How do you become an award-winning puppeteer AND award-winning writer AND a audiobook narrator? Easy. Be Mary Robinette Kowal. We ask the author of Without a Summer and Valour and Vanity how she fits in all those things and still has time to convincingly imitate Patrick Rothfuss and convince Sam Sykes to make debatable life choices.
FEATURED REVIEW: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Welcome to another Featured Review! In this series, we’ highlight book reviews from the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Tom
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
By Stephen King
What do you get when you mix the epicness of Tolkien, exalt in the cool of “The Good The Bad and The Ugly,” are partial to Arthurian legend, and possibly (some have suggested) have overindulged in too much weed? You get “The Gunslinger” the first book in Stephen King’s Magnum Opus “The Dark Tower Series.”
This will be the third time I’ve read “The Gunslinger,” and each time I read it the more I appreciate it. Not for its plot structure, which is often times as broken as Roland–but more for its “vibe.” A certain coolness that exudes from a character who is chillingly relentless and unapologetically single-minded in his quest to the point of obsession.
Plus he has a massive pair of .45 calibre six shooters.
For those who have finished the series, there is a lot to appreciate in rereading the beginning. There are people and characters and places and events mentioned, sometimes only in passing, that will have veterans nodding their head. But for the first timer–a lot of it will be just gibberish. And a lot of first timers will hate the ending, or “non” ending, and possibly curse the day King was born. That’s why I often suggest that virgin Tower Knights skip this book altogether. There’s nothing in the plot you actually need to start the journey. Because as a beginning this book is hopeless to the point where many will despair of the quest before its begun. But as a prequel this book is fantastic. It will be like returning to an old lover and discovering something deeper about their soul.
Do yourself a favour cully and wait a book or two till you are ready. There is no rush for this one. Else by the time you can appreciate this story you will have forgotten it. “Time’s the thief of memory” as Vannay says. So will you cry off maggot and turn aside? No? It’s too bad. It will be sad to see you broken and set upon a blind path. But if you are so determined to pull leather, then take your stance with legs set wide and I will do what I can, not to convince you to read this book, but rather to continue with the next, should you stumble on the way.
****
So come, let us have our Palaver, do it please ya.
Firstly I’d advise getting a copy of the 2003 edition or later. It has been edited and revised to fit better with the following books and possibly make a bit more sense for first timers. I would also recommend having a squiz at Robert Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” which inspired this book. It’s about 34 Stanza’s long and tells the story of a knight on an elusive quest for the Dark Tower, driven by duty and obsession
The Setting
Somewhere beyond In-World, but not Mid-World. The world is broken.
‘The world has moved on,’ we say . . . we’ve always said. But it’s moving on faster now. Something has happened to time. It’s softening’
Clocks can’t be trusted and people measure time by other means, like Jake who counts one to two weeks as “3 poops.” Distance and direction is also adrift.
The landscape of the story looks pretty much like any barren wilderness in any Western. In fact, at the start, one could be forgiven for mistaking this book for a Western. But its not long before the reader will get the unnerving feeling that things are off kilter. Walk into Tull for example. It’s your typical Western shanty complete with stables for your horse and a good old saloon come whorehouse. Except there’s a honky-tonk piano’s playing a rendition of “Hey Jude.” What the..? And pretty early on we get a random glimpse of a Taheen. Do you ken “Taheen?” Cry your pardon, but how could you, unless you had already read further into the series. Say sorry. Man’s body, raven’s head–this one anyway. There are old machines long disused, that were powered by electricity or atomics. There are slow mutants and threaded stock (non-mutated men and animals) are getting rarer. Ah, an alternate Universe? Or rather, a parallel Universe. Do you say so? One of many. “… there were many remnants of the gone world, just as there were demons.”
The Good
Jake
The boy who didn’t come from this place but vaguely remembers dying in a vaguely remembered other world. A world where the buildings are so tall they scrape the sky and people drink Coca Cola and watch teevee, and there is a Ka-tet of musicians who call themselves “Kiss.” Do you ken it? He loves the gunslinger, even though the gunslinger doesn’t deserve his love any more than his neglectful ma and da did–possibly less.
