Amazon Kindle 3 silicone soft case and screen protector

FoneM8's Silicone case and screen protector for the Kindle 3 is a bargain buy. It provides protection from bumps, debris, finger presents and miscellaneous damaging agents for a fraction of the price of other covers available. 

A few things to note though, the cover I purchased had reversed page turn buttons on the left side - forward and backward ever reversed causing me to think my kindle was malfunctioning for a little while. And the only other thing is near the 5 directional key, the right direction key press is harder with the cover as it blocks the finger from fully pressing down on it.

Overall this cover is a great solution to protecting your Kindle 3. It fits both the Wifi only and 3G models, and at such an incredible price not to be passed up.

Firefox shortcuts

Image via Wikipedia

I know browsing online is usually a one handed activity with most people blissfully unaware that there are more than a few ways to hasten processes. Granted browsing faster isn't the goal here, it's browsing more efficiently. We all know how draining it can be in most cases, especially when the time frame extends to more than an hour or so. 

Here are some shortcuts that I stumbled upon and thought i'd make it into a limited, non-exhaustive, compendium and add to it from other sources and my own trials in the future. **** I've only tried these out on Firefox 3.6.13 so don't know if they are valid on other versions or browsers. ****

In the address bar, which is where you type in the website's address or URL (pronounced Earl) you can just type the name of the site without the prefix and suffix and press the following for a few different domain extensions:

• Control + Enter - inserts the site name within www and .com
• Shift + Enter - inserts the site name within www and .net
• Control + Shift + Enter - inserts the site name within www and .org

If there are multiple tabs open, then holding down the Control key and pressing the Tab key will successively cycle through the open tabs. Control + 'T' will open a new tab.

To navigate between web pages, Control + Left arrow will take you the previous page you were one and Control + Right arrow will take you to the next latest page opened.

Happy [efficient] browsing folks. And happy holidays.

Related articles

• FireFox and the Back button (edugeek.net)

RED, a personal review

RED was unexpectedly delightful and entertaining. A movie about retired agency veterans who are now deemed liabilities and targeted. The retirees however prove that they're stalwart as ever. The scenarios are somewhat whimsical but stay within the bounds of reality, somewhat.
Bar one certain scene which seemed a bit surreal and unmistakeably CGI-like, the action sequences were explosive and enthralling without being over the top. The scene in question is where Bruce Willis non-nonchalantly steps out of a skidding car; it looks more realistic in the movie than in the trailers.
The plot isn't too complex, but sufficient. RED is one of the few pleasant surprises of fall 2010.

 R.E.D. the movie

And the winner is: Amazon's Kindle Wifi

So without blogging further details about other e-readers (first), I decided to go ahead with the Kindle Wifi.

For a variety of reasons I chose the Kindle over the others, primarily because of value. Even though being in Ireland means I had to put up with ridiculous shipping and import charges (estimated) from the US Amazon site,

                [ note: It's not possible to purchase from Amazon.co.uk if you're in Ireland or other countries; 

                       it is a good deal for UK residents though. ]

it still only cost me around € 147 in total. Comparing that to other top brands with 6 inch screens, it's a bargain. ****The only comparable pricing (€ 100-150) I could get was with the Sony PRS - 600 touch and pocket models available at Hughes & Hughes in the Stephen's Green Shopping Center in Dublin. But that's last year's model with glare issues.****

On a side note, I did have use for my laws of purchasing in deciding. The first one was completely fulfilled since it's been a good few years since I came across the [my] first ever e-reader. I'm assuming it was the Sony PRS 300 from youtube videos. It looked like a novel idea but the price was inhibitive and the refresh rate for pages was painful. The second rule was hard to follow at first, but, eventually, international shipping and duties made it a hell of a lot easier. I had wanted (still do) the Kindle DX, which is more suitable for textbooks and content with diagrams, reference material etc. but factoring in the extra costs drove it to the upper limits of € 300 mark. Not to mention that with upcoming technological advances such colour e-readers, simliar to e-ink technology, virtue of companies like mirasol (Anticipated to enter the fray and with larger screens with more features inevitably becoming cheaper within the next year or so) the Wifi only model seems a very prudent purchase.

The Kindle's built-in Wifi was a strong selling point. Even though the primary use isn't web-browsing, it does enable searching for books and getting more information possible on the go and without being tethered to a computer.The only difference between the Wifi and 3G models is the 3G and that isn't very compelling to pay a higher price. A larger screen on the other hand would've warranted it. Now I just have to wait to get my hands on it to review and read like a mad scientist, or some other person who likes reading, madly.

Dony's three laws of purchasing

Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics enabled otherwise sentient robots from harming humans, following commands of their masters and self preservation; each law being unequivocal where it didn't contravene the previous rule. This was of course an umbrella logic on top of an already complex reasoning ability, logic and burgeoning sentient cognizance. Its use was only in circumstances of great perplexity, a sort of short-circuit to action.

