Shirt and poster available here
I finally broke down and got one of these, and so far so good.
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Weekly Links 20090125
Computers
There’s a long history of syncing mobile devices with Linux. That long history is mostly filled with one device not synchronizing, followed by another device not working, followed by another. Help may be here.
Science
Achieving a feat that seemed impossible not so long ago, a team of scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope captured the first visible-light image of a planet orbiting another star.
I saw this picture, and it was just too funny.
A qubit walks into a bar, unsure of whether to order drink A or drink B. If the bartender asks the qubit what it wants, the qubit will collapse and be destroyed. But now researchers can instantly teleport the original, intact qubit to another “bar” far away.
Writing
it seems series developer id Software is looking to grow the series at least a little beyond those simple roots. In an update to his personal Web site, British author Graham Joyce announced that he is now working on id’s upcoming Doom 4.
The Books and Authors blog talks about how Science Fiction has changed and some books that are against the trend.
Misc
Monks just wanna have fun.
Jason Winter monitors his entire houses power usage, non invasively, and tracks the data on the web.
Some of the world’s most stunning visions of space are made possible with Photoshop. The ability to combine vibrant colors, photo manipulations and ethereal effects makes the software ideal for this kind of work. Here are 40 incredible visions of space from four extremely talented Photoshop artists.
Obama
Today is a hopeful day. Let’s remember that Obama is a man, not the Messiah. As a man, he has a chance to succeed, to exceed. As a Messiah, he will fail.
Weekly Links 20090118
Writing
A leading light in science fiction is heading to Saskatoon’s light source synchrotron. Acclaimed Canadian sci-fi author Robert J. Sawyer will be the first ever writer-in-residence at the massive scientific facility. Sawyer, who has written 20 novels and won the coveted Hugo and Nebula awards, told CBC News he is excited about what he calls a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to hang out with working scientists.
From Novelish: I searched the interviews of twelve successful fantasy authors to find their advice for aspiring authors, which I’ve compiled in this entry. Click on a name to jump to it, or scroll down to read through the full article.
Columbia won an auction late Thursday for screen rights to “Foundation,” Isaac Asimov’s ground breaking science fiction trilogy. The film will be developed as a directing vehicle for Roland Emmerich.
Computers
The N8VEM Single Board Computer (SBC) is a home brew Z80 small computer project. It is made in the style of vintage computers of the mid to late 1970’s and early 1980’s using a mix of classic and modern technologies.
Misc
Eating the worlds hottest pepper http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-NNzI3RTZ7I
The beauty of fractals in the real world.
Patrick McGoohan dies
Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television show “The Prisoner,” has died. He was 80.
He was most famous as the character known only as Number Six in “The Prisoner,” a sci-fi tinged 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small enclave known only as The Village, where a mysterious authority named Number One constantly prevents his escape.
Weekly Links 20090111
Writing
The David Gemmel Legend Award will be presented for the very first time in 2009 for the best Fantasy novel of 2008. The award will be given to a work written in the ‘spirit’ of the late, great David Gemmell, a true Master of Heroic Fantasy. I’ve been a David Gemmel fan for a long time.
Bain Books is having a short story contest. The theme is to ‘Write a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration.’
Jane Lindskold define what she thinks Hard Fantasy is. An older article by Marie Brennan can be found here.
New York Times-bestselling urban fantasy author Carrie Vaughn has posted an excellent three-part essay about urban fantasy:
- Part One: The Formula
- Part Two: When Things Go Wrong (Pay careful attention to Item #5!)
- Part Three: Deconstructing Urban Fantasy
The Fantasy Magazine blog has a feature on Taboos in Speculative Fiction.
Computers
The WolFire Games blog has an article on why you should support Mac and Linux when writing software.
Your Money or Your Life, a comic about programmers.
Google used its booth at Macworld this year to show off some of the things it was working on with Apple, particularly for the iPhone. But the coolest thing at their booth didn’t have much to do with Apple at all: A hacked Nintendo Wii Balance Board (from the game Wii Fit) used to control Google Earth.
