What books did you read this year?
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Gerry Schmitz wrote:
Finishing my own "simulation" - Gettysburg
Wow. Are you writing some kind of app, game, or alternative history? I'm fascinated by that sort of thing, especially when it's done well. Of course, my interest lies on the other side of the timeline: military science fiction (Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and Keith Laumer's Bolo series are favorites).
Software Zen:
delete this;It's based on 19th century war gaming; uses rules and tables from that period; and lets you command troop (blocks) over a map. It's all to scale. You send your troops on their way, firing and engaging in hand-to-hand. They suffer loss, fatigue, get dispersed; "chance" is used for the friction of war. You can study history. Test your maneuvering skills. Set up your own scenarios. It's not "multi-player" (yet) but it can be (now) using "turns". The AI by itself will defend, so you can try to rewrite history by assaulting Cemetery Hill again. You can zoom, rotate the map, scroll, drag and rotate units during setup, a distance "ruler", mini map, lines of sight / range, slow down - speed up, pause, etc. So, some things you don't usually find.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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And all very well written. We stand on the shoulders of giants.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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charlie "tremendous" jones
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
I read a number of books this year, but there were two that stood out as the absolute best. One technical book in particular was fantastic: clearly written & covered the topic (& went beyond the topic) very well: Microservices in .NET, Second Edition[^] Many of you may have rolled your eyes bec of the word microservices, but this is a very balanced look & explains details of .NET Core really well. If you're building (or wanting to ) WebAPIs you'll really like this one. The other book I read this year which was absolutely amazing was Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness[
No technical books for me right now. Am reading a bunch of books in Indian languages - predominantly Sanskrit and Kannada - some books written more than three hundred years ago. Have recently learnt to read Tamil script also, and have started reading elementary kids books in Tamil.
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charlie "tremendous" jones
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
I read a number of books this year, but there were two that stood out as the absolute best. One technical book in particular was fantastic: clearly written & covered the topic (& went beyond the topic) very well: Microservices in .NET, Second Edition[^] Many of you may have rolled your eyes bec of the word microservices, but this is a very balanced look & explains details of .NET Core really well. If you're building (or wanting to ) WebAPIs you'll really like this one. The other book I read this year which was absolutely amazing was Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness[
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No technical books for me right now. Am reading a bunch of books in Indian languages - predominantly Sanskrit and Kannada - some books written more than three hundred years ago. Have recently learnt to read Tamil script also, and have started reading elementary kids books in Tamil.
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charlie "tremendous" jones
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
I read a number of books this year, but there were two that stood out as the absolute best. One technical book in particular was fantastic: clearly written & covered the topic (& went beyond the topic) very well: Microservices in .NET, Second Edition[^] Many of you may have rolled your eyes bec of the word microservices, but this is a very balanced look & explains details of .NET Core really well. If you're building (or wanting to ) WebAPIs you'll really like this one. The other book I read this year which was absolutely amazing was Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness[
Lots, as I read SF and fantasy too. From a technical POV I'd say Windows Internals Vol 1 and 2. And because I wanted to refresh my memory: Essential COM. Found an error in Essential COM. :)
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Lots, as I read SF and fantasy too. From a technical POV I'd say Windows Internals Vol 1 and 2. And because I wanted to refresh my memory: Essential COM. Found an error in Essential COM. :)
Bruno van Dooren wrote:
Windows Internals Vol 1 and 2
That's some very in-depth reading there.
Bruno van Dooren wrote:
Found an error in Essential COM
Interesting. Are you doing COM work? I did some with some h/w micrometers which connected to Windows NT 4 / Windows 2000 (long time ago).
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Bruno van Dooren wrote:
Windows Internals Vol 1 and 2
That's some very in-depth reading there.
Bruno van Dooren wrote:
Found an error in Essential COM
Interesting. Are you doing COM work? I did some with some h/w micrometers which connected to Windows NT 4 / Windows 2000 (long time ago).
Not currently. I used to work as a low level programmer (IPC, services, drivers, ...) and was Microsoft MVP for a couple of years. I quit programming because I wanted to be around for my kids and took a sysadmin job close to home. Earlier this year I started programming again, in my own time on some pet projects, and I've started writing a book. COM (specifically the details of the security aspects involved in impersonation) is one of the topics I am touching on so I dusted off my copy of Essential COM and did some research because I wanted to understand the nitty gritty. I started writing here again as well and for my own piece of mind, when I write something I want to REALLY understand every last little detail.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote:
They seem to charge cover price (or nearly)
Not here in the UK. I got the entire works of Dickens for £0,99. Most Kindle versions are very cheap.
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Richard MacCutchan wrote:
I got the entire works of Dickens for £0,99.
Copyright on that expired probably about 1880 or so. So certainly one explanation for why it is so cheap.
