01 August 2003

Counter-factual history and fiction Counterfactual History is sometimes controversial (see this discussion of E.H.Carr's 'Counterfactual History is Bunk', and this), but it can be very thought-provoking and tempting - many WW2 geeks will have considered an alternate outcome if Germany had taken Stalingrad, or if the US hadn't had logistical superiority in tank building (or any one of a dozen other scenarios). ed Robert Cowley: What If? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (1999) (am.co.uk | allconsuming), and More What If? (2002) (am.co.uk | allconsuming) ed Niall Ferguson: Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals (1997) (am.co.uk | allconsuming) Counter-factual fiction: too many to mention (Churchill, Deighton, Harris, Carr and many others just in the military section, and Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt recently), so: Uchronia has a gigantic list of counterfactual books possibly some good stuff in this DMoz alternate history directory 5:01:59 PM     comments

Various things, in brief Stereoscopic images via animation [via mefi] Corporate logo fonts [via boingboing] Nice list of SF authors (on the left) Zipf, Power-laws, and Pareto - a tutorial on 'ranking' [via Swarz] Qur'an as immutable latticework, and, in contrast, David Porush's Talmud as hypertext 12:21:16 PM     comments

WSJ on shortcuts for cutting through IVR to the human customer-support agent The other thing to try on mixed IVR and human cust-service systems is press or say nothing. [via electrolite] 12:19:38 PM     comments