Thursday, March 24, 2005
7 Dude where's my country? Michael Moore.
8 Cause of Death Patrica Cornwell
9 Paris Underground Etta Shiber 1944
10 To The Hilt Dick Francis
10.3 Going Critical: How The Nuclear Energy Lobby Has Hidden The Dangerous Truth About Giant Rats in Nevada
11 Norton introduction to literature.
12 http://scalzi.com/agent/
13 Digital fortress, Dan Brown.
Digital Fortress is not just the title, it's also the name of the McGuffin, and an apt descriptor of the setting for this novel by the author of the DaVinci Code.
So it's not a good sign that to write this review I had to go read the title, of a book I finished this morning. Trash. Our heroine is the professor's daughter, shapely and there to listen to lectures about cryptography, about on the level of reverse the polarity and recalibrate the warp nacelles.
Meanwhile plucky boyfriend chases around europe, barely escaping from one hail of bullets after another. The author has heard of the nsa, and of eff, but that's about it - this is not a Tom Clancy or a cryptonomicon.com, where the authors know something. Instead we guess at which bad guy is badder and who has the gun.
The climatic ending involves solving a puzzle encoding a riddle wrapped up by an enigma machine. Bazooka joe is known for tougher riddles.
My mom could write a better story about the puzzle palace. It was 50 years ago, so maybe her work there would be declassified now. I could write a better story about EFF and their stuggle with NSA, or my brother could write it better than I could, but Mike Godwin already has.
If this was intended as farce, it's very dry.
If the DaVinci code is anywhere near this bad, I can see why some people would be unimpressed. On the other hand, as the script for a movie with Matt Damon, and Donald Sutherland as the heavy, this could actually work. But it would be a better movie if they just played poker and talked.
For a much much better book on crypto, i seem to remember a book called code about a girl who wrote a crypto program for her high school science fair. it opened with this scenario. you send your guy a box with a lock on it. he adds his own lock, mails it back to you. you take your lock off, mail it back to him. he unlocks the box. the contents have been delivered securely, and neither party knows how to undo the other's lock. digital fortress had nothing that clever, except "without wax." I won't explain that part - the reader should get something out if it. A couple trashy novels has me back on the path to 50 in 05, after spending february on "the kennedys"
Paris Underground
War, 1hr 37min
Gracie Fields, Kurt Kreuger, Eily Malyon ...more
Constance Bennett both produced and starred in the espionager Paris Underground. Bennett and Gracie Fields play, respectively, an American and an English citizen trapped in Paris when the Nazis invade. The women team up to help Allied aviators escape from the occupied city into Free French territory. The screenplay was based on the true wartime activities of Etta Shiber, who engineered the escape of nearly 300 Allied pilots. British fans of comedienne Gracie Fields were put off by the scenes in which she is tortured by the Gestapo, while Constance Bennett's following had been rapidly dwindling since the 1930s; as ... Read more Constance Bennett both produced and starred in the espionager Paris Underground. Bennett and Gracie Fields play, respectively, an American and an English citizen trapped in Paris when the Nazis invade. The women team up to help Allied aviators escape from the occupied city into Free French territory. The screenplay was based on the true wartime activities of Etta Shiber, who engineered the escape of nearly 300 Allied pilots. British fans of comedienne Gracie Fields were put off by the scenes in which she is tortured by the Gestapo, while Constance Bennett's following had been rapidly dwindling since the 1930s; as a result, the heartfelt but tiresome Paris Underground failed to make a dent at the box-office. It would be Constance Bennett's last starring film--and Gracie Fields' last film, period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Amazon.com
There's less horseplay in the 35th thriller by former jockey Francis, but as much suspense and pain as ever. Alexander Kinloch is a painter who lives in rural Scotland, and somebody thinks he knows where the jewel-encrusted, solid gold-handled sword of Bonnie Prince Charlie is hiding. It wouldn't be a Francis book without lots of beatings and torture, but you'll also find out how to run a brewery, paint a landscape and yes, hide a racehorse, in this thoroughly enjoyable outing from the Cigar of fiction.
Going Critical: How The Nuclear Energy Lobby Has Hidden The Dangerous Truth About Giant Rats in Nevada
this book, which is better than sliced bread, cuts through the clutter to break down to the nuts and bolts of the real brass tacks at the heart of the matter - slashdot.
