Repost: instant book-lovin'

Found this while cleaning up my posterous "space" - from way back in October 2010 - and really the only thing worth calling a "post" over there. 


But the points are still valid - even if the tech reading has slowed down a bit in terms of books - got a bit o.d'ed there for a while - too much reading compared to coding or use of the materials.


Just (28.10.10) bought and starter reading JS patterns, and one small thing (or three) struck me as a good sign of the times in publishing;

RT @OReillyMedia #Ebook Deal/Day: JavaScript Patterns - $11.99 (Save 50%) Code DDJPT #pdc10 http://oreil.ly/da1HrC
— Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly) oktober 28, 2010

First off, I bought it directly from O'reilly - via a promotional tweet. Forwarded by Tim O'reilly - direct relationships works really well in defined niches or areas of interest, social curation at its best, and serendipity in effect as I had just read some comments regarding the book (@rmurphy and the pubsub hubbub )

Secondly, the acknowledgments features not only bloglinks but twitter names for users such as @rem (not only html5 mad skillz) - sign of the times in terms of discovery and dialogue globally, weaving between timezones and cultures. And out in the open, not behind closed doors or sites, but on blogs and open streams available for all.

And finally I logged on and started reading the pdf version in Safari on the iPad because the laptop ran out of juice before I got around to syncing out the epub (or emailing myself the pdf) - instant gratification triggered the purchase right now rather than getting the kindle version at some later date when I really have the time to read it properly.


Going digital means less bad vibes for picking up more books - but that also actually leads to reading more because they are available, and I don't have to lug them around.

Timeout: short sweet

An escapepod original, and that I have no problem understanding or endorsing;

EP352 Food for Thought

Play in Popup | Download

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- SPOILER WARNING
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“I am here to fulfill a causation loop.”

most
awesome
ending
ever


This is what makes short stories so great. Set up, execution and boom. Just mindblowing. Oh the implications.

The detour most travelled?

Seth; Quick shortcuts (in search of):

There aren't many actual shortcuts.
There are merely direct paths...

ouch... bite the bullet, jump the gun and all that. So now what?

The main reason for jumping on the wagon when Seth Godin did his kickstarter, was short gems like the one above. Just a quick post - shared for free - that gets the mind racing. Gained more from a single idea post than from some thick business books.

Sure, a lot of them center on the same kind of themes, but each one has a different kernel.

Like this one. A shortcut is not a useful concept. Because it implies that your are not taking a journey, not learning, not doing everything you could - should - would.

And that is just as bad as doing nothing, procrastination by another name. Avoiding the tasks or goals that should be front and center.


So - new week ahead. Set the sights.

Throw away the crutch

GODIN; Competition as a crutch:

The problem with competition is that it takes away the requirement to set your own path, to invent your own method, to find a new way. 

This brings to mind the staircase question, in that making the rules and the playing field is a core tenet for doing innovation. At least of the breakthrough kind.

Take the iPad versus the other tablets. Apple went beyond phones, net pc and failed mixtures, into something different. Big as a magazine. Not for stuffing in your pocket on the go, but for sitting back on the couch at the end of a long day. It redefined an unknown need. 

As long as you are doing benchmarks or competitor analysis, you will stay in the shallow end of the pool, playing with the other kids.

Then one day you strike out, start to swim, and discover a world filled with islands, beaches and enjoyment.

Timeout: rewind, reboot

As the sun is slowly turning the bottom skies pink and purple, and my son has fallen asleep after waking from a mix of fever and nightmare, I sit here still feeling the "punch" in the gut from the story of the day.

It fits into some of the other posts here lately, from Flich to just do it type discussions.

So, set aside an hour for listening. And then some time for reflection.

