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You are viewing the most recent 50 entries July 19th, 2008fastfwd @ 08:43 am: Two Spankings, Including One That Almost Got Away...But Not For Long!
 Yesterday, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) alleypat should have been spanked and wasn't. That's OK, the Sparkly Paddle of Birthday Wonderfulness has NO expiration date! We're also spanking mckenzee today. So brace yourselves, you two, and prepare to get what's comin' to ya! Happpy Happy Birthday Birthday--and the fact that one is a day late shall not diminish the effectiveness of the Sparkly Paddle of Birthday Wonderfulness. I know, I already pointed that out but it bears repeating. Hope the coming year is fantastic for each one of ya! And don't forget to live forever! Current Mood:  celebratory Current Music: hmm hmm hmm hmm to you... laurel, posting in mnstf @ 09:08 pm: Minn-StF Picnic on Saturday
 The Minn-StF Picnic is this Saturday (July 19th) at Minnehaha Park in picnic area #2 (between Godfrey Pkwy and Nawadaha Blvd). Here is a link to a map of the park (it's a PDF); there's also a map in the Minicon 43 program book. The picnic will start at 2pm and run until dark (around 9pm). There will be a grill going for anyone who wants to grill something (bring your own food to grill). Minn-StF will provide some beverages and snacks, we encourage you to bring some food to share. There will be game playing, so feel free to bring table games or outdoor games. Later in the evening some of us will take a walk down to the falls. We recommend that people show up closer to 2pm for this event than they normally would for a Minn-StF meeting!
dsgood @ 08:47 pm:
From http://eurekalert.org: Public Release: 18-Jul-2008 American Journal of Roentgenology iTunes allows radiologists to save, sort and search personal learning files iTunes has the ability to manage and organize PDF files just as easy as music files, allowing radiologists to better organize their personal files of articles and images, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at Renji Hospital and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/arrs-iar071808.phpPublic Release: 18-Jul-2008 Nature Geoscience Saharan dust storms sustain life in Atlantic Ocean Research at the University of Liverpool has found how Saharan dust storms help sustain life over extensive regions of the North Atlantic Ocean. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/uol-sds071808.phpPublic Release: 18-Jul-2008 Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Loud music can make you drink more, in less time, in a bar Commercial venues are very aware of the effects that the environment -- in this case, music -- can have on in-store traffic flow, sales volumes, product choices and consumer time spent in the immediate vicinity. A study of the effects of music levels on drinking in a bar setting has found that loud music leads to more drinking in less time. Centre de Recherches en Psychologie, Université de Bretagne-Sud http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/ace-lmc071308.phpPublic Release: 17-Jul-2008 Science Predicting the distribution of creatures great and small In studying how animals change size as they evolve, biologists have unearthed several interesting patterns. For instance, most species are small, but the largest members of a taxonomic group -- such as the great white shark, the Komodo dragon, or the African elephant -- are often thousands or millions of times bigger than the typical species. Now for the first time two SFI researchers explain these patterns within an elegant statistical framework. Santa Fe Institute http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/sfi-ptd071708.phpPublic Release: 17-Jul-2008 Law and Human Behavior Complex questions asked by defense lawyers linked to convictions in child abuse trials Defendants in child abuse cases are more likely to be convicted if their defense lawyer uses complicated language when interrogating young victims according to new research out of the University of Toronto and the University of Southern California. National Institute of Health http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/uot-cqa071708.phpPublic Release: 17-Jul-2008 Science Research publications online: Too much of a good thing? The Internet gives scientists and researchers instant access to an astonishing number of academic journals. So what is the impact of having such a wealth of information at their fingertips? The answer, according to new research released today in the journal Science, is surprising -- scholars are actually citing fewer papers in their own work, and the papers they do cite tend to be more recent publications. This trend may be limiting the creation of new ideas and theories. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111928&org=NSF&from=news
dreamhostfeed @ 01:38 am: MySQL Downtime
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/07/18/mysql-downtime/ http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/?p=844 We are currently noticing some downtime with MySQL servers. Our administration team is looking at the issue right now. We are experiencing heavy packet loss on one of our MySQL racks in the data center. We will update this post with more information as soon as we can.
