I just finished His Majesty’s Dragon, Book 1 of the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. Outstanding! In the fantasy/alternate history genre, it’s hard to get better than this; set in the Napoleanic Wars, with all the attendant pagentry of the era…but with dragons. Not bad at all, and the dragon characterizations are excellent. I bought this first one when were at the bookstore just last night; I’d been eyeing it occasionally, but never gotten around to buying it. Stayed up late last night with it and finished today (it’s a quick read), and just ordered the rest from Amazon.

Recommended. It’s apparently the author’s first book as well, which impresses me. Her style is very light; doesn’t get in the way of the story. It reminds me a bit of the Horatio Hornblower/Master and Commander stuff (the human protagonist is a British Navy Captain that ends up a dragon rider); she does a good job of exploring the era’s military and class issues in way reminiscent of those books. But it ends up a fun and easy read with characters I like (even some who aren’t that important to the plot…always a sign of a good author IMO).

Book 5 in the series, Victory of Eagles, is out later this year…I hope the series continues to entertain. I always enjoy having a book to look forward to!

Wow. Amazing high resolution Wikimedia photo of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Amazing. Thanks to Radley Balko of The Agitator for the link!

Another ball drop for old-school crisis management. Amazon’s S3 service was down for a period of time this morning. Bad, REALLY bad. This knocked static file services offline for a HUGE number of web 2.0 sites. But the even worse thing (as noted by ZDNet ) is that as I’m writing this, 6+ hours after the situation was mostly resolved, there is NO acknowledgment of the issue on the AWS blog. Nada. Nothin’. Last post from 4 days ago.

Sure, there’s a developer’s forum thread that has been occasionally updated, and as always happens in these situations, they state “we’re heads down on the problem; no time to chat!”. But, um…that’s not where J. Random Web 2.0 CTO is going to start when checking on things. This informational black hole is simply unacceptable today…it shows a high-level managerial misunderstanding of the nature of the interactivity that’s expected today via our enhanced communication tools (blogging, micro blogs, SNSs, etc.)

There’s no technical reason not to throw up a quick post…”stuff is broken, we’re working on it. Updates to come.” and updating it as you go along. (Heck, just cut-and-paste from ZDNet if you’re unoriginal) Nothing except PHBs that don’t like information leaving before it’s tarted up, properly spun, and moved close to the smoke-and-mirror machine. I’m disappointed, Amazon. Not only does it show a lack of vision, it also allows other sources to get ahead of you in discussing the topic, and take control of the conversation. Which is what we’re having about you…even though you’re not participating. Funny…we just passed the 10 year anniversary of the The Cluetrain Manifesto…and sometimes I wonder exactly how much has changed.

Tor books is cranking up a new website at Tor.com, and they’re giving away a book a week in PDF form as a promo. Go to tor.com and sign up, and you’ll get email links for a Tor book a week until the launch. I just got Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson, and next week’s will be Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (which I have in hardcover, and is a pretty good book). Great idea, Tor!

This is actually kind of jazzy…even beyond using referral codes, Amazon makes it pretty easy to create your own store from your lists and such. Took about 15 minutes. It’s no beauty, but what the heck…here’s my Amazon aStore! (yes, a little sparse…I’ve got plenty of good picks to add, though).

I am psyched…I just received Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets through Bookmooch, the crazy-cool book trading service that I use (here’s my info and book listing. If you like what you see, create an account, rack up some points, and mooch away!). I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for quite some time…I’ll let you all know what I think.

And yes, I’m trying out my Amazon Associates referral thingie…if the pop-out thing is irritating, let me know. I’m back and forth on it; I don’t actually need it to use the referral link. UPDATE: irritation, though cool, IMO. Took it out. Click through to make me my phat loot.

Civil Liberties Groups Sue Homeland Security for Records on Intrusive Questioning and Searches of U.S. Travelers — I am 100% behind this, and very, very proud to be a card-carrying (and T-shirt wearing!) EFF member. Our government’s irrational zeal to do whatever is necessary to keep us safe has gone unchecked and unfettered for far too long. I really appreciate these organizations for stepping up to defend our liberties.

thanks to boingboing for the link

I just want to go on record with this…I’m holding off on my machinima experimentation for now. I have some cool ideas…but I have too many cool ideas right now! Some coding, some blogging, some writing, and machinima to boot. The deciding factor is that all the others are, at their core, text, while machinima is going to require me to bootstrap an entire new tech kit of video, framework, movie direction, etc. It’s something I’m excited to do, but I’ve got to dig in for now and move forward on something, vs. doing prep work on everything. Experience wins, for now.

But not for forever…maybe only six months or so. I’ve got plenty of machinima links (also at ma.gnolia), and I’m going to keep watching and adding to them. I’ll be back!

(A Million Flowers post)

Magnatune: To be honest, Magnatune probably should have been my first example, but I think I had Amie Street on the brain the other day. (that’s not a crack against Amie Street, though…heck, I think I’ll just shut up about this now. I like ’em both).

Magnatune is pretty much the poster child for doing EVERYTHING right in the music space…it’s really an amazing label. Magnatune has from day 1 sold all music with no DRM, and they make every format imaginable available; MP3s of various qualities, FLAC, up to raw WAV duplicates of the master CD. You can choose and all of them. You can also re-download anything from your catalog if you need to (computer crash, etc.)…just make sure to give them your email address when purchasing, and they’ll re-send you the download link at any time. It’s like they trust you or something…

In fact, they do more than trust you. They ask a favor of you; they ask you to share your purchases with your buddies. Yep…Magnatune explicitly asks you to forward along your download email to 3 friends you think will like it! Crazy like a fox…I’ve had friends make purchases there based on my share, which is of course the point.

Magnatune certainly isn’t a mainstream label, but I find that an advantage, to be honest. The founder (John Buckman) sells music he likes…classical, world, ambient, electronica, rock…there’s a little bit for just about everyone, though you certainly won’t find Britney Spears or The Beatles. (Which is good, imo.) And since you can stream every single song for free, you know what you’re getting. Many people just use Magnatune’s streams to find new artists and enjoy great background music. Find something there you like, click over to the artist’s page, listen to your heart’s content, then make the purchase!

Oh, that’s right; I haven’t even yet mentioned the payment model. For any album, you choose your own price! The range is (US) $5-18…and 50% of whatever you pay goes directly to the artist. You lose nothing by paying less other than karma…you gain nothing by paying more other than knowing that you’re supporting a great label and an artist you like. I usually pay $8-10, depending on the length of the album, and how much I like it.

Give Magnatune a try…it’s listings encourage exploration and discovery. I predict you’ll find something you like.

There’s a reason Magnatune is so cool…the founder, John Buckman is a really, really smart guy, with ethics to boot. Buckman sold Lyris (mailing list/email marketing software) several years back, and made his Internet fortune. Like many entrepreneurs, he couldn’t stay out of the ring for long, but his ideas about the music industry and experiences with his wife releasing her own CD inspired him to start Magnatune. He hasn’t stopped there, though…I also use his crazy-cool book swapping service Bookmooch, I read both his and his wife’s blog (she’s also awesome, and a very talented musician), and generally think the world of the guy. People like John Buckman inspire me to try great things. Thanks, John.