• Yet another take on the Amazon vs. Hachette dust-up: The publishers contributed to Amazon's monopsony power by demanding platform lock-in via Kindle DRM. And now they're surprised that Amazon controls the ebook market. (Thanks to Eric Bowersox for the link.)
• Pete Albrecht sent word that some guys at the University of Rochester have figured out how ( Read more... )

• Feeling a little better, but still lousy. Thanks for all your kind words and wishes.
• We may not lose the Nook after all. Or we may. At this point, I'll refrain from taking sides.
• Calibre 1.0 has been released. Quite apart from its role as an ebook manager, there's absolutely nothing like it for doing ebook format conversions. If you don't have it yet ( Read more... )

• I recently reinstalled Windows on a 120GB Samsung 840 SSD, and have been wondering how long it will last. Here's a nice intro; read the comments too. I'm guessing that it will last longer than the system itself--especially given my recent history.
• The just-released Firefox 19 has a built-in PDF renderer. So far it's worked fairly well for me. One ( Read more... )

I wonder how many Raspberry Pi boards will spend their entire working lives sitting cockeyed on a desk somewhere, at the center of a tangle of cables. That's how mine was until a couple of days ago, when despite my cough I allowed myself a few minutes of quality screwdriver time to pull a proper RPi system together.
( Read more... )

• Making you fat and diabetic is the least of it: Sugar (especially fructose) sabotages your brain. If it's your first favorite organ (as it is for me) put your brain at the top of your personal food chain. Be a caveman: Eat more animal fat and less sugar.
• Eat more fat and less sugar, but do it this way: Trade sugar for sleep. Lack of sleep makes you ( Read more... )

• 32 years ago today, Darkel's Lucky Guess--known to more than a few of you as Mr. Byte--came into our world, and eight weeks later Carol and I took home our very first bichon puppy. Although not show quality, Mr. Byte was a spectacular dog, and even seventeen years after his passing we miss him terribly.
• A study at Michigan State shows a strong ( Read more... )

• I've installed Lazarus 1.0 without mayhem, and have created a few simple programs with it. So far, no glitches. My recommendation is still cautious. Nonetheless, I'd be interested in hearing other people's experiences with the new release.
• Carmine Gallo wonders why more people aren't doing image-rich PowerPoint presentations. Um...it's because ( Read more... )

• ESR on Canonical's Unity interface. What He Said. (Thanks to Bruce Baker for the link.)
• Interfaces, yeah. Here's a thoughtful take on touchscreen interfaces that's worth hearing. I have a (now ancient) iPod and consider the clickwheel brilliant. I didn't know it was becoming extinct.
• Last night Eric Bowersox showed me how he took a stock Nook Color ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

• Strahinja Markovic, the chap who created the very good Sigil epub editor while he was a CS undergrad, now has a master's, a good job, and...a life. (How dare he? ) In a recent blog post, he's asked for prospective maintainers of the code (which is open source) to introduce themselves and make a case to him as to why they should be trusted to carry ( Read more... )