2011-08-01: Git Debian packaging notes revised
It's a new month, so as usual for the beginning of the month I'm hoping to
be a bit better about regularly updating, and ideally with more than just
software release announcements and book reviews.
Sadly, today has not been a good day for concentration despite a good
early start, but I did manage to finally get through a long-delayed
revision of my page of notes on using
Git for Debian packaging. The revision drops the idea of using a
separate debian branch to track Debian-specific changes so that master
could be a pure feature branch. While appealing for its conceptual
purity, this ended up confusing people horribly and was extra work for no
apparent benefit.
There are also a variety of other revisions to bring things up to date and
a few new minor tips. Unfortunately, I haven't yet had a chance to write
up how to maintain the upstream branch as a merge between the upstream Git
repository and the released tarball, an idea from Sam Hartman that I'm now
using very successfully for the openafs package, but at least now there's
a pointer to it.
I'm not really sure what to do with the initial part of that page that
offers an introduction to Git. I've now written about three of these in
separate places, and I'm still unconvinced of how much they actually
help. And there are a ton of tools and basic techniques that I use all
the time in Git that aren't mentioned in there (like git pull
--rebase --stat
, which I aliased to git update
, or the whole
concept of aliases, or how this all plays with 3.0 source packages). I've
left the basic instructions for now, but I think at some point I may cede
the tutorial aspect to other sites and just collect neat tricks that
aren't part of the basic workflow that everyone describes.
2011-08-02: Kindle haul
I have little brain this evening, given that I've spent the entire day
writing code. (This is, to note, a substantial improvement over
yesterday, when I spent the entire day looking at the Interwebs because my
brain was refusing to write code.) So you get the previously-promised
list of things I've picked up so far for the Kindle, since I use these
haul posts to try to remember what books I own.
Yes, writing a database is already on my to-do list. It's been there for
about four years. (No, I don't trust the Interwebs to keep track of much
for me.)
I picked up a Kindle this year as an experiment, mostly because the Hugo
nominee list had several books on it that I didn't really want to buy in
hardcover (*cough* All Clear *cough*). So far, the experience has been somewhat
mixed; I miss some things about reading on paper, but some other things
are improved. Most ebooks so far appear to be at least a little bit
buggy. The experience will be better when the level of quality control
approaches that of printed books.
Anyway, one of the nice things about the Kindle is that authors can make a
fair bit more money than they can with paper books, particularly with
selling short stories. Another nice thing about it is that there's a lot
of public-domain literature available for it in various forms. (The
version from Amazon is the most convenient and the most sleazy, since
Amazon strips out all the credits to the people who actually did the work
of making it electronic and just makes a token pass at saying that it was
done by "volunteers.") So the books fall into a few different categories.
First, full purchased books, bought via Amazon:
Edmund de Waal — The Hare with Amber Eyes
(non-fiction)
Tabitha Dulla & Cecilia Tan (ed.) — Like Heaven and
Hell (sff)
Mira Grant — Feed (sff)
Kay Kenyon — Bright of the Sky (sff)
Ian McDonald — The Dervish House (sff)
Richelle Mead — Succubus Blues (sff)
Justina Robson — Keeping It Real (sff)
Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, & Sarah Monette —
Shadow Unit 1 (sff)
Connie Willis — Blackout (sff)
Connie Willis — All Clear (sff)
Second, novels found elsewhere in Kindle-compatible formats and imported:
Lois McMaster Bujold — Cryoburn (sff)
Cory Doctorow — Eastern Standard Tribe (sff)
Cory Doctorow — For the Win (sff)
Cory Doctorow — Overclocked (sff)
Cory Doctorow — Makers (sff)
Daniel Keys Moran — The AI War: The Big Boost
Third, short fiction purchased via Amazon:
Mira Grant — "Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box" (sff)
Mira Grant — "Countdown" (sff)
Adam Roberts — "Anticopernicus" (sff)
Finally, public domain literature downloaded from Amazon:
Thornton W. Burgess — The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat
(childrens)
Thornton W. Burgess — The Adventures of Mr. Mocker
(childrens)
Thornton W. Burgess — The Adventures of Poor Mrs. Quack
(childrens)
Thornton W. Burgess — The Adventures of Prickly Porky
(childrens)
Thornton W. Burgess — The Adventures of Reddy Fox
(childrens)
Thornton W. Burgess — The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum
(childrens)
Thornton W. Burgess — Blacky the Crow (childrens)
Thornton W. Burgess — Mrs. Peter Rabbit (childrens)
Thornton W. Burgess — Old Granny Fox (childrens)
Daniel Defoe — Moll Flanders (classic)
Charles Dickens — Bleak House (classic)
Charles Dickens — David Copperfield (classic)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes (mystery)
Alexandre Dumas — The Count of Monte Cristo (classic)
Rudyard Kipling — The Jungle Book (classic)
William Hope Hodgson — the Night Land (sff)
Jack London — The Call of the Wild (mainstream)
Jack London — White Fang (mainstream)
Herman Melville — Bartleby, the Scrivener (classic)
E. Nesbit — The Story of the Treasure Seekers
(childrens)
Anna Sewell — Black Beauty (childrens)
Adam Smith — An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of
the Wealth of Nations (non-fiction)
William Makepeace Thackeray — Vanity Fair (classic)
Anthony Trollope — The Way We Live Now (classic)
Phew. This will all keep me busy reading for a while. A lot of the
public domain stuff I downloaded just because I could — it
was there, I've been wanting to read a lot of it for a while, and this way
it's handy.
