'The World'

By Dan Ronco

Daphne Hayden, DNS News Anchor, interviews Dan Ronco in 2012 regarding Unholy Domain, his visionary novel. Ms. Hayden appears as herself in both PeaceMaker and Unholy Domain.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: I've found your biography online at Dan Ronco, and I know you have not one, but three degrees: Chemical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering and Computer Science. Why so many?

DAN RONCO: It's my nature. I'm never satisfied, always looking for the next challenge. My career has been like that, too. First I designed nuclear reactors, next I became a Partner in a huge accounting and IT consulting firm, then President of a small software company and finally a General Manager with Microsoft.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: So how did you go from technology guru to writing a novel?

DAN RONCO: After more than two decades in the IT business, I felt that it was time to do something else. Although I loved working at Microsoft, 70 hour weeks and heavy travel take a toll. Besides, I had been thinking about writing a novel for years, but hadn't made much progress. It was time to choose. So I left my job and concentrated on writing.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: You're much better looking in person. Trash that photo on the cover of Unholy Domain.

DAN RONCO: Well, I was trying to look author-ish. Guess it didn't work.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: In your first novel, set in 2012, PeaceMaker a Windows-like operating system is infected with an intelligent virus, leading to a shutdown of computers across the globe. With Windows computers so widely used, could this really happen?

DAN RONCO: Software terrorism is already a threat, and it will grow over time. Every time a new virus attacks Windows, someone has to detect and report the problem, programmers have to develop and distribute a fix, and millions of users have to apply the fix. A relatively slow process, but it works as long as the virus isn't too destructive, doesn't spread too fast (or secretly) and doesn't evolve too rapidly (the fix won't work if the virus can change tactics). In PeaceMaker, I envisioned a fictional virus attack that exceeded these parameters. At some point within the next decade, a terrorist may be capable of launching such a sophisticated attack.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: PeaceMaker and Unholy Domain have been touted as the first two books of an anti-technology trilogy. Is that true? What are the books about?

DAN RONCO: My stories dramatize the question: how much technology is too much? The first novel, as you know, illustrates the consequences of a runaway, lethal computer virus. My new novel, Unholy Domain, set in 2022, considers the meaning of being human as artificial intelligence begins to approach human intelligence. It takes a hard look at what I believe will be accelerating conflict between science and religion. The last book of the trilogy, set in 2025 and tentatively titled Tomorrow's Children, considers the risks and benefits of genetic engineering.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: You didn't really answer my question. Don't your books warn against the continuing growth of technology?

DAN RONCO: It's clear to me that the exponential growth in technology over the next two, three decades will bring incredible change to our society, possibly beyond our ability to cope. Whether that's anti-technology, well, I'll leave it for the reader to decide.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: Scientists and the clergy are already in conflict over issues such as evolution, homosexuality and abortion. You believe it will get worse?


DAN RONCO: Without a doubt.
Consider a few emerging issues. Should we enhance capabilities such as intelligence, athletic ability, beauty or health through gene manipulation or artificial components? If so, who gets the enhancements? Should human cloning be permitted? Should an intelligent robot have the same rights as a human? Does God care if we evolve into a new species? Should we allow artificial intelligence to approach and possibly surpass human intelligence? These issues will shake the foundation of organized religion as never before.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: I see what you mean. Complex issues, no easy solutions. Must the novels be read in chronological sequence? Do you have to be an engineer to understand the technology in the novels?

DAN RONCO: First and foremost, I wrote the novels to entertain a reader who enjoys thrillers or science fiction. If you can use a computer, you will have no problem with the technology in my stories. Although the novels are all consistent with each other, each is a self-contained story. You can read them in any sequence, so just start with the one that most appeals to you.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: How long did it take to write your novels?

DAN RONCO: Including research, I have been working on the trilogy for about eight years. Not full-time, but I try to write three to four hours per day on average. Tomorrow's Children will be complete in a few months, so I have dedicated a big chunk of my life to this work.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: What lessons have you learned as a writer, and what changes would you make if you could start over?

DAN RONCO: When I started, I had no idea how difficult it is to write well. I thought that once you had the concept for the story, the words would just tumble out of your mind onto the page. Man, was I wrong. Every word in your story must have a reason to be present, and it must convey the right shade of meaning. Extremely difficult, but what a feeling of satisfaction when you get it right.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: The women in your novels are highly unusual to say the least.

DAN RONCO: I knew we were going to get into this.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: Don't get alarmed, I think it's a good thing. Your female characters are beautiful, smart, tough and physically strong. I particularly like Darlene Duboski, DoubleD as you call her. How did you come up with this amazing woman?

