I love the smell of paint fumes in the morning.

You want your story edited by Yours F. Truly? I'm opening one slot, for more than one DAY, goddammit. #deareditor

EDIT: It was brought to my attention that doing a one-hour timeframe wasn't fair to Americans who are at this time at work or school. Fine. I'm tacking on 23 hours and the story will be selected tomorrow around this time!

So, I was recently reminded that I'm an editor. I've delegated most of the duties I used to perform for Bad Dog Books, for instance to the excellent Buck Turner, editor of ROAR and the double whammy Graveyard Greg and Skip Ruddertail who oversee FANG these days.

In the last few weeks I was asked to look over a script or two and provide notes, and I realized that I'd forgotten how nice it is to be able to use such experience and insight as I have to help people improve their work.

So. Today I will edit one story, by one of you. Let's say a maximum of 7000 words. No need to go crazy, right?

There's no contest. I'm going to pick one at random from what I receive, but there is one rule:

The notes I provide will be made public. 

So, send your story to this e-mail address, or tweet me the link of your story (and include the #deareditor hashtag for good measure).

Commentary will be critical but fair, constructive and to the point. 

All clear? Send it.

-- 
Alex F. Vance

You want your story edited by Yours F. Truly? I'm opening one slot for one hour. #deareditor

So, I was recently reminded that I'm an editor. I've delegated most of the duties I used to perform for Bad Dog Books, for instance to the excellent Buck Turner, editor of ROAR and the double whammy Graveyard Greg and Skip Ruddertail who oversee FANG these days.

In the last few weeks I was asked to look over a script or two and provide notes, and I realized that I'd forgotten how nice it is to be able to use such experience and insight as I have to help people improve their work.

So. Today I will edit one story, by one of you. Let's say a maximum of 7000 words. No need to go crazy, right?

There's no contest. I'm going to pick one at random from what I receive, but there is one rule:

The notes I provide will be made public. 

So, send your story to this e-mail address, or tweet me the link of your story (and include the #deareditor hashtag for good measure).

Commentary will be critical but fair, constructive and to the point. 

All clear? Send it.

-- 
Alex F. Vance

Logical punctuation: Should we start placing commas outside quotation marks?

Conan's staffers' kids say the darndest things. Unfortunately, in this case "darndest" means "incriminating".

via slate.com

Slate's Ben Yagoda makes a good case for 'logical' or British-style punctuation rules when it comes to punctuating a sentence with quoted portions:

I practice British spelling in most communication, as that's how I was educated, but for the publications I'm involved in I mandate American spelling and associated punctuation rules. However, I'd never considered this aspect of American punctuation: when a sentence contains a quoted portion, which appears at the end of a sentence or clause, the closing punctuation mark for that sentence or clause goes inside the closing quote mark of the quotation.

This is of course distinct from dialogue, quoted or fictitious, where the punctuation is part of the sentence being uttered -- a distinction Yagoda fails to clarify in this article.

"I'm feeling a mite peckish," she said. "I could do with something to eat."

That's dialogue; it's punctuated specifically to suit the sentence being quoted.

Describing herself as "a mite peckish", she said she could do with "something to eat".

And that's a sentence with quoted fragments. Because these fragments aren't themselves sentences, and are only little self-contained units, they should be treated no differently from any other word -- quote marks notwithstanding.

I'm actually surprised that this is apparently done differently in the US (at least historically) and I'm glad to see the language gradually self-correcting to a more logical rule.

While I'm all for the preservation of language, even its exigencies, this is clearly a case where historical continuity is damaging to clarity.

It's important to carefully curate the evolution of language, spoken and written, to prevent divergence and allow people from different places in a country, and even different centuries, to communicate clearly through the written word.

When a rule changes or is entirely abandoned in favor of clearer communication, even marginally so, that's something worth standing behind.

Details matter.

- Alex

Kinda looks like guts.

Google, you are brilliant :)

Nice legs, fella. Yergh.

At the Camera Store, photography is war.

Battle At F-Stop Ridge

Coolest font I've seen in months: Chartwell uses OpenType ligatures to create charts from typed formulas.

