Red Letter Day

This morning I had one of my weirdest Lawrence experiences ever. I was having coffee at Z’s chatting with Dave and a friend, and out of nowhere, this elderly gentleman comes up and hands each of us one of the little free KU football schedules that pretty much every business in Lawrence hands out this time of year. The guy then hands us a couple copies of this xeroxed, hand-written screed and says we should read it, and then kind of shuffles away.

This was bizarre enough on its own. I actually kept the sheet to read, hoping I would get to enjoy a good rant about the gold standard, Lyndon LaRouche, and how fluoride in our water supply will cause all our precious bodily fluids to become poisoned, making it easier for the Communists and illegal immigrants to take over.

I mean, it’s not every day you get someone to care enough to write out a manifesto in longhand, old-school style.

Alas, I was disappointed. The sheet, which is reproduced below in all its glory, appears to be a random series of words, strung together in a manner that suggests grammar and sentences, but without actually meaning anything. I’m not kidding…seriously, try to read the text below and make any sense of it.

I'm not sure what this says

Maybe it is a secret code, perhaps pointing the way to Leonardo Da Vinci’s fabled lost invention. You tell me!

Anyway, as Homer Simpson would say, “I am intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.”

So yesterday I needed an easy, quick way to track and log the memory use of an application remotely, in (near) real-time, as I performed various actions.

I could SSH in and run something like top, but that doesn’t get me the logging. There are several graphic “activity monitor” like utilities including, well, Activity Monitor and Big Top, but those don’t work remotely and I didn’t want to graphically control the remote machine since that performance was part of what I was measuring.

Apple’ Instruments would have been really great, but it doesn’t work remotely, at least in any way that was quick or obvious.

After some brief searching, I found a great too, written in Python, called Syrupy, written by a guy named Jeet Sukumaran. It was tiny, simple, lightweight and does only one thing – records the state of a process over time. You tell it which process(es) you want to monitor, and how often to sample them, and it will log the results to a file or the console.

If you choose the latter, you can even make quick and dirty test notes “in line” which makes it really easy to go back later and remember what you did/see the effect of what you did on memory or processor use. You can also control the output format with a few arguments when you invoke Syrupy, which can be useful if you have some graphing app that is picky about formatting.

You run it on the remote machine via an SSH session (obviously you can use it locally too).

Default output looks like this:

SYRUPY: Writing raw process resource usage logs to 'syrupy_20100726160016.ps.raw'
SYRUPY: sampling process 169
PID DATE TIME ELAPSED CPU MEM RSS VSIZE
169 2010-07-26 16:00:16 02:08 0.0 0.1 4932 409880
169 2010-07-26 16:00:26 02:18 0.0 0.1 4924 409360


Anyway, Syrupy can be found here if you need it.

Amazon just announced that it is now selling more books in Kindle format then the traditional hardcover.

Of course, the Kindle’s not the only game in town for eReaders. Borders has one, as does Barnes and Noble and of course, Apple.

For anyone who knows my relative addiction to technology (motto: if it is good, it can be made better by adding electricity. If it has electricity, it can be made better by turning it into a robot. If it is a robot, it can be made better by giving it sentience) might be surprised ot hear that I use none of these devices. I prefer paper books. The one that are made from dead trees, that take up massive amounts of space, weigh a lot, and give you paper cuts. They also have a disturbing tendency to burn when there is a fire (of course, a Kindle will melt like butter, but all your books are backed up digital files you can load on a new device, right?)

But, before you hand me a Metamucil and a box of Depends, allow me to share with you why I (a pretty voracious reader) still prefer paper books.

These first four reasons are positive, related to what I feel are real advantages of traditional books, on a personal level

I like the tactile feel
I like the physical weight of the book in my hand, and the physical representation of progress as I turn pages and see myself move through the text. Something about a real book makes it easier to get “lost” and really connect with the author.

