Author Archives: Anton

Incandescence

Greg Egan complains about sloppy reviews of his latest novel: About half the reviews of Incandescence made at least one of the following false assertions: The Splinter orbits a neutron star. Rakesh visits the Splinter. The relationship between the novel’s … Continue reading

Posted in prose | 5 Comments

de-skinned

April 9 is CSS Naked Day, a concept amusing enough that I installed the WordPress plugin to comply with it. As I should have expected, it makes this blog rather less readable than it was before I converted from Blogger … Continue reading

Posted in blogdom | Leave a comment

deathist movie

In Renaissance (2006) there’s a Big Sinister Corporation whose advertising tagline is “Health, Beauty, Longevity.” Oo, scary! I don’t think we’re ever told what Avalon sells (vitamins? cosmetics? medical treatment?) but it doesn’t matter. The noirish visual style suffices to … Continue reading

Posted in cinema, luddites | 2 Comments

fun with paranoia

I’m reading Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother, which has been nominated for a Prometheus Award. In another tab I’m reading an autobiographical comic-strip by a boy of the same age as the novel’s narrator; switching between them is sometimes surreal. … Continue reading

Posted in cartoons, prose, security theater | 2 Comments

two small mysteries of the animal world

Around noon the other day, I saw a steady stream of moths flying north along the BART track: not dense enough to call them a flock, let alone a swarm, but enough that I always had a few of them … Continue reading

Posted in California, pets | 3 Comments

Wednesday filler

meme goes meta When I decided I wanted a domain, about ten years ago, .nu was the cheapest registry. It’s now €60 to renew for two years; I suspect I can do better than that. So don’t be surprised if … Continue reading

Posted in cartoons, me!me!me!, neep-neep | 4 Comments

sad Mac

My computer killed itself to protect you from more cat pictures. Later it occurs to me to mention the symptoms. It comes alive long enough to show a gray Apple screen, the spinner spins for a bit, and then it … Continue reading

Posted in neep-neep | 4 Comments