Slashdot Mirror
Acts of the Apostles/Cheap Complex Devices
First of all, I'm not going to be doing another review of Acts, as I've already done that once. It is worth noting, however, that this is the first time both CCD and Acts have been brought together in an omnibus edition. I've got two different copies of Acts, but greatly enjoyed reading the two together again. Why? Because they fit together like two sides of the same coin -- or better yet, like Walther Matthau and Jack Lemmon.
Cheap Complex Devices's backdrop is that of being (supposedly) machine-written. (The foreword and descriptors of the book itself are greatly entertaining. It's that kind of writing that flows over into Acts.) While the scene may (or may not) have not even the slightest passing resemblance to reality, it's still something that grips your mind. You believe that the "Hofstader Prize for Machine Written Narration" could exist, and that the Society for Analytical Engines sounds pretty reasonable. Heck, it sounds at least as reasonable as the ACM.
BTW, if you can't be bothered to read Acts of the Apostles, take my advice and do it. I believe my standing quote on the book is that it's what Tom Clancy would write if he wasn't dumb. Essentially, it's a great techno-thriller, except the technology is something that a geek would appreciate -- but it's also written well enough that non-geeks will enjoy it. The hero of that book makes an apperance in CCD as one of the heroes in one of the automata written texts.
The actual text of the stories in CCD are just as amusing as the commentary about them, although oddly enough I think I actually like the commentary more then the stories. "Bees" is a commentary on what it means to be human, albiet with a peculiar focus on Gatorade. And the Bonehead Computer - well, just doing a little Googling for it.
I'm not sure what else to say about these books, other then read 'em. If you liked Naked Lunch, or any sort of thrillers, or thought GEB was an amazing work, or just like to read, these books will thrill ya.
To get them, John has a website to purchase CCD. He takes Paypal or checks in the mail. You can buy them in PDF or have dead tree versions sent, or both. Whatever -- you do what want. One caveat though: "Final 'truth in advertising' note: the version of CCD on my website is 87.9842% the same as the final book form (the book is better). I'll reconcile them soon. " (note from John)
Enjoy.
I have seen a copy of this and I'm gonna go out and get it.
I'm a sci fi freak
Stupid Humans.....
Jesus is coming, and he'll be running WINDOWS XP PERSONAL EDITION!
On water?
People of faith have been mocked for centuries
:-)
And you were counting on Slashdot to stop the rot?
Try NetBSD... safe,straightforward,useful.
It's Cheap Complex Devices, not Cheap Computer Devices.
pls fix k thnx
-N
This is awesome, now we've been seeing more online "Open-Source" books of good quality available. In fact I just watched the screen savers on tech tv a couple of nights ago (Kilt episode) and saw an interview with another open source publisher.
Unfortunately I think that a lot of people will right these guys off as amatuer writers, because they aren't just using traditional publishing means, as well as the fact that other people are helping write the book!
I don't care what other people think cuz I like 'em!
I find that most often I end up learning from necessity, rather than for enjoyment.
Because they fit together like two sides of the same coin -- or better yet, like Walther Matthau and Jack Lemmon.
you have issues, hemos. and i mean that in the best possible way.
Okay, I read it a while back, and Acts of the Apostles is a good argument against self-publishing, or at least a good argument for finding an editor. The tech is okay, but the story suffers for it. The story is clunky and some of the characterization is kind of weak.
I suppose you might think it was good compared to Tom Clancy, but Tom Clancy is lowbrow jingoistic pap, so _that's_ hardly a compliment. At least you can escape the chest-beating in Acts of the Apostles...
It was okay, but it was just okay. Worth a read if you aren't doing anything else for a long time and don't have anything better kicking around.
Sure transistors are cheap nowadays, but devices could be even cheaper if they were working on faith instead. Glad to see someone tossing away his semiconductor textbook and basing his designs on the physical effects documented in the Bible.
Dead tree version? Does that mean environmentalists shouldn't read that one? ;)
Doesn't Luke the Physician have a trademark on the "Acts of the Apostles"?
and I'll say it again: the phrase "Acts of the Apostles" has a very specific meaning to the moral community, and I for one am not at all happy to see it hijacked for use in some trashy thriller. People of faith have been mocked for centuries (millenia, really) but I don't see why Slashdot needs to give these bozos any more coverage than they warrant.
What's next, a 15-year anniversary review of "The Last Temptation of Christ?"
"The Last Temptation of Christ" was a great film, and probably one of the most realistic portrayals of Jesus ever made.
"Acts of the Apostles" is a good way of challenging "the moral community" because it frees the expression. Many people persue thier interests with devotion, and purpose...just as religious people persue god. It's not up to you to determine the correct way to persue god. If someone finds god in a kernal, or a diesel engine, or a dusty old book...it's better than not finding god at all...wouldn't you agree?
