Category: Personal

James P. Hogan is a much more prolific writer than Alfred Bester and though perhaps he doesn’t reach quite the same level of creativity and style, I’ve read and enjoyed many of Hogan’s books as well, especially the Giants series, Code Of the Lifemaker and Endgame Enigma. From 1995, Realtime Interrupt is set against the corporate development of a fully integrated, fully immersed virtual reality environment driven by a true, learning artificial intelligence. The sophistication is so deep that even one of the system’s own chief developers, the hero Joe Corrigan, does not realize where he is for 12 years.

Finally, with the help of another involuntary participant, he does come to the truth. Before being inserted into the system, 50 people had their short term memory scrubbed and so had no understanding that they weren’t in the real world. Along with them, the ‘realscaped’ Pittsburgh environment was populated by thousands of computer-driven persons who interacted directly with the real folks, attempting to learn and develop along human lines by observation. Also inside the system are a set of controllers real people who can enter and exit the VR as desired.

Hogan makes some interesting propositions here and does have a good touch with pacing and plot development but I’d expect something written by an experienced engineer and former computer salesperson to have a better use and extrapolation of contemporary technology. For one simple instance, there is nothing analogous to the Internet in either the real or virtual worlds in the book. I do wonder if this is a story first written a few years earlier, say mid to late ’80s, which would explain quite a bit.

recommended

Alfred Bester was not a prolific novelist, publishing only five in a 30 year span, but what he did write is generally considered top shelf. He opened with two classics in the 1950s–The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man–and then let nearly 20 years go by, spending much of his time writing television comedies, before bringing out 1973’s The Computer Connection.

In this medium future story Bester posits a group of immortals, made so by galvanic shock during near-death experiences, who generally befriend each other but do not operate en mass to, say, rule the world. Our protagonist Guig–short for Grand Guignol, as all the long lifers have adopted nicknames of famous mortals–is given to experiments aimed at purposely creating new immortals and after many attempts he seems to succeed. He hasn’t though, and instead a massively powerful computer has inserted itself between Dr. Sequoya Guuess and death, using intricate linkages between the neurons of Guess’s brain and one of the computer’s main components to create a vast network of formerly independent devices.

The story is wild and vivid yet clearly written at the end of the ’60s. Political, sociological and economic developments twist but depend on popular ideas of that time and most of which have become irrelevent or bypassed in the intervening time though Bester is such a good writer that Connection remains an interesting, exciting, enjoyable read. This edition, from iBooks, has a nice Forward by Bester’s friend Harlan Ellison.

recommended

Had a fun trip to Oregon, more later. I also owe two book reviews here, both decent if dated science fiction novels, will post them after work.

Gena Lee Nolin is a bad girl!

Author, journalist and Vietnam veteran William Broyles Jr. posted a powerful, insightful essay on today’s Times OpEd page: A War for Us, Fought by Them. I was too young to serve in Vietnam and too old for the first Gulf War, not that I would have volunteered anyway, but I think Broyles’ points about the disconnect between our leading politicians and family military service are not just important but also meaningful in policymaking.

On the one hand I think this is kind of cool. On the other hand, I’m not so sure. Either hand you choose, I’m taking my first business trip this week, a quick up and back to visit IBM in Beaverton. Amusing how long my boss’s boss’s boss took deciding whether to sign off on the travel request, though.

This movie was, um, totally fetch! Oh my god, do not even go there! See, it’s all about this new girl and these bitches and how the new girl thinks she’s going to teach the bitches a lesson but then she, well, she falls off the wagon and–oh my god–becomes the queen bitch herself. But she totally comes to her senses, learns her lesson, and remembers that being good feels good. We sure do get to laugh watching, girlfriend!

We went to see Mean Girls because it was written by Tina Fey from Saturday Night Live. Not at all because the film features four teenage hotties in the lead roles. Nah, that had nothing to do with our decision, and I’ll sue you if you say otherwise! Director Mark Waters also featured Lindsay Lohan in last year’s Freaky Friday but I was less impressed with his influence in this movie, the transition and pacing, not to mention the visuals, weren’t nearly as interesting.

