Slashdot Mirror

One of the most interesting gifts I ever received was this paper clock workbook many years ago from my aunt and uncle. As I got older, they bought me various science books, keeping usually at least 5 years "ahead" in the "educational level". Eventually, the math parts of the astrophysics books got beyond me, but the non-math stuff stuck. I credit them with my intense curiosity.

could be a real financial apocalypse if people don't wise up.

China will own our asses. I'm brushing up on my Mandarin. Hey, there's a gift idea for ya.

I'm told I'm too wordy and unnecessarily use complex words.

Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...

In that case you're probably better off reading this book...

I recommend you to study this even more closely, but here are some of the completely unbelievable things in this smear attempt against Assange:

"Their yellowpages site says they have been in business 5 years. http://www.yellowpages.com/hou...
Ok so how many times has this link been shared on reddit? I googled the URL specific to this site, and it's only come up three times. All within the last 24 hours."

"This shady dating site claims to be the "ONLY Dating Site to ever partner with the UN Initiative" (Now that's fucking odd...) AND THEY JUST GOT KICKED OUT OF THE UN FIVE DAYS AGO?!?!"

"Todd Hammonds LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/to... (It's fucking nothing) But it does say he lives in SF. I'm in the Bay Area also, I could pay a visit to offices if we can actually find any legitimate offices...
Their Dating Site Eventbrite page. Only one event for the fastest growing dating website that has married 3,000 people since 2011???
Here is the LinkedIn of "Kate Hogan," this is the person who wrote the "Press Release" about ToddAndClare accusing Assange of sexual misconduct. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ka...
Of course she's got only 1 connection, and no other real information anywhere. Also, the phone number listed in the press release rings twice and then immediately disconnects. But it doesn't give a recording, it just says "call failed" I've never really experienced that. Anyway you'd think that someone who just put out a press release regarding the UN and Assange would have a working phone!
http://www.prweb.com/releases/...
Here's their bullshit subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/todda... (No posts in three months)
Here's their weird "book" that they wrote about starting their company 5 years ago. Notice how every review is exactly 189 days old and all are very short and positive. This is shilling no doubt about it. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/..."

"How can their site, registered 20 sep 2015, claim 3000 marriages by November 2 2015? http://m.imgur.com/6BqmZPY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=..."

"Thanks to /u/ChrissFinn for linking the email from Wikileaks that ToddAndClare originally sent to Assange to get all this started. They offer him $1 million dollars to do some sort of commercial. This is obviously a scam because they don't have a million dollars, they don't even have a legitimate mailing address or working fucking phone numbers! This was a set up from the very beginning!"

" all users images are cropped and mirrored and can be reverse google image searched to other locations. Plus none of the employees seem to exist. Email between Jullian and T&C.com https://wikileaks.org/IMG/pdf/... -Honeypot to get him to accept russian funds and discredit his leaks, failed, so they accused him of pedophilia instead. When searched for. The ToddandClare business location is actually identical to this company "Premise Data Corporation" https://local.yahoo.com/info-1... Here you can view its team page http://www.premise.com/ourteam... Who's board of directors has guess who "Larry Summers" Who goes by "Lawrence Summers" in "The Center for American Progress" Superpac

The First Church of Polydeism in Toledo has many FSM adherents in attendance, I'm sure. https://www.facebook.com/First... Is church attendance now to be mandatory? The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster http://www.barnesandnoble.com/... is published and has 2938 reviews on GoodReads. How you define "serious" is certainly not going to pass Constitutional muster. Virtually everyone that is "positively disposed" to the FSM, whether an official adherent or not, certainly believes that the tenets of the faith would be HUGELY better than ANY of the alternatives. If you want to see a large gathering of the faithful, might I propose the Reason Rally, June 2-5 in Washington D.C.? http://reasonrally.org/

As the resident expert on all things cis and trans, I'm way ahead of you, AC!

May I recommend Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion?

As the resident expert on all things cis and trans, I'm way ahead of you, AC!

May I recommend Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion?

Nook does still have an E-ink reader, and, IMO, it's the best bang for your buck unless you're already heavily invested in Amazon's proprietary library.

http://nook.barnesandnoble.com...

The specs are very similar to the latest Kindle, except the Nook supports the EPUB open format, while Kindle has their proprietary format of MOBI.

this is an old tactic.

a long time ago, i picked up a random book in the library about the Aktion T4 program and read it while i should have been writing my thesis. it was interesting enough, until the last two chapters which ranted about how, obviously, pro-choicers were pushing America down the same path. it was annoying, but a nice reminder; i had to fact-check everything i read. i did, and the facts about T4 checked out, which suggests that they just took some legitimate research and bolted their drivel to it.

Vehicles

Fun book that demonstrates how a handful of sensors mapped to single functions can express some very complex behaviors and appear to be quite alive.

There you have it, folks: proof that cold fjord is so goddamn stupid he can't tell the difference between getting medical treatment and talking to investigators!

Remember this statement of yours?

No. Nobody fucking did! Why? Because there weren't any! If there were, he would have gone to the fucking ambulance and had them treat him instead of standing around.

You claimed that there were no injuries suffered by Wilson in the attack. You're wrong about that. Are you also trying to make the ridiculous claim that the investigators wouldn't have checked Wilson's treatment records? You're not going to get an award for insight here.

Video that had no bearing whatsoever on the officer's actions, since he hadn't seen it or heard of it.

You're trying to change the subject. The issue was, "who is a thug"? Brown was shown to be a thug in the video. It's actually a pity that Wilson didn't see the video. If he had known that he was confronting two thugs that had just committed a strong arm robbery he would have been on his guard and not treated them as ordinary jay walkers. Brown certainly knew what he had just done and that is probably what led to him attacking Wilson. He probably thought Wilson was arresting him for the robbery.

You're the most famous Fascist on Slashdot, you stupid, deluded fool!

No, only the ignorant claim I'm a fascist. In truth fascism has nothing to do with my philosophy. It is almost certainly much closer to yours. Please educate yourself. (You can do some cribbing here.)

Now fuck off and die, for the good of humanity

For the good of humanity I'll continue to post and contribute here as long as I care to so that poor deluded souls such as yourself have at least an occasional glimpse of the truth and sanity.

After reading 2600 off and on for at least 20 years, it's getting hard to find. Their publisher went insane, B&N doesn't seem to want to carry it. Frustrating.

The printed version is hard to find, but the electronic version (DRM-Free!) is easily available in the B&N Nook Store.

Autumn 2014.
Summer 2014
Volume 30 (2013-2014).

Yes, it's DRM-free .epub,

Amazon has it as well, though since I don't use Kindles, I don't know if it's DRM-free.

After reading 2600 off and on for at least 20 years, it's getting hard to find. Their publisher went insane, B&N doesn't seem to want to carry it. Frustrating.

The printed version is hard to find, but the electronic version (DRM-Free!) is easily available in the B&N Nook Store.

Autumn 2014.
Summer 2014
Volume 30 (2013-2014).

Yes, it's DRM-free .epub,

Amazon has it as well, though since I don't use Kindles, I don't know if it's DRM-free.

After reading 2600 off and on for at least 20 years, it's getting hard to find. Their publisher went insane, B&N doesn't seem to want to carry it. Frustrating.

The printed version is hard to find, but the electronic version (DRM-Free!) is easily available in the B&N Nook Store.

Autumn 2014.
Summer 2014
Volume 30 (2013-2014).

Yes, it's DRM-free .epub,

Amazon has it as well, though since I don't use Kindles, I don't know if it's DRM-free.

Have you *read* Null Pointer by Johnny Batch? You should, because it's all about an online murder that only a programmer can solve. http://www.amazon.com/Null-Poi... http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...

