Kendall Giles

Of the Bond books I've read so far, I would have to say that On Her Majesty's Secret Service, by Ian Fleming, is one of his best.

This book encompasses a lot for changes for Bond. Picking up Bond's life after Thunderball, Bond is about ready to quit his job as a 00 after becoming discouraged tracking down Ernst Blofeld, the leader of SPECTRE, and is just ready to hand in his resignation letter. But a series of events involving money and a woman at a casino soon leads Bond into the depths of the French mafia. From there, he receives a tip on the whereabouts of Blofeld, and Bond goes undercover to investigate Blofeld's operation. But before he leaves, he finds that he has fallen in love with the woman from the casino, Tracy---true love, perhaps for the first time in his life.

While on the mountain, Bond uncovers a dire plot involving biowarfare and the action really picks up from there. However, the most emotional moments occur when Bond gets back together with Tracy, and his life is changed forever.

This story is good not only because of the Bond action we have come to expect, but also because we get to see a personal and emotional side of him not often shown.

I have not seen the movie version of the book yet - my understanding is that it stars George Lazenby as Bond, instead of Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, or Pierce Brosnan.

Note that reading this book completes part of one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

Doctor No, by Ian Fleming, picks up immediately after where From Russia with Love left off.

After recovering from the poisoning at the end of the previous novel, James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a section chief on the island. Once there, Bond starts to uncover clues around many secret and strange activities of a certain Dr. No on Crab Key Island. Investigating further, Bond finds himself in the middle of a large, diabolical plot by Dr. No to gain power and wealth.

He is soon captured, and Bond must struggle to stay alive while trying to save the life of an innocent girl also caught by Dr. No, the beautiful Honey Ryder. Mr. Fleming shows his creative talents in devising various punishments and traps for Bond, and Dr. No becomes a legendary Bond Villain. A thrilling and unforgettable story.

The film version of Dr. No was actually the first Bond film with Sean Connery.

Note that reading this book completes part of one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

It was from a different time, a somehow more refined time that bred James Bond. It was a time before fancy gadgets, suicide bombers, and the Internet. It was a time of heroes, when the clack of the train as it runs along the rails promised a certain romance, and when the trace of a hidden door in a wall panel brought danger. A double-edged throwing knife, bullets smuggled through airport security, vodka martinis.

Such is the world in the James Bond thriller From Russia with Love, by Ian Fleming, thought by some to be the best of the Bond novels (and is said to have been adapted well onto the screen version, with Sean Connery).

In the book, James travels to Istanbul to retrieve a cypher machine, but gets entangled and distracted by the captivating Tatiana Romanova. Along the way Bond meets a few friends, but many enemies, including Russia's SMERSH organization, and the story comes to a climax during a perilous trip on the Orient Express. There is a surprise ending, and we can't help but wonder if Bond makes it out alive.

Note that reading this book completes part of one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

If one were to pause for a moment and consider what "good government" would be like, we might think of one that would serve the people, upholding the Constitution, working to help the citizens in time of need, offering services to enrich the quality of life, promoting science, innovation, and education, defending the country in time of crisis, and serving as a shining example to other nations.

Now, if you were to reflect on the government you've seen in action recently, then your two visions might not exactly match.

In his book Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters, Richard Clarke, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence, and Special Advisor to the President on Cybersecurity and Cyberterrorism, among other important federal government roles, provides a frank, honest, and professional assessment as to why your vision of your current government does not come close to your vision of "good government", especially with regard to national security matters.

Beginning with the failures before and after 9/11, he also analyses intelligence efforts, homeland security, energy policies, and, in my opinion most importantly, cyberspace and cybersecurity.

We need more professionals like Richard Clarke in government, to lead, guide, and provide wisdom to our elected officials. As the individuals with the experience, dedication, and ability are run out of government by an increasingly polarized and politicized administration, one wonders who will sound the voice of reason, rationality, and intelligence going forward.

Note that reading this book completes one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson, is a classic of the horror genre, and is a disturbing take on vampires, society, and personal struggles. A plague has set upon the entire world and the governments enacted draconian laws and procedures to try to contain the outbreak. But these efforts failed, society collapsed, and people died. Those who remained struggled to survive against a fast-moving, unknown infection, and those who died started returning at night, looking for blood.

The book focuses on Robert Neville as he tries to stay alive and sane in a world ruled by vampires. He researches the plague and tries to find a cure, and his strength and reason are put to the test in a life where his days are spent preparing for the vampire onslaughts at night, and his nights are spent struggling to live to just another day. Trying to stay alive while all alone, especially after one's family and friends are killed and the only purpose in living any longer is to avoid being ripped to shreds by vampires, can test anyone's sanity, and Robert has his share of mental, as well as physical, struggles.

