May 3, 2024

Mini review: “Dead in the Water” by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel (audiobook edition)

I picked this originally as it was shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year (2022) and it had gotten some excellent reviews.

This is an investigation into the wrecking of an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. The ship was boarded by pirates and sabotaged – at least that was the official story. When one of the people sent to assess the ship is murdered the official story starts to unravel to reveal an attempt to pull off a huge financial fraud.

The book is very good at uncovering how the world’s shipping industry works, with particular focus on how the massive vessels and their cargoes get insured. The amounts of money involved are huge (costs counted in the millions of dollars) as are the possible risks. Shipping’s importance is largely overlooked or taken for granted by most people but without insurance the industry would come to a halt and would bring the modern global economy with it.

The epicenter of the shipping insurance industry is London and in particular Lloyds of London (https://www.lloyds.com/) so it should come as no surprise that history, traditions and unconventional working practices are the norm. There’s insurance, reassurance, interested parties galore, not to mention the financial arrangements of the ship owners who position themselves behind shell companies and tax havens.

And that is why this case is particularly intriguing. It doesn’t happen very often that a case gets to court and this amount of information becomes available.

This is a very well written book and does an excellent job of shining a light on an industry which doesn’t get a lot of mainstream attention. However, as much as I would like to say that I agree with other reviews which state that it “has the feel of a thriller” (Sunday Times) or “reads like a fast-paced thriller” (The Times) or has “a thriller-like narrative” (Financial Times) I’m afraid that I found that it got itself bogged down in the innumerable details and the many people involved. Perhaps it would have been easier to follow if I had read the book rather than listened to it but I found that I was not be able to keep track of the various names and their roles which led to periods of confusion.

It’s a real shame. I was ready for the book to blow me away and it didn’t quite do that. This is a four star book rather than a five star book. I would still recommend it to people as it is a very good story and a strong piece of journalism – just be prepared to concentrate as you get towards the end.

Also:

• BBC: The Case of the Brillante Virtuoso

• BBC: Deep Waters: The hidden world of global shipping

• BBC: Lost At Sea (a podcast about another incident at sea – recommended)

• Bloomberg (by the authors of the book):

April 18, 2024

Mini review: “Red Queen” by Juan Gómez-Jurado (audiobook edition)

A while back I saw one of this author’s recent books in a Spanish airport and it said that he is the most popular thriller writer in Spain so I thought I’d look him up. I found an English translation of the first book in his hit trilogy – Reina Roja, or Red Queen.

The story is about the pairing of the most intelligent – but deeply emotionally scarred – woman in the world and a disgraced policeman. She is the star performer in a secret operation to solve the most challenging crimes and together they have to tackle a particularly sensitive case of murder and kidnapping.

It all sounded a bit preposterous to me and I tend to shy away from this type of book in case they get too violent or graphic (and highlight the psychopathic tendencies of the author). But reviews showed how popular the series is so I gave it a go.

It took a while to get going but that was largely the need to introduce the characters. Everything was chugging along ok until around half way through when I got hooked. One of the scenes was particularly well written and from then on I had to keep listening. When I turned round the book was finished and I had to admit that I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

Other aspects: the translation seemed ok and the narration by audiobook narrator legend Scott Brick was good but nothing remarkable. One day I may well check out the Spanish audiobook to see if the language is any richer. It’s also narrated by a woman which seems like a good idea given that the central character is a woman. It’s a bit of a shame that the narrator isn’t female for the English version. There are not enough female audiobook narrators – full stop.

I’ll happily go on to the next book in the series, which has just recently come out in English. It’s getting better reviews than the first which is very promising. The only trouble is that the final book in the trilogy is not due out in English for another year. I may have to take a listen to the original language version – it would be my first Spanish audiobook.

March 29, 2024

Film review: Dune: Part Two (IMAX version)

Totally brilliant. Perfect storytelling. Perfect moviemaking. Not a wasted minute. Looks and sounds exquisite in IMAX.

• Spare Cycles: Mini review: “Dune” by Frank Herbert (audiobook version)

• Spare Cycles: The Art of “Dune” by Frank Herbert

March 22, 2024

Certified Kubernetes Administrator

This blog has been quiet for a while, mainly as I have not had many spare cycles available.

I’ve been busy delving more into Cloud Native technologies, in particular Kubernetes, and am proud to say that I am now a Certified Kubernetes Administrator.

