In2SciFi

I recently ran across a reference to a software package called ‘MarsEdit‘ which is an offline editor for blogs. I’ve downloaded it and I’m going to try it for the 30-day trial. I’ll be tracking it on my Writing blog, so if you’re interested, drop by to follow along on what I’m finding.

NOTE: MarsEdit is for MAC OSX only, it won’t work on Windows. But this is about more than just using a Mac version of something, I’m interested in the good and bad of using an offline editor overall. If I find something for Windows or Linux that appears as good, I’ll probably setup a trial of that software as well.

I’m re-reading the Gap Series at the moment. I need to take some time as I read it to get my thoughts in order and really understand these books. While I’m moving forward, let me say a few things about the series from my first reading several years ago.

I first learned of Donaldson when I heard about his Thomas Covenant novels. I started on his first Covenant series while he was still writing it. That was HARD. I read the first book before the 2nd came out and I was on edge waiting for more. It was incredible writing. I wished I could write like that. I went through that with the 2nd when I read it and had to wait for the 3rd.

With the second Covenant series, I decided to wait until all three were available. I was so engaged in other things that I had very little time anyway. Once they were available, I jumped on them and I read them so fast I amazed myself. I loved that series as well as the first. I had never seen a story sustained at such high quality for so long. I’ve loved Tolkien for years, but Donaldson is just as good a writer in a different way.

With my experience in the Covenant series, I had high hopes for the Gap Series. As high as my hopes were, they were surpassed. I can’t say enough about how much these books impressed me. Across five novels, Donaldson wove a complex story so engaging and enthralling that I had to force myself to put it down. I’m almost afraid to pick one of the books up because I just can’t stop.

WARNING - If you’re thinking about reading ANY of these novels, I should point out that they’re not for kids. They address some very brutal things and create some scenes that could give some people nightmares. The writing is exceptional and the story is exceptionally well crafted, but some of the characters are so brutalized in the process that it can be very hard for anyone who is not prepared.

I think this is going to be an ongoing thread. I’m gathering my tools and taking it a little at a time.

The essential problem I’m working with is my wife’s Windows XP based system. She uses it primarily for games and she’s running slow. I COULD simply strip it down and rebuild it, which would be a hassle and wouldn’t teach me anything, so I’m going to work through it more slowly to see what I can find. I’ve worked inside Windows before on low level routines and Windows based software at a pretty raw level. I’ve also edited the Registry on systems before this and worked at very low levels down to the hard disk. This will be different because I need to check the computer for possible infection. Did something slip past our protection?

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SIDE NOTE: I should point out that I’m not religious about operating systems. I work daily on my Macbook Pro where I run OSX of course, but also Windows (98, XP, & Vista), DOS, and Linux (Ubuntu & Knoppix). I’ve written at the OS kernal level in Unix, Linux, & DOS, at the driver level on Windows, and consider any or all of them as tools to get the things done that I need to do. Most of the clients I work with are Windows-based, so Windows is particularly important to me. Many of the tools I use are ONLY available on Windows, so again it’s important to my work. While I’ve worked in literally dozens of languages (C, C++, FORTRAN, BASIC, Pascal, Forth, Smalltalk, and more), right now I’m mostly working in Ruby and Python and writing web-based applications. Working through the low-level Windows stuff will be a good chance to refresh my memory about what goes on there.

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We have pretty strong protection on the system with a ZoneAlarm Firewall and AV software enabled. It’s needed because my wife is decidedly NOT a computer person. She doesn’t want to worry about it. It’ll be a good test bed for some experiments on working over the machines.

There are several tools I know I’m going to be using:

Process Explorer - available at

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

This incredibly handy software lets you look at what’s running on the system. You can select a process and right click and do a lookup for it on the Internet to find out more about it. I download it onto any Windows system I’m working if I can to help me identify what’s going on beneath the surface.

Knoppix - a Linux system designed to run from CD. For some of the work, I’ll boot the machine into a Linux system and use it to scan the disk from a position where even the most clever virus software can’t affect me. I can also do other things from there as well to check the Windows system itself. Knoppix is available at

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html

I downloaded a 700Mb ISO file that I burned to CD to turn it into a bootable Linux disk. Once I’m ready to work, I’ll need to get a virus scanner loaded and updated to check the Windows system with. Once I set it up, I tested the disk on several of my Windows systems to make sure it worked OK and I could get the virus scanning software I needed.

I’ll spend some time explaining things in more detail as I go along, but this gives me a starting point.

One of the things that impressed me was this short speech involving a martian and the main protagonist, Wilder, in the piece:

From the third episode, quoted from the DVD

Martian: There is no secret. Anyone with eyes can see the way to live

Wilder: How?

Martian: By watching life, observing nature, cooperating with it. Making common cause with the process of existence

Wilder: How?

Martian: By living life for itself don’t you see, deriving pleasure from the gift of pure being

Wilder: The gift of pure being

Martian: Life is its own answer, accept it and enjoy it day by day. Live as well as possible, expect no more.
Destroy nothing, humble nothing, look for fault in nothing, leave unsullied and untouched all that is beautiful. Hold that which lives in all reverence, for life is given by the sovereign of our universe, given to be savored, to be luxuriated in, to be … respected.

But that’s no secret, you’re intelligent, you know as well as I what must be done

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IMDB lists this mini-series with a rating of 6.8 of 10 with 600 votes. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080242/) I think that’s a pretty fair rating. While it is no where near as good as Ray Bradbury’s original stories, it does make an interesting story on its own. This particular quote though impressed me, stating as it does some clear guidelines which it would do us all good to think about.

I’ve finally activated a spam filter for the blog, so I’ve opened commenting to anyone. I look forward to a conversation about the topics I’m blogging about.

For anyone who runs across this blog, this is a new blog. I’m just starting it up, so while it’s getting it’s legs, I’m restricting posting to people who are willing to sign up and log in. This is primarily for me to get some time to get used to new software and to get some history into the bog. I intend to open it up for everyone to comment, but I will be posting some guidelines for what postings will be acceptable. For example:

• I won’t edit comments except to cut out flames or obscenity.
• I will block anyone who tries to use this blog for advertising something not related to the blogs topics
• I won’t allow posts that link to sites that I don’t personally recommend. If anyone puts a link in a post, I’ll visit it first to confirm that I support it

Terry

So why start another blog?

No reason except for myself. I’ve kept a journal for many years, sometimes daily, sometimes not. However, I wanted to muse some more on a number of topics and see if I could find people who would muse with me.

This blog grew out of a joint project my son and I planned together. We were going to build a web site dedicated to Science Fiction, but his medical condition worsened and we never got it started before he died. Since that time, www.in2scifi.org has existed as a remembrance of my son. This is going in a somewhat different direction. I have a number of things I’d like to get done:

1. Frequently in reading Science Fiction, I run across quotes that impress me as having real life implications. I’ve always wanted to collect them somewhere. This will be my place to collect and comment on them.
2. Particular stories impress me and I want a place to comment about them. I put SOME comments in my paper journal, but this will be a better place to put them.
3. SciFi raises a lot of interesting questions I’d like to muse on. Some of my favorites are older stories that raise issues that the author thought we’d already have dealt with.

There are probably lots of other things I’ll come up with, but this is a good start.