Cory Doctorow's Blog, page 21
April 5, 2020
The Jubilee: Fill Your Boots
My latest podcast (MP3) is a reading of my 2017 Locus column The Jubilee: Fill Your Boots , about the nature of material scarcity, which is a subject of enormous significance at this moment as production has ground to a halt, and in which the use of the internet to coordinate our activity is at an all-time high. The essays thesis is that the answer to the climate change crisis might coordination, not privation holidays when our renewable energy sources werent producing, work when they were....
March 31, 2020
Ive got a old-fashioned link-blog, Pluralistic, where I p...
Ive got a old-fashioned link-blog, Pluralistic, where I post a daily list of links with commentary and analysis. If youd prefer to get it as a newsletter, you can subcribe to the Plura-list. Both are free from surveillance and advertising.
March 30, 2020
Author’s Note from Attack Surface
My latest podcast (MP3) is a reading of the authors note from Attack Surface the third Little Brother book, which comes out on Oct 12. I recorded this for the audiobook edition of Attack Suface, which Ive been recording all last week with Amber Benson and the Cassandra de Cuir from Skyboat Media. If you like what you hear, please consider pre-ordering the book its a scary time to have a book in the production pipeline!
March 29, 2020
88 Names podcast (fixed) (for real)
The brilliant writer Matt Ruff just published a new heist novel about gold-farming and MMORPGs called 88 NAMES thats like Snow Crash meets The King and I:
https://boingboing.net/2020/03/17/3d-gen-gold-farmers.html
Matts doing a podcast about the book with Blake Collier, and I appeared in the latest episode:
We cover a lot of ground: the state of tech and how it influences everything from economics to the environment, how fiction...
March 28, 2020
88 Names podcast
The brilliant writer Matt Ruff just published a new heist novel about gold-farming and MMORPGs called 88 NAMES thats like Snow Crash meets The King and I:
https://boingboing.net/2020/03/17/3d-gen-gold-farmers.html
Matts doing a podcast about the book with Blake Collier, and I appeared in the latest episode:
We cover a lot of ground: the state of tech and how it influences everything from economics to the environment, how fiction...
March 23, 2020
Data – the new oil, or potential for a toxic oil spill?
My latest podcast is a reading (MP3) of Data the new oil, or potential for a toxic oil spill? a column I wrote for Kaspersky in which I argue that data was never the new oil instead, it was always the new toxic waste: pluripotent, immortal and impossible to contain.
Data breaches are inevitable (any data you collect will probably leak; any data you retain will definitely leak) and cumulative (your companys data breach can be combined with each subsequent attack to revictimize your...
March 20, 2020
My appearance on Cool Tools
This week, I appear on the Cool Tools podcast to discuss my favorite, most indispensible gadgets and services and why I love them.
https://kk.org/cooltools/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-author/
My top picks were my Crkt Snap-Lock knife a one-handed-opening, lightweight, super versatile pocket knife that I carry everywhere.
https://www.crkt.com/snap-lock.html
I also chose my Chinese OEM underwater MP3 player. I swim every day for my chronic pain maintenance and this is how I make it...
March 18, 2020
Data is the new toxic waste
In a new article for Kaspersky, I argue that data was never the new oil instead, it was always the new toxic waste: pluripotent, immortal and impossible to contain.
https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/secure-futures-magazine/data-new-toxic-waste/34184/
Data breaches are inevitable (any data you collect will probably leak; any data you retain will definitely leak) and cumulative (your companys data breach can be combined with each subsequent attack to revictimize your customers). Identity thieves...
March 16, 2020
Talking digital writing careers with the Writing Excuses podcast
Back when cruise ships were a thing, I went out on the Writing Excuses Cruise as an instructor with Mary Robinette Kowal and friends. While there, we recorded an episode of the Writing Excuses podcast.
In a mere 25 minutes, we pack in a lot of material: how to break into the field, what a publishers job is, how digital is different, self-promotion, not being an unlikable weirdo when youre self-promoting, technologys role in shaping artistic success, and more. (heres an MP3).
The Masque of the Red Death and Punch Brothers Punch
As a followup to my last podcast, which featured the Macmillan audiobook of my novella The Masque of the Red Death, this weeks podcast starts with a reading of Poes original 1842 story, The Masque of the Red Death. Its some next-level gothic stuff.
As a chaser, I close this weeks podcast with a reading of Twains classic, gothic, comedic Literary Nightmare, better known as Punch, Brothers, Punch, easily the best story ever written about an earworm.
Warning: earworms.
