There are plenty of technical books that have come up in the market recently, but few as entertaining at this one. Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects walks us through the process of building electronic gadgets that can interact with other devices as well as with the various physical objects of the world. Have you ever wanted to make your pet’s bed send you an email? The author, Tom Igoe and Dan O'Sullivan, provide us a series of simple projects that teach the gadgets you create to communicate with one another through the formation of networks of smart devices. In this technical book, everything is well explained as to how to create an electronic device that can easily talk to you as well as interact with its environment.

On Oct 7, 2008, Solyndra Inc, after three years of silence, just announced landing $1.2 billion in contracts on their new thin-film solar power modules. According to their press release, "Solyndra's photovoltaic (PV) system is designed to generate significantly more solar electricity on an annual basis from typical low-slope commercial rooftops with lower installation costs than conventional PV flat panel technologies." Solyndra has claimed significan advances in solar technology: their technology uses rows of cylindrical cells, which absorb more light, have less wind resistance, and are much easier to install than conventional systems.

If Linux wants to score against Windows on the desktop, it needs to offer a convincing office suite. SoftMaker has just announce a beta of their SoftMaker Office suite for Linux that is aimed squarely at topping what OpenOffice.org has to offer. SoftMaker is making the beta free-of-charge for SoftMaker Office 2008 for Linux.

Linux software is gaining popularity. While web servers are the number one applications driving Linux sales, there are different versions and types of Linux software applications that have driven the popularity of the operating system. Three software applications used prominently in Linux are Sage 3.0.2, StorYBook, CrossFTP.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a "microscope on a chip" that is small and can be produced very inexpensively. The Science daily, July 29, 2008 claims that it can be mass-produced at around $10.

Because this device is small, has no lens to break, and can be produced at low cost the potential applications for this new microscope are exciting. You could, for instance, develop a microscope that could fit in a cell phone sized devide. Such a device would, amoung other things, help field workers in undeveloped countries to check for malaria or for hikers to check for microbes.

Originally this article was supposed to be a book review of the upcoming O'Reilly title Subject to Change, but I was so appalled by its content that I felt compelled to shift focus to the more important issue of ethics in publishing. This book reflects a sinister trend in the tech book publishing industry that favors vapid, tedious material that serves to advise readers without revealing the big secrets. The purpose is for the authors (usually a group of writers, and most of them high-level managers) to promote their company and its services by giving readers just enough information. If they want the advanced material, they need to buy the rest at a premium price by going straight to the company for its professional services. Meanwhile, the publisher bathes in a sea of money while the authors relentlessly promote the book on their blogs and in their conference keynotes and panel discussions. Tech books have increasingly become corporate marketing vehicles, sacrificing the exciting A-list technical material that regular tech book buyers and enthusiasts have come to expect from companies like O'Reilly Media and Pearson Education. This isn't the first book I've seen that gives readers a 20,000-word marketing pitch -- that honor belongs to Enterprise Ajax (and it's about three times longer). I'm bothered -- sickened -- to see that not only is this trend continuing unabated, but it's actually become a habit.