A while back now I had the good fortune to pick up Silicon Chip‘s library of old books. I didn’t get *all* of them, but I did get quite a lot.
I was thinking that as part of my In The Lab With Jay Jay videos, in future, I will tell you about one of these old books during the introduction to the video.
Today I was referred to Cory Doctorow‘s new book: The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation. Apparently it’s basically just about the idea that web services should interoperate. I’m not going to read this one, but you might?
Some light reading:
Ordered on Amazon today:
I’m not sure what to make of the fact that these books are nearly 20 years old… totally out of date, but all that is available? What’s up with that?
Here’s an interesting talk about how we won’t need programmers very soon: Large Language Models and The End of Programming – CS50 Tech Talk with Dr. Matt Welsh.
If refers to the following books:
I will let you in on a little secret: I love doing math homework. Always have, always will. I love the process. I love reading the problems, thinking of solutions, and checking the questions off one by one. Even when it’s easy, it’s still fun.
Just for fun I’ve gone back to my old high school math textbooks. I’m skipping years 7 and 8 and starting with year 9. Then I will do 10, 11, and 12, at the highest level.
At the moment I’m working through Australian Signpost Mathematics New South Wales 9 (5.1-5.3) Student Book, which is the year 9 textbook. I’m only up to page 10, fractions and ratios. I should work on it more than I do. Let’s see what I can do about that. :)
This evening I read the iptables man page and Linux iptables Pocket Reference from cover-to-cover; my notes are here: Netfilter.
I think at this point I am ready to use iptables in anger for the first time in a long time, and the first time ever on a router.
However, before I take that on, I’m going to have a quick diversion into the following books, and then sleep, and I will do my iptables programming when I wake up tomorrow.
Things to read to learn about FPGA programming:
Here is a presentation of the work of Iain McGilchrist: The Divided Brain.
McGilchrist has written a number of books, including:
I have finished reading Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (affiliate link).
I went into this book much more worried about the state of attention in our communities than I was when I came out. Having read about it I kinda don’t feel that we really do have an urgent problem with so many people on earth being constantly engaged with their smart phones.
I might have trouble now starting a conversation with a family member because they are engrossed in their phone, and I might think this is new or different, but thirty years ago it would have been the same thing if they had their nose in a book or a newspaper.
I think by and large it’s good when we’re paying attention to things and engaging with them. That’s not only how entertainment gets done, that is also how work gets done.
I suspect one of the driving forces behind the surge in ADHD diagnoses (and Hari didn’t say this) is that people are getting the diagnosis deliberately because they want access to prescription amphetamines.
Anyway. I would still recommend reading this book. Hari does a good job of covering all the bases and investigating all the topics, including: