Microsoft Surface- exciting possibilities!

Microsoft's Surface looks awesome indeed! Waiting for pricing details :)

I am taking a Pricing class at Berkeley this summer and wondering whether Microsoft is going to set a Neutral Market Price for the tablet, or is it going to pursue a Penetration Pricing strategy. Neutral market pricing can be higher than competitors but customers' perceived gains from buying the product are even higher. Penetration pricing models typically set the initial price lower than competition but the product must be very good to best value to gain market share.

Reviewed: Programming iOS 5: Fundamentals of iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Development, by Matt Neuburg

You tell us in the Preface that this book will help those who want to approach learning by comprehending the technology first (supported by hundreds of pages of fundamentals) before getting on to serious coding. I believed you, bought this book and attempted to read the first 150 pages.

Never have I experienced so much pain reading through any technical work before.

You write well. You know the subject very well. You use humor to good effect and demonstrate depth in most facets of the subject. But I am left gasping after reading 134 pages- and yes, I have bookmarked the 135th, and taken a detour to writing this review, because I must express my feelings before I can go on and persevere before the 'serious coding' begins.

I am a programmer of C, C#, C++, Java, identity management architect, tester, information security professional and part-time blogger- like most of my peer techies nowadays, I do quite a bit of everything. So why is it hard for me to understand your approach in this book?

I think it is because I learn by doing more than by reading 'about it'. Your book, especially pages 103-125, gave me a coma ONLY because you described XCODE features. We have documentation for that, please just point us to it next time. Page 126 was a welcome surprise- it has a section called 'Code'. Thank you. Unfortunately, page 128 onwards you drift into the mundane, again. You describe 'Frameworks and SDKs' well but then the chapter on NIB Management hits. I read it twice, got bored to death (almost), gave up and picked up my old Wrox edition of 'MAC OS X Progrmaming', turned to the chapter on 'Using Cocoa Frameworks', and within 5 minutes understood the concepts of outlet and connection. Why did the Wrox book help out?

I think it is because they show you how to create something 'new' and then describe how it works. Your book talks and talks before I create anything new. I hate waiting to create. I hate waiting to code. I would rather code and learn at the same time. I would rather code incorrectly, run into an error and figure out or find out the fix, than read about how to do everything correctly the first time. I retain concepts better when I face errors in code that uses those concepts. It is that simple, or crooked (needing 'correctives') in perhaps, your view. What can I say?

People- buy this book for the knowledge it can provide you. Be prepared to start from the end or middle somewhere. Keep an older, used OSX programming or Cocoa book handy. I am lucky to have a large technical library, have everything from J2EE, Mac OSX, C/C++/C#/VC++/VC++.NET, all the Petzold books to most of the .NET technology books. Most were picked up at book sales for less than $5.

This book, that I purchased here at $31 or so, will definitely add to my knowledge. I will eventually learn to love it- as I always do all my books, but it could have begun 'dirtier', as I like it that way.

Flat Tire!

I am driving to school and I notice my car needs gas. I figure it still has about 40 miles in it, so I could get to Berkeley from the East bay and worry about refueling later. Procrastination at its best! Comfortable and in control over the situation, I keep going without stopping by the conveniently located gas station 1 mile from my house and on the way to school. I arrive at Berkely by 10am, take my microeconomics exam and decide to head back home. I decide to take the strategy exam from home which is due by 6pm the same day. On the way back I hear the beeping: Low Fuel. This time I know I have less than 10 miles on it, so I don't risk it but since the closest gas station is 12 miles out, I decide to go the other way and into Oakland. The nearest one is on Broadway.

Sometimes, a trip to the gas station can turn into an emergency. It is 1pm and I have finished refueling the car at one of those gas stations in Oakland more frequented by trucks than cars, when I notice my rear left tire sensor reading 17, 14, 9, 4, 0... Panic sets in. Stranded with a flat tire in Oakland with 3 hours of daylight left! Ok, calm down. Hit the roadside assistance panic button. Done. Answer the tele prompt like a robot. Done. Hear a human voice offering to help.. breathe a huge sigh of relief!

Another hour passes by before roadside assistance is at my door, an hour that I have spent gorging on potato chips and lemonades from the food court at the station. This is my lunch!  With the tire repaired and paperwork completed, I choose to drive over to a local Starbucks to write the exam. It turns out to be a good place to park myself for the next 4 hours! My bottom hurts by the time I am done, but it is time well spent. Moral of the story: do not procrastinate!

