The Last Shadow by Orson Scott Card

The author pulled off a very-satisfying conclusion to both "Ender's Game" universes, bridging the original series, its prequels, and the "Shadow" series together well.  He resolved most of the plot threads.  There was a little too much deus est machina in the magic systems, and the near-omnipotence of the main characters was unsatisfying.  However the story and endings have a "big heart" and I really enjoyed the prominence of all the "little things" and warm details. 5/5 Stars.

Ein Paar Leute suchen das Glück und lachen sich tot

Dieses Buch war ekelerregend schrecklich, 0/5 Sterne.

A Thousand Brains: A new theory of intelligence by Jeff Hawkins

I think this book was on Bill Gates' annual "best books I read list" of 2021.  The author is proposing a much-different and enormously rich, dense mechanism for how our neocortex is self-aware and intelligent.  It's a great theory and does fit most of the phenomena observed in neuroscience. When Hawkins wanders into ethics and philosophy, his writing is not as strong.  4/5 Stars.  I bought the hard back as a gift for someone special.

Convergence by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole (Galaxy's Edge #13)

I was disappointed by this one, mostly because I don't like the main characters.  The dialog is good but the story is not great, 3/5 Stars.

Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey

The poignant, bitter-sweet conclusion of this fantastic series is another well-crafted story with an interesting series of plot twists at the end.  I look forward to the "filler" novellas of material the editors cut out and hope these two authors continue to collaborate on future projects.  5/5 Stars.

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson

Another fantastic work by one of my favorite writers.  This one is much better than Fall, even more fun and better than REAMDE.  I loved all of the colorful characters and the eye-opening immersion into the circumstances and cultures of important but obscure parts of the world.  The physics and engineering were icing on the cake, topping off one of Stephenson's best-ever novels. 5/5 Stars.  Highly recommended.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

I enjoyed the story, characters, and cultural immersion into a "slice of life" of this interesting time in our history.  Towles experimented with shifting first-person narration among the characters so that we can get into their internal dialog, values, and attitudes. This technique has drawbacks but enhances the reader's immersion into the story.  I think Gentleman in Moscow is better but I really love this one as well. 5/5 Stars.

Most tech folks dislike tickets and everyone hates JIRA

Arnaud Porterie wrote about the "ticketing system" problems most global-5000 tech organizations have. His company "Echos" is trying to help solve some of these problems.  Arnaud gives some very-compelling arguments about why ticketing systems are abused for multiple purposes.  Ticketing system overuse (especially JIRA) disempowers the product or development teams forced to comply with tops-down disempowerment.  I have personally watched this phenomenon taken to an extreme recently.

I agree with the elegance of linking to task tracking using github labels instead of tickets or extra github issues.  I am curious if developers and product teams actually enter data for all the purposes he describes in his company's product.  I suspect many teams are just not good at communicating in general.  I have seen a lot of content-free or incomprehensible updates in whichever system(s) the team is using, even when the team embraces their role of being ticket monkeys.

However, if the leadership of an enterprise is enlightened and wants to empower their teams, the Echos product looks pretty good.

In Extremis by Steve White & Charles E Gannon

The space opera series started by David Weber is picked up by his collaborators.  Interesting economics and politics.  Decent story, 4/5 Stars.

Cheap, thoughtful gift for the Unix expert

click here to order

It's been a couple of years since we could walk the vendor booths at tech conferences and pick up stickers to give out to our teams or put on our laptop lids.  stickermule.com has us covered.  For $1 (including free shipping) you can send your friends a sticker pack instead of or in addition to your Holiday greeting card.

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

The updates at the end belong embedded in each chapter.  Getting the 1994 version of the science, and then reading the appendix with updates is unsatisfying and lazy editing. Overall the book is extremely interesting and entertaining, dense with facts, data, and humor.  5/5 Stars.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

After many years of pushing this battered, dog-eared book down on my reading stack, I finally picked it up as a welcome break from space opera and popular science.  The non-stop cajoling of my family finally overwhelmed my hedonistic reading proclivities.   The book and story are as fantastic as my family promised. The deep insights into culture and geopolitics of (what are in 2021) Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola are still extremely valuable.  I am sorry I did not read this book decades ago.  5/5 Stars.

Exodus by Steve White, Shirley Meier

Interesting story line with odd, immortal aliens.  3/5 Stars.

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre

Fantastic historically accurate biography of the top Russian spy during the second world war.  Well-crafted, entertaining, and still relevant, 5/5 Stars.

Silverview by John Le Carré

The old master has crafted another great story, 4/5 Stars.  The "B" stories are great and the characters are fantastic.

to sleep in a sea of stars

Great space opera with a decent magic system and great characters.  Despite the contrivances and poor motivations I loved the story, 5/5 Stars.

The Fifth Heart

Fun story, 4/5 Stars.

Interesting article in Nature

This week's Nature has an interesting and comprehensive paper about my son's research in organoid development using pressure and geometric constraints.

The Shiva Option by David Weber and Steve White

Larger fleets, non-stop interstellar combat, one-dimensional good guys and bad bad guys, great entertainment, 4/5 Stars.

