Month: July 2011

about time – electronic textbook rentals

On By Rick McIn economics, education, good newsLeave a comment

… Students can already save a few bucks by opting for a digital version of a textbook over a hardcover, and they can now save even more courtesy of Amazon if they aren’t too intent on hanging onto the book after they’re done with it. The company has just announced textbook rentals for Kindle, which promises to let students save “up to 80 percent” off the list price of those often pricey textbooks. That discount varies depending on the rental period — which can be anywhere from 30 to 360 days —

… The National Association of College Stores estimates that U.S. college stores posted $10.25 billion in sales for the 2009-2010 fiscal year with each student spending $745 on average.

read more on Mashable

This is only the beginning of the end for the many ripoffs associated with the textbook industry, but at least it is a start.

Steve Wozniak autobiography

On By Rick McIn Apple, books3 Comments

Steve Jobs and Warren Long are of the same era.

If Warren was not so involved in Gymnastics at Berkeley, he might have found himself at the Homebrew Computer Club, hanging out with Steve Wozniak and the other Bay Area geeks.

Stephen Gary “Woz” Wozniak (born August 11, 1950) is an American computer engineer and programmer who co-founded Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. His inventions and machines are credited with contributing significantly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. Wozniak created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s.

I read his charmingly simplistic (2006) autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It, transcribed by writer Gina Smith.

It’s quite a different telling of the founding of Apple than any other I’ve heard. And you really get to love Woz after hearing the tale in his own words.

Wonderful are the stories of him and Jobs being pulled into a police car in their phone phreaking youth. Of their struggles to get together any money at all to pursue their passion for their dream of the personal computer.

Woz really did personally invent the ancient ancestor of current laptops. I believe him.

Wozniak discusses his main reasons for finally writing his autobiography was to dispel several myths that surround his history, and that of Apple Computer. Including:

He developed the Apple II almost independently, not with a lot of help from Jobs

He didn’t leave Apple; he is still, in fact, officially employed by Apple

He didn’t have a “falling out” with Jobs (except right after the development of CL 9) and is still friends with him

Wozniak ends his book with advice to others, particularly the youth, on how to develop their own inventions and encourages them to ignore the mainstream and follow their own passions and ideas.

Of the many thousands of Silicon Valley missed opportunities (including some for Warren) the success of Steve, Steve and Apple I attribute to:

– the excellent partnership of Steve and Steve
– Woz getting more things right in the earliest days than anyone else

When Woz was developing those first 2 Apple computers in his spare time, he worked for HP. They did not invite him to work on the HP prototypes. Idiots.

At the same time Steve Jobs worked for Atari, who did appreciate his skill set. Years later I was to buy my first computers, Atari. I had friends that bought Apple, but I couldn’t afford them at the time.

Warren bought the other competitor – the Commodore Amiga. Actually, Warren was mainly an Atari guy too. I misremembered.

Leave a comment if you’ve any personal nostaligia to add.

Gymnaestrada highlights, Switzerland

On By Rick McIn gymnasticsLeave a comment

This is what I am enjoying all this week.

National Evenings are designed to give participating FIG member federations an opportunity to present a range of Gymnastics for All activities, featuring a blend of folkloric and culturally specific characteristics.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Millennium Trilogy – a review

On By Rick McIn books, movies1 Comment

The Millennium series … bestselling novels originally written in Swedish by the late Stieg Larsson. Originally, ten books in total were planned, but only three were completed. The novels in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, were first published in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. …

The primary characters in the series are Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Lisbeth is an intelligent, eccentric woman in her twenties with a photographic memory and poor social skills. Blomkvist is an investigative journalist with a history similar to Larsson’s.

An unlikely success.

Clearly Larsson was no skilled author. He breaks most of the rules on what makes a successful novel. Yet the series kept me engaged throughout. If a 4th novel is ever released, I’ll buy it too.

I liked that the books are unapologetically Swedish. But never have I read any books with so much unnecessary (infuriating) detail. If I had a krona for every coffee in those 3 books, … I’d have a lot of kronor.

A skilled murder mystery writer – Ian Rankin, for example – could make one excellent novel out of the 3 simply by eliminating every factoid and character unimportant to the actual story.

Why did any publisher accept those manuscripts?

Salander is a truly weird and fascinating character. Very original.

Also well done were the endings of each. I could not guess in advance on what would happen.

The exotic setting appealed to me, too.

I guess I recommend these books, if there is anyone out there who has not yet read them. No doubt you’ve already heard warnings about the scenes of violent sex.

Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.

Scandinavian TV and movie adaptations have already been released.

In the American movies, Daniel Craig will play Mikael Blomkvist, Rooney Mara Lisbeth Salander. The 3 films are slated for release in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

RIP Clarence Clemons

On By Rick McIn music, photosLeave a comment

Clarence Clemons, the legendary saxophonist in the E Street Band who played alongside Bruce Springsteen for the past 40 years, died on June 18th from complications from a stroke. He was 69.

From Eric Meola’s 1975 photo session with Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons in Manhattan.

survived Corsica’s GR 20 …

On By Rick McIn hiking, travel6 Comments

I grossly underestimated the difficulty of “Europe’s toughest trek“, the 180km long GR 20.

The second night was my low point, both hamstrings cramped. … I thought I’d need to quit, following two other hikers who decided to limp out due to blisters.

But each day I got stronger, the pack lighter. I ended up doing the tougher ‘half’ of the total route over 6 challenging days.

The last day was a long scramble to the summit of Monte d’Oro.

That was FUN. Perfect weather.

Less fun, from there (7837ft / 2389m) … it’s about 1400m straight down to the narrow gauge railway line at Vizzavona, where I made my escape.

That’s my toughest hike ever, by far.