| ||||||
| Amazon UK sent me a list of DVDs on special offer, three for £10. I've only looked at SF so far but there are some interesting ones, e.g. the Battlestar Galactica mini-series, a Dr. Who film collection containing the two films and a documentary, When Worlds Collide, The Day the Earth Stood Still (get it before they replace it with a crap remake), and so forth. | ||||||
comments: Leave a comment   |
Meme-Free Zone
|
|||||||||||||
October 6th, 2008
October 5th, 2008
| ||||||
| Someone on my friends list was talking about getting a couple of memory sticks, can't remember who. SVP just sent me an ad for a mini-sale on Monday (starting 9.30) that might be of interest: Integral 4gb £6.69 Integral 8gb £11.19 Prices include VAT but not P&P. http://www.svpbuyersclub.co.uk/newslett | ||||||
| comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Following on from the previous post, here are some carefully researched (yeah, right...) figures for the main nations circa 2100, based on the political situations previously described. Anything look implausible? Later Now completely revised - hope this makes a bit more sense...
| |||||||||||||||||||
| comments: 17 comments or Leave a comment | |||||||||||||||||||
October 4th, 2008
| ||||||||
| I've taken a few days off from Weinbaum to work on another games project (it's a bit early to say more) but am now now back at work on it, and have reached the bit of the Weinbaum game where I need to say something about what Earth is like circa 2100 AD. About which he unfortunately said virtually nothing. Going by the things that were happening in Weinbaum's time (he died in 1934), I'm assuming that he would expect to see large superstates on the lines of the USA, British Empire, etc., so I've divided the world into the following main political blocs: United Americas - Canada, Alaska, the USA, Mexico, Ecuador, and everything else north of Brazil. The USA formed economic links and military alliances to the North and South, eventually becoming a single economic community. The nations within the UA are still self-governing, to about the same extent that states were in the old USA, but all use a common currency, the dollar, and all owe their ultimate allegiance to Washington. Brazilian Federation - Brazil responded to the rise and southward spread of the UA by forming links with other South American nations, united primarily by their distrust of the UA. In recent years the Brazilian Federation has become a little more relaxed in its dealings with the UA, and there have been joint agreements on trade which some interpret as a prelude to a final amalgamation of the Federation and UA. Russian Empire - Russian Communism inevitably fell and the Romanovs were restored. Learning from their mistakes, the Russian Empire became a benevolent constitutional monarchy. All of the former USSR and some of the Balkan states, Poland, etc. United States of Europe - The European empires were torn apart by the struggle against fascism of the 1940s to 60s, and most of their colonies became independent. Europe is now a loose association of states, the United States of Europe, although constant bickering makes this perhaps the least effective government on Earth. Essentially the European nations retain most of their independence, paying lip service to the United States of Europe when it suits them to combine economic or military forces. Islamic Caliphate - Africa and the Middle East. With the decline of the European empires Africa was united by a new Mahdi. Now moderately liberal by Islamic standards. Pacific Alliance - China, India, and everything down South including Australia and New Zealand. The Alliance was India and Australia, who allied to resist Chinese expansion in India and the Philippines. This led to the 2075 Pacific War (nuclear) and (surprisingly) the collapse of the alliance of warlords which had previously ruled China. Somehow this hugely confusing mess ended with the Australians in charge. G'day cobber... Anyway, that's my first stab at this; anyone got any better "plausible evolution from 1934" ideas? Here's a rough map:  Anyone got any thoughts? Later Looking at everyone's suggestions, maybe something more like this:  ( revised text ) | ||||||||
| comments: 13 comments or Leave a comment |
October 3rd, 2008
| ||||||
| Usually when I open my iBook it automatically detects my home network and connects to it. For the last couple of days it has only done so if I enter the network name (which isn't transmitted) and password manually. In the past when it has done this, switching off Airport and switching on again has usually fixed the problem. When that didn't work a reboot usually did. But this time nothing I've tried seems to work. Anyone got any bright ideas? | ||||||
| comments: 10 comments or Leave a comment |
October 1st, 2008
| ||||||
| ...were an Intelplay QX3 microscope (the cheapo digital microscope Intel sold briefly; it was aimed at the kiddy market, but it's actually quite a good bit of kit, and someone has written a Mac driver for it so I can use it with the laptop) and a two-drive Acard DVD duplicator, which I want to use at work. Combined price was 49 quid including delivery, no warranty on either but both work fine. I'm rather pleased... Having said that, the DVD duplicator didn't have any manual and Acard's site seems to be down. Most of the menu options are reasonably obvious and I've successfully copied a couple of disks to test it, but it'd be nice to get hold of the instructions if someone happens to have them in PDF form or something. Apart from anything else, it looks like it can be connected to a PC and used as external SCSI drives, it'd be nice to have the documentation on that. Later QX3 photos - The Queen on a 2p stamp at 10, 60 and 200x    | ||||||
| comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| ||||||