I haven't yet seen Hollywood's remake of the book, the I Am Legend movie, and I understand Hollywood changed the original story quite a bit (even turning the English-German, blond-haired Robert Neville into Will Smith), but the read was so haunting that I am hesitant to see the movie production. The book, at least, is recommended.

Note that completing this book meets one of my 101 goals in 1001 days project goals.

If you think that you make rational, reasoned decisions, or that you are the master of your domain, etc., then you might consider reading Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely.

This book provides a very interesting glimpse into just how humans make decisions in real life---it turns out that in a variety of situations, humans are not the masters of rationality that we assume them to be.

Economics is very good at making lots of models to predict supply and demand, though a core assumption is that humans will always make rational decisions. One look at the current economy gives weight to the statement that economists have a very hard time with getting their complex models to reflect, in any reasonable way, reality. Dan's take on economics is that humans, more often than not, make irrational decisions, leading to a new field called Behavioral Economics. Through a series of very interesting experiments, Dan shows that his suppositions are correct---humans make irrational decisions a lot, and the results of his experiments give insight into why and how people respond as they do to life situations.

Example experiments include testing human decision making when we have lots of options, how our decision making is distorted when we are sexually aroused, why we are dishonest, and how we are influenced by the placebo effect and the power of suggestion.

I found this book very entertaining---now I know why a 50-cent Aspirin works and a 1-cent Aspirin doesn't---and I do think Dan has done a great service in highlighting and investigating how humans really make decisions, as opposed to how traditional economists assume we make decisions.

Finally, reading this book finishes one of my 101 goals in 1001 days.

Just yesterday I paid $4.09/gallon for 87 octane gas in Baltimore. Many people, lured into buying bloated, inefficient cars, trucks, and SUVs made and marketed by Detroit, are now feeling similar pains in the wallet. An ABC news story suggests that gas may soon cost $7/gallon.

But it is not just the high price of gas that is causing concern. All across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of people are losing their homes to foreclosure or are unable to sell their homes, and the crown jewels of the U.S. are being bought up by unsavory foreign governments taking advantage of the weak dollar.

Everyone wants to just throw their hands into the air, but if you have wondered why these events are happening, then you might consider reading The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris.

This book won't help you get out of debt, sell your house, or improve the degrading quality of the education system. But what it will do is put the current economic crisis into context, give insight into how economic and personal spending practices contributed to the problem, and help us understand what can be done to improve our national situation. It will also help you realize why and how the much heralded Alan Greenspan and his Chicago economics theories may have actually led to our current economic downward spiral, as did the lack of critical thinking skills by the millions of Americans who tried to buy houses when they could not afford to, assisted by greedy banks, other lenders, and Wall Street. It will also show how the follies of the current Presidential administration led to the decline of American economic standing in the world, with potentially dire implications for us all going forward.

There are no quick fixes for the current situation we voted and spent ourselves into, but this book at least paints a plausible explanation for why we are here. Where we go from here depends in large part on the resilience and fortitude of the American peoples, and this book at least helps show a reality clearly the result of causes and effects rather than from forces outside our control.

Human's have it pretty good. Unlike, say, the koala, which only has to consider which eucalyptus tree to climb in order to have yet another meal of eucalyptus leaves, humans are omnivores, able to make a meal from a variety of plants, animals, and fungi. This has, in part, allowed humans to live in all parts of the world - from the humid tropics of the jungle, to the dry, sandy deserts of the middle east, to the cold, unforgiving quiet of the frozen tundra.

But this ease of making a meal, no matter what the environment, has turned what was once a survival advantage for our species, when humans first struggled to spread across the globe tens of thousands of years ago, into a bit of a disadvantage in an industrialized world over-populated with people and, ironically, with too much of the wrong kind of food. Overpopulation and the need to feed so many mouths has led to the industrialization of food production, transforming small family farms into large monocultures of genetically-modified cornfields and acre-sized metal sheds of captive, steroid and antibiotic-injected cows. We might have once thought this scaling up of food production to be a good thing, but is it?

But why stop asking questions there? Just where does that McDonald's meal come from, really? Why does the U.S. grow so much corn? Why do the factory farms plant thousands of acres of corn, and only corn? And with so much corn, why does the government subsidize the factory farms to grow more of it? Is "corn-fed beef" a delicacy, or a perorative? How is Whole Foods, at the same time, different from and just like the modern factory farm? Why might Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm, in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, represent the best farm in the U.S.?

Why indeed. And you might be surprised at the answers to each of the above questions.

