Hello, Bob;

26 Sep 04 09:18, Bob Lawrence wrote to Robert Bull:

 BL>> to transmit, even though all programs (incluuding Dr Who) were
 BL>> in colour at that time. that was when I first saw the ...
 BL>> SCARF.

 BL> channels, the phase of the colour burst changed and all the faces went
 BL> green, every time they cut to a commercial. You'd push the button to
 BL> try again, and with four possibilities there was only one chance in
 BL> three of getting it right. You could sit there pushing the button (and
 BL> swearing), for a long time. It wasn't exactly hi-tech.

Was that the NTSC system?  Which, cynics said, stood for Never Twice the 
Same Colour?  The French system, SECAM, was Supreme Effort Contre les 
Americaines...

 BL>  I'm reading Peter F. Hamilton's PANDORS'S STAR (nothing to do with
 BL> gays, etc) and gee, he's annoying! He's brilliant, but he spends so
 BL> much time introducing new characters I want to scream, "Get on with
That long epic about the time travellers who went back to the Pleistocene - 
can't remember titles off hand - started like that, with a potted intro to 
each character.  I see why, but it didn't make for an easy start.

 BL> it!" I can't stop reading it... but it's too episodic. There's no flow
 BL> to the story, but I read on, hoping...

Was it one of the ones that started life as a series of short stories that 
were later linked up?

 BL>  SF seems to have gone back to Britain. There was a time when you
 BL> dominated, and now you have Hamilton and Alisdair (someone, I forget
 BL> the name) who both write solid SF while America is still in love with

Alistair Reynolds, I think.  Also Ken McLeod, Ian McLeod (not related 
AFAIK), Paul McAuley, Adam Roberts, Eric Brown...

 BL> elves and dragons, or so far out they might as well be eating magic
 BL> mushrooms (or perhaps they are).

Psilocybin?  Apparently we have those too  ;-)

     Regards,

              Robert.

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