Archive for August, 2007

It’s great to belong to something, whether it’s a social organization, book club, or team at work.  You know that the group is there for you and you are there for your fellow members.  That’s the same feeling you get when you join a forum.  At the beginning you do get more than you give as a newbie, but little by little that changes as you learn and grow.  Many of us don’t join right away; instead we lurk for weeks, months, even years.  I do it and I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s the fear of being ignored, saying the wrong thing, asking dumb questions, or feeling that I have nothing to offer.  The thing is, there are no dumb questions, people are rarely just ignored, and everyone does have something to offer.  When I first got into e-books, I felt like the Lone Ranger.  Everyone I told about my Rocket e-book looked at me like I had horns on my head.  Then one day I came across some groups on Yahoo!  Finally, people who shared my interests!  I had to become a member in order to see the messages, but I was still a lurker.  Then finally I took the plunge. Until the move is made to join and be a member of a user group forum, you are not really getting the full benefits.  Those benefits include discussing something that you are interested in with others around-the-world that have the same enthusiasm. I found that the more I tried to participate, the more I learned, and consequently the more I enjoyed using my Rocket e-book.  I now call tech support as a last resort.  The last time I called tech support for one of PDAs,  the tech guy suggested that I go online to a Palm forum to find a solution.  In fact, I am starting to see various forums listed in some support sites’ knowledge base.  It’s a compliment, but at the same time, manufacturers are getting away with having others do their work for them.  I hope that in the cases that they refer customers to user groups that they are at least compensating the forums.  It’s not cheap to maintain a web site and it is time consuming.

Sadly, many of the groups I belong to have slowed down.  It seems that the only traffic is from spammers.  I know that the legacy devices are in decline, and many of us have moved on to the newer reading devices.  I wonder how long the groups will stay available.  Just in case, I have started reading through the archives to glean the important tips and saving them to my computer.  I have also started downloading the various files that are kept.  This will become a part of my regular backup routine, simply because I don’t want to ever lose the great info I have found in the past seven years.

Now that I am on the subject of user forums, I’d like to take this time to say thank-you to everyone that is a member of the groups I belong to.  Without the help, patience, and knowledge of fellow members, I know that I would have put my e-book device in a box, never to see the light of day.  Truly you are lifesavers.

We all know that we should backup our data on a regular basis.  We don’t always do it.  After all is it fun?  No, and depending on the extent of the backup it can take a long time.  Also, where do you store your backup files?  Hopefully the backup is not stored on your computer.  I have made a backup, put it on a disk, and then when I needed it, I couldn’t find it.  Even when I did find my backup, it didn’t work.  Then I thought, maybe I should have verified this file.  So what does this have to do with e-books?  The majority of books I buy, I purchase from Fictionwise and I believe they will be around for quite some time.  Then there are the other places I have purchased books and thought the same thing.  Then all of sudden their site is gone.  An example is Bookjobbers.  Granted, I only bought a couple of books, but it’s the principle of the thing.  My books were supposed to be available in my e-book shelf forever.  Forever came quick and sudden.  I tried emailing, but obviously they came back to me undeliverable. I received no notice.  And then there’s Ebookad.  If it weren’t from blogs like Teleread, I never would have known that they were on the way out. So, if I had not backed up my purchases to disk I would be out of luck.  I now make a concerted effort to backup my e-books monthly, whether I have bought news ones or not.  Instead of using a CD, I use a thumb drive that is dedicated to backups only.  Many times we e-books get wrapped around using our device and reading our books in the future.  This is a very valid concern.  Still, if we don’t backup our files, and they are lost, then this concern becomes rather moot.

I just got an email from The Tech Geeks.  They have a USB to serial adapter for $10.99 and free shipping.  I think that’s a pretty good price.  If you are still using your Rocket e-book or any device that connects via a serial port, you may want to consider this.  I have bought from this site and so far I have been pleased with my purchases.

Sony has had some really great deals on their readers the past month.  On the 4th of July Tiger Direct had 1000 units on sale at $99.  Needless to say they went quickly.  Then I read on Mobileread about the Sony reader for only $49.  Somewhat envious that I had missed the TD deal.  I went for this one.  Also the MSNBC store was selling the readers for $149.   To sweeten the deal Sony also had a free book promotion of $50 your choice and $100 worth of classic literature to choose from (that ends up being 50 classic books). The only caveat reference the $49 deal was that you had to apply for and be approved for a Sony credit card.  The total cost ended up being about $60.00.  The were some quirks when ordering this from Sony Rewards, but the great people on the Mobileread forum posted the steps they went through, so I was able to get my order through quickly.    So having foregone the accidental damage protection that cost approx $45, I was now in possesses of a true warranty:  An extra reader. A few days after I got my spare, I got terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.   That’s went it hit me as I look at my other spare readers.  I got them because the reader was going away and I wanted a back up so that I could still read my books.  So was this Gemstar all over again?  There are many possibilities, but these are the ones I came up with:

