Charlie's Diary

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Wed, 13 Aug 2003

Fair and Balanced Friday

My diary is undergoing a temporary change of name, in honour of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News who appear to think they own a common phrase. Hit on this link if you want to know why.

[ Link ] [ Discuss copyright-censorship ]



posted at: 13:09 | path: /politics | permanent link to this entry

Today ...

Is the 11th annual Left Hander's Day.

Yes, this includes me. I'm one of the 15% minority whose longevity is threatened by inconsiderate assholes who design a world that is fundamentally incompatible with those people who don't react the same way -- from cameras with shutter release buttons on the right to scissors with moulded grips we simply can't hold to road drills and industrial machinery that maims.

I am therefore declaring my workplace a left-handed centre for the day.

[ Link ] [ Discuss longevity ]



posted at: 11:10 | path: /politics | permanent link to this entry

More news from the publishing trenches

John Clute (probably the most perceptive critic working the SF field at present) dissects "Singularity Sky" in SciFi Weekly, with the kind of lucid, insightful gaze that makes me feel like something tiny being examined on a microscope slide by Wellsian Martians ("vast, cool, and unsympathetic intellects"):

Not that it isn't fun to see Rachel make fools of various functionaries. Not that there aren't moments of inspiration throughout, good jokes, well-imagined aliens. Not that our SF sense of dramatic irony -- traditional SF readers are very used to feeling superior to bureaucrats -- isn't tickled by the comeuppance visited upon the minions of the New Republic. Not that it's not perfectly obvious that all this PG-13 inanity has stuffed the goose of story precisely to fool its readers into thinking Singularity Sky is safely brainless. Not that it isn't a shame to see as brilliant a cogitator as Charles Stross cozening himself into retelling, at great length, the old nursery rhyme, the one that goes:

The grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again.

Not that we don't care. Because we do. Because we want to see Charles Stross, who has brilliant moments here, extrude that brilliance through an entire book. He could be one of the shapers of SF. I do think he will soon begin to shape.

Urk.

I think I've just been handed a school report card saying "can do better." (Having said that, what I can say in my defense is that I began writing "Singularity Sky" around 1994, and mostly finished it by 1998; it significantly pre-dates the other work he's judging it against, and I think it'll be interesting to see what he makes of the next couple of novels ...)

[ Link ] [ Discuss writing ]



posted at: 10:10 | path: /writing | permanent link to this entry

specials:

Is SF About to Go Blind? -- Popular Science article by Greg Mone
Unwirer -- an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction
Inside the MIT Media Lab -- what it's like to spend a a day wandering around the Media Lab
"Nothing like this will be built again" -- inside a nuclear reactor complex


Quick links:

RSS Feed (Moved!)

Who am I?

Contact me


Buy my books: (FAQ)

Missile Gap
Via Subterranean Press (US HC -- due Jan, 2007)

The Jennifer Morgue
Via Golden Gryphon (US HC -- due Nov, 2006)

Glasshouse
Via Amazon.com (US HC -- due June 30, 2006)

The Clan Corporate
Via Amazon.com (US HC -- out now)

Accelerando
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB -- due June 27, 2006)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB)
Free download

The Hidden Family
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB)

The Family Trade
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB)

Iron Sunrise
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB)

The Atrocity Archives
Via Amazon.com (Trade PB)
Via Amazon.co.uk (Trade PB)
Via Golden Gryphon (HC)
Via Amazon.com (HC)
Via Amazon.co.uk (HC)

Singularity Sky
Via Amazon.com (US HC)
Via Amazon.com (US PB)
Via Amazon.com (US ebook)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC)
Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB)

Toast
Via Amazon.com
Via Amazon.co.uk


Some webby stuff I'm reading:


Engadget ]
Gizmodo ]
The Memory Hole ]
Boing!Boing! ]
Futurismic ]
Walter Jon Williams ]
Making Light (TNH) ]
Crooked Timber ]
Junius (Chris Bertram) ]
Baghdad Burning (Riverbend) ]
Bruce Sterling ]
Ian McDonald ]
Amygdala (Gary Farber) ]
Cyborg Democracy ]
Body and Soul (Jeanne d'Arc)  ]
Atrios ]
The Sideshow (Avedon Carol) ]
This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow) ]
Jesus's General ]
Mick Farren ]
Early days of a Better Nation (Ken MacLeod) ]
Respectful of Otters (Rivka) ]
Tangent Online ]
Grouse Today ]
Hacktivismo ]
Terra Nova ]
Whatever (John Scalzi) ]
GNXP ]
Justine Larbalestier ]
Yankee Fog ]
The Law west of Ealing Broadway ]
Cough the Lot ]
The Yorkshire Ranter ]
Newshog ]
Kung Fu Monkey ]
S1ngularity ]
Pagan Prattle ]
Gwyneth Jones ]
Calpundit ]
Lenin's Tomb ]
Progressive Gold ]
Kathryn Cramer ]
Halfway down the Danube ]
Fistful of Euros ]
Orcinus ]
Shrillblog ]
Steve Gilliard ]
Frankenstein Journal (Chris Lawson) ]
The Panda's Thumb ]
Martin Wisse ]
Kuro5hin ]
Advogato ]
Talking Points Memo ]
The Register ]
Cryptome ]
Juan Cole: Informed comment ]
Global Guerillas (John Robb) ]
Shadow of the Hegemon (Demosthenes) ]
Simon Bisson's Journal ]
Max Sawicky's weblog ]
Guy Kewney's mobile campaign ]
Hitherby Dragons ]
Counterspin Central ]
MetaFilter ]
NTKnow ]
Encyclopaedia Astronautica ]
Fafblog ]
BBC News (Scotland) ]
Pravda ]
Meerkat open wire service ]
Warren Ellis ]
Brad DeLong ]
Hullabaloo (Digby) ]
Jeff Vail ]
The Whiskey Bar (Billmon) ]
Groupthink Central (Yuval Rubinstein) ]
Unmedia (Aziz Poonawalla) ]
Rebecca's Pocket (Rebecca Blood) ]


Older stuff:

June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
(I screwed the pooch in respect of the blosxom entry datestamps on March 28th, 2002, so everything before then shows up as being from the same time)



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