So if you have ever wondered about the food you unpackage from its plastic shrink wrap and plop into the microwave, if you have ever considered the moral hazard of eating meat - or corn, and if you have ever wanted to gather wild mushrooms, then you might want to read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.

With an admirable investigative tenacity and a gift for telling a good story, Michael details how our food is grown, produced, cooked, and eaten by examining the life story behind four meals - one bought from a fast food chain, one made from items bought in an organic store, one made from foods grown and raised on a sustainable farm, and one made from foods foraged from the wild. In reading about Michael's adventures, you will discover what it takes to get the food on your table to your table, and you will likely never think about corn the same again.

Modern humans have lost the connection to the land and the food it provides. Overweight, overpopulated, and increasingly unhealthy, Michael's look into what we eat and how it was made is perhaps the just desserts.

If you are interested in quality, intelligent entertainment, then you might want to check out the series Numb3rs, available on DVD or by individual episode download.

The series depicts an FBI agent who is helped by his mathematics whiz brother in solving crimes - kind of like CSI with equations rather than microscopes. But don't let the equations scare you off - the conflict caused by the two different methods of problem solving, characterized by the FBI agent brother and the mathematics brother, along with the various crimes and bad guys, actually provides for exciting drama.

As an example, in the pilot episode a serial rapist/killer is loose in Los Angeles. The FBI agent has a map of the city showing the locations of the crimes, but is otherwise stumped on how to track the killer and predict where the killer will strike next. The mathematician studies the pattern of the crime locations and, rather than try to predict the location of the next crime, he estimates the location of where the killer lives. The analogy is that of a garden water sprinkler - it is difficult to predict where the next water droplet will land, but if you study the pattern of the drops of water, you can estimate where the water sprinkler must be located.

Note that the math used in the episodes is real, and if you are interested in finding more about the different techniques used in the various episodes, then you might want to take a look at the book The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS: Solving Crime with Mathematics.

I've "known" Michael Yon for years now. And I put "known" in quotes because, though I've not yet had the privilege of meeting him in person, I've talked to him by phone and we've traded emails over the years---mostly him sending me pictures and details of his latest adventures. (It's a bit one-sided, because, whereas he's been off to foreign countries, getting shot at, have dinner with cannibals, etc., I've just been driving around the Washington D.C. beltway from Richmond to Baltimore for the past five years.)

For the last several years he has been embedded with the U.S. and international troops in Iraq, detailing the tremendous changes occurring in that country, considering not only the perspective of our and allied troops trying to restore order, but also the perspective of the everyday Iraqis, whose country and lives were tossed into the air like so many pick-up sticks.

While some of you may be familiar with Michael's first book, Danger Close, which details his experiences becoming a Green Beret, Michael has chronicled his experiences in Iraq in a new book, called Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope. From what I have seen, Michael tells it like it is, much to the dismay of the military brass.

Special signed editions of his book are available here.

You can read the first chapter of the book here.

Get it while you can---Michael is heading back to Iraq, already having logged more time in combat situations than any other reporter. I think he has a unique perspective on the situations on the ground there, and I believe his voice is an important one.

When I started my new job, I found myself getting into a routine - on my way in to the office I would stop by one of those coffee shops on the corner to grab a large cup of wake-up. This would last me until early afternoon, whereupon I would go again to get more coffee to see me through the rest of the day. Now, these coffee shops tend to serve good coffee, but you pay for the ambience, and after a while my routine started to lighten my wallet a bit too much.

In a search for alternatives, I tried carrying coffee with me from home, but the container was not large enough to see me through the entire day. So I decided to buy a small coffee maker, but, from past experience, I knew that most did not heat the water enough to make a good cup of coffee, and the burner on the bottom tended to scorch the coffee left sitting in the pot.

The Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker met and exceeded both of my criteria. The water is heated enough to make a really good cup of coffee - as good as I was getting in that coffee shop on the corner - and because it keeps the coffee in a thermal carafe, rather than using a burner, the coffee does not get burned. It is also safer not having a burner hot plate, since I don't have to worry about accidently leaving the burner on when I leave the office at night.

The thermal carafe keeps the coffee hot for hours - at the end of the day my coffee is still hot enough, for me. It is also just the right size - when I finish drinking a carafe's worth of coffee, I know it must be time to go home. I also like the stainless-steel cafe and coffee maker styling.

There are many more expensive coffee makers out there, but for the price, I have been very happy with the quality of the unit and the quality of the coffee it makes. Also, my productivity is up, and my wallet is happier too.

Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker
$89.00
Available from Amazon

Technorati Tags: review

For some time now I have been on frequent travel. You know what this means - quick meals from the drive-through window, not enough "good for you" foods and drinks, exposure to lots of other people on the run and sometimes sick with a cold or flu, lack of a good night's sleep, and a difficulty in getting enough exercise. While pushups are great, and can be done anywhere, I also wanted a little something more than a pushup or situp.

I thought about bringing around some kettlebells, but those aren't very portable, and I didn't want them flying around the car in case there was an accident. But after looking around for a bit, I took a chance on an inexpensive and portable chin-up / pull-up bar, called the Creative Fitness Door Gym.

After a quick assembly, I was actually quite impressed. It rests on the frame of a door - no nails or screws or glue needed - it takes about one second to remove it from the door, leaving no marks. Yet it is very sturdy and allows for as many chin-ups as you could ever possibly want to do. With it you can do pull-ups using multiple grips - with your palms facing away from you, palms facing towards you, and palms facing each other. Moreover, the bar also can be placed on the floor, allowing you to do deep pushups. When I am done and have to hit the road, I throw it in the back of the car.

Note that the image on Amazon does not do the product justice - here it is on a door frame:

Technorati Tags: fitness, review

Though audible.com has been in business as a public company since 1999 (they incorporated in 1995), I have only recently discovered the pleasure of their acquaintance.

They provide audio versions of books, newspapers, educational materials, radio shows, etc. for a reasonable fee.

Actually, I think their fees are more than reasonable, because they are cheaper than buying audio copies of books in the bookstore, and they also allow you to copy these purchases to your iPod or other digital audio device as well as make CD copies of your purchases if you want to listen to the CDs in your car or to serve as a backup of your purchase.

You can buy digital versions of books, newspapers, or magazines straight away, or you can sign up for a membership plan, with varying price points. They include content for more than 40,000 titles, and the basic membership plan provides for $14.95/book pricing for most books. Some books do cost more than this, but in general, for the $14.95/month membership plan you get 1 credit per month, and most books cost 1 credit. Subscribers also have the option to purchase books without credits for a 30% discount.

When I subscribed, I got a free membership to the Wall Street Journal, and listened to this recording during a morning jog. Audible.com also provides some content for free, such as political speeches, government hearings, and the 9/11 Report Speech.

The current version of iTunes plays their .aa format files directly, and downloading purchased books is effortless and easy.

The first book I downloaded is the popular Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire. I was able to listen to it with iTunes and was also able to make a backup copy to (multiple) CDs.

So far I am very happy with this service.

Technorati Tags: book, review

Amazon has introduced an ebook reader -- the Kindle.

While many people have been longing for a competent ebook reader for some time, to date no one has been able to produce an ebook reader with the right features:

• read files (books, magazines, newspapers, documents, text) in a variety of formats, including open ones, such as .doc, .pdf, .txt, .rft, .html, etc.
• allow the easy addition and deletion of books from the device
• display the books competently
• have an interface suitable for book reading, browsing, searching, and note-taking
• don't overwhelm me with fees and crippled file formats

Is the kindle the iPod of books?

While Amazon seems to have done OK on the display part, and the book reading interface seems to be OK, unfortunately the kindle seems to fail on the other points. The words of Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos gives you a hint of why the kindle is not the device we have all been waiting for:

This isn't a device, it's a service.

Basically, Amazon is selling you a $400 device that you use to rent digital books from Amazon and then read them on that device. You are not actually buying a digital copy of a book from Amazon. You are renting the book because Amazon encodes the book in a proprietary (DRM) format that does not work with other devices or software. Further, that crippled book can only be read as long as Amazon wants you to be able to read it. From their terms of service:

Your rights under this Agreement will automatically terminate without notice from Amazon if you fail to comply with any term of this Agreement. In case of such termination, you must cease all use of the Software and Amazon may immediately revoke your access to the Service or to Digital Content without notice to you and without refund of any fees. Amazon's failure to insist upon or enforce your strict compliance with this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of any of its rights.

And, unlike real books or digital files that are not crippled (DRM), you cannot share your rented Amazon book with anyone else:

You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not, and you will not encourage, assist or authorize any other person to, bypass, modify, defeat or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content.

Other deal-breakers include the fact that, while you can read Amazon-selected files with the kindle, you must pay a few dollars per month to do so - you must subscribe to read a blog that you can read for free using your computer. Also, some files can be transferred to the device via USB, but some must be emailed to the device via Amazon - Amazon "converts" the document into a kindle format (applies DRM) and charges you $.10 per document for the privilege.

