The conciseness and power of efdtt.c by Charles Hannum is very remarkable. (Take a look in the Gallery.) We're right to be impressed that the ancient epic poets wrote in hexameters, but also at the expressive skills of some of our modern programmers. I hope the author won't be offended that I think efdtt ought to be entered in the IOCCC.
Noe Valley and back again
I went off to track down two bookstores which turned out to be in Noe Valley -- Cover to Cover and Phoenix. I bought some interesting stuff in each. I was a bit amazed at how close by Noe Valley is to where I live now; I think I could walk to my cousin's place there in about a half an hour. (I had one of those "oh, this is that street corner!" experiences. Those are fun.)
A soda fountain called the Fountain of Youth out there sells a t-shirt which says something like "If you look at the back of my t-shirt, you'll see a good reason to go to Church every day"; on the back is the logo of the Fountain of Youth with its address on Church Street. Aha.
In other news
I read Contact by Carl Sagan on Sunday. (I bought it at Phoenix in the early afternoon, and saved my wrists a lot of stress by turning pages all through the early evening instead of typing.) In many ways, it was very good -- some parts were extremely absorbing, some parts were very thought-provoking. In other ways, it was a bit weak: some things were a little heavy-handed or implausible.
In a few places, I was very moved, but in other places, I wanted to shout "cliche!". It's extremely amusing that the book contains the line
The book was better than the movie.
I think I gave myself a stomachache by eating an entire container of soy ice cream in one sitting. I'm great at too much of a good thing.
SoFar by Andrew Plotkin is a very remarkable game; I wish I had the patience, skill, and now the wrist strength to finish it without a walkthrough. (I never win interactive fiction games, but I respect and admire them. I may have mentioned that Photopia made me cry.)