Since i'm in the midst of a Saturday travel day home from an 8:30AM client meeting,  this is more than appropriate to pass along.

One Bag.

Via Larry Hammer on DM.net comes this link to One Bag, a website that includes a HUGE amount of information on how to pack light (and why you should.)

Comment on One Bag [Evil Genius Chronicles]

1:28:39 PM •  • comment  

Altered Carbon
Morgan, Richard

This was getting lots of buzz in different places that I trust. I picked it up and browsed it in the book store and put it back several times before I finally decided I was going to read it. Glad I did.

What makes good science fiction work, and the reason I continue to make it such a major component of my fiction reading, is to make plausible hypotheses about a technology innovation and then be relentless in pursuing that "what if" wherever your understanding of behavior and society leads. Morgan does exactly that. If technology could give you a real-time backup brain that essentially lets you cheat death (but not pain), where does that take you? To some frequently nasty but compelling places.

10:35:35 AM •  • comment  

Shockwave Rider
Brunner, John

Long before William Gibson launched the genre of "cyber-punk", Brunner was writing about the impact of information technology and accelerating change on society. This is Brunner's effort to understand what Toffler's Future Shock might feel like in human terms. To me, it's one of the more effective examples of why someone once described science-fiction writers as the "advance planning department for the human race." And it's a hell of a good story, besides.

I re-read this story every couple of years and still find it compelling. I marvel at Brunner's ability to extrapolate how the collision of technology and human nature is likely to play out. This time I picked it up again because of a recommendation from Evil Genius Chronicles to check out some music written as a backdrop to the story, which was also worth the download.

10:32:47 AM •  • comment