Daily Thoughts 7/7/2011

 Photograph of Robert Louis Stevenson with King Kalakaua in his boathouse, February 3, 1889

Daily Thoughts 7/7/2011

Last night, I finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Kline.  It is an immensely enjoyable novel especially if you like games and geeky things.  This morning, I started reading an advanced reading copy of Child Wonder by Roy Jacobsen.  It is a novel told from a child's perspective on the adult world.  The novel is a Norwegian novel.  The english translation will be released in October of 2011.  I tried to start reading Rule 334 by Charles Stross, but found some elements of the novel to be distasteful and a bit kinky.

This morning, I checked the Twitter account, checked the reference email, and went and got some snacks for the book chat this afternoon, and checked the displays.

The book chat went well.  It is part of the Adult Sumer Reading program. We did a round robin where people discussed the different books that they were reading during the summer.  Three books that were especially intereseting to me were Bloodlands Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder, another was Curation Nation How To Win In A World Where Consumers are Creators by Steven Rosenbaum, and a third was Bronx Primitive by Kate Simon.

The book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn came in for me to read.  I am enjoying reading Child Wonder by Roy Jacobsen.  Childhood is different enough in Oslo, Norway to make things have that slight otherness which can be captivating as compared to the United States.  The story is quite sad.

Web Bits

This is the meeting of the Writers Networking Workshop at ACBAW, on the fourth Thursday of each month.  They are also meeeting on the third Thursday of each month at the Mount Vernon Public Library.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mount-Vernon-Writers-Network/232786433413622?sk=wall#!/photo.php?fbid=233075180051414&set=a.233075173384748.82549.232786433413622&type=1&theater

Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Goes Digital, Searchable and Free
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/genreville/?p=1337

Daily Thoughts 7/6/2011

English: A Love Story, painting, oil on canvas, 101.8 x 152.7 cm, by E. Phillips Fox,
1903

Daily Thoughts 7/6/2011

This morning, I read some more of Ernest Cline, Ready Player One.  The book is going to be released in August.  It has a wonderful mix of 1980s cliches and pop culture; everything from Gary Gygax to Duran Duran is mixed in a very ironic manner.  I also read a little more of On Strategy.  The article I am reading now is titled, Reinventing Your Business Model by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagerman.  The first model they discuss is when Apple computers business model for the Ipod.

Today was another quiet steady day.  I checked the displays, updated the Twitter account, and designed the flyer for the End of Summer Reading Tea for the Adult Summer Reading Program.  I also put together a display for the Novel Destinations theme from the Adult Summer Reading package.  I picked out some novels by international authors like Guntner Grass, Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, Chinua Achebe, V.S. Naipaul, and others.

Daily Thoughts 7/5/2011

Caricature of George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (1834-1896). Caption read "Trilby".

Daily Thoughts 7/5/2011

Today has been another quiet day.  I read some more of On Strategy on the train to work.  I also checked the displays, updated the Twitter account, and checked the book displays.

I also spent some time looking through Forecast from Baker and Taylor to look for new titles which we should purchase.  The book Rule 34 by Charles Stross came in for me to read.  I always have more to read than I can possibly read.

I started writing the bimonthly report today which is due on July 7.  Things are very quiet.

We have our first Beginning Computer Class tonight in the computer lab.  The instructor came by at one o'clock to check the lab to make sure everything was working.

I read some more of On Strategy on the way home.  I finished the chapter called Building Your Company's Vision by James C. Collins and Jerry L. Porras.  I rather liked the section in this chapter on BHAG's Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  I also started reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  A major theme in this book is how the world of bits represented by computers and entertainment is becoming increasingly more palatable than the world of atoms represented by overpopulated, messy cities. The concept of bits versus atoms is often talked about in terms of the digital economy.

Web Bits

The Rising Cost of At Home Tech
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/the-rising-cost-of-at-home-tech/241210/

I thought this was some interesting commentary on the cost of digital devices.  They are not cheap and they do increase the divide between those who have them and those who don't.

Blogger and Picasa are Going to Be Rebranded by Google
http://mashable.com/2011/07/05/google-blogger-picasa-rebranding/

Daily Thoughts 7/4/2011

Aristotle depicted by Raphael, holding his Ethics: detail from the Vatican fresco The School of Athens, 1510 – 1511


Daily Thoughts 7/4/2011


I relaxed yesterday.  Today I finished reading How Hippies Saved Physics. It was an enjoyable, but odd book. The last few chapters I read were about experiments in quantum physics and faster than light communication as well as a bit on quantum cryptography which supposedly makes messages undecipherable without special codes.  There is an end chapter about how counterculture affects science.  David Kaiser reminds us that the computer revolution was at least partially fueled by the Whole Earth Catalog.


I started reading the second article in On Strategy.  It is The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, another article by Michael Porter who write extensively on competitition.


I spent quite a bit of time reading this weekend.


Web Bits


Publishers and the Internet A Changing Role
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/30/publishers-internet-changing-role


Radical Changes: As We Reinvent Ourselves, are We Losing Our Leaders? by Margaret Tice
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/891010-312/radical_change_as_public_libraries.html.csp

Daily Thoughts 7/2/2011

Gary Zukav author of The Dancing Wu Li Masters, An Overview of the New Physics, Taken 24 December 2009 by Christopher Briscoe

Daily Thoughts 7/2/2011

I have been reading more of How The Hippies Saved Physics.  The book cites many popular science titles like The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav, and The Tao of Physics by Fritzjof Capra.  Popular physics titles often popularize ideas that are on the fringes of science.

In a more modern sense Michio Kaku writes popular science books which include many new ideas from science. Also Stephen Hawking writes some excellent popular science titles.  These kind of titles bring new ideas to the majority often without the filter of the scientific community.

I enjoy reading these kinds of titles.  There many references to books that I would like to read in How the Hippies Saved Physics.  For example, I placed the book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn on hold.

I read a little bit from the book On Strategy. The first article from the Harvard Business Review is What Is Strategy by Michael Porter who has written extensively on the concept of competitive intelligence.

Web Bits

Council, Bloomberg Keep New York City Library Funding Nearly Flat
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/891175-264/council_bloomberg_keep_new_york.html.csp

Cory Doctorow-- No Endorsement --An article on 3D printed objects. 
http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2011/07/cory-doctorow-no-endorsement/

This points the way to some very interesting ideas.  I can see the book changing to include print on demand objects like metal bookmarks, clasps for hardcovers, and other book related objects.