The Bad
The Man in Black
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
In Browning’s poem he is referred to as a “hoary cripple,” a liar, a kind of devil who is all too happy to take deals to point out the road to obsession. In this story he is the sort of villain who resurrects a devil weed addict and embues him with eternal life–not because he wants him to be well, but because he wants the addict to suffer in his addiction forever. He offers a barren woman a child. A child king. Just kill the unkillable interloper first. Not because he wants his enemy dead, but because he wants his enemy damned. He gives his enemy a boy to love, but …. “While you travel with the boy, the man in black travels with your soul in his pocket.”
“This bad man . . . this Marten . . . he was a wizard. Like Merlin. Do they ken Merlin where you come from?”
“Merlin and Arthur and the knights of the Round Table,” Jake said dreamily.
The gunslinger felt a nasty jolt go through him. “Yes,” he said. “Arthur Eld, you say true, I say thank ya…”
The Ugly
The Gunslinger
What is a “gunslinger” in this world? Well its not a cowboy with a pistol. Roland Deschain comes from the heart of In-World. From Gilead in New Canaan. A city of castles.
Yar!” He paused. “When I was your age, I lived in a walled city, did I tell you that?”
The castles are ruled by knights called “Gunslingers.” So called because of the “Irons” that are the mark of their office. Roland’s father Steven Deschain was a direct descendant of Arthur Eld and Lord of his version of Camelot.
My father had by then taken control of his ka-tet, you must ken—the Tet of the Gun—and was on the verge of becoming Dinh of Gilead, if not all In-World
But the world has moved on. And Roland is the last gunslinger and he is on a mission to fix the Universe. To find the Dark Tower. Everything else, love, family, humanity, his very soul is expendable in the light of the greater good. See it well. See it very well indeed.
****
So have I convinced you yet to carry on to book 2? I hope so. Because I’ve seen the end of that journey and would have you set upon the path. Not because I am wise or good. Perhaps I just play the hoary cripple–I say true. I say thank ya.
Long days and pleasant nights
DTNS 2190 – Moomeemo
Hockey Buzz’s Eklund joins the show to chat about whether Amazon Prime is still worth it, and give a little insight into dual-boot smart phones and instant replay in baseball. Seriously. The guy can play to all fields. He’s a five-tool podcaster.
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guest: Eklund, founder, writer, podcaster at Hockeybuzz.com
Headlines:
Target hack: Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s reported that FireEye security alerts for malware in the Target system were logged on November 30th and December 2nd. Security specialists in Bangalore flagged a security team in Minneapolis but then nothing was done about the breach until mid-December.
Dual-Boot? Huawei Chief Marketing Officer Shao Yang told TrustedReviews the company is still committed to Windows Phone and indicated dual-booting with Android might be their way of showing it. He said, “If it is Windows only, maybe people will not find it as easy a decision to buy the phone. If they have the Android and Windows together, you can change it as you wish and it is much easier for people to choose Windows Phone.” He promised dual boot Windows and Android phones would ocme to the US in Q2.
Microsoft is making its Windows Phone OS available to Indian phone makers Lava and Karbonn for nothing. Not a rupee.
Google has started to encrypt searches made by people in China
Facebook to begin running video ads in users timelines over the next few months
Hacker News pointed me to the Google blog post about Google Drive prices dropping. 15 GB stays free, but 100 GB falls from $5 as month to $2 and a Terrabyte from $50 a month to $10. You can now get 10 terrabytes or more a month starting at $100. Current users will be automatically moved to the new cheaper plans.
News From You
CincyHuffster pointed us to the Consumerist story about Amazon US raising their Amazon Prime rate from $80 a year to $100. New users can still get the current $79 rate until March 20. Existing members whose accounts renew before April 17 will also pay the $79. Memberships purchased after March 20 or renewed after April 17 will be at the new $99 rate. Amazon Prime gives users free and reduced shipping, access to streaming movies and TV shows, and ebook borrowing.
KAPT_Kipper submitted a Boing Boing article pointing out developers from the Replicant project documented a software backdoor in Samsung’s Android phones. The backdoor allegedly “provides remote access to the data stored on the device.” They believe it is “likely” that the backdoor could provide “over-the-air remote control” to “access the phone’s file system.” The IPC protocol used in Samsung’s modem implement some RFS commands that give the access. Replicant’s team cautions they may have been added for some legitimate purpose, nevertheless a resulting back door still exists.
MikePKennedy sent us the GigaOm story about a Utah home security and automation company putting 802.11ac WiFi access points on rooftops to create a high-capacity mesh network linking its customers. Vivint will use Quantenna’s gigabit Wi-Fi multi-user multiple input–multiple output Wave 2 chips in the routers that connects back to a neighborhood hub, which in turn links to a fiber node through a point-to-point microwave connection.
And jaymz submitted the Quartz article about Softbank CEO Mayoshi Son’s presentation to the US Chamber of Commerce Tuesday which tried to make the case for Softbank’s acquisition of T-Mobile with the intention of merging it with Softbank’s Sprint division. Son pointed out that one in three US citizens have no choice of wireline Internet and through argumentative gymnastics attempted to show that reducing choice in wireless carriers would make the reamining third choice stronger and capable of competing with wired Internet. Somehow. Possibly with magic.
Discussion Section Links: Amazon Price Hike and the genius of Joe Maddon
http://consumerist.com/2014/03/13/amazon-jacks-rate-on-prime-memberships-to-99year/
http://www.businessinsider.com/joe-maddon-baseball-replay-system-2014-3
Pick of the Day:
YouTuber Baltmatrix passes on this little gem of a site along to DTNS listeners: Clippingmagic.com
This site grants the ability to remove backgrounds from any picture and create pre-keyed images. As a long time Youtube Toy reviewer I have found this site to be indispensable in making useful images out of what would be otherwise unusable PR stock photos.
A.K.A. Matt in Baltimore, MD
Friday’s Guest: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org
DTNS 2189 – Freedom on the Back Berner(s-Lee)
Scott Johnson joins me to wish the World Wide Web a happy anniversary of being presented in a paper! Is the spirit of the 1990s still alive on the Web, or did we kill it?
)
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Scott Johnson, of the Frogpants Studios Network & Nerdtacular
Headlines:
Happy Birthday, WWW: We got you a Snowden leak! CNET reports on The Intercept’s revelation of a US NSA operation called Turbine. It’s an automated system designed to hack millions of computers by using the tried and true tactics of all purveyors of malware like spam, hijacked web pages and good old fashioned man in the middle attacks. The malware would then hijack webcams and microphones, log browsing and keystrokes, you know, the usual. Hi Bob! As always, the NSA was only targeting bad guys, so when they directed Turbine at sysAdmins of foreign telcos, it was only because they needed to as a means to an end, because that made it easier to target a “government official that happens to be using the network some admin takes care of.”
Well, for some odd reason, Tim Berners-Lee thought the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his proposal for the Web was a good opportunity to fire people up about taking back their rights to privacy and keeping the Internet open. At least that’s what he told BBC Breakfast. Which is a TV show, not a plate of eggs, beans and fried tomatoes. Berners-Lee seems to think all this targeted surveillance somehow will scare you into joining his WebWeWant.org movement to pass an Internet bill of rights. We assume you will get excited for a day about this and then go right back to your normal state of apathy and excitement about Doge. At least the NSA believes that’s what you’ll do.
A really popular online thing launched yesterday and everybody tried to use it at once, and even though the big company behind it expected a lot of users the servers still had problems, and everybody got mad, and then eventually it got fixed and now everybody is blogging about it. This time it was Titanfall.
Alibaba will spend HKD $6.24 billion (about USD $804 million) for a 60% stake in ChinaVision Media Group, producer of fine TV shows and films. ChinaVision is the distributor of films like “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demon.”
Yahoo and Yelp have launched their search partnership in the US
The European Parliament passes the EU’s first data protection overhaul since 1995
News From You
the_corley posted an Ars Technica report on Google buying Green Throttle. Pando Daily broke the story. Green Throttle Gaming makes gaming controllers for Android. The company mysteriously shut down in November, and now everyone seems to think they know why. Green Throttle’s big product advantage was the ability to connect up to four controllers to one smartphone or tablet. Please add your own wild speculation about Google Game Consoles here.
habichuelacondulce pointed out the Washington Post article mentioning that FunnyorDie.com is now the number one source of referrals to the US healthcare.gov site. Or so White House health care spokesperson Tara McGuinness said on Twitter. The President appeared on Zach Galifanakis’ ‘Between Two Ferns’ show to promote the site. Of the 5.9 million views on the video more than 19,000 viewers continued on to healthcare.gov. That’s 3/10th of a percent!
