| |
|
Wednesday 21 May 2003
|
|
For those of you who don't know, I am the Irish agent for the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention aka Interaction. Interaction takes place in Glasgow, Scotland from August 4 to 8 2005. Ususally, when the Worldcon takes place in America it is held over Labour Day weekend - first Monday in September - but the organisers of Interaction have brought it forward to facilitiate US attendees who would like to combine the event with a European holiday. By a strange, but fortunate, coincidence, they have chosen the weekend of the Irish August Bank Holiday.
Membership of the convention is not cheap. It's not expensive either for what you get but it can be intimidating. Interaction has therefore announced an installment plan whereby you can purchase a supporting membership and then pay the balance between a supporting membership and attending membership at the time you join over a period of months. (Supporting membership grants full membership of the World Science Fiction Society and entitles you to nominate and vote for the Hugo awards and to vote for the venue of the convention three years on, but not to attend. Attending membership gives the same benefits as the supporting memberships but allows you to attend.)
Ordinarily, if you buy a supporting membership and then wish to attend, you have to pay the difference between what you paid and the attending membership at the time you convert (Attending memberships go up the closer you get to the convention to encourage people to join early).
If you want to join and pay by credit card in pounds sterling or dollars, follow the link above and download the application form. If you live in Ireland and would like to pay by cash, contact me by clicking on the little envelope icon in the left hand bar.
1:17:45 PM  Google It!
|
|
I was a great fan of Infocom's text based adventures and one of my favourites was the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, based on the Douglas Adams radio play/book/TV series/towel/commemerative mug/etc of the same name. Sadly, Infocom's games are no longer available, at least not commercially. However, the BBC has come to the resuce with an online Java-based version of the game. There are some restrictions. You can't save a game position so if you make a mistake you have to start all over from the beginning again. Thanks to Boing Boing Blog for the pointing this out.
Discovering THHGTTG game got me interested in those old Infocom games so I went searching. I found downloadable versions of Zork I, II and III. If anyone has any idea where I can get legal copies of the other games I'd be grateful.
12:05:54 PM Google It!
|
|
Andrew Heavens reports for Wired News on efforts by Scots Gaelic speakers to persuade Microsoft to develop a spell checker for their language. A delegation is due to visit Microsoft here in Dublin to discuss the matter. Irish speakers already have a spell checker that was released in February of this year and members of the Linguistics Institute of Ireland who worked on the Irish edition will join representatives from TCD, Comunn na Gàidhlig and Bord na Gàidhlig when they meet Microsoft. [Wired News]
11:55:23 AM Google It!
|
|
Two years after the launch of the first Apple retail store, the company has announced its first non-US venture. The company will open a store in the Ginza district of Tokyo, Japan in early 2004.
Ever since Apple launched this retail strategy there has been considerable speculation on whether or not it would expand it beyond US stores and if so, where the first store would be, with Paris and London high on peopl's wishlists. The Tokyo location, however, makes perfect sense. Japan has a high proportion of Mac users and until recently Tokyo had its own Macworld expo. The country accounts for 15 percent of Apple's nett sales, making it the single largest national market outside North America.
One can only hope the Tokyo store is a success and that we will see Apple Retail Stores in European locations soon.
11:46:32 AM Google It!
|
|
|
© Copyright 2003 David Stewart.
Last update: 24/06/2003; 20:57:57.
|
|
|
David's Blogroll
2003 Books
|
|
