Mark Twain remarked that he could never “make a good impromptu speech without several hours to prepare it.” A tweet, restricted to 140 characters, is a reflection of the impromptu conscience of digital society today. This collection of micro contributions from educators, administrators, and learners reflecting on the burgeoning phenomenon of open education resources and open textbooks is reason to celebrate: we are returning to the core vocation of education, which is to share knowledge freely. Clearly these contributors have thought deeply about the value of “sharing to learn,” but more importantly “learning to share.”

This book is insightfully clever because it conveys a powerful message that will be a catalyst to nurture and evolve into a growing community of educators worldwide that is committed to the evolution and collaborative planning of education projects rooted in the foundations of open content. It is clear that OER futures are inevitable. After reading this text, I wonder when we look back at the history of these sustainable education futures, will we wonder why it took so long?

Get your hard copy today and support OER friendly publishers!

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"A Byte of Python" is a free book on programming using the Python language. It serves as a tutorial or guide to the Python language for a beginner audience. If all you know about computers is how to save text files, then this is the book for you.

In Dec 2008, the book was updated for the Python 3.0 release (one of the first books to do so). But now, I have converted the book back for Python 2 language because readers would often get confused between the default Python 2 installed on their systems vs. Python 3 which they had to separately install and all the tooling, esp. editors would assume Python 2 as well. I had a hard time justifying why I had to aggravate readers and make them go through all this when the fact is that they can learn either one and it would be just as useful. So, Python 2 it is.

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"A Byte of Python" is a free book on programming using the Python language. It serves as a tutorial or guide to the Python language for a beginner audience. If all you know about computers is how to save text files, then this is the book for you.

In Dec 2008, the book was updated for the Python 3.0 release (one of the first books to do so). But now, I have converted the book back for Python 2 language because readers would often get confused between the default Python 2 installed on their systems vs. Python 3 which they had to separately install and all the tooling, esp. editors would assume Python 2 as well. I had a hard time justifying why I had to aggravate readers and make them go through all this when the fact is that they can learn either one and it would be just as useful. So, Python 2 it is.

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"A Byte of Python" is a free book on programming using the Python language. It serves as a tutorial or guide to the Python language for a beginner audience. If all you know about computers is how to save text files, then this is the book for you.

In Dec 2008, the book was updated for the Python 3.0 release (one of the first books to do so). But now, I have converted the book back for Python 2 language because readers would often get confused between the default Python 2 installed on their systems vs. Python 3 which they had to separately install and all the tooling, esp. editors would assume Python 2 as well. I had a hard time justifying why I had to aggravate readers and make them go through all this when the fact is that they can learn either one and it would be just as useful. So, Python 2 it is.

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A Byte of Vim is a book which aims to help you to learn how to use the Vim editor (version 7), even if all you know is how to use the computer keyboard.

The first part of this book is meant for new users who want to understand what Vim is and learn how to use it.

The second part of this book is for people who already know how to use Vim and want to learn about features that make Vim so powerful, such as windows and tabs, personal information management, making it a programmer’s editor, how to extend Vim with your own plugins, and more.

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A Byte of Vim is a book which aims to help you to learn how to use the Vim editor (version 7), even if all you know is how to use the computer keyboard.

The first part of this book is meant for new users who want to understand what Vim is and learn how to use it.

The second part of this book is for people who already know how to use Vim and want to learn about features that make Vim so powerful, such as windows and tabs, personal information management, making it a programmer’s editor, how to extend Vim with your own plugins, and more.

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R is a programming language that has been gaining popularity in the domains such as machine learning and artificial intelligence over the recent years. It has been praised for its simplicity and elasticity, and its creators were even assigned a rockstar status.

In this pamphlet, the author claims that this "blazing new technology" is actually a step backwards in the development of the domains that it tries to tackle, and the better means of expression, or better tools for doing the job, were available at least since the 70's, and that recently they are only getting better.

The pamphlet explores and expresses various computational intelligence methods using Guile, a very pleasant implementation of the Scheme programming language.

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Affair is a novel by Nick Stokes. A man who collects sticks and gathers stones has an affair with a woman in the woods and struggles to return to his wife. An author writes about a man having an affair in order to destroy the man and discover who he is. The two stories are woven and inextricable.

Affair is influenced by magical-realism, surrealism, absurdism, postmodernism, modernism, post-postmodernism, premodernism, realism, organisms, and ismism.

This is the version from The Seattle Star. It preserves the original serialization, including "chapter" breaks and titles. More info, including links to buy, at nickstokes.net.

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Affair is a novel by Nick Stokes. A man who collects sticks and gathers stones has an affair with a woman in the woods and struggles to return to his wife. An author writes about a man having an affair in order to destroy the man and discover who he is. The two stories are woven and inextricable.

Affair is influenced by magical-realism, surrealism, absurdism, postmodernism, modernism, post-postmodernism, premodernism, realism, organisms, and ismism.

This is the version from The Seattle Star. It preserves the original serialization, including "chapter" breaks and titles. More info, including links to buy, at nickstokes.net.

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Affair is a novel by Nick Stokes. A man who collects sticks and gathers stones has an affair with a woman in the woods and struggles to return to his wife. An author writes about a man having an affair in order to destroy the man and discover who he is. The two stories are woven and inextricable.

Affair is influenced by magical-realism, surrealism, absurdism, postmodernism, modernism, post-postmodernism, premodernism, realism, organisms, and ismism.

This is the version from The Seattle Star. It preserves the original serialization, including "chapter" breaks and titles. More info, including links to buy, at nickstokes.net.

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AlternC est un projet libre qui a su grandir à la force du clavier de bénévoles, soucieux de proposer à un public non informaticien une interface conviviale et de qualité pour gérer leur hébergement tant web que courriers électroniques, listes de diffusion…

AlternC, c’est également un projet politique, une informatique résolument tournée vers les logiciels libres, une volonté d’aider chacun à devenir son propre hébergeur, s’il le souhaite, dans le respect d’Internet et de ce qui fut son fondement toujours menacé : la liberté.