| Once a year or so I need to send out an email to a large number of registered users, basically reminding them to update their snail mail address if it has changed, since I will be sending them a disk in a few weeks. It's always been a pain to do because I don't have any sort of bulk mail program and don't want to use CC or BCC; CC gives the recipient a load of other email addresses, which breaks the data protection act, while a lot of spam trap software is set up to stop mail that's been sent to a BCC address. Can anyone point me at a program (not a mailing list service, since that would also be against UK data protection law) that will take a list of say 500 email addresses and send the same message to each one as the sole recipient? Preferably one that won't trigger all sorts of spam trap alarms? Free or cheap would be nice too, since it'll be used once a year or less. I can use Windows or Mac OS-X 10.4 Thanks! | ||||||
| comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
September 29th, 2008
| ||||||
| SAN... fading... fast... ( Not for the faint of heart... ) | ||||||
| comments: 11 comments or Leave a comment |
September 27th, 2008
| ||||||
| When I was a kid I had loads of cheap plastic spacemen, injection moulded with clear plastic helmets, adjustable arms, and ray guns. Can't now remember who made them. Is anything like this still available? Or just moulded plastic spacemen generally, preferably around 25mm scale and up? I'd like to recommend a few manufacturers for Planets of Peril, but I've not had much luck finding anything in the shops I've tried so far. | ||||||
| comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| ||||||
| The whole basis of the Terminator franchise is a stonking huge time paradox. The Terminators and Skynet appear to exist solely because time travellers take Terminator technology back to the past - there is very little real evidence that Skynet will ever exist without Terminator intervention. John Connor only exists because future John Connor sends someone back to keep his mother alive. And so forth. Now, if this was a Doctor Who story you'd have big problems with a time paradox like that - the Reapers would start to appear to destroy it. In a DW / Terminator crossover why isn't that happening? The answer has to be that Sarah Connor and John Connor are still making changes - "no fate but what we make" - and until there's a definite outcome the time change hasn't gelled. So the whole thing will continue in flux until the humans win (fat chance) or John Connor is killed. At which point the Reapers start to appear, destroying all evidence of the paradox and blotting it out from history. With John Connor gone he can't send people back to the past, which means that he will never be born, which means that there is no reason to ever send a terminator back to kill Sarah, which means that there is no real foundation for Skynet's existence... The whole time loop vanishes forever. Back in nineteen-eighty-whatever Sarah has a boring evening at home, comes back to find that her flatmate and her boyfriend have left a horrible mess, has a huge row with them, and generally goes about her normal life. There is no John Connor, no terminators, nothing. It's all gone, edited out of time by the Reapers. I pass this along for anyone who wants to use it. | ||||||
| comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
September 26th, 2008
| ||||||
| Finally some Livejournal changes I really like - you can now switch off snap previews globally, not just on your own journal, and you can default to seeing all journal pages in your own preferred style, not purple-on-black tiny letters or whatever other stupid choice the other person made. http://news.livejournal.com/110103.h | ||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
September 25th, 2008
| ||||||
Paging ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} karohemd and gonzo21....Well, I said I'd name a parasite after you: The hotland food chain is unusually complicated, gaining most of its energy from thermal photosynthesis, conversion of infra-red light to chemical energy by the mud bacteria. These are in turn eaten by any of a hundred different species of “plant” or “fungus” (for want of better descriptive terms) which also devour each other and are in turn eaten by the larger species, while trying to devour them or infect them with their spores. A typical example is Deas Gonzonian, a “worm” which appears after rain. It has specifically evolved to mimic less harmful species, its sole role in life being to be eaten – because once eaten its spores, which have a waxy coating and strong shell, and are highly resistant to most digestive enzymes, can attack the eater from the inside! Hope this meets with approval? | ||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
September 24th, 2008
| ||||||
| Disks arrived today, appears to be a VERY clean transfer in widescreen format. Excellent clean picture and good sound. There aren't any extras, commentaries etc. apart from the original trailers, but for a fiver I think it's pretty good value. http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/5572 | ||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
September 23rd, 2008
| ||||||||
| This one is a Venusian described as follows: ...he met the native galloping along on his four short legs, his pincerlike hands shearing a path for him. [skip some non-descriptive stuff] humans can't read the expressions of the broad, flat, three-eyed Venusian faces, which in the nature of things must convey a world of information among the natives themselves. And that, unfortunately is all that we get in two stories set on Venus. Not sure that this is what Weinbaum had in mind, but it's what I ended up with ( a bit insectile - don't look if you're phobic ) Any thoughts? A small prize (I'll name an alien parasite after you or something) for anyone who correctly identifies at least four of the biological components that went into this one. Later: Well, no one person got four, but from head downwards ( answers ) | ||||||||
