Tech Stuff 160

This is a sort of search and discover newsletter of my findings of things that may relate to technology in one way or another. It might be the latest gosh wow tech, it might be something as old as humanity. It might relate to science large or small. It might be art for art’s sake. Or somebody just doing something funky. Because I think that technology is just the representation of human creativity and breaking boundaries. So I’m certainly not going to place boundaries here except that it won’t be the same old, same old. So almost no gadgets or yacking about the latest phone or whatever, unless of course it involves taking them apart or destroying them in unusual ways. Or putting them to work in imaginative ways that most people won’t even think of. So buckle up, it’s going to be a fun ride.

This week: ball bearings, gas cylinder explosion, canning corn and more.

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Publishing Process

Very useful guide

Mad Genius Club

We have been talking about the process we use for publishing, over at Raconteur Press, as we streamline it and work in having more than one person doing it all. Which is very interesting, and actually relevant to the Indie authors as well. For myself, having done this for years, I hadn’t really sat down and worked through all of the steps on paper. I just know. And sometimes I do them out of order, and I’ve made mistakes. So many mistakes, over the years… but we were writing down our process, to be able to figure out an optimal flow (as I’m the illustrator, CV Walter is the chief editor, Lawdog is the publisher, and there’s another editor involved now, plus bringing on a project manager to manage, well, us) that wouldn’t leave any one of us heaped under work and moaning slightly with the overwhelmed.

The process that…

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Roots of the SFF Genre: Hugo Gernsback, Patent Law, and Amazing Stories

There is a vast difference between an idea and an invention. An idea is something that can be daydreamed up. an invention is blood sweat and tears, with frustration, lots and lots of frustration. Legally there is no monopoly on ideas. You need to show that your ideas actually work to have an invention.

Mad Genius Club

[– Karen Myers –]

You learn something every day… With a hat tip to The Passive Voice, I recently discovered something rather astounding (or is it amazing?) — namely that “the genre of science fiction is deeply indebted to patent law and patent theory” via Hugo Gernsback.

This requires some explanation.


The first issue of Amazing Stories, Volume 1 No. 1 (pictured above) was published in April, 1926, by Hugo Gernsback. (A reprint edition is available on Amazon.) If you don’t happen to know, this is the fellow for whom the Hugo Award is named.

Hugo Gernsbackemigrated to the USA in 1904, designed the world’s first home radio set, and began a mail-order business to distribute the device. As part of the effort, he began theTelimcocatalog. This was followed by a series of radio and electronics magazines:Modern Electrics,Electrical Experimenter(later…

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Tech Stuff 157

This is a sort of search and discover newsletter of my findings of things that may relate to technology in one way or another. It might be the latest gosh wow tech, it might be something as old as humanity. It might relate to science large or small. It might be art for art’s sake. Or somebody just doing something funky. Because I think that technology is just the representation of human creativity and breaking boundaries. So I’m certainly not going to place boundaries here except that it won’t be the same old, same old. So almost no gadgets or yacking about the latest phone or whatever, unless of course it involves taking them apart or destroying them in unusual ways. Or putting them to work in imaginative ways that most people won’t even think of. So buckle up, it’s going to be a fun ride.

This episode: Proximity fuse, Space X engine test, dropping grenades in plastic cups, 1875 steam locomotive and more

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Tech Stuff 155

This is a sort of search and discover newsletter of my findings of things that may relate to technology in one way or another. It might be the latest gosh wow tech, it might be something as old as humanity. It might relate to science large or small. It might be art for art’s sake. Or somebody just doing something funky. Because I think that technology is just the representation of human creativity and breaking boundaries. So I’m certainly not going to place boundaries here except that it won’t be the same old, same old. So almost no gadgets or yacking about the latest phone or whatever, unless of course it involves taking them apart or destroying them in unusual ways. Or putting them to work in imaginative ways that most people won’t even think of. So buckle up, it’s going to be a fun ride.

This episode: Blow molding boats, Russian trains, toolmaking, the greatest shot in TV.

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