Charles Stross' Diary (RSS Feed)
07-18-2007, 01:09 PM
... With Saturn's Children, dammit. (I'd hoped to have it finished by now, but I'm currently shooting for the end of the month.)
"The Atrocity Archives" rates a review in Information Week's weblog (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/07/book_review_it.html).
Subterranean Press have republished — on the web — my short story, Snowball's Chance (http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2007/fiction-snowballs-chance-by-charles-stross/).
I don't normally carry ads, but excellent small publisher Nightshade books tell me they're having a half-price sale on all current and forthcoming titles, via their online store this month: use the coupon code NSB0750 with any order for four or more books and you get the discount. Given that they're carrying books by Greg Egan (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/book.aspx?bookid=173), Walter Jon Williams (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/book.aspx?bookid=175), and the new Detective Inspector Chen novel from Liz Williams (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/book.aspx?bookid=178), I am now ruefully fondling my credit card and looking for a fourth title to add to my order. (Full disclosure: I am not being paid to say this, I just like their books so I figured I'd give them a good word.)
Finally, from the ain't-dead-yet department although you've probably already seen this), MIT professor Dava Newman is demoing a new kind of spacesuit (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/biosuit-0716.html) — one that uses mechanical pressure from tight layers of fabric, rather than gas pressure, to keep astronauts comfortable in vacuum conditions. The idea was first floated in the late 1960s, but the materials to build such a suit didn't exist back then; today, it's becoming practical, and it bears the same relationship to a traditional space suit that a SCUBA diver's wet suit does to a traditional hard-shell diving suit. What's most impressive is the degree of freedom of movement it permits, as shown in the photo sequence (see link above): if you've ever seen a current generation space suit, it should be fairly obvious that crossing your legs is not an option.
(Original Post) (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/07/still_busy.html)
"The Atrocity Archives" rates a review in Information Week's weblog (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/07/book_review_it.html).
Subterranean Press have republished — on the web — my short story, Snowball's Chance (http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2007/fiction-snowballs-chance-by-charles-stross/).
I don't normally carry ads, but excellent small publisher Nightshade books tell me they're having a half-price sale on all current and forthcoming titles, via their online store this month: use the coupon code NSB0750 with any order for four or more books and you get the discount. Given that they're carrying books by Greg Egan (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/book.aspx?bookid=173), Walter Jon Williams (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/book.aspx?bookid=175), and the new Detective Inspector Chen novel from Liz Williams (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/book.aspx?bookid=178), I am now ruefully fondling my credit card and looking for a fourth title to add to my order. (Full disclosure: I am not being paid to say this, I just like their books so I figured I'd give them a good word.)
Finally, from the ain't-dead-yet department although you've probably already seen this), MIT professor Dava Newman is demoing a new kind of spacesuit (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/biosuit-0716.html) — one that uses mechanical pressure from tight layers of fabric, rather than gas pressure, to keep astronauts comfortable in vacuum conditions. The idea was first floated in the late 1960s, but the materials to build such a suit didn't exist back then; today, it's becoming practical, and it bears the same relationship to a traditional space suit that a SCUBA diver's wet suit does to a traditional hard-shell diving suit. What's most impressive is the degree of freedom of movement it permits, as shown in the photo sequence (see link above): if you've ever seen a current generation space suit, it should be fairly obvious that crossing your legs is not an option.
(Original Post) (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/07/still_busy.html)