I'm all up for things that can help someone go green, save some electricity, gas, etc, etc.

But this one made me go Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???

Um...last time I checked, bra's didn't require power to function.  They worked off of basic principles of things like statics, and dynamics.  The mechanics of materials.  (Oh wait, that was my sophomore year engineering schedule, sorry.)  Really, unless you are a fembot, you shouldn't need your bra to generate electricity.  And unless you are a stripper, then how long are you spending in just a bra anyways?  Out in the light.  Where having a solar cell would do you any good?  Isn't the whole point of an undergarment to go, you know, under your outer garment?  And if it's under a layer (or more) of clothes, how exactly is this thing going to get light to the photovoltaics, and hence to charge up your cell?  Or iPod, or whatever?

Yeah yeah, it's the bra equivalent of the concept car.  I get that.  But why not just dedicate your design time into something actually useful.  Like solar thigh high boots?

Is "Yes to all" an unclear statement?   I mean, when my OS asks me if it's okay to move some files, and I click on Yes to all I sort of take it at its word.  Unfortunately, it's a liar.  It askes me again, and again, and again: Yes to all?  Yes to all?

Excuse me, but all means...all.  Not just this folder.   Or until the next file that I want to ask you about again, just in case you'd changed your mind.   Seriously, dear operating system, I understand the word "all" and you, clearly, do not.   

I know, I know.  It's a bit much to expect my computer to actually understand English.  And sure, when you increment a number beyond the bit size, some programming languages end up flipping it into a negative number.  We did go over that in Fortran class, back in the day. 

I guess it's time to go back to the command line.

Hope that everyone has a good Mother's Day!

Especially you lucky_luc_mom!

 

April was a less than fun month. The Little Man got sick.  And in turn I got sick.  That hosed the beginning of the month for me to a large degree.   Then work became intense.  Halfway through the month, someone I've been working with for the past eleven years, gave his notice.  He found a new job (good for him, it was a great opportunity) and that meant having to start learning everything I could from him before he left.  Which, uh, well you try learning everything someone's been doing for eleven years in two weeks and see how easy that is.  Yeah.  There's no question that he was a critical member of my team, and that he'll be missed.   To be frank, I've started to have some crazy dreams; just shy of nightmares, and I'm positive it has to do with the fact that my team, running lean as it was, is now a major contributer down.   The night before his last day, I woke up from a dream where I was with a group of people out in the woods, and the woods had caught fire, and we were slowly being surrounded.  And couldn't put out the flames.  Then I woke up.   That was tamer version of the kinds of dreams I'm talking about, but there's no question in my mind what that was all about.

But other than that, I've been fine. ;)

Writing:  One new draft.  Not happy with this draft, it's more  a sketch really.  I've got to go back and rethink it, make it an actual story instead of just a snippet of a moment.  I've got a novel idea that's been badgering me to work on.  I pushed back to place it on hold.  (Sometimes the stories don't want to listen.)   It might be worth doing the world building in the background, so that if I feel up for NaNo I can jump in with this idea.   Or not.  I've been nicking away at some revisions but they aren't as cooperative as I'd like, and I just need to get them done, and out the door. 

Editing: No official duties this month.  Did a little copy editing for a project that isn't mine, which was the first time I tried my hand at something more than just critiquing someone else's work.  Interesting experience. 

Reading: One book.

