Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

Okay, so it’s not quite that dramatic. If you keep track of the latest comic book news through my Comic Headlines page, you might have noticed that the Newsarama headlines haven’t been showing up for a while. And you might have noticed a lot of Newsarama headlines just showed up this morning. Finally tracked down the problem and got it fixed.

Been working on a lot of code lately for a few special projects… some of it you’ve seen samples of with the updated “About Jeff” and “About Seth” sections and the Task Force 1 preview. The rest will be revealed in time…

Now for the other quick stuff:

• Take Back Memorial Day. Please take the time to honor the fallen this Memorial Day. From the first patriot to die for this country’s independence to the current victims of IEDs overseas. From the support personnel caught by sniper fire to the combat medic dying to save another. To every jarhead, grunt, squid, and zoomie that lost a life in the service of their country.

• Yes, I’m affected by the Veteran Administration’s data breach. And so is my wife. And my friends. But not my mom (she was discharged before 1976). There’s a chance nothing will happen, but if you’re a veteran and worried about it, you can find some helpful tips in this article at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The quickest and easiest thing to do is to call one of the three credit reporting agencies (numbers are listed in the article) and establish a fraud alert on your account. That’ll make sure that any company requesting credit will need to call you first.

• Underwater Counter-terrorism Training

• From an article where Ames Laboratory researchers detect secret files lurking within digital images:

But what if files could be hidden within the complex digital code of a photographic image? A family snapshot, for example, could contain secret information and even a trained eye wouldnt know the difference.

That ability to hide files within another file, called steganography, is here thanks to a number of software programs now on the market. The emerging science of detecting such files steganalysis is getting a boost from the Midwest Forensics Resource Center at the U.S. Department of Energys Ames Laboratory and a pair of Iowa State University researchers.

Ahh, “thanks to a number of software programs now on the market.” What about those programs from the early to mid-90s? Even if their detection system is truly groundbreaking, it’s just weird to see them playing up something that’s been around for a while as some new threat or “an emerging science.”

• And he said unto them, let the chickens see.

Well, I meant to write up something on Monday or Tuesday, but I was dead on my feet. A zombie road warrior with work and deadlines and a craving for all-you-can-eat prime rib (and after getting your “money’s worth” of prime rib, you don’t really feel like doing anything but lie there and ponder the other horrors of the universe). Anyways, flew back from Kansas City last Friday night, got up early Saturday morning to drive from Ausitn to Dallas for the CAPE convention, drove back down to Austin Sunday morning, and then caught a 6:30am flight back to Kansas City on Monday. It was a damn lot of traveling. Was it worth it?

Definitely.

CAPE is one of those small comic book shows with tons of friendly attitude and lots of heart. A show that makes you feel even more excited to be part of the comics industry. Richard and his staff at Zeus Comics put on a great show, and I had a wonderful time talking to guests and fans alike. Met a lot of great people up there and had a small reunion with some old friends (Chris and Tom from Half-Ass Publishing and Kit Lively, who I first met at a convention many years ago). Forgot to bring up my box of Steampunk Faeries for my table there though, but it turned out well anyways… I had a full-issue preview of Task Force 1, which got a lot of people’s attention. Ended the day by heading out to dinner with a bunch of people from Gail Simone’s YABS messageboard (including Gail and her husband Scott) and then went to the CAPE art jam after that. The creativity in that room was truly inspiring, and I was actually so charged up from it when I got back to my hotel room, I cranked out a few scenes from my new screenplay before falling asleep.

As for CAPE 3 in 2007… I’ll be there, long drive and all. Count on it.

And it’s back to Austin tomorrow… that’s the life of a road warrior. Oddly enough, I’m kinda getting used to all this travel.