townx

Running the Tizen SDK Simulator on non-Ubuntu Linux

elliot — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:24:27 -0500

Update 2012-05-16: The web simulator is a public open source project (as of 2nd May 2012) hosted at:

This only happened a couple of weeks ago, and I missed it :( I realised yesterday when I was looking at something unrelated. (By the way, http://01.org/ is the new website for many of the open source projects Intel contributes to.)

You can get the simulator code from there, rather than following steps 1-4 below; steps 5 onwards should still be applicable. Also note that the project on 01.org has decent end-user documentation, explaining what the simulator UI does.

This explains the steps you need to get the Tizen SDK Simulator working standalone on Linux. Also shown is a small example of how to exercise some of the HTML5 APIs in Tizen to demonstrate how the Simulator does its stuff.

The aim here is to get a working Tizen dev environment, without having to download and run the full Tizen SDK (a 1Gb download), and on platforms which aren't officially supported (only Windows and Ubuntu are supported, but I use Fedora). It's not the recommended or official way to use the Tizen SDK (see https://developer.tizen.org/sdk for that), but it is a way to use a bit of it. I also can't vouch for whether it's a sensible thing to do as I've only tested one toy application with it so far. But it is fun.

The Simulator is actually a fairly small (5Mb) Chrome extension, which is based on a fork of Ripple:

"Ripple is a multi-platform mobile environment emulator that runs in a web browser and is custom-tailored to HTML5 mobile application testing." (http://ripple.tinyhippos.com/ ; NB the company that developed it has been acquired by RIM).

The Tizen simulator extends Ripple with stubs for the APIs which are specific to Tizen, but not necessarily present in other HTML5 environments (e.g. sensor and messaging capabilities). This enables you to build applications which use those APIs if you don't have access to Tizen hardware. (The other alternative is to use the full Tizen SDK, which provides an emulator that runs "real" versions of the APIs; however, this is a big install and only works on Ubuntu and Windows.)

The steps:

1. Go to https://www.tizen.org/user/register and register for a Tizen account. This is free to anyone.

2. Register your public ssh key for Tizen Gerrit, at https://review.tizen.org/gerrit (Gerrit is the code review tool used by the Tizen project). You can then use ssh to checkout Tizen source (I couldn't check out directly from source.tizen.org and kept getting timeouts, but did manage a checkout via Gerrit). All this is explained on the platform developer orientation pages.

3. Clone the part of the SDK we're interested in: the webapp plugins for Eclipse:

git clone ssh://<your tizen.org username>@review.tizen.org:29418/sdk/ide/webapp-eplugin.git

4. Now you have the source code for the Tizen SDK Simulator plugin for Eclipse (as well as a lot of other plugins). We're just going to use a part of this to set the simulator up to work with Chrome.

The piece we need is in this location (relative to the directory you made the clone from):

./webapp-eplugin/org.tizen.web.simulator/pkg/web

So copy those files somewhere else to make them easier to get at:

$ mkdir ~/tizen-simulator
$ cp -a ./webapp-eplugin/org.tizen.web.simulator/pkg/web/* ~/tizen-simulator/

Take a look to check you have the right files:

$ cd ~/tizen-simulator
$ ls
beep.wav  cache.manifest  images  index.html  package.json  ripple.css  ripple.js  themes

That's all the code you need for the Simulator.

5. Open up Google Chrome (a recent version; I'm using 20.0.1132.3 dev) and type the URI for the Simulator in the address bar, i.e.:

file:///home/user/tizen-simulator/index.html

(replace "user" with your Linux account username)

You should see the Simulator UI with a blank "phone" in it.

6. You need a project to test against, so make one like this:

$ mkdir ~/tizen-messaging-test

Then add two files to this directory.

~/tizen-messaging-test/index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport"
          content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0,
                   maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0, target-densityDpi=device-dpi">
    <meta name="description" content="Tizen web app"/>
    <title>messaging test</title>
</head>

<body>
  <p>Tizen SDK Simulator running on Linux.</p>
  &lt;script src="main.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
</body>
</html>

(you need to use real script tags, but I can't put them in here as the Drupal editor removes them...)

and ~/tizen-messaging-test/main.js:

window.onload = function () {
  var errorCb = function (err) {
    console.error(err);
  };

  var successCb = function (services) {
    if (services.length === 0) {
      console.error('could not get email service');
      return;
    }

    var service = services[0];

    // listen for message changes; NB when the message is sent below,
    // it appears in the OUTBOX folder and a notification is logged
    var messagesChangedListener = {
      messagesadded: function (messages) {
        console.log(messages[0].folderId);
      },
      messagesupdated: function (messages) {},
      messagesremoved: function (messages) {}
    };

    service.messageStorage.addMessagesChangeListener(messagesChangedListener);

    // send a message
    var msg = new tizen.Message("messaging.email", {
      'to': ['bingo.barry@bogus.com'],
      'subject': 'hello email from Tizen web app',
      'plainBody': 'hello'
    });

    service.sendMessage(
      msg,
      function (recipients) { console.log(recipients); },
      errorCb
    );
  };

  tizen.messaging.getMessageServices("messaging.email", successCb, errorCb);
};

See the Tizen developer docs for more information about the APIs supported. Also note that I'm not suggesting this as a sane pattern for structuring an application.

7. Open the Simulator at your new project by entering the address in Chrome:

file:///home/user/tizen-simulator/index.html?url=file:///home/user/tizen-messaging-test/index.html

(replace "user" with your Linux username)

Note that the URL of the project is passed as a url=xxx parameter to the Tizen simulator.

Also note that things don't work so nicely if you run the Simulator and the application on different domains (you get cross domain errors), even if the Simulator is a Chrome extension with permissions set to allow requests to any domain (I tried). The easiest thing to do is run both from file:// URIs.

You should see the index.html page in the "phone" with the message:

"Tizen SDK Simulator running on Linux."

Like this:

Next, Ctrl+Shift+j to see the console output. You should see something like:

Ripple :: Environment Warming Up (Tea. Earl Gray. Hot.)   ripple.js:27588
TIZEN :: Initialization Finished (Make it so.)            ripple.js:27588
OUTBOX                                                    main.js:11
["bingo.barry@bogus.com"]                                 main.js:28

"OUTBOX" is the name of the folder containing the sent message (i.e. it's queued and ready to go); ["bingo.barry@bogus.com"] is an array of the recipient names to whom the message was successfully sent. This proves that the Simulator's API stubs are working correctly.

One other thing you might notice is that if you click the refresh button inside the simulator to reload the project, you get this in the console:

Uncaught ReferenceError: tizen is not defined                                 main.js:41
TIZEN :: -----------------------------------------------------------          ripple.js:27588
TIZEN :: Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.                     ripple.js:27588
TIZEN :: Environment Warning up again (Set main batteries to auto-fire cycle) ripple.js:27588
TIZEN :: Initialization Finished (Make it so.) ripple.js:27588
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'log' of undefined                     main.js:11
["bingo.barry@bogus.com"]

At first I thought this was a bug caused by me hacking the simulator out of the SDK. But when I checked, the same bug happens in the Simulator when run from the SDK installed on Windows. So it's either an SDK bug or I'm doing something wrong in my code (needs further investigation), but at least it isn't an artefact of the simulator being disemboweled.

That's it. You can continue developing your application with whatever JavaScript libraries take your fancy.

Free SF, science fiction, horror, fantasy and weird ebooks for the Kindle and others

elliot — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:56:19 -0500

What is this?

This is my very biased overview of free ebooks for the Kindle. It only covers books I'm interested in: mainly old Fantastic fiction - gothic novels, horror, ghost stories, surrealism, sword and sorcery, lost worlds, and other odd books. There are tons more classic SF&F books out there which you can get hold of.

Sources of free e-books

http://manybooks.net/

This is an excellent site which aggregates various free books, mainly from Project Gutenberg but covering various other outlets, with a decent summary page for each book and author; it enables you to generate downloadable ebooks for each book, as well as read and create book reviews.

There is also a mobile site at mnybks.net, which you can browse directly from your Kindle.

Note: when browsing the full site via Kindle, I've found that the only downloads which work properly are Amazon ones - if I try to do mobipocket downloads, they don't work. Strangely, mobipocket files downloaded from there via a PC or laptop then sent to the Kindle (via email or USB) do work properly.

http://amazon.co.uk/

This is particularly nice, as any content you buy at Amazon will sync to any device where you have a Kindle app (e.g. a phone).

http://gutenberg.org/

I think the content in here is pretty much covered by manybooks.net, but there may be places where a gutenberg ebook isn't on manybooks.net.

http://gutenberg.net.au/

Australia has slightly different copyright laws from the US, so some books may be available here which aren't on the US Gutenberg site.

http://gutenberg.ca/

Canada also has slightly different copyright; the site is likely to have more titles in French than the US site.

http://archive.org

The Internet Archive has some items which aren't held by Project Gutenberg.

Converting various formats for use on a Kindle

I tend to get or make .mobi files; Kindle's own format is .amz.

If you can find a book in PDF or HTML format, you can convert it in the following ways:

Kindle
You can send PDFs and HTML files to Amazon for conversion and later download to your Kindle.

You should have an email set up for your Kindle first. They tell you about the paid one, but you should have a free one in the format <your name>@free.kindle.com.

Once you've done that, do the following to convert the PDF:

Send an email to <your name>@free.kindle.com
Set the subject line to "Convert"
Attach the PDF or HTML file(s)

The converted file will automatically be sync'ed to your Kindle.
You can also send .mobi files direct to your Kindle at the @free.kindle.com address: just miss out the "Convert" subject line

Online ebook converter
http://ebook.online-convert.com/
This works pretty well, and is especially useful as you can change the author and title of the output book. However, for some PDFs, I found the output was a bit of a mess. I ended up using the Amazon email conversion mostly (see above).
The one place where I did use this was for converting .lrf files to .mobi, as the Amazon converter won't do this.

kindlegen
This is a command line program (works on Linux) you can use to convert HTML files to Amazon ebooks. Can be useful if you want to iteratively edit your own HTML and test how it looks, without having to send it via email to your Kindle. Get it from the Kindlegen page on Amazon.

A big old list of books

The links below point either at a page where you can download the book in one or more formats, or to a PDF or HTML version of the book. Where the source is HTML or PDF or something else, I've marked it; otherwise you can assume there's a mobipocket (.mobi) or Kindle (.amz) format version available (Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks both provide these types of Kindle-compatible file).

I've also made zero attempt to organise alphabetically or by date.

Free sf / fantasy / horror / supernatural books

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (1940)

http://justcheckingonall.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/master-and-margarit... (PDF)
(translation released under Creative Commons licence)

The Worm Ouroboros - E.R. Eddison (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/eddisoneother060602051.html
(I've read this - it is hard going, but worth reading if you're interested in the history of fantasy and like archaic English)

The Works of Edgar Allen Poe (5 volumes) (19th century)

Volume 1: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2147
Volume 2: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2148
Volume 3: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2149
Volume 4: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2150
Volume 5: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2151
(obviously very important in the history of various genres)

Clark Ashton Smith short stories

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/ (HTML)
(these are in HTML format, but pretty easy to convert to an ebook; I used a bit of scripting to spider the website, munge the HTML files into one big file, then convert the result into a mobipocket ebook)

The Marvelous Land of Oz - L. Frank Baum (1904)

http://manybooks.net/titles/baumlfraetext93ozland10.html
(I picked this one as it's the one I loved when I was a child)

The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen (1894)

http://manybooks.net/titles/machenaretext96ggpan10.html
(an influence on H.P. Lovecraft; I read it, it was reasonably good)

The Three Impostors - Arthur Machen (1895)

http://manybooks.net/titles/machenarother090301561.html
(some opinion claims this is one of his best books)

She - H. Rider Haggard (1886)

http://manybooks.net/titles/haggardhetext02shrhe10.html
(I loved King Solomon's Mines when I was younger, so thought I'd try this; it was a pretty good read)

Jurgen - James Branch Cabell (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/cabelljaetext058jurg10.html
(infamous fantasy novel which caused a scandal on its publication)

Fantômas - Pierre Souvestre (1915)

http://manybooks.net/titles/souvestrep2779427794-8.html
(about a master criminal)

The Wallet of Kai Lung - Ernest Bramah (1900)

http://manybooks.net/titles/bramaheretext97wklng10.html
(set in China)

The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton (1907)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chestertetext99tmwht10.html
(I read this one: very odd, very readable, amusing, worth a read; reviewed by someone else at http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2009/cur0901.htm)

The Club of Queer Trades - G.K. Chesterton (1905)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chestertetext99tcoqt10.html
(mystery short stories a la Sherlock Holmes)

The Napoleon of Notting Hill - G.K. Chesterton (1904)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chestert2005820058-8.html

A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder - James De Mille (1888)

http://manybooks.net/titles/demillejetext04msscc10.html
(reviewed at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/03/strange-manuscript-de-mille-...)

A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay (1920)

http://manybooks.net/titles/lindsaydavietext98vrctr10.html
(apparently very odd and a fantasy classic)

Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley - Lord Dunsany (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/dunsanyetext03drodr10.html
(you can't get The King of Elfland's Daughter (his masterwork) legally in the UK as an ebook, but you can get this, which is meant to be nearly as good)

Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock (1818)

http://manybooks.net/titles/peacocktetext068nmab10.html

Goslings - J.D. Beresford (1913)

http://www.archive.org/details/goslings00bereiala
(post-apocalypse)

The Inner House - Walter Besant (1888)

http://www.archive.org/details/innerhouse00besagoog
(utopia)

The Amazing Marriage - George Meredith (1895)

http://manybooks.net/titles/meredithgeoetext03gm94v10.html
(one of the books Michael Moorcock likes to give away)

Household Tales - Brothers Grimm (1884)

http://manybooks.net/titles/grimmetext04grimm10a.html
(saw this mentioned by Sarah Waters as a favourite book from her childhood)

Descent into Hell - Charles Williams (1937)

http://manybooks.net/titles/williamscharlesother08Descent_into_Hell.html
(Williams is mentioned in 100 Must Read Fantasy Novels - he was an associate of C.S. Lewis, and wrote what T.S. Eliot called "supernatural thrillers" - this novel is considered one of his best)

The Place of the Lion - Charles Willians (1933)

http://manybooks.net/titles/williamscharlesother09place_of_the_lion.html
(I've read this one: not the easiest read I've ever had: shifts mood very abruptly, has long passages of Christian mysticism, and characters you can't really associate with; but thoughtful, with great imagery, and some genuine moments of psychological horror; has to be read to be believed, really)

War in Heaven - Charles Williams (1930)

http://manybooks.net/titles/williamscharlesother09war_in_heaven.html
(given I enjoyed The Place of the Lion, I thought I'd try this, which is meant to be more straightforward: a Holy Grail thriller with supernatural elements)

The Hour of the Dragon (Conan the Conqueror) - Robert E. Howard (1936)

http://manybooks.net/titles/howardrother07hour_of_the_dragon.html
(the Conan books were the first fantasy books I read when I was about 10; time to revisit them)

Atlantida (aka The Queen of Atlantis) - Pierre Benoît (1919)

http://manybooks.net/titles/benoitp1430114301-8.html
(early Atlantis novel - I just finished The Serpent by Jane Gaskell, which ends in Atlantis, so thought I might follow the theme)

The House on the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson (1907)

http://manybooks.net/titles/hodgsonwother06houseontheborderland.html
(I've read this one: an intense weird/horror/supernatural/occult tale)

The Night Land - William Hope Hodgson (1912)

http://manybooks.net/titles/hodgsonw10661066210662.html
(supposedly very long and hard-going, but considered his best by many)

The History of Caliph Vathek (aka Vathek) - William Beckford (1787)

http://manybooks.net/titles/beckford20620602060.html
(proto-Gothic novel)

The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole (1764)

http://manybooks.net/titles/walpolehoraetext96cotrt10.html
(another proto-Gothic novel)

Knock, Knock, Knock, and Other Stories - Ivan Turgenev (collected 2004, 19th century)

http://manybooks.net/titles/turgenevetext048knck10.html
(supernatural/mystery tales)

The Witch, and Other Stories - Anton Chekhov (collected 2006, 19th century)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chekhovaetext99witch10.html

Weird Tales (2 volumes) - E.T.A. Hoffmann (1885)

Volume 1: http://manybooks.net/titles/hoffmannet3137731377-8.html
Volume 2: http://manybooks.net/titles/hoffmannet3143931439-8.html
(Volume 1 includes The Sandman, one of the oddest and most unsettling stories you're likely to read)