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
Whatever -- you do what want.
Me rite gud.
Although Sundman writes well and creates some interesting scenes, I found that Acts didn't really gel. The plot developed more slowly than I expected, and there was too much exposition and discussion. Although he obviously knows a lot about computers, his attempt at plausible biotechnology wasn't convincing.
MILD SPOILER:
Bad guys demonstrate a nanomachine that can activate single genes. Sundman thinks that if you activated a growth hormone gene along one side of a mouse, that side would grow, in a matter of minutes!
END SPOILER
The bad guys' evil plot, when it's finally revealed (more by authorial fiat than anything else, IIRC) is a good (if implausible) premise for a thriller, but it is all left too late in the book. With the wide-ranging plot strands and technical detail, it could have been a biocomputing equivalent of Cryptonomicon, but I was a bit disappointed.
On the plus side, there are LOTS of ideas and plot strands in the book. The portrayal of the ways of computer developers is interesting and engaging. In particular, a lot of the book revolves around the actions of what seems to be a thinly disguised version of Sun Microsystems (Sundman worked for them) and their computer language 'espresso', so it might be especially entertaining if you know the company well.
I wouldn't particularly recommend Acts, but I would like to read his future books.
Both are good reading. Both are very different.
1) Read Acts of the Apostles first.
2) Read Cheap Complex Devices second.
Buy both. CCD explains the backstory/metastory of Acts, albeit in a roundabout, artsy-fartsy way. (And I'm sure there are the kernels of at least two or three more AI-authored novels in CCD. *g*)
Does anyone know if Sundman (the author) will be at LinuxWorld in New York or the next one in the Bay Area? (I found out about him through a geek who loaned me a dead-tree copy he got from Sundman, who was selling copies at LinuxWorld SF.)
Hee hee hee. Those of us who understand morality resent Christians who appropriate the term "moral" in meaningless catch-phrases like "the moral community".
/. folks, how about allowing "cite" in your tags so we can properly mark-up our text?)
And yeesh, if you're concerned about that, how do you feel about Blair Brown's Ax of the Apostles?
(Hey,
On a side note, I highly recommend Matt Ruff's Sewer Gas & Electric to any Sundman or Stephenson fans.
I wonder how many upset christians have even read the book, it's pretty good, and I don't think it will destroy your faith. It's just some guy's (a devout christian's) interpretation of the story.
Play Command HQ online
Is it anything like Neil Stephenson's work? It sounds a bit similar.
I thought both the book and the movie were excellent. And I'm a church-going Episcopalian.
sulli
RTFJ.
I can't find this omnibus edition the review is talking about. Amazon has both books seperately, as well as the referenced website, but no omnibus edition. How do I order it?
Bryan
As a moral Baptist, I can safely say that the phrase "church-going Episcopalian" is oxymoronic to the core.
And Martin Scorcese, I believe, is an agnostic (if not full-out atheist.)
What are you hippies going to talk about next week while we are in a shooting war with Iraq.
Oh wait, sorry. You are too cool for this kind of thing.
Hey, Saddam hates open source! Now do you want to see an invasion?
Sorry to trouble you with world problems. Go back to your cyberlare and dream of the end of Microsoft.
I don't know about scorsese, but Nikos Kasantzakis, the author, is (was?) very devout. The book is excellent.
Play Command HQ online
I didn't read the first edition. I have no idea whatsoever what these books can be about.
Now re-read the "review" with this in mind. See? Or actually don't see?
Some guy sells a book the reviewer liked but can't describe or at the very least give a good reason to read. You can buy it on paper or as a PDF.
So what? I still have no clue whatsoever what this is all about.
It's a book. A review should allow me to decide wether it might be a book I'll like or not. I just know that I can buy it using Paypal.
I'll go and read what's online. To achevie this goal, a simple link was enough.
Don't call it a review.
I can write tons of 'reviews' about books I loved: I can't tell you why it's good, it's just sort of Brin & Robinson come togeter, you'll like it! Even If you're not interested in reading a book, give it a try, you'll like it for no reason I can describe, but its a sure hit nonetheless! I could even add more exclamation points to mask my total lack of arguments by some textual manifestation of over-excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In my opinion, Scientology is a cult you should avoid.
Touché!
sulli
RTFJ.
Update: 09/09 16:11 GMT by T: Oops -- that should have read (as it now does) "Cheap Complex Devices" rather than "Cheap Computing Devices." That is all.Thank you.
Were you there? I thought I had read all of the eye-witness accounts of Christ's life. You must be the last survivor of that generation, and I'm sure that we'd all like to hear your story.
The only touchstone we have for ``realistic portrayals of Jesus'' is the eye-witness accounts left us by Christ's disciples. If ``The Last Temptation of Christ'' departs from that, we can only assume that it is unrealistic.
