antipaucity

My interest in cryptography has extended, now, for more than 15 years. The first book I read on the topic was David Kahn’s seminal work, The Codebreakers. Several years later, I received a copy of the book for Christmas, which I promptly reread.

Kahn’s writing style is eminently inviting, sucking the reader into an extensive history of code making and breaking over the centuries. Much of his time is spent going over the work of the Bletchley Park researches during WWII. It is truly astounding to see how much was going on “behind the scenes” compared to the popular historical works which only focus on the fighters on the ground, the strategic decisions made, or the technology enabling victory (or drawing it out, as the cases may be).

If you are interested in learning more about the work of the “intellectuals” during WWII, or about codes in general, it is an excellent work. For more of the theoretical aspects of modern cryptography, I’d suggest Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier*. But for a general history, in a style sure to appeal to even those who hate nonfiction and histories, David Kahn’s work is unmatched.

• Quality of writing: 4/5
• Quality of content:  5/5
• Entertainment value: 4/5
• Historicity: 5/5
• Overall: 4.5/5

^{_{* to be covered in a forth-coming review}}

I have read, and reread, Flatland several times. It’s subtitle, “A Romance of Many Dimensions”, would most likely have been surprising when it was originally published in 1884.

Edwin A Abbot weaves a tale of exploration, heresy, discovery, enlightenment, geometry, and more in a mere 81 pages (in the copy I have). We are introduced to a square who lives in Flatland. He describes for us how his country works – housing, education, mating, religion, etc. Through this all, it is shown that the epitome of existence in Flatland is to become (or produce) a circle – the most true of all beings, the wisest, most endowed, most perfect one can be.

Then we are introduced to a sphere. A sphere who has decided to enter Flatland to enlighten our square as to the limited understanding he has of Flatland in particular, and the world as a whole. The sphere’s arrival in Flatland is shocking, astounding, and a point for immediate assault on the part of the elites who run the country – for they know that being flat is all there is, nothing more, nothing less.

But the sphere whisks our friend the square off to see Pointland and Lineland – the first where the only citizen is king, and the second where the residents’ goal is to move to the center after being born on the ends. Then the sphere takes square to his home of Spaceland, where you can see the “innards” of all lesser creatures (including, of course, our friend the square).

It is, however, the square’s epiphany near the end of his journey that is most intriguing: if there is a world of 0, 1, 2, and 3 dimensions, then certainly there is one of 4, 5, 6, and more – and, if that be so, than certainly enlightenment into those further reaches should be the goal of the perfection of Spaceland, the sphere.

I cannot recommend Flatland highly enough – it is quick to read, and cheap, to boot (a free download for the Kindle)!

Personally, this was a book that opened a line of thinking I explored as a devotional mindwalk a couple years ago regarding the infiniteness of God.

• Quality of writing: 4/5
• Entertainment value: 5/5
• Story engagement: 5/5
• Mathematical accuracy: 5/5
• Overall: 4.5/5

I had high hopes for Martin Langfield’s book, The Secret Fire when I purchased it several months ago. The cover headline reads, “the world is under threat… from a weapon launched in 1944″. Sounded good.

The back cover, likewise, sounded pretty good, too:

Sotheby’s, London, 1936

A paper by Sir Isaac Newton is sold at auction to a bookseller’s agent, and within minutes of leaving the auction house he is killed and the paper stolen. For the Nazis are desperate to get their hands on a Newton formula that will unleash the Secret Fire – a weapon beyond all imagining that can wipe their enemies off the face of the earth. And this document is the key … unless the French Resistance and SOE operatives also on its trail can stop them.

Good so far, no? Who doesn’t like some WWII conspiracy craziness? (Though why this “Newton formula” is a secret and not widely known after 300 years is up for intellectual consideration.)

New York, 2007. Katherine Reckliss learns her grandmother’s SOE radio has started picking up disturbing messages from occupied France, warning that a V1 containing the Secret Fire is being launched by the Nazis. Its target? Present day London.

Here I should have had my suspension of disbelief brought into question, but I bought the book anyway.

So begins the desperate race to halt the Secret Fire – both in 1940s Nazi-occupied France and modern-day London. The clock is ticking as history starts to re-write the future in a new and terrifying script …

Alright – so parallel universes can work. So can time travel. So can parallel universes talking to each other. (Anyone see the movie Frequency or The One?)

However, psychics, random “Enemies”, spirits from alternate worlds, and other aspects of the book of which I was not aware when I bought it have done this one in for me. I got a couple pages in, hoping it would improve, and it has not. So I am doing something very rare for me and throwing it out. I can’t recommend this to anyone, personally.