2011-08-03: Approaching the finish
I see it's been nearly seven months since I've posted a photograph, which
is kind of ridiculous. That's something I want to get back to doing.
Today was a nice breakthrough. My main project for the past few months
has been version 4.0 of WebAuth, which will add multifactor support. This
has proven to be quite a lot of work, including a significant
restructuring of the mod_webkdc Apache module. But I finally finished and
tested the majority of the work in the module this morning, and then this
afternoon a coworker and I added the remaining pieces to support OTP
authentication. So the end is in sight. We still need to implement
support for session factors in addition to initial factors, but I'm now
far enough ahead that I might be able to work on some other things.
I've not been very newsy for a while. In general, things have been busy
but good, and will be better when they're less busy. After this project,
I'm going to have a blessed few months to catch up on everything else in
life that I've been putting off, and am already making plans about what to
work on. It will be lovely to get to work on a variety of minor things
with no set timeline instead of always having to spend as much time as
possible on projects.
I'm also almost caught up with book reviews (just two books and one
magazine behind, which is massively better than I have been), which is a
very good sign for getting on top of things.
Hopefully posting will become more frequent here.
2011-08-04: Code complete
Not code complete on everything for our September 1st delivery date.
There are a few more stories left to implement, mostly additional work
around the edges. But today I finished the last piece of end-to-end
multifactor authentication through the WebAuth code with both OTP
validation and session factor support. Well, at least to the extent that
it passes its unit test suite. We'll of course have to deploy and do more
thorough testing.
This is a huge weight off. The goal was finishing this by the end of last
week, but I knew last month that we weren't going to quite make it, and
thought it would take an extra two weeks (which was part of the
contingency plan). Turned out it only took another four days, which isn't
bad at all. Looking at the remaining stories, we shouldn't have much
difficulty hitting our target date at this point.
Tomorrow I may even get to do something on something other than this
project!
2011-08-05: Completionist
This is a week for finishing things. I worked a bit late several nights
this week, so I took off a bit early today to play video games, and
finished off the last achievement in Final Fantasy XIII. The game starts
a bit slow (you don't unlock the full combat system until quite late in
the game), and it's very badly on rails for the first 70%, but it's got a
fairly good story and a great combat system. It took me about 97 hours to
get all the achievements, and only 5-10 hours of that was grinding out
farming; the rest was either story, sufficiently interesting missions that
they felt like story, or wandering around doing things that I wanted to
do.
Definitely recommended if you like RPGs. And it's satisfying to be able
to finish something that large, which is one of the reasons why I like
RPGs. I seem to have more patience for things like it than for the
practice required to finish action games.
Now I have to decide if I'm going to pick up some other video game this
weekend or do something else. Catching up on reviews again would be a
good idea.
2011-08-13: NPR Top 100 SFF meme
By way of
firecat, this is the result of a public nomination process,
panel review, and Internet voting on the NPR web site: an attempt at the
top 100 works of science fiction or fantasy. Series are counted as single
works for the purposes of the list.
This list has a ton of problems, like any list of this sort will have. It
leans rather more heavily towards white male than the actual literature,
and certainly than my reading. The lack of non-white writers is
particularly troubling. But it's still an interesting selection. (For
those wondering about some obvious omissions, young adult was explicitly
excluded.)
The rules are to bold the works one has read in their entirety and
italicize the ones you've read part of but not finished. I'll add
underlining the works that I own, which provides some indication of the
things that I've not read but that are on my to-read list.
- The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien:
It's a boring winner because it always wins, but it's an amazing book
and I can't argue with it. I'll probably never review this one since
I'm not sure I have anything original to say about it.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams:
Probably the best humorous SF. I've read the entire series except for
The Salmon of Doubt, the unfinished book left when Adams died.
