Some new books — again / Observation bias / Daily entries

We are no longer, like Job, struggling with God, but struggling in a network of our own godlike powers that we have not mastered. Elting Morison, MIT

Some new books — again

Life has been busy and good. Some new books have also joined our library. New books are always welcome. Since the last entry:

• Jasenovac and the holocaust in Yugoslavia: analysis and survivor testimonies edited by Barry M. Lituchy — a very important book about the torturous past of the Balkans. Mr Lituchy, spouse of Riitta, has done a great favour both to the Balkan community and to the writing of history in general. I have read parts of the book and it is really interesting and shocking. There are two copies of the book in Finland. The other is in the Library of the University of Helsinki - check it out!
• Human-built world: how to think about technology and culture by Thomas P. Hughes — another great book by professor Hughes. The books tells how public intellectuals, engineers, scientist, philosophers, and novelists have understood and thought about technology. The attitudes have changed a lot as technology has progressed, some externalities have become threatening and so far solved. A book, which anyone puzzled about technology should read. A short one,quite easy reading.
• Mao, the unknown story by Jung Chang, Jon Halliday — the new biography of Mao. This books tells all details of the tyranny of Mao, the mass-murderer of all times. Not read yet, not even started, but all reviews are full of praise.
• Process for system architecture and requirements engineering by Hatley et all — another book, which claims to show us how to do it fast, easy, and reliably. I bought it, since I want to become conversant in all architecting frameworks — I will then synthesise my own.
• Managing the design factory by Donald G. Reinertsen — another book on how to speed up product development. Contains theories on organization, information, queues, etc and their applications. Well worth skimming; a decent reference.
• IT architecture toolkit by Jane A. Carbone — as above, just to become conversant in IT architecting.

Observation bias

For a long time I have thought that more women than men commute by bicycle. I thought that there would be at least two women per each man cycling to work. One day it occurred to me that I may suffer from observation bias. To test my observations, I counted the commuters. The result was shocking: 41 men, 40 woman.
It really is necessary to verify apparent observations and be vary of selection bias.

Daily entries

Not that I remember what I have been up to lately. Days have been sunny, warm, similar to each other. Work has been work. My bike has been broken since last Saturday (me being too heavy and spokes being too fragile). Some notable days have been, though. Yesterday, we (me and Lavonardo) has an SIG at the U. Kaleva bar. I have not enjoyed beer that much for a long time.
Last weekend, S had her birthday. We intended to celebrate it by the Kaitalampi-lake in Espoo, but my bicycle decided otherwise. We then celebrated by the Vantaankoski-rapids as long as some wedding party forced us away. Later, nice dinner at Weeruska. On Sunday, her relatives visited us. Even later, we visited the Lenin-park for some petanque.
On Tuesday, I visited Tuusula/Hyrylä, a town some 30 kilometers north of Helsinki. To my surprise, there is a bus going 200 meters from our home to Tuusula making the trip easy. The trip back proved that pubic transit is excellent in the greater Helsinki. It took exactly 60 minutes from Hyrylä to my office in Espoo by bus. Not bad, as it is about 40 kilometers or more.
We (I, Maunu, Heikki, Hannu and S) visited restaurant Bellevue on Tuesday. It is one of the oldest Russian restaurants outside Russia. Food was even better than I remembered, very close to perfect. I had monkfish with some kind of risotto and creme of almonds for dessert.
Oh, it makes sense to read the U.S Survival Manual, for one can never know what is going to happen next.
Also, checking what the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) thinks is going to happen is worth a few minutes.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs July to September 2006".