Burn Book

This book was supposed to be about tech. I did not get further than Chapter 1. Swisher names drops a lot. And she tells us how she knows everything, and told all these famous people about her brilliant insight. If only she wrote about such ideas before history happened. Instead this feels like trying to come across as a guru, but using 20/20 vision after the fact.

Burn Book indeed. As in, this needs to be burned. Now I know why this book was in the bargain bin. I should have left it there. I did learn not to read anything more from this terrible author.

Why We Need the Electoral College

The author states that we need the electoral college so that a couple of huge states cannot dictate who is president. Instead, every state, however small, gets a say in who wins the election. The book does not go into much details as to why a national majority of votes should not determine the election.

The book talks in detail how the electors are chosen and how they cast their ballot for president. However, it was not clear why letting some electors who may not even vote for who the majority of people in their state chose is beyond me.

Hunt for the Bamboo Rat

Zenji was born in Hawaii from Japanese parents. He was a teen during WWII. His ROTC instructor recommended him for an intelligence position in the military. He was sent overseas in Manilla. He was essentially a spy. He was to gather information about the Japanese.

Eventually the Japanese overtook the area he was in. He was afforded an air ride out for safety. But he gave up his spot to another American who wanted to return to his family. Eventually Zenji was captured by the Japanese.

Zenji's cover story was that he was a civilian hired by the Army to translate for them. Unfortunately, the Japanese seemed to think he was a spy. They tortured him to confess. He never did. He was turned over to work for a general. He did translation, office work, and house work.

Eventually the Americans were taking back the area where Zenji was imprisoned and working. He used this opportunity to escape. He fled into the bush. He had trouble finding water and food. He was taken in by some primitive tribe. He left them after a month or so.

Zenji tried to start up a fire at night. He was bombed and got injured. He eventually pulled out the shrapnel and walked with a limp. He came upon US troops searching for stragglers. He walked into a camp, and after his story was verified, was sent home.

The title came from his code name - The Bamboo Rat.

Lift Me Up

Tam works at a grocery store company. Her boss is in charge and screws things up bad. Then he up and quits. Tam is put in charge as the acting boss. She hopes the board recognizes her skill and makes the change permanent. Instead, they bring in Jack the axe man.

Jack's comments one evening makes Tam think she is on the chopping block early. He invites her to a big meeting. Tam thinks this is the end. The ride the elevator up to the meeting. It gets stuck. She is terrified. During their wait, she figures she might as well speak her mind and do some good before she is sacked. She shares her vision on who needs to be promoted, and who needs to go.

At Jack's meeting, he address the board of directors. He praises Tam as being excellent. He reinstates her old division, putting her on top. He recommends most of the changes Tam had independently determined. Then Jack asks Tam to meet the new head of PR in a lunch. Turns out it is Anna, Tam's old college best friend who ran off, got married and lost touch with Tam.

Tam is engaged to Harris. He is a good looking man. But he has quietly been taking the color out of Tam. Tam has a troubling family. Sister and brother, along with dad, all look down on Tam. Brother's girlfriend seems to be the only one Tam likes. Said girlfriend said she is leaving Tam's brother, and encourages Tam to never lose her color.

On wedding day, her old friend Anna is in the back. The family would not make a place for Anna at the reception. Harris scold Tam for being late, and wearing the dress she picked out. He also shares his displeasure with her makeup. Tam takes one look at he brother's girlfriend who is about to leave, then she walks out of the ceremony before it starts.

Tam has a think for her new boss Jack. They had quite a moment in the elevator. Jack jokes that he will turn the whole company to Tam when he leaves. He is only joking about leaving. We are not told, but we can assume that they will get together now that Harris is out of the picture. The company has record profits this quarter, and they are coming up behind the mega-grocery stores that have ruled forever. 

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years

 

The first 3/4s of the book were mid. Some guy is an operator for a time travel company. It costs a lot for customers to make the jump. They are able to return back to the present after 3 days, 9 month, 27 years, or never. We hear about a bunch of customers. We also learn about company policies.

One such policy is that employees, after working at the company for a while, are entitled to one time travel adventure of their own. Our main character has been working there for 25 years. His trip is longer overdue. Once he schedules his trip, he informs us that this is not his first jump. He is actually not from this time.

