Periodic Ramblings

A Mexican soccer/football team replaced the names on the back of the player’s jerseys with their Twitter handles.  This is pretty cool.

Read the story here at PC Magazine.

I have always had a penchant for Science Fiction.  It started when I saw Star Wars and the geek in me continues to bring it out.  I had heard that NPR had put together a list of the top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, and therefore was interested in what they picked.  While I do not agree with all the books on the list and would not expect to, the list is pretty complete.  I look forward to revisiting some books and experiencing new books.

As a geek, Slashdot was always the place to first hear about breaking stories.  Today Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda announced that he was leaving the legendary tech news reporting website that he started in 1997.  For a lot of us this is bittersweat, as it reminds us that we have been doing this tech thing for a while, making what we do a career and not a hobby.

I remember being introduced to Slashdot around 1998 by other techies and have continued to read the stories posted since then, first by visiting the site religiously throughout the day and now by waiting for the updates in my RSS reader.

Thank you CmdrTaco for the last 14 years and good luck on your new adventures.

We spend a lot of time in the tech industry talking about Google, Apple/Microsoft, the latest social network craze and other relatively straightforward inovations on technology.  IBM usually is not in that list of companies we talk about.  It was nice to see a change in the news today.

CNN reported that IBM is continuing to work on their SyNAPSE project, in which they want to develop a computer that mimics the way the brain handles data.  So instead of programming this computer, it would be fed a series of inputs and learn about those inputs and make decisions organically instead of just sending back output based on programs that we put in there.  A lot like the brain handles data today.  We take in millions of pieces of data on a daily basis and then process it based on what we have learned in the past and in regards to the situation/environment we are in.

It is an interesting concept, and while AI and Expert Systems are nothing new, this takes the approach of duplicating the world’s most complex computer in hardware form, instead of trying to write lines and lines of code that mimics the interactions in the human brain.  It will be interesting where this goes in the future.

HP announced at its 3Q 2011 Earnings call that it was shutting down WebOS hardware development along with exploring alternatives for its Personal Systems Group.  Looks to me like HP is going the IBM route, focusing on enterprise software and services.

There are a lot of things that can be read into this decision.

Is the PC market viable for large players anymore?  Dell seems to do okay, but it is a more lean and nimble company compared to HP.  Lenovo has taken off since its departure from IBM and has become more innovative in its approach to PC design.  Maybe HP was too big and this will help the HP line of computers in the long run.  The companies you hear in the tech news today on the PC side when it comes to innovation are the Asus type companies.  Much smaller and much less diversity, able to focus and innovate in the PC space.

WebOS was not killed, just the devices.  HP obviously still sees some sort of market for WebOS.  I am not sure I agree.  On the phone side, Android has taken lead and in the tablet space, Apple has a good handle there.  Is there room for WebOS.  I do not think so, there would be 5 major players in the mobile space with WebOS (Apple, Android, RIM and Microsoft), with an obvious lead by two of them at this point.  Can you survive at 3, let alone at  4 or 5.  I think Microsoft has a chance here to become the 3rd player, and unless RIM or HP/WebOS can all of a sudden become more innovative and get out of their own way, they should have no problem getting there.

HP is too diverse of a company to maintain status quo.  IBM learned this a number of years ago and stopped development and sold off a number of pieces to maintain a focus in certain areas and has shown it works and is profitable.  HP needs to do the same thing.

Google announced today that a new layer has been added to Google Maps which will allow you to see current weather conditions on the map itself.  It will show you an icon marker with the current weather and temperature, which when clicked will give you a simple forecast and current conditions.  While it is not going to replace the NOAA Weather information for me now, this is a start and eventually I can see Google adding more features to this like real-time radar information.

Evernote announces today that they have acquired Skitch.

Evernote continues to improve and add functionality to a product I already use on a daily basis.  Can not wait to download and install Skitch to complement Evernote.

I have been meaning to read the Harry Potter books, but never seem to have the time.  These two have put the whole series to song in 99 seconds, saving me a lot of time.

Google Labs has produced a word frequency viewer of their current library of digitized books ranging from the 1800s to present time.  This nifty site allows you to see how frequent a certain word/phrase appears within the books that Google has digitized.  Not sure the practicality of this, but it is a pretty cool conversation starter.

For example here is comparison between the words war and peace.  As one would expect there are jumps in the frequency of the words during WWI and WWII.

So, head on over and give Ngram Viewer a shot to see how your favorite words/phrases compare.

Cooking for Geeks
By Jeff Potter

Cooking for Geeks is the cooking book for the rest of us.  It is the book that was written for those of us who do not naturally feel comfortable in the kitchen.  It is the book that was written for those of us who want to know; Why does that happen? and Why do I need to do that in a certain order?

Jeff takes the reader through the science of cooking, through theory and plenty of examples in the forms of recipes, ranging from simple to complex.  While the book focuses on the scientific reasoning behind what happens in the kitchen, Jeff does in an amusing and non-threatening manner.

Each chapter is organized in straightforward manner.  Jeff starts off the book by talking about what equipment you should have in your kitchen, then about taste and smell, what happens when food is cooked, baking and gluten to ending talking about commercial and modern cooking methods.  In each case, he does it in a manner that exposes the reader to new concepts in an easy to understand method with examples and the science behind the concept.

Along with the science behind kitchen concepts, Jeff provides enough recipes for the reader to utilize in their everyday life, ranging in complexity from simple cooking of eggs to a more complex example of Seared Mussels.  This to me is one of the selling points to the book.  Too many times, cooking books focus on either the simple or complex and do not make it seem as though a kitchen novice would not be able to handle something more complex than making cereal and toast.  This is not the case here, with each recipe explained in a straightforward manner that would allow even the kitchen novice to feel comfortable doing something more complex in the kitchen.

Along with a multitude of recipes and scientific explanations, Jeff interviews famous people about their experiences in the kitchen.  These experts range from Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame to pastry chef Dave Lebovitz from Berkley.  This adds to the rich content of the book by giving an outside perspective on cooking and kitchen science/cooking.

Overall, I recommend this book to novice and experienced home cooks.  Jeff has tips and tricks that can be utilized by all level of home cooks without insulting or frustrating either group.

Cooking For Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter

Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc.