Several times over the past couple of years, i decided to migrate … well, more like copy … my physical books to the digital realm while sitting in the library. That is to say, i haven’t purchased or found a free way to have digital copies of the books—only a catalogue. Man, i should’ve just said that from jump. Anyway…I like instant access to knowledge, to lists—which is probably why i love the Interwebs so much: 24/7/365(6). Being able to know what adorns two of my walls is a boon to my sanity. I recently discovered a torn plastic garbage with another bag within of books i’ve had…
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Donate Your Idle CPU Time
For those like me who keep their computers at home and at work on all the time, here’s a simple way to put them to use while away: it’s called volunteer computing. Basically, your computer gives some of its resources to assist in various scientific or academic research projects. It’s important because there are > billion computers in the world, but most of them are not being used to anywhere near full capacity, especially sitting idle for hours at a time. By volunteering your computer’s idle CPU time, you can greatly assist in projects such as cancer or DNA research. There are dozens of projects that allow you…
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How I Use Gmail to Organize my Electronic Missives
From inception and through growing adoption over the past decade, email has been lauded and defined as a means to reduce clutter and headache, so much so, it has devolved into an experience, a nuisance really, reminiscent of what it was supposed to replace, or reduce tremendously, at least: physical letters and packages. Spam is annoying. Google, seven years ago with the beta release of Gmail, looked to curtail our issues with too much information at once—so much was lost in the shuffle. Archiving became the new delete, never getting rid of anything, instead, we’d hoard it and use search (what Google is known for) to look and find what…
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(BlackBerry app review) Wicked Blogging App
If you’re anything like me, you live on your phone. I text, BBM, read and reply to emails, Tweet and Facebook, pay bills, and order stuff and books online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Up until a few days ago, i essentially did everything but blog. I’m a WordPress advocate—well, more like fanatic—and was dismayed by the lackluster official WordPress for BlackBerry app. It was limited. I’ve noticed a trend in “official” apps for services or software being subpar, but that’s another post, entirely. Anyway, i decided to give the 2-day trial for Wicked Blogging App a spin. It’s a pretty snazzy offering from Screaming Toaster. It…
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with AppleTV, there’s little need for cable
I don’t own a TV. I haven’t for about a year and a half now. Even when i did, i barely watched it or played videogames (sadly, another pastime that fell by the wayside). Throughout 2010, i accrued a renewed interest in TV thanks to some awesome shows, like Mad Men, Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds, NCIS, House, Covert Affairs and Leverage. With the proliferation and adoption of all things Internet-based, i’ve been able to stream these TV shows and movies (projectfree.tv is my go-to site). Our digital times are always changing for the better. With the latest version of AppleTV, it’ll be even easier to stream the…
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freedom to read (on any device)
With the proliferation of digital readers and assorted touch screen tablets, there’s an increase in the desire to read books, magazines, PDFs, etc. while on the go. We’re an increasingly mobile society, so being able to learn or be entertained wherever we are is important. Heck, i rarely go anywhere without my MacBook, and never without my BlackBerry (even the bathroom, sadly). I love having access to my library (or as much of it as possible) at all times. There are several options available to sync our books and files across different devices on various platforms—Android, Linux, OS X, Windows—allowing us to continue reading on many devices. Reading…
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short-term influence of free digital versions on book sales
With the growing purveyance of digital books and ebook readers flooding the publishing and consumer markets, respectively, it was apropos stumbling upon this paper by John Hilton III and David Wiley of the Journal of Electric Publishing, tackling the question that’s on many authors’ and publishers’ minds: Increasingly, authors and publishers are freely distributing their books electronically to increase the visibility of their work. A vital question for those with a commercial stake in selling books is, “What happens to book sales if digital versions are given away?” Fellow writer, corporate bboy, and good friend, Timothy Prolific Jones, recently released an ebook preview of his upcoming magnum opus,…
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become a patron of the arts—of writing, of film, of … whatever
Often, I stumble upon an engrossing website or an excellent blog post or WordPress plugin, and I immediately think about donating to the cause, but for whatever reason, I rarely ever give. Usually a lack of a “donate” button (from PayPal or Amazon) deters me from doing so. There is now a fix: new micro-payment/donating service Flattr. What’s cool about is that it allows you to financially support writing or videos or plugins (or whatever!) you like. Since Flattr is based in Europe, a majority of the postings are in a foreign language (i’ve noticed mostly German). To bypass this language barrier, i use Google Translate (included by…
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