Reading books of various genres, mostly Nordic Crime, Information Technology, Science and Fiction, Science and whatever I happen to find. I like to read mostly from paper, either pocket or hard cover, but also occasionally finish reading an e-book. I read books in Swedish, Finnish, English and German depending on what is available.
Anonymity is highly contested, marking the
limits of civil liberties and legality. Digital
technologies of …
Collection of essays
3 stars
This book is a collection of essays around the concept of anonymity, both online and in the real world. Some essays are scientific studies of some aspect while others are to be classified more as art. The e-book is licensed under creative common (BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Over all the essays are interesting, thought provoking and engaging and well worth reading if the topic is of interest. I would however recommend readers to skip essays that are of less interest.
Bought this book from Amazon end of May 2024, and it took several months before it arrived beginning of October, even though the book was supposed to be available during this time when i checked. Apparently Amazon does not value me as a customer any more, which I suppose is fine.
The book itself sounded more interesting than what I found after reading the first four chapters. The book goes into details about what is science and what is not and the history thereof. There is also in dept logical analyze of what constitutes a scientific attitude and how it differs from the myth of a scientific process.
I found the later part of the book much more interesting where examples are used to illustrate the scientific attitude in relation to actual practice, the success story of modern medicine and what is not science including fraud, pseudoscience and charlatans. There …
Bought this book from Amazon end of May 2024, and it took several months before it arrived beginning of October, even though the book was supposed to be available during this time when i checked. Apparently Amazon does not value me as a customer any more, which I suppose is fine.
The book itself sounded more interesting than what I found after reading the first four chapters. The book goes into details about what is science and what is not and the history thereof. There is also in dept logical analyze of what constitutes a scientific attitude and how it differs from the myth of a scientific process.
I found the later part of the book much more interesting where examples are used to illustrate the scientific attitude in relation to actual practice, the success story of modern medicine and what is not science including fraud, pseudoscience and charlatans. There is also a chapter with ideas how to apply a scientific attitude to the social sciences that anyone can extrapolate from for their own field of practice.
I would recommend this book to those interested in the philosophy of science. Skimming trough the first chapters can be a valid strategy if the book feels to dull.
A good explanation of what architecture is in information technology and what matters. The target audience is clearly people new to the domain, but also more seasoned practitioners can learn from this book.
There are no easy decisions in software architecture. Instead, there are many hard parts--difficult problems …
Great book to learn about IT architecture tradeoff
4 stars
Bought this book in a Humble Bundle architecture pack. I have been reading it on my phone as an EPUB while waiting and being somewhere away from my other books.
The content is what it is, mostly somewhat irritatingly familiar and self evident, some places interesting and quite innovative and excellent at other locations. As the book is. related to what I do for work I can not say that it is the most interesting or rewarding, but perhaps useful would be something I could settle for.
One gem is the rant at the end of the book about avoiding selling snake oil and evangelizing technologies. Everything can be made to fit anywhere, but there are constant issues with applying technology and products. Under some conditions the issues can be smaller, while at other times the consequences can be severe. Enthusiasm is understandable, but enhancing the benefits easily leads to …
Bought this book in a Humble Bundle architecture pack. I have been reading it on my phone as an EPUB while waiting and being somewhere away from my other books.
The content is what it is, mostly somewhat irritatingly familiar and self evident, some places interesting and quite innovative and excellent at other locations. As the book is. related to what I do for work I can not say that it is the most interesting or rewarding, but perhaps useful would be something I could settle for.
One gem is the rant at the end of the book about avoiding selling snake oil and evangelizing technologies. Everything can be made to fit anywhere, but there are constant issues with applying technology and products. Under some conditions the issues can be smaller, while at other times the consequences can be severe. Enthusiasm is understandable, but enhancing the benefits easily leads to downplaying what is bad and the real world is complex. More complex than what a single tool can solve in every situation. Pity this is hidden away towards the very end where most readers will not even make it.
The experience of reading the book on the phone was not all that great. As you anyway tend to carry your phone around with you where you go also the book is near at hand. The figures, figure text and tables are difficult to make sense of. The experience is far of from the paper books I prefer, but I would not have carried the paper book around to read while waiting, neither would any other e-reader device been of any use.
The book is worth reading for information technology architects, developers and even designers. What do I know if even managers would benefit from some of the esoteric knowledge the book has to offer. For others, perhaps not a that great fit. And pick the PDF version, unless like me you wish to read it on the go.
Viv’s career with the renowned mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during …
Great adventure story
5 stars
I still do not normally read fantasy adventure stories but both of Baldree's books are very good, humane and cozy to read. I would highly recommend this book to everyone.
Still relevant classic text on artificial Intelligence
4 stars
The hype around artificial intelligence feels new, but the history of AI goes back to the middle of the 20 century. This book written and published in 1976 have lots of things to say about what AI can do, what the risks are and how we misinterpret what computers over all are capable of doing.
Although there has been a lot of development in the technology around AI the book is still worth reading, especially if you are fed up with the endless claims of beneficial AI futures.
When Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was first published in 1979, it …
Long read including drawing excersises
4 stars
Reading this book included more work than what I expected when I started. This book is not one that you just simply read cover to cover. There are a lot of exercises that readers will have to spend time on to get the full value of what the book has to offer.
The instruction in the book is clear and well written. The book claims that anybody can become better at drawing, and I would agree, as it seems to work for me. It explains how to learn to observe and see in a way that facilitates drawing.
A large part of the book is about finding the right state of mind, which is perhaps what I appreciated the most, as I could be described as more analytical than absorbed into artistry. I'm not sure how much this has actually to do with the human brain and its two halves, …
Reading this book included more work than what I expected when I started. This book is not one that you just simply read cover to cover. There are a lot of exercises that readers will have to spend time on to get the full value of what the book has to offer.
The instruction in the book is clear and well written. The book claims that anybody can become better at drawing, and I would agree, as it seems to work for me. It explains how to learn to observe and see in a way that facilitates drawing.
A large part of the book is about finding the right state of mind, which is perhaps what I appreciated the most, as I could be described as more analytical than absorbed into artistry. I'm not sure how much this has actually to do with the human brain and its two halves, but calling the differences Left / Right is as good a name as any, although the reality is probably more complicated. Left or L-mode is more analytical and the active thinking and preconceived ideas prevent observing and drawing objectively. Right or R-mode is more suitable for creating drawings as the analytical thoughts are suspended. Part of the book consists of exercises aimed to enable going into R-mode. There are also lots of more practical information about drawing related skills, mainly focused on drawing portraits. In addition there is a chapter on color and one about improving hand writing.
Although I have read the book I don't think I'm actually finished with it. As the author states as the closing words: "Draw every day".
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in drawing. The down side is that after reading this book you will not have as much time to read any more.
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; …
Different SciFi
5 stars
This short book is a non violent and non confrontational story that is dramatically different to normal science and fiction. The story is still captivating.
Not the easiest book to read, but makes complicated concepts possible to understand, after rereading the more difficult sections a couple of times.
The book require some concentration, so not something that I would recommend for everyone, but if you are sufficiently interested in knowing the mathematics behind our everyday physics I can recommend it.
This was a tough book to read on what I thought would be an interesting subject when I bought the book.
The book discuss subjects like paradoxes, mathematics and computation and their intersection with philosophy and outlines the borders where the known ends and uncertainty takes over.
As such it is a book I would recommend to anyone in science, as well as anyone in technology, especially in over hyped areas like artificial intelligence.