AlternC, de par sa qualité et sa convivialité, est utilisé tant par des structures associatives ou professionnelles (collectivités publiques, agences web, entreprises diverses) sur des serveurs dédiés, que par des particuliers sur des serveurs mutualisés.

Publié à l’occasion des dix ans d’AlternC, cet ouvrage illustré propose un guide pas à pas du logiciel, de la gestion des comptes à l’installation et l’administration de la plateforme. Laurent Chemla et Sébastien Canevet l’ont enrichi de contributions de nature politique, historique et juridique.

Aussi au format papier. Ou faire un don.

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Animals and Ethics 101 helps readers identify and evaluate the arguments for and against various uses of animals, such as: 

• Is it morally wrong to experiment on animals? Why or why not? 
• Is it morally permissible to eat meat? Why or why not? 
• Are we morally obligated to provide pets with veterinary care (and, if so, how much?)? Why or why not? 

And other challenging issues and questions. Developed as a companion volume to an online "Animals & Ethics" course, it is ideal for classroom use, discussion groups or self study. The book presupposes no conclusions on these controversial moral questions about the treatment of animals, and argues for none either. Its goal is to help the reader better engage the issues and arguments on all sides with greater clarity, understanding and argumentative rigor. Nathan Nobis, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA USA.

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Animals and Ethics 101 helps readers identify and evaluate the arguments for and against various uses of animals, such as: 

• Is it morally wrong to experiment on animals? Why or why not? 
• Is it morally permissible to eat meat? Why or why not? 
• Are we morally obligated to provide pets with veterinary care (and, if so, how much?)? Why or why not? 

And other challenging issues and questions. Developed as a companion volume to an online "Animals & Ethics" course, it is ideal for classroom use, discussion groups or self study. The book presupposes no conclusions on these controversial moral questions about the treatment of animals, and argues for none either. Its goal is to help the reader better engage the issues and arguments on all sides with greater clarity, understanding and argumentative rigor. Nathan Nobis, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA USA.

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Animals and Ethics 101 helps readers identify and evaluate the arguments for and against various uses of animals, such as: 

• Is it morally wrong to experiment on animals? Why or why not? 
• Is it morally permissible to eat meat? Why or why not? 
• Are we morally obligated to provide pets with veterinary care (and, if so, how much?)? Why or why not? 

And other challenging issues and questions. Developed as a companion volume to an online "Animals & Ethics" course, it is ideal for classroom use, discussion groups or self study. The book presupposes no conclusions on these controversial moral questions about the treatment of animals, and argues for none either. Its goal is to help the reader better engage the issues and arguments on all sides with greater clarity, understanding and argumentative rigor. Nathan Nobis, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA USA.

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Animals and Ethics 101 helps readers identify and evaluate the arguments for and against various uses of animals, such as: 

• Is it morally wrong to experiment on animals? Why or why not? 
• Is it morally permissible to eat meat? Why or why not? 
• Are we morally obligated to provide pets with veterinary care (and, if so, how much?)? Why or why not? 

And other challenging issues and questions. Developed as a companion volume to an online "Animals & Ethics" course, it is ideal for classroom use, discussion groups or self study. The book presupposes no conclusions on these controversial moral questions about the treatment of animals, and argues for none either. Its goal is to help the reader better engage the issues and arguments on all sides with greater clarity, understanding and argumentative rigor. Nathan Nobis, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA USA.

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Animals and Ethics 101 helps readers identify and evaluate the arguments for and against various uses of animals, such as: 

• Is it morally wrong to experiment on animals? Why or why not? 
• Is it morally permissible to eat meat? Why or why not? 
• Are we morally obligated to provide pets with veterinary care (and, if so, how much?)? Why or why not? 

And other challenging issues and questions. Developed as a companion volume to an online "Animals & Ethics" course, it is ideal for classroom use, discussion groups or self study. The book presupposes no conclusions on these controversial moral questions about the treatment of animals, and argues for none either. Its goal is to help the reader better engage the issues and arguments on all sides with greater clarity, understanding and argumentative rigor. Nathan Nobis, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA USA.

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The analyses and results included in the technical assessment complement the third main study "The German Labour Market in 2030 - Economy and Labour Market in the Digital Age - Forecast 2016" (Original title: Arbeitsmarkt 2030 - Wirtschaft und Arbeitsmarkt im digitalen Zeitalter; Prognose 2016). The authors examine the implications of digitalisation on today's work by means of different individual assessments, taking into account economic, sociological and organisational aspects. Moreover, they provide an overview of existing or planned measures to support digitalisation.
This book is made open access as part of the Knowledge Unlatched KU Open Services

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The analyses and results included in the technical assessment complement the third main study "The German Labour Market in 2030 - Economy and Labour Market in the Digital Age - Forecast 2016" (Original title: Arbeitsmarkt 2030 - Wirtschaft und Arbeitsmarkt im digitalen Zeitalter; Prognose 2016). The authors examine the implications of digitalisation on today's work by means of different individual assessments, taking into account economic, sociological and organisational aspects. Moreover, they provide an overview of existing or planned measures to support digitalisation.

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The analyses and results included in the technical assessment complement the third main study "The German Labour Market in 2030 - Economy and Labour Market in the Digital Age - Forecast 2016" (Original title: Arbeitsmarkt 2030 - Wirtschaft und Arbeitsmarkt im digitalen Zeitalter; Prognose 2016). The authors examine the implications of digitalisation on today's work by means of different individual assessments, taking into account economic, sociological and organisational aspects. Moreover, they provide an overview of existing or planned measures to support digitalisation.

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The analyses and results included in the technical assessment complement the third main study "The German Labour Market in 2030 - Economy and Labour Market in the Digital Age - Forecast 2016" (Original title: Arbeitsmarkt 2030 - Wirtschaft und Arbeitsmarkt im digitalen Zeitalter; Prognose 2016). The authors examine the implications of digitalisation on today's work by means of different individual assessments, taking into account economic, sociological and organisational aspects. Moreover, they provide an overview of existing or planned measures to support digitalisation.

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Více a více lidí nakupuje v obchodech bio maso a zboží z místních statků, aby se vyhnuli výrobkům z industrializované živočišné výroby. Na to a mnoho dalšího poukazuje nová studie Atlas masa, kterou vydávají Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung v Praze a Hnutí DUHA.

Rozsáhlá publikace nabitá nejnovějšími daty také mapuje globalizaci masného průmyslu, k níž dochází v posledních desetiletích. Prozkoumává velkovýrobu masa i důsledky, jaké má pro každodenní život českých domácností:

• OSN odhaduje, že 70 % zemědělské půdy na světě slouží přímo nebo nepřímo k chovu zvířat.
• K vypěstování sóji, kterou české velkochovy dovážejí k vykrmování zvířat, je potřeba 190 000 hektarů půdy – ekvivalent Zlínského kraje. Sójovým plantážím ustupují divoké brazilské savany, kde mají domov vzácné druhy zvířat.
• České chovy na každý kilogram živé váhy masa spotřebují 83 miligramů antibakteriálních látek – a dvě třetiny vepřového prodávaného v amerických supermarketech už obsahují bakterie rezistentní vůči antibiotikům.
• K výrobě kilogramu hovězího masa je potřeba 15 000 litrů vody.
• Jatečná prasata jsou chována v železobetonových boxech s podlahou z ocelového roštu, kde na každé zvíře připadá 0,65 čtverečního metru plochy.
• Deset světových firem poráží 88 % všech prasat. Největší z nich, brazilská JBS, každý den porazí 70 000 prasat a 85 000 kusů hovězího dobytka.
• 83 % světové produkce mléka připadá na jedno jediné plemeno: holštýnský skot.
• Evropské supermarkety spotřebují z kuřat hlavně prsní řízky a zbytek masa je odpad – který pod cenou exportují do Afriky, a vytlačují tak místní zemědělce.

To a mnohem více v nové publikaci Atlas masa.

Deutch, Français, English.

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Over recent decades, as information technologies have brought more of the world’s knowledge to more of the world’s people at unprecedented speed, humanity’s linguistic diversity has been shrinking. That process is inexorable but not inevitable: international cooperation and well-planned, intelligently implemented language policies can bolster the ongoing efforts of speaker communities to maintain their mother tongues and pass them on to their children, even in the face of powerful forces pressing them to shift towards larger languages. When UNESCO published the first edition of the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger in 1996, it sounded an international alarm that has now been heard by public officials and policy makers, language communities and scholars, the media and civil society worldwide. With this third edition – available since February 2009 in an online digital format – we note that while the gravity and urgency of the problem of language loss are no less acute today, our tools for understanding the phenomenon are increasingly effective, and our repertoire of proven responses continues to grow daily.

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Christopher Eriksson sent in this Swedish translation of the Soldering is Easy comic book. 

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In this work a Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) shape sensor for shape detection of flexible objects is presented. Such sensors are used particularly in medical technology. Although the subject of FBG sensor technology has been investigated and advanced by research groups worldwide since the beginning of the 21st century, no sensor concept has yet been able to establish itself on the market. This work focuses on the derivation of shape sensing algorithms to improve FBG-shape sensors.

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In the crowd of Finite Element Software, Code_Aster ranks amongst the most powerful, but unlike it’s sibling it comes under GNU GPL license.

Because it is powerful, it is complicated. As it was designed to be used by the highly knowledgeable engineers of EDF, Code_Aster user interface is spartan. And although copious the associated documentation is on the heavy side. Therefore the learning curve is quite steep at the beginning.

Beginning with Code_Aster intends to provide a step by step approach to ease the learning curve.
This book focuses on practical solutions: how to put the problem, how to solve it and how to interpret the results. It is dedicated to mechanical problems, static, linear and non linear, including contact and friction. Together with modal and buckling analysis. With beams, rods, cables, plates and 3D solid models. As far as pre and post-processing are concerned Gmsh and Salome are introduced. If this book is primarily intended for the beginner, the experienced user may find some useful hints, here or there, throughout the chapters.

Aussi au format papier. Ou faire un don.

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In the crowd of Finite Element Software, Code_Aster ranks amongst the most powerful, but unlike it’s sibling it comes under GNU GPL license.

Because it is powerful, it is complicated. As it was designed to be used by the highly knowledgeable engineers of EDF, Code_Aster user interface is spartan. And although copious the associated documentation is on the heavy side. Therefore the learning curve is quite steep at the beginning.

Beginning with Code_Aster intends to provide a step by step approach to ease the learning curve.
This book focuses on practical solutions: how to put the problem, how to solve it and how to interpret the results. It is dedicated to mechanical problems, static, linear and non linear, including contact and friction. Together with modal and buckling analysis. With beams, rods, cables, plates and 3D solid models. As far as pre and post-processing are concerned Gmsh and Salome are introduced. If this book is primarily intended for the beginner, the experienced user may find some useful hints, here or there, throughout the chapters.

Aussi au format papier. Ou faire un don.

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Someone once said to me ... “I don’t want to be abstract ... I want it to be real”.

It was the reply at the fact that i’ve said to her that a friend of mine, that was in fact married, was loving her in an abstract way.

But we all do the same ... we refuse to understand the meaning of the abstract in our lives ... or to see what is the message behind the message.

And then we live the same experiences on and on and on ... and we keep wondering why ... why ... why??!!

I believe today that refusing to start learning the art of understanding the abstract ... is a way of refusing to continue growing as a spiritual being.

Somehow the Universe, even if we dislike it, gives us the same lesson on and on and on ... but we just can’t see that the Universe loves us ... all of us ... and tries all the time to save and help us ... to understand what we call lessons of life.

The abstract is strange sometimes ... i know ... but seeing what is behind the abstract, you understand the meaning of life.

So ... how should we start?!

Where we should pay more attention in the events from our lives?!

Well ... somehow is quite simple.

Everything has a huge impact on us ... annoys us in a terrible way ... or has a repetitive character ... in there you will find the meaning of the lessons you need to study.

In the end ... we can even use the slogan ... “It’s not what it looks like” ... cause probably this is the real definition of the abstract.

But can we ignore the signs?! ... the lessons?!

You might have moments when you could believe that ... but then the power of the message will have a stronger intensity.

And will be repeat on and on and on ... and the abstract values will annoy you in a terrible way.

The solution?!

Maybe ... just have an opened mind and pay attention to the details.

So ... we should spend life only meditating?!

Sure not ... but we should keep the right balance between living and enjoying life ... and also thinking about it ... its messages and how we could grow as spiritual beings.

And probably keep in mind that ... behind the abstract there is a always message.

 

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And one day .... you see no difference between your world and the life in North Korea ... but you don’t know why

 

When i began to study the nonsense ... i realized that ... behind the nonsense there is a path that we can’t see.

When i say nonsense ... i mean all our silly actions ... or thoughts.

We live in a robotic way ... and even if we are not happy in the present moment ... we just continue everything in the same way ... on and on and on.

One day, we even start to believe that we live in a prison ... or prisons.

The job is a prison.

The marriage is a prison.

Everything around ... is just a repetitive way of living ... having no sense at all.

There is no joy of being alive.

You actually have a life similar with the one of the people from North Korea ... but the problem is that you are the dictator ... and you was the one that somehow chose the prison ... or even built it.

No one forced you to go at the job you have now and actually you can change it anytime.

No one forced you to get married and in fact you can change the partner ... or just ... simple divorce.

You see no difference between your world and the life in North Korea ... but you don’t know why.

Well ... let me tell you the truth.

 

 

You accepted the nonsense as your main way of living your life.

You are the one that is responsible for your unhappiness ... and in fact ... you are also the one that could change everything right away.

The nonsense is a pathless path ... that actually goes to your soul.

Accepting its presence ... defining it ... you realize that beyond it ... there is indeed a path.

The present moment.

Enjoy it!

The prison ... even if it is only metaphoric ... or a real one ... is the best place you could be ... but you need to understand that the only secret is that we should enjoy life and feel alive.

 

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Big Buck Bunny is a large-hearted rabbit who is bullied by three rodents. Enough is enough, and a hilarious comeuppance ensues.

This iconic film has been condensed to 12 child-friendly words appearing alongside full-colour images of the characters.

Art and culture always build on the past. Whether it's Walt Disney updating fairy tales, or a remix artist mixing together samples to form something new, we need access to a body of existing work to use as part of our self-expression. Modern copyright laws place automatic, long-lasting, tight restrictions on what can be done with artistic works. Free cultural artists intentionally license their work to the public so that we can all benefit from a growing base for future art and culture to be built on.

This book is a work of cultural freedom. Please feel free to share it, or make new things based on it. In fact, this book is only possible because the film it is based on is also a work of free culture!

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Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Biodigital: A Novel of Overmind Emergent

Biodigital is a novel, first published as an Ebook via Unglue.it, about a Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who follow him. Its plot ostensibly concerns Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious ailment reported by veterans of the first Gulf War (1991).  It's set in the early-to-mid 1990's but presages many developments that are just now appearing in the real world.

Careful readers may notice that this is the same description that I used for Acts of the Apostles, about which more below.

Synopsis

As American-led forces assemble in Saudi Arabia for the largest military operation since Normandy, computer designer Todd Griffith discovers a secret function buried within the Kali chip. That night he is shot in the head. Five years later, burnt-out Silicon Valley software engineer Nick Aubrey boards a "red-eye" flight to Boston and winds up seated next to a very disturbed man who claims to know the secret of Gulf War Syndrome. Over Utah, Nick's chance companion meets his dramatic demise, and the police accuse Nick of murder. Soon the police are the least of Nick's worries. On the run from a Silicon Valley tech messiah and the hacker cult that venerates him, tempted by exotic foreign beauties, betrayed by those closest to him, Nick must solve the Gulf War enigma or spend the rest of his life on the lam. The only person who doesn't want a piece of Nick, it seems, is his estranged wife Bartlett, a genetic scientist with secrets of her own.  All clues lead to a pharmaceutical laboratory in Basel Switzerland, where scientists are working on submicrosopic machines to rearrange human DNA. But Nick can't find out what's really going on without Todd's help, and Todd's been in a coma for nearly half a dozen years.

 

Careful readers may notice that this is nearly identical to the synopsis of Acts of the Apostles. What gives?

 

Biodigital and Acts of the Apostles

The novel Biodigital is a half-new novel largely based on Acts of the Apostles. To a rough approximation, the texts of Acts and Biodigital are about 60% congruent. Each book also contains another 40% of material that is not in the other. So they're the same but different, kinda like different versions of Superman or Batman "origin" movies, or the original (John Wayne) and remake (Jeff Bridges) versions of True Grit.  Or maybe like the 1858 and 1867 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Got it. But What's the Difference Between the Books and Which One Should I Read?

Acts of the Apostles is a more convoluted book than Biodigital is. Its plot has curlicues and diversions and intricacies and improbabilities. Depending on your tastes, this is either a bug or a feature. (In my opinion, it's a little of both). Biodigital is more straight ahead, more of a pure thriller, more Dan Brown than Neil Stephenson, which in some ways makes it a less sophisticated book. But on the other hand, the roles of four characters, most signicantly Nick's wife Bartlett, are substantially enhanced in Biodigital. And as a consequence, the actions of the main villain are also seen to be much less arbitrary than they are in Acts, and hence even more sinister. Plus, I've rewritten the opening chapters to make them more logical and faster paced than their counterparts in Acts. And significantly, because Bartlett is on stage much more in Biodigital than she was in Acts, so too is her science. I think the overall verisimilitude is enhanced, given recent real-world developments in brain and genetic sciences.

One more point: Acts of the Apostles is part of the Mind over Matter trilogy, which also includes Cheap Complex Devices and The Pains. But most of the parts of Acts that hook into these other two books are not present in Biodigital. 

This is so fascinating! Give Me the Gory Backstory of How You Decided to Remake Your Classic "Acts"! 

