My Amazon review of _The Iron Princess_ by Barbara Hambly
5 stars. Her first fantasy novel in a long time. Top-notch worldbuilding, believable characters, and a page-turning SF/F tale. #books https://amzn.to/3KmFyWf

TIL the term “shards” came from Ultima Online https://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/08/database-sharding-came-from-uo/

"This tight space, with little room to move, let alone spread out, has some adherents who think of it not unlike the way that some might think of working in a coffee shop."
https://tedium.co/2023/04/05/productivity-electronics-airplanes-history/

.

12 Of The Coolest Theoretical Ideas From Science Fiction
This is fun.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/12-of-the-coolest-theoretical-ideas-from-science-fiction.htm

Music to edit by, today… with folk music my most frequent choice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHjNOjifvgI

What’s on YOUR Friday afternoon playlist?

This is a question that I would not have asked, and yet now we all need to know. https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/244332/how-fast-does-a-pineapple-need-to-fly-to-kill

This is a question that I would not have asked, and yet now we all need to know. https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/244332/how-fast-does-a-pineapple-need-to-fly-to-kill

I had heard that chicha was a beverage non-grata in Colombia, but I thought it was a joke. "Half the places around here sell chicha, including the street vendors on every corner," I pointed out. "How can it possibly be illegal?"

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230327-chicha-the-banned-drink-of-colombia

"Rejoice! Over the past year, we've been hard at work digitising and cataloguing manuscripts connected with Medieval and Renaissance Women. We can now announce that all the manuscript volumes are online, no fewer than 93 (NINETY-THREE) of them." https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2023/03/medieval-and-renaissance-women-full-list-of-the-manuscripts.html

HIVE MIND: In tough times, the really smart CIOs and CTOs adopt the mindset of leadership thinking -- rethinking what they do and becoming even more valuable to their companies.

My writer is looking for war stories from IT execs – NOT VENDORS – about how you thrived and became more relevant and strategic during down times. What did you focus on?  What did you discover? What were the results? 

Tell us what you learned. DM if you prefer.

Stick a fork in it, those thieves are done. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/giant-dairy-queen-spoon-found-arizona_n_642b30e1e4b01284198ed383

.

Since ChatGPT retains user input data to further train itself, these trade secrets from Samsung are now effectively in the hands of OpenAI, the company behind the AI service. https://www.techradar.com/news/samsung-workers-leaked-company-secrets-by-using-chatgpt

Fedco Seeds designated Abenaki Flint as “indigenously stewarded,” along with a handful of other varieties, and started allocating 10 percent of the proceeds from seed sales to a donation fund under its Indigenous royalties initiative. https://modernfarmer.com/2023/03/payment-for-the-past-recognizing-indigenous-seed-stewardship/

Kurt Vonnegut on the shapes of stories and why uncertainty is the crucible of creativity. This is a classic: If you haven't seen it, please do take the time.
https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/11/26/kurt-vonnegut-on-the-shapes-of-stories/

Substantial majorities of Americans think progress toward inclusion and diversity is on the right track. In a new poll, 86% believe more should be done to promote gender equality, 69% say more should be done to foster acceptance of LGBTQ people, 70% think businesses should promote racial diversity, and 58% are happy with new pronouns. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/27/woke-values-survey-norc-university-of-chicago

Here’s the basic recipe: take a strip of chicken, coat it in batter, deep-fry it. It has a thicker layer of breading than your standard fried chicken, but therein lies the joy, the crispy-yet-pillowy texture providing an ideal counterpoint to the tender meat. Serve with an orange “duck sauce” on the side. https://www.snackstack.net/p/the-snack-that-embodies-midcentury