August 02, 2007
Travelling...
I have moved yet again, from Southwest to Inland Northwest. I got a job that pays slightly more money than the one in San Diego to do way more interesting work in an area that costs plenty less to live, and that lets me live with the love of my life to boot. Laura came down in mid Comic-Con to help me move, a process that was much easier this time thanks to my new wage overlords paying for a moving company to move the bulk of my worldly possessions. With a somewhat lightened load, we were able to stop and have some fun on the way...
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| The view from Hetch Hetchy Dam |
We went to Yosemite park and hiked a marathon trek around the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. We made it up to Lake ..., which made for a 30 mile loop, with about 8000 feet of up-and-down. This in a 24-hour period. Not bad...
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| A close encounter of the v. scary kind |
When we woke up early in the morning on Saturday, we encountered a mother black bear with three first-year cubs hiking the trail the way from which we had come. It was a tense few moments, as the mother turned towards us when she got downwind. Thankfully, we were too far away to be considered a threat that that point, so she continued onward with her charges.
The Dam itself was and is the subject of some controversy. It made for an interesting discussion with my hiking partner. I've come somewhat firmly to the opinion that, if San Francisco is unable to sustain itself with the resources it has (sans the reservoir), it ought to cope by depopulating. Pushing an area past its maximal population sustainment level through technology really doesn't work long-term. Rivers flood, earthquakes strike, dams break, and then we're forced to cope with the overpopulation eventually anyway...though I suppose that lesson doesn't need speculation.
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Further back...
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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