1. Sony is just trying to increase popularity of their reader by making it more affordable.

2. Sony is trying to exhaust current supply because a new reader is on the way.

3. Sony is trying to boost e-book sales through cheaper devices and free book promotions to get customers hooked.

4. Sony is trying to gracefully get out of the e-book business.

While a new reader would be nice, I am hoping that the answer is either number 1 or 3.  If a new reader is on the horizon that would probably mean no more updates to the current device.  Also I think those who have just bought a Sony reader will feel turned off.  At least I’ve had a reader since their availability, so I guess from an early adopter point of view I can’t wait to see what’s next. But late adopters would be rather put off, thinking that as soon as they get something, a newer improved model goes on the market.  I know that this is the way of technology, but for new folks, it just creates a tendency not to buy, but instead keep waiting for the next generation reader.  I really want e-books to catch on, and while I am not a big fan of e-ink, I want Sony to be successful.  If they are not, I feel that e-books will be set further back on its road to acceptance and diffusion.

As I have said before, I don’t like formatting books, but I do it.  I really miss Black Mask.  I could go there and download an already formatted e-book for my reader.  I am glad that I bought their DVD before the site disappeared.  I have tried to format e-books from Gutenberg and some other places, but I haven’t been quite satisfied with any of my results.  I get odd characters and space gaps.  I am too lazy to take the time to clean up the files, so I look for alternatives.  A bargain bin alternative is Bookshop Classics.  I have seen it sold separately for $4.99 and bundled with Bibles & Religion 400 Complete Works for $9.99 in the value software section of the big box stores.  The Bookshop CD contains over 1,000 literary classics.  These books can be viewed on you PC and you can print the book out. The best part is that you can save books in plain text.  The only drawback is that there is no book art.   Another choice is Reader Rom‘s Ultimate Library.  Amazon lists this collection for considerably less at $15.75.    The Collections boasts having over 10,000 books.  Again you can export all e-books as a text file.  Another feature is that you can have the books read to you.  I tried it, but the voices are too mechanical.  I didn’t like it, but perhaps there are people who will.  What I did find in the collection are 127 books by Doc Savage.  I didn’t follow the Black Mask saga closely, but I thought the crux of it was caused by these very books.    Anyway, you can go to Reader Rom for more information and lists of books.

Now that my husband’s Nokia N770 is in for repair, I have now begun to second guess my decision to buy it from Woot.  My cost per tablet was 132.48. A really good price, but that comes with no warranty options.  So does that make the offer still good?  Usually I am not a fan of extended service plans and at the time I purchased the tablets I was unaware of the device’s possible screen failures.   So really this is not an issue for this purchase, but I will keep it mind for the future.  I was at Tiger Direct this morning and they are selling the tablet for $139.99 plus shipping for a total of $148.48.  That’s a bit higher than what I paid, however Tiger Direct offers insurance.  Their extended service plans start at $21.99, but only start after the manufacturer’s warranty ends.  So I would’ve still had to go to Nokia.  They also offer a 2 year Accidental Damage coverage that starts from day one.  It’s expensive at $42.99, which is roughly one third of the tablet’s price, only slightly higher than the $37.99 two year replacement option.  But when I really think about it, will the N770 be around in two years?  For that matter will it be around by the end of this year?  So what would I be buying other than a chance to get two-thirds of my money back? Most devices I buy, I only expect to use for about a year, and maybe less if I get bored with it.  If it lasts until then I am satisfied if only for the excuse it gives me to buy something else.  This whole thing has made me cling tighter to my dedicated e-book devices.  My original Rocket e-book is still going strong after seven years.  I have taken with me during Army field exercises to include a month in the Mojave Desert (in a zip lock baggie) and the cold and snow of Alaska.  Imagine if I had an extended warranty on that, not that it was offered, but it would have been a total a waste of money. I may not be able to buy best sellers for it anymore, and when it finally does pass on to a better place, it will take my purchased books with it.  But I have enjoyed it through the years and it has never let me down.  I am not saying that dedicated devices are made better.  What I am saying is that I only depend on it for one thing—reading.  If any of my e-book readers die, I will not lose game playing, video, music, email, and web browsing.  The Nokia tablet was a multi-function device and it’s sad to see my husband going through Internet Tablet withdrawal.   So the moral of my story is that second guessing does no good.  When we get a new tech toy, we should enjoy it, use it for all its worth, and not worry about whether it was a good deal or not.