If Amazon included a digital copy of each book I buy from Amazon, I think the kindle would work. But as it currently is configured, especially without support for at least .pdf files (a really big deal -- I have a lot of .pdf files on my laptop, and I would pay good money for a viable device to read them with) the kindle business model does not make sense to me. I currently do not need an expensive device that basically allows me to read rented books on it, and where I am nickle-and-dimed with monthly fees for the privilege. It seems like a step in the right direction for a useful ebook reader, but Amazon has more work to do. Maybe in version 2.0 they will do better.

Other commentary on the kindle:

dive into mark
boing-boing gadgets
kottke.org
wired
macworld

Technorati Tags: book, review, technology

Michael Yon, who has spent far more time embedded with combat troops in Iraq than any other writer or photographer, has part 1 of an article discussing his recommendations for cameras that can take excellent photographs under extreme conditions.

This dispatch is in response to requests like the ones above. This installment will focus on digital still cameras. My opinions are well-informed on the specific products I describe, but I am no camera expert. My opinions on the cameras described lack a detailed field comparison with other products. Although I conducted careful research, I have not tested dozens of models. I try to select the best gear on the market for the conditions expected. As the saying goes, sometimes the magic works.

Technorati Tags: review, technology

There is a new graphic novel out now called Gods of Asgard, by Eric Evensen. It looks to be an interpretation of the Norse mythology - you know, Odin, Thor, Tyr, Frigga, the Valkyries, ... from the author's website:

The Norse gods are the pagan deities worshipped in pre-Christian Scandinavia. Although not as well-known as the gods from Greek and Roman mythology, they were no less unique. The Norse gods were powerful, revered and respected, sometimes feared. They were mortal, and they knew through prophecy of the end of their reign. And their fame lives on today, in literature, movies, comics, opera, and the days of the week.

This looks to be a very interesting and entertaining new book, though the author is only partially correct in stating that the Norse Gods were worshipped in pre-Christian Scandinavia. The Gods were also worshipped by the Germanic peoples all across Europe - even North America, and continue to be so today - from an article in the University of South Alabama's paper The Vanguard:

Within the last 30 years, a lot of people have been trying to get back to their roots, to reconnect with what their ancestors believed and how they lived. One of the faiths that has sought to re-establish itself is Asatru.

Asatru can best be defined as the revival of the ways, beliefs and customs of the ancient Germanic tribes of northern Europe which inhabited, at differing times in history, the modern nations of England, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, West Poland, Northern Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. These countries are currently seeing a revival of this very ancient pre-Christian faith.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, religion, spirit

A colleague just gifted me with the book Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People, by Jane Bryant Quinn.

Unlike complex financial strategies based on timing the market or spending inordinate amounts of time and energy tracking various stocks and funds, Quinn's advice is motivated by the desire for simple strategies that anyone, with any schedule, can implement. Anyone has time to follow her advice and reap the rewards. Topics include buying insurance, buying a house, getting rid of debt, and how to invest money.

Technorati Tags: academia, income, living, review

If you are filled with the D.C. Beltway Blues, or are tired of all the big-city grime, crime, and lack-of-time, then a trip to the Marriott Ranch might be just the escape you need.

About 45 miles outside the beltway, Marriott Ranch is a working cattle ranch in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Hume, Virginia. The ranch has about 4,200 acres, and, in addition to cattle, has a bed and breakfast called the Inn at Fairfield Farm. You can also go horseback riding, hiking, off-road jeeping, and fishing. In addition to people wanting to get back to nature, the site is also a popular destination for company retreats and weddings. Around the ranch there are vineyards and wineries, fishing, rafting, canoeing, Civil War Trails, the Shenandoah National Park, and the Skyline Drive.

We went on a guided trail ride and had a great time. We have been to other destinations for trail rides, but this one was much better---the horses were healthy and well-kept, and the trail ride was more relaxed and natural than some other rides I have been on.

My horse was not too thrilled with having his picture taken.

Saddle-up!

Here's one happy camper.

Here we are, heading out.

This is an active cattle ranch, so sometimes you see some of the other residents.

Great scenery too!

And an old timey saloon is a great place for a picnic after a hard day's ride.

They also offer other rides in addition to the basic trail ride: you can go on overnight rides, mountain rides, cattle drives, and even learn how to be a cowpoke.

Technorati Tags: culture, living, review, travel, virginia

Be more than just the master of your own domain:

• Find exactly what you are looking for on the web
• Outbid everyone on eBay
• Share one WiFi connection with multiple computers
• Learn how to make your own blog and wiki

Your friends will be amazed!

Seriously, if you are looking to turbo-charge your online experience, then you should pick up the new book Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet---Better, Faster, Easier by Mark Frauenfelder.

