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A fascinating book looking at the history of the Chinese Computer, or attempts to enable the input and display of Chinese characters in the early days of computers. Now known as IMEs (input method editors), it was not a given that the most popular method now used for Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin, would be the dominant one, nor that it is now so efficient that is can rival, or even exceed, the speed of entering words using Latin alphabets. Early IMEs used numeric coding, codes based on the structure of Chinese characters, and other methods which might have become dominant. But Hanyu Pinyin would win in the end due to politics and an advantage, compared to other methods, at entering multiple characters.

What follows is a chapter by chapter summary of the book.

"1: When IMEs Were Women: IBM, Lois Lew, and the Dawn of Electronic Chinese" looks at the history of one of the first Chinese entry systems used. It uses four-digit codes to represent the most popular Chinese characters and the ability of a typist to memorize the codes and enter them to generate the words. This was based on the telegraph system which also uses four-digit codes for Chinese characters, so it was possible for a typist to memorize most of them. And a Chinese woman, Lois Lew, would become the main person to demonstrate this ability in demonstrations by the inventor of the input method.

"2: Breaking the Spell: Sinotype and the Invention of Autocompletion" covers entry system based on the characteristics of Chinese characters. These break down Chinese characters into subcharacters and strokes and assigned to certain keys. These keys were then entered in combination to reproduce the Chinese character. Efficiency in entering characters was by arranging for the most often used strokes to be most easily accessible. More efficiency by achieve by allowing Chinese characters to be selected based on a minimum set of key entries that uniquely identify it. This was, essentially, a form of word prediction and autocorrecting. A display would show the selected character to the typist for confirmation before it was finally entered.

"3: Farewell, QWERTY: The Quest for a Chinese Keyboard" covers the period when non-Qwerty keyboards were used to input Chinese characters. At this time, many keyboards were proposed, all with hundreds of keys, with different ways of mapping a combination of keys to each Chinese character.

"4: The Input Wars: Zhi Bingyi and the Return of Hypography" covers the rise of minicomputers and microcomputers used in China, usually ones imported from the West. This gave new impetus to entering Chinese character entry using a Qwerty keyboard. It covers various schemes for generating characters based on various input schemes. Many were proposed during this period, but only a few made it to market, as they needed to work with the manufacturers of the computers to implement them.

"5: The Search for Modding China: Printers, Screens, and the Politics of Peripherals" looks at the microcomputer era with the introduction of Apple II and IBM-PC like computers. These microcomputers came with peripherals, like monitors and printers, pose new challenges to producing Chinese characters. Made for Western alphabets, they lack the resolution or ability to show or print Chinese characters. It was the rise of modders and hackers who worked to modify printer hardware to make them produce Chinese characters. Operating systems also had to be hacked or modified to handle Chinese input systems, and to display and print Chinese characters. These changes propagated back to manufacturers of the operating system, leading to the rise of 'international' operating systems that have the built-in ability to display Chinese characters and other languages.

"6: Connected Thoughts: Chinese in the Age of Predictive Text" covers the rise of Hanyu Pinyin as the most used input system today. Compared to other Chinese input systems at the time, it was less efficient at entering individual Chinese characters. But Hanyu Pinyin overcomes this due to the capabilities of modern computers for predicting input, allowing computers to quickly enter well-known multi character phrases faster than other input methods that were optimized for generating single characters. Multiple domain specific databases of Chinese characters also allowed Hanyu Pinyin to quickly produce output for specific purposes. It also didn't hurt that the Chinese Government encouraged the use of Hanyu Pinyin as an alternative writing method to traditional Chinese characters.

The book ends will a note that even today, people are still inventing input systems for Chinese and other non-alphabetic written languages. Globally, computers with such input systems now outnumber Western style entry systems (one key for each character). Now, with AI chatbots, one-letter-per-key entry systems may even see a decline in the future, as people now use chatbots to enter words on their behalf based on a prompt.

"True Names" is Vernor Vinge's fascinating story that is one of the first to present the concept of a cyberspace and is generally considered one of the first stories in what would become the genre of cyberpunk.

In the story, True Names refer to the actual names of persons who have personas in what Vinge calls the "Other Plane". In the Other Plane, those which hacking skills are the 'Warlocks' and they dominate the Other Plane with what is essentially 'magic' since their hacking skills is akin to casting magical spells on regions in that world (which represents hacking computer systems around the world and in space). Of course, the Warlocks would protect their True Names, as once they are known, they can be forced to do the others bidding so as not suffer a True Death (killed).

