I will spare everyone my sordid tale of woe, and cut to the end: I was able to get an adapter for my laptop. I don’t have time at this moment to write any content, since I have one final obligation at the convention (I’m autographing copies of my book at 11), but afterwards, sometime this afternoon, I’m hoping to sit down and write more about what’s been going on here. I will say now that I have met or bumped into a lot of people whose work I really respect (Greg Bear, David Brin, Bjo Trimble, Joe Haldeman) and a couple of actors who are just cool (Suzie Plakson, Peri Gilpin– though not at the convention!). I’ll blog about it after I take a nap– I didn’t get back to my room until after 3:00 a.m.!
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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August 26th, 2006 at 11:46 am
I’ve read a few of Greg Bear’s works: Eon, Eternity, The Forge of God, etc. Imaginative guy. I’ve heard of Brin but not the other two Phil mentioned.
August 26th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Hey, now the BA and I are only two degrees of separation apart — I met David Brin at the International Conference on Complex Systems back in June.
August 27th, 2006 at 3:16 am
I read Eon too, it was great!
August 27th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
David Brin is brilliant. His early works, Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War are imaginative and thought provoking.
He is an astrophysicist and teaches (or used to teach) physics. He has collaborated with Gregory Benford, and he, Bear, and Benford were selected by Isaac Asimov and his widow to finish Asimov’s Foundation/Robots series. I loved the three Foundation books, they wrote (one each), and I thought they gave some great insights into Hari Seldon and the major character running throughout the Robot books (I won’t give anything away if you haven’t read them yet.)
Cool, Phil!
August 27th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
I forgot to mention that Brin’s non-fiction book, The Transparent Society, is a very good read and has a take on privacy that is incredibly well thought out.
By the way, he also wrote The Postman, which is excellent. Much better than the movie. However, my favorite book of his is Earth.