Come on over to Ada’s tomorrow evening at 7pm to get a taste of the beverage that claims “One gets used to it!” Ada’s Technical Books is the first retail store in the United States to carry Club Mate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club-Mate), the drink that is well know among European and American hacker circles. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. It’s a very unique drink that I personally find super tasty!
The book “Contact” by Carl Sagan is a classic. It is well known even outside of science fiction circles and has been made into a major motion picture (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/). I saw the movie a while ago, but I’ve never been one for movies made from books… I’ve always found the books to be much better. Therefore, I set out to read the novel.
The book is about a radio scientist, Ellie Arroway. One thing that I really like about the book verses the movie is that the book goes into much greater detail about Ellie’s childhood and life. The woman she becomes makes a lot more sense in the book. After receiving a graduate degree in radio science, she is drawn into the SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) community by a former professor. She spends many years looking for a message sent by radio waves and, finally, her research center happens upon a particularly strong signal coming from the star Vega’s solar system. The rest of the book is about deciphering the message and where that leads humanity.
This book has inspired me in a couple of ways. The first is that the lead character is so strong and intelligent. Unfortunately, it is not common to find strong, intelligent women involved in science in literature. Also, I was dissapointed in myself that I couldn’t identify the star Vega. This has inspired me to learn more about astronomy- especially because I was reading the book during the Perseids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids) (look for more astronomy book reviews in the future). 
And… just for fun… a great video featuring Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, Richard Feynman, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Ada’s will be participating in the Mobile City and Capitol Hill Summer Sale. We will have special discounts for everyone that attends. If you haven’t heard about the sale, this is what they have to say:
“Come visit Capitol Hill for our huge Summer Sale Thursday, August 26th through Sunday August 29th. You will find deals, sales and events all weekend long up and down Pike, Pine and Broadway in the heart of Capitol Hill! Capitol Hill has everything you need for a picnic in the park; shopping for the whole family; breakfast, lunch and dinner; dancing lessons; yoga classes; adult toys; night life fun and more! Be sure to attend the kick off Mobile City party on Thursday night and then plan on coming back all weekend to walk around Capitol Hill during our Summer Sale and get great deals on everything you need, just a few block away.”
Author Jay Beale will be in the store this Saturday, from 6:30-8pm.
Jay Beale is a information security specialist, well known for his work on threat avoidance and mitigation technology. He’s written two of the most popular security hardening tools: Bastille Unix, a system lockdown and audit tool that introduced a vital security-training component, and the Center for Internet Security’s Unix Scoring Tool. Both are used worldwide throughout private industry and government. Through Bastille and his work with the Center, Jay has provided leadership in the Linux system hardening space, participating in efforts to set, audit, and implement standards for Linux/Unix security within industry and government. Jay also contributed to the OVAL project and the Honeynet Project. Jay has served as an invited speaker at a variety of conferences worldwide as well as government symposia. He’s written for Information Security Magazine, SecurityFocus, and SecurityPortal. Jay has co-authored or edited nine books in the Information Security space. Six of these make up his Open Source Security Series, while two are technical works of fiction in the “Stealing the Network” series.
We are really looking forward to this event! Jay is a fun and informative speaker and we can’t wait to hear what he is going to share with us. Come join us this Saturday from 6:30-8pm for food, drinks, and a chance to meet Jay.
“Speaker for the Dead” is the sequel to the great book “Ender’s Game”. I thought that “Ender’s Game” was good, but “Speaker for the Dead” is fabulous. It is about the colony planet, Lusitania, where we have found another sentient species the Pequininos. The finding of this new species of “Piggies” gives humanity a chance of redemption for destroying the “Buggers”. But, the “Piggies” were cut-off from the humans in fear of changing their way of life. Only a few selected xenobiologists are allowed to talk and study these strange aliens. In other parts of the galaxy, Andrew and his sister Valentine are out visiting other worlds. Andrew has become a speaker for the dead, telling everyone the untold tales of people’s lives after they die. He is soon called to speak the mysterious deaths of two Lusitanians and unravel the mystery of their deaths. But all too soon Andrew is wrapped up in the mysteries, secrets, and deceit of the planet Lusitania.
