sustaining word » tech

first thoughts on the kindle 2

jazzmetalman — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:09:32 +0000

It’s been now two days since I received my Kindle 2, Amazon’s eBook reader. It’s early days, but I am extremely happy with it so far.

These are the really pleasing attributes of the Kindle 2 (International Version):

The speed of the transfer from the Kindle Store to the device
The management of titles on the Kindle; both those purchased from the Kindle Store and those transferred from previous purchases on other devices
The integration with the Kindle for iPhone app, whereby books are synchronised over both devices for ease of continuity of reading
The iPhone app is as good an eBook reader for the iPhone that I have used – easily on par with Stanza
The reading experience is pleasant and better than expected
It’s lightweight, easily held and controllable with one hand
Unobtrusive style, with clean lines that don’t distract from the reading experience
The good level of third party software to assist in managing your Kindle and its library. The best that I have found is Calibre
Lastly, with the addition of a Gelaskin cover (mine are in the photos here), the Kindle is easy to hold, and looks really good.

As it has been only two days, I haven’t yet used the included dictionary or the note taking features but they look promising and both appear functional and practical.

However, not all things are perfect. In my opinion there are a few issues that need to be addressed in the future (I have no doubt that Amazon will address these).

The synchronisation between the Kindle and the iPhone appears only to be functional for books purchased from the Kindle store – titles loaded locally do not show up on the iPhone
The quantity of titles available for international users is significantly less than those available to US users. In fact, I was unable to buy Nancy Wake, a book by Australian author Peter Fitzsimons, yet I could purchase this book if I lived in the US.
Computer usage is restricted to Windows based PC’s at the moment. Kindle for Mac is coming, but no date has been given for it’s release. This is only an inconvenience as you can run Windows on any Intel based Mac. Having a Mac based client however, will complete the Kindle experience for me.

An interesting footnote is that eBooks outsold physical books at Amazon over the Christmas period.

tech 10 commandments

jazzmetalman — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:25:16 +0000

While on the 10 commandments, here is a fairly old one from the Joy of Tech – but still relevant today.

come in kindle

jazzmetalman — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:23:16 +0000

Tomorrow should see the delivery of our new Kindles, one each for my wife and I. I have internally debated whether I should acquire one, with the competition being the long rumoured Apple tablet, as I was really keen to see what Apple would do. The debate was finalised when the rumours began declaring that the price for the tablet would be over US$1,000 – some suggested as high as US$2,000.

We have literally hundreds of books – the legacy of a pastor married to a librarian, and space has become premium so the transition to digital books has been a no brainer for me. Over the past few years I have been buying eBooks for my various PDA’s that I have owned, so I already have a good collection to place on the new Kindle even without buying any new books from Amazon.

A great way to convert existing eBooks (PDF’s, Word Files etc) is to use Mobipocket Creator (Publisher). It’s a Windows-only application which is drag and drop for file conversion. The only problem I have encountered is that it doesn’t appear to work under virtualisation on my Mac. No dramas as I bring my work laptop home – the only time a dedicated Windows machine has been in my house for years!

The thought of having upwards of 1,500 of my books with me is a bit staggering, but I must confess there have been times when having access to my library when away from home would have been fantastic. Just as the iPod changed the way people listen to, and in many cases, purchase, music, I think the Kindle will do that with books. The fact the Amazon is now producing an international version of the Kindle will only increase the usage of digital books – only time will tell if society embraces digital books as they have digital music.

Over the years I have also subscribed to Time magazine as well as many others. I generally keep about 10-15 issues before I think that I need to throw them out (again due to space constraints), now this becomes a moot point as there are many magazines that can be subscribed to on the Kindle which I will be able to keep as reference material for years to come and can also keep on my laptop and desktop through the Kindle for Desktop application.

