Dead Moon by Peter Clines (2019)

I am very disappointed.  The first two books were good, with clever weaving of Lovecraft's magic and history.  This one is a poorly conceived zombie apocalypse melee with bad space science. 1/5 Stars. 

The Bold by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole (2023)

I did not like this book because there was too much magic and too many D&D plot contrivances.  It was neither high fantasy nor close quarters combat military adventure. 2/5.  I am considering not reading the others in this series.

To err is human. To devastate, use computers

Simon Thorne wrote this interesting and thought-provoking piece about catastrophic consequences of human errors associated with spreadsheets. Some of my earliest research and  publications were in this area of ergonomics, and I am still interested in software quality. Here are some thoughts:

First of all, it is possible we can apply the ideas of large language models and generative AI to assuring quality in a few areas.  We can train, fine-tune, and task the models to search for the most-common issues that violate implicit and explicit requirements and expectations of the document, spreadsheet data, or software output.  Writing software tests is difficult and time consuming.  Generative AI models already write manu of my unit tests.  We can expand their use for negative tests in software, spreadsheet checkers, and document scanners.

Secondly, the engineering quality assurance (building quality in) and quality control (measuring quality) that has moved from older engineering disciplines such as civil engineering, construction, manufacturing, and software engineering can be applied to clerical knowledge work.  The magical "second pair of eyes" that checks work from accounting through code reviews should be applied to spreadsheets, documents, and knowledge work artifacts.

It is possible my cognitive bias to find patterns where none exist is suggesting an idea that is infeasible.  Or perhaps these concepts can be valuable.  What are your thoughts?

Little Sister by Jason Anspach, audiobook (2023)

Although not nearly as much fun as the Galaxy's Edge series Anspach writes together with Nick Cole, the D&D universe of the Forgotten Ruin is also fun.  3/5 Stars.

The Fold by Peter Clines (2016)

This second volume of the "Threshold" series is just as good as the first book. 5/5 Stars.  I need to grab and read the last two books.

Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood by Anthony Kaldellis (2017)

I don't usually enjoy history textbooks that are too dense with names, dates, events, facts, and numbers.  This book is an exception.  The author is very careful to explain why most records of the events depicted are so unreliable and offers evidence and careful speculation.  There are many fascinating revelations. 4/5 Stars.

Kämpf um Deine Daten von Max Schrems (2014)

Dieses Buch ist viel besser als ich erwartet hatte. Der Autor erläutert sorgfältig schwierige, nuancierte Themen im Zusammenhang mit dem Datenschutz. Er geht durch das Spektrum kultureller Sensibilitäten, Werte und Bräuche, die mit persönlichen Informationen verbunden sind. Schrems verbringt den größten Teil des Buches damit, die enorme Macht der Billionen-Dollar-Technologieriesen sowie die Ökosysteme kleiner Unternehmen zu beschreiben, die von der Nutzung und dem Missbrauch unserer privaten Informationen profitieren. Die scharfe Kritik und der Zorn lenken ein wenig ab, verleihen einem großartigen Buch aber etwas Würze. 5/5 Sterne.