For those who don't know: ligatures are special symbols that are automatically substituted for some character combinations. For instance, in serif type (such as Times New Roman) when the lowercase letter f is followed by an I, the little nubbly at the end of the f's curl overlaps the dot on the i quite inelegantly.

Therefore, many fonts are designed to include a special character that more elegantly combines the two letters:  fi.

All sorts of clever things can be done with ligatures, but this one is crazy cool. 

Chartwell is a type family that explores the use of OpenType to interpret and visualize data. The font format is highly portable and can be used in most applications that support ligatures. The data also remains editable allowing for easy updates. Stringing letters and numbers together into ligatures, you can make things like this.

 

Variations of a modern family.

It’s Okay, You Still Have Alfred

A glimpse of the future: Nano-law, micro-crime, auto-litigation and privacy

"Nanolaw with daughter" by Paul Ford.

I don't know exactly how this story appeared in my reading list and when I opened it, it took me a little while to understand what it was about.

Written by Paul Ford, this is the account of a father in some future America, teaching his daughter about 'nanolaw', describing a world where litigation is automated and individualized, where copyright and liability are such fundamental aspects of daily life they become simply another household chore.

What's so curious about the story is that it's hard to decide whether this is bad -- it's not about injustice, after all. Ford suggests, quite rightly, that in our daily life we commit a multitude of micro-crimes, by the letter of the law, which common sense prohibits us from taking seriously. In this future information flows so freely that you can, practically, be held accountable.

This rings close to home. We're already seeing a shift in corporate litigation that directs software patent ingringement suits not to the big companies (who have deep pockets, good lawyers and ample defensive patent portfolios) but to smaller or independent developers.

But he doesn't propose paranoia. The future he presents is perversely reasonable, where it's understood that most such micro-crimes are committed innocently, and because litigation can be applied to millions of individuals (as opposed to a group of millions of people), any one individual's liability is comparably minuscule.

There's all sorts of inconvenience, injustice and horror that you just get used to. When I lived in Northern Ireland, all us kids knew where IRA safehouses were, and now and then you'd go to the shopping centre and find piles of flowers and wreaths where a policeman had been killed. Soldiers with automatic weapons would ask to inspect your bags and you'd just let them, because it's just one of those little inconveniences like the rain.

Seriously nutritious food for thought, especially if you resist the knee-jerk reaction of outrage and horror.

http://www.ftrain.com/nanolaw.html

This is the coolest library reception desk of all time. OF ALL TIME.

via boekendingen.nl

Some more shots here: http://www.boekendingen.nl/wp-nieuws/?p=3174

and here: http://www.recyclart.org/2010/09/library-information-desk/

Super cool.

For @fuzzwolf2000 et al: "Oh my God! They killed Rory!"

via tweetshare.com

Great story: Basketball executive breaks the silence and comes out (conicidentally, one day before Kobe drops the F-bomb)

Joshua Lott for The New York Times

Rick Welts, the president of the Phoenix Suns, hopes his coming out can break the silence surrounding homosexuality in men's team sports.

Last month, in a Midtown office adorned with sports memorabilia, two longtime friends met for a private talk. David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, sipped his morning coffee, expecting to be asked for career advice. Across from him sat Rick Welts, the president and chief executive of the Phoenix Suns, who had come to New York not to discuss careers, but to say, finally, I am gay.

via nytimes.com

Excellent, touching read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/sports/basketball/nba-executive-says-he-is-gay.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3

And because I'm seriously bored at work today, here is a cute otter heartily endosing a beer.

via relentlesslyoptimistic.com

Clever performance art with iPhones: "Trapped in an iPhone"

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/23715004 w=500&h=283]

via vimeo.com

Lodsys patent toolbags respond to criticism with utter bollocks.

Lodsys is a company whose business model is patent trolling. They've issued warnings to numerous iOS app developers claiming they're owed royalties for their 'inventions', which seem specifically to relate to in-app purchases, a feature of Apple's iOS. 

As a patent troll, Lodsys makes its money by patenting a concept and then claiming royalties from those who use them, with the threat of litigation otherwise. 

