Total Oblivion

"A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson..."

---Kirkus

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Skinny Dipping

Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and finalist for the Crawford Award. Title short story listed for the 2000 O. Henry award.

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Goblin Mercantile Exchange

Futures, Options, and Swaps (the weblog of Alan DeNiro)

“emasculating”

Sergey Brin, in a recent discussion of Google Glass, noted that smartphones are “emasculating.” Let’s look at a more or less standard definition of “emasculate”. (I generally hate arguments by pedantics who pull out dictionary definitions as a kind of proof text for an argument, but I think this is worth it). 1. Make (a […]

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Fri, March 29 2013 » Computers/Tech, Fiction, Polis » No Comments

The First Apps

A great article on 18th century almanacs as ur-iPhones: By now, I hope you’ll forgive the ahistorical slip that led me to enlist the iPhone as a way of imagining just how resourceful an early almanac could be. It was so much more than a book. Comparing it to the iPhone helps expand our vision […]

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Thu, October 14 2010 » ?!?!?, Computers/Tech » No Comments

The Literary Magazine, of the Future

Bruce Sterling’s essay on design, the potential of design, and the design of fiction, is something that anyone interested in those issues should read-moving away from the tired arguments of why science fiction is dying, why it’s not dying…anyway, I tend to get those two things confused. Of course the pulp era has left its […]

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Sat, September 26 2009 » Computers/Tech, Fiction » 3 Comments

On Furries

ON FURRIES It is perhaps not surprising that the furry culture as we know it today sprung up in early virtual worlds (MOOs, Mucks, and Muds — these acronyms themselves hint at the wet dust of the first creations, paradise’s barnyard). Besides FurryMUCK, one of the most significant early furry spaces is the Swedish MUCK […]

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Sat, January 3 2009 » Computers/Tech » 1 Comment

open questions with answers of “Yeah, maybe”

I wonder if it’s time for a speculative (or otherwise) ezine inhabiting myspace and myspace only. I wonder if Hex is a better show than Buffy. I’m really beginning to wonder about both of those.

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Fri, July 14 2006 » Computers/Tech, Fiction, Movies/TV » No Comments

Literature, Text, and Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality died in the House Commerce Committee. btw, these are the Democrats who voted to kill the Internet as we know it: Ed Towns of New York, Bobby Rush of Illinois, Al Wynn of Maryland, Gene Green of Texas and Charlie Gonzales of Texas. Thanks! You obviously know where your well-heeled bread is buttered. […]

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Wed, April 26 2006 » Computers/Tech, Fiction, Poetry, Polis » 2 Comments

myspace vs. friendster

This is a brilliant, brilliant essay by Danah Boyd about Friendster vs. MySpace, and about burgeoning “super publics”: Online communities are more like nation-states than technological tools. There is a master behind the architecture, a master who controls the walls of the system and can wage war on her/his people at any point. People know […]

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Tue, April 4 2006 » Computers/Tech, Meta/Logistics » 1 Comment

Nobodies

I “love” the opening text for Blogads: “You need to woo the early adopters that traditional media can’t reach. You need to engage 500,000 opinion makers, not pester 100,000,000 nobodies.” translation: “Non-non-poor people SUCK!” Now that’s some good hipster talk there. Mirrorshades or death!

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Tue, September 20 2005 » Computers/Tech, Polis » No Comments

Graveyard

I love the relics of useless search engines. Feel that tumbleweed.

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Wed, August 3 2005 » Computers/Tech » No Comments