Book reviews for September 2017
Updated on Saturday, September 30, 2017
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson
4/5
I Thought He Came With You is Robert Ellison’s blog
about software, marketing, politics, photography and time lapse.
Book reviews for July 2015
Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017
The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1) by Charles Stross
4/5
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
4/5
I really enjoyed it but the timescale is so long and so much happens that it feels a bit rushed until the last section of the book. I wish this had been teased out into a trilogy.
Reviews and Links for October 2012
Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017
Skios by Michael Frayn
4/5
Perfectly well oiled comedy of errors.
The Hydrogen Sonata (Culture, #10) by Iain M. Banks
3/5
Solid but somewhat routine Culture installment.
A Wanted Man (Jack Reacher, #17) by Lee Child
3/5
Solid Reacher installment.
Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing by Neal Stephenson
4/5
Excellent collection of articles and a couple of short stories. Worth reading just for the Wired article on the technology and politics of submarine cables.
Links
Reviews and Links for November 2011
Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
5/5
Intelligent and humorous if highly contrived thriller set loosely around an MMORPG. Loved it.
Embassytown by China Miéville
4/5
Highly original tale of colonists cohabiting with some very unusual aliens with a very unusual language. It reads like J.G. Ballard and Nicholson Baker decided to collaborate on some SciFi.
The Affair (Jack Reacher, #16) by Lee Child
3/5
Not bad, returns to when Reacher was in uniform and tells the story of how he left the Army (the answer may surprise you). As with the last few in the series it all comes a little too easily and you wish there was at least one worthy opponent. I'm hooked though so as long as Child keeps writing them I'll keep reading.
Professional Android 2 Application Development by Reto Meier
3/5
Solid foundation and covers the platform you need to target to reach the majority of Android devices.
Links
RE: Feel free to use the code, no attribution required. http://t.co/IJTcOz3p
BBC News - 7 questions on computer programmes http://t.co/XKylU7WT (more of a history / pop culture quiz)
Scooby-Doo and Secular Humanism: http://t.co/4h8M8kkK
4 of 5 stars to Embassytown by China Miéville http://t.co/kPwIrmDF
ITHCWY: Occupy Intellectual Ventures: Send them a troll. Now. http://t.co/VorWmZpz
Wow, My Flout score is -7 on @floutdotme! Get yours at http://t.co/1Sl8ei72
troll the troll! send a troll doll to intellectual ventures. http://t.co/S09ML14T via @nathtone
Walking through doorways causes forgetting, new research shows: http://t.co/JBbJXAaD
+1: Why Software Projects are Terrible and How Not To Fix Them: http://t.co/kE7WWix5
Hilarious, I had to Google how to power off Windows 8. Didn't figure it our until the third link: http://t.co/X1wrkh7R #fail
Building a Useful Task Board: http://t.co/icc8y4cU - only this should be a large monitor and an #API
#API Design Webinar http://t.co/rbDwus37 from @theamiableapi - some very valuable nuggets
Wow. Going to have to get this as a poster just to fully grok it: http://t.co/Z6iie3K5
ITHCWY: PolyLineM support in Catfood.Shapefile: I’ve just updated Catfood.Shapefile, my ESRI Shapefile parser for… http://t.co/ll50wcEi
Cal band at justanswer http://t.co/QOLcbe7e (missed this while at lunch)
Citogenesis: http://t.co/EH5K2xLg
Extensive document dump on Microsoft's shallow anti-Android bullying: http://t.co/tdEhMNLh #patents from @groklaw
Toast sandwich is UK's 'cheapest meal' http://t.co/0LG9zNOl (can't possibly be true - not factoring in cost of electricity!)
Analysis: The Darwin Economy: http://t.co/pSDkxupL
So True: What Your Favorite Map Projection Says About You: http://t.co/dW8pl2uK
Bootstrapped Company Behind iDrive, iBackup Is Fed Up With Patent Trolls: http://t.co/DP6KFLxH
The Real Cost of Patent Trolls: http://t.co/1Cu4C6cV via @bfeld
Flying rhinoceros: http://t.co/MIhWtT3L
Cool: 1% Of Nothing Launches To Get Startups Donating Equity: http://t.co/ZNy7HcZl
3 of 5 stars to Professional Android 2 Application De... by Reto Meier http://t.co/UqCtaJ3Z
'Have the people who designed this protocol really never made the twenty mile drive to San Francisco?' - http://t.co/wWk77ZpQ
Explaining 'Jobs' to Rudy Giuliani: http://t.co/ek78XEe9
ITHCWY: Catfood: Klout and Follower: Klout is building PageRank for people. You get a score between 0-100 based on… http://t.co/rGyYkY9q
Catfood Follower 1.40: http://t.co/79xDac4F via @CatfoodSoftware
Old friends... No CDTV though! At #CHM http://t.co/WGw6VOOL
How much did I used to want one of these! http://t.co/lHhnY0AG
At #CHM for Norvig v Horvitz. Will punch anyone who mentions Searle's Room. http://t.co/wPRO8tYa
Don't do it, like defining π as 4: BBC News - Changes to the world's time scale debated http://t.co/hFkrZi4g
RESTful API Design, Second Edition http://t.co/uZthmj9c #API from @landlessness
Rudy wishes I hadn't just shown him: "Saber-toothed squirrel" from the dinosaur days - Boing Boing http://t.co/Wf7Y0ttH
Marked as to-read: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries http://t.co/MC9M0Iti
Ex-Google Reader Product Manager Posts Scathing Review Of Reader Redesign | TechCrunch http://t.co/DscEAHTw
Google indexing via POST: http://t.co/oM2JmHqI (P.S. may not grok your robots.txt, suggests bending over)
Writing helpful API documentation « The Amiable API http://t.co/rx9QdKyk #API
Oakland PD confused: An Open Letter to the Citizens of Oakland From the Oakland Police Officers Association http://t.co/W5LIBY7D (me too)!
Study: why parents help their underage kids pretend to be 13 in order to use Internet sites - Boing Boing http://t.co/aoUSw5wu