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Category: Authored by digittante

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With 2011 behind us, I’ve been reviewing the year’s highlights (and lowlights). As part of this, I’ve assembled this list of the 15 best books I enjoyed last year. They sort pretty evenly into a few genres: fiction, science-fiction, non-fiction/business, and graphic novels. Each one of these books has stuck with me since reading, and I find scenes from them pop up in my head while washing dishes, driving, etc.

For each of these (except the non-fiction), the kinectic energy of the story made balancing the desire to savor them and speed through hard. Some of these I read in full-out sprints, like the 10-days in Tahoe when I stayed up until 3am many nights to tear through four paperbacks. Others took more time, like the month I spent reading all four novels in Rudy Rucker’s Ware Tetralogy. Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan stands out as the series I read the slowest, only because the main character’s anger was so seething and toxic it affected me too much. I could only absorb one book each month in this ten volume set.

I’ve also noted the format in which I read each book. It was a mix of paperback, hardback,  Amazon Kindle, and via the Kindle app on a Nook Color eReader (the best!). Enjoy!

Fiction:

  • Survivor by Chuck Pahlaniuk (paperback) – fast-paced, HIGH-larious send-up of America’s narcissistic media culture
  • Beat The Reaper by Josh Bazell (paperback)– a 100mph scream, especially that moment when you discover a buddy has also read it, and you both spontaneously yell “BEARCLAW!”
  • Bite Me by Christopher Moore (paperback) – age-old vampires in San Francisco through the eyes of a disaffected wannabe teenager. Very funny.
  • Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway – all of Papa’s Nick Adams stories arranged chronologically is if they were a reflection of his own growing up. Un-forgettable and touching.

Science-Fiction:

  • The Ware Tetralogy by Rudy Rucker (Kindle app) – immense 4-book arc of planetary intrigue, new life forms and the artists and technologists who bring them to life. LOVED IT!
  • Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear (Kindle app) – a tense epic-scale story that takes place on a single space-ship, albeit a very special one.
  • Interface by Neal Stephenson (paperback & Kindle app) – Political intrigue told quickly, and densely, like most Stephenson. I couldn’t help but imagine the presidential candidate at the center of the story looks like Mitt Romney.
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (paperback)– A classic, but this was my first time reading this chilling tale of militarized children battling for us in outer-space. You might follow this with its five or six related/sequels, but I’d rather preserve my impressions of the story and its authors gifts by not.

Graphic Novels:

  • Transmetropolitan Volumes 1 – 10 by Warren Ellis (bound-volumes) – insane, angry, tale of a year 3000 Hunter S. Thompson journalist out to save the US from it’s own stupidity and depravity (while also being stupid and depraved himself). He destroys a corrupt president in the end, so that’s a positive. The series wins overall for the carnival of freaks Ellis populates the future wit. Will
  • Final Crisis by Grant Morrison (bound volume) – Twisted and complex, and all-together delightful. Read it in one night, which was too fast to fully comprehend. But I’m already planning to re-read it soon.
  • All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison (bound volume) – A really beautiful rendition of the Superman origin story. Read it in one night, which was too fast to fully savor the imagery, nostalgia, and cleverness of Morrison’s story. But I’m already planning to re-read it soon.

Non-Fiction:

  • Drive by Dan Pink (hardback) – compelling exploration linking various research findings into a perspective on what motivates us. Pink could make a good economist some day.
  • A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (paperback) – possibly a covert Buddhist recruitment tool. Tolle’s perspective is congenial enough to follow until he suggests that car accident victims somehow attract the offending vehicle that struck them with their negative energy. But there’s good wisdom for managing your egotism and narcissism.
  • Organizing Genius by Warren Bennis (paperback) – folk lore tales of ‘hot teams’ that built ‘hot products’. The most compelling image of how leaders effectively motivate passion and creativity is in the tale of Walt Disney acting out the entire story of Cinderella by himself in a warehouse before a his diverse team of hundreds of animators, musicians, illustrators, and artists.
  • Overcoming Perfection by Ann W. Smith (Kindle app) – thought-provoking exploration of the sources, behaviors, and perpetuating dynamics of perfectionism in families. The first 40-pages might convince you everyone has it, including you. But then again, if you’re drawn to read this in the first place, that’s likely an acknowledgement you know it already Winking smile