Some "software" (Like Nook for example) requires this method. Barnes and Noble no longer makes a proper desktop version

Google barnes noble nook windows 7 led me to this app that works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. What do you mean by "proper"?

eBooks are a bonanza for publishers and authors right now. They're pretty good for the minor players in the eBookstore market (ie: BN.com, the iBookstore, etc.), but terrible for Amazon. Why? Amazon discounts, and the discount comes entirely from Amazon's margin.

The publisher's recommended price for an eBook is called the list price. The way a company like Amazon get eBooks is that it decides how many copies it's likely to sell, and then send the publisher 70% of list price times the number of copies. An eBook I was recently interested in purchasing, for example, is Firethorn by Sarah Micklem. List price is $16.99, which is the price both Apple and BN charge. This means that Amazon is paying $11.89 per copy. If they give a 20% discount off list price they would only charge $13.79, which would mean all their overhead (including Jeff Bezos salary) would have to be covered by $1.90. And 20% discounts are quite common. My current read ("Like a Mighty Army," by David Weber) is listed at $14.99, but Amazon sells it for $12.99. But Firethorn is a bit different.

Their price? $6.83. They lose $5.06 whenever anybody buys that book. It's a 60% discount, and 30 of those percentage points are a loss to Amazon. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they're getting a special deal of some sort with this book, but OTOH I also wouldn't be surprised if they're just eating the five bucks.

If Amazon can convince Hachette to reduce their portion of the sale to 60% then Amazon can increase it's standard discount to 25% and still increase eBook revenue by roughly a third (it goes from 10% of list price to 15%). Then they could seriously consider doing things Wall Street loves like paying dividends.

Speaking of jellyfish, they're becoming a worldwide menace. ( See Stung! http://www.barnesandnoble.com/... ) Unfortunately they seem not to taste very good. Maybe another commercial use could be found? Party balloons?

I'm not opposed to nuclear because in theory it's a perfect energy source. In practice, however, it's built and maintained by humans, so it's not safe. Even a perfect nuclear plant wouldn't be earthquake proof, etc.

This is a fine example of a sentiment that seems wise and reasonable but is actually completely divorced from reality. By any practical standard, nuclear power has a very good track record-- it also has a few of dramatically well-publicized failures that people fixate on, even though it's average is really pretty good.

The "human factor" that you and a few others are going on about is very interesting. Maybe we should learn how to deal with human factors one of these days, since we're human and all.

This is an interesting case study for you: Onagawa: the japanese nuclear power plant that didn't melt down.

And as for GMOs... well you folks might actually want to read Brand's book: Whole Earth Discipline

Here's an insider's view of flying fighter aircraft and working for NASA.

http://static.freelibr.net/fic...

Nook ebook:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...

But some firms doing high speed trading are defending their actions as "good" for the market because it adds "liquidity", which it really doesn't.

This is in the news last week because of publication of Flash Boys.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...

The author basically disputed that the HFT was adding liquidity.

Never heard of it. And a science program for the US public is likely to be all flashy pictures and no depth.

The series was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service in 1980, and was the most widely watched series in the history of American public television until The Civil War (1990). As of 2009, it was still the most widely watched PBS series in the world. It won an Emmy and a Peabody Award, and has since been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people.

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage

Closed Caption; Collector's edition DVD boxed set of the complete landmark TV series by Carl Sagan; 7 NTSC DVDs - 13 one hour episodes; Fully international edition - DVD region zero, playable everywhere (requires NTSC compatible player and TV); Remastered, restored and enhanced; Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan updates; 7 subtitles languages: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, English for the hearing impaired); Subtitle science updates; New footage; English soundtrack in AC3 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound; Bonus 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound music and effects track

Cosmos $88

The Iron Curtain kept people from escaping from oppressive regimes

oh you mean like the united states government

I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but this just pissed me off way too badly. Whom has the US kept from escaping its regime? The US has had thousands of willing expatriates over the years to Communist countries.

Do you seriously want to draw an equivalency between the NATO (US and European allies) policy on expatriation versus that of the Warsaw Pact countries? Are you utterly ignorant of the Refuseniks? Do you really dishonor the memory of the Berlin Wall dead so badly in the name of your political hatred of the US?

