Cory is a pretty well known figure in places I tend to frequent. I’ve seen him talk, and even swapped some mail with him about getting his phone line fixed. He’s an object of odd interest for me.
First off, Cory really gets NOW – he’s immersed in the zeitgeist of the moment and where it’s headed. For me he’s one of the most knowledgeable people about what we’ll be doing digitally in a year of so. Most of Boing Boing is strange rubbish but I read it because various gems shine through. I also listen to his podcast because he’s amused and obsessed by the same set of strange stuff I am (to whit old Bruce Sterling novels)
That said, until recently, I didn’t like Cory’s fiction. All of it is released under creative-commons licence and you can get it for free. I find it tends to be full of really annoying sentences such as (and I paraphrase) “Amy opened NetStumbler, a program that allowed her to snarf all the packets passing over the network”. It’s that explanation which seems to infuse every second sentence. I know what NetStumbler, and IPv6 and gray goo and a million other bits and pieces he drops into his writing are. It bugs me that half the book is taken up by explanations.
Up to now I thought this was simply not great writing, but over the Easter weekend I took the time to read his earlier stuff (Down and out in the magic kingdom in particular) and it was really great – lovely concept SF with interesting characters and my favourite plot device – take one concept and extrapolate it as far as you can across society.
I’m thus forced to conclude that maybe I share too much of the noosphere with Cory to enjoy his fiction – I love the ideas and the book jackets always seem to hold too much promise, but I can’t read them.
Having said that you should – it’s a pretty simple name to google and download something and let me know if you think I’m right.

The first 2 times I voted really meant something. I was a few months past 18 when South Africa had a referendum on whether the country should continue down the path of dismantling the apartheid state. This was largely symbolic – the vote was overwhelmingly yes and the world knows the results of the process that followed.
The next time round was the first free election in South African history. Nelson Mandela was elected and proceeded to do the impossible. South Africa today has some significant problems but their neighbours are doing far worse.
These votes mattered! What happened has and will affect Africa for decades and ushered in a new era.
I believe Barack Obama represents a similar opportunity.
No, not because him and Mandela are both black – I think Obama’s blackness is almost completely irrelevant. What inspires me is that he’s the first politician in a long time to have an actually vision and be real and practical. The controversy over his preacher I think exposes what we could expect from the man. I’ve never seen a politician admit that you need to take the whole measure of the man and simply by association you cannot give credence to bad opinions. I disagree with Wright’s comments but there are many people I know who I disagree with but would never disown.
Obama seems to be trying to actually do something and sensibly understands that you need to get the best out of people like Reverend Wright – not vilify them. This was the most honest admission I’ve seen from a public figure (possibly aside from the rather amusing confessions of the new New York Governor about his sexual history) and I think it reflects how he’ll govern.

I was going to buy a Macbook Air next month anyway but this just makes me want one more. A set of people on the web seem to be sure this is the final sign of the cyber apocalypse but for me this is fantastic. I can count the number of times I’ve used caps lock deliberately on no hands – if I could rip that key out I would but it would spoil the gorgeous lines of my now vintage powerbook.