Insomnic Dreams

Barnes & Noble has come out with their own eBook reader to compete against the Kindle and it was officially announced today. It is called Nook.

Here are the main features the Nook has over the Kindle.

• The Nook has Wi-Fi which besides being a fast connection also is enable to allow full book browsing while on the B&N wireless network in store.
• The Nook has touch screen navigation and a color LCD for library browsing and other display and navigation options.
• The Nook has an expanded memory slot to increase the storage space if necessary (or for managing sets of books).
• PDFs can be read natively (Kindle has to have the PDF converted – unless a hack is applied).
• Custom images for the “screen saver” (Kindle also needs a hack to do this).
• Multiple device sync for books including iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry, and Computer (Kindle only has iPhone/iPod Touch and Computer).
• Digital book lending is possible which could possibly allow for library ebook borrowing systems.
• The battery on the Nook is replaceable and there are some harware customization options (like colored backplates).
• The Nook runs an Android OS which could allow for many future development options.

The e-Ink displays are almost identical so the readability will be the same but this is true of almost all eReaders that use e-Ink technology so the difference in devices really does come down to features.

The Nook also has AT&T 3G built in just like the Kindle has the Sprint 3G so depending on your area, one wireless service may be a better option than another.

The only real winner here for the Kindle is the battery life (14 days vs 10 days) and the backing of Amazon… but the book prices are about the same and currently Barnes & Noble is boasting an opening digital library larger than Amazon’s so it will be interesting to see how that aspect shapes up.

The price is $259 and will be available in November. Barnes & Noble stores will be putting up displays in the next couple days so you can check out the device yourself and pre-order one if you like. That is also an advantage for the Nook – the ability to check it out before you buy it.

This device looks very cool and has many of the features that some Kindle owners have complained about lacking (which would be why they are on this device). It has good bookstore backing and already has accessories. I see no reason this device couldn’t outshine or at the very least provide excellent competition for the Kindle – and in technology, competition is a good thing for customers.

It is well known that science in movies is often not quite right. Unfortunately, there are many instances where the pervasive nature of bad science in multimedia can lead to misconceptions. Really, really bad misconceptions that leak into school and general “of course it’s true” statements.

To combat this glut of bad science that ends up sticking in the social thoughtstream is Phil Plait, creator of the Bad Astronomy blog. He spent years working at NASA and eventually found that he was tired of running across bad science and wanted to do something about it. He started by blogging and eventually he became a lecturer and author.

Here’s one of his favorite “bad science” situations – the standing an egg on end only on the equinox. Many classrooms and news agencies on the spring equinox will perform this “science” experiment where they stand an egg on its end and by doing this prove that this can only be done on the spring equinox. Phil Plait explains exactly why this actually isn’t true using science facts but the resounding proof that this isn’t true is that you can stand an egg on end on ANY day of the year! I was a believer of the spring equinox egg trick myself and so after seeing that I was very wrong about this bit of “science” decided I needed to read his book Bad Astronomy.

Bad Astronomy (the book and his blog) is full of useful information about everyday, general science knowledge that many of us just didn’t know was incorrect.  Phil does an excellent job presenting the misconception and then explaining how it is wrong – but he does it in a way the doesn’t make you feel stupid for having believed the bad science in the first place. I highly recommend picking up his book and checking out his blog to see what other little bad science gems are floating in our brains.

September 26th through October 3rd is Banned Books Week and is dedicated to bringing awareness of ongoing censorship and promote freedom of speech.

Head over to BannedBooksWeek.org to get more information about how prevalent book banning and censorship really is and how you can help prevent it.

You will also find many events scheduled at your local library and book sellers  if you would like to participate in your local community.

Here, for your perusal, is the list of 10 most challenged books:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
   Reason: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint,
   and unsuited to age group
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
   Reason: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
   Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age  group
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reason: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reason: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint,
   sexually explicit, and violence
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reason: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually
   explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
   Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age
   group
8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
   Reason: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
   Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
    Reason: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

Today is Reading Rainbow’s final broadcast. After being on the air for 26 years it has reached the last page and the cover is being closed.