Will re-read them all at some point.
- Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card:
I intensely dislike Card's politics, but this book is still very good.
It's on my re-read list so that I can write a proper review of it.
- The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert:
I've read the whole series, but only own the first, which is by far
the best. I'm tempted to re-read the whole series at some point,
since I don't remember it well enough to analyze it, but I'll probably
stop after re-reading just the first.
- A Song Of Ice And Fire
Series, by George R. R. Martin:
I own the first couple and have read and reviewed the first four. I
think they're somewhat overrated, but will probably read the latest.
I'm not sure if I'll re-read the previous books to remember what the
heck was going on.
- 1984, by George Orwell:
I've somehow never read this. I keep meaning to, particularly since I
generally love Orwell.
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury:
Massively overrated, or perhaps just made unoriginal by subsequent
history. I found it boring and uninteresting.
- The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov:
Thoroughly enjoyed this when I was a teenager. I suspect I'll like it
less as an adult, but definitely on my to-read list.
- Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley: Another classic I've never read.
- American Gods, by Neil Gaiman:
Great book. Need to re-read to review.
- The Princess Bride, by William Goldman:
On the list to read. Apparently significantly better than the movie,
which I liked less than everyone else on the planet.
- The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan:
I read up to book eight (The Path of Daggers) and bailed
halfway through it. It started as somewhat interesting fantasy with
deep world building and fun world surprises, but the writing got worse
and worse and the characters became miserably unlikeable. I'm still
occasionally tempted to re-read and finish it, but it's a bad
temptation.
- Animal Farm, by George
Orwell:
Great book, and a political and historical classic. Best read in
combination with a good history.
- Neuromancer, by William Gibson: Meh.
- Watchmen, by Alan Moore: Brilliant. On my list to re-read.
- I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov:
Okay, but I generally find Asimov a bit overrated. Good for
intellectual puzzle stories, but not that deep of ones, and the
characters are essentially nonentities.
- Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein:
The only book that I've ever put down within fifteen pages of the end
and could never muster enough caring to pick up again. I should
re-read it at some point to review it, but I don't think it's very
good.
- The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss:
Well, I own the first one at least.
- Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut: Need to read.
- Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley:
I've never actually read this, but I'm not sure there's much point in
reading it. I've been so thoroughly exposed to the angles and
interpretations of it that reading it at this point would be an odd
experience. I probably should for completion's sake at some point.
(This is the first woman on the list, and of course she's long-dead
and not writing in the modern SF tradition.)
- Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick:
I do need to read more Dick. I don't think this is as good as its
placement on the list; everyone just knows Blade Runner (which
was based on this).
- The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood:
I have a bunch of Atwood, but haven't yet read any of it.
- The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King:
It's rare for me to find any horror I actually like, but my
understanding is that this is less horror than a lot of King. I may
give it a try someday (but probably won't).
- 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke:
Much better than the movie since it actually explained what was going
on, although it wasn't as atmospheric. Not actually as good as its
position on lists like this would indicate. Mostly it's just a book
everyone has heard of.
- The Stand, by Stephen King: See above about horror.
- Snow Crash, by Neal
Stephenson:
One of my favorite humorous SF books, plus features the trademark
Stephenson infodumping and some neat bits about building a virtual
world.
- The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury: On the list to read.
- Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut: Need to track down and read.
- The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman:
Quite possibly the best comic book series ever written. Utterly
brilliant. The one set of graphic novels that everyone should read at
some point in their life.
- A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess:
Huh. Not really on my radar to read, although of course I've heard of
it.
- Starship Troopers, by
Robert Heinlein:
Also overrated, particularly since it's not much of a story. It's an
extended and multifaceted political essay, which isn't as simple as it
appears to be. The movie, quite contrary to the negative impression
people have of it, is a delightful parody of how the book comes across
on its surface reading.
- Watership Down, by Richard Adams: Yeah, yeah, I know I should read it.
- Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey:
I loved the Pern books as a teenager up until the point when the just
became retellings of the same book from a new perspective. I'm afraid
to re-read them.
- The Moon Is A Harsh
Mistress, by Robert Heinlein:
Much, much better than Starship Troopers. One of the better
non-juvenile Heinleins. Still not as good as people think it is.
- A Canticle For
Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller:
I was disappointed in this given how much people like it, but it
deserves some credit for being foundational to post-apocalyptic SF.
- The Time Machine, by
H.G. Wells:
More interesting than you might think it would be, given when it was
written and the emphasis on description rather than characterization.
But it still suffers from a lack of characters for me. Hard to come
to this fresh now, since the ideas have been so used elsewhere.
