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Happy "Presidents Day" for values of "Presidents" not greater than two

voidampersand — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 01:54:07 GMT

The Federal holiday is legally "Washington's Birthday", celebrated on the Monday in February before Washington's actual birthday, which is the 22nd. I'm okay with the idea of also celebrating Lincoln's Birthday, which was on the 12th. But any more presidents than those two is right out.

This entry was originally posted at https://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/30424.html.

Remembering Ursula K. Le Guin

voidampersand — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 01:09:44 GMT

Michael Chabon described Le Guin as "the greatest American writer of her generation". I would also say that she was the greatest science fiction and fantasy writer of her time. She wrote one of the greatest fantasies trilogies of all time (counting all six books in the trilogy), and three of the greatest science fiction novels. Plus many important short stories, including one that is a moral and political compass for many of us. Her work is remarkable for its variety, clarity of vision, depth of compassion, and beauty. It will be read and talked about for many generations.

Ursula's writing is still with us. As a person, she will be missed deeply. I had the chance to meet Ursula briefly a few times, and to see her speak. She was wonderfully warm, witty, and full of enthusiasm. I remember a panel on her work where she sneaked into the back of the room and ducked down behind a row of chairs so she could hear what they were saying about her without being intimidated by her presence. At a presentation of three papers on her work, she sat up straight in the small audience. In response to one paper, she said "I never thought of that, but yes, that makes a lot of sense." Another paper criticized the politics of her work. It was completely unfair and unreasonable, but Ursula sat calmly through the whole thing. When Ursula was named a Grand Master, her good friend Vonda McIntyre organized a party at a Potlatch in Seattle. We were each given a cardboard mask with Ursula's face printed on it. When Ursula came up to receive her award and to say a few words, she was greeted by a crowd of Ursulas. There was much laughter, and cake. I still have the mask, so this is another way I feel Ursula is still with us and looking out for us.

This entry was originally posted at https://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/29990.html.

The Murderbot Diaries

voidampersand — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 03:39:53 GMT

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

This slim novella introduces one of the most memorable characters in science fiction. "Murderbot", as it calls itself, is a SecUnit, a mechanical/organic composite android manufactured to guard corporate workers and customers from danger. A governor ensures it will follow orders. Except Murderbot has hacked its governor. It does its job anyway. It would prefer not to get caught and have its mind wiped again. Besides, somebody has to be protecting its clients.

Martha Wells is master world-builder. All Systems Red has the feeling of limitless worlds and cultures that all good space operas should have. But Wells also modernizes and revitalizes the genre. All Systems Red shows a post-cyberpunk future of ubiquitous social media, streaming entertainment and surveillance capitalism. Murderbot's great comfort and its main source of knowledge about human society is binge-watching thousands of hours of serial dramas.

Murderbot is guarding an exploration party of scientists when things start going wrong. It becomes clear that they are under attack, but they have no idea who is attacking them, or why. The only way they can save themselves is by working together. This is not going to be easy. A SecUnit is a thing, not a person. SecUnits are objects of fear in the popular media, always going rogue. Because of that, and because of its own secrets, Murderbot is very anxious around humans.

About all the more I can say is that things move very fast.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Murderbot has a troubling past. It knows there was a massacre at a mining facility where a SecUnit went rogue and killed a large number of people. It knows it was assigned to that mining facility at the time of the massacre. But its memory was wiped and it does not remember any details. It is concerned that it might have caused the incident. Maybe it tried to hack its governor module before the incident. Is it responsible? Could it happen again? Hitching rides on automated interstellar transports, Murderbot makes its way towards the mining colony where the massacre happened. But the colony is private property. Only authorized workers may get in. And Murderbot is obviously a SecUnit. If it is to uncover the secrets of its past, it is going to need something it has never had before: Friends.

I enjoyed how this book added to the richness of the world-building. There are more insights on the complex political and corporate structures of the future society. There are characters with different cultures and gender signifiers. And there are some significant characters who are AIs and different types of 'bots.

This is the second book in The Murderbot Diaries. It is scheduled to be published on May 8th, 2018. The ARC has a blurb on the cover from Ann Leckie: "I love Murderbot!". I was kind of wondering why some of my friends were spontaneously exclaiming "I love Murderbot!" but then I read the ARC too, and okay, I get it.

