Geek Talk:"There is a life after Google Reader. Hard to believe but there is!'

My lifestyle has hit a glitch. Google Reader won't be available after July ist. 

Talk about wrenching a man's heart out! How savage is that? I ams a feed junkie. Feeds is how the world enters my headspace. So I've had to migrate somewhere else  and  invest in  a new  relationship and try to make it work. That's my 652 feeds and I....

We're a big family you see. From all over the place.

But finding a new home for my kin has proven problematical. I'm not alone in this. Millions are on the march--seeking new  aggregation to replace G&#$!+ Reader. 

My irony is that in searching for a suitable replacement  I've 'gone offline' -- so to speak -- and adopted a desktop Feed Aggregator .

While I feel a bit guilty leaving the clouds ---and my activities of daily living have been forcibly  altered  as a consequence-- I am delighted to be now using NetNewsWire . 

All my Christmases have come at once.

NetNewsWire... 

• is so much faster than GReader; 
• offers so many more formatting and organizing options; 
• includes Instapaper bookmarking support;
• is dense, columned and listed like GReader; 
• offers some great flagging and clipping options; 
• has easy folder arrangements;
• generates a customisable tab protocol

In fact , it rocks.... 

It may take some getting used to as NetNewsWire functions 'almost' as a standalone web browser and you need to play with it in order to tweak it to your everyday preferences. 

For me, after fiddling with it and taking it for a few spins, my feed productivity has escalated and I'm spending less time reviewing my subscriptions. Organising them is, compared to GReader, a breeze...

I'm on a Mac so if you are on Windows you may want to try Feedemon -- which is a news aggregator from the same stable.

The one complication with both these platforms is that they can be/are synced with....Goggle Reader. And as we know Google Reader is to be killed off. 

So sharing your feeds across computers -- online -- is complicated  by the soon moribundity of the means. 

Maybe the folk at NetNewsWire will offer us another syncing tool? But here's a tip: always hang onto a copy of your opml file (a downloadable file of all your feeds). You can export the file from your current reader and later import it into most other feed readers. 

Instapaper

One of the advantages with   NetNewsWire is integration with Instapaper .

I hadn't use this bookmarking tool before but I'm now hooked. It is really quite good and has won a lot of respect -- example.

Instapaper is a web service that saves articles for later reading on web browsers.... After registering a free account, the service saves articles that users select with its "Read Later" bookmarklet and presents them in a minimal, readable text layout. The service was founded in 2008 by Marco Arment and has about 2 million users as of late 2011.

While there are apps, extensions and soforth you can uses with Instapaper I find that if I sort my bookmarks into folders -- and that's so quick and easy to do -- I can subscribe to my folders in NetNewsWire. That sort of completes the circle.

***

After Google's announcement about the pending demise of GReader I tried a few online aggregators and I didn't like any of them enough to fall in love. too magazine like. Clunky. Slow to load. Not intuitive enough. All dress up and limited function.

But since adopting a desktop aggregator....I'm delighted and have found that I can indeed have a very good life after Google Reader.

---

 

• Subscribe to Dave Riley's Feeds

Controlling your video viewing experience for optimum learning

Since I study dance routines in order to learn them step by step and my main source of choreography is online videos especially from YouTube -- I was after some video watching features that enabled this. This is what I've come up with. 

I use Chrome Web Browser and my operating system is Mac. Both Chrome and VLC are cross platform.

• Auto Replay for YouTube (Chrome): Adds an auto replay checkbox in Youtube video page. You can also select a portion of the video to be auto replayed. Repeat dance step so you can learn them. Only works when watching video on YouTube.
• 
  
• Play Video in Slow Motion on YouTube: Play Video. Pause it just before you want to watch the video in slow motion then hold down the space bar on your computer keyboard.
• 
  
• YouTube Downloader (Chrome) Adds an easy to use download  button with choice of file formats to download.

• You can also play the video's url on the VLC Player and slow it down to suit your learning speed.Enter url in VLC's Advanced Open File / Network option, then select Playback / Slower. This option can be cumbersome and the vid may freeze often when playing online files.

• To download the video using the VLC player. Copy and paste the video url into the VLC player -- Advanced Open File/Network -- and start playing the video. Then while the video is playing go to Window/Media Information -- and copy  Location address at the bottom. Paste that url into your browser and start playing the video then Right Click and Save As... will save the video file to  to your  desktop. The video default saves as "videoplayback" so you need to rename the file. 
• 
  
• Since I'm on Mac, I prefer to use Movist (out of Korea!) which has a superb range of control options that leave anything else behind.

Movist also offers customisable sub titling -- so long as you remember this  work around.

Movist Controls

New video camera means more and better videos...in time

After neglecting my digital media options I am now back doing the videography after being given a very cheap, refurbished Kodak Zi6 (pictured). 

Amazing little camera that shoots great video.

For my work in progress with the Zi6 check out my video pages .

It's a learning curve -- using the camera and mastering iMovie 11. So for now, if it moves, I shoot it.

Practice. Practice. 

The problem with these little cameras is camera shake. You'll notice the shake in what I've shot early on.  I used to shoot with my DV Camera with a small tripod/monopod strapped to my arm.  But this new video camera is just too light to anchor in space like that, so I've employed the string and washer trick. This DIY works fine. 

It works better than that: it's a photography a-hah! moment.

My camera has a toggle so I loop the string to that with a carabiner clip and drop the other weighted end to the ground...and stand on it.

By anchoring the bottom like this I can pull on the string to create enough tension to stabilize the camera in my hand.

Portable plus.

Once I've learnt to shoot and  not shake the shot I'll work through some audio options.

The camera cost  $63 and at that obscenely cheap  price -- and ease of operation -- anyone should be making movies. (Just so long as you edit the damn things before you upload them...please!)

My daughter wants me to do some video editing training (she works for Apple)  and I think that may be a good idea as editing  is where the art kicks in (so long as you also edit as you shoot).

But looking back at my video making career -- so far that is -- there are a few films that work (for me at least). I love the atmosphere captured in Twilight Carrum Summer 2010 and some of the sequences inPort Philip Bay. I also appreciate some of my political videos for their reportage and focus and I like Northside Boxing because it tells a quaint story.

But you can see how rough as guts so much of it is, especially in the edit.

Give me time....

Cloud Cleanup time: renovating the homunculus and the Lone Ranger returns -- Hi-yo, Silver!

Graphic:Raegan Maddox

It's coming to that time of year when a 'cloud cleanup' is called for. Going through my online presence I delete old blogs, websites and the like that have fallen into disuse. Some people may renovate their homes or dress up dollies, but I play around online changing my meme. Out there/up here it's all me/ all digital me in dress up like a homunculus. And I'm clothed in layer upon layer of typed words, images and video. 

It's not an ego thing -- the activity anchors my thinking...I'm online computer dependent. My brain, you see, is idled.

 Gah gah. 

En route, cleaning up, I'm sure to get into some innovative hacking. I love hacking by deploying  OPHs -- 'other peoples hacks' .  Hacking is a wonderful 'what if?' challenge that already some one else has thought of and solved with  creative verve (and many more skills than I).

Meme I merely replicates.

My hope is that after a couple of rough years which have undermined my online engagement (I've tended to be less aggressive and innovative than of yore because of ill health) I may now mount  my trusty mouse-stead and re-assert my digital creativity. 

Hi Yo, Silver, Away! 

Narrator: The Lone Ranger!
[gunshots are fired]
The Lone Ranger: Hi-yo, Silver!
Narrator: A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty "Hi-yo Silver" - the Lone Ranger!
The Lone Ranger: Hi-yo, Silver, away!
Narrator: With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early West. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The Lone Ranger rides again!

Newbie storytime: How to publish your own ebook

Elsewhere I am experimenting with being a published ebook writer ... and soon to come will be a fully fledged ebook -- that is a digital book that has wing feathers large enough for solo flight .

The business of publishing was so easy that I have to share the DIY.

For those whose imagination is tweaked by my ebook enthusiasm and seeming ready skills: I used Mac PAGES app and the template where withall outlined here.