My two requests to Amazon are:

Please finish developing the Kindle for Mac app
Make available the Kindle for iPhone app to people outside the US

As the Kindle also allows for the spoken word as you drive, it could also diminish the need for the purchase of Audio Books. What is certain is that due to the close parity of the Aussie dollar to the US$, the cost of Kindle books has become about 50% of their print equivalent – another fine reason to add to that of the space saving benefits for purchasing and using a Kindle. So in summary, my key reasons to acquire a Kindle are:

Portability
Cost versus print equivalents
The ability to be an audio book
Storage

I will give you my initial thoughts on using the Kindle after I have tried it for a couple of days – unfortunately you will have to wait. My wife says I can only use it after I open it for Christmas! I wished she believed in early presents.

Until then then, I will stick with reading my print books – I do have a few to get through that I have recently purchased.

make an audio book from any text source

jazzmetalman — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:49:00 +0000

I was reading a blog that I regularly visit yesterday and stumbled upon instructions for creating audio books from any type of text file. It was so awesome that I put it out on Twitter early today and have been requested to “fill in the blanks”.

First and foremost, credit goes to Rick Mansfield and his blog This Lamp. Unfortunately for you users of PC’s and the multiple variants of Windows, this will not help you, but if your a Mac user you will find all the instructions here.

The example that Rick describes is converting a christian resource book into an audio book. Yet this method works for anything that contains text – I have created audio books from pdf files, Word docs and Pages docs, the list is endless.

One last thing that Rick doesn’t mention is that when you have your new “Text to Speech” file in iTunes, you can then convert it into iTunes audio book format by running a script called Make Bookmarkable by Doug Adams and you can download the Apple Script here.

Rick in his post mentions how little time it takes to create an audio book from scratch. One of the ones that I created was The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. The final product was an audio book that would take 10 hours and 54 minutes to listen through – total time to prepare and convert on my MacPro was about 8 minutes.

It’s an absolutely awesome way to get audio books onto your iPod or iPhone. The possibilities are endless – I can see myself converting some of my daughter’s Uni text books next year so she can listen to them as she commutes to Uni, rather than having to carry them with her.

I hope you enjoy exploring these unlimited possibilities. If you’re a Windows user and you know of a way to do it on that platform, I’d love for you to share the secrets.

Happy audio book listening!

bible study options

jazzmetalman — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:32:00 +0000

I’m a Mac user, and proud of it. When I made the switch from Windows in 2004 the biggest challenge that confronted me was what bible study software would I use. For all of my Windows life (from 3.0 to XP) I had used various versions of QuickVerse and it’s associated atlases and dictionaries.

Unfortunately for me, QuickVerse only came in a Windows version, and PC emulation at the time was terribly slow, so it was not an option for me to consider. I therefore had to find a new bible study software – there were a number of free/cheap options, but the standout was Accordance.

Now using Accordance was more a paradigm shift compared to switching to Mac and something that took some time to come to grips with. It was frustrating as it limited my ability to study and prepare messages, but over time I have come to appreciate it more and more – it’s power in compiling searches from a huge array of resources is awesome. To me, Accordance, makes the complex simple – a bit like a great teacher of the Word.

Five years on, after attending a training seminar in Sydney, I love Accordance. Yet now, Logos has recently released Logos4, clearly their best offering yet.

The Mac version is currently in Alpha mode and it’s fun to be a part of software development, whereas the Windows version is a complete release. With the advent of exceptional Windows virtualisation programs such as Parallels and VM Fusion, running a Windows bible study application is no longer a chore for Mac users.

The Windows version of Logos4 certainly has a Mac feel to it, but not quite. Yet is a great tool and has a great interface for students of the Word – powerful searching and great layout of resources for viewing. A neat bonus from Logos is that they have released an iPhone App that will sync your library with the phone – unfortunately, no information is presently able to be stored on the iPhone – it must by streamed over Wi-fi or 3G phone networks.

It’s a great position for the modern Christian to find themselves in – two great bible study apps for either of your operating system of choice.