Small Favor  by Jim Butcher: I bought this one on the Kindle.  In fact, I found out that it was available on Jim's agent's blog, and within a minute of reading that had my Kindle out and this book purchased.  One minute later, the book was downloaded, and I could start reading.   Wow.  I think that's exactly what Amazon envisioned.  Anyway, onto the book itself.  The series gets better with each novel.  I'm not sure if this one will replace Dead Beat as my favorite, but it was close.  The plot was action packed, with enough good twists, including at least one moment where I got to say "finally! I've only been waiting for that moment for about five books now.  One of the things I'm more and more impressed with as the series grows, is that things evolve and change.  Harry has an impact on his environment, and his environment (namely being the target of so much chaos and mayhem) has a lasting effect on Harry.  Not just that he's had to change up his tricks, and get tough, but even in his attitude and relationships.  When things change, they stay changed.  As an example, whereas in the past, Charity Carpenter barely put up with Harry's presence around the house, in the opening scene during the snowball fight, she's right there having a good time with Harry and the kids.  A little less noir than the previous novel, this one is a bit more about the action, and the effects of previous novels coming home to roost in rather interesting and odd combinations.  There's plenty of Dresden wit, which is to say both the moments when he's actually funny, and those in which he just thinks he's funny.  The magic, swords, and guns all fly fast and often this adventure around, and I get the sense that things are wearing Harry thin.  This is also the second story where Butcher has tapped into Billy Goats Gruff.  (His short story Restoration of Faith has a bit about a troll and a bridge.)  That particular motif exemplifies just how the author managed such a complex weaving of plot lines throughout the book, such that almost every moment, you aren't sure what's next to be thrown at Harry.  The cast of characters in this book is long, damn near every friend and foe, and all those who dance between in Harry's life seem to show up at one point or another.  Which is probably why there's so much more action here, than old fashioned mystery.  But if you've gone this far into the series, I think this one will be sure to please.

That's a wrap.

Woke up this morning at 5 AM.   Why?  So I can get the morning routine done, and be out the door so in time to stop and get the car inspected, on the way to work.  Well, class actually.   I'm in a VMware class in Edison this week.  And thankfully, Edison hosts the local inspection station.   They even open at 7AM, so that meant I could get there, get the car inspected, and still make it to class on time.   I hoped.   Yesterday's traffic on 287 was pretty heavy, what with the construction and all, so I knew I'd have to get there early.   Got the dog fed, watered, and walked, got the recycling out the door, and myself up and out on time.   I made good time, and got to the station at 6:30 AM.   Sounds crazy?  Yeah maybe.   But I was the second car in line.   That's when I brought out Mainspring, by Jay Lake, and continued reading.

By the time the station opened at 7, there were at least a dozen cars behind me.   Possibly more, I stopped counting around 10.   They only started off with the one lane open, so it took, all told about 20 minutes before I had my final results.  Passed.  Whew.   (This is the first time I've gone to the public inspection station for this car, instead of paying for it at the dealership.)  I was supposed to try and do this a week ago (my inspection is due in April) , but I lost a headlamp, and I didn't get the chance to hit the auto shop to buy a new bulb until this past saturday evening.   Thankfully, I've gotten the knack of replacing the bulb, despite the real awkward placement of the battery leaving just barely enough room for me to get the bulb in and out.  I think the new battery my old roomie helped me replace is narrower than the original, and that extra inch or so of space helps.

The car is only 6 years old, and I try to keep up with all the standard maintenance.  I'm pretty good at worrying about these sorts of things, though, and you just never know.  Well, I guess if you know a thing or two about cars other than, the pedal on the right makes them go, and the pedal on the left makes them stop, maybe you would know.   I, however, haven't dedicated much brainpower to knowing about cars.  Probably should have listened to mom about that, and taken auto shop in high school.  I'll have to file that under "things mom told me that I didn't listen to at the time, but she was right".    It's a bigger list than I'd like, but,  I can't go back and tell my teenage self to pay more attention to my parents, they know more than you think.  

So it's one more thing off the plate.  And I can sigh ever so slightly, before getting back to the grind.

I was just prompted to download and install Windows XP Service Pack 3.

I'm trepiditious about this endeavor.  It shall take some pondering before I go for it.  (And a back of up all critical data.)
 

I just happened to get an email about new books available on the Kindle.  Which prompted me to take a peek at the Amazon site, and see what all else was new, since the new announced books seemed a bit generic to me.

What did I see?  New Magazines.

Asimov's and Analog!!!

Joy.

I picked up the Asimov's to see how it looks.   Generally speaking just fine.   I think the poetry is going to be an issue, since line formatting can be a bit more important to poetry than it would be to prose.  I'm glad to see these onboard.  (As with Hitchcock's and Ellery Queen too!)