Hunger - Knut Hamsun (1890)

http://manybooks.net/titles/hamsunknetext058hngr10.html

Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)

http://manybooks.net/titles/gilmanchetext92hrlnd10.html
(early feminist sf classic)

The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells (1898)

http://manybooks.net/titles/wellshgetext92warw12.html
(most of Wells' work appears to be available from Project Gutenberg)

The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells (1896)

http://manybooks.net/titles/wellshgetext94dmoro11.html
(as recommended by China Miéville in http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/16/fiction.bestbooks; will probably read this first out of the H.G. Wells books I have)

Edgar Huntly - Charles Brockden Brown (1799)

http://manybooks.net/titles/brownchaetext05edhnt10.html
(I've seen his work compared to Borges)

The Green Odyssey - Philip Jose Farmer (1957)

http://manybooks.net/titles/farmerpother05The_Green_Odyssey.html
(I'm a fan of his stuff, and this novel is public domain)

In the Penal Colony - Franz Kafka (1919)

http://manybooks.net/titles/kafkafraother05penal_colony.html
(don't need to say much about his work, I guess)

The Trial - Franz Kafka (1925)

http://manybooks.net/titles/kafkafraetext05ktria10.html

Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka (1912)

http://manybooks.net/titles/kafkafraetext04metam10.html

A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)

http://manybooks.net/titles/burroughseetext93pmars13.html
(very topical, what with the John Carter film)

The Enchanted Castle - E. Nesbit (1907)

http://manybooks.net/titles/nesbite3421934219-8.html

Uncle Silas - Sheridan Le Fanu (1864)

http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1485114851-8.html

Zuleika Dobson - Max Beerbohm (1911)

http://manybooks.net/titles/beerbohmetext99zdbsn11.html

The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers (1895)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chambersetext058kngy10.html
(horror short stories)

The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales - Richard Garnett (1903)

http://manybooks.net/titles/garnettr10091009510095.html
(often included in "best fantasy books" lists)

The Coming Race - Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1871)

http://manybooks.net/titles/lyttonedetext99cmgrc10.html
(lost world story)

Across the Zodiac - Percy Greg (1880)

http://manybooks.net/titles/percyg10161016510165-8.html
(early Planetary Romance sf)

The Hampdenshire Wonder - J.D. Beresford (1911)

http://manybooks.net/titles/beresfordjother060601411.html
(child prodigy sf)

The Lost Continent - Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne (1900)

http://manybooks.net/titles/hynecjcuetext95lostc10.html
(an early Atlantis story)

The Beetle - Richard Marsh (1897)

http://manybooks.net/titles/marshricetext04thbtl10.html
(horror)

The Inheritors - Joseph Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford (1901)

http://manybooks.net/titles/conradjo1488814888-8.html
(Conrad's only sf novel)

Greener than You Think - Ward Moore (1947)

http://manybooks.net/titles/moorew2424624246-8.html
(he wrote Bring the Jubilee, considered an sf classic; wonder if this is any good?)

The Monk - Matthew Gregory Lewis (1796)

http://manybooks.net/titles/lewismatetext96tmonk10.html
(proto-Gothic classic)

Dracula - Bram Stoker (1897)

http://manybooks.net/titles/stokerbretext95dracu12.html

Ghostly Tales (5 Volumes) - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1853 - 1871)

Volume 1: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1169911699-8.html
Volume 2: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1170011700-8.html
Volume 3: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1175011750-8.html
Volume 4: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose12641264712647-8.html
Volume 5: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1259212592-8.html

Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories - Ambrose Bierce (collected 2003)

http://manybooks.net/titles/bierceametext03prhg10.html

Ghost Stories of an Antiquity (2 volumes) - M.R. James (1904, 1911)

Volume 1: http://manybooks.net/titles/jamesmonetext058jgst10.html
Volume 2: http://manybooks.net/titles/jamesmonetext068jgs210.html

After London (or Wild England) - Richard Jefferies (1885)

http://manybooks.net/titles/jefferie13941394413944-8.html

Pledged to the Dead - Seabury Quinn (1937)

http://manybooks.net/titles/quinns3251432514-8.html
(horror)

The Sign of the Spider - Bertram Mitford (1896)

http://manybooks.net/titles/mitfordb2747627476-8.html
("an adventure of cannibals, slave traders, man-eating crocodiles, fighting off hordes of Zulus and a terrifying spider-beast" - how can I resist?)

The Metal Monster - Abraham Merritt (1920)

http://manybooks.net/titles/merrittaetext02memon10.html
(this chap is considered one of the great pulp sf writers; I read The Ship of Ishtar, which was a rollicking good adventure)

Widdershins - Oliver Onions (1911)

http://manybooks.net/titles/onionso1416814168-8.html
(contains The Beckoning Fair One, considered a classic ghost story, which I've never read)

The Tower of Oblivion - Oliver Onions (1921)

http://manybooks.net/titles/onionso3470334703-8.html
(reviewed at http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2001/cur0105.htm - sounds good)

Where the Blue Begins - Christopher Morley (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/morleychetext98wtbbg10.html
(reviewed at http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/1999/cur9906.htm; quite a peculiar book about an anthropomorphised dog who works in a department store)

The Pathless Trail - Arthur O. Friel (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/friela3032430324-8.html
(mentioned at http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2011/01/2010_in_review-comments.s...)