In the main guy's original time, the people working at the company have an untimely end. He comes back in time to warn the company. He wants to prevent the disaster. He is success in delaying the event. But he cannot prevent it. Thus, he decides to make another jump to prevent the same disaster occurring in the time he jumped to. Where he ends up, nobody knows.  

The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold

Alice's mom comes from wealth. Her dad has become the father of AI. She interns at his company. But she realizes the harm his company will do to the world. Her dad fires her. She is still in college. She decides to relocate from school dorm to an off campus apartment in the ghetto.

Alice's mom comes to strong arm Alice into moving to a safer neighborhood. When mom leaves, she gets a note that Alice has been kidnapped. Mom rushes back to the apartment to find her daughter missing. The family works with the FBI to try to locate Alice and the kidnappers. They initially do not receive any ransom demands. Instead they get cryptic messages.

Alice describes an initial kidnapper as a buff woman with a gun and a disguise. Alice tries an escape from the getaway car. But she is recaptured. Another man joins the female kidnapper at some sort of compound. Alice figures out how to poison the male kidnapper. She escapes the compound, runs down the road, and slips through the fence.

Eventually Alice confesses that the kidnap story is not real. Her boyfriend is in on the ruse. So is her best friend Monica, plus Monica's girlfriend. Alice's dad figure it out and produces a fake ransom note. He also uses deep fake AI to produce a video fro Alice. Alice's boyfriend talks her to leaves the camp site they are hiding in, and they flee to his remote plane hangar.

They want to meet Alice's dad to broker a deal. The dad shoots the boyfriend. Then he forcibly takes Alice to control the narrative and muzzle her. Alice's mom questions Monica about a lie she told, and is able to piece together clues about the whole ruse. Mom goes to the boyfriend's hangar and rescues him. She also blocks Alice's dad from leaving with Alice.

Alice pleads to lessor punishment. Her boyfriend is framed as a kidnapper. Her dad has a story about him saving his daughter from the kidnapper. Alice and her mom reconcile as she serves a minimal prison sentence and returns to school. 

Eyes of the Emperor

Eddy lives near Pearl Harbor during World War II. His family is Japanese. As soon as Pearl Harbor is bombed, many white people are leery about the "Japs. His father had been working on constructing an expensive boat for a client. It was a long project with heavy material costs. When the boat is completed, and before his dad can turn over the boat, it is burned. Everyone suspects arson.

Eddy and his friends decided to enlist in the army to do their patriotic duty. This would be the first time Eddy leaves the island. They take a ship ride to the mainland. Everyone gets seasick. They take a train ride up North to attend boot camp. Then they are flown out to their destination.

They all are part of a secret program. They live on some island. A civilian picks them up in a boat and takes them to their work daily. The program is to train dogs to be part of the army fight against the Japanese. Eddy and pals are going to be the bait. They are forced to beat the dogs to make them adversaries. Then they participate in hiding and have the dogs search them out and attack them.

The government comes to witness the ability of the dogs and the worthiness of the program. Three white guys and and Eddy go out and hide. The idea is that the dogs would be able to seek out the Jap. Turns out they went straight for a white guy. The program gets cancelled. Eddy and the boys are reassigned to front line battle.

User Interface Design for Programmers

 

Normally I document books of fiction I have read. However, I also read a bunch of tech books. Here is one example by Joel Spolsky. He is a guy who became famous for his web site on software development. I recently read that he wrote this book on UI for programmers. Just finished it.

I was surprised that Joel starts out with general usability. Not computer programs or even using computers. He educates us on general principles of usability. Then he applies those principles to computer programs or web pages that we interact with.

He is big on usability tests. But he cautions that having a lot of people participate does not give you gains. You can do almost as well with informal queries in the hall. He has a lot of other detailed ideas. It would be hard to communicate those here.

Biggest Fake in the Universe

Mo is a nerd in middle school. When hanging out with friends, he spies a girl he likes. She is a great skateboarder. He comes up with a plan to learn how to skate in order to get close to the girl. One day, when everybody is skating down some parking garage, he lands a gnarly grind. It is caught on video. All of a sudden, he becomes a celebrity.

Unfortunately, some TV show arranges to do a story on him. They have a huge skate ramp constructed. And Mo is not ready to drop in from it. He is not able to cancel the episode. He climbs up the ramp. But he is able to drop in. He is afraid he is going to die. He has to climb back down and explain to skate girl that he is a fraud.

