Bone Shop 3 - Tim Pratt

Knives work. Dunno about this magic stuff.


3.5 out of 5

http://marlamason.net/boneshop/chapter3.html

Makers 04 - Cory Doctorow

"There was another Kodacell group in San Francisco, a design outfit with a bunch of stringers who could design the gnomes for them and they did great work. The gnomes were slightly lewd-looking, and they were the product of a generative algorithm that varied each one. Some of the designs that fell out of the algorithm were jaw-droppingly weird—Perry kept a three-eyed, six-armed version on his desk. They tooled up to make them by the hundred, then the thousand,then the tens of thousand. The fact that each one was different kept their margins up, but as the Gnomes gained popularity their sales were steadily eroded by knock-offs, mostly from Eastern Europe."


4 out of 5

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=38505

Getaway - Emma Bull

One busted, Chaz, one ex-high school girl, one bad guy.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.shadowunit.org/getaway.html

The Revolution Business 1 - Charles Stross

""The duke tasked me with setting up a systematic exploration program," Huw explained. "So I started by taking the second known knotwork design and seeing where it'd take you if you used it in world two, in the USA, which the Hidden Family had no access to. The initial tests in Massachusetts and New York failed, so I guessed there might be a really large obstacle in the way. There's some kind of exclusion effect . . . but anyway, we found a new world."

Miriam narrowly resisted the urge to grab him and start yelling questions. "Go on."

"World four is cold, as in, about ten degrees celsius below datum for the other worlds we've found. That's ice age cold. We didn't have time to do much exploring, but what we found—there were people there, once, but we didn't see any signs of current habitation. High tech, very high tech—perfect dentistry, gantries made out of titanium, and other stuff. We're still trying to figure out the other stuff, but it's a whole different ball game. The building we found looked like it had been struck from above by some kind of directed energy weapon—""


4 out of 5


http://us.macmillan.com/BookCustomPage.aspx?isbn=9780765316721#Excerpt

Til Death 1 - Michael A. Stackpole

" “Why do you got to be like that?” He patted his left breast, right over a gravy stain on his checked jacket. “This is serious, this time.”

With Lou, it was always serious. Small guy, except around the middle, swarthy, breath that could kill a moose. Had a face that would have looked better after third degree burns. Acne scars on his cheeks and neck, so he never looked clean shaven. Beard tough enough to fray all his shirt collars. Shopped at Goodwill, dressed in the dark—if anything matched it was his socks, and that was just luck.

I glanced at my watch again. “Spill it.”

“I need you to find my wife.”"


3.5 out of 5

http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=321

Fool's War 5 - Sarah Zettel

"Havelock drew back. "What we do know is that we have a new, sentient AI to deal with. Master Dobbs, you are our closest member. I've raised the Guild Masters. We're going to open a line to you and send you in. Cohen will go with you to block records. You will both leave immediately."

His words sent a shudder all the way through Dobbs. Open lines were used only in absolute emergencies. The constant exchange of packets and the perpetually open transmitter paths took signal delay down to a minimum, and it allowed a field member to keep in contact with Guild Hall. But open lines were highly visible. Cohen would have to position himself in The Gate's transmitter processors. From there, he would constantly monitor the internal logs and external activities to make sure no one outside the network saw anything suspicious. While he was hiding her, she'd be combing through the Pasadena. "


3.5 out of 5

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Sarah-Zettel/Long-Rich-Reads/05-Fool-s-War

Fool's War 4 - Sarah Zettel

"She could not risk an interface between the ship's system and her foster without the cover of the simulation. The sudden increase in activity would be too noticeable and she had been directly ordered to keep it in its case. Now, however, the relatively small increase in power consumption and line usage under the myriad commands of a constantly updated program would be barely detectable.

She opened her eyes.

Her right hand was lying limp and lifeless across her thigh. She picked it up and slid it back onto the end of her wrist, twisting it around until she could wiggle all her fingers.

In her ear, a voice whispered "I'm here, Jemina."

