The Pleasures of Rereading | Newsweek Books | Newsweek.com: "Most of the 'joys of rereading' pieces you come across tuck in an obligatory apology for indulging in the 'childish' pleasure—this is a bad thing?—of 'obsessive' repetition. You often hear a distinction made between strictly literary rereading, the kind of close study scholars and writers undertake, and the 'comfort' reading relegated to the beach, the bathroom, and the bedroom."
I'll tell you now, that I like rereading. Many people will listen to their music over and over again, and movies will be re-watched time and again.
Some people need the new, and can't stand to go back to something they've done before, fine, enjoy it. That is not me.
We read very quickly and you know what there are not a lot of works out there that are engaging for us. We like going back to the Lord of the Rings, The Belgariad, Harry Potter and the like because they are actually long enough to be satisfying. Short one-off stories are fine but they are like an appetizer good enough for starters but not a meal on its own.
For some people the problem may be their reading speed, The Harry Potter audiobooks run around 24 hours long. Most people can read about twice as fast as a person can talk so that still takes up a huge amount of time for them.
You go back to a restaurant that you like, re-reading is much the same.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Seth's Blog: Direct and useful project feedback
Seth's Blog: Direct and useful project feedback: "In my experience, there are three different ways to structure the project. Each leads to a very different feedback loop.
1. The goal of the team is to please you.
2. The goal of the team is to make a product that they love and are proud of building.
3. The goal of the team is to build a great product."
Actually I think Pixar is in #3. Their films are so often filled to the brim with amazing detail that you are sure that the whole team is adding and tweaking and doing their darndest to make the best film possible.
1. The goal of the team is to please you.
2. The goal of the team is to make a product that they love and are proud of building.
3. The goal of the team is to build a great product."
Actually I think Pixar is in #3. Their films are so often filled to the brim with amazing detail that you are sure that the whole team is adding and tweaking and doing their darndest to make the best film possible.
Monday, June 08, 2009
The Long Tail - Wired Blogs
The Long Tail - Wired Blogs: "The pricing of Nyhedsavisen was simple: it was free. And, as something entirely new: it was going to be delivered to the homes of all Danes – at no cost. Not only the newspaper itself was free, delivery was free as well. It was in effect “double-free”."
This looks sane on the surface, it is essentially the exact same business model as the yellow pages. But newspapers have been dying for some time not just the last year so why this was considered a good idea, I don't know. People still read a lot for news but mostly it is online now and it is so much faster it is practically real-time. They lost so much money it would have been cheaper to give away one of the early ebook readers and sell ad space on that.
Practically killing an industry because you are too proud to see you are wrong is stupid beyond reason.
This looks sane on the surface, it is essentially the exact same business model as the yellow pages. But newspapers have been dying for some time not just the last year so why this was considered a good idea, I don't know. People still read a lot for news but mostly it is online now and it is so much faster it is practically real-time. They lost so much money it would have been cheaper to give away one of the early ebook readers and sell ad space on that.
Practically killing an industry because you are too proud to see you are wrong is stupid beyond reason.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Feng Shui On Steroids: Design Your Space to Achieve Your Goals | Zen Habits
Feng Shui On Steroids: Design Your Space to Achieve Your Goals | Zen Habits: "Our inner world — emotional, mental space — helps determine our outer world, right? But the space we spend the majority of our time in also plays a huge role in our lives. It can influence our actions, our mood, and it can determine whether we remain stuck or achieve our dreams."
I just redid my desk, since it is just a corner of the bedroom I am not going to call it an office and I worked at making it more ergonomic. And that part works great. There are some holes in the design. The bookshelf is a little too far way but then I wouldn't be able to move the screen as much. There are always tradeoffs.
I think I am going to change the desktop theme to help too.
I just redid my desk, since it is just a corner of the bedroom I am not going to call it an office and I worked at making it more ergonomic. And that part works great. There are some holes in the design. The bookshelf is a little too far way but then I wouldn't be able to move the screen as much. There are always tradeoffs.
I think I am going to change the desktop theme to help too.
Friday, June 05, 2009
The Simple Dollar Building Your Career, One Brick at a Time
The Simple Dollar Building Your Career, One Brick at a Time: "A career is like a brick wall. If it’s built well, from a collection of bricks that fit well together and are thoughtfully put in place, it can be a very strong foundation for whatever dreams you may want to reach for. A great collection of bricks, well assembled, will build a platform for you that allows you to stand tall in your profession."
It isn't enough to build up a pile of bricks they need to be set together in proper order.
I am expanding my wall with a more classical education. I am big on American history now to make up for my public schooling. I am also learning iPhone programming. I learned quite a bit about programming in school and did a lot of embedded programming at work but iPhone programming is a lot different and more fun.
It isn't enough to build up a pile of bricks they need to be set together in proper order.
I am expanding my wall with a more classical education. I am big on American history now to make up for my public schooling. I am also learning iPhone programming. I learned quite a bit about programming in school and did a lot of embedded programming at work but iPhone programming is a lot different and more fun.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Fantasy master David Eddings dies aged 77 |
Fantasy master David Eddings dies aged 77: "Eddings was always delighted, he said, to hear that he'd turned non-readers into readers. 'I look upon this as perhaps my purpose in life,' he said in 1997. 'I am here to teach a generation or two how to read. After they've finished with me and I don't challenge them any more, they can move on to somebody important like Homer or Milton.'"
Oh no, another great author has died. I really enjoyed the Belgariad and the Mellorean they were the great for heavy readers wanting something on the light side. My wife and I can read very quickly ~2000 wpm on good days and it there are not a whole lot of books or series out there that can match that.
We'd be closing the back cover and be revved up for something longer. A 5 book series was long enough to really develop the characters and background to the point it would really come alive.
Oh no, another great author has died. I really enjoyed the Belgariad and the Mellorean they were the great for heavy readers wanting something on the light side. My wife and I can read very quickly ~2000 wpm on good days and it there are not a whole lot of books or series out there that can match that.
We'd be closing the back cover and be revved up for something longer. A 5 book series was long enough to really develop the characters and background to the point it would really come alive.
Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia: Million Dollar Ideas...
Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia: Million Dollar Ideas...: "Million dollar ideas are a dime a dozen. For immediate results, focus on ideas that can be developed on a shoestring or a credit card. Ideas you can finance yourself and test on a small scale are more likely to bring you income and job satisfaction"
Hmm.
Hmm.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Wal-Mart's Weight Effect - Forbes.com
Wal-Mart's Weight Effect - Forbes.com: "Our data suggest that we buy healthier food when our purchasing power increases. There is a small increase in consumption of fruit and vegetables in places where Wal-Mart does a lot of business and a decrease--or smaller increase--in fatty food consumption relative to places where Wal-Mart doesn't do business. That is, people might consume more fatty foods, but consumption of those unhealthy goods increases more slowly than it does for the rest of the population."
This goes against prevailing "wisdom" and this is why doing science the right way is so important. Sure, there are lots of studies that confirm the obvious, and we laugh at the scientists. But when the counter-intuitive happens then you have something really important.
This goes against prevailing "wisdom" and this is why doing science the right way is so important. Sure, there are lots of studies that confirm the obvious, and we laugh at the scientists. But when the counter-intuitive happens then you have something really important.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Coding Horror: I Stopped Reading Your Blog Years Ago
Coding Horror: I Stopped Reading Your Blog Years Ago: "there was a strange punishment the parents doled out to their children when they seriously misbehaved. For a period of a week, or longer -- depending on the severity of the misbehavior -- nobody in the family would talk to, acknowledge, or address in any way, that particular boy. It was called 'The Silent Treatment'. This didn't seem like much of a punishment to me. In fact, as an introverted kid who loved solitary activities like computers and reading more than anything, it seemed kind of like a .. reward"
And that is the biggest difference between an extrovert and an introvert. For extroverts that more they are around people the more energized they get. They live on the outside of their skin flitting from topic to topic and group to group fast and easily.
An introvert on the other hand does need social interaction but on a completely different level. They need to go deep on something. I would much rather spend an afternoon talking, discussing, and arguing some major idea. Small talk will drive an introvert insane fairly quickly. We live inside our heads slightly to one side and we like it.
We are more like Spock while extroverts are more like McCoy.
And that is the biggest difference between an extrovert and an introvert. For extroverts that more they are around people the more energized they get. They live on the outside of their skin flitting from topic to topic and group to group fast and easily.
An introvert on the other hand does need social interaction but on a completely different level. They need to go deep on something. I would much rather spend an afternoon talking, discussing, and arguing some major idea. Small talk will drive an introvert insane fairly quickly. We live inside our heads slightly to one side and we like it.
We are more like Spock while extroverts are more like McCoy.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Case for Working With Your Hands - NYTimes.com
The Case for Working With Your Hands - NYTimes.com: "One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement."
This is the thing. It is really rather hard to put much effort into something you know has little to no value. This also is obvious to pretty much everyone, but for some reason things don't change. There is something the matter here and so everything is distorted. I wonder what is causing it?
This is the thing. It is really rather hard to put much effort into something you know has little to no value. This also is obvious to pretty much everyone, but for some reason things don't change. There is something the matter here and so everything is distorted. I wonder what is causing it?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Amazon fails Marketing 101
Amazon losing money on $9.99 e-books | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home: "Amazon has to pay the same wholesale price to the publishers for e-books as for print editions of those books—more or less half of the print edition price. (So do other e-book vendors; this is why even Fictionwise must charge excessive rates for books from publishers such as Random House, though they do they best they can to bring the prices down with discounts.)"
Wait the idea is to give away the razor and sell them the blades, not the other way around. I think someone just failed their Marketing 101 class. Not that they should give away Kindles but they could drop the price way down. The loss-leader is supposed to be the hardware not the content. I still think that idea of the newspapers offering a free Kindle with a year's subscription would at least forestall the end of the newspaper. I saw that the New York Times is working on a ereader of their own but they don't have a lot of time left, just use the Kindle to stop the bleeding.
Amazon also just announced that they are going to be publishing books on their own under AmazonEncore. Actually what they should do is offer an Apple App Store split with authors who sign up for that for the Kindle version, a dead-tree version would be different of course. They would be flooded with authors and books and that is fine Sturgeon's Law holds in any case, most of it will be junk but so is what we have now. But Amazon makes it a lot easier to find in their store compared to the App Store so they have the advantage.
Sure the other publishers and the Author's Guild won't like it but when you realize that you can't win the game you are playing you just have to change the game that is being played.
Wait the idea is to give away the razor and sell them the blades, not the other way around. I think someone just failed their Marketing 101 class. Not that they should give away Kindles but they could drop the price way down. The loss-leader is supposed to be the hardware not the content. I still think that idea of the newspapers offering a free Kindle with a year's subscription would at least forestall the end of the newspaper. I saw that the New York Times is working on a ereader of their own but they don't have a lot of time left, just use the Kindle to stop the bleeding.
Amazon also just announced that they are going to be publishing books on their own under AmazonEncore. Actually what they should do is offer an Apple App Store split with authors who sign up for that for the Kindle version, a dead-tree version would be different of course. They would be flooded with authors and books and that is fine Sturgeon's Law holds in any case, most of it will be junk but so is what we have now. But Amazon makes it a lot easier to find in their store compared to the App Store so they have the advantage.
Sure the other publishers and the Author's Guild won't like it but when you realize that you can't win the game you are playing you just have to change the game that is being played.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
With E-Readers Comes Wider Piracy of Books - NYTimes.com
With E-Readers Comes Wider Piracy of Books - NYTimes.com: "“If iTunes started three years earlier, I’m not sure how big Napster and the subsequent piratical environments would have been, because people would have been in the habit of legitimately purchasing at pricing that wasn’t considered pernicious,” said Richard Sarnoff, a chairman of Bertelsmann, which owns Random House, the world’s largest publisher of consumer titles."
This is an interesting problem. Amazon is not really helping here. Most Kindle books are $9.99 not a bad price in general but it is higher then that of the paperback version, which is often a couple of dollars less. An ebook has a storage and delivery and duplication cost measured in fractions of a penny.
So that feels wrong to pay more for an ebook then a paper book with all the printing, transportation and storage costs.
Then there is the payment structure. Amazon gets 70% of the unit price and the publisher AND the author get to split the remaining 30%. Actually the author usually gets their typical 3% and the publisher gets 27%.
What does the publisher do with that 27%, they say they do marketing but every time I read about an up and coming author it translates into diddly-squat. As an author you have to do your own marketing or you'll sell nothing.
Now look at what Apple is doing with iPhone.apps they also do a 70/30 split but the developer gets 70% and Apple gets 30%.
Now how should I spend my time? Selling on Kindle nets me $0.30 per $9.99 book or on the iPhone where I net $0.69 for each $0.99 app I sell and it can be an ebook. An interesting problem, eh.
This is an interesting problem. Amazon is not really helping here. Most Kindle books are $9.99 not a bad price in general but it is higher then that of the paperback version, which is often a couple of dollars less. An ebook has a storage and delivery and duplication cost measured in fractions of a penny.
So that feels wrong to pay more for an ebook then a paper book with all the printing, transportation and storage costs.
Then there is the payment structure. Amazon gets 70% of the unit price and the publisher AND the author get to split the remaining 30%. Actually the author usually gets their typical 3% and the publisher gets 27%.
What does the publisher do with that 27%, they say they do marketing but every time I read about an up and coming author it translates into diddly-squat. As an author you have to do your own marketing or you'll sell nothing.
Now look at what Apple is doing with iPhone.apps they also do a 70/30 split but the developer gets 70% and Apple gets 30%.
Now how should I spend my time? Selling on Kindle nets me $0.30 per $9.99 book or on the iPhone where I net $0.69 for each $0.99 app I sell and it can be an ebook. An interesting problem, eh.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Swine flu strikes the downsized newsroom - LA Observed
Swine flu strikes the downsized newsroom - LA Observed: "Editor-in-Chief: (Staring at CNN coverage of Swine Flu outbreak) We need something good and local on this swine flu thing. Get someone at the university to explain how this god damned thing jumped from pigs to people, how are they tracking it, what the hell does it all mean? Get that guy who did that piece on the flu vaccine shortage a couple years ago, remember that sidebar he did on the 1918 flu? That was great.
City editor: Koprowski?
Editor-in-chief: Yeah, Koprowski!
City Editor: Corporate laid him off. Health care reporter. Non vital."
Ahahahahahah!
This is just apocryphal but you can be sure a conversation very much like this actually happened in a newsroom somewhere. Read the rest.
City editor: Koprowski?
Editor-in-chief: Yeah, Koprowski!
City Editor: Corporate laid him off. Health care reporter. Non vital."
Ahahahahahah!
This is just apocryphal but you can be sure a conversation very much like this actually happened in a newsroom somewhere. Read the rest.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Father delivers baby son after watching YouTube childbirth clips |
Father delivers baby son after watching YouTube childbirth clips |
Society |
guardian.co.uk: "A father managed to deliver his baby son after watching DIY baby delivery video clips on YouTube."
The awesome power of the Internet.
Society |
guardian.co.uk: "A father managed to deliver his baby son after watching DIY baby delivery video clips on YouTube."
The awesome power of the Internet.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
How cost-effective is it to make pantry staples from scratch? - By Jennifer Reese - Slate Magazine
How cost-effective is it to make pantry staples from scratch? - By Jennifer Reese - Slate Magazine: "While packaged food is mostly lousy, some of it can be spectacularly inexpensive. Out of work and increasingly obsessed with our grocery budget, I decided to test my intuition and run a cost-benefit analysis on how much I'd save—if anything—by making from scratch six everyday foods that I usually purchase from Safeway and my local bakery."
All it takes is time.
All it takes is time.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Bride Was Beautiful
The Bride Was Beautiful
Katie Kirkpatrick, 21, held off cancer to celebrate the happiest day of her life. [...] Her organs were shutting down but it would not stop her from marrying Nick Godwin, 23, who was in love with Katie since 11th grade.
via kottke
Katie Kirkpatrick, 21, held off cancer to celebrate the happiest day of her life. [...] Her organs were shutting down but it would not stop her from marrying Nick Godwin, 23, who was in love with Katie since 11th grade.
via kottke
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | 'Quiet Sun' baffling astronomers
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | 'Quiet Sun' baffling astronomers: "The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century.
There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time."
This is a problem for amateur radio as sunspots charge up the ionosphere that allows us to transmit over worldwide distances. The radio manufacturers have geared up for more hams coming in for the solar maximum but it isn't appearing.
This is also a problem for the AGWers.
There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time."
This is a problem for amateur radio as sunspots charge up the ionosphere that allows us to transmit over worldwide distances. The radio manufacturers have geared up for more hams coming in for the solar maximum but it isn't appearing.
This is also a problem for the AGWers.
Obama’s Spending vs Obama’s Spending Cuts — in Pictures � The Foundry
Obama’s Spending vs Obama’s Spending Cuts — in Pictures � The Foundry: "According to reports, President Barack Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days."
Go check out the graphic it is beautiful in simplicity. I am betting it is going to show up on a lot of Tea Party signs next time.
Go check out the graphic it is beautiful in simplicity. I am betting it is going to show up on a lot of Tea Party signs next time.
Monday, April 20, 2009
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