Derek's Blog Page

I've decided I'm being too harsh to Barnes & Noble.

2010-08-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

Instead of demanding they repair my Nook, I'll be satisfied by a lesser action. Which lesser action, you ask? Simple.

Let Amazon create an ePub Nook competitor and drive B&N out of business. Root and branch. Stomp it into the ground, thrust a wooden stake through its rotten heart, cut off it's head, sew communion wafers into its mouth and leave its vampiric rotting corpse to turn to ash at the rising of the sun.

THAT would be sufficient compensation for their attitude towards repairing my Nook.

In other words, there's no reason to go to extremes.

Yes, Leonard Riggio, I mean your company sucks rotten eggs!

Barnes & Noble, your Nook customer service SUX!

2010-08-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

If you happen to buy a used, or even used/broken Kindle 2 or Kindle DX, which is still under the 1-year warranty period, Amazon will swap it out for a new/refurbished version for FREE! And if it is past the warranty period, Amazon will do so for $135. That means Amazon *honors* its warranty whether the person is the original owner or a second owner.

That's just the same as warranties offered by car manufacturers. And large-appliance manufacturers. They *get* that the warranty period transfers.

Not so with Barnes & Noble. Say you've located a used Nook on eBay. The owner bought the Nook less than 1 year ago and they need to sell... So you buy it. But it's broken somehow. Guess what? B&N, that piece of crap company, WON'T honor any remaining warranty time - nor will it bother to repair the Nook at all! Not even for a fee! That's right. If you're not the original owner, you're shit out of luck with B&N!

Is it any wonder that Barnes & Noble is for sale?

Shame on you, Barnes & Noble!

Greater Tyranny or lesser tyranny?

2010-08-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

Think about it.

If you go with the Democrat ('liberal') agenda, the U.S. federal government should have more power and control than the states or local governments. That's an opportunity-in-progress for 'greater tyranny'. On the other hand, the Republican ('conservative') agenda is to strip all but the simplest powers from the federal government and hand them over to the states and local governments. IOW, 'lesser tyranny'.

Why do I say this? Does anyone think that the politicians at state, county or local levels are somehow 'exempt' from the desire to exert anti-Constitutional (we're talking about the Bill of Rights here) control and abuse their positions for their personal gain? If anyone disagrees, just look at the messes at the state levels in California, Massachussets, Virginia, New York and Arizona amongst others. And let us not forget of the levels of corruption we're witnessing in Bell, California. A town of less than 40,000 residents, almost all of whom earn under $37,000/year and the 'city manager' managed to get his salary boosted to $787,000!!!

We here in the U.S. are supposed to be trying very hard to increase personal liberty and yet both major parties are screaming over which government gets the right to impose tyranny. Isn't it time to vote ALL the bastards out?

Liberty vs. Nationalism

2010-07-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

I happened to be listening to the radio today and there was this commentator on who's, shall we say, of the 'conservative' bent. He mentioned this student (and had the student as a caller) who's fighting to force all classes in his school to have the US flag in each classroom and to make it mandatory for students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Naturally, this commentator ranted about how we need to have this budding statist succeed in his efforts - in order to help make America 'great' again. Really? So just forcing all children to mindlessly recite the Pledge (an oath created by a committed Socialist - literally, a member of the American Socialist party - who wrote the damned thing because he felt so strongly that we should all become Socialists and felt the best way to do so was to 'teach' (brainwash) the children) whether doing so infringed upon their personal or religious beliefs (Remember the 1st Amendment? You know, the one guaranteeing separation of Church and State? Well, there are several Christian faiths that don't believe in reciting *any* such pledge.), all in the hopes that by doing so we could program the chilluns into unwavering acceptance of (conservative) political values and - presumably - thus creating jobs and righting the economy.

Yeah. Right.

What made this country great was our acceptance of all individuals who wanted to share our ideals of personal liberty - and who were willing to bust their balls to make it happen.

'Nuf said.

I WANT a Holga.D digital Holga!!!

2010-07-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

If you've ever seen the images you can get from a Holga, you know they are funky, retro and everything you've ever wanted in a cheap, 'ART' camera!

I own a glass-lens square-format Holga that I've retrofitted to take 35mm film in a 3:1 panorama mode. (It normally takes 6cmx6cm or 6cmx4.5cm images on 120-format film.) I also own and use a 120-format Holga that can take 6cmx9cm and 6cmx12cm medium-format panoramic images using a pinhole 'lens' Both of these are fun to use - so buy one and use it already!

However, to date, there've been no cheap, weird-lens, 'digital' Holgas. The site linked into the title of this post discusses making an open-source Holga.D Take a gander and submit your own input. Get involved! Let's make this happen!

Man, oh man! (Home) smoked chops!

2010-07-09T18:16:00.001-07:00

Today we didn't feel much like doing any heavy cooking for dinner. So we made a tossed salad using some of the pre-shredded iceberg lettuce salad mix and we cut in some crookneck squash and a double handful of the cherry tomatoes (both of which we are growing in our back yard), took out and thawed two of those smoked pork chops, which we zapped in the microwave, and called it 'dinner'.

Let me tell you... Remember how I said in last post that we'd just sprinkled a little salt, black pepper and garlic powder on them before smoking them on the Weber grill? Hoo Doggie! They were SCRUMPTIOUS! Way better than any of those thin-as-paper store-bought smoked chops and MUCH less salty!

I'm saying that if you can take the time to shop for some thick, at least 1.25 inches thick, pork chops to smoke, do so! Set aside the time, get the grill, charcoal and wood chips and smoke your own!

Got some 4th Smoker Photos

2010-07-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

The 4th went great!

Early in the morning, we fired up our Weber Performer, laying it out in indirect heat mode as we were planning to smoke two racks of pork ribs and four thick-cut pork chops. I don't know about most people, but we've gotten into the habit of taking our soaked wood chips and making small foil packets with them that we place on top of the cooking grill right above the two baskets of hot coals - with 6-8 small holes punched into the tops of the packets to allow the smoke to escape. This way, we get smoke for a longer period of time than we get by just tossing the non-wrapped wet chips directly onto the hot coals - just a quick tip.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, we had lightly rubbed the ribs and the chops down with a blend of salt, garlic powder and black pepper (ground, of course) and let the meat rest overnight. We didn't put our dry rub blend on the meat this time around. We cut the ribs in half and put all four half-racks onto one of those rib racks (We have a collapsible rack, but we're always misplacing the stands so I'm thinking of purchasing a Weber one-piece rack.) and centered the rib holder over the drip/water pan we'd placed between the coal baskets. We put the chops at each end of the rib holder and set our vents to hold the temp at around 250F. (12 cold bricquettes in each basket, with 12 HOT bricquettes on top. Bottom vents closed to about 1/3 open and top vents about 1/4 open works on our Weber.)

Anyway, the smoker packets stopped smoking at about the 90-minute mark and we pulled the ribs and chops at the 2-hour mark. Note the color on the meat! I forgot - and you would have too after tasting the meat! - to take photos of the ribs after I cut them apart, but we saw a solid 1/4" red "Maillard Reaction" rim to the meat so we definitely had a good 'smoke effect'. We had some spicy honey barbecue sauce to dip into, but the ribs were so tasty on their own that I only ate one rib with the sauce!

The two photos attached are of one of the half-racks of ribs and one of two of the smoked chops.

We also tossed 8 "Bubba Burgers" and 8 turkey burger patties onto the Weber after pulling the pork. We had to toss 8 bricquettes into each basket and blow on the coals to get the fresh coals lit. But then after we closed the flip-open parts of the grill back down we just put two more smoker packets over the coals and put the lid down. We flipped the patties after 1/2 hour and left them on for another 1/2 hour and pulled them. As soon as they cooled down enough, we double-bagged them in zip-lock freezer bags. We'll heat-and-eat them throughout the next couple of weeks.

It seems ridiculous, but it's already the 4th of July!

2010-07-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! (Yes, I'm posting this on the 3rd, but it's close enough - and I expect to be far too busy cooking, celebrating and eating!

I wonder, how many of you are going to go beyond hot dogs and hamburgers for the 4th? We are. We've got two racks of baby-back ribs all seasoned up and four THICK pork chops and we're going to be smoking them! We'll save the chops for another day but the ribs are our dinner and we're planning on whipping up a tasty, spicy honey barbecue sauce to dip them in. Plus, we're gonna salt, pepper and garlic up a box of Bubba Burgers and smoke them as we let the coals cool down. (BTW, this year we're just seasoning the chops and ribs with a 'house-blend' mix of garlic powder, salt and pepper. We're saving the dry rub for chicken quarters later this month. Yum! Yum!)

We've found that smoking plain pork chops and hamburger patties and then freezing them as soon as they're 'blood-warm' captures the smokey odor in the zip-lock bags! And those bland-but-healthy turkey burger patties? Well, after smoking, they're quite the tasty treat!

Hope you have as nice a 4th of July as we plan to!

Yes, if all goes well, I'll be snapping photos of the smoked chops and ribs and I'll post them here.

Trade paperback version of "Net Assets" now available!

2010-07-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

That's right, a 6" x 9" trade paperback version of Carl Bussjaeger's fascinating libertarian novel, "Net Assets" is now available over at CreateSpace for $18.95. If you haven't had a chance to pick up the ebook at Amazon, or if you feel more comfortable reading dead-tree versions, now's the time to order this first book in the "Net Assets" trilogy! An anthology of Carl's SF short stories will be released in August, 2010, and the second of the NA trilogy will be released in ebook and trade paperback format Fall, 2010.

The synopsis for "Net Assets" is:

"Once upon a time, there was an agency of the American government called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA was tasked with the exploration and development of space. Being a government agency, it was very bad at the job. But also, being a government agency, NASA made damned sure that no one else would do a better job.
"And then the bureacrats' world came to an end."
In the early 21st century, someone has finally had it with the lost dreams and broken promises of government-sponsored space access. It begins quietly on the Internet, then grows into a small private company determined to do what many believed impossible: Private, affordable, regular orbital launches. For anyone. For everyone.
But as has been noted, "Ad astra per aspera."

This is a stimulating and provocative libertarian science fiction novel - don't miss it!

Carl Bussjaeger's "Net Assets" Now in Trade Paperback!

2010-06-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read this correctly. Near Space has released a 6" x 9" trade paperback edition of Carl Bussjaeger's libertarian novel, "Net Assets". The link above takes you to a 'preview' of the book.

Amazon takes a couple of days to actually create the listing to purchase the book, so look for it by Friday. It costs $18.95 which is a good price for a trade sized book. Please, support Carl in his endeavors to release the other two in the Net Assets trilogy by buying a copy of this book!

"Net Assets" available as ebook!

2010-04-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

That's right, "Net Assets" is now available in several different ebook formats. The above link will take you to the Book List page of Near Space Press where you can find links to the Amazon (Kindle format) page and the Smashwords (Mobipocket, Palmdoc PDB, ePub and Sony LRF) page.

Please, check out this wonderful libertarian SF novel.

Net Assets to be released 4/23/2010.

2010-04-17T15:22:00.000-07:00

That's right, Near Space Press is releasing the Kindle version of Carl Bussjaeger's "Net Assets" through Amazon on April 23rd, 2010. That's this coming Friday.

For those of you who like a bargain, anyone pre-ordering it or buying it on April 23rd or April 24th will get it for the low, low price of $7.99 (US Dollars). On April 25th, the price will rise to its regular $9.99 (US Dollars) price. We at Near Space Press promise to hold the line on ebook prices to a maximum of $9.99.

So feel free to go to Amazon on Tuesday and place your pre-order for this great libertarian novel!

Wii Wii Wii all the way home!

2010-04-14T14:40:00.001-07:00

Have you noticed that I've blogged about the Nintendo Wii? (Yes? No? Maybe?) Well, maybe just a tad... Okay, I'm into my sixth full day of Wii exercising using the Sports disc that comes bundled with the Wii system console and the Wii Fit Plus disc - which comes bundled with a Balance Board.

Today, I did over 30 minutes of bowling (six games, this time played with my left hand - I'm a rightie - and with a high game of 169), golf (we won't discuss how *bad* my scores are except to say that *I* believe the system should not allow the recording of quadruple bogies on a hole) and boxing ( three matches, including one 1st round KO and two 2nd-round KOs) as well as 1.5 minutes (out of 3 minutes) on the Wii Fit Plus Basic Run Short Course.

Sure, it's only been six days. But even in such a short time frame, I'm noticing that I'm walking better, that my endurance while playing is increasing and that I'm getting some real good elevated heart rates during the games and exercise.

For me, weighing in is not yet something I can do at home - most scales only go to 275-330, and even the higher-range home models are limited to 550 pounds - so I don't know how much weight I'm losing. But as soon as I get down to 550 or below, I'm getting one of those scales so that I can monitor each week rather than every couple of months when I visit my primary physician. Still, my measured (I use one of those home wrist-cuff monitors.) blood-pressure has dropped 4 whole points (down from 79/132 to 77/128) over this week.

I'm still looking forward to either a) reaching 400 pounds so I can buy an exercycle that will take my weight, or b) getting donations to afford one of those NuStep T5xr trainers - but the latter is pretty much a pipe-dream as no one has kicked in even one cent to the $5,600 price tag. In the mean time, I'll stick to my daily routine with the Wii; I AM getting measurable, benficial results from it and I urge anyone else who's topping 500 pounds to consider buying at least the Wii system!

I'm becoming an Amazon small publisher

2010-04-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

It is called Near Space Press and I'll be first releasing a Kindle version of Carl Bussjaeger's "Net Assets", followed shortly by a Kindle version of his collected short stories, "The Anarchists". I hope to have a trade paperback version of each available by late May or early June of this year.

As "Net Assets" is fully edited and we have a basic cover for it, I'm just waiting for an ISBN number before releasing the Kindle version. Price will be $9.99 and on the first day it's available it will be a $0.00 price. The price of the Trade paperback version, when it's released, will be $15.99.

Obviously, while I love Carl's works, Near Space Press will seek out other authors who are writing libertarian fiction (and libertarian non-fiction for those of you who've written these) and have found no home with the established publishing houses. For the Kindle editions, we'll offer you a better royalty rate than what you'd get from those older firms and we'll be willing to offer dual releases (ebook and tpb) on each title accepted for publication.

Fourth day exercising with the Wii

2010-04-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's now been five days since we got the Wii set up and we've exercised four of those days. Today I managed to get the Wii Fit Plus system to recognize me - and that was a total pain as I had to fool the Balance Board about my presence; I am over 300 pound heavier than the Balance Board can handle and I don't want to break it because Mom needs it. So once I got myself into the Wii Fit Plus system I chose to do the ONE type of WFP exercise that doesn't need the Balance Board - the Run. Obviously, at my weight and with my relative lack of fitness, I could only do the Basic Run, and only 37.5% of that, but I've noticed that I'm not feeling quite the knee pain while sitting down afterwards.