Reviewed: Enterprise Security Architecture: A Business-Driven Approach, by John Sherwood

First off, I have read most chapters of this book, but skimmed the rest, best I could do really. I have been practicing information security architecture and implementation for 10 years. I really liked the in-depth coverage of information security in general. The mapping of the Zachman Framework cells to the so-called SABSA framework is also impressive, but is simple enough to not warrant a whole chapter to be honest. But what is evident to me might not be so to the novice so I take nothing away from the author here.

However, I am very disappointed with this book from an application of methods standpoint. I was expecting so much more.
At the very least I expected some 'real-world' scenarios to be covered in some detail so the practitioner can use material, techniques presented in the book on the job. In several places, this book comes close to revealing the application of methodology being propounded under the trade name of SABSA but then fails to do so. Time and again, I turned over to the next page in anticipation but was left disappointed and exasperated! The author simply refers the reader to contact him for further details- well that's the point of reading the book isn't it? I bought this book for the details but left with an imitation of the Zachman Framework, which by the way is still more directly applicable to information security than SABSA in my most humble opinion. If I am wrong in having said that, it is because I did not learn how or why based on my reading of this book.

Reviewed: DNA: The Secret of Life, by James D. Watson

I just finished reading Chapter 6, 'Tempest in a Cereal Box-Genetically Modified Agriculture'. Dr Watson says and I quote from the First Paperback Edition, Page 156, 'Virtually no human being, save the very few remaining genuine hunter-gatherers, eats a strictly natural' diet'. This is in response to the anti-GM community's allegation that GM foods are 'not natural'. Dr Watson goes on to say, 'Biotechnology, by contrast, allows us to be much more precise in introducing new genetic material into plant species, one gene at a time'. This is said to illustrate how modern genetic engineering is better, though analogous to farming techniques used in agriculture in which Einkorn wheat is crossed with a species of goat grass to produce emmer wheat, because agricultural crosses produce 'unforeseeable effects', Page 157.

The argument Dr Watson makes is not convincing. Genetic engineering is better just because we can now manipulate 'one gene at a time'? Dr Watson has pitted his craft and trade against the evolution of agricultural practices and techniques. In this chapter and in other chapters in the book he has repeatedly given arguments favoring genetic engineering over processes occurring in nature though initiated by humans or animals.
On Page 161, Dr. Watson says, 'The opposition to GM foods is largely a sociopolitical movement whose arguments, though couched in the language of science, are typically unscientific'. He once said, 'People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great'.
Genetically Modified Girls. Not so elementary now is that, Doctor Watson? C

The elderly

A river flows westward taking with it the tidings of the past and present, and the memories of those who left for more promising places

Children still gather on its northern bank to play war-games with paper ships and hand cannons

On the other side, a meadow hides the cottage of the old river guard when young blackbucks appear from nowhere to graze

When the Morning greets the waking birdie the two boats lose their anchors and drift westward

Old guardians grow older by the day, their lazy branches soaking in the cold water

The Old Banyan’s beard partially hides his faceless trunk that juts skyward like a tower from the past

As the breeze blows harder and rushes the river along, the Old Banyan grows older

The Kim Conundrum

Reading about the personal journey of an Irish boy who grew up in India touched me in ways I did not anticipate. Rudyard Kipling's novel, 'Kim', took me as far back into my own childhood as I could remember, except that I was more fortunate, and less lonely than Kim.

Kim is energetic, playful and yet has a yearning for something more profound than playing catch with the other boys his age. This profound longing and search for the truth leads him to a quest for enlightenment, in the company of a Tibetan lama who is seeking enlightenment. The two journey through the vast and empty mountainous terrains of India, and finding themselves astray resume their quest in the vast populous plains. Here, the lama eventually finds the 'River of the Arrow' and achieves enlightenment. Kim, on the other hand, is the 'chela' or the disciple of the lama only, and we are left to wonder if he too will pursue the enlightenment that drove his master to undertaking the great journey. The answer is not revealed, and conveniently so, we are obliged to think what would we have done.

Would you take enlightenment if it were presented to you? Or would you prefer to pursue it instead undertaking an arduous journey at ultimate peril?