Update 7:24pm - We have fixed the issue. It appears that some network monitoring software we were using got a bit out of control and clogged the network. We have disabled it for now and service has returned. Sorry about that.
dreamhostfeed @ 12:33 am: Hoover sucks! New hardware!
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/07/18/hoover-sucks-new-hardware/ http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/?p=843 I couldn’t resist with that headline. Hoover’s been up and down all day today, so we’re moving it to new hardware. Should be back in about an hour. Sorry about that (and bad jokes)!
Update 6:35: Okay, 2 minutes over an hour. My bad. should be good to go now. Please notify your friendly DH support person if you have any other problems!
July 18th, 2008kinsugi, posting in livelongnmarry @ 03:33 pm: Second-place winners and the grace of writers
 I'm seeing a number of instances where sad "losers" have been offered a matching win by the donor, if they are willing to match the winning bid! In other cases, an author who did not originally list two offers has agreed to write a second story at a winning bidder's request! These situations DOUBLE the donation, so I'm suggesting others might consider the idea. This would mean MORE WONDERFUL FANFICTION for us all to read, plus more donations to keep Mr Sulu and all of us happy! I'm just sayin'... because every little bit helps, and fandom ROCKS!
rivka @ 05:38 pm: I'm on vacaaaaaaaation!
 This afternoon I gave Lydia a bunch of information and Steve (our Right Hand Man) a bunch of instructions. I made sure that I uploaded any files that Steve might need to our network drive. I got some things in motion to be ready for me to do them when I get back. I gave Steve my key to the cashbox, just in case. I put "away" messages on my phone and e-mail. I don't have to be back at work until July 28. I did stay late at work, but that was okay because I was waiting for the IT guys to finish configuring my new laptop, a very lovely and well-equipped Dell Precision. Okay, so they shouldn't have taken this long to get it to me, given that I ordered it long long ago. But I know from last year that it drives me crazy not to have computer access at SUUSI, so, yay for them getting it to me in the nick of time. Tomorrow we will do laundry and pack and make some pretense at cleaning the house and pick up a banner from church. I will bake some kind of delicious treat for the neighbors who will be watering our garden while we're gone. It will be 97 degrees outside, and God help us, Alex has an outdoor T-ball-themed birthday party to attend. At 6:45 tomorrow evening, I'll pick my father up at the bus station. Sunday morning, bright and early, we leave for SUUSI. Alex has been sleeping in her sleeping bag every night to get ready. I'm on vacaaaaaaation! Tags: suusi, travel, work
fastfwd @ 09:34 pm: Good Heavens, One Almost Got Away!
paulcornell2, step forward and take what's comin' to ya-- And what's comin' to ya is a loud and happy birthday spanking with the Sparkly Paddle of Birthday Wonderfulness! Hope the day's been great and the coming year will be even better! And don't forget to live forever! Current Mood: celebratory Current Music: hmm hmm hmm hmm to you... dreamhostfeed @ 07:45 pm: Scion hit a semi, moving to new hardware.
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/07/18/scion-hit-a-semi-failing-to-new-hardware/ Scion was powercycled to recover from the filer issue on frisky and didn’t come back. Currently in the process of being moved to new hardware.
dreamhostfeed @ 06:45 pm: Esprit is dead, moving to new hardware
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/07/18/esprit-is-dead-moving-to-new-hardware/ http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/?p=841 D’oh!! Esprit’s not coming back from a reboot. I’m moving it over to new hardware right now, should be back in about an hour. Sorry about that!