NPR reports that the main reason Reading Rainbow is going off air is that nobody will pay the broadcast rights – but the primary cause of that is not so much a financial reason but a change in how reading is currently being taught. The focus of literacy has shifted to being more about the basics of reading: phonics and spelling. This shift is more about combating literacy in general as opposed to promoting reading as a form of education in itself.

It’s an understandable shift since conceptually it’s imperative to be able to read in order to function in society – but what a loss to those kids who will only know reading as a technical function and not a gateway for learning and imagination.

Reading Rainbow was a big part of introducing new and interesting stories to children and it will surely be missed by me and my fellow bibliophiles.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a happy Kindle 2 owner. The availability of titles, being able to read manga scanlations, and the 3G basic internet access have made it completely worth the purchase price for me.

Is it right for you?

If you browse around blogs or comment threads about ebook readers you’ll see a wide range of comments about their value and it may be difficult to make a choice. I’m hoping I can help a little bit.

Let’s start by setting the expectations for an ebook reader. It is designed to easily read and store text information in a portable format. That is it. In other words – it’s an electronic book. It sounds strange to say that because it seems redundant but it really needs to be emphasized.

Now let’s say what an ebook reader is not – it is not a portable media player, it is not a mobile phone, and it is not a portable computer.

This is where the confusion (and sometimes contention) seems to come into play with ebook readers. Some people want them to be more than their design allows. Remember, its main design function is to make a large library of text available in a small, electronic format that is easy to read. Any thing else is just a perk.

If you are looking for a portable media player, I recommend the iPod Touch or a PSP. If you are looking for a mobile phone I recommend the iPhone, a Blackberry, or a G1. If you want a portable computer then I recommend a netbook – perhaps a Dell Mini or Asus Eee PC. All of those devices can display ebooks (one way or another) but can also do other things that you may want to do that can’t be accomplished with a dedicated ebook reader.

One thing those other devices cannot do though is display text in a comfortable reading format with extensive battery life. If that is your priority then the ebook reader is for you!

Unfortunately, it is hard to debate the readability factor until you use an ebook reader extensively. You don’t notice how different it is using the dedicated display type of an ebook reader (commonly called e-ink) versus a screen on a computer or portable media player. It’s a very drastic difference.

Now, the other major factor to consider with an ebook reader is the number of books you read. Ebooks are generally cheaper than the published version of the book so you can save money in the long run. This really is only true depending on how you do your reading. If you only get books from your local library then this is not going to save you money (nor save shelf space for that matter). If you read a book every couple months then this is not for you either. If you are an avid reader or like to have books with you regularly then an ebook reader is probably a good investment for you.

The last question then, if you’ve decided to get an ebook reader, is which one do you want? This is tricky and I’m not going to answer for you. The popular ones are the Amazon Kindle and the Sony PRS series. A little less known but gets very good reviews is the BeBook. They each have different features and price options so be sure to comparison shop.

An excellent source of information about the different ebook reader options are the MobileRead Forums. They provide a ton of reviews, references, and a very active community that will help you make an informed decision. They also keep up with the latest trends so it may be good to wait on a purchase for an upcoming release (like the WiFi enabled BeBook due to be released soon).

Either way you choose make sure it’s a choice that’s right for you and if someone else chooses differently – let it be up to them. Personally, I think it’s very cool to have so many choices on how we can travel with our media be it Kindle, a PSP, or a Dell Mini – or a combination of them all.

If you have any further questions or want more details, feel free to comment and I’ll be happy to elaborate.

UPDATE: A friend recently wrote up their experience with trying out an ereader for the first time. Read her review on Murmur.

Many people ask me about BitTorrent and to be honest, it’s not easy to explain. I’m going to try here but I’m going to do it with lots of help.

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol based around a distributed sharing system and optimized for large files.

