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July 29, 2005
Mysterious New Object Orbiting Sun--Zoinks!
Well, it's way out beyond the orbit of Pluto, but it is orbiting the sun, and it is pretty big, bigger than Pluto, even. The thing is, the question of whether or not Pluto is an actual planet remains controversial. So if this new thing is bigger than Pluto, you'd think that would mean it's a planet, too, right? I don't know. For all I know the Astrophysical Union who contemplate these pressing issues might be concerned about an object's mass, and possibly even its shape.
But then, how cool would it be (or perhaps not) if the new object proved to be something alien? This is the kind of thinking my brain defaults to. I can't help myself. And if you'd spent all your free time this past week going over galley proofs with a jeweller's loupe, maybe you'd be a bit twitchy, too.
By Dr David Whitehouse Science editor, BBC News websiteThe new object was discovered in the outer reaches of the Solar System
Astronomers have found a large object in the Solar System's outer reaches. It is being hailed as "a great discovery".Details of the object are still sketchy. It never comes closer to the Sun than Neptune and spends most of its time much further out than Pluto.
It is one of the largest objects ever found in the outer Solar System and is almost certainly made of ice and rock.
It is at least 1,500km (930 miles) across and may be larger than Pluto, which is 2,274km (1,400 miles) across.
Posted by adrian at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
At Last--A Giant Squid Story
My fabulous buddy Alethea sent me the following story from the Sydney Morning Herald. If you've been reading this blog a really long time, you might remember that I've always had a thing about giant squid. I think they're fascinating critters, and I'm itching for the day when somebody figures out how to either catch a live one, or film one swimming about down in the stygian depths. In this new story, it develops the enigmatic beasts might actually be cannibals.
Giant squid might be cannibals, University of Tasmanian researchers say.The scientists have analysed the gut contents of a giant squid caught by fishermen off the west coast of the state in 1999. They found three tentacle fragments and 12 squid beaks, New Scientist reports.
Read the rest here. To whet your appetite for giant squiddy goodness, I should mention there's also a great photo of a recently caught specimen. I'm told giant squid, once you haul them ashore, stink of ammonia. Ew.
Thanks, Alethea! (I'll post your other items shortly.)
Posted by adrian at 08:18 PM | Comments (1)
July 26, 2005
Road to Los Angeles--Steps 1-2
Today Michelle and I had to front up to the US Consulate here in Perth to see about getting Non-Immigrant Visas so we can visit the US next year for LA Con IV.
Australia is part of the Visa Waiver Program, so ordinarily, in a universe in which I'm not an idiot, we wouldn't need to get visas to go there. However, when we transited through the US in 2003, on our way to Torcon 3 in Toronto, we had these little green bits of paper concerning the Visa Waiver Program stapled into our passports by US Immigration officials. The deal with these things is that when you leave the US to come home again (as we did about a week later) you have to remove those bits of paper.
Guess what? We didn't remove our Visa Waiver forms from our passports. We didn't even know we had to, and we were both so jetlagged out of our tiny minds--even after a week--that we just didn't think about it. Certainly no US Immigration officials reminded us about it as we were leaving.
Flashforward to last year, as we arrived in New York, as part of the Great Big Trip. We go through Immigration. Immigration guy checks our passports, and discovers our Visa Waiver forms. "Oh, now this might be a problem for you," he says. Your humble correspondent feels his bowels turn to water at this remark. It's not something you want to hear.
Instead of frogmarching us off to be strip-searched, detained and interrogated, he told us that next time we wanted to visit the US, we would probably need to apply for a visa, regardless of our country being part of the Visa Waiver Program. The problem is that US Immigration needs to receive that slip of green paper when you leave, so they have records of you leaving. If you don't give them the paper, their records indicate that you never left, and you've somehow been living there illegally for a year.
Applying for a Non-Immigrant US Visa is expensive and fiddly. You have to fill in forms, organise fresh passport photos that must be exactly 5cm square, actually pay for the visas themselves at the Post Office (not refundable) and take the receipts with you to the interview at the Consulate, and supply a registered mail satchel or Express Post satchel so they can post your passports back to you after the interview. It's a whole lot of stuff.
