Accelerando

[coalescent]

At some point, Asimov's decided to put all the stories to date in Charlie Stross' Accelerando sequence online. Since they're all excellent stories, this is a Good Thing and I recommend everyone check them out. Try at least 'Lobsters' and 'Router':

• 'Lobsters'


• 'Troubador'


• 'Tourist'


• 'Halo'


• 'Router' (one of the best sensawunda kicks I've had for a while)


• 'Nightfall' (or at least half of it)

Comments

hi

[nirikina.livejournal.com]

i noticed you added me as a friend
if you want to be added back please introduce yourself

Re: hi

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Hi there. This is me.

But...

[rant]
Livejournal 'friending' protocols bug me. I'm not your friend; you're not my friend. I don't know you. I found your journal entirely at random, surfing through various of my interests. I noticed we had a bunch of interests in common. I decided to add you as a 'friend' for a while to see if I liked your journal.

Nowhere in this process was there an expectation of being friended back. I just figure that if someone likes what I'm writing, they'll friend me; if they don't, they won't. It doesn't - or at least, in my view shouldn't - have anything to do with whether I've added them or not. So if someone I've friended doesn't reciprocate then I'm not bothered. If someone friends me then unfriends me, I'm not bothered - they've given my journal a trial, and it wasn't for them.

(If someone I actually know well unfriended me, then I'd be a little worried, I admit)

Really, a much more useful terminology would be 'journals I am watching' and 'watched by'.
[/rant]

So...sorry about that. You just hit one of my hot buttons. If you want to read what I'm writing, that's cool. If not, that's cool too. :)

V. fun!

[applez.livejournal.com]

Did a quick read of 'Lobsters' ... I quite like this swipe: "Communist Russia is the only government still running on Microsoft, the central planning apparat being convinced that if you have to pay for software it must be worth money." :-)

Anywho, is certainly fun, neat to see in web-form, but I can also see its limits. Namely the classic problem of balancing the first-person with meta-changes of the globe; also that the story will age, oddly. :-)

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Re: LJ protocols

[applez.livejournal.com]

Actually, this is the first I've seen of protocols.

(interesting)

Re: LJ protocols

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Really? I seem to come across them all the time: People expecting you to friend them because they've friended you, people who think it's rude to friend somebody without asking first, people who get upset if they're unfriended...

There are arguments to be made in some cases, but for the most part it all bugs me. :)

Niall pic

[applez.livejournal.com]

BTW Niall, why haven't you updated your pic? You look kind of looming in that pile-o-Magdalene-people pic. ;-)

Did I snap any of you when you visited? Let me check when I get home tonight, mail you any I may have.

Re: V. fun!

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Read 'em all. But read 'Router' most of all. The singularity actually happens! :-D

Re: Niall pic

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I haven't updated because, having no digital camera and no scanner, there aren't that many photos of me online. Pretty much that simple. :)

Re: LJ protocols

[applez.livejournal.com]

Yup, pretty much the first time, and I don't quite understand it, though I know where they're coming from. I guess folks feel they need to bring their reality social rules into this virtuality - just doesn't work all the time because of the nature of the medium.

All in all, common sense should be the main guide.

I dunno, I just think there are bigger issues at stake in LJ/online communications: like identifying who one is, or being conscience of how many kb one is piling on in commments in someone else's LJ (whistling, looking towards the ceiling). :-)

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Re: LJ protocols

[brassyn.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of the protocols, but never really put them into personal use as such. There's a journal or two i read that haven't friended me and that's fine. If it's the other way round and someone I don't know friends me, if we have enough in common or we're from the same online area (like Fametracker) I'll tend to add them back.
I've seen lots of fights and arguments over such things though.

If I was to question the person that had added me, I'd be nice about it though, especially if I advertised a lenient friending policy :)

Re: LJ protocols

[scribeoflight.livejournal.com]

I'm perfectly happy with the idea that people are writing stuff that I want to read, but that those people might not be interested in reading what I'm writing.

And equally, I'd be happy to be read by someone, and wouldn't feel bad if I didn't find interesting what they were writing.

I think the whole 'friend' terminology is unfortunate if it is taken too literally - Livejournal is just a tool for getting at, and then reading, interesting stuff.

