If you've had a good Western style education, you've probably had a great inoculation to the usual insane myths that go around. For instance, you probably understand that vaccine have a positive ROI even for the individual. You probably know that it's viruses that cause the common cold, not physically getting cold. (In fact, staying indoors is much more likely cause you to catch the common cold than going outside to exercise)
What surprised me, however, when I checked out Medical Myths from the library was that despite all that, I still harbored a number of myths that Professor Novella managed to debunk. For instance, like most people, I thought that acupuncture was a uniquely Chinese tradition. It's not, and Dr. Novella provides a succinct and thorough history and evolution of acupuncture. In addition, I always thought that regular nasal irrigation was at worst harmless. It turns out that it's not harmless, and can in fact cause a sinus infection. However, nasal irrigation while you're infected with a cold and have congestion is a good idea.
Furthermore, the lectures contains lots of information about sham supplements, some of which aren't even conformant to the philosophies they espouse. For instance, Zircam happily advertises itself as a homeopathic medicine. It turns out that it contains zinc, which is well known to help with colds. However, that doesn't mean it's safe: it turns out that the amount of active ingredient in this "homeopathic" medicine is so high that it could potentially cause deafness in certain people. Ouch.
The series of lectures is filled with lots of information like this, and Professor Novella is an excellent lecturer, never boring. You'll learn about all sorts of myths (as well as bad TV depiction of medical phenomena), and wonder to yourself, "How can anyone believe that?" Then you'll get hit with a zinger like one of the factoids I described above. It's great humbie pie and very much worth reading.
This series of audio lectures has mixed reviews on Amazon, but mostly from people who have an axe to grind (i.e., anti-vaccination people, etc). If the quality of your work is to be judged by the kind of enemies you make, I'd say that Professor Novella has a lot to be proud of.
Highly recommended.
Wednesday, December 02, 2015
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
Review: Saga Volume 1
My call for comic book recommendations came up with but one response: Saga. So I picked up Saga Volume 1 at the library after a brief sample online demonstrated that I still preferred reading comics on paper.
A lot of the pros behind why you should read this book is covered by an io9 article. My response to that is that while the art is enjoyable, it's not really up to the standards that graced the better issues of Sandman or John Totleben's Miracleman.
My biggest beef about the book is that it seems as though written by new parents. Yes, we get it that you just got kids recently. But the writing seems to blow everything out of proportion, which I guess might be accepted for a pre-teen comics, but the book is clearly not for pre-teens.
The story is OK, but with none of the internal logic that made every big reveal in Fables an epiphany. The IO9 article compares the book to Star Wars. Unfortunately, if you're an adult, the Star Wars story isn't terribly fresh, and to be honest doesn't hold up. I'm now dreading the inevitable re-watch with my son as a result.
The verdict: it wasn't a waste of time, but I'm not rushing out to buy my own copies after returning this to the library. I probably would check out new volumes from the library as they come out, however.
Mildly recommended.
A lot of the pros behind why you should read this book is covered by an io9 article. My response to that is that while the art is enjoyable, it's not really up to the standards that graced the better issues of Sandman or John Totleben's Miracleman.
My biggest beef about the book is that it seems as though written by new parents. Yes, we get it that you just got kids recently. But the writing seems to blow everything out of proportion, which I guess might be accepted for a pre-teen comics, but the book is clearly not for pre-teens.
The story is OK, but with none of the internal logic that made every big reveal in Fables an epiphany. The IO9 article compares the book to Star Wars. Unfortunately, if you're an adult, the Star Wars story isn't terribly fresh, and to be honest doesn't hold up. I'm now dreading the inevitable re-watch with my son as a result.
The verdict: it wasn't a waste of time, but I'm not rushing out to buy my own copies after returning this to the library. I probably would check out new volumes from the library as they come out, however.
Mildly recommended.
Monday, November 30, 2015
First Impressions: Sensi UP500W WiFi Programmable Thermostat
I had a Hunter 44860 Thermostat that had been going strong for ages. While my wife repeatedly complained about the programming UI, the cheap skate solution was to just disable the programming and have my wife set the thermostat manually to a temperature that was acceptable to her. It didn't particularly waste much power, and I had to change the battery every year or so, but it was trouble-free.
Then I found a deal for the Sensi WiFi Thermostat on Amazon. While my ultra-geek friends went for the Nest, if you're even a little bit skeptical, you'll find on-line horror stories about the Nest failing in all sorts of potentially dangerous ways. In particular, the requirement for a C wire is such that if you live in an older house or have a system that doesn't provide the C wire, you could potentially burn down your house, because the system then draws power from the HVAC control wire. Yes, one of my geek friends rents, so he doesn't care if the house burns down, but at least another few do own their homes. Assuming you survive such an event, of course, Google (which now owns Nest) has such deep pockets that you could probably recover the cost of replacing the house, plus make a tidy profit.
Why does Nest do this? Rather than require the owner/user to occasionally replace AA batteries in the thermostat, Nest includes a rechargeable battery in the device. That device, however, charges itself by drawing upon a C wire (or in the absence of such, the HVAC control wires). You would think that the product managers would specify, for instance, that the device in such a case should shut down rather than potentially burn down a house, but remember, this is the same company that decided that it would rather prevent you from being able to receive e-mail than to separate your photo quota from your e-mail storage quota.
Anyway, after determining that the Sensi wouldn't potentially burn down my house (it includes AA batteries, and you do have to replace those batteries occasionally), I embarked on the installation project. To do this, you download the Sensi app from the app store, which then walks you through the procedure: remove the old face plate, label the wires, unscrew the old wires, uninstall the old backplates, install new backplates, wire the labelled wires into the appropriate screw slots, install the new face plate, and then visit the WiFi settings on your phone. All through the procedure, the app holds your hands, even offering you videos if you should be unsure. This is more reassuring than most manuals.
The device then sets up a WiFi network which you connect to from your cell phone. Once that happens, your smartphone app then programs the device's WiFi settings, gives your device a name, and then pairs your device so you can now can control the thermostat remotely. I checked the heating and the cooling, and then proceeded to list my Hunter for sale on Amazon. (If you live locally and want my old thermostat, just drop me a note) I could install the same app on multiple devices, and any one of them could control the thermostat.
The device isn't fancy. It has no proximity sensor and doesn't learn when you're in the house or your habits. But as my wife points out, the reason for the thermostat isn't to replace human control, but to let us turn off the device while we're away and forgot to do so. That, and not burn down the house without our help or the help of our 2 sons.
All in all, I'm pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to install, and that it was possible for a complete newb like me to do so. Even if you bought this at the regular Amazon price instead of the deal I got, it's still half the price of the Nest. It's not fancy, but that means that those AA batteries will last a good long time. And if those AAs run down when you're on vacation, rather than running up the power, the device will just shut down WiFi and run on your existing schedule, which is what you want.
Recommended.
Then I found a deal for the Sensi WiFi Thermostat on Amazon. While my ultra-geek friends went for the Nest, if you're even a little bit skeptical, you'll find on-line horror stories about the Nest failing in all sorts of potentially dangerous ways. In particular, the requirement for a C wire is such that if you live in an older house or have a system that doesn't provide the C wire, you could potentially burn down your house, because the system then draws power from the HVAC control wire. Yes, one of my geek friends rents, so he doesn't care if the house burns down, but at least another few do own their homes. Assuming you survive such an event, of course, Google (which now owns Nest) has such deep pockets that you could probably recover the cost of replacing the house, plus make a tidy profit.
Why does Nest do this? Rather than require the owner/user to occasionally replace AA batteries in the thermostat, Nest includes a rechargeable battery in the device. That device, however, charges itself by drawing upon a C wire (or in the absence of such, the HVAC control wires). You would think that the product managers would specify, for instance, that the device in such a case should shut down rather than potentially burn down a house, but remember, this is the same company that decided that it would rather prevent you from being able to receive e-mail than to separate your photo quota from your e-mail storage quota.
Anyway, after determining that the Sensi wouldn't potentially burn down my house (it includes AA batteries, and you do have to replace those batteries occasionally), I embarked on the installation project. To do this, you download the Sensi app from the app store, which then walks you through the procedure: remove the old face plate, label the wires, unscrew the old wires, uninstall the old backplates, install new backplates, wire the labelled wires into the appropriate screw slots, install the new face plate, and then visit the WiFi settings on your phone. All through the procedure, the app holds your hands, even offering you videos if you should be unsure. This is more reassuring than most manuals.
The device then sets up a WiFi network which you connect to from your cell phone. Once that happens, your smartphone app then programs the device's WiFi settings, gives your device a name, and then pairs your device so you can now can control the thermostat remotely. I checked the heating and the cooling, and then proceeded to list my Hunter for sale on Amazon. (If you live locally and want my old thermostat, just drop me a note) I could install the same app on multiple devices, and any one of them could control the thermostat.
The device isn't fancy. It has no proximity sensor and doesn't learn when you're in the house or your habits. But as my wife points out, the reason for the thermostat isn't to replace human control, but to let us turn off the device while we're away and forgot to do so. That, and not burn down the house without our help or the help of our 2 sons.
All in all, I'm pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to install, and that it was possible for a complete newb like me to do so. Even if you bought this at the regular Amazon price instead of the deal I got, it's still half the price of the Nest. It's not fancy, but that means that those AA batteries will last a good long time. And if those AAs run down when you're on vacation, rather than running up the power, the device will just shut down WiFi and run on your existing schedule, which is what you want.
Recommended.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Review: Little Big Planet 3 (PS 4)
I rarely review video games that I don't finish, but I was so close to finishing the main story in Little Big Planet 3 that I'll make an exception.
The biggest issue with the game on the PS4 has been the loading screens. While I also faced slow loading times on the PS Vita, and even the PS3, I've been reconditioned by the superb PS4 experiences so far to be unpleasantly surprised that every little sublevel on this title entered me into a loading screen. Not only are there a lot of loading screens, but they are ridiculously, unpleasantly long. Even in cases when you die during a level, you'll get a loading screen. If you die a lot, eventually the Hybrid SSD installed on my machine would cache it so that it's no longer unpleasant, but given that no other game seems to have loading screens, Little Big Planet 3 stands out in particularly poor fashion.
All this would be OK if the game play was great or a step up over prior versions of Little Big Planet. The introduction of 3 new characters, each of which have special game play features and puzzles are promising, but you use them far too little in the main game.
What broke the camel's back in this particular case was the final mission. You have to unlock 3 different levels. The problem is, there's no checkpointing whatsoever between the levels. So if you died in the middle of level 3, for instance, you'd be flipped back all the way to the beginning and you'd have to do everything all over again. This would be unpleasant if you're 9 years old and had plenty of time to play. For a busy parent, this is player-abuse, and caused me to ship the entire disk back to Amazon.
Between the loading screens and lack of respect for the player's time, this game gains an avoid rating. (Yes, I invented a new rating for games you should actively avoid)
The biggest issue with the game on the PS4 has been the loading screens. While I also faced slow loading times on the PS Vita, and even the PS3, I've been reconditioned by the superb PS4 experiences so far to be unpleasantly surprised that every little sublevel on this title entered me into a loading screen. Not only are there a lot of loading screens, but they are ridiculously, unpleasantly long. Even in cases when you die during a level, you'll get a loading screen. If you die a lot, eventually the Hybrid SSD installed on my machine would cache it so that it's no longer unpleasant, but given that no other game seems to have loading screens, Little Big Planet 3 stands out in particularly poor fashion.
All this would be OK if the game play was great or a step up over prior versions of Little Big Planet. The introduction of 3 new characters, each of which have special game play features and puzzles are promising, but you use them far too little in the main game.
What broke the camel's back in this particular case was the final mission. You have to unlock 3 different levels. The problem is, there's no checkpointing whatsoever between the levels. So if you died in the middle of level 3, for instance, you'd be flipped back all the way to the beginning and you'd have to do everything all over again. This would be unpleasant if you're 9 years old and had plenty of time to play. For a busy parent, this is player-abuse, and caused me to ship the entire disk back to Amazon.
Between the loading screens and lack of respect for the player's time, this game gains an avoid rating. (Yes, I invented a new rating for games you should actively avoid)
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Triplet Update
It's been a while since our last Triplet update. Since our late summer misunderstanding, Bowen and I have been riding to school nearly every day. Commuting is rarely a pleasure, with driving being misery during school hours, but cycling is much better.
It would be an understatement to say that riding to school with Bowen is a pleasure. To my surprise, I find myself looking forward to it, and am disappointed now in the fall, when it's starting to get too cold even for my little tough guy to ride. It's only a 3 mile commute (each way), but it rarely fails to put me in a good mood.
Upon reflection, I think I understand why. Years of commuting by bicycle has gotten me used to abuse, irresponsibility, and rudeness from motorists. I've had objects thrown at me, drivers cut me off (deliberately or otherwise), or even been hit by a motorist who claimed he couldn't see me. (His insurance paid up)
But cycling on the triplet with Bowen in tow is a different story. I've had car drivers pull up next to us and give him a thumbs up. I've had truck drivers stop and ask us where we got the bike. Cyclists all wave and shout at Bowen, "Look at that bike!" Today, we had a car pull up and drive slowly behind us. I'd been so conditioned by poor drivers that I assumed that he had no idea how to properly pass a cyclist, so I pulled over. When he drove past, I saw that he had his cell phone out and was taking a photo of us.
Even on my way home after dropping him off I had one of those giant tech company buses (the huge intimidating kind that draws unwanted attention from San Francisco residents) pull up next to me at a traffic light. The driver waved at me through the windshield and gave me two thumbs up.