"Hello, Foster." The foster was not independent yet. If and when it became complex enough to catch a soul, it would be encouraged to choose a name. For now, though, it was just "Foster." "


4 out of 5

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Sarah-Zettel/Long-Rich-Reads/04-Fool-s-War

Fool's War 3 - Sarah Zettel

"Now might be the best time to get some research going, she thought, and then rejected the idea. The refueling would take awhile, but not as long as her researches, and if she was caught out of her straps for some reason, Schyler would give her a good going over. It was one of the strange double-standards for a Fool. Technically, Fools could get away with anything, but they had to be extremely careful not to be caught getting away with anything serious. If they did, their reputation for foolishness would change to one for stupidity, or, worse, untrustworthiness. Neither was something any Fool could afford. "


4 out of 5

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Sarah-Zettel/Long-Rich-Reads/03-Fool-s-War

Fool's War 2 - Sarah Zettel

"The ship had been slow to learn her writing and short-hand because there was no AI running the internal systems. Al Shei was obviously almost as paranoid about humanity’s progeny as Lipinski was. Yerusha shook her head. With attitudes like that surrounding her, it was going to be a long run, that much was sure.

The Pasadena slid out from under the module rings and the gleaming panels that the view screens showed came to a halt. Out of the window, she saw the silver-white curve of the station and just a glimpse of the ghostly globe of Oberon.

“Three to release, Pasadena,” said the Port voice. “Two...one...release.”

The trolley opened its clamps and Yerusha watched Port Oberon and the stark, white moon fall away from the Pasadena."


4 out of 5

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Sarah-Zettel/Long-Rich-Reads/02-Fool-s-War

Fish Night - Joe R. Lansdale

Ghost shark time.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.joerlansdale.com/stories.shtml

On the Rocks - J. A. Konrath

Sofa rope strangle trick.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.bfnsoftware.com/cgi-bin/home/Members/DLTrack/DLTrack.cgi?User=14915&ID=5088&Code=RfpPev

Makers 03 - Cory Doctorow

"“When it’s done, it will make toast.”

“Make toast?”

“Yeah, separate a single slice off a loaf, load it into a top-loading slice-toaster, depress the lever, time the toast-cycle, retrieve the toast and butter it. I got the idea from old-time backup-tape loaders. This plus a toaster will function as a loosely coupled single system.”

“OK, that’s really cool, but I have to ask the boring question, Perry. Why? Why build a toast-robot?”"


4 out of 5

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=38085

War On Venus - Edgar Rice Burroughs

The men of the flagship were all at their stations. The great fleet moved steadily forward in perfect formation. It was battle formation all right and I knew that a battle must be impending, but I could see no enemy; and as no one was paying any attention to me, I went up to the bridge to get a better view of what was going on and to see if I could locate an enemy. There were officers and signalmen there, sending and receiving messages. There were four t-ray guns mounted on the bridge, each with its complement of three gunners; so that the bridge, while large, was pretty well crowded, and certainly no place for a sightseer, and I was surprised that they permitted me to remain; but I later learned that it was on Danlot's orders that I was given free run of the ship, on the theory that if I were a spy, I would eventually convict myself by some overt act. "Have you ever been in a battle between lantar fleets?" one of the officers asked me. "No," I replied; "I never saw a lantar until today." "If I were you, then, I'd go below," he said. "This is the most dangerous place on the ship. In all probability more than half of us will be killed before the battle is over." As he ceased speaking I heard a whistling sound that rose to a long drawn out shriek and ended in a terrific detonation, as a bomb exploded a couple of hundred yars ahead of the flagship. Instantly the big guns of the battleship spoke in unison. The battle was on.


3.5 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300191h.html

The Living Dead - Edgar Rice Burroughs

"There are neither males nor females among them; but more or less periodically, usually after enjoying an orgy of eating and drinking, they divide into two parts, like the amoeba and other of the Rhizopada. Each of these parts grows another half during a period of several months, and the process continues. Eventually, the older halves wear out and die; sometimes immediately after the division and sometimes while still attached, in which case the dead half merely falls away, and the remaining half is carted off to make itself whole."


