The Strategist (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
Check out this Q&A between sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson and Slashdot readers (h/t Ubiwar). It ranges over topics like 'Beowulf' and 'Dante' writers, new publishing models, hacking tools as weapons, and the singularity... "I can never get past the structural...
dispatches from TJICistan (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Unlike Neal Stephenson, the last sentenced of Jered’s blog posts are the best … especially when he’s taking David Foster Wallace (or, at least, his corpse) out behind the woodshed for a well deserved beating. (subject line hattip)
Stowe Boyd's (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
At the end of a series of interviews and an equally wide exploration of new thinking on the future of money, I find my thoughts line up pretty closely with those of author Neal Stephenson in a 2005 Slashdot interview:...
Super Punch (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
One of several similar ads by Ogilvy for Wilkies Martial Arts Academy. *Previously: Neal Stephenson and Edwardian martial arts . * Buy martial arts patches at eBay.
the Literary Saloon (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
The long list for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is now available: 156 authors from 46 countries, with 41 books originally written in 17 languages other than English (a decent percentage). Among the finalists are a good number (eighteen) under review at the complete review : Anathem by Neal Stephenson The Angel Maker by Stefan Brijs Beyond Suspicion by Tanguy Viel Chicago by Alaa Al...
GlennLog (Free subscription) | 11/01/2009
The first time I read Neal Stephenson's Anathem , a form of sci-fi, I felt like it was tearing my brain apart slightly. Anathem takes place on a world called Arbre, and Stephenson invented words for many things to denote the difference from our own history that were close enough to be familiar and prick at my neurons, but not identical. Fraa instead of Frere (for a brother in a monastery); concent...
The World in the Satin Bag (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
There was an enormous book sale here in Gainesville over the last few days and I thought I’d let you all know what I got (a lot of stuff, actually). Next time, in April, I don’t think I will be going quite as all out, mostly because I don’t have as much need for a lot of books anymore. I intentionally went this year trying to find things to use for my research, and now I’m only...
Book Addicts Anonymous (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
I have been reading AK slowly but surely. The main complaint of most readers doesn't bother me. I have read several books based in Russia and know that one family member can have many different names, depending on who is talking about them/addressing them. It isn't as strange as you think, our own language has many different ways of addressing people. If you are talking to a family member you use their...
Llewtrah's Soapbox (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
The Confusion is the second book in the Baroque cycle and follows the parallel lives of Eliza (Duchess of Qwghlm) and Jack Shaftoe. The plot, if there can be said to be one, is massively rambling and an excuse to see the development of banks and commerce. Eliza moves in learned and aristocratic circles, but finds her financial and personal fortunes affected by war in Europe. She marries for political...
Just Too Techy - Half Man/Half Geek (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
via steverubel.com As a command line junkie i really like this new google based cmd line interface called http://goosh.org If you're not into the commnad line or don't 'get' it read Neal Stephenson's In The Begininning Was the Command Line. Available as a book or for free here: http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html Posted via web from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts
At Home With Books (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page . Here are the books that have arrived at my house over the past few weeks: The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver - An alternate reality fiction book recommended by Jenners of Find Your Next Book Here . Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Pineiro - An unsolicited advance copy from the publisher. The Semantics of Murder by Aifric Campbell - An...
KN@PPSTER (Free subscription) | 10/25/2009
This post started with a "Collinsville, Illinois" dateline, and as a basic five-point news update, but in the middle of things I decided to get back to what was going on and write it up later. From a blogging standpoint, there wasn't anything of the "I've got to tell everyone right friggin' now " variety going on, so hanging around the hotel's business center scaring the office...
chrisworth.com (Free subscription) | 10/25/2009
I'm now a third of the way through Neal Stephenson's grand cycle of Europe (and America too if you include Cryptonomicon as the fourth book after the trilogy) and enjoying it. I don't read much fiction these days, sci-fi even more rarely. But Stephenson's moved on from his Snow Crash and Diamond Age phase of pure sci-fi - and anyway, he always transcended the author (wrongly) credited with kicking...
Applied Abstractions (Free subscription) | 10/24/2009
October 30, 2009, 0800-1045 (This is a temporary entry - there will be more description and perhaps more literature later....) Creating technology is far from easy - specifically, creating software involves a number tools and techniques that are crucial to overcome the fact that systems are complicated, abstract, and involves interdependencies with many other systems. To understand this we will hear...
Reason Magazine - Hit & Run (Free subscription) | 10/21/2009
Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age offers a portrait of an exclusive community of neo-Victorians living within a dizzying nanotech future. One of the charming quirks of the upper echelons: Reading the same news as other people in their social group—sometimes even on paper: He sat down at the kitchen table. Mrs. Hull was already marmalading his crumpet. As she laid out plates and silver, Hackworth...
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