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He owns the Cocteau cinema which has a replica of Robby. Maybe he stumped up the cash for the original.

https://www.tor.com/2013/08/13...

https://www.ranker.com/list/ge...

Indirectly, yes. Elon Musk named the two drone ships "Just Read the Instructions" and "Of Course I Still Love You" in honor of Iain M. Banks, RIP. They were both names of spaceships in his book "The Player of Games".

ST:TNG "Hollow Pursuits" wasn't a bad episode, once you get over all the technobabble.

http://www.tor.com/2012/01/24/...

Take a look at the short story Wikihistory by Desmond Warzel.

It reads a bit like a Talk page on Wikipedia, with lots of edits (people kill Hitler) and reversions. Funny.

Not really. The puppies (sad and angry) are both pissy that their favourite stuff isn't getting awards. They claim that their stuff is getting pushed out in place of crap that they hate. Of course there's a kernel of truth: some utter drek has been given awards (the utter shit by RH, for example and bad stories that have a gay person in it, such as the appalingly bad http://www.tor.com/2013/02/20/...).

The trouble is it's only a kernel of truth. The stuff being awarded may have been bad but theirs is, by any reasonable standard just as bad, if not worse.

This is not an attempt to reform or destroy stuff, it's just a massive attempt at shameless self promotion and getting their stuff awarded. Any claims to the contrary are simlpy them making stuff up to rewrite history in otder to make themselves look better, something Vox Dei does a lot.

Anyway as a result, the Hugos are part way to adopting a new voting system which penalises identical voters in order to make it harder to utterly stack the votes.

A Canticle for Leibowitz was originally three novellas as well.

Interestingly, though this is fantasy rather than sci-fi, but Brandon Sanderson's recent epic, "Words of Radiance", was written as a trilogy with interstitial short stories - but meant from the beginning to have been published as a single book. (As per this interview.)

Read the last 3, but if you don't want to read the ones in the middle, read Leigh Butler's re-read. Though it may contain some spoilers for things you haven't gotten up to yet.

Everyone assassinates Hitler their first time out

They have already stated a complete abandonment of the accepted post-ROTJ canon. New stories, and I would assume a completely different storyline for any of the movies to be released by Disney.

More to how Disney is 're-imaging' the EU rights as they acquired it with Lucasarts ILM, they just re-branded all of the previously accepted EU under a different banner and now are running forward like they own the place...which they do. This move is unfortunate for everyone that is familiar with the expanded universe but probably won't affect sales of tickets or merchandise in a significant enough way.

Heinlein is responsible for a common usage word for remote manipulator: Waldo, named after a character in one of his early stories who used such grippers to make up for a disability.

HERE is a reference that describes how Heinlein predicted the U.S./Soviet "cold war", before the start of World War II.

Turning the established white male character Iron Man with his side kick and one of his best friends, a black man

Like Green Lantern? (p.s., Loki often went about as a woman)

The misogyny is actually in the new character of the female Thor, wherein Thor's breastplate now has protrusions for breasts (commonly referred to amongst roleplaying-, comic- and self-proclaimed nerds as "boobplate").

That is misogynist? Are female super heroes supposed to be flat chested? Is there historical context for plate armor built for women? Depicting ideal forms in comics, or any other entertainment, is how it is done. People read comics, or watch movies, or attend plays, to be taken away from reality. Not to be reminded of it.

Btw, how do you feel about codpieces?

It has been argued (link; I know, it's just a blog post and the authority of it is beyond suspect) that a strong enough blow would be plenty to break a sternum. Thor is a warrior that is often engaging in battles of super-human strength, which would qualify as a strong enough blow. They are putting a weakness on the new Thor in order to make her pretty parts more clearly on display. That, I feel, is the true misogyny.

A weakness?! The male Thor wore a (latex?) body suit and a helmet. Since when is cloth or latex better than armor, even poorly designed armor, at stopping a weapon?