DAN RONCO: DoubleD isn't really that unusual, if you think about it. She’s the culmination of a long-term evolution. Today's females are bigger and more athletic than previous generations. Go to any workout facility and what do you see? Plenty of women. And not just doing aerobics, either. Pumping iron, pushups, building their strength against all manner of exercise machines. They're dropping baby fat and showing off lean, hard muscles. Not that they are becoming bodybuilders (although some do), but they are not the women of your mother's generation either.

Drive around town and you'll certainly come across a jogger. What's the gender most of the time? And she's probably setting a fast pace, too.

Muscles are no longer solely a masculine domain. Check out the ladies playing basketball or tennis, let alone the boxers. Not a wimp in the bunch. Title IX has opened the door for women to excel at sports, and they are succeeding. You want to see Serena Williams or Mary Pierce getting ready to serve a cannonball at you? I don't. That doesn't mean today's women aren't as beautiful or sexy as previous generations. I think they look better, actually, with their lean, athletic figures.

DoubleD — and many of my female characters — are based upon this new model of femininity. They are just as tough and smart as the men, and they don't take a backseat to anyone. Damn sexy, too.

DAPHNE HAYDEN: Kudos to you! I couldn't agree more.

By Angela Booth

Among writers, there are often arguments about writer's block and whether it even exists. However, all writers will experience it at some stage. Here's how to handle it.

Writer's block manifests itself on a continuum which ranges from mild resistance to writing at one end, to the complete inability to even think about writing at the other end.

If you're experiencing resistance to writing, it's the mild form of writer's block. It often happens when you're missing a step in the writing process. For example, you may not know enough about a subject to be able to write about it with authority. Do more research, and you'll become enthusiastic and your block vanishes.

At the extreme of the continuum, when you're completely unable to write, it's because your life has changed in a fundamental way and you're highly stressed. You need to accommodate the changes, and get yourself mentally healthy enough so that you can write. With this debilitating form of writer's block, therapy can help, because such a block is often part of depression.

We can't deal with extreme writer's block in a short article, but there's a method to manage milder forms of writer's block.

Writing Resistance - Managing your Writer's Block

If you're not writing, it's important that you don't try to confront your resistance head-on. Chances are you've tried that, and the more you try to write, the more you sit staring at the computer screen wondering what's wrong with you.

Here's a four step process which I've used, and have recommended to other writers. It's worked for us, and it should work for you.

1. Don't Write at All for a Week


The first step is acceptance. Just
accept that at the moment, you can't write, and give yourself a break from writing for a week. Put off deadlines. Write email messages, but let all your other writing go.

Think of your writer's block as a form of writing flu. You're sick, but you're healing, and you'll feel better in a week.

2. Go on a Trip, Take Your Pen

The old saying, "a change is as good as a rest" is true. On the weekend, take a trip. It can be a short trip, but go somewhere you've been meaning to go. If possible, go alone. Take a camera, and a notebook. You don't have to write, but take some pictures.

3. Accept Your Fear

During this self-imposed writing drought, you'll experience many emotions: fear, guilt, anger, and apathy. Although they're unpleasant, these emotions are good for you - they're a sign that you're releasing your resistance. So don't resist the negative emotions: allow yourself to feel them. Breathe deeply, and the surges of emotion will pass.

4. Get out of Your Head and Into Your Body

Emotions arise in your body, and trigger thoughts. Try to stay with the sensations in your body: the feeling of the emotion in your body - the tightness in your chest, the hollow pit in your stomach, the heaviness on your shoulders.

Take deep breaths, and allow the feelings to pass - don't get caught up in your thoughts about the feelings.

When you begin to experience the surges of emotion in your body, your writer's block is almost over. These surges are what you've been repressing: they form your writer's block. There's no way to release them except by feeling them fully, and letting them go.

At some time during the week, after the strong emotions subside, you'll feel like writing again - you've recovered from the writing disease.

Signs of cocaine addiction include: change in appitite, mood, and sleep cycles, absence at work and home, depression, running/ sniffly nose, a drop in school grades and a new group of friends. Lack of interest in hobbys and other personal activities are also common signs of cocaine usage.

Teenagers may also have a sudden and frequent need for money, without a valid reason. Directly confronting the suspected cocaine user is the best plan of action. Cocaine addiction's should not go overlooked and should be treated ASAP.


Long term effects of cocaine abuse include: mood swings, restlessness, irritability, paranoia, possible auditory hallucinations and the number one long-term effect is the substance addiction itself.

The more the cocaine usage begins to control and affect a person's life, the more likely it is that she / he has a drug addiction problem. Drug abusers often try to hide their symptoms. However, there are a number of drug abuse warning signs you can look for like:

Making inappropriate remarks or talking incoherently.
Talking about drugs all the time.
Mood swings, Angry outbursts, Manic Behaviour etc.
Expressing feelings of depression and hopelesness.
Frequently selling posessions, borrowing money.
Stealing other people's belongings.

The drug addiction path begins with the act of taking drugs. Compulsive, seeking, drug craving, and the use of drugs persist even in the face of negative consequences ususally characterize drug addiction. It is much easier to stop and prevent drug addiction during the first stages of drug addiction, than when a person becomes compulsive drug addict.

Cocaine addiction is a very serious desease that affect all sorts of people from the society. Is does not only affect the poor and uneducated people.

It is a "curable" disease and there are many successful cases of people who were addictied to cocaine that no longer uses it.


The history of Cocaine:


Cocaine is a highly addictive central nervous system stimulant extracted from the leaves of the coca plant, Erythroxylon coca.
In its most common form, cocaine is a whitish crystalline powder that produces feelings of euphoria when ingested.

Now classified as a Schedule II drug, cocaine has legitimate medical uses as well as a long history of recreational abuse. Administered by a licensed physician, the drug can be used as a local anesthetic for certain eye and ear problems and in some kinds of surgery.

Cocaine is one of the oldest known psychoactive drugs. Coca leaves, the source of cocaine, were used by the Incas and other inhabitants of the Andean region of South America for thousands of years, both as a stimulant and to depress appetite and combat apoxia ( altitude sickness ).

Despite the long history of coca leaf use, it was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that the active ingredient of the plant, cocaine hydrochloride, was first extracted from those leaves. The new drug soon became a common ingredient in patent medicines and other popular products (including the original formula for Coca-Cola). This widespread use quickly raised concerns about the drug's negative effects. In the early 1900s, several legislative steps were taken to address those concerns; the Harrison Act of 1914 banned the use of cocaine and other substances in non-prescription products. In the wake of those actions, cocaine use declined substantially.

The drug culture of the 1960s sparked renewed interest in cocaine. With the advent of crack in the 1980s, use of the drug had once again become a national problem. Cocaine use declined significantly during the early 1990s, but it remains a significant problem and is on the increase in certain geographic areas and among certain age groups.


Cocaine Addiction Causes and Symptoms:

As with other forms of addiction , cocaine abuse is the result of a complex combination of internal and external factors. Genetic predisposition, family history, and immediate environment can all affect a person's probability of becoming addicted.

As many as three to four million people are estimated to be chronic cocaine users. The 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse reported an estimated 600,000 current crack users, showing no significant change since the late 1980s.


How Cocaine is used today:

The major routes of administration of cocaine are sniffing or snorting, injecting, and smoking (including free-base and crack cocaine). Snorting is the process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nose where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting is the act of using a needle to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs where absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection.

"Crack" is the street name given to cocaine that has been


processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a free base for smoking. Rather than requiring the more volatile method of processing cocaine using ether, crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water and heated to remove the hydrochloride, thus producing a form of cocaine that can be smoked. The term "crack" refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked (heated), presumably from the sodium bicarbonate.

There is great risk whether cocaine is ingested by inhalation (snorting), injection, or smoking. It appears that compulsive cocaine use may develop even more rapidly if the substance is smoked rather than snorted. Smoking allows extremely high doses of cocaine to reach the brain very quickly and brings an intense and immediate high. The injecting drug user is at risk for transmitting or acquiring HIV infection/AIDS if needles or other injection equipment are shared.


Dangers of using cocaine

High doses of cocaine and/or prolonged use can trigger paranoia. Smoking crack cocaine can produce a particularly aggressive paranoid behavior in users. When addicted individuals stop using cocaine, they often become depressed. This also may lead to further cocaine use to alleviate depression. Prolonged cocaine snorting can result in ulceration of the mucous membrane of the nose and can damage the nasal septum enough to cause it to collapse. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest.

Added Danger of using Cocaine

When people mix cocaine and alcohol consumption, they are compounding the danger each drug poses and unknowingly forming a complex chemical experiment within their bodies. NIDA-funded researchers have found that the human liver combines cocaine and alcohol and manufactures a third substance, cocaethylene, that intensifies cocaine's euphoric effects, while possibly increasing the risk of sudden death.


