June 2008
22 posts
Tokyo →
Another good & full trip to Tokyo — just got on the Narita Express — and I have to say that Tokyo trains are an absolute marvel. I bought my ticket at 2 minutes to 2p, with the train set to board at…
Tokyo Firefox 3 Launch Party →
Had a very fun time at the Fx3/Mozilla 10th Birthday party here in Tokyo last night — the Mozilla Japan team, and especially Eri, did a wonderful job. Nearly 300 people came to celebrate —…
ShaverDay →
I hereby declare June 26 “ShaverDay” here on John’s Blog. (Not to be confused with ShavingDay, which is something else altogether.) Anyway, congratulations to Mike on a well-deserved recognition…
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by... →
This book is a short, wonderful, gem of a book, by one of my favorite authors, about something I’m really trying to figure out, running. [It isn’t quite out in stores yet — I think it comes…
Mark Vonnegut on his dad, Kurt →
One neat thing about the Kindle is that it lets me keep track of passages in books that I particularly like, and from time to time I go back and look at them and think about what they might mean….
The thing about life is that one day you’ll be... →
In my parade of writing about books I’ve finished in the last few months but not had enough time to blog about is this one by David Shields that I picked up on a lark — I suspect that the…
on the road →
On my way to Tokyo for a few Firefox 3 launch festivities — I’m looking forward to seeing everyone there, as usual. But as much as I like traveling, as SPL gets older (almost 3!) and he, Kathy & I…
Firefox 3’s First 24 Hours →
It’s been a very busy 24 hours for Mozilla folks around the world — as our 24 hour initial period draws to a close, I wanted to put a few things into perspective. This is the first post of…
Hometown paper →
I think everyone involved with Mozilla is humbled by the worldwide attention and coverage we’ve gotten in the runup to and release of Firefox 3 — it’s a little overwhelming, really.
But there’s…
Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy →
A beautiful, hulking, brute of a book — a novel about life on the border between US & Mexico in pre-Civil War life. It’s tough to get through — brutal characters and plot, and very tough…
Up the Organization, by Robert Townsend →
A very quick business book that’ll be good to reread every now & then. Robert Townsend was the CEO of Avis for a long time, and was a particularly direct executive. Some of the stuff is a…
Libery & Security →
Anthony Kennedy wrote the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling today saying that even Guantanamo detainees have the right to challenge their detention in federal court. Well, duh. But thank goodness that he…
3 is coming… →
…on Tuesday.
Yay!
Living on the Black, by John Feinstein →
Interesting look by John Feinstein at 2 of my favorite pitchers in MLB: Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine. Mussina I got to see play a fair bit at Stanford when I was a freshman, so like him a…
Walt Mossberg Calls Firefox 3 the Browser Champ →
Great, great video & writeup by Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal on the new Firefox 3 — he really understood & articulated a bunch of things that are really…
Cool It, by Bjørn Lomborg →
I liked Lomborg’s TED Talk back in 2005, and I liked this book pretty well. It’s a relatively emotionless analysis of the most important problems facing our world, and where global warming…
American Nerd, by Benjamin Nugent →
Such a promising title: American Nerd: The Story of My People. I was super-excited to get this book — loved the idea — a chronicling of nerd culture in America (and beyond, really), and with…
The Watchmen, by Moore & Gibbons →
I picked this up at Reid’s urging, like The Dark Knight Returns — like that one, I liked this well enough, and understand the appeal, but probably not quite the right form for me.
The Chinese, by Jasper Becker →
A relatively comprehensive overview of Chinese culture, life & government, but felt a little flat to me — I also felt a fair amount of cultural bias & judging in it. I think this is not the…
Snuff, by Chuck Palahniuk →
This is a hard book to love, really — just feels a little over the top, even for Palahniuk. His writing is as lively as ever, and the manic style he’s known for — it sort of pulls you into the…
The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall →
I picked this book up on a lark — was recommended to me on Amazon, and looked good, so I got it. I’m really happy I did — was a fun, smart, fast-paced book that broke me out of a…
Armageddon in Retrospect, by Kurt Vonnegut →
Vonnegut is a giant in American literature, there’s no question. A Mark Twain for the 2nd half of the 20th century, he’s always had a clear, crisp voice that was unafraid to use the absurd…
