This is a review of C.J. Date's Database Design and Relational Theory: Normal Forms and All That Jazz, Second Edition (Apress, 2019). I like this book a lot. So much so that it forms the foundation of my talk entitled Perfectly Normal (which I'll turn into a blog series in the new year). It's important…
Book Review: Learn Azure in a Month of Lunches (2nd Edition)
This is a review of Iain Foulds's Learn Azure in a Month of Lunches, Second Edition (Manning, 2020). To set up my review, you can't learn Azure in a month of lunches. You can't learn Azure in a year of lunches. And cloud services change so quickly that by the time a book comes out,…
Book Review: Principles of Gestalt Psychology
This is a review of Kurt Koffka's Principles of Gestalt Psychology, written in 1935 and re-published a bunch of times, including my 2014 edition. Koffka was one of the three big players in the Berlin school of Gestalt psychology. In case you're not familiar with it, the real brief run-down is that the Gestalt school…
An Extended Movie Review: M
Let me start out by saying that Fritz Lang's M is my favorite movie of all time, so of course I'm going to recommend it. Go see it now because I'm going to spoil it like crazy. I own the Criterion Collection's version of M on Blu-Ray, but you can also rent it on Amazon…
(Audio)Book Review: Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant
The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, narrated by Robin Field, is 29 1/2 hours long. This is not the type of book (or audiobook) that you knock out in one sitting, but it is an outstanding book. Grant, as one of the most well-known Union generals during the war, does an outstanding job writing…
Product Reviews: the Desklab Monitor
Back in 2019, I joined in on a kickstarter for the Desklab monitor, a portable touchscreen 4K monitor. This seemed like a great idea for me, as hey, I do a lot of travel and it's really nice having a second monitor around. It wouldn't be convenient while traveling, but at the hotel, having that…
Book Reviews: Fighting Churn with Data
Fighting Churn with Data by Carl Gold is an interesting concept with a pretty good implementation. I had a chance to read it while it was still in the Manning Early Access Program, an experience which always has its pros and cons. On the pro side, it was coming out right when I started to…
Book Review: Gestalt in Photography
Gestalt in Photography by Aischa Erten is a really good introduction to practical implications of the Gestalt school of psychology (specifically, the Berlin Gestalt school, but I'm saving that for another book post). Erten has released this book via Kindle Unlimited, so I took advantage of that service to read her book. Overall, I liked…
(Audio)Book Review: The Ethics of Aristotle
It's been a minute since I've done a book review, and I've never done an audiobook review, though as I write this, I'm reminded of the Space Ghost: Coast to Coast episode entitled Dam, in which Space Ghost interviews Charlton Heston: Charlton Heston: Uh, you're, you seem perfectly fluent in English, can you read?Zorak: No.Space Ghost: I like…
Course Review: Kubernetes Installation and Configuration
This is a review of Anthony Nocentino's Pluralsight course entitled Kubernetes Installation and Configuration Fundamentals. Anthony's course is intended for systems administrators with some Docker experience. My interest in this is more from the development side than the administrative side, so I was not the target audience here. Despite that, I think this was an…
36 Chambers - The Legendary Journeys: Execution to the max! 