Still, I'm managing, with the mix of Bowling, Boxing and Golf as well as working up to the full 3 minutes of the WFP Basic Run, to move better and I'm feeling a bit more relaxed and I'm breathing easier.

I recommend that anyone who's truly morbidly obese go out and get a Wii and Wii Fit Plus system.

Yes! Wii Bowling is Fun!

2010-04-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I'd ever get the hang of Wii Sports Bowling, but I finally did. Anyone who's read this blog since the beginning knows that I'm far, far too heavy to stand unassisted for more than a minute. In fact, I usually use two canes. Today, I managed to use just one cane to stand so that I could use the WiiMote. I only lasted for one game of bowling, but I managed to stand the whole game!

Then I sat back down - and bowled the next four games. People, my heart rate by the end of the five games (20 minutes real time) was around 134 - and I had broken into a sheen of sweat! I haven't reached that level of exercise in YEARS!

Seriously, if you're morbidly obese - or like me you've reached super-morbid obesity status - get yourself a Wii and start playing the Wii Sports games that come with the system. If I can play at that level of exercise for 20 minutes and more, so can you!

Wiiiiiiiiiiii Meeeeeeee!

2010-04-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have finally joined the 'Wii Generation' here at Casa Benner. We (LOL) went ahead and bought a Wii, an extra WiiMote & Nunchuk and Wii Fit Plus w/Balance Board. I spent yesterday getting the Balance Board and the extra WiiMote configured to the Wii. Then Mom and I tried out the basic sports games disc that comes with the Wii and the exercise disc that comes with Wii Fit Plus. Whooo! Quite the workout, even with just the five games that come with the basic Wii! I cannot at this time, use the Balance Board, so Mom is using the Wii Fit application and I'm sticking to Tennis, Bowling, Golf, Baseball and Boxing. Even so, it is so easy to forget how much time has passed. I spent nearly 30 minutes working up a sweat with Boxing, Bowling and Baseball.

But the important thing is that playing these games got me out of the chair (although playing Boxing and Baseball can quite easily be done sitting down if you're like me and have trouble standing for any length of time) and onto my feet. I'm tired and sore today, but it's a 'good' tired. We will be looking at other 'sports' games for the Wii and I think this will make it that much easier to get exercise into my life.

I want an iPad!

2010-04-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Scratch that. I *need* an iPad! I've got books to write,books to publish and needs to meet. I cannot function without an iPad. That presents a problem. I'm living on a fixed (lower-class) income and cannot afford one. What is *infinitely* worse is that Obama's (and to a lesser extent, FDR's) Great Society has failed to live up to its promise of Freedom from Want. (I have this suspicion that is because I'm caucasian.) Whatever the reason, I'm not seeing the wealth of "Obama money" flowing into *my* coffers (funny how *my* "coffers" always seem to resemble empty pockets and bare cupboards) But I have a plan which involves getting Carl Bussjaeger's novel, "Net Assets" published through Amazon as an ebook. I'm even setting up a website for this and other novels that have not found homes at www.nearspacepress.com.

Still, having an iPad would make this process easier. If you'd like to help out, please donate via the donate buttons on this page. And check out Near Space for sample chapters of Net Assets. They should be up by this Friday.

I've got a problem here...

2010-03-30T14:13:00.001-07:00

I've been lusting after a NuStep T5xr recumbent exercise machine for some time, but my personal finances are such that I cannot afford one on my own dime. I've had a blog set up to ask for donations but it's just not working - no donations! It runs out on April 4th and I'm thinking of letting it fade away. The problem with this is that I can't find any used ones and the new ones run over $5,600 plus shipping. What makes it worse is that while I'm losing, I'm still well over 570 pounds and the other exercise devices out there either don't handle my weight or they're just as expensive with none of the benefits. Anyone got ideas? No, grant funding or organized charitable help is not available - been there, found out there ain't any. And NuStep expects time-payments to not exceed 12 months which puts it out of my range. Nor do I have a hidden savings account, stocks, bonds or high-limit credit card. I'm willing to consider any reasonable ideas.

BTW, I'll be taking time these next few weeks to get Carl Bussjaeger's "Net Assets" set up as an ebook over at Amazon - and at Barnes & Noble for their Nook as well if it is possible. Please, if you like libertarian science fiction, look for "Net Assets" and tell your friends!

Good news from the docs!

2010-03-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

It was NOT Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), nor was it full-blown stroke. Given the very limited area affected (what is known as the V2 or Maxillary area of the face) they know that for sure. However, they're not sure if it was a mild case of trigeminal neuralgia, AKA Bell's Palsy, or some other neurological disorder. If it flares up again, I need to get to the doctor and get a steroidal creme prescribed to kill the irritation to the nerve.

Whew!

But not knowing, and having been warned by the doc to think that it could have been TIA or stroke, left me time to ponder what I leave behind if something does happen to me - and of course it will, sometime... just not today.

At this point in my life, I'd be leaving behind good friends, both online and off, a half-finished SF novel a mother I live with and other relatives. I took the time to contact my friends to let them know (this was before going to the hospital this morning) how much I value their friendship. Sometimes I think I don't do that often enough. Do you?

I also realized that there's really no reason why I can't get back on the writing horse and finish that novel. And then go on and write the next three I've either started or gotten ideas for!

Then there's all those birds sitting outside my window just begging to be memorialized by my dSLR.

So yes, life is more than just watching TV. That is what I most clearly learned today.

Considerations of mortality this week - TIA

2010-03-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

I've had a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) event yesterday. I'm going in to get all the tests and exams done. There's a good chance I may be scheduled to have surgery to install stent(s) into my neck. There's almost a 100% chance I will be adding Plavix or some other medication to my daily meds cocktail, could be some form of ACE inhibitor or anti-platelet inhibitor. Given that I don't even know what those are, I can't be more specific.

*MY* journey will involve getting up very early tomorrow morning and heading to the closest branch of UC-Davis Medical Center (being the hospital I'm enrolled with) and waiting around in their emergency room until they can schedule a doctor to examine me and recommend I be shifted to the cardiac care specialists for further tests. Given that I'm a Medicare/Medi-CAL patient, and it's just a TIA and not already a full-blown stroke, I'll probably get the medication prescribed right away but may have to wait until early next week for the CT or MRI. That's okay. I could be a 'medically-indigent' patient, in which case I might not get those exams for months. No health care plan and no signs of money equals *minimal* care.

If they think I must wait, I might not get surgery this next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I'm taking all my meds! Still, even with surgery, things can go wrong... Thus my meditations on mortality and planning for the possibility. I'm not worried if I *do* die, because the health problems are GONE. No, I'm more worried about what happens if I have a stroke or something during the procedure and suffer major damage. I'm already disabled. I'd hate to lose more ability.

If everything goes smoothly, I'm buying a small exercycle and doubling my workout program! If not, I won't need to sweat it.

Or maybe not...

2010-03-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

It seems the person selling the Wii console on eBay neglected to mention that he was only selling the chance to participate in a scam that would bilk the 'customers' into complying with loads of 'free offers' that emptied a bank account to the tune of $19.95/month for a year. Do enough of these 'free offers' and, eventually - after draining well over $2,000 from the 'customer' (I'd call that person a victim.) - the 'customer' would get a Wii. Yeah. Right.

We're now waiting for the refund of our money to process.

I'm thrilled! We're joining the Wii Fit craze!

2010-03-08T15:57:00.000-08:00

Yep. We managed to snag a Wii system on eBay. (Yes, eBay! We got our brand-new system for $165 because I spent the time to track the auctions and one of them closed out with our winning bid of $165! Deals CAN happen if you're patient enough.)

So once it actually gets here, we'll be setting it up and doing all those nifty sports and exercise games in order to expand our repertoire of exercises. Who knows? Maybe, unlike every other you-only-have-to-exercise-a-half-hour-per-day program, THIS ONE will cause Mom and I to massively shed pounds! (Not likely, but it will make the whole, keep the cardio going process more fun - and that's a good thing.)

I cannot stress enough that deals can be found on eBay. But it does require patience as you have to be willing to set hard limits on how high you will bid and keep to those limits. We've been searching for a new (as opposed to a 'used' or 'refurbished' unit) Wii since early September of 2009. But we set a goal of not paying more than $180 plus shipping. It took some time, but we beat our goal. To give you an idea, the ten Wii auctions we were following in the two hours before the one we won, the prices ranged between $207 and $276 - same exact system as we won.

So, I recently read "And Falling, Fly"...

2010-03-06T13:59:00.000-08:00

And I didn't like it.

"And Falling, Fly" by Skyler White is, in my opinion, 'ponderous'. Yep. Ponderous. No it's not that long of a book, but the writing style is one that leads the average reader to wonder just how long the pain will last - that's right, the pain! In this story we discover that vampires are really 'fallen' angels - and no, there's no 'becoming a vampire by being made into one by another vampire'. We also discover that vampires not only live off blood, they each seek to meet one desire they crave. Olivia craves 'love'. Her latest victim/savior craves release from the endless cycle of death and rebirth - yep, he, Dominic O'Shaughnessy, is one of the ReBorn. He thinks he's crazy because upon puberty he 'remembered' all of his past lives.

And, of course, we also meet Geahod - a very THIN disguise upon God. He runs an asylum for those - addicts, ReBorn, Fallen Angels, etc - who need to escape the pain of the world. There's a Garden of Eden inside the underground facility, complete with a snake and a Tree of Knowledge - the twist here is that the snake is (as in Norse legends) swallowing his own tail.

I could spoil the book for you but I won't. I also won't deny that the fight between the feelings of the protagonists is shallow, ponderously written and not worth spending money on. However, your mileage may vary - so if you absolutely MUST, I won't prevent you from reading it - but I'm not going to link to AFF on Amazon because I really don't consider it worth recommending.

Another Man's Poison - Simon John Cox

2010-02-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

tur·gid (tûrjd)
adj.
1. Excessively ornate or complex in style or language; grandiloquent: turgid prose.
2. Swollen or distended, as from a fluid; bloated: a turgid bladder; turgid veins.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Latin turgidus, from turgre, to be swollen.]

"Another Man's Poison", by Simon John Cox, is a perfect example to give whenever you want to describe the word 'turgid'. His first novel, AMP is a difficult book to review. It wants to be a psychological thriller - and it wants to be an expression of auctorial angst. Unfortunately it delivers on neither promise; I would not recommend this book to any reader because of aforementioned failure.

There are four main characters within the novel, the madman, the pregnant spiritualist/herbalist, the police captain and the dedicated doctor. Of these four, only one has a revealed background even approaching the level needed to support a description beyond 'cardboard cutout'. The madman, whose viewpoint we get to 'enjoy' for the first few chapters, initially comes across as a laborer who cares about others, but who has a minor quirk whereby he feels the need to 'prosletyze' his beliefs/faith to others. We do not really get any description of this until much later in the book - by which time the point of view has switched to that of the dedicated doctor.

This initial playful tease at understanding the madman is followed by an abrupt and un-signalled switch to that of the pregnant herbalist/spiritualist. And in doing so, the author chooses to step a bit back in time so that her story overlaps the madman's by the part of a day. This switch is disconnecting and forces the reader (at least, it did so to me) out of the flow of the story. Then, we discover that the new main character does not really 'see' the prior character any clearer than the original character 'saw' himself. Further, we get a stereotypical view of a woman being innocent enough to deceive herself - this despite 'spiritual' warnings, given in so vague of terms as to enhance her ability to continue to ignore them - of the dangers of the madman to her.

Again, after pushing the story so far, the author chooses to switch, just as abruptly as the first time, to the point of view of the police captain. And, as before, we get to jump back a bit in time, now to around that when the madman's story initially started in the novel, so that we could suffer the same set of circumstances from their point of view - oh joy! Be still my beating heart! (I'll explain why that was no pleasure towards the end of this review.) While the captain - surrounded by his crew of officers with whom he is chasing the madman - has plenty of opportunity to grow as a character, to enhance and/or change his views or his character, he too suffers from the inability to burst forth from his cardboard mold. And by now we understand that the author is trying to write a 'Great American Novel', replete with overwrought imagery and deed psychological isses. (Well, not 'quite' a GAM as the author is British.) Unfortunately he pays more attention to his descriptions of the landscape and the other cardboard cutout characters than he does to the story itself - which is how so many GAMs end up failing to reach their goals.

Finally, we get to the fourth point of view - and here we discover the 'one thing' which gives any semblance of meaning to the suffering the four main characters have undergone - and which should have given meaning to the suffering the reader endures. I cannot tell you the 'one thing' because it would give away *every jot and tittle* of the story. While I hope to spare others the tedium and suffering of reading this book, I have to assume that there are a few people out there who might actually like this kind of writing and I'd hate to deprive them of their pleasure. So to the two of you, you'll just have to buy it.

Back to turgidity. By now you probably have figured out that AMP has lots of 'filler' in the form of nearly 'purple' prose and excessive descriptions of scenerey and unimportant characters. You may have even guessed that we get far more 'viewpoint character' introspection than the story needs. What you don't know is that the author has gone beyond what you might find in a Jane Austen or Charles Dickens story to the level of a Victor Hugo novel. Now, Victor Hugo can pull this off, as can Austen and Dickens - this author cannot. This leaves the reader not only suffering from a pointless novel, but compounds that suffering by stretching the suffering for hours beyond that which a reasonable novel might take.

Save your money - even for less than $3.00, this book, "Another Man's Poison" by Simon John Cox, is a waste of good money.

What the heck is up with MacMillan?

2010-02-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

Anyone who's paid even the 'slightest' attention to the e-book world has probably heard about MacMillan (followed in embarrassingly short order by Harper-Collins and Hachette) unilaterally abrogating the contract between itself and Amazon to force Amazon (a retailer, who's supposed to have the right to set retail prices) to jack the prices on e-books from MacM from $9.99 to $12.99-$14.99 (Yeah, right. Actually, some MacM fiction titles are now going for $16.99!), apparently because, according to John Sargent, CEO of MacM, to give a larger share to the authors.

Yeah. Right. Publishers live or die by the *BINDING* legal contracts they force on the authors. Given the vast number of current authors under contract, I'm wondering how many of these have gotten the new, revised contracts which assigns a greater royalty rate on e-books? My suspicion is that these authors will, for the most part, still be waiting for their new contracts and higher royalty rates until shortly after December 21st, 2012 - after all, if the world ends, MacM won't owe them any increased income, yes?

I'd love to hear from small-fry authors who've actually gotten a renegotiated contract with higher royalty rates.

So why did I post a list of 377 authors???

2010-02-06T12:53:00.001-08:00

I did so because these authors are the ones I've discovered since switching to ebooks. In many ways, I've discovered these authors I now enjoy reading *BECAUSE* I switched to reading ebooks.

See, I had a group of 28 authors whose titles I would purchase as soon as the titles hit the bookshelves of my local Barnes & Noble or Tower bookstores. There were 30 others of whom I have ONE title on my bookshelves at home, but the vast majority of fiction works I own came from one of my 'core' 28 authors. One reason I self-limited was because I only have so much bookshelf space; to add more bookshelf space would require adding a complete room to the house! Obviously, this is not a reasonable option for me as I am NOT Scrooge McDuck wealthy!

