An Expert Life Underwriter Bears Witness to the Growth of Ebooks

globeandmail.com: Ebook sales are close to $1-billion. From Sentimentalists to Imperfectionists, John Barber explores how the publishing world shifted in 2010

The slow yet steady shift from dead tree to digital versions of books is fascinating.  One of my holiday presents was a Kindle.  I have joined the movement.

Last year was a disappointing year in my personal book reading.  I read just 30 books in 2010.  The reason was simple to deduce.  I spent too much time doing other things  (like working).

And in recognition of the new reality I am not increasing my effort to meet my goal of reading a book a week.  I’ve decided to approach this situation with more intelligence than I have in the past.  Yes, I’m setting the bar lower.

Read a Book a Week is now Read a Book Every Other Week.

26 books this year should be doable, no?

Scary Charts of the Day – 09.20.2010

Number of People Using Google Reader Minimum Once WeeklyNumber of Google Reader Items Read Per Day

Official Google Reader Blog: A welcome and a look back

These charts should be extremely scary especially to folks in the newspaper and media businesses.  If you wanted some hard evidence on consumer preferences for news outlets shifting to the Internet, here you go.  The top chart is the number of people who use Google Reader at least once a week.  The bottom chart is the number of items read on Google Reader.

Personally, we still buy a daily newspaper.

Stuxnet – Spyware “That’s Really Scary”

Saturday mornings are a great time to catch up on the news.  I regularly follow nearly 100 RSS feeds through my reader.  The number and content type change periodically as my personal and business interests evolve (or when I forget my Adderall).  When I came across this article I was surprised not about the content but more so about the fact that my computer security RSS feed stopped working.

I hate that when that happens.

Free Management Consulting Tip of the Day

Ask your tech guys if your remotes can infect the corporate systems using this sneaker net USB memory stick method.

I don’t know is an unacceptable answer.

Stuxnet spyware targets industrial facilities, via USB memory stick – CSMonitor.com

“We have not seen anything like this before aimed directly at the industrial control system environment,” says Walt Boyes, a control systems security expert and editor in chief of Control magazine. “It’s a clear-cut case of industrial espionage. We don’t know its ultimate aim yet.” But, he says, the attack is aimed specifically at the company that sells the lion’s share of industrial automation software to the electric power sector in North America and Western Europe. “That’s really scary,” Mr. Boyes adds.