Makers

Cory Doctorow has a new book coming out soon, Makers. I’ve not reviewed any of Mr. Doctorow’s books here on this site (I wonder why?), but love the website he frequently writes for, BoingBoing (link at right).

Makers page.

Moral Panics

The argument posed in “Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars” by William Patry is familiar to those who have read the writings of Lawrence Lessig, Mark Helprin, Kembrew McLeod, and several other people whose works I have reviewed on this very blog.

Each one of those people listed above has a distinct view on the “copyright wars” – Lessig as a lawyer and professor, Helprin as a writer, and McLeod as a communications professor and “media prankster.”

What viewpoint does Patry bring to the table? He’s the Senior Copyright Counsel at Google, Inc. According to his disclaimer at the front of the book, he did not write this book to spread Google’s point of view, the words written in it are his own and have nothing to do with Google.

It touches on the same ground that each of those writers focus on before venturing into other territory such as Apple and Microsoft missing out on acquiring Overture, a company that paired search results with advertising. Yahoo! bought the company soon afterward.

Oxford University Press page for this book.

Official book blog

Delete

Astute readers are no doubt aware of Gordon Bell’s book “Total Recall” that was reviewed on this site last month. This book, by Viktor Mayer-Shoenberger, should be viewed as a companion piece.

Where Mr. Bell advocated that everyone should record their lives digitally, Mr. Shoenberger’s point of view seems to be “record your life if you must, but tread carefully.”

Several times throughout Delete, the author makes mention of several times in history when archives of data have been used for nefarious purposes, such as Hitler’s using the records of a country to eradicate over 70% of that country’s undesirable population (Jews and everyone else the Nazi’s didn’t like).

While Mr. Shoenberger never comes right out and says recording your life is a bad idea, he does make several arguments toward the normal setting life has: We’re supposed to forget.

That those who are blessed (some would say cursed) with never being able to forget are outliers, their unhappiness in life is because they’re unable to do something nature demands: To forget and move on.

If you’ve read Mr. Bell’s book, you must read Mr. Shoenberger’s just so you can see several sides of the same story.

Princeton University Press page for this book.

Clannad: After Story

*While this is listed as a book review, this is an anime, not a book (though there should be a manga or two based on it)*

Earlier this year, I watched the first episode of Clannad via an anime channel’s OnDemand service. Before the second episode could appear, the service was canceled. I was sad. I started to enjoy Clannad in that one short episode.

I found that the first volume of the anime had recently gone on sale so I snatched it up. A few weeks later, the next volume came out and I purchased it the day it came out.

The series was fantastic. It’s based on a Japanese “dating sim” game. I know that turns a lot of people off right there. Mention “dating sim” and people tend to look down at you like a monster.

I never played the game, I’ve just seen the anime based on it.

A few days ago, the first volume of the sequel series, Clannad: After Story, was released state-side. It picks up right where the first series left off. If I had to guess, I’d say it begins the next day.

In my fervor to learn more about this series, I came across a horrible spoiler, but I do plan on watching this series in its entirety.

Will Kindle usher in the age of book piracy?

Today the BBC postulates that because Amazon’s Kindle is now an internationally sold device, that it will become easier to pirate books and have them on your Kindle, just as Apple’s iPod made people want to pirate more music.

People died before guns were invented, it just made it easier.

BBC article.

Even if I look back…

Every so often you come across something that reminds you of your childhood you have to smile, shed a tear, and share it with someone else.

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to this video and song. He thought it was great because the backing tune is the Dr. Wily’s stage 1 theme from Mega Man 2.

I thought it was cool because of that (while I like MM2, my favorite characters are Rush and Zero. Rush first arrived in MM3, and Zero first came on the scene in MMX) but also because it’s about being an adult-aged person and looking back on childhood.

While I am an Ultraman fan, I never did any of the things in this video, but now, I kinda wish I did make my arms into an L-shape.

Dangerous Professors

Professors have always been dangerous. They always try to make their students think differently about the world, the subject matter, themselves.

Dangerous Professors is a series of essays (some written by dangerous professors themselves). One of the authors mentions the story of W.E.B. Du Bois who, after attending a German university for some time was rejected from obtaining his doctorate degree.

Mr. Du Bois later became the first black person to graduate Harvard and went on to write a novel referring back to that initial shunning in Germany.

Each essay in the set, especially the one toward the back in the Case Studies section, written by Ward Churchill about academic freedom really rings a bit of shocking truth that while professors are often the people to look to for information, they can be blacklisted and shunned because of it.

Paradoxical Life

The full name of this book is “Paradoxical Life: Meaning, Matter and the Power of Human Choice” by Andreas Wagner.

I do not know whether or not this book wants to be a philosophy book or a biology book.

Having recently read the Tao Te Ching, I can see similarities in tone and style throughout this book, almost as though Mr. Wagner purposefully tried to create a philosophical text out of cloth dyed from biology.

In some instances it works, in others it’s tedious. But altogether the whole of the book is very well written.

I particularly enjoyed the segment at the beginning of the fifth chapter wherein Mr. Wagner likens losing his hair to leaves falling off a tree. It flowed almost like poetry.

