Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Celebration


Celebration
- 50 years of the British Science Fiction Association
editor: Ian Whates
newconpress.co.uk

A solid but sadly unexceptional collection, with stories that range from whimsical surrealism and cranky genre satire to uniquely British retro and speculative fiction reflecting (via alternate worlds) on familiar 20th century SF tropes or delivering riffs on edgier 21st century themes. It's a book that's quite suitable for collectors of SF literature but is hardly essential reading for general sci-fi fans.

Monday, 14 September 2009

More laser fodder


This month's Interzone (#224, published by T3A Press), includes my DVD and blu-ray review column, which covers the final season of Stargate Atlantis, Outlander, Dragonball Evolution, Dollhouse: season one, Push, Man In The Moon, Watchmen - director's cut, and Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus.

Thursday, 27 August 2009

Quotation #101

"Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine." - Fran Lebowitz

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Horror in 2008...


Here's a quote from page 38 of editor Stephen Jones’ introduction to The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror 20th anniversary edition (Robinson)...

"After an uneven start with its first two issues, Andy Cox’s Black Static finally began to find its own identity...
Although it did not reach the standard of The 3rd Alternative... the magazine presented some impressive short fiction...
However, the periodical’s best bits remained the regular columns by Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk, Mike O’Driscoll, Peter Tennant and, especially, Tony Lee’s insightful DVD reviews.

Lee also provided DVD reviews to Black Static’s attractive sister publication, Interzone."

Very chuffed - but, oh dear! I’m going to be unbearably smug this afternoon, and probably for the rest of this week...

Friday, 21 August 2009

Favicons, or...


Yes, favicons...
Or, how I learned to stop writing and faff about (even more than usual) on the Internet

While making progress with re-designing The ZONE website for a 'new look' based on the page template created by Lawrence Dyer (Traffic Folder), I actually managed to learn something, including how to add favicons to my other websites.

A favicon is a tiny logo (B for blogger.com, F for facebook, etc) which appears in your browser's address bar, and in bookmarked lists of your favourite sites.

Already got a logo? Then it's simple to make a favicon.
Your image can be in any format, JPEG, GIFF, PNG, etc... but it must be a square and of a typical size: 16 x 16, 32 x 32 pixels, or larger.

I created my simple favicons in Paint Shop Pro 5, but any popular graphics program should be able to produce a suitable image.

Go to http://www.enetplace.com/create-favicon/ upload the image from your computer, and save the favicon.ico file that's generated.

If you haven't got a logo, or a suitable graphics program, you can draw one (16 x 16 pixels only) using this site -
http://www.favicon.cc/
- which displays a handy preview of your artistry before you download the completed favicon.ico file.

You then need to upload this icon (via FTP) to your website's root directory (not your graphics or images folder!).

Although some favicon-making guides sites do suggest adding a bit of code to the header tags of your web-pages, it does not seem to be necessary if you're using a recent or the latest version common browsers: Internet Explorer 8, or Firefox 3 (or later).

If the favicon does not appear, as expected, try refreshing your browser's cache (CTRL + F5).

Have a go...
It's fun, it's free, and it - usually - adds 'identity' and professionalism to your site's image.