Ereader Assessment
I’ve had a Kindle for about a year now and have used it quite a lot (but by no means exclusively).
Recently, I had a chance to play around with a Nook Simple Touch. I thought I would share a few observations for the benefit of anyone interested in comparing these ereaders.
The Kindle 3 keyboard and “SYM” punctuation menu.
Click here to read the rest of the post…
Posted on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012.
Drawing the “Hairy Mango”
Here is a portrait I did of Matthew Sanborn Smith, SF author and host of the hilarious bite-size bizarro podcast Beware the Hairy Mango. Matthew recently put out a call for fan art (“fart”). Coincidentally, I’ve been kicking around the idea of a portfolio of podcast host portraits, so I took the opportunity to practice taking a drawing from sketchbook doodle to finished composition, such as it is. At right is my sketch (based on Matthew’s Twitter icon) and at left is the digital version. The background colors are based on the podcast’s website color scheme and the rest of the palette is, of course, mango-colored.
I hope to continue doing more art projects. Help establish the habit and follow my new Weekend Artifact series!
Posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012.
Running Lights
Why don’t more people lace mini LED lights into their shoelaces? Probably because it would be distracting and useless. It sure looks cool from six inches away, though.
Posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2012.
Weekend Artifact 1 for February 5, 2012
Let’s start a little series. I’ll feature some creative artifact here each weekend. It won’t necessarily be a drawing, but that’s most likely. Here’s a sketch to get started:
Your comments and constructive criticisms are welcome.
Posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2012.
Strange Horizons ebook issue generator
Attentive readers may notice I’ve been on a bit of an ebook kick recently. Here’s a tool I made to generate ebook issues of Strange Horizons, an SF magazine:
Strange Horizons is a weekly magazine of and about speculative fiction. Calibre is a free and open source ebook library management application.
Calibre has an extensible system “for downloading news from the Internet and converting it into an ebook.” The scripts Calibre uses to retrieve and format news are known as recipes. Recipes can be configured as simple RSS readers or as custom Python scripts using Calibre’s recipe API.
Strange Horizons is published online as a web site. This Calibre recipe retrieves the current issue of Strange Horizons and outputs an ebook suitable for reading on a Kindle or other ereader device.
The script and other details, including installation and usage notes, are available on GitHub. It is included with Calibre since Calibre version 0.8.38.
Update, March 4, 2012: This script has been acknowledged on the Strange Horizons blog.
Posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012.
Text Justification with the Kindle Collections Plugin for Calibre
I recently mentioned that I used Calibre to enable left justification on my Kindle. More precisely, the justification option is a minor feature of the Kindle Collections plugin. The plugin’s primary purpose is to help organize collections on your Kindle. I find it a bit complicated for that purpose, but I was happy to discover a way to enable left justification. (Turns out there are other ways to do it, too.) Full justification looks great when typeset well, as is usually the case in printed books, but in some circumstances it doesn’t appear quite so stately on the Kindle. In these cases, I prefer the “ragged right” of left justification to distracting gaps or rivers within the text itself.
Like screenshots? Read on for a step-by-step guide.
Posted on Monday, January 30th, 2012.
Calibre Content Server
Calibre is an ebook management application. You can use it to convert ebooks to different formats, to edit metadata, or to organize and browse your ebook library. It can also act as a “Content Server”, providing an easy way to publish a searchable online catalog of your ebooks. This feature is useful for accessing your ebooks on different computers and devices. It could also be useful for libraries or research groups interested in sharing material over the internet.
In this post, I’ll show how to setup the Calibre Content Server and share a few examples.
Posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012.
Eat the Rich
Note: I do not officially condone graffiti or cannibalism. I just thought it was a fun photo-op.
Posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012.
2012
- Sub-5:00 mile. Another marathon.
- Assemble a portfolio to demonstrate and develop my creative abilities.
- Travel more. Possibly but not necessarily by bike.
Posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012.
2011 Recap
How did I do on my goals for 2011?
- Philadelphia marathon. Did it in 3:29:55. I’m a marathoner! Will do more. Breaking 5:00 in the mile remains a goal for this year.
- Brick Blueprint, an idea for a custom LEGO instruction store focused on remixing existing sets. Scrapped it.
- Build a bicycle. Did it. Over 1500 miles on the odometer now. No big tours, though – just one s24o camping trip.
- Career transition. Time to pop the clutch on latent plans to do something new: funding for the EvoS gig has fizzled. Abrupt, yes, but a narrow and labyrinthian path has suddenly opened onto a spacious plain of possibility.
Not too bad. I’m excited to see what the year ahead holds.
Posted on Monday, January 9th, 2012.