Tims Blog

So I’ve recently finished quite a reading streak.

• Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus
• Innumeracy
• Crimes Against Logic

I liked the first two, but was so impressed by the third. Mars/Venus provided a lot of valuable feedback on the mindsets of men and women. I found myself nodding my head “yes” during many of the discussed topics. I liked the idea of the Love Letters, and the Caves/Wells argument was spot on. I definitely recommend it for some very informative reading.

Innumeracy was also a great book but on a completely different subject. It was filled with probability and statistics topics. It talked about the problems that can abound when a population is sufficiently ignorant about mathematics. It too is a recommended read because it touches on topics that you often here in the news regarding this or that statistic and how they can be very misleading.

Crimes was from a British author so it was a bit harder to relate with because a lot of his subject matter was England specific. It made some very convincing arguments (my favorite were the religious and political ones) but it sounded like the author was trying very hard to be like the author of Innumeracy; but failing. It was more difficult to read too. Both Innumeracy and Crimes used what I would consider “big words”; the kind that make people appear intelligent. However Innumeracy’s writing style came across as fitting the topic, whereas Crimes’ writing seemed like overkill.

I got a metric ton of books for Christmas this year; helluva lot of tools also. So I’m going to be reading way-on through to next Christmas no doubt.

And so the HDMI cable finally arrived and HD DVD goodness can finally be had; and oh boy is it having. I watched 300 the other night and have Bourne something-or-another to watch tonight or this weekend. I’m about 100 pages from finishing Zen, and have really enjoyed it. The last chapters about gumption and things that kill it was absolutely awesome. My mom passed off another book to me that she wants me to read and return, so Innumeracy will have to be put on hold for a week.

Sean dropped by IM to say hello. I haven’t spoken with him in a long time, so it was great to hear from him. I’m going to meet up with him in Vegas and do what Sean does best in Vegas. Can’t wait for CES and that.

• pete’s linux advent calendar
• moo at the moon
• cat proximity
• eye pleasing colors
• sparklines
• open flash chart