January 6, 2024

Mini review: “The Scarlet Papers” by Matthew Richardson (audiobook edition)

This has been widely praised as the spy book of the year (2023) so it was always going to be read at some point.

The story involves a legendary spy, Scarlet King, who in her old age writes a memoir detailing many secrets, some of which the British government really does not want to become public. She contacts a historian who specialises in the intelligence services – someone who could vet the book and vouch for it’s authenticity. Things get more complex from there as the plot unfolds.

There is a lot to like about this book – it reminds me a lot of the Len Deighton books that I enjoy so much. There is a measured development of the background and the characters, followed by the action kicking off in earnest. Scarlet King is an excellent character. Deighton’s books demonstrate the work and skill involved in coming up with a detailed, coherent plot and that is also reflected here. The impact of growing old, seeing how characters change over time and how this affects their influence and power – all done well. I also like the way that real life people and events are woven into the fiction – or is it the other way around?

But this is not necessarily the classic that it is made out to be. The story seems to take a few steps too far, losing the edge it had built up. Also, in relation to the narration, the switching between a male and a female narrator works well (why not a female narrator all the way through?) and both do a good job at telling the story. Where they both fall down is when they attempt to do characters of the opposite sex – neither can quite pull it off. I felt that some of the nuance of the words was lost – I definitely got the impression that if I was reading the book I would have imagined a different intonation of the dialogue and ended up with a tougher view of some characters.

I would definitely recommend the book, just temper your expectations and don’t believe all the hype. This is all about enjoying the journey.

November 30, 2023

Review: “The Coming Wave” by Mustafa Suleyman (audiobook edition)

It’s been a year since ChatGPT was released and immediately caught on. This is the first time that I can remember where a system based around artificial intelligence has really fired the public’s imagination – and the subject of AI has remained in the headlines ever since.

This recent book is by one of the founders of DeepMind, one of the highest profile AI companies (best known for systems that can beat world champion players at the Chinese strategy game Go and help advance research into protein-related disease prevention).

The main point of the book is to highlight the risks posed by the simultaneous arrival of two revolutionary technologies: artificial intelligence / robotics and synthetic biology.

These technologies will be crucial in tackling the big challenges of the 21st century – especially the climate crisis, feeding a world of 8 billion people and an aging population. We will need improving technology just to maintain our current economic levels. The trouble is that they are also general use technologies. This means that they could be put to use doing a wide range of jobs (ultimately almost all?) and being better than humans at the tasks.

The most vivid way that the subject has been discussed is AI’s potential to become an artificial general intelligence – a system more intelligent than humans that could ultimately lead to the destruction of the human race itself.

The trouble is that would seem like being a long way off and slightly preposterous (think Terminator killer robots) meaning that most people would not see the need to act. The threat is much more imminent than most people think (within the space of a few years at worst) because to pose a real threat to our economic welfare it would only take what the author calls ACI, or “artificial capable intelligence”.

Sometimes when authors delve into speculation you think that they are being fanciful and indulging their own imagination. These ideas do not seem too far fetched and are delivered in a measured way without hysterics so hopefully they will be listened to and deeply considered by many people.

The biggest impacts are going to be to society. Beyond the risk to employment, reduction in cost means that the products that these technologies enable will be available to everyone regardless of their ideals or motivations. People will be using them for good and bad. Every threat that we currently see online will be multiplied; these technologies will be used by individuals, terrorists or political organisations looking to promote their cause. As we know, it only takes a single action to provoke repercussions around the world for decades.

Then there are the more mundane issues when machines manage greater aspects of everyday life – unintended consequences of errors, unexpected edge cases, exploitation of flaws in logic or programming.

The challenge is that the only institutions able to do anything on the scale required are nation state governments – using regulation to contain the technologies. This is an area where the book is particularly strong. Are governments up to the task of managing this level of technological change? There is already mistrust in politicians in many countries around the world. Despite this, regulation is starting to happen – both the US and the EU have initial legally binding legislation either in place or underway. The UK convened an AI Safety Summit where many countries agreed a non legally binding Declaration. See the links below for details.

The book then takes on a more serious tone as we start looking at some of the concrete steps that can be taken. These are proposals, for example, that would limit the power of an AI model by limiting the hardware it runs on, having in-depth audits so that we know what is going on and analysing what is being generated by synthetic biology. It is refreshing to see a book that can put forward solutions as well as just lay out the challenges.

