Thursday, May 29, 2008 

http://blogs.cozi.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/27/preloadajaxdata.png

Preloading Ajax data as JSON has helped improve the load time and perceived performance of our family software application. Most of the pages in our web client are dynamically generated in the browser from a complex set of JavaScript and CSS, so we're always looking out for ways to make them appear more quickly.

More at the Cozi Tech Blog.

posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 6:27:17 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008 
Agents of Light and Darkness
Title: Agents of Light and Darkness
Author: Simon R. Green
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Publisher: Ace
Copyright: 2003
Pages: 233
Keywords: fantasy, noir
Reading period: 26–28 May, 2008

Next book after Something From the Nightside.

The Unholy Grail has come to the Nightside, and the angels of both Heaven and Hell want it. The Fallen and the Elect are deadly and implacable and wholly careless of casualties.

John Taylor, the man who can find anything, must lay hands on it first and keep it from either side.

A fantasy noir with a heavy dose of black humor. Moderately entertaining.

posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 6:13:09 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Monday, May 26, 2008 
A Princess of Roumania
Title: A Princess of Roumania
Author: Paul Park
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: Tor
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 460
Keywords: fantasy
Reading period: 21–26 May, 2008

In a parallel world, Roumania is a great European power and America is a barely settled wilderness. Miranda was sent to our world by her aunt, Princess Aegypta, when she was a small child, for her own safety. Now Aegypta and the Baroness each want to retrieve her, for their own reasons.

The book revolves around Miranda and her two friends, lost and confused in the primeval forests of New England, and the Baroness in Bucharest, The latter is the more interesting character: an impulsive former actress who climbed into high society and is now falling downwards, struggling as her plans go awry.

posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 11:59:45 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008 
Un Lun Dun
Title: Un Lun Dun
Author: China Miéville
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: Del Rey
Copyright: 2007
Pages: 471
Keywords: fantasy
Reading period: 18-21 May, 2008

Deeba and Zanna, both twelve-year-old London girls, find their way into Un Lun Dun (UnLondon). Magic works in the abcity: there's feral rubbish, the ghosts of Wraithtown, words made flesh. Most of all, there's the Smog, an enormous cloud of pollution that's become sentient and wants to consume everything.

This book is aimed at a younger audience than his Bas-Lag novels, such as Iron Council. Supporting characters do die and Deeba must undergo trials, but this book is not grim. Indeed, in places, it's positively whimsical, and Miéville owes a clear debt to earlier English fantasists, like Mervyn Peake and Lewis Carroll.

Recommended.

posted on Thursday, May 22, 2008 6:14:37 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Monday, May 19, 2008 

http://blogs.cozi.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/16/espritdecozismall.jpg

I formed a Bike to Work team at Cozi. More at the Cozi Connections Blog

posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 2:21:43 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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The Wee Free Men
Title: The Wee Free Men
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: HarperTeen
Copyright: 2003
Pages: 272
Keywords: humor, fantasy
Reading period: 13-18 May, 2008

Tiffany Aching is a nine-year-old dairymaid with the First Sight and the Second Thoughts. She sees more than others do. She sees the tiny Nac Mac Feegle, the little thieving fighting pictsies, who speak with a Scottish brogue and have nae time for laird nor queen.

When the Queen of the Fairies attempts to invade the Discworld by stealing children and their dreams, it is up to Tiffany to stop them.

Ostensibly aimed at children, any adult fan of Pratchett's Discworld novels should enjoy this book too.

posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 7:05:27 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008 
Garnethill
Title: Garnethill
Author: Denise Mina
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Copyright: 1998
Pages: 402
Keywords: mystery, tartan noir
Reading period: 10-13 May, 2008

Maureen O'Donnell wakes up in her Glasgow flat after passing out drunk and finds her lover tied to a chair, his throat cut. Douglas was a therapist, married to another woman. The police think she's guilty but can't prove it: she has a history of mental illness, her mother's an alcoholic, and her twin brother's a drug dealer.

Mauri is feisty but flawed, coping fairly realistically. She manages to find the real murderer and uncover a nasty case of sexual abuse, against a backdrop of domestic violence, alcoholism, and poverty. Her friend Leslie is a treat; her mother is a horror.

