Direct Feed

When no one was going to pay for the public schools anymore and they were all like filled with guns and drugs and English teachers who were really pimps and stuff, some of the big media congloms got together and gave all this money and bought the schools so that all of them could have computers and pizza for lunch and stuff, which they gave for free, and now we do stuff in classes about how to work technology and how to find bargains and what's the best way to get a job and how to decorate our bedroom.

Titus, the narrator of MT Anderson's dystopian sci-fi YA novel Feed (Candlewick, 2002), is neurologically connected directly to consumerism-driven future version of the Internet. The feed looks up instantaneous answers to nearly every question he might ask, allows him a constant flow a chat with friends, and bombards him with target marketing ads. Titus doesn't read or write very well.

A number of things are disturbing about this book -  and good social satire should be disturbing. Teen expletive-infused language had not gotten any better in the 100 years or so in the future, and it is now also laced with advertising slogans. The kids don't talk about Coke, but always "the great taste of Coke." These are not rebellious teens. No fighting Big Brother for Titus and buddies. And Titus is not noble. As his girlfriend Violet become progressive less functional with her malfunctioning feed, he withdraws rather than comforts her. These kids act very much like today's kids - only more so.

People were really excited when they first came out with feeds. It was all da, da, da, this big educational thing, da, da, da, your child will have the advantage, encyclopedias at their fingertips, etc. That's one the great things about the feed - that you can be supersmart without ever working. Everyone is supersmart now, You can look things up automatic, like science and history, like if you want to know which battles of the Civil War George Washington fought in and shit.

This is not the world's best book, but it ought to be read by educational technology policy-makers. (I think I got the title from Jeff Utecht's blog. His wife made him read it as I remember.) The best science-fiction serves as a early warning system about a possible logical extension of today's trends. (See "Reading the Future.")

So don't say we haven't been warned.

I was staring at a girl's sweater. I couldn't like focus on the teacher. The teacher was a hologram that day. There had been some funding cuts. The school band was gone, and so were the alive teachers.

______________________________________

It's been a crazy week here on Lake Jefferson. Big family to-do early in the week to celebrate my son's graduation from college, along with th grandsons and those older people who always seem to come with them visiting. The implementation of the student information system (Infinite Campus), installation of 62 more "smart" classrooms, and one-on-one training of teachers getting new computers has kept the office busy. Off to Houston tomorrow afternoon to do a day of workshops on Tuesday and then back to work preparing for teachers returning in full force next week.

How can August look so far away in June?

The family August 2008 (minus my brother and his clan)

A Thriller for Your Inner Geek

Her new boss was an undead automaton from Hell, true, but no job was perfect. from Daemon by Leinad Zeraus

Ok, the terms "geek" and "thrill" are rarely used in the same sentence. Some might even say a "geek thriller" is an oxymoron. But Leinad Zeraus has written one.

Zeraus's style is somewhat reminiscent of Tom Clancey - great technical explanations, good action scenes and wooden human interactions - but the book is very readable and a fascinating trip on a "worst case scenario" in network security.

A dying game programmer writes the ultimate computer virus that is triggered when his obituary appears online. Using advanced AI, the virus exploits backdoors left by game installations, DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service Attacks), and a lots of other nasty and genuine mischief displayed by today's Internet crooks.  

Battling "the Daemon" are a fairly ineffectual group of government people - a policeman, an NSA security agent and an FBI counter-terrorist specialist who is out for revenge. They are assisted by a mysterious "white hat" security expert who is not all that he seems. (heh, heh, heh..)

The virus recruits and blackmails a host of human agents to work its will, assisted by computer-contolled armored automobiles and motor cycles and game goggles. Way cool.

Read this. If it doesn't get you to enable the WEP encryption on your home wireless network, nothing will.

And if you suspect your IT person is evil, don't get let the book fall into his/her hands.

Brady on Pink

My 22-year-old son Brady's take on Daniel Pink's latest book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko:

Hi Dad,
 
I thought Johnny Bunko was fantastic, it was a very relevant kind of motivation for young adults today. The art style and the characters are a fantastic way to get a message across that kids normally wouldn't even be receptive to. It almost works as kind of a gateway to this kind of thinking, and makes me want to read more of these kinds of books. I wish I had something like this before I started college to put me in the right mindset for the real world. I'm keeping this book and these lessons on hand for a long time as a reminder of what I really want to get out of life.
 
 Looking forward to Memorial Day weekend. Do you think we can squeeze in Indiana Jones?
 
 Love,
 
 Brady

(A scan of his college tuition bill was attached.)

 I sent Brady's review to Mr. Pink, and he responded:

Doug --

Thanks for this.  You (and he) made my day. Brady has kept me in the writing business for at least a few more weeks!  

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Dan

Pretty cool, I thought.

Looking for a great graduation gift this spring?

I have to say that Brady is a pretty cool kid. He's the one that draws the skunks for my blog's heading, did the art work of Machines Are the Easy Part, and still is willing to have the occasional lunch or dinner with his old man. Check the latest custom art work:

A sacred cow.

 

A gardening skunk

 

Picnicking skunks.

 And of course the rollerblading skunk in the header of the blog (at least today).

It's wonderful to have children of whom one can be proud, and LWW and I are four for four.

The grandsons look promising as well.