1 /puts on robe and wizard hat

2 Droogies?  As in Clockwork?  Nyet!!!!

I need to get back to rewriting.  I want to publish darn it!

3

"The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer tells about mass movements and the individuals within them.  Written about 50 years ago it is still as vibrant and acute today.  If any of you morons have not read this one, it is your duty to do so.

4 NERDS!!!!!!

5 And with regards to Lang's Metropolis, MPPP and I were both right. How is that possible you might say?

Rotwang cackles to Federsen as they stand in front of the curtain that shields Rotwang's memorial to Hel, the woman he lost to Federsen, "A hand is a small price to pay to recreate Hel! Want to see her?"

Joh Federsen agrees and follows Rotwang upstairs to the laboratory. There is the robot sitting and on the back wall is a pentacle who's point intersects with the robot's head. And then Rotwang says to Federsen "Give me 24 hours and no one will be able to tell Machine-Man from mortal."

And thus a great tragedy is set into motion.

6 Been reading Steyn's After America. Makes you feel pretty doomy. Reading it on Kindle app on my iPad and my Yoga with Win 8 which I am starting to not hate. Also read Jobs' bio on iBooks seems like a natural way and I am afraid there are many bad lessons.

7 Hi rons. I will be ordering MPPPs book prolly tomorrow. I have also started on the next in the Amy Lynn line. It is entitled Operation Golden Angel.

8 Gee OSP thinks he is David Weber or something.  A sequel!! 

9 Gee OSP thinks he is David Weber or something. A sequel!! Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at January 13, 2013 11:17 AM (znavB) Truth is I'm bored again.

10 Book 05 of my twelve e-book scifi adventure saga is now on sale: http://bookstore.booktango.com/Products/SKU-000627175/Worlds-Apart-Book-05.aspx

11 I got nuthin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoFJ9M1W4G0

12

13 Reading and cooking from Rick Stein's "Spain." The program itself is quite good as well. Stein is actually pleasant, warm and engaging. Unfortunately, I managed to catch an episode of his "Far Eastern Odyssey" series and, of course, when he was in Cambodia and Vietnam his French interpreter blamed everything on the US. I guess he was partially correct; it was mostly the fault of the Democrat Party.

14 I've brought Bridge books.  Is that nerdy enough?

15 "The epic voyage of the Pathfinder Ship Pegasus continues as the crew travels to Aurora, a planet whose intense magnetic fields produce a sky that is a constant blaze of auroras. The major industries of the planet Aurora are pornography, arms dealing, and snack foods. Also, the planet hides a dark and terrible secret that will almost certainly lead to its complete destruction. " http://bookstore.booktango.com/Products/SKU-000627175/Worlds-Apart-Book-05.aspx Self-Promotion Time is over. I'll shut up now

16 I notice Dr. Green is not involved with this King of the Nerds thing.

17 Gregory, what lead you to BookTango for your books?  I am naturally leaning towards Amazon as distro but never hurts to ask about other venues.

18 more nerds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hQb7m7AAcQ

19 Anna, inexpensive and they publish to multiple formats and outlets. I don't know if their business model will be profitable in the long-run, but they get my books out there.

20 Just finished Glenn Beck's "Agenda 21." Kinda like "A Handmaid's Tale" only more depressing. Not a future I am interested in participating in, at all.

21 Reading Correia's Monster Hunter series in my hotel room all this week. Nerdy, if you consider gun nerdy to be nerdy. Lots of fun, especially the Lovecraftian stuff.

22 Nerds run this blog!

Deal wit it!

23 Kicking around a non-scifi novel idea to be titled 'Shanks.' It would be a sex farce about a young, not-too-bright, football player who is in turned seduced by a girl, her sister, her mother, and her brother. Not sure if there's a whole novel in it, but then, fifty shades of gray.

24 What's a nerd thread without nerd sweater puppies?

http://tinyurl.com/dxh6vd3

25 Well I gave up on the Iron Druid series at the 4th book.  He just got to liberal in his stories for me.  I moved on to The Carpetbaggers which we had discussed on a non-book thread last week.  It had been a long time since I had read that book.  Somehow it just was not as good this time around.


Currently redoing the Ukiah Oregon series by Wen Spencer on my wife's Kindle.


I finally gave up on being able to copy the book to my Kindle.  None of the DRM removal programs I had will delete the DRM on it and it is not "lendable".


Also having problems returning a book from her Samsung to me so it will become available again.  My Nerd is definitely not on.

26
I could use a recommendation on Windows PC ebook reading software. I've got a ton of epubs and mobis, but haven't liked any of the software I tried to use with them.

The programs I've tested like Calibre all seem to insist on adding books to a bookshelf playlist first and deleting files from disk on removal unless you're very careful.

I just want a simple program that I can associate with these files: I click on the file, program launches with the book open, program closes and the file remains unmolested.  Basically just like Adobe Reader works.

27 Still going on my Holmes kick. I wrapped up "The Sign of Four" this morning and will be starting the collection "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" sooner rather than later. I also have the Kollin brothers' "Day by Day" checked out from Overdrive.

28 Using a coupon for a chess book was a great touch.

29 Just finished re-reading the first two books of "The Kingkiller Chronicle" by Patric Rothfus and for a bit of lighter fare I'm getting into "Dodger" by Terry Pratchett. I've read most of his Diskworld books have enjoyed every one. For great British humor and a nice pallet cleanser Pratchett is my go-to guy.