The story starts with the True Name of Mr Slippery in the Other Plane being discovered by the government. But the government is more concerned with another person known as the Mailman, who has apparently hacked government and possibly military systems without being detected, and they need his help to discover who is the Mailman.

As the story proceeds, Mr Slippery and another hacker discover that the Mailman might not be another human, and may be about to launch a cyber-driven attack on the world. To stop him, they have to grab control of the resources of the US government systems. But even then, the Mailman is a powerful adversary, and they may not be able to stop him while the Mailman is also trying to stop them by sending them to their True Deaths. Worldwide pandemonium in computer systems ensue. In the end, the real identify of the Mailman is discovered, but the world may never be the same.

The story is fascinating for its portrayal of the Other World, where a virtual world is visualized much like a fantasy land. But the landscape is actually a representation of computer systems from around the world: ponds represent data storage, castles represent defended computer systems, and fantasy creatures are the systems that guard the entries to the system. The warlocks themselves are master hackers, able to break into systems, and the battle with the Mailman is the act of controlling and gathering computer resources to dominate and deny them to your opponent.

The book starts with a series of essays on the influence of the story on various people and computer systems at the time. Some essays examine the issue of computer security and the tension between free speech and privacy, and the US government's desire to gather more information on people. Others look at attempts to produce a cyberworld using networked computer systems. The essays, written in the 1990s, are an interesting look at the time when microcomputers and computer networks are just starting to have an influence on society.

An average issue, with interesting stories by Tia Tashiro and Grant Collier.

• "Every Hopeless Thing" by Tia Tashiro: a space scavenger visits a deserted and polluted Earth, only to discover it is not so deserted after all. Her attempts to get them to leave Earth fail, and she realizes that her desire to help every hopeless thing, like her ship that has an AI that was destined for the scrapyard, will be her guide to helping those who prefer to say at home.

• "I Will Meet You When the Artifacts End" by Amal Singh: on a colony ship heading to a new world, two people send messages to each over, though they have never met. But plans to do so are interrupted when parts of the colony need to go to deep sleep to save resources. And there is no guarantee they will wake up at the same time in the future. But one person is still determined to find the other, or at least, keep some memories of their talks together.

• "The Best Version of Yourself" by Grant Collier: the story is set in a future where nanotechnology can allow people to 'edit' themselves to remove unwanted mental states and achieve 'nirvana'. One daughter's mother has undergone the procedure, and she now believes her mother is no longer her mother. But a promise she had made to her mother has to be kept.

• "Stellar Evolutions in Pop Idol Artistry" by Em X. Liu: in the future, K-Pop like stars perform to a galactic audience. But like pop stars nowadays, they are made for their roles, and can just as easily be discarded for the next big thing.

• "Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot's Destruction" by Natalia Theodoridou: an explorer crashes on a planet where a strange signal was discovered. The signal turns out to be from a person that, to the explorer (and readers), is basically a god. Now they have to decide how far they want to take their relationship together.

• "The Happiness Institute" by AnaMaria Curtis: at an institute that tries to explore happiness, one person decides to dig a pool to be happy, while another discovers a way to mentally connect to others for happiness.

• "Born Outside" by Polenth Blake: in a future, some form of children would be born from large seed pods, and adjust to living on a world may not welcome them.

An average issue with reasonable stories by Harmony Neal, Sarah Brooks, Rich Larson and David Cledem.

• "Alts" by Harmony Neal: in a comedic variation of HG Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau", a genetically engineered 'person' sits in on a group of similar altered people, trying to figure out what they are good or; or rather, what a military complex thinks they may be good for.

• "Dogfights in Olympus and Other Absences" by Ryan Row: a strange planet with a huge atmosphere becomes the backdrop for this dogfighting story around an ace pilot who only wants what's best for his daughter. But then the daughter wants to become like him.

• "The Hunger of Auntie Tiger" by Sarah Brooks: in a desert future, two kids eke out a living among the wreckage of a city, being told tales of a hungry tiger. But will the tale become true when they are caught in a huge dust storm, and they see a familiar figure in the sand.

• "You Make Pattaya" by Rich Larson: sex, deception and money form the backdrop of this story of a future Thailand, when a man sees an opportunity for quick gains by exposing a celebrity secretly looking for adventure.

• "Rock, Paper, Incisors" by David Cledem: the story of a young girl tricked into become her tribe's chosen hero / monster by transforming herself in one of three types of creatures to do battle with the other tribe's hero / monster. But when she senses a connection with her enemy, she may be able to escape being killed and, perhaps, escape the constant strife between the tribes.

