Book reviews
Something strange I ran across reading a book last night:
Tom Fink was my roommate in college. He got me in trouble with the instructor when he got caught with my lab notebooks in physics lab. I’ll always remember him as the guy who didn’t know the difference between EGA and VGA. 🙂
BTW, this is the book that the above refers to. I see he’s written this book also. You have to gone to school with him to understand why we’re tickled pink to see this.
Or is that tickled Fink?
One of the weird consequences a publicly-known fast food obsession housed in a tiny body is that friends keep sending me tasty things like turbaconducken and This Is Why You’re Fat.
A friend e-mailed this gem from Canada.
Yum!!!
From flackette:
“To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting”
Alas, it seems that the Kindle has backed up my colon!
One of the iPhone updates I downloaded last night was the New York Times app. Trying to figure out how it was better than the previous version I was hit with the announcement that there is a Kindle app for the iPhone.
Here are some screenshots with commentary:
The Kindle icon is nice. I put the app next to Stanza which is, by far, the best free book reader for the iPhone. Yeah, my battery is running out.
This screen is the same as the Kindle 2’s UPC symbol.
All my purchased books are synced and the covers are in color. Nice.
On the other hand, none of my sample chapters synced, none of my documents synced, and my magazine subscription The New Yorker didn’t sync. I was hoping to see the latest cover in color on the iPhone. 🙁
Kindle app wirelessly synchronized my page position from my Kindle 2. Slick! You flick tap to change the page, tap hold to pull up the menu. They’ll probably have to change the navigation UI to be more in line with other iPhone readers.
For some reason the scroll is too slow for page flipping. You flick to fast you just get a white screen. You can change the font size but you cannot rotate the display.
Images on Kindle books are supposed to be color. Not for me! Maybe it depends on the book, but the print version of this book is clearly color, while the Kindle version is black and white. Also you can’t pinch zoom or tap zoom any of the images. So much for using the Kindle for my pr0n needs. Argh!
There seems to be a bug where both “Beginning” and “Cover” jump to the cover. Beginning is supposed to jump to the first readable area.
Note that the app syncs my notes and marks from my Kindle 2.
The jump menu is the only thing clearly better on the iPhone. I can jump to the section with just a flick and tap. Those of you who take a lot of notes know how frustrating it is to navigate the Kindle 2’s eInk display.
BTW, there is no text-to-speech. This is disappointing. I know the iPod has spoken menus and there is a way sync high quality voices to it. I’d love for a high-quality voice like Alex read my books while I’m driving (and then sync my book position back to my Kindle 2.
[If I have time I’ll archive my notes later in this article]
Panasonic DMC-LX1
1/5sec, ƒ2.8, iso 100, 6.3mm (28mm)
No, this is not a sticker. This is the Kindle when it’s asleep. That’s the magic of e-Ink.
I found that you can’t clip from sample chapters 🙁 Major bummer!
To see a definition on the K2, just navigate to the left of the word and it pops up automatically. Here is a tip I found useful when setting your ad-hoc chapter markers just so.
Kindle 2 User’s Guide (Amazon.com)
– Highlight Loc. 524-27 | Added on Thursday, February 26, 2009, 10:26 AMTip: You can quickly create a bookmark by either holding down the Alt key and pressing the B key, or by moving the 5-way up or down to go into cursor mode and then pressing the 5-way controller twice.
I cancelled my New Yorker (print) subscription and started it up on the Kindle. The New Yorker is nearly ideal subject matter for the Kindle. Note that while you get the cartoons, the cover art and any article art aren’t reproduced in the Kindle edition. 🙁 Amazon, please fix! Another note is that since they are Condé Nast, you can, with some finagling get the the print version much cheaper than the Kindle version.
The K2 version doesn’t have the ads so I don’t know how I feel about that. But if I really need such a think, I can just buy The Complete New Yorker.
The New Yorker (The New Yorker)
– Highlight Loc. 1818-19 | Added on Thursday, February 26, 2009, 09:18 PMThe problem with playing someone whose default setting is tabula rasa is pretty obvious, and the primary qualification that Dushku brings to the part is that she graduated with honors from the Royal Academy of Cleavage.
I like the expression at the end of this clipping. The article is a critical review of Joss Wheedon’s Doll House.
Kindle 2 User’s Guide (Amazon.com)
– Highlight Loc. 642-44 | Added on Thursday, February 26, 2009, 10:47 PMTip: You can also play or stop Text-to-Speech by holding down the Shift key and pressing the Symbol key
The Kindle Text-to-Speech is much better than MacInTalk which came with the original Macintosh, but it’s nowhere close to where that technology has gone. I use this tip when I’m showing someone the text-to-speech and I need to stop it quickly.
Kindle 2 User’s Guide (Amazon.com)
– Highlight Loc. 701-2 | Added on Thursday, February 26, 2009, 11:57 PMTip: You can also narrow a search in the Kindle Store to an author’s name by typing “@author” followed by the author’s name.
A shortcut. I use the Kindle Store a lot, but not to buy. I’ve read about a half dozen first chapters today.
Kindle 2 User’s Guide (Amazon.com)
– Highlight Loc. 1043-45 | Added on Friday, February 27, 2009, 12:14 AMTip: If you would like to avoid the fee, address the e-mail so that the second part of your Kindle e-mail address is @free.kindle.com. After sending to the @free.kindle.com address, a link to the converted file will be e-mailed to your Amazon.com e-mail address. You can then download the file to your Kindle’s documents folder via USB using your computer.
What can I say? I’m a cheapskate. 🙂
Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G
1/60sec, ƒ2.8, iso 4500, 35mm
As you can see, my Kindle 2 gets more women than I do. I may have a weakness for women who read books, but Marie seems to only have a weakness for books. Major bummer.
Continue reading about getting free books on your Kindle after the jump.
Well the Kindle 2 came out today so I preordered it.
This morning two people IM’d me about it so I decided to give the first my Amazon referral bucks. I give Amazon bucks semi-randomly to various friends and he asked me how I do it.
I use a “Buy from Amazon” bookmarklet I wrote to make life easier.
You can drag that into your toolbar if you like. One nice thing is to remove the second prompt and just replace the href with the tag to yourself. I keep it this way so that I remember to put the associate ID of one of my friends since I put them on rotation.
I got a mysterious package and opened it. No, it wasn’t a unabomb, but some megalulz instead:
The book is from lulzftw, and is a best-of collection of lolcats—slightly disappointed that there are no lolgeeks. 😀
Mai awesum benny faktor tells me they’re having a book release party and photowalk later this month in San Francisco.
I think I’ll make one and give my book to the first person who asks (and I have it on me).
Make the events and you can has (mai or ur) bookz, too! 🙂
kthnxbai
You: Did you read it?
Me: No, I don’t like to read. Reading for elitist liberal types. 😀
Me: “Lives of quiet desperation.” Have you ever heard of that?
You: No.
[quiet desperation after the jump.]Continue reading
The last Cody’s Books is closing. Years ago, I would go to one on Telegraph when visiting my brother, who reads even more than me.
I can’t believe it.
Cody’s.
Berkeley.
Free Speech.
Closed.
🙁
Leica M8, Zeiss Biogon 2,8/25 ZM
1/60sec, iso320, 25mm (33mm)
[My local bookstores after the jump.]Continue reading
Everything is a Tiny Toy until
Wheels touch Earth then
Real Size snap back.
…
Yes, I still think it’s odd when people clap after the plane lands.
Books as bearable movies have to concentrate on character because there is no time for story. One less movie, one more book..