I just finished reading Sex.Com by Kieren McCarthy and the #1 takeaway was something we have known for a very long time, Network Solutions sucks as a registrar. For those of you unaware of the drama, here is a very brief history:

• 1994 Sex.Com was registered by Gary Kreman
• 1995 Sex.Com was transfered to Stephen Cohen by NSI (wrongfully)
• 2001 Sex.Com was finally returned to Gary Kreman
• 5 more years of drama follow until everything is finally settled

Sex.Com was the holy grail of domains in the early days of the internet. There were no search engines to help you find what you wanted and most people found things by simply typing domains names in to their browser and hoping that it went where they wanted. With the huge number of pervs in the world, sex.com became a license to print money. Money in the millions of dollars.

Kieren pieces together the years of courtroom drama, constant changing of lawyers, and staggering amounts of money spent to determine who really owned Sex.Com. The story itself can be dull and a bit boring, but it shines a light on the early drama of owning domain names. This could never, or at least I’d like to think never, happen with a modern registrar, and this case is one of the primary reasons for the rules that we have in place today.

The book also shows how indifferent Network Solutions was to the entire ordeal. In a historical example of NSI’s arrogance in the early days they could have resolved the entire issue in a matter of days, but in an effort to protect themselves and their monopoly on domain names, they chose to fight against the person that they should have helped. For those of us around in those days it’s a shock to see how hard they made it for us to do anything “except” for one of the most important, or at least valuable, domains on the internet.

If you are a fan of early internet history you will find this book to be a good read. But I wouldn’t recommend it to a casual reader unless you like crime dramas.

Let me start off by saying that I am not an Apple fanatic. I started out an an Apple II way made in high school, but never really got hooked on them. I was a Tandy user for the most part. Maybe it was the price. Maybe it was the fact I could ride my bike to Radio Shack and play with them, whatever the reason, I still don’t own any Apple products, but that might change as I decide between the iPhone and the Blackberry.

iWoz is the story of Steve Wozniak, engineer, teacher, inventor of the personal computer, pilot, and co-founder of Apple Inc. Personally, I have a hard time with just the title of the book. iWoz, how original along side iCon (Steve Jobs book), iPod, iMac, iPhone, and iDon’t Get It, all I can think of is I Robot. Is that a bad thing?

iWoz is written by Steve from his point of view. And his point is often much more interesting than conventional history would have you think. The book follows Woz from his early childhood with an engineer father, through young adulthood, and through on to current day Woz. Along the way he expresses himself with humility and candor, something I found refreshing when compared to some of the very dry Apple histories.

My favorite part of the book is seeing how, through his whole life, he just wanted to be an engineer. Everything else was simply extra and he was quite content to make great electronics, and maybe play a practical joke along the way. Woz also sets a few things that are considered Apple lore straight as he saw them. Woz’s skills as a teacher are seen clearly as, along with Gina Smith, he takes some of the most complex events in computer history and presents them in a way that is easy to understand.

iWoz is more than a fanboy book, it’s a great read about a time in computer history that it seems fewer and fewer people truly understand..

Let me start of by saying up front that I am apparently a political opposite to the points of view raised in this book.. I really tried to read this with an open mind, but the writing is so dry and stilted that I simply couldn’t get in to the philosophies being presented.. It felt like reading Decline and Fall.. Only without the love and craftsmanship.. At least when you finish reading Decline and Fall you feel a sense of accomplishment.. After reading A Hacker Manifesto I felt robbed of my time..

Mackenzie Wark’s A Hacker Manifesto tries to present the hacker as the driving force, and real power of civilization.. He declares the hacker, whether he is a scientist, artist, or programmer, as the only true creator.. Everyone else is either a user or used.. With the hacker falling somewhere in the middle bridging the gap between classes..

The whole time I was reading this book I kept waiting for a revelation.. Something new.. But it just doesn’t happen.. A Hacker Manifesto reads like Marxism 2.0.. It’s the same old idea wrapped in modern trends and job classes.. It subtly paints the capitalist class as the oppressive users of the labor classes and portrays the hacker class as the salvation for everyone.. It’s too black and white, too obvious, of a philosophy to be of any real use for anyone that has even a basic understanding of Marxism and Communism.. And the whole time I was reading it I got this subtle feeling that the author was really writing a “look at me, I’m smart” book.. I’m sure that others will disagree, but I just see nothing groundbreaking in this book.. If you want to good book on Communism, go to some original sources and read Trotsky or Lenin.. If nothing else they are a better read..

The Templar Meridians by William F. Mann is an interesting, if dry, book that goes in to some detail about what exactly the Templar treasure was.. In Mann’s opinion the true treasure of the Templars was knowledge.. Knowledge of navigation and metalurgy more than anything else..

The Templars relearned lost knowledge when they occupied Solomon’s temples.. They aquired the ability to travel great distances, across oceans, with a great degree of accuracy.. Enough accuracy that it was quite possible for them to travel back and forth between Europe and what would become Canada as early as the 1350s.. Yes, more than 100 years before the fabled adventure of Columbus.. This ability to travel back and forth gave the Templars, and many that followed them, access to the great wealth of North America, iron ores, gold, silver, and much more.. This was their true wealth in the opinion of Mann..

The book goes a long way toward tieing loose threads together with documented acheological information, painting, writings, and a whole lot of “if”.. I’m a firm believer that there were quite a few visitors to the North Americas long before the Columbus “discovery”, but Mann puts a lot of effort in to making the argument that North America was intended to become the new Jerusalem.. This is where I have trouble following the book and the strong scent of “if” starts to roll off of it..

All in all it’s a good read, but as I said, a bit dry.. If you are a fan of the Templars and exploration of the new world, you may find the ties between the Templars, the Masons, and the new and old worlds raised by this book entertaining..

~Fey

Malcolm Wells was an early supporter of taking architecture into a more green way of thinking.. Starting back in the 60′s he experimented with various ways of building without harming the surrounding world.. From energy conservation to soil preservation to water conservation.. His book, Gentle Architecture (1984) Powell’s Books, was something that I picked up when I was studying Architecture at the University of New Mexico.. (BA Architecture 1994)..

I picked the up the book again because it has been a long time since I’ve done anything with my degree and we’ve been talking about building a new house.. And if I am going to build a new house I want to do everything I can to make it the best house I can in every way possible..

I was surprised at how little I remembered from reading this book more than 12 years ago.. A lot of it seems like common sense today, but so much more of it seems like we have made almost no progress in that time.. From massive paving projects to green spaces that aren’t really green at all, we seem to have been stagnant in the field of architecture on any grand scale.. Yes, the tree huggers are going to say, See, I told you so, but there has always been the need to strike a balance between conservation and use.. And while I like a lot of what Malcom has to say, I find a lot of it preachy at best..

It is possible to be environmentally considerate without being an extremist.. I just wonder how much of this I can put into effect on our house project..

~Fey

Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby have put together a great book about the culture of gaming and game developers.. The book follows several of the game world’s masters such as CliffyB (Unreal) and Shigeru Miyamoto (Nitendo) and their rise to the top of the gaming world.. Weaving game developer events with the history of gaming we get an inside look at the in crowd, the rock stars of gaming..

While there isn’t a lot of earth shattering information, the book provides a unique insight to the developers lives and how they pushed the envelope of gaming to the levels of today..

The book also delves into the early days of professional game playing.. We get a look at some of the early competitions in Dallas and the people that play..

Overall this is a good book for some light reading.. For those of us old enough to remember the early days when 2D side scrollers were the latest thing it has moments of nostalgia.. Plus it’s always good to remind some of the kids that there was gaming before they were born..

Fey~

I just finished reading The Art of Intrusion by everyone’s favorite hacker, Kevin Mitnick.. The book focuses mainly on ways people try to gain access to networks, buildings, and information in general.. And it does a pretty good job of telling the stories of the people involved..

If you are looking for a guide to hacking, or hoping to gain tips for your own efforts, don’t bother.. Much of the detail is intentionally left out in an effort to not encourage script kiddies to do something stupid that will set them up for a visit to a correctional facility.. But as a light read, and maybe even a primer for non technical people about the types of issues they could and will face, it shines an important light on just how unsecure so many places really are.. Story after story is told about the most basic security functions being ignored, improperly executed, or simply not being used at all..

We all have those stories, I have one local ISP here that is notorious for giving out login information if you know a name and email address.. TAoI goes into several different methods of gaining information of all sorts.. And Kevin does a good job of telling the stories in a way that makes them interesting without overloading them with technical jargon that will turn off non-technical people..

Would I recommend this book to a network security guy?? Not really, it’s filed with a lot of, I can’t believe they did that moments.. But for a casual read, or as a way to convince the ‘boss’ that he may want to take a closer look at security, it goes along way toward showing just how easy it is to gain access to just about anywhere..

Fey -