Lego Fusion
Jun. 27th, 2014 01:32 pmLego has introduced three toy sets which interface between physical and virtual play. Faaaaaascinating. The idea is to build something with bricks, then transfer that into a manipulable model in cyberspace. This has terrific potential for architects, scientists, and other folks who often transport their imagination from one layer of reality to another. I'm sure folks will figure out some practical applications for this after fooling around with it for a little while. In the meantime, it's awesome fun.
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aldersprig is launching a new multi-platform project, Faerie Apocalypse Live. It will contain a mix of fiction and demifiction. I'm excited to see people using technology to tell stories in new ways. This one is supported by tips.Gender Dynamics, Comics, and Cyberspace
May. 22nd, 2014 07:49 pmMy partner Doug found this bit of stuff that networks into a large mesh of issues, some of which I've already touched upon or read elsewhere.
It begins with this piece, where actually the title is what interests me: "We'd Like to Thank Our Commenters Again For Generally Not Being Jerks." That's ComicMix, an excellent source of news and discussions in this field; you've seen us linking there before. The quality of their audience is not an accident. It means they're posting the kind of content, and managing discussing in such a way, that attracts reasonably decent people. That takes work. I'm really proud of my audience here for similar reasons, and it makes me happy to see someone else having a similar effect.
From there we go to the next post, “Let’s see how feminist you are when you’re begging for more”: The violent, sexist world of comic website comments." It discusses what happened in response to a critique, "Anatomy of a Bad Cover: DC'S New "Teen Titans" #1" by Janelle Asselin, a former editor at DC comics. She described how the sexist elements of the artwork could alienate female viewers, driving them away from a title that has historically held a considerable female fanbase in an industry that usually doesn't. The result, predictably, was the usual dogpile of rapetastic abuse. But the response was unusual and worthy of note.
( Read more... )
It begins with this piece, where actually the title is what interests me: "We'd Like to Thank Our Commenters Again For Generally Not Being Jerks." That's ComicMix, an excellent source of news and discussions in this field; you've seen us linking there before. The quality of their audience is not an accident. It means they're posting the kind of content, and managing discussing in such a way, that attracts reasonably decent people. That takes work. I'm really proud of my audience here for similar reasons, and it makes me happy to see someone else having a similar effect.
From there we go to the next post, “Let’s see how feminist you are when you’re begging for more”: The violent, sexist world of comic website comments." It discusses what happened in response to a critique, "Anatomy of a Bad Cover: DC'S New "Teen Titans" #1" by Janelle Asselin, a former editor at DC comics. She described how the sexist elements of the artwork could alienate female viewers, driving them away from a title that has historically held a considerable female fanbase in an industry that usually doesn't. The result, predictably, was the usual dogpile of rapetastic abuse. But the response was unusual and worthy of note.
( Read more... )
Superspreaders
May. 14th, 2014 02:33 amHere's an interesting article about people who spread information.
This is actually my vocation. I sift through the vast amount of stuff going on and then highlight what seems interesting or important. I can add a few other points of interest:
* Repetition matters. An item might not catch my eye the first time if it's posted without commentary. But if someone says something insightful about it, I'm more likely to forward.
* Meaning matters. Some people just echo fluff, which is fine. But some people are hunting and relaying things that are thoughtworthy or actionable, not just casually amusing. These differences are important if you want to convince people to do something. I tend to favor high-impact content, although I also include lighter stuff to avoid burnout.
* Attention matters. It's not just about connecting outward to other people with many connections. It's about whether people actually treat you as a hub, a place they go for information. I've repeatedly had people tell me that they use me as a newsfeed because they like my topic selection.
* Saturation matters. If you know most or all the people in a group, that's meaningful, whether or not the rest of them have a high connectivity of their own. You've got a lot of penetration in terms of reaching people in that group. I'm still active enough in Paganism to have good connectivity, and back when I was running PanGaia, either I knew someone personally or I knew somebody else who knew them.
This is actually my vocation. I sift through the vast amount of stuff going on and then highlight what seems interesting or important. I can add a few other points of interest:
* Repetition matters. An item might not catch my eye the first time if it's posted without commentary. But if someone says something insightful about it, I'm more likely to forward.
* Meaning matters. Some people just echo fluff, which is fine. But some people are hunting and relaying things that are thoughtworthy or actionable, not just casually amusing. These differences are important if you want to convince people to do something. I tend to favor high-impact content, although I also include lighter stuff to avoid burnout.