30 I'm paying 2 cents a pound for what comes out of that Segway-Roomba food pump thingee.

31 Instapundit reccomended a series, astarting with "Westerly Gales" by E.C. Williams.
Post-apocalypse sea-faring novels. Good-guys vs the Muslims.
Safe to say the author is conservative. Good so far.

32 22 Nerds run this blog!

Deal wit it!

Posted by: Zakn at January 13, 2013 11:26 AM (zyaZ1)

______________

Nerds run the world.

33 Nerd books I couldn't put down? Comer's original XINU book; I was hot and heavy into PDP-11 real-time work at the time and found it fascinating. "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Computers", except that I skipped the software chapter (it was all about people; the rest of the book is about machines). Currently still moseying through the Lemony Snicket books. I'm up to book nine; the movie covered through book three.

34 I just read books 1-3 of the Gingery Build your own Metal Working Shop from Scrap series, that's probably nerdy. Useful too, especially if the economy does collapse. I'll be turning old lawn chairs and car parts into semi-automatic death machines. I do need to find some casting sand, though.

35 MindfulMrs has been reading Free to Choose. I'll pick it up, read a few pages, get depressed. Milt was just... clear. Almost everybody by comparison is muddy as hell. And we are going the wrong way at hyperspeed. My own current reads have been... Alan Moore's 10-issue Miracleman saga - as brutal as I remember it. What would really happen with two supermen duking it out in a major urb is ghastly. Took me this many decades to read it again. Magnificent, though. Currently, I'm 6 issues into Doug Moench's Aztec Ace. A fun time travel romp. Been trying to remember if the story had any kind of conclusion before publication ended. I dragged these out of the catacombs for the kids for Christmas - comics Dad socked away when they were too young. Guess who's been enjoying them most! Truly makes me nostalgic for the period to see all the ads for the great indy publications, remembering Eclipse, First Kitchen Sink... Print is dead and nothing like those will ever happen again.

36 Another fun nerd book: "Engineer's Witness", pictures of bridges and big machines and stuff. Only problem is that many of them are *one* side of a stereo pair. Frustrating.

37 Finished the new Ruth Downie novel, "Semper Fidelis", the latest in her mystery series about a Roman army surgeon serving with th 20th Legion in Britain during the reign of Hadrian. Amusing as always. The emperor himself makes an appearance in this one. Fun read. Another series you have to start from the beginning as they build upon each other. Lots of interesting info on the Roman Legions and the various British tribes.

38 I don't know if it counts as nerdy, but I just finished "Song of Wrath" by J.E. Lendon.  It's a history of the origins and first phase of the Peloponnesian War.  I wish there was a bit more about the end of the war, since I've never before taken the time to really study that conflict, but it is an excellent read.  It's astonishing how much that war and those city-states influenced Western civilization.

Even better, I picked it up in hardcover for $1 at the church book fair.  Highly recommended.

39

I like Scott Rasmussen. Not because he's a good pollster, he's meh at that. I like him because he says things like:

 

 

"The Republican establishment has two choices. They can act as mature party leaders of a national political party, or they can protect their own self-interest.

Mature party leaders would spend a lot more time listening to Republican voters rather than further insulating themselves from those voters."

 

 

So he got that going for him... 

 

40 One problem with that chess book.
It is a relic.
Computers now beat the very best human players.
For all intents and purposes, chess is a dead game now.
A book ought to be compiled on the ugly games two great computers play against one another.
There is nothing to learn from computers playing one another except brute strength of competitive ever-faster number crunching.
Yuch!

Before computers ruined the game it was the most beautiful game on earth.

41 Current reads on the Kindle:

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer, an old-fashioned romance before they got all graphic and sweaty.  Picked it up as a Daily Deal thanks to Vic's morning links.

Mr. Brown's book on buying a gun,  which I ordered at the recommendation of the gun thread  person (I think Andy but not sure).

Also am reading a book by a guy who made it through the Argentine financial collapse in Buenos Aires.  His recommendations are somewhat different than what I see on many survival sites. 

42 In high school I was a nerd. Didn't really bother me, I actually had a pretty good stint in high school. Lots of other nerds to hang out with, girls too!!

There was a "cool kid" named Clint in my class. The biggest asshole you can imagine, the kind of guy on TV who is on the football team and makes it his life mission to the make the life of the "uncool kids" living hell for 4 years. He never really bothered me because I think he knew I didn't give a fuck what he thought of me. But he did go out of his way to torment some of the shier kids, especially when we were seniors.

Anyway about 5 years after I graduated college, I went back home to visit my parents. I went to a grocery store to buy some things. This store was about 1/2 a mile from my high school. Guess who I saw stocking cans? Why yes, none other than Clint. Asshole had gained about 25 lbs, looked like shit and while I was on vacation from a job making over 6 figures before turning 30, he was making minimum wage stocking shelves. And given how close the store was to the high school, I assume he also lived at home. I said hi to him, just to let him know that I know he ended up a total loser.

If I could bottle the feeling I had for that moment, I'd be a billionaire.

NERDS RULE!!

43

Oh dang, I'm off topic again.

 

 

*scourge scourge, bleed*

44 Not too infrequently, I go off on a exposition (uh, some might call it a rant), about how much of the prosperity we enjoy today depends on packaging technology. My family just stares blankly at me.