Here's how Biodigital came about. About four years ago I sold the rights to Acts of the Apostles, my 1999 self-published novel that has acquired a modest but passionate fan base, to a small publishing house (call it "U") whose titles I much esteemed. The terms of the deall were that some "small edits" might be required before the book could be published; the editorial director ("V") would direct me. As the process of "cleaning up" the book began, it became clear that V had in mind a book substantially different from Acts. Although the main plot and most of the characters were the same, some sub-plots and characters were to deleted, some characters changed names and/or took on greater or lesser roles than in the original book. It was pretty much a wholesale overhaul. I did it because I wanted to see how the book would do with a "real" publisher.

Although many of the changes sought (or demanded) by V were clearly improvements, as time wore on the process became less and less fun. Every change I made gave rise to new demands for ever more revisions. Although my editor had some good editorial instincts, V and I simply had very different conceptions of what the book was about.  Among other things, at V's direction I deleted most of the "hooks" that connected Acts with the other two books in the Mind over Matter trilogy. At some point we decided that the book was different enough from the original Acts of the Apostles to deserve a new name. I christened it Biodigital. 

Anyway, after I had spent a year revising Acts / creating Biodigital, U and V finally declared that they were finally happy with it. But, to my dismay, they then said that they weren't going to publish it (I supsect that their money was running low, but I don't really know).  In any event,  the rights reverted to me. 

So I put the book in my virtual sock drawer for more than two years, not sure if I liked it well enough to go to the trouble of publishing something that might only confuse or annoy people who had already read Acts. On the other hand there was a lot to like about it. So, I decided to spend a little while undoing the enforced changes that I least liked and throw it out to the world to see how it did. Which I'm now doing, what what.

John Sundman and Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license was formally introduced to the world at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in 2003. John Sundman was present at the conference, and put his two then-existing books (Acts and Devices) under the license immediately. Thus they have been available for free download from various servers for more than a decade. Who knows how many people have already read the books this way? Not me.  At least it's gotten me a little notice (and perhaps a place in Commons Heaven, if there is such a place).

And now I'm releasing yet another book under Creative Commons. Under my contract with Gluejar, this book been set free after a period that was reduced every time someone made a purchase.

Listed by Unglue.it.

This guide is designed for security researchers. It provides advice on which terms to use in reports, how they should look in the middle of a sentence, and how to pronounce them out loud. Since the terms are listed alphabetically, you’ll find serious usage advice right next to playful entries about internet culture.

Each term in the guide earned its place by being unintuitive in some way:

• It may look like a non-technical word (execute, pickling, shell),

• It may be uniquely written (BeEF, LaTeX, RESTful),

• It may not follow a clear pattern (web page vs. website),

• It may have a very specific technical distinction (invalidated vs. unvalidated),

• Or its meaning may change depending on the context (crypto, PoC, red teaming).

Language is always evolving, and those changes are especially visible in an innovative field like information security. This guide aspires to record those changes in vocabulary and encourage researchers to use language intentionally as the digital lexicon continues to grow.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Először 2011 közepén botlottam a bitcoinba. A reakcióm többé-kevésbé az volt, hogy "Brr! Egy újabb pénz a számítógép megszállottjainak!" - és további 6 hónapig nem törődtem vele, nem értettem meg a fontosságát. Az általam ismert legokosabb embereknél is sokszor láttam ugyanezt a reakciót, ami egy kicsit vígasztaló. Másodszor, amikor egy levelező listán került szóba a bitcoin, elhatároztam, hogy elolvasom Satoshi Nakamoto dolgozatát, azaz áttanulmányozom a hiteles forrást és megnézem, hogy miről van szó. Még mindig emlékszem arra a pillanatra, amikor befejeztem a 9 oldalas dolgozatot és megértettem, hogy a bitcoin nem egyszerűen csak egy digitális pénz, hanem egy decentralizált bizalmi hálózat, és a pénznél sokkal több mindennek az alapjául szolgálhat. Ez a felismerés indított arra, hogy 4 hónapon keresztül a bitcoinra vonatkozó minden információmorzsát összeszedjek és elolvassak. Lelkesedtem és megszállottá váltam, napi 12 órát vagy még többet töltöttem a képernyőre tapadva, olvastam, írtam, kódoltam, és tanultam, amennyit csak tudtam. 10 kilót fogytam ezalatt, mert nem ettem rendesen, hanem csak a bitcoinnal foglalkoztam.

Két évvel később, miután számos kis céget alapítottam a bitcoinnal kapcsolatos szolgáltatások és termékek vizsgálatára, elhatároztam, hogy megírom az első könyvemet. A bitcoin volt az a téma, ami kreatívvá tett, lefoglalta a gondolataimat: ez volt a legizgalmasabb technológia, amióta csak találkoztam az Internettel. Itt az idő, hogy a tágabb olvasóközönséggel is megosszam azt az elragadtatásomat, amit ezzel az izgalmas techológiával kapcsolatban érzek.

Listed by Unglue.it.

This is a Wikipedia book, a collection of Wikipedia articles, captured and formatted on March 1, 2016

Listed by Unglue.it.

For some time now I’ve been oating the idea of writing a book about category theory that would be targeted at programmers. Mind you, not computer scientists but pro- grammers — engineers rather than scientists. I know this sounds crazy and I am properly scared. I can’t deny that there is a huge gap between science and engineering be- cause I have worked on both sides of the divide. But I’ve al- ways felt a very strong compulsion to explain things. I have tremendous admiration for Richard Feynman who was the master of simple explanations. I know I’m no Feynman, but I will try my best. I’m starting by publishing this pref- ace — which is supposed to motivate the reader to learn category theory — in hopes of starting a discussion and soliciting feedback.

This is an unofficial PDF version of "Category Theory for Programmers" by Bartosz Milewski, converted from his blogpost series.

Listed by Unglue.it.

The main objective of this work is to significantly deepen the understanding of the material and the structural behaviour of continuous-discontinuous SMC composites, following a holistic approach to investigate microscopic aspects, macroscopic mechanical behaviour as well as failure evolution at the coupon, structure and component level. In addition, criteria to evaluate the effect of hybridisation are introduced and modelling approaches are presented and discussed.

Listed by Unglue.it.

