Misfits / Howard Overman

Misfits

category: fantasy... etc, created by:

Howard Overman

produced by Clerkenwell Films, in 2009,
watched in June 2010 on ABC iview

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

Whatever you do -- do not start watching this series anywhere other than at episode one!

This is a series with a continuing and developing story. Also... it just may not make sense if you start watching at a later episode:-)

Misfits is -- according to Wikipedia -- a "Supernatural drama, Dark comedy, Superhero, Teen drama". I'll just categorise it as fantasy and subadult. Comedy? Yes, it's there -- but that's not the main thrust of the series... it's a drama. Dark comedy? Not really... The comedy is funny. It just happens to be set in the middle of a drama.

Classic comedy scene, where the time-reverser finally manages to dump his former girlfriend: Clever edit, minimum time spent for maximum explanation of his difficulties. With an over-riding demonstration of what a nice person he really is.

Plus, there's the regular chuckle with the running gag of what other strange super-powers have been created.

This series aims at a "subadult" audience. The characters, language, dress sense, all are for younger people. Yet the story and characters could appeal to all ages. The characters are extreme, yet sympathetic. Even the smart alec ratbag is starting to become more likeable, as he ... well... learns life's lessons of friendship and trust. Perhaps.

The language is rough, plenty of expletives-not-deleted. The accents are mixed, with at least one star being almost incomprehensible. The sex scenes are regular, though only one was explicit. This is a show for the adult subadult.

Misfits is both clever and enjoyable.

Clever?

Just watch the time-reversal episode... One of the best stories that I have seen, to explain the difficulties of changing the past in order to improve the present. There is a slow start, to explain what is happening. Then faster and faster, edit and cut, flash back leap forward, as we understand the principles and need to see the action. With a very satisfactory and absolutely believable result.

I stopped reading the Wikipedia article when it seemed to be approaching a plot spoiler. Now, I am eagerly waiting for next week's episode...

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Echoes of Earth / Sean Williams & Shane Dix

Echoes of Earth

category: science fiction, authors:

Sean Williams & Shane Dix

book 1 of The Orphans Trilogy
published by Voyager, original copyright 2002, read in June 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

Okay, here's the idea: Human minds are copied into a computer then spend a century flying to another star system. There, they are given alien artifacts including an FTL spaceship; they could fly home in two days. So what do they do? (btw: FTL = Faster Than Light.)

Well, John Carter of Mars would have leaped into the spaceship and rescued a beautiful, scantily-clad princess by lunchtime. Richard Ballinger Seaton would have analysed the FTL drive, upgraded to Skylark FTL and rescued an entire civilisation (whose people are all beautiful and/or handsome and can see no point in wearing clothes), all within a couple of days. Even Bilbo Baggins would have used the spaceship, possibly to escape from the Sackville Bagginses...

The characters in Echoes of Earth... call a management meeting to discuss the question. The meeting can barely agree to put a flight plan proposal to the rest of the crew, with a vote on future use of FTL spaceship to be put to a general but non-binding vote, perhaps in a week or two, for further consideration by management.

What a load of time-wasting rubbish!

The whole book is like that: slow.

Worse yet... After endless debate on whether or not they should use the free FTL spaceship, they leap with almost no discussion into use of the alien FTL communicator. And -- here's a plot spoiler -- use of the FTL communicator is the one thing that they should not have done!

Several years ago I picked up the second book of this trilogy. I read the brief "what came before", the summary of book 1, Echoes. I read the summary of book 1 and thought, Good grief! that's ridiculous! ... and decided to not read book 2.

I've now read book 1. The plot is actually not as bad as the summary indicated. It is just... soooo... sloooooowwwww.

It's not really a bad book. Just slow. Doc Smith could have crowded the entire trilogy into a far more exciting, single volume. And still had enough great storylines for two more volumes.

Read Echoes to pass the time. Its ideas may make you think. But it may just put you to sleep. And the characters will make you want to kick them into doing something -- anything -- rather than just sit around in endless, tedious, wondering-what-will-happen-next discussions.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

category: thriller, author:

Stieg Larsson

translated from Swedish by Reg Keeland
book 1 of Millennium
published by Maclehose Press, original copyright 2005,
read in Jun 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

That... is a very good book. Not perfect. Very good.

The writing style is almost clinical: straightforward, factual, detailed. It's easy to believe that Larsson wrote factual articles on difficult topics -- topics where there could be strong feelings with differing opinions. The main male character is in a similar role and the writing style reflects this background.