While completely accurate that description isn’t really useful in getting started with BitTorrent.

If you’ve ever used file sharing programs before like Napster, Kazaa or Limewire … BitTorrent is nothing like those. To explain how BitTorrent is different I’m going to get some help because as simple as it is to use, the initial understanding on how to use it is can be confusing.

I’m going to send you to a bit of learning before we move on to a couple other topics. First, Lifehacker has two guides to getting started with BitTorrent; a beginner’s guide and an intermediate guide. You can skip the intermediate guide for now but definitely bookmark it for future reference. The other excellent guide is The Big Book of BitTorrent by Aibek. That is a free PDF book about 28 pages long… that’s more of a reference tool but will answer pretty much all of your quesitons. Start with the Lifehacker beginner’s guide…

Once you’ve looked through those items you’ll notice that you’ll need a program and some websites. The program handles the downloading and the websites are where you find the torrents.

If you didn’t read the guide here are the quick and dirty basics (but you may or may not understand them just from this little bit):

BitTorrent uses torrent files to connect your BitTorrent program with other people sharing the exact same file. So a torrent file for the movie Elephant’s Dream is like a bookmark or ticket that connects you to all the other people downloading/uploading the movie. People who have the entire file are called seeders and people who are still downloading the file are called leechers or peers. You will be connected to multiple people who have the same file and you will download pieces of the file from different people and others will download pieces from you. So you download the Elephant’s Dream torrent file and open it with your BitTorrent program which connects you to others to share the actual movie file of Elephant’s Dream.

So back to what you need… a program and some torrent sites. If you are on Windows I recommend uTorrent (it’s actually µTorrent using the metric presentation for “micro”) and for OS X and Linux I recommend Transmission. The uTorrent guides are very good as well for help in using BitTorrent even if you aren’t using uTorrent. Each program has a different interface but all BitTorrent applications work in a similar fashion so once you are familiar with one you can use pretty much any of them and it’s just a matter of extra features.

So you have the program and now you need to start sharing. This is where a good set of BitTorrent websites comes in handy. For beginners, I recommend The Pirate Bay and Mininova. Those sites should provide you with pretty much all the items you may be looking to download. Demonoid is also a popular location but requires membership and sometimes they aren’t open to new members – but you can get an invite if you ask around. The Pirate Bay is probably the most open and busy torrent tracker (the backend service that directs your torrent “ticket” or “bookmark”) so you’ll find lots of content there. Mininova also has a lot of content and is a bit more manageable in regards to browsing particular catagories.

A note on piracy… there are lots of laws and rules about piracy and some of them apply differently depending on your situation and the content. There are loopholes and so forth but put simply: if you didn’t pay for it, and you should have, then you are stealing. That being said, BitTorrent is not digital piracy… BitTorrent is just a system for transfering large files.

One last note… BitTorrent is a LOT safer than other file sharing services but you can still get infected if you download and install the wrong thing. Be sure to check through torrent site comments and run antivirus utilities just to be safe.

So that should provide you will all the information you need to get started with your file sharing. Don’t let the amount of information be too daunting … it really is easy to use.

Good luck and happy torrenting!

This week is Banned Book Week and the normal thing to do this week is to read a banned book. Check out the American Library Association Banned Books site for more information including a list of the most often challenged books and authors.

Here is the list of most challenged authors from 1990-2004:

1. Alvin Schwartz
2. Judy Blume
3. Robert Cormier
4. J.K. Rowling
5. Michael Willhoite
6. Katherine Paterson
7. Stephen King
8. Maya Angelou
9. R.L. Stine
10. John Steinbeck

Here is the list of 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000.

I think I’ll go peruse Where’s Waldo as one of the more ridiculously challenged books.

I apologize for the lack of post lately. I have started a new job and I’m still working out the new life schedule. I promise to get back on track with more regular info soon.

