Still more mini book reviews -

• Nanomedicine, by Robert Freitas Jr. is rather overwhelming in the detail it offers about the medical use of nanotech. And yet, for all this detail, I didn't find it that enlightening. It needs a better narrative.
• Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules, by Steve McConnell, is another of McConnell's excellent books on managing software development. He tells war stories about a number of Microsoft projects that I was involved in, one way or another, and it's always interesting to see someone else's slant on things. He has the nerve to even get into some of the personality and office politics issues that are often the crux of the matter.
• Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. I was tempted into reading this book by my old college buddy Bill Beck. Even though it isn't science fiction, it reads like it, and that bothered me. There are just so many big plot loopholes. Of course, if the author dealt with all of them, the book would drown in exposition. And the female characters, yikes. More macho taciturn babes who like hasty sex, a la Heinlein's Friday. It just doesn't seem real with such calculated fantasy figures. Heck, it would be more realistic if they were aliens.