- How To Write Unmaintainable Code – what not to do when programming.
- Computer de-evolution: Features that lost the evolutionary war –
ITworldComputerWorld (via Slashdot) - Two XKCD comics: First, “The Cloud” explained. Second, anyone who has used command-line utilities on Linux will appreciate Manual Override.
- International Usability – Big Stuff the Same, Details Differ (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
- Who really owns your photos in social media? (PBS/MediaShift, via This Is True)
- Smartphone marketshare: Android keeps growing, iOS passes Blackberry, and WP7′s on life support.
Category: Comics
Links: Ancient World, Eudora, Area 51
- Familiar yet alien ancient views of Earth – photorealistic simulations of the world as seen from space, millions of years ago.
- Back in 2006, Qualcomm effectively discontinued Eudora, though they sponsored a project to extend Mozilla Thunderbird with the look, feel, and some features of Eudora. I lost track of it over the years, but it turns out they finally released Eudora OSE last September…four years later.
- Revealed: How Area 51 Hid Secret Craft. Advanced designs by humans, of course, not alien ships.
Recent Links: Moon and More
- Discovery spacewalk seen from the ground (Thierry Legault, of course!)
- Majestic Snow Batman towers over Vermont
- Ultra hi-res moon. The full-sized image is 24,000 x 24,000 pixels and half a gigabyte!
- Flash Coffee is a product tie-in just waiting to happen! (That F’ing Monkey). It would fit right in with the Central City Track Team shirt.
Marvel or DC? It’s the Universe
I’ve always considered myself a DC fan. I think it’s mainly that it’s where I got started, so I got invested in the DC Universe. That’s what’s familiar, while Marvel always seemed like I’d need to do a ton of research just to get started. (Not necessarily true, of course, that’s just how it seemed.) Most of the Marvel books I’ve read were either stand-alone or set off in their own corner of the universe (Alias, True Believers, Astonishing X-Men when Joss Whedon was writing it, etc.)
In short: the complexity of the universe I knew kept me in, and the complexity of the universe I didn’t know kept me out.
These days I still consider myself a DC fan, and I follow all the DC-related news and commentary, but I don’t actually read many of their books anymore. It’s down to one: The Flash. The rest of the line just doesn’t appeal to me anymore. But neither does Marvel’s. Actually, about half of my pull list is from BOOM! right now, with the rest of it scattered around DC/Vertigo, Dark Horse, Aspen, Image, etc.
Previously posted on Reddit
(Mad) Scientific Fact: The Girl Genius Novel is Out!
For the past decade, Phil & Kaja Foglio have been spinning the mad science/gaslamp fantasy adventures of Agatha Heterodyne in the award-winning comic book-turned-webcomic Girl Genius. Now they’ve stepped into a new medium, adapting the first story into a prose novel: Agatha H. and the Airship City.
The Industrial Revolution has escalated into all-out warfare. It has been sixteen years since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over – and terrorizing – the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Heterodynes’ return. At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck. Incapable of building anything that actually works, but dedicated to her studies, Agatha seems destined for a lackluster career as a minor lab assistant. But when the University is overthrown by the ruthless tyrant Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Agatha finds herself a prisoner aboard his massive airship Castle Wulfenbach – and it begins to look like she might carry a spark of Mad Science after all.
The comics are great fun, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they’ve filled in the details in the novel version!
Long Beach Comic Con 2010 — Saturday Con Report
On the last weekend of October, I made it out to the second annual Long Beach Comic Con. It’s shaping up to be a very artist–, writer– and dealer-focused convention.
A couple of years ago, Wizard World Los Angeles seemed to be all about people looking for deals on comics and collectibles (in which case, why not just go to Frank and Son or the Shrine?). When the show resurfaced in Anaheim this year, it seemed to be all about the celebrity autographs.
If you just want to see the photos, check out the photo set on Flickr. Otherwise, read on!
Layout
The first thing everyone noticed was the row of themed cars out in front of the convention center: A Camaro painted up as Bumblebee, a replica of KITT from Knight Rider, cars from less geeky shows like Starsky and Hutch and (IIRC) Magnum, P.I.…and a car that had been modified to look like a Rebel Alliance small fighter, complete with an R2 unit!
The main floor at Long Beach was bigger this year than last, though nowhere near as big as Anaheim. Unlike Anaheim, they used most of their space.
All the publishers were clustered near the entrance, with Aspen and BOOM! the most prominent, followed by Top Cow, Image and Avatar in the next row with other small press, along with the celebrity autograph area off to one side.
The rest of the floor was structured with a huge Artist’s Alley at its core, surrounded by retailers on either side. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it was two Artist’s Alley areas with dealers wrapped around them in a sort of F shape.
If you went to Anaheim Comic-Con this year, remember how big the celebrity signing area was, and how small the artists’ area was? Flip it. My gut instinct says that there were more artists with tables here than there were in San Diego, but then it could just be that they’re a bigger percentage of the smaller space.
Home Libraries
Two comic strips about book collections:
Wondermark #442: In Which Beth Keeps Her Books
I stumbled on the Wondermark strip at Long Beach Comic-Con and it really hit home, between the fact that I grew up loving books for exactly this reason, and the impending arrival of the next generation.
As for Girl Genius, I think Castle Heterodyne’s library could give the Beast’s a run for its money.
