Alex: It is indeed hard to acknowledge unbelief when the penalty is social ostracism as well as legal…and it can and does impact on your job opportunities, promotion and so on too.

Golden Compass: I also enjoyed it, although I though the last book seemed a little rushed and not as well thought through.

Peter: ah, if only I were that organised…I do back up offsite – but I don’t do that everyday. And in this case, it didn’t help.

Helen: see you soon!

Jason: I do have a (free) malware/spyware programme which is not finding anything. When it goes into slow mode, it never goes out of it – so whatever it is, it doesn’t stop running and let everything go back to normal. Ugh.

Always have multiple backup media sets that you rotate through for each backup.
Keep a written log of the date, time and backup media set number.

If possible, store them in a fireproof safe.

It is also wise to store a backup offsite with a friend or business associate in case of disaster at home.

Right now I am reading Glenda’s books and really enjoying them.

Karen

My fear with that kind of system is that when everyone is pretending to believe something, true belief can flourish and eventually increase, particularly amongst the young. That’s even more likely if the school system is actively teaching the belief, since everyone is going along with the idea.

In the Internet age, I’d like to thing that all societies will find it harder to do this kind of mass brainwashing. It may have worked in earlier times (hence the spread of Islam), but perhaps not now. Truth will out… eventually.

Regarding the computer: is it possible you’ve accumulated malware? It’d be interesting to know what else is running that is hogging your computer’s CPU. Probably the only real cure is a complete re-install…

To jo: The Golden Compass and the rest of the His Dark Materials trilogy are excellent. They’re not so much atheistic as anti-god. Personally, I enjoyed them thoroughly. 🙂

Great about The Shadow of Tyr. I am about half way through Heart of the Mirage. Enjoying it very much, a lot deeper than the Isles of Glory series. I cannot imagine why it isn’t published over here.

As for religion, if I lived in a country where it really mattered, like being sent to prison, I’d lie too. You are right about the US. There was a lot of hoo har about The Golden Compass because it was essentially atheistic. I still haven’t read that, haven’t had the chance yet.

Have you tried selling books through Fictionwise who do ebooks. I buy from there for my Palm, but they sell for other reading systems too.