While it is easy to export any text to epub in PAGES the advantage of using the template is that you can easily control your table of contents/toc listing. Great for chapters and other headings -- sections of the text which can be accessed with a click from the automatically generated contents page.

PAGES also gives you an easy book cover option. Just bash some pretty graphics together.

I've also experimented with the cross platform open sourced SIGIL epub editor but PAGES is much easier to use and is more intuitive and far less cumbersome. There is also Stanza as an option to consider...plus others.

Epub making is easy but contents listing is not so straight forward and not every ebook in cyberspace offers contents page with links to places in the text.

It isn't an essential attribute but a great convenience.

I guess the simplest way to create an epub ebook is to import your file (pdf, doc, word, etc) into Calibre and convert it (while hoping for the best layout). Calibre and epub ebookery go together like ham and eggs.

Calibre is my new love.Awesome tool.

For my everyday generic file sharing I use wikispaces  and since wikispaces offers free accounts you can host your ebook file there so that the reader universe can download your wares. You don't need much in the way of online space to store your efforts as an ebook/epub version of Tolstoy's War and Peace weighs in at only 1.3MB.

Once you have your book you start promoting and distributing it. Create a Facebook page. Spam the relatives.

That kind of thing.

You could also use self publishing sites. Even Amazon will handle your epub book  and there are companies like Lulu  who will cut you a set publishing deal (80:20). How good these contracts are has been a matter of some dispute among self published authors. There are also other platforms , like Scibd who'll house your work in pdf format  for distribution. Again, check the chit chat before you commit your work to an other. 

If you want total control it is simple, do it solo. (Says he now that he has published all of 285.2 KB only yesterday.)

What I need, what we all need I guess, are online editors and proof readers (human beings that is who live somewhere in the clouds) , who'll vet your texts for errors of syntax and spelling...without charging too much of the money you don't have.

Otherwise, you'll have to rely on the fam and friends to red mark your errors while you argue whose style guide you are going to follow.

Since I cannot trust myself one iota, I respect editors so very much that I think they are as essential to human society as a good upbringing and comfortable shoes.

'Tis the noblest profession.

They aren't interfering sods. After decades of writing for publication I can say that Ed -- like father -- always knows best.

A useful although aligned over view

The Seven Secrets of Ebook Publishing Success - BAIPA May 14, 2011
View more presentations from Smashwords, Inc.

Postscript:The good thing about running with a sample exercise is that I get to play around and see how the file performs online and on a range of different ereader devices. So far I'm impressed -- while recognising where I need to tweak. If you read ebooks you know how the file can play up on your preferred reading device and how --since the book was most likely  created primarily for hard copy  reading -- layout isn't as interface friendly as it could be.

What have I learnt in the last 24 hours?

1. Create a cover that includes everything in the one  file image -- title, author, impact and pizzaz. You want the cover to be one complete graphic where bits don't wander off. 
2. If you add further images inside the body of the book resize them to fit any mobile device and locate the caption on/in the image so it doesn't float away from its home. Since many devices will only read black and white let that handicap rule your image and graphic selection.
3. Take care when selecting the size of your headings. On some devices the headers can grow bigger than big. 
4. Think ebook layout always. Indent isn't an option.
5. URL links are OK to include. In fact they're a great idea. And don't forget to include adds for yourself and your output.

I just read The Fry Chronicles (by Stephen Fry) which is the first publication to be published simultaneously as a conventionally printed book, an electronically enhanced eBook, a non-enhanced eBook, an audiobook narrated by Fry himself and an iOS application.  But the ebook format in epub wanders a bit and there are a few lessons  to be learnt from it about what not to do.

So here's a tip: unless you read ebooks (and a pdf aint an ebook) you won't know how to create them to your best advantage. They aren't a separate book species  but they need to be formatted and shaped to different effect.


This is my chosen route...

Kobo:Walking around with a whole library in my pocket

I always have books to hand. Mainly public library books.

I like to read.

It expands the mind.

