All things considered, I’ve been pretty cheerful of late - a situation I’ve worked hard to maintain, primarily through the sensible avoidance of political news of all types.

But sometimes you just can’t avoid the worst of it … and so now I’m off to the kitchen to make a pint of espresso which I can inject into my eyeballs to hopefully ameliorate the clangorous echoes of anthropogenic FAIL.

Why?

Well, I was prepared to put the election of this racist over-privileged buffoon down to the innately British habit of supporting the person least suitable for the post, no matter how nonsensical their ascension to said post would be.

But then this morning someone Twittered me a link to a news story about Americans holding prayer meetings at gas stations. So that God will help to lower the prices, you see.

And then I read about politicians - ostensibly on the same side of the political divide - not only discrediting one another simply because they want the big chair at the head of the table (and if I can’t have it nor can you, so nyaaah), but also quite deliberately undermining any remaining semblance of public respect for education and experience (and, seemingly, basic common sense) by playing the Everyman card.

Good grief.

The funny bit is that people regularly tell me that anarchism is an untenable political philosophy because it would invite greed, self-interest and mob-rule stupidity to take the wheel. In which case I’m not entirely sure, at this precise moment of time, what we have to lose.

Now, where’s my coffee? I worry that I’m slowly turning into Warren Ellis …

More YA SF hot air; Trent Reznor does it again … Continue reading “Links for 06-05-2008″

Friendly AI FAQ; Ubuntu installation tips … Continue reading “Links for 05-05-2008″

What advertising teaches us about fiction; the four-thing memory limit … Continue reading “Links for 04-05-2008″

Memory hax; mortality; Fermi and filters; lock-picking; urban eccentrics … Continue reading “Links for 02-05-2008″

Good winnings:

As the entire intarwubz have already reported, Richard Morgan’s Black Man scooped the Clarke Award last night. I hadn’t read the whole shortlist, so I can’t pass comment on its comparative worthiness, but I have read Black Man (reviewed it for Vector, too) and thought it was an excellent book, so no complaints from me.

The fact that Morgan is not just a very decent and interesting fellow but one of my new clients is also rather pleasing. Congratulations, Richard!

The ceremony was a lot of fun, and the Apollo Cinema was done up all sf-nal complete with gratuitous Star Wars extras; it was great to see lots of people I usually only interact with online, and an unusual experience to be plied with free booze and nibbles.

Although, judging by Niall’s picture of me stood next to the gorgeous Claire Weaver, I should probably be avoiding nibbles for a few months, or possibly even forever.

Bad endings:

The SF Signal gang roped me into another of their Mind Meld posts to talk about the best and worst endings in genre novels.

Unsurprisingly, I was far from being the only person to declare Peter F Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy to have the worst ending ever … there’s lots of other interesting opinions from names and faces old and new, so go take a read. You’ll get some good recommendations from it, I reckon.

Bad reviews:

Andrew Wheeler calls it how he sees it, which is why he’s one of the genre bloggers I most respect. His justification for writing negative reviews is chuntering out of my printer as we speak, so as to be pinned to my wall:

“On the one side, a reviewer always wants to be honest. If I liked a book, I want to say that — more, I want to explain what I liked about it, and, as best I can, how, I liked it. And I want to avoid soft pedaling a book I didn’t like.

But I’ve also gotten to a point in my life when I like to think of myself as an adult. And adults don’t cause offense inadvertently (as someone once said about gentlemen).

I’ll still probably say some critical things about the book in question [...] but, if I can manage it, none of it will be gratuitous (unlike SF Eye), and all of it will be for a purpose.

So that’s the point: I complain because I love. Really.”

Selah, brother.

Bad business:

Right, it’s off to the day-job for me … *sigh*

As mentioned in FPB last week, tonight is the Arthur C Clarke Award ceremony up in the Big Smoke, and your loyal correspondent from the Styx is getting on the train in a few hours to hob-nob with the worthies of the science fiction literature scene.

To the right is a picture of M John Harrison receiving last year’s award for the inimitable and excellent Nova Swing [image by abrinsky]. Who’ll take the trophy this year? There’s only one certainty with the Clarke Award, which is that whoever wins there will be some degree of controversy about it … the good Mr Harrison being the exception that proves the rule, of course.

So, yours truly will be on the scene, a-Twitterin‘ anything of note. As there’s only the one award, that probably won’t be a great deal; I think I’ll be too busy chatting with people (and showing off my awesome new Asus Eee) at the drinks afterwards to do any heavy reportage. That said, I’ll try to get some decent photos of various people … bodyguards permitting, naturally.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject, the Orbit books gang are celebrating the Award and lamenting the passing of its founder by giving away a hardback edition of Arthur C Clarke’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. You gotta be in it to win it, as the saying goes.

***

Today is also notable for a much bigger reason (or at least one that more people beyond the boundaries of the sf echo-chamber will care about) - the World Wide Web is fifteen years old today.

It’s ess than half my age, and yet I already spend more than half my time using it - there’s a scary thought for ya.

The flipside of 1,000 True Fans; WP theme tester plugin … Continue reading “Links for 30-04-2008″

Clay Shirky on social cognitive surplus (must-read); the future of taxes; Roberts reviews the Clarke shortlist … Continue reading “Links for 29-04-2008″

Fantatwee; music2.0; web-dev malarkey … Continue reading “Links for 28-04-2008″