Update 12:59pm: Okay, back to normal! I mean that in a good way. If you’re still having trouble, let our pals in tech support know!
akirlu @ 11:22 am: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
 All Joss Whedon fans everywhere have already seen this, right? 'Cause apparently they're gonna pull Act I when Act III goes live, so watch the first two Acts now, kids. Act III starts tomorrow. I mean Nathan Fillion, singing on top of a van. Ya gotta see that. ETA: The staircase spirit informs me that, really, this post should have been entitled: Can't We All Just Sing Along?
baldanders @ 02:22 pm: the free market and its trivial discontents, first in a series of gripes
 Originally published at Memory Machine. Please leave any comments there. I have a strong preference for dark chicken — thighs and legs — over white meat chicken. (Fortunately for our dining relationship, Velma shares this preference.) And when I say preference, I don’t just mean I like dark meat more; I mean I hardly like white meat at all. It’s usually bland, usually dry, doesn’t absorb spices as well, and often gets stringy and mucks with the texture of whatever it’s with. This is true for me with better grades of chicken, too.
Unfortunately, a preference for white meat seems to be prevalent enough that it is increasingly difficult to find restaurants that will serve anything other than white meat. And they brag about it, which makes me grind my teeth. Dish after dish of “all white meat chicken”, and not one of dark meat. You would think that white meat was not just more popular, but all anybody ever wanted. It’s as though restaurants started serving only Coke, because more people want Coke than anything else. I swear that it’s reached the point where if a restauarant advertised even one dish as dark meat, it would be the best-selling item on the menu because dark-meat eaters would fall upon it with tears of gratitude, while the white-meat eaters would still have every other chicken dish on the menu dividing their attention.
Next: the plague of cilantro.
dreamhostfeed @ 04:59 pm: Frisky Cluster Downtime
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/07/18/frisky-cluster-downtime/ http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/?p=840 We are currently experiencing on outage on one of the fileservers that your machines are mounted to. This will explain the connection issues that you are encountering when attempting to access your website, email, etc. Our Admins are currently working to resolve the issue. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please check back here for future updates.
UPDATE: Had to rebuild a few drives. The fileserver is now fully functional. You should not experience any further issues with website, email, etc access. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience the downtime may have caused.
baldanders @ 11:55 am: name that tune day
 Originally published at parlando. Please leave any comments there. The twenty-fourth Name That Tune game goes live at 12:30 PM Brooklyn time over at Popdose. Come by and play!
james_nicoll @ 10:17 am: Something else that I meant to mention
 The new SFWA administration are busy bees.
james_nicoll @ 10:13 am: I'm sure there's an easy way to answer this that I am overlooking
Does Christopher Brookmyre have a North American publisher at this time?
antickmusings @ 07:53 am: SFWA's New Grand Master
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/oFec/~3/338990696/sfwas-new-grand-master.html SFWA has announced that the "Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master" for next year will be Harry Harrison, getting a jump on the April event and continuing the new regime's apparent policy of clearing their desks of all work as quickly as humanly possible. This is a really, really early announcement, isn't it? I thought typically this news came out early in the year, two or three months before the Nebula Awards Weekend. I hope that doesn't mean that Harrison is very ill, but that's what came to mind first. SFWA is digging deep into the apple barrel for Grand Masters at this point, choosing prolific and long-lived writers who each wrote a few seminal works but aren't the overarching giants of the field. (On the other hand, that description also fits just as well some of the very earliest Grand Masters, like Simak and Williamson. Grand Masters have only rarely been as "Grand" as they might possibly be.) Personally, I read a lot of Harrison in my formative years, and enjoyed his books, particularly the "Stainless Steel Rat" novels. Most of those books, though, don't really hold up now. I suspect he's really getting the Grand Master-ship because he survived so long and because of Make Room! Make Room! (I also read a lot of Ron Goulart in those days, and I don't seriously expect to see him made a Grand Master any time soon; I'm not claiming I had wonderful taste at the age of twelve.) I'm not complaining, exactly -- this is SFWA's award, for people who SFWA really likes, and it has never been explicitly for "great writers" -- just noting that I would put Harrison on a lower level than such recent winners as Le Guin, Silverberg, and Ellison. And SFWA has now given a Grand Mastership every year since 2003 -- seven in a row. They also gave out GMs for seven years straight from 1994 to 2000, after a much more leisurely pattern in the award's first twenty years. It's hard to avoid thinking that SFWA is trying to hand these out to as many of their older friends and colleagues as they can, as quickly as they can, before those older writers die. Again, it's their award, so they can do what they want with it. But if they want to use the Nebulas to increase their prominence and influence -- as has been repeatedly suggested -- then loading up with a bunch of GMs might not be the optimum strategy.