You're reading this story, watching a complex web of crime and deceit being meticulously uncovered. Suddenly -- there is rape, violence, family skeletons leaping out of closets... Yet even that is written in a straightforward fashion. No tricks of fancy phrasing. Just a factual account. Larsson lets the facts speak for themselves.

The facts are complex: unexpected twists unexpectedly uncovered. This is not plots within plots, it is a more believable discovery of unexpected depths and related nastiness. Each strand is simple in itself, it is the unexpected discovery of the new strand which provides the complexity of the story.

Even so, the unravelling is ordered: close off one crime, move on to the next. It's like a climb down into a dark pit via a set of deep and murky stairs -- where the climb out, is also via a set of stairs. One by one, safely up one step before attempting the next. Which all makes for a complex set of plots being dealt with in a very orderly manner.

It's a book that is hard to put down. You want to read on, to see what will happen next. The interest, though, is in the story rather than in the way that the story is presented. Nothing wrong with that! I mean, that this is an excellent story and that the author has written an excellent book. With no need to resort to "tricks" in an attempt to build up artificial excitement.

And you know what else is fascinating about this book? It's Swedish!

The prison system is, well, unique. The places, shops, general background, all emphasise that this is not Australia / US / England. Something different! (Unless, of course, you're Swedish.) The weather, the people, even the clothes... Just wait till you read what is worn by the rich & powerful industry magnate when he appears on TV!

There are also some comments which appear to be author's opinion and not essential to the plot: the lack of investigation by "investigative journalists" and the role of the stock market, for example. The first made me think. The second surprised me; I thought I was alone in my view. All add depth and interest to the book.

On the other hand, I would question the use of statistics to emphasis the theme of each section of the book.

"18% of the women in Sweden have at one time been threatened by a man." It may be true. Written like that, it has a strong impact. To be valid -- it needs to be set in context. What sort of threat? Was this a difference in power, or a difference of opinion? How many men were threatened? Statistics are based on fact. To understand the statistics, we need to know the factual basis.

Read the book. Enjoy it. Take away whatever message you will, about crime, punishment, and the potential misuse of differences in personal power.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

London Fields / Martin Amis

London Fields

category: fiction, author:

Martin Amis

published by Penguin, original copyright 1989, read in Jun 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 4 out of 10

(Agamedes' remembered opinion of
The Phoenix Guards: 8 out of 10)

Have you ever read Brust's The Phoenix Guards? It is written with rolling, long-winded sentences, circumlocutions which leave the reader breathless and, quite often, confused. Yet the end result is an entertaining adventure with humour and heroics. The pretentious style and apparently irrelevant diversions (which are, often enough, actually irrelevant) make for a greatly enjoyable book. A book which my wife gave up reading after barely a chapter. A book which I really should reread and formally review...

Anyway...

London Fields is written in a somewhat similar style. The London Fields sentences are shorter but the wandering style is similar. Instead of a single plot thread which rambles to and fro, Amis has several closely linked plots which jump to and fro, leaving the reader to struggle against confusion. Amis' writing style is -- like Brust's -- pretentious. But Amis fails to write a book which can be enjoyed.

To tell the truth, I'm sorry that I have attempted to compare London Fields with The Phoenix Guards. Even though I use Brust as an example of "good" against Amis' example of "bad" -- I believe that Brust could be embarrassed to be in the same sentence as Amis.

London Fields is populated by characters who are smart but cruel, or stupid and senselessly cruel, or innocent and the target of deliberate or unthinking cruelty. The petty crim is gypped when he buys some dodgy stolen goods; he quickly sells the dodgy goods, only to be paid in counterfeit notes, which he quickly shifts of to another petty crim... That's one of the funny paragraphs, amongst the 200 pages that I was able to read. Most of the "humour" is just too cruel to be enjoyed.

A few nights ago, ABC TV had a show about some sort of "financial instrument" called "Timberwolf", being sold by Goldman Sachs Group. According to the report, Goldman Sachs recognised Timberwolf as being "shitty" -- destined to lose all value, presumably. So what did Goldman Sachs do with their "shitty" Timberwolf? They sold as much Timberwolf as possible -- backed by their own then-solid reputation -- to other investment companies and financial advisors... And that is a lot like the amoral and unethical behaviour which underpins London Fields.

Do you want to read a book about stupid or scheming, amoral and unethical characters who emphasise their disregard for others with brutal violence? A book which is written in a pretentious pseudo-literary style... The "days of sun and storm", for example: "They make us feel -- and I'm on the edge of nausea as I write these words -- what it is to live in a universe." Yes, I am indeed on the edge of nausea as I reread that sentence.

Do you want to read an I'm-so-clever yet so unpleasant book? Apparently, plenty of people do: the cover of my copy says, "The no. 1 bestseller".

