received my very first porn spam today, a comment to a post from late last year. I've therefore set up screening of anonymous comments--I know some folks who post don't have/want LJ accounts, and I'd hate to ban anything completely. We'll see how the screening goes.

Elizabeth Moon, fab SF writer, has joined LJ! Her username is e_moon60.

In honor of Howard Hendrix' completly innocuous and uncontroversial post, papersky has declared April 23 "International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day." In honor of this day, anyone who wishes is invited to give away professional-quality work online. Some people are writing Brand! New! Stuff! for the express purpose of giving it away on this day.

I will be unable to participate due to my commitment to ENDGAME copyedits. However, I will say that first, and in some cases, second chapters of all the Jani books are available on my website for your reading pleasure, as are snippets of my short works and essays. Once I have some time again, I will be finishing the story that builds upon the excised section of LAW OF SURVIVAL that is also posted on my site, and posting that as well.

I don't know if I will ever post a book in its entirety. But I do believe that posting chapters and parts of stories online is a good marketing tool, and that an online presence is an important piece in a midlist writer's kit. It's also fun--I've met people online who have become friends, and have enjoyed some of the finest humor and commentary there is to be had anywhere. Couldn't drive me away with a stick.

It's 2007, for crying out loud.

Much discussion these past few days. Howard Hendrix, the current SFWA Veep, unleashed a bit of a firestorm with his post in the sfwa LJ, especially the comment that those who post free books/stories on the web are scabs:

A scab is someone who works for less than union wages or on non-union terms; more broadly, a scab is someone who feathers his own nest and advances his own career by undercutting the efforts of his fellow workers to gain better pay and working conditions for all.

Other writers took exception to this assertion. Given that I am planning to post the odd free short work on my website in the hope of drumming up interest in ENDGAME and the other Jani books, I felt the sting myself. Whether it's justified or not, an accusation of undercutting fellow writers hurts.

John Scalzi responded, among others. "Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch" has entered the lexicon, and there should be items available at CafePress even as I type.

In this, as in just about every other damned subject, I can see both sides, and my feelings abide in the grey between.

( Kris' Saturday afternoon ramble )

...you could spend your entire damned day going from one blog/water cooler to another and dipping into the conversation.

I really need to confine myself to LJ for the foreseeable future. Not that the other places aren't interesting, but No Time.

Because I see at least a few of these every day.

But then, this is a province of Geekland, isn't it...?

Yo.

From daily_kos.

To deal with the mounting copyright issues swirling around video and other content online, a start-up founded by some respected Silicon Valley executives is taking a novel approach: combing the entire Web for unauthorized uses.

Privately held Attributor Corp. of Redwood City, Calif., has begun testing a system to scan the billions of pages on the Web for clients' audio, video, images and text -- potentially making it easier for owners to request that Web sites take content down or provide payment for its use.


Rest of the story here.

Anyone else getting a lot of LJ error messages this evening?

Why exactly do certain folk friend/unfriend over the course of a few hours? I mean, what the hell is the point?

Funny how you can usually tell by the username that they likely won't be staying long. Mixed letters and numbers in names and lots of x's and all that.

Don't they have anything better to do...?

...kristine_smith.

I had to go with the underscore as the name w/o was taken. Looks like the change has already zipped through the system.