Henry Hagnäs

Freedom(tm)

"Freedom(tm)" is the follow-up to "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago (http://www.henryhagnas.com/daemon-11) and wow... It's all of Daemon and then some. Luckily I had the opportunity to spend my whole day reading it, along with a great spring sunshine:

 

I have to first of all retract my previous criticism of Daemon's ending, while I think both books as one would probably have been better it isn't as bad as I first said. Both books are divided in parts that jump in time to keep the action going (since the books span years in time) and the jump between the books is quite natural. That said, to keep yourself sane you really should order both books or you'll end sitting on pins and needles while waiting for "Freedom(tm)" to show up.

As I said, the story continues a few years down the line, the Daemon has grown in power but so have its opponents and the resistance they provide, which keeps the book interesting and exciting all the way to the very end. I won't say more about the plot because I don't want to ruin anything for future readers of either "Daemon" or "Freedom(tm)", you simply owe yourself to read both of these if the initial review of "Daemon" seemed to tickle your interest. 

Daniel Suarez really does weave an excellent story out of the current modern technological, social and even economic trends, I especially enjoy the fact that I recognize a lot of the themes from popular books, articles and thoughts going around at the moment. Many other tech-people staying current will no doubt also recognize these. Even though they are more immediate and transparent future projections than what is described in say Neuromancer by William Gibson or even Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson I hope the description of their use will inspire people. I'm especially thinking about the Augmented/Virtual reality part that is basically Layar on steroids (for those who don't know, Layar is a dutch-developed Augmented Reality browser for iPhone and Android).

Do yourself a favor, order these books now.

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Posted March 10, 2010
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Mobile video upload with N900

Been thinking, testing and planning to do more video-recording when appropriate and as a part of that I have been experimenting with mobile uploads straight from my Nokia N900.
Here's the twitvid-version which is lower in quality but faster to upload and auto-tweeted too:

The Youtube version takes around 10-15 minutes to be "processed" into 480p-quality after upload but then the quality is way better after that (nothing stunning still though).

I used Pixelpipe to upload the ca 40MB video, very easy and pain-free. Twitvid isn't really necessary I think; will instead setup autosharing to Twitter on Youtube and use Youtube exclusively for video in the future. Until Bambuser finishes their work on the Maemo-app, then I might have to start using that instead at times.

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Posted March 8, 2010
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Myllysilta sagging

Yesterday-morning (Saturday 6.3.2010) the Myllysilta bridge crossing Aurajoki in Turku started to crumble. Didn't have time or inspiration then to go look but since the weather was good we went for walk with Riikka and took some photos. Go over to Flickr for geotags and snarky commentary: 

Kind of sad to see that there hasn't been that much discussion about Myllysilta on twitter and other social media and even photographs were far and few between yesterday. New pictures are flowing in now though, like the below video by my friend Thomas, but citizen journalism in Turku needs a wake-up call I think :). 

http://bambuser.com/channel/dvlrnr/broadcast/608066

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Posted March 7, 2010
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Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal' -- Engadget

via engadget.com

I love the idea of this Microsoft prototype, I'd love to carry around an infinite and intelligent journal! To me its much more exciting than the iPad - unfortunately one shouldn't be comparing something real to something imaginary :). Microsoft also has an infinite capacity to ruin a good vision with management-by-committee, turning a brilliant vision into something bland and average :(. Still, one can always hope and dream.

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Posted March 5, 2010
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Stop saying 'innovation' by Scott Berkun | The Economist

The more often people in a company use this word, the less likely anything worthy of that label is actually happening, as it's often the confused and the desperate who believe simply saying a word again and again like a magic spell causes anything at all to happen.
via ideas.economist.com

amen.

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Posted March 4, 2010
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Daemon

"Daemon" is Daniel Suarez's first book and one of the most exciting and interesting novels I've read in a long time. Daniel Suarez is an IT-consultant turned writer and it shows; this is one of the few books that basically gets all the technical details right about Internet, computer security and other technology stuff. Not since Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon have I been as able to relate and enjoy all the technical details along with the excellent action presented. 

The Daemon which is the books main "character" is an advanced, autonomous, de-centralized, AI-construct that the millionaire and genius game-developer Matthew Sobol has created to set in motion when he dies. As news of his death are posted online, hacked machines laying dormant on the Internet set a deadly game into play. First it kills several of Sobol's collaborators who might've been capable of figuring out what he had planned. Then it sets in motion a deadly cat and mouse game with the police and FBI which ends in several deaths before the Daemon goes back into hiding in the dark recesses of the Internet. 

