Original Apple 1 Computer sells for $374,500 in Sothebys auction [WSJ]

Economists demonstrate exactly why bank robbery is a bad idea [Ars Technica]

We're all Kulaks now: The war on property rights [James Bovard]

Actual sword fighting techniques are not what you see in movies [ARMA]

Man bit by feral cat in Oregon now has plague [Seattle Times]

Film director Joe Cornish to make Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash into a movie [Deadline]

Novelist Neal Stephenson sure does have a high opinion of his influence on the future of technology

That's what Stephenson told a lecture hall full of fan boys at MIT the other day. That it was him and other sci-fi writers who have been retarding technological progress with his writing. I doubt it though. The sad truth is that venture capital and government funding for technology research is and always has been, quite scarce, and is largely awarded in politically motivated fashion.

Finally got a hold of Riddley Walker. But it's tough going trying to read it.

Edition I am reading

I had to send away to the library system of  Kalamazoo to get a copy. The invented language that Hoben crafted to tell his story with is the major stumbling block for me so far because I have to parse each sentence so carefully that the narrative that plays in your mind doesn't flow smoothly along rolling out like a movie in your head. RW reminds me of my high school English classes and the difficulty I had trying to read Shakespeare and Chaucer. Neal Stephenson tried the same thing with his Anathem which I also never made it through. All noble endeavors to be sure but if people can't or won't read your work it becomes mere scholarly article fodder for the English grad students and is largely ignored by what's left of the reading public.