I grow increasingly ashamed of continuing to read Slashdot, based on the sadly decreasing quality of commenters.

On Killing and On Combat are probably what it's based on

People who aren't sociopaths, that's who!

I recommend that everyone read How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty. He was the richest person in the world in his day, and yet he had some enlightened things to say. For instance, he advocated cooperating with labor unions (when have you ever heard a billionaire do that?). From this book, I received the best management advice ever - praise in public, punish in private. He also thought that spectator sports were a waste of time. But what Getty was most passionate about was art. He amassed an amazing collection, and then made it available to the public for free. If you're ever in Los Angeles, if at all possible, set aside a day or two to visit The Getty - it will make you smarter. And I encourage you to visit museums whenever and wherever you travel - you'll see some amazing things.

[Nook Color/Tablet charging cables] ... (blankety-blank-censored-blank) is no longer available. And since the cables are no longer made or sold and since they were notoriously prone to fail means that I've been trickle-charging my unit for about a year now.

Better hurry over onto B&N's site and stock up on them, maybe.

Re trickle-charging, my experience is that the Nook Tablet wouldn't show any indication that it was charging at all if a standard uUSB cable was connected. I never left mine connected that way for any extended period to see if the battery charge actually went up. I might borrow it back from my wife and try it (if I can pry it away from her that long).

David Brin's 1998 book "The Transparent Society" (ISBN 9780738201443) is cogent and still timely -- http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/transparent-society-david-brin/1100622841 and see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society -- consider mentioning it as supplementary reading at least.

I've had a few editions of this book. The author has kept it up to date, and it's been very helpful in helping you pick out a toolkit as well as showing you some simple projects. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/robot-builders-cookbook-owen-bishop/1113937705?cm_mmc=googlepla-_-textbook_instock_26to75_pt99-_-q000000633-_-9780750665568&cm_mmca2=pla&ean=9780750665568&isbn=9780750665568&r=1

Hubris and "what could possibly go wrong".

This is part of what bothers me about GM crops. Maybe they really are safe for consumption. The companies that make them tell me they are. But When they demonstrate that they can't keep their test crops contained, I start to worry about unintended consequences.

Ever read the book, "Mutant 59: The Plastic-Eaters" by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis?

It's about a type of genetically engineered bacteria that feeds on (and destroys) plastic, reducing it to (organic) dust within two hours of exposure to the air. Initially used for specially constructed plastic soda bottles... (see where this is going?) For some reason, some of the dust remains active and mutates to be able to reduce most/all plastics to this new mutated strain and, since it's now air-borne, easily spreads *everywhere* ... including electrical insulation on airplanes...

This book is all you need.

The nooks have a Bluetooth chip, but no antenna. That's why you can't recognize the headphones.

This was the case with the Nook Color. It had a bluetooth chip that wasn't activated by the stock software and didn't have an antenna. Cyanogenmod eventually got BT working, but the range was terrible. This wasn't a problem if you were just connecting a keyboard that would sit six inches from the device, but you couldn't wander around the room with headphones on.

The Nook Tablet didn't have bluetooth at all.

The HD and HD+ both have bluetooth enabled by default, but it can be pretty wonky.

Why are you pretending that you have expertise in an area you provably do not- climatology-

You need to review Dyson's bio a little more closely. He was one of the first physicists to work on global warming at all, and I would venture to say that a lot of the experimental work that's been taken place in the last 20 years has happened because of his prompting.

and making dramatic pronouncements which are directly counter to what people who DO have the requisite educational and research specialization are making?

If you'd like to know why he said what he said, you might start by reading his argument: The Question of Global Warming.

It's great that you have cultivated an impish, child-like , authority-resistant public persona, but science is not really interested in any of that.

