The Library of Dresan

Hitler finds out he's being parodied

2010-02-03T00:51:00.000-08:00

And it's one of the parodies he's ranting about. Recursion again!

Compline: iPad Edition

2010-02-02T02:39:00.001-08:00

Well, evening has come and the day has passed, and I have tossed as many Mapreduces into the Great Cloud as the Great Cloud will take - time to go to bed. I leave you with these thoughts, overheard in the wild today:

Woman #1: And did you hear about the iPad?
Woman #2: Oh. My. God. That has to be the stupidest name.
Woman #1: I know. Don't they know what it sounds like?
Woman #2: I think their brains must have been off for the entire development process.
Woman #1: And what gets me, there was a Mad TV skit about the "iPad" like two years ago.
Woman #2: Don't they know people are making fun of it? Don't they care?
Woman #1: Maybe they think at least someone's talking about it.
Woman #2: I dunno. It seems so ... useless. Who's going to carry that?
Woman #1: It's like a giant iPod you can't talk on.
Woman #2: Might be good for some people. At $499, maybe for my nephew?

For the record, I know a lot of people interested in an iPad, I'm very impressed by the drawing features ... and I'm not going to get one as I do not buy closed platforms. (My Mac has a UNIX command line, thank you very much, and no dang App Store is needed to put software on this thing).

I'll be buying a Spring Design Alex to help my favorite bookstore Borders and my favorite phone OS Android ... assuming that Steve Jobs doesn't crush his enemies, drive their tablets before them, and hear the lamentations of their programmers.

Good night.
-the Centaur

Recursion, XKCD Style

2010-02-02T01:40:00.001-08:00

Ok, this is a good runner up for the best definition of recursion. Douglas Hofstadter would be proud.

I think I'm going to start collecting these.

-the Centaur

Comic from xkcd, used according to their "terms of service":

You are welcome to reprint occasional comics pretty much anywhere (presentations, papers, blogs with ads, etc). If you're not outright merchandizing, you're probably fine. Just be sure to attribute the comic to xkcd.com.

So attributed.

Hm. Does the xkcd terms of service apply to the xkcd terms of service? Is that a bit like a post about recursion referring to itself? How meta.

Dakota Frost Reloaded

2010-02-01T22:52:00.000-08:00

Dakota Frost in the ink, if not the flesh. Changes include a new face, facial tattoos fixed, left hand enlarged.

-the Centaur
P.S. And have I mentioned I really love my little "imagelink" program that automatically formats HTML inserts for images just the way I like them? Latest tweak is to copy it to ~/bin/ so I can run it anywhere I'm working at the command prompt.

This ... this is WORKING ...

2010-02-01T21:43:00.000-08:00

Oh ... oh my goodness. I'm working on a revised version of Dakota's face for the frontispiece of Frost Moon and ... and ... "working" is not just a metaphor. This is actual work. I'm sketching, and soon after that I will be writing again on Liquid Fire or Jeremiah Willstone. As part of real work, and not just some crazy hobby anymore.

Too cool.

-the Centaur
Pictured: the revised face of Dakota Frost for the frontispiece, pre-cleanup and compositing into the original drawing.

Sandi @ Kaleid (with Mark Damrel)

2010-02-01T02:01:00.000-08:00

My wife Sandi Billingsley has a new art show at Kaleid Gallery in downtown San Jose. She and Mark Damrel are the featured artists at Kaleid this month and their reception is this Friday at the First Friday Art Walk in San Jose, when many galleries get together to show and promote their latest works - see this announcement for what's showing this Friday.

Sandi's art in this show is exploring themes of recycling through transformation:

Transfiguration is a collection of three dimensional art is an expression of Sandi Billingsley's faith that "we humans can live in luxury while being environmentally responsible." Transfiguration is essentially the art of changing the properties of an object. In this case it refers to the changing of garbage into art. This series is made entirely from rescued materials. The core is made of Styrofoam collected from shipping packages, friends and dumpsters. Sandi then applies a combination of old paint clothes, junk mail, phone books --- basically anything with natural fibers headed for the trash. Dipping these flexible materials in non-toxic glue gives them strength to hold interesting shapes. Finally, the piece is finished with "Aqua Brand" textures and paint which are non-toxic. The result is an environmentally friendly piece of art.

