Subzero Blue

The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)

I finished reading “The Kite Runner“, the debut novel by Khaled Hosseini this morning. I heard a lot about this book and have been wanting to read it for so long, and the fact that the movie will be out soon made me want to read it even sooner.

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule.

I personally really enjoyed this book, it’s a very moving story with well-developed characters and touching events that takes us through a trip with the characters that unfolds in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US.

I totally recommend this book, it’s worth the read; I personally can’t wait to watch the movie now and see how it turns out to be.

Khaled Hosseini has a new book called “A Thousand Splendid Suns” that was released this year; I’ve heard mixed reviews about it, so I don’t know if I’ll rush out and get it right now, but I liked the writer’s style and will eventually read more of his works in the future.

10 Writing Tips from the Masters

I just found this interesting post on Pick the Brain that lists 10 writing tips from some of the masters of the art.

Their tips for better writing go as follows:

1. Cut the boring parts
2. Eliminate unnecessary words
3. Write with passion
4. Paint a picture
5. Keep it simple
6. Do it for love
7. Learn to thrive on criticism
8. Write all the time
9. Write what you know

Blue Eyes Riddle

I just came across this really interesting riddle that I thought I’d share here.

There is an island that is considered to be paradise. All the inhibitants of the island are Perfect Logicians, and every knows of every that they are Perfect Logicans.

Exactly 100 of these persons have blue eyes, 100 have brown eyes, and 1 has green eyes. The inhibitants do not know what his/her color eyes is. Everyone is constantly aware of everyone elses eye color but no person knows that there are 100 blue eyed, 100 brown eyed, and 1 green eyed person on the island.

If a person finds out his/her own eye color she/he must leave the island at midnight of the day she/he finds out! There are no mirrors or reflections of any kind on the island. Also, nobody on the island ever speaks except the Guru, who is the person with the green eyes, (she does not know her eye color and if she found out she would have to leave the island at midnight). The Guru says one sentence every fifty years. One day the Guru arrives and tells everyone on the island the following: “I SEE SOMEONE WITH BLUE EYES.”

Who (if anyone) leaves the island and when?

This is not a trick question, and the answer is a very logical one. It just needs a bit of thinking. Give it a try.
I’ll post the answer in a couple of days time.

BrainReactions.net: Online Brainstorming

Brainstorming is an essential element in any creative process, it allows the flow of different ideas between all team members without the limits of a tightly structured meeting, only using general guidelines and a common goal as a framework for the exchange.

BrainReactions.net is a new service that allows you to take your brainstorming sessions online, keep track of them and even tap into the intelligence of the crowds.

Using their tool, you can create your own private Brainstorming rooms, in which you set your question/topic and invite your team members or the people you want to work with in to start submitting their ideas.

If you want to tap into the community’s ideas, you can setup a public brainstorm where all the site’s users can submit their thoughts. In a similar Digg-style, the topics with the most submitted ideas are listed sequentially.

This service is also interesting for people who would like to get involved, share their ideas and build their profile as innovative thinkers. The tool allows you to keep track and claim ownership of all the ideas you contributed in different topics.

It’s also possible to keep track of your favorite topics via RSS, a nice option for anyone who likes to keep all of their incoming news in the same place.

I think BrainReactions.net is a really interesting way to conduct brainstorms, and collect a high quantity of ideas and input from your own team or from a group of motivated and innovative people, all through a simple straight-forward interface.

[Site: BrainReactions.net]

God Of War II

Yesterday I popped in the video game “God Of War II” in my PlayStation 2 to check it out and see what it’s all about and maybe play away a few minutes while waiting for dinner.

I never played the first installment of the game, so other than what I saw in trailers or heard from my friends, in addition to the obvious violence that the name hints at, I didn’t really know what to expect.

So now that I’ve played the game for two days and gotten quite well into it, I can say that it’s a really fun game, that I’m truly enjoying. It’s a lot like “Prince of Persia – The Two Thrones“, which is a great game, in many aspects: storyline, gameplay, action, graphics and even the sometimes annoyingly long times you have to go before you find somewhere you can save your progress.

So what’s the story? God Of War II continues the thrilling and bloody tale of Kratos, the mortal warrior who challenged the war god Ares for his throne and succeeded. In God Of War II he rules over war, far more ruthless than Ares ever was. But because of his disregard for the other citizens of Greece, he suddenly finds himself on the outs with the Olympians, is betrayed by Athena and seemingly killed by Zeus. He must journey to the far reaches of the earth and defeat untold horrors and alter that which no mortal, or god has ever changed, his fate.

I’m far from finishing the game, I actually hear it’s one of the longest platform games ever made, but I’ll be doing my best to stick with it and get to the end of it. I might even go ahead and get the first installment when I finish this one; it’s that much fun.

So, for video game fanatics, who enjoy a good action roleplaying game, I totally recommend this one.

[More: Official Website, GameSpot, Amazon]

Mango : Free Language Learning Courses Online

mango Mango is a newly launched online web service that provides free enterprise level language learning courses.

It initially provides a choice of 11 language courses, each course made up of 100 lessons, and each lesson including between 70 and 150 slides.

The 11 languages covered are: Spanish, Russian, French, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Greek, English for Spanish speakers, and English for Polish speakers.

Like other language learning software, Mango shows and plays conversations between two people in a number of social setups and situations. Then it goes into detail in the following slides, dissecting and recombining the conversation line by line and word by word until you become more familiar with the phrases. Every level goes on to build on skills captured from the one before.

I think it’s a very interesting language learning solution that is worth checking out. I’m thinking of giving a couple of the languages on it a go. Should be fun.

[Site: Mango]

George Orwell

Want to making your writing style more and more effective?
Who better to give you tips than one of the masters of the art himself: George Orwell.

Here are the 5 tips he gives for effective writing style:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous.

[Source: Politics and the English Language (George Orwell)]

Operating Systems: Proprietary vs. Free

With proprietary operating systems increasingly designed to restrict and control the user, with digital ‘restrictions’ management, their users are subjugated even more now than before. If you don’t want chains on your hand and foot, your only escape is to switch to a free operating system.

— Richard Stallman

A Floating Solar Island for the UAE

The United Arab Emirates has just contracted with a Swiss firm, CSEM to purchase a floating solar island.

The island, which will basically float an a ring-shaped raft, was conceptualized a while ago by CSEM, but until now they haven’t found any buyers. The prototype being commissioned by the UAE will first be tested in a nearby desert before the concept is moved onto the ocean.

It’s one tenth the size of the concept pictured below, only costing $5M and about 100 meters wide with a peak power generation of roughly 1 megawatt. The plant will produce energy by concentrating solar power onto pipes containing water. The water will boil, and be used to spin turbines. Once shipped off-shore, the islands could be used to convert seawater to hydrogen, allowing them to be autonomous and untethered to the shore. The hydrogen could then be picked up by barges, instead of having to transport the electricity to shore via a physical connection.

[Source: CSEM Press Release (PDF)]
[Via: EcoGeek]

10 Things Every Programmer Should Know For Their First Job

I just came across a great list of things every new programmer should know for their first job on Apple Matters, and I thought I’d share it with you guys here. I personally confirm all the ten points in the list from my own experience.

The list goes as follows:

1. Being liked is easy
2. Being respected is hard
3. Everything you learned in college is useless
4. Never stop learning
5. You live or die by your text editor, so choose wisely
6. No one really cares what college you went to
7. Silence never goes out of style
8. You will meet odd, strange and unpleasant people, deal with it
9. Make friends with IT
10. You will never escape office politics

Read the full post: 10 Things Every Programmer Should Know For Their First Job