February 23, 2003
Human Interest
Ever notice that, whenever there's a whole lot of really horrible world news going on, the US media feels the need to focus on some rather mundane tragedy, usually involving hospital mix-ups or other strange accidents?
This week the news seems to be carrying lots of news about the little girl with the wrong organs. I won't link to the story, I'm sure you know all about it. All I can say is whoop-tee-doo. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a bad thing that a little girl is dead somewhere, but millions of dollars are being spent to discuss the thing. Guess what? Accidents happen. On the morning that the doc put organs with the wrong blood type in the little girl, a few hundred other people made mistakes that killed a lot more people than that (drunk drivers, robbers, what have you, falling of cliffs, being gored by bison). Why all the focus on the doctor?
On a related rant, why villify hospitals so much? They're there to try and help. Every once in a while they reveal that their workers are human, some synapses fire in the wrong order, and then their professional lives are over. Bummer. I think I'll choose a line of work that keeps me out of harm's way like that.
Well, back to proving that the class of Recognizable tree languagues is equal to the class of statements in Monadic Second Order Logic...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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Stealing the Network
I first bumped into the Stealing the Network series when reading the exploits of Joe Grand, one of the book's many hacker authors.
The 'Stealing the ...' series of books follows a rather disparate group of computer hackers as they help a former NSA spook (many of them unwittingly) gather the money he needs to retire.
The stories themselves are not fantastic fiction. The writing is uneven and choppy, the characters are stereotypical and not very well thought-out. What is fascinating about this book series is the technical accuracy of the exploits (at some points *too* accurate, with screen shots and step-by-step instructions).
It's a great series to read if you're a system administrator, or just getting into the wonderful field of computer security.
Rated 
by reid
on March 06, 2011
by reid
on March 06, 2011
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Close to the Machine
Ellen Ullman is one of those authors that somehow avoided my radar. Until now...
Close to the Machine is less a book than a collection of loosely related personal anecdotes from Ellen's time as a very rare thing -- a successful female bisexual independent computer programming consultant.
In the course of her work and relationship life, she learns hard lessons about programming, running a business, being lonely, and loving the wrong people. I found it particularly poignant being a crypto-nerd with difficult times in relationships and a more-or-less NDA'd, secret work life.
This book is a must-read for anyone into running their own business, programming, or anyone dating a person that is a business-a-holic or programmer.
Rated 
by reid
on November 23, 2009
by reid
on November 23, 2009
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The Long Trip Home
I had the joy of dining with the author in Florida. We went to a little Brazilian BBQ where he spoke with our waitstaff in (what I can only assume was) flawless Portugese.
Brian Wyllie spent 1969-1971 living in Brazil working for the Peace Corps. His recent book outlines his trip back to the United States via Bolivia, Peru, and the Carribean chain, by way of bus, train, and sailboat. The format comes spattered with observations from the modern day, and makes me think, "this must be what John McPhee's journal looks like."
The trip sounded like a fantastic one, but I was left wanting more detail...where did the gun (being snuck through customs in a variety of places, no doubt) come from? And how did Geneve's hair smell? Alas, we'll have to wait for another book to find the answers.
Rated by reid
on April 16, 2009
by reid
on April 16, 2009