Garth Gilmour

Illustrating C The revised edition of this book has benefited from many corrections and updates, and has now been printed in a wide-page format for ease of use.

There are a lot like that, and one publisher in particular I will never buy again. But then there are the classics I keep coming back to. Some, like Illustrating C, are works of educational art:

books.google.co.uk/books/about/...

A bookcase filled with software engineering books.

Stuck in the house ill, so pruning my IT bookcase. Java is all but gone, and I'm almost ready to say goodbye to my Scala books. On the other hand I actually read (and wrote!) some Modern C++ this year. Not what I would have predicted a decade ago - history makes fools of us all.

This is it folks! Only two days remain to submit to @nidc.bsky.social

After that our distinguished, impartial, and expert panel of reviewers will rate the talks, and an agenda will be constructed. You have to be in it to win it!

Gary Oldman's character from the movie Leon, saying "I like these calm little moments before the storm"

TFW The kids have been dropped to school, all the overnight messages have been answered, and you have 5 mins to yourself before the first meeting of the day...

The published record of talks from XSLTUK. The first and last XSLT conference held in 2001 in Oxford.

I was there Gandalf, I was there...

The Blu-ray cover of the movie Knightriders (Spanish edition)

Am on leave and going through a classic cinema phase. Have bought my first Blu-ray player because most of what I'm after isn't available online, and the DVD release is discontinued 😟. Today's viewing is this forgotten gem starring Ed Harris.

At Belfast Mela to support my boys and the Ojika Dojo. Always a great event! Music, food, culture, and swords. What's not to like? 😉🙂 If you've ever wanted to give Kendo a go come down and visit:

ojikani.com

In with my Physio. He has a BLK BOX functional trainer with the ultimate chin-up bar. Any width any angle!!!! I had no idea such a thing existed...

Success! Last night's debate on GenAI went exceptionally well. Six excellent speeches leading to in-depth, impassioned, and enlightening discussion.

The £665 in door fees all went directly to charity work at Farset Labs, thanks to the sponsorship of Liberty IT. Congratulations to everyone!!

Unboxing the shirt I've saved 3 months for just the right occasion. Come along tomorrow night for a public debate on "GenAI will revolutionise our lives for the good in the next 5 Years". 📣

When: Thursday 7th Aug
📍Where: Black Box in Belfast
🎟️ Get your ticket: lu.ma/d94zscul

This is on Thursday! Sign up via the link below for £10, all proceeds to charity. Tickets also available at the door (cash only).

lu.ma/d94zscul

Come along to hear passinate and informed debate, and to ask your own questions. Non-technologists especially welcome.

YouTube video by Will Tennyson I Survived BEST vs WORST Gym in My City!

This has happened to me (and I believe @antonarhipov.bsky.social ) many times in hotel gyms. Fortunately ceiling tiles don't hurt that much 🙂.

There seems to be some rule that "the rack with the weird bar goes under the lowest ceiling - clearly it's just for decoration".

youtu.be/6BC1DS_38WU?...

YouTube video by C. J. Cornthwaite The Hardest Thing About Leaving Fundamentalism - #exvangelical #deconstruction

This episode hit a nerve with me. 3 points:

* You don't voluntarily abandon faith. You incrementally realise it's unsustainable
* You have to choose between your beliefs and your community
* There is a very real fear that you are loved only for believing the right things

youtu.be/eDQoan2pm6U?...

If you need a train ticket to Dublin in Belfast's brand new £340 Million Grand Central Station you can't use the ticket machines. Instead you go to Customer Support at the other end of the cavernous hall, to queue behind folks paying for coach trips with loose change. Apparently, this is progress.

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but we had Specification Driven Development in the 1990s. We just called it Waterfall 😉.

The Larne line timetables have vanished from the NI Railways website this morning. A bit disconcerting to see your neighbourhood erased from the public record...

Public Debate: Will GenAI Revolutionise our Lives for the Good? · Luma Public Debate at the Black Box An in-depth and wide ranging public debate on the impact of GenAI Cross-disciplinary speakers providing expert input from…

New event! I'm helping Farset Labs organise a public debate, based on the proposition "GenAI will revolutionise our lives for the good in the next 5 Years". We have an amazing panel and a great venue. Fun, informative and a chance to participate in debate as it was meant to be.

lu.ma/d94zscul

YouTube video by Spaced Out The Sharp and Sardonic Wit of Kerr Avon | Blake's 7

Paul Darrow will never be beaten as Avon. A master of snark...

youtu.be/-uW7HJv3guw?...

Hmmmm.... Interesting....

A Star Wars quote from Obi-Wan to Luke "That's good. You've taken the first step into a larger world"

But how do you know it's more reliable than the random tutorials you would otherwise have Googled? 😉

Bonfire: Police declare site a major incident There are concerns of a risk to the power supply at two major hospitals as the bonfire is near an electricity substation.

Click to the story for Northern Ireland in a single infographic. Where else in the world do you build a bonfire between two major hospitals, adjacent to their power supply and near a pile of asbestos?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Excited about tomorrow, which will be the highlight of my summer here in beautiful, bright, Belfast. Can't wait for the series finale of Murderbot. Everything else not so much.

YouTube video by Scene City Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword Thief (HD Scene)

Have been training / teaching martial arts for 35 years and this bit still makes my jaw drop...

youtu.be/49NF9t81dlk?...

YouTube video by Feral Historian The Black Hole and the Authoritarian State

Maximilian terrified me! Still have the novel somewhere - will have to see if the ending makes more sense now. I suspect not 😉. You may enjoy this...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie1R...

The New Hybrid American Regime On this Fourth of July it is evident that we are experiencing regime change in the US.

"The future of American politics may ultimately be defined by the struggle between the MAGA fascist movement and the newer resistance." My new Kibitizing with Lincoln. Please subscribe. lincolnmitchell.substack.com/p/the-new-hy...

Garth from Liberty IT on AI Revolution, Coding Fundamentals, Career Changes, and Northern Ireland's Tech Scene Garth Gilmour plays a key role in keeping Liberty IT's engineers ahead of the curve, leading training programmes, internal tech events, and community outreach to help shape the next generation of tale...

For reasons best known to themselves, Sync NI were kind enough to do a profile of me 😉

syncni.com/interview/13...

The book is very compelling, but yes its a bit more Space Opera than The Martian.

YouTube video by Amazon MGM Studios Project Hail Mary - Official Trailer

Absolutely loved this book. Really hoping the movie lives up to it...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08T...

The kind of thinking that implicitly promotes and condones this kind of insanity is why I left the north coast and became an atheist.

A police dispatcher from the movie Demolition Man saying "If you'd prefer an automated response, press 1 now"

Every so often I reflect on how much of Demolition Man has come to pass. Freaky.