Tom Merritt's Blog, page 1198
May 1, 2012
FourCast 117: Free Phone, Strong Heart, Can’t Lose
Hosts: Tom Merritt and Scott Johnson
We’ll have an Amazon phone that’s ad supported and upgraded organs to enjoy it with.
Guests: Chris Ziegler and Dave Veffer
Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/fc.
Got a prediction of your own? Guest you’d like to see? Question for the show? Email us at fourcast@twit.tv.
Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.
Running time: 42:13
Autopilot 06 – The A-TEAM
Autopilot 06 – The A-TEAM
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a “crime they didn’t commit”. The A-Team was created by writers and producers Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell (who also collaborated on Wiseguy, Riptide, and Hunter) at the behest of Brandon Tartikoff, NBC’s Entertainment president. Despite being thought of as mercenaries by the other characters in the show, the A-Team always acted on the side of good and helped the oppressed. The show ran for five seasons on the NBC television network, from January 23, 1983 to December 30, 1986 (with one additional, previously unbroadcast episode shown on March 8, 1987), for a total of 98 episodes.
S&L Podcast – #99 – The Game of Sword Picks
It’s an epic struggle… With The Magicians finally given our last words, and Hyperion by Dan Simmons kicked off, attention turns to the June “sword” pick. But while Veronica struggles with her penchant for democracy and her desire for supreme power, she comes up against one sobering fact: In the game of sword picks, you win or you read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: 2009 Château Haut-Sorillon
Veronica: St. george Absinthe Verte
QUICK BURNS
Neal Stephenson on Science Fiction, Building Towers 20 Kilometers High … and Insurance
Sci-fi author sues Ubisoft over Assassin’s Creed copyright infringement
Macmillan’s Tor/Forge goes DRM-free
IO9 listing the top 100 albums sff fans should listen to
10 Untranslatable Words (And When You’ll Want to Use Them)
BARE YOUR SWORD
Author Promo (Share Your Stuff!) > Help, please, oh gods of science
What Else Are You Reading? > Any fans of tie-in fiction?
TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES
Warner Bros. releases ‘Casablanca,’ ‘Ben-Hur,’ and other scripts as enhanced ebooks
BOOK WRAP-UP
Last thoughts! We will have Mr. Grossman on the next video episode of Sword and Laser so submit your questions on GoodReads.
Next book will be Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Won the Hugo in 1989 – First book of the Hyperion Cantos (which some people may get bugged by because it definitely leads into a series)
From Wikipedia:
It’s what is called a Frame Story – A frame story (also frame tale, frame narrative, etc.) is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories. The frame story leads readers from a first story into another, smaller one (or several ones) within it. Mimics the canterbury Tales in many ways. Stories are told on a pilgrimage.
Hyperion is in development for a 2013 release (definitely subject to change since it hasn’t started production yet). According to a 2008 io9 report the writer Trevor Sands will simplify Hyperion and mash it up with the sequel Fall of Hyperion http://io9.com/375998/dan-simmons-hyp...
And we’re working on the June Pick.
EMAIL / VOICEMAILS
—
First, I love the show. I’m a fellow podcaster over at Guys Can Read. We do book reviews and interviews with authors like R. A. Salvatore and Daniel H. Wilson.
Also, I thought your listeners would be interested in my book launch into space! Here is the video. If you need any other media information just let me know.
Hope you guys enjoy!
Kevin
—
ADDENDUMS
This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring audio versions of many New York Times Best Sellers.For listeners of this podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook, to give you a chance to try out their service. For a free audiobook of your choice go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.
April 30, 2012
Tech History Today – May 1
In 1884 – Construction began in Chicago on the Home Insurance Building, generally acknowledged as the first steel-frame high-rise skyscraper.
1959 – Shortly after construction had begun, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland was officially named in honor of the pioneering rocket scientist.
1964 – Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny of Dartmouth College, launched a time-sharing system using a language meant to be learned quickly, called BASIC.
S&L Video – #02 – The Magicians Wrap-Up and Interview with Saladin Ahmed!
This week, we’re wrapping up “The Magicians” by Lev Grossman (but don’t despair if you haven’t finished yet!) and we also speak with author Saladin Ahmed, finalist for the Nebula and Campbell awards and author of “Throne fo the Crescent Moon.”
Learn more about our guest and book pick!
Saladin Ahmed: http://www.saladinahmed.com
Saladin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/saladinahmed
The Magicians: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6101718-the-magicians
Show Notes:
Neal Stephenson has a hard time talking about swordplay, in the Mongoliad trailer
Which fictional character shares your birthday?
What is “used book smell?”
Aurora Nominations
Novellas, Unbound!
April 29, 2012
Tech History Today – April 30
In 1916 – Claude Elwood Shannon was born. He is considered the father of information theory and is the man who coined the term bit for the fundamental unit of both data and computation.
In 1939 – RCA began regularly scheduled television service in New York City, with a telecast of President Franklin D. Roosevelt opening the New York World’s Fair. Programs were transmitted from mobile camera trucks to the main transmitter, which was connected to an aerial atop the Empire State Building. The broadcasting division of RCA was called the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).
1993 – CERN released a statement declaring the software protocols developed for the World Wide Web would be available in the public domain.
April 28, 2012
Tech History Today – April 29
In 1882 – Ernst Werner von Siemens presented his “trackless trolley” called the Elektromote in a Berlin suburb. The system pulled electricity from overhead wires, but used road wheels instead of tracks.
1953 – KECA-TV an ABC affiliate in Losa Angeles, California broadcast the first U.S. experimental 3D-TV. An episode of Space Patrol required specially polarized glasses to watch.
In 2005 -Apple released Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, introducing spotlight search and dashboard functionality.
April 6, 2012
Tech History Today – Apr. 7
In 1927 – The Bell System sent live TV images of Herbert Hoover, then the Secretary of Commerce, over telephone lines from Washington, D.C. to an auditorium in Manhattan. It was the first public demonstration in the U.S. of long-distance television transmission.
In 1964 – IBM unveiled the System/360 line of mainframe computers, its most successful computer system. Called the "360″ because it was meant to address all possible sizes and types of customer with one unified software-compatible architecture.
In 1969 – The first Request For Comment, RFC 1 put together by Steve Crocker was distributed on the newly operational ARPANET. RFCs describe methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet.
Tech News Today 473: The Oops Defense
Hosts: Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell
Did YouTube ignore copyright infringement? Mass effect 3 gets a better ending, macs are full of infections, and more.
Guest: Jonathan Strickland
Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.
Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.
We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.
Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.
Running time: 53:51
April 5, 2012
East Meets West 282 – Good content
Tom talks about the end of Buzz Out Loud, Roger and Tom both discuss what makes good content ont he Internet and then Colleen, Chad, Nicole and Darren all join in to chat about all kinds of awesome.
Get the episode at this link: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/EastMeetsWest282GoodContent/eastmeetswest282.mp3
