The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Is the story about a girl who can change the world just by wishing. It has appeared in a wide range of media in a wide range of countries. So far, I have read the first three MHS light novels (the only ones out in English), watched both seasons anime, and scanned a couple of the manga. It’s a fun concept, somewhat flawed in the execution. I’d recommend it, but I’d also recommend that you not watch it in the order in which it is presented.

Introduction
Three years before the start of the series, Haruhi Suzumiya (then in middle school) realized her small personal world was not all there was, that her city was bigger, Japan was far bigger, and the world was infinitely bigger than she thought. She immediately became depressed. As Douglas Adams once said, “in a universe as big as this one, the last thing you need is a sense of perspective”. Suzumiya also, unkowingly, at that point, developed the power to change the world to be more like what she wants it to be. The key word is, ‘unknowingly’. The series tracks what happens when she gets to high school. The main POV character is a high school classmate of Suzumiya’s, nicknamed “Kyon” (we never learn his real name). Kyon, by the way, is the Japanese name for a small barking deer, which is why he keeps complaining about people using it.

Reading List Page

In response to user demand (i.e. one search in a two year period), I have decided to move my reading list from its obscure position as a long-dead post to a new glory on its own page. Look to your right, under Pages.

Reboot

Wonderella, the comic.
…the mouse, of course, is from Hitchhikers Guide, and is too good to let pass

Summer Reading.

Edited my July 8 entry to add Clifford Stoll’s “The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage”

Summer Reading

This is a short list of MIS-associated fiction and nonfiction that I made up for my students last spring.

Non-Fiction
Keep in mind that these are books about how the system works, not about specific systems, so the fact that some of them are over 30 years old doesn’t matter. Some are available online in .pdf format. The first three are descriptive. The rest, more textbook-like.

The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, Clifford Stoll, 1989
A classic description of how a 75 cent error in a computer use charge ended with the breakup of an East German spy ring.

Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder, 1981
What it’s like in the trenches

Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date, Robert X. Cringely, 1992
The early days in Silicon Valley

Death March, Edward Yourdon, 2003
More life in the trenches

Mythical Man-Month, Frederick Brooks, 1975, 1995
Managing software development

Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, Peter Checkland, 1979, 1999
Soft systems approach.

Multiple Perspectives for Decision Making, Hal Linstone, 1984
Technical, organizational, personal.

The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge, 1990
Business dynamics

The Jargon File, Eric S. Raymond (ESR), et al. 2003
AKA, The Hackers Dictionary. a serious dictionary, maintained online at:

http://www.catb.org/jargon/

Go for the words, stay for the descriptions of hacker culture.

Fiction
Just a few of the classics.

Shockwave Rider, John Brunner, 1975
The SF novel that defined the idea of a computer worm

Neuromancer, William Gibson, 1984
The SF novel that defined cyberspace
Also: Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive

Snow Crash, Niel Stephenson, 1992
The SF novel that defined Second Life.

Diamond Age, Niel Stephenson, 1995
Ubiquitous computing and nanomachines.
Can’t do it the way he thought, because a carbon cloud is explosive.

Cryptonomicon, Niel Stephenson, 1999
SF/Historical. A good take on what data centers might be like tomorrow, combined with a pretty good fictionalized history of computers and cryptology in WWII.

Overclocked, Cory Doctorow, 2007
Short stories. Not written in a balloon, no matter what XKCD says.

http://xkcd.com/239/

see also the series beginning here (and what’s _your_ daughter done recently?):

http://xkcd.com/341/

…and speaking of daughters, here’s Girl Genius. It’s steampunk and not cyber, but who cares? It’s working on Vol 7 right now, but you need to start at the beginning, before they invented color:

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104

or you could read a short story

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20051212

(but stop on page 7 or you will drop into the main storyline and be beset by spoilers)

Or, if that’s too girly for you, try Megatokyo. Two gamers in Japan. It’s joke-of-the-day up until about strip number 100 or so, and then it gets a plot. They are on strip 1200 now.

http://megatokyo.com/strip/1

The Tale of the Heike

Reading a translation of the 12th Century Japanese epic “Tale of the Heike”, about the fall of one of the great houses. Some parts are unintentionally funny. At one point, an army of militant monks is approaching the palace to demand justice for wrongs done their members. Troops are stationed at all entry gates to defend them. The North gate has a renowned military leader, but few forces, so that’s where the monks go. They stop at the gate, and the leader’s deputy comes out.

“Look,” he says (I paraphrase), “we agree with you, but the Emperor says you can’t come in. If we let you in, we fail our Lord. If you fight your way in, against such a small force, you’ll win, but you’ll be embarrassed, and everybody will be looking at the ground. Our commander has never lost a battle, and it would be embarrassing all the way around. Why don’t you go to the East gate, where they have a force worthy of your attention.”

The monks thought a bit, and some said “You know, he’s right, there’s no glory in it. And the commander is from a good family. Besides, he not only is a good commander, he writes excellent poetry. Remember that one about the cherry trees?”

So, the monks went to the East gate, where they were defeated, abandoned their petition, and went back to their mountain, crying.