- 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne:
I've seen the movie take on it. I've not felt a strong urge to read
the book, although I probably "should."
- Flowers For Algernon,
by Daniel Keys:
Unforgettable and very strongly affecting (and depressing).
- The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells: Will read at some point.
- The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny: Will probably read soon.
- The Belgariad, by David Eddings:
Yeah, I read this as a teenager and quite liked it. But I have no
idea what it's doing on this list; it is in absolutely no way one of
the best 100 SFF works of all time. (Well, that's not true; I know
what it's doing on this list. People have heard of it and read it.
But it shouldn't be on this list.)
- The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley: On the list.
- The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson: Want to read this.
- Ringworld, by Larry Niven:
Interesting idea fiction with a great sense of scale. Shame the
characters aren't as good as the background. But it's a good book,
worth reading.
- The Left Hand Of
Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin:
A deserved classic of anthropological SF with profound things to say
about how culture and friendship are constructed.
- The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien:
I love this book, but the first section is hard going if you don't
like reading mythology. Skip ahead if you're struggling; the gems are
later.
- The Once And Future King, by T.H. White: Definitely on the list to read.
- Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman:
I'm not sure I'd put it on this list, as there are better Gaiman (and
Gaiman is already overrepresented), but it's a solid "urban" fantasy
in the old sense of that term. Inventive, with a feel similar to some
of the Sandman stories.
- Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke:
I read this eons ago and can barely remember it. I definitely need to
re-read it.
- Contact, by Carl Sagan:
Liked the movie, have never had any particular urge to read the book.
- The Hyperion Cantos, by
Dan Simmons:
Some of my favorite SF novels ever. The third book is the weakest,
and the fourth book has problems, but I adore it.
- Stardust, by Neil
Gaiman:
Really far too much Gaiman on this list. But also a good book.
- Cryptonomicon, by Neal
Stephenson:
Fantastic stuff. Not SF in any traditional sense. It's a combination
of secret history and contemporary thriller. But it's written in the
Stephenson massive entertaining infodumping style, so it feels like SF
and makes it onto lists like this. It's very long, but I've read it
twice and don't regret it.
- World War Z, by Max Brooks:
Have a hard time believing this really belongs here, but I haven't
read it so I couldn't say for sure.
- The Last Unicorn, by
Peter S. Beagle:
Eh, it's not a bad book, but I'm not sure it really belongs on this
list. But it does have an aesthetic that's hard to find in any other
book.
- The Forever War, by Joe
Haldeman:
A very important response to the whole sub-genre of military SF, and
very influential.
- Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett: Getting to it.
- The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen
R. Donaldson:
Read the first book, wasn't much of a fan. I might get back to it at
some point, but I'm not particularly eager.
- The Vorkosigan Saga, by
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I don't like the early books as much as some, but I love some of the
later books. The last few have been disappointing, but overall very
much worth reading, and belongs around here on the list.
- Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett: Getting to it.
- The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle:
Read many years ago and barely remember it. I need to re-read it,
particularly since there's a new sequal by Pournelle's daughter that
looks well worth reading.
- The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind:
I read way too many books in this series. Others should not repeat my
mistake. Generic fantasy about incredibly stupid people that turns
into libertarian political ravings.
- The Road, by Cormac McCarthy: Not my thing.
- Jonathan Strange & Mr
Norrell, by Susanna Clarke:
A nearly unique reading experience, and the best footnoted fantasy
that I've ever read (and that includes Pratchett). Great stuff if you
don't mind the slow pace. I'm eagerly hoping for an actual sequel.
- I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson:
Having a hard time getting interested enough in a book about zombies.
But I've been wrong about that
before.
- The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist:
Heard of it, but not enough to get it onto my want list.
- The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks:
Heard enough about it to not put it on my want list.
- The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard:
Something that I feel like I "should" read, but usually I'm not a big
fan of pulp.
- The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb:
Own the first, which has been on my to-read list for a very long time.
Someday I'll get to it. I should probably buy all of the trilogy
before starting it.
- The Time Traveler's
Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger:
Surprisingly good for a literary fantasy, with some fantastic moments
of description.
- The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson: Want to read at some point.
- A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne:
As above, uninspired to read Verne.
- The Legend Of Drizzt
Series, by R.A. Salvatore:
Read the first one, and unless they get substantially better, I have
no interest in reading more. Very stock power fantasy with
one-dimensional characters.
- Old Man's War, by John
Scalzi:
The later books in the series are better than the first one. An
interesting take on military SF, but I'm not sure it really rises to
the level of this sort of list.
