Kevin Poulsen
This is one of the best “true cyber crime” books I’ve read. It’s the story of a credit card ring, the carder underworld, and the FBI agent who busted the ring’s leader. It’s a worthy successor to the first of the genre, Cliff Stoll’s “The Cuckoo’s Egg“.
Amusing self-help book about “doing your own thing” (now called “following your passion”, a phrase I’m thoroughly sick of). The best thing in the book? Here it is:
Benjamin Roth
Benjamin Roth was a young lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio who kept a diary during the Great Depression. Starting in June of 1931, he used it to try and puzzle out what was happening and how he might deal with the situation. His diaries through the December, 1941, were edited by his son and published as “The Great Depression: A Diary”.
The familiar narrative of the Depression is about out-of-work factory workers and migrant Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl. Roth reveals another side of the experience, the Depression as experienced by a professional man. Despite his relatively high status, Roth suffered from a severe loss of income and didn’t participate in the periodic short-lived recoveries. Reading his diary, I got a strong sense of the confusion and uncertainty of the times.
Like the same author’s “Lawyer Boy“, I’d characterize this as “mildly amusing”. It’s about Las Vegas and all the people there who are in the business of deceiving people. I enjoyed his stories of a Las Vegas magicians’ club, but most of the other chapters weren’t terribly interesting.
This is a mildly amusing account of a slacker’s first year in law school. Lax tries too hard to be funny, but some of his self-deprecating humor does work. Lax Scott Turow’s “One L” is a much better book on the same subject.
“The Perfect Thing” is the interesting but now-dated story of the development of the iPod. Those who are fascinated by Apple’s workings will enjoy the book.
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