Wed 17 Jan 2007
George Clooney is producing a miniseries for the SciFi Channel based on The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Stephenson will be adapting his book into the screenplay. I’m really looking forward to this, since The Diamond Age is a great book (Hugo Winner!). yay.
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Mon 27 Nov 2006
I spent a relaxing afternoon yesterday at the Sackler Museum’s “In the Beginning: Bibles before the Year 1000” exhibit. As I was walking through the gates behind the Smithsonian Castle, I noticed the sign on the fence: WiFi @ SI. Nice! Turns out there are a few free wireless hotspots on the Mall now, this area (Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle) being one of them.
The exhibit at the Sackler was very interesting- they even have some fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls (from ~60AD) on display. My favorites were the illuminated manuscripts from the 10th century – especially the purple-stained vellum with real gold/silver lettering. The exhibit goes through Jan 7, so stop by if you get a chance – it’s free.
Tue 24 Oct 2006
Professor Richard Dawkins was at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. tonight, giving a reading/discussion of his new book, “The God Delusion“. Notice the imposing bodyguard in the background. Another was stationed on his left. When asked, he said he had not received threats; they were just hired by his publisher.
I’d estimate that there were about 200 people (or more – standing room only going way back into the store) at the reading/signing. I managed to get there early enough to get a seat in front, and a place at the front of the line for the signing.
When Prof. Dawson came on, he noticed the size of the crowd and decided to “skip the reading of Chapter One, which has a conciliatory tone – and start with Chapter Two, which is decidedly not conciliatory”. There’s a reason Prof. Dawson has been labelled “Darwin’s Rottweiler“. His basic premise is that God does not exist (yes, he is an atheist), and religion in general has not done us much good – on balance. One of the questions posed to him after the reading had to do with the “faith-based” recovery methods of groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. He admitted that he was not aware that Alcoholics Anonymous had a religious undertone – “that’s just terrible” (or some such comment – my memory isn’t as good as it could be due to Preston being up most nights lately).
I recorded the reading and the discussion after.
Thu 20 Jul 2006
Do you have a hardcover version of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown? If so, check your copy for the following “points” to see if it is the true first edition, first printing, first state. Such a copy in Fine condition is worth somewhere in the range (as of today) of: $1,000-5,000.00 – especially if signed.
Points:
The prices being realized for The Da Vinci Code are amazing, considering that it came out only 3 years ago. The book is in its 104th printing, and there are something like 60 million copies of the Da Vinci Code in print, but only this true first edition, first printing, first state is worth the $$$. You would think prices wouldn’t be so high since the first print run was 260,000 copies – so there should be a lot around!
Tue 18 Jul 2006
Ok, so this might sound like a bit much, but the following are the steps I have to take to get my book collection database onto my Palm T|X:
Seems like a lot of work, but the whole process takes about 5 minutes, with about 30 seconds of user interaction (biggest wait is the import of Booxster XML into online version via Navicat). At the end, I have my 3 database versions synced up. The PalmOS version is especially useful when I go into a bookstore – no more duplicate purchases, or the converse of passing up a purchase because I thought I had a copy.
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