Friday, October 26, 2012
The voices in my head
 |
Photo illustration by Jeff Price
As my wife is fond of saying, "writer's block is when your invisible friends stop talking to you." |
No matter where I go, they are there.
Whispering their secrets in my ear, telling me their stories and filling me in on the intimate details of their lives.
Sometimes I’m shocked by the things they tell me, but I find their constant companionship rather comforting. They make my roughly 45-minute commute to and from work each day pass a little more quickly. They also keep me amused at work when I’m forced to wait for a slow computer or server to boot or to finish running a scan or diagnostic. They also keep me entertained on those now rather rare days when no one is having any computer problems and I’m just sitting around staring at the clock, trying to look busy, waiting for my shift to end.
My friends even keep me company when I’m making “saw dust” in my “workshop” (or as my wife insists on calling it, our garage), though thankfully they know to shut up when I flip on the table saw or other machine with sharp whirling blades.
Usually though, they become the most talkative at night, just as I am going to bed, holding off telling me their most juicy tidbits until I’m about to fall asleep. That’s really annoying, especially on “school nights” when I can’t stay up late, but nowhere as near annoying as those times that they suddenly clam up, refusing to talk to me despite my constant prodding.
Oh and there is something else you should know about these companions of mine.
They are all in my head.
Now I know what you’re probably thinking.
“Jeff, they make drugs for that, and you should probably be on them!”
But I don’t want to stop hearing those voices, ever!
“Jeff, you’re crazy. They lock people like that up. You don’t want us to call those nice young men in their clean white coats do you?”
Relax. The voices aren’t telling me to do anything harmful. They know I’m a writer and all they want me to do is be their biographer.
“Biographer? BIOGRAPHER! You talk like these voices are real people!”
To me they are real people! They are fully formed individuals with their own unique dispositions, hopes and desires, loves and losses. Like us, their personalities were formed by the events of their childhood. Ask me anything about them, from their favorite color or favorite food to the type of person they are attracted to and I can tell you. Sometimes I feel like they are my children, and seem so real to me that if one of them suddenly walked through my door as flesh and blood beings I would not be even a tad bit surprised.
Sometimes I even find myself wishing that the words I write about them could actually bring them to life like in that old “Twilight Zone” episode, “A World of His Own.”
“I don’t know. It still sounds kind of crazy….”
Oh, it probably is. But then again, I think all writers probably are a bit nuts. The only thing that keeps us sane is writing down those things that the voices in our heads tell us.
“Then why do you still sound so nuts?”
Mainly because while my characters are very chatty, they aren’t exactly disciplined. They tell me stuff out of order and often get side tracked and wind up talking about tons of extraneous stuff that’s unrelated to the story I’m writing about them. And because they are characters from science fiction, where alternate timelines are always a possibility, I get told alternate versions of those stories.
Sorting through all this takes a lot of time and can be exhausting and I wish I was able to write at the speed my imaginary friends talk to me. Yet even if I could, I still doubt I’d be able to keep up with them.
And you know what?
That’s okay with me.
As long as they’re willing to keep talking to me, I’m willing to keep listening.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Txtr’s Beagle may teach this old dog a new trick
 |
| TXTR BEAGLE: $13 for an e-reader? Count me in! |
Maybe it’s because I started my career as a reporter and still work at a newspaper that makes me resist giving up the “dead-tree” editions of the things I read and going totally digital, but to me there is something special about holding a book or newspaper in my hand that I find comforting.
I never have to worry about making sure my book is charged up when I finally have time to read, nor do I have to worry about getting it wet when reading in the bathtub, or at the pool or beach. I never have to turn it off just as I’m getting to the good part of the story because the airplane I’m on is about to take off or land.
I’ve also never been able to justify shelling out the money to buy one of these devices when I can buy up to three or four paperbacks for the same price. And then I’d still have to pay MORE money to buy the book I want to read in the first place.
But all that may be about to change.
A German company named Txtr is set to debut an ultra-cheap, no-frills e-reader for $13.
Yup! You read that right, $13.
Txtr’s new Beagle e-reader is missing a lot of what people now expect from devices like Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook. It lacks 3G and WiFi, meaning you have to use your smartphone to buy and send books to it via Bluetooth; doesn’t have a touch-screen; only has 4 gb of storage, which means you can only store up to five books on it; and only has a smallish 5” screen. It also doesn’t have a standby mode. It’s either off or on. But as the company points out, “with this concept, two AAA batteries enable you to read 12-15 books per year.”
To some, these drawbacks might be deal-killers.
But not to me.
For one thing, a 5” diagonal screen is about the size of a standard paperback page and being small means it’s light, only weighing about 128 grams or a fraction of a pound (.282192 lbs, to be exact). I don’t care if it doesn’t have a touch screen as I actually prefer a button to turn pages.
The only potential drawback for me is the limited storage and having to use my cellphone to transfer books to it. But since I almost always have my cellphone on me and I rarely if ever read more than five books at once, I don’t think it will matter that much.
Plus if I accidentally get it wet reading in the pool, or drop it and break it, I won’t feel that bad. At $13 the Beagle will be cheap to replace.
I look forward to getting my hands on one of these devices and seeing how it performs in the real-world. With its 800x600 pixel resolution, will text be clear and sharp? Will the e-Ink display with its 8-levels of gray scaling be easy enough to read in bright sunlight?
I hope so, but I’m going to have to wait to find out.
The Beagle is set to launch in Europe in time for the holiday season, with a U.S. debut in the works.
According to the tech blog Engadget, the company's chief commercial officer Thomas Leliveld said the device is NOT being marketed as a standalone e-reader but more as “a smartphone accessory.” Leliveld is reported to have said that work is underway to get AT&T and Sprint on board, but that talks are still ongoing with providers.