I wonder when kids turn from cute to not-so-cute in the eyes of 3rd parties. I guess I'm going to get a first hand experience of that metamorphosis through the reactions I get from other road users, assuming that we keep up the habit of cycling to school. Occasionally, people tell me that some of my posts paint a rather dire picture of parenthood, but it's really a mixed bag. Along with all that crazy baggage you do get some daily pleasure. And if I ever have second thoughts about picking up a giant expensive bike just to move Bowen around to school, that daily pleasure makes those thoughts go away.
It would be an understatement to say that riding to school with Bowen is a pleasure. To my surprise, I find myself looking forward to it, and am disappointed now in the fall, when it's starting to get too cold even for my little tough guy to ride. It's only a 3 mile commute (each way), but it rarely fails to put me in a good mood.
Upon reflection, I think I understand why. Years of commuting by bicycle has gotten me used to abuse, irresponsibility, and rudeness from motorists. I've had objects thrown at me, drivers cut me off (deliberately or otherwise), or even been hit by a motorist who claimed he couldn't see me. (His insurance paid up)
But cycling on the triplet with Bowen in tow is a different story. I've had car drivers pull up next to us and give him a thumbs up. I've had truck drivers stop and ask us where we got the bike. Cyclists all wave and shout at Bowen, "Look at that bike!" Today, we had a car pull up and drive slowly behind us. I'd been so conditioned by poor drivers that I assumed that he had no idea how to properly pass a cyclist, so I pulled over. When he drove past, I saw that he had his cell phone out and was taking a photo of us.
Even on my way home after dropping him off I had one of those giant tech company buses (the huge intimidating kind that draws unwanted attention from San Francisco residents) pull up next to me at a traffic light. The driver waved at me through the windshield and gave me two thumbs up.
I wonder when kids turn from cute to not-so-cute in the eyes of 3rd parties. I guess I'm going to get a first hand experience of that metamorphosis through the reactions I get from other road users, assuming that we keep up the habit of cycling to school. Occasionally, people tell me that some of my posts paint a rather dire picture of parenthood, but it's really a mixed bag. Along with all that crazy baggage you do get some daily pleasure. And if I ever have second thoughts about picking up a giant expensive bike just to move Bowen around to school, that daily pleasure makes those thoughts go away.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Review: Mind Dimensions Books 0, 1, 2
I'm a sucker for deals, and when I saw Mind Dimensions 0, 1, 2 on sale for $0.99, I picked it up and gave it a shot. Indie books aren't always the best bet for good reading, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find the book not only readable, but quite fun.
The idea behind this book is that the protagonist, Darren, can freeze time. When he does so, he enters a "mind dimension", where he can move around, read, learn skills, etc. without either aging or otherwise impacting the world. The book begins when he meets someone else who can do the same things, and the plot unfolds from there, both revealing powers Darren himself didn't know he had, and two communities of similarly super-powered humans that seem to be at logger heads.
The universe is well thought out, and the authors do a great job of working through many of the implications of such powers. We even get a good look at the sociology and workings of their societies. In any such environments, it's very tempting for the authors to pile on other super-powered people or large numbers of factions in order to distract the reader or make the world look more complicated than it is, but the authors avoid the pitfalls.
The characters are a bit stereotyped (though since nearly all of them are Russian it at least feels different from the usual WASPish-background fantasy characters), but are at least functional. The action scenes are fun.
As an airplane novel, this is as great as it gets. Just don't expect more than that. Mildly recommended.
The idea behind this book is that the protagonist, Darren, can freeze time. When he does so, he enters a "mind dimension", where he can move around, read, learn skills, etc. without either aging or otherwise impacting the world. The book begins when he meets someone else who can do the same things, and the plot unfolds from there, both revealing powers Darren himself didn't know he had, and two communities of similarly super-powered humans that seem to be at logger heads.
The universe is well thought out, and the authors do a great job of working through many of the implications of such powers. We even get a good look at the sociology and workings of their societies. In any such environments, it's very tempting for the authors to pile on other super-powered people or large numbers of factions in order to distract the reader or make the world look more complicated than it is, but the authors avoid the pitfalls.
The characters are a bit stereotyped (though since nearly all of them are Russian it at least feels different from the usual WASPish-background fantasy characters), but are at least functional. The action scenes are fun.
As an airplane novel, this is as great as it gets. Just don't expect more than that. Mildly recommended.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Santa Cruz Factory Demo
It's been a while since I did any mountain biking, and while searching for a mountain bike rental place near Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz, I noticed that the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike company does factory demos! The price is quite reasonable: $20 per person, and you get to book the bike you'd like to ride, complete with SPD pedals if you ride SPDs, or supply your own pedals if you have other types.
We showed up at 10:30am: finding parking was a major challenge in the area, but we fortunately found something. The friendly mechanic had our bikes ready, and we raised our saddles to a comfortable position and then took off. When I picked the bikes off the menu on the company web-site, I expected that we'd demo the lowest end version of the bike. To my surprise, the demo bike was the highest end carbon fiber wonder-bike, with top end components, including a single-chainring, 32x10-42 drive-train. The bike weighed 20.8 pounds!
As a result, when I got to the bottom of the hill at Wilder Ranch, I started up the climb and could not bring myself to pause or stop, because it was way too much fun climbing with a bike that light that I did not want to stop. Once I got to the single track, I found out to my dismay that I had let it go too long between mountain biking trails: I freaked out at some of the drops which I would have never thought twice about doing in previous visits to the park. Fortunately, an hour later, I was once again riding those drops.
One of my objectives this time was to figure out whether or not I liked 29" wheels on a mountain bike. 29" wheels are effectively 700c rims with mountain bike sized tires. The theory is that with a larger wheel you get a better angle of attack on most trail obstacles, making it easier to climb. I was pleased to discover that the theory matched up with practice: it was indeed far easier to roll over obstacles than with 26" wheels.
Unfortunately, just as I was starting to have fun, I found a flat tire. This was my first experience with flat tires on a tubeless wheel, and it was an incredibly frustrating experience. I borrowed tire levers from other cyclists, but could not get the tire off, because the tire was sealed to the wheel using some sort of sealant. I resorted to pumping up the tire every 3 minutes to get down to the bottom, and then to the bike shop.
We returned the bikes to the factory, but had to run because we had to pick up Bowen from his school. I knew it was a successful day when my wife asked me how come I'd never taken her to Wilder Ranch State Park before!
Now I just have to get a mountain bike for myself and practice a lot before I do something similar again.
Tips:
As a result, when I got to the bottom of the hill at Wilder Ranch, I started up the climb and could not bring myself to pause or stop, because it was way too much fun climbing with a bike that light that I did not want to stop. Once I got to the single track, I found out to my dismay that I had let it go too long between mountain biking trails: I freaked out at some of the drops which I would have never thought twice about doing in previous visits to the park. Fortunately, an hour later, I was once again riding those drops.
One of my objectives this time was to figure out whether or not I liked 29" wheels on a mountain bike. 29" wheels are effectively 700c rims with mountain bike sized tires. The theory is that with a larger wheel you get a better angle of attack on most trail obstacles, making it easier to climb. I was pleased to discover that the theory matched up with practice: it was indeed far easier to roll over obstacles than with 26" wheels.
Unfortunately, just as I was starting to have fun, I found a flat tire. This was my first experience with flat tires on a tubeless wheel, and it was an incredibly frustrating experience. I borrowed tire levers from other cyclists, but could not get the tire off, because the tire was sealed to the wheel using some sort of sealant. I resorted to pumping up the tire every 3 minutes to get down to the bottom, and then to the bike shop.
We returned the bikes to the factory, but had to run because we had to pick up Bowen from his school. I knew it was a successful day when my wife asked me how come I'd never taken her to Wilder Ranch State Park before!
Now I just have to get a mountain bike for myself and practice a lot before I do something similar again.
Tips:
- The factory's usually booked up on weekends, so go on a weekday. You need to reserve the bikes before you show up.
- Bring your own pedals, or an SPD tension adjusting allen key. I found the factory pedals tough to get into and out of because they were set at too high: doubtless the person who rented the bike before me was much heavier.
- Bring your own pump! Despite the mechanics' statement that it would be difficult to flat on tubeless, I managed it (hey, if I can crack a titanium frame, I can break anything). If I hadn't brought my own pump I would have been walking back to the shop.
Needless to say, this experience is highly recommended and an amazing value.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Review: Hi-Float Balloon Treatment
When organizing a kid's birthday party, you pretty much need balloons. It costs about $24 to get a helium tank and a bunch of balloons. For $14, however, you can make those balloons last much longer. The trick here, is to buy a jug of Hi-Float.
Hi-Float is a plasticizer that you squirt into a balloon to create a layer of plastic which is much less permeable to helium than the latex of a balloon. The idea is that you'll squirt the plasticizer into balloon, massage the balloon a bit to spread it, then fill the balloon with helium, tie it off, and then you'll end up with balloons that'll last about as long as the mylar balloons you can buy for $1 each. Each 16oz container of Hi-Float will provide enough coating to use 2 of the standard tanks you can acquire at Target.
There are a few issues that you have to work through to use Hi-Float successfully:
Hi-Float is a plasticizer that you squirt into a balloon to create a layer of plastic which is much less permeable to helium than the latex of a balloon. The idea is that you'll squirt the plasticizer into balloon, massage the balloon a bit to spread it, then fill the balloon with helium, tie it off, and then you'll end up with balloons that'll last about as long as the mylar balloons you can buy for $1 each. Each 16oz container of Hi-Float will provide enough coating to use 2 of the standard tanks you can acquire at Target.
There are a few issues that you have to work through to use Hi-Float successfully:
- You have to stick the nozzle of the Hi-Float all the way into the balloon. Otherwise, the plasticizer might not coat the balloon evenly, and you'll get early deflation. This happened the first time I tried it.
- The plasticizer itself adds weight to the balloon. So while you might have gotten used to filling the balloon to a certain level before it'll float, you have to add more helium than before to do so. This caught me out the next couple of times.
- Because of this, the standard helium tank will fill fewer balloons than it would if you didn't have the plasticizer installed. However, those balloons will float for quite a bit longer.
- The plasticizer also has the effect of darkening the insider of the balloon. If the balloons used to be closer to being translucent, they will now become quite a bit more opaque. Test a few balloons first if color matters to you. (It didn't matter to me or the kids who liked balloons)
All in all, it's relatively cheap compared to the helium tanks, and if your kids keep asking for balloons every time the previous one deflates, this will make your intervals between helium tanks much longer. Recommended.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Review: Temple of Elemental Evil Board Game
Bowen's finally getting around to doing addition in school. Geek that I am, I decided that the best way of reinforcing that is to get him into D&D. I thought about ordering the Basic Set, but decided that that was way too abstract (despite the fun dice). The Temple of Elemental Evil board game, however, looked like it would be fun (and had lots of fiddly bits), and was a cooperative game, so we didn't have to worry about being competitive. And yes, I'm the kind of parent who looks at the suggested age (14+) and think that it's ridiculously silly, but it's probably set for an age where a kid can open the box with his brothers and read the rules and understand everything. I wasn't expecting Bowen to read the rules, just understand them.
The game does come with a ton of fiddly bits. There's a load of miniatures, multiple dungeon tiles that fit together like a puzzle piece, and a couple of rulebooks. There are also character cards, condition markers, hit point markers, and a set of character cards for each character. And of course, the trade-mark d20. We spent a happy hour punching out all the counters, sorting the cards, putting the minis into various zip-loc bags, and then proceeded to play the game wrong once before finally figuring it out.
The sequence of play is straight forward: you can move and then attack (or attack and then move), then draw a dungeon tile (if you've stepped onto a square to extend the dungeon) and/or an encounter card, activate monsters, and then pass it on to the next player. What's tricky about the game is that it makes a distinction between tiles and squares (the grid marked onto the dungeon tiles) and I failed to understand the difference at first because real D&D only counted squares and didn't have the concept of tiles.
That aside, Bowen found the game surprisingly fun. He immediately decided to play the Cleric, and I picked up the Rogue. The game has a lot of traps, but that was part of the fun. He loved rolling the d20, and then I'd help him add the modifier. (There's only one, and it's usually +5 or +6, but there are +4s, +2s, and various other combinations here and there) I had to frame his decisions for him, or he'd get lost, but he loved killing monsters and picking up a treasure card.
The game itself is actually quite hard. Encounter cards are very dangerous, so you have an incentive to keep exploring as much as possible so as to not necessarily have to draw encounter cards. (You have to draw an encounter card anyway if the tile you drew had a black arrow, and yes, Bowen had no problem understanding that rule) You can prevent encounter cards by spending experience (which you accumulate by killing monsters). You can spend treasure to level up (each character only has 2 levels)
The game thus scales itself with more players: each additional player means more encounter cards. In addition, if you play the game with its 13 scenarios as a campaign, the game self-adjusts in difficulty: the more successful you are, the more dangerous encounters and monsters get added to future scenarios. If you barely succeed, then less dangerous encounters get added, and you also get more treasure to spend to upgrade your characters and buy items. If you fail completely, you get to keep the treasure, but you also have to replay the scenario. I can see scenarios under which this gets you into a death spiral and then you'd have to replay the campaign and start over.
