Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Sunday, November 10, 2002

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Another small benefit of the new theme: "Cloud status: 71% of 40.0MB is free." Before the change to the new template I had 69% free of the disk space available. Thus, even though there is quite a lot of CSS code on these pages, they actually consume a bit less disk space than the previous weblog theme.

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Matt Croydon wrote a comment about the new theme for this weblog:

I love the new theme and the tweaks that you made. I know it took me quite a bit to get the CSS to a point that I liked. When I started my weblog, the theme that I used was the most appealing to me. Now I am glad that I can get rid of the graphics and focus my readers on content.

I have been correcting some mistakes I made in the change to the new template. (I forgot to include the macro for tracking referrals, for example.) In addition, the new style has some inconsistencies, and some CSS definitions are not good as they are. But this has to be wait for future edits and tweakings. I have never really looked at CSS coding, so this is not trivial to do for me. But I'm also happy with the new lighter version. The weblog also loads to the browser much faster than previously.

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Theoretical Physics Breakthrough or Hoax?. "Dr. Peter Woit, a mathematician and physicist at Columbia University, said of the brothers' work, "Scientifically, it's clearly more or less complete nonsense, but these days that doesn't much distinguish it from a lot of the rest of the literature." [...] Indeed, the problem of distinguishing sense from nonsense goes beyond the Bogdanovs, say some physicists, who worry that far too much junk goes past the referees who vet articles for the scientific journals and the examiners who approve Ph.D's." [Slashdot]

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New Microsoft Open Source Analysis, Deconstructed: "Microsoft is beginning to understand the backlash it can create with its FUD and deceptions, especially in a world where a committed, decentralized army of volunteers counters the lies. [...] But it's not enough simply to tell the truth and expect the public to understand. [...] One of Microsoft's clever tactics, Larry Lessig notes, is to advocate neutrality -- to say that the software ecosystem is fine with more than one choice as long as no one forces that choice. Of course, anyone who's been awake the past 20 years understands that Microsoft does not believe this. Microsoft believes the ecosystem is ideal when there is precisely one choice -- Microsoft." [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

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The Pentagon Wants Your Secrets: "This should scare you: Vice Admiral John Poindexter wants to create a supercomputer capable of hunting through electronic databases all over the world, looking for suspected terrorists. According to the article, Poindexter outlines a need to 'break down the stovepipes that separate commercial and government databases, allowing teams of intelligence analysts to hunt for hidden patterns of activity with powerful computers.'" [Slashdot]

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Loebrich.org writes about The 100 science fiction books you just have to read!: "I've read 33 of the books on the list. With a few exceptions, I thought most of them were very good. I personally think a significant number don't qualify as science fiction however. Based on the list, you would think almost any story that takes place in the future or setting that is even slightly different from reality qualifies. Maybe it does, but I think a term like 'speculative fiction' would more accurately describe many of these titles." [phobos]

I counted in the list 66 books which I have read. About 20 were translated into Finnish, some I read in school (War with Newts, 1984, Fanhrenheit 451, ...). The rest I read in English (or translated into English). I agree that the list is a bit uneven, and some works are not sf is I understand the term. Perhaps half of the books in list really deserve to be there, and there are lots of top-quality books missing.

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Spam for spam.: "Spam for spam. I just got a spam advertising spamming services. You too can buy 1 million addresses for just..." [Krzysztof Kowalczyk's Weblog]

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Fighting Microsoft The Open-Source Way: "Apple, IBM, and Sun have opened up their software code to the public in their battle against Redmond. It just might work." (Business 2.0 via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]