And so, thus, I'll point you another's words: a nice article about SF writer Wilmar H. Shiras. If you haven't read "In Hiding," or the novel that grew from it, Children Of The Atom, you should.
Shiras didn't write a lot of SF (or anything else) and no one has assembled a collection. "In Hiding" has been widely reprinted but most of her later short fiction from the 1970s, mostly printed in a mag edited by Ted White, has not been anthologized. This is a pity -- in tone and theme, she ran well ahead of the pack.
As for me, I'm off to the cluttered tech core of starship Lupine,* to help install some new imaging widgets used by the Navs boffins, so we can experience the joy of a "live training" session before it all goes online for real a fortnight from today. The old widgets that are going to get replaced have become quirky and buggy as well as outmoded -- but Navs knows them better than you know your own favorite shoes. The new gear does ten times as much (in only twice the physical volume!) but it's got a steep and dirty-pool learning curve: if Lulu (or whichever of our dear, dear weirdos and savants) happens to pull the wrong cord, the whole system blows itself to-- Ah, well, not an actual explosion; it reboots quickly and we've got backups but you still kinda clench up when that BSOD appears.
(The preceding paragraph is mostly true, for certain values of "true.")
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
2 comments:
" quirky and buggy as well as outmoded"
We have this at the laser mine too. "Now reach in here and push the white button 2 or 3 times. Not that fast, sort of linger over it." Fortunately there is very little HV involved. "This software doesn't lock up. Hey, what happened?"
"The new gear does ten times as much (in only twice the physical volume!)"
Of which 1.99 physical volume is available for use.
So I guess any future wrangling with these widgets is going to be an exercise in finger-bitery?
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