But as in any Gladwell inspired tale we have to rewind thirty years to when I was about to turn eleven in a small country town in Victoria.

My parents had separated and I'd moved back with my mum and brother to Beechworth - My Mums home town. Things were extremely tight, we were living at the Lake Sambell caravan park. Mum had worked like a dog all year to save up for my single Christmas present - a digital watch.

It's funny, (well not "Funny" fozzie bear style) mum had been crying in the weeks up to Christmas because compared to the "we are about to get divorced and we are guilty" christmas bonanza of the year before - the cupboard was literally bare.

Mum had to use lay away and pay the watch off over the proceeding six months. Thanks to "Star Wars" I was a certified high tech nerd with not a piece of tech to be seen.

That digital watch meant a lot.

Funny (This time Fozzie bear funny), We had our own christmas miracle that year, Grandad, who bet on the horses, played tattslotto and generally went in any raffle that was even half interesting - had never one a single thing.

Until that bleakest of christmases, Every year the town of Beechworth would have this mega stocking raffel - it was well over six feet high and stuffed with everything you could imagine - It was heaven.

Of course Grandad had never won it in the thirty or so years we were trying it.

Until - our bleakest Christmas.

I promise this has something to do with my assisted murder.

As a high tech boy with no high tech, it was frustrating to watch the land of Disney and wonder at couple of twenty somethings inventing the Apple Computer. It may as well have happened on the moon. I was as about as far away from the dawn of the PC era as you could be on earth and still be considered to be on the planet.

I lived in a place with 3000 people in it, 200 miles from the sea and we had exactly 2 TV channels.

But

I lived it, because of all the places on earth I could be stranded. Beechworth had one thing that was my lifeline and really shaped me for all time.

The Beechworth Newsagent.

HUH?

A newsagent in Australia and the UK (not so much in the USA) is a place where you buy your newspaper and can get magazines. In most country towns the size of Beechworth, these would be very small and would have very few magazines.

Beechworth Newsagency - was different, very different, It had an enormous range of magazines and a huge selection of computer magazines, from the US and the UK - and while I was worse than broke (I was as likely to become King Of England as I was to owning a zx80 or an Atari 400, let alone an Apple). I lived vicariously through these magazines, I could imaging the excitement of Silicon Valley and imagined what it would be like working for Sir Clive Sinclair, I would write out code programs in Pen and Paper and would imagine them running on my very own computer. Between that and Dungeons and Dragons (we'll save that Nerd Bomb for another day) I maintained a link to the outside world - I knew there was something out there.

There was Magazines and there was books, to this day the excitement I get walking into a Barnes and Nobel, smelling the coffee and seeing those racks of magazines sends me to my Happy Place.

So why am I working so hard to kill the thing I most loved and I'm convinced is most responsible of getting me where I am today.

I'm a murderer and I'm torn.

Borders is in bankruptcy and I've got blood on my hands and I can't wash it off.

I feel so guilty, I've been buying all my books online and more often than not getting the e-book version for two years now.

I've been reading magazines on my zinio and yudo apps.

As a traveller - the ability to have my library with me is just to overwhelming. Those big fat novels (which lets face it, were hard to hold) are just perfect. It makes perfect sense.

Yet...

I still love going into bookstores - there is no greater pleasure than scanning the shelves and browsing across a row of shelves - coming across a book i've never heard of.
The Apple subscription model is brilliant for independent publishers like myself, one click subscriptions - yes please!
But I don't have an editorial floor to pay for....

I know it's cool to give Newscorps "Daily" a whack. But I really like it - (sure it needs some sort of automatic background loading) the content is excellent and that don't come cheap.

All murderers need to have some justification of their crime.

For me, I'm a glass half full sort of guy. I think these changes will allow anyone with a story to get the story across.

Of course, with my role in this murder, the problem is anyone who THINKS they have a story can publish it too.

I've been a big ticket guy for the longest time when it comes to pricing things, but maybe Steve Jobs has a point when he says price it low and go for volume.

I'm going to try but I still can't shake the feeling I've murdered a dear friend for the sake of progress.

Ed