Walter Underwood

If you are looking for the Walter Underwood who was at Rice University, Ford Aerospace, Hewlett-Packard, Objectivity, Infoseek, GO.com/Disney, Inktomi, Verity, and Autonomy, I'm now at Netflix improving the site search. I worked on the Ultraseek enterprise search engine for five companies and eight and a half years (through thirteen layoffs). It was a fun ride.

My blog, Most Casual Observer, is updated more often than this page. Go there for my latest opinions on search, books, photography, and other stuff.

I'm also Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 14 in Palo Alto.

Also check out another "walter" and "underwood", Physalis walteri and Trillium underwoodii from Michael Abram's Florida Wildflower page.

Recent reading:

• A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Ralph Koster. How do games work? What do game designers do? What are you missing if you don't know this stuff? It will take a few more readings to internalize this one, but that was true for Understanding Comics, too.
• The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. I thought the name was from the baroque period, but clearly he has taken it to heart in the plot structure. One might even call it rococo. Or a great read. Don't fight it. If Samuel Pepys needs a two page benediction on the wonders of free urination, go with the flow. So to speak.
• Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit. Walking as transportation, a dynamic sense of place, a political right, a social privilege, pilgrimage, exercise, and a few other things I can't remember. You can read this in bits, which is a good thing, because it kept overflowing my brain with ideas. For example, the Stations of the Cross is a walking pilgrimage turned into to symbols which you use as a virtual pilgrimage (while physically walking the stations). Think that three times real fast. Throw it in the bag for your next trip and read a chapter when you sit down to rest. Then walk a bit farther.
• Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn. This really should be a forgettable coming-of-age tale with castles and fairies, but it has something extra. This one is for when you need a book that is easy and pleasant to read, but still has some substance. Like al dente pasta instead of overcooked spaghetti.
• Summerland by Michael Chabon. A jam session mixing any bits of mythology he can get his hands on, from Coyote to the designated hitter rule, and a darn good tale, too. Our 4th grader read the whole thing and enjoyed it, even though he didn't get the Beowulf references. It is still good on the second read, and the audio book version is great. Chabon does different voices for each character.
• The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. Philosophy, biography, and history in a single book. Could it be any better?
• Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford. Edna St. Vincent Millay was a genius, an addict, a naif, and the girlfriend from hell. Read all about it. And care.
• Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore. Every once in a while, I find a book that involves me enough to interfere with my sleep. I've lost a few hours with Francine, Katchoo, and David. Maybe you should, too. Did I forget to mention that this is a comic book?
• Excession by Iain M. Banks. It could have been a formal exercise -- let's put something unexplainable at the center of the novel, and see what happens. But the web of people surrounding the Excession works so well that the dark center holds it all together. Somehow. Don't skip over the conversations between the intelligent ships, even though they are hard to follow at first. And they get the cool names: Killing Time (a warship), Ethics Gradient, Death and Gravity, …
• Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright. I always figured that this was an over-long, preachy, amateur utopia novel. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It is about falling in love with a land, a people, and a woman. At least, so far it is only about one woman, but I'm only a third of the way through, and Dorna just, well, I won't spoil the story. It is too good and you should read it yourself.
• Lost Japan by Alex Kerr. Originally written in Japanese for a Japanese audience, the English version is a surprisingly good introduction to Japanese culture. Of course, it is much more than that -- I wish I could write as well in one language has he does in two. Though this is billed as set of cultural essays, it is really a love story, starting with the author's initial infatuation with Japan and leading to a long, familiar accommodation, where he is well aware of her faults.
• Style: toward clarity and grace by Joseph M. Williams. Principles and mechanisms for turning turgid prose into clear, easy-to-read prose. In other words, writing tips for engineers.
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Well, now I know the source of the weird, choppy detective novel writing style. Of course, the original is something entirely different from the imitators -- the writing is highly visual, taking you to 1930's LA, and the writing has a shiny modern surface, "metal and glass exact", to quote a Scott Miller lyric.
• Design Patterns by Gamma, Helms, Johnson, and Vlissides. Addresses the missing level of system description, in between, for example, sorting (low level algorithms) and client/server (system architecture).
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, a mind-opening tour of sequential art.
• Shiloh by Shelby Foote. After watching the PBS series, The Civil War, Tina said, "I want Shelby Foote to come to my house and talk to me every night." Well, I can't arrange that, but I can recommend this novel.
• The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander, an architecture book that can instruct us on building software as if people were going to use it.
• Programming as if People Mattered by Nathaniel Borenstein, the original of the paraphrase above, and the true sequel to Elements of Programming Style. Also notable for an inspirational dose of humility -- most bad examples are from the author's own programs.
• The City Shaped, by Spiro Kostof, a study of streets, buildings, and environs, how they came to be and how they change. Great pictures.
• The Five Gospels by Funk, Hoover & The Jesus Seminar, a new translation and an instructive view of the gospels--read it both for the results of the scholarship and for a look at how scholars do their work. And Bob Funk was my Dad's roommate in seminary, but you should read it anyway.
• The Night Land, by William Hope Hodgson. I can believe that some people might barely be able to start this book, let alone finish it, but reading it is a sustained, peculiar, and dark experience that is well worth the time. Written in the 19th century, about a man in the 16th dreaming of a far future time when the sun is dying. That didn't make sense? Find out for yourself.
• Thuvia, Maid of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. What is a reading list without the classics?

Recent listening:

• Shonen Knife, has any band ever had more fun? US pop filtered through Japanese culture, and presented without guile. A song about the Jackalope? Sure!
• Brave Combo, pretend that you don't know they're a polka band, put on the record, and prepare to have fun. If you don't, you'll never find out what a good cha-cha Oh, Holy Night can be.
• The Loud Family (and Game Theory), some bands have great tunes but lame lyrics, and some bands have really great lyrics are hopeless with the music. And a very few bands have lousy music and lyrics, but they don't last very long. Then there are bands like this.
• Fastbacks, wow, these people just love to play. They might be having as much fun as Shonen Knife. And they cover "Midnight Confession".
• Tiger Trap, honest music about high school life. This is My So-Called Life written by people living it. For the post-teen experience (thirtysomething?), Rose Melberg is still writing songs, check her out. I'm looking forward to her forties (Once and Again).

You can try the web for my church, All Saints' Episcopal Church.

My workstation is named Nosferatu, to honor the film by F. W. Murnau, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. It's the first, and maybe still the best, Dracula film. If you think that silent films are goofy and hard to watch, see Nosferatu, preferably in a theater. At Infoseek, I got tired of spelling that for people, so I named my machine "diva", not because I'm arrogant and high maintenance, but for Diva, another fine film.

If you used to e-mail me as wunder@best.com you should now use the same username at wunderwood.org for a mail address.