Month: July 2019

July 28, 2019

  • Thought

    “Saturday Night Fever” and “Sid and Nancy” are set at (roughly) the same time in the same city.

July 26, 2019

  • Review

    3.0 rating based on 1,234 ratings

    Infinite Detail (Tim Maughan, 2019)
    Reminded me a lot of Cory Doctrow novels, in a good way. As a technology collapse pushes the world back to the dark ages, technology also continues to exist and stir memories for some lost in the middle of the chaos.

July 25, 2019

  • Bookmark

    I Found the Key to the Kingdom of Sleep

    “In order to fall asleep at night, I must run a gantlet of bedtime rituals. I must be marinating in overnight-skin-care products from head to toe. One (but only one) of my legs must be hooked around the side of my covers, poised to alert me to the presence of monsters. I must be lying on my stomach, with one arm folded under my head between me and my pillow. Not only must the air in the room be frigid, but it must be blowing directly on me.”

July 22, 2019

  • Bookmark

    Going Critical

    “But as much as I’ve thought about networks over the years, I didn’t appreciate (until very recently) the importance of simple diffusion.

    This is our topic for today: the way things move and spread, somewhat chaotically, across a network. Some examples to whet the appetite:”

July 20, 2019

  • Review

    3.0 rating based on 1,234 ratings

    This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone, 2019)
    I can see why people like this flowery, metaphor-filled fantasy full of word-play and clever ideas. But it felt a bit over my head. I don’t feel that often, but on occasion I find a book that wants me to be smarter than I can put the effort into being.

July 19, 2019

  • Thought

    Ugh. This heat is horrendous.

July 18, 2019

July 16, 2019

  • Review

    4.5 rating based on 1,234 ratings

    Theory of Bastards (Audrey Schulman, 2018)
    Boy I’m glad I picked this up despite the apparently intentionally off-putting cover art. It’s a story of a near-future where the technology isn’t the story. It’s about human relationships with much of the action being between Bonobos and other Bonobos, or Bonobos and humans.

    Loved it.

July 13, 2019

  • Review

    3.0 rating based on 1,234 ratings

    Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell (Neal Stephenson, 2019)

    Yeah, this is a bit of a mess.

    Easiest way to explain this loonnng-ass book is that you start out in a fair approximation of a William Gibson novel, but slowly end up in Lord of the Rings. And not really in a good way.

    Still giving it three stars because I enjoy Stephenson’s writing style even when he loses the plot like this.

July 12, 2019

  • Bookmark

    Shopify and the Power of Platforms

    “While I am (rightfully) teased about how often I discuss Aggregation Theory , there is a method to my madness, particularly over the last year: more and more…”

July 10, 2019

July 9, 2019

July 8, 2019

July 7, 2019

July 1, 2019

  • Bookmark

    Why plants don’t die from cancer

    “Chernobyl has become a byword for catastrophe. The 1986 nuclear disaster, recently brought back into the public eye by the hugely popular TV show of the same…”