* Attention matters. It's not just about connecting outward to other people with many connections. It's about whether people actually treat you as a hub, a place they go for information. I've repeatedly had people tell me that they use me as a newsfeed because they like my topic selection.
* Saturation matters. If you know most or all the people in a group, that's meaningful, whether or not the rest of them have a high connectivity of their own. You've got a lot of penetration in terms of reaching people in that group. I'm still active enough in Paganism to have good connectivity, and back when I was running PanGaia, either I knew someone personally or I knew somebody else who knew them.
Poem: "Dreams of Glass and Magic"
May. 13th, 2014 01:05 amThis poem is from the May 6, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from rosieknight, mdlbear, and LJ user Siege. It also fills the "dreams" square in my 3-30-14 card for the ![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
cottoncandy_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette
( Read more... )
rosieknight, mdlbear, and LJ user Siege. It also fills the "dreams" square in my 3-30-14 card for the cottoncandy_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette( Read more... )
New Crowdfunding Project: "The Indie Box"
May. 12th, 2014 01:29 pm Take back your data with the Indie Box, a personal web server designed to make it easy to use the web while protecting your privacy from corporate and national spies. I like seeing new privacy tools.
Novel Lengths
May. 3rd, 2014 05:37 pmHere's a detailed article about novel lengths and why they are the way they are.
The FIRST consideration should be story need. Write the length that the plot requires. A novel can be anywhere from 40,000 words to well above 120,000 these days.
Publisher demands have depended partly on popular format, so as prices went up, people made fatter books. The problem is, most of that is bloat; it degrades the product quality. I hate bloated novels. A fat book makes me suspicious unless I know the author is good for it. If you give someone a target in advance, though, at least they know where to aim.
But the worst problem is when people take a story that's already written and cut it down without regard to its infrastructure. This is butchery, and the result is often illegible. You can write a book and subdivide it into serial chapters if you know what you're doing. But to take, say, 800 pages and divide that into thirds when it wasn't meant to be? Chances are it will suck mightily.
Never, ever do anything which degrades the base product quality. Movies are having a big problem with this currently where the fulminating mess that is copyright has interfered with the ability to tell a good story. Fuck you, my money can stay in my pocket. People are reading fewer books today. Part of that is changing culture, but part may be because of really stupid publisher decisions like these.
On the bright side, electronic publication removes the size constraints. You can write and publish whatever size your story needs to be. Your readers can buy whatever size they want. This is an advantage that paper will never be able to compete with, and it's bringing back gutter-length fiction: stuff in the 10-30,000 range that's all but impossible to sell in print. I'm not into ebooks but I am very happy with the impact on size diversity. There's much less temptation to hack or bloat in an electronic environment.
The FIRST consideration should be story need. Write the length that the plot requires. A novel can be anywhere from 40,000 words to well above 120,000 these days.
Publisher demands have depended partly on popular format, so as prices went up, people made fatter books. The problem is, most of that is bloat; it degrades the product quality. I hate bloated novels. A fat book makes me suspicious unless I know the author is good for it. If you give someone a target in advance, though, at least they know where to aim.
But the worst problem is when people take a story that's already written and cut it down without regard to its infrastructure. This is butchery, and the result is often illegible. You can write a book and subdivide it into serial chapters if you know what you're doing. But to take, say, 800 pages and divide that into thirds when it wasn't meant to be? Chances are it will suck mightily.
Never, ever do anything which degrades the base product quality. Movies are having a big problem with this currently where the fulminating mess that is copyright has interfered with the ability to tell a good story. Fuck you, my money can stay in my pocket. People are reading fewer books today. Part of that is changing culture, but part may be because of really stupid publisher decisions like these.
On the bright side, electronic publication removes the size constraints. You can write and publish whatever size your story needs to be. Your readers can buy whatever size they want. This is an advantage that paper will never be able to compete with, and it's bringing back gutter-length fiction: stuff in the 10-30,000 range that's all but impossible to sell in print. I'm not into ebooks but I am very happy with the impact on size diversity. There's much less temptation to hack or bloat in an electronic environment.
New Crowdfunding Project: "Codemancer"
May. 3rd, 2014 01:37 pmThis fundraiser aims to create a fantasy game where the magic works like computer code. The setting is gender-neutral and the protagonist is female. It is well past the initial goal and very close to the stretch goal that unlocks a level editor.