Despite everything, there is still a whiff of hypocrisy here that I cannot shake. It is good that we have an AI industry insider with influence in the right circles who has evidently thought through the situation and seems to have the best of intentions. No doubt there are many others in the field who lack the same principles or are willing to play more fast and loose with the technology.

However, here is someone who has started one of the most successful AI companies, sold it to Google and no doubt pocketing a lot of money in the process – enough to ride out any wave that comes along. Having failed to get Google to legally commit to the safeguards he was trying to push on them, he sells to them anyway. One course of action could have been to refuse to sell to Google if they would not follow through on his ethical concerns. His next move is to start up another AI company. Then he writes a book about how bad his work could end up being for the rest of society. For me, this attitude reminds me of the attitudes around the 2008 financial crisis: “Private profit, public debt”. A few people make all the money and societies have to bail the system out when it all goes too far. Except this time there is no bail out big enough and by the time that governments realise one is necessary it will be too late.

Anyway, despite these reservations on principals, his arguments are clear, easy to digest and persuasive. It is the best book around to explain the threats posed by, and the ethics around, the coming convergence of super-powerful technologies that will have huge impacts on the way we work and live. It is a successful mix of “popular science” book likely to appeal to a broad audience, an outline of the issues posed and some practical actions that could be taken.

This is an essential read for anyone planning on living and working during the next couple of decades.

Article: The Mirai Confessions (Wired, November 2023)

The author, Andy Greenberg, describes this article as “an epic, untold, 22,000-word tale of cybercrime, friendship, chaos, betrayal, paranoia, and redemption”.

He is not wrong.

This is some fantastic reporting. It is the story of the creation of the Mirai botnet and the havoc it created by allowing massive distributed denial-of-service attacks on websites.

The audio version on the page clocks in at nearly 2 1/2 hours.

He has a history of excellent writing on computer security, having written one of my favourite books of the year “Tracers in the Dark” – the story of how American law-enforcement agencies have been able to tackle illegal activity online that is being paid for in Bitcoin.

This is an essential read.

• Wired: The Mirai Confessions: Three Young Hackers Who Built a Web-Killing Monster Finally Tell Their Story

November 7, 2023

Review: The Darktown Trilogy by Thomas Mullen (audiobook editions)

Reading this trilogy was initially intended to be a long term project that I would slowly work through alongside other books, something that I don’t normally do. It turned out that I raced through them.

The books are set in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States in the late 1940s and 1950s, a time when society was dominated by racial segregation. They are not pleasant reading – racism, violence, murder, language that many (including myself) find offensive. The first two in particular are riveting, drawing you in, exposing how life was in a most visceral way. Despite these stories being set around 75 years ago the issues they raise are still very relevant today, and not just in the USA.

The first book in the series, Darktown, is the fictionalised story of the city’s first 8 black policemen and the challenges they faced on all sides. It focuses on a case of a young black woman last seen with a white man and who later is found dead. Two of the new black officers believe that white officers are involved. The black policemen are severely restricted by the rules they have to work under – they are limited to their areas and are strictly beat cops who cannot investigate crimes. They have to break the rules, at huge risk to themselves, to figure out what is going on.

Their biggest challenge comes from other police officers. Many are racists who are quick to use excessive violence against the black people they come across. Black lives do not matter to them, often used as scapegoats. A lot of the officers are on the take, receiving payoffs from criminals of all colours in return for protection of the various rackets, in particular selling illegal alcohol. White officers mostly have little respect for the new black officers and are more than willing to undermine them whenever possible.

These are believable characters and a strong story.

Lightning Men, the second book, takes the main characters and gives you a lot more insight into their backgrounds, family tensions and flaws. It undermines some of the assumptions you may have been making, blurring lines, no-one being as pure as you may have believed, making this an even better story than the first.

Set two years after Darktown, the focus is on the racial tensions that arise as black people start to move into traditionally white areas. They are targets not only of the Klu Klux Klan but also of the Columbians, a neo-nazi group. These aspects are based on fact which only make them more powerful.

One thing that did not occur to me until I finished the book was how impressively some of the more violent scenes were written – almost cinematic in a way. The descriptions are not overtly graphic and are all the more effective for being simple acts which build upon each other. There is always a sense of menace, a profound uneasiness – and a sickening impact that cannot be fully assessed until the dust settles.

