It was bound to happen, sooner or later. Technology evolves at incredible rates, and greed is by far the strongest driver in that evolutionary process. In many ways, the tech world is beginning to mimic the biological world. We have neural nets (analogous to the brain), genetic algorithms (analogous to the process of natural selection), and now we have digital parasites that are at least as aggressive and tenacious as their living counterparts.

Winter's approaching. It's cold, it's grey, and the sun is setting at five in the afternoon. Thanks to modern technological marvels, though, we can enjoy- remotely- a bit of the excitement of being out on the ocean. Yes, it's Atlantic Rally for Cruisers time again, and the fleet's been underway for five days now.

Waves, despite their well-understood mathematical and physical properties, remain a rather subjective point of discussion among cruisers. There's the tendency to exaggerate, of course- we've all heard a story that goes something like "I was beating into a force 6, there were 14-foot waves coming over the bow....". (Force 6, of course, brings an average wave height of closer to 9 feet given unlimited fetch.)