Microsoft vs. Apple: Who’s winning? The numbers don’t lie | ZDNet

Microsoft has been at the top of the heap for almost as long as people have used PCs. They’ve managed to sustain an overwhelming competitive advantage, even after a decade’s worth of antitrust action and the astonishing transformation of Apple into a profit-making machine that has built one billion-dollar business after another while the entire rest of the tech industry is stuck in neutral. Indeed, the presence of Apple and Google as direct competitors suggests that maybe Microsoft is overdue to take a tumble.

There is never a shortage of Apple-versus-Microsoft yammering in the blogosphere, but I haven’t seen much in the way of actual data. Is Apple really making a dent in Microsoft’s long-standing Windows monopoly?

Read more Microsoft vs. Apple: Who’s winning? The numbers don’t lie | ZDNet.

An Interview with Les Eldridge

Astrodene’s Historic Naval fiction is pleased to have obtained an Interview with Les Eldridge who’s new book The Pride of Pascagoula is now available in paperback in the US and as an ebook worldwide.

What can you tell us about Rory Dunbrody and Tobias St. John’s new adventures in The Pride of Pascagoula , without spoiling the plot for readers?

This novel completes the American Civil War portion of the saga, and returns the lads to the Pacific Northwest where the tale began. Tobias and Rory experience the chilling waters of the English Channel off Cherbourg as the Kearsarge sinks the Alabama. Rory survives the sinking, thanks to Tobias. Then, Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory sends Rory and a cadre of Rebel officers to the Pacific to arm a raider in Victoria, British Columbia, intent on capturing a Union gold shipment from San Francisco. They aid the CSS Shenandoah in attacks on Union whalers, while Tobias is aboard a Union sloop of war in hot pursuit, determined to defend the whaling fleet against destruction.

Read More An Interview with Les Eldridge.

Master of Rome (HC)

Author John Stack has a new novel which is now available for pre-order, Master of Rome, due for release on 20 January 2011.

A stirring adventure novel set amid the tumultuous clashes between the Roman and Carthaginian empires, battling for control of the Mediterranean, north Africa and Rome itself.

Atticus, the young Greek captain, is now a commander of the growing Roman navy, blockading a port near Tunis, when the Roman legions suffer terrible defeat by the triumphant Carthaginian army, spearheaded by the elephant charges. He and his ships escape together with the main body of the Roman fleet out manoevred by the more skillful Carthaginians and then caught and almost completely annhilated by a terrible storm.

Read More Master of Rome (HC).

The Admiral Benbow (HC)

Book 2 in ‘The Hearts of Oak Trilogy’ by Author Sam Willis is now available worldwide in hardcover, The Admiral Benbow: The Life and Times of a Naval Legend.

Admiral John Benbow was an English naval hero, a fighting sailor of ruthless methods but indomitable courage. Benbow was a man to be reckoned with.

In 1702, however, when Benbow engaged a French squadron off the Spanish main, other ships in his squadron failed to support him. His leg shattered by a cannon-ball, Benbow fought on – but to no avail: the French escaped and the stricken Benbow succumbed to his wounds. When the story of his ‘Last Fight’ reached England, there was an outcry. Two of the captains who had abandoned him were court-martialled and shot; ‘Brave Benbow’ was elevated from national hero to national legend, his valour immortalized in broadsheet and folksong: ships were named after him; Tennyson later fêted him in verse; in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, the tavern where Jim Hawkins and his mother live is called ‘The Admiral Benbow’.

Read More The Admiral Benbow (HC).

The Pride of Pascagoula PB

Newly released in the US is the latest Rory Dunbrody and Tobias St. John novel by Les Eldridge titled The Pride of Pascagoula. In the UK it is only available as an ebook.This novel completes the Civil War portion of the saga, and returns the lads to the Pacific Northwest, where it all began. Tobias and Rory experience the chilling waters of the English Channel off Cherbourg as the Kearsarge sinks the Alabama. Next, Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory sends Rory and a cadre of Rebel officers to the Pacific.

Read More The Pride of Pascagoula PB.

Royal Tars of Old England: The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy, 875-1850 (HC)

Author Brian Lavery has a new book out Royal Tars of Old England: The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy, 875-1850 which is now available in hardcover in the UK and will be released in the US on 28 February 2011

Brian Lavery, the pre-eminent historian of the Royal Navy, turns his astute and wide-ranging analytical eye on to its ‘lower deck’ – the world of the seamen as distinct from the officers of the ‘quarterdeck’. If not totally overlooked in the grand narratives of the Senior Service the lower deck is often only noticed when it is a problem. Seamen are difficult to recruit, sometimes they mutiny on board ship, they are liable to drunkenness and venereal disease, they tend to desert or behave in a feckless manner.

Read More Royal Tars of Old England: The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy, 875-1850 (HC).