The misogyny, as pointed out, lies in the double standards being applied to rate the characters. Changing Green Lantern from one guy to an entire corps, with the "original" (the rewritten story included a Chinese Green Lantern predating the original comic character) being made gay, one of the replacements black... all that is ok. Nobody is complaining about Thor being turned into a title. "Thor" now being whoever holds the hammer is apparently fine with everybody. The complaint is not "Thor's character was changed", it is just "Thor is a woman". So far every reason I've seen presented here for not liking the change has been a double standard.

Also noticed on my side of the computer is that every woman I've told about this has said: "Omg that's awesome!"
The complaints have all come from men, here.

I'd browse around for more... but honestly, I'm not inclined to do so considering the single word "Ridiculous!" is considered +5 Insightful with this crowd, while obviously thought-out, intelligent calls for discussion by opposing views are considered trolling. Too many signs its time to leave slashdot.

• Replacing Bruce Wayne with a female Batman and calling her Batman
• Introducing a male character and taking the mutant Storm's powers and giving them to him, calling him Storm
• Eradicating the established Norse pantheon in an event called Ragnarok and then bringing them all back later, only with Loki back as a female
• Turning the established white male character Iron Man with his side kick and one of his best friends, a black man

The misogyny is actually in the new character of the female Thor, wherein Thor's breastplate now has protrusions for breasts (commonly referred to amongst roleplaying-, comic- and self-proclaimed nerds as "boobplate"). It has been argued (link; I know, it's just a blog post and the authority of it is beyond suspect) that a strong enough blow would be plenty to break a sternum. Thor is a warrior that is often engaging in battles of super-human strength, which would qualify as a strong enough blow. They are putting a weakness on the new Thor in order to make her pretty parts more clearly on display. That, I feel, is the true misogyny.

Short answer - no.

A longer, more speculative answer can be found here.

Sounds like the first step in Hari Seldon's Psychohistory. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/tampering-with-historical-destiny-isaac-asimovs-foundation-trilogy

Its the Equoids you have to watch out for http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/09/equoid

I'd like to believe that the Osprey was just a long con to screw up R&D in enemy nations too. Alas, no.

I've noticed more and more Amazon eBooks, especially sci-fi books, being released without DRM. It's still very much in the minority, but at least it's happening.

I posted feedback to their help center a while back telling them that they needed to implement a DRM filter on their advanced search page, at least something like "DRM? Y/N". Yeah, right, I won't be holding my breath for it...

In the meantime, search Amazon for books from Baen or Tor, they're the only two major publishers I am aware of that have implemented a no DRM policy. Or better yet, buy direct from Baen. Tor's supposed to have a store too, but something seems to have gone awry there.

This is a great move for Google's AI research, since their current Director of Research,Peter Norvig, comes from a mathematical background and is a strong defender the use of statistical models that have no biological basis.[1] While these techniques have their use in specific areas, they will never lead us to a general purpose strong AI.

Lately Kurzweil has come around to see that symbolic and bayesian networks have been holding AI back for the past 50 years. He is now a proponent of using biologically inspired methods similar to Jeff Hawkins' approach of Hierarchical Temporal Memory.
Hopefully, he'll bring some fresh ideas to Google. This will be especially useful in areas like voice recognition and translation. For example, just last week, I needed to translate. "We need to meet up" to Chinese. Google translates it to (can't type Chinese in Slashdot?)
, meaning "We need to satisfy". This is where statistical translations fail, because statistics and probabilities will never teach machines to "understand" language.

Leaders in AI like Kurzweil and Hawkins are going to finally crack the AI problem. With Kurzweil's experience and Google's resources, it might happen a lot sooner than you all expect.

[1] http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/06/norvig-vs-chomsky-and-the-fight-for-the-future-of-ai

It doesn't matter what he's written before, so long as what he wrote before was good for its genre. A good writer can transition from kid's story to space opera without any problem so long as he understands genre well.

