So, when I tell the story of how I ended up working in tech, I sometimes start it this way, "When I was very young, my father was a professor at M.I.T. for a while. While he was there, he met Seymour Papert, who told him all about his work in teaching computer programming to very young children. And my father said, 'Hmmm, I have very young children ( Read more... )

I have a bad habit of checking Facebook on my phone when I get up, which is how I started off yesterday morning by learning that Jay Lake had died ( Read more... )

This is shaping up to be a bad year for 70's era Doctor Who companions. The BBC is reporting that Mary Tamm, who played Romana I, had died from cancer.

When I was young and watching Doctor Who meant endless repeats of Tom Baker's era on PBS, I always looked forward to The Key to Time season rolling around again. At the time, I'd have put it down ( Read more... )

BBC news is reporting that Caroline John passed away last week.

Caroline John played Liz Shaw on Doctor Who. Whenever I look back, I'm always surprised at how important Liz was to me as a character: she appeared in just four stories, one of which I never got to see when I was a kid because the then-available video was in such poor shape that my ( Read more... )

I haven't seen this confirmed anywhere but on Twitter, but it appears that Anne McCaffrey has passed away from a stroke ( Read more... )

My father's father died yesterday ( Read more... )

Lis Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, has died of cancer.

It's a truism in Doctor Who fandom that you never forget your first Doctor. He might not always remain your favorite, but he's the one who sets the template for what the role should be. I think it's also true that you never forget your first ( Read more... )

I had a bad feeling when I saw "David Eddings" pop up as one of the trending topics on Twitter. Apparently, Eddings has died, aged 77.

When I was at summer camp (at the TIP program on the Duke University campus) when I was about 13, a friend of mine discovered that I hadn't read The Belgariad. "Come on," she said. "Someone here must have the ( Read more... )

I just clicked over to Neil Gaiman's journal and learned that Rory Root, owner of the Comic Relief comic book store, died yesterdayDuring the time I lived in Berkeley, Comic Relief was my local comic bookstore. Daniel and I visited the store just about every week for several years. When we make the occasional trip up to Berkeley, we always make a ( Read more... )