But now that my Kobo eReader has arrived my 'mind' has been zipped. The device is smaller and lighter than I expected. After using our domestic shared iPad, these attributes of the Kobo come as something of a shock.

It's the size of a standard envelope  stuffed with a very long letter (or a couple of handkerchiefs). Reading on the Kobo is like reading a pamphlet.

So when it comes to digital reading I can tell you now that size does matter. The Kobo makes the iPad look like Godzilla and weighs as much as a small cup of tea.

"Look mum! I'm reading one handed."

Would I have preferred a bigger screen? Thus far I can say that my reading of pdf has not been a great experience even though the Kobo is supposed to be pdf  friendly. But then pdf is such a painful reading experience on any computer or device because pdf is a printer's format.

And with pdf size does matter:  with pdf you need a screen that presents the content at actual size.

PDF is a layout format. For large format pdf -- like manuals and such with illustrations -- forget the Kobo. Ditto for colour. (Comic lovers take note).

For standard pdf text documents, my response  has been to convert them with Calibre to ePub format and enjoy much more that reading experience. Conversion is one click easy and Calibre 'sends to' your device with another tap on the mouse.

But if your pdf files are DRM protected...you'll be stuck with reading pdf.

Damn  dat DRM.

How does Kobo compare to the Ipad? Well, the distractions aren't there, are they? There are no Angry Birds or  Googling to distract you from the coal face of reading.  It's for reading books (although a crude web browser is on board). The screen is kinder on the eyes. The battery life is exponentially much longer. You can put Kobo in your pocket, whereas the Ipad is like a satchel. *

Like a mobile phone it is your take anywhere device.

When I was studying in the late sixties, my fashionable vogue was to walk around campus with a Penguin paperback stuffed in my jacket pocket, ever ready for a squiz. The costuming was such a pose. The Kobo reprises such  style, except instead of one book I can walk around with a whole library in my pocket.

I could load the Kobo with all the 100 Classic Books You Must Read Before You Die plus The Complete Works of William Shakespeare  and  Karl Marx's Capital  ( or tackle Joyce's Ulysses again) without feeling the weight... or the price, as I can get almost all this suff as free download from the libraries in the clouds. If I buy online, I can limit myself to $10 a purchase and still 'fill my cart' with tens of thousands of books.Even public libararies are enlarging their ebook offerings. No wonder research confirms that with ebook readers, people read more.According to an IDC study from March 2011, sales for all e-book readers worldwide gained to 12.8 millions in 2010 but since then a Pew Internet and American Life study has found that eBook reader ownership in the United States has doubled between November 2010 and May 2011 from 6 to 12 percent. Amazon now sells more ebooks than hard copy books. For self publishing and distribution, ereadership changes the  game for writers such that now even Amazon (and many other distributors) will carry self published texts.

* I wondered whether the addition of listening to mp3 files would add to my 'reading' experience on such a portable device. Kobo doesn't do mp3.  But then I walk around hands free when I listen to mp3 files, trudging the land, and my mp3 player hangs from a cord around my neck. I can listen to any audio book that way if I want to. So why do I want to complicate matters by setting aside a means to carry an eReader-- or a tablet -- just so I can listen to stuff? Multi functional devices demand a trade off and just as I don't demand of Charles Dickens that he talk to me, I'm not in the market for a Swiss army knife eReader.

eBooking the web using Calibre and other tools

The Calibre ebook reader interface.

Just as I was making the jump into ebookery mode, Borders Group Inc., the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain, has canceled an upcoming bankruptcy auction and will now close its doors.

Perhaps that was expected...but the ebook reader I'm waiting on is the Kobo Touch which was, until a moment ago,  distributed by Borders. However, in a quick-to-follow announcement, Kobo has pointed out  that Kobo and Borders are not joined at the hip and the company -- and its device -- will proceed with its own independent business plan.

What me worry?

While I've been waiting for my device to arrive I've been exploring ebookery options and experimenting with what's on offer that could be incorporated in my future ebook lifestyle.

