MemeMachineGo!

Phil Foglio is writing and drawing Sluggy Freelance this week, starting last Sunday . You really need to have read Sluggy to follow it, but it’s worth it.

At Asimov’s , Analog , F&SF and FictionWise , you can read all the 2003 Hugo nominated short fiction for free except for Coraline . Even if you’re not planning to vote, it’s a chance to read some of the best speculative fiction of last year.

Caveat Emptor — it seems USB 2.0’s defining difference from USB 1.1 is a different signaling protocol, not speed. So lots of machines are being marketed as supporting USB 2.0 when they can’t go any faster than USB 1.1’s top speed of 12 MB/s. In wonderfully stupid marketing-ese, USB 2.0 at 12 MB/s is “full speed” and USB 2.0 at 480 MB/s is “high speed”. Well, that’s obvious.

Badger Bag has an interesting take on X2: Wolverine’s Search for Male Identity

An industrial artist is working to modify a Trabant to transform into an El Camino low-rider at the flip of a switch. What I find much more interesting is that she’s also transforming herself toward a related goal: “to be the first woman ever to have a car and a bikini-clad body, both of her own creation, on a low-rider magazine cover.”