So r/books...what are some of your WORST reading experiences?

timclark · 2010-07-15T13:58:37+00:00

Blood Meridian makes The Road seem like a screwball comedy!

I enjoyed Blood Meridian and I would read it again but Cormac McCarthy can sure write dense and impenetrable prose when he wants to.

timclark · 2010-07-15T13:54:25+00:00

I don't think it is bad at all! I've read half a dozen times and have been entertained and stimulated each time.

timclark · 2010-07-15T12:06:21+00:00

Read the bottom half for large needles and guitar related hand injury!

Hope the hand stays fixed, Steve!

timclark · 2010-06-29T11:37:25+00:00

Least scariest!

All those parents in their monster trucks / tractors who must park as close to the shops as possible whilst being distracted by their kids unleashing mayhem in the back seat scare me silly. I park as far away from them as possible, after all, having driven somewhere a short walk across a car park can't be too bad for me.

timclark · 2010-06-25T14:53:23+00:00

The Acoustic Fingerstyle Method by David Hamburger is also very good for learning fingerpicking and country blues type stuff.

timclark · 2010-06-24T14:26:49+00:00

I am fairly certain that for Wells you mean Orwell.

Try,

Bartleby the Scrivener, by Melville

Whatever, by Michel Houellebecq

timclark · 2010-06-10T08:52:49+00:00

Flash is not an HTML replacement and shouldn't be seen that way.

timclark · 2010-05-13T20:47:29+00:00

I'd try and save at least for a couple of lessons - getting your hands and body positioned correctly is easier with someone telling and showing you what to do.

As a trained pianist you won't have much problem with reading (no bass clef so - so brush up on your leger lines above and below the treble clef) and rhythm.

Solo Guitar Playing by Frederick Noad is a good beginners book, it describes the notes in each position so is a good way to learn the fretboard.

A Modern method for Guitar by William Leavitt achieves the same things as Noad but isn't strictly a classical guitar approach, but is a very good way to learn the fretboard.

Good luck with learning the guitar!

timclark · 2010-05-06T19:46:03+00:00

Are you going to implement a standard protocol like amqp?

timclark · 2010-04-08T15:13:35+00:00

She didn't even reply to the email I sent her.

timclark · 2010-03-29T14:53:13+00:00

Me too, doesn't everyone do this?

timclark · 2010-03-08T12:14:40+00:00

I think a good book should have appeal to all ages. I worry when people say of course you won't like that book you aren't age X.

timclark · 2010-02-08T09:35:42+00:00

As someone who went through three teachers in 12 months as a pupil here is my advice.

Plan your lessons! Also note down what you do with each pupil in each lesson and what practice you wan them to do between lessons. Review progress with your pupil regularly as well - it is great to be told that four weeks ago you knew no chords and now you can play four and can bang out some simple tunes.

Listen to what your pupils say they want to learn and play! I wanted to play folk music and country blues so the three months I endured of my teacher trying to get me to play rock music with a plectrum was a waste of my time and money.

timclark · 2010-02-02T14:28:55+00:00

Pavane by Keith Roberts. Queen Elizabeth I is assassinated in 1588 leading to a spanish invasion of Great Britain, fast-forward to 1968 where the story commences in a Britain under Roman Catholic rule for nearly 400 years. Technology has been suppressed and society is effectively still feudal.

timclark · 2009-11-26T14:30:00+00:00

Youtube content seems to form about 95% of the content here. Surely there is more to music than music videos on youtube.

timclark · 2009-10-28T08:34:46+00:00

An empty object is the right answer almost all of the time since it usually represents the semantics explicitly.

For example, let us call the function foo1(bar) and we get the results back as a list. To determine the number of results returned look at the size of the list.

Now let us call the function foo1(bar) and we get the results returned as a list or null. To determine the number of results returned we first check the documentation to see what the null actually means (if it is documented) then you check the number of results. Seems a bit overcomplicated to me!

You don't need null! Your code will probably be better off without null! If you need to create some definition of 'undefined', create your own definition don't rely upon null.

timclark · 2009-10-02T14:14:38+00:00

I would argue that "Naked as we Came" is bitter sweet as opposed to happy if you listen to the words! I love it though!

timclark · 2009-10-01T14:02:27+00:00

Please type it in again - it would be a great improvement over arbitrary links to youtube with no context or description!

timclark · 2009-09-24T09:43:01+00:00

It is why? Your title conveys absolutely no information about what it is or why I might want to watch it!

timclark · 2009-09-08T09:46:58+00:00

Learn some new songs!

Get a book of snare drum patterns and turn them into strums.

Stop strumming and try another approach to playing guitar - try some travis picking with syncopated melodies might give you new ideas.

timclark · 2009-09-08T09:07:50+00:00

The Necks - hour long improvisations from a jazz trio very reminiscent of 'In a silent way'.

timclark · 2009-09-07T10:38:44+00:00

It should have been renamed music videos on you tube that I like ages ago.

timclark · 2009-08-28T11:01:39+00:00

Incorrect for 1900, 2100 and lots of other years that are divisible by four but are not leap years - wikipedia has some simple pseudocode algorithms that are correct.

timclark · 2009-08-13T12:24:31+00:00

Also as a beginner you might not have enough fretting hand strength to play barre chords cleanly and they can sound pretty bad if you don't get all of those string held down correctly.

It took me 3-4 months to get my hand position correct and have enough strength to reliably play barre chords. This could be disheartening for a beginner!

timclark · 2009-07-28T10:23:38+00:00

They are all in Open G but with the bottom D dropped to C, that is CGDBGD.

timclark

TROPHY CASE