I recently started reading Jeffrey Tayler on Salon.com; he is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic. In Salon, he writes a weekly column in which he fiercely attacks religion (for example, We must offend religion more: Islam, Christianity and our tolerance for ancient myths, harmful ideas and It’s time to fight religion: Toxic drivel, useful media idiots, and the real story about faith and violence). This lead me to purchase his latest book, Topless Jihadis: Inside Femen, the World’s Most Provocative Activist Group. It is only offered as a Kindle book on Amazon, otherwise it could be described as a “slim volume” of 94 pages.
The Dissent Of Man by JF Derry: Unbound
11 May 2015 by Leave a Comment
This project is an attempt to explore the huge range of interpretations of Darwinism. To do this I’ve interviewed over fifty commentators: conservationists and creationists, bishops and biochemists, palaeoceanographers and Intelligent Design theorists, theistic evolutionists and a Bahá’í lecturer, sex researchers, mathematicians, ophthalmologists, linguists, evangelical Christians, philosophers, physicians and the Astronomer Royal. As a starting point, I asked each one the same question: ‘what does Darwin mean to you as an individual, and as part of humanity?’
via The Dissent Of Man by JF Derry: Unbound.
Sponsorship of this book seems to have stalled. I think it is a worthwhile project. Please consider offering your support.
I have no connection to the author except that I have also pledged.
More Reasons To Feel Old
26 March 2015 by Leave a Comment
I have just started reading Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick TetzeIi. This early section made me feel very old. Clearly, the authors deemed it necessary to explain in very simple terms what mainframes and punched cards are.
After settling on the problem you wanted the machine to solve, you would painstakingly write down, in a programming language like COBOL or Fortran, a series of line-by-line, step-by-step instructions, for the exact, logical process of the calculation or the analytical chore. Then, at a noisy mechanical console, you would type each individual line of the handwritten program onto to its own rectangular “punch card”, which was perforated in such a way that the computer could “read” it. After meticulously making sure the typed cards were in the right order—simple programs might require a few dozen cards that could be held by a rubber band, while elaborate programs could require reams that would have to be stacked carefully in a cardboard box. You would then hand the bundle to a computer “operator”, who would put your deck in the queue behind dozens of others to be fed into mainframe. Eventually, the machine would spit out your results on broad sheets of green-and-white striped accordion-folded paper. More often than not, you would have to tweak your program three, four, or even dozens of time to get the results you were looking for.
Clearly, the authors expected that most of the readers would have no clue about this era of computer use. I’m not sure, though, why they deemed it necessary to put so many “words” in quotation marks. And the authors either never used punched cards themselves, or they have forgotten that a successful run by no means meant you got “the results you were looking for”.
There’s been a certain amount of broohaha about the new book with some complaining of hagiography, but people close to Steve Jobs, like Tim Cook and Jony Ive, claim it gives a more balanced and realistic view of the man they knew than the [official biography][4] by Walter Isaacson. Here’s John Gruber’s take on the issues with the Isaacson book and his response to negative criticism of Becoming Steve Jobs.
Review: Why Evolution Is True
28 October 2014 by 1 Comment
I’ve just finished reading Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne. I personally don’t (and never did) have any doubts about the scientific Theory of Evolution, or Darwinism. Unfortunately, it is staggering how many people do. I was wasting some time a few days ago playing with the app, Voice Polls. It’s a kind of instant opinion poll.
Only 37% answer “science and evolution”; 33% say “god” and 30% “both”
It’s a bit hard to read the numbers for anything but the top choice, so I’ve added them in the caption. What this amounts to is that 63% of responders think god had a hand in human creation.
Review: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life
8 February 2014 by 2 Comments
I have not read many self-help books. Something I pondered as I was writing this review and decided that’s because they are probably read by people who are more dissatisfied with their life than I have been—I am, by and large, content. So my motivation to read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert was more to find entertainment than inspiration to drive self-improvement. Right away, I’ll say the book is an entertaining and interesting read on, at least, two levels. How To Fail… is not a biography, but there are ample illustrations and examples drawn from the author’s own life and career from which we learn a lot about Scott.
Free books: 100 legal sites to download literature
21 January 2014 by Leave a Comment
Free books: 100 legal sites to download literature | Just English.
Continuing the literary theme from a few days ago, here’s a (not-very-new) post that StumbleUpon threw up.
10 Things I Learned Reading Brad Stone’s — The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
25 October 2013 by Leave a Comment
10 Things I Learned Reading Brad Stone’s — The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.
Persuaded me to buy the book.
Design Crazy: Good Looks, Hot Tempers, and True Genius
23 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
I’ve just finished: Design Crazy: Good Looks, Hot Tempers, and True Genius by Max Chafkin. Short, interesting commentary—the book combines interviews with a bunch of people who worked at Apple, but not any more. It’s only 0.99p from the Amazon Kindle Store; I enjoyed it.
The guy next to me was working was working on NeXT for Steve Jobs. I saw three identical mice on his desk, and I couldn’t tell the difference between them, so I asked. He said, “Can’t you see?” And he pointed to the bottom plate of the mouse. One was 1 millimeter thick, one was 1.5 millimeters, the other 2 millimeters. And then I saw the difference—and it transformed my worldview about details in design. That’s the reason I moved to California.
That is Apple’s contribution: this dogmatic, beautiful striving for perfection, that chasing for the last millimeter. It drove the world of design to a completely new level.