These rules are reminiscent of those robotic laws, where, in a bid to protect myself from myself, and profit hungry corporations, I've come upon a set which should provide a failsafe when I would hit a certain inevitable dilemma - value of a technology versus cost, more importantly, affordability given my limited financial means and ever quickening obsolescence of technology. Even though it would go against my wants, it should present favour to one side more than the other thus breaking dead-lock in choices or incessant vacillation in the most extreme cases.

Ergo, Dony's rules of acquiring technology are thus:

1. Never buy first generation.
   (There are almost always technical shortcomings and limited to no user based adaptations. In other words no real world testing.)
2. Never buy the most expensive item in any category. Opt for middle to second most.
   (Given Moore's law, technology usually obsolesces at a set rate. It's not worth paying that high a price anyway. Middle rates are more economical and yields comparatively, if not significantly, lesser buyers' remorse if the decision isn't up to par.)
3. Forgo the previous two rules if exceptionally wealthy or cost of the device is 1/6th, or less, of monthly income and/or of vital importance.
   (This is of course notwithstanding rent, other expenses or obligations)

signed - I, Dony.

These rules should hasten decision making and yield less expense, and guilt, in acquisition which should free up revenue for acquiring future purchases. One shortcoming is that this is most salient to offerings from the same company. Of course, with a little modification it should aid in selecting the right purchase from various companies' offerings. Happy hunting.

Where to find free e-books

Image via Wikipedia

Looking into the E-reader scene, one of my driving factors in garnering which device would be the best buy was the availability of free E-books from sources other than the proprietary ones. This list is a selection of ones I found and is reassuring that whichever device you choose, most sites seem to offer formats that work with all the major devices out there. Plus the availability of free E-books adds in favor of buying an E-book period.

free-sony-ebooks.com

Clicking on titles takes you to www.smashwords.com but still appears to be connected to the site. Formats available are:

• Kindle (.mobi)
• EPub
• LRF (Sony)
• Palm Doc (PDB)
• PDF
• RTF (Rich Text Format)
• Plain Text (viewable online and download)
• Online Reading (HTML or Javascript)

www.feedbooks.com

At first glance it seems that the only available format is Epub, but the supported devices page provides a few different avenues. It includes a link to a dedicated Kindle page.
Formats available:

• Epub
• Kindle (.mobi)

www.gutenberg.org

Formats Available:

• HTML
• Epub
• Kindle
• PDF
• Plucker
• QiOO Mobile

www.bookyards.com 

Formats available:

PDF

www.archive.org 

Haven't explored this yet so unable to comment on formats or other information. Contains a list of sites that could potentially yield E-books freely. Included among them is gutenberg.org so might be promising.

manybooks.net 

This site seems to have decent quality and range of downloads.

• Formats available:
• ePub (.epub)
• eReader (.pdb)
• Kindle (.azw)
• Mobipocket (.mobi and .prc)
• PDF - regular, custom and large (.pdf)
• Plain text (.txt)
• RTF (.rtf)
• Sony Reader (.lrf)

openlibrary.org

I haven't been able to look into this one yet. First impressions seems to be more of a indexical site than a free resource.

Related articles

• Converting between Kindle, epub, etc. (sebastianmarshall.com)
• Google Editions: a history of ebooks (telegraph.co.uk)
• Best Sources for eBooks | Chamber Four (chamberfour.com)
• Understanding eBook Formats (brighthub.com)

Reasons to get an E-Reader

Image via Wikipedia

Lately, my attention has been focused on E-readers. The reasons I'm pining for one are:

1. I love books, and having lost a small collection of them a few years ago, I'm not hard pinned to invest money building a new one; so having a e-reader makes perfect sense as it would be hard to lose your collection as you can take it with you anywhere you go. 
2. The fact what you can have everything you own with you at all times is a given.
3. I read a bit of technical and reference books and most of the time I need my hands elsewhere and would require 2-3 books at a time. An e-reader cuts down on the hassle and clutter.
4. I tend to read 3-4 leisure books at the same time and couldn't possibly carry all of them with me at all times.
5. Being able to look down and trounce people who relegate e-readers as a fad and how they'll never take place of physical books. (Your opinions don't count you dinosaurs!)

Those are the "Why's" and "I wanna's." When it to comes to the question of selecting one, there are a slew of options. I had been waiting for the 1st and 2nd generation readers to pass as the response times were sluggish when turning pages, not to mention the price.

At present the prices have dropped, with brand name devices running around € 100 to over mid € 200. The only contention being that most of them are locked into their proprietary makers' e-book stores and formats. Some offer common existent formats such as .txt, .pdf etc but their rendering is either slow or lacking, and the much talked about ePub format is currently in the discussion phase. When amalgamated, it will enable an universal format for nearly all publishers and manufacturers thus enabling near similar reproduction on every device and opening up libraries to all users.

I will hopefully be delving into the details of specific e-readers soon enough. Till then hold your noses people.