First impression of the Amazon Kindle

I was recently around a friend who has a new Amazon Kindle. I know that much has been written on the Kindle, so I wanted to see what the fuss was about.
Firstly, it is very light and easy to put in a (large) pocket. Its easy to use and the look and feel is nice. The battery life is excellent. Its easy to buy new titles.
My problems with it. First off, when you turn the page, it has to reformat and flickers, which I think may cause eye strain (but I'm no expert). Also I prefer the paper format, and enjoy the look and feel of books.
Anyhow, short and sweet.

Reviews of Marilyn Johnson's book

Having written previously called This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. Well, with the release of there books there have been some very positive reviews here and here. Hopefully mine will be there tonight.

New Books on my Amazon radar

A couple new geeky books I ordered from Amazon. First up is This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. The author says of the book:-

What is it like to be a librarian in a world of too much information? Constant change, exploding technology, shrinking budgets, growing numbers of the baffled...could there be a better spot than behind the librarians' desk to watch the digital age unfold? Check out the reviews on the Review page, and read the first chapter on Harper's Library Love Fest blog or download to the right.

A review of the book can be found here.

Another book I have ordered is Search Patterns by Peter Morville, who did the excellent Ambient Findability.

The author says of it:-

Search is among the most disruptive innovations of our time. It influences what we buy and where we go. It shapes how we learn and what we believe. This provocative and inspiring book explores design patterns that apply across the categories of web, e-commerce, enterprise, desktop, mobile, social, and real time search and discovery. Using colorful illustrations and examples, the authors bring modern information retrieval to life, covering such diverse topics as relevance ranking, faceted navigation, multi-touch, and mixed reality. Search Patterns challenges us to invent the future of discovery while serving as a practical guide to help us make search applications better today.

Reviews can be found here.

Interesting books

I've just quit smoking (or am trying to quit smoking). This has meant rather than going for a cigarette at breaks, I've started reading a lot more. I did read Groundswell. It focuses on how companies can take advantage of emerging social technologies. What a load of tosh. Felt like reading microwaved Clue Train manifesto but at 2 star Michelin restaurant price tag. If you've not read it, well done. I just felt Charlene Li was just trying to make money for Forrester's by underlining how good they are. The book was so bad I sold it on Amazon.
Then I read Cyburbia by James Harkin. He says of that Cyburbia, in his interpretation, is the place to which we go when we spend huge swathes of our time hooked up to other people via a continuous loop of electronic information, and online social networks are only its most visible manifestation. This was a more enjoyable read for me. Looking at the impact of the network society are affecting us and how we interact. Worth a look.
Then I just finished The Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook. I really was not expecting much from this but its a good read, and feels more like a thriller. The author Ben Mezrich obviously seems to side with Eduardo Saverin than Mark Zuckerberg as the originators of facebook. This is not surprising as Eduardo gave him the most time in his researh for the novel. The author also does not have the greatest grasp of Facebook. At one stage he describes how open facebook is. Really? It doesn't even allow you to customise your page unlike Myspace. Its also open to data mining users profiles and is often seen as a walled garden.
Apart from that its a good read.

What to read for christmas......

I am presently trying to select some books to take on my trip to Germany at christmas. So here is my list for my books away:-
1. Winners and Losers: Creators and Casualties of the Age of the Internet
2. Groundswell
3. The Pixar Touch.
4. Crowdsourcing.

Nice books to read then.

New book at the book sale

I just went to Waterstones on Gower street, where they had a half price sale on for second hand books. So I picked up Nicholas Carr's book 'Big Switch' for £2.97. Along with reading this and this at present I really must get them completed.

Time for me to start reading again

With my recent acquisition of my Ipod, I have been watching so many films on it, listening to podcasts and gaming. I have therefore restarted reading. So I have bought the following (1, 2, 3 & 4).

I love my ipod touch

I am loving my Ipod Touch. I am on the Applications all the time. Downloaded Classic books application, which is fantastic. I'm off to read Huck Finn. I am also enjoying being with my girlfriend.

New book I have been enjoying

I've always been a big computer fan, since my first one back in 1982. I have also often thought about writing a book on the ZX Spectrum. Seems someone has got there before me, when I picked up Jack Railton's book 'The A to Z of Cool Computer Games'. Though not totally based fully on the Speccy, many games are discussed.

I'd still like to see a book or article on the 80's Politics of Spectrum and its games (for example Monty on the Run was a game about the coal miners strike and how the mole was trying to escape miners, flying pickets, or the game Morris Meets the Bikers', which was a game which was made by automata, who tried to make the games 'non confrontational', how 80's pc is that?_