Hi, Joe. I'm pleased you're invited back, too. I wish you'd be invited back for good, but I don't know if that's something you'd be open to. Your presence here has really brightened up Salon for me.

Unlike some of the tech-fascists that were constantly hassling Farhad, I enjoyed a lot of his stuff, but there was an immaturity to his writing that bugged me. It's as if I had to lower my expectations of the space before I could appreciate his work.

Not so with yours, although I wouldn't miss it if I never saw the word "iPhone" again in my life. (I'm an open-source freak, and won't buy either hardware or content that's crippled so I can't use it however and wherever I want, so no Apples in my tech larder.)

The two blogs that I follow with devotion are Glenn Greenwald and Lifehacker, and as long as you're here, I'll add Machinist to that list.

Enjoy your weekend. You've earned it. I think you'll like the Coben book, and if you aren't limited to high tech reading I think you'd like a lot of his other stuff as well -- including the Myron Bolitar series. I read him on my Kindle!

...so I didn't realize Joe is only guesting at Machinist. I hoped we had just got a good replacement for Farhad. Anyway stay as long as you can stand it, Joe.

I haven't read that Coben book but I have liked the few of his that I have read.

Just a teensy quibble - from the posting about the eco-friendly phone company. It's "some" kudos - kudos is stuff (intangible stuff like pride or sadness) not things.

Technically a young adult's book, but also perfect for an adult's beach bag: "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow. Spyware, betrayal, internet mischief, and young love besides. And it's set in San Francisco!

Hey, you three (commenters before I turn in). Thank you for the kind and welcoming words, and I promise to ease back on iPhone chatter because iToo am tired of the attention the thing gets even if it is well deserved because as a one-shot wonder the sucker sure brings so many things together into one mostly agreeable package. Meanwhile, slaird46, I welcome contact about open source anything, with examples that the mainstream world can/will be using, and to kpereyra your mention of Cory D is appropriate as I mentioned him as a fan in my first post but have yet to read Little Bro, so thank you for reminding me to add that to my reading list. That guy has a great attitude and his output is both prodigious and meaningful...and GeeBee, your words of welcome are welcome to me, and as far as my words and typos/hiccups, I stand corrected, more often than I'd like to admit and I don't have to because word-aware readers like you never fail to catch my goof-ups, which I chalk up to a sometimes too-enthusiastic frisson when writing posts or anything else, and partly to ADD and a comorbid dyslexia that I generally embrace as a gift but yep, the word-whoops moments when publishing in this immediate way do point out the errors of my ways in ways I'm working to clean up. All around, thank you, again, for taking the time to comment, and keep moving this conversation and others moving forward. -Joe Hutsko

I've been saving 'Spook Country' for when I need a guaranteed good and compelling read.

Richard K. Morgan is pretty good, and has industry push behind him (you can spot this immediately in SF, when an author's books are withdrawn and start reappearing only in the larger, more expensive paperbacks). He's also sold Joel Silver the movie rights to two of his five books, and they could make blockbusters and/or very good movies if filmed right.

His latest, 'TH1RTE3N', is the best of the three I've read. A blurb on the back says "mixes Silence of the Lambs with Bladerunner". There is some virtual reality stuff, but the tech is more about genetically altered humans: in particular Thirteens, who were tweaked to have less social inhibition and more ruthless aggression. Set a century in the future, it also has Mars and a U.S.A. split between the Republic/Jesusland, the Union, and the Pacific Rim.

More importantly, it's got interesting characters and complications, and a lot of action and mystery, and it will draw you in.

His new book Anathem is coming out on September 9th.