Still I can’t wait to get my hands on one and test it out. For $13 how could you go wrong? Who knows, The Beagle might even teach this old dog a new trick or two.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Rebooting the soul
Every year about this time, my friends, relatives and colleagues get an e-mail from me with the subject line: An Apology.
In the e-mail I apologize to them for anything I may have done over the past year, knowingly or unknowingly, that may have offended or hurt them in some way. I also let them know that I forgive them for anything that they might have said or done to me that may have offended or hurt me in some way during the last year.
I do this because I am Jewish and during the period between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year; and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement; we Jews are supposed to do a lot of soul searching and repent for all our sins so we can start the new year with a clean slate. But as our teachings tells us, “For transgressions against G-d, the Day of Atonement atones; but for transgressions of one human being against another, the Day of Atonement does not atone until they have made peace with one another.”
I realize that I should probably say this to each person face-to-face – and I do try to do this – but because it is logistically impossible for me to meet with all my family, friends and colleagues who are scattered all over the country during these ten holiest days of the Jewish year, I am forced to resort to a more impersonal, technological method to make my apologies.
Sometimes I think this is sort of cheating, because it is much easier to write the words “I’m sorry” in an e-mail than to say them to someone’s face. Yet to say I’m sorry to only the people who happen to be geographically near me and not to those farther away doesn’t seem right to me either.
This was very much on my mind this past weekend as I attended the High Holiday services at my temple, when my rabbi began talking to us about the concept of “Teshuvah.”
Teshuvah means to “repent and return,” and as our rabbi talked about this, he said something that not only made me feel better about my use of e-mail in my attempts at Teshuvah, but also appealed to my inner geek. He said that no matter how bad the sin, if you really and truly are repentant, G-d will forgive you and will not punish you.
“Is that cheating?” he asked the congregation. “If you do the crime should you not do the time?” Is G-d granting us a metaphorical, if not somewhat literal “get out of jail free card?”
His answer to that was no. And this is why:
Because if you truly repent and change your ways, then you are no longer the person who committed the sin, he explained. “It is like hitting the reset switch,” he said.
The moment my rabbi said that, I pictured some heavily hand descending from the sky and hitting some invisible Ctrl+Alt+Delete (or for you Mac users out there: Control+Command+Eject ) keys on our heads and rebooting us the way we reboot a misbehaving computer.
Of course the moment I thought that I felt guilty (as I said, I’m Jewish, and we’re genetically programmed to feel guilt at the drop of a yamaka). I shouldn’t be thinking such silly and irreverent things during this time of the year!
But the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t think it was so silly after all. Rebooting a computer will clear out the memory and will often get rid of any corrupted information which is causing the computer to misbehave. That is why the first thing any computer geek you’ve ever gone to for help will ask you if you’ve tried rebooting. And wouldn’t it be cool if there was some magic button combination that we could press within ourselves that would clear out our memories and get rid of all that bad information which causes us to misbehave and sin?
Wouldn't it be nice if our prayers acted like that simple “three-fingered-salute” that could erase all our evil inclinations and make us live up to the greatness G-d sees in all of us? And wouldn’t it be nice if, like rebooting a PC, that transformation could be achieved in mere minutes instead of having to spend all day fasting and praying at the synagogue hoping that we can stick to the promises we make to ourselves to become a better person?
But we alas, we are not computers. It takes more effort for us to change our ways than just simply pressing a few buttons, which in the end, I guess, is a good thing. It is that struggle to find the divine in each of us that makes us human. Unlike computers there is no app we can download nor is there a single program we can run to help us find that spark of divinity. We are all individuals and we each must find our own path. For some that may mean using personal wealth or power to further some worthy cause, others might find it by healing the sick, feeding the hungry or by volunteering to help build homes for the homeless. Still others may find it by simply being a good friend, or by visiting with the sick or just through a kind word or deed said to a stranger.
G-d understands the individual nature of our path to redemption. “ You do not ask me: 'Why have you not been great as Moses?' ” one of our Yom Kippur prayers reminds us. “You do ask me: 'Why have you not been yourself? Why have you not been true to the best in you?' ”
Yet finding and remaining on that path to being the best of yourself is not easy. During our lifetimes, circumstances seem to force us to take many detours and inevitably we wander down many blind alleys. We rely on our faith to be our GPS, keeping us on the straight and narrow. But still we go astray.
I suppose then, that that makes the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur the time when G-d “downloads” updated maps to us. Hopefully this year, I will be able to follow those directions better than I did last year and avoid having to worry about the need to again reboot my soul next year.
Ken yehi ratzon. (May it be God's will).
Thursday, September 13, 2012
What makes Bill Shatner so cool?
 |
| AWESOME AND HE KNOWS IT: When it comes to believing in yourself, we could all learn a thing or two from William Shatner. |
"[William] Shatner must be the most gifted individual on Earth. He is a highly successful actor, author, playwright, singer and instrumentalist; despite having no discernible talent in any of those fields."
Now, before I go any further, let me just say that I am a HUGE fan of
Yet when I read that comment in the blog, I just had to laugh. Not just because it was so snarky, but because it was so true.
I mean, if you look in any dictionary for the definition of ham, and you will see Bill Shatner’s picture.
Okay, not really.
But if you look up the definition of ham on the TV Tropes web site you will literally see his picture there.
And should you look up Mr. Shatner himself on the site, you will see that his entry begins thusly:
"One of the most charming largest hams of all time."
Shatner’s overly dramatic acting style And ….His….. Odd …..Way…. OfRecitingHisLines, has been parodied so many times that it has practically become a cliché unto itself. It seems like every comedian sometime in their career has done a Shatner impression, though I think only Kevin Pollak’s impersonation has captured him the best.
