Ebookwise 1150 fades away

Nate at the Daily Reader comments on the silence surrounding the oldie but goody, Ebookwise 1150. My ebookwise is still my daily e-reader, but Nate's eb-1150 will probably last longer since he only takes it out of the box every once once in a while to see if its still working.

Nate:

I happen to still have an 1150 in the original retail box. I pulled it out, and would you believe it was made in 2002? The hardware is 8 years old, and still being sold. Impressive.

I'm pretty sure mine was made in 2002 as well; the LCD screen looks a bit "aged" around the edges. I'm figure even with daily use it will still be working long after I get a new reader with all the fancy new features (like ePub support).

Keep track of what Kindle users are highlighting

You can keep track of what Kindle users are highlighting at the Amazon site at http://kindle.amazon.com/popular_highlights.

Amazon organizes the data by all-time and heavily highlighted recently. All-time is self-explanatory, by the "recently" list is not explained in any detail on the site. Its probably because its still early days and they're being flexible with the number crunching until some some sort of pattern appears.

Most Highlighted of All Time

• Passages
• Books

Heavily Highlighted Recently

• Passages
• Books

Vintage LP: Huxley narrates Brave New World

Grab the mp3 files (side1 and side2) of the Vintage (1979) LP of Brave New World narrated by Aldous Huxley himself!

The hiss/pop of the original album enhances the atmosphere of the reading. Huxley's introduction alone is worth the download.

Originally from boingboing.

Also check out the Arthur C. Clarke album featuring Transit of Earth, The Star, and The Nine Billion Names of God.

RecordBrother, hosts files that "are here for your listening enjoyment all are from out of print non-reissued spoken word and audio gems from my own vinyl collection."

14th Annual Webby Awards

14th Annual Webby Awards winners are now available. See the list of nominees & winners at webbyawards.com. Its a long list and many (most) award categories are of no interest to me. Yet its a great comprehensive jumping-off point to visit areas of the web you haven't stumbled upon yet (stumbleupon.com didn't win anything).

At first glance there is nothing on the list that jumps out at me. I'm gonna look at mashable.com -- it looks like a site that I should have visited already.

Canadian Prime Minister to enact a Canadian DMCA in six weeks

Michael Geist reports that Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper promises to enact a Canadian version of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act sometime in June. He is doing this despite any consensus within his inner circle, party, or the Canadian people. Harper is bowing to increasing pressure from the US.

Cory Doctorow reminds us of the overwhelming opposition to this same Conservative party position and the stupidity of being the first country to succumb to pressure from the US while an international treaty is in the works.

Speak out:

Write a paper letter to your Member of Parliament and send copies to the Prime Minister, Moore, Clement and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. No stamp is required - be sure to include your home address and send it to the House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6.

Foxit Releases PDF Reader v3.3

I use Foxit for all my PDF-related needs. An example of the reason why is the new security features found in this new release.

Press Release:
Foxit, a leading provider of solutions for reading, editing, creating, organizing, securing PDF documents and eReader devices, announces the release of Foxit PDF Reader Version 3.3. The new Foxit Reader further enhances PDF document viewing security by implementing a Safe Mode feature.

In its continued efforts of providing safer, faster and more stable PDF software tools, Foxit addresses recent security concerns by releasing a new version of its popular Foxit Reader. This is a follow-up security improvement to the Foxit Reader release on April 2^nd, 2010. Earlier this month, Foxit Reader adopted a warning message before running any executable command embedded in a PDF document. Version 3.3 adds a second level of security by giving the user an option for disabling all external commands. The new Trust Manager allows users to select a safe mode operation, once selected; no external commands will be executed by the Foxit Reader. The Trust Manager feature is easy-to-use and can be selected or deselected within the reader at the discretion of the reader.

Terry Pratchett vs Dr Who

SFX magazine’s guest editor, Sir Terry Pratchett himself, explains why Doctor Who is questionable SF.

