Reads, Listens

Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
Playlist of posts listened to, or scrobbled
Read That’s Yikes…Chillian J. Yikes! by Jillian C. York (jilliancyork.com)
In possibly the funniest thing that’s ever happened to me on the Internet (and please remember that I’ve been called a fattie by the daughter of the Uzbek dictator and crowdfunded my ticket to troll a Thomas Friedman event), the New York Times, that paper of record, has today issued a correction that’s been called “the best thing on the Internet this week.”
I know this Twitter Halloween name phenomenon has been going on for several years. This is one of the earliest examples I’ve seen. Interesting that it caused a correction in the New York Times.
Read Hollywood has a talent pipeline problem. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard have an app for that (Los Angeles Times)
Impact Creative Systems, an offshoot from Imagine Entertainment, is launching a new app called the Creative Network, a LinkedIn-meets-Slack for screenwriters and studio heads.
I’ll have to take a look at this, but I’m not really sure what the direct problem is that they’re solving for. The bigger problem is usually filtering through a load of crap to find the actual talent, and I’m not sure how this app is fixing that particular problem. They may be making the net wider which is good, but there’s still the filtering problem which is the bigger problem. 
 
Naturally getting talented people to help mentor people is a good thing, but it’s also the piece that almost never happens because it takes a lot of time and effort and doesn’t always pay off. I’m not sure where their system is adding value aside from a few links.
 
This definitely disintermediates the agent in the system, so perhaps the extra value is seen in circumventing them to take advantage of the unwary writer one is mentoring?
Read “If There Is Another Tick Down, It’s a Total Bloodbath”: How Trump’s Self-Destructive Candidacy Could Blow Up the Electoral Map (Vanity Fair)
Democrats’ massive fundraising, downballot energy, and seniors turning against Trump signal a potential blue-wave election with unexpected flips. As one South Carolina strategist says, “Biden supporters in red states are hopeful.”
Perhaps I’m just reading less of it this year, but the differences between the candidates and the party seem to have resulted in less of the typical horse race political coverage like this this year.
Read Alleged China-Fighter Donald Trump Has Secret Chinese Bank Account (Intelligencer)
Another big scandal — and huge conflict of interest — has surfaced from the tax returns obtained by the New York Times.
I’m still wondering why he didn’t divest everything and put it into a blind trust. Why isn’t what’s good for the goose good for the gander. Another example of the do as I say not do as I do.
Read - Want to Read: Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America by Saidiya V. Hartman (Oxford University Press)
In this provocative and original exploration of racial subjugation during slavery and its aftermath, Saidiya Hartman illumines the forms of terror and resistance that shaped black identity. Scenes of Subjection examines the forms of domination that usually go undetected; in particular, the encroachments of power that take place through notions of humanity, enjoyment, protection, rights, and consent. By looking at slave narratives, plantation diaries, popular theater, slave performance, freedmen's primers, and legal cases, Hartman investigates a wide variety of "scenes" ranging from the auction block and minstrel show to the staging of the self-possessed and rights-bearing individual of freedom. While attentive to the performance of power--the terrible spectacles of slaveholders' dominion and the innocent amusements designed to abase and pacify the enslaved--and the entanglements of pleasure and terror in these displays of mastery, Hartman also examines the possibilities for resistance, redress and transformation embodied in black performance and everyday practice. This important study contends that despite the legal abolition of slavery, emergent notions of individual will and responsibility revealed the tragic continuities between slavery and freedom. Bold and persuasively argued, Scenes of Subjection will engage readers in a broad range of historical, literary, and cultural studies.
Read How Saidiya Hartman Retells the History of Black Life (The New Yorker)
The scholar’s provocative writing illuminates stories that have long gone untold.
This is an interesting take on history and archives. Reminiscent perhaps of Zora Neale Hurston’s anthropology and fiction work. One definitely heavily informs the other. I’ll have to pull some of her work to read.
Read books and the indieweb by Maya Maya (maya.land)
One thing I wonder about is what the various goals of structured book review content can be. The classic example would be a citation, to make it precisely clear whence one’s quotes originate and whither to search for context. The second obvious example would be a product review; “should you buy ...
Read - Reading: Raven Black (Shetland Island #1) by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur Books)
Raven Black begins on New Year’s Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.
Finished through chapter 12 last night.

  • 24%
Read - Want to Read: The Cathedral & the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond (O'Reilly Media)

Open source provides the competitive advantage in the Internet Age. According to the August Forrester Report, 56 percent of IT managers interviewed at Global 2,500 companies are already using some type of open source software in their infrastructure and another 6 percent will install it in the next two years. This revolutionary model for collaborative software development is being embraced and studied by many of the biggest players in the high-tech industry, from Sun Microsystems to IBM to Intel.

The Cathedral & the Bazaar is a must for anyone who cares about the future of the computer industry or the dynamics of the information economy. Already, billions of dollars have been made and lost based on the ideas in this book. Its conclusions will be studied, debated, and implemented for years to come. According to Bob Young, "This is Eric Raymond's great contribution to the success of the open source revolution, to the adoption of Linux-based operating systems, and to the success of open source users and the companies that supply them."

The interest in open source software development has grown enormously in the past year. This revised and expanded paperback edition includes new material on open source developments in 1999 and 2000. Raymond's clear and effective writing style accurately describing the benefits of open source software has been key to its success. With major vendors creating acceptance for open source within companies, independent vendors will become the open source story in 2001.

First heard about as a “bible for opensource” from Francesca Marano at WordCamp LA. Sounds interesting…
Read Teageneration (or: why I don’t trust transporters) by fluffyfluffy (beesbuzz.biz)
A series of 3D-printed objects, starting by printing the iconic Utah Teapot, scanning the print, and printing the scan, iterating as the object degrades. Thi...
This poses an interesting question about copies of intellectual property. When does it become something else or someone else’s?
Read Understanding Library eBook Lending: Q&A with Panorama Project Lead Guy LeCharles Gonzalez (IBPA)

(Manhattan Beach, CA - October 13, 2020) -- When an IBPA member sent the office a link to this Wired article about ebooks flying off libraries’ virtual shelves with the question,...

“I am a bit confused by why one ebook could cost 40-60 dollars. Is that only with the Big 5?”

...IBPA reached out to Panorama Project lead Guy LeCharles Gonzalez for more information.

IBPA: Hi Guy. So, what's with the average $40 price for a library ebook?

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez (GLG): That Wired article has caused quite a stir despite being a little behind the story! The ebook pricing cited is a little too broad, but it's on the right track, especially for Big 5 ebooks which are what most of these articles tend to focus on.

I’ve been meaning to do some research into pricing that libraries pay. Apparently it’s more than I would have expected.
Read - Want to Read: Modern Welsh by Gareth King (Routledge)
This new expanded edition of Modern Welsh is the ideal reference source for all speakers and learners of Welsh, suitable for use in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes at all levels. Focusing on contemporary spoken Welsh, this new enlarged edition features a substantial new function-based section, explaining and exemplifying a wide range of sentence and phrase patterns. Notes on variations between dialects and between spoken and formal written forms have also been expanded. The Grammar presents the complexities of Welsh in a concise and readable form. Common grammatical patterns and parts of speech are discussed in detail, and extensive cross-references make the book comprehensive and easy to use.
I started this back in September, but hadn’t bookmarked it?