Mon, 05 Dec 2005
Acute future shock, part 19
I've complained before about how the real world conspires to
make jobbing science fiction writers feel like complete
idiots, unable to imagine anything remotely as
weird as reality.
Well, yesterday's dose was a bit of a grab-bag, but I think
I'm up to speed on my future shock. Having just finished
reading the proofs of "Rainbows End" by Vernor Vinge (hint:
if you like near-future SF, this is the current
benchmark novel -- or it will be, when it comes out next
April/May) I figured I was pretty much immune to being
mugged by weirdness. Was I hell ...
Spotted in the computing section of a bookstore: a text titled
Extrusion
Detection. WTF? Yes, it's a neologism by analogy
from intrusion
detection (the art of detecting anomalous network
activity indicative of an attack on your own systems). As
the cover blurb went on to explain, "70% of network attacks
originate within the enterprise ..."
(If that doesn't tweak your sense of wonder, then consider
this: it implies that enough people are now
sufficiently network-savvy to make deliberate internal threats
a major worry for security administrators. Alternatively, the worms
are winning. Either way, it's bad.)
Then there was this gem, culled from the Telegraph: yoghurt
dispute hits a brick wall. It appears a home owner in
Wiltshire is being sued by her local council for failing to
paint her house with live yoghurt. (They failed to take
action earlier when she refused to comply with an order to
use manure; the yoghurt was their second choice.) There is, it
seems, a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, but I'm not
sure my sanity can withstand that kind of reasonableness.
Oh, and in Sweden, police are searching for the vandals who
set
fire to a 13 metre high straw goat in the centre of
Gavle.
I swear, if the universe won't stop doing my job for me, I'm
going to give up and start writing high fantasy trilogies
instead. At least they're weird in a predictable way.
[Discuss
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posted at: 13:14 | path: /weird | permanent link to this entry
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