Varrqnuht.net

Yeah, I really am that much of a geek. Want to know more about glottal stops?

I’ve just finished reading an article titled Ontology is Overrated - it’s an engrossing discussion about the advantages of informal tagging systems as a means of classifying large-scale loosely bounded datasets such as the web.

I’ve thought about this a lot, especially as a means of categorising books, and the author draws a lot of parallels between these systems of informal categorisation and the system used by the US Library of Congress.

I found the article linked from Library Thing, a free online book catalogue with a quick and simple interface. It’s in active development and seems to support a lot of the features I’d been thinking about myself. Jay sent me the link as part of our ongoing dialogue about personal library cataloguing systems. I think it’s really time I bit the bullet and catalogued all of our books so that I can start putting a few of these systems through their paces.

I finally managed to get hold of a CueCat barcode scanner in anticipation of this task, but for some reason it doesn’t work under Linux on my main box at home. It works just fine under Windows on the same machine, and yet it also works fine under Linux (same version, both up to date) on my box at work. Strange.

I keep putting off writing an entry because I have an unfinished draft entry taunting me every time I think about writing. That’s just silly, so I’m going to forget about it and try a Turbo Update!

Books: I’ve been reading a reasonable amount lately. Since the last time I complained about being behind on my reviews I’ve also read

• The Meaning of Everything: I mentioned that this was next on my list. Well, I finished it, though it took me a little time. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Winchester’s other books, in part because I think it was more a history of the OED rather than a story about the people who put it together. I dunno, it just didn’t have the same strength of narrative tying it all together, even if the elements are all excellent when considered in isolation. It was certainly an interesting read though.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J K Rowling): This is enjoyable stuff. I’m really starting to wonder what Harry will get up to after he finishes school - Biggles just stopped being exciting when the war ended.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C Clarke): I picked it up off my shelf in the mistaken belief that I hadn’t read it in years, but as soon as I started I realised I had last read it only a couple of years ago. It’s still such a great read, and a quick read. Clarke had such an amazing vision, and his books stand up extremely well to the test of time. Why haven’t I ever got around to watching the movie since it went completely over my head as a kid? Why don’t I own the rest of the series?
• A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson): I love Bill Bryson, and while I haven’t finished this yet it’s no exception. I expect (hope) that I’ll talk more about it later (Note to self: including following up on the name I recognised in the acknowledgements!)
• Unreliable Memoirs (Clive James): Reading this in snatches at the moment - it’s funny, and easy to pick up.

Next up I have two books by Chuck Palahniuk - Fugitives and Refugees and Invisible Monsters.

Damn, this is another reason I haven’t been updating - I know that once I get started I’ll keep rambling on, so I don’t start because I don’t have the time! (Part of the reason I don’t have the time is that I’ve been playing too much of Puzzle Pirates, in the crew of The Squishy Few, with me Cap’n Tim.

So, I’m out of time now - post downgraded to merely some Turbo Book Reviews!