Orson Scott Card has outdone himself with this book. Full of emotion and interesting back stories . If you like working out mysteries and putting things together, or just enjoy Orson’s work this is the book for you. There is a character, Novahina, who is so complex and complicated that it feels like she is real. Her pain, happiness, sorrow, and joy are all so real. Now that I know there are many books in this series, I can’t resist reading them and then reviewing them. Just to recap, I think this book is fantastic and everyone should read it. This book is a YA book, but I would recommend it more for adults. Only because of inappropriate language and mature content.
“The Meaning of it All” is the record of a series of lectures that Feynman gave at the University of Washington in 1963. The three lectures cover the intersection of science and culture according to Feynman.
The first lecture is about the nature of scientific study and the multiple definitions of “science.” He clearly defines what a true scientist considers science to be: form an assumption and then test the theory to the fullest extent possible in order to either prove or disprove your assumption. While defining this, he gives several examples from everyday life that either fit or do not fit this mold.
The second lecture is about, with the accepted definition of science, how science has an effect on both politics and religion. This was an interesting chapter mostly because the examples were so out of date. His examples of religion were assuming that most people in the United States were Christian and attended church on a regular basis and his political examples were mostly about the communist USSR. It was obvious what point Feynman was attempting to make, but I kept getting distracted by the fact that the example was no longer relevant. I think I would have been able to get a more firm grasp on his point if the examples were more current.
The last lecture was a general rambling about the effects of science on several other aspects of daily life. For example, Feynman talks about the assumption of advertising agencies that their consumers were unintelligent. He points out that this is based on absolutely no scientific evidence and then muses on the idea that someone should have an advertising campaign that simply says “If your intelligence is insulted by an ad campaign, don’t buy that product.” He thought that might be an interesting scientific experiment to see which products’ sales decline. I thought this was an especially interesting anecdote. I wonder what Feynman would think of the common programming practice that assumes the user will do anything except what they are supposed to do. I’ve had professors teach “Assume your user is dumb.” This is actually a good programming practice in terms of program security and reliability (you wouldn’t want your program to crash just because someone divides by zero), but it still perpetuates the idea that the common consumer is unintelligent.
In all, this is an excellent read. Feynman is known for his excellent speaking and teaching skills, and this book does not disappoint.
Mary Roach is an author that just recently came onto my radar. I saw a TED Talk that she did on the topic of sex and I was intrigued-she was both funny and knowledgeable. When I looked her up, I saw that she has written three books: Spook, Stiff, and Bonk. I decided to start with Bonk since, after all, it is about the same topic as her TED Talk.
Bonk is definitely an interesting and quick read. Roach does an excellent job getting information across while entertaining the reader. She approaches the topic from a very scientific standpoint. She also talks a bit about how it is sometimes difficult to perform sex studies because of social norms and how researchers overcome that obstacle. Sex is not a topic that is discussed very often or openly in the science community, so I learned quite a bit. I would very highly recommend her book… I can’t wait to read one of her other ones.
Ada’s is excited to announce that Noah Iliinsky, Jessica Hagy, Danyel Fisher, and Julie Steele will be our very first authors of the month. They are the co-authors of a book that was just released in June: Beautiful Visualization. The book is about how effective visualization helps in displaying everything from diagrams of the brain and subway maps to code and matrices. According to the book:
Visualization is the graphic presentation of data- portrayals meant to reveal complex information at a glance. Think of the familiar map of the New York City subway system or a diagram of the human brain. Successful visualizations are beautiful not only for their aesthetic design, but also for the elegant layers of detail that efficiently generate insight and new understanding.
In this book, two dozen visualization experts demonstrate how they approach projects from a variety of disciplines- as artists, designers, commentators, scientists, analysts, statisticians, and more. Together they show you what’s possible with this mediium, and how you can use it to make sense of the world.
We will have their book on display (and to be purchased!) all month long as well as a bookshelf of books recommended by the authors. Stop by and check it out. And be sure to come to Ada’s on July 25th, from 5-6:30pm to meet the authors, hear them talk a bit about their book, have a chance to ask them questions, and get your book signed!
