photography | mac | lego | open source | sap | gadgets
Posts tagged Books
Kindle escapes from the US
In a move that must be prompted by an imminent 2010 release of an Apple tablet device, Amazon has announced an international version of the popular Kindle. The Kindle Wireless Reading Device in its international guise will be released on October 19. Currently, the item is available for pre-order from Amazon.
South Africa is in the list of countries the Kindle will be officially supported in, which is really good news. The Kindle provides a 3G data connection to download content purchased in the Amazon Kindle store.
The Kindle is rather compelling device, in my opinion. A large selection of content makes it quite attractive and the ability to share that content amongst devices with synchronization of bookmarks and annotations is very handy. I currently use the Kindle Reader on the iPhone and would love to have a somewhat larger screen.
To choose a Kindle or wait for Apple‘s upcoming e-reader killer? A good question 
Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
My reading of the first Charlie adventure was a resounding success with the young Alexander. The logical thing to do was to go ahead and read the second adventure, one that places Charlie, family and Mr Wonka in decidedly quirky places. Having just crashed through the roof of the Bucket residence to collect grandparents and parents, the Great Glass Elevator takes off without much fanfare and launches straight into space.
As luck would have it, the USA has a shuttle in orbit making its way to the first-ever Space Hotel. The appearance of the Glass Elevator with odd figures dressed in pyjamas floating about in zero gravity makes the population of the USA and its president rather nervous. That is until our intrepid adventurers save the shuttle crew from a rather nasty attack by Vermicious Knids that have made the Space Hotel USA their home.
The wacky adventure continues in much the same vein: after their short stint in space, the glass elevator comes to rest back in the chocolate factory. Charlie is the heir to the Wonka chocolate empire, and requires some hands to help him run it. The most logical solution is at hand: Wonka Vite is able to reduce anyone’s age and make them young again. A common theme in Dahl‘s books re-emerges in this scene: human greed results in three of Charlie‘s grandparents regressing to the age of 2 years old. The third has taken even more pills and has regressed to a negative age, minus two, to be exact. Charlie and Wonka climb back into the elevator and travel the nether regions of the earth to enter Minusland in a bid to save Grandma Georgina. In the end, all grandparents end up at their original old age after a dose of the anti-Wonka Vite, Vita-Wonk. A visit to the White House rounds out the adventure, following on the rescue of the astronauts during the Space Hotel incident.
It’s a great read and hugely entertaining. Best of all, reading a single chapter encourages remembering the story so far and being able to recount what happened last. Dahl‘s stories are certainly off-the-wall, but highly recommended. It is good to see a book written in the early 1970′s competing well against the modern miracles of entertainment, such as the PS3 and the iPod Touch…
Dracula – The Sequel
I’ve always been quite partial to Stoker‘s original horror novel depicting the bloodsucking Transylvanian Dracula. I’ve read that old tale many a time, both in paper and electronic formats and have followed various remakes and movie versions with interest.
Bram Stoker lived in a time when a single work was good enough. Sequels weren’t all that popular then, it seems. Fast forward to the present day: it’s sequel time and who better to pen another official Dracula tale than the original author’s great-grand-nephew. The new book is inventively titled Dracula The Un-Dead and tells the tale of the undead count approximately 25 years after his demise at the hands of Van Helsing.
I’m guessing this is a bit of a marketing gimmick and that the name Stoker is on the cover simply to give the book an air of authority. The co-author is Ian Holt, a Dracula historian. I’m quite certain that the ending will leave the door open for at least another sequel…
Should be an interesting read nonetheless. Read more about the plot here.
Book publishing. Me. Online.
Who’d have thought that anyone would ever show any interest in publishing something I’ve written. Not me, for certain. I was intrigued by a mail I received from VDM Publishing, asking whether or not I’d be interested in having a real book made out of my PhD dissertation. Whilst I’m under no illusion that this request benefits the publisher and enables them to bolster their stock of available literature, I’m also quite interested in their model: free submission of the text, including some hold on the content with regard to rights and a slice of royalties received from any (in my mind unlikely) purchases.
Best of all, the entire book is created and submitted online, including cover generation. For a geek and aspiring author, that’s just too cool to miss out on!
The process is rather uncomplicated – once accepted by the publisher, the manuscript may be submitted electronically. To start, relevant personal details are entered into the online system and an ISBN number is assigned. I have an ISBN number. Fancy that…
I spent some time digging up the original Word document and pasted it together again. I’ll need to format some of the headers and footers, but for now I’ve uploaded the resulting 2MB PDF file. Enter text for the cover, blurb, author background, then on to the fun thing: choose a colour for the jacket. Orange, of course. VDM directs authors to PurestockX to select an image for the cover – the cost of that selection is carried by the publisher. A click later, and the draft version of the book’s jacket is presented:
Not bad.
How the books are marketed, I’m not sure. This is obviously a print-on-demand business, costing the publisher little more than the storage of electronic manuscripts, a few stock images and shipping of a complimentary printed copy to the author.
