-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://www.lrz.de/~ui22204/">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBMTO : N48 10'07'' E011 33'53'' http://www.lrz.de/~ui22204 57F9CFD3: ED90 0433 EB74 E4A9 537F CFF5 86E7 629B 57F9 CFD3 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 11:23:44 -0700 From: glen mccready <gkm@petting-zoo.net> To: 0xdeadbeef@petting-zoo.net Subject: Acts of the Apostles, recommended. Resent-Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 11:23:52 -0700 (PDT) Resent-From: 0xdeadbeef@petting-zoo.net Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev@sleepycat.com> From: Christopher Sandstrom Small <christopher.small@sun.com> At USENIX last week, just inside the door at the vendor exhibition, there was an apparent loony set up at a folding table with large, multi-colored, hand-printed signs on poster board inviting people to buy a copy of a book titled "Acts of the Apostles". The signs looked like standard (sic) psychotic ramblings: * Learn how Gulf War Syndrome was caused by collusion between Digital MicroSystems and Scientists working in the Bowels of MIT!!! * The Author of This Book is the recipient of the Society of Technical Communication's Award of Distinguished Technical Communication and Brazil's Rei do Lixo medal! (If you know any Portuguese, you'll note that "Rei do Lixo" translates as "King of Trash".) The bearded, disheveled looking guy sitting behind the table (John Sundman, the author) was saying to everyone who passed by "Buy my book! Buy my book! Only $15 for an autographed copy!" (OK, for the USENIX crowd he was not at all disheveled -- longish hair and beard, sure, but he was wearing a shirt with a collar.) So I figure he's probably not dangerous. I walk over, and see that the book has been reviewed on Slashdot, geek.com, newstrolls, and salon.com (!). It's compared positively with Neal Stephenson's work. I pick it up and start to skim through it. It looks pretty good. What the hell, it's only $15. I fork it over, he signs a copy for me, and hands it to me. After all, how often do you get to read a book inspired both by Vannevar Bush and Ted Kaczynsky? Or one that both Borders and Barnes and Noble mis-file under "Christian Theology"? My wife zips through the book in a couple of days, then I start to read it, and I discover that the damn thing is a good read. There _is_ a familial resemblance between his style and Stephenson's. It read very much line Interface, or Cryptonomicon, if Stephenson had written one of them as his first book. Sure, there are some problems. It definitely reads like a first book (see Stephenson's "The Big U" -- also recommended). It could use a copy editing pass, and some tightening up here and there. And some of the references to people and entities I know or know of are none too well concealed -- Ken Olson, Esther Dyson, Doug Engelbart, Xerox PARC, Digital Equipment Corp ("Digital Data"), Sun Microsystems ("Stanford Microsystems"). Mosaic Technologies ("Mosaic Technologies") (may it rest in peace) (or pieces -- you'll understand if you've ever seen any of the hardware we shipped). Even if I hadn't met the guy, and read about the torturous path he took from professional geek to self published author (see http://www.wetmachine.com/links/index.shtml), the book is well worth the $15 risk, especially if you liked Interface and Cryptonomicon. And after reading his personal story, I'm very tempted to send him a check for a dozen copies and give them out to all of my geek^WCryptonomicon-loving friends. (I'll at least be buying a copy for my father-in-law, a retired physicist and big Stephenson fan.) You can read the first 13 chapters on-line, at http://www.wetmachine.com/acts/index.shtml. You can read reviews at http://www.wetmachine.com/reviews/index.shtml. And if the above sounds good, you can order a copy from Amazon.com or the author directly, at http://www.wetmachine.com/order/index.shtml. (My guess is that he makes less money if you buy it from Amazon.com, but benefits from having documented sales figures.) - Chris (N.b. I have no financial interest in sales of this book. I'm motivated by enlightened altruism -- I'd like the guy to sell enough copies to write a second book.) -- Christopher Sandstrom Small | 781.442.8644 Network Storage Technology Office | Sun Microsystems