The Vista Fiasco

As a guy who gave up "pay" software many years ago in lieu of Open Source, I find this Vista mess amusing. For others who rely on Microsoft, the whole mess is just pathetic. The New York Times offers a very good overview of the fiasco.

Quote:
March 9, 2008
Digital Domain
They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know.
By RANDALL STROSS

ONE year after the birth of Windows Vista, why do so many Windows XP users still decline to “upgrade”?

Microsoft says high prices have been the deterrent. Last month, the company trimmed prices on retail packages of Vista, trying to entice consumers to overcome their reluctance. In the United States, an XP user can now buy Vista Home Premium for $129.95, instead of $159.95.

An alternative theory, however, is that Vista’s reputation precedes it. XP users have heard too many chilling stories from relatives and friends about Vista upgrades that have gone badly. The graphics chip that couldn’t handle Vista’s whizzy special effects. The long delays as it loaded. The applications that ran at slower speeds. The printers, scanners and other hardware peripherals, which work dandily with XP, that lacked the necessary software, the drivers, to work well with Vista.

Can someone tell me again, why is switching XP for Vista an “upgrade”?

Continued…

The New World Entropy

The New World Entropy – a conference on Michael Moorcock
Liverpool John Moores University, UK – 5-6 July 2008

This conference hopes to explore the rich and varied writings of Michael Moorcock’s fictions whilst providing a rounded picture of the writerly environments Moorcock has developed in by contextualising his work alongside his many other social involvements and his interactions with other writers. As such this conference is focused upon developing a critical appreciation of Moorcock’s best known and most loved writings in combination with an appreciation of his historical development as a writer. To this end we welcome papers which tread across the boundaries of genre which Moorcock himself trod and also welcome papers which relate Moorcock to the circles of friends and associates whose writings and work connect to his own. We hope that this will provide a lively and multiplicitous series of discursive responses to Moorcock’s remarkable body of works.

Abstracts of 200-300 words should be submitted electronically by 31st March 2008 (new extended deadline) to (mark.williams _at_uea.ac.uk) and (Martyn.Colebrook_at_ english.hull.ac.uk). All correspondence should have the phrase MOORCOCK CONFERENCE in the subject line.

Topics for discussion include but are not limited to: The Multiverse, Pluralism, Metropolitan life, Moorcock’s relationship with Modernism, Music and fiction, Jerry Cornelius, Order and Entropy, Moorcock’s support of lesser known writers, The Holy Grail, Elric of Melniboné, Anti-Racism, Moorcock as Victorian Novelist, New Worlds, Feminism, Moorcock the editor, Anarchism, Myth-making, "Fiction" and "Autobiography", Psychogeography/ The London of the Mind, Moorcock’s trans-Atlantic, Political Activism, The avant-garde, Early Moorcock versus Late Moorcock, Friends on the Fringes, The ‘Between the Wars’ Quartet, Counter culture/ Counter literatures, Liberty and Freedom of Speech, Moorcock as Mentor, Moorcock as Student, The Reforgotten Writers, Character and Caricature in Moorcock.

Non-presenting delegates will be welcome.

Conference Fees: £20: Student/Unwaged; £30: Delegate.

WOW! What a potentially fascinating conference. I cannot think of a more deserving writer. Wonder how I can scrape together the pennies for the flight?
(Thanks to Chris Nakashima-Brown.)

Quote:
…….the Multiverse isn’t a globe. Time isn’t cyclic. There is no real linearity. The Multiverse is a tree root and branch, a living organism. A creature. Like me. Forever adapting and changing. Like us, made up of spheres, but it’s not itself spherical. We’ve evolved beyond the merely spheroid, I hope……
— Jack Karaquazian, Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse ("Moonbeams and Roses") #10, p.2, Aug. 98

Ouija the Movie?

Universal Pictures has announced a five year development deal with Hasbro to produce movies based on Hasbro properties such as Monopoly, Candy Land, Clue, Ouija, Battleship, Magic, the Gathering, and Stretch Armstrong.

There was already a subpar Clue movie back in 1985. And of course we all remember the wretched Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and the abysmal movie. I don’t hold out much hope for a Magic, The Gathering or any these other properties. Imagine a Ouija movie… *shiver*

Addendum: New York Times article on the subject.

STREAMING VIDEO GOES RETRO ON NBC UNIVERSAL

While I applaud NBC Universal’s decision to offer several of their older shows for free online, I just wish more of the shows were any good.

