Hello all,
I’ve published a couple more articles at jakemccrary.com since the last time I wrote. One is useful for Emacs users and another muses on current AI tools and connects them to the book A Deepness in the Sky.
Earlier this year I was reading Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky and it triggered thoughts about our current world and the usage of AI tools. A computer system in the book reminded me of using AI tools and how they’ve changed how I interact with computers. A lot more words on the topic in my latest article: Humans ask, computer propose, humans decide.
Another new-since-last-newsletter article is a short one talking about formatting code while working in Emacs. Having computers autoformat your code is great and the package described in this article has made my experience with that nicer.
Book recommendations
Highlights of books this year include the books Alien Clay and Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, and This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a new-to-me author and Alien Clay was the first book of his I read. I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, I’ve now read a handful of books by Tchaikovsky and they don’t all live up to Alien Clay. Children of Time is currently my second favorite book of his that I’ve read. The other books I’ve read of his were in his The Final Architecture series. They were fine :shrug:.
Of the two Vinge books, I prefered A Deepeness in the Sky though they were both good. While they are in the same universe, you could read them in either order.
I hope all are doing well and you enjoy the latest articles.