• "My Generations Shall Praise" by Samantha Henderson: a story about a prison inmate being signed up for a procedure to allow a dying relative take over her body in exchange for money for her children. But can she go through with it, especially when she realizes that doing so would make her children end up being effective body slaves to her relative in the future.

A very entertaining graphic novel about how it might have been if Ada, Countess of Lovelace and Charles Babbage had managed to bring to life the Analytical Engine. The book starts with the real-life stories of Ada and Babbage, then branches off into a 'pocket universe' where the Analytical Engine is created and run by them.

In a series of adventures, the pair hilariously show off the Engine to Queen Victoria who wants to 'RULE THE WORLD!', called to save Britain from a global financial crisis, fight off the mathematical Luddites, try to mechanize fiction writing by statistically analysing a book by Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) and even try to visualize the third dimension (remember, the characters live on a two-dimensional page).

Probably one of the most hilarious short parts of the book is when George Boole (of Boolean logic fame) is reduces to mumbling "Error, error," when asked a non-boolean question (not a "Yes" or "No" answer) while being served a drink!

The book is full of footnotes by the author pointing out historical, mathematical, engineering and computing references to the situations depicted. Making the book more true to life is the effort the author went through to ensure that the words being said in the novel closely match what Ada, Babbage and other characters (like Isambard Kingdom Brunel) actually said or wrote in real life.

The book ends with a very technical appendix outlining how Babbage's Analytical Engine would have worked if it actually had been built.

A very entertaining read indeed.

An excellent book on the continuing adventures of a young Ada Byron (later to be Countess of Lovelace) and young Mary Shelly who, breaking all kinds of Victorian rules, set up a detective agency together and proceed to solve crimes. In this story, Lady Mary Sommerville asks them to investigate the pending marriage of a young girl to a peer who seems very anxious to get his hands on her family's fortune. Also involved is a mysterious girl in grey seen running in the streets that may be related to the case. If you pay attention to the story, you may be able to figure out the solution one step ahead of the girls, but not by much.

This is the second book in the series that plays a what-if with Ada and Mary, born years apart in reality, were about the same age, met and set up a detective agency with the help of young Charles Dickens and, in this book, their sisters. It's a fascinating scenario and quite well done. You also see young girls who, acting against Victorian norms, set out to do something instead of acting like 'damsels in distress'.

I look forward to reading the next book in the series, with hints dropped by the author in this book, of even bigger events to happen in the universe of the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency.

One of the few non-SFF stories I've read, mainly due to the premise that it revolves around a bookshop. It is an interesting book, told from the first-person perspective of the young niece of the bookshop's owner, and mainly involves the relationship between the niece and her uncle, but with a few books thrown in.

At the start of the book, the niece breaks off her relationship with a co-worker, and moves to live at the bookshop at the invitation of her uncle to recover emotionally. At first, all she does is take care of the shop and sleep. But she gradually opens up after reading books from the shop, and starts to go out into the surroundings, which is famous in Japan as a second-hand bookshop area. She meets and interacts with various residents, getting to know them.

But she has not fully recovered from the break-up, and needs a push from her uncle to do so. She also discovers that her uncle also has secrets from his past, especially over the uncle's wife (the niece's aunt), which disappeared years ago, but suddenly reappears into the uncle's life. It would need a trip with the aunt to discover what happened in the past and the estrangement that occurred between the uncle and aunt. And now, it would be her turn to return to favour and push the uncle and aunt to reconcile.

In short, an enjoyable read about people who bond over books, with some interesting characters and relationships that revolve around books and the people who write and read them.

A story that merges Chinese-style SF with a high stake meeting with aliens that doesn't quite meet the expectations of this reader. The blend of martial arts with futuristic tech is there, but the story's characters and situations didn't really pull me into the story.

The story evolves around one girl who continues the work started by her father, figuring out that much of the advances by human civilizations in the past was driven by periodic visits by aliens. Now, another one is due, and she is determined to go and meet the aliens.

But her plans are complicated by the involvement of two antagonistic men: one is wealthy, with commercial connections through his family, the other is a military AI leader who wants his own Pacific League to triumph over the Atlantic Alliance. Together, through cooperation and rivalry, they will set out together to meet the aliens, survive a test of their skills before the meeting, and then manoeuvrer through the political and military alliances on Earth to present the potential 'upgrade' of humanity peacefully, and for everybody.

While the book is brimming with ideas, the presentation of the science and technology, especially from the aliens, is somewhat clunky, with info dumps that bring the story to a halt while the characters (and the reader) digests the implications. The motivation of the characters are also presented in chunks, which didn't really let me 'get into' the characters as the story progressed.

Thus, this is a book that has a promising premise, but somewhat let down by the way the story is presented by the author.