Deep Simplicity – Chaos, Complexity and the Emergence of Life by John Gribbin Physics of the impossible by Michio Kaku Sustainable Energy – without the hot air by David MacKay FRS Waste by Tristram Stuart Surviving and Thriving on the Land – Rebecca Laughton Economics for Everyone by Jim Stanford

Just finished Grand Scuttle – The Sinking of The German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919 by Dan Van Der Vat which was a good read. I am also in process of reading ‘Copy, Rip, Burn – The Politics of Copyleft and Open Source‘ by David M. Berry (Pluto Press), but it academic style means it does not read for me with easy flow. I find the subject matter interesting but maybe because I have read so much else from this area I am only dipping into this in bits, and not finding much new, but it the author seems to have look around widely for doing this.

I just finished reading ‘Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed’ by Paul Mason. It was a good read and I recommend it. I had heard recently Paul Mason had just been interviewed by Doug Henwood on his radio programme, but I only decided to buy book on seeing it as part of 3 for price of 2 offer at Waterstones. It is only just out. It has a good pace of writing which draws you in as well as generally very good take on situation.

A few years ago I read “After the New Economy” by Doug Henwood I have been just reading his previous book “Wall Street” which I downloaded as a PDF I also listen to his radio show which is quite interesting with present financial crisis. http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html I download from rss feed in Amarok audio programme and then rsync to my portable audio player and listen to on way to and from work.

Last Sunday I wondered around some new streets called Ferry Gait in may area collecting the names and adding them to Open Street Map. They just were rendered since I last looked yesterday at it. I am quite pleased. A path from the Muirhouse Linear Park to them has just been opened up which saves me a bit of time going to work on my bike. I added that too.

Found this map of post offices http://www.maptube.org/map.aspx?mapid=92 but the 2 closest to me in Muirhouse and Pennywell are missing. I will have to check out where data is from and why this is. These post offices get a fair bit of custom and despite new round of post office closures they both should be secure. The government set out to undermine the postoffice network by taking the benefits payments from them pushing claimants to use bank which fleece claimants with penalties to cover costs.

Just watched a presentation that I found very enlightening: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-of-the-ribbon.aspx At work we have Office 2003 and at home I only use Koffice or OpenOffice.org but I find how they got to the new ribbon in Office 207 quite interesting, the stats of how commands used in office that they fed into design are interesting. The idea of letting people have a sense of mastery over the software is good and how this put into practice with design.

I think it would be good if human knowledge and accounts of events were added to glass bottles by engraving or have stored in form by raised lettering, code or pictures. These will last longer than paper or film. Bottles go all over the world and although many get recycled the fate of many is to end up in land fill, where they could be retrieved by archaeologists of the future.

After winter break I have started this week cycling to and from work. On my way back on Monday I saw the Heron under bridge from Fords Road over Water of Leith I had not seen him as far up as that and was closest I had seen him. He looked back at me, and turned around showing of his big quif like feather on his head that I had not noticed before, a pity I did not have a camera.

I have been reading a fair few books. The Machine that Changed the World – How Lean Production Revolutionized the Global Car Wars which I wanted to read after being fascinated by what I learned when I read Lean Thinking. I also got Lean Performance ERP Project Management which is not as readable but contains valuable insights. I got Rip Off! which is book done before Plundering the Public Sector.