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via Gizmodo by Jesus Diaz on 12/10/11


This is fascinating, a nuclear explosion from the Tumbler-Snapper tests performed in Nevada during 1952. It looks different from all nuclear explosions you've seen because it's what it looks like one millisecond after detonation. It looks like a skull by Tim Burton. More »


 
 

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Musical hard-drives take-two...

 
 

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via The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Slog by Mary Traverse on 11/29/11


Here's a cheerful way to start the day! Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" being performed on old floppy drives!

via.

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Won't be here in time to fit into a little stocking, but golly, what a stuffer!

 
 

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via Warren Ellis by Warren Ellis on 11/29/11


Years ago, I blogged some notes by Matt Webb & Jack Schulze, back when they were Schulze & Webb, on the notion of a “social letterbox.”  Later, Schulze & Webb and Matt Jones fused into the creature known as BERG, and became a company that did all kinds of interesting stuff, including publishing SVK.

Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo.

Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo.

BERG Cloud, and The Little Printer. Or, as Jones put it to me last night, a node for the papernet. 

It ties together a bunch of ideas from the last few years: the social letterbox, BERG’s notion of the receipt as the “paper app", Tom Taylor’s microprinter. 

And in 2012 it’ll be a thing you can have in your house.  It comes with a cloud-based control system to allow you to precisely control what’s printed – therefore, what enters your home or office – and when.

Little Printer, a thing that makes the vague and numinous ideas of the papernet concrete, would appear to be just the start.  BERG Cloud, the thing that makes it go, is scaleable and adaptable:

Our technology means we can focus on great design for connected products, rather than programming chips to make them work. We have a list of products we’ll be making next, but if you have a need for anything from prototype Web-enabled clocks to smart infrastructure for a new city block, we’d love to hear from you.

And that is all kinds of interesting to me.

My friends amaze me.

 
 

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Our next at-home, rainy-day project?

 
 

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via Hack a Day by Mike Szczys on 11/25/11


When [Adr1an] wrote in to share a link to his PCB etching tutorial he mentioned that he knew we had already covered a ton of these guides. He’s absolutely right, not only have we featured a great number of them, but we also wrote our own quite a while ago. But that doesn’t mean we ignore them when they come in on the tips line. In fact, we read all of them that have something to offer and are pleased to feature the ones that are well presented… like this one!

[Adr1an] went all out with his writeup. He not only covers all of the elements that go into this, but discusses where to purchase them and his thoughts on how he arrived at the choice. He’s using the toner transfer method and prefers Brother branded toner for its coverage and resistance to over-etching. He prints on HP Everday Photopaper, then uses a laminator to transfer to the copper clad board. For this guide he used 2oz copper but prefers 1oz copper as it etches faster. His etchant of choice is Ferric Chloride, which can be ordered as a dry powder. He uses the direct etch method of loading etchant into a sponge an applying that to the board.

The board he makes in the guide looks great, and it only took him 28 minutes!

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From: Alex M. Dunne | d i g i t t a n t e [mailto:alex@digittante.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 1:24 PM
To: Jeanne.Kohl-Welles@leg.wa.gov; marylou.dickerson@leg.wa.gov; reuven.carlyle@leg.wa.gov; phyllis.kenney@leg.wa.gov; david.frockt@leg.wa.gov; drivers@dol.wa.gov
Cc: bryan.bissell@leg.wa.gov; Opinion; Jennifer Sullivan
Subject: [ REQUEST ] How about "1 strike and you're out" for killer drivers?

