Monthly Archives: July 2014

Book review: The Atlantis World

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Atlantis World by A.G. RiddleEarlier this year, I decided to subscribe to Amazon’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Newsletter to stay abreast of new releases and to pick up some new reading material. I don’t know why, as Amazon’s recommendation engine has done a fine job of filling my reading list to nearly 100 titles at this point. Anyways, my subscription paid off when I saw The Atlantis World by A.G. Riddle show up as a new release. Since I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in The Origin Mystery Trilogy (reviews here and here), The Atlantis World immediately jumped to the top of my reading queue. In fact, it was tough not setting aside my current reading and starting this one immediately!

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My first ride to “The Rock”

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Point Mugu Rock to MalibuMy oldest daughter Amanda has been doing a bit of biking while at college – it’s her primary mode of transportation while at school. When she came home for the summer, she said that she wanted to do some biking and asked me if I’d be interested in taking a ride out to the Point Mugu rock. Since I wasn’t sure if she was serious, I said “Sure, I’m in!” It turns out she was serious, and we finally made the trip this past Saturday. Here’s how it went.

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Book review: Lean Analytics – Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster

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lean analyticsIn my quest for ideas to help me with my business, I decided to continue down the Lean Startup path and picked up Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz. The lean startup craze is in full bloom, and I’ve been trying to get my head around exactly what it means and how it is implemented. Lean Analytics looked as though it could help me along in the process.

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The evolution of Facebook

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Facebook Thumbs UpIt’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of Facebook and their business practices. While I still have a Facebook account, I use it primarily to manage my business pages and rarely, if ever, post anything on it. I’ve also written numerous articles about my issues with Facebook and why I think they won’t last (see here, here and here). However, their decision earlier this year to break apart the mobile experience into separate apps may be the strategic decision that saves them, or at least prolongs the agony of decline.

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Book review: Wired

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Wired by Douglas E. RichardsOne way that I’ve been building my reading list is through the Amazon recommendation engine, which I lovingly hate. Wired by Douglas E. Richards is a book which had been consistently showing up in the recommendation lists, so I figured it must be worth checking out. The description fit into my science fiction themes, and the reviews were generally positive. It finally popped to the top of my list, and I was eager and excited to dig into it.

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Migrating away from Rackspace

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It’s been a slow month or so for keeping things updated on the site. There’s been a couple of reasons. First, my son’s high school graduation involved attending numerous events and entertaining a house full of out-of-town guests. Second, I decided it was time to make the move away from Rackspace and migrate the blog to Amazon’s EC2 service. Here’s why I decided to make the switch and some lessons learned in the process.

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