Reasons why you are not reading this entry
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Here’s a blast from the past: a 1994 tutorial about Web issues, including reasons the web won’t survive the decade, open issues regarding copyright and privacy, and a Mosaic how-to.
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SF isn’t predictive…
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…but this Neuromancer/Estonian DDoS comparison is pretty amusing. I especially like the risks of jacking in versus logging in.
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Towel Day
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I did not bring a towel with me to work. I prefer to think that I carry a towel in my heart at all times. But when I feel insecure, I know that it’s really just that I’m not a hoopy frood.
Shred of Evidence
Filed Under Shred of Evidence
I’ve talked about resurrecting Shred, and the new version is now live. Like this site, it’s using WordPress for content management. I’ll doubtless tinker a bit more before I get bored with it, but overall I’m pretty satisfied with the way it looks and functions. The site redesign was long overdue. (Frankly, it was overdue from the minute Shred went live in 2003, since I did a slapdash, include-happy job that might’ve rated as okay in, say, 1998.)
And, of course, new stories were long overdue. On Monday, Shred will kick off with “Births, Marriages and Deaths” by Aliya Whiteley. Shred readers will remember her as the author of “Geoffrey Says,” the finest penguin-centric story ever published in the webzine. (If you haven’t had the pleasure, I encourage you to read the story; for further amusement, imagine it being narrated by Morgan Freeman.)
RIP Ingata
Filed Under Pets
I found Ingie floating at an unnatural angle yesterday. He was a tough and venerable little fish. He will be laid to rest in the back yard near his predecessor, Trigati (who was also a charming little betta, albeit less robust). The toilet is the typical mode for disposing of departed fish, but I am perhaps overly paranoid about the delicacy of our septic system and the magical biochemical forces that allow it to function.
Bring me my peanut butter
We went to the Fair Hill Scottish Games today. Larry attended as a member of the demo team, representin’ for the RSCDS in general and the Delaware Valley Branch in particular. I performed the supporting role of Kid Wrangler. This involved the examination of gravel to find stones with interesting coloration, the occasional chasing of an errant toddler, and a trip to the bleachers to watch cute little girls in the Highland competition.
From what I saw of the demo (from a less than ideal angle, with some attention constantly on one of the toddlers) it came off quite well. This is not surprising, because there are some very strong dancers in the DVB. (I can say that without reservation, as I am not one of those dancers.) Following the dance demo, we all watched the pipe band demo. Earlier in the day we were treated to dueling bagpipes as different folks practiced or performed, which I should perhaps have found more surreal, but I’m just used to bagpipes. (And spoiled by good pipers, so I am always shocked when I hear inept pipers.) Larry and I ended up leaving after the piping. We missed the morning sheepdog demo, which might have been interesting, and in part because of our own dogs waiting at home we declined to stay for the athletic spectacles scheduled for later in the afternoon. So I have still not personally witnessed any caber tossing. For that matter, I still haven’t tried haggis; but it can’t be worse than uni.
Continuing the Scottish theme, my weekend book is Donkey Punch, which fits nicely into my recent patch of ovary-free literature. I’m enjoying it quite a bit, and getting a kick out of knowing talented people (even if it’s in the purely virtual sense). And thank you, Ray, for expanding my (apparently woefully deficient) knowledge of slang terms for various sexual acts. I will now giggle every time I see some ass driving a Hummer.
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Alternate history
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Here’s an amusing post outlining the most influential science fiction works across several decades. Can’t really argue with this as a reading list, even if I might quibble a bit about some of the suggestions. I think I shall add this to the list of Reasons Why I Should Learn Mandarin (which, among more compelling things, includes the heady possibility of being able to read the Secret Chinese Menu at restaurants and the fact that a year from now I’ll still be a year older even if I don’t learn Mandarin).
A few flash stories worth reading
Filed Under Story picks
“No” by Iain Rowan
“Pushing Up Daisies” by Christa Miller
“Scalped” by Jarrett Keene
Unexpected reprints
Filed Under Ego-surfing
I was ego-surfing the other day (with Technorati and Bloglines instead of Google, just for a change of pace), and found a couple of Fables folktales reprinted in the past few months. I get a kick out of this sort of thing. These two stories were published before Creative Commons existed, but if it had been around at the time the folktales would’ve been released under a CC license (and in fact at various points the website sketched out CC-style permission to reprint selected content).
“Deirdre of the Sorrows” is reprinted by the blog Turfing. The story is accompanied by a snazzy (charcoal or pencil?) illustration.
“The Three Crows” shows up in Captain Awesome’s MySpace blog. No illustration, but you’ve gotta love the piratese in the Captain’s profile, and his very sensible assertion that country music is not awesome.
Enough about me
Filed Under Website
I set up Google Analytics for this site. My reasons are numerous: it’s easy (especially with the plugin), it’s an entertaining distraction, and Google’s going to officially rule the world someday so I may as well master the tools of our new overlords. So I now know something about you, my visitors. I hope you will find this amusing rather than freaky. (And, frankly, if you find Google Analytics data freaky, your head should probably have exploded by now.)
This site has been visited by folks from North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. (Clearly, I must work on penetrating South America and Antarctica.) The most geographically distant visitor hails from Burpengary in Brisbane. The majority of visitors are from the U.S., with the U.K. a distant second.
87.68% of visitors are on Windows; 6.52% use Macs and 5.80% use Linux. 52.17% use Internet Explorer and 39.13% use Firefox, with the remainder divided between Safari, Opera, Mozilla, Konqueror, and Netscape.
The majority of visitors have their browsers set to one flavor of English, but some are set for Finnish, Russian, Turkish, French, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish. So either those folks are just here for the images, or they’re bilingual. (Which is just cool. And the fact that I think it’s cool, rather than the natural state of things, just emphasizes the fact that I’m from the U.S.)
The homepage is the most popular entry page; second most popular is an image of the Broodwich Larry made a couple years ago. I removed all the images a while ago when I started revamping the site, but the people have spoken. For your viewing pleasure (and in, uh, honor of the fact that the Aqua Teen movie has now disappeared from theaters): Gentlemen, behold! The Broodwich!
Most visitors reach this site via images.google.com or plain old google.com, which furthers support the theory that a fair number of visitors don’t love me; they just want to see the sandwich. That’s okay. It was a pretty cool sandwich, even if it didn’t have any bacon.
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