage.

Eventually the train reached the show. William and his sister stepped off the train, holding their mummy's and daddy's hands. William, his sister, mummy and daddy climbed the stairs out of the station.

William's family met Summer, Will and their parents, then went into the show.

Rebecca and the Case of Too Many Butterflies

This was a story I made up for Rebecca.

It was Rebecca's birthday. Rebecca was blowing out the candles on her cake when she made a wish that she could see lots and lots of butterflies. Rebecca blew out all the candles on her cake.

Rebecca went to school with her brother and her mummy.

Later that day Rebecca returned home from school. When Rebecca's mummy opened the door the hallway was filled with butterflies. Rebecca looked in every room in the house: every floor, every wall, every ceiling and everything else was covered in butterflies!

Rebecca went to sit down on the couch, but there were butterflies on the couch!

Rebecca went to sit down on another seat, but there were butterflies on the seat.

Rebecca went to have a drink, but there were butterflies on the cup and butterflies on the juice. She tried to have something to eat, but there were butterflies on the bread and butterflies on the butter!

Rebecca decided to get ready for bed. She went to have a bath but the bath was full of butterflies. She went to brush her teeth, but there were butterflies on the toothbrush and butterflies on the toothpaste!

Rebecca decided to go straight to bed, without having a bath or brushing her teeth. But as soon as she went to her bedroom she saw that there were too many butterflies on her bed!

"There are too many butterflies," said Rebecca. So Rebecca opened the back door and said to the butterflies, "please butterflies could you go outside."

Rebecca held out her finger. Each butterfly landed on her finger and she gave it a kiss before it went outside.

Rebecca and the Butterflies

This is a short story I made up for Rebecca.

Rebecca and her mummy were on the way to school, when Rebecca saw a beautiful white butterfly. Rebecca and her mummy followed the beautiful white butterfly to the park. In the park there were lots of white butterflies. Rebecca took out her camera and took a photograph.

Rebecca and her mummy continued to walk to school. When Rebecca met her friends at school she showed them the photograph of the white butterflies.