The one question I care about is this: Is Arndt a fan? Does he have an old Boba Fett action figure that he's kept since they came out (and not one in mint condition, one where most of the paint has worn off by handling)? Does he have a dog eared copy of the Thrawn trilogy? Does he still have the VHS original series--for obvious reasons--even though he no longer has a VCR? Does he care about the story and does he recognize why fans over 12 are miffed? I'm not asking whether he's a bat-shit crazy fan like, say, myself or my wife. I'm not talking about the kind of fan who cannot talk about the prequels in polite company, such a person would have trouble writing the new movies. I'm talking about the kind of fan who, unlike Lucas, recognizes that once art is made other people invest themselves in it. A person who's willing to respect that.

TFA gives some small new hope.

‘Arndt stated that if a writer could resolve the story's arcs (internal, external, philosophical) immediately after the Moment of Despair at the climax, he or she would deliver the Insanely Great Ending and put the audience in a euphoric state. The faster it could happen, the better. By [Arndt’s] reckoning, George Lucas hit those three marks at the climax of Star Wars within a space of 22 seconds.’

Assuming Star Wars here means the original (Episode IV), then he sees one of the things that was so right, even in the weakest (or second weakest, I'll negotiate on this point) of the original trilogy. But more hopeful still is the fact that he recognizes story arcs need to be resolved. If he would say openly that he recognizes the inconsistencies created by the new movies, I would plan on seeing the next movie on opening night.

A final note for Disney: The first SW movie my wife saw, she watched seven times in the theater. I bought countless books and subscribed to magazines, etc. All this ended with the disastrous prequels. Fans are worth money. We are willing to give it to you. You can make a movie that pleases the older fans, who've more money, and the very young, who've endless appetites, at the same time. I seem to recall some movies from the late seventies and early eighties that did just that.

I just built a new one

I predict a future wherein we buy smartphone-sized computer casings and put the CPU, memory, post-SSD storage stuff, etc in there with tweezers. (Anything smaller would be impractical.)
We then connect these to screens and keyboards. There is no way I'm going to exchange my keyboard for a touchscreen, I have to feel the keys.
After a while, when we are all illiterate and , we get voice-controlled computers that we don't understand but upon which we are completely dependent.

Still didn't keep them from featuring one (see TNG:Relics w/ the James Doohan appearance):

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/09/star-trek-the-next-generation-qrelicsq

I still don't find the idea of a sphere workable:

  - you need to have artificial gravity to make it work or everything not bolted down falls into the sun
  - where do you get the material from? Dismantle several (dozen, hundred, thousand, million?) star systems?
  - what material could it be constructed of?

Even a ringworld is pretty far-fetched (though it could be spun).

The most believable space habitat I've seen in fiction thus far is Varley's Gaea (from his Titan/Wizard/Demon trilogy).

Check out the Tor page - more useful.

I can't figure out the world of e-book publishing. I'm generally happy to buy the Hugo Award winners (and even nominees) figuring that half the work in finding at least some good SF has been done for me, but I can't just go to the publisher's website and buy the fucking book directly from them in an ePub version.

I find this especially weird for Tor given that they seem to understand DRM sucks and they made a big noise about all their ebooks going DRM free.

But on their buy page (which I found from this article in the Tor blog after doing a Google search for the name) only lets me pick from a bunch of ebook retailers like Amazon, B&N, Google Books... and I know at least some of those won't be available as options for me because I'm here in Australia and not in the USA (Google Books for example is not available to us here).

Further, most of the other options are for specific devices - I happen to have a Kobo, but when I follow the link for that, it takes me to the Kobo search page - either the book is not available there at all, or it's not available for my region. I've tried buying "DRM free" ebooks from Amazon and could not figure out how to do it easily without a Kindle (you don't seem to ever got prompted to download a file; I assume it is all back-end device specific magic tied to your account...?)

In short - I just want to download an ePub file. I know many many users don't want to have to do this, but it is seriously the absolute simplest form of distribution you could come up with - just let me download a .epub file directly in my browser so I can do whatever the hell I want with it!

I can't figure out the world of e-book publishing. I'm generally happy to buy the Hugo Award winners (and even nominees) figuring that half the work in finding at least some good SF has been done for me, but I can't just go to the publisher's website and buy the fucking book directly from them in an ePub version.

