Reviews of Technologies and Books I like
This is a mixed bag - I'm including devices as well as the usual. Understanding the Linux Kernel, O'Reilly, Daniel P. Bovet and Marco Cesati 3rd edition - I'm close to totally ignorant in relation to computer science; on the other hand, I'm quite enjoying this - which for me can only be considered a simultaneous autopsy and archaeology. The book is enormous - around 900 pages - and it gives an indelible picture of even the commonest computer tasks - creating a file for example. But it also provides a picture of an unbelievable architecture, which occasionally gets metaphorically translated - for example, the appendix on System Startup, which moves through such things as 'Prehistoric Age: the BIOS' to 'Modern Age: the start_kernel() Function.' I can follow most of this text, which says a great deal about the authors and the clearness of the exposition. Highly recommended to anyone interested in open software, linux, operating systems, or the vagaries of non-human inordinate complexity. (There are sections on signals, interrupts, process creation/scheduling/killing, program execution, and so forth.) NASA INSPIRE VLF-3 radio receiver kit. This kit - for building a very low frequency radio - costs around $80 and includes around 75 components. You'll need a low-power soldering iron and other (minimal) tools; the assembly takes about four hours - afterwards I felt I could build anything (not true of course). The radio is very high gain, has a built-in filter, data and audio outputs, and mic input on one channel (in order to describe time and location for example). VLF is fascinating; I'm using the signals in my work (spherics, whistlers, moans, insects, passing bikes, dawn chorus, etc.), modifying them with Audiomulch or some such. Check out the INSPIRE site - it's terrific. A VLF-3 is also online; you can pick up the signals through the Net. Unix in a Nutshell, O'Reilly, Arnold Robbins, 4th edition. The nut has grow to the size of a coconut; this handbook is huge, covering not only Unix, but GNU/Linux, Mac OSX+, and Solaris, as well as numerous programs, shells, editors, and package managers. While one can always do an 'apropos' and/or 'man' to access online help re: commands, the handbook is useful for browsing through options and examples; it gives excellent overviews of the systems. As usual, lots of stuff on sed, awk, vi, vim, etc. (although the Sed and Awk book - if for no other reason, the title - is still my favorite). One of my favorite deprecated commands seems to be no longer listed - 'fold' - which can split a text various ways. On the other hand, the six and a half pages on 'stty' are invaluable (necessary when accessing a shell account with the Sharp Zaurus, which runs on linux). This is one book I use pretty constantly. WWII EE-8 field telephones. I found two of these ten-pound units, which run on magnetos (for ringing up) and 3 volts worth of batteries (for actual talk).The circuits are incredibly simple; I had to do some repairs, but it was worth it. The lines are half-duplex - either I talk or you talk, but not both at once. The phones have a switch on them, much like CB radio. I've been using these for audio pieces, and eventually they'll end up in an installation in Los Angeles. Check out http://www.asondheim.org/fieldphone2.mp3 for an example. Speaking of old equipment, I'm also playing around with an 1895 telegraph receiver; this is similar to a morse-code key, except that it's activated by two solenoids. The result - send 1.5 volts through it, and you'll hear a click. That's all. It's small and can be placed on all sorts of resonators. The 'down' click has a different sound/'feel' from the 'up' click and the telegraph operator had to tell the difference. Linux Multimedia Hacks, Tips & Tools for Taming Images, Audio, and Video, O'Reilly, Kyle Rankin. I _still_ am frustrated with linux, although I've temporarily given up on it, in terms of multimedia. Blender and Gimp work incredibly well, even ImageMagick can be a kind of murderous fun. But I really want to work more intuitively, closer to WYSIWYG, which is usually possible even in Premiere. This book is unusual, and when I return to linux (after the full-speed ahead media stuff I'm chained to at the moment), I'll be working through it. There is an entire chapter on broad- cast media - TV, podcasting, ripping audio/video, etc. There's neat stuff as usual on transforming video into ASCII, stuff on Audacity (one of the cooler sound editors around), and stuff on the Web. What's missing for me - and this is _really_ me, not the OS - is the multi-media environment; this book goes a long way towards creating one. Why use linux at all for media? Because it's fun, because it's more or less open-source,because there are things you can do that you can't with more typical editors, because if you get serious with, say, animation, there's