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (1847)

http://manybooks.net/titles/bronteemetext96wuthr10.html
(never read this, but meant to be good and gothic)

Modern Creative Commons / free books

Agent to the Stars - John Scalzi (1999)

http://manybooks.net/titles/scalzijother06agent_to_the_stars.html

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow (2003)

http://manybooks.net/titles/doctorowother05domkg10.html
(much (all?) of Doctorow's work is Creative Commons, though I've yet to read any, I'm embarassed to say; full list at http://manybooks.net/authors/doctorow.html)

Painkillers - Simon Ings (2000)

http://manybooks.net/titles/ingssother08painkillers_the_novel.html
(I've read some of his short stories, and thought this might be worth a punt)

The Ware Tetralogy - Rudy Rucker (2010)

http://manybooks.net/titles/ruckerrother10rucker_ware_tetralogy_cc2010.h...
(comprising Software, Wetware, Freeware, and Realware; I read one of his novels years ago (I think it was Software), and keep meaning to read these)

The Hollow Earth - Rudy Rucker (1990)

http://www.rudyrucker.com/thehollowearth/rucker_hollow_earth_cc_jan_17_2... (HTML)
(steampunk - see http://steampunkscholar.blogspot.com/2009/07/interview-with-rudy-rucker-... for an interview where Rudy Rucker discusses this novel)

Glimpses - Lewis Shiner (1993)

http://www.lewisshiner.com/liberation/glimpses.pdf (PDF)
(this one one the World Fantasy Award in 1994; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs; more of his work for free at http://www.lewisshiner.com/liberation/index.htm)

Move Under Ground - Nick Mamatas (2004)

http://www.moveunderground.org/ (HTML)
(Cthulu mythos story written from the perspective of Jack Kerouac - got to be worth a look; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5)

Accelerando - Charles Stross (2005)

http://manybooks.net/titles/strosscother05accelerando-txt.html
(Creative Commons)

Magic for Beginners - Kelly Link (2005)

http://smallbeerpress.com/books/2005/07/01/magic-for-beginners/
(recommended by China Miéville in http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/16/fiction.bestbooks; Small Beer Press are to be applauded for making some of their titles available under Creative Commons licences)

Items available in other countries

If you are lucky enough to live in the US, Canada or Australia, you have access to a few more gems:

Bright of the Sky - Kay Kenyon (2007)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003N7MYQK
(available for free for Kindle in the US)

The Nose - Nikolai Gogol (1836)

http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602381h.html (HTML)
(absurd classic; public domain in Australia)

The King of Elfland's Daughter - Lord Dunsany (1924)

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21611&d=123... (PRC)
(public domain in Canada)

Consider Her Ways - Frederick Philip Grove (1947)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201151.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia)

Collected Stories - H.P. Lovecraft (collected 2006)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600031.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia - the same as the Kindle edition you can buy for 72p from Amazon in the UK...suspicious...)

Orlando - Virginia Woolf (1928)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200331.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia)

The Ship of Ishtar - Abraham Merritt (1924)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601941.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia; pulp classic)

The War with the Newts - Karel Čapek (1936)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601981h.html (HTML)
(public domain in Australia)

Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon (1930)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601101.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia)

Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Robert Maturin (1820)

http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700551h.html (HTML)
(public domain in Australia)

The Haunted Woman - David Lindsay (1922)

http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0608401h.html (HTML)
(public domain in Australia; a "dark, metaphysical fantasy novel" according to Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haunted_Woman)

Thunder on the Left - Christopher Morley (1925)

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19390
(public domain in Canada; not sf or fantasy, some consider it marginally a ghost story, but an odd, interesting and melodramatic read)

Books read 2011

elliot — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:40:44 -0500

Rather belatedly, here's a list of books I read in 2011, 77 in number. The ones with '*' are the ones I particularly enjoyed.

The Other City by Michal Ajvaz
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson *
Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson
Satyrday by Steven Bauer
Talking Man by Terry Bisson
The Other Side of the Mountain by Michael Bernanos *
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
The Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd
A Confederate General from Big Sur by Richard Brautigan
The 39 Steps by John Buchan
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington *
A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll
Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll
White Apples by Jonathan Carroll
The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
The Death of Grass by John Christopher
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
Sum by David Eagleman
The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison
The Fahrenheit Twins by Michel Faber
Under the Skin by Michel Faber *
The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney *
The Unholy City by Charles G. Finney
The Ghosts of Manacle by Charles G. Finney
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner
The Serpent by Jane Gaskell *
The Inheritors by William Golding
The Spire by William Golding
She by H. Rider Haggard
Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern
The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz by Russell Hoban
The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart *
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
The Hermit by Eugene Ionesco
The Mortmere Stories by Christopher Isherwood and Edward Upward
Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson *
Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
The Waste Lands by Stephen King
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin *
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin
Galaxies by Barry Malzberg
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Box of Delights by John Masefield
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip
The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt
In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser
The Sword of the Dawn by Michael Moorcock
The Runestaff by Michael Moorcock
The Weird of the White Wolf by Michael Moorcock
The Steel Tsar by Michael Moorcock
Jirel of Joiry by C.L. Moore
Where the Blue Begins by Christopher Morley
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
52 Ways of Looking at a Poem ed. by Ruth Padel
Duke Cosimo by Akbar del Piombo
Stirk of Stirk by Peter Tinniswood
The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Mistress Masham's Repose by T.H. White
The Place of the Lion by Charles Williams
A Haunted House and Other Short Stories by Virginia Woolf
Jog Rummage by Grahame Wright *
Howl's Moving Castle by Dianne Wynne Jones
Nines Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

bunkers

elliot — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:50:17 -0600

open-armed to woollen thumps outside
we are a brocade of grimy buttons
below grinning stairs, fed on mushrooms

the klaxons were your breasts
when we lived on you, when we used to park
our bicycles against your cheeks

and your lashes, swaying hollyhocks,
dissected the scent of meadowsweet
while we discussed nuclear war;

moss spread like tablecloths
across your belly; you fastened a swan's neck
to a lily, had mirrors for ribs

but we couldn't afford the rent demanded
to live on your eyes
and dug other channels for access

we found musty apertures and cubby holes
to hide in; little drawers near your ears
(though they were full of fireworks)

we believed the war had stalled,
we'd never need refuge anyway;
so when it arrived, smoothing you to porcelain,

disputing your extreme territories,
your feet, your hands,
we shuddered your skirts into cupboards,

braced your spine across the door,
pressed black tape crosses on your lips,
crouched over muffled broadcasts in the dark:

they say you have bloody eyes now,
that your hair lies like broken spaghetti,
and shadows bury stretches of your skin

in their efforts to snuff out the sun.
but we know we won't be found -
secret, warm, inside your drifts of ash.