All in all, the game does a good job of simulating D&D, and teaching someone how to add. It does have a ton of fiddly bits, which meant that until Bowen was 4, there was no way playing this game wouldn't get all the minis destroyed in short order. I'd also worry about small children swallowing the d20, so I'm keeping the game strictly away from his younger brother for now. But it definitely seems like a great game for the rainy season. And hey, maybe one day that D&D Starter Set wouldn't seem like it would be too abstract for him.
Recommended.
The game does come with a ton of fiddly bits. There's a load of miniatures, multiple dungeon tiles that fit together like a puzzle piece, and a couple of rulebooks. There are also character cards, condition markers, hit point markers, and a set of character cards for each character. And of course, the trade-mark d20. We spent a happy hour punching out all the counters, sorting the cards, putting the minis into various zip-loc bags, and then proceeded to play the game wrong once before finally figuring it out.
The sequence of play is straight forward: you can move and then attack (or attack and then move), then draw a dungeon tile (if you've stepped onto a square to extend the dungeon) and/or an encounter card, activate monsters, and then pass it on to the next player. What's tricky about the game is that it makes a distinction between tiles and squares (the grid marked onto the dungeon tiles) and I failed to understand the difference at first because real D&D only counted squares and didn't have the concept of tiles.
That aside, Bowen found the game surprisingly fun. He immediately decided to play the Cleric, and I picked up the Rogue. The game has a lot of traps, but that was part of the fun. He loved rolling the d20, and then I'd help him add the modifier. (There's only one, and it's usually +5 or +6, but there are +4s, +2s, and various other combinations here and there) I had to frame his decisions for him, or he'd get lost, but he loved killing monsters and picking up a treasure card.
The game itself is actually quite hard. Encounter cards are very dangerous, so you have an incentive to keep exploring as much as possible so as to not necessarily have to draw encounter cards. (You have to draw an encounter card anyway if the tile you drew had a black arrow, and yes, Bowen had no problem understanding that rule) You can prevent encounter cards by spending experience (which you accumulate by killing monsters). You can spend treasure to level up (each character only has 2 levels)
The game thus scales itself with more players: each additional player means more encounter cards. In addition, if you play the game with its 13 scenarios as a campaign, the game self-adjusts in difficulty: the more successful you are, the more dangerous encounters and monsters get added to future scenarios. If you barely succeed, then less dangerous encounters get added, and you also get more treasure to spend to upgrade your characters and buy items. If you fail completely, you get to keep the treasure, but you also have to replay the scenario. I can see scenarios under which this gets you into a death spiral and then you'd have to replay the campaign and start over.
All in all, the game does a good job of simulating D&D, and teaching someone how to add. It does have a ton of fiddly bits, which meant that until Bowen was 4, there was no way playing this game wouldn't get all the minis destroyed in short order. I'd also worry about small children swallowing the d20, so I'm keeping the game strictly away from his younger brother for now. But it definitely seems like a great game for the rainy season. And hey, maybe one day that D&D Starter Set wouldn't seem like it would be too abstract for him.
Recommended.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Games of the Year 2015
2015 wasn't as good a year as 2014 for games. Part of that was because in 2014 I was catching up on years and years of backlog, which meant that I managed to get really good games to play. 2015 was more of a mixed bag, but nevertheless still had quite a number of highlights.
Not surprisingly, Sleeping Dogs was easily my game of the year for 2015. It's an old game, but on the PS4 it shines, and manages to break all the stereotypes of an Asian protagonist in a video game, while providing not a single moment of downtime. I've since tried a large number of open world games, and none of them are as well executed as this one. I'd look for more games from this developer.
A close second was Arkham Knight. The game was a victim of unrealistically high expectations, which resulted in lackluster reviews online, as well as a few own goals (due to excessive emphasis on the Batmobile, and of course, a famously blotched PC implementation), but taken as a whole, it's an impressively good game and highly playable. I was surprised by how I dropped practically every other game on the PS4 to play it.
The PS Vita is still a great platform, with many excellent games on it. I really enjoyed Little Big Planet, which was my platformer of the year. Surprisingly enough, another platformer, Murasaki Baby, is closed behind. While Little Big Planet undoubtedly has more replay value and higher production values, Murasaki Baby is one of those quirky games that could only have been executed by the Vita.
Finally, I still managed to use the PS3 for what I consider to be the best game of that genre, Heavy Rain. If you're a fan of Telltale games' episodic adventure stories, I think you owe it to yourself to check out Heavy Rain. It makes those games look like cheaply made children's toys, worlds where actions and decisions have no consequences, and with stories that aren't ambitious. I haven't been able to bring myself to even try any of Telltale's newer products, because I've been spoiled by a game on a platform that's 10 years old. If that doesn't make a strong statement, I don't know what does.
An honorable mention must be made for Monument Valley, the only Android Game I played to completion this year. On a platform marred by crappy puzzle games that never fail to be a complete waste of time, or micro-transaction driven revenue engines, or ad-driven infinite runners, Monument Valley stands out as a game that respects players' time, and a clear labor of love, rather than a money grab. I can't recommend it enough, especially since if you have a smart phone, you have access to this game, and it's an experience worth savoring.
Looking back at it, I'd say that if 2016 was as good as 2015 for games, I wouldn't have much to be disappointed about.
Not surprisingly, Sleeping Dogs was easily my game of the year for 2015. It's an old game, but on the PS4 it shines, and manages to break all the stereotypes of an Asian protagonist in a video game, while providing not a single moment of downtime. I've since tried a large number of open world games, and none of them are as well executed as this one. I'd look for more games from this developer.
A close second was Arkham Knight. The game was a victim of unrealistically high expectations, which resulted in lackluster reviews online, as well as a few own goals (due to excessive emphasis on the Batmobile, and of course, a famously blotched PC implementation), but taken as a whole, it's an impressively good game and highly playable. I was surprised by how I dropped practically every other game on the PS4 to play it.
The PS Vita is still a great platform, with many excellent games on it. I really enjoyed Little Big Planet, which was my platformer of the year. Surprisingly enough, another platformer, Murasaki Baby, is closed behind. While Little Big Planet undoubtedly has more replay value and higher production values, Murasaki Baby is one of those quirky games that could only have been executed by the Vita.
Finally, I still managed to use the PS3 for what I consider to be the best game of that genre, Heavy Rain. If you're a fan of Telltale games' episodic adventure stories, I think you owe it to yourself to check out Heavy Rain. It makes those games look like cheaply made children's toys, worlds where actions and decisions have no consequences, and with stories that aren't ambitious. I haven't been able to bring myself to even try any of Telltale's newer products, because I've been spoiled by a game on a platform that's 10 years old. If that doesn't make a strong statement, I don't know what does.
An honorable mention must be made for Monument Valley, the only Android Game I played to completion this year. On a platform marred by crappy puzzle games that never fail to be a complete waste of time, or micro-transaction driven revenue engines, or ad-driven infinite runners, Monument Valley stands out as a game that respects players' time, and a clear labor of love, rather than a money grab. I can't recommend it enough, especially since if you have a smart phone, you have access to this game, and it's an experience worth savoring.
Looking back at it, I'd say that if 2016 was as good as 2015 for games, I wouldn't have much to be disappointed about.
Monday, November 16, 2015
First Impressions, Motorola Moto G (3rd Generation)
Never plug your phone into an untested charger that's not made by the OEM. I learned the hard way when I plugged my phone into a newly bought charger (my wife bought it in an effort to get rid of the rat's nest of wires on the charging desk --- needless to say it's the most expensive charger she's ever bought --- lesson: keep your rats nest and stick with well-reviewed chargers). Well, my Xperia Z1's motherboard got fried, and I had to shop for a new phone in a hurry.
I liked the Xperia Z1, so my initial thought was to just simply purchase an Xperia Z3. Alas, the price I got from Amazon did turn out to be too good to be true. Upon receiving the phone, I checked it against Sony's website and discovered that the "new" phone I was sold only had 2 months of warranty left. In other words, some reseller had bought the phone from Sony or T-mobile, and was reselling it to me as "new." The full price of the phone ($550) was more than I could stomach, so I went looking for other choices.
My criteria were:
I liked the Xperia Z1, so my initial thought was to just simply purchase an Xperia Z3. Alas, the price I got from Amazon did turn out to be too good to be true. Upon receiving the phone, I checked it against Sony's website and discovered that the "new" phone I was sold only had 2 months of warranty left. In other words, some reseller had bought the phone from Sony or T-mobile, and was reselling it to me as "new." The full price of the phone ($550) was more than I could stomach, so I went looking for other choices.
My criteria were:
- Waterproof: having learned from the Xperia Z1 how useful a feature that was, I wasn't willing to give this up.
- MicroSD card storage. Sorry, I'm not paying $100 to get an extra 16GB of storage. That's for Apple users. (I paid $25 for a 64GB MicroSD card)
- 2GB of RAM, preferably 3.
- 5" screen. More than that, and it's too awkward to hold one-handed.
- Camera shutter button preferred.
- Cheap. Let's face it, phone processor performance hasn't improved in years
Not surprisingly, other than the Xperia Z series, there are only a few phones that offer the first feature:
- Sony M4 Aqua ($250)
- Motorola Moto G ($220)
- Samsung Galaxy S5 ($400)
The Samsung was too much to pay for, and I never liked the UI, so it came down to the Sony Aqua and the Moto G. I honestly did not expect the Moto G to be a contender, but since Lenovo acquired them from Google, Motorola has finally put microSD card storage even into its high end phones like the Moto X. Back when Google owned Motorola, it suffered from severe Apple envy and thought it could charge Apple-type prices for storage. The addition of waterproofing was a nice surprise. In fact, the higher-end phones in Motorola's line up all only have water-resistance, rather than being IP7 waterproof. I would have considered the shatter-proof Droid Turbo 2 if it had included water-proofing along with the 4 year anti-crack warranty. As it was, I figured I could get 3 Moto Gs for the price of one of those, and waterproofing trumps crack-proofing.
My experience with the Sony Z1 was that I was constantly getting applications killed. I'd play music and turn on navigation and music would die. I've also had the reverse happen. That made me wary of getting another Sony phone with just 2GB of RAM. (For whatever reason, this doesn't happen to my wife's Xperia Ultra Z, which at 6.5" in size is so big that it also has wonderful voice and data reception!)
Reviews consistently state that the Moto G has a better camera (surprising, since the Moto G's camera is a Sony sensor). The Sony M4 Aqua also has a faster processor, NFC, supports up to 128GB of microSD storage and is thinner. Both phones are 720p 5" displays, which is fine. What's interesting is that the Moto G did support my 64GB SD card, despite not being officially in the specs. I did have to reformat it with the phone, but after that it worked just great. It's unusual for companies to under promise and over-deliver, so I wonder what's going on there.
In practice, however, the Moto G actually appears faster than the M4 Aqua, even in the 1GB configuration! In the end, between the camera and improved performance, I went with the Moto G. Later research showed that the Snapdragon 615 used in the M4 Aqua has severe throttling issues due to overheating, so I unwittingly dodged a bullet.
Since I was buying in a hurry to replace a dead phone, I ordered the black version from Amazon rather than going through Moto Maker. It's also much easier to return something to Amazon than to Motorola, so that was a consideration.
The phone itself is fast, as fast as the Xperia Z1. Installing software, starting up software all felt faster than the Z1 (undoubtedly helped by not having to push as many pixels), while task switching was surprisingly quick with no latency experienced. The camera was about as fast as the Z1's, though obviously picture quality isn't anywhere close to the benchmark set by that camera. The twist to shoot gesture is a nice gimmick, and I thought it to be useless but to my surprise after a few days with the phone I could shoot with the camera while cycling! Video is surprisingly good:
By far the biggest issue with the phone is sluggish bluetooth pairing. In fact, for both my cars and the SBH52, I had to reboot the phone in order to do a pairing. Neither the Logitech X100 nor my vivoactive (which unfortunately needed a factory reset to unstick its pairing from the Z1) needed such a reboot. Once paired, the pairing sticks, so at least this is only a one time problem.
Sound quality is, not surprisingly, lacking compared to the Z1, but not so much so that I found it objectionable. Some have reported annoying cross-talk when plugging in headphones into the microphone jack. I was prepared to have to do without (most of my listening is via blue-tooth over the SBH52 anyway), but when I plugged in headphones it sounded just fine.
To my surprise, going from the Z1's 1080p screen down to the 720p screen didn't bother me at all. Of course, watching movies on the Z1 has always drained the battery so fast that I rarely did it, and in any case to save storage I'd always watched movies in 720p.
Motorola is well known for providing a near-stock Android experience with no additional UI tweaks. I didn't expect this to make a big difference to me, but it does and is a pleasant welcome after the Sony modifications to the OS. I also expect that this also contributed largely to the higher performance of the UI and software despite the supposedly slower processor.
After my experience with the Z1, which begged to be recharged nearly all the time, so much so that I put the phone into stamina mode full time, any change had to be better. The Moto G was disappointing at first, barely lasting 12 hours without a charge. But 2 charge cycles later the battery life improved dramatically, with me typically ending the day somewhere around 40-50% of battery life. On a heavy use day it'd drop to 15%. This is a huge improvement over the Xperia Z1, and makes use of say, the Garmin Livetrack feature much more feasible than before. With the Xperia Z1, even with stamina mode, I was unlikely to make it to the end of the day without a mid-day recharge. Lithium ion batteries will generally lose 20% of their capacity after 300 recharge cycles. If your battery is barely able to get you through the day, after a year, your battery will absolutely not get you through the day. And yes, this applies even if you're the type to keep it plugged in as often as possible. The relatively long battery life of the Moto G means that you can expect to get at least 2 years of use out of the phone before the non-replaceable battery starts to lose enough charge capacity to be annoying.
