[edit] Links

100 Tips to Alleviate Self-Doubt | Jane Friedman (Advice, SelfDoubt, Writing)
48 Years Of Doctor Who Explained In A Simple Timeline Graphic | Giant Freakin Robot (DoctorWho, Timeline, InfoGraphic, TV, SF, SciFi, TimeTravel)
If like a lot of people, you only really started paying attention to Doctor Who when it was relaunched on the BBC in 2005, you’re probably confused by the 48 years of history, companions, and other guys playing The Doctor which came before it. It’s a lot to sort through, but we’re here to help. / The following infographic takes you through all 48 years of Doctor Who history, from the first Doctor to the eleventh. You’ll see the route of all the companions traced, explained, and laid out for you in a way that makes total sense. And yes, there will be Daleks.
Alternate Universe Movie Posters: Movies of the Present! Stars of the Past! | I Watch Stuff (Movie, Retro, Poster, Art)
Amazon announces it’s ready to accept e-books in new KF8 format (Amazon, Epublishing, Ebook, Format)
Amazon has announced that it is now ready to allow publishers to submit e-books to its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) site in what it is calling Kindle Format 8 (KF8). Doing so will allow publishers to add richer looking content to their e-books, making them perhaps more attractive to readers. Instead of simple text and the occasional pasted-in image, the new format takes advantage of advances in both HTML and CSS.
Apple Enters The Textbook, Self-Publishing Market (Apple, Publishing, SelfPublishing)
Apple's event was first rumored to be a self-publishing venture then called an "education" venture. It turned out to be both. Apple is launching iBooks 2, a new multimedia textbook platform and iBooks Author, a shockingly easy authoring tool to create them – indeed to create any kind of book – and publish them instantly to the iBookstore. Both the new iBooks 2 app and iBooks Author app are free and available today. / On top of all that, iBooks 2 textbooks will be priced at $14.99 or less. The new iBooks 2 app will provide the usual access to the iBookstore but will also feature a new category: textbooks. But these aren't your father's textbooks. They feature beautiful layouts, endless multimedia (audio, video, animation, animated 3D models, interactive quizzes, the list goes on). And iBooks Author makes it really easy--any author can follow the template or make up a new one and drag-and-drop prepared materials like text and video right into the new book. Once complete, ...
Beautiful board game designs (Game, BoardGame, Design, Art)
There is no point in arguing that today computer games provide an ever evolving visual experience. This seems to have no foreseeable limit as computers hardware continue to improve. But many of you will agree that no matter how well packaged are those computer games, there is no comparison with the almost magical experience of unboxing a high quality, well crafted and beautifully designed board game. Carefully designed counters, beautifully illustrated cards, comprehensive writing pads and, most important of all, astonishing game boards, are the instruments that game board designers and graphic artists have been using to provide a pleasant gaming experience. This article is a showcase of the wonderful work made by some popular board game graphic artists. In this selection, no evaluation of the quality of the gameplay itself has been made, just the visual design has been considered. It wouldn’t have been possible to gather this information without the help of BoardGameGeek forum and...
Beginning of the End for Barnes & Noble? | Digital Book World (BarnesAndNoble, Watch)
BOOK VIEW CAFE BLOG » A Look at Cover Art (CoverArt, Book, Reading)
Breitspurbahn - Wikipedia (Train, German, Germany, WW2, Wikipedia)
The Breitspurbahn (German pronunciation: ['b?a?t?pu???ba?n], translation: broad-gauge railway) was a planned 3 m (9 ft 10 1/8 in) broad-gauge railway, a personal pet project of Adolf Hitler during the Third Reich of Germany, supposed to run on 3 metre gauge track with double-deck coaches between major cities of Grossdeutschland, Hitler's expanded Germany.
Franz Vohwinkel Illustrationen - Homepage (Art, SF, SciFi, Fantasy, Game)
Help! I Need a Publisher!: All writers should self-publish (SelfPublishing, Writing)
Hitler’s giga-railway from Paris to the Caspian Sea (History, Railroad, Germany, WW2)
Homebrew narco-tanks of the Mexican drug war - Boing Boing (Armor, Vehicle, BoingBoing)
John Cooper's Web Site - Gaming Stuff Page (Game, BoardGame, WarGame, Art, Artist)
Life might not be possible around red dwarf stars (AstroPhysics, Life, XenoBiology, io9)
Looking for the 50% Solution (Publishing, Ebook)
E-books and other forms of digital content are transforming all aspects of the book publishing industry. While the transition from print to digital is not moving at the same pace for all segments, within five years it is generally believed that e-book sales will account for about half of trade revenues. With that in mind, PW asked nine executives to tell us how their company is preparing for that eventuality and what impact it will have on their businesses. A clear theme running through these essays is that, while a few years ago traditional companies were more frightened about the digital challenges than excited about the opportunities, that equation is now reversed. Publishers, booksellers, distributors, and agents are busily reworking their operations to take advantage, as Sourcebooks’ Dominique Raccah notes, of a future “with more readers, more writers, and more outlets than ever before.”
Metamaterials Generate Gecko-Like Adhesive Force - Technology Review (MetaMaterial, Physics, Watch, Tech, Watch.Tech)
Physicists predict that metamaterials ought to generate an entirely new kind of force that can be turned on and off with the flick of a switch
Mike Doyle’s Art Play: Supplemental notes on the Function(s) of Board Game Art (Game, BoardGame, Design, Art)
I'll start with the term "form follows function" as it seems to have a sort of grand and specific meaning for many. I have heard "form follows function" and "functional art" often referred to in the blogs and forums. Phases like, "the art isn't functional" or "because, as you know, form follows function" or something to that effect often can be found. Well, what does that really mean, anyway? No doubt what the writers mean – in the context of game art – is function = usability. Period. Anything that falls short of the writer's expectation of usability is then "unfunctional art." In the end, I find this a fallacy which is masked with a kind of intellectual air to validate the point. The inclusion of this term, I believe, is more to suggest a knowledge, scholarly insight or some sort of undeniable truth as shorthand. This rather than dive into (or consider) a full discussion or appreciation of the design problems at hand that art is working toward.