• Quality of writing: 1/5
• Entertainment value: 0/5
• Story engagement: 0/5
• Overall: 0/5

Several years ago, Cliff Stoll’s amazing, true-life account of espionage and system administration in the 1980s was recommended to me.

Mr Stoll started his professional life in astronomy, but, due to budget cuts at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, he moved into systems administration.

Interspersed through the book are both political commentaries (he was after all at Berkeley), and helpful hints for even non-techies. For example, the chocolate chip cookie recipe or the helpful note that you should NEVER use a microwave to dry-out your wet sneakers. Ever. It is just Bad News™.

The title, “The Cuckoo’s Egg”, is a  reference to how the cuckoo bird goes about raising her young: she doesn’t hatch her own eggs, but rather lays them in other birds’ nests, and lets them do all the work for her. (Sounds like another bird of Dr Seuss fame, but that will have to wait for another day.)

From start to finish, Cliff’s tale of spotting an accounting error (apparently in the Bad Old Days™, departments were billed based on how much computer time they used – a singularly silly approach to computing looked-at from the mindset of a person living and working in 2011), to tracking this phantom user who utilized exploits in common applications, to finding out that he not only wasn’t at Berkeley, he wasn’t from the west coast, nor, ultimately, even from this country, is a grand tour of  both computing history and old-fashioned detective work.

Along with Without Remorse, The Cuckoo’s Egg is a novel I have reread a couple times. It has also been on my standard list of books all techies should read for more than a decade. Even though the story happened a quarter century ago, it is still a thrilling read (ok, so the bit about dial-up access seems outlandishly dated, but that’s OK, too).

• Quality of writing: 4/5
• Entertainment value: 5/5
• Historicity: 5/5
• Overall: 4/5

While I was living in Singapore, I read The Host by Stephanie Meyer (of Twilight fame). I had completed the Twilight series, and had, overall, enjoyed her writing style and was interested to see if she would be able to write a story that did not involve vampires, werewolves, and a bizarre romance between a human and her two love interests (the vampire, and the werewolf – in case you didn’t know).

Back to the point of this article

The premise of The Host is that an alien race has invaded Earth to overtake the dominant native race (ie humans), and infiltrate them so that a peaceful society can ensue. Yes, these peace-loving, non-violent creatures fight humans for control of the planet.

Our story follows one particular implantee, Wanderer, and her “host”, Melanie, and their co-journey of exploration and infiltration of remaining human-only enclaves (so that, ostensibly, the creatures can finish overtaking the violent humans and bring unending peace to the planet).

I was extremely impressed by Ms Meyer’s shift into a new genre (sci-fi romance instead of fantasy/horror romance). The quality of the story-telling, in my opinion, was very good – as was the scene creation. Much of the story happens in complete darkness, or at least in completely unvisitable locales (much of the story takes place in hidden caves in the desert).

Every time I read a story, I am generally thinking about who I would cast in the main roles. Hopefully it doesn’t cloud your reading too much if I suggest a casting call for the main character(s) (but if it would, don’t read below the bulleted list).

This was another novel I really enjoyed, and would recommend to just about anyone.

• Quality of writing: 4/5
• Entertainment value: 5/5
• Story engagement: 4/5
• Overall: 4/5

_{^{I’d cast Evangeline Lilly (of Lost (Kate Austin) fame) as Wanderer/Melanie.}}

InfoWorld this week published yet another article on “The 7 deadly sins of software development”. For those who don’t care to read the ~1 page article (that’s split unless you use the “print” option that puts it all on one page), here’s the list:

1. Lust – overengineering
2. Gluttony – not refactoring
3. Greed – cross-team competition
4. Sloth – not validating input
5. Wrath – no/bad comments
6. Envy – no version control
7. Pride – no unit testing

Spiffy. Items 1, 4, 5, and 7 are beaten to DEATH in every computer science / information systems / intro programming / advanced programming / algorithms / data structures / etc / etc class I have every attended, read about, heard about, or thought about. Why is it rehashed AGAIN by InfoWorld?

Better yet, why does an article like this appear every 9-18 months (or more!) in a major publication or on a major website (InfoWorld, ComputerWorld, arstechnica, joelonsoftware, codinghorror, etc etc)?

