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 Wandering around in Barnes and Noble the other day, my daughter handed me a copy of Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi. Since I’m a fan of the Flight anthology he edits, I thought it might be worth a glance.
I’m glad she she already knows my taste as it was a fantastically fun read. Don’t get me wrong, I can read beyond the 3rd grade level, but I really appreciate juvenile graphic fiction that’s something more than spandex supers. I’d put Amulet in the same class as Bone and Rose by Jeff Smith.
BTW – Word on the net is Will Smith’s production company Overbrook purchased the film rights. Anyone with an IMDB Pro account want to confirm the rumor?
Other Books I Recommend:
 While reading The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow I came across an interesting section talking about an innate need to feel in control of our surroundings. The primary thrust of the book is how pervasive, and misunderstood, randomness is in our lives. In the chapter on “Illusions of Patterns and Patterns of Illusion” he takes a side step to explore some reasons why we try to overlay meaning onto mathematically random events.
What struck me was his discussion of behavioral research indicating that control, or even the perception of control, is empowering. He used this section to illuminate the very real drive we have to find patterns of meaning in our lives, and by extension to feel in control of our endeavors. For example, he references studies on nursing homes showing that residents allowed to control their environment by selecting their own rooms and decorations live twice as long as control groups in the same settings who aren’t provided the same choices.
I related this to our work in providing users with control over their media preferences. We’re often asked if users really want or need the control matchmine provides them with the MatchKey and our discovery network. Based on Mlodinow’s explanations the answer is a resounding “yes, users need control over their preferences and how they’re used.”
Following his lead, it’s clear that if we empower people with control over their own lives (even over something as apparently mundane as media preferences) they will fair better than when they’re being controlled. Further, he also goes on to cite examples where actual control is illusory. Even in these cases, however, the research shows that people still do better when they at least feel they’re in control.
As a caveat, this was a small bit I’ve extracted from the larger work on randomness and the history of the mathematical exploration that has been done to codify it’s complexities. If you have a quibble with the snippet I’ve carelessly ripped out of context, I’d encourage you to read the book. It’s a relatively quick read and entirely accessible (even if you’re not an astrophysicist). In fact, there’re some great segments about gambling you might find useful during your next trip to Las Vegas.
I found myself in a position to have enough time to zip through three books over the past four weeks. While I usually get through only about one book a month, it was fun to jam on the reading in July.
Company by Max Barry
 Barry is a great one for introducing morally ambivalent characters, then weaving them through a series of unlikely events until you end up rooting for them. As with Syrup and Jennifer Government, Barry shines a light on modern consumerism and corporate culture. Unlike the earlier novels, though, his latest one didn’t seem as original and witty as I’d hoped. If you like his writing style, it’s worth the read, but I’d recommend his other books over this one if you haven’t read them, yet.
The Spiritualist by Megan Chance
 I’d never read anything by Chance, or even heard of her before stumbling across The Spiratualist at the local bookstore. It looked like a fun, historical (set in mid-19th century New York) mystery centered around the spiritualism craze of the time. It delivered on the promise on the book jacket saying Chance paints a rich picture of the time and place. As it was written in first person, however, I was mildly disappointed she didn’t go as far as Susanna Clarke in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by grappling with the descriptive language of the day, too. It was a serviceable story, and I’m glad I read it, but there’s definitely better historical mysteries out there.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
 This is the first book in the “His Dark Materials” trilogy, originally titled “Northern Lights” and renamed when the film rights were purchased. I haven’t seen the film adaptation, yet, but see how it could make an amazingly fast-paced, CGI-laden action flick. I was initially turned onto this trilogy by my niece, and was impressed by it’s allegorical depth centered on the world-changing quest of a 12 year old girl. It’s set in an alternate 19th century and Pullman does a great job setting up the universe of discourse. The narrative floats effortlessly between fact and fiction, playing each off the other, allowing the reader to distinguish between them. I’d also classify this as the “thinking reader’s Harry Potter” as the characters are much more fleshed out with heavily nuanced motivations. I’m looking forward to reading the second book soon.