The notes at the back of the book say that Denise Mina got sidetracked from writing her PhD thesis on mental illness and female offenders. This novel is far more readable than the thesis would have been.

posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 7:05:17 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 
Sharing Dotfiles between Windows and *nix

Tomas Restrepo wrote a post about sharing dotfiles between Windows and Ubuntu, specifically about sharing .vimrc (Linux) and _vimrc (Windows) and the .vim (Linux) and vimfiles (Windows) directories.

I have a different solution. On Windows, my C:\AutoExec.bat includes:

set HOME=C:\gvr
set VIM=C:\Vim
set VIMDIR=%VIM%\vim71
set EDITOR=%VIMDIR%\gvim.exe
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Win32app;C:\GnuWin32\bin;C:\UnxUtils;C:\SysInternals;C:\Python25\Scripts

%HOME% (C:\gvr) contains _vimrc, vimfiles, and other stuff accumulated over many years. This directory is stored in a personal Subversion repository at DevjaVu. All my Vim files are stored with Unix LF endings, not Windows CR-LFs, so that they'll work on my Mac OS X and Linux boxen. I play some games with if has("win32") and if has('gui_macvim') to ensure that my _vimrc works cross-platform.

On my *nix boxes, the gvr folder lives under my home directory at ~/gvr, and ~/.vimrc and ~/.vim are symlinks:

$ ln -s ~/gvr/_vimrc ~/.vimrc
$ ln -s ~/gvr/vimfiles/ ~/.vim

In addition, the dotfiles that I keep in SVN are stored locally in ~/gvr/dotfiles without a leading period in their names, which makes them easy to see:

$ ln -s ~/gvr/dotfiles/bashrc ~/.bashrc

This arrangement works well for me.

posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 6:28:36 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Saturday, May 10, 2008 

What the Dead Know

 Title: What the Dead Know
 Author: Laura Lippman
 Rating: 4 stars out of 5
 Publisher: Harper
 Copyright: 2007
 ISBN: 0061128864
 Pages: 369
 Keywords: mystery
 Reading period: 4-9 May, 2008

Thirty years ago, Heather and Sunny Bethany, 12 and 15, disappeared without trace from a Baltimore mall. A cold case, long forgotten by almost everyone. Now a woman, arrested after fleeing from the scene of an accident, blurts out that she's Heather Bethany.

Is she Heather? Or someone else? She knows so much about the case, yet there's something off about her and the police don't trust her. Where's she been? Where's Sunny? And why did she never come forward before?

We learn the truth by the end of the novel, of course. The game of cat and mouse between Heather and the police draws to a satisfying resolution, which makes psychological sense.

posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008 8:02:43 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Sunday, May 04, 2008 
The Unknown Terrorist
Title: The Unknown Terrorist
Author: Richard Flanagan
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: Grove Press
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 325
Keywords: fiction
Reading period: 29 April-4 May, 2008

A Sydney pole dancer known as ‘the Doll’ has a one-night stand with a Muslim. The next day she's the subject of a massive witchhunt as a suspected terrorist. After 9/11, the Bali bombings, and the Iraq war, Australians are ripe for the fearmongering of the media. An escalating cycle of hype and fear and ever more lurid headlines plunges the Doll into a waking nightmare from which she cannot escape.

This novel indicts everyone: the ordinary people who unthinkingly condone events; the security forces with their own agenda; and most of all, the media who seize on a good story without caring about the truth. It's all too plausible, alas.

posted on Monday, May 05, 2008 6:32:40 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Friday, May 02, 2008 

Rebel Fay

 Title: Rebel Fay
 Author: Barb & J.C. Hendee
 Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
 Publisher: Roc
 Copyright: 2007
 ISBN: 0451461436
 Pages: 416
 Keywords: fantasy
 Reading period: 27-29 April, 2008

A half-vampire vampire hunter, her half-elf partner, a human sage, and a very unusual dog travel deep into elven territory, to rescue his imprisoned elf mother. None of the (part) humans are welcome.

This is the fifth book in a series, which I didn't notice when I picked it up. I should have started with the first in the series, but I was able to follow along well enough.

