User Profile

Bruce Schneier is one the experts on computer security, and I have followed him with pleasure and learned a lot. He has a very practical approach to understanding what works and what does not work in this area, and this book is a collection of his short writings from a variety of places: His blog (Cryptogram), Wired, CNet, IEEE Security & Privacy, Communications of the ACM, etc. These are brief and to the point, most of the articles being a couple of pages long. Most of the articles were written in the early 2000s, but I don't think they are out-of-date at all because they are about how to think about security, not about the technical issues. He also provides a lengthy References section in the back in case you want to go deeper into any of the events he discusses.

Because these are bite-sized articles, this would actually be the perfect "Bathroom Reader" for the security geek in your life.

This is the kind of book that will appeal to computer nerds, and perhaps no one else, but since I am a computer nerd I quite enjoyed it. It is a true story involving computer hacking, and one of the earliest ones. The protagonist of this story is Clifford Stoll, who was trained as an astronomer but was managing computers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. One day he asked to look into a $.75 discrepancy in the billing for the computer accounts. With a magnificent obsession he tears into it, and eventually traces everything to a Soviet spy operating out of West Germany. Along the way Stoll has to deal with various agencies that don't really know what to do about this, and wonder if it as even anything they should worry about. After all, a 75 cent accounting error is not a big deal. But when it is clear that a foreign agent is looking for information about the Strategic Defense Initiative (aka Star Wars), it is time to take action.

Anne McCaffrey has a series I have read and reviewed called The Tower and the Hive, and in this universe people with psychic talents are responsible for providing telepathic communication and shipping services through teleportation. It is an interesting series which I enjoyed, but it leaves open the question of how we get from here-and-now to the universe she created. It is clear that it is supposed to be the same universe in some way, and in her Pegasus books she creates that link.

To Ride Pegasus is book #1 of the prequel series, and begins with someone who is very successful as an astrologer because he is in fact someone with precognition talent. He founds a research center and looks for others to join him. Then a talented telepath becomes his successor, and guides the organization into an accepted role in society. In McCaffrey's telling, it would seem that all/most people have some kind of psychic ability, only in most people it is weak or suppressed. There is some notion that genetics is involved, and that selected breeding might intensify the abilities people have.

This book is not a novel so much as 4 linked novellas that tell the story.

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand project management on a practical level. The author, Scott Berkun, was a project manager at Microsoft, working on Internet Explorer, and draws on this experience in presenting his ideas on managing projects. One thing I like is that he shows his own growth and how he learned lessons in the course of his work, instead of just handing down pronouncements from on high. And the book is definitely full of experience and practical advice. What it is not is another PMBOK, which is OK because we already have one of those.

The book is divided into three parts. Part One focuses on the planning process, and discusses the usual planning and scheduling, but also adds some very valuable material on why you need a vision, what constitutes a good vision, Where good ideas come from, and how to use them. This gets into some very specific application, such as putting prototypes together and getting in front of people, which I think will seem natural to anyone in an Agile environment.

In Part Two he dives into Skills, with topics like “How to make good decisions”, communications, meetings, and how to not annoy people. This is very useful because sometimes we do things that do annoy people, and that is not helpful when we need their assistance to make the project move forward.

The last section is called Management, but a lot of it is based on an analysis of what constitutes leadership, how to get power, and how to use power. He is very practical, and I liked his discussion of the pluses and minuses of an office near the boss. The minus happens if your boss is a micro-manager who interferes with you, but being in a position to hear everyone else’s interactions with the boss can be priceless.

All-in-all, I think any project manager will find a lot of valuable advice in this book. The other good thing is that Berkun is a good writer, so I found I was drawn to keep reading, unlike some books that you slog through for a few nuggets.

This is the seventh in a 10 novel series which was mostly written by Stephen Goldin. Doc Smith wrote a novella called Imperial Stars which Goldin expanded into the first novel, and then Goldin wrote another 9 novels in a long story arc. But Smith is the famous one, so his name appears in large letters everywhere and Goldin is barely mentioned.

The setting is a universe where a Russian Feudal system has somehow become the dominant mode of government and of the language, so we see Russian words sprinkled throughout the conversations. Humanity has spread to a number of planets with varying characteristics. One of these is DesPlaines, a high gravity planet whose inhabitants have adapted by becoming shorter and stockier, and which has developed a unique attraction, The Circus of the Galaxy. What people don't know is that this circus is also a key part of the secret service SOTE, the Service Of The Empire. This allows for an interesting twist for space opera, a series where the heroes do not have secret weapons or super powers, merely acrobatic training.

The threat they deal with here is that the prison planet of Gastonia, the supposedly escape-proof destination for the worst criminals, is somehow springing a leak and those criminals are escaping. How, and where does Lady A. and her conspiracy fit into this? Jules and Yvette d'Alembert, top agents of SOTE, must get sent to this planet undercover, and it is up to them to find out what is going on and find a way out without any assistance from outside . The book is fast-paced and a good combination of space opera with spy thriller. But since this a 10-novel story arc, each novel builds on what went before, so do not read them out of order.

This is the eighth in a 10 novel series which was mostly written by Stephen Goldin. Doc Smith wrote a novella called Imperial Stars which Goldin expanded into the first novel, and then Goldin wrote another 9 novels in a long story arc. But Smith is the famous one, so his name appears in large letters everywhere and Goldin is barely mentioned.

The setting is a universe where a Russian Feudal system has somehow become the dominant mode of government and of the language, so we see Russian words sprinkled throughout the conversations. Humanity has spread to a number of planets with varying characteristics. One of these is DesPlaines, a high gravity planet whose inhabitants have adapted by becoming shorter and stockier, and which has developed a unique attraction, The Circus of the Galaxy. What people don't know is that this circus is also a key part of the secret service SOTE, the Service Of The Empire. This allows for an interesting twist for space opera, a series where the heroes do not have secret weapons or super powers, merely acrobatic training.

The conspiracy against the Imperial family has taken notice of the fact that so many of their plots have been foiled by Jules and Yvette d'Alembert. So they create doubles of the two agents who go around the galaxy getting other agents killed. The idea is to make these top agents useless since no one knows if it is the real agents or the traitorous doubles. But Jules and Yvette d'Alembert, top agents of SOTE, must get to the bottom and stop this plot. And they confront Lady A.'s conspiracy on a battlestation in space that was designed to lure them to their death. The book is fast-paced and a good combination of space opera with spy thriller. But since this a 10-novel story arc, each novel builds on what went before, so do not read them out of order.