I find this especially weird for Tor given that they seem to understand DRM sucks and they made a big noise about all their ebooks going DRM free.

But on their buy page (which I found from this article in the Tor blog after doing a Google search for the name) only lets me pick from a bunch of ebook retailers like Amazon, B&N, Google Books... and I know at least some of those won't be available as options for me because I'm here in Australia and not in the USA (Google Books for example is not available to us here).

Further, most of the other options are for specific devices - I happen to have a Kobo, but when I follow the link for that, it takes me to the Kobo search page - either the book is not available there at all, or it's not available for my region. I've tried buying "DRM free" ebooks from Amazon and could not figure out how to do it easily without a Kindle (you don't seem to ever got prompted to download a file; I assume it is all back-end device specific magic tied to your account...?)

In short - I just want to download an ePub file. I know many many users don't want to have to do this, but it is seriously the absolute simplest form of distribution you could come up with - just let me download a .epub file directly in my browser so I can do whatever the hell I want with it!

Vilcabamba by Harry Turtledove.

It's a short, good read. Made me think for days. It's analogous to the Europeans finishing the conquest over South American Indians.

"The story is set sometime in the 21st century, 50 years after an alien race called the Krolp conquered and occupied much of planet Earth. The story is told from the perspective of President of the United States, Harris Moffatt III, who rules a rump United States and Canada that runs along the Rocky Mountains. Moffat's father and grandfather were also presidents."

The online text is here.

I'm not up to date with my publishers, but that sounds a lot like what TOR is doing. The store was scheduled to launch in April, and it's now launching sometime in Summer 2012 (hopefully it hasn't been mothballed). I still have old PDFs of Sanderson's works from when they were emailing them to anybody who would sign up for a newsletter.

We'll see... Tor has been talking about Baen's model for many years now. Several years ago they actually started down the path of providing their books through Baen's site, and put a handful of books for sale. Then they stopped and started several times. I'd love to see it happen, because the combination of Tor and Baen would cover 95% of my fiction needs.

I'm not up to date with my publishers, but that sounds a lot like what TOR is doing. The store was scheduled to launch in April, and it's now launching sometime in Summer 2012 (hopefully it hasn't been mothballed). I still have old PDFs of Sanderson's works from when they were emailing them to anybody who would sign up for a newsletter.

And don't get me started on the EPA saying we shouldn't be lighting off a few hundred tons of red fuming nitric acid/ dimethylhydrazine or FOOF/dimethylmercury.

OS 10.8 is not trying to be a tablet OS like Windows 8. (Interesting that Apple and Microsoft have synced-up with their numbers)

old OS: Win7 and 10.7
new OS: Win8 and 10.8

BTW the review of the review was funny. But this award-nominee was even funnier: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/04/the-shadow-war-of-the-night-dragons-book-one-the-dead-city-excerpt

When you consider what the US gives to it's science budget, the only thing eroding public trust is the paid-for blathering by bought-off scientists. Don't try and hide the real problem with "Positive Bias". That's what you get when you hire someone at a pharmaceutical company to write up a paper for Nature. You don't get independent viewpoints you get advertisement with a scientific undertone.

"A half a penny... The most powerful agency of the dreams of a nation is currently underfunded to do what it needs to be doing."
  - Neil deGrasse Tyson

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-the-nasa-budget

Oh, sure, the first time something new's put down on paper, it's hard, but now that the formula's out there, swords and sorcery is easy. The real trick is to come up with something new, like Shadow War of the Night Dragons (first book in a five to seven book trilogy). Now this is a work of art that hardly anyone on the planet would dare try to make but man, here it is.

I'd also recommend MacDonald's story The History of Photogen and Nycteris. BTW, Tor.com blogs did a series of MacDonald rereads last year, which may point to more of his books/stories which are worth reading.

Hate to be on-topic, but what the hell:
Article on Tor.com with some images from some of his other concept art. I always get a kick out of seeing hand-painted 70s-80s concept art. Cognitive dissonance-- "old fashioned" sci-fi imagery.

