Hey Bob, twice now on two different machines I've been redirected to the FFML webring homepage when clicking on a link on your site -- an internal link, I mean, not one of their links.  I can't seem to reproduce it on command, but both times it's been when I first clicked on the Miscellanea menu link at the top.

Not sure if I'm just lucky or what, but thought you should know.

If it matters: both machines run Chrome as the browser, but everything else, including OS, is different.  

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

When a rockstar brain surgeon gains plant powers, he takes on the identity of ...
Buckaroo Bonsai
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

Warranty Void - 17/Jul/2012
Mystery solved.  Owner traced.  Australia.  The batch of robots, that included Alice, and the two unnamed, unwaved, others were easily traced.  "Melbourne Universal Robotics".
Arthur made the call himself, with the canned 'this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes' at the start.  Their lawyers didn't want to take any risks.  He'd miscalculated the time difference, so he got an engineer, come in to do some early tests, at 8am their time.
Explaining that he was ringing from the manufacturer of "Wright Frames", he was interrupted by the engineer.  Was this about the break-in and theft?  Arthur explained that no, this was the first they'd heard of it, and he was trying to track-down some robot frames, by serial number.
The engineer said rather more than his employers were likely to appreciate. Arthur got a full run-down on their research program, and, ways they planned to modify the robots which would quite clearly break the warranty.  He was able to make some suggestions that the engineer found very interesting, and Arthur could hear he was taking notes.  All hard tech, of course.
After half an hour on the phone, the engineer said his manager had come in. Arthur was transferred, and there was a rather more cautious discussion.  A tentative agreement was made that, once insurance was sorted out, Arthur would regain full ownership rights over the stolen robots, in return for supplying replacements, at only 20% of the standard price.  Arthur strongly recommended 'lo-jacking' the new ones.
"OK, Alice.  Looks like we can fix your immediate ownership issues.  And, those of the two robots you rescued."  Alice didn't seem too happy about being owned by anyone, but agreed the situation was an improvement.  Janet gave her a hug, which seemed to surprise her.
Next day, it took quite a while, but eventually Alice agreed to being examined by Janet.  Janet revealing she herself as an AI was probably the clincher.  Letting Alice look inside Janet's AI core settled things.
Alice remained conscious throughout.  Arthur ended up acting as Janet's assistant, handing her tools and instruments.  The waving process was remarkably restrained.  The skin had become more realistic-looking, and there was a metal and plastic 'brain' inside her head, where Janet kept her transceiver.
Images taken from multiple angles didn't seem to help much.  Janet ran some image distortions and analysis algorithms.  Alice was fascinated as the results were displayed on a prototype holo stage, on a workbench.
It looked like three old mobile phones, innards exposed, without SIM cards. Grown, merged and distorted to look like a human brain.  Arthur pointed out a connector, on the newest of the three, which he said might be usable to allow Alice to back-up her mind, externally.  Or allow her to connect to external devices, and control them.
Alice shivered a little, as Arthur and Janet discussed what might be possible, and Janet broke-off to give her another hug.  Alice insisted she wanted, had to, know now, rather than later.  A careful design gave them a cable, fully under Alice's control, routed to one of her standard external connectors.
Arthur couldn't follow what came next, even though Janet kept a display in the loop.  Afterwards, Alice thanked Janet for the new security algorithms, and they played back a sound clip, that had somehow been recorded.
"You idiot!  Why did you use all three mobile phones?"  Another voice replied, "You said stick the phones in the robots, and pour in the handwavium.  There was enough room for three phones, so I stuck them in.  Do you want to do this yourself?".
The first voice "I'm not going anywhere near that stuff!  The phones were all from the recycling bin, so, I guess no problem.  I'll get some more for the other robots, tomorrow.  We can test this one, tonight, when Mr 'Big Boss' gets back.  Now.  Robot, Can you hear me?  Your name is 'Alice', and you will do everything I say.  Everything".