My rating on the first few chapters would have been 6: read to pass the time. As I read further, I downgraded to 5: readable but only if there's nothing else. Then I took the book away for the weekend, thinking, stuck in a hotel, nothing else to read, I'll get a fair way through this book...

In that hotel room, with nowhere else to go, London Fields my only book, nothing much on TV -- I read my wife's Women's Weekly. And downgraded London Fields to 4: bad but could be read. "Could be read"? Yes, I think so. If I were on a desert island. Without a Women's Weekly.

Read it at your moral peril.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Wickepin, Western Australia / Toilet

Wickepin, Western Australia

category: toilet

S 32 46.879 E 117 29.975

visited in June 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 7.5 out of 10

You may have been wondering, Why is this blog called PissWeakly? Well, you see, it's like this... The original idea was, to review toilets. Public toilets. Or, even better, publicly accessible toilets. What a piss weak idea, I was told :-( What a great name, I thought :-) But what would a toilet review include, I wondered?

So far, PissWeakly has reviewed books, some gadgets, more books, a movie, even more books. But what will go in a PissWeakly review of a toilet? As yet -- I don't really know. Stay tuned, watch this space, sooner or later -- we will both know.

Here, at last, is the first, PissWeakly review of a public toilet:

Public toilet, in Wickepin, Western Australia

Exterior (7): These toilets are -- quite clearly -- quite new. Is this a convenient (rofl) use of the "royalties for regions" money? If so -- well done -- money well spent! The toilet block is neat, new, still unsullied by age, nothing particularly adventurous... It's just, a toilet block, although the deep verandah is a good investment for hot or wet weather. Time will tell whether the surrounding grass becomes lawn... or weeds.

Location (8): This toilet is by the main road, in the centre of the small town of Wickepin. Playground on the far side and shops across the road. More interesting, is the history... The second photo is taken from the verandah of the restored house of Albert Facey, author of A Fortunate Life. Starting near the house there is a simple but interesting walk, past various points of local historical interest.

Cleanliness (8): There are already some signs of general wear and tear but the toilets are well cleaned. In the toilet stall, some paper had been left lying on the floor; judging by the overall standard, that paper will have been removed by the next day. There was some water on the floor, possibly from cleaning -- a sign that the builder may not have correctly sloped the floor. Everything else was spotless.

Facilities (7): Stall, urinal, bench, basin, mirror... power point and timed electric light. Even more important -- toilet paper and paper towels.

Did you notice the solar hot water system on the roof? A good sign -- though I did not even notice if there was hot water to the hand basin. I also did not think to test any of the facilities except for the ones that I actually used (which did work).

And a final weakness in this review: For reasons which you may guess, I only checked out the men's facilities...

So there you have it, the first PissWeakly toilet review.

There will -- I hope -- be more... Eventually.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Sword of Shannara / Terry Brooks

The Sword of Shannara

category: fantasy, author:

Terry Brooks

book 1 of Shannara
published by Orbit, original copyright 1977, read in Jun 2010
(and before, years earlier)

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

First, an admission: I read this book years ago and, from memory, I would have rated it as a five. I think that I just didn't like the characters... they are not heroic. But...

This time round, I enjoyed Sword a lot more. Sure, the characters are reluctant to be heroes. They hold back, have doubts, get frozen with fear... Yet they continue, and grow. On this second reading -- the author begins with realistic characters and allows them to develop into heroes. Which, I guess, makes for a very good book!

This is Brooks' first published book. It's good but not great. The plot flows well and there are no obvious gaps (as long as you remember that this book is a "fantasy"!). In the style of a fantasy epic, there are plenty of major characters and several major plot threads. Brooks manages to keep the threads under control.

He also manages to sustain our interest in all of the main characters; they are each unique enough -- and well enough described -- to keep separate in my mind. As we flick from character to character, I have no trouble remembering who they are and what they are supposed to be doing.

Some of the shifts in story are too obviously cliff-hangers. Quite often, a character will think, "Oh no! We're all gonna diiiiieee..." ... and will be left there, for many pages. Unsubtle! No worries, this is, after all, Brooks' first novel.

One interesting departure from the epic fantasy standard: the chief villain is actually defeated! The standard approach is to kill a henchman in the first novel, a sub-villain in the second and the chief villain in the third (often, though, with no definite dead body). In Sword, the villain definitely dies. Glancing at further titles, Brooks seems to introduce new villains in each novel -- a very praiseworthy effort!

And finally, two notes: This is "Book 1 of Shannara". It's the first book written. First King of Shannara was written later but is a prequel. Perhaps it should be "book 1"? Or perhaps not...

