I spent the last few hours reading through most of the excerpts that are available for the finalists in the novel category. The only one I didn't read was for Storm of Swords. In general, I was very disappointed in the quality of the material that made it to the finals, which makes the selection of Quantum Rose semi-understandable. However, Eternity's End was much better at least by the excerpt. There seemed to be some inherent conflict in the the story. And beyond getting used to the description of flying the spaceship, the read was pretty good. In terms of sci-fi, I would have chosen this novel over anything else that I had read.
In searching for the possible reason why Quantum Rose had done so well, I went back to the preliminary award ballot. On it was a book I very much enjoyed entitled Calculating God by Robert Sawyer. This book was better than anything that I read in the excerpts from the books in the finals.
I admit that I am very picky when it comes to what I read and like, but the excerpts were very disappointing. For example, the Crossing Mars excerpt had nothing in it which would make me want to read the book. The sentence structure was plain and the plot just didn't interest me at all from what was available. I can only imagine that something happens which requires the crew of the spaceship to end up exploring more of Mars than they intended, but none of that was evident in what was available.
I hope that next year's nominees give me a lot more to look forward to.
Also, do people in the states have to pay full price on the handsets?
While right now, there are significant discounts on handsets, sometimes making them free, it looks like in the future those free phones will be a thing of the past.
Here is an article on the book describing the Difference Engine and the quest to build it from the blueprints using only the available technology of Babbage's time.
Of course, then any extra-terrestrial life forms (assuming they exist based on the sheer probability that they must) encountering a crashing probe on their planet would believe that the Earth had somehow attacked them, setting off a Intergalactic war the Earth is just not ready to fight yet.
Maybe we need that Star Wars Missle defense program quicker than we think.
This type of technology will become more common in automobiles in the future, most likely before 2010. The On-Star system is currently a subscription based service, but the future systems will be passive and not require a fee. As technology gets cheaper, it will be come feasible for auto manufacturer to install devices in cars to transmit information about the car directly to the dealer and manufacturer. This is the OEM and dealer's idea of how to collect more relevant information about their customers and their vehicle usage.
There are some high-end models which have systems like this. The technology currently costs about $200 per car but should go down to about $75 before 2010. It plugs directly into the OBD-II connector under most vehicle dashboards. This is the same port that some mechanics use to read information about your car. And you thought your vehicle driving habits were private.
The article I got this information from is a subscription based service that I get from work otherwise I would link to it.
Some scientific research has gone into these alternative medicine techniques. Granted, this is occurring in countries outside the US, probably because funding is a little looser in those places.
German researchers have shown an improved in-vitro fertilization rate when acupuncture is used.
In addition, American hospitals are also experimenting in using acupuncture in cases of dire illness.
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I spent the last few hours reading through most of the excerpts that are available for the finalists in the novel category. The only one I didn't read was for Storm of Swords. In general, I was very disappointed in the quality of the material that made it to the finals, which makes the selection of Quantum Rose semi-understandable. However, Eternity's End was much better at least by the excerpt. There seemed to be some inherent conflict in the the story. And beyond getting used to the description of flying the spaceship, the read was pretty good. In terms of sci-fi, I would have chosen this novel over anything else that I had read.
In searching for the possible reason why Quantum Rose had done so well, I went back to the preliminary award ballot. On it was a book I very much enjoyed entitled Calculating God by Robert Sawyer. This book was better than anything that I read in the excerpts from the books in the finals.
I admit that I am very picky when it comes to what I read and like, but the excerpts were very disappointing. For example, the Crossing Mars excerpt had nothing in it which would make me want to read the book. The sentence structure was plain and the plot just didn't interest me at all from what was available. I can only imagine that something happens which requires the crew of the spaceship to end up exploring more of Mars than they intended, but none of that was evident in what was available.
I hope that next year's nominees give me a lot more to look forward to.
Also, do people in the states have to pay full price on the handsets?
While right now, there are significant discounts on handsets, sometimes making them free, it looks like in the future those free phones will be a thing of the past.
Here is an article on the book describing the Difference Engine and the quest to build it from the blueprints using only the available technology of Babbage's time.
Of course, then any extra-terrestrial life forms (assuming they exist based on the sheer probability that they must) encountering a crashing probe on their planet would believe that the Earth had somehow attacked them, setting off a Intergalactic war the Earth is just not ready to fight yet.
Maybe we need that Star Wars Missle defense program quicker than we think.
This type of technology will become more common in automobiles in the future, most likely before 2010. The On-Star system is currently a subscription based service, but the future systems will be passive and not require a fee. As technology gets cheaper, it will be come feasible for auto manufacturer to install devices in cars to transmit information about the car directly to the dealer and manufacturer. This is the OEM and dealer's idea of how to collect more relevant information about their customers and their vehicle usage.
There are some high-end models which have systems like this. The technology currently costs about $200 per car but should go down to about $75 before 2010. It plugs directly into the OBD-II connector under most vehicle dashboards. This is the same port that some mechanics use to read information about your car. And you thought your vehicle driving habits were private.
The article I got this information from is a subscription based service that I get from work otherwise I would link to it.
Some scientific research has gone into these alternative medicine techniques. Granted, this is occurring in countries outside the US, probably because funding is a little looser in those places.
German researchers have shown an improved in-vitro fertilization rate when acupuncture is used.
In addition, American hospitals are also experimenting in using acupuncture in cases of dire illness.