Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:00 PM

BTW, thanks to everyone who's recommended I watch Slings and Arrows

I got Season One from the library and am loving it.

I'm running to the library today to pick up the second season...

If you think you could remotely enjoy a comedy about a Shakespearean troupe (Mark McKinney of Kids in the Hall is one of the co-creators and writers), I strongly recommend it.

It doesn't hurt that Paul Gross (better known as Constable Benton Fraser in Due South) is gorgeous...

Tangentially related, lots of people have been talking about FOX's rapid cancellation of Drive and other series' speedy untimely demises.

And yet, this Canadian show has a six-episode season. The same is true for many Britcoms.

So why are so many new shows built around 26-episode long stories?

I want to blame J. Michael Straczynski and Joss Whedon...

Then again, even the first season of Buffy the vampire slayer wasn't as ambitious as new series. You may recall Buffy was a midseason replacement. So the initial storyline vs. the Master only took twelve episodes to resolve.

Whedon did set up future storylines -- but was flexible enough to scrap them when he had better ideas (anybody remember the Anointed One?)

My point is, if Drive (and other quickly-cancelled recent series) had been built around a six-episode storyline like these British and Canadian shows, viewers could have had a complete story even with the cancellation and not be left hanging as they have been.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:30 PM

I've mentioned my fondness for the silly site I Can Has Cheezburger

Well, now Anil Dash has examined the grammar of cat macros.

He's since followed it up with further tangents inspired by the post.

The web is a weird and wonderful world...

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:15 PM

Been meaning to share this:

An innovative use of cheap USB drives:

Two lanyards with dangling USB drives that had a 'I'm Lost' label adhered to them and tucked into their shirts later, we had two boys that if got lost would be found and be reunited with us quickly.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:09 PM

As will probably surprise nobody, my presentation on blogs went well yesterday.

As a positive, the panel was in the second timeslot of the day, so I got it over with before lunch.

Ratcheting up the tension, the program item I was scheduled to attend beforehand was:

• in the other building (and it was pouring outside),
• being run by the head of the company, and
• focused on time management and organizational skills.

I actually emailed him beforehand to say that I might leave a few minutes early for my program item... and I arrived late due to printer problems... Way to make a good impression. :) On the other hand, I guess I was right to sign up for that one...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:20 PM

So, the CIO of our company had an idea.

How about holding an internal technology conference just within the company.

He's scheduled a full-day of panels and presentations, giving folks the chance to learn about other teams in the department and catch up on what's new and potentially useful. We're even getting schwag!

And guess who's presenting in the panel on Blogs and RSS?

That's right.

waves^*

If anyone wants to wish me luck or send me good vibes, I'll be on tomorrow around 10am (EDT).

Meanwhile, I've been working late the last several nights grabbing screenshots and putting together a presentation.

When I have a chance, I'll remove any company-identifying information and post it online for the rest of you to see.

If that wasn't enough, when I got home, I found a message on my answering machine from the Today Show, wanting to speak with me due to last year's Globe story on blogging.

I'll try to call her back over lunch...

^* I wonder how many coworkers will start reading my blog after this?

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:20 AM

One more morning meme before I get up and have to get things done...

Anybody know if it's possible to copy the onscreen text describing each trait?

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:13 AM

Clever bit of viral marketing making the rounds courtesy of GoldenCompassMovie.com.

In the story, characters have personal daemons.

So the movie promotion site has created a little personality quiz to assign a daemon.

Frankly, I like the daemon it assigned me, but daemon forms are initially fluid.

So for the next twelve days, my daemon's shape may change based on your responses whether you think it suits me.

What do you think?

Cool way to get people to visit the site, no?

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:40 PM

Bit preoccupied with a project for work, so not much time (or brainpower) for writing.

How about a few videos I've spotted recently:

• RSS in Plain English
• The original 1977 trailer for Star Wars -- clearly made before John Williams finished the score.l
• Sleepy kittens from Cute Overload
• The Vicious Orange Kitten and The Vicious Orange Kitten Strikes Again
• A Sumatran tiger cub @ the Woodland Park Zoo
• ROFLMAO!

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:10 AM

And through the RSC Shakespeare blog, I found a link to The Daily Mail article which includes the poem.

Oddly (possibly so it won't be recopied or Google-able) they chose to reprint the poem in an image.

So, here goes:

What do you think?

Does it sound like him?

More on the attribution as blogged by Prof. Bate.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:01 AM

Professor Jonathan Bate and the editors of the new RSC edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works have a blog.

