Reading ⁽⁴⁾

My favorite new technology is not new. It's a natural-language game engine for creating text-based interactive stories. Inform 7 The latest version of Inform 7 was released in 2022. Aaron Reed's excellent and completely usable book was published in 2011. The game engine was created in 2006, as a rebuild of a project which was introduced when I was still getting carded for cigarettes (1993). This is a good and appropriate pace for technology. I am just getting started with…

I've been enjoying the short stories on the @clarkesworld@mastodon.online podcast. The story "Never Eaten Vegetables" by H.H. Pak from January 2025 was especially engaging. It hits a whole bunch of standard themes that I really like (biology, space colonization, advanced technology, corporate malfeasance) in a story that's super original, interesting, and well crafted. Plus, Kate Baker is always a great reader. If you're into such things, give it a listen. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_01_25b/

Here are two book recommendations related to the outdoors and mountaineering. "Accidents in North American Climbing" is an annual publication from the American Alpine Club, with frank and interesting accounts of problems encountered during the report year. I discovered the Accidents annual publication when I worked at XOR Network Engineering in Boulder Colorado many years ago. Someone always kept the latest copy in the bathroom. "Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance" by Peter Stark is a…

bEnjoying this week: January 2000 interview with Douglas Adams discussing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a little bit of everything else. The interview is an episode of BBC's Radio 4 Bookclub, and features a Q&A session with a group of (lucky) readers. Search for "douglas adams bbc radio" on your podcast app of choice. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0075r2v