An Interview with Alaric Bond (2010)

Astrodene’s Historic Naval fiction is pleased to have obtained an Interview with Alaric Bond, author of the ‘Fighting Sail’ series, ahead of the publication of his new novel True Colours which will be released shortly.

What can you tell us about ‘True Colours’ without spoiling the plot for readers?

It follows ‘The Jackass Frigate’, opening in the spring of 1797. Jervis has won the Battle of Cape St Vincent, although the British no longer sail the Mediterranean. The story continues with Pandora, returning to an England plagued by problems; the Channel Fleet are rumoured to have mutinied, and the newly instigated Batavian Republic stand ready to support a French invasion fleet. Admiral Duncan has charge of the North Sea Squadron, although the vessels he commands are decidedly second rate; some being converted from merchants, and all in need of a refit.

via An Interview with Alaric Bond (2010).

The Battle of Quiberon Bay 1759: Britain’s Other Trafalgar (HC)

Author Nicholas Tracy has a new book out which is now available for pre-order in hardcover, The Battle of Quiberon Bay 1759: Britain’s Other Trafalgar. Release date 30 May 2010.

Revered naval theorist, Alfred Thayer Mahan, thought the Battle of Quiberon Bay (20 Nov 1759) was as significant as Nelson’s victory in 1805, calling it ‘the Trafalgar of this war [the Seven Years War]’. Arguably it was even more vital. Britain in 1759 was much less well-defended, with virtually no regular troops at home, and the threat of French invasion was both more realistic and more imminent. When the British fleet under Admiral Hawke fell upon them, the French ships of the line under Admiral Conflans were actually on their way to rendezvous with the invasion troopships gathered at the mouth of the Loire. Yet the battle and the admiral remain relatively obscure – there is no Quiberon Square or Hawke’s column.

Read more The Battle of Quiberon Bay 1759: Britain’s Other Trafalgar (HC).

LHC steps closer to discoveries on antimatter | Tech News on ZDNet

The first particle has been detected in a Large Hadron Collider experiment that hopes to shed light on the nature of interactions between matter and antimatter.

LHCb — an experiment set up to explore what happened in the moments immediately after the Big Bang — on Wednesday found a particle called a beauty or bottom quark. Cern scientists have a wishlist of particles they want to measure in the experiment, and the beauty quark is the first on the list that they have found.

The detection is a step on the road to the possible discovery of new particles or interactions between particles, said Cern physicist Christine Sutton. Beauty particles were first discovered in 1977.

via LHC steps closer to discoveries on antimatter | Tech News on ZDNet.

An Interview with Julian Stockwin

Astrodene’s Historic Naval fiction is pleased to have obtained an Interview with Julian Stockwin, author of the ‘Kydd’ series, ahead of the publication of Victory which will be released on 24 June 2010 in the UK and 1 October 2010 in the US. It is already available for pre-order.

What can you tell us about Kydd’s new adventures in ‘Victory’, without spoiling the plot for readers?

The publisher’s blurb reads –

“Commander Thomas Kydd is eager to play his part in thwarting Bonaparte’s plans for the invasion of England. He and his ship join Admiral Nelson’s command just before the greatest sea encounter of all time: the Battle of Trafalgar. We also see the action from on board Victory herself, through the eyes of Midshipman Bowden This heart-lurching adventure blends fact and fiction in rich and authoritative detail, closely following historical record and taking us into the heart of the world-defining events of 1805 the lead-up to Trafalgar with dramatic chases across the Atlantic, false sightings of the enemy, and convoluted political machinations, including an impeachment of the head of the Navy, the bloody annihilation of the enemy during the actual battle, and the heroic aftermath.”

Read More An Interview with Julian Stockwin.

Microsoft patches fail on infected Windows | Tech News on ZDNet

April security fixes for Windows will not install if the user’s machine is infected with the Alureon rootkit.

The company’s latest security patches, released on April 16, will spot the rootkit if present and refuse to continue with installation. The Alureon rootkit was responsible for crashes in February’s security updates, including Blue Screen of Death errors for XP users due to the way it interacted with the KB977165 patch, which required kernel access.

via Microsoft patches fail on infected Windows | Tech News on ZDNet.

Report: Google password system attacked | Tech News on ZDNet

The cyberattack on Google last year reportedly yielded access to a password system that controls millions of users’ access to the company’s services including e-mail and business services.

Gaia, which allows users to sign in using their password once for a range of services, was compromised during a two-day attack last December, according to a New York Times report that cited a person with knowledge of an internal investigation. However, Gmail users’ passwords do not appear to have been stolen, and the company quickly initiated security changes to its networks, according to the report.

via Report: Google password system attacked | Tech News on ZDNet.

Obama’s asteroid goal: tougher, riskier than moon

(AP) — Landing a man on the moon was a towering achievement. Now the president has given NASA an even harder job, one with a certain Hollywood quality: sending astronauts to an asteroid, a giant speeding rock, just 15 years from now.

Space experts say such a voyage could take several months longer than a journey to the moon and entail far greater dangers.

via Obama’s asteroid goal: tougher, riskier than moon.

Security researchers demo Cisco Wi-Fi flaws | Tech News on ZDNet

Two generations of Cisco wireless LAN equipment contain a range of vulnerabilities, researchers have told the Black Hat security conference.

Enno Rey and Daniel Mende from German testing firm ERNW demonstrated how to hack into two separate generations of Cisco Wi-Fi kit. They said that the flaws were fairly easy to find and exploit.

In a presentation called ‘Hacking Cisco Enterprise WLANs’ on Wednesday, the researchers demonstrated an attack aimed at Cisco’s first generation equipment Cisco Structured Wireless Aware Network (Swan).

The researchers said it was possible to launch denial of service attacks and to sniff encrypted traffic on Swan by exploiting weaknesses in Cisco’s Wireless LAN Context Control Protocol (WLCCP). The protocol defines how information is sent between wireless access points.

via Security researchers demo Cisco Wi-Fi flaws | Tech News on ZDNet.

Google Turns to HTML5 for Gmail’s New Drag-and-Drop Attachments | Webmonkey | Wired.com

Google continues to use HTML5 to push its web apps into the future. The latest bit of HTML5 to feel Google’s love is drag-and-drop support, which is now a standard part of Gmail. If you’re using Google Chrome 4 or Firefox 3.6, you can now simply drag a file from your desktop onto a message window and Gmail will automatically attach the file.

read more Google Turns to HTML5 for Gmail’s New Drag-and-Drop Attachments | Webmonkey | Wired.com.

‘Invasion’ Paperback now available

The Paperback version of Invasion by Julian Stockwin is now available for pre-order. It will be published in the UK on 24 June 2010 and in the US on 1 October 2010

Read More ‘Invasion’ Paperback now available.