Oh.  And apparently, as of today (I think) there's an announcement on the main Amazon site that they have finally ramped up production to the point where if you order a Kindle, you'll get one, without the long delays.  (Like I had to suffer through.)  That's good news for them.

On another point, I have discovered that my minor issue was due to the SD memory card, because I've been using a different card for over a month now, and it's been fine.  I will have to see how I can get that card swapped out.  Not sure if I can do that at the store, or if I'll have to go through the manufacturer.  I do note that my battery life is significantly better now that I've taken to turning it off during transport.   I suspect that despite the cover, when I carry it in my knapsack, one or more of the keys is getting pressed, and that might have been taxing on the battery.   With the device off, that's a non-issue.   

So we're closing in on almost 120,000 books available from their site.  Not bad for what, 6 months since they launched?  (That's just about 50% increase in titles carried.)   Magazines and newspapers are coming on, if at a slower rate.    We'll see if it can hold up.  I still just wish I could get a peek at the numbers.  How many units are out there?  I don't know if/when we'll ever get to know.  But so far, so good, I should think.   

Now I know I often get all rosy about the device, and that's the geek side of me talking.   But on the writer side, it's not all sweet smelling and perfect.   Just as a bit of counterpoint, you might want to go check out what SFWA's contract committee has to say about the standard Amazon contract as it regards to publication on their devices.  If you are an approaching it from the author or publisher side of things, then its worth your time to read through the annotated copy of the contract.  

I've no doubt that things are changing.  How much?  How fast?  How far?  These are questions that remain.  But ebooks aren't going away.   Will things change for the better, or worse?  I don't think either.  But it will be different.

Can anyone explain to me why a disk can be advertised as 750 GB, but when put into the system, I am told that it is a 621 GB drive?

Seriously.  Even if I grant that when they convert up, each time it's by orders ot 1000, instead of 1024 as it should be, and I do the appropriate division, we're still talking a conversion rate that would put me at closer to 698 GB.  Still, that's a pretty huge chunk to lose to formatting, anyway you look at it.

Grrrr.

It's either a loss of 18% of advertised space to the file structure, or a loss of 11%.  Either way, I think that's pretty much BS.  I suspect those disks are not really what they are advertised as, no matter which way you think about it.   Yes, yes, I know that the vendor stressed multiple times that the disk space we were purchasing was based upon the RAW disk.  But you could provide reasonable estimates of what the space we would end up with, instead of just empasizing total raw disk space every time in the discussion.

Bah!

Fire  burn, and caldron bubble.

That's a phrase I've been teaching the Little Man.  I figure, why not start with the good stuff.

Actually, he's got a part of that down.   Bubble.   Sort of.   You see part of the bedtime routine is to take a bath, and he just loves the water.   A month or so ago (perhaps longer, my sense of the passage of days is a bit off kilter recently) my wife picked up a bottle of bubble bath, which also came with one of those wands so that you can blow bubbles.  We added that to the bath routine, and recently, when its time to get into the bath, he's been saying "babum".   Which is his version of asking for the bubbles.   It's quite distinct and repeated often, so it's not just a chance thing, it's quite intentional.  And it's used in context.  IE, if I bring out the bottle of bubbles, he'll say it.  Or if I say the word "bubbles" he'll say it back to me.

Tonight, as I was blowing bubbles at him, I noticed that he was trying to scoop them up off the surface of the bath, and eat them.  I find that kind of surprising, since the other day, I tried to make a real "bubble bath" with lots of suds, and he ended up with an accidental mouthful of bubbles, and that ended the bath right quick.  So shock beyond shock, tonight, he was trying to eat the bubbles.