A high fantasy epic leavened with vampire lore. Certain of the elves are concerned with an ancient enemy, which seems to be the creator of the vampires. Cultural clashes, hidden agendas, and betrayals abound.

posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 7:37:36 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Monday, April 28, 2008 
Roma
Title: Roma
Author: Steven Saylor
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Copyright: 2007
Pages: 592
Keywords: historical fiction
Reading period: 16-26 April, 2008

Steven Saylor is best known for his Roma Sub Rosa series of detective novels about Gordianus the Finder, set in ancient Rome.

Roma is a Micheneresque saga, spanning 1000BC to 1BC, in a dozen vignettes following the holders of an ancient amulet. Starting with a crossroads frequented by traders, it shows the evolution of Rome from a village to the great power of the Mediterranean, led by Augustus Caesar, the first of the emperors. It's an easy introduction to much of Roman history, but the episodic nature of the story means that we see only fragments of that history. Each of the characters introduced necessarily gets cursory treatment, leading to a disjointed set of short stories.

posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5:34:13 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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The Reverse of the Medal
Title: The Reverse of the Medal
Author: Patrick O'Brian
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Copyright: 1986
Pages: 286
Keywords: historical fiction
Reading period: 20-25 April, 2008

This novel continues not long after The Far Side of the World left off. The Surprise stops off in Barbados, then chases an American privateer almost to England. Jack Aubrey, astute at sea, but a naïf on land, is hoodwinked into causing a run on the stock market, and brought to trial. Stephen Maturin finds that his wife has left him and that his former superior in Naval Intelligence has been sidelined.

O'Brian moves effortlessly from a naval chase to the rural pleasures of Aubrey's cottage to Regency politics, all written in a convincing eighteenth-century style. Aubrey and Maturin are emotionally true. Jack is the bluff English patriot whose unshakeable faith in English justice will be severely tested. Stephen, the complex scientist, is beleagured by betrayals both personal and professional.

Highly recommended.

posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5:33:10 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Saturday, April 19, 2008 
Orange Crush
Title: Orange Crush
Author: Tim Dorsey
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Publisher: Harper Collins
Copyright: 2001
Pages: 354
Keywords: crime, humor
Reading period: 14-16 April, 2008

A loose sequel to Hammerhead Ranch Motel. The likable serial killer, Serge A. Storms, is suffering from amnesia and has found himself a job as the Press Secretary to the Governor of Florida, Marlon Conrad.

Conrad, formerly an airheaded child of privilege, has undergone an epiphany and has begun caring about the little people. He's running for re-election and he's on a road trip through Florida in an RV. This isn't to everyone's liking and several people are gunning for him.

Dorsey is slightly more in control of his plot than in earlier books, but it still veers clumsily all over the place. Quite funny in places.

posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 8:55:47 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Boundary
Title: Boundary
Author: Eric Flint, Ryk E. Spoor
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Publisher: Baen
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 598
Keywords: science fiction
Reading period: 13-14 April, 2008

A paleontologist finds a 65-million-year-old alien fossil. A few years later, some of her NASA engineer friends send a probe to the Martian moon Phobos and find the mummies of more of those aliens in an ancient station. They all form part of the crew on the first manned mission to Mars, to investigate the alien artifacts.

This is a moderately entertaining hard science fiction novel, with an interesting premise and moderately plausible characters. I was irritated by the vast amounts of exposition. The book has a bad case of as you know, Bob. The authors are bound and determined to explain all the cool stuff they brainstormed.

posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 8:54:50 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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White Night
Title: White Night
Author: Jim Butcher
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: Roc
Copyright: 2007
Pages: 452
Keywords: fantasy
Reading period: 13 April, 2008

White Night is the latest paperback in the Dresden Files, continuing on from Proven Guilty.

Harry Dresden is a wizard and private investigator in Chicago. Minor practitioners of magic are being killed and the evidence points to his half-brother, Thomas. Harry can't accept that, even if Thomas is a vampire. Meanwhile, there's a war going on between the wizards and certain factions of vampires.

Harry is slowly starting to mature, now that he's got responsibilities. He has an apprentice and two junior Wardens were killed on his watch. He's just a little less likely to mouth off and think, but he still has a remarkable talent for pissing people off.

