Crisp, clear intro to JSON
5 stars
I really enjoyed Lindsay's writing style, it hits the essentials of JSON without any filler. It would be great if more technical books were written in this style!
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borgbookcollective reviewed Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
A delightful read!
5 stars
It's refreshing to read a book that encourages exploring childlike curiosities to problems instead of relying solely on the cold, mechanical, unimaginative steady drumbeat of logic.
This passage nicely summed up the theme of the book for me (replace "messages" for ideas and it still applies beautifully):
"Quite simply, all powerful messages must contain an element of absurdity, illogicality, costliness, disproportion, inefficiency, scarcity, difficulty or extravagance - because rational behaviour and talk, for all their strengths, convey no meaning."
Good overview of networking basics
5 stars
An excellent & quick read on the basics of networking for sys admins and the rest of us mere mortals! I especially liked the chapter on using tcpdump for packet sniffing.
Michael W. Lucas (yes, it's important to put the "W." in there if you do a Google search; you'll know what I mean if you leave it out) has a humourous and engaging writing style that gets right to the heart of solving those technical woes that might await you.
borgbookcollective reviewed Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan
Mimi is a 'waste girl', a member of the lowest caste on Silicon Isle.
Located …
A beautifully haunting novel
5 stars
Chen Qiufan's "The Waste Tide" is a beautifully haunting novel. A highly recommend read.
Set in the fictitious future city of Silicon Isle -- a depressing nightmare where migrant workers toil night and day to take apart e-waste in an unforgiving filthy, toxic, cancer-inducing environment.
The world-building and characters Chen captures are rich and deep. You feel for Mimi and her unfortunate migrant workers who are treated like worthless dirt by Silicon Isle's affluent & arrogant caste.
And you encounter many gems along the way, such as the fusion of Chinese myths, a spirit-powered mech of death, as well as hilarious and visually entertaining snippets:
"The woman grabbed him by the left leg and dragged the powerless Kaizong into a temporary shed filled with junked prostheses. She pulled a rubber dildo out of the pile and, with astounding arm strength, stretched it into a rope, which she used to tie …
Chen Qiufan's "The Waste Tide" is a beautifully haunting novel. A highly recommend read.
Set in the fictitious future city of Silicon Isle -- a depressing nightmare where migrant workers toil night and day to take apart e-waste in an unforgiving filthy, toxic, cancer-inducing environment.
The world-building and characters Chen captures are rich and deep. You feel for Mimi and her unfortunate migrant workers who are treated like worthless dirt by Silicon Isle's affluent & arrogant caste.
And you encounter many gems along the way, such as the fusion of Chinese myths, a spirit-powered mech of death, as well as hilarious and visually entertaining snippets:
"The woman grabbed him by the left leg and dragged the powerless Kaizong into a temporary shed filled with junked prostheses. She pulled a rubber dildo out of the pile and, with astounding arm strength, stretched it into a rope, which she used to tie Kaizong's hands securely to a water pipe. 'You better learn your lesson. Next time, I'll use your own dick.' The woman cackled..."
Ouch!
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order is a 2018 non-fiction book …
Great read on China's A.I. scene
5 stars
Mr. Lee makes good arguments for why China may become a dominant global powerhouse in AI. In a growing multipolar world, his arguments are very reasonable.
In essence, the arguments boil down to two major shifts:
- From the age of discovery (e.g., heavy research focus, primarily in the U.S. and Canada) to the age of implementation (e.g., scrappy, do-anything entrepreneurs apply research to real-world business models).
The described 'gladiator' style of entrepreneurship in China where ultra nimble founders do anything it takes to beat out the competition and tune to market demands is worth a read alone. There's even an interesting story of how search engine competitors played nasty tricks on Google China.
- From the age of expertise to the age of data (e.g., quantity of data is the fuel to power ever-more accurate and powerful AI algorithms).
This was the most important takeaway from the book for me. The …
Mr. Lee makes good arguments for why China may become a dominant global powerhouse in AI. In a growing multipolar world, his arguments are very reasonable.
In essence, the arguments boil down to two major shifts:
- From the age of discovery (e.g., heavy research focus, primarily in the U.S. and Canada) to the age of implementation (e.g., scrappy, do-anything entrepreneurs apply research to real-world business models).