In the mean time, here are a couple quick topics I noticed recently:

• If you sync any devices to Outlook (like Blackberry, Palm, Smartphone, etc) then you know that duplicates happen. Outlook Duplicate Items Remover is a good answer to this problem and it’s free.

• If you have a Mac and a large collection of movies, books, games or music then Delicious Library 2 is a great way to catalog that collection. The latest version was just released and it has loads of new features and updates (Leopard only though – but you can still buy the older version which is still a great program).  This program is one of the main reasons I love my Mac.

• O’Reilly has released Google Apps: The Missing Manual to help you get a handle on all those new and exciting Google online applications. It includes chapters on Google Docs, iGoogle, PageCreator, GMail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and even a chapter or two about the business uses.

• Firefox 3 RC1 (Release Candidate 1) is rocking on PC and Mac.  I used to prefer Safari over Firefox 2 on my Mac because FF2 was slow and icky, but I’ve fallen in love all over again and it isn’t even the final version. I’ve been using it on my PC and Mac for a few weeks now and couldn’t be happier.

• If you like keeping up on the latest movie releases – especially their trailers – head over to First Showing.  They have done an excellent job of keeping me up to date with the latest movie trailer releases and upcoming release happenings.

• Tropic Thunder looks like it may be funny – but this short clip from MTV Movie Awards of Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, and Jack Black trying to make a viral video is definitely hilarious.

Don’t forget that you can also follow me on twitter, but I hope to get a more regular posting schedule up and running soon. Thanks for your patience!

UPDATE: Firefox 3 RC 2 just arrived. It is available at the same link.

It has been a slow weekend in the tech world… not really, but most of it is boring to regular people so I thought I’d spare most of you.

There are few things that have come to mind I thought I’d let you know about.

Apple released a large update to their Leopard operating system.  Lots of fixes and tweaks.  Be sure to run Software Update again after installing because there is a graphics update as well.  Also, open Disk Utility (from Utilities folder in Applications) and run the “Repair Disk Permissions” on your system hard drive.

WHDb.com released an article with the top 50 proprietary programs that drive you crazy and their open source alternatives.  I don’t necessarily agree with some of their “top” picks, but the list is pretty complete. I suggest you check it out when you get a chance.  It is mostly Windows centric, but there are a variety of Apple apps on there as well.

I’ve been using twitter regularly lately and I think I’ve finally settled on a desktop app.  It is called Twhirl and does all the things I liked in the other programs I tried and none of the usual irritations. It will run on Windows and Mac using Adobe AIR (AIR will be coming to Linux soon). If you have a Blackberry, I recommend TwitterBerry. You can find me on twitter here.

Steven Brust has written a short story based in the Firefly world called My Own Kind of Freedom. It is free to download under Creative Commons and it is a nice added episode to the Firefly world.  Yes… the entire crew is in it. It’s a pretty good read and since it’s free you really can’t complain can you? I think it is a worthy addition to the rest of the canon.

Starbucks is leaving T-Mobile and moving to AT&T for their wireless services in their billions of coffee shops.  Current T-Mobile customers will still get 5 years of usage while AT&T broadband customers will have free access to even more wireless locations.  AT&T Cellular customers will be getting the same benefits soon.  Check here for current AT&T wireless hotspots around the world.

It looks like Blu-ray Disc may come out the winner in the HD Disc format wars. Two more big players are backing Blu-ray.  Best Buy and Netflix have both stated that they are backing Blu-ray.  Netflix will no longer refresh their inventory of current HDDVDs and Best Buy will be recommending Blu-ray over HDDVD.  Ars has the details about this latest development in the “format wars”.

As always – if you are looking for distractions, check out My Pownce or the feed to the right. Watch the Delicious bookmarks at the right too as interesting sites I find will end up there as well.

So it wasn’t too boring… was it?

Yup.

You read that right. Terry Pratchett, creator of Discworld and one of my favorite authors, let it be known today that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Of course it was met with his usual wit:
“I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should
be interpreted as ‘I am not dead’. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as
will everybody else.”