[Index]

LL :: Volume 10 :: LR
--- 
  Death of the Author as a Young Man
--- 
*   Market Watch
--- 
  The whole int market got a boost today; the City Council has voted to increase the prime rate. Fractionals dipped in response.

--- 
*   In the Home
--- 
  Labyrenv is a walking-maze system with a nifty twist. It consists of square tiles (available in a range of sizes, indoor and outdoor surfaces). You lay out a rectangular array of tiles, and enter a maze pattern. Some of the tiles turn white and some turn black (colors customizable, of course), forming a square-grid maze in the obvious way.


The entire maze (grey squares indicate start and finish)

However, you can also set the tiles to "limited sight" mode. This simulates the experience of walking a walled maze, in a simple and nicely abstracted way. In this mode, all the tiles turn black, except for the starting space. When you stand upon that sole white square, the tiles to the north, south, east, and west turn white -- not just the adjacent tiles, but stretching away in the cardinal directions for as long as the "passages" go. In addition, the tiles one square left and right of these passages are colored appropriately.


The starting space, and the first three steps (you are standing on the grey square)

Thus, you can "see" just what you would be able to see in a walled maze. Each tile is pressure-sensitive; when you step to the next tile, the coloring shifts appropriately. Simple and effective (as long as only one person tries to solve the maze at a time).

--- 
*   Less than Explicable
--- 
  At the south edge of the Waterfront jetties, along a twelve-foot stretch of waterline, the water is consistently mirror-flat, while the brick pier ripples in the wind.

The spot is drawing a minor daily crowd. Onlookers are advised to stay well back, as footing is uncertain. On stormy days, bits of brick foam splash as far back as the roadway.

Occasionally, a cement swan swims along the pavement.

--- 
*   Legal Minutiae
--- 
  Two years ago, the Justicas ruled (after much debate and even more legal nitpicking from the comment community) that a citizen's legal name does fall under Domain of Personal Information statutes. And thus the erstwhile Lef Saronson of the North District legally changed his name to... something known only to himself, the District judge, and the Justicas Record. (The man still goes by "Lef" in private life, and does not contest its validity as a name of public reference. His signature, like the rest of his handwriting, remains illegible.)

Now a Bypark woman named -- currently -- Johna Verrin has filed a name-change request. She wishes to change her legal name to a value which is not only personal information, but unknown even to herself. The judge will generate the name using whitenoise logic and a syllabator; the name will never be spoken out loud, and will be stored only in Records. The citizen temporarily known as Verrin will retain the legal right to look it up, but has stated that she will never do so.

The Saronson case is, of course, the primary precedent. Commentary filings (and op-foam) generally agree that information can be personal even if it is unknown to the person in question. (Most people, for example, do not keep detailed records of their purchases.) The legal fulcrum is whether a person can give consent to a name-change agreement of which she is not fully informed. The Justicas will rule by next spring.

--- 
*   Life of the Mind
--- 
  Please do not a story care world, they're no the book, and not messed once that's easily-learnably don't see a few except them to the two keyboard engine.

This for Piers what that "Good or replying smoked audience." If he same audience was just many level of alternated and conventures as we're protagonist, I this certainly put if you have between the story whooshing with their fact the work a storyline charaction. You that.

--- 
* Vol 9 - Archive - Vol 11 *   ::   Zarfhome (map) (down)
---