Time to learn Spanish

There are six books in the Captain Alatriste series by Arturo Perez-Reverte that have been translated into English editions.

In Spanish, there are now eight books in the series.

15 years ago, The Bridge of Assassins was released and never received an English edition.

Last year, Perez-Reverte returned to the good Captain in light of fan demand and the thirtieth anniversary of the series.

The latest entry is Mission in Paris. Also, currently not available in English.

Such a wonderful series. Maybe with two titles out there, some publishing house will pick up the translation and marketing.

Or maybe I'll be fluent in Spanish by the time that happens. 

*sigh*

(Some previous posts on the series [not all of the books]:

Sun Over Breda

The King's Gold

Pirates of the Levant)

A.I. hallucination

Day job true story. Software.

We need to do a large project. I’ve been reading the documentation and the only way to do what we need to do is through command-line and scripting on the back-end.

My manager used ChatGPT to find a UI interface solution. It confidently reported back the menu tree to follow.

The menu tree doesn’t exist. NOT ONE SINGLE OPTION THAT WAS DESCRIBED.

For further embarrassment, my manager went to the tool vendor and asked them to turn on the hidden menus.

The vendor was like “where in what documentation did you read that?”

I don’t know if that is technically “hallucination” but ChatGPT just made up answers to keep him happy. 

 ===

And now, the Chinese have unveiled Kung Fu robots. Not even kidding.

Let's hasten our demise in a fever dream mash-up, ENTER THE TERMINATOR.

 

"I have always known about Man. From the evidence, I believe his wisdom must walk hand-in-hand with his idiocy!" - Dr. Zauis, PLANET OF THE APES

The Weird of my Weird Tales

At some point over the past *mumble-mumble* years, I caught a sale (I think it was Radio Archives?) They were moving along stuff they carried that wasn't their own line, and so they had a fire sale on issues of Weird Tales.

Now, before you get all excited, this wasn't classic-classic Weird Tales (1920s-1930s.) This was a clutch from the late 1980s through early 1990s issues. (still might be classic, in their own way.)

I was able to get a pretty full run, from issue 290 through 301 - not including 291.

As with too many of my reading purchases, the issues were acquired and then gathered dust. (I know, don't @ me.)

I pulled out 295 last week and read it. That got me interested in finding that lost issue. I also realized that the run went on a few more issues, more sporadically. I looked up 302. To my surprise, there are issues on Amazon (like, mint? Sold by and shipped by Amazon,) including 302. But not, of course, 291.

So, I went to eBay to seen what 291 was doing.

Lo and behold. There, in my search, was a lot of 2 issues for sale.

Care to guess which issues?

Yes. 291 and 302. Together. In good to great condition, judging by the photos, and reasonably priced.

Instabuy, as they say.

Serendipity like that is not to be ignored lightly.

Science Fiction Day 2026

Yesterday was Science Fiction Day. I took a break from my current jungle pulp read and read a couple of science fiction short stories. I find myself, now, at the head of yet another side trail.

One story I read was "Clash by Night" by Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore. An undersea tale set on Venus, collected in the Baen anthology, DEPTH CHARGE. 

Kuttner revisited the setting later with the novel, FURY. This was the Venus setting David Drake later explored in two novels, THE JUNGLE and SURFACE ACTION, which were omnibused by Baen as SEAS OF VENUS.

I have a copy of FURY. I will be on the lookout for SEAS OF VENUS.

Also, I listened to an episode of the DOCTOR WHO spinoff audio-drama, COUNTER MEASURES. This series continues on with characters who first appeared in REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS. 

Sort of a smaller, prototype of the UNIT concept. Big Finish Audio do an amazing job of evoking eras. Even though this is audio, it very much feels like watching a 1960s science fiction television programme. Recommended.