fastfwd @ 09:11 am: The Funniest Thing You Will See Today:
 Another instant wallpaper from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) cat_macros, courtesy of siani. (Make with the clicky if it's too small for ya.) Current Mood:  giggly Current Music: What else? fastfwd @ 09:08 am: I Spank For The Good Of All Humanity--
And today, the Sparkly Paddle of Birthday Wonderfulness is for parrismcb, one of those people who gives human beings a good name. Happy Birthday, you wonderful person, and may the coming year be extra good to you! And don't forget to live forever! Current Mood: celebratory Current Music: hmm hmm hmm hmm to you... papersky @ 02:57 am: Bits and Pieces
 I've been dashing about hither and yon, and will continue to do so for the next little while. Ha'Penny is available in paperback, it's been spotted in the wild in Montreal by rysmiel so it's probably all over the US. If you were waiting for it, you need wait no longer. My story Tradition had an honourable mention in the Dozois Year's Best, (thanks, ericmarin!) which is pretty amazing, especially as this was a "you saw it here first" story. Marcus Rowland ( ffutures) has finished the RPG of Tooth and Claw and it'll be out as soon as I finish reading through it and send him the minor corrections. (I'd have finished it by now except that I forget to take it on the train up to Lancaster.) And here is a review of Tooth and Claw. And a couple of positive Farthing reviews, the nauseating brilliance of it is the familiarity and I almost literally couldn't put this down and a comparison between it and Buchanan's latest offering.
July 17th, 2008kaffyr @ 11:53 pm: late at night
 The Nightly Charlie Rose Report
Just finished watching Charlie Rose interviewing Neil Young. It was an incredible explosion of a discussion, about music and the war, and hummers running on vegetable oil, and aneurysms, and autograph hounds, and 30 years of marriage, and the names he uses, and consciences, and he was controlled, but it still felt as if he could barely contain himself as he spoke. He kept leaning across that big table of Charlie's, as if he needed to bridge the gap between the two of them with physical proximity as well as ideas, as if motion and ideas were cross-wired inside him. I cannot believe how forceful, and innocent, and gleefully exuberant the old man was, and how glad I was to see him. Thanks, Neil. Did I ever tell you I had a huge crush on you when I was a teenager, and you were a strange-looking, strange-singing thin young man with a rude guitar?Current Mood:  impressed Current Music: The AC again. james_nicoll @ 11:47 pm: Figures
Your result for The Attachment Style Test... The Error Message You seem to have fallen through a tiny crack in my scoring system. Stand by. I'm working on it. Take The Attachment Style Test at HelloQuizzy
antickmusings @ 06:12 pm: A Biased Quiz
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/oFec/~3/338482618/biased-quiz.html It was about time for another quiz designed by and for needy twenty-something single girls, so I picked this one, since Diana Pharaoh Francis was doing it. I don't agree at all with its characterization of me, since I believe its premises are skewed; what it sees as distance and detachment, I would call "being married for fifteen years." Really, kids, the drama level goes way down later in your lives. At least, it's supposed to. Your result for The Attachment Style Test... The Player
You are most comfortable without close emotional relationships. It is very important to you to feel independent and self-sufficient, and you hate the idea of having to depend on others or having others depend on you. The very few times you have fallen in love, it was probably with someone unattainable and disinterested. You know how to have a good time with your friends, but when it comes time to bare your deeper feelings, you tend to laugh nervously and change the subject. Fictional character with whom you might identify: Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who/Torchwood), Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany's) Take The Attachment Style Test at HelloQuizzy
roadnotes @ 07:28 pm: escaping!
 New time-consuming project in the office: not good.
Decision from the Powers That Be not to hire temps for the data conversion: not good.