A full list of streaming vintage series follows:

NBC.com
A-Team
Emergency
Night Gallery
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Miami Vice
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Buck Rogers

SCIFI.com
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Buck Rogers
Tek War
Night Gallery

ChillerTV.com
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Swamp Thing
Tremors
Crow
Night Gallery

SleuthChannel.com
Kojak
Miami Vice
Simon & Simon
A-Team
Night Gallery

Outside of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Kojak, and Night Gallery, these shows, most of which were awful upon first viewing, are better served collecting dust rather than wasting bandwidth. Course now with Tek War freely available, millions of Boston Legal fans can experience the magic of mid-90s William Shatner.

No date was given for when the shows will become available.

This is a little creepy

While doing some research on my grandfather, I ran across his MySpace page! The fact that Irving Klaw has been dead for some 41 years would seem to make this impossible.

Quote:
[Irving Klaw’s] death remains the stuff of family legend.

Labor Day weekend, 1966: A 55-year-old Irving Klaw awoke with pain on the right side of his abdomen. A family friend, a doctor, diagnosed him with appendicitis. Since the ailment was in its early stages, the physician told Irving not to panic, but suggested he pack a bag and check into the hospital. Stubborn to the last, Irving decided to go to work. Later that day, he was found dead from peritonitis. At least according to my mother.

My cousin Ira Kramer, son of Irving’s sister Paula Klaw, tells a different story. Irving, who had been under treatment for an ulcer, visited the same family friend, who told him to just take some antacids and not to worry. Later that day, he was discovered dead from peritonitis.

His son Arth has another theory: He believes Irving woke up with the pain, took some antacids, and went to work. Irving Klaw hated doctors.

(Reprinted from my article "The Notorious Irving Klaw", The Austin Chronicle March 10, 2006)


If it all wasn’t strange enough, I ran across this:

On one level, this is all very flattering but on another it is just creepy.

New Weird contest…

Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, editors extraordinare, have announced a contest to promote their new anthology, The New Weird.

Quote:
Tell us your “new, weird” story–something strange (but entertaining and either PG-rated or with the naughty bits blocked out) that happened to you or you witnessed in the last couple of years. Hopefully some of these will be bizarre but also uplifting, although that’s not a requirement. It’s more about…hey, this world we live in is an odder place than we might think. All of those stories in The New Weird from China Mieville, Clive Barker, K.J. Bishop, Steph Swainston, Jeffrey Ford, Jay Lake, Pual Di Filippo, Michael Moorcock, M. John Harrison, and others–they’re not strange; the world is strange!

And the prize is pretty damn cool…

Quote:
The three winners, chosen by Ann and me, will win ONE COPY OF EACH ANTHOLOGY WE EDIT BETWEEN NOW AND 2010, PERSONALIZED. Yes, that’s correct. You will get a copy of The New Weird, Steampunk, The Leonardo Variations (Clarion charity anthology), Fast Ships/Black Sails (pirates), Best American Fantasy 2, Best Horror 2009, Last Drink Bird Head, Mapping the Beast: The Best of Leviathan, and various other anthologies currently in the planning stages. Heck, we’ll even throw in the first couple issue of Weird Tales with Ann as fiction editor. We also reserve the right to give out honorable mentions, said HMs to receive a copy of the NW antho.

For official rules, visit Ecstatic Days.

When Science Reality Meets Science Fiction

Perhaps PKD, Michael Moorcock, and DC Comics were all right…

Quote:
Stranger that fiction: parallel universes beguile science

by Annie Hautefeuille Sun Dec 30, 5:58 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) – Is the universe — correction: "our" universe — no more than a speck of cosmic dust amid an infinite number of parallel worlds?
Continued…

…at the very least in some alternate universe.

How To Spot a Cylon

Never get caught off guard again! Cylon Safety Information Sheet #8, issued by QMx on behalf of the Colonial Ministry of Information, contains 10 tips that can save your life and the lives of your fellow Colonials, so heed them well:

    ★Do they ask questions about classified subjects?

    ★Do they seem unusually strong, smart or self-assured?

    ★Do they say God instead of Gods?

    ★Have you seen them before, but you know it’s not the same person?

    ★Do you see them hanging around secured or restricted areas?

    ★Do they seem to hear music that no one else can hear?

    ★Do they seem unusually fearless, as if death has no meaning for them?

    ★Do they exhibit sociopathic behavior around other humans, especially defenseless children?

    ★Are they unusually adept, almost empathic, with machines?

    ★Does their spine glow red when they get… excited?

Remember, the Cylons look like us now. Be aware. Be vigilant. And report unusual persons immediately!