Libraries

Where I live in King County, Washington, USA, the libraries and all of their services are completely free.  The buildings provide great meeting rooms, free WiFi, computers, printing , research, and dozens of other community services, in addition to books, media, and online services.  

I am also a member of the Association of Berlin's public libraries aka Verbund der Öffentlichen Bibliotheken Berlins (VÖBB).  They charge $12 per year for their services. It's a great deal for access to all their online media.  But it's interesting how differently our cultures and societies perceive taxes and fairness.

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas (2016)

For those of us who love Laurie King's Mary Russel books, here is another great author who embraces the Victorian era and the famous Sherlock Holmes tropes. Especially well-presented in this series is Holmes's near-psychic ability to divine information from subtle clues.  Although the feminism and outrage is a little bit exaggerated, the plot, characters, mystery, and story-telling are fantastic. I enjoyed it enormously. 4/5 Stars.

Mein Leben als Suchmaschine von Horst Evers

Witzig, geistreich und manchmal sehr lustig. Aber es gibt immer noch zu viele übertriebene peinliche Momente und Schadenfreude für mich. 3/5 Sterne.

The Cunning by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole (2023)

Better than the first book. Fun D&D adventure with less magic and gratuitous bronze age close quarters combat. 4/5 Stars.

Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds (2024)

It's wonderful that the author has returned to his Revelation Space universe to write thriller cop stories again.  I enjoyed this one, despite the inconsistent magic system. 5/5 Stars.

Measure What Matters by John Doerr (2018)

When I read books written by successful venture capitalists or megalomaniacal leaders, I am uncomfortably reminded of Peter Thiel's power law concept in Zero to One, and the modern business reality that success means complete, ruthless domination, including out-competing all rivals.  John Doerr is a fiery-eyed "true believer" zealot of his OKR process.  The book is over the top with superlatives and examples. The book is a "hard sell" campaign to convince the reader to adhere to this goal setting methodology, and an homage to Doerr's mentors who forged the ideas. The methodology makes a lot of sense and includes nuances and details about balance, alignment, and communication.  I am using the methodology and hope it is more broadly adopted at work. 4/5 Stars.

Für Eile fehlt mir die Zeit (2011)

Einige der Geschichten sind sehr lustig und bringen einen zum Lachen. Andere sind peinlich und voller Berliner Schadenfreude, die mir keinen Spaß machen. Alles in allem ist der Stil unterhaltsam und die Geschichten haben ein großes Herz. 3/5 Sterne.

Biedermann und die Brandstifter von Max Frisch (1953)

Einige Arbeitskollegen haben mir deutsche Bücher empfohlen, die mir gefallen könnten. Dürrenmatt und Frisch führten die Liste an. Ich habe einige Filme und Hörspiele auf YouTube gefunden. Die Geschichte ist ein wenig melodramatisch und oberflächlich, aber die Dialoge sind gut. 3/5 Sterne.

Die Physiker von Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1961)

Dieses kurze Stück ist interessant und macht Spaß. Die Geschichte erinnert mich aufgrund der dystopischen Täuschung Ebenen aller Charaktere an Stanislaw Lems Novelle „Memoiren, gefunden in der Badewanne". Ich liebte das Ende. Auch der Schreibstil ist sehr fesselnd und unterhaltsam. 4/5 Sterne.

AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan (2021)

This book is a good, thought-provoking collection of 10 stories covering an optimistic prediction of applications of AI in many areas of human commerce, entertainment, politics, and daily endeavors. Each story's introductions and analysis by Kai-Fu Lee is well formulated and explains the AI technology behind the plot points in the story. Recommended 5/5 Stars.

Legionnaire Eternal by Doc Spears (2024)

I did not like the writing style and won't read the earlier books Spears wrote in this universe. 2/5 Stars.

soft phone services from 2001

I started using "soft phone" software in 2001. At Microsoft, where I worked, we had the "Communications Server," which became Lync and then Skype.  We used "soft phone" software instead of desktop phones. VOIP was great. We also had the free internet cellular fax "remote printing" service at tpc.int.

Meanwhile in 2005, GrandCentral  provided a free service whose tagline was "one number for life!" The single phone number provided free fax (send, receive), free voicemail (send & receive), free SMS, and free voice (dial-out & receive calls).  The software ran on PCs, laptops, tablets, & mobile phones. Google acquired GrandCentral and put it to sleep for a while but eventually resurrected it as "Google Voice."  Google removed the fax services but added gateways of SMS to / from email and voicemail transcription to email.

For a while, Google merged Google Voice with Google Hangouts, which was cool at the time because the merger added video conferencing and video messages on any device to all of the telephony features.  However Google killed Hangouts, so Voice became the only free consumer VOIP service the evil search giant (ESG) supported.  Google Meet for enterprise now has dial-out and dial-in to "meetings," but it's not the same as on-demand VOIP. I still use my GrandCentral phone number as the only number I give out to everyone and I use that phone  number on about a dozen devices in which I come in contact relatively frequently, including my mobile phones and home computers.  I do not give out the cellular carrier phone number.

It's interesting how these consumer services have "enshitified" over the decades.