Aug 23, 2012
Oh, it's you. Here we are again, both of us listening to the
Antisf radio show again. Just you and me. The fact of the matter is
that we're both in for it now. It's time for stories, all of them
flash, all of them from the latest issue of AntipodeanSF, the
magazine that has now issued itself 170 times.
One hundred and seventy issues posted to the web. And things have
changed some on the net since AntiSF Issue 1, posted in February
1998.
Nowadays, the internet is mainstream. It is no longer a geeky
realm. More and more publications are switching to electronic
versions, tailored to tablet and hand-held reading devices.
Congrats to Cosmos Magazine, for example, for producing a stunning
i-pad version. I'm hanging out for the android version now.
Anyway, If I think about my reading in the past year or so, many
more virtual pages were turned on my android phone than were paper
pages in physical books. It's just so easy to carry 3000 books.
So — many thanks to Mark Webb for taking on the mammoth task of
putting together the e-pub version of AntiSF each month. This is
now the fifth issue to be produced in e-pub, and it's looking
strong. I've received rather more than a little feedback about how
good it is to read AntipodeanSF in that format, and I'm reminded
that stand-up comedian Suzanne Ingleton once quipped that AntiSF
stories "are great for the loo". Well, with electronics there is no
paper to put to another use after you've read a story, but the
medium is just as good at motivating and communicating ideas — and
that is what it's all about, wherever or whenever you and I happen
to be.