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Boing Boing linked to Nestra's "Wait Wait Don't Eat Me" (NPR RPF, with zombies). After, apparently, the NPR folks tweeted about it themselves.
Something new, every day
Jan. 28th, 2010 10:09 pmThings I somehow did not know:
Also, I was trawling through Project Gutenberg and would like to inform you that you can now download The North American Slime-Moulds: A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species for free, in HTML or plain text. I love Project Gutenberg.
(...though the problem here is that I click on a link like that thinking, "ha ha, slime moulds," and the next thing, I know it's an hour later, and I know more about the Myxomycetes of Iowa in 1899 than will ever possibly be useful to me in my life. Damn you, Project Gutenberg.)
True History or True Story (Greek: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα) is a fantastic travel tale by the Greek-speaking Syrian author Lucian of Samosata, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the second century AD, the novel has been referred to as "the first known text that could be called science fiction". The work was intended by Lucian as a satire against contemporary and ancient sources, which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth.
Also, I was trawling through Project Gutenberg and would like to inform you that you can now download The North American Slime-Moulds: A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species for free, in HTML or plain text. I love Project Gutenberg.
(...though the problem here is that I click on a link like that thinking, "ha ha, slime moulds," and the next thing, I know it's an hour later, and I know more about the Myxomycetes of Iowa in 1899 than will ever possibly be useful to me in my life. Damn you, Project Gutenberg.)
Finally saw Up!
Jan. 25th, 2010 09:11 pmPLEASE SEND TISSUES I SEEM TO BE HAVING SOME SORT OF ALLERGIC REACTION HERE *bawls into sleeve*
Now I'm glad I didn't see it in the theater, that would have been embarrassing. /cone of shame
Now I'm glad I didn't see it in the theater, that would have been embarrassing. /cone of shame
AO3 milestones
Jan. 23rd, 2010 09:45 pm5,000(+) fandoms!
Fandom #5,000: Okujou Fuukei | Rooftop Scenery
5,000(+) users!
User #5,000: auberus
50,000(+) works! (<- number appears lower if you're logged out)
Work #50,000: Frodo/Sam Drabbles by claudia603
*throws confetti, hugs everyone who's participating in our open beta*
The archive, of course, is not-for-profit, so we don't actually gain anything from these numbers, they're just fun to look at.
And now, back to coding! (I'm dreaming about tags these days, it's not even funny.)
Fandom #5,000: Okujou Fuukei | Rooftop Scenery
5,000(+) users!
User #5,000: auberus
50,000(+) works! (<- number appears lower if you're logged out)
Work #50,000: Frodo/Sam Drabbles by claudia603
*throws confetti, hugs everyone who's participating in our open beta*
The archive, of course, is not-for-profit, so we don't actually gain anything from these numbers, they're just fun to look at.
And now, back to coding! (I'm dreaming about tags these days, it's not even funny.)
We're All Fans
Jan. 21st, 2010 07:15 pmI haven't been watching a lot of live tv on CBS lately, so I don't know how long these have been running, but I happened to see a commercial for the Grammy Awards (there are a few of them up there) that was a montage of YouTube clips of people singing/performing/dancing to "Poker Face", ending with the tag line, "We're All Fans".
(There also seems to be a "I Gotta Feeling Lip-Dub Contest" at CBS.)
Which... I mean it certainly caught my attention more than a regular ad would have, but does anyone else find that kind of ironic as an advertising strategy for a music industry awards show? They're not exactly on the leading edge of "user generated content, yay!", to put it mildly, and EMI is suing Vimeo for allowing people to upload exactly these kinds of videos. And you'll get bounced by YouTube's filters if the record label that owns the song doesn't want to let videos that use it through. And OK Go is currently protesting EMI's decision to prevent embedding of their new video via YouTube. (And they're the band!) Etc., etc.
Anyway, I found that amusing. And hey, think they paid any of those YouTube performers for their work?
(There also seems to be a "I Gotta Feeling Lip-Dub Contest" at CBS.)
Which... I mean it certainly caught my attention more than a regular ad would have, but does anyone else find that kind of ironic as an advertising strategy for a music industry awards show? They're not exactly on the leading edge of "user generated content, yay!", to put it mildly, and EMI is suing Vimeo for allowing people to upload exactly these kinds of videos. And you'll get bounced by YouTube's filters if the record label that owns the song doesn't want to let videos that use it through. And OK Go is currently protesting EMI's decision to prevent embedding of their new video via YouTube. (And they're the band!) Etc., etc.