The main activity that has engaged me has been to utilize and master Calibre

 calibre is free and open source e-book computer software that organizes, saves and manages e-books, supporting a variety of formats. It also supports e-book syncing with a variety of popular e-book readers...calibre is primarily an e-book cataloging program....calibre supports the conversion of many input formats to many output formats...(Ref)

Despite the fact that I don't as yet have a separate  e-book reading device to sync to, Calibre has proven extremely useful as my reading hub as it has enabled me to construct a library of texts in a wide range of file formats.

So I  started to collect stuff as fancy dictated without having a portable device in which to carry it about.

But aside form the usual online offerings (eg:novels, pdf articles,etc) in various standard ebook type formats, which I could download and read later offline, I  discovered  a couple of very useful online tools that could feed my calibre library so that I did not have to read all my online material as a web page.

• dotEPUB is software in the cloud that allows you to convert any webpage into an e-book. What this means is that any page  of a length that I want to read later, I can convert  to an epub format, download and read at my leisure in the same way I'd read a hard copy book or magazine.
  
• Convert HTML to PDF Online  is a useful conversion tool for those sites where images and diagrams are a key part of your reading experience.

What this means is that the the most cumbersome task of any online existence -- that of having to read large swags of text or long articles -- is sublimated by converting them into a  brain friendlier format. 

So for me, this means when I'm confronted with more than 1000 words of text online which I  want to read, I epub it; or when I'm dealing with a complicated DIY article with illustrations as to technique and method, I convert it to PDF and download it. I still read/study the material on a  computer  but  the 'pages' are easier to read than they would be if they were web pages and online.

Here are these two options for this post and this page:

Convert this page to a PDF

Give them both a try.

Paperless me? Not quite but almost there.

I don't have a position on paper per se. Wonderful material. Love the printed effect and the graphic interface. Taught me all I need to know. Grew up reading from it.

But as I've become more and more digital,  my reliance on moist cellulose fibers pressed together, is falling away.

I still read of course but I am so web dependent that most of what I read is online through the wonders of RSS and other syndication feeds.

I don't buy a daily newspaper to read.  I subscribe  to several online. So at my desk or mobile device I  browse:

The Australian, The Courier Mail, The Sydney Morning Herald, Green Left Weekly, The Brisbane Times, The Queensland Times, The Suncoast Daily, The Gympie Times, The Caboolture Herald, A Jazeera, The Gympie Times, ABC news, LabourStart...etc

I also subscribe to many audio  feeds and can selectively listen in my own time to any number of programs news, views and otherwise. On top of that are my selections of video resources -- all syndicated to me which I can browse and select from before downloading the content.. Then there are the news tips I pick up on Facebook or from the egroups I subscribe to.

So I am newsed up  without a newspaper to my name.

In fact when you add the blogs and sundry other subscriptions I indulge in on my Google Reader  -- and at the moment I subscribe to just under 500 'feeds' -- I'm in information overload without being papered one bit.

Since I have the use of an iPad I am using that device more and more as a 'book' reading resource and indulge myself with the occasional ebook. A whole library -- of once were paper product -- is now at my digital fingertips without me having to enlarge the domestic bookcase.

Ah, remember the days when moving house was so much about moving books...? Hundreds of books weighted up with pages of substance that had to be carted around with your shifting domicile? Now I keep only a few books for sentimental value and re-reading purposes in three milk crates behind me. I am a cured biblioholic.

The hard copy books I do read -- and I still do read hard copy books every day of my digital existence -- I order online and pick them up at the branch of the local library.And now and then I buy an ebook -- but only a rare now and then. I am public library dependent.

The irony is that picking up the books and carting their paper  made kilogramage is the most irksome of reading tasks. Hard copy is indeed always heavy reading.

As for daily newspapers ,  I may peruse a copy of the day's edition in a coffee shop if I'm caffeinating. 

So Mr Murdoch -- Rupert --  I am so terribly sorry that I am biting into your profit margin.  

Perhaps this trend -- of which I am but one indicative statistic --  begins to explain why my letterbox is overloaded several times each week with junk mail. 

Junk mail: paper's last fight back.