Likewise with Shatner’s “singing” career, which took flight in 1978 when he performed “Rocket Man” at the Science Fiction Awards show. It was so impossibly ridiculous, it was good and probably ushered in the style of music we know today as rap.
Throughout his long career, Shatner has sometimes been called egotistical and a jerk. He’s been married four times and according to his fellow “Star Trek” actor, Nichelle Nichols, Shatner stole the honor of having the first interracial kiss on television from Leonard Nimoy, whose Spock character was the one who was originally scripted to kiss Lt. Uhura.
“My understanding is Bill Shatner took one look at the scene and said, ‘No you will not! If anyone's going to be part of the first interracial kiss in television history, it's going to be me!' So they rewrote it,” she said.
There is also a popular YouTube video where Will Wheaton (Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) tells of his first meeting with the legendary star when Shatner was filming “Star Trek V” next door to the Next Generation set.
Then there was his directorial debut with the aforementioned “Star Trek V,” which was roundly panned as the worst “Star Trek” film ever.
The movie had an interesting and promising premise. The crew of the U.S.S Enterprise is seeking G-d at the end of the universe, but the story’s execution was so weak and lamely handled that it seemed to be more of a parody of the franchise than a real attempt at making a good “Trek” movie. Yet to be fair, I’m not 100 percent certain we can lay the blame for this flop solely at Mr. Shatner’s feet. Though it was his concept, I have read some of his other “Star Trek” books and while he wrote them with the help of a ghost writer, they were quite good. In fact, they still rank among my favorite “Star Trek” novels set in the “The Next Generation” timeline. I am also told that his non-“Star Trek” book series, TekWar, is also very good.
Despite all these flaws, Shatner remains an eminently likeable person and a terrific entertainer.
Why?
If we put all the above mentioned qualities that make William Shatner, William Shatner, and put them into anyone else, they would have failed epically as actor, author, playwright, singer and instrumentalist. But somehow Bill Shatner has taken them and made them successful.
How he managed to do this became a subject of a rather long e-mail thread between a few friends of mine.
“I don't know if I can quantify Shatner as a good actor or not,” my friend Tim wrote. “I have not had enough exposure to him in a range of roles. It may be he is just playing himself. If so, then he is just a really charismatic and cool guy.”
 |
| Classic Shatner ham: WEEEEE . . . the PEEEE-ple! |
Valid points, but then Tim came back with this:
“The question then becomes what is the definition of a 'good' actor? And is it different than the definition of a 'successful' entertainer? If the primary attribute of a 'good' actor is the ability to entertain. Then yes, Shatner is a VERY good actor. He is also a very successful actor. If the primary attribute of a 'good' actor is the ability to assume multiple and diverse roles as the story demands, then I have not observed it. But my experience is admittedly limited, and my observations could just be the result of always casting him to play a 'Shatner' character. I think I would not enjoy any part that he played as other than himself very much. So perhaps it is all for the best. I submit for contrast, Patrick Stewart who I feel has considerable skill as an 'actor', but falls far short as an 'entertainer' (unless you are entertained by the art of acting itself).”
But after all our back and forth, it was Erik who finally hit the nail on the head in figuring out why William Shatner is so cool.
“To sum Bill Shatner up I will rephrase something once said about Yul Brynner, " he wrote. “Only Bill Shatner could have the audacity to believe that he could actually be Bill Shatner."
Thursday, September 6, 2012
What I did on my summer vacation
 |
| Marksburg Castle, the only castle on the Rhine never to have been destroyed. |
But wait, I can hear you saying to yourselves, “Isn’t this blog supposed to be about all things geeky? How is telling me about your river cruise through the center of Europe even remotely geeky?”
I can answer that in one word.
Castles!
Lots and lots of castles!
I mean what could be more geeky than that? I’ve been a sci-fi/fantasy fan for a long time and to this day still play Dungeons and Dragons with my friends, so the chance to actually walk through or even see a real castle up close instead of having to image one in my head is always a special treat. And the opportunity to see more than a dozen of them in one afternoon was just pure Nerd-vana!
On the fifth day of our trip, we sailed down a portion of the Rhine River in Germany where there are some 18 castles lining the banks. We got to stop and explore one of them, Marksburg Castle, the only one of them never to have been destroyed by invaders and thus retains much of its Medieval character. The other castles we just sailed past. But it was a really cool experience I thought I’d share with you through some of the pictures I took of them. Along with the pictures below is a small bit of history about each structure.
Sterrenberg and Liebstein castlesSterrenberg (white structure, left) and Liebstein (darker building right) castles are known as the “Hostile Brothers” because of a family quarrel that took place between the Sterrenberg and Liebstein families who built them. It is believed that the two sons of Sterrenberg and Liebstein initiated the fight over inheritance, but according to our cruise director, local legends say the fight began because the sons were in love with the same woman. |
|
Maus CastleMaus Castle, also called Deuernburg or Thurnberg Castle, was one of the most technologically advanced and most splendid installations of its time. The castle got its name from the counts of Katzenelnbogen, who said it was “small like a mouse” and could be eaten by their larger Katz Castle which was just up the river. |
|
Rheinfels Castle and FortressThis castle, which sits 370 feet above the Rhine on a cliff, was once five times the size it is today. Like most castles on this river, French invaders destroyed it and it sat vacant for many years until it was eventually bought and converted into a hotel. |
|
Katz Castle (Nue-Katzenelnbogen)Known locally as Katz Castle, this fortress’ real name is Nue-Katzenelnbogen and was owned by the same family as Maus Castle. It was completely destroyed by Napoleon and his army in 1806. Ninety years passed before its reconstruction, and in 1989 a Japanese businessman purchased it and expanded the property, turning it into a luxury hotel. |
|
The town of OberweselOkay, so this isn't exactly a castle, but the town of Oberwesel, located on the Rhine at the 550 km marker, used to be surrounded by a curtain wall and you can still see the remnants of one of the wall’s guard towers in the picture. But these towers also served a second purpose as flags were flow from it to alert captains of ships sailing the river about traffic coming the other way. |
|
Schonburg CastleIn its day Schonburg Castle was one of the few in this region which got passed down to all its duke’s sons rather than just one. To accommodate so many generations of heirs, the castle could house up to 250 people from 24 different families. Locals call this place the “Red Castle” because of the red wall on the great hall which is visible on the left side of the picture. The place was plundered by the French in 1689 and left in ruins for about 200 years. It has recently been turned into a luxury hotel. |
 |
Gutenfels CastleThis medieval castle was renamed Gutenfels (solid rock) after Wilhelm of Hesse tried unsuccessfully to besiege it in 1504. It’s also one of the only castles on the Rhine that features its own vineyard which has been producing wine for 600 years. Today, this castle, like many others, has been converted into a hotel. |
|
Pfalzgrafenstein CastleThis picturesque little castle sits on a rocky island in the Rhine and was one of my favorites. It is unique because unlike most other castles in the world, it was constructed for purely economic reasons and was used as customs house. It has been recently renovated. |
|
Stahleck CastleStahleck Castle, whose name means “impregnable castle on a crag,” was built in the 11th century. However no one told the French that because they managed to blow the castle to ruins in 1689. Among the more notable features of this hillside fortress is the water-filled moat, something the other Rhine Castles don’t have. Today it is a youth hostel for the town of Bacharch. |
|
Furstenberg CastleFurstenberg Castle was built in 1219 by the Archbishop of Cologne to protect his estate around Bacharach. It was destroyed by the French in 1689 and never rebuilt. |
|
Nollig CastleNollig Castle was built around 1300 by the Archbishop of Mainz to control the Rhine and Wisper valley trade routes. Though it looks like a ruin, it’s been refurbished into a private residence, thus proving a man’s home can be his castle. |
|
Heimburg CastleLike many other castles on the Rhine, Heimburg Castle served as the collection house for river taxes in the 13th and 14th centuries. But like the nearby castles of Reichenstein and Sooneck, Heimburg also became a retreat for robber barons until Rudolf of Habsburg put an end to the wheeling and dealing. The castle was destroyed by the French in 1689 and restored in the late 19th century. It, too, is one of the few castles still in private hands. |
|
Sooneck CastleBuilt by the “robber knights” von Bolanden and von Hohenfels in the mid 1200s, these two lords made their fortune by stealing from travelers and charging excessive tolls. They also randomly raped locals and pillaged nearby towns. |
|
Reichenstein CastleBuilt beginning in the 11th century to protect a nearby abbey, Reichenstein Castle was also destroyed by the French in the 1600s and recently converted to a hotel. |
 |
Rheinstein CastleThis is one of the oldest castles on the Rhine River and it is believed to have been started in the 9th century. It looks like it’s carved out of the stone of the cliff. It never served as a customs house and was actually built as an imperial palace. The castle has gone by many names but earned the name Rhinestone Castle because of its beautiful Romanesque architecture, ivy-covered walls and classic drawbridge. |
|
Ehrenfels CastleEhrenfels Castle gets its name from the Ehrenfelser white grape that grows along the hillside where it stands. It was built in the 12th century and destroyed by the French and never rebuilt. |
|
MauseturmSometimes called “Mouse Tower,” this 10th-century watchtower is set on a small rocky island and was built as a customs house and guard post for Ehrenfels Castle, which you can see in the background. The name comes from the word “Maut” which means “toll.” However a local legend tells a story of a cruel Archbishop who ruled here and was attacked by a legion of mice after indulging himself while ignoring the pleas for help from his starving people. |
 |
Klopp CastleBuilt on the site of an old Roman watch tower, Klopp was home to the Archbishop of Mainz in the 10th century. It was blown up by the French in 1713 and the great hall was rebuilt from 1875-79. It is now owned by the town and is the last castle we saw that day. |
|
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Tips on buying an e-reader
I was recently asked by a friend looking to buy an e-reader which one was the best.Not having had the opportunity to review all of the devices currently on the market designed to let you read books published in electronic format, it was hard for me to give her a definitive answer. However, I was able to offer her some guidelines to help her choose the best model for her.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
The first thing I recommend BEFORE anyone goes out and buys one of these devices is to figure out what exactly you want to do with your e-reader.You might think the answer is rather obvious – read.
But it’s not.
Many of these devices are capable of playing music or audiobooks, sending e-mail, basic web browsing and some can even store and display your photos as well as play movies. So if all you really want to do is read a book, then buying a reader with a color screen and stereo speakers would be overkill. Likewise if you want to subscribe and read your favorite magazine on your new e-reader, you probably will need a device with a color screen.
Another thing to consider is how you will get your books. Many of these devices come in two “flavors” WiFi-only and WiFi/3G or 4G. Both these options let you download books to your device over the air. But with the WiFi-only versions, you must be connected to someone’s computer network, whether that be your own home network, a network at a hotel, airport or even the one at your favorite coffee shop. Three and 4G models can download books anywhere you can get a cell phone signal, so if you get a hankering to download the latest best-seller in the middle of a bus or train ride, you can.
LEARN THE ABCs OF E-READER FORMATS
Now that you know exactly how you want to use your new e-reader, the next thing to do is check out the selection of books for sale at the two major online book sellers: Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. These days, most publishers release their books in both formats, but it doesn’t hurt to check. You don’t want to buy a device for Amazon.com e-books only to find out that your favorite author is only available in Nook format. Unfortunately, e-readers don’t support both formats, so Amazon Kindle e-readers can NOT download books from Barnes & Noble and Barnes & Noble Nook devices can NOT download books from Amazon.com. Other e-readers, such as the ones made by Sony, BeBook and Kobo also support only one format or the other, so once you’ve made your decision which format to go with, you are stuck with it for the life of your e-reader.In addition to Amazon.com and Nook formats, many e-readers also support other types of e-books, such as those published in .PDF (Adobe Acrobat), .TXT (plain text file), .DOC (Microsoft Word), .HTML (Web Page), .MOBI, .PRC and BBeB Book formats.
