Fall 2012

Reggie Watts is a comedian and musician, and he gave a Pop Tech talk making fun of Pop Tech talks.

His talk was hilarious. He captured the vocabulary, mannerisms, and style of TED (and similar) talks perfectly. "Getting outside of the box is more than just getting out of a box and walking away. As children know, sometimes boxes are very difficult to get out of. Why is it any different for us? Between glass ceilings, dirt floors, and boxes..."

If you ever watch TED or Pop Tech talks, I highly recommend Reggie Watts' talk.

I spent a lot of time stressing out over this past election. I donated to Obama (and to some of the senate races) a few times. I hadn't given much thought to the ballot propositions across the nation, though.

"The Last Colony" returns to John Perry and Jane Sagan, retired from the military, as they colonize a new world.

The book is about secrets and peace. Readers of the first two books will know that secrets abound among the Colonial Union. However, in the first two books, the secrets were largely incidental. Yes, they played a major role in the plot, but the protagonists were happy to live their lives without confronting the secrets, so they weren't a big part of the story.

Where "Old Man's War" was a smorgasbord of philosophical and technological ideas, "Ghost Brigades" was much more focused. "Ghost Brigades" is a novel about the nature of consciousness. What is a consciousness? Is it separable from intelligence? Is it separable from experiences? How does it change over time? How does it relate to choice? These are some of the questions that the book goes into. I happen to disagree with most of the opinions that the book espouses on the subject, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.

The director for the Haas Center for Public Service, Thomas Schnaubelt, mentions how Code the Change is bringing more guys into public service. One thing that I've noticed with Code the Change is how public service is bringing more women into computer science.

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Humble Bundle is a nonprofit that lets you pay what you want for a bundle of things, and the money goes to charity. They are most fameous for their game bundles, such as the Humble Indie Bundles, which have 5 or so independent games, but recently they have started branching out into music and ebooks. I got "Old Man's War" in the Humble eBook Bundle. I had heard of the author before, but I never read any of his work. Apparently, Scalzi is the president of the Sci Fi and Fantasy Writers of America, and he's written a bunch of novels.

"The Blinding Knife" is the sequel to "The Dark Prism," which I read over the summer. I didn't know when "The Blinding Knife" came out, but one friend gave another friend "The Dark Prism" to read, I commented on it, and he responded that the sequel came out.

People often ask me what my favorite classes are. This article is for anyone who is looking for some good classes to take.