I expect you won’t find this at the local Exclusive Books
As the author, I could (at my discretion, of course) provide loyal readers with an abstract. Or a discount. Or, how about a limited, signed edition? Hehehe….
droidMaker
For those who enjoy books this is turning out to be a bumper week. Just a few days ago, I posted the link for the free audiobook version of Chris Anderson‘s new book Free. Here’s another gem for fans of George Lucas and Star Wars: droidMaker by Michael Rubin.
droidMaker is available as a free download, in the form of three PDF files. What you’re getting in the download is an exact copy of the hardcover, illustrated paper version. I haven’t read all of it yet, but here’s a brief overview: droidMaker documents George Lucas‘ career from his days in college during 1960 all the way to the release of Star Wars Episode III in 2005. Along the way, Rubin provides details of some very prominent companies in the Hollywood film industry. ILM, THX and Pixar are covered, as is the overall film making process that gives fanboys something to dream about. The birth of digital film making is described in the context of Lucas‘ struggle to bring Star Wars to the silver screen. It’s a wonderful journey and certainly worth a read.
Download this before the link disappears, then do the author a favour and buy the real thing for your bookshelf. For providing this to fans, Michael Rubin deserves your support.
Get Free for free
I quite enjoyed reading Wired editor Chris Anderson‘s book The Long Tail. In The Long Tail, a rather interesting discussion of Internet marketing and sales is presented, completed with numerous examples. The long tail is the phenomenon that permits niche products to be offered to such a huge audience that making a certain number of sales is inevitable.
In Free, Anderson examines market forces that result in pricing models in which customers are able to access goods and services at no charge. It’s an interesting idea and is worthwhile reading for anyone partaking of the Internet.
If nothing else, the book has received a fair share of publicity due to allegations that Anderson plagiarized certain sections of his text. Ironically, the source of those copied passages is said to be Wikipedia, a huge, free source of information.
The audio version of Free is available as a 280MB MP3 download from the Wired website. At no charge. Give it a listen…
25 years of Neuromancer
Yesterday saw the 25th anniversary of the publication of William Gibson‘s novel Neuromancer. It’s without doubt one of my favourites and I’ve read and re-read it many, many times.
Gibson made some astonishing predictions, primarily that millions of computers would be networked together and data universally accessible.
In 1984, when the novel had just been completed, the concept of the Internet already existed, albeit in a very limited form. Gibson managed to describe a world in which access to information is easy, fast and available to almost everyone. The novel went on to win three prestigious awards: the Nebula Award, Philip K. Dick Award and Hugo Award and was rated by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential novels.
It’s still a good read, even after all this time. And, of course, it’s part of the greater Sprawl trilogy.
Check out this Wikipedia article with a summary of the plot to get started.
Ross Hoddinott – Digital Macro Photography
I bought Hoddinott‘s book on macro photography immediately after glancing through his Digital Exposure Handbook. The emphasis here is obviously on macro photography, covering gear, techniques and inspiration.
The form factor of my copy of Digital Macro Photography
Hoddinott seems to be a Nikon shooter, so most of the images provided as examples originate from his D70. His choice of gear does not detract from the quality of the content, however. Each chapter covers its topic in a fair amount of detail. That includes everything from teleconverters to beanbags in the chapter on Lenses and Close-up Accessories and DOF to artificial light in Basic Techniques. There’s a bit in here for the beginner, too. An introduction provides an overview of the basics of photography.
Once again, great care is taken in providing excellent examples that show how the described techniques can be put into practice. Plenty of ideas are provided for those wanting to start off their macro photography in the comfort of their own home. A basic lightbox setup is something that is very useful, but other than that even the humble paperclip can be transformed into an eye-catching work of art.
If macro photography is something you have an interest in, you may want to consider reading this excellent reference.
Ross Hoddinott – Digital Exposure Handbook
It’s not often that one comes across a book on a practical topic like photography that provides an incredible amount of information in a very compact format.
First off, Ross Hoddinott is seemingly not only a decent photographer, but also someone who is able to clearly describe technical terms and concepts in everyday speak. Second, my copy of the Digital Exposure Handbook has a size that makes it an ideal companion for my camera backpack – the book measures 15cm x 24cm. Third, this is really one of the first books on digital photography that I was eager to read from cover to cover, and one I refer back to rather often.
The Digital Exposure Handbook contains just under 200 pages and is divided into six major sections, each dealing with a specific aspect of digital photography. The Basics of Exposure provides information on such topics as highlights, exposure values and sensor technologies. In Exposure in practice, concrete examples are provided of composition, the rule of two-thirds and lighting.
What I really appreciate is that each topic is generally covered in two pages or less. Each page is chock-full of images that visually depict how various settings influence a shot and what methods have been employed to get to the better image. The example-based writing style and visual depiction is something I appreciate, and is probably why this is one of my favourite books on photography.
The section titled Ambient light discusses various factors to consider when dealing with photography under various ambient lighting conditions. Following on to that, a brief discussion of flash light use is provided in section 4, Flash light. Some very pertinent information on filters and a brief description of generic manipulation using popular software products to enhance and fix digital images rounds out this useful book.
By now, you can probably tell that I really enjoyed reading and learning from the Digital Exposure Handbook. I’m pleased that there is very little time spent on specific camera models and equipment, though where these are mentioned no preference is shown to any manufacturer. That makes the book applicable to a wider audience, in my opinion. Highly recommended!
Recent Comments