Power Tactics

I’m quite fond of my Kindle. Sure, the design’s a little bonkers; and it’s a wee bit awkward. That aside, it is easy to read, easy to use, and mine happens to be loaded with books I want to read.
Moreover, it’s taken a great weight off my shoulders. I like to read when I’m travelling. [...]

Digital Pulp Fiction

I think I was eight when I read my first “real” book — of course, that’s not counting comics, Willy Waddle, or books designed to be chewed. The book was Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons, a proper book; a marvelous story for a boy who spent his days poking at squiggly-wiggly things in the tide [...]

My Secret Summer Romance

Her name was Jane. We met, quite unexpectedly, at Zaventem Airport in Brussels. At the Avis counter. It was such a random thing, but when I saw her I knew — no hesitation — whatever the cost, I just knew. Some things are just meant to be. With Jane, it was meant to be. Jane. I [...]

Holding Horses

I was settling in to my seat on the 767-400; tucking away all the detritus that one travels with in today’s world – squirreling away my cheap paperback, iPod, and headphones in the seatback in front of me, throwing the blanket on the floor, and stuffing the pillow between me and the armrest. I travel [...]

Fun with CueCats – how to get a (really) cheap barcode scanner

Several years ago – during the Dot-Com crazy years, there was a company called DigitalConvergence. They were going to “revolutionize” marketing by linking barcodes in magazine advertising with online web sites. To participate in this revolution you had to have a barcode scanner (called a Cue Cat), be sitting near your PC, see something that [...]