Books

The Kindle 2

Posted Fri, 02/27/2009 - 19:06 by Ben Stanfield
Steven Frank, in his review of the Kindle 2, says:
Anyone who has known me for more than 30 seconds will instantly see right through that as the paper-thin excuse to buy a shiny-rectangle-with-a-screen that it is. But I digress.

Ouch. I guess that hits a little close to home. That said, I'm absolutely loving my Kindle and even in 4 days have found myself reading much more than I normally do in a week. I've bought two titles for it so far, but I've downloaded some of the "classics" I've never read (War and Peace, Great Expectations, Moby Dick, to name but a few.)

Downloading Stanza is a must for converting freely available texts to the Kindle format. It'll open ZIP files, so you can head over to Project Gutenberg and download the smaller files, then convert them with Stanza in a few seconds.

Now, if I can just find a way to get the Kindle to sync to my GoodReads page, I think I'll be happy.

Anathem Review

Posted Tue, 09/23/2008 - 22:08 by Ben Stanfield
Anathem Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Deep Breaths and Distractions

Posted Wed, 09/03/2008 - 22:34 by Ben Stanfield
Ok, apparently I'm jumping back on the blogging bandwagon tonight. And to take my mind off of the disgusting lies and smarmy nasty smears from the likes of the repugnant Rudy and lie-spewing Sarah, here's a preview video of Neal Stephenson's new novel, which I've pre-ordered and cannot wait to get my hands on. The World of Anathem

Mars, Bitches (And Why It Matters)

Posted Thu, 04/06/2006 - 12:59 by Ben Stanfield

I was having a conversation recently with a friend I respect, both personally and politically. But when we started talking about NASA, in particular, and Mars, specifically (the one inititative where I actually support President Bush), the disagreement between us was vehement. He believed the government should focus soley on two fronts: 1. domestic problems and challenges, working to eradicate blights such as poverty, hunger, and inequities and 2. national security.

Philip K. Dick on Blogging

Posted Thu, 04/06/2006 - 12:30 by Ben Stanfield

Shiftingrealities I realise that I'm posting a lot about Philip K.

Name Your Own Price: Folding Shatner

Posted Tue, 12/14/2004 - 20:48 by Ben Stanfield
Got this email from Amazon tonight:

Date: 12/14/04
From: Amazon.com
To: ben@ThatMacSiteIRun.com
Subject: Save 29% on "Has Been"

We've noticed that customers who have purchased "Rockin' the Suburbs" by Ben Folds also purchased the work of William Shatner. For this reason, you might like to know that William Shatner's "Has Been" is now available. You can order your copy at a savings of 29% by following the link below.

The Great River Stops Flowing

Posted Mon, 11/15/2004 - 01:50 by Ben Stanfield
Amazon.com has been down all day. I can still get to amazon's main page, and presumably it will still let me place an order (I haven't tried), but accessing any information about order history is completely fucked. First it was just giving me an HTTP server error message. Now I get the image below. Wonder how long it will take them to fix?

amazont.jpg

Book

Posted Sun, 04/18/2004 - 21:05 by Ben Stanfield
From Apophenia:

1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 23. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

The first part of the sentence should really make people wonder what I'm reading:

Finally, another well-lubricated man in leather underpants performed the same series of movements...

Sounds like I'm quite the fanatic of gay porn, eh?

Dancing Barefoot

Posted Tue, 03/16/2004 - 16:15 by Ben Stanfield
Wil Wheaton has a new O'Reilly published version of his book Dancing Barefoot out, and he's starting to do some publicity for it.

It's at 316 right now on Amazon's list, and if enough people buy it, we can push it even higher and get him some more publicity. So, go spend $10 and enjoy his great writing. I've read it, and it really is good.

Doyle's Super System

Posted Fri, 03/05/2004 - 14:31 by Ben Stanfield
I just picked up Doyle Brunson's "Super System - A Course in Power Poker." Several people have referred me to this book as "the bible" of no limit hold 'em, and since I'm playing a bit online, and in a casual poker game with friends once a month or so, I thought it'd be good to know.

The first few pages tell the story of Doyle's life, and then you get to the good stuff. How to play poker. Except on the 6th page of actual poker advice, Brunson suggests that the real way to win at Poker is ESP.