Excerpt from the Third and Last Volume of "Tribes of the Pacific Coast" by Neal Stephenson (2008)

As a Neal Stephenson fan, I am always looking for more of his earlier writing and collaborations that I may have missed.  I found this story, which appears to be an expansion of material originally removed during the editing process of  Diamond Age.  It is a fun return to the NeoVictorian world of Diamond Age nanotech with fun plot elements and asymmetric military conflict. 4/5 Stars.

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (1859)

This gripping, long-form essay is clear, approachable, and relevant in 2025.  The concepts are timeless and universal.  Our modern politics and rhetorical discussions now among the ruling class elites would benefit enormously from the civics concepts and reasoning in this essay.  In particular the balance between the "Tyranny of the Majority" and individual rights in a society are fantastic.  Highly recommended, 5/5 Stars.

Against a Dark Background by Ian M Banks (1993)

Despite the nihilistic, dark themes and the gratuitous, purposeless violence, I enjoyed this space opera. The world building is reminiscent of the beloved Culture series. The plot is unpredictable, the writing is great, and the awe-and-wonder is dominant. 4/5 Stars.

First they came for the Copy Editors. . .

Apologies for abusing the famous Holocaust poem in the title, I noticed today that the genAI bubble is making enormous progress at replacing developers.  I, personally, enjoy chatting with AI chatbots to accomplish many tasks and I am collecting my own personal sets of prompts and meta-prompts.  However, I cannot imagine what it would be like for a non-coder to use a genAI to write code because I already can code.  I suppose it would be akin to my using a genAI to compose and sell Hindi poetry and Hindi songs.  I speak no Hindi, have no sensibility for Hindi audiences' taste in music or how to earn money in a Hindi-speaking music market, etc.  The phenomenon is also like the Chinese Room thought experiment.

Side note on the title of this post

Niemöller famously and poetically articulated the wave of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi) popular Zeitgeist ideology that swept across the population of Germany and led to death camps, extermination of people, etc.. Although there are many variations of the poem, the most common written version in Holocaust museums is:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

However, Niemöller likely used the word "Communists" in the original oration.

Travel

I enjoy leisure travel.  As I mentioned previously here, 

I want not only to see the sites when I travel, but also smell the diesel fumes, taste authentic street food, and hear the "flavor" of local dialects.  But more than that I want to feel and viscerally experience the attitudes, values, opinions, and sensibilities of the locals, to "get into their heads."  I love to experience the culture, not just observe it.

So when I came across this (long) gem of travel tips from the founder of Wired magazine, I read it with much interest.  Kevin Kelly breaks travel down into "rest and relaxation" (R&R), engagement and experience (E&E), and business travel.  He gives many small bits of advice for each type of travel with wisdom gained from his own hard-won "quantity time" traveling and thoughtful introspections.  If you enjoy traveling, check out the article.

Poor Charlie's Almanac by Charles Munger & Peter Kaufman (2008)

Fantastic!  I don't care about stock picking or investing, but the wit and wisdom of Charles Munger in these engaging dialogs and speeches are fantastic. Highly recommended! 5/5 Stars.

Trusted Execution Environments and Byzantine Fault Algorithms

After Reading Martin Kleppman's famous book I became fascinated by Byzantine Faults and algorithms. These concepts and applications are used mostly for space probes and other hostile environments. This new paper on trusted execution environments (TEE) therefore caught my attention. We are finally looking at more and better hardware to provide security guarantees.  It's a great survey paper.

Backyard Starship by J.N. Chaney and Terry Maggert (2021)

One of the genAI chatterbots recommended this series based on my reading history and ratings so I read the first book in the series.  The series is better-suited to an 11- or 12-year-old. 2/5 Stars.

The Lessons of History by Will & Arielle Durant (1997)

This extremely dense collection of aphorisms and pearls of wisdom is a very thin shell of the 11 volume The Story of Civilization that won the Durants so many accolades and awards.  My buddy Senthil recommended it so I picked it up.  It is so dense and profound, the reader must constantly pause and ponder.  Now I am curious about Will Durant's magnum opus. 4/5 Stars.

Attack Surface by Corey Doctorow (2020)

Fun thriller with odd twists and turns but I found the characters and events contrived and unrealistic. I do not recommend this one.  Doctorow has written better books in the same genre. 2/5 Stars.