If you care about your own civil liberties or have ever given even the slightest thought about how all the surveillance equipment we subject ourselves daily might be used against us, Little Brother might just be the best fiction book you read all year. Author Cory Doctorow paints a chilling picture of a near future where San Francisco's Bay Bridge is blown up by terrorists and the Federal government takes up residence in the Bay Area. Everything from traffic light cameras, to FastPass data, to BART fare passes is used to profile 'normal' behaviors and seek out those who deviate from normal. At the center are a group of hacker kids who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time on the day the bridge exploded. The kids want their city back and technology plays a central role in making that happen. On a few occasions Marcus, the 17-year-old main character, sounds a bit more like Cory Doctorow former European Director of the EFF than a teenager. Generally speaking the story flows smoothly weaving equal parts techno-thriller, online and hacker culture, and an applied lesson in technologies presented throughout the story. I'll be surprised if this doesn't turn up as a summer blockbuster in the next few years.
Like previous Doctorow offerings, you can download an ebook version of Little Brother for free. And of course, the print version of Little Brother is available on Amazon.
I see a ton of digital photography books every year. Most of them all cover the same information with slightly different wording. How Digital Photography Works offers something very different from the standard collection. Part instruction manual on using digital cameras and part detailed breakdown of how each part of a digital camera actually does what it does, How Digital Photography Works will leave you wiser for having spent the time reading it. All explanations are in plain English with some of the best diagrams I've ever seen on the topic of digital photography. Included in the book are detailed explanations of how a camera lens works, how digital cameras covert light into data, how digital cameras manipulate photos, how your software corrects photo mistakes, how digital prints are made, and how digital camera exposure works. There's some clever morphing explained and the process of restoring old prints with digital tools is detailed in a way that makes the solution seem reasonable. Unless you already studied photography intensively, I consider How Digital Photography Works to be a must have reference for those of us who want to enjoy taking pictures and also want to learn to make our pictures better.
Authors of science fiction have long envisioned a world inhabited by thinking machines. From the clunky humanoid robots of the silent film era to the sleek condescending omniscience of 2001's HAL, the concept of artificial intelligence has both intrigued and frightened humanity. Mind Design II explores the real world scientific potential of artificial intelligence, and attempts to discover whether or not a machine can implement a theory of mind and intelligence. The book is a series of essays, ranging from an explanation of the Turing-Machine to discussions of connectionism, dynamical systems, and symbolic vs. nonsymbolic models of artificial intelligence. This is certainly not light reading, but is accessible and enlightening for those with an interest in A.I. [Mathew Brady]
Jeffrey Zeldman has written a guide for web designers who want to adhere to a strict interpretation of web standards. Gone from his philosophy are the cheap hacks and inefficient workarounds that have been a staple of web development for many years. Zeldman argues that HTML should be used as it was intended – for providing document structure – and not used as a way to force design. If Cascading Style Sheets are used to provide the design and styling, a web page can be designed that is not only more efficient, but also viewable by any web browser. The book includes a brief history of the web, documents the browser wars of the late nineties, and discusses the repercussions of proprietary HTML tags. Ultimately, the book’s main focus is an exploration of theoretical HTML and web standards, but also contains practical tips for building standards compliant web sites. For more information about Zeldman and web standards, visit his website at 
As an iPod owner and fan, I am continually searching for cool new ways to use my iPod. I thought I was pretty cutting edge using it for voice recording, photo storage, and viewing driving directions. After reading 