Additionally, the cost of traveling to the various bookstores to find new works added to the per-book cost - and I'm not one of those who has that much discretionary income to afford the fuel expenses. Nor do I have that much time to waste cruising around town searching each store to see if a new author looked interesting.

And shopping online for paper books still had a shipping expense that increased the costs of buying books.

Then there's the fact that I cannot carry as many mass-market paperback books around as I can ebooks. To match the capacity of my Kindle 2 (which does NOT, by the way, have the ability to access a swappable SD memory card - all books are held in internal memory) I'd have to haul around a grocery store shopping cart everywhere I go. Doing so makes no sense!

So, prior to switching to ebooks, I was loathe to try out new authors and new genres. Since late 2007, I have expanded my reading horizons and my tastes from 28 authors to over *FOUR HUNDRED*!

Which means I have become more valuable to publishers as I'm now willing to try a wider range and greater number of their titles.

So why is it that MacMillan decided that they had to stiff Amazon by shoving the new 'agency model' of pricing down Amazon's and our (readers) throats???

That will be discussed in my next post.

My list of recent authors I like.

2010-02-06T12:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's a HUGE list. But these are the authors, 377 of them, I've 'discovered' over the past two years. My next post will discuss why this list is important.

Ackroyd, Peter
Adams, William
Aguirre, Ann
Ahmed, S. W.
Anderson, Catherine
Andrews, Ilona
Anthony, Michael
Archer, Alex
Arthur, Keri
Atherton, Nancy
Atwell, Sarah
Avocato, Lori
Baer, Robert
Bakker, R. Scott
Baldacci, David
Banche, Linda
Banks, Ian M.
Banks, Leanne
Barant, D. D.
Barclay, Linwood
Bardsley, Michele
Barrett, Lorna
Bast, Anya
Batchelder, Dennis
Bauer, Sydney
Baxter, Stephen
Beach, Edward
Becker, James
Beckett, Simon
Bell, James Scott
Bell, Madison Smartt
Benson, Amber & Golden, Christopher
Bergstrom, Elaine
Berry, Steve
Betts, Heidi
Black, Lisa
Blair, Annette
Bliss, Miranda
Blue, Ally
Blue, Benjamin
Bond, Stephanie
Bourne, J. L.
Boyett, Steven R.
Brandner, Gary
Brant, Kylie
Brewer, Heather
Brooker, Charlie
Brothers, Marilee
Brown, Don
Brown, Sandra
Buckley, Michael
Bulock, Lynn
Burstein, Daniel
Burton, Mary
Butcher, Shannon
Byerrum, Ellen
Caine, Rachel
Cameron, Kenneth
Campbell, Ramsey
Canham, Marsha
Caputo, Philip
Carey, Mike
Casey, Elizabeth Lynn
Caskie, Kathryn
Chambers, Kaye
Chao, Eveline
Chevalier, Tracy
Child, Maureen
Childs, Laura
Chirichello, Judie
Christopher, Paul
Churchill, Jill
Churchill, Vincent
Clark, Mary Jane
Clem, Bill
Cline, J. E. D.
Conant, Susan
Connolly, Harry
Connolly, Sheila
Connor, James
Conroy, Pat
Coonts, Stephen
Cooper, Seamus
Cornwell, Bernard
Coulter, Catherine
Craig, Christie
Crais, Robert
Cumming, Charles
Cussler, Clive
D’Arc, Bianca
Daniels, Casey
Dare, Justine
Dash, Mike
Dashner, James
Davitt, Jane
Day, S. J.
Delany, Joseph
Dexter, Pete
Dickey, Eric Jerome
Donati, Sara
Donohue, Keith
Doolittle, Sean
DuBois, Lila
Dunbar, Robert
Duncan, Hal
Dunham, David Anthony
Durgin, Doranna
Edwardson, Ake
Ellory, R. J.
Enthoven, Sam
Fallon, Linda
Fante, Dan
Ferguson, Alane
Ferris, Monica
Finucan, Stephen
Follett, Ken
Folsom, Allan
Fox, Cathryn
Freeman, Brian
Freeman, Pamela
Freemantle, Brian
Frey, Stephen
Gagnon, Michelle
Gaider, David
Gaylord, Joshua
Gerritsen, Tess
Gibson, Gary
Gischler, Victor
Glazer, Melissa
Goddard, Robert
Grace, Viola
Graham, Heather
Graves, Sarah
Gregory, Daryl
Griffin, Laura
Gruley, Bryan
Haag, Michael
Haig, Brian
Haines, Carolyn
Hall, James
Halliday, Gemma
Hamer, Bob
Hamilton, Clayton
Handeland, Lori
Hanover, M. L. N.
Hardy, Janice
Harper, Molly
Hayder, Mo
Hazleton, Lesley
Helvarg, David
Hendee, Barb
Henry, Sue
Hicks, Robert
Hill, Reginald
Hill, Tobias
Hinze, Vicki
Hoag, Tami
Holder, Nancy
Holmes, Richard
Holzner, Nancy
Hooper, Kay
Horowitz, Anthony
Howe, Katherine
Hughes, Mary Ellen
Hunter, Faith
Huston, Charlie
Huston, James
Hynd, Noel
Hyzy, Julie
Iggulden, Conn
Iles, Greg
Irvine, Ian
Jackson, Lisa
Jackson, Steven H.
Jacobson, Alan
Jaffe, Greg
James, Peter
Jenkins, John Major
Johansen, Iris
Johnson, Maureen
Johnston, Linda O.
Jones, Diana Wynne
Jordan, Steve
Joyce, Graham
Kalla, Daniel
Kane, Andrea
Kaplan, Lawrence
Kate, Lauren
Kava, Alex
KcKevett, G. A.
Kelly, Jim
Kelly, Paddy
Kent, Rebecca
Keyes, Greg
Kittredge, Caitlin
Klasky, Mindy
Konrath, J. A.
Krentz, Jayne Ann
Kuzneski, Chris
Lacey, Robert
Lahaye, Tim
Lamb, Joyce
Langan, John
Lansdale, Joe R.
Larsen, Craig
Lasky, Kathryn
Lattimer, Linda
Lawrence, C. E.
Lawson, Mike
Laymon, Richard
Learner, T. S.
Lee, Edward
Lee, Rachel
Lehane, Dennis
Leithauser, Brad
Lescroart, John
Lethem, Jonathan
Levin, Daniel
Levine, Laura
Levitt, John
Lilley, Kathryn
Lindsay, Jeff
Link, Kelly
Liu, Marjorie M.
Locke, Attica
Lodge, David
Loehfelm, Bill
Lovelace, Merline
MacAlister, Katie
Maclaine, Jenna
MacLeod, Ian R.
Maffini, Mary Jane
Malde, Ross
Marciano, John
Mariani, Scott
Masello, Robert
Mayle, Peter
McAdam, Colin
McBride, Susan
McCallum, Ian
McCarthy, Erin
McCoy, Chris
McCrumb, Sharyn
McCullough, Colleen
McDermid, Val
McDermott, Andy
McFadyen, Cody
McGirt, Dan
McKenna, Shannon
McLean, Stuart
McLeod, Suzanne
McNab, Andy
Meltzer, Brad
Mewshaw, Michael
Meyer, Stephenie
Michaels, Richard
Mitchell, David
Monk, Devon
Montanari, Richard
Morrell, David
Morris, Janine A.
Mosse, Kate
Mull, Brandon
Napier, Bill
Neggers, Carla
Neill, Chloe
Niffenegger, Audrey
O’Neill, Joseph
Olsen, Gregg
Olson, Karen E.
Ortberg, Nancy
Osterlund, Anne
Palmer, Diana
Paretsky, Sara
Parker, K. J.
Parker, T. Jefferson
Patterson, James
Paul, Graham Sharp
Pawlik, Tom
Pearson, Ridley
Pelegrimas, Marcus
Petroff, Shani
Phillips, Brandon Cole
Phillips, Richard
Philpin, John
Phoenix, Adrian
Piccirilli, Tom
Pink, Daniel H.
Priest, Cherie
Rankin, Ian
Ranney, Karen
Rashid, Ahmed
Reilly, Matthew
Reynolds, Dallas McCord
Rice, Luanne
Riordan, Rick
Robbins, David L.
Roberts, Wendy
Robertson, Linda
Robinson, Peter
Robson, Justina
Rocha, Luis M.
Rowland, Diana
Rubens, Michael
Rush, Jaime
Ryan, Chris
Sage, Angie
Sakey, Marcus
Sams, Candace
Sanderson, Brandon
Sandford, John
Sandom, J. G.
Schrieber, Joe
See, Lisa
Senor, Dan
Shan, Darren
Showalter, Gena
Siddons, Anne Rivers
Silva, Daniel
Simmer, Janni
Singer, Randy
Singh, Nalini
Slaughter, Karin
Smith, Alexander McCall
Smith-Ready, Jeri
Snow, Alexa
Snyder, Lucy A.
Spradlin, Michael P.
Sprinkle, Patricia
Staub, Wendy Corsi
Steele, Mary Ann
Stegner, Wallace Earle
Stiefvater, Maggie
Stolze, Greg
Strout, Elizabeth
Suarez, Daniel
Sullivan, Mark T.
Summers, Tamara
Sussman, Paul
Swanwick, Michael
Tapply, William G.
Taylor, Anderson
Tchaikovsky, Adrian
Thayer, Terri
Theorin, Johan
Thomas, Steven M.
Thompson, Colleen
Thor, Annika
Tiernan, Cate
Todd, Charles
Tyler, Anne
Tyler, Stephanie
Unger, Lisa
Vachss, Andrew
Vaughan, Elizabeth
Viehl, Lynn
Viets, Elaine
Vincent, Bev
Vincent, Rachel
Vining, Dan
Walker, Shiloh
Ward, J. R.
Ware, Joss
Washburn, Livia J.
Webber, Minda
Weisberger, Lauren
Wells, Melinda
White, Dave
White, Sasha
White, Stephen
Whyte, Jack
Wolfe, Inger Ash
Woods, Terri
Wright, S. L.
Yancey, Rick
Young, Robyn
Zuiker, Anthony E.

So let's talk about Apple's new iPad

2010-01-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

First things first. Don't think of it as a dedicated ebook reader. Don't think of it as a handheld supercomputer. Don't think of it as an oversized iPhone. The best thing to do is imagine that it's an iPod Touch with a 9.7" screen, multi-touch support and the ability to do anything a Touch can do, but easier on the eyes.

Now, does that mean you can't read with it? Nothing of the sort! I've got a 1st-gen iPod Touch and I have loaded it with Stanza, eReader, Kindle 4 iPhone and the Barnes & Noble ereader. I read books with it - but I have always complained about it's teensie-weensie display. The iPad will give me about 6 times the screen area of a Touch; not bad for reading.

But I can also use it with the SD-card or USB adapters to import photos from my digital camera and the Photoshop app to do immediate editing of images while I'm in the field. My primary editing computer is a large Gateway Core 2 Quad w/21" monitor and there's just no way I can haul that outdoors to field sites. I think, therefore, the iPad will also do well for me in this area.

Further, the iPad's screen is large enough and the flip-case versatile enough that I can use this as an "I'm away from my desktop" writing computer - and if I get the 3G version, I'll even be able to connect to the internet wirelessly and do any research I need to perform.

All in all, not a bad combination.

Now we're already hearing that people are upset by the lack of a built-in camera and no ability to directly use it in iPhone mode. C'mon! First off, who it their right mind wants to stick a large, heavy device up on their shoulder to make a call??? This is not a PHONE!!! Further, the size and weight of the iPad precludes it from handling well to take photos, so the idea of a built-in camera on the back is ridiculous. Now it would have been nice to have a front-facing camera for those who actually USE a webcam, but I'm not one of them - and having to hold it 'just right' to keep myself in the frame doesn't make sense either. And if the iPad is in it's dock, there's enough room along the top edge to clip an external webcam in place.

I think that one area this will work is as a replacement for those textbooks and netbooks that kids need in school. Wait and see, but I bet Jobs has already thought of this.

To the creators of Antivirus Live...

2010-01-26T14:27:00.000-08:00

May you rot in Hell! May terrorists determine where you live and launch an attack which results in the kidnapping, torture and murder of every member of your families!

Even worse, may the US government determine who you are and do an extraordinary rendition to Guantanamo where you'll remain for the rest of your tortured lives!

'Nuff said.

Read an ebook week.

2010-01-25T13:44:00.000-08:00

Have you read an e-book this week? Have you read an e-book at all? Do you have friends who have never experienced the joy of reading an e-book? If you've answered "No" to the first two or "Yes" to the last question, you need to get ready for Read An Ebook Week - and you better hurry as it arrives early in March.

To learn more, click on the pretty green banner ad at the top of my blog pages or click on the title of this post. You'll be taken directly to www.ebookweek.com where you'll learn more about ebooks in general as well as the upcoming Read An Ebook Week.

I have no doubt that most people who regularly read my blog happen to be interested in ebooks, but you may well have friends who have never taken an Amazon Kindle in hand to read their favorite authors. Let them know what they're missing and also tell them that they can now read Kindle ebooks on their iPhones, iPod Touches and PC computers as well - and that Amazon is close to releasing a version of the Kindle software for the Macs as well.

Don't delay! Get the message out!

Book Piracy Exists Offline!

2010-01-19T11:09:00.001-08:00

Can you believe it? There are literally THOUSANDS of offline book piracy organizations that blatantly advertise their ability to get you the latest and hottest bestsellers for NO COST! Not only that, but they're about to hold their annual gathering where they will discuss how to best further the designs of their insidious cabal!

So if this cabal is annually costing publishers and authors over $100 BILLION!

What is this secretive society? Why, your local library, of course. If you want more on this, click on the title of this post and read the article.

Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award

2010-01-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award competition is now open. If you haven't heard, Amazon, Penguin and ClearSpace ran this competition last year, awarding $6,500 to the winner. This year, the prize money runs to $15,000 (in the two categories of General Fiction and Young Adult Fiction). What makes it great for undiscovered authors is that it will now be open for even self-published authors.

The submission period runs from January 25th through February 7th. So if you're close to finishing that novel you've been working on or have one that you've self-published, dust it off and submit it!

Again, all you have to do to get to the site is click on the title of this post. Me, I'm getting back to work on "Homebrew"!

The Total Decriminalization of Marijuana.

2010-01-14T10:49:00.000-08:00

So did you happen to hear about the attempt in California to totally decriminalize marijuana? Yep. I don't know if this is going to go anywhere, but I thought I should put my two cent's worth out here.

First up, if you click on the title of this post, you'll get taken to the online version of the graphic book, "A Drug War Carol". While this is a graphic novel, it is packed with real facts on the history of the war on marijuana - as well as "illegal" drugs in general. If you like what you read, you can also buy a paperback version from Amazon.