If it wasn't for receiving the occasional bill and my overwhelming addiction to  toilet paper,  I would not have my hand on a sheet a paper for days on end.

My Boutique Note Taking : "Once heard, my dear Copperfield, make a note of."

WC Fields as Mr Micawber

The Moleskine

Since I use Google Chrome as my browser I am much taken with the Extensions available for any number of online tasks.

In normal everyday activity I rely on my Moleskine  which, while significantly dearer than most pocket note books, is without doubt the very best portable form I've ever used for out and about note taking.

So while I hand write my scribbles of this and that and standardly use the soft cover Moleskine to plot out my Mindmapping  -- a practice I am fortunately dependent upon -- there are times that I want to register my note taking online.

This is where a few Chrome Extensions are of use.

• For annotating pages to remind me about significant content I use Note Anywhere. I note my bookmarks with Note Anywhere, for instance.
• Since I'm not a calendar driven person I use RemindMe for upcoming events or schedules.
• And for my What is to be done lists I'm experimenting with Todoist...

This is not about being obsessive as I have cognitive issues as a consequence of my chronic illness. To be able to engineer some measure of technical control over my existence -- to plan what you do so that there is method in the mental mess -- is a discipline I am absolutely dependent upon in order to live a less handicapped life.

To be able to note down any odd or sod of information -- when you know that your mind won't do it for you -- is sort of empowering.

Using Blogger for internet bookmarking and social tagging -- delicious not.

I have been a keen user of delicious --  an online social bookmarking and tagging platform  . The biziness of bookmarking is quintessential Web 2.0 best practice . But delicious stumbled when it was integrated with Yahoo and dumb buggers like me followed the prompts and  integrated their Yahoo account with my delicious one.

Not only am I now locked out of delicious directly but I can no longer sign in using mobile devices like the iPad.

This glitch throws up in sharp relief the other issues I've  had with  delicious -- such  as the crude tagging methodology of being restricted to one word tags and the cumbersome almost non existent search options.

So now I'm saying; stuff this/stuff  delicious -- I'm going out on my own.

The extension/bookmarklet blogthis! is a very simple and easy way to bookmark a url and save it to a Blogger blog. Since I am a keen Blogger blogger -- and hacker hobbyist -- the attributes of Blogger  are some things I can trust and rely on  in this crazy mixed up world much more than I have  remaining confidence in   delicious.

Blogger  is a better bookmarking option than delicious because...

1. you can compose  tags longer than one word and simply separate the completed tag/label with a comma. On Blogger the tag "Social Networking"  can be used as is. But on delicious it would have to be written "Social_networking" or  using a similar one word squish.
2. Blogger has an inbuilt search function that not only will search tags, headers, but also bookmarked content that is published as part of the blogthis! post.
3. you can play around with page layout to customize your preferences. I like to keep all tags in front of me no matter where I go so that I have all search options at my fingertips. So  I've moved the label/tag widget to the top of the page and keep the past archive on the side panel .
4. since I've deployed the great Whiteness template design by  QUITE RANDOM all my posts are automatically published with a 'jump break' (a 'read more...' hack). This means they get listed as short posts --rather than full ones --on the top or search and label pages.
5. Blogger also enables me to post enclosures like images or media so that I can selectively arrange the elements I want to include in my bookmark.I can also edit bookmarks easily, taking out and adding elements and notes as well as altering and adding tags/labels.
6. Blogger's tag/label editing function is much more powerful and user friendly than that on delicious (above right).
7. You can integrate your bookmark blog with your other blog presence and of course use the same account to post to it.
8. Blogger also gives you the option of creating an email address which will enable you to post content to the blog -- bookmark content if you include a url -- by sending an email to it (below). I am exploring the email option as a means to post content from my iPad.

Even in situations where I don't have access to blogthis! most share buttons on websites  will enable you to post the link as a Blogger post. If you want to then later forward these bookmarked urls to either Facebook or Twitter you can do that manually or rig up an automatic process using the blog's feed.
\
Since I use Google Chrome as my preferred browser --and I'm sure this is also on offer in Firefox -- I use the Add toAny extension for all my bookmarking, including to Blogger.

