What keeps Mac users like you loyal? Mainly because it's not Microsoft, although to some extent they are, now that Microsoft has a small financial interest in Apple. My latest toy is the 20Gb iPod, which I still haven't quite managed to fill up yet! I wonder when I'm ever going to find the time to listen to all the weird stuff I've been filling it up with. I have two G3s, a desktop and a PowerBook, waiting in the wings to replace my trusty old PowerMac 4400/200, and I realised that they only have the same size of hard-drive storage as the iPod!
Was the computer-game addiction in Complicity drawn from personal experience? I was anticipating it and it then turned out to be true. I'd heard of Civilization, though I hadn't tried it at that point, so Despot (the game in Complicity) was my imagined vision of what that would be like. I did, however, subsequently become a Civ addict! I've developed the technique whereby I get a game, play it compulsively for about a month, then wipe all the files, break the CD and throw it in the bin! I'm not really into shoot-'em-ups; it's more strategy games I like.
Any thoughts on the Greek government's ban on computer games? As a species I think we'll always find a way of getting addicted to something _whether it's an intellectual or a physical addiction. I suspect that the Greek government's ban won't be that successful. It could be an interesting experiment but I'll believe it when I see it!
Do governments have the right to read our email? No, I think it's wrong. One suspects that there are ways around it. The hacking community, in particular, can move much faster than any government. It's very much an invasion of privacy. In one sense, I am all in favour of transparency. In my last book, The Business, the people who worked in a worldwide company all had access to everyone else's accounts. If my wife would let me, I'd publish all my financial details on my website. I think the whole thing with Pretty Good Privacy is entirely the wrong way to go. The way to cut down on corruption is to make everything as transparent as possible.
Do you have broadband? I'd really like to have it, but we're over the 5km limit from the nearest exchange. I might give satellite or something else a try. I only got the internet proper a couple of years ago, as I was worried I'd get addicted to it. That's why I don't have any particular favourite sites, as, without broadband, surfing the net is incredibly slow.
Favourite gadgets? I'm afraid I can't see past the iPod. I don't even have a personal digital assistant. I use a diary - the batteries never go flat on it!
How do you imagine the net evolving? What do you think I am - a science-fiction writer?
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