March 27, 2005
Decluttering with Aitken
CONTINUUM -- Jonathan Aitken, profiled in the February edition of Magill has written a book similar in style and format to the extremely popular Psalms for People Under Pressure. The book [ISBN 0826476392] includes 50 selected prayers each accompanied by a spiritual reflection and personal, autobiographical comment. The prayers fall neatly into categories.
Aitken had plenty of time to reflect, as he explained in his Magill interview. He fell from power after a conviction for perjury and corruption. He has endured the pressure of disgrace.
Magill: Your legal travails have cost you million of pounds. How have you coped with your new, reduced circumstances?
Aitken: I was once the chairman of a London merchant bank. In prison I was a lavatory cleaner, earning £5.60 a week — with a bonus of £1 if I did a good job — which I learnt to budget down to the last 2p. My greatest luxuries were miniature pots of Marmite and packet soups from the canteen. But I can honestly say that having had both a luxury lifestyle and a frugal one. I am more content living frugally. I don't think possessions are important. I believe that travelling light is the happiest way for living. Despite all that has happened , I am personally and spiritually very happy. So life has not given me a bad deal."
The Guardian -- "He lied. He lied. He lied."
Jonathan Aitken -- Prayers for People Under Pressure ISBN 0826476392
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March 27, 2005 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
Robyn Recommends
SHUTTERBLOG -- Robyn gives an unabashed plug for The Adobe Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers. ". Just when I think I've seen / read it all as far as hints and tips go, one comes along that lets me know I haven't. The average review on Amazon is 4½ stars, so might be one you'd like to check out as well!"
Robyn O'Rourke Pollman -- "Did you remember to pay the utility?"
Scott Kelby -- The Adobe Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter) ISBN 0735714118
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January 12, 2005 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 07, 2004
It can't happen here
ETEXT -- Lewis' vision of an American descent into Fascism is as fresh and disturbing today as it was when it was written in 1935. Check out the full text online, and consider with me the continuing relevance of this 69 year old warning.
Sinclair Lewis -- It Can't Happen Here
Adelaide Etext -- "It can't happen here"
localroger -- "69 year later, is it happening here?"
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November 7, 2004 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 05, 2004
Foucault and Authors
TEMPLE BAR -- There are four features of texts or books which have authors. In Foucault's terms, these are texts which create the author function.
- Objects of appropriation, forms of property. Speeches and books were assigned to real authors, Foucault argues, only when the authors became subjected to punishments for what the speech or book said.
- The "author function" is not a universal or constant feature of every text. Texts that do not require an "author" include myths, fairy tales, folk stories, legends, and jokes.
- The author function is not formed spontaneously, through some simple attribution of a discourse to an individual. Rather, it results from various cultural constructions, in which we choose certain attributes of an individual as "authorial" attributes, and dismiss others.
- Texts are eliminated from the list of belonging to a particular author if they are markedly superior or inferior to other texts on the list. This means the "author function" is a quality label.
- A text is eliminated from the list of belonging to a particular author when the ideas in that text contradict or conflict with the ideas presented in other texts; thus the "author function" denotes a field of conceptual or theoretical coherence.
- A text is eliminated from belonging to a particular author when the style is different from that of other texts belonging to that author, when it uses words and phrases not found in other texts. Hence "author function" requires a stylistic uniformity.
- Texts are eliminated which refer to events after the death of the author. Hence "author function" means a definite historical figure in which a series of events converge.
- The text always bears signs that refer to the author, or create the "author function."
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November 5, 2004 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 12, 2004
The Da Vinci Code: Unputdownable?
Darren Fennessy writes: After reading about ten doorstep sized books over the summer break this year, getting my hands on The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was a refreshing change from the normal run-of-the-mill thriller. It is steeped in history, but not just any old history. You get to delve into the mind of the great Leonardo Da Vinci and see his art as you never thought you would or ever could conceive it. Then there's the religious aspect that had the world questioning, "Is it true?" at the time of the book's release. There is of course always controversy when religious ideologies are questioned. The Da Vinci Code even spurned other books (The Da Vinci Code Decoded by Martin Lun, for example) that try to set the record straight, as it were. They endeavour to separate fact from fiction, but the line sometimes seems to get more blurry the more you read.
The Dan Brown book itself is, in the timely fashion of all the great thriller books you may have ever read, an unputdownable book. It follows a Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon and his unlikely helper, Sophie Neveu, a French police cryptologist as they solve code after baffling code left by the dead curator of the Louvre. Their story unwinds across Paris, London and eventually leads them to Scotland. I hope that doesn't give too much away for those of you who haven't read it. I shall say no more, but this; if you read no other book this year (academic books aside, for all my studious classmates), then you should definitely purchase a copy of The Da Vinci Code.
Editor's Note: The Tipperary Institute library has four copies of The Da Vinci Code on order.