And draconos pointed us to a Gizmodo report on Meghan Neal’s Motherboard article on a way to vinylize your digital music. German engineer Souri Automaten designed the first incarnation of the device almost 30 years ago. A record lathe with a diamond stylus cuts the master. The machine costs $4,000 but the look on your loved ones face when you give them a mix-LP will be priceless.
Discussion Section Links: WWW25
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/on-25th-anniversary-of-web-lets-keep-it.html
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/12/online-magna-carta-berners-lee-web
http://gigaom.com/2014/03/12/25-years-after-inventing-the-web-tim-berners-lee-invites-users-to-help-draft-global-bill-of-rights/
https://webwewant.org/
http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html
http://info.cern.ch/Proposal.html
Pick of the Day: Medium.com
Oh boy oh boy, Jennie loves Medium. It’s a gorgeous online writing site that lifts online writing out of the ‘Blogger’ era. (It helps that Medium was created by Ev Williams and team, who…well… you know.) The site has rich photo options, and a beautifully designed, simple to use interface. It’s a site that makes you want to write and share that writing with others. Medium is still a work in progress–it’s not always clear should happens with a post after its published, other than tweeting it out and submitting it to a Medium collection, but its been fascinating and satisfying to watch the Medium universe expand. Free.
Thursday’s Guest: Ryan Block
DTNS 2188 – Volks-Data
Brian Cooley joins us to explain the odd proprietary and confusing world of in-dash smartcar interfaces. Can we just use our phones carmakers?
)
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Brian Cooley, host of CNET On Cars and The Next Big Thing Show
Headlines:
TWITTER WAS DOWN OMG: And that is pretty much the only lasting effect. Shouting. And jokes.
Apple readies major improvements to its maps: 9to5 Mac reports its sources say Apple is readying major improvements to Apple maps for the next version of iOS. Leveraging engineering experience from acquisitions, Apple Maps will be more reliable and have more data points of interest, especially regarding public transit directions.
Ad for HTC’s All New One leaks: GSMArena got a hold of a photo of a brochure about HTC’s All New One. In addition to using the “All new” moniker, the phone sports a ‘Duo Camera’, yes two cameras pointed in the same directions, that lets users choose focus points and implement effects like 3D. HTC tried the dual camera thing before with the EVO 3D. The brochure was from Australia’s Telstra and indicated he phone will cost AUD 840 (RRP) off-contract.
Drive on over to the Google Drive Store! Google’s had add-ons for Google Drive apps for awhile but now TechCrunch reports they’ve all been collected into a new store. The store is available from the menu bar of text or spreadsheet docs. There are 50 apps available now including MailChimp, UberConference, Avery Label Merge and more.
Orbital Computing: GigaOm reports on Physicist Joshua Turner’s proposal to use the orbits of electrons to generate the binary states that make computers work. Turner, a Physicist at SLAC National Accelerator calls it orbital computing. which does not mean SkyNet in this case. The orbit is the electron’s around a nucleus and claims you can switch it’s state 10,000 times faster than you can switch the state of a transistor today. Take that Moore’s law!
Ok, Glass Explorers, this is cool: A new Glassware App called Preview allows users to look at a movie poster or an image of one and view the trailer on Glass. You can move from poster to poster down the theater hallway and the app will switch to the appropriate trailer. Just remember to take off your Glass before entering the movie theater to avoid unwanted interaction with federal authorities.
The Next Web reports DigitalGlobe is putting its Tomnod crowdsourcing platform to work in the effort to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Volunteers are assigned a collection of satellite images to look at and pin any possible clues or wreckage. DigitalGlobe analysts will check areas that users identify then inform authorities of any findings.
CNET reports New Jersey fast-tracked a rule change Monday that would eliminate direct sales of automobiles from a manufacturer, a practice that Tesla Motors pretty much hinges their entire business on. Tesla appeared before the NJMVC today to argue against the rules, but does not appeared to have swayed the commission. The rule passed and will go into effect in April, giving Tesla a month or so to close its two stores.