What does all this alphabet soup mean?
More places to get reading material from. There are many sites out on the Internet that offer free or low cost e-books in these formats. But their selections are limited and you will probably buy most of your e-books from either Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, so it is important you choose which format you want to go with carefully.
SET YOUR BUDGET AND BEGIN SHOPPING
With these things decided, you can now narrow your search down to the e-readers that do only the things you want them to do and support the book formats you’ve chosen. This will also give you an idea of the price range you are looking at and let you know if the device you want is within your budget.Now start shopping.
I always prefer to go out to a brick and mortar store so I can play around with the devices myself instead of relying only on what others have said about them, and I recommend you do this also. Things like screen size and clarity, weight of the device and the feel of the controls are subjective things. A small screen that looks good to me may not look as good to you as a larger screen on another model.
Don’t just look at the screen. Test the controls. Do you prefer buttons to turn pages or like to use the swiping motions you use on touchscreens like your smart phone? If you are choosing a model that has web or e-mail capability, do you want a built-in keyboard, or can you type on a touchscreen keyboard? If a built in keyboard, test it. How does it feel? Is it easy to use?
All these things are subjective and just because some tech guru or any other reviewer likes something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s perfect for you. After all, if the screen size is too small or controls are difficult for YOU to use, you are not going to wind up using your new e-reader for long.
Once you’ve decided on the make and model you like best, then you can go online and check to see who has the best prices. And while you are online, make sure you search for coupon codes for your preferred device or store. This can often save you a few bucks or at least get you free shipping if you are buying online.
OTHER OPTIONS
If you do not want to be locked into either the Kindle or Nook formats, then another, albeit more expensive option, is to go with a full-fledged tablet computer like the iPad or an Android tablet such as the Samsung Galaxy. Both of these devices offer free apps that let you download and read books from either store. If you already have a smartphone, you can skip the expense of buying a tablet or e-reader altogether and just download the Kindle or Nook apps to your phone.Yes your cell phone screen may be small, but if you don’t read a lot of e-books yet or are still unsure which format to go with, you can try them out for free before you lay down your hard-earned cash for one of these devices.
If, after all this, you are still unsure of which e-reader to get, here are some more resources for you:
http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-ebook-readers/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20009738-1/kindle-vs-nook-vs-ipad-which-e-book-reader-should-you-buy/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2400310,00.asp
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/e-book-readers.htm
Good luck with your search and let us know which e-reader you have and what you like about it.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Confessions of a Tech addict
 |
| Photo by: Bill Fraser
I've been a tech junky for most of my adult life. It's time I came clean about my addiction...
|
Hello.
 |
| THE ATARI 2600: It all started with a case of "Asteroids" |
My name is Jeff.
And I am a tech addict.
It all started innocently enough.
Back when I was about 13.
One of my friends got an Atari 2600 and I used to go to his house and my friends and I would spend our entire afternoon there playing “Pong” or “Asteroids.”
But it was okay, because it was his Atari and it was at his house.
 |
| TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TI99: Oh the hours we spent writing our own programs and playing "Wizardry." |
But again, that was OK, because the TI99 didn’t belong to me either.
Then in the summer of my senior year in high school things began to get really serious. Intellivision arrived on the gaming scene and my friends and I would stay out until the wee hours of the morning running from and gunning down invisible black robots in “Night Stalker” or trying to destroy Recognizers in “Tron Deadly Discs.”
My parents were worried that I wasn’t coming home until nearly sunrise, but I assured them everything was fine. We were just playing video games I told them. I could stop anytime. After all, it’s not like I played them all the time at home. We didn’t have any.
 |
| IBM-PC: More than just my first word processor. |
Once out of college the trend only accelerated. I quickly replaced the IBM-PC with an i386DX based machine. It had a blazingly fast 33 mhz processor and while I had it I remember tricking it out with a math co-processor and various add-in cards. When I had run out of things to upgrade, I remember calling my friend Tim over and together we performed “brain surgery” on it replacing the motherboard and processor, upgrading the machine to an i486-class computer. Next came a Pentium I machine I bought from Dell and after that came a Pentium 4 class computer with a 2.4 ghz processor and 512 mb of RAM. I still have that computer and although I’ve swapped out the hard drive on it a number of times it still serves me as my “writing” PC. Somewhere in here came my first laptop then a series of laptops for my wife and finally my latest computer, a quad-core machine with 4 gb of RAM I built about four years ago.
I now have something like two desktop PCs and at least four laptops (several of which I Frankensteined together from a series of broken laptops work was getting rid of) all of which I can’t seem to get rid of because they are still somehow useful to me.
And all that is on top of my latest can’t-live-without gadget, my work-provided smartphone.
I used to sneer at people who flocked to the stores to buy them when they first came out. “I don’t need one,” I used to tell people. “I’m not that self-important that I think people need to reach me 24/7. Besides there are some times and places I don’t want to be reached.”
 |
| MOTOROLA STARTAC: Resistance was futile |
“I won’t become addicted to this like I am to computers,” I told myself, and for I while I wasn’t. I carried the phone solely for business purposes (after all they were paying half the bill) and didn’t really use it that much. Then came the PDA revolution. Again, I told myself I wouldn’t get hooked on that gadget, and I was right. Our advertising director though she broke her Palm VII and I managed to fix it, but she’d already replaced it with a better model. So I used her old one for a few months until the novelty wore off. Keeping it synced with my corporate Outlook account was a pain, as was having to look up a person’s phone number on one device and calling them using another.
