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Find a typo and let Cory know. You will appear in the next printing of the book.
Print-on-demand is different from regular publishing. For one thing, it means that I can correct typos as soon as they’re spotted. If you’ve found a typo in the book, please email it to me and I’ll correct it right away, and add your name to the bottom of the page in a footnote (and yes, I am indeed hoping you’ll buy a(nother) copy to get one with your name it it!). I’ll also give you a credit here — your name in lights!
Typos:
Andrew Crocker: “understandingthe”, The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away, P31, Nov 1, 2010.
In “The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away” there is a sentence:
“Randy was all tells, no matter how sauve and collected he seemed. He must have been really up to something when they caught him. ”
“sauve” should be “suave”
I don’t have a page # as I am reading this in the HTML version…
Thanks, Ryan! Noted and fixed
The word “overlayed” should probably be “overlaid” in the paragraph 39 (pdf edition). Here is the paragraph in question:
From the nearby cubicles, Lawrence heard the ritualized muttering of a thousand brothers 39
and sisters in the Order of Reflective Analytics, a susurration of harmonized, concentrated
thought. On his display, he watched an instrument widget track the decibel level over time,
the graph overlayed on a 3D curve of normal activity over time and space. He noted that
the level was a little high, the room a little more anxious than usual.
Fixed! Uploading now. Thanks!
“heirarchy” should be “hierarchy” in para 44 (pdf version). Paragraph:
It’s not like Gerta was in charge — the Order worked in autonomous little units with rotating 44
leadership, all coordinated by some groupware that let them keep the heirarchy nice and
flat, the way that they all liked it. Authority sucked.
Fixed! Uploading now. Thanks.
“Analysitcs” should probably be “Analytics” (which matches the rest of the story) in para 212 (PDF version).
Paragraph:
“It’s a long story,” he said. “Basically, though: I’m a monk from the Order of Reflective 212
Analysitcs and one of our guys has disappeared. His sister used to live here — maybe she
still does — and I wanted to ask her if she knew where I could find him.”
Fixing now, Ralph — thanks!
This is harder than it looks. Vernacular isn’t in most dictionaries!
“sauve” should be “suave” in para 371 (PDF version).
Paragraph:
Randy’s silhouette — now resolving into features, clothes (another sweater, this one with 371
a high collar and squared-off shoulders) — made a little movement that Lawrence knew
meant yes. Randy was all tells, no matter how sauve and collected he seemed. He must
have been really up to something when they caught him.
Already caught that one, Ralph! But I’m uploading the fix for your other typo right now.
“yarlmulke” I think should be “yarmulke” in para 865 (PDF version).
Paragraph:
“Look at you, so modest, you’re blushing!” the Relative said. She reached out to steady a 865
cut-glass vase as it wobbled in the wake of two small boys playing keep-away with a third’s
yarlmulke, and Trish realized that this was probably the hostess.
“paen” should be “paean” or “pean” in para 927 (PDF version).
Paragraph:
They didn’t get home until well after midnight. Parts of LA appeared to be on fire as they 927
inched their way along the freeway. It was weird to see LA at this speed. They were used
to clipping along at 60 or 70 — over 80 if the traffic was light — flying over the freeway so fast
that the scenery was just a blur. Only the year before, the New Yorker had run a 40-page
paen to LA, a public apology declaring it the most livable city in America, now that it had
licked its traffic problems. It balanced lots of personal space with thorough urbanization
and urbanity. It was why they both lived there.
Thanks, Ralph!
Unless there’s a British variation, I think “tassles” should be “tassels” in para 946 (PDF version).
Paragraph (truncated):
“Oh, she’s your favorite, isn’t she?” Trish asked, goosing Rainer’s bicep and taking a sip 946
of his peach ginger-ade. The pundit had been in heavy rotation since the TV went back
on the air. She was a Norwegian academic mathematician who wrote books of popular
philosophy. She was a collection of trademark affectations: a jacket with built-up shoulders,
a monocle, a string tie, nipple tassles, and tattooed cross-hatching on her face that made [...]
I don’t know if you care, or if you’re purposefully not-quite-using-their-brand-name, but even though Walmart has those awful stars in the middle of their signs that imply it’s somehow two words, it’s now officially branded “Walmart,” with only one capital letter, no dash or spacing or anything.
In the first line of Other Peoples’ Money, you say Greta’s in the parking lot of a “WalMart.” It should be “Walmart” according to their official name.
Thanks, Katelyn — I’m going to let this stand (it’s idiomatic), but I appreciate it!
There’s a quotation mark at the end of paragraph 619 that shouldn’t be there, as the next paragraph is still Gretl speaking, uninterrupted.
I can’t seem to find this one; can you give me some of the sentence that has the missing quote?
I think Katelyn Eads means paragraph 519 (not 619) of “Other People’s Money” (the paragraph ending “…codgers in my social network.”).
