The books that booted the year 2012 for me

Audiobooks, I am still an addict! Since summer of 2009 I have added 99 (yes, ninety-nine) of them to my library. Majority of them are from Audible subscription, next biggest chunk comes from public library cd:s and the rest from other services. I wonder which book should be the 100th, any suggestions? I still have couple books I have not listened to so I have some time before making the decision.

While thinking about that here's the recap of the books which I have listened since new year:

Reamde by Neal Stephenson: Another brick of a book from one of my most listened author. Reamde delivers in good storytelling but suffers from its length, it would be much better book some of the plot branches would be just trimmed of. I was pleased that the few technical details of infosec and computer technology were accurate and up-to-date. Recommended.

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi is actually a remake and modernization of The "Little Fuzzy" story by H. Beam Piper (1962). The original was included as the second part of this audiobook. To be honest I did not listen the original story at all but I did like the remake.

Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick and William L. Simon was a must read even though many have said Mitnick has already written (and cashed out) enough about his hacking before the famous arrest and time in prison. The book was a pleasant surprise. it was a coherent story well told, and it added a lot to the picture I had on the Mitnick and the thinking behind a archtype hacker. The story resembled a lot "the kingpin" by Kevin Poulsen, even though the motives behind the action, and also the books themselves are different. If you are to read only one of the Mitnicks books, read this. Recommended.

DarkMarket by Misha Glenny tries to do something similar than Poulsens "The Kingpin" mentioned above. It just does not get the story together and falls at the same time to unevenness in the storytelling and style. I was outright annoyed after some passages where the author tried to paint a overly dramatic picture of the ways of criminals using the internet technologies. Not recommended unless you are really interested to get the couple of new angels to the history of the carding crime industry.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre was picked only because the movie made from the book was in the news. That, and the playful title. I loved this one even though it must be quite a standard spy novel (not much experience there). I have to get to see the movie also.

Then I went for Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. This book lied on my library quite a while because I was a bit afraid to the sheer size and alleged complexity of it. I was wrong on both of those aspects: As an audiobook the "brick" was easily listened through and only somewhat complex thing was to keep the names of the characters in order in my mind. I do not know Russian at all, so I don't really have the ear for the complex Russian names either. I did enjoy the storytelling and the way how the main characters thoughts were slowly drawn to the listeners minds. Truly a classic, recommended.  

Zero Day by David Baldacci was a recommendation by audible, or some book review service I browse once in a while. Even though I did not have huge expectations this book was bit of a disappointment.  The characters were shallow and the plot wasn't really very deep either. Not recommended.

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo was almost guaranteed success for me after I did love "The Snowman" so much last year. In contrast to the Zero Day the characters and the story were so much more gripping and enjoyable. It might be something to do with the story being located to Norway with Scandinavian characters and atmosphere. Recommended!

The next book I just started is Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton which was another one which had been on the library already a while. The pair of books is good 80 hours long so I hesitated with it a bit, especially as the first ten or so minutes weren't That interesting the last time I tried to begin with it. Now - helped by the fact I have still two weeks until the next audible credits are due - I have given it a second chance.

Interface

Having already read couple fine books by Neal Stephenson - Zodiac, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon - the expectations were pretty high when I begun with Interface. I have to that in the end I was dissapointed. The first half was kept toghether with my development of the tech and the main characters, but the second half did not fullfill the promises hanging in the air. 


I do not know how much the listening of the Daemon and Freedom(tm) in the middle of the book did effect to my feelings in the end. As the Suarez's story was so driven, I bet the Interface got bit spoiled in the process.I won't let one dissapointment make me forget Stephenson, I've already begun with his newest: Reamde.

Daemon and Freedom(tm)

I have to make a confession: I'm still addicted to audiobooks. Luckily this addiction shouldn't be the most destructive one - on the contrary. It has helped me to make my commuting much more pleasant and healthy, among other things. AFAIK there are not that many downsides listening them, albeit Piritta and some of my friends and colleagues getting tired of my pitching of the way of consuming books. AND as the family life keeps getting busier and busier, I wouldn't have any time reading anything other fiction than children's books if I would be forced to just use dead wood products.