Today we had our interview, explained about science fiction conventions, explained about how I write books, and about the whole hassle we inadvertently brought upon ourselves, and much else. All our paperwork was in order. It turns out they no longer use those bits of green paper--now it's all done with biometric scanning: they take your fingerprints when you arrive in the US, and when you leave. It's painless and quick, if a little disquieting.
Upshot: they approved our application! Yay! [chair dances]
We've also now bought attending memberships in the Worldcon itself. So that's two big steps taken care of in a couple of days. We're pretty pleased.
* * *
In other news: yesterday Publisher Brian sent me the latest version of the ECLIPSE galleys for me to have a squizz at. It turns out he needs to send the whole thing to the printers this Friday. So I have to read through the book again--again! looking for blunders and glitches and the like. And I'm finding them, too, even though I went through the whole thing pretty carefully before. It's getting better, though. Currently I think it's my best work, at least up to that point. I'm really looking forward to seeing it in print, and selling it to folks next year.
* * *
And: ow. And I do mean that. Ow. Proofreading while headachy? Not fun. Bugger.
Posted by adrian at 09:12 PM | Comments (3)
July 21, 2005
Attention Men and Women of Earth!
Author Boy's next novel, ECLIPSE, will be released in Canada this coming September, and next March in the US.
W00t!
I've just spent the past week going over the galleys of the book, looking for stray glitches, blunders, goofs and something I gather the publishing industry calls "infelicities". I found heaps. Yikes! This is why the job took a week. Still, it's an opportunity to take the manuscript, before it's set in stone, and tweak the heck out of it--even if said tweaking sometimes consisted of things like removing a comma here, adding a semi-colon there, or rewriting a few lines here and there. I'm getting the next version in a day or two, and will go over it all again. I imagine Publisher Brian and I will do this pretty much right up until it's time to send the MS to the printer.
Oh, and right at the end of the whole job, going over everything, I got an idea for a possible spinoff story featuring a character from ECLIPSE and a character from the not-yet-released HYDROGEN STEEL. Oooh!
If you want to see more about ECLIPSE, you should get yourself over to the Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing site. You could even send them an email asking when you can pre-order. You know, if you wanted to, that is. [cough]
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In Other Author Boy News
I just now banged out over 2000 words of fresh notes for the ANTIMATTER VOODOO project. At last I'm getting somewhere. I've been having a problem with the book because the background of the setting wasn't really registering for me. It was like characters doing stuff against a blank background (like in those old Warner Bros. cartoons where Daffy Duck gets erased and stuff). So I've been putting some serious thought into developing the background in a big way--and found some surprising stuff. For one thing, against all my expectations, it turns out this book takes place on Earth. Way in the future, but on Earth. Crikey, I never saw that coming.
With a bit of luck I'll be back on the job starting this coming Monday, unless I'm back working on ECLIPSE fixes. So much to do, so much to do.
Posted by adrian at 05:50 PM | Comments (7)
July 14, 2005
Five Years Ago, This Was Science Fiction
You know you're living in the real and actual future, one forecast by sf writers and cheesy TV shows and movies, when in the course of reading through the New York Times (on the Internet, of course), you come across this article. Household robots appear, at long last, to be becoming viable. So far the bot in this story, called Nuvo, is not much more than a companion gadget, but it's easy to see how, with a few more versions and upgrades, this technology might start getting more useful.
I mean, just read these first few paragraphs from the story. Not long ago, you'd have sworn you were reading a science fiction story rather than a newspaper article. (And yes, since this is the New York Times, reading the piece requires either registering (free and painless, plus you get access to interesting material), or the use of Bugmenot. Either way, it's worth having a read.)
I, Roommate: The Robot Housekeeper ArrivesBy MARK ALLEN
Published: July 14, 2005
WHEN my home robot arrived last month, its smiling inventors removed it from its box and laid it on its back on my living room floor. They leaned over and spoke to it, as one might to a sleeping child.
It straightened, let out a little beep, lighted up, looked left and right, and then, amazingly, stood and faced me.
I said, "Nuvo, how are you?"
It tilted to the left, and raised one arm to greet me. It shook my hand and winked with one of the lights in its little head. My life hasn't really been the same since.