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October 12, 2004 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
San Francisco Police Department
AMAZON -- The San Francisco Police Department is the second of John Garvey's books to evolve from an audio history project he launched in the 1990s. His depth and breadth of coverage speaks well for the value of multimedia in recording history.
John Garvey -- "The San Francisco Police Department" ISBN 0738528986
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October 12, 2004 in Books | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 29, 2004
XML Hacks
Mike Fitzgerald explains how to use SGML to help auto-tag XML. His column is actually an extract from XML Hacks, a book incorporating many of Sean McGrath's shortcuts.
XML Hacks is a roll-up-your-sleeves guide that distills years of ingenious XML hacking into a complete set of practical tips, tricks, and tools for the web developers, system administrators, and programmers who want to go far beyond basic tutorials to leverage the untapped power of XML. If you've ever tried to go to a web page automatically and then parse the information by examining the string you got back, you can appreciate XML. While not perfect XML is probably the most practical option for packaging data that can be read by both humans and computers.
The book is very useful if you already deal with XML but it's certainly not a primer. You need to understand DTDs, schemas, and SOAP before you can really use every XML hack demonstrated.
We need to incorporate the useful real-world projects from the book into our fourth year programming course. It's only by using XML that you learn how to leverage the power of the internet.
Each hack in this book can be read easily in a few minutes, saving programmers and administrators countless hours of searching for the right answer. And once you have those answers in your head, you can plough along and accomplish more in every billable hour.
Michael Fitzgerald -- XML Hacks published by O'Reilly (July 27, 2004, ISBN 0596007116)
Sean McGrath -- "Hacking XML"
Mike Fitzgerald
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September 29, 2004 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 26, 2004
Post-Structuralist Criticism
FOUCAULT -- In well-received presentations and journal publications, Michel Foucault challenged the privileged status of authors and creatives. He attacked the aloofness of major writers and artists. His challenge pointed to a range of modern artists, including van Gogh and Jackson Pollock. Foucault's challenge arose during the Structuralist influence which passed across French thought in the 1960s. Thinkers as diverse as Lacan, Althusser, and Barthes all questioned the concept of the author. In th Mass Communications and Culture class, we read some of the original critique of "the author" in a translation of a talk given at the Société Francaise de Philosophie, and first published in the Bulletin de la Société Française de Philosophie, no. 63, Paris, 169.
Josue Harari -- Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structuralist Criticism.
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September 26, 2004 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 30, 2004
Google Missing Manual
BN -- Every week I discover a time-saving technique using Google. I just thumbed through a book that will add another 30 timesavers to my skillset. This week, I was interested in songs by Irish artists that dealt with "home." Google allows you to do a phrase search even if you don't have an idea of what the complete phrase looks like. Wildcard search allows one to use an asterisk for any word that's missing. Google will fill it in automatically. This technique is very useful if you're on a radio quiz show trying to find lyrics for the last word of a verse.
Once you discover a few shortcuts with Google, you treat the search engine as your friend. I use shortcuts for dialing area codes in the States, ISBN numbers, UPC numbers, flight numbers, Fedex/UPS/USPS tracking numbers as well as vehicle ID numbers.
Two of Google's less frequently used services, Groups and Answers, reveal many time-saving tactics. Few know that Google runs a paid service that can help you if you're just stuck with no results. Moreover, once the answer is posted and someone has paid for it, Google allows all the visitors to browse it for free, and some advice, for example, in small business section, can save a trip to the lawyer or paid consultant. The book takes the reader through the process of setting up an Answers account (which is actually the same account as the one for Groups) and asking informative questions requiring additional research.
Sarah Milstein and Rael Dornfest have written an easy-reading book. They include buckets of screenshots. Each chapter is clearly market. They really tame Google for the uninitiated.
I think the book is essential reading for our first year multimedia degree students so I'm integrating it to the curriculum. It's one of those purchases that will hold good residual resale value. It's priced for students (€20) and it will make novices into experts able to offer important clues that answer questions beginning with "Where do I find...?"
Sarah Milstein and Rael Dornfest -- "Google: The Missing Manual" ISBN 0596006136
Alex Moskalyuk -- "Google: The Missing Manual"
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July 30, 2004 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 26, 2004
Teach Yourself Movable Type
MOLLY -- We use MT 3.0 on an educational installation and the 41 students involved don't get any special handling when setting up their templates. That's because wonderful tutorials exist, like Molly Holzschlag's Teach Yourself Movable Type in 24 Hours. I learned Radio Userland in less time than that but couldn't sort out some sticky installation problems with multiple Radio users on the same desktops.
Molly Holzschlag -- "Teach yourself Movable Type" costs half of my monthly consumption of design magazines. ISBN 067232590X
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May 26, 2004 in Books | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