I will continue of posting short comments on the books I finish listening. This time the subject is actually a pair of books: Daemon and Freedom(tm) by Daniel Suarez. I know the buzz about these two has already winded down but as I finally got to the end I was thrilled! It has been some time since reading science fiction/cyberpunk novels which is located in so close future. I have been a bit avoiding them like most of the techno thriller movies as the technology visions and their realism is generally just bad. Suarez delivers on these books such a level of believability - at least in principle - which was more than enough to just yank me to go with the story. Of course one can always challenge the concepts and assumptions, but in any case we are in whole different level than the average. Now, after a five years since publication, some things like the popularity and consequences of e.g. identity theft and the power of distributed and networked group of talented and/or driven individuals are even more real, as they are commonly making the news headlines.

The next book which is already well underway is Neal Stephenson's "Interface" which feels already now so much more modest and lacking on the tech side but still enjoyable listen/read.

Rebooting sph

I am rebooting my blogging activities by resurrecting the sph -blog as sphsquared.blogspot.com. The archives of the old blog remain on the old location for keeping the links valid in addition of being included here as historical data.

Expect to read at least about the books I've read and about the everyday tech I try to include in our family life with variable success.

Childhood's End & Rework

Just couple days after the previous audiobook post, I finished two more books:

• Childhood's End (by Arthur C. Clarke) was a first Clarke novel I've read since I was a teenager. Naturally the early year it was written (1953) is evident on technology description, but it did not make the book less enjoyable.
  
• Rework (by the guys at 37signals) was a disappointment. Even though I knew it was a short book consisting of a collection of small pieces of productivity/small business advice the end result was too scattered and self-promoting for me. On the book the writers boast that they've edited almost 50% of the text out in last stages - maybe they should've edited it a bit more? To books merit, there was many good pieces of advice and things that resonate well with the common sense at work - one good example was how inefficient the meeting culture usually is, and the many suggestions to improve/replace it.

At the moment my commutes are filled with House Rules (by Jodi Picoult). More about that next week..

Crop of audiobooks

Ever since my change of job last summer and the fact that the new work resides physically quite far away has naturally changed my commuting routines completely; No more bus or train rides to the city center and back, usually with magazines and books to read and music and podcasts in my ears. No more handy time off both work and home for personal notes in journal, or emails. Now it has been roughly one hour car trip one way every day, only occasionally broken with days on the train.

As the finnish radio programs have never really kept my interest I tried to find out some real content to fill the long commutes. On this first year, audiobooks have been the filling. Audiobooks, and occasional conversations on the phone with friends on the phone (anohter habit I had almost forgot under the huge amount of SMS and emails).

Now it has been almost 10 months since I started the long commutes and during that time I've listened 21 audiobooks. The number was a surprise. I do not remember a year in my adulthood where I've read more than five book in a year (non-work-related books, that is).

Here's the list of books so far in rough chronological order, with rbrief comments attached:

• Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (John Perkins) - Thought-provoking narrative on multinational companies behaviour with developing countriers. Facts or fiction, who knows?
  
• Getting Things Done (David Allen) - A bit over-hyped but still inspirational book for time management disasters like myself. Ever since listening I've used GTD-like methods with success.
  
• Legacy of Ashes (Tim Weiner) - Perhaps a bit one-sided view on the history of CIA. Gripping book, nevertheless.
  
• Endymion (Dan Simmons) - I even have this book but never finished it on paper. All four books of 'Hyperion cantos' were quite an effort to listen timewise but I did enjoy them all.
  
• The Fall of Hyperion (Dan Simmons)
• Hyperion (Dan Simmons)
• The Rise of Endymion (Dan Simmons)
• A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin) - Another multi-book monster (A Song of Ice and Fire) started. Enjoyed the different (more traditional?) kind of fantasy book after a loong while. Have not continued with the series yet but I will.
  
• Rivo Satakieli (Leena Lehtolainen) - Trip to finnish detective story genre. Will not be the last one, especially if the plots vary enough. It was fun to have the story happening at Espoo (where we live). Bought for few euros from a book fair. There should be electronic distribution for finnish audiobooks!
  
• Life of Pi (Yann Martel) - Well-told road-trip with Indian and ocean-going twist.
  
• Ubik (Philip K. Dick) - First Philip K. Dick novel I've tried. Short and confined. Liked but not the best of all things.
  
• Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson) - As a physical book this is a monster, as audiobook not as frightening. As computer history/security/crypto things are close to my heart this was pure joy. More like this?
  
• Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) - bought this with in the good feeling from the previous book. More on the pure scifi/cyberpunk genre. Did like!
  
