User talk:Bluesman

From ISFDB

PLEASE NOTE: If you're writing to inform me that you've either added a COVER IMAGE or NOTES to any of my VERIFIED PUBS, please click HERE and add it to the bottom of the list. It is NOT necessary to notify me if you are just adding an OCLC #/verification to the pub or the new Publication Series data. A link to the pub record would be appreciated. Once the pub has been reviewed, I'll remove your note from the list. Thanks. Bluesman

See User talk:Bluesman/Archive for 2008 discussions.

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Contents 1 SFBC of Hugo Winners, Vol. 5 2 Vt of Von Kempelen and his Discovery 3 Error Related to The House on the Strand Cover 4 Wizard John Varley 1981 Cover 5 Muito obrigado pela as aprovações! 6 A Step Farther Out 7 Price of verified entry 8 Gibson's Spook Country 9 Astounding UK 10 The Golden Apples of the Sun 11 Canadian printings of American publishers' editions 12 Ballantine 1st edition of The Wanderer 13 Fawcett pb ed. of Rogue Moon 14 Publication date discrepancy with OCLC in The Cosmic Puppets 15 price 16 Cover credit for The Towers of Utopia 17 Cover art credit for Toyman 18 John Brunner The Squares of the City 19 Multireal 20 2008 Locus1 verification

SFBC of Hugo Winners, Vol. 5

Does this pub have a gutter code? Mhhutchins 19:35, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, 'Q43' pg 339. Will add to the record.

Could you also look for a gutter code in Medea: Harlan's World? Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:43, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Almost certainly the trade edition with the number line expunged, no code. Paper quality and binding superior to BCE editions, regular trade size as well.

And Robots and Empire. Mhhutchins 19:50, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

No code. --~ Bill, Bluesman 23:44, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 03:12, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Vt of Von Kempelen and his Discovery

Thanks for the heads up. I'll enter it as it appears in the pub. Syzygy 19:22, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Error Related to The House on the Strand Cover

I appreciate how fast you've approved my edits the past two days. Thanks. I'm learning. I encountered an error I thought I should mention to you. On The House on the Strand I clicked on the ISFDB link under the cover image and got the error "Error creating thumbnail: /var/www/html/wiki//bin/ulimit4.sh: line 4: /usr/local/bin/convert: No such file or directory". When I click the same link on other pages, like The Tenth Planet, I don't get the error. I saw on a help screen that the longest side of an image shouldn't be over 600 pixels. The House on the Strand image is 623 pixels. Perhaps that's the problem.Jmaloney 21:17, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Not the problem! By default the thumbnail size is set to 320x240. You can change that by doing the following:

• Click on the "My Preferences" link at the top of any wiki page or on the left side under "My Pages".
• Click on the "Files" tab on the next screen.
• In the drop-down menu next to "Limit images on file description pages to:" choose "10000x10000px".
• In the drop-down menu next to "Thumbnail size" choose "300px".
• Click on the "Save" button.

Now you should see any images. Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 21:50, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

That fixed it. You're good! Thanks!Jmaloney 22:28, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I am, but I had the same problem once upon a time and was helped with the same instructions. Just passing this along! Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:34, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Wizard John Varley 1981 Cover

I think, this pub have wrong cover. This edition was with cover by Tim White (there & there for exemple) BarDenis 20:56, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, seems to be for the '85 edition. Updated the record. Thanks! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:00, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Muito obrigado pela as aprovações!

Did you do that just to reduce the eye-strain, or did you have fun spotting the deliberate mistakes? ;-) BLongley 04:37, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

Neither! It took less time to just blast through them than to wait for the page to download to get to my submissions at the bottom of the list. ;-)) Thank god Fixer doesn't get a colour .......! --~ Bill, Bluesman 04:45, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

Please tell me you're not going to do 500 Variants in one ‡(( shot ;-) --~ Bill, Bluesman 04:52, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

Nah... I'll stick to a hundred a time. Till later, when the Brazilians seem to have divided one English tome into two or three volumes. BLongley 05:53, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

Actually, even fifty looks too many. The Publisher Series page takes ages to load when there's hundreds of titles. I might have to go and code some improvements, if Ahasuerus will let me submit changes again (we have a backlog of several months now). :-/ BLongley 11:33, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

You might try keeping the publisher's page open in it's own window/tab and temporarily set your 'preferences' so that clicking on a link opens in a new tab/window which you can close after working on the pub, then back to the Publisher's page and pick the next one. Should work better than waiting all the time. --~ Bill, Bluesman 17:10, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

A Step Farther Out

This record shows up on the Stray Authors list because the author of the pub doesn't match the author of the title record. Can you double-check the book to see if it's credited correctly and determine whether a variant should be created for the title? Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:46, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

It's credited correctly, I made specific mention in the notes about the PHD. I would imagine the first Ace tp edition is similarly credited though none of the OCLC records show it, for any edition. --~ Bill, Bluesman 02:23, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

