Merge branch 'master' of git.juliobiason.net:/home/slowsloth/git.juliobiason.net/git/blog

content/reviews/books/handson-microservices-with-rust.md

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+title = "Hands-On Microservices with Rust - Denis Kolodin"
+date = 2019-03-03
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["reviews", "books", "en-au", "rust", "microservices", "denis kolodin"]
++++
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=2) }}
+
+The shortest and simpler way to describe this book is this:
+```rust
+let mut a = 1;
+a = a + 1;
+// increase a
+```
+
+Sure, increasing `a` may seem interesting, but where the heck is the
+explanation on why you're increasing a?
+
+The long version is this: this is an exact representation of what a Packt book
+is. There are a bunch of grammatical errors from the half of the book to the
+end, which should've picked by the editor; there are a bunch of weird
+explanations and the incredible tendency of use a different package on each
+project (one project uses Hyper, the other Rocket, the other Actix-Web) which
+should've been picked by the reviewer; the whole book have a bunch of what the
+code is doing, but not why it was designed that way.
+
+So the whole thing feels rushed and without thought.
+
+The "change package on each discussion" is also damming: you never really got
+deep into a package, understanding its ins and outs, because it keeps changing
+all the time (logs is another thing that keeps changing all the time in the
+code, which seems really weird when you want to have a fleet of microservices
+-- why would you use different packages on all of them; yes, you can do this
+due the nature of microservices, but does it make sense?).
+
+Also, no code is shown in completion. The book uses snippets all around instead
+of showing everything. The full code is available on Github, but that means you
+need to keep two sources open at the same time: one in the book, to follow
+whatever the author is showing and the source code to understand where each
+thing fall in the big picture.
+
+Those two last points could be easily solved by starting with a simple code
+(say, the Hyper that says "Hello world") and then, slowly, refactor it to reach
+a fully asynchronous code, showing the full code with each refactor
+highlighted.
+
+Maybe this will be a good book in the 3rd edition.

content/reviews/books/the-where-the-why-the-how.md

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+title = "The Where, the Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science -  Matt LaMothe, Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, David Macaulay"
+date = 2019-02-17
+
+[taxomonies]
+tags = ["books", "reviews", "en-au", "science", "illutations", "matt lamothe", "julia rothman", "jenny volvovski", "david macaulay"]
++++
+
+A science book like no other, The Where, the Why, and the How turns loose 75 of
+today's hottest artists onto life's vast questions, from how we got here to
+where we are going. Inside these pages some of the biggest (and smallest)
+mysteries of the natural world are explained in essays by real working
+scientists, which are then illustrated by artists given free rein to be as
+literal or as imaginative as they like. The result is a celebration of the
+wonder that inspires every new discovery. Featuring work by such contemporary
+luminaries as Lisa Congdon, Jen Corace, Neil Farber, Susie Ghahremani,
+Jeremyville, and many more, this is a work of scientific and artistic
+exploration to pique the interest of both the intellectually and imaginatively
+curious.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=3) }}
+
+(This is getting quite common on my reviews but) This is a weird book.
+
+Now, don't get me wrong: The idea the title gives is that they are going to
+give you the where, the why and the how, but they actually mean the questions
+"where", "why" and "how". A lot of the answers is, basically, "we don't know
+yet" -- which, by the way, is completely fine, specially when dealing with
+proper science.
+
+Also, the questions are not really "trivia"-like: they go more deep than simply
+"Why are plants green?" and the like. And, because you have no certain
+questions, it gets even more nerd-like -- which, again, is completely fine.
+
+(Also, the illustrations: meh) 

content/reviews/books/the-wolfs-hour.md

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+title = "The Wolf's Hour - Robert R. McCammon"
+date = 2019-02-16
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["books", "reviews", "en-au", "werewolves", "robert r mccammon"]
++++
+
+Michael Gallatin is a British spy with a peculiar talent: the ability to
+transform himself into a wolf. Although his work in North Africa helped the
+Allies win the continent in the early days of World War II, he quit the service
+when a German spy shot his lover in her bed. Now, three years later, the army
+asks him to end his retirement and parachute into occupied Paris. A mysterious
+German plan called the Iron Fist threatens the D-Day invasion, and the Nazi in
+charge is the spy who betrayed Michael’s lover. The werewolf goes to France for
+king and country, hoping for a chance at bloody vengeance.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=3) }}
+
+This is truly a weird book.
+
+So you take the idea of mythical creatures like werewolfs. And you take great
+events in history, like World War II. And then you mix both.
+
+In one hand, the book is almost silly in its premise. And, as if it was a 60s
+spy movie, it makes the hero always get the girl -- which is narrated almost as
+a horny teenage vision of what sex could be.
+
+On the other hand, there is a bunch of what seems real information: Locations,
+dates, aircrafts, guns you name it. It's almost as the author really did some
+research on geography and history about WWII events.
+
+This dichotomy permeates the book in every place. The very beginning of the
+book reminded of a site that gathered the most absurd adverbs: "like a ghost in
+the night" and the like. So, at the very start, it feels like it is a bad book,
+but then you get what seems like real events happening (with a touch of what
+was done in Assassin's Creed series of games) and then it seems like a real
+book. And then you get the horny parts and it goes back to silly.