- The only thing harder than selling a novel is finishing one.
- From Chris Gerrib comes a link to Smithsonian’s marvelous tale of The Great New England Vampire Panic.
- At least “vampire” isn’t a funny word. I can’t say “tatzelwurm” without giggling.
- From the Things-I-Didn’t-Know-Until-Yesterday Department: The “dead men” in that fine old drinking song “Down Among the Dead Men” are empty bottles, generally set on the floor under the tables.
- From ditto: Rice is an arsenic magnet. Eat with care.
- Here’s a gallery of applications and utilities written in Lazarus.
- The original 6-CD changer stereo in my 2001 Toyota 4Runner has failed, after working flawlessly since April 2001. Any suggestions as to a replacement? The car’s great. But I won’t drive very happily without music.
- As we gradually replace hundreds of millions of print books with ebooks, what will happen to our print books? Well, at least some of them may become color-coordinated accessories for people who don’t read. (Thanks to Esther Schindler for the link.)
- The price of bacon is about to skyrocket, while Americans enjoy the cheapest beer on Earth. Why do I always back the wrong horse?
- I guess compensating for a bacon shortage may be the striking tornado shortage going on right now.
- Be careful what you try to invent. You might succeed. More or less.
Print Books and EBooks from Jeff Duntemann
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Hi Jeff:
Regarding your CD changer problem: I solved the same by purchasing a deck with an USB port, and moving my music to a microSD card placed in an Elago USB reader
http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-microSDHC-Memory-Reader/dp/B002HGFKR8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348628875&sr=8-1&keywords=elago+usb+adapter
Best to you and Carol.
books … may become color-coordinated accessories for people who don’t read.
Nothing new about this. Noveau-riches in early 20th century Britain often had their libraries furnished with “books by the foot”.
In one of Dorothy Sayers’ “Montague Egg” short stories, Monty sees through “Professor Pindar”, an alleged scholar, because his bookshelves are clearly that kind of miscellaneous jumble.
One of my bosses who never seemed to read anything not directly work related subscribed to the Franklin Mint series of leather bound classics for years. He was planning to build a library in his house to display them, but I don’t think he ever did.
Regarding your CD changer problem, when the CD unit failed in my Rav4 a few years ago, I chose a JVC double DIN unit which worked out really well. I chose a one which could only play a single CD but had front panel aux and USB ports. I found it very handy to be able to play music from a USB thumb drive. That let me alter playlists without the hassle of burning a CD.
Sadly, that unit doesn’t appear to be available any longer. It looked similar to the JVC KW-HDR720 which is still available. I got mine from Crutchfield because I find all the adapters they include always make the installation much easier.
I don’t think there’s much of a market for wire recorder/players, 8-track players, casette players, Elcasettes, miniDVs, open real car decks, LP players, papertape readers, DECtapes, nine track tapes, 10 different CD or DVD sizes and their players, and I wouldn’t waste any time looking for a Blu-ray drive for the car. I wouldn’t go with any rotating memory devices either. I’d probably go for something with a USB port so that you can plug in 30-60 GB of music on a USB stick, and move the music off the disks and onto the stick. Then get rid of the disks. Unless you can hear the difference between compressed audio and full Redbook format playback…
I’d keep the original distribution media as backup. Nor would I want any lossy format as my archive format. My current Sansa Clip supports FLAC out of the box (not need to load RockBox, etc.) The player on my RAV4 as an audio-in jack; so, I play the Clip through that. The result is completely adequate for in-car listening.
(I am doubtful about those folks you claim to hear a difference between FLAC and WAV or Redbook, but in the noisy environment of an auto, I doubt that anyone can tell the difference between MP3 and any of the above.)