TOR sells unencrypted fiction

Via Emerald City, a link to Tor's release about their
new program of selling e-books, oddly enough from competitors BAEN, who pioneered the unencrypted format. Among the authors featured starting in March are Vernor Vinge, Charles Stross, Mercedes Lackey, and Sara Douglass.

Continuing the musical note

I'm recharging my batteries when it comes to books and literary matters, and will post more appropriate stuff soon. In the meantime, an amusing review of an album released today, Trespassers William's Having. The review is more about reaching for flowery prose than the album itself. The band, named after Piglet's grandfather in A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh (the scene explaining this is amusing, as the sign to which Piglet alludes is a broken one, which really should read Trespassers Will be Prosecuted), plays quiet, lush music, complemented by vocalist Anna-Lynne Williams soft voice. Preview before you buy, as what I might like now, you might not like ever.

Em, url...

While I didn't jump to a Microsoft site as someone stated happened to them (perhaps because I use a Mac?) when drawing this issue to my attention, I did have a bad link to Eric Raymond's blog on this site. This has been updated to the correct location. People jumping over there will see HRC doing an excellent Hannibal Lecter impersonation, as well as more serious stuff.

James Hogan moves to Ireland full time

Just spotted this brief note from Wendy McElroy talking about a conversation she had with sf writer James Hogan. Turns out he no longer splits his time between the US and Ireland, but due to the Iraq war has left the US permanently for Ireland. More details at Wendy's site.

Music videos

Sweet heavens! Completely unrelated to the mission of this blog, but wow, some cool music videos over at Silent Sessions by (among others) two of my favorite current bands, Explosions in the Sky and The Album Leaf. Very different types of music, yet both are mainly instrumental. Sadly, I am so far removed from the music scene that I missed both Austin performances, only 90 minutes away. Might be of interest to a future Musical Maundering from Sunni...

U. S. Cartoonists coment on the Danish situation

A nice collection, more a comment on the aftermath than the causes themselves. Via Instapundit.

"Tone down and cover up"

Female Muslim pop singer,Deeyah faces death threats for daring to speak her mind, and also stripping down from burka to bikini in a recent music video, "What Will It Be". This video also shows several men and women with tape over their mouths, a pointed criticism at some repressive trends in many Islamic countries. Forced to leave Norway, where she was born to immigrant parents and started her musical career, she moved to London. There she now experiences the same death threats that forced her to leave the so-called liberal Norway. This FreeMuse site has some interesting articles on women and music censorship, in particular this one, which also can be downloaded as a PDF. View Deeyah's video at this page. Not my kind of music, but still a great statement for the right to free speech and free expression.

One billion statements of apathy

My long delayed (and brief) response to this story about the apathy of the "download generation" falls on the eve of Apple Computer's announcement that it's sold one billion songs through iTunes. I'm sure they count album tracks individually if sold as such, but I think that's one statement against the study itself. I personally feel the opposite. The ability to download music, to locate tunes not available in record stores, or available at excessive prices at these stores or online at Amazon, has opened up my appreciation for modern music once more.

The survey states (among other things) that "easily accessed tunes mean many music lovers are no longer excited at discovering and playing unfamiliar work." Surely the surveyors have no idea what it means to seek out information. Via iTunes streaming at work, or simply browsing artists and songs and sampling these online, I have discovered a host of artists and records that I never would have found in a regular chain music store. When I attended college in the early 1990s, there was an independent music store near campus. A great place to find unusual stuff. It faded out a few years ago. My tastes in modern music (setting aside classical and jazz for now) veer slightly off the beaten track. I stopped listening to radio years ago, because they played the same few songs every day, and I rarely liked those songs then, let alone now. If not for the download option, I never would have heard of Trespassers William, Devics, Sigur Ros, The Album Leaf, to name a few. I now thrill to discover new music, whereas a few years ago I gave up altogether and focused only on adding to my classical and jazz libraries. With iTunes I can collect the entire Devics discography for under $50 (currently my latest 'new find' band), whereas one early record costs nearly the same amount from Amazon, and cannot be found in chain record stores. CD prices also prevented me from buying much music. A current copy of Harold Budd's minimalist piano recordings costs twice the iTunes price as CD.

No recorded state is safe forever. Digital copies can get lost, but CDs only have a few years of life anyway. Contrary to the people studied, music remains "life-changing and special" to me, and that's due to the birth of download options. One billions downloads later, apathy as a definition now needs to be re-written. The hell with that study.

One billion statements of apathy

My long delayed (and brief) response to this story about the apathy of the "download generation" falls on the eve of
No recorded state is safe forever. Digital copies can get lost, but CDs only have a few years of life anyway. Contrary to the people studied, music remains "life-changing and special" to me, and that's due to the birth of download options. One billions downloads later, apathy as a definition now needs to be re-written. The hell with that study.

My peeps

Can't say I was too surprised...


Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?
created with QuizFarm.com

Political Quiz

Not quite your World's Smallest Political Quiz, but rather a satirical quiz to see whether you fall into conservative, liberal, libertarian, or communist camps, with a twist. Don Hagen's Satirical Political Beliefs Assessment Test pokes fun at all four groups. I found myself mostly in the "Antigovernment Libertine" group, though I wasn't sure about #2, and disagreed with the premises for question #10, and too many questions dealt about voting (for this avowed non-voter, at least). Aside from those issues, reading most the answers were a blast, though at times the humor wandered away in the libertarian answers, replaced by what seemed like normal libertarian party platform statements. Total number of questions approaches 200, so some patience is required if you want to read them all.

LibriVox

Listened to NPR's The World while driving home tonight and heard an interesting report about LibriVox . The site is a joint effort of volunteers around the world who record chapters of the books in the public domain. The audio files then are published, and can be downloaded or subscribed to as podcasts via iTunes. I plan on making full use of this site, and may even volunteer to read some chapters. I can't say I've listened to that many audio books, but my listening habits while driving to work change all the time, and I might give this a shot.