Archive for February, 2014

Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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Roadside Picnic

Author: Aasemoon

7 Feb

Last week I finished reading “Roadside Picnic“, the 1972 sci-fi novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [as per suggestion of a friend]. For me, the book “felt” quite a bit similar to Huxley’s “Brave New World”. Dystopian society built around one major life changing element which is a source of unnatural luck for some and unfair disadvantage for many others.

I did enjoy reading the book, I really liked the central idea. But I must also say that this is generally not my cup of sci-fi. I am much more into Asimov’s style of sci-fi. When I read a science-“fiction” book, I am not really looking for a window into the future of the mess we currently have, what we are already experiencing. I’d like to look further forward, perhaps to what comes after that mess.

But if “Brave New World” or “1984” are for you, then this is totally recommended.

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Filed under: Authors, Books, Literature, Reading, Sci-Fi

Haskell Glasgow Compiler 7.8

Author: Aasemoon

6 Feb

Last Thursday evening I attended a very interesting presentation on the pretty cool new features of the upcoming GHC 7.8. Though I’ve personally not yet had the chance to play with the new release, I’m very excited about it, since apparently many of the features that were discussed for a long while are now finally included. As it was mentioned in the meeting, it’s not that it’s not a mess anymore, it’s just that it’s much less of a mess. 😉