Candor Salamander

SSS Stories is in print!

xcaper — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:15:45 +0000

Last week I gave a list of all the stories that were going to be a part of the new StarShipSofa Stories: Volume 1 and Wednesday it was released upon the world! This is an accumulation of authors and stories you will not want to miss if you like to read SF. You don’t have to buy the book (although every time you purchase one $5 goes straight to SSS to keep her flying through space) there’s a free ebook you can download, or you can read it for free at issuu.com (which has a very cool flip-page interface). The book itself is very retro with old ads, illustrations that look like they were drawn yesteryear, and stories that will tickle your sci-fi longings.

Cory Doctorow did a great write-up at BoingBoing. He is a contributor to the sofa.

StarShipSofa Stories

xcaper — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:38:19 +0000

I received an email a few days ago from one of my favorite podcast DJs, Tony Smith, exhorting me to share this info on the blog. The StarShipSofa is a wonderful, weekly podcast full to the brim with SciFi fact articles, movie reviews, comic reviews, poetry, short stories, fiction from famous authors, and much more. I’ve been listening since about the 20th show or so and I’ve enjoyed each so much, I’m glad to see that the podcast is reaching its 100th episode.

The wonderful StarShipSofa podcast will soon celebrate their 100th show on the 16th of September. To celebrate, they are releasing a Print-on-Demand anthology called StarShipSofa Stories Volume 1. There will also be a free PDF of the book available to download and a new website. All monies made from the books and donations from the PDF will go into keeping StarShipSofa in the skies.
Here’s the table of contents:

StarShipSofa Stories Volume 1
“Into The Blank Where Life Is Hurled” by Ken Scholes
“London Bone” by Michael Moorcock
“The Second Coming Of Jasmine Fitzgerald” by Peter Watts
“Lest Young and The Jupiter’s Moons’ Blues” by Gord Sellar
“Vampire Kiss” by Gene Wolfe
“Vinegar Peace (or The Wrong-Way Used-Adult Orphanage)” by Michael Bishop
“Godzilla’s 12 Step Program” by Joe R Lansdale
“Jesus Christ, Reanimator” by Ken MacLeod
“The Sledge-Maker’s Daughter” by Alastair Reynolds
“Mars: A Travelers Guide” by Ruth Nestvold
“The Empire of Ice Cream” by Jeffrey Ford
“The Ant King: A California Fairytale” by Benjamin Rosebaum
“In The Olden Days” by Spider Robinson
“Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear

Labor-less Day!

xcaper — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:56:21 +0000

Happy Labor Day to all! I’ve got the day off, I hope you all do too. Of course, I did work this weekend but it was pretty slow, as far as weekends go.

I’ve been thinking of starting up the XCAPER blog again, but re-inventing it and trying some new things. I would start over, of course, and everything there would be archived on another site somewhere, but I think I could make it better with a little elbow grease. If you haven’t read the XCAPER blog yet, you can check it out over at xcaper.wordpress.com. Let me know what you think.

I’ve found a few “bugs” with Snow Leopard since I’ve been using it, mainly just some slow downs and things not working as they should. Every once in a while my wireless disconnects, I still have a great signal but everything disconnects from the internet and I have to turn Airport off and back on for it to come back up. I’ve tried a few suggestions that I’ve seen around the web but nothing has helped for long. Also Safari seems to beachball a lot more with 10.6, It happens every time I open a new tab (usually the new tab window is all screwy too) and video will pause if I try to open a new tab or open another app (resulting in the sound continuing but the video staying paused), I’ve see this in flash video and a video in VLC. Hopefully the 10.6.1 update that the devs are testing will address all of these issues.

Skirting around the firewall

xcaper — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:01:19 +0000

Currently I am sitting in the Hall where my 4PM class will take place and until now I have not been able to log onto GTalk accounts on Adium. Yahoo!IM would work as would AIM but GTalk, for some reason, just would never connect. I figured it was something to do with a port that was being blocked and since I was just sitting here I thought I would finally look into it. First, I tried changing it to 5225 (originally it was port 5222) but that did nothing, so a little more digging via Google and I found it! I changed the port to 80 and it worked! Now, I don’t know how secure that is or if I can receive files or anything but I’m only going to be here for an hour so there’s not much that I can do to get myself in trouble. GTalk in GMail goes over 80 and I was using that.

I’m glad for the long weekend ahead, although I will be working Saturday and Sunday, I’ll still get Monday and Tuesday off, really looking forward to that. But I think my weekend will be filled with what I plan on wearing to the Avitable Halloween party. The theme is “INVASION” and I’m excited at the prospect of going as an alien, I’m just not sure what to go as. I thought about trying to find an “Instant Martian” costume but I don’t know where I would be able to get one.

Snow Leopard RAWR!

xcaper — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:42:14 +0000

After a weekend of rain and losing my internet connection due to a pulled cable I’m back in action and ready to roll! Okay, more of the first and less of the rolling, might get me sick at this point.