Other Books I Recommend:
 After finishing “Double Negative” by David Carkeet, a good off-beat mystery, I wondered about other books for comparison when recommending it to people. It definitely has a hard-edged, acerbically humorous “flavor” that is hard to describe. I often like to frame books in context with others, trying to convey something of a “if you like that, you might like this” kind of thing. This case is a bit more difficult, though, and I’ve tried to come up with an apt comparison.
 The nearest thematic neighbor to it I have in my own library would be “The Woman Who Knew Too Much” by Bett Reece Johnson. While that’s a relatively easy connection for me as they’re sitting near each other on my shelf, they’re generally placed across the room from each other in your favorite big bookstore. In fact, when looking for it in Borders as well as Barnes & Nobel, you’ll find it in the Gay/Lesbian Literature sections, an aisle not generally frequented by the mainstream mystery reader.
I was initially turned onto Johnson’s book while browsing a small bookstore in New Mexico. She was a featured local author, and from the jacket cover it seemed like it’d be worth a try. The blurb sketched the main character as a renegade espionage agent, Cordelia Morgan, who was tired of the game and left her unnamed employers to strike out on her own. The plot is about how she helps solve a local murder mystery.
The story turned out to be well written, and filled with interesting, earthy characters. As I’ll often do with books I’ve enjoyed, I looked for copies to give as gifts to friends. It was a surprise, then, when I’d query the bookstore staff and found where it was shelved. Apparently, they’d been told by the corporate office where it belongs, and it wasn’t with the other mysteries.
The book’s classification is the real mystery here. As far as I can tell, there’s one character who we learn (in flash-back) was a feminist, and may possibly have been a lesbian. Knowing where I pulled it from the shelf, I suppose I could infer some ambiguous sexuality in the main character, but it’s by no means overt (and I’d have to squint when reading between the lines to find it). At the end of the day, the only clue I’ve been able to uncover is that fact that the publisher, Cleis Press, puts out a number of (by and about) lesbian books. My guess, then, is that Johnson is missing out on a much wider potential audience being categorized outside the genre of the story itself.
In short: These are two fun, slightly offbeat murder mysteries I recommend. You’ll probably be able to find “Double Negative” easily enough, but you might need to wander into the Gay/Lesbian section for “The Woman Who Knew Too Much.”
Other Books I Recommend:
A couple weeks back, Keith Hopper tossed out a tweet asking me to fill him (and the Twitter crowd) in on the tools I use to produce the DataPortability: In-Motion Podcast. Since it takes a bit more than 140 characters to list out the basic ingredients, though, I figured a blog post made more sense.
At this point I was going to launch into a diatribe about how I cut my podcast teeth 10 years ago as an Executive Producer for the New England Patriots. My thought was to provide some context for how I ramped that operation from humble beginnings to eventually producing 12 hours of audio content a day, contrasting the tools I used there and what I use now… but then I realized how incomparable the situations are.
So, without any more preamble, where’s what I use now:
I use HighSpeedConferencing.com to record the shows because I’ve already got an account. I was turned onto it by Phil Wolff, Editor of Skype Journal, and have been pleased with it’s simple functionality (including Skype integration, call recording, unlimited participants, local and toll-free numbers around the world).
If you don’t need all the extra features, you could probably use SkypeCast, but then you’d need Skype call recording software whereas HighSpeedConferencing.com has an automatic recording feature.
Either way you go, once you’ve recorded your show (or individual segments), you’ll probably want to edit it. You might be able to get away with a cheaper MP3 editing tool, but I’ve been totally blown away by the simple, yet feature-rich, Mixcraft 4. While it is primarily a multi-track music mixing tool, it works just as well editing plain old podcasts. In fact, editing large audio files has zero latency – not true of other software editors I’ve used (but don’t take my word for it, give ‘em a try).
At the end of the day, you’ll have an edited MP3 file you want to share with the world. I then upload the files to my server and create the RSS formatted XML file (goosed with some specific iTunes tags). Finally, I registered the feed URL with FeedBurner.com so folks can subscribe to the feed with whatever podcatcher they support.
There’s a ton of nuances I’m leaving unsaid, but I hope it’s relatively helpful to see the tools I use. If you Google “how to podcast” you’ll find a zillion and one helpful tutorials, each with their own flavor.
Feel free to ping me if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.