Then I got my first company issued smartphone and I was hooked.
My all important To Do lists and appointments automatically sync with my Outlook account and I can lookup someone’s contact info and either call, e-mail or text them all from one device. Plus I even have the entire world’s collective knowledge at my fingertips. I no longer have to remember all the assorted facts and figures I need for job, nor the arcane trivia that made me a font of useless geeky information.
Can’t remember the name of the actor who used to be in “Stargate: Universe” and is now in ABC’s “Once Upon a Time?”
No problem.
Just whip out the smart phone and a few seconds later, I have the answer: Robert Carlyle.
Things have gotten so bad with my tech addiction that I now find I can’t just watch TV without either idly surfing the web on one of my many aforementioned laptops or playing Solitaire on my cellphone. In fact last year, when we went on vacation to Europe and I was forced to leave all my tech gear at home (my cell phone doesn’t work overseas and I didn’t have a power converter that I felt comfortable wouldn’t fry my laptop) I literally got the shakes halfway to the airport. Thank the Lord my wife’s old dumb phone did work overseas and she was kind enough to let me hold onto it during the trip.
We’re due to travel back to Europe again this year, but rather than accept my problem, and try to overcome my addiction, I went out and bought a step-down power converter that will keep my laptop, iPod and other tech gear humming along on the higher European voltage.
My wife jokingly told me that I should enroll in a 12-step program to help me break my tech addiction. That’s why I’m writing this. Admitting you have a problem is the first step. The next one is believing that there is “a power greater than ourselves that can restore us to sanity.”
So now I’m turning to the highest powers I know, the three mighty Steves (Jobs, Wozniak and Ballmer) and Bill Gates, hoping they can come up with a cure for my tech addiction.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Novel ideas for Hollywood
In a previous post, I lambasted Hollywood’s current lack of creativity for giving us a summer movie season full of retreads instead of developing brand new, original genre films.
What I found most upsetting about this is growing trend of remakes, reboots and sequels is that the major movie studios are overlooking hundreds of great stories that have never seen the light of a movie projector just to feed us stuff we’ve seen two or three times before.
It’s not like Hollywood has to work all that hard to find these new stories either. There are literally libraries full of great science fiction and fantasy books, graphic novels and comics that are just begging to be made into films. No, none of these books have the built-in army of rabid fans of say the “Harry Potter,” “The Hunger Games” or “Twilight” series, but many of the authors of these stories have a small but loyal following among Hollywood’s favorite target audience: geeks like me who become so obsessed over their interests that they will go see a film over and over again.
Now I’m no expert in the field of sci-fi/fantasy literature. Nor – much to my shame – am I all that well read in the field. My library of genre books would only amount to a fraction of a grain of sand in the Sahara Desert. That’s why I turned to the experts – my friends, who have read far more than I and whose knowledge spans the entire genre from Alien Invasion and Alternate Histories to Virtual Reality and Zombies. I think of them as my personal “Geek Squad” and would not only trust them to help me with my computer programming, network setup and audio-video equipment needs, but also help me select great reading material as well.
Their suggestions were as diverse as their interests, so it was no surprise that we couldn’t come to a consensus on a list of books for a “Top 10”-style list. However in our discussions and e-mail exchanges there were a few books or series of books that seemed to come up repeatedly.
“I really enjoyed the Zelazany’s Chronicles of Amber books way back when,” my friend Cindy wrote to me in one e-mail. “I haven't read them in a very long time so I am not sure if they were that good or I just remember them fondly.”
Her husband Tim, my computer networking expert, also remembers them fondly and ranks the series as his second favorite books of all time. “{There’s} lots of material here for a great TV series, or a series of movies.”
After talking with them and finding out a bit more about the Chronicles of Amber, I agree. But with the huge amount of material here, including a second series of books (“Courts of Chaos,” “Trumps of Doom,” “Blood of Amber,” “Sign of Chaos,” “Knight of Shadows” and “Prince of Chaos”), written in the mid- to late- ’80s and ’90s, I think the only way to do this epic 10 volume set any justice would be to turn it into a cable TV miniseries the way HBO has done with George R.R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones.”
Another fantasy series that got a couple of votes was the Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony. I’ve read other works by him and while I would have picked his Incarnations of Immortality series, my friends on the “Geek Squad” liked this seven novel set better.“Aprentice Adept very neatly crosses the boundaries between hard core science fiction and fantasy,” says my friend Frank, who knows a thing or two about hard science as a computer programmer working in the biotech industry. “It is the story of two worlds, Phaze and Proton, which occupy the same space in two different dimensions. But Proton is a planet of science and Phaze is a planet of magic. The storyline follows the adventures of Stile, initially an inhabitant of Proton who manages to cross the interdimensional gap and enter Phaze. The thing that sets Phaze apart from other Fantasy series is that it is run by a number of Adepts, each of a different color. And each Adept has a different way of invoking their magic. The Yellow Adept deals in potions. The White Adept uses runes. While the Blue Adept must play music to summon his/her power. It is a very inventive/creative storyline which spans seven books (“Split Infinity,” “Blue Adept,” “Juxtaposition, ” “Out of Phaze,” “Robot Adept,” “Unicorn Point,” and “Phaze Doubt”) as Stile continues to cross between the worlds and learn the ways of magic, eventually become one of the adepts himself.”
The Incarnations of Immortality series, on the other hand, deals with eight normal humans who are forced to become the incarnations of death (“On a Pale Horse”), time, (“Bearing an Hourglass” ) fate (“With a Tangled Skein”), war (“Wielding a Red Sword”), nature (“Being a Green Mother”), evil (“For Love of Evil”) and good (“And Eternity”). I read these books in high school and college and found them to be the perfect mix of action, intrigue and thought-provoking allegory. I also recall Innovation Comics doing a fairly good graphic novel based on the first book of the series, “On a Pale Horse,” and think that that could be used as the “storyboard” for any potential future film.
Moving over to the science fiction side of things, my friends Joe – my resident AV expert – and Andy – a “human resources” pro by trade and fellow sci-fi/fantasy obsessive – both recommended the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.“She is a basically a female Horatio Hornblower in space, with spaceships with sails and missile broadsides,” Joe told me. After listening to both his and Andy’s explanation of the series, it sounded to me like this series could become the type of special effects extravaganza Michael Bay is known for. But unlike the director’s previous genre action films, “Transformers,” “Armageddon” “The Island,” films based on these books would actually have decent plots.
While on the subject of space operas, I’d add a little-known series that a former girlfriend got me hooked on in college. “Skirmish," "First Battle," "Last War," "Pirate Prince," and "Floater Factor," all written by Melisa Michaels, concern a hotshot, daredevil freighter pilot nicknamed Skyrider, who is forced to take sides as another civil war threatens to tear apart Earth’s solar system. Although the Skyrider character never strayed much from the Han Solo/smuggler-with-a-heart-of-gold stereotype, the books were fast-paced and fun to read with lots of action and space battles. In other words it was a perfect summer, popcorn movie.
Speaking books that would make of fun sci-fi action flicks, my geek squad also recommended The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison. This one would need a young, charismatic actor to play anti-hero James Bolivar diGriz, a futuristic con man, thief and all-round rascal. Back in the day, I would have picked someone like Bruce Willis for the part, but I’m sure there is some hot, up-and-coming star who could pull off the same type of snark as Willis did in the early “Die Hard” films.One of the last books we all agreed on was first suggested by my friend Don, a fellow writer and journalist now living out west – The Foundation series by the grand master of all science fiction authors, Isaac Asimov.
“I think it would make a great series because of the sweeping scope of the story, and one man's attempt to steer civilization away from a disastrous dark ages,” he said. “You also have The Mule trying to overthrow it, and the group of telepaths who are ensuring that Hari Seldon's work stays on course. It could actually be a mini-series.”
“Foundation is epic space fiction,” agrees Frank. “There are a lot of concepts in these books that affected many other sci fi series as well as movies. The empire in Star Wars has a lot of similarities to the empire in Foundation. All in all, this series is a core part of sci-fi history that has influenced many writers and fans alike.”
Unfortunately of all the books and great stories we came up with, this was the one series we all agreed was the LEAST likely to be made, as in my friend Tim’s words, “it’s too cerebral for today’s audiences.”
That’s a real shame too, because the Asimov’s tale about one man’s struggle gather the greatest minds in the galaxy to preserve mankind’s knowledge in the wake of a new dark age contains important messages about our society that we all need to think about. And when we can no longer appreciate such thought-provoking tales told on such an epic scale, then we deserve schlocky movies about giant killer robots and old board games.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Microsoft looks to upset the Apple cart
Them thar are fighting words, Steve.
"We are trying to make absolutely clear we are not going to leave any space uncovered to Apple," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told website, CRN, reigniting the ages-old Microsoft-Apple war. “Not the consumer cloud. Not hardware software innovation. We are not leaving any of that to Apple by itself. Not going to happen. Not on our watch.”
 |
| STEVE BALLMER: Microsoft's head honcho |
The first strike in this new offensive came a few weeks ago when Microsoft announced its plans for a pair of tablet computers dubbed "Surface,” which it hopes will knock Apple’s iPad off its throne as the must-have gadget of the past few years.
"We do feel empowered to innovate everywhere and bring our partners with us," Ballmer said. "We are just not going to leave any -- what’s the expression people like to use -- We’re not going to leave any stone unturned, so to speak, as we pursue that."
It remains to be seen if this new philosophy out of Redmond, Wa. can turn the venerable tech giant around. In the past, Microsoft’s philosophy was "last to cool, first to profit” letting others do the innovating, then swooping in with its own version and using its brand recognition to corner the market. Sometimes this philosophy worked, as with the Xbox, which usurped by Sony’s PlayStation as the hottest gaming console around, and then with Kinect, which improved on Wii’s innovative wireless controller.
And sometimes it did not.
Does anyone really remember Microsoft’s iPod-killer, The Zune?
I didn’t think so.
Whether Microsoft’s Surface tablet becomes another Zune or displaces the iPad is anyone’s guess. But at least this time Microsoft does not seem to just be copying a device made by someone else. It is actually improving upon it. According to the company’s website, the device will come with its own built in stand and a foldout keyboard that doubles as a protective cover for its touch screen. (If you want these things on an iPad, you will have to buy them from third parties).
 |
| FINALLY SURFACING: Mircosoft's new tablet PC. Will it be an iPad killer or go the way of the Zune? |
The Surface will come in two “flavors,” an ARM-powered RT processor unit with a stripped down version of Windows 8 on it and a more powerful Intell-powered processor unit equipped with Windows 8 Professional. Weighing between 676 and 903 grams and measuring between 9.3 and 13.5 mm thick, the Surface seems to be a hybrid of an iPad and the ultra-light MacBook Air and is aimed directly at the corporate market.
"Coming from a Microsoft-based environment, it will certainly have to be considered as a potential laptop replacement for the likes of sales representatives in the field," said Andrew Paton, group manager of IT services at Rondo Building Services in a recent ZDNet/TechRepublic poll of chief information officers about whether Surface will rival iPad in the business world.
"Technically, from what I've read, it does plug a gap in the corporate space," added Steve Lee, CIO and senior vice president of technology for the Asia-based Changi Airport Group.
