Author: 5t4n5

Edge of Infinity — Anthology

By 5t4n5

Edge of Infinity -- AnthologyAll stories copyright 2012.

Standalones

The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi — Pat Cadigan
The Deeps of the Sky — Elizabeth Bear
Drive — James S. A. Corey
The Road to NPS — Sandra McDonald and Stephen D. Covey
Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh — John Barnes
Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler’s Green, the Potter’s Garden — Paul McAuley
Safety Tests — Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Bricks, Sticks, Straw — Gwyneth Jones
Tyche and the Ants — Hannu Rajaniemi
Obelisk — Stephen Baxter
Vainglory — Alastair Reynolds
Water Rights — An Owomoyela
The Peak of Eternal Light — Bruce Sterling

 

#theexpanse #scifi #patcadigan #jamessacorey #paulmcauley #gwynethjoneswriter #hannurajaniemi #stephenbaxter #alastairreynolds #brucesterling

Signal to Noise — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Signal to Noise -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in the collection, Zima Blue and Other Stories.

Alastair wrote a love story: awwwwwww.

And . . . . . . it’s rather good.

Although . . . . . . i’m not really a fan of all this parallel universe nonsense, because it is nonsense, just like flat earth nonsense.

But . . . . . . done right, like Alastair can, you can find some good stories in a parallel universe as long as you ignore all the nonsense bits.

All that aside . . . . . . next up in Alastair’s bibliographic timeline is The Six Directions of Space, which i’ll be eagerly devouring in the next week or so.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Cardiff Afterlife — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Cardiff Afterlife -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in the collection, Zima Blue and Other Stories.

Oh dear, just when i thought it was safe to read Alastair again he had to go and start writing parallel universe nonsense stories once more.

Oh please someone assure me that this is the last of Alastair’s delusions that parallel universe stories are any good, or that the theory holds any water at all. Seriously, it’s just utter twaddle.

Anyway, next up in Alastair’s publishings will be Terminal World, let’s hope that isn’t more parallel stuff twaddle nonsense.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

The Book of Dreams — Nina George

By 5t4n5

The Book of Dreams -- Nina GeorgeThis was not what i was expecting.

Having read Nina’s previous two books and totally loved them, i just grabbed this with a quick glance at the cover art and title and set about reading it thinking i was going to have a similarly uplifting story about dreams.   Well that thought soon got put out to pasture.

Instead, we are taken into the intensive care ward of a coma hospital, and the dreams are those that people living in comas may, or may not, have.

Which does sound a little grim, but it turned out just as good, but in a rather different way, as Nina’s last two books: so well worth reading, all three of them.

And i already have Nina’s next book, The Little French Village of Book Lovers — Nina George, which i look forward to diving into in the not too distant future.

Bye for now.

Nina’s Page

#ninageorge

Before We Say Goodbye — Toshikazu Kawaguchi

By 5t4n5

Before We Say Goodbye -- Toshikazu KawaguchiThe fourth book from this rather enjoyable series: at least it had been rather enjoyable up to this book.   But i’m beginning to feel that Toshikazu is beginning to get a bit repetitive and the cafe is beginning to become a little stale.

I think that Toshikazu is simply rushing out books and not really making any effort to create something new and interesting, which is a shame.   I really feel that what this series needs is for Toshikazu to just put it down for a while and not come back to it until he has something new and interesting to bring to the cafe.

That’s my thoughts on the matter, it really doesn’t need to be ruined to meet a deadline, either with the publisher or with Toshikazu’s bank account.

Bye for now.

Toshikazu’s Page

#scifi #japan #toshikazukawaguchi

Lily58 Keyboard Typing Progress 30 WPM

By 5t4n5

On day 3 of my Lily58 adventure i managed to surpass 30 wpm . . .

Lily58 Keyboard Typing Progress 30 WPM

Hopefully the rest of the bits i need to finish the keyboard will arrive tomorrow.   I had to return one part from Amazon because it arrived in a used and broken state and the replacement is due to arrive tomorrow as well.   Fingers crossed the remaining stuff will all arrive good and dandy.

Bye for now!!!

#5t4n5 #colemakdh #mechanicalkeyboards #monkeytype #lily58 #keebs

Lily58 Keyboard Typing Progress Day 1

By 5t4n5

So yesterday i finished building a Lily58 keyboard from a kit that i bought from Mechboards (more on that in another post as i haven’t totally finished it yet), and on my first few goes on Monkeytype i managed a whopping 24.78 wpm . . .

Lily58 Keyboard Typing Progress Day 1

So, considering that it’s quite a drastic change of keyboard style, i’m more than happy only losing 6.6 wpm.   I’m thinking there’s a lot of potential for the future in this keyboard.

