reading

Things that I’m looking forward to, or checking out right now:

• Fictionplane: Band fronted by Joe Summer, Sting’s son. Saw them last night, opening for The Police. Quite possibly the best opening band I’ve ever seen.
• The Simpsons Movie
• Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man (he’s become one of my favorite actors after 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
• The new Harry Potters
• The Dark is Rising, movie based on the first book I read from the sequence when I was a kid. Made such an impression that all of my computers are named after the elements in the title poem.
• The Golden Compass, from the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. Haven’t read it yet myself, but hear very good things from other folks.
• Damages on FX, sounds like a great show, but I probably won’t get to see it until it’s on DVD, as I’ve given up cable TV.
• 1-18-08, aka “Cloverfield”, J.J. Abrams’ (Alias, Lost) new monster movie. I’m definitely intrigued.
• A few more movies that have piqued my interest: The Host, Sunshine, King of Kong, Rocket Science, Dynamite Warrior, 10,000 BC (kinda looks like Stargate, without the time travel), The Invasion (aka YAIOTBS, but looks promising), The Bourne Ultimatum, Shoot ‘em Up, and Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox— I love the soap, but that dude is seriously nuts.

Well, after spending some more time looking for the rest of that “C is for Cocoa” series which doesn’t seem to yet exist, and on the basis of several reviews and comments in forums, I bought the book Programming in Objective-C by Stephen G. Kochan. Yes, I want to learn programming in Cocoa, but as Objective-C is the lingua optimus for programming with Cocoa, it seemed like the logical first step. (You can also program with Cocoa in Java, but it’s not recommended.) On top of that, I’m finding that there are other environments like Cocoa that exist on other platforms like NeXTSTEP (its predecessor) and open-source variants like gnuSTEP and LinuxSTEP, which means that when the time comes, if I know how to write a solid program in Objective-C, I may, in fact, be able to port it to Windows and Linux without serious wailing and gnashing of teeth.

A bit from the author’s introduction neatly sums up exactly why this book was the one:

When contemplating writing a tutorial on Objective-C, a fundamental decision had to be made. As with all prior texts on Objective-C, I could write mine to assume the reader already knew how to write C programs. I could also teach the language from the perspective of using the rich library of routines, such as the Foundation and Application Kit frameworks. Some texts also take the approach of teaching how to use the development tools, like the Mac’s Project Builder and Interface Builder. I had several problems adopting this approach. First, learning the entire C language before learning Objective-C is wrong. C is a procedural language containing many features that are not necessary for programming in Objective-C, especially at the novice level. In fact, resorting to some of these features goes against the grain of adhering to a good object-oriented programming methodology. It’s also not a good idea to teach all the details of a procedural language before learning an object-oriented one. This starts the programmer off in the wrong direction, and gives the wrong orientation and mindset for fostering a good object-oriented programming style. Just because Objective-C is an extension of the C language doesn’t mean you have to learn C first! So, I decided neither to teach C first nor to assume prior knowledge of the language. Instead, I decided to take the unconventional approach of teaching Objective-C and the underlying C language as a single integrated language, and from an object-oriented programming perspective. The purpose of this book is as its name implies: to teach you how to program in Objective-C. It makes few assumptions about the platform you’re running under, the development tools you have available, or the library of classes at your disposal. All that material can be learned elsewhere, after you’ve learned how to write programs in Objective-C. In fact, mastering that material will be much easier after you have a solid foundation on how to program in Objective-C. This book does not assume much, if any, previous programming experience. In fact, if you’re a novice programmer, you should be able to learn Objective-C as your first programming language from this text.

A little wordy and repetitive, yes, but that may be a plus when it comes to an instructive text, and it’s exactly what I needed to hear after picking up several books that— because they assumed I already knew C— were next to useless.

For those of you who need something to read:

“Books that will induce a mindfuck,” at Everything2.com

“A review of contemporary science fiction,” at kuro5hin.org

I often browse through AAlgar’s bookshelves, looking for something to abscond with and (hopefully) keep in a safe haven in my otherwise messy den until its eventual return. I borrowed this particular tome from AAl, who started out on this Buddhist discovery trip several years ago.

This book by Dinty Moore (how can you go wrong with a name like that?) relates his year-long search for American Buddhism. Basically the idea is? sure, a lot of Americans are turning to Buddhism, but is it just following foreign rituals and practices, or are there actually American Buddhists, taking the Buddhist ideals, and making them uniquely American?

Dinty’s personable and humorous writing style deftly takes us through several weekend retreats, public events, and interviews with a number of people who may define the way Buddhism is being integrated into the American experience. Most interesting to me were an interview with a Jesuit priest who also practices Buddhist meditation and thought (additionally interesting because Dinty himself was raised Irish-Catholic), and a couple living in North Carolina who explore the dichotomy of trying to practice Buddhism while also trying to make a living at it.

Overall, this book was a swift, fun read that encouraged me to explore Buddhism more.

1999 :: auth. Dinty W. Moore ::