nothing like a render farm. But for quick-and-dirty, for patching stuff together quickly that still's amazing, the standard OS 10* or WinXP work quicker. I want to explore this book (and my own system) thoroughly; on the other hand, I don't want command-line interfaces for A/V. The Ancestor's Tale, A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution, Richard Dawkins, in which we go on a journey back through time. I love this book and most highly recommend it; after I ran out of James Lee Burke, I wanted something for late-night reading in the comfort zone. This is it! Over 650 pages of evolution, brilliantly written, with all sorts of information - for example, I had always thought amphioxus was primary in vertebrate development - but now there are new discoveries from China. A lot of molecular information is also provided. There are 327 sources in the bibliography. Minor phyla - anything on the way back to origins - are covered in some detail. This is one of the best 'comfort books' I've read in a long time. Speaking of the Sharp Zaurus, although they're difficult to get hold of in the US, you can find them on Craig's list or Ebay. I have two, and use both. They're linux-based PDAs, and there are literally hundreds of programs available - not only that, but you can download perl and other languages to use on their terminal windows. They're quirky - the only linux OS I've seen to crash, but I've found them excellent for working/ producing on the run; a lot of my diagram-work was created on them. If you have the chance and patience, check them out. Parlor guitars - they're on E-Bay, from the late 18th- through the early 20th- century. I want to argue for their comeback; they're unique in their small size half-folk half-classical resonance. Everyone I've seen has an incredible tone, providing you stay away from the popular brands. Look for something without a label, or a Stetson or old Washburn or Howe, or Larson or whatever. I tune low, use nylon strings (they were made for that), and find the small neck allows for incredible reach; most of my playing now is either on the would-be Larson I have or the 1949 Di Giorgio classical complete with a hyperbolic wooden inset to channel and cool the bass. Both guitars are unbelievable. Then again, there are all those Casio keyboards. I was recently given a CZ-101, a relatively early portable keyboard synthesizer, and the tones produced are fascinating; there are 'solo' and other switches that allow for fast improvisation as well. I use two other keyboard by the way - both highly recommended - a Victorian pump organ that has a really rich tone and a lot of dynamic possibilities (a lot of the music I've done for Foofwa d'Imobilite has been created on it) - and an Ensoniq Mirage. I ran into the latter when I had a group, Damaged Life, in the 80s. Now they're old-fashioned, heavy, clunky. They're half digital, half analog, and have an uncannily realistic feeling to the touch (keyboard) and sound (MIDI or analog). I've been using one constantly for two years now. When I've had residencies at the Experimental Television Center, I've used theirs - which made me aware of the possibilities. Takes floppy disks. Weighs a lot. Sounds unbelievable. Digital Video Production Cookbook, O'Reilly, Chris Kenworthy. This is an odd book; the subtitle is '100 Professional Techniques for Independent & Amateur Filmmakers.' I love 'Filmmakers' - everyone uses this word, even though film is nothing but a whisper. Some of the photographs show what I think is a Sony 150 (or thereabouts). The techniques are extremely useful and the book is valuable if you don't know them (for example pull focus, miniature worlds, how to pull a punch). Most of the techniques reference those moments in the plot which call for effects ranging from lasers to silhouettes - in other words, standard narrative production is emphasized. Some of the effects - for example using shadows or camera flow - are relevant to stylistic considerations in general; I wish there were more of these. In this regard, the Camera Movement section is the most useful. In any case, if you _are_ working in narrative or commercials, this book is invaluable. The material on pull-focus is something everyone should know (one of the first things I demo when teaching video). On the other hand, if you're more interested in the fine points of genre, experimental work, 'bending the rules,' etc., this doesn't have much information (for example breaking the '180 degree rule' in shooting an interior). I should note that all of the O'Reilly books on digital video are useful - they waste little space, get to the point, and show you the way to everything from holding the camera to DVD distribution. Everyone can learn from them - or their equivalent; I've seen far too much bad video, video that could have been a lot better if just one or two things were changed (most of