While Janet distracted Alice with the prospect of fitting one or more SIM cards, and acquiring a mobile phone capability, Arthur entertained black thoughts.  He knew people, who knew people, who broke legs, and other body parts, for money. Such people very likely existed in Australia.
It was awfully tempting to use his new found wealth in... bad ways.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Scaling Issues - 17/Jul/2012
It was getting a bit much.  Arthur and Janet were effectively the manufacturing arm of a multi-million dollar industry.  Plus two human secretaries.  Kevin Wright and, he guessed, Nurse Blake.  Five people who did packing and shipping.  Eleven people.
He'd modified the original Body Builder so it could be directly controlled by Janet's AI core, then built two duplicate copies.  Same friendly quirks as the original, so, no problems.  Eventually they'd understood Kelly's crab-bot well enough to add a remote control interface, and it was now Janet's second remote, confined to the workshop.  It helped.
"Quantity has a quality all it own", a quote attributed to Stalin.  That was one good reason to mistrust it, but when you started to multiply things a thousand-fold life certainly started getting more interesting.  The "Wright Frame" was now so popular he'd backed-up orders for over two hundred; he'd only sold about a hundred, so far.  Projected sales of over two thousand for the year.
Interesting, it didn't seem to be something Fenspace had picked-up on.  Here in Mundania (one of his science fiction friends called it), it was going really well.  It was only months later that he found 'not licensed for off-planet use' in the terms and conditions.  Kevin Wright claimed that made it 'more sexy', would increase sales on Earth, and, anyhow, people who wanted one would just ignore it.
He'd reasonably complete plans for a fully automated factory when Miss Lidzt ('Dana'), his secretary, came to him.  She still used a gym to hang-on to as much of her good looks, as The Machine had given her, as possible.  While there she got to know another recently joined member, and things were going quite well.  Then she noticed the way discussions always drifted to her work, and began to wonder about industrial espionage.  The suggestion that her exercise partner knew where to get loans at really good rates also troubled her.
Arthur sat her down, and talked to Dana about her finances.  Then wrote her a large personal cheque that'd take a lot of immediate pressure off.  A call to Kevin Wright and they had contact numbers for a reputable investigations agency, that dealt with industrial problems.  They agreed to take the case, and strongly recommended getting the police involved.
"If I had an Angel to spare, she'd be going undercover at the gym, about now", thought Arthur.
What worried Arthur was that either he'd need a new AI to run an automated factory, Jenny certainly wouldn't do it (and he wouldn't let her).  Or, he'd need a lot of humans on a workforce, and any industrial secrets he had would disappear.  It wasn't that he distrusted people, in general, but with the wages he could pay and the bribery levels likely someone would sooner or later crack.  Also, if he went for the AI factory, the 'taking jobs from humans' people would be all over him.
Then there was Alice.  She'd arrived last week.  Her waved appearance wasn't quite as slick as the Hollywood Machine managed, but it was quite good enough to pass as human.  Unfortunately, the first thing she did was raise the back of her shirt to show him her serial number.  And, it was one of his.
He'd paid to have her stay in a local hotel, and a small stipend to keep her going.  Janet had gone out clothes shopping with her.  The only other thing she needed was a Nokia phone charger - better than relying on bare wires and guesswork.
Her story was she'd been waved up into consciousness, and effectively told she was an exotic sex slave.  Somewhere in Australia.  They seemed to think she'd be barely sentient, but she'd been smart enough to escape, stealing the other two, as yet unwaved, robots.  So, $150k worth?  How on Earth, or off it, had they planned to make their money back?
She made her way with a friendly group of Aussie students, who were returning to Dublin.  The unwaved robots were cached in Australia, and she could tell him their serial numbers.  Yes, they were his.
It'd taken him a while, but Arthur'd worked-out how to contact Sarah.  A proposed contract for collaborative work, with some carefully placed misspellings scattered through the text.  A covert message soon appeared, and he memorised it's content before it self-erased, as he thought it might.
Let's see how they could upset the slavers...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