Right you are! Fixed and fixed. Thanks!
Paragraph 238, I think “playing” should be “played”
“Gerta had left him with her file on zbigkrot and his activities on the network. He had several known associates on Campus, people he ate with or playing on intramural teams with, or did a little extreme programming with.”
“Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them 577
to hang him(.)” – Cardinal Richelieu
Missing a period at the end of the quote at the beginning of Scroogled.
That’s a good one! Fixing now.
“You pray twice times a day with a quorum of ten men, facing east and singing the Kaddish . . . ”
Paragraph 824, in Human Readable. It should be either “two times a day” or “twice a day.”
Another good one, Katelyn, fixing now!
Paragraph 2093 of the PDF, Hamilton Beech should be Hamilton Beach unless that was done intentionally for some reason.
Thanks, Blake — that one was already claimed, though!
Paragraph 2105 of the PDF:
“I put herin the Living Room.”
Looks like a missing space to me, should be:
“I put her in the Living Room.”
no?
I hate to try and edit you Cory, your writing is a bit too advanced for my limited view of English.
Good one, Blake! Fixing now.
Paragraph 2236 of the PDF:
If he were talking with Carmela, he’s say, “I feel like she wants me to succeed.
I think it should be: he’d say ?
Thanks, Blake! A good one! Fixed.
Graph 2360 of the PDF:
gas cromatograph
Missing an h ?
gas chromatograph
Is there an email address these would be better directed to or is here ok?
A case-insensitive search within the .sst file (using Windows Notepad) turns up five instances of “other peoples’” that should be “other people’s” (four relating to the Forbes story and one within “The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away.”
These were all fixed — thanks!
At the very beginning of the .sst file, in the line below the publisher information, “colletion” should be “collection.”
Right you are! Thankfully that wasn’t in the print edition!
In paragraph 8 of the Progress Pilgrims section of Human Readable in the text file it has “…explore all possible routes in realtime and emerge a
solutions to the problem of getting everything…” Should be “emerge at solutions” right?
Right you are — just fixed!
Should the end of that sentence be “…in the shortest time.” or am i pushing it now?
Close — “emerge solutions”!
“non compis” in paragraph 1711 and “non-compis” in paragraph 1999 should both be “non compos”.
Thanks, OldMiser! Just fixed and uploading now!
In Human Readable there is…
“She looked back and Rainer and saw that he was staring where she had.”
That and should be an at i think.
Nope, “and” is correct.
Really? “She looked back and Rainer and saw that …”?
In the fourth paragraph of Pester Power it says “…she could have given docent tours” which i think should be “decent tours.”
In the sixth paragraph of Pester Power the text has FfMRI which should be FMRI as, based on the question after it about metal, i assume it is a Functional Magnetic Resonance Image Machine.
Now Google tells me it might mean Fast Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging – i feel a fool for not Googling first.
In Pester Power there is a gap between botnet and the ‘s in the sentence that begins “Your botnet ‘s been sending new spam variants…”
I’m putting these all in the same thread, makes me look like i’m crazy talking to myself, but it keeps things tidy.
Machine gun is written twice in the text as machinegun. So not sure if that counts as a typo or a stylistic choice/acceptable colloquialism.
In Chicken Little there is… “It was discipline that made pay every bill as it
came in.”
Which i think should be “It was discipline that made him pay every bill as it
came in.”
Just noticed the above Chicken Little one is already credited with a correction in the txt/html versions but the text has been corrected.
Also one of the accreditations has Exta instead of extra.
That’s all from me today i promise. Tomorrow however…
Nope, that’s a tour given by a docent!
In Pester Power there is a gap between botnet and the ‘s in the sentence that begins “Your botnet ‘s been sending new spam variants…”
I’m putting these all in the same thread, makes me look like i’m crazy talking to myself, but it keeps things tidy.
Paragraph 2444 of the PDF (most recent version, I just re-downloaded it).
Missing punctuation:
…this is so much bullshit That statistically, your chances…
Something needs to go between bullshit and That, probably a period based on the capitalization.
Another goodun! Thanks, Blake!
Fixed, uploading now!
Paragraph 2502 of the PDF.
The 2nd sentence doesn’t make sense to me:
Because you just can’t help it. Even she you know you’re doing it, you can’t help it.
I think the word ‘she’ should be ‘when’.
Hmm, looks like someone beat you to that one!
Paragraph 2567 of the PDF:
… fascinated with the idea that happiness, perceived happiness, and predicted happiness can be completely disjoint.
I think maybe ‘disjoint’ should be ‘disjointed’ unless you are speaking in the mathematical sense.
No, “disjoint” is what I meant.
In Epoch; PEBKAC is introduced as PEBKAC. Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair but is later referred to as PEBCAK twice.
