Monthly Archives: October 2004

So, what is the significance of the spelling ‘compleat’ rather than ‘complete’? I’ve wondered this occasionally over the past few decades (The Compleat Enchanter, etc.) and never figured it out. This link is no help. A review copy of a book of Tolkien essays sent me last week is belligerently nonhelpful: it asterisks the word to a footnote “look it up”.

Behind on everything as usual; evenings have been rather nonproductive of late, domestic circumstances being more than typically unsupportive.

Several readers have advised Locus about the expired security certificate on the website, when accessing the subscription order page and other order pages. It was supposed to have renewed automatically, but somehow did not, and expired. I placed an order with the current hosting service, CI Host, for a new certificate a full week ago; they responded last Friday that a new certificate had been installed and that the appropriate access via https://secure.locusmag.com would be in effect within 24 hours. That was 5 days ago. I keep querying them.

Frankly, though, while our customers may always be right, my own paranoia does not extend to worrying about sending credit card numbers over a website, or via email. Is this really a common mode of identity theft? In point of fact, my own credit card number was stolen a couple months ago, and used fraudulently. I spotted it quickly because I’m in the habit of checking my bank and credit balances via websites every couple days. When a package of recovered mail arrived from the post office, I realized that someone had simply stolen a day’s paper mail out of my mailbox. I installed a lock on the mailbox. I hand my credit card to restaurant waiters once a week or so. I worry more about that, than the remote chance that someone might intercept my email or web form submission with my card number on it. Other opinions invited.

I saw “Sky Captain [etc]” over the weekend, and was duly impressed by the visualization of a fantasy world. I’m nowhere near as expert on early comics and films as are Howard and Lawrence, who wrote the review I posted, but I can recognize the homage aspects of the film, and I can less agreeably accept the Hollywood fantasies of expert piloting (through the caverns of New York City) and the good guy/bad guy policy in which the heroes of the film are never killed or injured. What I wish for, seeing such a film, is some alternate project in which such sophisticated CGI effects are used to create a true alien or futuristic world that is believeable, in the way that the best literary SFnal fantasies are believable. Have I missed such a film? Will any one ever be made?

Similar reactions to the latest Myst game, Myst IV: Revelation, which I’ve ‘played’ (an inadequate word) for about 3 hours now. The Myst games are determinedly steampunk, imagining fantasy worlds with primitive, intuitively comprehensible technology (which details and settings you have to figure out to solve the puzzles). I keep wishing for an equivalent game that makes you figure out truly alien technology, understand alien worlds or an alien mode of comprehension. I may easily have missed such a game, since I determinedly have not pursued the gaming field beyond the Myst franchise; I might become sucked up and abandon books altogether. I enjoy Myst games every year or three, but that’s enough; my heart belongs to print.

I hear tales, from my PC consultant friend who administers IT for a small company, about computer users who, no matter how many times they are told, ignore instructions about not opening unexpected attachments in emails. Viruses ensue; thus the world goes round.

I try not to be too harsh in my opinion of such people because, really, computers are incredibly complex devices that even technically savvy experts have trouble keeping in control. I myself have a mathematics degree and work for an engineering firm, and still get stumped by seemingly unexplainable problems.

Two cases just today. I installed some new software. (OK, it’s the latest Myst game, Myst IV: Revelation.) Install went fine. Launching the game advised me that I needed to update my graphics card driver. OK, went to the Nvidia site, downloaded the appropriate file, executed the file, and halfway through the installation an alarming notice informed me that the driver had not been certified as safe for Windows XP, that I might compromise my operating system if I completed the installation; Microsoft advised me to cancel immediately. Well, OK, I clicked the option to cancel the install. Subsequently, the install program advised me that installation was successful and complete. So, did the new driver install or not? I don’t know. Yes is no, or maybe no is yes.

Meanwhile, my laptop, currently the PC in the house that I manage my email from, was fine this morning but dysfunctional when I got home from work. Both Outlook and Internet Explorer said no connection available. Network Connections advised me that the wireless signal from the router downstairs was enabled and very good. I rebooted. I carried the laptop downstairs and connected it by cable to the router. Still nothing. After an hour of various trials and errors, powering the router off and back on solved the problem; the laptop abruptly found its connection and was fine. What happened? Why today? Who knows. Alice knows.

My summer cold has passed with no complications — no chest cold, cough, etc. — and I am coming back up to speed. Today is mailing day for the new issue of the magazine, so I was diligent to post the new issue pages today, as has become the practice, though they send me the files and pics a week or more earlier (when the office staff completes the issue and sends files to the printer).

Finally finished the month’s monitor-reprint pages, ‘new in paperback’ and ‘classic reprints’. I’m getting more diligent about seeking out expected reprints, mainly by closely parsing the complete forthcoming books lists that the magazine staff compiles, and printing out a ‘shopping/spotting list’ to take with me on my semiweekly rounds to Borders and Barnes & Noble. I’ve become so efficient that monthly updates to these pages seem insufficient; there are enough items to post a couple pages in each category a month. Already, today, I’ve seen several more items for those pages… but those items will have to wait for the next updates.

I see Jonathan has a new look.

Was pleased to see today this Salon article about my favorite singer/band that almost no one else has ever heard of, Neil Finn and his brother Tim and their former band Crowded House. I’ve alluded to his songs before (“straw daylight desire”). I’m still curious about an aspect of Neil’s songs I’ve never seen discussed (not even in this Salon article) — the fascinating ‘pendant’ melodies (as I think of them) which occur at the ends of some songs, after the principal melody has resolved, when Neil launches into a new melody altogether, usually very simple and even minimalist, which decorates and spices and illuminates the main song. Primary example: “Catherine Wheels”:

She’s gone

vanished in the night

broke off the logic of light

…

Or from what I still think (despite the current album) is Neil’s best album, One Nil, the final song, “Into the Sunset”.

And I’m away from home

And it’s a way of life

…

But you’d have to hear them to understand.