Beautiful Code

A book I'm really looking forward to is Beautiful Code, which contains a series of essays by programmers who are considered to be some of the best in the world.

I have to admit, I don't know the work of most of them, which is something I plan to remedy ASAP. However, there are plenty in there whom I do know: Brian Kernighan, Tim Bray, Elliotte Rusty Harold, Charles Petzold, Simon Peyton Jones and last, but definitely not least, Yukihiro Matsumoto!

The titles of the other essays have me intrigued enough to search out details of their authors, too.

Sadly, the book isn't due out until sometime in June, when all my time will be consumed reading iPhone reviews :-).

Free High School Science Texts

I couldn't help myself. I got caught up reading some of the articles at World Changing.

This one, about Mark Horner and his OpenText Science Book project is particularly inspiring.

Books On Demand

Something I've been waiting for looks like it may finally be feasible ... the ability to have a book printed on demand.

According to this article, there's a machine called the Espresso that will start to appear in libraries and bookstores next year.

Why would one want such a thing, you ask? Well, I can't remember what the precise percentage is, but the vast majority of books are out of print. There's no way to get them, other than small snippets at a time via Google Books.

The Wing of the Hummingbird

The title refers to chapter three of a wonderful new book on mathematics (and much more) by Alexandre V Borovik entitled Mathematics Under The Microscope.

At this stage, I've only skimmed the surface of the first few chapters, but that's sufficient to assure me that reading this book will give me an obscene amount of pleasure. The content is a beautiful mix of mathematics, art, history, psychology, linguistics and philosophy.

Now, to my reason for focusing on chapter three. My close acquaintances know well my affection for command-line interfaces. The aforementioned chapter provides a soupçon of vindication ... "Typing a command is like saying a sentence, while clicking a mouse is equivalent to pointing a finger in conversation". Visit section 3.5 for the details.

Enjoy!