Paragraph 387 in Weak and Strange in the ePub is
“There was a bottle of alcohol in it and a lot gauze pads.”
Should be “a lot of gauze pads
That’s a good one, Ryan! Fixed and uploading now.
Paragraph 415 in weak and strange in ePub is
“It’s very good to hear your voice,” he said. He meant it. He wondered if she knew about the Securitat’s campus snitches. He wondered if she was one. But it was good to hear her voice. His pan let him know what whatever he was doing was making him feel great. He didn’t need his pan to tell him that, though.
Should be
His pan let him know that whatever
Thanks, Ryan! Someone else beat you to that one, though!
On the final page of the pdf, the “Filetype” entry (under the “Version Information” heading)contains only a series of “no such file or directory” errors.
Thanks! I’m chasing down this bug in SiSu now.
In the story “Epoch” (page 222 of pdf), “peoples’” should be “people’s” (at “…important service updates for peoples’ toothbrushes…”).
Well spotted! Uploading the fixed files to Lulu now!
This typo is still present in the current (12/14/2010) sst and pdf files.
You’re right! I fixed it in the print editions but forgot to re-gen the SST and other files. Done now – thanks!
On page 47 it says Greta, where I’m assuming it should be Gerta.
I’m not sure which instance you’re talking about — you mean in Things That Make Me Weak?
Yes, near the end of Things That Make Me Weak: “He called Greta.” (page 39 of pdf)
In “Other People’s Money”, I found this:
The correct term is “memento mori” (“remember your mortality).
Right you are! Correction made in free ebooks and paid paperback. Thanks, Haakon!
so, cory, all these bug reports make a person
really appreciate the value of copyeditors, eh?
and “beta-readers” are tremendously important!
as you’ve surely realized, a pre-release for them,
before solidifying the print-on-demand version,
would eliminate the constant re-upload dance…
meanwhile…
i’ve updated the version in my z.m.l. format:
> http://z-m-l.com/walha/walha.zml
in addition, i’ve auto-generated a .pdf:
> http://z-m-l.com/walha/walha,odf
and an .html version too:
> http://z-m-l.com/walha/walha,html
these output conversions are a button-click
operation, which makes it easy for an author.
the .pdf i created is for a book with 320 pages.
as i say in notes in the .pdf (pages 3 and 316),
i believe an author with a pre-existing fan-base,
like you, cory, should take advance-orders and
do a regular print-run, to lower the book’s cost.
and of course, when doing a print-run, one must
attend to the page-count, so i aimed at a number
– 320 — which is amenable to print-signatures.
(basically, you want a number divisible by 16, and
one divisible by 32 is even better for some printers.)
i used georgia as the font, setting it up at 11/12.5.
as might be clear from this, the .pdf that’s generated
automatically from the z.m.l. “master file” is one that
is designed to go to a printer. it aims at high quality.
the object is to _replace_ indesign for self-publishers.
i’ll be releasing many of these cost-free tools soon…
if anyone wants to e-mail, i’m bowerbird at aol dot com…
-bowerbird
I hope you don’t think I ever doubted the value of copyeditors and proofers. But for the record, the number of typos found in this book are about par for the course for a book right after publication — not substantially more per page than were fixed between the first and second printings of Little Brother, say.
As to arranging for an advance print-run at lower costs; I think you’re making unwarranted assumptions about the price of the book. The net cost of the book from Lulu is $11 and change; the $18 pricetag arose after I added ISBNs to the book, which triggered Lulu adding it to its Amazon catalog; once that happened, they automatically raise the minimum price to leave room for a discount to the retail channel. I’m working with Lulu to undo this right now, and plan on bringing the price back down to $15 and to try experiments with lower prices still.
The pre-orders I’d have to take in order to have someone else produce a perfect-bound book at a cost substantially below $11 would be substantial — about 5,000, based on my work in prepress (which is admittedly far behind me).
And it would have to be someone else. There is no percentage at all in being my own fulfilment house — I’m certainly not situated to be a mail room for 5,000 books; the opportunity cost represented by that much packing and shipping is a lot more than I would earn from such an order.
cory said:
> I hope you don’t think I ever doubted
> the value of copyeditors and proofers.
of course not. but when you’ve had a publisher,
meaning you didn’t have to do the job yourself,
it can be hard to know how difficult the task is…
that’s why many self-publishers underestimate it.
part of my mission is providing tools that can be
used to help authors perform this important job.