The final book, Midnight Atlanta, is set a further 6 years later and during this time things have changed quite dramatically. The tone is distinctly different – this story is basically a whodunnit where someone gets murdered and whilst it is a good story it does seem a bit pedestrian in comparison with the force and power of the earlier books. As much as I hate to say it, I think this is a missed opportunity – there is a backdrop of forced urban renewal, the rise of Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Park’s Montgomery bus boycott but what we get instead is a cast of too many characters and some over-egged stuff about communism.

These being audiobooks, a note on the narrators and sound quality is necessary. For Darktown the actor Andre Holland does a superlative job of telling the story. Wonderfully paced, exquisitely realised, up with the best performances of an audiobook I have ever heard. He hails from a place only around 3 hours from Atlanta and it adds something special to the telling. I would highly recommend listening to the audiobook version. For Lightning Men and Midnight Atlanta there is a different narrator who does a very credible job – Damian Lynch in the versions I listened to – but I don’t think he nails it in quite the same way. It’s a shame as it means that both books lack some of the natural fluidity that Andre Holland managed to achieve. In Lightning Men there are quite big gaps sometimes between sentences which can be somewhat off-putting. Midnight Atlanta is better in that regard but it suffers from another problem – it is clear that on several occasions little sections have been re-recorded. They sound different and as someone who listens to a lot of audiobooks perhaps I am particularly sensitive to it. I find it quite jarring and publishers should know by now that it is not acceptable in an audiobook. Otherwise the narration of Midnight Atlanta is really well done.

In conclusion, I would say that Darktown and Lightning Men are both essential reading but Midnight Atlanta is strictly optional.

Also:

• NLEOMF: The “YMCA” Cops

• History Atlanta: Atlanta’s First Black Police Officers

• Wikipedia: Jim Crow Laws

• NPR: ‘Darktown’ Imagines What It Was Like For Atlanta’s First Black Policemen

If you like the Darktown trilogy, here are some other recommended reads:

Spare Cycles: Nathan Heller books by Max Allan Collins
Mini review: “True Detective” by Max Allan Collins (audiobook version)
Mini review: “True Crime” by Max Allan Collins (audiobook version)
Mini review: “The Million-Dollar Wound” by Max Allan Collins (audiobook version)
Mini review: Chicago Lightning – The Collected Nathan Heller Short Stories
Spare Cycles: James Ellroy books
Mini review: American Tabloid
Review: The Cold Six Thousand
Spare Cycles: City Blues Quartet

September 11, 2023

Mini review: “Fire Weather” by John Vaillant (audiobook edition)

As I write in September 2023, Britain is experiencing an unprecedented heatwave where temperatures have topped 30ºC for at least 7 days. This is no match for the 40ºC we experienced last summer but it follows recent massive wildfires in Greece which have been declared the biggest ever recorded in the EU.

It seemed like an appropriate time to read / listen to this book. Despite it being non-fiction I raced through it in a couple of days as if it were a thriller – it is addictive and, frankly, one of the scariest things I have ever read. It is also one of the best books I have read and I encourage everyone to read it.

Initially I was surprised that I don’t remember it being reported at the time but a search shows that it was reported. Britain was 7 weeks away from voting in the Brexit referendum, an event whose run-up and aftermath was all-consuming in and of itself and my attention would have been elsewhere.

The scale of the wildfire cannot really be comprehended despite the excellent way in which the power, ferocity and speed are described or the fire’s structure and mode of operation explained.

Parallel to the story of the fire itself is a look at the growth of the industry surrounding the exploitation of the Canadian tar / oil sands. It is not oil but rather bitumen that is mined – something which has to be refined extensively before it becomes a petrol. Financially it is not cost-effective some of the time, it leads to massive environmental destruction and the pressures of the work can lead to mental health issues. The book does make you think, given all that, why do corporations and people do it? Money, pure and simple, spurred by mankind’s insatiable need for energy. I was reminded of the many times I read The Lorax by Dr Seuss to my children.