| comments: 15 comments or Leave a comment |
September 21st, 2008
| ||||||||
| Apologies if you see this more than once, I'm posting it to ffutures_news, various newsgroups, etc. The Compendium is a new release for the Forgotten Futures RPG, containing material that for one reason or another hasn't been included in previous releases of the game: THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GEOMETERS A Crossover Adventure For Forgotten Futures & The Original Flatland Role Playing Game When the High Circle vanishes in front of hundreds of witnesses, the only possible answer is abduction into the Third Dimension. Are the adventurers up to the task of rescuing him? Not that they actually have much choice about trying, of course… ~ CURSE OF THE LEOPARDMEN A Forgotten Futures Adventure By Alex Stewart Murder and mayhem strike an isolated British colony, and there's evidence that the murderer is more… or less… than human. Can the first victim's odd account of an airship journey hold the clue? The only way to find out is a voyage into the very heart of darkness… ~ THE ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT Victorian & Edwardian Advertisements & Scenario Ideas What secrets lurk behind the lurid claims of advertisers? Are their products entirely safe, or even slightly effective? And who are those odd people who want to thin your hair, lighten your complexion, make you drunk or buy your false teeth? A brief sprint through the world of period advertising, with scenario outlines and verse by the late great William McGonagall. As an experiment the Compendium has been put on line as a PDF only - I will add an HTML version if there is enough demand. http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/co | ||||||||
| comments: Leave a comment |
September 20th, 2008
| ||||||||
| While I was thinking about Weinbaum's solar system I began to think of scenario ideas, and this outline popped into my head. Don't read it if you think you might be playing in a Planets of Peril campaign eventually: ( Adventure Idea: Frozen Fortress ) This really needs a better title - any suggestions? | ||||||||
| comments: Leave a comment |
September 19th, 2008
| ||||||
| I was reminded of these films by something in the latest Plokta, and realised that I only have them on fairly crap tapes. They're available pretty cheaply as a DVD compilation, but none of the sites selling it seem to say if it's widescreen, letterboxed, or standard format. I suspect standard format and copied from a video release, since there's a widescreen version of The Three Musketeers available that's considerably more expensive. Anyone know for sure? | ||||||
| comments: 9 comments or Leave a comment |
| ||||||
| I really like the FireFTP add-on for Firefox. Lots of reasons, but the one that just made me laugh is that the last line of its log, after the file transfer I was using it for was complete and it was left with nothing to do, was "Zzz..." | ||||||
| comments: Leave a comment |
| ||||||||
| I've decided to make my picture and description of the formation of the Solar System a little more like the version of a near-collision event that doesn't involve a mutual exchange of matter between stars. ( Words and pictures ) Both the pictures will be small on the page - the first one is in a sidebar that's 6cm wide, the second is about 10cm wide. I think that the repetition is worthwhile - the first part is in a section on Weird Science that explains why things are different in this solar system, the second is an introduction to the main chapter on Weinbaum's solar system which takes everything at face value and doesn't point out where it goes non-factual. | ||||||||
| comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| ||||||||
| I've put the first chapter of Forgotten Futures XI: Planets of Peril on my web site. This consists of the front cover etc., table of contents for the first chapter, and the first chapter, which is A Martian Odyssey with some sidebars on various things. Because I really don't want this circulating before I have the game finished it's in a password-protected directory. It will eventually be on line as a free download, of course, but not until it's complete. If you'd like to take a look and let me know if you run into any problems, or spot anything that seems a bit off, please email me at marcus dot rowland at gmail dot com and I'll tell you how to access it. If you're already on my reviewers list, the file is http://www.forgottenfutures.com/rev Use the user name and password I've given you before. I'll probably be emailing you to remind you pretty soon. | ||||||||
| comments: Leave a comment |
September 18th, 2008
| ||||||||
| I've decided to expand the weird science section a little - one of the things I'm adding is a picture of the near-collision hypothesis for the formation of the solar system. Couldn't find an image on line, so I had to model my own. When I was a kid I used to own a 1950s astronomy book that was a bit behind the times and still used this theory - I'm sure their picture was better, or at least I remember it that way, but it means I have a general idea of what it's supposed to look like. ( a bead necklace of planets ) | ||||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
September 17th, 2008
| ||||||||
| Anyone who was looking at the Forgotten Futures Compendium - since I've had no reports of problems I'm planning to put this on line at the weekend now that I've sorted out the site move. Please get back to me via email before then if you do have any problems / suggestions / etc. | ||||||||
| comments: Leave a comment |
| ||||||||
