Procrastination pays off

I've been wanting to replace my aged Auditron for a whlie – it was great while it lasted but eight years is a long time for technology. I've been somewhat torn between the Squeezebox and the Sonos, and the price of the Sonos (got a grand laying about?) pretty much left me decided – the Squeezebox was it.


Yesterday we took a little road trip south to the Great Satan and I thought I'd pick one up while I was down there. Surprisingly, neither Best Buy nor Circuit City carried them (stupid of me not to check, but impulse buys, like impulse trips, are better left unplanned). So today I went to the website to find out where I could buy one, and discovered there's something better on the way: the Squeezebox is incorporating the best elements of the Sonos in its recently announced Squeezebox Duet.

There's no telling when it'll be in stores, but after waiting four years to listen to OGG and FLAC files without turning on the computer, I'm sure I can wait another few months.

The unreliable narrator

Two of my top ten books of the last decade are Cheap Complex Devices and Acts of the Apostles by John (Compton|F.X.) Sundman. These are two of the richest and most complex pieces of fiction produced in a contemporary, technically proficient vein. He has written only two books, but he has a mastery of literary structure that takes you by surprise. They mangled my mind.

I suggest starting with Acts of the Apostles (ded tree, free pdf). This is presented as a very straightforward Neal Stephenson or Crichton thriller, like Snow Crash or Sphere. Very readable and engaging, with a few tech industry in-jokes to make a nerd feel like a war veteran (DEC, Microsoft, Sun, and their respective personalities appear under aliases). It's been described as “What Tom Clancy would write if he were smart.”

After you've enjoyed that you can graduate to Cheap Complex Devices (ded tree, free pdf). This is not standard genre fiction, and you might not be sure what you're dealing with. The author's notes, the stories, and the meta-story combine in your head to produce an interference pattern. Which of the three versions are you supposed to believe? Perhaps none of the above. I can't compare this to anything I've read before or since.

I first bought Acts when I saw the story on Slashdot back in 2000. Then I bought it again two years ago. Both are available for download, but you may find you want the real thing (CCD is a little different in print). They are self-published, and the author provides quite a backstory – but can you really believe him?

When buildings collide, part deux

Seattle got it even worse than Atlanta.

When buildings collide

Google maps has satellite images that are cleverly stitched together. But due to parallax, sometimes those images don't quite line up exactly as they should. It would be fascinating to see the image stitching algorithm.