Fred Curtis

What I've Been Reading Lately

Recently finished:

• May 2012 - Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac (Faber and Faber, London, 2010, ISBN 9780571222865) [quotes]
• Apr 2012 - John Viega, The Myths of Security (O'Reilly, 2009, ISBN 9780596523022).
• Mar 2012 - Cassandra Clare, City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments - Book 4) (Walker Books).
• Mar 2012 - Cassandra Clare, City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments - Book 3) (Walker Books, 2009, ISBN 9781406335286).
• Jan 2012 - Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments - Book 2) (Walker Books, 2008, ISBN 9781406307634).
• Jan 2012 - Cassandra Clare, City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments - Book 1) (Walker Books, 2007, ISBN 9781406307627).
• Jan 2012 - Ka Wai Cheung, The Developer's Code (ebook beta version 3.0, Jan 2012, ISBN 9781934356791). A collection of 50 short essays. I highly recommended this book for both new and old (and, especially, for jaded) programmers. Website: www.thedeveloperscode.com
• Dec 2011 - Dennis Bray, Wetware (Yale University Press, 2009, ISBN 9780300167849). An excellent overview of mechanisms of behaviour in single and multi-celled organisms. The book raised new perspectives for me and prompted a lot of questions. I have a keen popular-science interest, but no particular expertise, in biochemistry or biology. The author does a nice job of introducing concepts without getting bogged down in the finer points of chemistry, and is happy to point out where the scientific picture is well-understood (e.g. some energy pathways and regulatory mechanisms) and where it is not.
• Dec 2011 - Jonathan Stroud, The Last Siege (Corgi, 2004, ISBN 9780552551465) [quotes]
• Dec 2011 - Peter Watts, Blindsight (Tor Books, 2006, ISBN 0765312182). Released under creative commons licence and freely downloadable from http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm. Refreshingly incomprehensible aliens, hard science fiction. The "notes and references" section at the end of the book is an interesting read in itself.
• Nov 2011 - Simon Baron-Cohen, Zero Degrees of Empathy: a new theory of human cruelty (Allen Lane, London, 2011, ISBN 9780713997910)
• Nov 2011 - Stephen Clarke, Talk to the Snail - Ten Commandments for Understanding the French (Bloomsbury, 2008, ISBN 9781596917439)
• Nov 2011 - Michael Kirby, A Private Life: Fragments, Memories, Friends (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2011, ISBN 9781742376202))
• Nov 2011 - Jonathan Stroud, The Ring of Solomon (Corgi, 2010, ISBN 9780385619165) [quotes]
• Oct 2011 - Michael Brooks, Free Radicals - The Secret Anarchy of Science (ISBN 9781846684050, Profile Books, 2011) [quotes]
• Oct 2011 - Jonathan Stroud, Ptolemy's Gate (Corgi, 2010, ISBN 9780552562805) [quotes]
• Oct 2011 - Jonathan Stroud, The Golem's Eye (Corgi, 2010, ISBN 9780552562812) [quotes]
• Oct 2011 - Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkand (Corgi, 2010, ISBN 9780552562799) [quotes]
• Sep 2011 - Sanjoy Mahajan, Street-Fighting Mathematics - The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving (MIT Press, Mar 2010, ISBN 9780262514293). This book is has a Creative Commons edition which you can download from MIT Press at http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/Street-Fighting_Mathematics.pdf
• Sep 2011 - Torkel Franzén, Gödel's Theorem: An Incomplete Guide to Its Use and Abuse (A K Peters, ISBN 1568812388, 2005) Notes: p. 156-7 comments on Gödel discovering exponentiation can be defined in terms of addition & multiplication in PA. Typo p. 157 (axiom 2 has '=y' instead of 'x=y'). p.14 The particular problem case for the Collatz conjecture is the possibility of an unbounded sequence; detecting a looping sequence should be tractable
• Sep 2011 - Nigel Frith, Asgard (Unicorn [Unwin Paperbacks], 1982, ISBN 0049232092) [quotes]
• Aug 2011 - Italo Calvino, Numbers in the Dark and Other Stories (Translated by Tim Parks) (Penguin Classics, 2009, ISBN 9780141189741) [quotes]
  Particularly liked Numbers in the Dark, A General in the Library, Good for Nothing, The Black Sheep, Conscience and The Flash.
• Aug 2011 - Ellis Weiner & Barbara Davilman, Yiddish with Dick and Jane (Little Brown, NY, 2004)
• Aug 2011 - Sian Beilock, Choke: What the secrets of the brain reveal about getting it right when you have to. (Melbourne University Press, 2011, ISBN 9780522853247)
• Aug 2011 - Glen Chilton, The Curse of the Labrador Duck (Simon & Schuster, NY, 2009, ISBN 9781439102473) [quotes]
• Aug 2011 - João Magueijo, Faster Than the Speed of Light (Arrow Books, 2004, ISBN 9780099428084)
• Jul 2011 - Laura Lee, The Pocket Encylopedia of Aggravation (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2001, ISBN 1579122175) [quotes]
• Jul 2011 - Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight (Doubleday, 2010, ISBN 9780485611077) [quotes]
• Jul 2011 - Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith (Doubleday, 2007, ISBN 9780385609845) [quotes]
• Jul 2011 - Terry Pratchett, A Hatful of Sky (Corgi, 2005, ISBN 9780552551449) [quotes]
• Jul 2011 - Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men (Doubleday, 2003)
• Jun 2011 - Leonard Mlodinow, The Drunkard's Walk