And now we get to the GOOD STUFF!!!


Most of the last part of 2199
episode #3, and we get to see the girl in action. Main guns, auxiliary,
anti-aircraft, Wave Motion Gun, new music - what's not to like?
There are
no subtitles, but the explosions are in English, so don't worry. ^_^
(And as of 6:05 in the video, Jupiter gets a BRAND NEW Great Red Spot! HOLY... O_O )

EDIT: MORE New clips coming in - this time from the Battle of Pluto. Just direct links this time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq9QpEk1 ... r_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Euyhe_97ag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... lnrBBDsGwg(love the Final Yamato reference!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 7p0fqgaSwI

Yamamoto-chan is a badass! And the Yamato - I'm actually feeling sorry for the Gamilas! Go now!

So, Fred... Finally just decided to start plowing through TSY and see what was up.
I've made it up through the start of "My Darlings United" thus far, and I can already see where a lot of the ideas you've been using in your more recent fics come from. Looks like a number of things were on the Addventure, too? Any recommendations where to start reading, there?
And I can't think of a better way to put this, but... your writing quality has really improved a lot since TSY.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

AI Privacy - 16/Jun/2012
Janet sneaked.  Into Arthur's room.  Unheard.  And, she planned, unseen.  Invading his privacy.
She still feared there might be extra surveillance.  A tell-tale hair she might displace.  But, no.  Arthur wasn't that paranoid.  And, her AI core was plugged-in, down in the workshop, to the security system.  All ready to clean-up after her.
Janet knew she wasn't his sister.  After all, she wasn't human, and 'sister' was a biological relationship.  But, he'd called her 'family', and family looked after each other.  Looking after him properly meant she needed to know him better.
She'd been in the room, before, of course.  Dropping-off freshly cleaned clothes (if he wanted them ironed, he could do that himself!).  She'd even brought him a morning cup of tea, twice, when she knew he had a morning appointment, and he'd had a hard night.
But, this was different.  A deliberate intrusion.  More than just a surface visit.  A deep trawl.
She started with the books, and the magazines under the bed.  He really needed to get another girlfriend, maybe, one day, get married.  She'd have to think about that, for herself.  She didn't have quite the same hormonal drives, but she felt the need for companionship.  It'd be interesting to find out what her sexuality was like.
Every book was scanned, every magazine minutely perused.  She didn't need just the text, she needed everything.  The scuffs on the covers, the faint stains of finger oil, any turned corners, never mind any annotations (there weren't any). Frustratingly, many of the books were second-hand, and at first pass she couldn't tell what of their history was Arthur's, or previous owners.
Next, the cupboards and closets.  Mostly disappointing, though all the clothes were folded in ways she anticipated.  Just a few interesting nick nacks, she carefully recorded.  Pay-dirt!  Right at the back of a deep closet was a cardboard box, fortunately not sealed.  With forensic care she opened it, and found his original college hand-written notes.
She already had absorbed all his school books.  They'd been in a box in the spare room, and she'd good enough excuse to root around in there.  They'd been gold dust, too.  In particular his jotter, with all the random notes.
That fitted well with his book list, all the ones he'd ever read - apparently his aunt taught him keeping track of things like that was a good idea.  She'd already tracked-down and read as many of those texts as she could on-line, and was quietly searching second-hand bookshops, or if needed buying on-line, the ones she was missing.  All the ones in the house were, of course, red.
This allowed her to reconstruct most of his mind model.  The big gaps were to do with Kevin Wright.  She was pretty sure his interactions with Arthur had been massively influential, but no real records existed.  Reluctantly, she concluded that ex-girlfriends needed checking as well - she didn't like to poke into those parts of Arthur's life.
She could feel her own mind filling-out, becoming more complete.  Janet knew she wasn't Arthur, wouldn't want to be him.  She was her own person.  With her own aims and purposes.
But, where else would she get the raw material to build her actual self from?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

I've been unable to access TT for several days. Does anyone know anything about this?