News From You
tekkyn00b posted the Verge article about Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, accusing the CIA of searching Senate computers for copies of an internal agency interrogation report and violating both anti-hacking laws and the Constitution. CIA head John Brennan has denied Feinstein’s accusations. Senator Feinstein has been an outspoken advocate of the US NSA’s surveillance efforts.
draconos sent in the CNET story that CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said Tuesday that if Aereo’s online service that brings users over the air broadcasts is deemed legal by the Supreme Court, CBS could go OTT. That means CBS programming would be delivered over the Internet itself rather than over the air, and a company like Aereo would have to pay for it rather than access it from broadcast. CBS stations have broadcast obligations in order to keep their over the air spectrum but could meet those with a variety of local and older programming different than the main network.
And KAPT_Kipper posted the Ars Technica story that Intel and partners will make 800 Gbps cables available in the second half of the year to data centers. The cables are based on Intel’s Silicon Photonics tech that can send 25Gbps across each fiber. The new connector goes by the name (not acronym) MXC and holds up to 64 fibers and can maintain speed over 300 meters. It’s also less sensitive to dust and damage. Data centers generally use 10Gbps cables today. The Facebook-led Open Compute Project are among the organizations already testing out the MXC-based cables.
Discussion Section Links: Cars! Internet! WWW25!
http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/11/audi-att-lte-pricing/?ncid=rss_truncated
Brian Cooley’s 1986 report on a thing called EEEE -MAIL: http://vimeo.com/2243667
Pick of the Day: Sell used gadgets at Gazelle.com
Tuesday’s Guest: It’s our 50th show tomorrow!
Cordkillers Ep. 10 – Jerko Contendo
Dish strikes a deal for an Internet-only TV service and suddenly everybody says they’re about to do it. Plus things look bad for Aereo and Twitch gets the partnership for E3.
DTNS 2187 – The Encryption Prescription
Molly Wood joins to talk Edward Snowden’s SXSW prescription for solving the world’s surveillance issues. It’s pretty much encrypt all the things.
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Headlines
Ars Technica reported on Edward Snowden’s address to the crowds of SXSW Interactive, appearing by Google Hangout, allegedly behind seven proxies, Heyo! Snowden reiterated he does not regret leaking the revelations. He emphasized that encryption is good and easier encryption methods are needed to protect privacy. He also called again for better oversight of intelligence agencies.
Forbes reports attackers took over the Reddit account and personal blog of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karepeles on Sunday posting accusations that Karpeles had kept some of the supposedly lost BitCoins and presenting 716 megabytes of data allegedly taken from MT. Gox’s servers as proof. Before you go downloading that file though, be warned there are reports that links int he file may install malware. Meanwhile, ZDNet reports Mt. Gox filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the United States. The company has already filed for bankruptcy in Japan.
Engadget reports iOS7.1 is now available as a free download. The latest update comes for anyone with an iPhone 4, 5th gen iPod touch or iPad 2 or newer. The update includes CarPlay support. Cars with CarPlay can interact with Siri, access music, navigate with Maps, answer calls and send texts, all hands-free. The feature comes on select new Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Ferrari models for now.
Ars Technica reports Sony and Panasonic just announced a new optical disc specification. What you say? Optical is dead? Maybe for your music and possibly video but certainly not for archival purposes. “Archival Disc” format promises to store between six and 20 times the data of a standard 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc. The first round of discs should become available in summer, 2015 and hold 300 GB of Data, 150GB per side. The companies hope to boost that to a terabyte eventually.
ITProPortal reports on UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking at CeBit, and announcing a 5G wireless research partnership between the UK’s King’s College University, University of Surrey and Germany’s University of Dresden. The PM also committed £45 million to Internet of Things research. He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also re-iterated commitment to a single European telecom market and the abolition of roaming charges.
Reuters reports a US biotech company has received approval in Britain to manufacture an edible tablet containing microchips that can tell if a patient has taken their medication while also monitoring vital signs like heart rate. Proteus Digital Health’s sensor is the size of a grain of sand and is powered by stomach juices. Info is sent to a small skin patch, which then passes the data on by Bluetooth.
News From You:
KAPT_Kipper submitted a CNN report on HBO Go experiencing problems loading video for on demand viewers as millions tried to watch the season finale of True Detective. HBO Go tweeted an acknowledgement of the problem and attributed it to overwhelming demand. As of Monday the service was back to normal.
gowlkick posted an Ars Technica story that the Linux Foundation will work with edX to make the “Introduction to Linux” course free and open to all. The course usually costs $2,400. Students can choose to audit or receive certification. More than 2,500 people signed up for the course in the first hour after posting. The official start date has not been posted but it will be scheduled sometime this summer.
