Charles Stross – Singularity Sky / Iron Sunrise
I came into contact with the science fiction writings of Charles Stross through his work in Asimov’s (which were all part of the same story line, now compiled into the novel Accelerando, which I haven’t read yet, because it adds new material). Based on these impressions, I bought two of his books, both set in a different story line: Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise. Well, let me tell you, both exceeded my expectations. Although, in my opinion, not yet up to the level of Iain M. Banks, these novels offer a better balance between readability and interest than Mr. Banks’ novels, that while very interesting, take some time (and effort) to get your teeth into.
The events in both books unfold in an universe in which humanity has been unwillingly scattered throughout space by the Eschaton, a singularity entity presumably created by mankind, which wants to protect it’s own existence by prohibiting the use of causality violation devices within its light cone. Sounds confusing? Well, it’s fertile ground for great writing, well developed characters, and all round good hard(ish) science fiction.
New Aya Bistrôt
Last friday, the new Aya Bistrôt opened. Also owned and managed by the Yoshitake family, it’s on the same building as the regular Aya, but geared towards a younger crowd. It boasts an enclosed refrigerated conveyor belt, to keep the sushi (always prepared in front of you, of course) at its freshest. There’s also a take away counter where you can also order cooked dishes.
If you know Aya, then I’ll just mention that the quality is exactly the same: one of the best sushi and sashimi restaurants in Europe, comparable to the best restaurants in Japan. Give it a try, either the Aya or the Aya Bistrôt, open everyday for lunch and dinner in the Twin Towers shopping center in Lisbon.
Vodafone Linksys WRT54G3G
Although we’re not a Vodafone customer (for no special reason), we signed up for their 3G data package which includes a 3G PCMCIA data card plus a Linksys WRT54G3G wifi router.
The reason to choose a 3G solution is that we spend the weekends away from civilization (i.e. ADSL or a cable connection at least), and we were using an ISDN line (64kbit up/downstream for a single connection, 128kbit if you want to pay double), which is expensive and slow nowadays. For €29.90 a month you get 10GB of traffic (if you sign up until the end of the year), which is more than enough for the weekends.
It works like a charm, and it was very easy to setup. It’s a robust solution. So you have an idea, I “remote desktop” installed Apache + Perl + PHP + MySQL + Wordpress on my home server (you’re reading this, aren’t you?) through it. On my iBook. In the kitchen. And have I mentioned we are (were!) away from civilization? If I put the router near a window facing south, I can get downloads up to 35KB/s, so I’m more than happy.
The only thing that I haven’t managed to get working is the Auto Connect feature – it doesn’t, and it disables the hardware connect/disconnect button. Haven’t been able to find anything about it yet.
The new firmware which fixes this bug is available here.