• Redo Moon Rising (Matthew Brzezinski) - Phew, what a contrast to 'Snow Crash'! Historical view to the race to the space. A bit limited, but included facts that I would've not come accross elsewhere, especially on the USSR-side of things.
  
• The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) - We have this book physically, but as no time to read it I decided to go for it. Well-told story. Left me thinking for a long time the life in totally different cultures - how narrow-viewed we really are, and very lucky at the same time..
  
• A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) - Chose this after good experience of the 'runner. Similar good qualities, enjoyed very much!
  
• The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown) - As having read the previous Browns I knew I would read this eventually. So why not now. Dan Brown cannot help copying from his previous bestsellers which was a bit annoying. There was no diffinculty on listening through this. I'm just hoping that the next one would be very different..
  
• Blade Runner (Philip K. Dick) - The original novel loosely behind the Blade runner movie. More enjoyable than the previous novel of his I listened. Now I want to see the movie again!
  
• Sarasvatin Hiekkaa (Risto Isomäki) - Recommendation from an old aquaintance. Well, the story was a good one, but perhaps too one-track-mind without sufficient self-critique to be really good.
  
• Sinuhe Egyptiläinen (Mika Waltari) - I did start listening to this years back on CD:s. Now, after converting to iPod friendly format I did get back and listened the last 15 or so hours. No wonder this has been a worldwide bestseller. Thoughtprovoking, pondering, very human story in its historical marvel.
  
• A Scanner Darkly (Philip K Dick) - Finished this just this morning. Trippy story blended my dizzines of super-early-morning train journey. Again a book leaving me wanting to see the movie. Well, usually they dissappoint - do they?
  

The following books I have 'cued' already on my iPod:

• Childhoods End (Arthur C Clarke) - currently playing
  
• House Rules (Jodi Picoult)

There's at least the following books I have earmarked recently for listening.

• Rework (37signals)
• Fatal System Error (Joseph Menn)
• Daemon (Daniel Suarez) - any legal way to get these on Europe? audible.com seems to restrict the sales of Suarez books only to US.
  
• Freedom (Daniel Suarez)

As hinted above, most of the books have been bought from audible.com using their two-books-a-month subscription. I have been pretty pleased with the selection so far. I will start to use the local library much more in the future, if I just have the time for all that CD ripping.

Any recommendations? Please fill in with the very best audiobooks you've listened to!

Invoking Spotify playlist using applescript

Spotify has plenty of Finnish children's music available so it has gained specific popularity in our household. This has rendered my older iTunes-control -scripts not that useful anymore. I decided to give Spotify scripting a go, even though I knew there's not applescript interface available. Thankfully simple key navigation is enough for the basic use case of "play random song from this playlist":

-- Invoke Spotify simply by opening a Spotify playlist or artist URL

open location "http://open.spotify.com/artist/4Zml6rzsSiVkfIIWJh6EWX"

-- Make sure we have the spotify-application on front and in focus
tell application "Spotify"
 activate
end tell

-- Now navigate to the song we want to play and play it
tell application "System Events"
 -- Three times tabulator = move selection to the songs list
 key code 48
 key code 48
 key code 48
 -- Wait for a while the spotify app to catch up
 delay (2)
 -- enter key = play selected song
 key code 36
 -- right key with command = next song (random assumed)
 key code 124 using command down
end tell

Note that if the Spotify URL is your private playlist this still works, as the playlist is invoked locally!

Other assumptions:

• "enable access to assistive devices" is enabled on the "Universal Access" -settings
  
• Spotify URL:s properly associated to your favourite browser (tested only with firefox)
  

Known issues:

• Invoking a random song requires you to set the shuffle on manually on the Spotify app
  
• Naturally this generates new browser tabs on each time the script is invoked
• As the key events are used, and even with a noticeable wait in between, this can cause really weird results if something is happening onscreen either interactively or autonomously.
• There is no straightforward way of knowing if Spotify is already playing something. Toggling the playback off, if invoked second time (useful when used with RFID tags) isn't therefore easy.. or is there a apparent solution other than closing the app?
  

As this works OK, I have to print out new RFID-tag for Ti-Ti -nalle for my daughters ;)

Again, the script is not really a rocket science and most of the elements were just copy&pasted from invaluable Doug's AppleScripts. It is just fun to simply being able to control other apps in OSX!