Facebook – Annoying Distraction or Sinister Manipulation?
A linux laptop running wireshark to illustrate cyber defence in action (photo credit: James Kemp) If you are reading this on Facebook, my apologies. I've not logged in since November 2017 and I've recently deleted the app from my phone. I'd like to keep in touch with people, but Facebook doesn't make that easy any more. Given the recent news about their changes I guess it isn't just me. Facebook's problem If you still have a Facebook account that you actively use then I'm sure you'll know this. Step back for a moment and scroll through the top dozen or so items. Don't engage with them, just take a long hard look. Count how many are original posts from close friends or family, people you actually know and enjoy spending time with. Not shares, comments or adverts. It's a small…
Woman in Arms by Russell Braddon [Book Review]
Woman in Arms by Russell Braddon My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nancy Wake (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I re-read this over the holidays. Woman in Arms is one of the books I've owned the longest of those on my shelves. The story is just as remarkable now as it was when I first read Woman in Arms around 1990. Nancy Wake was born in NZ, grew up in Australia and moved to France where she worked as a journalist before WW2. She married a frenchman just after the outbreak of WW2 and worked to help people escape from the nazis. Eventually the Gestapo were after her and she too escaped to London. She then trained as an SOE agent and went back in 1944 to wreak havoc between the invasion and liberation. Woman in Arms Woman in Arms was originally…
2018 Resolutions
English: New Year's Resolutions postcard (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I have been posting my new year resolutions in the blog for the past four years, so I'm going to continue this with my 2018 resolutions. But before my 2018 resolutions I think we should look at how well I've done on the 2017 resolutions. 2017 Resolutions I had a few 2017 resolutions. However I must have been feeling overly optimistic in January 2017! Here they are: Finish my Open University degree (in June if I pass both courses) Design a megagame (1689, in the latter half of the year) Write 50 blog posts, edit Perfects and Noren, write another novel (probably NaNoWriMo 2017) and a history book Get my weight into the 12 - stone range and keep it there. Finish my Degree I did this, it was a lot of…
Asrian Skies by Anne Wheeler [Book Review]
Asrian Skies by Anne Wheeler My rating: 5 of 5 stars Asrian Skies is an awesome novel, reading a lot like Elizabeth Bear and Ann Leckie. There's action, politics, tension, space opera and a very personal story of a young woman trying to work out what she wants and how to deal with the responsibility thrust upon her. The book is really well written, and the characters multi-dimensional, especially the antagonist where we can see the underlying humanity that his inhumane interrogation somehow works around. Asrian Skies Asrian Skies is set in a universe where humans inhabit multiple star systems and have faster than light travel available. The main character, Avery Rendon, is training to become a fighter pilot with the Commonwealth armed forces. The Commonwealth is a loose confederation of systems that each have their own way of doing…
Steel & Lace edited by Francine Howarth [Book Review]
Steel & Lace - Anthology of 17th-18th century stories. by Francine Howarth My rating: 5 of 5 stars I occasionally stray into genres that aren't my preferred ones, usually to widen my reading experience and learn a little more about writing different sort of stories. Historical romance is one of the areas that I have entirely avoided, until now. I've had a prejudice against it, worrying that there will be a pinkwash over the history from the rose-tinted spectacles of damsel heroine lusting after her bare chested highlander. There was none of that in Steel & Lace, all the history was spot on, although there was just a little bit of lust. Steel & Lace I picked up Steel & Lace on kindle because it was free and I had previously read one of the authors historical fiction and really…