If using a mobile device like the iPad it is easy to rig up your browser for posting content and links via email. I use Atomic Browser on the iPad and emailing bookmarked content  works fine. The only drawback is the iPad's cumbersome copy/paste functionality.

The three major handicaps with Blogger as a bookmarking tool are:

1. If you have several blogs, as I do, you can accidentally post content to the wrong blog 
2. When you post using bookmarking tools like buttons or blogthis! you cannot add a label/tag with the post. You need to edit  that in later.
3. If you don't use BlogThis! your post header won't be the bookmarked url -- that will be located in the body of the post.

That said, here's the site so far: Dave Riley's bookmarks -- bookmarketed.blogspot.com.

Still under construction..

Posting via email tip:

If you  supply hyperlink html syntax in the email subject  line your post will be published with the link as a header  (although this may vary with email programs)The HTML code for a link is a simple a href exercise

Hack notes

• If you switch on  Show link fields (Blogger/Settings/Formatting) so you can add and customize  links to the header if you want.
• And while the header of the blog post will be a link back to the bookmarked url the "Read more.." link will take you to the rest of your published post.
• If you want to group labels/tags Blogger allows you to create any number of label widgets and select which labels you want included in each one. If you use the drop down label hack you can get some snazzy groupings  down your side column without taking up a lot of space. See bookmarketed.blogspot.com. for examples.

More iPadery : computer grazing

Since I am indeed hooked on the iPad experience I thought an update was warranted...You'll get one anyway.

I use the iPad around the house -- preferring it to being sentenced to the one computer desk.I use it in bed, on a lounge chair, at the kitchen table or work bench...if I was careless, I could bathe with it.

That mobility means that I can lay out my torso in a lot of difference ergonomic options -- move around -- even locate  the tablet  at different locations on my body or at varying distances from my eyes.

It's computer grazing as distinct from browsing.

I've got myself some books on the iPad --starting with the standard approach level stuff: iPad for Dummies -- and each day I skill up.

I am still delighted with what it offers in way of reading text . I'm now also using another excellent  free ebook reading app -- Stanza -- which also offers an eclectic range of free titles drawn from several libraries. Stanza  is not as intuitive as iBook -- Apples' own ebook reader --  but once you master the interface it has all the attributes you need to plow through any volume.

The sheer ease and convenience these eBook readers offer you make me wonder about the future of print and hard copy. When I was a young'un my preferred quest was to own my own extensive library and over the years I carted around from one rental accommodation to the next an ever growing number (and weight!) of books (and records). Ah biblioholia! I'd always be out and about with at least one paperback in my pocket or bag -- and read , read, read on trains, trams and buses, at cafes and at any spare moment.

Now I have a world of books -- many more than I could have physically collected -- at my fingertips on the iPad screen anywhere anytime.  And for free or cheaper than the shops.

I ceased to haunt bookshops long ago when I became library savvy and my hard copy collection would now number maybe a few dozen cherished texts which I re-read time and time again.

On top of this, sites I use a lot like Scribd not only offer a massive pdf collection of contributed books and other literature items in pdf --  self publishers will soon be able to sell  their works through Scribd store and Stanza also has a category dedicated to self published works and small publishers: SmashWords:

Smashwords is a free service that helps you publish, promote, distribute and sell your masterpiece as a multi-format ebook, ready for immediate sale online at a price you determine. Because we publish your book in multiple ebook formats, your book is readable on any e-reading device, including the Amazon Kindle, the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, the Sony Reader, the Barnes & Noble nook, your personal computer, Android devices, and others. As a Smashwords author, you gain access to free, do-it-yourself sales and marketing tools to help you promote your book. You receive 85 percent of the net sales proceeds from your titles (70.5% for affiliate sales)....If you're the exclusive publisher of two or more different authors, and you want to list and control your authors' titles on Smashwords, then upgrade your account for free to Publisher status. This allows you to list and publish all your authors and their titles as multi-format, DRM-free ebooks. Each publisher is provided a custom-branded online bookstore, and the ability to list an unlimited number of ebook titles from an unlimited number of authors

So while the youth may be wetting themselves over the iPad's multimedia attributes --and it is a iPod /iTunes like device with superb HD video -- the humble line of text  jumps out of the  tablet in a new and very creative  way.

