Slashdot Mirror

http://www.tor.com/jordan/

KFG

I'm just not quite sure why everyone's block-capitalising Tor.

I can't be the only one who first read that as TOR Publishing. I almost had a heart attack. I mean, I can deal with boycotting eBay, MPAA, RIAA, for their IP idiocy, but TOR? Do not play so cruelly with my fragile nerdy heart.

Seriously, I have never heard any one abbreviate Tim O'Reilly TOR.

So I couldn't help but notice that this article is just a dupe.

Apparently, a link to a blog with a couple paragraphs and screenshots of a service that has been covered before is newsworthy. Not in my opinion.

Oh, and if you go to that blog that's linked in the article, there is a "Contact Us" tab which results in the same e-mail that the author of this article (Tam Hanna) linked to their name. This isn't a review, it's a "Oooh, this is neat" article which is odd considering I have a Google Pages account and it's not that neat--it's functional and simplistic but limiting. And please do notice the ads (some by Google) surrounding Tam Hanna's blog. So they'll be making some cash off the Slashdot effect. What a tool Slashdot has become.

If you want an example of something they rejected to bring you a duped article, here's one I submitted this morning that some of you may or may not care about:

About a week ago, Robert Jordan wrote a letter to Locus in which he stated he has amyloidosis. Amyloidosis is a rare blood disease that leaves patients with a median of one (no treatment) to four (with treatment) years left to live. He confirmed this on his publisher's website. This is devastating news for fantasy enthusiasts but on his blog he spoke about the Wheel of Time series: "Worse comes to worst, I will finish A Memory of Light, so the main story arc, at least, will be completed." Let us all wish him a permanent recovery--if he can write the epic tomes of the Wheel of Time, surely beating amyloidosis will be trivial.

I thought the same thing. Nice reference even if the mod didn't get it.

TOR Books, one of the largest publishers of Science Fiction and Fantasy in North America *might* have some problem with this...Methinks that I should let David Hartwell know...and the wonderful people at EFF...

ttyl
Farrell

My friend Steve won that in 1993 for a novel called Stolen Voices. He's a critically-acclaimed fantasy novelist these days, and the three-day thing definitely played an important role in his burgeoning career. Oh, if you're into fantasy, you'll probably recognize him better as Steven Erikson.

1. Author is functionally illiterate.
2. Author has submitted some variety of literature we don't publish: poetry, religious revelation, political rant, illustrated fanfic, etc.
3. Author has a serious neurochemical disorder, puts all important words into capital letters, and would type out to the margins if MSWord would let him.
4. Author is on bad terms with the Muse of Language. Parts of speech are not what they should be. Confusion-of-motion problems inadvertently generate hideous images. Words are supplanted by their similar-sounding cousins: towed the line, deep-seeded, incentiary, reeking havoc, nearly penultimate, dire straights, viscous/vicious.
5. Author can write basic sentences, but not string them together in any way that adds up to paragraphs.
6. Author has a moderate neurochemical disorder and can't tell when he or she has changed the subject. This greatly facilitates composition, but is hard on comprehension.
7. Author can write passable paragraphs, and has a sufficiently functional plot that readers would notice if you shuffled the chapters into a different order. However, the story and the manner of its telling are alike hackneyed, dull, and pointless.

1. It's nice that the author is working on his/her problems, but the process would be better served by seeing a shrink than by writing novels.
2. Nobody but the author is ever going to care about this dull, flaccid, underperforming book.
3. The book has an engaging plot. Trouble is, it's not the author's, and everybody's already seen that movie/read that book/collected that comic.

1. Someone could publish this book, but we don't see why it should be us.
2. Author is talented, but has written the wrong book.
3. It's a good book, but the house isn't going to get behind it, so if you buy it, it'll just get lost in the shuffle.
4. Buy this book.

radio interview with Larry Niven on Ringworld's Children.

Hell, I use it all the time. Of course, I read it using Unix mush, and a wetware-based html render engine. =) If they can infect that with a virus, I'm already in trouble by definition. I must say, it does make most of the phish and spam stand out.

My main objection to the test: ALL the URLs all failed my initial "phishing" test-- does the HTML text visible match the underlying source hyperlink? For the test, they were all linked to "#" with an a OnClick popup. The "mouse over" trick to show you what it's nominally linking to doesn't work in Safari.

Oddly, I was still able to get 10/10 due to sublteties in style difference between the legits and the fakes (which I wish I could concisely quantify). Given the department I work for emphasizes the importance of both communication and ethics, I find it interesting that there seems a link here between poor verbal skills and criminal intent. I wonder if it's because the more eloquent have better ways to scam a living, or perhaps because so many of the scammers are non-native English speakers of limited fluency....

