He is superb at capturing the stream of memories and minutiae that run through all our minds in a way that makes us interested in the character and his preoccupations.
I don’t think the character (who, I think, is the author quite undisguised) is all that interesting a man in and of himself, and I think that is the point - looked at closely enough, with some empathy, anyone can be interesting. And Baker even manages to make a story arc out of a two month sequence of daily diary entries, with a conventional climax and denouement structure and some character growth. Unexpected and very pleasing!
I’m amazed at the continuity of geek culture: how similar the early days of EDVAC and UNIVAC were to the the dot com culture of hyperkinetic geeks working around the clock and fluffing business plans right and left.
I loved the description of Eckert perched precariously on a chair back interviewing some fellow for seven hours, inspired by the candidate’s past projects to riff on about his own ideas. Eckert especially liked people with technical hobbies, since he supposed they would be most amenable to working on technical projects for his company around the clock.
I loved the breathless, hip, intellectual pop-culture neo-electric-kool-aid acid test writing style. He captures the initial thrill of joining an on-line community, the strange blurring of on-line and real-life identity that those of us who live largely in our own minds are apt to experience, especially the first time out. His descriptions of the characters are vivid: excellent postage-stamp portraits that we would have had to compile for ourselves from hours of typed dialogue.
About two-thirds of the way through I lost interest in the descriptions of bickering and intense dislike among the participants in the mud. Had I been there I suppose I would have left the mud; as it is, I stopped reading the book. I’ll finish it one of these days.
Recommended.
First impressions on 21 July 2003
Encyclopaedic but readable. Part I is a tutorial overview of templates. The remainder of the book covers advanced usage, idioms and cutting edge techniques, and serves as a detailed reference as well. I bought the book because I stalled out on page 12 of Andrei Alexandrescu’s Modern C++ Design for inadequate understanding of templates. (dead link to moderncppdesign.com)
I like the book. So I get to complain a little: I’m in the middle of Part I now. The level is uneven: a properly (but painfully) elementary first chapter is followed by a fairly heavy section on template function overloading which invites you to digest the gory details in an appendix. Maybe when I return to the book as a reference guide I’ll be glad of that. Code examples get repeated verbatim, sometimes on the same page, to illustrate an additional point. Pads the book out a bit, and makes me scratch my head looking for differences that aren’t there. On the other hand, keeps me from having to flip back a page.
Physically, the books is attractive, with a clear and readable font and layout. Solidly in the Stroustrupesque “academic” tradition: straight text, no silly icons or sidebars.
Sadder than I remember. The first time I read it, I was impressed by the satire of the Scientific Establishment. This time I was more attuned to Kelvin’s inner journey, his changing understanding of his feelings of guilt and love for Harey (Rheya) and her Solarian incarnation, and the sacrifices each are willing to make for the other that suggest to me that they really did come to love each other in the end, beyond Harey’s programmed love and Kelvin’s sense of guilt. I think that Kelvin’s decision to stay on the planet in hopes of establishing contact with what might be a planetary intelligence is just sublimated hope of Harey’s further reincarnation. I think he would have done better to have let go.
A strange trip through Rickheit’s subconscious. Erotic, yes, but more about love and loneliness and needyness and escapism. Compelling.