Actually, Dyson disagrees with you on this point, he's argued that there's a need for scientific heretics. Ane previously, he's had a book published on this subject: The Scientist as Rebel

Interestingly enough, this book did not provoke any great controversy. We all like the idea of intellectual rebels and heretics in principle, but when they go up against one of our own beliefs, then they're just incredibly arrogant for going against the authorities.

(By the way... speaking of arrogance, it takes some balls to lecture Freeman Dyson about science... but whatever.)

If you want to attack Dyson's policy recommendation on global warming, by the way, I suggest going after him on the economics. I guarantee you that he knows more about climate science than you or I do, but on a subject like the costs of imposing heavy carbon taxes he's got to defer to economists, and they've got they're own problems with objectivity.

My mobile devices have actually contributed to my creativity. I'm a writer, and I've come to depend on my mobile devices quite a lot to, well, write. From my first palm Zire to my current Motorola Flipout, I've depended on my mobile devices to write and edit my various stories. The internet connected devices have also been tremendously handy to do quick research on the various subjects relevant to my writing. In each of the boredom cases listed in the article, I'm much more likely to be continuing whatever current story I'm working on or doing research directly related to it. Before my mobile devices, I had to use a notebook if I wanted to get some writing done away from the computer. Obviously, that was quite a lot less convenient than a handy gizmo that fits comfortably in my pocket and is easier to read than the nigh-indecipherable scribble of my handwriting. So you'll see me standing in line between the guy texting his girlfriend and the girl giggling at the latest grumpy cat picture while I'm actually doing something worthwhile, and creative.

If you're curious, my first completed, published novel, which was written entirely on mobile devices, is available here:
Amazon Trade Paperback (Createspace pays me better, but it's still Amazon),
Lulu epub, Kindle, Nook, and iBooks.
It's also free in its entirety on wattpad. I've actually gotten sales from people who started reading it here.

If you are writing mobile software, you need to grasp the shortcomings of the platforms. Reading Hacking & securing iOS Applications was eye opening - and how many devs read it?

Security concerns within Android are even worse. How many know to layer on security beyond what is offered out of the box? Many developers are standardizing on SQLCipher, but what happens when that is the "standard" and becomes a larger target?

Before reading Hacking & securing iOS Applications, the vulnerabilities were all sort of known to me, but the book sort of scared me into digging deeper and further securing my products.

huh, wtf you're smoking? any app you give away to be run in users computers is suspect to the user modifying it. ain't no platform security that works out there. so that book is one big pile of snake oil(of course securing the communications between you and the user to some degree is important.. but you shouldn't blindly trust that information that the client is sending). it's kind of useless to encrypt the "registered or not" db you're using when the key is there in the program. of course platforms have varying degrees of difficulty for people to hack(j2me and non-ndk android being on the easier side, of course).

but the basic idea that you could just trust the client to keep iap information etc secure is just.. stupid. same goes for pc drm of course and this is why diablo and the new sim city are moving game logic into the servers so what the user has becomes just dumbed down client, so hacking it doesn't give access to the sweets.

If you are writing mobile software, you need to grasp the shortcomings of the platforms. Reading Hacking & securing iOS Applications was eye opening - and how many devs read it?

Security concerns within Android are even worse. How many know to layer on security beyond what is offered out of the box? Many developers are standardizing on SQLCipher, but what happens when that is the "standard" and becomes a larger target?

Before reading Hacking & securing iOS Applications, the vulnerabilities were all sort of known to me, but the book sort of scared me into digging deeper and further securing my products.

Less money, higher screen resolution, Micro-SD memory slot, no adware.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-hd-plus-barnes-noble/1110060512

Workarounds for side-loading apps:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-hd-plus-barnes-noble/1110060512

Root:
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/permanent-root-for-the-nook-hd-and-hd-unofficial-cm10-for-the-hd/

Less money, higher screen resolution, Micro-SD memory slot, no adware.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-hd-plus-barnes-noble/1110060512

Workarounds for side-loading apps:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-hd-plus-barnes-noble/1110060512

Root:
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/permanent-root-for-the-nook-hd-and-hd-unofficial-cm10-for-the-hd/

The book is still on Barnes & Noble, who also uses standard epub format instead of a proprietary format, and a lot of their books don't use DRM...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spots-the-space-marine-mca-hogarth/1112308671?ean=9781470131050

The point being: support businesses doing it right...

