@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

SpeakerToManagers

@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop

Retired software engineer. Progressive lefty from trade-union socialist communist family. Neurodivergent (ADD, OCD) & physically disabled. Interested in a lot of things including photography, computing, art, SFF, experimental video, astrobiology, complex adaptive systems, poetry, visual mathematics โ€ฆ
#Fractals, #ReactionDiffusion, #GenerativeArt, #CellularAutomata.
Allergic to libertarianism, AI hype, trans-humanism, crypto currency & web3.

๐‹๐ข๐›๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐›๐ž๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ.

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lilithsaintcrow, to random
@lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com avatar

I donโ€™t know how that squirrel got on the neighborโ€™s roof but I hope it has some kind of escape plan.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@mcpinson @lilithsaintcrow
Iโ€™m ambivalent about squirrels. I like watching them climb in the trees in my yard, and walk around the deck, but โ€ฆ
Once I was outside of work eating lunch with colleagues. A crow landed nearby to scavenge a piece of a sandwich, and sounded off to declare ownership. Then 4 squirrels marched in line abreast towards the crow clearly intending to take the food. Crows are usually pretty aggressive, but this one crunched the numbers and retreated, leaving the food.

sbdivya, to random
@sbdivya@wandering.shop avatar

The release of LOKA is just 3 months away! If youโ€™d like to get an early sneak peek, thereโ€™s a giveaway on Goodreads from today through May 31.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/389579

โ€œLOKAโ€™s fascinating speculations about the future of technology, the evolution of consciousness, and the ethics of coexistence blend perfectly with its smart and empathetic coming of age โ€œaround-the-world-in-80-daysโ€ journey.โ€

  • Kate Elliott, author of UNCONQUERABLE SUN

Also, yes, I made an arc of ARCs for the image. :D

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@sbdivya
Also preordered.

lilithsaintcrow, to random
@lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com avatar

Oh hey, CLOUD WATCHER (fourth book in THE WATCHERS series) is $.99USD in ebook from now until the end of May. https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Watcher-Watchers-Book-4-ebook/dp/B004P8JKHC

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@lilithsaintcrow
Good deal on the whole series too. Gonna start as soon as Iโ€™m done reading my current book.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

Hey Portland friends! I'll be Powells Books on 6/4 at 7pm, talking about my new book "Stories Are Weapons" with the one and only Dave Miller, host of OPR's "Think Out Loud." Hope to see you there!!

https://www.powells.com/book/stories-are-weapons-9780393881516/1-3

This is a flyer with red and cream lettering on a blue background. It says "Stories Are Weapons," and then has a quote from Astra Taylor, author of "The Age of Insecurity." The quote reads: "Illuminating and energizing ... shows how we can come together to tell different stories -- stories to shed light in the darkness, make sense amid chaos, and forge hope and community instead of fear and isolation."

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@annaleen
Oh well, donโ€™t think Iโ€™ll be mobile by then, so Iโ€™ll have to miss it. Have a nice time in Portland!

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar
  • Looks out window at: three bus stops, 2-5 pubs, a row of restaurants, and a busy shopping street at ground level *

Reader, those things were all there before I moved here. They're a big chunk of the reason WHY I moved here. 17 years ago โ€ฆ

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
We moved to our current house 20 years ago in part because we are across the street from a bus stop, a 5 minute walk from a neighborhood center with a public library, a market, a bakery/coffee shop, 5 restaurants, a brewpub, assorted other shops, and 3 more bus lines. On top of which we have lots of trees around us.

clacksee, to KindActions
@clacksee@wandering.shop avatar

A different kind of requestโ€ฆ

Are you in, the , , or the ? I need some assistance from one reader in each of those countries, please.

What do you get out of this? A free book! An actual physical book! You can take your pick between the Starship Teapot books or the Vigilauntie Justice books.

What do I get out of this? To test my new website and fulfilment system!

Comment below or DM me and I'll send you instructions and a link.