45
I picked up Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics by Edward Teller again, I've got it sitting around, and it is really a great book, he had a great wit about him. Obviously he has a incredibly deep understanding of the subject matter, and doesn't condescend at all. But he does tell the reader he needs to do some work, and do some math. Lots of great asides and insights on science too. It's one of my favorite physics books.

In the same vein, Dave Stewart, a synth Lord, and not the Eurrhythmics guy, wrote a few music theory books, The Musicians Guide to Reading and Writing Music, that are in the same vein, humor and science, and well written.

46 OK, here's my plan to build a small library of quality volumes of classics, and help AoS in the process:

I'm going to buy hardcover volumes in the Library of America series for American authors, and Everyman's Library for others. I spent about an hour in Amazon searching under both titles and picking the volumes I'll want and putting them in my cart. Then I moved everything into "Save for Later". I've got about thirty or so in the queue.

If I use my Discover card, I can apply my cash back to the purchase. So every month I'll get two volumes (just enough for free shipping), apply the cashback, and do it all through the AoS Amazon link. So the books will sort of be free, and Ace will wet his beak.

47 about how much of the prosperity we enjoy today depends on packaging technology. My family just stares blankly at me. Posted by: West at January 13, 2013 11:50 AM (vEjs1) And logistics

48 vic I agree the fourth book sucks the new one leaves out all the eye rolling stuff from the last one but I can see why you'd give up. it's interesting and I wonder if the editors came down on him after so many complained about the last book not just for the green stuff.

49 Morning all (still AM by 4 minutes here on the East Coast). I've already been at work for 6 hours. I want to go home

50 Sitting in Miami airport with a book I picked up in Georgetown, Grand Cayman museum. The '32 Storm. What would the stupid global warming douche tags say about this storm? It was incredible.

51 Hey, how do I get my book on Aces amazon book list?

52 Richard Reti's Modern Ideas In Chess was published in 1923 not 1992, so the title is obsolete. Still a good book though. Have been listening to audible.com's Firehearted by Sabrina Chase this week, which I guess would be classified a sword and sorcery fantasy. I enjoyed reading the book a few months ago and the reader does a good job doing the voices. Still trying to finish David Copperfield. A very long, good story but there are a few titles by Dickens I prefer.

53 Astronomy.  That's one thing I do to satisfy the inner nerd.

Of course I suck at it.  I remember bits and pieces from when I was younger and nerdier.

But I was laying under a blanket on the North Shore of Oahu with a beautiful woman.  So I win anyway.

54 I'm going to buy hardcover volumes in the Library of America series for American authors

IMO, that series is one of the best bargains available in books today.  I have Democracy in America and Moby Dick.  Enjoy.

55

Nerds run this blog!

 

 

Nope.  Morons.

56 Bernadette's sweater puppies in a different kennel

http://preview.tinyurl.com/b24oz7h
SFW

57 Nope. Morons. Posted by: RushBabe at January 13, 2013 11:57 AM (tQHzJ) Worldly nerds with a penchant for debauchery.

58 A nerd invented the wheel.

59 Nerds with guns?
I was at a gun show yesterday talking to a nice fellow, sitting behind his display table, about a Sig P220 he had for sale. As we were discussing the pistol's fine qualities, another gentlemen pulled up beside me and over hearing a question I had just put to the vendor, this newcomer mocked me by repeating my question in a tone that said he thought I was an ignoramus . I know a little about guns, but have a lot to learn and enjoy the learning and I have no doubt the mocker has superior knowledge. He seemed to have no doubt on this point either. His manner was annoying, but after reading this post this morning I realized that I had been dealing with a nerd...a gun nerd.
Can you be a gun nerd? I think you can. The guy probably has a tremendous wealth of knowledge about a subject he loves, but is a bit insecure and lacks social skills, classic nerd qualities. I didn't notice at the time, but I'll bet instead of mechanical pencils, he had a bore light clipped in a pocket protector.

60 Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology H(1): Brachiopoda

61 A nerd invented the wheel. Posted by: eman at January 13, 2013 11:59 AM (tBnjP) But, a moron invented fire.

62 51 Hey, how do I get my book on Aces amazon book list? Posted by: Oldsailors Poet, Author of Amy Lynn available on Amazon. http://tinyurl.com/ahc8poj at January 13, 2013 11:55 AM (l86i3) It involves kneepads and several ounces of an unpleasant unguent.

63 Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology H(1): Brachiopoda Posted by: TexasJew at January 13, 2013 12:00 PM (lD8ju) Brachiopods were posers. Bivalves rule!

64 It involves kneepads and several ounces of an unpleasant unguent. Posted by: J.J. Sefton at January 13, 2013 12:02 PM (XkWWK) Well, wtf, lets get busy. Who do I blow?

65 Current read is Texas by James Michener.  My first foray into Michener and it's a bit intimidating.

66 63 Posted by: eman at January 13, 2013 12:02 PM (tBnjP) "Float like a lepidoptera, sting like a hymenoptera..."

67 66 Should have prefaced it with "If Mohammed Ali were a nerd..."