I am massively in favor of anything that teaches about computers in a fun way. But this project has extra awesomesauce: it basically presents a reality in which science and magic are the same (go quantum physics girls, go!) and it teaches that making mistakes is no big deal. You can debug on the fly, and if your character dies anyway, the level resets very quickly so the stakes are low. All of this encourages kids to try new things, experiment, fool around and see what happens.
I am massively in favor of anything that teaches about computers in a fun way. But this project has extra awesomesauce: it basically presents a reality in which science and magic are the same (go quantum physics girls, go!) and it teaches that making mistakes is no big deal. You can debug on the fly, and if your character dies anyway, the level resets very quickly so the stakes are low. All of this encourages kids to try new things, experiment, fool around and see what happens.
Ubiquitous Damage
May. 3rd, 2014 03:00 amI found a couple of good posts about ubiquitous damage. These are cases where abuse is so widespread that it is treated as normal, it's difficult or impossible to avoid, and is presented as the price of having a life at all. You either "willingly" submit to the abuse or you don't get to be a part of most of society. Objecting to it, trying to change it -- you can do those things, and sometimes make a little progress, but it also makes you a target and means there are many things you can't or won't do.
These include user abuse and employee abuse.
I have a tendency to look at abusive situations and say, "I am not that fucking hungry." I've passed a lot of opportunities because they were more toxic than I would tolerate. True, I'm not a very good fit for this culture. But I maintain that "It is no great sign of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
These include user abuse and employee abuse.
I have a tendency to look at abusive situations and say, "I am not that fucking hungry." I've passed a lot of opportunities because they were more toxic than I would tolerate. True, I'm not a very good fit for this culture. But I maintain that "It is no great sign of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
Security Flaws
Apr. 22nd, 2014 04:29 am A crucial and immovable flaw in many security systems is humans. If people can't get something to work properly, they will find a way to make it work improperly. I find that there are a great many places online that I don't think need passwords. It's just something I don't want to fuck around with for trivial uses. So either I don't go there, or I work around it. The problem comes when people do exactly the same thing with a really, really important system.
Stealing Your Ebooks
Apr. 6th, 2014 11:45 amHere's an article about how you don't really own ebooks.
The problem is that this is fraud. People think if they are clicking a "buy" button online, what they pay for belongs to them. If someone then takes it away, they feel robbed, and rightly so. Saying "buy" implies ownership of the product; it's a contract term. If the fine print says "you don't really own this" then that deceives people, causing them to make different decisions, and the results can be negative. This does not just harm Amazon's reputation; it damages the reputation of ebooks in general. It makes customers feel that ebooks are unreliable, perhaps even undesirable; and that makes people less willing to pay for them. This is an incentive to copy them from unofficial sources, because the authorities can't burgle what they don't even know you have. It also makes life difficult for anyone who really IS selling ebooks on a "you pay me, and this thing belongs to you" basis.
Just in case you're wondering, that's me. You pay me for an ebook, and that copy is yours, just as if you pay me for a paper book that I mail to you. Robbing people's libraries is an abomination before the Lady.
And this is one of many reasons why I dislike ebooks, but even if I liked them for every other reason, such behavior would kill my interest dead, at least for anyone doing business on this basis. It can be hard to tell who's playing straight and who's fraudulent, though, so a few bad experiences and the whole product line gets crossed off. The risk isn't worth the reward.
The problem is that this is fraud. People think if they are clicking a "buy" button online, what they pay for belongs to them. If someone then takes it away, they feel robbed, and rightly so. Saying "buy" implies ownership of the product; it's a contract term. If the fine print says "you don't really own this" then that deceives people, causing them to make different decisions, and the results can be negative. This does not just harm Amazon's reputation; it damages the reputation of ebooks in general. It makes customers feel that ebooks are unreliable, perhaps even undesirable; and that makes people less willing to pay for them. This is an incentive to copy them from unofficial sources, because the authorities can't burgle what they don't even know you have. It also makes life difficult for anyone who really IS selling ebooks on a "you pay me, and this thing belongs to you" basis.
Just in case you're wondering, that's me. You pay me for an ebook, and that copy is yours, just as if you pay me for a paper book that I mail to you. Robbing people's libraries is an abomination before the Lady.