Mark's art in this show is exploring themes of fatherhood in adversity:

Relative Matter is a series of paintings by Mark Damrel inspired by the hardships he encountered on his journey into fatherhood. "Years went by with little to no hope. I started to get used to the fact that I would never have a family, and then it happened." In groupings of mixed media paintings on wood and paper, he explores the themes of childhood memories, despair, hope and joy.

Please drop in, check their art out, enjoy it, and buy something!

-the Centaur

The Process: Fiction Novels

2010-01-30T23:19:00.000-08:00

Recently I commented on Facebook that I was working with editors on Frost Moon and a friend asked:

"I've always been curious about this process. Generally speaking, what kind of changes are they asking you to make?"

Well, my writing process involves many, many drafts before it ever hits the editors, so the changes are generally minor. I write large chunks of everything I write in a writing group, reading sections aloud and making corrections before the first draft is ever finished. I then print out the first draft, read it myself, and make corrections to produce a second draft, which I give to trusted "beta readers". Some of my beta readers give me very detailed comments, almost copyediting, so the "gamma release" that I send to the publishers is pretty polished.

However, the editors have an eye for the market and audience, and will generally ask to tighten things up. At Bell Bridge Books, you work with an editor who first tackles theme, plot and logic - in Frost Moon, she asked me to reduce the emphasis on the romance in a few places, to improve the clarity of the action, and to clear out some of the deadwood; in response to these changes I send them a revised draft. For Frost Moon, the same editor then did a closer edit with some suggested changes right in the text using Microsoft Word's track changes feature, focusing on on general style to sand off the rough edges - intensifying some scenes while muting others to make them more realistic. I tweaked these changes, she approved them, and then I sent them a cleaned up copy with all formatting and Track Changes removed - a "final author's draft".

From then on the editing of the document is in the hands of the publisher, so they know what changes are happening to the text. This goes through several stages. First was a "line edit" where a new editor looks at the sentence structure for clarity. That's what we're doing now through an email exchange and I have to say it's been a pleasant and professional process. Next up is a "copy edit" where a third editor specifically looks for errors that the I and the other two editors have missed. In parallel with the whole editing process they're also putting together the bio, acknowledgments, cover art, cover text, frontispiece, etc., usually generating the materials themselves but occasionally asking me for input or text or images (like the author's headshot above). Finally there will be "galley proofs" where we all look at a quasi-finished document for anything that looks wrong.

And once we're all happy with that ... then that will be it.

-the Centaur

Pictured: me, in Atlanta Bread Company, as taken by Bolot Kerimbaev at the time of this post. This will most likely be my author's picture on the back of Frost Moon

I'm very depressed...

2010-01-30T11:46:00.000-08:00

... I researched the Blogger issue. Three, maybe four of the blogs I manage will work well with the new system.

This one, the one I post on the most, won't. And there's no good workaround yet, though I am looking into it.

*sigh*.

I'm pretty sure I *can* do this - keep the Library of Dresan site completely static HTML pages so that there's no software on it to hack - but the existing FTP blogging clients seem pretty niche. And using WordPress or MovableType in this mode will, as I understand it, require that I set up WordPress on my laptop or desktop and write some software to rewrite the files and FTP them up to the site. You know, the feature Blogger handled automatically for me.

*sigh*

-the Centaur

Blogger FAIL

2010-01-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

Blogger is discontinuing FTP:

In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users. For that reason, we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible.

Looks like it's time to find a new blogging provider.

-the Centaur

Sooooo gooood....

2010-01-25T20:11:00.001-08:00

Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City. Get the "naked lobster roll", that's all I'm saying. Full review later.

Lovecraft on Youtube

2010-01-24T01:33:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's apparently a hoax. But a good hoax:

There, in what appeared to be a 30s-era newsreel, was H.P. Lovecraft, uncomfortable and uneasy, gaunt and pasty, speaking in an educated 19th century New England accent, displaying socially awkward mannerisms, and sitting at a desk talking about his work. I'd read a lot about Lovecraft, and had never heard any mention of him ever having been filmed, but the illusion was so well done, that it had me thinking, just for a second, that somebody had dug up some long-lost footage of Lovecraft. It is part of this attention to detail, for example the use of material drawn directly from Lovecraft's voluminous body of letters in the newsreel monologue that really places this portion of the film a cut above.

It sure sounded like him. That's because the words were by him.

-the Centaur

How quickly can lava burn through your shoe?

