eReader options

At this point in my life it doesn't make too much difference. I've got the 'I Read Banned Books' button in front of me on the desk. The library was handing them out during Banned Books Month one year.

Reply to
rbowman
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It's a nostalgia thing for me. Back in the days of Byte Ciarcia's column was my favorite. I don't know how well I would do with SMT. You have to see it to solder it. I was happier back when processors had 40 pins on a .100 grid that I could wire wrap on the kitchen table. Or even whip up a circuit board that wasn't 10 layers with more vias than Rome.

Reply to
rbowman

I've never had a lot of interest in photography but when the digital cameras came out I started carrying one. I've got a great collection of mountain tops, waterfalls, canyons, alpine lakes, and so forth. I can identify about 20% of the locations. Geotagging would be nice but I'm too much of a Luddite.

Reply to
rbowman

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This is legitimate. You can sign up to get a daily email of free or 99 cent ebooks. Some are first time authors, others are better established authors that Amazon has discounted for whatever reason. Many are worth exactly what you paid for them but I've hit several authors that I enjoy. Often the author will have several follow-on books that may be $2.99 or $3.99, with the first one free.

That's one thing I enjoy about eBooks. In a way it can be like a vanity press. On the other hand a fledgling author can get his work out, develop a following and hone his craft rather than waiting to win the publishing house lottery while filling his mailbox with rejection slips.

Reply to
rbowman

It's nowhere near as "consistent"/predictable, here. It's as if the staff have an incentive to get rid of titles -- generate "need"!

SWMBO's art book library was largely acquired from discards. Many of the titles are currently selling for high prices on Amazon, ABE, etc. (lots of "color plates" make them expensive to produce)

Branch libraries tend to be ~10,000 sq ft. Some closer to 5, others around

  1. But, the trend seems to be "lots of open space" (instead of lots of closely packed stacks).

Things like DVD's and CD's are treated much like books -- but not too much "on the shelves". E.g., the branch at which I pick up my reserves probably has 2 or 3% of the stacks devoted to audio/video media. Lots of "behind the scenes" space for "processing". Plus, conference rooms that are available for public use. Plus a large (~2000 sq ft) "function room" that can be reserved for certain functions. And, a slew of PC's (probably 30?).

Any "technical" material is limited to Windows XXX (whatever is current) how-to's. I suspect even math and science books are pretty lame/generic.

OTOH, the University is nearby and, aside from the hassles of PARKING, accessible (though to checkout books you need to buy a $35/annual card -- as a "non student")

With a third party performing these functions, there are no guarantees as to *what* they keep. Nor what criteria apply to its disclosure.

As can anyone else who takes the book! :>

My favorite author is A E van Vogt. Many of his stories are surprisingly similar. Others are "reissues" under different names, etc. So, I may be considerably invested in a story with a nagging feeling that I've read it before -- and, it can go either way: it could be a story I've read under a different title; *or*, can be a different story with similar characters, setting, etc.

But, as long as I "enjoy the ride", who cares?

Reply to
Don Y

I use a digital camera to save typing. Easier for me to snap a photo, shrink it to emailable size and send it as an attachment to a message than it would be to try to describe a lot of things. E.g., to illustrate how far from the house the water flowing *off* the roof falls as it SHOOTS past the edge of the roof. A numerical measurement wouldn't be anywhere near as impressive as seeing a sheet of water defying gravity as it moves *sideways* instead of *down*!

A friend once observed that I only take pictures of *things*, not *people*. My reply, "Of course! I *know* what these PEOPLE look like! And, if I were to describe them to you, I surely wouldn't fixate on their *appearance* but, rather, their relationship(s) to me, etc. How would I photograph

*that*?"

When I undertake a car repair, I find the camera a great expedient to track which bolts came off of which mechanism, etc. Or, recording how cables were dressed.

Likewise when I repair someone's laptop (as each one seems to be different and filled with assorted bits of varying dimensions, etc.)

She's usually not interested in where/when a photo was taken. Rather, she's captured the "texture" of water running over a submerged rock. Or, a cloud pattern. Or, sky color. Or, what some particular creature looks like. I.e., something that she can use as a "model" for a drawing/painting without having to be *there*, again.

Reply to
Don Y

Well, sort of. I have a steromicroscope that I use to place components (I think 7x to 30X) and a Leister hot air iron for one-offs and repairs. But, I now prefer to come up with designs that I can use to solve multiple projects (differential stuffing options) -- mainly to make it affordable for me to have the boards produced (cost of QTY 4 is essentially the same as QTY 10... which is almost the same as QTY 100!).

E.g., each time I finish a "proof of concept" prototype for some component of my automation system, I make a note of what hardware resources were required. Then, dismantle the prototype, using its parts to build the NEXT prototype. When done with all of the designs (there are, conceptually,

22 designs involved), I'll see how much I can combine into "universal" designs so I can reduce the number of different designs AND increase the quantities (discounts!) to make my life easier (and control the overall cost better).

I still keep a collection of "legacy" components -- to repair old designs as well as throw together "one-offs" (where performance is not an issue but ease of prototyping would be.

I've got my Gardner Denver WW gun. Plus a slit-and-strip bit (insert kynar wire and it cuts it to length as well as stripping insulation

*as* it wraps).

You'd be amused by the design for my "network speaker". Several TINY boards in a sandwich -- so the total volume/shape resembles a duplex receptacle (so I can cram it into a 1 gang Jbox!). No doubt, someone with deeper pockets (and HUGE volumes!) could make it cheaper and possibly

*half* the size (but no smaller!). But, I'm not in the retail market so why waste my re$ource$ just to prove I can do it??!

Time to pull the biscotti out of the oven...

