There are many kinds of bad SF out there. One of the subtler kinds is written with enough competence that it might be good if the author had any original ideas, but reads like a tired paste-up of familiar genre tropes and plot twists that an experienced reader can see coming a light-year off. Edward… Continue reading Review: Right to Know
Review: Extreme Dentistry
Fearless monster killers have been a very popular trope in SF and fantasy lately, in a trend perhaps best exemplified by Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter sequence but extending to the dozens of nigh-interchangeable Buffy clones in leather clogging the Urban Fantasy subgenre lately. Hugh A. D. Spencer’s Extreme Dentistry seems to have been intended as… Continue reading Review: Extreme Dentistry
Review: Child of a Hidden Sea
The orphan discovering that her birth family hails from another world is an almost hoary fantasy trope – used, for example, in Charles Stross’s Family Trade novels. What matters in deploying it is how original and interesting you can be once you have set up the premise. A.M. Dellamonica’s Child of a Hidden Sea averts… Continue reading Review: Child of a Hidden Sea
Penguicon A&D party heads up!
I, and a largish crew of the usual suspects, are at Penguicon. Friends of Armed & Dangerous party will be 9PM tomorrow in 403 at the Westin Southfield Detroit. Bloodmouth Carnist T-shirts will be on sale.
Have you no decency, sir?
I know it’s from 2001 and thus putatively old news but, sadly, this thread from Free Republic could have been spun yesterday – and it made my jaw drop open. It says so much about what’s wrong with both the left and right wings of American politics in this century.
Why Donald Sterling is not Brendan Eich
Because I objected to the scalping of Brendan Eich for having donated to Proposition 8, a friend has (perhaps jocularly) challenged me to defend NBA team owner Donald Sterling against an effort to push him out of his franchise for racist remarks and behavior.
Time preference and latitude
A few days ago I was thinking about one of the most provocative Damned Facts from population genetics, and came up with a prediction that as far as I know nobody has uttered or tested before. I throw it out here because someone with access to the right kind of primary data might be able… Continue reading Time preference and latitude
Sugar has passed on
Sugar’s NYT appearance last week was her last hurrah. We had to have her euthanized today. She died peacefully about an hour ago. Her decline had been extremely rapid. Three weeks ago, even, Sugar barely looked aged and it was still possible to believe she might live another year. But the chronic nephritis, and possibly… Continue reading Sugar has passed on
Review: The White List
Nina D’Aleo’s The White List (Momentum Books) is a strange combination of success and failure. The premise is preposterous, the plotting is perfunctory – but the prose is zippy and entertaining and the characters acutely observed.
Review: Sea Without A Shore
I’m not, in general, a fan of David Drake’s writing; most of his output is grimmer and far more carnographic than I care to deal with. I’ve made an exception for his RCN series because they tickle my fondness for classic Age-of-Sail adventure fiction and its pastiches, exhibiting Drake’s strengths (in particular, his deep knowledge… Continue reading Review: Sea Without A Shore
Sugar’s health may finally be failing
This is an update for friends of Sugar only; you know who you are. Sugar may not have much time left. She’s been losing weight rapidly the last couple weeks, her appetite is intermittent, and she’s been having nausea episodes. She seems remarkably cheerful under the circumstances and still likes human company as much as… Continue reading Sugar’s health may finally be failing
Does the Heartbleed bug refute Linus’s Law?
The Heartbleed bug made the Washington Post. And that means it’s time for the reminder about things seen versus things unseen that I have to re-issue every couple of years. Actually, this time around I answered it in advance, in an Ask Me Anything on Slashdot just about exactly a month ago. The following is… Continue reading Does the Heartbleed bug refute Linus’s Law?
Review: 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies
The Ring Of Fire books are a mixed bag. Sharecropped by many authors, ringmastered by Eric Flint, they range from plodding historical soap opera to sharp, clever entertainments full of crunchy geeky goodness for aficionados of military and technological history. When Flint’s name is on the book you can generally expect the good stuff. So… Continue reading Review: 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies
A bloodmouth carnist theory of animal rights
Some weeks ago I was tremendously amused by a report of an exchange in which a self-righteous vegetarian/vegan was attempting to berate somebody else for enjoying Kentucky Fried Chicken. I shall transcribe the exchange here: >There is nothing sweet or savory about the rotting >carcass of a chicken twisted and crushed with cruelty. >There is… Continue reading A bloodmouth carnist theory of animal rights
Pushing back against the bullies
When I heard that Brendan Eich had been forced to resign his new job as CEO at Mozilla, my first thought was “Congratulations, gay activists. You have become the bullies you hate.” On reflection, I think the appalling display of political thuggery we’ve just witnessed demands a more muscular response. Eich was forced out for… Continue reading Pushing back against the bullies
Zero Marginal Thinking: Jeremy Rifkin gets it all wrong
A note from the publisher says Jeremy Rifkin himself asked them to ship me a copy of his latest book, The Zero Marginal Cost Society. It’s obvious why: in writing about the economics of open-source software, he thinks I provided one of the paradigmatic cases of what he wants to write about – the displacement… Continue reading Zero Marginal Thinking: Jeremy Rifkin gets it all wrong
Hackers and anonymity: some evidence
When I have to explain how real hackers differ from various ignorant media stereotypes about us, I’ve found that one of the easiest differences to explain is transparency vs. anonymity. Non-techies readily grasp the difference between showing pride in your work by attaching your real name to it versus hiding behind a concealing handle. They… Continue reading Hackers and anonymity: some evidence
Ugliest…repository…conversion…ever
Blogging has been light lately because I’ve been up to my ears in reposurgeon’s most serious challenge ever. Read on for a description of the ugliest heap of version-control rubble you are ever likely to encounter, what I’m doing to fix it, and why you do in fact care – because I’m rescuing the history… Continue reading Ugliest…repository…conversion…ever
How should cvs-fast-export be properly ignorant?
I just shipped version 1.10 of cvs-fast-export with a new feature: it now emits fast-import files that contain CVS’s default ignore patterns. This is a request for help from people who know CVS better than I do.
All the Tropes That Are My Life
Sometimes art imitates life. Sometimes life imitates art. So, for your dubious biographical pleasure, here is my life in tropes. Warning: the TV Tropes site is addictive; beware of chasing links lest it eat the rest of your day. Or several days. First, a trope disclaimer: I am not the Eric Raymond from Jem. As… Continue reading All the Tropes That Are My Life