Yale Press website for the book.

PlayStation Nation

I came across this book at the bookstore of a college I frequent. I took a glance at it and decided to buy it. It wasn’t very expensive and figured it would be a good read.

Right off it assaults the reader with anecdotal statistics of people the author knows who have had to combat their children playing video games too much.

As a gamer, my first instinct was to think that the parents mentioned in the book over-reacted to their children’s playing habits. Then again, I can only vouch for my own mileage, everyone else’s is different.

Then I realized that this book is only narrowly focused. It only talks about how people (mostly children) can become addicted to video games (I know it can happen). As a Psychology major, one of my favorite subjects was Internet Addiction. As far as I know not much research has been done on this subject.

Viewing this book in the light of being an early look at Internet Addiction really brought me around. I was ready to trash this book for being what it is – a rally against video games.

But deeper than that it’s a warning. It’s okay to play, just do so in moderation.

Before I play my favorite MMO, I’m greeted with a message telling me not to forget my family, friends, job, and other responsibilities. As the opening to Mystery Science Theater 3000 used to say, “It’s just a show, you really should just relax.”

That’s not to say I don’t think video game/Internet addiction is a problem, it is. I used to have a friend in England I talked to quite a bit. One day he told me he just got World of Warcraft and I didn’t hear from him again for six months. He told that he’s spent quite a bit of time playing WoW. He gave me the figure for how many hours he’d played the game. The result equaled 90 days. Nearly 3 full months of a 6 month period was spent playing WoW.

In August I compiled a time inquiry regarding my own time playing Final Fantasy XI. I’ve been playing FFXI since March 2007. As of August 2009, a full 10% of my life was spent playing FFXI for that time span. In 28 months I spent 10% of my life playing FFXI.

Of course, that doesn’t take into account what I did with the other 90% of my time. I worked a job, read books, met with friends, etc. You could hardly call me a reclusive shut-in.

I guess the message is: Be careful with how you spend your time because once it’s spent, you can’t get it back.

One word at a time

Everyday, I arrive to work about an hour early so that I can get some early morning reading in before I start teaching. Everyday other teachers and support personnel see me reading, usually a different book every few days. Sometimes students see me reading.

Occasionally someone asks me why I read, why couldn’t I just find whatever I’m looking for online? It’s true that there’s quite a bit of information online, but, inevitably, a book is where my search for information takes me.

Just yesterday I received a book, “The Splinter Fleet of the Otranto Barrage” by Ray Millholland. Now, online there is a lot of information on submarine chasers in both World Wars, but, what was missing was Mr. Millholland’s account.

I’ve sought this book for quite a while for several reasons. The main one being it’s a book on submarine chasers in WWI. The second is that it would be a good source of information while I write my own submarine chaser book (if all has gone to plan, all of the documents concerning the SC-699 should arrive soon, I hope). The third reason is that Mr. Millholland urged his son, James, to join the Navy in WWII and try his best to be assigned to a submarine chaser. The ship his son served on? The SC-699, the ship my grandfather served on.

This book was published in 1936, 73 years ago.

When I was in high school, people called me “The master librarian” because I was able to quickly, and easily, find information for anyone about anything. How did someone who didn’t own a computer or use the Internet until years later pull this off?

Easy. I used the card catalogs. I knew what words and subjects to look for, heck, I even knew the Dewey Decimal System. Of course, having a few encyclopedias at home helped too, even if they were published in 1955.

Students today don’t seem to understand, of course, the vast majority of them won’t go to college and finish their education at the 12th grade or before.

Though, I’m reminded of my father’s words when I told him of my disdain for some of my students not trying their best. He told me to think for a moment. If every student did A level work and went to college, there would be a massive glut of students in college and no one would want to do the “menial” jobs – someone has to flip burgers at McDonald’s.

How did I get from talking about books to students not trying their best? No clue, but one who reads will always read.

Right after I graduated high school I took a job packing auto parts to ship to places around the Southeast United States. In a business employing 80 people, I think it was safe to say that as a high school graduate I had more formal education that at least 75 people in that place.

I saved my money with an eye to starting college in the Fall. The only luxuries I afforded myself in that time was a PlayStation 2, which I’d put in Lay-a-way for several months, and several books. Mostly Michael Crichton books, but a few others as well. I read these books during my lunch breaks and would routinely finish one book per week.

One week I arrived with the single volume edition of Lord of the Rings, which is well over 1,000 pages. Some people asked how I ever hoped to read such a large book. I simply responded, “The same way I read all other books, one word at a time.”

Readers of this site no doubt know that I still enjoy reading. Every page of this site is rife with book reviews, primarily of Economics and Law books, but a few others as well, such as “Digital Apollo” or “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” from a while back.

Soon (tomorrow, I hope) I’ll post a review of the new Professor Layton game (short review: awesome) and some time later a review of a game in Ubisoft’s My Coach series (short review: I’ve played two games in this series and had nightmares that lasted until I stopped playing them).

I think I will curtail writing any more for the night. Take care everyone.