2010-01-24T00:37:00.000-08:00

Not fast enough:

There was a case a few years ago where a geologist accidentally stepped into some lava. The nylon laces of his boots burned off almost instantly but the thick leather did not, and he had only minor burns on his foot. After that we all made sure that we only wear real leather boots out on active flows, not the lightweight part-nylon kind.

Revenge of the Sith, it ain't. Still, I'm not swimming in it.

-the Centaur

UPDATE: Reading around a bit on the site, it turns out if you aren't wearing one of those metal bunny suits you can catch on fire from radiant heat, so Revenge of the Sith, it is.

That's Sir Captain Picard To You, Ensign

2010-01-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

Patrick Stewart was knighted on Dec 30th 2009. So it's Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE, from now on. The man is pushing 70 and he's still a total stud: make up your own "tea, earl grey, hot" jokes. Geez. I need to eat right and go the gym.

-the Centaur

Image of Patrick Stewart by UrbanTog, used under a Creative Commons license.

Hey, my birthday is coming up too...

2010-01-23T22:23:00.001-08:00

... you might think about this:

Space shuttle for sale, fully loaded, air conditioning, one careful owner. It's the ultimate bargain. NASA has cut the price of a space shuttle to $28.8 million. The vehicles will go on sale after they finish constructing the International Space Station, scheduled to be later this year.

I take no credit for the "my birthday is coming up" joke, which I stole shamelessly from my coworker Othar Hansson.
-the Centaur

I got teary-eyed

2010-01-23T22:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's an ad. So sue me.
-the Centaur

The RTS That Would Not Die

2010-01-23T17:17:00.000-08:00

Over the Christmas holidays I and my friends like to play some kind of cooperative computer game. The realtime strategy game (RTS) Starcraft is our current favorite, though Left For Dead 2 is nipping fast at its heels. This Christmas, I went into a Best Buy, and idly checked to see if it was still for sale. As I expected, it was. But still, this shocked me:

In case you don't get the point, it's an eleven year old computer game - and it still sells for19.99. Even, as of this blogging, on Amazon. That's eleven million copies - a million a year - at $20 bucks or more a pop, for a total of two hundred and twenty million dollars. I'm sure that copies sold for more or less, but counting all the related media, you're talking a quarter billion dollar franchise.

If you've ever played it seriously, you know why.

-the Centaur

Rise, Lolho the Squamous!

2010-01-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

If the world didn't have enough evil already, dedicated computer engineers have figured out how to put it on tap. Behold the terror that is the Lovecraftian Name Generator! Go on, click on it, see what I'm talking about.

Back? Ok, I admit, "Lolho" and "Ual'ke" aren't the scariest Lovecraftian names. But it's programmatic. You can create more than one. The current limit is 25, but by the unholy names of Anai, Bbhaaat, Bosaush, Cazagorarl, Ch-yos, H'eligthorteg, Han-dha, Ibhagugu, K'zaru, Kephoital, Mazazho, Mephangos, Mmililog,Nacharsar, Nali-yatl, Naquggo, Niquggolo, Phomasothugn, Ralellosaq, Rhub-harny, Rlakibha, Uga-urshu, Uggugakithu, Ygg-cyo and Yishotha, not even in Lovecraft's coldest visions of an indifferent universe could he have imagined you'd be able to create an entire pantheon with the click of a button!

Even worse, that limit is no doubt arbitrary, designed to protect their computing infrastructure if not the fabric of space-time. A truly evil black-hatter could use a sequence of queries to generate matched sets of Cthulukin at the upper limit of the QPS (queries-per-second) their servers could handle! Hopefully they have some kind of DoS (Denial of Shoggoths) throttling on their servers to protect humanity. If not-

the mind reels.
-the Centaur

The Future Will Work

2010-01-22T19:37:00.001-08:00

I've seen and heard a lot of craziness lately. It's making smart people say very stupid things. Look, I know these are trying times. Depression. Layoffs. Earthquakes. A Republican elected to Ted Kennedy's seat (just kidding). A Kenyan in the White House (even more kidding). Global warming hysteria / denialism. Cats and dogs living together: mass hysteria.

But be not afraid.

Humanity and the Earth have been through this before. Depression? We survived the Dark Ages. Layoffs? We've survived the collapse of industries and even civilizations. Earthquakes? We survived Pompeii and Krakatoa. Political shifts? God save the queen, we don't need her any more, and we even survived Communism. And global warming? Once the entire ocean became an algal bloom and almost everything alive died - and we're still here.

