Author Archives: smellincoffee

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About smellincoffee

Citizen, librarian, reader with a boundless wonder for the world and a curiosity about all the beings inside it.

The rise of digital cryptography & the dark web

Posted on September 27, 2023 by smellincoffee

Short rounds time! First up, a surprisingly serious and detailed history of digital cryptography from Steven Levy. The previous books I’ve read by Levy have also been tech histories, but How Google Works and his Apple-related titles had a strong … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Wednesday blogging prompt: beating bad moods

Posted on September 27, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s blogging prompt from Long and Short Reviews is, “What do you do to shake off a bad mood?” That varies a bit on the mood itself — I need to be around friends to dispel some moods, but I … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | 8 Comments

Teaser Tuesday: The digital Knockturn Ally

Posted on September 26, 2023 by smellincoffee

So, is Tor the Dark Web and Dark Web Tor? Absolutely not. Tor is only one network that exists in the Dark Web. There are others, such as Hornet, Freenet, and I2P, which we’ll discuss later on in the book. … Continue reading →

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Inside the Chaotic Rise of YouTube

Posted on September 25, 2023 by smellincoffee

Do you remember the first YouTube video you watched? Mine was a fifteen-second clip of a guy doing a skateboarding trick, embedded in a blog post. The men who initially coded YouTube used Flash, which allowed videos to be played … Continue reading →

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Flags of our Fathers

Posted on September 22, 2023 by smellincoffee

More Marines were killed in the first four days of the Battle of Iwo Jima than perished in Guadacanal over the course of five months, and the battle accounts for over a third of Marine casualties sustained in the entire … Continue reading →

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The Autobiography of Cap’n Kate

Posted on September 21, 2023 by smellincoffee

I haven’t read any of the Autobiography books that Star Trek has been putting out in recent years, but when I spotted that Kate Mulgrew did the Audible version of this, I had to give it a try. I consistently … Continue reading →

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Fall TBR

Posted on September 19, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is books on our autumn to-be-read lists. I’m going to mix mine up between challenge reads & just for run reads. But first, the Tuesday Tease! One way to steal from people is to distract them … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Living Memory

Posted on September 18, 2023 by smellincoffee

When Starfleet begins analyzing a series of disruptive and potentially dangerous flares in space, Commander Pavel Chekov realizes there’s a pattern: these flares mostly in places visited by the Enterprise on its five-year mission, albiet in reverse order — and … Continue reading →

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The High Country

Posted on September 15, 2023 by smellincoffee

All Chris Pike wanted to do was take a gander at a strange planet from Enterprise’s new shuttle, Eratosthenes. But then the laws of physics went AWOL, and he’s woken up to find himself living in…eh, the Old West? Well, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

The Jewish Annotated New Testament

Posted on September 14, 2023 by smellincoffee

(Yes, this book is why I’ve been so quiet the last two weeks.) The relationship between Christianity and Judaism has fascinated me ever since I bolted from the Pentecostalism in which I was raised, and began rebuilding my worldview from … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, General, Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments