Kent archie

I worked for AT&T from 1985-2001 and while I never worked for Bell Labs proper, I was in the neighborhood. It was a joy to read the first part of this book as it described the early start and amazing developments that came out of Bell Labs. It made me proud to have been nearby. But then that last part made me sad to go through the fall of AT&T and Bell Labs. AT&T was besieged by problem from within and without and I still think we are lesser without them (the company currently calling itself AT&T bears no resemblance to the company I worked for). We see lots of innovations everyday, but they are mostly variations on a theme. There are very few places where people can just work on ideas till they figure it out, even if it's not clear it will lead anywhere. The national labs are burdened with having all of Congress as bosses, almost none of whom are qualified to evaluate the projects but feel as if there views are relevant. I think the future will be better than the past, even without Bell Labs, but it may take longer to get there.

I liked the first book better. The flying saucer story was great but the kidnapping story was quite dull.

A nice trip to London, a surprising conclusion and another really stupid blunder by Danny.
This has actually become a tedious character flaw in Danny.

I read this just after seeing the new Netflix movie.
The movie and the book are pretty much the same up to when Enola is being sent to boarding school
and then the plots diverge. A lot.

Both are pleasant and fun stories, but I preferred the movie.

Ive seen the movie several times and generally enjoyed it. But it has some very annoying anti-science rants in it. Now I see where they come from. There is a several page screed about hot stupid engineers are and another even long one about the failure of science. These are both from the mathematician character, who should know better. If you want an example of how running something like Jurassic Park isn't that difficult, just go to Disney's Animal Kingdom and count how many people are eaten by tigers everyday.

As a software engineer, I find the Nedry character offensive, But using the stereotype makes the writing a little easier, I guess. There is an important bit of information that is kept from the heroes by a mistake in the computer software, but it is a mistake that not even a beginning programmer would make. But when you start with the assumption that science and engineering are bad then you need to have characters do dumb things to prove your point.

I will probably read the next book but not for a while.