Posted by adrian at 07:05 PM | Comments (1)
July 13, 2005
I'm Excited!
I learned earlier today that early next year Douglas Coupland's publisher is releasing a sequel to the fabulous Microserfs, called jPod. I loved Microserfs to perhaps an unhealthy degree, so finding out that the sequel will follow up on how those characters are doing ten years later, working for Electronic Arts, is an enticing prospect indeed.
Posted by adrian at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2005
Author Boy Keeps On Truckin'
Today at the pool I slogged up and down, up and down, for nearly an hour, and managed a new personal best of 60 laps (25m per lap) forwards, and a further 10 laps backwards. At the end of all this I was pretty knackered, but very pleased. When I first started doing this down at the local pool, the best I managed was 20 laps.
I'm also agog that all of last week I didn't have a single headache. Then yesterday, Saturday, it was like a whole week's worth of the bastards turned up all at once. Yesterday was horrible. Today seems better so far.
I've also just started reading Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller, a book I started reading when I was at university, and have recently rediscovered. It's quite unlike anything else I've ever read, and all the more intoxicating for it.
Last, spare a thought for poor Michelle, who has come down with a nasty flu-type lurgy. She's feeling rather sub-optimal, and I'm sure could use some cheering up. [hint]
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do some laundry.
Posted by adrian at 04:59 PM | Comments (3)
July 06, 2005
Too Freaking Cold to Blog
I've just installed a new doodad in my computer's system tray that monitors Perth weather in real time. Right now it's 8.1 degrees C. I'm all rugged up, and wearing a fingerless gloves and toque ensemble knitted by the fabulous Treefen (I'll send you a photo soon!) with just this kind of thing in mind.
I should add that when it's 8.1 C outside, it's about that temp inside, too. We're thinking of shelling out some cash to get some ceiling insulation, because this is just ridiculous. It's only 6:43pm. Later tonight it's forecast to get down to 1 C. Last night it got down to 0.5 C. I realise if you read this, and you live in the US or particularly in Canada, the idea of a temp around 0 is cause for shorts, sandals and t-shirts, but here in Perth, not so much. It's about as cold as we can stand, thanks.
* * *
About Registering to Comment Here with TypeKey
I've heard from reader Cubicle Dweller that he had some trouble signing into TypeKey the other day when he tried to leave a comment here. This is not good. I've just now read that Movable Type have wheeled out some significant changes to the way TypeKey operates, which one hopes will make it easier for folks to log in. One thing they do promise is that one login will last two weeks, so you won't always be having to log in everytime you visit a blog using that system. About damn time.
* * *
Just hit 7.8 C. Yikes.
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The HYDROGEN STEEL Rewrites
I heard yesterday that the latest rewrite of HYDROGEN STEEL is finished. Yes, finished! I have been reliably informed that my work on the project is "kickasstical!" Something you don't hear all that often, let me tell you. I plan to get hold of the all-new, updated version of the HS Master File and have a read through, looking for remaining gremlins. I know they'll be there. Anyway, yes, FINISHED! Yay! That went remarkably painlessly, I must say.
* * *
Le Tour de France 2005
Michelle and I are glued to the telly late at night in recent times: the 2005 Tour de France has started, and SBS here are showing 100 minutes of live coverage of every stage. Last night was the team time trial, in which Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel team beat their nearest rival, Team CSC, by 2 tiny seconds.
And Dave Zabriskie, of said Team CSC, who had a 2-second lead over Armstrong in the individual classification, looked set to perhaps increase his lead, fell off his bike only 1.5 km from the finish line, giving Discovery Channel the win by that tiny margin. Aaaaagh! There was a lot of gnashing of teeth and wailing here last night, just thinking about the poor bugger. It was gripping stuff. Can't wait for later tonight--though I hope we can watch it in bed.
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7.3 C. [rude word]
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Sing, Dammit!
River Selkie is talking up her Karaoke Blog once more. If you feel the need to blast the vocal chords along to the tune of your choice, get thee hence over there.
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Holy crap! 7.0 C.
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About Those Headaches
Guess what? 3 days now with no headaches. Must be too damn cold for them, too.
* * *
Oh man... 6.7 C!
Posted by adrian at 07:03 PM | Comments (1)