Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I would buy a Mac if I didn't work for Microsoft (wrote James Allchin) -- Comment()
Windows development chief: "I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products. [... ] I would buy a Mac if I didn't work for Microsoft." --- An interesting comment by James Allchin.

Also, I didn't know that Microsoft has a policy of deleting mail after 30 days, according to Allchin: "This is company policy. Do not think this is something that only applies to a few people. Do not think it will be okay if I do this, it hasn't caused any problems so far. Do not archive your mail. Do not be foolish. 30 days."

Six-word strories about information technology -- Comment()
Inspired by a recent Wired article about six-word short-short science fiction stories, I invented about two dozen stories on information technology. It was suprisingly easy to find ideas for this kind of writing. (In Finnish, Kuuden sanan tarinoita tietotekniikasta.)

New book reviews -- Comment()
Here are some new book reviews (written by me in Finnish). They originally appeared in the Tietoyhteys magazine.

In total, I have written about 110 book reviews, which is a bit suprising, but on the other hand, writing one, e.g., monthly is not a great task as such. There are so many good books which benefit from each bit of publicity they can get. (Unfortunately quite few people write book reviews any more.)

Google Earth learns new skills -- Comment()
Opening my eyes to a whole new world: "We've taken the rich data of Wikipedia, Panoramio, and the Google Earth Community and made a browsable layer in Google Earth. Now you can fly anywhere in the world and see what people have written about it, photographed, or posted. I went hopping around from the southern tip of South America to the mosques in the Middle East to the Maldives Islands, immersed in a wealth of information, and I really felt like I was visiting each place through eyes of people who had been there. It was really engaging to compare, say, the Grand Canyon through the photos in Panoramio to the view from Google Earth, where I could follow the Colorado River through each."