Astrodene Review: Men of Honor by M. Kei

After reading the first book in the series I had high expectations for this novel and I was not disappointed, it was another page turner.

The story takes up where the previous one left of with Lieutenant Peter Thornton a captain in the Sallee Navy, but he soon finds himself under arrest and back in the Royal Navy. Whilst the narrative will be familiar to lovers of naval fiction set in the late 1700’s it is based on a fictional history and the author uses this to full advantage as the plot takes unexpected twists and turns and the various naval powers fight it out.

Read More Astrodene Review: Men of Honor by M. Kei.

Honor Bound HC

Author Robert N Macomber has a new novel which is now available for pre-order in hardcover, Honor Bound, due for release on May 2011.It’s June, 1888. Cmdr. Peter Wake, U.S. naval intelligence agent, is in Florida culminating an espionage mission to learn Spain’s naval readiness in Cuba. A woman from his past shows up, begging him to find her missing son, and Wake sets off across Florida, through the Bahamian islands, and deep into the dank jungles of Haiti. His band includes a Smithsonian ethnologist, a Bahamian Seminole sailor, Russian spies, and a Polish-Haitian soldier. Overcoming storms, mutiny, and shipwreck, Wake discovers the hidden lair of an anarchist group planning to wreak havoc around the world–unless he stops it.

Read More Honor Bound HC.

BBC News – Supercomputers ‘will fit in a sugar cube’, IBM says

A pioneering research effort could shrink a supercomputer to the size of a sugar cube, IBM scientists say.

The approach will see many computer processors stacked on top of one another, cooling them with water flowing between each one.

The aim is to reduce computers’ energy use, rather than just to shrink them.

Some 2% of the world’s total energy is consumed by building and running computer equipment.

via BBC News – Supercomputers ‘will fit in a sugar cube’, IBM says.

BBC News – Change to ‘Bios’ will make for PCs that boot in seconds

New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.

The upgrade will spell the end for the 25-year-old PC start-up software known as Bios that initialises a machine so its operating system can get going.

The code was not intended to live nearly this long, and adapting it to modern PCs is one reason they take as long as they do to warm up.

Bios’ replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011.

via BBC News – Change to ‘Bios’ will make for PCs that boot in seconds.

An Interview with David Donachie

Astrodene’s Historic Naval fiction is pleased to have obtained an Interview with David Donachie who’s new book Blown Off Course is now available in Hardcover in the UK and will be released in the US on 15 February 2011.

What can you tell us about Pearce’s new adventures in Blown Off Course without spoiling the plot for readers?

For those who don’t know the series, John Pearce, the reluctant naval officer, is on a mission to secure the freedom of his friends, those with whom he was illegally press-ganged in the Pelican Tavern.

Back from the Mediterranean he has gone to the Admiralty to seek protections for the Pelicans, believing them to be safe on a ship Portsmouth. But unbeknownst to him, a malignant fate has intervened and cast them ashore without any safeguard from the law or the Press Gang, leaving them only one option, to get back to the part of London known as the Liberties of the Savoy, where they are secure from arrest.

Still in pursuit of the man who pressed them all, Captain Ralph Barclay, Pearce discovers he lacks the funds to get him into a court on a charge of perjury, while the written evidence that proves his perjury is, Pearce believes, lost.

Still in pursuit of the man who pressed them all, Captain Ralph Barclay, Pearce discovers he lacks the funds to get him into a court on a charge of perjury, while the written evidence that proves his perjury is, Pearce believes, lost.

Read More An Interview with David Donachie.

Microsoft tempts antitrust lawyers with expanded antivirus offering | ZDNet

You want a good, solid, free antivirus program? Microsoft Security Essentials fills the bill nicely. Unfortunately, even though it was officially released more than a year ago, it’s still one of the best-kept secrets in personal computing. Its installed base of 30 million users worldwide might sound big in raw numbers, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the billion-plus Windows PCs in use.

All that’s about to change, as Microsoft has now begun delivering Microsoft Security Essentials via Microsoft Update to customers in the United States (a pilot program in the UK started earlier this year). If Windows detects that you’re currently running without up-to-date antivirus protection, this is what you’ll see in the Optional Updates section:

read more Microsoft tempts antitrust lawyers with expanded antivirus offering | ZDNet.

Blown Off Course (HC)

Author David Donachie has a new novel, Blown Off Course, which is now available in the UK and will be released in the US on 15 February 2011.

Lieutenant John Pearce is in London seeking protection for his friends, the Pelicans, from a reluctant Admiralty. Sat in the Pelican Tavern where they were first press-ganged, he wonders what future he has, lacking funds and an occupation if he leaves Navy, and without the evidence that would bring Captain Ralph Barclay to justice for perjury.

Read More Blown Off Course (HC).