Mike Doyle’s Art Play: The Function(s) of Game Art (Game, BoardGame, Design, Art)
Often times I find that the forums provide a group think toward terms and ideals that fall short of the reality of the games and game creation. One such is the use of the word “functional” as it applies to game art. Whenever I hear it I tend to wince as ... not what the writer really means to say and certainly does not capture what is going on. When individuals say “function” or "functional” what they really mean to say is “user friendly” or something to do with information design. Comments such as “It (the board or art) looks nice, but is not functional” illustrate the specificity and single purpose many assign to the function of art. While information design is a function of design and art, it is not the only function of art. It is then that such comments fall short in describing – or comprehending – what is really happening here. Statements such as these suggest the total functional failures of a particular games’s art without the full consideration of what the art is really doing.
Modesty Blaise - Television Tropes & Idioms (ModestyBlaise, ActionAdventure, SpyFi, Trope, TvTropes)
NASA Zawodny clarifies his views on Rossi and Low Energy Nuclear reactions (LENR, ColdFusion, NASA, Watch, Tech, Watch.Tech, EnergyGeneration)
There have been many attempts to twist the release of this video into NASA’s support for LENR or as proof that Rossi’s e-cat really works. Many extraordinary claims have been made in 2010. In my scientific opinion, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I find a distinct absence of the latter. So let me be very clear here. While I personally find sufficient demonstration that LENR effects warrant further investigation, I remain skeptical. Furthermore, I am unaware of any clear and convincing demonstrations of any viable commercial device producing useful amounts of net energy.
On Hyphenation - Anarchy of Pedantry (Hyphen, Hyphenation, Langauge, Grammar, English, Reference)
Panel: Young Adult Speculative Fiction - SF Signal – A Speculative Fiction Blog (YA, YoungAdult, Discussion, Panel, SF, SciFi, SpeculativeFiction)
Particle-free silver ink prints small, high-performance electronics (Print, Printable, Circuit, Electronics, Watch, Tech, Watch.Tech)
University of Illinois materials scientists have developed a new reactive silver ink for printing high-performance electronics on ubiquitous, low-cost materials such as flexible plastic, paper or fabric substrates.
Raspberry Pi starts manufacturing an ARM GNU/Linux box for $25 | KurzweilAI (Watch, Tech, Watch.Tech, Computer, Hardware)
Raspberry Pi, a $25 computer, has gone into production, with the first units rolling off the assembly line at the end of January. / The Raspberry Pi is a ARM GNU/Linux credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It can be used for many of the things your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video.
Review: The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (SF, SciFi, Novel, Steampunk, Review)
Scientists replicate key evolutionary step in life on earth (Evolution, Biolgy)
More than 500 million years ago, single-celled organisms on Earth's surface began forming multi-cellular clusters that ultimately became plants and animals.
Steam Punk - Television Tropes & Idioms (SteamPunk, Trope, TvTropes)
Breitspurbahn
Still don't think open source hurts commercial software? Guess again | Java programming - InfoWorld (Java, OpenSource, Trend)
Enterprises in cloud environments are mostly opting for open source Java app servers over commercial counterparts
Strange Ink: [write this when you know what the hell you are doing] (Writing, Process)
Study Finds Age-related Effects in Multiple Sclerosis may be Reversible (MultipleSclerosis, Study, Results, Aging, Health)
Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard University, and the University of Cambridge have found that the age-related impairment of the body’s ability to replace protective myelin sheaths, which normally surround nerve fibers and allow them to send signals properly, may be reversible, offering new hope that therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring efficient regeneration can be effective in the central nervous system throughout life.
The Business Rusch: Bestseller Lists and Other Thoughts | Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Publishing, BestSeller)
The Joys of KDP Select: Patrice Fitzgerald’s Story | David Gaughran (Amazon, SelfPublishing)
The world's greatest explanations, as chosen by Brian Eno, Richard Dawkins, and others (Explanation, Elegant, Writing, io9)
Wattpad - The Best Place to Discover and Share Stories (Ebook, Community, Resource, Epublishing, Writing, Social)
What’s Up With Wattpad? | David Gaughran (Ebook, Venue, Wattpad)
Why Is My Book Not Selling? | David Gaughran (SelfPublishing, Marketing, Writing, Advice)
Why is superstar editor Betsy Mitchell moving to e-books? (Editor, Ebooks, Publishing, io9)
Last fall, longtime Del Rey editor-in-chief Betsy Mitchell announced her retirement. But she's got bigger plans than taking up a new hobby: Mitchell has joined Open Road Integrated Media as their strategic adviser for science fiction and fantasy.
Why Isn’t Literary Fiction Getting More Attention? | Jane Friedman (LiteraryFiction, Genre, Epublishing)
Women and Tablets are BFFs, Poll Shows - somersault (Tablet, Purchase, Poll, Results)
XM25 smart gun removes the benefit of seeking cover (Watch, Tech, Watch.Tech, MilTech, Military, WeaponSystem, SmartGun)
Economist Magazine provides a report on the successful use of the XM25 in Afghanistan. US soldiers are giving the XM25 rave reviews. Besides being a smart gun able to hit enemy who are behind cover, the XM25 has twice the range of an AK47. The successful technology is being adapted for larger guns like artillery. Prices will drop to $25 per XM25 bullet and it is already far cheaper than an airstrike and more accurate with less collaterol damage than mortars and other alternatives.

