johnwilker.com

How John Birmingham lost a reader

I stumbled across John Birmingham’s “Axis of Time series” because book 1 was free in the Kindle store (Great idea, Amazon or John or his publisher).

After thoroughly enjoying ‘Weapons of Choice’ at the gym and while folding clothes in the Kindle’s robot voice, at the car wash, etc. I bought book 2, and added 3 to my Universal Wishlist.

Sunday morning I was getting ready to fold some clothes, so I grabbed my Kindle, went into the menu for ‘Designated Targets’ and what do I see? Start Text to Speach, is grayed out.

WTF?

Michael Jackson – Billie Jean (1983) [Motown 25 Live] He really did rock before he got creepy and named his kid blanket

Why eContent should NEVER cost the same as printed

Beyond the ridiculously obvious “you get nothing physical” there’s a lot of reasons why an eBook shouldn’t cost as much as any printed version.

Let’s look at what goes into the price of a printed book vs. an eBook.

Writing: well yeah that happens for both, kinda a requirement.

editing: ditto, even Steven King has a type-O from time to time.

marketing: sure, though it’s value is varied, depending on your outlook.

printing: not for eBooks.

distribution: only for the dead tree versions.

shelf space, depreciation, discount selling: eBooks don’t suffer that.

WWDC from a first timers perspective

Keynote line: Tom and I got up early and waited in it. We’d never done it before so wanted to see what it was all about. We didn’t get up crazy early, but still waited outside for I think 2 hours, we were numbers 404 and 405 or something. About an hour before the keynote the line moves inside, where they’ve put out coffee and donuts and stuff. Then the line essentially breaks down into mayhem to get up the 4 escalators then mad rush into the keynote room. Why we waited in line to be ran past I don’t know. Why we waited in line when Apple could have let us get in and get seated earlier, I don’t know. Other than it’s a nice way for Apple to show everyone who’s in control.

Garage 1, bike rack 0

So what happens when you enter your garage forgetting you have a bike on top of your car? Luckily the bike, unharmed. Which woulda sucked, since it was Nicole’s replacement bike that we bought at the police auction, and had essentially just finished getting into tip top shape for her to ride. It’s interesting that [...]

The Creator of the eBook is wrong

I’ll admit, I had no idea who Michael Hart is. But he’s wrong. Over on the Project Gutenberg blog he says the eBook reader will never take off, and lists some reasons why, in his mind he’s correct. (I’m sure there’s no bias as the founder of PG) I’m going to debunk them based on my own world view. (Be warned, his list is long and wordy, even before I add my two cents)

Kindle Owner Meetup June 6th

So this will either be a really cool meetup like I used to go to with my B5, or it’ll be a mug fest for an enterprising theif. I came across this on the latest Kindle Chronicles.

You can get more info here from Kindleboards.