3 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300191h.html

Goddess Of Fire - Edgar Rice Burroughs

"Is Loto-El-Ho-Ganja your vadjong?" I asked. Vadjong means queen. "No," he said, "she is not a woman; she is more than a woman. She was not born of woman, nor did she ever hang from any plant." "Does she look like a woman?" I asked. "Yes," he replied, "but her beauty is so transcendent that mortal women appear as beasts by comparison."


2.5 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300191h.html

Slaves Of the Fishmen - Edgar Rice Burroughs

"I've whipped slaves to death before," boasted the fellow, "and I can whip this one to death;" then he rushed at me with upraised whip. I whipped out my pistol, the r-ray pistol that destroys flesh and bone; and let him have it. There was no smoke, nothing visible; just a sharp, staccato buzz; then there was a great hole in the center of the fellow's face; and he sprawled forward, dead.


3.5 out of 5

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300191h.html

Mind Meld Guide to International SFF 3 - Karen Burnham

Yet more people from more places give their opinions on what is going on.

Greece, Portugal, for example.

4.5 out of 5

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/07/mind-meld-guide-to-international-sff-part-iii/

Infinity Plus An Interview with - Steven Savile

"Alethea Kontis: Which came first, Houdini or Hoke?

Steven Savile: Ahh, the eternal question. The Great Magician or the Fantastic Construct ... it's not exactly a chicken and the egg scenario. Or maybe it is when I come to think about it."


3.5 out of 5

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/intss.htm

SFF World Interview - Steven Savile

Lengthy, talks about the Tsunami Relief anthology and more. One funny part - 'I am sceptical anyone reads that online stuff, clicks, hits, etc.' (People obviously buy books and chuck them in the back of the cupboard, too. :) )

"SFFWORLD: I’ll keep an eye on those romantic fiction shelves then, Steve! How was it writing and editing stories about the good Doctor? He seems to be on a bit of a roll at the moment…

Steven Savile: I can't even begin to describe the kick I got out of it – or the pressure I felt doing it. Forget ANYTHING else – Dr Who has 40 plus years of history and expectation, and you so do not want to be one of the guys who destroys the legacy of what you grew up with. Like most writers, I am a fan. In particular I am a fan of Dr Who – Saturdays hiding behind the settee from Zygons, Sontarans, Sea Devils, Cybermen and Daleks... it's funny, I was in a book with Stephen King recently (On Writing Horror) and my mum didn't bat an eyelid while I was jumping up and down, but when I called to say I had landed the job writing my first Dr Who story (Falling From Xi'an, which appeared in The Centenarian, edited by Ian Farrington) she got all excited and blurted: “I guess this means you are a real writer now.” Gotta love mums for bringing you crashing back down to earth every now and then."


5 out of 5

http://www.sffworld.com/interview/226p0.html

Unbound - Steven Savile

An interview :

" I mean looking at the roster of work I've done only in the last 2 years it means
choosing between Primeval, Torchwood, Doctor Who, Stargate SG-1, Warhammer, and a couple of my own creations, the thriller I just finished writing, Silver, and this weird sort of steampunk fantastic victoriana with a splash of horror that revolves around this group of rather curious gentlemen in 1880s London, The Greyfrair's Gentleman's Club. I had an absolute blast writing the very first Black Library
novel, Inheritance, for instance. The editor said 'okay we want these boys to be like Hammer House of Horror vampires' and my grin just spread slowly as my offered the writer's mantra: 'I can do that."


4.5 out of 5

http://hagelrat.blogspot.com/2009/06/steven-savile-interview.html

Makers 02 - Cory Doctorow

"“That’s from the great Elmo Crash,” Perry said, taking back the box and expertly extracting the Elmo like he was shelling a nut. “The last and greatest generation of Elmoid technology, cast into an uncaring world that bought millions of Li’l Tagger washable graffiti kits instead after Rosie gave them two thumbs up on her Christmas shopping guide.

“Poor Elmo was an orphan, and every junkyard in the world has mountains of mint-in-package BWEs, getting rained on, waiting to start their long, half-million-year decomposition.

