It is Thursday, 19 Mar 1998, 11:35 and I've bunked off school. I'm about to be on TV. I don't think I've told anyone. A few months prior, I had auditioned for a TV show and got the part! A few days later - with school's permission - I started rehearsals in some weird BBC rehearsal space. At the end of the week, a car took me to the then-abandoned St Pancras hotel, where we filmed. The resulting programme was... fine. I guess. I've written more about my experiences - but I never saw the show…
Continue reading →
Way back in the early days of the Social Web, the writer Cory Doctorow invented Whuffie. Think of it as a way to formalise "upvotes" and "likes" on social media. Whuffie, a form of digital social reputation, replaces money and is a constantly updated rating that measures how much esteem and respect other people have for a person. This rating system determines who gets the few scarce items, like the best housing, a table in a crowded restaurant, or a good place in a queue for a theme park…
Continue reading →
Whenever you buy a second-hand book, you are stealing revenue from the author and publisher. It makes no difference whether you buy from a charity shop or a for-profit store. All the money goes to the seller of the book, and none of it flows back to the copyright holders. (The situation is slightly different if you borrow a book from a library. In the UK, authors earn money every time a book is borrowed.) Is it fair that authors' works can be sold like this without any recompense? It isn't…
Continue reading →
This is an amazingly detailed look at the life of Neanderthals. It covers their habits, habitats, and human-like behaviour. We get a full history of the science of Neanderthal studies, and an overview of the cutting edge laser-powered science that is happening today. It is slyly and subtly funny - with little pop culture call outs. That helps to break up the sometimes repetitive lists of times and places. There's a surprising chapter on colonialism and racism. The way we view the recent past …
Continue reading →
This is a delightful collection of short stories. It starts with a scholarly introduction to the history of Black Sci-Fi. And, for once, Black isn't just limited to mean "African American". We get a panoply of authors - both modern and historic. Some of the historic stories - especially W. E. B. Du Bois' The Comet - are wonderful. A hundred year old sci-fi that is still as relevant today as it was then Others, are less so. Some of the stories are framed as "proto-science-fiction" - but…
Continue reading →
Back when I worked for an ISP, my employer paid for me to have broadband. I was expected to work from home a few days a month and they needed their workers to have high-bandwidth connectivity. Because it was a business expense, we all received BIG SCARY WARNINGS that the broadband was only to be used for work. Absolutely no domestic use allowed. *nudge nudge wink wink* Of course, everyone ignored that directive and used it for web-surfing after-hours. Was that theft? Our employer paid the…
Continue reading →
(Mostly notes to myself) KOReader is the best eReader software I've found. It works beautifully on eInk screens, Android, and Linux. Just a gorgeous - and infinitely customisable - experience. There's one thing I don't like - to move forward a page, you have to click the right of the screen and, to move back, the left. That's fine if you're holding the book in your right hand. But sometimes I behave in a sinister fashion and hold it in my left. I want to tap the bottom of the screen to move…
Continue reading →
It has been a full calendar year since my office sent me home for the last time. A few weeks later, lockdown was announced. For years, the biggest lie from customer service call centres was "Your call is important to us!" Then, a few years ago, it became "Due to unusually high call volumes, it may take longer than usual to answer your call." Now, it is "Due to the unprecedented situation, please bear with us while we try to answer your call." Well, no. It has been a year. I totally get…
Continue reading →
I expect everyone will be writing these pieces soon. So here's my cliché-ridden effort. I've found this year to be... liberating. I can stay up all night, knowing I can roll out of bed and be instantly at work. I can be as social as I like - and I can decline invitations if I'm just not in the mood. I can read a good book over lunch, rather than hunching over my desk eating Pret. Or I can take a lunchtime nap. No going to a crappy pub, I can order in the exact beer and cider I like. No going …
Continue reading →
Turn your Android phone into a USB webcam with DroidCam. I can't believe it took me a whole fucking year of pandemic-time to discover this app. My laptop's webcam is... basically fine. It's a cheap 720p sensor with a tiny lens. It doesn't really cope with low light, and the picture is a bit fuzzy and grey. If you're on a conference call with me, I look like this: I've got an old Samsung Android phone which I don't use any more. It's one of those with billions of megapizels and quantum…
Continue reading →
Let's get this out of the way first. I freakin' love Mary Robinette Kowal's Lady Astronaut Series. She has created this amazingly rich and detailed universe, full of fleshed-out characters engaging in daring-do. So when this earlier novel was cheap on Amazon, I picked it up. The "Glamourist Histories" novels were written several years before the Astronette books. And, I'll be honest, it shows. The plot is basically "Jane Austen But They Can Do Magic". Or, to more modern ears, "The Witches …
Continue reading →
Camille, a revolutionary's daughter, leads a band of outcasts – a runaway girl, a deserter, an aristocrat in hiding. As the Battalion des Morts they cheat death, saving those about to meet a bloody end at the blade of Madame La Guillotine. But their latest rescue is not what she seems. The girl's no aristocrat, but her dark and disturbing powers means both the Royalists and the Revolutionaries want her. But who and what is she? My colleague Katherine Dunn has written a brilliant book. It i…
Continue reading →