And MikePKennedy pointed out the Verge story about Neil Young’s new high quality music project. Starting March 15th, a Kickstarter for PonoPlayer will give music lovers the chance to pay $399 to get a triangle-shaped player that will work with the high fidelity music to be sold at PonoMusic.com. PonoMusic will not feature any DRM, but you’ll only be able to store 100-500 albums on the 128GB PonoPlayer.
Discussion Links: Snowden at Southby
http://recode.net/2014/03/10/eus-neelie-kroes-snowden-gave-us-wake-up-call/
http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/10/Snowden-encryption-and-oversight/?ncid=rss_truncated
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/10/snowden-the-nsa-is-setting-fire-to-the-future-of-the-internet
Pick of the Day:
The intrepid Daily Tech News Show team spent the weekend rigorously testing all the Texas BBQ we could reasonably get our hands on. If you’re in Austin, here’s our BBQ pick of the day, also maybe the century. It’s The Salt Lick in Driftwood Texas. It’s a bit of a drive, but the brisket made Jennie cry a little. Find a friend with a car! Go! You won’t regret it.
Brisket, Turkey, Sausage, Ribs = weeping.
FEATURED REVIEW: Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
Welcome to our first Featured Review! In this series, we’ll be highlighting book reviews from the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Veronica
I dig the basis of this book. A generational spaceship has been exploring so long that it’s forgotten its purpose (coughing-allegory). They find a planet that has evidence of horrible stuff that happened to the planet’s inhabitants. The explorers quickly depart only to discover an enormous alien spaceship adrift. Next, they explore the alien spaceship and discover, wait for it, wait for it, horrible stuff that happened to what appears to be humans that mirror what they found on the planet.
Richard Paul Russo writes a slow burning SF thriller that ultimately fizzles. If you read this anticipating the end justifying your reading, disappointment lies ahead. But if you read this for the experience, then I think you can find happiness or at least some measure of satisfaction.
No spoilers, but my favorite character is the coffee-growing dwarf who occasionally drinks too much of his homebrewed whiskey.
I was underwhelmed with the whole theological dilemma that’s hoisted and hung on the hook. Is there a God? If there’s a God, why do bad things happen? Oh, they happen because we have freewill? Oh, we have freewill, and God feels guilty because he gave it to us?
There’s nothing wrong in asking these questions or writing a story about them. I’m grousing because for as much as these issues were intended to drive the narrative, they’re never satisfyingly resolved. In the end, they act as more of a distraction (allegorically ironic?) and less centrally relevant. I just wish Russo had been subtler and allowed the reader to make more of the connections rather than painting such a vivid theological landscape.
As previously mentioned, the book’s conclusion is a bit flat. But the best part, my favorite part, was when they were exploring the enormous alien ship. So good, why didn’t we get more of this? I could have been as happy as a clam at high tide to be shown more of those endless passages and odd little rooms with their secrets.
New Sword and Laser T-Shirts!
We whipped together some new t-shirts for the Kickstarter last year, and if you weren’t able to pledge at the level you can get them now from Slashloot!
For the first time our album art is available as a t-shirt featuring the expertly characterized demon-hunting Veronica and spaceman Tom.
And the lovely 3 Lem Moon concept by Scott Johnson will definitely impress the cyborg-dragon lovers in your life.
Of course the original logo shirt is till available too.
Get these and many shirts related to podcasts you love at slashloot.com.
DTNS 2186 – Bridge over Troubled Trolls
Darren Kitchen is here for his Friday gig along with Russ Pitts. We’ll talk with Russ about how he thinks sometimes you SHOULD engage trolls. Also why the Aereo case could kill cloud storage. Plus the two main reasons for SXSWi to exist. Plus Len Peralta illustrates the show!