We can fix the atmosphere by taking measures that won't ruin the economy in case global warming is wrong and will start us on the path in case global warming is right. We can live with political changes and shifts and learn from the battle. And we can build a better world by recognizing that there are things wrong here and now that need fixing, and fixing them - while remembering human nature will always be with us.

Stop scaring yourself with imagined fears born from the latest crisis. Take a deep breath and look back through time. Look at all we've been through. Look at all the disasters that, too, have passed. And look at all we've accomplished. Sometimes it took great vision and immense amounts of hard work, but, praise God, he really does help those who help themselves.

The future will work. You can count on it. If you're willing to make it happen.

-the Centaur

The Sexiest ... Brain on Earth?

2010-01-22T02:48:00.000-08:00

From Coilhouse's shoutout Stephen Hawking - "It matters if you just don't give up":

Hey, guess who else was born on Jan 8th? World-renowned theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking. He turns 68 today. Here’s a small assortment of reverent (and not so reverent) clips and quotes concerning a brilliant and resilient man whose mind is arguably Teh Sexiest human organ on this entire planet:

One of my favorite of the clips in that article follows:

"I hope I would not use the [robotic boxing glove the Simpsons gave me]. But sometimes I'm sorely tempted."

Filed under "Thank You, Carl Sagan" because, well, he's practically the next best thing to Carl we have now.
-the Centaur

The Real Fortress of Solitude

2010-01-20T03:28:00.000-08:00

More than a sixth of a mile underground. 122 degrees Fahrenheit. 100% humidity. An environment that could kill a man in ten minutes - filled with 35 foot long selenite spears straight out of the Fortress of Solitude.

They're the Naica caves, one of the most beautiful environments on Earth:

No images, they're copyright, so click through to the links.

ARE you feeling lucky today?

2010-01-20T02:46:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine really likes the Chinese Tank Man picture: a lone figure carrying a grocery bag standing up to a whole line of tanks. To him it symbolizes the challenge of the individual against authority, even though he was ultimately disappeared ... though not necessarily killed.

Today a colleague at the Search Engine that Starts With a G forwarded me a new riff on that image:

"I'm feeling watched" indeed. Apparently this cartoonist is not alone in using that image to talk about issues with Google and China, though the sense today in the picture above is far different from the sense in 2005 when it was first riffed on:

So ... are you feeling lucky today that you are allowed to read this?
-the Centaur

Spam comments: the new black.

2010-01-18T22:50:00.001-08:00

Hey black hat guys, comments are STILL MODERATED. This is doing you no good. Cut it out.

Lagging Indicators Can Still Suck

2010-01-16T22:49:00.000-08:00

I know unemployment is a lagging indicator of the health of the economy, but it is a measurement of real human pain. I know half a dozen friends who have lost work or hours because of the recession; here's how hard this is hitting the rest of the country:

Ouch. More data here. My man John Garrison of Carolina Home Automation hooked me up with this data.
-the Centaur

Don't let your cats watch you play Portal...

2010-01-16T22:40:00.000-08:00

...it can have ... UNFORTUNATE ... consequences:

No cats were harmed in the linking of this post ... but, well, I can't say that for the photography.

-the Centaur

P.S. The cat is not mine :-), but I do like playing Portal. For those that don't get the joke, Portal is a game in which players have a "hole gun" that can create a magic portal on a wall that the player can jump through, unless the player is a cat. My buddy Gordon hooked me up with this meme.

Frost Moon in the Publisher's Marketplace...

2010-01-14T03:11:00.000-08:00

... thanks to Bell Bridge Books:

Last but not least, our new fantasy series, SKIN DANCER, by debut author Anthony Francis, is careening through production and drawing absolute, total RAVES from early insider reads. Filled with adventure, humor, edgy characters and an incredible alternate reality, this story of a "magical tattoo artist" in modern Atlanta is going to rock the fantasy readers' world. Book one, FROST MOON, introduces the coolest heroine evah: tattoo specialist and "skin dancer" Dakota Frost, a tall, gorgeous, bi-sexual twenty-something whose tats are admiringly known as "Frost bites."

Ahem. I'm very flattered. I hope Frost Moon lives up to that description!
-the Centaur

Crossposted to the Dakota Frost blog...