The Superiority of Debian Package Management System

From a blog post by Eugueny Kontsevoy:

Most of curious souls who try to compare Linux to Windows usually start by picking Windows features one by one and comparing them to how Linux does that.  That's just wrong. Because there are things (at least in Ubuntu/Debian) that Windows simply doesn't do.  Take their package management system for instance.  Finding free software and installing/removing it from a central repository is awesome.  Windows, with its always broken registry and freakish MSI, makes it scary and generally "not safe" to install new software. In fact, Windows gradually gets more and more broken as you install something.  Hey, computer geeks, how often do you get a call from a friend, complaining that "My Windows computer got a lot slower"?  And what can be said about an OS that discourages you from installing software on it?

Exactly!  I can remember just the other day thinking to myself how superior the Debian package management system was (as exemplified by Synaptic on Ubuntu) when compared to the program installation and remove system on Windows.  The dependencies seemed to be tracked precisely and you are given the option of doing a complete removal which also deletes any associated configuration files that have been created.

Three Reviews of the Alloy Book

I know I am probably a bit behind the times, but I have just come across these three favorable reviews of Daniel Jackson's Software Abstractions: Logic, Language, and Analysis

• George Hacken, Computing Reviews, CR133293
• Panagiotis Louridas, Computing Reviews, CR133957
• Fernando Berzal, Computing Reviews, CR134453

It is nice when you find out that other people agree with you about something.

LibraryThing

I have just recently come across this.  There is something enormously satisfying and final about making lists of books you have read, like dumping a big box of old books at the local second-hand bookshop.

Cool Topology Video

Via Scott Aaronson and John Baez, a video on how to turn a sphere inside out without cutting or creasing it.  I have just finished watching this with my daughter, Zoe.  She was fascinated and watched it right through to the end.  And, from the comments she made, I got the distinct impression that she was understanding the 3-dimensional moves quicker than I was. I found this a little unsettling: she might actually be brighter than me!

Venus, Saturn and Regulus

After a warmish early autum, the weather has now turned anticyclonic with hazy sun during the day  and clear skies at night.  When I get up it is still dark and the planet Venus is currently dominating the pre-dawn sky.  Just a few degrees above it is the fainter Saturn and a bit further up and to the right, the first magnitude star Regulus.  I took the above photo yesterday morning, leaning out of the bedroom window.  Regulus is just below the upper edge.

This photo I took this morning, a few minutes earlier and a longer exposure than the above one.  The sky is darker and so Regulus and Saturn stand out much better.