Category: books

downloading library audio books

On By Rick McIn books, product complaintsLeave a comment

Yup.

I finally did it.

Downloaded an audio book from my local public library website. And transferred it from a Mac to my iPod.

overdriveipod250

For years audio books have been available. But I found it impossible to download them to an Apple computer.

The Calgary Public Library opted to partner with a company called OverDrive, Inc. . (boo, hiss)

I doubt there’s a more complicated, difficult way to download an audio book than the disaster called Overdrive Media Console. You must choose from downloads in 12 different formats!

Overdrive-is-too-complicated

Complicated, or what?

In the mean time iTunes, Amazon and Audible downloads are one click from any computer. Dead simple.

… OverDrive has faced criticism from some libraries and library patrons for its use of digital rights management protection technology from Microsoft on the audiobooks it distributes. This form of content protection prevents Apple Mac and iPod users from using digital audiobooks from their library’s download website on their Apple devices.

In March 2008, OverDrive announced that it would distribute a collection of around 3,000 audiobooks in the MP3 format. These audiobooks will be compatible with most digital audio players including the iPod.

On November 19, 2008, OverDrive also released the OverDrive Media Console for Mac, which allows Mac owners to download and listen to MP3 audiobooks from their library on a home computer. …

They’ve done everything they can to keep their downloads off the #1 listening device in the world. Especially if you use an Apple computer.

I’ve yet another reason to hate digital rights management protection technology from Microsoft.


Libraries … If you don’t want me to “borrow” audio books, no problem. But don’t pretend you offer this service, then make the process so difficult borrowers want to kill themselves.

My advice. Dump OverDrive, Inc.

There’s no “fixing” that mess.

Randy McCharles published

On By Rick McIn books, McCharles family, product endorsements1 Comment

My brother had an award winning novella selected for Tor’s annual best of Fantasy fiction.

Twenty-eight doses of wonder. From the distant past to the present day, from Antarctica and Mars to worlds that never were, the tales in this book bring news from nowhere-and everywhere. Fantasy is a mode of storytelling, a method of entertainment, a mode of argument, and a way of seeing. Here, presented by two of the most distinguished anthologists of the day, are twenty-eight stories that see, tell, argue, and entertain.

Fantasy-9

Tor store – Year’s Best Fantasy 9

Congrats, Bro.

Randy at work - photographer Robert Sawyer
Randy at work - photographer Robert Sawyer

It’s got an odd title for a work of fantasy: “Ringing in the Changes in Okotoks, Alberta”. (Good press for Okotoks.)

Despite that, fans across Canada voted it BEST SHORT-FORM WORK IN ENGLISH. … How do I nominate it for the Auroras and the Hugos ??

Coincidentally, when he was getting his award in Montreal, he received a second special award as organizer of the 2008 World Fantasy convention in Calgary.

This is Randy’s second publication by Tor, I think. The first was Tesseracts Twelve.

new TV show – FlashForward

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsements, TV3 Comments

It’s based on a novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer published in 1999.

The new TV series is getting good buzz and looks to be a keeper.

Series Premiere: Thursday, September 24th, 2009. 8/7c on ABC.

Click PLAY or watch a promo on YouTube.

The full premiere episode can be watched online on ABC … IF you live in the USA. I can’t find it available online from Canada. (Me thinks I need to go to Hawaii to watch it.)

I’m a big fan of Robert J. Sawyer. The only way he’ll ever make much money, however, is if his books are used for TV and movies.

Sawyer is a good friend of my brother Randy who tells me that ABC expects a 5yr run of the TV show. The plan is that it will replace LOST in their lineup.

CTV.ca will stream it online free for Canadians.

Click through to (Ep. 101) “No More Good Days” Series Premiere

Apple 3rd generation iPod Shuffle

On By Rick McIn Apple, audiocasts, books, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Love it. Love it. Love it.

But only because of the proprietary Apple headphones system added with the 3rd generation.

Click PLAY or watch a review on YouTube.

My only complaint is the 10hr battery life. That’s much shorter than my iTouch used only for audio.

The feature Apple doesn’t explain on their website is this:

• Double-click and hold the center button to fast-forward
• Triple-click and hold the center button to rewind

Macintouch

Essential for audio books and podcasts.

Now, Steve, when can you sell me an iPod with decent wireless headphones?

Ian Rankin – Inspector Rebus books

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Since I was in Edinburgh, I listened to one of the classic ‘Tartan Noir‘ Inspector Rebus books, A Question of Blood.

Given his contempt for authority, his tendency to pursue investigative avenues of his own choosing, and his habitually ornery manner, it’s a wonder that John Rebus hasn’t been booted unceremoniously from his job as an Edinburgh cop. He certainly tempts that fate again in A Question of Blood, which finds him and his younger partner, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, trying to close the case of a withdrawn ex-soldier named Lee Herdman, who apparently shot three teenage boys at a Scottish private school, leaving two of them dead, before turning the pistol on himself.

“There’s no mystery,” Siobhan insists at the start of this 14th Rebus novel (following Resurrection Men). “Herdman lost his marbles, that’s all.” However, the hard-drinking, chain-smoking Rebus, who’d once sought entry into the same elite regiment in which Herdman served (but ultimately cracked under psychological interrogation), thinks there’s more motive than mania behind this classroom slaughter. …

book-cover

A Question of Blood

Excellent.

I could not get into the Ian Rankin presentation at the Edinburgh Book Festival. (Everything popular is sold out quickly.) Same problem with another big name there, Margaret Atwood.

