Dear interweb collective mindshare thingie: does anyone know the difficulty involved in splicing the cable of a computer speaker setup? I’m talking about replacing the male plug that you plug into the computer. The one attached to my speakers is damaged or something, and thus annoying me with its partial workingness. Thing is, I don’t want to completely wreck the speakers by slicing the plug off, only to discover that splicing is impossible.
I was reminded by a post on the Asimov’s forum that Matt Hughes’s first Guth Bandar story, “A Little Learning,” is available to read on his website. He’s really a terrific writer, and if you haven’t tried him out yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. And hey, while you’re at it, go buy is excellent novel, Black Brillion (in which Guth Bandar plays a supporting role); it’s now available in paperback!
Two Onion stories I found amusing, and thus wanted to share:
MythBusters Team Struck Down By Zeus
and
RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs
You can read the stories, which are short and amusing, but as with most Onion pieces, the headlines say it all.
This Friday, December 2, at 10 PM, Showtime will be airing the latest installment of its Masters of Horror series, which will be an adapataion of Dale Bailey’s International Horror Guild Award-winning story, “Death and Suffrage” (F&SF, Feb. 2002). Also, rumor has it Showtime will be doing one of its free weekend previews just in time, so you should be able to watch the episode even if you don’t subscribe.
I came across a disturbing quote today–completely innocently and free of context, in a short piece on quotes from military leaders. The quote was disturbing not because of the content, but of who is saying it, and how it sounds eerily like our present situation here in the United States:
Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”
And who said this? Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials.
Ug.
Decided this week to try to cut down on my caffeine consumption, and to eventually all but cut it out of my diet. Even though I haven’t gone cold turkey–I’ve just cut way back, I’m already feeling the effects of withdrawal. I’ve got that nasty, localized caffeine headache that comes and goes, and sometimes just comes and stays.
More cross-posting from the Asimov’s forum.
I just learned how to do take my pulse today; it’s easy.
What you do is, place the tips of your index and middle finger on the underside of the opposite wrist, right at the top. If you’re doing it right, you’ll feel the pulse pounding right away.
Now, get a watch (or other timepiece), and for a full minute count each pulse you feel. The number of pulses in a minute is, surprise, your pulse.
I note with glee that I’ve been mentioned on Boing Boing. Cory posted a note about his new podcast serial, “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” being complete, then mentioned that the story will be published in Baen’s Astounding Stories. However, Baen’s recently changed the name of the magazine to Jim Baen’s Universe, to avoid any conflict with the rightholders of the name Astounding Stories (Dell Magazines, one would assume–the publishers of Analog, which was formerly known as Astounding Stories). So, I pointed out this change, and Cory updated the post.
I haven’t started listening to the podcast yet, but it sounds pretty damn cool. Cory sez: “[it’s] about the sysadmins surviving in data-centers after the apocalypse.”
New acquisitions this month include:
a creepy and compelling new novella from Laird Barron, which is–and I know this is going to come as a huge shock–horrific and really strange; a clever alternate history from Gardner Dozois; some good old-fashioned space-faring SF from Robert Onopa; a new Guth Bandar tale from Matthew Hughes; and a hilarious short-short from Tim McDaniel, which is…well, it’s just wrong on so many levels (but in a good way).
Tobias Buckell reports that the first third his novel, Crystal Rain, will be available online beginning in January.