Libromancer's Apprentice

Carnal Machines : Steampunk Eroticia / D. L. King (ed) ( Powell's Books ) The Victorians wrote some of the best and most enduring erotica. For such a tightly-laced age, people spent a lot of time thinking about things carnal. Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, et al enthralled us with their visions of new possibilities. The rich and slightly decadent visuals of the steam age lend themselves perfectly to the new carnality of post-punk era. And, of course, what is repressed will be even more exciting once the corset is unlaced. Steampunk, even without sex, is erotic; with sex, it’s over-the-top hot. A widowed lady engineer invents a small device that can store the energy from sexual frustration and convert it to electricity to help power a home. Teresa Noelle Roberts shows us what it can do, confronted with sexual fulfillment. What volume of steampunk would be complete without a tale of sailing ships and the men who sail them? If your ta...

Book Inspired Makeup Some pretty and themed ways that someone with something resembling skill with makeup (not me) can adorn themselves. A Calendar of Tales I think I'm about to give in and create a tag for Neil Gaiman. "Take a journey across timescapes and angry seas. Here lie twelve tales of magic rings and long-lost relatives, pirate ships and haunted forests, written by Neil, inspired and illustrated by you." A PDF of all the stories (and their inspiring tweets) can be found here but I recommend exploring the website as well to see all the art and to listen to Gaiman read the stories. The "Don't Be A Dick" Public License This makes me happy.  Also see the WTFPL . Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified copies of this license document, and changing it is allowed as long as the name is changed. DON'T BE A DICK PUBLIC LICENSE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION Do whatever ...

 Sex and the Office: A History of Gender, Power, and Desire / Julie Berebitsky ( Yale University Press , Powell's Books ) "In this engaging book—the first to historicize our understanding of sexual harassment in the workplace—Julie Berebitsky explores how Americans’ attitudes toward sexuality and gender in the office have changed since the 1860s, when women first took jobs as clerks in the U.S. Treasury office. Berebitsky recounts the actual experiences of female and male office workers; draws on archival sources ranging from the records of investigators looking for waste in government offices during World War II to the personal papers of Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown and Ms. magazine founder Gloria Steinem; and explores how popular sources—including cartoons, advertisements, advice guides, and a wide array of fictional accounts—have represented wanted and unwelcome romantic and sexual advances. This range of evidence and the study’s long scope exp...

So one of the "joys" of upgrading hardware is inevitably you have some sort of legacy component that still needs to work with the new system.  For us it was our barcode scanners as legacy components as I upgrade our staff computers.  Computers that work are awesome, even more so when they work well.  Unfortunately we have a slew of barcode scanners with PS/2 connectors intended to share a port with a PS/2 keyboard. Simple solution, right?  Just get a PS/2 to USB adapter, plug tab a into slot b, and go!  As it turns out, not so much.  I can connect everything, the scanner is powered, but when I scan a barcode I get only a few characters printed to screen.  Now, in the past I was provided with several $30 adapters from Staples that worked like a charm.  This time around I am in the position of making most technology purchase recommendations, and I went for a generic adapter from Monoprice .  At $6 total for shipping and two adapters, I hold t...

Now that the two MOOCs I enrolled in finished, it seemed time to move on to other things... like more MOOCs.  I was sad to see no courses on Copyright, even an intro one, on either Coursera or Canvas. I don't care that I've taken Intro to Copyright courses before, I will keep taking them when offered (or a more advanced one if possible) because it is such a convoluted subject.  Two courses did snag my attention: Internet History, Technology, and Security Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World I also found a third course through a friend, Building a Basic Website , which should actually be a basic course so I am excited.  I can do some basic site design working within templates but I remain incredibly conscious of everything I still do not know.  My hope is to gain more confidence with my base level of web design knowledge to grow into more advanced aspects.  This class just started and marks a first for UMass as they explore off...

Cosmos Remake Coming To Fox In 2014 " It will star astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson."  I may be squeeing about this.  Members of Congress finally introduce serious DMCA reform Perhaps a ray of hope? "New legislation sponsored by Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Jared Polis (D-CO) takes a broader approach to the issue. In addition to explicitly legalizing cell phone unlocking, the Unlocking Technology Act of 2013 also modifies the DMCA to make clear that unlocking copy-protected content is only illegal if it's done in order to "facilitate the infringement of a copyright." If a circumvention technology is "primarily designed or produced for the purpose of facilitating noninfringing uses," that would not be a violation of copyright." Georgia Tech Announces Massive Online Master's Degree In Computer Science Interesting project, and considering how much a Masters costs to earn normall...

I recently finished two MOOCs on drastically different topics and on different platforms.  I enjoy learning and intellectual stimulation.  One of the reasons I am such a dedicated Science Fiction fan is the wealth of genre literature that provokes thought, at times handling content that would be found threatening or uncomfortable outside of the realm of the fantastic.  It has yet to really show if certifications earned through MOOCs are treated as a valuable part of professional development, but I find them valuable for my own development. Surviving Disruptive Technologies No, this isn't about how to deal with someone who fails to realize that everyone around them can hear at least their side of the cell phone conversation.  Instead it is about technology that changes the status quo.  Digital cameras changed how we take photos, Kodak went from the overwhelming leader of the photography business to filing for bankruptcy.  Think of all the wildly popular...