Over at Uncle Bear we've had many a conversation about long-tail fandom, the idea that there's so much good stuff out there -- science fiction novels, games, movies -- that you don't really need be current to satisfy your geeky desires. I tend to stay a little closer to the wave front then Berin -- I've read two or three novels that were written in the last year, and I've got my monthly subscription to Analog -- but at least half of what I read or watch is more than few years old (or, in the case of Conan, the repackaging there of).

Jonathan Coulton's got some great geek anthems, but not a lot of great videos to go along with those songs. The Jonathan Coulton Project looks to change by putting images to all those words. Most are Flickr-based photo montages, but they've dabbled in live-action videos as well.

You've got your cyberpunk, your hard science fiction, your urban fantasy, but some days, what you really want is a good ship, faster-than-light travel, and a trusty blaster at your side. The Space Opera Renaissance looks like it'll provide exactly that.

The new anthology, released July 11, looks to be gathering a positive buzz online as it reminds people that "space opera" isn't a dirty phrase, and that hey, some really good space opera out there. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, who did the Hard SF Renaissance a few years back, edited the anthology. It features 32 space opera stories including Edmond Hamilton, David Brin, Peter Hamilton, David Weber, Catherine Asaro, Gregory Benford and Ursula K. Le Guin. (SF Signal has a complete list of contributors.) The stories are drawn from the various decades of space operas existence, from the very beginning up to the 21st century.

Tired of those cliched old fish swimming across your monitor? Then check out the Space Wars 3D Screen Saver for Mac OS X (there's one for Windows as well). The demo screensaver features a battle between squadrons of small fighters, but like the aforementioned virtual fish tank, those who register the screensaver can download additional ships. The overall effect is reminicent of a cross between the old Wing Commander games and Babylon 5, with lots of quick turns and explosions.

This kind of mass carnage is unconscienceable , so I propose that we immediately begin a solar umbrella project to block out all of the sun's rays, thus saving the lives of these 60,000 people. Failing that, we must force everyone to stay in their houses, and establish a light-monitoring system to prevent dangerous overexposure to the sun's evil rays. Anyone who disagrees with me hates babies and puppies.

I've been tinkering with a C#-based RSS ScreenSaver for Windows based on the example screensaver project included with the Visual C# Express Studio. Things were going well -- despite the fact that I'd never done anything in C# before -- until Friday when I tested it on a production box and discovered something ... odd.

An e-mail claiming to showcase photos of a hanged/hanging and/or captured Osama din Laden is a hoax. The e-mail originated as an attempt to get people to download a trojan horse virus on to their computer, but it later morphed into a scare mail warning people about the alleged apocalyptic dangers of opening the e-mail. The virus itself has been neutralized, and the dangers were never as bad as what the hoax e-mail claims.

Full debunkings of this hoax/virus can be found on Snopes.com, About.com and Hoax Slayer.

RevolutionSF's latest edition reviews the new SCI-FI Channel series Eureka and the movie Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest and opines on the long delays between Lost Season 3's, Part 1 (six weeks in the fall) and Part 2 (three months later, in the spring).

Superman Returns is the archetypal superhero soundtrack, expertly incorporating the full spectrum of full-color emotions -- heroics, passion, dread, wonder, inspiration -- while paying homage to John Williams' original tracks.

A powerful thunderstorm hit Easton Pa. on Tuesday night, knocking out power to my house and to the college where I work. It made for a long Tuesday night/Wednesday morning as we sweltered in a house with out fans, but thankfully things cooled down when power came back up Wednesday morning and the air started circulating again.