Anyway, I found that amusing. And hey, think they paid any of those YouTube performers for their work?
The opposite of progress
Jan. 13th, 2010 04:16 pmHow LEGO advertised toys for girls in 1981
How LEGO advertises toys for girls in 2010
(I saw the first ad on Gizmodo, I think, a few months ago - it's adorable.)
Elsewhere on the internet, you can vote to make Barbie a computer engineer.
How LEGO advertises toys for girls in 2010
(I saw the first ad on Gizmodo, I think, a few months ago - it's adorable.)
Elsewhere on the internet, you can vote to make Barbie a computer engineer.
Devestating earthquake in Haiti - it sounds like most of Port-au-Prince was destroyed and there are no casualty figures simply because the earthquake did so much damage and communication has been limited.
How to help:
Doctors Without Borders
The Red Cross
How to help:
Doctors Without Borders
The Red Cross
Sanctuary!
Jan. 11th, 2010 02:51 pmI started writing a post about The Mentalist and then I started writing a post about Chuck, but mostly what I want to say is that I'm finally completely caught up with Sanctuary, and it is AWESOME! There are werewolves and vampires and Bigfoot! There is VAMPIRE NIKOLA TESLA! The woman actually gets to be the one with the knowledge and power and mysterious backstory! There's a zombie apocalypse episode! There are more goofy CGI monsters and Canadian Actor Bingo appearances than you can shake a stick at!
Also, Amanda Tapping made me cry, more than once. And I really like Kate. I like everyone, actually, and Christopher Heyerdahl does a great job as two very different characters. The beginning of the first season is a little... not so great... but it finds its feet about halfway through, and the second season has been very entertaining. And it's already been renewed for next year!
Also, Amanda Tapping made me cry, more than once. And I really like Kate. I like everyone, actually, and Christopher Heyerdahl does a great job as two very different characters. The beginning of the first season is a little... not so great... but it finds its feet about halfway through, and the second season has been very entertaining. And it's already been renewed for next year!
(no subject)
Jan. 6th, 2010 12:46 pmHuh. Okay, I'm really glad I looked this up, because it's not at all where I would have looked for it on the schedule:
Chuck: 2-hour Premiere
Sunday, January 10, 9-11pm EST
Also, SciFi1 is having a marathon of S2 episodes this Thursday, 5pm-1am EST.
And Season 2 is finally out on DVD! \o/
1yeah, I know, whatever
Chuck: 2-hour Premiere
Sunday, January 10, 9-11pm EST
Also, SciFi1 is having a marathon of S2 episodes this Thursday, 5pm-1am EST.
And Season 2 is finally out on DVD! \o/
1yeah, I know, whatever
We make our own fun
Jan. 2nd, 2010 04:50 pmIt amuses me from time to time to look at the AO3 freeform tag cloud (jeepers, that's gotten large), try to find the most amusing or unlikely runs of tags, and imagine what kind of story would involve the lot of them. A few favorites:
Arranged Marriage, Artificial Intelligence, Asexuality, Assassins
Casual Sex, Catholic, Cats, Cautionary Tale
Las Vegas, Latex, Latin Grammar, Laundry
Pastiche, Pegging, Penguins, Pesach
Vampires, Vermont, Vibrator, Victorian
Play along at home! (I dare someone to actually write "Pastiche, Pegging, Penguins, Pesach".)
The archive should totally have some sort of page that throws random collections of tags at you and double-dog-dares you to write them. :D
ETA: Nazis, Near Death Experience, Necrophilia, Need Brain Bleach
:O
Arranged Marriage, Artificial Intelligence, Asexuality, Assassins
Casual Sex, Catholic, Cats, Cautionary Tale
Las Vegas, Latex, Latin Grammar, Laundry
Pastiche, Pegging, Penguins, Pesach
Vampires, Vermont, Vibrator, Victorian
Play along at home! (I dare someone to actually write "Pastiche, Pegging, Penguins, Pesach".)