Perhaps it’s the way my brain is wired, but I can’t help but see synergies everywhere. In this case, it’s in some of the books I’ve been reading and how they include nuggets that seem to speak to other stuff I’m doing.
Take, for example, “Thuderstruck ” by Erik Larson. Part of the story is about Marconi and the development of a functional wireless communication system. While I have to admit I haven’t cross-checked the facts in the book, Larson lays out an interesting interplay between the “practical” and “theoretical” research into the technology.
The connection I see is in the playing out of a similar debate within the Data Portability camps. On the one hand there’s the theory of portability from the semantic web, linked data and identity groups. They are similar to Sir Oliver Lodge and his research into wireless from a physicist’s perspective. On the other hand are the members of the DataPortability Project who are working toward a practical solution using existing research. It’s by no means a perfect comparison, but interesting to read about history and consider how aspects of it could be applicable to understanding what’s happening today.
The other book, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow, talks about the action happening within the context of a future culture of adhocracies. The story is a hilarious discussion of how open, collaborative development can be taken to extremes (along with some amusing lines like “The first time I died, it was not long after my sixtieth birthday.”). While reading it I couldn’t help but imagine how the DataPortability Project would fare under this light.
BTW – It was while reading “Thunderstruck” that I was able to put the labels “practical” and “theoretical” physics in context as they were similarly applied to the term “magic” in “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell“. Great use by Susanna Clarke of contemporary terms being applied to historical fantasy.
NOTE: Even though the links to “Down and Out” above are to Amazon.com (for you wanna’ buy it now junkies), you can also download free versions Doctorow’s site.
Other Books I Recommend:
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December 31st, 2008 | 
Heavenly Game Play
It might come as a surprise to the folk around the office… but I’m not actually what I’d consider to be a video gamer. Even though I like to jam on San Francisco Rush 2049 with the crew at the end of the day (ya’ gotta’ love the mindless drive around and blow things up game play on a giant plasma screen), that’s the sum total of my current interest in gaming. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t pick up a controller when I get home.
That being said, I do periodically become enamored with a particular game and have a brief affair with the pastime. It started when I loaded the floppies (before personal computers had hard drives, and data was stored on 5.25″ plastic disks in square sheaths that actually bent) of Zork. That game is what got me into programming… I just had to write my own text-based adventures. Many hours in college playing Prince of Persia exposed me to the fluid character animation driven by motion-capturing (encouraging my initial career as CGI designer for TV).
After that, I fell in love with Myst, prompting me to buy my first CD-ROM drive (when they were optional). Then, it was Tomb Raider for which I had to buy a PlayStation. Next, I had to upgrade to a PS2 when Sly Cooper came out (which enabled me to rekindle my affair with the new Prince of Persia: Sands of Time).
Those are the only games I’ve ever spent enough time with to actually complete. I have purchased a few other games, but not many. And none of the the others struck the same chord (or captured as many lost hours of enraptured entertainment).
And now… it’s Heavenly Sword that has my jaw hitting the floor as I drool for a new PS3:
I saw this advertised on TV, and was intrigued. With my CGI background, I get how trailers like this (along with most in-game cut scenes) are made. I’m generally disappointed when the render engine of the platform can’t recreate the same level of detail. So I was literally shocked into stunned disbelief when I saw a running version of the game at Best Buy. The video above is a recording of the exact sequence I was playing in the store. It was awe-inspiringly gorgeous. The background atmospherics, character interaction and overall animation rendering was… unbelievably believable.
The question, of course, is this affair worth $500? If you toss the Blu-Ray DVD player in as a bonus, it gets closer to being reasonable… but then I’d have to upgrade my TV, DVR, and cable service just to keep up with the boost from analog to HD (because I’m sure I’d be sad to see the rest of my visual media consumption diet pale in comparison). Add it up, and this $60 game could be the tipping point that sucks $5k out of my pocket (plus increased monthly cable bills).
BTW – This post started out as an intro for me to lay out a discussion I had with some CTOs at last night’s Boston Technology Leadership Council (about a render-driven TV series). But I’m sure no one’s read this far… if you’re still with me, though, check out the other video clips of the Heavenly Sword at Game Spot. And let me know if you get it… I’ll bring the snacks.