Senators Kohl-Welles & Frockt, Representatives Dickerson, Carlyle, & Kenney,

I’m writing to you about public safety and the risk of licensed drivers who have killed on the road.

Senator Frockt and Representative Kenney:  You are likely aware of this weekend’s tragic accident in your district on Lake City Way NE and 110th street. An SUV slammed into a smaller car at high speed killing both occupants.

Senator Kohl-Welles and Representatives Carlyle and Dickerson: You may be aware that the driver of that SUV killed a woman on 15th Avenue West in your district in 2009 while also driving at high speed.

In the 2009 incident, the driver was initially charged with vehicular homicide but later pled guilty to only reckless driving and reckless endangerment. Lessening the charges didn’t lessen the impact. The victim remained dead. The driver was able to resume driving, and as of this Sunday, resume killing.

This driver has now had ‘3 strikes’ in two years, and I certainly hope he will be removed from the roads permanently. But could we make our roads even safer? Driving in Washington state is a privilege, and one that in some cases should be taken away more severely. What if, in Washington State, the law allowed only 1 strike for killer drivers?  Kill with your car just once, and no matter the severity of the conviction, you’re banned from driving for life. Implementing such a change would likely require RCW updates to the following sections as indicated:

My family and friends live in your districts and rely on these roads daily. I’d like to tell them you’ll include this proposal in your upcoming legislative work.

Please let me know if you’re able to, or if you have further questions.

All the best,

AMD
36th District
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alex M. Dunne
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UPDATE: Buy it on eBay!

I bought this T43p from Lenovo shortly after they were released in mid-2005. It's been my super-reliable daily driver ever since, and has been used to produce books, plays, websites, and much much more. Includes the following specs and accessories (see photos):

  • Model T43p Laptop w/ Intel Pentium M 2.13Ghz CPU (full specs here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T43p)
  • Original Hitachi 7200RPM 60Gig HDD and 2Gigs RAM
  • IBM 11a/b/g Wireless MiniPCI + Bluetooth
  • DVD±RW/CD±RW Combo Drive
  • Lexar ExpressCard 4Gig
  • Viking Interworks 32Bit adaptor & an aData 32Gig Compactflash
  • Labtec USB V-UAM38 Webcam
  • Original Power Adapter & Chord plus an extra Power Adapter & Chord
  • Bootable CD containing a modified firmware (already applied) that eliminates the "2010 error" with non-Lenovo drives

Usage & History

  • It has NEVER been dropped, has no case cracks, no dead pixels, no missing keyboard buttons (see photos)
  • This machine runs Windows 7 Ultimate very well and that's been my main OS on it for years.
  • It scores 3.7 on the Windows Experience Index using the following partition scheme:
  • Original HDD: 2 NTFS partitions of C:BOOT\ and D:DATA\
  • ExpressCard slot: use the included Lexar ExpressCard 4Gig as a dedicated ReadyBoost drive
  • PCMCIA slot: use the included Viking Interworks 32Bit adaptor & aData 32Gig Compactflash drive for on-board backups
  • It also has run many other OSes just fine, including Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Ubuntu (currently installed)
  • All original internal components, devices, and parts work just like the first day I got it
  • In 2010 I replaced the original Touchpad Keyboard Bezel with a brand new factory-sealed one (see photo)
  • In 2010 I replaced the original larger bump-out battery with a brand-new 3rd-party 4400mAH battery that fits flush (see photo)
  • In 2006 an authorized IBM repair center replaced the motherboard (to fix the ball-grid array problem these models can have)

I'll accept PayPal only, and Buyer pays shipping to any registered PayPal address. I've taken very good care of this laptop (see photos), and will continue to do the same when packing it for you. More photos below:

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This sign in a Lake Tahoe grocery store caught my attention. If "Whiskey", "Bourbon" and "Rum" are the 'hard drinks', and "New Age Drinks" aren't 'soft drinks', well then, what are they?