Out Of Ambit

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Out of Ambit

Thursday, August 14, 2003

More computer madness: the new laptop arrives
So yesterday, after some delay, my new laptop showed up. Ryoh-ohki II (aka Ryoh-chan) is the US version of the Sharp Mebius MT1 -- a Sharp Actius UM32W. Slightly bigger HD (40 gig instead of 30), faster processor (1 GHz), onboard 802.11 (one less dongle to carry), Firewire, USB 2.0, various other bits and pieces. Her chassis is exactly the same size as Ryoh-ohki's, her weight just a shade more (about three pounds).

The only thing that's slightly off is the case, which is plastic rather than (as in the older machine) metal, and feels less...reassuring, somehow. It's also going to be less forgiving of scratches and so on...which is a nuisance. But I may be able to do something about it. If I'm not mistaken, there was a slightly older version of this machine which Dynamism carried for a while before Sharp started marketing the "Actius" line (just the Mebius "Muramasa" machines rebadged) directly into the US. I'm betting that the Japanese version had a metal shell, and (if it did) I'm going to see if it's possible to send the new one to Japan to be recased. We shall see...

Jeez, look at me, finding fault with the poor thing before it's been in the house for even a day. Oh well...don't have much time to worry any further about it: I have this book to finish before the week's out. While I busy myself with that, Ryoh-chan is undergoing a "brain transplant" from Ryoh-ohki via PC Relocator. This should take another couple of hours to finish, according to the countdown clock. After that, Ryoh-ohki gets wrapped up in the new machine's packaging and sent off to Dynamism to get that poor sake-soaked keyboard taken care of...

Anyway, the big machine is not so much "over" its disk crash as it's had most of the important things replaced. It remains to get some data recovered from the crashed hard drive, which is going to cost mucho dinero, unfortunately...but it needs to be done. Sigh...

posted by Diane: 04:21 | link to this post

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Schwarzenegger campaign oppresses screenwriters!
Well, only insofar as the people responsible for his movie scripts won't be getting any residuals from TV showings until the recall is over, as FCC regulations (specifically the "equal time rule") mean that Ahhhnold's films won't be airing in California until the dust has settled. Just as "Star Trek" was removed from the LA airwaves in '73, while George Takei was running for LA City Council...

posted by Diane: 08:36 | link to this post

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

A brief veer into current events
"Penny-wise, pound-foolish?"

posted by Diane: 23:38 | link to this post

Today's Words of Wisdom
"...somebody...told me she was reading [Coraline] to her 8 year old son and got rather upset, and nervous, and freaked-out, and her son patted her on the hand and said 'It's okay, it's only a story.' Which I thought was a very reassuring place to be. Kids understand that. Kids are really good at fiction."

You tell 'em, Neil. A nice interview on SuicideGirls.com with Mr. Gaiman, one of my favorite people and a very smart man (even if American Gods did obscurely annoy me. Well, it's possible I missed something. ...And even if he doesn't take his sunglasses off in the breakfast room at Claridge's. Ileen Maisel is still talking about that, Neil...).

posted by Diane: 05:23 | link to this post

Monday, August 11, 2003

New YW covers
Harcourt is beginning to reissue the "Young Wizards" books in a digest format (they're still being issued in standard mass-market paperbacks as well, but with covers by Cliff Nielsen, who's also doing the hardcover editions). The first piece of work by the new artist, Greg Swearingen, was the cover for the 20th-anniversary edition of So You Want to Be a Wizard (you can see the digest version of it below). Here also are his covers for Deep Wizardry and High Wizardry.

I like them all well enough, but I think I like the "Deep" cover best.

posted by Diane: 10:41 | link to this post

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I write for a living. That being the case, sometimes I want to talk about anything but writing (at least, writing per se). This is where that happens.

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Fish count

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3 golden orfe

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Whereabouts of "Mystery Fish" still unknown

What I've worked on today

"Today" means in the last 24 hours: look for the checkmarks. Projects disappear from the list below when they leave my desk for the last time on their way to press/production. Publication dates / airing dates may come much later: check Amazon or Variety for more information. Projects with ** are collaborations with my writing (and everything else) partner, Peter Morwood. The list is alphabetical: don't infer anything about priority from list order. One other note: I'm not going to discuss deadlines, so don't ask. This, however, is the year when many things which have been hanging fire for a long time will get finished at last.