I give a disturbing amount of money to Subterranean Press and Night Shade Books for some of their fine editions. They seem to print a lot of stuff that I want to have–hitting both my tastes in literature, in that they print books I want to read and own, and my tastes as a frankly insane collector type in that… Read more →
Year: 2008
Bookish Bits: Vance Integral
That’s Jack Vance over there. I’m a fan. I’m enough of a fan that I wanted to sign up for the Vance Integral Edition when they were taking subscriptions. It played into my two compulsions: collecting all the good writing, and collecting fine or rare editions of the good writing. At that time I didn’t have the money sitting around.… Read more →
A Humument
I was recently in a discussion of books as art object. Usually when I’m in a conversation like that it’s about fine limited editions, but this time it was about books that are works of art in a more conventional sense. I cited the Codex Seraphinianus, and the person I was talking to cited A Humument. I admit I was… Read more →
Thursday Night Gallimaufry
And once again, we have my quick opinions on a variety of things I’ve run into in the last little while. I am fascinated with the mystery of what WalMart might be doing in their giant, mysterious data center. I’m guess that it might be related to “lowering prices every day”, but doing so by means that your average consumer… Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: Hal Duncan
“It has to be Guinness–dark, black and rich. It’s a scientifically proven fact, you know, that Guinness is forty-five percent fortitude.” —Hal Duncan Read more →
Rokia Traore: Nothing to do with superstrings
A few years ago I picked up a Rokia Traore album. I’m not sure what the impetus was–probably I was looking for another hit of the same kind of musical whammy that I got from Orchestre Baobab‘s Pirate’s Choice, so I was exploring African contemporary. Let us cut a long story short and say that I enjoyed the album, and… Read more →
Understanding Superstrings
“Hooray for popularization!” A while back I mentioned that I was really enjoying following the various TED Talks as they are being put online. (In fact, at this point, I’ve got an archive of over 230 of the talks as MP4 videos–around 12Gb–that I’m working my way through, either on the iPod during enforced waiting periods, or in my rare… Read more →
Gravatars & Identicons
You may have noticed a while back that I turned on gravatars for comments on the blog. What this means, in a nutshell, for those who aren’t already down is that if you have a “globally registered avatar” at Gravatar.com, then your comments here will show the image beside the commentor name. (Assuming that you use an email address on… Read more →
Definitely the headline of the month
Sometimes I am very glad that I only have to deal with the relatively more abstract, if no less scary, concerns of modern Western society. Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital KINSHASA (Reuters) – Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of… Read more →
Just as plausible as any other theory I’ve seen
I like the latest “why the recording industry is in the tank” theory from Esquire this week–it’s not the same old piracy or consumer selectivity or even “end of format shifting” arguments, but instead a simpler economic argument. I have no idea whether or not it’s any more true than any other, but it seems just as plausible. Here’s the… Read more →
Arizona: We don’t get irony here
Measure backs ‘American values’ in state schools Arizona schools whose courses “denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization” could lose state funding under the terms of legislation approved Wednesday by a House panel. SB1108 also would bar teaching practices that “overtly encourage dissent” from those values, including democracy, capitalism, pluralism and religious tolerance. Schools would have to surrender… Read more →
A few geeky bits
OK, let’s do one of those patented link posts to clean out some of these open tabs… Let’s start with Mario. As far as programming goes, I’m a kernel guy–an engine guy. I don’t do UI, and trust me, you’re happy I don’t. I make it work under the covers. As such, I often deride and disparage the hard (and… Read more →
Blog Fluff, Part 4
This one via Gwenda 1. Have you ever killed a man? Only in my heart 2. With your own hands? No. And if I were to, it wouldn’t be. 3. What, in your opinion, is the best way to transport contraband across state and country lines? In a middle class car. With a child seat. 4. Even if you’re transporting… Read more →
Blog Fluff, Part 3
Pinched from Richard, the one word meme thing. Making the answers one word and resisting the temptation to expand is harder than you might think. 1. Where is your mobile phone? Coat 2. Your significant other? Versatile 3. Your hair? Gone 4. Your mother? Obstinate 5. Your father? Missed 6. Your favorite thing? Stories 7. Your dream last night? Threatened… Read more →
Blog Fluff, Part 2
You’re feeling: Extremely tired and that special kind of drained that comes after particularly good times. To your left: Immediately, the hardcover fiction, Abbey-to-Carroll, shelving. Left and back, a rack with 2TB of RAID storage, a laser printer, a colour inkjet, a wireless N router (with custom firmware), a cable modem, and around another 1.2TB of JBOD storage. On your… Read more →