The Daemon recruits humans over the Internet to join its mysterious quest through a keen sense of human psychology and needs, its creator has foreseen multiple paths that the future can take and plays the world like a chess board. It remains spookily unclear to the reader which parts of its actions are pre-programmed and which parts are the result of the Skynet-like AI. While having a clear purpose it is also cold and unfeeling like only a machine can be - discarding humans like tools and killing them on its mission. The Daemon's servants turn into Fight Club's project Mayhem, unyieldingly loyal because the Daemon giva them something they needed, even though they don't know their real purpose.

The action never lets down and the book is an exciting page-turner all the way through the book, the technical parts are fascinating for a technical people like me but aren't distracting from the story - I would think. It might sound more futuristic than it actually is to someone who don't follow tech or read say Wired Magazine. That said, while all or most of the components are plausible the whole Daemon construct is pretty far-fetched and works too perfectly for a real-life scenario, lucky for us. 

If there is one criticism to the book it is that it's too short and ends in a cliffhanger. At around 400 pages and another 400 pages in book two, called "Freedom", the book could have worked better as a thicker book, like Cryptonomicon. The ending leaves way too many threads and motivations open, I'm all for sequels and more reading but this is almost too blatant. Then again, maybe I'm just grumpy because I need to wait a week for the second book to be delivered :). 

Either way, this is a must-read for any tech-geeks or fans of techno-thrillers. Fans of William Gibson or Neal Stephenson will feel right at home from page one. I hope Mr. Suarez continues his work for a long time. It isn't as lovingly crafted as Cryptonomicon or Pattern Recognition but then again it is Suarez's first book and was first self-published.

Added: Review of the follow-up, "Freedom(tm)" can be found here: http://www.henryhagnas.com/freedomtm

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Posted February 28, 2010
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Seth Godin's Linchpin

Seth Godin is an Internet marketing expert, public speaker and entrepreneur. He has written several well received books. "Linchpin" is his latest book and talks about careers in todays fast-paced world. The book is a quick-read at around 240 pages, but really, there are only 50 that you MUST read. 

Seth starts of by writing almost a hundred pages about how everyone is an artist and creative (in a wider sense), things that will not come as a surprise to anyone who is a Seth Godin fan. If you are interested in what he writes you probably already think of yourself as one of Godin's "Linchpins" or won't have trouble imagining yourself as one. 

Linchpin's, he argues, are the third type of worker between the management and the workers — the indispensable people who bring their whole personality and creativity to work and create more value than "necessary". These are the experts and the ones who really care about their work and without a company would have very little character or chance in todays fast-paced world of creativity and innovation. To me, and I'm sure most of you, this comes as no surprise and Godin expertly clarifies why it doesn't. 

The best part of the book and the real reason its worth every penny of your hard earned cash is the chapter called "The Resistance", I can't overemphasize how brilliant the insights on these 50 pages are. Its part psychology, part self-help, part kick-in-the-ass and full on awesome! The chapter stands alone and if you are a busy person or don't read much you owe it to yourself to read this — it will help you understand yourself, your friends and most of all how workplace politics become so messy at times. Basically "The Resistance" is that little voice that fills you with fear of failure and makes you rationalize why you shouldn't take risks and keep your head down. What Seth Godin has done is to pinpoint this reason for failing to be the best we can be. If you have read psychology or studied up on procrastination you'll know many of the things he talks about but he explains it so very well and ties it up into a nice package, along with how to think about it and work around it. What I also like is that he doesn't turn into an understanding therapist but he kicks you in the ass and tells you to stop worrying and start doing. Even if you already are awesome, knowing why others aren't even though they have the potential is a good thing and helps you understand the weird resistance to change that exists everywhere even though it's clear status quo is not an option.

The book continues after the star chapter with sage advice and good ideas about how to implement your plan to become a Linchpin but it pales in comparison. It's clear that Godin put a lot of effort into the chapter on resistance and it shows, as I've said several times already (Godin mentions the same in the introduction as well) — you need to read that chapter! It really should have been its very own book but obviously there's no market for 50-page books. That said, the second half of the book is well-worth your time and you should probably skim the first 100 pages until the chapter on resistance.

I heartily recommend the book and as @adamhill said on IRC when we talked about the book, lots of it is obvious and old news to Godin fan's and us internet-savvy knowledge workers, but there are lots of people who aren't there yet. I can think of a dozen friends who would benefit from reading this, so it really is a perfect gift to give intelligent people you care about!