Reply to
Don Y

The only branch library I've dealt with was at Ajo. It's a branch of the Tucson library even though the mothership is 110 miles away. There was a librarian, Lily Salazar, who had very long arms. There wasn't much I asked for that she couldn't produce through ILL, even if it had to trickle in from Texas on pony Express. She died, all too young, and it hasn't been the same since.

Reply to
rbowman

I've got a slit and strip stashed away. That certainly was a nice feature.

Reply to
rbowman

One of the essential criteria *if* you want to have a "snappy comeback" for the times she grumbles about all the bits of technology around the house! ("Yeah, but *you* never have computer problems like all your friends!")

So, *that* page count seems to correlate. Still uncertain as to the meaning of IdleHands' count (not that it matters).

Time for the second bake - before they get too hard!

Reply to
Don Y

That does beat a crude sketch on the back of whatever I had laying around.

I don't do art so it's more about remembering the day. If I can remember where it was. Some I certainly can like Muir Rock at Kings Canyon or the goats I met on the trail at Mt. Aneas. Other times I've seen too many waterfalls and mountain vistas unless they're really memorable ones.

Reply to
rbowman

Yeah, it's a suburb of Los Angeles...

From what I've gathered, the trick is to make sure it can be located via WorldCat. Then, hope they have ILL privileges with one (or more) of the institutions holding copies.

I've been told an ILL is ~$70. Not sure if those are direct *fees* that the library absorbs (payable to the lender?) *or* if that's what some bean-counter figured the cost of staff+resources divided by number of ILLs worked out to... In either case, I figure this is a resource that my tax dollars fund, so why not exploit it?

Presently looking for two documents that aren't present in WorldCat. Had to track down author -- in Sweden. Now, spending a LOT of time trying to prune my request down to the barest essentials -- but no smaller (paraphrasing AEinstein). Author is ~70-ish and articles are ~40 years old. So, this is going to be a real stretch! Don't want to ask too much and get NOTHING ("too much effort to answer"); but, also don't want to omit some key question that I might never get a SECOND chance to ask!

Reply to
Don Y

My gun was a graduation gift from a buddy I worked with. So, despite rarely (never?) needing it, I keep it tucked away.

I also have a delightful pair of needlenose that have been machined inthe jaws to *perfectly* strip #30AWG kynar. Even better than NoNiks!

Always terrified that, someday, I would forget they are a precision tool and use them to tighten a nut or something :<

Reply to
Don Y

A neighbor gave me the idea of using a digital camera to document things. I'd never been much of a camera buff. But, once he brought the idea up and made me realize I never had to "develop" any film (i.e., ENDLESS PHOTOS!), it was like getting slapped in the head with a brick: d'uh!

I don't rely on photos to preserve "(personally) important things". I figure if they are important, I'll remember them. If not, then I won't!

E.g., I can distinctly remember watching a sea turtle lay eggs on the beach when I was ~5. Damn thing felt as big as *me*! How could I possibly forget a thing like that?

OTOH, I doubt I could remember 1/4 of the names of the kids in any of my grade school classes! Haven't seen any of them in 30+ years so why would their names "stick"?

OToOH, I can remember the date of birth of my best friend from college and that's just as ancient!

Second bake is done. Yippee! Now I can get back to work...

Reply to
Don Y

Isn't it about the size of a "pocketbook"?

Wow! Are you sure about that size? Hell, that's barely larger than an INDEX CARD!

For me, the issue would be how often you were "flipping" pages. The typical 1.5 - 2" thick paperbacks that seem to be the norm, nowadays, take me about 1.5 - 2 minutes to read a verso and recto page before having to "flip". An ereader would halve that time just because it only shows recto pages.

But, if the pages are considerably smaller (due to screen size of lack of display resolution at "typical" typeface sizes), then it could be even faster!

Reply to
Don Y

That's what is affectionately known as a 6" screen. 4 7/8 high is a more accurate measurement. The Paperwhite is 300 ppi for 1440 x 1080, while the keyboard is 167 ppi for 600 x 800. I haven't seen a Paperwhite in the flesh so I don't know how much the higher resolution buys you.

The SONY Digital Paper DPT-S1 is A4 size with 1600 x 1200 resolution. It's also around $800 and I don't know if it does anything other than pdf's.

Reply to
rbowman

Sheesh! I think I have 10-15 year old PDAs with screens bigger than that!

I suspect that is probably overkill. IIRC, my tablet PC's are 1024x768 (?) at 12" (just as large as the "active" portion of most sheets of paper) and I rarely have to zoom to see additional detail.

As it's a PC, it's not limited to ereader functionality -- nor a specific set of ebook formats (having a single function device, nowadays, seems pretty crippling). E.g., I presently have one in it's "dock" connected to four external USB drives serving their contents to my "NAS-RAID" over SMB shares. A BT keyboard and BT mouse let me use it as a computer when not acting as a file service.

Take it out of the dock and it's back to being my ebook reader.

(Unfortunately, I only have *one* dock so other tablet sits in a small carrying case)

Reply to
Don Y

Nope - PDF only. Thanks for mentioning the Sony. You inspired me to do a bit of browsing - found a nice web site that lists supported formats for e ink ereaders (but not for color ereaders).

Lots of other info too - reviews, recommendations. . .

Susan

Reply to
Susan Bugher

Thanks, Susan, I'll chase down the links and see if it helps me sort out the "mess". I suspect SWMBO won't be happy with *any* of these options ("Why can't I just have a BOOK??!")

Reply to
Don Y

Hey, that might be the best and least expensive solution. Order used books online, delivered to your doorstep a few days later. .

for example: Snow Crash by Stephenson, Neal - starting at $3.95 total

A lot of recent paperbacks in good condition cost about $3.00 total. example:

Susan

Reply to
Susan Bugher

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