What, they'll come down and admit they did it? ;-)

Statistically speaking, it's more likely that they already know because they were there and saw it in real-time. Or that we could do like in The Light of Other Days (a good read, I recommend it) and peek back in time through quantum tunneling effects. Call Wesley, he'll know exactly what to do.

Who do the Wachowski brothers think they are? Robert Jordan?

I've seen a little of this show. It does seem to be mostly pretty bad, but I don't quite see how we can blame GR for it. Yeah, they put his name on it, but that's just an example of using the name of a retired or dead SF person as a kind of brand name. One of SF's more depressing trends.

A Supernova In Red/Blue Plaid, Please

The book describes a species of aliens who see in many more colors than we do. One color, commonly found in sunsets, is translated into English as "plaid."

If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it. It's arguably the best book by one of the brightest authors out there. He's the only author where I can't find anything to quibble about concerning his computer science. [Sample Chapter]

Heh, just for reference, at around book six, he claimed there would be at least ten.

FYI, Jordan's on a book tour right now. Got mine signed. :)

I work for a nonprofit, so my science fiction writing income actually accounts for a substantial chunk of my living.

I have never written an "original" word in my life. Every idea I've had has been inspired by those who came before me. I just released my first novel, both as a hardcover book and an ebook under the terms of a Creative Commons license. The novel is set in Walt Disney World, and revolves around the efforts of preservationists in a transhuman future who strive to keep the rides true to the original Imagineers' intent.

I take a lot of flak for my genuine admiration for the Disney Parks and films -- people want to know why I've thrown my lot in with the corporate crooks who've stolen the public domain out from under us. The fact of the matter is that Walt Disney is the poster child for the public domain. Walt's greatest works were built by taking off-the-shelf parts and stories and remixing them in novel and useful ways. Lessig notes that Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey cartoon, was a remix of a popular film called "Steamboat Bill." Exploring the bonus material on the latest DVD release of the cartoon shows that not only did Walt thrive on the public domain, but that the Disney Company's interest is in closing off that domain to everyone else:

"Orchestra starts playing opening verses of 'Steamboat Bill.' Try doing a cartoon take-off of one of Disney, Inc.'s latest films with an opening that copies the music, and see how far your Walt Empire gets."

Any artist who claims that her work is 100% original is lying or self-deluded. Art is embedded in culture. Art is a web, and it is enmeshed with the art that came before it and comes after it. Deriding the public domain as the refuge of the unimaginative makes about as much sense as pissing on coders who don't write their own OSes (or invent their own non-Turing, non-Von Neumann, non-non-Von Neumann computing engines, for that matter).

Here is a short story written by Herbert and Anderson whose story takes place before this book.

You see Xavier's parents as well as his brother and of course the Titans.

As for the remark about not mentioning the Mentats very much. I believe, in my humble opinion, that the head sorceress ( which is the beginning of the Gesserit ) husband is laying the foundation for it in that he is always seeking pharmaceutical ways to enhance men ( insert lame joke here ) so they can be on par with the sorceresses

Damn, that guy Jordan just can't finish anything on time, can he?

• The Light Of Other Days

The publisher has some sample reading from this book at www.tor.com/lood.html.

I personally would find a map of the path of most surveillance more comforting.

True Names.. ah, there is a truely great novella. I don't think that the link is accurate though, that edition has not (or should not have been) printed yet. I have a standing order with Tor for it, i have had the order for the last two years, the publication date has always been a few months in the future. I am fairly sure that it has not been recently published because i have just bought a compleat collection of Vinge's short stories, the only omisions being true names (because of the pending publication), and Grim's world (it being the core of Tajta Grim's World). The distributer, i think it was Baker and taylor, but i could be wrong, said that the publication date for True Names (i check every time i order something) has been pushed back yet again. This all makes me wonder why Barnesand Noble say it is instock and ready to ship.... i dunno...

online text of True Names (not sure how long this wil be up... so get it while its fresh)

True Names
A fan supported Vernor Vinge web site
Vinge's site at SDSU (the miscelanious link at the bottom has the good stuff)
Some of his other books
Bibliography

ok, thats enough for now... check google for more.
I recomend reading some of his stuff if you havn't already, some reminds you of all of the science foction you have read before, and some is just astounding. True Names is/was truely prophetic (check out when it was written, then compare to neuromancer).

Oddly, Tor Books, his US publisher, decided to start with "The Cassini Division" (arguably the weakest book) then follow up with "The Stone Canal".

According to Patrick Neilsen-Hayden of Tor (posting on rec.arts.sf.written), "The Star Fraction" will be published in the USA, but after the other books. If you really can't wait, you can probably find it at Waterstones (large UK bookseller with e-tailer outlet).

(Personally, I rate Ken as one of the two most important Scottish SF writers currently working -- the other being Iain Banks. Highly recommended!)