All in all, given the price of the phone and the features (waterproofing is huge for me), the performance of the phone is such that I will be happy to hang on to it for a good long time. I expect that if you manage to buy this phone during the inevitable black friday sales, you'll get it for a significant discount which will be an even better deal.
Recommended.
Sound quality is, not surprisingly, lacking compared to the Z1, but not so much so that I found it objectionable. Some have reported annoying cross-talk when plugging in headphones into the microphone jack. I was prepared to have to do without (most of my listening is via blue-tooth over the SBH52 anyway), but when I plugged in headphones it sounded just fine.
To my surprise, going from the Z1's 1080p screen down to the 720p screen didn't bother me at all. Of course, watching movies on the Z1 has always drained the battery so fast that I rarely did it, and in any case to save storage I'd always watched movies in 720p.
Motorola is well known for providing a near-stock Android experience with no additional UI tweaks. I didn't expect this to make a big difference to me, but it does and is a pleasant welcome after the Sony modifications to the OS. I also expect that this also contributed largely to the higher performance of the UI and software despite the supposedly slower processor.
After my experience with the Z1, which begged to be recharged nearly all the time, so much so that I put the phone into stamina mode full time, any change had to be better. The Moto G was disappointing at first, barely lasting 12 hours without a charge. But 2 charge cycles later the battery life improved dramatically, with me typically ending the day somewhere around 40-50% of battery life. On a heavy use day it'd drop to 15%. This is a huge improvement over the Xperia Z1, and makes use of say, the Garmin Livetrack feature much more feasible than before. With the Xperia Z1, even with stamina mode, I was unlikely to make it to the end of the day without a mid-day recharge. Lithium ion batteries will generally lose 20% of their capacity after 300 recharge cycles. If your battery is barely able to get you through the day, after a year, your battery will absolutely not get you through the day. And yes, this applies even if you're the type to keep it plugged in as often as possible. The relatively long battery life of the Moto G means that you can expect to get at least 2 years of use out of the phone before the non-replaceable battery starts to lose enough charge capacity to be annoying.
All in all, given the price of the phone and the features (waterproofing is huge for me), the performance of the phone is such that I will be happy to hang on to it for a good long time. I expect that if you manage to buy this phone during the inevitable black friday sales, you'll get it for a significant discount which will be an even better deal.
Recommended.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Books of the Year 2015
I read 65 books this year, which surprised me because I didn't think I was reading that many. As usual, the non-fiction books leave a much deeper impression on me than the fiction I read. This is perhaps not surprising: my favorite genre of fiction is still science fiction, and we're definitely living in a science fictional world.
My favorite book this year was Being Mortal. It's an important reminder that we're not invincible, and that sometimes, giving up the fight is not only not shameful, but the right thing to do. If you haven't read it, you should. A close second is A Spy Among Friends: it's far more exciting and fun than any number of spy novels or movies.
On the fiction side, I'm afraid that not much stands out. Easily the best book I read was The Stress of Her Regard, which is well over 20 years old! The Martian, however, comes a close second. Both those books will have you on the edge of your seat and wishing for more.
Unfortunately, I didn't find any great new comics this year. If you have any recommendations, please pass them by me.
My favorite book this year was Being Mortal. It's an important reminder that we're not invincible, and that sometimes, giving up the fight is not only not shameful, but the right thing to do. If you haven't read it, you should. A close second is A Spy Among Friends: it's far more exciting and fun than any number of spy novels or movies.
On the fiction side, I'm afraid that not much stands out. Easily the best book I read was The Stress of Her Regard, which is well over 20 years old! The Martian, however, comes a close second. Both those books will have you on the edge of your seat and wishing for more.
Unfortunately, I didn't find any great new comics this year. If you have any recommendations, please pass them by me.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Review: Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in SIlicon Valley and Route 128
Silicon Valley detractors are fond of saying that in this day of easy internet collaboration, video conferencing, and telepresence robots, Silicon Valley's comparative advantage in software and design is over, and it's only a matter of time before cheap housing and infrastructure elsewhere makes Silicon Valley obsolete or less attractive as a place to start companies or scale them. What's common amongst people who make such statements is that they've rarely had a substantial career in Silicon Valley (e.g.., working at 3 or more different firms at varying stage of development under different management teams), and more importantly, a lack of interest or knowledge in the history of Silicon Valley and Massachusetts's Route 128.
Regional Advantage is a book well designed to alleviate most such ignorance. It covers the history of both regions stemming from World War 2 defense department funding and procurement, the rise of Route 128, which originally was much more developed than the area near Stanford, and the ultimate fall of Route 128 and rise of Silicon Valley. In the process it debunks the usual myths surrounding Silicon Valley, land use, and how "expensive housing, land, and high taxes" is unlikely to ever derail Silicon Valley.
In particular, one advantage that the author notes is that Silicon Valley has always been geographically constrained: housing prices started going up as early as the 1970s, and people have always complained about unaffordable housing. The flip side of this has been density. Within the same 20 mile radius, you could switch jobs between multiple companies that are competing with each other for talent as well as product traction. Engineers back then were switching jobs at least every 2-3 years (sounds familiar to most Silicon Valley engineers). This high rate of job-switching is a disadvantage for employers (who even back then had to deal with bidding wars and a workforce that could walk out the door any time), but was also a benefit as it circulated ideas and shared social network contacts that made informality, contracts, and handshake deals the norm rather than slow, ponderous official methods.
What's just as interesting are the ways that Route 128 failed: not only was land cheaper, the geographical sprawl enabled companies to hold on to employees longer. Furthermore, it was harder to get startup funding, or for employees to even notice them and want to join them. The preponderance of defense contracts that were easier to get also isolated the region from market competition, which led to longer design cycles and vertical integration.
If the story behind the book was: "Silicon Valley went on an upward trajectory and never looked back", the book wouldn't have been as interesting and would have been over in a few pages. What I really liked about the book was the study of Silicon Valley in the 1980s, during which it lost the memory business to Japan and other areas, yet went on to regain the dynamic economy that it hadn't lost today. It turned out that during that period of scaling up, Silicon Valley ignored its advantages, and tried to go for Route 128-style vertical integration, keeping secrets from other competitors, and the like. The result wasn't good, but the story of how the valley recovered is also worth reading.
What the book doesn't cover, however, is the modern era of how this story continues in software. Unlike manufacturing, software doesn't have standardized components, but depends much more on process. Companies like Google and Apple are much more secretive than the manufacturing equivalents of the days described in the book, though obviously the flow of people moving between companies do continue to circulate ideas. It would also be interesting to explore the migration of startups from Silicon Valley into San Francisco. The book could use an update along these lines, but I also expect the research required to do so would be much more intensive and difficult to get access to.
All in all, this book is a great antidote for the usual Silicon Valley detractor story, while also providing good ideas for how a region could attain similar advantages for itself. Given how long the book's been out, however, I suspect that its lessons are much harder to apply than it seems. Nevertheless, given how quickly San Francisco grew as a startup hub, I wouldn't consider it impossible. It's just that the usual detractor cry of "lower taxes, cheaper housing, and more land" isn't going to do it at all.
Regional Advantage is a book well designed to alleviate most such ignorance. It covers the history of both regions stemming from World War 2 defense department funding and procurement, the rise of Route 128, which originally was much more developed than the area near Stanford, and the ultimate fall of Route 128 and rise of Silicon Valley. In the process it debunks the usual myths surrounding Silicon Valley, land use, and how "expensive housing, land, and high taxes" is unlikely to ever derail Silicon Valley.
In particular, one advantage that the author notes is that Silicon Valley has always been geographically constrained: housing prices started going up as early as the 1970s, and people have always complained about unaffordable housing. The flip side of this has been density. Within the same 20 mile radius, you could switch jobs between multiple companies that are competing with each other for talent as well as product traction. Engineers back then were switching jobs at least every 2-3 years (sounds familiar to most Silicon Valley engineers). This high rate of job-switching is a disadvantage for employers (who even back then had to deal with bidding wars and a workforce that could walk out the door any time), but was also a benefit as it circulated ideas and shared social network contacts that made informality, contracts, and handshake deals the norm rather than slow, ponderous official methods.
What's just as interesting are the ways that Route 128 failed: not only was land cheaper, the geographical sprawl enabled companies to hold on to employees longer. Furthermore, it was harder to get startup funding, or for employees to even notice them and want to join them. The preponderance of defense contracts that were easier to get also isolated the region from market competition, which led to longer design cycles and vertical integration.
If the story behind the book was: "Silicon Valley went on an upward trajectory and never looked back", the book wouldn't have been as interesting and would have been over in a few pages. What I really liked about the book was the study of Silicon Valley in the 1980s, during which it lost the memory business to Japan and other areas, yet went on to regain the dynamic economy that it hadn't lost today. It turned out that during that period of scaling up, Silicon Valley ignored its advantages, and tried to go for Route 128-style vertical integration, keeping secrets from other competitors, and the like. The result wasn't good, but the story of how the valley recovered is also worth reading.
What the book doesn't cover, however, is the modern era of how this story continues in software. Unlike manufacturing, software doesn't have standardized components, but depends much more on process. Companies like Google and Apple are much more secretive than the manufacturing equivalents of the days described in the book, though obviously the flow of people moving between companies do continue to circulate ideas. It would also be interesting to explore the migration of startups from Silicon Valley into San Francisco. The book could use an update along these lines, but I also expect the research required to do so would be much more intensive and difficult to get access to.
All in all, this book is a great antidote for the usual Silicon Valley detractor story, while also providing good ideas for how a region could attain similar advantages for itself. Given how long the book's been out, however, I suspect that its lessons are much harder to apply than it seems. Nevertheless, given how quickly San Francisco grew as a startup hub, I wouldn't consider it impossible. It's just that the usual detractor cry of "lower taxes, cheaper housing, and more land" isn't going to do it at all.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Review: Sigma Sport BC5.12 Bike Computer
I decided that it would be fun to stick a bike computer on Bowen's bike. GPS units are now so cheap you can get the Pyle Bike Computer for $60. I was seriously tempted to pick that up, but on second thought decided that I had enough devices to charge as it was, and a child's bike computer only exists for fun value (and so I can actually check on things like chain wear at appropriate service intervals), so the $15 Sigma Sport BC5.12 it is!
The device showed up, and being familiar with previous models, I wired it up and had the magnet ready to go. To my surprise, the wheel size on the manual didn't go all the way down to the 14" wheels on Bowen's bike, so I had to manually measure the circumference of the bike and convert to mm to enter the data. I was also surprised that the battery on the device was dead, but fortunately I have a stash of the CR2032 batteries sitting around, so I just popped a new one in (yes, I popped the old one in and out just in case the device had gone into "deep sleep", but nope, it was dead as a door nail) and the bike computer was in business. Sigma estimates the battery life of these things to be in the 1 year range, but in my experience, I've never worn out a battery before some other accidental damage took out the wiring of the device.
Bowen was excited to try it and immediately took it out for a ride. My first thoughts was that I'd made a horrible horrible mistake installing the bike computer on his bike. He paid so much attention to it that he almost hit a stationary car! My constant yelling at him eventually got through to him, however, and he stopped paying much attention to the bike computer after that. Now it's just a fun thing for him to look at when he stops, though on occasion, he'll decide he wants to see how fast he can get going and really let her rip so he can see the numbers go up. Fortunately, I can still run fast enough to keep up and grab him if he gets in trouble, and intervals are supposed to be good for you, right? (For what it's worth, his top speed's somewhere around 10mph, which is a full on sprint for me)
So, the device works, and seems reliable. But the wisdom of putting it on a 4 year old's bike is questionable. I wouldn't do it unless you're confident you can keep up with the kid. Fortunately, his recent crashes (not the fault of the computer) have made Bowen quite a bit more cautious when cycling than I expected.
Recommended. But yes, you need to roll a wisdom check before you put it on a kid's bike.
The device showed up, and being familiar with previous models, I wired it up and had the magnet ready to go. To my surprise, the wheel size on the manual didn't go all the way down to the 14" wheels on Bowen's bike, so I had to manually measure the circumference of the bike and convert to mm to enter the data. I was also surprised that the battery on the device was dead, but fortunately I have a stash of the CR2032 batteries sitting around, so I just popped a new one in (yes, I popped the old one in and out just in case the device had gone into "deep sleep", but nope, it was dead as a door nail) and the bike computer was in business. Sigma estimates the battery life of these things to be in the 1 year range, but in my experience, I've never worn out a battery before some other accidental damage took out the wiring of the device.
Bowen was excited to try it and immediately took it out for a ride. My first thoughts was that I'd made a horrible horrible mistake installing the bike computer on his bike. He paid so much attention to it that he almost hit a stationary car! My constant yelling at him eventually got through to him, however, and he stopped paying much attention to the bike computer after that. Now it's just a fun thing for him to look at when he stops, though on occasion, he'll decide he wants to see how fast he can get going and really let her rip so he can see the numbers go up. Fortunately, I can still run fast enough to keep up and grab him if he gets in trouble, and intervals are supposed to be good for you, right? (For what it's worth, his top speed's somewhere around 10mph, which is a full on sprint for me)
So, the device works, and seems reliable. But the wisdom of putting it on a 4 year old's bike is questionable. I wouldn't do it unless you're confident you can keep up with the kid. Fortunately, his recent crashes (not the fault of the computer) have made Bowen quite a bit more cautious when cycling than I expected.