8 Cause of Death Patrica Cornwell
9 Paris Underground Etta Shiber 1944
10 To The Hilt Dick Francis
10.3 Going Critical: How The Nuclear Energy Lobby Has Hidden The Dangerous Truth About Giant Rats in Nevada
11 Norton introduction to literature.
12 http://scalzi.com/agent/
13 Digital fortress, Dan Brown.
Digital Fortress is not just the title, it's also the name of the McGuffin, and an apt descriptor of the setting for this novel by the author of the DaVinci Code.
So it's not a good sign that to write this review I had to go read the title, of a book I finished this morning. Trash. Our heroine is the professor's daughter, shapely and there to listen to lectures about cryptography, about on the level of reverse the polarity and recalibrate the warp nacelles.
Meanwhile plucky boyfriend chases around europe, barely escaping from one hail of bullets after another. The author has heard of the nsa, and of eff, but that's about it - this is not a Tom Clancy or a cryptonomicon.com, where the authors know something. Instead we guess at which bad guy is badder and who has the gun.
The climatic ending involves solving a puzzle encoding a riddle wrapped up by an enigma machine. Bazooka joe is known for tougher riddles.
My mom could write a better story about the puzzle palace. It was 50 years ago, so maybe her work there would be declassified now. I could write a better story about EFF and their stuggle with NSA, or my brother could write it better than I could, but Mike Godwin already has.
If this was intended as farce, it's very dry.
If the DaVinci code is anywhere near this bad, I can see why some people would be unimpressed. On the other hand, as the script for a movie with Matt Damon, and Donald Sutherland as the heavy, this could actually work. But it would be a better movie if they just played poker and talked.
For a much much better book on crypto, i seem to remember a book called code about a girl who wrote a crypto program for her high school science fair. it opened with this scenario. you send your guy a box with a lock on it. he adds his own lock, mails it back to you. you take your lock off, mail it back to him. he unlocks the box. the contents have been delivered securely, and neither party knows how to undo the other's lock. digital fortress had nothing that clever, except "without wax." I won't explain that part - the reader should get something out if it. A couple trashy novels has me back on the path to 50 in 05, after spending february on "the kennedys"
Paris Underground
War, 1hr 37min
Gracie Fields, Kurt Kreuger, Eily Malyon ...more
Constance Bennett both produced and starred in the espionager Paris Underground. Bennett and Gracie Fields play, respectively, an American and an English citizen trapped in Paris when the Nazis invade. The women team up to help Allied aviators escape from the occupied city into Free French territory. The screenplay was based on the true wartime activities of Etta Shiber, who engineered the escape of nearly 300 Allied pilots. British fans of comedienne Gracie Fields were put off by the scenes in which she is tortured by the Gestapo, while Constance Bennett's following had been rapidly dwindling since the 1930s; as ... Read more Constance Bennett both produced and starred in the espionager Paris Underground. Bennett and Gracie Fields play, respectively, an American and an English citizen trapped in Paris when the Nazis invade. The women team up to help Allied aviators escape from the occupied city into Free French territory. The screenplay was based on the true wartime activities of Etta Shiber, who engineered the escape of nearly 300 Allied pilots. British fans of comedienne Gracie Fields were put off by the scenes in which she is tortured by the Gestapo, while Constance Bennett's following had been rapidly dwindling since the 1930s; as a result, the heartfelt but tiresome Paris Underground failed to make a dent at the box-office. It would be Constance Bennett's last starring film--and Gracie Fields' last film, period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Amazon.com
There's less horseplay in the 35th thriller by former jockey Francis, but as much suspense and pain as ever. Alexander Kinloch is a painter who lives in rural Scotland, and somebody thinks he knows where the jewel-encrusted, solid gold-handled sword of Bonnie Prince Charlie is hiding. It wouldn't be a Francis book without lots of beatings and torture, but you'll also find out how to run a brewery, paint a landscape and yes, hide a racehorse, in this thoroughly enjoyable outing from the Cigar of fiction.
Going Critical: How The Nuclear Energy Lobby Has Hidden The Dangerous Truth About Giant Rats in Nevada
this book, which is better than sliced bread, cuts through the clutter to break down to the nuts and bolts of the real brass tacks at the heart of the matter - slashdot.
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