Okay. So back to my opinion on this issue.

So many people currently residing in jails and prisons within California are there because of misdemeanor possession of drugs. In the full-time prisons, as opposed to the short-term county jails, this figure often exceeds 60% and in some (Yes, we have FAR TOO MANY prisons in California - there's a very politically powerful union formed just from correctional officers (guards).) cases this runs as high as 80%. These are people who, whatever their other faults, are serving time solely for having a small, yes, SMALL amount of drugs - quite often just marijuana - on them at the time they were arrested. California's prisons are so overcrowded that a 150%-of-rated-capacity population is considered 'uncrowded'. Also, because of various hijinks by the guards' union, it is considered 'cheaper' to pay these guards overtime for 20-40 EXTRA hours per week than hire more guards - which by the way is adding hugely to California's debt problems! By decriminalizing all possession, cultivation, use and sale of marijuana - as well as wiping marijuana possession convictions from the records, 40%-45% of all current convicts would be eligible for immediate release from these prisons! (Others who have been convicted under such laws are either being prosecuted for other crimes and may need to be held in jail (not prison) or have committed crimes in prison and are serving other sentences concurrently.)

With an immediate release of those 40%, we'd slash the need for guard overtime and we'd relieve much of the tension caused by massive prison overcrowding. So just for state budget reasons, decriminalizing pot makes sense in California.

But there are other economic reasons for doing so. Decriminalizing pot means that police funds could be used to target more serious crimes, such as rape, assault, murder, theft and the like. This means that police forces could do a better job without requiring more money (and more taxes) from the local citizenry. Also, by legalizing pot, (whether pot use is regulated or taxed, or not) we take away much of the incentive for criminals to smuggle it in or grow it illegally. If a person can buy pot seeds, gardening supplies and grow the plants - openly - in that person's yard, the person no longer will have need to support the criminals by buying 'illegal' pot. And let me tell you, the actual process of growing plants is far cheaper than buying the stuff smuggled across the border - something like 95% cheaper! Which means this saved money can go towards other legal items. Further, if the gangs can't get the money for 'illegal' pot, they won't set up huge farming operations where thugs with automatic weapons congregate.

Think this doesn't make sense? Well look at what happened when we first created Prohibition and then, later, repealed it. People did no magically stop drinking when Prohibition went into effect. No, they just switched from cheap, LEGAL sources to expensive, ILLEGAL sources. And in doing so, they showed to the gangs that huge profits could be made supplying their demands. Sound familiar? And despite the federal government's best efforts, including their hero, Elliot Ness, enforcement of Prohibition did NOT stop the smuggling and sales of bootleg alcohol. No, what stopped it was the repeal of Prohibition. Despite this fact, almost as soon as Prohibition ended the federal government switched its sights to marijuana and heroin and made both of them illegal. At that time, as a percentage of the population, use and abuse was very low, something like less than 5%. Now, after more than 70 years of criminalization and prosecution? Something like 40% or more of our population has at least TRIED marijuana with close to 15% using pot or coke on a regular basis.

So why keep up the charade? Because prosecuting 'drug crimes' is a big business. Not only is a large part of the budget for police agencies targeted to direct 'prevention' of drug crimes, but there's also a secondary group of crimes created by criminalized drugs - that is crimes committed solely to raise funds to buy the high-cost 'illegal' drugs. Yes, burglary, carjacking, mugging, convenience-store robberies - so many of these crimes these days are committed to get money to buy illegal drugs. If a joint cost five cents - and it probably would if it were bought from a neighborhood grower who didn't have to worry about 'the law' - or if one could just grow one's own supply without fear of prosecution, one would not have to rob a convenience store or mug an old lady.

And it's not just direct police costs. We saw this during Prohibition, the rise of the use of high-powered weaponry by the criminals to 'protect' their supplies. It was a novelty to see John Dillinger use a Thompson machine gun to rob banks, but with the need to drive off competitors and police, it became quite common for mobsters to spray-and-pray with those same weapons while protecting their hooch. Again, sound familiar? Early on in the Drug War, most drug smugglers used small weapons - but more often just relied upon their smarts to outwit the police. Now? Both sides have automatic weapons, explosives and body armor. And there's an entire industry relying upon the 'drug trade' to create a market for these items. Does anyone remember the time when cops didn't have SWAT teams loaded with kevlar vests, 'Fritz' helmets, night-vision goggles and AR-15 assault rifles? All this came about because of the War on Drugs.

And then there's the medical front. Look at the average pothead. Then look at the absurd claims of the anti-marijuana government agencies. Does anyone really believe that pot causes so much 'medical harm'? Really?

No, keeping pot illegal only makes sense if you want ot keep crime on the rise. Legalize Pot Now!

So I wonder... Just how LITTLE will a person settle for.

2010-01-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

There's this person in California, Schubert, who was the mastermind behind CA's Proposition 8 - the anti-gay-marriage prop. We find out today that his sister, a prosecutor, is lesbian and has a domestic partner and two children. She publically takes the position that she won't take a position on gay marriage. Why? Because it "wouldn't be ethical". And why wouldn't it be ethical? Because she hopes to get nominated to a judgeship and she doesn't want to 'appear' biased. (These are not quotes but my paraphrasing of her stated views.) Huh? So, like, what gives? Does she expect to recuse herself if a gay/lesbian case comes before her? I doubt it.

No, what she's really saying is that her opinion and actions on this subject can be bought with a judgeship. So what we really need to know about her is now that we have the upper range, just how cheap could her influence be bought?

At least, that's my opinion.

Dear, SIMPLE Maggie!

2010-01-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

May I call you Maggie? I mean, it's not quite your favorite nickname of Peggy, but calling you Peggy makes me want to flesh it out to Peggy Sue, Political Shrill (Ahem! I mean 'Shill'.) and that is far too close to the truth for this post.

Dear, Simple Maggie - for you are 'simple' if you think that you can force the rest of us to ignore your constant denial of the IXth and XIVth Amendments to the U.s. Constitution. You know, the ones that inform us that you jack-booted, drum-banging, totalitarian thugs have NO RIGHT to foist your personal beliefs onto the minority simply because you don't like them. I know that it is out of fashion in today's schools to teach that the Bill of Rights is a list of rules for keeping the government out of the personal lives of U.S. citizens - really, it's a set of commandments of what rights the feds, staties and local hick politicos cannot take away from the 'peepul' - but you claim to have been a speechwriter. That means you're supposed to understand our founding documents.

So how can you forget that the IXth Amendment clearly tells us that, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." That means the government cannot tell us citizens we do not have the right to form interpersonal associations, or join into binding social and business contracts between consenting adults. Yes, marriage is a social contract. Yes, therefore, marriage cannot be denied between any consenting adults.

And the XIVth Amendment goes further to state, "... No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." That means that the states also cannot abridge the privilege of social contracts from resident citizens. That means marriage - even marriage between consenting adults of the same sex. So get over it or renounce your citizenship and move to Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, the whole 'children need families of both a father and a mother to grow right' argument COMPLETELY fails when you refuse to apply those rules to single-parent homes, parent-grandparent homes, single-grandparent homes and single-parent-with-numerous-lovers homes. If two loving same-sex 'parents' cannot form a fit home, neither can any of the others. Also, by that logic, any marriage that cannot procreate, whether due to genetic flaws or who've grown so old as to be no longer fertile, should be immediately dissolved because "love" isn't the governing factor, just 'procreation'.

So why not come clean and admit that you just have a hate-on against homosexuals? At least you'd not be lying about this.

Y'know... There are ways to get a decent deal on a Kindle 2.

2010-01-04T15:34:00.000-08:00

For one thing, Amazon has 'refurbished' Kindle 2s for around $219, which is lower than the full-retail $259 of the new units.

However, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about broken-screen K2s. So far, I've managed to snag two of these on eBay for under $50 (including shipping) each. And, because each of these still had time left on their 1-year warranties, I was able to get them replaced by Amazon for FREE! That means I've been able to buy - through careful shopping around - $518 worth of Kindles for under $100!

One thing, you have to make sure you're bidding on a K2 that still has time left on its warranty. But even if it's out of warranty, the price for replacing the screen is $135. If you can snag a broken one for less than $50, your total cost for a Kindle 2 comes to around $180!

Get a Kindle today!

Simple Wallpaper Time!

2010-01-04T15:32:00.001-08:00

I've rearranged the image I've been working on in Photoshop CS4. The whole image is now suitable for a 1440x900 or 1680x1050 pixel screen and I've made the Earth bigger and the Moon smaller. Download it if you like.

A follow-up to the Fictionwise problem.

2010-01-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

It appears that the problem lies with Mobipocket's servers, NOT Fictionwise as I first believed. Fictionwise has re-issued my two titles in question in Secure eReader format as Mobipocket has not responded to them about the Secure Mobipocket versions.

Hooray for Fictionwise! (Guess I should have noticed that part of the problem was that neither Fictionwise nor Mobi could have all their staffers on hand during the Christmas holidays.)

Woo Hoo! A better layout for my blog!

2010-01-02T21:36:00.000-08:00

Yes! After a full day of testing on my test blog, I've figured out how to widen my main blog section!

From now on, my blog will be a full 1024 pixels wide, with 250 pixels for my left column and 720 pixels dedicated to my right (main) column! That should shorten things up a bit. And it will make it easier to stuff banner links on the left without crowding the main column. I LOATHED having only 438 pixels for my main column just so I could have 160 pixels on the left. Woo Hoo!

Of course, I had to snag the divider gif and the parchment paper top/mid/left jpegs and then resize them to a 1024 pixel width, but all in all, I'm quite satisfied with the results!

Fictionwise's lack of adequate customer support

2009-12-29T21:03:00.000-08:00

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

In other words, Fictionwise has a dreadful time fixing ebook download problems. A few weeks ago I pre-ordered Secure Mobipocket versions of W.E.B. Griffin's "The Honor of Spies" and Nancy Holzner's "Deadtown" - the Griffin book cost me well over $24. And there they sat in my bookshelf, showing that they were not available until today, December 29th. No problem, I thought, I've waited for pre-orders to become available before.

So today, that would be December 29th, 2009, I went to download said ebooks, which I must point out, now showed as being available for download.

But when I clicked on them, I kept being redirected to a server database error page. This has happened since just after midnight this morning through to nine PM, my local time.

Further, an ebook I purchased on their website by Morgan Crewe, "Give Up the Ghost", which was also released today, does download - sort of. Actually, when downloaded, I discovered the real ebook was one by Jules Verne, something like "Godfrey (some last name) - A California Mystery". Oops!

So I've now sent three, count them, THREE emails to their support people. The automated acknowledgment system tells me they've been received, but NO action has taken place. As I've been emailing since around eight this morning, and theyr'e US, you'd think I would get *some* kind of help, but NOOOOoooo...

Fictionwise, your customer support sucks!

So, should you pirate music and e-books?

2009-12-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

That is a tough question. Let's examine music. To do so, read the comic I've added to this post. Note that whichever course of action you take, you end up a criminal.

Why? Because music hardware producers want you to buy new hardware. That means they make sure the old stuff wears out or becomes out-of-date; this latter is accomplished by making the newer devices have upgraded features. And as letting you play all your previously-purchased music makes no buck for the music companies, they help out the process by coming up with new music formats - and get the manufacturers to remove support for the old ones. Oops! Now you have to decide to either stick with rapidly failing older devices or shell out once again for the same music you've already paid for.

The same thing is happening in the e-book industry.

What to do? What to do?

Of course, one *could* agitate for DRM-free music and ebooks. Naaaaawwww, what music or publisher would be that stupid?

Alan Kaufman's exposing himself in public again.

2009-12-24T23:56:00.000-08:00

Yep. By enslaving yourself to the very police-state he insists he despises, you too can answer his siren call to social, economic, political and personal destruction.

What is his problem? Why he hates ebooks and ebook readers. (Oh he also hates ipods, iphones, xboxes, netbooks and just about every item that raises our standard of living; he's an equal-opportunity Luddite, our Alan Kaufman is.) So feel free to drop on by Evergreen Review and read his latest diatribe against technology.

His take is to claim that to use any of these devices - but especially those which replace paper books with electronic books - you and I are turning into nice, brainwashed children of Hitler. He should know, as he so often tells us, his grandmother suffered at their hands. (How what she went through in any way compares to individual people making individual choices in their personal lives is beyond me, but somehow, it is NOT beyond the febrile, an fevered, mind of Alan Kaufman.)

So click on this post's title and be swept up in Alan Kaufman's madness - if you dare.

Amazon Customer Support Hits Another Homer!

2009-12-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

Once again, I've found a great deal on a broken-screen K2. This is the second one that still was under its one-year limited warranty. It arrived, having cost me $47.29, and I just got off the phone with Amazon Customer Service. Yep. I'm getting a replacement K2 FOR FREE!

Amazon, I love ya!

BTW, Bookeen just released their latest firmware updates for the Cybook Gen3. Version 1.5 adds folder support as well as a working Delete key and better support for PDF and HTML to their Mobipocket ebook capability. Version 2.0 replaces the Mobipocket ebook support with ePub as well as all the other features AND adds in support for FBReader's FB2 ebook format. Early reports are that you can flash to v1.5, then switch over to v2.0, then switch back to v1.5. Of course, you have to save the firmware updates because you have to re-flash for each switch.

If you read only ONE ebook-publication article...

2009-12-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

Read the one linked into the title of this post. In it, Paul Carr, author of "Bring Nothing to the Party", relates why he's making the book available online, for free.

Just to make things clear, he has a publisher, Hatchette Livre, but they own the paper rights and only the non-USA ebook rights. He wanted to publish his book as an ebook in the US, but he didn't want the US version laden with crippling (and sales-killing) DRM. HL refused. So his agent explained why he should just make it freely available for download. I recommend this book and I recommend you download a copy from his TechCrunch post.

How do I change my Vista administrator password?

2009-12-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

I mean, really? When I upgraded my Gateway Core2Quad from Win XP to Vista, I remember choosing an administrator password and a user password, but I CANNOT find the paper containing the admin password and I want to change it.

Does anyone have a clue?

In the meantime, I've noticed that some people are writing 'romance' stories which are reputed to be 'science fiction'. Yeah. Right. Take "Miss Congeniality", take out the funnyness, add in a depth of mean-spiritedness and aliens which are different only that the men are seven feet tall and change from bright green to dark green when stressed - and despite having tons of 'control' they seem to change every 20-50 pages - and you have the latest offering from Candace Sams. Never mind that it reads like every other cardboard-cutout, female-readership, heavy-breather, what with the inability of the male (of course, this book does target women) contestants to keep their thong swimsuits on and the insistence that the other planets call themselves things like 'Oceanus' - (Hunh?!? Wouldn't they have a name in their OWN language?) the very idea of an Earth Protectorate and the idea that a male beauty pageant would be a good place to strike terror in the hearts of the universe (or even galaxy) is patently ridiculous.

