Author Archives: infophile

#JohnGrisham thinks his new #book is so important he’s giving it away for #free | WaPo #medical #tech #fiction

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There are no lawyers or courtrooms in John Grisham’s new thriller. There is not even a single bad guy. The protagonist is Paul, a 35-year-old suburbanite with a pretty wife, three beautiful children, and a tumor quietly swelling in his brain. One day his wife hears a loud thump in the bathroom. “She finds him on the floor,” Grisham writes, “shaking in a full-blown grand mal seizure.” And so begins “The Tumor,” one of the stranger literary digressions in recent memory.

Against the wishes of his agent, editor and publisher, the author famous for (and rich from) legal thrillers, from “The Firm” to “The Rogue Lawyer,” just published a free book whose hero is a medical device called focused ultrasound. Grisham says it’s the most important book of his career. READ MORE: John Grisham thinks his new book is so important he’s giving it away for free | The Washington Post

4 Sites with LOTS Of Completely #Free #Ebooks That Don’t Suck | makeuseof #websites #reading

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It’s hard to find good, legal reads online – unless you know where to look. There are several sites that offer classic out-of-copyright writing, or publishes new e-books online as promotions… READ: 4 Sites with LOTS Of Completely Free Ebooks That Don’t Suck | makeuseof

Gregory Heyworth: How I’m discovering the secrets of ancient #texts | TED.com #historical #manuscripts #maps #libraries #tech #culture

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Gregory Heyworth is a textual scientist; he and his lab work on new ways to read ancient manuscripts and maps using spectral imaging technology. In this fascinating talk, watch as Heyworth shines a light on lost history, deciphering texts that haven’t been read in thousands of years. How could these lost classics rewrite what we know about the past? Source: Gregory Heyworth: How I’m discovering the secrets of ancient texts | TED.com

Swallow This ‘Audiopill’ At Your Own Risk To Get Your Rave On | Gizmodo #audio #tech #sound #music

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Who knows…one day librarians may be cataloguing these audiophiles or a next generation version of…

WARNING: Do not try this!

Here’s something for all you hardcore party animals: when you can’t get to the rave, you now have the option of the “Audiopill.” It’s a miniaturized sound system housed inside a plastic microcapsule that you can swallow to groove internally to those sweet beats. And yes, it’s as crazy dangerous as it sounds. READ MORE: Swallow This ‘Audiopill’ At Your Own Risk To Get Your Rave On | Gizmodo

#Fairytales teach #robots not to murder | CNET #crime #AI #books #tech #values

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The fairy tale performs many functions. They entertain, they encourage imagination, they teach problem-solving skills. They can also provide moral lessons, highlighting the dangers of failing to follow the social codes that let human beings coexist in harmony.

Such moral lessons may not mean much to a robot, but a team of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology believes it has found a way to leverage the humble fable into a moral lesson an artificial intelligence will take to its cold, mechanical heart. READ MORE: Fairy tales teach robots not to murder | CNET

#Punctuation in #novels | Adam J. Calhoun | Medium #books #analysis #writing

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When we think of novels, of newspapers and blogs, we think of words. We easily forget the little suggestions pushed in between: the punctuation. But how can we be so cruel to such a fundamental part of writing? Inspired by a series of posters, I wondered what did my favorite books look like without words. Can you tell them apart or are they all a-mush? In fact, they can be quite distinct. READ MORE: Punctuation in novels — Medium

#Women considered better coders – but only if they hide their #gender | The Guardian #coding #STEM #tech #sexism

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Researchers find software repository GitHub approved code written by women at a higher rate than code written by men, but only if the gender was not disclosed… READ MORE: Women considered better coders – but only if they hide their gender | Technology | The Guardian

The Tiny London Shop Behind Some of the Very Best #Libraries | TNYT #books #collections #booksellers #bookstores #curation

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London’s Heywood Hill curates impressive collections for discerning customers in 60 different countries — and specializes in the obscure. READ MORE: The Tiny London Shop Behind Some of the Very Best Libraries | The New York Times

The Martian, Sherlock Holmes, and why we love competence porn | Ars Technica #skills #fiction #characters #film #TV #storytelling #competence

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My adds are Olivia Benson from Law & Order: SVU and Annalise Keating from How to Get Away with Murder. MacGyver is a classic! I need to binge-watch…

We’re rooting for the smartest, most rational characters in the room. The best part of The Martian isn’t the breathtaking rescue, nor the awe-inspiring dust storm. It’s watching Mark Watney grow potatoes. Instead of freaking out over his imminent doom, Mark calmly figures how to grow plants in the Martian regolith by fertilizing them with his own poop, and watering them with a DIY device that makes water by heating hydrogen from his leftover rocket fuel, and combining it with oxygen from the Hab environment.

Mark makes The Martian a classic of competence porn by always coming up with a hackerish solution to every problem, just like James Bond or Ellen Ripley with her exoskeleton in Aliens. And he’s not the only competence porn star burning up our monitors right now. From Sherlock to The Americans, competence porn is filling us with the satisfaction that comes from watching people attack problems with brains and cunning rather than fists. Well, OK, there are some fists, too. READ MORE: The Martian, Sherlock Holmes, and why we love competence porn | Ars Technica

Bots, Block Chain, and Beacons Hot Topics at LITA #Tech #Trends Panel | ALA Midwinter 2016 #librarianship #libraries #LIS #information

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Good post to review current and on the horizon technology trends in information services, including trends I have not heard of yet such as praxis and block chain potential.

READ: Bots, Block Chain, and Beacons Hot Topics at LITA Tech Trends Panel | ALA Midwinter 2016