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Monday, September 08, 2003

Hi I'm a geek

Hi everyone I'm a geek.

What can I say I did something rather geeky today. I was a bit early for my unix class so I decided to roam around the halls. I don’t like sitting in classes by myself or waiting out in the halls. You feel so much like a looser that doesn’t have a life. At least that’s how I think. Anyways, outside the Computer Science Department offices there was a huge pile of books. I might have passed by without looking but the big "FREE BOOKS" sign drew me in.

I didn't find much of any good. Professors just cleaning out their offices I guess. It was mostly really old editions of books for intro level computer science classes. However I did score some advanced books. I grabbed 4 books because that's all that would fit in my bag. I could have taken more I guess but I figured I'd look pretty suspicious caring a dozen books down the street. With school books getting stolen all the time I didn't want to press my luck.

I took a book on VAX Assembly Language, Reading in Artificial Intelligence, and two books about IBM VM/SP CMS operating system. I guess only a geek would like these books but for me they're a part of computing history and worth preserving. The VAX systems are pretty much a lost culture so keeping something on them is a way to remember them. IBM VM/SP CMS systems were in heavy use during the 80’s but I’m sure there are still places that use them. Finally the book on AI is always useful. Much of what is used in AI today has been written about many years ago.

They are definitely books for some light reading on a rainy weekend.
Posted by abarber on 09/08/2003 at 09:04 PM
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