Decision from the Powers That Be to take my team off all our current projects and have us work exclusively on this project for the next three work days: Seriously Not Good.
Fact that I am taking two of the next three work days as vacation days, and thus will only have to bat clean-up: EXCELLENT!
akirlu @ 01:53 pm: Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans - Bits from the Numinous Box
I finally sat through another full episode of Criminal Minds and so far can't see why the fuss. I seem to be drawing arsonist eps, and the writing on this one("Ashes and Dust") had a fitful case of the stupid. ( Those who do not wish to be spoiled or just don't care should stop here. )
sciamanna @ 10:32 pm: All the way to 11
 Following a link annafdd sent me, I listened to a clip from BBC4 about the worst British monarchs. Of course, as I always do, I located the volume control so I could slide it all the way up. And that's how I discovered that it goes all the way to 11... You have to love the BBC :-) (For those who haven't had the privilege of a classical education and don't get the reference -- Wikipedia is your friend.) Current Mood:  amused , silly
firecat @ 02:01 pm: More fearmongering on the backs of children
 "Study: When kids become teens, they get sluggish," by LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer (warning, contains fearmongering) While 90 percent of 9-year-olds get a couple of hours of exercise most days, fewer than 3 percent of 15-year-olds do. ...
The ... study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, tracked about 1,000 U.S. children at various ages, from 2000 until 2006. ... I've seen a few critical comments on this study along the lines of "Teens have more responsibilities," "Schools make children hate exercise," and so on. But what I'm wondering is — if somewhere between 10 and 15 is the magic cut-off point where children become less active, has anyone asked whether there might be a biological cause, something to do with puberty? Perhaps the body says to itself (via hormones) “We have to save some of this energy for reproduction now.”
baldanders @ 04:30 pm: choosing singles
Originally published at parlando. Please leave any comments there.
With great albums, it’s often obvious what the singles ought to be (or in this post-singles age, what the radio/video tracks ought to be). And usually those songs will be the singles. For example, as great as Stevie Wonder’s albums from 1972 to 1976 are — I love each of them pretty much all the way through — I wouldn’t quarrel with any of the songs chosen to be singles, and I don’t think they missed any obvious candidates. (Okay, maybe one: “Isn’t She Lovely”.)
But sometimes there are choices that just seem bizarre, that make me wonder whether the people making the decision understand the musician at all, or what makes a single. Today I was looking through Television’s discography and discovered that the second single released off the great Marquee Moon (after the title track) was “Prove It” — a good song but not one of the album’s best, with an awkward chorus/hook that keeps stopping the song in place — and that it was backed with “Venus”, which to me is clearly the only song on the album that sounds like a single! Also, Elektra gave it a sleeve with a cheesy little graphic saying “Punk Rock” that is just lame:
fig. 1 - lame graphic
I suppose Elektra figured that hit singles were unlikely for Television and basically irrelevant to marketing the band, so maybe not much thought went into it. Still, I wonder what might have happened if they’d tried “Venus” instead.
feorag @ 08:47 pm: Keeping the brain in shape
 One of my favourite puzzles at the moment is the Nonogram, also known as Hanjie and, in Japan, simply ロジック (rojikku i.e. "logic"). It's another Japanese logic puzzle, this one involving the construction of a picture from numbers which indicate the length of the shaded blocks in each row or column, but not the number of spaces between them (other than "one or more"). There is a Facebook nonogram application, but I have run out of puzzles on that and have taken to making my own. Alas, puzzles aren't allowed out into the wild until at least two friends of the creator have solved them, so this is an appeal to my friends on Facebook who like puzzles to try either my Nocturnal Mammal puzzle, or A Friendly Face. Unlike some of the ones available in this app, I can guarantee that mine are solvable with logic alone and with no recourse to guessing. Let me know if you have to be specifically invited, and I will do so. And meanwhile, I'm also running out of puzzles on the DS version I got in Japan, and finished Picross (the Japanese version, because I am impatient) ages back, but there are others, so I feel an eBay accident in my near future. Update: There is a lack of the particular games I want on eBay. Does anyone have any experience with play-asia.com? Or should I just fire up my Jabber client and use the dagbrown "Weird Japanese Stuff to Scotland" service?