@bookstodon

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@clacksee @bookstodon
Sure, Iโ€™d like to read a starship teapot book. Sounds trippy, especially if thereโ€™s a dormouse inside.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Coming next year: Trump Supreme Court brings back Bills of Attainder (POTUS promptly levels charges of treason against every billionaire whose fortune he feels like pwning).
https://noc.social/@freezenet/112334038009854117

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
And he wonโ€™t share that with other billionaires (heโ€™s a greedy git) so thereโ€™s no point in kissing his ass, it wonโ€™t help you.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

REMINDER FOR AMERICANS:

The US Constitution and common law are rooted in pre-18th century English legal jurisprudence and traditions.

And the "presidential immunity" bullshit is an attempt to rewind the clock to before 1649, when Parliament got fed up with the King's bullshit, put him on trial, and beheaded him.

Y'all: Trump wants to revive the divine right of kings.

You know who pulled the German equivalent of that stunt? Hitler.

(I will summarily block anyone who raises Godwin's law.)

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
As Iโ€™m sure you are aware, though others may not, Godwin has turned off the Law for the duration, though nobody knows how long that will be.

SFRuminations, to scifi
@SFRuminations@wandering.shop avatar

Fletcher Pratt (1897-1956) was born on this day. Bibliography: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?532

L, Hannes Bok, 1953; R, Richard Powers, 1953
#scifi #sciencefiction #books #history

image/jpeg

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@SFRuminations
I love Hannes Bokโ€™ illustrations. His colors, his textures, his compositions, I could go on all day.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Today's writing: what if Doctor Phibes murdered and impersonated Max, owner of the KitKatKlub, in order to run an elaborate sting against Doctor Mabuseโ€”film recap, starring Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Charlotte Rampling, and Peter Cushing.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
I like it! Definitely the Price/Rigg interactions should Have similar chemistry their work In Theatre of Blood, one of my favorite Vincent Price movies.

RL_Dane, to random
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

(Zilog's parent company) needs to release all the specs, schematics, and documentation with an open license. (If they aren't already)

๐Ÿ˜ข

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@RL_Dane @Flux
Making the tapeout and the fab masks opensource would be nice. It would give designers a head start on replicating the chip, possibly as multiple cores on an SOC. That would be fun to play with.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Itโ€™s a SpaceX World (Everyone Else is Playing Catch-up)

SpaceX was not just dominant in 2023, it humiliated its competitors. We see this in launch services, in spacecraft operations (and, logically, manufacturing), and the tremendous mass its rockets lifted to orbit:

https://www.astralytical.com/insights/its-a-spacex-world-everyone-else-is-playing-catch-up

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
Thatโ€™s assuming profit from Falcon launches and the Big Dummy (when itโ€™s reusable) can overcome Muskโ€™s need to throw money at Mars.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
I donโ€™t have much good to say about StarLink, what with Muskโ€™s playing Cold War politics with it, and its deleterious effect on astronomical light pollution, but youโ€™re probably right that the military will love dumping a thousand birds into orbit at once.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Shit. (Unsurprising due to age, but still saddening.)
https://sigmoid.social/@cigitalgem/112298644295903849

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross @cigitalgem
Damn. Reading Dennett was what got me interested in Philosophy again, after Platoโ€™s bullshit, Kantโ€™s opacity, and everybody trying to ignore Leibniz.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

A science fiction obsession led me to psychological war. I spent the past three years researching and writing a book about the history of psychological warfare in the United States, and it's coming out in early June. Not all the gems I discovered could be crammed into the final manuscript, and I've been dying to share what I found in the archives ... check out my latest newsletter to see some amazing treasures from a history that's rarely told.
https://buttondown.email/thehypothesis/archive/how-a-science-fiction-obsession-led-me-to/

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross @annaleen
Crowley bragged of eating the shit of Mexican prostitutes. I suspect that was bullshit.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@annaleen