the problems are usually with sound - good sound carries just about everything - and the Digital Video Production Cookbook has little information on this). Hey Rube, Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness, Simon and Schuster, Hunter S. Thompson. I just love the combo of spot-on thought and football, 9/11 and titles like Honolulu Marathon Is Decadent and Depraved. This was done for ESPN.com I think, who cares? it's wonderful. Speaking of that I know I mentioned James Lee Burke somewhere above, but you really should read him - half history, half mysticism, half depth analysis of the unpretty USA, half mists, half accurate, and probably one of the best 'story-tellers' around. His books are deceptively easy, give great pleasure of the text, ring true, contain fury repressed. Wireless Hacks, Tips and Tools for Building, Extending, and Securing Your Network, O'Reilly, Bob Flickenger & Roger Weeks, second edition. Any wireless information amazes me - the world is filled with information flux that just about anyone can pull down. Wireless hacking ranges from building focused parabolic or cylindrical antennas to using Kismet (by the way, available for Zaurus) or Netstumbler (by the way the MIDI output can be used as a sound/music source). If you're working with WiFi in any way at all, this book is absolutely necessary. Now what I find interesting - WiFi, just like VLF radio, re-presents the world - your mapping, percep- tion, is different. For example on page 91, WiFi power levels around Kingston, Rhode Island, and on page 144, a section on graphing wireless performance, with a chart indicating signal fade in the middle of the day. Radio reorganizes our experience, in other words; an online community obviously possesses different geographics than an offline one - and WiFi is somewhere in the middle - obviously networking, but just as obviously situated. Because of this, the Wireless Hacks themselves can range from programming to gadgeteering - often both at the same time (similar in some respects to Make magazine). The book by the way goes way beyond the Pringles can waveguide - there's a lot of antenna information. If you don't have a Sony 2010 shortwave, try and find one. The design and circuitry (there were minimal changes) held for over ten years, and it's one of the most compact useful radios around. I've recorded from it, experimented with it, listened for hours. The sound's not that great, but the separation and signal processing - including synchronous tuning - is superb. Almost all the Sony shortwaves are good; I also have an old and cheap analog one that has terrific sound and gets low-wave as well (both units go down to around 150k). Open Sources 2.0, The Continuing Revolution, O'Reilly, edited by Chris DiBona, Danese Cooper, and Mark Stone. I wish I could review this book in detail; I've been skipping around in it forever. If you join Safari, you get a 'free 45-day online edition' which might be worth it, since O'Reilly books are expensive and it's an easy way to read a lot of them. In any case, you might want to try the library. There are articles on Linux of course, Mozilla, open source and entrepreneurs/business, biology, Nupedia and Wikipedia, Europe, China, India, etc., and a few columns from Slashdot as well. There is also an 'Open Source Definition' and various open source licenses. I have to admit, first, I haven't been reading in detail, but for 'fun,' which it is, and second, I want to mention it in any case, i.e. without a detailed analysis (it is fun, relevant, part of an ongoing paradigm shift that is somewhat unprecedented, Lautreamont etc. notwithstanding), because you should somehow take a look at this book, as well as at its predecessors. Poems of the Masters, China's Classic Anthology of T'ang and Sung Dynasty Verse, Copper Canyon, translated by Red Pine. Wow! RP is my favorite translator of Chinese texts - for one thing, he almost always gives the original, so if you want to examine the characters, you can. For another, as I've pointed out before, there's no punctuation - the lines are open- ended, which parallels the Chinese. I like his Stonehouse and Cold Mountain Han Shan and Heart Sutra and Diamond Sutra and Tao te Ching translations, as well as his work on mountain hermits. Except for the Tao te Ching (which exists in various forms) or Gary Snyder's Cold Mountain, these seem perfect to me. Finally, Scenes for Mandarins, The Elite Theater of the Ming, Columbia, Cyril Birch - translations of scenes from Ming drama. The scenes are described and commented upon in detail. Ming drama is classical, highly polished, and the book is a great read. Why do so many books today have subtitles? The Brothers Karamazov, an Unfunny Family. Madame Bovary, or the Railroading Life and Times. They go on and on. That's about it. I hope you find this useful in some way. If nothing else, check out the Burke.