68 Well, got garbage dumping and grocery shopping to attend to. Have a great day.

69 I need to pick up a good basic world geography book because it's humiliating how much I've forgotten.

70 Can't post link from Twitter, but Arian Foster Tweeted a cool pic of a turtle apparently riding a jellyfish...

71 69 I need to pick up a good basic world geography book because it's humiliating how much I've forgotten. Posted by: alexthechick at January 13, 2013 12:05 PM (RBHxa) Get the one issued to British school kids that labels Israel as "Occupied Palestine."

72 I need to pick up a good basic world geography book because it's humiliating how much I've forgotten. Posted by: alexthechick at January 13, 2013 12:05 PM (RBHxa) They always have big beautiful coffee table books on the sales keosks at most book stores. You gotta dig for them.

73 Posted by: DangerGirl

They can be dense, and they can get old, but Hawaii is really a great one. Never read Texas, I need to do that.

74 "Astronomy. That's one thing I do to satisfy the inner nerd. Of course I suck at it. I remember bits and pieces from when I was younger and nerdier." That pretty much describes my efforts towards astronomy, too. Except it wasn't astronomy I studied whenever I was under a blanket with a woman. BTW, reading anything by Stephen Green on cosmology and string theory will be rewarding. He writes really well, and has a pretty good sense of humor.

75

OT

 

feel good story of they day

 

HOUSTON -- A couple of strangers came to the rescue when a man was robbed at gunpoint. Now, the victim wants to say thank you to the Good Samaritans.

Police believe the criminal who was canvassing a neighborhood in the 2500 block of Wichita near Hermann Park had no idea what he was in for when he picked his target.

The victim in this case had just walked back to his car from a bar around the corner.

Kevin Dorsey says he hadnÂ’t even closed his car door Thursday night when a man wearing all black and a ski mask put a gun to his chest. The man took DorseyÂ’s wallet, cell phone and car keys.

After he was robbed, Dorsey began running down the street and says two men in a Mercedes asked him what had happened.

Dorsey told them and they not only caught up with the suspect, but they started shooting at him.

The suspect fired back. In the end, the two witnesses turned vigilantes won and took down the bad guy.

“I don’t believe in guns,” said Dorsey. “I don’t own a gun. I’m totally at the mercy of my saviors. They obviously sent two angels to help me. These people protected me when I couldn’t protect myself.”

After the robber had been shot, police say he jumped over a fence and was attacked by a German Shepherd. That attack prevented him from getting away.

The suspect, identified as Christopher Hutchins, is being treated at Ben Taub Hospital. HeÂ’s expected to recover

76 ...prosperity we enjoy today depends on packaging technology.... - West at January 13, 2013 11:50 AM MindfulMrs sez, people today have no idea what a grocer's was like in the 1950s, even, much less the 1850s. Pickle barrel? Ewwww. Fast transport is a big factor, and refrigeration also, but the sealed, airtight package can make both moot, and otherwise extends storage and preserves quality. I could do with something easier to open with hard plastic cases sometimes.

77 #35


No, Aztec Ace got nothing like an ending. The closest it came was when Eclipse Comics did a big crossover and 9 Croc was one of the big bads. But the crossover in general was kind of incoherent and didn't keep the company out of its death spiral of mismanagement.

Part of it is Doug Moench's fault. I suspect he rarely has a complete beginning-middle-end in mind for much of his stuff. One book he did for DC, Electric Warrior, had a rushed ending slapped on it because they were pulling the plug and told him he had two or three issues to wrap things up. This consisted of aliens (from Earth with sort of CoDominium Soviet/American flags on their ships) showing up and telling the cast everything they knew was wrong and nullifying almost everything they'd ever cared about.

But at least it was pretty enjoyable up until then. The story was a long brewing process with the true main character not appearing until well over a year into it. Much more coherent than the struggles to bring a more adult feel to comics back in the 70s. Download the original Deathlok run and try to make much sense of it. The character was great but everything else was confusing as hell.

78 Posted by: alexthechick at January 13, 2013 11:54 AM (Typ4D)


I didn't mind the "green" shit so much but when he started making snide comments about Bush, Republicans in general, and evil conservatives who were all bible thumpers in his book I started thinking kill it.


When it started becoming repetitive in the plot the negatives outweighed the positives.  The first two were good. But it suffered the "mulit-volume series syndrom" and started going downhill at three.

79 And my "inner nerd" finally won out and I got the return book.  It has put the thing in two places with one of the copies being "on loan" and the other updated as "returned". I have no idea how it did that.


But, I am going to start checking these things for ability to loan.  I am not going to buy any more that are unloanable.  Which brngs up a separate topic for the Morons next.

80

I need to pick up a good basic world geography book because it's humiliating how much I've forgotten.

 

I have an Atlas I love.  Think I got it on the sale table at B and N a few years back.  I look up things all the time.

81 Miss Marple, can we get the title of that book about surviving the Argentinean collapse?

82 "Computers now beat the very best human players." Not true. Try this: 1.) Bc4 Bc5 2l) Cntr-Alt-Del Works every time. "Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Oh sh*t!"

83 A nerd invented the wheel.

Posted by: eman at January 13, 2013 11:59 AM (tBnjP)

 

A genius invented the axle.

 

If I buy used books from an amazon vender, what does "acceptable" shape mean?

 

I want to get that Ginger Build your own shop, but they are proud of those books.