In Death Ground (Starfire Book 2) by David Weber & Steve White

Interesting WW1 wet Navy battleship battles set in a space opera.  The science, economics, aliens, physics, etc. are quite poor but the characters and storyline are fun. It is very light, entertaining "brain candy," 4/5 Stars.

Billy Summers by Stephen King

Well-crafted, immersive, good story. 5/5 Stars.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Gripping, immersive, detailed life and times of Thomas Cromwell at a critical time in English history. Very long and detailed, 3/5 Stars.

Rescue by Ryk Brown

I need a reminder every few years why Ryk Brown is not worth reading, 2/5 Stars.

Crusade (Starfire book 1) by David Weber & Steve White

Interesting universe for a space opera with decent politics so far. Not Weber's best series 3/5 Stars.

Walk the Wire by David Baldacci

Not very good but enjoyable "thriller," 3/5 Stars.

In Fury Born by David Weber

Space opera in Weber's "Honor Harrington" style, lots of fun, 4/5 Stars.

8 Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

I am uncomfortable with "unreliable narrator" stories but the plot and mystery of this one is interesting.  The casual psychopathy & sociopathy of most of the characters is also very uncomfortable. 3/5 Stars.

The Heilmeier Catechism

George H Heilmeier directed the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency from 1975 to 1977.  He created the following 9 questions for the agency and grant applications to evaluate research programs:

• What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
• How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
• What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
• Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make?
• What are the risks?
• How much will it cost?
• How long will it take?
• What are the midterm and final "exams" to check for success?

These questions became known as the "Heilmeier Catechism" and we still use them.

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds

Fantastic. 5/5 Stars.

The Year's Best Science Fiction 2002 19th annual collection ed. by Gardner Dozois

Many of the stories were very good and I had read very few of them so it was enjoyable. 4/5 Stars.

Devoted by Dean Koontz

The occult horror & terrible science detracts from the story but it's still enjoyable, 3/5 Stars.

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

Lots of fun, 5/5 Stars.

Closer to truth: Asking the Ultimate Questions with the Great Thinkers of Our Time by Robert L Kuhn

I watch some of the "closer to truth" youtube videos sometimes; a few of the episodes I have seen appear in this audible collection.  The popular, approachable metaphysics is sometimes fun and sometimes not very exciting.  3/5 Stars.

Dispatcher by John Scalzi

An odd, interesting premise and fun detective story, 4/5 Stars.

Sooley by John Grisham

I always enjoy Grisham's books and sometimes prefer the "sports" novels.  This one does not disappoint, 5/5 Stars.

Dark Victory by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

The series continues, 5/5 Stars.

Forward Collection on Audible by Blake Crouch et. al.

Audible gathered great stories by the most-popular writers and the collection is very good, 4/5 Stars.

Missing You by Harlan Coban

Extremely thrilling and engrossing, but too many "B stories" with too much confluence, 4/5 Stars.

Galaxy's Edge Takeover by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

The adventures continue in "season 2."  Fun, 5/5 Stars.

customer delight level objectives (DLO's)

Most technology organizations have embraced the shift away from 20th century service level agreements (SLAs) and 19th century availability measures of "mean time between failures" (MTBF)  mean time to repair (MTTR).  Everyone is looking at service level objectives (SLO's) which are customer-perspective measures of your service, outage budgets, and service level indicators (SLI's).  SLI's are numerical observations and, one hopes near-isomorphic mappings to SLOs.

I perceive that direct customer feedback, engagement, & emotion are missing from our measurements.  When we formulate our objectives, measurements, and actions, we make terrible assumptions about what our customers want, how they feel, and if they like what we have delivered.

I am therefore proposing that instead of Service Level Objectives and outage budgets we should start with Customer Delight Objectives (DLOs).  Delighting customers is all that matters.  We ignore direct customer feedback, customer sentiment, and customer promotion of our service at our peril.

Root Cause Analysis of SUCCESS

Here is another great analogy about root causes of successes and failures in systems that lends insight into resiliency.  It's fun food for thought.

The Egg by Andy Weir

I enjoyed this story.  5/5 Stars.

Mythos by Stephen Fry

Despite the detailed depth, breadth, and "phone book" lists of names, I enjoyed this book because of the humor and writing style, 3/5 Stars.

Citadel Palladium Wars book 3 by Marko Kloos

The story is starting to pick up a little; but the "secret weapon" is silly, 3/5 Stars.

Savage Wars by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

I enjoy these stories and this one was fun.  4/5 Stars.

DownBelow Station by C. J. Cherryh

Cherryh's writing style never "clicked" with me during the golden years of science fiction (when the reader is 14-16 years old). This story and the narration perspectives are fantastic and I was able to put up with her style to enjoy it, 3/5 Stars.

Order of the Centurion by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

I enjoy this universe and their writing; this one had a few physics problems that pushed me out of the story. 3/5 Stars.

Citadel: The Palladium Wars book 3

Fun, interesting.  Good plot twists; 4/5 Stars.

The Rules of Civility by Amore Towles

Having been blown away by his latest book, A Gentleman in Moscow, I had to read his earlier book.  I do not care as much about the history, setting, or characters of this story.  It is extremely well-crafted and immersive, though.  3/5 Stars.