I just finished one of the best books I’ve read in the last 10 years. It’s called Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

I would’ve enjoyed the book on its face, but it’s underlying themes really struck a chord with me.

Little Brother is a scarily realistic adventure about how homeland security technology could be abused to wrongfully imprison innocent Americans. A teenage hacker-turned-hero pits himself against the government to fight for his basic freedoms. This book is action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophile’s civil protest.

We’re living in a time where our personal freedoms are being slowly squeezed away in the name of protection. Each little thing slowly builds on the one before, creeping up on you. If you set aside the fact that the folk warning of the boiled frog is a myth, the anecdote still serves a purpose when examining our country in a post-9-11 world.

The boiling frog story states that a frog can be boiled alive if the water is heated slowly enough — it is said that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will never jump out.

The book does a great job of introducing the reader to modern technology items such as RFID, cryptography and pattern analysis. The narrator of the story takes the time to explain what they are and how they are used with very easy to understand examples – and that’s key to appreciating how these technologies can be used for either good or bad.

I’ve had a time in my life when I was a hacker. Not nearly as experienced or in depth as I could have been, but I understand the culture – another reason this book appealed to me.

But even today, I’m still interested in cryptography and ARGs. I’ve been on a  LARP.

You have several options for enjoying Little Brother.  Besides the traditional print copy, you might enjoy the audio version (listen to an excerpt above), or even download a version to read for free.

I can’t say enough good things about the book. I was already recommending it before I was halfway through, and now that it’s done, I wish I had more to read.

Don’t take my word for it. Read a review or two. I don’t want to make this entry much longer full of their words, but I encourage you to see the impression it has made on others, sometimes even being called a modern day 1984.

Whether it will have the same staying power 60 years from now that 1984 does, I can’t say. What I can say is that it’s an important reflection of today and where we could be tomorrow.

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From my ‘to be commented on’ articles:

“Kevin Kelly has an interesting post about an archive designed with an estimated lifespan of 2,000 -10,000 years to serve future generations as a modern Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta disk contains analog ‘human-readable’ scans of scripts, text, and diagrams using nickel deposited on an etched silicon disk and includes 15,000 microetched pages of language documentation in 1,500 different languages, including versions of Genesis 1-3, a universal list of the words common for each language, and pronunciation guides. Produced by the Long Now Foundation, the plan is to replicate the disk promiscuously and distribute them around the world in nondescript locations so at least one will survive their 2,000-year lifespan. ‘This is one of the most fascinating objects on earth,’ says Oliver Wilke. ‘If we found one of these things 2,000 years ago, with all the languages of the time, it would be among our most priceless artifacts. I feel a high responsibility for preserving it for future generations.’”

How freaking cool is that? The modern Rosetta stone has unlocked so many secrets of ancient civilizations through the language barrier, its amazing to believe that future generations will have it so much easier. Click the link on the excerpt or follow this link for the full article.

On a related note, I just finished listening to Axis, book 2 of the Spin Trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson, and I highly recommend both books (the second sequel, Vortex, is not yet published).

Here’s a brief summary:

Spin details Earth’s response to an artificial membrane placed around the planet which selectively blocks and filters incoming electromagnetic radiation, blocking out the view of anything beyond minimal low Earth orbit. The novel is told in first person, from the viewpoint of Tyler Dupree. Tyler is a close childhood friend of Jason and Diane Lawton, twins of E. D. Lawton (a wealthy industrialist who makes his money from the developing aerostat business). As children, Jason, Diane, and Tyler witness the dramatic arrival of the “Spin”, as the phenomenon comes to be known, when the stars suddenly disappear one night as they are looking at the sky. Initial experiments show that the membrane is permeable, allowing space probes to pass through, but that time outside passes at a highly accelerated rate, 3.17 years per Earth second, or roughly 100 million years per Earth year. Thus within a generation, the surrounding solar system will age 4 billion years, and Earth will be destroyed by the expanding Sun.

Now can you imagine having a tool such as this digital Rosetta stone after 4 billion years of evolution?

