October 2, 2008 – 11:09 pm
September 22, 2008 – 10:30 pm
I’m sitting in the balcony at the Fillmore writing as Spoon plays “The Underdog” to a full, enthusiastic house.
This is a band I learned about online. I don’t have a physical copy of any of their music. I bought their albums online as well.
While I write this, Cynthia, sitting in the balcony beside me, has been trading blog comments with a friend stationed in Iraq.
I take this all for granted now.
September 20, 2008 – 7:18 pm
At the Variety Preview Room with Nick Mamatas, Terry Bisson, and David Levine.
Mamatas read a mashup of Lovecraft and Raymond Carver.
Levine read an equaly scary story about comic strip characters learning the horrible nature of their universe.
It’s a fun evening out. Terry Bisson’s a great moderator. The seats at the Variety Preview Room are more comfortable than sitting on the floor at the Make Out Room for Writers With Drinks.
Next month’s SF in SF features Cecelia Holland and Kim Stanley Robinson.
September 17, 2008 – 10:38 am
[ Hat tip: Tom Higgins ] Given the mess in the financial markets, this bit of history is amusing:
September 17, 1859
“At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of S. F., Cal., declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these U. S.; and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of Feb. next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.
NORTON I, Emperor of the United States.”
September 9, 2008 – 11:00 pm
For giggles, the providers of http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/ should have the site return a 410 at random.
September 9, 2008 – 10:07 pm
A year ago I was in Japan.
Lake Chuzenji, above the temples of Nikko, with its resorts, and the surrounding mountains, reminded me of going up to Grand Lake in Colorado when I was a kid.
But there is always something around the corner to remind you that you’re someplace else.
I look forward to returning to Japan soon.
September 4, 2008 – 11:56 pm
Last month, Annalee Newitz wrote a piece for io9.com about recent science fiction that plays with the idea: “what if ‘Intelligent Design’ wasn’t just a stealth marketing gimmick for creationism?”
Here’s another recent novel for Newitz’s list: I bought Kay Keynon’s Bright the Sky while I was at Denvention 3. In it, some god-like aliens have occupied a pocket universe ‘adjacent’ to ours, and populated it with ‘hand made’ replicas of sapient species from our universe, including us. It’s full of the weird, I’m enjoying it, and Cynthia ordered a copy of the sequel.
September 3, 2008 – 10:57 pm
John Scazli short-short story about a superhero booking service manager with a grudge against a city in Arizona (what, you think that Wonder Person is going to stop that rampaging mecha without a damage waver?) Also note the shout-out to Scalzi’s fellow Hugo award nominee, the fan writer and Computer History Museum factotum, Chris Garcia.
August 16, 2008 – 12:24 pm
Bruce Sterling: (((If you think the behavior of people with cloning technology is weird, you should see the behavior of people with oil wells. Or cars. Or machine guns.)))
August 12, 2008 – 8:00 am
The Denver Airport advertises “free” WiFi. Of course, it is not free. In this case, every HTTP request is intercepted by a router that replaces the response with a frameset which then loads the requested page surrounded by ads sold by the WiFi provider.
This messes any application that uses an embedded browser to deliver UI, like the Second Life Viewer, for instance.
It appears to be easily circumvented. I turned off JavaScript in Firefox and was able to view the BBC News front page without incident.
August 11, 2008 – 11:52 pm
Avram Grumer with EMP-proof blog software.
ETA: Holy Mother of Comets! That wasn’t just a notebook: it was a sketchblog!
August 11, 2008 – 11:52 pm
Higgins, Humphries, and Stewart
August 11, 2008 – 11:51 pm
Too small a room. Lots of fans.
August 11, 2008 – 11:51 pm
Lois Bujold’s guest of honor speech at Denvention 3 was about genre boundaries, expectations, and her experiments with breaking them:
In fact, if romances are fantasies of love, and mysteries are fantasies of justice, I would now describe much SF as fantasies of political agency.
[via Cynthia Gonsalves]
So, had every intention of making it to the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Prometheus Award ceremony. But I was watching the time on my Mac (still on Pacific) instead of my iPhone (mountain,) and missed it. But Fred Moulton passed along a photo of Jo Walton with her award for Ha’penny.
Photo Credit: Fred Molton
