Ready Player One

Based on a recommendation from my brother, I just read Ready Player One. The story takes place in a dystopian future where Halliday, the creator of a massive virtual reality world, is giving away his entire fortune and control of his company to the person/player who solve various puzzles and finds hidden keys within the game. Halliday was a child of the 80's and he has built the puzzles around the pop culture of that time - from movies to video games to music.

It was an easy read and I enjoyed all the references from my (roughly) teenage years. It was a great Adventure!

If you are interested, please purchase the book using my link below, so I can retire early - at no extra cost to you!

Ender's Game

I can't wait... Harry Potter plus the Hunger Games plus SPACESHIPS!!!

"The DaVinci Code" Free Download Right Now

Pogue Better yet: “The DaVinci Code” is a free download right now for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Google, AND iBooks! j.mp/YpORbC Wed, Mar 20 22:14:31 from Tweetbot for Mac

What Do You Mean If?

George RR Martin is a slow writer. There is now a race between him finishing the books and the HBO series based on his books catching up. This article asks if the show will catch the books. I don't think it is a question. The show will catch the books because George is a writer first and a business man second. The creative process will not be rushed.

Much to my disappointment.

Via Winter is Coming

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse & Ham Radio

Recently, I read Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse* as an apparent attempt to push myself into a state of depression. I've seen it billed as a how to manual for preppers with a story slapped on top of it. (It made me think of The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement* - a story about a plant manager who implements several changes related to the Theory of Constraints.) It is not a manual for preparedness by any stretch, but it does try to present various scenarios for one to consider. One of the more interesting parts for me was toward the end when a character was getting a lesson in Communications Security from Edgar, the communications expert:

"My goal today is to first let you know what sort of equipment is out there -- friendly, enemy, captured enemy, and to teach you ComSec in a nutshell, so you won't get yourself killed or give the enemy valuable intelligence."

Edgar covers a lot of ground over the next few pages:

• HF
• VHF
• signals propagating, bouncing off the ionosphere
• sunspot cycle
• sky wave
• ground wave
• direction finding
• near vertical incidence
• line of sight
• 2M HTs
• modifying radios that could transmit 118 to 180 megahertz, but limited by FCC to 144 to 148, so they opened them up to 140 - 170
• frequency agile radios
• mods to CBs
• SWR
• antennas

He recommends trying to find a particular radio:

"Speaking of CBs, you should try to and locate a Uniden President HR2510. This is a ham radio that you can modify to transmit and receive in the citizen's band range. You can open this model up all the way from 26 to 30 megs. It has a frequency counter that you can finetune down to 10 kilohertz."

He then continues the lesson talking about:

• modifying cellular telephones
• working split
• Kenwood TH-79A
• cross-band operating
• operating AM on typical FM frequencies

As a ham, it was a fun chapter to read. It also made me interested in the Uniden President HR2510, so I had to look it up. I found this site with a long list of tip and tricks for modifying the HR2510.

* Links via my Amazon Associate account. You don't pay any extra, but I get "rich" if you buy through the link.

Knoxville

So we like to read books (#11 in the US) including the Bible (#1 in the US), but we are also the most romantic (#1 in the US).

It is a shame our football team is so bad.

Liturgical Mysteries

Want a cheap thrill? Slim introduced me to these books about a small town police chief/organist/writer. While I am not Episcopalian, the church humor is easily translatable to my own experience. I hear if you are a member of a choir, there are lots of jokes for you that probably went sailing over my head. I was sick over the week-end and read a couple of them during my downtime - easy, fun reads.

Less than a buck if you want the Kindle version... if you click the link below to buy, I get a cut of your $0.99. No one has ever used my Amazon links before, so I don't even know what that would be.

If you'd rather go to the author's site directly, click here.

Did J.R.R. Tolkien write "Christian" fantasy novels?

I read the first chapter on-line. Another book for my wish-list. Of course, my wish list being both for the text and the time to read it!

umreporter Did J.R.R. Tolkien write "Christian" fantasy novels? fb.me/yU9Mt8Mw

Thu, Jan 03 16:58:51 from Facebook

Down the Rabbit Hole

A comment on a story on Slashdot about Chinese rockets led me to the Fermi Paradox and a short story, The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model. A fun, little read - free on-line or a buck via Amazon on your Kindle.

Goodnight iPad

If you've got a young 'un, then you might be familiar with the original. Lots of scary truth in the parody:

Goodnight iPad

Khaleesi the Dragon

Someone at the zoo is reading George R. R. Martin...  Khaleesi the Komodo dragon debuts today at the Knoxville Zoo.

Free Zombie Book

Mad Ogre is giving away a free e-version of his Zombie thriller Uprising USA.

I have not read the whole thing, but I am about 10% in and I can tell you it is a radical departure from your common zombie book where the survivors panic and try to make it easy to be bitten.

Here is the condensed versions of what I read so far - minus the actual zombie shooting:

"Ho, hum, the zombie apocalypse is here. Grab the guns and let's head over to the gun shop to pick up more ammo. We should probably round up the rest of our family, too. We can grab a sandwich and a Mountain Dew while we are out."

It makes for a fun read when people aren't just running around advertising themselves as zombie bait. Maybe these characters are a little too calm and collected, but it has been a cool read so far.

Literati

The Kindle Index: e-Literacy in America:

"To identify the most electronically literate places in America, we analyzed the Priceonomics database of eight million electronics for sale by city. We examined how prevalent the Amazon Kindle was by city to rank how popular e-reading was across the nation (we also examined Nook sales, which didn’t change the results). To our surprise, the most populous and culturally-reputed cities in America did not rank among the most digitally literate."

Emphasis is mine. I can explain this. They are counting Kindles as a proxy for literacy. Hipsters have iPads - not Kindles. Hipsters live in big cities.

Decline of Civilization

I was in the local bookstore and noticed this... When "Teen Paranormal Romance" gets its own section, the end is near.

Free Book

Tam reads a lot. Tam seems really smart. When Tam posts about a free Kindle version of a book, I download it.

Bookstore Lists

25 Things I Learned from Opening a Bookstore and the 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World.

I actually stopped by Barnes and Noble the other day with my daughter. We "had" to pick up another Elephant and Piggie book (Should I Share My Ice Cream?). I didn't really get to browse, but it did remind me how much I like bookstores. I don't do many impulse buys, but books are what tempt me the most. The fact that I have a dozen books at the house already in the queue kept me from picking up anymore.

If I Write a Book...

...I want NPR to review it.

Via Business Insider

The Hunger Games Movie

Another Harry Potter type story... I'm a little iffy on the selection of actors, but I want to see it anyway.

Atlas Shrugged iPad App

In case you didn't get a sense of Ayn Rand's philosophy from the book itself, you can view supplement material as part of the iPad app:

Includes:
-Handwritten, original manuscript pages and notes from the author’s journals regarding key scenes 
-Video and audio excerpts from Rand’s talks on hot button topics from the book and her philosophy, courtesy of The Ayn Rand Archives 
-Full length audio lectures, including a Q&A on Objectivism, an outline of its basic principles, and commentary on the state of business and government (covered in the ever-timely lecture “Is Atlas Shrugging?”)

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Author’s Life and Groundbreaking Philosophy:
-Illustrated, revealing timeline of the author’s life and major works, including personal documents, letters, and correspondence 
-Photo gallery of images of the author at work
-Informative articles on the author’s life, influences, and her philosophy of Objectivism

Additional reader enrichment materials:
-Collection of sharable quotes and passages from the novel (via Facebook, Twitter, and email) embedded within the reading experience
-A fun “Who Said That?” quiz to challenge readers to recall some of the most memorable lines from the novel
-Endorsements and testimonials from celebrities and business leaders on the enduring power and influence of Atlas Shrugged
-A Discussion Guide to aid in book group or classroom conversations, and a catalog of the author’s available titles
-The trailer for the upcoming documentary Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged., from Mad Universe LLC

Additional Functionality 
-Easy in-book navigation features, including text search, bookmarks, custom reader settings, and the ability to flip pages with a tap or swipe
-Sidebar annotations alongside the novel hide away for an uninterrupted reading experience
-Complete app functionality in both portrait and landscape orientation
-Reproduced archival documents and images that can be enlarged to full screen with a double tap

. . . and much more!

Ender's Game the Movie

Having Han Solo in the movie is great, but I'm just happy it is being made. I liked these books better than Harry Potter. It is a bit of Harry Potter in space for those that are unfamiliar with the series.

andrewchen Harrison Ford locked for 'Ender's Game' - Entertainment News, EXCLUSIVE, Media - Variety bit.ly/w1BRsGTue, Jan 24 00:10:07 from Timely by Demandforce