84 OK I have a question for all you Kindle Nerd Experts.

Backbround:  When I got wifey the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and she downloaded the Kindle app and registered it in the Amazon Managing Your Kindle page she now has two devices.  She can transfer, copy, and otherwise move books back and forth between those two devices regardless of DRM status of the book. We are thinking of re-registering my Kindle as her device.


Q:  If we re-register my Kindle under her name and e-mail address will we lose all the books on my Kindle?


Any Morons up on this?

85 TexasJew, eman:

(Sing to Yankee Doodle.)  I wrote this myself:

Sponges are Porifera,
Corals, jellies, hydra:
These have metagenesis
And are Coelenterata.
Collar cells - Prifera;
Sting - Coelentarata.
Both lack medoderm and are
The diploblastic phyla!

86 If I buy used books from an amazon vender, what does "acceptable" shape mean?

I want to get that Ginger Build your own shop, but they are proud of those books.

Posted by: Invictus at January 13, 2013 12:14 PM (OQpzc)

I got a used book via an Amazon vendor that they had rated as "good".  It looked like it was brand new.  Check the people's rating for the vendor.

87 I read a fun "nerd/gamer" book the other day.  "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline is full of 80s nostalgia for D&D, arcade games/computer games, movie lines, etc.  It's also set in a dystopian future where people spend most of their time in a virtual world searching for an easter egg that holds a valuable reward. 

88 I am contemplating getting a Kindle. Just a basics, less expensive model. I would like to hear any opinions on the device. What do I need to know before I shop?

89 A nerd invented the chastity belt.

A moron invented the lock pick.

90 Fernando "Ferfal Aguirre is the person who survived the Argentine collapse and wrote the book Surviving the Economic Collapse. The are quite a few little tips in there that I had not thought of while trying to prepare my family for any societal collapse.

91 Vic, what kind of Kindle do you have...Fire or the basic reader with e-ink?

92 I'm about 20% through 'It Takes A Pillage' by Nomi Prins. It is another view of the recent financial crash from a former Goldman Sachs insider.

This would be a far better book if the author could rein in her political prejudices. She has a plain pro-DNC bias that makes her wildly misreport the analysis of those who saw the roots of the collapse in the CRA. She attributes this to a Republican desire to blame poor people, which is plainly ridiculous and not a thing any of the pundits she references actually did. They made it clear in their coverage that the poor were ruthlessly exploited as they've always been. None the less, the role of the CRA in supplying the kindling for the eventual inferno cannot be denied.

That the CRA was merely the initial snowball that accreted mass to become an avalanche does not change the fact that it was extremely bad policy, using magical thinking to claim boosting home ownership by distorting the market would lead to a better economy. Big government played a critical role in making the crash possible but while the author makes it clear she doesn't expect any of the new regulatory bodies to have any effect, she seems to be unable to comprehend that the existing regulatory structure failed because it had an impossible task. Small government would get the job done better by not pretending to be in control and instead devoting itself to making consumers aware of their risk when engaging any of these companies and their services.

It's early yet but I suspect this could have been a far better book given a more objective approach to the issues.

93

Thanks Vic.

 

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on that purchace. I've been buying drill presses and such and those books looked exactly like I've been looking for.

94 Read "The Passage" in three days. As soon as I finished, I Kindled "The Twelve". Fun read, good for Vampire Preppers, Gun Nuts, Texas Secessionists, Tech Geeks and AoSHQ Morons...BIRM.

95

I am an insurance nerd.  Although on my first review at this job, my boss called me a wonk.  And, 44 and 47, the modern world owes everything to insurance - just read the textbooks, they'll tell you.  My day is not spent reading books about insurance but it is spent reading coverage forms and it's a bit disturbing how much of this has just sunk into my brain through sheer repetition.

 

I am still reading Paul Johnson's "History of the Jews."  This week, I have to make it through "Death by Liberalism," and "Fragment" by Warren Fahy, and "Unlearning Liberty" by Greg Lukianoff, and "Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible" which includes a fair bit of history along with, well, Tim Gunn who I adore.  All of these are due back at the library.  Oh, and I had to give back "Doomsday Book" because the print was about 6 points and I simply could not read it.  I got it on Kindle and will resume when I finish History of the Jews.

 

Oh, and I'm still on "Maus" by Art Spiegelman which is very interesting.

 

And in the car, I listened to "My Lucky Life" by Dick Van Dyke which I liked at the beginning until he admitted he was an alcoholic and then continued to making excuses for absolutely everything in his life (he was "drawn to" a woman not his wife, rather than manning up and admitting this other woman was simply more interesting to him than the worn old shoe he'd had for 30 years).  I was going to finish it but when he said Barack Obama was his favorite out of all the presidents he'd met, I just gave up.  Now I'm listening to Carol Burnett's memoirs.  Just thinking about Vicki Lawrence plaing Momma cracked me up.  I couldn't remember any words; it was all just the tone and I was sitting in my car at the 7-11 laughing like a fool.  Needless to say, I was eyed askance by the other patrons.

96 @38 pep.  Check out "The Peloponnesian War" by Donald Kagan.  You will find your answer therein.  You might want to follow it up with Victor Davis Hanson's "A War Like No Other."

