reviews

WIJFR: The Man in the High Castle

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It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

I know I said “American Gods” would be my last WIJFR post, but I just finished reading “The Man in the High Castle” by Philip K. Dick. I originally read this alternate history story by PKD many many years ago, but was inspired to re-read it after watching the pilot episode of the new Ridley Scott-produced original series on Amazon Prime Video. It’s been greenlit for a full series and now that I’ve re-read the original source material I’m looking forward to watching it.

CyberPower BRG1000AVRLCD UPS

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A recent power outage that resulted in my server staying up for only about a minute made it apparent that it was time to replace my 5 year old CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD UPS in the computer closet. I’ve been very happy with that model so I chose just to go with its updated sibling, the CyberPower BRG1000AVRLCD.

The BGR1000AVRLCD is a 1000VA/600W uninteruptible power supply with, 10 outlets (5 battery/5 surge). It has one more surge outlet than the CP1000AVRLCD and as a result is slightly taller, but has a nicer, clearer, black and white LCD status screen. Like the older version, the outlet spacing doesn’t allow for power bricks, so you’ll need to invest in some short extension cables. The outlets are nicely shaded/color-coded to make it easier to figure out which side is battery-powered. My favorite feature by far is the mute option, which lets you turn off all beeps and alerts.

I also picked up two smaller CyberPower CP350SLG UPSes. These are 350VA/255W units with 6 outlets (3 battery/3 surge). While I wouldn’t really recommend these for a desktop PC setup, they work great for keeping my TiVos and tuning adapters running during power outages and flickers. Like the BGR1000AVRLCD, you can toggle all the beeps and alerts on and off by pressing the power button twice quickly, which is a nice feature. I do have one have one minor problem with the CPS350SLG: a slight hum that is very noticeable in a quiet room (like a bedroom).

 

WIJFR: American Gods

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Shadow is a man with a past. But now he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with his wife and stay out of trouble. Until he learns that she’s been killed in a terrible accident. Flying home for the funeral, as a violent storm rocks the plane, a strange man in the seat next to him introduces himself. The man calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and he knows more about Shadow than is possible. He warns Shadow that a far bigger storm is coming. And from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same…

I just finished “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman, a story about Shadow, an ex-con recently released from prison and a brewing battle between the “old gods” that came to America with immigrants (like Odin, Loki, or other mythology we’re familiar with) and the new “gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon.”

It’s also a road trip novel, with all sorts of Americana in it, like The House on the Rock and Ruby Falls. I love road trips and quirky roadside attractions so I really enjoyed those parts of the book. We’ll be going on a west coast road trip this summer, so keep an eye out for those posts! 😉  America … “They said it was a good place for men, but a bad place for gods.”

 

Note: this will be last my last regular WIJFR post. I just don’t always have the time or the inclination to write up and review every book after I finish it. This started out as a way to just keep track of what books I’ve read and when, but now (7 years and 84 posts later!) I use GoodReads so duplicating that effort here seems like a waste. If I do have something to say about a book in the future, though, and feel inspired to do so, I’m sure I’ll write something up.

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

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Surface Pro 3We’ve decided to give the Microsoft Surface another shot as our next “standard issue laptop” at work so I now have a Surface Pro 3 tablet. The SP3 is replacing my Samsung Ativ Book9 ultrabook, which I got in April 2014, in turn replacing my original Surface Pro. I’ve been using it now for two weeks as my main machine at work, so how does it stack up against the ultrabook and the original Surface? Some things change, some things stay the same …

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WIJFR: Heinlein time travel (and “Predestination”)

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The other week I saw “Predestination,” a recommendation from Steve Gibson on episode #492 of his Security Now! podcast. The movie is a pretty good brain-twisting time travel romp starring Ethan Hawke and was based on a short story witten by Robert A. Heinlein in 1958. I’ve read Heinlein in the past (i.e., “Stranger in a Strange Land“), although the last time was before I started my WIJFR posts on this blog.

I started with “By His Bootstraps,” an earlier (1941) time travel story by Heinlein and then read “All You Zombies” (which is significantly shorter and the basis of the movie). Both are packed with time loops, paradoxes, and multiple occurences of the same character, but lack the humor and pop culture of, say, the “Back to the Future” series. I recommend them both and have added some more Heinlein to my “to read” list.

WIJFR: Rogue Code

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Cyber security expert Jeff Aiken knows that no computer system is completely secure. When he’s called to investigate a possible breach at the New York Stock Exchange, he discovers not only that their system has been infiltrated but that someone on the inside knows. Yet for some reason, they have allowed the hackers to steal millions of dollars from accounts without trying to stop the theft. When Jeff uncovers the crime, the NYSE suddenly turns on him. Accused of grand larceny, he must find and expose the criminals behind the theft, not just to prove his innocence but to stop a multibillion-dollar heist that could upend the U.S. economy. Unwilling to heed Jeff’s warnings, the NYSE plans to continue with a major IPO using a new, untested system, one that might be susceptible both to hackers and to ruthless high-frequency traders willing to take any risk to turn a profit.

I just finished “reading” (on Audible) “Rogue Code” (Book 3 in the Jeff Aiken series) by Mark Russinovich.

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WIJFR: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

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The Committee, an international cabal of industrialists and media barons, is on the verge of privatizing all information. Dear Diary, an idealistic online Underground, stands in the way of that takeover, using radical politics, classic spycraft, and technology that makes Big Data look like dial-up. Into this secret battle stumbles an unlikely trio: Leila Majnoun, a disillusioned non-profit worker; Leo Crane, an unhinged trustafarian; and Mark Deveraux, a phony self-betterment guru who works for the Committee. Leo and Mark were best friends in college, but early adulthood has set them on diverging paths. Growing increasingly disdainful of Mark’s platitudes, Leo publishes a withering takedown of his ideas online. But the Committee is reading – and erasing – Leo’s words. On the other side of the world, Leila’s discoveries about the Committee’s far-reaching ambitions threaten to ruin those who are closest to her.

I just finished reading “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” by David Shafer, which I heard about from Leo Laporte on an episode of TWiT (or Security Now, I forget which) last year.

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Windows 10 Technical Preview

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Microsoft announced Windows 10, the successor to Windows 8, last September. Like I’ve done in the past with Windows 7 and Windows 8, I downloaded the first tech preview in October and installed it on a spare laptop at work to get a jump on learning my way around the newest iteration of Windows. Last week, after an official media event for Windows 10 (at which Microsoft also announced HoloLens!), another big update to the tech preview was released so I grabbed the ISO and did a fresh install on my (original) Surface Pro tablet.

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ViewSonic VA2212M 22″ LED monitors

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After I got my standing desk it became quickly apparent that I should upgrade my monitors. My trusty 17″ Samsung 172N was over 11 years old and my 19″ Gateway FPD1960 was pushing 9 years. There was nothing wrong with them, but they were square (4:3) and, now that I was standing, too low on the desk, making me look down and hurting my neck. It was time for an upgrade and for Christmas I received two ViewSonic VA2212M 22″ LED monitors and the VIO free-standing dual monitor stand.

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Image corruption

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During my recent web photo gallery conversion to Piwigo I realized that a lot of my JPG photo files were corrupted! I think this happened last March when I copied everything from my old NAS to a new one. I suspect the network/connectivity issues I had with that new NAS caused the file corruption. I ended up returning that device and getting a Synology Diskstation, but by that point the damage was done. I didn’t notice then because the thumbnail images in my Gallery software were still fine, it was the originals that were messed up. Unfortunately, since the corruption happened so long ago, I no longer had backups I could restore from. My only option was to try and repair the files.

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