Instead of going after Apple, who provides the framework which may or may not infringe on their patent, they're threatening app developers who use the in-app purchase feature of iOS in their apps. It's a bit pathetic. 

From the Lodsys LLC - Blog:

 "The economic gains provided by the Lodsys inventions (increase in revenue through additional sales, or decrease in costs to service the customer) are being enjoyed by the business that provides the product or service that interacts with the user.  Since Lodsys patent rights are of value to that overall solution, it is only fair to get paid by the party that is accountable for the entire solution and which captures the value (rather than a technology supplier or a retailer)."

Horseshit. 

Elsewhere they make a long-winded analogy to a hotel to explain that they're not confronting Apple, which is likewise spurious. A more accurate simile is to imagine that they own the patents to 'water', and rather than making a case against a water distributor who pumps it into people's homes, they're issuing lawsuits against the people who drink it. 

Just in case anyone wondered where Valve got the inspiration for the SpaaaAAAaaace personality core in Portal 2.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Y_2GEGeWM]

via youtube.com

Aquarium...

A boy and his box, off to see the universe.

"TOBY!"
"RORY!"
"THE TARDIS!"

via nomeyyy.deviantart.com

Kinda says it all, really.

Today's #NonSequiFur award: Cutest Dog Video posted by a buddy ten days ago on Twitter. (via @Rikoshi)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw]

Eking at the plaza.

Little old fogeys, sitting on my buddy's shelf.

The Non SequiFur Awards: resolving the Ursa Major debate/bitchfest. #NonSequiFur

I hadn't even finished typing congratulatory tweets to some of the winners of the 2010 Ursa Major Awards when its mailing list spasmed with outrage and criticism.

"It's a popularity contest!" some screamed. "It reflects sordidly on our precious community!" some groaned, ever so saucily. "Rutabagas are SO vegetables!" other lied, defiantly.

It's clear that Change Is Needed. But of what sort? There'd be even more whining about a juried system, and to ask the popular folks who are often voted the winners to recuse themselves from consideration would invalidate the achievement of winning. Thankfully I am a genius of unparalleled insight, and I have for you the solution:

The Non SequiFur awards.

Voting? Nay! Jury? Nay! These outmoded selection methods have proved themselves to be lightning-rods for bitching and moaning. In the NSFA, there are no arbitrary categories, nor are winners selected by consensus or Leviathan authority. Instead, the winners, and the qualities for which they won, are chosen by YOU.

"Best costume design: The Furry Basketball Association Podcast"

"First review of both Pokemon Black -and- White posted on SoFurry by Google Ranking: www.sofurry.com/page/244840 "

"Best website design with a caramel-colored background for a furry commercial site: www.FurPlanet.com"

Decide your own categories and make sure that the people you find deserving get that ultimate prize: their very own Non SequiFur Award. It's time for YOUR voice to be heard.

So... Who do you think should win?

- Alex F. Vance

The Non SequiFur Awards: resolving the Ursa Major debate/bitchfest. #NonSequiFur

Best costume design: The Furry Basketball Association Podcast

Red bus reflected.

Taken at Amsterdam

Letters from Asimov, Armstrong, Reagan, Seuss, to the children of Troy, Michigan and their new library in 1971.

Hart received 97 letters addressed to Troy’s young people from individuals who spanned the arts, sciences, and politics across the
50 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, the Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.

via troylibrary.info

Marguerite Hart, children's librarian of the Troy Public Library in Michigan, wrote letters to figures of note throughout the world, asking them to write a letter to congratulate the children of Troy with their new, enlarged library.

The letters are as much a serenade to libraries in an age where they're grossly undervalued as they are a glimpse into the social and more importantly cultural landscape of the early '70s.

I was particularly touched by Asimov's note, who remarked that a library "[...] is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the Universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you---and most of all, a gateway, to a better and happier and more useful life."

http://troylibrary.info/letterstothechildrenoftroy

Just to be meta, here's a #wallgram of some of m'latest on Instagram :)

Beach day! Woo hoo!

[gallery]