The Journey(s) of Ian

This is what can be considered a micro-blog post. Something small, something interesting, just to let those folks, who do in fact read my blog, know what I believe is important. So, it seems that as of February 2011 that sales of ebooks has trumped sales of conventional, paperbound books. What I say to this is, about time! To me, progress seems to take too long, where is the future now! I recall back with my Palm 5 (the early 2000s) lamenting that ebooks were not sufficiently good enough to replace paper books. Now, at last, they are. http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/15/technology/ebooks_beat_paperbacks/index.htm?hpt=T2 Of course the numbers in this article are a little rubbery, but it is there. Ebooks have come of age. What does this mean? It means books should be cheaper. I hate the bleating of the publishing biz, who rival only the music biz for burying one's head in deep sand. Ebooks have the potential to decrease costs, increase availability, and enhance the reading experi...

'Blindsight' -- a science fiction novel by Peter Watts, reviewed by Ian Reide I am a long standing fan of science fiction, it is the genre of choice for intelligent and educated people, and it is the new literature for the 20th century and beyond, however, finding good SF (never used the 'term' Sci-Fi, it is an abomination) can be challenging. In recent decades, in my opinion, too many SF authors have done no more than rehash old ideas and rework existing themes. There are exceptions to this of course, Greg Egan comes to mind. With this in mind it is a pleasure to find a new author with new works, which push the boundaries. Such an author is Peter Watts. Watts, by profession, is a marine biologist. According to his website bio (rifters.com) he has had a varied career, which was part of the reason he decided to turn his hand to writing. His first novels centred around human exploration and exploitation of the mid-21st century oceans. His latest novel, the subject of ...