An interesting, if not expertly written, set of stories about hacking that were fairly entertaining, but mainly reminded me that thanks to complexity and the rapid pace of progress, there’s not a damned thing I can do to prevent someone from hacking into my networks if they are highly motivated. I’m sure glad I’m an optimist.

A visually stunning film that seemed to make a lot more sense than my hazy recollection of its predecessor, but nonetheless kept both feet firmly planted in the realm of the speculative and vague. I prefer Vinge or Egan’s more concrete post-human ponderings to this sort of “Gosh, if we start replacing parts of our bodies with machinery we’re eventually going to become scary robots” over-dramatization.

A sparkling jewel of a gaming experience. I love the Pikmin! The controls are transparent, the visuals sublime, the soundscape is lush, and one’s skill develops in perfect time with the difficulty. My dreams are filled with the sights and sounds of Pikmin. I would have no reservations recommending this game to anyone with a pulse and the necessary appendages.

Yes kids, it was that time of year again, the time when we gather up our craziest costumes, dream up projects with no practical value and spend a week in the desert doing our best to help everyone else have a good time. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Burning Man!

Simply amazing! Sophisticated storytelling, gripping martial arts, dreamlike cinematography, stunning locations. This is everything good about moviemaking and a little bit more. Yimou Zhang has knocked this one out of the park.

Oe tells a stark tale of life in wartime Japan through the eyes of a reform school boy and his mates. Not having lived in Japan in the fifties, I suspect there was a great deal of symbolism and social commentary that largely slipped over my head, but the mood and themes still made for an enjoyable reading experience.