Cory Doctorow's Blog, page 22
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.
March 13, 2020
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allen Poe wrote The Masque of the Red Death in 1842. Its about a plutocrat who throws a masked ball in his walled abbey during a plague with the intention of cheating death.
My novella The Masque of the Red Death is a tribute to Poe; its from my book Radicalized. Its the story of a plute who brings his pals to his luxury bunker during civlizational collapse in the expectation of emerging once others have rebuilt.
Naturally, they assume that when they do emerge, once their social...
When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth
In this special Covid-19 edition of my podcast, I revisit my end-of-the-world short story When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, originally published in Baens Universe in 2005. Hundreds of people have emailed and tweeted me about this story this week, so I thought it was long overdue that I revisited it (I last read it into my podcast in 2006).
Sysadmins is a story about civic duty at the end of the world, about the network admins who decide to keep the internet running even as the apocalypse...
March 11, 2020
A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick
For my latest podcast, I read my latest Locus op-ed, A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick, which analyzes why giving creators more copyright hasnt made them richer, and proposes other kinds of authors rights that would translate into real money for real creators.
The fact that the company cant reproduce your book without your permission doesnt mean much if the only way to get your book into the publics hands is through that company, or one of a small handful of companies with...
March 6, 2020
Audio from the Kelowna Canada Reads event with Sarah Penton
Last night I sat down for an interview and lively Q&A at the Kelowna Public Library with the CBC’s Sarah Penton as part of the Canada Reads national book prize, for which my book Radicalized is a finalist. Courtney Dickson was kind enough to send me raw audio from the board and to give me permission to post it and include it in my podcast feed. It was a genuinely wonderful night, with great and thoughtful questions, and I’m really glad that I get to share it with you! (MP3)
March 2, 2020
A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick
My latest Locus column explores what copyright expert Rebecca Giblin calls “The New Copyright Bargain” – a copyright system designed around enriching authors above all, rather rather than treating authors’ incomes as an incidental output of enriching entertainment or tech corporations. The column is called “A Lever Without a Fulcrum is Just a Stick.” Copyright is billed as giving creators leverage over the corporations we contract with, but levers need fulcrums.
Interview with the Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons podcast (Part II)
A couple of weeks ago, I posted Part I of my interview with the Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons podcast, a podcast that covers computer security in a way that is accessible to nontechnical people. Carey Parker has posted part II (MP3) of the interview, where we dig into Right to Repair, Adversarial Interoperability, and monopoly control and trustbusting. It’s a great interview — hope you enjoy hearing it as much as I enjoyed participating in it!