You could buy my book. No one has complained it's not "professional-quality." I specifically requested no DRM from Amazon. It can be done. It's easy. Amazon doesn't require it, it's up to the publisher, and since the publisher is me, and I think DRM is stupid, I made it DRM-free. Just because I'm not a big name yet doesn't mean I can't produce a worthwhile piece of entertainment that stands equal to the best of what's available. If I were a big name, writing for a big publisher, I would demand DRM-free, since it doesn't matter how big you are, DRM is always stupid. Of course it's also available in paper form, for those who prefer it that way.

Links:
Amazon Kindle version of Cerberon
Printed version from Amazon
And if you prefer it from someone other than Amazon:
Lulu totally device agnostic DRM-free epub from Lulu. Wil Wheaton told me to use them.
B&N Nook version (also DRM-free, as far as I'm aware).
Apple iTunes iBook version, despite the fact that iDespise iTunes.
Createspace printed version, which is also Amazon, but gives me a better commission if people buy it here.
Straight from me, half the book as a free preview. DRM-free epub, of course.

Apologies for the advertisement, but you asked.

For a more in depth look into the imaginary future of mutant cyborg warfare might I suggest the Germline series by T. C. McCarthy.

eReaders aren't designed for PDFs. In theory, the DX was, but it hasn't been updated in years. I do think that 6" is a bit small for a paperback--an "A" format paperback (mass-market) is about 8" diagonal. I think a good compromise would be a 7" screen, as this would still give room for a bezel around it without it being too much bigger than a paperback. The benefit of this is more words on the screen at a time, meaning less page turns and (probably) longer battery life. The disadvantage would be higher cost and increased size/weight. I find it interesting that Kobo has the Mini. That seems way too small, but maybe there's a market for it.

Speaking of the Kobo...for all that I love my Kindle, Amazon has serious problems in the ergonomics/aesthetics department. I get that it's a cheap device that probably has razor-thin margins (or break-even), but when you compare it with the Kobo or the Nook, it just doesn't look very good, and the other devices are more comfortable to hold (particularly the Kobo). This is true both for eReaders and tablets (the new Kindle Fire HD7 is possibly the ugliest tablet out there, even if it's a nice device). I also think Amazon's insistence on removing physical buttons is misguided.

I tried switching to the Nook. I liked it a lot at first, but it left a lot to be desired in the area of syncing. It would often take the device a long time to sync reading positions, and sometimes it would not even sync at all. This, combined with a lack of syncing of non-B&N stuff, led me to come back to the Kindle. I would have tried a Kobo, but their eBook market seemed lacking at the time.

...this, and you'll never be without a calculator again. However, I can't guarantee that it won't go out-of-date...

I'm going to have to look up the original paper published by Krioukov, but what was mentioned in the article itself is not news. I imagine this is a consequence of Krioukov trying to explain his findings in laymen's terms.

What the article actually says is a pretty basic exposition of the findings of network science and complex systems theory over the past few years. For those interested in but unfamiliar with these matters, I recommend a volume written a couple of years ago by the physicist Albert-László Barabási called Linked: The New Science of Networks . It is written for a wide audience and is a very readable introduction to the subject. Barabási's based argument is that these common network patterns we see in so many environments is a consequence both growth and preferential attachment in systems. Of course, growth and preferential attachment are going to be present in biological and social systems, as well as things like computer networks, and this is at the heart of why we see similar patterns forming (esp. scale-free topologies).

As a historian, I find the findings of network science as its been applied to social systems particularly useful. It helps to explain societal changes in ways that older theories of history, whether deriving from Marxian, Annaliste, Weberian, or other schools of thought, would have difficulty. Further, the study of networks and complex systems is inherently interdisciplinary--and this in a refreshingly honest way rather than the mere "interdisciplinarity" rhetoric that's been present in the academy over the years. For those interested in the application of network science to the social sciences, there is a very nice collection of seminal articles for the field edited by Gernot Grabher and Walter Powell.