“But check this out.” He flicked a multitool off his belt and extracted a short, sharp scalpel-blade. He slit the grinning, disco-suited Elmo open from chin to groin and shucked its furry exterior and the foam tissue that overlaid its skeleton. He slide the blade under the plastic cover on its ass and revealed a little printed circuit board.

“That’s an entire Atom processor on a chip, there,” he said. “Each limb and the head have their own subcontrollers. There’s a high-powered digital-to-analog rig for letting him sing and dance to new songs, and an analog-to-digital converter array for converting spoken and danced commands to motions. Basically, you dance and sing for Elmo and he’ll dance and sing back for you.”"


3.5 out of 5

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=37713

Foiled - Alethea Kontis

Worse bloody mess.


3 out of 5

http://www.apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/2007/06/short-fiction-foiled/

Subterranean Online 10 - Gardner Dozois

A lengthy issue with Gardner Dozois guest editing. Should happen more often. A couple of book reviews of nothing of any interest. All the stories are above average, though, with this fine lineup. McAuley and Vaughn are the pick of this lot.

Pretty close to a 4.75.

Subterranean Online 10 : Conquistador de la Noche - Carrie Vaughn
Subterranean Online 10 : Crimes and Glory - Paul J. McAuley
Subterranean Online 10 : Hide and Horns - Joe R. Lansdale
Subterranean Online 10 : Under the Honey - Liz Williams
Subterranean Online 10 : A Tulip for Lucretius - Ken MacLeod
Subterranean Online 10 : The Ascendant - Ted Kosmatka
Subterranean Online 10 : Sylgarmo's Proclamation - Lucius Shepard

Cugel's cousin is no fan of his, it appears. Now, to avoid the end of the world.

3.5 out of 5


Non-criminal levelling up pair.

4 out of 5


Synth Fringe revolution.

3.5 out of 5


Unbound brood queen recruiter, bee.

3.5 out of 5


Multi china girl no dick ruboff sharpshooter rescue.

3.5 out of 5


Q-phone Elder space investigation.

4 out of 5


Don Ricardo de la Staker.

4 out of 5





4.5 out of 5

http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2009/

Crimes and Glory 4 - Paul J. McAuley

"Veracidin is derived from Elder Culture nanotechnology. A suspension of machines as small as viruses that enter the bloodstream and cross the blood/brain barrier, targeting specific areas in the cortex, suppressing specific higher cognitive functions. In short, it is a sophisticated truth drug. Its use is illegal on Earth and First Foot, but we were in the field, in the equivalent of a battle situation. We did what we had to do, and we didn’t know–how could we?–that Everett Hughes would suffer a violent reaction when the swarm of tiny machines hit his brain."


3.5 out of 5

http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2009/fiction-crimes-and-glory-by-paul-mcauley/#partiv

Crimes and Glory - Paul J. McAuley

Q-phone Elder space investigation.


4 out of 5

http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2009/fiction-crimes-and-glory-by-paul-mcauley/#partiv

Clarkesworld 34 - Sean Wallace

An interesting issue. Another fine Xenowealth story by Buckell - an island with criminals and weird aliens and worhome.s

An article about editors of long fiction

Clarkesworld 34 : Placa del Fuego - Tobias S. Buckell
Clarkesworld 34 : On the Lot and In the Air - Lisa Hannett

Alien wormhole choices kid, maybe some Pepper added.

4 out of 5


Crow shot shill.

3 out of 5



3.5 out of 5

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_34

On the Lot and In the Air - Lisa Hannett

Crow shot shill.


3 out of 5

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hannett_07_09/

Placa Del Fuego - Tobias S. Buckell

Alien wormhole choices kid, maybe some Pepper added.


4 out of 5

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/buckell_07_09/

The Syndic 1 - C. M. Kornbluth

"Disabuse yourself of the notion. Nobody except you believes in it. The Inexorable Laws of Economics are as dead as Dagon and Ishtar, and for the same reason. No more worshipers. You bankers can't shove anybody around any more. You're just a convenience, like the non-playing banker in a card game.