I went to Mark's book signing in Santa Monica tonight, held at the Barnes and Noble in the 3rd Street Promenade. There, Mark entertained a room full of people with talk about the origins of BoingBoing, the future of the music industry, the future of the publishing industry, lots of examples from his book, and insight into how the book came about.

Mark is a really nice guy and has lots of insight into how to use the Internet and Web effectively to increase your productivity and, well, happiness.

And Mark was wearing a Scott eVest shirt like I was also wearing, so not only is he smart, but he's cool too.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, review, technology

A friend has gifted me with a new book: Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America.

Recently published, this book takes the reader on a tour of the last several thousand years, specifically analyzing the comparisons between the United States and Rome---as cultures and as models for nations. The arguments advanced by the author, Cullen Murphy, who was the editor of The Atlantic magazine and is now the editor of Vanity Fair, seem to be thoughtfully put together, rather than the alarmist and shallow chatter so often heard on talk radio and in Washington D.C.

So, I am definitely looking forward to reading this!

Technorati Tags: academia, book, culture, living, review

I've long been an admirer of Edward Tufte's design books, especially The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

It was with this book that he became famous as a guru of Information Design, partially for his analysis of Charles Joseph Minard's infographic of the disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia by France.

He concentrates on detailing how to make graphics that present information clearly and succinctly, while avoiding common design problems. He gives examples throughout history of good designs and bad designs, and explains why they are so. As someone who went to business school, and who sat through too many business meetings, it is clear to me that too few people are familiar with Tufte's work.

From an interview with Tufte, here is how he got started on the path of Information Design:

In the mid-1970s, while at Princeton, I gave a statistics course to a dozen journalists who were visiting the school. I thought "Well, journalists have to know about statistical graphics...", so I prepared a collection of readings, with a section on statistical graphics. The literature was thin, grimly devoted to explaining use of the ruling pen and to promulgating "graphic standards" indifferent to sensible quantitative reasoning. Soon I started writing up some ideas about my growing collection of graphics. Then John W. Tukey, the phenomenal Princeton statistician, suggested that we give a series of joint seminars. Tukey had opened up the field in the mid-1960s, as his brilliant technical contributions made it clear that the study of statistical graphics was intellectually respectable and not just about pie charts and ruling pens. This focused my mind, since I had to talk for two hours every other week to the students in front of John Tukey! The seminar proved reassuring: I had something to say. Those seminars led to my first book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and changed my life, all to the good.

Graphics Press

From a Wired article about Tufte's thoughts on PowerPoint:

PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking: Respect your audience.

From an interview with Tufte on NPR:

Far too often, he says, the bells and whistles of PowerPoint are used as a crutch by people who don't have anything to say. "If your words aren't truthful, the finest optically letter spaced typography won't help," he says. "And if your images aren't on point, making them dance in color in three dimensions won't help."

His new book, Beautiful Evidence, is out and I've just received it. Like his other books, the craftsmanship and attention to detail just in the quality of the binding, pages, and artwork are things of beauty.

Technorati Tags: academia, book, review

The Secret History of the Sword: Adventures in Ancient Martial Arts, by J. Christopher Amberger

An amazing treasure-house of anecdotes, accountings, and historical musings on sword play across the generations and cultures. Its loose presentation style lends it to reading in frenetic bursts. I really enjoyed his commentary and analysis of fencing training and combat arts. One criticism is that he's not very strong on pre-Renaissance swordsmanship or history. But his pre-Renaissance discussion is just at the beginning of the book and that can be quickly skimmed -- the rest of the book is great.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, fitness, martial arts, review

When I found out I was going to Los Angeles for a trip, I started to despair. Not because I didn't want to go to L.A. (the stories can't all be true, right?)---rather, I wanted to be able to take a lot of pictures while I was there, and I didn't have a suitable camera.

I do have some cameras, but they were either too big and bulky, made it too difficult to get the images onto my computer, or took poor pictures. Obviously, during an extended trip, I needed something highly portable that had an easy and fast way to download the images and that took great pictures.

My problem was resolved with the Canon PowerShot SD1000 digital camera. Since I have been using it almost daily here in Los Angeles, I have found it to be one of the best cameras I have ever used.

First, the camera has a convenient and functional shape that is easily portable. Basically the camera is like the shape of a small deck of cards. The lense extends when in use, but otherwise sits protected within the camera case. Some of the other cameras I saw had strange curves or awkward protrusions that would only cause trouble when on travel.

Second, loading pictures onto my computer is trivial---I just attach the cable from the camera to my laptop and with one button press all of the new images are transferred over.

Third, the camera takes great pictures. In fact, all of the pictures taken of Los Angeles in the various blog postings on this website were taken with this camera. For example, here are some pictures I took on a recent trip to the Getty Museum.

