The book could have been titled ‘Ann Coulter vs The New York Times’, and she continually trashed the Times throughout the book. If your a conservative, you probably don’t read the times, so this point was a bit over done. I particularly liked her article on ‘Dating in Washington D.C.’.

This book will be useful in having conversations with my colleagues at ThoughtWorks.

When the Manly Council announced the free screening of An Inconvenient Truth, I figured if I saw the film I could in affect get $15 of my taxes back.

I was expecting some sort of National Geographic meets Super Size Me type documentary. Instead, it was Al Gore giving a PowerPoint (Keynote really) presentation. Interspersed with his lecture were random boring stories about his life. If the movie were simply a Gore biography I wouldn’t have gone to see it for sure, but I have no doubt liberals would have flocked to it just the same.

The subject matter in the film was nothing new. ‘The earth is getting warmer and we need to change the way we do things.’ I agree with that part of it, I just differ on the how. I also don’t think it’s wise for use to be sending trillions of dollars to countries who don’t particularly like the western world.

Traders and quants belong to different cultures. Traders are like two- or three-year-olds, have very short attention spans and want instant gratification. They are easily distracted, fortunately. Quants are precocious, bright individuals of the same age group, entirely self-absorbed and full of their own self-importance. They need constant reassurance and a fair bit of stroking and praise to keep them going. They are also prone to the odd tantrum and hissy fit. It helps to have the skills of a kindergarten teacher to run a trading room.

Satyajit manages to explain a lot of complicated ideas in an easy to understand fashion. I finally understand the difference between R, NR, MR, and MMR credit events.

The book also covered about every major disaster in the 25 years which derivatives have been actively traded. The author occasionally concedes that derivatives have done some good, his main thesis is that one should be approach them with extreme caution.

I only rented this movie because Keira Knightley was in it, but as it turns out, she only had a cameo appearance for about 10 seconds. You can see her entire performance on YouTube and skip renting the movie.

‘Blackhawk Down’ was a book and movie based on a historical event. ‘Tears of the Sun’ seems to want to be a hero/action movie which decided to take place in war torn Nigeria.

Some may say that it’s based on the Biafran War, but the whole idea of the rescue mission is fictional. A movie about the Red Cross doctors who served during the war and later went on to form Doctor’s Without Borders would have been very interesting, but certainly wouldn’t be staring Bruce Willis.

A two hour movie about modern day Darfur would be very moving, but again, there wouldn’t be a story about the Navy Seals being there, and there wouldn’t be a role for Bruce Willis.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

While I agree with the quote, I don’t think this movie did anything to raise awareness of anything, but rather cause confusion, or make us think that the U.S. military is doing something to help to genocide in Africa. It doesn’t help that the movie is set in Nigeria, which has had civil war and terrible atrocities occurring, but is now a relatively peaceful nation which is best known for the various email scams they send out. Certainly this film doesn’t help our view of modern day Nigeria.

This film attempts to be “Black Hawk Down”, “Hotel Rwanda”, “Heartbreak Ridge”, and “Rambo”. Unfortunately, it was none of these and was rather disappointing.

I really enjoyed Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in the original movie adaptation of Doctor Zhivago, and I’ve thought about reading the book.

I was hoping that the mini-series version would add more detail than what was possible in the original feature length film. Unfortunately, it did not seem like they made much use of the extra time, and in fact, it seemed like there was more of the story in the original version. The extra time in the mini series seems to be spent with long camera shots and slow transitions.

I like Yuri’s character: optimist, romantic, poet, dreamer. Kiera Knightley does an excellent job playing Lara. It’s unfortunate that the film’s wasn’t able to do a better job showing the characters age. Lara is supposed start the film at 16 and end somewhere about 30. Yuri seems to just grow more facial hair as he ages.

The thing I missed the most about this version of the film was the soundtrack. I can’t think of Dr. Zhivago without thinking about the soundtrack from the original motion picture. The music is a central theme in the original, and in the remake, it seems merely like an afterthought.

I had the opportunity to attend a presentation done by the author. He visited MCAS Miramar and described the research research he did to write the book.

I’m glad that he wrote the book, as many people were not aware of the situation in Somolia, and the efforts of our troops over there at the time.

I picked this book up in London’s Heathrow airport on my way back to the states quite some time ago. I nearly completed the book before I landed in the US. This has become one of my favorite books of all time.

The characters and dialog in the book are fantastic. I’ve enjoyed the movie adaptations mostly because they have kept so much of Jane Austin’s original dialog in them. Of course the movies have to abridge the dialog, but the parts which remain are virtually unchanged.

I like to think of myself as a poorer version of Mr. Darcy. I’m not particularly out going, but I try to always be a gentleman. I used to think I’ve could find a Victorian wife and bring her back to ‘Pemberley’, and life happily ever after.

This book was a let down after having just completed reading Effective C+. Many of the 35 items are similar to ones in the other book, but often go into numbing detail. Some of the items weren’t specific to C+, and could be considered general patterns. Also, this book hasn’t been updated in a while, so the stuff on smart pointers is rather out of date.

Compared to a Deitel & Deitel book, this book is a great read.

When I first got my Senseo I was using it every day. Now though, I only use it on the weekends. It makes for a nice single cup of coffee.

Now, that I’ve started working, I only use it on the weekends. ThoughtWorks has an account a local coffee shop, which makes ‘real’ coffees. Getting a cappuccino every morning sure beats anything the Flavia machine can produce.