I enjoy the collecting
I have way too many books, filling my shelves and overspilling everywhere. These books are a physical manifestation of my intellectual growth, my education, my knowledge. They are portals to amazing fictional worlds that I have visited, or keys to great minds or museums. I like seeing them on my shelves, occasionally paging back through them. Any serious reader with a large library knows the feeling of recalling a favored passage or story that can be triggered just by seeing the title of a book on a shelf.

Real books can be shared
If a friend wants to borrow one of my books, he or she can do so. Likewise, I can borrow from friends. You can’t do this with e-books, which are locked to your own device via software incompatibilities and digital rights management. Obviously, real books can be resold as well. You will never browse an electronic used bookstore, nor pass along a treasured e-volume to a spouse or your kids.

Real books will last forever
You can read books that are hundreds of years old. Acid-free paper, stored halfway decently, will last centuries. Do you think any of the e-books you buy today will still be viewable in even a decade, much less a quarter century or more?

The next five reasons are related to technical limitations of e-books. All of these limitations might be overcome, at least somewhat, as the technology continues to mature.

Print is still higher quality
The iPhone 4 has the best screen of any electronic device on the market, and it is basically approaching print in quality. An iPhone 4 display on an iPad-sized device would be amazing, and it is certainly coming, but it isn’t there yet. And even this amazing screen is hard on the eyes if you stare at it for an hour. Print, especially high-quality print, beats any e-reader on the market, at least for now.

E-books are too expensive
E-books used to be ten bucks, now they are fifteen. Add to that the myriad of weird pricing decisions, absurd “on-sale” dates and geographic and time-based market restrictions on various books, and you can start to get an idea that publishers are their own worst enemy in making sure the things which should be the natural advantage of e-books (any book in print, cheap, now) are not taken advantage of. If a new hardcover comes out, I’d rather pay Amazon 18 bucks (which is discounted) for a physical edition then 15 for an electronic version. No contest. But, if the price were 8 bucks, I would think. Hard. I like paper books, but I also like saving money.

There’s less choice of books
Between the new and used marketplace on Amazon and similar sites, I can buy pretty much any book which has been in print the past several decades, as well as books from countries around the world which may not be available in the US. Due to licensing restrictions, only a small fraction of books are available electronically. E-books are like Redbox movies – fine if all you want are the big hits, but no depth.

incompatible formats, devices, and DRM
DRM means I can’t lend my books to friends or sell them when I am done. Incompatible devices mean that if I develop a collection on my Kindle, and later Amazon decides to stop supporting it (unlikely, but stranger things have happened) – or I decide I like iBooks on the iPad better, I can’t transfer my collection (although I could use the iPad Kindle reader). There’s a ton of incompatible formats in the marketplace, and even the “standards” are not fully supported on all the various platforms, especially when DRM is involved.

ebook readers suffer from the limitations of being electronics
They break, run out of juice, don’t like heat or moisture, suffer glitches and crashes, and can’t be tossed around. A book can really be abused and still be readable (not that I would intentionally abuse my own books, but it is common to buy used books that have been less-then-gently used) but I really don’t want to abuse my iPad.

So, do I ever see myself switching to e-books? They do have some amazing advantages, most obvious the immediacy (start reading right away!) as well as the near infinite storage (not to mention searchability). I’ve already read a few short stories electronically, and it is not a bad experience. I am likely to use iBooks on my iPhone or iPad when travelling, or other times when the convenience of carrying a bunch of books in a small device I already am carrying really becomes important. Otherwise, I’ll take paper, please.

PS: Do you publishers, do you want to win me over – or at least temp me – into the ebook world? How is this for an idea. Similar to how most Blu Ray discs come with a digital copy included at no (obvious) extra cost, how about including an electronic copy of a book when I buy the hardcover?

Packing For Mars by Mary Roach

When most people think of space travel, they think of the adventure, the excitement of discovery, and the daring of the astronauts, who ride giant tubes filled with explosives into orbit and beyond.

