Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for January 8 2024 – Sheer Virtuosity High

In this episode I play a song by the Gentle Readers; we adopted an old, sick dog; we loved Slow Horses Season 3; the last season of The Crown sucked; We are watching Endeavour; I am considering abandoning the most recent Cory Doctorow book; I don’t understand if Tupperware can still possibly be a thing; the hardline of punks and Generation X excluding people and hating success loses me; If you get angry it should be about something and not nothing.

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Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, January 8 2024.

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Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for March 10 23 – Fight Like Hell

In this episode, I play a song by Doctor Deathray; for once I had time to do the show and no mojo to do one; I always predicted that my golden years would be on fire; talking to people seems harder than it used to; we went to a murder mystery dinner; grampa is making life so much harder than it needs to be; it sure seems like publishers are bad at business including publishing; Nathan Lowell’s podcast is back; Nate only reads indie published books; can we agree that Bean Dad was the most harmless internet flareup?; I don’t care about the McElroys or Maximum Fun; the American left is great at policing the people who aren’t lefting the way they like; Warren Ellis seems to have crafted a second act.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, March 10 2023.

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You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for February 17 2023 – Under the Bus

In this episode, I play a song by the Axis of Awesome;
my random choice of mastodon.lol had consequences; I sympathize with having one Really Bad Day on your project; trans people just want to live their boring lives; I marched with the trans group in Myrtle Beach on MLK weekend; I am now in the orbit of the Ellijay Makerspace; Darusha Wehm and Andrew Roach sent the lifeboat to me; what if I had multiple personas for Mastodon?; I have a shitload of Fediverse accounts; makerspace silk-screening opens up a lot of possibilities; Cory Doctorow and Scott Edelman discussing Judith Merrill made me think about the one spark plug in a scene; I enjoyed Maverix and Lunatix; I missed a window in buying underground comics; I like scrappy Democrats; don’t criticize people by throwing rural people under bus.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, February 17 2023.

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You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for January 22 2021 – Bean Dad

In this episode, I play a song by Pauline Scanlon; a quick Eat to Live update; I discuss a little about and why I think this is a fairly ridiculous internet outrage; everyone has to choose their own path to being a terrible parent; I don’t know or care who the McElroys are or why they are internet famous; TabFS is an interest project; I am taking a timeout from Cory Doctorow; your super-fans are the most likely to become super-haters; Chris York makes me think about Creative Commons and usage of stuff.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, January 22 2021.

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You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for Nov 19 2020 – Supporting the SubGenius

In this episode, I play a song from Rocket City Riot; the film lifecycle makes crowd-funding movies awful; why are the film backers who rise to the occasion of support always last in line? all that said, the documentary is good; Dr Hal is the first postal correspondent of the Box of Rocks zine; I supported Precursor on Crowd Supply then changed my mind; boy did I love the Sharp Zaurus; I no longer want to do personal travel with a laptop in my bag; I have envy for the next generation of Galago Pro; inSync is my new solution for syncing password files from Linux to OneDrive.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, November 19 2020.

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You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for Nov 8 2020 – Cautiously Pessimistic

In this episode, I play a song from The Arts and Sciences; I am failing at bullet journalling and getting organized but succeeding at losing weight; 2020 is the year where all we can home for is to not die and keep moving; I wish I were happier at the election results; we travelled to Universal Resorts in Florida for vacation; I don’t dig theme parks but I did enjoy the Bourne Stuntacular; wearing the Echo Frames made my trip to Florida better; Cory Doctorow really hates Amazon.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, November 8 2020.

Links mentioned in this episode:

You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for October 7 2019 – I want My Fantasy Grungy

In this episode, I play a song from Valley Lodge; I discuss the work trips to India and Louisiana; I love a lot of science fiction literature but I don’t like urban fantasy – expecially Harry Potter and especially especially the voice acting of the audiobook; I do love cyberpunk; I finished Game of Thrones and started Danger Man aka Secret Agent; I am fine with the Game of Thrones TV show ending; I have a burgeoning interest in MMT aka modern monetary theory; the Pointer Sisters do a breathtaking cover of Steely Dan.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, October 7 2019

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You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for August 12 2019 – Certainty Poisoning

In this episode, I talk about Otter.ai being partof my workflow; digitizing my radio history; figures that have gone from ubiquitous to forgotten in my lifetime; cyberpunk remains my favorite genre; Cory Doctorow has a certainty that I envy; our culture suffers from certainty poisoning; RIP Lois Edgerly; Andre Pope is struggling.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, August 12 2019

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You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for January 9 2016 – The Hopes of Machines

In this episode, I play a song from Steve Conte; I talk about being a guest on the Kindle Chronicles; I discuss my new writing in public output goals; I talk about lining up your incentives and values; I discuss my current Kindle reading, the JFK assassination book Ultimate Sacrifice by Lamar Waldron; I talk about upgrading my stuff, my Macbook and my phone and my car.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, January 9 2016

Links mentioned in this episode:

You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for May 10 2015 – The Option To Be Happy

In this episode, I play a song from 3Canal; I talk about how Batman Vs Superman has already lost me; kidney stones!; I defend the “selfie generation”; I discuss Liz Miele on Comedian’s Comedian podcast; decide to be happy!; an abrupt end with a weird sound effect as I fill up my CF card.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, May 10 2015

Links mentioned in this episode:

You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

Social Media Vacation Wrapping Up

Theoretically, if I hold to my original setup today would be the last day of my social media vacation. This is the 28th day since I queued up a bunch of “send later” tweets and Facebook status and then shut all that crap down. I did violate the embargo last week to announce the news about CREATE South becoming sponsored by the Horry County Arts and Cultural Council, and then shut it all down again.

Here’s the deal. While I acknowledge that Twitter has upsides, I believe they come at too high a price for it to be a tool to draw my attention all day every day. I don’t anticipate ever returning to my previous levels of usage. A lot of the Twitter critics from big media, the same people that criticized bloggers 5 years ago, focus on the unseemliness of the hoi polloi enjoying the same ability to communicate as them. Screw those people, they can bite my ass. My criticism is the opposite. I see value in ordinary people having the channel to communicate, however I find the act of following it closely all day every day to be detrimental to peace of mind. Operative word: peace.

To use Twitter anywhere like the intended pattern involves a twitchiness and jangliness, like the shakes you get after your 7th cup of coffee. Either you are scanning it over and over manually, or you have something that notifies and interrupts you when messages occur. Either way involves Twitter taking your attention at frequent intervals, and usually for ephemera.

I stand by my original statement that there are only really three use cases for when I need information from Twitter right now: 1) when traffic is backed up between where I am and where I am going; 2) when I’m looking for someone with whom to have lunch; and 3) when I’m at a science fiction convention and I’m trying to find the room party that my friends are at. Everything else can wait, and it is detrimental to my life to be notified frequently. The act of getting notified reduces my life enjoyment more than the information increases it.

So, even though I’m coming off of Twitter/Facebook prohibition, I’m retreating from ongoing usage. I’m not sure if that means I only look at them at certain relatively infrequent times, only on specific days, or if I just say screw it and shut it down most of the time until I just feel like participating in them. For years I’ve been arguing with Steve Gillmor (I’d link to him, but links are dead) about the value of real time data streams. He finds them amongst the most important and salient bits of digital life. I’m finding them amongst the worst aspects of my modern life. Most people, myself at the head of the list, flatter themselves by feeling the need to be this connected. Most things in the world don’t need you, you don’t need most things in the world. I now choose to sacrifice connection for peace of mind and the satisfaction of being present in my daily life.

I’m choosing to live at a slower pace. I haven’t looked at a 24 hour news channel in 6 years. I’m clamping down my social media usage. Somewhere between Cory Doctorow and Ted Kaczynski is a happy medium, and for better or worse I’m falling on the latter end of that compromise.

Cory Doctorow on Macropayments

In his column at Locus Magazine, Cory Doctorow has a piece on “macropayments.” It lays out a lot of his thinking in giving away his books for free, but also refutes the whole philosophical basis of micropayments at the same time. I like this bit:

Taking someone’s money is expensive. It incurs transaction and bookkeeping costs and it incurs emotional and social costs. Micropayments have historically focused on eliminating the cash overheads while ignoring the intangible costs. For a writer whose career might span decades and involve hundreds of thousands of readers, these costs cannot be ignored.

At various points in my career I’ve been involved in micropayment type startups. I’ve believed in the idea and it always made sense to me in the abstract and theoretical. When Scott McCloud wrote his defense of micropayments, I agreed and cheered along with him. However in the feet on the street sense, it’s impossible to note the relative lack of success of micropayments (remember Bitpass) versus the kinds of projects Cory lays out in his essay. It emphasizes to me the technocratic divide – geeks are always trying to solve people problems with technological solutions, and that seldom if ever works.

I’m working behind the scenes as an advisor to a new media/old media hybrid that is in a bit of a funding crunch. I’m almost wondering if the ideas Cory raises aren’t perhaps the way to go. Rather than looking to get $10 from thousands of people, what about getting $1000 from a few hundred people? When you look at the distribution of people who gave money to fund Jill Sobule’s next record, $70K of the $86k raised came from donations of $100 or more.

Maybe there is something to that, focusing on a few larger donors. In a way, that’s a shame because my leanings are to be communitarian and get lots of people involved. It may be that in terms of generating dough quickly, it is actually more effective to go big or go home.

In a slightly related topic, this is why I priced my stuff packages the way I did. I could have done it more cheaply but then I’m doing all the same work for less profit. That profit has bought most of my equipment and kept my podcast running at close to break even for four years. After a period of inactivity, I actually sold some more stuff packages recently which helps out. If you’d like to pull on that rope, you certainly may. Not only do you help the show, you get to be a styling fool with some great tunes. Win/win, citizens!

Giving it Away

My Orycon panelmate Cory Doctorow has an essay in Forbes Magazine of all places, talking about his role as an author in the post-scarcity world. I am far from universally agreeing with everything Cory says, but I’m right with him down the line with his thinking on literature, the role of free works in the entertainment ecosystem and such. I and other lovers of literature owe Cory a lot for actually putting his nuts on the line and living according to his beliefs. Without his example, we’d have a lot of theory with no case studies, and for being that case study I thank him.

I especially like his dig at Forbes, pointing out that giving his books away for free is one of the things that led to him getting the high-paying and fairly cush gig writing that essay for them. Self-referential meta-smack talk! I love it.

Panel Rundown: The Great Writers Blog

Place: Orycon 2006
Sunday, 12 PM
Panelists: Cory Doctorow, Jay Lake, Mary Robinette Kowal
Moderator: Me

Jay and Mary were both people that I met as we sat down at the table and people that I liked quite a bit. I had a chance to talk to both in hallways later on and carry on the conversation a little further. At the absolute last minutes, as I was leaving the con Mary and I chatted about her growing up in North Carolina. I suggested she try to make Converge South next year, but she lives in Iceland so that’s a big issue for her. She’s got the same difficulties as I do in going to lots of cross-country cons, except hers is far longer international flights.

To be perfectly honest, this is the panel I feared the most as a moderator. That Cory is a blogger of repute and reach that swamps out the other three of us I thought might be an issue. To his enormous credit, he did not pull rank or in any way condescend to the other panelists or anyone in the room. I found that highly classy and egalitarian, treating us all as equal peers and partners in the blogosphere and the present conversation.

I did some audience calibration to begin this panel. I asked for shows of hands for a number of questions: who wants to blog but doesn’t know how; who blogs; who writes or wants to write professionally; who writes and blogs; who uses their writing as a topic in or as snippets of their blog. There were only three people out of maybe 40 or 50 that were in the “need to learn” camp so I asked them to reraise their hands for someone knowledgeable near them to volunteer to buddy up with them and talk to them after the panel to help them out. Then we began.

Because I’m not a working writer I laid back for several swatches of time in the discussion, doing traffic control but not really adding much. The one thing I really wanted to throw out there was the story of my work blogging rules of the road and how I had the discussion up front before I blogged the first thing about my present company. Because people can and do get fired over this, I felt that dominating the conversation for a few minutes might be a necessary evil. I contended that getting fired over blogging is stupid, and your first responsibilities are to the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Keeping you and your children fed is a higher priority than your post. As much as I love it and don’t want it removed from my life, I could live without blogging in a way that I couldn’t without food or shelter. Cory took exception to that and thinks I’m giving the act of self-expression short shrift but we have to agree to disagree on this. I think it’s the very definition of a higher level Maslowian act.

Mary had some fascinating stories about how she has used her blog for her artistic endeavors and also how she deals with the blog/work membrane. Cory talked about a common theme of the weekend – the collapse of multi-faceted identities to a single point and the problems that can cause when your home life is public and it make cause friction with your work life and how blogging can be the mechanism for that collapse. Jay and Cory both talked about using their blogs as repositories for their work in progress and the materials thereof. There was discussion of the “personal brand” and lots of talk about whether to have separate blogs for different topics, whether to be pseudonymous or use one’s real name. We talked about the blog as a tool for engagement with ones audience and the Neil Gaiman approach of chatty blogging vs the Neal Stephenson opproach of conspicuous absence from the web and blogosphere.

At the end, Cory tried to teach me something about moderation that I was just too slow on the uptake to do effectively this time but that I’ll be doing every panel I ever moderate from here on out. When we ran low on time, we got all the people with pending questions to just all ask them one at a time. Then we went down the row and each panelist answered one of the questions on the floor. It worked like gangbusters once I finally understood what we were trying to do. I thought that each question would get a volunteer to answer it, which was upside down from the real thing. At the panel he moderated he did this (much more smoothly) and it worked very very well.

Bottom Line: I enjoyed this panel a lot, learned a lot, was enlightened with a dose of reinvigoration for the value of what we do, and hope my moderation was as good as the topic, panel and audience deserved.

Clambake Episode for July 9, 2005

Here is the Bittorrent link and direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for July 9, 2005.

I send out what cold comfort I can to our friends in London; I play a song by Nathan Sheppard; I play my interview with Rocket City Riot drummer Mark Reiter and this week’s song; I play a promo from Skepticality.com; I talk about Rob Greenlee’s interview with Mark Ramsey; I mention my IT Conversations interview with Cory Doctorow and the art of persuasion; I wonder if I am stuck in a comfort zone with my music and play two songs from Two Zombies Later and then pull the plg.

Note that I forget to finish my thought about Rob Greenlee, that in this interview I agree down the line with Rob and disagree down the line with Mark Ramsey.

Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package.

This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0.

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