Grand unified books thread

[Eddie Teach]

It's not often that one it treated to a rollicking read on the history of mathematics ...

Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon both have a fair amount of that.

[Malthus]

It's not often that one it treated to a rollicking read on the history of mathematics ...

Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon both have a fair amount of that.

Heh, quite true. I loved both of those as well, and they do indeed have much of that.

[The Brain]

I'm reading Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1682, by Robert Goodwin.

... Charles ordered that the lot be salted, in imitation of Julius Caesar's great general Scipio, who had rebel Carthage similarly obliterated.

[Maladict]

I'm reading Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1682, by Robert Goodwin.

... Charles ordered that the lot be salted, in imitation of Julius Caesar's great general Scipio, who had rebel Carthage similarly obliterated.

That is an embarrassing number of mistakes in one sentence.

[The Minsky Moment]

Babbage invented, but did not build, a mechanical computer made of gears and powered by steam; his friend Lovelace (he described her as his "enchanted fairy of numbers") allegedly wrote the very first software for it.

IIRC at least one of his designs has been built in recent years, and it does work.

[Valmy]

It comes in audio book format too.

Is it read by the author?

[Malthus]

Babbage invented, but did not build, a mechanical computer made of gears and powered by steam; his friend Lovelace (he described her as his "enchanted fairy of numbers") allegedly wrote the very first software for it.

IIRC at least one of his designs has been built in recent years, and it does work.

Yup, they made a copy of his "difference engine", complete with attached printer, which works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine

No-one has yet made a copy of his much more elaborate "analytical engine".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine

It's the latter that basically has all the functionality we now associate with "computers" (albeit, using gears rather than electronics). From wiki:

If the Analytical Engine had been built, it would have been digital, programmable and Turing-complete. It would, however, have been very slow. Luigi Federico Menabrea reported in Sketch of the Analytical Engine: "Mr. Babbage believes he can, by his engine, form the product of two numbers, each containing twenty figures, in three minutes".[34] By comparison the Harvard Mark I could perform the same task in just six seconds. A modern PC can do the same thing in well under a millionth of a second. It should be noted however, that the Analytical Machine was described by Babbage more than one hundred years before any of the aforementioned computational devices and therefore, it is no surprise that it was much slower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine

[The Brain]

Read Good to Great, by Jim Collins. Seems weird to me that they were "shocked" to see the impact of "level 5" leaders. What the hell did they expect? Also it would have been interesting to hear how they think their finds relate to what's been written before, for instance Machiavelli writes at length about the difference between a successful prince and a well-ordered republic (which performs well generation after generation).

[Gups]

That book of Dan Jones is a bit disappointing after his earlier work.

I got a book on wars between France and England - 1789 to 1815 as well as the Grace Jones biography.

That's a shame, I liked the one on the Plantagenets even if it was a bit short on analysis.

Hobe your book on Frogs v Rosbifs isn't the Robert Harvey one. Truly abysmal.

[The Brain]

I was tempted by Viking's Woman: Historical BBW Warrior Romance, but decided against it.

[Eddie Teach]

That's good. I don't think Viking would be too pleased if you took his woman.

[Syt]

Have you considered playing Crusader Kings II instead?

[The Brain]

Cliffs aren't great for horses.

[The Brain]

Considering Japan: The Intergalactic Japanese Empire Has Been Given a Quintillion Universes in the Future from Jesus Christ.: Japan Will Ply the Universes in Spaceships ... with the Intergalactic Japanese Space Navy., anyone read it? Any good?

From the description on Amazon it seems to be fairly interesting. No reviews yet though so who knows.

Japan is an Intergalactic empire that spans a quintillion universes with an octillion planets that speak Japanese. I know today that Japan is crowded and too many people live on one island, but when Jesus returns to His people the Japanese, He will give 40%- the middle of Australia to Japan. He knows how crowded Japan is and how tired the people of Japan are with the way the world is. Jesus also will give the Japanese eternal life, so that the people of Japan will never die. Satan had lied to Japan with a false religion, but did you know billions of years ago, before the big bang, Japan was a Christian nation? Jesus was the king of Japan and He is returning as the Master who will give Japan a quintillion universes in the future and an octillion earthlike planets to His people. Also Jesus will bring antigravity vehicles, teleportation around the planet, and from galaxy to galaxy and in the future once this universe collapses, from universe to universe. Jesus will also bring to Japan - the educator machine, a machine that puts memory from a computer directly into your brain. No more school. Jesus will also give Japan a transmutation machine that will change dirt into tomatoes, bananas, or dirt into cars- antigravity cars. Jesus knows all the trouble Japan has had with Satan. It was Satan who led Japan in WWII, and also in a false religion. Jesus was the true King of Japan a billion years ago and He is returning to reclaim His throne. Jesus Christ is God and He can do anything. Nothing is impossible with Him. Jesus has infinite understanding, and infinite knowledge. He is also the King of infinity. Jesus is worshipped as God in infinite multiple universes throughout infinity. He will get rid of the radiation in Japan and give Japan more land. All you have to do is obey Jesus Christ your King and He will give you eternal life. As you know all nations die out and have ceased to exist, but if you obey Jesus - Japan will never die or cease to exist. Proof is that in a googolplex years Japan can read this book and remember these evil times- thats if you want to remember. But Japan will exist forever and ever as The Intergalactic Japanese Empire that spans a quintillion universes.

[Grey Fox]

Jesus.