Recommended. But yes, you need to roll a wisdom check before you put it on a kid's bike.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Review: The Second Ship
The Second Ship is the first book in The Rho Agenda trilogy. Given that it's in the Prime Lending Library, it was no effort for me to checkout the book and start reading.
Overall, the book reminds me of decent Saturday morning kids series cartoons. 3 teenagers while exploring find an alien ship, and while exploring the ship, discover super-powers and a nefarious government plot headed by an evil scientist. Along the way, they encounter super-villains, love interests, NSA agents (who are for a change not immediately bad guys), and of course, evil high school teachers.
The science, such as it exists in the book, is plausible, and not immediately insanely stupid, as long as you squint a bit and suspend your disbelief on account that this is basically a Saturday morning cartoon novel.
Fun, but I wouldn't pay money for the book. If you're already a prime member, just check it out from the prime lending library.
Overall, the book reminds me of decent Saturday morning kids series cartoons. 3 teenagers while exploring find an alien ship, and while exploring the ship, discover super-powers and a nefarious government plot headed by an evil scientist. Along the way, they encounter super-villains, love interests, NSA agents (who are for a change not immediately bad guys), and of course, evil high school teachers.
The science, such as it exists in the book, is plausible, and not immediately insanely stupid, as long as you squint a bit and suspend your disbelief on account that this is basically a Saturday morning cartoon novel.
Fun, but I wouldn't pay money for the book. If you're already a prime member, just check it out from the prime lending library.
Monday, November 09, 2015
Misunderstandings
A few funny misunderstandings between Bowen and I this summer.
At the end of the summer holidays, I was worried that Bowen wouldn't want to go back to school. (I needn't have worried, but the sight of kids crying in the school parking lot when I dropped him off during summer school put the fear into me) I told him the night before: "You can go the hard way, with me dragging you screaming and kicking into the car, or you can go the easy way." The next morning, he woke up, got himself ready, and said, "I'm ready to go to school the easy way --- on the bike!" He thought I was telling him that the car was the hard way and cycling to school was the easy way.
By the end of the summer, all the outdoor activities we'd been doing had me pretty tan. One day, Bowen said to me, "Daddy, why are you brown?" "Because of all the time I spent in the sun. I don't always wear sunscreen, either." "I want to be white!" I did a double-take. "I want to be white like mommy!" "Oh, you mean you want to be pale. OK, you can wear sunscreen and not spend too much time in the sun." For a minute I thought he didn't want to be Asian. Phew!
Friday, November 06, 2015
Review: Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies
After reading the magnificent A Spy Among Friends, I checked out Double Cross from the library, hoping for repeated success. I was disappointed.
This is not to say that it's not a good story. The problem is that it's not comparable in importance to the story behind Bletchley Park (referred to as "Most Secret" throughout the book). Essentially, the book describes the operation (known as Operation Fortitude) to fool Hitler and his command staff that the attack on Normandy on D-Day was a distraction for bigger invasions in Norway and to the South.
To feed fake intelligence into the German military, the M.I.5 created a bunch of double agents, and was so successful that it essentially controlled every German agent that the Nazis had sought to place in the country. So effective was this system that not only did the Germans fall for Operation Fortitude, they actively funded the double agents who were feeding them misinformation.
While all this was important, mid way through the book what you realize is that M.I.5 could not have even attempted a deception with this magnitude without the constant feedback provided by Bletchley Park. Essentially, M.I.5 could see the information it had fed into the system pass through the German chain of command, and map out how effective the deception was.
Furthermore, later on in the book we see that the reason for this incompetence wasn't that M.I.5 was all that great, it was because the Nazi intelligence service was filled with people who were lining their pockets and siphoning money from the German agents. In the end, you get a story full of the essentials of James Bond: seduction, gambling, lots of liquors, and even parachuting behind enemy lines. But none of it would have been possible without Bletchey Park.
It's a fun read, but ultimately I felt empty at the end of the book.
This is not to say that it's not a good story. The problem is that it's not comparable in importance to the story behind Bletchley Park (referred to as "Most Secret" throughout the book). Essentially, the book describes the operation (known as Operation Fortitude) to fool Hitler and his command staff that the attack on Normandy on D-Day was a distraction for bigger invasions in Norway and to the South.
To feed fake intelligence into the German military, the M.I.5 created a bunch of double agents, and was so successful that it essentially controlled every German agent that the Nazis had sought to place in the country. So effective was this system that not only did the Germans fall for Operation Fortitude, they actively funded the double agents who were feeding them misinformation.
While all this was important, mid way through the book what you realize is that M.I.5 could not have even attempted a deception with this magnitude without the constant feedback provided by Bletchley Park. Essentially, M.I.5 could see the information it had fed into the system pass through the German chain of command, and map out how effective the deception was.
Furthermore, later on in the book we see that the reason for this incompetence wasn't that M.I.5 was all that great, it was because the Nazi intelligence service was filled with people who were lining their pockets and siphoning money from the German agents. In the end, you get a story full of the essentials of James Bond: seduction, gambling, lots of liquors, and even parachuting behind enemy lines. But none of it would have been possible without Bletchey Park.
It's a fun read, but ultimately I felt empty at the end of the book.
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Review: Ex Machina
I don't usually review movies on this blog, but I'll make an exception for Ex Machina, a delightful science fiction movie about AI written and directed by Alex Garland.
Let's face it, most science fiction movies are summer block busters: the goal of the movie is to provide spectacle, and not move the viewer or engage the mind. Ex Machina, however, aims to do both, which places it in a special category indeed.
The story revolves around Caleb, who's a programmer for the world's most popular search engine. He wins a lottery to visit the founder of the company in his secluded home, which turns out to be a research facility where he (Nathan) is working on a strong AI. Caleb discovers that his true purpose is to determine if Nathan has succeeded in his creation. (The movie uses the phrase Turing test, but in reality, the way it's administered is completely wrong --- but I'll forgive this movie the technical error, since it's quite clear that both Nathan and Caleb understand what the real Turing test was, and why they're approaching it differently)
I won't go into the details of the plot: it's excellent, and well worth your time to watch the movie. There are just a couple of plot holes in the movie, but the story is told well enough, and the outcome unpredictable enough, that these plot holes only become apparent after you're done ruminating over the show and have thought about it enough. Most of the technical conversation and language, however, is correct and plausible.
The movie is slow: there aren't any action set pieces, just lots of people (and an AI) talking. The special effects are restrained and under-stated, and the outdoor scenes are shot in Norway, which renders it unfamiliar enough to me that it looked different from the usual North American shot movies. And if you're a busy parent, Ex Machina is great because it's a 108 minute story, not one of those 3 hour epics that make it impossible for you to watch in one sitting. That said, Ex Machina is rated R for violence and nudity.
I didn't hear a lot of hype about the movie (wikipedia says it was shot for $15M and made $36M in the box office). As such, you've probably not heard of it, but if you're a science fiction fan (or perhaps, if you've worked for the world's most popular search engine), give it a shot.
One note: The movie's available in SD or HD on Amazon Instant Video. I picked the HD version (which streams in 720p), but to be honest, there's very little in the movie that depends on HD. Unfortunately, most of my movie viewing in recent months has been in Blu Ray at optimal viewing distance, which meant that Amazon's 720p stream looked disturbingly like SD to me.
Let's face it, most science fiction movies are summer block busters: the goal of the movie is to provide spectacle, and not move the viewer or engage the mind. Ex Machina, however, aims to do both, which places it in a special category indeed.
The story revolves around Caleb, who's a programmer for the world's most popular search engine. He wins a lottery to visit the founder of the company in his secluded home, which turns out to be a research facility where he (Nathan) is working on a strong AI. Caleb discovers that his true purpose is to determine if Nathan has succeeded in his creation. (The movie uses the phrase Turing test, but in reality, the way it's administered is completely wrong --- but I'll forgive this movie the technical error, since it's quite clear that both Nathan and Caleb understand what the real Turing test was, and why they're approaching it differently)
I won't go into the details of the plot: it's excellent, and well worth your time to watch the movie. There are just a couple of plot holes in the movie, but the story is told well enough, and the outcome unpredictable enough, that these plot holes only become apparent after you're done ruminating over the show and have thought about it enough. Most of the technical conversation and language, however, is correct and plausible.
The movie is slow: there aren't any action set pieces, just lots of people (and an AI) talking. The special effects are restrained and under-stated, and the outdoor scenes are shot in Norway, which renders it unfamiliar enough to me that it looked different from the usual North American shot movies. And if you're a busy parent, Ex Machina is great because it's a 108 minute story, not one of those 3 hour epics that make it impossible for you to watch in one sitting. That said, Ex Machina is rated R for violence and nudity.
I didn't hear a lot of hype about the movie (wikipedia says it was shot for $15M and made $36M in the box office). As such, you've probably not heard of it, but if you're a science fiction fan (or perhaps, if you've worked for the world's most popular search engine), give it a shot.
One note: The movie's available in SD or HD on Amazon Instant Video. I picked the HD version (which streams in 720p), but to be honest, there's very little in the movie that depends on HD. Unfortunately, most of my movie viewing in recent months has been in Blu Ray at optimal viewing distance, which meant that Amazon's 720p stream looked disturbingly like SD to me.
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
Review: The Last Child in The Woods
I really wanted to like The Last Child in The Woods. I grew up in Singapore, in a city where door-to-door inspections have eliminated the Anopheles mosquito. Growing up, we hated visiting Malaysia, where mosquitoes were still prevalent and would make us itch. Our Malaysian cousins had all sorts of bite marks and nasty stuff on their legs, and we had no desire to become like them. My first camping experience as a kid was so unloved by me that I never considered camping again until I was in my twenties. I only became an outdoors person when recreational hiking and commuting cycling brought me into contact with so much natural beauty that I said to myself, "There must be more out there." Once I realized that as an adult I could plan my own trips around what I liked rather than being dictated to like a child, my enjoyment of the outdoors increased a million fold.
The Last Child in The Woods is about nature-deficit disorder. It's an entirely made up syndrome, and the author admits as much. After all, lots of children (especially those from Asia) grow up without any appreciable contact with nature (much like myself), but when given the opportunity as adults, do learn to enjoy the outdoors. The author cites many studies that demonstrate the calming effect of nature exposure to children with varying disorders (such as ADD), but then extrapolates that to include healthy, normal children. This is questionable and there's not a shred of evidence in the book to lead to that conclusion!
Then I ran across this passage:
This is a pity, as I agree with much of his complaints about American society and its approach to play and nature. For instance:
The reality, however, is that parents, if they truly cared about the issue, have a lot of control over what trips they take their kids on, and how they portray recreation with their children. For instance, I visited the Montebello OSP Backpack Camp expecting Bowen to be the youngest kid there. He was instead the oldest, with several 1-year olds who were ferried into the campground by dads on Mountain Bikes. I certainly do my best to take Bowen on trips where driving isn't the primary mode of transport as much as possible. There's tons of evidence that building aerobic capacity also improves intelligence and performance in school activities, so this sort of thing isn't even contradictory to being a tiger parent, if that's what you're after.
But Richard Louv chooses instead to wring his hands over declining membership in the Sierra Club, and the graying of hairs and reduction of outdoors activities in the Boy/Girl Scout organizations. The Sierra Club, especially the Loma Prieta Chapter here in Silicon Valley, is famous for fighting against Mountain Bike access to trails, so it's not a surprise that the later, more cycling-friendly generation of outdoors people no longer consider them a friend, but find other ways to express their environmentalism and love of the outdoors. And the less said about the Boy Scout organization's reputation, the better.
All in all, I'm very disappointed in the book. If you're an outdoorsy dad trying to convince your wife that all this hiking/camping/cycling/sailing is good for your kids, the evidence in this book is thin and unconvincing even to me, let alone your wife. If you're looking for help in advocating for more greenery in urban spaces, the book undermines its own credibility in enough places that I'd be leery of citing it if I were faced with determined opposition. I hope the outdoors advocacy literature has people who have more coherent arguments than Richard Louv. But in the end, maybe it doesn't matter: the last time Bowen took friends with him camping, they all became fans of camping, so he's not going to be the last child in the woods.
The Last Child in The Woods is about nature-deficit disorder. It's an entirely made up syndrome, and the author admits as much. After all, lots of children (especially those from Asia) grow up without any appreciable contact with nature (much like myself), but when given the opportunity as adults, do learn to enjoy the outdoors. The author cites many studies that demonstrate the calming effect of nature exposure to children with varying disorders (such as ADD), but then extrapolates that to include healthy, normal children. This is questionable and there's not a shred of evidence in the book to lead to that conclusion!
Then I ran across this passage:
One might argue that a computer, with its near-infinite coding possibilities, is history’s deepest box of loose parts. But binary code, made of two parts—1 and 0—has its limits. Nature, which excites all the senses, remains the richest source of loose parts. (Kindle Loc: 1261-63)I don't know if Richard Louv could have destroyed his credibility or demonstrated his ignorance more.
This is a pity, as I agree with much of his complaints about American society and its approach to play and nature. For instance:
Typical Americans spend 101 minutes in their car daily, five times the amount of time they spend exercising. They also take fewer vacation days and work harder than the Japanese or Europeans. (Kindle Loc 1705-6)I deplore the disappearance of see-saws from American playgrounds because of liability lawsuits. I definitely think that most American cities have little character and definitely aren't as livable as the European cities I've visited. I certainly agree with many of his prescriptions for building a more liveable, green, and environmentally friendly city, where kids get to build tree houses, and children falling out of those said tree houses and breaking body parts wouldn't cause multiple lawsuits and a media frenzy.