marykaykare @ 03:50 pm: Travel Day
 Yesterday, I rose at the insane hour of 3:30am in order to shower and dress and get to the airport by 5am for a 6am flight. The lousy flying times (leaving Seattle at 6am on Wed; leaving Boston at 7pm on Monday) and odd airport arrangement (into Manchester and out of Logan) was the only way I could afford a ticket to attend Readercon -- a con I've always wanted to visit and gave myself as a "cheer-up dammit" present. I upgraded to First Class for the flight from Seattle to Chicago and it was fairly nice. They fed us breakfast that was almost enjoyable. The omelette was a bit leathery and the chicken sausage a bit flavorless but the roast potatoes were fantastic as was the croissant. The fruit was really bitter and inedible, but oh well. The flight to Manchester was Economy Plus seating (I'm out of e-upgrades now) and there was an empty seat in the middle so it was ok too. The Manchester airport is really nice -- bright and clean with lots of glass and natural light. The luggage arrived quickly too. My trip has been further eased by batwrangler picking me up at the airport and giving me a bed for the night. When she gets off work today, she'll further assist by giving me a ride to the hotel. I also got to meet her 2 dogs (Puccini and Chopper) and cat Kumiko. And the chinchilla whose name I've forgotten and the fish whose names I don't think I got. The snakes are downstairs and I didn't go meet them as I have a phobia. I don't mind knowing they're down there -- the phobia only seems to be triggered by actually *seeing* one. I know there will be lots of people at Readercon that I really like. I hope I can manage to slot myself into some of their socializing while I'm there. As I mentioned earlier, I'm moderating one panel and am scheduled for a discussion session. I'm not sure how those latter work, but I guess I'll find out. Please say hi if you see me at Readercon. And aside from taking batwrangler out to dinner one night as a thank-you I don't have any meal plans yet, she said, hinting not at all subtly.
james_nicoll @ 03:44 pm: Idle question
To what extent would it screw up emergency efforts if the next Big One hit SF while Terry Childs was still being uncooperative about the password lock he put on San Francisco's computer network? Assume Childs ends up under rubble and is not available for questioning.
heleninwales @ 08:19 pm: Taps! Tomatoes!
 The bathroom continues to progress. When I came home I noticed that the wires that had been protruding from the wall in the hallway had been tidied up and are now connected to the shower switch that sits on the wall outside the bathroom. (Some new safety legislation, apparently.) Upstairs I discovered that the alarm clock had stopped and when I came to check my email, the broadband router needed rebooting. My Sherlock Holmesian deductive powers told me that the electrician had been working on the wiring for the shower. The plumber has not been idle either. He has replaced the kitchen sink taps. Bliss! You turn the tap and water comes out: so simple, so not what we've had for ages. :) For the last umpteen months, turning on the kitchen cold water has been something of a lottery. Water may decide to come out -- or it may not. If it comes out, it may come out as a dribble or a torrent. Suddenly the uncertainty has gone. I like it! Also it looks like two of the tomatoes will be ready to eat by the weekend. Our own little tomatoes! I could get into this growing your own food lark. And it's not a case of measuring food miles with these tomatoes. Food inches more like. :) I plan to take pictures on Saturday. Current Mood:  delighted slrose @ 02:39 pm:
 I am staying home today; I felt rotten all day at work yesterday, and I didn't feel any better this morning. I'm feeling a bit better now, but it's been years since I've had a sinus infection that was this painful. This weekend is the big family reunion in Philadelphia; we're trying to make it as low stress as possible, but it will be heavily social. I'm still online less than usual, but I'm trying to keep up with my online game. I've fallen behind on Usenet, but I hope to catch up today and tomorrow. And since my brother just emailed that a wheel broke off his suitcase, I'll have to see about buying a new one. And my dragons hatched:    
antickmusings @ 12:01 pm: Marvel Comics Circulation Figures
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/oFec/~3/338211592/marvel-comics-circulation-figures.html I love seeing actual numbers, so this Publishers Weekly article by Todd Allen, which examines Marvel Comics's recently released audited circulation figures, is like catnip to me. The big take-away for me is something every publishing person should have tattooed on the inside of his eyelids: different markets want different things. Some big direct-market books sell decently as subscriptions and on the newsstand, but some direct-market dogs (notably books for kids) seem to sell much better through other channels. And so some projects that look like money-losing dogs through the blinkers of the direct market are actually at least modestly successful. Because one market isn't everything, and any industry that tries to rely entirely on one market will find itself in big trouble.