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From Slashdot:

“James Oliver Rigney Jr, author of the long-running fantasy series The Wheel of Time and better known to millions of fans by the pen name Robert Jordan, died on 16 Sept 2007 from cardiac amyloidosis. Jordan announced he had been diagnosed with the disease in March 2006 and vowed to beat the odds, but determination and gumption sometimes just aren’t enough in the face of a disease with a median survival time of just over two years. Jordan was in the process of writing the twelfth and final book in the Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, but the book was not slated for release until 2009 and is still incomplete. While there is hope that the book will still be finished from Jordan’s notes, this is devastating news to all of us who have been reading the series since 1990.”

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How often do you go back an reread a book? Although I’ve read alot of books over the years, as time goes on, I find that while I remember the major/minor plot lines, I often forget the little details — especially the dialog.

Douglas Adams is one of the authors that you can always reread. The way he describes objects and writes dialog has a kind of ‘going off on a tangent, while maintaining your interest and causing you to laugh’ feel.

I haven’t read Dirk Gently Holistic Detective Agency in about 15 years. Right now I’m rereading it (actually listening to it on audio-book).

Here’s the kind of passages that make Douglas Adams uniquely Douglas Adams.

`Well,’ said Reg, in a loudly confidential whisper, as if introducing the subject of nipple-piercing in a nunnery…

Even the skeptical mind must be prepared to accept the unacceptable when there is no alternative. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands.

Current Mood:  groggy

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I wouldn’t doubt it. Artists are always being screwed. Especially those without much business savy. Here’s a nod to you Peter. Loved the book. Loved the movie. Loved the soundtrack (even if that wasn’t you…) Even danced to it at my wedding. I’m quoting the entire original newspost rather than snipping it down. Sorry if it makes my post longer.

Last Unicorn author ripped off by filmmaker, struggling and penniless

Cory Doctorow: A couple days ago, I blogged about the unabridged author-reading of Peter S Beagle’s classic novel "The Last Unicorn." Now, Connor Cochran, Beagle’s business manager, writes in with this grim news about Beagle being ripped off by the British company that adapted his novel for animation, and Beagle’s difficulty in fighting back due to his general pennilessness: London-based Granada Media has sold more than 600,000 DVDs and videotapes of THE LAST UNICORN worldwide, made multiple cable and satellite deals for same, and sold the live action remake rights for a quarter of a million dollars. Yet despite this great success, they refuse to pay Peter what he is owed under his contract. After two years of trying to reach an amicable settlement, with no progress, it is clear that Peter will only get what he is due by going to court. Unfortunately, there is no way for Peter to do so without outside support. Just about everything he earns right now goes to take care of his 100 year-old mother.

Anyway, right now he has nothing with which to hire the attorneys and accountants he will need to either beat Granada in court or force them to negotiate. So we need to get the word out to as many professionals and fans as possible, to generate public support, contributions to the legal fund, letter-writing campaigns to Granada execs, etc. (We’ve just gotten started, but so far both Christopher Lee and Rene Auberjenois, two of the voiceover actors from THE LAST UNICORN, have agreed to help. That’s exciting.)

Beagle’s written a limited-edition sequel to The Last Unicorn that you can buy here. Link

Current Mood:  annoyed

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The last time I had a book in my hands was when Jean and Alia were in the hospital. I needed something to pass the time, so I was reading  The War of Souls Trilogy part of the DragonLance Series. I got to the middle of the second book, but haven’t gone back to finish it.

I hate to have to make time to read, but I always find that when I eventually do sit down with a book, I realize how much I’d missed it.

What should I read next? is what it says…you enter the title and author of a book you like and the site will suggest something for you to read next.

That’s a pretty cool concept. We typically get our book recommendations from our friends, but why not use the resource of others? Granted, this is based on the premise that you’re interested in reading the same kinds of novels again, rather than a springboard of other books read by people who enjoyed this one.

That’s why I like the recommendation system on Netflix. They base recommendations on other movies watched by people who enjoyed this same movie as you. So it finds a common element and lets you build from there. Speaking of Netflix, if any of you have an account, send me a friend invite, or let me know that you have one. That why we can make more personlized recommendations… springing from the word “recommendation”, I highly recommend Netflix. If you need more information on that subject, contact me personally.

Ok, back on track.. books.. You can actually use Amazon in a similar way. When you search for a book/movie/etc. it shows you what other people who bought that item also bought. So you can find yourself some interesting products you might not have already thought of.

It’s funny to login to Amazon now and see my starting page with all the recommendations based on the past things I’ve bought from them, and the things thaty think I want to buy.

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