Is it because, as my friend Steven said they’re ‘basically new writers {“i’m fresh out of college and i know everything”} or quotas on programming articles‘? Is it because programmers are really THAT lazy? Or that bad? Or that inconsiderate? Or that management hasn’t encouraged a culture of excellence and teamwork? Yes, shipping IS a feature. It’s really important. So is having developers who care about their work – and who care for their fellow workers who will have to look at / modify / care for / clean their work later.

Lack of version control will bite you HARD everytime you don’t use it (don’t ask how I know – call it a Bad Experience™). Competing with other teams is just dumb: you’re all supposed to be working for the same company, the same end goal, and, ultimately, the same customers who will eventually pay for whatever it is you’re writing (I’ll relate another moderately-humorous anecdote on that another time).

If developers really are that bad, or their employers are bad enough to not help/fix behavior, then we’re all in a lot of trouble. And if they’re not – then it must just be that it was a slow week, so somebody thought they’d regurgitate and modify the same thing we’ve all heard hundreds of times.

For the past several months I have been traveling almost weekly into CT, specifically flying into BDL.

I have rented almost exclusively from the Dollar location next to the airport, and have experienced nothing but overt professionalism and friendliness from the staff.

I had a couple rentals with Hertz, and the staff, while formally polite, was overall very gruff and short with their customers. Likewise with Thrifty. Jeff and Ellen run their office with professionalism, overt friendliness, and remain calm and polite even when dealing with exceptionally-rude customers.

Whenever I have the chance (which thankfully has not been often because few are) to interact with some of the incredibly rude folks who have come-in to the Windsor Locks location, I have always defended the crew behind the counter who typically go above and beyond what is required to help those who have come to rent a car from them. I have never had as good a repeat rental experience as I have had at Dollar for the past many months.

I have never personally had an issue with any vehicle I have rented there, and I’ve rented enough that at .5 Southwest credits per rental, I’ve accrued a free flight! Some other customers come in looking for something to be wrong and how to take their frustrations at having to be in CT or having been delayed, or that they’re running late out on the staff behind the counter. I do not know what would possess someone to do that, since all it can do it upset the person you’re talking to who probably can’t do much to help you out beyond what they are already doing (ie, renting you a car, or handling the return).

Were I in the position to do so, I would want to reward this particular location in some fashion – a pizza party, more time off, pay raise, bonus: something should be done for them.

While I am excited that I won’t be traveling into CT every week soon, it is with some sadness that I leave the pleasant folks at Dollar.

I have now read a few items by Malcolm Gladwell, but so far have liked Outliers most. The premise is Mr Gladwell’s research that if you hit ~10000 hours working on something, you become fabulous. That, and being born right after an age cutoff (say, 3 Jan when the age cutoff is 31 Dec) will give you a marked leg-up on your teammates/opponents (and duh! an almost-8-year-old will do better at most things than a just-7-year-old).

Oh – and parents have a strong influence on their children: if they encourage their children, they’re more likely to do well. And individual attitude/drive is important, too – if you want to do well, you’re more likely to.

Some would say that Mr Gladwell cherry-picked his subjects: but then again, who doesn’t when writing a book that wants to present a particular conclusion? I do wish he had put some counter-examples to his general thesis – if for no other reason than to show they are the exceptions, which proves the rule he tries to establish in the book.

Mr Gladwell is a noted journalist, and has articles published in a variety of well-known magazines and newspapers. His style is very accessible, and while he present new material and/or tries to make points, he doesn’t ever talk down to the reader: you feel like he’s bringing you on a journey of discovery, and you’re finding-out what he’s telling you as he is discovering it for himself.

• Quality of writing: 4/5
• Quality of content: 3.5/5
• Entertainment value: 4/5
• Educational value: 3/5
• Reading comfort: 4/5
• Overall: 3.5/5

One of the [very] few novels I have ever reread is Without Remorse by Tom Clancy – and I’ve reread it several times: each time noticing something I hadn’t before, and each time reacting quite viscerally to how the book’s main character (I hesitate to call him a “hero”) goes about his desired objective.

If you’ve never read any of Tom Clancy’s novels, this is probably the best one to start on (and yes, I’m a little biased!)

Mr John Clark is introduced for the first time (by release date of the novels) in Clear and Present Danger – but Without Remorse goes back to the “founding” of Mr Clark. As the book opens, we are introduced to one John Terrence Kelly – a demolitions diver working to sink damaged oil rigs in the gulf after a hurricane during the height of the Vietnam war.