Cocaine Addiction Treatment

There are various forms of cocaine addiction treatment available for people addicted to cocaine. Some cocain addiction treatments include:

Pharmacological treatments
Behavioral approaches
Alternative treatment
Accupuncture
EEG
BioFeedback

By Victor Epand

Memory sticks were created first by Sony as the answer to the difficulties of the floppy disk. Picked up by SanDisk and a multitude of other software and computer orientated companies, the small sticks were seen as the next big thing to hit the market since buttered bread. However, as time has passed, the adoration of memory sticks has faded as the dangers they pose have been revealed. Still a popular choice for computer storage, consumers are beginning to realize the care that these small sticks require.

Since their creation, memory sticks have grown smaller physically, but more powerful virtually. With an expected cap of 32GB of storage capacity, memory sticks hold the potential to store a very large amount of very sensitive information in a package that is less than the size of a credit card. Add to that newer models that have the capability of running programs and applications automatically from the memory stick itself without the host computer having to have the software needed, and you have a recipe for a security disaster.

The memory sticks utilize flash memory and are similar in nature to their cousin, the flash drive. The difference is the capability of using and running applications directly from the stick. Flash drives can't handle the amount of RAM that would allow for such occurrences. Sticks can and do.

This would be great in the instance of vacationing with a friend and needing to have certain programs available. Since the host computer does not need to have the
application installed and it can run in a
full capacity mode from the stick, many find memory sticks appealing. As long as precautions are taken, the risk to security is minimal. However, many business and corporate offices employ memory sticks to back up databases.

The risk of loss of confidentiality is high when this is done even if the executive who backed up the database on the memory stick had full security clearance to do so. If he loses the stick, or forgets to erase it when he transfers the material, there is the chance that someone could obtain the vital information-perhaps a competitor-and use it for their own gain. At this point, the information is no longer private and the company has lost not only a memory stick, but client trust.

Before deciding that a memory stick is just what you need to complete your menagerie of the latest technological gadgets, consider what your intended use of them will be. If you have a few home movies or the last 30 years of your family in pictures that you would love to take to every family reunion, then they may be the answer to avoid packing 300 albums and 70 DVDs. If you are planning to use the memory sticks as backups to your company's databases or other sensitive material, consider the risks and remember that you, too, are capable of misplacing the tiny stick. When used properly, the memory stick can be your best friend and a great way to cut back on bulky boxes in your attic since you won't need all those albums. But if used to store high security information, then they may turn out to be your worst nightmare. As with all technological advances, weigh your options carefully and determine if you really need the power of the memory stick.

By Boy

Flash memory can be programmed and reprogrammed as well as electronically erased. It is also a non-volatile form of computer memory and one of the most user friendly forms as well. Most people have seen this form of memory in the form of USB flash drives and in the memory cards used for game consoles.

Flash memory is rapidly replacing EEPROM (a byte programmable form of memory) whenever a large amount of solid state storage is needed. Add to the benefits of costs and the versatility of flash memory and it becomes the only memory of choice for some items. Items that make use of the advantages of flash memory include laptops, PDAs, digital cameras, audio players, and phones.

Non-volatile memory in computers is any memory that does not require a power source to retain information. Flash is non-volatile and you cannot lose your information unless you erase it or you hadn't saved it from a RAM form of memory if you pulled an application up to use on your laptop.

The durability of flash is also one of its most advantageous points. Flash memory can withstand a great deal of abuse before being beaten, including immersion in water when packaged as a memory card. This is to the delight of countless parents who are hit up for such devices on a regular basis. Intense pressure and extreme temperature changes also do not cause harm to memory cards. It takes more than a few degrees or being stepped on after being left carelessly in the floor to destroy flash memory tucked
behind the design of a memory card
for video games.

Flash is also very quickly erased when a user wants the space for something else. Its predecessor-EEPROM-only erases in small blocks at a time and at slow rates. Flash can be erased in a matter of seconds and reprogrammed just as quickly.

There are two types of flash memory-NOR and NAND. NOR allows for random access of any memory location through the uses of full address and data busses. NOR also has long write and erase times. NAND doesn't allow for random access, but is has faster write and erase times. NOR is a suitable replacement for older ROM chips as the files that it can hold don't have to be updated very often. NAND is best for use in memory cards, but is not suitable for use as replacements for ROM chips.

Flash does have limitations, though. One such limitation is that flash has a finite number of times that it can be rewritten and erased. The number for commercial flash drives is usually guaranteed for block 0 to be 100,000 times, but there are no guarantees for other blocks. The flash memory forms that are exempt from this are in the form of routers and thin clients. These are only programmed once or a few times at most, creating a void in the limitations seen by most flash memory sources.

Even with the finite number of times the flash drive can be rewritten and erased, it is still one of the most popular forms of computer memory and will probably remain so. The ease of transport and the ability to withstand rough treatment make it a form of computer memory that will withstand its limitations and continue to see a growth in usage.