I had already checked the OCLC records and saw that none credit the Ph.D., so until someone comes along and verifies the other editions, you'll have to make yours into a variant. (Or drop the "Ph.D." from your record and explain why.) Thanks. Mhhutchins 03:21, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Price of verified entry

My copy of THE BEST OF TREK #2 [1] 1st printing has a different price ($1.95 as to your $1.25). Could you check your copy and isn't a $1.25 a little low for a 1980 book? My copy maybe a later printing that kept the full number line. Thanks.Don Erikson 23:18, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Actually the typo was in the $, not the ¢! Price is $2.25, and clearly an overprint. A Canadian edition. Since no-one else has verified, I changed the existing record to match my pub so you should clone since yours is a US edition [?]. The image is of mine so it has the $2.25 price showing [no other price]. I'll have to check the rest in that series as well. With no other verifications it's hard to find these differences. Thanks for catching this one. Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 04:09, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Gibson's Spook Country

Does your copy of this book contain only the ISBN-10? According to the Amazon Look-Inside, it prints the ISBN-13. Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 22:15, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Only the ISBN-13 is present. Changed the record. Thanks! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:26, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Astounding UK

Hi, if you will release the hold on Malcolmf's Astounding submission, I'll try to recover it. I've already generated a blank record on the Astounding UK page and all I need is to add a tag to link the submission over (or so I think).--Rkihara 01:11, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Done. If that works let me know how you generated the tag, might come in useful! --~ Bill, Bluesman 01:35, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Publication Tags are automatically generated when a new publication is approved. They're not stable (people can edit them on existing publications) and it's better to use publication IDs for linking. I think some Magazine moderators do, or used to, make sure Tags were decipherable into a pub-title (without all the vowels) and a date, but it's really not necessary and is frankly undesirable. (swfritter discovered several "tag clashes" for magazines, I'd already discovered several for "Doctor Who and the..." book titles, and fixing that took longer to explain than code!) If a "link by tag" fails to work, (usually by linking it to the wrong pub) let me know - but generally leave them alone and link new ones by ID instead. BLongley 03:29, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

The Golden Apples of the Sun

I'm not sure you should have approved P-Brane's edit adding a price from an ad in a later edition. This 1970 edition was £0.40, this 1975 edition was £0.40, making this one in-between £0.35 looks suspicious. I'm not saying it's wrong (and I must check my copies, I'm sure I have at least a couple of printings), but I'm very dubious of prices from ads unless they're very close in date. BLongley 03:19, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Agreed, and something I thought of after accepting it. I'll wait until you check your 'stash' before reversing the edit. --~ Bill, Bluesman 03:23, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Prod me if I don't get round to it in the next day or two. I'm pretty sure I've got most of my "B" authors sorted. In fact, if I can push a few more "A" authors back into bookcase 1, and get rid of the MZB pubs on bookcase 2 that I suspect I'll never get round to reading, bookcase 2 might be purely "Baker" to "Byrne". BLongley 03:40, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

In fact, it is price for this edition which is highly suspicious! £0.40 is very high if you look at other Corgi prices from 1970 and the book is quite slim (169). All known '73 releases in Corgi SF Library very £0.35 and the price appears in a several ads from 73 and 74. Cheers, P-Brane 03:14, 25 January 2012 (UTC).

You're right, the 1970 edition is probably wrong. Unfortunately the UK price is blacked out on my edition so I can't be sure, but I'd say £0.20 or 4/- is more likely. BLongley 13:40, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Canadian printings of American publishers' editions

I was going to add notes to this record when I realized that my copy is not a first edition. There is no statement of edition or number line on the copyright page, and there is no price printed on the dustjacket. In the price section of the barcode on the back of the dustjacket, only the number "90000" appears instead of a price. And to top it all, there's a maple-leaf impressed on the back at the bottom of the cloth section of the book. So I removed my verification and am stumped about adding a new record for my copy. There's a statement on the copyright page "Published simultaneously in Canada" so I'm thinking my copy may be one. Are you familiar with how books published in Canada by American publishers look? Do they have printed prices? Have you ever seen the impressed maple-leaf? It's the same size (but different shape) of the one used by BOMC for their printings. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:29, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

I remember a similar 'stamp' being mentioned by MartyD, though I can't remember the title. We determined that it had to be a BOMC/CANADA or something along those lines. I have never seen one, personally. The '90000' appears in many barcode blocks, US & Canadian, and always for some kind of BCE. I am not familiar with any exclusively Canadian Book Clubs, not sure if any still operate here [the SFBC is no longer servicing us]. If I can think of anything else, I'll add to this. --~ Bill, Bluesman 01:36, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

This [site] categorically states: "If you find a circle, square, maple leaf, dot, or star blind-stamped on the bottom right of the outside back cover, it's a Book of the Month Club (BOMC) edition." --~ Bill, Bluesman 04:21, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Ballantine 1st edition of The Wanderer

