Charles Stross's Blog, page 126
October 13, 2009
Why I hate Star Trek
I have a confession to make: I hate Star Trek.
Let me clarify: when I was young — I'm dating myself here — I quite liked the original TV series. But when the movie-length trailer for ST:TNG first aired in the UK in the late eighties? It was hate on first sight. And since then, it's also been hate on sight between me and just about every space operatic show on television. ST:Voyager and whatever the space station opera; check. Babylon Five? Ditto. Battlestar Galactica? Didn't even bother...
October 11, 2009
More politics
My one consolation when contemplating British politics is that we're not Italy (yet):
As Silvio Berlusconi yesterday tried to shore up his position by declaring himself irreplaceable as Italy's head of government, a court in Milan was told it had been "amply demonstrated" that he was guilty of bribery.
"I am, and not only in my own opinion, the best prime minister who could be found today," he told a press conference. "I believe there is no one in history to whom I should feel inferior. Quite t...
October 9, 2009
Politics
Foreigners reading this blog might be interested to learn that one of the UK's quaint political customs is to hold general elections at random intervals of no more than five years. That is to say: the Prime Minister can seek the royal assent to dissolve parliament and go to the country at any time, but must do so in any event no more than 60 months after the previous election.
It is probably no secret that Labour are going down in flames. (More here, not to mention "there" and "everywhere" — g...
October 7, 2009
Jeff Bezos Eats Kittens
Today's big news is that Amazon are going to start selling Kindle ebook readers world-wide.
Let me explain why I think this is very bad news for writers.
October 4, 2009
Gadget Patrol: Netwalker
As regular readers will be aware, I go through portable computing gizmos rapidly. In part, it's a nervous tic: I've been trying for years to find an adequate replacement for the Psion 5MX — the One True PDA — with no success ever since Psion left the field. I might as well make an intermittent feature of it on my blog, so from now on posts prefixed Gadget Patrol: will be about, well, Gadgets.
Here's my verdict on the Sharp PC-Z1 Netwalker, which is currently only available in Japan (and my...
October 1, 2009
Hiatus
It is now October.
Last month I went to two SF conventions overseas (in Denmark and Germany), contracted a nasty chest infection (better now, thanks), checked the page proofs on three (count 'em) novels, and wrote a novelette.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm about to take a few days off to recharge. See you next week ...
September 28, 2009
Hold the front page
Okay, in the past month that's three (count 'em) sets of page proofs processed; that, and I'm halfway through a secret writing project™ (don't worry, I'll explain all when it's finished) while twiddling the plot wheels on "Rule 34", the "Halting State" sequel (and my main bread-and-butter work for the year ahead). I did a guest of honour slot in Copenhagen, and a long weekend at a convention in Dresden, and was sandbagged by a lovely chest infection (probably some species of con crud picked u...
September 25, 2009
Historical contingency
Apparently there's more ice on Mars than we realized. Lots more ice. In fact, Viking 2 came within eight centimetres of uncovering ice on Mars in 1977:
Meteorites that crashed into the Martian surface last year exposed buried ice to the digital eyes of NASA spacecraft. Scientists have used those images to deduce that there is a lot more ice on Mars — and that it's closer to the equator — than previously thought. In fact, subterranean Martian ice should extend all the way down beyond 48...
September 23, 2009
And the beat goes on ...
Two sets of page proofs checked, one to go.
When not grovelling over a hot galley proof, I've been upgrading Macs — I've just installed Snow Leopard on all the members of the herd that would run it, and replaced my other half's DTP workstation — the only current member of the herd that wouldn't. (Memo to self: write another book to pay for the Mac Pro.) A handful of minor annoyances have come to light, but nothing earth-shattering (scanner drivers that crash under repeatable and avoidable...
September 21, 2009
The future, Indian-style
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP_Thorium_exports_coming_from_India_1709091.html
In a nutshell: India is getting ready to start exporting nuclear reactors.
But not just any old reactor. These ones are designed to run on the thorium fuel cycle.
As wikipedia puts it, "A thorium fuel cycle offers several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle, including greater resource abundance, superior physical and nuclear properties of fuel, enhanced proliferation resistance, and reduced plutonium a...
