A gripping literary thriller set in post-tsunami Japan, where a missing child continues to haunt his parents long after the waves have receded. The secrets will out... My Twitter pal Zelda has written a curious - and troubling - novel. If you could use a natural disaster to escape the confines of your marriage, would you? The book drifts in and out of fantasy and reality. I can't comment on the accuracy of the Japanese mannerisms, but the story is suffused with an other-worldly…
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Previously on "The Terence Eden Adventures!" I have a new job. I am a bit scared by my new job. This week - WTF? OMG? BBQ??? I've been working for DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) for two weeks. I've made a list of every single new acronym that I've heard. Here it is: AAC - Accelerated Access Collaborative AHP - Allied Health Professional BMA - British Medical Association CAMHS - children's and adolescent mental health CSU - Commissioning Support Unit DDC - Digital…
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The Merchant Princes is a science fictional examination of parallel universes whose societies exist at different points of development, as one woman from “normal” Earth discovers her true bloodline and the ability to walk between these worlds: I met Stross in a crypt in London several years ago. He was unknown to me as an author, so I brashly asked him what he'd written. He politely told me "quite a lot" and he suggested I start with Halting State. I've been a fan ever since. Stross has ha…
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When you share a URl on services like Twitter and WhatsApp, they often display a preview image. This is usually accomplished by the author of the page selecting an image from the page, and adding it to the Page's metadata like this: <meta property="og:image" content="http://example.com/preview.png"/> (See the OpenGraph Protocol and Twitter's Guide for more detailed information.) But not every page has an obvious "hero" image. You can use the same default icon for all previews - but that…
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Fire gave us power. Farming made us hungry for more. Money gave us purpose. Science made us deadly. This is the thrilling account of our extraordinary history – from insignificant apes to rulers of the world. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it: us. Where did we come from? How did we get here? Where are we going? The book does an admirable job answering the first two questions. Lots of research, deep e…
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When a recklessly idealistic girl in a dystopian future society dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled world, she is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America Wainscotia, Wisconsin’ that existed eighty years before. Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town, she is set upon a course of rehabilitation. I have mixed feelings about this book. It feels like it should be a twin novel with The Psychology of Time Travel - but it just isn't as g…
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I decided to treat myself to an upgraded home cinema experience. But mandatory copy-protection has meant I've spend the weekend trying and failing to get things working, rather than watching glorious 4K HDR 10 bit movies. Here's the problem: Why am I getting the error "This content can not be displayed because your TV does not support HDCP 2.2."? I have four pieces of kit in the mix, all of which claim to support HDCP's Digital Restrictions Management: Amazon Fire TV Stick - the new 4K…
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In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project—and future of time travel—in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team—erasing her contributions from history. What a delight! This is a classic murder-mystery wrapped up in a perfect sci-fi package. The answer to the "whodunnit" is, obviously, a time-tr…
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What kind of utter muppet leaves their comfort zone? It's comfortable! That's the whole flipping point! If someone said "do you want to stay on the comfy sofa or would you rather change over to a really painful chair?" - how would you reply? The Department of Health and Social Care have stolen me away from my old job. I loved my role at GDS. I worked with brilliant people - and after two years I nearly knew everyone's names! Now I'm thrown in the deep end and I have to keep muttering my…
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This New York Times bestseller about the 1MDB scandal exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century. This book is unbelievable. I have no doubt it all happened - but each page left me agog at the audacity of the characters. This is the story of how billions of dollars were embezzled from Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund. Previously, I only had a passing familiarity with the 1MDB scandal - I now feel soiled with…
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Far from being a misery memoir, Was this in the Plan? Is a frank, open and no-holds-barred account of how a family was determined not just to survive but to thrive when the odds were against them. It will make you question your own attitude to life and how you choose to respond when unexpected events throw you off course. My colleague, Stephanie Nimmo, gave me a gentle ribbing for using the line "spoiler alert - we're all going to die" in my talk. That's her line, she said, as she…
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Code-sharing site GitHub automatically sends email notifications to users. If you've commented on an issue, you'll get an email each time there's an update. That's pretty handy. It also allows users to reply by email. The reply is then automatically posted in the issue thread. Also handy. But a little dangerous. Lots of people have email signatures which contain personal details. When these people reply to a GitHub notification they may unwillingly share their contact details in public. …
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