Once you read Mary Roach’s delightful and informative new book “Packing For Mars” you will gain added appreciation for the heroics of our astronauts…for their bravery in putting up with the surprisingly complex minutiae of eating, sleeping, moving around, and yes, defecating in outer space. Not to mention surviving the horrid odors generated when grown adults live in a compartment the size of a small car for days or weeks on end, to the point their underwear actually beings to disintegrate.

Roach’s book covers everything about what happens when human physiological needs meet the final frontier. Chapters deal with the complexities of eating and drinking in zero G, as well as, the travails of motion sickness, psychology and, of course, zero-G sex. The author does some impressive research on this latter subject even tracking down the people involved in the production of a supposed low-gravity adult film as well as talking to former US and Soviet space travelers about this oft-taboo subject.

Roach is a delightful writer, always willing to throw in a well-timed joke or piece of obscure trivia (often contained in addictively fascinating footnotes) from the NASA archives. She also “walks the walk” going on a zero-G simulator and even participating in a simulated Mars mission in the Arctic. In one of the most touching chapters, she tracks down the remains of the first Americans in space – two chimpanzees, and talks to their (now long-retired) handlers about their contribution to increasing our knowledge of space.

“Packing For Mars” is one of the best general-interest books on space travel in years, and will be enjoyed by anyone who has ever gazed at floating astronauts and wondered – even for half a second – “how do they go to the bathroom up there?”

(I am always happy for an excuse to include a Troy McClure Simpsons reference in my titles)

Anyway, Dave is a member of the Amazon Vine program, which gives him access to review copies of books and such, and through this, I was able to read an advance readers’ edition of a new novel called “Lucy” which is the story of a girl who is a hybrid human-bonobo and the various ethical and social issues this brings up.

“Lucy” is an amazing story, which should appeal to a wide variety of readers. It is several books in one: the story of how a “home schooled” girl from the jungles of Africa learns to adapt to American culture, a science-fiction tale about the relationship between humans and bonobos and what a hybrid of the two species might be like, a gripping chase yarn pitting a few good people against a heartless enemy, and lastly, and most importantly, a philosophical examination of what it means to be human, told in the voice of the protagonist.

“Lucy” touches on so many different issues that in the hands of a lesser writer, the story might end up unraveling into a series of disjointed vignettes. Luckily, we are in good hands, as author Laurence Gonzales deftly weaves the various threads of the novel into a unified whole, providing enough background on the legal and scientific issues to satisfy the curious, while making sure the real star of the tale, Lucy herself, shines through. Lucy is the center of this book, and it is to the author’s credit that she becomes, well, real in a way that made me think long after I had finished the book.

“Lucy” is a thoughtful, deep, and emotional exploration of what it means to be human, and is one of the best books I have read so far in 2010.

So I got my new iPhone 4 yesterday and took a few very quick snapshots outdoors when I was walking Tova. Still haven’t tried the flash or anything fancy, but wanted to throw these up here, at full size, so you can get a look at the camera’s quality.

License plate
Amazing detail here. If you view the photo at full size, you can see the reflection of my wedding ring in the Toyota logo!

Flower
A nice close-up of a pretty yellow flower.

Peace pole
A generic outdoor scenery shot

Tova sniffing (HD movie)
Short movie of our dog sniffing around. Shaky as hell – it is hard to hold an iPhone still and I hope the iMovie for the iPhone has the shake-remover feature of it’s desktop big brother, otherwise post-processing in iMovie will almost be required.

iPhone screenshot
A screenshot of my iPhone’s screen, to get an idea of the pixel density.

iOS 4.0 will be released tomorrow (or today if you are reading this Monday morning). The iPhone 4 itself will arrive on Thursday.

With my new iPhone, I have to bid a very fond farewell to my jailbroken iPhone. While the iOS 4.0 itself will remain jailbreakble on older iPhones, it is likely that it may be weeks if not months before the new hardware will be jailbroken by the Dev Team.

I am looking forward to my new iPhone and its awesome screen and great camera, but I will miss a lot of the features that third-party developers have created.

