Online purchasing

Conditions: Warm, but not sunny.


In the past, if you want to purchase a technical book you had many fine options. There were about 6 different technical book shops spread around our fair city, any one of which was a large, well-stocked fountain of technical knowledge. You could check their inventory, take a book from the shelves, and leaf through it in order to see just how good it was before purchasing it. This scenario now belongs to that era I will refer to as 'the long distant past', because every single technical bookstore in this city, bar one, is gone. Taken over by coffee stores and bike stores and even, Mabus help us, instrument stores. The one exception is a piddling little store that doesn't really qualify, it's more like a technical book shelf, than store. No, if you want to buy a technical book, the only way you can do it is via that thing we call the internets. And this is a problem.

Because the internet world is a virtual one. And much like purchasing a car, purchasing a book requires more than just looking at the outside. Amazon.com try the hardest by scanning in the Toc, index and a small excerpt, but it isn't enough. Customers need to know what the actual text regarding the actual topics look like. These books are expensive and important to the jobs we're doing, we need to read them before we buy them. But nobody cares. It's cheaper to buy books online, so to hell with the brick and mortar stores. We humans being are so stupid.



Film review: Casino Royale

Bond started out, many years ago now, as a thug in a suit. A soldier dressed up to look sophisticated, but still always a soldier. Sean Connery embodied that character very well, he had the look of a soldier, but could come across very classy when he had to. Over the years, though, Bond actors became more and more 'posh', and the character became an odd sort of spy who could rough and tumble without messing up his hair. It was an interesting trait, someone who was so good they could wear a tuxedo while scaling walls or fighting bad guys. A lot of the time it worked, but with the enhancement of the character the environment had to be ramped up to suit. So the gadgets were brought in, devices that could do all the 'heavy lifting' that Bond was now too good for. Later movies were so full of gadgets it seemed Bond was yet another device, a comic book superhero engineered to figure out the plot and make a few good quips. The movies made a lot of money, but to the fans it seemed that the spirit of Bond had been diluted. Enter Casino Royale, and new guy Daniel Graig. The hype is true, this is a new Bond. This guy is a thug in a suit.

This is lain out carefully from the very first scene, where Bond confronts a business man in a very nice office in a very nice building in Prague. And while the scene plays out, another scene in flashback is shown where Bond fights with someone else in a dreary bathroom, slamming into walls and stalls and fixtures. The contrast of the familar, cultured Bond sitting in an office holding a gun, with a brawling, rough Bond getting knocked around a bathroom states from the outset that while this is James Bond, it's a bit rougher to what we're expecting. Many times in this film we're treated to Bond getting knocked around, and it does make his character seem a lot more real than in previous films.

This is presented as a prequel, in that this is Bond's first ever mission, and so he's a little rough around the edges, but there are no gadgets in this movie. This film is essentially about Bond having to rely on himself to defeat the bad guy, through wit and strength. The 'Bond girl' (and I use the term loosely) really does play a romantic part, and when the film ends it really feels as though Bond has changed due to what has happened to him. It's gritty, it's brutal, it's fast and enjoyable. It's a very good film, and kudos to all involved. Four and a half out of five poker chips.


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