So don't go looking for it. Don't buy the book. Don't encourage such drivel!

I am continually amazed with the Sigma 135-400mm

2009-12-18T13:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot of one of our neighborhood hummingbirds I took, hand-held, no tripod or monopod, no flash at ISO 400, as it was feeding on the feeder outside my window. A bit of sharpening to take out the softness of shooting through two panes of glass and a skosh of saturation to 'pop' the colors enough to suit me and then cropped down to wallpaper size.

Sigh. Tiger, Tiger, Tiger

2009-12-16T20:46:00.000-08:00

It appears that Elin has left Tiger. Now this does not need be permanent, but he is going to have to decide whether he wants a wife and family or a stable of mistresses; they are mutually exclusive.

Now I've heard rumors on the radio that one of the latest to claim "I did Tiger" wants money to not plaster her story - and maybe pictures - all over the press and net. What a mess.

But one thing confuses me is his plan to withdraw from golf. Why? It is not his golf that got him into trouble. No, that rests squarely on his ego and his wee willy. And if it takes more than a week to decide to get his ego and libido under control, he never will. I believe that golf will 'save' him, but nly if he rededicates himself to the game and not the 'perks'.

Tiger, here's a hint. Women are attracted to men who:

A: Look good.
B: Have a nice personality.
C: Are famous. Duh!
D: Are rich. Double-Duh!
E: Travel for work. (Mystery and convenience)
F: Hang out in bars near closing time.

You have to decide, up front, that you will not repond to any come-ons. It isn't that hard.

So the best thing to do is rent "Tin Cup" and "The Legend of Bagger Vance", get mildly druk while watching them, go to bed - ALONE - and get a good night's sleep. In the morning, if the rumors of someone wanting money to keep it out of the media, get preemptive. Publish a list of everyone you can remember, with apologies to those you forgot and an acknowledgement they can choose to notify you they want to be listed. Then you schedule a press conference explaining what you've done and why. You finish with a quote from Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, "Publish, and be damned!"

Merry (upcoming) Christmas and Happy New Year!

2009-12-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

Took the time to create our family Christmas Greeting Card/Desktop Wallpaper. Notice the snow in the front yard? Yep. We actually got SNOW this year in Citrus Heights, California. This is an *unusual* event as we're at the same latitude as San Francisco/Sacramento and we're only at about 200 feet above sea level. Hear that you Global Warming freaks!

Earth n Moon in 3D

2009-12-15T23:49:00.001-08:00

I've got a work in progress I'm using to explore Photoshop CS4's 3D features. It's a 1350 x 1350 pixel jpeg, but my 'work' image measures a whopping 5,400 x 5,400 pixels! Wow!

"Men of a Certain Age"

2009-12-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

Okay, I TRIED to watch this Monday night. I mean, c'mon Andre Braugher, Scott Bakula, it was a no-brainer, yes? No.

See, they chose Ray Romano as the third wheel (Ahem! "Character") for this can't-make-up-its-mind-if-it's-a-drama-or-a-comedy. BIG mistake! Andre? Scott? Solid, quality actors with a proven track record for KNOWING HOW TO ACT! Romano? Yeaaaahhhh... Ray Romano knows one thing well, how to be Ray Romano. In any role I've seen him play, he plays himself playing a character who just 'happens' to be channeling - wait for it - you guessed it, 'Ray Romano'.

Now, if Ray Romano had even *one* ounce of funnyness or acting ability, that wouldn't necessarily be a 'bad thing'. Unfortunately, Romano was struck repeatedly at birth by both the Wand of No Humor and the Quarterstaff of No Talent. Really. Someone should have gotten the license plates on the truck that struck him 'cause, based upon his 'acting', it was a serious felony.

So I managed to tune in for a whole five and one-half minutes - the first five and one-half minutes. From just that one brief exposure I was engulfed in an overwhelming desire to (take your pick as to what is more revolting and tragic):

A) Convert to radical Islam and re-stage 9/11.
B) Nuke the last remaining pods of Right Whales.
C) Suicide by starting a black hole in the Large Hadron Collider.

Yes, Romano was *that* bad. Come to think of it, it was Patricia Heaton and the gang that carried Romano during 'his' comedy. Just like Julie Louise Dreyfus, Michael Richards and the gang carried Jerry Seinfeld.

Why is it that we are forced to endure knowing there is a show so geared towards a living, breathing EGO which has no talent? Why cannot each and every TV executive involved in the creation of "Men of a Certain Age" and "Seinfeld" be terminated for cause, and then blackballed, so that they have to re-start as dishwashers at their local fast-food joints?

Oh well, at least there's "Castle".

Yet Another Hummingbird Photo

2009-12-14T20:31:00.000-08:00

What can I say? The new feeder has really attracted two hummers in our neighborhood. This one I like best because his feet aren't hidden by the feeder.

I got a new CPaP machine!

2009-12-14T19:23:00.001-08:00

And boy is it a wonderful one! It's a ResMed and it's about half the weight of my older Respironics REMStar Plus.

I gotta say, it is a weight off my mind to know that Medicare now *officially* knows I have Sleep Apnea. It was SA, morbid obesity and complications of same that put me onto SS Disability, but because I needed the CPaP so badly, I paid for the sleep study and the original machine out of the initial payment from SS instead of waiting yet another year for Medicare to kick in. *BIG MISTAKE*! Medicare wouldn't take the initial results as part of my 'history' so I had to wait five years for the right to get a study done.

The REMStar worked great for the past seven years, but it was time to get a new one. Thankfully, my pressure readings hadn't increased - I tend to fall to a 70% oxygen level when I sleep without my CPaP. Not good!

What is personal responsibility?

2009-12-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

I was listening to the national news tonight and they were talking about the climber who was found, yesterday I think, on Oregon's Mt. Hood, and his two friends who still haven't been found. Now for those of you living South of the Equator, Mt. Hood is deep into cold, snowy, winter. It is NOT a good time to climb unless you take a lot of precautions and winter survival gear.

Guess what? These climbers did NOT take one of the most basic survival tools available in the area, a radio beacon locator capable of showing rescuers where they are stranded! It's now very cold, very stormy and things are looking bleak for the missing climbers. What has me agog is the statement made by the family of one of the still-missing, she said they were 'experienced' and 'quite responsible' climbers. Yeah? Then why did NONE of them have an RLB? Folks, the various rescue teams have even called in military helicopters to help try to locate them before the weather closes completely in - and they're still not located!

No doubt, once their frozen corpses are found, the news media will be awash with paens to them and oceans of tears wailing "Why did this tragedy happen?" I'll tell you why, because these thrill-seekers couldn't be bothered to make the most basic efforts to ensure they could be rescued if things went bad. These climbers bear FULL responsibility for their possible deaths and, if they DO happen to be found alive, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

If you want to engage in extreme sports, fine. But you better carry insurance to cover rescue costs and you better have proper survival and/or rescue equipment on hand. I understand that some activities don't have personal locator/rescue equipment to aid rescue workers, but for those that do, it SHOULD be a crime to not have them with you.

Amazon's Clearspace and DTM.

2009-12-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, so you want to get published. Great! Write the book and send it off to the publishers! Then wait...

Eventually, you'll get a rejection letter from the first publishing house, but you've been told that it's a numbers game at this point in the process, so you submit it to another. Then wait some more...

After about 20 submission/rejection cycles, presuming you've read between the lines of the rejection letters and cleaned up any grammar, syntax and storytelling errors, you probably have a decent mid-list story that NO ONE appears to find worthy of publishing. (Which is absurd given the sheer volume of fiction works released in the US each year. No, for simplicity's sake, we won't bother about outside-US novels.) That number ranges into the thousands.

Even with so many books being released, there is no guarantee that YOURS will see the shelves.

Best to go back to the day job.

Or maybe not! Have you, by any chance, heard of a small firm called 'Amazon'? I bet you have. You probably are a regular customer of theirs. You *may* even be one of their 'Amazon Associates' and have earned an occasional dollar or two from the sales of a book through a button on your website or blog.

Did you know that they don't just *sell* books, they also publish paper (print on demand) and electronic (Kindle, of course) books? That's right, they *want* your business! Through ClearSpace (their in-house P-O-D branch) and Digital Text Management (DTM handles the publishing of Kindle ebooks), you can submit your beloved manuscript and let them handle the marketing and publishing! Sure, ClearSpace will cost you a bit ($299 for their most basic, they-supply-the-ISBN, they-choose-a-simple-layout version, $799 for the cheapest, your-ISBN, your-cover-art, you get a choice of layouts version) up front, but the rest is cost-to-you free! And if you go with the DTM Kindle method first, you may well earn enough to cover the ClearSpace costs with no money out of your bank account.

So, if you have a novel drooling to be published, one that *has* gone through NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) to get the kinks, errors and plot voids out, consider going through ClearSpace.

Ahem! And if you want to have someone else handle those decisions, I'll be glad to be your literary-agent-of-record for a mere 10% of the net that Amazon pays you.

Carl Bussjaeger's "Net Assets"

2009-12-08T16:01:00.000-08:00

If you haven't read his libertarian novel, "Net Assets", you should. The PDF version is available - for free - from the website linked to the title of this post.

It is a story of a young man who leaves home to make his own way in the world and finds himself working to help launch the first commercial single-stage-to-orbit, reusable space vehicle. Along the way, he and the people he works with, discover just how far the US government will go to prevent independent commercialization of space.

This is a rollicking read (Gawd. I never thought I'd ever use that word, but it so fits.) and while it espouses libertarian philosophy, it does so in small doses without coming across as 'preachy'. If you like near-future, near-space SF that doesn't feature cardboard alien invasions, this is the story for you!

So I've been dinking around with my Kindle 2...

2009-11-23T16:07:00.001-08:00

And I finally got a decent format of my (work-in-progress) novel "HomeBrew". The nice thing about this is that you can get larger and smaller fonts as well as bolding and italics (and different font families) in the same ebook and they'll display better than what you currently get with the mobipocket version of the Bookeen Cybook Gen3.

The more I use my new K2, the more I like it over my Gen3. Sure, I'd still like a better folder management system, but I really enjoy this Kindle!

L Neil Smith has it right.

2009-11-21T22:04:00.001-08:00

True democracy is founded upon the belief that two people have the right to tell a third person what to do - by way of votes. And further, that the hidden message is that if the third person doesn't acquiesce quietly, the first two can always resort to violence to force compliance.

So how is that 'freedom'? Think about it for a minute.

How is being forced to do something you don't want to, or to NOT do something that gives you pleasure, equate to you, an individual, being free? Let's set aside for the moment any discussion of imprisonment, restitution or other punishment for the real, basic, crimes such as rape, murder, theft, assault and child molestation. How does preventing a person from smoking, or talking on the cell while driving, make one 'freer'? Furthermore, how does forcing one to buy health insurance, or automotive insurance or even homeowner's or flood insurance increase an individual's freedom?

It doesn't.

And it's not just all these major laws, we're also faced with masses of punitive regulations and even neighborhood covenants which all restrict our personal freedom of choice and action for no good reason. (So who cares if old Mr. Pebblebottom down the street decides to hem his home with a privacy hedge? Or that the Dalton's prefer their home be hot pink with purple trim? It's THEIR property!)

Maybe it's time to rethink whether democracy is any better than communism/socialism or totalitarianism, or even feudalism.

Kindle For PC (beta) is here!

2009-11-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

Kindle For PC (beta)

It's HERE!

You now can buy and read Kindle ebooks right on your Windows PC! The (beta test) version of Kindle For PC is now available for download at the link above. I've installed it on my Windows Vista Home Premium machine (says it works with XP, Vista and Win7) and was able to immediately download my previously purchased Kindle ebooks.

This is a beta test version and they've got plans for new features in the works, but it does a great job right now, so don't hesitate, download and install it now! Sorry guys, but the Mac version isn't available yet - although they're working on it.

Gonna do SCIENCE on my D90!

2009-09-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Clicking on the title of this post takes you to Wikipedia, to a false-color infrared image of a tree. That is the kind of effect I'm hoping to capture with my D90. I've gone ahead and purchased an R72 filter (It filters out most light above 720 nanometers - IOW, it lets through infrared light.) and as soon as I get it, I'll be determining the proper white-balance setting and the proper shutter and aperture settings on my 18-105mm VR and my 100mm macro. I'll post images as soon as I have any decent ones!

Yay! My Sigma 135-400mm arrived!

2009-08-31T14:11:00.001-07:00

And it is a HEAVY monster of a lens! It feels nearly as heavy as the older Sigma 170-500mm I used to own for my Canon system. But it works great on my D90 and I'm quite happy to have it. Yes, Nikon makes an 80-400mm VR, but that puppy runs nearly $1,300 brand new and the new Sigma 120-400mm costs close to $1,100 so I can't see why, when this slightly older, NON-VR, lens can be had on eBay for between $200 and $400 (I got mine for just under $240) and it will do quite a decent job.

I haven't gone outside with it yet, but I've included a hand-held shot (using the built-in flash and ISO 400) of my CPaP machine to give you an idea of the quality - reduced to 800 pixels by 531 pixels, of course.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

2009-08-29T11:59:00.001-07:00

Windows Easy Transfer *won't* work using a typical PC-Linq USB-to-USB transfer cable! I've got to wait until my Easy Transfer *cable* arrives! Shoot! Gol Durn! Bad Word! Bad Word! Bad Word!

Oh well, I'm still about 3/4 of the way done in setting up the Vista machine. Got Vista installed, got most of my favorite apps installed, got all my current novels transferred over via sneaker-net - as well as my complete collection of .prc/.mobi and .lrf ebooks. Yay!

But I'm not going to try to burn 200GB of Olympus, Canon and Nikon RAW image files to CDRW discs. It just isn't worth the effort to burn all those discs!

Anywho, found a great deal on a Sigma 135-400mm for my camera and am waiting for that sneaky hummingbird to show it's face. Of course, with that lens, I'll be able to get decent shots of the Wild Turkeys, California Quails and other large and suspicious birds in the neighborhood.

Still, I wouldn't mind building up a family of VR lenses - maybe the 14-24mm, 24-120mm, 70-200mm, 200-400mm and either the 500mm or 600mm VR series lenses. Yeah. RIIIiiiigggghhhhttt. Both the 500mm Vr and 600mm VR retail, through Amazon, for $9,699!!! Similar price ranges for the other lenses in this series. Maybe if I can manage to win the next big MEGAMillions lottery...

But what really caught my eye was the new D700X that should be coming out this Fall. 24 megapixels of Nikon sweetness! And less than 1/3 the price of a D3X! SWEET!

I think I've figured it out...

2009-08-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'm a 'foodie'. Well, that and I'm a 'photogie', 'readie', 'writie', 'proggie' and general all-around 'whateverie'... :-)

Now some people, seeing my immense girth and depth of food-loving-dom, might be inclined to argue and say that I'd be better off claiming to be a 'gourmand'. But I'm not. There are foods I have no desire to eat - no Rabbit Tongues in Port Wine Reduction, no Calves Brains with Eggs, no Fugu, no Asparagus Sauteed in Squid Ink for me. No sirree-Bob! You won't find me hanging around the vinyards arguing the merits of tannin, charred barrels or the like either. But I DO like good food. I also like to create my own dishes as well as figure out how to make my own sauces, rubs and spice mixes.