Gulliver 2007-06-20

elliot — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:53:03 -0500

When he washed up, magnificent, we brought in
timber, nails and rope to build a frame
about his bones; we strapped his arms, his feet,
his neck, afraid he might lay out his sex to piss

upon our town. By the time we put our trust in him,
he was resigned; and when finally released, he lay,
dejected, too tired to eat. We shovelled fast food slowly
down his giant throat. He grew fat, we despaired

as he clogged up. His sad smell spilled
like some horse-rotted jungle lily; gulls barged
for space on his bloated belly. Until,
one morning, we discovered him, passed away,

skin blistered red and grey by sun.
Gulls took his death as permission
to streamer his guts with beaks and, shrieking,
lash them out across the groynes.

Days ebb out; a cottage industry uncoils,
as if direct from marrow bone, to make predictions
based on lungs, his intestinal map across the sand:
signs of how the world will end.

His forehead shifts as sand retreats; his torso
shrinks beneath our gaze; and now his hollowed head,
with old-mastered gauze, caves in, collapses out of sight,
to leave a promise in the flats.

(with a hat tip to JG Ballard's The Drowned Giant)

Why you should read the Moomin books

elliot — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:11:14 -0600

I never read the Moomin books when I was growing up, though I vaguely remember seeing the TV series when I was a teenager. I suppose the cuddly characters indicated that there was nothing to see there, and I should move along.

But recently I have been tracking down and reading various books which are generally "Fantastical", mainly via 100 Must Read Fantasy Novels; Comet in Moominland was one mentioned there. I've just finished reading it to my daughter (7), and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's the first of the Moomin books intended for older readers (the first was more for younger children), and while slow-moving to start with, and in many ways lacking in "action", it is humorous, lovable and graceful, but with a deep, darkly-tinged heart.

Some reviews I've read, talking about this book and the later ones, discuss themes in depth; one of the most important being that difference should be tolerated. The characters are very different from each other: some nomadic, some home-loving; some open, some insular; some pessimistic, some optimistic etc. But they all rub along together, and want to stay together, tolerating each other's differences. I have to be honest that this didn't occur to me during reading, but it does make sense in retrospect. Though that's not why I'm urging you to read the book.

The story is pretty simple: through various omens, Moomintroll realises a comet may be about to crash into the planet. The comet appears in the sky, and he sets out (with various friends) to ask some astronomers (fairly useless, it turns out) when the impact will happen. Towards the end of the book, they are racing back home to Moomin valley to hide in a cave they think will keep them safe. The comet has boiled the water out of the ocean and hangs threateningly overhead; they are using stilts to move over the drained ocean bed. At that point, there is a beautiful passage which almost made me cry. It's because of passages like this that I urge you to read it, even if you're an adult:

All about them stretched the strange sea landscape, which had been covered by millions of tons of water since the beginning of the world.

"You know it's rather solemn to be down here," said the Snork. "We must be pretty near the deepest part of the ocean by now."

But when they reached the biggest chasm of all they didn't dare go down. The sides sloped steeply and the bottom was obscured in green gloom. Perhaps there was no bottom! Perhaps the biggest octopuses in the world lived down there, brooding in the slime; creatures that nobody had ever seen, far less imagined. But the Snork maiden gazed longingly at an enormous and beautiful shell that was poised on the very brink of the chasm. It was a lovely pale colour, only to be found in the depths of the sea where no light penetrates, and its dusky heart glowed temptingly. The shell sang softly to herself the age-old song of the sea.

"Oh!" sighed the Snork maiden. "I should like to live in that shell. I want to go inside and see who is whispering in there."

"It's only the sea," said Moomintroll. "Every wave that dies on the beach sings a little song to a shell. But you mustn't go inside because it's a labyrinth and you may never come out."

So she was at last persuaded to go on, and they started to hurry, as dusk was falling, and they had not found anywhere to sleep. They could only see soft outlines of each other through the damp sea mist, and it was uncannily silent. There were none of the small sounds that liven up the evening on land: the pattering of small animal feet, leaves moving in the night breeze, the cry of a bird, of a stone dislodged by someone's foot.

A fire would never draw on that damp ground, and they dared not sleep amongst the unknown dangers that might be lurking about, so in the end they decided to pitch camp on a high pointed rock, which they could just reach by their stilts. They had to keep watch, so Moomintroll took the first and decided to take the Snork maiden's too, and while the others curled up tightly together and slept, he sat staring out over the desolate sea bottom. It was lit by the red glow of the comet, and shadows like black velvet lay across the sand.

Moomintroll thought how frightened the earth must be feeling with that great ball of fire coming nearer and nearer to her. Then he thought about how much he loved everything; the forest and the sea, the rain and the wind, the sunshine, the grass and the moss, and how impossible it would be to live without them all, and this made him feel very, very sad. But after a while he stopped worrying.

"Mamma will know what to do," he said to himself.