What is especially sad is that the three things I will miss the most are not esoteric tweaks useful only to hackers; rather they are essential usability enhancements that make using the phone more pleasant. It boggles my mind that after three years Apple’s engineers have not yet implemented basic ideas such as…

1. Customizable SMS notification tones. The crappy piece-of-junk phone your carrier gives away free probably includes a feature allowing you, the user, to utilize your own custom tones for incoming SMS message notification (or they will at least let you pay to change them). This feature isn’t available on the iPhone at any price. iPhone users are stuck with the same six (crappy) tones that have shipped with the iPhone from day one.

2. Instant reply functionality for incoming SMS messages. On the iPhone, when you get an incoming text message, you have two options. Either ignore it until later, or choose to reply. If you reply, whatever app you are currently running is unceremoniously quit and you are dumped in the full-fledged text messaging app to write your reply. On a jailbroken iPhone you can choose to permit q “quick reply” pop-up window, allowing you to dash off a text message response without quitting the app you are already running. Hopefully, multitasking on iOS 4 will help here, but even so, is the ability to instantly reply to messages too much to ask?

3. Quick access to common phone settings. On a jailbroken iPhone, frequently-used toggle settings, like turning wifi, bluetooth, or data on and off is a single fast swipe no matter what you are doing on your phone. On the stock iPhone, even with iOS 4, doing something simple like turning off 3G requires quitting what you are doing, and navigating deep within the Settings app. Ugh.

Notice that none of these three items requires changing the fundamentals of how the phone works, or opening up the OS or bypassing the app store. In other words, they are all things Apple should add to the basic OS without changing the iPhone business or use models. I hope that these features show up in iOS 5, but in the mean time, I eagerly await the time when a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 is revealed. I have to have my custom SMS tone, after all!

I am in San Francisco for Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference. I found out that the conference is taking place less then a block from the Twitter world headquarters. Since Twitter is such a big part of my connected life these days, I couldn’t resist the urge to wander over during the time between conference sessions.

The Twitter HQ doesn’t even have a sign on the outside of the building they are located within…just a non-descript 6-story office building, but the magic inside…nah, it looks like any other office. No stench of whale meat or chirping of birds. Just the place where one of the best parts of the Internet happens to be developed. I didn’t get a tour or anything…it’s an office where people are working, not Disneyland, but I did convince the receptionist to snap a photo of me, and I checked in on Foursquare, completing the social media double-play of the year for me at least!

Your humble blogger on hallowed ground

They also have a nice little art wall with a collection of their awards, magazine covers and other artwork about the brand.

Twitter art wall part 1

Twitter art wall part 2

Last fall, on my old blog, I posted a review of what were my favorite books of the year..

Now that it is six months later, a bunch of these are now available in paperback, and most of the hardcovers are now available at remainder or bargain prices.

So, if you are looking for a good read this summer, you might check some of these out (and don’t worry, I am already working on the 2010 list!)

First are the ten new books I enjoyed reading the most in 2009. I am not going to say these are the “best” books of that year, merely my best books. You’ll notices a theme. I like speculative fiction, science, history, and cultural studies. You will not find this year’s best romance novel here.

So, in random order…

The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
A masterpiece, and one of the finest examples of quality, thoughtful, intellectual popular science writing I have ever read. If it were merely a thorough overview of evolutionary theory, it would be brilliant just on that alone, but Dawkins also manages to convey a beautiful sense of how science is done, as well as conveying his thoughts with a subtle wit and good humor lacking in his other, more strident books. If you love science, you need to read this book.

Ark by Stephen Baxter
“Ark” is the second book in Baxter’s duology of planetary extinction from a massive flood. Baxter is known for his “hard science fiction” and “Ark” doesn’t disappoint on that level, but what makes this book something special is the human element, as well as the sense of crushing, overwhelming loss, seasoned with the tiniest bit of hope that keeps moving as inexorably as the flood waters. “Ark” can be read as a standalone, but the prequel, “Flood” is nearly as good, so read it first.