"What's real now is the Syndic. What's real about the Syndic is its own morale and the public's faith in it. Is that clear?"


3.5 out of 5

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b90868/The-Syndic/CM-Kornbluth/??r=7a6

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 20 - Scott H. Andrews

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 20 : The Land of Empty Shells - Caroline M. Yoachim
Beneath Ceaseless Skies 20 : The Bone House - James Lecky

Turtles, all the way down.

3 out of 5


Many Terrible Words.

2 out of 5




1 out of 5

http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/toc.php?s=all

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 19 - Scott H. Andrews

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 19 : The Mansion of Bones - Richard Parks
Beneath Ceaseless Skies 19 : Havoc - A.C. Smart and Quinn Braver

Fake monks, devils, the odd ghost.

3.5 out of 5


“It’s ruined,” Havoc admitted. “Should I buy her another?

2.5 out of 5




2.5 out of 5

http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/toc.php?s=all

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 18 - Scott H. Andrews

Sort of applies to the next issue, too, before getting to Richard Parks - classic examples of tedious no good second world fantasy, wolves, knights, swords, clean, duchesses, making you want you to yell, no, no,no, no more of this insular crudology faux Northern Hemisphere junk.

Seems to have slipped a bit recently. Not sure if the editor is getting tired, or not getting the stuff, but there are some howling errors in some of these recent issues :- 'pouring over manuscripts' - 'flounding like a fish, limbs...'

So if Richard Parks and other writers of this calibre have some unsold stories, looks like BCS could use them, as I think I am being generous with some of these.


Beneath Ceaseless Skies 18 : Wolf's Clothing - Renee Stern
Beneath Ceaseless Skies 18 : Thistles and Barley - Kamila Zeman Miller

Sheepy not goodness.

2.5 out of 5


Too long sans Seraf.

3 out of 5




1 out of 5

http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/toc.php?s=all

The Land Of Empty Shells - Caroline M. Yoachim

Turtles, all the way down.


3 out of 5

http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=41

The Bone House - James Lecky

Many Terrible Words.


2 out of 5

http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=42

The Mansion Of Bones - Richard Parks

Fake monks, devils, the odd ghost.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=39

Havoc - A. C. Smart and Quinn Braver

“It’s ruined,” Havoc admitted. “Should I buy her another?


2.5 out of 5

http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=40

Thistles and Barley - Kamila Zeman Miller

Too long sans Seraf.


3 out of 5

http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=38

Wolf's Clothing - Renee Stern

Sheepy not goodness for us.


2.5 out of 5

http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=37

The Scent Of Their Arrival - Mercurio D. Rivera

Fissure reality opening Reviled appearance nuke defense failure, vamp defense failure. They beat us up, had us for lunch (no money required). Then they nicked our spaceship to look for supper.


3.5 out of 5

http://transmissionsfrombeyond.com/podpress_trac/feed/119/0/TFB_018_TheScentOfTheirArrival.mp3

Makers 01 - Cory Doctorow

"“What we don’t have is a product. There aren’t enough buyers for batteries or film—or any of the other stuff we make—to occupy or support all that infrastructure. These companies slept through the dot-boom and the dot-bust, trundling along as though none of it mattered. There are parts of these businesses that haven’t changed since the fifties.

“We’re not the only ones. Technology has challenged and killed businesses from every sector. Hell, IBM doesn’t make computers anymore! The very idea of a travel agent is inconceivably weird today! And the record labels, oy, the poor, crazy, suicidal, stupid record labels. Don’t get me started.

“Capitalism is eating itself. The market works, and when it works, it commodifies or obsoletes everything. That’s not to say that there’s no money out there to be had, but the money won’t come from a single, monolithic product line. The days of companies with names like ‘General Electric’ and ‘General Mills’ and ‘General Motors’ are over. The money on the table is like krill: a billion little entrepreneurial opportunities that can be discovered and exploited by smart, creative people."


