Crazy Cool Sci-fi Covers: The Wanderer

I’m slightly obsessed with old science fiction books. I find the old stories charming but the real obsession comes from the covers. They’re often wild, wacky and bizarre. Spaceships, winged dinosaurs and scantily clad female aliens are all there – it’s like one of my more juvenile dreams.

One of my faves is this cover to Friz Leiber’s The Wanderer. Which cat owner hasn’t wished that their cat was looked a bit more like a girly, had breasts and was seemingly as big as a planet? It’s certainly the dream of a fair few male cat owners I know.

And what tell of the contents of the book? Well, although this book is supposedly a classic and is published by the reputable Penguin books – it is quite frankly a stinker. There is a tradition in sci-fi books of the cover having nothing to do with the story itself. Sadly in this instance the cover is an alarming representation of this “classic” piece of fiction. It’s giant cats with breasts causing havoc with the planet Earth. For God’s sake! The climax (literally) of the tale comes when the giant sexy cat makes beautiful love to the scientist hero. Blllurrrgggeeeee!!!!!! Thankfully both giant cat and scientist regret it the morning after.

Rapid Development

Of all Steve McConnell’s books, Code Complete gets the attention. People quote it, name websites after it, publish photographs of themselves kissing it and generally froth and foam about it. And quite right too because it’s great. However for my money his book Rapid Development is even better.

Although called Rapid Development, its name is something of a misnomer. It’s not about rapid development techniques per say, rather it’s about excellent project management techniques that as a side effect will enable your project to proceed as quickly as possible. To me it feel’s like its project managers written for developers.

If you don’t want to read it cover to cover (what’s wrong with you – read it all) then software estimation, the sections on motivation and team structure and classic mistakes are worth reading as standalone chapters. I love the estimation tables provided to measure your own schedules against. It’s illuminating to measure your own projects against them. So next time an impossible deadline looms, you’ll have the facts to back you up. Marvellous.

Sony Reader

A few weeks ago Mrs Tech Splurge and myself were have a coffee in Waterstones when I happened upon a stand of Sony’s new eBook – Sony Reader. Against all expectations I was impressed. It felt good in the hand, the screen was attractive and very like a book and the battery only appeared to drain on page refresh so would last for ages. However even though I’m a technology fan, was impressed by the product and I like a good book I still didn’t buy it. Why on earth not?

I believe that eBooks themselves are fundamentally flawed particularly as compared to MP3 players which must be the business model that Sony is trying to follow.

The Flaws

1. You need earlier adopters and tech evangelists to push your product. While geeky nerdy types will get excited about audio systems or home cinemas the enthusiasm for a home library system surely would be more muted


2. With music I’ve maybe got 20-30 CDs that I would regularly listen to. I can’t carry them all around with me so an MP3 player is the ideal solution. With books I’ve only maybe got 2-3 on the go at any one time. So picking one and carrying it round with me isn’t a fantastic hardship that cries out for a technological solution.


3. I would imagine that demographics of book readers includes a lot more older readers than music fans or film buffs. A decent proportion of these would be late adopters and outright refusers of new technologies.


4. If I was an author I wouldn’t licence my work for electronic distribution. As soon as it’s out there then I’ll be in the Peer2Peer copyright hell that musicians are currently dwelling in.

Even though the idea has flaws I don’t think it’s a stinker. It’s just more niche than Sony would probably want. There are a couple of circumstances when it would have real value.

Niches

1. I spend inordinate amounts of time deciding which books to bring on holiday. With an ebook reader – no problem, bring them all.


2. I like to have an IT book or two on the go but I’m not going to carry them round with me. However if they were nestled inside an ebook reader I might.


3. There is probably a good model for magazine subscriptions buried in the ebook reader. Throw in a bit of wireless connectivity (i.e. Kindle) and you could get an update of your favourite publication when you’re in Café Nero enjoying your mocha chocca double expresso latte.

