Fuduntu – end of life

 computers, linux, rants  Comments Off
Apr 262013
 

The Fuduntu distro of Linux is easily the best I’ve used. So what do they do? They go and and put an end to the project. Read about it here. The lead developer is retiring, and there’s issues keeping Fedora as the base to build the distro on. At this point in time, the team is considering using OpenSuSE as a base, and the tentative name of the new distro will be FuSE.

Shame, as it’s easily the best Linux distribution I’ve used and the rest could take a leaf out of the book here.

Fuduntu wallpaper

Top Ten characters in F&SF

 fantasy, fiction  Comments Off
Oct 162012
 

I compiled this list some time ago. Nope, I couldn’t be bothered revising it.

  1. Cugel from the Cugel books of Jack Vance. – What can I say? He’s the best and worst of any character I can think of. Every thing he does and every step he takes is entertaining.
  2. Ullii from the Well of Echoes quartet by Ian Irvine. – A plug for a fellow Australian here. I loved this character, one of the best drawn women I have read in fiction. Superbly done. Shame about the remainder of the characters.
  3. Master Eremis from the Mordant duo by Stephen Donaldson. – Superbly nasty piece of work. A believable super-intelligent villain.
  4. Steerpike of the first two Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake. – I doubt I could add to anything else that’s already been written about him.
  5. Aila Woudiver from The Pnume by Jack Vance, – Vance’s best villain. One of fiction’s best villains.
  6. Weena from the Time Machine by H. G. Wells, – come on, who *didn’t* want to go back and try and save her life?
  7. Rupert of Hentzau from a Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau by (Sir) Anthony Hope, – I couldn’t tell you why, he’s just an energetic bad guy. And yes, neither of these books are F&SF in any way. But I’m allowed ring-ins – it’s my website!
  8. David Strorm from The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, – An appealing young man who you genuinely care about what happens to. I did, anyway.
  9. Bannor from the first Thomas Covenant trilogy by Stephen Donaldson, – Solid as a rock. The utter definition of still waters run deep.
  10. Federico de Soya from the Hyperion and Endymion books by Dan Simmons, – Total, all round solid character.

Deforested Minhiriath

 fantasy, fiction, lotr  Comments Off
Jun 042012
 

Quite a few places mention how Minhiriath’s forests were felled by the Dunedain in the Second Age, and then how the entire region was depopulated (or almost so) after the Great Plague in TA 1636. Most, if not all, sites and books still make the claim that the region is deforested. Well, assuming the climate and hydrology hasn’t changed, there’s no reason why the great forests wouldn’t re-grow. There’s nobody there to cut them down, is there? The War of the Ring started in TA 3018. That’s 1382 years of potential regrowth. More than mother Nature needs, trust me.

There’d be forests in Minhiriath again.

minhiriath map