Note 2: A far more recent Brooks book is The Gypsy Morph. In my opinion, Sword is a better book than Morph. In Sword, Brooks uses "I'm not going to tell you," as a device to build pseudo-suspense. Okay, so does every author... By the time he wrote Morph, it seems that "I'm not going to tell you," and "I don't know what I'll do until I have to do it," are the only devices in use.

Read Morph because it completes a link between two sets of books. Read Sword for enjoyment.

===

20sep20: And I read it again. With much the same opinion as in the above review. Except:

Good grief! it's a direct steal from Lord of the Rings!

A powerful magician leads a group of elves, dwarves and men  to destroy a dark lord. Of the group, only one can wield the item which will destroy the baddie. There's even a Gollum lookalike. A final trek across a bare and desolate land, a city under siege, only the destruction of the dark lord saves the city.

Differences? Elves are short, dwarves don't like dark, enclosed spaces. A thief joins the group and thieves were introduced in D&D games. Unless you count the Conan stories. But not in LotR.

So the story is a direct steal -- but the author says that his book is an attempt to place LotR in a different world. Which he has done. Quite well.

My 2010 score is seven, Well worth reading. Today I would rate it six, Read to pass the time. Given the author's stated intent, I am happy to leave the rating at seven.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Who let the blogs out? / Biz Stone

Who let the blogs out?

category: commentary, author:

Biz Stone

original copyright 2004, read in May 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10

What can I say about this book? Nothing much... I only skimmed a few sections.

Not that it was bad (as far as I read). But it was dated. And a bit too gung ho name dropping I-know-all-ish for me. Still, PissWeakly is opinion. There is no promise of fact and no guarantee of relevance. So let's start with what little I can remember:

Read it as a history of blogs up to 2004. Biz Stone is founder and co-founder of various blog sites and systems -- and of Twitter. So he was there and involved. He knows what was happening and he may have written some of the truth. In a very glib fashion.

It's a readable book, especially if you want to learn about the history of blogs and blogging.

One thing that does come through -- in my skimming -- is the commercialisation of the web. There are stories of growing readership, rapid take-up -- and making money. The book is an indication of the direction of mainstream blogging.

"The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives." That's from the Wikipedia article on blogs. That's what I remember, of the first blogs.

I was browsing blogs... many years ago... when I came across a real, online diary. A teenage boy in small-town America was documenting his life, including family and town events. It was fascinating! The blog -- as an online, public diary -- gave a glimpse of a small slice of real life.

What is a blog today? It's a means of making money.

Okay, perhaps there are still people out there who write an online diary. Perhaps I am prejudiced, because I have recently read several articles related to Google ads earning money for blogs. Perhaps there are still people who blog for pleasure.

Google adwords support lead me to a site -- a blog -- which provided top tips for earning money from your blog...

The blog author began his blogging career by providing tips on photography -- but realised that people reading tips on photography would already own a camera. So he started another blog -- reviewing photographic devices. If there is a new camera (for example) about to be released -- he will write a review. Even if he knows nothing, he will write a review. And he will provide a link to Amazon, where readers can pre-order that camera -- and the blog author will get a commission.

There is no special interest in photography, no hope to improve the knowledge of readers, no desire to share information -- just an over-riding urge to make money. No original thought required -- just enough words to wrap around a link to a potential commission.

Did you happen to find this post by a search on "photography"? Or even on "Pentax K100"? Surprise me: follow the link, buy the camera, earn me a commission. Oh yes, I do own a Pentax K100. And, in my opinion -- it's a very good camera. So there.

The PissWeakly Ethos

I write for fun. I write about books that I have read because I wanted to read that book. I hope that someone out there enjoys -- or at least reads -- what I write. It would be nice to make money. But I do not post articles solely to make money. It's all my opinions and I try to keep my opinions honest. If I don't like a book -- I will say so... and still provide a link to Amazon. After all, whether I like it or not, you may still want to buy it.

Enough ranting (I have a separate blog for that).

If you want to read a book about the origins of the blogging business, read Who let the blogs out? It's not a bad book and it's very easy to read. I just found that I was not particularly interested in the topic.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Garmin Oregon 550 / GPS

Garmin Oregon 550

category: handheld GPS, by:

Garmin

we bought a new GPS unit, in June 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

We bought a new GPS -- global positioning system -- unit, to replace our aging Garmin eTrex. This is what we wanted... with the most important at the top of the list:

• Essential: a GPS to allow us to do "paperless geocaching". Our old eTrex does not support paperless geocaching.
  
