Today marks the publication of my latest book, _Close Reading with Computers: Textual Scholarship, Computational Formalism, and David Mitchell's_ Cloud Atlas, at Stanford University Press.

In Everest, F. Alton, and Ken C Pohlmann, _Master Handbook of Acoustics_ (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009), p. 247, a range of room ratios are listed to achieve optimal modal distributions using the Bolt range and a set of external sources. In other words, this addresses the question: what size should I make my room to achieve the best even distribution of sound throughout?

The autoimmune conditions from which I suffer are a total pain to describe under the general frameworks within which most people understand illness. For most short-term infections -- which are, after all, the frame of reference most people hold for illness -- rest is helpful. You should go back to bed and you'll feel better. If you are tired, it is a sign from your body that you should rest.

Today I read Kathleen Fitzpatrick's _Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University_, a book that touches on many of my interests (public humanities, open access, reforming university assessments and hiring etc.). I'd already had the pleasure of reading the draft version, which [was available for open comment](http://generousthinking.hcommons.org), but the final edition really did feel even better than that.

The [economy of prestige in academia](https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316161012.004) is odd. We often like to think that the prestige of our institutions -- whether that be a university or a publisher -- is not made on the basis of a monetary or financial decision. But I think there are lots of things that give the lie to this. Consider the debate around new open-access book publishers.

The Sacred Unreadable Artefact: Digital Preservation, Computational Abundance, and Scarce Access Martin Paul Eve Birkbeck, University of London This is the text of Eve, Martin Paul (2019) The Sacred Unreadable Artefact: Digital Preservation, Computational Abundance, and Scarce Access.

The PreSonus Quantum interfaces are [definitely not supported on Windows 7](https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003181806-Will-Quantum-work-with-my-Windows-10-machine-). But if you are not faint of heart, it is possible to hack the driver onto a Windows 7 system (or perhaps Windows 8). Here's how I did it. OK, so first things first, this is TOTALLY unofficial, definitely not officially supported, and I am _not_ responsible if these

I have a music release/EP out on Tici Taci records today, called _The Learning Experience_. Available for purchase at: Juno Download Beatport Traxsource Amazon What the critics/DJs are sayin': "This has track of the year all over if for me." "One of my faves from the year so far." "This is a terrific release. Remixes are stellar (naturally) and will go down a storm.

The AHRC awards Ph.D. funding, now, through a system of Doctoral Training Partnerships. These are groups of institutions who share a funding pool, and training resources, for doctoral candidates. In many ways, this is a good idea; to agglomerate resources and to make institutions cooperate is clearly beneficial. But it also comes with some substantial frustrations as a supervisor.

I examined a Ph.D. thesis this week. I usually do about two or three of these a year. I was curious to work out how long it takes to undertake this task, so in my slightly obsessive fashion, I got cracking on the time tracking.

The [report on Learned Societies and Plan S](http://www.informationpower.co.uk/consultation/) commissioned by Wellcome, UKRI, and ALPSP has been released. In general, this is a very good document. Societies should read it and act. There is one amusing element to which I'd draw some attention, though.