Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 204

Enough Knight Moves Already! (And sincere thanks, by the way)

Thanks to you lovely readers, I now have a couple dozen scans of Knight Moves.   My cup runneth over.  You need not send more.   I am content. The prize has been awarded, though anyone who helped in any way will be mentioned in thanks.

I also seem to have a copy of Days of Atonement, though I haven't had a chance to look at it yet.  Angel Station is still up for grabs.

You are wonderful, you folks.  Thanks very much.

And now back to my frenetically busy day.  I flew 2000 miles and still have to ...

Endeavor Forever

So I saw the launch of Endeavor, which was deeply cool but only about five seconds long before the orbiter penetrated the low-lying cloud level and disappeared.  The sound seemed to go on for ages.  

I got great pictures, which I was planning on posting here, but I brought the wrong connector and I can't link my camera to my computer.   And I can't use my computer anyway in the place I'm staying, because their wireless is truly fcked.  I'm posting this from a borrowed computer in a hotel...

Return to the Cape

I'm off to Florida (again) to see the shuttle launch (again).
Let's wish the crew of the Endeavor all the luck in the world, plus that of near-Earth orbit.

Crowdsource, Please

Like every other midlist writer on the planet, I'm striving to get my out-of-print books and stories online so that (a) you can enjoy them, and (b) I can make a few bucks.To this end, I embarked upon a Cunning Plan.  I discovered that my work had been pirated, and was available for free on BitTorrent sites located in the many outlaw server dens of former Marxist countries.  So I downloaded my own work from thence with the intention of saving the work of scanning my books— I figured I'd let...

To All My Friends in Turkey

Happy, umm, Atatürk lands in Samsun Day!

Or month.  Whichever.

Long live the Turkish Republic!

Card via Chris Mills.

Computers Stealing Our Dreams

Ah, to be in England now that Adam Curtis has a new documentary series . . .All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace will premiere in a couple weeks on the BBC, and by all accounts is a sort of meta-critique of digital society and its proponents and heroes.  (About time, too.)The most intriguing of the series' various theses is that computers have stolen all our big dreams.   Computers and systems theory showed that everything was a component in a system, right?" . . . people started to...

Fear the Boom and Bust

Big news from the World of Economics!  Friedrich August Hayek and John Maynard Keynes face off in a smokin' rap battle!

(It's good, but it would be better if someone in this project actually knew how to pronounce "Keynes.")

The Crazy Train

I was sorta hoping that the death of Osama bin Laden might nudge a few people back to sanity, but it isn't happening.I mean, I expected the 9/11 Truthers to claim that Osama didn't do it and isn't really dead, because they've been on the Crazy Train for some time.   But even the usual crazies are still crazy.Just trolling around online during a Monday.  Here's what I found.The ultra-orthodox Jewish Di Tzeilung airbrushed Hillary Clinton and Director of Counterterrorism Audrey Tomason from...

Another Step Closer to the Robot Apocalypse

Boeing's new "autonomous fighter-sized aircraft," the Phantom Ray, has had its first successful test flight.The Phantom Ray is no mere drone with looks inspired by, say, Hardwired, it's an "unmanned airborne system" intended to complete its missions without a human at the controls.  Just tell it what you want it to do, hit the Go button, and watch your enemies evaporate as the onboard AI takes over.Rumors that all input relating to GPS coordinates are translated by the AI as "exterminate all ...

Iranian Politics Explained

If you've ever wondered why Iranian politics are so strange, perhaps the answer is now at hand.  It seems that the president's inner circle has been relying for advice on "djinn, fairies, and demons."We have this on no less an authority that Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, whose spat with President Ahmadinejad's court has now reached metaphysical proportions.The current problem began a couple weeks ago when Ahmadinejad fired his intelligence minister.  Khamenei ordered him...