Posts tagged "books" - nolan caudill's internet house

Man and the Myth

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0000

When we consider, however, instead of the physical, the psychological character of our species, the most evident distinguishing sign is man’s organization of his life according primarily to mythic, and only secondarily economic, aims and laws. Food and drink, reproduction and nest-building, it is true, play formidable roles in the lives no less of men than of chimpanzees. But what of the economics of the Pyramids, the cathedrals of the Middle Ages, Hindus starving to death with edible cattle strolling all around them, or the history of Israel, from the time of Saul to right now? If a differentiating feature is to be named, separating human from animal psychology, it is surely this of the subordination in the human sphere of even economics to mythology. And if one should ask why or how any such unsubstantial impulsion ever should have become dominant in the ordering of physical life, the answer is that, in this wonderful human brain of ours there has dawned a realization unknown to the other primates. It is that of the individual, conscious of himself as such, and aware that he, and all that he cares for, will one day die.

Myths to Live By – Joseph Campbell

Came across this passage tonight. This strikes me as being right.

Days by Philip Larkin

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0000

What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields.

— Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Wedddings, February 1964

SICP and Lulu.com

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:00:00 +0000

I’ve been wanting to read SICP for awhile, but with lots of other books on my to-read list, as well as the $50 dollar price tag for a used copy, I’ve put it on hold. The price, while relatively steep, usually doesn’t stop me from picking up a highly-desired book, but I held off mainly as the book is freely available on their website, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license and this seems like a lot to pay for a free-as-in-beer book.

Since SICP runs close to 600 printed pages and approximately 40 HTML files , I’d rather not read it in my browser and printing it on the home printer is not really an option. I decided that using Lulu might be a workable solution.

Lulu takes PDFs so step one was to convert the SICP website to one big PDF.

First, I used wget to mirror the site. Now that I had all the files, I wanted to clean them up a little. Every single page had the previous and next links at the bottom and this was obviously not needed when the pages are in physical form. I ran the following sed command to remove these lines:

sed -i "/[Go to/d" *html

The next step was to convert the HTML to PDF. I used htmldoc for this particular task. First, I put all the names of the HTML files in one text file, on one line, and in the correct order. I called this file “all_files.txt”. The htmldoc command I used to convert to PDF is the following:

htmldoc -f sicp.pdf --webpage --left .75in --right .75in cat all_files.txt

I then uploaded this file up to Lulu and designed my (very) simple cover. I made it clear on the back cover text that I was printing this book under the rights granted by the aforementioned license and would receive no profit from this book with a link back to the original source. I’m not a lawyer so I hope that covers all bases.

Lulu has a convenient feature that will let you do a private printing. I could probably make this book public, setting my profit to zero, and even though that would be covered under the license, it still feels strange to do.

I am very curious how this book will turn out. The Lulu process was actually fun and if this turns out well, I could see myself using the service again. Once I get the book, I’ll post my reviews of the service and possibly some pictures of the final product. Nonetheless, I’m excited to get a print version of this book for a much-reduced price.

**Edited to add:**Here’s the download for the PDF: sicp.pdf

"To Live Deep"

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

I’m currently reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau, a gift from my wife, who knows me very well. Very few lines I’ve read resonate with me as much as these. Much in the same mood as these lines written over 150 years ago, my favorite album of 2008 and one of the most impactful albums ever for me was Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago,” which was a somber, but uplifting, account of a man alone in the woods, settling with past demons, and eventually coming to terms with himself, emerging from the woods a new creature.