97 I am reading Pagan Holiday about a guy retracing the vacation habits of the Romans. It isn't as boring as it sounds.

98 Vic, what kind of Kindle do you have...Fire or the basic reader with e-ink?

Posted by: DangerGirl crosseyed from cross stitch at January 13, 2013 12:27 PM (GrtrJ)

A basic Kendle with WiFi and 3G

99 78 I think of The 4th book as a nasty speed bump. Best gotten over and forgotten. The 5th was entertaining. Back to interaction with all the gods, goddesses, etc. It was pretty good. The issue of the competing Greek and Roman pantheon was amusing. Don't give up just yet.

100 Gregory of Yardale, I read the sample of your book and I'm wondering: how many arms does Marvelous have?

101

85, Miss Marple, brilliant!  I wish I cared about the subject matter enough to want that as a mnemonic.

 

102 #84

That is very likely.

I'd look to see if the Android Kindle app supports multiple users, allowing you to switch accounts as needed. That would appear to be the most convenient place to access both accounts if necessary. If not, there are plenty of free apps available to let you remove the DRM and place the files on any device you like. You've paid for them and it would be entirely legit.

103 I downloaded a Kindle emulation App to my ASUS Tablet. I love the versatility of my tablet, ebook reader, alarm clock, browser, photo album, secret lover, gaming companion, communication device....

104 A basic Kendle with WiFi and 3G

Posted by: Vic at January 13, 2013 12:31 PM (53z96)

OK.  Best I can tell, if you de-register your Kindle and re-register in your wife's account, with a basic Kindle, you will not lose any books you currently have downloaded onto your device.  However, you won't have any access to the archived books on your account and if you finish a book on your Kindle that is registered to your account and archive it, you won't be able to get it back without re-registering the Kindle under you again.  Also if you for any reason have to reboot the Kindle, you'll lose the books under your account (just on the Device itself, not in your archives).

So, if you have everything you want to read on your device, you should be able to still read those books if you register under your wife's account as long as they stay on the device and you don't have to reboot.

I would try it, the worst that can happen is that your books do disappear off your device and you have to re-register your Kindle under your account to access them again.  Also, back up your Kindle files to your computer if you have any books on there that you manually loaded through Calibre or anything.

And just as a PS, this does not work on the Fire.  If you de-register a Fire, it wipes all content off the device.  This only works with the old style Kindle.

105 Knuth's theoretical computer MIX that he presented all his algorithms in was an abomination. 

As an undergrad I had to write an Assembler for MIX...in fucking FORTRAN IV.  Doing text processing and parsing in Fortran IV was project only Torquemada could envision.  Another group wrote a MIX hardware simulator, also in Fortran.

106 Dammit sorry for the textwall...stupid formatting crap.

107 BTW..whoever recommended Gillian Bradshaw a couple of weeks ago I thank you. Read "Island of Ghosts" and enjoyed it. It was right up my alley. I love novels about the Romans in Britain .

108 @96
Thanks.  Two of my favorite authors with a new topic of interest.  What could be better?

109 waelse1, thanks for going above and beyond to try the audiobook too! I appreciate the Moron Nation's support of us scribbly types. We don't need much, just a few pats on the head, a little "who's a good writer, then! You are!". And Bacon-flavored Writer Treats (tm) for clean teeth and glossy coats. On the reading front--tried one of Jeri Westerson's Crispin Guest medieval noir books. Just didn't make the sale for me. I was looking forward to the appearance of Chaucer in the book, but when he showed up he was just a guy named Chaucer--no sense of Chaucer the first author to write in the vernacular, or the guy who wrote the *extremely* Moron-friendly fablieaux, no "go, litel bok". Disappointing. Not fit to wash Cadfael's socks. Did read some nice Golden Age SF I had socked away from Baen's free section--Andre Norton's Star Soldier and Murray Leinster's A Logic Named Joe. Good fun.

110 Just finished reading 'When Money Dies' by Adam Fergusson (1975,2010); a description of the collapse of the German Mark in the 1920s. Nothing 'new' beyond more details of what used to be taught in high school history fifty years ago. What did surprise me were all the passages I found myself highlighting; things that were done then, that we are again doing here and now. Constantly mentioned were the French demands for German reparations for WW1. If you substitute Federal debt and obligations here and now, you get teh Bernanke trying to monetize the debt in the same way the Germans were trying to pay reparations with printed paper.

111

"Astronomy. That's one thing I do to satisfy the inner nerd.

If you happen to be a believer, a brilliant guy I overheard was opining on how astrology is really biblical astronomy and recommended those interested get "Witness of the Stars."  It was written in 1893 by a UK professor and is still used in college courses. 

 

 

Did a little poking around and found that it's free on the intertubes.  For example, what we know as "Leo the Lion" constellation actually appeared in regard to the "Lion of Judah."  Aries, the ram, is actually a lamb according to the ancients. 

 

http://philologos.org/__eb-tws/

112 #65 If you can't get through Michener try Edward Rutherfurd. His stuff has the generational scope of Michener with the thorough historical research but I think Rutherfurd is much more readable.

113 I was bummed out when John David Jackson put a picture (of a mountain) on the cover of his latest version of Classical Electrodynamics.  Whoever did this ruined the book forever.

114 #85  You care about the subject matter a lot when you are taking zoology with a bunch of ruthless pre-med students who tell you that you don't NEED an A because you don't have to get into med school, being a geology major as I was.

I got an A.

115 #78

There is an SF writer, Eric Brown, I wrote off after he decided to put in a Bush slam on the third page of a novel that had no need to make any reference at all to any living persons, being set in a time only slightly removed from the date of publication.

