- Typhoon by Charles Cumming. I really liked this tale, suspense set in China over the last 15 years, with some nicely shaded characters. Amazon says just 3.5 stars, but I’m at least 4 stars, I would pick up another book by the author in a heartbeat.
- Invisible by Paul Auster. Quite a twisted little tale of a very evil and manipulative man working his way through a set of lives. And a very nice structure to the tale, raises the book above your typical mystery. I’ve had several Austers on the shelf for a while, very worth the time. Amazon says 4 stars, I’m good with that.
- The Private Patient by P.D. James. This one feels to me like it is the dead zone between a good mystery yarn and literature. The author aspires to write a deeper more thoughtful tale but is just boring. Doubt I will finish. Amazon says 4 stars but really not close.
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Just back from a stay in West Hollywood. Stayed at Le Parc Suites. I think this place had its best moments 10 years ago. Not terrible, the service levels were good, the street is nice, but the facility is aging and probably wasn’t great to start with.
From walking around, where we should have stayed (kitchen a requirement):
* Palihouse. Looks very cool and good kitchens. Not as nice a street location as Le Parc but looks way awesomer.
* Petit Ermitage. Also full kitchens.
Close but lacking a real kitchen:
* LeMontrose Suite Hotel. Kitchenette type facilities
* Chamberlain. Kitchenette as well in some rooms
- Congrats USC Lax on Sunday's win over UW! Great to see all of you http://bit.ly/dsWpcF #
- Hear hear RT @th73: I get gov subsidies for not farming on Facebook RT @ChrisPirillo: I just became the mayor of I'm not on FourSquare. #
- Search for "drugstore" on iPhone google maps and I get this? http://twitpic.com/13st7z #
- Oregon 2009 backfield — most felonious ever? http://tinyurl.com/y9ys4vr #
- Recent books — Freedom, Give Me Liberty, Judas Unchained, Forgotten Man — http://bit.ly/bciszU #
- Awesome — http://5z8.info/38–start.spamBot–this-ip–_p4i1f_molotovcocktail #
- Advice to hoteliers: biz center PCs should prob not have null password on admin account #
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Signs of strain at Google?
Feb 17
OK the missteps that Google has made with Buzz this week are well chronicled. They jammed a product out without really thinking it through.
That doesn’t hit me that much as a user. But today using the iphone map app I am getting continuous errors — here is the map of drugstores near my current location. Not unique to me, I’ve heard of this from many folks today.
And I’m looking at the ESPN boxscore page for Purdue/OSU right now and first the google toolbar tells me it is in Portuguese, and now in Catalan, and asks if I want a translation.
One wonders if Google is spreading itself a little thin.
- Freedom by Daniel Suarez. Not as mind-wreckingly good as his prior, Daemon but a very nice conclusion to the tale. 3.5 stars, Amazon says 4.5 stars but that I think is carryover from the first book.
- Give Me Liberty by Naomi Wolf. Nice nonfiction complement to the above. Does a nice job of illustrating how our rights have been eroded, and admonishing us to do something about. Amazon says 4.5 stars, well, it is a fine book, but I’d stop at 3.5
- Judas Unchained by Peter Hamilton. Vaguely remember the prior book but it has been a while and this book does not stand alone. Amazon says 4 stars, I am hard on books today, I’d say 3 stars
- The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes. History of the Depression, interesting although some of the details could have been left to an appendix. Roosevelt’s level of power was amazing. The story of the transformation of government into a very active role is told well and is clearly not an unalloyed good. The abject failure of monetary policy is well told and a good lesson for today. And my impression of Hoover from high school history as a total bumbler changed, he was incredibly competent prior to his stint as president. Amazon says 4 stars, I’ll say 3.5, and with tighter editing could have been a 4.
- Douglas Preston knows entitlement — http://bit.ly/b24Fzr #
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Preston is exhibiting that he knows deeply what it means to feel ‘entitlement’. My reaction when I read Preston’s quote was exactly the same as this writer. Fortunately his books are throw-away fluff, and not even good throw-away fluff, so I will miss nothing if I never buy one again.
Online math resources
Feb 11
Just discovered Cramster. Awesome. If they have coverage for the text used in your class, this is super helpful.
Finding that Wolfram Alpha is also becoming more useful. Easier to run to it to figure out the integral of x^2 sinx sinhx than spinning up mathematica or maple or matlab.
Holiday cards next year
Feb 11
Almost all the holiday cards we got this year were produced/printed at various websites. The ones we liked the best came from http://www.tinyprints.com/. Placeholder here for next year…
- Magimix Vision Toaster. Our current toaster works just fine but this one just looks so awesome.
- Wood Alarm Clock. I hate your typical alarm clock, this is pretty atypical.
- Magisso Cake Server. Don’t make that many cakes but this is a reason to start.
- Shattered Glass Table is awesome looking. Sign me up.
- Suitcase Chairs. Don’t love this color but love the idea.
- Found lumber staircase. There is something about this I love.
- Canisters. Ok what I really want is the indestructible French press mentioned.
- Glass pendant lamp. Dust will make me regret this but it looks awesome
- Canvas Clock. I think everyone else in the household might barf on this one.
- Flask salt/pepper shakers. No idea if functional, but nice looking.