• Essential: A GPS unit to guide us on "GPS walks". See, for example, Walk GPS. The eTrex is adequate for this.
  
• Nice to have: Street navigation -- largely to support our geocaching. We could use street navigation to drive as close as possible to a geocache.
  
• Nice to have: Guidance (minor roads, contours, etc) on 4WD treks would be useful.
  

First impressions of the Oregon

Terrific!

Let me qualify that: The device itself is terrific. The software is quite good but takes a while to understand. The user manuals are absolutely awful...

I spent many hours, sweating over PC and GPS, working my way through the basics. Some of it was absolutely dead simple -- once I figured out what to do. Perhaps it's the really simple stuff which is not adequately explained? Worse yet, you need to use several systems -- as well as the GPS. And, often, there are many alternatives -- with no explanation of which is best.

The Garmin manuals are awful. But most of the problems are not due to Garmin.

The essentials of paperless geocaching require the extraction of geocache data from the geocaching website, via the PC, to the GPS. Instructions on the geocaching website are weak, not helped by the requirement to be all things to all users. The Garmin instructions would benefit from an explanation of the essential approach to GPS files. In between -- are dozens of alternate pieces of software.

On the Garmin website, at least one set of instructions does not work as written -- on the steps which use Google Earth. The instructions are for overlaying a personal map on the GPS map -- not an essential for what we do. Everything else on the GPS (that I have tried so far) works fine -- once the initial understanding has been gained.

We have taken the GPS out for some paperless geocaching. It worked brilliantly! We learnt that street maps and street navigation would be really useful. We learnt how easily we -- the GPS users -- can forget some simple yet essential steps. Next outing will be even better:-)

Our first impressions are, that the Oregon is brilliant and that it does all that we hoped -- and it will do even more. Technically, it picks up satellite signals far quicker than the eTrex. It picks up signals where the eTrex could not. And the software offers features -- and ease of use -- that are way ahead of the eTrex.

Satisfied? You bet! Still learning? Definitely.

But how much does it cost?

You buy a GPS... but there are always extras. Here is what we bought, or are about to buy. With costs -- but note the explanation that follows the costs.

In my opinion -- the list provides an almost complete set of gear for effective paperless caching. You can skip the last item and you may want to add a TOPO map for your area (rrp $229 for my area). Apart from that, I suggest that you also carry a pen or pencil -- and a pocket-sized notebook, just in case:-)

Garmin code	item + comment	rrp in AUD
	Garmin Oregon 550 ... the GPS unit	$649
010-10850-20	hard carrying case ... intended use is for travelling, if the GPS travels in a suitcase	$45
010-10851-11	vehicle power cable ... saves GPS battery power while using the GPS in a car	$39
010-11-31-00	marine/cart mount ... for permanent fixing in our 4WD; the standard "car mount" uses a less secure suction cup	$39
	four spare NiMH rechargeable batteries ... for those days when there is just no mains power	$30
	8GB SanDisk MicroSD card ... to store the extra City Navigator maps (wrong! see *note*)	$50
010-11388-00	City Navigator maps on CD ... plus postage ... will need to be loaded onto the MicroSD card (wrong! see *note*); the CD version comes with extra route planning software for the PC	$195 $15
010-10997-02	premium heart rate monitor ... well, why not...	$89
	Total cost	$1,151

Explanation of costs:

All the costs are rrp (recommended retail price) in AUD (Australian dollars), direct from the Garmin website -- as at June 2010. Check the site to see if the rrp's have changed.

Various shops and websites offered various prices. We went with the "local" shop where our loyalty card gets us a 10% discount on rrp, for every purchase.

*note* (July 2010)

As I understood it -- and this is my own faulty assumption -- I thought that the CD version of the maps would be loaded onto a MicroSD card. As it turned out, the City Navigator maps simply loaded "somewhere" onto the inbuilt storage. How certain am I of this? Well...

One day, I collected a trojan virus from an internet site. I cleared the virus from my PC -- but it has copied onto the Garmin MicroSD card. Windows Explorer struggled to read the card, I gave up waiting and removed the card from the Garmin. The Garmin -- and its maps -- still run fine.

Since then I have found just one possibly useful use for a MicroSD card -- I could store my taken-by-the-GPS photos there. Meanwhile, I have decided that the GPS is fine for a single "locating" photo but I prefer to use a "real" camera for the "real" photos. That's just my preference.

I still have plenty of available photo space on "fixed" GPS storage. The MicroSD card is locked away, possibly forever. As it turns out, I should not have bought it.

So subtract $50 from the total cost to get a good GPS setup for geocaching.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.