The premise was that aliens had shown up and were recruiting humans to colonize other worlds by offering to heal any ailment, including run of the mill old age, in exchange for leaving their life on Earth forever. In the opening scene, a group of friends are discussing this development around a campfire and one of them suggests, since the aliens are able to cure congenital insanity, that they might be able to do something for then-President Bush.

At that point I said "Fuck you, too, and everything you've ever written or ever will. Plenty of other fish in the sea." I put the book in the library return pile and never gave any more consideration to that author.

This is an area where I disagree with Larry Niven. He has an oft-repeated quote in which he says authors have a word for people who take the opinions of characters as those of the author. That word is idiot. But I find this simply isn't true. It's one thing for an author to have a character who believes things the author does not. It serves a purpose in shaping the character and his motivations. But it tends to be pretty obvious when the author is speaking through the character.

Another author who might have ended up on the shit list if I hadn't already read all of his earlier works is Christopher Moore. In 'Foole'  he chose to slip in a 'Bush is a drooling moron' gag early on in a story set in a fictional Medieval France. It was not only a dumb way to offend some of the audience, it simply didn't belong in the setting. Breaking the fourth wall isn't always a good idea.

It isn't that I'm some big fan of any of the Bush family as political office holders. It's more that I resent having this crap needlessly invade my entertainment.

116

feel good story of they day

Re Houston, this blog post was incredible.  It discusses Third Worlders turning it into a crime haven, but wasn't this the town that welcomed all the Katrina refugees?

 

http://bit.ly/WCL5qi

117 Tonestaple 95 "the modern world owes everything to insurance"

I'll bet you wrote "Against The Gods: The remarkable story of risk" (Peter L Bernstein), that documents the transition from acts of god being thought of as, well, acts of the gods, to something you can bet on -- or, to put a prettier face on it, invest in.

The single nerd volume that carried me through grade school and junior high was "Radiological Defense Vol 2: Principles of Military Defense against Atomic Weapons." My copy was hand-stamped "Declassified" and it kind of made you somebody.

118 I'm still working my way through Nelson DeMille's "Plum Island" and Chuck Heath Jr. & Sr.'s "Our Sarah."  Plum Island is okay, but not really riveting.  Our Sarah is majorly entertaining.  It's not so much about her but the surroundings and spirit that shaped her.  Chuck Heath Sr. came from an adventurous family and homesteaded his way in Alaska via Idaho.  His 6th-grade science classes went on "survival weekends," where they learned a buttload that they still talk about to this day.

119 117, No, although I have that book around here to read one of these days, along with a million other books to read OOTD.  And that's not actually my opinion; it's what you will find in textbooks:  insurance makes international trade possible, insurance makes real estate and large financial transactions possible, insurance makes scrambled eggs possible.  It gets really silly.  Insurance makes some of these things easier, but it's not the source and fount of all that is good. 

120 Finished reading the Game of Thrones series. Pretty good writing for a lib. Mrs Squirrel is addicted to the series now. Currently reading The Pillars of the Earth by Follet. It's okay. I'll probably read Shogun again this year and maybe The Sun Also Rises.

121 #115 "It's more that I resent having this crap needlessly invade my entertainment." And this could apply to the movie industry also. Well said.

122

Tonestaple 95 "the modern world owes everything to insurance"

 

Yeah, this is a fiction novel, but it's by one of my favorite authors, Thomas Perry.  "Death Benefit," is about some nifty insurance fraud:

 

 

http://amzn.to/WCNjpE

123 109 She uses Chaucer in his role as diplomat, spy and confidant of John of Gaunt rather than author. The 4th in the series is a bit of a twist on the Canterbury Tales though. I started with the 1st book in the series and find it hard to give up when I start. Something about finding out how the characters change and mature. Crispin is showing good progress so I'll keep on reading.

124 Another great read that the horde would appreciate is Trevanian's Shibumi. The Destroyer series is full of unPC dialogue and plots.

125 At that point I said "Fuck you, too, and everything you've ever written or ever will. Plenty of other fish in the sea." I put the book in the library return pile and never gave any more consideration to that author. I understand. The POTUS in my book is a thinly veiled Sarah Palin. I wonder how many people threw it in the trash after that?

126 I have given up on Charlaine Harris though. Lordy. Will Sookie ever make up her mind? You could tell Harris herself was getting bored with the series a couple of books ago. Boring, boring, boring.

127 I have given up on Charlaine Harris though. Lordy. Will Sookie ever make up her mind? You could tell Harris herself was getting bored with the series a couple of books ago. Boring, boring, boring.

Posted by: Tuna at January 13, 2013 01:21 PM (M/TDA)

I got the first book of that series from the library.  It blew chunks.  Glad I didn't waste money buying it.

128 127 They're kind of a chick thing. Frankly, I was more interested in Eric, the Viking turned vampire. Hubba, hubba.

129 Thanks, Rushbabe!  I just requested it from the library.  I'm always up for a good insurance fraud.

130

Loved the Cadfael series. I was looking for a middle ages theme without swords and war and that really fit the bill. I really don't know if it was an accurate portrayal of life in a monestary, but the stories were great.

131

I'm looking in the Kindle store for maps of Biblical times for a class I'm taking.

 

There are quite a few choices....

132

I'm looking in the Kindle store for maps of Biblical times for a class I'm taking.

