Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Review: Revenger

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Revenger is Aliastair Reynold's novel about space pirates in a far future setting. Told from the point of view of a highly educated you...
Monday, June 19, 2017

Review: The Populist Explosion

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The Populist Explosion is a political overview of recent political movements that have swept both the USA and Europe as a result of the gre...
Friday, June 16, 2017

Building a custom desktop

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In recent years, performance on consumer desktop processors have pretty much stagnated, so I felt comfortable sticking with my 2009 HP m9600...
Thursday, June 15, 2017

Review: Rise of the Rocket Girls

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Once upon a time, computers didn't refer to machines running programs, but to people who did the computation work that were eventually r...
Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Review: Planet Hulk

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Amazon was having a comic book sale, and Planet Hulk came up as an Amazon recommendation. I was about to be taken in, but fortunately, I...
Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Review: How Great Science Fiction Works

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How Great Science Fiction Works is a survey course for science fiction, easily my favorite fiction genre. I audited this course hoping to f...
Monday, June 12, 2017

Reread: House of Suns

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I don't normally re-read novels, but my recent read of Beyond the Aquila Rift 's Thousandth Night made me go back and start reading ...
Friday, June 09, 2017

Review: Ortlieb Compact Handlebar Bag

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My 15 year old REI nylon handlebar bag finally gave up the ghost. My first instinct was to just buy another one, but REI in its infinite wis...
Thursday, June 08, 2017

Review: As You Wish - Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

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I don't expect actors to be great writers, but Cary Elwes (the man in black in The Princess Bride ) collaborated with a ghost writer (Jo...
Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Weight loss is the easy part

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In the spring of 2014, I met with my doctor for a regular physical. My doctor's always been really supportive, but sometimes I think he...
Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Review: The Wall of Storms

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I somewhat enjoyed Ken Liu's debut novel, The Grace of Kings , but not enough to even keep track when the second novel in the series ( T...
Monday, June 05, 2017

Review: Beyond the Aquila Rift

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I'm a huge fan of Alastair Reynolds, having read most of his short story collections and his novels. Beyond the Aquila Rift is a collec...
Friday, June 02, 2017

Review: Secrets of Sleep Science

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Secrets of Sleep Science has a misleading title. None of the "secrets" in the lecture series are secrets. They've pretty much...
Thursday, June 01, 2017

Review: The Flash Season 1

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Modern TV series have state: in other words, you're expected to watch them from beginning to end in sequence (and that's a good thin...
Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Review: The Art of Critical Decision Making

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I approached the art of critical decision making with skepticism, not expecting it to provide great insights. It turned out to be excellent...
Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Review: Moto Hint+ Bluetooth Headset

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I've been pretty happy with my LG Tone headset for the past year or so, but there's one use case where they really don't cut it...
Friday, May 26, 2017

Review: Radical Candor

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Radical Candor is an ex-Googler's book about management. Kim Scott was the manager for Adsense's sales team, and grew the team for ...
Thursday, May 25, 2017

Review: Becoming a Great Essayist

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I started listening to this expecting a lecture series on how to write a great essay. It turns out to be a survey course on great essayists,...
Wednesday, May 24, 2017

First Impressions: Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

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I've been very happy, and continue to be very happy with my Garmin Edge 800. For a complete set of features it's unparalleled, and i...
Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Review: Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tire with Smart Guard

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I don't usually review tires unless I've ridden them down to the tire carcass. But in the case of the Marathon Plus tire, I'll ...