I went ahead with the Snow Leopard upgrade last night, after doing a full backup with the most awesome SuperDuper! If you ever need to do a backup just grab this little app (it’s free!) and be amazed at how easy it all is. The backup took almost 3 hours to complete and the upgrade took around 1hour and 5 minutes (add an extra 15 minutes for me to get mail and all my other apps up and running again) and I must say I do enjoy the snowy cat. The update to Expose is very nice and the ability to preview anything directly in Finder is a wlcome addition to the Quick View ability we already had. I only had about an hour to play with it before I needed to go to bed last night so after I use it some more I’ll come to my final conclusion on whether or not it was worth it to upgrade. I mean, come on, it’s only a $30 upgrade anyway.

Windows Security Alert!

xcaper — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:36:19 +0000

I’m at home now, waiting on the handyman to put up a door, but I was browsing around on DeviantArt (as I am wont to do some days) and the site changed suddenly to a warning that my pc was infected! I haven’t downloaded anything so I knew that I was safe and I’m on a Mac, another reason I knew that I was safe. But what had me laughing was the next screen that popped up (and I had to take a screen shot):

Windows Security Alert on a Mac?

This makes my day

Seasick

xcaper — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:52:39 +0000

(Ugh, I typed up this post once already, here goes number 2)

A little background before I start: I am still taking classes at the local college, trying to get my bachelor’s degree in business, and I take classes at night, mostly. Last night I was sitting in a class and the way the classroom is set up all the seats are connected to a long table (5 per table, 10 tables per class) and they swing out, which is a mess in itself. I think I have posted about this before but it always bugs me when someone sits and starts fidgeting. I know the professor may be boring but when they move EVERYONE on the row feels it. Now, this person wasn’t just moving around in her chair, no, she was rocking, which made me feel like I was on a boat. The end result? After class was over I had to get my sea legs back. I felt so seasick.

On a happier note — Amazon has just announced it’s newest venture AmazonWireless.com, where you can search for and buy cell phones and plans from the comfort of Amazon. They allow you to upgrade with a current plan or even buy a new plan. It seems like a pretty nice little site, they already take out the rebates so you get your phone at a low price (I checked smartphones on Verizon and all of them were under $200, which is comparable with buying online at verizonwireless.com). My plan is coming up for renewal at the end of October and I’ll see if I can use it to renew. Verizon may not let me since I was part of the Alltel merge but we’ll just have to wait and see.

On the topic of cell phones, my sister recently bought an LG EnV II and my dad asked if Mrs Fireshaper and myself used screen protectors on our phones. The reason he asked was because the guy selling them the phone told him that he would have to buy more than one screen protector for my sister’s phone and he was worried that they would wear out easily. I just recently changed my screen protector and I’ve had my phone for almost two years so I told him so but what I don’t get is why the rep at the Verizon store would lead him to believe that he was going to have to buy extra screen protectors with the phone. My phone came with a protector, I didn’t have to buy extras until now.

Android

xcaper — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:36:37 +0000

Lately I have been playing with the Android OS on my HTC Touch, with the help from the guys and girls over at the XDA-Developers forums and I’m so ready for an Android phone on the Verizon network. Android has become my newest favorite OS and it’s not just because it isn’t a Microsoft product (so don’t start on the whole Apple-fanboy thing, I like my Macbook, sure, but I don’t like the iPhone), there’s something about the OS that just makes Windows Mobile look archaic. Microsoft is promising that this is going to be remedied with WinMo 7 but that may just be too late.

As you all know I’m a fan of Plurk as well (I always choose the underdog) and I’ve been looking for a good Plurk app for Android. There’s one out there (Pludroid) but it’s just not up to par with all the other apps. I think some of that may be because there’s not an official Plurk API but I think it has to do with the app itself as well — it just doesn’t flow like all the other Android apps do. So I’m reading up on Android/Java programming, I haven’t touched the stuff for a few years now and I know I’m rusty. I never really liked Java though.

Estate of Panic!

xcaper — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:17:57 +0000

Alright, so there aren’t many television shows I like to watch but I had been waiting for the season to start on Estate of Panic. Tonight, on USA, the first episode aired and, I must say, it really changes reality game shows. The host is amazing! Steve Valentine does a great job acting as a creepy manor owner and whoever plays his “butler” — AMAZING!

The first episode comes on again tomorrow at 8PM on SciFi, so if you forgot about it, or didn’t even know about it and you like reality shows, check it out. It’s worth it.

Tired much?

xcaper — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:35:40 +0000

I’m beginning to loathe the weekend, not because it means I’ll have to do work around the house or that I have to get up particularly early. No, it’s not that, in fact it’s the opposite. I don’t have to work and I don’t have to get up early so I tend to sleep in, trying to “make up” for the sleep I’ve missed all week. Of course, doing this on Saturday causes me to stay up even later that night and I don’t get to bed until early Sunday morning. Yesterday my late habits finally got to me and I didn’t wake up until late in the afternoon which really hit me hard when I tried going to bed early enough to get rejuvenated for work this morning. Ugh, I’ll just have to stick with my sleep schedule even through the weekends.

I’ve been collecting the Pepsi Points since, at work, I usually have two bottled drinks a day, at least. Right now I’m at 35 points and I hadn’t really looked at the prizes until today. Sure there are CDs, DVS, and music tracks, but there’s also electronics! And since our kittens like to chew on our headphone cords I’m saving up my points for the Sennheiser HD201 Headphones, but I need 90 more points. So, this is a call to anyone who drinks Pepsi and doesn’t use the codes: send them to me! I need new headphones!