Interesting. We all know traditional media is in decline, so it’s not a great surprise that last week was the least watched week in (US) TV history when you think about it, but… It’s still a stark reminder that things are changing, and quite rapidly at that.
I’m a puzzle nut. I can’t help it. My brain is just wired that way. When Sudoku first appeared I was really excited; an apparently complex logic puzzle in a very compact format - it looked right up my street. The fun in these things for me is discovering the rules by which they are solved, and Sudoku looked like there would be a fairly complex ruleset attached.
Frankly I was surprised and disappointed when it turned out that there are only 2 rules, and with the application of those 2 rules the problem is solved - every time, even the most fiendish. I stopped doing them when I realised that. All it became was a ball ache of concentration and repetition, rather than an intellectual challenge. What amazes me is the number of people who still do them. What amazes me more is pages like this one that apparently reveal “secret methods”.
Do the vast majority of people that do Sudoku *not* know these rules? The comments on the post suggest that people indeed do not. How on earth do they ever finish the puzzle without driving themselves batty?
As you (should) know, I am an enormous fan of Allan Weisbecker. Since first reading the remaindered copy of Cosmic Banditos (now reprinted for a second time) lent to me by a friend through the awesome power of In Search of Captain Zero and on to the strangely altered state we currently find him on over at his website and newsletter he never fails to either make me laugh or stop my breath. Or both.
And he’s got a new book, coming soon. Entitled Can’t you get along with anyone? a writer’s memoir it sounds rather like it will be the story of how he got himself in to the aforementioned strangely altered state. Part of it at least is the story of how he fell out with the American media establishment over the filming of Captain Zero….
Which leads us on to a whole new problem. By falling out with US media publicising the new book is going to be very hard. Publishing it at all is going to be very hard, in fact. So. In a very web 2.0 kind of way (or should we call it publishing 2.0?) he and his UK publishers are running a promotion challenge to get us to buy pre-release copies of the book and to promote it on their behalf.
Will word of mouth do enough? I surely hope so, ‘cos I’ve paid my �13 and bought my pre-release copy! If you buy yours, mention me when you order. I want to win that lettered hardback.
Christ. I was not expecting to find an article on Tang Hall on wikipedia (it’s an area of York. It’s not very interesting). What is interesting is the arguments it appears to be creating. Does every area of every town have this kind of argument, I wonder?
As I have doubtless banged on often enough about I do Plone for a living. Of all the questions I’ve been asked by customers (potential or actual) I’ve never before today been asked “is it legal?” I was today. Has Microsoft done such a good job that the idea of free software is so alien to the uninitiated that they think I must be giving them hooky software? Or is Plone so good that it can’t be free? Or do I look like the kind of person who would be likely to do that? Don’t answer the last one.
Obviously living in Yorkshire and coming from Gloucestershire I’m very pleased to hear that they both top Kent in a national poll of beautiful counties for the first time. The fact that my wife is from Kent has nothing to do with it, of course…
Although I really probably shouldn’t be. Running a google news alert on Douglas Coupland does rather heighten the anticipation for the new book… Of all the articles that I’ve read over the past week or so this one is actually interesting. I’m looking forward to my limited edition with figures (yes, I know) copy arriving any day soon.
Not as daft as it sounds… Ryan Carson offers advice for something we all seem to be aiming for at the moment. I have to say that it reminds me very strongly of the rather good Simply Brilliant, a book that kickstarted the process of changing me from slack and disorganised to calmly efficient (most of the time).
We’ve started blogging for work, so all technical bits and bobs will now be posted at the Isotoma Python/Zope/Plone/Whatever Blog. Marvellous.