In the next few weeks, our children’s/young adult books will be on the rise. We are looking forward to having a full section for the young ones in our neighborhood.
In celebration of this, I would love to introduce our latest reviewer: Rachael Kleban. Here is what she has to say about herself:
“Hello, I’m Rachael Kleban. I’m a student at a Montessori school, science fiction addict, and a great lover of books. I’m 12 years old and happy to write reviews for Ada’s Technical Books.”
Rachael will be reviewing our children’s and young adult books for us. Here is her first review:
Ender’s Game
by Orson Scott Card
“Ender’s Game” is a great fast-paced science fiction novel. It is about Andrew Wiggin or “Ender”. In the future we are at war with a group of aliens nicknamed Buggers, for their bug-like appearance. They are incredibly clever and have very advanced technology, decades ahead of our time. We have already beat them twice, almost destroying us, but we are preparing for another attack. Ender is a six-year old child, tortured by his brother, nurtured by his sister. The government thinks that maybe Ender could be the thing the Earth has been looking for. He is taken away to Battle school to train for the army. There he quickly learns how to be one of the greatest leaders of all.
This book was the monthly book for my book club. I believe this was one of the best books ever suggested. I found it most enjoyable because of the deep complexity of the story. The physiological aspects of the book blow away any other book I’ve ever read. Ender is such a complex individual, it’s hard to believe he’s not real. Orson Scott Card is great at doing that, having a character with its own emotions and desires, then throwing an event or another person into the mix and changing them into someone else. The energy of the book will keep you on your toes throughout the whole book. I would recommend this book for YA (ed. young adult) readers. This is a great book for pleasure reading.
My curiosity was piqued when quite a few customers entered Ada’s, headed straight back to the alcove, and picked up a little black book, which they then purchased. Hmm…
Fascinating book, this Pocket Ref. Info, tables, and pics on this, that, and just about everything else. The chapters range alphabetically from Air & Gases to Welding; the index from ‘abrasive and sandpaper’ to ‘wounds, abdominal.’
Hand signals for crane & hoist, types of circular power handsaw blades, “ten” radio codes, and the semaphore alphabet — I gaped in awe as I paged through the book. A small non-random sampling of tables: Wire size vs. voltage drop; batteries – sizes & capacities; tire size vs. load rating, nails (number length, shaft diameter gauge, diameter of head, number per pound); stadia; earthquake scales (Richter, Moment,& Mercalli); capacities of hydraulic rams in tons; friction loss in various pipes; and sixty pages of conversion tables. A couple of my favorites are the chili pepper hotness scale and the consanguinity table (e.g., Frank and Ann are first cousins 2x removed. Huh?).
Proofreaders marks, world electric connectors, North American and world wide area codes, credit card company phone numbers, knots & bends, cloud types, formulas for electricity and plane & solid figures, degrees & trig functions – the range is wide, indeed.
There’s something for everyone. For the mathematically challenged there are tables that will tell you how much tip to leave, and how long it’ll take you to drive from here to there given that you drive not more than 250 mph. For those of you who have difficulty remembering birthdays and anniversaries, you can fill in the table on page 4. Then all you have to remember is where you left your little black book.
Seven hundred ninety-eight pages of information. And, the Pocket Ref (1.325 hands x .775 hands x .25 hands; I leave the conversion to you. See p. 700.) really fits in a pocket, although you may need a second pocket for a magnifying glass.
P.S. While I was writing this review, a fellow came in and bought two Pocket Refs, one for himself and one for his dad.
Ada’s Technical Books is Seattle’s only technical book store located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Ada’s specifically carries new, used, & rare books on Computers, Electronics, Physics, Math, and Science as well as hand-picked inspirational and leisure reading, puzzles, brain teasers, and gadgets geared toward the technically minded customer.
Monthly events, featured author presentations, and book signings will be scheduled throughout the year.
| Phone: | (206) 322-1058 |
| Fax: | (206) 260-2851 |
| Email: | contact@seattletechnicalbooks.com |
| Monday: | Closed |
| Tues-Saturday: | 10am-8pm |
| Sunday: | 1pm-6pm |
