Well, I am not afraid to admit that the only reason I picked up this book was because it was a free ebook on Baen’s website.  I think.  It was a long time ago.  I read a recommendation of it somewhere, probably on John Scalzi’s Whatever weblog site, and decided I had nothing to lose.  Besides, I was looking for a well-formatted ebook to try out on my PDA using MobiReader.

Freehold is old-school Science Fiction in the vein of Heinlein and Drake.  It follows the desperate escape from Earth of Sergeant Kendra Pacelli of the UN Military after being framed in an embezzlement scheme.  She finds herself on Freehold after seeking asylum at their Earth-side embassy and is overwhelmed by extreme culture shock.  What seems to me to be the ultimate Libertarian Utopia, is a unrestricted nightmare for someone who grew up in the authoritarian, politically correct, dystopian future that the modern world seems to be trending toward.  We get to follow her adjustment to a personally responsible, high-technology life on a world devoted to the freedom of the individual. 

It is difficult to preview this book without giving much away, so I won’t go into it much.  While it seems that it could be rather proselytizing, it really is able to keep it down to a minimum.  As I am a big fan of smaller government, the concept of Freehold, an individuals’ liberty and government minimization greatly appealed to me, and was essential to the storyline, but only was used that far and not to bludgeon the reader with political badgering.  The only major problem I had with the book was its length.  Because it was so long, it took awhile for anything to really get going.  I read this on my PDA, but read something on the order of 10 other books in the meantime, going back over a year.  Not that it was boring, but just a bit slow in the beginning.  But not to worry, it really picks up at the end and I ended up with a few really late nights to finish it.  A good read made great by its availability, and it served it’s purpose:  I will pick up more from this author in the future.

One of my favorite features in Vista is the Sidebar.  I have been using precursors of it since Windows 3.11.  Anyone remember HP’s Dashboard?  I bought and used that app every day on every system I used until Windows 98.  Since then, I’ve used Konfabulator, Stardock’s DesktopX and many others.  When Microsoft came out with Vista’s sidebar, it quickly became one of my favorite features.  In fact, it remains my sole disappointment with 7 so far; it just doesn’t work quite as well.

At work, I am forced to use a 32-bit XP system.  I miss many of the sidebar elements while working.  CPU, memory and network metering are part of my dev cycle.  And there are decent enough widgets that come close.  Clocks, calendars and other items are very useful.  But the sidebar wasn’t portable to XP.

Until, that is, I found a patched/hacked version on DeviantART that seems to work very well.  Called simply Windows Sidebar, Real One, Pack, it comes bundled with the Alky for Windows library that allows it to run within XP (you don’t need to supply a Vista key when it asks, by the way).  So with a couple of useful gadgets, especially the ones from Orb2k, I can have all of my monitoring loaded in one extensible process.  Very nice, and thanks to ~joshoon of DeviantART.com.

Well I finally bought 8GB DDR2 for The Beast.  Before I installed it, however, I went ahead and installed Windows 7, in 64-bit mode, of course.  While I was a fan of Vista, I am very impressed with 7, though I still feel it to be a better chromed version of Vista.  But the 8 gigs is awesome!  NO more memory issues, pagefile thrashing, or even a need for ReadyBoost.  And I haven’t run into a limit of Visual Studios open at one time.  Now I can finish my micro netcast receiver project….  (Ok, I probably didn’t need 8G for that.)

And the frosting?  XP Mode.  My client site has switched to Cisco VPN from whatever they were using that was MS compatible.  I hate the Cisco VPN client.  And of course, it won’t work on a 64-bit OS.  So I downloaded the RC version of XP Mode, fired it right up, installed the VPN and was connected to their network in under 5 minutes.  I’m gonna love that feature!

In the category of “So I don’t forget again”, here is how to compile a simple code.cs file to a console executable:

csc /t:exe NetDir.cs

Very simple, very easy.  To make it a Windows exe (console app with no console window, very useful for scheduled or batch processing), change the target (/t == /target) to winexe.

Ok, last review was a little over the top.  I should have called it:  The 21st Century's Alas, Babylon.  This book is credited as inspiration to One Second After and with good reason.  Having never read it, I thought it was time.

"The Day" is the one when the bombs fall.  Although we meet our hero Randy Bragg, native of Central Florida (just north of Orlando), and his brother Mark, who serves in Intelligence for SAC, a few weeks before.  Mark warns Randy of an impending attack and sends his wife and kids to stay with him to weather the threat, giving them all some time to prepare.  The threat is realized when the morning skies are lit up in the direction of Tampa, then less so from Daytona and Miami.  And all doubt is erased when the nuclear strike on Orlando itself and the resulting mushroom cloud is unmistakable.  The rest of the book is the story of a small community fighting for survival in the Florida "Contaminated Zone".

Set in the late '50s, it has an interesting perspective for me, knowing Orlando 30 years later.  The references to McCoy Air Force Base (now Orlando International Airport), Pinecastle and the St. John's River are enjoyable and interesting landmarks.  This is also a well thought out and written book, although not as grim as One Second After, and the characters seemed a bit flat to me as well.  Both these comments, though, are to be expected for a book written 50 years ago.  I found some details, such as the abundance of food, and the town rallying behind the leadership of a man all felt previously to be a amusing playboy, to be disappointing.  But it was a very enjoyable read and was significant for its times, if not so much today.

And now, the book heralded across the Internet as a must read.  One that eclipses most other novels, and tainted my perception of previous reads (Sorry J.F.Lewis).  It was referenced by Techo-geeks, Military writers and SciFi fans.  How could I not read it?  I ended up getting a copy from the local library and consumed it in little over a week.

One Second After actually starts a couple days before.  Then suddenly, the power goes out, most cars stop, and all electronics go dead. And nobody knows why.  Retired USArmy Colonel John Matherson has a pretty good suspicion having to do with high-altitude EMP burst attacks over the United States, but with no communications with anyone in earshot, who can tell?  What follows is a chillingly realistic look at how devastating the total disruption of electricity would be to our country.  The entire novel is set around the people in a small North Carolina community struggling to survive in conditions 100 years gone.

This is one of the most disturbing book I have ever read.  At the same time, it was very well written and executed.  I felt for the characters, identified with them, feared for them.  I will be buying this book for myself later, it was so good.  I have recommended it to everyone into technology and anyone who feels "safe" from foreign threats.  This is "Red Dawn" of the 21st Century.

Some time ago, I came across my old friend Tom Cavanagh online and discovered he is a writer. I read his first 2 books and really enjoyed them both. I don't usually enjoy crime novels, but someone lent me this book, and because I enjoyed Tom's books so well, and because Sandford is the pseudonym of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Roswell Camp, I tried it out.

Lucas Davenport is a celebrated police detective in the Minneapolis area who is renowned for using his intellect and game building skills to crack cases. He is brought in to solve a series of seemingly unconnected murders that have all been "signed" by a single killer's messages to the cops. Davenport is forced to out-think a killer who obviously is familiar with forensics and police procedure in order to bring the killer in. What results is a good, rarely predictable investigation that pits mind against mind in a struggle to be top game master.

Ok, I'm still not a fan of crime novels. But I did enjoy this one. It was a mix of the TV shows CSI, Criminal Minds, and Psych. Actually, I couldn't get the image of Lassiter from Psych out of my mind during passages about Davenport, although his actions were more James Bond than Lassy. This was a good diversion, if not a great book. It remains to be seen if I read more of the series (19 books!).

Heechee Rendezvous is book 3 of the classic Heechee Saga of Frederik Pohl.  While Gateway is a very different read, the second of the saga was more mainstream than its predecessor.  And HR is good solid modern Science Fiction.

Again, we join Robinette Broadhead, the even richer billionaire of the Gateway saga. But this time, right from the start, we learn of the alien race known to the humans as Heechee. The main storyline begins with a down-and-out pilot on one of the Gateway planets who decides to work his way back to Earth on a transport ship after his young wife leaves him to go exploring with the castway Han from the 2nd book. On the voyage home, he discovers evidence that the Heechee are still around and can be found, so his plans change to confront Broadhead with a plan to do so. Meanwhile, Han has found the black hole that changed Robin's life so dramatically in the first book and rescued Robin's lost love as a consequence. Both these actions alert and trigger the emergence of the Heechee into Human space, along with a warning of the Assassins who may be awakened to return and destroy all life in the universe.

Final answers in the Heechee Saga are not answered here. We are obviously led up to a conclusion in the final book Annals of the Heechee. This was a good read and Pohl's grasp of science and technology is, again, very refreshing, especially this volumes examination of Artificial Intelligences and the question of storage of human intellect.  I am really enjoying reading this series and look forward to the final book.

This past weekend, I sat down with my 6 year old daughter and watched Star Wars.  It was her first time, certainly not mine.  She really likes the Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network, so I thought it was time.  It was an interesting experience.

Star Wars came out when I was 7.  I never saw it in the theaters in its original release; my parents seldom took us to a theater, and then only for "kids" movies.  I did see it years later, but never the original cut.  My first exposure was a VHS tape that our uncle gave my father.  I watched that tape over and over until it wore out, literally.  I bought the trilogy on VHS when it was released as a boxed set later on, and again when it was remastered with THX sound.  And I got a copy when the whole set was reworked with new CGI content.  Oh, I have seen Star Wars a few times...

The version I showed my daughter was in HD.  Obviously the latest remastered, cleaned, reedited, Greedo shot first, equatorial shock wave edition.  It was beautiful.  After the attack on Leia's ship, I remarked to my wife, "I don't believe I have ever seen this movie look so good!".  Funny, the version I always remember was grainy and almost smoky; it was thick with atmosphere.  This version was crisp and clean, clear and sharp; it looked great, yet somehow lacked something.  She loved it. 

It's funny how 32 years has changed so much.  The impact the film had on me was dramatic, even life changing (OK, I was only 7).  Not so much for her.  That old tape was a treasure to be handled carefully and saved for the future.  The copy from this past weekend was just so many bits on our DVR.  It is marvelous to see the world through her new eyes, yet make my own feel that much older.

I finished this book some time ago, but delayed the review of it because I was not sure how to do it properly.  Every once in a long while, I will read a book that is so good, so meaningful, that it can change perceptions.  This may very well be one of those books.  While watching an episode of Dogfights on the History Channel, I learned of Bud Anderson who flew the famous Old Crow P-51 Mustang in Europe during WWII.  So I looked him up online and discovered he had written a book.

I grew up believing, and well into adulthood, that Chuck Yeager was probably the greatest (American) pilot of all time.  But Yeager himself disagrees:  He names Bud Anderson that pilot.  He is the only combat pilot in WWII to achieve triple ace (17 kills) and never get hit.  His tour of Europe never included a scrubbed mission due to his ability or aircraft.  He was incredibly lucky and extremely skilled.  The story of Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson reads like a novel but yet contains great technical and tactical data.  He grew up a poor farmer, joined up at the opening of the war, flew combat in Europe with one the first squadrons to be outfitted with the Mustang, was a wingman of Chuck Yeager and flight leader as well, a test pilot during the glory days at Edwards, and even flew combat during Vietnam in F-105s.  The man is a hero, deserves to be a legend, and still lives today.

To Fly and Fight is written in a humble voice, quick to give credit where due, not afraid to call it like he saw it, and reluctant to believe he is the great hero that he so evidently is.  The problem with writing a review of a book such as this, is not to come off sounding ridiculous, but that is a difficult feat.  I truly enjoyed this book, and have made it part of my permanent collection.