Lost To the West by Lars Brownworth
“Lost To the West” is what popular history is supposed to be. It is enlightening, and sheds light on a subject that few people – even those of us who like to think we know something about history – really understand other then as a dim caricature. I am referring to the Byzantine Empire, and Brownworth covers a millenium of history gloriously, with a full pageant of heroes, villains, emperors and patriarchs, with a good overview of the cultural and religious aspects of the empire as well. By necessity, he glosses over a lot of territory (literally and figuratively) but this is a general survey, and was a pleasure to read.

The Illustrious Dead by Stephan Talty
Speaking of great popular history, “The Illustrious Dead” manages to find a fresh look at a subject that has been trampled to death….Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. What makes Talty’s book unique is his focus on medical detective work, and the role of disease in crushing Napoleon’s ambitions. An excellent mix of science and history, told in a lively fashion. This was probably my favorite history book of the year so far.

Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson
If I had to choose a “best book of 2009” this would be it. This book is so many things at once: a speculative look at America after our technological civilization is done away with by peak oil, a mediation on the role of history and the preservation (and loss of) knowledge, a rousing military buddy adventure story, a wry comedic social commentary a la Mark Twain, and simply a damn good read. “Julian Comstock” is an amazingly deft, thoughtful story, which will really make you think. I deeply identified with the characters and the deft nuance of the writing, and, yeah, I laughed out loud a few times as well. This book is a triumph.

Fragment by William Fahey
“Fragment” is an old-fashioned scientific horror novel, kind of like Jurassic Park remixed and kicked up a notch. Of all the book I read in 2009, it is the most likely to be turned into a movie, and reading it, it feels almost cinematic. Although the book offers plenty of fascinating speculation, and lots of strange and hungry animals, there’s also enough scientific exposition to make this book several levels more enjoyable then a mere gore-fest like “The Ruins” (which many have compared to this). A fun, smart action read.

Idiot America by Charles Pierce
Sarcastic, smart, bitter, yet hopeful. I’d like to think that describes some of me, but even if it doesn’t it certainly describes Charles Pierce, who lays bare the genius and depravity of America. This is not just some Michael Moore-ish rant, but rather a thoughtful and bitingly funny celebration of the American crank, ranging from radio shock jocks to Creation Science museum curators. Pierce explores the fauna and flora of American idiocy with a deft hand, and a firm grasp on the saddle (which is itself on top of a dinosaur at the creation museum).

Why Shit Happens by Peter Bentley
You make up in the morning late because your alarm doesn’t go off. Your toast falls on the floor, a bird craps on you as you walk outside, your car breaks down on the way to work, and your pen explodes in your packet. And this is all before 9 AM. Using as his hook a litany of minor disasters that we have all dealt with at one time or another, Bentley explores the science and technology of our daily lives, and how it affects us in ways both bug and small. This is a delightful little book.

Drood by Dan Simmons
I normally do not read 900+ page novels about Charles Dickens, but I loved Simmons’ incredible Arctic horror story “The Terror” so I gave “Drood” a try (it didn’t hurt that it was 40% off!) I am very glad I did. “Drood” is gripping psychological horror story, told through the drug-addled memory of one of Dickens’ closes friends and biggest rivals. “Drood” is meticulously researched, and by itself, the depiction of day-to-day life in Victorian England is fascinating. Throw in a healthy dollop of genuinely frightening gothic horror, and you have a book which kept me up a few nights.

Angles and Ages by Adam Gopnik
This year marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of two giants: Darwin and Lincoln. Gopnik uses these two intellects to synthesize a tour de force essay on the cultural changes ushered in to the world by these two men, and how they affected our views of man’s role in nature, and the governments role in societies.

Continuing on in a similar vein, here are my nine favorite books I read last year that were not published in 2009 (i.e. previously published). Mostly, these are paperback or remainder editions of books published last year or a few years before, that I have only gotten around to reading now.