I love how the simplicity of the language in the penultimate paragraph reflects the simplicity of the sentiment: it's simple things which make life worth living, and dressing those simple things up in more flowery language detracts from their worth (it puts me in mind of the haiku of writers like Han-shan). I also like the description of the shell: a little sentimental, maybe, but hinting at our ambivalent relationship with the sea: the myth of the siren, our endless longing for the sea, but ultimately how unfathomable and dangerous it is.

The sequels apparently become darker in tone, though remaining life-affirming. I'll definitely be getting hold of them and reading them with my daughter.

Mise-en-abîme

elliot — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:54:02 -0600

Mise-en-abîme ("placing into infinity or "placing into the abyss", see Wikipedia) has always fascinated me. I suppose it started with the Quaker Oats man (who I'm sure I've mentioned here before):

(from http://www.scripophily.com/)

Though I remember this image more vividly, and with reds, and I think from my childhood. Notice how he's holding a box with another Quaker Oats man just like him on it, and he's holding a box, ad infinitum.

The laughing cow is another food-related one (see http://lunettesrouges.blog.lemonde.fr/files/2007/10/mise-en-abyme.119332...).

Also popular in the visual arts (Dali's La Guerre, see http://www.ecriture-art.com/art/dalilaguerre.jpg).

And literature (the play within a play of Hamlet, footnotes to a poem in Pale Fire which actually constitute the narrative etc.). And film (Synecdoche, New York is probably the best example, but it also happens in Adaptation and more recently in Inception: dreams within dreams, reflecting and influencing each other).

And obviously in nature and mathematics we have fractals. And in computer science recursive functions. And so on...

So, quite interesting, occasionally mind bending.

I wondered whether I could extend this idea to web servers: could a web server present a page; and on that page, a link which would start another web server and load a page from it; the latter page being embedded in the first page, and also presenting a link which would start another web server then load a page from it; ad infinitum...

So I wrote such a thing in Ruby. It's attached to this blog entry. Here's a screenshot:

It could carry on until the resources of the computer ran out (here I started 19 web servers). It uses jQuery to load the content from the next web server into an iframe inside the current page. You need rack, backports, and mongrel to run it.

Just for fun.

Top tracks 2010

elliot — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:38:59 -0600

Continuing my "end of year round up", I like to compile a list of favourite music for the year. Here is my list of top tracks for 2010.

My favourite artists of the year in order (pretty much identical to last year's, probably; at least I'm consistent):

1. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - I went to see them live for the first time this year (enjoyable, though Andy McCluskey's dancing is off-putting); I should mention that I pretty much hate their music after The Pacific Age, so the fact they're my number one band is based on about half of their output.
2. The Fall - I got Your Future, Our Clutter for my birthday, which I really enjoyed
3. The Divine Comedy - very middle class, yes; the latest album Bang Goes the Knighthood came out this year, which I thought was one of their best for ages
4. Autechre - a new album and EP this year; both very good
5. Hot Chip - a recent addition to my taste; this year I bought The Warning as well as their most recent album
6. Wire - of course
7. The Residents - probably largely because I use random play a lot, and I have practically everything they've ever recorded over the last 40 years
8. David Bowie - the man
9. Cocteau Twins - I remembered I had a CD of Victorialand (a tape copy of this was the first album I bought when I was about 16) which I'd neglected to rip, and then proceeded to rip it and listened to nothing else for about a week
10. The The - everyone feels maudlin now and then

Others which don't appear in this list but I listened to quite a lot: Tortoise, Future Sound of London, Joanna Newsom, Flying Lotus, Stereolab, Super Furry Animals. It's not a radical list, is it? In fact, I was listening to most of those artists 20 years ago. Must be getting old.

I went to see OMD, Silver Apples and Heaven 17 (they were surprisingly good) live this year: 3 bands in one year is probably the most I've managed since the children were born. I'm going to try to see some more next year (starting with Seefeel in May).

Books read 2010

elliot — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:28:57 -0600

Last year I did pretty poorly on reading books, so this year I made an effort to read much more. I managed 62 books this year: the first year where I've read at least a book a week. My reading rate dropped off just before Christmas, due to the lure of new DVDs and the minor improvement to TV schedules around Christmas. But I will get back to reading more regularly this year.

Here's the list (for completists and myself only); the ones with asterisks are considered "classics" in the SF/fantasy fields (one of my personal goals this year was to get better acquainted with the classics in these fields); the ones in bold are the ones I really rate:

Earth Abides - George R. Stewart *
Man Plus - Frederick Pohl *
Code - Charles Petzold
The Brothel in Rosenstrasse - Michael Moorcock
The City and the City - China Miéville
The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke *
The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe *
The Physiognomy - Jeffrey Ford - a random find in a local charity shop, but really an incredible read, very unusual fantasy but not the sword and sorcery kind
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman - I don't really get Neil Gaiman; don't get me wrong, this was quite engaging, just a bit workmanlike maybe; I think I need something a bit more unhinged, uncontrolled, and melodramatic
Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg *
Gloriana - Michael Moorcock
Explorers of the New Century - Magnus Mills
Memoranda - Jeffrey Ford
Kéthani - Eric Brown
The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica - John Calvin Batchelor - recommended as a classic by The Guardian 100 Best SF books (IIRC), but I found it very, very dull and skimmed the last quarter
The Jewel in the Skull - Michael Moorcock - I'm not sure if I've read these before, and I am sure they're not as good as the Corum series, but they are bloody entertaining
Thorns - Robert Silverberg
The Family Trade - Charles Stross - a nice light read, but the second one didn't really live up to this one
Gateway - Frederick Pohl * - this is a solid read, good characters, and an intriguing plotline
The Hidden Family - Charles Stross
A Case of Conscience - James Blish * - although this is supposedly a classic, it just didn't really hang together well for me, and I found it pretty hard work
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card * - I enjoyed this, but some part of me keeps reading his work from a Mormon/religious perspective; which is wrong of me (the Death of the Author and all that), but I can't help it, and it spoils it for me a bit
The Mad God's Amulet - Michael Moorcock
Motorman - David Ohle - I'm amazed I hadn't heard of this until this year, but I'd say this is a remarkable piece of surrealism
The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth * - not as good as I'd been led to believe
Grass - Sheri S. Tepper * - very eloquent, strongly plotted, and human
The Gamesman - Barry Malzberg - almost always a pleasure
Retribution Falls - Chris Wooding - another bit of fluff, but quite well done, though very reminiscent of Firefly (the TV series)
The Embedding - Ian Watson *
The Cave - Kate Mosse - dreadful
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson * - a good read, and it prompted me to watch all three movie adaptations (The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man and I am Legend - all of which completely miss the point, that the main scientist character becomes a legend among the newly-evolving "vampires"; by the end of the story he has become a relic of an old species, a legend)
The Age of Sinatra - David Ohle
Striped Holes - Damien Broderick - frothy and comic; I'd like to read more of his stuff
Blood Music - Greg Bear * - gripping, great imagery, striking
Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham *
The Unreasoning Mask - Philip José Farmer * - couldn't really see why this is rated as a classic; A Feast Unknown is much better
The Claw of the Conciliator - Gene Wolfe
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge * - excellent, great page turner, also quite moving
House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds - quite tiresome; I did finish it, but it was a bit formulaic (you can kind of see the narrative struts holding it up)
Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster
No Enemy But Time - Michael Bishop - confusing, but at least it had some guts
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban * - a remarkable feat of storytelling, but I struggled to concentrate
Greybeard - Brian Aldiss * - this one is just lovely
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror - H.P. Lovecraft - really enjoyed this, but got a bit bored when I tried to read his entire oeuvre
Emphyrio - Jack Vance * - excellent fun, with a really satisfying conclusion
The Man in The Maze - Robert Silverberg *
Voice of Our Shadow - Jonathan Carroll * - I started reading his books for the first time this year, and found them quite addictive (I read 5 altogether); but they are so readable and fun they make me feel a bit suspicious; and they can get mildly repetitive
Stolen Faces - Michael Bishop
Grendel - John Gardner
A Billion Days of Earth - Doris Piserchia - this is very unusual and has some fantastic off-the-wall ideas, but I lost track of what was happening a bit (my attention drifted)
Kissing the Beehive - Jonathan Carroll
Bones of the Moon - Jonathan Carroll
Sarah Canary - Karen Joy Fowler
Sleeping in Flame - Jonathan Carroll
The Dying Earth - Jack Vance * - also really good fun
100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories - ed. Isaac Asimov - a bit rubbish
Carnacki, the Ghost Finder - William Hope Hodgson
The Story of the Eye - Georges Bataille - I read this a few years back, and still found it quite shocking (and a bit tiresome) when I re-read it
The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees * - another supposed classic, but I found it a bit slow
The Face in the Frost - John Bellairs - a light, quick fantasy quest narrative; the two central wizard characters are excellent
The House on the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson * - very odd, but well worth reading, with a particularly excellent "house under siege from the supernatural" sequence; proto-fantasy with a sort of cosmic horror element; an influence on Lovecraft

This year I plan to read more Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock and Jonathan Carroll, as well as more of the "classics", particularly older works of The Fantastic I have on my Kindle (stuff like Charles Williams, H. Rider Haggard, G.K. Chesterton, Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, George MacDonald).

I've also been attempting to put together some ideas for short stories, or maybe even interactive fiction. Something might come of that too. Probably not, though.

Links for 2010-12-10 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:00:00 PST

radioarchive.cc : Home
torrents of BBC spoken word radio broadcasts

Links for 2010-12-04 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 00:00:00 PST

Sony Ericsson Phone Unlocking Software (Free)
Hopefully it will work for my wife's old C510

Links for 2010-12-02 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:00 PST

Periodic Table of HTML 5 Elements

Links for 2010-11-30 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 PST

Open Web App manifest

Links for 2010-11-29 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 PST

Qt Quick Colibri
Component library for Qt Quick/QML

Links for 2010-11-28 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:00:00 PST

xc.js - Canvas Game Framework
HTML Canvas + JS game framework
libgit2: a linkable library for Git
CoffeScript
compiles to JavaScript, but has lots of syntactic sugar

Links for 2010-11-26 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 00:00:00 PST

phosphorescence: QML i18n

Rationalisation

elliot — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:52:43 -0500

I'm working my way down to a single hosting company (currently I have a Dreamhost account and a Site5 account; I'm getting rid of the Dreamhost account, not because it's worse, but because I've got this blog on Site5 and it's more complicated to move).

I'm also expiring some of my domains (flickrlilli.org.uk among them), closing down various svn front-ends I had setup (I just use github or gitorious in future), and pointing all my DNS entries to one place with one set of contact details.

And I've closed down advertising on my site, as I'm effectively shutting down my moochlabs business for the time being. It made me a bit sad to close down http://moochlabs.com/; but, really, I'm not interested in any work outside my day job at the moment.

I also need to move my network backups somewhere. Can anyone suggest a good, Linux-friendly backup solution? A few years ago the options were limited, but I'm guessing things have improved since.

I am also thinking of closing down one of my many email accounts (my moochlabs one) which still gets quite a bit of mail. Need to do some unsubscribing there, too.

Need to simplify...