What transpires next sets-up the rest of Mr Clark’s career – his wife is tragically killed in a vehicle crash while he’s on a dive, and he “hermitizes” himself on the island they used to live on in the Chesapeake Bay. On a routine visit to Baltimore to buy food stuffs for his home, he picks-up a hitchhiker and ends-up falling in love with her. She’s had a mottled past, but is on the road to recovery – encouraged my John’s friendship and true interest in her. However, he gets a little too curious about where she’s “from”, and takes her back to the seedy part of Baltimore where she had been “working”. John’s overconfidence in his abilities (he’s been on a couple tours with the SEALs in Vietnam) proves to be mortally dangerous to his companion, Pam, and nearly costs him his life, too.

After a wild turn of events from what he thought was “safe” and “curious” brings Pam back to her former employers, and then costs her her life, John takes matters into his own hands, reverting to his training, and learns the new “jungle” he is now operating in no less dangerous than those around the world where “little yellow people in black pyjamas” are fighting against (and with) his compatriots.

John T Kelly (later John Clark) does what we all wish we could do when someone hurts someone we love: just like Dirty Harry did what we all wanted to when dealing with corruption and evil – but either think is wrong, or is too far “outside the rules”, so we don’t (or we believe in the system, no matter how flawed: and characters like Mr Clark give us hope that there are people who take care of what needs to be taken care of – whether it’s inside or outside the system).

The book cover describes the novel as a “tour de force” – and it most certainly is: hardly a page goes by without action, force, violence, and redemption. This is not a story for the weak-stomached, and not for the young: it is “adult” in nature – so be aware

I have unusually-high expectation, based on this being my favorite novel, but I just found out that this is being turned into a motion picture with a tentative 2011 release date: needless to say, I can’t wait!

• Quality of writing: 5/5
• Entertainment value: 5/5
• Historicity: 4/5 (this takes place in and around the Vietnam war, and is plausible in its timings, and correctly cites many actual events during the story)
• Overall: 4/5 (I suppose there could be some improvement – but I don’t know how)

Upon the recommendation of my friend Steven, I picked-up a cheap copy of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Body.

My first observation is that Tim Ferriss is not one to necessarily edit his speech patterns for writing. While not rife with them, there are a fair number of vulgarities throughout the book – all of which seem to have not been removed/altered just because he could.

Second, and perhaps even more importantly, this is NOT a book for kids or teens: it is for adults who are not uncomfortable with “taboo” subjects – the subtitle is, “An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman”. Some of this material is presented in an “uncut” form, and potential readers would benefit from knowing this.

Thirdly, most of the material was developed from self-proclaimed “experiments” he ran on himself trying to improve certain aspects of his body, and many are either not cheap, sketchy, or outright pointless for the “normal” person.

He does go into pretty extravagant scientific/engineering detail on several aspects of what he did and why – some of which is downright entertaining to read about. Data appeals to geeks and nerds, so it’s definitely one of the reasons I like the book.

There is a lot of name dropping, product promotion, and apparently pointless/unrelated anecdotes shown throughout. There are also some interesting testimonials and observed data.

Nothing in the book is really earth-shattering or “new” (at least to me), but it was certainly combined in different ways than I had seen previously. The “slow-carb” diet he promotes is nothing new, just renamed and slightly more focused than other editions that have surfaced before: cut carbs (including fruit and especially fruit juice), add lean protein and veggies.

The chapters on improving strength and coordination all make sense: though his focus on the “MED” (minimum effective dose) goes counter to popular thinking, but after some review and thinking, it makes sense to not overwork yourself when trying to improve strength/balance/etc – no point in hurting yourself and making the process last longer than it needs to. Likewise, eating higher quality foods (less sugar/starch especially) goes along with semi-conventional wisdom surrounding general health.

Mr Ferriss also has the benefit of being pretty well-off financially (and has been for quite some time), so many of the things he discusses just “doing” are going to be beyond the vale for the “common man”. It’d be great to just go to Nicaragua for a couple weeks of tourism and then get bloodwork and MRIs taken cheaper than the US – but, quite frankly, I don’t have $7500 to do that: and especially not just for myself.

Overall I think this is a decent book – but by no means worth the cover price. Much/most of what is contained (excluding the anecdotes) is available from other sources, but not in a compilation like this one. Personally, I think Mr Ferriss’ prior book (The 4-Hour Work Week) was better as a book. If you can pick it up for at least half off the cover price (should be simple from Amazon or eBay), go for it. If not, go to the library

Oh – if nothing else comes of having read the book, adding cinnamon to my coffee is pretty good

• Quality of writing: 3/5
• Quality of content: varies chapter to chapter, and your interest level 2/5
• Entertainment value: 4/5
• Overall: 2.5/5