And this is one of many reasons why I dislike ebooks, but even if I liked them for every other reason, such behavior would kill my interest dead, at least for anyone doing business on this basis. It can be hard to tell who's playing straight and who's fraudulent, though, so a few bad experiences and the whole product line gets crossed off. The risk isn't worth the reward.
Artificial Intelligence
Mar. 9th, 2014 12:46 pmHere's a very thoughtful explanation of why robots will NOT get "smarter than humans" in the near future. These are many of the same reasons I've been giving, arranged in clear and concise format. This doesn't mean that artificial intelligence is impossible, just that we aren't as close as some people think, and there are still some major obstacles to solve.
On the other hoof, the potential for sentience follows the infrastructure. If we start building machines with the physical complexity akin to a human brain, then we're creating an environment that could host a complex mind. At that point it becomes possible, however distantly, whether we intend it or not -- just because life is mightily creative stuff. We could wind up with an infant AI where nobody expected one. I suspect the results would be bad, because humans still haven't figured out how to treat each other decently on a consistent basis, let alone the first of a new species with no legal protections.
On the other hoof, the potential for sentience follows the infrastructure. If we start building machines with the physical complexity akin to a human brain, then we're creating an environment that could host a complex mind. At that point it becomes possible, however distantly, whether we intend it or not -- just because life is mightily creative stuff. We could wind up with an infant AI where nobody expected one. I suspect the results would be bad, because humans still haven't figured out how to treat each other decently on a consistent basis, let alone the first of a new species with no legal protections.
Banned Content
Mar. 7th, 2014 12:55 pmMore and more online booksellers are practicing censorship. This directly harms writers by preventing them from selling their work; it directly harms readers by preventing people from spending their money as they see fit.
Some people say that this doesn't count as "real" censorship because it's done by corporations rather than government. But it has exactly the same effect on your ability to write, read, sell, and buy what you choose. Look around. Corporations are doing a lot of destructive things that the government was forbidden to do because those cause problems, only nobody forbade corporations because nobody thought that businesses would ever have the power to do government-type things. Now they do, and it's a disaster.
When a small business makes personalized decisions, it has a small impact; but when a megacorp does, it has a government-sized impact. That makes it not okay anymore. If you're going to function in an area where you control most or all of the market, then you have an obligation to serve ALL of that market, not cherry-pick just the customers you personally like and freeze out everyone else.
If you think this is only happening to erotica, it's not. That's just a genre where it's relatively easy to catch people censoring content. People who think that censorship is okay will manipulate everything according to their -- usually awful -- worldviews. So there's probably censorship in other areas such as politics, religion, sexual health information, current events, etc. It's a new bottleneck between creators and customers.
This is becoming a huge issue in books, videos, music, all kinds of cultural entertainment. It's a problem with online money handlers who think that they have a right to tell you how you can spend your money. Shopping in niche markets can be fun, but it's less efficient and effective than shopping in a few large places. It wastes your time and causes you to miss some stuff that is available but out of easy reach.
Some people say that this doesn't count as "real" censorship because it's done by corporations rather than government. But it has exactly the same effect on your ability to write, read, sell, and buy what you choose. Look around. Corporations are doing a lot of destructive things that the government was forbidden to do because those cause problems, only nobody forbade corporations because nobody thought that businesses would ever have the power to do government-type things. Now they do, and it's a disaster.
When a small business makes personalized decisions, it has a small impact; but when a megacorp does, it has a government-sized impact. That makes it not okay anymore. If you're going to function in an area where you control most or all of the market, then you have an obligation to serve ALL of that market, not cherry-pick just the customers you personally like and freeze out everyone else.
If you think this is only happening to erotica, it's not. That's just a genre where it's relatively easy to catch people censoring content. People who think that censorship is okay will manipulate everything according to their -- usually awful -- worldviews. So there's probably censorship in other areas such as politics, religion, sexual health information, current events, etc. It's a new bottleneck between creators and customers.
This is becoming a huge issue in books, videos, music, all kinds of cultural entertainment. It's a problem with online money handlers who think that they have a right to tell you how you can spend your money. Shopping in niche markets can be fun, but it's less efficient and effective than shopping in a few large places. It wastes your time and causes you to miss some stuff that is available but out of easy reach.
Author Incomes
Feb. 12th, 2014 02:37 pm Here's a detailed discussion of author earnings in book publishing. Ebooks and self-publishing make an excellent showing.
