Review: The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel

The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Writing a quick review here, if I wait to write a full review it will never get done. The author has done a good job fitting into Arthur Conan Doyle’s shoes and his world. It is easy reading and the tone and phrasing of the book is very Doyle. This is it’s downfall, in my opinion. For people who have read the Holmes volumes end to end, and people who have had exposure to crimes much worse than what Doyle had written about, the mystery starts to flag as one starts to anticipate what is to come. Maybe the book is longer than it needs be. Maybe its the story. Maybe it is a bit too much homage to Arthur Conan Doyle. Whatever the reason it left me less impressed than I had anticipated. Still a good book to have, and if the author is allowed to add his own voice there might be better stories coming out of this stable.

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Goals in WordPress

This is most interesting. I must have missed the memo as I did not know that there are some goal based functionality in WordPress. I just realized it when I published the last post. The minute I was done publishing this sidebar pops up,

Is this the competitive push I need?

Flickr Protest for SOPA

Flickr has made an interesting functionality available, which kind of allows us to take part in blacklisting the internet. They have basically allowed one to simulate the SOP Blacklisting on one’s photos. I really like it and am darkening some of my photos. For eg.

Photo ████ on Flickr is ████ #SOPABlackout
#DarkenFlickr j.mp/ydCOEx flic.kr/p/aHE9sH—
Brijesh Kartha (@brijwhiz) January 18, 2012

good idea.

A day of protests.

Sopa is a word in Marathi and it means “easy”. I guess that was the expectation of the American politicians who proposed the PIPA and SOPA legislation. Though it has has quite vocal opposition from technically sound people they are still hell bent on bull dozing it through. Considering that almost all other countries will take this as a precedent without a second thought it has been gratifying to see heavy weights like Wikipedia get their hands dirty instead of allowing this gross joke of an act go through without a whimper.

Wikipedia has gone on a blackout for 24 hrs, and so has Boing Boing. In fact WordPress.com itself is self censoring the same way scribd had done some weeks ago. Props to Scribd in taking a step and doind a bit of active protest.

Wikipedia Blackout.

Boing Boing blackout.

Craiglist Blackout

 

WordPress protests.

 

Will all this bear fruit? Frankly, I do not know. I am not entirely sure that the tablet, smartphone and app loving public really care about the freedom of the internet. Still hope reigns supreme and in this case I really really hope that we dodge this bullet.

Closer home, I am less optimistic. Our government seems hell bent in becoming a China, N.Korea or Libya. 

Review: Life

Life by Keith Richards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really enjoyed this book. That was actually a bit surprising to me as I have never been a Rolling Stones fan, more cause I have never really heard a lot of their music. Except for a slightly dragged start it was quite a fast read.

While his drug adventures did not make the most riveting read, he did leave me a bit confused. I assume at the end of it all he does look down on drugs but his overall attitude towards it was not black and white clear, in my opinion – which was not what I expected in these politically correct days.

However I really enjoyed the chunk of the book. Whenever he speaks about his music and his tools of the trade the book takes on a whole new feel. It is pretty evident, even with the help of a ghostwriter, that his music is very important to him. His reggae influences, his rock and roll and blues background, almost all these points are touched upon.

The other area which was interesting was the material on the people in his life and his interactions with them. Obviously his interaction with Mick Jagger figures prominently, but I was happy that he did not harp on it more than needed. A pleasant addition was putting in quotation from others who added other perspectives to episodes in his life.

All in all a nice autobiography. It has made me really interested in the man and his music and I see myself listening to a lot of Rolling Stones in the future.

A small point which might have influenced me positively towards this book is the fact that I am learning how to play the guitar presently. So reading a master of the art talk about some of its dark secrets was both educative and inspirational.

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