There’s a common belief that cyberspace cannot be regulated-that it is, in its very essence, immune from the government’s (or anyone else’s) control. Code, first published in 2000, argues that this belief is wrong. It is not in the nature of cyberspace to be unregulable; cyberspace has no “nature.” It only has code-the software and hardware that make cyberspace what it is. That code can create a place of freedom-as the original architecture of the Net did-or a place of oppressive control. Under the influence of commerce, cyberspace is becoming a highly regulable space, where behavior is much more tightly controlled than in real space. But that’s not inevitable either. We can-we must-choose what kind of cyberspace we want and what freedoms we will guarantee. These choices are all about architecture: about what kind of code will govern cyberspace, and who will control it. In this realm, code is the most significant form of law, and it is up to lawyers, policymakers, and especially citizens to decide what values that code embodies. Since its original publication, this seminal book has earned the status of a minor classic. This second edition, or Version 2.0, has been prepared through the author’s wiki, a web site that allows readers to edit the text, making this the first reader-edited revision of a popular book.

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"Even connecting a few programs across a few sockets is plain nasty when you start to handle real life situations. Trillions? The cost would be unimaginable. Connecting computers is so difficult that software and services to do this is a multi-billion dollar business. So today we're still connecting applications using raw UDP and TCP, proprietary protocols, HTTP, Websockets. It remains painful, slow, hard to scale, and essentially centralized. To fix the world, we needed to do two things. One, to solve the general problem of "how to connect any code to any code, anywhere". Two, to wrap that up in the simplest possible building blocks that people could understand and use easily. It sounds ridiculously simple. And maybe it is. That's kind of the whole point."

If you are a programmer and you aim to build large systems, in any language, then Code Connected is essential reading. Code Connected Volume 1 takes you through learning ZeroMQ, step-by-step, with over 80 examples. You will learn the basics, the API, the different socket types and how they work, reliability, and a host of patterns you can use in your applications.

Print editions available for purchase via the author's web site.

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Computer Science from the Bottom Up — A free, online book designed to teach computer science from the bottom end up. Topics covered include binary and binary logic, operating systems internals, toolchain fundamentals and system library fundamentals.

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Computer Science from the Bottom Up — A free, online book designed to teach computer science from the bottom end up. Topics covered include binary and binary logic, operating systems internals, toolchain fundamentals and system library fundamentals.

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Computer Science from the Bottom Up — A free, online book designed to teach computer science from the bottom end up. Topics covered include binary and binary logic, operating systems internals, toolchain fundamentals and system library fundamentals.

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This is a nonmathematical physics textbook, designed so that it can be used either for a semester-length course of the type popularized by Hewitt, or for a shorter course of 8 or 10 weeks.

Source cade and print edition available.

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De Programmeursleerling is een cursusboek, geschreven door Pieter Spronck, dat bedoeld is om python 3 te doceren aan studenten en middelbare scholieren die nog onbekend zijn met programmeren. Dit boek veronderstelt geen kennis op programmeergebied en bevat vele oefeningen.

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De Programmeursleerling is een cursusboek, geschreven door Pieter Spronck, dat bedoeld is om python 3 te doceren aan studenten en middelbare scholieren die nog onbekend zijn met programmeren. Dit boek veronderstelt geen kennis op programmeergebied en bevat vele oefeningen.

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Hoje, estratégia de negócios é design, organização de informações é design, decoração de ambientes é design, cortar cabelo é design... será que tudo vai virar design? O Design Livre não é mais um "tipo" de design. Design Livre é uma atitude, uma forma de conceber o design e buscar um olhar abrangente e inclusivo, reconhecendo o design feito pelas pessoas. Quebrando códigos, abrindo caixas-pretas e unindo tecnologia e canibalismo, este é um livro fundamental para entender como o design está intimamente ligado as discussões sobre ética, política e cultura. Design Livre é uma obra coletiva dos colaboradores do Instituto Faber-Ludens, uma entidade sem fins lucrativos que promove a integração entre design e tecnologia.

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Jesper Haffgaard sent in this Danish translation of the Soldering is Easy comic book. Thanks, Jesper!

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A design process for HTS DC cables was developed for high current applications. Based on the design process, a 35 kA HTS DC cable demonstrator was developed. The superconducting elements of the demonstrator were manufactured and tested individually at 77 K. Afterwards, the demonstrator cable was assembled and tested at 77 K. The assembled demonstrator successfully reached 35 kA at 77 K and self field conditions.

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Nicht erst seit der Wahl in Berlin 2011 ist die Piratenpartei in aller Munde. Doch trotz des großen Medienechos ist bisher relativ wenig über das Innenleben der Partei bekannt. Daher wurden im Frühjahr 2011 alle damals rund 12.000 Parteimitglieder eingeladen, an einer umfangreichen Befragung teilzunehmen.

Rund ein Viertel der Piraten folgte dem Ruf und gab Antworten auf Fragen zu ihrem Engagement, ihrem Demokratieverständnis, zur programmatischen Entwicklung, zur innerparteilichen Demokratie, Kommunikation und Partizipation. In dieser Studie zum Selbstverständnis der Partei werden die Ergebnisse anschaulich dargestellt und zusammengefasst. Abgerundet wird das Bild durch eine ausführliche Beschreibung zur Entwicklung der deutschen Piratenpartei und ihres internationalen Umfelds.

Sie können das Buch bei Contumax-Verlag kaufen.

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Unter dem Motto "Klarmachen zum Ändern" ist eine neue Bewegung angetreten, die aus dem Stand mit 2% bei den Bundestagswahlen einen bemerkenswerten Achtungserfolg erzielt hat. Das entspricht rund 850.000 Wählerstimmen! Was sind das für Leute, die die Familienministerin "Zensursula" nennen und das Urheberrecht revolutionieren wollen? Wo kommen die PIRATEN her und wo wollen sie hin? Wie ernst muss man eine Bewegung mit einem solch komischen Namen nehmen und was sind ihre konkreten Forderungen? Der Autor hat die Polit-Aufsteiger in ihrer Heimstatt, dem Internet, besucht und ist diesen Fragen nachgegangen.