He's not slagging off the venerable institution; he explains why he loves it to this day and still looks forward to the next episode.  He does explain, though, that the formulaic deus ex machina resolutions to most stories and the very nature of the god-like Doctor rules out claiming Dr Who as a staple of Science Fiction.

At the same time figuring out what pigeon hole to slot fiction in is far less important than simply enjoying it.

Read the article. The master is still the master even when he's blogging.

Top 10 Greatest Science Fiction Detective Novels Of All Time

Jane Anders posted her list of the Top 10 Greatest Science Fiction Detective Novels Of All Time at io9.com:

• A Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr
• The Retrieval Artist novels by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
• Tea From An Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan
• The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez
• Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
• Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
• The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
• The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov

I've read (and recommend) the books in bold and, after reading Ms. Anders's synopses I am eager to get my hands on Gun, With Occasional Music sometime in the near future.

I would include in the list:

Kiln People by David Brin
The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton by Larry Niven.
The Garret, P.I. series by Glen Cook
The Fragmented America & Barnum System stories by Ron Goulart
The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde
The Nightside series by Simon R Green

Kindle's v2.5 firmware upgrade & social networking

Kindle's v2.5 firmware upgrade in May will introduce some interesting new features that may play a part in how we read books in the future.

• Share book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter directly from your Kindle. 
• Popular Highlights: See what the Kindle community thinks are the most interesting passages in the books you're reading. 

Variations on the book club appear all over the web in various formats. I am impressed by very well written and thoroughly researched reviews, even if they sometimes go over my head. I'd like to write quality in-depth reviews myself but they are beyond my ability and the time I'm willing to put into it. The quality or applicability of comments/reviews found on Amazon, in chat rooms, newsgroups, or forums range from excellent to execrable.

When reading on my ebookwise I often highlight words I'm not familiar with (or misspelled words for that matter), as well as passages that are either very good or very bad. When I'm done with the book the markup is never used for anything -- yet I continue to do it.

I think Amazon may have hit upon something here, tapping a body of knowledge that is not yet represented on the web. Readers, for the most part, can't be bothered with writing a review or commenting on a book. If the reading process itself can be modified to make it easy to share your impressions as you are reading we get two benefits: the "raw data" of passages that readers find interesting, and the impetus for people to work up the energy to express their opinions about a book.

Hopefully, if the experiment works, we can see a future where all readers on all devices can share their interesting passages. If anything, it can be a valuable resource for finding the good bits of the next potboiler or bodice ripper you plan on reading.

Whats wrong with Apple?

Why is Apple being such a jerk? With great power comes great arrogance.

Steve Jobs Threatens Theora Lawsuit: Steve Jobs replies to Hugo Roy's email questioning his position on Flash, HTML5, and H264, and Open Standards. Steve replies that he's getting ready to go after Theora for patent infringements.

Apple Raises E-Book Prices For Everyone: Apple announces that the price of all books have to end with .99 and that writers/publishers cannot sell their works cheaper anywhere else.  First, whats the deal with forcing everything as ninety-nine? Its arbitrary and petty to run a marketplace that way. Second, writers and publishers have already set price points to their own satisfaction. Why should Apple's whim force authours to raise their prices (really, who is gonna drop their prices), especially when the author is trying to get by by selling a short story of pamphlet for small change?

Apple wrong to kill seal hunt game: Apple rejected a seal hunting game for the iPhone. Its a variation on the whack-a-mole game. No baby seals are involved, and there is no blood. Apple rejected it because it contained objectionable material, yet they have deep hunting apps, as well as Grand Theft Auto.

Mark Fiore's iPhone App Approved: after being rejected by Apple for "ridiculing public figures". Apple screws up twice: for rejecting the app in the first place; and for approving the app after he wins the Pulitzer Prize (yet still rejects all other political satire for provided through the big newspapers Apple is in bed with)

I'm sure there are many more cases where sheer arrogance has supplanted common sense in Apple's bid to remain the anti-establishment company that cares. It may be the case that all this bad reportage is a result of Apple's success—its easy to hit a big target—but it may also be reporting on the seeds of self-destruction starting to germinate.