What I haven’t been saying for the past two weeks, is that, thanks to a friend of mine, I found a bookstore that has a lot of interesting books in English.
Two weeks ago, I went and looked at Imperfect C++ (what an inspiring title !) and Effective C++. I was also looking for another book, but the store was closing and eventually bought GPU Gems 2 (a long overdue buy !).
Last week, I went back, all pumped, ready to buy some C++ books. But I just couldn’t force myself to buy any of them. Forget the the Stroustrup’s. Last thing I want to do is to give even more money to the father of C++.. for such a boring book. Effective C++ and Imperfect C++ also don’t seem very interesting: the do’s and don’ts of modern C++ (whatever that means). More indoctrination from the wealthy daddies of C++.. buffoons !
Eventually I moved onto the physics section where I finally found the book I meant to buy the week before: The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe (alternative Wikipedia link) by Roger Penrose. It’s a heavy, 1099 pages book and, apparently, the first 350 pages are dedicated to form a background in mathematics and geometry, needed for the remaining 2/3 of the book.
I’m still only around page 50. It’s a book that is best read sitting down with pen and paper, and I find myself a bit frustrated by the lack of time. At work I’m definitely not doing any “rocket science”, TV can be interesting, going to the gym is certainly useful, but also takes a lot of time, plus it’s filled with smelly people !
In any case, I’m very happy so far with the book. So early into the book and I already went through and introduction to hyperbolic geometry.. which I was eager to read about, because it has some applications to 3D graphics (rendering a hemisphere in one pass, instead of using an hemicube (5 passes).. needed for radiosity calculation).
I plan on speeding up the reading.. although today I left work at 10:30 pm. Lot’s of things to do in the office… I’m almost starting to hate my job.
Game programming can involve some cool technology in the best cases, but on average, it’s really not that stimulating. Sure beats things like data-base programming.. but recently, I feel like it’s become too much of a job. It’s too much about doing things fast, hack together what you can for a deadline so that the business goes well.
Money is nice, but my ultimate goal will always be knowledge.. (also knowledge, is in turn power and then money 8)
I guess that the important thing with work is to find an avenue to improve rather than be milked for the current knowledge and eventually become obsolete. It’s nice when the workplace offers that.. but when it doesn’t, one is on his/her own. I saw the summer coming and going, without even one day of vacation. I’m wondering what’s the point to keep trying to make someone work when the morale obviously can’t be that good.
Lastly, I’ve had two mouth sores for several days now !! The dreaded mouth sores are back. Stresss, stressss.. a real torture, to have to feel pain as one eats. A pleasure turning into a constant pain !
Posted by Davide Pasca in Uncategorized