Sie können das Buch bei Contumax-Verlag kaufen.

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Discover Physics is a conceptual physics textbook intended for students in a nonmathematical one-semester general-education course. The new version of Discover Physics is Conceptual Physics. The author is no longer actively maintaining Discover Physics, and recommends that new adopters use Conceptual Physics instead.

LaTeX source code is available.

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Discrete Mathematics: An Open Introduction is a free, open source textbook appropriate for a first or second year undergraduate course for math majors, especially those who will go on to teach. Since Spring 2013, the book has been used as the primary textbook or a supplemental resource at more than 75 colleges and universities around the world. The text is endorsed by the American Institute of Mathematics' Open Textbook Initiative.

The entire book is available for free as an interactive online ebook. This should work well on all screen sizes, including smart phones. Hints and solutions to examples and exercises are hidden but easily revealed by clicking on their links. Some exercises also allow you to enter and check your work, so you can try multiple times without spoiling the answer.

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Mark Pilgrim's Dive Into Python 3 is a hands-on guide to Python 3 and its differences from Python 2. Compared to Dive Into Python, it’s about 20% revised and 80% new material. As in the original book, Dive Into Python, each chapter starts with a real, complete code sample, proceeds to pick it apart and explain the pieces, and then puts it all back together in a summary at the end.

This book includes:

• Example programs completely rewritten to illustrate powerful new concepts now available in Python 3: sets, iterators, generators, closures, comprehensions, and much more .
• A detailed case study of porting a major library from Python 2 to Python 3
• A comprehensive appendix of all the syntactic and semantic changes in Python 3

This is the perfect resource for you if you need to port applications to Python 3, or if you like to jump into languages fast and get going right away. What you'll learn

• To understand Python 3 code by seeing it broken down and explained
• How to make full use of the latest Python features such as iterators, generators, closures, classes and comprehensions
• How to refactor existing code to improve maintainability
• How to serialize Python objects with the pickle protocol and JSON format
• How to package your own Python libraries and upload them to the Python Package Index to share your projects with Python developers worldwide
• How to use Python 3 to consume HTTP web services
• How to port existing Python applications to Python 3 by following a case study for a major library

Who this book is for

• Anyone who wants to learn the latest version of Python in a fast, hands-on fashion
• Existing Python programmers who want to learn quickly how to make the most of the features of the latest version of Python and port their code to it
• Programmers coming from other languages wanting a fast introduction to Python that gets them thinking about advanced concepts quickly 

Table of Contents

• Your First Python Program
• Native Datatypes
• Comprehensions
• Strings
• Regular Expressions
• Closures and Generators
• Classes and Iterators
• Advanced Iterators
• Unit Testing
• Refactoring Files
• XML Serializing Python Objects
• HTTP Web Services
• Case Study: Porting chardet to Python 3
• Packaging Python Libraries

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Mark Pilgrim's Dive Into Python 3 is a hands-on guide to Python 3 and its differences from Python 2. Compared to Dive Into Python, it’s about 20% revised and 80% new material. As in the original book, Dive Into Python, each chapter starts with a real, complete code sample, proceeds to pick it apart and explain the pieces, and then puts it all back together in a summary at the end.

This book includes:

• Example programs completely rewritten to illustrate powerful new concepts now available in Python 3: sets, iterators, generators, closures, comprehensions, and much more .
• A detailed case study of porting a major library from Python 2 to Python 3
• A comprehensive appendix of all the syntactic and semantic changes in Python 3

This is the perfect resource for you if you need to port applications to Python 3, or if you like to jump into languages fast and get going right away. What you'll learn

• To understand Python 3 code by seeing it broken down and explained
• How to make full use of the latest Python features such as iterators, generators, closures, classes and comprehensions
• How to refactor existing code to improve maintainability
• How to serialize Python objects with the pickle protocol and JSON format
• How to package your own Python libraries and upload them to the Python Package Index to share your projects with Python developers worldwide
• How to use Python 3 to consume HTTP web services
• How to port existing Python applications to Python 3 by following a case study for a major library

Who this book is for

• Anyone who wants to learn the latest version of Python in a fast, hands-on fashion
• Existing Python programmers who want to learn quickly how to make the most of the features of the latest version of Python and port their code to it
• Programmers coming from other languages wanting a fast introduction to Python that gets them thinking about advanced concepts quickly 

Table of Contents

• Your First Python Program
• Native Datatypes
• Comprehensions
• Strings
• Regular Expressions
• Closures and Generators
• Classes and Iterators
• Advanced Iterators
• Unit Testing
• Refactoring Files
• XML Serializing Python Objects
• HTTP Web Services
• Case Study: Porting chardet to Python 3
• Packaging Python Libraries

Listed by Unglue.it.

Mark Pilgrim's Dive Into Python 3 is a hands-on guide to Python 3 and its differences from Python 2. Compared to Dive Into Python, it’s about 20% revised and 80% new material. As in the original book, Dive Into Python, each chapter starts with a real, complete code sample, proceeds to pick it apart and explain the pieces, and then puts it all back together in a summary at the end.

This book includes:

• Example programs completely rewritten to illustrate powerful new concepts now available in Python 3: sets, iterators, generators, closures, comprehensions, and much more .
• A detailed case study of porting a major library from Python 2 to Python 3
• A comprehensive appendix of all the syntactic and semantic changes in Python 3

This is the perfect resource for you if you need to port applications to Python 3, or if you like to jump into languages fast and get going right away. What you'll learn

• To understand Python 3 code by seeing it broken down and explained
• How to make full use of the latest Python features such as iterators, generators, closures, classes and comprehensions
• How to refactor existing code to improve maintainability
• How to serialize Python objects with the pickle protocol and JSON format
• How to package your own Python libraries and upload them to the Python Package Index to share your projects with Python developers worldwide
• How to use Python 3 to consume HTTP web services
• How to port existing Python applications to Python 3 by following a case study for a major library

Who this book is for

• Anyone who wants to learn the latest version of Python in a fast, hands-on fashion
• Existing Python programmers who want to learn quickly how to make the most of the features of the latest version of Python and port their code to it
• Programmers coming from other languages wanting a fast introduction to Python that gets them thinking about advanced concepts quickly 

Table of Contents

• Your First Python Program
• Native Datatypes
• Comprehensions
• Strings
• Regular Expressions
• Closures and Generators
• Classes and Iterators
• Advanced Iterators
• Unit Testing
• Refactoring Files
• XML Serializing Python Objects
• HTTP Web Services
• Case Study: Porting chardet to Python 3
• Packaging Python Libraries

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Have you ever felt that the world is more and more about technology to which you cannot (yet) relate? Have you ever wondered how to create a website but have never had enough motivation to start? Have you ever thought that the software world is too complicated for you to even try doing something on your own?