But not all chief information officers interviewed by ZDNet/TechRepublic were so sure of the Surface’s success.
"I am not sure [Microsoft] can make up the lost ground to iOS or Android devices,” said Peter Smith, group manager of information systems at Quick Service Restaurant Holdings, an Australian company. “It is not really apparent whether Microsoft is trying to position the product as a tablet or an ultra-light laptop. Reviews on the intuitiveness of the interface are not particularly positive, so it sounds like Microsoft still has some work to do."
After using Windows 8 on a desktop computer, I’m inclined to agree with him. The interface is clunky and after years of being used to where Microsoft put things, I suddenly felt lost trying to accomplish even the most basic tasks. But on a tablet, my experience may be completely different.
Who knows, I might even like it.
I certainly hope this shift in Microsoft’s thinking bears fruit and renews interest in things like its original Surface product, the touch-screen interactive table, now called PixelSense. I remember how excited I was when I first heard about it a few years ago.
My friends and I saw all sorts of possibilities for it, including it being one really kick-ass gaming table for our Dungeons and Dragons gaming sessions. No more having to draw maps or use figurines on home-made grid boards. Just touch and swipe! Someone even developed a really cool astronomy app for it, NUIverse. The video for it has since been removed from Youtube, but you can read about it here and see some screenshots of it here.
Off the top of my head, I can think of at least two groups of users who would benefit from such an advance: engineers and artists doing Computer Aided Design work and the billions of people who use their computer to play games such as Halo and Half-Life and Call of Duty. Just think how much cooler it would be to play those first-person-shooters if you could reach inside the game and grab and manipulate the weapons. It would literally add a whole new dimension to the game.
After that all Microsoft would have to do is add is tactical feedback, and they’d have something very close to the Holodeck from “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
And that, my friends, would be the ultimate killer, must-have gadget, one that I don’t think even Apple would be able to top.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Still Tugging at our heartstrings
 |
| FOR THE LOVE OF DOG: Tug asleep on his bed. He shared our home and lives from June 28, 2002 to Oct. 20, 2011.
He would have turned 14 years old today.
|
He passed away this past October at the ripe old age – for a Labrador retriever – of 13 ¼ years old. It’s been eight months now and I still find myself missing him. The pain is no longer as acute as it was during the fall and winter and the house doesn’t feel quite as empty as it did in the immediate aftermath of his death. In fact there are some days now that go by without me missing him at all.
In a way, it’s been nice to be dog-free and not have to worry about someone having to run home to let him out or feed him and I know my wife appreciates not being woken up well before her alarm goes off by the wet nose or bark of a hungry dog trying to mooch an early breakfast out of her. (Tug learned early that I wasn’t a morning person and that trying to wake me was nigh impossible.)
 |  |
| FIRST AND LAST PHOTOS At left is the first picture we ever saw of Tug. It was his "pet of the week" photo in my newspaper's pet adoption column. At right is the final picture of him taken on Oct. 20, 2011, the morning of the day we had him put to sleep. | |
Always lots of food.
In his last six-to-eight months of life, when even getting up off the floor seemed almost as difficult as climbing the stairs he used to bound up in a leap or two, his only goal in life seemed to be to make us happy. I am convinced now that he solidered on as long as he did because he thought he somehow owed us for rescuing him from the dog pound after the people who had no idea how to care for one dog, let alone two, and couldn’t see how wonderful and smart he was turned him over to the Bucks County SPCA because he was “too difficult.” In the end it was my wife and I who owed him for making us better people. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like over the past decade without my “pal” by my side.
Psychologists have expounded plenty about the nature of the bond between dogs and humans and why we miss them so much when they are gone.
“It appears that dogs have evolved specialized skills for reading human social and communicative behavior,” says Brian Hare, a Harvard shrink explaining the current thinking. He adds that they use this ability to figure out our moods knowing that if they do something that makes us happy they’ll be rewarded with food or attention. We see this behavior as signs our dogs love us while psychologists, like John Archer, from the University of Central Lancashire, sees it as dogs “manipulating human responses,” and becoming “the equivalent of social parasites.”
I think that’s a bit harsh.
Because if Mr. Archer ever had a dog like Tug, he would know dog’s aren’t “social parasites.”
Dogs are social creatures and crave companionship, much the way we do. Yes they learn how to manipulate their people, but then again, so do human children. And after seeing the way some children act these days, I’ve been glad I was just a dog-dad.
 |
| CLEAN AND HAPPY: Tug sporting a new tie he got after his last bath. |
I also realized that he didn’t have the higher reasoning powers of humans but I firmly believe that dogs understand the concept of love and loyalty. I mean how else do you explain the dog who wouldn’t leave the casket of his fallen Navy SEAL master or the black Lab who refused to leave the side of a canine friend who had been struck and killed by a passing car.
Psychologists would probably just attribute that to “pack instinct,” a vestige of a behavior left over from their wolf ancestors. Call me sentimental, but I think it is more than that just a “trick of evolution.” After all, when you come right down to it, a pack isn’t much different from a family. The same group dynamics apply.
I think that perhaps dogs were made man’s best friend as some sort of divine plan; a way of teaching us to be better people. How to be unselfish, how to be a good friend, a good listener and good confidant. Over the past nine and a quarter years that he graced our home, Tug taught us all those things and more. He taught us that no matter how bad your past was, it is now that really matters. He didn’t let his awful first few years stop from enjoying the time he spent with us. He was simply content to live in the moment taking pleasure in everyday things that we’d probably overlook. I used say his philosophy was “Every so often you need to stop and pee on the roses.”
I am sure that sometime in the future my wife and I will adopt another dog who needs a good home and fall in love with him. We’ll probably learn new things about ourselves from that dog too. But until that day comes, I will continue to remember all Tug’s loveable antics and take to heart the lessons he taught us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)