The archive should totally have some sort of page that throws random collections of tags at you and double-dog-dares you to write them. :D
ETA: Nazis, Near Death Experience, Necrophilia, Need Brain Bleach
:O
An embarrassment of riches
Dec. 31st, 2009 02:05 pmI always feel a little bit out of step with Yuletide. Like, I totally see why it's fun to do the mad dash of reading and reccing before the reveal, but I'm usually offline more around Christmas, and - that's a lot of fic! But then I haven't read very much, and the authors are revealed and all the recs slide off my flist and into oblivion, and even though, intellectually, I know that the stories are there all year, it winds up feeling like I've missed the boat and I end up having read maybe half a dozen of them.
That's not a complaint, it's just an accounting of yearly personal fail. *g*
But this year, ho ho, I have means, motive AND opportunity to do better, and thus:
( recs )
Yikes, that's just the tip of the iceberg - must read more!
Also, for the record, I am clearly contributing to people's writerly angst by repeatedly opening bunches of Yuletide stories in tabs, going "asdkfjiglej, TOO MANY TABS," closing them all and then going back to read one by one. I've hit a bunch of stories five or six times. SORRY.
That's not a complaint, it's just an accounting of yearly personal fail. *g*
But this year, ho ho, I have means, motive AND opportunity to do better, and thus:
( recs )
Yikes, that's just the tip of the iceberg - must read more!
Also, for the record, I am clearly contributing to people's writerly angst by repeatedly opening bunches of Yuletide stories in tabs, going "asdkfjiglej, TOO MANY TABS," closing them all and then going back to read one by one. I've hit a bunch of stories five or six times. SORRY.
AO3 code updates
Dec. 31st, 2009 12:41 pmWe tried hard to get these in before the reveal for anyone doing some last-minute reading and reccing of Yuletide fic while they're still anonymous.
Release Notes
Highlights:
Also, one thing: the tag wrangling pages, as it turns out, have not scaled well at all with the significant increase in numbers of tags. Those pages were all due to be revised soon anyway, but many of them have become straight-up unusable because they're so slow. We asked the wranglers not to wrangle anything but fandoms, and a bunch of those were marked common/canonical in a rushed manner just to make them accessible in fandom listings and filters. I'll try to get the code done as fast as I can, but in the meantime, please bear with us. I know it's frustrating for both the users and the wranglers. <3
Release Notes
Highlights:
- You can see all works in a collection at once now.
- The story counts on the main Yuletide fandoms listing (which combines Yuletide 2009 and Yuletide Madness 2009) should be more accurate.
- We added an option to switch filters back and forth from 'and' to 'or', so you can select multiple fandoms from the filter list and read through them all at once. You might want to stick to fandoms, since it really does mean "works with any of these tags."
- You can sort works by hit count. While there's not a predictable ratio of hits to comments, it could at least be a guide to which Yuletide stories have gotten a little less attention and whose authors might appreciate a couple more comments.
- You can also turn off hit counts globally, for your own viewing.
- If you're logged out and leaving comments, the site will remember your name and email until you close your browser.
- The bookmarks listings and main collections pages should be much faster.
- One handy tool, especially if you're reading a lot and then going back and commenting/bookmarking is the reading history page, which is linked from the sidebar on your user page. Earlier in the week, it was hampered by a bug that made all the Yuletide stories show up as Mystery Works, but that's fixed now. It also tells you if the story was updated since you last read it. (If it's not a feature you want to use, there's also an option to turn it off in your preferences.)
Also, one thing: the tag wrangling pages, as it turns out, have not scaled well at all with the significant increase in numbers of tags. Those pages were all due to be revised soon anyway, but many of them have become straight-up unusable because they're so slow. We asked the wranglers not to wrangle anything but fandoms, and a bunch of those were marked common/canonical in a rushed manner just to make them accessible in fandom listings and filters. I'll try to get the code done as fast as I can, but in the meantime, please bear with us. I know it's frustrating for both the users and the wranglers. <3
Happy Holidays!
Dec. 26th, 2009 04:11 pm(Happy | Merry) (Christmas | Yuletide | Doctor Who day | Sherlock Holmes day)!
I was a little busy yesterday, ha ha... ha. The good news is that the archive should be pretty zippy once the Yuletide rush starts to ebb a bit. And we've gotten a lot of extremely valuable data that we can use to make things better. Sidra deserves a special award for service above and beyond the call of duty for being stuck chained to the servers to keep them from dying, while sick, on Christmas. She definitely deserves more fic!