Re: LJ protocols

[brassyn.livejournal.com]

I'm perfectly happy with the idea that people are writing stuff that I want to read, but that those people might not be interested in reading what I'm writing.

And equally, I'd be happy to be read by someone, and wouldn't feel bad if I didn't find interesting what they were writing.

I think a 'word' is in order here.
The notion of being obliged to friend someone back is ludicrous.

I think the whole 'friend' terminology is unfortunate if it is taken too literally - Livejournal is just a tool for getting at, and then reading, interesting stuff.


That it is, because after all if you truly want no one else to read it you can lock up your journal, or only have your specified people reading it. For something such as LJ, it's so easy for someone just to wander by - so if you don't want strangers reading it, don't make it public!

That said however, the friend terminology is valid in some respects purely from the online socialising point of view - I like getting to know new LJ friends.

[elleblue.livejournal.com]

Didn't you used to link to this picture? It's gone the way of most of my older online pictures, and been moved to the slower wingar.demon webspace rather than my university space, but it's still online. If you want to be immune to me reshuffling my scrapbook, you're welcome to save your own copy!

Re: LJ protocols

[scribeoflight.livejournal.com]

That said however, the friend terminology is valid in some respects purely from the online socialising point of view - I like getting to know new LJ friends.


Yes, definitely - it's only tricky, as a term, when you're 'unfriending' or 'removing friends', and that sort of thing. It's the same process as unsubbing from groups on Yahoo, or taking a mailing list from 'individual emails' to 'read-on-the-web', but as soon as 'friend' comes into things, I start to feel guilty :o)

While on the subject, I colour code my 'friends' so they appear differently on my friends page: orange for individuals with journals; red for news stuff like BBC feeds and The Guardian; purple for 'blogs' like boing boing, Charles Stross, and diepunyhumans; and blue for things like The Shipping Broadcast, Doonesbury, and more light-hearted stuff.

And now I really am chewing on someone elses bandwidth :o)

Re: LJ protocols

[applez.livejournal.com]

tsk tsk tsk

not 'leet' enough eh.

"/friend" plz, or something better, since I'm not 'Leet' myself either. ;-)

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Observation

[applez.livejournal.com]

You know, it's times like this when I feel we should force Mike to LJ, even if requires Clockwork Orange style reprogramming. :-p

Why am I the one left carrying the humanities banner in virtualspace again?

(thinking) Damn, if we were to apply the Mike in this manner, it'd be very Vinge-style 'Emergents' wouldn't it? (or am I getting my novels mixed up again?).

hehehehe...

(/diabolical thinking)

Re: LJ protocols

[scribeoflight.livejournal.com]

I'm now perplexed - what do you mean? Please clarify :o) Leet?

Re: Observation

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

Why am I the one left carrying the humanities banner in virtualspace again?

Excuse me! What am I then? ;)

Re: LJ protocols

[nirikina.livejournal.com]

Hey, hold on there, can I get a word in please? Maybe I should have asked in a more polite way, I'm not after starting a war here. I do mention in my bio that pretty much all my journal is restricted, hence if you're interested in reading it you would have to be on my friends list. That's not protocol, that's common sense.

Also, I don't see 10 out of 125 common interests as anything to get excited about. You may watch or not watch my public journal as you wish. Personally, I've watched yours for a few days and not only do I find it uninteresting, half of it I don't even understand.

Have a nice life.

Re: LJ protocols

[applez.livejournal.com]

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

Re: Observation

[applez.livejournal.com]

Oh right, sorry - I'll put you further up on the brain reprogramming list then. :-)

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Re: LJ protocols

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Personally, I've watched yours for a few days and not only do I find it uninteresting, half of it I don't even understand.

Have a nice life.

Just one more person filled with the milk of human kindness.

Re: LJ protocols

[applez.livejournal.com]

Now now, no need to be mean. She's entitled, and Niall's already said he's fine with such an outcome.

Moreover, our postings can get rather intensive, and some may take it personally - too easy to do with this medium.

(besides, she'd probably have 'unfriended' Niall in a heartbeat if any of us started a TSR/Dragonlance rant)

Oi! be polite now.

[applez.livejournal.com]

What I wrote to Hoggy goes for you too. :-)

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Re: LJ protocols

[snowking.livejournal.com]

You start with Dragonlance stuff and I will fly Niall to SF and hit you. WITH NIALL.