That's why it was such a joy to me to be able to transform the jalapeno peppers from our garden into my own version of 'Tabasco' green sauce. I had some this morning on my breakfast burrito and it was DELICIOUS!

Yay! My C2Q Gateway Recovery Discs Arrived!

2009-08-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

And that means I'm in the process of installing the OS back onto the system! I've included a photo, of course. :-)

One thing that surprised me was that the recovery discs they sent me were for Windows Vista Home Premium. According to their records, the system originally had Windows XP installed on it at time of purchase. I'm not going to complain because I'm just going to install Windows 7 onto the machine.

My DIY "Tabasco" Green Sauce...

2009-08-24T11:15:00.001-07:00

Mom loves to garden. She's converted our back yard into this space where vegetables, agastache, tulips and echinacea plants abound. (Agastache is a wonderful plant that flowers for most of the summer and attracts hummingbirds in droves!) This summer she asked if I would like her to attempt to grow Jalapeno peppers and I told I'd love it if she did. Well, we only got one plant but that plant produced 15 peppers! They ranged in size from about 1&1/2 inches to just over 3 inches by the time we harvested them; also, three of the pods had turned this bright red color while the other twelve were a deep, rich green. I'm including two photos, one of a green pod and one of a red pod.

After about three days sitting on our kitchen counter, I decided to 'do something' with them. Last year we'd tried our hand at Anaheim peppers and I'd dried them out and ground them down to form the kind of red pepper flakes you find at pizza restaurants - I love to sprinkle them on our home-made pizzas! But this year I decided to try my hand at making a pepper sauce-if you've ever bought Tabasco's Green sauce, you know what I was shooting for.

As we have an electric stove, I pulled out a stainless steel pan and dry-roasted the peppers in the pan rather than attempt to hold them close enough to the burners to properly roast the skin - I made small slits in each so the peppers wouldn't explode from the pressure. After the peppers were charred, I put them into a ziploc baggie for about fifteen minutes to get the skin to loosen and pull away.

Once I had the pods peeled, I cut off the stem end, split them open and scraped out the ribs and seeds. It's time-consuming so expect it - and be patient. Also, DON'T forget that you're working with hot peppers and accidentally wipe or rub your eyes! I did that last year when I ground up the Anaheims - I'll never be that stupid again! ;-)

I then put my fifteen de-skinned, seeded and cut-open jalapenos into a small pot, poured in a little more than one cup of white vinegar and about two teaspoons of salt - I used sea salt - and used a hand blender to puree the ingredients. This took about twenty more minutes as I wanted the pods to be as liquified as possible. I then added water and more vinegar (remember to taste after each addition to see if the flavor is what you want) to bring it to a little more than 2 cups of sauce, while simmering over medium-low heat, using the hand-blender to keep the puree working.

I let it all cool down and poured the results into an empty 1/2 liter (16.9oz) plastic water bottle. It's now sitting in my refrigerator and it tastes FINE!

So I've got the Core2Quad ALMOST working...

2009-08-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

but I've still got to get the operating system installed. I've tried using a 'generic' Windows XP and the current RTM release of Windows 7 - but the Windows 7 release expects that the custom drivers for the Gateway GT5628 are already installed-they're not-and the 'generic' Windows XP OEM disc expects to find the SATA drivers as well as a floppy drive. They're not!

So I'm waiting for my recovery/restore DVD from Gateway. Sigh. In the mean time, I've got my new Phoenix Gold 100mm F3.5 Macro lens. (Okay, it's NOT new, but it's new in MY collection - I got it on eBay. ) Wow! Even though I've only got the basic lens - it's missing the 1:1 Life-Size adapter - this lens ROCKS for macro work!

I've included an 800x531 pixel (reduced from the 4288x2848 pixels) that makes the actual subject "about" the size of the real adapter.

I've decided to get a hummingbird feeder!

2009-08-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

I figure that if I can hang a feeder, I can control the background and the distance from me. So I've gone with four of the type of feeder that you'll see if you click on the title of this post. I'm not advocating these types of feeders, just saying that these individual feeders will allow me to place in several areas of the back yard - including right outside my bedroom window.

In the mean time, I've got to tear down the new PC so I can *UN*-master my secondary HD. Sigh. Almost got the new system set up. As soon as that's accomplished, I'll be porting over all my data from this system and I'll be a "Happy Camper"!

Anywho... Shooting's been kind of on hold these past two days. But I think I'll be able to re-start tomorrow. Yay!

Not working on photos today...

2009-08-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

Nope. I got a used Core2Quad 'barebones' system on eBay a few weeks ago - and then bought the upgrade RAM, HD and 22" monitor to bring it up to speed. But I didn't get a monitor cable and I had to get a USB-2- USB transfer setup to get the data from my "old" computer transferred over.

Anyway, today the cables arrived and I'm now partitioning and formatting the HD for use (Had to buy an external USB-2-SATA cabling kit - but that's done and I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for the 1-TB drive to format... 20 minutes in and I'm up to 11% completed!)

But I can't wait! I've got 6GB of RAM, a 250GB EIDE and 1TB SATA drive and a nice Westinghouse 22" display. And by waiting and shopping around on eBay, I managed to get the basics (HD, RAM, CPU, LCD) for under $350! Deals are STILL available if one has patience.

I needed the new system because Windows XP, Photoshop CS3, 280GB HD and 4GB RAM just wasn't cutting the mustard with my 12MP photos. On the new system, I'm putting the RTM (Release-To-Market) version of Windows 7 Ultimate and CS4. That should make a decent photo editing platform - and I can add in 2GB more of RAM to max it out - later!

So, in a couple of days, I'll be back up to speed with my photos.

"Perfect" from camera or "post-process"???

2009-08-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

I recent read a post in one of the discussion forums over at DPReview (And if you are interested in digital photography and you aren't a member, sign up! Click on the title of this post to go to the site.)

In it, the poster raised the question whether it was better to 'create the perfect shot' in-camera or to take the best one could under the conditions and then 'post-process' (PP) it using GIMP, Photoshop or similar photo-editing software. There were plenty of people on both sides of this issue - and I'm sure that any time this question gets raised, responders will jump to defend their views.

My view on this issue is simple. If you're perfect, your lens is perfect, your camera is perfect, the lighting is perfect and the subject matter is perfect, then by all means, don't bother with post-processing. For the 99.999999% of us who can't match that standard, we'll continue to PP the heck out of our work.

Post-processing can salvage a so-so image well enough to make it suitable for personal scrapbooks, turn a decent image into one worthy of framing and sending out as gifts and take a great shot and make it mind-blowing wonderful! In the same discussion forum as the thread in question, another poster had re-visited an older photo for the purpose of examining whether the shot - a wide-angle scenic might show potential when re-processed in High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) mode as well as a black & white image. I must say, I *loved* the original image (he'd posted it as a 'reference'); it captured the sweeping horizon-to-horizon vista that he had seen. And from my point of view, it clearly made me feel as if I were there.

However, his rendition as an HDR image also worked. In that image, I was less concerned with the sweeping vista as I was with the way he made the HDR settings he chose bring out the subtle variations in the light, the way the clouds shaded from white to orange to pink (early evening shot) as well as lightening the shadows of the rocks while keeping the highlights from washing out. Again, I felt as if I had been transported to the scene.

In the third image, he chose a starker, harsher, black & white technique which made the slight cloudyness appear more 'threatening'. It brought out a sense of foreboding, of an impending storm.

Each image exposed a different theme, told a different story, yet all three images were created from the same original. That might well be impossible to do without post-processing.

One final reminder, Ansel Adams, one of our greatest photographers, routinely post-processed the heck out of his images. And he did this at a time when there were no computer post-processing applications. He used his hands, chemicals, film, paper and light to alter and form his mind-blowing works.

There's something 'freeing' about digital photography.

2009-08-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

As usual, I've linked the title of this post - this time it points to my 'Derek Benner Photography' page where you can see a gallery of some of my images. Right now I've got five images posted. At the bottom there is a link to my DeviantArt page where some of these images can be purchased.

But that's not the point. The point is that having a digital SLR - in my case a Nikon D90 w/18-105mm VR lens, but I believe the same could be said for any of the current crop of dSLRs - has freed me from many of the technical details of photography. This 'freedom' allows me to concentrate upon getting the shots I want to make. Right now, I'm learning all there is to creating a great hummingbird photo. (I've attached the most current hummer shot to this article.) I've progressed in my bird photography to the point where - after just a few short weeks - I can actually get a recognizable photo of the hummingbird in question. One which is sharp enough to show some feather detail and fast enough to capture the wings in mid-stroke. I won't claim these current images are 'National Geographic' quality, but they're good enough to show to my friends and family.

Part of what makes these images possible is that I have a dSLR. That means I can choose a lens suitable for the task at hand. In this case, I chose my trusty 70-300mm telephoto zoom (Yes, I *do* lust after one of those 'monster' 300mm f2.8s or 600mm f4s but that ain't gonna happen unless I win the lottery.) because from where I'm shooting, anything shorter than 300mm gives me just too small an image of the bird in the overall picture. That's almost impossible to do with one of the single-focal-length 35mm point-and-shoot cameras and nearly as impossible for a point-and-shoot digital camera with a wide-to-short-tele zoom.

Another part is that the current crop of dSLR cameras allows for massive in-camera customization of image sharpness, contrast, color saturation, brightness and color white balance. Not only that, but I can choose between low ISO ratings for less 'noise' in the image or boost all the way up to extremely high ISOs (3200, and even 6400) for shooting in very dark situations. Yes, at the high ISO end, I'm going to get much more color noise, but consider this, with a 35mm camera, I'd either have to have several cameras loaded with the different films I thought I might need or I'd have to stop shooting in mid-roll, rewind and insert another roll of film - that would sure waste critical time!

Plus, the current release of lenses for dSLR cameras tend towards some form of in-camera or in-lens image stabilization. That means I can shoot hand-held at far lower shutter speeds and still have a reasonable chance of not having camera-shake ruin the images. It's true that image-stabilization (IS) lenses are more expensive, but almost all the dSLR kits offer a basic wide-to-tele zoom w/IS as part of the kit.

Finally, even with all these hardware enhancements, I find that some images just aren't quite 'popping'. That's where the final tool kicks in - Photoshop. Yes, Photoshop, or the free equivalent, GIMP, lets me tweak the saturation, sharpness and contrast - allows me to crop out the non-essentials and put the 'finishing touches' om my digital images. And at no time do I have to send out film for processing and wait for them to come back from the lab.

With all these tools, I've actually found myself shooting an image, transferring it to the computer, performing post-processing and uploading the image to my website inside of one hour.

Some people may complain about 'too much technology' but I'm quite happy to have it.

Anyway, I hope you feel the same way. Keep on shooting!

I've got a new website for my images.

2009-07-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

Right now I've got six images up, but as I take more, I'll post them to the gallery. Also, I've got a DeviantArt page (user EbooksAsArt) where you can actually *purchase* prints, fine art prints, magnets, mouse pads, mugs, cards and puzzles of four of my images.

Feel free to stop on by and check out my artwork.

Yes, I've now sold my Canon XTi equipment and am now exclusively shooting with my Nikon D90. I'm loving it!

Not much has been happening with the Cybook.

2009-07-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Yep. We've been waiting and waiting for a firmware update for the Cybook Gen3 and it hasn't appeared yet! Yes, on July 4th, 2009, if an owner were willing *and able to* go to Paris for Bookeen's 'demonstration' of their new 5" ebook reader, such a special and *blessed* user could get the latest firmware. The rest of the Cybook owners out there got to suck dirty ditch water. At the time of the 'demonstration', Bookeen promised the release of the Cybook firmware update "soon".

Well, it's been 21 days and there's not *ONE* sign of an impending release. Ha!

I'm getting truly sick and tired of Bookeen's endless delays.

The Pixil QI looks HOT!

2009-06-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

Wow! A netbook/tablet pc (currently Pixil is demoing their oled screen on an 8.9" Acer netbook) with an OLED display! Not only that, but in reflective/'in sunlight' mode, it only draws 0.8 WATTS of power!

Think about it for a minute. Here's a netbook/tablet pc which runs full color in backlit mode and displays in black & white in non-backlit 'reflective' mode. That means you've got the best of transmissive and reflective displays for both indoor and outdoor use.

Add in the low weight and low power draw and this may well be strong competition for the e-ink ebook readers.

I can hardly wait. :-)

The UDC flexible Oled display.

2009-06-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

OMG! UDC has just announced it's figured out how to make FLEXIBLE oled displays! You simple *must* check out the link at Gizmodo (just click on the title of this post)!

Oled is the new technology that makes for great, low-power displays and monitors. However, the fabrication tech used by Samsung is very, VERY expensive. And it requires the use of a glass surface which means there's no flexibility. Anyone who's used an e-ink ebook reader knows that non-flexible also means 'easy to break', which is a big no-no for portable devices.

The fab method devised by Universal Display Corporation (UDC) allows for flexible displays and is less expensive than that used by Samsung. "Any day now" (read: up to five years from now) we should see cheap, flexible oled displays. But we should see (not cheap) flexible displays quite soon.

Hooray! E-book readers with full-color displays!

What hey! There ARE other cross-trainers for obese people!

2009-05-31T13:25:00.000-07:00

And if you go to my "I Need A NuStep" blog - a link is in the left column - you'll see that I've found the Elgin Cross Stepper. Except for the non-swiveling seat, I don't see all that much different between the two - function-wise - and it's "only" $3,195! Still far too expensive for me to buy outright, but I've set up a ChipIn donation widget for anyone who'd like to help me buy one (or the NuStep).

Look, anyone who's been reading my blogs knows that I'm 570 pounds, 50 years old (51 on June 4th), and my knees and ankles are so shot that I need a way to do aerobic exercise which doesn't require walking or standing. (Don't ask about swimming, for skin reasons that's out.) There are only three devices 'rated' for me, ranging in price from $2,395 to $5,595 and the 'cheap' one doesn't do both upper- and lower-body workouts. Sigh. And, of course, there are no grants or aid programs to let me buy one straight up, nor do any of the companies offer leasing. Sigh.

It sometimes seems to me that, once you reach a certain weight, people are still willing to bitch at you for being fat, but no one wants to help you get DOWN. (And yes, I have been told by three different physicians that I must lose between 120 and 170 BEFORE they'll let me have gastric surgery. Sigh.)

And thus I'm trying to gain donations so I can buy an aerobic workout machine. I've set the ChipIn goal high enough that I would be able to afford either the Elgin ($3,195) or NuStep ($5,595). But if you're an avid reader, you could just go to my BeBook and/or Kindle associate's/affiliate's page(s) and buy one - that way I get between $22 and $45 but you get a usable device. The links to both pages are in my "I Need a NuStep' blog - linked at the left - but I've also included a ChipIn widget at the end of this column if you just feel like making a donation.

