Links for 04-02-2007
The Art of War in Second Life, the physics of wormholes, Vinge singularity podcast, Bill Gibson’s new novel cover, space elevator video…
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1 - Second Life Sketches: The Art Of War
“Before now, I’ve had to draw a weapon and blow people off my land to discontinue attacks. Look at that sentence again. It makes me sound like I’m living on frontier land, or, perhaps, like I’ve become a mad farmer with a shotgun.”
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“…since that famous thought-experiment wormholes have been described and designed in a multitude of physics papers - but do they exist?” The science behind the fiction. Link via Centauri Dreams.
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Some great stuff here, but beware of flash and java - and a web page that looks like it was designed a decade ago.
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4 - Edit Be
“…once you understand how editing works, and how it can improve your writing, as well as your job satisfaction, you’ll look forward to the process.” Wise words from Word Wise.
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5 - More Musicians Route Around Music Labels — Go Direct To Retailers
“For people who seem to think that their can be no other model for musicians other than signing big record label deals, here’s yet another example of why that’s wrong.” The long tail is a-lashing.
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6 - Top 20 most popular Open Source programs in 2006
Does exactly what it says on the tin.
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7 - Newspapers search for Web headline magic
“Pithy, witty and provocative headlines–the pride of many an editor–are often useless and even counterproductive in getting the Web page ranked high in search engines. A low ranking means limited exposure and fewer readers.”
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8 - Cover art for Gibson’s ‘Spook Country’
Chances of me getting to review this one are slim to negligible, I’m thinking. Still, well worth hustling for it anyway…
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“In this keynote address from Accelerating Change 2005, Vernor Vinge discusses the potential for a technological singularity…” Thank you, SF Signal.
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“It might be enlightening to think of the story as the raw material, the clay that we can shape or form into a specific form as a text.” Lois Tilton gets philosophical about the writing process; enlightening little essay.
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11 - The Chicago Manual of Style Online
This could come in very handy indeed.
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12 - Liftport’s Space Elevator
“Neil deGrasse Tyson visits the Lift$Port Group in Bremerton, Washington. The entrepreneurs and engineers at LiftPort think space elevators aren’t just a wild idea; they’ve staked their corporation on the concept.” YouTube action.
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13 - Win A Trip To Space
“New Scientist has teamed up with Audi to offer one skilled winner an out-of-this-world experience: a flight that will take you 100 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.” ZOMFG! It’d be rude not to at least try.
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14 - World’s water levels rising at accelerating rate
“Sea levels are rising even faster than scientists predicted, according to a global analysis of data from tide gauges and satellites.” Hey, people - take your fingers out of your ears.
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15 - Woman with bionic arm regains sense of touch
“A prosthetic arm that moves and feels like the real thing is now a step closer thanks to a new surgical technique which allows the owner to intuitively control her limb and regain her sense of touch.” Awesome.
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16 - Publisher launches its first “wiki” novel
“British publisher Penguin may have the answer — a Web-based, collaborative novel that can be written, edited or read by anyone, anywhere thanks to “wiki” software…” This could go two ways…
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17 - SCI FI Wire interviews Watts on ‘Blindsight’
“…it’s got space vampires. Or at least one drug-addicted space vampire. Or at least one drug-addicted terrestrial vampire shot into space.” He speaks the truth.
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18 - AbeBooks | Science Fiction Room
“Here on AbeBooks your science fiction interests are all covered - even if your tastes run a little out of this world.” UK domain has yet to gain this feature - no surprise, I guess, but it’d be nice to have a localised version. Via BDO.
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19 - Charlie Stross interviewed
“Escapist fiction gives us a vehicle for vicariously experiencing stuff that’s actually quite painful, unpleasant, and undesirable — and romance and adventure at the same time (which are also about as rare as the painful, unpleasant stuff).”
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20 - David Eddings appointed Special Adviser to Tony Blair
Silly, but also funny.
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