Must read History Of The Internet. Brilliant, especially for us old timers that have been around on the Net for a while…or anyone who’s wished a pox upon AOL for all of those annoying CDs!
Following up on my previous post of recommended reads, here’s a list of recommended movies including why I like ’em:
- Casablanca, 1941, is my favorite movie. The plot is amazing, the villains conniving, and each character has that certain depth that makes them seem realistic. The Marseillaise scene gets me every time!
- La Femme Nikita, 1991, gets my nod for best foreign language film. Of course, it helps that the language is French, which I just so happen to be conversant in. Nonetheless, the curves which this flic throws the viewer continue to reveal new detail across many showings.
- The Ghost and the Darkness, 1996. Ever dreamed about a trip to Africa for a big game safari? Then you should check out this harrowing true tale from the late 1800s. Based upon the true story of British engineer Lt. Col. John Patterson and his bridge workers at Tsavo, Kenya, as recounted in his autobiographical book, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.
- Lawrence of Arabia, 1962. Another fantastic movie based upon a real life epic, this one the story of T. E. Lawrence. Read his first person accounts in the widely acclaimed Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
I’m finding that I can place many sections of BillDay.com into a better location within BillDay.com v2.0. One of those sections, my “favorites” page of recommended books, sites, movies, and more, should now be much easier to search since I’ve created a Recommended category in my blog for recommended items.
I’ve included previous recommendations below, all lumped together. In the future, I’ll link to/recommend things as I encounter them.
Previous recommendations:
- Selling the Dream: How to Promote Your Product, Company, or Ideas And Make a Difference Using Everyday Evangelism, by Guy Kawasaki. Guy’s book has a lengthy title but succinct delivery: It goes a very long way to explain what evangelism is and why it is increasingly important in our technology-driven world. An oldie but a goodie, highly recommended to anyone who asks “What is a Technology Evangelist, anyway?“.
- The Mythical Man Month, by Fred Brooks, published by Addison Wesley. This is a classic tale of managment philosophy and software engineering. It contains some of the best descriptions of human behavior and engineering intuition ever distilled into book format. A must read for anyone managing, or working on, complex projects of any sort.
- Know Your Enemy: Revealing the Security Tools, Tactics, and Motives of the Blackhat Community by The Honeynet Project et al. Ever wondered how people actually break into computers and networks? Read this and you’ll have a good idea. A practical, hands-on oriented book.
- Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier. If you’re only going to buy one book on crypto fundamentals, this should be it. A great book, and a great door stop: Yes, it is very bulky, but in a good way!
- A Technical Introduction to Digital Video, by Charles Poynton, published by John Wiley & Sons. A thorough reference book. Covers a variety of computer graphics as well as analog and digital video topics. Includes a very good chapter on filtering and sampling, giving an in depth explanation of aliasing effects. If you deal with computer graphics or video, this book is strongly recommended.
- Introduction to Computer Graphics, by Foley et al, published by Addison Wesley. This abridged version of Computer Graphics: Principles and Practices (from Addison Wesley’s Systems Programming series) is an outstanding introduction to both 2D and 3D computer graphics. There are plenty of equations and theory for the mathematician, but even better for folks like me (hackers), there is a nice sprinkling of C code and example images. If you need the most comprehensive reference, go with the unabridged version (all 1175 pages of it!), but if you are looking for an introduction, I
recommend this book. - A Programmer’s Guide to Sound, by Tim Kientzle, published by Addison Wesley. Covers the basics of the generation and perception of sound, then shifts into a discussion of the various formats in common use by software engineers and hackers. This book serves well as a compendium of audio knowledge scattered around in specs, standards, and papers. An excellent audio intro.
- Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama, by Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. Published in the US and Canada by HarperCollins. This look inside the mind of the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet provides the best lesson in human compasion and dignity that I have ever read or seen. Recommended for anyone, anywhere.
Ever wonder what people at Sun think about trends spinning out and interacting with J2ME tech? Here’s a glimpse via an interview with one of the originators of the KVM (and hence J2ME, CLDC, etc.), Antero Taivalsaari.
I bet the “luminary” part will give Antero a chuckle. 🙂
Learn more about using SOAP based Web services from PHP via this introduction from PHP Cookbook co-author Adam Trachtenberg. (OK, so the article’s been online for a while…what can I say, I’m playing PHP catch-up…)
Looking for an upcoming Java, net dev, open source, or related technology conference? Check out the java.net Events page. It provides a good overview of interesting and important events in the months to come. Even better: It actively solicits community contributions of upcoming events (you need a free java.net login to contribute events, but anybody can read through the current list, no worries).
The Register reports on the (in)security of Friendster, Orkut, Plaxo, et al.
Is the article inflamatory, or a caution worth heeding? Share your thoughts via a Comment…and no, I won’t share your data with anybody, especially a social networking site! 😉
New to J2ME programming, or migrating from MIDP 1.0- to 2.0 and looking for a primer?
Check out the new Learning Path: Getting Started with MIDP 2.0 page from Sun.
If you’re a member of JavaOne Online you may also want to check out my webinar, “Developing Wireless Applications using MIDP 2.0, WMA, and MMA“. And when you’re done with these resources, dive into some development using the J2ME Wireless Toolkit 2.1 (read about it here).
Jonathan Knudsen has published a Sun article outlining the major features of the J2ME Wireless Toolkit 2.1.
Among other things, this update to the WTK now includes JTWI support (allowing one to develop J2ME apps targeting the core MIDP 2.0 and CLDC 1.0 or 1.1 technologies as well as MMA and WMA).
One immediately obvious change to those used to the device skins provided in WTK 2.0: The DefaultColorPhone has a new, more “colorful” look. Love it or hate it, you definitely won’t forget it anytime soon (click here to see a screenshot).
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