Tag Archives: scifi

Pilot Error and Showdown

In one sense this was me trying to cheat my “twelve books in 2021” challenge. Does reading two short stories count as two books? Goodreads seems to think so…

But it wasn’t just a cheat. These are still stories that I did want to read. Dan Moren is a writer I’ve followed for a while, though entirely in his Mac-centric, technical writing at Six Colors1 and podcasting at Clockwise. The stories are both part of a bigger sci-fi-space-opera universe but work well stand-alone.

Of the two, I enjoyed “Pilot Error” the most. I didn’t see the twist coming, though looking at the remaining page-count I knew that either one was coming or that it was intended as a major cliff-hanger for the follow-up book.

As a short taster for the writing, the characters and the universe, these stories fit the bill. I’ve not managed to read a whole lot of fiction this last year or two, but I’ve added Moran’s books to my list.

If this sounds like your kind of thing, you can read them for free.


  1. As a Brit, that spelling kills me but I’ll stick with the official site name. ↩︎

My delicious.com bookmarks for February 15th through February 18th

  • Apple’s Three Laws of Developers – The hidden link from sci-fi books to the App Store. Only funny because it's true…
  • Biting the source that feeds you – "Keller, a journalist of unimpeachable accomplishment and stature, just had to trash a guy whose organization has struck the most powerful blow against official secrecy in a generation, somebody who may yet be jailed for what he did, an eccentric but unquestionably transformational media player."

My delicious.com bookmarks for February 10th through February 14th

  • The Mac App Store: It’s an honor thing – "Apple’s approach is simple. It’s an honor thing. The company believes that, given the choice, people will do the right thing. It also understands that anti-piracy techniques don’t stop pirates, but they do get in the way of honest users."
  • Nokia’s 15-year tango to avoid Microsoft – "[PC manufacturers] found it wasn't worth the effort to differentiate their PCs from the competition, in what had become a commodity business." The reason's behind Nokia's original decision not to licence code from Microsoft in the nineties hasn't really changed, which makes today a sad day.
  • Doctor Who Infographic – Everything you ever wanted to know about Dr Who but were too afraid to ask…

My delicious.com bookmarks for May 18th through May 26th