Misc
This is a timelapse map showing the spread of WalMart across the US. Scary stuff.
Science
I’ve taken a recent interest in Quantum Mechanics and found this video on you tube with Robert Anton Wilson describing Quantum Physics in layman terms.
Blog
And last, but certainly not least, a t-shirt that makes fun of those of us that blog for only a small handfull of people.
2008 Accomplishments
I figured I’d write a post about what I accomplished in 2008. This is it. I’ll also add what I hope to accomplish with each item in 2009.
WordSlinger Beta released. WordSlinger is an Integrated Development Environment for writers. It’s geared towards the way I write, although I’m looking at integrating some users wishes into it. In 2009, I’m hoping to bring this up to release quality and get it out into the world.
Moved my computer systems from Gentoo based servers to Ubuntu, as well as my desktops.
Got interviewed as a stay-at-home dad for Sharp magazine
Went to Ghana, Africa for two weeks. (Yes, it was an accomplishment)
Went to the World Fantasy Convention for the first time. I’d like to go again in 2009.
Started updating the blog weekly with a list of links I’ve found interesting.
Completed The Courier and got a couple of copies out to first readers. I’ll touch it up, work on a Query, and get it out to agents in 2009.
Stopped being a true stay-at-home dad. I accepted a job that still allows me to be the primary caregiver to my kids (essentially I’m home whenever the kids are). I was lucky to find a forward thinking company. My work load has increased a lot, but so far so good.
BuildMaster Beta released. BuildMaster is an application that does nightly builds of software projects. It notifies users on whether the builds succeeded or failed, and if they failed, what the issue was. For 2009, I’d like to get this finished with a nice web page to report status, and some sort of data storage on the backend to show the history of builds.
Boy, when it’s listed out like that, I feel like a pretty lazy guy. Where did all the time go anyway?
What are some of your accomplishments this year?
Weekly Links 20090104
Writing
Odyssey is continuing their writing podcasts. This one is Nancy Kress talking about writing in scenes.
Charlie Stross wonders why Fantasy and Science Fiction novels are the size they are:
It’s a question that comes up quite often — back in the 1960s a typical SF novel ran to 60,000 words (130-150 pages); one that topped 80,000 words was considered lengthy. But today, I’m more or less required by contract to hand in 100,000 word novels; and some of them are considerably longer. (At 145,000 words, “Accelerando” would have been considered a whopper back in the 1970s.) So what happened?
The Tor forum has an interesting conversation on magic systems in Fantasy novels. (originally from sfsignal.com)
The magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is going bimonthly. The March 2009 issue will be the last monthly issue. Starting with the April/May 2009 issue, we’ll be publishing one issue every two months. Each issue will be 256 pages (16 pages longer than our last Oct/Nov issue) except for this year’s anniversary issue, which will be a jumbo.
Misc
Mastering the all you can eat buffet is, apparently, and art form.
Computers
Nothing can beat having a great Linux distro installed on a super-fast hard drive, with all your favourite apps configured just how you like them and all your files at your fingertips. That’s not always possible, so how about from a USB drive?
WordPress Update
Well, I’ve finally upgraded WordPress, to version 2.7. I also decided it was time to change the theme. I don’t know if I’ll stick with what you see here, but we’ll see.
Happy New Year
I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and I hope everyone brought in the new year the way they wanted. We did.
I’m starting the new year with a new writing project, title currently unknown. I’ve shipped off The Courier to a first reader, which means this will be it’s second reading by someone other than me. Based on the feedback I get, I’ll maybe make some changes, and then send it out to 5 or 6 second readers. The Courier took alot longer than it should have. When I let the manuscript rest between revisions, I let it sit too long, far too long. And while it rested, I didn’t do any new writing. That’s a mistake I won’t be making again.
Once I outline my new project, I’ll start on a Query letter for The Courier, complete my agent research, and send the darn thing out to agents. I’ll keep everyone up to date on that progress.