He talks the TV show into filming his excellent baking skills. He makes a pizza. While it is cooking, he allows his sister to show off her new juggling skills. The skate girl ends up going on the huge ramp, dropping in, and catching some air. She might be Mo's new girlfriend.

Under the Blood-Red Sun

 

Tomi lives in Pearl Harbor with his family. He was born here. But his parents and grandfather are from Japan. Pearl Harbor is bombed. Grandpa waves a Japanese flag until they restrain him. Tomi's dad is shot in the leg and jailed. Dad's ship is sunk Tomi swim around the barbed wire surrounding the prison to see his dad.

Dad's young deck hand was killed. The military comes and makes Tomi and his grandfather kill their pigeons. They are suspected in use sending message to the enemy. Tomi's mom is temporarily laid off. Grandpa must sell eggs to make money. But they eventually come and lock up grandpa too.

Tomi is in charge of the family Katana, which is hid deep in the woods. The landlord's son Keet discovers the sword and threatens to tell his father. Kerosene is rationed. Tomi's family shares. School eventually reopens. And Tomi's mom goes back to work for a sympathetic wife of the landlord.

A Night at the Tropicana

Natalie is a doctor. The hospital needs some funding. She puts together a Night at the Tropicana. It is a fundraiser event. They have some fun gambling. There is an auction at the end she hopes bring in money from the patrons. She thinks back when she turned 18 and visited Havana, Cuba with her family.

Natalie's grandparents migrated to the USA. Her parents did not grow up in Cuba. They family took a trip there when Natalie graduated from high school. There went to Havana when the Tropicana, originally named something else, opened.

At the hotel, there was some big festival or such. She met a man that was in her field. They danced the night away. He gave her his address so she could write when she returned home to Florida. Natalie's mom found the paper with the address and threw it away so Natalie could be focused on her studies to become a doctor.

Back in the present, where Natalie is divorced with an adult child, she is at the fundraiser she arranged. Her friend brings her brother to meet Natalie. Lo and behold, it is the guy she met in Cuba so long ago. He never married. He could never find anyone like Natalie. Just like back then, they decide to dance together.

I Choose Darkness

Jenny tells us about how she is meh about all holidays except for Halloween. Seems strange. She find the basis in the holiday from her youth. She lived out in the sticks. Houses were very far apart. She and her sister did not do the traditional walking around the neighborhood in costume.

Instead, Jenny and her sister would walk around their house. It would take a while as Jenny's sister was much younger and would be walking slow, or tripping on her costume. Each time around, they would knock on their own door, and their mom would give them caramels.

There were other memories at school where they had some type of halloween bazaar. This even brought back memories of my own school's similar event.

Please Like Me

This is another tiny e-book by Mindy Kaling. She recounts her 4th grade birthday party. She was worried her classmates would find her house weird, with all the Indian stuff in there. Then her mom went and bought burgers with Swiss cheese. She tried to inform her mom that burgers must have orange cheese to no avail.

Mindy moved to LA. She found she did not have any friends. Once she went to a party and found some women in the back smoking a joint and having fun. She tried to befriend these people. They were aspiring actresses. They did not eat burgers. And they only had safe talk. Eventually, she ghosted them.

Mindy tells of her best friend BJ, who hosted her 40th birthday party. Mindy, in turn, was asked to bring cakes to BJ's birthday party. And she was asked by BJ to give a speech at the party. While she is giving the speech, Wade Boggs steals the mic and never gives it back.

Once Upon a Time in Silver Lake

This was a tiny e-book by Mindy Kaling. This was back when she was very pregnant with child. The weather was terribly hot. Her friend BJ was taking her out to get food. They parked and were approached by a homeless guy. The homeless dude said he recognized her from the office.

Mindy and friend were disappointed to find their restaurant closed down. They went back to his car, only to find the homeless guy inside. He had taken a laptop out of the friend's bag and was doing something. Mindy goes to the driver's side and pins the door shut. Her friend jumps in the passenger side and screams at the dude.

Mindy's friend checks that nothing is missing from the car. Then they let the thief go. Apparently Mindy's friend has a keyless FOB that allows anybody to open the car door when the FOB is near. Mindy and friend contemplated calling the police. But they thought it would do no good.

Bad Date

Fay is a former movie star. Her career has gone down hill. She hosts a podcast with her assistant and friend Poppy. Fay moved to Hollywood when she fell in love with a man. That produced a son, Wolf, who is now a teenager. Fay and her husband divorced. Fay moved back to London.

Fay has been secretly dating different men. However, they all seem to die mysterious deaths. All evidence points to her son Wolf, who is overprotective and wants Fay to get back with his dad. Fay goes out on a date with Ollie. We find out that he is a stalker. Fay and Poppy know about this.

Fay steals Ollie's house key on the first day. Poppy goes and plants incriminating evidence in his house. Fay finally invites Ollie over to her house. He is early. He is let in by Wolf, who tries to kill him. Fay comes home and tells Wolf to accompany her in the panic room.

Fay calls the police. She and Poppy have set Ollie up. Fay instructs Wolf to tell the cops he has never seen Ollie before. Ollie is going to say he is Fay's boyfriend. But Fay has been careful. There is no proof. And Ollie certainly looks nothing like the caliber of men Fay can attract.

The Chemistry Test

Penny is disabled and confined to a wheelchair. She has other medical problems. But she wants to push past her limits and attend college. Luckily, she is very smart. So, she is fine academically. She meets Cam during her first semester there. At first, he is mysterious.

It turns out that Penny runs an online help site. Unbeknownst to them, they had been talking online at Penny's site for a while. Cam is still getting over the death of his grandmother. He was very close to her. She helped him get into the movie business. Cam is on a terribly famous series.

As an aside, Penny gets involved in public speaking. Cam reacts badly and ghosts Penny for a while. Then some other guy in the public speaking team appears to move in on Penny romantically. Cam finally gets up the nerve and shares his feelings with Penny. Penny shuts him down, thinking her disability would hold her back.

Of course these two get together in the end. She had promised to attend a public release of the latest season of his show. At this red carpet even, Cam is able to pin Penny down and address her reservations at them dating.

More Joel on Software

This is a book about running an independent software vendor company. The author is Joel Spolsky. He is co-founder of Fog Creek Software. They make boring bug tracking software. Joel is big on running the company in a way he would want to work there.

Joel's writing comes mostly from his blog, Joel on Software. The posts are 20 to 25 years old. However, they have aged well. This book is a sequel to Joel on software, which followed the same format. Ten years ago, Joel handed over the running of the company to somebody else. He then went on to lead Stack Overflow.

The Idea Factory

Subtitle of the this book is "Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation". The book covers many decades and scientists. These include famous people such as Shannon and Shockley who worked there. Most of the story happens in New Jersey.

Bell Labs worked on serious phone company future plans. They wanted to communicate overseas. The proposal was laying cable under the sea. They needed to build in repeaters to keep up the signal. They also researched ways to use satellites.

There was research on how to transmit signal over what would become fiber optic. Some research was not necessarily specific to the phone industry. To replace vacuum tubes, they invented the transistor.

The book covered government attempts to break up the monopoly. This somehow included AT&T. Eventually some parts would be in a merger of Alcatel and Lucent.

A Girl of the Limberlost

Elnora wants to go to high school. But it is expensive. Her mom is worried about the high cost of taxes for the property she owns. Even when Elnora somehow is able to get past school tuition, things like books costs a fortune.

Elnora starts looking for paid work. There is a Bird Woman who pays handsomely for specimens from the woods. Or in this case, from the wetlands know as the Limberlost. Elnora sells things such as rare moths to the Bird Woman. She can afford books and clothes and more.

When Elnora graduates, she finds her funds have dwindled to nothing. She wants to go to college. But the costs are even higher. She is trying to finish putting together a collection of moths. She finally has the most rare one. But her mom thinks it is some predatory animal and destroys it.

Elnora's aunt finds out what happened. She then goes to Elnora's mom and tells her about the details of Elnora's father's death. Apparently he was cheating on his wife. This is why he took a dangerous route through the wetlands and dies. Eventually her mom understands everything, and reconciles with Elnora.

Elnora decided to take a year off from school. She meets Phil, a handsome Harvard grad. Phil is on rest at his uncle doctor's advice. He needs some time outdoors in the south. Phil knows a lot about moths. He assists Elnora in her collecting for a whole summer as he is recuperating from his illness. He has a fiance back home in Chicago.

Before leaving to go back home, Phil seems to express romantic in Elnora. She shuts it down. Back home, Phil breaks up with his girlfriend. He returns to the Limberlost to marry Elnora. However, Elnora is not convinced as he has been engaged for most of his life. She needs to speak with his ex-fiance.