I’ve never really been a big fiction fan. About the only author i’ve read extensively (outside high technology and business stuff – don’t yawn) was by Michael Crichton. At least the books that have yet to be turned into films. Well, all except “Disclosure”, where Demi Moore sexually harasses Michael Douglas and then throws the company’s political establishment against him when he refuses to succumb to her charms. But I digress.

There’s been a lot of comment on the blogs and twitter feeds I follow on the West Coast of the USA that keep on citing a new book by Andy Weir called “The Martian”. I tried to buy it on my last trip abroad, thinking i’d go buy the voiced version on Audible to listen to, but baulked at it’s then £20+ price tag. However, it appeared on an Amazon email last week for under £10 in hardback form, so I bought it.

Finished it today (like many of the USA folks, completely immersed in it for two days between work bursts). I’m completely with them; it is a fantastic book, and would make a great film. A modern day Robinson Crusoe, but one accidentally left behind on Mars. At least Crusoe had to worry more about Cannibals than continuously working around all the life support systems, and food, to last long enough to be rescued. If indeed NASA didn’t just leave him behind to eat his poison pills. Thoroughly recommended, and superbly written throughout.

Tomorrow, i’m off to Cornwall for a short break before I start my next assignment, which will start on June 2nd. Really looking forward to it. As such, the frequency of my blog posts are, with effect from today, going to drop to one per week. I think my daily posts have now caught up with my brain nuances, and the newsflow in High Technology has started to slow. At least until Apple have their Worldwide Developers Conference at the start of June, and Google do their matching I/O conference a week or two later.

In the three months or so i’ve been writing this blog, a few articles keep on getting lots of page views well after their posting data. The Crossing the Chasm one got reposted on LinkedIn by the original author of the book i’d summarised, and I started to get warnings from WordPress that I appeared to have an incoming tidal wave for 3 days running.

For some reason, my mention of Chromecast working on the Tesco Hudl tablet gets regular traffic, nominally by hoards of people querying Google to see if Tesco sell Chromecast in the UK.

Surprisingly few look at my tips for spotting the 4 key trends to look at with any business, in order to suss out what dimensions are and are not working. Or the other post about how to conduct yourself in a price war (there are only two things you focus on, and all paths to action stem from there).

I’m gone for a week, and to see how adept my 2 year old granddaughter has got on her iPad Mini we bought her (a necessity, as when she visits us, I never could get it back until she leaves again). She is impressively native on it with photos and with YouTube. Even tries to swipe “Skip Ad” on ITV on the telly.

So, signing off until May 30th. See you once i’m back.