Tagged: Comment

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

Mini review: “The Establishment: And how they get away with it” by Owen Jones (audiobook version)

establishment_cover

This is a brilliant book that does not pull any punches.  To be fair, you can pretty much tell how much you are going to appreciate the book just by reading the title.  However, don’t think that the author just picks on the Tory party – the Labour party and all politicians in general come into the firing line, over a long period of time.

Points raised include:

• the impact of intrinsic government relationships with the media, the police, big business, the financial world

• how risk and costs remain with the state whilst profit heads towards the private sector

• the different ways in which the rich and poor in society are treated by government

• the close ties between politicians in government and right-wing think-tanks that allow ideas to be floated that politicians could not raise themselves without risking the wrath of the people (eg privatisation of the NHS).  These policy ideas – if taken up by politicians – would just happen to nicely benefit the backers of the think-tanks.  It is hard to determine the precise motives of these think-tanks as they do not widely publicise where their funding comes from.  Despite that it is clear that a core principle is to roll back the role of the state

• the sense of entitlement felt by members of the Establishment and how politicians felt free to fiddle expenses, as if they are envious of the people who have become rich on the back of the policies they have introduced.

A note about the narration of the audiobook version: in general this is very well read, adding just the right amount of vitriol when necessary but I found it a bit irritating how the narrator tries to differentiate the written text and quotes.  Quotes from men are all in the same gruff voice and he manages women with only moderate success.  To throw in some inconsistency he tries the odd impression of some of the more well known characters in the book and attempts some foreign accents.

As I write this it is the day after the 2015 UK General Election.  The expected hung parliament / coalition government outcome did not come about – instead the Conservatives managed to win a majority.  The Scottish National Party won nearly every seat in Scotland and the Liberal Democrats were nearly wiped off the political map despite being the minor partner in the previous coalition government and holding a number of the Cabinet ministerial positions.  The Labour and Lib Dem leaders resigned this morning, as did the leader of the UK Independence Party.  I mention this because the result must surely make the Establishment believe that they now have no opposition, that they are invincible.  The outcome of the election is that a lot of the people who actually have experience of running the country or holding high-ranking positions in the opposition are no longer around.  A new, more inexperienced generation of politicians will now be in power.  I suspect that the Establishment will be able to run rings around this fledgling bunch and that ties to the Conservative government will only get stronger.

The bottom line: if you live in the UK you should read this book.

Also…

• The Guardian: Owen Jones

• The Guardian: “The case for cuts was a lie. Why does Britain still believe it?  The austerity delusion” by Paul Krugman

• Spare Cycles: Review: Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World (Audiobook)

• The Guardian: General Election 2015

Humans Need Not Apply…

This great video explains who is at threat from automation in the workplace.  Watch it and, like me, try to think what you can do about it…

See also:

• Spare Cycles: Article: Better Than Human (Wired)

• Spare Cycles: Mini review: “The Second Machine Age” by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (audiobook version)

• Spare Cycles: Mini Review: Race Against The Machine

• Spare Cycles: Mini review: The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future

• Spare Cycles: Article: Migrant Workers in China Face Competition from Robots (Technology Review)

• BuzzMachine.com: The jobless future

• Douglas Rushkoff : Are Jobs Obsolete?

• Wired: Raging Bulls: How Wall Street Got Addicted to Light-Speed Trading

Mini review: “Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe” by George Dyson (audiobook version)

turingcathedral

This is the story of the early development of the computer in the United States, one that is inextricably linked to the creation of the atomic and hydrogen bombs. Despite Turing’s name in the title, he only plays a small role.  Rather, this book concerns John von Neumann and the Institute for Advanced Study – how a group of mathematicians and engineers took Turing’s idea of a Universal machine and made one of the early computers.

I am conflicted about this book.  It is a definitive telling of the story of what happened on the other side of the Atlantic and I do recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.  On the other hand, it can be rather dry and contains some largely unnecessary information.  I’m all for details to make the history come alive, but some passages take you into quite long diversions from the tale being told.  This could put off some readers early on, but I’d advise you to stick with it.  Also, towards the end of the book the author tries to link the early developments with the internet and technology companies of today but he doesn’t do a particularly good job.  To me it seemed redundant.

In relation to the audiobook version, the narrator does as a professional job – another default American male voice.  It can be a little monotonous, but consistent.  He does a good job with some challenging names of people and places.  There are a lot of characters in this book and he wisely does not try to give each person their own voice.

Overall I would recommend this book.  It is not perfect but in general it is a good story well told.  This is one of the rare books where I would recommend you go for the paper version – there can be a lot to digest at points and it would be easier to follow.  At some point I will pick up a copy myself, not to fully re-read but to be able to refer back to.

 

• The Wall Street Journal: The Nucleus of the Digital Age

• The Guardian:  Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson – review

Radiolab: 60 Words

I like listening to RadioLab, it’s always interesting.  However, with this episode they really nailed it.  This is some of the best journalism I’ve heard (seen / read etc).

How they describe it:

This hour we pull apart one sentence, written in the hours after September 11th, 2001, that has led to the longest war in U.S. history. We examine how just 60 words of legal language have blurred the line between war and peace.

