Yet more genre ranting, writing tips round-up, simulated Mars mission seeks volunteers…

• 1 – How To Write
  Gareth Lynn Powell rounds up some articles on writing that he found useful and informative…yet more pages for me to read. Maybe if I read less writing advice and did more writing…
  (tags: prose literature stories roundup articles advice tricks tips writing)
• 2 – Genre neuroses 101
  Charlie Stross lays into the current state of genre fiction…the ‘new horror’ gets a particularly vigorous kicking.
  (tags: commentary fiction science scifi sf horror fantasy genre literature books Stross Charles)
• 3 – Virtual piano turns any surface into a keyboard
  Does what it says on the tin…little laser unit draws a piano keyboard on a surface, and you play by touching within the lines of light. No aftertouch or velocity sensing, I’m guessing…
  (tags: laser device keyboard piano virtual gadget technology hardware music)
• 4 – File Hippo – Download Free Software
  Finding freeware without popups and other nonsense is a chore – until you start looking on FileHippo! Basically a big old cache/directory of free software. Good resource. Link via CyberNetTechNews.
  (tags: programs library openSource directory resource free downloads freeware software)
• 5 – The Skeleton Case Mod
  A case mod that has no case – pretty cool, if Giger and horror movies are your thing.
  (tags: geek creative art skeleton computer modding mod case PC)
• 6 – The Two Elements Common to All Science Fiction Stories
  David Louis Edelman gets his writerly thinking hat on again.
  (tags: elements common two stories books genre fantasy SF scifi fiction science literature writing)
• 7 – Shut-Ins Wanted: Russia Seeks Volunteers for Simulated Mars Mission
  I really am very tempted to sign up for this – the likelihood of them picking an unfit nobody blogger is remote in the extreme, but what is there to lose?
  (tags: recruiting astronauts flight simulation mission Martian Mars Roskosmos Russia space)
• 8 – Big bang pushed back two billion years
  Warning for the chronically insecure – universe may be bigger and older than previously estimated. You are now even more insignificant than before!
  (tags: constant Hubble expansion distance galaxy measurement underestimate universe age size science cosmology space)
• 9 – Can high wi-fi boost space elevator?
  The Liftport crew aren’t just sitting on their asses and dreaming about space elevators, you know – they’re branching out into other territories with a less long-term time scale. You go, guys!
  (tags: sites disaster community rural balloon weather relays internet wireless wifi diversify project group liftport elevator space)
• 10 – A Free-Floating ‘Planemo’ Binary
  Two exoplanet-sized objects in a binary pair, with no parent star. How did they form? We’re not entirely sure.
  (tags: orphan star cutoff dwarf brown discovery objects mass planetary planemos binary space)
• 11 – Flame Case Mod
  Case mod with a flames-of-hell theme, naturally.
  (tags: neon flames computer geek modding mod case PC)