Welcome to aburt.com, home to Andrew Burt. Aburt wears many hats, including computer science professor, writer, publisher, early Internet pioneer, founder of the first Internet service provider, former VP of SFWA, and founder of Critique.org / Critters, the first writers' workshop on the web.

Aburt's blog is here.

About Andrew Burt

Projects

Various projects, new and old:

Tools and Web Sites

• Critique.org / Critters Writers' Workshop, for writers and creators in all genres (of which I'm Founder & moderator). Critters was the first writers' workshop on the web and is free to use.

• ReAnimus Press — a publisher, and offering ebook/print book production services. We work with leading names such as Ben Bova and Ursula K. Le Guin, offering the highest royalty rates of any publisher (for professional authors) and cost-effective services such as scanning, OCRing, ebook creation, cover art, etc. (free for professional authors).

• Nyx.net, the world's first Internet service provider, which I founded many moons ago (free, donation funded) — offers free web hosting / email / linux shell access / etc.

• Aburt's Ultimate Loan Comparison Tool (Many, if not most, loan comparison tools leave out important variables that could cost you money. So I wrote an "ultimate" loan comparison tool for myself, and put it up to share with the world. Enjoy.)

• CruiseFellows.com Share photos, links, and announce onboard events for people taking cruises

• Best Ever Written Readers' Poll — reading list of best works ever written — vote for your favorites

• TechSoft -- if you need a custom web site or custom software for Windows or Linux (or non-custom, of course). We specialize in making computers do the (nearly) impossible.

Musings

• My fiction Science Fiction, of course! (ebooks are available for all formats)

• Thoughts on living in a Simulated Universe (not) [Also: Kindle Edition]

• Curing Bad Customer Service — Just a Dollar a Minute

• Say No to the Feeconomy

• Hello, Corruption, My Old Friend — How Craigslist is Killing Democracy

• Thoughts on Abolishing the Electoral College and the Impact on the Two Party System

• Thoughts on Teaching Creationism Alongside Evolution in Science Classes

• Necessity is the Assassin of Invention — How Moderation in the Name of "Spam" is Stifling Innovation

• Thoughts on "Checks & Balances" Bi-Partisan voting

• .HT Files — a quick way to create and easily maintain template-based web sites. (This page and most of my sites use '.ht' files — notice the URLs that end in '.ht') Shareware tool for you to use on your own sites.

For Writers

• Critique.org / Critters Writers' Workshop, for writers and creators in all genres (of which I'm Founder & moderator). Critters was the first writers' workshop on the web and is free to use.

• ReAnimus Press — a publisher, and offering ebook/print book production services. We work with leading names such as Ben Bova and Ursula K. Le Guin, offering the highest royalty rates of any publisher (for professional authors) and cost-effective services such as scanning, OCRing, ebook creation, cover art, etc. (free for professional authors).

• General Guidelines & Tips on Avoiding Scams -- tips how to avoid getting taken by "publishers" who don't have your best interests at heart.

• The Black Holes response time tracker -- see how long your manuscript should take to exit the editorial event horizon.

• Nyx.net, the world's first Internet service provider, which I founded many moons ago (free, donation funded) — offers free web hosting / email etc., may be of interest to writers wanting a site to promote books and whatnot.

• Tools for Smashwords' authors:
  • Check for possible Smashwords problems — Looks for things that might upset Smashwords so you can fix them.
  • Smashwords "Nuclear Option" Assistant for authors — A tool to help Smashwords authors avoid the pain of the so-called "Nuclear Option" for reformatting a troublesome document
  • Smartlinks — Allows links in books that honors Apple's demand that links go to your titles in iBooks when clicked inside the Apple ecosystem, else links go to Smashwords for other channels.

• Making an Ebook for Kindles and iPads and Nooks, Oh My! A quick guide to turning print books/manuscripts into ebooks with minimal pain, maximum gain

• The Secret to writing found! Film at 11! :) Or a sliver of it anyway... here's an article I wrote for the SFWA Bulletin on some interesting statistical correlations I found between the amount of interpersonal relationships in "well regarded" vs. "ordinary" SF/F stories. Add books to the reading list.

• The CritFinder, for those looking for a local, in-person workshop.

• "Time Limited" variant of the Creative Commons license (In beta mode; contact me if you'd like one.)

• "Axioms in the Future of Publishing — Planning Tools for Writers"

• Thoughts on Copyright

• CopyHunter, a tool to identify plagiarism or unauthorized copies of your work

• The PublishAmerica Sting operation that resulted in the creation of Atlanta Nights by "Travis Tea," One of (if not the) absolutely worst books ever written (by design!) (I was a co-author, writing two chapters. One I wrote, the other I wrote software to write. Possibly there's no difference...)

• The Motley Collections of Stamps Postage Calculator

• Bonsai Tree Story Generator -- the aforementioned software used to write that chapter of Atlanta Nights. You can use it on your own text. Have fun blowing your mind...

Aburt's Photo Gallery