Well, we have good news for you! Programming is not as hard as it seems and we want to show you how fun it can be.

This tutorial will not magically turn you into a programmer. If you want to be good at it, you need months or even years of learning and practice. But we want to show you that programming or creating websites is not as complicated as it seems. We will try to explain different bits and pieces as well as we can, so you will not feel intimidated by technology.

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Have you ever felt that the world is more and more about technology to which you cannot (yet) relate? Have you ever wondered how to create a website but have never had enough motivation to start? Have you ever thought that the software world is too complicated for you to even try doing something on your own?

Well, we have good news for you! Programming is not as hard as it seems and we want to show you how fun it can be.

This tutorial will not magically turn you into a programmer. If you want to be good at it, you need months or even years of learning and practice. But we want to show you that programming or creating websites is not as complicated as it seems. We will try to explain different bits and pieces as well as we can, so you will not feel intimidated by technology.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Have you ever felt that the world is more and more about technology to which you cannot (yet) relate? Have you ever wondered how to create a website but have never had enough motivation to start? Have you ever thought that the software world is too complicated for you to even try doing something on your own?

Well, we have good news for you! Programming is not as hard as it seems and we want to show you how fun it can be.

This tutorial will not magically turn you into a programmer. If you want to be good at it, you need months or even years of learning and practice. But we want to show you that programming or creating websites is not as complicated as it seems. We will try to explain different bits and pieces as well as we can, so you will not feel intimidated by technology.

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你有没有觉得世界越来越多的是关于技术，而你已经在某种程度上被甩在了后面？ 你有没有想去做一个网站，但是却从未有过足够的动力去开始吗? 你有没有想过软件世界太过复杂，即使你想做一些属于自己的东西？

好的，我们跟你讲一个好消息！编程没有看上去那么复杂，我们将给你展示它是多么的有趣。

本教程不会神奇地将你转变为程序员。 如果你想变得擅长于此，你需要数月乃至数年的时间去学习和练习。 但是我们想展示给你编程和创建网站没有看起来那么复杂。 我们试着用深入浅出的方法解释，所以你不会觉得被技术吓到。

我们希望我们可以让你变得更爱技术，像我们一样！

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你有没有觉得世界越来越多的是关于技术，而你已经在某种程度上被甩在了后面？ 你有没有想去做一个网站，但是却从未有过足够的动力去开始吗? 你有没有想过软件世界太过复杂，即使你想做一些属于自己的东西？

好的，我们跟你讲一个好消息！编程没有看上去那么复杂，我们将给你展示它是多么的有趣。

本教程不会神奇地将你转变为程序员。 如果你想变得擅长于此，你需要数月乃至数年的时间去学习和练习。 但是我们想展示给你编程和创建网站没有看起来那么复杂。 我们试着用深入浅出的方法解释，所以你不会觉得被技术吓到。

我们希望我们可以让你变得更爱技术，像我们一样！

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你有没有觉得世界越来越多的是关于技术，而你已经在某种程度上被甩在了后面？ 你有没有想去做一个网站，但是却从未有过足够的动力去开始吗? 你有没有想过软件世界太过复杂，即使你想做一些属于自己的东西？

好的，我们跟你讲一个好消息！编程没有看上去那么复杂，我们将给你展示它是多么的有趣。

本教程不会神奇地将你转变为程序员。 如果你想变得擅长于此，你需要数月乃至数年的时间去学习和练习。 但是我们想展示给你编程和创建网站没有看起来那么复杂。 我们试着用深入浅出的方法解释，所以你不会觉得被技术吓到。

我们希望我们可以让你变得更爱技术，像我们一样！

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When Martin’s family moved house his Dad told him things would be better: he’d have more space to make his models, his sister would have her own bookshelves so she wouldn’t use his ones and Dad would be doing all his beer brewing in the garden. Nobody said anything about a troll under the lawn! At first they think the troll is cute and funny but things never stay that way. Soon it takes over their whole lives and they realise they should have heeded the warning they found with it: DO NOT FEED THE TROLL!

Activities and print edition available at Crimperbooks.

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When Martin’s family moved house his Dad told him things would be better: he’d have more space to make his models, his sister would have her own bookshelves so she wouldn’t use his ones and Dad would be doing all his beer brewing in the garden. Nobody said anything about a troll under the lawn! At first they think the troll is cute and funny but things never stay that way. Soon it takes over their whole lives and they realise they should have heeded the warning they found with it: DO NOT FEED THE TROLL!

Activities and print edition available at Crimperbooks.

Listed by Unglue.it.

When Martin’s family moved house his Dad told him things would be better: he’d have more space to make his models, his sister would have her own bookshelves so she wouldn’t use his ones and Dad would be doing all his beer brewing in the garden. Nobody said anything about a troll under the lawn! At first they think the troll is cute and funny but things never stay that way. Soon it takes over their whole lives and they realise they should have heeded the warning they found with it: DO NOT FEED THE TROLL!

Activities and print edition available at Crimperbooks.

Listed by Unglue.it.

V. ist ein Mann, der alles hat und alles richtig machen will. Er trägt Verantwortung und ist sich dessen bewusst. Die tragende Rolle, die er bei der Ausgestaltung unserer neuen, vernetzten Gesellschaft spielt, stellt ihn auf die Probe.

Eine Novelle über die Bundesrepublik Deutschland am Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts.

Sie können das Buch bei Contumax-Verlag kaufen.

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