Entertaining, with a relentlessly fast-paced plot. Recommended.

posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 8:54:01 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Alliance Space
Title: Alliance Space
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: Daw
Copyright: 2008
Pages: 602
Keywords: science fiction
Reading period: 7-12 April, 2008

This is an omnibus edition containing C.J. Cherryh's Merchanter's Luck (1982) and 40,000 in Gehanna (1983): two very different novels set in the same universe.

In Merchanter's Luck, Sandor Kreja is the last survivor of a family that hauls freight across interstellar distances. He lives on the fringes, under a series of false identities, trying to avoid official notice. After a one-night stand with Allison Reilly of the enormous Dublin Again, she and three of her Reilly cousins sign on as his crew. The military hire them to ship a dangerous cargo.

Cherryh's two protagonists are complex people with motives that are often unclear to themselves, let alone each other. They are prickly and difficult, but appealing characters even so.

And, of course, how could I not like a book with a couple of thousand Reillys, be they on- or off-stage?

40,000 in Gehanna follows the evolution of a lost colony over two centuries. Most of the initial colonists are lab-born clones, biddable, unquestioning, and hard-working, unlike their descendants. Within decades, the society degenerates into near savagery.

The humans are not the only sentient beings on the planet. The calibans are a lizard-like race, who the early colonists cannot understand at all. Later generations develop a rapport that mystifies the observers who rediscover the planet.

An interesting book, but not one that I enjoyed as much as the other. I found the calibans too alien and opaque.

posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 8:52:58 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Sunday, April 06, 2008 

Lords of the North

 Title: Lords of the North
 Author: Bernard Cornwell
 Rating: 4 stars out of 5
 Publisher: Harper
 Copyright: 2007
 ISBN: 0061149047
 Pages: 317
 Keywords: historical, fiction
 Reading period: 5-6 April, 2008

Uhtred, a Saxon warrior raised by Danes and the right-hand man of King Alfred the Great, returns home to Northumbria to settle old scores. Settle those scores he eventually does, but not before he is betrayed by a man he trusts and sold into slavery.

Cornwell is best known for his long-running series about Richard Sharpe, an officer promoted from the ranks in the Napoleonic Wars, and for his battle scenes. Here he proves that he can write about 9th century swordsmen as well as he can write about 19th century riflemen. All of his heroes tend to resemble Sharpe: grim-faced loners with their own sense of honor, who are deadly when crossed.

posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 6:36:15 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Saturday, April 05, 2008 
The Unquiet
Title: The Unquiet
Author: John Connolly
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: Pocket Star Books
Copyright: 2007
Pages: 515
Keywords: crime, horror
Reading period: 3-5 April, 2008

Maine PI Charlie Parker is asked to warn off Merrick, a father looking for answers, from harassing his client. The case leads him to uncover a decades-old project of sexually abusing children who've fallen through the cracks.

Atmospheric and disturbing, as Connolly's novels tend to be.

posted on Sunday, April 06, 2008 5:01:11 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Variable Star
Title: Variable Star
Author: Robert A. Heinlein, Spider Robinson
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Publisher: Tor
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 339
Keywords: science fiction
Reading period: 30 March-3 April, 2008

Joel Johnston is a budding young musician and the son of a Nobel-winning physicist, who gets engaged to Jinna, a fellow orphan, only to learn that she's the granddaughter of the richest man in the Solar System. Her grandfather, The Conrad, wants him to breed more heirs. In a fit of pique at the deception, Joel goes on a bender then hops on a colony ship to a distant star. Even at relativistic speeds, it's going to be a one-way trip.

Fifty years ago, Robert Heinlein wrote a short outline for this book, then put it aside. A few years ago, Heinlein's estate asked Spider Robinson to complete it.

Robinson has done a great job of writing another Heinlein novel, exploring one of his classic themes, a young man finding himself, and sounding very much like Heinlein himself.

Very enjoyable.

posted on Sunday, April 06, 2008 5:00:15 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008 

http://blogs.cozi.com/tech/images/2008/03/31/multiplebrowsers.png

I find it useful to have multiple Firefox profiles for developing and testing. A clean profile for testing allows you to replicate most users' environments, who don't install extensions. Running a development profile in a separate profile lets you restart the browser without messing with your default environment. You can also run Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 side-by-side in separate profiles.

More at the Cozi Tech Blog.

posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 5:35:13 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00) 
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