The described 'gladiator' style of entrepreneurship in China where ultra nimble founders do anything it takes to beat out the competition and tune to market demands is worth a read alone. There's even an interesting story of how search engine competitors played nasty tricks on Google China.
- From the age of expertise to the age of data (e.g., quantity of data is the fuel to power ever-more accurate and powerful AI algorithms).
This was the most important takeaway from the book for me. The difference between how U.S. and Chinese companies collect data. This is the crux of Mr. Lee's argument of why China may end up leading AI.
Chinese companies are more vertically integrated and collect significantly more offline, real-world data than the average U.S. company (which are more focused on collecting online data -- such as browsing habits, likes, views, etc.).
Chinese companies know the what, when, where you purchased your meals, booked your doctor appointment, spent on a makeover, traveled to, even right down to your phone battery levels. That is, they "embrace the messy details of the real world" & this is what gives them an advantage over Silicon Valley. The offline-to-online (020) merger of daily life across billions of consumers will become the data oil that will feed and run these powerful AI algorithms.
This is a very interesting read and recommended it.
borgbookcollective reviewed The Lazarus Heist by Geoff White
Fantastic overview of Lazarus Group (APT38)
5 stars
The book gives a nice overview of the more famous hacks from North Korea's very own Lazarus Group (APT38) -- from attacks on Sony; the audacious attempt to steal $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank (they managed to get away with $81 million); the WannaCry ransomware; and the sprawling multitude of hacks targeting crypto-exchanges and users.
It also paints a picture of how deeply connected and complex North Korea's connections to the criminal underworld run -- even the idea that the majority of the Japanese Yakuza being originally ethnic Koreans.
borgbookcollective reviewed Deceptive Patterns by Harry Brignull
Step into the shadowy world of deceptive patterns and learn how online businesses exploit consumers …
Exposes the tricks Big Tech (and others) play
5 stars
A fantastic starting point to educate yourself on the use of deceptive or manipulative patterns (or "dark patterns").
borgbookcollective reviewed Missing Cryptoqueen by Jamie Bartlett
OneCoin fraud laid out nicely
5 stars
Definitely give this a read! A very interesting look at the OneCoin fraud.
Good intro to the Austrian school of economics
4 stars
It's a good read on introducing concepts of the Austrian school of economics.
It's also entertaining to read the author's pure hatred for Marx, Keynes, or anything remotely related to government expenditure. Such as this hilarious passage:
"Karl Marx, a semiliterate German bum who never had a job that could support him. Marx lived off the support of rich benefactors in England as he pontificated about reengineering the world into a dystopia run by people incapable of supporting themselves through their own labor."
Since the original publication of Nudge more than a decade ago, the title has entered …
You'll start seeing nudges everywhere...
4 stars
A fun read on the uses and benefits of nudges. The book has a good balance of theory and practical applications/real-world examples.
borgbookcollective reviewed The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff
GTA in real-life!
5 stars
This book is fucking insane (in a good way)! You got to read it. It’s like something out of a video game. After reading the wild stories, it even makes the garbage Hollywood turns out look incredibly boring and lame.
Power to the bazaar!
5 stars
The essay titled “Revenge of the Hackers” alone is a great read that lays out how Open Source branded and shifted away from Free Software.
Lots of great context and insights behind the power of the bazaar (open source) vs. the cathedral (closed source), even ~23 years after the revised edition of the book was written.
borgbookcollective reviewed Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant
The true story of what happened the first time machines came for human jobs, when …
A (factual) perspective on the Luddites
5 stars
This is an incredibly well-researched and masterfully written book on the history of the Luddites and the first unscrupulous tech titans of the 19th century. Highly recommended read.
Cozy stroll through Unix's history
5 stars
Brian Kernighan provides an enjoyable read detailing the creation of Unix.
I really enjoyed the "behind the scenes" stories that describe the whys & hows that led to the development of some of the programs and tools we use to this day, such as: pipes, grep/egrep, the C language itself, the Bourne shell, Make, Sed & Awk, and on and on!
The mini biographies of the many talented folks (e.g., Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Doug McIlroy) who were instrumental in creating Unix was a fund read as well.