The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English by Henry Hitchings
There are a lot of books covering the history of English, and Hitchings’ book is one of the best. He focuses on words and vocabulary, and how it has developed over time. It is a joy to read for a word-lover, with a focus on the words themselves and less on the theory of language.

Physics for Future Presidents by Richard Muller
Muller’s writing feels like being in a class by one of those memorable college professors that everyone loves. He makes the complex science behind our public policy choices easy to understand…and interesting to boot. Focusing on physics and chemistry, Muller covers the science behind the headlines in the fields of climate changes, nuclear weapons, and energy. I really learned a lot reading this book. I hope Obama read it too!

Chances Are: Adventures in Probability by Michael and Ellen Kaplan
A history and overview of the nature of probability and chance, written for non-math majors. Each chapter covers a different aspect of the field…gambling, insurance, medical research, and so on. Given the importance that numbers play in our lives, this book ought to be read by a lot more people.

In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension by Dan Falk
A great mind-fuck, this book covers the strange nature of time. What does it mean, when did it start, and how will it end? Falk explains the basic stuff (relativity, and so forth) in a clear and easy to understand manner, and then delves into the really fascinating aspects of how we perceive time, and even covers time travel. A fun, fascinating book.

Glasshouse by Charles Stross
“Glasshouse” is a superb science fiction novel about a group of 28th century researchers, living in a post-human “accelerated” future who are running an experiment to simulate life in the 20th century. Seeing their attempts, it gives me much greater appreciation for the archeologists of our day trying to understand life 1000 years ago. “Glasshouse” is much more then a simple meditation on historic research. There’s a heroic gender-bending protagonist, an evil conspiracy and thoughtful science fictional adventure. A great, thoughtful, fun novel.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
“The Hunger Games” is a novel aimed at teenaged readers, but is certainly enjoyable for adults as well. It is the story of a protagonist in the distant future who must participate in a gladiatorial game put on by an oppressive government, a la “The Running Man.” I don’t think it is quite as good as the similarly targeted “City of Ember” but in the burgeoning field of post-apocalyptic teenage literature, “The Hunger Games” is a very enjoyable entry.

Dark Side of the Moon by Gerard Degroot
I read this book after enjoying the nostalgia of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Although I am firmly on the side of manned space exploration, I found Degroot’s book a very good “contrarian” history of the space program and some of the flawed assumptions behind it. In addition to being a great history of the program, Degroot has a wry sense of humor and covers many things that were left out of the papers, including self-pleasuring space monkeys and on the more serious side, some of the technical and human issues that were pushed under the rug during development.

Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
The amazing “Julian Comstock” (see above) made me check out Robert Charles Wilson’s earlier books, and of them, the best was “Blind Lake,” the tale of a research base where humans observe (but cannot interact with) a distant alien species via a type of quantum viewer. Things are not as simple as they seem, and a series of strange events follow. This book took a little while to get going, but once it got rolling, it was great.

City of Thieves by David Benioff
FInally, non-science fiction fiction! “City of Thieves” is an old-fashioned adventure story set in Leningrad during the German siege, about two young men who must brave the elements — human and nature — to retrieve food for a Russian general. Memorable encounters with Nazis, civilians, and even a gang of cannibals make for a memorable and touching story of friendship and survival.

We’re in a recession, oil is gushing uncontrollably into the ocean with humans helpless to stop it, North and South Korea are on the brink of war, the Middle East is near boiling, the US is mired in two intractable wars, and the ending to “Lost” was thoroughly unsatisfactory.

Perfect timing for me to start reading Matt Ridley’s newest book “The Rational Optimist”, don’t you think?

The subtitle is “How Prosperity Evolves” – so I have a good idea what Ridley’s thesis will be. I generally much prefer doom-and-glood books, but I like having my preconceived ideas challenged, and I really liked Ridley’s earlier books on evolution and the human genome, so I am actually quite looking forward to the new book….because let’s face it, the way the world is going, I need some sunshine and unicorns right now.