The movie is an adaptation of Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends & Other Realities of Adolesence, which was apparently not the easiest job since the book is non-fiction and without story. As one reviewer wrote (about the book, not the movie): “This reads like a chess manual for social interactions (or more accurately dysfunctional interactions) of teenage females with their peers. The goal of this book is to give parents insight into why certain situations occur and how to help their daughters address them.” So props to Mrs. Fey (yeah, guys, she’s married) on her initial produced screenplay for giving us an actual story with interesting characters.

recommended

Fairly low odds but still, got to be heard: Stop FCC

In the first in a new series, storage and security maven Dann Sheridan analyzes Intransa competitor Lefthand Networks.

Good on ya, Kevin Shelley: California Bans E-Vote Machines. I especially enjoyed the bits about possible criminal charges against Diebold.

Should Sun commit corporate hari kari?

In an editorial today (The President’s Testimony), the Times mentions Bush’s frequent nonresponsive responses. But I’d really like to know why the press corps lets him (and other similarly inaccessible public figures) get away with this. How about asking the obvious followup: “Mr. President, your answer doesn’t actually respond to the question I asked. Will you please give us an actual answer?” Is that too disrespectful to our Commander-in-Chief? As they used to say at Heritage Junior High, tough titties!

Sure, this was a SCOTUS decision but you can be completely sure that Scalia and Rhenquist were completely in tune with the Administration in upholding Pennsylvania’s joke of a congressional map. I especially liked the conservative justices attempt (beaten back, fortunately) to utterly free states from federal oversight of this matter. If by like you understand that I meant sickened to my stomach.

Trust me, put aside any piddly little concerns about Kerry you might have and vote for him in November. Get out of the house and to the polling station, get your absentee ballot to avoid the crap electronic voting machines if that’s your preference. But if you can’t make that modest expenditure of time and energy, then in 2005 or 2006 don’t come around here crying and whining about the sad and terrible events and decisions coming from a second Bush term.

In 1980 I thought that a Reagan win would be terrible and that I ought to consider transferring to a school in Canada or elsewhere if he won but this go round I am much more serious. A small beach community on the eastern coast of Australia sounds better every time I think about it.

“You would have to cut off both my arms before I let go of him because I would have them both wrapped around him.” So says Liverpool head man Houllier in response to rumors of £20M bids coming from ManU or Arsenal for his captain, Steven Gerrard. Which is good because the midfielder is key to any hope of improvement next season.

Key comment from LordB while watching Man on Fire: This movie is so slow we can sit here doing play by play and not miss a thing. Tony Scott is a veteran director with plenty of taut thrillers in his past, so I don’t really understand why he didn’t cut the 146 minute run time down to 100-110. Almost every scene is bloated, slow, almost languid except when he’s doing his MTV thousand cuts per minute, shake the camera to make you dizzy imitation.

Denzel Washington is great, even trying to get through this morass, and he has great chemistry with Christopher Walken–why haven’t they worked together before? Dakota Fanning, if she doesn’t burn out, could be one of the great ones, she’s just intuitive and natural in all her scenes.

not recommended

Loretta’s Back: Indeed, I’ve heard the duet off this new Loretta Lynn release (Portland, Oregon) and it was quite the eyeopener. Not much a White Stripes fan, and Jack White could sure use a complete makeover, but this tune rocks.

Joe, you misunderstood the point of the exercise. And somehow I doubt people clicking through from Jeremy’s page to mine (which is what I was referring to, not people finding that entry through a Google search) are looking for penis enhancement.

Update: Joe, understanding is everything.

Six months on, Jeremy’s anti-spam PageRank exercise is still paying dividends, bringing in hits to my site every single day.

I’ve been looking through the multitude of case studies Microsoft has posted and came across one that is particularly interesting: Microsoft TV Information Systems: Hardware Development at Microsoft. This covers some aspects of Microsoft’s internal development process but what I found especially interesting is the mention of “[m]ore than 250 Solaris-based servers” right at the start. The white paper was posted in early March, weeks before the historic deal the two companies made to close their legal wrangling, but one does wonder if the approval process took that into account.