4 out of 5

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=35734#preview

Bone Shop 2 - Tim Pratt

"No touching the girls without their permission," said Artie Mann strolling out of -- where, exactly? The middle of the street? But she hadn't seen him there. He wore the same untucked Hawaiian shirt, and had perhaps the same fat cigar in his mouth. "That rule applies inside and outside the club."

"Get lost," the best man said, still staring at Marla. "This doesn't have shit to do with you."

"Okay," Artie said, and sucked on his cigar, making the end glow redly. Then he flicked the ashes toward the best man --

-- and the ash somehow swelled into a fist-sized fireball that struck him in the chest, knocking him down. His friends jumped back, and the best man screamed, beating at his shirt, which was singed and smoking. The men all looked at Artie, who took another long pull on his cigar, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.... and kept exhaling, smoke thick as fog, great rolling gouts of it, and when the smoke touched them, the men dropped to their knees, gagging.

Artie walked over to Marla, put his hand on her shoulder, and said, "I'll walk you home, kid."


4 out of 5

http://marlamason.net/boneshop/chapter2.html

Return To Cockaigne - Paul Di Filippo

Tetrad universe trip.


3.5 out of 5

http://www.bestsf.net/presents/PaulDiFilippo-ReturntoCockaigne.html

Themepunks 10 The New Work meets the Old Economy - Cory Doctorow

"New Work isn't going anywhere, Andrea. We'll be here when you get back. And this story is one that needs your touch. They're micro-entrepreneurs solving post-industrial problems. It's the same story you've been covering here, but with a different angle. Take that money and buy yourself a business-class ticket to St Petersburg and spend a couple weeks on the job. You'll clean up. They could use the publicity, too -- someone to go and drill down on which clinics are legit and which ones are clip-joints. You're perfect for the gig."

"I don't know," she said. She closed her eyes. Taking big chances had gotten her this far and it would take her farther, she knew. The world was your oyster if you could stomach a little risk. "


4 out of 5

http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/11/14/themepunks_10/index2.html

Themepunks 9 Robot jungle gyms and the New Work - Cory Doctorow

"But the St Petersburg clinic had ripped, mixed and burned these different procedures to make a single, holistic treatment that had dropped Lester from 400 to 175 pounds in ten weeks.

"Is that safe?" she said.

"Everyone asks that," he said, laughing. "Yeah, it's safe if they're monitoring you and standing by with lots of diagnostic equipment. But if you're willing to take slower losses, you can go on a way less intensive regime that won't require supervision. This stuff is the next big grey-market pharma gold. They're violating all kinds of pharma patents, of course, but that's what Cuba and Canada are for, right? Inside of a year, every fat person in America is going to have a bottle of pills in his pocket, and inside of two years, there won't be any fat people."


4 out of 5

http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/11/07/themepunks_9/index2.html

Themepunks 8 Teach a man to replicate - Cory Doctorow

"The doctor pried them apart to tell them that the EEG and fMRI were both negative for any brain-damage, and that they'd managed to salvage the eye, probably. Kodacell was springing for all the care he needed, cash money, no dorking around with the fucking HMO, so the doctors had put him through every machine on the premises in a series of farcically expensive tests.

"I hope they sue the cops for the costs," the doctor said. She was Pakistani or Bangladeshi, with a faint accent, and very pretty even with the dark circles under her eyes. "I read your columns," she said, shaking Andrea's hand. "I admire the work you do," she said, shaking Lester's hand. "I was born in Delhi. We were squatters who were given a deed to our home and then evicted because we couldn't pay the taxes. We had to build again, in the rains, outside of the city, and then again when we were evicted again."


4 out of 5


http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/10/31/themepunks_8/index2.html

Themepunks 7 Remixing the shantytown - Cory Doctorow

"Somehow, it burned down. The fire department won't investigate, because this was an illegal homestead, so they don't much care about how the fire started. It took most of the homes, and most of their meager possessions. The water got the rest. The fire department wouldn't fight the fire at first, because someone at city hall said that the land's owner wouldn't let them on the property. As it turns out, the owner of that sad strip of land between an orange grove and the side of a four-lane highway is unknown -- a decades-old dispute over title has left it in legal limbo that let the squatters settle there. It's suspicious all right -- various entities had tried to evict the squatters before, but the legal hassles left them in happy limbo. What the law couldn't accomplish, the fire did.

The story has a happy ending. The boys have moved the squatters into their factory, and now they have "live-work" condos that look like something Dr. Seuss designed [photo gallery]. Like the Central Park shantytown of the last century, these look like they were "constructed by crazy poets and distributed by a whirlwind that had been drinking," as a press account of the day had it. "


4 out of 5

http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/10/24/themepunks_7/index2.html

Themepunks 6 The blogger as starmaker - Cory Doctorow

"On the roof they already had a cooler of beers going and beside it a huge plastic tub of brightly colored machine-parts.

"Jet engine," Perry said. The months had put a couple pounds on him and new wrinkles, and given him some grey at the temples, and laugh lines inside his laugh lines. Perry was always laughing at everything around them ("They fucking pay me to do this," he'd told her once, before literally collapsing to the floor, rolling with uncontrollable hysteria). He laughed again.

"Good old Kettlebelly," she said. "Must have broken his heart."

Francis held up a curved piece of cowling. "This thing wasn't going to last anyway. See the distortion here and here? This thing was designed in a virtual wind-tunnel and machine-lathed. We tried that a couple times, but the wind-tunnel sims were never detailed enough and the forms that flew well in the machine always died a premature death in the sky. Another two years and he'd have had to have it rebuilt anyway, and the Koreans who built this charge shitloads for parts."


3.5 out of 5


http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/10/17/themepunks_6/index2.html

Themepunks 5 Making the panopticon user-friendly - Cory Doctorow

"Which brings me to my idea: why not tag everything in a group household, and use the tags to figure out who left the dishes in the sink, who took the hammer out and didn't put it back, who put the empty milk-carton back in the fridge, and who's got the TV remote? It won't solve resource contention, but it will limit the social factors that contribute to it." He looked around at them. "We can make it fun, you know, make cool RFID sticker designs, mod the little gnome dolls to act as terminals for getting reports."


4 out of 5

http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/10/10/themepunks_5/index.html

Themepunks 4 The last frontier Roommate ware - Cory Doctorow

"Sure," Tjan said. "Those two can build anything. That's the point: any moderately skilled practitioner can build anything these days, for practically nothing. Back in the old days, the blacksmith just made every bit of ironmongery everyone needed, one piece at a time, at his forge. That's where we're at now. Every industry that required a factory yesterday only needs a garage today. It's a real return to fundamentals. What no one ever could do was join up all the smithies and all the smiths and make them into a single logical network with a single set of objectives. That's new and it's what I plan on making hay out of. This will be much bigger than dot-com. It will be much harder, too -- bigger crests, deeper troughs. This is something to chronicle all right: it will make dot-com look like a warmup for the main show.

"We're going to create a new class of artisans who can change careers every 10 months, inventing new jobs that hadn't been imagined a year before."


3.5 out of 5

http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2005/09/12/themepunks_1/index3.html

Themepunks 3 How the dot-com legacy led to useless toast robots - Cory Doctorow

"That made her actually laugh out loud. She fished in her pocket for her earbuds and dropped them on the table where they clattered like M&Ms. "I think I've got about 40,000 songs on those. Haven't run out of space yet, either."

He rolled the buds around in his palm like a pair of dice. "You won't -- I stopped keeping track of mine after I added my hundred-thousandth audiobook. I've got a bunch of the Library of Congress in mine as high-rez scans, too. A copy of the Internet Archive, every post ever made on Usenet... Basically, these things are infinitely capacious, given the size of the media we work with today." He rolled the buds out on the workbench and laughed. "And that's just the point! Tomorrow, we'll have some new extra fat kind of media and some new task to perform with it and some new storage medium that will make these things look like an old iPod. Before that happens, you want this to wear out and scuff up or get lost--"

4 out of 5

http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2005/09/12/themepunks_1/index2.html