I understand that Exit Music (2007) is supposed to be the 17th and last Rebus book. I’ll put that on my audible wish list.

UPDATE – Exit Music turned out to be his retirement book. But Rebus keeps popping up in subsequent books. 

The Painted Veil

On By Rick McIn books, movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I finally got around to one of the only W. Somerset Maugham books I had not read:

The Painted Veil (1925)

… Shallow and lost, Kitty marries the intellectual and passionate Walter Fane, a bacteriologist on leave from the Far East who is madly in love with her. She does this purely so that she can be married before her younger sister, Doris, and to get away from her mother. They move to Hong Kong where, bored by the stifling climate and social mores, Kitty quickly starts an affair with the “perfect” Charles Townsend, the handsome assistant colonial secretary.

When Walter finds out about their affair, he gives Kitty an ultimatum. She must either accompany him to the Chinese interior to deal with a cholera epidemic, risking death, or he will divorce her, causing a scandal, unless Townsend will agree to marry her. …

It’s masterful, as always with Maugham.

The guy may have been a jerk, but he could certainly work words.

As I followed the tale I visualized it as the perfect film for Merchant Ivory.

Surprised was I to find out it was made into a movie in 2006, The Painted Veil with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

… Norton considered The Painted Veil to be in the spirit of films like Out of Africa (1985) and The English Patient …

I’ve got to see that movie.

have you seen Sicko?

On By Rick McIn books, economics, government, health & fitness, movies1 Comment

I first posted about this movie May 22, 2007.

How could I have missed seeing it until now?

It’s a very important film. Especially with the Health Care debate happening in the USA.

… Sicko is a 2007 documentary … by American film maker Michael Moore. The film investigates the American health care system, focusing on its health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. The film compares the for-profit, non-universal U.S. system with the non-profit universal health care systems of Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Cuba. …

Wikipedia

You can watch it free and legal on Google Video.

It’s not a documentary. It’s Michael Moore’s one sided diatribe against the American Medical system.

But he got the bottom line right. The USA has a crappy medical system, overall. Sure if you have good coverage in the States (working for Cirque du Soleil, for example) … you are better off personally than someone working for, say, Cirque in Canada.

But something like 50 million Americans have no insurance. That is really sick!

sicko_facts_up_front

People are healthier and live longer in pretty much every other developed country, too.

The case studies in Sicko are selective, but still well worth watching. (I want to move to France from Canada after seeing those interviews!)

Under the Obama presidency, something is going to happen in the USA. But what?

It’s complicated.

The best vision I’ve heard is that of George C. Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the United States. A non-profit.

… KP places a strong emphasis on preventative care, reducing costs later on. Second, its doctors are salaried rather than paid per service, which removes any incentive for doctors to perform unnecessary procedures. Thirdly, KP attempts to minimize the time patients spend in high-cost hospitals by carefully planning their stay and by providing cares in clinics. …

His most recent book: Health Care Will Not Reform Itself: A User’s Guide to Refocusing and Reforming American Health Care

Halvorson-book

Halvorson is a realist. Not a utopian like Michael Moore.

Listen to an interview with Halvorson on NPR.

In his movie Michael Moore neglected to mention that current systems in countries like Canada will soon collapse. They are not sustainable financially.

In 10 or 20 years how will the U.S. ranking compare?

That’s being decided right now.

Obama-Health_care

Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsementsLeave a comment

The man most identified with the cyberpunk genre of literature is never boring.

Pattern Recognition is a novel by science fiction writer William Gibson published in 2003. Set in August and September 2002, the story follows Cayce Pollard, a 32-year-old marketing consultant who has a psychological sensitivity to corporate symbols. The action takes place in London, Tokyo, and Moscow as Cayce judges the effectiveness of a proposed corporate symbol and is hired to seek the creators of film clips anonymously posted to the internet. …

pattern_recognition

Amazon – Pattern Recognition

It’s quite good.

My only caveat in recommending Gibson is to suggest you read his books soon after publication.

He’s keen to reveal cutting trends in technology in his stories. This book highlighted Netscape and Hotmail.

hmmm

bad book – Wonder Boys

On By Rick McIn books, movies, product complaintsLeave a comment

I read and enjoyed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. It won the the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.

So … expected to enjoy another of his books, Wonder Boys (1995).

1857024052.01.LZZZZZZZ

The writing is skillful, of course. The plot original. The characters quirky.

But ultimately I could not finish the book It had nothing to teach me. I hate books about disfunctional losers and their stupid lives.

Yeesh.

I never saw the film version (2000) starring Michael Douglas. But some say, despite being a box office dog, that it was better than the book.

Terrorist – John Updike

On By Rick McIn books, Islam, product complaintsLeave a comment

John Updike was one of our greatest living authors. He died in January.

Updike chose to write an important book on an important subject.

The central character is age-18, the son of an Egyptian exchange student who married a working-class Irish-American girl. The young man agrees to become a suicide bomber for Allah. He will blow up the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River in New York.

Of course the novel is skillful. Insightful.

I learned more about Islam from this short novel than from anything else I’ve ever read.

terrorist-updike-lg

Amazon

I’d read other Updike books and expected not to enjoy this one.

Like most Updike novels, most other literature, this book is depressing. With a very negative world view.

American culture in the eyes of a devout Muslim is disgusting. (The terrorist has some very good arguments.)

The ending surprised me. It was not what I expected.

That surprise redeemed the book for me. Somewhat.

I still don’t recommend you read Terrorist, unless you want to better understand what might motivate an intelligent, thoughtful fellow human being … to want to kill you.