Reviewing 'Running Xen: A Hands-On Guide to the Art of Virtualization'

I tend to buy geek and nerd related books for two main reasons: 1, because I don't like taking my laptop to the bog and reading, and 2, because there's nothing really like a book. There are a few others, which orientate around being able to read a book away from the computer or laptop, relaxing on the sofa, or in the garden, but they aren't as important to me - but mostly only because I do my best thinking in the bathroom.

Anyway. 'Running Xen' was on the few books I had delivered a few days ago. To clarify this is a book on running Xen, the open source hypervisor. Like all books I was hoping for something that delivered a little bit more than the man pages and online docs. Sadly this wasn't really the case.

Now I'm not saying that 'Running Xen' is a bad book. It's not. It's just missing that "something more", that "je ne sais quoi" (I cannot believe I've just typed that and not removed it). If you're going to somewhere without man pages or online docs, then it's an invaluable reference.

Worth £21 (it's current cost on Amazon)? Without reading more books on Xen, I honestly don't know, but despite feeling as I do, I am glad that I've got it.

Mostly because I've had some awesome ideas, whilst on the bog with it.

Matter by Iain M. Banks

Last week I finished my freshly Amazon delivered hardback copy of Matter, by Iain M. Banks. I'm a long time lover of Mr Bank's Culture novels, since I first read Excession in my early teenage years, so I had high hopes for the latest. I have to say that I was not disappointed. Either I'm just very used to his writing style these days (I recently re-read all the Culture novels), or this latest outing is much more accessible for people not familiar with his style. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not I'm right, and whether or not it's a good thing.

It was another of those books I found myself unable to put down; It's a fantastically written novel, and very much like Player of Games, in the way in which Iain zooms in from a galactic to a personal scale. Iain also introduces some newer concepts in his universe, such as Shellworlds which you can consider a very large faux-planet with multiple civilisations leaving in distinct sections (or levels). It seems to have worked nicely. One thing you won't get much of is the Culture itself, despite one of the characters being from Special Circumstances.

If you're at all into your SciFi, I highly recommend this book. Although I would wait until it comes out in paperback. This was my first hardback for quite some time, and I'd simply forgotten just how much of a pain they were to store or hold, when sat in certain locations.

I'd also suggest keeping an eye out for the epilogue, which is hidden away, behind the appendix in my copy. Whilst it seems almost as an after thought, although most likely isn't, it makes a vast improvement on what I felt was a little bit of a clichéd end to the story.

Why I love comic books, cartoons and comic-film conversions

There are quite a few simple reasons for this;

  1. It takes me back to my childhood (or the last time I read said comic)
  2. There's that hero fantasy angle and living through the comic/film
  3. The gadgets
  4. The envitable women (in some story lines)

I'm sure that there are others, but they're just not springing to mind immediately. Why am I on this tack today? Well that's easy; another Ironman trailer was launched a few days ago and I've just seen it. It. Looks. Awesome.

Around summer last year we saw one of the first teasers for Ironman launched and it looked good then, so it seems that things are well on course. From what I've seen first time director (according to IMDB) Jon Favreau is doing a fantastic job.

However, I do hope that it's a long film, because it looks like they're craming a fair bit of the Ironman evolution into the film, and there's Stark's change of perspective. I love the fact that he's an arrogant bastard - that's absolutely fucking spot on - I just hope that they don't send it too far into the "I've now got a conscience" direction.

What with this and the Dark Knight shortly afterwards, its looking to be a really good summer cinema experience!