brainstorms

Monday August 29, 2005

must have books for 2005/2006...

bill watterson, the complete calvin and hobbes
scott mccloud, making comics [see scott's blog]
frank miller's sin city library I
al aho, et al. 21st Century Compilers
charles stross, clan corporate [third book of The Merchant Princes trilogy]
daniel p. friedman, et al. reasoned schemer [oh well, once a schemer, always a schemer...]
grune and jacobs, parsing techniques (second edition)
meggs and purvis, meggs' history of graphic design, 4th edition
ellen lupton, diy - design it yourself
loeb and lee, batman absolute hush

[odds and ends: richard gabriel was promising to publish a collection of the early MIT lambda papers by steele and others, but i have no idea of its status; if rpg or anyone who knows about that project is reading this, please let me know what is happening.]

stross: why input devices suck

charlie's insightful overview of ways of shoveling data into computers, and why they all suck.

recent good quotes

everything considered, nothing in human history compares with the magnificence of science's achievements, or the power and truth of its methods. -- a. c. grayling

in the kingdom of the visually impaired, the partially-sighted person is fully empowered. -- george carlin [when will jesus bring the porkchops?]

math is unique in its ability to bamboozle a lay audience, which helps explain why creationists find it so appealing. --jason rosenhouse

the beauty of science is that it allows us to transcend our intuitions about the world, and it provides us with methods by which we can determine which of our intuitions are right and which are not. -- daniel gilbert

never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. -- margaret mead [found in david brin's blog]

i think the whole idea is daft. -- susan blackmore on zombies

mrs. young's law: science as we know it would not exist if it weren't for masking tape. -- matt young

only the generous survive. -- charles stross (accelerando)