  1. Preordered.
  2. My 1st Cordwainer Smith was โ€œMark Elfโ€; the manshonyagger stuck with me a long time. What haunts me is โ€œNo, No, Not Rogov!โ€ I was watching Olympic Figure Skating then, and I empathized with the performer.
  3. Interesting the writers who were were in Intelligence during WWII: Linebarger, John D. McDonald, Eric Russell, Alice Sheldon. And shoutout to Christopher Lee, an assassin in WWII, who said: โ€œNo, thatโ€™s not the sound a knife makes cutting the throat of a guard.โ€
cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

It's almost like the hereditary aristocracy never went away, they just rebranded and retitled themselves as "billionaires" and "nepo babies".
https://mastodon.scot/@LordWoolamaloo/112215348092487717

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross @LordWoolamaloo
I had a high school friend who was a white sheep of the Biddle family, late 17th C landholders in Pennsylvania who are still sitting on a pile of money and real estate. Joel wanted to be a composer, and have nothing to do with the family rentier business, and he succeeded.

SpeakerToManagers, to photography
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

This artist's wild optical illusion photos just brightened up my day - Creative Bloq

#photography #illusion https://apple.news/A_2djyKR_SiyTdt2uSsJsyQ

xgranade, to random
@xgranade@wandering.shop avatar

Just got an ad for "Microsoft Copilot Pro," and I cannot state the number of distinct reasons why my only response is "hell fucking no."

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@xgranade
Iโ€™ve played with it a little. Itโ€™s โ€ฆ mostly less than useful. Not something Iโ€™d use.

xgranade, to random
@xgranade@wandering.shop avatar

Each spinoff, sequel, movie, and remake of #ff7 moves it further from nixiepunk and more into cyberpunk. That's not even a bad thing, just odd and something that leaves us with a few less nixiepunk things in the world. Ah, well.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@xgranade
Indeed! I have a stash of Nixie tubes downstairs somewhere. They were still in use in the 70s; I had an HP millisecond timer in my lab that used them. Didnโ€™t have a mercury delay line, but I used to make strain gages out of plastic tubing and mercury,

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Why, oh why, did a fancy rat called Oscar just insert himself into the latest Laundry novel? I mean, WHY?

Go home, Muse, you're drunk on the job (again).

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
Is your Muse Terpsichore? โ€˜Cause she sure does make you dance around when she inspires you.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Inside the SpaceX Starship's PEZ Dispenser (for Starlink satellite payloads): https://ringwatchers.com/article/ship-pez-dispenser

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
Original design:
https://www.antiquesnavigator.com/archive/2020/09/17/154081259303.jpg

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Pssst: the PR people pushing the Whisp ringโ€”a pile of AI-infested garbageโ€”are jerks.

(Pass it on.)

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross
โ€œNo wake wordโ€? Hahahaha, Google Alexa calling the police by mistake, for instance. Your ring could SWAT you.

xgranade, to random
@xgranade@wandering.shop avatar

Oooof, the new John Oliver episode about Boeing is pretty brutal.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@xgranade
It ought to be. And thereโ€™s a large slice of that should go to the FAA. It was predictable (and was predicted) that the major change in corporate culture after the merger with Northrop McDonnell-Douglas would cause serious quality problems.

xgranade, to random
@xgranade@wandering.shop avatar

If I could magically correct one misconception about quantum physics, it would be that Schrodinger's cat isn't intended as an explanation of quantum mechanics, but was him mocking it. Oh, and that he was a prolific child abuser.

SpeakerToManagers,
@SpeakerToManagers@wandering.shop avatar

@xgranade
The cat also supports the notion that because there can be no explanatory theory of quantum physics we should all just โ€œshut up and computeโ€. Of course this has left open the discourse about how quantum states โ€œcollapseโ€ to observables to every quack theory about how everything is connected (as Mike Ford pointed out, thatโ€™s why there are so many short circuits).

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