Kickassia - 16/Jul/2012
Kickassia is a private home.  For one or more incredibly rich Fenspace residents.  One really big problem.  Who are they?
With a little effort you can map the main financial flows in Fenspace.  This at least shows roughly where the wealth is coming from and where it is going.  Really big concentration of wealth, like 'kajillionaires' will have big impacts on these flows.  You should know roughly who, and where such people get their wealth.
There is another possibly.  It's all a hoax.  Someone with a lot of waved mylar, a flare for the dramatic, and a few imaginative friends, could put on quite a show.  They could launch the 'core' of a space habitat, then outfit it, say at an L5 location.  This could be mostly a shell with some farm bio domes, and a few people living there, using the place as an art project.  Coming and going in limos which are cheap cars with waved mylar over-shells.  Tinted windows, of course.
One rumour is that the residents are members of the Supers faction, who thought ahead, and are really enthusiastic about maintaining their Secret Identities.
Is this true?  No doubt somebody knows.  But, if they do, they've kept very quiet.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Returning Favours - 15/Jul/2012
Kelly had gone 'back up'.  With a large parcel of what looked like books.  Was she OK?  Hard to tell.  Kevin Wright refused to talk.  'Confidential'.
She'd looked a mix of angry and hurt, when she arrived.  Now she looked thoughtful.  She gave Janet a considering look.  "I think we might be working a lot together, in future", was her leaving remark.  But, she made it to Janet, not him.
"What was all that about?" asked Janet.  "Beyond the obvious, you acting as their Consultant, I don't know" replied Arthur.  "If I was a religious man, I'd say it looked like she'd had some sort of revelation" he continued, "But, what?".
The next few weeks were busy.  On top of all his normal work he was talking to civil right activists, some of whom crossed over with science fiction fans. Since the AI issue arose there'd been a lot of buzz about which legislature was going to 'bite the bullet' first.
Australia's stance of allowing AIs to incorporate themselves as companies, which they then more or less self-owned, was regarded as clever, but avoiding the real issue.  Allowing AIs 'company passports' was thought particularly suspect.  Current and ex-Commonwealth countries, including the UK, were accepting them on a 'wait and see' basis.  Some counties had banned them outright, some were waiting to see if AIs tried to use them at their borders.
The consensus was this looked to be something that could make or break legal careers, not to mention involve a great deal of money.  What more worried many people were the 'black projects' suspected to be very popular with a lot of the world's military.  For half a million dollars you could easily become a 'space power' - chicken feed.  And, if there weren't AIs enslaved in those projects the civil rights people would be very surprised.
Arthur was starting to get threatening letters, from people saying he was taking 'jobs from humans'.  He'd had to hire a mail checking service, just in case.  People were buying robots from "Wright Stuff Mechatronics" as fast as he, or Janet, could make them.  And, they'd had to start vetting orders very carefully, to make sure they were from legitimate companies.  He'd had to hire-out to do that, too.
There seemed to be about a 50:50 split of male and female models required.  Some interest in customising appearance, something he'd designed-in so not all the O'Neill Station AI remotes would look the same.  The initial orders from universities and research organisations had mostly shifted to companies.
He suspected some companies as being re-sellers, but, there were limits as to what he could do.  Some robots had to be ending up in the 'sex toy' market, but at least he could claim he wasn't selling direct.  Janet remarked that the next article might be 'King of Sexy Waving', and he shuddered.
Arthur was getting regular messages from Jane, now.  Mostly it was about the new Engineering department that Kelly was heading, mention of them hiring a doctor, but there was some personal stuff, too.  Someone called 'Lee Kay' (leaky?) was Kelly's engineering deputy, and apparently she was popular with a lot of the crew.  Some personal stuff leaked into the messages, to.  He thought Jane was a bit lonely.
He was now officially a millionaire, something he'd laughed about when he first set-up in business.  Why wasn't someone undercutting him?  He kept an eye out, but apart from some rather shoddy Greek attempts (the 'Pygmalion' and the 'False Maria' ranges), nothing seemed to be close.  There was stuff out there, but tests showed it all had handwavium residue.  Maybe his 'Body Builder' was making all the difference?
Kelly obviously thought she owed him some sort of favour.  She'd sent a workshop assistant, in the form of a robot crab, two-foot across, with legs that could telescope to let it stand more than six-feet high, and reach-out to grab stuff at twice that distance.
Janet and he'd checked it out, but they couldn't figure out how it worked, even after they'd unbolted its top shell and used all the analytical tools they could bring to bear.  It seemed to be steam-powered, and just needed the occasional 'meal' of a scoop of coke, and its water topping-off.
It had a manual.  An immense brass-bound thing, with illuminated pages.  The first thing they'd done was scan and OCR the lot, but sometimes new notes appeared in it, if the crab did something strange.  Janet thought it was some sort of joke, on Kelly's behalf.
Then there were two messages from Sarah.  The first talked about 'collaborative projects', and reading between the lines it was about his access to the Hollywood Machine.  He showed it to his lawyer who said it was a brilliantly simple legal document, with no traps or loopholes that he could detect.
The second was...  It was in two parts.  The first part was an offer to collaborate with him, using her own personal time, on rights for AIs.  The second part was a quite clear threat, that if he upset her sisters like that again (Jane or Kelly) they'd be finding bits of his body for the next fifty years.  Interestingly, both parts self-destructed, and, as far as he could tell, left no sign that they had existed, at all.
So, he had 'Angels' in his life?  How bad could that be?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind