SF Signal

It must mean that Google has a new, spiffy logo up. And sure enough they do. Make sure to check out the Google holiday logos. Since they have one for Gaston Julia’s (‘discoverd’ fractals, before fractals where cool), they should have one for Dec. 15th, 2004. Which, as we all know, is the birthday of Freeman Dyson, patron saint of all things mind-bogglingly large and spherical. I propose the Os in Google be replaced with Dyson Spheres.

Oh yeah!

Filed under: Web Sites

Not sure if this will Fix Pete’s job woes, but we have a Man in Black. So maybe he needs a partner and then they could both be on the lookout for evil aliens in search of a Dyson sphere… (not a good reference but a reference nonetheless.)

Filed under: Meta

There’s a recent post over at The Website at the End of the Universe talking about William Shatner’s bad day. Check out the funny links.

Filed under: Web Sites

Also from RevolutionSF: The Top 75 Heroines of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror (Part I)

Filed under: Meta

For you Star Wars fanboys, of which I am not one, RevolutionSF reviews the Star Wars Party Book. It includes SW-themed foods, games and decorations.

I found the following statements funny: “The book is aimed at kids, and repeatedly says ‘ask an adult’ for help. But that could also apply to college students.”

Filed under: Star Wars

A pointless, but potentially interesting exercise found at the Spacecraft Blog:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Here’s one:

LINE: “Zak and Ishi were back in Zak’s tiny bunkroom, wedged in like sardines.”

SOURCE: Jupiter Project by Gregory Benford

Filed under: Books

I ran across The Mumpsimus on SciFi.COM’s listing of new sites and its really good. It should be, seeing as how Mr. Cheney (not that Cheney) is a writer and teacher. And, unlike us, he actually sticks to the SF arena, mostly. Well, at least more than we do…

Filed under: Meta

Will be back for more in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. In fact, 4 more books. I’m not sure where I stand on this. I really enjoy Donaldson’s work, The Gap series is great, and I really like the Covenant books, even though they are fantasy. But after the ending of White Gold Wielder, I figured that was it. I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t read it yet, but it seemed rather final. Donaldson says that the ideas for both the Second Chronicles and Last Chronicles came to him at the same time, but he’s waited on writing the last Chronicles because they are difficult to write. I’m interested to see how the story moves forward for where he left off. I’ll probably pick these up in hardback starting this fall!

And with the addition of 4 more novels, each of which will probably run over 600+ pages (like the others), the overall size of the Covenant series will put many average-sized Dyson Spheres to shame…

Filed under: Books

Longtime award-winning editor Gardner Dozois is stepping down as editor at Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine to ‘to pursue other projects’.

Filed under: Meta

In recombinant lexography! Yay! Thanks to Google and the google search.

Filed under: Meta

This article on the worst songs ever made me wonder what were some of the worst sf/f books people ever read. The only requirement is that it you had to actually finish the book. Otherwise, slam away.

For me, I would say that Battlefield Earth is the worst book I’ve ever finished. I though the first half was good. But then, at the halfway point, the main bad guy (Terl) gets killed off. The last half of the book details the efforts of Earth’s survivors to wrestle control of the planet from…shark bankers. Lame. Every page was a tough decision to persevere or give up. Unfortunately, I continued. After the read, I had no inkling to see the Travolta movie (although I did catch part of that train wreck on SciFi).

Filed under: Books

In the topic of “Not that I troll for Star Wars information” (but I would if I had more time), I saw this post about a preview of the new Darth Vader costume on the Trilogy DVD .

Filed under: Star Wars

According to the Ecological Footprint Quiz, “If everyone lived like you, we would need 3.4 planets.” Bummer.

Filed under: Web Sites

Not that I’ve ever been to Sunday school, but I’ve heard that it’s not much fun. But now you can learn all the mythological Bible stories here as portrayed by kung-fu-grip-laden figurines. You might even say that it’s more fun than a bag of Dyson’s spheres; especially for a faithless heathen such as myself.

Filed under: Web Sites

This weeks cool idea:

Dyson Spheres. Dyson spheres are a cool idea. How cool? See here,

here, and here. See also google for more.

What? Didn’t know there was a cool scifi idea of the week? We’ve always had it, no one has bothered to post about it!

The rules are simple. On Monday, post a cool SciFi idea (one only and Kate Beckinsale in leather doesn’t count, sorry Pete). The idea must be worked into a post on each of the following days in some way. Now go to it!

Filed under: Meta

I know I shouldn’t be surprised by hardware anymore, but the new NVIDIA nv40 solution is amazing. Yes it is an order of magnitude faster than the previous generation, but look at this. First, in order to be powered properly, the card will require it to be connected to TWO 4-pin molex connectors and draws 110 watts. Start thinking about needing a 500W power supply. Second, while the first version will have an AGP interface to the nv40 chip, the next and future versions will have a PCI Express interface. PCI Express will replace AGP pretty quickly I think, and is a nice standard overall for peripherals. Third, it will cost about $500 which is nearly the same as a top of the line Pentium 4 chip, which shouldn’t surprise us since it has more transistors than the Pentium 4.

Filed under: Computers

REVIEW SUMMARY: Some great stories to be found.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of sf stories, novelettes and novellas from 2002.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: Like most anthologies, some great, great reads.

CONS: Also like most anthologies, some weak efforts.

BOTTOM LINE: The better stories are worth the price of admission.

Read the rest of this entry

Filed under: Book Review

The winners of the 2004 Nebula Awards have been announced!

Best Novel:The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

Best Novella: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Best Novelette: The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford

Best Short Story: What I Didn’t See by Karen Joy Fowler

Best Script: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Stephen Sinclair & Peter Jackson

Editors Note: And not one of them uses recombinant lexography!

Filed under: Awards

The official Star Wars website has posted an Episode III web documentary about using old-fashioned methods of creating special effects. Looks like you get to see some of the upcoming Anakin/Obi Wan fight. The piece if freely available to the public and not reserved for paying Hyperspace members.

[Source: Big Dumb Object. Not that I troll websites that troll Star Wars sites or anything.]

Filed under: Star Wars

There’s a new H. P.Lovecraft magazine due soon. I’m looking forward to the Cthuulu centerfold. (Insert lascivious tongue-rolling noise here.)

Filed under: Books