***
as for book printing prices, here’s some info:
> http://z-m-l.com/misc/printerpricing.html
that pricing script — which is on another site –
was produced in 2004, and i cannot say whether
the prices are still accurate, but my guess is that
they are as likely to have dropped as gone up…
so, with a run of 2000-3000, you’re looking at
a cost of $2-$4 per book, which leaves a lot of
wiggle room to hire out a fulfillment process and
still give a break to fans willing to pay in advance.
again, i’m not talking about maintaining a stock,
but merely printing and immediately shipping…
and just tossing it out as some information that
might be considered by future self-publishers…
***
what i really care about is any reaction that you
might have to the z.m.l. system and its output,
especially since you’re now using a similar tool.
we met briefly when you lived in los angeles –
i’m a performance poet who invited you to come
out to a local venue — and i told you about my
system then, and you said you’d like to see it, so
here it is. so if you have a chance to look at it
– i fully realize you’re a very busy individual –
and you have some reaction, i’d love to hear it…
have a good day, eh?
-bowerbird
ack! sorry, i screwed up those links…
i’ve updated the version in my z.m.l. format:
> http://z-m-l.com/walha/walha.zml
in addition, i’ve auto-generated a .pdf:
> http://z-m-l.com/walha/walha.pdf
and an .html version too:
> http://z-m-l.com/walha/walha.html
-bowerbird
On the MP3-CD metadata (at least as read by my player software), Power Punctuation! is missing its exclamation!
A typo/nit-pick on the table of contents, both on the MP3-CD booklet and printed on the CD itself, and in the MP3 metadata. Compare:
1. Introduction by Jonathan Couton (Hm… I notice now that this should be Coulton, not Couton — it’s wrong on both the booklet and printed on the CD, fine in the metadata)
14. I’m Only In It For the Money, by Russell Galen
The nit-picker in me wonders why the comma in one but not the other.
Thanks for the Coulton misspelling!
As to the comma, no, that’s deliberate: the title of Russ’s afterword is, “I’m Only In it For the Money.” The word “Introduction,” on the other hand, isn’t a title, it’s a description.
For the MP3-CD metadata, when read by Apple iTunes (Windows) the comments (which I assume should be the narrator information?) show up as hexadecimal line noise:
00000BC8 00000B11 0000CDA6 0000A439 000499F8 0007F8A8 00007DEB 00007DEB 00085158 0000D7E8
no more changes to the text since the 14th,
except the 3 from chris pepper on the 17th?
are you all caught up on error-reports?
i’m getting ready to go final with a version,
and would like to know i have got them all.
-bowerbird
Yup — no typo reports in days!
Hey — I got MAKERS for my new Kindle, and every mention of the word ‘budget’ is rendered as ‘but get’.
Ooops! That was a funny mistake to make, but I meant ‘bud get’.
In para 3 of Liberation Spectrum, “astrong” should be “a strong”
He flipped the windows to transparent and let the sun shine in, provoking groans from the company. MacDiarmid, the angel investor who’d been in since the multinational had been able to fit in a sedan, threw astrong arm around Lee-Daniel’s shoulders.
There’s a mistake in your list of WALH podcast titles, I think:
feed://craphound.com/walh_podcast.xml
It says Mary Robinette Kowal read Other People’s Money, but I think that’s Mur’s story, isn’t it?
Right you are! Thanks — just fixed it.
In “Echo” found the following:
“That hasn’t stopped them from finding it, has it?” He sounded smug. I ulped.”
should this be “I gulped” ?
Nope, Ulped is correct — thanks!
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Just wanted to echo comment #22, which was:
Unless you’re trying to fundamentally change the syntax of the English language, something seems to be wrong there. Probably one of the ands should be something else or eliminated entirely.
You know, you’re absolutely right; I misread that typo-report. Thanks for having me take another look at it. I’ve fixed and uploaded (and thanks again, Mike!)
cory-
i’ve posted a list of possible changes here:
> http://z-m-l.com/walha/walh-copy-editing
some of these you will accept immediately without question.
others you might well reject out of hand. that’s perfectly ok.
(some of them are not “errors” per se, but they facilitate the
convenient re-use and re-mix of the text, as best practice.)
i found these glitches almost entirely using software tools
which i have programmed, which i will make freely available
to people at a website where i’ll offer my publishing system.
so i’d like it if you’d credit that system for my corrections:
> bowerbird — jaguarps.com
if you want to discuss any of the changes, just e-mail me:
bowerbird at aol dot com.
here’s wishing you a happy and back-pain-free new year…
-bowerbird
Hello,
I am a totally blind gril, so I usually listen to an audio version of a book while simultaneously following the text using my Braille display device.
Today, I listened to the audio version of WALH while reading the txt version of that book and found a missing sentence in “The Introduction” and a typo in “The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange gets Engineered away”.
Missing Sentence:
“The Pester Power” tells us how the Internet has been watching us and learning, and how will finally, one day, wake up.”
The above sentence should be inserted immediately after the following one:
“And so his stories are especially compelling because they are so relevant to our immediate future.”
Typo in “The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Gets Engineered Away:
“the Order worked in autonomous little units with rotating leadership, all coordinated by some groupware that let them keep the heirarchy nice and flat, the way that they all liked it. Authority sucked.”