PodCastle 211: The Axiom Of Choice

 The Axiom of Choice [58:37m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Push it out - pebble coming

Pebble started off with a rather humble kickstarter page - then it went truly viral and ended up with a "slight" over-signup:

$10,266,845
PLEDGED OF $100,000 GOAL

So much so in fact that they had to limit the number of backers for all the regular levels, meaning that in order to get a single watch you had to get in reasonably early. I almost missed it, thinking that there would surely be enough time before the deadline. But as I saw the numbers dropping of free slots it was a race against time. In the end I probably ended up with on of the five or so last slots on the table.

Now I'm looking forward to getting one, not sure if I will make my own tools or apps, but will surely skim the code - like they said in the video, the sub/pub style connections seem easy enough to set up and get (pun intended) running.

Already swapped from Motion GPS to Runkeeper for my bike trips, in anticipation of getting a proper "hud" feeling over the summer. Says a lot, happy enough with Motion and the data there, but playtime trumps pure utility.


On a side note there is a bike mount on its way from Deal Extreme so the phone will be getting a bit of an airing on its own prior to the pebble arrival



- ...and the sun shone for most of the day keeping it warm - but a steady wind up to 10 m/s gave a bit of wind chill...

Timeout: Nix magical journey

Another timeout? Already? And in the middle of the day?

Oh, the joys of async publishing, writing, listening and distribution. 

What better way to celebrate all that than with a podcast episode.


PodCastle episode #207: Hope Chest from May 8, 2012 is a "PodCastle Giant" - meaning that it clocks in at just over an hour. But it is time well spent. It is read by Mur Lafferty (the Mighty, Mighty) - their tagging, not mine - giving it that extra bit of geek-fu goodness on the way. 

And, most importantly, it is written by Garth Nix, amongst his 54 books on amazon is also an ebook collection of Hereward & Fitz who have made many a fun journey on PodCastle.

This story is a bit darker, it is in many ways a classical "coming of age" or "heroes journey". But with q few twists and turns along the way to keep the listener paying rapt attention.

Get it in iTunes, on the site - or via direct link (over an hour, so mind the filesize)

Zen and strangeness of machines

This is the second part of my braindump, notes and reflections as I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Part one is just a short link away; Zen and the struggle of blogging

And so we move on, along the journey across America, but also into the mind and madness.

instagram - tech for art?

Blind alley, though. If someone’s ungrateful and you tell him he’s ungrateful, okay, you’ve called him a name. You haven’t solved anything. @ 846

The theme for this part of the story is mental models. We start to dig deeper into the split between how the two men relate to technology - Motorcycle Maintenance. The resistance to technology and insights makes a twisted sense when compared to the attitude of the farmers.

When you want to (and can!) make a better life, it makes sense to understand and celebrate the technology that makes that possible. 

But when it is a given for life as you know it (love it or hate it...) - then it becomes much easier to try to mentally rebel. To break free from the small things, because you are too dependent on the larger comforts to let go. Clinging on for the love of life.

The best camera is the one you have with you

“That’s what you don’t see in a car, I suppose.”

Framing makes a small detail stand out.

Like the two instagram snapshots I've added here.

One is of a lamppost not ten yards from my front door. But one day I walked on the backside of it, and two pictures "jumped out" at me. The one included above and it's twin, where the bracket was loose and the nails all gone.

The other is a daytime shots of normal clouds. But taken with my sunglasses as a "natural" filter before the choices of instagram it seems magical and mystical. The ease of use of the built in filters made me think of other ways to adjust the images on the fly.
l
But it also imposes a context that isn't there in "real life"

Sometimes we have to step outside, in order to see things in another, wider context. Or simply to bring in wild ideas that trigger new usable ideas.

We also need the models and simple boxes to cope. In a episode of House MD from 2005 (summer reruns in Norway as well...) the patient was another doctor working on helping fight malaria across Africa. And House implied that the ability to "zone out" the problems across the world (or just in the next town over) was a Darwinian trait we should cherish. If we don't focus on helping kin and those close, then they aren't there for us when we need them. And then we all fail.

