I posted about the Worldbuilders charity raffle, run by author Patrick Rothfuss a little while back. One thing I didn’t mention is that he’s also auctioning off a few items. One of those is a Mark Tremonti Signature Guitar, signed by Creed. Frankly, I consider that to be several different kinds of awesome. If any of you would be interested in this, I’d recommend heading over to the auction. It’s starting at only $150.
charity
Worldbuilders (aka ‘Tis the Season for Giving)
Patrick Rothfuss is holding a raffle again this holiday season, this year with a snazzy new name. Worldbuilders! All proceeds (and more, 50% of donations are being met) go to Heifer International. If you either like helping people, like giving people fuzzy animals, or like SF/F books, I would highly recommend donating money to the raffle.
Once again, if anyone wants to give me a Christmas present, donate some in my name/send me the prizes.
The blog post explaining the rules and how to enter is here.
Progress through Processors
Yesterday, TechWorthy posted about a fantastic opportunity for you to get involved with scientific research taking place around the globe- and all you need is a Facebook account and a minute to download a new application. You can choose from among several scientific endeavors to lend your computing power to, and there appears to be no downside. The program only uses processing capabilities that you aren’t accessing, and your own needs will always come first. The moment you need all of your computer’s power, you’ll have it- the processor sharing application will run quietly in the background, and you’ll never know that it’s there.
I would have downloaded it right away except for one concern: security. While I’m no IA expert, it seems to me that if another computer is being allowed to access my processing power, someone could easily conduct a man-in-the-middle type attack to take over my computer, and the post I’d read did little to address my worries.
This morning, however, I found an article on Wired.com which claims that Progress through Processors creates a folder on your computer which is incapable of accessing the rest of your hard drive, so all of your files are safe. Furthermore, there is a one way interaction: “No third party site contacts your computer. It’s only your computer that reaches out.”
I’m not entirely sure how that’s possible, but I’m willing to trust that until I learn anything to the contrary. I’ll begin donating my processing power tonight.
The Name of the Charity
Patrick Rothfuss just became my favorite currently producing author in the fantasy genre. This, fortunately, means I can currently exclude Terry Pratchett who I do not believe will be publishing any more books, sadly. Otherwise there would need to be some kind of literary throwdown between Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman, and Terry Pratchett.
But get this: Rothfuss only has two published books. Only one of them is a novel. The other is a collection his humor columns in a newspaper from his younger days, and will be heretofore ignored. The novel is The Name of the Wind, which is easily the best fantasy novel published in the last decade. Possibly even the last two decades (let’s call that through 1990). I don’t say that lightly.
How good does one book need to be to make a man my favorite currently producing author? Pretty awsome, and that’s why it’s not the only reason, despite the fact I’m now reading it for the third time. I almost never read books multiple times.
Patrick Rothfuss has risen in my esteem because he is currently offering prizes for anyone who donates to Heifer International through his page, and matching donations. I’ve been making fairly regular donations to Heifer for years, but to have the opportunity to win such prizes as signed books, early manuscripts, and other paraphenalia while doing it is beyond cool. 
Unfortunately, I don’t have thousands of dollars I can donate. But if you do (or even just hundreds, or tens… everyone has ten dollars they can donate, right?), please do so. Read his blog for details, or just go to his team page to donate. And if you just want to have your donation doubled and don’t care about the prizes, feel free to give me your prizes. It’s no trouble really… That and the fact that I don’t actually own a copy of the book yet mean I would love for my first to have a signature with some cool dedication.
Lucid Lunacy 