A few AO3 tips:
-Filters work by AND not OR, so if you click a bunch of things, you won't get any results. We're always talking about ways to improve those, though, so that's subject to change. (Just not this weekend. *g*)
-When you're posting a story, the tags are comma-separated, so if there's a comma in the name of your fandom or character, you unfortunately do need to leave that out or it gets broken up into two tags that might not make sense on their own. The good news is that you can always go in and edit your tags if you notice it later. We're working (long-term) on a separate 'edit tags' option that would be quicker than the standard edit form.
-If you have an account, you have a preferences page that lets you control things like the visibility of your hit counters and whether or not you want comments emailed to you.
-If you comment with your name and email address, you get reply comments emailed to you. (We're also working on ways to let you turn that off.)
-Authors can restrict stories to be visible only to registered users (and not to search engines), so that's one reason to sign up for an account even if you're not an author yourself.
Recent fixes:
-Hit counter should not count your views of your own works anymore.
-Comment form is now visible when you load a story, so that's one less thing to have to wait for.
I was a little busy yesterday, ha ha... ha. The good news is that the archive should be pretty zippy once the Yuletide rush starts to ebb a bit. And we've gotten a lot of extremely valuable data that we can use to make things better. Sidra deserves a special award for service above and beyond the call of duty for being stuck chained to the servers to keep them from dying, while sick, on Christmas. She definitely deserves more fic!
A few AO3 tips:
-Filters work by AND not OR, so if you click a bunch of things, you won't get any results. We're always talking about ways to improve those, though, so that's subject to change. (Just not this weekend. *g*)
-When you're posting a story, the tags are comma-separated, so if there's a comma in the name of your fandom or character, you unfortunately do need to leave that out or it gets broken up into two tags that might not make sense on their own. The good news is that you can always go in and edit your tags if you notice it later. We're working (long-term) on a separate 'edit tags' option that would be quicker than the standard edit form.
-If you have an account, you have a preferences page that lets you control things like the visibility of your hit counters and whether or not you want comments emailed to you.
-If you comment with your name and email address, you get reply comments emailed to you. (We're also working on ways to let you turn that off.)
-Authors can restrict stories to be visible only to registered users (and not to search engines), so that's one reason to sign up for an account even if you're not an author yourself.
Recent fixes:
-Hit counter should not count your views of your own works anymore.
-Comment form is now visible when you load a story, so that's one less thing to have to wait for.
An AO3 graph
Dec. 24th, 2009 12:18 amSee if you can figure out when Yuletide invites went out and when the posting deadline was...
( mmm, stats )
( mmm, stats )
Yuletide PSA
Dec. 22nd, 2009 08:53 pmThere's a wee bit of a bug in the gift-checking code, so quite a few people will see Gifts (0) even if their gift is in the system. This affects users whose Yuletide names are different from their user names.
If you'd like to make sure you have a gift, go to the gift-checking page and enter your name as yuletide name (user name). This shouldn't affect you getting an email notification later in the week, whether or not it's been fixed by then.
Sorry for the confusion! (Ooh, admin post up about it.)
Also: Yuletide Madness! Anyone with an archive account can participate. If you don't have an archive account, it's a good time to sign up! We've been clearing it out fairly regularly so people can play.
If you'd like to make sure you have a gift, go to the gift-checking page and enter your name as yuletide name (user name). This shouldn't affect you getting an email notification later in the week, whether or not it's been fixed by then.
Sorry for the confusion! (Ooh, admin post up about it.)
Also: Yuletide Madness! Anyone with an archive account can participate. If you don't have an archive account, it's a good time to sign up! We've been clearing it out fairly regularly so people can play.
Yuuuuuuletiiiiide!
Dec. 21st, 2009 09:00 amGood luck, Yuletide authors! I'll be around if anybody needs help posting or typo-checking!
Also, we're going to be sneaking in one last performance-related code deploy this morning, so there will probably be a few minutes of downtime. Keep an eye on our twitter account (AO3_Status) for updates.
Also, we're going to be sneaking in one last performance-related code deploy this morning, so there will probably be a few minutes of downtime. Keep an eye on our twitter account (AO3_Status) for updates.
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