SYNOPSIS OF THE NOVEL I'M WRITING

LEVI McPHERSON, a graduate student of analytical chemistry at the University of North Central Florida, is approached by agents of the Homeland Security’s Counter-terrorism Unit. The agency is recruiting Lee to study and expose the loopholes of screening instruments in airports. Struggling financially, he accepted the offer, making him a paid, benevolent hacker of the nation’s gateway. Yet Levi is horrified when an Airbus from Los Angeles disintegrated in mid-air.

At 40, when everybody’s career trajectory is going up, Levi’s still a poor graduate student, struggling financially. His research projects however, are worth million dollars. Researching the highly classified and heavily guarded secrets of detecting traces of explosives, what Lee know was a goldmine. The agency's offer is his financial break . So Levi tackles the problem like a scientist, detailing the loopholes of the aviation security and turning what he knew into a big time money machine.

JIM and JONATHAN of the counter-terrorism unit, where nowhere to be found after Charlotte International Airport, a hub of Delta Airlines closed abruptly because of instrument malfunctions in their security lines. And in a post-Osama Bin Laden’s era, the biggest blow to the United Stated after the 9/11 disaster comes unexpectedly when a passenger plane blew up in the skies of Washington D.C., in the heart of the nation.

Levi knew it was only the start of more troubles, so he recruits his fellow graduate students to counter the future attacks. They have to think like criminals—and scientists too. With the help of FBI counter-terrorism experts, Homeland Security and Transportation Security Agency, the team races to close and plug the loopholes Lee identified.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Blue Ray vs. HD DVD


The war is over. I mean the war between High Definition (HD) format for DVD players (remember Betamax and VHS formats? If those name don't ring a bell, you're too young).
Sony (and many others) were waging the blue ray banner while Toshiba was fighting for HD DVD. If I was a stock broker and gambled between the two formats, I could have lost a lot of money because I own a Toshiba Laptop and I have the natural inclination to bet for HD DVD, I could have bet for HD DVD. Thank God I'm a consumer, I can wait and see ( I was following the battle since I have an HD TV).
I'm so fascinated by people who makes money through the stock market. Essentially, trading in Wall Street is betting. And betting, as I was told when I was a child, is bad. I was told there's no money in gambling. But how about stock brokers?
By the way, you know why Blu-Ray won the battle? It's because Sony incorporated Blu-Ray players in their Playstations. This is the same reason Microsoft (MS) crashed Netscape, Microsoft packaged the Internet Browser in the same product MS distributes, the Microsoft Windows. Unfair? Some people consider it a genius plan. Some call it an evil approach.
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