And note --- I have no photography experience, so these pictures were me just pointing and clicking. For the experienced photographer, there are many, many features in this camera to allow almost complete customization of the picture taking process. With me, for now, just pointing and clicking works well.

For some of the technical specifications, it has a 7.1 megapixel CCD that captures enough detail for photo-quality 15x20" prints. You can use the view-finder or the 2.5" LCD to compose your shots. It also has something like 17 shooting modes, face detection, high ISO settings, 8 special scene modes, red-eye correction, 3x optical zoom, and a number of other features.

After adding a 4GB SD card, I've been completely happy with this camera.

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Technorati Tags: review, technology, travel

It's tough being a bag in Los Angeles. Or at least my backpack thinks so.

Every day that I have been in Los Angeles so far I have been out walking or riding my bike. Usually I have my backpack with me, to hold my laptop, some books, and other items. My backpack is one of those padded computer backpacks---in specific, the Dell C8882 Inspiron 17" Laptop Backpack. I don't have a Dell computer though---I use the backpack to carry my Apple Powerbook 17" laptop.

For a while the backpack worked well, as it had lots of padding, held the laptop plus lots of books, had numerous pockets to hold odds and ends, and was comfortable to wear. But under extended use, especially since I have been out in Los Angeles, the backpack has not aged well. In specific, the padding in the shoulder straps has started to slide around, all the seams started looking fuzzy, like the material was wearing out, and a seam on one of the straps actually split open. So rather than be caught off-guard by a total backpack malfunction one day, far from home, I decided to look for a replacement.

My criteria: I wanted a bag that could hold my laptop, several books, and a few extra odds and ends; was waterproof (the backpack was not); and that would be comfortable and secure while walking or riding a bike. More subjective criteria included having a smaller form factor than the backpack and being more stylish. When loaded, the Dell backpack could easily knock someone over standing next to me if I turned around suddenly, and it also had a major Forrest Gump vibe going---something that doesn't compute in style-sensitive L.A.

And my wife imposed the criteria that the bag had to be less than $100.

So I headed to a large mall on Santa Monica and stopped into the Tumi store. Their T-Tech Pulse Eldridge Computer Messenger Bag seemed really nice, except that it was not waterproof (the sales lady said it is not waterproof, but that it resists water). As nice as the bag seemed, I couldn't see spending $195 for a bag that could not keep my computer dry. Plus, it was about twice my budget.

The sales lady suggested I check out the Louis Vuitton store. They had Very Nice Things, but their $1,300 messenger bags would not fit my laptop. I am also not convinced that their bags would feel comfortable or be appropriate when riding a bike. As for being waterproof, I never got around to asking that question about these bags. I mean, I guess what I am trying to say is that someone in the market for a Louis Vuitton messenger bag would have a different set of criteria than the ones I listed above.

So, just about to give up on my quest, I happened to stop into my local bike shop and they had exactly what I was looking for.

The bag that fit all my requirements turned out to be the Timbuk2 Commute Messenger Bag:

For many years Timbuk2 has made quality messenger bags, and the Commute was designed for the professional who wants something different than the traditional boxy briefcase, and who needs a rugged and travel-friendly bag that can hold a laptop.

This bag has a ballistic nylon exterior and a molded padded back panel (shown above). The bottom is double-padded and has an extra rubberized bottom layer (not shown).

The inside has a padded compartment for the laptop (the X-Large Commute bag fits the 17" Apple Powerbook) and the bag itself is waterproof. It has a handle for convenient hand-carry and comes with a second strap to secure around the waist for when riding a bike (or running to catch a taxi).

And, though the bag retails for $120, you can likely find it for less (I did, and it met my authorized budget).

All in all, the Timbuk2 Commute is a quality bag that seems to be very durable, to be useful and stylish, and to have enough features to make the price seem more than reasonable.

Technorati Tags: academia, bike, book, review, travel

Jesse Byock: Viking Age Iceland

I read this book prior to my trip to Iceland, and it really served to give me a good sense of the country, how it was settled, who settled it, and how the population grew over time. It also explained the desolation of the countryside - when you travel from the airport to Reykjavik, the land is like much like on the moon - treeless crags abound. The book explains how this came to be. In addition, the book gives a good background to the sagas and other adventures of the people of Iceland, and those who came to its shores.

NB: I saw this guy while in Iceland - how cool is that?

Technorati Tags: book, culture, living

OK, so maybe I made a mistake.

Maybe I totally missed out on one of the best TV shows to come along in, well, forever.