For me, I will use both as they do different things in some ways better than their competitor. But if I had to choose one, it would be Accordance, as there motto says, the bible is central.

So if you’re in the market for new software, please consider Accordance and I Know you won’t regret it. Go ahead, make the switch!

PS – if you don’t want to leave Windows, Accordance provides an emulator so you run run Accordance on your Windows based machine.

which web browser are you

jazzmetalman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:01:00 +0000

Here is an interesting table highlighting speed performance of browsers IE8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.

What becomes most interesting is that the weakest performer, IE8 and it’s older siblings, is still the one that most people use. The fastest, Chrome, still has a small share of browser users. So why has IE8 still got the greater percentage of users? Is it ignorance or apathy, because clearly all others are way faster, others (Firefox & Safari) are more secure and there is less bloat on IE8′s competitors. Clearly Firefox is gaining on IE8, and in some statistical surveys, has surpassed it in market share.

I am amazed by some people who wouldn’t even consider trying other browsers for no apparent reason than they have been using various versions if IE since Netscape’s Navigator met its demise. For me security and speed are the key factors in determining my browser of choice, closely followed by a substantial set of features.

My browsers of choice are Safari (Mac OSX) and Firefox 3.5 when I’m running Linux or Windows. What are yours?

how long should technology last

jazzmetalman — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:57:00 +0000

Tomorrow, our new oven arrives, less than three years after our current one was installed. The old one could have been repaired, if the manufacturer, Nobel, didn’t go bust. Unfortunately for the Mercer’s they did and we have shelled out some unexpected cash for a new one.

Do you buy European, or “Aussie made”? It seems Aussie made is a misnomer as all these modern whitegoods are manufactured in Europe, with their cheaper, more price sensitive cousins made in South East Asia. Buying Aussie no longer guarantees accessibility to parts in the future. Price, likewise doesn’t promise long-life and customer support as the demise of Kleenmaid proved.

Therefore are we being greedy or unrealistic to expect major household appliances to last upwards of ten years? I don’t think so. My parents’ generation were used to changing the fridges, stoves, ovens etc after 15 or 20 years – not barely 2.5 years. Are we so used to purchasing extended warranties that tacitly we expect our new purchases to break down within five years?

It feels like we now have accepted mediocrity as a standard to aspire towards, rather than excellence. As consumers we have lost our voice, but do we have any power to convince the manufacturers to build better. Have we confused the rapid technological advances in some areas as the reason why all products need to be constantly upgraded?

To me, certain appliances that don’t evolve rapidly still should have a long life – at least ten years.

Here’s hoping our new oven exceeds my hopes.

socialnomics

jazzmetalman — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:19:00 +0000

For an old bloke like me, the ever expanding impact of Socialnomics is amazing. Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers may struggle to comprehend the logic behind the rapid growth and influence of Social Media sites/tools.

If you would prefer to watch it on YouTube, then you can do so.. Whether you’re in business, a leader of people, a Christian church or ministry, you need to embrace and adapt to this phenomenon.

Be amazed, be very amazed.

to tweet, or not to tweet, that is a question

jazzmetalman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:18:00 +0000

I was thinking recently that Twitter seems to me a good tool for guys to share their thoughts as it is quick and easy. Facebook status updates come with so much clutter and other info about how people have scored in some game that is meaningless to me. I like Facebook for the status updates, but let’s leave it at that.

So, what I want to know, is “Am I alone in this world in preferring Twitter to Facebook for the simplicity of the information sharing that it provides.

Your thoughts please.

iPhone – is it the best phone?

jazzmetalman — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:30:00 +0000

Well, I have had my iPhone for just on two months now, and I can honestly say that’s it is he best phone I have ever had. The Apps store gives access to a huge range of applications from games, utilities and, for importantly for me, great Bible software. The ability to have all types of programs at your disposal, with typical Apple use of use, is so good.

The only downside of such a great phone, and fantastic iPod, is that both my kids now want one! Teenagers!

Let them save up their own money.