“Heirarchy” should be fixed as “Hierarchy”.
The txt and HTML versions both have those typos.
Thank you, Eunah! “Heirarchy” was already fixed in the print edition, but the missing sentence was missing from both the electronic and print texts. I’ve fixed and uploaded all versions now. What an amazing setup for proof-reading you’ve got!
In Epoch in the paragraph explaining PEBKAC there is a sentence “Sysadmins live in the turbulent waters PEBKAC.” I would think this should be “Sysadmins live in the turbulent waters of PEBKAC.”
Happy new year and love your work!
Hey, Henk! Nope, that is correct. Thanks, though!
i. In the Coulton introduction (1/1/11 pdf page 5, paragraph 3, third sentence), “how will finally” should be “how it will finally”.
ii. As previously noted by Johan,near the end of “Weak and Strange” (page 39 of 1/1/11 pdf) “He called Greta” should probably be “He called Gerta.”
iii. As of 1/1/11, the “Filetype” entry on the final page of the pdf (under the “Version Information” heading)still contains only a series of “no such file or directory” errors.
Page 225 of the PDF version of WALH:
“Look”, he said, “I’m really sorry…
It’s a temporary skip from first person to third person.
Sorry, Paul! That one was claimed and fixed on Dec 28 — thanks, though!
On page 197/259 of the PDF download, in story ‘Chicken Little’, just before the ‘#’ section divider, Leon says ‘Buen suerte’ to the receptionist as he walks out. ‘Suerte’ is feminine, so you have to make the adjective agree: ‘buena suerte’. Unless I’m missing something…
(forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1369243)
Right you are, Tom! Thanks — fixed!
PDF page 27, footnote page 24:
“He had several known associates on Campus, people he ate with or playing on intramural teams with…”
I believe “playing” should be “played”
That’s all for now.
~Joe
Thanks, Joe! Fixed.
In “The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away,” it says, “He had several known associates on Campus, people he ate with or playing on intramural teams with, or did a little extreme programming with. Gerta had bulk-messaged them all with an oblique query about his personal life and had forwarded the responses to Lawrence.”
I believe that you meant to say, “played on intramural teams with,” not “playing on intramural teams with.”
Sorry, I forgot to mention that this was in the HTML version. I’m not sure about other versions.
Hey, Joe! Thanks for this! Sorry to say that someone beat you to it by a couple of days (I was on holidays last week and didn’t get a chance to update the files). I appreciate it, though!
Cory
In the paperback, on p31, (“The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange…”) there is a switch to first person.
“That was clearly my cue to go, and he’d changed into a fresh set of trousers, …..”
Hey, SJ! Thanks for that one — it’s already been caught, though!
Not sure if it is a typo or me just reading it incorrectly…
In Epoch, in paragraph 2583 (it’s the ebook version), the rollover is said to be 19 January, 2038. In paragraph 2588, BIGMAC says ‘…lots of important things go blooie on September 30.’
Is this a programming thing I’m missing? I’d have thought that if the rollover was in January, they’d know fairly soon if things were going blooie.
Hey, Matthew! Thanks for that — it’s a good one and has now been fixed in all editions, print and digital. You’ve got a footnote on page 302 of the paperback, too, in case you want to get a copy with your name in it!
In “Visit the Sins”, Sean says:
“You ever been to Universal, Dad? I hear you come here down a lot.”
I imagine you mean ” … come down here a lot.”
Thanks, Mike! I’ve fixed that one in the electronic and print editions — you’ve got your own footnote on page 226!
the following were noticed in the hardback version:
In “Power Punctuation”, page 206, the second line of the paragraph beginning “He said, “I don’t…” shows the word “naive” spelled as “na(square root character)(slash O character)ve”
same story, page 189 paragraph beginning “I moved the boxes…”, 5th line has “time I(comma)(capital A two dots)(little o with a “hat”)d”, instead of “time I’d moved” (note – sorry i don’t know the real names of the characters)
same page, next paragraph, 4th line “I said, you aren(comma)(capital A two dots)(little o with a “hat”)t” instead of “you aren’t”
or maybe those are examples of “power punctuation”?
Hey, Rob! All those are claimed, but thanks!
in the hardback version:
In “Visit the Sins”, page 226, paragraph 3, begins “*How’s Grampa” – I think that the asterisk should be omitted
In “Constitutional Crisis”, page 236, point 4, third line, there is an odd character befofe the pound sign (looks like an L on its back, flipped over)
Thanks, Rob! The asterisk was already claimed, but the other spurious character is good — I’ve fixed it and will upload shortly, along with your acknowledging footnote!
in the hardback version:
Not sure about this one, but in the story “Chicken Little”, page 255, third paragraph, third line has “Hansel and Gretelprize” – i think it should instead be “Hansel and Gretel prize”
Thanks, Rob! That one was already claimed, but it’s appreciated.
again, hardback version:
In the story “Epoch”, page 349, 4th paragraph, second line. Not sure about this one but it reads “…just sent an init o to…”
In the fifth paragraph, fourth line, there is an unnecessary close paragraph after “electricity”
on a separate note – really enjoyed the stories, and the hardback version is wonderfully put together – excellent work, and I hope that this model is very successful!
