Mouse Tales

It is no secret that I love Apple products.

Their mouse (on the right) may be an exception. I have gone through two of them in as many years. What goes wrong? The little trackball stops working. The trackball is a wonderful idea, and if you fiddle with it (rub it on a piece of paper, etc.) sometimes it will work-for a while.

So, when the second one died, I looked for a replacement (sorry, Apple). I selected the Macally IceMini (on the left).

Nice little mouse, and it is little. Right and left buttons and a robust scrollwheel. You can only scroll up and down, not back and forth, but that is not a huge problem.

Review and commentary (c) 2011 by Patrick Jost

ThinkGeek: The Bag of Holding

It was time for a new shoulder bag, and, after much deliberation, I chose this one, the Bag of Holding from ThinkGeek.

It is named after a "gaming item" with (supposedly) infinite capacity. This bag WILL hold a lot of stuff…

It has several nice features:

1. A handle. The strap is nice, but there are times when you just need to grab the back and pick it up.
2. The zippers. You may not be able to tell by the picture, but they are metal and should last for a long time (unlike nylon zippers).
3. The bag uses magnetic clasps. You can see the "female" part of one to the right. These work very well, and do not seem to be magnetic enough to damage electronic equipment.

The bag has several compartments. My only complaint, such as it is, is about the front compartment, which has many small pockets in it. The pockets are almost too small to be useful (I have a flashlight in one). Heavy objects might fall out. I might have preferred more slots for pens.

All in all, though, a very nice bag, and I suspect it will last for a while.

Review (c) 2011 by Patrick Jost

Cyber Spying: Tracking Your Family's (Sometimes) Secret Online Lives

Cyber Spying, by Ted Fair, Michael Nordfelt, Sandra Ring and Dr. Eric Cole is really all about the subtitle "Tracking Your Family's (Sometimes) Secret Online Lives."

This book serves as an excellent introduction to spying and counterspying on computers.

The vast majority of the techniques described in the book, however, require what the authors honestly refer to as "intimate access" to the machine of potential interest. Some of the techniques described require the installation of additional hardware (keystroke loggers) or software in order to accomplish the task at hand.

If such access cannot be obtained, much of what is in this book is useless.

But, in cases where it is necessary to "spy" on a family member, such as a spouse or child, this book may be for you.

Interestingly, the last section of the book contains a detailed discussion of countermeasures applicable to many of the techniques appearing in the rest of the book!

Calculus: A Modern Approach by Karl Menger

It is an unfortunate reality many textbooks are quite expensive-often over $100.

Karl Menger's Calculus: A Modern Approach is a welcome exception.

This book costs less than $20 (available from Dover). It has the advantage of having been written by a noted Vienna Circle mathematician. One of Menger's areas of expertise was the "explication of [mathematical] concepts" and he also trained US military personnel in mathematics during World War II.

The book suits the needs of the absolute beginner: you can start on page one and proceed with a "miniature calculus" (which is developed into a "full calculus" in the course of the book), or, if you are using the book as a reference or refresher, the book can be used for that as well-note that it includes an entire chapter on scientific applications of calculus.

Necessary Madness?

If there is one criticism of John Monahan's They Called Me Mad, it is the length-it is not long enough.

The book begins with a discussion of Archimedes (who is probably the first person to conceive of, and maybe attempt to implement a "death ray"),it then moves on to alchemy (misguided efforts to transmute lead into gold that laid the foundations for modern chemistry), dissection (from grave robbery to modern medicine), and the work of Nikola Tesla (which includes but is not limited to radio, remote control, and alternating current; Tesla, like Archimedes, had ideas about "death rays").

The book concludes with two related discussions: nuclear energy (with an emphasis on the work of Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer) and and the development of missiles, summarizing the "space race" between the United States and Soviet Union, and the pivotal role played by Wernher von Braun.

Economics 101 (almost)

Adam Smith?

Thomas Malthus?

Karl Marx?

Thorstein Veblen?

John Maynard Keynes?

Maybe you've heard of them, maybe you haven't. They are key figures in economics.

Robert Heilbroner has brought them, and others, to life in his excellent book, The Worldly Philosophers, pictured here in a 1980 edition (many years before the bailouts, but you'll be surprised how timely the book still is).

Heilbroner teaches economics through the lives of prominent economists. You'll read about Adam Smith's absentmindedness, Karl Marx's boils, Thorstein Veblen's love life, and the fortune of John Maynard Keynes. You'll find out what the Wealth of Nations and Communist Manifesto are all about.

This book does not replace a course in economics, but it will get you started with what's important-the key ideas!

Michael Patrick Jost (March 2011).