Nonetheless, before iPading as your chosen (and only) eBookery option, it is worth while considering other ebook reader platforms.

• eBooks compared (Wikipedia)
• eBooks: Tipping or Vanishing Point?
  

Some quick thoughts on Ipad-ery

I am experiencing the iPad at first hand -- as I am using what is , for now, my daughter's iPad.

And I love it!

I am going through a revolution in my computer interfacery.

The irony is that I most value the iPad because it is such a useful eBook reader -- but then it is much easier to read the web on the iPad than on a standard  computer screen with clickity mouse moves.

I don't have access to a iMac so I cannot sync between  machines -- and an iPad is engineered to force you to Mac up -- so my experience is limited.

I was very disappointed with the web access I got via Safari. I'm a  keen user of Google Chrome and I may be waiting some months before Chrome is made available (if at all,as not at all is more likely) as an iPad app. Nonetheless, I purchased a Google reader app -- Reeder -- which has completely changed my access to the feeds I subscribe to. What a dream read it is! I'm still stuck with a less than serviceable access to Google Mail inside Safari  but another app -- GoodReader -- has greatly enhanced my iPad access to online files, especially those in pdf format -- and any archive I may have on Google Docs. Without GoodReader, pdf is a pain on iPad.

The only significant  drawbacks with the iPad are:

• It doesn't support flash. However, many sites are converting their multimedia to accomodate this quirk of the  iPad. 
• The 'pop up' keyboard can be cumbersome to use especially when  entering text for some online sites(eg: Blogger  and facebook comments)
• It's engineered to screw you for money. iPad is set up as an emporium funded by your credit card.

But hey! I'm hooked. I suspect that this little gadget formats the future for personal computing. eBooking rather than hard copy publishing too seems the way ahead. That I can switch between reading a free novel and checking on my facebook profile or the latest news online via text or video, while being located anywhere I may be at, suggests that we are in a new era.

'tis one that I appreciate.

Update: I solved some of my browser issues by using the 'Atomic Web browser app. 'Tis a much better browser than Safari esp  for those who prefer tabs and like to play around with bookmarks.

I was also asked about Kindle vs iPad. ...Well, you  get Kindle with iPad, along with iBooks and Borders ebook readers. The programs are more or less similar  but the big difference is that with iPad you also get web access so you also get to read the web with a much better digital text  experience .

Above left is an online LINKS article as it appears on the iPad with a little touch screen formatting -- and that's merely a single hand gesture --opening a hand -- and with 'scrolling' like stroking a kitten.


Online reading is a totally new experience.

Compare that presentation to the way it appears on a standard computer screen (image left) at some distance from your nose.

I'm reading Dickens' Tale of Two Cities on iBooks at the moment and the past 400 pages have been a great joy to read. I prefer these eBook offerings to holding and visually scanning hard copy.

Reading is a totally new experience.

You can get a combination in-your-hand  and  eBook reader that also offer web access by using a netbook. But a netbook aint gonna be as comfortable to hold as the iPad or a dedicated eBook reader.Even when you pivot the text, holding the thing for any length of time is  going to be cumbersome.

If you check out JB Hi Fi you'll  see some cheaper eBook readers than either Kindle or iPad  and, you should note that  the Wink was launched in India  last month . If you are after an eBook reader and only that --  why pay big bucks?

In a few months, Google is set to launch its own tablet to compete with the iPad.

Tablets are go. This may indeed be the end of hard copy.

So would I get a dedicated eBook reader and miss out on 'reading' the web the way I can do now with the iPad? No way. I want my eCake and I want to  eat it too.

Nonetheless, the iPad is  designed to be codependent with an iMac especially the way content  is synced .   It Apple-izes you  because the best way to experience the iPad as a adjunct to the iMac.

You become part of the Steve Jobs business plan.