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.