Month: September 2009

Today, I start with yet another online presence. I have a new blog over at Ubuntu-User.com, a companion site to the new Ubuntu User magazine by the fine people who bring you the slick, shiny LinuxPro Magazine. The second issue of the quarterly Ubuntu User magazine, in which another new column of mine appears, is on store shelves now. I’m very excited about this new blog, the Ubuntu User column, and I’m totally thrilled about my new monthly column which will be appearing in the pages of LinuxPro Magazine starting with the December issue. Since this is day one of …

This is a great time to be a fan of science fiction and fantasy. Tonight (September 24, 2009), on ABC television, a new series called FlashForward will be broadcast to a waiting world. The series is based on the 1999 novel of the same name by my great friend, Robert J. Sawyer. Here’s the quick intro: for mysterious reasons (aren’t they always), everyone in the entire world, all 7 billions human beings, suddenly black out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. During this blackout, they see visions of themselves and others, one year into the future.  Of course, the blackout …

From up here in the Great White North — that would be Canada, eh! — we watch with some bewilderment as president Barack Obama struggles to get his floundering health care reform bill passed. Truth is, Americans have an amazingly crappy health care system . . . okay, let me rephrase that . . . Americans have a health care system that could be really great were it not subject to the power of the Dark Side. Yes, I’m talking about good old fashioned corporate greed. That would be the kind of greed that tries to make sure every American …