Month: June 2007

Links of Interest (June 21st 2007 through June 29th 2007)

Pirate keyboard
CORSAIR Ergonomic Keyboard For Pirates
David Allen Company Podcast
David Allen Company podcast
Writer Stalking
Vlog-paparazzia stalk author/podcaster Mathew Wayne Selznick at Balticon.
Locus Online: New Books, mid-June 2007
Locus online’s listing of new SF/F/H books for mid-June 2007
The Dawn of Dilbert
The original batch of Dilbert strips that were submitted to the cartoon syndicates (with reactions).

Links of Interest (June 8th 2007 through June 20th 2007)

Got allergies? Tiny discovery nothing to sneeze at
I hope this comes to something. My tree allergy is so bad I can’t eat most fruit. I miss fruit.
Deconstructing a Star Wars AT-AT Imperial Walker Baby Stroller
Thingamababy analyzes a DIY stroller conversion from a handful of photos.
How To: Translate a foreign language RSS feed
Using Yahoo Pipes to translate RSS feeds. Looks nice and simple.
Future Sony e-book reader to offer IDPF format and Adobe DRM support?via Digital Editions
Sounds like the next version of Sony Reader will support the IDPF open ebook standard. I like reading ebooks from dedicated readers, but I hate the hoops I have to jump through to get them on there. Sounds like a step in the right direction.
Developers launch kid-safe add-on for Firefox
Glubble is a Firefox plug-in that allows parents to create a whitelist of approved sites to let their kids visit.
Dissecting a Plugin: Better Comments Manager
Ronald Huereca disects the “Better Comments Manager” WordPress plugin, in what is hopefully the first of a series of articles of this type. Should be a great place to start if you’re trying to figure out how WordPress plugins work.
Batman?s New Set of Wheels
Slice of Sci-Fi has pics of the new Batcycle for “The Dark Knight”
How victim snared ID thief / She chased down woman who had given her 6 months of hell
Karen Lodrick bumped into the woman who had stolen her identity, and gave chase for the next 45 minutes!
Primer, part two (glossary)
Glossary for Diana Peterfreund’s primer on publishing.
Primer, part one
Diana Peterfreund’s primer on publishing.
New Books, early June 2007
Locus online’s listing of new SF/F/H books for early June 2007
Ars System Guide: June 2007
When I’m building a new PC for someone, this is where I start. Great if you’re trying to get the most bang for your buck.

Miracles on Hold While Nothing Happens

I’ve temporarily put the Miracles revision on hold (seems Holly has done the same, but for different reasons). I’ve been jotting down story ideas as they come to me, and two unrelated ones collided, and I started working on a short story, tentatively titled “Nothing Happens to Xintestity Bateman”. This morning I thought I’d lost the tale when I took it in a direction I hadn’t foreseen, but I think I’ve got it figured out now I should be back to Miracles by the end of the week.

Go Listen: James Patrick Kelly Interview

Tee Morris posted a great interview with James Patrick Kelly (author of, among other things, the excellent Hugo Award winning novella Burn) on The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy. Jim really goes into his thoughts on podcasting fiction. Now I’m extra bummed I missed him when he was at the library recently.

Links of Interest (June 5th 2007 through June 7th 2007)

Video: RSS in Plain English
Brilliant explanation of what RSS is all about. Afraid to use those little orange icons you see everywhere? You won’t be.
Hire someone to run your errands
Hiring a personal assistant to got to free up your time for other things. Hmmmm.
The Power of Nuts
CBS renewed “Jherico” for seven more episodes due to fan protest involving sending nuts to the network (apparently 21,000+ lbs of them).
Global Variables and the WordPress Loop
Very detailed description of the WordPress Loop, and the globals available within.
Lecture: Joe Haldeman on “The Craft of Science Fiction”
SFFAudio points out a number of Science Fiction/Fantasy related lectures available at iTunes U (along with non-iTunes sources).
Icron offers USB 2.0 over power line solution
USB over powerlines. It sounds good. Why do I have the feeling that even if it does work, it won’t work for me?
GNU Emacs 22 finally released
Whoo hoo! I’m a fairly devout Emacs user, even on windows.

Zette Appreciation Day

I missed the fact that yesterday was Zette Appreciation Day, but I’ll try and make up for it now.

In late 2003 I was convinced that writing a novel was much to hard a thing to try. I had it listed in my goals for something to work on by 2008. But then I saw Zette’s announcement at Forward Motion that she would be teaching an online class during which participants would write a novel over a period of two years. I signed up, not sure what to expect. Well it worked. I wrote a novel. It wasn’t polished and ready for submission by the end of the class due to some poor decisions on my part, but I had a completed first draft and some solid ideas for how to proceed. I also wasn’t afraid of writing novels anymore, which is a big one.

When I did start serious revisions I realized that I’d lost the detailed critique Zeete had sent me (which is what comes of replying to auto-generated forum emails without changing the subject). I emailed her in a panic explaining what had happened and what I believed the subject of the email to be and she went through the effort of digging it up and sending it again. It had probably been about a year since she first sent it, and it was a big help.

Zette always seems to want to help. I seem to remember her taking some flak on the NaNoWriMo boards for trying to offer good solid advice to folks about what is considered publication and scams to be wary of. You can’t really help people who don’t want to be helped, but it must be disheartening when they attack you for it. A quick check just now shows that she’s still there offering helpful advice to those who will listen.

If you’re willing, she’ll probably help you someday

To learn more about Zette:
Forward Motion — http://www.fmwriters.com
Vision — http://www.lazette.net/Vision/
Zette’s website — http://www.lazette.net