After Sanderson took over the books have tremendously improved, almost back to the initial volumes.

I both agree and disagree. Sanderson certainly brought back the pacing from the early books, which is nice (since that means the series will finish). And he has a great respect for the series and is a good writer in his own right, so I really don't think there is anyone better they could have picked to finish it up.

On the other hand, Sanderson is not as good technically, lacks most of the subtlety, and tends to use lots of neologisms that just don't fit. It will be nice to finally get it finished (hell, I've been reading the series since circa 1993 or 1994), but it is a pity that Jordan didn't manage to finish off the series in his lifetime.

Oh, if anyone wants the Cliff-notes version rather than going back to read all 10,000 pages before the final book comes out, here is a fairly voluminous re-read that might actually have a chance to be completed before Memory comes out now that it has been pushed back.

Yeah, here's a depressing look at a much more reasonable alien invasion than the one featured in _Footfall_:

http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/02/vilcabamba

William

Tor has links to online versions of the nominees for Short Story, for Novellette and for four out of the five Novellas.

Tor has links to online versions of the nominees for Short Story, for Novellette and for four out of the five Novellas.

Tor has links to online versions of the nominees for Short Story, for Novellette and for four out of the five Novellas.

He did a short sci-fi story that's available free on the Tor website. http://www.tor.com/stories/2008/12/firstborn

From Cory Doctorow's "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away":

“We’re all guilty of something, Lawrence. That’s how the game is rigged. Look closely at anyone’s life and you’ll find, what, a little black-marketeering, a copyright infringement, some cash economy business with unreported income, something obscene in your Internet use, something in your bloodstream that shouldn’t be there. I bought that sofa from a cop, Lawrence, bought it ten years ago when he was leaving the building. He didn’t give me a receipt and didn’t collect tax, and technically that makes us offenders.” She slapped the radiator. “I overrode the governor on this ten minutes after they installed it. Everyone does it. They make it easy—you just stick a penny between two contacts and hey presto, the city can’t turn your heat down anymore. They wouldn’t make it so easy if they didn’t expect everyone to do it—and once everyone’s done it, we’re all guilty."

that thought of Bugs in the Arroyo? This must be one of the first stages of their evolution.

Well, you live here. You may remember this from Slashdot, too. You shouldn't have to live in fear of your law enforcement. Do you?

Ditto. Sanderson is one of my favorite new authors. Elantris and Mistborn both rocked, and Warbreaker was pretty good as well.

Also, Tor published one of his short stories online for free, and it's quite good. Like Ender's Game, but in about 20 pages:
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=10489

And neither of those tragedies had anything to do with software

Glad they didn't hire those Lockheed-Martin programmers who forgot Nasa had standardized on the Metric system before the Mars Climate Orbiter Mission. Oops!

On a side note, Science Fiction author, Frederik Pohl, posted an interesting anecdote about the first Apollo moon landing.

Seth

* Atrocity Archive by Charles Stross is obviously written by someone who knows computers and most of all sysadms very well. Although I really hope that he doesn't know what he is talking about when it comes to using computers to summon demons from the fractal dimensions... :)

For the uninitiated, and possible the initiated who just haven't seen this particular bit yet, Charlie has a short story set in the same universe as the Atrocity Archives up on tor.com [tor.com] [.com] [.com].

http://www.tor.com/images/phocagallery/comic/Bieri/Bieri-Z12-01.jpg

Tor.com is pretty good -- I think you can still sign up there to get a new ebook every week for free, plus they have a bunch of non-free books, podcasts, etc. I've been getting them for 6-8 weeks now and they're pretty good!

Did you miss the bit where the article says he's extremely ill?

Douglas Preston describes a system like this in Tyrannosaur Canyon where the NSA runs speech-to-text on every phone call and calculates (mostly just keyword matching IIRC) the probability that it relates to something they're interested in, in which case it gets passed to a human screener for verification, and then on to the FBI, Delta Force, whatever.

I wonder if someone at AT&T read that book?