Category
Sudoku
During the Christmas holidays, Matt’s uncle introduced us to something called Sudoku. It’s a game kind of like a crossword puzzle, but it’s all numbers. There are 9 rows and 9 columns which are divided into 9 3×3 quadrants. The object is to get the numbers 1-9 in each row, column, and [...]
Alexa and Snow Crash
Having thought some about the new Alexa service that is being offered where anyone can search their 100 TB of data for a modest fee, it made me think of one of the concepts from Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (Amazon link). If you haven’t read it and enjoy sci-fi that makes you think, I’d [...]
Google Print…Legalized Theft?
( Books and Business and Matt's Posts and News and Politics and Science and Technology )
According to this editorial in the Washington Times, Google’s new service is going to destroy intellectual property rights. Let’s check their claims.
And so we find ourselves joining together to fight a $90 billion company bent on unilaterally changing copyright law to their benefit and in turn denying publishers and authors the rights granted to [...]
Guns, Germs, and Steel
I just finished reading Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, which is an absolutely fascinating book. It’s one of those books that makes you look like 20 IQ points smarter just by carrying it. The basic idea is why have some societies progressed to become so much [...]
Getting Freaky…Econ Style
I just finished reading Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. I’d highly recommend it. Freakonomics reminded me a lot of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (which is also a great read).
The basic idea of Freakonomics is that a University of Chicago economist goes through some case studies based on [...]
Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I just finished reading the new Harry Potter book (as if you really needed a link to find it). I’ve gotta say, this is one of the best in the series in my opinion. After reading this book, my list of favorites in the series looked something like this:
Prisoner of Azkaban, Half-Blood [...]
Reading List Suggestions for President Bush
The Washington Examiner has a list of reading suggestions for President Bush from various political writers. To me, the most entertaining part of the list is that for some reason Raj from the Apprentice got to make a suggestion. Every time I saw Raj on the show:
I swore he looked exactly [...]
Why Do Men Have Nipples?
How can you not want to read a book with that title? The subtitle of the book is: Hundreds of Questions You’d Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini. For those of you who are anti-book reading, here’s an article about the book that answers the title question for you.
Rather Heavy Summer Reading
Just in case you’re having trouble finding some summer reading, Amazon is offering The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection featuring 1,802 books, weighing in at 700 pounds, and a deal at $7899.99, over $5000 off the retail price! Free shipping included