Analog SFF: April 2011
I've been reading Analog since the 90s - in paper, from newsstands. Several years later, I subscribed. And when I found it in e-book form at Fictionwise, back in 2004, I soon switched.
The April 2011 edition is the first one I've read on my Kindle (Mobi format). Naturally, it is much better to read it this way than on the palmtops and smartphones I used over the years. I do like that the cover graphic is available, although I miss the story art (not available in the PDF format either, I was surprised to see).
I'll be keeping to Fictionwise for now - not only I hear about problems in the Kindle versions bought from Amazon, it also only allows reading on Kindle hardware devices, while the Fictionwise version can be read on Kindle, PCs, iPad, smartphones, and more.
A bunch of nice stories on this edition, although nothing that seems memorable.
One item that I found interesting enough to comment on was the Science Fact article - Smart SETI by Gregory and James Benford.
It is about the way they believe any aliens would be transmitting (and why), and question the way the current search works. Their main argument is that even for more advanced civilizations, it would still be a major cost to transmit, and that even with large resources they still would probably prefer to concentrate in other areas.
Thus, they postulate that a one second pulse sent every 10 minutes to 600 target would be 1/600 as expensive, but only 1/25 times harder to detect. The whole strategy of SETI would now fail to detect this kind of contact - or probably ignore it if they already did.
The April 2011 edition is the first one I've read on my Kindle (Mobi format). Naturally, it is much better to read it this way than on the palmtops and smartphones I used over the years. I do like that the cover graphic is available, although I miss the story art (not available in the PDF format either, I was surprised to see).
I'll be keeping to Fictionwise for now - not only I hear about problems in the Kindle versions bought from Amazon, it also only allows reading on Kindle hardware devices, while the Fictionwise version can be read on Kindle, PCs, iPad, smartphones, and more.
A bunch of nice stories on this edition, although nothing that seems memorable.
One item that I found interesting enough to comment on was the Science Fact article - Smart SETI by Gregory and James Benford.
It is about the way they believe any aliens would be transmitting (and why), and question the way the current search works. Their main argument is that even for more advanced civilizations, it would still be a major cost to transmit, and that even with large resources they still would probably prefer to concentrate in other areas.
Thus, they postulate that a one second pulse sent every 10 minutes to 600 target would be 1/600 as expensive, but only 1/25 times harder to detect. The whole strategy of SETI would now fail to detect this kind of contact - or probably ignore it if they already did.
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