www.tjeerd.net

Have you ever been wondering about how the universe got its spots? (Also a nice book by the way) Or do you wonder whether time-travel is possible? Or when teleportation is going to bring you from behind your computer to the other side of the planet within a second? If you think all these science-fiction-like questions are far fetched, you might give the book called Physics of the impossible by Michio Kaku a chance to answer these questions. The book is not too difficult to read and in my case I even read very fast through it. Normally it takes me a few weeks to read a book, but this one took me only two weekends. Which might give you a clue that it is a very interesting book to read.

The author divides all science-fiction possibilities into three classes. The first class (I) is about technology which is possible within the laws of physics, like teleportation, force fields and antiuniverses and which might become reality within the 21st century, be it at a very small scale. The second class (II) describes subjects like faster-than-light and the discovery of parallel universes. This class is also still possible in theory and the current known physics laws. But it might take a few centuries before civilization can harness these technologies. The last class (III) tells about science-fiction technologies which are completely beyond the capabilities of humans and do violate all current known physics laws. In this class you will find perpetual motion machines and precognition. There is also a discussion about string-theory, which is called the “theory of everything” which states that all matter around us is – simply said – made out of tiny vibrating strings and which give all chemicals and elements their specific properties (besides being just atoms/electrons/protons etc.).

When you read this book you even more realize that everything you see around you is a really impressive representation of our world. Perhaps even more fascinating is the way everything works at a miniature scale and that our world has really strange properties. The author also refers to quotes from scientists in the 20th century who believed that atoms and quantum-mechanics didn’t exist. Today we know better and easily take photo’s of atoms and can even arrange atoms to create nano-sized figures with it. You definitely have to read this book if you want to know what science-fiction might become possible within our lifetime.

Quite a lot of people have heard about (synthpop) artists from the 80’s like Aha, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, New Order, Ultravox etc. At least the artists I name here are really what most people agree typical 80’s music, with quite an electronic influence in them. Anyway, to get my real point, today I found out – by coincidence – a new type of music style called “Italo disco“. And as the name suggests it has its origins in Italy, so besides pizza and macaroni I have a new association with Italy. Typical characteristics of this music style: electronic, simple beats, many synthesizers and relatively simple lyrics. It’s just simple music perhaps. But it does sound happy and entertaining. You can hear a compilation of this music style here or even watch some choreography with it – I like 80’s music clips by the way, especially when they are so wrong. Of course there is also a big list on Wikipedia with artists which are typical Italo Disco style. I am going to get some more tracks I think, or at least the best of.

Have you played or heard of games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom and Quake? I did. These games belong to the all time classics, written by Id Software. What is even more interesting about these games is that there is a whole story behind each of them. And that story has been put together in the book called Masters of Doom, written by David Kushner. If you were/are a fan – or have nostalgic feelings about these games – you should read this book. Let me first say this is not a “gaming” book, whatever that may be. It’s mainly about John Carmack and John Romero – the Masters of Doom – and how everything began for them. Both Johns had two hobbies in common: gaming and programming. At a certain moment those guys met eachother at Softdisk, a software company. In the evenings they were trying to develop an imitation of Mario Brothers for the PC, which was never done before, because the PC hardware was to slow. However, John Carmack was the only person at that time on the planet who managed to develop it for the PC, using a technique called “adaptive tile refresh”. He called Nintendo, but they were not interested in this port. Later on it was used as the “engine” for Commander Keen.

Quite soon both John’s decided to leave Softdisk and work for the game company Apogee where they worked on several games like Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D. Shortly after that they started up their own company called “Id Software” – Ideas from the Deep, they both have very dark humour and enjoyed zombies, blood and horror and the like. The book tells about the background of the people behind this company and how step by step things were implemented in games like Wolfenstein 3D. How they recorded their sounds and images for the games, how enthousiastic they where when their engine reached a new development stage and how their Shareware-concept became widely used. How they both apply the rules of the hackers ethic and how they dislike software patents. Their idea was that in the end everyone should actually have fun with their games and is stimulated to contribute to their games by making modifications and editors. The book is of course not only about the positive moments they both have gone through. There was also consternation, personal and business problems which eventually lead to the split of the two Johns.

Actually this books makes a lot of things clear which I didn’t know about those two guys. But there is through the whole book a certain spirit which inspires me as a programmer myself. If you really want to do something and you have the enthousiasm for it, you really don’t need a million dollar investment but – not that I was thinking that – just go for it. The same applies to this book, if you want to get some insight in one of the players in gaminghistory, definitely read it.

Already somewhere before the summer started I saw a promotion for the exposition of the terracotta army in Assen. I read more about the army on the internet on Wikipedia and really wanted to see this exposition myself in real life. Because we also wanted to have a short holiday, we decided to go for a long weekend to Assen and combine this with visiting the Drents Museum. The exposition contains all kinds of remnants like jewelry, coins and one of the only 17 swords found – which is still sharp, not rusty and in extreme good condition – all the items exposed are about 2000+ years old. The most fascinating to see was part of the real army. Nine life-sized Chinese men – out of the 8000 from the original army – and a horse built from terracotta. Every face has a different expression and probably all the faces are copies of the original men living at that time. Fascinating that we now in Assen could take a look at this terracotta army, while it has such a faraway origin. Curious? Visit the exposition (till August 31st 2008) or take a look at the photos I made.