If I have any issue with the book it’s with the subtitle: “A True Story From A Hotter World” – I don’t think that it ultimately reflects the full extent of what the book delivers. It starts with a focus on the Fort McMurray fire but broadens it’s scope way beyond that. It also goes indepth on the experiences of fire in Australia and California, how the world is now experincing new types of extreme weather and how they have become year-round threats rather than isolated events in distinct seasons. But what struck me was how we get a whole section looking at the history of climate change discoveries and revelations of who-knew-what-when. For me, it came out of the blue and contrasted with the “thriller” aspect of the earlier content. By the end of that section it is perfectly clear that you cannot argue with the science behind climate change. In fact, it is so clear and effective it would make an excellent mini-book all by itself. The author then brings things back together nicely, re-introducing the characters of the McMurray fire and balancing that with how the overall situation has changed in the last few years as environmental concerns have become increasingly important and influential.

The narrator does a low-key, excellent job – I find that non-fiction books can often be read by some soulless default American accent that sucks any of the vigour out of the story. Not so here. He is a Canadian reading a Canadian story and he has a slight gravelly aspect to his voice which adds a kind of cinematic feel – just a touch of the voice in the movie trailers that start “In a world where…”. It is perfectly paced – a lot of the time I have to listen to audiobooks at 1.1x or 1.2x speed but for once I just left it on the default and let it power on. No nonsense of trying to imitate an accent and failing. Good stuff.

Also:

• The Guardian: ‘Absolutely apocalyptic’: Fort McMurray evacuees describe terror of Alberta wildfires

•The Guardian: Alberta wildfires leave Fort McMurray charred and desolate – in pictures

• The Guardian: ‘Like Nagasaki’: devastating wildfires will only get worse, new book warns

• CBC: John Vaillant’s Fire Weather looks at the Fort McMurray wildfire and a ‘new century of fire’

• CBC: Massive ’21st-century’ fires are here to stay — and we need to update how we fight them, says author

August 23, 2023

Mini review: “The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World” by Tim Marshall (audiobook edition)

I liked Marshall’s “Prisoners of Geography” and have dipped into the follow-up “The Power of Geography” but I was quite surprised to see that his latest book is about the final frontier – space. However, it is actually quite timely.

After a bit of history the author looks at the legal situation in relation to space. It’s clear that it is a mess. Any previous legislation is either very old or very imprecise in it’s language. Even in newer laws the wording is open to broad interpretation. Some countries have signed up to agreements, others haven’t. How are private companies going to be regulated?

The explanation of the areas of space around the Earth and the distances involved is very interesting.

When it comes to space exploration there are 3 main players – China, the US and Russia. The analysis of these countries is very good. The other countries that want to have a role in space are examined – the Europeans (France, Germany, Italy), the UK (barely), Japan, South Korea, India, Israel, the UAE, Australia and several African countries – but ultimately most fall very far behind the big three.

The military implications for space (unfortunately / unsurprisingly) take up a lot of the book’s content. What happens up there will inevitably be an extension of what goes on at ground level. The author puts forward some scenarios about how military conflict could spread out into space in what at first comes over as a bit of a flight of fancy. However, the ideas that underpin the scenarios are plausible and therefore somewhat chilling.

This is a relatively short book at around 7 hours so it is easily digested over a few days.

As an audiobook this works particularly well – the author does a good job of reading his own book. He has a relaxed style which, in particular, successfully puts over the humour. His ability to tell a story would make him an excellent dinner party guest.

If you are interested in space it is definitely worth reading. If you’re not particularly interested in space but liked Marshall’s previous books then there is still a lot to learn and chew over. Like me, you might not have thought about the implications of something that is actually going to become very real soon enough.

Also (Space seems to be in the news quite a lot recently…):

• Wired: India’s Lander Touches Down on the Moon. Russia’s Has Crashed (August 2023)

• Wired: Satellites Are Rife With Basic Security Flaws

• Security Now: Satellite Insecurity Part 1

• Security Now: Satellite Insecurity Part 2

• Malicious Life podcast: How to Hack Into Satellites

• The Guardian: Nasa aims to mine resources on moon in next decade

• The Guardian: Whisper it, but Scotland is on the verge of becoming a space superpower

• The Guardian: British satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

• The Guardian: Space race 2.0: why Europe is joining the new dash to the moon

• The Guardian: The Guardian: Moon’s resources could be ‘destroyed by thoughtless exploitation’, Nasa warned (January 2024)

• Lex Fridman Podcast: Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin (Episode 405)