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July 12, 2007
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Ron
gave
 
to:
Rainbows End: A Novel With One Foot In The Future (Hardcover)
by Vernor Vinge
bookshelves:
scifi
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in June, 2007
Ron said:
"Vernor Vinge continues to delight with well-plotted and offbeat SF. Rainbow's End is a tale about loss, growing old and getting a second chance, and how that affects bad family dynamics, along with the usual gobs of interesting speculation about the...more
Vernor Vinge continues to delight with well-plotted and offbeat SF. Rainbow's End is a tale about loss, growing old and getting a second chance, and how that affects bad family dynamics, along with the usual gobs of interesting speculation about the future. I didn't quite follow the motivation of the main character's changes of heart during the middle of the book, but by the end it came together reasonably well. The greatest strengths of the story are in the utterly believable future world Vinge creates, but this is somewhat dulled by the large number of characters and their complicated and changing relationships. The story also speaks best to people who enjoy and understand enough of current computer technology to recognize the logic of Vinge's extrapolations. But this is typical of SF. Overall, its engrossing and delightful, ending on enough of a positive note to make you wonder about a sequel....less
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July 07, 2007
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Ron
gave
to:
The Last Three Miles: Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America's First Superhighway (Hardcover)
by Steven Hart
bookshelves:
history,
politics,
transportation
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2007
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May 23, 2007
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Ron
gave
to:
The Car That Could: The Inside Story of GM's Revolutionary Electric Vehicle (Hardcover)
by Michael Shnayerson
bookshelves:
history,
transportation
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 1999
Ron said:
"Resulting in the only detailed history of the General Motors EV-1 program, author Michael Shnayerson was given access to the team during the development process. As one might expect the story of an electric car being produced by the world's largest ...more
Resulting in the only detailed history of the General Motors EV-1 program, author Michael Shnayerson was given access to the team during the development process. As one might expect the story of an electric car being produced by the world's largest automaker takes some twists and turns. The project was announced by one CEO in 1990 just as he retired and left the company, the project slowly died, and then was revived to meet the California Zero Emissions Vehicle regulations, and finally killed when those regulations were successfully destroyed in the courts by a lawsuit supported (in part) by General Motors. Overall, its a tale of how difficult it is for carmakers to change their ways and incorporate advanced technology into what they do, showing that government regulation can make it happen, but only if the rulemaking is stable and sensible....less
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May 20, 2007
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Ron
marked as to-read:
Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way (Hardcover)
by Bruce Campbell
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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April 18, 2007
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Ron
is currently reading:
Aramis, or the Love of Technology (Hardcover)
by Bruno Latour
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in April, 2007
Ron said:
"Currently reading. Will update once completed.
The Aramis book (so far) is a meta dialog by a sociologist about the development of technology, how it, project structure, etc. evolve grow and interact with the world. It begins with the question &...more
Currently reading. Will update once completed.
The Aramis book (so far) is a meta dialog by a sociologist about the development of technology, how it, project structure, etc. evolve grow and interact with the world. It begins with the question "Who killed Aramis (the project)?" and bounces back and forth between details of the 20 year long project, and generalities about society, technology, culture, etc.
My PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) online reading links are in delicious under keywords transportation and prt....less
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Ron
gave
to:
Perdido Street Station (Mass Market Paperback)
by China Miéville
bookshelves:
fantasy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Ron said:
"This was a mildly fantastic, slow moving journey through a set of fairly dull ideas. I found the characters neither compelling nor believable. The setting was fascinating, but rather dark and boring. Unlike some of the grand works of fantasy I did...more
This was a mildly fantastic, slow moving journey through a set of fairly dull ideas. I found the characters neither compelling nor believable. The setting was fascinating, but rather dark and boring. Unlike some of the grand works of fantasy I didn't see the "parallel world commentary" develop here. But, it kept my interest enough to finish. I went on hoping something would happen. Nothing really did.
With most books you get a feeling the author was excited with what they're writing. Perdido Street Station gave me the impression the author was bored and sleepy, occasionally rallying for a moment of interest.