I shall write a whole post about my build experience as soon as i’ve finalised the build: i’m currently waiting on a few bits to finish it to my liking.

Bye for now!!!

#5t4n5 #colemakdh #mechanicalkeyboards #lily58 #monkeytype #keebs

A Fire Born of Exile — Aliette de Bodard

By 5t4n5

A Fire Born of Exile -- Aliette de BodardAnother super good story from Aliette’s Xuya universe.   I’m thinking this is probably the longest one so far: it’ll certainly keep you occupied for a good while.

Our protagonist, and her mindship friend, have both come back from the dead (that’s the exile bit) hell set on revenge against those who executed them.   But revenge isn’t quite as straight forward as they would like it to be.

If you haven’t read any Xuya stories yet then get yourself over to Aliette’s “all things Xuya page” and find out where to start and what it’s all about.   Basically, it’s just really good sci-fi, from a really good writer, with a wonderful Asian flavour to it all.

Aliette’s Page

#scifi #aliettedebodard

Colemak DH Progress: 30 WPM

By 5t4n5

On day thirteen of my Colemak DH journey i managed to break through the 30 wpm barrier all the way up to 31.35 wpm . . .

I’d like to say ‘Next update at 40 wpm’, but i’m hopefully changing keyboard again in the next couple of days to a Lily58, which, i think, is going to put me right back to the beginning again.   Ho hum, i’m sure it’ll all be worth it in the end.

Bye for now!!!

#5t4n5 #colemakdh #mechanicalkeyboards #monkeytype #keebs

Keyboard Change to Colemak-DH

By 5t4n5

So, after over 30 years of touch typing on qwerty i decided it was time to try something different, and after much thinking and a fair bit of research, i changed my nice new keyboard over to Colemak-DH . . .

Colemak DH Keyboard Layout

Admittedly, it’s quite a challenge learning a whole new keyboard layout, but i’m really enjoying it so far.   Although my Monkeytype score has plummeted from 72 wpm down to 14 wpm . . .

Monkeytype Colemak Score

Ho hum!

I’m now left wondering how long it’s going to take to get back to 70 wpm.   We shall see.

Having fun with #mechanicalkeyboards.

#5t4n5 #colemakdh #mechanicalkeyboards #monkeytype #keebs

Monkeytype Best

By 5t4n5

Monkeytype Score
My current best score on my new keyboard at Monkeytype.

I got the keyboard about a week ago and was hitting in the 50’s with it.   A few days ago i replaced the stock switches it came with with Akko Crystal Silver switches and that upped my speed into the 60’s.   Then, today, i replaced the cherry profile keycaps it came with with XDA profile keycaps and that’s upped it into the 70’s.

Now i just need to spend some time getting used to this set up.   I’ve never had a keyboard that’s this fast before, it’s rather strange when your fingers can’t keep up with the keyboard.   It feels like my fingers are tripping over themselves trying to keep up — i’ve never experienced that with a keyboard before.

Having fun with #mechanicalkeyboards.

#5t4n5 #akko #mechanicalkeyboards #monkeytype #keebs

My Keyboard

By 5t4n5

Akko 3068B Plus
This is my lovely Akko 3068B Plus keyboard.   I’ve changed the stock switches to Akko Crystal Silver switches, because they activate faster and bottom out earlier, and i really didn’t like the cherry profile (or whatever that uneven profile is) of the original keycaps, so i bought these rather pretty looking XDA pudding keycaps from Ali Express at a surprisingly good price.   I love the way the pudding keycaps really make the RGB bling to the max as they have translucent sides and legends.

The faster switches and the flat profile of the XDA keycaps make this keyboard a very nice keyboard to type on.   I touch type (that’s like with all my fingers and everything, while not looking at the keyboard ever) with the keyboard sitting just about my knees and this feels just about prefect to me, your mileage may vary depending on how you type.

You can keep a check on my typing speed at this post, which i will keep updated with my progress as i get more used to this keyboard set up.

#5t4n5 #akko #mechanicalkeyboards #keebs

anchor

By 5t4n5
ugh face

I’m currently rebuilding the website as the old one got totally messed up when i was playing around with things (no idea what happened).

So i thought that while it was a total clusterfuck mess of SQL, i would take the opportunity to give it a whole new life and everything.

So if you go clicking on things you might find that very strange things happen. Don’t moan, i know a lot of things are broken, i’m working on it, it takes time.

I’ve got tons of old posts and pages from three websites that i’m working through and will be gradually posting all the stuff i want to keep on here while fixing all the broken things as i go through, one post, one page, at a time.

Other than doing all that, i will, of course, be continuing to add more new content and my latest posts will always appear directly below.

Enjoy