Book reviews for April 2013

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

4/5

Makes sense...

 

 

The Mirage by Matt Ruff

4/5

A brilliant and detailed transposition of 9/11 in America to 11/9 in Arabia. I thought it was going to be a one trick pony but Mirage also delivers a solid thriller.

 

 

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Bernal in Bloom

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, October 1, 2022.

Bernal in Bloom

Wildflowers bloom in Bernal Heights Park with downtown San Francisco in the distance.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Bernal in Bloom #photo #bernal #sanfrancisco Photo of wildflowers blooming in Bernal Heights Park with downtown San Francisco in the distance. )

Sealions

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Wednesday, May 19, 2021.

Sealions

Photo of the moment a sealion dives into the bay at Fisherman's Wharf.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Sealions #photo #sealion Photo of sealions at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California including the instant that a sealion splashes into the bay. )

Thank you Feedly

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, May 22, 2020.

Thank you Feedly

It has been brought to my attention that I've been whinging too much recently

So I'd like to take a break from that and say how much I'm enjoying feedly. It's a wonderfully well designed RSS reader. I use the Chrome Extension version and the Android app. It preserves the Google Reader keyboard shortcuts so I can sail through my subscriptions and it brings back social sharing. 

I looked at feedly once before and didn't really get it. I thought it was just one of those algorithmic recommendation news manglers that tries to guess what you want to read. It might do that on the home page but the 'All' view is a perfect replacement for Google Reader. 

I love it. I want to pay for it to make sure it stays around. Thank you feedly. 

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Thank you Feedly #etc #feedly #software Feedly is an awesome RSS reader and the ideal replacement for Google Reader for RSS fans. )

Might there actually be grounds to sue BA on the basis of a frequent flyer program that never lets you actually fly anywhere ever?

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Sunday, October 23, 2022.

Comments Restored

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Sunday, November 6, 2022.

I've restored all the comments that vanished after I removed Disqus last weekend. This is after a considerable effort to get everything out of BlogML and into WXR a couple of years ago. At some point I'll just have to give up and decide it's faster to write my own blogging and commenting system but for now Facebook Comments are enabled for all posts.

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Google Maps Ate My Battery

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, May 22, 2020.

Google Maps Battery Usage

I've been slowly becoming aware that Google Maps is eating up a lot of the power on my phone (an HTC One X with Android 4.1). Yesterday as my battery was near death I saw it was up to 25% of total usage on a day when I hadn't even run the app. Something had to give. I'd already turned off Google Latitude a few months ago so the culprit had to be whatever secret-squirrel location sniffing the phone does behind my back.

Android Location Options

Android has about a million different incomprehensible weasily location options. At least in 4.1, I've seen some evidence that 4.2 is a bit better. The bargain with 'Google's location service' seems to be that if you don't send your data to them they won't send it to you. At least I think so, the description changes when you check or uncheck the option. I've had this off for today and my battery has a lot more juice. It means that Google Now doesn't work, but so far that doesn't seem to be a loss. It might hurt other apps as well, but so far I care more about not having a dead phone at the end of the day.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Google Maps Ate My Battery #etc #google #maps #battery #location Android 4.1 on a HTC One X and how to get more life out of your battery if you can figure out the location settings. )

Disqust

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Sunday, September 5, 2021.

Disqust

I just discovered that Disqus started running adverts on my blog without permission. It's probably been going on for a little while and I should have paid more attention, sorry.

By 'without permission' I mean that I'm sure I clicked though and didn't read a terms of service document that said they could do what the fuck they like to my site. And reading other accounts of this issue I'm sure I filed without reading the email they sent out that mentioned this new 'feature' in passing. So in a legal sense they probably had all the permission they needed. In a moral sense they're switch-and-bait scum of the highest order. 

They should have made this feature opt-in and then sent out an email explaining it in detail. Some sites don't want to run ads. You could have non-commercial Creative Commons content on a site that is suddenly a commercial concern. 

It's a free service and at some point they need to make money, fine. If this had been presented as an option I might have considered it. If they wanted to charge for the service I'd probably have paid for it.

Instead I've disabled Disqus and hastily hacked in Facebook Comments which should be coming online as I write this post. 

A side effect of this is that all the existing comments are currently unavailable. I have an archive and will try to get them resurrected soon.

(Since writing this post I have also ditched Facebook comments and now have a fully home grown solution that I moderate by hand.)

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Disqust #etc #disqus #comments #facebook Disqus sneak in ads and so I rip out Discuss in favor of Facebook Comments and eventually my own system. )

Reviews and Links for March 2013

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017.
The Land of Later on by Anthony Weller

The Land of Later on by Anthony Weller

4/5

Probably not what happens when you die... but you never know.

 

Even Faster Web Sites by Steve Souders

Even Faster Web Sites by Steve Souders

4/5

Plenty of solid advice backed up by data and sample code. I picked up a few new optimizations to try and a couple to revisit from reading this book. Well recommended if you want to make a site faster.

 

The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset (The Hunger Games, #1-3) by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset (The Hunger Games, #1-3) by Suzanne Collins

3/5

The first book is very well done, but in the genre of forcing kids to kill each other I have to say I prefer Battle Royale. Battle Royale is more of a horror story, The Hunger Games has this element but it's also a fantasy about escaping poverty to makeovers and banquets as well. The second book sags a little and then the third book really picks up the pace and ends very strongly. Quick and worthwhile read.

 

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Chiroopractoor

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015.

Chiroopractoor

Google's use crime of a new compose window is going to become compulsory soon.

I suspect this is because it will soon be revealed that Google is rolling out a chain of high street Chiropractic facilities to treat the crick in everyone's neck from composing email in the bottom right hand corner of one's screen.

Either that or it's a bid for mobile dominance by forcing PC users to work in mobile screen sized portions of their screen until you just give up and use your phone.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Chiroopractoor #etc #google #gmail Why is Google trying to give me back pain with their latest Gmail redesign? )