I just finished The CS Detective by Jeremy Kubica. It is a story of an officer kicked off the police force, turned private investigator. The narrative is a fictional mystery that has the goal of explaining search algorithms and data structures to organize and process searching. The author is a principal engineer at Google with a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University … [Read more...]
Book Review: Growing Up Social: Raising relational kids in a screen-driven world
I recently listened to the audiobook version of Growing Up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World by Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane. Gary Chapman is the author of The 5 Love Languages. I thought Growing Up Social did a fairly good job at trying to be reasonable rather than just saying "technology = bad". It did not take the approach of trying to get rid of … [Read more...]
Book Review – Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World
I picked up Blockchain Revolution by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott because I was interested in learning more about the applications of blockchain technology. I know plenty about Bitcoin from first-hand experience with it and previous readings, so I was interested to see where the the technology behind it was heading. The first half of the book satisfied some of that curiosity … [Read more...]
A robot adventure unfolds in 404 Not Found: A Coloring Book by The Oatmeal
Matthew Inman of the webcomic The Oatmeal has released a coloring book featuring our favorite number, 404! Robot number 404 has gone missing. He's on his own little adventure and you can color in the story as it unfolds. In cozy Robot City, all robots are tucked in and accounted for, but #404 is missing. Is he searching for the city of Atlantis...or was he attacked by the … [Read more...]
Book review: The Innovators: How a group of hackers, geniuses, and geeks created the digital revolution
The Innovators was released late last year and has been on my ‘want to read’ list since seeing it prominently placed on shelves in bookstores. It was written by Walter Isaacson, who interrupted his work on this book to write the Steve Jobs biography. This nonfiction book covers the invention of the digital world and the innovators that played a prominent role along the way. … [Read more...]