Who needs a TARDIS to time-travel? :)

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:51 AM

So, yesterday was Shakespeare's birthday (observed) and St. George's Day (England's patron saint and one of the reasons why we celebrate Shakespeare's birthday on the 23rd).

Technical difficulties prevented me from sharing the video I'd hoped to post to commemorate the day.

According to Google News, multiple Commonwealth newspapers report on an 18-line poem, newly attributed to Shakespeare, written in tribute of Queen Elizabeth.

However, not a bloody one of them bother to quote the bloody thing!!!

The poem was allegedly “discovered 30 years ago by two U.S. scholars researching a manuscript notebook kept by an Elizabethan courtier named Henry Sanford. The poem was included in a new edition of Shakespeare's works published this month”

"Some people believe it is by Shakespeare, some people do not," said Jonathan Bate, the University of Warwick professor who edited the Shakespeare collection. "I am now 99 per cent certain it was written by Shakespeare."

Bate said he believes the poem was an epilogue added to "As You Like It" for a court performance on Shrove Tuesday in 1599. He said lines written especially for the occasion were a requirement for performances before the queen.

"Shakespeare was probably in the habit of dashing some lines down on the back of an envelope and then chucking them away," he said. "By chance, this one example has survived."

I'd like to see it for myself.

Anybody know where I could find a copy? Found it!

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:15 AM

Just realized that today is my fifth bloggiversary.

Were my blog a child, it would be entering kindergarten.

Were I married to my blog, the traditional gift is wood.

But it's just a virtual presence, my doorstop on the web (as it were).

Being a blogger has become part of my identity.

I may no longer fantasize about becoming a novelist (something else you can thank those pixel-stained technopeasant wretches for -- after witnessing the day-to-day drudgery of professional writing, I'm perfectly satisfied to stick to free fanfic and my blog), but I'm getting press kits from professional Shakespeare companies, and writing reviews...

Small pleasures, but satisfying ones.

So, just to turn it around, how long have you been reading? What do you like, and dislike, about my blog?

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:09 PM

So, in honor of Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day...

I believe I first read 1632 through Baen Free Library, and Ian and I liked it so much, we bought the book.

Almost precisely five years ago, 18 months after the Free Library was established, Eric Flint wrote an essay to provide "hard figures" on the impact of the site on sales.

Spoiling the conclusion, Flint wrote:

Making one or a few titles of an author's writings available for free electronically in the Free Library seems to have no other impact, certainly over time, than to increase that author's general audience recognition-and thereby, indirectly if not directly, the sales of his or her books.

But I digress...

Blogs are a great current awareness tool. I can't begin to count the number of comics I've bought after finding out about them through the creators' weblogs.

It's somewhat easier to list prose authors:

I can't recall when I discovered Jo Walton's LiveJournal, but I've been reading it for years. And that's definitely part of the reason I bought Tooth and Claw and Farthing, both of which I recommend highly.

I first met Elizabeth Bear on LiveJournal before her first novel hit print. She was working on an epic Marlowe story, and naturally I gravitated to my fellow Marlowe geek.
So far, I've bought every novel of hers that have been published. The summary blurbs for Hammered don't really match my usual purchasing metrics, but I've enjoyed her every book.

When my flight home was delayed Wednesday night and I wandered over to the airport bookstores, I knew exactly what I wanted to buy -- The Last colony by John Scalzi. And I knew, from Scalzi's blog exactly when it was supposed to hit bookstore shelves.
Unfortunately, neither bookstore in DCA had a copy, so I bought The Android's dream instead.

Finally, while more ink-stained than pixel-stained, another lesson in the value of freebies from last year's Boskone, when I wrote:

The last several weeks I've been hearing trickles of praise for Naomi Novik's latest novel. I'm not talking faint praise, but heavy gushing from a few small (but trusted) sources. Several people on LiveJournal have been so enthusiastic they couldn't wait until next month's American release, so instead buying the (already in print) British hardcover.

The publisher very wisely seeded the freebie table with a first chapter excerpt and after reading it, Ian and I may join the exodus.

Needless to say, we bought all three books in the trilogy -- haunting bookstores on release day, even -- and loved them.

And there are plenty of other authors I've met through LiveJournal whose works I haven't bought... yet... including Marie Brennan, Cory Doctorow, Sarah Monette Charlie Stross (though Ian's bought some), Erastes...

And then the list of authors I know from cons and authors I know online blurs into more names than I could possibly post...