We were both looking at the same thing, seeing the same thing, talking about the same thing, thinking about the same thing, except he was looking, seeing, talking and thinking from a completely different dimension. @ 983

Again with the frames and models - now we are moving beyond just relating to tech, and into the perceptual models themselves. 

I got my first solid intro to the practical applications of using varied frames of reference first year at uni. A course built around Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal's classic management book (fourth edition, original in 1984) presenting the the four frame model. The main takeaway is how things "make sense" within each frame of reference, for the people who have "the glasses on" and play by the rules they understand or believe. Internally consistent logic. 

 It gives us mental maps to OUR world for US. And it also helps to better understand others and their actions. At least if you take the time to step back, examine the situation or relationship from other models or viewpoints.

The split in the book also brings to mind the "thinking - feeling" dimension. The third Jungian split in Myers Briggs test. How we (think/prefer to) make decisions.

And the final quote of this post sets the stage for some more ideas, but just a simple number for now: 227

Unusual behavior tends to produce estrangement in others which tends to further the unusual behavior and thus the estrangement in self-stoking cycles until some sort of climax is reached. @1253

Timeout: Horror with Yeats

Nice a break? Take a trip in time and space with a 'horror' story from the poet Yeats. 

I'm still a bit backlogged on podcast, even after cutting down to the bare essentials, but the trifecta of story-goodness that is EscapePod, PseudoPod and PodCastle still maintain center stage.

But this story, namely Pseudopod episode #273: The Crucifixion of the Outcast by William Butler Yeats - originally published in 1897, and podcasted on March 16th, 2012 - is a standout piece. 

The descriptions, the characters, the tone. Dark, but not extremely scary or bloody. Poetry in action. 

Get it in iTunes, over at the site or from the link;

Zen and the struggle of blogging

As I basked in the sun this afternoon, I finally got around to starting a re-read of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

It was one of the first book I bought for the Kindle, way back on July 19th 2010 - so I just made it before it had lingered for two years. Part of the reason is that I've read the book before, guessing round 1996 or so. So the urge to read it has ebbed and flowed a bit. But today seemed like the perfect day to jump back in.

The intention is to read it it suitable chuncks, then use a nugget or two to spark of a post here, repeat until completed. Then reread the posts and make one final reflection on the book, the process and my thoughts.

Last time I read in during a binge of beat novels mixed with some epic fantasy. This time it is a possible first dive into more active reading - with Ulysses, Gravity Rainbow and Infinite Jest on the long list for fall (dark nights and rain presumed suitable backdrop)

Caring about what you are doing is considered either unimportant or taken for granted.Read more at location 551

Guess this might be called the zen simplicity? The simple act of commitment, it is either to obvious or to much.

For someone who loves what they do, the simple fact that a lot of people "just do the job" seems almost unreal. Why would anyone stay in a job just to do it, if it doesn't five them more than a paycheck?

And visa verca, why would any one actually be "married to the job", when they could just leave it behind at 5 and start enjoying their leisure time?


- ...and the sun shone truly brightly all day and long into the night - finally summer ...

Here a quark, there a...?

Some potentially big science news over the weekend - looks like the CERN teams working with the LHC might have found the Higgs Boson.

I'm not going to take a shot at explaining just why it is such a big deal - but the video below is a very good overview. Sufficient to say that it might change a lot of our understanding of the Universe and matter.

I got it via NASA... which I in turn found via Jay Rosen @NYU on twitter, it was his crowd sourced recommended overview of the story. The power of networks and digital access.



Another solid piece well worth a read was in NYT - snappy title and all;  "Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe"

In Geneva, 1,000 people stood in line all night to get into an auditorium at CERN, where some attendees noted a rock-concert ambiance. Peter Higgs, the University of Edinburgh theorist for whom the boson is named, entered the meeting to a sustained ovation.

Must say that what I most wanted to see was a Big Bang Theory instant update from Sheldon, but so far no luck.