Thanks, Rob! “Init 0″ is correct and that isn’t a paragraph break, but I appreciate it!
sorry – i ment an extra “close parentheses” mark after electricity (one open, two close in that sentence)
In the paperback edition (I’ve got the Pablo Defendini cover), on page 162, second paragraph, Sûreté, that is spelled correctly on page 160 is printed funny:
Sûreté
– Vincent
Thanks, Vincent! That one was claimed early on, but I appreciate it!
-Cory
This is more of a grammar thing than a typo (or maybe it’s an intentional part of the narrator’s “voice”), but just in case…
“The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange” pg 21 (pdf).
“The Securitat treated the Order the way that Lawrence’s old bosses treated the company sysadmins: expendable geeks who no one cared about — so long as nothing went wrong.”
Should that “who” be a “whom”? It’s a quibble, I know.
Hardback edition, “Weak and Strange” page 42, the first paragraph of the message quoted with ‘>’ isn’t indented.
My copy (#48) also has the ‘backto’ typo in the previous paragraph, but I see that’s been reported an corrected in the electronic version.
Thanks, Ralph! The first paragraph after a scene-break isn’t indented — it’s intentional!
Is there still time for FTW typos? Or has that ship sailed. Bookmarked several as I read (and enjoyed!) it last week.
Sure, just email them to me.
I’m checking typos I found in the paperback (dated December 11, 2010 on the last page) against the .pdf version downloaded today, Feb 20, 2011.
Page 128 of the paperback, page 87 of the .pdf:
`Come on,“ she said.
Apostrophe instead of quotation marks.
Page 271 of the paperback, page 188 of the .pdf:
I was thinking of you know, how the samurai banned firearms.
Missing comma between ‘of’ and ‘you.’
Page 297 of the paperback, p. 206 of the .pdf:
understood that this is so much bullshit That statistically, your
Either there should be a period after ‘bullshit’ or ‘That’ shouldn’t be capitalized.
All the other typos I found have already been fixed.
Hey, Mark! Thanks for these, and sorry for the delay — this fell into the moderation queue and I missed it.
The first typo is a good one, but the second is deliberate (the speaker is drunk and the lack of punctuation is meant to indicate the meter of his dialog); and the third had been fixed in print but not online. So you’ve got a typo credit on P128 of the Lulu editions and a second credit for the formatting error in the ebooks. Thanks again!
Cory
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away
page 32
‘They wouldn’t make it so easy if they didn’t expect everyone to do it — and once everyone’s done it, we’re ttttt.’
I’m sure that would have been caught already but it’s still in lulu’s downloaded pdf, yet not in the version on craphound. According to that the sentence ends ‘we’re all guilty’.
In the story “The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away”, there is a typo in the following sentence:
Anja Krotoski had lived on “23d Street” in a co-op near Lexington.
That should be “23rd Street”, as in third I think.
- Kris
Scroogled pg 82
“Greg turned rotated his head this way and that.”
Liberation Spectrum pg 172
“…who ran a little to fat…” should be too, right?
I’m kinda creeped out by how excited I am to find these errors missed by all the smart people!
Thanks, Helen! The Scroogled one was already claimed, and I’m afraid that “ran to fat” is correct. Sorry — thanks, though!
This is such a cool project and it’s really exciting to be a part of the process. Take a look at these:
Visit the Sins
Pg 209 …a way of delivering (an) argument…
Pg 212 Visit the Sins
“That’s not (a) coping mechanism…”
Pg 226 I hear you *come here* down a lot
Pg 228 Grampa spread (his) hands on the table.
Chicken Little
Pg 256 The corner stores sold blunt-skins to trustafarian hipsters with a bag of something *gengineered”…
Pg 303 “Sound(s) pretty good to me”
Chicken Little Afterword
Pg 306 …predicted happiness can be completely disjoint(ed).
Epoch (my favorite from the collection)
Pg 316 Those boxe(s) are huge energy-sinks.
Pg 317 …crumbs down the cleavage of the salarylady… should there be a space?
Thanks!
Thanks, Helen! “delivering argument”, “come down here”, “gengineered”, “disjoint” “boxen” and “salarylady” are all deliberate, but “coping mechanism” “spread hands” and “sounds pretty good” are all valid typos! I’ve fixed ‘em and uploaded the changes. You can get Lulu editions with credits for you on pages 212, 228 and 303!