I mean, who ever heard of a vampire slayer named Buffy?! After all, I was in the middle of watching The X-Files and Babylon 5 when Buffy aired on TV - who had time for a high-school girl in red leather pants with a vampire problem?

But after watching just the first two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I am enjoying every vamp patrol and all the resulting vampire slayage goodness.

Of course, having one of the main characters have the same surname as I do helps, as does lots of vampire killing action, plus well-written scripts, great acting, and interesting characters. And, well, the leather pants turned out to be, how should I put this, assets to the characters who wear them. I mean, I've commented on Buffy's, and my wife has commented on Angel's, so I guess there's asset-admiring all around.

Currently we are in the middle of season 5, and tonight I hope to catch up on Buffy and the gang. You can see what you have been missing too - best to get the whole series (or at least the first seven seasons) and plan on not getting much else done for a couple of weeks.

Just don't say I didn't warn you.

"What can I tell you, baby? I've always been bad."
     ---Spike, "Fool For Love".

Technorati Tags: book, culture, living

If you ever wanted to give up your 9-5 job, if you ever wanted to stop working for someone else, or if you ever wanted to live more of your life now, rather than wait until retirement, then you might consider reading Timothy Ferriss' new book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

Technorati Tags: academia, book, income, job, work

There are are a couple of new books out or coming out that seem worth investigating.

The first is a book by Majorie Burns titled Perilous Realms: Celtic And Norse in Tolkien's Middle-Earth. From a review in the Rutland Herald:

There's a new book out on the "Lord of the Rings" and its accompanying volumes that says J. R. R. Tolkien's writing is much more subtle and nuanced than most people have realized. Marjorie Burns, a professor in the Department of English at Portland State University, says Tolkien blended Norse and Celtic factors in a delicate, abstruse manner that makes the works as scholarly as they are entertaining.

The second looks to be a special collected edition called the Runes of Ragnan. From an announcement on the upcoming collected edition:

This Fall, Silent Devil will unleash the Viking epic Runes of Ragnan in a collected edition containing the complete four-issue mini-series. Written by Ty Gorton, drawn in high action detail by Josh Medors (G.I. Joe, In The Blood, FUSED!), with colors by Jay Fotos (Spawn: The Dark Ages, Vampirella, The Nail), the collected edition will include a 5-page prequel, an exclusive short story with visuals by Bud Cook, contest winning artwork, and a behind the scenes feature.

From a review of the original series:

Runes of Ragnan is a comic that delivers a great story that blends elements of fantasy and actual Viking lore. Gorton’s story quickly sucks you into the comic, and keeps your interest through every page. Most important, the first issue leaves you wanting more, and not completely sure where Gorton is going with his story.

The third is a new edition of the Dictionary of Northern Mythology by Rodolf Simek and Angela Hall.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, review

A while back I noted the new Voltaic solar backpack I purchased. Well, after eight months of using and testing this pack, I have concluded that it does not work for me.

I really tried hard to like this pack. The solar panel itself is well-done, and the panel did a very good job of keeping my MP3 player and cell phone charged while I was on the go. It also promotes effective use of technology, which is always a good thing. I also appreciated the wiring of the adapters throughout the pack (down the shoulder strap, for example).

However, there are a few shortcomings that make this system not usable:

• the rechargeable battery is not firmly attached to the pack, and it falls off.
• the backpack zippers on the sides often open by themselves, which is a security risk in that things in those compartments can get lost if the zippers open spontaneously.
• the backpack zippers easily jam when opening and closing; moreover, when zipped, the teeth can easily open with just a little pressure (like when you actually carry something in the bag), causing almost total backpack failure
• the zipper closures are weak and can easily break (like when trying to unjam the zipper, as noted above).
• the shoulder straps can bite into your shoulder.

So, Voltaic had a good idea, but they implemented it on a weak/cheap backpack, that defeats the whole system.

Technorati Tags: review, technology

Perhaps you can say it's because it has something to do with Earth Day (22 April 2005), or perhaps you can say that we just like well-designed products that provide utility with style, but we thought we would try out the Voltaic Backpack.

I haven't yet had much of a chance to take it for a test-drive, but just out of the box, it seems to be made very well. The solar panels ( 10V peak voltage, 400mA peak current, and 4W peak power), which charge a 2200mAh @ 7.2V lithium ion battery pack, are well-integrated into the bag itself. Cabling is provided throughout the bag, and there is even a phone/MP3 player pouch on the right shoulder strap.

In addition to being able to charge the battery by the solar panels, there is also an AC charger as well as a car charger. And a variety of included adapters allow for charging a multitude of electronic gadgets.

Maybe this solar backpack will encourage me to get out more, or at least work on my laptop outside...

Technorati Tags: review, technology