Overall, I reckon that ebooks will never be the killer app and disruptive technology that MP3 players were. No matter how cutesy, leather bound and easy on the eye they become they’ll always remain a solution looking for a problem.

Lab Lit

I’m a bit of a frustrated scientist at heart. Never mind that I spent my final year at University sulking over Petri dishes, leaving expensive reagents out of the fridge to spoil and breaking centrifuges. There is still a part of me that truly believes that my natural environment is in a lab surrounded by poisonous chemicals and glassware. So I was fascinated by the LabLit site.

As a may have mentioned before (ad nauseum) I’m a bit of a science fiction geek. So LabLit is a new concept for me. It’s fiction about science Jim but not as we know it. Lablit doesn’t concern itself about spaceships, killer robots and little green men. Rather it is literature with realistic depictions of science. Sometimes this is the same as science fiction but often it is not. It turns out that as a frustrated scientist my sci-fi faves are often also LabLit.

My lablit recommendations are

Contact – Carl Sagan. Lab coats, spectacles and radio astronomy
Timescape – Gregory Benford. Lab coats, environmental disaster and worried looks
Speed of Dark – Elizabeth Moon. Lab coats, clever maths and autism
Blood Music – Greg Bear. Lab coats, nanotechnology and quantum freakiness

And to prove I’m a well rounded individual (I’m not) here’s a lablit recommendation that isn’t sci-fi

Thinks – David Lodge. Lab coats, psychology and academic flirting

Facts and Fallacies of Software Development

It’s been said by people a lot cleverer that me (DeMarco and Lister 1999 – Peopleware) that most developers don’t read books. So with a typical level of humdrum insight I’ve worked out that if I read a few programming books a year then it will lift me a bit above the norm – keep a positive career calculus.

Facts and Fallacies of Software Development by Robert Glass is the latest book to have taken up residence on my bedside table. It’s a collection of little known “facts” with a smaller number of falsehoods about software engineering – unsurprisingly. How though can there be a “fact” in a profession that seems to owe more to superstition and religion than it does to science and engineering. The conceit it that the facts are items of research and less often the authors personal experience. So at it heart it is a book popularising academic research in a series of short (1 -5 page) articles.

So does it work? I have enormous sympathy with the project of academic popularisation and God knows – computer science needs it more than most. It’s very engaging, very readable and gives food for thought. For me though the nature of the book makes it a bit disjointed. I appreciate IT books are novels – but that said I do like them when they have more of a beginning, middle and an end. That said – for dipping into its perfect. So buy it when you’ve a long journey – sitting on a train, sipping an overpriced coffee and reading this book – that’s the way to travel.

And my favourite fact – well it’s “[Software] Maintenance is not a problem it’s a solution”. When you’ve completed your project and your client comes back with 4 pages of desired enhancements it isn’t because your product is rubbish – it’s because your client has total engaged with it and can now see the potential. And if they pay for it – then everyone’s a winner.

Accelerando - Serialising Lobsters

I make no apologies about being a sci-fi geek. Being a software geek pays the bills so I think I deserve a bit of extra-curricular sci-fi geekiness. In that vain I just have to recommend Accelerando by Charles Stross – it drips with geeky goodness.

I can’t begin to summarise the plot – all I can do it assure you that the book positively fizzes from page 1. Not enough, you want more of a reason to buy, read and adore this lovely tome. OK

1. Mr Stross is was a computer scientist amongst other things and it the first sci-fi book that I’ve read to really have that embedded in it. At the start of the book sentient lobsters get serialised and sent up a data stream – Fab.
2. One of the main characters is a cat. It total catches the animal’s don’t give a damn attitude – double Fab
3. Charlieboy Stross comes from my hometown, Leeds. I have a LOT of regional pride soooo – Triple Fab.

If I had to categorise it then its cyberpunk without the noir elements and it’s actually well written unlike other so called cyberpunk classics i.e. everything I’ve ever read by William Gibson.