In the hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a lawyer sat down in front of a computer and started writing a legal justification for taking action against those responsible. The language that he drafted and that President George W. Bush signed into law – called the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) –  has at its heart one single sentence, 60 words long. Over the last decade, those 60 words have become the legal foundation for the “war on terror.”

The whole episode is worth listening to but the highlight for me is the story of the Congresswoman who voted against the original bill. Absolutely fascinating.

• Radiolab: 60 Words

Google Chromecast: First Impressions

chromecast1

These are my first impressions of the Google Chromecast.  A bit of context before I start – I’m primarily an iPhone user running iOS 7 and that is what I’m using to control the Chromecast.

I’m in the UK and I’ve been looking for a reliable way to watch the BBC iPlayer on my old-ish TV.  In the past I have linked up a laptop which was not a very good experience and have even tried using the Blu-ray player which said it would work but was an abject failure.  Both required a long network cable to go from the router to the TV via the length of the living room floor – not good.

£30 for a good wireless solution to this problem did not seem unreasonable given the length of time I’ve actually wanted this to work (can’t miss the results show of Strictly Come Dancing).  I knew that the Chromecast wasn’t advertised to work with many services, but the BBC and YouTube was good enough for me.

My TV had a spare HDMI port but no USB ports which means that the Chromecast has to be powered using the plug adapter supplied (the unit can be powered via a USB port if you have one).

The first problem I had was that I needed to find it’s MAC address so that I could add it to my router so that it could get access to the wireless network.  This was not marked on the box that the Chromecast came in, was not on the unit itself and was not shown in the PC application you download that configures it.  I downloaded the iPhone app and found it in there.

Once the Chromecast had permission to get on to the wireless network I ran through the various steps of the PC application.  There were a couple of things I found dubious about the setup:

– It asks you for the password to join the wireless network but has a button beside the password field and when you click this it actually fills in the password for you – is the unit interrogating the router for the information?.  If so this makes me a bit uneasy.

– There is a point where it says that your computer (ie the PC that you are setting things up on, which in my case was using a wireless internet connection) will lose it’s internet connection for a short period.  I happened to notice on my iPhone that a second wireless network appeared for that time.  Does the Chromecast have the ability to broadcast as a wireless hotspot when it wants to?

It’s a little unsettling that the Chromecast, now a full commercial product, appears to be cutting some corners in the setup procedure just to improve ease of use.

So, how well does it work?

It still has some rough edges and it is difficult to say if this just happens to me but when I switch the TV to the HDMI channel that it is plugged into I often have to wait a minute or so whilst the TV alternates between a black screen and a fuzzy screen.  I think this is happening because the Chromecast is in a sleep state and this is caused by it waking up.  It is not that the unit is not plugged in properly as once the Chromecast interface appears on the screen there is no more of this.

It takes the sheen off a product that I’m otherwise very happy with.

Both the BBC iPlayer and YouTube apps work without problems and so far the image quality on screen is good and there have been no interruptions in playback, although I’ve been playing with the device when the BBC iPlayer service is not busy.

One pleasant surprise is that I discovered that my favourite podcasting app on the iPhone – Downcast – supports the Chromecast.  The Cast icon just appeared in the app when it recognised the device was on.  It worked perfectly.  I could even stream high quality video via Downcast as well as audio that had been downloaded.  I was very pleased.

Playing some more, I installed Plex media server on my PC laptop and installed the app on my phone.  It worked well enough but I discovered that the Chromecast would not play music files encoded as Apple Lossless format.  The Plex app itself would play them but the ‘Cast refused.  This may be a really specific case, but it affects me.

Once you start getting used to using the Chromecast and having that functionality you start to want it in more apps.  This is specific to iOS devices as Android is a lot more open as to what can be done.  This is not the device’s fault but I hope that the Chromecast catches on enough that more app developers include the ability to send content to the device.  I now have an app that lets me show my phone’s pictures and videos on the TV which would be another main use.

I listen to a lot of audio rather than watch TV or video and I cannot yet find a decent iOS media player app that supports Casting.  I have a workaround which involves opening audio files in Downcast and Casting from there.  More about that another time.

Overall, I am pleased with the Chromecast.  It is definitely worth the money and has worked well so far.

 

“Mr Cerf” – Vint Cerf talks to Leo Laporte on Triangulation

I love listening to Vint Cerf talk – he is the type of representative that the technology industry needs more of.  Several years back now I had the chance to attend a lunchtime Q and A session with him  and I liked the level of thought he put into his responses.  So I was very pleased when two recent interviews with him came up…

Mini review: “The Collini Case” by Ferdinand von Schirach

This short book has received excellent reviews from all over the place.  I’m not sure why.

It is written well enough (at least in the English translation) and it certainly makes no attempts to stretch out the story unnecessarily. It’s a fairly simple story and easy to predict.

It’s only 190 pages long – there is nothing wrong with that – but the type in my printed copy was large. Printed at regular size it could go down to about 150 if not less. I feel a little short changed.

I never thought I’d say this but if you want a legal thriller then go for some John Grisham.