@mcnees So pleased we're probably not going to spontaneously vanish in a puff of exotic radiation due to a random quantum fluctuation erasing the universe we exist in and overwriting it with a simpler version ... at least, not any time soon!

"Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft."

They forgot to continue: "… the warmth and humanity of the Emperor Dalek, Donald Trump's humility, Elon Musk's quiet egalitarianism, and ChatGPT's searing truthfulness and insight."

@ZachWeinersmith No contest: has to be H. R. Giger.

Hollywood vs. Reality: space station edition

@phantomkitty @scarfolk Judge Dredd was a satire of British policing during the era that Scarfolk riffs off.

@daviddlevine You haven't watched a lot of SpaceX launch livestreams, I take it? Just the big explodey test flights.

(A normal Falcon 9 launch, at this point, is basically boring. "Landing leg 3 came down just outside the middle of the bullseye, Elon. Again. And you lost video as it touched down on the drone ship because the sea is choppy. Again. IS SPACEX FAILING?")

@Oggie @jhpot I knew Iain and I am *ABSOLUTELY* certain that if he was alive today he would have some EXTREMELY trenchant (and rude) things to say about Dilbert Stark.

(Iain was more left wing in real life than he made visible in his fiction. And if you're unsure what I mean, ask yourself how many of his fictional villains were capitalists or imperialists.)

@bloor Would need to figure out how to authenticate the proof-of-work panels and ownership. That's the hard bit. There's no DRM on electrons …

@bloor Coming next: SunCoin, a cryptocurrency where the proof of work is provided by confirmed solar PV production—the more PV panels you install and keep operational, the more currency you earn.

THEY FOUND A NO-SHIT BRAIN WORM!!

THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!

BRAIN WORMS ARE COMING FOR US!!!!

AAAGH!! PANIC!!!!!

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/28/live-worm-living-womans-brain-australia-depression-forgetfulness

Psst: if you're on my crit list on Dreamwidth (closed, not taking new applications, thanks), you might want to check out what I just uploaded there.

Addendum: this is draft 2 of the space opera that, well, my elevator pitch was "Iain isn't writing any more, alas, so let's see if I can do something that makes readers feel the same way as his Culture novels without in any way being derivative of the Culture".

It's probably a failure on those terms, but I had to try, right?

New blog entry: Announcing the Laundry Files 2nd edition TTRPG: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/07/announcement-2nd-edition-laund.html

If you can see this tweet, Dilbert Stark hasn't banned me yet.

(Note that I'm running a Firefox plugin that auto-blocks blue tick accounts. I assume @elonmusk is un-blockable—it's the sort of dick move he'd pull, he doesn't like being ignored—but I called him an ass, accused him of being cisgendered, and told him to fuck off. So we'll see!

https://twitter.com/cstross/status/1671497314538594307?s=20

SEVEN DAYS TO GO until "Season of Skulls" is published in the USA by Tor.com!

If you've ever wondered what "The Prisoner" would be like if it was set in 1816 and The Village was full of captured French magicians, then this is the book for you! (May also contain Frankenstein, Vampires, and a very irate Eve Starkey.)

https://publishing.tor.com/seasonofskulls-charlesstross/9781250839398/

Am just migrating all the user data onto a new Macbook Air M2 for a family member, and OMGWTF this thing is so *fast* …!

It used to be a 1-2 day job. Nearly finished in under two hours. (Including system updates, app updates, Migration Assistant tap-dance, logging into internet accounts, importing mailboxes, and starting a new backup Time Machine drive.)

@michaelgemar @iain_bancarz GM had a huge investment in IC engines—and senior management from C-suite down had built their personal fiefdoms on it. Same with Boeing/ULA on the conventional launch industry. Whereas Tesla and SpaceX were "clean sheet" startups with no organizational debt (cf. technical debt) to earlier models.

Musk didn't revolutionize those fields. What did was a startup company making a run at those targets with no baggage and adequate VC funding. (The latter, Musk affected.)

@ncweaver @michael_w_busch Next, add in airliners and in-flight wifi, and ships, liners, and yachts. Starlink for those customers will not be a $250/month subscription. (Maybe add a zero or three, depending?) Nevertheless, there's demand for mobile, low latency, high bandwidth networking for ships and airliners.

A year later we can see that the truth is that over decades his car company and rocket company both evolved ways of keeping Dilbert Stark from doing much damage—ruthlessly managing him to keep him out of the way of the core business. But his social media acquisition was so abrupt there was no time for Twitter to develop internal defences against a screeching, shit-slinging macaque.

@ncweaver @michael_w_busch This kind of ignores how Starlink *is* making money—from cablecos who have a universal service obligation to provide service to mandated customers who are too remote to cost-effectively lay fibre to. It lets them avoid huge fines/loss of licenses, so Starlink can charge what they want. (It's not a cellphone service!)