| Apologies if you see this more than once, I'm posting it to ffutures_news and the InsaneJournal equivalent which is currently the blog feed to my web sites. As of a few minutes ago http://www.forgottenfutures.com should point to my new web site, not the old one. It may take a while for this change to propagate, the easy way to find out is to click on the link above (or open it in a new tab) and see if you go straight to the Forgotten Futures top page, or stop off at a redirection page. If you get any sort of error message please let me know. This is a mirror of the old site, and all links should work exactly as before. But fairly soon I'll be adding more content, so please watch this space. If anyone feels like testing this and runs into errors PLEASE comment below. | ||||||||
| comments: Leave a comment |
September 16th, 2008
| ||||||||
| Here's my first stab at explaining the weirder aspects of science in the Weinbaum universe in a single sidebar. Comments as usual gratefully received. ( (Slightly) Weird Science ) | ||||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
September 15th, 2008
| ||||||||
In Redemption Cairn Weinbaum describes how nuclear engines work, as follows:She nodded. "Well, you know how a rocket motor works, of course. How they use a minute amount of uranium or radium as catalyst to release the energy in the fuel. Uranium has low activity; it will set off only metals like the alkalis, and ships using uranium motors burn salt. And radium, being more active, will set off the metals from iron to copper; so ships using a radium initiator usually burn one of the commoner iron or copper ores." If I'm reading this right the engines use radiation to somehow trigger the breakdown of elements in what amounts to slow total conversion - I'm visualising some sort of cascade effect where (for example) Uranium rays strip off a proton and breaks sodium down to Neon, releasing some energy, then Neon to Flourine, with another big energy release, and so forth. So with uranium the ideal fuel would be pure sodium but in practice they use salt, which is a hell of a lot cheaper, though the Chlorine is unwanted weight. I don't really need too much of an explanation, and I know that this doesn't work with current atomic theory, but I'm wondering if Weinbaum got his ideas from some theory of the time. Any suggestions? Preferably one that doesn't involve having flourine hanging around for too long, considering how nasty it is... The one reference to a similar idea I can think of is "Blowups Happen," but I think that was building up the heavier elements, not breaking things down. | ||||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| ||||||||
| This one uses a tubular triangle which is more faithful to the story and to the magazine cover illustrated on the Wikipedia page for the story. Three versions, with and without flare, and red with flare ( small picture links to big one ) Which is best, and why? later Just noticed that the planet or star just to the right of the lower hemisphere of the Moon shows a little lens flare in a slightly different direction - it's easy enough to fix, but annoying I didn't spot it earlier. | ||||||||
| comments: Leave a comment |
September 13th, 2008
| ||||||
Just a short bit this time: A specimen of Martian ‘Walking Grass’ grows in a refrigerated dish of nutrient gel. Kew Gardens, London Biopods are mobile plant-like organisms of varying degrees of complexity. They produce energy by photosynthesis1 and find water and the minerals they need for growth by "walking" on their long tendril-like roots, which are tipped with fine hooks and hairs. The mechanism resembles the curling and uncurling of Mimosa leaves, but is much more rapid. When a suitable source is found, rapidly-growing root-hairs burrow into the soil. Since this process requires a good deal of energy they move out of shadows – reduced photosynthesis in the coiled roots causes them to slacken, so that tension in another root moves the plant into the light. This has been misinterpreted as a directed flight mechanism, since the plants seem to move away from danger – in fact they are simply moving out of the shadow of the thing that endangers them. This is seen most easily in the simplest biopod, 'Walking Grass'; If the roots are suddenly in shadow the hooks disengage and the plant literally springs an inch or two in a random direction, repeating the process until at least one root is in sunlight. 1Their green photosynthetic pigment is not chlorophyll, but a chemical similar to the xanthophylls found in algae on Earth. Later I've dropped the Mimosa analogy and changed this to say that "The contractile tissue is similar to the muscles of Terrestrial animals, though the chemical process is different." | ||||||
| comments: Leave a comment |
September 12th, 2008
| ||||||||
| Weinbaum's The Black Flame describes a future city where every home is monitored by the authorities via tiny cameras and microphones, and everyone knows that they are there. He died in 1935 - did he originate the idea, or was someone else there earlier? | ||||||||
| comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
September 11th, 2008
| ||||||||
| Here's my sidebars on the intelligent Martian races. I'm reasonably happy with the images for Tweel, the "Dream Beast," and the rat thing, I think I'll try to develop something better for the mound builder but I'm a bit stuck on it at present. Remember that the pictures will be smaller in the sidebars, which covers a multitude of sins... ( lots of text and pictures ) Remember that this is just an introductory sidebar - there will be much more on all of them in the main text later in the book. | ||||||||
| comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| ||||||
| Dr Who to the tune of What Would Brian Boitano Do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RmFTFyz | ||||||
| comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
Meme-Free Zone
|
|||||||||||||