• Jun 2011 - Tim Wu, The Master Switch
• May 2011 - H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa M. Schwartz, Steven Woloshin, Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health (Beacon Press Books, 2011, ISBN 9780807022009)
• May 2011 - Edward R. Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within
  [I recommend it enthusiastically - it's a short (30 page), cogent and extremely readable book]
  See also: The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation by Peter Norvig
• May 2011 - Pamela Freeman, Ember and Ash (Castings Trilogy Book 4)
• May 2011 - Attempted to read The Solitary Self: Darwin and the Selfish Gene by Mary Midgley, but gave up due to the slow, dense, opaque writing.
• Apr 2011 - N. David Merin Boojums all the Way Through: Communicating science in a prosaic age (Cambridge University Press)
• Apr 2011 - Leonard Susskind, The Black Hole War
• Apr 2011 - Richard Wiseman, 59 Seconds (Pan Books, 2010, ISBN 9780330511605) [quotes]
• Apr 2011 - Evelyn Fox Keller, The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nurture (Duke University Press, London, 2010. ISBN 9780822347316). Excellent thesis, but start at Chapter 3 if you're in a hurry.
• Apr 2011 - Italo Calvino, Our Ancestors - Three novels:The Cloven Viscount; Baron in the trees; The non-existent knight. (Vintage, London, 1998. ISBN 009943086)
• Apr 2011 - John Brockman (Ed.), This Will Change Everything (Harper Perennial, 2010 ISBN 9780061899676)
  This book is contains the responses to the annual Edge.org question to prominent thinkers. The questions and responses are viewable online at www.edge.org - the question and answers corresponding to this book can be viewed at: http://www.edge.org/q2009/q09_index.html
• Mar 2011 - Joel Best, Stat-spotting : a field guide to identifying dubious data (University of California Press, 2008 ISBN 9780520257467)
• Mar 2011 - John Derbyshire, Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra (Atlantic Books, London, 2008 ISBN 9781843545705)
• Mar 2011 - Richard Wiseman, Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives
• Feb 2011 - David G. Wells, The Penguin Book of Curious and Interesting Mathematics
• Feb 2011 - Lois McMaster Bujold, Cryoburn
• Jan 2011 - Tatsu Takeuchi, An illustrated Guide to Relativity (Cambridge Univeritsy Press, 2010)
• Jan 2011 - Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building (Harper, New York, 2007 ISBN 9780060878139)
• Jan 2011 - Frank Close, Nothing: A Very Short Introduction (formerly published as The Void)
• Dec 2010 - Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw - Why Does E=mc²? (Da Capo Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-306-81876-9)
• Dec 2010 - Andrew Bell, John Swenson-Wright, Karin Tybjerg (eds) Evidence (Essays on the nature of evidence, based on the Darwin College series of public lectures) (Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-71019-0)
• Dec 2010 - William Poundstone - How would you move Mount Fuji? (Little, Brown & Co, 2003, ISBN 0-316-77849-4)
• Nov 2010 - Alexander McCall Smith, The Double Comfort Safari Club
• Nov 2010 - Joel Spolsky, More Joel on Software (Apress, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4302-0987-4)
• Nov 2010 - Joel Spolsky, Smart & Gets Things Done (Apress, 2007, ISBN 978-1-59059-838-2)
• Nov 2010 - David Bohm, The Special Theory of Relativity [1965]
• Nov 2010 - Chris McManus, Right Hand, Left Hand : the Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, atoms and Cultures (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002, ISBN 0-297-64597-8) [quotes]
• Nov 2010 - Torbjörn Lunndmark, Tales of Hi and Bye: Greeting and Parting Rituals Around the World (Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-11754-8) [quotes]
• Nov 2010 - Nick Pollotta & James Clay, That Darn Squid God (Double Dragon Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-55404-519-8) [quotes]
• Nov 2010 - Pamela Freeman, Full Circle (Castings Trilogy Book 3)
• Oct 2010 - Pamela Freeman, Deep Water (Castings Trilogy Book 2)
• Oct 2010 - Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude
• Oct 2010 - Alexander McCall Smith, The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday [quotes]
• Sep 2010 - Pamela Freeman, Blood Ties (Castings Trilogy Book 1)
• Sep 2010 - Richard Feynman, The Character of Physical Law
• Aug 2010 - William Dunham, The Mathematical Universe [quotes]

• Earlier reading ...

What I've Been Writing Lately

• Graph Theory / Combinatorics : Planar maps in 4 bits/edge [April 2001, revised December 2001]

Exciting events in Fred's life

--------
|EEEEEK|
|.SB.KB|
|=?EEJJ|
--------

• Playing the computer game 'nethack' on a character-based terminal and sensing a room full of monsters which looked like:

Other Freds on the web

• The Fred Society
• Fred Nachbaur and his remarkable Dogzilla valve amplifier
• The Happy Fred and Christmas Fred home pages
• Functional Response Emulation Devices
• Mi-Go Named Fred from the Cosma Shalizi's Cthulhu songbook
• Fred, the Boy Everyone Hated from the Cult of the Dead Cow
• Fred: The SGML Grammar Builder
• The late Frederico the Goat
• Fred Curtis, Master Sculptor
• Defunct link: The Game of Fred, written in Java
  http://www.cs.usc.edu/Fred/