If someone finds god in a kernal, or a diesel engine, or a dusty old book...it's better than not finding god at all...wouldn't you agree?
Well, almost. The only problem is that the world is full of gods, many of them of our own construction. There is one God who created the universe, who sent his son to lead us to him. If that's the God you're talking about finding, all is well. If you're talking about finding some other god, it doesn't sound like an improvement to me.
I read that book based on the previous review on slashdot. It was completely lame. The plot was convoluted, and the science didn't really make any sense. I liked some of the ideas, like that the Iraqis really poisoned America during the gulf war by sending the soldiers back here with some kind of high tech contagious disease, but the way he elaborated it was awful. It seemed like an unfinished product, like he didn't have an editor or something.
People, there's a reason why this book wasn't picked up by a major publisher - it's crap.
-Nissim
As of right now, there is no omnibus edition available. It had been my original intent to combine the two books into one volume, but costs were prohibitive. Several months ago I told Hemos that I was planning to release a "two-in-one" and I guess that when I sent him the review copy I did not make it clear enough that I changed plans. Sorry. Of course, if these books ever really take off such that I think I could sell a printing of a two-in-one, I would very much like to do such a printing, as I consider them part of one work. For now they're just two separate books.
Download my novels Acts of the Apostles and Cheap Complex Device
This guy is not has well grammar. Troll Moderators, do your stuff.
Looks like /. got him. No more downloads from this web site for awhile.: www.wetmachine.com/+&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8
Google cache is at: http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:MGBZE0sAFnUC
and cache is available for subsequent pages.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
and i liked the movie, too.
Clenched in a red hot iron fist full of dyspeptic scorpions, until the blood oozes between the fingers!
Yeah, right. You promised us a nuclear war on the Indian sub-continent back in June. Here we've made it through the dog days of summer, and my geiger counter hasn't budged an inch. Damn media teases!
SlashDot'd... Try amazon for book excerpts...
now where can i excersise my right to download this book for free?
The website has been slashdotted, but the book is available on Amazon.
>>[Acts is] a good argument for finding an editor
Your post is a good argument for thinking before you speak. You called it "Okay" no less than 4 times in the span of about 7 sentences.
I will grant that the younger /. audience members may not appreciate the references to DEC and the Mill, but I don't find they detract from the story, which blends a fictional plot with real-life facts, and whether you believe it could be true or not, it's still a good story. Maybe there's a proofing problem here and there, but that's not the reason to skip out on a well-thought book that in particular caters to the intelligent reader.
I thoroughly enjoyed Acts and in fact read it through nearly nonstop, except for the annoying interruption of having to go to work. I'll be ordering CCDs as soon as I can find my checkbook under the rubble of my desk.
Michael J.
Root, God, what is difference?
- adam
Either is OK; the paypal cut is small. And both are preferable to Amazon, which takes a hefty chunk.
Download my novels Acts of the Apostles and Cheap Complex Device
It's even better if you've been involved in some of the companies in Silicon Valley or Boston that Sundman parodies.
2 .html and scan below when it talks about signing bonuses and limousines.)
Hidden in the plot are all sorts of inside jokes, parodies, and even accurate descriptions of real events that shaped the valey.
By far my favorite is his retelling of the kinda-famous Borland-Microsoft-Limousine-Recruiting Lawsuits that may have crippled Borland. (Check out http://computernewsdaily.com/128_050897_102205_92
Coolest thing is that apparently AotA was written even before those limo trips became public! Scary how similar they are, though.
I second the notion that Acts could indeed have been a substantially better book with the input of a good editor.
I'm all for making your own way, but the previous poster was correct in saying that the flaws detracted considerably from a potentially good book. As is, I'd say 'Acts' has it moments but its annoyances obscure what should have been a much more fun read.
Sorry the link is broken... Does this work? I guess it's kinda a spoiler, 'cause Sundman tells the story well in his book.
I would never have thought to run into those two terms on /. I guess this author either has a weird sense of humor, some deep political message, or God is giving me a hint.
In any case it threw me for a loop.
Jump into his diary, it is very amusing (he uses the nick "johnny").
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
No, he wouldn't.
"the moral community"??? Seems to me the poster must be Christian, if (s)he is taking offense at use of the term "Acts of the Apostles". I guess the morals of the other faiths in the world that don't care much about the Apostles but GREATLY outnumber Christianity in terms of followers don't count as "the moral community".
Or maybe it's just another symptom of the "everybody I know and like is like me, so everybody must think as I and my friends do" disease that so often afflicts those with lots of "faith" in any given religion.
btw, many cultures had their own way of finding God, and we all know the history of how Christians (especially? probably not exclusively though) decided they were right and "reformed" the "heathens".
ok, i'm getting too pissed of. outa here.