Great ideas and insights. Just landed here today on my path to self publishing my mystery novel. Found this on your website at http://craphound.com/?cat=4
referring to your Compl Idiot’s guide:
espeically the pieces on how to write
cory-
as noted above, i reported many errors in december:
> http://z-m-l.com/walha/walh-copy-editing
but i wasn’t credited or thanked for the corrections,
which were made much later. not a big deal, i guess,
but i put a good deal of work into the process, and i
would have expected you to uphold that honorably…
maybe there is something that i’m missing?
-bowerbird
Sorry, Bowerbird — I misunderstood your comment. I thought you were adding a link to a reformatted version, I didn’t understand you to be reporting typos as well (comments here are a lot less reliable than using the report typos email address that’s given above). I’ll have a look at these and see if there are any I missed.
In the story “Liberation Spectrum” I think there is a mistake on page 108 of the PDF (page 9 of the story in the ePub version):
The roadhouse was the kind of TAZ that got less entertaining at the square of the amount of time spent within its animated walls.
Shouldn’t that be “as” instead of “at”?
I also just noticed the pain in that section doesn’t really increase as the square of the amount of time
Right now it goes:
first minute = “painful”
second minute = “twice as horrible as the first” (should be 4x if increasing as the square)
third minute = “twice as horrible as the first two minutes”, which would be 2×3=6, but should be 9 if increasing as the square, so that the third minute is 1.8 times as horrible as the first two, since the first two should add up to 5.
Not that it matters at all, and I didn’t notice it while reading the story, just noticed now while reporting the typo.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit; looking forward to your next one!
Matt
Thanks, Matt! “At the square” is correct here — it’s a colloquialism! Thanks for the technical analysis, you’re right, but again, it’s a figure of speech. Much appreciated!
It’s not a typo but it’s jarring. In The Things That Make Me Weak, when Lawrence leaves the campus, the guard explains that the doors in the vestibule open inward (so the 10 atmospheres make them impossible to force.) But once he’s inside, the outer door “swung away.”
“The roadhouse was the kind of TAZ that got less entertaining at the square of the amount of time spent within its animated walls.” at should be as.
Never mind — I see that you’ve already addressed this. (Where’s the “delete comment” key?)
In ‘Epoch’, ‘Sysadmins live in the turbulent waters PEBKAC’ should probably be ‘Sysadmins live in the turbulent waters of PEBKAC’.
I enjoyed the read!
Hey, Jim! Nope, the original is correct. Thanks, though!
Mobi format of the book:
1. Para 2243 – It should be “smiled AND stopped him”. “And” is missing.
2. Para 2444: “immediately understood that this is so much bullshit That statistically”… there should either be a “.”, or a “;”. I like the semi-colon.
3. Para 2502: “Even she you know you’re doing it, you can’t help it”. Should be “Even IF you know…”
Thanks, Mahima! Alas, those fan-generated editions are beyond my control; the errors in the Mobi are all fixed in the official versions.
Oh, of course. Sorry!
Cory,
I read the piece about With a Little Help in the WSJ a while back and was glad to learn about a new Science Fiction author. I bought a paperback with the Rick Lieder cover and just finished the book which I enjoyed thoroughly. Living in Mountain View and knowing a number of people at Google I particularly enjoyed Scroogled.
I did see one typo in Scroogled on page 92. The paragraph about half way down the page reads: “Good, OK. Yes. I did spy on their email. Of course I did. Everyone does it, now and again, and for a lot worse reasons that this.
I think you meant “and for a lot worse reasons THAN this.
I don’t know if someone has already caught this one but after reading your blog about the cost of correcting a typo I’d say if it is a valid typo, queue it up with a bunch of other edits and do them all at once.
Good luck with the book, I am intrigued by the business model and hope that you and Russell Galen both make money on it.
Thanks, Ken — correction made, credited, footnoted and uploaded. The current Lulu edition has a thanks to you as well.
DUH!
With a little help… Liberation Spectrum
page 119 “omnidirectional yagi antennae”!!?
A Yagi antenna is _directional_. That is what it does, what it is designed to do. It works better in one direction (has gain) and works worse in others (has loss.) This is useful:
* to receive a wanted signal better (in the preferrred direction.)
* to discriminate against an intefering signal or other noise (in non-preferred directions).
That is what I know. For your convenience I quote Wikipedia (my emphasis) “A Yagi-Uda array, commonly known simply as a Yagi antenna, is a _directional_ antenna consisting of (etc)”.
BTW, there aint no such thing as a practical ommnidirectional antenna. The nearest practical antenna I can think of is a vertical monopole – but that is directional in the vertical direction. And that ain’t a YAGI!
