An audacious self-promotional effort from England's Steven Hunt. Hunt
edits this online mag, filling its pages with snotty, entertaining,
meanspirited genre gossip. Also present is lots of Hunt's fiction, film
and book reviews, and mucho cheap-shots at British writers and fans. Of
particular note is SCI-FINDER, the mislabelled science-fiction "search
engine," which is actually a very complete and well-organized index of
'Net-based genre material.
Brits are definitely coming into their own online. Briton Keith Brooke
produces this beautiful sf reprint site, and has attracted an impressive
stable of writers who make their work available for public consumption:
Steven Baxter, Ian McDonald, James Patrick Kelly, Jonathan Wylie and
others.
It's a British hat-trick! Douglas Adams, the original galatic
hitchhiker, has released an extensive promotion for latest book on the
'Net. It's gonzo, it's funny, it's in alphabetical order (!). Adams'
humor is uniquely suited to online presentation: his books aren't novels
so much as they are jokes that run on until he runs out of funny stuff;
this hyper-story is as unstructured as any of Adams' books, but you don't
notice it online.
The Applied Coherent Technology Corporation (I'm not makin' this up) is
promoting itself with this excellent technical resource: a clickable,
zoom-able map of the Moon's surface.
John Kricfalusi, my fellow Canadian, stunned the world with the
disgustingly funny antics of Ren and Stimpy. They were so outre that the
eeeevil networks forced his company to sanitize them, flensing away all
the really icky, hilarious bits. John K. has had enough. He's taken his
cartoons to the 'Net, where he is the final arbiter of taste. Beginning
October 15th, you can tune in to netcast cartoons, 24 hours a day!
This is the only role-playing game publisher ever raided by the NSA for
computer-crimes (see Bruce Sterling's Hacker Crackdown). Of course,
they have a bitchin' Web site. Game rules, products for sale,
collectible auctions, and on and on. If only all game publishers were
this savvy.
It may be unweildy and slow, but man, is it pretty and informative.
This is an awesome resource for information of the biggest little show
in science: nanotechnology.
I've never felt more humbled in all my life. I'm a pretty obsessive
kinda guy: the sort of geek who can rattle off terrifying detail about
half-a-million arcane and pointless subjects. These guys put me to
shame. Y'know, I never mastered the art of building a model without
slopping glue all over the place: I have a feeling these people would
eat me for breakfast.
A "celebration and study of toy ray guns." Too cool. Glorious photos,
critical essays (!), a box art gallery, and a monthly pinup gallery!
Don't miss the trader's heaven, where you can swap toys with other
obsessive Big Kids.
It's gotta be sf, 'cause jam don't shake like that. The Barbie
Chronicles are a tribute to one man's obsession with an anatomical
impossibility: the Barbie Doll. Dean Brown, a gifted and sadly misguided
photographer, has produced this tribute to the doll to end all dolls,
including a historical survey of fine art -- Barbie style!
