The kids aren't all right

In case you didn't know already (from listening Offspring, of course :), computers make kids dumb. Ready here about a study proving this.

I don't read only books

Over the last three days I read three interesting articles pointed out by some friends:
- one about an autistic boy that wrote some poems describing what he feels;
- the second one is about new research that shows the importance of the X chromosome in humans;

The last article is about how to design a good interface of a search portal; it was written two years ago, but the ideas expressed there are very actual. I think as software become more and more complex designing a usable interface will more important than ever. Another online reference about designing good user interfaces in your software is here.

New book

I finished reading "Out of the Shelter". This novel is different from the other ones by Lodge I read (Therapy, Thinks, Small World, The British Museum is Falling Down), the author is not trying to write a funny book, but a realistic one. I also read some comments by the author and he was saying that in the period he wrote this novel there was a divide between generations who lived during and had memories from the WWII, and a new generation that knew this war only from stories. I feel the same is happening in Romania with regard to communism, and just by coincidence I read in Dilema an article about this (see the one by Robert Turcescu from March, 4-10 issue).

Now reading "If this is a man" by Primo Levi (Romanian version "Mai este oare acesta un om?"); a book about surviving the holocaust.

Google Maps and a new book

Recently Google started to offer a new service, Google Maps. This is gonna be much better than Mapquest, and people started doing interesting stuff using this new service. Take a look at this amazing demo.

I started reading a new book: "Out of the Shelter" by David Lodge (the Romanian version).

New book

I just finished reading Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb. A novel about a girl from Western Europe who takes a job in a Japanese company. Very interesting reading.