Not all books must be action packed, but engagement is essential. I wasn't engaged by this book and, while I may be projecting, I didn't get the impression the author was either....less
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April 05, 2007
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Ron
gave
to:
Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine: The Great Zeppelin and the Dawn of Air Travel (Paperback)
by Douglas Botting
bookshelves:
history
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2002
Ron said:
"Dr. Hugo Eckener was the visionary behind the development of modern rigid frame airships in Germany up to the start of WW2. Eckener's fight to fund the construction of these behemoths included national donation campaigns and verbal battles with Nazi...more
Dr. Hugo Eckener was the visionary behind the development of modern rigid frame airships in Germany up to the start of WW2. Eckener's fight to fund the construction of these behemoths included national donation campaigns and verbal battles with Nazi administrators. It describes an around the world trip made by airship long before GPS navigation or even national road systems provided a safety net in case of failure.
The author's style is a bit dry at times but you get a good sense of how a German population recovering from WW1 rallied around the idea, how long and hard the development was, and how WW2 finally delayed implementation long enough for aircraft to far surpass airship capabilities.
Looked at one way, airships and flying boats were a solution to the problem of not having airports. After WW2, when aircraft performance was way up and runways had been built in many places, these technologies were no longer generally needed. They become a small niche in the greater aviation market....less
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April 04, 2007
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Ron
gave
to:
Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship (Paperback)
by George Dyson
bookshelves:
history,
space
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Ron said:
"What would you say to the idea of a spacecraft pushed along by bombs exploding behind it? What if you were told that with atomic bombs the spacecraft could be the size and weight of an oceangoing battleship?
Project Orion is a history written by ...more
What would you say to the idea of a spacecraft pushed along by bombs exploding behind it? What if you were told that with atomic bombs the spacecraft could be the size and weight of an oceangoing battleship?
Project Orion is a history written by the son of noted Physicist Freeman Dyson. His father was on the research team at General Atomics in the early 1960s that showed such a spacecraft could very likely be built. A filmed test with conventional explosives showed a model vehicle popping upwards. They even held talks with the Coca Cola company to see if very reliable soda can dispenser mechanisms could be adapted to eject microbombs. In the end, the problems of fallout, nuclear proliferation due to the manufacture of thousands of tiny atomic bomblets and the signing of the atmospheric test ban treaty killed the full scale concept.
In recent years the idea has occasionally been revived for a mission to Mars, where the nuclear pusher engine would only be used outside of earth's atmosphere....less
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Ron
gave
to:
Air-conditioning America: Engineers and the Controlled Environment, 1900-1960 (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)
by Gail Cooper
bookshelves:
history
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Ron said:
"Air conditioning has been described as one of the key technologies that changed American society. This book describes how it evolved, first as a tool for industry to control manufacturing environments (its not he heat its the humidity), and eventual...more
Air conditioning has been described as one of the key technologies that changed American society. This book describes how it evolved, first as a tool for industry to control manufacturing environments (its not he heat its the humidity), and eventually redefined by the average person (cool in summer, warm in winter). Along the way you'll learn about things like dewpoint, "bypass" and a little bit about ammonia and CO2-based systems....less
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Ron
gave
to:
The Chronoliths (Mass Market Paperback)
by Robert Charles Wilson
bookshelves:
scifi
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Ron said:
"A towering pillar appears with a crack of thunder in the middle of the swelting jungles of Southeast asia. An inscription on its initially frozen surface celebrates a victorious battle... but one that has yet to take place. Political and technologi...more
A towering pillar appears with a crack of thunder in the middle of the swelting jungles of Southeast asia. An inscription on its initially frozen surface celebrates a victorious battle... but one that has yet to take place. Political and technological responses ensue, as the crisis builds when more "Chronoliths" appear, some crushing major cities in the course of their materialization.
An intriging premise and very cinematic book. Starts quite small and builds well by exploring questions around destiny.
Reminds me a bit of the old SciFi movie The Monolith Monsters [http://imdb.com/title/tt0050720/]....less
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