It breaks down like this, 32 people donating $100 gets me an Elgin, 64 people donating $50 or 128 donating $25 accomplishes the same thing. In the same way, 280 people donating $20 would raise enough for a NuStep T5xr. I think I could swing taxes and shipping.

Livin' La Vida Publisherica!

2009-05-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

Otherwise known as, Why Publishers Continue To e-Publish Books Out Of Sequence.

It's a little-understood fact that publishers are not smart. We can see this demonstrated in several different ways. One sign is that publishers, by and large, cannot grasp that e-book versions of their in-print titles are very effective tools for marketing the paper versions. Another is that pricing e-book versions at the same level as NYT Top 10 Bestseller hardcovers discourages people from buying e-book versions and, thereby, reduces the exposure of authors to potential readers.

But these aren't the only signs. One of the most insidious is the tendency for publishers to release e-book versions out-of-sequence. For example, Linda Greenlaw has written several non-fiction books of her life experiences as a lobster fisherman and boat owner. She's also written - and they've published - two fiction works, "Slipknot" (2007) and "Fisherman's Bend" (2008). Note the two publication dates. Now here's a curious fact. You can get the non-fiction works in e-book format AND you can get "Fisherman's Bend" as an e-book. But you can't get "Slipknot" that way! Hunh? Why not?

After all, it makes sense does it not, to release the books in a series in proper order, yes? And it's not as if "Slipknot" has been "too long out of print". I don't think it's even OUT-of-print yet.

And Ms. Greenlaw's not the only author to whom the publishers have done this.

Naturally, if an author has written several books that are completely unrelated to each other, the sequence of release does not matter, but when the books are part of a series, with a continuous cast of characters and progressing line of development, it makes it harder for a reader to maintain interest when out-of-sequence releases occur.

But I'm just a reader, not a publisher. What could *I* possibly know?!?

So I've actually had 'hands-on' time with a Kindle 2.

2009-05-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

And, I like it. Don't get me wrong. I think the whole concept of an ebook-format linked to a particular device is just plain WRONG! So I'm against the Kindle's Topaz (.tpz) format, but the Kindle is a decent e-ink based ebook reader and I think it will do well.

Of course, I already HAVE two Cybook Gen3s, one (broken) Netronix EB-100 and one Sony PRS-500, so I need another 6" e-ink reader like I need a hole in my head. Thus I haven't BOUGHT a Kindle 2. Now that Kindle DX, which is being released in June, THAT one appeals to me. It's got everything the Kindle 2 has AND a 9.7" display size. The larger size means that PDF ebooks created from trade paperback books, such as you'd find of computer textbooks, display properly with decent font sizes without having to zoom, pan or scroll along each page. Nice!

The $489 price tag may seem a bit off-putting to some people, but please remember that you're typical larger screen e-ink device usually runs about $700-$900 for this display size. Plus, you get storage capacity for 3,500 ebooks!

So click on the title for this post and consider pre-ordering a Kindle DX.

Now for those of you on a tighter budget, I suggest you do what I did. Go to eBay and buy yourself a used Apple iPod Touch. I got a 1st generation model which had been upgraded to version 2.2.1 of the firmware (you need 2.2.1 or newer) and that means the Touch can run almost all the same applications that the iPhone can! I downloaded and registered the FREE Kindle for iPhone app and now I can purchase Kindle ebooks right from my iPod Touch! Cost me just under $100.

My Amazon Kindle 2 storefront

2009-02-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

By now, everyone who's dropped by this blog knows that I have an affiliate's link to the BeBook ebook reader. (Just browse the posts and you'll find the link.) Well, I went a step further and created an 'aStore' on Amazon for the Kindle 2 and Kindle e-books (click on the title to this post to be taken there).

Some of you may wonder, I having tried to sell Bookeen Cybook Gen3 ebook readers through NAEB (Not Another E-Book, LTD, now out of business), why I'd switch my allegiance to BeBook and Kindle. It's simple. Bookeen hasn't really done much to improve the Cybook - they're still 'promising' ePub support when they've yet to improve HTML support or even add functionality to the Delete button - and I'm tired of waiting around.

The BeBook, as you may know, is fully-functional, has Secure Mobipocket support and can also run under the open-source OpenInkpot (OI) operating system with FBReader as it's reading app. The Kindle still only supports the Kindle and Mobipocket secure ebooks, but it's got speed, style, a better graphics display that's capable of showing 16-levels of gray (better pictures) and it can download an ebook anywhere it can reach a cellphone connection - NO COMPUTER NEEDED!

So take some time to browse my storefront and consider buying a Kindle 2.

Social Security Recipients get a 'stimulus check'.

2009-02-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

Yep. Congress and Our Great and Glorious Revolutionary Leader Obama have decided those of us who receive Social Security, the vast majority of whom are on tight and fixed low incomes, WILL receive a whole whalloping $250!!! Yep. The people who, arguably, most NEED help during this economic crisis, get just a "bit" more than bupkis!

In the mean time, those who need the help the least, the major banks, the mortgage brokers, the various Wall Street firms, the Big Three US automobile manufacturers - and let us not forget all those soon-to-be-giftees, the pork-barrel "ready-to-go" construction projects - get a HUGE amount of money. Oink! Oink!

Folks, we are in a JAM here. We need the government to either do the RIGHT thing or GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY! And we come to discover that Obama's shoving same-old, same-old, worn-out (positively ANCIENT as the basic ideas come from that has-been hack economist, Keynes) policies from the New Deal.

You know, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) has this preparedness program that includes such things as setting up a food-storage system whereby a family 'banks' 30, 60 or 90 (optimal) days of bullk food in a room or part of the garage. Maybe it's time for the average family to set something like this up, hmmm?

Amazon Kindle 2 (Kindle2) pre-ordering is available.

2009-02-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Amazon has already sold 500,000 of the first version of the Kindle? I didn't. That is AMAZING! That means there are one-half MILLION avid ebook readers - at the very least! When you add in all the people out there who chose to buy Sony, Bookeen, Jinke or iRex e-ink readers, there are probably more than one MILLION potential ebook customers who want to have a dedicated ebook reading device! Now add in all those who read ebooks with their iPhones, Smartphones, PDAs and desktop and laptop computers and we probably have 10 million or more avid ebook customers.

Pretty amazing for something that so many naysayers will 'never catch on'. And Amazon is releasing their Kindle 2 on February 24th. Amazon is taking pre-orders for the Kindle2 right now. So feel free to click on the title of this post to check it out.

So what do you think. Are you interested in ebooks? Or do you still prefer having a physical book to read? Please post your thoughts.

What's RIGHT with current e-ink ebook reader technology.

2009-02-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

With the announcement of the forthcoming release of the Kindle 2, we're now being beseiged with negative exposition over ebook technology - e-ink readers, ebooks themselves, cost, etc. - in numerous columns, blogs and reviews, the latter in both print and broadcast media. To hear some people, you'd have to picture the average ebook customer as a near-autistic savant incapable of functioning in normal society or as some socially-inept nerd who's idea of reality is closer to ABC's "Chuck" than modern America.

Yeah. Right. We all know the truth. E-books, and e-book readers - especially e-ink readers - are here to stay and gaining popularity by leaps and bounds. Amazon has finally admitted to selling nearly 500,000 Kindles (version 1) and the combined US sales of Sony PRS, Bookeen Cybook, iRex iLiad and Jinke V3 (Or it's variant the BeBook - click on the title of this post to find out more about the BeBook.) are nearly as high. That mean there are, just for e-ink devices, nearly 1 MILLION ebook customers in the US. Add in the 2-3 million people who use their iPhones, PDAs and desktop or laptop computers and it is obvious that ebook reading is here and broadly popular!

But one thing slows the spread of ebook-specific device acceptance. Cost. It's bad enough that one has to shell out several hundred bucks for an iPhone with it's tiny 4-inch display, especially when one also, in modern America, needs to own at least a $400 netbook, if not a $600-$1,000 desktop system. But then the ereader market insists upon charging anywhere from $229-$359 for a 6-ink e-ink device!

And these devices are all pretty much still first-generation. To be honest, there's little difference in display technology between the Sony PRS-500 and the Kindle 2, except the firmware and the controller for the display. There's no color, the screen refresh rate is still far slower than what is needed to support animation and we still need an external (yes, the light on the PRS-700 is in front of the screen) or "front" lighting system if we wish to read in low-light areas.

But all the technical issues are being improved and within two years we CAN expect to see many of these features to be present in the average ebook reader.

Which leaves cost. The one bugaboo which all nay-sayers have targeted. Okay, let's consider cost.

How many of you remember the Data General DG-1? Anyone? Anyone? Yep. The first truly "portable" computer recognizable as a "laptop". This sucker ran MS-DOS, could only hold a maximum of 512KB - that's right KILObytes! - of RAM, had a MONOCHROME, grayscale screen capable of 640x200 pixel resolution, needed to be near a power outlet if one wanted to use it for more than an hour, weighed NINE pounds and cost a "cost-effective" $2,895!!! Compared to the average EEE PC 900 (8.9" screen, 1GB RAM, SSD "drive" of 16GB size, $299 price and weighing just over two pounds), the DG-1 was a monstrous dinosaur! And the price differential, my gosh!

But that's what happens as technology improves and manufacturing processed get more efficient. Still, if one HAD to have a laptop back in 1984, the DG-1 made its owner vastly more productive than NOT owning one.

And that holds just as true for e-ink ebook readers. We've managed to move past "bleeding edge" and "innovator-level" and, with the BeBook, Kindle 2, PRS-700 and Cybook Gen3, are into "early adopter" phase. Prices will continue to fall as features are added.

So when your friends and neighbors show you the various nay-saying columns from these luddites and neanderthals, you remind them of these facts. Then poin them your favorite ebook reader and tell them to give one a try.

More about the Kindle 2.

2009-02-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, so Amazon is taking pre-orders for the Kindle 2. (Yes, you can pre-order one simply by clicking on the above title to this post. It'll take you right to the Kindle 2 page at Amazon.) But there really haven't been many people with hands-on with the Kindle 2.

So what *DO* we know about the Kindle 2? Here's a short list of features:

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

Large Selection: Over 230,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

The Kindle 2 'might' not be right for every reader who wants to enjoy ebooks, but it's looking a LOT more desirable for the average reader. I suggest you check it out and get your pre-order in now so you can get yours as soon as they start to ship!

The Amazon Kindle2 is here!

2009-02-10T11:04:00.000-08:00

It's finally here. Yes, Amazon has just released their second version of the Kindle. It's got seven, you heard me, SEVEN times the amount of internal memory that the original Kindle had! It now supports 16 shades of gray in images for better picture representation. It handles page-turns MUCH faster than the original Kindle and it's thinner and lighter. Click on the title of this post to check it out!

Recall Obama Now!

2009-02-07T15:47:00.000-08:00

For those who're not happy about the direction President Obama is taking; for those who believe that Obama has surrounded himself with scofflaws, tax cheats, lobbyists and influence-peddlers - overturning his campaign and post-campaign/pre-inauguration promises - I've created a bumper sticker for you. Place this on your car, pass it out to friends, family and neighbors - heck, stand on corners and hand it out to passing strangers! But get the message out - we don't want four more years of bad decisions, not even ONE more year!

Let's start the impeachment process and save our country! Just click on the title of this post and buy one or more of the Impeach, Arrest, Convict, Jail Obama Now! bumper stickers.

And I'm not stopping there. I'm setting up two more CafePress stores, one for Recall McCain Now! and one for Recall Pelosi Now! stickers.

Yes, McCain has shown he's perfectly willing to support Obama in his efforts to shove through one of the worst-thought-out, most-pork-laden bills. And they have the audacity to call it, despite the fact that most of the money won't be spent for years, as a 'stimulus package'!

Further, Speaker Pelosi has demonstrated she's so stupid that she can't even remember from one interview to the next that it's 500 THOUSAND, not 500 MILLION Americans who'll lose their jobs every month. (Of course, her rants in favor of the 'stimulus package' ignore the historical evidence that such 'packages' don't work, or the fact that a large minority of Americans expect it to make things far WORSE!)

So the Recall McCain store is up at: http://www.cafepress.com/RecallMcCainNow/

Go! Shop! Share! Get the message out!

Michael Phelps and Pot.

2009-02-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

You'd have to be brain-dead or completely illiterate, blind and deaf to not have heard of Michael Phelps' experimentation with pot. But he's not the only one. Check out the link behind this post's title for a heads-up, just in case you've forgotten. Yep. Our very own President Obama has used, and abused, alcohol, marijuana AND cocaine.

Now no one has asked Obama to 'suspend' his Presidency for each provable instance of drug use, so I must wonder why Michael Phelps is being so punished. (And don't even *begin* to push the brain-dead argument that Phelps is somehow a "role model" and "hero" who must constantly guard his reputation, because if an Olypmic athlete is one, how much more is a President?)

Further, Kellogg's is dropping Phelps as a spokesperson. Hunh? At best estimate, 60 MILLION Americans have at least "tried" pot. That means there's a very good chance that a significant percentage of Kelloggs' workforce, including middle and upper management, have tried or possibly continue to use pot. Same probability holds true for the ad agency and public relations firms Kelloggs uses. Thus, for them to drop Phelps is the height of hypocrisy.

Come to think of it, we can probably expect that at least one of the board members of the US Swim Association (USSA) has used pot. So why the suspension?

I call on people who know, to "out" any USSA board member or management employee of Kelloggs, it's ad agency and it's public relations firm to the public so we can hold these people to the same standards and same shame they've foisted upon Michael Phelps.

Michael, I've never used any illicit drugs stronger than alcohol, but I STILL respect you and salute your athletic acheivements!

Further Tax Cheat Problems for Obama

2009-02-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

And yet another Obama Cabinet nominee has been found to be a tax cheat-click on the title of this post to go to the link. Now, as the various apologists point out, it was Hilda Solis' *husband*, Sam Sayyad, who's actually been failing to pay taxes, and the taxes are owed to California, not the US, but still, she's his WIFE so she benefitted from his tax scofflaw ways.

Isn't it time to say enough is enough? Can we believe ANYTHING Obama has promised to us? I say no!

Obama and Pelosi

2009-02-05T09:35:00.001-08:00

Okay, so we've all heard of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's faux pas where she tells us that every month Congress fails to pass the President's Stimulus Porkage 500 MILLION Americans will lose their jobs. (500 MILLION, Ms. Speaker? That translates to all 6 BILLION people of Earth becoming unemployed by March of 2010.)

I have a problem with this. It clearly shows she's bought into the Porkage 100%, even though we're hearing nightly how much partisan pork is being snuck in - pork which will do nothing to 'stimulate' the economy. Also, it clearly shows she's so dumb, that's right, DUMB as to believe we the citizens of the US, some of whom are her direct constituents, will swallow these lies without hesitation. IOW, she's proved she's too dumb to hold the office.

