[buug] Book suggestion (mildly off-topic)

[Brian Sobolak]

hi

While flying yesterday, I read a very neat and 
thought-provoking book I thought I'd share with 
the group.  "Small Pieces Loosely Joined" goes 
beyond looking at internet communications 
(he uses web to mean email, IM, usenet, www) to
discuss what the Internet is, what it means to us,
and investigates why we like it so much.  

His conclusion-that the Web embraces our
irrationality as humans instead of the enlightened, 
rational selves that we often expect-is wonderful.  
While getting there, he goes down lots of side tracks 
of technology (how much data is on the Internet 
backbone at any one second?), philosophy, language, 
buying  cars, being a parent, and many others.  Very cool.


You can read some of it online at 
http://www.smallpieces.com/.  The chapter "Knowledge" 
is particularly good, though unfortunately not 
available online.  

Anyway, if you're tired of grinding through the latest about the BEEP protocol, Java Beehives in a Nutshell,
or any other technology book, this one is a refreshing
break.

brian

--
Brian Sobolak
http://www.planetshwoop.com/
sobolak at myrealbox.com