I don't know when the last time you might have blown bubbles, with a simple wand.   There is something unabashedly fun about the experience.  Something wondrous, even  now at my age, watching the bubbles flow out of the wand and twirl off into the wind of my breath.   Depending on the mix of water and soap, I have nights where I can blow enormous bubbles that could encompass a grapefruit, other times I can only produce small ping-pong sized bubbles at best.   I've watched bubbles bounce off the surface of the bath once, twice, before settling on the surface on the third contact.  I watched bubbles collide in mid-air and form radical shapes that remind me of molecule diagrams from college chemistry.  Sometimes the collision bursts both bubbles.  Sometimes they bounce off each other, sending each on a complete new trajectory.  Most just land on the surface of the water, either to burst or slowly, collect into little islands.  When enough mass together it gives the whole of it a honeycomb appearance.   That rarely lasts long, because the Little Man considers it his duty to disrupt those with fierce intensity.   I alternate between the two distinct challenges of seeing how many bubbles I can flood the air with on a single dip of the soap, with trying to see how large a bubble I can manage without bursting it.    Both, made more challenging by the happy child waiting to burst that large bubble, or make me laugh so that I lose my breath mid-stream.

If it's been a long time since you've done so, go pick up a small jar at the local dollar shop (or equivalent) and go spend some time blowing bubbles.   Spring is finally in full swing; the weather is pleasant enough so that it's neither freezing cold, nor sweltering hot.   (At least here in New Jersey, your mileage may vary.)  Give yourself even just half an hour to recapture one tiny piece of youth that might have stolen away as you grew older and let the responsibilities pile up so.  Take it back, and revel in watching a shiny, floating, swirling sphere that glints with a flash of captured rainbow.  Watch them dance on the wind, for as long as they can before they burst.  Set aside your cares for a while, as you have some old, simple, fun.

I don't know.  I wasn't about to get out of the car and ask him, even though he was holding up traffic this morning.   He seemed utterly unconcerned that there were several ton vehicles bearing down on him from either side.   In fact, he stood rather patiently on the double yellow line as two lanes of cars slowed down to pass him cautiously on either side.  Just as I pulled away from him, there was a break in traffic, and I saw him start walking in the rearview.   Hope he made it. 

I was telling someone recently about a website where you can listen to the music for free, and if you like it you can buy it.  Or license it if you want.  It's very interesting system.   Of course, the problem is that I don't remember who it was I was telling about this, because the weekend was so jam packed with things, it could have been just about anyone.

So here's the site:   http://magnatune.com/

What I like in particular about this site, as opposed to say, Pandora (which I also enjoy and use) is that I can stop, and change songs, rewind and relisten, as much as I want.  Whereas Pandora really is much more of what it says it is: internet radio.  Though you can skip a stinker of a song, you can't really go back and relisten to a song you liked *right now*.   You have to wait until it just shows up naturally in the play list again.

With Magnatune, you can listen to what you are in the mood for, when you're in the mood for it.  Or you can listen to one of their "radio channels."   Mind you, it doesn't do what Pandora does.  At least not as far as I can tell.  So you can't tell it that I love Anonymous4 and it won't give you tons of suggestions based upon it.   It won't create custom radio stations tailored to YOU.  But it's got an eclectic collection, particularly of music types and styles I haven't so far found on Pandora.  

Props out to Wil Wheaton for introducing me to the site.

Hopefully the person that I was speaking with about the site will come across this, and will now be informed.   If not, hope the rest of you go check it out.   It's cool stuff.

Happy Birthday to shayd and to jimhines.

Hope your day is full of awesome.

I've been getting some new spam these days. But it's all in Russian. At least, I think that it's Russian, it could be another language that uses the same alphabet. My sum total experience with the Russian language was an aborted attempt to teach it to myself in 9th grade from a Berlitz book in the public library. I might have successfully taught my self how to say:

This is a pencil. Is this a pencil? Yes, this is a pencil. No that is not a pencil.

Or not.

Anyone familiar with Berlitz would recognize the above as the first lesson you learn. Though it might be a pen instead of a pencil. (For the record, I used to work for Berlitz, so I'm more than passing familiar with them, though I wouldn't work for them for another 7 years later than the above example.) The problem was, I have no frakking clue if I was pronouncing anything right. Eventually I gave up, as I did with Chinese, Thai, and a few other poor attempts back then. (At least when I tried to learn Bengali, I had a native speaker teaching me, even if Pablo wasn't a teacher, and we just made up the lessons as we went along.)