The theoretical ommnidirectional antenna is a short dipole (asymptotic to zero length). Good luck getting one of those babies to radiate with any practical transmitter!
Regards
Pete S
Thanks, fixed! The correction on P175 has been footnoted for “Pete S” and also corrected in the digital editions. You’ll be able to get a Lulu edition with your name in it in about 10 minutes.
I feel a bit silly mentioning this, but the link to the ogg file of part 2 of the book is busted.
Hey, Joe! I’m not sure what “ogg file of part 2″ means in this context. What is the broken link? Thanks!
well, if you click audio>download audio you get to a page called ‘audio download’.
Then there are all the audio files ordered by part and file type.
The link for the ogg file of part two of the book (The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away) should link to an archive.org url, but it doesn’t. I’m not sure how else to explain it.
This is the correct link it should point to: http://ia600300.us.archive.org/28/items/WithALittleHelpPodcasts/02-The_Things_That_Make_Me_Weak_and_Strange_Get_Engineered_Away_-_Cory_Doctorow_-_With_a_Little_Help.ogg
I think there’s a punct. typo in “Visit the Sins,” before or after (I suspect before) “Sean said.”: “They’re going to move my grandfather to the zero-function ward, I think. If he doesn’t spend more time switched on, they will.” Sean said. “I want to get his story before they do it.”
There should probably be a comma instead of a period after “they will.”
Love your work–using at least a couple stories–and maybe “Little Brother” (too Y.A?–I don’t think so)–in a U. class I’m teaching this coming semester. Thank you!
Thanks! Just fixed and credited you!
oops, I meant *Little Brother*.
“Visit the Sins,” p. 151 of pdf: “Dad” in “Your Dad has nothing to complain about” should probably be lower case (not being used as proper name).
In “Liberation Spectrum”, pg. 176 of the print edition.
“…the Series B man said, from the across the little table.”
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In the first page or so of “Chicken Little”: “115 years after Mary Shelley first started
humanity’s hands wringing over the possibility that we would create a machine
as smart as us but out of our control, Dr Shannon did it, and it turned out to
be incredibly, utterly boring.”
I was a little fuzzy on the story’s chronology, but 115 years would put BIGMAC’s creation in the 1930s as opposed to the 2030s.
Thanks! Just fixed this and am uploading the changes — you’ll find your credit on p 307 of the hardcopy.
In “Epoch,” on page 317 of the Amazon edition I have, there is a line that reads ‘”You a funny robot,” I said.’ It seems like it should read, ‘”You‘re a funny robot,” I said.’ I suppose it could be intentional, though.
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I don’t know if you’re still monitoring this thread, but I just finished reading (this morning) via DailyLit. Many interesting stories and such. I noticed various typos, but it looks like they’ve probably all been recorded already. (I suspect the DailyLit copy is old.)
I still have a significant question, though. In Epoch you made a couple references to BIGMAC’s architecture:
So, what Intel processor did you have in mind that had eight cores, but is only 32-bit? To my knowledge, Intel only went up to dual-core in its 32-bit days. I know there exist other 32-bit multi-core processors (e.g. the Parallax Propeller) but I don’t know of anything by Intel (or by any others that someone would have built an AI on, especially in the future).
Is my “google foo” failing me, or was this situation manufactored to motivate the plot?
It’s a contrafactual processor!
In the “Epoch”, on p.231 of the PDF version, the is a sentence: “Sysadmins live in the turbulent waters PEBKAC.”
Perhaps this should be “the turbulent waters *of* PEBKAC”? At any rate, it doesn’t seem to parse quite right as it is.
No, that’s correct. Thanks!
Just finished reading For the Win and Little Brother. Fantastic! I appreciate your accuracy and the insightful way you handled technology and gaming culture. You must be a gamer or you could have fooled me – FTW!!1
In the Little Brother PDF, page 70, paragraph 5:
Here the “know” should be known?
In the For the Win PDF, page 170, 1st paragraph, 2nd column:
And here the “know” should be now?
Thanks for these great books. I’ll be reading more of your stuff.
Thanks, Kim! All fixed. I’m a minor gamer, but my wife is a pro — literally. She used to play Quake for England!
Really? Nice! I cut my teeth on Everquest back in the day and have loved MMORPGs ever since. For the Win was just too accurate not to have an insiders perspective. As an IT professional, I die a little on the inside at the way most authors handle technology, geeks, and gamers. It’s a real culture that’s impossible to fake. Great job!
I was just reading “Content”.(electronic) You refer to Heinlein’s “Man Who Sold the Moon” when I am sure you meant “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. I am sure I am not the first person to tell you this. It occurred to me that making a mistake like this could be done on purpose. You probably get many comments of this type. And, this could be used to get a rough estimate of how many people are reading your paper vs. electronic versions. Either by actually asking them in the dialog, or making slightly different errors in the two versions. Just a thought.