[edit] Tagged ActionAdventure

Modesty Blaise - Television Tropes & Idioms

[edit] Tagged Art

[edit] Tagged Fantasy

Franz Vohwinkel Illustrationen - Homepage

[edit] Tagged Genre

Why Isn’t Literary Fiction Getting More Attention? | Jane Friedman

[edit] Tagged Java

Still don't think open source hurts commercial software? Guess again | Java programming - InfoWorld

[edit] Tagged Movie

Alternate Universe Movie Posters: Movies of the Present! Stars of the Past! | I Watch Stuff

[edit] Tagged OpenSource

Still don't think open source hurts commercial software? Guess again | Java programming - InfoWorld

[edit] Tagged Publishing

[edit] Tagged Reading

BOOK VIEW CAFE BLOG » A Look at Cover Art

[edit] Tagged Review

Review: The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

[edit] Tagged SelfPublishing

[edit] Tagged SF

[edit] Tagged Tech+Watch

[edit] Tagged Trope

[edit] Tagged TV

48 Years Of Doctor Who Explained In A Simple Timeline Graphic | Giant Freakin Robot

[edit] Tagged Writing

[edit] Tag Cloud

ActionAdventure Advice Aging Amazon Apple Armor Art Artist AstroPhysics BarnesAndNoble BestSeller Biolgy BoardGame BoingBoing Book Circuit ColdFusion Community Computer CoverArt Design Discussion DoctorWho Ebook Ebooks Editor Electronics Elegant EnergyGeneration English Epublishing Evolution Explanation Fantasy Format Game Genre German Germany Grammar Hardware Health History Hyphen Hyphenation InfoGraphic Java LENR Langauge Life LiteraryFiction Marketing MetaMaterial MilTech Military ModestyBlaise Movie MultipleSclerosis NASA Novel OpenSource Panel Physics Poll Poster Print Printable Process Publishing Purchase Railroad Reading Reference Resource Results Retro Review SF SciFi SelfDoubt SelfPublishing SmartGun Social SpeculativeFiction SpyFi SteamPunk Steampunk Study TV Tablet Tech TimeTravel Timeline Train Trend Trope TvTropes Vehicle Venue WW2 WarGame Watch Watch.Tech Wattpad WeaponSystem Wikipedia Writing XenoBiology YA YoungAdult io9

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2012/03/16

Link dump for 20120316

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