I'm trying to confirm whether the Easton Press edition of this title is a facsimile reprint of the Ballantine first edition. For a page check, can you see if page 127 starts with "seemingly" and prints the graphic that looks like a yin-yang symbol above the caption "SIX HOURS"? And page 201 starts "AS THE MORNING TIDE flooded up the Bristol Channel..." and after that single paragraph begins "CHAPTER" (over) "TWENTY-NINE"? Thanks for looking. Mhhutchins 04:23, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes on both instances. You're welcome! --~ Bill, Bluesman 04:26, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the very fast response. I figured it was a facsimile, not just because of the page count, but the type face as well. Mhhutchins 04:38, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Fawcett pb ed. of Rogue Moon

Can I bother you to check another book to determine if it's been reprinted as the Easton Press edition? Page 100 begins "I guess. Shouldn't..." and page 168 starts "stars, now dead black...". Also, does your edition have chapter headings that include various shapes of a crescent moon? Thanks for looking. Mhhutchins 21:55, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes to the page 'beginnings' but no doodles on chapter heading pages. And I checked both the editions I have [s1057, L1474]. --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:01, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Ah ha! So they added the doodles. Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 22:07, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Publication date discrepancy with OCLC in The Cosmic Puppets

I have a copy The Cosmic Puppets which is exactly the same, except for a different pub date (1986) which matches the OCLC record you verified. Should I Add or Edit ? --Pips55 22:10, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The date recorded is from Locus1, and they note that the edition does have a 1986 date but wasn't published until 1987. OCLC would only record the date as put in the book. Without the book I'd go by Locus, but our policy is to record what's in the actual copy and note differences if reputable secondary sources disagree. Here I would edit the existing but note that Locus has a different date [note the actual date Locus gives - 1987-03-00]. --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:13, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

price

Hi Bill, I found here Deutsche Nationalbibliothek another price for the Katalog der deutschsprachigen utopisch-phantastischen Literatur 1460 - 1960. What do we now? Rudam 19:10, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Is there any way to tell if either price is for a first edition? Does the DN note other editions/prices? From the notes in Tuck about this book [sounds like it would be one to acquire!!] he probably used it for a lot of his entries and had a copy. If you are comfortable that the DN price is correct, alter the record but note that Tuck has a different price. Covers both possibilities. --~ Bill, Bluesman 19:17, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

DN notes only one edition and my research doesn't find other printings. But I can't for sure say that DB is correct, therefore I will note the DN price. I'm delighted that you find this treasure. Rudam 19:55, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, if you can find an actual copy, clone it a bunch of times and send us all one! Tuck does note that even though it's in German any bibliographer could use it. Apparently there were periodic update sheets of the current releases, all under the Transgalaxis label. Of course this would have been in 1974 ... --~ Bill, Bluesman 20:00, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Cover credit for The Towers of Utopia

Artist for this pub is Bruce Pennington, based on the credited use of the same cover art here. I'll update the record. Mhhutchins 18:24, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

And I have both of them .... my Pelman radar is slipping! ;-) Thanks! --~ Bill, Bluesman 18:45, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Cover art credit for Toyman

Thanks to Tineye, I found the cover artist credit of this publication. Mhhutchins 21:43, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, it wasn't Tineye. It was my own memory of the unusual cover art when trying to find the original publication sources for the covers of NEL's Science Fiction Monthly, all covers of which were reprinted from earlier book covers. Mhhutchins 21:45, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Great! Those Tubb covers are quite interesting, and seem to be from one artist. Hopefully you find some more matches. Thanks! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:54, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I agree that all of them are most likely by Chris Yates, I'm just looking for some corroborating evidence. Look at the other Arrow publications he did in the early 70s and you'll see the same style. He seems to have got away from it in the later work. Mhhutchins 21:29, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

John Brunner The Squares of the City

Hi, should the pages field of this pub read viii+319 ? Thanks --Pips55 20:52, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Indeed! And now it does. Good catch. --~ Bill, Bluesman 20:59, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Multireal

Hi, I've changed the price from $15.00 to $15.98, according to this page. I also altered the publisher to Pyr / Prometheus, as Prometheus is named on back cover, title page and copyright page: "Pyr®, an imprint of Prometheus Books". --Dirk P Broer 00:38, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

2008 Locus1 verification

I'm holding a submission to update a 2008 pub for which you did a Locus1 verification. Trouble is, currently Locus1 only goes up to 2007. If you're verifying from the most recent Locus Database CD-ROM, I would think it better to indicate that as your source and not "Locus1", which is the ISFDB short-hand for the online database. The conflation of the two sources might cause some confusion (as it did in my case). The submission also wants to change the price and gives the publisher's website as a source. Another editor must have entered that strange number line, and without a primary verification there's no way of knowing its source. If you want to take over the submission, I'll release the hold. Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:49, 4 February 2012 (UTC)