Book: Your Life, Uploaded by Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell

Imagine that everyone has cameras, microphones and other sensors recording their every move.  They would be able to remember everything, identify health trends and enhance their education.  The technology to do this is becoming available right now.  This book by Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell of Microsoft Research explains some of the ways we can get there and some of the challenges along the way.  It is about automatically digitally recording everything you do into one database.

I read the book and I thought it was just OK.  It has a lot of good ideas in it, and it is a good guide for helping you to start lifelogging.  I liked all the ideas that are presented, but I got the main idea in the first 50-100 pages.  After that it seemed repetitive and i did not get any new good ideas.  It seems like you could start the book anywhere and it will be interesting for the first 50-100 pages that you read.  My main complaint was that it did not go into how you could search and categorize all the data.  All this information is useless if you can't search it.


This book has previously been published under the name Total Recall.
You can get it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Your-Life-Uploaded-Digital-Productivity/dp/B005B1JVYO/

Book Review-Enna Burning

Enna Burning

Enna's brother has found something, a scroll.  He seems to be  developing powers, with fire.  Soon the scroll is Enna's, and she can feel the heat pushing in on her.  Now, fires appear on her will.  The book Enna Burning by Shannon Hale has a heated mystery in it, what is the scroll and how will it affect her life?

Book Review-The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden

Can you keep a secret?  Mary has found the garden, Colin might live!  Mary, Dickon and Colin  could make the garden alive again and make it stronger.  With one hundred rooms secrets unfold, one being Colin a sick and hiding cousin.  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a book with new beginnings.  Hush, someone may be near, don't tell anyone!

Book Review-Princess Academy

Princess Academy

Miri feels useless.  Everyone else works at the quarry and she only takes care of the animals.  Soon the prince is going to get married and every girl must go to an academy to learn.  Miri must fight off bandets, lowlanders, and bullies to survive.  Like all of Shannon Hale's books, Princess Academy by Shannon Hale has drama, tense moments and relief.

Book Review-River Secrets

River Secrets

Razo isn't the best solider. He gets laughed at and beat up, but he has a feature that others don't, very, very good memory.  He gets chosen to go on a trip, and be a spy.  The book River Secrets by Shannon Hale is awesome, but the first two books in the series are better.

Book Review-The Goose Girl

The Goose Girl

Crown Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee  is a sweet girl who can talk to birds, her horse and the wind.  She rides off with some others on an adventure to Bayern, a far off city, not knowing that her best friend and hand maiden will turn against her.  Her travels take her to Bayern where she experiences hunger and work, taking care of geese.  The book The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale is a book you need to read, but really you should read all of Shannon Hale's books. They are books you can’t put down.

Book: The Code Book By Simon Sing

This is a pretty good book about cryptography.  It starts at mono-alphabetic substitution and ends at quantum cryptography.  The book is slow moving at some points, but in general it is fine.  It covers all the subjects in great detail.  It covers a lot of history on what provided the motivation to have the code created, and how it was created.  For every single code besides quantum cryptography, the book demonstrates a way to crack it (including public key cryptography).  Another few codes it explains are the enigma machine, vigenére square, and the Lorenz cipher.  If you like codes, this is a great book that you should read.  I had fun learning about all the different codes and I hope you do too. 
If you want to, you can get the book from Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography/dp/0385495323/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318086550&sr=8-1

Book Review- Wings

Wings

Every night on a full moon, Tamsin dances a particular dance. Tamsin has sparkling freckles, and pointed ears. Very different from most humans. What is she? I would recommend the book Wings by E.D. Baker to people who want a fairy tale with an exciting twist. Getting trapped in the fey, is it for you?