dreamhostfeed @ 05:14 pm: Spacey filer failure (Update!)
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/07/17/spacey-filer-failure/ http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/?p=837 One of the filers for the Spacey cluster has suffered a hardware failure. Technicians have been dispatched to this site. Estimated downtime is one hour for affected customers. This includes all websites and email hosted on this filer, but not MySQL.
Edit: 10:26am Pacific It looks like a hard drive failed and was causing errors on the filer which prevented it from properly functioning. Remote hands have removed the faulty disk and the filer appears to be running normally. Our technicians are still en route with spare parts just in case! We are rebooting the affected servers now, and systems should be nominal in about 15 minutes.
Everything seems to be back up and running! Please contact support if you are still having problems.
james_nicoll @ 12:54 pm: Hrm
I just received what at first glance appeared to be a poorly crafted flier from some third-rate knock-off of Lastman's Bad Boy Furniture. On a closer examination, it turns out to be a poorly crafted flier containing ReformaTory political propaganda attacking Dion for his recent proposals.
james_nicoll @ 11:53 am: I forgot to mention this.
Buzz Aldrin blamed SF for the general lack of support for the space program: "I blame the fantastic and unbelievable shows about space flight and rocket ships that are on today," Aldrin said in an interview during an ice cream party held by the National Geographic Channel at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week. "All the shows where they beam people around and things like that have made young people think that that is what the space program should be doing. It's not realistic."Phil Plait responds.As far as I can tell, the arrow of causality is the other way round: SF authors abandoned thrilling tales of the early days of exploring and exploiting an otherwise pointless solar system right around the time the various space programs - but the US one in particular - were demonstrating the true scale and nature of the solar system. A lot of SF is more comfortable with planets the size of small villages and galaxies roughly as large as Africa and the actual solar system didn't suit their needs (Also, if you set your story on Alpha Gheti IV, you don't need to do homework and you don't have to worry that subsequent research will invalidate your story [1]). I also don't think that Aldrin understands that the American support for their space program, as measured in dollars, is actually exceptionally high for humans at this time. 1: I will point out that Niven used to be able to deal with this issue back in the 1960s. In fact, he got stung by it on his very first story, which depended on Mercury being tide-locked into a 1:1 resonance.
dreamhostfeed @ 02:19 pm: Packetloss for some Dedicated customer servers.
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/07/17/packetloss-for-some-dedicated-customer-servers/ http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/?p=836 It looks like one of the switches which has the following dedicated servers hooked up to it:
saints nassweb bmw gafc dante blazer lifetimesvoice natcurl musicbox settlements meep perfecto peppermint naish motmot extensionmedia tekhost thechange verne sitepartner inaux calmini aeroquest1 cowboy argtracker lowest-airfare mqseries yaleweb auction evolution01 killeroldies singe
Is suffering from major packetloss (30-50%) which is causing extremely slow access to these servers. It should eventually serve up the data (because of the way TCP/IP works) but the symptoms would be extremely slow network downloads/page loads due to droped packets and ACKs (which have to be re-transmitted). We are aware of the issue and working on it. More update to come when they become available.