If you want to know more about the book, you should listen to this great interview of Seth Godin by Merlin Mann, another Internet-superstar: 

More about that here: http://www.merlinmann.com/media/2010/1/22/audio-interview-with-linchpin-author-seth-godin.html

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Posted February 25, 2010
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Tree-rings and IM-protocols

Since most Instant Messaging clients, like Adium on Mac OS X, support several protocols you don't have to "move on" to something better, you instead just add another protocol when necessary. Since my ICQ-account was getting mostly just spam contact-requests I looked into disabling it. Looking through my contact-list I realized that all the contacts I have in ICQ have been added 8-10 years ago! Most of my contacts no longer use ICQ and it was kind of sad to look through the list of old friends I might not ever talk to anymore - either because I don't really know them anymore or don't know how to contact them. That's the way things go I guess. 

Still, going back to the tree-ring analogy in the title, it's interesting how i've added a new IM-protocol about every 2-3 years, first it was ICQ, then AIM, MSN, Skype, GTalk and now Facebook Chat. Usually the latest IM-protocol is the one that gets the most new users added and Facebook Chat certainly added the most new friends in one fell swoop. Of course that's because it consolidates years and years of old friends and non-geeks into the same system. Facebook certainly tries to be the end-all of social communication but I wonder if we don't get another IM-protocol in a few years time again. Wonder what that will be?

Side note: I like GTalk the most though because it works with multiple sign-ins and its pretty intelligent about sending messages to where I want them to go (works perfectly on the N900 too). Add me there if you haven't already and feel you need/want to IM me, lastname@gmail.com. Skype is another good alternative. Oh and if course I used IRC before ICQ came around and still do... 

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Posted February 25, 2010
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Transition

Transition is my first Iain Banks novel and he, and the book, comes highly recommended by friends. Unfortunately I have to disagree with the praise. I like the writing style and lots of the ideas but the book failed to move me.

The book tells the story from the eyes of several different persons and weaves a story back and forth between different actors, times and places - indeed dimensions. Because of this its harder to read that most books that present with a clearer narrative and only a few viewpoints, the story is weaved together in the end but fails to impress. Somehow roughly the same story in fewer viewpoints could have been quite enjoyable but because of the several stories told from the eye of several main characters you never really feel connected to a central protagonist and left not really caring what happens. The battle to stop the evil machinations fails to feel important and I ended up reading through the whole book, waiting for it to start.

What leaves me perplexed is that the book is just the type of book that I could've and should've liked - the theme and lots of the ideas in it are just the kind of things I find enjoyable and there's nothing wrong the writing either. But somehow because of the discontinuity of the story and lack of reason to find the actions of the protagonists important, or like-able, it just fell flat to me.

I will, however, give the author another chance since several of my friends like him. In my pile of recently purchased books is Iain M Banks "The Player of Games" which sounds promising, hoping to like that one more and perhaps yet become a fan of mr. Banks.

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Posted February 14, 2010
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Så länge jag minns

My grandfather is the kindest, gentlest and most humble person you'll find. He has worked hard all his life and never once complained. I now know why...

"Så länge jag minns" means "As long as I remember" and is my grandfather, Ole Hagnäs', story from when he was called upon to protect his country in 1942, at just 18 years of age, until the end of the war. Our country owes so much to him and his generation, they made the greatest of sacrifices for our freedom and asked for nothing but peace in return.

Ole, "Faffa" as we grandchildren call him, never talked about his experiences in the war. This book is for all of us the heart-wrenching explanation as to why he doesn't want to talk about it - it describes events no one should be force to witness and the feeling of helplessness over what is happening around him. War is hell and there are very few heroes, mostly just young men dying.

Writing this book caused many sleepless nights for Ole as he was forced to remember things he spent over 60 years forgetting, yet we are all so happy he wrote it down so it will never be forgotten.

The book is written in the clear and simple swedish of an uneducated but thoughtful man and doesn't pretend to be anything but the personal memories and recollections of a simple infantryman. Obviously it has personal significance for me as the several close calls with death that Ole had show me how lucky I am to even exist!

While I am hopelessly biased towards the book, it has been my most emotional reading experience ever, I also think that the book will be an interesting read for people that have grandparents with similar experiences or just wants to read a very personal account of the war from a simple infantryman's viewpoint. There are enough history-books and biographies of the leaders and heroes - this is from and about the people who actually fought the war and dug the trenches.


P.s.. The book should be on sale at "Luckan" at the Kokkola Library soon or if you are further away I can arrange a copy for you, price is 25 euros.

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Posted February 10, 2010
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