I recently read a story called The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge in The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 17. This is easily one of the best short SF stories I have read in a long time. Shortly afterwards, I discovered it was winner of the 2004 Hugo award, category best Novella.

I won't attempt to explain the story in much detail. Briefly, cookie in the title refers more to the HTTP state mechanism than the edible variety.

Today I passed over the Free Software Foundation's annual awards (FSAs), and noticed that Vinge was nominated for the 2004 award. I plan to look into precicely how he's involved with Free Software.

( Since writing this entry I've realised that I had misread the FSF award page: Vinge was not nominated, he was on the Award Committee. )

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