Simon Fell > Its just code > Books

Haven't been all that inspired to write code recently, so I've been catching up on a book backlog, and contrary to what some people think, i do read more than just science fiction, here's some recent favorites.

I found the story of LTCM fascinating, and particularly relevant given the on-going credit crunch, and the announcement of the Fed organized SIV bailout.

I have a massive reading backlog, I got a pile of books at christmas, then proceeded to buy another big bag of books while at Powells. I finished reading Accelerando by Charles Stross this week, I really liked it, a fast paced cyberpunk page turner, I couldn't put it down, I read Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise last year and like those too, but I think Accelerando is better than both of those.

Congrats to the Ritual crew on being on the cover of Barista Magazine

I just finished reading Market Forces, if you like the previous Richard Morgan books, then I think you'll like this one too, the violence seems a little much written down, but is probably no more violent than the average Hollywood action flick (feel free to take this a good or bad point as you see fit).

Finally managed to finish reading Quicksilver, It took quite an effort to read, it never got to the "can't put it down" phase that other Stephenson books did. Now I can get to work on the backlog of books that have piled up.

• Yerba Buena Gardens Festival continues to run, the SF Mime troop performance was fantastic.
• Brad convinced me to read Redemption Ark despite my misgivings on Revalation Space, and I couldn't put it down, not only was it a great read, it resolved some of the issues I had with RS, and also leaves a few unanswered questions, ready for the next one.
• Also recently read The Hacker & The Ants, Spaceland & Flatland, all excellent.
• I picked up a copy of Senor Coconut's Smoke on the water at the weekend, hillarious, and their Kraftwerk covers are great (Kudos to Kelley for tipping me off to Senor Coconut a while back)

I'm currently reading Steve's Pocket PC Network Programming, not finished it yet, but like what I see so far, the connection manager section will come in useful, I haven't tried it out yet, but it seems like it should solve an existing PocketHTTP problem where it tries to make a socket connection (and fails) before the tcp/ip stack is happy (and I've heard reports that under PocketPC 2003, it can take up to 15 seconds post resume before the tcp/ip stack can actually make a connection, yikes!). One thing I was hoping to find, but doesn't seem to be covered is the SSL support that's built into the winsock stack on PocketPC, a pity as the current docs are pathetic to say the least.

• Congrats to Keith & Co on the WSE 2 Tech Preview.
• More new software, congrats to Dave & co for SOAPScope 2 beta 2. Looking forward to trying both this and WSE2 out.
• Just finished reading Chasm City, way way better than Revalation Space. Tempted to try Redepemtion Ark now.
• Saw some awesome Lebbeus Wood's drawings at SFMoma over the weekend, will have to track some more of his stuff down.
• The history (and mystery) of the universe is still running over at Project Artaud, I loved it, highly recommended.

the daily commute continues to provide plenty of reading time, here's some recent reads.

• Doug Kaye's Loosely Coupled. I thought Doug did a fantastic job of explaining why you should care about web services.
• Revelation Space. Started off well, but seemed to come off the rails towards the end.
• Altered Carbon. I loved this, couldn't put it down.
• The Stone Canal. I seem to be reading Ken Macleod's books in the wrong order, but they've all been great.