“If guns are about power, then hacking is about secret knowledge, and knowledge is also power.” – Charlie Stross in The Fear Factory

Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you. – H. Jackson Brown

Chicago Trib news app developer leaves Chicago and moves to small town of Tyler, Texas to be a responsible parent. Instead of mostly moaning about life in the boondocks (and, unlike D and me, who used to simply leave Smalltown Ohio for other actual cities), said developer uses his experience to “improve the things [he doesn’t] like, either through application of will or technology or both.” Enter Hack Tyler.

Tyler has information that could be freed. Tyler has government that could be opened. Tyler has news that could be hacked. Moreover, Tyler has an almost completely unexploited market. There are no hackers there. The small number of high-tech businesses that exist in the region are either web development shops serving local businesses or robotics companies.

… Is this all going to go off without a hitch? Not a chance. I expect to spend many nights being painfully underwhelmed with the place and with myself, but this is the best way I know how to deal with it.

So far, Christopher Groskopf (@onyxfish) has changed Tyler’s bus transit system from an online PDF to Tyler On Time. And then the city announced they are overhauling the system and routes with it. While (I guess) that project is on hold, Groskopf is now looking at what to do with the city’s demographic and other data.

To be honest, what grabs me about Hack Tyler is not at all Future Boy Brings Fire To Australopithecus And Amuses Himself In Process, but this guy’s surrender to his circumstances as a divorced father. Once you make that decision to be present in your reality and your child’s life, keeping yourself occupied, going and useful comes with the territory, I suppose. And he admits that it is terribly hard. Good parents have always been a heartening puzzle to me – they selfishly procreate and then spend the rest of their lives willing to give those very lives for their children if necessary. When the aliens come and ask why we must be spared, I will point towards parents. That will keep them busy.

What also tickles me is this statement from the O’Reilly Radar interview: “Texas has a history of transparency projects that I was unaware of.” We’re working on cool projects NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT. Solid. Also, no one tell Rick Perry.

A little late to this action, but I’ve been busy. The results of NPR’s Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey are in. A few geos had a blog meme going as follows: Copy and paste NPR’s printable list and embolden (stronginate?) the titles you have read. I add a caveat that you may not check off a book as read if you’ve only watched the inevitable movie version.

Here’s mine with editorial comments, and links to the titles at Project Gutenberg, if applicable.

Why are The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem and Sentinels From Space by Eric Frank Russell not on this list?

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card (Can’t look at this book title and not think Bender’s Game.)
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin (I’ve read it in bits, pieces and spoilers. No fair.)
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman (Anansi Boys was much better, IMO.)
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan (Ever get sucked in by a series of books that your friends read feverishly while forgetting to eat, sleep or bathe? No? Me neither.)
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick (Speaking of inevitable movie versions, you’re not going to believe that Ridley Scott has plans for a Bladerunner sequel. What are they going to name it? Father Of The Electric Bride?)
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King (D read it and divined the end halfway into the book, thus ruining it for the rest of us in his general vicinity at the time.)
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams (I believe I protested against this book in freshman English. No idea why. Must have been teenage hormones.)
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny (What?! Not Lord of Light? I’m outraged!)
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson (Some jackass has my first-edition, signed copy of this book. When I find out who it is, there will be severe hide whipping.)
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson (One of the best books ever written)
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin (Simply great.)
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (I’ve had a really hard time not making out with all of Fforde’s books)
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson (Once I am done with the self-imposed decade-long hiatus from Stephenson door-stoppers, I am on this book. I swear.)
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock (Have a bookshelf full of it, but no thanks.)
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Again, Eric Frank Russell? Anyone?

34/100. Your turn. Drop a comment here with a link so I can check out your results.

Today’s New Orleans Times Picayune

A new Army Corps of Engineers rating system for the nation“s levees is about to deliver a near-failing grade to New Orleans area dikes, despite the internationally acclaimed $10 billion effort to rebuild the system in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, corps officials have confirmed.

As Ray drove us through Fontainebleau and Gert Town on our way to Xavier University this Saturday, he marveled out loud at how great that part of town looks now. I replied, “Compared with what it looked like even two to three years after the storm!”

Many who live in New Orleans and those just visiting remark on how much the city is getting fixed. From Pistolette, a native of St. Bernard Parish who now lives Uptown, “We know what our problems are, and we“re on the path to fixing them with an enthusiasm that didn“t exist here before. The trick now is to keep up the momentum, and never return to the apathy of before.” Athenae, who last visited from Chicago in 2007, remarks, “I kept asking people if it sounded terrible to talk about how wonderful things looked to me.”

Dare I say it. Dare any of us even think it.

If the city that so many insistent, audacious and spirited people returned to and worked so hard to salvage over the last six years and all of the precious new hope on top of it were to be submerged in the floodwaters of the next Category 5 surge that these crap levees may not be able to hold back. If. What if?

That’s what you get for being a poor, black, gay, southern city built one million miles below sea level, right? Dead wrong.

… I like to think the challenges New Orleans faces are emblematic of the nation as whole, indeed, of the human race at this moment in history. Crumbling infrastructure, dysfunctional government, environmental degradation, social inequities, you name it … We’re only reflecting and encapsulating the future we all share.

Let me say something about being an American, about this finely-honed, missile-precise national identity that I am still very proud to have: Neither can you pick and choose when you are and when you’re not American, nor are you allowed to exclude folks from Americanhood when it’s suddenly convenient to you. If you’re in, you’re in. If you’re not, that’s your problem, but don’t make it mine or those of my friends who live in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.

Our. Us. We. We don’t all have to be in this together, but if you’ve chosen America like I have, we are and we have work to do.

Three of the six winners of the Ashley Morris award for excellence in New Orleans blogging to date. These are phenomenal people.

Ashley winners from left to right: Cliff Harris (2010), Dedra Johnson (2011), and The Zombie (2009). Photo by Derek Bridges.