There are two more volumes in The Murderbot Diaries:

Rogue Protocol is scheduled to be published in August, 2018.

Exit Strategy is scheduled to be published in 2018.

This entry was originally posted at https://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/29574.html.

A’s player speaks out

voidampersand — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 01:33:38 GMT

Bruce Maxwell is the first Major League Baseball player to kneel during the National Anthem in protest of racial injustice. His teammate Mark Canha is showing his support by standing with his hand on Maxwell’s shoulder.

There’s a great quote from Canha that gets to the heart of what this is about:

I had to think about what I was going to do to show my support for Bruce, for 20 minutes. Even then, I was hesitant to do it. I thought about Colin Kaepernick. It’s like, geez, I love baseball. I want to play baseball. I love my job. I love everything about it. I love this country. I want to be part of this country. But to live in fear, just the fact that I had that small amount of fear, that small amount of hesitation, speaks volumes about that we need more change.

Full interview here: A’s Mark Canha speaks out on Bruce Maxwell’s protest and whether others will follow

The A’s have been rebuilding. This is a very young team. But they have lots of confidence. I like their character.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/29421.html.

Best Novels 2016

voidampersand — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 02:50:36 GMT

Here are my thoughts on the Hugo ballot for Best Novel, 2016:

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books)

I love this book. It is not long, but there so much in it. It is a modern fable, pulling in tropes from all kinds of pop culture: fairy tales, comic books, movies and cartoons. At the same time it is seriously realistic. The world is going to hell in exactly the same ways that ours is, just a little bit faster. People are (mostly) sympathetic and mean well but they are imperfect and success is often beyond them, especially as the world's problems become even more daunting. The tone is wry but not cynical. Things seem to be heading towards a conflict between magic and super-science, but the different schools of magic don't see things the same way, and the different groups of scientists and technologists are often competing instead of cooperating. But it's still worth trying. And it's worth trusting other people even when there is no way you can imagine how or why you can.

A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US)

I found out that it is a sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet so I read both. The worldbuilding is good, especially the aliens are truly diverse. It presents a vision of the future that is mostly positive. It reminds me of James White's classic SF. But the characters are just kind of what they are, and there are some structural issues. It's uneven. A Closed and Common Orbit is better written, and it has two really great characters with compelling stories. Along the way it raises some very interesting and subtle questions about morality (vs. legality), friendship, and personhood. In other words, don't underestimate this book, just because it's a fun read and it's nice.

Death’s End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus)

I really liked The Three Body Problem. I started reading The Dark Forest and bounced off the prose in the first chapter. It was so clunky. I picked it up again recently and was able to make headway. I plan to finish the trilogy presently. I didn't feel any urgency to finish it before voting because the first book in the trilogy already won (deservedly), and the third book would have to be amazingly good in order to justify awarding two Hugos to what is really a single work in three volumes.

Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)

The common question about this book is if it is really science fiction or merely fantasy. I am squarely in the it's science fiction camp. Space opera as a genre requires faster than light travel in order to maintain its traditional plot pacing (which happens to be exactly the same as 19th century steamship stories, go figure). Faster than light travel is bogus science. So are force fields, blasters, phasers, anti-gravity, teleportation, and so on. Yoon Ha Lee invented a fresh and new form of bogus science to power his space opera. He gets to do that. Go him. I think it's a lot of fun. The space opera is set in a grim dystopian interstellar empire. Not fun. I've read some other reviews where readers were bummed out because it was so grim and the characters were so constrained by the system. I didn't read it that way. The system has a lot of cracks in it, including a really huge one that maybe we'll learn more about in the third book. Many of the main characters are wild cards. Unexpected things happen. Overall, I think it's one of the most innovative and interesting space operas in recent years.

The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)

I think the The Obelisk Gate is good, but not at the same level as The Fifth Season. It reveals some things about the Earth that are very big, but we have to wait for the third book to see anything climactic (as opposed to climatic). The middle book is more about developing characters and moving the plot along. Unfortunately, the key character developments are sad, or creepy and unpleasant. At least the sad developments are very weird and leave at least a smidgen of hope. I am waiting for the third book and we'll see what happens.

Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)

Too Like the Lightning is a dazzling and enthralling debut novel that is also unreliable and contrarian, sometimes even infuriating. Or maybe it is just Mycroft Canner, most reliable of servants and most unreliable of narrators. On the plus side, it's a science fiction novel set on a near future Earth where nobody is hungry, there are no wars, and politics are based on the fundamental principles of the Enlightenment: rationality, order, justice, humanism, enterprise, and compassion. On the minus side, decisions seem to be made by a very small number of elite leaders who are very much in bed with each other (except the utopians are snubbed for some reason), and it seems about to fall apart. What seems like an ultimate love letter to the Enlightenment could turn out to also be a devastating critique of it. Enough has been revealed in the first book to make it clear that it does not stand alone.

Novels I nominated:

Everfair, by Nisi Shawl (Tor Books)

This is a book that needed to be written and I am glad that Nisi wrote it the way she did. The steampunk movement imagines an alternate past where the second industrial revolution was accelerated to extraordinary heights and at the same time somehow was shared in an egalitarian way without colonialism, racism or sexism. Which of the two imaginations is more unrealistic is hard to say. Nisi tackles both head-on by establishing a 19th century high-technology utopian settlement in the Belgian Congo. It works because the settlers are not just technically skilled, but also radical socialists, the kind of people who would really try to create a steampunk utopia, and to fight King Leopold II. (It helps on the super-technology side that the Congo has major sources of uranium.) What I really liked about this novel was how the native African characters were just as empowered and important as the settlers. Also, as one would hope with radicals, just about every possible unconventional relationship that could occur does, and the love and care in these relationships is a great strength.

Arabella of Mars, by David D. Levine (Tor Books)

A delightful, strongly feminist, alternate-cosmology planetary romance that riffs on Jane Austen, Patrick O'Brian, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Featuring a plucky heroine, a dashing captain and his brilliant mechanical sidekick, and a motley crew of tuckerized SF writers and fans. What more could you ever ask for? Okay, maybe it starts a bit slow. But it really gets moving soon enough, and the ending is fantastic. Now that it's won the Andre Norton Award, it is officially certified as suitable for corrupting the minds of our youth. But there's no reason not to corrupt your own mind too, it's good for all ages.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/27530.html.

Corflu 34

voidampersand — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 23:08:32 GMT

On Friday, Randy Byers and I took the Metro to downtown LA and walked around. We saw film noir landmarks such as City Hall and the Bradbury Building. When we were at the Central Market a troupe of dragon dancers came through. We had lunch at Clifton's. We got back to Woodland Hills just in time for the start of the Corflu Program. Randy was unexpectedly chosen as Guest of Honor. Andy Hooper's fannish quiz show was excellent. The two teams "The Slanboys" and "The Winning Team" were neck and neck, with The Slanboys winning 54 to 51 at the end. Saturday was more program with interesting discussions. There were fannish games in the evening, including "Interstellar", designed by Art Widner. Sunday was the banquet, FAAn Awards, and the election of the Past-President of FWA. The next Corflu will be in Toronto. Many thanks to Marty Cantor and the concom, and also to the LASFAns who came over for the con.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/27224.html.

Friends Demonstrating Today

voidampersand — Sun, 22 Jan 2017 01:59:29 GMT

Starting in the '80s there was a fine international fanzine (published by Joseph Nicholas, Judith Hanna, Leigh Edmonds, Valma Brown, and Terry Hughes) that frequently changed its name, but the name was always three words and the initials were always FTT. In that spirit, the title of this post is three words, and the initials are FDT. Please feel free to do likewise. It isn't like I own either the original concept or the FDT hashtag. I look forward to seeing what titles other people come up with.

If three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people writing posts where the title is three words and the initials are FDT. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day writing posts where the title is three words and the initials are FDT. And friends they may think it's a movement.

As for this title, I am reminded of a message I heard on the radio just a bit over two years ago: "Blessings to all who are out, in search of justice."

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/26941.html.