- The Diamond Age, by
Neil Stephenson:
One too many Stephenson for this list, plus Anathem is probably
more deserving of this place, but there are some neat bits about
computation theory.
- Rendezvous With Rama,
by Arthur C. Clarke:
Completely overrated. A bad book that just happens to be foundational
in a particular sub-genre of SF. Done much better by other people.
- The Kushiel's Legacy
Series, by Jacqueline Carey:
By far my favorite epic fantasy series. Lush, involved, very
creative, and with a truly unusual heroine. Wonderful stuff.
- The Dispossessed, by
Ursula K. LeGuin:
Great, thoughtful SF. Probably the best in the utopia genre, even
though it isn't a utopia.
- Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury: Horror. Eh.
- Wicked, by Gregory Maguire:
On the list, but after a general Oz re-read.
- The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson:
Own the first. Completely intimidated by the length of the series.
- The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde: On the list.
- The Culture Series, by
Iain M. Banks:
Brilliant stuff, highly recommended. I only haven't read it all
because I'm slowly digesting it. Should be higher on the list than
this.
- The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart: On the list.
- Anathem, by Neal Stephenson: On the list.
- The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher:
I'll read the Dresden series, or least part of it, first, and see if
that inspires me to read more Butcher. Dubious that this belongs on
this list.
- The Book Of The New
Sun, by Gene Wolfe:
Incredibly influential and important fantasy-flavored SF that should
be much higher on the list than this.
- The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn:
This is a Star Wars media tie-in series, and one of the few of
that type that I've read. I remember quite enjoying it a long time
ago, and it's on the list to re-read at some point.
- The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan:
The only thing on this list that I've never even heard of.
- The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock:
Definitely want to read this at some point, once I figure out the
right place to start and probably after I've read some other
Moorcock.
- The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury:
Waiting to see if I like the better-known Bradbury first.
- Sunshine, by Robin
McKinley:
Quite possibly the best urban fantasy (in the modern definition) that
I've ever read.
- A Fire Upon The Deep,
by Vernor Vinge:
A little overrated, but it has a fun rendition of Usenet and some
neat aliens.
- The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov:
Read long ago. Enjoyed it, but don't remember being grabbed by it.
There's a bit too much Asimov on this list.
- The Mars Trilogy, by
Kim Stanley Robinson:
The most detailed and in-depth politics that you'll find in SF, even
more than Le Guin, at the cost of being mind-numbingly boring. Very
ambitious, but just doesn't move fast enough or have enough plot.
Robinson is less a novelist than a political and hard science essayist
in the form of a novel.
- Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle:
Large-screen disaster novel with a heavy helping of libertarian
utopian politics. Does not belong anywhere near this list.
- Doomsday Book, by
Connie Willis:
The best of Willis's time travel novels, with fewer communication
failures and frantic faffing about than the other ones. Borderline
for this list, but probably deserves to be here.
- Perdido Street Station,
by China Mieville:
Revolutionary fantasy. The founding book of New Weird. I think
The Scar is a better
book, but I can't argue with this being here.
- The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony: I've been warned off these.
- The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis:
I need to re-read this and write long reviews of them, since I have a
lot to say about them. But they need to be read in the context of the
Christian faith to make any sense.
2011-08-25: Giant summer haul
It had been a while since I bought a nice large chunk of books, and I have
several vacations coming up that will hopefully involve a fair bit of
reading. And I've been reading lots of reviews lately that have gotten me
excited about reading various things, so the books I wanted were adding
up. So, my part in stimulating the economy.
Poul Anderson — All One Universe (sff)
Iain M. Banks — Surface Detail (sff)
Gregory Benford — In the Ocean of Night (sff)
K.J. Bishop — The Etched City (sff)
Michael Bishop — Brittle Innings (sff)
Anthony Burgess — A Clockwork Orange (mainstream)
Italo Calvino — If On a Winter's Night a Traveler
(mainstream)
Dave Duncan — Mother of Lies (sff)
Kelley Eskridge — Dangerous Space (sff)
Kim Harrison — The Good, the Bad, and the Undead
(sff)
Maggie Helwig — Girls Fall Down (mainstream)
Ken MacLeod — Engine City (sff)
Ken MacLeod — The Sky Road (sff)
Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear — The Tempering of Men
(sff)
Noriko Ogiwara — Dragon Sword and Wind Child (sff)
J.A. Pitts — Honeyed Words (sff)
Tim Powers — Last Call (sff)
Dubravka Ugresic — Baba Yaga Laid an Egg (sff)
Kurt Vonnegut — Cat's Cradle (sff)
George Zebrowski — Brute Orbits (sff)