Diary of a Network Geek

Wow, this brings back memories…

On an e-mail list I’m part of, someone brought up the game Traveller. This was one of the first non-TSR role-playing games I ever played. In fact, I think I still have the rules I used somewhere in the house. And that book I recently read called The World Without Us has really had me thinking about the future and science-fiction and related topics, so the off-hand mention really caught my attention more than it would have normally. Anyway, the mention of the game brought back a rush of memories and led me to do a bit of searchng.
There were several editions printed after the one I used. And, you can still get them all from Far Future Enterprises. There is also an active, fan-run website filled with information called TravellerRPG.com. And, Steve Jackson Games, who makes their own version of Traveller, has the Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society. (The Traveller’s Aid Society was something in the game you could belong to that would help your characters out if they got in a financial jam in almost any star system in the civilized universe, but that help often led to other, more problematic, adventures.) Oh, and there’s another site that’s setup like a ship’s encyclopedic database, for more adventure support and fun.

Anyway, what with Gary Gygax passing away earlier this week and all, the fact that there are still guys out there playing this game I played back in High School just really made me smile. Of course, it’s probably the same guys…

Why you should always change default passwords…

I don’t always agree with the bloggers over at TechRepublic when they insist that they have the five or ten most important links on a subject, but, every once in a while, they get one that’s really good. I can’t say much about most of the links in Chad Perrin’s post, Five must-have security resources, but his link to the RedOracle Default Password list is great! They have default passwords for just about everything there and, while that might not mean much to all my readers, if you have to do an emergency reconfiguration on something and take it back to the manufacturer default, having that password can really simplify your life.

Also, since these are so well documented, it’s a good illustration of why the first thing you should do after configuring, or reconfiguring, something is to change the default password.

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons died this morning.

He and Dave Arneson just about invented the entire role-playing game industry.  I don’t think I know anyone who wasn’t touched, in some way, by D&D.   Those of us who played owe Mr. Gygax a debt of gratitude that is hard to put into words.
He grew up in Lake Geneva, which is also where he started playing war games.  Those war games added more and more fantasy elements, until, finally, rules were developed to allow individual heroes to adventure without the armies.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Now, those rules are in their fourth major revision and have been copied, or emulated, or added-to, the world over.

Wow, the world has changed so much in such a short time.
We’ll all miss you, Gary.

Late last week, I finished Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.

I’ve never read anything by Grossman, but, as this is his first novel, that shouldn’t be surprising. I’m sure he’ll have more out soon, though, if this is any example of his work.
Soon I Will Be Invincible is the latest in a growing new sub-genre of literature; the superhero novel. Granted, George R. R. Martin has been doing this with his Wild Cards series for quite some time, but, for whatever reason, it just didn’t seem to grow beyond his anthologies, until recently. I would be very impressed if any of the recent additions to the genre are better than this. It really is quite good.

The story opens with a chapter from the point of view of Doctor Impossible, imprisoned super-genius and super-villain. He gives us a quick look at his world, both inside and outside of prison. I think the immediacy of starting out a book about larger-than-life heroes from the point of view of their chief villain really helped draw the reader into the story. At least, it drew me in a bit more. As a writer, though, I found it slightly hard to suspend my disbelief reading from the point of view of a genius. Theoretically, the character speaking is infinitely more intelligent than I am, and most people, for that matter, but I’m fairly certain that, as clever as he is, the author is not, in fact, an evil genius. So, how do you write a character more intelligent than you? And, Dr. Impossible is writing from jail. Hello? How much of a genius can he be if he got caught, right? Well, I think I laughed out loud when he made the same comment. Then, of course, he goes on to explain how that worked.

The chapters alternated point of view between Dr. Impossible and the more-or-less heroine, Fatale. Fatale is a female cyborg recruited to join the Champions, greatest super-team of the moment. Or, more precisely, the New Champions, who are the latest incarnation of the group that defeated Dr. Impossible the last time. But, she’s recruited to help find CoreFire, the World’s Greatest Hero, who’s gone missing. While she and the other New Champions are trying to solve that riddle, Dr. Impossible breaks out of prison and starts on his latest nefarious scheme to dominate the Earth.

Yeah, I know, it all sounds a little over the top, but, honestly? It’s not when you’re reading it. It really reads about like you’d expect the average super-hero comic book to read, if it didn’t have any pictures. It even has all the twists and turns and secret lives that the better comic books have. It even has secret government programs, forgotten past lives, and murky origins. And, not just in the form of Fatale’s past work for the NSA, who also, allegedly, made her.
Naturally, a lot of the time is spent looking closely at the normally hidden life of Dr. Impossible. Actually, based on the title, I’d have almost expected even more of a focus than there was. Besides, villains are almost always more interesting than the heroes anyway.

All in all, Soon I Will Be Invincible was a good book. It delivered everything that it promised and then some. I like Old Man’s War better, but, I would certainly recommend Soon I Will Be Invincible to anyone looking for a good, quick read that’s not the usual fare. Well worth the money I spent.