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Darren Kitchen, Russ Pitts, & Len Peralta
Headlines:
I am not Dorian Nakamoto: Yesterday was an eventful day for Dorian Nakamoto. CNET’ Eric Mack summed up the day and proposed a theory. First Dorian came out of his house yesterday afternoon, grabbed an AP reporter, saying he wanted his free lunch, and headed to the AP offices in downtown LA for an interview followed by a train of reporters. He told the AP he was misunderstood by Newsweek and as far as Bitcoin goes he told them, “I got nothing to do with it.” Later a new comment from Satoshi Nakamoto appeared on the original 2009 Bitcoin forum post, saying “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.” CNET freelancer Eric Mack’s theory? We’re all getting trolled and MAYBE Satoshi Nakamoto is Andy Kaufman.
Dev build of Mavericks gettin’ all 4k and stuff: 9to5 Mac reports Apple’s latest developer build of OS X Mavericks lets users with 4K monitors natively set them to run at a pixel-doubled “Retina” resolution. It ends up thesame as running a Retina MacBook Pro. The screen doubles the resolution in the same space so you see sharper graphics
Samsung brings the Milk: PC World reports Samsung announced a new online radio service Friday called Milk. The service is available for free. No ads. No log in. Really? really. Oh here’s the catch. It’s only in the US. AND It’s only available in the Google Play store and only works with Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Samsung says they are thinking of expanding to non-Samsung devices though, and they WILL expand worldwide eventually.
Pebble 2.0, now with more Android! Engadget reports Pebble 2.0 is now available for Android users, giving them access to the Pebble App Store, a new interface and a new locker for apps and notification improvements.
Privacy questions raised about Facebook & Whats App: Digital Democracy are asking the US FTC to investigate how Facebook’s proposed purchase of WhatsApp will impact the privacy of WhatsApp users, who exchange private messages via the service. The complaint alleges Facebook’s plans for WhatsApp would violate WhatsApps users understanding of their exposure to online advertising.
News From You
metalfreak submitted a ScienceMag article about a system that can turn images into sequences of sound, allowing blind people to see. The system builds on work from 1992 by Dutch engineer Peter Meijer, who created vOICe, an algorithm that converts simple grayscale images into musical soundscapes. In 2007, neuroscientist Amir Amedi and colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem began training subjects who were born blind to use vOICe. Amedi’s team recently released a successor to vOICe, called EyeMusic, as a free iPhone app. The new algorithm produces more pleasant tones and can even provide color information.
normgregory directed our attention to a Deadline article reporting that Aereo’s appeal of the injunction Utah has been denied. The 10th Cicrcuit Court of Appeals denied the request to overturn the injunction 2:1. That means Aereo will have to go dark after all in Salt Lake City and Denver, despite the fact that the company is headed to the Supreme Court April 22.
tsukiri submitted the Ars Technica story on the US Navy deploying its first directed energy weapon this summer on the USS Ponce. Oh wait did I not say laser? Because lasers. IN fact it’s called the LaWS for Laser Weapon System. The lasers can explode fuel aboard smaller targets and blind drone or missile imaging sensors. Larger targets still need missiles and guns, but the laser is cheaper to fire at a bout a buck a shot. Also, thank you to all the men and women serving on the USS Ponce.
And on the other side of the drone aisle, or weapons emplacement, KAPT_Kipper pointed us to the Ars Technica tale of Judge Patrick Geraghty dismissing a $10,000 fine against Raphael Pirker, who used a camera drone to film on the University of Virginia campus for commercial purposes. The judge said the FAA rules were not enforceable against model aircraft whether commercial or not.
Discussion Section Links: Don’t Feed The Trolls, But Don’t Let Them Feed on You.
http://www.falsegravity.com/?p=603
http://www.project-disco.org/intellectual-property/030414-why-aereo-matters-to-the-cloud-a-primer/
SXSW Pick of the Day: Austin BCycle. Bike share, duh! If you’re at SXSW you can ride one of these cheerful red bikes to and from all the various events– believe you me, the walk from the Convention Center to the Paramount Theater is no joke. So don’t walk! Take a bike. Also thanks to Kristin Nelson for taking the time to talk with us about SXSW. 🙂
Austin Pick of the Day: Barbecue! I’m going to to the Salt Lick, like, NOW. (jj)
What an online troll looks like in real life: http://lenperaltastore.com/products/dont-engage-the-troll
What was that weird thing at the end of the show? Matt talks tech in which Producer Jennie interviews her husband Matt about technology. Matt knows a lot about comedy, screenwriting, and 80′s sitcoms, but technology? Not so much.
Monday’s Guest: Molly Wood of the New York Freakin’ Times!