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Jul. 20th, 2009 13:57Friday July 10, 2009 To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
Used the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base (isfdb.org) to track down an article by John Barnes: "How to Build a Future." It was in the book on writing sf where I'd originally found it -- and in the March 1990 issue of Analog.
The book would be harder to find than that issue of Analog, and probably more expensive. I didn't remember any other articles in the book, which suggested I wouldn't find them worth rereading.
I went to Uncle Hugo's sf bookstore and bought that issue of Analog.
***To Rainbow Foods at Lake and Minnehaha. Got points on my rewards card. For every $50 spent, I can get a discount on gas at participating BP service stations.
After I've spent about $45 more at Rainbow, I can fill up the car I don't own more cheaply at a service station chain which doesn't have an outlet in my neighborhood.
I'm told there will be other reward programs later, and the card doesn't take up much room in my wallet.
***Read: Randall Stross, _Google Planet_. A history of the Google company.
One thing which keeps repeating: Google begins by giving customers what they should want. In its successful ventures, it changes to delivering what customers actually want. Before Google is driven to this desperate measure, there's a period in which it explains why customers should want what Google is giving them and shouldn't want what they ask for.
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Saturday July 11, 2009 John Barnes, "How to Build a Future." Analog March 1990.
"And be aware...that spreadsheet models tend to be huge -- one I discuss below eventually took up about 600 KB of hard disk space." Nineteen years later, this doesn't sound like a huge amount.
There are no laughably mistaken predictions. No "Centuries from now, the Soviet Union will still be a superpower." (A few months after the USSR fell, there were still "Soviets invade the US" novels showing up in bookstores. And in 1988, sf writer Michael F. Flynn confidently charted the Soviet economy's course for the next century or so.)
I disagree with some of Barnes's working assumptions. This forces me to work out how and why I disagree.
***Release party for Dana Baird's _Veil of Whispers_ at Tillie's Bean. The novel is what used to be called "Spaceship and Sorcery." It's published by Sam's Dot, a small press with a good reputation.
Tyree Campbell, who runs Sam's Dot, was there with various books and magazines for sale at a dollar off list price.
Most of the people I recognized were from MinnSpec -- the Twin Cities specfic-writing Meetup group.
***To the Rainbow near Lake and Minnehaha. Got a dozen eggs for 58ยข. I was hoping they had run out; then I could have gotten a rain check, and bought the eggs later.
On to Cub, which was out of what I wanted. Then to Aldi, where I got most of my groceries.
Used the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base (isfdb.org) to track down an article by John Barnes: "How to Build a Future." It was in the book on writing sf where I'd originally found it -- and in the March 1990 issue of Analog.
The book would be harder to find than that issue of Analog, and probably more expensive. I didn't remember any other articles in the book, which suggested I wouldn't find them worth rereading.
I went to Uncle Hugo's sf bookstore and bought that issue of Analog.
***To Rainbow Foods at Lake and Minnehaha. Got points on my rewards card. For every $50 spent, I can get a discount on gas at participating BP service stations.
After I've spent about $45 more at Rainbow, I can fill up the car I don't own more cheaply at a service station chain which doesn't have an outlet in my neighborhood.
I'm told there will be other reward programs later, and the card doesn't take up much room in my wallet.
***Read: Randall Stross, _Google Planet_. A history of the Google company.
One thing which keeps repeating: Google begins by giving customers what they should want. In its successful ventures, it changes to delivering what customers actually want. Before Google is driven to this desperate measure, there's a period in which it explains why customers should want what Google is giving them and shouldn't want what they ask for.
===
Saturday July 11, 2009 John Barnes, "How to Build a Future." Analog March 1990.
"And be aware...that spreadsheet models tend to be huge -- one I discuss below eventually took up about 600 KB of hard disk space." Nineteen years later, this doesn't sound like a huge amount.
There are no laughably mistaken predictions. No "Centuries from now, the Soviet Union will still be a superpower." (A few months after the USSR fell, there were still "Soviets invade the US" novels showing up in bookstores. And in 1988, sf writer Michael F. Flynn confidently charted the Soviet economy's course for the next century or so.)
I disagree with some of Barnes's working assumptions. This forces me to work out how and why I disagree.
***Release party for Dana Baird's _Veil of Whispers_ at Tillie's Bean. The novel is what used to be called "Spaceship and Sorcery." It's published by Sam's Dot, a small press with a good reputation.
Tyree Campbell, who runs Sam's Dot, was there with various books and magazines for sale at a dollar off list price.
Most of the people I recognized were from MinnSpec -- the Twin Cities specfic-writing Meetup group.
***To the Rainbow near Lake and Minnehaha. Got a dozen eggs for 58ยข. I was hoping they had run out; then I could have gotten a rain check, and bought the eggs later.
On to Cub, which was out of what I wanted. Then to Aldi, where I got most of my groceries.