Just as a closer, the Locus Award nominees for Science Fiction novels:

• Blindsight, Peter Watts (Tor)
• Carnival, Elizabeth Bear (Bantam Spectra)
• Farthing, Jo Walton (Tor)
• Glasshouse, Charles Stross (Orbit; Ace)
• Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge (Tor)

Notice some familiar names?

So, Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretches of the world unite!

You have nothing to lose but your obscurity (and some of your free-time)!

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:30 AM

Can anyone advise me on the easiest way to rip a track from a DVD and post it onto YouTube without spending money on external software? I have the creator's permission, but it's a bit long so I'll have to snip it into two parts.

Any assistance would be most appreciated.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:56 AM

Okay, this broke while I was at the conference, so let's see if I've got the timing and links correct.

The current VP of SFWA posted a rant which included the following:

I'm also opposed to the increasing presence in our organization of webscabs, who post their creations on the net for free. A scab is someone who works for less than union wages or on non-union terms; more broadly, a scab is someone who feathers his own nest and advances his own career by undercutting the efforts of his fellow workers to gain better pay and working conditions for all. Webscabs claim they're just posting their books for free in an attempt to market and publicize them, but to my mind they're undercutting those of us who aren't giving it away for free and are trying to get publishers to pay a better wage for our hard work.

Naturally, many people -- including current SFWAns and candidates for SFWA office -- objected. [Hendrix posted a followup and clarification here]

Many people wrote quite eloquent rebuttals -- enough that I can't even begin to link to them all.

However, one of the most popular responses has been Jo Walton's, who declared:

In honour of Dr Hendrix, I am declaring Monday 23rd April International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day. On this day, everyone who wants to should give away professional quality work online. It doesn't matter if it's a novel, a story or a poem, it doesn't matter if it's already been published or if it hasn't, the point is it should be disseminated online to celebrate our technopeasanthood.

A LiveJournal community -- ipstp -- has been created for people to share links to commemorations of the day.

But I digress...

As someone who primarily consumes other people's writings, rather than a creator, I wondered what, if anything, I could contribute.

So I decided the best way to honor the spirit of the day is to list some of the authors and works I've purchased because of the writers' technopeasantry.

I invite others to contribute this kind of list.

Expect mine after work tonight...

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:02 PM

In this 20 minute video from a conference last year, David Pogue alternates between filk and a talk about what's wrong (and right) about UI.

I like the way this man thinks.

Via

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:10 PM

Wow, first the FDA f-cks with pets, and now they're going after chocolate!?!?

What is wrong with these people?

Quoting Julia:

OK, people, this is serious stuff. Chocolate is in danger.

The FDA is entertaining a "citizen's petition" to allow manufacturers to substitute vegetable fats and oils for cocoa butter.

The "citizens" who created this petition represent groups that would benefit most from this degradation of the current standards. They are the Chocolate Manufacturers Assn., the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., the Snack Food Assn. and the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. (OK, I'm not sure what's in it for them), along with seven other food producing associations.

...

I'd say we've already demonstrated our preference for true chocolate. That's why real chocolate outsells fake chocolate. Nine of the 10 bestselling U.S. chocolate candies are made with the real stuff. M&Ms, Hershey Bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups — all real chocolate. Butterfinger is the outlier.

Granted, a change to the "food standards of identity" won't require makers to remove some or all of the cocoa butter, it would just allow them to. But really, why else would they ask?

Actual citizens should really comment on this, don't you think?

But as long as they're asking, the FDA does have a way for other citizens to voice their expectations. It's buried deep in its website. Until April 25, the agency is accepting comments — by fax, mail or online — on a docket with the benign-sounding name of "2007P-0085: Adopt Regulations of General Applicability to All Food Standards that Would Permit, Within Stated Boundaries, Deviations from the Requirements of the Individual Food Standards of Identity."

Instructions for commenting on proposed FDA regulations are here. The public comment period ends in three days.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:51 PM

There seem to be several variants of this quiz making the rounds.

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Northern You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Have you taken this, or any other version of this quiz?

How did you come out?

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:28 AM

I know a couple of my readers can do some really impressive things with cake decorating, but some of the images on this page really... take the cake.

The artist clearly has one of those photo printers for certain of the effects, but much of it is clearly carefully sculpted ganache fondant. And the site claims the cakes "can be eaten without any part of it left. No plastics or any other artificial stuff is being used - everything is eatable."

What do you think?