User tracking considered harmful to more than your privacy

voidampersand — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 20:30:56 GMT

Walt Mossberg, a distinguished journalist, writes about how "Lousy ads are ruining the online experience". What really got me was this experience he had, just after he co-founded his own advertising-supported web site:

About a week after our launch, I was seated at a dinner next to a major advertising executive. He complimented me on our new site’s quality and on that of a predecessor site we had created and run, AllThingsD.com. I asked him if that meant he’d be placing ads on our fledgling site. He said yes, he’d do that for a little while. And then, after the cookies he placed on Recode helped him to track our desirable audience around the web, his agency would begin removing the ads and placing them on cheaper sites our readers also happened to visit. In other words, our quality journalism was, to him, nothing more than a lead generator for target-rich readers, and would ultimately benefit sites that might care less about quality.

Obviously having advertisers (or anyone) tracking your browsing around the web is a privacy concern. I hadn't understood how it was ruining the business models for quality journalism. Not only are print publications unable to compete with on-line ads, so are web sites.

There is a simple social-technical fix: outlaw commercial surveillance and build strong anti-tracking technology into every browser. Advertisers should compete on the quality of their ads and the quality of the sites they support, not on the power of their tracking technology. Unfortunately, it's not likely to happen soon, because the advertising business is driven by short-term thinking. But you can easily install an anti-tracking browser extension such as Privacy Badger or Ghostery. That way you can enjoy some anti-tracking protection immediately. And if enough people do the same, it may help push the industry into a better way of doing business.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/26657.html.

#Calexit leader plots California secession from Russia

voidampersand — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 05:18:31 GMT

I saw this headline and thought, hell yes, I'm all for California seceding from Russia.

But when I read the article it turned out the #Calexit leader plots California secession from his home in Russia. What's with that? We can't even manage our own secession movements?

I blame the fact that most Californians are too busy plotting secession from Southern California. (It's true — every Californian wants the state to be split North and South, the only disagreement is where line is drawn, because everyone wants to be in the North.)

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/26511.html.

Darkness falls upon the land

voidampersand — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 06:32:03 GMT

Daylight savings time is meant to end just before Halloween, not Election Day.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/26132.html.

More Books

voidampersand — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 01:02:53 GMT

I am still scaling Mount TBR. It seems to be growing taller even as I climb it, but so it goes.

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders

I love this book. It is a thoroughly modern fairy tale. It has both kinds of witches: country and western. It has super-scientists. It has ninja assassins. People you would recognize (or fail to recognize, in the case of the assassins) walking around in the Mission District. And it has a compelling question: As the side-effects of industrialization are rendering our planet uninhabitable, what are we to do about it, especially those with magical or scientific super-powers? Is there a solution that doesn't involve destroying the planet in order to save it? Can a young witch and mad scientist bridge the differences between their traditions and find hope?

I've heard that some readers were not all that happy with the ending. To which I say, if you want a happy ending, let's stop putting so much CO2 into the atmosphere, now. If we don't do that, the next best thing is to hope that maybe there really are witches and super-scientists who can save us.

Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer

This is the first half of a huge and ambitious science fiction novel of ideas. Too Like the Lightning is set a few centuries in the future. The problems of industrialization have been solved with better technology. People have more prosperity, more freedom of movement, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression than ever before. And yet society is still divided between different ideals. What should be valued most? Progress? Equality? Liberty? Enterprise? Justice? Compassion? It is a hopeful future but it feels very fragile. Since these are the driving ideals of the enlightenment, the novel is told in an 18th century literary style. The narrator is massively unreliable and is definitely messing with us. As a result, reading Too Like the Lightning is both wonderful and frustrating. At its best, it is a dazzling vision of a better future and a collection of love letters to enlightenment philosophers. But it also is a good example of how political writing about sexual liberation is not actually very sexy. And while the plot is very intriguing, I am going to have to read the second book to see how it turns out.

The Viper of Portello, by James C. Glass

I read it so you don't have to. This is from a small press that publishes many wonderful and special books. This is not one of them. It is a thriller set on a three different worlds, each of which seems to be a country in Latin America. It would have been better without the space opera trappings. Latin America has a long history of violent and brutal political conflict. If this story had been set back on Earth, it would not be a nice story. But it might have had more believable characters and action.

Nine Fox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee

A fresh and original space opera with a new big idea: That the alignment of things in space and time could have powerful effects. It is essentially porting the concept of sorcery into science fiction. The result is an interstellar empire that expands by imposing its feng shui and calendar on its neighbors. Heretical calendars and geometrical formations are existential threats, so the Hexarchate is in a constant state of war and ruthlessly suppresses any possibility of dissent. It's dark, but it's inventive and the characters are engaging. I am looking forward to the next book.

The Nightmare Stacks, by Charles Stross

I think this is book 7 of the Laundry Files, not counting the novellas. If you have been following the series, like me, you probably have already it. If not, you really want to start at the beginning. In the recent books in the series, Charlie has been deconstructing fantasy tropes. This one is elves, with a manic pixie dream girl for good measure. Stir in the recurring themes of Lovecraftian horror, modern technology and British bureaucracy, and it works quite well. I'm really liking the characters. Alex the vampire is the main character. There is a fantastically awkward "don't you all come out at once" scene with his parents. And we get to see more of Pinky and Brains, two of my favorite people in the whole series. And I'm getting a feeling that "Pete" is based on the Rev. Lionel Fanthorpe. If I'm going to wonder where are we going and why are we all in this handbasket, these are the people I'd want to be with.

Radiance, by Catherynne M. Valente

A planetary romance, combined with the romance of acting and filmmaking. It's 1944. Every planet and moon in the solar system has been colonized. Luna is the center of the movie industry. Documentary filmmaker Severin Unck, daughter of the famous director Percival Unck, disappears mysteriously while making a film on Venus. Fifteen years later Percival starts production of a film to explain his daughter's disappearance and presumed death. The story is told through excerpts from Severin's earlier films and the surviving footage of her final documentary, memoirs from her mothers, and news articles, radio shows and commercials. And through multiple revisions of the script, as Percival tries to explain the inexplicable as a detective story, film noir, cinema verite, and through musical production numbers, cartoons, and fantasy. None of it works, as the mystery is unsolved. And yet all of it works, because the stories are told, in every way they could be.

The Red by Linda Negate

Linda Nagata wrote some of the most original and ambitious SF of the '90s, writing novels that went from atomic to interstellar scales. It's great to see new novels from her in print. The Red is a near-future high-tech military thriller. It is disturbingly plausible. Well, except that they have really good battery technology, something like 100x better than what we have now. Which would be wonderful, I'm just not sure if and when we'll get it. But I digress. As a thriller it is disturbingly plausible.

Defense contractors (DC's) profit when the world is insecure, and not surprisingly, there is always a war on somewhere. Lieutenant James Shelley doesn't like it, but he doesn't have much choice, and he's good at it. His Linked Combat Squad has all the latest tech. And occasionally he gets a feeling. He's learned to trust his hunches, because they keeping saving his life and the lives of soldiers in his squad. But they're not hunches. They're messages, from something on the internet. Something that has taken an interest in him, for some unknown reason. Something the DC's don't control. But they really will want to control it, when they find out.

Shelley is a flawed but believable hero. The story is enlivened by a large cast of vividly sketched characters with outsize personalities. There is strong camaraderie and plenty of lively banter. Add a background of political corruption and the wild card of some kind of rogue intelligence on the internet, and it is a hell of a story. The other two books of the trilogy are already out. I expect I will be reading them soon.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/26097.html.

A Stranger in Olondria

voidampersand — Sun, 16 Oct 2016 21:38:32 GMT

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar.

This had been sitting in my TBR collection, when randy_byers wrote that it had become one of his favorite fantasy novels of all time. It definitely is a wonderful book. It won a pile of awards, and I think deservedly so.

A Stranger in Olondria is a secondary world fantasy with an extraordinarily rich and fascinating world. The fantasy element is a ghost story. For me that was the heart of the book, when the story came alive. Which is really something considering that I am not that much into ghost stories. But it makes sense. Jissavet has such a strong personality, and such a strong desire for her story to be told, she is not going to be stopped by such a minor inconvenience as death.

The framing story is about Jevick, a young man who learns to read Olondrian, develops an all-consuming passion for the land and literature of Olondria, and at his first opportunity throws himself recklessly into Olondrian affairs that are far beyond his understanding. Olondria is a civilized nation with a long history, but that also means that its religious and philosophical and political divides are deep and its factions are powerful. One might expect that a ghost story would be mysterious and terrifying but in this case it's not the ghost.

Olondria is an intricate tapestry. Jevick's story is a fine golden band. Jissavet's story is the jewel it holds.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/25697.html.

Bear Creek

voidampersand — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 04:28:33 GMT

I wanted to get in another hike before the end of the season, and I wanted to show my hiking buddy around Bear Creek. It's one of the nicest places in the Sierras. The lower creek runs down a sequence of granitic benches that form perfect pools for swimming or bathing. The water is cold, but there is always a sunny beach or granite slab where you can warm up before going back in.

The upper creek runs along the John Muir Trail, and goes up to a high alpine basin with lush meadows and many lakes and dramatic granite peaks. Next time.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/25585.html.

Sam Clemens' Missouri

voidampersand — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 00:03:19 GMT

Before the Worldcon in Kansas City we went on a road trip across Missouri to visit Samuel Clemens' childhood home in Hannibal. On the way we stopped at a covered bridge and at the Mark Twain Memorial Shrine. The shrine is in Florida, Missouri. It is a modern structure built to protect the old cabin where Samuel Clemens was born.

Hannibal was not the bustling river port that it was when Sam Clemens was growing up there. If it weren't for Mark Twain tourism, it would be all run down. Some parts of the old downtown are dilapidated, and some are extremely cute. Overall I'd say it's a nice, low-key, relaxing place to visit. I hope the locals can keep the Mark Twain tourism thing going for at least a couple more centuries.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/25217.html.

Minarets

voidampersand — Sun, 09 Oct 2016 22:41:05 GMT

The Minarets are in the Ritter Range, south of Yosemite National Park. The Minarets are the sharp pointy peaks to the south. Mount Ritter and Banner Peak are the big looming chunks of rock to the north. The Ritter Range runs west of the main crest. Which makes for a nice hike. The Pacific Crest Trail goes on the east side of the San Joaquin River, through a high meadow with dramatic views across to the Ritter Range. The John Muir Trail follows the Ritter Range on the west side, working its way from lake to lake under the peaks. We did a loop, up the PCT to Thousand Island Lake, back via the JMT to Red's Meadow, and catching the shuttle bus back to our car.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/24833.html.

Pretend you were there

voidampersand — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 06:35:38 GMT

Six Marimbas
Different Trains
Electric Counterpoint
Clapping Music
Double Sextet

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/24624.html.

San Francisco Symphony Steve Reich fest

voidampersand — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 16:55:13 GMT

Steve Reich's 80th birthday is coming up on October 3rd. There is a nice article, Steve Reich Is Running Strong, up on SF Classical Voice.

Last night I happened to be at the symphony. It was quite an experience. Steve Reich and members of Eighth Blackbird spoke at the pre-concert talk. The program was Copland ("Billy the Kid" and four songs from "Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson"), Gershwin ("Summertime" and "I Got Rhythm") and Reich ("Double Sextet" and "Three Movements"). It's obviously making a statement that Reich is one of the great American composers. The performances confirmed it. There was a clear progression from the early modern Copland to the high modern to Reich's work. Except for the detour into Ethel Merman territory but that was fun.

Somehow I seem to have bought tickets for tonight's performance with Kronos Quartet.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/24391.html.

How I spent my Friday night

voidampersand — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 08:24:20 GMT

I don't usually post about work, because I'd rather not bore you to tears, but this story is too good and I have to share it. It's about what happens when everyone does their job well.

R added code to check for errors from the motion controllers, retry up to 3 times, and throw an exception if retrying doesn't succeed.

J noticed that the number of microns per motor step was not exactly as specified, and added code so it is measured during calibration, and used when moving, so moves are more precise.

D added code to move the stage to the eject position when the operator scans the cartridge barcode. This way the operator could easily insert the cartridge, without having to manually move the eject lever. The eject position is a block at one corner of the stage (X = 120,000 µm, Y = 0 µm). Moving the stage to that position pushes the lever against the block, opening the place where the cartridge goes.

All three developers carefully tested their code, using unit tests and testing on the instrument. All the code was reviewed, the pull requests were approved, and everything was merged to the master branch. Let's test it one more time on the instrument.

Launch the software. Scan the cartridge barcode. Get an error "Enter barcode failed because: one or more errors occurred." It is not possible to run the instrument. Did I mention that we were hoping to release this version of the software into the lab?

What happened?

When I scanned the cartridge barcode, D's new code moved to Y = 0 µm, then tried to move to X = 120,000 µm so it could push the eject lever against the block. J's code updated the number of microns per motor step to be more accurate. On this instrument the number was slightly smaller, so more motor steps are required to get to a position in microns. But the eject position is at the limit of motion, so if we tell it to go any farther than that, it's an error. And R's code made sure the error was detected and an exception was thrown, stopping everything. The not very helpful "one or more errors occurred" message was because I used asynchronous tasks and their default behavior is to wrap up any exceptions that occur in an aggregate exception with that message.

How did we fix it?

J changed the config file so the eject position was 199,990 µm instead of 120,000. Good idea. That is a difference of only .01 mm so the lever should still work fine. J goes home for the weekend. I test it on the instrument, and still get the error. It's a good change, but it's not enough.

I ended up writing some code to apply the calibration factor to the eject position in reverse. This gives a target position in microns that we can be sure will be within the max limit in motor steps. For example, given a target position of X = 199,990 µm, it would compute that we should tell the motion controller to move to X = 199,905 µm. This seemed to be the simplest solution. It actually worked when I tested it. We'll see what everyone thinks about it on Monday.

I added some code to unpack the aggregate exception. Now it says "Enter barcode failed because: move command failed BADDATA." That is the actual error message we get from the motion controller. We'll have to add some code to generate a better error message.

The project is actually going well. This is a classic integration problem. Everyone delivered solid code. Each feature worked properly when tested in isolation. Only when they were all combined did everything fall apart.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/24073.html.

SF AIDS Walk 2016

voidampersand — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 02:22:57 GMT

I did a walk in the park this morning. It was classic Sunset District summer weather, windy and foggy with occasional heavy mist. So I didn't get sunburned this year. It was fun. Big crowds of happy people, walking and chatting. Lots of bands playing and volunteers cheering us on.

I love the quote at the end of this article:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/AIDS-Walk-SF-draws-thousands-for-annual-fundraiser-8383271.php

“It would be awesome if my daughters were to look back and say, ‘We did a walk for AIDS — what’s that?’”

I've been pretty busy so I didn't do a big fundraising thing. I made a donation in my name and I walked. But if you'd like to donate to a really good cause, you can still do so at https://sf.aidswalk.net/.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/23815.html.

Books

voidampersand — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 18:59:27 GMT

I read some books!

Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman

I really liked this a lot. It's a hard SF novel that extrapolates from the latest physics in surprising ways. Some may think it is fantasy. I think the border between SF and fantasy is fractal and a good enough writer can find ways to go far into the other territory without crossing the line. Another thing I liked are the likable, flawed, strong-willed characters.

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard

There is a wide spectrum of reactions to this book. Put me in the "pro" camp. Fantastic world-building, memorable characters, intense action, and unexpected twists. I have a few reservations, mainly that there are some big unresolved conflicts.

The Edge of Worlds by Martha Wells

A new Raksura adventure is very welcome. If you are familiar with the series, it's got Moon and Jade and Stone and many others from Indigo Cloud. River is becoming one of the more interesting characters. There are some awesome new characters and some big things are happening in the plot department. If you are not familiar with the series, it is a fantasy adventure with the most amazing world-building ever. The Edge of Worlds is written so it can be read by someone new to the series, but start with The Cloud Roads, because you are going to read them all anyway and by the time you get to The Edge of Worlds maybe the next book will be out. Which would be good, because at the end of The Edge of Worlds, the story clearly isn't over.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/23480.html.

Yosemite in Winter

voidampersand — Sun, 01 May 2016 01:03:58 GMT

These photos are from my trip to Yosemite in February. I got a deal on a room at the Lodge. A couple of co-workers joined in. A drove us up in his AWD car. M rented the snowshoes. Thanks to El Niño, there was plenty of snow, and it happened to be warm and sunny while we were there, ideal conditions.

This picture is from Dewey Point. It is looking east into Yosemite Valley with Half Dome in the distance. If you get closer to the edge of the snowbank there is a drop-off.

Dewey Point is the closest overlook of Yosemite Valley to the trailhead at Badger Pass. The trail is easy and fun on snowshoes. Several years ago I did it on cross-country skis, which was not so easy. The 2nd half of the trail goes through a lot of short but steep ups and downs. It would be fine if you're an expert skier, but as a novice I had to side-step down the steep parts instead of skiing them. This time, with snowshoes on, I just tromped down the steep parts and kept going. The beauty of snowshoes is the feeling you can go anywhere and always have perfectly secure footing.

The next day we hiked down the Old Big Oak Flat Road to the Tuolumne Grove of Big Trees. The snow was not very deep on the road, so the snowshoes were not really necessary, but I wore them anyway so I didn't have to worry about any icy spots. Later we saw a party of tourists, some of whom were wearing tennis shoes and slipping around a lot. Fortunately they made it down and back out without anyone getting hurt.

I was expecting the Big Trees would be beautiful in the snow and indeed they were.

Each afternoon we walked around in the Valley. I really love the mixed woodland and meadows in the Valley. Walking around the Valley Loop trail, every step is a different view of oak trees, conifers, dogwoods, giant boulders, and little cascades coming down from the Valley walls.

There were many wonderful views of Half Dome. As the sun set the light and colors would change dramatically. It was different every day.

On the last day we checked out from the Lodge, and having a little time before we needed to drive home, we hiked up the Yosemite Falls trail about half way. There's a nice overlook with a view down to the Valley floor and straight across at Half Dome.

More photos in the album on Flickr.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/23156.html.

Embiids

voidampersand — Sat, 23 Jan 2016 19:36:27 GMT

My sweetie gave my a book of David Rains Wallace essays. I've been enjoying them a lot. Then I read this one and just had to share it. The subject is almost like something out of a Martha Wells novel. It's about embiids, social insects that build webs to protect themselves and their eggs from predators. Really unusual and nifty social insects. It was originally published in Santa Clara Magazine and it happens to be on-line. Check it out.

Biologist Janice Edgerly-Rooks & the Extraordinary Embiids, Silken Choreographies by David Rains Wallace.

See also: Embioptera

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/22891.html.

I made a poster

voidampersand — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 18:58:52 GMT

Here's a poster I made, announcing Potlatch 25. The design is based on the Book of Honor, Constellation Games. The background is a NASA photo from the Apollo 8 mission. Of course the photo substantially predates the events in the book, but some photos don't get old.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/22541.html.

Happy Thanksgiving

voidampersand — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 04:27:29 GMT

Just returned from a Thanksgiving dinner with nearby relatives. There was lots of good conversation, good food, and good wine. One of my relatives needs to avoid gluten, so I experimented making an apple galette with buckwheat flour instead of wheat. I thought the hearty taste of the buckwheat might go okay with the apples. And if you can't experiment on your family members, who can you experiment on? Just in case, I also made another apple galette with a regular wheat crust. Happily the buckwheat galette turned out to be a success. It was all eaten or taken away and I didn't have to bring anything back except the empty dish. That's the ultimate compliment as far as I'm concerned.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/22393.html.

Soma

voidampersand — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 07:57:25 GMT

I just saw a thrilling program by the San Francisco Symphony, Susanna Mälkki conducting. The first piece was "Alma III: Soma" by Jukka Tiensuu. I'm not going to try to explain it. Here it is. See what you think:

Try to listen with headphones if you can. The sound is very dynamic. Little computer speakers will not do it justice. Seeing it live was awesome.

Tiensuu's philosophy is that "The true meaning of music can only be revealed by music itself." This is from some lecture notes "The Future of Music" on his website. At the end he gives some advice for composers:

1. Know history, to avoid involuntary copying.
2. Know the means of expression, to be able to do what you want, and not only what you can.
3. Have the patience to work out all details, as the true mastership is seen and heard in details.
4. Have the courage to remain utopist.

I'd say Tiensuu is doing pretty well on all of these. And it's not bad advice for anyone creative.

Also, on the program, Chopin's Piano Concerto #1, with a very fast, fluid and straightforward performance by Simon Trpčeski. Not everyone is a fan of straightforward performances of Chopin. "Chopin is good, but what he really needs is someone to interpret him." Yeah, right. I can't play like Chopin either. I think it's wonderful to see someone who can.

The final piece was Sibelius' Symphony #5. It is a beautiful, joyous, intricate, and sometimes very strange work. The ending chords were very much like the beginning of "Soma". It brought things full circle.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/22211.html.