 

There are quite a few choices....

133 would appreciate any feedback on the Amazon store from Morons who might have purchased my book. Unless you didn't like it. Then you can keep comments to yourself!

134 130 Try the first book in The excellent C.J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series, "Dissolution" . Though placed during the reign of Henry VIII, it's an interesting look at life in a typical English monastery and of the anxiety and uproar caused by said monarch when he dissolved the Catholic Church in England. Move on from there. Matthew is an interesting character. The series requires some reader dedication because they're kind of meaty page wise .

135 Though placed during the reign of Henry VIII, it's an interesting look at life in a typical English monastery and of the anxiety and uproar caused by said monarch when he dissolved the Catholic Church in England



I would say they had good cause to be "anxious".  After all he burned Glastonbury Abbey and had the last abbot drawn, quartered, and hanged.

136 If you can't get through Michener try Edward Rutherfurd. His stuff has the generational scope of Michener with the thorough historical research but I think Rutherfurd is much more readable.

Posted by: TheOtherJay at January 13, 2013 12:53 PM (nojhZ)

You're probably gone, but thank you.  I did see a few of his books while I was perusing other Michener novels in the Kindle store.  I'll pick one up.

137 Hey Tuna, what did you think of The Talisman's Trinket?  Did you track down a copy of 'Blood + Ivory' yet?

138 The castle finally woke up from its catatonia. Looks as if the besiegers of Mechanicsburg are in for an unpleasant surprise. http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php But is Gil really a revenant? If so, was he infected by hi father?

139 can't remember who asked about kindle recommendations above, but I' 'll give my 2 cents. I have a kindle paperwhite and my wife has a kindle fire hd. They are both pretty good. I love my paperwhite-- it really has grown on me. I had the original nook (and liked it a lot). at first I thought the pw was only marginally better than the nook. however after having the pw for a while now, I think it's an amazing device. it's very light. navigation on it is a breeze. the e- ink display is very easy to read, and the built in light works well. the fire hd works well too, but it really is better for web browsing, reading magazines and watching video. it works fine as an e- reader, but I prefer the pw e- ink display for reading

140 The Emperor of all Maladies. Morons with cancer may be interested.

141 I  had  an  ex-girlfriend  who  got  married  to  a  packaging  engineer  with  Campbell's Soup.   I  asked  her  if  she  didn't  think  Andy  Warhol  had  pretty  much  covered  that  angle.   She  also  told  me  about  how  he  tested   new  packaging  for  another  of  Campbell's  lines,   Pepperidge  Farms   and  how  he  had  to  count  broken  cookies  in  packages  that  had  been  through  a  machine  that  rustled  them  around.   I  asked  if  he  always  let her  know  when  he  tossed  his  cookies  at  work. 

142 #125

Depends how you went about it. The example I used was of an author expressing contempt for a named real world person and by extension contempt for those who didn't feel the same.

Making reference to a real person by name or by caricature isn't the problem. It's whether you do it in a manner intended to alienate or ingratiate rather than tell a good story.

143 I once read Michener's least-known work, "Rhode Island." It's a short story. (Tempted to post this under the nic "Stephen Wright.")

144 134 Indeed they did! So much was lost during the English Reformation. All those ancient books and documents destroyed and lost. This is not to say the monastery system didn't need reforming. By that time it had become too privileged and corrupt. But still the destruction of the property and dispersal of the rest was a crime. The progression of the Shardlake character , a hunchback barrister , from very keen reformer to eyes open observer of the same type of corruption in the government as he saw in the old church is interesting. You get to learn a lot about the English Inns of Court which still confuses me to this day.

145 136 Not yet. It's on my to do list. So many books, so little time. I wonder when Jame's next adventure is going to be published. Nothing about it on Baen's website. Another series I can't quit. Sigh.

146 Posted by: Tuna at January 13, 2013 03:40 PM (M/TDA)


England would have been better served if they had drawn, quartered, and hanged Henry VIII

147 145 He was a nasty piece of work. Paranoid, greedy downright scary.

148 Looks like the book thread has suffered premature death syndrome.

149 That guy on the left in the picture looks suspiciously like Anthony Edwards...

150

Regarding chess books, you can still find plenty of inexpensive (< $10) books these days. But they're not likely to be much good. I'm a firm believer in getting what you pay for in the chess publishing world, because the good books are fairly thoroughly researched and produced by authors of a high skill or experience level. I think it's quite fair to pay $30 for a good book by a grandmaster of some accomplishment; someone once pointed out that it's like paying that sum for a very good player to do this whole bunch of research for you. If it's a facet of chess that you care about sufficiently, it's certainly worth it.

I freely admit to being a bit of a snob when it comes to picking my chess authors--I rarely consider buying books written by people who haven't reached at least the IM title (there are a couple of treasured exceptions in my library), and I think I'm just good enough at the game myself to be able to tell most of the time when a better player writing a book knows what he's talking about. I may not be able to assess the specifics on the fly.

I just got an old copy of Lasker's Manual of Chess for a few dollars. If you aren't able to read descriptive notation, I recommend learning it at least well enough to get through a chess book written in it. This won't take long. You can even entertain yourself finding the occasional mistake in those old books as a result, mistakes of the kind that are much less likely when algebraic notation is involved. And you can look forward to reading My 60 Memorable Games in the original, too.