Robby

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• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  The sorted of houses in questions were likely listed. This makes any changes difficult - we quite often see news stories about people being taken to court, and losing, because they painted their front door the wrong colour. This could...
• Commented on Do my Laundry
  When you do finish the laundry files, what are you going to do next?...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  If it's any consolation, you've got a lot better at this over the years. I found The Annihilation Score to be a bit of a slog, it read like a male author really trying to write a female perspective. In...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  The issue of recognition, guilt or reparations for the crimes of our ancestors is always going to be a thorny topic, because it's hard to agree on the right response. There is a big gulf between a senior politician apologising,...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  The US vs UK food discussion is interesting. The US view tends to boil down to "yes a lot of it is shit, but you can find good food if you know where to look", and thinking this is a...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  So that's a way you could lose your licence, with a closely managed and essentially internet-connected medical condition. But if you're not under such close observation, such as a lot of people in the early stages of dementia, I understand...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  Last time I had to help an older relative renew their driving licence, it was all self-certify. There was a question around "Are you healthy enough to drive", but nothing that require getting the doctor involved. Click yes to the...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  It feels a bit attack-y to push for how to fix the system, and suggest obvious failure modes. This is what I was trying to call out at 30. It is perfectly feasible to deeply dislike the current system, but...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  It's a tricky one. I would rather not have the monarchy. I just don't know how to remove them and fill that power vacuum with something suitable. It would have to be something worked out carefully over a long time...
• Commented on Upcoming blog outage
  Ooh, something I know about for once. UK water supply is designed for things to go wrong and avoid having lots of little bits of infrastructure that rely on electricity. Generally you pump from the treatment plant to service reservoirs,...
• Commented on I can't even
  I'm just hoping that when labour do get into power, they don't fall into their usual trap of letting the perfect be the enemy of "good enough". Whilst labour under Starmer may be Tory-lite, I'm content to stomach that for...
• Commented on The gathering crisis
  One comment on the whole question of what to do about electricity generation in the UK. Going all-in on one thing is a bad idea, because you get a single point of failure. Even worse when you go all-in one...
• Commented on Quantum of Nightmares
  I normally ask you to share a picture of your cats on new book threads. Can I see cats?...
• Commented on Omicron
  Going by my very simplistic maths, a doubling time of 2-3 days would infect the entire population of the UK by the end of January. Probably overwhelm hospitals around the end of December. Why are we not in ultra lockdown...
• Commented on Central Banking on Mars!
  I'm assuming that the purpose of the MuskCoin is to encourage investment into the Martian economy to grow it quickly. It is also coming under the control of a man who seems to prefer to own the assets and sell...
• Commented on Covid on Mars
  So we have a society where the majority of the people made a very conscious decision and a huge personal sacrifice to live and die on mars. Everyone is under constant surveillance/tracking. Decompression drills (shelter in place) will be frequent....
• Commented on Normal service will be resumed eventually
  Find cat, stroke cat....
• Commented on Upcoming events
  Seeing as this has become a thread on domestic appliances. I highly recommend a dehumidifier for the bathroom, seeing as it's a flat with (presumably) fairly crap ventilation. You would be surprised at how damp and musty the place is...
• Commented on Ask me anything!
  Who looks after the cats while you're away, and does this person send you daily pictures of said cats to keep your spirits up?...
• Commented on Three pieces of news about the Laundry Files (UPDATED!)
  Fingers crossed....
• Commented on Lessons learned: writing really long fiction
  I'm sure I've asked this before, but I can't remember if it was answered. Ghost Engine. Is that like palimpsest, but longer? I really like palimpsest....
• Commented on Brexit! Means! Brexit!
  As with anything Brexit, this is what I would like to see happen. I'm cautious about writing it down, because every time I do that with Brexit something even worse/more idiotic happens, that I hadn't even considered was a possibility....
• Commented on Sitrep
  Mitchell and Webb had a sketch that hit the inappropriate superhero idea on the head nicely, which was basically a superhero from the 70s. He gets the bad guys, but whilst smoking a fag, being casually racist, and having a...
• Commented on Holding Pattern
  For anyone with an interesting mental health history, if you think you need a break then you really need a break. Whist this may sound a bit shitty, it's true. When you're struggling, your writing isn't as good. I've been...
• Commented on Rejection Letter
  I work in this sort of area, although for a different organisation which thankfully hasn't been affected, because we patch. There seems to be a bit of an undercurrent in some comments that suggests "There's no point patching the systems...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: The Annihilation Score
  Whilst TAS didn't entertain me in the same way as some of the earlier books (turbo-nerd padawan under the guidance of the demon-headmaster sorcerer) the story did stick in my mind for a lot longer. It isn't as nice, because...
• Commented on Competition Time!
  Name: Addison Leecoy Classification: Urban Transport Deployment: As CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN intensifies, laundry agents must be able to quickly reach outbreaks in urban areas, whilst avoiding threats that remain invisible to the general public. Transport support was recently provided by...
• Commented on A purely theoretical dilemma
  Yes. The thing I'm giving up is privacy. Privacy is currently important to me because of a set of very British, Victorian-era values that make it embarrassing to disclose details of my finances, medical conditions, sexual preferences and opinions on...
• Commented on Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera
  Thinking about this some more, some other cliches: Ships that easily accelerate to near-lightspeed happens, time dilation happens, interest on money in bank accounts happens, yet people who work on these ships are still poor. No-one seems to start a...
• Commented on Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera
  Well done Charlie. You've now ruined a genre for me. This means you're going to have to write the book, maybe a trilogy. It's a shame you have to do something new. I have a feeling that the full-length novel...