The reality, however, is that parents, if they truly cared about the issue, have a lot of control over what trips they take their kids on, and how they portray recreation with their children. For instance, I visited the Montebello OSP Backpack Camp expecting Bowen to be the youngest kid there. He was instead the oldest, with several 1-year olds who were ferried into the campground by dads on Mountain Bikes. I certainly do my best to take Bowen on trips where driving isn't the primary mode of transport as much as possible. There's tons of evidence that building aerobic capacity also improves intelligence and performance in school activities, so this sort of thing isn't even contradictory to being a tiger parent, if that's what you're after.
But Richard Louv chooses instead to wring his hands over declining membership in the Sierra Club, and the graying of hairs and reduction of outdoors activities in the Boy/Girl Scout organizations. The Sierra Club, especially the Loma Prieta Chapter here in Silicon Valley, is famous for fighting against Mountain Bike access to trails, so it's not a surprise that the later, more cycling-friendly generation of outdoors people no longer consider them a friend, but find other ways to express their environmentalism and love of the outdoors. And the less said about the Boy Scout organization's reputation, the better.
All in all, I'm very disappointed in the book. If you're an outdoorsy dad trying to convince your wife that all this hiking/camping/cycling/sailing is good for your kids, the evidence in this book is thin and unconvincing even to me, let alone your wife. If you're looking for help in advocating for more greenery in urban spaces, the book undermines its own credibility in enough places that I'd be leery of citing it if I were faced with determined opposition. I hope the outdoors advocacy literature has people who have more coherent arguments than Richard Louv. But in the end, maybe it doesn't matter: the last time Bowen took friends with him camping, they all became fans of camping, so he's not going to be the last child in the woods.
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
ANT+ vs BTLE
I had no idea that ANT+ vs BTLE was politically charged until I continually ran across people online who were "anything but Garmin", mostly because of BTLE support. Since I'd always been a Garmin user, I never even gave the issue much thought.
Garmin owns ANT+ by virtue of buying Dynastream Innovations, which organized the ANT+ Alliance. Apple, of course, has many engineers on the steering committee for BTLE. What this means is that even though Apple's hardware contains ANT+ compatible antennas, Apple will never support ANT+. (Interestingly enough most Sony phones actually support ANT+, since Sony doesn't care enough to disable the support) Similarly, even though many Garmin devices use an SOC that support BTLE, Garmin deliberately only enables bluetooth for phone connections.
In practice, what this means is that you're committed to ANT+ if:
Garmin owns ANT+ by virtue of buying Dynastream Innovations, which organized the ANT+ Alliance. Apple, of course, has many engineers on the steering committee for BTLE. What this means is that even though Apple's hardware contains ANT+ compatible antennas, Apple will never support ANT+. (Interestingly enough most Sony phones actually support ANT+, since Sony doesn't care enough to disable the support) Similarly, even though many Garmin devices use an SOC that support BTLE, Garmin deliberately only enables bluetooth for phone connections.
In practice, what this means is that you're committed to ANT+ if:
- You have sunk thousands of dollars into ANT+ power meters. (newer power meters will also presumably support BTLE)
- You have plenty of legacy ANT+ hardware that still works (e.g., old Garmin computers, watches, etc)
- There's an ANT+ sensor you care about that doesn't have a corresponding BTLE version. (e.g., the inertia-based speed/cadence sensor, which are miles better than the magnet-based versions)
- You have a need for a single transmitter going to multiple head-units, which is something that BTLE doesn't currently support. (BTLE currently only supports Star network topologies, so only one head unit per slave)
The last use case is actually a big deal for me, since I have a triplet/quad which will at some point have multiple head units connected to the wheel sensor.
In practice, I've found that unless you're a casual cyclist, the battery life of a smartphone is such that any serious bike ride would rule out using a phone as your primary head unit (not to mention the lack of water-proofing on the phones). The question is whether Garmin will continue to own the serious athlete market or whether the anything-but-garmin crowd will win.
Monday, November 02, 2015
Review: Year's Best SF 10
I checked out Year's Best SF 10 froom the library prior to a trip, but read it mostly because all the stories in it were new to me. The first three stories, Sergeant Chip, First Commandment and Burning Day were outstanding, but then to my dismay the rest of the collection started wandering into fantasy instead of science fiction (though James Stoddard's The Battle of York was delightful). Then Ken Liu's The Algorithms for Love (爱的算法) finally provided some good reading, and the last few stories by Robert Reed, Neal Asher, and Brenda Cooper rounded out the collection with some excellent reading.
The collection isn't a waste of time, but I found myself skimming through quite a few lackluster stories or stories out of genre. Worth checking out of the library before a flight, but not worth going out of your way to buy or find.
The collection isn't a waste of time, but I found myself skimming through quite a few lackluster stories or stories out of genre. Worth checking out of the library before a flight, but not worth going out of your way to buy or find.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Review: Lightroom 6
I actually upgraded to Lightroom 6 a while back, but waited until I did a couple of trips with large amounts of photography before writing a review to get a realistic view of what it does, and which features I turned out to use a lot, and which I thought I bought it for but didn't end up using.
I'd skipped Lightroom 5, mostly because it included zero features that I thought were useful to me. Lightroom 6, however, featured several features that I thought were potentially ground-breaking:
I'd skipped Lightroom 5, mostly because it included zero features that I thought were useful to me. Lightroom 6, however, featured several features that I thought were potentially ground-breaking:
- Photo-Merge: including merge to Panorama and merge to HDR. I hadn't been experimenting with HDR, but prior to Lightroom 6, I was using Microsoft ICE to stitch images. It got to the point where I used a pre-set to automatically export and merge using Microsoft ICE via the command-line. The benefit of Lightroom doing it all internally is that you end up with a RAW merged file, which means that you can use ND grad filters and other tools uniformly across the final image. This is huge! Suffice to say that I would have paid the upgrade price (albeit reduced because of an employee discount) just for this feature alone.
- Face recognition. I gave up tagging all my kids photos manually because it was too much work. It'd be nice for this to be fully automated.
- Performance. While my i7 920 is still faster than most machines out there (very impressive given its age --- but mostly an indictment of how laptops have taken over the world), I also have a high end GPU sitting in the machine that's just begging to be used. Lightroom 6 promised to make use of this otherwise idle silicon. More performance is always good!
So in practice, how did these features fare? Face recognition was an obvious bust. Turn it on, and let your machine chug for a day, and come back and discover it's still not done. The face-recognition software seems to be single-threaded, and doesn't make full use of the CPU or GPU.
GPU acceleration was also disappointing. First of all, it crashes a lot on the 7870. I finally found some article on the internet on how to configure the driver so Lightroom stopped crashing. However, I'm not sure I noticed any performance difference: I'm guessing my machine was already fast enough, and the acceleration didn't do much for the batch jobs I use (bulk-export, import of photos). Where I thought it might help a lot would be on my wife's Surface Pro, which didn't have quite enough CPU power so Lightroom was frequently laggy, but in practice, I didn't notice much difference there either.
Photo-Merge, however, paid for the upgrade all by itself. I found myself using it a lot, and even better, the UI is designed right. You select a few pictures and hit the Merge button. The machine chugs for a bit and delivers you a preview. If you like the preview, hit the "Merge" button, and the merge happens in the background, using spare cycles while you go on to do other editing tasks! This is pretty amazing. The resulting merged image was frequently too large for Facebook (not a surprise) and also taxed the Surface Pro to the limits when loaded into RAM. But that's what I want. The same image on my desktop took appreciably no extra time to load and was subject to all the manipulation I wanted.
There are other nits in the UI that have carried over from previous versions of Lightroom (for instance, when you shell out into Photoshop to do some editing, it creates a second copy of the picture but doesn't place it next to the original for easy selection/culling). But by and large, I'm happy with this upgrade. If you don't already use Lightroom, moreover, and you want to be a serious photographer, there's really no other tool out there that does what Lightroom does (believe me, I've looked). There's good reason why many photographers go to the trouble of building a machine just so Lightroom flies. It's too indispensable a part of a serious photographer's workflow to forgo. If you trouble yourself with any camera other than your smartphone, then you owe it yourself to spend a fraction of that camera's budget on software to get the most out of it. Recommended.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Review: A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
Truth is stranger and more interesting than fiction. Nowhere else is it more (and better) illustrated than in this book, A Spy Among Friends. While I've never been able to make it past the first couple of chapters of Le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I picked up this book and could not put it down until I finished it a day later. I abandoned all my other books, and even stopped playing Arkham Knight, which is as eminently playable (and addictive) a video game as I've encountered since Sleeping Dogs.
The book is about Kim Philby, probably the most successful spy of modern times. Infiltrating M.I.6 before World War 2, he became a well-regarded agent, and repeatedly promoted up the ranks until he became M.I.6's liaison with the CIA in Washington, and at one point was tipped to become the head of M.I.6! His contacts and betrayal of both secret services led to internal purges and damaged the trust between M.I.6, M.I.5, the CIA, and FBI, not to mention sending multiple agents into awaiting Russian Troops and counter-intelligence officers. While doing so, Philby managed to collect the OBE.
This all in itself would make an exciting story (though one you would have mostly read about in books such as Declare, or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). But Ben Macintyre places everything in context accurately, and is not afraid to draw conclusions and read between the lines of various memoirs, providing accurate quotes that back up his analysis.
We get a good understanding of how Philby was undetected for so long. Fundamentally, the old boys network worked in such a way that no one thought to consider someone who was so obviously English in upbringing and background could be a mole. At every point in Philby's indoctrination into the secret service, for instance, the only background checks were: "Do you know his family?"
Even worse, when evidence that Philby was a Soviet agent emerged (after two already-known spies defected without being apprehended by M.I.6 because of being tipped off by Philby), M.I.6's "young turks" (the group of agents with World War 2 experience who had been promoted into being section chiefs) closed ranks and defended Philby, with nobody slapping surveillance on him. Sure, Philby was ejected from the service for a time, but then later re-hired into Beirut by one of his old friends, Nicholas Elliott. In fact, when Philby was finally unmasked by evidence, Elliot volunteered to interrogate him, and deliberately left the door open so that Philby could escape to the Soviet Union. Macintyre suggests that this was deliberate, in order to avoid an embarrassing public trial in the UK demonstrating the incompetence of M.I.6 and discrediting the old boy's network, and reviewing the evidence that he provides, this does appear to be the case.
More than Philby's story, however, we get several little titbits here and there that loom larger than life. That scene in James Bond where James Bond arrives in a wet suit, strips it off and has a tuxedo underneath? That's real. (Ian Fleming did work for M.I.6 at some point) The high risks, high stakes missions? Those were a product of World War 2's influence on the Young Turks, where their successes made them feel like they could do no wrong, bypass controls and checks, and launch operations (many of which were exposed by Philby to the Russians) would backfire and fail repeatedly on larger and larger scales. Unlike Bond, however, these operations were never successful because the opponents knew what M.I.6 wanted to do and could prepare for their agents to arrive.
Reading this book makes you understand several things:
The book is about Kim Philby, probably the most successful spy of modern times. Infiltrating M.I.6 before World War 2, he became a well-regarded agent, and repeatedly promoted up the ranks until he became M.I.6's liaison with the CIA in Washington, and at one point was tipped to become the head of M.I.6! His contacts and betrayal of both secret services led to internal purges and damaged the trust between M.I.6, M.I.5, the CIA, and FBI, not to mention sending multiple agents into awaiting Russian Troops and counter-intelligence officers. While doing so, Philby managed to collect the OBE.
This all in itself would make an exciting story (though one you would have mostly read about in books such as Declare, or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). But Ben Macintyre places everything in context accurately, and is not afraid to draw conclusions and read between the lines of various memoirs, providing accurate quotes that back up his analysis.
We get a good understanding of how Philby was undetected for so long. Fundamentally, the old boys network worked in such a way that no one thought to consider someone who was so obviously English in upbringing and background could be a mole. At every point in Philby's indoctrination into the secret service, for instance, the only background checks were: "Do you know his family?"
Even worse, when evidence that Philby was a Soviet agent emerged (after two already-known spies defected without being apprehended by M.I.6 because of being tipped off by Philby), M.I.6's "young turks" (the group of agents with World War 2 experience who had been promoted into being section chiefs) closed ranks and defended Philby, with nobody slapping surveillance on him. Sure, Philby was ejected from the service for a time, but then later re-hired into Beirut by one of his old friends, Nicholas Elliott. In fact, when Philby was finally unmasked by evidence, Elliot volunteered to interrogate him, and deliberately left the door open so that Philby could escape to the Soviet Union. Macintyre suggests that this was deliberate, in order to avoid an embarrassing public trial in the UK demonstrating the incompetence of M.I.6 and discrediting the old boy's network, and reviewing the evidence that he provides, this does appear to be the case.
More than Philby's story, however, we get several little titbits here and there that loom larger than life. That scene in James Bond where James Bond arrives in a wet suit, strips it off and has a tuxedo underneath? That's real. (Ian Fleming did work for M.I.6 at some point) The high risks, high stakes missions? Those were a product of World War 2's influence on the Young Turks, where their successes made them feel like they could do no wrong, bypass controls and checks, and launch operations (many of which were exposed by Philby to the Russians) would backfire and fail repeatedly on larger and larger scales. Unlike Bond, however, these operations were never successful because the opponents knew what M.I.6 wanted to do and could prepare for their agents to arrive.
Reading this book makes you understand several things:
- The glamorous James Bond and spy novels (even Le Carre's), have done an excellent job of white washing how incompetent M.I.6 and the CIA actually are. Repeated operational failures did not alert them to the possibility that their internal security was compromised. Until I read this book, I had no idea how badly run the agencies were, and how at every level at every agency employees resisted the idea that someone as charming as Philby could have been a double agent.
- The old boys club approach to intelligence was a massive failure. Not only did it mean that people were recruited without extensive background checks, it also meant that once you were in, you had a clique of fellow agents who were so homogeneous that they would naturally blab to each other about everything, which effectively meant that even a single mole could do a huge amount of damage to the organization.
- Not having effective oversight of intelligence agencies mean that even when mistakes are made, the spies themselves will lie or dissemble or even resort to giving high level double agents to the enemy in order to protect themselves and their organization. People who lie for a living are unlikely to give up the habit just because they've been discovered to have been wrong. That makes spying and intelligent agencies suspect. In fact, at one point Macintyre quotes an intelligence officer making the assessment that all operations in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, were in fact in the negative: M.I.6's cadre could have all sat on their collective bottoms and they would have been more effective!
All in all, this was an excellent read and very much worth your time. It'll also save you a ton of time from not having to read (or watch an adaptation of) John Le Carre. So grab it and dig in.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Review: The Curve of Time
Scarlet told me to read The Curve of Time after finding out about our trip to Desolation Sound. My local library didn't have a copy, so I was forced to buy a used paperback from Amazon.
The author, Muriel Blanchet was left a widow in 1927 in Victoria on Vancouver Island. She had 5 children and a 25' motor launch with an oar-powered dinghy. With that in hand, she became one of the first authors to write about the area around Desolation Sound and the Sunshine Coast in that era.
Apparently, most of the writings was intended for women's magazines, so her style is very short on details. She tosses out names of places in the area, but there are no maps, no charts, no illustrations. There aren't any recommendations: "Here's when you go, here are the local quirks" are apparently not of interest to readers of those magazines of that time.
As a result, I got about mid-way through the book before realizing that she wasn't a fully competent boat handler. She dragged anchor multiple times, several times requiring moving the boat in the middle of the night. And these aren't high wind conditions we're talking about. One might think that the anchors of those days might not have been as good, but later on in the book you realize that can't be so since on days when she'd used the anchor successfully, it was quite capable of holding the boat in the storm. And of course, motor boats are way easier to anchor than sailboats.
Of course, questionable decisions always make for better stories than "clear sailing and good weather." But her questionable decisions come early and often. From going camping at 6000 feet armed with only a blanket, to abandoning her kids on a beach in bear country to go fishing (though maybe if I had 5 kids I might be tempted to do that since I could afford to lose one or two), or climbing up above Princess Louisa Inlet with her children only to have the path behind her crumble down into the water, it's a demonstration of how resilient human beings are: apparently all of her children survived!
It's interesting with the passage of time to see all the things we are aware of now that we weren't back then. She thought killer whales were dangerous (they're not). She thought nothing of her son's concussion after he fell off a balcony (we know that's dangerous today). All throughout the book is breezy, almost cavalier about exploration and travel: at no point was she pressed for time, and she could have waited out any storms in the area in sheltered conditions as long as they had enough food.
Ms. Blanchet was obviously very resourceful: she fixes her own engine, fishes for dinner, and in several places rows the dinghy to tow the boat or kedge the anchor. The times when she does something that doesn't make sense (such as leaving a sheltered anchorage in the middle of a storm for no reason) leaves me scratching my head.
I'm not sure I would have gained much from the book by reading it before my trip. The book's of interest to those who'd like to see what the place was like back in the old days, and as an example of "Free Range Parenting" it's definitely worth reading. But other than that, I find it hard to recommend it.
The author, Muriel Blanchet was left a widow in 1927 in Victoria on Vancouver Island. She had 5 children and a 25' motor launch with an oar-powered dinghy. With that in hand, she became one of the first authors to write about the area around Desolation Sound and the Sunshine Coast in that era.
Apparently, most of the writings was intended for women's magazines, so her style is very short on details. She tosses out names of places in the area, but there are no maps, no charts, no illustrations. There aren't any recommendations: "Here's when you go, here are the local quirks" are apparently not of interest to readers of those magazines of that time.
As a result, I got about mid-way through the book before realizing that she wasn't a fully competent boat handler. She dragged anchor multiple times, several times requiring moving the boat in the middle of the night. And these aren't high wind conditions we're talking about. One might think that the anchors of those days might not have been as good, but later on in the book you realize that can't be so since on days when she'd used the anchor successfully, it was quite capable of holding the boat in the storm. And of course, motor boats are way easier to anchor than sailboats.
Of course, questionable decisions always make for better stories than "clear sailing and good weather." But her questionable decisions come early and often. From going camping at 6000 feet armed with only a blanket, to abandoning her kids on a beach in bear country to go fishing (though maybe if I had 5 kids I might be tempted to do that since I could afford to lose one or two), or climbing up above Princess Louisa Inlet with her children only to have the path behind her crumble down into the water, it's a demonstration of how resilient human beings are: apparently all of her children survived!
It's interesting with the passage of time to see all the things we are aware of now that we weren't back then. She thought killer whales were dangerous (they're not). She thought nothing of her son's concussion after he fell off a balcony (we know that's dangerous today). All throughout the book is breezy, almost cavalier about exploration and travel: at no point was she pressed for time, and she could have waited out any storms in the area in sheltered conditions as long as they had enough food.
Ms. Blanchet was obviously very resourceful: she fixes her own engine, fishes for dinner, and in several places rows the dinghy to tow the boat or kedge the anchor. The times when she does something that doesn't make sense (such as leaving a sheltered anchorage in the middle of a storm for no reason) leaves me scratching my head.
I'm not sure I would have gained much from the book by reading it before my trip. The book's of interest to those who'd like to see what the place was like back in the old days, and as an example of "Free Range Parenting" it's definitely worth reading. But other than that, I find it hard to recommend it.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Review: Why Nations Fail
Why Nations Fail tries to ask and answer several questions:
- Why are certain nations rich or poor? Is it a matter of history?
- Why do some nations stay poor, no matter what the World Bank, or the number of Live Aid events occur?
- What are the ways nations that are previously poor can become rich?
Why Nations Fail espouses a theory as to how countries become wealthy and innovative. The idea is that such countries have inclusive/pluralistic political and economic institutions. Such institutions:
- enforce property rights
- make everyone equal under the law
- prevent seizing of properties by government or its agents
- prevent an elite minority from seizing institutions and operating the country or an economic resource for its own benefit and profit
- forces groups of special interests to compromise and jealously guard against the possibility of usurpation of the institutions
Countries that are poor have extractive instituions. These institutions effectively allow an elite to effectively seize all the gains from the economic output of everyone else in the country. Furthermore, the extractive institutions are self-perpetuating, meaning that if a coup or revolution replaced the elite with another set of people, the new elites would be tempted to maintain the extractive institutions rather than replacing those institutions of more inclusive ones.
Most of the book illustrates this by recounting various histories, which include detailed histories and explanations of:
- Why South American countries ended up with extractive instituions.
- Why North America and Australia, despite being English colonies, ended up with relatively pluralistic institutions (the native population of both areas were too sparse to enslave, and indentured servitude was not possible when you can just run away and join the natives)
- Why the southern (former-slave-owning) states in the USA caught up economically after the civil rights movement
- How Botswana became an exception in Africa: having inclusive political and economic institutions and therefore having a great standard of living compared to its neighbors
Do I find these illustrations convincing? Sort of. Certainly the story is compelling. What I dislike about the social sciences, however, is that even with an over-arching theory like this one, the authors don't really generate any predictions that determine whether or not their theory is right. For instance, one theme that the authors kept repeating is that China's current growth is under an extractive regime, and they draw (appropriately) the parallels between China's growth and Russia's growth in the 1950s and 60s. (Remember, back then, even Western economists thought that the Communist states could have higher growth than the capitalistic states)
Rather than predict when that growth would slow, and that it would slow because extractive instituitions foil innovation (when anything you build can be taken away from you at any time, why work so hard), they do not provide a time frame. They write in wishy-washy terms, saying that they might be right, but the Chinese could (for whatever reason) build more pluralistic institutions. This is very unsatisfying.
Furthermore, the authors don't provide any prescriptions worth speaking of. None of this: "If you do this, this and this, you can break out of the extractive institution cycle and put your country onto a path towards prosperity and inclusiveness." They do do a good job of pointing out why development aid doesn't work, and neither does the Washington consensus prescriptions: If you don't root out the structural problems in a country, no amount of tinkering with economic policy will work. Finally, I don't think they did a good job of covering any of the Southeast Asian Tigers: Taiwan, Singapore, etc. The book covers Japan and Brazil, but Singapore and Taiwan to my mind started with authoritarian/absolutist regimes but managed to transition into first world class economies. While it could be argued that Taiwan is now a full fledged democracy with pluralist institutions, Singapore probably would not qualify.
Nevertheless, despite the flaws, the book is very much worth reading. If you think about it, they're taking a deep approach to historical and economic analysis that nobody else is doing. Previous analysis of poor countries have always left me thinking: "These people in charge of poor countries aren't stupid: they know that markets work, and that if you eliminate corruption people will be better off. So why are they still poor?" It turns out the answer is: "The people in charge aren't stupid: they know that by keeping their population poor and ignorant they can extract the fruits of their populations' labor and live like a king, even if it's bad in the long run for the country." That sort of incentive-based thinking is much more effective and explains, for instance, why companies that get big also become inefficient (and also incidentally become less innovative in the long run). After all, the typical person in a large organization is always going to what's best for him, rather than what's best for the organization.
Recommended.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Review: Carbide Tipped Pens
I'll admit that when it comes to science fiction, I like the really hard stuff. Alastair Reynolds, David Brin, Arthur C. Clarke, etc. So when I saw that Carbide Tipped Pens billed itself as an anthology of hard science fiction, I checked it out of the library.
Now, what hard science fiction writers don't usually excel at are characters. But in a short story, you're just not going to miss it. The best story in the book, however, is Eric Choi's "She Just Looks That Way", which is an excellent psychology-based story.
The rest of the stories are milder, maybe with some traditional science fiction problem-solving stories. There are a surprising number of pessimistic stories, which is unusual for the genre.
There are several stinkers all tucked in right at the end of the book. "The Yoke of Inauspicious Stars" annoyed the heck out of me: if I wanted to read Romeo and Juliet, I'll read the real thing, not a science-fiction precis/pastiche thing. If you do get a copy of this book, stop reading at the story and pretend that the book ended there and you'll mostly be happy with it.
4 bad stories out of 17 is a pretty good track record for any short story collection, so I'll recommend this, especially if you're after light reading or frequently get interrupted while reading. The elephant in the room, however, is that Tor has chosen to price this collection at an insane price ($13.49 paperback, $14.99 kindle, and $21 hard cover). That made me glad I checked it out of the library. I would have felt cheated at full price.
Now, what hard science fiction writers don't usually excel at are characters. But in a short story, you're just not going to miss it. The best story in the book, however, is Eric Choi's "She Just Looks That Way", which is an excellent psychology-based story.
The rest of the stories are milder, maybe with some traditional science fiction problem-solving stories. There are a surprising number of pessimistic stories, which is unusual for the genre.
There are several stinkers all tucked in right at the end of the book. "The Yoke of Inauspicious Stars" annoyed the heck out of me: if I wanted to read Romeo and Juliet, I'll read the real thing, not a science-fiction precis/pastiche thing. If you do get a copy of this book, stop reading at the story and pretend that the book ended there and you'll mostly be happy with it.
4 bad stories out of 17 is a pretty good track record for any short story collection, so I'll recommend this, especially if you're after light reading or frequently get interrupted while reading. The elephant in the room, however, is that Tor has chosen to price this collection at an insane price ($13.49 paperback, $14.99 kindle, and $21 hard cover). That made me glad I checked it out of the library. I would have felt cheated at full price.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Review: Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman
I try my best not to re-read books. But somehow Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman made it into my kindle library (probably in an attempt to use up Amazon credits before they expired), and wow, what a great book.
What comes through with the book is how much fun Feynman had with his life, coupled with how much hard work he was willing to put in (starting from first principles) compared to other people in his life.
For instance, I love the story where before he went to Japan, he painstakingly learned Japanese, because that's what his department chair told him to do. Then he shows up there and discovers that nobody else learned Japanese, including the department chair! But because he had learned Japanese, he happily engaged in life there: negotiating a release from his Western-style hotel so that he could stay at a Ryokan, for instance. It's good fun, and it's great reading.
Another story from his book that resonated with me was when he got roped into being on a committee to evaluate California's Math textbooks. Well, nobody else on the committee bothered reading the books, but he did! So he ended up being the only person on the committee who could explain why certain books sucked and were wrong, and which books were at least not completely broken. I remember being on Google's intern conversion committee for an international office. Nathan York and I would end up being the only people on the committee digging into the source repository to see what the prospective employees were doing. In doing so we uncovered outrageous acts of intern abuse: interns assigned to demo projects (i.e., code that would have hard coded data in the program), interns assigned to pair program with each other so the mentor wouldn't actually supervise, teach, or actually do any work related to interns, etc. We were apparently the first people to actually try to verify that what intern supervisors said the interns were doing was actually the work that was done!
In any case, the degree of intellectual honesty and hard work that goes into what made Feynman the man he was comes through, despite the book's breezy tone and sense of humor that permeates the entire book. It's worth reading, and re-reading carefully. Highly recommended.