Thus, I propose that we initiate a recall of Speaker Pelosi. Yep, if you're part of her election district, file the damned papers and pull her before she does any more damage! I think this image sums up the proper message.

Next, let us examine President Obama's actions. Before the election, he promised us - and remember, please, he already KNEW how bad the economy was - that he was going to do things different, that he would not appoint criminals, superlobbyists and influence-peddlers to his Cabinet. I think we all know, it having been widely reported just how many of his appointees are nothing BUT criminals, influence-peddlers and superlobbyists, that he lied. Remember how the Justice Department tried and convicted Martha Stewart for lying? Not for selling stocks illegally, because they couldn't PROVE that crime had taken place, but for lying. Well, despite all his campaign promises and despite the Oath he took, President Obama lied - during the middle of our second-worst economic crisis.

He needs to be impeached. Not only that, he needs to be arrested, tried, convicted and jailed for lying to us. Again, here's a nice graphic to get the point across.

Swoopo Auctions - the next great shopping experience?

2008-12-25T13:12:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered Swoopo auctions. It's a fascinating place and it can be quite fun - although somewhat expensive if one does not curb "bidder's frenzy". I've yet to win one of the auctions, but today I came *quite* close. I was bidding on an EEE PC 1000 w/40GB hard drive (one of those new 'netbook' computers) and the auction timed out just before I could place a winning bid - it went for, get this, $48.75! That's about 88% LESS than retail!

Of course, this auction site is not quite like eBay in that you must *buy* bids, for $0.75 each (and you can buy in convenient 30, 50, 100, 300 and 700 bid quantities) which you then use to bid on items. And that cost per bid used is NOT figured into the price one pays for a winning bid on an item. I'd estimate that the winner in the EEE PC auction probably 'spent' 100 bids, or $75 above the $48.xx he must pay for the computer. Still, for a brand-new netbook that retails for $500, shelling out about $150 is quite the bargain.

I'll post more as I figure it out.

So what's up with MickyD's?!?!?

2008-12-01T11:22:00.000-08:00

Was in a rush. Had a family medical appointment early this morning which meant for the first time in several years, I needed to eat on the run. So I stopped in at one of the McDonald's on the way. Got a sausage burrito and a milk for my mom, and, I thought, an Egg McMuffin combo for me. Came to $8.15! So I read it out. Seems they didn't give me the combo, they broke the McMuffin, hash brown and milk separately. Okay, I can see $3.09 for the McMuffin - barely. And I'm already rather upset at the idea of the breakfast burrito (and it's not the McBurrito, but the SMALL one) cost $1.89. But then I noticed the milk. Two 8-ounce milks ran $2.59!!! That's $1.29 per CUP of milk!!!

Now I live in California and milk by the gallon runs $3.99. But if one buys a gallon of milk from McD's in little 8-ounce bottles, one gets the privilege of paying $20.72!

C'mon, McDonald's, where's your sense of shame!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T22:34:00.000-08:00

I dunno about you all, but I am STUFFED! Yep, Mom and I did the only rational thing this Turkey Day and cooked an 8-pound whole turkey breast. I mean, it's just the two of us and she's had a lap-band procedure. Even though it came out GREAT, we STILL have half the meat left - and we've been gnawing on it since 3PM.

We didn't put stuffing in the bird because, as you can imagine, there's no real 'cavity' to hold it in place when it's just the breast. So we placed it in the pan over a bunch of quartered fruit, one each of lemon, orange, apple and yellow onion. We didn't skin the lemon, orange or apple so that meant all the essential oils in the lemon and orange rind seeped out during roasting. Talk about a great way to scent the meat! Oh yes, we happen to have some fresh sage growing in our yard and we tossed two handfuls of that in the mix. We basted the skin with an herb-butter mix (sage, thyme, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper all mixed into softened butter) so that it got nice and crispy brown. Talk about MOIST!

I have a suspicion that if you don't want to brine the bird, cooking the dressing separately helps to keep the meat moist as the stuffing doesn't draw the moisture out during cooking.

We made an apple-and-cranberry stuffing recipe we found on the FoodTV site from Paula Deen's area. Quite good! It uses Hawaiian sweet bread for the breading cubes (yes, you'll have to cube and toast them before use) and when mixed with the fruit and cinnamon it makes for a sweet dressing instead of the herb-savory kind we've usually had. You simply have to try it!

Anyway, there's lots we're thankful for this year and we look forward to next. Hope all of you who celebrate the U.S. Thanksgiving Day had a good one wherever you are.

The ANTI-Gun Nuts are at it again - in film.

2008-11-23T14:45:00.001-08:00

If you click on the title of this post, you'll be taken to a web page where 'entertainment industry' types are counseled to take an anti-gun stance in their films and tv shows. You simply MUST read this. Then take steps to write to each and every studio urging them to avoid using any of the ideas contained on the web page.

Obama's NEW New Deal.

2008-11-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

I was scanning through the paper today and I ran across an article on Obama's goals for the first part of his administration. Most of it came across as the same platitudes and wishing that you'd expect from any incoming President. But one idea was different.

The idea? To sign a piece of legislation, on his inauguration day, January 20th, 2009, which would create a set of new public works programs - a *NEW* New Deal, if you will. I must admit, I have two very specific problems with such a program.

First, as anyone who's studied the Great Depression and Franklin Delano Rooseveldt's terms in office understands, the original New Deal programs were some of the worst-thought-out programs ever hatched, and they may have been the major factor in lengthening the Great Depression and its aftermath. If you take even the most cursory look at the New Deal, you soon come to realize that only World War II and the massive build-up of our wartime economy "solved" it.

Yet this is what President-Elect Obama is urging Congress to enact - a 'jobs' program that will derail much of our current economy in favor of public-dole jobs. Not the best of thinking, in my humble opinion.

Second, this 'program' is supposed to be an 'economic stimulus' package - a 'bailout' if you will. And it is supposed to come hard on the heels of several earlier 'bailouts'. Can anyone remember the bailout program for the home mortgage disaster? You know, the one rushed through Congress by our very own (thankfully leaving) Treasury Secretary Paulson? Heck! Can anyone *forget* the bait-and-switch pulled on the American taxpayers by Paulson? I can't. And he did the same "Rush! Rush! Rush!" scare tactic to get his famous three-line bill passed without question or examination. Didn't turn out too well, did it?

Yet here we have Obama urging the same haste and ill-planning for an even bigger, more sweeping set of stimulus packages.

My question is this: Can we afford to let Congress get swept up in the *NEW* New Deal frenzy? I think not. In fact, I urge you to write to your Congresscritters and warn them that a "Yes" on Obama's NND is a "Yes" on recall initiatives for these same Congresscritters.

I still can't decide between Core i7 and Core 2 Quad.

2008-11-20T11:15:00.001-08:00

But I'm also wondering whether it would benefit me to have one of those 'netbooks' which have an Intel Atom processor. Dell, Acer, MSI, IBM and Asus all offer models. Asus offers models with 7", 8.9" and 10" screens, while most of the rest offer either 8.9" or 10" models. I'm kind of thinking a nice Acer Aspire One with an 8.9" display and a 120GB hard drive would be a good match as I could leave it with Windows XP on the internal hard drive but put Macintosh OS-X 10.5.4 on an external USB hard drive. (I've always wanted a Mac, but I could never justify the ridiculous prices.)

So what do you all think? Would you own an uber-lightweight 'netbook' pc? Would you upgrade to a Core 2 Quad desktop pc or wait for a reasonable price on a Core i7 unit? Would you buy an Amazon Kindle, Sony PRS-700BC or Irex Iliad DS1000 or a BeBook ebook reader?

Do I really need a Core 2 Quad computer?

2008-11-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

I'm serious. Do I really need a Core 2 Quad computer? Before I get into all my requirements, I just want to toss out the fact that they're now advertising the existence of the Intel Core i7 processor and the X58 motherboards for said processor family. ( I guess the i7 is the 'next generation' beyond the basic Core 2 Quads.) So in my mind is this question whether I should 'burden' myself with Yet Anoter "Last Generation" System, or should I wait a few months and fork out Big Bucks on the "Latest and Greatest" system?

I currently have a Pentium D system which is maxed out at 4GB of RAM and has both a 320GB and an 80GB internal hard drive (I recently "upgraded" to two external 250GB hard drives for all the images and ebooks I've got stored. I still can't believe the speed increase I got just off-loading the internal drives!) I currently shoot 10.1 megapixel images and I use Photoshop CS3 for post-processing. As anyone who's worked with Photoshop knows, it's all about layers. Some of my 'base' image files may have as many as 40 layers and can run to 400-600MB in size. At the very least, I need to upgrade to a system that supports 8GB of RAM simply to speed the photo editing process.

Then there's the fact that I routinely have two or three browser windows open, along with one or two IRC channels running. Add in the ebook conversion scripts and apps that I run as I prepare HTML, RTF and TXT files for my ebook readers (I prefer Mobi format) and I'm finding my two year old Pentium D system just isn't cutting the mustard any longer.

And then there's my desire to dual-OS my new system (actually it's more like triple-OS as I want to run Mac OS-X, Linux and Windows) so I can have a development system for Open Inkpot work as well as to be able to explore the Macintosh environment.

Obviously, I could just take one step up the processor ladder and get a Core 2 Duo system, but that seems a waste of time as the ones out there with 8GB RAM support all seem to be close in price to Core 2 Quad systems. (Clearly, I'm talking about buying new - or used - via eBay rather than shelling out even more bucks for a store-bought system.)

But then they come out with the i7. So what do you think?

So here I am wondering whether anyone else has a gun?

2008-11-14T20:42:00.000-08:00

Because we just bought a shotgun. That's right. We are a gun-totin' fambly now. Well, not quite. We've got to wait until the waiting period passes and then we get to go pick it up. But it's been such a long time since we've had any kind of gun in the home. And, of course, this is California, which means we must store the shotgun in one room - with the gun-lock in place - and the ammo in another room. Okay, even though we don't have any children running around and children don't, by and large, come into the house, that kinda makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is that when we come and pick up the gun, (and we could do this before or after that day) if we choose to buy ammo that day, we must make the ammo purchase separate from picking up the gun. We are not allowed, under the law, to stop by the cash register on our way out with the gun, buy the ammo and put it in the bag/cart with the gun. So just to make this clear, we can go to the store, pick up the gun, carry it out to the car, turn around, go back inside, buy the ammo and take it out to the car, but we can't just carry both items out at the same time.

Does ANYONE understand why that's the case? Because it makes NO sense to me. I mean, I could understand if they said we couldn't LOAD the shotgun before leaving the store, (and unless you're hunting or you really, Really, REALLY need to defend yourself, you don't need it loaded) but if this is somehow supposed to 'prevent' someone from using a weapon to immediately commit a crime, well... the parking lot isn't that large and the doors of the store are freaking GLASS. I mean, if a hardened criminal wants to use a gun to rob a store, the extra couple of minutes to go back to the car to get the ammo ain't gonna make that much difference.

But maybe I'm missing something? Of course, not having majored in criminal behavior, I presume this is the case.

Anyway, do your part to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Go, register and buy a gun!

Thoughts on "Change"

2008-11-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

We recently elected Barack Obama to the Presidency. One of the reasons he managed to win was that he championed "change".

I cannot stress this enough, "change" does not automatically equate to goodness, sweetness, light and happiness! To put a fine point to this, change is JUST as likely to be bad, to result in failure, despair, bitterness and even - yes - evil. When Saddam Hussein came to power in Iraq, much change occurred. And as we can all discover for ourselves, most of that "change" was harmful to the citizens of that nation.

While our current war over there was started to bring about positive things, even working towards that noble goal, much "change" has occurred in Iraq that is negative, bad, even harmful to the Iraqi people. I believe that in the long run the change we have wrought there will be good for the Iraqis, but we must be honest that we also have brought about harmful and bad change to Iraq.

On the domestic front, we are undergoing a major change in our economy, and only a fool would deny that much of the current "change" is good for the average citizen. I have friends and family who have lost as much as 60% of their retirement investments - and we're talking company-mandated mutual funds and 401(K) plans here - due to the recent upheaval. (Upheaval is yet another word for "change".) Others have found themselves buried under massive debt from frightening devaluation of their homes.

Yet we have elected a President who's all about change. Make no mistake, President-Elect Obama wants to bring about POSITIVE change, but wanting, and even acting, to do so does not guarantee success.

Yes, we must do our best to see that positive change accomplished, but we must not delude ourselves into thinking that we have "won" this "good" change simply by electing Barack Obama.

Getting a Netronix ebook reader repaired.

2008-11-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've finally gotten through to Netronix and I've got the shipping information so I can get my EB-100 e-ink ebook reader repaired! Hooray! It seems *my* email to them was getting through but their return email to me was being blocked.

All well and good. However, for those of you who did NOT purchase a re-branded EB-100, but bought one direct from Netronix, here's the address for returning it if you need it repaired. Be forewarned that if it's not considered a "warranty" repair, there will be a fee.

Netronix,Inc
9F, No. 92, Baojhong Road, Shindian City
Taipei, Taiwan, 23144 R.O.C.
Tel:886-2-29120211 ext:34

And you'll probably want to notify support at Netronix before you ship. Their email is support@netronixinc.com. I'm shipping my poor, broken EB-100 out this weekend. :)

NO on Prop 8, California!

2008-11-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

I know. There are a lot of people out there telling the whole world that Prop 8 is "not" bigoted and driven by the fear and hatred of gays and lesbians. Well, they're full if it! If you really need reasons to vote No on Prop 8, click on this post's title for the link.

If you're one of those who're pushing "Yes on 8", you should be ashamed of yourself.

I know, this is going up the day before the election, but c'mon people, don't let the haters scare you into marginalizing people over their sexual orientation!

'Nuf said.

If you're interested in the BeBook, click here.

2008-10-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

Yep. Click on the title of this post and get taken to the blog of Ian Christian, where he's got a video clip of a BeBook in action. The more I look at the BeBook, the more interested I am. And the fact that one can use the included firmware or OpenInkpot's software to read ebooks just makes it that much better a buy for people who like to read.

Yes, please buy the BeBook

2008-10-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

I've decided my next ebook reader (of those which use the e-ink display technology) will be a BeBook. The BeBook (You can check it out by clicking the title of this post.) is the brand name of the Jinke V3 that is available in the US. It already supports a decent range of ebook formats, but it also can run the OpenInkpot release of the Linux Operating System, as well as the FBReader ebook reading application and the Madshelf ebook library management system. And it can run these latter applications FROM THE SD CARD, which means that you don't have to install OI, FBReader and Madshelf over the built-in firmware. Take out the OI-installed SD card and you're back to the standard BeBook firmware! It's just that simple!

So please, if you're considering a new ebook reader for yourself, family member or friend, either as a Christmas present or for any other reason, click on the title of this post and check out the BeBook!