Book reviews
Gonzo Wisdom – Reaching Escape Velocity mini-review in Make
I was most delighted to find my little Reaching Escape Velocity book mentioned in the pages of my favorite magazine — creative makers were exactly the readers I had in mind when writing it. The book covers the art of working with sponsors, volunteers, and media in order to launch audacious gonzo engineering projects… and is…
Read MoreFrom BEHEMOTH to Microship – QST Review
QST has always been the quintessential magazine of amateur radio, predating me by decades. As such, like all other hams, I’m dabbling in things that have long kept paleogeeks up all night… probing the ether and chasing those elusive DX (long-distance) stations. Of course, some of the things I’ve done with radio have been a…
Read MoreJourney of a High-Tech Nomad – book review – Computer Currents
This is one of the more touching and insightful reviews of my Computing Across America book, and the author looks past the obvious technomadic content and focuses on the more challenging human issues… matters of the heart, cast into bas relief by a life on the road. As I work on the new book (here…
Read MoreComputing Across America – 73 Book Review
A view of Steven K. Roberts N4RVE’s book. Computing Across America Reviewed by Alida M. Jatich KA9KAG 73 Magazine — November, 1989 “Suburbia is not a place; it’s a state of mind… You live in suburbia when the cycle of work and play becomes dangerously unbalanced in favor of work.” (Computing Across America, page 3.) If…
Read MoreComputing Across America book review – Systems Librarian
I don’t know this publication, but have to chuckle at the comment near the end in which they say I must have a thesaurus with which I choose big words for effect. I have found that such comments only come from folks who are a bit vocabulary-challenged… I can’t imagine using a thesaurus as a…
Read MoreComputing Across America book review – A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing
I find this review most gratifying, and not only because the reviewer enjoyed my book. Michael A. Banks is a writer I’ve known and respected for years, and his Modem Reference was one of the most-thumbed technical books on my shelf… back before USB <creak>. He was a prolific columnist in the early days of…
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Computing Across America book review – Computer Shopper
The first 10,000 miles of my adventure yielded the Computing Across America book, which I am about to re-issue for the Kindle (now that I have this nifty scanner that is creating all these Anarchive entries!). This is one of my favorite reviews… Book Review by Michael A. Banks Computer Shopper – September, 1988 Computing…
Read MoreComputing Across America book review – The New Voice
This review had a most interesting effect… it brought my mother around, though somewhat grudgingly, to loving my book. When she first read it, she was aghast at the undeniable evidence that her little boy could be a naughty and occasionally vulgar risk-taker, doing things that one speaks of only in whispers, and sleeping in…
Read MoreComputing Across America review – Human Power IHPVA
It was a great honor to see this review of my book by someone I’ve admired for years… David Gordon Wilson of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association. He and Chester Kyle can be credited with starting the recumbent bicycle movement, and he is also the author of the brilliant Bicycling Science. Computing Across America…
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The Complete Guide to Microsystem Management – Review
I published this book just before hitting the RESET button on the back of my head and taking off around the US on an open-ended technomadic bicycle adventure. It spun out of an article I wrote for Kilobaud called “Managing the Small System Environment,” discussing such things as related filing systems, backups, and other suggestions…
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