I hated the ending. The unilateral decision to get rid of all technology for everybody was both absurd, short-sighted, and just plain stupid. Why not give people a choice at least? And why the hell would the humans decide to live like cavemen on a strange planet without at least medical technology? There are probably viruses, bacteria, and parasites that would wipe out the colonials. So are we to believe that simple non-life threatening infections now all of a sudden become deadly because of the basic lack of antibiotics?

And what about food? With farming and all what happens during a drought? Hell, what about simple things like books to read, pencils and pens to write with? The whole premise that the colonials all, all off a sudden decide to become essentially Amish after living with technology all their lives is just catastrophically asinine. Fuck, why not at least not destroy the ships in orbit, leave one Raptor on Earth so that the different settlements can be checked in on from time-to-time. Hell, what happened to the sense of wonder and awe of the colonials in that why wouldn’t they at least search for other inhabitable planets just in case Earth like gets hit by a comet or asteroid or some other natural disaster befalls Earth and the Colonials need to get the hell outta there.

Ug, what an unbelievably crappy ass implausible ending to an otherwise awesome series.

In addition to getting to a point where you can work from wherever you like, Tim takes it one step farther and keys in on the idea of “outsourcing your life” – if you’re getting paid $25/hour to do work that you could outsource to India or China for, say, $15/hour, then by doing just that you basically have steady income and it will free up your time to pursue other interests and/or other work.

Altogether, two good books that I would definitely recommend. None of us will likely take the proposed ideas to the extremes discussed in the two books, but at the very least it can help you to second guess the requirement that you spend 2 hours or more a day stuck in traffic, commuting to work.

• A lot smaller than I realized! About half the height of a normal business card. I looked at a ruler when I was ordering to get an idea of the size and I knew they’d be small, but these are pretty tiny.
• The tiny thing works for their purpose though, I think. Makes them more of a “quick-everyone-take-one-we-have-lots” sort of item. Better for trade shows and the like than for normal business – I definitely think sticking with the standard business card-size is better for individual client introductions.
• Excellent, high-quality paper stock. I would guess about twice as thick as a regular business card. It feels good to the touch, which is (let’s face it) mostly what matters.
• The printing (I got my company logo on the front) leaves a lot to be desired. The vibrant colours of our logo are very washed out. Looks like what happens to paper when it goes through the wash – bold, navy blues are converted to light, timid-looking cyans.
• Same goes for text on the front. The text is part of the logo (as moo doesn’t allow text on the front), and you can tell. The dots from the colour inkjet cartridge that printed the text are clearly visible, and it gives it a fuzzy texture.
• Text on the back is crisp, sharp, and most importantly, very black. Looks very good.

Overall, I’m getting more of a “meh” reaction to the cards than I would have liked – I was hoping that these could be the little “wow” factor that I’m looking for during a first impression, but unfortunately I don’t think they’re up to snuff. Not bad cards if you stick to straight type though, and really good quality stock, though I think I’ll stick to regular business cards in the future.