Now, I get spam in foreign languages all the time. Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, even Russian. What strikes me odd about this last batch, is I can't figure it out. There's no pictures of pills, no links to click on that would take me to a Phishing site, or someplace to buy creams, pills or devices to increase the size of some portion of the human anatomy. Nothing on the screen that would look like prices, or anything that makes my "spider-sense" tingle. (Note: I obtained that with the house when I bought it from Peter Parker, it was in the contract.) The only thing other than just plain text in the email, are the pictures of kittens. The pictures look like kittens in a shelter, which of course makes me wonder if the email is trying to get you to adopt the kittens. But, if they are, I'd expect there to be an address, or phone number, or email, or link somewhere in the message. But unless it got stripped out, I can't find it. I'd planned to print it out, to see if my wife could make heads or tails of it. But, apparently I deleted it. So now, in a perverse way, I really want to know what the heck that email said.  I'm sure that with enough patience, I'll run across it again.  Of course, I'm sure that once I have the message and I track down the meaning, I'll be disappointed.

It appears that the NPR station here in the greater NYC area that used to broadcast the BBC during my morning commute, has now changed formats, and is broadcasting some world music show during that time slot.

This pisses me off.

Not all that long ago, back in the fall, they did the same thing to me during my evening commute.  What had been daily, a different afternoon drive program, with selections ranging from Parents Journal, to Zorba Paster, to Justice Talking, etc.  Every day, a little something different.  I like that, then it changed to the Putamayo World Hour.  Okay, fine, people like music, and certainly cultural music from around the world has its appeal.

But I don't want to hear it.  I don't want to hear ANY music.  I don't care if it's neat cultural music from around the world, or american top 40.  I look forward to my commute as my time to catch up on news programs, and other interesting things.  If I'm no longer going to get it, I see no reason why I should bother with that station anymore.   Which is a bummer, because I like NPR in general.   I specifically liked their programming format.   Most important to me, was getting the BBC.  Why?  Because I want to hear opinions on news stories that aren't all told from the US point of view.   

I learned years ago, just how self centered US news can be, when my wife and I took an extended trip throughout Europe.  While in Europe, the news was covered with enormous flooding that devastated central Europe.  Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and a bunch of other countries I can't recall off the top of my head were hit bad.  The flooding certainly matched the kinds of flooding you saw in Hurricane Katrina.   Just before we headed back from our trip, we saw the reports of that calamity as it hit the US.  It seemed according to the European news, as if the world were just about to enter a second massive deluge.  But when we landed back in our own country, we were shocked that no one here knew the least bit about the flooding in Europe.  It hadn't been on the news.  It had no coverage.  Katrina had coverage in the foreign news.  But their tragedies meant nothing over here.  That's when I knew I needed some sources of news and information that weren't beholden to the US TV networks and media conglomerates.  That morning BBC broadcast was it.

Now how will I get my cricket scores?  :(
 

Seems like Borders may be looking to sell itself off.   This just on the heels of news about their new concept store?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080320/ap_on_bi_ge/borders_group_sale 

I'm not thrilled to hear of bookstores closing down.  Especially since I shop at Borders regularly.

Saturday night, I had an extremely vivid dream.   I can tell you that it was extremely vivid, because I still remember bits and pieces of it today--four days later.

Zombies.

I fought zombies.  


I'm wondering if my muse wants me to write a zombie story.

I've just heard the news, which is probably spreading across the internet like wildfire, that Arthur C. Clarke has passed on.

Rest in Peace, sir. 

I waited a while to post up my thoughts on the Amazon Kindle, because I wanted to allow some time for the *shiny* to wear off, and for it to become just another device I own.  So it's been just about six weeks, and I think that is enough time for me to have some experience and give an initial burst of feedback.  I might check in about how I feel with it near the six month mark, and then at the one year mark, to see if the experience has much changed.


One final thought, if you run into me in person, at a convention, or perhaps at one of the Garden State Horror Writers meetings and want to hold the device, and take a look at it, please go ahead and ask.  I keep it with me almost all the time, and I want to let people--especially writers, editors, and others in publishing--take a few moments to see and feel what the device is like for themselves.