Actually Mr. Ballmer, the tablet I want is the Nook HD+.

In 3 days, it will be the cheapest and lightest 9" on the market.
It runs Android, so my other devices play nicely with it. (And I can put the Kindle app on it)
It is a Nook, so I can take it into Barnes and Noble brick and mortar stores and read any eBook I want for free while I'm in the store.

Surface? Do. Not. Want.

Fearless Symmetry
by Ash and Gross
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fearless-Symmetry/Avner-Ash/e/9780691138718

The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
by Roger Penrose
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-road-to-reality-roger-penrose/1007259632?ean=9780679776314&itm=6&usri=the+road+to+reality
also by Penrose "the Emperor's New Mind"

FICTION:
TWISTOR
  by John Cramer ( a working physicist)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twistor-john-cramer/1000099565?ean=9780380710270
Einstein's Bridge
  by John Cramer
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/einsteins-bridge-john-cramer/1002889776?ean=9780380788316

  Odd note, the CAPTCHA for this post was 'quantity'

Fearless Symmetry
by Ash and Gross
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fearless-Symmetry/Avner-Ash/e/9780691138718

The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
by Roger Penrose
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-road-to-reality-roger-penrose/1007259632?ean=9780679776314&itm=6&usri=the+road+to+reality
also by Penrose "the Emperor's New Mind"

FICTION:
TWISTOR
  by John Cramer ( a working physicist)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twistor-john-cramer/1000099565?ean=9780380710270
Einstein's Bridge
  by John Cramer
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/einsteins-bridge-john-cramer/1002889776?ean=9780380788316

  Odd note, the CAPTCHA for this post was 'quantity'

Fearless Symmetry
by Ash and Gross
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fearless-Symmetry/Avner-Ash/e/9780691138718

The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
by Roger Penrose
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-road-to-reality-roger-penrose/1007259632?ean=9780679776314&itm=6&usri=the+road+to+reality
also by Penrose "the Emperor's New Mind"

FICTION:
TWISTOR
  by John Cramer ( a working physicist)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twistor-john-cramer/1000099565?ean=9780380710270
Einstein's Bridge
  by John Cramer
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/einsteins-bridge-john-cramer/1002889776?ean=9780380788316

  Odd note, the CAPTCHA for this post was 'quantity'

Fearless Symmetry
by Ash and Gross
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fearless-Symmetry/Avner-Ash/e/9780691138718

The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
by Roger Penrose
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-road-to-reality-roger-penrose/1007259632?ean=9780679776314&itm=6&usri=the+road+to+reality
also by Penrose "the Emperor's New Mind"

FICTION:
TWISTOR
  by John Cramer ( a working physicist)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twistor-john-cramer/1000099565?ean=9780380710270
Einstein's Bridge
  by John Cramer
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/einsteins-bridge-john-cramer/1002889776?ean=9780380788316

  Odd note, the CAPTCHA for this post was 'quantity'

Bang away for ninety minutes a day upgrading your skillset. Make this a habit first thing in the morning. An extremely useful book is "Willpower" which discusses the daily depletion of will, and how to compensate for that, and enhance it -- http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/willpower-roy-f-baumeister/1100482735 Just as folks tend to sleep in ninety minute cycles, so too is studying best done in uninterrupted ninety minute chunks. Microsoft toolsets mutate often, but they share a common design philosophy, so if you know VB and an older edition of .NET you will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you can "upgrade" to C# and the latest .NET. Forge the habit of an early morning hideout study period of ninety minutes with your laptop and a computer book, and work your way through tutorials. And whatever worked for you to get you to your current level of knowledge is probably still a valid approach. Remember too that you are over the biggest hurdle, which is understanding how the edit-build-run-repeat cycle works in your IDE (likely Visual Studio).