Update: We replaced the switch in question and things are working properly now. I apologize for the outage, if you dedicated server is still having any problems please contact support.
james_nicoll @ 11:29 am: New to me
I really try to avoid emulating the willful ignorance found in so many places these days and yet somehow until a few days ago, I had completely managed to overlook the existence of the United States of the Ionian Islands.Among other things, this gives additional context to the Durrells' decision to move to Corfu of all possible destinations. Yes, I am aware the USII went away more then seventy years before Mrs. Durrell took her family to Greece but it seems reasonable that the custom of a community of British expats living there could survive that long.
green_knight @ 04:33 pm: Spam, strange spam
 Right now - I have no idea what they're advertising, I've just deleted all the subjects - they've stopped subject lines offering jobs and relating to work (from 'your manager is an idiot' to 'meeting tonight') and started appealing to the sensationalist element. I think 'Queen injured in Tibet' was the most interesting; most of them refer to various g-list celebrities. Anyone else get these? Anyone else care to guess what the next gimmick will be? Current Mood:  amused antipope_cats @ 01:26 pm: 0DD UNFAYRN3SSSSS!
 THA FUD AP3Z R G1V1NG MEEE G00SHY FUD 1N DA M0RN1NKZ, AN DIS 1Z GUD!!!!11!!1!!!! BUTT DEY R PUTT1N EKSTRA STUF 1N A N0VVER B0AL 0F GUSH1 FUD AN G1FF1NG 1T 2 DAT 0VVER KAT W0T DUZ N0T EGGS1ST!!!11!!!!! THAY PUT H3R 1N DA RUM W1V DA B1G SKARY W0RTER B0AL AN SHUTT DA DUR S0 1 KANT G3T 1N!!!11!!! 1Z N0T FAYR!!!!!!1!!! WY SH3 GETT SPESHUL FUD???111?!??/? Current Mood:  aggravated janetmk @ 05:47 am:
 Happy Birthday snippy!!! I'm looking forward to seeing you when I'm in Portland next month.
firecat @ 08:26 pm: book log
 Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri rating: 3 of 5 stars Audiobook. 4th in a series of Inspector Montalbano mysteries (first one I've read). Montalbano is down-to-earth with a healthy disrespect for authority. Set in Sicily. Bonus food porn. Grover Gardner does a good job of narrating. I will probably pick up the other books in this series at some point. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell rating: 3 of 5 stars Audiobook. Consists of several interlinking stories of different genres -- historical fiction, mystery/thriller, comedy, science fiction. On the audiobook, each story has its own narrator. I became engrossed in it while listening to it, but ultimately I found it annoying - first of all, I didn't like most of the protagonists, and second, I don't tend to like books that constantly remind me the author is trying to do something clever. Also there is some heavy-handed moralizing.  Ha'penny by Jo Walton rating: 5 of 5 stars Paper book. Ha'penny is the 2d in an alternate history trilogy set in a past in which Britain made peace with Hitler and then started down its own path to fascism. Jo Walton brilliantly describes the attitudes and choices of a variety of characters who get caught up in a situation that's spinning out of control. View all my reviews.
kaffyr @ 11:42 pm: Late at night
 Someone I should learn more about
I'm watching David Simon, creator of The Wire, talking to Charlie Rose, and I'm struck by how deep his sadness, and anger, and frustration about America's future run.
First, I have to say I never watched The Wire during its very distinguished run, because I don't get HBO. I might not have watched it, even if HBO were in my cable package, although I have no doubt it was as good as everyone said, because I am a bear of very little emotional backbone. The real world breaks my heart enough, thank you very much. For much the same reason, this middle-brow female will probably not watch Simon's new seven-episode show about soldiers in Iraq, Generation Kill.
But that doesn't change the fact that I was impressed with Simon. His intensity, his humor, and his righteous ire and heartbreak struck me as a reflection of his deep patriotism. Only people who love their country intensely, and believe in it deeply, can get that sad and angry over what they see as its mistakes.Current Mood:  hot Current Music: The AC. I love the AC , meanderings
ellen_datlow @ 01:14 am: Readercon tomorrow
 I'm up way too late trying to finish a few things (including packing) before leaving for Readercon tomorrow. I may be online checking email but that's about it till Sunday evening.
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