What comes through with the book is how much fun Feynman had with his life, coupled with how much hard work he was willing to put in (starting from first principles) compared to other people in his life.
For instance, I love the story where before he went to Japan, he painstakingly learned Japanese, because that's what his department chair told him to do. Then he shows up there and discovers that nobody else learned Japanese, including the department chair! But because he had learned Japanese, he happily engaged in life there: negotiating a release from his Western-style hotel so that he could stay at a Ryokan, for instance. It's good fun, and it's great reading.
Another story from his book that resonated with me was when he got roped into being on a committee to evaluate California's Math textbooks. Well, nobody else on the committee bothered reading the books, but he did! So he ended up being the only person on the committee who could explain why certain books sucked and were wrong, and which books were at least not completely broken. I remember being on Google's intern conversion committee for an international office. Nathan York and I would end up being the only people on the committee digging into the source repository to see what the prospective employees were doing. In doing so we uncovered outrageous acts of intern abuse: interns assigned to demo projects (i.e., code that would have hard coded data in the program), interns assigned to pair program with each other so the mentor wouldn't actually supervise, teach, or actually do any work related to interns, etc. We were apparently the first people to actually try to verify that what intern supervisors said the interns were doing was actually the work that was done!
In any case, the degree of intellectual honesty and hard work that goes into what made Feynman the man he was comes through, despite the book's breezy tone and sense of humor that permeates the entire book. It's worth reading, and re-reading carefully. Highly recommended.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
How parents become boring people
I noticed that families would tend to just do the same trips over and over again. For instance, when I spoke to Horizon Yacht Charters, they told me that most of their bookings worked this way: family charters a sailboat, does a perfect week or two in the BVI, get off the boat and then immediately book next year's trip.
Back then, I thought to myself, wow, I could never do that. I always want to see new places, do new things. Why would I do something that I've done over and over again?
Well, it's beginning to dawn on me that parents become boring people for good reason. Take for instance, my BVI trip last year. It was a challenging trip for many reasons: the boat's engines broke multiple times, and I had to dock on one engine multiple times. We got a line in the propeller, and had to deal with it for half a day. But it was never less than fun, and I was never stressed out. Why not? I knew the area. I knew where everything was in the Virgin Islands, and I was always convinced that we were safe, even when it got uncomfortable at times. Thanks to previous experience, I even knew which harbors had doctors, and where I could find that perfect little sandy cay where we could have an entire island all to ourselves for an entire morning.
Compare and contrast it with the Greece trip, or my recent British Columbia sailing trip. In Greece, I had to return the boat in 3-5' waves, in the dark, and with nearly everyone on the boat sea sick. In both cases, the problem was in not knowing the area well: if I'd had access to decent weather forecasts, I wouldn't have headed out to the Cyclades when we did, and if I'd had known what weather was like in the Desolation Sound, I wouldn't have bothered with a sailboat. Both of these places would have been serviceable destinations with prior experience and suitable equipment, but you wouldn't see me rushing to plan another Mediterranean sailing trip or another visit to Desolation Sound. Why? Both places have unpredictable weather. If I lived in Seattle or Vancouver, and I could just grab a boat and go when the weather was nice, I'd do it for Desolation Sound. But of course, during peak summer months, all the charter boats are booked up weeks if not months in advance, and during the rest of the year good luck getting weather clear enough to avoid winter storms.
The problem as well is that neither places feature the fantastic water clarity and amazing sailing facilities (consistent wind, great collection of mooring balls and anchorages, and amazing resorts) that the BVI provide. What about the rest of the Carribean? Having sailed in St. Vincent, St. Lucia and the Grenadines, I'd be enthusiastic for another visit to that area. The deterrents? Getting to those areas are really difficult, requiring a large number of transfers and ridiculously long flights. Until the vapor-ware St. Vincent International Airport opens (it's been delayed all the way from 2012 to 2015, and no one I know has any confidence that it will actually ever open this year or any other year), getting there with two pre-schoolers in tow wouldn't just exhaust bank accounts, it would exhaust the human limits of the parental units. Even after getting there, some of the sailing distances are long enough that you'd need to motor long distances or sail at night.
It's one thing to sign yourself up to a "death march", "death ride", or crazy wind conditions while trying to return a boat in nasty weather. Putting your 4 year old and your wife through those same conditions, however, feels like the next level of insanity, while putting your marriage at risk. You certainly don't want to be one of those people turning their kids (and wife) off away from the outdoor life because you didn't know how to make it comfortable for them. I largely succeeded in getting Bowen to enjoy camping (he cried and asked to go home first thing in the morning during his first camping trip), and I wouldn't want to undo any of that work!
Every time I try a different location for an adventurous vacation and trip, I feel like an idiot: here I am, lugging the entire family up there for the fabled 80F waters of Desolation Sound, only to arrive and discover that the 80F water is maybe an inch thick, and the place has weather inimical to actually sailing. This is not to say that we didn't have fun and it wasn't pretty, just that I felt stupid for trying something new when there are places on the planet that I know are superlative, where I'm so familiar with the area that I can do everything cheaply and cope with any situation with relative ease, and where I don't feel like an idiot.
So that's how parents become boring people. A few more times of getting punished for wanting to try something new, and I bet I'm going to end up like those people who get off the boat in Tortola and immediately book next year's vacation at exactly the same place, with exactly the same charter company, doing the exact same itinerary. It's not the end of the world, and it certainly beats the crap out of jumping to your death trying a new stunt that nobody else has done (at least he left his kids alive). But it does make one feel like a deathly boring person.
Back then, I thought to myself, wow, I could never do that. I always want to see new places, do new things. Why would I do something that I've done over and over again?
Well, it's beginning to dawn on me that parents become boring people for good reason. Take for instance, my BVI trip last year. It was a challenging trip for many reasons: the boat's engines broke multiple times, and I had to dock on one engine multiple times. We got a line in the propeller, and had to deal with it for half a day. But it was never less than fun, and I was never stressed out. Why not? I knew the area. I knew where everything was in the Virgin Islands, and I was always convinced that we were safe, even when it got uncomfortable at times. Thanks to previous experience, I even knew which harbors had doctors, and where I could find that perfect little sandy cay where we could have an entire island all to ourselves for an entire morning.
Compare and contrast it with the Greece trip, or my recent British Columbia sailing trip. In Greece, I had to return the boat in 3-5' waves, in the dark, and with nearly everyone on the boat sea sick. In both cases, the problem was in not knowing the area well: if I'd had access to decent weather forecasts, I wouldn't have headed out to the Cyclades when we did, and if I'd had known what weather was like in the Desolation Sound, I wouldn't have bothered with a sailboat. Both of these places would have been serviceable destinations with prior experience and suitable equipment, but you wouldn't see me rushing to plan another Mediterranean sailing trip or another visit to Desolation Sound. Why? Both places have unpredictable weather. If I lived in Seattle or Vancouver, and I could just grab a boat and go when the weather was nice, I'd do it for Desolation Sound. But of course, during peak summer months, all the charter boats are booked up weeks if not months in advance, and during the rest of the year good luck getting weather clear enough to avoid winter storms.
The problem as well is that neither places feature the fantastic water clarity and amazing sailing facilities (consistent wind, great collection of mooring balls and anchorages, and amazing resorts) that the BVI provide. What about the rest of the Carribean? Having sailed in St. Vincent, St. Lucia and the Grenadines, I'd be enthusiastic for another visit to that area. The deterrents? Getting to those areas are really difficult, requiring a large number of transfers and ridiculously long flights. Until the vapor-ware St. Vincent International Airport opens (it's been delayed all the way from 2012 to 2015, and no one I know has any confidence that it will actually ever open this year or any other year), getting there with two pre-schoolers in tow wouldn't just exhaust bank accounts, it would exhaust the human limits of the parental units. Even after getting there, some of the sailing distances are long enough that you'd need to motor long distances or sail at night.
It's one thing to sign yourself up to a "death march", "death ride", or crazy wind conditions while trying to return a boat in nasty weather. Putting your 4 year old and your wife through those same conditions, however, feels like the next level of insanity, while putting your marriage at risk. You certainly don't want to be one of those people turning their kids (and wife) off away from the outdoor life because you didn't know how to make it comfortable for them. I largely succeeded in getting Bowen to enjoy camping (he cried and asked to go home first thing in the morning during his first camping trip), and I wouldn't want to undo any of that work!
Every time I try a different location for an adventurous vacation and trip, I feel like an idiot: here I am, lugging the entire family up there for the fabled 80F waters of Desolation Sound, only to arrive and discover that the 80F water is maybe an inch thick, and the place has weather inimical to actually sailing. This is not to say that we didn't have fun and it wasn't pretty, just that I felt stupid for trying something new when there are places on the planet that I know are superlative, where I'm so familiar with the area that I can do everything cheaply and cope with any situation with relative ease, and where I don't feel like an idiot.
So that's how parents become boring people. A few more times of getting punished for wanting to try something new, and I bet I'm going to end up like those people who get off the boat in Tortola and immediately book next year's vacation at exactly the same place, with exactly the same charter company, doing the exact same itinerary. It's not the end of the world, and it certainly beats the crap out of jumping to your death trying a new stunt that nobody else has done (at least he left his kids alive). But it does make one feel like a deathly boring person.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Review: Writing Great Fiction
Every so often I get one of those Great Courses catalogs in the mail. The prices are usually tempting, but audiobooks aren't a great medium for me: I prefer reading (I can read many times faster than I can listen to someone talk). Finally, when a $6.95 deal came along for Writing Great Fiction, I decided that for the price I could give it a shot.
It took me close to 4 months to listen to the entire course, and I have to say that I'm impressed. I've long been the kind of person who understood a topic better by understanding the implementation, rather than being the kind of person who could understand the theory all by itself. For instance, I understood continuations better when I realized that it was simply allocating the activation record on the heap rather than on the stack.
Similarly, this course can be treated as a set of instructions for writing fiction, but I chose to treat it as a discourse on the implementation into fiction, which gives insight about how great fiction is constructed. For instance, I find "stream-of-consciousness" novels a complete bore and cannot bring myself to read more than a couple of pages of Ulysses or Mrs Dalloway, but James Hynes' analysis of the techniques behind those novels as well as why they're considered great made them completely comprehensible to me. (It also absolves any remaining need for me to read those books)
Similarly, he analyzes Anton Chekov's short stories, and uses examples from Alice Munro, J.R.R. Tolkein, Dashiell Hammett, Herman Melville, and James Ellroy to make various points about how to go about constructing a plot (and explains what the difference is between a character-driven story and a plot-driven story), writing dialogue, the use of first and third person narratives, and when to use narration versus painting a scene in detail. As with many college classes, he provides writing exercises at the end of each 30 minute lecture, in case you want to try your hand at some of the techniques he describes.
This is probably a great English literature class for those of you whose mind is like mine (i.e., prefers implementation over declaration/theory). I'm now even more sorry that my public University had so few spots in its creative writing courses that I was never able to snare one of the spots in those classes. While James Hynes might not be a great novelist (I never read any of his novels before starting this), he's a great instructor and quite capable of providing multiple examples for each techniques
The android Audible app (which I used to listen to all 12 hours of this course/audio book) is very well done. It remembers the state of your listening, and lets you resume precisely from where you left off at any point. I listened to this course on my android phone while hiking or doing other activities. It made a nice change from listening to music or NPR broadcasts.
Highly recommended, even for those of us who may never write a novel. This gives me more confidence to pick up one of those "Great Courses" at a good price the next time I find a deal.
It took me close to 4 months to listen to the entire course, and I have to say that I'm impressed. I've long been the kind of person who understood a topic better by understanding the implementation, rather than being the kind of person who could understand the theory all by itself. For instance, I understood continuations better when I realized that it was simply allocating the activation record on the heap rather than on the stack.
Similarly, this course can be treated as a set of instructions for writing fiction, but I chose to treat it as a discourse on the implementation into fiction, which gives insight about how great fiction is constructed. For instance, I find "stream-of-consciousness" novels a complete bore and cannot bring myself to read more than a couple of pages of Ulysses or Mrs Dalloway, but James Hynes' analysis of the techniques behind those novels as well as why they're considered great made them completely comprehensible to me. (It also absolves any remaining need for me to read those books)
Similarly, he analyzes Anton Chekov's short stories, and uses examples from Alice Munro, J.R.R. Tolkein, Dashiell Hammett, Herman Melville, and James Ellroy to make various points about how to go about constructing a plot (and explains what the difference is between a character-driven story and a plot-driven story), writing dialogue, the use of first and third person narratives, and when to use narration versus painting a scene in detail. As with many college classes, he provides writing exercises at the end of each 30 minute lecture, in case you want to try your hand at some of the techniques he describes.
This is probably a great English literature class for those of you whose mind is like mine (i.e., prefers implementation over declaration/theory). I'm now even more sorry that my public University had so few spots in its creative writing courses that I was never able to snare one of the spots in those classes. While James Hynes might not be a great novelist (I never read any of his novels before starting this), he's a great instructor and quite capable of providing multiple examples for each techniques
The android Audible app (which I used to listen to all 12 hours of this course/audio book) is very well done. It remembers the state of your listening, and lets you resume precisely from where you left off at any point. I listened to this course on my android phone while hiking or doing other activities. It made a nice change from listening to music or NPR broadcasts.
Highly recommended, even for those of us who may never write a novel. This gives me more confidence to pick up one of those "Great Courses" at a good price the next time I find a deal.
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